The Monophysits

[McGrey]

First, since I'm new in this forum: Hi, everybody!

Second, the questions. I've been playing CK II for some weeks now and after my current game of collecting Crowns (behold of Queen Anne I. de Savoie, Queen of Burgund, Queen of Aragon, Queen of Castile, Queen of Mauretania , Queen of Mali (stacking this many titles and land should give you really the option to upgrade your main title to an imperial one...) I was looking for a challenge and saw this monophysitic christians sitting on the edge of the map. I think they could a fun playfield, but before testing it, I would like to ask you Pros for some tips.

1. Who to play? As far as I see, there are three possibilitys.
- The King of Nubia. Might be the hardest, since Nubia is a Kingdom without de jure claims (and its territory is half de jure Abessinia and half Egypt) and it has the Fatimidig moloch on his doorstep.
- The Duke of Axum. Has parts of Abessinia but not nearly enough to claim the kingship.
- The King of Abessinia. Might be the easiest. Lots of unclaimed land (part of Nubia, Axum, Harer).

2. How to protect myself before my neighbours (mainly a certain huge one in Egypt...)? I admit I'm still a bit lost here.

3. Where to expand? I think the best would be first getting the miaphysits united (Nubia, Axum, Abessinia) and then take Harer and maybe Anaa if its still independent.

Bonusquestion!
Since I've been playing good christians until now I would like to know whats the differences of the monophysitic religion are. Can the Kopitik Pope call crusades, excommunicate someone, divorce me and so on like the Roman Pope? And whats is it with the pentarchs? I guess, if I capture/convert Constantinople/Rom/Jerusalem/Antiochia there places get filled? Whats than?

Thank you in advance and excuse the butchered english. If some titles and terms are different, than the reason is, that I'm using the german version of the game and I'm guessing the english terms.

 

[Graaf]

Firstly: Hi McGrey; welcome here!

Secondly I say Axum, sounds like a fun one to play.

2. Couldn't you marry into alliances and make sure you have always some money left for mercenaries. Those two have the tendency to prolong your dynasty. In combination with building military fortifications that enlarge your levies.

3. The last one I could not hope to advise you because I'm not that familiar with that part of the map. Maybe someone else could help you.

Bonus: I don't have a clue because I don't have that expansion.

Well I tried to share what I know, have fun!

 

[Comradebot]

Psst, it's Miaphysite now (and correctly). Monophysite is now a heresy of Miaphysite.

1. Abyssinia is probably the easiest on most starts, and Nubia the hardest. Nubia tends to require multiple attempts to get the right amount of luck to get things rolling. Axum is a solid middle ground, but as a Duchy you can be gamey and swear fealty to the HRE or ERE. Unless you're a masochist, I'd suggest Axum or Abyssinia (though it is rewarding to have a massive Nubian empire).

2. There's a few things you can do. For starters, gather powerful allies. With Abyssinia and Nubia you're a king, so you shouldn't have too much trouble convincing the ERE or HRE to accept marriages. Though with Nubia, it won't matter so much as the Fatimids can crush you at the start regardless of who you've allied with. Still, powerful allies (HRE, ERE, France, England, Cumania, even the Seljuks) can dissuade the Muslims from attacking, and if they do you just might need to buy time until they get there to bail you out. Additionally, you can try buddying up with the Fatimids yourself. The Caliph will be less likely to attack you if he loves you.

Truly though, the only way to protect yourself is to crush the Fatimids. As long as they hold the better Egyptian duchies (namely Cairo and Damietta), they're a threat to end your game.

3. Uniting the Ethiopians/putting together all the de jure Abyssinian land is a common tactic to undertake with them, and Sanaa is an obvious place to try and snatch up for yourself. Just be careful, as taking Sanaa can also give you a border with the Seljuks, which is a very bad thing. In my current (highly successful) playthrough with Nubia I left Sanaa alone so they'd be a buffer between myself and the Seljuks, allowing me to focus on the north without so much worry of a massive Muslim force marching in from the south.

But your real priority for expansion NEEDS to be north. The Fatimids rarely go away on their own, and Egypt is about of rich of a prize as you can get in CKII. Wait for them to get bogged down fighting the other massive empires. If they end with a Crusade called against them and a solid amount of Catholics join, or if they get embroiled with a powerful Seljuk Sultanate or Byzantium or HRE, then be opportunistic and try to take a piece of them with a holy war.


Bonus stuff:

The Coptic Pope cannot call crusades, but can excommunicate (and grant divorces)... and easily, I might add, as he's readily vassalizable. Once you claim Alexandria for yourself, give the bishopric of Alexandria to any random landless courtier of yours. Within a few days, the Coptic Pope will replace the guy you gave the bishopric to and will be your vassal, allowing you to freely excommunicate anyone who shares him as your religious head (which will be your entire realm until you complete other parts of the Pentarchy).

And the Pentarchy is the other four spots that start off empty. Like Orthodox Christians, Miaphysites recognize the Pentarchy and should you take any of those bishoprics and place a bishop of the Miaphysite faith into it then they'll become the patriarch of that area. Basically, it makes them the religious head of the de jure kingdom the bishopric is in, along sometimes with other kingdoms (for example, a Miaphysite Patriarch of Antioch will be the religious head of Miaphysites in the de jure kingdoms of Syria and Armenia). This is regardless of whether or not those kingdoms exist, and you can essentially have multiple religious heads in the same kingdom.

