Okay, just so I’m clear, it’s only going to be a problem if I create a second duchy? (Currently working on claiming a title in Ireland so I can create Ulster.) I’m only two counties short for claiming the Kingdom of Scotland, though my daughter will soon be matrilineally married to the Duke of Moray’s heir – dunno how that gambit’s gonna play out. Here’s how the Crovans look so far:
King Gudrød “The Great”, Petty King of Søreyar, Duke of Galloway, owns counties of Argyll (moved the capital there), Søreyar, Carrick, Galloway and Strangfjord (formerly Ulster). Married to Princess Ragnhild, sister of the current Norway King. Vassals: The Isle of Mann (that clan’s worthy of a reality show), Strathearn (owned by Gudrød’s genius nephew Kolbein), Clydesdale (Gudrød has tutored the count since age six, so he likes me a lot, but hasn’t become Norwegian yet) and the recently conquered Uriel, which I gave to Máel Dúin Ua Cheinnselig, son of that Welsh lady with the claim on Gwynedd; he’s eighteen and will eventually marry (matrilineally) Gudrød’s niece Euna Crovan, so that should stay in the family.
Prince Olaf, heir to everything except the Duchy of Galloway and its two counties. Married a nice Norwegian girl with no major family ties, but has kick-ass stats (18 stewardship, 12 martial, 8/9/5 for the rest.) Has one daughter but no son yet.
Prince Ichabod, who’s my chancellor with 23 (!!!) points in that skill. Married to the Duke of Orkney’s daughter, who will inherit that Duchy if my plot to kill her little brother ever comes to fruition. (Actually, their newborn son will inherit.) Ichabod’s been appointed successor to a random bishoprich to make the succession less complicated, so he won’t inherit anything. (He keeps begging me for a title, though.)
Prince Obadiah, also heir to a random bishoprich. (Sorry about the dumb names, I was in a hurry and didn’t bother looking up genuine Norwegian names.) His stats & traits are crap, and somehow he became “Possessed”, don’t even know what that means. For some reason I was able to arrest him w/o penalty, no idea why, so he’s currently languishing in the dungeon. I’ll probably execute him when I’m feeling tyrannical.
Prince Jorundr, heir to the Duchy of Galloway and two of its counties. Married an English girl who was related to King Harald’s heir, but that got bolloxed up with the English revolt and now that King Harald has died, I no longer have an alliance with England (which is okay, I’m sick of getting dragged into their phony wars and they’re never available whenever I declare war on Scotland.) No kids yet, but pregnant.
Princess Astrid, age 14 and matrilineally betrothed to Hugh Mac Áeda, heir to the Duke of Moray.
Princess Brigitte, age six and not betrothed to anyone yet.
I’m a little concerned about Strathearn – Count Kolbein and his genius wife haven’t procreated yet, and with the death of Kolbein’s father, the current heir is some random guy in Serbia (???); what would be my options if that happens?
Also, is there any way to see how the princes feel about each other? All of King Gudrød’s children love him, but I have no clue what his sons think of the heir apparent.
You’re going to need two duchies to get the Kingdom of Scotland. Ulster doesn’t qualify since that’s in Ireland.
But you say you’re Petty King of Søreyar. The CKII wiki tells me that’s actually the Duchy of The Isles. Since you’re also Duke of Galloway you’ve got your two duchies right there. If you should die now Prince Olaf will be Petty King of Søreyar and Prince Jorundr will become Petty King of Galloway. These are both duke-level titles and your realm will be split.
So the clock is ticking then… guess I’d better get cracking on [del]finding WMDs[/del] forging more claims in Scotland!
(The name must have changed in a recent patch; I was wondering why so many playthroughs – including this hilarious AAR – called it The Duchy of the Isles instead of Søreyar.)
The Norse all get different names for a lot of places in the British isles. So if you’re Scottish (or anyone else) you’ll see Duchy of the Isles whereas if you’re Norse you’ll see Søreyar. It depends on your character’s culture I think.
