A few questions and some advice sought

[dstroy.all.mnst]

So I started a game back in 1.03 or 1.04 days - would play with it on and off along with other games. With 1.07/1.07b I'm having major issues keeping my nation state together. (Originally Norway - now the Kingdom of Sweden incorporating the Kingdoms of Norway, and Finnland including Lappland).
Questions:

1. Is it better to create Kingdoms or destroy them for both stability and law uniformity? Is there a way to build an Empire that isn't Roman/Latin/Byzantine?

2. I have no idea how to deal with all the faction strife - I can either let them go their own way (which in previous patches led to my becoming a rump state surrounded by much more powerful states that nibbled on me until I was toast) or there's war. I've tried imprisoning (and even executing) the plotters but that just seems to make my spymaster become one of them (no matter who the spymaster is). I'd love some advice.

3. I'm currently sandwiched between the HRE and the Golden Horde which is rapidly moving in - the only buffer being a fairly strong Hungary and a spread out but not entirely toothless Poland. The HRE in this case is Fraticelli - the Pope called a crusade on them that collapsed utterly (I was too busy with my civil wars in Italy and eastern France to do anything - the Kingdom of France looks like swiss cheese and other than a brief moment of Austria leaving the HRE no one had the strength to do anything to their 12k stacks). Not sure how to keep the center to hold long enough to put together a coalition to destroy either the Golden Horde or HRE (I have a ton of allies though).

4. There doesn't seem to ever be a way of being a state with multiple religions (for example peaceful co-existence with pagans). Am I missing something or is that just how it is?

5. I don't get the retinue/standing army thing at all. Is there a dummies' guide or can someone explain it to me in little words?

6. Wrong type of holding (or red holdings) in demesne - I've forgotten what to do here and how to alleviate that.


Thanks for reading all this. I love the flavor of this game but it's very deep despite seeming deceptively simple in comparison to HOI, EU (which I've admittedly never quite grasped despite trying).

 

[Willownen]

1. If you destroy the kingdoms, and wait for De Jure shift for the duchies (this takes 100 years), you can eliminate the "desires the Kingdom of X" from your vassals, but you lose some prestige. 1.06 patch gave some new Empires, including Scandinavia. Check your De Jure section on what you control. I belive to create Scandinavia, you need to hold 80% of De Jure Norway, Sweden, Denmark and possibly Finland.

2. Don't know, since I haven't been able to play 1.07 yet.

3. Try to make alliances with either of them, and then use them to fight the other. Don't really know how to tackle the big powers, I've just tried to stay out of their wars, and when strong enough, stop caring so much about their doings. You should have a decent change to do something about HRE though, seeing as they are heretics.

4. Multiple religions are bad. Everyone who isn't the same religion as you will hate you, and every such zealot will hate you even more. Thus weakening your nation by giving you less troops and taxes. Just convert everyone to a single religion.

5. Again, 1.07 stuff, but I've read something. Retinues are troops that you can have around constantly, and you can control what kind of troops you have. The amount of retinue depends of your max levy size, and then a percent of that, that is derived from the average tech level of Military Organization.

6. Right click on the city or temple that you wan't to give away, and then select the icon that is located at the bottom left. That creates a new lowborn vassal to take care of that particular holding. Alternatively, you can gift holdings to people in your realm. Find the person you want, and from diplomacy you can find the option to give landed title. Note, if you create a lowborn to take over a temple, you don't get the piety bonus that you gain by giving it to someone through the diplomacymenu.

 

[Killzerslaul]

1. Is it better to create Kingdoms or destroy them for both stability and law uniformity? Is there a way to build an Empire that isn't Roman/Latin/Byzantine?

I'd say generally forming the Kingdoms is better. Particularly because yes, there are several formable de jure empires now. Scandinavia being one of them. (they are formable same way as Kingsdoms just you need 80% instead of 50% of the provinces)

2. I have no idea how to deal with all the faction strife - I can either let them go their own way (which in previous patches led to my becoming a rump state surrounded by much more powerful states that nibbled on me until I was toast) or there's war. I've tried imprisoning (and even executing) the plotters but that just seems to make my spymaster become one of them (no matter who the spymaster is). I'd love some advice.

Improve your relations with your vassals, send you spymaster to their provinces (it has a chance of persuading them to give up), and keep a nice big pile of gold ready to hire an army of mercenaries when things fall to pieces, as they do periodically.

3. I'm currently sandwiched between the HRE and the Golden Horde which is rapidly moving in - the only buffer being a fairly strong Hungary and a spread out but not entirely toothless Poland. The HRE in this case is Fraticelli - the Pope called a crusade on them that collapsed utterly (I was too busy with my civil wars in Italy and eastern France to do anything - the Kingdom of France looks like swiss cheese and other than a brief moment of Austria leaving the HRE no one had the strength to do anything to their 12k stacks). Not sure how to keep the center to hold long enough to put together a coalition to destroy either the Golden Horde or HRE (I have a ton of allies though).

Just pile up gold for mercenaries and pray? Not a lot else you can do by the sound of it.
Maybe try assassinating the Emperor until a Catholic inherits.

4. There doesn't seem to ever be a way of being a state with multiple religions (for example peaceful co-existence with pagans). Am I missing something or is that just how it is?

I think you can actually grant land to pagans. Pagans can definitely inherit from Catholics. If you conquer a pagan without using the Holy War CB they'll probably keep their lands too. It won't be easy to hold together a multi-religion realm due to opinion penalties but it's certainly possible to create one.

5. I don't get the retinue/standing army thing at all. Is there a dummies' guide or can someone explain it to me in little words?

Well as has already been said they're a standing army that is always on the campaign map. They reinforce over time. Also they are only available with the Legacy of Rome DLC.

Open the army panel, then click onto the Retines tab. It should look like this:


On the left, there are those pictures of unit types and numbers. That's obvious enough: how many of each unit you have.

At the bottom-middle-left are two numbers. In my example they are 500/362.
The first number (500) is the number of units in your retinue. The second is the number of units you are ALLOWED in your retinue. It should be noted here that some units actually count for more than 1 towards your retinue cap: Knights, for example, actually use four retinue cap slots. The Retinue cap is determined by total levy size and the average Military Organisation tech in your realm.

On the right there is a list of the Retinue units you can hire. Each retinue unit contains 500 soldiers of 2 different types. They cost a certain amount and take up some of your retinue cap. It goes without saying that you can only hire a retinue unit if you've got enough money and haven't hit your retinue limit.
Now, if you're rich, the only thing you want to train is the unit with 300 knights. Knights are devastating in battle, barely take casualties when assaulting castles and their sprite looks great on the campaign map.

Once you hire a retinue it appears at your capital. It starts at 0 men but gradually reinforces to the full 500.

Retinue units only cost maintenance when they are reinforcing. This means they're very expensive when you first create them, but after that they stay very cheap unless you take serious casualties.