Picked up CK2 again after a few years, I play Karen/Gilan almost exclusively, last post of my Karen
here (in 2016!)
Play a few runs of Gilan again, it is easier than I remembered, I believe it's because Ray and Fars/Pars are no longer part of Abbsai Empire and up for grab. And AIs are more aggressive so Abbsai Empire is almost always at war so they are less likely to attack me.
1st run, Seljuk came and rekt me back to a count in Baghdad, I rage quit.
2nd run, I notice Seljuk likes to attack Nashaphur so I avoid taking it and let Taheri Shahdom buffer it for me. After Seljuk take over Taheri, I swear fealty to Abbsai Empire to let the two fight over my title (Daylam Shahdom). Seljuk invaded for Daylam Shahdom two times, both won but only the second time Seljuk took the Daylam Shahdom title and I am back to an Amir under Seljuk (didn't got kicked out this time unlike 1st run) . Now with unjustified conquest, I allied remaining Zoroastrianism Amir/Counts and unjustified conquest any Muslim counts near me, successfully expand under Seljuk's nose. When Seljuk's got revolts, I joined, the new Emperor was weak and low on event troops, I fought and gain my independence and quickly rebuild the kingdom and later Persia Empire. Also the first time going for bloodline ambition, went for the benefactor.
But because I like elective, so Daylam and Persia Empire are both elective, even dynastic elective doesn't help much because of cadet branch can also run for Emperor. So I struggle to keep myself the Emperor. AI also like to vote for middle age to old man so they usually have less than a decade of rule resulting in very quickly build up of imperial decay (absolute crown and imperial admin also made it quicker). I observe 200 years to see how things go. It takes a long time but surely going down. This is the first time I see (my) empire rise and fall. RIP Persia Empire 1115 - 1399. Also, my house has 3k prestige but with only 5 living members (539 total), the head is a mere count in Hayk (Armenia). China in 1417 moved in to the power vacuum and set up shop in Merv.
3rd run WIP
I learned from 1st run not to take Nashaphur and 2nd game that Amol is too small for capital so I try Gavelkind and Isfanhan as capital. I also converted my culture to Parsi for the sweet heavy infantry retinue and special buildings. Isfanhan's duchyhas two trade post so money is not a problem anymore, plus 3 castles give you a solid levee base, 4 province and 8 castles total in the duchy. I also keep almost everyone counts so I can have more direct vessels, instead of always creating duchies.
Then I encountered a constant crash on 1126.06.13 I reloaded a few times but still crashes, so I opened the save file and edited all dates of 1126.06.13 to 1125.12.31, a day in the past of the autosave of 1126.01.01. Lucky nothings seems broke and it run past 1126.06.13 without crash.
I go for the founder bloodline this time because I have the money. But I got "dealings with death" then I almost got it so I loaded. I am also constantly fighting with Seljuk just north of Nashaphur (hence the 8 foreign war wins) but Persian heavy infantry are very strong, Seljuk's armies just melt away when melee phase begins.
Finally got the bloodline nine years later.
A rival vassal plotted against me I tried to revolt his titles, resulting in a war while crusade was preparing to fight against me. I also wanted realm peace to make sure my vessels have both troops and money to fight but a vessel blocked it. Lucky, Byz took the hit for me.
3k income, first time getting this high, thanks to 3 trade posts, China golden age plus trade contract. I spent most of the money building holdings in undeveloped counties, like the steppes which I will soon regret.
My duchy vessel Pars holy war his way to Jerusalem and made Al Sham Shahdom which makes Pars no longer my direct vessel which is a bit annoying, but (lucky) his heir plotted against me so I revoked kingdom titles from plotters (or I plotted to revoke them), as I planned to use Primogeniture afterward.
No heir alert, oh I haven't seen you in a long time. 4 sickly infants whenever it was a boy, but girls are fine, I wonder why. Things got desperate so I first invite maidens in from other courts to seduce and then just employ them, make them concubine if resulted in a baby, after some trying, finally got a boy.
China wants me to become tributary, too bad I never tried peace deal and it is too late now when China is expansionist. I tried to fight but occupying 19 holdings in the fringe of my empire plus 10% from prisoners were enough for their 100% warscore, despite I had 1248 holdings. Our armies didn't even meet. It was frustrating so I loaded. Don't build holdings in the steppes if you want to fight China.
TIL you can change warscore calculations in
https://ck2.paradoxwikis.com/Defines#Warscore
namely NDefines.NMilitary.VASSAL_SETTLEMENT_WARSCORE_MULTIPLIER = 0.3 and NDefines.NMilitary.TOTAL_OCCUPATION_SCALE = 0.8 to reflect that you don't care fringe counties.
I soon died after I loaded. Then China just great invaded me. So I made this monster. Still 119k after transferring vassels