Arrgghhh, these claim mechanics are pissing me off. Twice now, I’ve had to revert after inviting to my court someone with a strong claim on Tyrone, declaring war & taking over, but completely forgetting that the new earl does not become my vassal that way! I mean, for real, is that how it really worked in the Middle Ages? A powerful king restores your rightful title to some piddly piece of land, and the only reward you give him is, “Thanks, cya!” That doesn’t make any sense! :smack:
Wait til you make a play for an entire kingdom, only to find out that the claimant wasn’t your vassal and you’ve just installed a large and potentially dangerous rival next door.
Before you throw in the towel and reload, are you remembering to try offering them vassalization? The huge “pressed my claim” opinion bonus will help you overcome some of the negative factors like religious differences, slightly different culture, only one difference in rank, not de jure or no bordering counties. Also when you do get a real kingdom, don’t forget trying to offer vassalization to any de jure counties you haven’t mopped up yet.
Similarly, there’s a “Swear Fealty” button, which works if you’re independent and you want to come under the protection of a higher polity. Or undermine them from the inside.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s exactly how it worked. Even more, you can press someone’s claim to give them a higher rank than you have! Think of all those dukes in various wars in England who went to war to install the “rightful” king.
It’s kind of a cool mechanic, if you ask me.
Think of it this way. If you were the king of Scotland, and you helped an English nobleman claim his rightful place as ruler of an English county, why should you end up ruling the county? Likewise, if you were ruler of duchy A, and you help someone claim their rightful title in duchy B, why should they become your vassal? Their county has nothing to do with your realm. You just helped put the rightful person in charge.
Of course, that all gets thrown out the window if you’re already the boss of this person, who’s claim you’re pressing. Then, it’s perfectly natural for this person’s new territory to be added to your realm, as a vassal can’t ever have more than one liege.
But what purpose does it serve, in terms of gameplay, to replace one random Count with another random Count? At least in real life, when for example the USA liberated Kuwait, the advantage was gaining more favorable oil contracts and a place to station our troops. There doesn’t appear to be any similar mechanic in this game. (And I did try re-doing the scenario to see if the new Count would accept vassalization, but it didn’t work, mainly because of cultural differences.)
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still enjoying the hell out of this game, and definitely feel as if I’ve barely scratched the surface – it’s only 1093, and from what I’ve seen, the game does take a long time to really get rolling. It’s just that the methods of expansion seem so counter-intuitive, without resorting to gamey tactics like granting a county to the person with a claim, only to revoke it later. Heck, even the tried-and-true method of fabricating claims with your chancellor feels a bit gamey at times (not to mention wholly random.)
The advantage (every time) is +100 opinion from the person you installed.
The advantage (sometimes) is replacing an enemy on your borders with an ally. The person you press a claim for may be one of your dynasty members (automatic alliance for as long as the ruler is of your dynasty) or someone who is married to one of your close relatives.
Another advantage, already mentioned, is that you may weaken a rival by knocking out one of his vassals. If you have no other casus belli against your rival, pressing a claim for someone may be the only way you have to undermine him.
There are a LOT of gamey, unrealistic ways to expand. No disagreement here.
I have the game open and I actually don’t think there is. The closest thing is you can use the opinion map mode to see what various rulers think of each other, but they need to at least have a county for that to work.
Incidentally that map mode is pretty handy for checking the Pope’s opinion of people to see if there’s anyone in the neighborhood he might be willing to excommunicate or grant you a claim on. It’s also handy for planning wars to see if your target’s allies are actually likely to join or not.
Sweet. Does anyone know if installing DLC’s will break my current saved games? In particular I’m looking at the graphical upgrades (character portraits, etc.); the gameplay ones can probably wait until later.
Graphical upgrades definitely will not affect save games.
I believe buying game play upgrades will not affect save games, either. What happens is, when a new game play expansion is released, the base game gets updated as well. This often does break save games, regardless if you buy the expansion or not. So when Rajas of India was released a while back, which greatly expanded the map, all save games were broken, whether or not you bought the expansion because the map was extended in the base game. Buying the expansion simply lets you play Indian-religion rulers.
I’ve found the game play expansions well worth it. It’s usually the graphical ones I’m slow to get.
