CKII: Saxy billen - Page 4

Shabbaman · 18-02-2013, 10:02

Update time. To continue where I left, Adalbert the court dwarf has a dynasty of court dwarfs. Meet his son:

It's time I show how my little kingdom looks today. I found room to expand in Poland. Gradually I got the duchy of Greater Poland, and the duchy of Mecklenburg. I also got the duchy of Brandenburg, which was conveniently next to my capital yet completely out of reach because of medium crown authority. However, when the emperor died and someone started the German War for Seniority Succession (and succeeded), crown authority disappeared completely. On the one hand, that;s how I like it because it let's me get more lands. On the other hand, my vassals are fighting among themselves. And since most of them are Billung, they all have CB's on each other's lands. That's the downside of expanding I guess. When I was battling the king of Sweden for Rügen (de jure part of Mecklenburg, so rightfully mine) my brother decided it was time to press his claim on the kingdom of Germany. Bad idea. I did encounter a glitch of some sort: I got a message that faithful levies had appeared in my capital. Not much later the succession war suddenly ended, at the same time I made peace with the king of Sweden. One of the annoying features of this game is that sometimes a CB becomes invalid in the middle of a war; for example, when the opposing king dies, or, if a civil war ends (if there's a civil war every party becomes independent for the duration of the war, but when peace is made the "opposing leader" could end up with a liege lord (his king, likely). But anyway, I don't know why this brother's war ended, but I did end up with 2k worth of faithful levies. Levies which I don't have to pay upkeep, nor receive raised levies penalties, nor prevent me to declare war. I'm not complaining

Below you see the the independent countries with the lands de facto belonging to Germany (in yellow, without Rügen). There's a county somewhere in the Balkans that I didn't know it existed before I made this screenshot, and the republic of Ferrara that got into the hands of the Billung dynasty when the duke of Thuringia played a role in some independence war. At least I think that's what happened, I'm not keeping track of everything my vassals do

It could be some inheritance of the italian branch of my family (the first thing I did when I started the game was to marry one of my brothers to an Italian duchess).

So, that's where I was when the shit hit the fan: the emperor died. Somehow seniority succession doesn't lead to popular emperors, because every duke suddenly decides to push his claim on the HRE. After helping the duke of Lower Lotharingen (not the court dwarf by the way, he's long dead) to a warscore of 100%, the emperor died... cancelling the CB and the war. The duke of Wolgast (the one county duchy of Pomerania) became the new emperor by seniority... and this was the guy that started the German War for Seniority Succession. So he got something out of it after all: not only the HRE, but also the duchy of Franconia (the lands cutting my kingdom in half). Apparently he didn't make friends, so the duke of Upper Lotharingen pushed his claim. With my help he succeeded. Easily, I must add: the HRE already was broke before the first war, but owning a single county doesn't make for wealthy emperors. So now we're at a point where the HRE isn't a Salian, and as a bonus the head of the Salians is in the jail of the new HRE. All I have to do is to push my claim for the duchy of Franconia, and Germany is whole. Even this emperor isn't popular, as I got called to enter a new succession war immediately after this one ended. I don't feel like fighting for a one county Balkan lord, so I declined.

After the war an Italian lord gave me some gold, I have no clue why...

I have created a simple retinue, consisting of a shock, defense and knight retinue. As far as I could tell this doesn't count towards my levy size, yet there's still a retinue penalty visible in the levy size calculation. I suspect this is the HRE's retinue. I don't know, and I can't find anything on it either. Anyway, I'm happy with my retinue.

The Billing Breeding Programme is also taking form. I'm keeping my sons at home until they're married (or maybe I'll just keep them at home until they inherit their lands from me, although the penalty for the amount of duchies I own is already up to -20). I made sure to pick good brides: my heir got an Arabian princess with the genius trait. Even though she turned out to be a mastermind theologian lesbian they have three sons. No genius trait. By the way, my wife has the genius trait, and it showed up in my youngest daughter. For my second son I picked the daughter of the king of Norway, not only for the alliance but also for the strong trait she carries. Their first son turned out an imbecile though

I married a daughter to some russian principality, and a daughter to the Basileus of Byzantium. They have two sons born in the purple. Maybe that alliance can be put to good use some time in the near future.

akots · 19-02-2013, 00:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shabbaman

... Even though she turned out to be a mastermind theologian lesbian they have three sons. No genius trait. ...

