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I play as Galicia and have a hell of a time dealing with the Jihad, which happens in about 30 days from starting. I've learned that playing in Iberia is no joke, and you are the under dog, so you really can't make too many mistakes. Patience is a virtue, and playing defense is paramount in the very beginning. I defeated 2 separate Jihads in the first 2 years, involved alot of cheap mercs at the right time (worn down enemy). In fact, I'm going to start another game tonight, just to touch up my skills.
No doubt. Everything really has to go your way down there. I tried to play as Castille, but generations of bad heirs made it almost impossible to expand. I'm gonna give it another try in the future.
 
As the Byzantine Emperor (and part-time king of Italy and Sicily), you spend a lot of time revoking the privileges of your vassals, or outright imprisoning and murdering them, or both. Especially if you're a Catholic Italian surrounded by Orthodox Greeks. The situation has improved since all my ambitious dukes have mysteriously disappeared: when I first inherited Byzantium, my first Emperor hadn't even put on his new clothes before half the dukes threatened to declare war on him. Luckily, the mercenaries and holy orders the late King of Italy had hired, along with careful diplomacy (throwing around gold and titles) ensured that the rebellion remained a local affair. (tip: never unpause the game on succession until you've dealt with everyone and everything, and always keep a large cash reserve if you've got lots of vassals).

While in the process of consolidating my realm, converting people to the Catholic faith, slowly becoming a popular and respected Basileios, some hag of sixty years objected to my Italian ways when she inherited the duchy of Anatolia, what with being an ambitious Orthodox zealot and all. I quickly set a plan into motion to... remove her. My supporter at her court was the Spymaster, a Maghreb baron (there is tons of Maghreb Catholics everywhere, you have no idea), who provided me with, lo and behold, 256% plot power. What.

Soon enough, three separate events fired up at the same time to inform me that the young Maghrebin had apparently conceived the most elaborate scheme to kill that lady, which involved poisoning her wine, having her carriage drive off a cliff, and then drop a bridge on her for good measure. She failed to drink the wine, but the rest of the plan went through with absolute precision: she died, simultaneously, by falling of a cliff and getting crushed under a bridge. I'll have to watch out for that Spymaster, he's thoroughly earned his title.

World news: the HRE is still a major power, having lost Italy and Brandenburg-Meißen (don't ask), but acquired a huge chunk of Jerusalem from the collapsing Sushanid Caliphate 100 years ago and never lost control of it; they've also got most of Aquitaine, which has been independent for decades before being conquered by Muslims, from another crusade. The only remainder of the Spanish kingdoms is Navarra in Brittany, but recently, the Pope has taken Aragon for himself, which could make the Second Reconquista happen soon. Russia and Ruthenia are duking it out in the East. The Alptigins rule in the Persian Empire, my major rival to the East. While I was fighting over my control of Byzantium, they snatched most of de jure Armenia, up to the borders of Trebizond and Armenia Minor. They are currently experiencing a major crisis, though, and the Mongols are due to invade soon.

For a while, there has been a Sultan Sultanate, ruled by Sultan Sultan I Sultan, Sultan of the Sultan Sultanate. Sadly, it didn't last - conquered by France, then by the Almoravids.
 
Well the Abbadid's managed to create the Empire of Hispania.

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The Pope called a crusade for France and they've gotten the warscore to as high as the mids 60's but now it's slowly going back down to the 40's. Pretty sure the Pope will eventually call it off. Most of the Catholic rulers have joined except the HRE. It isn't a suprise since they're constantly fighting rebellions from inside the realm.
 
Start is 1299. The most noticeable thing in my current game is the Great Crusade for Jerusalem, called some time after the Egyptians won back two of the four constituent duchies (the King of France is also currently King of Jerusalem) which they had lost in the previous crusade. This last crusade started in 1340, and it is now 1378, thus beating the longest historical crusade roughly six-fold. I am playing as the Anatolian Turks. The war score quickly shifted to the 30%s, and has gradually crept higher. It has lasted so long that there have been two popes and I think four Egyptian sultans involved in the war; other nations drop out and rejoin as the decades pass. While the muslim and christian world is occupied in this bloodbath, I have nibbled away at the ERE, which ceased existing about a hundred years before real life, as well as juicy Sicily, parts of North Africa and the Middle East, and am slowly making inroads into a massive Hungarian kingdom that periodically has large-scale revolts. The latest position:

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Wish I had screenshots, but I'm stuck in a hotel away from my (not crappy) computer until tomorrow...


