Description of my campaign, and solicitation of advice

[jursamaj]

So, I started a new campaign, after a significant hiatus. I decided to have some fun: 769 start, Duke of Northumberland, but I made him in Ruler Designer as Welsh & Germanic Pagan. Since he's custom, and I'm still on my 1st ruler, my dynasty is only my children & grandchildren.

County by county, I have been conquering Britannia. I have created the Kingdom of Lloegyr (England), and am well on my way to the Empire of Britannia.

Unfortunately, being Pagan, my religion hasn't spread yet, and culture isn't doing so hot either. To that end, once I have my empire, I plan to start subjugating Sviþjod. I already grabbed Naumadal, and with Uppland & Sjælland from Sviþjod, I can reform the religion. (Yes, I'm ambitious, even if my character isn't…) Any other suggestions on getting my culture & religion spread?

At the same time, I've noticed that my tax income growth has stalled. Taxes are barely keeping up with expenses. So I'm considering making a vassal Merchant Republic. Possibly in East Anglia, as it's only 2 counties. The location should give the MR a nice trade zone across Britannia & the north coast of West Francia. Nowhere else in my area have Trade Practices tech significantly above 1.0, so I don't see any reason to set it up elsewhere. I've seen people argue for and against starting an MR with a dynasty member. My 2nd thru 4th adult sons have Stewardship of 8, 4, & 0, some none of them look that great. 5th son has 3 at age 12, 6th has 2 at age 5, so maybe the 20-steward midas touched guy in my realm could train one up. Wasn't planning on waiting another 11 years, but I suppose I could if it would be worth having my dynasty in there. So, would somewhere else be better? Should I use a son? Or is this too early to make a vassal MR ?

Just a note, I had just finished 2 wars in the pic below, and not handed out stuff yet. So ignore the 14/9 demesne alert. (Altho, I do tend to run a bit over…)

I haven't given out any duchies yet, because I haven't needed to. Nor formed Kingdom of Ireland or usurped Pictland. Since I'm fairly likely to have a gavelkind succession (unless I get Tanistry) either as king or emperor, I need to start sorting out my inheritance. Is Tanistry a good idea? I've never used it before. Should I bother with secondary kingdoms, either under gavelkind or tanistry, either as king or emperor? And in either case, should I wait until the game complains about vassal limit before making duchies, or start sooner?

Can't think of any other topics at the moment.

http://imgur.com/MMVENYD

 

[Pagz]

In terms of culture and religion spread, unreformed religions are quite hard to convert people to due to not having the base +20% from organised religion, so reform asap. In terms of culture all you can do is make sure everyone under you is Welsh/Germanic and provinces should slowly convert over time, they'll never flip otherwise.

The biggest problem with setting up a trade republic in your own family as Welsh is that you don't want tanistry and the republic elections both choosing the same character. You should also go tanistry since after archers got nerfed into the ground there's no other reason to be Welsh. Much more OP to choose Mongol or Khitan and invade kingdoms at a time.

Don't bother with other titles until you sort your inheretance out or until you're an empire, anytime after that and it can get messy.

You're in a really strong position right now, so don't be afraid to make a few mistakes. Keep us updated and have fun!

 

[FrosT37]

So, I started a new campaign, after a significant hiatus. I decided to have some fun: 769 start, Duke of Northumberland, but I made him in Ruler Designer as Welsh & Germanic Pagan. Since he's custom, and I'm still on my 1st ruler, my dynasty is only my children & grandchildren.

County by county, I have been conquering Britannia. I have created the Kingdom of Lloegyr (England), and am well on my way to the Empire of Britannia.

Unfortunately, being Pagan, my religion hasn't spread yet, and culture isn't doing so hot either. To that end, once I have my empire, I plan to start subjugating Sviþjod. I already grabbed Naumadal, and with Uppland & Sjælland from Sviþjod, I can reform the religion. (Yes, I'm ambitious, even if my character isn't…) Any other suggestions on getting my culture & religion spread?

Religion: reform the faith and get moral authority as high as possible, while reducing Catholic MA as low a possible.
Culture: give newly conquered counties to high stewardship courtiers.

