Crusader Kings 2 Redux

[Martinus]

And yes, the way giving stuff to sons always means trouble sucks. Why oh why can't there be any happy families in this game? Its not too out of period for two brothers to be friends and one to be quite happy when dad makes him a duke and his brother is due to be king. Some might even prefer such a situation. Gah.

I don't know what the fuck you are doing, but I don't have any problem with my sons nor my brothers after giving them land. And I play Denmark, which starts with a shitload of sons and future brothers. I read what penalties they have and I attempt to offset them, or I participate in wars and put them as leaders to keep them busy. Also, crusades are great for maintaining peace through the realm: there is indeed a peace of God in the game, so vassals won't fuck with you while you are gone killing Turks.

Don't forget that if you give them land AND a Duchy you have to give him enough lands to offset the "want Duchy XYZ's county", which is -25 each time. So if a Duchy has 3 counties and you give him only one he's gonna have -50 opinion because he wants the other 2 counties.

I also avoid giving land to any of my sons with either Ambitious or Envious traits, because the penalty is huge. If one rebels but the negative penalty is small I usually free them after imprisonment, fully pardoned, which gives a slight boost to every vassal for mercy. Only those with a big penalty I treat mercilessly.

In my game (I went back to an earlier save and had no problems with succession) my original mistake was to allow the problematic second son (whom I made a duke) to get away with several plots to grab the crown (I asked him to end the plot rather than throwing him in jail). It was him who then started a rebellion when my eldest son became the King and called most of the other Dukes as his allies.

This time I threw his sorry ass into jail when his plot was discovered and he spent a few years there to secure safe succession - only then he has been released.

Incidentally, my new King (a son of the third son of my original King) has a great Princess wife who loves him and is spawning babies like crazy but she keeps plotting to kill off all my relatives who have any claims on the Polish crown and are not our kids. This may sound like fun (I am not going to throw her into jail) but she seems to have offed three of my successive Spymasters soon after they found about her plots. 

[Jaron]

In my Anjou game, the king of France threw my duke in jail. When I asked for better accommodations, he tortured and killed him.

The Capets suck in my current game.

[Martinus]

Btw, Drakken, what are the prerequisites for a King to be able to swear fealty to an Emperor? I was thinking of doing this as Poland so I can safely pick out the lands of my de jure Kingdom that have been grabbed by HRE vassals, like Pommeralia and parts of Prussia.

[HVC]

So I gave up on ireland. Three games the the whole island got zerged by scotland. I moved on to iberia (yes, the Duke of portucal, garbon ). The kings of galicia and leon died in quick succession so castile came out stong. on the plus side this kept france to only 3 counties, although the HRE got all of catalonia or whatever it is. it was a pain in the ass forming portugal since you can't become a king while you're a vassal. i needed to save up loads of money and get three merc companies. two 1500 and one 2250 company plus my one 1500 or so troops to win. I also managed to marry the daughter of the duchess who basically owns all of leon so once she kicks my heir shall be king of portual and leon. Religious orders are a godsend against hethen attacks. like hte knight graphics too.

[jimmy olsen]

In my Anjou game, the king of France threw my duke in jail. When I asked for better accommodations, he tortured and killed him.

The Capets suck in my current game.

That sounds like a pretty Capetish thing to do.

[Viking]

I'm just baffled at how to keep anybody loyal.

Much of my bafflement is now gone. Appreciating that this is not a mideval simulator it is a replay of the family values of Henry II like EUIII is a replay of the fantasies of Charles XII. The issues with post conquest England is that for 30 years after the conquest the King has no more military power than he did as duke of normandie and, remember, in this game the bulk of that power is the massive head start he has in already recruited mercenaries as well as a huge kitty in terms of money. Once that money is spent the new king of england has only the power of the duchy of normandie, only this time the king of france is trying to fuck you up rather than considering if you should be marshall of france or not.

So, my quick and dirty guide to not having your vassals revolt.

1 - Let "The Lion in Winter" be your guide to family affairs. Find one heir and don't lose him. Move second sons into the church, marry daughters off abroad.

2 - There is magic in them duchy boundry stones. Keep duchies intact; if you are duke and have more than one ducal title then all your vassals will ambitiously (-50 to relationship with liege) desire the title you hold in their duchy. Either keep out or go all in. Keep your demesne in blocks of duchies you either own all the main titles in one duchy (letting the churches, cities and barons go to your local vassals) or you let it all go.

At this point the dukes start plotting against each other and the counts start plotting against their local duke. The only people plotting against you are your direct family, but by this time you should not have any having sent all brothers to the church and sisters abroad.

Once you have reduced your nobilty to single title dukes of your culture with no relation to you then you are safe. What really destroyes kingdoms in this game is the revolt by a younger brother which gainst the support of all the disaffected nobles and topples the older brother. The older brother then turns around and revolts himself again when the truce has lapsed against his younger brother, only this time the older gets the support of the nobles which now hate the younger brother. Not having any brothers to revolt is what makes for stable kingdoms. In fact it is so bad that the bonus the player gets on very easy; increased fertility; makes Very Easy harder than Normal for kingdoms.

