Some questions

[Adonnus]

I noticed a few things about this mod which other than these is great.

1. Why does it take years and years and years for my levies to recover?

2. Why is my income always so low?

With these two issues it sometimes takes upwards of 10 years to conquer and repair the levies of one single county...

 

[yezhanquan]

Are you using your marshal to train troops?

Income-wise, most rulers in the mod have a small demesne. Also, most of their direct vassals are nobles which are usually untaxed.

 

[D Toccs]

1. Why does it take years and years and years for my levies to recover?

The Marshal and a few of the other councilors have job actions that increase the levy reinforcement rate of the province they are in.

Are you returning your armies back to your own territory before disbanding them at the end of a war? If not, it will take significantly longer for them to reinforce.

 

[Galrun]

I think this is meant to make singular big battles more important.
If you loose all of your forces in one giant battle you should have a problem, which is totally realistic. In vanilla one battle sometimes meant nothing because your troops recovered quite fast and you could raise a huge army very soon again.

I like it this way because you have to micromanage your army better and you have a higher risk in facing an equal sized enemy army. Also army leaders get more important which gives some benfit to roleplaying

 

[makif130289]

I think this is meant to make singular big battles more important.
If you loose all of your forces in one giant battle you should have a problem, which is totally realistic. In vanilla one battle sometimes meant nothing because your troops recovered quite fast and you could raise a huge army very soon again.

I like it this way because you have to micromanage your army better and you have a higher risk in facing an equal sized enemy army. Also army leaders get more important which gives some benfit to roleplaying

+1. Lower income, lower demesne limit and lower rate of levy replenishment is just more realistic and better representation of feudalism. Your vassals' opinion matters much more in AGOT than in Vanilla.

 

[Adonnus]

Yes, I am using my marshal. But still, this just means that my favourite way of playing the game (starting as a nobody and working my way up) is hard if not impossible. Especially since crown authority starts off so high in so many places.

 

[Garriath]

For what it's worth, I love playing those games, too, and I think it's actually a lot more fun in the GoT mod than vanilla. Bear in mind that in GoT, you have the following features:

1. If you're able to capture your liege's castle, you can often capture his whole family. If you're roleplaying a particularly despicable character, if you've married his youngest daughter, you can still execute your liege and all of her other children and have your wife inherit his titles...
2. The feature you mentioned above, that manpower replenishes slowly, means that if your liege is caught up in a large war with someone else, he'll still be vulnerable to you for several years afterwards.
3. The game models civil wars very well. If you start a war against your liege and have reasonably good relations with some of his other vassals, you can expect to have some help (or, at least, that other vassals will stay out of the fight.)
4. The kidnap scheme is a great way to gain leverage against your liege.

You're right that it's harder than in vanilla to start out as a low-tier lord and end up as a king. But it's more than doable in GoT, and, honestly much more interesting and satisfying.

 

[unmerged(515410)]

4. The kidnap scheme is a great way to gain leverage against your liege.

speaking of dubious moral actions here... you don't even need to be married to one of his daughters. You need simply kidnap and then visit her bedchamber through the personal interaction menu while she's your prisoner.

You'll still have to knock off all his male children/older daughters for your legitimized bastard to inherit, though.

 

[verdas]

Yes, I am using my marshal. But still, this just means that my favourite way of playing the game (starting as a nobody and working my way up) is hard if not impossible. Especially since crown authority starts off so high in so many places.

I feel you, since this is my favorite way to play as well. My only advice (and it's not very good advice) would be to save up enough money for mercenaries and claim fabrication and absorb the other counts under your liege as quickly as possible. While this takes longer than in vanilla, it still works with some patience. Once you have a couple counties, your income increases (if you build buildings, make them strictly economic to start) significantly, and you can start to make real moves. Unfortunately, the lower income and levy recovery means that this could take a generation, unlike vanilla where you can go from count to emperor in a couple decades. A high martial ruler is also hugely important, as it affects levy size and (I think?) recovery rate.

Of course, their are other ways to get ahead, if you don't mind assassinations, kidnapping, etc.

All told, it's pretty similar to vanilla, just slower at first (especially if you're in a very stable Westeros. If that happens, the game gets real boring). Once things start moving, however, they move.