CKII is released.

[GarfunkeL]

Now that I'm King of Ireland and got the remaining Dukes and Earls to swear fealty to me, where should I aim? I took a minor part in a Crusade in Spain to get the Crusader trait (which helped me unify Ireland) but the old guy is dead and his "young" son of 52 isn't nearly as good, stat-wise, though not a complete write-off. Fun thing, the old King imprisoned his beyond menopause original wife and married a 16-year old busty Welsh duchess-to-be who managed to get his Staff of Command +5 rise again and again - seriously, the last time he got her pregnant he was 76-years old!

But I'm thinking that the independent Welsh counties/earldoms/duchies might be a better target than to try carve Scotland up. Just need to save up some money, had to spend most of it placating the younger brothers who didn't appreciate me getting the throne and them getting nothing extra when the old man finally bought the farm.

 

[Malakal]

Form the United Kingdom of Ireland and Great Britain and then go on to create the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Always a worthy goal.

 

[Cassidy]

Speaking of Jerusalem, I think there is a religion missing there, differently from CK1 where it existed in a few isolated provinces, that modders might fix, if they didn't already...

 

[GarfunkeL]

Form the United Kingdom of Ireland and Great Britain and then go on to create the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Always a worthy goal.

Hmm, is it actually feasible? Both the Kingdoms of Scotland and England look pretty stable and well-off at the moment.

 

[Kayerts]

It's possible, but unless you marry well or get lucky with civil wars, you'll pay for every inch of ground with a gallon of blood. Resurrecting Celtiberian culture is a lot more likely to be profitable: you can use holy knights, you've got a permanent CB, and though it'll take a while before you can use it, you'll get some of the best land in the game.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Kingdom of Ireland still plodding along at 1123. Just one county left to acquire, waiting for 1127 for a truce to be done to swoop in and take it. Have a pretty good son lined up to take the throne, all his sisters are evil manipulative shits but he is STRONG AND BRAVE AND HONEST AND PURE, LIKE GABEN. In fact one of his sisters (Married to a vassal) was plotting to have him assassinated. Not sure why unless she was trying to get her husband to rebel against me. Good luck with that since he's craven and content. Threw her in prison.
Robbing the cradle with some 12-13 year old orthodox Greek girl to marry my prince. He'll end up being 5-8 years older than her, but shouldn't impact fertility too much I wager. Stealing her since I saw she had the genius trait, and since I'm metagaming instead of LARPfagging for this first game I'm trying to get that.

I'll probably need to look up some guide on getting claims on kingdoms/titles through marriage and assassinations at some point. When I have unmarried daughters floating around I usually just throw them at innocuous people to get rid of them. Don't need to at the moment since I'm not really doing underhanded shit beyond basic fabricating claims. Haven't even really tried assassination, my realm intrigue is so shitty. My king may have 3 diplomacy and 5 learning but HE'S GOT 23 GODDAMN MARTIAL. WARBOSS AED SEZ IRISH ARE DEAD 'ARD AND READY TA STOMP.

Edit: A thought just struck me, though. Every time I've had my chancellor fabricate claims, it's been for a single county. Is there a way to fabricate a claim (Beyond marriage trickery which I haven't really figured out) on a whole kingdom? 'cause I bet I could take Scotland if given the chance, and could carve it up between my king and vassals.

 

[Kayerts]

If your chancellor has a high diplomacy score, there's a chance that the claim he eventually fabricates will be on the targeted county's duchy. Based on my questionable reading of job_chancellor.txt: if the county you send him to is owned by the current ducal title holder, then diplomacy 15-17 gets you a 10% chance, 18-19 gives a 20% chance, and 20+ gives a 30% chance.

You can't fabricate claims on royal or imperial titles. If you want to swallow a kingdom whole, you're going to either have to arrange for some future heir to inherit it or get an invasion. Regarding the latter, Ireland has fewer holdings than most other Catholic kings (and certainly fewer than Scotland or England), so you're theoretically eligible. If the Pope loves you (achievable by high piety, crusading, bribery, or sending your chaplain to sweet talk him) or hates your target (achievable through excommunication or assassination), you can request an invasion. (Open diplomatic options for your target, then click "request invasion.") If you win, you get the target's primary title (e.g., King of Scotland) and all associated vassals; also, any land that your forces occupy at the end of the war is seized for your personal demense.

Before you start shelling out money for bribes and assassins, though, you should probably check to get an idea if you can actually win a war with Scotland; in most games, you wouldn't be able to pull it off at this point without allies or a lot of mercs. (To check this, open the Scottish king's character portrait, click the realm tree (the button's to the left of dynastic crest), then hover your mouse over the pic that pops up. "Total levy of top liege" is the number you're looking for. A marvel of intuitive user interface design.)

