I'm having the best game ever

[Migthy]

I started this as the count of Lancaster in the Charlemagne start date. The primary goal was to form Empire of Brittania, which I did in like 250 years. I've had problems managing the vassals to time to time but in the end I managed to please them all by creating Kingdoms in my Empire. Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and so I wouldn't have to care about the little counts and dukes hating me. There were problems when my dinasty members were pushed out from the throne and I had to intervene to give them back the throne, but it's ok. The greatest goal of all was to expand my dynasty .. and so by ~1000 I was fighting crusades in Spain and I managed to expand my dynasty by creating the Kingdoms of Galicia, Portugal and Andalusia. That was a mistake not to unite them all at the start because my family members were constantly fighting each others there...And so I found a solution by proclaiming my Anti-pope as the true Pope in Rome.
Everytime a vassal creates problems I just excomunicate them, imprison (until I fail to imprison and they raise armies to fight me so I can revoke titles because they are traitors) and get rid of the troublemakers, assuring my dynasty continues properly.
By 1100 I managed to marry a daughter into the still pagan Sweden by using a favor on the Swedish King. From here the Germanic faith has started to fade away and when I won the crusade for Finland, the Vikings were finnaly done for.
After my dynasty member was pushed out of the throne of Andalusia (the biggest kingdom in Spain) I intervened and pacified the entire zone, finnaly creating the Empire of Hispania. This is when the Aztecs arrived. Empire of Brittania, Francia and Hispania destroyed them quite easily.
They first attacked me in Ireland, I managed to win with some help from Sweden, Francia and some mercenaries there.
The second invasion was in Hispania, where they almost succeded, but in the end I managed to get them.
With the arrival of the Mongols, the Byzantines started to take action, they invaded me, taking Rome, and then they invaded even Lombardia (where a dynasty member of mine was ruling). It wasn't long until the Roman Empire was created.
Francia achieved it's peak when they conquered Poland by a crusade. Everything from the Atlantic Ocean to Poland was French territory...but now is starting to crumble. I tried to stay friendly to the Karling family, but by ~1300 they were gone. I never married into the Vuodi family but I might try now as the Roman problem escalates.
There is also a big Abyssinian Empire stretching from Somalia to Arabia.

 

[HMatsunaga54]

You don't have the console on do you? How the hell did the Bavandids not also survive, managed to retake their rightful place as Shahs of Persia?

 

[CVDE]

Nice to hear people still have fun playing instead of the "Ahrrrgggg Ck2 is dead" thread XD

Since you started in 769 did the Muslims ever take Aquitaine and push into the rest of Western Europe?? I ask cause this usually always happens in a 769 start game. Also did you make a custom dynasty or no?

 

[Migthy]

Yes I have the console on because I don't quite like Ironman mode. I also like to raise the challenge, as I gave the Byzantines some money to see what would happen, and that happend hahahah .
The Bavandids are here, @HMatsunaga54 . You can see them in eastern border of the Roman Empire.
The Muslims in general were quite weak in this game, they kept fighting each others. I got that "Rise of the Shi'as" at least a dozen time. This permited the Byzantines to take Jerusalem I guess, the pope also declared crusade for the city, as you can see the Calatrava Knights are there near Jerusalem.
The Muslims in Spain indeed went after Aquitanie and took it for several years until the pope declared crusade and the French took it back, then going into offensive into Spain thanks to another crusade which I also joined in. So no, the Muslims couldn't go further into Western Europe but they gave me a good fight in Spain. The Lombards also went into Africa, taking the whole North Africa coast from Egypt to Tunis. My dynasty members of Portugal eventualy destroyed the last remnants of Muslim countries in Algeria and Morroco.

Yes, a custom dynasty, the Lannisters from Game of Thrones

Also a good one... The Norvegians as they ran away from Francia, they found themselves as the guardians of Europe as they were fighting bravely against the Mongols in Russia.

 

[CVDE]

I find that when I make a custom character I have the most fun

I gotta say you inspired me to play another game , I stop playing when I get to strong and steam roll people.

 

[Migthy]

It is more challenging when your goal is to expand your dynasty into another realms. The thing is that I try to avoid being too powerfull by granting independence to my vassals. See Finland and Hispania. If you feel too powerful you could also do as I did, give money to other empires.
I am only 100 years from the end and I'm definetely going into EU4 with that save.

 

[FifthMonarchy]

I'm having a good game too, ironman Armenia Minor starting in 1077 (might have that a bit out) when the first Armenian duke appears in Cilicia. Early dismay as the Fatimids rolled through the Miaphysites to their south, tanking moral authority but helped defend where I could and then took two duchies off Rum and formed a custom kingdom - this is not de jure Byzantium as Anatolia would be so that's one less threat. Recaptured Antioch for the faith and took Alexandria from the Fatimids with a county claim so the pope has his seat and MA is now decent. Now have sufficient troops to hold my own and help Ethiopia,my remaining co-religionist (though just got a Miaphysite on the throne of a rump Georgia). Not been subject to a jihad yet, so it might go pear-shaped, though I wonder if that will happen if the custom kingdom has no target weight, as I assume?

 

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

I have been playing this game for over a year now and I just recently had great fun in my Byzantine Dungeons, castrating all the males and blinding all the women I had in there.

On the other hand, I just started subjugarint Scandinavia and Conquering Ireland, with the money I looted from England. Fun times

CK2 is great fun, but It needs more freedom and optimizations.
Foremost optimizations... that one core on my CPU is not very happy with this game.

 

[Migthy]

The game in EU4 is insane!
The French are incredibly strong. They helped Italy to gain independece from the Roman Empire and even managed to beat me in a war. Their number of troops is huugee!
But seeing that huge French threat I allied myself with Spain, Roman Empire, Sweden and Brandeburg, while they only had Saxony, Italy andThessalonika as their allies. I got a stronger presence in the continent as I took Bretagne from them, I also gave the Spanish some lands in Northern Spain, while the Romans got only some land from Thessalonika and Austria. They were incredibly weak.
But now a Lannister is ruling the Roman Empire, my dynasty controlling more than half of Europe, as Finland also begun to expand very quickly.
The Spanish have started to colonize Southern America while I'm up in the North trying to figure a way to take revenge on the Aztecs for invading me in CK2.

*By some reason the Roman Empire changed their names back to Greece and then Byzantines recently, I guess they have some personality problems.

 

[josefrees]

Tc you left out all the good parts (how you went from count to emperor)