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

[Cassidy]

Congratulations on becoming the King of Kings of Africa

Just don't let those uppity peasants shove you out like the other King of Kings of Africa did

 

[kazgar]

having some image problems on this last update, but onwards, for orthodoxy!

 

[Kayerts]

Are you gunning for French holdings for role-playing reasons? Because otherwise it seems like a weird plan. France is too big and powerful to make carving off duchies a good idea; trying to take it over by attrition will take forever.

 

[Norfleet]

I imagine the only feasible way to go about doing that is to gank the King title somehow, taking the whole shebang in one stroke. Along with a giant stack of new vassals that hate you. Unless embracing Mongol Culture works the same way in CK2.

 

[XenomorphII]

I want to target France, because if I can weaken them just a little, or distract them just enough, A-A should be able to conquer Iberia, and then I can conquer them. Also I won't be grabbing whole duchies, I would go through them county by county, and in my experience the larger powers are quite willing to give up a county if you take it, and bloody their army a bit.

Besides I need to have Gaul if I want to be a proper Roman Emperor.

 

[Kayerts]

Relying on the AI to take advantage of an opportunity seems like a dicey proposition with low payoff if it works. An imperial title seems a lot more useful to me, but, it's your game.

 

[XenomorphII]

Update 29-Mauretania's End

The world on January 1, 1200:

And a ledger shot:

Now on to business:

I am starting to get large enough that I quite frankly don't give a damn what anyone else thinks of me. That is really going to come in handy when I start attacking France/HRE/all other very large countries.

My rallied army and the enemy army (A-A not Mauretania).

The battle:

They are pursued and wiped out.

More converts.

Another dead spymaster. This is why you never ever make your heir spymaster. Ever.

Another enemy approaches:

They are still surprisingly strong, but they are headed for Hanyan, so they will attrit themselves into oblivion and give me an easy victory. Stupid AI.

On the plus side that last victory made A-A come to their senses:

They accepted shortly thereafter.

On the downside:

One of my Douxs decided to rebel. Stupid bastard cannot even raise an army though because his territory is still freshly conquered. Dumb-ass.

One of his vassals comes to me for protection. I accept.

I get a chance to make a claim, but pass it up:

Also I have sent my army to put down the rebelling moron, while the Mauretanian army takes care of itself.

An event:

Since Kallinikos is a pretty awesome guy all around this is good. If I had lots of red traits (Lustful, wroth, glutton, etc) it would be a very bad event.

I assault:

And win, though it did hurt me.

A few more assaults:

And I move after the "army" of the rebel.

Messina converts:

That is good.

Soon after:

He is ready to give up. He will be enjoying a jail cell for the rest of his life. I disband, re-raise, and rally my army to deal with Mauretania finally.

The rebel wants some leniency:

HAHAHA...No.

My brother on the other hand:

I show some leniency to.

We defeat the Mauretanian army. They are actually a lot tougher then I expected them to be at this point. I pursue and wipe them out.

As I lay siege, I get some good news from back home:

Another conversion.

I also take the opportunity to hire some mercs:

They should help speed up our conquering.

A siege is won. The rebellious duke, as well as many of my Muslim prisoners, have died off while enjoying my hospitality.

More good news:

Another conversion.

And another.

And a siege is won.

I defeat their army, but they have won a siege of their own.

Time to pay back the moneylenders from earlier. Bye bye shinnies.

Another siege is won, so off to defeat the enemy laying siege to us.

They are beaten.

I am having some issues with rebels:

God are they annoying. I disband my levies, etc, etc, etc. That way they can deal with all the stupid rebels, then go crush Mauretania.

Or not. Looks like the very prospect of more of us made them give up. The area is given out as my winnings against them are always given out. The new Doux is:

Because he is zealous, and I hope that will lead him to convert them more quickly.

Now then:

Time to take some more. Good thing I have lots of prestige.

As my troops rally:

Conversion occurs.

Oh shit:

My daughter and heir comes of age, but in my wife's court. If she isn't married matrilineally, it could be game over for us, if Kallinikos doesn't get a son.

Sieges:

My assaults go great.

More results from my chaplain:

On to Apulia. Then he can be sent to help my vassals.