At the same time, I've noticed that my tax income growth has stalled. Taxes are barely keeping up with expenses. So I'm considering making a vassal Merchant Republic. Possibly in East Anglia, as it's only 2 counties. The location should give the MR a nice trade zone across Britannia & the north coast of West Francia. Nowhere else in my area have Trade Practices tech significantly above 1.0, so I don't see any reason to set it up elsewhere. I've seen people argue for and against starting an MR with a dynasty member. My 2nd thru 4th adult sons have Stewardship of 8, 4, & 0, some none of them look that great. 5th son has 3 at age 12, 6th has 2 at age 5, so maybe the 20-steward midas touched guy in my realm could train one up. Wasn't planning on waiting another 11 years, but I suppose I could if it would be worth having my dynasty in there. So, would somewhere else be better? Should I use a son? Or is this too early to make a vassal MR ?

I don't see any advantage of having a vassal MR from your dynasty. AI MR tends to switch dynasty quite often, so your family may end up as a simple patrician.

And anyway, the only purpose of having a vassal MR is to get more cash.

As for the place, East Anglia is perfectly fine if you intend to use Essex as your main duchy.

Just a note, I had just finished 2 wars in the pic below, and not handed out stuff yet. So ignore the 14/9 demesne alert. (Altho, I do tend to run a bit over…)

I haven't given out any duchies yet, because I haven't needed to. Nor formed Kingdom of Ireland or usurped Pictland. Since I'm fairly likely to have a gavelkind succession (unless I get Tanistry) either as king or emperor, I need to start sorting out my inheritance. Is Tanistry a good idea? I've never used it before. Should I bother with secondary kingdoms, either under gavelkind or tanistry, either as king or emperor? And in either case, should I wait until the game complains about vassal limit before making duchies, or start sooner?

I hate tanistry because I can't choose my heir (vassals tend to vote for the oldest dynasty member). Otherwise, it's the safest succession method because it's impossible to lose your titles.

If you intend to keep England as your own primary kingdom, then none of the other three kingdoms will be able to challenge you. I'd distribute them to same religion same culture kinsmen. It's easier to keep happy 3 vassal kings than many vassal dukes. In the end, it means bigger vassal levies for you and they are easier to raise.

 

[Bernard95]

As far as your culture question goes, make sure the rulers you put in place have high stewardship. The higher the stat, the faster the conversion.

Tanistry is sort of a double-edged sword. It works fine for the first few generations when your dynasty is relatively small, but rather quickly you'll find your vassals will ignore your choice and vote for some distant cousin with claims that's relatively old.

With kingdoms, you never make a 2nd unless you know for sure you can do an Empire. Unless of course you like the challenge of conquering it back from your brother in Gavelkind or from whatever vassal wins the election in Elective. Speaking of Elective, in smaller kingdoms you can cheat Elective if you have a majority of the ducal titles. You can make up for this by giving many of the other duchy titles to your dynasty members. That way it's sort of like Tanistry where it should always be someone of your dynasty.

 

[Beyond Disbelief]

It's unfortunate that you started in Britannia because for me I reformed the faith first then holy warred throughout the fragmented britannia duchy by duchy and obliterated Catholic MA to the ground with Germanic to 100% making stabilization fairly easy.

Since you're not playing ironman you can afford riskier tactics if you're in the aggressive mood for quick MA boost. Since you have britannia you probably can't do prepared invasion anymore (over holding limit)

Once you reformed via subjgating Svitjod, watch for when Francia is fighting revolts. Depending on your mood, you can either Holy War on the revolter without technically earning the ire of Karlings, or you can try to help the revolts succeed and actually carve pieces out of France.

Break truce. You don't care about Catholic opinion anyway, and they're going to be Holy Warring you soon high opinion or not. The -5 truce breaker penalty does not stack AFAIK. You're going to get a lot of prestige to fund your truce breaking from Holy Wars and raiding anyway. Only stop when your ruler dies and your new heir has trouble stabilizing the empire despite being free of the 5 truce breaker penalty.

Keep breaking truce and keep carving France up. DO NOT give them the chance to recover from revolts or wars with you.
The year is likely well before 900, so you're safe from unlocking crusades. If you want to be gamey, and worried about crusades at 900, avoid Paris and Koln. Otherwise, go ahead and take Koln to further drop Catholic MA.

 

[Flamestalker]

I would reform as soon as possible, It will give you access to all the other succession laws and you can actually start converting people to your faith. It also helps with the culture spread as cultures dont spread naturally into counties of a different faith, only the settler event fires on those. Also, if you choose Welsh for the longbowmen you should know that archers have been nerfed into the ground.

