Easiest starting characters for first games? They all seem hard.

[NoobRage]

It depends on what starting condition you want, all have advantages and disadvantages:

1- Ireland: Renowed as the newbie island, you should have a very quiet game here, learning how to expand both through marriages and conquest. All is perfect until Scotland comes knocking on your door. If Sunset Invasion is installed, you may have quite a challenge.

2- Poland: Powerful, starts with a young and unmarried King and surronded by pagan neighbours. Much potential to expand and turn into a late game superpower. Your only threats are a united Rus/Ruthenia, the HRE and Bohemia.

3- Denmark: Extremely strong Kingdom with developed holdings, and you have a claim on England. You have nearly 10 sons however, and that can make a hell of a civil war. You can either go to war for England, help Norway or ignore it all and smash the Finnish/Baltic Pagans. Its threatned by the HRE and a united Sweden.

4- Bohemia: Can create a Kingdom from start, big demesne and very strong position. Here you learn how to prosper as a vassal of a large empire, and maybe even try to claim a throne from inside. Not much potential to expand throught conquest thought, you must know how to expand by marriage. Dont annoy the emperor and you will be fine.

5- Rurikovichs (Russian Dukes): Spread out or weak starting positions, and all your fellow dukes have claims on you. However, with a bit of plotting and assassination you can form Rus/Ruthenia and then form Russia, learning family intrigue in the process. Beware the Mongols however.

 

[Jeltz]

Once you have played a couple of games as a christian and want to try to play a muslim campaign I can recommend the Zirirds in Africa. They are a two province kingdom so you can start out by either reconquering your land or by conquering Sicily. it is a rather small dynasty too in the game (the real Tamim had loads of sons) so you do not need to worry much about decadence. And you have a bugger state to your east against the Fatimids.

 

[Deaghaidh]

Once you have played a couple of games as a christian and want to try to play a muslim campaign I can recommend the Zirirds in Africa. They are a two province kingdom so you can start out by either reconquering your land or by conquering Sicily. it is a rather small dynasty too in the game (the real Tamim had loads of sons) so you do not need to worry much about decadence. And you have a bugger state to your east against the Fatimids.

What's hilarious about that typo is that it actually fits, as being negihbors with the Fatimids can leasd to severe buggering.

 

[icedt729]

Just keep in mind, the only things Difficulty looks at are the rank of your primary title, and the number of vassals you have. It's more a measure of how powerful you are than a measure of how difficult your game will be- for example, the Byzantines have a very low difficulty because they're an Empire with lots of vassals. But they can be difficult to play for beginners because there's a ton of management in such a large country and you have two large Muslim neighbors who love to call invasions on you. Irish counts have high difficulty because they're counts, but they're easy to play because their neighbors are all counts too. When you're still learning, better to play a small country with weak neighbors than a large country with strong neighbors.

(Also, I recommend Scotland for a second or third game, because it's a great place for learning to deal with factions, claimants, feuding vassals and revocation. And once you get your vassals in order you can expand into Ireland and make yourself a fairly even match for England-Wales.)

 

[mudcrabmerchant]

Definitely ignore all advice to start with Apulia. I picked them for my first game, and although this was before the era of yearly Fatimid jihads for Italy, I was still outnumbered in most of my wars against Muslims, and it wasn't exactly easy uniting the kingdom. And after that, I didn't find myself with lots of options. The HRE and ERE border you to the north and east respectively, and Muslim solidarity made it very difficult to make grounds into either Africa or Iberia.

Ireland is rightly known as Newbie Island. It's easy going at first, and it isn't hard to take Scotland or Brittany what's left of Wales after you unite the island.

 

[Tufto]

I managed to succeed as Apulia by inheriting Tuscany, then attacking the HRE when the Pope called for a Crusade against the Waldensian Emperor, resulting in gaining all Italy, as I was the biggest crusading landowner in the de jure region. Then the Fatimids took the south before I'd assimilated Italy, but fragmented allowing me to take it back piece by piece. Very fun, but very lucky game. Until we get the long-awaited Fatimid fix, steer clear from Apulia.

Ireland... a little dull. Castille is fun if you can engineer an inheritance of Leon-Galicia, though things start getting tough by the time you have 5 kingdoms and no Emperorship because your king is Norwegian (!) but that shouldn't happen to most people.

My first game was as Achaia, which was fun but I didn't really expand much. I launched a coup for the Empire at the end, and was winning until 1453 came along.

Georgia... now there's a fun game... but not a good starting character.

But back on topic: I'd go for Ireland to learn the mechanics, then a game as Castile, Bohemia, or Poland. Perhaps Tuscany too, to see if you can form Italy.

 

[Lamprey]

And you have a bugger state to your east against the Fatimids.

