CKII is released.

[Space Satan]

For anything bigger than small kingdom you have to fuck you wife and concubines and educate you heir to Grey Eminence. Diplomatic education is a bread and butter of empire building. Giot strong\wuick\genius child - educate him in diplo and other worthless inbred scum products of your fucking your sisters, aunts and mothers - martial. Martial education is rare, strangely, and the funniest thing - a lot of women got martial.

 

[Tigranes]

Basically two options for controlling. You do what Ulminati says, and many will be butthurt, but the cost of their butthurt is low because when they rebel it's just one county you stomp and give to another guy, who will in a few decades be butthurt again. The other way is to consolidate your kingdom into de jure duchy blocks and give each duke control of the entire thing. Then they have less reasons to be unhappy, and you can imprison / bribe / assassinate them as needed; you should only need to keep those few happy, and that lessens the number of vassals. I prefer the latter once you get beyond the size of a medium modern-day European nation.

Oh, yes, as Average Manatee says, never creating a duchy in the first place solves a lot of problems. Destroying duchies even can be worth it. I had one case where I had 6 de jure duchies in my kingdom, I owned two myself (and everything inside them) and got rid of all the other duchies. No duchy to pine for, no problems.

 

[Average Manatee]

Grey Eminence isn't that important. Virtues and other likable traits are far more important. Being Just or Kind etc will give 10-20 opinion each, it takes 20 state diplomacy to raise opinion of vassals by 10. Since you can choose who to marry and you have your councilor to raise it, it isn't vital. The main thing you want is a minimum of 10 diplomacy on your ruler so that you get the diplomatic options on certain events. Like the one where mayors ask you to lower taxes, if you don't have diplomacy and refuse it's -20 opinion with all mayors for several years. I fucking hate not having a way out for that event.

The stats are actually fairly well balanced at the moment IMO. Diplomacy is obviously good overall and especially for the reason above. Martial is good because your leader is the only one you can choose battle traits for (see my post earlier for what you can do with that). Stewardship is important for income and demesne (which gives additional income, tech, levies, all that). You want at least a decent intrigue to not die. Learning lets you power tech like a boss, getting legalism for more demesne, Mil Org for huge supply limit and retinue that lets you doomstack well, higher tech buildings.

 

[Horus]

I didn't know there was a way to destroy duchies. That changes things a lot.

What do you do about king claims? They become a fucking problem when i manage empires.

 

[Brinko]

Is there an easy way to make vassals come to you? I've tried throwing out whatever dumb broads end up in my court and the daughters I have just to get guys to manage all the shit counties I get from holy wars that won't be churning out any guys for about 15 years but I seem to only be able to get dumb frenchmen to join me. Everywhere else no one either hates their position so I can't invite them and the only one's who are pissed are next in line for their throne. I always seem to have this shitload of female courtiers but no use for them.

 

[Horus]

Use your daughters for getting good vassals.(Council members and dukes) They don't accept normal courtiers for matrilineal marriage
Find some vassals who have bad relations with their lords and send gifts to them. Use search option.
Oh you can use prestige for mediocre vassals too.

 

[baturinsky]

I tried playing Rurik I... It works, but I can't figure how to do that newfangled viking kayaking and pillaging things. I can't build ships anywhere to begin with, likely because zero in shipbuilding technology. And only new kind of pillage I found (that is, different to good old siege victory rewards) is some seemingly useless option to loot own provinces.

 

[Tigranes]

You can just set armies to Raiding (click the button when in friendly province) then walk to any non-pagan province, and you can see the loot slider decrease up to the threshold. Then you move on, or sack the city to get the rest. AFAIK without ships the money goes straight to the treasury?

 

[Average Manatee]

Is there an easy way to make vassals come to you? I've tried throwing out whatever dumb broads end up in my court and the daughters I have just to get guys to manage all the shit counties I get from holy wars that won't be churning out any guys for about 15 years but I seem to only be able to get dumb frenchmen to join me. Everywhere else no one either hates their position so I can't invite them and the only one's who are pissed are next in line for their throne. I always seem to have this shitload of female courtiers but no use for them.

Go to the build window of any non-ruler holdings you own in any province and there is a button to magically summon a new vassal of your religion and culture to own it. The one to own the ruler holding has to come either from your court or you can grant it to one of the vassals you just conjured up.

Also if you just want court members you can use the decisions to make new nobles/priests (note: as a courtier you can make him anything you want)/debutantes.

I tried playing Rurik I... It works, but I can't figure how to do that newfangled viking kayaking and pillaging things. I can't build ships anywhere to begin with, likely because zero in shipbuilding technology. And only new kind of pillage I found (that is, different to good old siege victory rewards) is some seemingly useless option to loot own provinces.

Click the option to make your army raiders while they are in your provinces. Move them into an enemy province. Each province has that ducat bar, where just occupying a it gives you some amount and assaulting it gives you the full bar (this is a separate income from what the battle result window shows you, you get both). This gold is only actually received if you are either bordering your own realm or have a nearby ship (which can only carry a specific amount and returning it to your realm gives you the gold and prestige).

You can only get ships from actual coastal provinces, Norse won't get boats on river provinces even if they can sail there.

PROTIP: One province realms won't raise their army if you are already standing on their province, meaning you can loot them without any risk of fighting. This included Rome and Venice... it's pretty ridiculous.

 

[Ulminati]

Basically, my approach and the high diplomacy approach have to deal with the same problems. But at different scales and intervals.