As for the pet republic, I would personally put it on the Isle of Mann. The Isle of Mann is a 1 county duchy so it wouldn't take more land away from proper feudals or cause problems with other duchies. It would also be a really central location for it within the empire, allowing it to quickly and cheaply build up tradeposts along the Irish and Welsh coast. East-Anglia is also a good spot and is probably better in your eyes, especially seeing that you likely have most of your land along the English coast and are setting the republic up mostly for your own gain. I dont recommend using your own dynasty for the republic as it tents to interfere a lot with your own succession, especially if you plan on using elective or tanistry.

 

[jursamaj]

Well, work has kept me away from playing for a few days, but here's a few notes:

Yes, I've been making sure everybody I appoint is Welsh/Germanic. I haven't had as many high stewardship guys as I'd like, but I'm trying to educate a few. Fortunately, I just loaded the game up and noticed something sweet: just as my last war was ending, the King of Sviþjod died! Being gavelkind, they broke up into more manageable pieces. Altho Sviþjod & Danmark remain allied, so I'll still have to be careful. Still I have 3700 troops available, to their combined 2500, and they don't like each other much. This opens up the route to reformation (I've got 57 moral authority already). So I think I'll work on that next, instead of finishing the conquest of all Britannia. Plus, if I can do that in the next 6 years, I'll have the better successions before I can change laws anyway. Otherwise, I'll go with Tanistry.

Regarding archers: I hadn't realized they got nerfed so badly. However, based on the analyses I've read, longbowmen are still one of the better retinues. And archers still do a lot of skirmish & siege damage, especially if massive volley tactic fires (yes, I have lots of Welsh army commanders).

Regarding the vassal MR: Isle of Mann looks tempting, but it doesn't have a city this early. Since I have an excuse to revoke Norfolk, and it's closest to the land I intend to keep (duchies of Essex and either York or Kent), that looks nice. The problem is that it's not something I've just captured, so the city isn't mine to give out. The current mayor sucks, only 2 stewardship. Of course, the mayor's city doesn't *have* to be in the duchy. That's putting in an 8 stew (bad choice) or waiting until I conquer another county & put an 18/genius/christian or 15/midas guy in. I could snatch Middlesex or Gloucester pretty quickly, but is it bad to give my prospective Doge a city in a county & duchy I'm going to keep?

Weirdly, there's a Lollard uprising going on in Wessex. Has been for 7.5 years, and it's the 2nd one. Of course, I'm going to be taking Wessex in the future. When the uprising succeeds (looks inevitable), their 2700 troops are going to be annoying. Of course, I could go sack the places giving the revolt it's war success pretty safely, dragging the war out as long as I wanted. On the other hand, what happens is I assassinate the revolt leader?

OK, time to start today's session.

 

[jursamaj]

Well *this* is an interesting turn of events! Days after I declared my subjugation of Sviþjod, he got a revolt to put the king of Danmark on that throne too. With any luck, Sviþjod & the revolt will chew each other's troops up for me.


Edit:
They did chew each other up in the 3 months it took me to get over there…
And 6 months in to the war, Danmark declares for his own claims, Sviþjod + 3 counties.
This is going to get interesting. And once I break *his* army, taking his holy site should get easy.

 

[jursamaj]

That war went well. Subjugated Sviþjod easily. That invalidated Danmark's war, and transferred the revolt to me, also easily defeated. That's 2 holy sites down. Downside of Sviþjod getting split: Danmark took a holy site with it.

Of course now it's pretty important to get that empire title, so my 2nd kingdom doesn't get split off by inheritance. I'll work on that now, while my son/chancellor fabricates a claim on Sjælland.

Cleaning up Sviþjod is going to be interesting. I see my tribal vassals can't convert to feudal until after I reform the religion. Even then, they won't want to because of culture difference, and spreading Welsh over there will take a *long* time. Since they're all "Tribal barbarians", I think a revocation spree is in order.

Meanwhile back home, the count of Westmoreland/Lancaster (The only guy I made the mistake of giving 2 counties) declared against Somerset, the guy who won the Lollard revolt. I don't know whether to try to interfere, or just hope he gets more kids before he dies.

