Crusader Kings II Spirit-all

I've been playing as England, and it's tons of fun. You can really get into the larger conflicts, like the Reconquista or Crusades, and if you get a poor leader, you've got 20 years of rebellions and treachery to look forward to.

The one thing that really made the game go more easily for me was realizing that if I hover over someone's opinion of me, I can figure out why the like me, or dislike me. It's a fantastic way to discover things you didn't know, as well as enable you to deal with problems on a large scale. Did you realize that if you hold more in your Demesne than the allowed amount, your vassals get really ticked off? That some of them simply want to gain a certain province, or don't like that you're foreign or a Fraticelli. That can really ease the game.

Start off by making sure your Council members are loyal. Then do the same for your vassals. Buy them off, give them titles, etc. Don't give them your land unless you have to - that should go to your heir, not be frittered away as gifts. See if you can address any issues they have to make them feel better - maybe they want a law changed or something.

Remember that a war makes almost everyone happier. They think they'll get money or prestige or land out of it. You can take advantage of that to do unpopular things if you want to, like killing a persistent foe, or passing a law that's better for you than your nobles. Or you can just ride the wave.

Never keep standing troops. Remember that you can ransom people you capture in a war - 25 gold will buy two months of 1500 mercenaries, so even a bishop can be a lifesaver if you are in a protracted combat. And if someone is kicking your ass for a province, surrender and start figuring out how to win the next conflict - or work to have them assassinated and sweeten their heir to your obvious abilities.

Don't forget to strengthen your forts and develop your cities and cathedrals.

tboon wrote:

But, even though I have never tried playing them, I don't really want to play as HRE or France or even England. That's just me though.

In my Norse game (The ultimate goal is to convert as much of Scandinavia back to the old Norse Gods) I'm the king of Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

Once you get larger the game does a fantastic job of creating internal checks and balances to prevent rapid blobbing.

Keeping all the plates spinning, and the vassals happy usually results in some opportunist declaring an inconvenient civil war just when I'm about to make a big breakthrough.

Another major challenge to playing Norse is Sure, I could easily take that christian duchy I have de jure claim on, but the moment I declare war there are 14000 holy order troops on my border, THEN someone revolts!

My advise is find a province with as much room for growth as possible, build as many castles as you can over time and max that province out! That way even if your entire kingdom turns on you the one army coming from that province can handle all your unruly vassals.

This way I usually send vassal troops in for an aggressive war and keep my personal troops in reserve incase someone gets shirty about having to pay for my ambitions.

Robear wrote:

Start off by making sure your Council members are loyal. Then do the same for your vassals. Buy them off, give them titles, etc. Don't give them your land unless you have to - that should go to your heir, not be frittered away as gifts. See if you can address any issues they have to make them feel better - maybe they want a law changed or something.

One important thing: send you court chaplain out getting the clergy to like you more. They won't pay taxes to you until they like you better than the pope. You can always use more money.

Robear wrote:

Don't forget to strengthen your forts and develop your cities and cathedrals.

Target your counties in your demesnes (sp?) first. When you build a castle village for a castle that you own, you get 100% of the tax revenue. If build that same village somehwere owned by a vassal, you get a percentage (or nothing depending on how much they like you and your realm laws).

Prozac wrote:

This way I usually send vassal troops in for an aggressive war and keep my personal troops in reserve incase someone gets shirty about having to pay for my ambitions.

A typically Prozacian strategy.

Very good things to know, Nightmare and Mr. HappyPill. Thanks!

Robear wrote:

Very good things to know, Nightmare and Mr. HappyPill. Thanks!

Seconded. You too Robear. Maybe now I can make some headway in my second attempt as Brittany.

Wordy, i promise something by the end of the weekend since you're too incompetent to buy the game and understand it.

/guantletthrown

IMAGE(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/281072/ck2%20aar/images/Boudewijn-v.png)

[strong][size=20]Duke Baldwin V of Flanders[/size][/strong]


[strong]Baldwin V of Flanders[/strong] (19 August 1012 – 5 June 1077) was Duke of Flanders from 1035 until his death.
He was the son of Baldwin IV, Duke of Flanders, who died in 1035.

[strong][size=16]History[/size][/strong]


In 1028 Baldwin married Adèle of France in Amiens, daughter of King Robert II of France; at her instigation he rebelled against his father but in 1030 peace was sworn and the old count continued to rule until his death.

