Crusader Kings II

[proudft]

Well, rebooted Matilda got her full 20 years of game in before the demo time limit.  A matrilineal marriage proved to be much much less attractive to potential spouses, but she finally found someone who would deign to let her children keep her titles - Giacinto, the lord mayor of Ancona, which is conveniently close to her lands, and he even counted as a 'ruler' for her personal goal of 'marry a ruler'.  Giacinto didn't ask for any positions on the council or anything, so he basically seemed to stick around his home county continuing to rule it (it remained separate from Matilda's lands, though both are part of the Holy Roman Empire).

Meanwhile, Matilda's mother starts begging to be made head Spymaster, but she didn't seem to be any better than the guy currently in the job, so, sorry ma, stick with your knitting.  I get a notice at the top of the screen that says I can create a new title, Duke of Modena, and I think that would be a nice thing to make Giacinto so he won't seem like such a loser, so I start saving up for that.

Matilda's lands seem to be barely barely profitable, so this takes a while.  Meanwhile, she squirts out the first kid, a daughter, who is named heir, and then a second kid, another daughter pretty shortly thereafter.   Now there's enough money to make that title, so I do that, and it turns out that is assigned to Matilda (I thought it would give me a prompt of who to give it to, but either I missed it or it doesn't do that).  Oh well, it can go with her other collection of titles (there are seriously like a half dozen of them).

The pope, in nearby Rome, decides he has a claim on one of Matilda's counties, Spoleto, which is way the hell down in the south of her lands.  I send the military advisor down there to start training the militia and start counting up the troops.  To nobody's surprise, the pope's army suddenly charges into Spoleto.   Unfortunately it is WAY bigger than I was thinking, like 5000 guys.  Aieee!

Almost immediately, Matilda's lands are COVERED in soldiers, as, apparently, the Holy Roman Emperor has taken over this little spat and raised a bunch of Matilda's troops for his own.   Each little group of soldiers is like 40 guys so it's not going to be anywhere near 5000.  I go around to each county and summon up the county militias and spend some time grouping them all up, and it is around 1500 troops.  Not very good odds.

The pope's army starts sieging the three towns in Spoleto one by one.  Then I see, coming down from the east, a giant HRE army of like 7000 guys.  Help is on the way!  But they are pretty far off, so I charge my shitty army into the pope's lands to distract him.  It actually works, as he breaks off the seige of town #2 to chase me.  We spend quite a few weeks running around in circles while the HRE army gets closer and closer and finally arrives and beats the shit ouf the pope army.  Ha ha, take that, pope.   I run my army back to Spoleto and free the towns that got captured and we live happily ever after.

Time passes, in which I repeatedly build up to 50 gold and immediately spend it to start constructing some town improvement that will result in more tax income.  The money does seem to be coming in ever so slightly faster, so this seems like a good plan.  There is a minor peasant revolt which is quickly dealt with, but for a few years it's pretty quiet.

Then, for no reason at all, Ancona decides to declare independence from the Holy Roman Empire.  I look down there to make sure Matilda's husband got out of there ok and isn't imprisoned or something and find out, that, in fact, he has lost his goddamned mind and in CHARGE of the rebellion.

Well, she raises the troops and plops them down on the border between Matildaville and Ancona to protect her lands from her idiot husband while, again, a giant HRE army comes creeping down the coast and eventually arrives and completely destroys him.  Giacinto is hauled off in chains to HRE prison, and, checking Matilda's stats, somehow the Holy Roman Emperor doesn't seem to have held this fiasco against her.  Pshew.  Unfortunately, she is only 30 and still married, and some more children would be nice.

Time to ponder assassinating Giacinto to clear out her dance card!   It tells me there is a 25% chance of success and a 25% chance of being discovered.  Matilda rolls the dice and fails, but is not discovered.  Since her stats say she is very religious and such, I decide one try was enough, and we return to the previous activity of improving the lands.

