You are so right there! Having some collective wisdom to rely on makes it easier - and compensates for having one’s game-playing greenhorn newbieness on display for all to see!
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It took me long enough to realise that I could select commanders for my armies. It helps enormously to place those with good traits or high martial stats where they're most needed.
Anyone who isn't a Germanic pagan is fair game. Hell, you could raid other Norse if you need the gold, but there are richer (and better defended) targets elsewhere. Just don't pillage Norse temples.
For raiding targets, try looking at the economic map. And bear in mind, inland raiders can't carry back gold (but do gain prestige afaik). Strike at coasts or immediate neighbouring counties.
Anyone who isn't a Germanic pagan is fair game. Hell, you could raid other Norse if you need the gold, but there are richer (and better defended) targets elsewhere. Just don't pillage Norse temples.
For raiding targets, try looking at the economic map. And bear in mind, inland raiders can't carry back gold (but do gain prestige afaik). Strike at coasts or immediate neighbouring counties.
Good advice re appointments etc - I’ll start to have a look at those extra courtiers - one of them fancied himself as a general. Iirc, I’m still missing some minor appointments too - including a physician (whatever they are called in a Norse Tribal culture). Can’t miss the opportunity for Rurik to have all those awful and useless medieval remedies applied in case of illness!It took me long enough to realise that I could select commanders for my armies. It helps enormously to place those with good traits or high martial stats where they're most needed.
Anyone who isn't a Germanic pagan is fair game. Hell, you could raid other Norse if you need the gold, but there are richer (and better defended) targets elsewhere. Just don't pillage Norse temples.
For raiding targets, try looking at the economic map. And bear in mind, inland raiders can't carry back gold (but do gain prestige afaik). Strike at coasts or immediate neighbouring counties.
There was also something about a special cultural ability to raid along major rivers - I’ll have to check that out to see what it entails.
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A more general question: are there any message settings that don’t automatically start with pop-ups that people generally find useful for both gameplay alert and AAR story-telling purposes? I found in HoI3 I needed to adjust a bit to get what I wanted for both, but it took some time, familiarity and seeing things in other AARs.
Things like diplomatic events (other people declaring war on each other) and various court and personal events. I’ve had a bit of a scroll through the message options, but as usual with Paradox they are legion, and at first one isn’t even sure what many of them mean or whether they are important or interesting.
Things like diplomatic events (other people declaring war on each other) and various court and personal events. I’ve had a bit of a scroll through the message options, but as usual with Paradox they are legion, and at first one isn’t even sure what many of them mean or whether they are important or interesting.
You may as well use those appointments to curry favour with your vassals or family.
I had forgotten about raiding via rivers. Time to sack Paris.
Right-click on a person's image and near the top of the menu is some tags. One is a star. That is "this person is important enough to watch" button. I use this to keep track of people outside my Royal Court/Family.
I'll do a big massive QA for you in a bit when I have a computer handy and can easily quote stuff but for now I'm marking my interest here.
Much appreciated- thanks for letting me know, TBC. As a ‘New Years resolution’, King Rurik is also considering a new focus for his life (in addition to raiding, where he’s thinking of having two ship-borne forces working at once to increase the intake of loot) if only he can figure out how to do it.
Much appreciated- thanks for letting me know, TBC. As a ‘New Years resolution’, King Rurik is also considering a new focus for his life (in addition to raiding, where he’s thinking of having two ship-borne forces working at once to increase the intake of loot) if only he can figure out how to do it.
Raiding isn't too complex a mechanic. By that I mean if you googled an explanation you'd get a pretty good one easily. Organising massive raiding parties all the way around the Med is a little trickier but you aren't quite there yet anyway.
All this and more in TBC's CKII 101: I don't know but I can certainly reckon! Strategy Guide.
Just seen this @Bullfilter and I like it. I like it a lot. Need to do some catching up but the mix of styles, the excellent screenshots and your excellent and very correct writing have already drawn me in-subbed!
Thank you very much, a pleasure to have you aboard. As things progress, I’ll definitely maintain the learning-the-game focus, but will equally develop the story as a ‘proper’ AAR. I will probably use spoilers a little more during the narrative for the main question and less of the ‘pink-out’, to help with the visual presentation, but will maintain the approach. Yours and a few other CK2 AARs I’ve been reading of late really do bring out the story-telling potential of the game - one just needs to gain a basic understanding first
Let's go through your first chapter first.
...let me try that again.
Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.
What this means right now is that it would be easiest for you to aim to become king of the Rus by creating that kingdom, because you already own a bit of it. Unless you expand into some other region in a big way early on.
But I suppose therefore that is a challenge and grey unknown area for you to shoot towards!
Some like this, others don't. It is another decision you can make, go back on and make again as to whether you want tribalism or something a little more stable.
. So yeah...should be plain sailing.
1000 gold is pretty good to start off with (for reference, go to the ledger and see how rich everyone else is. Bar massive empires and the Pope, no one tends to go above a few hundred at any one time due to expenses...and, you know, people like you stealing their money).
Vassals, as I mentioned above, are not going to figure in a big way for a while with you (unless you get a lot of land really fast or go feudal). Your vassals at the moment should just be lesser men, tribal chiefs and clerics (i.e. not even running one county but a subsection of one. In feudal systems they would be barons, mayors and bishops). What that means is that you shouldn't hit the vassal limit for a while because you don't need to give land away (you can run it yourself) and as a tribal civ you don't build that much infrastructure that needs to be managed by lower level vassals.
However, it can also truly mean that the title is going to leave your realm entirely (this is much easier with bigger and more important tiles, unfortunately). So far example, the Duke of Normandy is a vassal of the king of England, but his heir is the King of France (this can happen. French intermarriages are fracking insane). If that heir inherits, England loses Normandy to France..and there may or may not be a war.
The pain of this alert is, it probably means nothing. BUT IT COULD MEAN a massive sea shift in the balance of power amongst you and your neighbours. So you always have to check.
Well...three pages to go. I hope this helps in some way.
...let me try that again.
Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.
When asked about this new and exciting branch of cultural and popular history, Professor Monmouth seemed rather dismissive: "Castles in 8th century Scotland and Germany in 10th century Europe? Honestly, next you'll tell me they made Poland go into space and the Aztecs cross the Atlantic!"Here follows a modernised account based on the chronicle of Gumarich der Schreiber, court scribe and keeper of the scrolls for King Rurik of Holmgarđr. It is annotated and presented in the idioms, procedures and graphic representations of the Crusader Kings II universe and historical reconstruction method [Ed. Ahem
This means that if the kingdom of the Rus existed, the king of it could claim that land as part of his kingdom because its supposed to be there. The Latin phrase means, essentially, claim by right. Thus London is a de jure part of England.
What this means right now is that it would be easiest for you to aim to become king of the Rus by creating that kingdom, because you already own a bit of it. Unless you expand into some other region in a big way early on.
Good luck with that. The Rus generally do unite in my games and with what I've seen, but I have never seen the Russian Empire come into being in CKII. The Rus generally attack Finland instead (which I guess is actually appropriate) whilst most other kingdoms that could make the empire get crushed, stay very small or expand elsewhere.
But I suppose therefore that is a challenge and grey unknown area for you to shoot towards!
Vassals not minding raised levies is going to be useful in the short term but to be honest I love feudalism a lot more in this game because I love my slowly centralising states. If you stick with Tribalism though, you are going to be at war. A lot. Basically, unless you do some very specific legal work or have literally one heir, your realm is going to get divided up upon your death between your children, usually into three or four big bits. Every single generation is going to have a large-ish war to get your holdings back together again, unless you want to abandon some parts of it to the rest of your family whilst you develop somewhere else.
Some like this, others don't. It is another decision you can make, go back on and make again as to whether you want tribalism or something a little more stable.
At this stage, you want women with either amazing genetic traits or good stewardship. A powerful marriage alliance is nice if you can get it (for most people, this means immediately marrying into the french royal family and letting West Francia do their fighting for a few decades) but if you want to build up your own realm and keep most of the land to yourself, you are going to need to either stick with tribalism, or choose some specific laws and/or get high stewardship with feudalism.And none of the lesser noblewomen are from neighbouring or nearby locations where a claim or alliance seemed to be of much value [Ed. Though I could have been wrong in that of course
Um...well, in my experience it's possibly the one place in the British Isles that the Scots, the Irish and the Saxons all have a reasonable shot at conquering and thus I've seen quite a lot of warfare fought over the island when the AI is in control. Even when I was controlling England-bless me, Camelot-the AI seemed quite interested in it. My vassal merchant republic was invaded there by the same duke three times before I imprisoned and executed him and gave the republic the whole of northern Ireland instead. They then promptly started a war to get the island backThe Isle of Mann is distant (between Britannia and Ireland) but should also be fairly secure and not present any difficult entanglements for Holmgarđr in the future [Ed. Or so I boldly assume
. So yeah...should be plain sailing.Bribe everyone into positive figures right now and then figure out who is useful/threatening. Either do it with cash or titles or a mixture of both. Don't give them conquered land at this stage, you are way too small for that and tribalism is much more about personal control anyway.
