Posted 04 March 2014 - 10:03 AM
Well, for one this game I'm not playing Ironman, so I've done some savescumming with, ie, rulers dying pretty early (age 48 natural causes? really?) and military blunders, but I wouldn't say it's made so much of a difference as to make this otherwise impossible. I've also tried to keep counties and duchies moving between my vassal kingdoms via console to keep their borders nice and tidy, but that's an uphill battle and I've long given up on it.
And yeah, as pagan you really want to reform your religion ASAP. The one time I played Norse I started as Svidjod and formed Scandinavia before I managed that. Being stuck at low CA and gavelkind is a major pain in the arse. But hey. With the ability to raid you should be able to raise mercs often. Subjugation is your friend. Consider emigrating back to Scandinavia to be safe from filthy catholics. Try to avoid landing your family or major houses, whenever you get a new title - county, duchy - if you can grant it to someone, use the find characters tool to find someone that is: male, not a ruler, your religion, your culture, not in a great house. Distribute power so that nobody can catch up to you within your realm and gun for that reformation. I guess reforming starting from England is hard.
Consider North Korea mode (banish all count+ vassals, keep everything in your demesne for max levy, periodically imprison and banish city mayors for cash).
Once you're big enough you'll be able to wage most wars using only your retinue and holy order, for which your vassals will hate you less (no raised levies penalty to opinion) and you'll be able to do them quicker (no need to disband and gather your whole army each county conquest, you can just keep on going). I did NK mode until I had kingdoms of Pomerania, Bohemia, Lithuania and Poland under my rule, then I realized I'm running out of people of my culture and religion to marry my daughters and sons to.
With luck you won't have any christian blobbing the way Francia did in my game. Once you control like 4-5 de jure kingdoms you may start giving kingdoms away (when you're emperor). Use the title grant as a safety device for your next heir - just let him give someone the kingdom and they'll love them and suport them. Don't create more than 1 empire title until it becomes a titular title (by kingdoms drifting from it to your held empire after 100 years of being with all its de jure borders within your empire). NEVER land your heir. Try to get geniuses on the throne (genius for wife is more important than an alliance from it or prestige).
If you've got enemies in there, just got to ask yourself: can you conquer in Ireland and Scotland faster than they're likely to take stuff from you in the south? I'll grant you, I only went to conquer Brittania because I was annoyed at the raiders showing up on my shores, and it took me about 50 years to conquer it all even as an established empire. Also had Leon and Navarra dipping their hands in there. Don't underestimate county conquests as a CB, if you can over time shatter the liege title like Duchy of Mercia, you can then probably pick on counts separately and on separate truces. Holy Wars will take you to war with everyone and their mothers and brothers and dogs. Good enough that France is unlikely to jump in to a Holy War on the other side of the channel.
Hm. I think I should consider an england start at some point to look at things from that perspective. You start so far away from your required holy sites, surrounded by christians. Interesting, interesting.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Help
He still has 100 opinion of me, though!
