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Other players have mentioned waiting for an Empire to implode so they can be picked to pieces. How long do you actually wait for things like that to happen- 100 years?


It is easy to see. Start a game, and from time to time, take a look at Byzantium and the HRE.

Because of their bad starting monarchs, lots of dukes will rebel.

When you see that their king is bad, they are in numerous wars with former vassals, and lots of dukes are not part of their kingdom, you can try your luck.

Sometimes they survive though! And a HRE with personal demense provinces all over the place (1 in Italy, 1 in Prussia, 1 in the holy land, 1 near france) is hard to take down with a small army.
 
At what point do you all worry about low efficiency?

I have a low intrigue duke, and am playing with the house rule that I can't take land from my vassals, so I'm not keen on passing out land (which at this point would have to be from the core of my future kingdom). But my duke just became stressed and ill and is at 60% efficiency. Is that too low?
 
At what point do you all worry about low efficiency?

I have a low intrigue duke, and am playing with the house rule that I can't take land from my vassals, so I'm not keen on passing out land (which at this point would have to be from the core of my future kingdom). But my duke just became stressed and ill and is at 60% efficiency. Is that too low?


As a rule of thumb, try to not get below 80%, if you build royal posts everywhere, you will get the full income.


60% is too low, not just because of the stress events.

Example:
6 provinces, yielding 10/5/5/5/5/3 gold, at 60%. The full income is 33*0,6=19,8.
If you give away your 3 gold province, and reach for example 80% efficiency, you will get 30*0.8=24
Actually more! Your poor princes hurt the income of the rich ones.


When you are low on efficiency, give a county to:
- heir
- brother (I usually establish a second line of the family, to be able to get a good heir from my dynasty with elective law if a ruler is infertile)
- bishop (you will get it back sooner or later)



There are a few examples. Like as a count, I usually stay below 80%, as I cannot get vassals. Or if the current king is old, and the heir has higher intrigue then him.
 
Just to add a suggestion to what galuska said, if your mother is still alive and had no children from another dynasty it can be good to give her the poorest provinces to increase your efficiency, they will stay in the family when she dies.
 
Just to add a suggestion to what galuska said, if your mother is still alive and had no children from another dynasty it can be good to give her the poorest provinces to increase your efficiency, they will stay in the family when she dies.



This is a good idea until you mother thinks to give a count title to his idiot and good for nothing son (your brother) :rolleyes:
 
Other players have mentioned waiting for an Empire to implode so they can be picked to pieces. How long do you actually wait for things like that to happen- 100 years?

The Holy Roman Empire collapsed massively in the first thirty years of my current game. (Ruler excommunicated heretic with realm duress, among other things.) Byzantium, which inevitably collapsed by this point (~1105) in my vanilla CK games, is going fairly strong, and seems to be driving towards Mesopotamia, on the other hand. (This is my first game with DV.)
 
Random questions continue:

1. I owned one of 2 provinces in a duchy, with the other province owned by the duke. This duke had one count as a vassal far away. I took the count title, but unfortunately the duke is now still a duke, but with no land. I can neither create the duke title nor usurp the title and win it in a war. Is there a way to get that title?

2. I'm trying to give land to close relatives, however, I'm a kinslayer and all my relatives have deserted my court. Is there a way to give them land even though they aren't in my court?
 
Random questions continue:

1. I owned one of 2 provinces in a duchy, with the other province owned by the duke. This duke had one count as a vassal far away. I took the count title, but unfortunately the duke is now still a duke, but with no land. I can neither create the duke title nor usurp the title and win it in a war. Is there a way to get that title?

Unless that Count vassal is a son of the Duke, he'll eventually revoke that title and move to that province. In the mean-time, you can still usurp the Duke title (unless he's pagan/Muslim). Co to that vassal's county, click on HIS shield to bring up his character screen. You can now click on his liege's (the missing Duke) picture, which will bring up the Duke's province info page. At that point you can now click on Usurp (or any other diplomatic option).

2. I'm trying to give land to close relatives, however, I'm a kinslayer and all my relatives have deserted my court. Is there a way to give them land even though they aren't in my court?