That is ... hilarious?

Shabbaman · 19-02-2013, 09:25

It is

Also note that the new court dwarf has the strong trait. So he's a powerful midget.

ProPain · 19-02-2013, 11:28

In my Ireland game my current character has gotten the lunatic trait again. Still waiting for a funny event to happen because of this.

The strategy I have devised to cull powerfull vassals is to strip them of excess/all titles once I reach a high age and death is approaching anyway. They'll hate you for it but that's only temporary, once you die, your successor loses those penalties

Yesterday I had a very satisfying moment. I pushed my uncles claim to the french throne and after a short war I crushed the current king of France and made my uncle King of France.

Should be a powerfull ally in my future conquest of England. Also I hope to remarry my uncles line back into mine to add the crown of France to my assets as well. If I;m lucky I might even pick up the inbred trait from IT

Shabbaman · 20-02-2013, 09:34

While you're at it, execute claimants and save your heir the hassle of fighting succession wars.

Shabbaman · 21-02-2013, 13:34

I figured out why that Genoese chap donated all that gold: apparently trade republic AI's will give you money to improve relations, so they get a discount on building tradeposts.

Shabbaman · 25-02-2013, 09:48

So... the rise of the Hansa. I'll just put it this way: if you're plan is to establish a merchant republic, better not steal a county from the king of Germany. This so-called Hansa was short lived.

The HRE is still in turmoil. Everybody and their mothers is pushing their own claims, and seniority succession means that even if there's a normal succession, the new emperor won't rule long anyway. I don't mind, as this means crown authority is non-existent and I get to push my claims.

Ever since the HRE decided that Breda would make him a nice capital (apparently he hated the court dwarf from Lower Lotharingen as well), the former holdings of Lower Lotharingen have been changing hands every other year. The king of France claimed some land, and the duchy of Brabant is independent. The current duchess is married to the duke of Austria, which sounds more than it is: it's a single county duchy. So when she knocked on my door to ask me if I would honor my alliance and make her husband HRE, I wondered:
-why am I making one-county nobodies Emperor
-why are random duchesses asking me to honor our alliance
-should I care

The answer to the last question is obviously "no". I haven't found the answer to the first question, but the answer to any question involving alliances usually leads to something going on with kinsmen marrying fancy gals. So I wondered: if I am asked to honor an alliance, would there be a kinsman with a claim I could push? The answer to that question is obviously "yes"

Pushing other people's claims (I'm down with OPC yo) is a feature I hadn't explored completely. If you have someone at your court with a claim, you can help him get his rightful property. This is useful if that land is part of your de jure territory, because the courtier will be your vassal. I find this to be pointless, because if I have a de jure claim, I have a de jure CB. So what is in it for me, you ask? If you help your family push a claim, their rightfully and newly acquired land will be part of your realm. Even if it's not in your de jure territory. So now I own Brabant. I'm sending all the ugly women there. Getting the duchess to give in was harder than I thought, I got stuck at 99% warscore. Apparently Brabant owned the county of Steiermark, next to Austria. Weird. Steiermark is next to the yellow blob in the Balkans I already owned, so my random blob is now a big bigger. I'll see if I can marry some of my family to get some interesting claims. Bavaria seems nice.

Another nice feature of the game is that you can invite claimants to your court. It's pretty hard to convince people to come to your court. Or maybe there's a hidden feature I haven't discovered yet: everybody complains there's no reason to move to my court. Pah. But if someone figures I could push their claim (when hell freezes over), they'll gladly join my court. This is useful when you're looking for a good council member. Protip.

