[MTS]

My glorious leader with a martial score of 20 just died in battle, leaving his literally newborn son on the throne.

Shit.

[Morgoth]

My Ruler's son aquired great pox recently. Hopefully from a different source than his father. So that will be a problem. Hopefully it's not too virulent in him. I'd hate to suffer through an insane ruler.

And I had such plans too. I was going to aquire three lustfull concubines. Produce an enormous amount of male children and carve them all dukedoms in the east. I need a broader base of Norse nobility for when Europe becomes more settled. Right now Russia is a mess of absurd proportions, and the Byzantines seem very reluctant to spread in that direction.

[MTS]

Well I was forced to give Khiva and newly-acquired Azerbaijan their independence so that I could keep my diapered bottom on the throne, but as long as the Muslims stay divided I think I can piece it all back together.

I had such plans as well! I'd managed to breed a very good ruler and after getting the throne at 22 he was set to rule for decades. I was going to make him the Saoshyant and bring the sacred fire of Ahura Mazda all the way to the Levant once more...sigh.

[vendevere]

I just got the game yesterday, and I'm trying to figure out how to keep other people from attacking me. I

Since it was my first play through, I started with King William the Conqueror. He died young, leaving his oldest son a minor. Even after he hit his majority, it seemed he couldn't even sneeze without someone declaring war on him. He went from King to Duke of Normandy to prisoner, then back to being king then duke then king again.

While fun, it was also aggravating.

Also, since I'm still learning stuff on how to play the game, I don't really know what to do when I need to call levies, how to manage them and stuff.

Still, arranging marriages for my kids has been great fun. Even though I have no clue what I'm doing...

Advice would be appreciated since I'm a complete newbie here.

Not to say I don't know the history. I know my English Plantagenet/Tudor History quite well, thank you.

It's the game mechanics which have me wanting to tear my hair out by the roots...

[Morgoth]

A typical advice is to try to start out in Ireland with the aim of forming the kingdom of Ireland. It's a good learning experience that reduces the complexities somewhat. Ireland is a calm place early on.

[vendevere]

Morgoth, on 12 June 2013 - 08:57 PM, said:

A typical advice is to try to start out in Ireland with the aim of forming the kingdom of Ireland. It's a good learning experience that reduces the complexities somewhat. Ireland is a calm place early on.

Another problem I've been having is when I try to marry my princes and princesses off. I want to marry a princess off to the heir of the kingdom of France, He's young and unmarried. But I can't get him on the list to marry my princess. All I get are low-ranked courtiers in my household, and I don't know what to do to get rulers of ruling houses on the list. I know there an option-somewhere-that makes everyone available. But I don't know where it is or how to find it.

Getting pretty honked off about it right now. Not going to marry a princess off to a commoner!

[MTS]

vendevere, on 13 June 2013 - 02:44 AM, said:

Morgoth, on 12 June 2013 - 08:57 PM, said:

A typical advice is to try to start out in Ireland with the aim of forming the kingdom of Ireland. It's a good learning experience that reduces the complexities somewhat. Ireland is a calm place early on.

Another problem I've been having is when I try to marry my princes and princesses off. I want to marry a princess off to the heir of the kingdom of France, He's young and unmarried. But I can't get him on the list to marry my princess. All I get are low-ranked courtiers in my household, and I don't know what to do to get rulers of ruling houses on the list. I know there an option-somewhere-that makes everyone available. But I don't know where it is or how to find it.

Getting pretty honked off about it right now. Not going to marry a princess off to a commoner!

As far as I'm aware if you click on the arrange marriage icon of the person you're trying to marry off, the list of options that is generated only comprises those people who will actually accept your proposal (and if you do it from the diplomacy tab of the person you're trying to marry off the candidates will only be from your court, as the game thinks you're trying to get them to marry someone from your court). You can do it manually though by going to the diplomacy tab of the French heir and doing arrange marriage from there. If the King isn't going to accept (as I suspect he might not), then at least it will tell you why. Often with rulers it's wanting a better alliance (i.e. another ruler) and that has a huge negative modifier, which makes it tricky for anyone with a duke-level title.

[Obdigore]

Ugh I can't win with Old Gods in Sweden/Norway. First game I was doing well then my wife spawned 4 boys and no girls, and they all decided to rebel together at the same time. Second game I was doing great, got 1 boy and 2 girls to marriage age after killing off my wife (heartless I am!) and then both the HRE and Finland decide to declare war on me at the same time.

[Morgoth]

Obdigore, on 13 June 2013 - 06:28 AM, said:

Ugh I can't win with Old Gods in Sweden/Norway. First game I was doing well then my wife spawned 4 boys and no girls, and they all decided to rebel together at the same time. Second game I was doing great, got 1 boy and 2 girls to marriage age after killing off my wife (heartless I am!) and then both the HRE and Finland decide to declare war on me at the same time.

Are you starting in 800 AD?

I found the way to solve the heir problem was to conquer individual territories in Ireland and dumping all my younger sons in the temples. I also used the ridiculous amount of cash I acquired from raiding to turn Akershus into the richest and most developed province in Northern Europe while simultaneously paying for the continued upkeep of a mercenary company to keep control of my vassals at home. So my personal levies are more than twice those of any of my vassals. Which combined with my mercenaries and retinue made me able to field a bigger and more advanced army than the rest of the kingdom combined.

