Another greatly useful DLC: the Ruler Customizer. This one lets you create a custom ruler to replace the ruler you selected. So basically you pick what you want to control instead of who you want to be, then you make who you want to be. It's so amazingly fun that I actually don't really like playing more than a couple generations because I want to go back to the character I created.
The Ruler Designer is certainly worth it if you feel like creating your own character and your own dynasty (with assassinations! And arranged marriages!).
The Customization DLC is kind of worthless unless you really get a kick out of changing the names of your provinces and kingdoms.
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
edited August 2014
If you find yourself enjoying the game then there wouldn't be much reason not to get the DLC.
Aside from Sunset Invasion, the rest of the DLC-expansions all add more mechanics, counties, rulers, events, and so on to the game.
Though let me tell ya what, if you want super fucking hard mode, play as a Jewish ruler. I think there are, what? Two, maybe three in the game? And that is if you have the Old Gods start date.
It is, like, the one thing I just cannot do. I've done all kinds of other crazy things, but a stable Jewish empire eludes me.
It certainly doesn't help that you have zero allies and literally all of the enemies. :P
edit- And that the tech for those rulers is, shall we say, less then stellar.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Yeah that's a good point. Don't be afraid to concede and swear fealty to a bigger fish. Sometimes it's easier to take them apart from the inside!
Isn't that the standard playbook for the Karen dynasty? Swear fealty to one of the Muslims before they can swallow you whole, then expand your power while under their protection?
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
It is my White Whale.
I'm sure someone much better than I has done it.
I've tried swearing fealty, but almost instantly they want me to convert. When I say no, they crush me.
Starting in Khazar I can survive and expand quite quickly if luck is with me. However, it is a bit of a race. The second the Byzantines get a county bordering me the Doom Stacks cometh.
Trying to keep Byzantine in a constant state of Civil War certainly helps, but the downside is that it prevents the Emperor from increasing Crown Authority so his vassals can't conquer territory.
Trying to fight Pagans is doable, but I have to make sure I have at least twice as many men as they do. However I can usually break the backs of the two more powerful Tengri realms pretty much at the start. Granted, that is if they go to war with each other first. If they do, then it guarantees I'll be the regional power.
Surprisingly it wasn't too hard to turn my counties in to modest economic centers. At least enough to pretty much give me enough money to hire Mercs whenever I need to.
I can create a fairly stable Kingdom, but my two biggest concerns are the Byzantines and, I forget the name, but a Muslim kingdom that forms on my east-south eastern border.
I tend to keep on eye on Georgia. If I can help keep the Muslims off their back then they make a great buffer between me and Byzantine. Normally the King of Georgia won't bend knee to Byzantine and the Emperor (or his vassals) won't declare war on Georgia. Georgia is small enough that they won't declare war on me.
However, if the Muslim duchies to the south of Georgia solidify (as they are wont to do) then there ain't much anyone can do to help Georgia. Apart from direct intervention from Byzantine, but that is kind of out of my control. :P
Annoyingly, in a lot of my games Georgia will survive intact to the end, but when I am playing as Khazar and I need them to stay intact they fold like a fucking newspaper.
Hrm, I am getting the itch to give it another go.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
If you find yourself enjoying the game then there wouldn't be much reason not to get the DLC.
Aside from Sunset Invasion, the rest of the DLC-expansions all add more mechanics, counties, rulers, events, and so on to the game.
Though let me tell ya what, if you want super fucking hard mode, play as a Jewish ruler. I think there are, what? Two, maybe three in the game? And that is if you have the Old Gods start date.
It is, like, the one thing I just cannot do. I've done all kinds of other crazy things, but a stable Jewish empire eludes me.
It certainly doesn't help that you have zero allies and literally all of the enemies. :P
edit- And that the tech for those rulers is, shall we say, less then stellar.
Magyars Old Gods start. Get Jewish wife for Khazar and convert, destroy Christianity.
Furthermore, you should work towards getting together a "stable" of talented advisors. Find someone who will join your court that has a great education (3 or 4 star) and have them train people in your court - hopefully passing on the quality education. Then, use them to train others, etc. Hook them up with a wife or a husband, so that they'll have smart kids, too (remember that your courtiers will generally not get married on their own while at your court; you'll need to arrange that as their liege; landed people do this automatically, but you can make offers to them, too).
How do you check this stat? It sounds like something I've never seen/noticed.
Furthermore, you should work towards getting together a "stable" of talented advisors. Find someone who will join your court that has a great education (3 or 4 star) and have them train people in your court - hopefully passing on the quality education. Then, use them to train others, etc. Hook them up with a wife or a husband, so that they'll have smart kids, too (remember that your courtiers will generally not get married on their own while at your court; you'll need to arrange that as their liege; landed people do this automatically, but you can make offers to them, too).
How do you check this stat? It sounds like something I've never seen/noticed.
Look at their traits. If the character is over 16 years old, the first trait will be their education - something like "Midas Touched" or "Tough Soldier." These traits affect most of the stats, with several positive and one or two negatives. At the bottom of the trait icon will be 1-4 stars, representing how awesome that education is. The more stars, the better the effect.
For an intrigue-focused eduction, the 4 possible outcomes are:
Having an Elusive Shadow teach a child results in a better chance of the child becoming an Elusive Shadow themselves - though there are events that can happen to you which increase your education rank after your education is finished.
There's a separate education path for each primary attribute. The best education in each are:
Furthermore, you should work towards getting together a "stable" of talented advisors. Find someone who will join your court that has a great education (3 or 4 star) and have them train people in your court - hopefully passing on the quality education. Then, use them to train others, etc. Hook them up with a wife or a husband, so that they'll have smart kids, too (remember that your courtiers will generally not get married on their own while at your court; you'll need to arrange that as their liege; landed people do this automatically, but you can make offers to them, too).
How do you check this stat? It sounds like something I've never seen/noticed.
Look at their traits. If the character is over 16 years old, the first trait will be their education - something like "Midas Touched" or "Tough Soldier." These traits affect most of the stats, with several positive and one or two negatives. At the bottom of the trait icon will be 1-4 stars, representing how awesome that education is. The more stars, the better the effect.
For an intrigue-focused eduction, the 4 possible outcomes are:
Having an Elusive Shadow teach a child results in a better chance of the child becoming an Elusive Shadow themselves - though there are events that can happen to you which increase your education rank after your education is finished.
There's a separate education path for each primary attribute. The best education in each are:
I always, always look very closely at education when I'm deciding on wives (or matrilineal husbands) to bring into the realm. Even if you can't have them educate your kids from the age of 6 because they're the wrong culture or religion, or they have terrible base stats, you can always switch to them shortly before the kids reach majority. I like to think of it as finishing school.
