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2 years and a half later i completed another run. This time it was called the empire of asturias. Most of the Kings/Queens were dominican or in the benedictine order except the last four, due to the magnum opus. i managed to converge....7 o 8 bloodlines, don´t remember exactly. Funny as hell, i almost screwed in the last 30 years due to a hangover, was clicking without reading...Anyway, very happy, but it´s a pity i couldn´t have all the iberian peninsula in my realm. This time, however, i conquered more counties of the south african domains, I managed to "steal" a lot of the domains of the france empire and some of the byzantium empire on the iberian peninsula, so the "diplomatic" game was more interesting, balancing between both while conquering parts of them on the iberian peninsula.
It costed me 5 or 6 attempts, one of them included a new empire created after being the first with an old queen on a crusade over byzantium...couldn´t manage to change the inheritance laws in time, so i decided to start again.
For a brief moment i almost managed to unite under the same flag Asturias, Francia and the mongol Empire, but my heir coudln´t hold the Francia Empire due a revolution to depose here while i was reigning in Asturias, and her son was the heir of the Mongol Empire. Dreamed about it and lost in in a 10 years ingame frame. Dammit....
It costed me 5 or 6 attempts, one of them included a new empire created after being the first with an old queen on a crusade over byzantium...couldn´t manage to change the inheritance laws in time, so i decided to start again.
For a brief moment i almost managed to unite under the same flag Asturias, Francia and the mongol Empire, but my heir coudln´t hold the Francia Empire due a revolution to depose here while i was reigning in Asturias, and her son was the heir of the Mongol Empire. Dreamed about it and lost in in a 10 years ingame frame. Dammit....
I impressed myself today 
(sung to the tune of Hurt).
I got two achievements in this game, one I was going for (forming Israel), and one I had no idea existed: Prester John
I want to share how I did it (I'm not an amazing player so I'm happy with the results so far, I haven't finished yet).
I started as the crusader kingdom around the third crusader bookmark (I added or removed a few years to try to get the easiest enemies around me). The first thing I was worrying about was the inevitable Jihad, that happened about 2 weeks into the start date. Luckily it was only around 15k~ troops and France (for once) actually came to help me so I had around 20k by the time the war ended. I then decided to give out some land because of my stupidly small demense limit (bad character) and due to the piety from defensive jihad I secretly converted to Jewish and set about converting some provinces to that religeon also. I was then incredibly lucky to get a crusade happen while i was waring with Demascus, so Instead of converting straight away, I donated some money to the crusade and played the system a bit by claming all of the land as mine and as soon as the crusade started quickly took some main land to be the best crusader. This is how I got the Prester John achievement (I was the best crusader) and all of the land. It was then a matter or openly accepting my faith and doing the decisions. Now everyone hates me so I have to weed out my vassals and courtiers but I think it's up and up from here!
I also want to add some other images to show why I love CK2 (from various different games):
The first time I actually beat the Normans and Norway as Harold Godwinson, his son and my fat current ruler died making love to his fat wife, I love the dedication!
In this game I was playing as India, so I was supprised when the pope declared a crusade so early and against France! The King of Aquitaine converted to Islam for some reason. Also, England managed to fend of the Vikings through a revolt leader and his name was "the Liberator" and he became the first King of England, really cool.
And finally:
Getting "the outside bet" was supprisingly easy! I had a few alliances with Castile and France, waited for Normandy to win (it's always in my games Normandy beats England then Norway beats Normandy), then sieged down Middlesex and other provinces until I won, and finally used my allies (who again supprisingly did their jobs) to beat back Norway and settled out for white peace since I was only there for the achievement and didn't want to go to Scandinavia to siege his provinces.
Thanks for reading!
(sung to the tune of Hurt).I got two achievements in this game, one I was going for (forming Israel), and one I had no idea existed: Prester John
I want to share how I did it (I'm not an amazing player so I'm happy with the results so far, I haven't finished yet).