Also with no army, and a siege lost:

He didn't really have any choice in the matter. Territory is given out as usual. I am unable to usurp the duchy at present as another Muslim power (Emir of Canarias) is at war with them now.

With the war over:

Oh I hope it is a son. Please, please let it be a boy. Otherwise we may have to pull a Henry VIII.

My wife needs help:

I decline. I have more important things to do then get involved in the politics of the Empire.

My constant warring has weakened me, and many of the larger powers are at relative peace letting them strengthen. France has about 10k more troops than me (probably more in reality). I hope that attacking the Isle of Sardinia works out when I get around to it.

But that is later now we (and I bet nobody saw this coming):

As the massacre occurs:

Damn! I said I want a son! Worthless woman!

A siege is won, and a conversion occurs. Much better.

Some chasing around later:

I find a weak garrison and assault it.

A few assaults later:

And they give up. The usual happens.

The new doux (I had to create this duchy):

That is this update.

Now I need to ponder what to do about the current family situation. My wife is getting up in years, and I really want a son. I am considering killing her off.

But, if I do that, then my daughter takes over her duchy, and she is my heir right now (as well as the heir to a number of African counties and baronies since nobles with no heirs have their lands revert to the crown).

If I kill her mother and she takes over, and my new wife doesn't provide me a son, I could wind up a part of the Eastern Empire. Even worse is that due to the weirdness in inheritances right now (no idea why she is heir to those African territories instead of me) if I follow this plan and don't get a son in a timely fashion, I could very well lose large portions of Africa to the Empire.

 

[DarkHairedIrish]

I just made this account to post here.

Anyway very good playthrough so far. I'm impressed at how well you're doing. I've only recently purchased Crusader Kings 2 and have never played Crusader Kings. So I didn't do so well. But I've figured it out and look at the Basileus Empire's wikipedia page. You have a ways to go but you've made great progress so far. Though I'd watch out on A-A. He seams to have taken over a whole lot in my game. Along with HRE. Which btw in my game, HRE took over most of Norway, Sweden and the north most kingdoms. I'm afraid they'll be taking England next, which puts them very, very close to me. But more on topic, good job with the play through.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Kallinikos' daughter seems to be of good opinion of him - can't you invite her to his court?
Then there's the despotic option of killing first her, then her mother, with Markos becoming Kal's heir and in his court. Unless I'm forgetting something, which I totally can be. But if assassins give up your name, the familicide opinion hit is kinda big, as I recall.

Also, I'll take this opportunity to unspammingly confess how much I'm enjoying this LP. Hell, I've put playing the game on hold just to follow yours. Keep up the good work.

 

[XenomorphII]

Thanks for the support!

@Dark: Yeah the HRE is kinda retarded with how well it expands and the permanent nature of its expansion. I have had more than a few games come to an end, because I was sickened by the great grey blob stretching from Iberia to Russia.

@Multiple: I thought about inviting her after I finished this update, and that is definitely the best route to go, and probably what I will end up doing.

I need bumps to get to the next page. I think I have 4 updates on this one which is a bit much.

 

[kazgar]

bumping for progress!

 

[Azira]

 

[Ashery]

 

[Sulimo]

Bumps for the bump god!

 

[scratchmonkey]

Yeah, the HRE has been similarly resilient in most of my games as well. I'm thinking of trying Vaarna's fix for White Peace in wars of independence that he posted in the CK2 thread, just to get some of that oppressive gray off the map.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Next post will be on a new page. Onwards, for Orthodoxy.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Contributing

 

[Cornflakes]

Arghh, it's been a whole weekend and I need my fix from this LP. Xenomorph, have you gotten over your hangover from St. Patrick's day yet to post another round?

 

[XenomorphII]

Arghh, it's been a whole weekend and I need my fix from this LP. Xenomorph, have you gotten over your hangover from St. Patrick's day yet to post another round?

Sorry. I wish it had been a hangover though. They don't stop me from playing Pdox games. Been sick this weekend, updates will resume today.

 

[Cornflakes]

Well, feel better then! I'll issue a retraction in tomorrow morning's newspaper.

 

[XenomorphII]

Update 30-Hey I Made it to 30 in One Piece!

After a little looking around to try to remember what the hell I was doing I remember and...

Invite my daughter to our court.

