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Old 28-11-2012, 11:45   #1
Shabbaman
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So now I am playing Crusader Kings 2, because I figured that after EUIII nothing could daze me. I read the ck2 wiki and took their advice to look for a lord with more than 1 county (with a county being the smallest land unit) and not too many vassals. My initial thought was to pick Northumberland, but small independent nations are apparently very hard. My second thought was to pick Baden, but Baden is a one county nobody (as it should be). What'd be cool is to let Burgundy grow to the power it is at the start of EUIII, but Burgundy is a one county nobody as well. That's a challenge for later... The real challenge would be to rule the world as Friesland, but starting as a 2 county without vassals is boring because you have no income. There's another thing with de jure territory, meaning that you can claim territory that is rightfully yours. It seems as if Gelre has some claim on that land, but not vice versa. There's the de jure kingdom of Frisia, but to claim that title you need two duchies. So I figured I could pick duchy with territory in Frisia and see if I can somehow claim that title. Lower Lorraine is in a good position, but their capital is in Breda and I don't want Brabant to rule the world. Flanders seems good, but with William the Conqueror as neighbour that doesn't seem like a good start. Besides, I've already played France in EUIII. This leaves me with one option, and it seems like one with a lot of possibilities.

Meet Ordulf Billung, duke of Saxony:



Ordulf is lord of Ostfriesland, the most eastern part of Frisia. Now all I have to do is declare war on... oh. You can't even declare war without Casus Belli, and even then there are other prerequisites (like, sharing the same liege lord if you are within a realm). The lord of Friesland is also lord of Braunschweig, which is in the middle of Saxony, but for some reason the whole of Saxony is in the de jure duchy of Braunschweig, which de facto doesn't exist). Even if the game thinks otherwise, I think this is justification enough for Ordulf to claim Braunschweig. And Friesland. And after that, the kingdom of Frisia. Even if all that fails, I'm good chums with the HRE, so this game shouldn't be boring at all. Even if it turns out to be, there's a million options for micromanagement, how could it be boring? Yes, rhetorical question.

There's a bunch of info on how to start, like imprison all your vassals and claim their lands. That seems like a valid option to me, but from what I gather that's when you fear your neighbours if you're independent. I'm not independent, I'm chums with the HRE. I'm going to lean back, breed some children and build economic buildings. So, I'm unpausing now...
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Old 28-11-2012, 20:41   #2
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Lower Lorraine is in a good position, but their capital is in Breda and I don't want Brabant to rule the world.
Great, thanks for figuring out who I should start with. Brabant will rule the world, but now even sooner
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Old 29-11-2012, 00:03   #3
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Apparently you have to siege every holding in each county. This could take a while... I've extorted Weimar from my neighbours, I'll have to wait 10 years of cease fire for the next county I want to take from them. Apparently you can only claim land for which you used the CB or something, I'd like to get multiple counties in one go...

Another thing, I've lost a county. While I was busy getting Weimar back from Meissen, the emperor reinstated the duchy of Braunschweig. I don't know why, maybe he's insane, maybe he got paid for it. Anyway, when the count of Friesland (and Braunschweig) died, his lands were distributed among his heirs. From what I can reconstruct (not paying attention, remember... not that there was a popup of any kind, it just happened) one of my vassals was one of his heirs, so he inherited Braunschweig. Because he was the lord of Oldenburg this means he now owns two counties in the de jure duchy of Braunschweig, so he claimed the title. This made him a duke, and since dukes can't be vassals of other dukes, he devassalised (is that even a word?). Even worse, since he is the duke of Braunschweig, he now has a CB on almost all my territory.

This sucks. Well, at least now I know why the advanced small start guide says I should imprison all my vassals right at the start. Sigh. Oh well, perhaps not all is lost, I might figure out a way to get a CB on him. I might just as well restart, since I'm only two years in the game.
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Old 30-11-2012, 11:34   #4
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Now that I have the duchy of Brunswick (basically I bought a CB on Braunschweig for 200 gold) I own the prerequisite two duchies to create the kingdom of Frisia. Unfortunately I am to discover that there are even more prerequisites:

1. Own 50% of the de jure territory. Well, as I own only 6% now, this is going to be tough.
2. Have some piety
3. Have some gold
4. Be of the dutch culture.

Wait, what?

