Beginner's Guide: ua-cam.com/video/i9P248pkgYI/v-deo.html Small error here, Duke Nuno was NOT the individual to help create the Kingdom of Portugal. That would not be until 1139, and it would be Afonso Henriques! I apologize greatly for that. I'm pretty passionate about history, and was recording a little later than I should have haha. If you haven't picked up the game, you can grab it through my link here: www.nexus.gg/italianspartacus . This helps me out a TON as it gives a direct commission to the channel, and depending on what time you see this, a discount to you as well.
Important to note: You don't HAVE to become independant, it's perfectly fine to play as a vassal, it's a simulation that doesnt have to be about painting the map in your color
@@italianspartacus last run I did I became independant and I'm not entirely sure how it happened... I mean I know what I did that caused it; I was roleplaying a dynasty with a grudge against the karlings and I spent a century or so doing my best to murderize every last one of them and somehow my son ended up in the line of inheritance :P
in my Sweden run i just united the Asatru lands, and it fell apart a few times, but still, we caused so much ruckus in Europe, that a nephew was fighting with Africa having Iceland, i was like what does an emir do up there :D when they painted a circle all around Spain, i was like: okay, let's just take this now. France was shattered into tiny bits and we got a piece of land next to Rome too. And then the weirdest thing ever happened, no wars, no interaction at all, my best explanation is that we hit 240k in size, so the country split in half, Sweden and Scandinavia, both blue, both Asatru, weirdest border ever, split in half from Finnland to Lithuania, till the Netherlands, then we had spots in France and Spain, they had spots in England. countries like Murcia and Spanish kings, Frech kings who converted on their own will, became vassals, thee weirdest one was one emir in Africa bu also Norway and Lithuania. I tried subjugating them, cause managing that border gore is impossible, i was winning Franc, had to turn an English liberty war, then when i finished, had to go back to Spain, Lithuania, meanwhile the Pope went full crusaders on a dutchy using 60000 troops, then i had a love triangle in Lithuania, and when i finally closed, we had a contestant i0n France, 2 years of cat and mouse for a few duchies we had both claims on. Anyway, my point: introducing a new layer of kings under you is unstable, won't pay much, your biggest income is still baronies, being on council is great, it gives extra points, on the lower crown authority you might even take over fellow vassals, you don't get so many wars, you can help out if its a contested land, but you can ignore if its a faraway land, being on council yourself boosts your skills and you can be a shadow ruler. With a single kingdom in Sicily, i managed to finish all innovations faster than anyone else, the middle of the chain has more perks, more stability, less internal struggle, closeby powerful vassals with better relations.
Rollo, you mentioned here, is not THE Rollo. The Rollo is in the Court in Traendheim, and he is the dynasty head of the House of Normandy at 867 start. Thank you for the helpful contents! I really like your videos!!
so does that mean to be Historically Accurate you would have to play as House of Normandy Rollo not Uppland Vassal Rollo? And secondly if you say fuck it and roll with the Uppland Rollo how do you go about doing it? Ive tried a couple runs, as hes not a preset character and has random rolls on stats, and it seems you either get 1) shafted by Vastmannaland blobbing out of control or 2) if Vast doesn't andyou claim some land for yourself you kinda get shafted by France having the Feudal Government type and you don't (as Feudal scales so much more than tribal due to better men) UppRollo seems to always have a lot of Daughters but there is never anyone to be allied with except for like the same 3 people. If you try and conqur more of Scandi land's you basically get blocked by troop count as basically everyone that doesn't get swallowed up has large troop count and will clap you so hard. Maybe im just being dumb in playing and not figuring out a way to actually play?
@Jared ik im about a month late but as a norsemen all you need to do i raid towards your riches. just keep raiding and making men at arms, its really easy once you get rolling😀 i'd also recommend marrying a wife with high martial so you can destroy anyone on the battlefield
I figured this out because 5-10 years after starting a playthrough as this guy, Hrolfr de Normandie came and asked for an invite onto my court. His stats and perks seemed more in line with the way he was portrayed on Vikings.
This is all kinds of awesome, but it basically means Charles Martel lethally meme-d on the Moors. Raises a new question though - given how long ago Charles Martel was alive, is the French word for hammer "martel" because of him?