She agrees and she and her husband show up. I also discover something nice that I had not noticed before:

If you hover the pointer over the marriage rings on a character sheet it tells you what kind of marriage it is. As you can see these two are married normally, which means her hubby is about to have an accident.

Alright. Now then to find a suitable man for my daughter and heir.

We settle on a Hapsburg. Almost all of the options were under age and so would only be betrothals, and most of them were probably too close in the line of succession for the AI to be willing to marry them off matrilineally.

Crisis averted! (Also note that I also noticed that the marriage icon on the character sheet is a different color for each different type of marriage)

With our future secure, we now turn to expanding the realm some more. Target would be:

This guy, but he is still fighting his war to claim Mauretania (which still has one province in Southern Iberia), so getting involved would be kinda pointless.

Next up is:

Mallorca, but they too are involved in wars, that will keep me from getting my prize. Since France is trying to conquer them I next look at Sardinia:

Arborea is held by the King of France himself, and only has a single claimant who is unwilling to come to us.

Cagliari is not held by the King of France, and has several claimants. One of those is quite willing to let me help him. I invite him to court.

He accepts and I demand that he become Orthodox. He agrees.

Now do I actually want to go to war with France right this moment?

No. I could maybe win (Cagliari would be easy enough for me to descend on and take, but holding it would be iffy, and the French are much more powerful then me, as most of my conquests off of Mauretania are still not productive for me) but it would be long drawn out, and would not nearly be the death blow that our last long drawn out war turned out to be. But I do want him in my court in case opportunity knocks.

Well since that is off the table I could roll through Tripoli:

Of course that would almost certainly lead to war with the Shia Caliphate, which would end badly for me.

Oh hey. I know who I should bother! Someone much weaker than me!:

This is the County of Ancona's list of claimants. Anconca is currently a part of Croatia. We extend an invite:

This is our claimant.

He agrees to come to us.

We go in to make him convert. He likes me so he agrees. At this point I realized by chancellor was not anywhere trying to fabricate claims so I send him on a mission to:

The Republic of Genoa. If I can take out them, Savoie, and Venice, it should provide a nice economic and military boost to our kingdom.

Now to grab Ancona:

We declare war. Apparently he is our ally. Oh well.

The army gets ready to set sail for Ancona.

The assaults go great and Ancona is ours. I check to see how Croatia feels about this:

They are ready to give up.

Nice. I now have a border with Ravenna, which was another capital of the Old Western Empire and I believe is where the last Emperor's of the West were.

Needless to say, the New Western Empire needs to acquire such a territory for itself.

With that done, I engage in a building spree:

Getting Rome in top shape (at least my own personal holding there) should be something I work towards now, as mercs are likely to become less and less relevant as the game goes on (due to the growth of everyone's personal levies).

I also decide to take this opportunity to engage a small feudal tax:

Yes it hurts relations a little, but the extra income will be nice.

The lords pass it. The Italian barons who have recently come under my control are upset, but everyone else is fine.

Conversion.

My balance sheet.

Another conversion. Also apparently I missed one of the baronies in Tangiers, as it is still held by Mauretania. (They are still at war).

I finally get around to creating the Duchy of Apulia. I give out Bari, and Apulia, and a new Doux is made:

Now time to kick back and see what opportunities come my way as all the levies replenish.

Time passes, rebels rise and get crushed, and I build another improvement in Rome:

Woo.

After awhile, our doux and kinsmen dies leaving a daughter in charge of Apulia, so I set her up:

To make sure the Spartenos's stay in charge there.

Improving Rome. Gotta restore her to her former glory and all that.

An event!

We let the doux jail him.

Improving Capua.

Someone murders my spymaster.

Well let's start to wrap up this update. First let's take a look around:

A-A has exploded, I didn't really want to move into Iberia yet but this would be a good time to do so.

France and the HRE are both strong and stable right now. I want to stop chopping them down to size soon, but I have to wait until they are entangled in other wars.

The Eastern Empire is stable and expanding largely because:

The Muslim world is in a state of cluster-fuck. My best bet now might be to just start rolling on the Shia Caliphate, hopefully allowing many of the independence movements to win, and then just eat them up one piece at a time.

Ledger shots (first by army the other by size):

Alright that's this update. Tune in next time as I debate between moving against the Caliphate or taking Iberia.