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Kane Red RobeMaster of MagicArcanusRegistered Userregular
I've tried swearing fealty, but almost instantly they want me to convert. When I say no, they crush me.
Starting in Khazar I can survive and expand quite quickly if luck is with me. However, it is a bit of a race. The second the Byzantines get a county bordering me the Doom Stacks cometh.
Trying to keep Byzantine in a constant state of Civil War certainly helps, but the downside is that it prevents the Emperor from increasing Crown Authority so his vassals can't conquer territory.
Trying to fight Pagans is doable, but I have to make sure I have at least twice as many men as they do. However I can usually break the backs of the two more powerful Tengri realms pretty much at the start. Granted, that is if they go to war with each other first. If they do, then it guarantees I'll be the regional power.
Surprisingly it wasn't too hard to turn my counties in to modest economic centers. At least enough to pretty much give me enough money to hire Mercs whenever I need to.
I can create a fairly stable Kingdom, but my two biggest concerns are the Byzantines and, I forget the name, but a Muslim kingdom that forms on my east-south eastern border.
I tend to keep on eye on Georgia. If I can help keep the Muslims off their back then they make a great buffer between me and Byzantine. Normally the King of Georgia won't bend knee to Byzantine and the Emperor (or his vassals) won't declare war on Georgia. Georgia is small enough that they won't declare war on me.
However, if the Muslim duchies to the south of Georgia solidify (as they are wont to do) then there ain't much anyone can do to help Georgia. Apart from direct intervention from Byzantine, but that is kind of out of my control. :P
Annoyingly, in a lot of my games Georgia will survive intact to the end, but when I am playing as Khazar and I need them to stay intact they fold like a fucking newspaper.
Hrm, I am getting the itch to give it another go.
I have a Jewish game on hold right now that I've been meaning to get back to, but I started in Beta Israel, so it's quite a bit different there. I'm currently stuck trying to root out the crusaders, Holy Orders and HRE from Israel proper and it is a slog.
I decided to go after SPQR, and man, the game is really trying to prevent me from getting it.
My overall expansion and powergrowth has been great, but every attempt at claims, marriage or inheritance of (parts of) Italy has failed. People dieing in the wrong order, and now for some reason the Kingdom of Italy has ceased to exist, probably by 100% loss of land. Now there are 5 duchies on which I have almost no claims, getting that piece by piece is going to be slow.
I decided to go after SPQR, and man, the game is really trying to prevent me from getting it.
My overall expansion and powergrowth has been great, but every attempt at claims, marriage or inheritance of (parts of) Italy has failed. People dieing in the wrong order, and now for some reason the Kingdom of Italy has ceased to exist, probably by 100% loss of land. Now there are 5 duchies on which I have almost no claims, getting that piece by piece is going to be slow.
I've basically done it twice; the first time, I got the achievement, and it was cool. The second time, I used the absolute latest start possible, and it was basically the absolute best game of CK2 that I've ever played. I reformed the Empire in like, December 1452. I had to break an ungodly number of truces with the Pope, as he kept popping up in Italian counties under my control. Super satisfying both times.
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
edited August 2014
In that Abyssinia to Byzantine game I mentioned last page I too ultimately reformed the Roman Empire (and made Orthodoxy the one true form of Christianity as a result).
Although I'd say using the Byzantines to reform Rome is easy mode. :P
edit- Before my Abyssinian Empire merged with the Byzantine Empire (through the grand plan that took three generations) Abyssinia controlled all the parts of Africa you see there and Byzantine controlled everything in the north that wasn't the Italian peninsula.
When the two empires became one I noticed I had a courtier who had a claim (I think a weak one) on the crown for the Kingdom of Italy which, at the time, controlled all of the Italian peninsula. The war to put him on the throne took less than a month. The second he was on the throne, bam, Roman Empire was reformed. Almost instantly the Italian dukes went in to a state of civil war and dethroned the guy I put there, but they stayed a part of the Roman Empire so I didn't care who they called "King". :P
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
My current dude's got 15.4k prestige, but I'm not getting the celebrity achievement. I remembered that I didn't get the five kids achievement until I logged out and logged back in, so I tried that but still no dice. Am I missing something else? Kinda don't want to play until I know since Tord the Great is in his late 60s and probably set to die any moment now.
One thing to remember when it comes to provoking rebellions to have justified reasons to banish/revoke titles is that you can't have your levies raised if you're going to declare war on someone.
But you're not declaring war on them, they're declaring war on you. So raise your army before hand and stack it on their best province before hand.
My current dude's got 15.4k prestige, but I'm not getting the celebrity achievement. I remembered that I didn't get the five kids achievement until I logged out and logged back in, so I tried that but still no dice. Am I missing something else? Kinda don't want to play until I know since Tord the Great is in his late 60s and probably set to die any moment now.
I think you need to be in ironman mode to get them. Make sure it didn't accidentally lose it, because that happens occasionally
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
I think I have finally grasped the very basics of the game. I started in Dublin and just kept plugging away despite large periods of nothing much happening. It's super convenient because your father is Earl to the south of you, and he's really old to start the game. So dear old dad kicked the bucket, and I had a fabricated claim on the rest of my Duchy (Petty Kingdom of Tara, whatever) and was able to conquer him and create a Duchy, and nobody else interfered with me (I figured out how to at least get an idea of who might jump into a war). I then made what I think was my biggest mistake, and that was conquering the other county to make the Duchy of Leinster, giving me two Duchies.
I say this was a mistake, because apparently you have to have been ruling over your entire demesne for 10 years before you can change inheritance laws, so I wasn't able to make it so just my eldest son inherited and my Duchies got split from one another. Kind of inconvenient, but we're the same dynasty and best buds as well, so he still throws his armies into my war of conquest into the (soon to be) Duchy of Ulster. While attacking Oriel, Ulster and Breifne get called in, but I was pretty sure that would happen and it didn't stop the attack. Ulster had been next on my list, but we just got a truce for like a decade so I put my council to work on getting me Tyrone. It takes long enough that I am able to change my inheritance law, so no more splitting of my holdings upon ruler transition.
I take Tyrone, who called upon one ally who never got troops into place in time, and then I take Ulster after the truce expired. I create the Duchy of Ulster, hand over a county to a vassal so I avoid those penalties, and shortly thereafter I press my de jure claim on Tryonnell to give me two duchies with six counties between them, and a very, very old ruler. I was unable to fabricate a claim on Connacht before I switched to the heir, but that was OK because I immediately chose "Become King of Ireland" as my ambition. My council was pretty great, except for the diplomacy guy who had a 9 rating and wasn't able to create claims effectively, but the Earl of Tyrone had a claim on Breifne so I used that to take my seventh county, and created the Kingdom of Ireland.
