Impossible to do Saga in Stone Achievement

[Xshayarsha]

I cannot get First of the Crusader Kings, doesn't fire up for me, there is a bug report on that one. Any tips how to get this one?

 

[Sarsante]

I did as Haesteining, I moved to Bohemia and converted. I basically speed 4/5 until first cruzade then I joined. Marry all your children for alliances so AI wont bother you

 

[Xshayarsha]

Thx, I'll try that

 

[CAELISTIX]

I checked my own game and I am in year 1018 with 24 runestones. A lot better than some of you but it's still no sure thing that I can raise 76 more in the next 150 years or so.

 

[FuscusNight]

It is only possible to do via a cheese strategy at the moment, the cheese strategy being that you keep trying to imprison landed family members who are next in line for the throne, when the imprisonment fails you just surrender straight away which lets you raise a runestone and then you do it again and again and again for like 2 hours almost but beforehand you gotta save up at least 5k coins by raiding, i suggest more than 5k as some things are gonna go wrong as you do this since it weakens your realm heavily.

Here's the video for a bit more indepht guide for it if needed :

 

[Vanhal]

That's so much cheese i can build a moon from it.
There is one problem though, they somehow almost always just agreeing to imprisonment and i can't get the damn masochists to hate me and rebel for some reason.

EDIT: Ok nvm i just found some dwarf heathen who absolutely hate my guts and imprisoning him.

EDIT 2: And got it. Poor dwarf though, he won 100 wars in like 5 years and had nothing from it except perhaps incredible headache when the messengers with imprisonement demands and surrender declarations crowded his keep.

 

[Cymsdale]

I checked my own game and I am in year 1018 with 24 runestones. A lot better than some of you but it's still no sure thing that I can raise 76 more in the next 150 years or so.

How do you check the number of runestones?

 

[Kak0]

How do you check the number of runestones?

There's a description on how to launch the game in debug mode and open your savefile in one of the previous pages, but since I use a slightly different way I'll describe it here:

• Make a back-up of your saves. This is important, as looking at your save in debug mode will modify its checksum and disable achievements. The saves are in Documents/Paradox Interactive/Crusader Kings III/save games
• Launch the game in debug mode. This can be done either by putting "-debug_mode" as command argument as stated earlier, or by choosing the "Open game in Debug Mode" option at the bottom of the "Game Settings" page of the Paradox Launcher.
• Load your save
• Here, either you save your game and open it in a text editor to find "saga_in_stone_achievement_tally" (divide the number by 1000 to get your current stone count), or you do this to find it in-game
  • Press the ~ key to open the debug menu
  • Select "Explore Objects"
  • Change "Provider" to "Active Dynasties"
  • Enter the name of you dynasty in the "Search key" field and select it the box below
  • There should be the "saga_in_stone_achievement_tally" field under "Script variables"
• Once you're done, don't forget to replace the modified save by your backup

 

[Kak0]

So, ummm. How do I put this. I just failed the achievement with 99 Runestones. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. Well, more exactly my night, given how late I am writing this.

"Good" news is that I might have a couple more tips if you want to get this achievement without cheesing with the technique described in the video. The key to my almost success is that you can still raise Runestones without being Norse, thanks to the Embrace Local Traditions decision.

What this decision does is that you, your close family and every direct vassal that follows your culture switch to the new one and get a "buff" that says that they can still raise Runestones. However, that buff is not inheritable: once a character with the buff dies, that's it, their heir won't be able to raise Runestones, even if they are of the same culture. Since your close family gets the buff, your heir and their heir, if they are already born, will get it. You get a little extra time to complete the achievement, but you are still on the clock.

