Post your CK2 empire!

[Karlington]

This is a great tip, Karlington. Thanks for sharing.

You're welcome.

If I ever decide to try again for the "Never Start a Land War in Asia" achievement, I'm definitely going to try to form the Empire of Rus along the way. If I deactivate the Horse Lords DLC, the Steppe should be tribal the whole way from Lithuania to Mongolia. Based on what you said above, the Rus Emperor I should be able to quickly convert tribes to feudal settlements, which would help greatly with supply and levies when moving East.

Let me know if I'm thinking of this correctly.

I believe so, yes. As you mentioned turning off Horse Lords will ensure all the nomads become tribal, and with the special ability to upgrade tribes into castles at tier 1 hillforts instead of tier 4 you should be able to save some time and money.

Though remember this:

Yeah, it's a nomad-free lifestyle for me!

Faith is reformed, and holy order already vassalized. Same culture, head of faith, de jure territory - no trouble at all.



Empire of Rus and Empire of Russia are two separate things, actually. You need to hold Rus in order to form Russia, which is the one that grants the special ability - and Russia is huge. It's pretty much what I hold on that screenshot (minus a few bits in the west) plus everything up to the Ural mountains. Including Crimea, which usually means having to go up against the Byzantines - although by the time you hold all the rest, you're probably strong enough to handle them anyway.

You can see the requirements here.

It's only the empire of Russia that has the special ability. The empire of Rus does not.

I can't let this opportunity pass without mentioning that I have a guide to forming the Russian Empire in my signature - or here, if you don't have signatures showing.

 

[eastcoastceojam]

Empire of Rus and Empire of Russia are two separate things, actually. You need to hold Rus in order to form Russia, which is the one that grants the special ability - and Russia is huge. It's pretty much what I hold on that screenshot (minus a few bits in the west) plus everything up to the Ural mountains. Including Crimea.

It's only the empire of Russia that has the special ability. The empire of Rus does not.

I can't let this opportunity pass without mentioning that I have a guide to forming the Russian Empire in my signature

Thanks to both of you for pointing out this important detail. I was guessing that Rus and Russia were the same thing, but that notion couldn't be more wrong.

Below is a screenshot from the 867 start. In addition to the highlighted kingdoms making up the Empire of Rus, you would also need the following kingdoms to form the Empire of Russia:

Empire of Rus - Chernigov, Galicia-Volhynia, Novgorod, Ruthenia, Vladimir
Empire of Russia - all of the above, plus Nenetsia, Perm, Volga Bulgaria, Khazaria, Alania, Crimea. You also need Russian culture.


To get the "Never Start a Land War in Asia" achievement, I need to start in Western Europe. I was thinking about using the Duke of Pomerania in 867. He is the easternmost ruler in the CK2 Western Europe region. He is already Feudal, has a great cultural retinue, and close to the Romuva holy sites. I could switch religions, reform the Romuva faith, and then use Pagan county conquests and Holy Wars to fight my way across the Steppe. If I select Proselytizing when I reform the faith, that should help spread my religion fairly quickly post-conquest.

But at some point, I will need to get Russian culture to form the Empire title. How does that work exactly? Will it spawn automatically once lands of East Slavic culture (Ilmenian, Severian, Volhynian) convert to a reformed faith? Or will I have convert my own culture to East Slavic first, then wait for an event/decision to become Russian?

 

[DPS]

But at some point, I will need to get Russian culture to form the Empire title. How does that work exactly? Will it spawn automatically once lands of East Slavic culture (Ilmenian, Severian, Volhynian) convert to a reformed faith? Or will I have convert my own culture to East Slavic first, then wait for an event/decision to become Russian?

It doesn't matter what faith the provinces themselves are; they'll start flipping to Russian as long as the ruler himself (or herself) isn't an unreformed pagan. But you don't actually have to reform the faith first, because they'll also start flipping if the ruler isn't of East Slavic or Finno-Ugric culture.

