Save received; I will post soon!
Sorry I missed this.
If you all choose to do it again I would be interested (although, to be fair, I am very new to the game…as in brand new).
You can almost certainly still hop on to the end of the list!
Absolutely you can. Even assuming a quick turnaround between players, you’re probably looking at a week or more before it’s your turn. Plenty of time to get the fundamentals down.
New turn order is:
Babale
Pleonast
Sitnam
Teuton
Johnny Bravo
Whack-a-Mole
Here is the situation as I have inherited it.
This is our home, the Kingdom of Bravagna. Currently we exceed our domain limit, so some management of our realm has to occur before we truly take charge. Of our vassals, two powerful dukes and two powerful counts are noteworthy, but it’s a bit of a mess. We have 17 vassals in all but only two dukes; we hold five duchies ourselves. Perhaps it is time to hand out some land.
This is me. As you can undoubtedly tell, I am Comely and Intelligent. I mean, look at my glorious faded sides (shaved so the crown doesn’t bother my hair) and enormous babylonian-esque beard! Fantastic! So is my brother, by the way. My sisters are not particularly noteworthy.
I am a fantastic warrior, with most of the Strategic tree (focusing on buffing troops in battle) already unlocked. I will probably finish that one out (as well as grab the perk for -50% casus belli cost, a must have in the military tree!) before heading over to either Diplomacy or Stewardship.
Here is my wife. You can probably tell she’s not nearly as glorious as I am. Her stats suck, she is Comely to my Homely, she is Sadistic and Paranoid to my Compassionate… And she doesn’t bring much to the table alliance-wise. It might be wise to look for a new wife as our ambitions soar higher.
This is our heir. He’s nothing to write home about yet, and he didn’t inherit any of our positive traits. I am hoping his future brothers will, so that they can serve on his court or as his vassals. His haircut shows that, like me, he is unencumbered by hair on the sides of his head. Fantastic!
That was the heir; this is the spare.
And here is my brother. He will make a fine Duke!
https://i.ibb.co/wBwC7hs/007.png
The wider situation around us. My goal is to expand our humble kingdom, bring Lombardy, Provence, and Savoy under our rule, throw off the yoke of the Holy Roman Emperor (we already wield more levies than him) and found the Empire of Italia. I’m already 30 so it’s time to get to work!
The wider world. France and the Byzantines are doing alright; Danelaw is terrifying. I would have to be Scotland right about now.
Here is my thinking.
To avoid vassal penalties, I want to hold all the counties inside 2 duchies, both of which are within the same kingdom.
Our capital is in Florence, which is in the Kingdom of Italy. So that is one province.
After some thought, the other province will be Verona in the North. It’s a 4 county province; we own 3 of them and the 4th is outside our realm. And it’s in the Kingdom of Italy.
Land in the red areas will be kept by us directly. Everything else will be handed out, then the duchies will be given away too.
I will not land my eldest son (because that would count against him come partition time, and I’d rather he just inherit all of my lands whole). But any future sons will be landed.
I will also land my brother right now, and make him a duke.
Alright. So I handed out titles and got everything nice and neat.
I gave the second county of Venice back to the Lord-Mayor of Venice, then granted him the duchy. This made him Doge again, but as my vassal. Republican vassals are great because they bring in a stable tax rate, and they war less, so spend more time improving their own realms. Very nice!
The kid you see in Ancona is my cousin, and now a Duke. Romagna went to my brother. Duke Ghiberto of Milia started off hating me (-100 relations) due to penalties like “too many held duchies” or “desires the county of Mantua” (de jure his by his duchy, but held by me at the start).
There’s two counts, in Luca and Arezzo, whose lands are de jure mine. I will fabricate claims there and revoke those lands (although our 6 learning clergyman will be of no help at all there…).
That brought us down to 8 feudal and 3 republic vassals. The republics come from 2 cities in our realm (who are basically irrelevant) and the Doge, who is a powerful vassal and on my council as a 19 diplomacy Chancellor.
My brother makes a fine Spymaster; the duke of Spoleto is a shitty steward but I don’t have anyone better anyways; my brother is a fantastic spymaster.
