Crusader Kings 2

[General Maximus]

The stupid thing is that I get dishonor penalties from just killing the leader (and sometimes he's my family member, which means kinslayer). This is really stupid. Sorry, but if you rebelled against me, you deserve to die. There is no dishonor in it. If you're a family member, then I disown you. Blood is thicker than water, and you betrayed that.

I'm just trying to rip out every Catholic noble there since only they will get mad. It gets trickier with the larger ones and the merchant republics under me, but the Ferrara and Ancona republics are just terrible, but Tangier is good and they remain Greek and Orthodox.

I used to keep my rebelling family members in the dungeon. When they asked for 'more suitable accommodations' I threw them in the oubliette. Then they die soon. In early versions, you never got kinslayer trait for this kind of 'execution' although I am not sure for newer patches.

It is sometimes better to just turn Pagan than remain true to the main religious groups (including heretics). When I turned Norse, it was chaos at beginning, but then my game was very stable from that point onwards once my vassals converted.

Of course, that is good if you have a small kingdom with small vassals. Not good for empires.

[EmperorBatman999]

Of course, how do I arrest family members without others getting mad? I don't feel like fighting wars to stop these independence movements.

And I think Paganism was eradicated a long time ago anyway.

[General Maximus]

Of course, how do I arrest family members without others getting mad? I don't feel like fighting wars to stop these independence movements.

And I think Paganism was eradicated a long time ago anyway.

Best way is to let them rebel, while keeping troops on their lands. As soon as their armies pop up, they get defeated and you can continue this.

Otherwise you can try to brand them as heretics...

By Paganism I mean the existing cultures like Norse, Romuva, Tengri etc.

[General Maximus]

The Dynastic map in my Eastern Roman Empire game:



I had conquered this much but I still haven't reformed the Roman Empire this time. Instead, I mended the Great Schism, conquered more and more lands and distributed out Croatia, Sicily, Africa, and Wallachia to my character's sons and made them independent. Cyrenaica, Egypt, the Levant (as you see it here), and Serbia are all under my rule though.

The green coloured blob on my east is the Seljuks, who had been de-throned and then re-throned back after 30 years. They are slowly expanding in Russia, mostly united by now under the Rurikovich family. I am concerned about my northern frontier.

And I also spared Venice just for the sake of embargoing and looting them again and again for cash.

That green bit of France is actually the newly found Kingdom of Andalusia. The Occitain duke won the Crusade. France also inherited Galician duchy. And Norway is also beginning to dominate the Scandinavian factions. The Chatenois dynasty rules HRE.

Just waiting to invade Hungary. My character has an extra son whom I can plant on the Hungarian throne.

[Kanaric]

Very reasonable borders, hard to accomplish on that game.

[Ciabhán]

I used to keep my rebelling family members in the dungeon. When they asked for 'more suitable accommodations' I threw them in the oubliette. Then they die soon. In early versions, you never got kinslayer trait for this kind of 'execution' although I am not sure for newer patches.

It is sometimes better to just turn Pagan than remain true to the main religious groups (including heretics). When I turned Norse, it was chaos at beginning, but then my game was very stable from that point onwards once my vassals converted.

Of course, that is good if you have a small kingdom with small vassals. Not good for empires.

I had one king last all the way to his 80s. He was still cranking out children, legitimate and bastard, all the way into his 70s. I had something along the lines of 14 sons and at a few large feasts towards the end of his reign 3 seperate pairs of sons fought duels. None of the winners had the kinslayer trait. Good way to clear out the excess family. I've tried to repeat the incident a few times since then. The family grew too big so I handed out a bunch of baronies then hosted a feast each year. I don't seem to have hit the critical threshold to cause enough familial angst to make it happen again.

[absinthia]

kinslayer

pay the pope for absolution of sins, i lost kinslayer that way plenty times.

when Pipin the Hunchbacked rebeled against his father Charles the Great he was not executed like most of the rest but had his hair cut and internated in a monastary. or consider the civil wars between Louis the Pious and his 3 sons, none got executed even though pops were dethroned twice...

[eXistenZ]

Factions are indeed sometimes crippling. They destroyed my first tries on the game too. But strangely, even though im the king of frisia now, I dont have any factions, and didnt have any when i was duke of flanders, so that 150y now. The HRE gets all the faction troubles, i constantly get messages "duke x left/joined faction". Im now eating all the duchies, and when i got the kingdom of lotharingen, im gonna go for independence, to disband the HRE, like napoleon 400y early :p Can you actually disband empires?

Gonna try to form italy next game Im really enjoying this game, im so happy i bought it after all :p Its -75% on steam, with all dlc, even the republic. (except some songs dlc is still full price for some reason..)

[General Maximus]

I had one king last all the way to his 80s. He was still cranking out children, legitimate and bastard, all the way into his 70s. I had something along the lines of 14 sons and at a few large feasts towards the end of his reign 3 seperate pairs of sons fought duels. None of the winners had the kinslayer trait. Good way to clear out the excess family. I've tried to repeat the incident a few times since then. The family grew too big so I handed out a bunch of baronies then hosted a feast each year. I don't seem to have hit the critical threshold to cause enough familial angst to make it happen again.

That sure works, but is based on chance and luck. A better way is to discover them plotting. I once had seven uncles plotting to kill my Emperor character, and I imprisoned them all.

Very reasonable borders, hard to accomplish on that game.

Thanks!

[Double A]

And also I'm at 1410 and the game is going to end soon. I really need to push and grab the land HRE lands I need to reclaim. The other problem is that no single war can take all the duchies needed to complete the empire, and the change in leadership has knocked my recruitment down by a whopping 200k men. Perhaps the only good thing is that the new Kaiser is still a kid.