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Scotland can raise 4,700 troops, I can raise 3,000. However I've got 1,100 gold so I don't really give a fuck and could buy like 3,000 more in mercenaries easily. Plus I've got 41 state martial and 23 of that is from my king. Scotland's king has 7 martial and 32 realm.

MIGHT HAVE TO START BUTTERING UP A POPE! Thanks for the info Kayerts!

 

[sser]

Anybody tried the shit going on in the Caucasus? Total clusterfuck. I played as the duke of the Kahzars and got murdered almost instantly. Huge armies roaming about; the greater kingdom is in total disarray and run by a revolving door of shitty leadership that gets progressively younger and more antagonistic (assassination-palooza 1066!). When I started the game everyone already hated me -- and I mean pretty much everyone. Half my people converted to other religions and after a few years a 12-year old queen was like fuck this guy and just invaded me with a gigantic army I had no hope of stopping. I'm not even sure if places like that are actually playable.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Anyone happen to know where "The Dragon" title comes from? King Aed the first just became known as the dragon. I gather it's a flavor title, I was just curious how it came to be, since usually I see kings called bad shit like "The cruel" and such. And one dude called "The old", fucker made it to his 80s.

As an addendum if anyone feels like answering more of my inane questions, how would I go about getting a claim on the throne of Scotland through marriage? Though I'm getting a hang on most of the game and have my whole island running pretty well (And adjusted vassal taxes to low and crown authority to low but not minimum) but getting claims through marriage still eludes me. I know about pressing the claims of vassals, and I know about pulling courtiers over from other courts and pressing their claims, but marriage is a terrifying blind spot.
From what I can tell by viewing Scottish claimants, they only have a claim due to being related by blood to the previous king of Scotland, who was usurped. And their claims on the throne won't pass on to their children. None of the reigning king's children or family have claims on the throne beyond heir and pretenders, but since those go to men I don't see how I could swing a claim out of that.

 

[Malakal]

Marrying into a claim depends on succession laws of the kingdom. If it does not forbid women from succession you can get claims inherited by sons of king's daughters. Therefore the best way is to marry yourself/your heir to the princess and i the next generation a claim should appear.

It works two ways - enemies can get claims on your titles fro your daughters. Be careful who do you marry them to.

 

[Kayerts]

Based on common/nicknames.txt, you have to be wroth + have ruled 10 years + be a kinslayer/excommunicated/impaler, bonus if you're a kinslayer. (The requirements for the other nicknames are there, too.)

As for marital claims, yeah, the entire point of a marital claim is for the heir to inherit it, so you need a claimant with an inheritable claim. Since it sounds like there are only three guys like that, your options in this particular case are limited. One method would be to go on a murder spree and see if you have better luck with whoever ends up on the throne next. Alternatively, if you can find a male claimant who's willing to accept an invitation to join your court, you will become his liege when he joins. As his liege, you can order him to matrilineally marry a female member of your dynasty, and you can then make some resulting son your heir. (Though making him your heir could be difficult if you don't have elective succession.)

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Ah, yeah. He's ruled 10+ years and has impaler. As far as I know he isn't a kinslayer, though he's got his daughter locked up in the dungeon for trying to kill his heir (She was next in line after the prince) and she's still alive in there.

Hmmmm. Thanks for the tips bros. Inviting a guy with a claim to court, matrilineally marrying, pressing claim (With the hopes of daughter shitting out a son, since claim won't pass unless pressed with war it says) sounds the most workable. Though at the moment I'm considering changing gears and getting an invasion OK from the pope for England. It's getting hit by 2 rebellions at once, which makes it seem like a good time to strike. I probably should be content to just sit on Ireland, but I have a terrible urge to map paint.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

GRANDPA, COMIN' THROUGH http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/596966984578079063/5E82AE23D4E196D6580610AC9DD550B6BF4001FA/

Just took the throne of England from my grandson via pope invasion. Wife died and Scotland was usurped, but I was able to grab a 16 year old wife for my 70 year old king who has a claim on the throne of Scotland. Had a rebellion happen (Vassals are pissed at how long my war in England took) but hopefully since I just took England I can put that down and HOPEFULLY take Scotland and RULE THE IRISH ISLES.

Lot of hopefully going on in this plan. I went for a few decades peacefully and just chilling out, now I'm fighting everything. Also hemorrhaging gold terribly due using 3 mercenary bands at once to keep my shit together, but THAT'S WHAT GOLD IS FOR. Fuck, it's 4AM and I'm super excited and pumped due to CK2.

 

[Malakal]

If you havent replaced all of the conquered dukes you are in for a civil war after civil war.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Had one of them turn against me, the rest are alright. I'm winning beating the rebellions down, but the mercenaries are raping my coffers. I'm under 100 gold now. As much as I hate to I might have to pull my vassals back in to the fight since I'll be losing my mercs soon. Guess I could also eat a prestige hit and settle for white peace with some of the rebels.

