Crusader Kings / Deus Vult - worth it?

[Lawrence of Arabia]

I don't know how to get the Arabs (light blue) land. I have ~1100 troops while they have ~3300. I have very good military commanders with my total skill at 30. (Ruler has 15, Marshall has 15) but I'll need more than that.

Since I have claims on the three provinces bordering Basra, I thought about doing this:

"Install Boru Yousif (me, Bey of Basra) as rightful Sheik of Kufa
Recognize x the Emir of Arabs as rightful Sheik of Kuwait
Recognize x the Sheik of Rummah as rightful Sheik of Rummah"

That way the warscore should be near or higher than my peace-value.

I can't really rely upon the Turks to help me out. They usually fight my enemies after they invaded my sole province and then quickly make peace with them.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Alright, as you can see, I've managed to expand since my last post. Now, my question is, how can I switch my title from King of Basra to King of Arabia? (I can even become Empire of Byzantium )

I'm second in manpower only to my ally the Seljuks. I have 147,000 manpower, and they have 164,000.



(I'm green)



Also, what year do the Mongols come?

[Sidus Preclarum]

mid 1st half of the XIIIth century.

watch their progress, and don't hesitate to smash them yourself if their biggest neighbours can't check their advance. I once had to quit a game because the bastards had reached the rhine...

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

I played CK / DV for a while yesterday and it seems pretty good. What is the best way to play? As a King, Duke or Count? I played as the Count of Kent (my home county) and wasn't totally sure what I was supposed to be doing. What should my initial aims be?

Well Lawrence put it nicely but other things to think about.
King - In most cases you will have vassals(some even alot of vassals).This range from dukes to counts. You have to keep these guys happy otherwise they will turn on you and a civil war is nasty and unless you can field the most troops, you will lose.
I think Aragon(sure there are some others too but I can't find them) is the only kingdom that don't have any vassals because of it's size.

Otherwise elective law is the easiest way period to inherit. My first game in CK I played as Armenia Minor and, staying loyal, became Byzantine emperor before 1080 I think.

Yeah I had the same playing as the count of Crete.
A few months in the emperor died and I got it all, leaving me with a mess to say the least.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

mid 1st half of the XIIIth century.

watch their progress, and don't hesitate to smash them yourself if their biggest neighbours can't check their advance. I once had to quit a game because the bastards had reached the rhine...

It's 1211 right now, and I am not going to expand further into Europe. I don't want it to be too easy when I convert it to EU2/3.

Also, do you know how to switch your primary title? I don't want to be King of Basra anymore, I want to be the King of Arabia. I have claims to King of Arabia, King of Basra, and Empire of Byzantium.

[Aketi]

It's 1211 right now, and I am not going to expand further into Europe. I don't want it to be too easy when I convert it to EU2/3.

They usually arrive in 1230. In my current campaign, the southern tribe conquered most of Iraq and Persia, but they were eventually destroyed by the Arabs and Seljuks about 40 years later. The northern Mongols conquered all of Russia, but eventually got beaten by the Rus and the Scandinavians by 1280. All of this happened although I gave both factions some additional 500000 troops!???

Once you have an empire, CK really isn't too much of a challenge.

Also, do you know how to switch your primary title? I don't want to be King of Basra anymore, I want to be the King of Arabia. I have claims to King of Arabia, King of Basra, and Empire of Byzantium.

You need to own the King of Arabs title. Then you can try to give the King of Basra title to one of your vassals. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. I don't really know what's actually behind this. For example as the king of Scotland and England, I was unable to give away the king of Scotland title, I suspect this was the case because I started out as Scotland. :hmmm:

[Lawrence of Arabia]

They usually arrive in 1230. In my current campaign, the southern tribe conquered most of Iraq and Persia, but they were eventually destroyed by the Arabs and Seljuks about 40 years later. The northern Mongols conquered all of Russia, but eventually got beaten by the Rus and the Scandinavians by 1280. All of this happened although I gave both factions some additional 500000 troops!???

Once you have an empire, CK really isn't too much of a challenge.

My main problem now is a jingoistic ally in the Seljuk Turks and a ruler with a Diplomatic Skill of 0(15). Every year I have about 4-5 vassals who declare independence only to ask to become my vassal.

You need to own the King of Arabs title. Then you can try to give the King of Basra title to one of your vassals. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. I don't really know what's actually behind this. For example as the king of Scotland and England, I was unable to give away the king of Scotland title, I suspect this was the case because I started out as Scotland. :hmmm:

Oops, yeah, I do own the title. I am the King of Arabs, Basra, Egypt and Emperor of Byzantium. Started off as the Bey of Basra, then the Emir of Basra, then the King of Basra.

[John I Tzimisces]

If, in a civil war, someone claims the title, "king of basra", you can give it to him and your tag will change to King of Arabia. However be warned you may lose the lions share of your vassals.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

I tried to give the King of Arabia title to my heir and then use a console cheat to kill my leader. That didn't work.

I wonder if I can edit the save-game.

Edit: One group of Mongols invaded Eurasia in 1213 and Pereyaslavl defeated them in less than one year. How anti-climactic. I think I will let the group that goes towards Baghdad do so, and then I'll pick up those provinces. It's nice having the Seljuks as a buffer.