 

[Beyond Disbelief]

When I had the choice between Britannia or Scandinavia empire, I opted for Scandinavia so I can press de jure/vassalize them. (can't holy war Danmark and fighting Sumensko's while avoiding winter while reformed w/o Military Org 4 is nigh impossible)

 

[jursamaj]

Yeah, I did a Norse/Norse campaign right after Old Gods came out. Well, I started it. But the next update screwed it up so bad, I dropped it. This time, if need be, I'll use beta mode to stick with 2.4 until I complete. This is quite likely, as I play a very slow game for the most part. Anyway, I'm not keen on heading too far northeast.

To update:
I had a claim on Somerset, so I declared my own war for it and blocked Westmoreland from taking it. A bit later, he declared on Dorset, and I was busy, so it looks like I'll let him grab it. 9 more Britannia counties for empire. Took Middlesex, so I moved my capital again. Had saved up a bunch of tech points, so I didn't lose much ground on that.

Still waiting on a Sjælland claim or other good way in before I can reform.

The revocation spree in Sviþjod went well, only a few guys revolted, and they were easily put down. From jail, there went the rest of their titles. But because those tribals weren't counting against my vassal limit, and the new feudals are, I hit the limit and had to start organizing duchies. Similarly, I'm *way* over my demesne limit, so I'm going to start landing some sons. After getting them married, of course. (Main reason I was over demesne is I was holding my current base duchies, *and* the ones in my coming new base in south England, *and* some where I want to dispose of some inconvenient priests before handing them out. Killed my taxes, but I have a good reserve, plus war loot.)

 

[jursamaj]

Whoa!

So, I've declared a claim war for Duchy of Cornwall. Should be an easy victory.

A few days in, an adventurer *also* declares on Cornwall, with 1806 men. Annoying, but I should be able to deal with that too.

Then a month later, Catholic Uprising in Kent, with 2070 men.

This is going to get challenging.

 

[jursamaj]

Bad planning: The Count of Suffolk, vassal to my pet MR, was the son of the Count of Westmoreland/Lancaster. I say *was*, because he is now the Count of Sufflok/Westmoreland/Lancaster. Which, of course, added to more counties to the MR. I suppose I could give him the Duchy of Lancaster, once I take another county to make it. Of course *that* would move Suffolk to his duchy, causing friction with the East Anglia MR.

Maybe he'll produce a couple more sons, to split the titles up…

--------

The war really wasn't that bad. Massed all available troops (except my own levies, screw it, let the vassals earn their keep). Wiped out the uprising with minimal loss. Killed Cornwall's major army with minimal loss. Stomped on the adventurer, and took over his siege already 60% done, so finishing the siege was quick (especially with 3000+ troops). Kept sieging until Cornwall surrendered, which transferred the adventurer to attacking me instead of just hostile. His remaining force was a trivial battle. So, 3 wins, 2 more counties of Britannia.

Still waiting for that Sjælland claim, and truces expired in England, so lets take some more Britannia!

 

[FraterPsychonaut]

From my other response on another thread: (I'm not sure how to link to it so...)

Spoiler

Ugh, no... unless you're roleplaying an idiot ruler never create or hand out any title you don't absolutely need to.

You will never NEED kingdom vassals, ever. Only create them for border provinces you're sure you'll lose, as buffer states against blobs that you won't be able to avoid surrendering the territory to. (Usually this only is a steppe/mongol blob or crusade/etc won land far from your powerbase.)

There are only 1463 counties in the game, each duke can hold upwards of 20 vassals with the proper crown laws, and even a mediocre king can hold 30+ (good emperors can have 60+), 30x20=600 counties, double that or more if your counts have 2+ counties... You don't even NEED an emperor title (at least not because of vassal limit) until you own almost all of the map, but you should hold one anyway to stave off the desires my title malus, and when crown authority is at max set to ducal viceroys/imperial admin.