So pretty awesome, but I really only own the northern half of the island. I decide to see if the Earl of Connacht would like to become my vassal, and coincidentally a Duke, and he agrees. Emboldened by this success, I offer to vassalize the Duke of Munster, who holds Thomond and Desmond but not Ormond. He also agrees, and the Earl of Ormond follows immediately after. Now I have the entire island under my rule, except for the Duchy of Leinster. I pretty obviously have a claim on their land, since I'm the King and all, but apparently we are too close in rank and power for the Duke of Leinster to agree to be my vassal. I have been contemplating just conquering him anyway, but I'm not sure I want to take the penalty for attacking an ally since we're still part of the same dynasty.
I'm sure there is probably some way to manipulate things so that I come out looking like the good guy, but I'm not sure it's really necessary. I'm also not sure what to do after uniting the Kingdom. I kind of wasn't expecting (almost) everybody to just agree to be my vassal. Should I try for Wales or maybe Scotland next? England is probably a bridge too far at the moment I think, but I could probably take Wales. I'm not quite sure how I would make it work, though. I'll need to take two more duchies, and unless I give up my Irish duchies won't that make my vassals angry with me? Or is it only two duchies within one country that matters?
It's possible it won't update until the next month while at 15k+ prestige, don't know if you let it tick that far since you got it.
If you want to really really easily get that achievement, (if you have the Norse expansion) just start as (I'm pretty sure it's the duchy of Jorvik) and take the 'become king' ambition. You can then launch as many of their conquest CBs as you want against anything that falls under the De Jure kingdom of Norway.
Once you've finished that with constant warfare, raise your vassal's boats (not your own, they're bloody expensive) all your troops and go on constant raids on anything not your religion. Remember that as a viking you can use major rivers with your boats.
Also if you have the expansion that gives retinues, remember they can be flagged to raid as well. I suggest Skirmish retinues, as many as you can get, because archers will siege a city in days, instead of weeks. You can relatively safely launch assaults with as few as 3 to 1 odds in your favor if they're primarily archers.
But by bringing home piles and piles of gold from all those rich people (no really, if you have the troops to raid the Pope... oh my god so much money) you'll have 15k prestige in no time.
I'm not quite sure how I would make it work, though. I'll need to take two more duchies, and unless I give up my Irish duchies won't that make my vassals angry with me? Or is it only two duchies within one country that matters?
I'm pretty sure you can just Create/Usurp a Kingdom without having any duchies specifically within that Kingdom. Right now, you just need to conquer 51% of the territory of whatever Kingdom you want.
Then again, creating/usurping Duchies does give you de jure claims on the rest of those duchies, which might conquest more convenient if you haven't fabricated a new claim by the time the truce runs out. And since Dukes are lower on the hierarchy than Kings, handing out the extra Ducal titles to deserving vassals won't suddenly make them independent or anything.
Then again, then again, really powerful Dukes may create problems down the line, so don't give any one Dynasty more than one ducal title.
Oh, and, since you're King now, don't forget to raise your Crown Authority law. Personally, I like to get it up to at least High (over a few generations) so that titles and land can't suddenly leave your realm due to inheritance shenanigans. Your vassals won't like it, but the nice thing is that the higher your Crown Authority is, the less room your vassals have to maneuver.
Yeah some reading of the internets revealed to me that to create or usurp a kingdom, you need 51% of the counties and either two duchies, or already be a king or emperor. I am undecided on which of three paths to go down next, I'll either 1) take down the last independent duchy in Ireland despite him being an ally and of my dynasty, 2) try to form the Kingdom of Wales, which might be tricky because Norway owns two of the counties or 3) go after the Kingdom of Scotland, which already exists but seems pretty fragmented.
I have already raised my Crown Authority from "nothing" to "limited" but I don't want to anger my subjects too much and I think I can only change it once per ruler anyway? I'm not sure I like the penalties for "high" but I also dislike the idea of losing titles to foreigners. I thankfully got Primogeniture before becoming a King so I don't have to worry about that. Vassals care if you hold more than two Duchies, but do they care if you're King of multiple countries? I haven't seen anything about that, so presumably you could be King of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales and not have people be upset. It might be tricky running an Empire, making sure to keep all your Dukes in a row and not let them get out of control.
Vassals care if you hold more than two Duchies, but do they care if you're King of multiple countries? I haven't seen anything about that, so presumably you could be King of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales and not have people be upset. It might be tricky running an Empire, making sure to keep all your Dukes in a row and not let them get out of control.
Nope. Your vassals don't care how many Kingdom- or Empire-level titles you hold. They just care about you not having more than 2 Ducal titles.
Also, once you reach the Empire level, Dukes become less of a problem. A good Diplomacy score, a skilled Chancellor improving relations with your most powerful vassal and enough cash for the occasional bribe goes a long way. The real problem when you're an Emperor are vassal Kings, because all vassal Kings get a negative opinion modifier because they feel they ought to be independent rather than subject to an Emperor.
WotanAnubis on
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
It's possible it won't update until the next month while at 15k+ prestige, don't know if you let it tick that far since you got it.
Yep. Actually a few months. I know I could get it otherwise, but I really just like this guy and I'd rather get the achievement with him instead of playing with game mechanics. He amassed all that prestige through a lot of conquering and holy warring and duchial usurping and marrying off his eight kids (one daughter, seven sons) well and getting two different kingdoms along the way (Sweden and Taurica). He's Tord the Great for a reason and I'll be a little sad to see him go.
I had the dumbest adventurer ever last night.... he accepted an invite to my court after a gift of 20 gold.
At which point I was allowed to jail him.
He still gathered his army, but he died while trying to escape..... my entire realm was in on that particular plot, percentage in the 700% ish fires fast.
Two questions:
If the adventurer (Or whatever char) is leading an army (as was that one) where do you place your spymaster to increase your odds? I did it at his home court but it didn't seem to have any effect.
Is there any way to claim a barony in a county you own without taking a hit? Getting another castle in Constantinople is beneficial over getting another county somewhere probably. Can you fabricate a claim on that?
Is there any way to claim a barony in a county you own without taking a hit? Getting another castle in Constantinople is beneficial over getting another county somewhere probably. Can you fabricate a claim on that?
Not as far as I know, I always wait until I have an old, popular ruler, then snag it. If it's still early in the game, you might be able to inherit the barony by murdering the baron or marrying him to a succession of old women, but in my opinion that's neither worth the risk or effort.
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Another barony is almost always a good pick-up if you have sufficient stewardship and aren't yet much past single-duchy Duke.