As soon as I was 50 years I banished my brother (still in my jail) so I could claim his lands... and to keep my vassals starting factions to put him on the throne. Somehow people still like him better. Well, now that I'm a tyrant that actually makes sense. The fact that I'm continually at war and raise their levies might have something to do with it. I distributed my duchies and counties among my sons, and I gave Leiningen to my brother's son (see, I'm not that bad). I gave one county to a nephew, the result of one of my (well, not me, a previous me) daughters and the king of Scotland. Funny thing, he's got a weak claim on the throne of Germany. So if the king of Scotland decides to push his claim...

Of course I could've pushed the claim on the kingdom of Scotland, but it's on the other part the world.

My heir will have the duchies of Brandenburg and Braunschweig, with four counties in total, and 3000 gold. This should give him a solid power base. I'm close to owning all of de jure Germany. There's only three counties (in Pomerania and Pomeralia) within the HRE north of me that's not mine (yet). I think I'll get my son to claim independence. Or perhaps the HRE, and then release all vassals to ensure there won't be a HRE left when I claim independence.

ProPain · 25-02-2013, 20:09

Quote:

If you help your family push a claim, their rightfully and newly acquired land will be part of your realm. Even if it's not in your de jure territory. So now I own Brabant. I'm sending all the ugly women there. Getting the duchess to give in was harder than I thought, I got stuck at 99% warscore. Apparently Brabant owned the county of Steiermark, next to Austria. Weird. Steiermark is next to the yellow blob in the Balkans I already owned, so my random blob is now a big bigger. I'll see if I can marry some of my family to get some interesting claims. Bavaria seems nice.

Speaking from experience when you push someone's claim they will only end up as your vassal if some requirements are met. When these are not met they'll end up as indepedents. Some situations to watch out for

- if you push a title for someone that is the same level of your own, they'll end up independent. Example: you're a king and push a kingdom claim for someonelse, they'll become an independent kingdom
- if you push a title claim for an area that's not de jure part of your realm the claimaint can and up independent when he's is not your vassal. And vassal doesnt equal courtier. You can circumvent this by giving them a county and making them a vassal before you push their claim. If need be you can reclaim the original county after the war but your vassals wont like that.

Shabbaman · 26-02-2013, 09:15

There are a lot of requirements, luckily they're all mentioned in the diplo screen when you want to push a claim. Pushing claims for family members works though, but still only if you get them a lower title than your own. And even then... watch out what they can do with that title.

Actually, that's what I did

If you take a look at the map of de jure kingdoms I posted earlier, you could see that Brabant and Gelre make up a good part of Frisia. Flanders is close to drifting into the kingdom of France, and if that happens Brabant and Gelre is over 50% of Frisian territory. To create the kingdom of Frisia you need two duchies, 50% of the territory, and you need to be dutch. Maybe that won't work because the game counts the original de jure lands, or maybe it won't work because you can't outrank your liege lord. I didn't take the chance to push the duke of Gelre's claim, I just looked for another family member with a claim.

In other news, the Billung Breeding Program pays off. Meet my great-grandson, currently third in the line of succession:

Shabbaman · 06-03-2013, 09:46

Another success for the Billung Breeding Programme:

Funny story: his father is Martin Billung, the guy I posted in the previous picture. His father is the current king. That guy's father (the previous king) had several wives: his first wive gave birth to the continuing Billung dynasty. The last wife, a genius swedish princess, gave birth to a daughter just before the king died. So, I was stuck with a genius swedish princess... what to do, what to do? Marry her to my grandson (the first Martin), so she can breed a new genius!

Germany is becoming quite huge. I've captured all the remaining northern provinces, and two polish duchies. I've started claiming Lorrainian (both upper and lower) territory. I also got Austria, so my Balkan blob is now three counties big (with a de jure CB on a fourth).

(What you're seeing in above picture are my borders, in yellow. Upper Lotharingen is pushing a claim on the HRE (and I didn't join their faction, so they are my enemy automatically), and they're losing... badly. Yet not long before I made this picture the warscore was -46%... if anyone is interested in how that works, I've found this beautiful piece of information)

So, close to large enough to declare independence? I'm still not sure. I could push a claim on the HRE, but with seniority succession that is a bit pointless. The thing is, when I start a faction I don't get support from other dukes and kings. I could join a faction, but I want to be in control of the faction to prevent the AI from conceding (which would put me in jail). There seems to be an independence faction and corresponding indepence war going on ever since the HRE switched to seniority succession.

