Siberian Prosperity - an Economic CK2 AAR

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

That's a clever trick, if it works (seems like it hasn't had any effect so far). Are there any concerns that your decadence colony could disappear when your character dies, as sometimes happens with "investors"? I'm thinking of trying this to give Abbasids and/or Umayyads decadence, but I hesitate to buy expensive favors to invite people if they could just vanish during my succession.

As long as they're married (and (probably) have court pruning off), they shouldn't disappear on succession.

I noticed that the coastal provinces near Jerusalem are Greek culture. Is that from the Charlemagne start setup, or did the Byzantines somehow culture-convert them (and if so, how?)?

There are some Greek-cultured provinces near Jerusalem in the Charlemagne start date (I recently made a shattered world in the Charlemagne start date and there were Greek rulers in Galilee), but it is far enough in the timeline that some other provinces may have been converted after Byzantine conquest.

Feudal rulers culture convert by random events (in that shattered world, my ruler's culture only was the majority in the north-east of the kingdom, but in 50 years, about 3 or 4 counties have culture converted, which may mean that the event fires faster in shattered worlds).

Your vassals don't seem to be rampaging on their own conquests (aside from the current genius's war toward Mongolia when he was under AI control). Are the remaining nomads still strong enough that a border duke won't try anything? I'd think Nenetsia at least would carve into Finland pretty regularly. Excessively aggressive and expansionist vassals have always been the bane of my existence in CK2 (and even the seldom achieved External Vassal Wars ban only applies to de jure vassals), so if you've done something to successfully keep them within your desired borders, I'd love to know how you did it.

I also have issues with over-aggressive vassals, and solve it with mods (and turning off the demesne limit). Turning off the demesne limit obviously means I don't need vassals and can create vassals if I want them, and the mods let me deal with vassals not respecting de jure borders (because I prefer to keep vassals in de jure boundaries) by letting their enemy throw them in jail or taking any land they inherit outside of their de jure borders. Another way I sometimes deal with it is keeping a capital duchy and every frontier province (so vassals don't border anyone outside the realm).

The External Vassals ban only applies to de jure vassals, AND de facto vassals if their de jure kingdom doesn't exist (I also turn off vassal limits for when I want vassals). In my first AAR, only one vassal ever declared a war after I passed the External Vassal ban (a few did before that because they bordered Muslim Emirs), the Ecumenical Patriarch, and that was only because he had the Alexander bloodline (I had used a mod to make an illegitimate son of my then-current ruler the Patriarch), who tried to invade Bengal with a couple of hundred soldiers.

 

[Sanvone]

Glad to see this AAR is still going strong! I've finally caught up again.

Great to have you again. I was following your progress and well you really was moving quickly through last few months of parts

As you've realized, Great Walls are a trap, very badly bugged and worse than useless. That ruined my Arles game, where the whole point was to stack Great Walls with a capital where I held five castles.

Yea it does reset the Archer count to 0 but I learned to work around it to minimize that drawback (I have a habit of raising levies from that county before end of each part, so only garrison portion of archers gets deleted).

That's a clever trick, if it works (seems like it hasn't had any effect so far). Are there any concerns that your decadence colony could disappear when your character dies, as sometimes happens with "investors"? I'm thinking of trying this to give Abbasids and/or Umayyads decadence, but I hesitate to buy expensive favors to invite people if they could just vanish during my succession.

There are concerns but more related to my Court Chaplain converting them instead of invited mayor candidates =D". I'm not sure if that initiative will bore any fruit, as we will proceed most likely with Great Conquest for Syria and after that I don't really care much to continue in Middle East. It might even be harmful as it could allow other Muslim blobs to become bigger.

In my current game (Byzantine Empire), there are currently two Aquitaines, one regular one titular Crusader, both held by the same character since the First Crusade was for "Aquitaine" to retake the duchy of Barcelona. Weirdly, since they're both gavelkind, they'll go to different sons when the Crusader King dies. Because the Karlings need even more kingdom titles to fight among themselves over!

Damn. Sound worse that in my case...

I noticed that the coastal provinces near Jerusalem are Greek culture. Is that from the Charlemagne start setup, or did the Byzantines somehow culture-convert them (and if so, how?)?

Since the start that area was converted to Sunni but lately after Eastern Roman empire got stronger, one of their bigger vassals Holy War'ed into this are after disintegration of Jerusalem Sultanate. This CB sets "Culture Conquest flag" making it eligible to culture convert to attacker culture even without same culture province adjecent. Just needs to be the same religion. As Orthodoxy is at 100% MA and vassal in question had not bad stewardship (up to 15 increases chances of it happening each year) then it happened quite quickly. That's the same reason why I was waiting for becoming Orthodox before conquering Steppes as it allowed for quicker culture conversion in far away lands .

Your vassals don't seem to be rampaging on their own conquests (aside from the current genius's war toward Mongolia when he was under AI control). Are the remaining nomads still strong enough that a border duke won't try anything? I'd think Nenetsia at least would carve into Finland pretty regularly. Excessively aggressive and expansionist vassals have always been the bane of my existence in CK2 (and even the seldom achieved External Vassal Wars ban only applies to de jure vassals), so if you've done something to successfully keep them within your desired borders, I'd love to know how you did it.

They are rampaging in the east against de jure Mongolia. Didn't highlight it but they started expanding towards Altai mountains (which isn't bad idea, given that it drastically lowers amount of counties accessible to travel directly from steppes). Other than that rest of our neighbours are either the same religion (Khaganates to the south decided to swap as they are squeezed between us and expanding Eastern Roman Empire), Tengri Russian Novgorod and Cathar Finland are somewhat too strong for Nenetsia (remember that they both have way more holding slots as most of Nenetsia sports healthy 1 holding slot per province x_X) and lastly Tocharian Jains on SIlkroad are also not too shabby. As I stole most baron level vassals for myself, my vassals are also somewhat gold starved meaning not many CB can be bought and as previously described plots are mostly dead ends as almost everyone has one thus not enough plot power for anyone to succeed and start consolidating ).

Question about excommunication - isn't it a problem that you get a significant very long-lasting opinion penalty from your Patriarch every time you do it? For Permo-Siberia, the Patriarch is the Court Chaplain, right? So after two or three excommunications, you've got a permanent Malcontent on your Council. Do you just replace them at that point to get around this? Or do autocephalous Patriarchs not mind doing excommunications? I only know what I see when my Basileus has the Ecumenical Patriarch excommunicate people in my Byzantine game (Arles did go Orthodox, but I discovered the Great Walls bug before I ever needed to do any excommunications).

It isn't and never was. He only accumulates temporal malus for half a year preventing us from spamming those. Yes my Permo-Siberian Patriach is just a courtier and not a reglar vassal. I never had to swap him because of Excommunications and almost always we have him as loyalist (or cheaply bought one as courtiers cost just 80g). Did not known it can even be an issue (I was not playing Byzantines seriously). That's why I'm fan of going Orthodox outside Pentarchies area. Especially like Germanic into Orthodox powerful swap when you first Prepare Invasion for Kingdom title and then become Orthodox to get great deal of control over your new realm.

 

[jhhowell]

For the Great Walls - that can work if you (in real life) have the Diligent trait and always remember to raise the levies. Even then, you've mentioned repeated technical difficulties that required re-playing several months. Presumably you don't raise levies right before every autosave! In my Arles save I went to considerable trouble editing the save file to turn the Great Walls into a Great Harbor; I just don't want to deal with the bug.

I think the Abbasid decadence colony will have to wait another generation or two in my game. I keep running into the problem that I can't use a favor because the person I want to invite is closely related to the local ruler. I'm only about 50 years in, though, in time there will be more distant relatives to find. And there are over 70 living Abbasids already, so maybe they'll generate their own decadence without my help.

I didn't realize Nenetsia was that weak. Makes more sense now. Am I correct in thinking that you stopped your expansion just short of the Silk Road because adding those trade posts to what you're already doing would make the game way too easy? If I understand correctly, you took precisely one SR province (no TP) to make sure you can do the Jade Dragon stuff with China?

Very interesting that the autocephalous patriarchs work so differently from Constantinople! I got -15 opinion with the Patriarch that lasted 40 or 50 years (old Patriarch just died, so I can't easily check anymore, but it was a de facto lifetime penalty) for each excommunication. This does raise the likelihood that I'll come back to that Arles game someday to play with that.

the mods let me deal with vassals not respecting de jure borders (because I prefer to keep vassals in de jure boundaries) by letting their enemy throw them in jail or taking any land they inherit outside of their de jure borders.

What mods are these? Are they save game compatible?

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

What mods are these? Are they save game compatible?

Sketchy Cheat Menu (has a take land function and a mind control function that lets me imprison my vassals on behalf of my enemies). Although it doesn't seem downloadable at the moment (the most recent page on the Steam Workshop is mostly saying that it won't download anymore, as I downloaded it around when I got the game in 2020). It doesn't say anything about save game compatibility, so it's probably best to err on the side of caution and have a back-up save (if you can get it to download).

Easy Map Painting is good if you don't catch the vassal until after they've won their war, because you can use the 'Paint it' function when you click on the county to automatically take all baronies as well (Sketchy only lets you take one title at a time). Similarly to Sketchy, it says nothing about save game compatibility, so a back-up save might be a good idea.

 

[Sanvone]

@jhhowell

You are right on those Great Walls. I use them cause I'm forced into slow playing with notes for each year (and what can be done during it according to cooldowns). So it's totally understandable. It's basically entirely different way to engage with CK2 - slow play. I also have more energy and time to pick and choose my decisions across months so this gameplay really benefited from it. This game opens tremendously the more you get into it.

On topic of Abbasids - I took that Abbasid dynasty member when he was available exactly because it was an opportunity. But remember that dynasty members within their dynasty "head" realm are no good. AI will try to straighten them up or imprison them. That's why we took them into our own hands - far from Caliph authority.

Regarding Silkroad - you are right on money. Also did not want to tackle powerful Tibetan empire back then (thus we missed on last county to enable kingdom of Cumania drift into our Empire). We are still utilizing that Scholar-Bureaucrat + Master-Engineer doubled bonuses (Golden Age). Maybe we manage to spend all that Grace on ordering Prepared Invasion on someone. More of a sidenote - at this point Trade Posts as Feudal seem more like cherry on a cake. Unless I could have around 30-40 of them as Merchant Republic I don't think they would trivialize this playthrough. But we sticked to initial rules.

At the moment I don't think game is too easy -> we are behind on prosperity events for holding slots and still have to resolve that future conflict in Syria + arrival of Mongols. Both which will detract from our ability to focus on just economy. Our technology income is exploding though and I expect to max everything (maybe beside Military cause no +income building) in the next 100 years. Technology spread is another matter though.

 

[HistoryDude]

The two Frances thing is hilarious. How long will both last?

The Syrian situation seems annoying. What kingdom did you end up forming there?

Meltsayka's Hermetic adventures are great. He is wise not to open the Necronomicon. We wouldn't want him to go mad from the revelation or to drag the Great Old Ones out of slumber, would we?

Does Meltsayka read his books while he's drunk now?

The traditional faiths of Europe are doing well. The Cathar prominence in Western Christianity probably helps with that...

 

[Sanvone]

The two Frances thing is hilarious. How long will both last?

The Syrian situation seems annoying. What kingdom did you end up forming there?

Meltsayka's Hermetic adventures are great. He is wise not to open the Necronomicon. We wouldn't want him to go mad from the revelation or to drag the Great Old Ones out of slumber, would we?

Does Meltsayka read his books while he's drunk now?

The traditional faiths of Europe are doing well. The Cathar prominence in Western Christianity probably helps with that...

I think it will take a while for HRE to "Omn Omn Omn" them due to same Faith.

I haven't ended making any kingdom in Syria as of finishing next part ". What's more we run into issues.