Fortunately Giacinto soon dies all on his own.  I blame those 9th-century prison conditions.  A new husband is found and this guy is a COMMONER (gasp), but he's got super-high military stats and I am still paranoid about that pope.  New husband is put in charge of the army, and Matilda is almost immediately pregnant with kid #3 (she has a 5% fertility bonus from being a Charismatic Negotiator, but it sure seems more like a 100% bonus). 

Kid #3 turns out to be a boy, so he's the new heir.  Sorry, girl #1, you lose.

A few years pass uneventually and then a message pops up that Matilda has realized she is in LUUURRVE with her husband.  Good thing she's married to him, huh?  There are two options presented, I forget what they say exactly but one is something like 'yay' and the other is something like 'I MUST REPRESS THESE URGES'.  I pick the first one, of course.

A fourth child arrives, this one is another girl.  The older three kids are now apparently being tutored in Ancona (how or why I have no idea, this seems like a terrible idea).  The lands are getting more profitable and nothing too exciting happens and then BAM.  Twenty years are up, and the demo is over.


So.... it was fun... I think?   The game was oddly sort of passive, though.  I dunno, I sort of sat there for a lot of it both hoping and fearing something would happen.  I'm not sure if the economy of this nation is typical, with its teeny tiny profit at the start.. 

The different sub-town/castle/church things in each county seem overly difficult to get to to check their statuses or see what's going on.

I think I like it, but not ENOUGH.  I'll probably get it when it's on sale.  I might change my mind in a week or two, though.  It's definitely a weird game and different from anything I've played before.

[Ruvaldt]

The different sub-town/castle/church things in each county seem overly difficult to get to to check their statuses or see what's going on.

If you put your mouse on the far right-hand side of the screen a little bar will pop up with a lot of helpful stuff.  It lists all of your armies, your advisors and what they're doing, sieges, and the progress of your constructions.

[Sjofn]

Then, for no reason at all, Ancona decides to declare independence from the Holy Roman Empire.  I look down there to make sure Matilda's husband got out of there ok and isn't imprisoned or something and find out, that, in fact, he has lost his goddamned mind and in CHARGE of the rebellion.

This is why Queen Elizabeth I never got married, I bet.

[proudft]

The different sub-town/castle/church things in each county seem overly difficult to get to to check their statuses or see what's going on.

If you put your mouse on the far right-hand side of the screen a little bar will pop up with a lot of helpful stuff.  It lists all of your armies, your advisors and what they're doing, sieges, and the progress of your constructions.

Yeah, I had that locked and out, but it wasn't telling me everything for some reason.  It seemed like only the constructions in the 'main' town of each county were showing and the ones in the other castles or towns or churches weren't.  Dunno if there is a filter somewhere to tell it to show everything.

[Yoru]

The matrilineal marriage thing got me into a bit of a bind yesterday.

I was playing as a duke in Ireland whose dynasty has a bit of a habit of popping out kids, particularly daughters. Now, these are halfway useless, but I'm keeping very sure to matrilineally marry at least two daughters from each generation of each closely related branch. Eventually I get a son, he matures, and I notice that there's a child-countess of 14 years in a nearby county in Wales.

Aha, I think. I can marry off my primary male heir to this countess; when I die, he'll get all my titles in Scotland and his children will get both the Irish titles and the Welsh titles from the mother. Free land!

The countess comes of age and is compelled to accept a regular marriage, ensuring that the children remain of my dynasty. That first son fucks off to the county in Wales where his wife is, in order to uphold the family tradition of banging her a lot. Things putter along for a while and they crap out three kids; all daughters. After a while, the first daughter comes of age.

I go to the interface, all set to marry her matrilineally, as she's now second in line for all the Irish titles, which my long-reigning duke has consolidated into quite the rich chunk and expanded considerably.

No marry button.

I check, and I realize that, since the Welsh wife is a ruler, she's at court in her home county. My son is there too, as he has no other titles yet. Which means all three granddaughters are in that court. Which means their marriages are under the Welsh wife's control.

Fuck!

I continue to watch the situation and, to my horror, the Welsh wife marries off my primary granddaughter to the King of Scotland in a regular marriage and they immediately have a son. A son not of my dynasty, who is, nonetheless, third in line for all my titles.

