Crusader Kings II

[Chaotix]

Been playing Ireland myself to see what all the hype is about; gave myself a somewhat easy start with the Duke of Munster (mostly because I wanted to play the O'Brian/Ua Briain's).

The second Duke made himself King Brian I of Ireland, and since then my demesne has been about half of the emerald isle. By 1160 I've made my way to holding all of de Jure Wales and Britanny, plus the Duchies of Galloway and the Isles. My fourth king's been on the throne for 50 years since he was a baby (and still has the epithet "the Young"), and my heir stands to inherit the Duchy of Orkney through his mother. Meanwhile the kingdom has become a military powerhouse for the moment, outmatched only by the HRE, ERE, and Caliphate, and sometimes England or France when they have a powerful king.

Picked up a couple of nuggets of wisdom from my England campaign - don't create extra kingdoms unless they're titular, or all your vassals will want them. That last game I had 12 kingdoms under one ruler. Sure, I was getting so much prestige the second half of the game that literally every ruler became "the Great", but every succession took half the king's lifetime to put everybody back in their place. I could create the Kingdoms of Wales and Britanny now if I want, but I'm going to wait until all the territory becomes de Jure Ireland first.