Meltsayka being drunk is a vile rumour! Spread by our kin - Kings Mosheg II (Lunatic) that took part in mechanical part of getting that trait (refused to help us when we were falling down the stairs and yelled for help). Still it is funny cause he is both Drunk and got "the Wise" nickname.

Cathar have like 3 counting countries - Kingdom of England, Masudid Sultanate (in Iberia) and Kingdom of Finland. Yet somehow they managed to snap 2 out of 5 Catholic Holy Sites =D". Catholics with just Cologne (as Eastern Roman Empire snatched Rome ages ago) kind of need to deal with Cathars in the west if they want to consolidate (to make Germany French and Croatia German).

 

[Sanvone]

Part XLVII (1151-1158)​

Year 1151
======================

High time to continue the reign of Emperor Meltsayka of Permo-Siberian empire. We start with evaluation of where we left off. After spotting several vacant court offices, we go on our usual hunt for highly skilled administrators (and richer for previous experiences) we favour invite bunch of Jews and young non-Jews. We succeed in 7 out of 9 cases, which is more than pleasing result (I always have issues with quickly identifying if someone is still close kin or not). Our Marshal is ordered to stop improving our troops and to train levies in Perm county (cause we want more prosperity gain there to max it) and our Court Chaplain is sent to distant county of Aylik (by the Silkroad) as I forgot that it needs assimilating (it is still Tocharian + Jain). One more university is started within duchy of Perm and after looking around I must report being mostly happy, with how much we already fed distant counties when it comes to technology. As our feast is ongoing since end of last part, we soon receive notification from our Patriach - Aylik already convert!

Well our Patriarch does has 30 Learning and over 53% conversion chance each year but it still was fast. So once again every county within empire is Orthodox and just 1 county is not-Komi culture. ​

On 12th of January our kin - King Mosheg II of Nenetsia launches a Holy War for Bryansk duchy in the south of Novgorod. He has 4.5k troops against Russians (that converted to Slavic) 6.22k. So I don't expect him to win (It was later that I realised this isn't so bad as Slavic Russian are tribal and our vassal king has feudal troops almost entirely from castle). Our ordered Excommunication also arrived and another Duke is marked for eviction in our ongoing quest to make Nenetsia borders visually pleasing. Won't harvest him yet - I would rather do several of them at the same time.

Feast ends without any special event. Our future mayors arrive and are assigned prestige earning court roles and we start another plot to smooth future inheritance of direct vassal cites. As it quickly gets organised (415% plot power) our mayor in Bilyar county dies due to sickness creating, a 3/1 demense problem. We arrange another marriage and then proceed with our true and tested approach - one corpse at the time. This newest bad mayor will prove to be an obstacle as he has level 4 Intrigue education and thus we only have 141% plot power on him. Well he has 27 Intigue I guess...

Second epidemy in our feudal realm. We still have only basic hospitals in our personal demense so it is concerning. ​

Summer sadly presents us outbreak of Measle epidemic. It reduces income by 10% in affected counties but I'm more concerned with prosperity it can wipe. Then our emperor gets rid of another negative province modifier in Turgay - leaving us with just 3 more to go. August at least allows us to begin invention event chain from hermetic society. That's really neat as not always you get those (at least in my experience) and among possible outcomes there are some neat artifacts and good economic province modifiers for 100 years. Then we push through with Stewardship focused gathering despite some opposition.

By October we might once again rank up in Hermetics from Initiate towards Adept (+1 Learning and ablity to make Horoscope that I fnd underwhelming). Then we have to decide whether we want risky or safe invention. I'm not entirely familiar with this event chain but after quick look up in game files, I decide on riskier (but better quality) as I think we will pull it through with our 24 Learning score. Meanwhile in wider realm, another peasant uprising happens - this time in Tver over 11.000 strong host takes up in arms. Well so much for this year feast I guess.

How can you play feudal simulator without pacyfing peasant every now and then?​

Raiders arriving at Ural force us to raise our levies anyway. At least Measle outbreak kind of stopped by reaching only south-western Bolgharia county. Then quickly before end of year, Santa Claus gives us goodies in shape of success in Invention event - we get really great modifier too!

Currently our capital luckily gathered all kind of positive province modifiers! We have all 6 prosperity modifiers, Saint Burial Site, 3 Chinese province modifiers (Administrative Outpost, Papermill and Blast Furnace) and now Hermetic Advanced Blast Furnance for 100 years! ​

Year 1152
======================

We soon get to used that new bonus and it seems to allow us to reach exactly 50% construction discount in Kudymkar as last University II we can build costs 400g instead of 800g . Also +10% Local Tax doesn't smell for us. One thing that I forgot to do in last days of December due to being too happy with what game gave us, was to revoke another bishopric. So I start analysis which one is the best option at the moment, while Meltsayka goes to our Primal Taiga SPA to de-age himself in Fountain of Youth. Thus he is now 29 years old instead of 31 .

Our retinues from Perm and Burtasy marched towards Tver where locals were slowly siegeing out local holding and suffering low attrition due to winter. Time worked in our favour, as our main body of soldiers took "Winter losses" from traveling previously to northern Permo-Siberia to deal with another uprising. We replenish over 200 men per tick - our enemies do not. At the same time back home our levies amassed to over 9.500 men in Perm itself are ready to move out and move out they must cause even with 6 holdings slot and high Military Organisation technology they do suffer losses from low supplies :/... Man gotta love "Severe Winter" in Arctic.

I decide to fix 2/1 Bishop in Pilva, with installing there a 19 stewardship member of Community of Saint Basil instead . That's another capital duchy county with Monastic administration and good prospects. We are 4/6 in Perm itself but only 4/12 across all counties that we plan to hold in the future. It remains to be seen if this approach will pan out in the long run due to extreme rng of where people forced to become monks go (we have 3-4 courtiers in Perm and only 1 in each other Monastic temple).

Simultaneously 2 battles take place in March - our Permian levies repel nomadic raiders in Perm (losing 142 men but killing 900) and retinues fight rebels in Tver.

Enemies rolled well but we have better commanders thus we roll them through. Suffered 700 casualties for 5.200 killed. ​

As both engagments wind down, I inspect what has caused such uproar in Tver. Turns out local ruler caused "Peasant Unrest modifier (+10% revolt risk)" thus with 6% RR this place was simply unlucky. Just as we deal with those, another nomads arrive in the far east of our realm, trying to sack our tribal vassals there. So it is the "Silkroad guard" boys time to shine.

April has some interesting updates on world as a whole. Muhallabids finally ended all of their many wars - Byzantine Empire took over Sicily, Cyrenaica peasant revolt and Egypt Noble revolt were both repelled. Now they have 16.000 troops (but in few weeks they recover over 2.000 troops). That's aint the end of it as Abbasid Sunni Caliph in Sinai (wow... Didn't spot him earlier) declares Jihad on Zikri Shuhadid Sultanate in Arabia. Meanwhile other Zikris in Persia are still happily bashing each other in their own civil war. That is good outcome for us but maybe not the best. Not sure if Muhallabid will take part in his vassal Jihad but even if so then he still has over 3:1 numbers advantage. So they should keep recovering their manpower and maybe new lands will help them in that aspect. Interesting to point out that Abbasid seem to be about to retake Zikri Persia from Farukids while their heretical Sunni family branch is helding Sunni Caliphate religious powers. Weirdly our Nenetsian King is also winning slightly his war despite having 12.000 enemies to deal with (other Slavic joined him and no other Permo-Siberian vassal joined his side...)

Our Assasination fired after I took time to bribe several more courtiers to reach exactly 200% plot power treshold. Nice when it pays up almost instantly. Then we almost instantly kill another unqualified mayor in Kudymkar again. Still need one more assasination (but this time it will be far easier as target is low intrigue) to resolve it fully. Measle epidemy is still within 5 counties it initially claimed.

By May it is a high time to recall Patriarch to start converting our Ashkenazi courtiers to Orthodoxy (so we can make use of them). Additionally it was quite some time since I looked into Technology and boy did our research exploded. Things are looking up and we haven't even finished those Universities II in Perm itself.

At this point technology spread is more of a concern that technology points generation. Still we can later swap capitals after revoking some backwater province to pump it up with our scientific power. ​

Construction tech is maxed out already on other side of our freezing empire: Irtysh (by Silkroad) at 7,5/8 in Burtasy and 6,5/8 in both Turgay and Irgiz. Pretty much we are done with seeding technology spread centers for our vassals to leach from. With that our Kudymkar capital technology rates up to 31/31/34 and for comparison some other notable places: Constantinopole has 23/26/24, Baghdad 16/18/18, Alexandria 18/21/19. So we are basically starting to leave everyone in the dust. Not sure why it is so bad when most cities in Anatolia had Universities II way before we will got them. Probably instability ruined AI technologic progress?

To kill some time during summer, we make a horoscope for our oldest daughter - Vergava (the one that commenters pointed is probably not Meltsayka's real child). As we look in the stars, news from Silkroad arrive. Chinese Golden Age is over, now plague ravages Middle-Kingdom. I hope it doesn't spread to us. Kind of unexpected that it went straight from Golden Age into Crisis instead of gradual decline I expected and wanted. Sadly they are still expansionist so even after that we won't be able to cash in on that saved Grace. On other hand it may allow some breaking down of their huge Western Protectorate.

Let's hope they don't try expanding the sickness abroad ​

Meanwhile our retinue succesfully defended Western Sayian from Uyghur raiders and I notice that that county in question has feudalised. Which explains a lot cause usually petty tribes can't withstand siege long enough for help to arrive. We continue assasinating burghers, keep watch over Muhallabids and do some minor marriages among baron level vassal.

By November we can start preparing another feast, as our Patriarch converts one of Jews thus making him ready to be sent to administer some of cities in Perm, when opportunity arrives. Out of curiosity I did check how much the best city in capital makes and well the answer is... A lot:

We still wait for Trade Route event chain so it can be even higher. So far meritocracy seems to pay off a big time. ​

As we proceed with preparations I notice that Muhallabids recovered up to 29.000 troops already. After another 4.000 they wil slow down, because rest will be tied to Sultan Uways 'the Holy' personal demense levies and well he has 21 Martial. Which makes full recovery of manpower take longer. Rest of year goes rather uneventful with exception of finally sorting out Irtysh regional penalty (2 negative province modifiers left)..

I play a little with Zodiac, as she doesn't matter much. Getting Stewardship sign on our Prince Turush would be great though.​

Year 1153
======================

Year begins excitingly! We get that long awaited event from Architecture Collection in Far North Scriptorium - the rumour about lost book on architecture. It's the 3rd time it pops up since we made our first great work. This time I bribe everyone related and send our Apprentice Derbay (that just had encouraging vision) to pursue it. Fingers crossed.

On other hand we did not get any event (RIP my Just trait) from Feast. At least during 3rd week of January as Mayor from Syrt county in Bolgharia passes away, he is instantly replaced by our picked man already in place. More weeks are spent on assasinating our way towards fixing another city.

In April I have bad realisation... My plan to conquer Syria kind of goes off rails. I totally forgot that you need 3.000 prestige and 1.500 piety... Prestige isn't much of a problem (we have 2.19k prestige and over 170 per year income) but piety is (358 and +48 yearly)... Which means that I probably will want to switch from Business to Theology ASAP (still would want that Lifestyle and Trade route modifier). Not only it will allow us to swap Slothful for Diligent but also get rid of Drunkard and well with Zealous provide quite a lot of piety (+100 piety for each seclusion and quite often). It might hurt Meltsayka's chances of writing high quality stewardship book but I think this is the cost we have to swallow. Seems to be a better way than joining Monastics now (as we have Necronomicon and quite a few bonuses from Hermetics that we would lose). Can't donate to charity without them, and can't donate to holy order cause Orthodoxy still doesn't have one. Even marrying some Catholic bride for quick swap doesn't exactly helps as it will cost some prestige and piety.