You can have this large a realm with out problems by having med CA or higher and gerrymandering the heck out of every duchy that you don't want to be created (give each of its counties to different dukes) and by only having ducal titles that are de-jure in your realm (all viceroy dukes is ideal, being VERY distantly of your dynasty helps too). Your dukes can't conquest war each other, or create titles, or give you any trouble at all as long as your ruler is halfway competent (prioritize using vassal levies for wars so their ratio to yours is low). If done right you can even hold/convert the whole map as one kingdom with (normal) gavelkind succession. (Normal gavelkind might be preferred if you don't have med CA or higher and are large enough to need duke vassals. You should prefer feudal elective only when you control all the de jure territory and have one or less vassals who can vote. Seniority consolidates titles lost to gavelkind but usually just tends to get you killed. Primo/Ultimogeniture work in tandem for christian rulers - grant bishoprics/disinherit sons younger/older than your choice then switch so they're now your heir. Tanistry and elective gavelkind encourage kinslaying and other tyranny. Elective gavelkind requires you to grow in spurts/by tiers and drastically slows down immediately after each tier is reached; except for pagans for which, when combined with the become king subjugation CB, it railroads formation and maintainance of kingdoms and all their duchies -even empires and all their kingdoms if they manage to stay pagan. Tanistry is for low CA celts dukes or lower who want/have to expand slowly.)

Additionally find a way to strip all your vassals of their baronies to keep them weak, and transfer those belonging to your direct vassals to your heir (who should hold 1 county, no more just in case the inheritance goes wonky, preferably on the frontier and not in any of your duke's de jure territory. He'll be stronger than any duke by himself as a count, and any territory he takes will be yours when he inherits, along with all his cash, piety, & prestige). You should be rolling in dough so every barony should be created by you before the counts get a chance (&if any happen to beat you out, grant the baron vassal a county and retract the barony, then grant the now pissed count to any duke that needs an opinion boost, similar trick can be pulled for counts/dukes who inherit too much of the wrong land). The only way you'll get a vassal's de jure baronies are by revoking the the county so remember to transfer out all baronies before you grant the county. Transfer barons with negative opinions to your heir. Feudal Christian emperors should transfer any merchant republics they allow to exist to their vassalized religious head so they plot against him and not you because of wrong gov't type malus. Vassal merchant republics should be wholly contained deep in the realm and only hold a single castle to maximize their levies (not a city, and no city owning vassals in their vassal chain if you want them to be one of your superdukes, because they'd revoke and switch), and keep them far enough apart that they don't constantly embargo each other. PC Muslim rulers should hold only temples as demense also.

The only kingdom titles (other than your primary) you should hold are titular without vassals. Never create any duke in jerusalem/israel unless that kingdom is your primary title, gerrymander out the counties to other dukes instead (make sure to keep anyone from making 51%).

No. The key is that you break the de jure chain. Vassals only make demands to their DIRECT liege, and only if it is something the liege can directly give to them. Put a buffer (like your heir, or a duke over them) and they will never bother you. Even at min CA your heir will so massively out class them they will never dare to de jure war them back for it (and if your heir eats some of their counties, so what, more positive opinion by handing out titles when you inherit).

If you have med CA or higher you can do a similar trick with duchies by handing out all their counties to different dukes and then granting the duchy they'll hate each other but won't bother you (doesn't work with 1 county duchies though, because the county's new liege would just usurp it). The really cool thing about this trick is that if the duke ever goes independent/rebels you can just usurp the title (because they have none of the de jure territory) knocking them down to a no threat petty count and freeing their vassals for you to take back at your leisure (they'll probably accept diplomatic vassalization immediately anyway). People already know to do this with kings but I've already pointed out why having vassal kings (even viceroy kings) is a bad idea (in the unmodded game).

That's only if you want them to be one of your permanent super-dukes and provide levies: Republics have no penalty for holding castles directly. The cultural buildings (and the bonuses they give) only are built from castles, and only apply based on the respective lord's capital, hence the reason to restrict them to castles. Merchant republics will never surrender land or vassals without war so you have to be careful in what land you allow them to have, because you don't want them expanding on their own and becoming a threat to you. Because of the fixed -30 opinion malus towards wrong government lieges you're better off holding the mayors directly (or through your heir/an easily-assassinated low-intrigue low-popularity-traits no-family-so-you'll-inherit temporary proxy), a vassal merchant republic's income should almost exclusively come from their tradeposts and their focus should be there almost exclusively (and if you're a merchant republic, you're better off holding the trade posts yourself without rivals).

edit- If you really want to min/max your income you can make a single county republic count as a direct vassal deep in the interior (& within none of your duke's de jure territory & away from the coast or any of your MR vassals) and transfer all cities to him. If you do this, make sure to distribute several (and add as needed) or else individually they'll quickly rival your forces and rebel (because wrong gov't opinion).

