Crusader Kings II Spirit-all

Yeah, keeping it all in the family is usually not a great idea.

tboon wrote:

Yeah, keeping it all in the family is usually not a great idea.

Plus if you want to bump one of them off, you will often (but not allways for some reason) get the kinkiller debuff/disadvantage.

Family is a difficult topic in the game. I am on the verge of founding the Arabian Empire in my Moslem game when my heir had 5 boys and two girls the boys came of age within two or three years of each other and nearly doubbled my decadence in a very short time. I have knocked two or three off and have one enfiefed in some new lands while the other is in jail as a backup. Needless to say, my heir is not thrilled with this, but this king is about dead so it will not matter soon.

I don't know whether the family route is the optimal strategy, but I went with it under this idea.
- I get a relations bonus for 'same dynasty'
- I don't offer positions of power to people with strong claims on my stuff
- I was careful to breed and tutor out, as best I could, all instances of the 'ambitious' trait except in my immediate heir. (Hard to control after that nuclear family leaves the nest, but it's a start.)

(Plus, I wanted to paint the map with my dynasty's color.)

My first attempt with the Welsh failed. The duchy I chose starts with a big family, but they all died within two generations. This time I went Irish, then bred my heir for good traits, and everyone else in my extended family for pure breeding. 'Genius' is overlooked in favor of fertility bonuses. Working out well so far.

Oh my! Ireland is on fire!

Nothing like the opinion shift of going from a 75 year ruler with around 5000 prestige (something like +80 opinion) to a new one.

I thought I was going to get away with it, then in the span of three months I had about a dozen wars declared.

Some of the Iberian counties are trying independence. They are being swatted down in holy wars now by Muslims and Scotsmen. Serves them right!

My French holdings are intact after the Duke of Toulouse had the decency to die, but with two duchies still in revolt, that will likely fall.

Looks like my ambition got away from me, and I'll likely end up with Ireland and Wales still in my possession. Not that I can create Wales. Stupid Celtic requirement.

A similar thing happened to me on my Ireland game, when a long reigning and much loved king died and left his oldests and least liked son in charge. Quene pretty much everybody declaring war, managed to hold on to most of Ireland but Leinster managed to sneak a victory and gain independence while I was busy dealing with everybody else! Their time will come though when they are accepted back into the arms of the Ireland Wales Kingdom. (I have created Wales)
Lost all my crusade provinces in Spain though but I was willing to lose them and didn't even try to defend them as events at home were more important.

I want to know if the Lutefisk Revolution has happened yet in Norengland.

I need to play something other than Secret World for that to happen, Paleo.

So I just started a game as Rodrigo of Valencia (Otherwise known as 'El Cid'), in 1094. After the disagreement with Alfonso, independent Valencia is in a precarious situation, surrounded on all sides by the Muslim rulers of Spain. Knowing that Valencia is going to need external support to survive, I immediately swore fealty to the ruler I judged least likely to bother me: the Byzantine Emperor. Rodrigo got packed off to Constantinople to serve as a second Belisarius and Valencia became the westenmost outpost of the Eastern Empire.

That's not the weird part.

The other kingdoms of Spain are in bad shape (well, except for Alfonso). A little ways up the coast is the county of Empúries, recently conquered. In the normal course of events I wouldn't have noticed this at all, except for the fact that when Hugh II died in the siege, his brother Berenguer decided to take the entire family and settle as refugees in the safest court they could think of.

And, thanks to the new patronage, that means Valencia. My court is now drowning in a sea of d'Empuries, some of whom have rather decent stats.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/CpFNc.jpg)

I forgot what Byzantine Emperors do to generals with a 27 military stat, especially because it's the same thing Alfonso does to generals with a 27 military stat.

What does your world map look like?

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/QnBXql.jpg)
This is how it looked shortly after swearing fealty to the Emperor.

Unfortunately, throwing your best general in jail is not a good way to prevent Constantinople from being conquered:
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/UVPgjl.jpg)

And meanwhile in Spain, the Kaiser came waltzing in, conquered the place...and threw the count in a dungeon.
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/rWMeul.jpg)

Interesting. Thanks for the maps!

