Started a game today. As said on this thread, got an irish count. The game says very difficult, but I feel better trying this than the Holy Byzantine Empire of Doomstacks on a first game.
My character is a grumpy old man, good tactician but craven, greedy (OF COURSE. Every single irish character is a scrooge. no kidding: all irish character sheet I bothered reading so far feature this trait.), and some other things. Not really a scholar (4...), but a good warrior and stuff.
My son is a damned slacker, but all this time avoiding work kind of ended up being useful (paranoia, sloth, perfect shadow ninja thing... 14 intrigue. MASTER SPY. And greedy, yes.)
As I am a tad old for this stuff, I decided to skip marriage and marry him instead. His wife comes from a nearby county. Greed, paranoia, and this ne'er do well lost my favourite falcon almost right away! Damn girl. At least she has a brain for two (16 diplomacy. I had another good at intrigue, but that would be redundant)
They had a kid recently. Snot-nosed brat.
(my character hates all of his family, but thankfully it's not reciprocate. I imagine him being a stereotypical grumpy old geezer
)
I started to invade my souther neighbour. Fabricate claim, raise the levies, try to declare war, fumbles, disband, declare war, raise the levies again, march on the county, find a viking raid party sieging the place, put up the camp, wait for them to wander off, finish the siege, occupy the county.
Find myself without enough troops to properly siege the city and church, disband levies, wait. Periodically slaughter the 4-6 guys wandering off the protection of the walls to raise the warscore. Repel a viking raiding party like a boss. Wait for the other grumpy, greedy old geezer to surrender (the stubborn bastard hasn't yet. He's brave, him.)
Make significant technological progress, steal other, long after a castle when seeing I have a level in heavy infantry.
Yeah, didn't achieve much ^^