Playing as House Baduspanid, who start off as Shiite Persian vassals of a single county in the Seljuk Sultanate. After one of the most brutal early game campaigns I've ever had, I finally carved out enough land for myself to proclaim the Baduspanids as "Sultans of Mesopotamia", despite the best efforts of a Turkish emperor (Persian Empire was formed, then the new ruling family, the Bayezids, turned back to Turkish) who revoked two of my duchy titles. I also was forced into converting to Sunni at some point, in order to try and prevent the Sultans and Emperors from doing just that.

I took that revokation to heart, and after I aided in putting a Persian Bayezid on the throne of the Empire, the entire realm started to collapse until only myself and a couple of Emirs remained loyal. I decided to say "frak it" (after reclaiming almost all my lost lands in all the turmoil), and declared my own independence as well, taking about half of what remained of the failing empire with me. We won out easily (the Empire's armies were already decimated by other rebels), and a pair of recently independent counties gladly swore fealty to me after they won their independence, including the last piece of land I had lost decades ago to revokings.

Then, things got really interesting: my Court Imam force converted me to Zikri (and it should be noted that, once upon a time when this ruler was still just my heir, both him and I were Zoroastrian briefly). Rather than eat the sizeable piety penalty to convert back, I've decided to go along with it and quickly declared on some of my weaker neighbors, including the southernmost piece of de jure Mesopotamia which went independent over a century ago, and then for a pair of counties in Syria. It's been pretty wild so far being a heretic, and all but one of my vassals have accepted Zikri as the true faith. My next goal is going to be to take the bits of the Emirate of Baghdad that I haven't snagged yet, as they've recently sided with the Sultan of Persia in his war for the Persian Empire.

An absolute blash of a game to play so far, and it's been an impressive challenge to undertake (200 years until I'd built the power to break free, which is just staggeringly long even for a one county start). I'm thinking I should continue to face off with my former Sunni friends until I can forge a new Persian Empire, free from the taint of the Sunni faith and Turkish overloards.
 
Started as king of Denmark in 1066. All game I have focused on conquering the north and I just formed the Scnadinavian Empire. However the empire starts with gravelkind succession and my emperor died before 10 years had passed. So lost a couple of highly upgraded provinces to insignificant heirs that I am now trying to get back any way I can. This included assassinating my 10 year younger uncle which sadly granted me the kinslayer trait, but since my emperor became possesed maybe he is destined to become a real villian :) Just hope the empire won't fracture now that I just created it... During my reign I had a genius, but orthodox ruler who reigned for about 70 years, this made the entire kingdom orthodox.

I think my next goal is to expand further east with holy wars, I don't really want to mess with the HRE unless I got at least france or the byzantine as allies. Been ignoring muslims all game, and see no reason to start a war there.

Power players in the world is France who own entire de jure France and Spain. HRE who owns ALOT, assimilating kingdoms to the east, they now border the golden horde / ilkhanate and some wars are starting there. Byzantine Empire is still going strong, but havn't really expanded since the start. Muslims seems powerful, but not as much as other games I've played, they own nothing other than their own de jure holdings (which still is alot). England has been making internal wars entire game and scotland owns entire ireland.
 
I also was forced into converting to Sunni at some point, in order to try and prevent the Sultans and Emperors from doing just that....

Then, things got really interesting: my Court Imam force converted me to Zikri (and it should be noted that, once upon a time when this ruler was still just my heir, both him and I were Zoroastrian briefly). Rather than eat the sizeable piety penalty to convert back, I've decided to go along with it and quickly declared on some of my weaker neighbors, including the southernmost piece of de jure Mesopotamia which went independent over a century ago, and then for a pair of counties in Syria. It's been pretty wild so far being a heretic, and all but one of my vassals have accepted Zikri as the true faith. My next goal is going to be to take the bits of the Emirate of Baghdad that I haven't snagged yet, as they've recently sided with the Sultan of Persia in his war for the Persian Empire.

