This.

After a conquest spree only ever have one top tier title if you can help it. Eg. One king title if you're a king, or one emperor title (and as many king titles as you like) if you're an emperor, so that your realm isn't split on death. Set your dynasty members as dukes in your expanded realm. Never raise crown authority above medium so that your vassals stay gavelkind.

Get elective succession. Because your dukes are of your dynasty, it doesn't matter who wins the vote. Your dynasty remains in control. You get +5 with your dynastic vassals.

I think that Create New Kingdom makes your captured duchies instantly de jure which is great.

When seating new dukes try to use distant dynasty members so that inbreeding between ducal families is less of a concern generations down the track.

 

Or be a real man and play the game dukeless, fuck those guys.

 

You don't have a choice if you're past your vassal limit.

 

Why the hell would you ever do that? Dukes are awesome until you become an Empire, then it's all about King-level vassals.

 

Would creating a Kingdom convert me to feudalism? If not, Petty King = Ducal level?
I'd rather stay tribal and have a nice province like Gowrie to make my capital. Lots of empty spots, as I understand, translate to better tribal settlements.

Sorry about all the questions. I used to be addicted to this but just recently picked it up again.

 

Tribal kingdoms are fine. I think you need Absolute Tribal Organisation for the "become Feudal/Merchant Republic" intrigue decision to appear.

Yes, petty Kings are actually dukes.

More empty holdings is better for tribes. I think it gets you larger armies.

 

It means that I've never had to worry about a rebellion ever since none of my vassals are strong enough to fight against me, especially since the only king-level vassals I have are vice-royalties that only own counties that are spread hilariously far apart so that they can never consolidate power.

 

I haven't had to worry about a rebellion since I figured out how to manage duke and king vassals. Also, my army's are larger and I get more money. Less bs intrigue too.

 

Keep your vassals gavelkind to stop them accumulating heaps of power. Their lands break up on death, spread between heirs.

I avoid vassal kings because kingdoms don't break up on death, even with gavelkind.

Viceroyalties are neat, but difficult to get unless you start as Byzantine Empire.

 

When I start as Scotland I can normally get to Empire with my first or second king, plus if you don't give the viceroyalty any of their dejure counties the title doesn't keep it after their death which is pretty nice as well.

 

I thought viceroyalty needed a lot of work to achieve. Absolute crown authority and researching to a high level of legalism, maybe. I've never acquired it normally. I've started with it in the ERE obviously and also cheated my way to it to play around with it. I always thought it was hard to reach.

 

So I've been thinking. Since my computer would rather shoot itself than play Civ 5, I'm locked out of that multiplayer game. It does, however, play CK2 fairly well. Anyone up for seeing if my laptop explodes if I play a multiplayer game of it?

 

So, I've been playing like mad since I got this game in the secret santa (Thanks Nauro!)

Recently decided to try and re-create the formation of England by playing Wessex in the Old gods start....

Start it off playing as Aethelred or w/e his name is, marry a chaste woman with high stewardship (so I can keep the duchy of Kent and Wessex), and parcel out the rest of the counties that are over my demesne limit.

I'm basically setting this up for Alfred to take over. In the intial Viking invasion, Jorvik takes most of Northumbria, East Angle survives somehow, and I come out feeling very weak.

Fast Forward like, 30 years. I've conquered East Angle, Aethelred is still somehow going strong (He's been my main commander in like, 2 more prepared invasions, one of which was aimed at Wessex itself), and the Vikings are just falling apart.

Apparently Alfred the Great isn't happening in this runthrough, although Aethelred the Great is pretty lulzy too. (3000 prestige and climbing, and he's still kicking...)

Given that Aethelred's heir is Alfred (his own children having been assassinated/died to sickness), I'm starting to think Alfred's only role in unifying England will be signing the papers.


Note: I'm aware I'm bumping this thread from the briny deeps, but I felt the need to share the frustration of expecting your king to die, only for him to decide to become a Viking slaying god.

 

I know that pain. In one of my previous games it was a waiting game between my Byzantine emperor and the caliph. Both were at 62 and I waited for the caliph to kick the bucket so I could invade his lands in Holy War. The caliph died and thanks to that I could declare a new war against his heir withouth prestige penalties. I declared the war and two days later my emperor died - damn it.

Anyway, anyone is playing around with Historical Immersion Project mod? IMO it's broken, mostly the military part. As Byzantine Empire I currently can field 500k soldiers. The second largest military power can produce something around 35k - I have more in my personal retinue. Granted, expect for England and some small parts of Germany I control the entire former provinces of the Roman Empire and I'm installing Greek culture and Orthodoxy in Mali and Abyssinia.

 

I recently started playing this game after a long break thanks to their performance fixes. I don't even remember this game running so smooth. I might be having the most fun I've had in this game ever. Started out as count of Chartress (Capet) right now 100 years in to the game and I'm the king of France. There are only 2 duchies left in France (and Frisia) with no Capet ruler so I'm never losing the throne even with elective succession.

I've been playing with conclave and it has been pretty good. It's a much needed difficulty raiser as the game had been even more easy before. Also reapers due has been great, there's nothing like grooming the perfect 25 dip genius heir and then having him die to small pox at the age of 18.

 

a friend and I just got back into this with a challenge, which i feel i should issue to DLP as well.

the goal is to start as Charlegmane, and conquer the world as fast as you can. Every county under 1 empire. Whoever has an earlier completion date is the winner.

Round 2 then begins with exporting the game to EU4, and then continue the conquest, again with a "whats the earliest date" goal.

We were kind to ourselves, and gave us 1 reload per ruler (because Charlemagne dying in his first war kinda sucks).

So far, i've just stolen the byzantine empire, and now own most of western europe and the baltic sea, but the Threat mechanic is really slowing me down. Its just now 1000, and the Jihads started early thanks to the armenians successfully doing a kingdom revolt. Go figure, this game is very weird.

 

In my most recent playthrough I played as the Count of Gwynned and attempted t recreate the Kingdom of Wales (and possibly even the Kingdom of Britain) within one life. I had gotten so close, managing to get my leader's stewardship score to a ridiculous level by a combination of meticulous planning and luck that allowed me to basically claim and take pretty much everyone in the parts of the Kingdom that were based in the mainland. Finally, when I turned my gaze to Cornwall and declared war, it seemed victory was in my grasp. I'd destroyed their armies, and had been sieging their capital for weeks. It seemed success for the formation of the Kingdom was at hand.

And then my King died and everything turned to ash. Well, that was a nice lesson on how to get declarations and pumping my realm's Stewardship to insane levels. On to the next game, then. I just need to determine whether I'd try uniting Italy again or perhaps finally trying my hand at being a Viking.

 

Read the last 40 pages or so, bought the game and I`ve really enjoyed the learning curve. However, just when I thought I understood the rules, something strange happened and I hope someone can tell my why.
I have created the Kingdom of Ireland and married (matril.) one of my many daughters to a guy with strong claim to the duchy of Wessex, hoping to get a future claimant of my dynasty. Suddenly i get a message saying the guy (now known as the Usurper) is my new vassal as the Duke of Wessex. How did this happen? He was a landless noble at my court, now he is my vassal, how did the king of England suddenly lose a duchy?

 

It's been a while, but I believe that is your answer. That and through the unpredictable magics of the game engine, no doubt.

 

Yeah, but I`ve tried matr. marrying people before and then helping them with their claim, and unless the claimant was already a landed vassal or of my dynasty I did not get a new vassal.