How am I supposed to expand under Medium Crown Authority?

[Lannock]

Today I started a game playing as a count in the Byzantine Empire. I thought it would be fun to try and start as a small count and attempt to eventually become Emperor but I've run into some trouble already. The Empire has Medium CA which means I can't declare war on any of the other counts so I can't expand that way. I thought I could still expand through marriage but there's no countesses available that will accept a regular marriage.

Any tips?

 

[lockey04]

start or join a lower crown authority faction, pretty much the only way. And make sure you do it when fatimids or seljuks are at civil war as well, or else they will pick on the rebels

 

[Tokie]

Look to marry daughters of strong dukes who has few brothers. Try to get your children to inherit.

Also if you plan to usurp your liege lord, try to become his spymaster.

 

[Nax24]

If that happens, definitely try to get a border province to a big nation like Poland or France. As long as that liege doesn't go to High Crown Authority, which prevents vassals from basically not warring anyone, will you have problems

 

[dr eng1ish]

You can also still expand by attacking lands outside of the Empire. I played as the Doux of Athens and conquered all of the Patriarchies by myself, for example. Getting into a lower CA faction war is the main key though, you still want to be able to take land from the other Byz guys.

 

[mr_human_555]

When you're still a count, you can do this:

1. Swear fealty to a small duke if you aren't under any duke yet
2. Fabricate county claim on your liege (make sure you can fight him & defend from him later though)
3. Repeat 2 until the duke lost his last land & is destroyed
4. If you still have enough demense limit, repeat 1-3

Then,

5. Now that you're powerful enough, attempt to create a kingdom title outside Byzantine, for example Syria / Georgia.
6. Now you're powerful enough to go for the Imperial Crown. If not, try to start faction for lower CA / elective / mixture of both

 

[Lannock]

When you're still a count, you can do this:

1. Swear fealty to a small duke if you aren't under any duke yet
2. Fabricate county claim on your liege (make sure you can fight him & defend from him later though)
3. Repeat 2 until the duke lost his last land & is destroyed
4. If you still have enough demense limit, repeat 1-3

Then,

5. Now that you're powerful enough, attempt to create a kingdom title outside Byzantine, for example Syria / Georgia.
6. Now you're powerful enough to go for the Imperial Crown. If not, try to start faction for lower CA / elective / mixture of both

This seems to be working pretty well. I managed to beat my Duke liege in a war but the strange thing is I stopped being his vassal (and I become a direct vassal to the Emperor) after I won, I think it was because he only had one county. Even stranger is his son who succeeded him randomly become my liege even though nothing had changed. How does that happen.

Sadly, the crown law has now been raised to high before I've even gotten the chance to attempt to lower it from medium.

 

[Hootieleece]

Use plots to fabricate claims on liege (de jure Duke) if possible.After you are a Duke plot to revoke the counties of vassals in duchy.If you have a claim on liege's title you can form a faction to claim that title.Even with Medium or High CA.

allow someone else to form the Lower CA Faction---join after it is formed.

when dealing with a King/Emperor liege (as vassal Duke)NEVER personally hold counties outside of your Dejure titles.(it gives liege revoke plot)Give to anyone as a vassal.If you inherit a county inside of liege's Personal Duchy's give to most ambitious/intrigue character you can find and THEN transfer him to your Liege.

On Medium and especially High and Absolute CA. The marriage game becomes paramount.(Early betrothal of landed heiresses,especially adjacent Duchies)

On Medium CA, as a vassal You are allowed to war against foreigners and infidels.(after taking infidel counties with medium CA you can revoke your infidel baron/bishop/mayor titles for free, and replace them)

Hope this helps a little.

 

[Subcomandante]

Have good relations with the King or Emperor. He will give you landed titles. In all of my games so far this happened. I seem to not be able to stay count with a singular province for long. You don't have to fight for your duchy, they'll give it freely.

Give yourself a good intrigue education and kill the brothers of the ducal daughters you married into your dynasty. I had a ruler with an intrigue stat of 20 - it's extremely effective, of course even more so with an intrigue wife and great spymaster. I routinely had plot power of above 100% against people in other courts all on my own, sometimes even against other dukes!