So I got my realm in order. The only problem: I’m Ambitious. Now, I do think it’s in character to manage the realm like this, even if it does stress me out – my ambition is far greater than being the king of one tiny North Italian nation, and King Albonio, with his 14 Diplomacy and Intelligent trait, is smart enough to understand that giving land up now will secure the loyalty of his vassals and allow him to gain far more land in the near future. But it still hurts! Which leads us here:
Giving away all this land to appease our vassals has made us question whether we are even worthy of being king. Deciding that if we look like a king we will feel like one too, we buy a new cloak.
I also get some evidence my wife was sleeping around. Just what we needed to give Helga the boot!
With that, I marry a French lady instead, one who is Intelligent as well and has much better relevant stats. She will actually aid me in running my court!
Now, it’s time to finally unpause…
Quick note: do you guys like these super detailed writeups? I can go more broad strokes if people aren’t enjoying these. Let me know! And I can’t guarantee I will always have time to go into this much detail 
King Alboino at the start of my current session:
So, my first step is to get all of my De Jure counties into my possession, as developing my own province this way is the key to financing an empire. And the ambitious King Alboino definitely wants to be come an Emperor!
In the duchy of Tuscany, there are two provinces within our realm that should, de jure, be mine. One I already have a claim to, happily enough; the other, I set Archbishop Serafino to acquire. Unfortunately, he is an ignorant fool, and it will take him 2 years to fabricate a claim.
While this is happening, I turn my eye to the treasury. My mother Johnny_Bra- err, Matilda left me with 2,000 gold; it is time to spend that inheritance! In the duchy capitals of Verona and Florence, I set about building tax assessor offices, to more efficiently manage my realm. In the rest of my domain I clear land for crops or pasture, to increase our economy.
Next, it is time to look abroad. Swabia is free from either the Holy Roman Empire or France, and has taken some land near us, including the county of Trevisa. That’s the last bit of Verona we are still missing, so we make ready for war. The duchess Ban Kera will not know what hit her!
Our forces are strong, and augmented by a strong assortment of men at arms. While highly effective, these forces are also costly, meaning we must be wary of starting a war without a large war chest. Luckily, even after our infrastructure projects, Matilda has set us up for success here. We can afford to keep the army raised as long as necessary.
https://i.ibb.co/6HLKkdV/011.png
I lead the half the troops myself, and send the other half to siege Swabia’s other holdings in the area. With onagers, and my own engineering experience, this goes quickly.
https://i.ibb.co/RpPZQYs/012.png
As the war starts, I realize that Count Buoso, who owns Arezzo – the county we already have a claim on back in Tuscany – is actually imprisoned by the Pope. So he can’t complain when we revoke his holding.
My half of the army quickly captures the castle and moves north through the alps, cutting off the Swabian relief forces.
https://i.ibb.co/b3L8241/015.png
Not only do we smash the enemy, but the Count of Treviso – the breakaway province we are fighting over – is caught by my men and wounded twice. The second time, he loses his eye. With his hemophiliac trait, this is likely to be a death sentence.
The rest of our family recognizes me as head of the dynasty in light of my victory, even though the war with Swabia is technically still raging.
As I march to siege the sourthern part of the Swabians’ realm, my second army heads for their capital, cutting off the retreating forces.
https://i.ibb.co/4WgGkPQ/019.png
And as soon as their city falls, the Swabians surrender:
With two swift moves, we have grown our own realm and are stronger than we were before we gave some land away. Soon our infrastructure improvements will complete, and of course, we will gain our final claim and revoke the county of Lucca, completing our de jure domain. This will give us the solid economic base we need in order to square off against Lombardy and create the Empire of Italia.
There is only one thing standing in the way of our ambition: Our imbecile of a priest, whose low learning causes every claim to take an age to fabricate.
Much as I would love to arrange for him to have an “unfortunate accident”, our king is Compassionate, and this would go against his nature. I don’t think he would have Serafino killed, so we will need to figure something else out.
BTW there is no more Kingdom of Jerusalem 
ETA: Game crashed, went back to just before the war. Will play it out the same way, didn’t lose much progress.
Love the writeup! I did my best in my last decade to build up the treasury for you, glad to see it’s helping.