 

[ThePettyQueen]

To get the "Never Start a Land War in Asia" achievement, I need to start in Western Europe. I was thinking about using the Duke of Pomerania in 867. He is the easternmost ruler in the CK2 Western Europe region. He is already Feudal, has a great cultural retinue, and close to the Romuva holy sites. I could switch religions, reform the Romuva faith, and then use Pagan county conquests and Holy Wars to fight my way across the Steppe. If I select Proselytizing when I reform the faith, that should help spread my religion fairly quickly post-conquest.

Another potential start would be any Germanic pagan - there are a few starting in Western Europe in 769 (Saxony), 867 (British Isles & Brittany), and even some in 936, although they're weaker - and use the coastal county conquest to gain a foothold in the Baltics and expand rapidly. Once there, you can switch to Suomenusko or Romuva for easy reformation if you want to avoid gavelkind. (Romuva, of course, doesn't even need to be reformed to get eldership.) If you choose to be Norse, you could combine it with the Norse East achievement - you'd just have to swap back to Norse culture after forming Russia, which should be easy enough if you have eldership.

 

[jonjowett]

So, what are we looking at here? Player character is a Christian duke, and the screen is centred on the Islamic kingdom of Egypt... Hmm...

Maybe if we look at Egypt's vassals?

Oh. Oh dear. Egypt's about to have a very bad time, isn't it?

---

This was almost certainly the longest I've ever played as a duke. Nearly 200 years as a Coptic Miaphysite vassal of the Muslims, growing internally and using China to destroy both the Abbasid Empire (about 100 years before the screenshots above) and the multi-king of Egypt.

At first, I relied on fabricating claims with my Chancellor - but this was very slow. During this character's lifetime, I discovered a much faster strategy: JD border war to take one county; hold the county personally; use a plot to get a claim on the duchy; give the county away (to keep demesne size down); murder the current duke (to delete the truce). This guy went from 6 duchies at age 17 to 18 duchies at age 75 (above).

Immediately after unpausing, I created a custom empire with Imperial Administration and gave out all of the duchies as viceroyalties. Easiest transition to viceroy empire ever!

TL;DR - Playing as "That Annoying Vassal" is surprisingly fun!

 

[Rockphed]

So, what are we looking at here? Player character is a Christian duke, and the screen is centred on the Islamic kingdom of Egypt... Hmm...

View attachment 650718

Maybe if we look at Egypt's vassals?

View attachment 650717

Oh. Oh dear. Egypt's about to have a very bad time, isn't it?

View attachment 650715

---

This was almost certainly the longest I've ever played as a duke. Nearly 200 years as a Coptic Miaphysite vassal of the Muslims, growing internally and using China to destroy both the Abbasid Empire (about 100 years before the screenshots above) and the multi-king of Egypt.

At first, I relied on fabricating claims with my Chancellor - but this was very slow. During this character's lifetime, I discovered a much faster strategy: JD border war to take one county; hold the county personally; use a plot to get a claim on the duchy; give the county away (to keep demesne size down); murder the current duke (to delete the truce). This guy went from 6 duchies at age 17 to 18 duchies at age 75 (above).

Immediately after unpausing, I created a custom empire with Imperial Administration and gave out all of the duchies as viceroyalties. Easiest transition to viceroy empire ever!

TL;DR - Playing as "That Annoying Vassal" is surprisingly fun!

Did you call down China on your liege, or was that serendipitous?

 

[jonjowett]

Did you call down China on your liege, or was that serendipitous?

First, I called China to dismantle my liege's liege. Then I called China to dismantle my liege. (And I did lots of other nasty things in between.) I was officially the worst vassal imaginable. So much fun :-D

(In every run, I make a point of acquiring as many wrong-religion tier-5 artifacts as possible. In this run, I got 3: axe of perkunas, yada tashy, and {one other I forget}. Each tier-5 artifact gives 10k grace and invasions cost 5k, but dynasty changes and/or golden ages mean it's better to use the remaining 5k grace on scholar-bureaucrats etc than to try to save it for a century.)