Finally in May we get business focus event. Sell land in Kudymkar is no brainer. We get 150g for -50% castle tax. Castle tax doesn't matter as those make tiny fraction of our overall income. But getting Aspiring Trader (+1 stewardship) modifier matter a lot as it makes us eligible for Trade Route event chain. Sadly more bad news follow quickly - our Apprentice comes back with nothing. He give us back 8g and thus our 3rd attempt at getting that book ends in failure.

OMG. Will you give it to me already game? I was trying for literal ages to get it​

During June we get another Chinese Blast Furnace (this time north of original one - in Pilva) then in the same county our previous mayor vassal dies. So as we are about to solve that issue in Udmurts another target arrives . Given that we won't invade Syria anytime soon and are somewhat close to vassal limit (31/31) I decide to start moving retinues from Perm and Burtasy towards Vologda and Veps to extract those duchies to put them under Nenetsia.

Not long passes and we get another business focus - this time Carpenters guild in Tynea. We oblige to their request (only 1 city that get's -5% tax but whole province receives -20% build time and -10% construction cost modifiers). Keep them coming so we might swap to Theology sooner than later I guess ;D.

Those modifiers are quite good. Seem I can also decline them to get the reversed values of those modifiers listed.​

By end of September we are ready to commence with further administrative adjustment regarding noble vassals. For some reason though despite succesful assasination our candidate in Udmurts for the 2nd time didn't take over as the only man in the court :/... We will try the third time after fixing his bankrupcy.

Damn. I was really wishing to get that Divine Epiphany bonus.​

Then we proceed with Divine summoning event chain and I finally can use some of the ingredients we have in our treasury. Due to double apprentice bug it takes them two times from our equipment but as it turns out doesn't provide two results. Sadly we also do not get the ciritcal success resulting in "Divine Epiphany" modifier that grants +2 to all stats for few years. We really are in market for extra 1-2 stewardship for reaching another prosperity MTTH treshold.

At last in late December our skull&dagger activities fixed Udmurts. Not sure what was the issue for game but we finally can move on onto another target. At the moment 19/20 mayors are working as intended.

Year 1154
======================

Another year and we start with over 15.500 gold coins but our income decreased to just +2.660/year for some reason. Were those 2 dukes contributing 40g between themself? If so then I'm suprised :V. As another mayor dies in manure explosion and our Patriarch converts another Jew, we are advancing our extractiion wars.

Meanwhile Emperor after succesfully writing another great theorem, visits some old library in Slavic Russia to find important hermetic text. With that he is currently at 600/2000 esoteric knowledge needed to advance toward final level. Not that I'm interested in it a lot (could write Magnum Opus that could help but it is not a priority).

Then in May our Marshal first time in long time launches massive recruitment (another +6 prosperity) in Perm. Forgot to mention that in previous year he granted us choice between +10% morale or levy (also +6 prosperity locally). Then as our guards are busy besieging rebel holdngs, some nomads (2.340 riders) arrrive in Burtasy (that has around 1.800 defenders). Decided to not go back with reitnues yet and hope they will hold long enough (we have also fort that buys us a week or two) for borderguards to finish their extraction tasks further west and north.

On end of July we end Vologdan war, acquire -8% revolt risk modifier in Kolva from random event (Blessed lands), move one retinue back to Burtasy and see another Mayor dieing and being replaced by 22 Intrigue random character (=.=) again. Seems like game decided to be difficult today.

At least I wasn't wrong as Nomads besiege Burtasy at astronomically high rate of 2% per tick, giving us all the time in the world to relieve it.

We thus end both rebelions and pass those duchy titles to King of Nenetsia, making it almost fully ready to secede from our wider Empire. There is small problem though in completing final step as last duchy (Tver) is held by our kin and has different religious Head (Patriarchate in Polish Vladimir to the south). The weirdest thing - we hold whole de jure Kingdom of Vladimir and that Polish King is located in Ruthenia and Galicia-Volhynia... I wonder how this happened :C.

One step at the time we are progressing that Nenetsia project. Want to make them at least strong enough to not get beaten by neighbours​

In theory I could usurp that title after they finish war, but then I would be stuck with it and our Nenetsian kin is still under Gavelkind thus giving him 2nd Kingdom title is a no-no. During all that pondering, we also got Orthodox icon event. This time Diplomatic one. Thanks to accepting it for 600g we improved our Diplomacy by +1 and as I calculated correctly increase iur vassal limit by +1. So now we are looking at 29/32 vassals with both Nenetsia to release and Tver to somehow pass under Nenetsia rule. We are ready for next law change though.

We also started making horoscope for Meltsayka oldest son - Prince Ylvan. He rolled Learning (the same as his older sister). I decide to encourage it (but will pick stewardship regardless). Then we proceed to more of usual - organising feast in November and continue to murder bad mayors. Then we party in december.

Year 1155
======================

At least this feast presented us opportunity for something desirable. We got 45% chance for Temperate but missed it. Still it is an improvment over several recent parties that had no events after preparations. So by the end of January I'm looking at treasury of 16.200 gold, almost 2.5k prestige and close to 500 piety. We bought 3 University II more and our initial construction round of those has concluded. Our Economic technology income went from +15 to +16. More importantly that's a bunch of extra +30% technology spread bonuses across our core demense.

As we exhausted our supply of hermetic ingredients we once again go to gather more. This time we don't get two instances of this and I notice that in Position tab one Apprentice office is no longer visible (but the person that was performing that function is still in our court listed as Apprentice, so we still have 2).

Hunt is fruitful as we end up with 5 ingredients (!), we also finally after 6-7th attempt manage to got another male courtier standing between our man and being mayor in Pilva. As our Chancellor died in Spring, we appoint another and sent him to fabricate (ideally) claim on duchy of Tver. He has 13.01% yearly chance so it isn't nothing. If this initiative goes nowhere we may be forced to tyranny revoke duchy. Can make it work within our 2 tyranny limit every 5 years, if it will be combined with fixing Kudymkar single temple Bishop.

In late August the change occurs on the Dragon throne. Empress gets replaced with Emperor Li Ruizong that still wants to continue Expansionist China despite suffering from Devastating Plague. Well as he is 36 years old, that is some really bad luck for us, cause he might live for another 30-40 years and basically make us unable to utilize grace we received back then for sending them Mjollnir. :/

In September we have an update on Muhallabid decadence colony in Perm. As by accident I acquired another Muhallabid at beggining of this part, now we have 2 families in the making. The newest one just sired a son, but unluckily first son despite our worst efforts turned out to be Zealous thus probably will never become decadent. At least we can try to make him have several children of his own and increase our chances in the long run. We also pick Learning education focus for oldest princess Vergava (13), as it was what horoscope said and well she is bethrothed to next Eastern Roman Empire Ruler so we don't need her to multiply much. On other hand he is also of that education so they might like each other more due to this similarity.

As we prepare another feast, we also conclude Pil'va fixing and move onto difficult Udmurts target, that suddenly dies due to poor health on his own. Well seems all the special covert skills won't help if you don't take care of your body health. That means that before 1155 ends we are in the clear with mayors, as our candidate took over there. We also proceed with anothe law change, putting us another step closer towards Imperial administration.

To be Frank I don't remember last time law reforms were going so well​

Year 1156
======================

Next year begins with epidemy of consumption erupting in Khantia. This is somewhat more of a threat compared to Measle, as it grants -25% income tax modifier for provinces affected. So we will look at how contagious it is. Yet given that we have over 17.300 gold this is perfect opportunity to invest in healthcare across Perm and Bolgharia.

Eleven Sick Houses across our targeted duchies costed us a little over 2.100 gold. Funny enough the constucton time varied greatly - between 11 months in furthest Bolgharia counties and 1-2 days in capital and Tynea. ​

Seems like we still enjoy Golden Age modifiers from our Chinese Bureaucrats. Maybe it is tied to when you hire them or they simply didn't get the news to stop trying so hard. But I think construction cost doesn't affect Hospital prices (but it does affect construction time as we have everything taking 1 day to build in Kudymkar oO). Out of curiosity I check and both our Han goverment members are around 40 years old but Master-Engineer has cancer. Well it seems we will continue to benefit from them for quite a while longer. Yay!

As both Muhallabid siblings from original courtier reached adulthood we arrange marriages to create even more devil incarnates. For this task I invite several young female courtiers to collect all 4 wives for our new hope - bachelor Abdul-Qadir ibn Uways. I make interesting catch - we have already converted all Ashkenazis and thus next target is 100% going to be our Muhallabids (and if they are not Muslim, they do not generate Decadence). So we switch off Patriarch ahead of time.

By May one of our vassals declares war on southern Khaganate, just as Nenetsians were soundly defeated. We also get Bard event with just 1 option to take, giving our character Charitable that isn't bad but won't stick for long either. What's worse that +3 Diplomacy doesn't improve our Vassal limit (probably need 1 more) and should be replaced by Greedy (we are still on Business focus).

Did not notice at the time of playing but Measles has timed out. So we suffer from 2 instead of 3 pandemics​

In August another epidemy breaks out and relatively close to our holdings - Slow Fever. It is the biggest of threats as it gives the biggest we have seen malus to income: -40%. Within a month it spreads to Tynea and then to Perm itself. Well that's how good the level 2 Hospitals are I suppose ^^". But more news from wider world arrive - Sunni's succesfully took over Arabia (meaning that relatively soon they should stop being heresy as difference between them and Zikri's is just 10 provinces). Persia fractured into 2 parts each held by different Farukid that is heir to the other one. Turns out the Abbasid rebelion leader prefers being Grey Emincence and not taking over as Sultan. Byzantine Empire as always suffers some civil war, as our Basileos died in 1154 and thus our plans to have alliance. Can't make new match as I don't know who will come on top. Ah and Orthodox Persians started losing land as Zikri's stopped they civil war activities.

Sudden change of powers in Middle-East. Sunni's get the upper hand.​

At least in December slow fever stops spreading further. Decided against inviting everyone to epidemy infested lands to not spread this sickness empire wide.

Year 1157
======================

Guess who decided to try and raid Perm county amidst epidemy. Of course - Nomads and whole 1.900 of them. What's really funny is that they don't suffer supply penalty despite it being lowered down to just 1.000 (Severe Winter + Slow Fever). Well for exactly that reason we have troops next door.

Cheeky nomadic raiders. We won't stand for this thievery!​

Before end of winter our vassal duke of Votyaki takes over single county south of duchy of Bolgharia (thus expanding us in direction we don't want). We also continue our medical improvments by building 11 Leper's Colonies total. Brings me down to 15.900 gold. We also quickly show raiders how to leave our Empire (in coffins preferably). Still between both few days of siege and epidemy Perm suffers around -80% modifier to province wealth, lowering total wealth to just 185.9g.

Decided on it cause it gives +10% disease resistance thus mostly offsetting penalty from high prosperity. ​

Some time after our Chancellor presents us opportunity to buy claim for 2.700 gold. But the wrong one as it is for county and we want whole duchy. So we pass on that opportunity. Instead we will use that tyranic revocation route I was describing earlier. We press with demand (no matter what happens we are ok cause one way or the other we will get that duchy title). Our kin relents and we pass it to new king of Nenetsia (cause previous died but he also was our emperor rival despite many landed gifts he received across years... Well he was Lunatic also which might have something to do with their weird relation). Won't secede them now cause our kinsman is just 9 years old but this setup survived his succession already so it should be ok, once he becomes adult.

Nenetsia seems ready. Also new King of Nenetsia is bethrothed to our younger daughter to create another source of 4 bloodline Permyakids.​

I realise that I completely forgot about one thing. SCRYING! Was supposed to perform it last year to avoid losing it. And forgot xD. Well now was good moment but I kind of wasted it. Well I click it anyway as I still have another title to revoke. The omen is good so I proceed with revoking temple in Perm. Thus we get 1st level of "Visions" modifier. I get greedy though and decide to roll again. Maybe we roll bad omen and then upon giving it away we are in the clear anyway? Doesn't turn that way. Another good Omen. Hmmm. Well let's roll with the punches - I revoke temple in Kol'va as well (thus having -45 modifier on vassals from tyranny for 5 years). I think it will be A-ok cause we were reigning for quite some time so we should be able to push through little instability. And well we did fix another bishopric thanks to it. Making whole duchy of Perm having Monastic Bishops! Not to forget - we once again have "Aspiring Seer" modifier nice and clean.

