Crusader Kings II

[Monk]

BTW about the dukes, wait to see all your vassals fighting eachother for claims lol
They are still loyal at least...

Yeah, it can be a real annoyance! When i played the demo I kept wondering why in the world my vassals kept fighting, and why I wasn't getting notifications if they were at war. Come to find out its all in how your realm's laws are set up. I always try to make a beeline up the crown authority tree for that reason. If you push it high enough your vassals will no longer be allowed to fight each other.

Tell me about it, playing as england, try to conquer Wales and Ireland before one of them gets it in thier head to become king, its a real pain having the duke of glamorgan repeatedly plotting to take one of my crowns.

I think that is a weakness of the law and title system in general. Currently there's no way to actually unify de juro kingdoms, you have to hold them separately. It would be nice to be able to do so or have the ability to form an empire of your own.

[Arjos]

If you push it high enough your vassals will no longer be allowed to fight each other.

Done that and they rose in rebellion to lower it :P
But that's when my king got "the Great", needless to say lots of dukes ended in the dungeons ^^

I agree about unifying crowns or at least being able to become emperor...

[Greyblades]

There's a mod for making empires, didnt help much, and when I gave one of my vassals the kingdom of england he proceeded to steamroll over Scotland, Wales and Denmark and became so powerful the only thing keeping him from rebelling was the long reign modifier. Caused me to quit right there when it turned out I only had one vassal left, though on a whim I cheated myself some money and I tried to assassinate the kingdom back into my hands, didnt work, all I did was depopulate the english nobility by 50 kings.

[Arjos]

all I did was depopulate the english nobility by 50 kings.

lol! XD

Biggest challenges for me in my first campaign were fighting the Great Company hired by the Pope in a claim war for a barony (very tough commander!) and an holy war with the egyptian Caliph, who assembled 12k men, all I had at that time were 3k (got attacked after a war in Kabylia) and I managed to lure them in deserts where they lost 60% of men, then I hired the Hospitallers and was a victory march :P

[The Stranger]

lol! XD

Biggest challenges for me in my first campaign were fighting the Great Company hired by the Pope in a claim war for a barony (very tough commander!) and an holy war with the egyptian Caliph, who assembled 12k men, all I had at that time were 3k (got attacked after a war in Kabylia) and I managed to lure them in deserts where they lost 60% of men, then I hired the Hospitallers and was a victory march :P

as puny ireland i have been owning france in a claim for the french kingdom. i also conquered england but i did not get the kingdom, i just put a different king on the throne. i did own them quite easy but the king was on a crusade so i guess that made a huge difference.

however ive found the following tactic immensely effective and it allows you to win vs much bigger nations (with bigger armies) you hire 2 merc comps and raise your vassals. you combine one army of mercs with your vassals and you send them in first. they will attack the armies of your enemies before they can assemble to form a big army. this way you can dominate a country which can raise thousands of men with just an army of 3000. the other merc army will be used to siege places. and ofcourse ransom back all the nobles you capture to pay for the upkeep of your mercs. this is truly cripling and you need to actively hunt for nobles to pay for upkeep.

in my war vs france i could raise a 1000 levies from my county and vassals. france could raise 8k. however i hired 2 of the small companies, used the above tactic and dominated france. in the end i made so much money from capturing nobles that i could hire all the 5 mercs which were available to me and still make more money by the war than i was losing from paying their upkeep.




sooo... pope calls crusade for ascalon. i go declare on the biggest meanest caliphate, the Holy war for the Ascalon!!! I hire the Templar Knights of NII and raise my vassals for war! I sail to the holy land with 17000 men. I lose like 2000 to artrition on the way. My vanguard of about 6000 men gets attacked by a 12000 strong army of the Caliphate with the Caliph leading the army. My main army arrives just in time to come to aid and we crush their army completely. like 4000 losses vs 11000 kills. I capture the Caliph and end the crusade in one battle! I am happy as can be, impose my demands, claim ascalon and think ye!!!...

turns out i declared war on the wrong caliph for the wrong piece of ascalon -_-

[Monk]

didnt work, all I did was depopulate the english nobility by 50 kings.

Good lord man, that's not regicide that's genocide. o_o

Biggest challenges for me in my first campaign were fighting the Great Company hired by the Pope in a claim war for a barony (very tough commander!) and an holy war with the egyptian Caliph, who assembled 12k men, all I had at that time were 3k (got attacked after a war in Kabylia) and I managed to lure them in deserts where they lost 60% of men, then I hired the Hospitallers and was a victory march :P

I hear if you give the holy orders titles in your kingdom it significantly reduces their upkeep for offensive wars. I haven't tried it myself, though I was seriously tempted after the Knights Templar saved my behind with a charge at the 11th hour in a war for Granada.

[Fisherking]

The change of power is the biggest hurtle . I get the idea that if the son is on good terms with dad when he goes, it all goes smooth. If son hates dad it will all go south.

I have to work a real mess out. My first guy married a princess who became a ruling duchess and the empires and commenced to live for ever. Now a bunch of Irishmen are heirs to the HRE.

That kingdom is not going to mesh well with the other. Worse yet, son hates dad which is going to make for a bumpy ride and while dad is known as the wise son will not have that going for him.

It could be a short lived dynasty at this rate.

[naut]

!!!!!

They made it? And it's out. WHERE HAVE I BEEN!

[Monk]

Had to change the culture of my line of succession through some intrigue. Accidentally got the line converted to English culture by constantly marrying girls of the de Normandie dynasty, when i found that my current heir hadn't taken the culture of his castilian tutor (even though my other children had, for the most part) decided he needed to go.

Sent him on a fool's crusade to take Jerusalem, only problem is he didn't have the good sense to die and instead became a huge hero by winning nearly every battle he was in. Occupied 4 provinces despite me only giving him 5k men to crusade with and just would not die, no matter how many sieges I threw him up against. He won great prestige for the kingdom though, and no doubt recieved a hero's welcome home. That is until he got a knife in the back later that night. Oh sure.. everyone suspects me, but no one can prove a thing.

The line of succession is Castilian once again, as it should be.

!!!!!

They made it? And it's out. WHERE HAVE I BEEN!

Indeed. That's a good question.