I am having a lot of fun playing "Last Jews of Africa" in Dembiya (Ethiopia) to be precise. As a small vassal in a kingdom of Abyssinia. Your liege has a hostile faith (Coptic) and also you're feudal surrounded by tribal nations.
I'm also currently playing some Ethiopian Jews. Started as Axum in 1066 and plan on bringing the borders of Beta Jerusalem to Jerusalem, and its been real fun. Biggest threat is the Coptics but its a fun challenge.
Starting in 867 as the county of Vestisland in the Dutchy of Iceland is my personal favorite. The ruler, Auðr (hope I spelled that right, doing this off of memory), seems to live forever for me (70+) and she has the ability to really quickly take the Dutchy of Iceland right at the beginning. After that, expanding through the islands between Iceland and Norway and then contesting for the Kingdom of Norway is very fun. I find the viking starts to be very satisfying if you like a lot of action early on. However, Auðr is very gifted at Learning and I've been able to get 30+ learning on her in all my playthroughs. She is also Catholic and Norse in 867, which adds a really interesting element to conquering other Norse rulers since you have to work to install other Catholics as your vassals.
Honestly when i feel like i've gotten the heir i want or there are just to many male heirs and its 867 so getting rid of partition is a pain in the ass i just murder or get rid of my wife somehow and just marry a infertile high stewardship wife get free domain spaces and extra income one of the best thing ive come up with i know its not a big revelation but its very usefull
The challenge of achieving to get the Archduchy of Austria starting as Ernst of Austria in 1066 is a really tough one in terms of diplomacy or intrigue other than most alternative starts. You get rewarded by having great succesion laws. Makes for an interesting non-aggressive campaigns.
One of the most interesting starts imo is playing as a member of the Habsburg dynasty in the 1066 start date, with the count of Argau, located around modern day Switzerland.
Thanks for these and I hope you continue this as a series. I followed the Carolingian count playthrough and had a great time navigating the court diplomacy and intrigue to becoming a powerful duke then eventually king of France. Thanks!
I strongly recommend playing as "Vijaya" for players looking for an extremely difficult but rewarding start. Vijaya is north of Guge (Tibet). They have holdings with oasis terrain, and the areas around the capital can have up to 7 holding spots. I start in 867 for this because it is a slow burn. You'll likely need your first couple generations to position yourself to pick apart your neighbors as they splinter apart. Has incredible late game play since India is conquerable and is pretty much the best area for wealth. One downside: You may get attacked almost immediately by Guge, which means you'll need to restart.
yeah, i noticed its pretty interesting over there, i would say Sicily is really challenging and wealthy, overall development higher than the rest, growth is concentrated along the shores. One other i found is Manding in central south Afrika, which is right under ghana, holding 2 mines which are rich but only come in play in feudal, its already behind in culture, and the culture map sticks into ghana, the religion map sticks into other cultures, the leader is likely intrigue focused rather than martial, and you need to hold your own against Ghana and take over a whole religion and 4-5 cultures to have enough levies to fight ghana back. Development wise is bad, but if you make it into feudal, has 3 mines in a very small zone, which is the biggest concentration in the whole world.
Hey ItalianSpartacus! I think a really hard and challenging faction that is often overlooked is the Norman Duchy of Capua in 1066. Usually people just play Apullia, also a Norman Duchy. The tough thing about Capua is you are pretty weak, and only start out with 300 levies. You really only have one area to expand to at the start as well, to Naples, since your northern neighbor is the Papal States and they can thoroughly crush you. You also have to directly compete with the house De Hauteville for Norman supremacy in Southern Italy.
Thank you for your great video! Starting in Mazandaran and becoming the Saoshyant was pretty challeging and so much fun!!! btw I’m Persian and you nailed the pronounciation of Mazandaran!!
Forming Portugal was one of my fav historical playthrough, it auto sets Lisbon as your capital as well! The hardest is quilling the muslisms down south
It's not super hard, but you got to juggle around your diplomacy between the brother kings to the north. With some effort you can secure 1-2 alliances, and you'll get the necessary duchies in 2 wars. Most times it might actually be more difficult to gain independence, especially if your initial liege in Galicia gets smacked by one of his brothers since the result is a much stronger liege. If you're lucky they'll begin warring each other just as you finish acquiring the southern duchies, making it easier to press an independance faction's claim without fighting your liege.
