In CK2, a barony counts as 1 Demesne, and a County as well, in so far as you give it's baronies to Barons under you.
I'm still trying to figure out whether its best to have many baronies in one's Demesne or if its generally better to get counties and assign the baronies to barons, or if the ideal path is essentially to focus on two counties where you keep both the count title and go for direct ownership of several castles. I assume that with the 1.02b changes which cut the income you could get from church and city holdings by 66%, its never worth owning these directly.
My best guesstimate so far is that all else being equal, it takes at least 3 baronies you DONT own in a county to make a count-level title roughly as rewarding as owning a barony, with average mid-game laws. Correct me here if thats inaccurate. So a castle barony is better than a poor Count title, but a Count title over Rome, Lubeck and things like that is always better than owning a Castle barony. I think, these are just trial and error observations.
Finally Im leaning towards the third option being the best. Owning just two cities with a large number of holding slots where you build several castles and keep them all under direct rule (tho you still give away churches and cities), and keeping the count title over these as well. Though this could eat up 8 Demesne slots for just two cities with 3 castles each, you get 100% of the castles' income and the max number of levies, which can grow pretty damn high. This strat also lets you get the most out of your Council as you can have a 'train troops' or 'collect taxes' effect over multiple castles at once... and tech management becomes very easy. I tried this with one city where I raise over 5k levies in 1150... seems promising.
Id like everyone thoughts tho, because Im new to the franchise still, and there may well be details Im missing. For instance, for now, all tests Ive done are from the first 100 years, but since tech seems to affect everything linearily, I guess thats fine. I assume different laws could change my math alot tho... the higher the Feudal Tax, the more counties are worth and the less direct ownership of castle baronies is worth it.
I'm still trying to figure out whether its best to have many baronies in one's Demesne or if its generally better to get counties and assign the baronies to barons, or if the ideal path is essentially to focus on two counties where you keep both the count title and go for direct ownership of several castles. I assume that with the 1.02b changes which cut the income you could get from church and city holdings by 66%, its never worth owning these directly.
My best guesstimate so far is that all else being equal, it takes at least 3 baronies you DONT own in a county to make a count-level title roughly as rewarding as owning a barony, with average mid-game laws. Correct me here if thats inaccurate. So a castle barony is better than a poor Count title, but a Count title over Rome, Lubeck and things like that is always better than owning a Castle barony. I think, these are just trial and error observations.
Finally Im leaning towards the third option being the best. Owning just two cities with a large number of holding slots where you build several castles and keep them all under direct rule (tho you still give away churches and cities), and keeping the count title over these as well. Though this could eat up 8 Demesne slots for just two cities with 3 castles each, you get 100% of the castles' income and the max number of levies, which can grow pretty damn high. This strat also lets you get the most out of your Council as you can have a 'train troops' or 'collect taxes' effect over multiple castles at once... and tech management becomes very easy. I tried this with one city where I raise over 5k levies in 1150... seems promising.
Id like everyone thoughts tho, because Im new to the franchise still, and there may well be details Im missing. For instance, for now, all tests Ive done are from the first 100 years, but since tech seems to affect everything linearily, I guess thats fine. I assume different laws could change my math alot tho... the higher the Feudal Tax, the more counties are worth and the less direct ownership of castle baronies is worth it.