So I just realized that I was reading the county screen completely wrong. I had been wondering why there were not castles in my demesne (so I built a couple on my ducal holdings), just not realizing that the square up top next to the landholder's portrait was, in fact, a castle that I could be upgrading. I'm like 150 years into my current ruler, probably around 200-220 total years playing the game so far, and I had not realized this. So many things make more sense now! Like why my personal levies never really got much larger, for example. I think I'll play this one out to the end, but it should make my next game much, much easier.
Also, I think Scotland is off the table for now. While the realm is fragmented, and the Petty King of the Isles keeps trying to put themselves on the throne, I'm not in their league in terms of military power. I think it's time to consolidate Ireland completely under my control, since the 50 prestige penalty for attacking an ally is actually less than it takes to fabricate a claim. My plan is to take the County of Ossory, then offer vassalization to the Duke of Leinster since at that point I should be significantly more powerful than he is. I don't even necessarily want to remove him from power, since he is of my dynasty.
After that I'll see about taking some of the independent realms in Wales. If I give those to people of my dynasty they should remain part of my Kingdom right? I'm not sure if I'll be able to create the Kingdom of Wales or not, Norway has the two counties in the SW of the island as part of their Kingdom right now, and they are like 20/100 years through assimilating them. Hopefully I can, because if I do that I might be able to cause some trouble in England or Scotland. You know, maybe. Those realms are kind of significantly larger than Ireland and Wales, after all.
I had the dumbest adventurer ever last night.... he accepted an invite to my court after a gift of 20 gold.
At which point I was allowed to jail him.
He still gathered his army, but he died while trying to escape..... my entire realm was in on that particular plot, percentage in the 700% ish fires fast.
Two questions:
If the adventurer (Or whatever char) is leading an army (as was that one) where do you place your spymaster to increase your odds? I did it at his home court but it didn't seem to have any effect.
Is there any way to claim a barony in a county you own without taking a hit? Getting another castle in Constantinople is beneficial over getting another county somewhere probably. Can you fabricate a claim on that?
I imagine it would have to be the county the army is currently in.
The default way to know is check where their location is. "Ruling in X", "At the court of Y in X", "Tutored by Z in X".
For leading armies, it just says "Leading an army in X"
So I just realized that I was reading the county screen completely wrong. I had been wondering why there were not castles in my demesne (so I built a couple on my ducal holdings), just not realizing that the square up top next to the landholder's portrait was, in fact, a castle that I could be upgrading. I'm like 150 years into my current ruler, probably around 200-220 total years playing the game so far, and I had not realized this. So many things make more sense now! Like why my personal levies never really got much larger, for example. I think I'll play this one out to the end, but it should make my next game much, much easier.
Also, I think Scotland is off the table for now. While the realm is fragmented, and the Petty King of the Isles keeps trying to put themselves on the throne, I'm not in their league in terms of military power. I think it's time to consolidate Ireland completely under my control, since the 50 prestige penalty for attacking an ally is actually less than it takes to fabricate a claim. My plan is to take the County of Ossory, then offer vassalization to the Duke of Leinster since at that point I should be significantly more powerful than he is. I don't even necessarily want to remove him from power, since he is of my dynasty.
After that I'll see about taking some of the independent realms in Wales. If I give those to people of my dynasty they should remain part of my Kingdom right? I'm not sure if I'll be able to create the Kingdom of Wales or not, Norway has the two counties in the SW of the island as part of their Kingdom right now, and they are like 20/100 years through assimilating them. Hopefully I can, because if I do that I might be able to cause some trouble in England or Scotland. You know, maybe. Those realms are kind of significantly larger than Ireland and Wales, after all.
If you're cool with him remaining on the throne, just let him keep all the associated territory and only do the "de jure" casus belli. He's going to think he should be the rightful ruler since it's de jure part of his duchy anyway.
Just a tip for future games, there's no real need to create duchies other than the first until you're in a position to create a kingdom, and lots of drawbacks (the gavelkind one you ran into is probably the biggest, but there are others). You could possibly do it to ease the creation of the kingdom by getting free de jure cbs but that's about it. I mean yeah you'll miss out on a little prestige but it's probably not worth the added difficulties.
You do also get levy bonuses from vassals in your de jure realm
So there is some incentive to do it. If I'm not on gavelkind I'll create multiple duke titles for myself
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
edited August 2014
From my current Jewish Khazaria (now Alania) game.
I got lucky at the start and the Pechenegs attacked Cumania. In my experience this is a 50/50 chance of either you or Cumania being attacked by them. If they attack you, you're pretty much done as they can field around 7-8k men at the start and you can bring maybe 4k. On top of that, to even beat their armies as Khazaria, you need to outnumber them by at the least 2:1 (sometimes that isn't even enough). So breaking the backs of the Pechenegs right away pretty much ensures that the early game for you will be relatively smooth.
I formed the Kingdom of Alania as soon as I could since that is a De Jure kingdom and not a Titular one. I also destroyed the Khazarian Crown just to be safe.
Forming the Tartar Empire is probably my best bet so I'll be sending my armies to Perm and Cumania soon enough.
Perm is not a concern and neither is Cumania. At the moment I can field about 10k dudes and neither of those two realms can field more than 2k or so.
Perm, Cumania, and Yugra (correction, Perm and Yugra are that Finlander cult) are about the last of the Tengri lands so I'm not going to feel too bad about breaking Truces to quickly subjugate those areas.
I'm pulling down about 10-ish ducets a month. Not the greatest economy, but for this region that's pretty much $Texas so it's not too bad. Allows me to regularly field the larger merc companies and still make a profit at least.
I sent my heir to be tutored by the Pope. He came back Catholic of course (which I quickly beat out of him), but more importantly he also came back Italian. I'm not too worried about the penalty for different culture since my Kingdom is pretty much a potluck of peoples anyway.
Thank merciful Christ the Muslims are keep Byzantine busy! Hell, they're keeping each other busy actually. So that pretty much leaves me uncontested in Eastern Europe.
I doubt my current ruler will be able to form the Empire (he is my first ruler after all). Though he should be able to get things set up so his heir can form the Empire.
Unlike most of my games, when planning as Khazaria I am super aggressive early on. Really need to consolidate power and crush anything that might pose a threat later on. You actually start with an army of about 2-3k (depending on how lucky you are). These guys are free, but do not replenish.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
So I was getting ready to just toss it all and press my claim on the Duchy of Leinster, but I decided to check one last time to see if he would agree to be my vassal instead. Turns out he lost his army on some foreign adventure, so I had way more strength than he did and voila, united Ireland! I was so happy about that, I can't even tell you.
