Least Played / Hardest Countries

[saskganesh]

i wouldn't even argue that they are a waiting game.

it's more a game of stealing sieges with your count from your liege's marshall... particularly in the pagan/mohammedan lands... if you can do that, you can build a small empire in hopefully better territory.

stealing seiges usually doesn't work in DV.

IMO, it's better to get nearby claims by random events (fosterlings/enemies help here) then using those claims to start wars at opportune times.

 

[Sam2]

Porto is the hardest duchy in the game. You start out with two piss-poor provinces and two piss-poor vassals, all of the nearby Christians and Muslims outnumber you manpower-wise by a large margin, the Muslims to the south are out to get you and will never stop until you've been wiped off the map, and your duke is old, married, infertile, and has no kids, so even if you're lucky enough to win wars, you'll lose it all when he dies without any heirs.

 

[unmerged(80455)]

To add to this thread, another hard Iberian (and probably with Nubia one of the harder Kingdoms to play) is Aragon in 1066. Its poor, everyone has a claim on it, your ruler isnt that fantastic, etc. To add insult to injury, the Duke of Barcelona owns more of Aragon proper than you. So if you aren't annexed by Muslims, Navarre, Leon or Castile, it'll probably be the Duke of Barcelona.

 

[iain_a_wilson]

If you want hard, try giving the county of Suenik a spin. Poor, wee Armenian province surrounded by nasty Turks. Oh and it's really poor too.

Apparently there's an AAR about it...

 

[Subcomandante]

The hardest thing I tried so far is starting in one of the poorer northern counties of Russia/Novgorod. Beloozero area and surroundings. The population is not orthodox either. The Russian princedoms are so big and dispersed that it is very difficult to grab one, they're like kingdoms in their own right. I have not succeeded yet.

I guess once you're a prince, it's smooth sailing to the Russian Kingdom.

 

[jordarkelf]

Dunno... because Russia is using gavelkind, and everyone is related, it's fairly easy to assassinate your way to a principality. Within the first few decades I see most principalities collapse and merge with others, so you end up with three or four powers max -- which can easily become less.

 

[zorkman]

In vanilla, the Count of Cornwall is fairly hard, and mostly boring. It's the county I learned to play the game with still.

Same with me, though I haven't played Crusader Kings since then. Although it was tediously boring as a count I did manage to get England to be the powerhouse of the world by declaring war on all the uncivillised rulers & infidels, which the king & his allies always joined, whilst I stayed at home. After 50 years the English king owned or were part of his empire great chunks of Northern, Eastern & SE Europe. Hilarious.

I am not sure you can do that with the later expansions. Although I haven't played for a couple of years I have always had a soft spot for the game & would be pleased to see a sequel.

 

[The Swert]

I've tried a few uncommon countries. To be honest I haven't found them that hard.
One game I started as the Prince of Vidin, became independent as Byzantium collapsed. Lost Vidin through inheritance but retained Counties of Stettin and Slupsk. Conquered Duchy of Skane. Fought Vidin, won back homeland. Conquered Denmark. Conquered Byzantium. Gained huge empire as counties all wanted to be my vassals.
Now my current game started as the County of the Isle of Mann. It too has grown into a Free Duchy and is on the way up.
The easiest way to play is to inherit all you can.

 

[truth is life]

Dunno... because Russia is using gavelkind, and everyone is related, it's fairly easy to assassinate your way to a principality. Within the first few decades I see most principalities collapse and merge with others, so you end up with three or four powers max -- which can easily become less.

But if you're starting as a non-Rurikovitch...

I have a fun game where I started as the Count of Lubeck in DVIP. It's the 1150s now and I control all the Wendish lands plus Hamburg (which I converted to Wendish culture). I'm also one of the richest and most technologically advanced states in Europe (I invented glass-making and clothmaking before anyone else, even the Muslims, IIRC). I even started a crusade to Burgos and went off and did it very quickly. I'm at a bit of a loss at what to do now, since I've achieved all my initial goals, so I went off and started playing Mount & Blade, HoI3, and so on.

 

[Serbon]

(In my current game, the Kingdom of Hammadid and Zirid's rulers converted to catholicism.

How did this happened???

 

[unmerged(133776)]

How did this happened???

Vassalize the Heirs and hope they get an event to convert before inheriting. Unless the Kings have Elective Law, those Heirs will still be in line.

 

[unmerged(148116)]

The hardest one I've played is Khazar. I died every single time. It's the only Jewish state in the game, so you can't use inheritance to expand.

There's an old AAR about Khazar, but it doesn't explain how he was able to survive the first few years of the game.