Again these really only apply to ironman achievement runs to keep a check on ai stupidity, arbitrary-stupid-irrational mechanics/limits and, the ragequit-boredom factor. For roleplaying-fun games you can mod in the correct behaviors/effects or get heavy handed with the console (or both) and it can become a completely different (and very fun) game (to lose).

You're right on both accounts (of course you don't have to revoke the city if you're just going to give it back to him, and they don't have to be from a coastal province any city will do).
And yes to both in the last. --Due to demesne limit the republic will always create any vassal that you don't anyway, and will at most only directly hold a few, you could encourage the mayors to have vassals that love them, but it really doesn't change that much as the opinion boost to yourself is essentially the same (I think) and you'll be doing it in bulk.

Again the inland republics idea is only ideal if their capital has high tech so the merchant bonus + (potential) high laws exceed what you'd make from just holding the mayor directly (or through your heir). You're getting a percentage of what they get, which is only a percentage of the mayor's income, so only choose it if they multiply to be greater than your normal tax percent, because they might not. Remember that taxes scale down with opinion too, so raising taxes can lower your income if they don't like you so much anymore. I haven't seen or done the calculations here but on the fly guestimating says as long as you can keep their opinion maxed out you'll profit more with higher taxes and republics vs. lower without (but as you get larger this may involve micromanaging dozens of these republics who will be each much more dangerous than your dukes). When your growth stagnates, and can't safely hand them cities anymore or they'll challenge you, you'll need to plot&revoke any of these low opinion republics and recreate them with other mayors to keep it going. You could give them castles too, but the power ratio shift from their increased levies is probably not in your best interests and thus forces them to be even smaller, limiting their usefulness due to the arbitrary 10% republic/theocracy vassals cap. You could try consolidating the republics under a non-merchant ducal republic (making sure to follow the same rules as with your other dukes) but requires a purely titular secular ducal title (of which there are only 3 in the game: socotra, amalfi, and gotland/visby) and that's handing a lot of money and power to one guy who isn't your heir (and who's duchy can't de jure drift if you need it to), and he'll likely revoke the excess cities anyhow giving you the same problem you'd have with all the cities going to one republican count, except he'll be a multi province duke wealthier and stronger than most kings/emperors with expansionist goals and harder to beat (because of holding multiple provinces) in the inevitable war that will follow any minor dip in your power/levies.

Cheers.

 

[jursamaj]

From my other response on another thread: (I'm not sure how to link to it so...)

…

Cheers.

That's a lot to digest. I'll have to think about it.

--------

Meanwhile, a few more small wars and I'm only 1 county away from Empire.

My super-count declared on Dorset, so now he has 4 counties. But he's got 2 sons already, and with his hedonism I expect more. Maybe I should switch to seducer, to help his family along a bit. Soon I'll give him that duchy, to pull him out from under my pet MR. I think he'll sort out OK.

Some time back, an adventurer conquered Powys. He's just been sitting around for almost 20 years, with a stack of 1800 event troops I didn't want to fool with. Well, the Duke of Deheubarth inherited one of his provinces, so of course he declared war to get it back. Then *another* adventurer claimed on Powys. He lost about 700 of his old event troops, but it looks like he's going to win both wars. Unless *I* take a hand. This may get me that final county for Empire. For safety, I'll declare on both Powys & Deheubarth, in case one invalidates too quickly.

Then to reorganize, because demesne count & vassal count are both getting out of hand.

 

[FraterPsychonaut]

I just realized I left out a critical section in the middle (bottom of the first quote):

