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Europe: The First Crusade - IV: Men of Iron - Extra History (Patreon)

Published:
2015-08-28 08:09:21
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Across the Bosphorus at last, the Crusaders set their sights on nothing less than the Turkish capitol.

Files

Previews only

Europe: The First Crusade - IV: Men of Iron - Extra History

Support us on Patreon! http://bit.ly/EHPatreon Watch the First Crusade series! http://bit.ly/1DxBoWh Subscribe for new episodes every Saturday! http://bit.ly/SubToEC Follow us on Facebook! http://bit.ly/ECFBPage Follow us on Twitter! http://bit.ly/ECTweet Follow us on Twitch! http://bit.y/ECTwitch ____________ Having sworn their oaths to Emperor Alexius Comnenus, the Crusaders finally sailed across the Bosphorus River to Turkey. When they disembarked, however, there were no Turkish armies waiting for them. Unopposed, they marched to Nicaea, the capitol of the Sultanate of Rum, and laid siege to it. At last word reached the sultan, Kilij Arslan, who rode back to save his city (and his family) only to realize that this army of crusaders was much larger and better organized than the People's Crusade which had come before. They had not yet realized, however, that the city of Nicaea was being secretly resupplied by ships arriving by night from Lake Askania. Once they did, the Byzantines transported their own ships overland to blockade the lake and launch a coordinated assault with the crusaders to force the city to surrender. The crusaders marched towards Jerusalem, but along the way, the Turks launched a surprise assault on Bohemond's army. He ordered his knights to form a shield wall around the priests and civilians traveling with them, and they held for hours under a burning sun until reinforcements from the other crusading armies arrived. They rallied, defeated the Turks, and resumed their march. ____________ Get the intro music here! http://bit.ly/1EQA5N7 *Music by Demetori: http://bit.ly/1AaJG4H Get the outro music here! http://bit.ly/1NbpIcd __________ Extra History - From Swineherd to Emperor Byzantine Empire: Justinian and Theodora: http://bit.ly/1J4vFWU Extra Credits - Best Detective Game Ever Made The Witcher: Wild Hunt: http://bit.ly/1MYYSXO

Comments

The Cayute

Seven hours. Holy shit. I do that amount of time these days in a concrete block of a machine shop under the baking southern California sun (an hour's drive from the coast) wearing steel toe boots and light clothing. I'm dealing with humidity in the shop made of vaporised water and coolant oil inside an almost literal brick oven with only some air flow. I can only imagine that amount of time under the direct heat of a Middle Eastern Sun, crammed next to my comrades, wearing steel mail and holding up heavy kite shields. AND under constant barrage from iron-headed arrows.

Kathyrne

Hardcore! Y'know, if they weren't so prone to looting their friends, you could almost give these guys a kitty-lack-of-thumbs up. =)

Michael Waisfeld

To think all this could have been avoided if the Byzantines didn't botch so badly at manzikert

SideShot

And next time we will finally see how the crusaders fare against the fire power that will be known throughout the world as the holy hand grenades of Antioch!

Martin Ockovsky

You should get Oscars of Nobel Price for this.

Nessf

And the trend continues - despite being there to help the Byzantines, the crusaders are way less competent than the Byzantines are. "Lets just not worry about that lake - what's the worst they could do?"

Stuart Gorman
>>749677

To be fair, we are getting the fairly pro-Byzantine version of this story. History is many things, but it is not truly objective, and James' clear fondness for Byzantium is bleeding in to this series a bit. He also read a lot of Steven Runciman who has a fairly noticeable pro-Byzantine bias. That bias isn't necessarily wrong, but other historians working with the same sources and materials have produced very different accounts and explanations for these events. It's worth noting that by and large the Crusaders were superior to their Byzantine counterparts at siege warfare, at least when it came to destroying or scaling city walls. Left to their own devices they likely would have eventually taken Nicaea by force, hence why Alexios felt he needed to negotiate the city's surrender and prevent it from being sacked. Similarly, while the Crusaders seem pretty wild and incompetent at times, remember that they are marching deep into territory that Byzantium hasn't been able to make any headway in despite trying to for ~25 years. There are also a lot of things we view as incompetent or stupid from the perspective of our modern society but were business as usual in medieval society. They lived under very different conditions and rules with different expectations. It's also worth bearing in mind that the lake problem fell pretty squarely into "Thing's Byzantium had to solve" in this campaign. Byzantium needed to support the Crusaders. Alexios asked for help but help came with conditions of support and Byzantium had the ships and equipment to barricade the port. The Crusaders could hardly build a fleet to encircle the city. Their best option was either rely on Byzantium to defend the lake or else take down the walls of the city themselves (which they were doing, although it's a slow going type of warfare).

Nessf
>>749677

Oh, aye. I'm being a bit jokey with my wording, but the fact remains that the crusaders were there to do what the Byzantines actually couldn't. It's still at least a little amusing how the crusaders are the solution to the problem the Byzantines couldn't solve... but the Byzantines are turning out to be solutions to problems the crusaders can't solve.

Stuart Gorman
>>749677

For sure. The First Crusade is endlessly amusing (excluding the wanton slaughter bits...and even then...sometimes...) in a way that none of the later Crusades are in no small part due to the attempt at actual cooperation between Byzantium and the Crusaders. Later Crusades are just kind of sad as nobody really gets along. The attempts at, and failures of, cooperation make this Crusade a spectacularly amusing, and interesting, event.

Jason Youngberg

Wait, what were the Crusaders doing PROTECTING civilians?

Hung Nguyen

"You though you were surrendering to the Crusaders? TOO BAD! It was me, Alexius!" The battle you depicted at the end would be the most boring tactic ever in a video game, but somehow you made it sound so epic.

BrainBlow

@Hung Nguyen. That's the most common and effective way of murdering the enemy army. Nothing boring about completely crushing the enemy from two sides.

Michael Jebbett

Moral of the story; dead peasants get things done.

Kris Price

this story about Bohemand's knights holding their ground sounds a little... embellished tbh

Jathby Dredas
>>750382

I think he's talking about turtling, and it works in some video games too.

De

I want to say how much I appreciate the way the art is full of little cues and details to help us all remember who we're talking about and basic facts about them. Those sunglasses on Hughe may be silly but they make you go "Oh yeah, the We're Cool guy who's father fought for Byzantine and who made it to Constantinople without losing too many guys or looting." The same goes for Raymond's eyepatch and Bohemand's mustache, the old guy and the tricky guy. Without these reminders I'd be totally lost.

ExtraCredits
>>754030

I'm glad the little cues are helping out! Heather is great at finding ways to add the characters' personality through those little touches.

ExtraCredits
>>751113

Look up the Battle of Dorylaeum, and you can read about it! There are several sources that talk about it, so the basic facts are fairly well attested - although that being said, I always enjoy a healthy dose of doubt. :) Never get your history from only one source!

ExtraCredits
>>750346

Human fatigue is unfortunately one of those things that few video games represent well (though I've seen a few, like Total War, gesture in that direction). People standing their ground in the face of a seemingly endless assault may not look exciting - and I doubt the people enduring it would call it "exciting" themselves - but damned if it isn't brave!

ExtraCredits
>>749677

Nothing to add, just want to pop in and thank Stuart for continuing to share his expertise about this period!

ExtraCredits
>>749416

Yikes! Yeah, as much as the crusaders have had... rough moments this story, there was certainly a core element of courage driving them on.