Post your CK2 empire!
- Thread starter Ducksox
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Here's my current game in CK2 HIP. No India, I don't own RoI at the moment and even then I'm unsure if SWMH is updated for it.
The map looks crazy, I know. What I did was start the game off and then activate the events that made everyone into OPM's. I also gave everyone subjugation CB's and a few other things. Where did I start? In greece, of course! Specifically, Athens. Soon I formed the Kingdom of Epirus. To the north was a strong Bulgaria, and to the East, the Ecumencial Patriarach had conquered Constantinople, Thrace, and was expanding into Asia Minor (which they did quite successfully, acquiring all de jure Byzantine lands in the area). They've been steadily losing land however, thanks to vikings (who were eventually ousted), me, and that Mashriq-Orthodox king of Iconium. Between holy warring Bulgaria (who turned Catholic after the ai mended the Schism, making Orthodoxy a heresy), I set out to control many of the islands in the Mediterranean as well as rounding in the independent hellenic counts in southern italy. Here are a couple other interesting things to note:
-That yellow blob in France? It's not muslim, it's actually the kingdom of Aragon, and they dominate Western Europe. Some french duke early on in the game managed to get holdings in the Barcelona area, and from there, the blobbing never ceased. Universal subjugation CBs tend to do that.
-Friesland was the first kingdom in Europe to form, and thanks to Europe's characteristically divided nature, managed to expand continuously for decades.
-The muslims have been kicked out almost entirely from Ibera. Only Granada remains currently.
-The Tulunids after losing their kingdom thanks to my game altering, managed to make a comeback and reconquer most of Egypt! They haven't formed the kingdom yet but are well on their way.
-Miaphysites aren't fairing well in the Abyssinia region however.
-Same as the Tulunids, the Abbasids managed to make a comeback and conquer Mesopotamia and most of Arabia.
-Probably the most exciting part: that light blue in Persia? Well it isn't the Saffarids, no, it's actually a dynasty of Persian Zoroastrians! Not Karen, though. They did well early on, but were eliminated after several Sunni invasions. These guys however, have been able to hold out and dominate the eastern portion of the map.
-In the east we have Volga Bulgaria, which used to dominate all provinces east of the Kingdom of Kiev. Nowadays it isn't doing so hot.
-Speaking of Kiev, currently there is a pagan Kievan Rus that is divided into two Kingdoms: Kiev, and Polotsk, both ruled by members of the same dynasty. The Knyaz of Kiev actually rules from the city itself which I find awesome!
At this point I'll mostly observe and hold back on expanding. Perhaps I'll form the ERE, although I play as them way too often...
The map looks crazy, I know. What I did was start the game off and then activate the events that made everyone into OPM's. I also gave everyone subjugation CB's and a few other things. Where did I start? In greece, of course! Specifically, Athens. Soon I formed the Kingdom of Epirus. To the north was a strong Bulgaria, and to the East, the Ecumencial Patriarach had conquered Constantinople, Thrace, and was expanding into Asia Minor (which they did quite successfully, acquiring all de jure Byzantine lands in the area). They've been steadily losing land however, thanks to vikings (who were eventually ousted), me, and that Mashriq-Orthodox king of Iconium. Between holy warring Bulgaria (who turned Catholic after the ai mended the Schism, making Orthodoxy a heresy), I set out to control many of the islands in the Mediterranean as well as rounding in the independent hellenic counts in southern italy. Here are a couple other interesting things to note:
-That yellow blob in France? It's not muslim, it's actually the kingdom of Aragon, and they dominate Western Europe. Some french duke early on in the game managed to get holdings in the Barcelona area, and from there, the blobbing never ceased. Universal subjugation CBs tend to do that.
-Friesland was the first kingdom in Europe to form, and thanks to Europe's characteristically divided nature, managed to expand continuously for decades.
-The muslims have been kicked out almost entirely from Ibera. Only Granada remains currently.
-The Tulunids after losing their kingdom thanks to my game altering, managed to make a comeback and reconquer most of Egypt! They haven't formed the kingdom yet but are well on their way.
-Miaphysites aren't fairing well in the Abyssinia region however.
-Same as the Tulunids, the Abbasids managed to make a comeback and conquer Mesopotamia and most of Arabia.
-Probably the most exciting part: that light blue in Persia? Well it isn't the Saffarids, no, it's actually a dynasty of Persian Zoroastrians! Not Karen, though. They did well early on, but were eliminated after several Sunni invasions. These guys however, have been able to hold out and dominate the eastern portion of the map.
-In the east we have Volga Bulgaria, which used to dominate all provinces east of the Kingdom of Kiev. Nowadays it isn't doing so hot.
-Speaking of Kiev, currently there is a pagan Kievan Rus that is divided into two Kingdoms: Kiev, and Polotsk, both ruled by members of the same dynasty. The Knyaz of Kiev actually rules from the city itself which I find awesome!
