I just got Crusader Kings II, and...

[Extreme Unction]

I captured a territory, Rafha.

I created a new holding in Rafha, a city.

When the city was finished, I was listed as the ruler of the city (complete with the "Wrong holder for holding type" error).

I didn't want that. I wanted the city to have a mayor. So I went to the city page and, not really knowing what would happen, clicked "Create Vassal".

What I thought would happen would be that it would create a title of "Mayor of Ash Shir" or similar, that I could grant to one of my courtiers. What actually happened was that a brand new vassal magically appeared as the mayor.

And somewhere in all of this (I can't remember if I did this before creating the city and the mayor, or after), I also granted the Sheikdom of Rafha to one of my courtiers.

The problem is that nobody seems to have any control over the city. I can't build any improvements on the city as Caliph. And when I save the game and switch to playing the Sheikh of Rafha, he can't build improvements in the city either. There's no "you need more money" icon. There's just nothing.

How can I give control of this city back to the Sheikh?

 

[Typee]

I'm pretty sure that feudal lords, in particular, would be *very* reluctant to give up any kind of land, as they would consider it the personal property of them and their family, not of their liege. Perhaps a major or bishop would accept the exchange without much fuss, as long as he keeps at least the same rank...since theirs are appointed, nonhereditary positions anyway, but a lord? I don't think so.

I don't know, it would be nice to have some sort of trade possible for specific situations.
Example: you play the king of France and, after a long crusade, you receive the kingdom of Jerusalem.
Now, one of your counts is a total bro and let your armies to victory. You want to give him the kingdom.
Problem is, he's not going to manage successfully his county in France from Jerusalem.
What happened IRL in those situations: he would abdicate his count title and give his castle to his brother or something like that. And the brother would remain vassal to the king of France.
What's going to happen here: he will keep it and may even do something stupid like keeping his capital in France. Sooner or later the county will rebel, and he will lose time sending troops to France while he should be defending against the infidels. The county might win the war, finally resolving a situation after much time lost.

It would be nice to have something for settling those situations. Like maybe a trade option that vassals would only accept if they get something much bigger in return (like a kingdom for a county).

 

[Extreme Unction]

One of the things I've noticed the AI doing is continually pulling forth fresh levies out of its counties. I was involved in a war over a minor piece of land with a small country, and every time I'd beat his army down to a nub, he'd pull another 1200 troops out of his ass.

But I, on the other hand, don't seem to have the same ability:

That's me, at war with the other guy. I'd lost some men in my skirmishes, and the replacement levies were sitting back in their home domain. But I couldn't summon them forth. Button remains frustratingly greyed out.

What am I doing wrong? Or is this an area where the AI gets to cheat to make it more challenging?

 

[cyrileom]

It is not. What you need to do is dismiss your levies and then you can call fresh levies. The only time you can call fresh levies when you have levies raised is if that particular levy has been dismissed/wiped out.

 

[Extreme Unction]

It is not. What you need to do is dismiss your levies and then you can call fresh levies. The only time you can call fresh levies when you have levies raised is if that particular levy has been dismissed/wiped out.

But that one levy above was completely wiped out, right? It's full at 505/505, and I still couldn't call it up. Would I have to find that level in the list and dismiss it specifically and then raise it again?

 

[Extreme Unction]

Okay, how is it that I often see tiny little one-county nobles pull enormous amounts of troops out of their ass?

I just watched the Wali of Edessa (tiny little one-county domain, and the ruler doesn't have any other titles or domains) suddenly materialize 75000+ troops. 25k in his county, and 25k in two other nearby counties.

There are no mercenary companies that big. And a thorough inspection of the holdings in the domain reveal that he should be able to call up a max of ~1250 troops from that one county.

What gives?

 

[justin6477]

Okay, how is it that I often see tiny little one-county nobles pull enormous amounts of troops out of their ass?

I just watched the Wali of Edessa (tiny little one-county domain, and the ruler doesn't have any other titles or domains) suddenly materialize 75000+ troops. 25k in his county, and 25k in two other nearby counties.

There are no mercenary companies that big. And a thorough inspection of the holdings in the domain reveal that he should be able to call up a max of ~1250 troops from that one county.

What gives?

Factions can get bonus troops just because.

Events fire where other guys just give you troops. Pretty sure I had the Varangian guard decide that I was a better bet than the Emperor one time when I revolted with a faction. This stuff just happens. Oh, and I think some of them might be disgruntled peasants.

edit: Look up the Civil War events in your event folder. It's what fires.

 

[Swxpert]

Pretty much it. If you give counties to Mayors, they become Grand-Mayors (basically feudal republics a la Genoa and Venice). If Christian, you can do the same with Bishops to make them Prince-Bishops. However, you can't do this as a Muslim since Bishoprics are valid holdings for a regular, feudal Muslim lord. All you'll do is change the county capital.

However the reverse is not true. I revoked Genoa and gave it to a normal count and he promptly became Wali-Emir and henceforth it didn't matter who I passed the Duchy of Genoa to they all become Wali-Emirs, despite Genoa now only being titular.

 

[justin6477]

However the reverse is not true. I revoked Genoa and gave it to a normal count and he promptly became Wali-Emir and henceforth it didn't matter who I passed the Duchy of Genoa to they all become Wali-Emirs, despite Genoa now only being titular.

Uh, Genoa can't be titular. It's a duchy, not a Kingdom.

Also, the Muslim rules are a bit messed up since temples are valid holdings for feudal lords.

 

[Extreme Unction]

What's the mojo for calling a Jihad? After digging around a bit on the Internet, I found out that the actual mechanics of calling a Jihad involve the Declare War function vs. whoever you want to Jihad against. If you have a valid cause for Jihad, there will be a "Jihad" option among the various casus belli.

However, I've never seen it actually show up as an option. And I'm next-door neighbors with the Holy Roman Empire, who have taken over the entire Levant and are merrily converting everybody to Catholicism. So you'd figure that if ever the head of Sunni Islam had a valid cause for Jihad, it'd be that. But nope, no dice.