Edit: END RESULT, all rebellions crushed and instigators thrown in prison. Had a peasant uprising, crushed it too. IRELAND HAS GREATLY EXPANDED! Nearly went bankrupt but I was able to pay the mercenaries until the bitter end, then fired them and raised vassal levies again. Vassals are kinda pissed but nobody seems pissed enough to rebel since I gave my loyal vassals big chunks of England.
So. Now the kingdom is at peace at least temporarily, and I see the dukes and earls in newly conquered England are fighting one another. Going to have to be careful I don't get any dukes too big for their own good. Had that happen on Ireland just before/during this war.

ALSOOOOOOOOOOOOO probably should try to zerg rush Scotland while I've got a claim. At least, I think I have a claim. Wonder if I can start a war, poke at them a little, then do a white peace to take a prestige penalty but will renew the claim so it will pass from the idiot wife to her kids. Unfortunately she's only had two daughters. 75 year old Aed is doing his best but not getting a son.

Edit 2: 5AM this game is fucking ridiculous.

 

[Malakal]

Once you go to war over a claim it gets inheritable. I sometimes do this as you described, declare war just so I can take whats mine later.

But be sure you can handle it, a lot of pissed vassals is a bad idea. And yes, this game is really eating your free time...

 

[Trash]

When I want to produce claims I usually check the title screen (click on the coat of arms of a province) to see what claimants there are. If I can get any to my court I invite them and if I can use them to start a war and then get to install them as vassals if I win I go for it. Do check to see in the declare war screen that winning will add them as your vassal though. Nothing worse than fighting an entire bloody expensive war and then see Lord Whatzisname cheerily wave at you as he goes independent.

And yeah, this is a goddamn timesink.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Nothing worse than fighting an entire bloody expensive war and then see Lord Whatzisname cheerily wave at you as he goes independent.

That's how my first attempt at getting Wales as part of the Kingdom of Ireland ended. FUUUUUUUUU-

 

[hoverdog]

Been playing as the emir of Toledo with the newest CK2+. Tried Zaragoza at first, but got tastelessly raped real quick. Toledo has a better position and more land, but it's still definitely hard, especially in the beginning. The whole christian Spain is ruled by the same dynasty, which means you can't just waltz in and take their land, and if they gang up on you, you're fucked. Ragheads, on the other hand, are divided, with several small emirates and sheikhdoms ripe for the picking for Castille or Aragon. The fact that only christian nations in this game have any female family members doesn't help either - it takes at least seventeen years to make any alliances.
Thankfully the spaniards in my game were more interested in fighting themselves (it's really funny - as they're all kinsmen, the first to invite allies wins, even if he's much, much weaker. any other houses, like the portuguese or barcelona's are fucked though, if they want to get independent) than start reconquista. This enabled me to snatch Valladolid first, and then duchy of Leon. Then I assassinated two castillian kings, usurped the kingdom (now caliphate) of Castille and took back two former sunni provinces. But then the fucking pope called a crusade for Valladolid, and the sneaky sevillan motherfuckers stabbed me in the back. Now I'm fighting England and Sevilla and my forces are weakened after an invasion from Apulia. Tough times ahead, I may have to give up on still catholic Valladolid to defend the prosperous Cordoba.
Not much going in Europe right now, Scotland took Northumberland from England, Sweden fell apart, while Lettigalians are currently the biggest romuvan power, they conquered both the curonians and Polotsk.

 

[Malakal]

Patch notes foretell a huge rape of muslims with the new crusade system. I doubt they will balance it successfully - crusades targeting kingdoms AND a more unified crusade front? Say hello to 100+k armies at least.

 

[Kayerts]

Yeah, that seemed silly; crusading was already overpowered. I wonder if the new caliphate will survive into the 13th century.

Still, the rest of the changes look reasonable. Better support for collaborative wars, dynamic kingdoms, and the ability to prop up wars of independence against rivals. How well all that works depends on the implementation, but it might help de-blob the map.

(Preliminary patch notes can be found here.)

 

[IDtenT]

I can't wait for the patch. The new dynamic Kingdom system sounds awesome. I hope it allows the creation of titular Empires.

 

[Lagole Gon]

My first game is getting weirder and weirder.

I've just found khan of the golden horde chilling in a muslim court.
No families, no vassals, nothing. And it's 30 years to the invasion. WTF?

Holy Roman Empire (capital in Finland) is ridiculously huge.

Oh, and my dynasty is quite

 

[curry]

Patch notes foretell a huge rape of muslims with the new crusade system. I doubt they will balance it successfully - crusades targeting kingdoms AND a more unified crusade front? Say hello to 100+k armies at least.

There has to be some mad Jihad update too.