 

[Count of Reval]

The hardest thing I tried so far is starting in one of the poorer northern counties of Russia/Novgorod. Beloozero area and surroundings. The population is not orthodox either. The Russian princedoms are so big and dispersed that it is very difficult to grab one, they're like kingdoms in their own right. I have not succeeded yet.

I guess once you're a prince, it's smooth sailing to the Russian Kingdom.

Maybe just one game played in particular area with normal/normal settings isn't much for drawing reliable conclusions, but so far I wouldn't say that Russians (in their environment) are something specially difficult to manage.

I'm playing currently one of the Russian dynasties (famous "of Yaroslavl"-s, surely you remember them from history course ). Starting as a poor one-province count in 1066 (and a vassal of Prince of Pereyaslavl), the main goal of this game for me has been to beat mighty Rurikovichs in a DynasticGlory score sense. Just a moment ago I saved a game at year 1200, and noticed, after running the scoring application, that I have actually managed to reach my goal. I'm still surprised it happened so quickly and easily, though (the more so, because the Rurikovichs haven't been treated by "of Yaroslavl"-s without respect (their wings are clipped, but they aren't crushed - I let them still run a second largest Russian Principality even (after all, they are my only reliable source of Russian Orthodox brides))).

Some figures:
o In 1066, Rurikovich dynasty had 53 members (32 still living at that time), and Yaroslavls just 2 members (both 2 living). In 1200, respective figures were 907 (308), and 839 (476). As a note, the Russians seem to be quite fertile, and cheerful people, by the way.
o In 1066, Rurikovichs had a total Glory 17977, and Yaroslavls 198. In 1200, respectively 228491, and 230639.

I haven't used any assassinations, or strategical (inheritance-centered) marriages, nearly all the brides have been local (Russian) girls - just a brute force and persuasion into vassalship.

 

[tombom]

The hardest one I've played is Khazar. I died every single time. It's the only Jewish state in the game, so you can't use inheritance to expand.

There's an old AAR about Khazar, but it doesn't explain how he was able to survive the first few years of the game.

I recently saw an AI Khazar expand to 3 provinces. True story.

 

[Aat Jago]

The hardest one I've played is Khazar. I died every single time. It's the only Jewish state in the game, so you can't use inheritance to expand.

There's an old AAR about Khazar, but it doesn't explain how he was able to survive the first few years of the game.

What? I've never heard of a county named Khazar before
Do you have to use a mod in order to play it? And where can I find such mod?
Because I'm kinda interested to play as Khazar now

 

[kadvael56]

What? I've never heard of a county named Khazar before
Do you have to use a mod in order to play it? And where can I find such mod?
Because I'm kinda interested to play as Khazar now

The duchy of the Khazars has only one county called Itil, to play you have to mod and add something like this in the scenario file:

KHAZ = { 
        gender = male 
        type = duchy
        dna = "12345678912345" 
        title = { KHAZ C620 } 
        }

This is not the good DNA but only the face shown when you load will be wrong after that it will be fine.

At first beware of your neighbours, if you can make an alliance with the Cumans and together take Alania then you may have enough power to survive.

Also though the Khazars are a duchy the tag KHAZ has the properties of a kingdom, you can vassalise high chiefs, emirs or dukes if you like.

 

[Aat Jago]

Thanks for the answer Kadvael56! I guess I'll try it.
BTW does the trick works in CK 1.05?

 

[kadvael56]

BTW does the trick works in CK 1.05?

I think it should work, I would advise you to try it and if you have any problem ask in the modding subforum to avoid off-topic on this thread.

 

[Count of Reval]

One simple rule of thumb for difficulties: choose from the Main Menu a random county which ruler has a Coat-of-Arms where two colors halve a shield vertically.
(This receipt for troubles doesn't let you down ever.)

 

[Cèsar de Quart]

Try with Montferrato. Besides being a kick-ass dynasty with cool real history, and having had so many great members (William Longsword, first husband of Sybilla of Jerusalem, or Boniface de Montferrato, first King of Thessalonica, or Conrado de Montferrato, King of Jerusalem after Guy de Lusignan's deposition), Montferrato is actually a poor county, small and lost in Northern Italy, a land torn apart in fights and troubles between the HRE and several duchies (Milan, Tuscany, Genoa...).

Yet it's cool to be a Montferrato. I always pick dynasties that I know. Sometimes the Lusignans, sometimes the house of Flanders, sometimes the house of Urgell, or the Komnenoi in Paphlagonia, or the Hautevilles in southern Italy...

Take care!