Castille Advice

[AddMinus]

Hi all. I bought Crusader Kings a while ago and at first didn't really like it :/ But then I was reading all about Crusader Kings 2 so thought I should give it another try. I was really enjoying it but it crashed alot so I got the latest beta patch.

This post was alot longer than I thought so in short-

Since updating the game with the beta patch it seems alot hader despite being on the same settings, the muslim nations in Spain are alot more aggressive and seem to have alot more troops than their Christian conterparts (I'm comparing Leon and Toledo here, Toledo seem to have around 3 times as much or more despite being only slightly larger). With Castille I can defeat Leon easily but with Castille/Leon and Galicia, Toledo were able to overwhelm me with numbers alone.

Also Toledo can annex my vassals, can I do the same to them? Before the beta I think I tried and was unable to even siege provinces that were not in the rulers demesne.

Any tips on how to succeed as Castille? Since updating I am defeated in around 5 years :/ My tactis are to unite Castille with Leon and Galicia and then try to make sure that muslim Spain remains devided but I am always attacked by too many muslim natons just as I defeat and become king of Leon.

Maybe I should go back to EU3 and conquer the world as Navarra.


And the long version -

My first game pre-beta patch was Castille, my goal was to unify Spain under my dynasty. Since I had a claim on Leon I declared war and quickly became King of Castille and Leon. I then used my prestige to grab a count title in Galicia and conquered that county. I then controlled 2/3 of the counties in Galicia so I could usurp the Duke of Galicia title. During this time I also took advantage of some muslim wars and conquered 2 provinces across the Duero. Being used to EU3 and its easy to see infamy limit I did not realise how bad my reputation had become. My vassals rebeled and I then absorbed their counties under my direct rule, which I beleived added even more infamy.

I also did not know that my vassals armies are free to upkeep so I didn't really mind so much. With my next king I set about repairing my reputation, I increased piety and renounced some claims. At this point Spain was devided fairly equally between me, the Duke of Barcelona and the Emirate of Seville. Seville and Barcelona went to war, Barcelona had they upper hand and I was eager to join in but I had a truce with Seville, only 1 year lef I thought I might as well wait it out and save up some cash for the war. At this point I decided to get the beta patch, I was tired of all the crashs.

I waited till my truce expired and then looked at the situation. There had been a dramatic turn around and Seville had completly crushed Barcelona. This left them in control of around 2/3 of Spain v my 1/3. War eventually came and after scoring some great victories on the field I was eventually overrun - the Caliphate of Seville had nearly complete control over Spain. I decided this game was over for me but it was fun while it lasted.

Since then I have started several more games as Castille, not once have I lasted longer than 5 years. I decided to start the same way as my first game and conquer Leon and Galicia, this time however I would try as hard as possible to keep the muslims devided. However in every game while I'm at war with Leon small muslim powers declare war on me and sometimes bing their larger allies in africa or spain with them. I try to make peace and always conquer leon but the 1/2 province muslim nations are not intrested. Soon all of muslim spain is at war with me and I am defeated.

In my last attempt I defeated Leon and inherted Galicia, which I thought made me the strongest realm in Spain. As usually a few minor muslim nations had attacked me when I was fighting Leon but they were small and far away. I thought this must be the perfect start and then Toledo declared war. No big deal I thought. They marched an army of around 6k at me, I decided to sit back and let attrition hurt them, while I called up more troops for my counter attack. The province they were sieging fell and they moved on, in a classic EU3 manouver I swept in behind them to retake my lost province. They were now sieging one of my vassals, when it fell they immediatly annexed that county to their emirate (can I do the same to their vassasl? last time I tried I couldn't but that was before the patch).

I eventually caught up with their main army and defeated it, it was either eventually detroyed or was no longer a real threat, it had succeeded in taking annexing 3 vassals however. War and attrition was taking its toll on my army too, but I beleived with that army destroyed, Toledos resistance would be little. Then another 4K came followed by another 3K, I had defeated the larger army a few times and then badajoz declared war... I could no longer resist. Throughout the war with Toledo several smaller muslim nations had been attacking and also one of the north african kingdoms.

This has been the pattern of the last 5-6 games as Castille, I start a war with Leon defeat them easily and am then attacked by most of muslim Spain and defeated.