Now, with the Empire that's no longer the case, but then I have almost no direct vassals anymore so it's realtively easy to keep it all stable.

Alliances are also incredibly important. I married deep into Sweden and Jorvik for help in the eventual wars with Christianity.

In the long run you need to reform the Norse religion, preferably long before Europe stabilizes so that you've had enough time to convert all of your holdings.

[Obdigore]

Yes I started earliest and in the king of that little 3-province kingdom there.

How do you dump your sons into the church? They just kind of grow up and get to inherit no matter what I do. And I can generally only get around 1200 troops for raiding, so I get about 100 gold a season before I have to return home and drop it off and give my guys some time off before I come back. Feels like if I grow too big too fast I get invaded by everyone around me, and if I grow too slowly my kingdom fractures with all my kids.

Edit -> I keep dumping all my money into buildings (walls and marketplaces and training things) in my provinces to try to increase my levy, but I always get overmatched with much larger armies. Should I be using mercs instead?

This post has been edited by Obdigore: 13 June 2013 - 07:29 AM

[Tapper]

Obdigore, on 13 June 2013 - 07:26 AM, said:

Yes I started earliest and in the king of that little 3-province kingdom there.

How do you dump your sons into the church? They just kind of grow up and get to inherit no matter what I do. And I can generally only get around 1200 troops for raiding, so I get about 100 gold a season before I have to return home and drop it off and give my guys some time off before I come back. Feels like if I grow too big too fast I get invaded by everyone around me, and if I grow too slowly my kingdom fractures with all my kids.

Edit -> I keep dumping all my money into buildings (walls and marketplaces and training things) in my provinces to try to increase my levy, but I always get overmatched with much larger armies. Should I be using mercs instead?

To send your sons into the church:
one step is to build a church. Expensive, but sometimes worth it.
The more common way is to declare a war against this-or-that independent lord, preferably a guy with 1 province only that already has a church built in the land. Ireland and Sicily are both great for this - Sicily because of Holy War, Ireland because of the abundance of lordlings for the taking. Beat them, annex their lands.
Go to the son you want to send into the church. Click 'grant title' and select the Bishopry of the newly conquered province. Your son becomes its lord, gains +20 relations or so with you, and is removed from the line of succession.

[Obdigore]

So when I take over someones land, how do like kick them out? Because they generally just become my vassals unless I kill them in battle.

[Tapper]

Obdigore, on 13 June 2013 - 08:53 AM, said:

So when I take over someones land, how do like kick them out? Because they generally just become my vassals unless I kill them in battle.

Holy War works (you deposit the guy of the other faith and take his stuff), and so does a casus belli that lays a claim on the land (send your chancellor on the fabricate claim mission). Any other casus belli (like a de jure claim) leaves the guy sitting there as your vassal.
You'll also likely need a 100% warscore.

This post has been edited by Tapper: 13 June 2013 - 09:12 AM

[Obdigore]

Yea I did the Fabricate Claim thing once, but it took 2 years to work with a guy with 21 spying.

Most of the attacking I was doing was 'Unification of ______' so it wasn't letting me take over. I don't want to jail and execute the guy I just took over because doing that over and over again will suck out all my retainers loyalty.

So if I start in Norway or Sweden with the Norse faith, I can head over to the Catholic Ireland or Britain and do a holy war to take over instead of raiding?

[Tapper]

Obdigore, on 13 June 2013 - 09:15 AM, said:

Yea I did the Fabricate Claim thing once, but it took 2 years to work with a guy with 21 spying.

Most of the attacking I was doing was 'Unification of ______' so it wasn't letting me take over. I don't want to jail and execute the guy I just took over because doing that over and over again will suck out all my retainers loyalty.

So if I start in Norway or Sweden with the Norse faith, I can head over to the Catholic Ireland or Britain and do a holy war to take over instead of raiding?

I haven't played The Old Gods yet, so I don't really know if they can do the Holy War thing. Basically, with casus belli, it takes a long time to work.
The trick there is picking your talents. If you can take over a 1-province duchy that is 50% of a De Jure duchy, you get a claim to the duchy it forms the De Jure duchy with. You press that claim through war, and suddenly you own 2 places. If that larger duchy is then part of a larger realm (say, kingdom of Ulster or something, I don't know if that even exists), you may have a claim to that to press. In such a way, you snow-ball your one fabricated claim into a pretty decent state.

EDIT: of course, you'll get several underlings that way - but vassals aren't all bad.

This post has been edited by Tapper: 13 June 2013 - 09:21 AM

[Morgoth]

You do not need to do holy wars, and wont be able to until you reform the faith anyways. The Norse can declare for any territory bordering one of their provinces or water, as long as it's controlled by some other faith. If you conquer a territory in this way you also kick out the original holder of the titles.

[Imperial Historian]

As Norse you can conquer any coastal province, which essentially lets you take over most of Ireland. Later on when you have reformed the norse faith you can declare holy wars.