Tribes get them at the start and you can summon more for wars using special events. You do need to use them though, otherwise they go berserk and start attacking you.
1000 gold is pretty good to start off with (for reference, go to the ledger and see how rich everyone else is. Bar massive empires and the Pope, no one tends to go above a few hundred at any one time due to expenses...and, you know, people like you stealing their money).
You have the unique opportunity to reform the religion in your own image if you want, so piety can be ridiculously powerful if you want to stay the course and not join the priesthood of Christ. Prestige is really important but you are a tribal chief seeking to conquer land, you aren't going to struggle for prestige if you win wars. And you should, at least a few.
Vassals, as I mentioned above, are not going to figure in a big way for a while with you (unless you get a lot of land really fast or go feudal). Your vassals at the moment should just be lesser men, tribal chiefs and clerics (i.e. not even running one county but a subsection of one. In feudal systems they would be barons, mayors and bishops). What that means is that you shouldn't hit the vassal limit for a while because you don't need to give land away (you can run it yourself) and as a tribal civ you don't build that much infrastructure that needs to be managed by lower level vassals.
Generelly, the bottom tech in each column is the most important, as they affect armies as a whole, how fast you can build stuff and what laws you can pass. The other ones to invest in are sort of up to you, though generally castle and keep techs are good, and investing in whatever soldier type your civ produces lots of is obviously a good thing as well.
When this pops up, it is usually because a title is currently going to be inherited by another family other than the one that is holding it now, or the title is going to be inherited by someone that is a vassal to a different person than the current title holder (an example. Say you are the king of England and your vassal, the count of Winchester, gets a new heir. This heir, for whatever reason, is the vassal of the duke of York. Should the heir inherit, then Winchester remains in England but is a vassal under the Duke of York, not you).
However, it can also truly mean that the title is going to leave your realm entirely (this is much easier with bigger and more important tiles, unfortunately). So far example, the Duke of Normandy is a vassal of the king of England, but his heir is the King of France (this can happen. French intermarriages are fracking insane). If that heir inherits, England loses Normandy to France..and there may or may not be a war.
The pain of this alert is, it probably means nothing. BUT IT COULD MEAN a massive sea shift in the balance of power amongst you and your neighbours. So you always have to check.
You pick an ambition and then you either fulfil it or can change it once in a blue moon or so (every decade or so I think off the top of my head). Generally, people pick the groom and heir or get married ones first before picking unite a kingdom, unless they know they are going to get a kingdom within the first five years or so.
Getting someone into your realm voluntarily usually wont work unless you are the de jure ruler of that place anyway. For example, Ireland is a favourite for starter players because you begin with one county (same as every other Irish count) and have to merely conquer half of these easy targets before declaring yourself king. The rest will declare fealty to you very easily if you ask them after that.
Well...three pages to go. I hope this helps in some way.
Great stuff! Really loving this and all caught up. By the way if you have a strong claim on a province you can Dow in your own name, if it’s a weak one you have to do it through someone else. If that someone is a blood relative then the province is yours, if they aren’t you have to then try and bribe them over via vassalage
Brilliant and most helpful TBC. I’m sure I won’t be the only one (reading now or in the future) who will also find it so. Looking forward to any further instalments- will make any detailed responses later when I am back at my computer (doing it from an iPhone is a bit tricksy)Let's go through your first chapter first.
...let me try that again.
Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.
When asked about this new and exciting branch of cultural and popular history, Professor Monmouth seemed rather dismissive: "Castles in 8th century Scotland and Germany in 10th century Europe? Honestly, next you'll tell me they made Poland go into space and the Aztecs cross the Atlantic!"
This means that if the kingdom of the Rus existed, the king of it could claim that land as part of his kingdom because its supposed to be there. The Latin phrase means, essentially, claim by right. Thus London is a de jure part of England.
What this means right now is that it would be easiest for you to aim to become king of the Rus by creating that kingdom, because you already own a bit of it. Unless you expand into some other region in a big way early on.
