The joys of playing in Italy

[tnick0225]

So Italy is becoming my favorite area to play in for some odd reason, mostly because I have no idea where I will end up.

The first time playing I ended up in Aquitaine as the King of Aquitaine that is, which was odd to say the least. Second time I ended up creating a character and ended up in england after the second Generation...again as King of england.

Now I started out as the younger d'Este in Grisons shortly after the rise of the Rum Sultanate. And took over the Duchy of Lombardy from my bro Ugo. Anyways to make a long story short I'm looking at ending up as King of Burgundy Long before I become King of Italy.

Anyone else find their Italian games ending up in some other land besides Italy? Tis odd. Everyother place I play in seems I'm stuck in that general location. But Italy just seems to give rise to families that like to wander around Europe in Exile in CKII lol

 

[Sarog]

I sort have the opposite happen in that I start elsewhere and get sucked in to Italy. Sometimes it is just giving in to the temptation of marrying matilda, but not exclusively. My Godwin game got Italy from the fatimids in a Crusade before losing England to the Dunkelds, of all people. Had a few centuries of Salian italy after losing the HRE playing as Heinrich's kid. The most bizarre one was forming the kingdom with the armenian Rubenid dynasty, which I'm still somewhat confused over. I had some Armenian-German marriages after the HRE retook jerusalem, and then one day I noticed I was two assassinations from getting lombardy and carinthia. I think it came about from marrying my son to a daughter of a german duke of Galilee, whose died and passed his lands to a kinsman in Italy who was unlucky with his heirs, but I didn't get Galilee in the parcel. I couldn't puzzle it out at the time.

When I start in Italy I tend to get squished by the kaiser or the fatimids before really getting a foothold anywhere else.

 

[cybrxkhan]

When I play Italy I usually do late starts (1307 or later), when almost all of Italy's duchies and counties are free of the HRE's yoke. Here, it's pretty much like tutorial island Ireland at game start... except you're on continental Europe and there's a variety of groups to interact with (duchies, counties, Pope, theocracies, republics, a member of the Byzantine royal family in Monterrafat, you name it) so it's much more interesting.

 

[NewbieOne]

Italy is very tempting to me, really. I've been promising myself a game there since EU3. It's too bad you can't get Matilda to be elected the next Kaiser (with holy wars she can get quite some land) but I guess she could perhaps live to put a son of hers there. Tuscany would be my pick anyway. Not top-most and not south from Rome, either.

 

[triplethr34t]

I almost always start as an Italian count because after removing the HRE from the game files it's hilarious seeing all the different ways my game could go.

You've got the Kingdom of Sicily forming early on, eventually Tuscany forms a Kingdom as well and they essentially go into a cold war of sorts with each other; and then there's the Byzantines and the Arabs constantly vying for control of the the surrounding regions, and occasionally paying your little corner of the world a visit with their death stacks. Easy crusade access is nice too.

I've had games where I become the King of Venice, a Muslim Sicilian Duke, a vassal of the Golden Horde and a major player in Byzantine politics. Then there's the times when the Germans come barreling down over the alps.

 

[tnick0225]

I sort have the opposite happen in that I start elsewhere and get sucked in to Italy. Sometimes it is just giving in to the temptation of marrying matilda, but not exclusively. My Godwin game got Italy from the fatimids in a Crusade before losing England to the Dunkelds, of all people. Had a few centuries of Salian italy after losing the HRE playing as Heinrich's kid. The most bizarre one was forming the kingdom with the armenian Rubenid dynasty, which I'm still somewhat confused over. I had some Armenian-German marriages after the HRE retook jerusalem, and then one day I noticed I was two assassinations from getting lombardy and carinthia. I think it came about from marrying my son to a daughter of a german duke of Galilee, whose died and passed his lands to a kinsman in Italy who was unlucky with his heirs, but I didn't get Galilee in the parcel. I couldn't puzzle it out at the time.

When I start in Italy I tend to get squished by the kaiser or the fatimids before really getting a foothold anywhere else.

I guess the game just loves throwing random things at ya...makes it fun though.

