In Progress Let's Play Crusader Kings 2: I want to be a Basileus!

[Cornflakes]

We're here for you man. Power through it. We all want to see you succeed in taking over the world.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Man, why aren't you yet at maximum personal demesne? It's imperative to always stay capped out!

PS: Grrrrr, use my independence_cb and learn to fear rebellions properly!

 

[XenomorphII]

Man, why aren't you yet at maximum personal demesne? It's imperative to always stay capped out!

PS: Grrrrr, use my independence_cb and learn to fear rebellions properly!

Mostly because I am being picky about the provinces I keep. I want Rome and the surrounding territories with Venice + Genoa.

As to the other. Well, I feel like I have them sufficiently beaten when I force the white peace (their armies are usually broken, and holdings have been taken), and to be honest the LP would get boring watching me siege and resiege vassal territories over and over again pushing for the 100% (or close to it) to make them full on surrender. Especially considering the large size of the African garrisons (most have at least one holding with over 1k troops). Also I have no interest in imprisoning most of my douxes (I have no idea what the proper plural is for that btw) as they are all Greek Orthodox, so it really just adds a lot of busy body work that I just don't have the patience for. Especially in a LP format.

Besides rebellions are still quiet dangerous. If it had been anybody but the Doux of Benevento (smallest and weakest of my vassals) who rebelled to claim the throne of Sicily (a few updates back) I probably would have been overwhelmed, but his close proximity and relative personal weakness let me triumph.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Generally it's pretty easy to switch your personal holdings around due to rebellions. Even less valuable provinces are vital if they bring you to your Demesne Limit, since that means moar money, moar money means moar upgrades, and moar upgrades means moar levies. Being picky is not helpful.

It's also smart to have entire duchies under your rule to prevent vassal's being ponces.

 

[XenomorphII]

Update 37-Back in Action

I rally an army. Another one is being put together. I need to take the rest of the Ducal territory of Alexandria, and end this war.

The upside right now is that none of my vassals that matter want to revolt. Just a couple of dumb Italians.

My other army gets there a little later. It take my North African forces a little bit more time to mobilize and get to where they are going since there are a few provinces that are not seaside. Also my first army is suffering attrition, but it is only a very small amount.

The Caliph has won his other war, now it is just me, him, and his allies. A couple of his armies are coming to greet me.

After some movement this is how things ended up. Originally the army nearest my own wanted to attack my smaller besieging force while a small Caliphate army tried to retake their lost holdings, but my large reinforcement army kept them from attacking, and eventually they went down south to join the siege group.

Some waiting and a lost holding in Damietta later:

And we take a holding. Also the larger enemy army has burned itself down quite nicely. I think my large army can now safely head to Diametta to relieve it.

Also I think I may through down some money on a large merc group in a bit.

They are relieved. And we have heads to chop off!

The pursuit went well too! More head to roll.

As my army moves to the relief of our besieged acquisitions at Quattara, I decide some extra help would be nice. They head to Damietta.

We win the battle against their remaining army.

p

As the army pursues the mercs retake Damietta. Yay!

I win another pursuit, but more enemies show up, so I flee to the boats, land in Damietta, and send my army to rally with the mercs.

Another siege is won. I think I may break off my army in Damietta from their retaking process to destroy the enemy north of them. Don't want them rallying

together and all that.

They beat me. Badly. Pretty sure that the bulk of their army there was a group of cavalry based mercs. The battered force that remains disbands (and so does the navy that originally brought them). I will wait some before attempting to re-raise them.

Province taken! But oh my are the rebels popping up back west.

I wipe out the small force attempting to retake Quattara. Then the army heads to the ships to go around and rebel smash before being disbanded.

The enemy army, and its composition. Light Infantry/Heavy Infantry/Pikemen/Light Cavalry/Heavy Cavalry/Archers/Horse Archers(That explains why they wiped me earlier. HA are really powerful).

We lose another siege. The box is covering up another 7k men who are on their way to join the enemy's main army.

Nevermind. They stopped short. That is good. My army still hasn't finished putting down the rebels though yet. More keep popping up before the others are dealt with.

As the armies rally, a province falls.

