Heh, I overslept it too
Anyway, I got about one hour of playing time in the end. Found Tunis to have a depressed duke (so no more heirs unless he cures; unfortunately his wife got depressed too). I didn't take any land or make any claims (no prestige for that), but concentrated on the economy side as the AI had apparently been at war just before I joined. Bumped monthly income from 11 to 20 (basically built just justice courts which resulted in the criminal buildings disappearing and allowed me to squueze money with the road-tolls) and my manpower from 3k to 10k (and went feudal, so I have now a decent corps of knights available). Researched mining to level 2 (from 0), roads, libraries, relics and divine right; unfortunately didn't get yet forts2, as big forts is always a good idea being next to Sterk (who btw is the only one to have Siege-weapons 2 already)
If I just had a decent Steward the income would be even prettier. Right at the end my Steward 9 died, which leaves IIRC Steward 7 as next best
I didn't know about the inheritance rule introduced. I went Prim-Cons the first day I joined.
Other than that I did have a bit looking around. Here is my short analysis
Catalonia has grown nicely, but has taken a massive BB with it. Also, Catalonia is elective, and the current heirs are not related to the duke. Even if by a miracle a heir is produced and immediatly given a count title (as the kids are prolly still on the hit-list), an evöl player might hone their skills and see to it that Catalonia becomes a power of the past.
Milano is looking nice and strong too, but oh woes, the duke has Kinslayer. Always a bad idea to get Kinslayer. Practically sure Milano won't grow during this duke.
Thessalonika looks very good. It is in very good shape, and Byzantium is right next door, and Thessalonika has no serious competition. My prediction: Thessalonika will be the power-house
par excellence.
Sicily has grown big and strong, and its BB is manageable. The AI did some setbacks to Sicily, but all in all it looks good. Sicily has however not the same damn excellent position (Rome isn't exactly Byzans) as Thessalonika, and Sicily has Milano *and* the AI Kingdom of Pisa to compete with. However true to Sterk, Sicily is very strong on the offense, Level 1 forts will just melt away in the face of Sicilian hordes who use siege weapons 2
Tabriz looks *very* good. It is collecting some BB tough, so some BB-management will be required after it is forced to release vassals
Seems also to me that Tabriz might be weakly prepared for an evöl players assasination campaign (not half as bad as Catalonia tough
).
Franconia is growing slowly, almost as slowly as Tunis
The reason is the same I think, the player was absent and the AI was a bit slow to get things going.
