Crusader Kings III - The Sequel You Have Been Waiting For

[jztemple2]

The chickens have come home to roost, or something like that. Below is a view of King Ragnarr of Brittany (me!) at the height of his power. Ragnarr holds the titles of King of Brittany and King of Wales, also two ducal titles and four holdings; there was a fifth holding but I made the mistake of going from six to five to get back to my holding limit before I figured out that I when I had to get rid of my third ducal title I couldn't give it away to one of my sons without also giving him holding in that duchy.


If you look at the bottom left of the above image you'll see the portraits of seven of the nine children of King Ragnarr. Six boys! The Partition Succession was going to be a bear, and it was, because...


...and right after Ragnarr had learned a new language too!. Ragnarr had a pretty amazing reign. He was brilliant at diplomacy and added four new duchies to his realm, as well as the Kingdom of Wales. Naturally this took a lot of gold. Additionally no fewer than six small rulers asked to become vassals of Ragnarr, although all of them wanted the low tax rate and low levy obligation. Still, it's cheaper than having to conquer them... maybe .

But with the succession those titles that Ragnarr held got dispersed. The oldest son, now King Ragnarr II, retained the title of King of Brittany and two holding in their original county. And that's it. You can see those reduced titles below, along with the new Realm map. Officially Ragnarr II only lost the Kingdom of Wales, but he also lost a lot of revenue.


So how did the kids make out? As mentioned, Ragnarr II kept only three titles. Number 2 son got the Kingdom of Wales but no holdings. And the next two sons got a Duchy and a holding apiece. Had Ragnarr I held that fifth holding it would have gone to the next son.

So things are a mite tense at the Court of the Kingdom of Brittany. And pretty spartan as well.

[jztemple2]

There are also two factions that have formed. There were never any factions under the first Ragnarr! And that first faction is supported by two of my half brothers. The other three half-brothers haven't thrown up against me... yet.

[jztemple2]

If faced with a faction... marry off a daughter to a member of the faction. Your new ally can't go to war against you

And it turns out that Ragnarr II, before he was my Player Character, had five children but didn't marry off a one of them. So I married off all his daughters and arranged for the King of Aquitaine to marry my niece. Now look at all those nice alliances!

[jztemple2]

Alliances, alliances... when you don't have a lot of money and can't afford to be attacked, get more alliances! I have ten of them right now . Of course if anyone calls me to war, I'm going to seriously think about saying "no" to them


I'm really bummed about my cash situation. I keep sending my spymaster around to the courts of those vassals who, in my opinion, aren't paying enough taxes and hoping for a hook against them.

[Kurth]

Just learned that this is coming to console (XBOX, at least) next month. Can’t wait to give it a shot! After reading through this thread, I think it’s just what I’m looking for.

[jztemple2]

Just learned that this is coming to console (XBOX, at least) next month. Can’t wait to give it a shot! After reading through this thread, I think it’s just what I’m looking for.

Good to hear that!

By the way, ghosting a couple of allies when they ask for support in a war isn't a good strategy. I did that when I got two requests, one right after the other, and my level of Prestige dropped to "Disgraced". So that's bad, but on the other hand it is the lowest level, it can't get any worse

[Baroquen]

By the way, ghosting a couple of allies when they ask for support in a war isn't a good strategy. I did that when I got two requests, one right after the other, and my level of Prestige dropped to "Disgraced". So that's bad, but on the other hand it is the lowest level, it can't get any worse

Wait - I have a question. By "ghosting" did you mean declining their invitations to join in their wars? Or did you accept the request to help, and then just didn't quite join the fray? I've stayed away from alliances a bit lately because the last time I join a pact, I got drawn into a war and got stomped. I was planning to create a couple alliances, and if called to help, accept but just work to avoid losses. If that too kills your prestige, maybe I keep alliances at arm's length.

[jztemple2]

By the way, ghosting a couple of allies when they ask for support in a war isn't a good strategy. I did that when I got two requests, one right after the other, and my level of Prestige dropped to "Disgraced". So that's bad, but on the other hand it is the lowest level, it can't get any worse

Wait - I have a question. By "ghosting" did you mean declining their invitations to join in their wars? Or did you accept the request to help, and then just didn't quite join the fray? I've stayed away from alliances a bit lately because the last time I join a pact, I got drawn into a war and got stomped. I was planning to create a couple alliances, and if called to help, accept but just work to avoid losses. If that too kills your prestige, maybe I keep alliances at arm's length.

By ghosting I meant that I never replied to their requests, just ignored them. It appears that this is even worse than declining a request, which costs prestige but is survivable if you have enough prestige build up. If you accept a request to join a war, you don't even have to raise troops, but of course you can be attacked. Unless you are playing in Ironman mode you can always save the game and experiment.