So here's what happened in my game: when the Norse culture hit the High Medieval Era, I just used the Embrace Local Traditions decision to switch to the least advanced culture I could find, which was the Permian in my game, they had just barely gone out of Tribal and had only two technologies in the Early Medieval Era. I then went on giving territories to my close family, hoping they would try conquering stuff. I would also make sure that all the vassals that got the buff were raised to the rank of King at some point, so that they might want to raise a Runestone to celebrate going up in the world. I also gave them lots of gold to make sure they had enough to raise a runestone, should the check happen soon. That worked for some of them, I saw a couple Runestones being raised by the AI. I still did most of the work, by making my buffed characters live as long as possible with the Learning lifestyle. The sad part is that my last character died 18 months before raising the very last Runestone. I tried to switch to Sapmi with the next character because they weren't at High Medieval Era yet, but it seems like they can't raise Runestones, I assume it's not the same cultural group or something.

I made a couple mistakes when I was on the clock, for instance I wasted some Renown in useless perks or in disinheriting while I should have gone straight for Octogenarians. I probably should have raised my grand-son in the Learning lifestyle instead of Intrigue, he might have been able to resist the Gout a bit more. Well, it's hard to tell, it was close.

I think the main takeaway thought isn't really that decision that gives you a little extra time, but rather that I was able to hold a huge Empire while being of a culture that was almost Tribal. Actually, I switched to Feudal very late already for other reasons than Runestones and never felt threaten. To give you an idea, my run ended in 1267.

Here's what I recommend: take any Norse in Eastern Europe / Scandinavia (my game was with Rurik), make a huge tribal blob in that part of the map and then spend your time spreading your dynasty anywhere you can (starting with your own realm, making sure all your direct vassals are of your dynasty). Give any new title to someone of your dynasty if possible. Use Intrigue to get your dynasty in other realms. When you reform your faith, I recommend choosing a syncretism so that it gets easer marrying into other faith. I took the islamic one for roleplay reasons, and was able to put my dynasty on top of the Abbasid Empire, but choosing the catholic one might be a huge help. Finally, if you do decide to Feudalize at some point, remember that regularly switching Fascination to avoid completing technologies should slow you down quite a lot.

I still have a backup of my save just before I take the decision in 1178. Maybe I'll give it another try, but that feels like cheating. I think a North Sea Empire run is compatible with that strategy.

Edit: I was wrong about the North Sea Empire, because taking the decision to form it immediately makes you Feudal. A good old Scandinavian Empire run with an emphasis on making children, marrying them to further your dynasty and giving them title, should do the trick.

 

[Kak0]

Just bumping this thread to give a couple more advices. I haven't given the achievement another try myself, but I followed a French streamer who managed to get it early in the 1100s (something like 1114 I think).

As expected, he formed the Scandinavian Empire and blobbed his way through Europe. However, he didn't bother using Intrigue to get his dynasty in another realm, conquering it through Invasion or Holy War is more efficient since you can split the lands you get between several members of the Dynasty, which raises the probability of getting Runestones from the AI. Might be less fun than doing it through Intrigue though, at least in my opinion He didn't bother staying Tribal the whole time either, he began to switch in 1060 when he already had 60 Runestones.

The key to his success was to choose Ivar at the beginning of the game. He's the strongest Viking around in 867, starting with Special Troops that are inherited at succession and that you can use to keep factions in line (he would never used them in battle). Also, Ivar is of the Dynasty Af Sigurdr, which is already established so you will start getting Runestones from the AI even sooner, and you'll be able to have a bigger pool of Dynasty members to choose from when granting a title, provided you can invite the right ones to your court.

He also chose Communal Identity when reforming his religion, which speeds up Culture conversion. He made that choice because he thinks that this prevents the newly landed Dynasty members to switch Culture, which I am personally not sure about since this requires the county to have the same Faith but well, I thought I'd throw that information here anyway.

Good luck to anybody who's going to give this achievement a try, I am personally not in the mood for a 300 years Viking Europe Conquest for just one achievement, I'll patiently wait other DLCs so that I can pair that with other goals.

 

[Xshayarsha]

Just bumping this thread to give a couple more advices. I haven't given the achievement another try myself, but I followed a French streamer who managed to get it early in the 1100s (something like 1114 I think).