During a long war (1046–1056) as an ally of Godfrey the Bearded, Duke of Lorraine, against the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III, he initially lost Valenciennes to Hermann of Hainaut. However, when the latter died in 1051 Baldwin married his son Baldwin VI to Herman's widow Richildis and arranged that the sons of her first marriage were disinherited, thus de facto uniting the County of Hainaut with Flanders. Upon the death of Henry III this marriage was acknowledged by treaty by Agnes de Poitou, mother and regent of Henry IV. Baldwin V played host to a grateful dowager queen Emma of England, during her enforced exile, at Bruges. He supplied armed security guards, entertainment, comprising a band of minstrels. Bruges was a bustling commercial centre, and Emma fittingly grateful to the citizens. She dispensed generously to the poor, making contact with the monastery of Saint Bertin at St Omer, and received her son, King Harthacnut of England at Bruges in 1039.

From 1060 to 1066 Baldwin was the co-Regent with Anne of Kiev for his nephew-by-marriage Philip I of France, indicating the importance he had acquired in international politics. Baldwin supported the King of France in most affairs until Philip's death in 1072, serving briefly as Master of Horse.

In 1070, Baldwin fought a war over Amiens, whose claim was disputed following the death of Count Raoul de Valois. Most historians agree that Baldwin instigated the war with slight pretext. In any case, Amiens was added to the demesne of Flanders when Simon de Valois, claimant to the county, was captured in late 1070 and Baldwin assumed the title.

During the troubles in France during the middle of the 1070's caused by the early death of Philip I of France and the ascension of Guillaume I, Baldwin sided with Robert of Burgandy. Robert and Baldwin each strongly supported the claim of Hugues, brother of Philip I, to the throne. After the deposition of Guillaume I in 1076, Baldwin was made Chancellor of France, which he held until his death in 1077.

[strong][size=16]Family[/size][/strong]


IMAGE(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/281072/ck2%20aar/images/flanders-coat%20of%20arms.png)

Duke Baldwin V was of the House of Flanders (van Vlannderen)

[strong]Father:[/strong] Duke Baldwin IV of Flanders
[strong]Mother:[/strong] Ogiva of Luxemburg
Baldwin and Adèle had three children:

  • Baldwin VI, Count of Hainaut
  • Matilda, wife of Duke William of Normandy
  • Robert I, Count of Zeeland

[size=8](Some information adapted from Wikipedia)[/size]

Oh, hey, how do you get your chaplain to visit the Pope? Every time I put him in Rome, he ends up talking to some local bishop... But the manual says you can use your chaplain to influence a head of religion...

Robear wrote:

Oh, hey, how do you get your chaplain to visit the Pope? Every time I put him in Rome, he ends up talking to some local bishop... But the manual says you can use your chaplain to influence a head of religion...

I noticed if you send your chaplain or your counselor out to improve relations, they start by talking to the local mayor or bishop, and then they talk to the pope or lord. They have to work their way up like a real diplomat I guess.

Robear wrote:

Oh, hey, how do you get your chaplain to visit the Pope? Every time I put him in Rome, he ends up talking to some local bishop... But the manual says you can use your chaplain to influence a head of religion...

Also, keep an eye out on the pope, he doesn't always seem to stay in Rome.

A lesson in how quickly things can go bad . . .
Over the course of several rulers, I had managed to unite and claim the thrones of both Scotland and Ireland. When my 71 year old King died, his son inherited. I immediately noticed a number of potential vassal revolts. However, I had a fairly large personal holding, and plenty of money. I figured there were would be a few revolts, spend a couple years putting them down, and sail on.
The first warning sign appeared when a neighboring English duke declared war on me. Unexpected, but not a big deal, I thought. As I raised levies, one of my vassals revolted. Annoying! Now I had to fight off this english invader, and reconquer some of my own territory. To be safe, I decided to hire my first mercenary unit. As they landed, another vassal revolted. Then another. And another, and . . . well, you get the idea. It was literally like a ripple effect - within a few months every single vassal had revolted and declared war! The only territories I had left were my own counties!
Well, it wasn't pretty, but I thought I could still salvage it. I had the money for more mercenaries, and felt that I could slowly grind my former vassals down one by one, and eventually be able to deal with this english duke that had started the whole mess. It would take years, and probably drain my treasury, but I could recover over time. And that was the moment when the King of England also declared war on me . . . Game over, man. Game over.

I've been looking for the "Fall on your sword" option at times when I end up with a useless ruler with a great heir. It would be simpler than fighting to keep my holdings unified until one of my successors finally manages to put a knife in my back.

Ha! Now that's clever.

Sack your spymaster and try and assassinate someone really powerful, eg HR Emperor (unless you're his vassal) and you'll soon be flooded with assassination attempts.

They should let you appoint a competent regent and then go off adventuring in the Holy Land like Richard I did. By most accounts, he wasn't a terribly good king despite being called "Good King Richard" and my understanding is that, despite the whole Robin Hood mythology, Prince John was actually not as bad as advertised.

