Crusader Kings 2
- Thread starter MoogleEmpMog
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poaw
The opposite of Doja Cat
I did a play through that started as Wessex (now control most of Hispania, North Africa, Syria, Jerusalem, Ethiopia, Egypt, Iraq, Bulgaria, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Scotland, Ireland, Finland, Germany, and Mali under the banner of the British Empire), to survive the early viking raids you simply have to get down with the get down.
TLDR: Avoid fighting your fellow English lords and go along with whoever becomes King.
After snagging a couple of counties, I entered into an alliance with the Scots while marrying a Princess of Aragon, along with fellating the boy-king of West Francia with the gold from my sieges. I avoided the internecine conflict for the formation of the English nation and saved my gold and levies for retaliating against the viking lords (use the gold to build infrastructure that will give you ships). 25 years is the "safe" point, you goal is to make in there is a stable position. Meaning no disastrous wars going on, no horrid diplomatic animus against your ruler/heir, several viable heirs married to high diplo/steward wives, daughters matrilinearly married to high steward courtiers (you're going to want to keep as much stewardship in your realm as possible if you want to be able to hold Scotland/Ireland later).
From there you should have enough force to stop the random counts/2 county dukes from raiding your shit at least. The larger ones you should rely on hitting during moments of weakness and hoping to snag a family member as a hostage (make them comfortable, because you're going to holding onto them forever). You should also start looking out for the one or two English Dukes positioning themselves as potential kings. Alliances with Scotland or either Francia should be watched. Avoid being the guy to actually conquer England and form the crown. You might have enough strength to do it, but you won't have enough strength to win the crown AND protect the realm from the first round of usurpers and viking raids. Your best move is trying to be the first King to STAY on the throne.
It should be about 35-40 years in, and you should have a new ruler or close to one. Use your high diplomatic ability (if you don't have it, use gold instead) to piggyback off another rebellion to usurp the throne, and bring in powerful allies in support of this (I married a prize daughter to the boy who became King of Scotland for this purpose). It should be reasonably easy to topple the King at this moment and crown yourself. At this point you have to deal with the OTHER rebellion. Winning should be largely a foregone conclusion in your favor, but how you handle it is what will solidify your reign. Namely, take a county from every Duke opposed to you, and randomly award to other Dukes. Don't release any of them from prison, ransom them to drain their gold reserves and enrich your own.
Normally you'll have only 10 years of peace before you end up with them coming at you 6 ways from Sunday. But in the interim they'll fight over those swapped around counties so they won't form factions with each other and may very well end up hating each other. At any rate the warfare will favor those best at war and you should see a smaller number of more powerful Dukes arise. Just keep them happy/dead, and your reign will be long and secure.
With England brought to heel, work on Wales and stiff arm Viking raiders by forming levies from a ways away, marching them down, then marching on the county they're raiding. A day or so before they march off onto their ships, raise the levies you have in that county to lock them in place and slaughter them. Then use the Casus Belli, hop on your ships and piss in their snow cones. Once again, take hostages and keep them. If you can pull it off, assassinate their King. They'll fight each other and not raid as much.
Exterminatus
Tsukumogami User
- Location
- Southern California
From the Blood in the Bosporus LP:
It also included a Somalian Merchant Republic (that got crushed hard by the Ming) and ye olde asshole doukes who are obligated to rebel at least once in every ruler's lifetime. Only downside is that it might require you to get a SA account though.
Dibujante said:
It also included a Somalian Merchant Republic (that got crushed hard by the Ming) and ye olde asshole doukes who are obligated to rebel at least once in every ruler's lifetime. Only downside is that it might require you to get a SA account though.
In the first timeline, I spent most of my time trying to drive out the Aztecs and allying with one of the hordes against the other to stop them picking on me; by the time the Timurids turned up, I'd driven the Americans out of Spain but they'd taken the rest of France, a bit of Germany and the British Isles, so the strategic situation in the West was quite bad. When the Timurids started to buttfuck the Ilkhanate, I took the opportunity to retake Constantinople and some of Anatolia and Jerusalem, then ended up in a big four way war and lost Jerusalem to the Timurids. My borders at the end of the game were along the Pyrenees and the Alps in the West, the Danube in the Balkans, in the Sinai in Egypt and more or less in the same position in Anatolia as what I started the scenario in (ie, the Alexiad start).
The second timeline, I conquered Britain and then fought on again, off again wars with both the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate, and since they weren't both attacking at the same time, I did okay. Ultimately, they actually ended up attacking each other, and I was allied with the Ilkhanate against the Golden Horde, so I ended up grabbing more Imperial territory back. The Timurids attacked and with me and the Ilkhanate vs them, they didn't make much headway. Alas, I didn't quite get every Roman province back, but my borders were pretty close to those of Rome under Trajan.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"Well at least the Muslim still worshiped the same god."