I start saving for assassins immediately, to little avail, as the strain is too much for the poor old Duke and he croaks. Suddenly, the son is now me, and I'm the Duke of Ireland again and have returned to my native homeland. My wife has stayed behind and kept all our daughters; the daughters hate my guts because I'm Irish instead of Welsh, so they won't leave their mother's side for my court.

Out goes the spymaster, to build an assassination network in Wales. Almost immediately, my wife's titles in Wales are usurped and she gets kicked back to my court. The two unmarried minor daughters come with her, but the primary daughter, my heir, goes to her husband's court in Scotland with her snot-nosed grandson in tow.

I now have a two-pronged plan to preserve the throne's lineage: kill off my wife and remarry in the hopes of popping out a son, and then eliminate my first daughter and her Scottish grandson to ward off future claims to the throne and assassination threats to my other children. The spymaster gets sent in and my wife's assassination goes off without a hitch. While he's cooling his heels for the six months between moves, I find, marry and impregnate a 16-year-old Irish courtier of no distinct lineage but who happens to really enjoy a roll in the hay. She fits in well with the rest of the family.

The spymaster moves up to Scotland and my first daughter immediately has a small accident involving some stairs, thus making the Scottish grandson first-in-line for the thrones of Ireland. A hundred gold later, I've drowned the little bugger in his own bathwater and nobody's the wiser. My second daughter is now first-in-line and I marry her matrilineally to a genius soldier from a very distant branch of the family, just in case. A few months later, I pop out my first son, and my second daughter pops out a son by the soldier.

And so the family lineage was preserved.

[Seraphim]

Yeah, I had that locked and out, but it wasn't telling me everything for some reason.  It seemed like only the constructions in the 'main' town of each county were showing and the ones in the other castles or towns or churches weren't.  Dunno if there is a filter somewhere to tell it to show everything.

It will only show the constructions, tax income and levy size in your own personal demesne. If you build something in one of your vassals lands you won't see it in the outliner.
Also the small income increase you experienced is likely due to the fact that you were upgrading vassals cities, cities who with the default laws only pay you 20% or so in taxes and then only if they like you, a mayor that hates your guts won't send a single copper your way...
If you decide to try Matilda once more focus on building up your own castles first and don't be afraid to seize a city or three for your own demesne despite the whole "wrong holding ruler" penalty (in which case you'd want to build the income boosting building there before going back to upgrading the castles). And try to keep some money on hand to hire mercenaries with in case the pope decides to get all uppity again.

[Muffled]

I get a notice at the top of the screen that says I can create a new title, Duke of Modena, and I think that would be a nice thing to make Giacinto so he won't seem like such a loser, so I start saving up for that....

Now there's enough money to make that title, so I do that, and it turns out that is assigned to Matilda (I thought it would give me a prompt of who to give it to, but either I missed it or it doesn't do that).  Oh well, it can go with her other collection of titles (there are seriously like a half dozen of them).

Any time you create or usurp a title it goes directly to your current ruler/self.  You can move it to whatever vassal you like by going into diplomacy with that person and granting it to them, the same way you would a holding or county.

[proudft]

Oh, thanks, you two.  The interface is a bit, uh, murky.    I'll have to try Matilda or another sub-ruler like her (not that Poland guy, he's got everything under him, that's too simple!) at some point to try and straighten all this out.

[Seraphim]

Oh, thanks, you two.  The interface is a bit, uh, murky.    I'll have to try Matilda or another sub-ruler like her (not that Poland guy, he's got everything under him, that's too simple!) at some point to try and straighten all this out.

And in case you didn't know there's a glitch with the demo that lets you play any character in game without having to mod anything by selecting one of the 4 selectable ones, hit play and then click the ruler you want to be. This way you could try out some place like Polotsk, an independent 5 province Duchy without any major vassals, far removed from HRE politicking and plenty of pagans to attack, should give you an easier time to learn the ropes.
At least as long as none of your dear cousins don't decide your duchy would look better as part of their realm, who the heck needs enemies with families like these...

