English Empire 2 - A Grand Megacampaign (Part 1)

[chilldude74]

Hola!
Bonjour!
Guten Tag!
I will be restarting a megacampaign, where I will play as Mercia to England to Great Britain, from CK2 to EU4 to Victoria 2 (maybe 3) to HOI4 and beyond. (Stellaris, anyone?}

• CK2(769 (nice) -1444)
• EU4(1444-1836)
• V2/3(1836-1936)
• HOI4(1936-1948) (this is when I finish my world conquest)

This will be a mostly gameplay focused AAR, with some roleplay from time to time.

Questions and answers -

"Sir, why are you doing CK2? Ever heard of CK3?"
I do have CK3, but...
Paradox had the bright idea to change the start date from 769 to 867 (Bastards!), and I don't want to lose campaign time for better graphics. Also, I have no idea how to play CK3.

"You do know Mercia is really easy and you'll rule Britain in a hundred years, right?"
I'm not that good at the game. Deal with it.

"What happened to English Empire 1?"
The savefile got lost around 815. This time, I turned on Autosave to Cloud so that should help.

Chapters -
Setup and Prologue (below)
Chapter 0 - Setting Up (below)

SETUP AND PROLOGUE
For rules, I changed some things. Again, I'm not that good at this game.
- Very Easy mode (I discovered this after the end of English Empire 1. Oops?)
- No demesne limit (I guess some time traveler introduced modern administration. This is why there's no achievements.)
- Ironman (no achievements though)
- No shattered retreat
- De jure drift faster (50 years)
- Defensive Pacts off
- Other stuff that I can't be bothered explaining

This is Mercia in 769.

We are ruled by Petty King Offa, who will soon go down in history. We have several tributaries, specifically East Anglia, Essex, Kent, and Hwicce. Our realm has several dukes that we need to get rid of ASAP. Yes, this is still a North Korea Mode AAR. What were you expecting? Our main rivals are Northumberland to the north and Wessex to the south, who we will beat up very soon, I promise. The tributaries will help with them and the pesky dukes in our realm, but we will need to conquer them eventually. We need 17 English provinces to unite England, and we only have 10, so that needs to be rectified. But first, we have some things to do. You can see that... NEXT TIME!

 

[HistoryDude]

I liked the idea the first time, and I'm happy to see it return.

Let's see how Mercia does.

 

[chilldude74]

Chapter 0 - Setting Up
As with any CK2 campaign, we need to start off by settling our affairs. We immediately have 5 notifications to yell at.
- 1 Title can be created: Lancaster. Believe it or not, this is a lie. We can't create Lancaster right now - we need 198.6 gold and we only have 66.575. (Paradox, can you please just make this a round number?) When we do get richer, this is definitely something we should do. Along with free Prestige (good for revocation and title claiming), we get a free claim on Northumbria to use! Next.
- Pick an Ambition. Immediately, I see "Become King of England", which is exactly what I want to do. You can fabricate a claim on all of England(!) if you have a good enough Chancellor, and it costs less to create England. Plus, you get 500 Prestige for completing the mission. So, that is what I pick.
- Pick a Focus. Mr. Offa here decides on a Hunting focus. Firstly, it offers a better Health stat. We need Offa to have good health because if he were to die, we would lose our tributaries, making large wars significantly harder as they provide troops. Also, we get extra Martial, which will help when fighting wars(I think).
- Minor Titles. Specifically, we need to have a Designated Regent for our GLORIOUS REALM!!! (insert earrape music here). Jokes aside, the Designated Regent takes over Mercia if something happens to Offa. We choose Queen Cynethryth (Anglo-Saxon names were weird, I guess) since due to existing ties with the Royal Family, there is less of a chance we get jumpscared by the new King of Wessex or something taking control over our realm.
- Idle Council Members. Time to deal with this one. We have a very good Chancellor (19 stat!), who we send to Wessex to get a claim. Taking Wessex from Wessex (say that 3 times fast) will weaken one of our main rivals, as well as give us access to the English Channel which might be useful later. Our Marshal, Steward and Court Chaplain all go research tech in the capital Leicester, while our Spymaster, once again, goes to study technology in Constantinople.

We have three things to wait for. Getting 50 prestige (we have 30 now) will allow us to revoke some titles, giving us more control over our realm and eventually creating the perfect NORTH KOREA! When we form Lancaster, we get a free claim on Amounderness, which we can reclaim from Northumbria to weaken them. Finally, we're getting a claim on Wessex, which will help us deal with the eponymous state of Wessex now and in the future.

We also immediately change from Gavelkind (the bane of any CK2 player) to Primogeniture, which will allow our realm to not die upon Offa's death. We also start a campaign for Large City Levies, which we will need to support well. At the moment, upon Offa's death, the kingdom will be inherited by Ecgfrith (I hate Anglo-Saxon names). Hopefully he doesn't die early like in English Empire 1. If you think this chapter is basically the same as English Empire 1, that's because it is. Trust me, things will get spicier later on. For now... we will UNPAUSE!
...next time.

 

[HistoryDude]

I wonder how long it will take England to form...

Do you have gavelkind? If so, wouldn't forming Lancaster run the risk of splitting the realm?

 

[Chac1]

We also immediately change from Gavelkind (the bane of any CK2 player) to Primogeniture, which will allow our realm to not die upon Offa's death.

Have a variety of questions, and agree with the note from @HistoryDude above.
Did you use the console to switch out of gavelkind or a mod that removes it? (Yes, it may be a nuisance but it accurately simulates how these kingdoms shattered apart after the death of some leaders.) Or is moving out of gavelkind simply your goal?
Is there a narrative reason you have decided to skip that step?

 

[chilldude74]

Have a variety of questions, and agree with the note from @HistoryDude above.
Did you use the console to switch out of gavelkind or a mod that removes it? (Yes, it may be a nuisance but it accurately simulates how these kingdoms shattered apart after the death of some leaders.) Or is moving out of gavelkind simply your goal?
Is there a narrative reason you have decided to skip that step?

No, the option to go to Primogeniture was available immediately. I honestly don't know why, it's probably something to do with the settings I messed with. However, I do recall the only setting that affected ironman mode was demesne limit

 

[chilldude74]

This AAR is on hiatus until January due to North Korea.
We won't be back soon!