What's your greatest defeat/downfall?

[LordofSaxony]

What's your greatest defeat/downfall?

I think mine would be that I started as the Count of Lincoln, eventually worked my way up to being the Duke of York, as well as about 10 count's under me and also the Duke of Lancaster in all but name (King had the title, but I had the lands). I was the most powerful Duke in England at the time. Eventually my Duke died and his son inherited, but that's ok he seemed like a good guy. I get a message from the Count of Cornwall that he wants to make an alliance, so I tell myself ok this is a good thing, since it's nice to have an ally so close to home. A few days later the Count of Cornwall declares war on the King of England, and I accidentally included myself as his ally (many popups on the screen, I accidentally clicked 'yes' to it). So a long war happened, I lost men, the King lost men, and eventually it dwindled down to him stomping my dukedom to death and me screaming "I surrender" by trying to make peace, even throwing bags of gold and trying to give him many titles to my lands. I think it's a possibility that the King didn't like me much because I had a long war with him, whatever the case, my dynasty was destroyed.

 

[unmerged(175287)]

Well, my downfall hasnt happened, but its on its way, I think.

You see, my king illness turned him bitter towards god, and now he has gone heretic with huge negative piety (and that crusade isn't helping) , besides being a leper. Everyone's declaring war on me, there's huge internal strife, my son is dead and there's elective law with no one from my dinasty in the first 5 spots. Since im at whar with practically the whole of my kingdom, I cant give titles but mine, which I ironically need to defend myself.

It seems it all will end in a sort of pyhrric victory. I will defeat their hosts, but my dynasty will end ;_;

In what year was your dinasty destroyed?

 

[timetogetaway]

I was playing as Brittany and RP'd Duchess Hawise as a cruel, evil woman. Her ultimate aims were to take all her brenton vassal's land. She got into a bit of a fight with the Count of Penithireve(sp) and assassinated his youngest son.

He assassinated all three of Hawise's children.

That game didn't last long. Duchy passed over to William Brus or something like that.

 

[LordofSaxony]

In what year was your dinasty destroyed?

I believe I played for about 50-80 years in that one, but I don't remember the exact date which my dukedom fell.

That game didn't last long. Duchy passed over to William Brus or something like that.

I think my shortest game of all time was when I was new to CK. I got a claim on a neighbors land and saw the option to "declare war" so I thought that's how your supposed to do it. So I went ahead and declared war on my neighboring county and immediately saw that the King raised all his troops. At first I was like "yes!" the king is going to help me, this is going to be an easy win. Nope, all those soldiers were to stomp me into the ground. I didn't know at the time, but a vassal attacking another vassal, isn't a good thing.

 

[timetogetaway]

Ha! That's happened to me too. Sometimes I wish the game allowed for private wars betweens vassals under a rather decentralized kingdom.

 

[TempestDK]

Ha! That's happened to me too. Sometimes I wish the game allowed for private wars betweens vassals under a rather decentralized kingdom.

As far as I know this was planned, but not implemented. I think I remember seeing a thread where someone found the place in the files, where Ruling Law defined if the liege could interfer in internal vassal wars

 

[LordofSaxony]

As far as I know this was planned, but not implemented. I think I remember seeing a thread where someone found the place in the files, where Ruling Law defined if the liege could interfer in internal vassal wars

That would be a nice feature. Sometimes Kings cared, sometimes they didn't.

 

[Yakman]

I was a great and terrible king, ruling over most of Eastern Europe and a good chunk of the Middle East. I was Byzantine Emperor and King of Jerusalem and Russia.

And then the Mongols came.

I ended my dynasty as Count of Malta.

 

[Yakman]

Well, my downfall hasnt happened, but its on its way, I think.

You see, my king illness turned him bitter towards god, and now he has gone heretic with huge negative piety (and that crusade isn't helping) , besides being a leper. Everyone's declaring war on me, there's huge internal strife, my son is dead and there's elective law with no one from my dinasty in the first 5 spots. Since im at whar with practically the whole of my kingdom, I cant give titles but mine, which I ironically need to defend myself.

It seems it all will end in a sort of pyhrric victory. I will defeat their hosts, but my dynasty will end ;_;

In what year was your dinasty destroyed?

Can't you change your succession law to Salic?

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

I had several great defeats/downfalls, but a remarkable one was when I played the kingdom of Bulgaria in the 1187 scenario. I had been slowly expanding my kingdom in a nice Balkan empire reaching into the Russian steppes. I was planning then to move on into Austria and Hungary and through some unfortunate events I got 8 different rulers in 10 years time

Ivanko Asen (10th September 1352 –7th April 1386)
Voislav Asen (8th April 1386 – 18th May 1386)
Gavril Asen (19th May 1386 – 16th July 1387)
Georgii Asen (17th July 1387 – 15th July 1393)
Iziaslav Asen (16th July 1393 – 25th October 1394)
Davyd Asen (26th October 1394 – 3rd January 1396)
Makarij Asen (4th January 1396 – 23rd August 1396)
Evtimij Asen (24th August 1396 - )


Evtimij was left with just one demesne province and 1 kingtitle (that of Bosnia).