Fresh of that unexpected success, my Chancellor reports that he has fabricated a claim on an independent Welsh county. They literally have zero allies, I have no idea what they've been doing this entire time. I call up my personal levies and my retinue, and my vassal ships (because no way in hell am I paying for my own ships) and start gathering everybody in Dublin to ship out. I'm not looking forward to an amphibious assault, so I plan on landing in a nearby neutral Welsh county and marching over. Then I notice something weird, the county I am at war with has ships in the water headed my way. Well I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and I proceed to roflstomp their entire army in my territory, and THEN I load up on the ships and siege their land. One easy siege later I have a foothold in Wales.
My ruler is getting pretty old at this point, so I have my Chancellor trying for another claim in Wales but don't really expect it to happen before he dies, and I spend some time cleaning up my realm a little. I plot against the Earl of Tyrconnel to revoke his claim to Breifne, because I don't like having him continually think he deserves both Connacht and Ulster. He didn't like it and declared war on me, so I roflstomped him into the ground. Roughly a year after that, the uppity Earl of Tyrone declares his independence from Ireland, and well I'm obviously having none of that. I stomp his little rebellion into the ground, imprison him, revoke his claims and then ransom him for some more money. I would have banished him, but that would have been Tyrannical (somehow), which I mean really, I can't banish somebody who literally declared his independence from me? Whatever, problem dealt with.
It's not too much later that my guy kicks the bucket, and I find out that my son is not so popular, something about "Kinslayer" trait. Whoops. Is there a way to keep control over your heir? I had given him a Barony to get rid of the unlanded son penalty, would it have been better to keep him in the court? Anyway, he's pretty unpopular, partially because I upped Crown Authority to Medium with my previous ruler. I gave one of my counties to an unlanded vassal because I had too many, and it felt weird having a county that was part of somebody else's Duchy. Should I transfer the vassalage to the Duke? I'm not sure what the pros and cons of doing that are. I've been careful to keep two Duchies for myself, and I let nobody else have more than one.
The Duchy of Leinster becomes a problem again, as I'm really unpopular there. He seems to think that since he's (vaguely) part of my dynasty, he should be king instead of me. Thankfully he dies and his son takes over shortly into my reign, and he doesn't hate me completely, especially after I marry my daughter (matrilineally even!) to him. I'm not entirely sure it was a good idea, as she'll have a pretender claim to the throne, but that's for my son to deal with, not me!
All in all, my realm is shaping up pretty nicely. Ireland is mine, I have a foothold in Wales that I will hopefully be able to exploit. I have competent councilors and a reasonable supply of kids being trained up for the future. So taking Wales is going to be interesting. There are two independent counties, though one of them holds a Duke level title for some reason. Then there is a Duchy of three counties to the north of them, and the Duchy of Cornwall I think is pretty soon going to be assimilated into Norway. Should I just conquer counties and not bother with the Duke level titles until I have the ability to make the Kingdom of Wales? If I don't take control of the conquered counties myself, how do I set it up so they become vassals to me? If I do create (or usurp I suppose) the Duke titles, how I do keep those as part of my kingdom without being in charge of them myself?
Man there is so much detail in this game, and so much more to learn yet. I'm not even sure creating Wales is worthwhile at this point, as both England and Scotland are pretty scary places right now. Oh well, one step at a time.
It's possible it won't update until the next month while at 15k+ prestige, don't know if you let it tick that far since you got it.
Yep. Actually a few months. I know I could get it otherwise, but I really just like this guy and I'd rather get the achievement with him instead of playing with game mechanics. He amassed all that prestige through a lot of conquering and holy warring and duchial usurping and marrying off his eight kids (one daughter, seven sons) well and getting two different kingdoms along the way (Sweden and Taurica). He's Tord the Great for a reason and I'll be a little sad to see him go.
That sucks, I hate it when I should be getting an achievement and for whatever reason, I don't. Wish I could be more of a help, good luck.
Vassals care if you hold more than two Duchies, but do they care if you're King of multiple countries? I haven't seen anything about that, so presumably you could be King of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales and not have people be upset. It might be tricky running an Empire, making sure to keep all your Dukes in a row and not let them get out of control.
Nope. Your vassals don't care how many Kingdom- or Empire-level titles you hold. They just care about you not having more than 2 Ducal titles.
Also, once you reach the Empire level, Dukes become less of a problem. A good Diplomacy score, a skilled Chancellor improving relations with your most powerful vassal and enough cash for the occasional bribe goes a long way. The real problem when you're an Emperor are vassal Kings, because all vassal Kings get a negative opinion modifier because they feel they ought to be independent rather than subject to an Emperor.
This is technically true, but you should keep in mind that vassals aspire to the title above them. For example, if you are the king of Wales, Scotland and Ireland with the Irish crown as your primary, all your vassals in Wales and Scotland will get an opinion penalty for desiring the respective crowns. Because of that reason you generally want to avoid creating kingdom titles unless you need them to make an emperor title or plan to give them away.
You generally don't want to bother making titles you don't need to. You probably don't need the prestige, and if you want it to exist, just give 51% of the de jure territory to an underling. They'll make it themselves eventually.
You generally don't want to bother making titles you don't need to. You probably don't need the prestige, and if you want it to exist, just give 51% of the de jure territory to an underling. They'll make it themselves eventually.
Don't need the prestige? We play the game very differently, you and I.
Hrm, if all vassals aspire to the title above them (which makes sense), then why would it matter if you created the Kingdom of Wales, for example? If you keep them as part of Ireland, they're still going to want to be King of Ireland aren't they? Eventually they'll be de jure assimilated, which brings up the question of what happens to Wales if all of their de jure territory gets assimilated into other realms? I guess they just cease to exist and can't be created anymore?
Now for duchies I don't see a real problem with letting your vassals create those, as long as you already have the Kingdom up and running. I mean unless you let one guy get two duchies, then you could have a bit of trouble as you would no doubt have him trying to usurp you or declaring independence.
Having a second duchie seems to make you a Grand Duke, which gives you a slightly higher base demesne limit than a regular Duke, so as long as you aren't risking losing one of the duchies through inheritance it seems worthwhile.
-edit- Well I realized after I wrote this that the extra demesne holding for being a Grand Duke is to let you have the second duchy without penalty, duh. Still, you get more prestige for having that second duchy right? Seems like it should be worthwhile, or at least not a bad thing, as long as you have your succession stuff sorted out properly.
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The Ruler Designer is certainly worth it if you feel like creating your own character and your own dynasty (with assassinations! And arranged marriages!).
The Customization DLC is kind of worthless unless you really get a kick out of changing the names of your provinces and kingdoms.
Aside from Sunset Invasion, the rest of the DLC-expansions all add more mechanics, counties, rulers, events, and so on to the game.
Though let me tell ya what, if you want super fucking hard mode, play as a Jewish ruler. I think there are, what? Two, maybe three in the game? And that is if you have the Old Gods start date.