And to think there are people who criticise Henri IV for having malleable religious opinions! :)
 
The last time I left off in my current game as the Kaiser of the HRE, I had just finished giving out all of my spare duchies and and two kingdoms to lower my votes to appease my vassals, as I was recently elected Kaiser. My game started as the Duke of Saxony. In the beginning, I was just innocently conquering my neighbors until eventually the present Kaiser managed to raise the crown authority high enough to to not allow me to fight my fellow dukes and counts. After a crusade and a few wars, I (still the Duke of Saxony) held an English province, about half of Wales, and portions of Ireland and Scotland. Then, during the second crusade (the first crusade was a victory, but it was quickly taken back by the Muslims in the area), the former Kaiser had been killed in battle. I was alt-tabbed at the time and I had forgotten to pause the game. So when I tabbed back in I was greeted with this message:

ohyescropped.jpg


At first I reacted with joy, then with dread as I remembered all the horrid independence wars sure to come, but for some reason only few of my vassals truely disliked me. I immediately gave out the 7+ duchies I held, formed four kingdoms and gave away two of them, so I didn't hold too many elector titles. Now, my plans are to take back the kingdom and few duchies that successfully managed to declare independence from the HRE during a previous succession, finish my conquests of the British Isles, then relax in my throne room for a few decades.
 
So I start in September of 1066 as Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire, and I'm only a hundred years in. I decide that, as Kaiser, I should have a bit more authority over the land, and kick up to Low Crown Authority. Everyone is a bit miffed, but everyone still goes with it. Then I realized, 'What good is it to have this authority over land I haven't truly consolidated it?' so I forge a few duchies, revoke some titles, and ensure that House Salian stays nice, large, and well-connected. So what if I have to deal with the constant plots of all Central Europe? I'm the goddamn Bat-- I mean Kaiser!

Alas, not only does my first Kaiser die, but so did his prime heir (in a mighty suspicious accident, no less)... But House Salian shall remain strong! Especially when I have the favor of enough vassals to ensure my house keeps getting elected Kaiser! So our fresh, new Kaiser decides to create a few kingdoms, take a few territories, quash some foolish rebellions, and keep the family alliances looking pretty. Besides, what good is an emperor when he has no kings to rule over!?

Then came the excommunication...
And the subsequent spiteful establishing of an Anti-Pope...
Well, it took some time, effort, and lots of bodies, but I overthrew Pope What's-his-Italian-face with Pope What's-his-German-face! Praise be to God! But, the good Kaiser died of an illness sustained during the Siege of Rome. At least he was able to survive long enough to see the new Pope established.

So yet another Kaiser, and I realized that these kingdoms are awfully petty. So it's only right that I convinced them to approve Medium Crown Authority. But, wouldn't you know it?, another dead Kaiser from another illness. Syphilis, this time.

So I'm more or less to where I am now: The Salians still rule, but Kaiser and Kings are now two separate people. My damned nephew. He goes ahead and jolts Germany and Italy's Crown Authority to high. OK, that's not so bad. I mean, who wants some filthy Frank or Dane or (heaven forbid) Swede to rule over these German lands? Not this Kaiser, that's for certain! Sure, tensions are high, but there are infidels who need conquering! (Plus, it's not like their petty vendettas will interfere with my petty vendettas... much.) They'll be dispatched, plots will be uncovered, plots will be stopped, plots will be joined, people will be jailed (or killed, if they upset me enough). Life goes on. And as long as life goes on, so shall House Salian. If I have one regret, so far, it's that I didn't try and press my claim on the entire kingdom of France, when I could have. But I'll have my day, soon enough. Besides, my son just married the Queen of Aragon!
...Though perhaps a suspicious accident should befall her heiress sister, just in case...

Business, it would seem, is about to pick up.
 
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Well i started a game as bourges and I ended up all over the place.

Picked up some land in aquitaine. then i matrilinerally married the duchess of flanders(not sure why she let that go through). had her killed and my son inherited flanders. a few years later my character died and I inherited flanders. Then out of nowhere I inherited sicily(I had earlier marrried an italian royal and thought nothing of it...). Took my time conquering the land in southern italy and made the decision to attack spain...in hindsight I probably should have gone after northern africa instead of spain but at least now i own half of spain. Also I've been gavelkind the whole game. Gavelkind is very underrated.

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First time I've played as the Kingdom of England starting after William already won. I've consolidated the Kingdom, given the lands away to faithful Norman lords in my court, and have even decided to take my dear son under my direct guidance. Lord knows he's already hated enough...

And then William dies, in a war with France over Normandy's control. And while the war is pretty much won by that point, his still crappy son has now inherited the Kingdom of England, and hope is looking bleak. But through much political wrangling, he managed to not only avoid any rebellions he didn't actually want, but he has begun to expand: He has taken Cumberland from Scotland for one of the Dukes, most of Wales for a couple different counts and a duke, and has taken the Isle of Man for himself. Oh, and his wife? The dear duchess of Aquitaine? Well, she has (with minimal help from me) successfully declared independence. Their son will inherit England AND Aquitaine, and then HIS SON will inherit the Kingdom of Croatia.

