Post your CK2 empire!

[Meneth]

Kind of disappointed that in all these pics, Byzantine Empire is still in tact.

Lets do some analysis on that:
First image, 1310, Byzantium has splintered quite a bit.
Second, 1121, Byzantium is dealing with a civil war it seems.
Third, 1177, can't see all of it, but looks like it is in a civil war.
Fourth, 1279, lost most of its Balkan holdings. Civil war. Lost some of its eastern holdings.
Fifth, can't tell the year but the Golden Horde is there, so probably 1250ish. Huge Byzantium.
Sixth, 1101. Player-controlled Byzantium
Seventh, 1179. Byzantium not visible.
Eight, 1121. Intact Byzantium.
Ninth, 1140. Player-controlled Byzantium
Tenth, 1453. Byzantium destroyed by player.
Eleventh, can't tell the year. Byzantium not visible.
Twelfth, 1138. Civil war. A few holdings lost, a few gained.
Thirteenth, 1138. Byzantium not visible.
Fourteenth, 1148. Mostly intact Byzantium. Can't see Anatolia. Has lost a few Greek holdings.
Fifteenth, 1148. Byzantium has grown a bit.
Sixteenth, 1168. Byzantium not visible.
Seventeenth, 1327. Civil war, most Eastern holdings lost.
Eighteenth, 1145. Byzantium not visible.
Nineteenth, 1310. Huge Byzantium
Twentieth, 1183. Small civil war. Mostly intact Byzantium.

If we then discard any where the player was involved or Byzantium cannot be seen:
First image, 1310, Byzantium has splintered quite a bit.
Second, 1121, Byzantium is dealing with a civil war it seems.
Third, 1177, can't see all of it, but looks like it is in a civil war.
Fourth, 1279, lost most of its Balkan holdings. Civil war. Lost some of its eastern holdings.
Fifth, can't tell the year but the Golden Horde is there, so probably 1250ish. Huge Byzantium.
Eight, 1121. Intact Byzantium.
Twelfth, 1138. Civil war. A few holdings lost, a few gained.
Fourteenth, 1148. Mostly intact Byzantium. Can't see Anatolia. Has lost a few Greek holdings.
Fifteenth, 1148. Byzantium has grown a bit.
Seventeenth, 1327. Civil war, most Eastern holdings lost.
Nineteenth, 1310. Huge Byzantium
Twentieth, 1183. Small civil war. Mostly intact Byzantium.

So what we see here is that in almost all the remaining 12 images Byzantium is dealing with civil war. One image with heavy splintering. Two where it has lost most of its eastern holdings (and another where we cannot see them).
Overall, 5 out of 12 I'd consider mostly intact. Three where it is facing major problems. Most of the images are too early to really tell anything.
Of the three images past 1300, it has splintered heavily in one, lost its eastern holdings in the second, but is huge in the 3rd.

Overall it seems the main problem is that the civil wars are too easily resolved, as while Byzantium seems to always descend into civil war, little happens as a result. The Muslim factions surrounding Byzantium should be more opportunistic, and the internal Byzantine factions should probably be more likely to vie for independence.

 

[Meneth]

You really did WC by 1205 without mods or cheats ?
I can't do it even with cheats i guess.

Probably at least moderately modded. One holding is giving 3.25k troops, which I'm pretty sure is impossible in 1205 without using the Train Levies mission (which the image shows he isn't)
There's also the Large Castle City he's building, which is somehow taking 52143 days, rather than the 1460 it takes in vanilla.

Edit: It is almost definitely modded. I constructed every military building in a holding up to tech 4. Still just 2.7k soldiers.

 

[Meneth]

I have 3K soldiers on my capital, but it's ALL buildings + Warrior Cult

And he's Catholic, not Pagan, so he can't have that many soldiers.

and i'm already almost in 1300. But i really can't see how you can get WC by 1200 without mods or being really gamey.

Going heretic would be one way, but I guess that'd go under 'gamey'. Another way would be pressing claims upon every single king title (and first giving a single county in your realm to the claimant), but again, probably counts as gamey.

 

[Meneth]

If he gives a count to someone and press a "King" claim the king will end up independant, he would need to do it duchy by duchy i guess.

Not if you're an emperor. In one HRE game I conquered Poland, Hungary, and Scandinavia by pushing king claims.

 

[Meneth]

f10 or f11, i forgot which of those makes a screen and which generates the map.

f10.

 

[Meneth]

Where'S this map from please? I wanna post my WC (bout time), but I aint got no clue how to screenshot this.

Press F10. It'll save whatever map-mode you have open. The image will be in Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings II\screenshots.

 

[Meneth]

Poland blobs because the queen mother is Rurikovich, so when she dies they get all her Russian claims.

Yeah, it's the same reason Mauretania always expands into Spain, Hungary occasionally goes crazy in Russia, and the HRE sometimes takes Aquitaine and Norway.

 

[Meneth]

• catholic all the way - never heretic - never mongol - never pagan
• holding all creatable empires - holding all creatable king titles except Finland (working on it)(and yes, I got Al-Andalus)

That's not possible...

 

[Meneth]

Which part? I can upload save games, but whats the point?

Being catholic for the whole campaign, yet creating/usurping Al-Andalus.
Unless you somehow got a claim on it via marriage?

 

[Meneth]

I revoked some duchies in Al-Andalus, gave them to a Muslim vassal, spammed him with gifts (he had the necessary piety), he created the kingdom, REVOKE!

Ah, that's clever.

 

[Meneth]

I dunno. I don't think Serbia would hold that much land directly. I think it would be above the demesne limit.

Direct vassal mode doesn't show demesne, it shows direct vassals to the leader of an independent realm, and all vassals below them. So if England for example, like above, is vassalized to the HRE, you'll only see it as one big blob.
Serbia is probably a vassal of the Byzantine emperor.

 

[Meneth]

I thought murchad I born in 1027 how he still alive

The numbers depend on the title. As his primary title is now Byzantium, he's the only 'Murchad' that's been emperor, so thus he's the 1st.

 

[HottestRod]

So I saw the community challenge on the Facebook page, which stated to start as the west African pagan Mahtarid count of the Canarias and to form the HRE.
It was a fun journey, gotta say that much.

Kept playing for a while after that, all in Ironman mode:

Also, I got an immortal ruler who got murdered eventually. He did have an interesting life - started out Shia muslim (the Caliphate uprising ate up the Umayyads and steamrolled southern France, Germany and Mauretania), converted to a catholic, and then switched to messalian just for the heck of it. Also, seduction is kinda fun:

Gotta admit, the game did feel quite ridiculous towards the end. I kept going because of the Protector of the Holy Places achievement, but I guess my next session is going to be more down-to-earth.

Well played, well played! glad you liked our challenge!