 

[tnick0225]

Italy is very tempting to me, really. I've been promising myself a game there since EU3. It's too bad you can't get Matilda to be elected the next Kaiser (with holy wars she can get quite some land) but I guess she could perhaps live to put a son of hers there. Tuscany would be my pick anyway. Not top-most and not south from Rome, either.

You should man...I'm addicted to Italy, it sucks when the HRE is involved and ramps up CA but in a way I like it having to take over duchies through intrigue and marriage instead of conquest. Feels more legit and historical in a way doing it that way.

 

[CurtisManning]

Italy is so rich, Venice & Genoa >> all

 

[tnick0225]

It is...seems like in the latest patch Genoa is pretty powerful...they are darn near able to form Sicily in my new Lombardy game.

 

[unmerged(47028)]

I do not think I ever done Italy, not even in CK1. I usually end up in Sicily - a half way to Jerusalem if we talk about Italian peninsula.

 

[tnick0225]

And it just went even crazier...HRE capital is located in the Greece...the ERE Capital is in southern Italy..and Greece is well in Spoletto???

Oh Italy how things are crazy:

 

[Pode]

Playing as Matilda now, 25 years in or so. Formed Italy, still loyal to the HRE, but he loathes me. Fatamids took Sicily, married a son to a claimant of ERE, so all the major powers are knocking on my door. Fun so far.

 

[tnick0225]

I've never played as matilda...I enjoy starting as a duke too much. But I usurp all her lands once...that was the Italian game that ended up with me in Aquitaine

 

[Kaiser Ludwig]

Matilda is also Duke-Level

 

[unmerged(527492)]

Matilda is fun. Staying in the HRE is brilliant for forming Italy. In my most recent Di Canossa game, I grabbed Italy, married into Croatia by the third generation (my heir actually took Croatia before inheriting Italy, which had the bonus of getting Italy out of the HRE without a war). I pushed south, incorporating almost the whole peninsula into Italy and also won the first crusade, securing Jerusalem. Tunisia and Sicily also came into my realm. I got my King a claim on the Byzantine Empire as well.

When a succession crisis emerged in the ERE, I struck and quickly beat the current ERE. Nearly everyone had been pushing his usurpers claims, which turned out well for me. I inherited that war, and was able to imprison virtually every duke in the empire as a result. Cue a mass wave of demand conversion to Catholicism. 5 years later, a Catholic Roman Empire has been restored.

Oh yeah, also I pushed claims for Latium while in the HRE. That helped. I ended up setting the Papcy back up in Mallorca.

 

[Kaiser Ludwig]

Oh yeah, also I pushed claims for Latium while in the HRE. That helped. I ended up setting the Papcy back up in Mallorca.

Better weather than Avignon, at least!

 

[Pode]

I'm going to eventually try to give the Pope Malta plus St. Peter's, cuz I want both Rome now and a living Papacy if/when I convert to EU3. Down the line goals. Right now I'm collecting Sicily back from the Fatamids on my own initiative while they fight the HRE in the fatamid invasion of Italy. Kaiser may hate me, but he's still chasing Fatamid stacks around Italy for me while I go on offense. 2 yr ol grandson by my 4th son is current heir to ERE, and the empress is already 30, so things might get exciting on that front soon too. And it's only just 1100, lots of wild ride left.

 

[Beagá]

To be honest everything that isn´t the HRE or involving stepping on the HRE toes is fun. Trying to form an independant dutch nation is just as interesting.

Also, many de jure italian provinces start with german rulers in 1066 and it becomes a race to kick them out ASAP, because the fewer italian provinces and rulers there is in the peninsula the harder it is to get independence.

 

[tnick0225]

This is true...things aren't going hot for my Lombards CA got jacked up. We fought a ten year long civil war to lower it and wouldn't you know the faction leader got tired of fighting and signed a white peace.

So I'm stuck to only being able to expand my lands further into Aquitaine. Already control all of Toulouse, and working on Gascogne. Just waiting for the French to erupt in a new Civil War. Only other choice I have is to pick up three more provinces in Burgundy, but once again, HRE CA...and with the Kaiser back in Control of the Kingdom of Greece well I think this game is going to be the AI healing the schism.