How are you playing ol' Bill if you find him harder than Harold!?
Harold Godwinson & the 1066 dilemma
- Thread starter Asantahene
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How are you playing ol' Bill if you find him harder than Harold!?
Ok here's my report. Definitely a mixed bag. I jumped into the game on 26 Sept thus avoiding the Hardrada conundrum. The Norman army under Count Robert (William's bro?) invaded in Cornwall ultimately. Not having properly read all the useful guides, tips etc on choosing ground carefully I took them on with a similar sized army (having out my Lords with the best martial scores in charge)...I got trounced! Crushed and surrendered and thrown into prison.
Interestingly The Conquerer was quite magnanimous and when I was released I found myself pretty much still the foremost magnate in the realm. I curried favour with the new King and lay low and before I knew it was appointed Seneschal. Getting into my stride I them arranged a number of critical dynastic marriages with the royal family and various other potentates.
Everything was going swimmingly but then several things happened that have thrown my game into serious jeopardy:
• the untimely death of the Conquerer
• A number of subsequent dynastic wars within and without the Conquerer's family which I have not been able to keep pace with. I suddenly found that not only were none of William's family on the throne but we seemed to have reverted to a Saxon King!
• me losing most of my titles on the death of Harold because I wasn't paying attention to the fact that as a Lord rather than as a king his succession had reverted to Gavelkind!
Currently the present character has 1 Duchy (Essex) and 1 county and is in prison because he refused to hand over his Duchy of Bedford to the current King (some sort of tyrannical edict). I'm wondering whether the game is viable...
Also a couple of questions:
1. How does one keep track of the various comings and goings open the Royal throne-I completely missed the overthrow/rebellion/death of several kings. Didn't see it in the news or anything?
2. How does one have a map setting that shows only your own counties, duchies etc? Can't work it out. Nearest is direct vassals but that's not quite the same
3. Is this game worth continuing?
Despite my cack-handedness I am instantly addicted. The game is rich beyond measure and I can't get it out of my head-I just think I'm missing a couple of things
Hahaha yea looking back on it now a lot of why I did so well in that game came down to luck. As I mentioned, it was my first game & I had basically no idea what I was doing, but I somehow managed to pull it off.
If you can manage to unite Spain fairly quickly its usually easy to then pick at the Muslims bit by bit until you drive them out of Spain. If you start as Castile, try to kill the King of Leon (your brother) ASAP, as he has high intrigue & will usually try to kill any kids you have as they stop him from being your heir.
I think if you click the little star to make a character someone you follow, you will get more news about them that happens to them. Like if they die, etc.
I was the same as you, instantly addicted! There really is no other games like Crusader Kings out there. I also know what you mean about missing a couple of things. I've played for about 200 hours now & still find out new things all the time. And its still hard for me to get claims straight in my head. Like "Ok, if I marry this guy's daughter to my son will I get a strong claim or a weak claim, & how can I use that?" etc.
Haha yeah I am still trying to get my head around the difference between matrilineal and patrilineal claims-there are some good guides about that do a pretty good job in explaining but these were unfortunately read by me after firing into the game-oh well
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Almost any game can be salvaged, as long as you still have a county. My advice is, its worth continuing as long as you are still having fun. Generally titles that are lost through succession, you will still have a claim for, and if you are only on your second character, I am assuming you still have a strong claim on the kingdom of England. You can try and use factions to get your throne back.
To do this, click the factions button at the top of the screen, then click start faction. In there you should find an option to start a faction to make yourself king of England. Some people that dislike their current ruler, will join your faction on their own. Otherwise you can use your spymaster's scheme function to try and bring in others into your faction. Generally you want to use this on the strongest dukes. Click scheme and then place the spymaster on their capital.
Thanks King but I've installed the game on my Mac from Steam (I bought the PC version cut pride you see) and the save game didn't install so I've lost it. No bad thing as I really was a bit clueless
My dilemma now is how to take on the Norman army particularly with its preponderance of heavy Cav. I'm thinking avoid battle until I can get them in wooded, hilly or mountainous terrain or anything that's not an open field anyway
Thoughts anyone?
My dilemma now is how to take on the Norman army particularly with its preponderance of heavy Cav. I'm thinking avoid battle until I can get them in wooded, hilly or mountainous terrain or anything that's not an open field anyway
Thoughts anyone?
Definitely! If your lands were split by gavelkind, you probably have a good chance at reuniting them. You ought to have claims on what your brothers received, and if you have no heir of your own you'll continue playing as a brother (who'll inherit your stuff as well as his) when you die. If they have no heirs you could inherit from them too.
All Spanish kingdoms of 1066 are good tutorials, with my favourite crash course being Galicia.
I try to always keep my liege tagged as important character (using the star button next to their portrait in the character window). That way, you should get pretty good information on any major changes to their titles or... erm... consumption of oxygen.
i'd really stay away from england on your first game - far too much rebellion shenannigans going around. in 1066, its very often very unstable with rebelliosn left and right.
better first games are in ireland to get the hang of the core mechanics, and then try an frankish duke. much better than going for one of the harder scenario's right of the bat - bar "doomed" states such as beirut and alania, harold is amongst one of the harder scenario's. youre poised to lose most of your holdings, fighting against two pretenders who bth have about equal armies as you have, while they dont really fear losing anything but their claim, some gold and prestige. and even if you win, you face 2 superdukes of the same dynasty with possible rebellions and if you lose it gets worse: you lose titles, might even be eradicated, and are now an small imprisoned duke in an highly unstable england.
better first games are in ireland to get the hang of the core mechanics, and then try an frankish duke. much better than going for one of the harder scenario's right of the bat - bar "doomed" states such as beirut and alania, harold is amongst one of the harder scenario's. youre poised to lose most of your holdings, fighting against two pretenders who bth have about equal armies as you have, while they dont really fear losing anything but their claim, some gold and prestige. and even if you win, you face 2 superdukes of the same dynasty with possible rebellions and if you lose it gets worse: you lose titles, might even be eradicated, and are now an small imprisoned duke in an highly unstable england.
Well, Godwinson is a mess. Even if you win, you still have to pacify your realm by the sword, and your heirs are mostly inept. Not counting the Aetheling which will be backed up by everyone who doesn't love you (meaning everyone) just because he's weaker than you. As a first game, I'd go with the Bastard if I wanted to play England rather than Godwinson. Or the Crovans in the north, even.
Thanks guys-am giving it another shot as Harold but I do see what you mean about England being a mess of rebellions etc-really difficult-nowt like a baptism of fire though haha. After this I am going to jump into one of the Spanish Jimena kingdoms c1066 methinks 
In fact no I'm gonna ditch England at this date and have a go at Castille. Especially as I love Spain and Spanish culture so much and I'm wanting to see El CID kick some moorish butt! :laugh:
At the risk of going even more OT, let me just say that in my Castile game I kept El Cid kicking ass & taking names til like 1110. He's a beast!
Precisely why I'm going to launch into it. Love the story and legend of El Cid. Just been watching Quill18's YouTube video of him playing Castille and he criminally underuses The Cid! I don't intend to make that mistake!