CK2 Godwinson Empire

Post 1 - Originally published on Google+ on 2017-06-07 02:35:57 UTC

Godwinson Empire: Part 01: 1066-1087: Emperor of Britannia

Let's see if they fixed G+.

Playing Harold Godwinson, king of England, starting under attack by duke of Normandy and king of Norway both with more event troops than I have levies - total ratio about 3:1.

I start with a big family, and in 1066 bookmark rulers actually have families, so I can instantly marry into much needed troops.

Invasion was easy - calling France against Norway cancelled Normandy's war, and after a year of waiting French troops finally arrived so we attacked Norway together.

I also start with much oversized demesne, so I can invite some claimants over for easy early expansion.

My wife was a witch, and tried to make me join, but I wasn't interested. I also wasn't learned enough to join the Hermetic Society, and monastic orders? Nope. Eventually got enough learning to go Hermetic, and I found Emerald Tablet.

I set minor epidemics to more, and Britain got instantly hit by 4 of them. I remember normal setting being underwhelming, but this is going too far. I got sick but recovered, but half my children died, and I couldn't use a single councilor. It seems that I'm the main country affected, rest of the world is mostly fine, but if it doesn't get better I'll roll back that change.

Miaphysite Nubian tribal got event horde and pushed Muslims back.

There was a lot of religious fighting in Spain where I sent troops a lot - but then Granada got an event horde, and that was way too much for anybody short of full crusade to handle.

Duke of Normandy was annoyed that king of France stopped him from pressing his claim on me, and when France lost most of its troops fighting Moors, he led revolt to put French king's brother on the throne. I halfheartedly intervened, lost big battle, and that was it.

Fighting in Spain spilled over to Africa, and that triggered early Jihads - both for Anatolia against the Romans. I tried to ally them and send some troops to help, but they said no because I'm a Catholic.

I got to "Harold, I am your sister for Jesus's sake!" response. You can guess what I was trying to do. Eventually it worked out.

Pope excommunicated me unfairly, so I setup my own pope - some Ethiopian eunuch who arrived in trading caravan. With my and HRE's antipopes you'd think that would cost Catholic moral authority something, but it's still solidly 100%. Actually the real pope is also HRE's vassal - never seen anyone have two pope vassals.

I managed to go primogeniture - it's so weird playing in 1066 bookmark, that's no longer mid-game goal. Somehow I just managed to squeeze enough land to become emperor of Britannia at age of 65.

I thought I'd setup some kind of gavelkind roulette, but mortality rate is so high I'll be lucky if even one of my grandsons survives.

Right now I have 1 son, 2 dynastic grandsons, 3 non-dynastic grandsons (Capets, heirs to French duchies), 2 dynastic nephews, and 1 non-dynastic nephew who's werewolf according to rumors.

When I started I took Jew gold and expelled them, as I was in multiple nasty wars, but they're allowed back now.

The goals are:
• make the dynasty not die out - if that doesn't seem to be working, I'll tone down diseases back to normal
• clean up rest of Britain
• Norway, Frenchmen, and the Pope all conspired to take my throne - so they'll all need to suffer
• I'm only 4 counties away from being able to usurp France
• the realm is very far from culturally unified, has bad laws, and council with far too much power
• Muslims in Spain need to be stopped
• there's still some Norse raiders
• Popes have been assholes to me, so maybe I should talk to Roman Emperor or king of Nubia about their opinion on the matter

Technical notes: G+ decided to reshuffle images, and there are still no captions, so I'm using comments. It's not amazing, but I'll try it for now.

#ck2

1066 start, Normandy and Norway didn't even have decency of being hostile to each other. And my initial stats were awful except for martial.

I started with very large family, but diseases wiped out most of it.


The Empire! Going after HRE seems pretty silly, but I will take revenge of France and Norway.


Revolt against my son in law king of France.

I failed to save him, so instead I pressed my nephew's dynastic claim on Flanders.
Then when usurper king and Norman bastard died, I invited claimant to Normandy and got that too.
My son duke of Brittany got county of Anjou for himself before he died of disease. I helped him a bit by sending money and raiding France.

Post 2 - Originally published on Google+ on 2017-06-08 02:10:10 UTC

Godwinson Empire: Part 02: 1087-1094: Harald's Last Days

I had some time to pass, so I raided Scandinavia. Not even for money, just to send a message back.

After my wife had accident I married sister of emperor of the Romans, who had a strong claim on it. It took very long time to have a son. It feels silly how easy it is to have ton of babies with seduction focus, and how difficult it is with your own wife (or with a steady lover).

I got on Baltic adventure, getting Denmark as vassal and others as tributaries when I got hit by my first antiking revolt ever, with the pope in Rome joining. And then by a revolt for gavelkind. That rebalance in new patch is really fun. I defeated them, but I got smallpox and regency and soon died at age of 72.