Playing as norse my strategy is normally to have most of my forces out raiding, and to hire mercenaries to do my conquering for me, so I declare war on someone, and send my mercenaries against them, then with my own troops I go a raiding, when my troops return from raiding, i disband them, declare another war, and send them off raiding again. Fighting one province counts in Ireland, or scandinavia is normally pretty easy with most of the mercenary troops, though you do need to make sure you return with your raiders if you are likely to run out of money.

Another fun strategy is to take over corsica, and raid the rich mediteranean provinces at will (venice is a gold mine)

I dealt with the too many sons angle, by taking a concubine, and setting her aside when I had one or two sons. Then I married someone who was to old to have children for the stat bonuses. If your son dies, just take another concubine. But conquering Ireland and putting them in charge of temples would be a good strategy also.

[Morgoth]

Anyways, I'll try to lay out my strategy for playing as Harald Hårfagre of house Yngling.

You start with the richest and most populous territory in Norway. Pick the ambition to unify Norway, which gives you unlimited De jure claims on all provinces within the De jure borders of Norway. Send your spymaster to Constantinople, your Marshal to raise levies in Akershus, and your steward and seer to up tech in Akershus.

Now, simply work your way outwards. Declare war on the counties along the coast one by one, raise your levies, besiege and claim. Continue south and west, and then North for as long as you're able. If you encounter a nut you cannot crack (in my game the Duke of Tøndelag had aqcuired everything North of Trøndelag in a similar fashion) raise all your levies and head out to raid for cash. When you have enough to hire a mercenary company you should be strong enough to conquer the rest.

Once mainland Norway is under your control, the islands within De Jure Norway will acceed to being vassalized without much fuss. Somewhere around here you should marry a daughter or three into the Swedish or Danish royal house (Not both), and Jorvik if they're still Norse.

From here on it depends on how the world looks. I would advise to start conquering Ireland in order to dump all your sons in temples (you can form the kingdom later, once you've reformed the faith) In addition, you'll keep the manpower of Ireland away from whichever catholic power comes out on top in England/Scotland. Alternatively, or alternately (which is closer to what I did) go on raiding expeditions to further strenghten your own demenses. Try to keep the entire Duchy of Østlandet as your private demense, four territories should be within your limit at this point.

Now, having secured a substansial Kingdom for yourself you'll probably approach the end of your ruler's life. The next step is to reform the faith. In order to do so you need to push the Norse religious authority above 50, and controll three of the holy sites. Depending on whom you allied with, you should either take Uppsalla or Skjælland, which should provide you with two sites (there's one in central Norway). If you're able to take both, do so but typically Denmark and Sweden will both be able to field more levies than you. So you'll need aid from one of them in taking down the other.

I left Sweden alone, preferring to keep a Norse ally, and after having conquered Skjælland I went from the site controlled by Lotharingen (spelling?). It's a group of islands just off the coast. The other one is inland and much harder to reach. I raided Europe (now with my Heir as king) until Lothar.. started a war with West Francia. I declared war for the site, took it and held it with every levy I had. It didn't take long before I could sue for peace.

From there on, after having reformed the faith and institued elective monarchy, things have gone rather smoothly.

[vendevere]

MTS, on 13 June 2013 - 05:35 AM, said:

vendevere, on 13 June 2013 - 02:44 AM, said:

Morgoth, on 12 June 2013 - 08:57 PM, said:

A typical advice is to try to start out in Ireland with the aim of forming the kingdom of Ireland. It's a good learning experience that reduces the complexities somewhat. Ireland is a calm place early on.

Another problem I've been having is when I try to marry my princes and princesses off. I want to marry a princess off to the heir of the kingdom of France, He's young and unmarried. But I can't get him on the list to marry my princess. All I get are low-ranked courtiers in my household, and I don't know what to do to get rulers of ruling houses on the list. I know there an option-somewhere-that makes everyone available. But I don't know where it is or how to find it.

Getting pretty honked off about it right now. Not going to marry a princess off to a commoner!

As far as I'm aware if you click on the arrange marriage icon of the person you're trying to marry off, the list of options that is generated only comprises those people who will actually accept your proposal (and if you do it from the diplomacy tab of the person you're trying to marry off the candidates will only be from your court, as the game thinks you're trying to get them to marry someone from your court). You can do it manually though by going to the diplomacy tab of the French heir and doing arrange marriage from there. If the King isn't going to accept (as I suspect he might not), then at least it will tell you why. Often with rulers it's wanting a better alliance (i.e. another ruler) and that has a huge negative modifier, which makes it tricky for anyone with a duke-level title.

Bear in mind I'm a total noob with this game. I normally play MMOs, so I have to learn everything about this game from the ground up. I've watched lots of LPs on Youtube for example. Thing is, from watching those LPs I realized something. Ingame, they all have eight tabs next to their character's icon-Laws,Religion, Intrigue, etc-but I only have seven. Apparently I'm missing the "People" icon.

I'm thinking it might be easier to marry off my princes and princesses if I had that icon.

How do I go about fixing that?

[Imperial Historian]

They moved it a couple of patches ago, it's now in the bottom right (it took me ages to find it when they moved it)