Your Best or Most Interesting Ruler(s)

[Notho]

Hey everyone, I didn't see a thread for posting stories about interesting rulers you've had in the game, so I decided to start one myself.

I'm going to start with King Oswyn the Great of Sicily in my current playthrough. This guy was the oldest ruler I've ever had, and I got a ton of stuff done with him. He got his dynasty on the throne of Poland, fought in two crusades, and added to the gains his father made in Andalucia, as well as conquering a fair chunk of west Africa. He fathered six children after the age of 71 with his second wife, whom I had only married to keep his stewardship high enough to keep all his holdings.

While it was cool having a guy live to the age of 84, he kind of messed up my succession plans since both his first son and grandson were geniuses and I only got a 14 year reign out of the grandson.

http://s215.beta.photobucket.com/user/Notho_photo/media/ck2_2_zps3c6dd551.png.html#/user/Notho_photo/media/ck2_2_zps3c6dd551.png.html?&_suid=135641048953008207085036435397

 

[tuareg109]

King Conn the Bold of Ireland and Scotland.
Went from being a count with 3 counties to a double-king double-duke with 13 counties (stewardship awww yeeeahh) and about 10 duke-level vassals (including dukes of Lancaster, Gwynedd, Northumberland, and York).
He was brilliant strategist, kinslayer, crusader, scholar, ambitious, charitable, brave, kind, and zealous.
Best dude ever ;_;
His heir Eogan became King of England and Wales as well. Now the Godwinsons only hold Bedford and Cornwall haha!

 

[dorukdorucu]

Probably emir Dorukullah, emir of the Dörücid (Dhunnunid) emirate. He started as a middle sized duke in spain and quickly rose to conquer Aragon, Navarra an the small muslim counts in northern spain. Then France declared war, however he succeeded in keeping the war long enough for Aquitaine, Berry, Flanders and some other duchies to revolt, in the end gaining most of Aquitaine as well as some lands in France.

 

[tuareg109]

Probably emir Dorukullah, emir of the Dörücid (Dhunnunid) emirate. He started as a middle sized duke in spain and quickly rose to conquer Aragon, Navarra an the small muslim counts in northern spain. Then France declared war, however he succeeded in keeping the war long enough for Aquitaine, Berry, Flanders and some other duchies to revolt, in the end gaining most of Aquitaine as well as some lands in France.

You'd think the French duchies would know you'd attack their backs with them defending against the French king

 

[unmerged(100125)]

its odd... but I swear my best longest lasting rulers are always queens

 

[Grubnessul]

The Byzantine Doux of Trebizond who accidentally captured a pretender to the throne and blinded him. After said pretender's relies, he was crowned emperor and made the Doux his marshal. The Emperor later died due to complications of blinding.

 

[dorukdorucu]

You'd think the French duchies would know you'd attack their backs with them defending against the French king

Stupid AI. In the same game, after finishing off France with my next ruler (Abdüleren Dörücid) the Pope declared a crusade for jerusalem. And then guess what, no one but a couple minor counts and dukes join! I thought "Meh, they'll die soon anyway." and didn't help the chaliph. However after checking back around 1-2 years later i see that they are about to win... Turns out the bloody Fatimid doomstacks, supported by mercenaries AND The Hashashin were sitting in a low supply limit desert province (Makuria or something like that) and waiting for... nothing?
Seriously, the AI needs some serious work.

 

[Lwantssugar]

His name is Basilious Theodoros "The saint" Palialogos, he took the Imperial crown at barely a month old when the Empire lost both Armenia and Anatolia and were one invasion away from destruction. His foolish father died at the age of 21 in battle against the infidel leaving young Theodoros quite vulnerable. So for 16 years his regent managed to hold the Empire together just barely and in the meantime continued picking off the Seljuks and Fatimids when they were weak, slowly but surely the infidels were removed from Anatolia and Armenia and then with a matured Basilious went on the offensive.

The legions invaded the holy land and liberated the Christians there before pushing into Egypt itself and removing the painful thorn in his wide once and for all. He continued to annex former territories of Rome. Heading west along the North African coastline, the legions destroying any resistance like the did in the old days. Then after acquiring the rest of Antioch from the Ilkhanate he declared the scism over and was made a living saint

 

[Pinstar]

I've got one of each from my current (almost finished) Dax game.

