Fifty-Third

Ai ya, what a week. Things started off terrible on the Monday, and never really got much better. Apart from Thursday, I was on a piss-easy training course then, so that was a nice break.

I've allowed Medieval 2 to suck me in once again - I installed it on a whim a week on Saturday there, and I've been camped out on it every night since. Playing as the Scots, I have, over the course of several centuries, expanded my Kingdom to include almost all of modern-day Europe. I am currently waging war on the few remaining Polish-held lands, I am moving armies into Russian territory, and I am massing spies, priests and armies to invade the Holy Lands, which are currently being fought over by the Mongols and Timurids.
In mo particular order, I have exterminated the French, Danish, English, Milanese, Sicilians, Venetians and the Byzantine Empire. The three Italian factions proved to be a particular thorn in my sides, with the Milanese in particular proving difficult in the early mid-game, particularly because of their strong power base in Northern Italy, which is extremely hard to funnel armies into due to the geographical lay-out of the game map. The Venetians and Sicilians were unexpectedly tenacious, but plunder from their cities enabled me to hire massive mercenary armies and simply grind them into submission.

I've been excommunicated several times now, but that isn't so much of a problem now that I have conquered all of the Papal States' territories, leaving the Pope a homeless wanderer. They don't seem to mind too much - the Pope himself is a Scot anyway, so my reputation with him is currently unblemished. He keeps making noises about me beating up on the Polish, but he'll shut up once I've finished them off.

I've had the Spanish bottled up for a few centuries now - I conquered two of their territories a while back, but I wasn't able to push any further, due to me waging wars against the Danish and Italians at the time, so my funds were stretched thin as it was. On reflection, it's proven to be a good thing, as they've been a nice buffer zone between myself and the Moors, who currently hold parts of Southern Spain. We're on good terms just now, having had trade rights for decades, but it's only a matter of time before I have to turn my attention to them - they'll likely be the last faction I deal with, my armies sweeping out West through Egypt and along the Northern coast of Africa from the Holy Lands, after the Mongols and Timurids have been dealt with.

The only night last week that I didn't spend at least some time playing Medieval was last night - we crashed out in front of the TV after dinner, and decided to watch Spirited Away again, for the first time in ages - I'd forgotten how good that film is. We also watched the first episode of Dexter, finally released over here in the UK. You may have already seen it over the pond. I liked it, and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the series. Unfortunately, I know how it ends; having read up about it a few months back, before I knew it was coming over here. I'm sure I'll survive though, it seems promising enough that I'll want to watch the series myself.

I should probably go and pretend to do some work, although I doubt anyone notices the difference, I can’t help but be paranoid. I’m too used to working with people having a line of sight over my shoulder, that I can’t shake the feeling people are watching my screen while I type.

Then again, maybe I’ll just sit and stare into space, planning my next moves in Medieval.