You are declaring like 8 wars at a time, right?

[Ferdiad]

Factions are indeed sometimes crippling. They destroyed my first tries on the game too. But strangely, even though im the king of frisia now, I dont have any factions, and didnt have any when i was duke of flanders, so that 150y now. The HRE gets all the faction troubles, i constantly get messages "duke x left/joined faction". Im now eating all the duchies, and when i got the kingdom of lotharingen, im gonna go for independence, to disband the HRE, like napoleon 400y early :p Can you actually disband empires?

Gonna try to form italy next game Im really enjoying this game, im so happy i bought it after all :p Its -75% on steam, with all dlc, even the republic. (except some songs dlc is still full price for some reason..)

You can't destroy Empires AFAIK.

[Ciciro]

You can't destroy Empires AFAIK.

What if you give a county and the empire to a heretic/pagan/Muslim, then declare a holy war on them?

[Ulyaoth]

The only way I'd see to destroy an empire is to have another empire title.

[General Maximus]

The only way I'd see to destroy an empire is to have another empire title.

This.

[Pethom]

Playing as the independent ruler Faste of Dal in Sweden the only way to stay independent an aqcuire any land is to either attack a pagan province or by marriage, right? As a Count I can't use the de jure CB (legal or fabricated) on my neighbouring counties because it's only possible for Dukes or above, right? Would it be best to swear fealty to either the swedish or norwegian King and that way be able to ask to become the duke over neighbouring counties?

The de jour Duchy counties in the area are Dal (my county), Viken (norwegian) and Västergötland (swedish). The swedish King has de jure CB on Dal and Viken. Thanks to the work of the spymasters from my court and the danish one the Count in Västergötland (swedish prince) likes the swedish King by -56. So there could soon be a revolt against the swedish King. I'm thinking about letting him revolt, tell the King i'm available to help him stopping it and later on swearing him fealty to be able to become the duke of Västergötland and Dal. To become the duke the King has to like me by 25 I think and he already likes me by 20. Helping him stop a revolt could make him like me by 25.

How would you experienced gamers do if you played as Faste of Dal?

[Ciabhán]

Use your Chancellor to fabricate a claim on another independent count. Since you're probably relatively small and powerless make sure it's another small count with no large allies. Keep doing that until you can create or usurp a duchy then use the de jure claim to expand faster. At this point you want to keep all the counties for yourself. With a decent sized duchy worth of counties under your direct rule you'll have a large enough army to start doing the same thing with two-county counts and small duchies. A few duchies you can start taking bigger ones. A few big ones you can make/take kingdoms.

[Pethom]

Use your Chancellor to fabricate a claim on another independent count. Since you're probably relatively small and powerless make sure it's another small count with no large allies.

That means either go to Västmanland up north (independent catholic) or try with the norse pagans around Västmanland. But I think I'm still too small to start a fight with the pagans. I have helped the swedish King in Finland and the pagans used to have quite large armies. And I think the nowegian King is fighting with Västmanland right now. So it's maybe better to become a swedish vassal and go from there.

[Double A]

It's worth noting that the more north you get in Scandinavia, the crappier the provinces get. If you had a single castle you would lose so bad to a count with a castle, city, and church.

You should get about 200 gold, hire mercs for 75 or less, take out a neighboring OPM, form a duchy, eat your two de jure claims, and then dismiss your mercs (of course it would be great if you had two more claims on another duchy so you could repeat the process without having to shell out for the mercs a second time). You'll get a decent amount of cash from each holding in a county you take - probably about 12. Castles take a hell of a lot more time to fall than cities and churches.

[eXistenZ]

You can't destroy Empires AFAIK.

Ah too bad. Ill gues ill have to reduce the HRE to a single county. My wife died, so my heir became duke of bavaria. Then i got the incapable trait out of grief, even though there was only 10% :p But it allowed me to unite bavaria with frisia. And my heir(now king) married the daughter of the queen of lotharingen. So in a few decades i have 50% of the HRE :p (would be earlier, but its only my second game)

Apparently the mongols arrived. Is there any way i can see/track them?

[absinthia]

Playing as the independent ruler Faste of Dal in Sweden the only way to stay independent an aqcuire any land is to either attack a pagan province or by marriage, right?

How would you experienced gamers do if you played as Faste of Dal?

marriage is the key when you are a tiny count. when playing as independent Jemtland i have allways married my heir to a dansih princess and had my father-in-law fight my holy wars for Norrland and/or Finland. main problem has been lack of cash to form a duchy so i can grant my heir some counties, unless tye Pope send some cash i have had to keep an oversized demesne until i could afford a dukal title.
as Jemtland i have usually joined Norway after the Danish army were spent, that make him super happy and i usually has been granted duchy of Jemtland. in one earlier patch i was able to be elected king of Norway within the first generation.

as count of Dal you might be able to do something of the same with Sweden. and the southern coastal regions are potentially quite valuable if you manage to get controll of them.
Sweden will most likely expand into Finland, declearing holy wars against one count at the time. keep an eye out for those who support the one being invaded. if the Swedish king is successful and the combined enemys spent, you might be able to snatch one of them your self... consider it a race for the duchy of Finland, where the Swedish king paves your way.
and remember you can allways declare war when you have mercenaries ready. just disband the levy and declare war on the next pagan while they are worn out.
the Finish area is not much for economy, but the size of it and the gain of holy war will make you big in Sweden. consider it a relatively easy way to build your powerbase.

prince Erik the Heathen is sure to rebel against Sweden, if he has not already, you might be able to grab one of his counties while the war rages on. though it is a gamble as the war might end suddenly, so do not spend mercenary money on it.
once again, as Jemtland i used the Swedish conflict to snatch me a coastal county of Medelpad, using my Danish father-in-law...