Started in Ireland, been playing all day with no progress, NEED HELP!

[unmerged(629134)]

I went through all the tutorials, watch a couple of lets plays, and spent half the day trying and retrying new games yet I STILL cant figure out how to expand my meager little plot of land!

I started on Very Easy in Connacht, the western most provance in Ireland. After building up my strength to my max 303 levies, getting married, and producing an heir, I decited to go on the offense.

I attacked Breifne to the east under the intense recommendation of the game due to having claims on it. I had an army of about 330 (due to a single vassal contributing like 19 guys) and the enemy had an army of about 200. My ruler was a custom one with only the attribute of Genius. I figured I had the battle in the bag. I was wrong. My guys got defeated and retreated back home. The enemy persued and I lost 3 battles in a row. After awhile they got bored and went back home and I regrouped. After I had regained strength I attacked again, and again, and finally I defeated him and tried sieging his town only to find...

They have about 400+ garrisoned at the town! It's impossible for me to even recruit that many, my max levies total is 330. What do I do? How do you expand in this game? I have no idea what I'm doing or where to go even after trying to read getting started guides.

Can anyone give me any advice on how to eventually become the king of Ireland? (I really want to rule the world but baby steps...)

 

[postm00v]

Hire mercenaries.

 

[Eridan Ampora]

Save up some money and buy some mercenaries. The cheapest ones are bands of around 1500 troops, so it should be no problem. Just remember to disband them afterwards, as they cost a lot of money in upkeep. And NEVER run out of money while you have them employed, or else they will attack you.

 

[Rozmarzony]

Or allies.

 

[Anenu]

Your best bet would be to save up and hire a cheap mercenary unit in order to win wars at your size. Once you expand you can form duchies and take over the lands in that duchy, be warned these will not be your lands but will be controlled by vassals. You can continue to increase in size by sending your chancellor to fabricate claims, do this enough and you can gain enough land to form Ireland and then proceed to take over the island since all the land would fall in your claimed territory.

 

[tonkatoy5]

Building in your province is always a good idea, and whats your court doing? or more specifically your martial, make sure hes training troops. also before battle check your troop combinations and generals, as usually when you lose a battle with numerical superiority its one of those two things.

edit- ninjas everywhere, and yeah mercenaries are a good idea, but if you dont pay them their turn on you so watch your gold

 

[Carmichael]

Another (cheapest) way to do it is marry yourself to daughters/sisters of other rulers, as it will give you allies. The best would be to ally yourself with another Irish count/duke but you can also look oversea to Wales or The Isles. At your level, you'll have almost no chance to ally yourself with a kingdom (maybe Scotland but that's a very bad idea since they're always in civil war, which prevent them to help their allies), but it would be the cheapest way to build a military force. Generally however, once you've conquered your second province and taken military advantage on your rivals, you should snowball pretty quickly.

 

[unmerged(629134)]

Thanks for the advice guys!

Ok, I have no idea what's going on now. I hired 1500 mercs, combined them with my baron's army and then seiged the city. After a long seige I got a victory screen and then the defenders numbers went back up to 250 again! this has happened 3 times now and I'm almost out of money. What the heck is going on? was it a victory or not? Is this a bug or just really obscure game mechanics?

Please help

 

[unmerged(629134)]

Ok I was clicking the attack button on each of those seiges, I tried just letting it play out and now the seige is officially over but the war is still on? How do I kill this guy and take his land? And what happened with that attack button, does that not work or something?

 

[brucepm]

Each county contains multiple "holdings," which may be baronies/castles, cities, or bishoprics. In order to totally besiege the entire county, you have to siege each individual holding, which is a different siege each time. You'll start with the capital holding, the important one held by the count, and move on to the minor ones afterwards. (If you click on the county, the pictures in the squares are the different holdings.) Each victorious siege gets you "war score," which you can view in the bottom right under the round portrait of your opponent. The higher it is, the more likely your opponent is to surrender or agree to a white peace. If you reach 100%, you can force him to surrender using the "offer peace" option in his diplomacy screen.

The "assault" button, which you were using, is a way of speeding up sieges when you MASSIVELY outnumber the foe. Don't use it at your level, basically ever. Especially when you're going up against cities, which contain loads of defenders. Just let the siege run out by itself, it's safer when you only have one opponent whom you've basically already beaten.

 

[unmerged(629134)]

I had 1500 mercs though, so it seemed safe to use the attack button and it technically did work, but why did the seige keep "resetting" over and over even after being victorious?

I forced peace, the jerk is still alive! I don't get it, why would I want this guy as a ruler in my land? How do I get rid of him and make the land part of my Demesne?

 

[unmerged(629401)]

Because as brucepm pointed out, you took down one holding and moved on to the next. Usually there's three in each county. Check the screen and you can tell by the buildings in the pictures.

Did you get his county? Maybe you forced him to be your vassal. In that case, you'd need to try and revoke his title somehow. Best way might be to use a plot in the intrigue menu or have your chancellor fabricate claims. Then take the land for yourself.

 

[brucepm]

Ok. You know how you forced him to surrender? Go to your opponent's diplomacy panel and hover your mouse over the three options (present demands, white peace, and surrender). Each one will tell you what will happen if you use it. In this case, it's likely that either a) he surrendered and became your vassal, that is, a ruler under your loose command, or b) you didn't actually win, you just white peaced (returned to the status quo) or even surrendered.

 

[Carmichael]

It resets because you go to besiege the other holding

Each county is divided in Baronies (Castles), Cities and Bishoprics (Churches) and so to take control over the entire county you must besiege and take all holdings (Varying between 1 and 7 depending on the county).

Concerning the count, are you a duke? Because if it is the case then it's normal he still holds his lands since you only "forced-vassalized" him. Normally if you look in intrigue, you should have a plot which will allow you to revoke the county if you have enough support.

 

[unmerged(629134)]

Ah, thanks guys. Yeah I must have been taking out all his holdings, I didn't notice that.

I forced him to become my vassal and now am trying to figure out how to get his title. I'll try the fabricate claims option...

To Carmichael, yes I'm a Duke. I couldn't find a plot like that in intregue though...

 

[unmerged(629134)]

Nevermind, found the plot! ok, I'll let you know if it works... thanks again everyone!

 

[unmerged(629401)]

Just make sure that if you're using a plot that people favor you more than him. Otherwise, you might not have enough backers for the plot.

 

[unmerged(629134)]

Got it to work, had to go to war a second time though since the guy didn't want to go quietly.

Now I've got another problem... How do I fabricate claims? I sent my counsilor over to another county and assigned him to fabricate claim... now do I just wait? Or is there some other way to do it?

 

[unmerged(629401)]

Yeah, you have to wait. You can up your chances of fabricating sooner by making sure he's has the highest diplomacy you can find and that he's happy with you. If that doesn't work, you could always invite a claimant to your court so you can later press the claim for the land in that person's name.

 

[unmerged(629134)]

I guess I don't understand... I can't just attack him? From everything I'm reading, there's like a 10% chance per year of fabricating claims for a single reigon, so that means to conquor all of ireland in this way could take 100's of years!

Is there any other way? This kind of just seems like a grind...