Definitely will be an interesting game.
 
Started as the Duke of Brittany, 1066. The standard process of consolidation goes of pretty well, just two counts left in the north, both of whom wholly support me. After a few years France clusters when Aquitaine declares independence, which they always seem to do, and never win. It's useful for me though, as I take Anjou from France will they're killing each other. Lots of mercenaries.

And again, lots of mercenaries when William, now Kind of England, declares war against me. It's all rather worrying for a time, but we beat them back, taking his brother captive in the process. So we mill about a bit, I get a claim on Maine, and William dies of something, I forget. Possibly swords. His brother becomes kind, while still being in prison, which is quite a feat really. So, I ransom him back for huge amounts of money, then use that money to fund a war to take Maine from him. Success!

Make another duchy, and then a crusade for Jerusalem is declared. The duke is getting pretty old now, and his successor is a strapping lad, so why not go off to fight in the Holy Land? We get down there and spend the whole time dodging angry Muslims and failing to get anything done. Mostly we land, take one little castle on the coast, then have to immediately run away again. Eventually I give up and sail back, and then crown my now extremely elderly Duke Kind of Brittany. Konan the Just Good for him!

And then he dies. His son, Lukaz, comes to the throne, and immediately I send him off to the Holy Land for the crusader bonus. Turns into another failure. Coming back home to Brittany, I decide to have a little holy war of my own in the Baltic, cause why not? I take the island of Saaremaa with the help of the HRE.

And now it's 1103. I'm considering claiming the throne of France. The Pope would allow it, but I'm not sure about my coffers...
 
Started my first game as Irish noble, as suggested here.

After creating the Irish kingdom during subjugating the last counties that did not join me willingly my son was killed in battle. Since he had a small son my grandson became heir. Then the king became incapacitated during battle and dies a few years later still unconsious.

After one year of regent rule the new young king married, fought a few rebelious counts and his wife became pregnant. Things were looking good. Then a carriage he was travelling in mysteriously fell from mountainous road.

A new queen (aunt of killed young king) was unfortunately already married and had two sons and a daughter. These children were from another dynasty so things were looking grim. The plot to kill her current husband quickly succeeded however and new matrilinear marriage was arranged.

Meanwhile the queen's eldest son survived two assasination attemps getting injured in one. And queen's new husband suddenly dies while still at young age, though it does not seem like someone was involved.

Another matrilinear marriage was arranged and the queen is pregnant! But the kingdom is now state of civil war with two dukes rebelling. During the campaing a daughter is born and the eldest son suddenly dies of illness.

With mercenary help the crown is narrowly defended and second son is assasinated. A few years later a son is born. We have an heir and the dynasty can continue! Too bad that half of my family is now in prison due to rebellions.

Oh and it turns out that the pregnant wife of young king (the one killed in carriage) gave birth to a son after king died. But he did not became an heir.
 
Starting 1066 as the Duke of Portucale my dinasty has had a very successful expansion history. After years of bloody warfare with muslims, one Jihad for Andalucia lost at the beggining and 2 Jihads successfully defended. The other christian kingdoms were annexed by succession and war. The Kingdom of Hispania was finally formed.

In 1248 the Empress of Hispania as taken the last province of Granada (funny how historical that was :p) and is now ready to fix the loose ends of counties and duchies in the hands of unloyal vassals, and the problem of having 2 imbecile (trait that gives -6 to all) sons in line of succession.

Then she notices France is in deep civil war and she has a claim on the French throne. Ambition takes over and war is declared. France sucumbs easily as their armies have been depleted by rebel dukes and it now falls into the hands of the Empress to finish of the civil war. While the war goes on the heir is assassinated (yes she was a cold hearted bitch but very diplomatic about it) the second dies naturally at the age of 17 (some luck after all) and the third son is poised to inherit (a very calm and gentle grey eminence). She sits back and smiles as ruler of half of Europe, and dies quietly in her contentment.

Her 16 year old son, still trying to cope with the loss of his brothers, thrown into the middle of a French civil war in which he is now the defender, takes the responsibility of running the Empire with a firm grip and by being everpresent. He goes to France to see for himself how the war goes and while visiting one of the newly acquired castles under reparation a suspicious accident takes his life after only 6 months of ruling. The Duke of Portucale is found to be responsible (irony since the dinasty started there) and he was working for the aunt who is now the new Empress of Hispania.

