Chapter 2 - Genoa
I go to replace my Lord Spiritual (Chaplain), and find that all the replacements suck. It's a bad sign with your best candidate is slow. This is a consistent problem in smaller courts, though later I'll show some useful ways to get better candidates.
On January 6th, 1067, my chancellor manages to fabricate claims on Genoa. That was fast, and it's followed up by an instant declaration of war. No point waiting. Luckily, numbers win here - Genoa has more buildings (for more troops), but I have 2 counties.
On April 4th, my Chancellor dies in battle in Genoa. Early on, you sometimes have to let important people lead a flank, due to lack of decent leaders. Later, you can afford to keep them safe. I replace him with my father (diplomacy of 11) for lack of anything better.
10 days later, the battle is over - numbers win when both sides have crappy leaders.
Luckily, I have enough troops left to actually siege - it would have monumentally sucked otherwise. An attack by a last minute Genoan army happens to trigger an event that gives me +1 martial, bringing me to 6.
In July, my duchess asks to pass Minimal City Taxes. If she wants to be poor, I'm OK with that. Over in Genoa, another attack by 10 people helps Oberto upgrade his education (net of +2 martial)...I'm OK with this!
August brings a tithe event from my Steward (13.73 gold), which will help me once I start expanding buildings. As of patch v1.03b, your army will rarely cost more than your monthly income...the same cannot be said for mercenaries.
The months pass sitting outside Genoa's walls, shooting dice and throwing darts, until victory! That doesn't mean I'm necessarily done - Genoa has 3 other holdings (barony/castle, bishopric/church, and another city), but it does mean that my men can celebrate with diarrhea...because disease strikes at the same time.
In this case, however, I hold his only holding (the rest are vassals), so the Doge is forced to agree to peace and hand over Genoa.
With the fall of Genoa, I have some problems: I can't create the Duchy of Genoa because my liege is a Duchess. If I were directly under the King, I could create the duchy. Genoa's primary holding is also a city, which means I'll have a huge malus to tax income...on a city that has a base tax of 23.4. I'll deal with that in 5 years - conquering a city results in massive penalties for 5 years, along with extra penalties for 10 and 20 years if the holding is wrong culture or religion. For now, I'll just have a big 0 on the balance sheet from Genoa.
Over on the Ambition tab, I now have a new plot: Kill Countess Barbara of Monferrato. I get this because she's Orthodox and Zealous, so we hate each other with a passion (-78 relations). I start the plot for lack of anything else to do (it gives +1 intrigue), but the plot fizzles over time (I can't get enough backers). You can see that after almost 2 years, I can't get the plot power past 43%, and I need 50 to even try. Plots have scope - so I cannot ask the Emperor to help me whack a courtier - in this case, only other denizens of Monferrato can get involved. One way to try and get more people in on the plot is to send your chancellor or spymaster to increase relations or create a spy network, but that requires some luck. Larger plots have a larger scope, which can help if you have alliances.
And to close out the chapter, Bavaria revolts. Guess how I knew there was a war on?