As expected, he formed the Scandinavian Empire and blobbed his way through Europe. However, he didn't bother using Intrigue to get his dynasty in another realm, conquering it through Invasion or Holy War is more efficient since you can split the lands you get between several members of the Dynasty, which raises the probability of getting Runestones from the AI. Might be less fun than doing it through Intrigue though, at least in my opinion He didn't bother staying Tribal the whole time either, he began to switch in 1060 when he already had 60 Runestones.

The key to his success was to choose Ivar at the beginning of the game. He's the strongest Viking around in 867, starting with Special Troops that are inherited at succession and that you can use to keep factions in line (he would never used them in battle). Also, Ivar is of the Dynasty Af Sigurdr, which is already established so you will start getting Runestones from the AI even sooner, and you'll be able to have a bigger pool of Dynasty members to choose from when granting a title, provided you can invite the right ones to your court.

He also chose Communal Identity when reforming his religion, which speeds up Culture conversion. He made that choice because he thinks that this prevents the newly landed Dynasty members to switch Culture, which I am personally not sure about since this requires the county to have the same Faith but well, I thought I'd throw that information here anyway.

Good luck to anybody who's going to give this achievement a try, I am personally not in the mood for a 300 years Viking Europe Conquest for just one achievement, I'll patiently wait other DLCs so that I can pair that with other goals.

Not sure why even bother if you can use One Proud Bavarian's cheese way to do this? There is no guarantee you'll get an achievement with regular playthrough, since there is no way you can force your dynasty members to raise a runestone, or make sure they raise them. I did several playthroughs with Northern Lords conquering and giving out land to dynasty members for hundreds of years, having literally thousands of members of my dynasty in the end, and I have never got it this way.

 

[Kak0]

Not sure why even bother if you can use One Proud Bavarian's cheese way to do this? There is no guarantee you'll get an achievement with regular playthrough, since there is no way you can force your dynasty members to raise a runestone, or make sure they raise them. I did several playthroughs with Northern Lords conquering and giving out land to dynasty members for hundreds of years, having literally thousands of members of my dynasty in the end, and I have never got it this way.

I don't want to cheese to get that achievement, I'd rather do it in a proper playthrough. I just wanted to post those advices here for people that feel the same way.

 

[BurningEGO]

A bit late to reply but I felt the need to do so. The achievement continues relatively bad to accomplish. I tried multiple approaches as an achievement hunter, but none worked. The AI simply does not take the decision many times. In my last game as a norse country located in Nubia, using the Kushite religion to get easy suicides at 0 cost, I landed hundreds of dynasty members but by 999, I have only 13 comissioned runestones. And I bet I did all of those, lol.

If you want to get this achievement done, you have to cheese somehow. I tried to go legitimate, but it simply won't work. My intention was staying tribal for most of the time, so that I could raise runestones forever. But only 13 runestones in more than 100 years? Jeebus.

So, if someone was googling, like I did, save yourself some trouble, and cheese the achievement. I know it doesn't feel good, but that is how things are right now.

 

[Ciccillo Rre]

So, I'm a bit late to the party here, I don't have that much time to play the game. I did all NL achievements except "King of all the Isles" and "Saga in Stone" back in March, had to stop playing for a while, and this weekend I set out for a big playthrough starting as Ivar to get both. I actually did try Saga in Stone back in March but failed in a couple of playthroughs that I started as Björn Ironside (they were typical Scandinavia games, in one of them at least I managed to get "Vladimir's second choice"). In both cases, I did not manage to get the achievement to pop by the mid 1200's despite adopting the strategy of landing as many dynasty members as possible left and right. So of course I was a bit desperate to get "Saga in Stone" as I had been reading on the Internet that many people have had trouble with it (I also considered somewhat cheesing it by adopting a religion with the Ritual Suicide tenet).

