Monarch's Journey: Llewellyn II "the Great" Aberffraw [strategy discussion]

[kmh42]

It's been a while since I posted something in here. So here we go:

Post you strategies to help other to master the Monarch's Journey's!

My run is not finished yet but it is my first try and it runs flawless. Only a sudden death will end this run. So here is how it went down.

1. Marry an HRE or French princess so you can ally those realms.
2. Go on the crusade that's cuming up. Do as well as possible. Not to gain any land but to farm piety and opinion with the pope.
3. Send your Bishop to rome to improve opinion further.
4. When the crusade is over you hopefully have won a ton of money and piety.
5. Request an invasion of England. Invate with your German, French or Merc friends.
6. Once you are on the throne the other stuff is hopefully clear.
7. Get as many sons as possible and marry them to english noble women
8. Land all your relative with former english duchies.

How did you do it?

 

[Ultima_Ratio]

You should start by getting a claim on Brittany (guaranteed since he's a kid and apparently the Pope HATES kids and women) before he starts creating the extra duchies. Can be done before the crusade starts. In my case France was the weaker target for invasion (IIRC Pope liked Richard too much) and since Gwent is held by a woman (yes, HATES women) a claim is an easy alternative to a full invasion.

 

[Secret Master]

I took over England from within.

1) Swear fealty to Richard the Lionheart.

2) Farmed the crusade. Bonus points: Pope became friend while on crusade, so we are both pious, both crusader, and just plain like each other. But I'd still have a Pope that likes me even if we weren't buddies.

3) Raise relations on Pope.

4) Ask Pope for claims on biggest, baddest duchies tied to the kingdom of England.

5) Use crusade cash to hire mercs to conquer those claims.

6) If Richard has kids, marry those kids to your kids first.

7) Marry your other kids to lesser English earls (not dukes, since you are trying to conquer them).

8) Once you become the baddest and biggest duke in the British Isles, plot to take the throne like you always do.

Then, after all that effort, you realize it was wasted, because your son that you married to Richard's daughter in a regular marriage had children with her. And Richard's other kids died. So, your grandchildren, who are your dynasty, inherit the Kingdom of England when your son murders the unfaithful lecher that is Richard's daughter, they institute a Welsh language program, and now you are stuck trying to use Tannistry to ensure that your son who married Richard's daughter becomes your heir so you can continue playing as your grandkids who now hold England.

 

[Fitzjacob]

Cry out in frustration as the devil spawn murders all your children before you can marry them to English nobles

I never swore fealty to England myself (although I always disable Jade Dragon CB:s) and made tributaries of the northern Irish earls for initial prestige and protection/power.
As others have pointed out: join the crusader for money & piety. Use Pope for claims (Gwent is held by Isabella of Gloucester so can easily be claimed and you'll probably get Hwicce in the process) and mercs for war. With Gwent under your control you can create Wales and vassalize your tributary i Wales.

After the initial setup there isn't much difficulty left. I took territory from English revolters and Scotland for 'Princes of Wales',

 

[Larva]

That last point:

Land all your relative with former english duchies.

Is still eluding me - I just don't have enough males to give duchies too! And women don't count in my case! And my breeding program keeps producing girls! And some wicked relative of mine with 22 intrigue keeps killing of possible dukes!

 

[BigHamster]

That last point:

Land all your relative with former english duchies.

Is still eluding me - I just don't have enough males to give duchies too! And women don't count in my case! And my breeding program keeps producing girls! And some wicked relative of mine with 22 intrigue keeps killing of possible dukes!

Matrilinear marriage is your friend m8, it really doesnt matter which gender kids you have just make shure their offscprings are of your dynasty.

 

[kmh42]

Damit! My ruler died before his sons came of age.

 

[knppel]

I had calculated perfectly.
My treasury hit -120 the day the crusade launched, I got 200 from the warchest, the Teutonic Knights, funded by me and on my navy, laying ready infront of the coast of Cyrenaica with as many levy as I could afford to pre-pack (thus, my vassal's!).

Managed to install my Uncle as Crusader King of Egypt, and his son and heir upfront as tributary crusader State in Syrte.

Used piety to get claims on welsh lands held by women and Children, most notably that big Duchy you need, and attached with it conveniently a lot of non de jure vassals.
Managed to swipe the floor with Richard thanks to perfect timing, while he had beef with the French over his Antipope.