It is, like, the one thing I just cannot do. I've done all kinds of other crazy things, but a stable Jewish empire eludes me.
It certainly doesn't help that you have zero allies and literally all of the enemies. :P
edit- And that the tech for those rulers is, shall we say, less then stellar.
Isn't that the standard playbook for the Karen dynasty? Swear fealty to one of the Muslims before they can swallow you whole, then expand your power while under their protection?
I'm sure someone much better than I has done it.
I've tried swearing fealty, but almost instantly they want me to convert. When I say no, they crush me.
Starting in Khazar I can survive and expand quite quickly if luck is with me. However, it is a bit of a race. The second the Byzantines get a county bordering me the Doom Stacks cometh.
Trying to keep Byzantine in a constant state of Civil War certainly helps, but the downside is that it prevents the Emperor from increasing Crown Authority so his vassals can't conquer territory.
Trying to fight Pagans is doable, but I have to make sure I have at least twice as many men as they do. However I can usually break the backs of the two more powerful Tengri realms pretty much at the start. Granted, that is if they go to war with each other first. If they do, then it guarantees I'll be the regional power.
Surprisingly it wasn't too hard to turn my counties in to modest economic centers. At least enough to pretty much give me enough money to hire Mercs whenever I need to.
I can create a fairly stable Kingdom, but my two biggest concerns are the Byzantines and, I forget the name, but a Muslim kingdom that forms on my east-south eastern border.
I tend to keep on eye on Georgia. If I can help keep the Muslims off their back then they make a great buffer between me and Byzantine. Normally the King of Georgia won't bend knee to Byzantine and the Emperor (or his vassals) won't declare war on Georgia. Georgia is small enough that they won't declare war on me.
However, if the Muslim duchies to the south of Georgia solidify (as they are wont to do) then there ain't much anyone can do to help Georgia. Apart from direct intervention from Byzantine, but that is kind of out of my control. :P
Annoyingly, in a lot of my games Georgia will survive intact to the end, but when I am playing as Khazar and I need them to stay intact they fold like a fucking newspaper.
Hrm, I am getting the itch to give it another go.
Magyars Old Gods start. Get Jewish wife for Khazar and convert, destroy Christianity.
How do you check this stat? It sounds like something I've never seen/noticed.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Look at their traits. If the character is over 16 years old, the first trait will be their education - something like "Midas Touched" or "Tough Soldier." These traits affect most of the stats, with several positive and one or two negatives. At the bottom of the trait icon will be 1-4 stars, representing how awesome that education is. The more stars, the better the effect.
For an intrigue-focused eduction, the 4 possible outcomes are:
1. Amateurish Plotter (-1 Stewardship, +1 Intrigue)
2. Flamboyant Schemer (-1 Stewardship, +3 Intrigue)
3. Intricate Webweaver (+1 Diplomacy, +1 Martial, -1 Stewardship, +6 Intrigue)
4. Elusive Shadow (+2 Diplomacy, +2 Martial, -1 Stewardship, +9 Intrigue)
Having an Elusive Shadow teach a child results in a better chance of the child becoming an Elusive Shadow themselves - though there are events that can happen to you which increase your education rank after your education is finished.
There's a separate education path for each primary attribute. The best education in each are:
1. Intrigue: Elusive Shadow
2. Diplomacy: Grey Eminence
3. Stewardship: Midas Touched
4. Martial: Brilliant Strategist
5. Learning: Mastermind Theologian
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
You can do it as the Karens, and maintain independence the whole time.
The initial timing is pretty tricky, though.
I always, always look very closely at education when I'm deciding on wives (or matrilineal husbands) to bring into the realm. Even if you can't have them educate your kids from the age of 6 because they're the wrong culture or religion, or they have terrible base stats, you can always switch to them shortly before the kids reach majority. I like to think of it as finishing school.
I have a Jewish game on hold right now that I've been meaning to get back to, but I started in Beta Israel, so it's quite a bit different there. I'm currently stuck trying to root out the crusaders, Holy Orders and HRE from Israel proper and it is a slog.
My overall expansion and powergrowth has been great, but every attempt at claims, marriage or inheritance of (parts of) Italy has failed. People dieing in the wrong order, and now for some reason the Kingdom of Italy has ceased to exist, probably by 100% loss of land. Now there are 5 duchies on which I have almost no claims, getting that piece by piece is going to be slow.
I've basically done it twice; the first time, I got the achievement, and it was cool. The second time, I used the absolute latest start possible, and it was basically the absolute best game of CK2 that I've ever played. I reformed the Empire in like, December 1452. I had to break an ungodly number of truces with the Pope, as he kept popping up in Italian counties under my control. Super satisfying both times.
Although I'd say using the Byzantines to reform Rome is easy mode. :P
edit- Before my Abyssinian Empire merged with the Byzantine Empire (through the grand plan that took three generations) Abyssinia controlled all the parts of Africa you see there and Byzantine controlled everything in the north that wasn't the Italian peninsula.
When the two empires became one I noticed I had a courtier who had a claim (I think a weak one) on the crown for the Kingdom of Italy which, at the time, controlled all of the Italian peninsula. The war to put him on the throne took less than a month. The second he was on the throne, bam, Roman Empire was reformed. Almost instantly the Italian dukes went in to a state of civil war and dethroned the guy I put there, but they stayed a part of the Roman Empire so I didn't care who they called "King". :P
But you're not declaring war on them, they're declaring war on you. So raise your army before hand and stack it on their best province before hand.
I say this was a mistake, because apparently you have to have been ruling over your entire demesne for 10 years before you can change inheritance laws, so I wasn't able to make it so just my eldest son inherited and my Duchies got split from one another. Kind of inconvenient, but we're the same dynasty and best buds as well, so he still throws his armies into my war of conquest into the (soon to be) Duchy of Ulster. While attacking Oriel, Ulster and Breifne get called in, but I was pretty sure that would happen and it didn't stop the attack. Ulster had been next on my list, but we just got a truce for like a decade so I put my council to work on getting me Tyrone. It takes long enough that I am able to change my inheritance law, so no more splitting of my holdings upon ruler transition.
I take Tyrone, who called upon one ally who never got troops into place in time, and then I take Ulster after the truce expired. I create the Duchy of Ulster, hand over a county to a vassal so I avoid those penalties, and shortly thereafter I press my de jure claim on Tryonnell to give me two duchies with six counties between them, and a very, very old ruler. I was unable to fabricate a claim on Connacht before I switched to the heir, but that was OK because I immediately chose "Become King of Ireland" as my ambition. My council was pretty great, except for the diplomacy guy who had a 9 rating and wasn't able to create claims effectively, but the Earl of Tyrone had a claim on Breifne so I used that to take my seventh county, and created the Kingdom of Ireland.
