help: gaining large pieces of land

[ajoin007]

Hey,

i started as the duke of Flanders in the 1066 game. Now i expanded quite a lot; i get northern holland and my land stretches out till Lens and Troyes. I also changed liege so my liege is the emperor of the HRE because the king of France was to weak to protect me.

Now my question is how can i get large potions of land in a relative small time span. I know i can search claimants for each seperate county and attack that county and install the claimant as my vasal but that would take ages to usurp the french king title and that doesnt ever give me the opportunity to attach the HRE and claim emperor myself.

Now i know some of you would say that i should try to get good marriages with my heir but no princes of France would ever want a marriage with a duke's son. So what do you guys propose i should do?

[riknap]

Hey,

i started as the duke of Flanders in the 1066 game. Now i expanded quite a lot; i get northern holland and my land stretches out till Lens and Troyes. I also changed liege so my liege is the emperor of the HRE because the king of France was to weak to protect me.

Now my question is how can i get large potions of land in a relative small time span. I know i can search claimants for each seperate county and attack that county and install the claimant as my vasal but that would take ages to usurp the french king title and that doesnt ever give me the opportunity to attach the HRE and claim emperor myself.

Now i know some of you would say that i should try to get good marriages with my heir but no princes of France would ever want a marriage with a duke's son. So what do you guys propose i should do?

request invasion?

[Zarky]

If you're unable to request an invasion, then all you're left with is combination of inviting title claimants (which is hard for duke as you can only press county claims), marrying and fabricating claims. And the process is further slowed down by the restricted money you have as you can't constantly create or usurp duchies.
Then of course there are holy wars but they're not an option in your situation as those provinces suffer for a long time from different culture and religion. And they'd be very distant.

[Kagernaut]

Now i know some of you would say that i should try to get good marriages with my heir but no princes of France would ever want a marriage with a duke's son. So what do you guys propose i should do?

Yes, and it would certainly be odd if a prince of France did agree to marry a Dukes son

Sorry, had to.

But really it seems that inheritances and pressing claims from those inheritances is going to be your best bet.

[moldeh]

Yes, and it would certainly be odd if a prince of France did agree to marry a Dukes son

Sorry, had to.

But really it seems that inheritances and pressing claims from those inheritances is going to be your best bet.

Get an invasion on France (like riknap said) and grab yourself that king title. Then, request another invasion on the HRE and use your newly conquered kingdom to conquer the germans. BAM, you're huge.

[Zorlond]

Now my question is how can i get large potions of land in a relative small time span.

So you need huuuuge.... tracts of land..?

[Von Hilficker]

In some cases it might be possible to get a heretic on the throne of France by using assassinations. This is useful as you get holy war against heretics. However the circumstances in which it would be practical to do so are rare.

[Zarky]

In some cases it might be possible to get a heretic on the throne of France by using assassinations. This is useful as you get holy war against heretics. However the circumstances in which it would be practical to do so are rare.

You can increase the chance of heretic religions appearing by lowering religious authority in any way you can, but you can't control how it spreads and who converts.

[riknap]

So you need huuuuge.... tracts of land..?

link rectified

[fisherking]

If you are a Duke marry heirs to duchies. If you have multiple Duchies those princesses will marry you.

Look for a good Holy War to start. Soon you may end up with a kingdom. When you have a few everyone will be trying to get a claim on them and begging to marry your daughters. Of course once they have a son, your daughter is going to die.

I had a claim on a duchy in Spain then fought Holy Wars for the rest of the place. Now the Emperor begs to marry every daughter that comes of age. It beats only gaining a county at a time.

Also, if you have claims to more than one county in a duchy, if you can get them to attack you, you will get the option to “Press all claims” if you don’t accept his first peace offer. That may give you enough to usurp the Duchy title and go to war for the rest of them.

[ajoin007]

Get an invasion on France (like riknap said) and grab yourself that king title. Then, request another invasion on the HRE and use your newly conquered kingdom to conquer the germans. BAM, you're huge.

ok thx all for the replies but this seems the easiest option but how do i get the pope to doslike the king of France because most of the time the invasion option doesnt work.

[riknap]

ok thx all for the replies but this seems the easiest option but how do i get the pope to doslike the king of France because most of the time the invasion option doesnt work.

assassinate the king... his heirs. and his heirs, until you have one with traits the church doesn't like.
while doing so, try to get on the good side of the pope (be a crusader... you could always white peace after... hopefully).

[moldeh]

assassinate the king... his heirs. and his heirs, until you have one with traits the church doesn't like.
while doing so, try to get on the good side of the pope (be a crusader... you could always white peace after... hopefully).

It's easy to get +100 relations with the pope even if you have free investiture. Like riknap said, get the crusader trait, avoid the 7 deadly sins and then just send him a gift and ask for 1-2 indulgences and you're at +100. Once you're at +100, all you need to do is assassinate the french king but you don't need the new king to be that bad, at +100 relations with the pope you just need 1-2 deadly sins and low diplomacy. Also, remember to get France first because it's easier and because if you get the HRE first you'll be bigger than France and it won't work. The most important thing to remember when invading is to capture ALL the holdings because then you can have counts instead of dukes and they'll all be of your culture and have good traits.