New Player here, some Questions and Opions

[Dydd]

So I've been playing this game for the past two weeks and having a blast. Almost only played as Catholic rulers using the Charlemagne start. I believe I had some insanely lucky campaigns that left some many unanswered questions and forged some opions that I wanted share with the community as a new player.

I was playing as the petty king of wessex, while trying to patiently to forge my claims on every piece of land, I realise Northambria has a widowed childess Queen so I marry her.
My son inherits Northambria and goes there to rule as a King.
Guessing that out of suicidal tendencies King of Mercia decides to convert to a heresy and gets holy warred to death by me and my son.
After that forming an empire was not a big change for my son as he lived 70 years.
What really turned the table was that his son was betrothed to a Karling, who somehow inherited the kingdom of Saxony and claims to all other kingdoms in Francia besides West and Middlle Francia.
So she dies and our ambitious/genius son inherits a couple counties and the claims.
years after, as soon as he's 16 rebels against Saxony and wins it.
Opens war on Burgundy in the blink of an eye and conquers that as well.
When I soon died he was around 23 and already called 'the Usurper'. Which really bugged me since he was the rightful heir to my precious homemade Empire.
After this point I just had to bide my time to wait for a claim war for Kingdom of Aquaitaine, which was formed really weirdly and covered many territories in northern and central eu. Won the war and so I owned almost half of the French lands, was quite similar to the historical events I feel like.(besides my son going ham I guess)

So here comes the questions;

I actually created 2 different empires one as Empire of England than as Empire of Brittannia as I won some more lands from the Picts. They cover different kingdoms and I can switch between them. This seems like a bug since it also gives me double the prestige bonus, which seems too much.

Papal State holds the capital church in Rome but all other holdings(including city of Rome) are owned by independent Norse Pagans and everybody seems to cool with this. I can't holy war them and pope doesn't give a f*ck about it either calling failed crusades to godly abbassids instead. I literally don't have any CB and am mind blown.

At one point my vassals started gaining land from Francia without any wars. I'm assuming they were relatives before I won Aquaitaine and inherited somehow? Or did something else happened and is there a way to use this?

A faction in Francia won a war for elective monarchy and now suddenly I can vote for Francian Emperor? I can even Vote for myself? I'm really clueless on this.

What am I supposse to do with retinues? It seems like a waste of money to pay so much for such a little and slow growing army. Is it important later in the game? I'm around 990s

While fighting a rebellion I inherited from a Viceroyalty a vassal of mine captured me and threw in to the oubliette only to ransom for 350 gold later and even after I won the war I could do nothing. Tried murdering his entire family with plots but he was an elusiveshadow and hid every member of his family only to be captured himself later in a different rebellion. Oh yeah, can you somehow carefully arrange your realm(I know about realm peace) so your vassals doesn't fight for 100 years? I literally watched a rebellion last more than 50 years, kinda amusing but frustrating.

Sorry for the long post and thx for the answers in advance

 

[kviiri]

Hi Dydd, welcome to the forums.

I actually created 2 different empires one as Empire of England than as Empire of Brittannia as I won some more lands from the Picts. They cover different kingdoms and I can switch between them. This seems like a bug since it also gives me double the prestige bonus, which seems too much.

It's working as intended - one can be an Emperor of multiple empires. The drawbacks are formation costs and more complicated laws to deal with. I for one would gladly see "multi-empires" go (to me, the rank of "Empire" means something evocative of ancient Rome or reaching for a similar legacy), but I think that's the way it's meant to be.

Papal State holds the capital church in Rome but all other holdings(including city of Rome) are owned by independent Norse Pagans and everybody seems to cool with this. I can't holy war them and pope doesn't give a f*ck about it either calling failed crusades to godly abbassids instead. I literally don't have any CB and am mind blown.

Holy wars are limited by range, which is probably why you can't do it. I think it starts out as either territorial adjacency or shared sea-zone, but evolves to two sea zones later. The AI should do something about it, though. However, taking single baronies using holy wars is rather painful.