So pretty awesome, but I really only own the northern half of the island. I decide to see if the Earl of Connacht would like to become my vassal, and coincidentally a Duke, and he agrees. Emboldened by this success, I offer to vassalize the Duke of Munster, who holds Thomond and Desmond but not Ormond. He also agrees, and the Earl of Ormond follows immediately after. Now I have the entire island under my rule, except for the Duchy of Leinster. I pretty obviously have a claim on their land, since I'm the King and all, but apparently we are too close in rank and power for the Duke of Leinster to agree to be my vassal. I have been contemplating just conquering him anyway, but I'm not sure I want to take the penalty for attacking an ally since we're still part of the same dynasty.
I'm sure there is probably some way to manipulate things so that I come out looking like the good guy, but I'm not sure it's really necessary. I'm also not sure what to do after uniting the Kingdom. I kind of wasn't expecting (almost) everybody to just agree to be my vassal. Should I try for Wales or maybe Scotland next? England is probably a bridge too far at the moment I think, but I could probably take Wales. I'm not quite sure how I would make it work, though. I'll need to take two more duchies, and unless I give up my Irish duchies won't that make my vassals angry with me? Or is it only two duchies within one country that matters?
If you want to really really easily get that achievement, (if you have the Norse expansion) just start as (I'm pretty sure it's the duchy of Jorvik) and take the 'become king' ambition. You can then launch as many of their conquest CBs as you want against anything that falls under the De Jure kingdom of Norway.
Once you've finished that with constant warfare, raise your vassal's boats (not your own, they're bloody expensive) all your troops and go on constant raids on anything not your religion. Remember that as a viking you can use major rivers with your boats.
Also if you have the expansion that gives retinues, remember they can be flagged to raid as well. I suggest Skirmish retinues, as many as you can get, because archers will siege a city in days, instead of weeks. You can relatively safely launch assaults with as few as 3 to 1 odds in your favor if they're primarily archers.
But by bringing home piles and piles of gold from all those rich people (no really, if you have the troops to raid the Pope... oh my god so much money) you'll have 15k prestige in no time.
I'm pretty sure you can just Create/Usurp a Kingdom without having any duchies specifically within that Kingdom. Right now, you just need to conquer 51% of the territory of whatever Kingdom you want.
Then again, creating/usurping Duchies does give you de jure claims on the rest of those duchies, which might conquest more convenient if you haven't fabricated a new claim by the time the truce runs out. And since Dukes are lower on the hierarchy than Kings, handing out the extra Ducal titles to deserving vassals won't suddenly make them independent or anything.
Then again, then again, really powerful Dukes may create problems down the line, so don't give any one Dynasty more than one ducal title.
Oh, and, since you're King now, don't forget to raise your Crown Authority law. Personally, I like to get it up to at least High (over a few generations) so that titles and land can't suddenly leave your realm due to inheritance shenanigans. Your vassals won't like it, but the nice thing is that the higher your Crown Authority is, the less room your vassals have to maneuver.
I have already raised my Crown Authority from "nothing" to "limited" but I don't want to anger my subjects too much and I think I can only change it once per ruler anyway? I'm not sure I like the penalties for "high" but I also dislike the idea of losing titles to foreigners. I thankfully got Primogeniture before becoming a King so I don't have to worry about that. Vassals care if you hold more than two Duchies, but do they care if you're King of multiple countries? I haven't seen anything about that, so presumably you could be King of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales and not have people be upset. It might be tricky running an Empire, making sure to keep all your Dukes in a row and not let them get out of control.
Nope. Your vassals don't care how many Kingdom- or Empire-level titles you hold. They just care about you not having more than 2 Ducal titles.
Also, once you reach the Empire level, Dukes become less of a problem. A good Diplomacy score, a skilled Chancellor improving relations with your most powerful vassal and enough cash for the occasional bribe goes a long way. The real problem when you're an Emperor are vassal Kings, because all vassal Kings get a negative opinion modifier because they feel they ought to be independent rather than subject to an Emperor.
Yep. Actually a few months. I know I could get it otherwise, but I really just like this guy and I'd rather get the achievement with him instead of playing with game mechanics. He amassed all that prestige through a lot of conquering and holy warring and duchial usurping and marrying off his eight kids (one daughter, seven sons) well and getting two different kingdoms along the way (Sweden and Taurica). He's Tord the Great for a reason and I'll be a little sad to see him go.
At which point I was allowed to jail him.
He still gathered his army, but he died while trying to escape..... my entire realm was in on that particular plot, percentage in the 700% ish fires fast.
Two questions:
If the adventurer (Or whatever char) is leading an army (as was that one) where do you place your spymaster to increase your odds? I did it at his home court but it didn't seem to have any effect.
Is there any way to claim a barony in a county you own without taking a hit? Getting another castle in Constantinople is beneficial over getting another county somewhere probably. Can you fabricate a claim on that?
Not as far as I know, I always wait until I have an old, popular ruler, then snag it. If it's still early in the game, you might be able to inherit the barony by murdering the baron or marrying him to a succession of old women, but in my opinion that's neither worth the risk or effort.
Also, I think Scotland is off the table for now. While the realm is fragmented, and the Petty King of the Isles keeps trying to put themselves on the throne, I'm not in their league in terms of military power. I think it's time to consolidate Ireland completely under my control, since the 50 prestige penalty for attacking an ally is actually less than it takes to fabricate a claim. My plan is to take the County of Ossory, then offer vassalization to the Duke of Leinster since at that point I should be significantly more powerful than he is. I don't even necessarily want to remove him from power, since he is of my dynasty.
After that I'll see about taking some of the independent realms in Wales. If I give those to people of my dynasty they should remain part of my Kingdom right? I'm not sure if I'll be able to create the Kingdom of Wales or not, Norway has the two counties in the SW of the island as part of their Kingdom right now, and they are like 20/100 years through assimilating them. Hopefully I can, because if I do that I might be able to cause some trouble in England or Scotland. You know, maybe. Those realms are kind of significantly larger than Ireland and Wales, after all.
I imagine it would have to be the county the army is currently in.
The default way to know is check where their location is. "Ruling in X", "At the court of Y in X", "Tutored by Z in X".
For leading armies, it just says "Leading an army in X"
So I imagine you have to put the spymaster in X
If you're cool with him remaining on the throne, just let him keep all the associated territory and only do the "de jure" casus belli. He's going to think he should be the rightful ruler since it's de jure part of his duchy anyway.
Just a tip for future games, there's no real need to create duchies other than the first until you're in a position to create a kingdom, and lots of drawbacks (the gavelkind one you ran into is probably the biggest, but there are others). You could possibly do it to ease the creation of the kingdom by getting free de jure cbs but that's about it. I mean yeah you'll miss out on a little prestige but it's probably not worth the added difficulties.
