Best way to destroy a much stronger neighbor?

[whosthebestcop]

There is no need for you to respect truces with muslim realms. So you could war for 1 county. Then immediately war again once you drop your levies. Sometimes it is needed and sometimes it is not.

Most of the time I just use Holy war. But sometimes a situation will present itself where I rather use de jure claims to avoid wrong cultural/religion/conquered penalties.

For example Sicily was 6 independent Muslim counties. But one of the counties had the Duke title as well. So Holy war him for Duke title. Then declare war on the other 5 at the same time using de jure cb. win wars. Revoke all titles. Land is mine with no penalties.

 

[BonSequitur]

Most long reigning Muslims tend to brake up as the game goes on because of decadence. Even within the first 50 years it's common to start seeing these civil wars fairly often. Just pick them apart while they're fighting themselves.

Ehh, not quite. Decadence doesn't really make the muslim kingdoms break up, they just get invaded by a randomly-generated conqueror dynasty which neatly replaces the old one, often with few or no consequences geopolitically.

 

[Kamuflaro]

There is no need for you to respect truces with muslim realms. So you could war for 1 county. Then immediately war again once you drop your levies. Sometimes it is needed and sometimes it is not.

I'd like to mention that foreign rulers with a negative opinion on you are more likely to join plots against you (at least pre 1.7) and more likely to join wars against you. If you have 20k horse only retinues it doesn't matter though.

 

[guitarspider]

Ehh, not quite. Decadence doesn't really make the muslim kingdoms break up, they just get invaded by a randomly-generated conqueror dynasty which neatly replaces the old one, often with few or no consequences geopolitically.

The new rulers will start with autonomous vassals, which can be a HUGE difference.

 

[unmerged(26764)]

I find that the blitz is often the best bet against bigger neighbors. Use the war score system to your advantage. Focus on getting war score up quickly and peace out quickly.

I use this against the HRE a lot. If you start a war for a small goal and then storm the castles on the border very quickly, the emperor will often peace out before you even see his armies. If you see his army quickly gang up on it to get quick war score. A much smaller realm can steal counties and even duchies from a big one with good blitz tactics.

 

[delra]

Find his most powerful vassal and use your chancellor to make them enemies, then when there's a civil war, just wait till their armies kill each other and march in.

 

[unmerged(523589)]

If you can take over 2 duchies in egypt, you can usurp the kingdom of egypt from the fatmids effectively removing them from the game. I managed grab one from a revolt and steal the second while catholic church had a crusade tying up all their doomstacks. They broke up in to 10 pieces and haven't been able to form a kingdom since.

That being said I'm stronger than the HRE as the ERE right now but I can't figure a good way to take them over now that they've changed to elective. I guess slowly using imperial reconquest and eventually usurping the title is the only way... They're way too stable as elective with no revolts in 50 years...

 

[whosthebestcop]

IF you really want to mess with Egypt. What you want to do is matrilineally someone from Egypt who has a claim to one of your daughters. Once he is in your court force convert him to Catholic. Then push his claim on Egypt. Boom Catholic Egypt. You can usually win just by taking over all of their coastal counties.

You might have to help him in the first couple of wars if you want him to stay in power as a catholic ruler.