And then it turns out that the King of Asturias had a claim and then annexed the kingdom, only for Aragon to revolt from Navarre again and winning it's independence... And then getting occupied by the Andalusian's after a short war.
All the while I'm just playing a simple Roman game expanding into Armenia, and now Emperor Makedon's depressed for some reason.
Heh, have you seen Byzantium inherited by the Norse?
Noctum
Dual Paradox
- Location
- Under the Skies Above
*reads some of the war stories*
Ah, CK2, the only game I know of where this shit is just another day at the computer.
That and the incest.
Sadly I don't have any fun stories to tell, I've been having trouble getting off the ground in my games. I get about half an hour in before either being invaded by Normans (Devon start 867 AD (TWICE!)), or can't seem to get any more territories, either the holder of the county has a too many levies or I can't declare war (says "Independent Realm, despite being a vassal) or techs (how do those work anyways?) on a Tara start.
What am I doing wrong? The guides on the wiki are only so-so about this.
Ah, CK2, the only game I know of where this shit is just another day at the computer.
That and the incest.
Sadly I don't have any fun stories to tell, I've been having trouble getting off the ground in my games. I get about half an hour in before either being invaded by Normans (Devon start 867 AD (TWICE!)), or can't seem to get any more territories, either the holder of the county has a too many levies or I can't declare war (says "Independent Realm, despite being a vassal) or techs (how do those work anyways?) on a Tara start.
What am I doing wrong? The guides on the wiki are only so-so about this.
My current dynasty has gotten almost boring, just send in the heavy cav retinues and varangs to smash, repeat. I'm hoping for a civil war to add spice.
British one and two-province minors are extremely vulnerable against Vikings. As far as I can see it, you'll need to either create a marriage alliance with with a strong and nearby power or swear allegiance to them (one of the French Karlings or Wessex might be a good bet).
As for technology, it's affected by a couple of things. Duke-level and above provides a constant monthly tech point increase which is dependent on your character's stats, which can be used to "buy" increased tech once you have enough. But keep in mind tech levels affect specific provinces, not your entire realm.
When a province reaches a new tech level, it will provide small bonuses to neighboring provinces, who will slowly start to fill up the progress bar for that tech. You can also send your spymaster to higher-tech provinces, with the chance of getting an event that gives you extra research points.
Workable Goblin
Equestrian Fleet Command
- Location
- Low Equestrian Orbit
Okay, so running down your list of "reasons I can't do x":
1: If you don't have enough levies, save money until you can hire a merc band for at least a few months, then attack. The AI will use mercs if it has the money, but it often doesn't, and it doesn't tend to consider the ramifications of you having a lot of money. As a count in Ireland, however, this will take a while--a decade or more.
2: "Independent Realm" means you can't declare war on vassals--you have to declare war on independent states (there may be an exception if you happen to both be vassals of the same overlord, but don't quote me on that--I rarely play vassals). So if you're trying to push a claim on a county, you have to declare war not on the count holding the county, but the duke he or she's a vassal of. Obviously this plays into 1.
3: Techs spread two ways: first, you can directly research techs in your capital province if you're a duke-level or higher ruler (you cannot research technologies as a count, only as a duke or higher) by accumulating research points. You can get research points through your ruler's skills, through events, and through certain special buildings in city and church holdings (I don't believe there are any technology-boosting buildings for castle holdings), the University and Monastic School, respectively (for Christians--Muslims, pagans, and other faiths may call the latter differently).
Second, they spread naturally over time from province to province, particularly from neighboring provinces to each other and between provinces in the same demesne. You can also accelerate this process by assigning councilors to their respective "spread technology" missions and by assigning your spymaster to study technologies in a province which is more advanced than your capital--Byzantium, for instance, is a good choice in the 867 start, while central/northern Italy, around Firenze and Pisa, is an excellent stop in later starts. Combining the two will cause your technology to advance much faster.
The most valuable technologies are Legalism and Military Organization--the latter boosts supply limits, morale, and, most critically, retinue limits (and at level four and above it eliminates the huge attrition penalty for invading most pagan territories), while the former reduces your short reign penalties by essentially giving you extra rule time and allows you to hold more provinces. The other military and cultural technologies are much less valuable, but may be useful if you're way ahead of time on Legalism or Organization. Economic technologies have a much "flatter" utility distribution, but the best are probably Castle, Keeps, and Construction for a feudal ruler, and City, Keeps, Trade Practices, and Construction for a republic. It's important to research enough of the City and Church lines to allow building Universities and Monastic Schools, though, especially if you start in 867 where those technologies don't exist yet anywhere.