Oh, and note that the Billungs have turned from brown to blonde again. And I have a new court dwarf. This one is even better than the old one, because he is the duke of Baden

18-02-2013, 10:02	#31
Shabbaman Administrator Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Costa La Haya Posts: 8,493	Update time. To continue where I left, Adalbert the court dwarf has a dynasty of court dwarfs. Meet his son: It's time I show how my little kingdom looks today. I found room to expand in Poland. Gradually I got the duchy of Greater Poland, and the duchy of Mecklenburg. I also got the duchy of Brandenburg, which was conveniently next to my capital yet completely out of reach because of medium crown authority. However, when the emperor died and someone started the German War for Seniority Succession (and succeeded), crown authority disappeared completely. On the one hand, that;s how I like it because it let's me get more lands. On the other hand, my vassals are fighting among themselves. And since most of them are Billung, they all have CB's on each other's lands. That's the downside of expanding I guess. When I was battling the king of Sweden for Rügen (de jure part of Mecklenburg, so rightfully mine) my brother decided it was time to press his claim on the kingdom of Germany. Bad idea. I did encounter a glitch of some sort: I got a message that faithful levies had appeared in my capital. Not much later the succession war suddenly ended, at the same time I made peace with the king of Sweden. One of the annoying features of this game is that sometimes a CB becomes invalid in the middle of a war; for example, when the opposing king dies, or, if a civil war ends (if there's a civil war every party becomes independent for the duration of the war, but when peace is made the "opposing leader" could end up with a liege lord (his king, likely). But anyway, I don't know why this brother's war ended, but I did end up with 2k worth of faithful levies. Levies which I don't have to pay upkeep, nor receive raised levies penalties, nor prevent me to declare war. I'm not complaining Below you see the the independent countries with the lands de facto belonging to Germany (in yellow, without Rügen). There's a county somewhere in the Balkans that I didn't know it existed before I made this screenshot, and the republic of Ferrara that got into the hands of the Billung dynasty when the duke of Thuringia played a role in some independence war. At least I think that's what happened, I'm not keeping track of everything my vassals do It could be some inheritance of the italian branch of my family (the first thing I did when I started the game was to marry one of my brothers to an Italian duchess). So, that's where I was when the shit hit the fan: the emperor died. Somehow seniority succession doesn't lead to popular emperors, because every duke suddenly decides to push his claim on the HRE. After helping the duke of Lower Lotharingen (not the court dwarf by the way, he's long dead) to a warscore of 100%, the emperor died... cancelling the CB and the war. The duke of Wolgast (the one county duchy of Pomerania) became the new emperor by seniority... and this was the guy that started the German War for Seniority Succession. So he got something out of it after all: not only the HRE, but also the duchy of Franconia (the lands cutting my kingdom in half). Apparently he didn't make friends, so the duke of Upper Lotharingen pushed his claim. With my help he succeeded. Easily, I must add: the HRE already was broke before the first war, but owning a single county doesn't make for wealthy emperors. So now we're at a point where the HRE isn't a Salian, and as a bonus the head of the Salians is in the jail of the new HRE. All I have to do is to push my claim for the duchy of Franconia, and Germany is whole. Even this emperor isn't popular, as I got called to enter a new succession war immediately after this one ended. I don't feel like fighting for a one county Balkan lord, so I declined. After the war an Italian lord gave me some gold, I have no clue why... I have created a simple retinue, consisting of a shock, defense and knight retinue. As far as I could tell this doesn't count towards my levy size, yet there's still a retinue penalty visible in the levy size calculation. I suspect this is the HRE's retinue. I don't know, and I can't find anything on it either. Anyway, I'm happy with my retinue. The Billing Breeding Programme is also taking form. I'm keeping my sons at home until they're married (or maybe I'll just keep them at home until they inherit their lands from me, although the penalty for the amount of duchies I own is already up to -20). I made sure to pick good brides: my heir got an Arabian princess with the genius trait. Even though she turned out to be a mastermind theologian lesbian they have three sons. No genius trait. By the way, my wife has the genius trait, and it showed up in my youngest daughter. For my second son I picked the daughter of the king of Norway, not only for the alliance but also for the strong trait she carries. Their first son turned out an imbecile though I married a daughter to some russian principality, and a daughter to the Basileus of Byzantium. They have two sons born in the purple. Maybe that alliance can be put to good use some time in the near future. __________________ "Our spam is backed with COMETS!"

