As I recall, along with Hispania a Great Britain-esque entity and Scandinavia are both pretty popular.

 

Thanks. Tehan did mention using WizMOD; I'd forgotten that it increased the numbers of empires. Taking a quick look at it, the WizMOD 0.20 empires are:

France
HRE
Italy
Byzantium
Poland Lithuania
Russia
Persia
Danubia
Spain
Maghreb
Arabia
Abyssinia
Brittania
Scandinavia

 

It is Wizmod (recently renamed CK2+). It basically makes it so that if you've got all the King-level titles of a certain region, you can enact a decision that creates an Empire-level title for it. It's not like regular titles where you can create it the second you own half the real estate - you need every single crown on your head.

Difficult and expensive, but worth it.

 

I haven't seen a married bishop yet, so were these sons already married when you gave them their Bishoprics? And pumping out kids while being bishops?

I've used my Chancellors to get me claims to counties, but I haven't got them to produce a duchy claim. How do you do that?

 

Yeah, I don't think a bishop will get married under normal circumstances, but someone who was married when they inherit a bishoptic stays married. And it means any existing children can't inherit any claims from them, so you've got all of the same-dynasty relation bonus with none of the pretender and claim-on-title malus.

As for duchy-level claims, it takes a diplomacy stat of at least 20 and even then it only fires once in a blue moon.

 

I got lucky in my current game; got a claim on the county of Lancaster quickly followed by a claim on the duchy from my 24 skill Chancellor.

 

Just had an interesting experience with my Scotland game and the reign of King Malcolm the Devil. He was a fun king; he was a total prick, but he was so good at being an utter bastard that he made it work anyway. By the end of his reign he'd added Orkney, the Isles, and Galloway to Scotland, told the Pope to fuck off over the Investiture conflict, made the English fuck off when they tried to go after him after the pope excommunicate him, set up an anti-pope, and finally died shortly after impregnating his 20 year-old French wife (the third one he's had) despite being in his early 70's at the time.

 

Phew, just got out of a potentially major problem.

Scotland declared war on me and hired the strongest of the mercenaries (one lot of 2250, one 1500), and then proceeded to completely destroy the force I sent against them. I tried to retreat to somewhere safe, but they hassled me until my troops were all killed. Their goal in all this was to take the duchy of Northumberland for themselves. Greedy bastards. Can't they see that my Irish-Saxon King (seriously, his father was Irish, but he came out Saxon. Methinks his mother had been up to something naughty) wants to keep hold of his lovely duchies?

Anyway, I spent the best part of a year just waiting for my levies to get back up to contestable levels, and for my cash to build up. While all this was happening the duchy of Lancaster rebelled, as did my Welsh territories and a few peasant revolts.

Then something amazing happened. The son of a courtier that I'd paid no attention to whatsoever came of age. First I knew of it was when he challenged my current marshal for the position. For the record, my marshal at that point was around 16 in martial skill. This new guy? 26. Twenty. Fucking. Six. I nearly jizzed my pants when I saw it. I was in love. This guy would save my kingdom and kick the Scots back into their hovels.

So I bought mercenaries. Around 4000 of them. I raised every single levy I had. My army ended up around 8000 strong overnight. I sent every single one of them against that bastard Malcolm. I have never been so satisfied to completely annihilate an enemy as I did that day. To add the icing to the cake, I took the duke of Moray as prisoner. He was Malcolm the Wanker's main general - 23 skill and the reason I was defeated the first time. Naturally I had his head join the multitude of others on the floor of my chopping block. Let that be a lesson to those traitorous Scots.

Fuck Yeah.

 

Kids are born with their father's culture. If his "teacher" was Saxon, that'd be why he identifies as Saxon now. You kid's teacher has a chance to change their culture, and I think the local culture of the county they're living in also has a chance to affect.

It caught me by surprise when my Scottish kid was home-schooled by my mail-order wife and when it came time to hand him a landed title he was bloody French.

 

They inherit the mother's culture in a matrilineal marriage. And as for teacher, the location has no effect in vanilla - it's just whether they've got diligent/slothful and/or gregarious/shy. The Foreigner relations malus can be a pain in the arse, so it can be worthwhile to find a gregarious, diligent courtier of your culture and use him to tutor the heirs of any wrong-cultured vassals.

If you're looking for something to occupy your attention for a few years, I really recommend giving a Holy Order a chunk of land and trying to sweet-talk them into swearing fealty to you. Their leaders have such excellent martial scores, and you get a huge chunk of piety for the initial land grant.

 

I've got a question about inheritance.

I'm the King of England. My second son is the Duke of Somerset, under my rule. His wife [regular marriage] is the Duchess of Holland, under the Holy Roman Empire. They have only one child, Aelle [male and of my dynasty], who is the primary heir of both the Duchies of Somerset [Agnatic Primogeniture] and Holland [Agnatic-Cognatic Gavelkind]. No other children at this stage.

When his parents die, will my grandson and his twin duchies fall under my rule or the HRE?

 

I don't know, but you'll get a warning when his mother dies if Somerset is on the verge of being lost, I think.

 

I've received a "vassal inheritance warning" now while both parents are still young and healthy. It says that I might lose provinces.

edit: I wonder if it depends on which parent dies first. If it's the duchess, then does my grandson forever become part of the HRE? If that's the case, then I could circumvent it by either assassinating my second son, the Duke of Somerset, or simply grant my grandson a minor barony now, locking me in as his liege before he inherits the HRE duchy.

If the HRE did come to control one of my duchies, would I be able to encourage my grandson to rebel and join me, or have any kind of CB to claim my lands back?

 

I'd say take that as a most likely and prepare for the worst, myself. How good is your second son, how old is he (potential remarry if you kill off his wife and son) and how good is his boy?

I'd wait and see what more experienced minds say, but I'd say kill the son and wife and have a new family set up.

 

I'll play it and see how it turns out.

 

If the marriage is a regular one then all the inheritances will fall to the father's side of the family. So barring your son dying, you'll eventually inherit that duchy.

 

Is there any way to get your tyranny rating down? I seem to have all my vassals more-or-less permanently pissed off at me for banishing a duke (in hindsight, that might have been a mistake).

 

I know this is rich coming from me, but...

...Have you tried not being a /complete and utter cock/ in the first place? Only /rarely/ pulling your dick out and pissing on them is really the easiest way to keep your subjects in line.

EDIT: And while I don't know if it'll lower your tyranny, getting the Kind and Charitable attributes will help offset your dipshittery, as well as making your chancellor and lord spiritual raise relations with your most important vassals. Also, great hunts frequently cause an event to fire that gives +40 relationship with X vassal, and... whatever the great tournament choice is gives +10 relations with everyone at the end of it.

 

Kill yourself and play as your heir? That'd remove your tyrrany.

I had a strange experience today where my Spymaster reported himself to me. He wants to kill his dad, the Duke of Lancaster, who I hate anyway. So best of luck to him.

 

Yeah, I've been downright merciful ever since that one banishment, Problem is, that doesn't seem to be doing anything when it comes to fixing the damage I've already done. I'd kill off my current king, but his heir is just two; 14 years of regency isn't going to help at all.