For you, playing as the Count of Tara, the most effective method of increasing your demesne limit isn't by researching technologies (I assume that's what you meant, as you mention specifically "can't seem to get any more territories"), but by conquering the other counties in your de jure duchy so you can create or usurp it. As long as the ruler of your de jure duchy is either the same religion as you or nonexistent, you only need 50% + 1 of the counties in the title to grab it. Dukes have larger demesne limits than counts, Great Dukes (holding more than one ducal title) have a larger demesne limit than dukes, and so on up to Emperors, who have the largest demesne limits at all. It's actually not so bad to hold a couple more titles than your demesne limits indicate if you have a good reason to believe that you'll be back under or on the limit soon, for instance if you just have a king who's not that great with stewardship or you're about to form a ducal/royal/imperial title. It gives an income penalty and hurts relations with your vassals, but if you're small you don't really have any vassals of consequence and if you're big you're not playing correctly if a -10 or -20 hit to relations (what you get from one or two extra titles) is really a big deal. Just make sure you're not holding any "wrong" titles, like cities and temples if you're a non-Muslim feudal lord, and you'll be fine.
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Raise crown authority and noble tax in the same timeframe.
Noctum
Dual Paradox
- Location
- Under the Skies Above
Right, thanks for the advise. I take it that these both take a while to get of the ground?
I quitted my previous games after about half an hour when it looked like I wasn't making much progress in them. I'm used to more quick paced strategy games like Dawn of War, Age of Empires or Total War. The closest game to the speeds CK seems to go at at the start is Sins of a Solar Empire.
FriedIce
The Authentic Fake
- Location
- Hyperreality
Right, so first I'd just like to comment on how much of an incredible guide the post above me is. Seriously, that is the guide to technology that I wish I had when I started playing. Though I feel I should point out that there's no such thing as the County of Tara.
On your specific situation, I admit that I've never played Tara on the 876 start but I've played enough Irish counts that it makes little difference. Firstly, the count of Dublin, your de jure vassal is a vassal of King Ivar the Boneless, and frankly your reaction to the thought of fighting him should be along the lines of 'fuck no'. So you're going to have to look further afeild than your de jure vassals in order to expand.
Now the good news is that other than Dublin Ireland is completely independent so stick your chancellor on some county that borders one of your provinces and have him fabricate a claim. I'd pick Oriel or Tyrconnel personally.
Once that's done (and that can take over ten years, good chancellors are like gold dust) you can declare war at will. Now the first step you should take in your war is to borrow 300 gold from the jews and hire a mercenary company of some kind, pick one of the cheap ones. You don't need the most expensive ones, this is an Irish Count, not one of the sons of Ragnar. With that you should have over double the number of troops as your opponent and the war should be won easily.
Congratulations, you've just steamrollered your first province. Now just rinse and repeat, remembering to usurp/create as many titles as you can in your quest to become Emperor of Britannia.
I'll stick up a summary of a couple of my games in a bit. I've got three running at the moment, Alfred of Wessex, The Khazar Jews and Miaphsyte Abyssinia
Ehh, its a pretty slow start as a Count and Ireland is an even slower start than most. If you want action quickly go play as Emperor Doukas of Byzantium on the 1066 start.
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Noctum
Dual Paradox
- Location
- Under the Skies Above
Thanks for this as well. Also, derp you're right it's the Duchy of Tara I believe. Which doesn't actually start with the actual fort off Tara under it's control at the start if I remember correctly.
Makedon's the Emperor during the 9'th Century. In 1066, you get to play as Emperor Doukas.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Playing as Abyssinia right now, why the hell do I need to be king of Egypt to declare myself Emperor of Abyssinia?
FriedIce
The Authentic Fake
- Location
- Hyperreality
Oops. Yeah, its been a while since I've played 1066.Makedon's the Emperor during the 9'th Century. In 1066, you get to play as Emperor Doukas.
Workable Goblin
Equestrian Fleet Command
- Location
- Low Equestrian Orbit
It depends. Unlike most strategy games, Crusader Kings II (along with other Paradox games) has a highly sloped difficulty and action curve. Generally, for Crusader Kings II specifically, the simplest and easiest characters to play as are also the least powerful and most generic--Christian Irish lords in 1066, specifically, are usually pointed up as being the best starter characters (not in 867, due to the Sons of Lodbrok and the Norse more generally). They also have the slowest play style; it takes years to fabricate a claim or accumulate money.
By contrast, the faster-playing characters like the Byzantine and Holy Roman Emperors, or the Abbasid caliph in 867, are also much more difficult (for a beginner). They have to deal with more complex mechanics, especially with vassal relations, than a simple Irish count or duke does. However, since they have much larger incomes, a much larger pool of talent to draw from, and much larger militaries, they can also do more--hence, faster-playing.
But yes, 30 minutes is quite a short gaming session by Crusader Kings II standards.
Mostly it appears to be a "not ridiculously simple to form this empire" check. I dunno how much sense it actually makes past that.
I suspect it also has something to do with the fact that the Miyaphisite Pope is based in Alexandria.
Greek+Tengri. The Greek Cataphracts were, pre-RoI, viewed as the best retinues in the game, and Tengri get invasion CBs.
I'm not sure whether cataphracts retain 'best retinue' status. I remember there was a bug with their tactic selection that got fixed, though.