What did I mess up?

[Amphibian]

Susanna: I tried, but it wasn't enough to counterbalance the -9. I'm just wondering what "Political Concerns" stemmed from - is there something i can do to avoid that modifier.

nyah: On this second game I've not-infrequently ended up on the other side (i'm in the midst of prosecuting a very successful series of wars against Scotland, almost have enough territory to usurp the crown). What I'm seeing there, and have no reason to think it'd be any other way in the first game, is that the smaller side's standing army can't even think to engage, so they cower somewhere and the invaders go for occupation and get warscore much faster than any theoretical attrition. Maybe if the forces were only slightly imbalanced, but anything upwards of 2:1 odds seems to me to not even be worth trying.

Gans: I haven't ever quite managed to scrape enough money to buy more castles (and I'm assuming that I'd want to keep them under my thumb, which means more demesne limit - or maybe just handing out grants in my non-capital duchy), but I do like the idea. That levy boost is VERY nice to have.

DPS: Now that I've learned how to manage actually giving out ducal titles, this game has little-to-no issues with factions (my lowest-opinioned vassal is at +29 right now). Most of the time they're going away on their own before my spymaster ever needs to intervene! Which is nice.

Current game date is 23 Jun 1179 - I'm hoping to have the crown of Scotland claimed by 1200, but suspect i'm about to lose a few years to succession stuff - my current king is 65 years old.

 

[Shebaloso]

Susanna: I tried, but it wasn't enough to counterbalance the -9. I'm just wondering what "Political Concerns" stemmed from - is there something i can do to avoid that modifier.

nyah: On this second game I've not-infrequently ended up on the other side (i'm in the midst of prosecuting a very successful series of wars against Scotland, almost have enough territory to usurp the crown). What I'm seeing there, and have no reason to think it'd be any other way in the first game, is that the smaller side's standing army can't even think to engage, so they cower somewhere and the invaders go for occupation and get warscore much faster than any theoretical attrition. Maybe if the forces were only slightly imbalanced, but anything upwards of 2:1 odds seems to me to not even be worth trying.

Gans: I haven't ever quite managed to scrape enough money to buy more castles (and I'm assuming that I'd want to keep them under my thumb, which means more demesne limit - or maybe just handing out grants in my non-capital duchy), but I do like the idea. That levy boost is VERY nice to have.

DPS: Now that I've learned how to manage actually giving out ducal titles, this game has little-to-no issues with factions (my lowest-opinioned vassal is at +29 right now). Most of the time they're going away on their own before my spymaster ever needs to intervene! Which is nice.

Current game date is 23 Jun 1179 - I'm hoping to have the crown of Scotland claimed by 1200, but suspect i'm about to lose a few years to succession stuff - my current king is 65 years old.

The "political concerns" thing is related to many things. When denying an alliance, it probably means they are eyeing some of your title(s) (perhaps not even the character himself, but a vassal of his which has any claim on your lands) or think you too weak and unworthy to be allied. They MAY have some degree geopolitical awareness too, as i've seen as king of france the king of england deny me an alliance at a time and promptly accept it right after the kaiser, who had a weak non inheritable claim on the kingdom of france, died.

 

[Amphibian]

The "political concerns" thing is related to many things. When denying an alliance, it probably means they are eyeing some of your title(s) (perhaps not even the character himself, but a vassal of his which has any claim on your lands) or think you too weak and unworthy to be allied. They MAY have some degree geopolitical awareness too, as i've seen as king of france the king of england deny me an alliance at a time and promptly accept it right after the kaiser, who had a weak non inheritable claim on the kingdom of france, died.

Vassals holding claims would explain it precisely. Thanks.

Unfortunately now I'm in a bit of a pickle - the 65yo king died (old age), his son quickly died thereafter (leprosy, among other problems), and...actually my inheritance worked perfectly in that the crown then fell to someone who'd also inherited the Petty Kingship of Brittany.

She's also Briton, culturally. so not only did all of my very good Irish specialty buildings go up in smoke, but now pretty much the entire realm hates her for being foreign and a girl. Invasions of Scotland have been put indefinitely on hold, my NAP with the English has evaporated, and i have a sneaking suspicion it's all about to come tumbling down around me. Again.

 

[DPS]

DPS: Now that I've learned how to manage actually giving out ducal titles, this game has little-to-no issues with factions (my lowest-opinioned vassal is at +29 right now). Most of the time they're going away on their own before my spymaster ever needs to intervene! Which is nice.

No trouble with vassals, yeah, then it's time to have the spymaster steal tech for you.

However, unless Constantinople is the only county in range that's ahead of your capital county (unlikely), send him somewhere else. The Byzantines tend to do unpleasant things to people they catch spying. For the most part, other rulers will just imprison them and usually will even ransom them back to you cheaply.

Unless, of course, you have a spymaster you want to get rid of--then by all means, send him to Constantinople.

 

[Amphibian]

Makes sense. I had actually in practice been sending them to Rome before i realized that the possibility of getting caught would not help my relations with the Pope. I shifted to having them lurk around the Iberian Peninsula.

(Nowadays they have been recalled to deal with factions, since Miss Briton is not nearly as popular as her grandfather. But I haven't had a chance to play today, so no further updates.)

 

[PAnZuRiEL]

I'm assuming that this clusterfun is the result of a snowball of small decisions that I made (or failed to make) earlier in the game, so, um. Help?

Revoke, revoke, revoke! You're the king of tiny little Ireland, for pete's sake. You can easily hold the entirety of two of those duchies yourself (keep your capital in the largest, which iirc is Ulster), and you simply should not have enough vassals to pose any credible threat to you. Hell, you could probably hold more than half the provinces in Ireland yourself with high enough centralisation laws and a disenfranchised council, even without gavelkind.