CK2: A Guide To Castille

**Ultra123** · April 10, 2014, 05:23 AM

Ok so after forming a very successful sprawling Hispanic empire, I thought I would make a small guide for other player to get things going. This guide is intended for semi experienced players who have a fair grasp on the game mechanics. Ill do it in number format to make it easy to read.

How to get started

1. Before you unpause take note that the kingdoms of Portugal Leon and navarra are ruled by family members, and you will see you are the heir to their thrones. Immediately set up a intrigue assassination of the Portugal ruler. Drop gold on those who are 'on the line' about joining your plot.

2. Immediately declare holy war for the Islamic region to the south east of you. Fear not, your friends (while they live) will all join you, raise what you have and take those lands. Make sure its those lands directly in the south east of you, this will keep a lid on navarra and aragon, and seriously weaken them down the line while strengthening your own position.

3. Continue with your assassination these are your top priority, take out that portucale king, then hit leons king, if he has a heir assassinate him too so you become the heir before you bump your brother off. This will all take a bit of time so be patient and drop that gold. Help out in any holy wars in Spain against the Muslims.

Now you have portugal, Leon and the lands of castille, and have expanded at least a bit. Now what?

1. Congratulations your the fattest Christian kingdom now in Spain. The other remaining kingdoms should provide no threat to you (these should be aragon and Navarra and Barcelona) Since they are weaker and are busy with the Muslims.

2. Do not help out Barcelona with anything at all. let them rot, they are the second threat to you after the Muslims so don't let them expand if you can let them get smashed up by Muslim holy wars.

3. Continue to expand your realm via holy wars, smash those Muslims hard and as soon as your peace treaties expire. If you can hit another muslim leaders lands while a truce with another is still active do it. This war is akin to Blitzkrieg, you want to keep the muslims on their toes and so their levies dont replenish. if you lose a war dont worry, go back again asap, but this time make sure you got at lest 500G in the bank for mercs.

4. Once you have booted the majority of the muslims out, you can form the kingdom of andalusia. dont do this theres no point and it will just make vassals want more titles off you.

5. As soon as you can (usually once the muslims are out and you've got mallorca) form the empire of Hispania. Using my tactics above i did this with just my second king. This will be a proud moment for you if it was your first empire in the game you created. Use your newfound De Jure claims to get barcelona, navarra and aragon if any of them still exist to accept vassalage. If they do not, Crush them and put their heads on pikes for their insolence.

Further tips, and ramblings.

1. Set up Ultimogeniture as your succession laws, primogeniture for spain isnt that usefull you will most likely start god knows how many revolts and it would take you dangerously to your third kings to actually manage to implement this. You really dont want the hassle of factions while your on blitzkrieg across spain.

2. Kill unwanted children. If you have a awesome 13 year old son with good traits and healthy but your stupid wife decides to have 6 kids in 6 years straight even though your like 56 years old, have 5 of them executed, kill your wife and don't marry again.This is the medieval era times were ruthless.

3. Keep the king of France happy, in my games we are the best of friends and have gotten each other out of some serious trouble (i helped him fight off HRE, he helped me take a lot of north africa and speed up some of the wars in south spain, he even helped me defend against a Jihad for andalusia.)

4. once your Hispanic empire is done, the world is yours. I had a claim on england but didnt pursue it as i wanted a more Holy war oriented game. Maybe you would pursue it. Maybe you would invade france and aquitane. You are powerful enough now to hold down most other empires in the world using mercs (im making 41.5G a turn currently) and about 10k in troops you have, not to mention retinues up to 5k if you have legacy of rome DLC) Personally, im pushing into africa as i type, and am busy conquering mali, whilst i have a large portion of north africa down. Ill screenshot when i sort out fraps.

Edit screens as promised:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

If you liked this guide, or feel you can contribute, or maybe i made a error, please comment below!

**Diamat** · April 10, 2014, 10:50 AM

Nice guide.

But why do you recommend ultimogeniture? I always prefer elective, always.