19-02-2013, 09:25	#33
Shabbaman Administrator Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Costa La Haya Posts: 8,493	It is Also note that the new court dwarf has the strong trait. So he's a powerful midget. __________________ "Our spam is backed with COMETS!"

19-02-2013, 11:28	#34
ProPain Customized Admin :) Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: sailing the seas of cheese. Posts: 5,852	In my Ireland game my current character has gotten the lunatic trait again. Still waiting for a funny event to happen because of this. The strategy I have devised to cull powerfull vassals is to strip them of excess/all titles once I reach a high age and death is approaching anyway. They'll hate you for it but that's only temporary, once you die, your successor loses those penalties Yesterday I had a very satisfying moment. I pushed my uncles claim to the french throne and after a short war I crushed the current king of France and made my uncle King of France. Should be a powerfull ally in my future conquest of England. Also I hope to remarry my uncles line back into mine to add the crown of France to my assets as well. If I;m lucky I might even pick up the inbred trait from IT __________________ I fed my Dog the American Dream Well, he rolled over and he started to scream He said, I dig the taste of salt but it don't keep me alive yeah, yeah

20-02-2013, 09:34	#35
Shabbaman Administrator Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Costa La Haya Posts: 8,493	While you're at it, execute claimants and save your heir the hassle of fighting succession wars. __________________ "Our spam is backed with COMETS!"

21-02-2013, 13:34	#36
Shabbaman Administrator Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Costa La Haya Posts: 8,493	I figured out why that Genoese chap donated all that gold: apparently trade republic AI's will give you money to improve relations, so they get a discount on building tradeposts. __________________ "Our spam is backed with COMETS!"

25-02-2013, 09:48	#37
Shabbaman Administrator Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Costa La Haya Posts: 8,493	So... the rise of the Hansa. I'll just put it this way: if you're plan is to establish a merchant republic, better not steal a county from the king of Germany. This so-called Hansa was short lived. The HRE is still in turmoil. Everybody and their mothers is pushing their own claims, and seniority succession means that even if there's a normal succession, the new emperor won't rule long anyway. I don't mind, as this means crown authority is non-existent and I get to push my claims. Ever since the HRE decided that Breda would make him a nice capital (apparently he hated the court dwarf from Lower Lotharingen as well), the former holdings of Lower Lotharingen have been changing hands every other year. The king of France claimed some land, and the duchy of Brabant is independent. The current duchess is married to the duke of Austria, which sounds more than it is: it's a single county duchy. So when she knocked on my door to ask me if I would honor my alliance and make her husband HRE, I wondered: -why am I making one-county nobodies Emperor -why are random duchesses asking me to honor our alliance -should I care The answer to the last question is obviously "no". I haven't found the answer to the first question, but the answer to any question involving alliances usually leads to something going on with kinsmen marrying fancy gals. So I wondered: if I am asked to honor an alliance, would there be a kinsman with a claim I could push? The answer to that question is obviously "yes" Pushing other people's claims (I'm down with OPC yo) is a feature I hadn't explored completely. If you have someone at your court with a claim, you can help him get his rightful property. This is useful if that land is part of your de jure territory, because the courtier will be your vassal. I find this to be pointless, because if I have a de jure claim, I have a de jure CB. So what is in it for me, you ask? If you help your family push a claim, their rightfully and newly acquired land will be part of your realm. Even if it's not in your de jure territory. So now I own Brabant. I'm sending all the ugly women there. Getting the duchess to give in was harder than I thought, I got stuck at 99% warscore. Apparently Brabant owned the county of Steiermark, next to Austria. Weird. Steiermark is next to the yellow blob in the Balkans I already owned, so my random blob is now a big bigger. I'll see if I can marry some of my family to get some interesting claims. Bavaria seems nice. Another nice feature of the game is that you can invite claimants to your court. It's pretty hard to convince people to come to your court. Or maybe there's a hidden feature I haven't discovered yet: everybody complains there's no reason to move to my court. Pah. But if someone figures I could push their claim (when hell freezes over), they'll gladly join my court. This is useful when you're looking for a good council member. Protip. As soon as I was 50 years I banished my brother (still in my jail) so I could claim his lands... and to keep my vassals starting factions to put him on the throne. Somehow people still like him better. Well, now that I'm a tyrant that actually makes sense. The fact that I'm continually at war and raise their levies might have something to do with it. I distributed my duchies and counties among my sons, and I gave Leiningen to my brother's son (see, I'm not that bad). I gave one county to a nephew, the result of one of my (well, not me, a previous me) daughters and the king of Scotland. Funny thing, he's got a weak claim on the throne of Germany. So if the king of Scotland decides to push his claim... Of course I could've pushed the claim on the kingdom of Scotland, but it's on the other part the world. My heir will have the duchies of Brandenburg and Braunschweig, with four counties in total, and 3000 gold. This should give him a solid power base. I'm close to owning all of de jure Germany. There's only three counties (in Pomerania and Pomeralia) within the HRE north of me that's not mine (yet). I think I'll get my son to claim independence. Or perhaps the HRE, and then release all vassals to ensure there won't be a HRE left when I claim independence. __________________ "Our spam is backed with COMETS!"