EDIT: I always knew I wanted to call in China to dismantle all of my liege's kingdoms, so that I could recreate them myself and then immediately create the custom empire. (I also went Catholic for a day so I could make the kingdom of Cyprus for my pet MR - another reason to stay duke-tier.) I obviously could have won an independence/claim war at any time in the last century or so, but the surrounding Muslims would have caused problems afterwards. (Eg: Abyssinia-Kanem-NAfrica is a Muslim Child of Destiny; Persia is owned by the Shia Caliphate; most of India has been conquered by a random adventurer from the king of Egypt's family; and the Umayyads took both France and Germany.) In the end, I pressed the nuclear/Chinese button because it was no longer possible to fabricate claims using plots - there weren't enough adult non-zealous non-content vassals to get 3 supporters. And because I had one of the largest armies in the world, so I felt fairly secure.

 

[Sunshine Moon]

Yeah, it's great fun playing as a far too powerful vassal.

 

[bcw2311]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the glorious Empire of Air.

This started in 769 in the county of Daura. Air was the first duchy I was able to found in 797, and the Kingdom of Air was created in 849. The Kingdom of Ghana was taken 34 years later, before Mai Seydou II reformed the African religion in 899, having just taken the final holy site of Draa from the Muhallabids.

With Air now dominating sub-Saharan Africa, the kingdoms of Mali, Songhay and Hausaland followed; Kanem could have been formed too but as it was split in half by the creation of Air, I aimed to get at least one half to drift across as its de jure area was now quite silly looking.

The Empire of Air was created by Grand Saltigue Ijaba in 939 and the Kingdom of Nubia, reduced to two duchies as the majority had drifted into Abbasid Egypt, followed later. The now titular Empire of Mali was the last title to be added before Ijaba’s successor, Bawo, feudalised in 977. This final screenshot was taken the day after Bawo’s death. The red county at the bottom of the map is my tributary, whilst the similar shade lilac strip on the Mediterranean is part of Sardina and Corsica.

Ultimately quite a straightforward run, I assume benefitting from being on the edge of the map, hence the story above isn’t too exciting. I had visions of seeing Air written across all of Africa but having completed my three main objectives (reform, custom empire and feudalise / MR), picked up a bloodline through Bawo and not being brave enough to pick on the Abbasid blob, a lot of the challenge and interest has now gone for this run. And with there being so many other challenges I still want to take on in CK2, it feels the right time to call it a day.

The only interesting item of note elsewhere in the world was the Umayyads converting to Zoroastrianism fairly early on. The Iberian peninsula stayed remarkably peaceful for quite a long time, but Karling France and the Abbasids have now chipped away at them.

Which leads me on to the Kingdom of Maghreb that you can see on the map. As the Umayyads were Zoroastrian, now a Mazdan heresy, I was confident it would be a straightforward fight when I declared a Great Holy War for Maghreb in 975, but even then won it far too easily.

With Bawo being by far the biggest contributor to the war and Grand Saltigue, I had assumed (not given any thought otherwise) that Maghreb would become my latest addition. I was therefore rather confused, and still am, when I saw that it had been awarded to this lady:

I don’t know if I missed something in terms of having to nominate a beneficiary like with the Crusades, I certainly didn’t see any pop-ups, but if it is going to go to another character, I really don’t know why it was someone I’d not heard of and a member of the same dynasty that already owned the title, even if she is Hausa and reformed African. Any suggestion or pointers would be welcome.

Thanks for reading

 

[jonjowett]

I don’t know if I missed something in terms of having to nominate a beneficiary like with the Crusades, I certainly didn’t see any pop-ups, but if it is going to go to another character, I really don’t know why it was someone I’d not heard of and a member of the same dynasty that already owned the title, even if she is Hausa and reformed African. Any suggestion or pointers would be welcome.