Spoiler

You can have this large a realm with out problems by having med CA or higher and gerrymandering the heck out of every duchy that you don't want to be created (give each of its counties to different dukes) and by only having ducal titles that are de-jure in your realm (all viceroy dukes is ideal, being VERY distantly of your dynasty helps too). Your dukes can't conquest war each other, or create titles, or give you any trouble at all as long as your ruler is halfway competent (prioritize using vassal levies for wars so their ratio to yours is low). If done right you can even hold/convert the whole map as one kingdom with (normal) gavelkind succession. (Normal gavelkind might be preferred if you don't have med CA or higher and are large enough to need duke vassals. You should prefer feudal elective only when you control all the de jure territory and have one or less vassals who can vote. Seniority consolidates titles lost to gavelkind but usually just tends to get you killed. Primo/Ultimogeniture work in tandem for christian rulers - grant bishoprics/disinherit sons younger/older than your choice then switch so they're now your heir. Tanistry and elective gavelkind encourage kinslaying and other tyranny. Elective gavelkind requires you to grow in spurts/by tiers and drastically slows down immediately after each tier is reached; except for pagans for which, when combined with the become king subjugation CB, it railroads formation and maintainance of kingdoms and all their duchies -even empires and all their kingdoms if they manage to stay pagan. Tanistry is for low CA celts dukes or lower who want/have to expand slowly.)

Additionally find a way to strip all your vassals of their baronies to keep them weak, and transfer those belonging to your direct vassals to your heir (who should hold 1 county, no more just in case the inheritance goes wonky, preferably on the frontier and not in any of your duke's de jure territory. He'll be stronger than any duke by himself as a count, and any territory he takes will be yours when he inherits, along with all his cash, piety, & prestige). You should be rolling in dough so every barony should be created by you before the counts get a chance (&if any happen to beat you out, grant the baron vassal a county and retract the barony, then grant the now pissed count to any duke that needs an opinion boost, similar trick can be pulled for counts/dukes who inherit too much of the wrong land). The only way you'll get a vassal's de jure baronies are by revoking the the county so remember to transfer out all baronies before you grant the county. Transfer barons with negative opinions to your heir. Feudal Christian emperors should transfer any merchant republics they allow to exist to their vassalized religious head so they plot against him and not you because of wrong gov't type malus. Vassal merchant republics should be wholly contained deep in the realm and only hold a single castle to maximize their levies (not a city, and no city owning vassals in their vassal chain if you want them to be one of your superdukes, because they'd revoke and switch), and keep them far enough apart that they don't constantly embargo each other. PC Muslim rulers should hold only temples as demense also.

The only kingdom titles (other than your primary) you should hold are titular without vassals. Never create any duke in jerusalem/israel unless that kingdom is your primary title, gerrymander out the counties to other dukes instead (make sure to keep anyone from making 51%).

Sorry about the confusion.

 

[jursamaj]

Only a short play tonight. I got Lloegyr to Tanistry, which pissed off some sons, but not enough to matter. Sweden is still elective gavelkind, and even tho everybody is voting for the emperor, apparently the gavelkind rules require the another son will get Sweden anyway. Which is OK, I really only need it long enough to reform. Speaking of which, I got that claim on Sjælland during the war below, so there's the next war. Then 3 months later, got a claim on Rana, so I can have the Jomsvikings in my territory. Don't know if that really matters, but I want it anyway. Altho that's probably 150 years away…

Then things got messy. Powys, as mentioned last time, was attacking Deheubarth. Had already sieged down his target, and had his stack sitting on Gwent. In rapid succesion, my pet MR, the and Count of Glamorgan, and myself all declared for Gwent. Once Powys finshed sieging it's capital, he moved his stack to relieve the siege on his own territory. MR got into Gwent 1st, so he ended up taking it. I had also declared on Powys, so I still got a county. Now I'm Emperor of Prydain.

More sorting out to do tomorrow.

 

[jursamaj]

Tonight's update:
I celebrated becoming Emperor with a Great Blot.

Then I declared war on Danmark for Sjælland, and on Sorbia for Rana. That last one was annoying, because the guy had 8 pagan allies. Also, I couldn't pile on the troops much, since *I* was getting the pagan defensive attrition. So some of my troops spent time looting nearby West Francian provinces. Probably shouldn't have done that so much, as Francia had their armies running around, and I provoked an attack. I won my war just as he attacked, and scooted out of Francia, but the retreat was a bit costly (a few hundred men, including a couple of good commanders). Lesson learned: don't annoy the giant *too* much.

While I was throwing my party, both the Duke of Northumberland (my grandson) and the super-Count of Suffolk simultaneously declared for Chester. The fools proceeded to fight over who got to fight Mercia. Northumberland won that, and is slowly sieging his way to warscore. Mercia had an obnoxious army that tried to siege one of *my* demesne castles, so I put that down. Otherwise, I'm leaving that war alone. On an unfortunate note, my switch to tanistry happened before I could break up the super-count, so he's a thorn I'll have to deal with him some day.