@@admontblanc well yes Ive done about 3 plays on PT and you gotta wait till Galicia is smacked around by the waring bros. I should have set more dipos and vassals as same faith and make them convert
The Duke of portucale was one of my final CK2 campaigns, and I played tall, only allowing myself to hold de jure Portugal, while I tried to put my dynasty on as many thrones as possible. The only wars I allowed myself to join after I had the kingdom were crusades and defensive holy wars in Iberia. The campaign was a total blast
Informative video! I really wanted to draw attention to a certain unlanded character who could make a fun campaign, though, and I've really enjoyed so far. Really roleplay heavy, too. PROGENITORS OF PRUSSIA - In the 1066 start date, one Friedrich von Hohenzollern is a wandering character and the only member of his house. He would be otherwise uninteresting, if his house was not one that would become one of Europe's most famous as the Marcher Lords of Brandenburg, Dukes (and later Kings) of Prussia, and eventually in the 19th century Kaisers of Germany. This is more difficult to set up than playing as the Habsburgs, since the character is a landless courtier at start. It requires the use of console commands (which means your game must be in debug mode) just to give him land first and then switch over to him, so unfortunately no ironman. You choose any land you want, but I would recommend the Duchy of Veletia, on the northern coast of Germany. This can be done in two ways. The first is less console-heavy, but also means you miss out on real earlygame setup. Begin the game as the Holy Roman Emperor, Heinrich IV Salian, and invite Friedrich to your court, then declare a holy war for the Duchy of Veletia. You can make him the commander of your army, and afterwards you can roleplay rewarding him with the Duchy for his service. It will be renamed Nordmark under a German-culture ruler, and then you can switch over and begin your campaign as a vassal Duke of the HRE on its very fringe. Alternatively, you can start as any ruler and just use console to give him the land and switch over so you can play as him from day 1, swearing fealty to the HRE for protection from Scandinavian conquerors. In any case, from this point on, early game goals include defeating the Slavic Pomeranians and taking all of their land for your growing Marcher realm, and ultimately form the Kingdom of Pomerania. Afterwards, you can expand into the Duchy of Prussia (after I conquered Prussia, I renamed the Kingdom of Pomerania title to Prussia and moved my capital) and beyond into the vulnerable Baltics, though you will often have to contend with Scandinavian and Rus kingdoms. Or, alternatively, you can focus on internal HRE politics, building a powerbase within the HRE and vying for the Imperial throne yourself. Either way, you can lead the historical Hohenzollern dynasty to greatness!
Jarl Dyre "The Stranger" of Könugarðr is my favorite campaign start currently in the earlier time period; starting a campaign with the genius trait, but dealing with starting your own dynasty due to being a disinherited bastard from your Norse origins make for an interesting start in an area dominated by Russian culture and Slav religion
@@italianspartacus If you want to recreate history in the region, you can try to form something like the Wlacho-Bulgarian Empire (or Tsardom) towards the end of the 12 century (~1185-1204, the revolt of the Asan brothers against Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos). It was quite an achievement at the time, with Moldavia, Wallachia, Bulgaria united and afterwards they expanded with portions of southern Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, northern Greece as well. And then the Ottoman Nation attacked...
@@baalrog666 Paradox should consider adding events for the Bulgarian uprising in 1185. It would be nice to have something to counter the Byzantines as in the game they're too damn stable. I mean there was a massive Bulgarian revolt in 1040, just 26 years prior to the start of the game, yet Bulgarian culture is halfway converted by 1100, let alone 1185. Perhaps we need more mechanics about cultural minorities.
Im currently playing and really enjoying Raymond of Toulouse in the 1066 start in Rouerge, your brother is your liege as duke of Toulouse and he is ready to be replaced. Raymond was also one of the famous leaders in the first crusade and became the count of Tripoli in actual history, theres actually a couple of famous first crusade characters in the 1066 start in France. the Rollo (Hrolfr) from the vikings show would be a guy under Count Rognvaldr of Traendheim (coastal Norway) in 867, he already starts out as de Normandie Dynasty, unfortunately not playable without some switch character fuckery tho
I enjoyed my Zunbil campaign in 867. He's the last of his landed dynasty of obscure sun worshippers. He's in the county of bost as a vassal to the saffarids
another good video. I love these start ideas. I don't feel like such a newb now and am looking for odd starts. I'm enjoying my current game where I started as the chieftan of Livonia (1066), conquered Estonia, Karelia, most of the Oulu, and a few more titles around the North Sea until I took on Sweden, then died. I had moved my capital to Uppland. One brother got the Baltic holdings, another got the Karelia holdings and as Heir I got the prime Swedish lands. Soon, the Kukk dynasty will rule the entire Baltic coast! I've got the Danelaw to my northwest, the danish to my east, Ruthenia looking rather ominous to my south and Poland to my southwest. No one wants to vassalise, so I'm resorting to conquering to keep them out of my enemies hands.