Since I wanted to write a short AAR about it I had then written down. Nothing came of writing the AAR though.

 

[LordofSaxony]

I was planning then to move on into Austria and Hungary and through some unfortunate events I got 8 different rulers in 10 years time

What was killing them off? Just a combination of things, like old age and sickness?

And then the Mongols came.

I ended my dynasty as Count of Malta.

Ouch!

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

What was killing them off? Just a combination of things, like old age and sickness?

Sickness, young age, old age, dying in battle and so on.

 

[LordofSaxony]

Sickness, young age, old age, dying in battle and so on.

It's a bummer when you finally get a great ruler, and then only a month later he dies lol.

 

[unmerged(175287)]

Can't you change your succession law to Salic?

No. Its still too early to do so. I was a fool, really, my nobles must be laughing behind my screen...

 

[Yakman]

the first thing i do, no matter who i start as, is change election law to Salic.

unless you personally, really truly mess up, you cannot lose otherwise if your succession law is Salic.

 

[unmerged(7537)]

the first thing i do, no matter who i start as, is change election law to Salic.

unless you personally, really truly mess up, you cannot lose otherwise if your succession law is Salic.

Indeed. Your vassal loyalty will take a hit, but that is nothing compared to the Game Over screen you will inevitably find yourself looking at when a different dynasty beats you to the throne of your own realm.

 

[unmerged(28057)]

I accidentally included myself as his ally (many popups on the screen, I accidentally clicked 'yes' to it).

Let's be honest throughout history that is one of the better reasons for going to war actually.

 

[unmerged(176048)]

I've had bad experiences with the "do you want to help him" pop-up. Once I declared war on my own heir after some stupid count (one of my vassals) declared war on him. Now I always hit 'decline.' If one of my vassals are involved, I can always declare on the perpetrator later. You don't need a claim as long as your vassal is at war.

I can't remember if you need a claim to enter a war on the side of an ally. Is the initial pop-up your only chance?

 

[Snaake]

I've had bad experiences with the "do you want to help him" pop-up. Once I declared war on my own heir after some stupid count (one of my vassals) declared war on him. Now I always hit 'decline.' If one of my vassals are involved, I can always declare on the perpetrator later. You don't need a claim as long as your vassal is at war.

I can't remember if you need a claim to enter a war on the side of an ally. Is the initial pop-up your only chance?

I don't think so, I think you can go to allies' aid any time you want, too. It can be a good way to milk a bunch of cash from some rich sheik or emir who your big ally or liege is pounding into the desert sands... (they'll spam you wish cash+white peace offers when they start losing, more often than not)

 

[Kaleidoscope]

I had a good one in a 1066 game as the Count of Carcassonne. To cut it short, the Count had three sons - Gaston, Toumas and Laurenc. By the time their father died in about 1080-something, he had managed to capture a couple of provinces in southern Spain, but nothing significant. Well it just so happened that the eldest son, Gaston, had very well rounded stats, the second son was a Brilliant Strategist, and the third son had a very high Stewardship score. Between the three of them they managed to conquer three-quarters of Spain in less than 15 years, starting off as the Count of Carcassone and ending as the King of Spain and Aragon, with territory encompassing Spain and every mediterranean island going east up to and including Sicily.

Well, King Gaston's wife never produced a son - she produced three daughters. And all of those daughters had daughters too. Luckily one of those daughters had a son about a year before King Gaston finally died.
So King Gaston dies and the crown jumps right down to his Great Grandson. Well the two surviving brothers (by now very powerful Dukes of the realm) aren't very pleased with this. They both rebel pretty much instantly, taking half the other vassals with them. The infant King gets his ass beat and has to surrender almost every scrap of territory west of Sicily. So that was the downfall.

Of the rebellious brothers, Toumas became King and Laurenc later became the Pope, somehow. You couldn't ask for a more spectacular set of brothers. I still have the save game, up to around 1200 now, I think. The original branch of the family still rules most of Spain as the Kingdom of Aragon.
The Sicilian branch of the family that I controlled created another empire - the Kingdom of Italy - which owned large parts of Italy, most of Sicily and pretty much the entirety of North Africa as far East as Alexandria and as far west as the Atlantic.
Sadly that empire is falling apart from internal rebellions while the masively powerful Duchy of Corinthia is kicking down the front door. I don't have the manpower or the funds to fight them off.