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[ZeroGravitas]

That is a fair point.

In saying that, though, you as the rebel would've failed in the feudal contract too, seeing as you've just caned your liege. I don't think that the new liege would be particularly amenable in those circumstances, unless there was some collusion.

feudal, lol

as if

[StagnantSoul]

Decided to play a game with AI scheming on, and aside from being spammed with my wife trying to kill me sister, nothing much seems different...

[ZeroGravitas]

Finally finished my Aladdin run. The map looked so goddamn goofy by the end. My little finger of Xiyu extending into Persia (earlier post) pretty much stopped there while I

1) swore fealty to the Abassids. Saw no reason to keep doing stand-up fights for individual counties/duchies when I can leapfrog right through them by:
2) fabricate a claim on Mecca, press claim, then plot-fabricate a claim on the whole duchy
3) eliminate the Hashimids within the Abbasids - Sunni caliphate becomes vacant
4) switch to Sunni and re-create the caliphate.
5) declare independence from Abbasids during a moment of their weakness (easy given the many wars with ERE, pretenders, civil wars, etc)
6) subjugate my way across north africa using caliphal subjugation cb

I ended up bouncing between shia and sunni a handful of times along the way, most notably because paradox has STILL not fixed the decision to expel the bektashi order, so if they have a barony in north africa, that'll stop you from getting the Aladdin achievement until you're not Sunni and can fight them. My time as Shia + Sunni Abbasids overlord also meant that the Abbasid emperor kept asking to educate my family members as Sunni - which was fine, but then I'd have a random inheritance where some half-brother would inherit and be Sunni before I could get around to sending him to China sans balls.

I also had to switch religions to grant vassal independences. Some time after the invasion of Egypt, I started generating tons and tons of threat. So I ended up dumping a bunch of my Asian vassal kings just to shed threat. Their levies were stupidly far away anyway, and I had plenty of Military Organization tech so plenty of retinues. Since I used the "create a new empire" decision to create my own bizarre Egypt+Mongolia+Xiyu empire, they were all de jure kings. So I had to switch to whatever religion they weren't in order to grant independence. (Also ended up giving independence to Kashmir and Guge because it turns out my vassals conquered most of Nepal while I wasn't looking. Amazing what vassals can do when you don't keep jacking their levies and they have overpowered holy war CBs).

Random observations:

1. I didn't really go that fast. Played from 867 to 1082.
2. Could have gone much faster if I had planned to use China's Invasion boon to shatter the Abbasids instead of having to faff about inside of them.
3. Suomenusko managed to reform. Good job, AI. And then they promptly called a Great Holy War for... U-Tsang. Yes, in Nepal. I surrendered it to them just because I felt bad for them.
4. Umayyads conquered all the way into Aquitaine and random parts of France/Germany. But then lost a crusade for Aquitaine, so they weren't hard to kick out of Mauritania for the achievement.
5. Italy went republic. I have no idea how. Based on the capital I think somehow Genoa inherited Italy or something.
6. Immortality chain fired in the 1070s, but as usual the mystic was a fraud. Got some good stat boosts out of it.
7. China is absurd. Even leaving aside the "please go destroy this massive empire for me" (and that one is legit inconvenient to get because you need luck with the timing), the ability to basically delete an unwanted brother/second son/etc every few decades is really, really good. The income from the Silk Road is out of control. The free artifacts were really nice, basically giving me +3 Martial, +Stewardship, +5 vassal opinion etc, for most of them game. The Chinese brides were ok but mostly inconvenient to use with Islam (can't get an imperial marriage unless the character is not married or betrothed at all). The siege engineers were really, really nice. 3 top tier generals at the push of a button. Strategist was ok and probably more effective overall, but less instant reward.
8. There was the most ridiculous Bon secret religion cult that just wouldn't die. Like there were no Bon rulers left anywhere but half of my heirs were secretly practicing the Bon religion and I kept getting the events about finding Bon holy books conveniently placed for me to read.
9. The decision to Enact Chinese Imperialism is too annoying to ever use.
10. Han retinue is trash. Archers are still garbage. Wars were much easier when I just switched to pure Defense retinues like before.

final maps below (trigger warning: the bordergore is real) -

independents:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

religion:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Tawa]

Just out of curiosity:
- What culture is the Emperor of Hispania? I almost never see them without a dynasty name superimposed.
- For that matter, what culture is the King of Sweden? The update broke the Scandinavian cultural title names, and I always used to see Poles and Lithuanians conquer the Vikings in the early starts.
- The dark stuff near Ruthenia--is that a Ruthenian revolt, or someone else?
- What's up with the Orthodox provinces in Western Europe?
- Any idea how Hispania has a couple provinces in Khorasan and how Finland owns land in Tibet?

[ZeroGravitas]

Just out of curiosity:
- What culture is the Emperor of Hispania? I almost never see them without a dynasty name superimposed.

He's Occitan, but still Sunni. His father was Visigothic, of all things... so I'm not sure how that happened. Going back through the title history, there is no consistent culture. Lots of Bedouin, Andalusian, and Visigothic.

- For that matter, what culture is the King of Sweden? The update broke the Scandinavian cultural title names, and I always used to see Poles and Lithuanians conquer the Vikings in the early starts.

Sweden is Swedish, but tribal (and Catholic). Yeah, looks like the Scandinavian culture title stuff isn't working although I prefer it this way anyway.

- The dark stuff near Ruthenia--is that a Ruthenian revolt, or someone else?

Yeah, just a Ruthenian revolt. War against the tyranny of King Alexei the Fat.

- What's up with the Orthodox provinces in Western Europe?