That depletes our reserve of characters to take over baron duties. I invite a bunch and 8 out of 10 characters come over (putting me down to 16.500 gold coins). All of them are 16+ Stewardship and only 2 are Jewish (thus need to be converted via Patriarch). Two of previously sent characters also ended in Udmurts and Tynea, thus securing spare members there. After sending 2 more we get spare in Perm itself. Leaving just 2 temples to the North without replacements (Pilva and Kolva). That leaves me with 4 spares (2 unready) in bank so this will have to do for now.

Year 1158
======================

As year changes, both Consumption in Siberia and Slow Fever in Perm still haunts us. That puts a serious dent into our income :/. At least Perm recovered around 1/3 of looted province wealth putting it at 60% of max value. The one serious drawback of my administrative ambitions is the piety cost - every courtier sent to take the vows costed us 50 piety. Thus we are back with just 415...

At least our Patriarch finds someone to burn and I'm ok with sending some random courtier off. Then I find some over the limit Mayor and mark him for death instantly. On the side - luckily that Slow Fever did not kill yet anyone to my knowledge in affected counties. Really wanting another Business focus event. I think we waited long enough . Also realised why Imperial annual income went down so much - we might have overdid it a little on tyranny side and getting caught ordering assasinations left, right and center. Some of our super-mayors started having negative opinion of us thus lowering their taxes (between 12 and 27 negative opinion translating 1:1 to % penalty). So if we would get that trade route event chain we would get rid of most of it thanks to extra +20 City Vassal opinion (that said we would also lose 20 after changing business focus to something else).

Takes us up to March before all of Leper Colonies get built (some of Bolgharian counties really lag behind). The construction message estimates one thing and then the construction bar says another, which is confusing. Well even with that issue we continue building up our healthcare deparment in Anno Domini 1158 - it's time for some Soup Kitchens. While it provides further Disease resistance I'm more interested in that extra piety gain (will result in around 13 piety more per year) and well +22 Temple Vassal opinion isn't bad either. Takes almost exactly 2.000 gold coins to build 11 of those. Then our Patriarch converts Bohemiam wife of our youngest Muhallabid (dangeorously close to him our Chaplain was) after she gave birth to first son. As he is both Bedouin and Sunni we can set him on Pride childhood focus, counting for the worst possible outcome. At the same time we set education focus for our 7 years old Quick Prince Turush and get rewarded for forgeting to do it year earlier as he developed Conscientious so we can now set him on Thrift for patient and maybe Shrewd if something bugs out. If we get lucky with rolls he can end up both Diligent, Patient and Ambitious on top of being Quick already. My previous system for educating older children already paid off as our Monastic Society Court Tutor made Vergava Diligent and overall he was possibly generating them those nice +attribute ward events. What's more we can feed him Eudaimonia potion so he can keep making kids diligent.

Somehow we partially lost control of one holy site in Greece to Catholics. Probably only temporary. Not sure how the Islam will shape up with Sunni's taking over.​

With spring comes the message about Sunnis taking over as main muslim denomination. So all as was predicted. What was not predicted was 3rd outbreak of epidemy in empire while the first one is still ongoing. Smallpox appeared on other side of Ural Mountains, initially affecting 2 counties. It is of medium severity (-25% income tax). Wow all of a sudden during single part 4 epidemics!

As summer season begins Basileus Mamia "the blind", who currently occupies emperor's throne in ERE asks about finalizing the bethrothal between his son and our oldest daughter. Haven't said but I broke off previous engagment with our Greek suitors as they lost power rather badly. This arrangement isn't sure-proof either, as they are fighting near pear conflict with rebels (cause they are tyrants) and those same rebels are also in the middle of Armenia indepedence rebelion that also has around 40.000 troops. So it might turn really badly and I have to think about intervening at least towards Armenians, so the ERE doesn't lose whole kingdom at once due to AI stupidity. Marriage seems well matched as both as interested in scholarship and well while it doesn't allow instant alliance at least we can intervene in their wars.

Oldest daughter gets married off to Greeks as soon as she comes of age. We might use this future alliance for us or to help ERE​

By Autumn our Master-Engineer despite suffering from cancer builds Administrative outpost in Pilva (another +1 economy and culture technology income), We also get to make a final intervention for Meltsayka's son Ylvan and decide to make him Diligent, as he can still develop Ambitious and Patient from childhood traits. We get stressed that we instantly treat by brewing potion of Eudaimona (hermetic power). Spent animal Kidney to make it because I remember from checking recently is healthy ingredient thus less likely to create complications and we really lose that Stressed. Now only to await, if we become Apathetic. By end of October we reasumme our assasinations as I was trying to not make things worse and let that -30 opinion penalty from getting caught vanish instead of making it bigger and persisting longer. Just as another mayor croaks and city needs our guidance in appointing skilled ruler.

Month later one mayor more succumbs to natural causes so now we have 3 that need fixing. We marry off fresh Orthodox Ashkenazi courtier after he gets converted and await further development. And on that note we will end this part

Seems our income will fluctuate. Not bad for current circumstances​

 

[jhhowell]

and boy did our research exploded.

That's extremely high research point income! Is that because you've set things up so that most baron-tier vassals are your direct vassals, so all those universities and monastic schools count for you instead of being spread across lots of dukes?

Really wanting another Business focus event. I think we waited long enough

Yeah, I'm having this problem in my game right now too. New emperor, starts with business focus, zero focus events in four six years and counting. Even after moving my capital, on the theory that the pre-existing trade route province modifier from the previous emperor's reign might be blocking the business focus events.

I notice that you continue to feast regularly. Is the Fat trait just the cost of doing business, and the prosperity bonus from a feast is worth the trouble? Since I don't have the prosperity DLC, my approach is to feast until my character gets Just, then stop, hopefully before gaining Fat.

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

Does the decadence strat you're using actually work? Because I'm currently playing as a Muslim realm and after a decadent dynasty member fled my realm I'm pretty sure he stopped contributing to the decadence value.

 

[Sanvone]

@jhhowell
I was checking that economic technology income and a big chunk of it comes from province modifiers too. As well as high Stewardship+Learning. Doubt trade route blocks anything other than trade route (as it always targets capital) but I can be wrong. Well I at least got "Sell land to burghers" for modifier and Carpenter's Guild twice. Now that I'm feudal we have more options (including dreaded Tower event chain that last time I checked doesn't have maximum price - unlike trade route). Still I might bite cause province modifiers are tasty - quarry for lower construction costs or "Uneven" Tower for higher city taxes.

@StrategyGameEnthusiast
No - not yet. We had only one marriage that was quite barren. Now we have 3. I think it should work but not sure. Will keep trying anyway to test it if possible as it might be beneficial for this playthrough. But I expect it might take one more generation.

 

[Sanvone]

Part XLVIII (1159-1166)​

Year 1159
======================

Boom, boom, boom. Who's there? Its emperor Meltsayka again! So with that somewhat different opening, we dive back into Permo-Siberian money-printer. As per tradition I start by replenishing our Human Resources and nab 7 out of 9 tried invitations. We also invite free girls for matchmaking between our baron city vassals. We got around 4-5 of them, all in their early 20's. On topic which, we have currently only 17/20 mayors working as intended and some are also nearing their "expiration" date with 71 years old mayor of Lysva city (in Perm) probably leading the way. I would be really happy if more have survived for so long (as it means less swapping is required). As they start arriving I notice that one of them is young Italian lowborn girl. Great. As survival of Italian culture is not certain, I might start yet another long term breeding program for commanders. Italian culture does have a nice tactic for Pikemen, that I think we will utilize.

Seems like we our vassals will get rid of Genghis-khan's pasture strip towards Europe on their own. Which means I will have to later secede even more lands to cut our size down >.> Also the all famous Khaganate of "Lowborn" \o/ ​

Some of our vassal start taking apart the previously Chernigov's Khaganate lands to the south. Well not much I can do about it and in the long run it seems to be better idea to organise it into another Komi Orthodox Kingdom and make it independent of us to prevent further expansion. Nomads started lagging behind without their size due to technology progress. Then I had some insightful recollection of something I haven't been doing for long time - checking for schemers! Well as it turns out, dividing realm in proper duke-count structure lowers our problems a lot. We only found 1 direct vassals who has such hobby because 3 others are someone's else problem to tackle. I'm not sure how will I deal with schemer as I don't want to spend piety (we stockpile it for Syria's) and he has not exactly low intrigue attribute (20) resulting in higher defence against plots.

Towards end of winter our bishop in Kirs (Kudymkar) dies and is replaced by superior specimen (18 vs 14 stewardship) from Monastic Society. So everything is A-OK. What is less pleasing is this

Woop, woop, woop... Once again we missed by getting Quality 4 instead of Quality 3 =.= Well the list of possible outcomes get's shorter doesn't it? ​

Gosh dangit! That's a quality 4 without education or lifestyle >.>. So "On Komi Architecture" eludes us once more. Don't have even to bother noting down the cooldown as we can't write on the same topic again. So we are done with writing books on this character. Yet that book we got is not bad. Extra diplomacy, stewardship and General Opinions are neat. Especially as I keep pushing laws in our favour. So what we can swap? We currently have 4/4 books equipped (Necronomicon doesn't take slot). Those are:
- "The Modest Measures" (Q3 written in year 790 by King Omurtag the Affable) that grant's us +1 Monthly Wealth and +1 Stewardship,
- "How to Build a Well" (Q3 written in year 945 by Emperor Kya "the Just) that grant's -20% Construction Time,
- "The Permyakid Cookbook" (Q3 written in year 986 by Saint Emperor Varaka "the Apostle") that grants us +1 Stewardship and +5 General Opinion,
- "Feeding the Realm" (Q3 written in year 1066 by Saint Emperor Setyamka "the Understanding") that grants us +3 Monthly Wealth,

Out of those the one to swap out is the last one. While +3 Monthly Wealth doesn't help our attributes it still gives +36g per year. So I won't swap it out just yet as we are at 16 stewardship, but once we get another point of stewardship or need increased General Opinion I will make it as it will increase our MTTH modifiers in regards to Prosperity.. That should happen after trade route event chain. So for time being we can continue with Business focus. Also we have more books, if you wondered so I will list them here to refresh your memories:
- "The Komi Language, Volume IV" (Q4 written in year 887 by King Daniel "the Bull") that grants +0.5 monthly prestige, +1 diplomacy and +5 General Opinion,
- "Hymn to Gods" (Q2 stolen from some Catholic Prince-Bishop some time after year 785) that grants +10 Temple Vassal Opinion,
- "Gastronomic Tonics" (Q2 written in year 833 by King Sarin "Knuckle-Slammer") that gives +5% Plot power,
- "The Lessons Taught Me By My Enemy" (Q3 written in year 1036 by Emperor Kezhay "the Gentle") that grants +1 Martial, +1 Intrigue, +6 Personal CS,

So 9 books written within 15 characters reign's. I thought it would go easier, yet we still did not roll what we wanted. Yet we learned that the game can bamboozle us by not offering the topic you always aim for, when all of your attributes are high to begin with. What's funnier is that this AAR started with me basically killing it after drinking some potion that was supposed to improve the quality of book, but gave our ruler back then a Pneumonia and he had no heir ;D"... So I didn't exactly played it safe yet the result so far is dissapointing. Now that I think about it - didn't Magnum Opus books used the same book slot? Meaning we might not even have much room for them if we wanted. Even though we are halfway through the game those gold granting books still have a lot of value - "Feeding a Realm" with 300 years till enddate can still generate +10.800 gold coins!