I started as the crusader kingdom around the third crusader bookmark (I added or removed a few years to try to get the easiest enemies around me). The first thing I was worrying about was the inevitable Jihad, that happened about 2 weeks into the start date. Luckily it was only around 15k~ troops and France (for once) actually came to help me so I had around 20k by the time the war ended. I then decided to give out some land because of my stupidly small demense limit (bad character) and due to the piety from defensive jihad I secretly converted to Jewish and set about converting some provinces to that religeon also. I was then incredibly lucky to get a crusade happen while i was waring with Demascus, so Instead of converting straight away, I donated some money to the crusade and played the system a bit by claming all of the land as mine and as soon as the crusade started quickly took some main land to be the best crusader. This is how I got the Prester John achievement (I was the best crusader) and all of the land. It was then a matter or openly accepting my faith and doing the decisions. Now everyone hates me so I have to weed out my vassals and courtiers but I think it's up and up from here!
I also want to add some other images to show why I love CK2 (from various different games):
The first time I actually beat the Normans and Norway as Harold Godwinson, his son and my fat current ruler died making love to his fat wife, I love the dedication!
In this game I was playing as India, so I was supprised when the pope declared a crusade so early and against France! The King of Aquitaine converted to Islam for some reason. Also, England managed to fend of the Vikings through a revolt leader and his name was "the Liberator" and he became the first King of England, really cool.
And finally:
Getting "the outside bet" was supprisingly easy! I had a few alliances with Castile and France, waited for Normandy to win (it's always in my games Normandy beats England then Norway beats Normandy), then sieged down Middlesex and other provinces until I won, and finally used my allies (who again supprisingly did their jobs) to beat back Norway and settled out for white peace since I was only there for the achievement and didn't want to go to Scandinavia to siege his provinces.
Thanks for reading!
They said the White Huns were gone.
After the collapse of the great Hephthalite Empire, which stretched from the rivers of Mesopotamia to the Rajputs of India, it was thought that the Hunas would never rise again. The Pratihara ruled the expanse of northern India, and all that was left of the Hephthalite legacy was an irrelevant county north of Gujarat (Mohadavasaka), who paid homage to their Rajput overlords.
Fortunately for the descendants of the Masters of the Steppe, this wasn't meant to be.
Through diplomatic maneuvering (and some collaboration with the Hashashin), the Hunas of India took out each of their rivals one by one. Eventually, following the defeat of the Tibetan Empire and the Great Dragon of the East, the Hephthalite Empire took its rightful place on the world stage.
Currently, the servants of the Shahanshah are finishing off the last of Tibetan resistance in India, whilst also steamrolling through the Muslim world.
It's worth mentioning that two merchant republics, Sindh and Oman, provided a lot of the fuel for me to fund this whole thing. I've also adopted Imperial Administration, given women full status, and maintained primogeniture succession. I'm proud to have done this without changing my culture for the subjugation CB.
(Also, yes, I did modify the coat of arms for my dynasty).
This game was on Ironman mode
After the collapse of the great Hephthalite Empire, which stretched from the rivers of Mesopotamia to the Rajputs of India, it was thought that the Hunas would never rise again. The Pratihara ruled the expanse of northern India, and all that was left of the Hephthalite legacy was an irrelevant county north of Gujarat (Mohadavasaka), who paid homage to their Rajput overlords.
Fortunately for the descendants of the Masters of the Steppe, this wasn't meant to be.
Through diplomatic maneuvering (and some collaboration with the Hashashin), the Hunas of India took out each of their rivals one by one. Eventually, following the defeat of the Tibetan Empire and the Great Dragon of the East, the Hephthalite Empire took its rightful place on the world stage.
Currently, the servants of the Shahanshah are finishing off the last of Tibetan resistance in India, whilst also steamrolling through the Muslim world.
It's worth mentioning that two merchant republics, Sindh and Oman, provided a lot of the fuel for me to fund this whole thing. I've also adopted Imperial Administration, given women full status, and maintained primogeniture succession. I'm proud to have done this without changing my culture for the subjugation CB.
(Also, yes, I did modify the coat of arms for my dynasty).
This game was on Ironman mode
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I love what you did, it is awesome, but I thought you might like to know, the Saka are Scythians. So that would mean that, rather than making the Hephthalite Empire, you actually remade, and expanded on, the much cooler Indo-Scythian kingdom.
Nice, I tried the same thing with pretty much the same approach (the Hashashin are invaluable to small rulers). Unfortunately my heir came out as Shia (we had been secretly shia until then) so he lost his caste. Do you know how to get it back?