Our army. I will send them to smash the smaller enemy force. Since the larger enemy force has a sizable number of horse archers, I want to catch them with both my armies.

The Golden Horde arrives, and is having to go through the Il Khanate.

We win our battle. Also notice who I captured. The prince of the Caliphate. Know what that means?

Oh this is too perfect. When the Caliph steps foot in Aswan, he is going to die.

Finally success! Now then. Let's end the war:

And we win. Also:

He is still our prisoner. God I love it when that happens.

Territory is handed out.

We usurp the ducal title.

What it looks like now. Yay. Damietta is now connected to the rest of Sicily.

Now what to do with the Caliph? I cannot attack him again while he sits in my jail. I wonder what the Caliphate's situation is right now.

Those are all his duke rank vassals. I think I will hold him in prison while his realm falls apart. BWAHHAHAHAHA!

And if he happens to die in prison:

Then his 5 year old son will inherit.

Building time:

That will be nice.

Not long after I notice something about the Caliphate:

More crusaders are coming for Jerusalem. None of these are particularly strong, but if rebellion sweeps the Caliphate, and some of the greater powers get involved it could be its end.

Conversion!

Also I think I will take it easy for a bit. Let my territory settle for a while. I need to change the laws in Mauretania, and many of my vassals there have negative relations with me (due to raised levies -30 for most right now).

An event happens:

I laugh in his face and send him to the oubliette, which murders his diplomacy. Have fun with the rebels yo!

He dies not long later. Oh well.

More crusaders haven taken up the call.

An event:

Our relatively poor diplomacy means I cannot wiggle my way out of it, so I opt for hurt feelings over less income from my cities.

Malta converts.

Mauretania's law is set to Agnatic-Cognatic like all the others.

An event:

I very rarely turn down a chance to increase a stat.

Gah! I inherit Samos, and due to the added duchies and territory over my demesne limit, I get a war declaration from a vassal.

I hand out some territory:

Counties and duchies are handed out liberally, and everyone is more or less happy again (except the Byzantine Emperor!).

The map at the end of the day.

That is this update. Tune in next time to watch me put down a rebellion, and probably get ass-raped by the Byzantine Empire (the emperor has claims on all the territory I just inherited and I fully expect him to press those claims at the worst time imaginable).

 

[KickAss]

Good luck :D

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Holy hell, snagging that prince/caliph was perfect. I would've let him marinate some more in the normal prison to keep him alive, myself, but oh well.

By the way, where do I find the characters' current/max health? These modifiers come up, occasionally, but they're pretty ambiguous without knowing what they deduct from.


Also, bump.

 

[XenomorphII]

Holy hell, snagging that prince/caliph was perfect. I would've let him marinate some more in the normal prison to keep him alive, myself, but oh well.

By the way, where do I find the characters' current/max health? These modifiers come up, occasionally, but they're pretty ambiguous without knowing what they deduct from.


Also, bump.

I didn't kill him directly, but me sending him to the oubliette (and the health penalty that comes with it) killed him naturally shortly after he was sent there.

Health and fertility and both hidden stats that are not displayed. I think that a characters base stat in these is based off of the parents' or grandparents' stats in these, but I don't know for sure or the specifics of it. The only way I know of to see these numbers is to go in to edit the save using notepad, find yourself, and then they should be with your other stats there.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

I didn't kill him directly, but me sending him to the oubliette (and the health penalty that comes with it) killed him naturally shortly after he was sent there.

Yep, I know, I'd meant to say "keep him alive longer", but I botched that foreign language roll.

Health and fertility and both hidden stats that are not displayed. I think that a characters base stat in these is based off of the parents' or grandparents' stats in these, but I don't know for sure or the specifics of it. The only way I know of to see these numbers is to go in to edit the save using notepad, find yourself, and then they should be with your other stats there.

I see. And here I was, frantically scouring the menus for the buggers' health, thinking I'm the only idiot who can't find it.

 

[Norfleet]

So now you seem to be making inroads on the eastern Empire. That going to be where you grab your Basileus title from?

 

[Cornflakes]

Wow, I had no idea about that capturing a prince gambit. Amazing, I love this game!