Moments later as April rolls out, I count the number of potential targets for conversion among courtiers. There are 7 that refused instant demand to become Orthodox. Steward is safe as he is parked outside capital. So that leaves me with 6 desirable targets (Ashkenazis but also 1 stubborn Romuvan) and our Muhallabid young husband. Fingers crossed he won't get converted straight away. Then we get another event from Monastics. The one I was mentioning some time ago - ritual to ward off Satanists powers. Usually this is not an issue but now I spot that each of options costs us some piety (and grants prestige). Still decide to go with spending 2 ingredients (cloves and intestines leaving us with another intestines and snout). Better safe than sorry I guess. That takes 25 piety and leaves us at 497.

With May I notice that Consumption in Khantia is currently vanishing. It still depopulated initial county and we have 2 other sicknesses closeby - Slow Fever and Smallpox (between them). This is good moment to continue building up our hospitals. So we get on shopping spree and go from 16.641 gold coins to 11.722 after ordering the same upgrade all over our personal demense provinces:

Let's pray epidemy away! Also some small extra piety each month will quicken up accumulation period. ​

Soon after we get issued star gazing mission from Hermetics. We accept. Then another pop-up. Our Eudaimonia potion failed resulting in Depressed (-1 to every stat except Learning, -5% Fertility and -1 Health) + Apathetic modifier for 5 years (-1 to all stats, -0.5 health). God dammit! That lowers our stewardhip from 16 to 14 QQ. I thought we were in the clear. The thing erupt all at once - we get first star gazing pop up that offers choice between getting rid of slotfhul or depressed (both 30% chances). We take shot at the first one (as second can be removed with another Eudaimonia potion) and miss it. Followed by brewing another happy potion and spend intestines on it. Soon it relieves Meltsayka of both his depression and "apathetic modifier". But there is more! We get Business focus minting event so I spent 100 gold on +100 prestige but more importantly it levels up trader modifier to provide +2 stewardship. So within a week we went from 14 stewardship back to 17. So it is a time to swap book for our newest addition in collection (leaving us at 18). Then our scheming vassals dies a natural death. Well that at least solved itself on it's own.

In August some raiders try raiding Irtysh. There is less than 2.000 of them so my guards (momentarily away) move back to trounce them without issues. Some issues are spotted in Levant as Muhallabids attacked still embroiled in Civil War Byzantines. Luckily due to Armenia already being independent under Armenian Orthodox King, they have someone to help them defend with event troops. Not sure how it will pan out as they are also attacking half of Farukid Persia for Kurdistan.

Our concoction failed. We have to drink it again! Turns out that was only temporary problem. ​

In September our Meltsayka develops symptoms of some sickness (probably due to recent stress). Soon vomitting occurs and our Court Physician diagnoses it as food poisoning. As our protegee feels worse for the wear big news from Catholic Europe arrives - Northern Crusade arrives! But there is also an update on China

They spawned in Bretonnia with 12,5 thousand troops and Novgorod has 6.5 thousand tribal troops. Good luck pagans ". When it comes to our eastern "friends" it should weaken them enough so they stop posing so much threat towards west.​

We continue being sick (fever), our 72 years old mayor dies and gets replaced by our man that was planted there ages ago (and thus is over 60 years old himself when it happens) and we continue stargazing. Younger princess wants his father attention so we spend last ingredient to make her a brooth instead. That's other way to use those to avoid taking hits to relations with family. Meanwhile one of our double Apprentices finishes their course and we have now empty office.This whole deal grants him +2 to his base Learning and jumpstarts his career in society. Might do it for our picked heir. But for now I appoint some high Martial commander to have someone accompany us next time we go to gather ingredients.

Symptoms developed and there is no doubt it was Food Poisoning. Our doctor (and Patriarch in 1) succesfully applies tested treatment and it offsets most of maluses from being sick, except health that still leaves us at -1 overall (-3 vs +2). One of our mayors dies and is automatically succeded by prefered by us character and more raiders arrive but this time south of Bolgharia. By end of November not only Consumtpion but also Slow Fever that spilled into Perm Duchy winds down. Luckily it did not caused any prosperity level to go down. Not sure about progress towards next province level. But at least we no longer are eating negative income modifier in Perm.

Standard hermetic event chain. Has some nice options and well Esoteric knowledge isn't bad. ​

Year 1160
======================

One of our Jews got Orthodox'ified. Five more to go. We start this year with 13.329 gold coins and +2.744 gold yearly. We shall once again start advancing with our plots now that our target is no longer pandemic related seclusion. And of course first pulse gets our plot revealed =(.

February is marked with Uyghurs once again harrasing north-western tribal parts of our empire. So border retinues from Irtysh embark to beat them down. We just spent 900 prestige there to upgrade some tribal buildings. Then oldest son of Meltsayka (Prince Ylvan) comes out of age only to... dissapoint everyone. Despite best tutors and making him Diligent he ends with level 1 Stewardship education oO. Well guess who is most likely not getting to rule this Empire? This guy

Wow that was dissapointing =D". He is so bad that I'm not even sure we will give him any Temple to rule...Maybe because his horoscope was guiding him towards Scholarship? But his older sister didn't turn out great either while following stars guidance...​

We also conclude our astronomy research, after exhausting every possible way to prolong it (yet we didn't get another choice to get rid of Slothful). We get to name someone after the star and decide on daughter (who also gets assigned stewardship education focus). Could give it to wife (that would make her love us) or to Meltsayka himself (for that pernament +1 diplomacy but also proud which I don't want). We get +200 Esoteric Knowledge but spend 300 on another Horoscope for our youngest Prince Turush.

With March huge nomad band arrives in Ural county... We have to move out to squash them like a bug. Those nomads to the south also were making problem as they lured us to freshly conquered (by vassal) land only to avoid us and move into richer Bolgharia instead. But we got them and teached them a lesson (but not without losing some province wealth).

Sunni Khazar adventure band. Not on my watch. Happy that they decide to suprise our vassal and not more wealthy provinces belonging to us. ​

Sadly Turush rolls Intrigue and I decide to go against this fate. Let's see how it pans out. So the time passes till May when we finally murder Mayor of Gorodki and move onto another bad manager. We manage to save City in Western Sayan at the least possible moment. Then we wave off some popups about last horoscope we made and then watch as Uyghurs get schooled. Sadly Khazarian band cheeses us as when we move onto their position, they magically vanish. So we raised troops for nothing. On other hand they didn't got much as Ural has only single castle holding. So we have to wait a moment then disband our levies. We lost way more on briefly paying our troops than enemies looted.

On first of summer days we get another update from Horoscope. Our oldest daughter 5 years before her "Destined scholar" modifier faded, got this:

I might have opened Pandora box with regards to our Heir, whom stars pointed towards intrigue x] I hope there is no "education lowering outcome". ​

Something concerning happens in September... Our character reports fire that happened during party. Is it because he was Drunkard? We pick brother Bishop-Prince Kezhevat (that is Lunatic...) to rescue us and he manages this task well. We end up without any scratch, which is really lucky but it was scary. We look through plots but nothing is there. Let's hope it was one of really bad Drunkard related events oO. Don't want to retire Meltsayka yet.

This is concerning. We don't want to randomly die due to abuse of alcohol. ​

On another note - we fullfilled "Groom a heir" ambition so we can finally pick "See the realm Prosper". That's 5 years to get more of prosperity points. Definetely doable as we are waiting on piety (638/1500 atm). Another of our super mayors dies and I spot that I made mistake. Created super mayor outside our core defense and well - that will need fixing.

With advent of Autumn Business focus finally grants us opportunity to start lifestyle even chain. It rolls Garden and I ponder. Do I really want it? Gardener is ok lifestyle trait (+2 Stewardship and +1 Learning) but event modifiers are kind of run of a mill. Still would need to spend a ton. I decide to try and wait for Tower building event chain that will result in Architect. Leaning Tower can give us +15% City tax modifier and Quarry (lowers construction costs). Yea it will cost an arm and a leg but longterm benefits are also huge. So we decline.

By December we continue with swooping bad Mayors and marrying courtiers to make it happen, as our kinsman (duke of Veliky-Ustug) dies in our dungeons. We also bribe our way into good graces of our council members as we have to revoke their last vestiges of power. Mission is succesful and thus we start the countdown for Imperial Bureaucracy (10 years)! It is going really well

Council is no more. Also +2 Demense is quite nice. I'm not sure but it could get rid of both Advisors positions. ​

Year 1161
======================

Initial months of 1161 are spent on waiting for councillors to finally vote (and they are not too eager on it), so some HR work on cities is done. We proceed with 1 out of 2 assasinations needed to fix another one. Now that I think about it, picking most greedy option in Minting event from business helps due to increasing intrigue with deceitful. That is quite elegant while not overly visible design. Not that we took it so far due to being close to trait limit. With that said I don't think we have anything we mind losing so might pick it next time we get chance. Greedy by itself is worth 5 points of stewardship when it comes to increasing province income (each point of State Stewardship provides +2% Tax Income). So not only it gives a lot but it also gives on top and just costing us 1 trait "slot". It is slightly less good on our baron vassals, that don't employ their own councillors (due to lowering the load on game engine) and game just doubling their own attributes when counting their state attributes. So it is more among the lines of 2.5 points of stewardship for them when evaluating Greedy vs higher stewardship.

As I was having little break at this point I went and checked business focus event files. Wanted to know how costly the "Leaning Tower" can be. Oh boy! If I calculated everything correctly it takes up to 8.5 times income. Ouch! I have a distinct feeling that in our setup (and probably most setups) it won't ever pay for itself. So we are going to try and get those to just maximise our income for bragging rights, if ever so slightly. We will also check how those province modifiers behave upon succession. I have no understanding how to interpret event file that puts duration on negative value and then applies another -1 some time after. We know from testing previously that Trade Routes at some point can get lost (successions) without game notifying you and because of that had to resign from trying to get trade route in every province by switching capitals. I have some hope as Great Tower event isn't tied to capitals - it can also affect other provinces in personal demense so maybe the game doesn't clean up those upon succession? Only time will tell. Interestingely those Towers seem more limited that Great Works (currently we could start building new Wonder every 4-5 years, if we totally resign from having reserves for prosperity holdings slots and modifiers). But Architecture event chain can be only done once per ruler and even with rapidly "abdicating" rulers it doesn't seem likely to allow to acquire more than 1 every 10 years. Yet we still don't know if we even can collect them.

By halfpoint of Spring we fix another city after several failed murder attempts. That leaves us with just 1 more target. I do make a survey of city courts just in case and spot few problematic situations for future (no courtiers for quick fixing). So I use some of those young female characters we just invited not so long ago and send them preemptively into 2 cities that would otherwise pose some issues later. Our annual income also rose up to +2.909 gold/year. Which means that Architect trait will cost us up to 25.500 coins x_X. That's a lot. For those reasons we probably won't be ordering anything for the time being. Because there are also prosperity costs to consider.

We do have some hermetic decision to make. We start by gathering fresh ingredients. Then we will have to write another theorem for even more esoteric knowledge and +2 Learning modifier. Soon after clicking it, we get issued mission to it... Ehh once again we will double gather or some other sheningans will occur. I can feel it in my CK2 bones!

Time to stockpile on ingredients once again. I really want that "Divine Epiphany" modifier. Please game stop working around your own rules ​

By June a 1.500 nomadic band makes itself hostile, while traveling from our realm back to Silkroad. Local troops of Tarbagatai's duke sacrifice themself to hold them in place, wisely counting on our 6.000 retinues next door to save the day. Then our Spymaster dies and I have to find new Jewish councillor for that reason. We achieve that quickly, acquiring 26 Intrigue Intricate Webweaver+Master Schemer Ambitious new councilor. The only downside is him being ambitious. Then our Abdul-Qadir Muhallabid becomes father to his 2nd son. With that we have 2 families popping Muhallabids currently and 3 future male Muhallabids secured in the making. Did also a search for future tutor for Prince Turush - decided on Diligent, Patient, Ambitious female courtier from some court within our Real. Those are desirable outcomes for his childhood traits but she is also Charitable (whichfurther lowers chance of Fussy becoming Greedy).