Sadly, with the Miaphysites there isn't too much to be gained from the Pentarchy. Every Pentarch will add a little extra montly Moral Authority, but by the time you've taken your second chunk of it you'll probably be at 100% MA from all the holy wars you've won. Unlike Orthodox, I don't believe you get anything from actually putting all five together.




A Miaphysite game is a very fun one, it just requires being very aggressive and lucky usually to get things rolling. And just saw you're a native German speaker... darn, you could've used your mother tongue and I probably still could've helped (but probably for the best, as I doubt too many other people who speak both languages will respond to this thread).

 

[richvh]

East Africa's a very hard start, for any of the Miaphysite states. There aren't any mercenaries available, and they all have nada for tech at the start. Nubia in particular is nearly impossible to survive as. There are a number of threads on the topic, I advise searching for them.

 

[Comradebot]

Firstly: Hi McGrey; welcome here!

Secondly I say Axum, sounds like a fun one to play.

2. Couldn't you marry into alliances and make sure you have always some money left for mercenaries. Those two have the tendency to prolong your dynasty. In combination with building military fortifications that enlarge your levies.

3. The last one I could not hope to advise you because I'm not that familiar with that part of the map. Maybe someone else could help you.

Bonus: I don't have a clue because I don't have that expansion.

Well I tried to share what I know, have fun!

There are no mercenaries available in Ethiopia. I couldn't hire any until I'd captured much of Egypt and moved my capital up to Alexandria, and even then only the two Bulgarian mercs become available.


To add on, marriages can be awesome for getting you land outside of Ethiopia as well. Should the worst happen and the Fatimids call an invasion on you when you're unable to fend them off, then it would be nice to have a piece of land in Europe to retreat to if the rest of your kingdom falls. I managed to inherit Flanders, but thankfully never needed it.

Your money should be spent on sending gifts to your scariest allies and upgrading your holdings.

 

[Comradebot]

Oh, final tip: if you're struggling (or just really want to play Nubia), start in 1076. The Fatimids can still slaughter you on a whim, but they're small enough that you won't need quite as much luck to get going. You will, however, have to worry about a Seljuk Sultanate that can crush you as easily as the 1066 Fatimids if you take Sanaa.

I started in 1076 with Nubia. Ended up doing this:

And still time left on the clock, and I've expanded since this screenshot a bit more.

 

[McGrey]

First, thanks for the fast answers already tried some of your tips, they proved helpful. So thats what happened so far:

I started as Abessina, 1.1.1076 as suggested. Axum proved to be the hardest enemy but also an unwilling ally sometimes...

The first thing I did was declaring a holly war against muslim Harer and - lo and behold - no one joined him to defend him. Well... but Axun started its own holy war against Harer. In the end I got the Provinces Busaso, Berbera and Tadjoura, the province of Harer went to Axun.

At the same time, the Fatimids conquered the Egyptian provinces of Nubia, the last one, Hayya, was free to grab for me (claim as King of Abessina) and Axun (Claim as Duke of Axun). We started the war at the same time, but since Axun is further north, he was the first in Hayya. Which proved lucky for me, since the Armys of Axun ans Nubia had annihilated one another. I just had to mop up the rest an took over Hayya. And also the war, but not for long. Axun capitulated and payed a lot of Money.
So I was one Province and 150 Gold pieces (which went directly to Cairo...) richer. Time to prepare for the next strike: To cut the Duchy of Axun down piece by piece, beginning with the county of Axun.
After conquering it I was able to claim the Dutchy of Axun and an so cut its territory in three parts (the Duke hat given the countys of Hara and Atbar away, which I conquered next (no truce with them)).

Then, I died and my incompetent Son inherited and all competent councilors died so... year.
While the rest of Axun vassalised itself freely and I now have a unified Abessina (its October 1092), I have to work that it didn't break apart again...

But after all, its a start one can work with. Consolidating, converting the islamic countys, paying Tribute to the Fatimid blob... started in 1076 and they still already control most of northern Africa and wide Parts of the Byzantine Empire... (is it just me or dos Byzanz get destroyed in every single game?)

I actually allied with Byzanz but it proved more harmful than helpful I guess. As the Fatimids attacked me, Byzanz was in the midst of a civil war, and after it was over, they ask me to participate in their war. Against the Seldtschuks. 100 Prestige adé...

 

[mudcrabmerchant]

Is there a way to set global flags in CKII, like in EU3? If so, I may cook up a quick little mod to simulate the Baqt and relatively cool Miaphysite-Muslim relations for most of the time period.

 

[Borne2Run]

There is a mini-mod for that, btw.

Edit: Boom.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...Mini-Mod-Nerfed-Fatimids-and-a-makeshift-Baqt.

 

[mudcrabmerchant]

There is a mini-mod for that, btw.

Edit: Boom.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...Mini-Mod-Nerfed-Fatimids-and-a-makeshift-Baqt.

I know. But if you read my post in that thread, you'll see that although I think they did a good job, I'm just not satisfied with it.