Game Of The Week: Reborn!

[glaivemaster]

Exciting news(for me). I'm going on holiday! Therefore this week's challenge will be a long one, and will be in place for two weeks. Also, no screenshots here, because I'm in an airport.

Game of The Week 3: The Western Empire
Character: Dolfin Dunbar, count of Cumberland in 1066. If you don't know where Cumberland is, it's the furthest south bit of Scotland.
Goal: Take the Empires of Britannia, Francia and Hispania
Difficulty: I don't know. I could do it 20 years before the end of the game on my first playthrough, so shouldn't be too hard. Maybe 2/5. Have fun!

Wow -still disappointed I didn't finish the previous one, but I'll give it a go.

 

[Ricardo Rolo]

First of all, have a safe and fun holiday

Secend ...

Game of The Week 3: The Western Empire
Character: Dolfin Dunbar, count of Cumberland in 1066. If you don't know where Cumberland is, it's the furthest south bit of Scotland.
Goal: Take the Empires of Britannia, Francia and Hispania
Difficulty: I don't know. I could do it 20 years before the end of the game on my first playthrough, so shouldn't be too hard. Maybe 2/5. Have fun!

Just a question: you are suposed to

a) Get the title of Britannia, Francia and Hispania under your crown

or

b) Get the area covered by those empires

?

I'm asking becuase they aren't the same thing game wise

 

[yequr]

I haven't progressed much in that Frisia game yet, but since it's so frustrating, I'm starting this one instead:

So my Marshal made me into quite a good character (got Gregarious and Just from Hedge Knights though). I had a pretty good starting council (a 12 chancellor), took over Ulster and moved my court because not being a de-jure-vassal (edit: when writing this, I totally forgot Cumberland isn't de-jure Scotland either, oh well) is a nice thing, and so is the lesser annexation risk from England (Hardrara was totally winning, but died of depression btw ). Unfortunately, dad declared a rebellion to put a better guy than the starting king in charge of Scotland, this is bad in two obvious ways: If he loses, he might get Lothian revoked (which is why I also raised my banners), and if he wins, I'll have a harder time with factions since the current guy is so wonderfully bad. I married a Cornish Countess, so I'm almost guaranteed a third county soon...
Unfortunately, England declared a de-jure war with a doomstack... and then, the claimant died. Whew. Later, when the last of Wessex invaded England with a host... he died a natural deaths a week into his invasion.

King of Scotland was stupid enough to make an antipope, who got punished for it? Me, at least Duke of Lothian and Strathclyde by now. Just in the middle of another war, too.
This plus Strathearn (or Strathclyde, might have mixed them up) taken is my current positon. I plan to leave Scotland as soon as I can usurp it, which I'm one or two counties away from right now. Still don't have an heir (other than my starting brother, but I'd rather inherit Cornwall if I could) despite wife (33 by now) with normal fertility, 3 lovers, the have a son ambition and that proto-hedonist trait... And even if I get a bastard, I would't be happy as I won't directly inherit Cornwall... :sad:

 

[Raeheart_]

You really chose quite a random character.

Not quite; I live in Cumberland. And yes guys, take all de jure area in the empires. My hotel has half An hour free Wi-Fi, so don't expect many posts.

 

[yequr]

After I managed to get away through "conveniently"-timed independance factions three times, the starting province of Cumberland is finally lost to the vile English in 1110. I had a truce and couldn't declare independance again. At this point, I've already been the real power behind the Scottish throne for a while, and have 9 of the 17 counties by now (only gained the ninth after my last swearing fealty), so I could go independant again and usurp Scotland... once that damn truce ends. I didn't want to swear fealty to England because they have nasty crown laws, and after the Holland game, I'm not in the mood for that. I was afraid this would happen, so I at least put a kinsman in charge. Sadly, I can't inherit Cornwall either, England got to High Crown law ridiculously fast so it's going to my clubfooted daughter rather than my amazing (he really is) only legitimate son (yes, in her late 30s, my wife suddenly started spitting out babies )

Truce finally ended in 1115, I was busy with 2 other wars until 1117, but now I'm king of Scotland. Probably not for long, looking at my age, and because my excellent heir (who would still be in his 20s) just had to die of some disease (first, his newborn son, my current heir, caught typhus, than he caught typhus and died of... Pneumonia with some added stress, somehow. The 0-year-old survived, of course.), I have an 8-year-old heir who may or not have a regency. Still on my starting character though, which is something. Plan for the immediate future is rather obvious, consolidate Scotland, eat Ireland, eat Wales... but I also plan to press my former daughter-in-law's claim on a rather large Portugal (Muslim Spain disappeared very quickly this game, king Garcia formed Portugal but somehow lost Galicia)... when she dies, since it's inheritable. ... that or I invite the prince of Portugal to my court, give him some kinswoman and later elect the heirs, which apparantly seems possible, as I just found out.

