A few questions from a new guy

[gmoney]

I've been playing CK2 for a few days now and really enjoying it. I have all the main DLC except Charlemagne (sp?) and Conclave and mostly things are pretty straight-forward. I do have a few questions though.

1) Why can't I join my liege's wars? I know that he gets to use some of my levies while fighting but sometimes I'd like to help him out by raising my own personal levies/using my retinues for an opinion boost but it says I can't join his wars. I also gain nothing from raising my own armies and attaching them to the kings armies which seems odd-I'm pretty any king would be grateful if I were to bring an extra 2-3k men to the party that I'm paying for out of pocket.

2) I defeated the King of England in a war over the county of York and he dropped his plot/plan to revoke York from me-but then 2 months after the war ended he revoked it again. What's the point of fighting for your rights if the King can lose the war and then just start a new war right away before you have time to regain your strength?

3) Somewhat related to 2-is there a way to slow the overall recruitment of levies? A 4 year war that bankrupted the King of England and left his army in tatters should take more than a few months for him to be back to near full strength.

I was lucky enough to save the game right after the war ended successfully and reloaded-this time the king didn't bother trying to revoke my title. I'm not sure if it is because I joined the crusade or it was just the RNG gods smiling on me but before the king could pull his bs the entire kingdom fell into chaos allowing me to declare independence and win. There are about 4 different revolts going on in England atm so I"m safe for the time being-and if one of the claimants wins the throne I'll probably swear fealty to them since I only left because the KIng was being a jackass. If I swear fealty to the new king of England will I still have the 'traitor' tag or is that only applied to the liege I rebelled against?

4) My last question for now- I"m allied with the King of France (had to find someone powerful enough to back me in my Fight against King William the 2nd after all) and the King of France called me to arms against the King of England (before independence) yet I couldn't do anything-is this WAD or should I have been able to attack the England from within?

 

[mrinku]

1) You usually can. His troops show up grey instead of blue (as he is not an ally) but you'll get the war icon down on the lower right and the enemies are red and can be fought. Even when it doesn't count as a war (i.e. raiders) you should be able to raise troops and fight if you want. Only vassal-vassal fights you're not involved in are grey on grey, unless you can get in through an alliance.

2) If you win or impose a white peace you should have gotten a truce period, normally 10 years. Was there a succession? If either your title or his changed hands the truces get reset. Revocation is a big deal and not that common unless you are at odds religiously, a Rival, or the Liege is exceptionally tyrannical (check the traits). Although the AI does weigh up relative power, de jure titles and mutual opinions. Changing culture and/or religion to match your liege can go a long way to heading off title grabs, but if you hold counties that he's the de jure Duke of, you may not be able to do much except look for fellow vassals you have your own de jure claims on.

3) Yeah, make his vassals hate him. Don't forget that during the 4 year campaign with raised armies, the unraised totals do recover slowly, and its those reserves you're likely seeing. The AI tends not to disband and raise again. But a previous war does tend to result in vassal fatigue from the "armies raised too long" opinion modifier, so a quick bounce back isn't normal... unless there was a succession and that modifier (and the truce) got wiped.

4) WAD. King of England is your liege, which trumps mere alliances. You'll need to be in revolt or otherwise at war with England for that to kick in. The alliance *should* put a brake on further title revocation shenanigans, as long as it lasts.

 

[Thrake]

2) I defeated the King of England in a war over the county of York and he dropped his plot/plan to revoke York from me-but then 2 months after the war ended he revoked it again. What's the point of fighting for your rights if the King can lose the war and then just start a new war right away before you have time to regain your strength?

If you enforce your demands, the king will abdicate in favor of his heir; usually it leaves you breathing room for a while. If you just white peace though it will almost always happen again a month or two later. What I personnaly do is to go heavy on mercenaries if I can get to enforce demands... Be warry that owning the capital of your king's realm or being of different faith usually ends up in an eternal struggle until you are independant, stronger or bowed down to wathever he wanted. Yes, it is not a very well thought out situation, because even the heir after abdication could declare war on you the next day if he wanted too (but the AI does not do that in my experience).

1) Why can't I join my liege's wars? I know that he gets to use some of my levies while fighting but sometimes I'd like to help him out by raising my own personal levies/using my retinues for an opinion boost but it says I can't join his wars. I also gain nothing from raising my own armies and attaching them to the kings armies which seems odd-I'm pretty any king would be grateful if I were to bring an extra 2-3k men to the party that I'm paying for out of pocket.

I'd like that too, since my early playthrough! I just help when my titles are contested; keep in mind that doing this gives no warscore (even if your liege initiated the battle) so it's only useful if it allows your liege to win a battle instead of loosing it. Occupying should give him warscore though.

Yeah, make his vassals hate him. Don't forget that during the 4 year campaign with raised armies, the unraised totals do recover slowly, and its those reserves you're likely seeing. The AI tends not to disband and raise again. But a previous war does tend to result in vassal fatigue from the "armies raised too long" opinion modifier, so a quick bounce back isn't normal... unless there was a succession and that modifier (and the truce) got wiped.

No. In tyranny wars, I'm pretty sure that the attacker is the vassal, so the king gets no penalty.

 

[mrinku]

No. In tyranny wars, I'm pretty sure that the attacker is the vassal, so the king gets no penalty.

Might need to test that point, although the action itself (if truly tyrannical and not just grabbing a heretic's title) would have an effect on their attitude. Certainly, there are things you can do to reduce his general popularity. Intrigue focus is good for that.

 

[gmoney]

His Vassals are pissed at him. Either way when I restarted from my save I haven't had any issues-and once the King went to war with France I just waited for his troops to get slaughtered in Normandy and declared independence. There are now 3 separate wars going on in jolly old England- 2 different Princes trying to become King and one little one-county guy trying to lower Crown Authority. At the same time The King of England is getting crushed in France so I'm fairly sure one of the claimants will win. I'll try and rejoin the English again once one is Crowned and see if I am no longer a 'traitor'. I'll Just make sure to save first .

When I was talking about joining a Liege's war I meant I wanted the same opinion boost you get when you join a different kings war- +15 I think. It seems to me that the King should be pretty pleased that one of his dukes took it upon himself to raise his personal levies and take the fight to the enemy- especially in an offensive war that doesn't benefit you. As it stands now unless I can earn more looting holdings than I spend in upkeep on my forces I'm better off just letting the king fight his own wars.

On the 4th point that makes sense from a game-play angle but it would be cool to be the ultimate backstabber and join your king's enemy when he tries to fight your ally. I believe there were several instances of it happening in history too though I'm too tired right now to recall them.

 

[gmoney]

For anyone that is interested a quick mini-update. A member of my dynasty was rebelling for the crown. I decided to help him capture the throne hoping that it would pave the way for a smooth return to England. After helping him win his war I then realized that every King of England in the future is going to covet my lands and a return to the Kingdom of England is impossible. I guess I'm going to have to take England by force.