As much detail as you like; it’s fun to read.
It has been fantastic. I have leveraged your inheritance to hopefully launch myself into my own Empire – assuming nothing goes wrong and the stress doesn’t kill me first…
Well, Paradox owes y’all a commission… Just bought the game.
One of us! ONE OF US!
After the Swabian wars came a time of peace. For a few years, I stayed at home, building up my realm.Whenever I finished a building in one of my holdings, I’d start another one. My steward continued focusing on developing my county of Firenze.
I had realized my wife had still given me no heir, so I decided to up the ante by romancing her. With my high Diplomacy, this was simple enough.
During this time, I even had a whole new castle constructed, in the county of Siena.
Additional castles in our domain are nice. They do count against our domain limit. However, they can be granted and revoked to low nobles freely. So they’re handy for ensuring you’re always up to your domain limit in directly held holdings; just revoke or grant these secondary castles in your counties as needed.
I also finally completed the Martial tree by becoming a Strategist, but was locked into the tree for a few more years.
I finally got my claim on the county of Lucca, and though my failure of a priest ensured I paid far too much for the claim, it was soon mine.
The young count ruling Lucca foolishly took up arms in rebellion when he received my letter. It was a mistake he would pay for dearly.
With Lucca mine and construction underway across my entire domain, the future is looking bright.
Our dear son Ottobono is far too callous for our compassionate king. This was one of those roleplay moments – I hate the compassionate trait, and I’ve very sorry to whoever’s character I saddled with it! It certainly wasn’t worth the stress. But I think as a compassionate character, I can’t allow my son to become callous or arrogant.
This leads to our next mental breakdown, unfortunately.
A few more years pass in peace before anything else happens.
My next goal is the subjugation of the duchy of Lombardy.
If I could take this duchy, it would put me well on my way towards founding the Empire of Italia. And in fact, with Countess Clotilde holding most of Corsica and Sardinia as well, there is little other choice when it comes to expansion.
A better priest could get me a claim on the whole duchy. But not Archbishop Serafino, the least learned priest in Christendom.
I do have another plan, but it will take some time to execute. First there is another target of opportunity I wanted to grab – but before I could do so, the Pope called another Crusade for Jerusalem. Yes, that’s right – our aunt lost her title, and is now married to the Doge in Venice.
I decide to pass on the whole “Crusade” thing, this time. King Alboino isn’t particularly devout, and his ambitions are closer to home. I toss some money at the pope but do not pledge any troops.
Meanwhile, it’s time to switch to Family focus. It has been a few years and I still haven’t had any more children. Plus, there’s something I want from the Diplomacy tree…
Young Otto is a continuous source of stress. Now I have to prevent him from becoming Vengeful.
This leads to a second mental breakdown. The stress is starting have a negative effect on my health – as does the Melancholic trait I am unlucky enough to receive.
King Alboino renews his efforts, hoping that the title of Emperor of Italia will fill that hole in his heart.
Some Norsemen have taken Genoa. I declare war and siege it back; a short time later, their army shows up. We crush it and take Genoa, which I give to one of my unlanded knights.
Meanwhile, the Crusade is actually successful. How long the new Jerusalem will last is another question.
With Genoa under our control, we now border Duke Raoul of Piedmonte, another independent ruler. I try to fabricate a claim on his holdings.
I do have bigger plans for Lombardy, though. They have too many counties to claim and fight for one by one – at least, if I want to live to see my empire. But first – to celebrate the defeat of the Norse (and lower my own stress), it’s time for a feast.
With the feast over, I finally unlock the first Diplomacy perk. This one doubles the effectiveness of gold gifts and is the key to my plan for dealing with Lombardy.
First, a particularly thoughtful gift to the Pope erases his anger at my ditching the Crusade…
A short trip to the Vatican shows him I am sufficiently faithful…
And with a sexist jab, the Pope grants us a claim on Lombardy!
We can now declare war on Cuchess Clotilde for 6 of her provinces at once. If I win, I will be the liege over 31 counties within the de jure borders of the Empire of Italia; within reach, I hope, of the 42 it takes to create the title.
War is declared. To victory!