[proudft]

Ha, this trick actually worked.  I squeaked in as King Antso of Navarra, a nice little two-county place with no higher authority.  This guy had a million sibilings (a couple of them have nearby kingdoms) and two bastard children to start off with.  It took a while (real time, not game time) to find a willing spouse for him and he ended up with the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, which didn't sound like too terrible of a choice.

All his relatives turn out to hate him, and I looked him up on wikipedia and in real life his brother and sister shoved him off a cliff, so I guess that's fitting.  The game was a lot quieter than Matilda's run.  Not as much money either - though I did only improve his own holdings for a better return, he only had two.

A few years into the game and the cliff-pushing brother openly rebels in the non-capitol county.  I summon up all the troops in the main county and kick his ass and throw him in jail.  He starts whining and plotting in there, so I execute him, and now all the relatives REALLY hate me.  The new wife gives birth to a son and a daughter who also really hate me.

I figured out how to assign kids to tutors, so I keep trying to set up the kids with various mayors or advisors who at least have a positive impression of Antso, and it seems to help a little bit, but they are still really negative.  Oh well.

The chancellor forged a fake claim in one of the adjacent counties and when I went to declare war it said I already HAD a natural claim there from some title or something.  Whoops.   Matilda's chancellor never actually succeeded at this, so this was progress at least figuring out this procedure.  Anyway, that province fell easily and no nearby nations complained too much.

Frankly I'm surprised this dude was still alive at the end of the 20 years.  Especially with his bastard son with an opinion of him at -60 (which was IMPROVED by gifts and positions) in the position of spymaster.  And somewhere along the line he got called 'the Accursed', though it didn't really say why.

Edging toward buying this.   My new question is what do you do with all the random courtiers.  There were seriously like twenty of these yahoos hanging around, and other than putting the capable ones in council positions, and using a couple as tutors for your handful of kids, what exactly do you DO with them?

[Seraphim]

I figured out how to assign kids to tutors, so I keep trying to set up the kids with various mayors or advisors who at least have a positive impression of Antso, and it seems to help a little bit, but they are still really negative.  Oh well.

Frankly I'm surprised this dude was still alive at the end of the 20 years.  Especially with his bastard son with an opinion of him at -60 (which was IMPROVED by gifts and positions) in the position of spymaster.  And somewhere along the line he got called 'the Accursed', though it didn't really say why.

My new question is what do you do with all the random courtiers.  There were seriously like twenty of these yahoos hanging around, and other than putting the capable ones in council positions, and using a couple as tutors for your handful of kids, what exactly do you DO with them?

I'd recommend tutoring the heir yourself as you get several choices during his/her childhood that let you tailor them for the role with trait gains. Though it could still be worthwhile to send him to some important ruler to foster as they get a +25 or so bonus to relations with their mentor, can be quite useful if you want to bring say the King of France into your war against the infidels in Iberia during your heirs reign of terror.
And you know, making someone that hates you that much into a spymaster usually isn't the brightest of ideas... It's not like he'll report any plots against your own life if he's the one masterminding them after all. 
As to the courtiers, nothing really. Basically they're just a bunch of wimpy freeloaders there to supply a source of councillors and to parcel out land to to avoid going above your personal demesne limit. You can use the women generated to arrange matrilineal marriages and bring some better councillors to your court though that option was limited quite a bit in the last patch for the released game. Or marry the useless ones out in the same manner to get them out of your court and go pilfer some other nobles silverware.

[Ruvaldt]

Once your kingdom is growing pretty quickly, like when you're crusading, you'll need a lot of random courtiers around to put into new positions of power as counts or even dukes.  It's a good idea to get them married early and let them start building families.  That way when you do find a role for them they'll have ready-made heirs.  Optimally, land you take over will be given to relatives, but that doesn't always work out; good to have a pool of loyal talent laying around.  In my last Scottish campaign I was actually using the option on the intrigue menu to invite more nobles into my court because I had run out of male relatives to distribute Africa to.

