What's the ruler to start with to learn the game?

[beckdawg]

I went through this a bit with EU3 when I started. The introduction for CK2 is a bit better but there's still *a lot* going on. In EU3, I started with small countries but ran into the fact I got rolled if I tried anything military related. I then went to bigger countries like france and was a bit overwhelmed with the options. Eventually, I got the hang of it.

With CK2, I've watched some youtube let's plays of them so I have a general idea of what's going on. I thought about someone like the king of france/HRE/Bzantines but I was worried inter realm issues might be as challenging as outer issues.

So, what I'm looking for I think is something that has enough spice to keep me interested but is easy enough to manage that I'm not overwhelmed.

 

[Cymsdale]

Start as a count in Ireland. Fabricate a claim on a neighbor. Save up money to buy mercenaries. Press claim. Repeat until you have a few duchies. Form a kingdom. Take it from there.

 

[Panzerschiffe]

Irish Ruler. It's not so hard that you'll get crushed early and there's a lot of stuff you can do in that region.

 

[dorukdorucu]

William the Bastard is also a good choice in my opinion, you get to know invasion mechanics, you have to cleverly land your vassals, try switching out of gavelkind OR deal with excess sons. And all of this happens while you are trying to keep the French at your doorstep. It may be a bit too much, but it certainly is easy. People here usually say irish dukes but meh, it's usually too boring and dull. You have pretty much nothing to do between the occasional "Claim created" "War declared" "Victory" events.
Also, try reading the guides, take a look at the wiki and read a couple AAR's. They certainly help a lot.

 

[beckdawg]

William the Bastard is also a good choice in my opinion, you get to know invasion mechanics, you have to cleverly land your vassals, try switching out of gavelkind OR deal with excess sons. And all of this happens while you are trying to keep the French at your doorstep. It may be a bit too much, but it certainly is easy. People here usually say irish dukes but meh, it's usually too boring and dull. You have pretty much nothing to do between the occasional "Claim created" "War declared" "Victory" events.
Also, try reading the guides, take a look at the wiki and read a couple AAR's. They certainly help a lot.

Yeah, reading Prawnstar's eu3 aar's really helped when I started that.

 

[dorukdorucu]

Yeah, reading Prawnstar's eu3 aar's really helped when I started that.

Prawnstar... lol, he certainly has some pretty good AAR's out there. I especially liked the last one, WC with England. I also wanted to do it but gave up after i got crushed by scotland, france and Ireland. I know, i suck at eu3

 

[Sleight of Hand]

Play as the duke of Brittany and try to become king.

 

[Hootieleece]

The Duke of Bohemia in 1066.You are inside the HRE. Don't Have too many vassals.Can create another Duchy (moravia) and then a Kingdom.Since you are inside HRE unless you really pissoff the Emperor, You can take your time to learn the ropes.(You are one of the biggest vassals of Emperor)

 

[Comm Cody]

King of Poland is who I started as.

All the rulers above are good ideas.

 

[l3ol3o]

1st game should defintely be Ireland. You can go at your own pace and learn the basics. After that I'd recommend Denmark so you can learn Holy wars. After Denmark Sicily is a good place to learn. It can be tough but it's a good place to learn how to deal with Muslims. I also learned in Scotland. All these places you in control. If you want to play as a vassal Bohemia is good.

Stay out of Spain or the middle east until you learn the ropes.

 

[Jamey]

1st game should defintely be Ireland. You can go at your own pace and learn the basics. After that I'd recommend Denmark so you can learn Holy wars. After Denmark Sicily is a good place to learn. It can be tough but it's a good place to learn how to deal with Muslims. I also learned in Scotland. All these places you in control. If you want to play as a vassal Bohemia is good.

Stay out of Spain or the middle east until you learn the ropes.

Sicily has gotten pretty rough as a place to learn. I'd recommend avoiding it until you've got a solid grasp on things. Lots of holy wars and invasions get thrown around in that area at times.

 

[Grifen88]

Seconding recommendations to start as any Irish counts/dukes. You get a lot of leeway to learn the ropes here.

 

[tuareg109]

Earl Gofraid of the Isle of Man.

First 15 years should be boring as all hell, but boy does the game get interesting once your grandson inherits.
113 years in I'm King of Ireland and Scotland, Lord of Gwynedd, Northumberland, Lancaster, and York.

 

[Kelly Hrdina]

I'm still in my first "real" game, so take this with a grain of salt.

When I first bought CK2, I played as the King of France. I didn't get very far before feeling a strange combination of bored and overwhelmed, so abandoned that game.

I next played as the Earl of Kildare (Ireland), and that game (still going on) has been a blast. As someone mentioned above, things started a little slow, and generous use of mercenaries kept me afloat for a while by saving me in 2 defensive wars against the Duke of Leinster. After the Duke's first son discovered he could not fly from the top of a tower , I usurped the Duchy from the second son, slowly absorbed Ulster (took it away from Galloway), then managed to become King of Ireland.

I was also able to learn from some pretty monumental mistakes without getting completely killed:
* I stupidly made my son and heir a vassal of another Duke. Fortunately he married well without my help.
* I stupidly forgot to remove my King from the army before subduing Leinster and bringing it into the Kingdom. The King was the third in my dynasty, all of whom were well-loved. The King got bonked on the head, became Incapable, and died about a year later. His son (Fergus I the Cruel) was not so well-loved, causing Munster & Leinster to rebel. This led to my first experience of having prisoners, and allowed Fergus to add to his Cruel reputation.

So, I am (hopefully!) not quite half way through the game, learned a lot about various game mechanics (inheritance, combat, tech, plots, diplomacy), and watched an interesting story unfold.

 

[Hackworthy]

Theodoros Kaukadenos, Count of Nikaea and Prusa.

 

[BaronNoir]

The Bastard.You can be a real one (bastard. Ah ah ah)

Guillaume have incredible stats, and start with a 10k army. He is also very healthy and can last long.

In my game, he crusaded against the Fatimids for 12 years (the crusade starter when he was 70....) and ended up receiving all Greece as a reward (Guillaume is incredibly skilled as a general)

 

[Jck2]

I think playing some duke or count in England (under billy the bastard) is also a fairly safe way to start the game. Though if you're not Norman and play as a Saxon he may eventually strip you of your land. But you have an end goal to work towards (king and then empire).

I personally never like to start out as a King or Emperor. I like to start out small and earn those kingdoms. They seem to mean more when you actually work for them.

 

[BaronNoir]

It depends on what you want to do, actually.

Ireland is remarkably quiet.

Spain is remarkably active.

 

[SamStarrett]

Everyone says "don't play in Spain." Well, I'm playing in Spain (León->León+Castille->Destroy León title->Castille) for my current (and first) game. I find it fun, but there is certainly a lot happening. I don't have much to compare it to to know how hard a start it is for a newb, but I still exist and have even grown a bit in the early thirteenth century, so it can't be a complete lost cause. IIRC all the Christian kingdoms of Spain at the 1066 start belong to the same dynasty, which means a lot of opportunities for inheritance if you play your cards right.

 

[ichitori]

I can not complain with my first playthrough as Count of the Pfalz in 1066. I picked a county where my ancestry came from, or was close to where I came from; this keeps me interested.

At the start my army, garrison got flattened a couple of times, but I did not get desposed. Its been a goal of mine to get a duchy.