CKII is released.

[Destroid]

Time to dissolve the HRE

 

[Ulminati]

IIRC it costs you a shitload of prestige to do so. Not sure if empires/kingdoms can be dissolved or it if's just duchies.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

IIRC it costs you a shitload of prestige to do so. Not sure if empires/kingdoms can be dissolved or it if's just duchies.

Well, they can. It's more like it's a lot more difficult to do so, as you need to always have a top title besides them. So, to destroy an Empire title you need to have TWO Emperor titles.

 

[Kattze]

Time to dissolve the HRE

You can only dissolve a title though if you had another title with the same-tier as the one to be dissolved. In your case, you need another empire-level title.

 

[Ulminati]

IIRC it costs you a shitload of prestige to do so. Not sure if empires/kingdoms can be dissolved or it if's just duchies.

Well, they can. It's more like it's a lot more difficult to do so, as you need to always have a top title besides them. So, to destroy an Empire title you need to have TWO Emperor titles.

Sounds like something for Emperor Christian II of Scandinavia to get to work on. Time to conquer and dissolve HRE!

 

[Jarpie]

Paradox' forums are a mess but do you guys know are there good guides how to play CK2 as kingdoms, such as Byzantine or HRE?

 

[RedScum]

You mean Empires? No idea actually.

 

[Irenaeus]

Kill every noble in sight every couple of years.

 

[Kattze]

Paradox' forums are a mess but do you guys know are there good guides how to play CK2 as kingdoms, such as Byzantine or HRE?

Give small kingdoms if you can (ie. Navarre etc) and keep the rest of your vassals as dukes.

 

[Mortmal]

As emperor i would not create duke titles and keep existing duchy as small as possible, wich i s hard at beggining theres a few mega duchy .They are bound to give you problems a rebelling duke get all his vassals under his banner even if they like you. Same for kingdoms, dont give away the important ones, as byzantium , keep greece. Of course if you prefer more prestige , create them, but the realm will be less stable, remember to give your extral and to your heir after 2 duchy you get a relation penalty with vassals.

I suggest to keep crown authority to low,medium at max you will get less rebellions and less succession wars , tax and so to minimum, in any case you will smash anyone with your cataphract retinues, you dont even need any of your vassal troops.The biggest challenge is to keep what you conquered, i suggest giving county only to lowly courtiers with high martial skill , they sometimes will gain more lands . Of course no gavelkind as succession laws you dont want to split your domain.

Develop your domain, and only your domain, build everything to max , keep constantinople+ thrace duchy as personal domain,eventually a few more surrounding constantinople if your sovereiign can administrate them.
Dont use castrate and blind, its funny and all but theres absolutely no benifits on them only relation penalties , you are not even scaring anyone . No ,place your spymaster in your capital, find plots , place retinues on the plotter lands to prevent rebellion, then imprison him to life, thats one claimant or duke less to worry.If he dont plot insult him, give him buffoon title, revoke his titles till he revolt and you can rightfully imprison him.

Now you should be pretty much unstopable and can color all the map without fears of anything, you get quickly 120k+ of cataphracts, even the mongols cant compete if you hotdrop them .

 

[Sergiu64]

Or just give new conquests away to Priests, they can't inherit other titles and actually give you $$$ from Church Taxes. You're an Orthodox, so there's no risk of Pope getting their $$$.

 

[Destroid]

Won't you get wrong ruler penalties if you give counties to priests?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Won't you get wrong ruler penalties if you give counties to priests?

Yes, which in turn makes the bastards more likely to revolt or start faction bullshit.

 

[RedScum]

After some luck, accidents & some cohersion, i managed to get my only swedish son get elected as the danish king and he in turn inherited my 5 kingdoms. Close call getting a danish ruler in Sweden again.

 

[Borelli]

I was thinking a bit and noticed 2 things about priests: 1. they don't inherit so there is no accumulation of power in a single family and 2. they don't marry so they will not get claims on things that would make "direct vassals" screen look ugly. So i thought hey they make perfect bureaucrats.
Now the question is how to remove nobles and put bureaucrats in there without my kingdom imploding? So i started a game as the HRE, they start with investiture which will be useful once the master plan is completed. I paused the game and imprisoned... everyone. Every count, every duke, every count under that duke, some avoided capture which required a short war but after some time 100% of HRE's aristocracy were in my prison. About 40 people. First phase of my master plan was complete.
Second phase - start banishing. At the end i had about 120/10 demesne, robbers were appearing every 5 real life seconds, tyranny modifier was a 4-digit number. Then i waited for this emperor to die because some priests were already landed and they hated him. The new guy first gave every county to a priest and then a single archbishop was chosen to be a prince-archbishop. At the end aside from 2 duchies as my personal fiefdom my "direct vassals" screen was identical in color to "de jure duchies" screen. Loyalty was not a problem because of investiture+crusader.
There were no more nobles, only ones to be spared were barons and king of Bohemia. No more them intermarrying and warring around... in theory, in practice first thing every single prince-archbishop did was plot to revoke archbishops under him because i did not want to simply give the whole duchy to one priest, and an occasional prince-archbishop was ambitious so he joined an independence faction.
So the end results of my class warfare experiment - partial success.

