Why is the game unplayable unless you choose a bookmarked date?

[Sleight of Hand]

It doesn't seem to matter which English or French king I try to play as, I always start with vassal revolt rates between 55-90% and as soon as I unpause the game at least half of my realm secedes and declares war on me. As soon as this happens I just quit. I tried the Edward III bookmark and that was fine, as he is a popular king and seems to have good relations with many of his vassals, but I've tried to play as at least five or six other English kings and I get the same problem mentioned above. The same goes for the Capetian and Valois kings of France - unpause, mass revolt, sigh, quit.

Does anyone else have this problem? I'm not sure if it is intentional, but I've found that unless you play on a bookmarked date as one of these kings then things are pretty much impossible.

Also, King John is alive and Henry III's heir on a 1.1.1217 startdate, when in fact he died in October 1216 and Henry III only became king because John had died. I think he's count of Toulouse or something, and a vassal of the French king.

 

[cccino]

Most likely it is the relationship penalties for holding too large a demesne and too many duchy titles. (The game isn't necessarily balanced in this respect, outside the bookmarks.) When you start the game, before you unpause, check your demesne limit and give away as many holdings as you need to fall below that limit. Check how many ducal titles you own and give away the extras (as a king I think you can hold 2 without penalty, then -10 relation per duchy after that).

 

[Stolen Rutters]

I second the idea that it could be the demesne too large penalty.

The second bookmark played as William the Conqueror, I got half my realm revolting until I realized I had to take steps to make people happy before unpausing... fortunately for me, I like the rebellions since they are not coordinated and I can get Normans in control much faster.

Even the first day playing as Duke William of Normandy, I won the war against England and ended up with about 40 holdings in my demesne in my last attempt, instantly caused rebellions across my realm.

Both were bookmarked games.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

I'll see what I can do in my next game, though you're probably right. It's just really frustrating because as soon as you unpause you're thrown into civil war... and how can you placate all of those powerful vassals with just a handful of titles?

 

[SA_Avenger]

The game is playable at any date but it doesn't mean that the situation is "optimal" at any date. Like if you start with a very old ruler you'd have chances he dies without heirs etc... that's the downside of having any playable date possible

 

[Galaahd]

You can fix things before unpausing.

Just give away as many duke titles as you can, transfer vassallage of the counts to the respective dukes, stay under the demesne limit. If you still have problems of loyalty, send gifts and give away honorary titles.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

I'll see what I can do in my next game, though you're probably right. It's just really frustrating because as soon as you unpause you're thrown into civil war... and how can you placate all of those powerful vassals with just a handful of titles?

There is a massive negative modifier for multiple holdings over your limit, -10 for each one if memory serves. In my England 2nd bookmark, William has 6 holdings too many for -60 relations to every count, duke, whoever. +60 relations to everyone the instant you give away 6 holdings.

Hint: Don't give holdings away to existing counts or dukes, or you can make a vassal too powerful, a potentially dangerous rival. It's usually best to give one county each to unlanded courtiers to keep your vassals weak and divided, the same way the real William the Conqueror reorganized England. No Earl could hold more than one county, and the King kept some of the best lands for himself.

 

[Hamalcar Barca]

I'll see what I can do in my next game, though you're probably right. It's just really frustrating because as soon as you unpause you're thrown into civil war... and how can you placate all of those powerful vassals with just a handful of titles?

It's not just a handful of titles. On the second bookmark, as someone else was saying, you're way over your personal holdings limit, so you have to give a lot of land away. You start with pretty much all of your vassals ready to revolt, but if you take care of the issue before you unpause, all but two, Northumbria and Lancaster, are pacified. Also, as someone else said, held duchy titles past two give you some pretty bad penalties to relations.

It's rather easy to pacify rebellious vassals, but you actually have to try to do it. Even the two 1066 dates require a lot of background stuff before you unpause to get everything going. It's just how the game goes.

 

[Ruwaard]

You can fix things before unpausing.

Just give away as many duke titles as you can, transfer vassallage of the counts to the respective dukes, stay under the demesne limit. If you still have problems of loyalty, send gifts and give away honorary titles.

Most of it, not all things though, for instance struggles and conquests are to recreate, like the struggle between Roman-German king Rudolf of Habsburg and king Ottokar II of Bohemia (the status of Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola) or the conquest of Sicily by Charles d'Anjou.

 

[InnocentIII]

I'm sure the Count titles are all very playable Dukes too, most likely. I agree with the Demesne suggestions - give enough away to get rid of the penalties, though a bunch of one-County Dukes might be upset before too long. The + for giving titles never seems to last long enough.

 

[Leisner]

They didn't have the manpower to balance the game for every year, which is understandable, considering how much work that would have been.

 

[James_Manring]

They didn't have the manpower to balance the game for every year, which is understandable, considering how much work that would have been.

It would be nice if there was a collective mod project to do this. It could be used as a basis for any other mod and allow players to forget about immediately balancing a kingdom upon every new game.