 

[Ricardo Rolo]

Resume of my attempt so far:

My ruler got to 16 and he decides to go to Jerusalem. He dies in the way, so his father inherits. ... btw Scotland had lost Cumberland to the Vile Godwidson ( he won the wars ), that had brought everyone he remembered to attack Scotland ( he married his daughters to the Capet, the Salian and the Jimena ... who do he thinks he is, a Saxe Coburg Gotha ? ), so that meant that the scots down there were free again.

Some years have passed and Scotland DOWs the Isles for Argyll, forgetting that somehow the Isles have Norway as ally ... so the Scots are steamrolled due to bad tactics ( the Scottish army was inferior to the total army count, but was probably capable of beating them while they were separated ... so let's siege the war target and let them join :/ ) and in between a faction pushed another dunce peacefully to the crown. Then the "everyone hostile" bug appeard and I'm in the way to restart the game to see if it recovers from that ... otherwise it is a restart

 

[Raeheart_]

One final thing. When I did this, Cumberland stayed my capital throughout the whole game. I never lost it to the English.

 

[yequr]

How though, through magic? Me and Scotland together couldn't have beaten England's 17k stack in my game - I had 5-6k, weak king of Scotland had another 4-5, money wouldn't have sufficed for the 10k mercs needed to gain an actual advantage, and I was busy with another war in Ireland at the time)... I did manage to put it off for 40 years by questionable methods, but it was inevitable.

Anyway, the 1120s are spent taking over Wales, started doing this just in time to prevent an English takeover (not the king, but his strongest duke) of some county. Going to die any second now, but my heir is 15 now, I'll probably try making him a Grey Eminence. My vassal borders are a mess, Gwynedd still controls the Irish east coast and will soon control that county I'm at war with, too. Ua Cheinnselaigs are everywhere, even after losing Gwynedd (I have no idea how they got it in the first place, but they did) to another dynasty. Albany is still independant, I'm thinking of creating a republic there. Portugal is nearly secured, but the current king's grandsons of my dynasty are Irish, oops. I'll probably educate them as Portuguese just to let them have an easier time with their vassals. Hopefully voting for them once I switch to Elective (still running Gavelkind as I have a single heir) won't ruin my pike retinues and cultural buildings for the brief period of a Portuguese Scottish king before I can convert back through adopting capital culture. Unfortunately, comparable projects in the less stable France and Castille-Leon were ruined by faction rebellions removing my matrilineally married crown princes' fathers, so I'll have to get back at that...

Edit:

Yup, almost dead. Shouldn't be leading even easy battles at almost age 70.

 

[unmerged(633385)]

Nothing too extraordinary for now at 1100. I got lucky fabricating claims early and pulled in claims for Galloway, Carrick and Man quickly. I borrowed money from the Jews and pressed the claim for Galloway. The Duke pressed Carrick and Man for me. It's a good thing I got these right away as Harold won his wars quickly. The first thing he did was to come after Cumberland. For extra salt in the wound, he called France in as an ally. That war didn't last long.

My father, the Duke, then decided to create the Duchy of Galloway. Uhhh...thanks Dad, but you're in gavelkind. I started a faction for Primogeniture, saved up for mercs and pressed the faction claim. I won and in the process maimed my father. He died shortly thereafter and I took over as Duke. I sent my son off to Wales in the hopes that a diligent Welshman would teach him the magic of longbows. Alas, he came back without the magical knowledge and he's practically useless. I did manage to marry him off to a genius Croatian princess. They've produced two genius girls, but no sons. So, I've switched succession laws to tanistry. All along I kept fabricating claims and have taken the entire Duchy of Ulster. England and its ally France just took Teviotdale from my king in a slaughter. I should be able to beat the king now, so that's probably my next move. Here's where I'm at in picture form:

 

[yequr]

1147: Ireland, Wales and Brittany fully secured. Well, not fully as I'm missing the Duchy of Cornwall (England, but at least my dynasty) and County of Nantes (France), but disregarding that, it is. I continue not having a lot of luck with sons - firstborn was murdered, second died of a bravery event, third... lives. That matrilineally married prince of Portugal has finally inherited, and his heir, while Scottish, doesn't look like he should have too much trouble with vassals, he has only positive traits and acceptable stats. Next step: France. Has a lot more holdings than me, but no allies of note and they're currently in a crisis, judging by their troop count... :happy: I could also take on England already, but France just seems to have the better risk and reward currently...

