Why yes, Ulm is the richest county in the world

[niallmcfc]

Because seriously, why else would the Norse travel to raid it?

For 200 odd years now they've been persistently sacking Ulm and the surrounding counties. I don't even bother raising troops to stop them now. It's not just random blokes either, landed characters in Sweden do it- which rather bothers me slightly. See, for a Norseman to get to Ulm...

[top quality photoshop skills]

... They have to follow the green line through the rivers and the portage that lead from the Baltic Sea to the end of the Danube.

This route, a merry jaunt around most of Europe, not only passes by several higher value targets (the entire Byzantine Empire, the mouth to the Mediterranean) but also is ridiculous considering I own the North Sea coast as well, and all of France and The Netherlands is owned by Christian Feudal rulers. Why wouldn't the Norsemen sack the riches of Bremen? Holland? Normandy? Why sail all the way through Eastern Europe and all the way up the Danube just to sack Ulm? Again?

I can only conclude that it is in fact the richest and least well defended county going. Despite what the county-view window says.

Still though. At least it's my vassal's land, not mine.

 

[adriankowaty]

Maybe they're tourists? (joke)

 

[Sunspawn]

They are heroes who rise up against the inevitable rise of Ulm and it's subjugation of the world. Every ducat stolen is a blow against the imperialist ambitions of Ulm.

#imperialistulm #fightbackagainstulm

 

[TehJumpingJawa]

Maybe you should build a wall.

 

[RagingJaws]

Honestly, I feel like the AI raids are weighted to target the player first. Makes playing anything non-nomad slower. Unless you pause to raise troops and beat them back, you'll lose 10%-20% of your province wealth and suffer for 6 months after the fact.

It got so annoying with my last Irish MR game, I decided to land all skirmish retinues around the island in a ring. Stops all but the 1.5k+ raiding stacks, which I could beat back by raising city levies and marching them over before the retinue broke. Even then, between the fact that raiders still raid while in combat and retinue costs, I'd probably lose 100 gold with each landing.

 

[JonathanOfArc]

Maybe you should build a wall.

“I’m not going to pay for that fucking wall! He should pay for it. He’s got the money.” -Count of Ulm

 

[gmoney]

As a rule I don't defend my Vassals land from raids-that's what they have troops for. I also tend to give a vassal more than one county though so they have a chance at least. If they can't defend the land too bad. It's not like I'm getting much cash from a feudal vassal anyways. OH, and normally my vassals that aren't duke-level hate me anyways

 

[niallmcfc]

As a rule I don't defend my Vassals land from raids-that's what they have troops for. I also tend to give a vassal more than one county though so they have a chance at least. If they can't defend the land too bad. It's not like I'm getting much cash from a feudal vassal anyways. OH, and normally my vassals that aren't duke-level hate me anyways

1) Raiders have ~2k troops at the moment
2) He's my strongest vassal (owns 3+ duchies worth, most of my time is spent trying to undermine him)
3) All my vassals love because of that elective gravy-train. +30 opinion for being elective & whatever +opinion of predecessor = 50+ in the green on succession.

Honestly, I feel like the AI raids are weighted to target the player first. Makes playing anything non-nomad slower. Unless you pause to raise troops and beat them back, you'll lose 10%-20% of your province wealth and suffer for 6 months after the fact.

I was going to call this, but it's become something of a cliche around here. One thing I did try was settling an adventurer since devs have said it stops raids for a bit (and I had some spare holy-warred land). Yeah. Stopped it for about a minute.

 

[lemonsquid]

this makes me want to form the grandest kingdom of them all centered around Ulm. Yes, i shall do that

 

[pesco77]

this makes me want to form the grandest kingdom of them all centered around Ulm. Yes, i shall do that

Vikings are well known (cite: me) for their dislike of Science, except maybe when it came to basic naval architecture. Because they knew through divination (cite: me) that Albert Einstein would be born there, they were trying to prevent that.

But yes, rise up, Ulmish, er... Ulmian... Ulmite Empire. Nobody expects the Inquisition of Ulm.

 

[Thure]

It's for EU4... but it's still fitting:

 

[Vaximillian]

They probably read Svip's Flagland AAR.

 

[raistlin_wizard]

Ulm bestest country in the world. All other countries are run by little girls...

Now talking seriously, does it have any economical value or something?

 

[Dahoota]

As far as I can tell the AI simply picks raiding targets based how much loot is there and how defended it is - they will target counties that have their levies raised no matter how far away they are (which makes sense, the vikings raided pretty much everywhere in Europe and the mediterranean at some point.

You get the same thing when you play as Amalfi - probably even further to get to but its a magnet for vikings.

Has Ulm changed dynasties numerous times? (ie producing claim wars). If the county's levies are raised regularly that will do it.

 

[niallmcfc]

As far as I can tell the AI simply picks raiding targets based how much loot is there and how defended it is - they will target counties that have their levies raised no matter how far away they are (which makes sense, the vikings raided pretty much everywhere in Europe and the mediterranean at some point.

You get the same thing when you play as Amalfi - probably even further to get to but its a magnet for vikings.

Has Ulm changed dynasties numerous times? (ie producing claim wars). If the county's levies are raised regularly that will do it.

Nope. It's a regular part of the Demesne of my most powerful vassal and afaik isn't especially wealthy. Same for the other Danubian counties.

See I can understand Amalfi, merchant republics are easily the best places to raid (poor defended, usually very very wealthy).