I heartily awake the byzantine DLC which will add a bureaucrat position, mayors and priests are already elected but they have the stupid -30 "i don't like you" modifier.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

So... Republics are overpowered. But they're kind of fun.

 

[Spectacle]

There were no more nobles, only ones to be spared were barons and king of Bohemia. No more them intermarrying and warring around... in theory, in practice first thing every single prince-archbishop did was plot to revoke archbishops under him because i did not want to simply give the whole duchy to one priest, and an occasional prince-archbishop was ambitious so he joined an independence faction.
So the end results of my class warfare experiment - partial success.

If you want total realm peace you can destroy every duchy title instead of making prince-archbishops, then all your vassals will be 1 county archbishops who have no means for making trouble.

I wonder if the pagans will be able to have merchant republics in The Old Gods? Could be a fun way to play, first raid, then trade

 

[Sergiu64]

Won't you get wrong ruler penalties if you give counties to priests?

Yes, which in turn makes the bastards more likely to revolt or start faction bullshit.

Didn't have too much trouble with that, you can set Priest levies lower to counteract.

 

[Average Manatee]

I was thinking a bit and noticed 2 things about priests: 1. they don't inherit so there is no accumulation of power in a single family and 2. they don't marry so they will not get claims on things that would make "direct vassals" screen look ugly. So i thought hey they make perfect bureaucrats.
Now the question is how to remove nobles and put bureaucrats in there without my kingdom imploding? So i started a game as the HRE, they start with investiture which will be useful once the master plan is completed. I paused the game and imprisoned... everyone. Every count, every duke, every count under that duke, some avoided capture which required a short war but after some time 100% of HRE's aristocracy were in my prison. About 40 people. First phase of my master plan was complete.
Second phase - start banishing. At the end i had about 120/10 demesne, robbers were appearing every 5 real life seconds, tyranny modifier was a 4-digit number. Then i waited for this emperor to die because some priests were already landed and they hated him. The new guy first gave every county to a priest and then a single archbishop was chosen to be a prince-archbishop. At the end aside from 2 duchies as my personal fiefdom my "direct vassals" screen was identical in color to "de jure duchies" screen. Loyalty was not a problem because of investiture+crusader.
There were no more nobles, only ones to be spared were barons and king of Bohemia. No more them intermarrying and warring around... in theory, in practice first thing every single prince-archbishop did was plot to revoke archbishops under him because i did not want to simply give the whole duchy to one priest, and an occasional prince-archbishop was ambitious so he joined an independence faction.
So the end results of my class warfare experiment - partial success.

I heartily awake the byzantine DLC which will add a bureaucrat position, mayors and priests are already elected but they have the stupid -30 "i don't like you" modifier.

Should have done it with mayors instead of bishops. More money for you, less levies for them to turn against you in rebellion.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Question, since I've been away for awhile. I'm playing as Venice, it's 1170 and I control the Eastern Mediterranean. I plan on beating the fuck out of Pisa in a bit, but I was curious as to how much of an effect building trade improvements has on the income. I decided to go full OP and have like a 50k retinue and shit.

 

[Brayko]

Been playing for a little while now. Don't really care for the medieval setting, not really my cup of tea. Make a new 'Rome' game from this engine (EU: Rome is one of their most underrated titles imo), would be more up my ally. Although I'm probably gonna stain my computer screen once Hearts of Iron IV comes out. Hell, even EU: IV or Victoria III should be amazing.

I'm waiting...

 

[Renegen]

EU: Rome is one of their most underrated titles imo

No it's not. I spent $2.50 for the game and its expansion pack, immediately installed the best full overhaul mod out there, played for 5 hours, uninstalled and I still feel like I got ripped off.

 

[Brayko]

It's really good once you get the hang of it. Then again, I'm a sucker for that particular age. The music is great to. I think you're just retarded is all.

 

[Kattze]

Or just give new conquests away to Priests, they can't inherit other titles and actually give you $$$ from Church Taxes. You're an Orthodox, so there's no risk of Pope getting their $$$.

If you get a event with the trader that gives you a eunuch, use him instead.

IMO, you should be able to recruit eunuchs as Byzantines or muslims.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Hmm...

Idea. Invite someone to your court, make him a eunuch, then give him land. The land gift should offset most of the castration penalty.

Repeat at will (The piety penalty is a bit of a bitch to live with however)