Instead, in this weekend's playthrough starting as Ivar the achievement popped quite naturally in 1114. I attach a screenshot from 1150 (compared with it, in 1114 I had not pushed as much into Sweden, Lotharingia, Greece and especially Italy... of course I had to dismantle the papacy before quitting). This result occurred despite the need to restrain myself from taking too much land until "King of all the Isles" had popped, which happened some time around 950 (although admittedly while of king rank as Mann, I had also conquered Ireland and Scotland which then became independent upon succession so as to avoid hitting the 80 realm size limit; this helped as family members in both kingdoms built a couple of runestones). After getting "King of all the Isles", I proceeded to conquer as much land as possible for my dynasty members into feudal lands. At some point I also had 9 king-rank dynasty members as independent rulers (which enabled me to take the "Dynasty of many crowns" decision) before reconquering almost all of them.

What did I learn from this?

• The most important message is that - it is my impression - feudal dynasty members have a much stronger tendency to build runestones than tribal ones. The reason may be - I'm guessing here - that it is easier for them to have enough cash in-hand at the time of the AI decision check. I as well as other people that I saw tried to expand rapidly into tribal lands in order to have dynasty members build runestones; this may be suboptimal.
  
  
• Unlike what other people suggested, delaying reformation was harmful for me. I slowed down my entry into the early medieval era so much to the point of ruining my post-achievement game. I could as well have started to play in the early medieval era somehow earlier.
  
  
• As the French streamer mentioned above suggested, starting as Ivar helps. However, I did not get many runestones from my af Sigurdr brother based in Sjelland at the very beginning of the game. What helped for me was the ability to immediately start landing family members in later-to-be-independent Ireland and Scotland. My primary title was Mann and the Isles until 1040 or so when I formed the North Sea Empire, almost a century after "King of all the Isles" had popped.
  
  
• There is, however, a subtle issue to consider in this strategy. Whenever you form Mann and Isles, you turn feudal, which may be undesirable at the beginning of the game. The trick for me was to elect my af Sigurdr king of Denmark relative, a tribal ruler, as successor. This allowed me to switch back to tribal upon succession around 900 or so (I even did this inadvertedly). I understand, however, that Denmark does not always form at the start, so this approach can be a little bit RNG-depedent.
  
  
• In a similar vein, you may not want to switch to feudal right after forming the North Sea Empire, if you want to get this title. To avoid too early a switch to feudalism, you need to reform your religion before taking the decision (forming the North Sea Empire only turns you feudal if you are both tribal and unreformed). Note that this prevents you from getting the achievement "Canute the Greater," which is only possible if you play a ruler who is both tribal and unreformed. While, as I said, it is perhaps unnecessary to delay feudalization, feudalizing upon taking the North Sea Empire decision may be undesirable from other timing-related perspectives.

 

[Geodynamis]

Don't understand how this is intended to be an "easy" achievement. Not even Azure fixed this.

 

[CRONOGEO]

Don't understand how this is intended to be an "easy" achievement. Not even Azure fixed this.

Isnt broken, so it cannot be fixed. Is just a "trophie-hunter" thing

 

[Kak0]

With the arrival of Royal Court and an achievement that basically encourages you to paint a good chunk of the map (Lingua Franca), I thought I'd give Saga in Stones another try. I managed to get the achievement in 1156 with the Piast dynasty (which doesn't even start Norse, but I wanted the Brave and Bold achievement as well).

I started by marrying my son to the daughter of Halfdan of Jorvik, allowing my dynasty to become Norse and Asatru starting with my grandchildren. I fought my way through the kingdom of Poland and then the Southern Baltic Empire, founding it and turning feudal in 994 (actually I turned feudal just before I founded the empire like an idiot but anyway).

After that, I turned to the west and gradually conquered all kingdoms in western Europe. To do that, I diverged from the Norse culture to get the traditions Linguists (500 piety by Language scheme completed) and By The Sword (no limit in kingdom-level Holy Wars and they can be triggered at the Devoted Servant level). I continued my endless series of Holy Wars to get to India, until the achievement popped at some point in 1156, while I was transitioning to the High Medieval Era.