Good luck with that. The Rus generally do unite in my games and with what I've seen, but I have never seen the Russian Empire come into being in CKII. The Rus generally attack Finland instead (which I guess is actually appropriate) whilst most other kingdoms that could make the empire get crushed, stay very small or expand elsewhere.
But I suppose therefore that is a challenge and grey unknown area for you to shoot towards!
Vassals not minding raised levies is going to be useful in the short term but to be honest I love feudalism a lot more in this game because I love my slowly centralising states. If you stick with Tribalism though, you are going to be at war. A lot. Basically, unless you do some very specific legal work or have literally one heir, your realm is going to get divided up upon your death between your children, usually into three or four big bits. Every single generation is going to have a large-ish war to get your holdings back together again, unless you want to abandon some parts of it to the rest of your family whilst you develop somewhere else.
Some like this, others don't. It is another decision you can make, go back on and make again as to whether you want tribalism or something a little more stable.
At this stage, you want women with either amazing genetic traits or good stewardship. A powerful marriage alliance is nice if you can get it (for most people, this means immediately marrying into the french royal family and letting West Francia do their fighting for a few decades) but if you want to build up your own realm and keep most of the land to yourself, you are going to need to either stick with tribalism, or choose some specific laws and/or get high stewardship with feudalism.
Um...well, in my experience it's possibly the one place in the British Isles that the Scots, the Irish and the Saxons all have a reasonable shot at conquering and thus I've seen quite a lot of warfare fought over the island when the AI is in control. Even when I was controlling England-bless me, Camelot-the AI seemed quite interested in it. My vassal merchant republic was invaded there by the same duke three times before I imprisoned and executed him and gave the republic the whole of northern Ireland instead. They then promptly started a war to get the island back
Bribe everyone into positive figures right now and then figure out who is useful/threatening. Either do it with cash or titles or a mixture of both. Don't give them conquered land at this stage, you are way too small for that and tribalism is much more about personal control anyway.
Tribes get them at the start and you can summon more for wars using special events. You do need to use them though, otherwise they go berserk and start attacking you.
1000 gold is pretty good to start off with (for reference, go to the ledger and see how rich everyone else is. Bar massive empires and the Pope, no one tends to go above a few hundred at any one time due to expenses...and, you know, people like you stealing their money).
You have the unique opportunity to reform the religion in your own image if you want, so piety can be ridiculously powerful if you want to stay the course and not join the priesthood of Christ. Prestige is really important but you are a tribal chief seeking to conquer land, you aren't going to struggle for prestige if you win wars. And you should, at least a few.
Vassals, as I mentioned above, are not going to figure in a big way for a while with you (unless you get a lot of land really fast or go feudal). Your vassals at the moment should just be lesser men, tribal chiefs and clerics (i.e. not even running one county but a subsection of one. In feudal systems they would be barons, mayors and bishops). What that means is that you shouldn't hit the vassal limit for a while because you don't need to give land away (you can run it yourself) and as a tribal civ you don't build that much infrastructure that needs to be managed by lower level vassals.
Generelly, the bottom tech in each column is the most important, as they affect armies as a whole, how fast you can build stuff and what laws you can pass. The other ones to invest in are sort of up to you, though generally castle and keep techs are good, and investing in whatever soldier type your civ produces lots of is obviously a good thing as well.
When this pops up, it is usually because a title is currently going to be inherited by another family other than the one that is holding it now, or the title is going to be inherited by someone that is a vassal to a different person than the current title holder (an example. Say you are the king of England and your vassal, the count of Winchester, gets a new heir. This heir, for whatever reason, is the vassal of the duke of York. Should the heir inherit, then Winchester remains in England but is a vassal under the Duke of York, not you).
However, it can also truly mean that the title is going to leave your realm entirely (this is much easier with bigger and more important tiles, unfortunately). So far example, the Duke of Normandy is a vassal of the king of England, but his heir is the King of France (this can happen. French intermarriages are fracking insane). If that heir inherits, England loses Normandy to France..and there may or may not be a war.
The pain of this alert is, it probably means nothing. BUT IT COULD MEAN a massive sea shift in the balance of power amongst you and your neighbours. So you always have to check.
You pick an ambition and then you either fulfil it or can change it once in a blue moon or so (every decade or so I think off the top of my head). Generally, people pick the groom and heir or get married ones first before picking unite a kingdom, unless they know they are going to get a kingdom within the first five years or so.