 

[unmerged(633385)]

After my last post, I had to figure out how to go about getting Scotland. I had no claim and couldn't get enough support for a plot to get one. Luck intervened and the King died. As chancellor, I was appointed regent of the new boy king. That allowed me to get a betrothal for one of my sons and the new king's young sister, who had a strong claim to the throne. As soon as she came of age and the marriage went through, I pressed her claim to the throne. She dutifully popped out a son of my dynasty. Since, I was in tanistry, it would only be a matter of time before I managed to get the throne into my grubby hands or so I thought. However, my new puppet queen's uncle had other plans and he pressed his claim to the kingdom. Before I could gather forces to save her, she abdicated. I pressed her claim again and won again. Then, I slapped her around a bit and told her to never do it again.

My original ruler died when my conquest of Ireland was almost complete. His brother took over. The brother didn't last long before he too died. That didn't bother me as the voters had insisted on a young, female genius as the new ruler. She was the granddaughter of the original ruler. At that point I was one county away from controlling all of Ireland. I got a claim for it and pressed it. As I was in the process of doing that, the Holy Father had a small request from me:

Who am I to deny a request from God's messenger on Earth? I finished up my war for the last county in Ireland and informed the puppet queen of the Pope's decision. She saw the wisdom in it:

So in 1125, my realm is:

 

[Runite]

Attempt #1

 

[glaivemaster]

Attempt #1

The odds are looking good for you there.

Meanwhile, I've had an incredibly lucky time making the first Empire. Went the traditional Ireland route, mostly inviting Irishmen with claims and landing them, before getting the Papal claim on Scotland (why is this such a common occurrence?). I accidentally pressed someone else's claim, but in the middle of my faction war, the faction to put me in charge fired and the queen abdicated, so the result was the same anyway.

Once I had Scotland, I waited for England to show weakness in order to take any duchy I could get a claim on (in this case, I asked the Pope for a claim on Hereford). Unfortunately, a bad battle allowed England to destroy me. I bided my time until the moment was right, and then the stars aligned. Assassination attempt on the current king with a 40% chance succeeded, leaving his just-born daughter on the throne. Ask the Pope for an Invasion (because the Pope is my best friend in this playthrough) which he grants, and then bring in Norway, Leon, Navarra and most importantly the HRE. Raise all the levies, hire 3 merc companies and destroy the English army.

Sadly, since destroying the army was priority, I didn't have warscore room to siege every holding (although I probably could have done it after 100% and refused surrender), so I still have the English vassals to deal with. Still, they're happy, and I diplo-vassalise Wales, giving me the entire de jure Brittania (apart from the Isle of Man, which I'll come back for later). Next up, France. The current state of Europe:

Also of note, the Tengri Reformation and Empire of Tartaria has happened, so I'll be watching that edge of the map with keen interest. Luckily, it shouldn't impact me too much. My main concern is trying to take Aquitaine from the HRE.

 

[unmerged(633385)]

50 years after the last update the relevant portion of the map looks like:

I spent the first two decades securing what was left of Wales and Brittany. I tried getting an invasion of England, but the HRE's vassal Pope was having none of it, so the English remained a threat and could beat me rather easily. When they were off fighting elsewhere, I grabbed de jure counties. They always ended up taking them back as soon as they weren't distracted. However, that kept them from taking more land from me, which they would have done as their vassals were busy fabricating claims.

In 1150, it appeared that things were about to get scary as the King of England pressed his claim for Aquitaine and won it. I turned my attention to France in the hopes that I could gain enough territory there to even out the numbers game with England a bit. I also moved my capital to Wales and converted to Welsh culture. That allowed me to pump out a bunch of cheap longbow retinues, which also helped with the numbers game. Nonetheless, England could still muster about 10K more troops than me. However, they unexpectedly did not come after me right away. Instead, they pressed minor de jure claims against France and Navarra. It should only have been a matter of time before they turned their attention to me though.