I don’t even have this game, and I’m enthralled by this thread. I love the current player’s detailed information on what they’re doing. I wish I could play CK3 myself, but my computer isn’t powerful enough.
Are you sure? CK3 isn’t a very resource-hogging game. Neither was CK2, but it would chug in the late game when there were so many characters; CK3 runs BETTER on most systems!
And I really appreciate the compliments! Glad you’re enjoying reading it, makes writing it worthwhile 
War is declared on the duchess of Lombardy. My forces are raised and we march into their lands with overwhelming force, catching them off guard.
As I lead my armies on the front lines, my son – now 16 – joins me. Young Ottobono is a man now, and a Charismatic Negotiator. The Realm will be in his hands one day soon.
I marry him off to a minor countess. She, like me, is intelligent, even if my boy is not. Maybe the grandkids will end up smart…
Lombardy is defeated in short order, their armies scattered and their lands occupied.
Because the Duchy of Lombardy was the Duchess’ only Duchy level title, when I take it from her I get not just all the lands in De Jure Lombardy transferred to me directly, but the Duchess herself is deposed and her vassals are all transferred to me. This includes her transalpine holdings and her territory in Corsica and Sardinia. Fantastic new; this puts us very close to being able to found our empire! Just four counties to go.
The nearby state of Savoy, once a mighty kingdom, has slowly been swallowed up by Burgundy. They are down to one province, and have converted to a heretical branch of Christianity. That’s all the excuse I need to declare a quick Holy War (total cost: 42 piety) and send the (free) Holy Order I inherited from Matilda to subdue them.
I’m not here to bring memes to the Dope, but in this case…
I grant the lands of Lombardy to a distant relative named Oberto de Ghiberti, now Duke of Lombardy.
https://i.ibb.co/9N0fQ74/011.png
And with so much land under my control, I tighten the realm’s laws. The Crown of Bravagna demands absolute loyalty.
I create the Duchy of Sardinia, giving us claims on the two lords who own the southern tip of the island. I offer both lords the chance to swear fealty, but they both refuse. A brief war later, and we have Sardinia completely under our control.
https://i.ibb.co/zGCY8GT/013.png
We are now just a few counties from declaring ourselves emperor of Italia. That’s when I catch another lucky break. Surrounded by Lombardy’s lands is another independent duke, the child duke Raoul of Piedmonte. I had sent our crappy priest to fabricate a claim on Piedmonte, but so far he has failed to do so. But now, just a year before coming of age, the Duke made a fatal mistake. He converted to the same heresy that the duke of Savoy had adopted.
This will be his last mistake as a duke.
With the war won, we now control 43 out of the 42 holdings we will need in order to declare ourselves Emperor.
There is just one final hurdle standing in our way. We must gain our independence from the Holy Roman Empire if we are to become Emperors in our own right, and this will require a war.
While we have more levies than our liege, none of the other Kings or Dukes of the realm are willing to join us. It seems the Holy Roman Emperor is quite popular at the moment. Worse, he has an alliance with the Kingdom of Danelaw, the Christian Norse kingdom that controls England.
Luckily, a timely perk in the Diplomacy tree allows me to negotiate an alliance without marriage. This lets me gain the aid of the king of Hungary, who has 7,000 troops at his disposal – more than me or my liege.
It is nearly time to press for independence. Will our liege let us go peacefully? Will we be force into a war? Find out next time!
PS: My wife is too old to produce any children once again. I am worried about only having one son, so I’ve divorced her and married a younger lady, a 16 year old count’s daughter from Poland. I really hope we finally get some more kids – it can be very useful both for securing alliances abroad and placing loyal dukes on internal thrones.
This will be the final post for King Albonio; let me know how you want the save @Pleonast
Our king, his till-bowlcutted-son, and his new 16 year old wife:
When we left off, King Albonio had set everything up for his independence from the Holy Roman Empire. I’d united enough land to found the Empire of Italia; I’d charmed the King of Hungary into allying with me; and I tried to invite allies into my independence faction, but unfortunately Emperor Arnulf had done a good job unifying his realm. Since I was Compassionate, I wasn’t about to assassinate my liege – so it was time to press my demands.