At this point I'll mostly observe and hold back on expanding. Perhaps I'll form the ERE, although I play as them way too often...
Despite loads of scheming, the whole Sicilian gig is still a bit stalled 20 years later.
My monarch had to spent his warlike energy elsewhere. 1120 map
(I hate Castille)
My monarch had to spent his warlike energy elsewhere. 1120 map
(I hate Castille)
lol i find most massive empires unbelievable because of how factions work in this game.
When the pope is your vassals, factions issues are solved rather quickly.
Excommunication, arrestation, decapitation.
Excommunication, arrestation, decapitation.
When you have multiple 20k cataphract stacks from your retinues, you tend to take a relaxed view about factions and their possible shenanigans.
When you have multiple 20k cataphract stacks from your retinues, you tend to take a relaxed view about factions and their possible shenanigans.
This. Whenever a faction fires for my big empires my logic is less "oh no, how will I defeat my enemies!?" so much as "gosh, now I'm going to have to waste a year or so smacking down hopelessly outmatched rabble before I can white peace and continue with whatever I was doing."
Wait for it
You'll probably get through fine, though, if you're large enough and have good internal stability.
Well... in a lot of ways, it was a quite war... When the golden horde came, they were wiped out within 2 years... Nothing beats an alliance of over 300k troops and having the other horde as an ally :laugh::laugh:
AND THE GREAT RUSSIAN EMPIRE!!!!
Abyssinia ... Not that far into the game, but given that i've barely touched CK2 for the last 4 months before starting out it's going well ... Able to go toe to toe against Saffarid, Tulunid and Abbasid with no problem, as long as the wars are 1-1 (or better, my wars with Abbasid tends to start at the same time as they either are declaring or having been delcared on Byzantine, whom have recently inherited Bavaria for giggles ... Francia have also been created by a Karling that managed to collect the Aquataine, Burgundy, West Frankia, Italy and Aragonese crowns, They've lost Lotharinia through, to a cadet line of Navarra of all people.
Present personal mission is to finish my reconquest of Arabic Penisula (I'm waiting on the current Abbasid ruler to die so he doesn't have a crap-ton of positive relations after which i'm planing to exploit revolts), Conquer Egypt, and link up with Sistan which i oppotunisticly grabbed when Saffarid ended up in a eternity revolt with 4 concurrent revolts going on. ... Longer term missions is to grab one or more Indian kingdoms to grab the St Thomas' Archivement
well that's great concidering that India is part of the Free patch. You don't need to own RoI to play there you just need it to play as indian religion and get benefit from indian culture.
That Abyssianna looks very similar to what the AI managed to do in my Game, the only exception is the Ilkkhanate and Jerusalem and some Crusader states i plopped down after a crusade for Egypt own everything it doesn't.
Still a big achievement it took the AI till 1452 to get borders like that.
My first real game in almost a year (dam you EU4), and it is Ironman
Year is 1022, working on getting the historical borders but I made a huge mess out of western Europe, I had to though because one lucky Karling managed to unite all of Charlemanges land within a generation which was quite frightening. The HRE is now just a few provinces which is nice because it is the only orthodox nation left in western europe (holy war FTW). The Seljuk Turks never managed to conquer anything because very soon after spawning they joined a Jihad against me and lost all their troops.
For some reason the only geniusses in my family I seem to get are female (and loads of them) except for my last emperor, but again for his sons no luck.
My Dynasty (Makedon) has held:
21 baronies
321 counties
113 duchies
17 kingdoms
5 empires
living members: 453
I like to breed and spread my dynasty all over the map, this way I've had nice surprises and managed to surpass the Karlings in prestige already.
Attachments
At one point, the growth start to be exponential. It took me 20 years to conquer most of the lands between Poland to the Ural The income is such that I can field 5 retinues of 15 000 soldiers and have them replenished while making money. (Which allow me to never use my vassal levies and thus be in almost perpetual war).
The core strategy is, in absence of claims to kingdoms is to constantly push new rulers (and assassinate them with plots) on the Califates or the Byzantine Empire, or large pagans realms. When they get in major civil wars with 2-3 factions, I holy war all faction leading to incredibly fast conqquest. (the bulk of Scandinavia was conquered in 2 years, when a major Norvegian civil war ended up with 4 differents factions...)
The core strategy is, in absence of claims to kingdoms is to constantly push new rulers (and assassinate them with plots) on the Califates or the Byzantine Empire, or large pagans realms. When they get in major civil wars with 2-3 factions, I holy war all faction leading to incredibly fast conqquest. (the bulk of Scandinavia was conquered in 2 years, when a major Norvegian civil war ended up with 4 differents factions...)
Not pictured: Iceland and all of Britannia are also under my control. I can field about 60,000 total troops, which is more than any other world power in the game at this point, including the Seljuk Turks who are busy stripping provinces from the Abbasid Empire in the south.