Pagan GHWs follow the old-style crusade mechanics: If there is a claimant of the correct religion then they receive the benefits. You can see this in the war screen (if you check) but it's otherwise not very obvious. If you can reload a save before winning the Crusade, you could kill her... or give her a barony/county and hope she becomes your vassal after winning.

 

[Karlington]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the glorious Empire of Air.

View attachment 657028

This started in 769 in the county of Daura. Air was the first duchy I was able to found in 797, and the Kingdom of Air was created in 849. The Kingdom of Ghana was taken 34 years later, before Mai Seydou II reformed the African religion in 899, having just taken the final holy site of Draa from the Muhallabids.

With Air now dominating sub-Saharan Africa, the kingdoms of Mali, Songhay and Hausaland followed; Kanem could have been formed too but as it was split in half by the creation of Air, I aimed to get at least one half to drift across as its de jure area was now quite silly looking.

The Empire of Air was created by Grand Saltigue Ijaba in 939 and the Kingdom of Nubia, reduced to two duchies as the majority had drifted into Abbasid Egypt, followed later. The now titular Empire of Mali was the last title to be added before Ijaba’s successor, Bawo, feudalised in 977. This final screenshot was taken the day after Bawo’s death. The red county at the bottom of the map is my tributary, whilst the similar shade lilac strip on the Mediterranean is part of Sardina and Corsica.

Ultimately quite a straightforward run, I assume benefitting from being on the edge of the map, hence the story above isn’t too exciting. I had visions of seeing Air written across all of Africa but having completed my three main objectives (reform, custom empire and feudalise / MR), picked up a bloodline through Bawo and not being brave enough to pick on the Abbasid blob, a lot of the challenge and interest has now gone for this run. And with there being so many other challenges I still want to take on in CK2, it feels the right time to call it a day.

The only interesting item of note elsewhere in the world was the Umayyads converting to Zoroastrianism fairly early on. The Iberian peninsula stayed remarkably peaceful for quite a long time, but Karling France and the Abbasids have now chipped away at them.

Which leads me on to the Kingdom of Maghreb that you can see on the map. As the Umayyads were Zoroastrian, now a Mazdan heresy, I was confident it would be a straightforward fight when I declared a Great Holy War for Maghreb in 975, but even then won it far too easily.

With Bawo being by far the biggest contributor to the war and Grand Saltigue, I had assumed (not given any thought otherwise) that Maghreb would become my latest addition. I was therefore rather confused, and still am, when I saw that it had been awarded to this lady:

View attachment 657029

I don’t know if I missed something in terms of having to nominate a beneficiary like with the Crusades, I certainly didn’t see any pop-ups, but if it is going to go to another character, I really don’t know why it was someone I’d not heard of and a member of the same dynasty that already owned the title, even if she is Hausa and reformed African. Any suggestion or pointers would be welcome.

Thanks for reading

It seems everything is going well for the nation of Air.

Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[bcw2311]

Pagan GHWs follow the old-style crusade mechanics: If there is a claimant of the correct religion then they receive the benefits. You can see this in the war screen (if you check) but it's otherwise not very obvious. If you can reload a save before winning the Crusade, you could kill her... or give her a barony/county and hope she becomes your vassal after winning.

Ok, thanks for explaining. It was an Ironman game so I wouldn't have been able to go back, and by that point I knew I was coming towards the end so probably wouldn't have done so even if I could. But I'll certainly bear that in mind for my next pagan run

It seems everything is going well for the nation of Air.

Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Nothing to apologise for - why do you think I chose Air rather than one of the other duchies in the region

 

[appsith]

So, I started with the goal to play an easy, tall Italian Kingdom of Sicily from 769, roleplay good catholic rules, and have fun collect bloodlines. Just to be sure, I set the rules to halved demesne, halved vassal limit. But, of course, shit happens .

