Re-trying CK

[Yakman]

Alas, in Italy most provinces are coastal which means they land everywhere and can target all the counties and even duchies they want, I can't hold the whole coast as demesne! They already took Calabria, Lecce, Taranto and Consenza... Even if I strike a white peace thanks to an event, they attack soon after and rampage through the country because they have so many men... And it's impossible to get these territories back in negociations.
Can I hope for Revolts ? Do muslims have a demesne limit which means that maybe the king of egypt will create a duchy of Calabria that I could re-annex / vassalize ?

to your earlier question about morale.

yes, morale is EVERYTHING. You can have an 8,000 man army routed by a few hundred if they have no morale. Morale is the big slider when units enter battle that goes from green to red. it is also shown when you look at a particular unit. Do NOT enter battle if morale is lower than say... 85%. It's a waste of time and men. You will lose.

You don't want to hold the whole coast as demesne - the egyptians might not declare war on your vassals, so their territories remain safe havens for you to retreat and regroup.

the egyptians have problems at their own at various points. when the crusades happen, they usually end up with repeating waves of knights smashing at them. the turks or the qara khanids cause them trouble, and sometimes their vassals go after them as well. when they are weak, you strike. when they attack you, let attrition do damage for you while you prepare a counter blow in a safe location. the most important thing on defense is to destroy armies - if they take a province or two you can always take it back after you've defeated their main forces. also, the computer is stupid. he splits his armies up when he should keep them together. destroy them piecemeal.

but first, as the apulians, you need to take sicily. if you do not do this, you are just fodder for them. palermo, messina, and siracusa are wealthy and advanced. with them, you can defeat the egyptians. without them, you are going to have a tough time.

[El Jojo]

It happened that the egyptians were smart enough to declare war to my counts and dukes (well at least the duke of Calabria) so they did take the provinces, not only controlled but they forced annexation on my vassals and there's not much I could do since by the time my army moves from Bari to Lecce (where they landed), Lecce has fallen and is part of Egypt's demesne. And they had enough troops so my armies would get tired of fighting them, hence the disastrous battles with low morale.

I'll try to watch for morale sliders, I only saw the too big sliders, one which is red the other green but I tought these were numbers of men.

To fight the egyptians I waited for the sultan to be old, he had a good heir but the second heir in line was just a kid, so I sent an assassin, the good heir died, then the sultan died... The kid had to reduce drastically the demesne and southern Italy was given to small sheiks that I could annex without having to send troops overseas.

I did expand quite a lot after that, in Tunisia and Egypt when I started to have a good pile of gold. The egyptians killed my heir, the second heir in line was a 2 year-old child, my ruler died and I had to reduce drastically my demesne! That was fun to taste my own medicine! He took revenge for the death of his brother that's so cute, but he should have been thankful after all without my little murder he would never have became a Sultan...

By the way, the child-king devastating effect may be a bit too strong, after all a regency would be called for and even if it should be a trying time and limit your possibility, reducing you to a 2 province demesne is harsh.

[Aardvark Bellay]

On Regent - thats why there is one in CK2
On morale - you can see morale clicking in your army on the left side. There you find information on morale.
The sliders are morale. As i think mentioned before you shouldnt get into a fight with morale lower than 85/75%.
You better have lots of archery, as they shot first and can reduce morale effectively before the next phase of combat.
The assasination was what you should do. We can see, you are making progress.

[El Jojo]

I made my own kind of regency, since my new king was a child I had to give a lot of titles because my demesne limit was very low, so I gave them to his mother (so he will inherit when she dies) and his uncle, so in a way that's a regency council...

I am making progress, I have a larger set of tools now, the assassination worked well but there's been retaliation (which is fine and logical!) and counter-assassinations.
I'm also getting better at breeding and managed to inherite the duchy of Ferrara and now I'm cross-breeding with Tuscany and Barcelona.
I'm even getting counts who asks to become my vassals, peaceful expansion and double kingdom (Sicily and Africa).

[Yakman]

To fight the egyptians I waited for the sultan to be old, he had a good heir but the second heir in line was just a kid, so I sent an assassin, the good heir died, then the sultan died... The kid had to reduce drastically the demesne and southern Italy was given to small sheiks that I could annex without having to send troops overseas.

that's what you do. bravo.

By the way, the child-king devastating effect may be a bit too strong, after all a regency would be called for and even if it should be a trying time and limit your possibility, reducing you to a 2 province demesne is harsh.

a regency is all about the extant powers jostling for position around a weak central figure. i think it's modeled fine.

and when you get to adulthood, all those greedy little bastards get theirs....

[Sn3ipen]

I got so much info about this game from this thread. Think I have to buy the thing so I have anything to do while I am waiting for the sequel. Thanks to @Yakman and all the others who replied.

[Nosferatu]

And what happens with the bishoprics after their bishops are dead? Are they are turning into counties?

[Veldmaarschalk]

And what happens with the bishoprics after their bishops are dead? Are they are turning into counties?

No, a new bishop will then be appointed.

[Aardvark Bellay]

And what happens with the bishoprics after their bishops are dead? Are they are turning into counties?

Only with the "Republics playable" mod/patch they turn into counties.

[Nosferatu]

Don't know exactly what to do It's a 1181 and finally I am a Papal controller and I am 37 years old king of Denmark with high piety (more than 2 thousands). The Pope declared a new crusade, which targeted Byzantion. As a good truly faithful catholic king I gathered all of my glorious hosts (more than 47 thousands warriors) and send them from Denmark to Constantinopole (or Byzantion if you like). I captured the city and I signed a peace treaty with turks and they transmitted their rights on this province to me and everything seems fine BUT I have more than 15 THOUSANDS of debt now! Is it OK after crusading and will the Pope compensate me for my traveling costs (anyway I've captured the target of the Crusade)?

[ConjurerDragon]

Don't know exactly what to do It's a 1181 and finally I am a Papal controller and I am 37 years old king of Denmark with high piety (more than 2 thousands). The Pope declared a new crusade, which targeted Byzantion. As a good truly faithful catholic king I gathered all of my glorious hosts (more than 47 thousands warriors) and send them from Denmark to Constantinopole (or Byzantion if you like). I captured the city and I signed a peace treaty with turks and they transmitted their rights on this province to me and everything seems fine BUT I have more than 15 THOUSANDS of debt now! Is it OK after crusading and will the Pope compensate me for my traveling costs (anyway I've captured the target of the Crusade)?

Yes and no. You won´t get your money back from the pope. But you will get a nice piety bonus for having captured the target of the crusade.
You did know that maintaining an army in the field is expensive before you marched across the whole of Europe, didn´t you? ;-)