Looking at histories, it looks like it was conquered by Germanic pagans - there was a decently strong Germanic England in the 10th century. They were eventually converted to Orthodox via missionaries from Byzantium and they converted the provinces. But then they were conquered by their neighbors who haven't managed to convert the provinces back.

- Any idea how Hispania has a couple provinces in Khorasan and how Finland owns land in Tibet?

The Hispanian stuff I think is just typical intermarriage bordergore between Sunni Abbasids and Sunni Umayyads. At some point various dynasties intertwined between the two empires and a province got shuffled across to the other empire.

Finland owns part of Tibet because of that absurd Suomenuskan holy war for U-Tsang I mentioned. I could have fought but I didn't see any point, so I just surrendered to it and let them have the U-Tsangan provinces. I was surprised I was even in their diplomatic range.

[USEC_OFFICER]

From what I remember crusades don't care about diplomatic range but essentially pull targets out of a hat. The list is weighted so that important kingdoms are more likely to be targeted, but that doesn't prevent the chance of a Slavic Great Holy War for Aquitaine and the like from occurring. Just makes it very unlikely, unless they control all of the kingdoms they want already.

[ZeroGravitas]

From what I remember crusades don't care about diplomatic range but essentially pull targets out of a hat. The list is weighted so that important kingdoms are more likely to be targeted, but that doesn't prevent the chance of a Slavic Great Holy War for Aquitaine and the like from occurring. Just makes it very unlikely, unless they control all of the kingdoms they want already.

I don't think this is really correct because starting a crusade still works like a CB. You can't declare war on someone outside of your diplomatic range no matter what.

It's probably not that surprising that I was still in their diplomatic range, because I probably had some vassals that were in the same de jure empire as some of their vassals.

[StagnantSoul]

When the HRE randomly declares war on you despite being good partners for years... The moment my second dude died, the peace agreement was over and they came swinging. Being five years old didn't help much either, not much I could do but surrender the majority of germany...

[Teneb]

When the HRE randomly declares war on you despite being good partners for years... The moment my second dude died, the peace agreement was over and they came swinging. Being five years old didn't help much either, not much I could do but surrender the majority of germany...

Are you an emperor? If not, just surrender instead of wasting your levies (because you're probably getting uppity vassals) and swear fealty to the HRE so you can reclaim your land with impunity.

[StagnantSoul]

When the HRE randomly declares war on you despite being good partners for years... The moment my second dude died, the peace agreement was over and they came swinging. Being five years old didn't help much either, not much I could do but surrender the majority of germany...

Are you an emperor? If not, just surrender instead of wasting your levies (because you're probably getting uppity vassals) and swear fealty to the HRE so you can reclaim your land with impunity.

That... Would've been much smarter than what I did.

I borrowed and then banished the jews instantly, started raising a war chest and extorted some peasants, begged for money from the pope, banished a few vassals in a tyrannical manner, and married a princess for the cash, all to raise enough mercenaries to get white peace. Took a lot of time and some good micro but we managed to... win? Succeed? Not die horribly to someone four times our size? Whatever you'd call that. Sure, everyone hates me, but they won't hate my next person.

[ZeroGravitas]

Sure, everyone hates me, but they won't hate my next person.

Well, "opinion of predecessor" is a thing now. It's not terrible but it's not nothing.

[StagnantSoul]

Sure, everyone hates me, but they won't hate my next person.

Well, "opinion of predecessor" is a thing now. It's not terrible but it's not nothing.

Oh, really? I hadn't noticed it, though I usually don't look into too much detail what everyone's opinions are effected by, unless I'm trying to do a plot and need to convince some cousins of the target to throw a snake at them.

[notquitethere]

I try to plan for the long term, so I never banish anyone tyrannically. Not when there's always some dope who can justly imprisoned then ransomed off. The best is when you can ransom a vassal for the cash and then transfer that (now angry) vassal to someone else. Everyone's pleased.

As I want to tax them heavily, my number #1 priority is making sure my vassals are happy and the best way to do that is to breed in positive traits and try not to raise their levies. I always go on a pilgrimage. Half my commanders will be useless old bishops that I'm trying to sway from sending all their money to the pope.

[umiman]

Sure, everyone hates me, but they won't hate my next person.

Well, "opinion of predecessor" is a thing now. It's not terrible but it's not nothing.

I found it's actually quite substantial.

I very rarely have succession wars now. The only times I really have them is like sudden unexpected death after fucking some vassals over. It used to be so common. Like, "every single succession" common.

[ZeroGravitas]

I try to plan for the long term, so I never banish anyone tyrannically. Not when there's always some dope who can justly imprisoned then ransomed off. The best is when you can ransom a vassal for the cash and then transfer that (now angry) vassal to someone else. Everyone's pleased.

As I want to tax them heavily, my number #1 priority is making sure my vassals are happy and the best way to do that is to breed in positive traits and try not to raise their levies. I always go on a pilgrimage. Half my commanders will be useless old bishops that I'm trying to sway from sending all their money to the pope.

Yeah, I love Theology focus generally for that because it gives you the direct bonus, but also spams you with so much Piety and fixes your traits for even more Catholic temple vassal bonus. Also gives you Health, and gives you Learning to better abuse writing books and Hermetic Society artifacts. Hermetic Society itself is also great because it eventually gives you a direct choice among lifestyle choices.

After my experience with frequent religion-shifting and independence granting in Aladdin run, I'm thinking of doing a similar thing with Catholic/Orthodox and temple vassals. Catholic archbishops always made the best dukes, so much so that they restricted them to 10% of your realm size and added a restriction that you couldn't grant independence to same religion de jure vassals.