Having a tough time with money in Conclave in early start Count/Duke

[Thrake]

What would you suggest I do with feudal tax/levy "slider button thingie"? Leave it in the middle, or bump it over towards taxation or levies?

For a duke, feudal levies max, city tax max, bishop wherever you want; I personnaly leave middle. Once you grow in size I'd suggest going from max feudal levies one step towards tax; the sheer amount of vassals will give a good income while the amount of city/bishop vassals won't change much overall.

 

[jfoytek]

So with being stressed and the business focus,

A) I always use the Business Focus in the early character lifetime 16-38 years of age and typically stop this focus once I get the Trade Route event.
B) Ways to deal with Stressed, have a Content Traited Wife, Have lots of content traited coutiers.... (Should already be the case as Ambitious is a Horridly BAD trait you should make every attempt to eliminate from your realm, Infact I think this trait is the root of many problems that new players have, some even think its a good trait!)
C) You can use Carousing Focus to lose stressed fairly easily (Also this should be your next focus step any way)

So once I get my trade route I will typically switch to Carousing Focus, this will get rid of the stressed trait if I acquired it in my young age where it does pose as much of a health issue!
Be sure to remember to Carouse this is one focus where you are on a clock if you will.... Hold your three party and get the Personality trait and then move onto another focus... Hopefully you have a board gamer to invite as that's a nice trait to have .

Now I have my Trade Route, Now I have boosted my Diplomacy and gained a personality trait this has hopefully happened before I am too old....Pre 35 years old awesome!

So if I am still under 50 I switch up to another focus that will best improve my character or realm, Stewardship to create castles! Military focus is a great one too....

But at 50 I switch to Hunting, this helps to prolong my life with the focus itself and the dog you will surely get... Its also a pretty good focus!

 

[jpinard]

So with being stressed and the business focus,

A) I always use the Business Focus in the early character lifetime 16-38 years of age and typically stop this focus once I get the Trade Route event.
B) Ways to deal with Stressed, have a Content Traited Wife, Have lots of content traited coutiers.... (Should already be the case as Ambitious is a Horridly BAD trait you should make every attempt to eliminate from your realm, Infact I think this trait is the root of many problems that new players have, some even think its a good trait!)
C) You can use Carousing Focus to lose stressed fairly easily (Also this should be your next focus step any way)

So once I get my trade route I will typically switch to Carousing Focus, this will get rid of the stressed trait if I acquired it in my young age where it does pose as much of a health issue!
Be sure to remember to Carouse this is one focus where you are on a clock if you will.... Hold your three party and get the Personality trait and then move onto another focus... Hopefully you have a board gamer to invite as that's a nice trait to have .

Now I have my Trade Route, Now I have boosted my Diplomacy and gained a personality trait this has hopefully happened before I am too old....Pre 35 years old awesome!

So if I am still under 50 I switch up to another focus that will best improve my character or realm, Stewardship to create castles! Military focus is a great one too....

But at 50 I switch to Hunting, this helps to prolong my life with the focus itself and the dog you will surely get... Its also a pretty good focus!

Ohhh thank you! This is exactly the kind of advice I was looking for.

Also I have a ton of people in family, vassals and court with ambitious trait. I did think it was good at first, and now it's horrendous to have to deal with.

 

[Humanoid Typhoon]

Ambitous is an excellent trait.... but only for you and your heir.

 

[jpinard]

jfoytek - I wanted to thank you again for writing up what you did. Just made deciding on which focus's so much easier for me.