I wonder if the beta has done anything to the muslim or just the general A.I. aggressivness or if they have more troops or something, in any case the game seemed alot easier before, maybe I just got lucky first time?

I play on the default settings which I think has Ai aggresion set to "weakling" and I have the complete (deus vult) game.

Any tips to help me succeed? I am missing how easy EU3 is

 

[Bakenellan]

I suppose, Veld will show up soon and explain everything but nevertheless...

I did not play Spanish dynasties in the beta patch, but I think that Toledo has richer provinces and thus can field many more troops than Castille despite comparable size. So yeah, tough luck.

Neither you nor your enemy should be able to annex vassals who don't participate in the war, but often your vassals themselves DOW whom you fighting "to help" and get gobbled as a result. Alternatively AI may DOW them by itself. You probably missed the message or it did not appear at all - I found that default message preferences in DV are much more spam-filtering that it was earlier.
But you also can DOW AI vassals - if they are of different religion it'd badboy free, and you can force-vassalise instead of annexing which may even reduce badboy if you simultaneiusly give up the claim on his land.

As for AI agressiveness, I don't know. Maybe it does react to your badboy and a possible lack of strong ally. Perhaps while conquering Leon and other christian states you may try force-vassalise instead of annexing and see if it change anything.

I'am also playing on default settings as Apulia-Sicily, and muslim in that region aren't that agressive. But Spain was overrun and at present is reconquered by France with mixed success.

Edit: P.S.And in EU3-DW you will probably will be ganged up as well as Navarra

 

[unmerged(84239)]

A while back I made some tests with Iberia, first 10 years about 20 new games.
And my conlusion was that iberian muslims go to war with each other as often as with christians.

What you should do:
- don't attack León or Barcelona!
- research siege I at least
- wait until the muslims go to war! (preferably with each other, but León or Portugal is good too)
- when their regiments leave their provinces empty, siege them, preferably more then 1 at a time
(while doing this, don't care if you lose a province or two! You will have faster sieges because of tech)

Also, you can vassalize muslims too, who will become christian with an event!

With this, I was able to conquer half of Iberia mostly without any battles at all, when the muslims were busy fighting each other, and not paying attention to homeland defense.

Leave christians (León, Aragón, Navarra) last! When you are done with iberian muslims, you will have enough piety and prestige.

 

[AddMinus]

Thanks for the advice guys.

I read an AAR about someones experience with Navarra. He seemed to just attack every muslim in sight, so as a test game I did this and within 5 years had vallalised Toledo, Burgos and Seville and then I took Leon and Galicia. I had presumed that controlling muslim vassals would be alot harder but they seem just as loyal and willing to serve as christian vassals. I think leaving the christians till last is the best idea.

I actually think that this way was far too easy. I think that unifying the Christians against devided Muslims really should be the best way. But it seems alot easier just to attack and vassalise the muslims, then use their armies to continue expanding.

 

[unmerged(217556)]

Muslim vassals are probably more likely to be rebellious to a christian lord, but they are also fairly likely to convert to christianity once you vassalize them.
And if you are at war with say the emirate of sevilla, if you want to try to take his vassals you can always just declare war on them, seige their territory and force vassalize them.
When I play in Iberia I always focus on picking apart the smallest of my muslim neighbors first, and try to vassalize (or force vassalize through war) the christian duchies. I think this is the easiest way to gain some much needed power to get a leg up on the other real powers in the area.

 

[AddMinus]

I started a new game today and quickly vasslised Toledo, Burgos and Seville. Does culture spread like religion in crusader kings?

My next plan is to dismantle the Muslim nobility and install Christian leaders in my conquered lands. I also plan on reducing the size of the former emirates so that they will not be much of a threat even if they do rebel. My end goal is for small (2-3 province) Duchies and directly vassalised counties to replace the Emirates. Now if I seize by an offensive war (or by forcing them to revoke titles) a county or duchy this will increase my infamy but will my infamy go back down when I install new Christian counties in their place?

Also how will my my other vassals react to this regime change? In reality I would expect most of my Muslim vassals to rebel and fight to keep their titles and I would expect my Christian vassals to support me, will something like this happen? Or will all my vassals be equally upset at me forcing other nobles to give up titles?

Thanks again for the advice.

 

[sjones25]

Culture does spread, but I think it only happens within your personal demesne.

