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[ed boy]

I've been having a couple goes at playing the one province count of the canary islands from the 867 start date, but I have a couple issues. I'm using project balance and VIET, if those are responsible.

-My levy reinforcement rate seems extremely slow, as in less than 100 people per year. This is much slower than the rate I've observed the AI having. What's more, my garrison reinforcement rate is a lot higher, at 23/month. Could if be that I'm constantly raiding (and this 100/year is accounting for losses while raiding)
-I've decided that to keep things interesting I'm going to convert to and reform every religion over the course of the game. I'm going to do pagan(reform)->islam(caliphate)->jewish(temple)->catholic(antipope)->zoroastrian(high priesthood)->orthodox(schism). However, I'm concerned about how to change religion. I know it can be done if your liege is of a different religion, but they don't seem to want me to swear fealty if I'm a different religion. I can capture quite a few people of different religions while raiding, but I can't seem to get them to educate my children, and I don't know how I'm gong to rely on this for my later conversions.

[scriver]

Are you using any mods? I know that one, which I can't remember the name of, that adds a lot of events has a ridiculous amount of TES references. Like every three events.

VIET Events and Traits modules. But I think it's an in-game thing.

No, now that you've mentioned it I remember that VIET is the one. It's obsessed with TES references. It's even lampshaded somewhere. So while I guess it's possible it might be vanilla, I'm pretty sure it's VIET. VIET is usually also a lot more obvious in it's references than vanilla... Or maybe that's just because I'm more familiar with TES than other stuff.

[scrdest]

Game pissed me off by throwing every single possible war at me, at once. So I cheated in 100k, revoked all dukes and conquered HRE. Cathartic.

[Wiles]

So in my last post I came to the forums asking for advice on how to bring the challenge back into my game to make it interesting again because things had been pretty stagnant for over a century.

Turns out I needn't have bothered asking, the game was kind enough to bake me some humble pie.

My Empress is in her seventies, she has had a long and prosperous rule up to this point. When the message came that the Sunnis declared jihad to retake Jerusalem I was feeling pretty flippant about the whole thing. The last four Jihads against me had barely been a threat, I never even had to raise my levies. For a long time my retinues have been sufficient to quell any uprising or invasion that I have faced. So when it was time to send the Spanish Empire to war I didn't even bother raising my levies, I just sent my elite retinue army to deal with the Muslim invaders.

As my retinue army reached the holy land I received another message. The Shia decided this would also be a good time to start a jihad for Jerusalem. My confidence began to waver when I saw the massive armies entering Jerusalem. How did they have so many troops I had thought to myself. According to the ledger I had half again as many troops as my closest rival. My army of retinues sat at the southern part of Jerusalem watching the muslims besiege the rest of the country. I didn't dare to attack any of them lest my soldiers be crushed by an overwhelmingly large jihadist army.

That's when I started to panick, I sent as many men as quickly as I could. 30 thousand worth reached Jerusalem to join my retinues before the fighting started. The rest had to mobilize and get to the coast so they could be ferried to the holy land. Even with 50 thousand men in Jerusalem my armies were vastly outnumbered. I was able to win a few strategic victories by picking off their armies that were furthest away from the main body of their forces. Then something terrible happened. I was trying to manoeuvre back to the coast to regroup with the next group of 30 thousand soldiers that would be arriving shortly when my army was caught by an equally large army. My men fought bravely and won the battle, but they had suffered heavy losses. Before they could even leave the province another 30 thousand enemies attacked. And then another 20 thousand muslims joined the battle, my soldiers at this point were outnumbered 3 to 1.

That is when I knew I had lost the war, my retinue army along with my personal levies had been absolutely crushed. I still had a large army arriving shortly with more to come behind them, but it was futile, the Arabian empire was still sending more troops. It was because of my folly that the holiest of places was to fall into the hands of infidels. Cathars the world over would mourn this black day and forever curse the name of Empress Joanna of Spain. If I had brought the full might of the Spanish Empire's army to bear against the jihadists all at once I may have stood a chance. But my hubris led me to think that I was invincible and that the the Muslims would tremble before the might of the great and holy Cathar Empire of Spain. As if things weren't grim enough another message came claiming that the great Khan of the Golden Horde converted to the Sunni faith. Most of Jerusalem fell to the Sunnis, but the Queen of Jerusalem still has some holding that are occupied by the Shia Jihad.