Anyway, my game prematurely ended due to a Chinese invasion but I'm probably going to try again some day. Congrats to you.
There is an (expensive) intrigue decision that allows a Hindu ruler without a caste to declare themselves to be kshatriya.
I like to think it’s something similar to how the Byzantines identify themselves; even if they’re culturally something different, they like to be tied to a prestigious empire that ruled most of Central Asia. But obviously Indo-Scythians are badass as they are.
UPDATE:
I did it! India is formed, and Bhadra II "Son of the Vinyakas" is the new Samrat Chakravartin. This moment of glory wasn't meant to last long, however.
After all he did for the people of India, the great leader was murdered, IN COLD BLOOD, by his subjects.
Is this what justice is??
I did it! India is formed, and Bhadra II "Son of the Vinyakas" is the new Samrat Chakravartin. This moment of glory wasn't meant to last long, however.
After all he did for the people of India, the great leader was murdered, IN COLD BLOOD, by his subjects.
Is this what justice is??
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Proudly spreading plutocratic republicanism in the face of sprawling totalitarian blobs.
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So, I've decided to go back to CK2 (I have been doing a multiplayer game with friends for more than a year - started in 769, we're currently in ca 1060 - and all of a sudden I started craving more CK2). I've started 7 ironmen, all with different start dates: 867, 936, 1066 (William the Conqueror bookmark), 1081, 1187, 1241, 1337.
Religion split is pretty good: two of these are as a catholic, two as a sunni, two as pagans (but I don't plan to reform - in fact pagan reformation is disabled in one of those) and one as a buddhist.
I've finished the 1241 one, which was awesome (I'm going to try to AAR this) and because I liked it I decided to also quickly wrap up the 1337 playthrough, which went quickly but was still fun. It's more of a kingdom than an Empire, but I'll post it here regardless. (starting in 1337, it's hard to build a huge empire - not a lot of time, a lot of well established kingdoms).
Started as the count of Vienne, Ubert de la Tour du Pin. One county, vassal of Savoy (in the middle of France and the HRE). And I can present you....
The Kingdom of Arles and the wider HRE in 1453 (and yes, Denmark is part of the HRE - note that Italy isn't). The Kingdom of Arles (bottom left, granate color) is part of the HRE, as it should be. Note that the king of Arles is also duke of Silesia, hence the granate part near Poland. Arles is one of the Emperor's most important vassals (upon exporting to EU4, Arles is elector).
To get there, I first rebelled against the duke of Savoy to join the kingdom of France, who in 1337 owns the last 3 counties of Dauphiné (the de jure duchy of Vienne). I then quickly fabricated claims and invaded the counties of Lyon and Vivarais.... but these two counties are owned by bishops in 1337, so because of their church capital they were worthless to me ! And then drama, soon before I won the war against Vivarais, the king of France created the duchy of Dauphiné and gave it to the count of Forez (a vassal of Burgundy at the start). The count of Forez also owns a barony in Lyon, so my new liege was decently powerful compared to me, who owned two useless bishoprics. The end of the reign of my starting character and my second character's reign were.... uneasy, and then came this guy:
This guy single-handedly made the kingdom of Arles. With him, I managed to claim the duchy of Dauphiné AND the county of Forez as my owns, leaving the former dukes of Dauphiné to rot in their last barony. Then, thanks to his absurd intrigue I murdered the king of France so that the king's young son would inherit. The king of France having created the kingdom of Arles (notably thanks to my conquest of half of Savoy in an unremarkable war), I decided to plot to claim it but I screwed up (didn't know you had to go trigger a decision in the intrigue panel - yes, I'm dumb). So I murdered the new king of France as he started to approach adulthood, getting caught in the process but who cares about general opinion ? In the meanwhile I had gone crusading because at the first crusade I had said "yes yes, I'll go" without going to the Pope, who excommunicated me in return. So I decided to actually go this time and conquer a barony - except the crusade was successful, leaving one of my dynasty member as a duke in the newly catholic kingdom of Maghreb (had the option to play as him but declined) and seemingly gaining a lot of gold from this (though the assassination of a couple barons, so I could inherit their baronies and Lyon and Vivarais became counties with a proper barony as capital, might've helped me gain gold too).
