Empire Management Strategies?

[Myrten]

I used to really spam doges before factions were introduced. They are amazing money generators. I don't use them at all right now, but maybe I'm too shy about this. I am concerned about how rebellious they are. I didn't used to mind because they're so easy to put down in a one-off revolt -- cities are easy to assault. But now that they can revolt and bring in an alien paratrooper 100k no-attrition doomstack, I avoid them. I don't want anyone who might revolt, not because I can't take them down but because I don't want to deal with the free doomstack.

The other problem with republics is they're only useful in same-culture areas. The mayors usually take on the culture of the county they're in. In big empires, this often means your base area only. Later, once culture spreads, you can revoke and make more. But by then, I usually have other targets for revoking that are more important.

I only use them in same culture areas. It's country dependent but for ERE -> Rome game replacing feudal vassals in starting Greek culture territory was more then enough. Other important factor is that they are weakest vassals in terms of military strength so it's not that easy for them to revolt and as my empire grows their relative strength is smaller and smaller.

Now in 1.08 it should be even easier as they won't join independence faction.

 

[MasterOfGrey]

Since retinues were created, I've really only extensively played two big campaigns. One in Russia. One in Italy / ERE. The Russian retinues were Russian heavy inf with a mixed cav filler. The Italians were Italian pikes with a mixed cav filler.

I'm not sure why I'm finding these so much more expensive than you. The 30K I mentioned were one group of 15k Italian cultural pikes and 5k mixed cav, and another group of maybe 6k Italian cultural pikes. That cost over 100 gold a month to reinforce. My demense was I think 12 or 13 counties. All coastal in Italy (Sicily and Rome down to Taranto). All with maximum cities. And a king with stewardship of about 18, with a high stewardship wife. (I gun for good stewardship / diplo combination). That earned about 70 gold per month.

I'm not sure composition matters that much. The more expensive retinues take more headcount per unit, so I think it ought to balance out. Maybe the 20k longbows are much "cheaper" per head than the pikes and heavy inf. I can't recall the retinue limit, but this might be much higher if the longbows are very cheap per head. So it may be that my retinue is about the same number of men, but actually much "larger" in retinue points.

Well the 20k Longbows/Shock Heavy Infantry (I do them 1 for 1) is a cheaper combination than the cultural pikes and mixed cav, but it's not -that- much cheaper. Or at least I certainly wouldn't have thought it should be. Unless Italian pikes are much more expensive than I thought... *loads up a game* Hmm, Well you're looking at 1.5 and 1.8 per month for longbows and shock inf vs 2.0 and 2.4 for pikes and cav so in 20k in mine you're looking at 33g per month and for your 20k group you're looking at 42g per month + your other group. This is at maximum recovery rate. Or at least that's what my game is telling me, it's Vanilla with all DLC and up to date patches.

Edit:
I usually have an income of ~20-25 from my personal demesne at that stage, but I spose the heavily archer retinues don't usually take as much damage so they'd probably reinforce quicker and thus be spending money for less time. I have a suspicion that it comes down to how heavily they're used in battle vs using levies.

 

[Lessing]

As soon as I became emperor, I handed out the king titles this time. Then I started inviting kingdom claimants and pressed their titles. I experimented with making them bishops or mayors before putting them on their throne. Sweden and Denmark are theocracies, Croatia and Poland and Hungary are republics now. They give more money (their tax rate is higher), but the -30 from doges could sting with a bad heir.

I don't have my mind made up just yet whether republic/theocracy is better than feudal for kingdom titles. Alas, all those theocracy kingdoms had papal investment. That would have been a killer argument, had it been free investiture.

 

[Isaios]

Alas, all those theocracy kingdoms had papal investment. That would have been a killer argument, had it been free investiture.

Try as Orthodox, Miaphysite or a Heresy.

 

[Teivel]

I think this qualifies as a sprawling Empire:

I'm in the clean up phase right now, getting set to destroy the HRE title before my heir takes over and breaking apart and multi-dukedoms.

The structure and tips i can give:

The Imperial title and all Kingdom titles are held my the Emperor himself.

At the duchy level, almost all duchies are held by culturally homogeneous individual family members who also hold all the county titles within that duchy. This reduces the chance of constant civil wars a the count v duke level and increases the efficiency of your tax flows. You should be swapping to Primo before you create these titles. If you ensure you assign young, healthy, married males (preferably with a male child already born) you'll notice there is quite a slow rate of cross inheritance.

Baronies are also held by family members on an individual basis to facilitate breeding, that way you always have more young dynasts for assignment as you take new territories or revoke old ones.

Be disciplined about ensuring that all Dukes have their full complement of de-jure vassals, forgetting to transfer vassalage for newly built holdings can break open your stability quite quickly.

Spread the de-jure borders of your Empire, in my case, Greek members of a vast de-jure territory will not join independence movements as of the last patch.

Managing your ruler is key. Management at this level really does depend on the success of your eugenics program. I've had a constant string of genius diplomats since game start and this has played a part in ensuring that i have not had a single independence war. Breed quickly and prune off excess heirs as necessary. An heir and spare (two geniuses per generation) has served me well.

I use max crown authority under all my crown titles combined with minimum levies and 20% tax. This produces a huge swathe of money.

At this point you should have more money than you know what to do with, keep a war-chest for paying off vassals during ruler change over and raising and maintaining a standing army of some 140,000 heavy cavalry and horse archers.

Sidenote: Ending the schism as an orthodox power means that no matter what, every time you have a vassal flip from orthodox it's an opportunity to revoke at will if a Doux happens to have acquired too many county or duchy titles.

I'm aware that others may have very different methods but i've found this works for me. It's taken countless hours of attention, but i'm proud of the dynasty i've created.

A hundred years or so to go and then into the EUIII converter with it.

 

[Lessing]

An heir and spare

That should be one of CK2's slogans. .p

 

[Teivel]

That should be one of CK2's slogans. .p

It was even more so in CK 1 where the death rates were higher. You don't want your realm to ever be one death away from turmoil and chaos.