AFAIK, unless someone is a courtier of your court or a direct vassal of yours, there is no way to give that person a title. Now, if that person is your direct Heir, they'll still inherit your titles, but you can't give out more titles to them. You 'could' try a trick, declare war on the court that person is in, win it and take away all of their titles. Their courtiers (including that family member) become homeless and there's a chance they'll move back home.

Or, they'll move somewhere else, but it's still a chance. If he's married, his wife might move back to her home court and he'll probably follow her. If that's her home court, then he might go to a friend's court (so if his best friend is still in your court, it might improve the odds).
 
Dunno about a cheat, but editing it shouldn't be too hard. Someone else is probably more qualified to advise you on that, though (I did do some save-game editing once or twice, but I mostly went with a learn-as-you-go method).
 
I think I just screwed up--I was on crusade, and took the crusade target. I then settled a peace with me owning the target. At that point, the entire catholic world DOWed me.

How do I end the crusade after I won? I suppose I need to stay at war until it is over?
 
I think I just screwed up--I was on crusade, and took the crusade target. I then settled a peace with me owning the target. At that point, the entire catholic world DOWed me.

How do I end the crusade after I won? I suppose I need to stay at war until it is over?

The crusade ends by event. To increase the likelihood of the event firing make sure the provinces around the target are in christian hands (not neccessarily yours). It can be anything from a few weeks to several years before the Pope calls it off.

I guess he wants to be sure the christian can actually hold the target.

Sounds odd though, that the entire catholic world declares war on you. That shouldn't happen because you hold the crusade target. You should expect a wave of muslim DOWs though.
 
The crusade ends by event. To increase the likelihood of the event firing make sure the provinces around the target are in christian hands (not neccessarily yours). It can be anything from a few weeks to several years before the Pope calls it off.

I guess he wants to be sure the christian can actually hold the target.

Sounds odd though, that the entire catholic world declares war on you. That shouldn't happen because you hold the crusade target. You should expect a wave of muslim DOWs though.

You know what may have happened? Another country took the crusade target and lost it, gaining a claim. I took the target and resolved a peace, so they immediately DOWed me. Germany is basically 50% of the Catholic world in my game, and they DOWed me too (probably were either allied to the country that attacked me, or their liege). Now I'm getting DOWed by all the counts and dukes in germany, and it just seems like the whole world.

This is going to be very tough. My king died in the crusade, so I am ruled by an infant with 0 intrigue. I think realm duress might be around the corner, and now I'm at war with europe.
 
You know what may have happened? Another country took the crusade target and lost it, gaining a claim. I took the target and resolved a peace, so they immediately DOWed me. Germany is basically 50% of the Catholic world in my game, and they DOWed me too (probably were either allied to the country that attacked me, or their liege). Now I'm getting DOWed by all the counts and dukes in germany, and it just seems like the whole world.

This is going to be very tough. My king died in the crusade, so I am ruled by an infant with 0 intrigue. I think realm duress might be around the corner, and now I'm at war with europe.

If you have money in your coffers, try offering all of it to the German King :) ...then you will get peace with all the vassals. The AI doesn't care if you have only 4 gold or 4 million gold in your treasury, as long as you offer all of it.
 
If you have money in your coffers, try offering all of it to the German King :) ...then you will get peace with all the vassals. The AI doesn't care if you have only 4 gold or 4 million gold in your treasury, as long as you offer all of it.

I have about 4k. Is there a way I can give that much? Normally in peace offerings I'm limited to 500.

It is going to be tough to keep my vassals in line without my treasury. :( But still easier than fighting the western world while also keeping them in line.
 
I have about 4k. Is there a way I can give that much? Normally in peace offerings I'm limited to 500.

It is going to be tough to keep my vassals in line without my treasury. :( But still easier than fighting the western world while also keeping them in line.

Hmmm not sure ... I never spent that much on peace treaties :D ... but you can just use up most of it in improvements (if any are available) ... give them in gifts to your mother and/or vassals, until you have less than 500 ... and then offer all to Germany.

If your mother is not a vassal, then you could consider making her a count somewhere, and then dump all your money on her. If she doesn't squander it all, you should inherit them again later :)
 
OR (gamey thing coming)
- from the 4k, start building 3,9k value of improvements
- offer 100 as tribute for a peace
- when in peace, cancel building projects
:D