Best ruler goes to Queen Tiborg. After her older brother grew up with LITERALY no traits and an indulgent wastrel education. I took him out of succession via priesthood. That left his hyper-competent sister take the throne. During her reign she was able to take a duchy off of France proper (Her heir would go on to usurp France and form the Empire of Francia). She fought off a jihad against Andilusia easily and generally made a butt-ton of money which let me get every holding upgraded as far as technology would let me. (BTW, she looked much more beautiful with the young/middle aged portraits. Not sure why she suddenly started looking like a man come old age)

Most interesting ruler goes to King Ives
My entire dynasty has been Occitan culture, and I've been installing Occitan rulers whenever I needed to hand out a county/duchy. Then this herpaderp comes along. I didn't notice until it was too late that he was educated improperly and was Castillian cultured. He was the son of the Queen of Castille. I was able to marry his father to her to absorb Castille. While I did absorb it... I was in for a world of hurt. Not only did this guy have a piss poor diplomacy and stewardship, he had a -20 foreigner penalty to 95% of my realm. The ONLY thing he had going for him was a high marshal. As soon as he produced an heir, I stuck him on the front lines of every battle I fought...and I fought a LOT of them. 10 years of vassal revolts was just the start. I was hoping he'd be killed in battle, but no such luck, he just got better and better at fighting. Then something happend... I actually grew to like him. The pope called a crusade on andilusia (I had taken over most of the rest of spain) and his leadership let him win a few doomstack vs doomstack battles against the muslims (Ironically, all of andilusia and west Africa/Mali had converted to the Yazidi heresy). After winning that crusade and doubling the size of my already large kingdom, he went off to pick off the few remaining muslims in spain and claim the entire continent. In hindsight, I was dumb not to form the empire of Hispania at that point since I had a Castillian leader, but I didn't think of it until after he died.

He caused me a LOT of problems, but it was fun to have a ruler kicking ass and EARNING the respect of his player and his vassals.

 

[Bad_Haggis]

It's always characters with the lunatic trait that do best for me, although I did once have a Dwarf Holy Roman Emperor who had a good go at retaking France, Spain and Italy before being blown up in an Inn.

 

[gaaz453]

Well my most interesting character is not exactly the most successful but he has indeed a nice history...

Game started as Duke of Lombardy, married Matilde, fought the Empire, formed Italy, etc... Years passes and so my Kings.

At one point I have a king that is a super-competent midas touched genius diligent etc etc guy who rules for 50-60 years (dies at 89 yrs old). He conquers Sicily, defeats the Pope and move the capital to Rome, vassals loves him, etc. Unfortunately he has only one son, as the others died in youth. He names his remaining son, a decent-stats guy, Duke of Lombardy. Succession is agnatic-primogeniture.

His son marries a 42 years old woman, I kill the woman, he marries a 23 years old lady. Unfortunately no children.

When my ruler is old, his son dies without an heir. I freak out because it will mean gameover, however I notice that his widow is pregnant! Hooray if she delivers a boy my dinasty is safe. She delivers a boy, hooray!

The boy grows with his mother, but he is an imbecile retarded. When this poor lad is 17 my old ruler dies and he is crowned King of Italy.

Well and his kingdom has been the one of the best moment in CKII!

He is retarded with almost zero diplomacy, stewardship and intrigue. Luckly his predecessor leaves him a super-council of super-loyal guys that avoids the disaster. He marries a courtier with amazing stats also to improve the whole picture.

Luckly his granpa left him a decent amount of money, and he manages to avoid a massive rebellion in the kingdom.

He manages to win a Crusade for Jerusalem, defeat the HRE when the Kaiser decides to retake Italy, has three decent sons, rises crown authority to absolute.

Dies at 37 after 20 long and prosperous years of Reign.

 

[1alexey]

My probably most memorable is the duke of Brandenburg(Berlin has certain magic, has it not?).

Guy became king at 14, married Polish princes, putted her on the trone, routinely kicking ass of king of Hungary.
He founded 4 cities, 6 universities, rulled to 82, and was accidentally chosen emperor of HRE at 72, and immidietly had to kick ass of the Prince-bishop of France, after which he gone slightly mad, and become posessed(do not anger church kids, it may end bad for you).

Then, he failed to turn HRE to his son, king of Poland, and his newph, count of some minor castle on coast of baltic, and strong claimant to Bysantine trone got it instead.

from rags to riches.

 

[tuareg109]

He manages to win a Crusade for Jerusalem, defeat the HRE when the Kaiser decides to retake Italy, has three decent sons, rises crown authority to absolute.

