After a discussion about using the council to shield a ruler from factions and revolts, I decided to embark on a spree of tyrannical behavior just to test the boundaries Conclave's rules.
My goal was to be a complete tyrant and run up as many opinion penalties I could in a short period of time and see if I could continue to run the realm effectively. Can fear and tyranny be used as an effective weapon?
As you can see, I'm a huge realm with the potential for huge vassals. It may not be obvious in the picture, but there is some border gore among my vassals. So, I want to clear up that problem and fix my vassals.
In my current game as Greater Armenia, I had managed remove most of my council's power. So, the first step was to set my council law to enable council oversight of war declarations. This particular law prevents council members from forming or joining factions when they council is content. Then I put the most powerful vassals (that I don't want to liquidate) on the council.
Once I set up my council properly, I started to clear out my prison. I had already beaten some of my vassals in a revolt, so I revoked three dozen titles from them, and then executed them. Then I executed all the random people in my prison whether they were worth ransoms or not. Some of them were foreigners, but plenty of them were hostages from vassal families. That cut my prison down from 57 people to 2.
Then I decided to revoke a bunch of titles from vassals not on my council and who held titles I wanted to give to my sons while also tidying up the mess in Georgia and Abyssinia.
Some vassals objected, causing 6 different revolts against my tyranny. But these were vassals refusing to hand over their titles, not faction revolts.
Despite my outrageous behavior, I was still able to function effectively as a ruler. I got my council to enforce realm peace even though the majority of the council were malcontents.
They don't owe favors to me; they owe favors to my spymaster (and I'm not sure what the goal of these favors was, since he died shortly after this).
Within six years, I had run up enough tyranny to never be able to overcome the penalties. These tyranny penalties are stacked with penalties for things like putting people's children in prison and then executing their children for no reason other than I felt like it. I'm also a kinslayer, although that makes little difference this at this point.
And this is the faction situation after six years:
And no, I don't have my prison full of vassals:
There is no significant opposition to my rule at this point. Since the council only has the right to control my declarations of war, I have the power to pretty much do whatever I want. I suppose I could start getting rid of council members next, but there is no point.
There are disadvantages to this strategy, though.
I have my laws set up for maximizing tax revenue. Normally, I'd be rolling in the money. But since basically all my vassals hate me, I get practically nothing from them. I could, hypothetically, have gone the route of killing everyone and generating tons of tyranny and only then generating some new courtiers to replace them. That would help solve this problem, but I didn't try it out this time.
If I was relying on vassals for levies, I'd also be out of luck.
If I felt more vulnerable to foreign attack, my situation would be difficult. I have plenty of my own levies and retinues which should keep my enemies at bay, so my situation is fine. I can also count on my vassals to defend their own lands if I'm invaded. The viceroys have 10k+ each and they will defend their own territories.
Still, I consider this experiment a success. If you are willing to take the levy and tax income consequences, you can use the council to shield yourself from significant revolts.
My goal was to be a complete tyrant and run up as many opinion penalties I could in a short period of time and see if I could continue to run the realm effectively. Can fear and tyranny be used as an effective weapon?
As you can see, I'm a huge realm with the potential for huge vassals. It may not be obvious in the picture, but there is some border gore among my vassals. So, I want to clear up that problem and fix my vassals.
In my current game as Greater Armenia, I had managed remove most of my council's power. So, the first step was to set my council law to enable council oversight of war declarations. This particular law prevents council members from forming or joining factions when they council is content. Then I put the most powerful vassals (that I don't want to liquidate) on the council.
Once I set up my council properly, I started to clear out my prison. I had already beaten some of my vassals in a revolt, so I revoked three dozen titles from them, and then executed them. Then I executed all the random people in my prison whether they were worth ransoms or not. Some of them were foreigners, but plenty of them were hostages from vassal families. That cut my prison down from 57 people to 2.
Then I decided to revoke a bunch of titles from vassals not on my council and who held titles I wanted to give to my sons while also tidying up the mess in Georgia and Abyssinia.
Some vassals objected, causing 6 different revolts against my tyranny. But these were vassals refusing to hand over their titles, not faction revolts.
Despite my outrageous behavior, I was still able to function effectively as a ruler. I got my council to enforce realm peace even though the majority of the council were malcontents.
They don't owe favors to me; they owe favors to my spymaster (and I'm not sure what the goal of these favors was, since he died shortly after this).
Within six years, I had run up enough tyranny to never be able to overcome the penalties. These tyranny penalties are stacked with penalties for things like putting people's children in prison and then executing their children for no reason other than I felt like it. I'm also a kinslayer, although that makes little difference this at this point.
And this is the faction situation after six years:
And no, I don't have my prison full of vassals:
There is no significant opposition to my rule at this point. Since the council only has the right to control my declarations of war, I have the power to pretty much do whatever I want. I suppose I could start getting rid of council members next, but there is no point.
There are disadvantages to this strategy, though.
I have my laws set up for maximizing tax revenue. Normally, I'd be rolling in the money. But since basically all my vassals hate me, I get practically nothing from them. I could, hypothetically, have gone the route of killing everyone and generating tons of tyranny and only then generating some new courtiers to replace them. That would help solve this problem, but I didn't try it out this time.
If I was relying on vassals for levies, I'd also be out of luck.
If I felt more vulnerable to foreign attack, my situation would be difficult. I have plenty of my own levies and retinues which should keep my enemies at bay, so my situation is fine. I can also count on my vassals to defend their own lands if I'm invaded. The viceroys have 10k+ each and they will defend their own territories.
Still, I consider this experiment a success. If you are willing to take the levy and tax income consequences, you can use the council to shield yourself from significant revolts.
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