The Croatian Powerhouse?

[Admiral_Nelson]

I'm playing a game with Castille and as a result my eyes have firmly been planted in Spain. I've done pretty well and managed to conquer almost all of the peninsula... when my game crashed rather frustratingly. I reloaded from the last save and continued playing, only to discover that within the first year EVERY nation in Christendom had pledged their loyalty to the Kingdom of Croatia. I'm seriously not kidding. Every nation below Kingdom level became vassals. I've heard of certain bugs that mean that nations will swear to the strongest Christian power, but that by far would have been me.

Any ideas? The game is sort of unplayable as it is now because even after I got the Croatian King excommunicated every one of his vassal's loyalty is still increasing at the insane rate of 2 or 3% a month. I guess this mightn't be a bug but it seems beyond unreasonable.

 

[Yakman]

while certainly interesting, the game isn't "unplayable" by any means.

just watch the north..., and apparently much of north africa as well... he might also attack from the Med...

on second thought, game not unplayable, but there's one guy you don't want to piss off.

 

[Admiral_Nelson]

Well, the reason why I was playing this game is because I sort of wanted a mega-campaign across Paradox's series... and though I wanted ahistorical outcomes... a European Union in 1122 is just a little bit too ahistorical for me to carry through the next 800 years.

 

[Yakman]

but it's possible: charlemagne tried it, and it worked pretty well for a little while.

think of it like this--a political, as well as spiritual, Christendom. A new Roman Empire.

Also, see where things go. I doubt that the Empire will remain whole for another century, much less until the end of CK.

 

[Admiral_Nelson]

I'm hoping. I've killed about 10 of it's rulers so far though, and all the vassals continue to maintain insane loyalty to every one the rulers, including the criminally incompetent and the excommunicated, which is what led me to believe it was a bug or a game mechanic working incorrectly.

 

[Cromelex]

Are you using the latest beta patch?

IIRC, that's a known bug that was fixed in the latest beta patch.

 

[TempestDK]

Problem seems to be that alot of independent realms pledged to Croatia. Could be the bug that was fixed in the latest Beta-patch.

Unless ofcourse Croatia got all that territory through warfare.

 

[Cèsar de Quart]

If it's not a bug, you can think of it as the new Holy Roman Empire. I mean: emperors like Freidrich I, Heinrich IV and Friedrich II tried to get that goat: political control of Europe. Friedrich II, had he lived more, could probably have achieved it: he was already king of Sicily (that means of half of Italy), Emperor (Germany and the other half of Italy) and king of Jerusalem. He just needed to strenghten his power in northern Italy and consolidate his dynasty, and of course break down the Pope's influence.

A hard task, but not impossible. Fredrich II died relatively young (50 years, more or less), and his son Konrad outlived him 4 years only, and after that Charles d'Anjou pursued the last Hohenstaufens to death.

And when you go to EU3, maybe you can handle it to be the HRE, but spreading across all of Europe (except Spain, if you want to step aside of it).

The Ghibelline triumph.

 

[Yakman]

The Guelphs will be victorious in the end!!!

 

[jordarkelf]

Yeah.

You need the 2.1 beta patch...

 

[Nick B II]

I'm hoping. I've killed about 10 of it's rulers so far though, and all the vassals continue to maintain insane loyalty to every one the rulers, including the criminally incompetent and the excommunicated, which is what led me to believe it was a bug or a game mechanic working incorrectly.

You've got 300 years left to play. That's a long time for a huge realm to hold together.

The bug that caused this empire to form is not holding it together. High (+200) relations doesn't increase vassal loyalty. There's got to be something else going on. You want us to diagnose the problem you're gonna have to hover your mouse over some vassal's loyalty before you post a screenshot.

Also, if you've killed 10 of these guys in 56 years you're moving way too fast. CK rulers never fall because of one thing. They do it because of two or three. And if you kill these guys 6 years into their reigns they don't have time to face a second or third problem. Besides assassinations are so unmidieval.

My advice: ignore Croatia for at least 50 years. Don't attack, don't assassinate, if he attacks you spam him offering all your gold for peace. If you get PC maybe you should excom him. Otherwise leave him alone. Eventually his Empire will fall, just as the Empires of Charlemagne, Henry II, and Cnut fell.

Nick

 

[Parsley Magnet]

Before upgrading to the latest beta patch, I had the same problem with Navarre. Civil war would break out in France and the HRE and lots of former vassals of those two kings would pledge to Sancho. Eventually he'd amass an empire that would make Charlemagne jealous, but then he'd die and it'd all collapse under his successor. Maybe they'd still hold a county here and there, and they'd leave Germany a patchwork mess, but it didn't normally last long. That is, until my last game before upgrading, funnily enough as Croatia. Sancho did his thing, but the empire didn't collapse under his son, or his grandson, or his great-grandson. That's what finally convinced me to get the beta patch, and it fixed the bug.