Paleocon wrote:

They should let you appoint a competent regent and then go off adventuring in the Holy Land like Richard I did. By most accounts, he wasn't a terribly good king despite being called "Good King Richard" and my understanding is that, despite the whole Robin Hood mythology, Prince John was actually not as bad as advertised.

He was a fantastic general and mediocre king. A fun book on Richard and Saladin during the Third Crusade is Warriors of God.
http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-God-R...

Prozac wrote:

Sack your spymaster and try and assassinate someone really powerful, eg HR Emperor (unless you're his vassal) and you'll soon be flooded with assassination attempts.

It's an alternative to a murder-suicide pact for the pious Christian aristocrats.

IMAGE(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/281072/ck2%20aar/images/Boudewijn-vi.png)

[strong][size=20]Baldwin (Boudewijn) VI Duke of Flanders[/size][/strong]


[strong]Baldwin VI Duke of Flanders[/strong] (c. 1030 - 24 September 1097) was Duke of Flanders, from 1077 to 1097. He was also (as Baldwin I) count of Hainaut from 1051 to 1077.

He was the eldest son of Baldwin V of Flanders and Adele, a daughter of king Robert II of France.

[strong][size=16]History[/size][/strong]


In 1051 he married Richilde, Countess of Mons and Hainaut, widow of count Herman of Mons. By this marriage Flanders took control of Hainaut (at that moment still a conglomerate of the county of Mons, the margraviate of Valenciennes and the southern part of the landgraviate of Brabant).

Baldwin's rule of Flanders was mainly one of internal revolt. His oldest two sons each led revolts against his rule. His oldest son, Arnulf, died leading a revolt in 1079. His second son, Baldwin of Hainaut, died in 1080, imprisoned after a failed revolt. Baldwin VI's first wife, Richilde, also died in prison after a failed assassination attempt in 1079. Baldwin's grand-daughter Richilde of Hainaut led a revolt in 1095.

The other major occurrence during Baldwin's rule was the widespread acceptance of Catharism in the counties comprising the duchy of Flanders. Pope Felix IV sent papal legates to remonstrate Baldwin for his apparent toleration of the Catharists, leading Baldwin to pledge to root out Catharism in his duchy. Despite local inquisitions, Catharism remained strongly rooted into the reign of his son, Bartolomeus I.

After Richilde's death, Baldwin married Anne de Cambrai, the daughter of the Count of Cambrai by whom he had four sons, each of whom survived him.

[strong][size=16]Family[/size][/strong]


IMAGE(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/281072/ck2%20aar/images/flanders-coat%20of%20arms.png)

Baldwin VI was of the House of Flanders (van Vlannderen).

[strong]Father:[/strong] Baldwin V, Duke of Flanders
[strong]Mother:[/strong] Adèle Capet, Proncess of France
Baldwin and Adèle had three children:

  • Arnulf, Count of Amiens
  • Baldwin I, Count of Hainaut
  • Agnes

Baldwin and Anne had four sons:

  • Bartolomeus I, Duke of Flanders
  • Gerulf
  • Rodulf
  • Karel

[size=8](Some information adapted from Wikipedia)[/size]

garion333 wrote:

Wordy, i promise something by the end of the weekend since you're too incompetent to buy the game and understand it.

/guantletthrown

I want to. It's a free-time issue.

tboon wrote:

Duke Baldwin V of Flanders

tboon wrote:

Baldwin (Boudewijn) VI Duke of Flanders

Oh man tboon - way to raise the bar. I feel like I should be taking notes with my current game (created Portugal & leading the Reconquista - but worryingly France and England both hold lands in Iberia, and I'd rather see them out). I'm on my 3rd or 4th ruler though, and I'd have to remember who captured what.

The_Vinnlander wrote:
tboon wrote:

Duke Baldwin V of Flanders

tboon wrote:

Baldwin (Boudewijn) VI Duke of Flanders

Oh man tboon - way to raise the bar. I feel like I should be taking notes with my current game (created Portugal & leading the Reconquista - but worryingly France and England both hold lands in Iberia, and I'd rather see them out). I'm on my 3rd or 4th ruler though, and I'd have to remember who captured what. :-)

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words! I'm having a good time putting these together. I've always liked how Wikipedia does biographical information esp. for lesser-known medieval rulers, so I decided to replicate that as much as the formatting here at GWJ would allow. Using Wikipedia to "fill in the gaps" before 1066 has been quite helpful in placing the historical rulers into context.

Having a set format helps me actually write these up. And using the Wikipedia entries for guidance helps keep them short and easy to write from my notes, making it more likely I will actually get more than 60 years into it.

I'm trying to play through a ruler every two or three days; we shall see how that goes.

BTW, just start writing down some notes about your current ruler and put them together. Usually, when the game auto-pauses for something major, I will make a note of what happened and when. I also write down stuff that happens that would be of interest to my ruler, like major wars and the like. It's fun and I find it adds another layer to the game.

