At the old age of 70...

[Nitt the Mitt]

My current game is coming to a close. King Nektarios Spartenos has hit the age of 70. His twin brother is also 70. His only surviving son is 4 (the rest died of age or through war), and his oldest grandson is 43 (and has no sons himself, and is a kinslayer). The Law of Succession is that the strongest son takes the throne.

It wouldn't be long before the King dies. His martial abilities have declined from 16 to a lowly 5. Old age is making his bones brittle, and Nektarios can also feel the strong realm he created will become just as brittle after his death.

So I have come to an impasse. King N. Spartenos quadrupled the size of the realm from when he took the throne at the age of 6 to now.

Is there anyway to keep his Empire together? I'm sure I could try bribing every unhappy vassal, but that's very tedious and gamey.
I also try to give most of my Duchy titles with all the Counties associated with that ducal title away, it's much more manageable and realistic. Though it is a double edge knife. If I get Realm Duress, I can easily lose tons of land at one go.

It's been a long way since the time as a simple Count of Salerno. At least 4 generations of Kings fighting almost non-stop with the Seljuk Turks (and still fighting).
It's going to be really hard to win any realm duress when my King dies. His 8 demense are spread across the Kingdom. 4 in Italy, 1 in Egypt, 2 in Greece, and 1 in Constantinople.

Here's a picture of the current situation (Right click - View Image to see Larger):

Spoiler

 

[postm00v]

The best games are those that go completely wrong. Try to keep it together and if you fail, try to win it all back !

 

[Mrdie]

Have your heir inherit as Emperor of Byzantium? Gamey or not, it at least makes sense that a prestigious title gives some benefit to a ruler as said title does in game.

 

[unmerged(200012)]

I started with Queen of Georgia. Made Georgi three times bigger then she died during crusade. Anyway the war she started with European friends finished with new King of Georgia becoming King of Egypt. That was fun game, but my new Muslim vassals gone crazy...

 

[Nitt the Mitt]

I thought about switching the succession law to Gavelkind to separate all the titles. I've heard that there were issues with the Gavelkind system, but separating the Empire into 18 Kingdoms might be a better ending. That way I can probably roleplay a succession Kingdom to reclaim the rights of the Empire.

What do you think?

@GenadeHero, the Count of Salerno starts out as Greek Catholic, some time during the game, the Spartenos became Greek Orthodox. Almost all of the Mediterranean (besides the Spanish Peninsula) is Orthodox including all of Italy.

 

[Mrdie]

So I assume you've continued the game since then. Any updates?

 

[I8Strudel]

Jeezo, I can't imagine a real-life kingdom continuing on for much longer with those circumstances, much less a CK one. First congrats on managing to do that, second I would actually have fun reconquering lost provinces! Why not challenge yourself to see if you can rebuild your empire?

 

[postm00v]

This actually made me decide that I should also start a game with the Spartenos dynasty. So I did, and I have to admit, it's pretty challenging !

 

[Yakman]

as said before, the most fun you will have with CK is when everything is going totally wrong. just let it ride.