@ItalianSpartacus (Count of Showa, Ethiopia) So just managed to grab pretty much the whole of Abyssinia in 20 years. 1. Went hard on diplomacy 2. Perks all on diplomacy too including the useful one that allows you to ally yourself with one person without marriage 3. Befriended potential foes 4. Swayed the African Papal head of religion (took me a while) 5. Had some luck! The head of Abyssinia died and his child took over 6. Put in a claim to the Pope on Abyssinia (had to make sure the Pope really like me first) and he finally agreed 7. Claimed Abyssinia and then declared war on the child! 8. Brought in my allies on Day 1 ! 9. Took Abyssinia! Also, had to manage direct conflict against those who also contested the child's right to the throne so brought my allies back in to help. NB: Early game married a woman who was heir to another land, which she inherited midway into my Papal swaying. She left my council...! Still married to her though haha!
Fun facts about Mazandaran: I swear, in EU3 (yeah, old-man paradox here), this would just be a forever problem area of both a Timmy, or Ottoman paly through. Once you showed it on the map, I literally had the 'Nam flashback meme flash across my sight :D
Marrakesh was the 1st campaign I played and I have to cosign how crazy fun it was. From taking a large portion of Al-Andalus and usurping the Grand Emirate there is truly unlimited options for him. Ended up expanding all the way into Italy before ending that campaign
I see you took my advice to form Portugal with Nuño. :P Being portuguese I find it hard to play any other campaign. :D Thank you for your videos, I've learned about CK3 from watching them.
If you want another for a list, not sure if anyone has mentioned him but there is Bouchard of Vendome in 1066. You start as a 1 year old count with dead parents and two half sisters that are slightly older than you but provide you with two heirs. You have some dynasty members to your south you could potentially rely and you're a direct vassal to the king but it also doesn't take much to become head of your dynasty or you could found a cadet branch as soon as you become old enough. I'd say its moderate difficulty probably easier than the last of the Karlings but still with some difficulty. You have to figure out how to punch up if you want to grow as most of the duchy of Orleans is controlled by the Duke of Champagne but you have some avenues like the potential for a couple of early claims from the pope. It is also a pretty solid start if you want to play a tall game. Overall maybe 6/10 but that depends on how you play as well.
I really enjoyed playing as Gilan, with is literally the neighbor of mazandaran. You starts as an independent, but you can (and I recommend you do) ask the abbasid empire to become a vassal. Its not that difficult of a challenge, since the abbasid empire is very powerful, so you will be protected, but when you will want to become independent, then you will have to fight that monster! Is a very fun campaign, try to unite all of Persia under your religion and becoming the chosen one, while you manage your liege who hates you for you religion and tries to convert your lands. It's a shame I was playing it in Ironman and suddenly my save become corrupted...
MY favourite campaign so far was starting as Luxembourg in 1066, you're a HRE vassal, stuck between France and the HRE and it was a constant struggling trying to wiggle out space and expansion before going independent, restoring the kingdom of Lotharingia and establishing yourself as a power in Europe
Playing as Count Vasak of Suenik in 867, was an interesting time. You have the threats of the Abbasids to the south, Byzantium to the west, and Khazaria in the north, constantly trying to push into your lands. I struggled to form Armenia but I was able to push southeast and form the kingdom of Daylam. It was a fun challenge that I found while doing a random ruler roulette with a friend.
A fun and fairly difficult one is starting as the high chief of balaton. You start as behind great movara as the head of culture for the Slovenians and early to mid-game goals are forming the kingdom Patagonia (1066 Hungary). Mid to late game goal is uniting all of the slavs. Kingdom of Bulgaria owns most of your land you need to form the kingdom of Patagonia and once you finally do form the kingdom, you have to defend against the Hungarian migration.