 

[Lannock]

when dealing with a King/Emperor liege (as vassal Duke)NEVER personally hold counties outside of your Dejure titles.(it gives liege revoke plot)Give to anyone as a vassal.If you inherit a county inside of liege's Personal Duchy's give to most ambitious/intrigue character you can find and THEN transfer him to your Liege

By this do you mean counties that are in a duchy that I don't own? Just want to make sure. Does this only apply to Kings / Emperor and not Dukes? The reason I ask is I own two duchies now and when I become Duke of the first one my succession law automatically changed to gavelkind and unfortunately my ruler at the time who had 3 sons, died before I was able to change it. So now there are 2 counties in my duchy that I would like to have actual control of but I have no plot option to revoke them. I don't want to upset my other vassals so I'd rather not revoke it the normal way.

Have good relations with the King or Emperor. He will give you landed titles. In all of my games so far this happened. I seem to not be able to stay count with a singular province for long. You don't have to fight for your duchy, they'll give it freely.

Give yourself a good intrigue education and kill the brothers of the ducal daughters you married into your dynasty. I had a ruler with an intrigue stat of 20 - it's extremely effective, of course even more so with an intrigue wife and great spymaster. I routinely had plot power of above 100% against people in other courts all on my own, sometimes even against other dukes!

Yeah, I've found Intrigue to be very useful in my current game. In past games I've tried to get my rulers as high Diplomacy as a possible and not worried too much about other stats, but now I'm trying to get a good mix of Diplomacy and Intrigue. Never thought about killing the sons of Dukes so their daughters could inherit then marrying those daughters, though. Thanks!

 

[Hootieleece]

If you are not De jure Duke of a county.....and personally control it.Give it to someone as a vassal.If it is in a Monarch's Duchy do as I said above.Otherwise monarch will hate you....thus trying to imprison you or plot to revoke title anyway.

Yes, Gavelkind is a pain, but if you are more powerful than your brother start a plot/faction for your claim to his title.You will then be able to make War on him even with Medium or High CA in realm.

 

[Lannock]

When the counties were held by the brothers of my ruler the revoke plot wasn't available to me, but a couple of generations later I was able to do it. Weird.

How does the game decide on what plots are available to you? Do more of them show up if your intrigue is high? What if it's low? Does it prevent plots that would normally show up from doing so?

 

[Hootieleece]

Generally you need to be a pretender or have a claim.If your Character is ambitious you will get more plots.Content Characters less plots.(That is all conjecture from playing lots of games)

 

[Kamuflaro]

When you're still a count, you can do this:

1. Swear fealty to a small duke if you aren't under any duke yet
2. Fabricate county claim on your liege (make sure you can fight him & defend from him later though)
3. Repeat 2 until the duke lost his last land & is destroyed
4. If you still have enough demense limit, repeat 1-3

Then,

5. Now that you're powerful enough, attempt to create a kingdom title outside Byzantine, for example Syria / Georgia.
6. Now you're powerful enough to go for the Imperial Crown. If not, try to start faction for lower CA / elective / mixture of both

Wow, I didn't know that... speeds up things a lot, thanks for sharing!

 

[Accrsd]

When you're still a count, you can do this:

1. Swear fealty to a small duke if you aren't under any duke yet
2. Fabricate county claim on your liege (make sure you can fight him & defend from him later though)
3. Repeat 2 until the duke lost his last land & is destroyed
4. If you still have enough demense limit, repeat 1-3

Then,

5. Now that you're powerful enough, attempt to create a kingdom title outside Byzantine, for example Syria / Georgia.
6. Now you're powerful enough to go for the Imperial Crown. If not, try to start faction for lower CA / elective / mixture of both

i didn't think you could swear fealty when under the rule of a higher monarch?

 

[gord96]

The Crown Authority Laws always confused me. When I was playing as an English duke, the Crown Authority Law was set at High, so I couldn't attack any other duke's or earl's in England, much I understand. But in my Danish game I am the King, and have Absolute Crown Authority in place, but my vassals keep going to war with each other. Anyone else have this happen?

 

[Accrsd]

The Crown Authority Laws always confused me. When I was playing as an English duke, the Crown Authority Law was set at High, so I couldn't attack any other duke's or earl's in England, much I understand. But in my Danish game I am the King, and have Absolute Crown Authority in place, but my vassals keep going to war with each other. Anyone else have this happen?

i'd recomend you look at the kind of wars they're having. in alot of cases counts revolt against tyranny and either have alliances with dukes themselves or their former leige does. in that case wars are possible and can rage out of hand. this is one reason why i try to not have any dukes with direct vassal counts