 

[XenomorphII]

Also note that the first post is now an index and the first update was moved down some.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Achtung! You will want to keep Genoa and Venice under your direct control even with the wrong type penalty... Because having vassals above barony level of a different type is a whopping -25 penalty to relations with them!

 

[XenomorphII]

Update 31-Going East

After thinking it over for awhile I decide that it is in my best interests:

To go east. The Caliph is in a very bad position right now and I might be able to grab the rest of Africa (which is my goal). With Africa under my control heading back west and taking Iberia, France, and the HRE should be doable (in that order as France barely out manpowers me at the moment and I have lots of unproductive territory).

The Army of Italy.

The Army of Africa.

The Army of Africa is the first to deploy and begins to lay siege to the enemy. The Army of Italy is moved to Siracuse to act as reinforcements as needed (to avoid attrition).

Siege won. No sign of enemy resistance.

It must suck to be my spymaster. I new one is selected and sent to Africa to give me eyes in the area:

Plotting:

One thing I really don't like about plots is that even people who like you plot against you. There is no concept of loyalty present(or fear), which is something that really needs to be addressed.

Son-of-a-bitch! My second daughter had a son, so she is now my heir. Need to kill her and the brat. Also my first daughter needs to get remarried so let's do that first:

Finally! It took me awhile to find anyone willing to agree to a matrilineal marriage.

Another siege is won.

Child rearing for my youngest daughter:

I am still waiting on my spymaster to be able to move again before dealing with my second daughter and her son.

Also the Shia Caliphate is starting to pull itself together again:

It is because the Byzantine Empire keeps attacking the pieces of the Caliphate that have broken of, usually leading them to white peace with the Caliph and rejoin it.

A province is occupied. On to the next one.

The Army of Italy is also deployed in the area.

Sorting out Dynastic issues:

Now then. My first daughter is heir again, and my third daughter is in my court so I shouldn't be having this problem again. Back to fighting the heathens.

I assault and win.

Another siege is won. You may also notice that Syria (upper right, very light green) has rebelled again. Sucks to be the Caliph right now.

Child rearing:

My third daughter needs to be proud!

Another piece returns. This is good though because now I can take the rest of the duchy that I am going for. Army of Italy roll out!

Our first battle (though they are badly outnumbered).

We assault and win, but another army heads our way.

Our nephew comes of age. Our younger brother Markos has had the great fortune of having two sons. We find a suitable bride for the boy, but he cannot give us an alliance.

Another battle is won, but just barely. Time to rally my troops together.

Another siege down. Who knows how many more I will need to win this war.

The army rallies and wins a battle.

Another victory.

The enemy is pursued and wiped out, but Kallinikos is wounded in the fighting.

That's good. That should mean that he won't die from that wound.

Another assault, another win. We will be withdrawing soon.

A small enemy force is wiped out.

An event:

That's good. Nobody likes slothful leaders.

The Muslim world is going to get butchered soon. As divided as they are, when the Il Khanate shows up, it is going to devastate them.

Another siege won. Now to battle!

A close victory. We pursue.

Our other nephew comes of age and is married.

The pursuit is won and continued.

After the last victory our troops headed for port and for home. Upon arrival they are disbanded.

That seems like as good a place as any to call this an update. I think this war will be concluded in the next update as my army has rebuilt itself well:

 

[Kashmir Slippers]

My biggest issue with plots is that vassals can just redo them over and over and over. They don't even need a claim to plot for one of your non-main titles. I keep having to tell the same vassal over and over to stop plotting for the Kingdom of Croatia in my Hungary game and there is nothing I can do about it when he picks it again a month later. You can't intimidate your vassals either. If I were to kill him, his entire family, and his spouse's entire family, his replacement would invariably pick the same plot even though he is a duke with a single county to his name. I can't let him keep it because he will get the backing of all of my vassals because the AI decided to take my hand-raised heir into a cruel, slothful, gluttonous, wroth, and greedy buffoon. That is -50 relations with almost any normal person right off the bat!

I digress. I just spent the last ten years that I was playing beating down rebellion after rebellion after rebellion. I am a bit sore. Anyway, you have huge cojones for attacking the Caliph like that. Props.