I wouldn't bother replacing the Muslims with Christians, unless its for role-playing purposes. In terms of gameplay, Muslims make fine vassals, and will almost always convert to Christianity within probably 5-20 years anyway. Also, they'll often send their kids to your court, always accept them and give them religious indoctrination (I mean religious "education," of course!) This will turn their heirs into good Christians, whether or not their dad converts. Plus, if you marry your daughters to the Emir's heir, you might just have a Castilian Christian as the next in line after him.

Your vassals will all be upset if you revoke someone's title. Thier religion has no impact.

 

[ConjurerDragon]

I started a new game today and quickly vasslised Toledo, Burgos and Seville. Does culture spread like religion in crusader kings?

That´s in the FAQ:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...ral-conversion-event-in-CK-1.05-and-Deus-Vult

My next plan is to dismantle the Muslim nobility and install Christian leaders in my conquered lands.

Why? If those muslims are long enough under christian rule they will eventually convert and become christians themselves.

I also plan on reducing the size of the former emirates so that they will not be much of a threat even if they do rebel. My end goal is for small (2-3 province) Duchies and directly vassalised counties to replace the Emirates. Now if I seize by an offensive war (or by forcing them to revoke titles) a county or duchy this will increase my infamy but will my infamy go back down when I install new Christian counties in their place?

Down yes - but not in the same amount. What gives how much Bad Boy and what reduces it to what amount is in the BB FAQ:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?162777-BadBoy-What-gives-it-and-what-takes-it

 

[Olaus Petrus]

My tactis are to unite Castille with Leon and Galicia and then try to make sure that muslim Spain remains devided but I am always attacked by too many muslim natons just as I defeat and become king of Leon.

It's a good idea, but why do you attack? In 1066 scenario King of Castille is heir to Leon and Galicia, so there's no need to attack. Assasins can arrange little accidents which give you those realms without war. There's the risk of gaining kinslayer trait to your king, but in this case I think it's a risk worth taking.

 

[Count of Reval]

AddMinus, have you seen this thread already? A lot of good tips there concerning Castille.

 

[AddMinus]

Thanks for all your tips everyone. I think now I realise how the game works (some of it anyway) it was actually too easy, I hope in CK2 completing the reconquista will take at least 100 years from a 1066 start. All I have to do is hit their demense fast and vasallise, then they are happy to let me use their armies for the next muslim nation and in like 5 years the reconquista is complete.

In my first game I played like it was EU3, my tactics were to destroy the enemys army then siege but I think in CK it is all about getting the sieges. Its still a fun game but I think its time for a new challenge, the Habsburgs!! Austria, Hungury, Bohemia, Spain, the Netherlands, Naples - it will all be mine ^^

One last question, what is the point in Dukes? Other than using them as the guide above suggests and the prestige bonus they seem to be more dangerous than useful. Why do I want Dukes when I can just appoint counts and keep the Duke title for myself. A duke is a potential problem if a couple rebel in a moderate sized Kingdom they could be difficult to beat. Counts on the other hand are far too small and weak to ever be a problem.

Err... One other last question. How can I transfer provinces/titles to Portugal? I want to give them southern Portugal but it seems there is no simple way. I could go to war and let them beat me (firstly I would try to make the portugese provinces I contol part of my demense). This would probably ruin our friendly relations but maybe you guys know another way?

 

[unmerged(84239)]

One last question, what is the point in Dukes? Other than using them as the guide above suggests and the prestige bonus they seem to be more dangerous than useful. Why do I want Dukes when I can just appoint counts and keep the Duke title for myself. A duke is a potential problem if a couple rebel in a moderate sized Kingdom they could be difficult to beat. Counts on the other hand are far too small and weak to ever be a problem.

If you play on at least medium difficulty, it will be very hard to get claims without the prestige provided by dukes/archbishops.

Also, more vassal, the more chance for a rebellious one!

Err... One other last question. How can I transfer provinces/titles to Portugal? I want to give them southern Portugal but it seems there is no simple way. I could go to war and let them beat me (firstly I would try to make the portugese provinces I contol part of my demense). This would probably ruin our friendly relations but maybe you guys know another way?

You can't.
But you can conquer Portugal, annex it, and release it with the provinces you want them to have, but this time with a king appointed by you