Early on, some Muslim Alan nobody became the Eastern Roman Emperor . Nobody cares for more than 50 years. Then, as the Umayyad went shopping in France, the Pope called a crusade for... Egypt. I said fuckoff, and asked for advice here (thank you guys/gals btw). Ended up calling my bbf in Rome and told him let's go to Costantinople instead . Kick their ass, empty my coffers and put my brother on the throne: gg, pat my back. Got the "Venetian Guile" achievement .
But of course those fuckers cannot just survive on their own, so I come back for help, and I help my neigbors all around europe .

Long story short:

(note: the king of Jerusalem, Syria, Yemen and whatever yellow is my third or fourth cousin or whatever)

 

[Wixelt]

Yemen is cursed.

 

[Austregisel]

The AI recreated the Latin Empire after it was lost for 17 years after a successful 4th crusade. HIP + Gaea Map submod

The Latin Empire created in 1201 had the reign of the Impératrice Bourgogne for 18 years. After his death, his only daughter would inherit the empire, a greek named Ioannila Angelos who would reign for 1 month until being deposed, his son, Vsevolod Rurikovich would reign for 2 years after being deposed, this time putting an end to the Latin Empire in 1220.
In 1218, on the death of the Impératrice Bourgogne, the Royaume of Thessalonique was given to her brother, Hugues. The now Roi ruled the region until 1224, dying in an accident at the age of 30, his brother Roi of Jerusalem and Chypre inherited his kingdom and eventually in 1237 he was declared Empereur of the Latin Empire, beginning a new era.
The last Emperor, Vsevolod still alive, rules Epirus and Chrichenlant (Duchy of Athens) under the suzerainty of the Künic of Sizilien (Sicily, me)

 

[Chac1]

Thanks for reviving this thread @Austregisel .

Here is a screenshot from the last time I finished a complete game of CKII from 769 C.E. through 1452 C.E. Finished this game about a year ago.

​

Played what became the Empire of Hispania, starting as Asturias. This would be more impressive if my empire hadn't split. (Oh well! )

So at one time there was no Empire of Francia. As the emperor I tried to get my genius daughter elected as the next empress but it did not go the way I had hoped. The AI took control of the empire and created the Empire of Francia which soon split off after that next emperor died.

As for the genius daughter? She became the Queen of Scotland, a vassal of the new emperor who foolishly created two empires to rule. She ruled Scotland for more than 40 years, retaking parts of her father's old holdings, and after the empire split, she organized a rebellion to take control of the Empire of Hispania. So she did end up an empress, just of a smaller empire. Hispania was never able to regain all the lost lands that became Francia. Despite all that, had a great time playing this and still felt it was a success.

​

 

[Buttons12345]

Actually looks like there's three possible player empires, but I think Byzantium and the HRE not having names on the map gives it away. As an aside the Burgundian branch of the Capetian dynasty conquered France and started driving out the English who at the start of the campaign were at the peak of their power.

Started as the last Hauteville King of Sicily the (at the time) child William de Hauteville who managed to conquer much of North Africa and force the Holy Roman Empire and much of Northern Italy into submission forming the Norman Empire. His son an heir Tancred managed to expand Norman rule into the Levant, the Western Balkans, and over all of Northern Italy as well as the entire North coast of Africa. A famed crusader he managed to actually outstrip his father in fame. He had quarreled several times with the pope, eventually coming to something resembling an agreement, having never rejected the Pope's authority on ecclesiastical issues but managing to convince the Pope of his sincerity in ensuring the Pope's authority in religious matters. I ended the playthrough at the death of Tancred and ascension of his grandson Raymond.

The Hautevilles, and especially the imperial line are practically sacred to the population of the empire and even proclaimed to be descendants or at least relatives of Alexander the Great, a claim backed up by their successful wars of expansion waged in Asia and North Africa as well as their subjugation of two great empires.