Also, as Seraphim said, tutoring yourself is a great option.  However, children have a reasonably good chance of gaining the education trait of their tutor so if you can find someone in your court with one of those really nice education traits like Midas Touched or Grey Emininence, choose them instead; I think you'll still be able to make the maturing decisions if they're in your court, and you'll get a nice trait at the end.  Also, children can potentially become members of a different culture through their tutor, and you definitely want to be the same culture as your vassals.  The exception to that is if the tutor is a different culture, but in your court; in that case you get to choose whether they become a different culture or stay their old culture.

[Montague]

Once your kingdom is growing pretty quickly, like when you're crusading, you'll need a lot of random courtiers around to put into new positions of power as counts or even dukes.  It's a good idea to get them married early and let them start building families.  That way when you do find a role for them they'll have ready-made heirs.  Optimally, land you take over will be given to relatives, but that doesn't always work out; good to have a pool of loyal talent laying around.  In my last Scottish campaign I was actually using the option on the intrigue menu to invite more nobles into my court because I had run out of male relatives to distribute Africa to.

There's another way to get more male nobles. Look around at neighboring or close-by provinces and click their coat-of-arms. On the province screen there's a button marked "Claimants", with a list of all the nobles in the world that have a claim to that land. Nobles that would be willing to come to your court are marked with a green thumbs up. Bring up their diplo screen and "invite to court" and voila, free nobility with usually better stats than the bought ones. This has the added bonus that you now have a Casus Belli against the lord of said province, the only drawback being if you use it and "press" the claim of your courtier, they automatically get it as your vassal, you won't be able to claim it outright as a demesne.

[Ruvaldt]

I prefer for my nobility to be of the same culture as my king, and a lot of the time the random claimants I find aren't.  Otherwise, yeah, that's another good way to get more nobility.

[Muffled]

.... This has the added bonus that you now have a Casus Belli against the lord of said province, the only drawback being if you use it and "press" the claim of your courtier, they automatically get it as your vassal, you won't be able to claim it outright as a demesne.

Unless that invited courtier shares your last name, i.e. they are part of your dynasty, OR you have granted them a holding of some sort and made them your vassal, or sub-vassal, they will become independent after you press their claim.  They'll be very friendly to you, and depending on the circumstances may accept a vassalage offer, but frequently will not.

Additionally, if the title they gain after you've pressed their claim is greater than or equal to your own highest title, they will be independent no matter what (I think, haven't tested this much).

[Ruvaldt]

They don't always become independent either.  They will join your former enemy if the claim was within someone else's realm.  I made the mistake of going to war with England to support a courtier's claim, and upon completion the courtier simply became the new count of that fief and was a part of England.

It works best when you invite the claimant to your court, give them some land (preferably near their claim), and then press their claim.  And you're right, if the title is equal to or higher than your own title they become independent or join the realm within which the title currently lies.

[Yoru]

Note that unlanded kinsmen will also become your vassals should you press their claims, and the claimed title is below your own. It's one way of playing the Long Game to get other thrones, but requires a lot of matrilineal marriage jiu-jitsu on fourth sons or disinherited brothers.

[Tebonas]

Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube (Let others wage war; you, happy Austria, marry)

So I would say that way to play the game is historically accurate as well.  

I really don't know I can hold off buying this till the 50% sale. It sounds really intriguing once you get used to the UI.

[Yoru]

They really need a marriage Power Search screen. I don't often do the marriage thing once I have a decently powerful realm because it's so hard to figure out who's where in what line of succession and who has what claims with what degree of heritability, without clicking through fifteen screens.

Once things get going, I tend to marry sisters/daughters off to counts or dukes in less-powerful realms so that the realms' leaders don't decide to press their fucking claims on my crown. Because then the spymaster has to get out his knives and do some wetwork, and that's unpleasant.

What I really want is, say, "find me an unlanded, unmarried nobleman between the ages of 12 and 25 who is not within the first three positions in a line of succession but who has heritable claims on at least one title".

Sometimes this game turns into a bizarre medieval version of Match.com.

[tgr]

There are a few ... UI issues in the game which can be pretty fucking annoying sometimes, like when you replace your advisors. I've lost count of how many times I've wanted to just check the stats of some guy, and I end up choosing him instead.