So here I am playing as the new Empress of Hispania, a character with 5 sins as traits, known as "The Wicked" no attribute score above 4 (really!), hated throughout the Empire (out of 46 vassals only one has positive opinion of her and it is +3). More French dukes join the civil war and as the months go by, one by one, the Portuguese and Spanish dukes also start to rebel. All the levies of the realm had been raised before so I have 50k troops and I will not be able to raise anymore anytime soon due to the rebellions. I will have to manage with them and mercenaries.

I paused, saved and was done for the night. Today I will continue and try to save my Empire. CKII, challenge accepted!
 
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Okay, this is a long post.

In my first saves, I finally made Britannia, conquered France, and was on my way to take over Aragon and Castile as the Dunkelds.

The God of CK2 was particularly kind and blessed my ruler, named Vladimir, with more than five sons. Unfortunately, Eliton, my first son turned out to be an imbecile so he was unsuitable to inherit my empire. But fortunately, my fourth son, Jaime, was born with the beauty trait so I was determined for him to inherit and create a new dynasty of really, really... REALLY sexy emperors.

So... after my fifth son, I've decided to kill all my sons in my conquest of Castile, rather than to assassinate them one by one or to doom them all to priesthood the moment they turn sixteen.

This is for role-play purposes only, of course. Vladimir was literally thrust onto the the throne after his brother started a war with France. He's addicted to war and conquest. I wanted most of my extra sons to die on the battlefield so that their deaths will teach Vladimir a lesson in peace, kindness, and all that fluffy stuff.

Jaime turned out to be the perfect son. I don't think he even have a negative trait on him. Meanwhile, I just tossed Eliton to a random courtier. I planned for him to die as soon as I can.

Due to my war with Castile, I was distracted from this goal, killing my other sons who all had high martials, until an event popped up out of nowhere. As if to tick me off, Eliton, the idiot with zeros in every stats, produced a bastard through an event. I rolled my eyes at that, and had the baby assassinated. Then I sent him to lead an army of a few hundred men against three or so thousand. It took more than once, but I think he was either maimed or wounded in the third try.

I sent him to attack the other army one more time, and I literally cheered when I saw that he had become incapable! Not only that, he was even imprisoned by Castile. I thought his days were numbered after that.

Oooooo-oh boy, how mistaken I was...

Despite all odds, he survived until I won the war with Castile. The other side returned my incapable son to me when they surrendered. If I had just assassinated him after that, Vladimir would be a much happier man, but I didn't.

He endured.

And then he got married.

This is another event, of course. That event that said two courtiers had eloped and asked me what I wanted to do with them. I didn't pay attention to these at all. I did what always do, leave the couple in peace since all Dunkelds sovereigns are hard, but kind at heart. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that some woman actually fell in love and eloped with my dumb, maimed(?), and incapable son. And she wanted a daughter!

My mouth literally dropped. My determination to kill him kinda went away after that. Then I started to feel a bit guilty when I thought about how I treated him. In fact, I started to wonder if I should let him inherit to make up for his crappy life.

This storyline seemed much better than the one I planned for my ruler, but was I willing to jeopardize my empire, throw away whole generations of work, not to mention my son with a beauty trait, to do this?

I don't know. As of this post, I have yet to decide. I haven't played that save since. I mean... three hundred years is a good place to stop, no? Blame me for being overly sensitive.

By the way, are incapable people... er... capable to making babies? I'm a bit curious. If he produce a halfway decent heir, I might let him rule just for a bit, but he's been married for about a year and his wife is still as barren as the Sahara.

I suppose since she'll have to do all the work in that relationship, it'll be harder than usual.
 
Started in 1066 as the independent Count of Dal, between Sweden and Norway.
I sweared fealty to Sweden right away, and a few months later, get elected as the favourite heir of the Crown with only one county.
To make sure I inherit the throne, I succesfully plotted to assassinate the current King.

As the freshly elected monarch, I spend my whole reign fighting my vassals to increase my Demesne size, and had to to dealt with the powerful Duke of Uppland Erik 'The Heathen'.
When I was finally done with the civil war, the surrounding pagans were almost all decimated by my powerfull neighbours: Norway, Poland, Russians and ofc, the HRE.
My short living successors fighted successively the Danishs and the Norwegians to get control of Prussia, Pomeralia, Skåne and Finland, leading to the supremacy on the Baltic Sea.

What happened next wasn't really expected...
I married my unlanded heir to a daughter of the King of Rus, getting in the way, a powerful alliance.
A few years lated, the heir of the Russian throne was slain by an anonymous plotter and my daughter-in-law became at the moment, the heir of the throne.
She was crowned the following year, meaning that my grandson would be the heir of both kingdoms.
However, I couldn't educate him, neither giving land to my son, both were now part of the Court of Rus.