Getting someone into your realm voluntarily usually wont work unless you are the de jure ruler of that place anyway. For example, Ireland is a favourite for starter players because you begin with one county (same as every other Irish count) and have to merely conquer half of these easy targets before declaring yourself king. The rest will declare fealty to you very easily if you ask them after that.
Well...three pages to go. I hope this helps in some way.
. And after I get my other (HOI3 Turkey) AAR update done, which should be tonight my time.
Thanks Asantahene, both for the info and kind words. I know you, like me, greatly value the comments of readers - keeps the blood coursing through every writAAR’s veins. And especially coming from someone whose literAARy efforts I enjoy and respect so much
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I'm curious because I rarely press these sorts of claims but is this really true? Even if the blood relative is an independent power or a vassal of another ruler? On reflection, I suppose the few occasions I've helped a brother Pendragon out it was to get them into a kingdom title, which presumably makes them independant by default because they become the same rank as you (I haven't done any since becoming Emperor)? So is this dependant on more than just blood relations?
If what you say is true, then simply having a huge family is even more gamebreaking than I thought.
So my understanding here would be it’s just another county for one of my vassals (an independen one not in any other realm for now), and therefore joins my realm as a result. We’ll see if I’m able to make it work and thus prove (or disprove) the point!I'm curious because I rarely press these sorts of claims but is this really true? Even if the blood relative is an independent power or a vassal of another ruler? On reflection, I suppose the few occasions I've helped a brother Pendragon out it was to get them into a kingdom title, which presumably makes them independant by default because they become the same rank as you (I haven't done any since becoming Emperor)? So is this dependant on more than just blood relations?
If what you say is true, then simply having a huge family is even more gamebreaking than I thought.
No I think the relative needs to be a vassal though I might be wrong as it usually says in Casus Belli screen ‘if they are of your dynasty’I'm curious because I rarely press these sorts of claims but is this really true? Even if the blood relative is an independent power or a vassal of another ruler? On reflection, I suppose the few occasions I've helped a brother Pendragon out it was to get them into a kingdom title, which presumably makes them independant by default because they become the same rank as you (I haven't done any since becoming Emperor)? So is this dependant on more than just blood relations?
If what you say is true, then simply having a huge family is even more gamebreaking than I thought.
Claim for other
You can also push a single claim on behalf of any of your courtiers or vassals. You cannot press claims for women against agnatic titles.
Upon winning, the person you were pushing the claim for will gain this title and their opinion of you will increase by 100. If the claimant was unlanded and the claim is on a higher title, they will also usurp a county from the target, and their opinion of you will increase by a further 100.
Note that if you push a claim that is outside your de jure lands for someone who is not already your vassal or a member of your dynasty, they will not become your vassal upon taking the title. Thus, if you're pushing a claim for a non-dynasty courtier, make him your vassal first by granting him a landed title. Similarly, if you push someone else's claim for a title equal in rank to your own, they will be independent.
From CKII wiki above.
Essentially, you can push a claim for anyone in your court, but if they are not a vassal or dynasty member then you just got them the land for them. Can be useful for removing enemies I guess or building an alliance network but there's much better ways to go about it. Likewise, if you are giving them a title equal to your own, they don't become your vassal either. So a blood relative or a vassal with a claim will remain under you...which can be a good thing or bad, but only for lesser titles. Unless you really do become emperor of Russia, you probably won't do this very much.
You can also push a single claim on behalf of any of your courtiers or vassals. You cannot press claims for women against agnatic titles.
Upon winning, the person you were pushing the claim for will gain this title and their opinion of you will increase by 100. If the claimant was unlanded and the claim is on a higher title, they will also usurp a county from the target, and their opinion of you will increase by a further 100.
Note that if you push a claim that is outside your de jure lands for someone who is not already your vassal or a member of your dynasty, they will not become your vassal upon taking the title. Thus, if you're pushing a claim for a non-dynasty courtier, make him your vassal first by granting him a landed title. Similarly, if you push someone else's claim for a title equal in rank to your own, they will be independent.
From CKII wiki above.
Essentially, you can push a claim for anyone in your court, but if they are not a vassal or dynasty member then you just got them the land for them. Can be useful for removing enemies I guess or building an alliance network but there's much better ways to go about it. Likewise, if you are giving them a title equal to your own, they don't become your vassal either. So a blood relative or a vassal with a claim will remain under you...which can be a good thing or bad, but only for lesser titles. Unless you really do become emperor of Russia, you probably won't do this very much.