Forgot to mention: I did of course start with seduction focus, as the achievements explicitly demanded Llywellyn to have at least 4 kids. I got a whopping 5 sons first. And 4 daughters on top after. So much for that part.

Could form Wales at this point, subdued Scotland and Irish Counts for Tribute and aided in a Teutonic War while waiting out my truce with Richard for my de jure claims.
Again perfect timing, invading the british mainland with the Welsh Legions while Richard's army was beefing with the Aragonese over some small county near the Pyrennees.

All it took at that point was to survive for a few more years until one of my daughter-in-law's father died, so she became a claimant, thus enabling the 4th marriage to an english claimant or title holder.
Hunting focus yay!

Oh yeah once that guy died, I handed out all Duchies I could form (2 in Ireland, 2 in Scotland, 1 more in de jure England). Claims mostly from crusade piety and popes who hate kids and women.
Ironically, I had to rely on 3 infant boys for the last achievement.
Solid Gold!

 

[Dunaden]

My path to victory:

1. Married a daughter of Aragon and got an alliance. Had 4 children, 2 sons and 2 daughters, as quickly as possible (more children followed). Married off cousins to get as many possible future Dukes.
2. Fabricated claims on 2 the two Deheubarth counties.
3. Waited for war Duke of Deheubarth was fighting to finish so I could release him as a tributary, then pressed my claims.
4. created Duchy of Deheubarth,
5. created Kingdom of Wales. Gave Duchy to a cousin.
6. Joined Crusade for Egypt, was 5th highest contributor and received 2,000 gold and some artifact, another cousin became a count in Egypt (two of the men I matrilineally married cousins to also ended up beneficiaries of Duchies in Egypt (Alexandria and Faiyyum), so family was in line to control much of Egypt.. well until Jihad happened.)
7. Asked Pope for claim on Duchy of Gwynned, which was granted because Crusader and lots of piety.
8. King Richard was excommunicated and King of Poland launched excommunication war. So pressed claim for Gwynned against Richard and won. (completed Dragons FIre 14 years into game)
9. Created Duchy of Powys and gave to kinsman.
10. First 4 children came of age and married to English men and women with claims. (Completed marriage requirements 21 years into game)
11. Truce expires with Richard, he is still fighting same excommunication war. Declare de jure war for Duchy of Cornwall. Richard dies, ending excommunication war, but still win Cornwall. Grant Duchy to kinsman, but my other two Dukes have both died and women inherited, so still don't even have bronze for 3 Duchies held by dynasty.
12. Called into a several wars for allies, so didn't start my own war.
13. Grandchild inherits Duchy of Brittany, but still vassal of England.
14. Son dies, grandson and heir has weak claim on England, so begin plotting to get chance to press claim, but English King refuses to die until its too late and his heir is an adult.
15. Then grandson dies, losing claim as great grandson becomes heir, but his mother has strong claim on England which great grandson will inherit.
16. Llewellyn the Philosopher finally dies at 80, having earned a bloodline.
17 Great grandson inherits and immediately plots to kill his mother.
18. Fights in Crusade of Philistra (Jerusalem) comes in second, coffers up to 7,000 gold.
19. Finally kills mother after one botched attempt and gets claim on England.
20. Launches war for England with mercenaries and wins, crowned King of Lloegyr. Gains two more dynasty Dukes in Brittany and Warwick (which was inherited by legitimized bastard of Llewellyn, but boy is English, so King tutors him and changes schooling to heritage and teaches him to be Welsh).
21. English Dukes revolt. King wins and starts revoking titles, gaining some tyranny.
22. Awards Dukedoms to family members and meets goal of 9 vassal Dukes of dynasty. 73 years into game to complete all three tasks.

 

[mrinku]

I was going pretty well until we had a run of Camp Fever and Measles. Didn't wipe out the clan, but just tipped a few inheritances the wrong way.

Still, got gold on English Spooning, so I can take my time on the others, or maybe just do a restart.

Also, Pro Tip: If you go seduction focus to get a large brood of kids, make sure they grow up Welsh. Even acknowledged Bastards start with their mother's culture, so if you forget to use the Heritage kiddie focus you may find yourself with dynasty members useless for Princes of Wales.

