Quote Originally Posted by rickinator9 View Post
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Paphlagonia after the inheritance of Charsianon.




I'm about to have my biggest gain yet. My heir will inherit the duchies of Paphlagonia and Nikaia. I appropriately named him Basileus 'Anatolikos' Komnemnos. I had to invest about 800 gold to take all of the male members of the Nikean Doukos branch down. But despite the kind of protection you have, the knives of Paphlagonia will always get you! But that isn't even the best going on in the empire. The emperor is old and will probably die within a few years. His heir is a very bad heir. He's an imbecile, he is incapable and needs regency around the clock. I'm pretty sure that when he succeeds, I'm not the only one who sees an opportunity.

The emperors estates are pretty weak, Thrace had been lost by them about 100 years before this picture, now the imperial court is in northern Bulgaria.
Very impressive.

In my game while I expanded my personal power in the east, the Emperor (or should I say, Empress? The Imperial court had a female ruler for over 120 years!) expanded her powers just as adeptly. She ruthlessly imprisoned nobles and stomped out plots so effectively that no one could do anything. In fact.. she instituted absolute crown authority really quickly and from there, it was near impossible to plot anything! The best I managed was two duchies before it became clear I wasn't going to be moving up in the world.

I think I'm gonna try one of the Russian principalities next. They look like a really interesting game.