 

[Kashmir Slippers]

I'm starting to get vibes of the first game I played in CK1. I owned Spain, Sicily, and all of Africa from Antioch to Marrakesh. Not that expansion is anywhere as easy in this game than in the last. Keep up the heathen-bashing.

 

[XenomorphII]

I need bumps for the next page (and update).

 

[Kashmir Slippers]

Bump

 

[Tigranes]

Oopdat!

 

[XenomorphII]

Top of the next page?

 

[XenomorphII]

Update 38-Fun with Rebels

Well time to go put down a rebellion. A raise levies only in my recently inherited territories.

The army they make is pretty nice. Nearly 10k troops added to my army with that acquisition is pretty good.

Another conversion.

And another.

Our daughter dies. It seems like it was from natural causes, as she had been ill. The children are sent to new educators. Our son and heir is sent to the person with the highest diplomacy.

At the same time we also managed to defeat the rebel army.

They were pursued and wiped out shortly thereafter.

The queen gets an event, but nothing comes of it.

Oh great. This jackass again. Another war for Sicily from a Duke of Benevento. I raise my personal levies to deal with him.

My army and his. LOL.

His army is destroyed but:

Some idiots decide to join him anyway. Calabria and Damietta to be precise.

Two sieges are won on the same day. The army in Africa goes to fight the rebel force, the army in Italy assaults.

And wins.

And again.

Well fuck. We are now playing as Kallinikos II.

And the pope declares war on us. Also I have to do some swapping of titles to get myself to be Sicily again.

Another war of independence is declared.

Time to end the war for Sicily.

Now to rally my forces to fight the pope.

My army that the pope is about to have to fight.

Damn regent!

We defeat the enemy army.

One of my rebels decides to throw in the towel. Time to deal with the other one.

With the army pursued and wiped out the Papacy decides its time to end the war.

Now, back to Africa:

We defeat the rebel army and pursue. A peasant rebellion appears in the province they are fleeing to and defeats them.

Yes please. Get ready to bend over Mr. Pointy Hat.

Another conversion.

The rebel force is wiped out. They are beaten.

The rebel leader agrees with my assessment.

I end up releasing the Duke of Benevento from prison not long after everything calms down, because he has no children and if he dies right now one of my other Doux's wife will inherit.

More rebellions! Yay!

As more personal forces move to put down the idiot (she has no personal army only a small group of mercs) I decide to spend some money:

Alright.

Rebel army destroyed, and she does have some levies, but not much.

Kallinikos II picks up arbitrary. Booooooo.

A siege is won.

A conversion occurs.

The asshat French still don't want to marry with me. But...

The HRE will let us marry his sister. Her heirs will inherit claims to the Empire. I will have to think about that.

Crap. His heir is ambitious too. I expect another rebellion.

A siege is won.

The rebels throw in the towel.

Ah there it is.

Well I think I am going to call that this update. Let me know what you guys think. Should I continue to shoot for marrying a Capet to give my son a claim on the French throne, or should I go ahead and marry a Blois and give him a claim on the HRE (that will be much harder to press)? (Bear in mind Kallinikos II will probably have a pretty long reign and will likely be taking Iberia, and finish grabbing the Caliphate territories that I want)

 

[Kashmir Slippers]

Go for the HRE. France isn't going to marry you any time soon, so you might as well go for the Germans. Pressing that claim will be fun to watch.

 

[Kayerts]

Blois, and then . . .

Death to the false emperor!

 

[Norfleet]

Gotta get that Basileus some time.

 

[Cassidy]

Death to the false emperor!

Perfect! The Imperium in Warhammer Fantasy is very obviously inspired by the HRE.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

You still should get to your demesne cap. Your putting yourself at a disadvantage against the rebels by severely limiting your income and personal levies.

 

[XenomorphII]

Update 39-Making the Caliphate Irrelevant

We get a conversion as our forces move to put down our rebel friend.

As the Greek force arrives and wipes out a small group of rebels that have not joined with their main army, Kallinikos comes of age.

We marry a Holy Roman Princess. We are now allied with them.

Our amibition is to have a son.

Province converts. As you can see, peasant rebels are kind of a problem for me right now. In an irritating way, not a dangerous one though.