I thought this might be a gavelkind roulette game, but I have very limited family. All males relatives are:

• son Eadmund's grandson Salamon Arpad, heir to throne of Hungary (not eligible)
• son Magnus, the new emperor of Britannia
• Magnus's grandson Dubthach mac Cellachan (adopted into family, landed as earl of Thormond)
• Magnus's son and heir Cuthberht, earl of Ulster (not eligible)
• daughter Gytha's son Centule Capet, heir to duchy of Orleans (not eligible)
• daughter Gytha's son Louis Capet, duke of Orleans (not eligible)
• daughter Gytha's son Pihilippe Capet, duke of Valois (not eligible)
• daughter Aelcifu's son Fernando Jimena, heir to throne of Castille (not eligible)
• son Oswine, heir to claim to Empire of the Romans (landed as duke of Deheubarth)
• brother's Tostig's son Skuli, duke of Kent and Flanders
• brother's Tostig's son Wulfheim, heir to Kent and Flanders, who's abroad so I can't even give him land
• brother Gyrth's grandson Oswain ap Goronwy (adopted into family, landed as earl of Lancaster)
• brother Gyrth's son Culthroed, duke of East Anglia
• brother Wulfnoth's son Eadgar (landed as earl of Briefne and Kildare)

Even adopting two relatives by female line into the dynasty, there's just not enough for any kind of roulette. Everyone's distant relative, or underage, or sickly.

Magnus instantly divorced his cheating wife, and remarried Magnus's wife, so he's now Oswine's half-brother and new father.

Meanwhile, Zikri Tripolitania got event horde. It's a nice mix of religions so far.
#ck2

Post 3 - Originally published on Google+ on 2017-06-09 02:52:11 UTC

Godwinson Empire: Part 03: 1094-1106: Magnus the Devil and Eudokia the Usurper

I got my rival duke Trahaearn killed, stole his head from his grave, and made it into a trophy. Little moments like this are what makes this game so awesome. And I became a hunchback from all time spent in narrow secret corridors. Isn't that supposed to be hereditary only trait?

Then I got another revolt, expanded into France, my vassal inherited good chunk of Norway. It was seriously time to face Andalusia horde, so I declared tributary war, but they refused to engage me, and I just sieged them down.

Duchy of Barcelona had succession issues, so I offered them my protection, and took a bunch of Muslim lands using my tributary horde. A few others figured out what's going on and just converted peacefully.

And then I pondered - why think so small - so I got Egypt for claimant and Byzantine Empire for my wife.

My brother is heir to their throne (as Eudokia was my father's wife before), and after them next in line are our 3 sons and 2 daughters who somehow didn't die to any of the epidemics that ravaged previous generation.

And that's pretty much it. Sure, unifying both empires (with whichever culture and religion I end up with) will take a bunch of rebel wars, but I'm really good at fighting rebels at any odds. Beyond that Aquitaine can be usurped in one easy war, so it's just Jerusalem, Rome, abolishing HRE, and we have it all unified.

As for other news:
• Miaphysite tribal horde of Nubia lost all its troops, gavelkinded, and half of it went Shia when attacked by Egypt.
• Granada into Portugal into Andalusia horde was slowly fading fighting my wars.
• Tripolitania's Zikri horde somehow split in two - with both inheriting event troops, I've never seen that one (unless the other guy got troops from different event). One went Catholic when I asked, the other went Sunni, no idea how.
• The next horde was Greek Orthodox count of Constantia, he's independent from Byzantine Empire probably by some civil war glitch, that's the most common story. He might be a bit obnoxious if he tried to target my wife, but AI is usually timid, so he'd probably go after Hungary instead.
• Crusades are meant to start 1090 + 10 year mtth, so it was a bit unlucky they didn't yet, but nothing crazy. The events when major city is lost trigger with 3 months mtth, so the fastest way to trigger quick crusades is give some holy site to a random Jew.

Some notes:
• I didn't see any crazy secret religion stuff. Perhaps the game needs to run a lot longer.
• I didn't have time to try secret religion stuff myself. I sort of wanted to go secret Orthodox (that's why I married her, not for her claim), but it takes 250 piety, and I needed piety to create kingdom/empire titles, so never got there.
• Because I was friends with my wife, I got event asking me to just go Orthodox. I didn't take it, as I was busy and had unhappy vassals. Maybe I should have.
• The extreme epidemics in first generation were mostly bad luck, second generation it was nasty but nowhere near that level. I'll probably play on normal disease settings next time.
• The council was extremely obnoxious, even more than usual. Probably best to just disable Conclave the next time.

I suspected it won't be the longest campaign, but it ended way faster than that, and everything was way too easy. Even the initial seemingly desperate war was actually one diplomatic peace out, followed by a single big battle joined by my allies, and that's it.

In the future I really need to play with some calming measures. CK2+ style nerf on pressing claimants (they stay under me only if already holding equivalent rank) would be the most obvious one, followed by restricting holy wars to one county at a time.
#ck2