Asturias, 769 Start: It is Possible! (Post - Conclave) (Ironman)

[Lord of Apocrypha]

I started as King Aurelio, now I'm the Queen of Leon and wife of King of West Francia (Mother of his two heirs), and my Brother (who is my heir) is the husband of the Duchess of Brabant.

Needless to say, the way to kick Umayyad ass is to make some kids real quick, get them married into a super-power for alliances, weather the early Umayyad storm, then pick off bits and pieces each time a vassal revolts.

Vassals not revolting? Try your best to Sow Distrust on provinces that are already red or turning red on Revolt Risk mapmode. I had such sucess because there were three revolts at one time against the Sultanate. That gave me 4 Holy War CBs to eat land right off the bat.

Oh, and make sure you don't spend your gold willy-nilly. You will need Mercs to fight for you at some points. Some say keep a stash of 300 gold, I say keep a stash of at least 500 gold. This way you can get the bigger Merc groups or keep the smaller ones longer. 500 gold is a minimum to me, as I was usually around 800+. And yes that means not over-building. It is a tradeoff, but it pays off!

Anyway, just thought I'd post this to show that even in Conclave, even if it's a pain in the ass Asturias can survive. Just hope I don't mess it up from here, because the new Sultan is mighty pissed and still stronger than me alone...

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=733435670

 

[Arsonik]

I have a very successful 769 Asturias game myself. I haven't played it in some time but it is a post-conclave game I just sort of got bored with. I reclaimed all of Hispania, as well as Mauritania, Africa, and bits of Abbasid lands. The trick for me was 50% luck and 50% being hyper-aggressive. Take full advantage of the jews. Take their money and kick them out without restraint. Make as much money as you can during peace times, while securing the most powerful alliances you can. Use the jew money to declare war for a Umayyad duchy every single time one of the Umayyad dukes declares war on you. If you are going to war make sure you are doing it on your terms. If you win, peace isn't good enough obviously. And losing isn't an option. That's really all that there is to it. Just remember you will need luck on your side no matter how good you are. Even when the Umayyads have been reduced to just de-jure Andalusia they will still have considerable power compared to you simply because the Andalusian holdings are better. Good luck

 

[Sanny]

769 Asturias start is certainly a challenge, I haven't been able to be successful enough in fighting back the Umayyads

 

[Tapio]

I started as King Aurelio, now I'm the Queen of Leon

Still the same ruler?

 

[Lord of Apocrypha]

Still the same ruler?

Haha, well no. The only luck I got was that King Aurelio lived to be 75ish (he starts at 54), and had two daughters to marry to the heirs of super powers.

Now I'm dealing with direct and indirect descendants of my line fighting over Francia and Eastern Europe...
The only good part is I have many CBs to use should I need them.

 

[Dahoota]

It's still quite doable - as with pre-conclave you still need a little luck. Francia needs to not fracture too much before your first war with the Umayyads.

Here's what I'd add:

Invite a decent chancellor (20+ diplomacy) to your court and camp him out in the Umayyad capital. This is easy to do now as thanks to the powerful vassals mechanic all the best talent is still available. This will help prevent them attacking you before they have their first council power revolt.

As you've said, if you can get a Karling alliance it gets much easier. One area where the auto-call-to-war actually pays off.

You have to either wait for them to have a council power revolt and attack the revolt, or wait for them to attack you then merc up and beat them with help from nearby Christians. After you win attack them immediately, targeting the Badshah's personal demense to spark revolts if you can. While you wait, try to revoke as many vassal counties as you can to increase your personal strength.

 

[StarSword]

Even easier way to do it, albeit gamey: use a favor to force a marriage alliance with the Umayyads.

 

[Arsonik]

Even easier way to do it, albeit gamey: use a favor to force a marriage alliance with the Umayyads.

Won't you have to do that every single generation? I'll stick to the systematic slaughter of the foreign invaders.

 

[StarSword]

Won't you have to do that every single generation? I'll stick to the systematic slaughter of the foreign invaders.

Only for as many generations as you need to get situated. Meanwhile, holy war any Umayyad revolts for extra duchies and keep an eye out for heresy outbreaks in southern France that you can steal more provinces from.

Side benefit, you might acquire a usable claim to Andalusia that way.

 

[Arsonik]

Only for as many generations as you need to get situated. Meanwhile, holy war any Umayyad revolts for extra duchies and keep an eye out for heresy outbreaks in southern France that you can steal more provinces from.

Side benefit, you might acquire a usable claim to Andalusia that way.

Ohh that is a good point. I know about seizing land from revolts but for some reason I didn't consider that to be an option while allied to the Umayyads. A bit of an oversight on my part.