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I am developing a love-hate relationship with Crusader Kings 2. First the hate: I really hate the fact that this game is so wonderful that I feel compelled to keep writing these AARs! I've pretty much have got an on-going novella here. But this game is just so entrancing and fantastically unpredictable that I must continue my chronicle!

I'll get to the love part later.

When we last left off, Donald, grandnephew of King Scott the Just, had ascended the throne when Scott peacefully departed this kingdom for the next. Not ...

It's good to be king...at least most of the time, anyway. Especially if you are of House Mac Aeda.

When last I left off, Duke Miles I, after placing his son on the throne in the wake of the rebellion against King Eric, had died. Now, King Archibald I, the first king of my line, was in charge of a whole kingdom. Unfortunately, King Archibald would not reign long, just ten short years, before he would follow Duke Miles to the next kingdom (seeing how he was otherwise young and healthy, I just know foul play was involved.

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When this movie was first announced early last year, I was excited. In a world overrun with movies about ninjas, samurai and kung fu fighting, there are just far too few movies about the iconic knights of medieval Europe. It really is a shocking turn of events. I mean, as a kid I grew up with lots of books, movies (John Boorman’s classic Excalibur was my favorite…even though I had no business watching it at that age) and even cartoons that dealt with medieval themes – not to mention the ‘80s phenomenon of Dungeons & Dragons. How things change

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"For whan this kyng Evylmerodach sawe this playe, and the barons, knyghtes and gentilmen of his court playe wyth the phylosopher, he merveylled gretly of the beaulté and noveltee of the playe and desired to playe agaynst the philosopher....Than the phylosopher began to teche hym and to shewe hym the maner of the table of the chesse borde and the chesse meyne, and also the maners and the condycions of a kyng, of the nobles, and of the comyn peple, and of theyr offyces, and how they shold be touchyd and drawen, and how he shold amende hymself ...

After my interesting, if brief, experience with Princess Gruoch I, I decided to begin a second game that is sort of the unofficial continuation of that first campaign. This time I set the date nine years after the death of Gruoch - thus, the year 1090 - but stuck with my beloved Scottish duchy of Moran. Here is the tale that unfolded.

I discovered that my character was the 12 year old Duke Aengus I, son of the dead Aed Mac Aeda and my old character Duchess Gruoch, who was alive and well in this alternate timeline. Being 12 years old, I

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