Getting Started

Personally I would choose the King of Poland over the Earl of Dublin, your realm is fairly stable, but big enough to wage war and experiment with different things.

n00bypl4y3r said:

Personally I would choose the King of Poland over the Earl of Dublin, your realm is fairly stable, but big enough to wage war and experiment with different things.

Click to expand...

An inland Byzantine Duke could also be a fairlly good start, generaly Byzantium is stable these days.

For me the Basileus himself was a good practice start back before ToG. A very powerful state with a lot of resources to play with and also a powerful enemy to challenge you. In the earlier start date Basil is even more powerful compared to pretty much everyone else except the Caliph himself so playing him is a great way to learn things since it allows you to make mistakes and not get smacked down because of it.

Ireland is a good learning experience but a bit limited... unless you expand at breakneck speeds, you'll still be outmuscled by the HRE and other big boys even in the late game

On the other hand you're shielded from the craziest stuff happening on the continent, so it's a good sheltered learning environment

whatever else you do, dont start as an king or something. you really really dont want to deal with factions right of the bat - your first game should be a game where you dont focus on winning too much, but more on getting stuff in your head. its simply sooooooo much easier if you understand what a vassel is, how a duke looks and what a casus belli is. feel free to ask on the forums if youre stuck on something.

as for where to start, ireland is always good as long as it isnt 867. ireland is generally shielded from the more wacky stuff, and uniting the isles after a while is always a nice feeling. stay away with a 10 feet pole from the large religious borders(spain, pagans, steppes). while theyre certainly Intresting, its easy to screw up and lose quite a bit of land or lose all your titles. tot tier lieges have it hard as well as the historical setting tends to have them in an rather weak position. especially france and hungary tend to get in civil wars very often.

if you think you get the interface and the base of the game, an german count is often a good optioin. it really teaches you the marriage and claim game, and how vassels work, which helps manage your own vassels. once youre decently large, you can often even become emperor without too much trouble. if you want to learn how to time wars, win them , and use your allies, spain as leon or castille is always a good option, but beware that it might turn out very wacky if youre lucky/unlucky depending on which way it gets wacky. soemtimes navarra steamrolls half spain, and you can ally and try and uinherit them. sometimes the muslims unite under mauritania, and then youre screwed.

dont let me stop you from doing a starting you like, but i highly advise to do at least some form of these starts, as they are really good at teaching the basics - interface, the diplo game and the war game.

I actually would recommend starting as a king - being independent means you don't need to deal with a liege. My first game was in 1066 as the king of Poland and it was a fairly straightforward start. This is some patches ago, but I think factions may be easier now - certainly I had far more revolts as Poland than in my latest Norse game. IMO, the pluses and minuses for Poland 1066:
+ Young king with great stats & traits
+ Independent realm that is stronger than any of your neighbors except the HRE who don't generally have a casus belli to attack you (don't marry any princesses into their noble families though).
+ Not so large that it's hard to manage.
+ Pagan neighbors for easy Holy War CBs, although they are defensive pagans so a tough fight in the early game.
+ Fairly stable realm. My worthless brother immediately started plotting to have me killed as he's the heir until Boleslaw has kids, but he's rubbish so it's easy to deal with him. Otherwise I had no internal problems until the gavelkind split
- Gavelkind. Probably the worst succession law for a new player.


As for DLC, a lot of it only unlocks the ability to play as certain types of characters so I wouldn't recommend getting it for a first playthrough. Old Gods allows an earlier start date, but even a 1066 start is reeeeallllly long so that isn't exactly critical. Legacy of Rome (I think) unlocks retinues which change the military game quite a bit and cut down a lot of the levy micro for big realms because you can win one-sided wars with just the retinue. Sons of Abraham adds new events for Christian rulers. So, I'd say those two are the DLCs that would really improve your first game.

I would advise starting an independent King, or as the Emperor of Byzantium because many of the decisions a computer liege can take will seem arbitrary and frustrating, and you need to know how to manage your expansion so that you are powerful enough to resist your liege with allies, but not so powerful he wants to start stripping titles. It's a real headache.

Byzantium is a good proposition in the Old Gods start - you have a large and homogeneous realm which is powerful and will not collapse if nudged, you have nearby small Muslim rulers to conquer and a good starting ruler. You also have a campaign which will guide you by the nose to restore the Roman Empire, which is useful for goal setting and measuring progress.

As to DLC - the major ones add the following mechanics:

Old Gods:

-Earlier start date, including the Byzantine Empire in a dormant position.
-Pagans - including Norse and Persian varieties.
-Norse raiding.
-Adventurers - a major reason to want to be a large realm, as these guys can be a pain otherwise.

The Republic:
Add Republics as playable - I don't know if you can create Republics without it (vassal Republics are a good source of gold and Council members).

Sons of Abraham:
-Adds lots of religious stuff for the "Abrahamic" religions.
-Holy warriors for all religions
-The ability to borrow money.

Legacy or Rome:
-Adds Retinues
-Byzantine/Roman Campaign

Rajas of India:
-Makes India playable
-Allows you to convert to the culture/religion of your capital province.

All DLC add something meaningful to the base game, but if I had to choose it would be Legacy of Rome followed by Sons of Abraham.

Start as the duke of Barcelona 1066. You are powerful independent with lots of neighbouring chatolics and muslim to test the games features on.