Crusader Kings II Spirit-all

ebarstad wrote:

I started in Scotland as Duke of Moray and it's been a pretty safe place so far (first 60-70 years). The various kings of Scotland have had their hands full, though. A lot of usurping and assassinations and general upheaval.

Unfortunately, my game feels a little on the boring side now because the king has instituted Absolute Crown Authority so I can't declare war on anyone. I'm not sure what I should do. If I go against the King, I think I'll get crushed as I don't have enough cash to support as many mercs as I would need. Is there a more subtle way to try and lower crown authority?

I think you can start some plots to do it?

I am having a hell of a time keeping the roman empire together.

One weird thing happened though. When I dies some of my kingdom titles left the empire and I have no idea why.

One was the kingdom of Greece which had always been in the family. Any ideas?

Yep, clearly something wrong with my save game. Annoying as well, I was really making in roads into Scotland.

Kier wrote:

I am having a hell of a time keeping the roman empire together.

One weird thing happened though. When I dies some of my kingdom titles left the empire and I have no idea why.

One was the kingdom of Greece which had always been in the family. Any ideas?

Probably Gavelkind succession, titles go to your various heirs.

onewild wrote:

Yep, clearly something wrong with my save game. Annoying as well, I was really making in roads into Scotland.

That sucks, can you roll back to an earlier autosave?

In other news, sons can be morons. I'm busy saving up to create Kingdom of Ireland and am nearly there when my oldest son drops a snake in my bed. Joke's on him because I forgot to switch to Primogeniture when I started the game and one dutchy went to his brother.

He's also a twit so some counties turn on him, now me, and troops are depleted.

Started up a game as Sweden, I'm finding that pretty satisfying.

Slowly eating away at Norway and pagan Finnish territory. I can launch a claim for the kingdom of Norway, but seems like a lot to chew off. For that sort of thing does one need to invade all or most territories, or do you need to just invade a few territories and hold off resistance for long enough?

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Started up a game as Sweden, I'm finding that pretty satisfying.

Slowly eating away at Norway and pagan Finnish territory. I can launch a claim for the kingdom of Norway, but seems like a lot to chew off. For that sort of thing does one need to invade all or most territories, or do you need to just invade a few territories and hold off resistance for long enough?

The former, I think.

Anyway, know this: Sweden is always pretty satisfying.

wordsmythe wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

Started up a game as Sweden, I'm finding that pretty satisfying.

Slowly eating away at Norway and pagan Finnish territory. I can launch a claim for the kingdom of Norway, but seems like a lot to chew off. For that sort of thing does one need to invade all or most territories, or do you need to just invade a few territories and hold off resistance for long enough?

The former, I think.

Anyway, know this: Sweden is always pretty satisfying.

Lagom är bäst.

There is something evilly delicious about crushing a huge rebellion and then perusing the enormous list of dukes in your dungeon.

I was up to 7 at one point (including my own son, the scamp). I used to release one every time I thought my standings with my vassals could do with a boost - say, every 4 years or so.

But no matter how much I warned them, there were always a couple you just knew were going to start setting up factions and agitating once they were released.

MrDeVil909 wrote:
onewild wrote:

Yep, clearly something wrong with my save game. Annoying as well, I was really making in roads into Scotland.

That sucks, can you roll back to an earlier autosave?

Indeed it does, tried rolling back but no luck, had to abandon my Ireland game, such as shame as well. Having united Ireland, then fought off a huge rebellion when one of the less suitable heirs took power, he then proved himself by taking over Iceland, then taking advantage of the Scottish war with Herefordshire and England to snap up a part of Scotland. Had an excuse to claim another part when it broke off from a crushed Scotland too. Oh well, it is a good excuse to start another game.

The HRE is a bully and we hates them! Hates them!

(Denmark runs off sobbing...)

So, things were running well in Denmark. Too well, perhaps. A few provinces picked up from the pagans, a nice orderly succession, nice monthly income coming in. Denmark was good friends with its neighbors, always answering calls when asked and its Chancellor spent the majority of his time with the HRE trying to make sure the giant grey dragon was appeased.

