Crusader Kings 2

[Manuel I Komnenos]

Remember to eat and sleep.

I heard he's already organized several feasts.

[Ferdiad]

Better to use the money on Mercs.

[Vanoi]

Yes, but when the chancellor informs you that he managed to fabricate a claim, you'll have two choices. Either decline the claim (this will give you some piety) or accept the claim something that will cost you prestige and a large amount of money. I wouldn't recommend it for your case. Better to arrange some marriages (each marriage gives you the ability to claim some gold) and usurp the Ducal title.

Thanks for the advice. I finally got enough gold to create the Duchy of Lenister title which gave me a caucus belli on Lenister (the county i was trying to take.)

Though when i finally got it, the county was already apart of another Duchy. TI was still only one county and Lenister was in a Duchy with 2 other counties so war was out of the question. I got lucky though when the Duchy of Meathe (the ones with Lenister in it) went to war with the Duchy of Munster, a Duchy south of me. I took advantage of the war and declared war my self. I then won the war and took over Lenister. It was glorious. Now i have a real chance to form the Kingdom of Ireland.

[Border Patrol]

Anyone else having trouble with big muslim powers just getting HUGE since they have a cassus belli on absolutely everything? My Navarre game that was looking so promising was just cut short when all of Morocco steamrolled me. No shared borders or anything. I noticed that Egypt will absolutely always destroy Ethiopia as well.

[M D]

Tried a crusade, with a 15,000 army. Destroyed in one battle by 40,000 muslims

[nhytgbvfeco2]

the muslims need to be strong though, but something really should be done about poor ethiopia

really? i crusaded the shia caliphate and there were only 23k muslims there. (i won )

[Ferdiad]

The Muslims always have horde and hordes of men. Its pretty annoying to transport over enough men to somewhere like Egpyt just to combat that.

[M D]

Made worse by it being Sardinia

[Ferdiad]

I was Ireland

[hellheaven1987]

The tip to fight Muslim horde (actually only Shia and Seljuk create such horde) is to constantly create internal troubles for them and then eat their territories slowly.

[MemoriesPast]

I have a question about claims and would be glad if anyone can answer me.

I know you can get a claim through the chancellor mission, but can anyone explain to me the conditions of acquiring them through marriage and other ways? Like inheriting land when a spouse dies, etc?

I'm also curious as how to "upgrade" your county into a duchy and a duchy into a kingdom.

[Border Patrol]

The tip to fight Muslim horde (actually only Shia and Seljuk create such horde) is to constantly create internal troubles for them and then eat their territories slowly.

How?

[Kamos]

Assassinations and having council members sow discontent. This will cause rebellions you can scoop up before they're reabsorbed.

[hellheaven1987]

Ya, basically you want to assassin their head of state and cause a big uproar within the hostile realm. Another way is to attack when they are fighting other big states (like Byzantium). Finally you can also use the Mongol invasion to grab as much land from Muslim.

[Border Patrol]

They have no big states to fight, Morocco united and is now sitting at the doorstep of the Christian Iberians. Even Barcelona fell about three or four years before I was invaded. Some of those provinces in Maghreb can field provincial armies bigger than my entire royal one. Pretty scary stuff.

[Vanoi]

Is it good to have a Feudal Tax on your Lords? Or is it better to just not have one at all?

[Scaevola]

I like to raise feudal taxation, but don't push it to high. I never played a great kingdom or empire, I confess. The lords are maybe more revolt friendly.

[hellheaven1987]

They have no big states to fight, Morocco united and is now sitting at the doorstep of the Christian Iberians. Even Barcelona fell about three or four years before I was invaded. Some of those provinces in Maghreb can field provincial armies bigger than my entire royal one. Pretty scary stuff.

Iberia? Those Moors always got kicked by French and German soon or later.

[Manuel I Komnenos]

Is it good to have a Feudal Tax on your Lords? Or is it better to just not have one at all?

Depends on whether you can afford more negative opinion. It usually is a combination of crown authority and the other factors that will determine whether your vassals will have a negative or positive opinion about you. Raising feudal taxation to minimum only gives -5 opinion and some useful money in your coffers. Don't raise crown authority too much. The most far you should go is Medium Crown Authority.

[Mangerman]

After you have built up your castles a bit, there isn't much point to having Feudal Tax on your lords anyway, as you will be gaining money pretty fast. I would rather spent that opinion hit on raising extra levies on your vassals.