When my son inherited the Kingdom of Sweden, his own heir was already a Russian Catholic...(Borned Swedish Catholic, but educated by his Russian Mother)
Me (King of Sweden) and my wife(Queen of Rus) died in a two year interval meaning that my Son would inherit both Kingdom approximatively at the same time.
My son had then to face a huge civil war. The lords of Rus hating him for being a Zealous Catholic, and the lords of Sweden for being a Russian.

Almost every Dukes in both kingdoms revolted against me, but thanks to my Demesne, I managed to sign a truce with most of them. In the end, I lost the Duchy of Skåne and half the Duchies in Russia.
When I finally got peace in my Kingdoms and reconquest some of the provinces I had lost, my ruler was in the mood of some hunting. Of course, he was tragically maimed by a Stag, and died of his wounds the following year...

Another big wave or revolts, only Russian Dukes this time (My King had recieved a proprer Swedish education), but I crushed it with an iron hand in a few years. Only the superduke of Vladimir managed to get his independance.
40 years later, almost every provinces and their rulers in Russia are now Catholics, Danemark has been destroyed and Norway is doomed.
Time to create the Empire Of Scandinavia, but the Mongols are coming...

More to come.
 
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Playing as Eastern Roman Chersonesus. I've spread into Kavkaz, ending my expansion with Abkhazia. I brought the Armenian Doukas into my realm through marriage and assassination, but I'm kind of at a loss as to how next to proceed. My original plan was to marry into the Cuman elite and change my culture through education but the Cumans are awfully, resistant to my diplomatic efforts. I'll probably try forming Taurica or taking over Alania I guess, until the Mongols tear me apart.
 
I had previously stated that business was about to pick up for House Salian of the Holy Roman Empire, and pick up it did. I'm now approximately around 1200, give or take ten years.

Long story short, I had a few wars, participated (and won with highest participation) in a crusade for Sicily, and somehow married into quite a few kingdoms. Last I checked, House Salian was still ruling Aragon --which was mentioned prior, and somehow still surviving in a Muslim-dominated Iberian Peninsula... and in a love-hate relationship with my magnanimous Kaiser. Well, now I've married a few children and kinsmen/women around, have control of the Kingdom and Duchy of Sicily, married my sons into the head and heir of the Byzantine Empire (how/why they accepted without matrilineal marriage, I'll never know...), and have a kinsman ruling Croatia. Hell, I even married a bit into those damn Franks, and my daughter is Queen of France! Perhaps I should start taking advantage of Normandy's constant rebellions...

But, like winter, the Mongols are coming... Business just won't stop picking up, it would seem...
 
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Well I started in 1066, this is a taste of what i'm going through:

I started as the Count of Lucca Anselmo. Vassal of Matilda's, she broke away from the HRE we won independence her Bohemian Premyslid son becomes Duke of all Matilda's land. Then an enterprising Doge of Pisa thought it would be funny to get him excommunicated. My mom was his sister, so I say sure lets press her claim on Tuscany. Win that war Mom goes from Regent to Duchess. I don't even have time to disband the mercs I had hired at the time, before the Pisan dude decides screw it, excom the new ruler of Tuscany. So I say okay lets depose mom because it was either that or lose Lucca to the Genoans. I win that war and now mom becomes regent again, she's not happy about being put back in that position by the way.

Her nephew then becomes Duke of Ferrara and Modena and Mom acting as regent says screw it if she can't be Duchess of all of grandma's land, then her son will be Duke of Matilda's lands and decides to take Ferrara. Then deciding to break the truce we take Modena. However, since Christian rulers are a pissy bunch they excom me a little boy barely even 12 yet, and Mom goes repenting to the Pope this time, thankfully he remembers that grandpa was a good ruler and gives me absolution and lifts the excom. Now I'm the indy ruler of all of Matilda's former holdings, and a Crusade gets called. I win the Crusade for Jerusalem, but unfortunately recieve 0 land, because the Norwegian King of England was already technically King of Jerusalem as well. But its fine he's married to my aunt anyway.

So at the moment I'm a Duke of four little Duchies in middle Italy with HRE to the North and the Fatimids to the South in Naples and such. I have no where to go, so I'm just sitting here looking at the map, pondering whom I should bend the knee too first. But while i ponder that I have to catch my AAR up to that point, so sorry for posting a spoiler to anyone thats been reading it ;)