please help me with some game mechanics

[Roparex]

Ok so i started a byzantium game in 769, unified the religion in 911 and created the roman empire in 960. So i'm not a complete beginner, but i only have 100 hours in the game. As such i want some clarification with stuff i struggled:

1. The requirements for forming the roman empire
It requires the FULL occupation of territories. As such, any holding in said territories bars you from forming it. This lead to a very weird outcome for me. I had all the counties by 850, but i had to take 3 baronies from aquitane that they got in tunis(don't know how)(of course, in 3 years with 10 years truces, because fun). But then, i still didn't have full controll of tunis. When i checked, the BROTHERHOOD OF THE HOLY SEPULCHURE had a barony. I repeat, i couldn't form the roman empire because a holy order had a castle in my empire. Why are the forming conditions so strict?

2. Defensive pacts
I want to get the full roman empire achievment, but just taking the duchy of barcelona got me 50% threat, enough for most of the world to join a defensive pact against me. Is there a way to play around this? I wont want to wait 20 years between all duchy reconquests, it gets boring fast.

3. Regent power
In my first regency, my regent got my authority down from medium to low. In my second one, he got it from high to low. Yes, twice. Once he probably did it by himself, and the next time he made me accept the demands of the faction. The worst part is, when i'm adult, i can't do anything about it, because i already changed the laws.

Oh yea, and is it a good strategy that every time i get a new duchy/kingdom vassal i make them give it to me so i can grant it as a viceroyalty? Or the opinion malus is too high(-25 with everyone)?

Note: i don't have conclave and horse lords, but i got all other dlc's.
Some help would pe apreciated.

 

[Roparex]

State of the game:

So...Much...Border...Gore...

 

[Asiak]

1. Correct you need ever barony regardless of who owns it. I wouldn't call it strict just annoying. I don't know why they decided it other than it makes sense to say well just require it to need everything over an arbitrary well he can skip the baronies rule.

2.You wait. You can grant people independance that can lower threat / possibly bring people out of defensive pacts. This is an especially valid tactic after you've restored Rome but when still going for SPQR. Grant independence to minor people outside of the SPQR borders. People in NAPs with you also can't join defensive pacts, I think they might even leave them.

3. Yes that used to happen pre-Conclave and it sucked, and it was bullshit and it was unfair. There is no counter really even making your mother reagent can have her randomly replaced. If you get Conclave, Conclave wonderfully does away with / breaks down crown authority laws so they aren't able to force you to lower this bloated law down because the law is simply gone.

That's a good strategy on a slower case by case basis when you have opinion to spare or a claim on the title, or he has dishonored you.

That isn't a good strategy all the time or every time or even in the majority of times.

Besides the fact that viceroyalties aren't viable at a certain wide level.

 

[Asiak]

Yea it's 984 you've gotten that far you have no treasury. Slow it down.

Step one in this game is recognizing that even without Conclave this is not a map painter.

 

[Bernard95]

1) Same as the above poster- you'll have to find a way to deal with the baronies.

2) At your size, there's probably not a single realm that could hold a candle to your 51k levy. The answer is just to blitzkrieg your enemies before they can gang up on you and ignore your threat level completely. If you were much smaller, than Asiak's advice would apply.

3) Same as the above poster- there's nothing you can do about that other than trying to avoid regencies in the first place or otherwise having Conclave which disables Crown Authority altogether.

4) In regards to viceroys, you should be aiming for to have a handful of king-level viceroys for ease of management without sacrificing any power. Having a bunch of duke-level viceroys can be a royal pain however, since most likely every five minutes you'll be re-distributing titles as your vassals die.

Edit: Seeing that you're in debt, you might want to take advantage of the Jews asap and get a loan before you start getting negative events and buffs.

 

[Sirrobert1]

How the hell do you go 200 gold into debt?
Slow it down man. Build up some cash.