One of my favorite things about this game is the strange directions other peoples games take.

Gremlin wrote:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/QnBXql.jpg)
This is how it looked shortly after swearing fealty to the Emperor.

How did you get this high contract view? I'm always struggling to get a map pic zoomed out all the way that is still intelligible

Kamakazi010654 wrote:
Gremlin wrote:

This is how it looked shortly after swearing fealty to the Emperor.

How did you get this high contract view? I'm always struggling to get a map pic zoomed out all the way that is still intelligible

F10 outputs the current map mode. (F11 is the screenshot key, of course.)

And... King Skjalg I was forced to abdicate in favor of his brother after about 15 of his vassals revolted, one after another. "England" is now a mish-mash of provinces, run by a 9 year old, and Norway is half it's previous size. Sob!

Robear wrote:

And... King Skjalg I was forced to abdicate in favor of his brother after about 15 of his vassals revolted, one after another. "England" is now a mish-mash of provinces, run by a 9 year old, and Norway is half it's previous size. Sob!

Isn't that the worst? When you've got a ruler who has had success after success and all the vassals love him, and then he dies, and you find out that his son has even worse stats than you remembered and his Norwegian wife converted him to Catholicism instead of decent Orthodoxy like any good Russian Duke should be, and all of the vassals hate him and revolt and he doesn't even have a high enough stewardship to keep smugglers from decimating the tax revenue of the counties that he can't even hold on to. And then he goes and dies in battle on top of everything else.

Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Gremlin wrote:
Robear wrote:

And... King Skjalg I was forced to abdicate in favor of his brother after about 15 of his vassals revolted, one after another. "England" is now a mish-mash of provinces, run by a 9 year old, and Norway is half it's previous size. Sob!

Isn't that the worst? When you've got a ruler who has had success after success and all the vassals love him, and then he dies, and you find out that his son has even worse stats than you remembered and his Norwegian wife converted him to Catholicism instead of decent Orthodoxy like any good Russian Duke should be, and all of the vassals hate him and revolt and he doesn't even have a high enough stewardship to keep smugglers from decimating the tax revenue of the counties that he can't even hold on to. And then he goes and dies in battle on top of everything else.

Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Yep, it is even worse when that king, with awesome stats and the love of everyone, Dies at the age of 29. Then his son comes to the throne and everybody hates him and the revolts start and they don't stop for the next 10 years.

Not that I'm bitter or anything.

What surprised me is that I still have 7 provinces, and about 300 troops. In a few years, after my levies are rebuilt, I can start to put the country back together again.

Gremlin wrote:
Robear wrote:

And... King Skjalg I was forced to abdicate in favor of his brother after about 15 of his vassals revolted, one after another. "England" is now a mish-mash of provinces, run by a 9 year old, and Norway is half it's previous size. Sob!

Isn't that the worst?

Or the best?

tboon wrote:
Gremlin wrote:
Robear wrote:

And... King Skjalg I was forced to abdicate in favor of his brother after about 15 of his vassals revolted, one after another. "England" is now a mish-mash of provinces, run by a 9 year old, and Norway is half it's previous size. Sob!

Isn't that the worst?

Or the best?

Well, the game did get a lot more exciting there for a few years. I'm just hoping that the current duke survives to adulthood. Preferably with some kind of demesne intact.

FYI Quick Tip: Master the immediate pause and bribe after succession and other tips to avoid revolutions.

When my ruler dies I immediately pause the game and look at potential revolts. I try to bribe and/or give honors to the low hanging fruit, isolating the high percentage vassals, so if they do revolt it does not spread so far.

To do this, you have to maintain a decent sized cash reserve, or at least have one when your ruler gets old. While this is not always possible, there is often no substitute (expept perhaps for a high diplomacy stat) for cash on hand when these things happen.

Also look out for potential arrests and use your marshal appropriately. If you get the justified arrest option, especially in your later years, see if the plotter has the Ambitious trait or perhaps the envy trait. It is good to imprison these early, because, if they are in jail during a transition in ruler, they can't revolt.