There are also lots of times where I want to choose women from various other counties next to me (I'm currently working to take over Ireland; I'm failing.), and it... well, it could've been easier. But at least it's not as bad anymore as when I started initially.

[Modern Angel]

I'm fairly certain that when you click the two rings round button to the lower right of your portrait the results are auto-sorted by strength of claim/line of succession of heirs.

[Mazakiel]

Game finally clicked for me, and I started a game as King Salomon of Hungary, starting in the first playable year.  I managed to early on conquer Wallachia and some of the other lands to the southeast, though the filthy Rus snagged some of the lands as well.  And managed to fight off some civil wars/plots by my cousins and brother to gain the throne.  While my attempts to fake a claim on some of the smaller holdings around me never panned out for whatever reason, I settled into an overall peaceful and long reign, strengthening the crown's power, getting rights to more taxes and levies, and establishing several duchies.  Overall not much rebellion or infighting. 

I need to work on better arranging for a good heir though.  When a false claim finally bore fruit and I was marching my armies to seize it, Saloman the Great finally died of old age after about 45 years of rule, and then the knives came out.  He had a lot of kids, and the sons among them were apparently also pretty fertile.  In the course of about 5 minutes I jumped between 4 playable characters before finally ending up with one who managed to not get assassinated right off.  Unfortunately, it was an unmarried great grand-daughter in regency.  Thanks to everyone deciding Hungary should be theirs, 4 different wars started up, and now my nice, stable country has been permanently split by civil war, and the filthy Rus took advantage of the turmoil and snagged some land as well.  Plus my current playable character had to surrender to her great uncle, since all her armies were now gone.  So now I've got to piece it all together starting with just one duchy. 

[proudft]

I finally bought it too, mainly because I couldn't stop thinking about it.  

Started a game as the (basically independent) duke of Barcelona, about 10 years in.  Fighting the Moors is pretty entertaining - fortunately they have remained pretty disorganized and the ones squatting in Barcelona proper have been removed and the next batch adjacent to the west were just crushed by a four-prong invasion which began when they declared war on me, I called on my best bud the king of Navarra and he was all WOO YAY, and as things started to turn south for the Moors the king of Leon and some dudes from France swooped in.  So that part of the map is all checkerboarded with various occupied markers, and my chancellor is furiously trying to forge up papers for the closest county.

Both the kings of Navarra and Aragon have popped off early and been replaced by 6-year olds, so there is some good opportunity here I think.  My Barcelona duke also dropped dead near the end of my play time so far, but he was replaced with an actual adult, ha ha.

[Mazakiel]

The AI can be pretty vicious in the game.  When it senses blood, everyone's willing to swoop in to take advantage.  It's pretty hilarious how quickly my kingdom fell apart once the king died.  Pretty much every county revolted, and there were probably 15 assassinations while I was trying to pick up the pieces before finally having my current character throw in the towel.  Even the peasants seem to know when a good time to rebel is.  I've had several happen while most of my forces are concentrated elsewhere. 

[proudft]

EMERGENCY!

I tried to take a screenshot but it grabs the desktop underneath, lawl.  Basically Barcelona has a bad case of the Moors, my previous allies all dropped dead, and I need some help stat (4500 Moors rampaging around sieging everything and what was left of my army just got wiped out in the mountains).

Too poor for mercenaries so I figure I'll marry my son to some France princess and get help from that direction.  However, the option to marry him is absent for some reason.

Here all all the things I can think of that might be pertinent:

- Barcelona is a Duchy, currently at war (obviously).
- I have two sons, the younger is still a kid and betrothed to one of my vassal Count's daughters. 
- The heir who I am trying to marry (Pere) is not promised to anyone and just turned 16.  His portrait is an adult.
- Pere has title to two cities (does he need to have a county or better?)
- Nothing in his traits seems to disqualify him.
- The county he is currently located has all of its holdings occupied by Moors, but it doesn't show Pere in jail or anything.
- I am currently sitting in my perfectly unoccupied capitol, adjacent to Pere.