By Autumn we finish hunting (acquiring extra esoteric knowledge) and we learn what happens when we didn't follow the horoscope with education choice but encouraged it anyway - Prince Ylvan with stewardship education receives +1 to base Learning as he was destined scholar. Now question what will happen to his younger brother, who got Intrigue horscope but we discouraged it. Two weeks later second instance of gathering ingredients ends, providing us another 3 materials. Funny that finishing the quest did not delete the other instance of gathering ingredients from occurying. We also decide to not torture our only prisoner , which rewards us 10 piety. Meaning slightly less than 9 years till we accumulate enough piety for Syrian war. But then the game fires a rare event:

Turns out that Muhallabid attacking ERE worked against them, as now they have 2 Orthodox provinces in their realm, which allowed us to get that event ​

Wow. Just wow. While we can embark on them just yet, it still will be quicker than waiting for 1.500 piety. That speeds up that conflict by around 4 years, as we just took "See the Realm Prosper" and I would love to complete it for bonuses. Assuming it won't go away (if they get rid of Orthodoxy). But if that occurs we can just wait those extra 4 years. Don't know if there is any time limit, as game doesn't inform me about it. Still an interesting development as we can use it to reclaim the whole kingdom of Syria at once and it doesn't really matter much that it will be less managable by us.

The rest of year is spent on observing how the growing realm of Jomsvikings fares in Sweden (so-so), how the Teutons are doing in Novgorod (that was under civil war where 2/3 of their realm turned against them, so while Crusader will win they will claim relatively not much).

Year 1162
======================

Another year begins with Meltsayka finishing his theorem paper. So we send it for reviews. Soon we start collecting praise from all society members. Other than that some interesting developments are spotted across wide world. Byzantine empire since reported to embark on holy war for Sicily, not only retook it but also took over Corsica and Sardinia. I'm just waiting for moment they decide to turn their close to 60.000 troops against Italian Kingdom ruler by French Paulician (Orthodox heresy) with just 20.000 defending troops. They also finish last remnants of Tengri Bolgharians in Carpathia and well their expansion into steppes was slowed down by it's denizens massively converting to Orthodoxy (well they did it to avoid having to fight us probably as well). Farukid Persia under decadent Sultan (that submited to Western Protectorate) gets eaten by both Byzantine vassals, Armenian rebel kingdom and Shahruzid Orthodox Persian Shahdom (that lost almost half of their Daylam de jure kingdom previously). It seems it will disintegrate further as Persia is somewhat cleanly divided into regional Duchies.

By Spring we accumulate over 18.100 gold coins in our coffers. After dealing with last unskilled baron we are looking at +2.989 coins of income per year. Which are not bad numbers at all . Then we get Minting event and as previously written - I go with greedy options (replacing Charitable) but missing on Deceitful. Given that rest of our not pernament traits are: Slothful, Brave, Paranoid, Drunkard I would not mind losing anything due to being over the trait limit. I'm somewhat irritated that last negative province modifier from in Turgay persists (Thieves Guild: -25% tax income across all holdings types). For that reason (as well as being on prosperity ambition) I swap my steward from collecting taxes to to offmap activity "Administer the Realm". Then have to put Patriarch on something other that proselytizing to not risk councillor. Research tech will do - on success it will increase Perm prosperity progress (by +6 points of prosperity). Now we have 26,2% yearly chance to get 1 out of 3 province modifiers and maybe I vaguely remember it might have some extra weight to occur while on current ruler ambition.

We watch as across Summer Novgorod devolves into another endless war cause every enemy took just a few holdings and to my suprise the one leading is our vassal's vassal (duke of Veps) trying to holy war Novgorod duchy. If he succeeds then Teutonic crusaders will whiff their crusade completely x]. Oh no wait - my vassals has the highest score but Crusaders took most of holdings.

Benefits of prosperity ambition We are happy to take it as Tynea prosperity isn't maxed yet. Extra Piety is valuable right now.​

In November our tyranny penalty (-45) finally goes away. Which means we can proceed with doing more . I decide to retract vassalage twice to retrieve one triple temple bishop from Bolgharia that somehow found himself under Qazan countess under different duke. Between those retraction we accumulate -15 penalty combined. Not bad. But she somehow has overlordship over more barons outside her de jure county. So we have to retrieve one more triple city mayor vassal. Then we can give her back to Qazan Duke. That inceases our income up to +3.171 gold coins.

Year 1163
======================

Due to administrative mess up (thanks AI) I forgot to Scry. Must admit trying to fix it made even worse mess. Because the omen was good and wasn't sure, if retracting vassals counts for it (doesn't) we just all together got up to -50 opinion lenalty across revoked titles and retracted vassals for next 5 years x3". We do refresh vision modifier at least. I also choose the wrong city to revoke initially so after revoking Karasor county on top (to give it away soon along with duchy title cause we still are at 4/2 held duchies limit) we arrive at 12/13 demense limit. I give away some city held in Khantia to last Bolgharian mayor not directly under us to have easier time getting it back later. On 11th of January our Master Engineer constructs another Blast Furnace (will last 20 years) this time in Kolva. Seems like he is upgrading our counties clock wise. Which is much better rng than previously. Then I give away Irtysh duchy to some high learning lowborn with some gold. That at least lowers penalty from being over the duchy limit and I feel kind of forced into it by my prior poor decision making. At least I won't have to worry about vision modifiers for next 7 years (cause it adds duration instead of simply replacing it with initial value)! Next to get rid off is duchy of Turgay (south-western Cumania) and I only wait for that last province modifier to get away to do it. AI is really bad at developing character so they most likely won't be able to clean those maluses on it's own.

Before end of winter we assign preselected guardian for Prince Turush (who unlucky already got rid of willful and got stubborn - not the worst but ambitious would be far better). Our Muhallabid courtier becomes father of 3rd son also. Soon it turns out my machinations costed me too much opinion as our income drops from +3.300 to +2.900. Well shoot...Then comes the ping for Turush's horoscope (intrigue)

Well it seems we were right and he isn't interested in Intrigue anyway. So let's double down on initial decision that seems accurate. ​

In October our steward (Kahana) dies and we replace him with one of older Jews that we invited 4 years ago. He is slightly more skilled and it will cost us slightly less to use him, as he might not be as good in governing cities anyway due to being close to 40 years old. If you wonder we can drink from fountain of Youth but I don't bother. Our Emperor is 41 years old and his quick son will come out of age in just 2 more years. To make sure Turush doesn't take over too late we won't de-age Emperor Meltsayka any longer.

Then before end of year finally some Mayor dies and we are in a pickle - we don't have any lowborn skilled enough to marry and our Ashkenazi are not converted. So we recall Patriarch to start working on those 3-4 courtiers (well we will risk our Muhallabids and Steward but fixing our setup is more important and 4 Muhallabid kids are safe). We invite more characters.

Year 1164
======================

Our treasury increase to over 22.500 gold coins, almost 3.000 prestige and 950 piety to Emperor's name. We have been saving up big time. One of our invitees has 1.000 gold on himself, so he might have to die (47 years old as I invited him due to mistake). Counted and our court has currently 7-8 targets for Patriarchs (that has 90,12% Subject conversion chance each year). One of them is Muhallabid and 2 others are our councillors. So not bad not great.

At the last day of March our Stewards finally succeeds and adds "Harvest Festivals" modifier (+15% local tax) to Udmurts for 3 years. I would rather we finally fix thieves guild in Turgay (which just achieved level 7 construction technology and is pretty much good to be handed over).

Checking those steward offmap job modifiers. Not bad! Obviously the "Taller" your demense the better chance of concentrating those bonuses. ​

Not much to report beside us failing to assasinate some Mayor. Teutonic Order ended it's Crusade but failed to produce any result, so now Novgorodians are bouncing back. Takes up to June for our target to croak but our specially married there Greek Orthodox lowborn doesn't take over. No idea why . So we try again.

In August our kinsman - King Zhuneg of Nenetsia finally becomes an adult, so the matrilinear marriage with Princess Kanyava goes through. Finally someone other than main Permyakid branch will produce 4 bloodline descendants. Non aggresion pact is great cause currently we are having some factions (to increase council power and to install some distant kin with both over 40% of our Levies).

Both of them turned out well stat wise. Should help stability of Nenetsia in the long run. ​

Month doesn't end as we get our beloved "Prosperity" event. Sixth holding slot in Udmurts (meaning we need just one more to max it). We obviously buy it (which drops us from almost 24.000 coins to 16.259 gold coins) and instantly start constructing another city. Soon we will add another 2 cities from wider empire into our direct vassal network. Which means nice income boost.

With just 1 more holding slot needed we seem worse on province modifier front (2/7) ​

Once the city is constructed, we start with previously utilised starter kit: 2 levels of city walls, 1-2 levels of city town, University and Garrisoned Roads. More news from abroad requires Emperor's attention though. Our Alliance with 2nd son of previous Greek Emperor is in shambles. Our Son in Law died due to poor physique (Weak, Fat, Stressed, Depressed), our daughter is infirm and our granddaughter Countess Konstantia is 4 years old with claim on whole empire. Surameli dynasty we tied our lot with is now ruled by brother of previous emperor instead of his sons. But don't get too conclusion as of yet as they erupted into Civil war where they have around 20-30.000 troops and rebels field 70-90.000 troops ". The rebels are under Amalfinos noble house that we have no ties too. Can't even help Suramelis, if I wanted cause current Emperor doesn't have any available close kin for match. Only way Komi-Greek alliance is coming through is if Prince we have alliance with comes to power. In all other instances Basileus will decline us. Practically for us it means no alliance with Greeks when attempting to "dab on" Muhallabids.

At least fricking finally we got rid of Thief guild in Turgay. Which means we can offload another 2 counties and duchy title with it. But I don't wanna do it right now. Partially can't but we ought to acquire some lands in Bolgharia (to not eat those high penalties for having duchy and most of baronies as vassals there without counties). For now lets keep those extra levies and keep feeding technology there.

Year 1165
======================

Year starts with our Bishop-vassal in Pilva dieing at 45 years of life. He gets replaced by half as skilled auto generated courtier but he still can hold those 2 temples. Will have to do for now. Less ok is that he no longer is related to Monastics. Meaning we can't fix it by sending more courtiers into random monastic courts across realm. To be frank even having 6 monastics multi temple vassals seems like a stretch due to lack of skilled enough characters. We just don't get access to enough 18+ stewardship characters in this part of world on regular basis.

We got another opportunity to sell land to burghers as part of Business focus some time ago. I'm little concerned - where is my Architect event chain :<? Instead we get other things - first of all some long time rival (acquired from times AI was playing this character) dies. Good. You have no idea how many times I had to choose to not spend bunch of gold or prestige to try and annoy him (which could potentially lead to dangerous situation). We pick the options that grants us Kind (while Diplomacy isn't as important getting +5 Vassal Opinion modifier is nice). This might allow us to lose random trait that will most likely improve our character. Then we get event related to buying wife some present. So that most expensive option (costing 15g) grant's us +40 lover opinion on Empress Sernyava. This is better that I initially thought - she is 54 years old and became our lover just now. Meaning that after she dies, we are eligible to receive "Lover Memento" modifier granting +0.5 health. Which is usually good. But oh... I don't necessarily need to live god knows how long. Still good to realise it ahead of time.