The adds his martial stat to the arrest chance under the “Suppress Rebellions” job, make sure you place him where the arrestee is. I did not realize this particular aspect of the game until I was well into my first dynasty.

FYI Quick Tip: Master the immediate pause and bribe after succession and other tips to avoid revolutions.

I did. The only guy who was upset with me was the former Prince Edmund Godwinson, and he was sure to revolt. So I tried to jail him, which created the revolt instead. At that point, his fellow dukes began to step in, one a week or so, followed by the jackals. Everyone else was over 40 in the green; it was Edmund that done it.

I didn't have much cash; I was around 75 gold. Norway is not rich, and the English were still recovering from the war. I also had the Suppress Rebellions going. So... Bad luck, I think.

Great. It just took me a while to get this down and wanted to throw it out there for anyone that did not know.

Oh, I get you, that's great advice.

I did not know that.

I always thought suppress rebellions was just for the peasants.

Kier wrote:

I did not know that.

I always thought suppress rebellions was just for the peasants.

Build Spy Networks under the Spymaster will increase assassination chance too.

Advice needed.

My Ireland game is still going strong. Took over Scotland, only to lose Moray when the guy I gave the duchy to killed a whole lot of people to become King of Aragorn. Damn English took back York as well. I've jettisoned most of my remote kingdom because I was tired of the revolts.

Marriages and inheritance are the bane of my existence, as I expect they should be. My grandmother just died, leaving me the Kingdom of Galacia. The map:

IMAGE(http://www.huckaby.us/Files/ck2_map_1.png)

Having just inherited all six counties in Brittany, I am now 4 over in demesne size and holding an extra duchy (I already vassalized a few holdings and gave away a duchy). Of course everyone is pissed about this, and Galacia is facing three likely revolts, which will likely push some Ireland vassals into revolt.

My problem is that I've built up Meath and Leinster with baronies that are heavily upgraded. Lots of troops, lots of money. The Brittany stuff is not quite so nice, so I'm inclined to divvy it up and assign the duchy. If I give away Brittany, will everyone revolt due to distance again (as my nearest holding is in Ireland)?

Thoughts? Advice? I am sitting on about 1200 gold for a few gifts, but the three likely revolts REALLY don't like me (ambitious, distance, want something -- oh, and I'm a dwarf).

LilCodger wrote:

oh, and I'm a dwarf.

I don't really have a lot of advice other than to try and pick off troublesome vassals in controlled rebellions. If you can suppress some for a little while and then attack others it can be helpful. The old divide and conquer.

Also, I try create new vassals if I have to give something away. So if I have a county and a duchy that need to go because I am over limit I will pick a courtier that I like and that likes me and give it to him. You can also make them your culture and religion. Some times that helps keep rebellions down.

Also, now you know how Tyrion felt.

I think the best you can do in this situation is create the duchy in Brittany and give it and as many baronies as needed away until you get to the Dukedom/desmense limits. How is Galacia for wealth? If it sucks, I would just put some schmoe in there and let the revolts run their course, beefing up my primary holdings and cash. Probably would not spend the cash on any but the vassals with borderline relations and save up for mercenaries for if things go pear-shaped (when, really, they always seem to go pear-shaped ).

If Galacia is wealthy and worth keeping, though, I might raise my personal forces and have them go hang out down there until things cool a bit. Depends on your income and your personal levies of course. Maybe some creative assassinations on the most rebellious would help as well, at least get someone in there who is less likely to cause a ruckus. If you have decent relations with your other vassals, tossing a couple of the worst vassals in the clink while stripping their titles might do some good but this is always risky.

Kier wrote:
LilCodger wrote:

oh, and I'm a dwarf.

I don't really have a lot of advice other than to try and pick off troublesome vassals in controlled rebellions. If you can suppress some for a little while and then attack others it can be helpful. The old divide and conquer.

Also, I try create new vassals if I have to give something away. So if I have a county and a duchy that need to go because I am over limit I will pick a courtier that I like and that likes me and give it to him. You can also make them your culture and religion. Some times that helps keep rebellions down.

Also, now you know how Tyrion felt.

Do you have access to a snarky swordsman and a copious quantity of wildfire?