Hello, please help a beginner

[Gukpa]

I purchased CKII days ago and I'm learning how to play it, and right now I have some doubts

First of all, it seems that the only way to survive as east francia is to have the king of Bavaria to die from his ilness, thus allowing other of your sons to get the throne after the kaiser dies, if your son survive, then east francia is eaten by bavaria. My question is: There is any other way to prevent that?

The second is: There is any way for me to take over a vassal province? As the kaiser of east francia I control only baden, but I want to expand my demesnes

And the alst one, it seems that the Umayyd caliphate takes over all iberia and part of aquitanie, isn't that a bit (or a lot) over the top? they should be stagnating in the X century, not expanding

 

[shiro the bushi]

if its your first time playing, you should start in 1066, its am much easier start for beginners to start with, the muslim blobs (the abbasids, the uymayds etc,) are very stable, due to the opinion modifiers they have, infact i had games where they never had one successful rebellion, it usually requires outside force to cripple them. as for the game youre playing, ally with other powerful countries, most notably the byzzies cause the ai never account for allies, which is especially bad since allies are automatically called to war.

 

[brifbates]

You can revoke provinces from your vassals once the appropriate law is enacted in your realm. You can do so by asking them directly (which incurs tyranny and they may revolt), plotting (again allows them to revolt), or imprisoning them then doing so. If you are in line to inherit their land because they have no legal heir you can also plot-kill or imprison-execute them.

Is the Bavaria thing you're talking about that when you die your son inherits and the whole thing becomes Bavaria (playing from the Old Gods start date)? That is because he is already k_Bavaria when he inherits your stuff so he just keeps that title and makes East Francia a secondary title. You can change back to East Francia by opening the laws screen, clicking the East Francia shield, then clicking the "make primary" button.

 

[Gukpa]

You can change back to East Francia by opening the laws screen, clicking the East Francia shield, then clicking the "make primary" button.

Thank you, but there is no other way to do that? I want to prevent him from inheriting east francia in the first place

 

[Dragatus]

I purchased CKII days ago and I'm learning how to play it, and right now I have some doubts

First of all, it seems that the only way to survive as east francia is to have the king of Bavaria to die from his ilness, thus allowing other of your sons to get the throne after the kaiser dies, if your son survive, then east francia is eaten by bavaria. My question is: There is any other way to prevent that?

The second is: There is any way for me to take over a vassal province? As the kaiser of east francia I control only baden, but I want to expand my demesnes

And the alst one, it seems that the Umayyd caliphate takes over all iberia and part of aquitanie, isn't that a bit (or a lot) over the top? they should be stagnating in the X century, not expanding

1) You can change your succession type from Gavelkind to Elective Monarchy and select a different son to inherit your kingdom. You may have to appease a vassal or two with gifts and honorary titles to get their opinion out of the red first. You might also have to wait for vassals to finish their wars first. If you do this at the start of a game, you will only have to appease the duke Thankulf of Thuringia. And don't forget to make non-aggression pacts with all the Karlings you don't wish to fight.

2) You can "Revoke Tittle". But without a valid reason this will make you a tyrant and lower your vassal's opinion of you. A way of getting a valid reason is to have your chancellor fabricate a claim on the county. Keep in mind though that you may have to first revoke a duchy before you can revoke any counties within that duchy.

In your case I'd go for Elective Monarchy and make the duke of Franconia my heir. Then when the old king dies you'll have several counts whose counties you can revoke after a bit of fabrication. Rebellions also tend to be good opportunities to take some titles for yourself. If you have Conclave DLC you might have to first pass the relevant law however.

3) That's fairly typical actually. The game doesn't do a good job of simulating the things that helped Asturitas survive historically and it also does a poor job of simulating decline of large empires (or "blobs" as we tend to call them around here, though a blob doesn't technicaly need to be an empire, it just needs to be huge). If the Umayyads take Tolouse or Provence however, that will trigger crusades several centuries early.