Suddenly, the HRE declares war! It wants one of Denmark's provinces! An army of 12K men bearing the heraldry of piss yellow and the darkest black approaches the border! Denmark can only field 4,000 stout men at arms and so had to submit! A black stain on the emperor indeed!

(Man, in this game the HRE is really blobbing - it has humbled France and took a nice chunk out of it. It is making in-roads into East Europe. There hasn't been a single independence movement in the HRE that I have seen. I am trying to get allies with all of the bordering states but it might not be enough, even if I can pull it off.)

Seriously. My Denmark game is still going and I tried to press a claim to take back some de jure territory from the HRE. They came storming in and I had to give up pretty fast. I think I got away with a white peace though. Stupid giant HRE.

So, okay...I finally started playing a serious game after multiple false starts. I started off as a Duke Murchad of Munster, who was a right bastard. He is not well liked by his one vassal, and even moreso by his own council. However Ireland isn't going to unite itself, and so the Duke starts with just uniting Munster. This means pressing De Jure on the country of Desmond. Before pressing Desmond, the Earl of Ormond decides to create an Independent faction. Again, Duke Murchad is a bastard, so it's not surprising. A war ensues (aptly named The War Against The Tyranny of Murchad), and the Duke's armies crush the rebel armies, but cannot raise an army large enough to siege the country.

At the same time, it's discovered that the Duke's son is plotting to kill him (seriously, what the hell did this Duke do?), and the proper response is to imprison him. Unfortunately, that means the Duke's sole heir is now locked away for trying to assasinate his father. Ignoring the war against Ormond for the time being, Murchad quickly gets married in the hopes he can produce another son. Luckily he finds a noble woman who doesn't hate him as much as everyone else (and isn't a leper or sterile). Sadly, all the union is able to produce are daughters....

...And now I'm a bit stuck. I can't take Ormond because I will be unable to raise an army large enough to siege the castle. After checking what Desmond can raise, I'd have the same issue if I decide to go with the De Jure war. So, I can't increase my realm, I can't win any war, and my sole heir wants me dead. It's already looking pretty grim and I haven't even made it out of the first year of my reign. Should I just restart and try again, or is there some way I'm going to be able to salvage this?

Patience, build up the treasury and then send in the mercenaries. If you're about to run out of money use them to storm the enemy stronghold. You don't have to pay dead men That should take it, or at least weaken it enough that your levies can come in and keep it besieged.

Prozac wrote:

Patience, build up the treasury and then send in the mercenaries.

Ohhhh der der--forgot about the mercs. Now I just have to build up the treasury. Making a smooth .84 gold a month. Should only take a few years to get the gold I need

EDIT: Okay, so....I should've realized that I kept EXTRA money in the treasury to keep paying the mercenaries. Just before they were able to overrun the castle, they decided to get upset at not being paid, and I've got an army of 1500 marching on my only country. This should be great.

Sounds like you are doing it right Cpt.

tboon wrote:

Sounds like you are doing it right Cpt. :)

Yeah, that's what I figured. I saw my advisor say "We're running without money" and I just blew it off, thinking of the wealth I'll obtain after taking Ormond. The message came up again and I just obsessively watched the siege. The third message was from the mercs. "Hey. Buddy. We need money. Now."

....The "war" against the mercs has gone about as well as expected. The strange thing is that suddenly I found myself excommunicated, a nephew of mine denounced me, and my country is now occupied. Sooo, I think it's pretty safe to say I made the wrong choice. Time to reload the save before I hired the mercs and try this one again.

Still, this has been SUPER fun

Or you could just play on and see what happens. That's The Right Thing To Do.

(but I can totally dig re-loadng).

Oh, I'm sure that's the right thing to do. But there was just too much that happened all at once for me to really digest what was happening. I just really want to start small--unite Munster. Tossing in excommunication and a pissed off army of mercs made things a bit more...muddled?...than I cared take on at the moment.

