Duke of Apulia Assistance

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I just have a few questions about my first game as the Duke of Apulia:

1. I've been excommunicated, there was no pop-up or anything just suddenly a flag in the corner saying I was excommunicated. Does this last until the Duke dies?
2. I have two claims I don't own; I've taken one of them and am now at my demense limit. Will it still consider the claimed land to be mine if I give it to a vassal?
3. Should I take the other claim or should I start to fight the Muslims in Sicily? I understand that DV changed the way fighting Pagans works so I'm not sure if taking those provinces without proper claims is worth it.
4. Toscana(sp?) has declared independence from Germany, if I later take some of their land will I be a target for the Germans?

 

[Tommy4ever]

1. You can get events that will rid you of the excommunication but even if none of those fire it will go when your ruler dies.

2. If your over your limit give the land to a vassal Count or create a new Count. Only keep the richest land in your personal demesne. The land will act as your vassal - it will raise armies for you, pay scutage to you and be a part of your realm.

3. Taking on the Sicilian Muslims is easy and they have rich lands. I'd say go for whichever lands will make you King of Sicily the fastest. When you become King of Sicily you can make your vassals Dukes, easing the burden of maintaining all those Counts by creating middle men (the Dukes).

4. I'm not sure on this one. The rulers of a Kingdom will always look to try to unite it but I'm unsure whether the Germans would actually go to war with such a large power for that land. Anyway this doesn't really matter that much as Germany tends to spend 80% of its time in Civil War.

 

[ShoGuL]

4. Toscana(sp?) has declared independence from Germany, if I later take some of their land will I be a target for the Germans?

Most likely.. you can check if the German king has a claim on Toscana.. if so, they might very well go to war for it.

 

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[*]Toscana(sp?) has declared independence from Germany, if I later take some of their land will I be a target for the Germans?
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Sooner or later Germany will go for the lands it has claims on.

Since Tuscany rebelled, Germany got a claim, so if you get that, you can be attacked by Germany.



I learned this the hard way, when I took a peaceful exit as Milano early on during a civil war. The von Franken of that time crushed the others in no time, and I soon had 50k Germans knocking at my door...
(game over)

 

[Puritan]

1. I've been excommunicated, there was no pop-up or anything just suddenly a flag in the corner saying I was excommunicated. Does this last until the Duke dies?

The female ruler of that grand duchy in Italy usually becomes Papal Controller, and starts excommunicating as many of her neighbors as she can (like all ai papal controllers do). Wage some early wars against the heathen in Sicily and create Bishoprics to avoid this, or even become controller yourself.
I think Excommunication lasts beyond death...blocking any inheritance that could go through him.
Your next ruler won't have any stigma from the pervious ruler's excommunication though.

2. I have two claims I don't own; I've taken one of them and am now at my demense limit. Will it still consider the claimed land to be mine if I give it to a vassal?

No, but if the vassal rebels, you'll get your claim back to it, so no worries.

3. Should I take the other claim or should I start to fight the Muslims in Sicily? I understand that DV changed the way fighting Pagans works so I'm not sure if taking those provinces without proper claims is worth it.

Fight the Muslims in Sicily, form the KoNaples, this will make it easier to keep vassels, allow you to have a bigger demense, harder to excommunicate, etc.
With DVIP you get a claim automatically when you successfully take control of a province. If you need to lower BB and can spare the prestige, relinquish your claimes, but force vassalize the owner.

4. Toscana(sp?) has declared independence from Germany, if I later take some of their land will I be a target for the Germans?

Possibly. But Germany falls into chaos more often than not, their first ruler isn't all that great, he usually gets Realm Duress + excommunication from that chick in Toscana, which pretty much destroys the German Kingdom. This is good if you want to grab the crown of Italy...

 

[Hawkeye1489]

I think Excommunication lasts beyond death...blocking any inheritance that could go through him.
Your next ruler won't have any stigma from the pervious ruler's excommunication though.

If a character becomes excommunicated, he/she can not inherit, but any children of an excommed character are still in the line of succession. So if your son becomes excommunicated, his sons (or grandchildren) will be included.

 

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Thanks for the help; I just have a few more questions:

1. I gave a province to one of my vassals and he made it a county under one of his courtiers, is the new count a vassal of mine or of the first count? I'm still Duke of Apulia if that matters.
2. The vassal in question is losing loyalty fast, should I keep bribing him with land until my Duke dies or just take his province and give it to someone else?
3. I invaded the count in Napoli and one of his court members fled to me, is there any reason I shouldn't give him the province when he has no claim?
4. How do I check my badboy points? I'm about to annex the Muslims in Sicily but I don't want to ruin myself with infamy doing it.

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

1. He is a vassal of you (a count can not have a vassal).

2. Depends on your badboypoints, if you can take the reputation hit them let him rebel and take his titles and give it to someone else.

3. If you have a claim yourself, then no. There is no reason to give it to that courtier, since if you do that you still get the bad boy points.

4. You can't directly see your BB. But you can deduce it from the loyalty penalty your vassals get because of your reputation, see here