The advantage of Holy wars, as stated in another post, is that you get all the land owned by people that are not of your religion (i.e. all the lands, in our case). I would always give those lands to landless adult characters of my dynasty when possible. Since the AI don't consider raising a Runestone if they go from landless to count, what I would try to do is to give all the counties of a duchy to one character, and then give them the duchy title.

Royal Court makes it a bit harder to get gold with big realms because you need to have a Grandeur that matches your realm's size, and the cost of the amenities basically compensates most of your vassal taxes, so your revenue comes mostly from your domain and other sources. The prisoners you make in all those wars already give quite a bit of gold, but I would generally just put at least two points in the Avaricious tree of the Stewardship lifestyle to get gold with hooks and the Extort Subjects decision (the very low Tyranny incurred is compensated by the dread generated, and it's well worth the gold).

That being said, creating titles is quite expensive. The good news is, there are multiple ways to decrease this cost, to the point that creating a duchy costs 50 gold and a kingdom 100 gold. Here are the ones I used, I don't think there's much more:
- Ducal Conquest skill in the Diplomacy tree (-20%)
- Faithful Magistrates, second skill in the Law Dynasty Legacy (-20%)
- Courtly Ethos (-15%)
- Legalistic Tradition (-30%). This one is the big one, especially because it also gives +30 Vassal Limit. It's a bit hard to get early since it requires two technology in the Early Medieval Era, which we don't want to push too fast in our case. But it costs at worst 10000 Prestige but it's the kind of amount you can easily achieve in a lifetime at some point, especially with the Legacy that doubles the amount of Prestige in battles

Once my empire was well established and I could get a good flow of gold, I would just repeat these steps:
- On succession, hold a Grand Blot to please the Asatrus as much as possible, and go on a Pilgrimage. This is generally enough to get me close to the Devoted Servant level
- If I am low on Piety, learn some languages
- Declare a Holy War against any relatively weak kingdom
- For each conquered duchy after the war: give all counties of this duchy to landless and claimless adults of my dynasty (the claimless part is just to avoid Vassal wars and border gore but it's not at all necessary), then create the duchy title (you might want to wait a couple days for the previous owner to destroy the title) and give it to them
- Give those newly landed characters 200 gold so that they can raise a Runestone if possible

At the end, the AI would raise approximately 1 runestone every year. To give you an idea here is how my Runestones count progressed:
- 994: 11 Runestones, empire and feudalization
- 1031: 20 Runestones
- 1068: 34 Runestones
- 1086: 43 Runestones
- 1117: 61 Runestones
- 1135: 80 Runestones
- 1144: 91 Runestones
- 1156: The achievement pops

If you want to give yourself a bit more time before your culture transitions to the High Medieval Era, don't forget that the research speed of Innovations is linked to the mean development of the counties with the culture. Because I diverged my culture twice, there was only my capital who was of this culture. The problem with this is that my capital got a decent development over time, so I ended up Promoting my Culture in counties in eastern Europe with very low development. I did that quite late, but doing this early and switching Fascination regularly should ensure your Dynasty get a maximum of time to raise Runestones.

Good luck to those who'll give this achievement another try without cheesing, and have fun!

 

[ImMackBish]

So I'm super confused, because I wanted to check my progress after I did a King of all the Isles run and I got 200000 as my variable value after I checked my progress using the debug method above. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Kak0]

So I'm super confused, because I wanted to check my progress after I did a King of all the Isles run and I got 200000 as my variable value after I checked my progress using the debug method above. Am I doing something wrong?

For some reason you need to divide the number found in the save file by 1000 to get the number of runes, so you've got 200 runes.
When I load your save file, it says that achievements are unavailable. Are you sure they weren't deactivated when you started the game?

 

[Kak0]

Another sign that there is a problem is that when booting your save in debug mode, the flag started_saga_in_stone_achievement is missing from your character. It's supposed to be added at the start of the game. I assume this isn't a multiplayer game? This would be the only explanation I could find. The other possible explanation would be that the game was started before the Flavor Pack was installed but that seems highly unlikely.