Any ideas to help poor Pere and by extension, me?   

[tgr]

I've now sieged neighbours 3-5 times, and I still can't seem to manage to actually capture them to the point where I control them. I'm sort of starting to dislike starting as pretty much a loner down in Ireland, getting up in the world certainly isn't easy.

[Ruvaldt]

Proudft: if he isn't in your court you can't choose his spouse.  Since he has his own territory now he'll choose his own.  At least I think that's the source of your problem.

tgr: Why aren't you able to siege them and control them?  Once you capture the castle it's all downhill, usually.

[tgr]

Probably simply because there's some mechanic I haven't grasped yet. I'm assuming it's mostly because I'm an earl, and I'm attacking dukes. Honestly, I'm going to just have to bite the bullet and actually read up on this instead of just winging it like I do everything else in this game, because I've ended up capturing everything, and still not getting the control I expect when I offer peace.

This is, after all, a bit different from most strategy games I've played, so I'm not that surprised it's catching me out.

[cironian]

If you get your warscore to 100% to *will* get whatever you specified in your declaration of war. If you were fighting a duke, you may have to occupy more than one of his counties though.

Or maybe you mean that your siege is not progressing at all? If the enemy siege bar is not shrinking you might have less soldiers than the garrison of the enemy castle in which case you are SOL unless you bring in allies or hire mercenaries. (Tip: Using mercs is a really good way to get started, if you can manage to save up the money)

[tgr]

No, I believe I took over his entire collection of counties, and I had taken over everything. I saved just before I did the siege, I'll have to redo the whole thing and pay more attention to exactly what's happening.

[Bann]

Are you actually capturing his town/castle/churchthing, or just placing it under siege? You need to have more people outside the walls then they have inside, or you make no progress. As a guy who has mostly played around in Ireland, I often got into a situation where I would declare war, wipe his army, but incur enough losses that I didnt have enough to effectively siege. Once you take a castle/town/church, you should see his territory gain some crosshatching. The more you outnumber him by, the faster the siege goes as well.

I was able to be effective as various Irish counties by fabricating some claims, saving up for 2 months of the chepest mercs, and then rolling a neighbor. Once you get that second territory, you can mass enough troops to take a 3rd a few years later without having to rely on mercs.

[tgr]

Yeah, I did capture them, at least I had my shield in the middle of all cities and castles etc. I did hire mercs to roll the first county, then roll in my forces, roll the second until I had captured all of them, then roll the third until I'd captured all of them as well.

I don't seem to be able to fabricate claims of my own for some reason, though, even though my guy has 19 or so in intrigue, I've had to rely on inviting someone from that county to my court to get the casus belli, but I'm not sure if I actually replaced the ruler at all, actually.

I'll restore and try again, see if I can't find any discrepancies, and maybe *gasp* read the manual some.

[cironian]

Oh. In that case you fought a war on that courtiers behalf. You got the title for him, not for yourself. If you want to own the county, you must have the claim first.

It's a little different when you are a duke or king, as in that case the guy you won the title for might become your vassal under certain circumstances, but as long as you are a count you can't have other counts as vassals, so that's not much use to you.

[Ingmar]

Probably simply because there's some mechanic I haven't grasped yet. I'm assuming it's mostly because I'm an earl, and I'm attacking dukes. Honestly, I'm going to just have to bite the bullet and actually read up on this instead of just winging it like I do everything else in this game, because I've ended up capturing everything, and still not getting the control I expect when I offer peace.

This is, after all, a bit different from most strategy games I've played, so I'm not that surprised it's catching me out.

You have to siege all the holdings in a space, not just the main one. They go one at a time.

[proudft]

Proudft: if he isn't in your court you can't choose his spouse.  Since he has his own territory now he'll choose his own.  At least I think that's the source of your problem.

Doh.  Ok, so I can either strip his lands away and piss him off and arrange a marriage.... or de-betroth the younger kid and get him a useful/hot princess instead.  I'll try that option (I'm assuming you can break this promise somehow)- after all, his future wife's father's county is currently up to its ears in Moors, I'm sure he'll understand.