Tried an 866 start with Ivar the Boneless. Much more complicated than I expected. The initial prepared invasions were easy with all the event troops, sure, but they only got me 2-county East Anglia and like 3 counties in Skotland. I chose the ambition to become King of Skotland because, with 4000 remaining event troops, surely I could oust the puny catholic king no problem.
What I didn't realize was:
- Subjugation casus belli only works against other pagans, so I could only grab one county at a time via Conquest
- "Cannot Usurp the sole primary title off a ruler of another religion who still holds land within it"
- Every time I took the queen's only county, she *instantly* usurped one of her vassal's counties.
"But you can't usurp counties, the concept makes no sense!" All I know is, her brother the duke (who was King of Skotland at first, until she somehow usurped the kingdom, *which cancelled my current pagan conquest*), he had a "Usurped my title" relationship modifier with her. I think it started at -100 and, by the end, was -250. I could be wrong though, I was pretty distracted.
Edit: Whatever was going on, her other vassals didn't get an opinion modifier for "liege revoked someone's titles" or whatever. I get the impression that the game just forces people to have a capital county, granting it for free from vassals' holdings.
It was a race against time, as Ivar is already in his late 40's in 866. He starts with 4 sons, and as an unreformed Norse is of course limited to glorious gavelkind. I actually really like gavelkind, but only for the challenge and feeling of fairness it provides. (Plus it's a necessary evil if I want the unreformed Norse +50% to retinue size)
I only waited out one treaty, which means I broke 6-8. The prestige loss formula is weird but I basically needed at least ~350 to break the treaty again, which I generally got through raiding the people I was supposedly at peace with. For the last county I had to raise a runestone to my bravery for 300 prestige. The enemy army was never any threat, it was all a matter of decorum (and my horrendous lack thereof).
(Fun trick: I accidentally disabled raider status on my army before sieging my next target county, during the raiding hostility period. The county was occupied, which does nothing without a war. So then I declared the war for that county, instantly had 47% warscore, and instantly demanded victory successfully.)
It all worked. In 883, at the age of 65, I wiped out the queen's last holding. I was able to immediately form a second duchy, then the kingdom, then the rest of the duchies (using gold from the constant pillaging). Each of the 4 sons is receiving a duchy. I didn't bother with the duchy of East Anglia because it's not in Skotland, but those two counties are held by de-jure duke sons now so I figure they'll stay in the realm. Ivar managed to have 2 more sons during this campaign, they're inherity counties in my new capital duchy of Albany (I moved the capital to Gowrie, whose 4 holding slots seem to be the best Skotland has to offer).
The plan now is to raid England and Ireland for construction money until Gowrie is a beacon of culture and economic progress. Eventually I will unite the islands into Britannia, but for this run I absolutely will not keep territory outside the de-jure empire. I will probably want to reform the Norse religion eventually, once my retinues are at a happy size, but anything I conquer for that will be given independence (probably with a dynasty member in charge, but still).
The goal is still: To avoid getting bogged down in boring micromanagement, so that I can actually freakin finish a game - or at LEAST finally see the golden horde and aztecs.
Editedit: I wonder if this -150 relations with all christian leaders will come back to bite me... Maybe a good thing my character's getting old (but damn, 28 martial. Only 10 base, 18 is traits.)
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Topic: Crusader Kings 2 is released. (Read 2124757 times)