This might be my last update on this game. I'm declaring a win, because I have a kingdom. I even have a heir, and a grandson. I was anticipating a slow game after becoming king, but then the emperor (my son in law, no less!) decreed medium crown authority (although for my readers it might be good to know that this happened
after I usurped Baden
). Of course I voted against it, but it seems his other vassals are afraid of me. One of the "perks" of medium crown authority is that vassals can't fight other vassals. This might be fun if you're the liege lord, but it makes for one boring game if you're a vassal: you can't push your claims or the claims of courtiers, limiting the game to marriage diplomacy and intrigue. But without the option of violence, diplomacy and intrigue are limited.
So I'm playing a bit to see what happens (and I think I'll start a new game as emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire): I might be able to become HRE and solve all my problems at once. I could gain freedom, but that's only worthwhile if the HRE is too weak to reclaim lost lands. Winning one war against the emperor isn't that hard, I need around 1500 gold to do so. Of course I don't need to win freedom, I could push for lower crown authority... or the HRE title. I could start a faction and gather support, making it easier. With enough support, the HRE doesn't even fight. I tried a lower crown authority-faction, but that didn't get much support. I joined the existing independence-faction (lead by Bohemia, who got the HRE excommunicated as well... starts looking like EU3 more and more), bringing the faction up to 60% of the HRE's power. My relative power is at 30% btw. After I joined the faction, this happened:
I was stunned. What happened? The HRE transferred one of it's direct vassals to me. To the HRE there's no immediate downside to it, as it's still under his indirect control since I'm his vassal. But it's a strange move considering that I'm clearly striving for independence, being in the independence faction and all... Besides that, it's an action human players make, so I'm surprised to see it done by the AI. Some of my dukes asked for transfer vassalage. It's a pity I can't ask the emperor for the same, it'd have saved me the hassle of invading Baden (although that did feel good
). This is my land now:
The emperor's personal holdings are sandviched between my lands (within the yellow borders). The missing counties are the remainder of Baden's duchy and a county some italian bloke stole from Swabia. You can also see what lands I own outside the de jure German kingdom, those lands are chequered within the de jure (and nonexistent) kingdoms of Frisia (also losing land to France) and Pomerania (losing land to Denmark). After 100 years within a kingdom, the lands become de jure property.