[Baroquen]

Ah good point. Yeah, my current ruler has two daughters I can marry off, so it might be time to experiment with alliances. See if I can work things to my advantage.

[jztemple2]

Another good reason to make artifacts... you can gift them to make changes in opinions when you are low on cash. I had my old bishop die and the new one was a -11 opinion so no cash from the church for me . I gifted the new bishop my King Louis Mace, which I took from a French King, and his opinion jumped to +60 . Now I'm getting two gold a month from him, not a massive amount but helps the overall cash flow.

[jztemple2]

This was cutting it pretty close... Duke Alfrond was the only (but also significant) supporter of a faction to replace me as King of Brittany. And on the day he sent me an ultimatum, he choked to death on a chicken bone. Or at least that's the way the town criers will report it .

[jztemple2]

It's been a busy past gaming hour. My many, many alliances did indeed come home to roost, within a short while I was invited to three wars. One was with my ally France who had many times the number of troops as his opponent. I figured I wasn't taking any risk there. The next was a fight between two small realms; I sent my army, crushed the bad guys and went home after one battle . The final war was my ally with about two thousand troops going up against an enemy with six thousand. Happily it was up in Ireland so after I did my one battle in the small war I zoomed back home and disbanded my army; no one ever showed up to attack me and eventually that war ended. So in the end I lost no prestige and my allies were happy.

The other news was that I finally added a third holding to my other two. I did have to assassinate two of my nieces but things are tough all over . And the upshot was that the second niece was holding on to two artifacts, so I not only got a holding but I also got a couple of trinkets. One is pretty good but other other which helps (slightly) fertility actually decreases (slightly) prestige. However, if I don't equip the trinket it has no effect. I'll probably just use it to boost someone's opinion of me sometime.

As far as I know, unless I have a claim on someone else's artifact, there's no way to know if someone even has an artifact. I guess this is a good idea since otherwise I'd be going around murdering strangers for their mood rings or something

With my current succession laws that new holding won't go to my Player Heir, which is annoying. However, I've only got the two sons so as long as I have a bit of warning that my current ruler is going to kick the bucket, I can at the last moment disinherit the second son. The things I do for my offspring

[jztemple2]

Finally!


Update: Crap, needs more than that to change succession

[jztemple2]

Things are getting serious again. After some small fighting, a bunch of smaller realms asked for me to vassalize them and of course I complied . But now a faction has started with four big vassals in support for Independence. I've tried allying to them with marriage but there were no available matches. And even if I managed to convince one of them to leave the faction, that's still a lot of faction power there. I might have to respond with more subtle means

[jztemple2]

I am at death's door, but I've been there so long I have a cot and side table with a cute little light... . Thankfully I've lived long enough to defeat the three rebellious vassals whose faction tried to make them independent. Instead I captured all three, stripped them of all their titles and left two of them in the clink. The third ransomed out only because I could really use that 100 gold .

I'm not sure how, but I've lost part of Burgundy somewhere the past few months, so my continental holdings are split into two parts. Weird.


Unlike the last succession, there won't be a big shake-up on holdings. From the spoils of the failed rebellion I got three duchies and gave one each to each son, keeping one for myself. With the duchies came several holdings some of which I gave with the duchies. I went from having ten to having five, which is my current limit. When my current king (me) dies, my Player Heir keeps the title of King of Brittany, as well as King of England (not yet created). He also keeps one dukedom and the current five holdings to add to what he already has. The younger son gets the title of King of Burgundy, which is not yet created. So even with the old Partition Succession law things should go a lot smoother this time.

[jztemple2]

Ragnarr II has died, all hail Ragnarr III!


There's already a faction started up against me that wants me to lower Crown Authority, and my bishop doesn't like me


And I have to be careful, I have only one offspring and she's a she, so that's not good. Also my wife is 41, so that's an issue too .

[jztemple2]

Things didn't go well for newly crowned King Ragnarr III. Two factions rose up, one was independence for four big vassals, the other was to establish a separate Kingdom of England which would have taken half of Ragnarr's vassals. So Ragnarr challenged both and entered into a second and third war; he was already fight one on the continent.

Then, while he was fighting, yet another faction challenged him. This one wanted a rollback of Crown Authority to the first level, Autonomous Vassals. Facing a couple of factional wars already, Ragnarr gave in and rollbacked the Crown Authority. This was unfortunate as Ragnarr eventually won the two factional wars (as well as the earlier one) but couldn't remove the titles from the rebels. He could leave them in jail, which wasn't all that useful, or execute them which was worse because their heirs would be even more angry. Finally Ragnarr decided to ransom all of them, netting some fine gold and all of them now can't join a faction for ten years.