My men just about outnumbered Arnulf’s, but he was allied to the christianized Danelaw. Hungary was very strong, though, so I liked my odds. Still, I hoped this could be resolved peacefully. Unfortunately, the Holy Roman Emperor did not agree.
Luckily, King Bela of Hungary was a man of his word and he joined in the fight.
The Holy Roman Empire was a war-torn mess of rebel armies fighting dukes. You can see my army at the bottom of the screen marching in from the South; our allies are still mustering in Hungary to the East; and our liege has roughly half our men coming in from his own capital.
I split our forces and we manage to siege a few settlements down before engaging with the enemy forces.
A massive battle rages forth between the one of our armies and the full force of the Emperor. I am leading the other force in besieging settlements. Soon, a messenger arrives. Our forces have won! Then, another messenger. My son, Otto, was slain in the fighting.
I am crushed. King Albonio was already Melancholic, and now he sees little reason to live.
But the realm must live on. My grandson, a three year old boy named Bassiano di Canossa, becomes my heir. I resolve to raise him myself, and train him in the ways of war.
Soon, the enemy is crushed and our Hungarian allies move in. We have free reign over the heartland of the HRE.
My daughter, Candida, comes of age, becoming an Intricate Webweaver. I am proud of her, though by our laws my grandson will inherit before she does. (With Absolute Crown Authority, we can actually designate a heir, but I stuck with our grandson for now).
My new wife, the young one, has given birth. Unfortunately, as I have learned, I am not the true father. Duke Vittorio is!
Finally, the war is won. Emperor Arnulf has no choice but to recognize our independence.
And the Empire of Italia is founded.
https://i.ibb.co/WnVwwh4/015.png
Yet now-Emperor Albonio is still unhappy. His heir is dead; his wife is cheating on him; his new baby isn’t even his. How could a man who has so much have so little?
Though ruling an Empire now, Albonio finds himself with little will to live, and soon his body begins to fail him. (Note the skull icon: We are “Dying” here).
A physician is called, but she botches the treatment. The Emperor secludes himself in his chambers, waiting to die.
And then, miraculously…
He recovers, returning to his old self again.
The Emperor surveys his domain.
The Realm is strong. Money is rolling in. The army is mighty. Things are looking up.
And this is when disaster struck once more.
A peasant rebellion began (sorry, I missed a screenshot this time). Unconcerned, I raised my army – only to realize I had left the mustering point at the northern tip of our Empire, on the border with the HRE, past the Alps!
I order the army to march to our capital in Tuscany, but it is too late. The peasants storm our castle and murder the daughter who isn’t mine…
As well as my grandson, Bassiano.
Tragedy. My heir, dead. Two young lives, snuffed out before their time.
The peasant army moves south, heading for the next holding. Our army is still to the North, a few weeks away. Our daughter Candida, the intricate webweaver, is now our heir.
I sort through what happened and unpause the game. I know that I’m about to have another stress breakdown because of my ‘daughter’ and grandson dying… But what happens is far worse. The Emperor’s heart simply cannot take this much anguish.
The Emperor is dead, at 47 years old. [I’m a bit upset about the summary too – I look the same as I did when young! And I BUILT A FRIGGIN EMPIRE! You might want to mention THAT in my obituary…]
Pleonast, the Realm is yours. You will have to stabilize the realm, but once you beat the rebellion, I give to you an Empire, and one primed and ready to expand, if you so desire!
… OK, I’m about to post the final status of the empire screenshot. But before I do, there’s something you should no. See, as soon as I hit “accept” on the succession notification, I paused the game. But it had already assigned you, Empress Candida, to lead the army that Alboino was leading when he died.
OK, who cares? Well… In the single tick that played out after I died before the game paused, Candida not only joined the army – she also picked something up.
…Yep. I send you this save with our good Empress sick with Typhus.
I think you’re pretty likely to survive, but if you don’t, maybe take the next turn too…
Although I’m pretty sure your heir is wounded 
https://i.ibb.co/18xX5bD/025.png
Anyways – good luck; I believe in you! Things aren’t as bad as they seem. Put down the rebellion and bring Italia to glory!