This is going to be tougher than I thought.
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Old 03-12-2012, 12:05   #5
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Well, Ordulf died. The duke is dead, long live the duke! The new duke of Saxony and Brunswick is Magnus Billund, who's married to duchess Oda the first of Meissen. Basically this means that Magnus' heir (some girl with a ridiculous name) will be duchess of Saxony, Brunswick AND Meissen (which includes two of Saxony's de jure counties). Unfortunately everyone in the realm wants to kill my heir, so I better start looking for a decent spymaster...

In other news, I had fabricated claims on Friesland, but unfortunately Ordulf the claimant died. 100 ducats down the drain I'm going to try to get the claim again. My plan was to create the duchy of Gelre, so I'd have de jure claims on the county of Gelre. Since Ostfriesland passed to Magnus' kid brother, I'm not sure if creating Gelre will have the effect I was looking for. Worth a try though. Fabricating claims on Koln would mean I can create the duchy of Koln and grab 3 counties (eventually, since I can only get one de jure county for each 10 years of ceasefire...). Getting the duchy of Gelre would be a first step towards the kingdom of Frisia, getting Koln would be a good step towards the kingdom of Germany. Getting Meissen would be a good step towards the kingdom of Pommeralia, but then I have to go heretic as well. I'm not sure how that'll work out... but I doubt it'd work.

I figured that if I become HRE (and why not, with three duchies) I might even grab the de jure territories in Denmark. I can't declare war outside my lieges territory.
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Old 07-12-2012, 18:12   #6
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One of my vassals assassinated my heir. Stupid bishop. Luckily my wife is very fertile, she's birthing one daughter after another. After the third girl I was wondering if either of us lacked Y chromosomes, but then I got a male heir. And there might be something wrong with her RNG, because the next kid is also male.

Now, you have to know that in CK2 there are different succession laws, and because my liege lord is lame I am stuck with the worst one: gavelkind. Basically this means that each of your children inherit a title. Now I discovered that having multiple duchies can actually be a bad thing: different children will get a duchy title, so my realm would be split up. Luckily my succession law disinherits girls when there's a proper male heir, so this was manageable. The primary title always goes to the principal heir, so my oldest son would be duke of Saxony, and the other one duke of Brunswick. Unfortunately, Brunswick is much larger, and the periferic counties are still property of Saxony. This came to be after I created Brunswick. Anyway, this is bad news. I explore some of the options, like killing the guy. Then I came across the button "make primary", so I made Brunswick my primary duchy. And then something wonderful occured: all my lands are reappropriated to the duchy of Brunswick, except a (random) county that is made the capital of Saxony. Behold, the de facto duchy of Brunswick:



Anhalt is all that is left of Saxony, but here is de jure Saxony:



What you see are the two counties that are de jure Saxony, but de facto Meissen. And my heir will be duchy of Meissen anyway (my wife is currently holding that title). So I'll loose one county, but since I own two saxon counties I might be able to usurp the title and then I'll have a casus belli against Anhalt.

Speaking of CB, my councillor finally managed to fabricate claims on Friesland. I reassign the councillor to Koln, and he gets killed. He has no children, so I inherit his land So after a short war against Lower Lorraine I finally own Friesland. This means that I'm over my demesne size though, so I'll have to give away some of my holdings to loyal subjects (or my wife, who knows). My new chancellor immediately fabricates claims on Koln, unfortunately I have to wait 10 years before I can extort more lands from the duke of Lower Lorraine. Or he;ll have to die. He's a midget, so I doubt he'll live long

When I'm ransoming the lorraine lords I captured during the just war to give Friesland it's rightful heir, I noticed that I still have that bishop in jail (the count of Brabant died in my prison, heh). For 8 years, heh. Browsing the options I noticed that I'm able to strip him of his title, and better: because he's a traitor, nobody will be upset about it. Let me get this straight: I get his title, and nothing bad happens? Sign me up!

Then it occured to me that if I made my second son a bishop, he can't inherit anything from me. So I shouldn't even have bothered shuffling my titles around.

Lessons learned:
-having too many titles can actually be A Bad Thing (tm)
-keep a bishop in jail for when you need to get rid of an heir
-you can reorganise your realm by making a duchy your primary title

What's next: I can get Koln and create a new duchy, I own 2/3's of the duchy of Gelre so I can create that duchy as well, which means that I'll have more CB's against lower lorraine than I need. Getting one county for every war is going to be... slow. This whole inheritance law thing is getting me annoyed for being a vassal in the HRE. Perhaps I should try to be HRE myself, or try to get out of the jail called HRE.
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Old 14-01-2013, 15:12   #7
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Now that my EUIII game bogged down in what I'd describe as "complete global domination" I picked up this game again. I was a bit depressed because it seemed as if gavelkind succession would have a devastating effect on my holdings (or rather, those of my principal heir), and since I'm stuck as a vassal in the HRE it would be impossible to get out of gavelkind. Having played a bit it doesn't seem as bad, I'll explain why.