My steward brings me some extra money. Cool. I switch him over to economic tech boosting in Rome.

we tapped that Holy Roman ass. This is good, the sooner I have children, the better I feel.

We have a chance to pick up ambitious, but it fails.

The rebel army is beaten. We pursue it.

It is a boy!

Not much choice, so let's have a daughter.

Having his army crushed took the wind out of his sails. Now while I have peace:

That is good. Medium keeps them from fighting each other, but doesn't make them hate me too much.

Time to fight the good fight against the Caliph again.

As I mobilize, I hear that the HRE will not be joining me. That's too bad.

Have you come seeking the light?

The first army is assembled. These are forces from Italy and Tripoli.

The second army. Troops from Greece and a few from Egypt.

The second heads for Cairo. The third will arrive before too long, and the first will act as a bogey man to keep enemy forces from the second.

Alrighty.

The third army. North African forces, and Western forces.

I assault Cairo and take a holding. No more attrition for that group. The third army moves up to the province of Sarqihya. They will be assaulting ASAP to minimize the effects of attrition.

They are at half strength, but the province is almost ours.

More converts! Also the first army moves up:

So that they can assist either of the others if an enemy heads their way.

Assault successful! Province taken! That army heads to Quena and I deploy my spymaster to give me an early warning system against incoming enemies.

I will see them well in advance.

It is a girl!

I decide to spend some money:

Now that I don't have so much money I:

Go for the get rich ambition. You can do this repeatedly, but I probably won't do it more than this once. (Mostly because my bro Kallinikos II had too high piety and prestige to go for the ambitions related to those by the time he came of age.)

A siege is won, and a small enemy force is engaged. They are trying to send reinforcements to the main force at Jerusalem. If they lose this war, they are going to be in real trouble, as my territory and the Sunni Caliphate will have them divided. That means long desert marches without the owner boost to supply levels (which means they suffer lots of attrition anytime they have to go fight someone.)

Sucks to be the Caliph. That 62 troops used to be over 12k. I bet he really hates Greeks.

That poor son of a bitch. Hope he's ready for round two to begin, because its time to engage in some blitzkrieg.

We take the Duchy of Cairo. The only thing that stops me from taking over the title King of Egypt is that the Caliph is at war. Land is distributed and a new Doux born:

Time to get the navies back in port and disband everybody, so we can attack again.

Round 2! Fight!

As the armies mobilize, more of heathens see the light.

Our central and eastern forces (everybody east of Tunis basically). The smallest group goes to siege as these provinces have a supply limit of 7k, and I don't want to bleed out too much (though when the western force arrives I may send them to do some rapid assault advances).

One of our armies catches a small enemy force and wipes it out. The last of our armies is starting to arrive in the area.

Oh yeah! (In my best Kool-Aid man voice)

The last army arrive.

What everybody is doing.

Burn me some heretic.

An enemy army that was running north was wiped out.

Another small enemy force is caught trying to get across our lands and destroyed. Look at all those prisoners. EXECUTION TIME!

A siege is won and:

A province converts. Aw yeah.

Another one bites the dust.

The first real battle of the war. We win. Big. They march deeper into my territory so I pursue and annihilate.

Another siege is won in Nubia.

Province taken. I bet the pansy comes seeking a peace soon.

+1 Stewardship.

Another small army eliminated.

Moving about.

More kids.

A siege is won. The Caliph still isn't ready to throw in the towel though.

Well. I know who I am going to be attacking next. The Pope better pray for some divine intervention if he doesn't want to be wiped off the map.

An event. If I wasn't arbitrary, I think it would have other options.

Siege is won. Armies are staring daggers at one another.

A child is born, and my army moves.

We win. Now if I can just end the war and this update!

Please tell me he is ready to bend over and take it like a man now.

Excellent!

We take the ducal title for ourselves.

And make a new Doux!

And now. Finally. This update can come to a graceful end. Tune in next time to watch the Caliph enjoy some more pounding, to see the Pope get snuffed out, and possibly see our first foray into Iberia while waiting for claims on some of the independent states in N.Italy.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Pansy, use my independence_cb!


PS: You really should use Egypt or Africa as your main title. Being King of Sicily when most of your holdings aren't in Italy looks silly.

 

[Azira]