Meanwhile, thanks to that incoming gold from ransoms and the Pope, plus Ragnarr's focus on Stewardship, there was plenty of gold in the coffers to boost the court, add a building to the home domain and expand the Men-At-Arms. And get a new crown to boot. He now has an army of 3800 and lots of prestige, but piety has suffered because of constant borrowing from the Pope.

[jztemple2]

A new day and more of the story of Ragnarr III. Ten or so years after the War Against The Two Factions (soon to be a major HBO series! ) Ragnarr III was against confronted with two rebellions just like before. However, just before the fighting started he had established Limited Crown Authority once again. This time there was no third faction demanding the return to Autonomous Vassals which was good since Ragnarr wasn't going to give that up! After much fighting and the additional help from allies totaling over ten thousand soldiers the two factions were defeated.

The original members of the two factions are now under house arrest. Last time I ransomed them and let them go, but this time I'm going to avoid that and instead I'm going to strip the "Gang of Seven Six"* of all their titles and give the titles to people who know how to behave. I figure this will take at least a good half-hour hour or more of playing time, just figuring out who gets what and who doesn't. Stay tuned!


*Update - while I did have seven from the rebellion in the clink, one was just sweep up in the excitement. I cut her loose for 25 gold.

[jztemple2]

First on the dock is Duke Werestan (that's a good question, where is Stan? ). He's a drunk, crazy fig leaf wearing kind of a vassal. He lead the original uprising ten years ago and now he has lead one again. Note, slightly NSFW


I'm going to revoke his Duchy title and the holdings with it. He'll lose eighty opinion of me, but really, do I care? No one else will. By the way, he's my brother-in-law Note, again slightly NSFW


And because he was the leader of two rebellions, I'm also moving him to the dungeon. That does cause a -15 to opinions of me from all his family, which means they will all still be positive except for his son, my nephew, who doesn't like me anyway. He'll probably end up in the dungeon someday too. Blah, blah, blah NSFW

[jztemple2]

Holy crap, check this out! Excalibur! The freaking sword! It's mine! That bum Werestan was hiding it behind the fig leaf. Mighty big fig leaf.

[Isgrimnur]

Looks like titles weren't all they were stripped of.

[jztemple2]

Looks like titles weren't all they were stripped of.

They were actually naked before I started taking their titles away. Some kind of cult thing. It must have been drafty in those cold castles!

[jztemple2]

Next up, Duke Beorn. This guy really pisses off Ragnarr III. Ragnarr spend several years swaying Beorn and now they have a mutual +80 opinion of each other. But that's not going to keep the Duke from no longer being a duke.


Well, this sucks, or whatever is the medieval equivalent of that phase. I get what is essentially a "free" title revoke against a vassal who is a criminal, but apparently only once. If I try to do it again I take a hit in everyone's opinion of me. I did take the Duke's duchy, or dukedom if you will, leaving him with just a county and his title of Earl. And three wars he is currently fighting .


So off with him to the dungeon! Again, a -15 opinion hit of me to his family isn't a big deal except to his brother who doesn't like me anyway.

[jztemple2]

And this next guy really is deserving of a harsh fate. Duke Dieter holds four duchy titles. Four! Apparently he never was taught to share. And check out that tool tip. He doesn't expect anything from me? That's exactly what he's going to get.


Looking at the two duchies that each have a holding, I've decided to take the duchy of Northumbria and the Earldom of Bernicia. That Earldom (county) has a level 6 castle.


And now, off to the dungeons. Enjoy your three remaining duchies, Duke. By the way, did I mention tonight's dinner menu? We're having rack of lamb. Get it? Rack of lamb?

[jztemple2]

Half way through, since I adjusted the "Gang of Seven" to "Gang of Six". The other was a little fish caught up in the net.

Next is Earl Gofraid. This one really... well, you get the idea. He was a one county smuck who I gave an addition county because I felt he was loyal. I'm going to take the old county and leave him with the new county, which was formerly a tribal holding and until the buildings are convert won't generate any revenue. So no income for you Earl.


And now (let's say it all together!) "Off to the dungeon!" Do you know what music we're going to be listen to tonight in the dungeon? Iron Maiden. Get it? Iron Maiden

[jztemple2]

Countess Mabyn. Yada, yada, yada.


And finally Duchess Aine. Two duchies and three holdings. And I gave her that first duchy . But I can't take that duchy back yet because it's under siege. We'll see about that.

[jztemple2]

And now I've divided up my spoils. I've given the three duchy titles to three of my loyal courtiers. And by just happenstance , none of the three are married or have children, so I inherit their titles if they die... or are disloyal . Now I'm back within the holding and ducal limits, so now it's time to rule!