 

[Hipster_on_Ice]

The family focus is highly underrated, that was how I got the required kids both as Konan and for English Spoons and Princes of Wales. The 50% bonus from groom an heir and the family focus on top of the massive (300% or something) fertility bonus from having your wife as a lover make it extremely easy to have a ton of kids.

I managed to luck out, I married my eldest son to the daughter of Richard, her older brother died of slow fever and she inherited, eventually passing to my grandchild. Once I inherited the kingdoms of England, Wales, Ireland, and Aquitaine it was easy to go carousing, make some friends among my Dukes, and request duchy claims on women and children to land my family members.

 

[kmh42]

Currently I am on my second try. I also got second on the crusade and got 10k gold. I overthrew Richard with ease and with 15k mercs. Now on to the child bearing...

 

[kmh42]

...and heart attack.

 

[eastcoastceojam]

I haven't gotten very far on this challenge yet, but lots of good advice on this thread. I just wanted to say "Thanks!" to the OP and others for sharing!

 

[richarde]

What I did:

1. Used seduction focus to beef up the family tree to begin with, had about 12 bastards.
2. Didn't participate in the First Crusade as I wanted to save my troops, and started to build up retinues.
3. After the First Crusade, England had lost a lot of troops and the Lionheart's granddaughter was on the throne of England. (It was around this time that the adulterer first character became a saint lmao)
4. Requested an invasion on her, got England and parts of Ireland, she still held Ireland and Aquitaine.
5. Second crusade, this time for Andalusia, only real choice was a woman of my dynasty already in a regular marriage, won the crusade. Switched to Tanistry around here.
6. Conquered Scotland duchy by duchy and created the empire level title.
6. Landed a claimant to Ireland, fought Ireland and took the kingdom which also contained a lot of land in de jure France.
7. Assassinated rulers enough until I got him as king of all three titles.
8. Confident in my position, I slowly started revoking English duchy level titles and handing them out to family. By this time I had absolute cognatic succession and full status of women.
9. Trying to get the last few rulers I needed of my dyansty, I killed off the rulers of crusader Andalusia until I was on the throne, then handed it to a cousin.
10. Won a crusade for Mahgreb, handed it out to another son making him the 9th landed duke or higher male vassal of my dynasty.

Basically a good strategy guide for this is to try and be as pious as possible, as the pope giving you claims and invasions will help significantly for landing so many vassal dukes or kings. I found it generally easier to conquer more land than revoke already existing dukes.

 

[wooby]

can smb explain to me what are the requirements for the dragon part of the "achievement" i inheritet the empire of britania from my liege while holding the kingdom of wales, but it says i am still missing land. And when i search for it i dosnt find the places i need.

 

[Larva]

Matrilinear marriage is your friend m8, it really doesnt matter which gender kids you have just make shure their offscprings are of your dynasty.

My women all in my court under marti marriage - and they still breed women! And I need at least 10 males (my ruler included) to give out those 9 duchies at the same time to be my vassals.
FYI: I'm not talking about marrying children's to English nobles, I am talking about having 9 dukes of your dynasty

 

[Larva]

can smb explain to me what are the requirements for the dragon part of the "achievement" i inheritet the empire of britania from my liege while holding the kingdom of wales, but it says i am still missing land. And when i search for it i dosnt find the places i need.

First - check if there is some baronies you do not own under Wales - might be holy orders or else - you need all of them be in your realm.
Second - I actually don't know if Dragon Blood a t all works if you are emperor...The requirement's implementation might be tricky - so it will only count if your current primary title if Wales, but that would be a bummer. Check point 1 rigorously

 

[wooby]

First - check if there is some baronies you do not own under Wales - might be holy orders or else - you need all of them be in your realm.
Second - I actually don't know if Dragon Blood a t all works if you are emperor...The requirement's implementation might be tricky - so it will only count if your current primary title if Wales, but that would be a bummer. Check point 1 rigorously

i found some templar holding a barony, now ho do i make them bend the knee. WIll giving the landless heir a barony result in them becoming my vassal?

 

[richarde]

First - check if there is some baronies you do not own under Wales - might be holy orders or else - you need all of them be in your realm.
Second - I actually don't know if Dragon Blood a t all works if you are emperor...The requirement's implementation might be tricky - so it will only count if your current primary title if Wales, but that would be a bummer. Check point 1 rigorously

It works as long as you hold the kingdom of Wales, even if you hold other titles as your primary. I got it when I held the empire level title.