My first Iron Man after HF - Once More Sigurdr Ring 769

[jwalche]

My first game in HF with custom Cathar Norse ruler was very satisfying. The game is so much more rich with events that actually affect game play meaningfully. I finally united Scandinavia in my second ruler, buy forcing largely bloated Denmark into my vessel with a war.

Then I wanted to do my favorite setting again, and I am not afraid of Iron Man mode because I don't need to worry about my 2500 a pop event troops accidentally disappearing for forgetting to call another war.

It seems like a good start. Siguardr has decent stats. His queen sucks but there is a decent potential new queen. Ragnarr already has two points in stats. His Counselors are decent. There are some good talents in future commanders.

I would say this is a very strong start.

 

[jwalche]

1 January, 769.
Divorced my queen. Promoted a commander and got a decent one. Invited Nobel 6 times but only got a half decent one. Set focus on learning (but no observatory yet). Have 36 gold left. Called Tributary wars on three states from west to north, raised levy, and called vessels into the war. Asked non vessel counselors to support me.

 

[jwalche]

 

[jwalche]

12 January, 769

Got counselors's 3 years support and passed two laws in succession to raise Tribal Organization to Medium on the same day.

 

[jwalche]

15 January, 769

Got my new queen. Collected money back that I spent to divorce the previous one.

 

[jwalche]

12 February, 769.

Defeated Northern enemy on my land although I lost a reckless personal combat and got wounded. Bribe-invited a better Chancellor. With the improved state Diplomacy, I got to invite a strong and a lustful concubine candidates for free. Want to invite a commander but I am watching my budget.

 

[jwalche]

6 June, 769

Won all three tributary wars. With improved state diplomacy, I got to invite another fine commander for free. I also promoted some commanders and got a decent one too.

 

[jwalche]

13 July, 770

Now all my neighbors except Austergautland is my tributaries. Austergautland got really strong in the new version with many more counties. But it seems it recently attacked Saxony and got lost. This might be a chance. But I think I should do some raiding first. Both to weaken Austergautland and get some much needed gold.

 

[jwalche]

18 December, 771

My raiders were defeated Austergautland. So I just called a tributary war. Now all my Germanic neighbors are my tributaries. I don't see an expanding chance because they are not subjugating each other. Saxony is too powerful to even think about. Denmark is not offering me an easy chance....

 

[jwalche]

 

[jwalche]

9 May, 773

Denmark stupidly attracted Saxony which was carrying 7.5k doom stack around. I thought about subjugating but the system didn't even allow me to do it. So I called the once in a lifetime subjugation on Denmark and have been fighting. Meanwhile, I just got the ship tech level 1.

 

[jwalche]

22 September, 773

Big mistake. I didn't notice that Denmark is now a Kingdom and ended the subjugation war. Now I am the king of Denmark and can't use the unlimited ambition based subjugation. That's alright. Soon I will reform Germanic religion and call holly wars.

 

[The Shacks]

Haha good fun. Sigurd and Ragnar can become literal demigods with ease now. Its hillarious. I had to have both commit suicide beacuse they were invicible gods with martial in the 50s and combat skill nearing 200. Ragnar died in the sands of Mali due to a PTSD event.

 

[jwalche]

21 October, 774

Not much going on with military because Saxony is too powerful and I need ships to go raid.
But I became a follower of Hel. Very interesting.

 

[makaramus]

why you are not conquering finland for free land? its allways my first move I do it until my neighbors destroy each other and then I take down in 1 war since they lost huge amount of man power while I was getting stronger after I become sweden I simply vassalize everyone around me easy
NEVER become follower of demon unless your ruler is terrible or you need short booster even if it means killing your ruler... too much negative events even if you dont use its benefits
if you form kingdom of sweden your realm is harder to shatter

 

[jwalche]

Yes. I found out that known demon worshiper really sucks for -50 opinion and boon is small.

 

[CoSMoS]

A few notes: advantage of keeping your starting queen is that she gives you a NAP and possible alliance with her father (or is it brother), those extra troops come in handy at the start of the game. You can always divorce her after a few years. Be careful about declaring tribute wars against everyone around you, you gotta leave one OPM alone as a later pathway to all the Norwegian OPMs, then everyone will vassalize to you freely once you gain a kingdom. Sjaelland/Denmark is okay to use your subjutation CB against, but the best is Saxony - if you play your card correctly (and have some luck with regards to randomized stats and traits) they are possible to win against, and that invalidates the Karling event war against them. With Saxony you can raid juicy feudal provinces from the start by land and can also expand towards Poland, Bohemia, and Bavaria - and if you don't mind being gamey, you can plan to give indepence to some of your vassals to go under 50 realm holdings and then prepare invasion of Karling lands or whoever else you like once you reform.

 

[jwalche]

A few notes: advantage of keeping your starting queen is that she gives you a NAP and possible alliance with her father (or is it brother), those extra troops come in handy at the start of the game. You can always divorce her after a few years. Be careful about declaring tribute wars against everyone around you, you gotta leave one OPM alone as a later pathway to all the Norwegian OPMs, then everyone will vassalize to you freely once you gain a kingdom. Sjaelland/Denmark is okay to use your subjutation CB against, but the best is Saxony - if you play your card correctly (and have some luck with regards to randomized stats and traits) they are possible to win against, and that invalidates the Karling event war against them. With Saxony you can raid juicy feudal provinces from the start by land and can also expand towards Poland, Bohemia, and Bavaria - and if you don't mind being gamey, you can plan to give indepence to some of your vassals to go under 50 realm holdings and then prepare invasion of Karling lands or whoever else you like once you reform.

I had always used the CB on Saxony before 3.0 update and Holy Fury. This was my first game after that, and I couldn't declare subjugation to Saxony and I don't know why. Also it was keep running around with 7.5k stack and I couldn't handle that now the 2.5k event troops are gone. But I will try again with your tips.

Oh, and on my games before the update, I always inherited the Karling event war against Saxony when I subjugated Saxony, after first releasing the tributaries and declaring them with King of - subjugation. The Karling was the major gold relief as I could easily beat Karling and get about 1000 gold reward, in addition to gold from sacking Karling holdings. Until then I barely stayed above bankruptcy. It was all done usually in about 5 years.

Soon after winning the Karling event war, I reformed and immediately declared a holy war to get Flanders. Never had to use the prepared invasion because the 2.5k event troop was too powerful.

With the Karling gold, I didn't even had time to start raiding until finishing the bloating and going feudal.

Now I can't do that and the game got a lot more interesting.