Just starting out

[MataNiall]

So i've had this game for a while now (Complete edition i think its called didn't come with a register key or anything same with Victoria 1). But i've never really got into it. EU3 and the expansions all came out etc.

SO i'm really wanting to get started so i picked Tir Eoghain since that is the O'Neill's (my ancestors ) but as soon as i kickstarted the game ( i was planning on attacking Ulaid) i was attacked almost outright by Ulaid and another Irish kingdom and got destroyed.

So what would be some good starting tips for say Military and overall general tips.

Thanks in advance.

 

[TempestDK]

So i've had this game for a while now (Complete edition i think its called didn't come with a register key or anything same with Victoria 1). But i've never really got into it. EU3 and the expansions all came out etc.

SO i'm really wanting to get started so i picked Tir Eoghain since that is the O'Neill's (my ancestors ) but as soon as i kickstarted the game ( i was planning on attacking Ulaid) i was attacked almost outright by Ulaid and another Irish kingdom and got destroyed.

So what would be some good starting tips for say Military and overall general tips.

Thanks in advance.

If I remember right, you are stuck between two counties that each have claims on you (and you on them I guess). So since you are without an ally they see you as weak and attack to press their claims.

I would suggest that you keep the game paused, and then try to ally with Scotland or England or maybe one of the more powerful duchies in Ireland. That should hopefully keep them off your back for a while. Sine they weigh in the strength of your allies before declaring war.

If they DO attack, your best bet is to engage and hopefully defeat one of the two counts' armies, and then try to settle peace with that guy (offer all your treasury if you have to), and then turn your attention to the other count. You will most likely be unable to defeat both at the same time.

Just make sure that none of them get to control your province or they can force any peace they want on you (which will most likely be game over)

Edit: Unrelated advice. If you haven't, make sure you get and install the latest beta-patch from October 2008. The beta-patch on CK Complete is only from June 2008, and some important fixes were made after that.

 

[unmerged(196495)]

I'm actually playing Ulaid in my second crack at this game. (My first dynasty, the principality of Crete, ended when my prince died and I didn't understand what the consequences of elective law were.)

You are probably going to get attacked no matter what. My advice for surviving the the early stages is to set up as strong an economy as possible because I think your available manpower might be affected by your income.

Pause the game at the start and move your treasury sliders further to the right 70% or so because you don't need to worry about rebellion right away. Wait until the calendar turns from December to January then pause the game. At this point there should be several potential brides available with high stewardship scores that you can wed to one of your eligible bachelors and install as your steward even 5 or 6 pts gained makes a huge difference over time.

You can view potential brides through the ledger icon that it to the right of your minimap.

I would also advise you NOT to find a young fertile bride for your 67 yr old dynasty head because if he sires a son then croaks it will drive your martial and stewardship scores way down when that 1 yr old takes over as the count. It happened to them in my game and I couldn't resist launching an invasion at that point

 

[unmerged(133776)]

So what would be some good starting tips for say Military and overall general tips.

The biggest piece of advice I could share, would be for you to check out as many threads here as you can. There's tons of advice given out by other players on how to play the game. I too was totally lost when I first started and to be honest, I think this Forum (and my fellow players) are far and above better than ANY guide that could be put into a game.

2nd thing to keep in mind, it is very, very hard to start out as a 'small fish in a big pond'. Cut your teeth by playing as a large sized Independent Duke or a smaller sized King. You won't have to deal with most of the problems in that case and it'll give you an opportunity to learn as you play without the added difficulties. Later on, those 'added difficulties' are easier to deal with once you know the basics and they will add more fun to the game.

 

[MataNiall]

Everything has been going well i pledged my allegiance to the King of Scotland so i've been slowly conquering Ireland (Have all of Ulster and East Connaught under my control and the central Ireland province as my vassal (since that dynasty was O'Neill i didn't want to just conquer them lol ).

Although the one thing i hate is that when my Liege asks for armies he usually lets them sit there and then after a few months moves to attack some nation for a few years and guaranteed some other nation attacks me when i have no armies whatsoever. Scotland went to war in the middle east trying to conquer Jerusalem and asked for my armies which i agreed to first time around and after a few years Seville declared war on me with me left with no armies i then got an event for white peace which i took immediately but then Seville declared war immediately again. Same thing happened again when my liege just spammed me with requests for my armies then i got an event which i finally agreed to with Scotland going to Holy war with Kingdom of Zigrid (Muslim nation) (who conquered Rome and has also went on a massive conquering spree in Italy with no one being able to defeat them or push them back) and after a few years Oxford declared war on me thank fully they only sent one regiment which my vassals army defeated and then they just focused their attention to Scotland.

Overall fun game i'd like it if i'm able to recall my men from my liege.

 

[cpteveros]

Just don't let your liege take your troops. Down the road, declare independence and never worry about it again.

 

[MataNiall]

Yep i've done that now thought i would have to fight a war with my liege if i went to war. I've managed to take Dublin (Leinster attacked a Muslim nation and the muslims weren't having it and took dublin and created the Sheikdom of Dublin which i promptly integrated into the realm of the O'Neills ).

Wales attacked me for some reason (no clue why) but i conquered two provinces from them. I'm now allied with France which will protect me i think if ever England wants Wales.

