Once upon a Time there was a game called Lady 2. I was 8, His Most Catholic Majesty, Rei Alphonso XI de Castilla y Leon.
8 has one megafief, Leon-Castille. It is a poor place and, owning a mega, he gains little income from it. Therefore, Rei Alphonso knew that he must secure Overlordships and pillage in order to have a steady income.
He had a friend among the Italians, who controlled 17 and 55. They made each other manager of their lands and then pretended to have an open feud in the message boards. To avenge the insults flying back and forth, 55 came to Spain, recruited at Leon-Castille and then pillaged Navarre. 8 went to Italy and did the same to 5. Together, these three Lords plus the Emporor (Yussupov) began to take control of the Empire Lords. Few suspected the true relationship between 8 and 17/55 (HYWScribe).
One player, 269/214/231, did not like the "New Order" within the Empire and rebelled against the hegemony. 8 agreed to help the Emporor in exchange for the Overlordship of Saluzzo. The Emporor agreed.
Saluzzo was trashed and seiged in good order and the title stripped. However, the greedy Emporor kept the Overlordship and refused to discuss transfer of the title to 8. So 8 struck. He seized the HRE and demanded that he turn over Saluzzo. The Emporor refused and so 8 had him executed by a friendly French Noble who did not mind the stature hit (for a fee). Just before he did so, the 8 player entered the game with a second screen name and took the 131 position. After 181's unfortunate, errrrrrr...., hunting accident, the 8/131 player was HRE.
He cast his eyes upon Navarre. He seiged the fiefs and transferred them to 47 to strip the title. 131 could have done it, of course, but 8 was not overly interested in the title. He had other things in mind. Throughout the war, 8 had helped both sides with scouting and recruiting, turning a nice profit. But the war had gone badly for the English. 8 wanted to cement his "alliance" with France. He therefore struck a deal with the French Roi. Pillage Navarre, lowering Ed's ststure, and send half the funds to 8. The Roi agreed.
So now we had the situation where the English King was doing a favort for 8 by stripping the title of Navarre while 8 rerpaid the favor by having the King of France pillage Navarre mercilessly - and send him a cut.
Meanwhile 131 began to take inactive French fiefs. After all, the 8/131 player was a friend of France, right?
Actually no. Throughout the war, 8 had provided shelter, troops and money to the 33 player (HYWConsigliere) who had attacked France. As the tide of the war turned against England, 8/131 and 33 decided it would be best to "launder" the fiefs through 131. So, they transferred the fiefs to 131 and 33 laid low for a bit. After a suitable time frame, he had 131 intercede with 200 to bring him back into the Roi's good graces. 33 then joined in the war against England while 131 and 8 still helped both sides.
As a side note of humor, another friend (GuyPRunkle) had entered the game as 157 and so the strip had to be stopped. 8 told his friend to appeal to Edward to return his fiefs in exchange for his support. 47 got 8's approval to do so. Then 157 and 8 got into a fake public war of words that had 8 attacking inactive French fiefs and claiming he was attempting to seize 157 but just "missing". 157 then would seige the inactive back. Thus another source of fiefs and money was open to 8/131 and his allies 157 and 33. The humor is that the misdirection was so believable that the SYSOP (HYWLadyW) then asked 157 if he wanted the details of his feud published in the Announcements Page. 157 decided that might push the scam too far, and had to tell LadyW not to do it.
A last little challenge to 8/131's control of the Empire came from a new 5 player. He had pledged fealty to 131, but the 131/8 player never let a little thing like an oath deter him. 5 wanted to conquer 231's lands but 131 had preferred to keep 231 alive for a bit. 8 struck 5 and 5 fought back, though, to be honest, he never had a chance. He was hunted down, captured and his fiefs taken. He sued 8 for peace. But before he did, 8 composed a little song. How did it go again? It got a good laugh. I can only remember two verses that were published in the message boards (and thanks again to HYWLadyW for editing it a bit and making it a bit more C&W).
(Sung to "King of the Road")
Troops and Keeps for sale or rent Gonna topple Savoy's goivernment I'm a Rei who's Keen, by all means King of Catsille Been through Savoy's Villages Did some raids and Pillages I'm a Rei who's Mean, by all means King of Castille.
So now the 131/8 player had acquired 15% of France (judging by the Parliamentary vote - he abstained on one vote), paid for with English Gold (they supported 8 and 131 thinking them allies for all the help, scouting and recruiting they had done) with the Roi's BLESSING (again, for all the help, scouting, recruiting provided to the French).
Lady 2 was killed when the database failed massively about three months after the move to the Web. When it ended, 8 was the high scorer with a little over 1,000 pts. The #2 scorer had scored just a bit over 400. 131 was 7th, as I recall.
Not a bad outing. After this game, Lady W asked me if I would be a guest speaker to her Apprentice Classes to teach them how to play an "Other". I was honored but declined. Can't go giving away ALL my secrets. Lord 1 will be my last HYW game. After it's done, maybe I will, if she still wants me to.
Feel free to verify the account with the principals involved - Yussupov, GuyPRunkle, HYWLadyW, TC6952 (HYWaConsigliere) and HistorianB (HYWScribe). RickRuud was the French Roi.
Subj: A little story about Lady 2
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