On topic of health: in April Emperor Meltsayka develops fever. As previous epidemics are long since gone it is quite random. Our Patriarch succesfully treats our symptoms. We still have to sort out succession so let's play safely. On topic of Prince Ylvan, someone tries to murder him but most likely won't find enough plot power to succeed. Few days later we finally fix city in Tynea as game generates 18 stewardship character. We are left with more to be desired after checking on Prince Turush education - he got bunch of extra traits that doesn't seem to be related to what he had >.<. Guardian we employed also did not had any of them

Stubborn potential was there previously but getting Paranoid, Homosexual + Chaste (-30% Fertility =.=) stings. ​

Then I realise it is already past final intervention (which happens at 14,5 years of age and he is basically at 14,9) so we let the diligent guardian finish the job, counting at least for Diligent and higher stewardship education. Soon our disease manifests as Gout. We get succesfully treated with regular means, which means we should enjoy bunch of extra attributes as both health penalty and bonus cancel each other out.

With Summer we experience peasant revolt in Gorodets. It doesn't cancel our prosperity ambition but we have to deal with it.

Thank god we still have those tribal retinues - otherwise we would have less retinues to deal with such nuisances. ​

Twice across last few months our Patriarch converted someone. First was (of course) our Steward but then he continued on Ashkenazi courtiers buuuut targeted 49 years old with 1.000 coins in his pocket (the one we probably don't wanna use as administrator). Then on 7th July Steward improved Pilva (New Roads modifier granting -15% local build cost for 3 years - not bad!). Then unexpectedly we take over Hermetic society!

Previous leader died and we were probably next in line. That said now I wonder - will we be getting every event pulse we had previously? Obviously no longer missions as you can't assign them to yourself. We also didn't have to spend 2.000 esoteric knowledge on it. ​

On beggining of October our builders report having finished construction of Grand Palace in Perm. Which starts the countdown for "Town is Born" event (+1 holding slot). If we don't make any mistake then on 1st October 1215 we will see it. For now we rename it into: "Permyakid's Sanctuary". Grand University in Kudymkar is also slightly over 90% done, and stage 3 of Hagia Epimoni sits at 84%. Having finished some constructions should also lower our yearly expanses by around 80 coins . What I really like is that the game keeps track of which Great Work was constructed when and how high the penalty based on order for each one should be.

Interesting wonder cause it's final stage grants +20% Retinue limit . There was a bug with it before HF, which applied it multiple times thus you get enormous retinue limits ​

Finally by end of October we fulfill Emperor's ambition, thus no longer are we bound by no-wars agreement. First we have to stabilize our realm a little though. Within 3 more years most of our tyranny and penalty from taking away council powers will timeout. Our troops from Burtasy deal with upheaval in Gorodets (under commander that boost merged into single column troops) without any issues. They did had to go around to avoid modifiers but it was worth it - we lost less than 400 men to deal with enemy of our size. Then on the route back they spot some 300 riders moving to the Burtasy so they are ordered to give chase.

Then before end of year you won't guess what happens. Trade route event fires. Which is mega weird as we already had "Gardeninig event chain". Well I guess it doesn't disable it. We obviously take it. With fixed max costs I really want that +30% city income in capital for 30 years .

Year 1166
======================

We Organise the whole trade caravan the same as always - relying on our stats (beside high enough intrigue to reliably not suffer bad outcomes from stealing pack animals/hiring pirates). We don't need education upgrade this time (we have Martial lvl 2 education), so we mainly aim for province and character modifiers.

Our resources also aren't half bad - by February we are sporting over 20.000 gold coins, 3.400 prestige and 1.100 piety. If you wondered - Muhallabids still have those 2 orthodox provinces so we can still use religious Liberation. on them. Once again one of our mayors gets under Qazan countess despite his capital being in Perm itself. I don't understand why... Which means we wasted those tyranny extractions...

Caravan proceeds without hitch until it is time to make decision regarding clergy behaviour. I usually just take a hit from them but now I'm not that sure. Getting Zealous is secretly great cause right after trade route we can swap focus to Theology and get 0.5x MTTH for seclusions, which will start fixing our character (removing Slotfhul, Greedy, Drunkard, getting diligent and temperate). I'm less and less a fan of waiting for Architect as I remembered that succession most likely will get rid of our Golden Age Chinese modifiers. So instead of getting single +15% city modifier for over 20.000 gold it might be more prudent to go on with prosperity event funds + regular buildup of hospitals etc. Lifestyle while no longer needed for writting book could help with prosperity events but... Thanks to having final rank in Hermetics I can use decision to "pick Hermetic art" to choose among Scholar/Mystic and Theologian. So we can instantly get Scholar and be done with it. Business still is rng because we are rolling between:
1) Minting event
2) Carpenters event,
3) Craftsmen guild event,
4) Selling land to Burghers,
5) Architect lifestyle event chain
First 4 are not exhaustable. So with average 1 event every 2 years we can wait up to 10 more years on that lifestyle... Or we might not get it at all. I hope now you understand why I'm going to piss our Persian host off and pay him 150g in bribes to get Zealous trait.

We succeeded but sadly no friend. If we got him we would also fulfill recently picked ambition to get a friend for +1 diplomacy. ​

After that with Spring we change focus to Theology and then pick Hermetic Art. The chain soon begins and it reminds me that it offers more goodies than just lifestyle trait. We get to choose between getting rid of slotfhul (guaranteed) and trying to either get +1 base Learning (50%), Erudite (40%) and Shrewd (10%). Getting shrewd would be bonkers (cause we are already genius) but let's be realistic - it most likely won't happen. Instead we can get extra 1 stewardship, putting us again at exactly 18. I like it - I take it.

Not often I pick lifestyle this way x]. Scholar/Mystic are quickly guaranteed lifestyle (5 years investment). There was that 10% chance of being Shrewd Genius but cmon - that most likely isn't happening. ​

Now that I think about it we can probably exploit it. Cause I can instantly take it again x]. Out of curiosity I do (cause we have close to 2.000 esoteric knowledge and not much to spend it on).But it turns out other event steps are only occuring the first time you are picking it. It just instantly swaps between 3 lifestyles. Well lesson lerned. Also Prince Turush has came out of age and at least got that Diligent that helped him with getting Midas Touched (*.*). Which is so great Just look at his high stats:

This character won't need any fixing (unlike his father). Our artifacts grant +5 stewardship and +4 learning. We at once make him Designated Regent and Apprentice in Hermetics to start working on him. ​

Only takes up to September for first theology related event to fire. Such a change of pace after waiting and missing events on previous focus. Yay! We can lose Zealous or risk 30% Depressed for 100 piety. We pick the second (as we can cure it with brewing potion) but don't even had to. Well that one event out of the list already (and we can't become zealous as we already are zealous). Not to mention +100 piety put's us a year earlier regarding fighting for Syria (1260/1500).

Our son-in-law King Zhuneg loses his kingship to our kinsman. More problematic is his line of succession that will include some counties in Ural within Nenetsian rulership >.>. On the plus side our Ural kin is possesed, lunatic with great pox and also older by year that new king of Nenetsia (King Setyamka). Maybe it will solve itself out - if not we will have to fix that mess again. At least he gets new young wife quickly so there is a chance he sires a heir to straighten up whole succession mess AI just made. I'm somewhat responsible - cause it was one kin from Ural branch family who was the schemer I haven't dealt with. He probably schemed his way into becoming second only to Emperor. Such a shame that it is a second time our effort goes down the drain :/. Exactly the same way it happened 100 years ago.

Before Autumn our steward did the hattrick by granting 3rd possible modifier to Turgay - Inspired Peasantry. It decreases build time (as opposed to New Roads that affected built cost). Then I recall him to Perm to collect taxes only to realise that it doesn't affect my vassal cities (only personally held counties). Ye it gives me half my income every 6 years on average but this is way less than expected. Which means that offmap job is much more competitive (increased prosperity and those 3 year modifiers). But probably will swap him when he is off his cooldown to increase tech spread to counties we want to offload.

But that will be enough for this part. While we had some administrative hiccups, it wasn't bad overall. We are getting really close to Syrian war (finally). So stay tuned for next part .

Steady progress ​

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

The famous Khaganate of Lowborn is one of the nations of all time.

Loads of Great Works will make every ruler a super-ruler.

 

[TWR97]

big war in the middle east? hardly a dent on the empire's coffers with you being that loaded though it's definitely gonna be a long ass war if more folks start joining in.

 

[jhhowell]

survival of Italian culture is not certain

Why is that? Is Italy still mostly Lombard for some reason? I always see most of the provinces convert to Italian, so it's not as common a culture as French, German, or Greek, but it's still a pretty common culture in my games.

Northern Crusade arrives

How does that work, exactly? Looking at the screenshot, does the Teutonic Order have a big chunk of central Norway and Sweden? I'm starting to see them in my game (all of Jutland, plus one province in Norway) and find it very very weird! I don't think I've ever seen them before in CK2, so I don't know what the Northern Crusade event chain does (other than eventually launch a crusade in the North, obviously).

I'm not sure but it could get rid of both Advisors positions.

It does. I prefer to be one step short of Absolute Rule, to have those two extra council slots to keep powerful vassals happy. Happier. Less unhappy. You know what I mean...

stubborn - not the worst

Isn't it? As far as I know, there's no way to get rid of it, and the -5 vassal relations is not great. Looking at the traits one can acquire during a character's education, I think I'd put stubborn as second worst (Dull being the worst).

I'll be interested to see how that CB works. I'm wondering if it might not be as useful as it seems, since I wouldn't be surprised if it only allows you to conquer the Orthodox provinces in the target realm. Maybe I'm being paranoid, though.

Your income is amazing. I'm only getting 800ish/year with my Byzantines, and that's still literally more money than I can spend!

 

[Sanvone]

big war in the middle east? hardly a dent on the empire's coffers with you being that loaded though it's definitely gonna be a long ass war if more folks start joining in.

It is more matter of: "The more we spend on war foolishnes, the less we have to develop our own realm" kind of issue. Being halfway done with this playthrough means we are becoming limited by remaining time when it comes to income too.

Why is that? Is Italy still mostly Lombard for some reason? I always see most of the provinces convert to Italian, so it's not as common a culture as French, German, or Greek, but it's still a pretty common culture in my games.

Italy lately been taken over Paulician French King. He is up to no good in the next part. While he will have trouble with converting provinces culture (low moral authority) he did cut down number of Italian courts though. And well southern Italy is under Eastern Roman Empire Rule.

How does that work, exactly? Looking at the screenshot, does the Teutonic Order have a big chunk of central Norway and Sweden? I'm starting to see them in my game (all of Jutland, plus one province in Norway) and find it very very weird! I don't think I've ever seen them before in CK2, so I don't know what the Northern Crusade event chain does (other than eventually launch a crusade in the North, obviously).

What you are refering to as Teutonic Order is another Holy Order - Jomsvikings . They went a little on a rampage but well also ignore Fylkir's Great Wars. They could have some scrap one holy order versus the other. I also did not experience Northern Crusades enough to be an expert (not many playthroughs since I bought Holy Fury).

It does. I prefer to be one step short of Absolute Rule, to have those two extra council slots to keep powerful vassals happy. Happier. Less unhappy. You know what I mean...

Thanks for confirmation! I haven't decided yet how my final laws will look. Might keep Absolute Rule as with possible to keep 16 demense limit after seceding Nenetsia it might turn out there are no powerful vassals. With Imperial Bureaucracy soon I might be able to keep only counts or just few dukes.

Isn't it? As far as I know, there's no way to get rid of it, and the -5 vassal relations is not great. Looking at the traits one can acquire during a character's education, I think I'd put stubborn as second worst (Dull being the worst).

It still gives +stewardship. I would definetely put Stubborn above Arbitrary, Paranoid, Slothful. Probably above Chaste, Homosexual. Don't particularly like Proud either and Content/Ambitious sting when it is playable character/non-playable character (altough Ambitious on Steward can give you +500g occasionally).

I'll be interested to see how that CB works. I'm wondering if it might not be as useful as it seems, since I wouldn't be surprised if it only allows you to conquer the Orthodox provinces in the target realm. Maybe I'm being paranoid, though.

Well the CB at least in theory affects whole Kingdom in question. But it would make a Tributary Kingdom under Orthodox king of culture difficult to predict (Komi? Culture of de jure capital? Every character there gets spawned at once or usual AI giving out the titles?)