Before I had sent the levies home, Jamtaland sent 850 men to pillage Angermanland. Heck, they're not my men anyway, so off they go (2500 of them) to stomp some sense into the neighbors. *He's* going to be another thorn. 5 year old kid inherited 3 Norwegian counties & conquered an Icelandic one. Weirdly, his lowborn regent & heir is 73.

Sorting out issues after that war led into a war when I revoked the young Countess of Cornwall. Can't have Christian vassals. Likewise revoking the Christian bishops & mayors I got from her.

Anyway, after winning Sjælland, I reformed the Germanic religion. One unforeseen side-effect: within a few months, a bunch of my tribal vassals (who weren't counting against my vassal limit) turned feudal. That was nice, in that it added a bunch of new cities & a few bishoprics to the realm. But it put me *way* over the limit. Organizing duchies has helped, but I'm still working on it. That, and marrying up some sons as I should have done a few years ago, before I hand them duchies. Pleasantly, 2 vassal provinces have converted to Germanic, 1 from Catholic, 1 from Waldensian. Hopefully Prydain will be all Germanic soon, and all Welsh sometime after that.

Odd discovery from scanning the chronicle: Each page starts with a big fancy illuminated letter. But the devs apparently only made fancy letters for the regular A to Z. Some chronicle entries leave off character titles, and my name starts with Æ. That leaves a big blank space.

 

[jursamaj]

Well, looks like I've neglected this thread for a while…

That war for Chester took about 4 years. My vassal finally conquered it, so I was able to form the Duchy of Lancaster and hand that out. Border gore, but fortunately my Crown Authority forbids them fighting over it.

2 Irish & 1 Pictish province have converted from Catholic, plus 1 Swedish province that was still Old Germanic flipped. Straits count for adjacency, right? So with Leinster Germanic and across the straight from Welsh Dyfed, Welsh should start moving into Ireland. And if it doesn't count, they should eventually get the other culture conversion event.

Even after creating a bunch of duchies, my vassal count was out of control. So I broke down and gave my youngest son Sweden (he was set to inherit it anyway). Under vassal limit by 1 now, and if he breaks away, meh. Heck, *he* should start spreading Welsh culture for me. Maybe I'll do the same for Norway eventually.

After multiple petty wars, I now own Cornouaille & Léon, and I'm about to declare for Domnonia & Broërec. Brittany soon, as a foot in the door of Francia. Also I own all of Ireland & Pictland, and the King of Pictland is camping out on Insee Orc & Insee Cait. I'll get around to him someday. Only 7 inland provinces of England & Wales left to take, as truces permit (or as my vassals jump in). Picked up Rugen, so I've got somewhere for the Jomsvikings, when that event pops. Also going to start picking stuff in and around Pomerania. I'll probably set them up as a dynastic puppet too, because I *really* want to get the coast from Jylland to Algeciras, maybe even down the west coast of Africa eventually. Hard to say how far I'll spread, because I'd rather keep my capital at Middlesex.

You know, one of the worst parts of playing an odd culture/religion combo is the trouble finding people to marry.

 

[jursamaj]

Oh, what with all my wars, and the many prisoners obtained thereby, I had 43 prisoners last night. Of those, 24 were from a Pictish duke. Now that I took all that (Holy War, so I took the 3 provinces left), their liege is now the Pictish king. Along with others of his I had, and ransoming a few, I still have 23 Pictish prisoners out of 41. And he's either uninterested or unable to ransom any of them.

 

[jursamaj]

Whoa! In sieging *1* castle in Broërec, I imprisoned 29 women & girls. None of them are worth warscore, and only 8 are ransomable. I sold him 3 women, and he lost interest in all the girls. Once I took his county and he was no longer a ruler, 10 girls were released from *my* prison, even though the alert said they were being release from *his* prison. Weird bug?

Anyway, that's 4 Brittany counties. The other 2 or held by Francia, so they'll have to wait. Fortunately, Francia holds 3 kingdoms, and gavelkind is going to wreck him. Also down to 6 British counties to capture. Right after my last war (Powys) ended, an adventurer declared his *2nd* attempt on Powys, and my vassal MR declared holy war on the last county of Powys. The remains of Mercia & Hwicce are coming to Powys' defense. This should get weird.