 

[jonjowett]

I'm pretty much done with this run (ready to start a new one), so I thought I'd post some screenshots here.

I started as one of the few Jewish characters in the game (Kaleb I Gideon of Semien, 936).

After observing that my dynastic CoA was the same as the ducal CoA for Axum, and was very appropriate for the Jewish faith, my aim was to create a custom Jewish empire with that CoA. (And, of course, rebuild the Third Temple, restore the Kohen Gadol, and all that.) (I called it "Beta Israel" because, among other things, that's the real-life name for the Jewish community in Ethiopia.)

Other notable achievements:

• Threw the uber-buffed (Jade Serpent) Aztecs back into the ocean
• Tributised the world (or, at least, everyone who matters) - ie. became a Middle-Eastern version of medieval China.
• Spread my dynasty and the Jewish faith from China to Iberia
• Set up trading outposts (ie. island vassal MRs) so that I have diplomatic contact with everyone on the map
• Created a capital with higher Fort Level than Constantinople
• Earned the "Li'l Warrior Philosopher" bloodline
• "Discovered" the Fountain of Youth in Mecca
• Actually continued playing and having fun for nearly 400 in-game years

Religion & culture mapmodes:

NB: AI Jews will only convert provinces if they are zealous, which is why there's little conversion outside my lands.

Dynastic mapmode & China:

NB#1: Persia's heir is of my dynasty, but I can't be bothered to wait another few decades for them to take over.
NB#2: I only just conquered China - the emperor is my brother. The hardest part was that their armies didn't pop out where I expected them, and they were "invisible" for ages while they walked through all my tributaries.

Tributaries:

NB#1: The income you get from tributising the world is a little bit ridiculous.
NB#2: Of the independent states with the largest armies, only 4 are not my tributaries: Novgorod, Moldavia, Khotan and Syracusa. Syracusa is a recent revolt that I'm hoping Sicily will annex. Novgorod and Khotan are miles away and kinda poor, so I can't really be bothered. Moldavia is in the middle of an independence war (vs Bulgaria) and therefore can't be tributised.

Misc:

My capital with >20 fort level:

(Max level city walls great project, and both of the special buildings from bloodlines.)

My li'l warrior philosopher bloodline:

(This is surprisingly difficult, because CK2 doesn't grant you a lot of globally-applicable CBs. Especially as a Jewish character. I feel like my approach - tributising everyone - was a bit too easy and not really in the spirit of the bloodline, but it worked. Also, after all that effort, I haven't yet had a single great warrior spawn for me... ah well!)

 

[Austregisel]

The Kingdom of Flanders in 1262, its not quite a Empire yet sure xD But it had a interesting coronation for its first King

An official coronation to legitimize the position over the vassals is organized by the King who planned a great ceremony to be attended by the great nobles and important figures in the region. The ceremony would be performed by Archbishop Zdiek of Mainz.

The Flemish Coronation begins with the vows of Gozewijn von Nassau, becoming the first king of Flanders.

Some notable characters who attended the coronation were Pope Coelestinus III, the cousin and King of Bohemia, Herbert, King Bo of Sweden, Doge Hadrian of Venice and Hochmeister Casimir of the Teutonic Order, as well as several vassals recently elevated to the position of Duke in each of its regions.

King Herbert von Nassau of Bohemia was the first to stand and offer a toast in honor of King Gozewijn at the coronation feast, being applauded by the other guests after releasing his words saying, 'To our good host, King Gozewijn, may he reign for a long time!'

Lady Ada manages to catch the King's attention, and after a dance between the two, Gozewijn seemed in love with her smile, hence starting a romantic relationship between the two lovers.

For almost the entire party, Virginio de Sarteano seemed normal, but his lunatic and angry manner caused him to be removed from the hall.

The coronation is then completed after a speech by King Gozewijn to the guests.

​