With this gold, and the willingness of the Pope to give me a claim on the duchy of Provence, I went to war with Naples and overwhelmed them with mercs. Now rather powerful, I decided it was time for me to join the more decentralised HRE, so I set up an independance faction thinking that the new, young and weak king of France would not oppose me. He foolishly did, but again mercs stacks took care of him. So then I joined the HRE, having enough lands to usurp the kingdom of Arles and being crowned by the Pope. This character did not enjoy it for long, dying 2 years into his reign while trying to forge a bloodline, and his mediocre successor (who is the character with whom I finished the game) ascended to the throne, crowned by the Pope too. Not much to report since, outside of a war with Switzerland to gain control of the rest of Savoy.
The outside world in 1453. Maghreb, Jerusalem, Arabia and Egypt are catholics. Maghreb, Arabia and Egypt, thanks to regular crusades. Jerusalem was established by the children's crusade - in all of its events I decided to give him as much support as I could, because I found it fun. Except for the last one, where he asked for me to join his war to establish Jerusalem. Then I merely prayed for his success - but it looks like it was enough ! The king went cathar later in his life, but he died before spreading it much and his son is a regular catholic (a cathar Jerusalem would've been fun, though). The muslims mostly survive in India and Mali, outside of a couple emirates in Northern Africa - the Ilkhanate (still here as the green Persian blob) went buddhist. Ireland exists because England created it and lost it. Now the Plantagenets only own Ireland, while the crown of England went to the de Barcelona and later to another catalan dynasty. The king of Egypt is also married to my daughter and heir, so that would make for an interesting future
Religion split is pretty good: two of these are as a catholic, two as a sunni, two as pagans (but I don't plan to reform - in fact pagan reformation is disabled in one of those) and one as a buddhist.
I've finished the 1241 one, which was awesome (I'm going to try to AAR this) and because I liked it I decided to also quickly wrap up the 1337 playthrough, which went quickly but was still fun. It's more of a kingdom than an Empire, but I'll post it here regardless. (starting in 1337, it's hard to build a huge empire - not a lot of time, a lot of well established kingdoms).
Started as the count of Vienne, Ubert de la Tour du Pin. One county, vassal of Savoy (in the middle of France and the HRE). And I can present you....
To get there, I first rebelled against the duke of Savoy to join the kingdom of France, who in 1337 owns the last 3 counties of Dauphiné (the de jure duchy of Vienne). I then quickly fabricated claims and invaded the counties of Lyon and Vivarais.... but these two counties are owned by bishops in 1337, so because of their church capital they were worthless to me ! And then drama, soon before I won the war against Vivarais, the king of France created the duchy of Dauphiné and gave it to the count of Forez (a vassal of Burgundy at the start). The count of Forez also owns a barony in Lyon, so my new liege was decently powerful compared to me, who owned two useless bishoprics. The end of the reign of my starting character and my second character's reign were.... uneasy, and then came this guy:
With this gold, and the willingness of the Pope to give me a claim on the duchy of Provence, I went to war with Naples and overwhelmed them with mercs. Now rather powerful, I decided it was time for me to join the more decentralised HRE, so I set up an independance faction thinking that the new, young and weak king of France would not oppose me. He foolishly did, but again mercs stacks took care of him. So then I joined the HRE, having enough lands to usurp the kingdom of Arles and being crowned by the Pope. This character did not enjoy it for long, dying 2 years into his reign while trying to forge a bloodline, and his mediocre successor (who is the character with whom I finished the game) ascended to the throne, crowned by the Pope too. Not much to report since, outside of a war with Switzerland to gain control of the rest of Savoy.
The outside world in 1453. Maghreb, Jerusalem, Arabia and Egypt are catholics. Maghreb, Arabia and Egypt, thanks to regular crusades. Jerusalem was established by the children's crusade - in all of its events I decided to give him as much support as I could, because I found it fun. Except for the last one, where he asked for me to join his war to establish Jerusalem. Then I merely prayed for his success - but it looks like it was enough ! The king went cathar later in his life, but he died before spreading it much and his son is a regular catholic (a cathar Jerusalem would've been fun, though). The muslims mostly survive in India and Mali, outside of a couple emirates in Northern Africa - the Ilkhanate (still here as the green Persian blob) went buddhist. Ireland exists because England created it and lost it. Now the Plantagenets only own Ireland, while the crown of England went to the de Barcelona and later to another catalan dynasty. The king of Egypt is also married to my daughter and heir, so that would make for an interesting future
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Thank you very muchLittle stories like that are my favourite kind of post in this forum.