Spain has been completely conquered by Muslims and France has started to wage war on the Emirate of Toledo (which controls i'd say about 1 third of Spain).

So far so good i'm starting to get use to and enjoy the game now.

 

[TempestDK]

Yep i've done that now thought i would have to fight a war with my liege if i went to war. I've managed to take Dublin (Leinster attacked a Muslim nation and the muslims weren't having it and took dublin and created the Sheikdom of Dublin which i promptly integrated into the realm of the O'Neills ).

Wales attacked me for some reason (no clue why) but i conquered two provinces from them. I'm now allied with France which will protect me i think if ever England wants Wales.

Spain has been completely conquered by Muslims and France has started to wage war on the Emirate of Toledo (which controls i'd say about 1 third of Spain).

So far so good i'm starting to get use to and enjoy the game now.

Looks like a good game. Though don't have too much faith in your allies to come to your rescue. They might not even declare war on England if they attack you. Even if they do, there is no guarantee that they will land forces in Ireland to protect you. They might not even leave France.

Just keep an eye on whether England have claims on any of your provinces. You might have to give those up if they attack. If England have claims on any of your territory, there is a very good chance that they will press the claim eventually.

 

[MataNiall]

Yeah so far England haven't actually done anything well aside from retaking Italy from the Muslims and going to war in general against them. I'm hoping i'll be able to take all of Ireland (which i'm close to doing just need Munster and two provinces in Connacht which belong to Scotland) and the rest of Wales and then take Scotland which will i'm hoping give me some chance of surviving against England.

In a lot of Paradox games i'm more of a hellbent on expansion type player but since i'm getting more used to CK i'm playing it a different way than i would which i'm quite enjoying (constant warfare and conquering get boring after a while lol).

 

[TempestDK]

Yeah so far England haven't actually done anything well aside from retaking Italy from the Muslims and going to war in general against them. I'm hoping i'll be able to take all of Ireland (which i'm close to doing just need Munster and two provinces in Connacht which belong to Scotland) and the rest of Wales and then take Scotland which will i'm hoping give me some chance of surviving against England.

In a lot of Paradox games i'm more of a hellbent on expansion type player but since i'm getting more used to CK i'm playing it a different way than i would which i'm quite enjoying (constant warfare and conquering get boring after a while lol).

Once you have the whole of Ireland, you should be strong enough to repel England if they try to invade the island, though you might not be able to hang on to Wales.

Since the AI is pretty stupid, England would most likely send piecemeal armies to Ireland that should be easy enough to repel as they land. You will just have to sit tight and do a defensive war until the AI gets tired of trying and grants a white peace or if you're lucky they might get involved in another conflict which would help you.

The "offer all your treasury" trick is good to use too if you beat up a few of their armies. The AI is very susceptical to those offers, no matter if your treasury is 4 gold or 4000 gold.

 

[MataNiall]

Just became the King of Ireland oh what a great character i had there he became Duke of Ulster when he was about 20ish and reigned till he was 59 within that time he went from having 3-4 provinces in Ireland to conquering nearly all of Ireland and lands outside and after declaring himself (High) King of Ireland he died.

Now i think i'm a tad fucked his Son inherited but the successors well the majority of them aren't O'Neills nor are they within my Kingdom now i heard that the game ends if say the successor was someone other than your own.

 

[TempestDK]

Just became the King of Ireland oh what a great character i had there he became Duke of Ulster when he was about 20ish and reigned till he was 59 within that time he went from having 3-4 provinces in Ireland to conquering nearly all of Ireland and lands outside and after declaring himself (High) King of Ireland he died.

Now i think i'm a tad fucked his Son inherited but the successors well the majority of them aren't O'Neills nor are they within my Kingdom now i heard that the game ends if say the successor was someone other than your own.

It is because you have semi-salic inheritance laws, which means that inheritance can be traced through the females of your dynasty if no males exists. If you keep producing sons you should have no issues. But yes, if you are inherited by someone outside your dynasty and your family holds no other titles, it is game over.

The easy fix is to change to Salic inheritance law where inheritance is only traced through your male line. This keeps your titles from going to non-dynasty members, and if you run out of heirs in your dynasty a country cousin is generated for you. That is a randomly generated male character of your dynasty that will take over if you die heirless. That means that you are never game over because of lack of heirs.

 

[MataNiall]

Thanks thats fixed it also would it be good to keep Ireland all under one ruler or split some of the provinces into vassals ?.

 

[unmerged(66419)]

If your demesne limit can handle it, no reason why you shouldn't.. otherwise, you'd only want to hand over counties to the most loyal blood relatives (sons). Don't be in a hurry to give away titles, it can be tough to get them back.

 

[MataNiall]

So say i gave my two successors land and my current king died would the next in line inherit the land i gave him plus the land from the king ?.

 

[TempestDK]

So say i gave my two successors land and my current king died would the next in line inherit the land i gave him plus the land from the king ?.

Yes ... he will keep the titles you gave him and the ones he inherits from the current king.

Basically you will need vassals at some point, as your efficiency will go down if the ruler does not have enough intrigue score to handle a huge personal demesne.

Also you will probably want to give some titles to your heir, so he can get a chance to gain some prestige before he takes over the Kingdom, since that is not inherited. You will also lose prestige monthly for any sons that holds no land .. and they will eventually start whining about not having titles if you just keep them in court.