[Josquius]

theres a powerful unwed italian duke at the game start. as my one province italian duke i married her. a lot of drama unfolded . our eldest died before he could inherit and when the missus did croak...a lot of stuff went down between my son and heir and my dead 1st son's daughter resulting in her on the ducal throne. i killed her before she could spawn kids and i inherited the duchy. weird.

[Ideologue]

It didn't give any options away from gavelkind.  I don't think.  Maybe I misread it.

On the laws tab you can see the various succession and gender laws.  Isn't always possible to change the laws but you can see the pre-reqs.

Yeah, it was something to do with the HRE's crown authority, whatever that is.  They changed it, and I was able to change my succession laws.

Matilda of Tuscany is actually a pretty great ruler (she reigned for 59 years in my restart! and she basically became queen of Italy, holding Rome, and the duchies of Tuscany, Modena, Capua, the middle one, and Salerno).  Unfortunately, she died just as I was about to conclude a holy war against Muslim Sicily and her grandson succeeded her.  Her actual son was okay (well, the one I didn't have her kill by torture ).  Her grandson sucks.

Does martial skill or opinion of vassals have an effect on your levies?  I could swear I had larger levies before improving my military facilities with Duchess Matilda (the Great, I got an achievement or something) than I did with Duke Fuckstick.

Ultimately, I'm going to have to fight the HREmperor (because of a marriage, my cousins), aren't I?  I mean, if I want Lombary and Verona/Mantua/that northeastern area.

Man, I should've played CK1.  This shit is pretty fun.

[Ideologue]

theres a powerful unwed italian duke at the game start. as my one province italian duke i married her.

Yeah, that's Matilda.  She's a tubbo, but a fine adminstrator.

[Martinus]

One idea I haven't yet toyed with fully (I want to keep Poland mostly Piast-ruled at Ducal level for roleplaying/historical reasons) is to restructure your Kingdom so instead of secular Dukes you mostly have Prince-Archbishops as vassals. Have anyone tried that? What are the pros and cons? I imagine with royal investiture this could be a pretty neat set up without generations of angry cousins holding grudge about something your grandfather did to their grandfather, as long as you act pious and do not engage in too many sinful activities.

I guess the downside is that if they like Pope more than you, you lose their income (or is it just for Papal investiture systems).

[Martinus]

Ultimately, I'm going to have to fight the HREmperor (because of a marriage, my cousins), aren't I?  I mean, if I want Lombary and Verona/Mantua/that northeastern area.

Are you his vassal? If yes (and unless the Crown Authority is medium or higher) then you can declare wars on other vassals of the HRE without getting the crown power on your ass. If you are not his vassal, then yes this means fighting the HRE for his vassals unless you get them to become independent somehow (I have been trying to do it by sowing discontent but to no avail so far).

[Tamas]

My greed can potentially again ruin my Hungary game: I married my heir to a Byzantine duchess, that heir is now king, and his heir is set to inherit two Byzantines duchies beside the crowns of Hungary and Croatia.
But, he stayed in his mother's court, would not come over to mine, and while is Hungarian, he is Orthodox. An Orthodox king ruling Hungary...
I will probably try and axe him soon, my king is in his forties (and madly in love with his second wife, his niece, Queen of Byzantium-vassal Serbia)

[Viking]

It is 1208 and Adela of Hwicce Duchess of Norfolk, Lancaster and York is the most powerful noble in the land with 8 provinces in her demesne consisting of those three duchies. This grand noblewoman has asserted her control over the men in her life, her husband and two sons have all been sent to the church and she rules with her underage unbetrothed daughter as her heir. The King of England does not notice this, he is too busy crafting excuses to invade france every two years first detaching the duchy of normandy and next the duchy of flanders from the french throne.

In early 1208 the Widower King Richard the Third of England, Wales, Normandie and Bedford is informed by a plot to reduce Royal Authority from Low to Min in England. He is shocked, thinking that England was settled with only one ducal claim overlapping de jure boundries. Thinking this might be related to the Devon and Somerset issue he listens. He is shocked to find out that it is the grand Duchess of the North trying to usurp his power. Regretfully the King orders her arrrest thinking he might remove one of her ducal titles, Adela escapes his agents and raises her banners in revolt.

Mobilizing his forces, including the monstrous regiments of Middlesex and Rouen a series of large battles in Norfolk settle the war and Duchess Adela offers herself up to Royal Custody. The Widower King now seeks to settle the North and if possible reduce the influence of the Hwicce family in the North and is amazed to find out that Adela is Duchess in her own right, has packed her two sons off to the church and her heir is an unmarried child... a perfect child bride for the lechrous Widower King.

The entire north just fell into his hands. Anything short of a successful usurpation of King Richard III Jailbait will result in the entire north falling to the Crown because of the Ambition of Adela, who doesn't even have the Ambitious trait.


Update: well, the king needed to live a few more years to marry the little kid. Naturally, immediately after unpausing my game and continuing after writing the above the king promptly died. Meh...

[Martinus]

 

Cant the King's son marry the young heiress?

[Sheilbh]

Oh God my Apulia game's going badly.  I've got second generation King of Sicily whose child will also inherit Thessalonika.  Problem is my half-brother the Count of Mantua has assasinated both of my sons and looks set to start on the daughters.  I've just had to break one betrothal to set up a matrilineal marriage just in case.  When Sicily and Thesalonika's inherited by a woman it's all going to go to hell