A small, strong demesne and many weak vassals will often have to beat the everloving shit out of some uppity count somewhere. But the revolts are (usually) small and managable. If your king has medium-high diplomacy it can also result in extremely stable kingdoms up to a certain size. It doesn't scale quite as well up to empire size. As the number of vassals grows, the odds of several banding together increases.

Meanwhile, a grey eminence with several strong dukes who love him will have the AI manage most of the minor rebellions in his stead. This allows him to build a far larger realm on his own. But the second his heir catches pneumonia and dies - leaving you with the 4-diplomacy son you were going to give to the church - your entire realm will fracture into a dozen warring states and you will spend the next 3-4 generations trying to rebuild.

If you're looking for a manageable start to experiment and learn, a small stable kingdom will be easier to deal with. This also allows you to give your king a martial/intrigue education instead of diplomacy which will come in very handy if you plan to start a war.

 

[sser]

The fuck. I was the Emir of the Bursaqids -- the emirate sandwiched between the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasids.

Anyway, around 970s, I get a message that a bunch of nobles in the Ummayad empire are trying to make me Sultan.

So they did. Now I own the Ummayad empire, though its name is now the Bursaqids.

Has anyone ever had this happen? I basically just inherited the most powerful nation in the game without even doing anything.

 

[RK47]

The fuck. I was the Emir of the Bursaqids -- the emirate sandwiched between the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasids.

Anyway, around 970s, I get a message that a bunch of nobles in the Ummayad empire are trying to make me Sultan.

So they did. Now I own the Ummayad empire, though its name is now the Bursaqids.

Has anyone ever had this happen? I basically just inherited the most powerful nation in the game without even doing anything.

Well it happens when duke hates their liege and they prefer someone else becoming their liege.

 

[Kattze]

The fuck. I was the Emir of the Bursaqids -- the emirate sandwiched between the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasids.

Anyway, around 970s, I get a message that a bunch of nobles in the Ummayad empire are trying to make me Sultan.

So they did. Now I own the Ummayad empire, though its name is now the Bursaqids.

Has anyone ever had this happen? I basically just inherited the most powerful nation in the game without even doing anything.

Do you have claims on Umayyads by any chance?

 

[Dead Guy]

Why can't I seize cities from Dukes in Sweden as Gotland? Jesus fucking christ did I place my trade posts wrong? So the Duke of Östergötland has declared war for Gotland 4 times and lost, but I can't declare back? Yes, limited crown authority, TPs in several counties with cities in them, but no CBs. Guess I'll just have to save up and go after Denmark instead then.

Can I seize a city for another patrician family and then revoke it? Does it then go to the republic instead of my family?

Oh, and what happens if I take a county with only a castle in it as a patrician, like Ångermanland holy war CB?

 

[Ulminati]

Undead Phoenix is angry.

Fucking wife backed a plot to put someone else on the thronw than his son. And launched a fucking rebellion while he as in the middle of a holy war against England so I had to settle for white peace.


There can only be one response to shit like this!

Hanging your pregnant wife at the great Blot does not count as a 2-for-1 special?

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

She was 40? Eh, she wasn't useful anymore anyway.

 

[Tigranes]

Pfft. I see your wifeblot and raise you twosisterblot:

 

[Angthoron]

I guess the next one to one-up you guys would have to get himself sacrificed at a blot.

 

[Ulminati]

Eh... Norse is actually kind of too easy in old gods. I have an absurd amount of gold, a stable kingdom, strong allies and the reformed Norse faith has 100% moral authority with me as the Fylkir.

So I'm going to get all the boys together, invade Jerusalem, set up an independent Norse kingdom and switch ruler. Then I'll send letters out to the catholics, orthodox, shia and sunni religious heads and tell them to come and have a go if they think they're hard enough.

 

[Merkwürdigliebe]

Come on, step it up guys.

 

[Spectacle]

Why can't I seize cities from Dukes in Sweden as Gotland? Jesus fucking christ did I place my trade posts wrong? So the Duke of Östergötland has declared war for Gotland 4 times and lost, but I can't declare back? Yes, limited crown authority, TPs in several counties with cities in them, but no CBs. Guess I'll just have to save up and go after Denmark instead then.

Can I seize a city for another patrician family and then revoke it? Does it then go to the republic instead of my family?

Oh, and what happens if I take a county with only a castle in it as a patrician, like Ångermanland holy war CB?

You can't use the "seize city" CB inside your own kingdom. That also applies to most other special CBs, in general only claims and de jure wars can be declared on your fellow vassals.

And patricians can own castles with no penalty, including counties with castle capitals.

 

[Tigranes]

Come on, step it up guys.

BRB, need to capture Genghis Khan alive for the Blot

 

[thesoup]

Those norse raids are damn annoying when you're on the receiving end, especially if you have vast borders. I'm going to conquer every pagan country solely for the purpose of stopping the god damn raids.

 

[Kattze]

Those norse raids are damn annoying when you're on the receiving end, especially if you have vast borders. I'm going to conquer every pagan country solely for the purpose of stopping the god damn raids.

Spam missionaries, bro. In my Norse Kiev playthrough, Denmark and Sweden converted to Catholicism early and I'm forced to ditch Norse for Zoroastrianism (especially as I've just recently formed a kingdom).

 

[RK47]

Those norse raids are damn annoying when you're on the receiving end, especially if you have vast borders. I'm going to conquer every pagan country solely for the purpose of stopping the god damn raids.

That's is my issue with the game. Fighting off the pagan is nothing more than annoyance the level of damage is minimal.
And the permanent solution is so simple, spam the Norse court with your Bishop.. I have 10k piety and kept inviting holy men till they convert.
You can no longer Holy War them later on, but if you want an easy permanent solution there it is.