And, then England made a huge mistake of the type that displayed such monumental stupidity only the CK2 AI is capable of making it. England attacked the HRE. An HRE that was at peace and had twice the total troops as England. The English armies were destroyed. All of them were dead in a couple of months. I quickly found a willing claimant to the Duchy of Wessex, landed him in Scotland and pressed his claim. The English surrendered after I had sieged only a single holding and no battles had been fought. I expected reprisals to come before too long, but while waiting for England to replenish its levies I went back to France and took some land there. Then, before England came after me, the Pope intervened and called a Crusade for Jerusalem. England cheerfully took his entire army off to die at the hands of the Fatimids. I waited patiently for my truce with them to run out. The day that it did, I declared war for some patsy's claim on the Duchy of Kent.

When the English came back from Crusade, they were a little bit upset with me. Despite only being at about a third of their total strength, they immediately declared war. I was busy fighting the French at the time, so I guess the AI thought it was worth a chance. I quickly wrapped up things in France and then returned to England to crush them. That's when the levee broke. The game says that the English king died a natural death, but I know he died a broken man, muttering about his own stupidity and raging about me. His gay son became the new king and immediately faced a revolt in Aquitaine. I decided it was a good time to take the Duchy of Hwicce. The English king decided to personally lead his troops in battle against me and was killed in battle. Another Duchy was mine. His brother took over and decided to attempt to revoke the titles of the Duke of York who had gone heretic. Unfortunately for the new king, I declared a holy war against York and beat him to the punch of the Duchy itself. York had a couple of other counties, England was able to eventually beat them but this new king died in battle fighting the heretics. This time, England got a boy king. A boy king, who quickly found himself at war with me for the Duchy of Mercia. I won.

While all this was going on, my realms had nothing but internal peace. My genius female queen reigned for 45 years. The tanistry electors replaced her with an 18-year-old strong lad married to a princess of the HRE. I'm currently in year seven of his reign. I'm still a few counties away from creating Britannia. I can currently usurp the kingdom of England if I want. I'm four counties away from usurping France. England just folded to an independence faction in Aquitaine too.

Long story, I know. TL;DR version: I've broken England and France. It's only a matter of time before I get those first two Empires.

 

[frostwolf846]

Idea for a challenge: Survive as East Angela, difficulty 20000/5 (867 start date)

 

[Jonni_g_n]

are mods the done thing on this by the way?

 

[Aardvark Bellay]

Idea for a challenge: Survive as East Angela, difficulty 20000/5 (867 start date)

Maybe a bit early ? The current challenge will go on for 12 more days.

--------------

Thanks for the stories, i enjoy them quite a lot.

--------------

Exciting news(for me). I'm going on holiday! Therefore this week's challenge will be a long one, and will be in place for two weeks. Also, no screenshots here, because I'm in an airport.

Game of The Week 3: The Western Empire
Character: Dolfin Dunbar, count of Cumberland in 1066. If you don't know where Cumberland is, it's the furthest south bit of Scotland.
Goal: Take the Empires of Britannia, Francia and Hispania
Difficulty: I don't know. I could do it 20 years before the end of the game on my first playthrough, so shouldn't be too hard. Maybe 2/5. Have fun!

Raeheart, could you update the opening post ? Just in case people don't find your last announcement....ya know..

 

[Raeheart_]

Maybe a bit early ? The current challenge will go on for 12 more days.

--------------

Thanks for the stories, i enjoy them quite a lot.

--------------



Raeheart, could you update the opening post ? Just in case people don't find your last announcement....ya know..

Editing is awkward on a mobile device . I'll give it my best shot.

 

[glaivemaster]

*snip*

Long story, I know. TL;DR version: I've broken England and France. It's only a matter of time before I get those first two Empires.

That sounds awesome. I always love that feeling when suddenly your enemy just falls apart and you can start tearing bits off their dying carcass. Myself, I think I'm going to have to take Spain before France, just so I'll have enough to contest the HRE

 

[Runite]

Spoiler

2nd attempt was rather successful despite some setbacks.

Gained territories in order of acquisition: Wales, Ireland, Sicily, Brittany, Barcelona.

The Glorious Dolphin of Alba

I didn't feel like playing a teenage brat so I took the reins as his father, The Glorious Dolphin came back some 14 years later not so very Scottish due to his forced exile.