Equinox, I'll bump you up before klackerz. That good for you?

Okay, since Ireland is not popular at all, let's do a vote. Thumbs up this post if you'd like us to start as a Spanish Count. If you don't thumbs up, I'll assume that as a non-verbal vote for starting as a Byzantine Count.

Current Order:

Zeitgeist->Grinning Lizard->Equinox->klackerz->Aekiel->Banta

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By the way, my vote is for Byz simply because Tehan's Succession game was in Spain already. Plus Roman fun times.

 

So yeah Mishie just bought me Old Gods and the Son's of Abraham Dlc for CK2 because he wants to see an earlier start but mainly because he's a nice person. xD

Anyway earlier start ftw.

Thanks Mishie

 

One of our counties will be named after mishie. It's gonna happen.

 

Is it too late to join? I have all the DLC, and you can put me where ever you want in the order.

 

That will be fine. The only issue was if this took a month to start then play, as I'll be at sea for a bit after March.

 

You can be at the end of the list. That okay with you?

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Also, in other news, something weird happened in my current CK2 game. Okay, so I was playing as the Count of Kleve and eventually ascended as the Holy Roman Emperor, thanks to lots of factioning and opportunistic marriages (had to kill my wives, who were usually duchesses within the HRE). As you can see in this map, I had managed to conquer most of Italy and took a sledgehammer at France to break it up.



However, look who jumped at the opportunity of a broken up France. LOOK.



...

What the fuck? What the hell is "Alba"? Also, are you telling me that the AI Ireland (I mean, the capital is in Ulster, out of all places) somehow conquered Scotland, England, and Brittany? Seriously, this game freaks me out every now and then. How am I supposed to take down that behemoth? And has something like this ever happened in your games?

 

Alba is the scottish name for Britannia like Prydain is its welsh name.

I have never seen the A.I. Create this Empire before.

 

Yeah it was a Scottish creator if it was Alba. One of my best games.

Some serious politics happening there for the AI to manage that.

 

It's Scottish and Irish I think. (Though really Irish should be Hibernia)

 

Okay, that's four votes for Byz from the players (me, Equinox, Grinning Lizard, klackerz) and two for Spain (Aekiel and Banta). We will be starting as a Byzantine Count in the Old Gods start, trying to restore the Roman Empire.

I'll start on Monday and upload the screenshots/save game in our new "Restoration of Rome" thread. The final order is: Zeitgeist->Grinning Lizard->Equinox->klackerz->Aekiel->Banta.

Rules:

Iron-Man Mode
Name your heirs after the next player
Screenshots (F12 for Steam. Very easy to do), although AARs are not compulsory
Hardest difficulty level available, with no save-scumming. Whatever happens, happens.

 

If you'd like to make your game even harder you should pick the hellenic religion.

 

I can see it now. Landless, no viable heirs, -4000 gold and some sort of terminal illness by June 870.

Bring it.

 

Don't forget Roman culture.

 

Lol, I'd love to join in but I'm far too awful at the game to do so without ruining everything. Despite 24 hours of game time on record I still have absolutely no idea how to actually achieve anything.

 

Aekiel: Don't hate me after my save game

 

Don't worry, I don't have a voodoo doll on my desk. Waiting.

 

The trick is, as with anything, to have very little else going on for a while.

 

So I need some advice. Started my first Ironman playthrough as the Duke of Athens in the 867 start. It's been about 100 years and I've managed to become King of Bulgaria as well as own quite a few duchies within the Byzantine Empire itself. The problem is that the Empire is currently at High Crown Authority and I can't actually expand within its borders. All my expansion has by necessity been into Italy, where I'm starting to hit Karling megablobs or into slavic pagan lands with their obscene attrition.

There have been several revolts against the Emperor, but without fail they've all been crushed. Even when the faction screen shows the faction as having as many as 90% of the Emperor's forces, the stupidity of the AI means that none of the rebelling lords combine their forces and it's easy for the Emperor's 10K doomstacks to go and crush them piecemeal. At present I can raise about 6000 troops and probably finance a few thousand more mercenaries if necessary, but the Empire has expanded to the point where it commands at least 30K troops. Is there any way to either reduce CA without rebellion or actually win a rebellion if it comes down to it?

 

IME I doubt you can do it without a rebellion.

To win a rebellion? Make sure you start the faction. I have no interest in trusting the AI with deciding when to attack. Not much to it otherwise tbh. It's mainly canvassing iirc, bribe and use your spymaster and chancellor to win dukes.Unfortunately the sow dissent tool was completely worthless last I checked so ignore it. A war might help, if the dukes rebelling aren't from your faction then the Emperor is weakened relative to you.

Also, you might want to already have a good healthy heir in case you end up as a guest of the Basileus.

 

form a faction your self and wait long enough for you to force the emperor to approve without war i.e when the emperor has no reserves. It works for France (sometimes) but obviously the scales are vastly different. The only ways for it to work in my experience are through a rebellion you are leading after a major war, preferably with the mega stack of the day joining you because you have marital ties to them. Or the faction option. wait until there is a succession war, that's usually the best time.