I also share Shiro's opinion that the 1066 start date is generally better for beginners, but if you're having fun in the Old Gods start don't let us deter you from playing on. As long as you're having fun, you're doing something right.

 

[Naufragus]

Unlike the other guy I think you should start at the early date and play with the mechanics. You also really need the DLC content vs vanilla.

You need to learn how all the mechanics work. Declaring wars, inheritance, pressing claims, targeted assignations, factions etc.

Every play thru with have different events so there is no right or wrong thing to do.

The premise though is that you want your dynasty to survive so even if you arent king you can still play and make moves to secure the crown.

Even though you have to deal with current events you have to plan moves like 10, 20, 30 years in advance.

The Frankish areas are usually in constant war or in constant revolt over one thing or another so just wait a few years and Bavaria might be a pitiful county with glorified title.

 

[brifbates]

Personally, I like the Old Gods start date the best (hence why it is the only one of the three "play to the end" achievements I've gotten). Too much goes wrong at the beginning of the Charlemagne start between factions and ai stupidity so by the time you're 50 years in the map is an unbearable bordergore mess.

 

[Bernard95]

As some others have already mentioned, it would be advisable you start another game in the 1066 start date- which is more balanced and newbie-friendly by far. Pick basically any Catholic Duke and you really can't go wrong from there, especially if you choose the shelter that is the Holy Roman Empire. You'll have less to worry about at the duke-tier, but will at least you'll have some income and troops to work with unlike starting off as a count.

Regardless, to answer your questions:

1) Basically all you can do here is either arrange for the King of Bavaria's death or change your succession laws.

2) As far as this goes, something you'll learn to do over time is find ways to revoke or otherwise inherit titles. If you happen to control whatever Duchy title goes with the County of Baden, you'll have the option to start a plot to revoke. You're going to need some popular support though from your vassals, so that's not exactly a given. Other options include just outright revoking it and taking the tyranny penalty or fabricating a claim. You could also try to marry into the family (marry your sons to their daughters) or start killing off the family until there are no other heirs left at which point the title goes to you (this may not be practical depending on the size of the dynasty).

3) Muslims in particular have always been strong, and if they do happen to suffer a decadence revolt (decadence is a mechanic that's supposed to aid their destruction) all that will really do is change the ruling dynasty. It's also one of the weaknesses of the 769 and 867 starts that the Umayyads or one of their successors will perpetually rule over all of Hispania, barring some extreme circumstances or outside forces.

 

[Gukpa]

Ok, thank you all :3

 

[Gukpa]

>be me
>have finished reading all these comments
>decides to start it's massive 867-1444 gameplay of CKII in IRONMAN
>plays as east francia
>crushes Jytiland (or something like that)
>happy as never
>bavaria falls into civil war
>their king legitimacy crashes, as they run out of gold reserves
>declare war
>defeat them over and over again, but they still manage to keep a losing defensive war
>make plot, kill the heir
>they surrender
>I became the happiest noob in the history of CK
>saves my irongame gameplay
>goes to sleep
>wakes in the following day, begins to play aaaaaaaaaand
>according to the game I'm not in iron men

How can I fix that? Or I have lost this save forever?

 

[Rascar Capac]

How can I fix that? Or I have lost this save forever?

Forever and ever. Save into Cloud.

Also, CKII is not about winning, it's about losing in most random way possible.

Or at least I think it was. .

 

[Dragatus]

I'm afraid your save is stuck in sandbox mode. If you want to play in ironman mode you'll have to start over. But if you're willing to not get any Steam achievements, you can continue your existing game.

 

[JonathanOfArc]

if you're willing to not get any Steam achievements, you can continue your existing game.

I've played the game for years and don't have a single achievement. Ironman is only important if you're after achievements, otherwise there''s no need. I value being able to use the console rather highly as well which is obviously not available in Ironman.