26-02-2013, 09:15	#39
Shabbaman Administrator Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Costa La Haya Posts: 8,493	There are a lot of requirements, luckily they're all mentioned in the diplo screen when you want to push a claim. Pushing claims for family members works though, but still only if you get them a lower title than your own. And even then... watch out what they can do with that title. Actually, that's what I did If you take a look at the map of de jure kingdoms I posted earlier, you could see that Brabant and Gelre make up a good part of Frisia. Flanders is close to drifting into the kingdom of France, and if that happens Brabant and Gelre is over 50% of Frisian territory. To create the kingdom of Frisia you need two duchies, 50% of the territory, and you need to be dutch. Maybe that won't work because the game counts the original de jure lands, or maybe it won't work because you can't outrank your liege lord. I didn't take the chance to push the duke of Gelre's claim, I just looked for another family member with a claim. In other news, the Billung Breeding Program pays off. Meet my great-grandson, currently third in the line of succession: __________________ "Our spam is backed with COMETS!"

06-03-2013, 09:46	#40
Shabbaman Administrator Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Costa La Haya Posts: 8,493	Another success for the Billung Breeding Programme: Funny story: his father is Martin Billung, the guy I posted in the previous picture. His father is the current king. That guy's father (the previous king) had several wives: his first wive gave birth to the continuing Billung dynasty. The last wife, a genius swedish princess, gave birth to a daughter just before the king died. So, I was stuck with a genius swedish princess... what to do, what to do? Marry her to my grandson (the first Martin), so she can breed a new genius! Germany is becoming quite huge. I've captured all the remaining northern provinces, and two polish duchies. I've started claiming Lorrainian (both upper and lower) territory. I also got Austria, so my Balkan blob is now three counties big (with a de jure CB on a fourth). (What you're seeing in above picture are my borders, in yellow. Upper Lotharingen is pushing a claim on the HRE (and I didn't join their faction, so they are my enemy automatically), and they're losing... badly. Yet not long before I made this picture the warscore was -46%... if anyone is interested in how that works, I've found this beautiful piece of information) So, close to large enough to declare independence? I'm still not sure. I could push a claim on the HRE, but with seniority succession that is a bit pointless. The thing is, when I start a faction I don't get support from other dukes and kings. I could join a faction, but I want to be in control of the faction to prevent the AI from conceding (which would put me in jail). There seems to be an independence faction and corresponding indepence war going on ever since the HRE switched to seniority succession. Oh, and note that the Billungs have turned from brown to blonde again. And I have a new court dwarf. This one is even better than the old one, because he is the duke of Baden __________________ "Our spam is backed with COMETS!"