He then killed the bad guy, got the girl, backflipped into his hot red corvette and rode off into the sunset to save the president.
But really, that sounds awesome!
Can we get a few screenshots, or maybe even...a kickass AAR???

 

[Bitt3rSteel]

Basileus Tiberius II, the Saint. Siezed the throne from the incompetent Doukas line and brought the Empire back from the brink after Manzikert.

 

[kailstark]

in my game of thrones game i'm playing as a targaryen king. he has most of the virtues, no sin traits. great stats, then when he was 40 after having 10 kids an event triggered that made him homosexual

 

[Hastings1066]

Queen Elinora the Fair of Ireland. She inherited in her 20's a fractured and disgruntled kingdom from her father, including distant and rebellious outposts scattered across Sicily, and managed to keep them all in line with not her skill, intelligience, or anything like that, but with her beauty.

She reigned as Queen well into her 80s, and even in her years leading up to her death she was still very well regarded for her attractiveness.

Rather sad really, as her great-grandmother, Queen Aine, was expectionally intelligient and skilled, but accomplished far less and reigned for only 10 uninteresting years, with her sole accomplishment being that she built 2 universities and a monastic school.

 

[barny]

Well, at least for my latest game that would be the father of my current ruler. Since I'm at my parents house (Christmas, you know...), I can't even look his name up, but he was able to
- secure three additional king titles (the Sultanates of Egypt, Arabia and Syria)
- shattering the Sultanate of the Fatmids in the process
- waging war against the purple blob that is the Byzantine Empire three times
- freeing Baghdad and Damascus, two of the most important cities of the Islamic world, in the process
- founding the Arabic Empire, that by now also includes the two most holy places of the Muslims

and, last but not least:

- fighting off not one but two crusades for Jerusalem against basically all of Europe.

Sadly, he died at the age of 58 before he could start to reconquer Spain for the true faith.

 

[Battle bunny]

My Lombardian king, either Artemio or Arderico but the first of his name either way. He was the first Lollard king of Lombardy, converting when he was 24 years old as he was very cynical about Catholicism in particular. A cruel, ruthless man who tortured and impaled his victims in the dungeon as a hobby, he brutally suppressed several Catholic rebellions, forced the loyalists to convert, destroyed the Papal State and made Rome a part of his personal demesne, later converting it, and leaving an utterly changed Lombardy to his heir, one which was staunchly Catholic at the start of his reign but whose nobility was at least 80% Lollard when he died.

 

[Gendhali]

My most interesting ruler was Basileus Eudoxios 'the Just' Kontostephanos of the Byzantine Empire. Rising to the throne at age 5, after his father's (Basileus Alexios I of the Byzantine Empire) untimely death, a mere three months after Alexios I being elected to the rank of Basileus, Eudoxios was in for a rough rule. The far off provinces of Tuscany, Verona, Apulia, Tunis, Sicily and Capua, united under the banner of the kingdom of Sicily, started plotting for independence. A civil war ensued, spanning the best of 10 years, whilst the lord regent tried to mount a counter-offensive. However, the Greeks were victorious in the end and the rebellious lords were duly imprisoned. With Eudoxios' coming of age he could tend to the less pressing matter of reuniting the Kontostephanos ancestral lands under his personal banner (Byzantine Empire was under elective, Kingdom of Greece however was under gavelkind). The subsequent banishing and revoking of lands was enough to spark a new civil war. This time the kingdoms of Taurica, Bosnia and Armenia revolted. Luckily armies from the, now orthodox, Kingdom of Sicily proved vital in the defeating of this coalition.

Notable land gain during his 50 year rule include the county of Rome, the duchy of Alexandria and the consolidation of the duchy of Tunis and the Kingdom of Syria from the Sultanate of Egypte and the Ilkhanate respectively. He single-handedly added over 17.000 prestige to the score and maintained the Empire in a period where western powers (HRE) rapidly lost lands in the Middle Eastern region to the Horde and the Sultanate.

 

[gaaz453]

He then killed the bad guy, got the girl, backflipped into his hot red corvette and rode off into the sunset to save the president.
But really, that sounds awesome!
Can we get a few screenshots, or maybe even...a kickass AAR???

Unluckly was a game I played some time ago, IIRC before summer. That very game ended with me forming the Latin Empire but facing an hard time against Mongols & co.