This cracked me up. That emirate really does get buggered by *someone* every single game.

 

[Ols]

Not every game. I've seen them get lucky and take all of de jure Africa and Sicily before.

 

[Jephery]

The super dukes in France are also pretty easy. Aquitaine or Toulouse can easily dominate France, go independent and form the Kingdom of Aquitaine.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

I've always thought Brittany is the easiest start, as well as being (in my opinion) one of the most fun.

 

[Ekstrakt]

Brittany, easily.

If you don't feel like staying independent, swear fealty to the French throne and you'll still have the same opportunities.
Push claims on either Ireland, Wales or inside France. Crusades, plots and quite a lot of cultural aspects - stay Breton or go French? It's all up to you.

 

[Blitzzer]

yeah ... Denmark

*snip*

You don't really have any obvious dangers making a play for your borderlands (Duchy of Saxony just south of the borders might make a play for Holstein but thats it, and it'll take a while for them)

The most obvious threat is the great grey beast to your south.

Once upon a time, in a past Denmark game, I won the Great Race for the pagan lands and took them all from Lübeck to the baltics.
Then the Kaizer realized most of my new territories fell under de jure HRE.
The End.

But I agree, taking the lands from the pagans was easy, gold was abundant for mercs and upgrading your castles, and you can always invade England if all else fails.

 

[Isaios]

Which is the reason you always, always ally with the HRE. Unless they're weak and you'r strong, in which case you nab Bremen.

 

[nestorius]

Bohemia is perfect, good claims on Hungary and Poland so relatively easy to expand to one or the other (Poland is probably the better option). Protected in general. Really cant mess up there.

I guess Ireland is nice though it can get maybe hard if something untoward happens

 

[BritNavFan]

People like watching car-crashes too...

The Abbasid idea was good. That's probably the perfect location to learn Muslims.

I haven't actually played it, but the Almoravids look like a good starting position for a first game as a Muslim state, too.

 

[Isaios]

I haven't actually played it, but the Almoravids look like a good starting position for a first game as a Muslim state, too.

Perhaps. As long as you already know the game at least. I don't think it'd be a good start for a newbie. Too many things going on at the same time.

 

[Lannock]

Seriously? In a thread about a good starting position for a NOVICE, a place to learn how to play - you're recommending an Iberian Christian kingdom?

Why is that such a bad suggestion? I do think it's a good place to start for learning the game.

As I already mentioned, all the Christian Kings in that area are of the same dynasty and related so it gives you a good opportunity to see how to get yourself into position to inherit the other Kingdoms by assassination. You're surrounded by Muslim enemies that will probably attack you early on if you don't do so first, which I assume is why you think it's a bad place for a novice to start. I disagree. It throws you into the action from the very start and forces you learn how to deal with the threat of Muslims early on but to be honest, the Aftasid and Dhunnunid are easily beatable and the other Muslims in that area are either too small to pose any kind of threat or too far away and won't bother you for a while.

I'll use the King of Castille for example as that was my start point of my last game. Believe me, I'm no expert, there's still a lot of things I don't know about CK2 but Castille was a good learning experience and it didn't seem to be that difficult or harsh like some people claim. The King of Castille is older than both his brothers who have no wife or children, meaning he is heir to both their Kingdoms (Leon and Galicia) so if you can get them killed you can own three Kingdoms right off the bat. On top of that, the other two Kings in this area (Aragon and Navarra) are your cousins and the same dynasty which also means they are your allies. This makes you more than powerful enough to defeat the surrounding Muslims.

 

[nestorius]

the problem with iberia is its easy to lose. Yes you have lots of options but its probably better to start with something that is difficult to mess up like Bohemia. Actually think its probably the best choice of all.

 

[A_Dane]

I wouldn't start out in Iberia. While you do indeed have a lot of allies, your opponents are quite powerful, and those allies of yours? most of them can turn on you at any point in time.

And theere's the ever present threat, that the Almoravids actually go on a conquest spree in southern Iberia, in which case you'll be screwed as a novice.

It can be done without doubt, even by a novice, but I'd go for the save option and play Denmark, a count in Ireland or Bohemia.

 

[Ahaz Flagg]

Well being one of those new people, I can say Iberia was a bad choice for me. Yes you have allies, but are they going to help you? Not once in one call for help did any of the Iberia Kingdoms help, not once in 4 games. All your vassals are ready for independance,*does not matter which Kingdom either* and you do not have the troops to prevent it. All in all, playing as an Irish count was much better to learn for me.

I have tried several games as a Muslim, and the decadence that you have to deal with pretty much makes that aspect of the game 0 fun for me, I am pretty pisssed I spent $9.99 on it, and will not likely buy anymore expansions because of how bad that one is for me.