At one point my vassals started gaining land from Francia without any wars. I'm assuming they were relatives before I won Aquaitaine and inherited somehow? Or did something else happened and is there a way to use this?

It's possible they inherited, and yes, you can take advantage of this. Whenever a vassal inherits more land, your realms grows along them - assuming, of course, that they don't inherit a title equal or greater to you! Note that realms can disable inheritance outside their borders through laws, though. (Also, if you haven't been watching too carefully, they might've actually just conquered the lands themselves)

A faction in Francia won a war for elective monarchy and now suddenly I can vote for Francian Emperor? I can even Vote for myself? I'm really clueless on this.

Yeah, I think you have to be either of the dynasty of the current emperor or own something that's De Jure a part of Francia.

What am I supposse to do with retinues? It seems like a waste of money to pay so much for such a little and slow growing army. Is it important later in the game? I'm around 990s

They were nerfed a few versions back, but they aren't as useless as they might seem. First of all, you can declare war with them on the map - being there quick is often worth it. They cost pretty little maintenance when fully manned. Also, they're plain better than normal troops most of the time - they have innate bonuses related to their retinue type, and their pretty homogenic composition makes them eligible for better tactics than most units. You'll still use levies for the bulk of your armies though. I use retinues for "securing" vassals in addition to normal combat duty - that is, if one's vassals are scheming, putting an army on their capital before pressing the "imprison" button makes the possible rebellion far easier.

Don't know much about viceroyalties but

Oh yeah, can you somehow carefully arrange your realm(I know about realm peace) so your vassals doesn't fight for 100 years?

That's the fun of CK2. You can limit them through realm peace and by granting sensible amounts of power to each vassal (EDIT:also, trying to restrict their lands to their De Jure duchies to avoid giving them De Jure claims), but ultimately you'll need to intervene from time to time. Don't stress too much about your vassals fighting though, a little scuffle every now and then is a normal part of feudal life. Whenever they revolt against you, that's the best part - when you win, you can rearrange the power into better hands again.

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

1: The Empires are working as intended.
However, I'd recommend destroying one, otherwise your kingdom may split.

2: If the county capital is held by a Catholic, the Pope won't call a Crusade.

3: Inheritance.

4: If you have any land in De Jure Francia you're an elector. You can vote for whoever you want for emperor.

5: They get more important as time goes on, they're very expensive, but very powerful. I've had 1200 retinues go up against 900 vikings. The retinues killed all the vikings and still had over 1100 men.

6: If you reorganize your realm into a bunch of De Jure Duchies under Viceroyal Kings, it'll be quite stable. Also, I like my vassals fighting amongst themselves, all 30 of them have an equal amount of troops as I do.

 

[Dydd]

Thanks for the replies.

What do you guys think about Charlemagne and Ragnarr Lothbrok btw?

Since they are characters with some fixed events it feels like they should be a little more powerful and have some more fix stats.

Charlie seems like messes everything up most of the time.

Also many other kingdoms never seem able to stay stable enough stay as true Monarchies. Almost all the kingdoms have elective monarchy succession which seems little unrealistic and make the marriage game really hard. In an other playthrough as duke of Toulousse, without even realising I got selected as the King of everything except Germany. Then I died a year later from stress and my child got elected as King of germany, losing all my other territories in the process. Oh and Saxony was already a Republic...

And Ragnarr has a fixed eventline that makes him brawny. It's nice and all but doesn't really help him when he's also a content, craven, drunkard, fortune builder. It's cool that stats get randomised each game but it feels like historical characters should effect the campaign a little more make a mark on the map even if they eventually lose power. Just creates a more immersive playthrough imho.

 

[schondetta]

One other thing about retinues is that they decreases revolt risk.since your vassals "see" that you have more troops than them. Also there more powerful per pound like other have said.good investment

 

[brifbates]

The Charlemagne events need to be rebalanced due to changes that were made after that expansion was released as they really muck his path up.

Many "important" historical characters have locked stats and in many cases 1 or more pre-set traits but the remaining traits are randomized at game start.