The golden age of Spain may be coming to an end. After the fall of the holy land assassins have been attempting to end the reign of Empress Joanna. Her heir that she had groomed for leadership, her firstborn daughter, died during childbirth. Her new heir was her infant granddaughter but that didn't last long. Assassins found the child to be an easy mark making  Prince Diego the new heir to the Spanish Empire. Ever since the day Joanna's great grandmother Emilia the Cruel and her heathen witch allies Circe, Morgana and Jezebel secured the Spanish crown the Empire has been ruled by women. Now Joanna's incompetent son stands to inherit the realm when it is at its weakest. Recent inheritances within the Empire has seen the merger of its two largest Kingdoms, Castille and Carthage (customized Africa). The Castillan branch of the royal family have long held a strong rivalry with the ruling dynasty. Many generations ago Castille had been dismantled by the second Spanish Emperor because he feared they were growing too powerful. Yet through the years they managed to regain their lost holding and once again had created the title of the Kingdom of Castille.  Now with Carthage under their rule they have could easily match the Empress if it came to civil war. If the rest of Spain sides with the Castillans when Diego inherits it might spell the end of this chapter in Spanish history. If the ruling branch of the dynasty falls then it is likely Spain's neighbours will fall to the Aztecs, as it has been Spain that has been staunchly defending against their continued invasions of the mainland.

[BFEL]

Your playthrough is epic Wiles.

EDIT: so anybody remember those pics I posted where Lithuania was huge and ruled by the Dynasty of "Draguns"? Well I found the count who started that dynasty, and am now gonna do an Ironman playthrough as him.

BECAUSE DRAGUNS!!!!

[PanH]

Dang, tried to play as the Ummayad, but I always lose the first succession war. Every vassal that is not in my emirate revolt, and there's always the event that spawn troops for the revolters too, so they have 2x or 3x my troops. Any tips on keeping the sultanate ? I tried revoking every emirate I could, but every counts still revolted.

[BFEL]

So in the land of Draguns, East Francia has pretty much taken over West Francia, except for WF's capital, which is right next to EF's capital.
Also East Francia blobbed Italy.

I haven't even war'd my liege and claimed the High Chiefdom yet.

This is gonna SUCK.
note: would show screenshots, but forgot how to do that again.

EDIT: Ok and the capital of ITALY is two away from both French capitals. WTF?
EDITAGAIN: Well at least now I have independence. Mercenaries are EPIC while at count levels

[cerapa]

Still Ironman Livonia->Wendish Empire.

Catholicism is falling apart. England has been conquered by the norse. The king of Italy converted to Fraticelli and kicked the pope out of Rome. The king of Aquitane has converted to Lollard and Castille is Cathar.

But hope still remains. In Italy, Amalfi has arisen. Its enlightened Doges have driven the heretic king of Italy out, conquered Sardinia from the norse, and declared a holy war on the kingdom of Aquaitane. If it keeps creeping west down the mediterranean, it might end up in Spain and kick the crap out of both the Fatimids(who have apparently gained Andalusia) and Castille.

[EuchreJack]

EDITAGAIN: Well at least now I have independence. Mercenaries are EPIC while at count levels

Yeah they are. 

[BFEL]

EDITAGAIN: Well at least now I have independence. Mercenaries are EPIC while at count levels

Yeah they are. 

Unfortunately not epic enough.
So I war'd for independence, got that. Then a bit down the line my ruler died and I switched to his son, which is cool because his stats were pretty good, a few years of regency, but most people liked him well enough it wasn't much of an issue.

Then I war'd up my former liege again, taking Latgale and fully usurping his duchy, meanwhile my next door neighbors of Holmsgarde blobbed like fucking playdough and became the kingdom of Gardiki. Terrible name, huge tracts of land. So I diplomacied them into worshipping the ground under my feet all thanks to my er....wow I totally forgot what the diplomacy guys name is...oh well he was briefly my regent, but yeah he pretty much gave me the "they like you better" event twice a week.

Anyway, after that I was going to try and take Livonia, but unfortunately I married a daughter off to the Cumanians or whatever and they sent me a call to arms which I accepted stupidly.
Next thing I know I'm helping THEM take Livonia. Fuck.
Afterward I took one of the lands from the Kylianstupidnamemcstupiddickswithlongotherlanguagenames and then used some of my merc funds to make myself into a proper duchy. The Duchy of Polymania or whatever fuck it.

