History
Robert Guiscard, Robert de Hauteville, was the Norman duke of Apulia and Calabria. From a small following he took the south of Italy and opened Sicily. He died on 17 July 1085, during a campaign against the Byzantine Empire.
In 1066 the work is unfinished. Bari, the last Byzantine city in Italy, falls in 1071. The game still treats Apulia as de jure Byzantine land, so the empire can press that claim once its other wars cool.
The legends card names the dynasty Hauteville. His brother Roger carried the Sicilian half of the conquest while Robert held Apulia and Calabria. He died on 17 July 1085, still on campaign against the Byzantine Empire.
In the game
| Seat | Detail |
|---|---|
| Start | 1066 |
| Bookmark | Rags to Riches |
| Title | Apulia |
| Realm size | 10 counties |
| Status | Independent |
| Difficulty | Medium, the bookmark rating in patch 1.20.1.2 |
| Culture | Norman |
| Faith | Catholicism |
| Dynasty | Hauteville |
| Age | 51 |
How to play
Goal. Plant a Norman kingdom in southern Italy while Byzantium is busy elsewhere.
He is an independent Norman duke, ten counties, Catholic, rated Medium. Bari, the last Byzantine city on the mainland, falls in 1071. Roger's war is the Sicilian project beside this one. The de jure map still paints Apulia as Byzantine, so Constantinople can press that claim when its other wars cool. Read alliances before you open a second front. The Byzantine realm page is the emperor who holds the claim.
Where this run fails. Treating the Byzantine claim as finished, or expanding into Sicily and the Balkans in the same season with no ally to keep a counter-invasion small.