For example, Rurik and Vladimir Monomokh will always have the genius trait if you start the game when they are alive.

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

Thanks for the replies.

What do you guys think about Charlemagne and Ragnarr Lothbrok btw?

Since they are characters with some fixed events it feels like they should be a little more powerful and have some more fix stats.

Charlie seems like messes everything up most of the time.

Also many other kingdoms never seem able to stay stable enough stay as true Monarchies. Almost all the kingdoms have elective monarchy succession which seems little unrealistic and make the marriage game really hard. In an other playthrough as duke of Toulousse, without even realising I got selected as the King of everything except Germany. Then I died a year later from stress and my child got elected as King of germany, losing all my other territories in the process. Oh and Saxony was already a Republic...

And Ragnarr has a fixed eventline that makes him brawny. It's nice and all but doesn't really help him when he's also a content, craven, drunkard, fortune builder. It's cool that stats get randomised each game but it feels like historical characters should effect the campaign a little more make a mark on the map even if they eventually lose power. Just creates a more immersive playthrough imho.

Earlier on in the campaigns, they're pretty unstable.

However, once you get past 1000, Kingdoms are uber stable.

The Elective part is somewhat hard to get past, but if you're in the kingdom, you can marry one of the powerful vassals, and do a bunch of intra kingdom politics. When you're within the kingdom, Elective is only a minor annoyance.

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

Earlier on in the campaigns, they're pretty unstable.

However, once you get past 1000, Kingdoms are uber stable.

The Elective part is somewhat hard to get past, but if you're in the kingdom, you can marry one of the powerful vassals, and do a bunch of intra kingdom politics. When you're within the kingdom, Elective is only a minor annoyance.

After thought: Elective can actually help you with a power grab. A king won't typically give his daughter to a count. A duke may. Do you kinda get where I'm coming from?

 

[Dydd]

After thought: Elective can actually help you with a power grab. A king won't typically give his daughter to a count. A duke may. Do you kinda get where I'm coming from?

Yes for sure.

Believe I did something similar. Married my granddaughther mat. to a son of a duke who's def gonna be the next emperor. If the duke dies as emperor I'm hoping that I'll get some sort of a claim on the Throne?

Also again concerning Empires, I think having two Empires is kinda exploitable. I havent tried but I believe if I wanted I could change my capital to an other county with a different local religion. Convert to that and Holy War anyone I want, than change my main title to Emperor of Brittiannia thus allowing me to move my capital back to it's default capital and convert back?

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

Yes for sure.

Believe I did something similar. Married my granddaughther mat. to a son of a duke who's def gonna be the next emperor. If the duke dies as emperor I'm hoping that I'll get some sort of a claim on the Throne?

Also again concerning Empires, I think having two Empires is kinda exploitable. I havent tried but I believe if I wanted I could change my capital to an other county with a different local religion. Convert to that and Holy War anyone I want, than change my main title to Emperor of Brittiannia thus allowing me to move my capital back to it's default capital and convert back?

I don't think you can change your capital after changing your Primary Title. I am not exactly sure though.

if that's true, that's actually quite a big thing.

 

[Dydd]

I don't think you can change your capital after changing your Primary Title. I am not exactly sure though.

if that's true, that's actually quite a big thing.

I just checked it as the emperor of england I can change my Capital to a muslim county, convert to muslim. change my title to emperor of Brittannia and game allows me to go back to london because it`s the default capital of that de jure empire and convert back again

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

I just checked it as the emperor of england I can change my Capital to a muslim county, convert to muslim. change my title to emperor of Brittannia and game allows me to go back to london because it`s the default capital of that de jure empire and convert back again

 

[brifbates]

You can always move to the default capital of your primary title. Otherwise you are limited to one move per ruler.

 

[Dydd]

You can always move to the default capital of your primary title. Otherwise you are limited to one move per ruler.

Sure but you can still do it once per ruler and it would at least allow me to declare holy war for a big piece of land that I could otherwise try really hard to get any claims for.
So still exploitable.