[jztemple2]

What? Another faction? Damn, that faction has about six thousand troops available . How do I stop it... well, I do now have six dukes who are feeling +100 towards me, since they were lowly knights and I gave them all duchies. Now I'll start giving each one a vassal until the power of the faction is broken.


By the way, I see now that since these lowly knights have become dukes they have taken wives which means offspring and heirs. Well, I didn't think about that, but at least the power is spread out.

And I've granted the four most powerful vassals of the faction to my four weakest +100 loyal vassals. The faction now has access to only about two thousand troops. Probably too small to even challenge me.

[Baroquen]

You're a sneaky ruler, ain'tcha?

So the last time I played, I was sitting tight with my latest ruler, (Rurik's son Heili, I think). He had passed the anti-honeymoon period of his reign where all of his vassals hated him, and was not continuing the family tradition of picking off adjacent territories, continuing his quest to reunite all of Russia.

And then disaster... right as he initiated the latest skirmish with a neighbor, one of the several factions reached critical mass and rose up against him. Not a big problem - just have to finish off the war, and then turn my attention to the internal rabble-rousers. But then he died. And all manners of chaos ensued.

So, I think I quit for the night, and will retry from my latest save to tidy things up, (or prepare ahead of time). I've taken a couple days off and am ready to dive back in.

[jztemple2]

I'm getting tired of fighting factional wars, but getting a new Kingdom? That's OK with me. I'm now King of Brittany and also King of England and King of Wales . And if you look close, you'll notice I also own a piece of Scandinavia.


UPDATE: And happy 70th birthday to my King Ragnarr III

[Isgrimnur]

Make sure you put barcodes on your ships.

[El Guapo]

At a certain point you can declare yourself Emperor, right? The crowning achievement (pun originally not intended) of my CKII game starting as a Swedish count was eventually getting myself named Emperor of Scandinavia. Not sure how close you're getting to an emperor title at this point.

[jztemple2]

Make sure you put barcodes on your ships.

I almost missed that bit of land in Scandinavia. I'm sure someone will be gunning for it soon.

While your Player Character can't hold more than two Duchy titles, you can hold at least three Kingdom titles. Of course that means there will be a faction for each title to try to take it away.

I got the option to found a Holy Order, basically mercenaries I can rent for free, although I don't get a piece if someone else rents them . But it costs Piety, lots of gold and I have to give up a holding. So I'll wait till I have a spare holding.

[jztemple2]

At a certain point you can declare yourself Emperor, right? The crowning achievement (pun originally not intended) of my CKII game starting as a Swedish count was eventually getting myself named Emperor of Scandinavia. Not sure how close you're getting to an emperor title at this point.

These are the empires and their titles that are available. Even though my current king's culture is French, it's more likely that my dynasty will eventually hold the title of Emperor of Britannia. And then I'll be fighting lots of factional wars.

[Isgrimnur]

Make sure you put barcodes on your ships.

I almost missed that bit of land in Scandinavia. I'm sure someone will be gunning for it soon.

Might as well use it as trade bait.

[Holman]

I like the way the map is torn off on the right. They'll almost certainly be giving us China and Japan in an expansion.

[jztemple2]

Now that I have more cash, I'm looking at doing developments. I have more holdings in England, but I'm French and I'm always facing hostile English culture. So I've decided that no matter what I'm going to hold onto my original starting county, where I actually have two holdings, my original castle and a new one that got started via a decision event but reverted to me when the original owner died. In fact as you can see in the image, the monolith Kingdom of France is now in little pieces, ripe for plucking

[jztemple2]

There are four factions against me, partly due to having a weak spymaster. This is one of the reason I didn't spring for a Holy Order. They can only be used for Holy Wars and so I couldn't use them to fight a factional war.

[El Guapo]

Make sure you put barcodes on your ships.

I almost missed that bit of land in Scandinavia. I'm sure someone will be gunning for it soon.

While your Player Character can't hold more than two Duchy titles, you can hold at least three Kingdom titles. Of course that means there will be a faction for each title to try to take it away.

I got the option to found a Holy Order, basically mercenaries I can rent for free, although I don't get a piece if someone else rents them . But it costs Piety, lots of gold and I have to give up a holding. So I'll wait till I have a spare holding.

Wouldn't the loose scandinavian province be perfect for a holy order?

[jztemple2]

Finally! I'm fully tricked out with artifacts:


King Ragnarr III is now 72 and won't last forever. While there are seventeen different wars he can start, it wouldn't be a good idea to die and pass the succession right in the middle of a war. Also most of those wars would be Holy Wars and while the destination opponent isn't very tough, a Holy War could trigger all the realms in Scandinavia against me. So I'll just sit here and play with my cat (there's a cat event sequence )