**Candy_Licker** · April 10, 2014, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by Diamat

Nice guide.

But why do you recommend ultimogeniture? I always prefer elective, always.

I prefer ultimogeniture too.

I consider elective too risky, characters can just die too suddenly, your new leader will almost always be hated by his vassals in the first few years (not so much when you can pick your great candidates obviuosly, but still enough to vote for sb else) , so mass bribing might be necessary to convince the vassals to favour your character all the time.

Ultimo has it's drawbacks too, but I like my succession written in stone.

**Diamat** · April 10, 2014, 05:19 PM

Originally Posted by Candy_Licker

I prefer ultimogeniture too.

I consider elective too risky, characters can just die too suddenly, your new leader will almost always be hated by his vassals in the first few years (not so much when you can pick your great candidates obviuosly, but still enough to vote for sb else) , so mass bribing might be necessary to convince the vassals to favour your character all the time.

Ultimo has it's drawbacks too, but I like my succession written in stone.

But I like to pick my heirs. Elective allows me to do that without having to kill anyone. Even if there is a sudden death, things can easily be controlled. Elective is perhaps a bit too easy, in this sense.

**saxnot** · April 10, 2014, 07:23 PM

If you want a really effective way of managing succession, and you can arrange it, go elective with no (or very few) vassals below you. it might be hard to do it with castille, but i played a zoroastrian persian empire where i had no vassal above count level. this meant that i had the only vote in the election ,and could therefore just appoint my sucessor. also, it prevents effective rebellions, as any faction will be made up of only counts. this keeps rebellions small and managable, and prevents them from being a military threat since they are inevitably very scattered.

**Ultra123** · April 11, 2014, 06:55 AM

I agree with Candy_Licker, elective is just a bit of a gamble for me, with ulti, i can better guarantee who succeeds me, educate them appropriately, and when i play as them i wont be already 51 years old and 'ill' I'll be at the latest in the 20's. Saxnot, your right about castille, you have the duchess/duke of portucale always vying for control of portugal, and any leon, aragon and barcelona inheritors may want that kingdom too.

Editing 1st post now with screenies!

**Diamat** · April 11, 2014, 10:25 AM

I used to also think that elective is risky. Then I actually tried it. Haven't used any other type of succession ever since. It's truly the easiest succession type that also gives you the most control.

**Candy_Licker** · April 11, 2014, 02:31 PM

Originally Posted by Diamat

I used to also think that elective is risky. Then I actually tried it. Haven't used any other type of succession ever since. It's truly the easiest succession type that also gives you the most control.

My next game will be Jain anyway, designate heir, happy vassals, demesme bonus comparable to gavelkind. I'll happily give up on holy war cb for that.

**Ultra123** · April 11, 2014, 03:10 PM

Diamat, on my next runthrough once im well and truly done with Spain ill give gavelkind a good try. I have too much of a good thing going on now to change laws. Thanks for your input though.

**naq** · April 12, 2014, 06:56 AM

Originally Posted by Candy_Licker

My next game will be Jain anyway, designate heir, happy vassals, demesme bonus comparable to gavelkind. I'll happily give up on holy war cb for that.

Jain lands mostly do not border any infidel religion so not much chance for holy wars anyway. And you can change your religion easily as an Indian also.

**Ultra123** · September 24, 2015, 06:36 PM

Originally Posted by Ultra123

Diamat, on my next runthrough once im well and truly done with Spain ill give gavelkind a good try. I have too much of a good thing going on now to change laws. Thanks for your input though.

Finally a year later re-did the castille campaign again following my guide, and attempted gavelkind. Didnt like it at all, i prefer the serious control i have using prim/ulti as succession laws. I prefer Ult most of the time as its far easier to implement than pri, and my new king normally starts his reign at around 20 making him a great leader in the long run. This time i managed to take all of the african coastline all the way up to jerusalem taking all of egypt and everything in between, before the game crashed with unrecoverable save. Was a blast though.