So there is some incentive to do it. If I'm not on gavelkind I'll create multiple duke titles for myself
I got lucky at the start and the Pechenegs attacked Cumania. In my experience this is a 50/50 chance of either you or Cumania being attacked by them. If they attack you, you're pretty much done as they can field around 7-8k men at the start and you can bring maybe 4k. On top of that, to even beat their armies as Khazaria, you need to outnumber them by at the least 2:1 (sometimes that isn't even enough). So breaking the backs of the Pechenegs right away pretty much ensures that the early game for you will be relatively smooth.
I formed the Kingdom of Alania as soon as I could since that is a De Jure kingdom and not a Titular one. I also destroyed the Khazarian Crown just to be safe.
Forming the Tartar Empire is probably my best bet so I'll be sending my armies to Perm and Cumania soon enough.
Perm is not a concern and neither is Cumania. At the moment I can field about 10k dudes and neither of those two realms can field more than 2k or so.
Perm, Cumania, and Yugra (correction, Perm and Yugra are that Finlander cult) are about the last of the Tengri lands so I'm not going to feel too bad about breaking Truces to quickly subjugate those areas.
I'm pulling down about 10-ish ducets a month. Not the greatest economy, but for this region that's pretty much $Texas so it's not too bad. Allows me to regularly field the larger merc companies and still make a profit at least.
I sent my heir to be tutored by the Pope. He came back Catholic of course (which I quickly beat out of him), but more importantly he also came back Italian. I'm not too worried about the penalty for different culture since my Kingdom is pretty much a potluck of peoples anyway.
Thank merciful Christ the Muslims are keep Byzantine busy! Hell, they're keeping each other busy actually. So that pretty much leaves me uncontested in Eastern Europe.
I doubt my current ruler will be able to form the Empire (he is my first ruler after all). Though he should be able to get things set up so his heir can form the Empire.
Unlike most of my games, when planning as Khazaria I am super aggressive early on. Really need to consolidate power and crush anything that might pose a threat later on. You actually start with an army of about 2-3k (depending on how lucky you are). These guys are free, but do not replenish.
Fresh of that unexpected success, my Chancellor reports that he has fabricated a claim on an independent Welsh county. They literally have zero allies, I have no idea what they've been doing this entire time. I call up my personal levies and my retinue, and my vassal ships (because no way in hell am I paying for my own ships) and start gathering everybody in Dublin to ship out. I'm not looking forward to an amphibious assault, so I plan on landing in a nearby neutral Welsh county and marching over. Then I notice something weird, the county I am at war with has ships in the water headed my way. Well I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and I proceed to roflstomp their entire army in my territory, and THEN I load up on the ships and siege their land. One easy siege later I have a foothold in Wales.
My ruler is getting pretty old at this point, so I have my Chancellor trying for another claim in Wales but don't really expect it to happen before he dies, and I spend some time cleaning up my realm a little. I plot against the Earl of Tyrconnel to revoke his claim to Breifne, because I don't like having him continually think he deserves both Connacht and Ulster. He didn't like it and declared war on me, so I roflstomped him into the ground. Roughly a year after that, the uppity Earl of Tyrone declares his independence from Ireland, and well I'm obviously having none of that. I stomp his little rebellion into the ground, imprison him, revoke his claims and then ransom him for some more money. I would have banished him, but that would have been Tyrannical (somehow), which I mean really, I can't banish somebody who literally declared his independence from me? Whatever, problem dealt with.
It's not too much later that my guy kicks the bucket, and I find out that my son is not so popular, something about "Kinslayer" trait. Whoops. Is there a way to keep control over your heir? I had given him a Barony to get rid of the unlanded son penalty, would it have been better to keep him in the court? Anyway, he's pretty unpopular, partially because I upped Crown Authority to Medium with my previous ruler. I gave one of my counties to an unlanded vassal because I had too many, and it felt weird having a county that was part of somebody else's Duchy. Should I transfer the vassalage to the Duke? I'm not sure what the pros and cons of doing that are. I've been careful to keep two Duchies for myself, and I let nobody else have more than one.
The Duchy of Leinster becomes a problem again, as I'm really unpopular there. He seems to think that since he's (vaguely) part of my dynasty, he should be king instead of me. Thankfully he dies and his son takes over shortly into my reign, and he doesn't hate me completely, especially after I marry my daughter (matrilineally even!) to him. I'm not entirely sure it was a good idea, as she'll have a pretender claim to the throne, but that's for my son to deal with, not me!
All in all, my realm is shaping up pretty nicely. Ireland is mine, I have a foothold in Wales that I will hopefully be able to exploit. I have competent councilors and a reasonable supply of kids being trained up for the future. So taking Wales is going to be interesting. There are two independent counties, though one of them holds a Duke level title for some reason. Then there is a Duchy of three counties to the north of them, and the Duchy of Cornwall I think is pretty soon going to be assimilated into Norway. Should I just conquer counties and not bother with the Duke level titles until I have the ability to make the Kingdom of Wales? If I don't take control of the conquered counties myself, how do I set it up so they become vassals to me? If I do create (or usurp I suppose) the Duke titles, how I do keep those as part of my kingdom without being in charge of them myself?
Man there is so much detail in this game, and so much more to learn yet. I'm not even sure creating Wales is worthwhile at this point, as both England and Scotland are pretty scary places right now. Oh well, one step at a time.
That sucks, I hate it when I should be getting an achievement and for whatever reason, I don't. Wish I could be more of a help, good luck.
This is technically true, but you should keep in mind that vassals aspire to the title above them. For example, if you are the king of Wales, Scotland and Ireland with the Irish crown as your primary, all your vassals in Wales and Scotland will get an opinion penalty for desiring the respective crowns. Because of that reason you generally want to avoid creating kingdom titles unless you need them to make an emperor title or plan to give them away.
Don't need the prestige? We play the game very differently, you and I.
Now for duchies I don't see a real problem with letting your vassals create those, as long as you already have the Kingdom up and running. I mean unless you let one guy get two duchies, then you could have a bit of trouble as you would no doubt have him trying to usurp you or declaring independence.
Having a second duchie seems to make you a Grand Duke, which gives you a slightly higher base demesne limit than a regular Duke, so as long as you aren't risking losing one of the duchies through inheritance it seems worthwhile.
-edit- Well I realized after I wrote this that the extra demesne holding for being a Grand Duke is to let you have the second duchy without penalty, duh. Still, you get more prestige for having that second duchy right? Seems like it should be worthwhile, or at least not a bad thing, as long as you have your succession stuff sorted out properly.