Tanglebones wrote:
Prozac wrote:

I love this game. Where else could a 64 year old King arrange a marriage for his grandson with a hot 18 year old, then Marry her twin sister with the bigger... endowments. :D

Nevada

Good sir, you win. The thread is yours.

DanyBoy wrote:

I've been looking for the "Fall on your sword" option at times when I end up with a useless ruler with a great heir. It would be simpler than fighting to keep my holdings unified until one of my successors finally manages to put a knife in my back. :P

Paleocon wrote:

They should let you appoint a competent regent and then go off adventuring in the Holy Land like Richard I did. By most accounts, he wasn't a terribly good king despite being called "Good King Richard" and my understanding is that, despite the whole Robin Hood mythology, Prince John was actually not as bad as advertised.

The ol' holy suicide crusade works a lot like the holy murdering-your-court-rivals crusade. The English have been passive-aggressive for a very long time.

I found that my first Imbecile leader, King Fraunk I of England, became known as "the Great" due to his excellent staff and the zillion or so rebellions they put down for him. He finally died at the hands of an Irish assassin in his early 50's. His heir, who was also an Imbecile, tried to repeat the same feat, but fell in battle (he was like an idiot savant for financial managment, but sadly, his fighting skills were non-existent.)

His heir then had to surrender Gwynnedd and York and Rouen, gave up strong control of his vassals and went to an elective inheritance scheme in order to get peace. That's when things got really interesting. He and his heir have brought all of Wales back into the fold (except Glamorgan, and we're researching family papers there...), reclaimed Maine, and established the Kingdom of Brythain (Brittany is still independent and the French are plagued by an English ally - the Holy Roman Empire.)

So things are looking up, as long as I can retake York from the Duchess of Connaught.

Found myself in an unusual situation when I discovered that, having married a foreigner, my king's children were not of his dynasty, and thus if one of them inherited, the game would end. (I'm under an Elective selection process due to a previous civil war settlement. Vassals, you know how they are...) I looked around for siblings, but the one I found (half-brother) died soon after. I resigned myself to the game ending soon.

Then, I decided to check the overall character list for members of the de Normandie dynasty. Success! A nephew of mine with decent skills was in the court of the Duke of Gwynnedd. He was an Earl with a city and a bishopric. So, I gave him the County of York. But I still could not nominate him as heir. I promoted him to the Duke of York, and suddenly he appeared on the list! I promptly nominated him and my faithful vassals have agreed that he is suitable for the throne.

Yet another level of depth. I'm now trying to promote one of my female relatives to keep his kids in the dynasty. Even if they are a bit cross-eyed and six-fingered...

Robear wrote:

Found myself in an unusual situation when I discovered that, having married a foreigner, my king's children were not of his dynasty, and thus if one of them inherited, the game would end. (I'm under an Elective selection process due to a previous civil war settlement. Vassals, you know how they are...) I looked around for siblings, but the one I found (half-brother) died soon after. I resigned myself to the game ending soon.

Then, I decided to check the overall character list for members of the de Normandie dynasty. Success! A nephew of mine with decent skills was in the court of the Duke of Gwynnedd. He was an Earl with a city and a bishopric. So, I gave him the County of York. But I still could not nominate him as heir. I promoted him to the Duke of York, and suddenly he appeared on the list! I promptly nominated him and my faithful vassals have agreed that he is suitable for the throne.

Yet another level of depth. I'm now trying to promote one of my female relatives to keep his kids in the dynasty. Even if they are a bit cross-eyed and six-fingered... :-)

Did you somehow manage to end up with a matrilineal marriage? I was under the impression that was the only way for this situation to occur, and my experiences have agreed with that so far (I almost always marry foreigners).

I've had a couple of odd things like that happen as well, where my ruler marries someone and the kids end up being of a different dynasty. I am pretty sure I did not marry matrilineally in any of those cases, but I will be honest I was not paying 100% attention either, because I expected it to not be a matrilineal marriage.

Keeping your heirs straight and lined up how you want them to be is a full-time job. Old Baldwin VI had things lined up for his third son to inherit (the older two being useless POSes, who's only saving grace was to die before they could inherit) when, out of the blue, up pops the oldest son's son as heir. Baldwin VI, being a pretty bad human being, had the kid murdered to keep succession the way he wanted it.

I may have set it up as a matrilineal. It doesn't help that I'm not sure of the implications of that.

Edit - Yes, that's what must have happened. And he had like 8 kids, too. Sheer ignorance on my part.

I like the updates; so far I've enjoyed playing as 'the little guy', so having a reason to contribute to a war is a nice change.

I couldn't see a reason to buy the DLC, until I saw you could change the Coat of Arms. That along might make it worth it, if the price is not too high.