[Aketi]

I just thought of another way that might be a little less costly than the one John proposed. This might not work out the way you want, it's a little unpredictable, so make an extra save before trying it.


You could change your succession law to Salic Gravelkind and carefully reform the title ownerships between your first and second heir. Then you wait until your king dies and all your titles are divided between them. The first one in line will probably become the King of Basra, the second one King of Arabs. Save the game and pick the King of Arabs as your faction.

[John I Tzimisces]

I tried to give the King of Arabia title to my heir and then use a console cheat to kill my leader. That didn't work.

I wonder if I can edit the save-game.

Edit: One group of Mongols invaded Eurasia in 1213 and Pereyaslavl defeated them in less than one year. How anti-climactic. I think I will let the group that goes towards Baghdad do so, and then I'll pick up those provinces. It's nice having the Seljuks as a buffer.

Give it to your heir, save, reload the game as your heir, then kill the guy you had been playing as.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

You could change your succession law to Salic Gravelkind and carefully reform the title ownerships between your first and second heir. Then you wait until your king dies and all your titles are divided between them. The first one in line will probably become the King of Basra, the second one King of Arabs. Save the game and pick the King of Arabs as your faction.

I have 84 vassals, and crusading Europeans trying to take Jerusalem from me. I have been beating them back for 10 years straight. I wish the crusade would just end already. They only ever take a province from me if I am not paying attention, otherwise the 25,000 man regiment out of Byzantion usually takes out the enemies on the Grecian Peninsula and they seem to shun sea invasions.

Unfortunately, I keep making peace with the Crusaders (they usually offer me 0-200 gold in tribute) just to turn around and have them declare war on me when someone in their kingdom declares war on me.

Good news, however, is that my third cousin -- a toddler -- inherited the throne of the Seljuk Turks. His diplomacy value was 0 so many of his vassals declared independence. Now, they are weakened to around 95,000 manpower and I have 200,000.

Give it to your heir, save, reload the game as your heir, then kill the guy you had been playing as.

Will have to wait until my leader gets old. I continued to play after I killed off my last leader. This one has great stats; he has everything above 10.

[Sidus Preclarum]

Once you have an empire, CK really isn't too much of a challenge.

the challenge is, manage to reach the game end date, knowing that you're in perpetual war with breaking up vassals and therefore the game is very slow. And that the game sometimes crash JUST after you gave money to your 173 vassals to ensure their loyalty to the newly crowned king, and BEFORE you can save it :p

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

And that the game sometimes crash JUST after you gave money to your 173 vassals to ensure their loyalty to the newly crowned king, and BEFORE you can save it :p

Ugghh hate when that happen, no matter what situation.
I once played as Armenia and had a war with the arab duke that controls tripoli among other things(he had 4 provinces and no liege).
Close war that I barely won and then when I finally got him to agree to hand over all his titles to me, the game crash .
Reload the latest save game and the duke this time gets an alliance with the king of Egypt before I could declare war. Try going up against them.
Bastard.

[Sidus Preclarum]

actually, this latest crash of mine maybe had something to do with the fact I somehow got the King of Croatia to be my vassal, and I clicked on him to give his coronation gift ...

[Aketi]

the challenge is, manage to reach the game end date, knowing that you're in perpetual war with breaking up vassals and therefore the game is very slow. And that the game sometimes crash JUST after you gave money to your 173 vassals to ensure their loyalty to the newly crowned king, and BEFORE you can save it :p

You have 173 vassals? I'd like to see a picture of your empire. I assume you have lots of dukes directly under your patronage. :hmmm:
That's generally a bad idea, especially when it comes to the bribes; the only titles I give away are princes' titles, and only my own sons receive those.

I barely experienced crashes, I started off in 1066 and the current date is early 14th century. I had about 5 crashes during this campaign; fortunately none of them were persistent.

[Fabolous]

I just Dl'd CK+DV and I'm about to throw myself in, then go back and read what the hell I was supposed to be doing, and then go become good at CK. But until that all works out, I was wondering if there are considered to be any "must-have" type mods, like MM for EU3 (you atleast have to try it once) for CK?

[Aketi]

I just Dl'd CK+DV and I'm about to throw myself in, then go back and read what the hell I was supposed to be doing, and then go become good at CK. But until that all works out, I was wondering if there are considered to be any "must-have" type mods, like MM for EU3 (you atleast have to try it once) for CK?

Yes, there are some "must-have" mods, DV vanilla is full of horrible bugs like no other Paradox game before, especially the "pledging-bug" is extremely annoying, and it will ruin your game if you don't get these fixes.

Beta-Patch
Deus Vult Improvement Pack
Pledging fix mod

Oh, make sure you save a lot.

[Fabolous]

Yes, there are some "must-have" mods, DV vanilla is full of horrible bugs like no other Paradox game before, especially the "pledging-bug" is extremely annoying, and it will ruin your game if you don't get these fixes.

Beta-Patch
Deus Vult Improvement Pack
Pledging fix mod

Oh, make sure you save a lot.

Well now, thank you good sir for the links. And I will be sure to save alot, I've heard quite alot about CK's crashing habit.