Your income is amazing. I'm only getting 800ish/year with my Byzantines, and that's still literally more money than I can spend!

I definetely can spend more than 3.200 gold coins/year. Building single structure across all cities in realm probably takes above 10.000 coins and takes a year-two. Still those higher numbers force player to scale up his macro play. It still feels weird spending basically Crusade level of money so quickly. I like it better than raiding and it is also doable for any religion/culture configuration. Also concentrating such funds on relatively small realm feels different. Amount of control we can exclude feels great. Prefer it over usual mappainting and then spotting some vassal border gore or other mess. Lately I was thinking that religions with full egality for women might be good as they will increase possible number of usable characters to allow slightly wider play (for example take over Catholicism, flip main branch to Catharism so the Monastics go with it and voila - now you can use female characters as well). I wonder if those affect republic succession too (which can make it more convoluted to ensure handpicked person takes over). So far it seems the biggest bottleneck for this setup is number of skilled characters (as you don't want to generate them with decisions).

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

Your income is amazing. I'm only getting 800ish/year with my Byzantines, and that's still literally more money than I can spend!

I definetely can spend more than 3.200 gold coins/year. Building single structure across all cities in realm probably takes above 10.000 coins and takes a year-two.

In my current AAR, I'm placing an emphasis on building tall with each nation. In 1400, I would be making 2400/year with Afghanistan with just three provinces held personally (maxed-out with great works, a silk road trading post in my capital, prosperity adding holding slots and Iqta government letting me control temple holdings directly) and 4 duchy-tier vassals (one of whom has 200K gold saved up and spending barely a thing). However, about half of my income goes on great work construction. As part of the roleplay, my realm only controls the modern borders, so it can't be anything near the size of Permo-Siberia or Byzantium. What probably helps me is that my use of mods to 'babysit' my vasssals (make them not declare wars for example) means that everything becomes prosperous. Maxing out hospitals means that even though I have the Black Death set to deadly (and there's been 5 outbreaks in the just over 600 years iirc), my demesne is never affected.

It's my first time playing tall properly (I sort of played tall in a previous AAR, and roleplayed it as the government allotting funds for projects following elections but they also expanded a lot), and it is so much more fun than playing wide. Before I wouldn't even bother to upgrade my holdings, now I'm just two sets of riding grounds (a special building available because of my ruler's culture) away from completely finishing my demesne holdings (at which point I'll probably invest in vassal holdings and more great works).

 

[jhhowell]

cut down number of Italian courts though. And well southern Italy is under Eastern Roman Empire Rule.

I guess both empires have been busy replacing any Italian counts or dukes. I haven't been too picky about that in my Byzantine game - if they don't border one of my Greek culture provinces, for now it doesn't matter if they're Italian. I think the AI tends to be pushier about revoking vassals (and/or has lots more civil wars) than I am.

How valuable are those culture-specific tactics anyway? To put it in concrete terms, given a choice between two potential commanders with the same traits, one Italian and one Komi (or pick any culture that doesn't have special tactics), how much lower would the Italian's martial stat have to be for you to prefer the generic commander instead? Or is the idea that if you have your own Italian colony in your court, you'll be educating them to have the best possible martial stat and not have to choose?

it might turn out there are no powerful vassals

That can work too. I took my Arles game for a spin last night, because I wanted to think for a while about whether my Byzantine Empire cared about assassinating Seljuk now that he's in the game. Arles is pretty tall, and I have Absolute Rule. I forget why (it's been quite a long time since I discovered the Great Walls bug that invalidated the original point of that playthrough), possibly compensating for a notably low-stewardship king in the recent past in-game. My vassals all hate me but it just doesn't matter; four castles in Provence plus four more in the rest of the capital duchy mean the vassals can't get much above 50% of my manpower on the faction screen.

It still gives +stewardship. I would definetely put Stubborn above Arbitrary, Paranoid, Slothful. Probably above Chaste, Homosexual. Don't particularly like Proud either and Content/Ambitious sting when it is playable character/non-playable character

I'm looking at it as worst traits for my character; agreed that Ambitious is quite bad news to see on a vassal. But Arbitrary, for example, is no big deal at all on one's active character - just feast until you get Just (which you'll probably do for any character, because Just is great), problem solved! Seduction focus should be able to turn Chaste into Lustful. The wiki says Theology can fix most of the bad traits you mentioned (I don't have a lot of experience using Theology focus though). It's Stubborn not being fixable that puts it at or near the top of my list of Bad Traits. Homosexual is in a different category for me since it's not the kind of trait you can gain or lose.

Edit: What's the problem with Proud? Just that a character can only have six or seven traits, and 0.5 prestige/month is underwhelming compared to a lot of good traits? Or does it increase the chances of some bad events and/or decrease the chances of some good events?

In 1400, I would be making 2400/year with Afghanistan with just three provinces held personally

Sounds interesting, I will check it out!

I am starting the Great Work construction in my Byzantine game, but tech spread is a bit of a bottleneck. I have my steward in Antioch trying to help Construction 4 and Improved Keeps 4 spread there faster for a Great Fortress. I think Thrace is still waiting on Tolerance 3 for a University. So far all I've done is a Royal Palace in Kaliopolis.

 

[Sanvone]

In my current AAR, I'm placing an emphasis on building tall with each nation. In 1400, I would be making 2400/year with Afghanistan with just three provinces held personally (maxed-out with great works, a silk road trading post in my capital, prosperity adding holding slots and Iqta government letting me control temple holdings directly) and 4 duchy-tier vassals (one of whom has 200K gold saved up and spending barely a thing). However, about half of my income goes on great work construction. As part of the roleplay, my realm only controls the modern borders, so it can't be anything near the size of Permo-Siberia or Byzantium. What probably helps me is that my use of mods to 'babysit' my vasssals (make them not declare wars for example) means that everything becomes prosperous. Maxing out hospitals means that even though I have the Black Death set to deadly (and there's been 5 outbreaks in the just over 600 years iirc), my demesne is never affected.

It's my first time playing tall properly (I sort of played tall in a previous AAR, and roleplayed it as the government allotting funds for projects following elections but they also expanded a lot), and it is so much more fun than playing wide. Before I wouldn't even bother to upgrade my holdings, now I'm just two sets of riding grounds (a special building available because of my ruler's culture) away from completely finishing my demesne holdings (at which point I'll probably invest in vassal holdings and more great works).

I have a question. With just 3 provinces are you able to stack Steward "Administer the Realm" province modifiers? Also by "half of your income" you mean 1200g you spent on Great Works? Cause if you spent another 2400 on Great Works that would mean you are actively building/upgrading around 30 such building at the same time. Also Permo-Siberia is half the size of Eastern Roman Empire in my game >D.

I guess both empires have been busy replacing any Italian counts or dukes. I haven't been too picky about that in my Byzantine game - if they don't border one of my Greek culture provinces, for now it doesn't matter if they're Italian. I think the AI tends to be pushier about revoking vassals (and/or has lots more civil wars) than I am.

I've read somewhere that AI is likely to revoke titles until meeting their demense limit. That would explain some civil war occuring quickly after someone takes over that usually are "War against Tyranny of XXXXX".

How valuable are those culture-specific tactics anyway? To put it in concrete terms, given a choice between two potential commanders with the same traits, one Italian and one Komi (or pick any culture that doesn't have special tactics), how much lower would the Italian's martial stat have to be for you to prefer the generic commander instead? Or is the idea that if you have your own Italian colony in your court, you'll be educating them to have the best possible martial stat and not have to choose?

If both of them are above 16 Martial then I'm picking Italian no matter how much higher Komi's Martial is. To be frank I don't Martial value of Commanders much (it can be upgraded via Marshal anyway). If they have 12+ it is good enough. The idea is to breed my own commanders. But I made a mistake and mistook Italians with Scots - both have Pikemen boosting culture building and pikemen related cultural combat tactics. Will have to look for some Waldensian Scotsman to start the program.

That can work too. I took my Arles game for a spin last night, because I wanted to think for a while about whether my Byzantine Empire cared about assassinating Seljuk now that he's in the game. Arles is pretty tall, and I have Absolute Rule. I forget why (it's been quite a long time since I discovered the Great Walls bug that invalidated the original point of that playthrough), possibly compensating for a notably low-stewardship king in the recent past in-game. My vassals all hate me but it just doesn't matter; four castles in Provence plus four more in the rest of the capital duchy mean the vassals can't get much above 50% of my manpower on the faction screen.

I'm revising my approach but more regarding Gavelkind (+30% to Stewardship when calculating demense size). Emperor has base demense of 4. Absolutism (Council laws) and maximal centralisation add another +6. That's 10 already. And my Rulers will have to have that 18 stewardship (so with spouse we are looking at 20-25). Under Gavelkind that is another +6. Without it still 15. That's quite a breathing room, as I will need to hold 11 counties. Another 2 counties could be held just for technology spreading reasons to distant edges of empire. So I'll have to think about how much vassal limit do I want/need. Only problem is that reintroducing council rule, we get rid of that +2 Demense.

I'm looking at it as worst traits for my character; agreed that Ambitious is quite bad news to see on a vassal. But Arbitrary, for example, is no big deal at all on one's active character - just feast until you get Just (which you'll probably do for any character, because Just is great), problem solved! Seduction focus should be able to turn Chaste into Lustful. The wiki says Theology can fix most of the bad traits you mentioned (I don't have a lot of experience using Theology focus though). It's Stubborn not being fixable that puts it at or near the top of my list of Bad Traits. Homosexual is in a different category for me since it's not the kind of trait you can gain or lose.

Well Just still requires some luck and stopping everything to keep hitting those feasts every year. Arbitrary kind of pushes you towards Rulership otherwise.

Edit: What's the problem with Proud? Just that a character can only have six or seven traits, and 0.5 prestige/month is underwhelming compared to a lot of good traits? Or does it increase the chances of some bad events and/or decrease the chances of some good events?

What you wrote - trait slot and not providing much. Even if you need prestige that's not enough. There might be some "proud" dynasty strategy to keep pumping it's prestige I haven't tried but it just is such "nothing-burger". Also during childhood it is related to "Haughty" from Pride that is usually not great.

I am starting the Great Work construction in my Byzantine game, but tech spread is a bit of a bottleneck. I have my steward in Antioch trying to help Construction 4 and Improved Keeps 4 spread there faster for a Great Fortress. I think Thrace is still waiting on Tolerance 3 for a University. So far all I've done is a Royal Palace in Kaliopolis.

Yea - technology spread is really something you need to think of in advance. That's why I keep spending on those Universities first. Without bonuses it takes on average 100 years for single level of technology to spread from county to county. Adding any bonuses cuts down that time tremendously. Swaping capital to instantly buy technologies help and keeping distant counties for making them adjecent to your own demense also is something that seems to work. I'm not certain if going over 100% technology spread bonus does anything.

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

I have a question. With just 3 provinces are you able to stack Steward "Administer the Realm" province modifiers? Also by "half of your income" you mean 1200g you spent on Great Works? Cause if you spent another 2400 on Great Works that would mean you are actively building/upgrading around 30 such building at the same time.

Yes, and I have great stewards -but I haven't gotten a single negative event in my capital but plenty outside the capital (lots of money, I use the game rule that makes it easier to invite potential councillors and sometimes my spare sons have 20+ in an attribute). It could be that I wasn't keeping notice of what was causing positive events (as prosperity has permanently been at level 3 in my demesne for approximately 500 years) but the Administer the Realm tends to backfire more in demesne provinces other than the capital in my experience.

Yes, I was (I'm in 1500 now thanks to a mod that extends the timeline) spending 1200 a year on Great Works (Great Walls along the northern border - for roleplaying as trying to keep the never-ending Turkish hordes from raiding, a Fortress in the west and a Ruler Statue stacks up). When combined with turned off demesne limits, Iqta government is a money-printing machine (I have 11 baronies not including the province capitals).