I've now been told that there used to be 1-post AARs in the AAR forum, so I'm a bit sad to not have AAR'd that playthrough. Eh, well, I guess this post has all the information required.If you're interested, I've gone ahead and started AARing my 1241 playthrough, which you can find her: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ynasty-which-wouldnt-die-a-zengi-aar.1372057/
(sorry for the shameless advertisement
)
Not an Empire yet, only your regular Norse Merchant Most Serene Republic of Denmark at the morning of the day from which onward it shall be known as the Deccan Empire Norse Merchant Republic.
On a related note, if you have a nation at both Oceans, Grant independence to the dudes on one Ocean, if you want the original Merchant Republic feeling. My Patricians spawned in good old Denmark and never build any Trade ports (because each republic is only allowed in one ocean for stupid reasons yet, they don't want to build posts to far from their holdings (or do they have an own diplomatic range independent from that of the realm?)
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I started this game as a meme, to make an Empire of Chud. But I came to really appreciate the bloodthirsty madman who wiped out whole civilizations in his quest. And so, I settled on his beginnings for when I finally settled the khagan.
He was Tengri, but had the perfect opportunity to convert to Suomenusko and control all five holy sites, so he took it and turned the religion into a bloodthirsty, unrelenting faith that answered directly to him. There are still a few Russians... in a few places... outside his lands...
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My second real campaign after the typical Ireland walk-through. 867, Ironman, with defensive pacts on. Started as Doux Elias Rachites of Calabria, vassal of the Byzantine emperor, and climbed all the way to the imperial office, which I held for more than 400 years. Restored the Roman Empire, mended the Great Schism as Orthodox, restored the imperial borders and reached a realm size of 3,905. Focused heavily on my dynasty, which ended with 10,424 members, of whom 2,115 were alive on 31 December 1452, and 25,368 dynasty prestige points.
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I kind of accidentally took over most of the Mediterranean world in 25 years...
The first pic is my Amalfi run in 1060. In 1075, I finally managed to reach empire-tier. The second picture is the Principality of Italia in 1099. Um... oops?
Really, my goal was just to control all trade in the Mediterranean, and as much of the coastline as I could. I'd been struggling with my vassal limit beacuse I was so scattered all over the place. Once empire-tier, I could press kingdom-level claims, so I figured I'd take Egypt and Burgundy for their coastlines. Then Lotharingia had a few counties I wanted, and the guy whose claim I'd pressed for Burgundy also had a claim for Lotharingia, so I figured why not take it all in one war instead of waiting for the truce timer. And after that war, well, my armies were all up north, so why not take West Francia and Breizh on my way down to Aquitaine, right? And then Bulgaria just sort of happened in between fights with the BE... It wasn't my fault, it just snowballed!
Oh, and the trade zone:
"Serbia" is Ragusa, still a vassal of the BE. All the other colors are owned by either patricians in Amalfi, or my vassal-of-a-vassal Genoa.
The first pic is my Amalfi run in 1060. In 1075, I finally managed to reach empire-tier. The second picture is the Principality of Italia in 1099. Um... oops?
Really, my goal was just to control all trade in the Mediterranean, and as much of the coastline as I could. I'd been struggling with my vassal limit beacuse I was so scattered all over the place. Once empire-tier, I could press kingdom-level claims, so I figured I'd take Egypt and Burgundy for their coastlines. Then Lotharingia had a few counties I wanted, and the guy whose claim I'd pressed for Burgundy also had a claim for Lotharingia, so I figured why not take it all in one war instead of waiting for the truce timer. And after that war, well, my armies were all up north, so why not take West Francia and Breizh on my way down to Aquitaine, right? And then Bulgaria just sort of happened in between fights with the BE... It wasn't my fault, it just snowballed!
Oh, and the trade zone:
"Serbia" is Ragusa, still a vassal of the BE. All the other colors are owned by either patricians in Amalfi, or my vassal-of-a-vassal Genoa.
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