After THAT I got cocky with all my victories and tried for some territory owned by Lithuanians. NOPE. I had more troops, they still won. I hired mercenaries, they still won. And then they charged me 80 gold and I was in debt.

So what happens? FUCKING PEASANTS.
Fucking peasant revolt up in Latgale while I'm totally beaten and have about 20 guys left in the entire realm, and no cash for mercs.
A 2000 strong peasant revolt no less. Dammit the Lithuanians didn't have that many dudes. WHERE WERE YOU ASSHOLES WHEN I NEEDED YOU?

So yeah, long story short, Latgale is now owned by a dude who permanently hates my guts, and all my allies, including Livonia/Cumania and the big-ass kingdom of Gardiki also hate my guts because I told them I couldn't help them out in THEIR wars, due to not having anyone to send.

And then my ruler died.
BACK TO THE REGENCY

[RedKing]

Playing the Elder Scrolls mod, trying to reunite the Bosmer into a unified kingdom (and NOT starting as Falinesti).

This is some hard shit. Upside of playing elves is that you live a really long damn time. Downside is that you only have kids maybe once every fifty years, if you're lucky. Everytime my Queen gets the sniffles, I got cold sweats until she finally had an heir ready.

The other downside of living a really long time in CK2 is that you're usually in pretty rough shape after a while. Especially when she was captured by a bandit warlord while putting down his uprising, and had an ear cut off and her tongue cut out. She was known as Nimriel the Bloody BEFORE that incident, I can only assume she's now Nimriel the Really, Really Bloody. >_>

(She later repaid the favor when said defeated warlord became the marshal of a neighboring duchy which declared war some years later. He was captured and then EATEN -- yay for cannibalistic Bosmer customs!)

[EuchreJack]

In my mind, there are two important things to remember regarding your ally's call-to-arms:
1) ALWAYS respond
2) NEVER send any troops

The only possible exception is if your ally is definitely going to lose their war AND their enemy is closer to you than your ally.  In that case, the enemy will probably trash your territory, and your ally won't be much use after their war.  Otherwise, follow the above two rules.

[Digital Hellhound]

I usually send out my retinue/personal troops, unless the ally has been particularly needy/not accepted my calls recently. Or when I like their enemy more. Family members, spouses and awesome AI rulers usually get my full weight, though. You get prestige (possibly piety in some cases?) for contribution, anyway, so there is another benefit on top of the warm feeling you get in your heart.

[RedKing]

Something I've noticed with the AI when it comes to being the slightly largest bully on the block: it will cleverly wage pre-emptive wars that it cannot win as a blocking tactic.

Let's say you have Kingdom A, which is stronger than Kingdom B, C and D which are all nearby but not strong enough to take on 2 or 3 of them at a time.

Kingdom B declares war on you. You win (but lose some troops). Because it was a defensive war, you get prestige but not much else.
A year or two later, Kingdom C declares war on you. Same result.
Now Kingdom D declares war. Same result.

Your truce is almost up with Kingdom B, but your troops are depleted. You need a year or two to rebuild your armies, and save up money in case you need to augment with mercenaries. But just as you're almost to the point of being ready to declare, Kingdom B declares war first. They can't win, but they can block you from gaining territory from them for another long truce period (or force you to break the truce which is !!BAD!! in most cases). By the team you beat them back down with a stick, Kingdom C has pre-emptively declared war, and so it goes in a vicious decades-long cycle.

God help you if you lose a lot of men in one of those wars, or run short on cash or attract the attention of, let's say, Empire E. Or if your foes wait and gang up on you all at once. My preferred tactic for dealing with that is to start assassinating rulers after a DoW so they lose their casus belli and bring an immediate halt to the war. But that's tricky to pull off successfully and quickly enough to avoid getting your lands and/or armies trashed.
 

[Glloyd]

I usually send out my retinue/personal troops, unless the ally has been particularly needy/not accepted my calls recently. Or when I like their enemy more. Family members, spouses and awesome AI rulers usually get my full weight, though. You get prestige (possibly piety in some cases?) for contribution, anyway, so there is another benefit on top of the warm feeling you get in your heart.

Heart? Oh, you mean that thing that them Aztecs cut out.