The duchess of Meissen, also known as "my wife", or, considering Magnus I opinion of her, also known as "that bitch", has turned out to be a true boy birthing machine. So I made more sons into bishops, and I made sure that all titles will go to a single son. This is a bit of a bet, because if something happens to him I'm royally screwed. I found another way to negate the effects of gavelkind, and it ties in to one of my primary goals: become king. Sure, I might not be king of Frisia, but I have to be king of something... if I become king, then my major title will go to my prinicipal heir. I couldn't care less what happens to my duke titles in that case, since my realm would still hold all those titles.

So, how to get me a kingdom... I found out that I'm a good way toward half the counties that make up the kingdom of Germany, as I need only five more counties. The first step is Thuringen, who rebelled against my lovely wife the duchess of Meissen, and is somehow now equal to me. That's A Good Thing (tm), as I can fabricate a claim and usurp his title. I also grab Mainz from the Bavarian duke. Next stop, my archnemesis, the duke of Lower Lorraine:



Also known as the court dwarf of the HRE

I get Koln from him. I had figured that I could claim the duchy of Koln and get a CB for his other lands, but apparently you can't usurp duchies within the realm... only those overlapping lands within the realm and outside the realm. So I could get the duchy of Holstein from the king of Denmark, but that's worthless until I'm out of the HRE... or be the HRE myself. Anyway, with Koln, Mainz and Thuringen, I only need two more counties in the de jure German kingdom. That's doable: I can take two of my archnemesis if I'm patient. If I'm impatient... then I need to get to southern Germany, since the emperor is holding the duchy directly to my south.

Now, about Thuringen... I had conquered too many lands, so I figured I could give them to my heir. This was okay, because it didn't really matter if he lived in my castle or some other castle. However, this changed when I gave Thuringen to him. The emperor created the duchy of Thuringia, and gave it to my heir. This meant my son had a ducal title, and was on the same level as I was. This freed him as my heir. At first I figured this was not that bad, since when Magnus I dies all my titles will pass to him anyway, in turn reuniting the realm. Oh, and in the mean while incorporating the duchy of Meissen as well, as soon as That Bitch dies. Soon I noticed one downside: I couldn't pick his bride. That's a big problem, since that's what this game is about. Luckily he didn't pick a bride with poor genetic traits (but I couldn't pick one with good genetic traits either), but... he did pick a lesbian.

Let the joking commence.

Yet despite that, they are breeding like rabbits. They have two girls (good for making alliances) and one son:



The dynasty is safe, for now. Unfortunately my son won't let me tutor my grandson, because that would "make him a hostage of a foreign power". I kid you not. There's one thing left to do: Magnus I has to die.
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Old 15-01-2013, 13:53   #8
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Minor update: Magnus I is still not dead. I passed on the opportunity to get out of the HRE: most italian nobles joined an independance faction, but I figured that if I freed myself I couldn't get the required lands for founding Germany. Without those nobles it might be possible I'll be big enough to get out of the HRE anyway, so it's not a big deal. I'm also tied in votes for the HRE heir nomination (and my son gets some votes as well), so getting out of or becoming the HRE seems like a possibility.

I got another county of the court dwarf. Below you see the de jure kingdoms, with the duchy of Brunswick in yellow. I got more lands, since I'm also duke of Saxony (one province in Pomeralia) and duke of Gelre (the two northern provinces of Frisia). Meissen is four provinces in Pomeralia, and Thuringen is, well, Thuringen. With Thuringen my son will have the prerequisite number of counties to found Germany!



I'm wondering: is anyone reading this? BTW, look at the differences in the UI between this picture and the earlier pictures. The game received a massive overhaul.
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Old 15-01-2013, 19:53   #9
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"I'm wondering: is anyone reading this?"

sure thing! I read every post on CDZ.
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Old 15-01-2013, 23:21   #10
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I'm wondering: is anyone reading this? BTW, look at the differences in the UI between this picture and the earlier pictures. The game received a massive overhaul.

Like KR, I read everything, especially CKII posts

I recongnise the EU III 'already won the world' feeling. I guess that's the time to start a new EU III/CK II game.

Will definately start up CK II soon to see the overhaul. Wasnt immediately clear to me from the pics.
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