I did make a save point though. So I can go back and try to dig myself out of the hole

In many games, once you lose the throne, it's over. But in this one, that's when it just begins. You can have your kingdom chopped into pieces, your family attacking you, and your holdings cut down to a duchy, and still come roaring back in a generation or two. It's great.

CptDomano wrote:
Prozac wrote:

Patience, build up the treasury and then send in the mercenaries.

Ohhhh der der--forgot about the mercs. Now I just have to build up the treasury. Making a smooth .84 gold a month. Should only take a few years to get the gold I need

EDIT: Okay, so....I should've realized that I kept EXTRA money in the treasury to keep paying the mercenaries. Just before they were able to overrun the castle, they decided to get upset at not being paid, and I've got an army of 1500 marching on my only country. This should be great.

You forgot the IMPORTANT part of my post

Prozac wrote:

If you're about to run out of money use them to storm the enemy stronghold. You don't have to pay dead men That should take it, or at least weaken it enough that your levies can come in and keep it besieged.

Prozac wrote:

You forgot the IMPORTANT part of my post

Nahh....I wouldn't say "forgot" as much as skimmed So, you can just dismiss a band of mercs if they're in the middle of a siege and not have to worry about money? VERY interesting...VERY VERY interesting...

You CAN... but If you know you can't pay them next month I'd just make them assault the walls first and throw away their lives... As I said, you don't pay dead men.

1500 mercs vs 250 men makes for not enough dead men to pay at the end of the month

Then dismiss them IF after taking the holding you still don't have enough to pay them. Often that first holding they assault is enough to pay them for the month and early game when hte garrisons are that small you can use that 1500 stack to assault all 3 holdings in the county inside of a month, win the war and dismiss them or press another claim and get them to do it again, living off the land and the plunder from captured holdings.

By the way, I wanted to weigh in on the mercenaries advice given above. One thing to consider is that if you chew up your mercs in their last month, they will take years to reconstitute. In times of wide-ranging war, it's entirely possible to see all the affordable mercenary troops with severely depleted forces, making them ineffective for prospective ass-saving maneuvers of your own. Think twice before ordering them into the breach just to save a little coin; dismiss them intact if you suspect further wars lie in your near future.

Started a new game as one of the Muslim powers on Sicily, managed to take all but one province on the island and I took over Malta, plus I grabbed Naples and the other one next to it. However my Muslim advances are nothing compared to that of Fatamids, who now control all of Italy (apart from my small holdings, even the Pope has had his arse handed to him) and half of France, a channel all the way up to the English Channel, it is insane. Pretty much makes my amibition of grabbing the Kingdom of Sicily impossible since I would have to go to war with them.
Not sure where to go from here now with them.

What's the secret to making alliances useful? You know, allies that actually help out?

Quintin_Stone wrote:

What's the secret to making alliances useful? You know, allies that actually help out?

Not being a nemeslut named Quintin?

Quintin_Stone wrote:

What's the secret to making alliances useful? You know, allies that actually help out?

My guess is that it's based on whether the ally is currently getting his poop pushed in by an unfriendly neighbor. While playing in Spain I had people show up from Ireland, but allies a couple of territories over in France that vowed to show up were nowhere to be found (though that may also have something to do with them being French.)

I'm guessing that being a nemeslut named Quintin doesn't help either.

In my own experience in Ireland.

1. Having them near enough to get to you before you get swamped.

2. Someone who's not always at war themselves. In my game, England wasn't a good ally as they were always at war with someone (for almost 300 years they had most of Italy, and at least half of Spain for 200), and if it wasn't overseas adventures it was dissension at home, usual Yorkshire based. So their forces were always spread over the map.

3. Someone who doesn't fancy a bit of your territory themselves.

In my game, I tended to rely on mercs, even though at one point I had a list of 17 allies. Only twice did I successfully call in aid - once, early on, from the Scots, and then, in the 1300s from my ally the Duchess of Brittany who responded to my frantic pleas for assistance in putting down a vassal revolt not with a Gallic shrug but with 30,000 troops, who quickly splattered two large-ish armies of rebel dogs giving me time to gather forces and do the rest myself.