My family actually claims descent from Rollo. Not sure how impressive that is considering it's been over a millennia since his death, but it's still kinda cool
Mentioned him in another video, but Dyre of Kiev (Konugardr) is a pretty solid, easy-tier choice. Good position to either try blobbing into a slavic-reformation or usurp Rurik's place as founder of Russia. Has a fantastic domain at game start and a great congenital trait (genius).
@@italianspartacus He's such an obvious fictional sandbox character. In history, only mentioned in passing as one of two lieutenants of Rurik (Askold and Dir). In game, he's an off-brand version of Rurik who arguably has a better starting position than the Troublemaker himself.
Count Johan of Mallorca 867 is the hardest one. You start in two islands with 350 soldiers give or take, and the French Empire with 4k+ soldiers wanting to grab your island, the huge Sultanate in Spain with 3.5k soldiers and a few other 1k+ dukes in the coast of Africa waiting to pounce on you. I have literally started this playthrough at least 15 times. Right now is the one where I got the furthest and it's cause I have a stewardship focus and can get money from my hooks, even so, I lost one of my smaller island and am completely secluded. Try this playthrough, you'll love it!
I've tried the duke of Barcelona in 867 and it's really fun to try to get independence from the french king like in real life. There are also great options for expansion into southern France!
The start with norse Uppland in 1066 is actually done on UA-cam by "Many a true nerd" and it became a REALLY fun and interesting campaign. I highly recommend checking it out! :)
I've been having a lot of fun so far playing the Xing dynasty in far East Asia. You start as an independent feudal county, and tribal head, and you have a mix of tribal and feudal regions nearby, so you get raided a lot and have to manage that, and also have to manage giving out tribal regions to your vassals so theres plenty of learning opportunities too. You are weak to start with but there are 3 dukes bordering you so you can swear fealty to one for protection. Being on the edge of the map means that you don’t get surrounded by enemies, and there's really only the Mongols who are the biggest and they are a fair distance away. Also I'm not sure if its just my game, but pretty much every leader in Central East Asia is 47 years old.
I follow your recommendation in last video and start as count Vermont. Pretty funny and quite RNG as you need piety to ask the pope for gold then hire mercenary to actually defeat fellow countiers. After 3 generation, I focus on schemer to get abduct and more intrigue, after that focus on stewardship to have a claim on Kingdom of France, abduct him and yeah, thing super smooth after that. 250 years now and my heir gonna unite catholic and orthodox as he inherit byzantine from his mother. The only weird thing is the renown, in 867, Karling already has 1,4k renown but somehow 200 years later it nothing, well-known level of splendor but dynasty legacies empty, other than that, truly a changeling campaign and quite satisfy when you recreate the Carolingian empire.
Oki, your first charcter is wrong. That is not Rollo the Walker, the man who goes of to form Normandy. He is actually located in Trondheim (Trændheim) ingame. He is unfortuantly unplayable, and I hope the devs will make an event out of him some day.
A few more fun ones: Count Hrodulfr of Ostfriesland (867) is a Norse Pagan count in the kingdom of Lothringia, and other than Haesteinn he is the only feudal Norse on the European mainland. Petty King Dumnarth of Cornwall (867) is the only Cornish ruler, meaning as long as you stay independent then you'll always be the culture head and your cultural advances won't help out any neighboring rulers, only you, and since there are only 2 Cornish counties it is a lot easier to boost your development and passively race ahead in tech. Maharaja Sena of Lanka (867) is a great start if you just wanna form a new religion easily since the entire island is part of your independent kingdom and your lands are relatively well developed and wealthy, just keep 300-400 gold on hand for mercenaries in case Pandya invades and you can focus completely on other things such as founding a religion.
@ItalianSpartacus I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere yet, but Haraldr Fairhair of Vestfold (Harald Finehair from Vikings) is a fun and fairly easy start. You can unite and create the Kingdom of Norway as he did historically and all the de jure Jarldoms of Norway are splintered from Norway to Iceland. Once you create Norway, you are quite powerful and have armies that rival East and West Francia.
Another note with Mazandaran, the ruler is actually the decedent of the last Achaemenid rulers (the game says Achaemenid but technically it should be Sassanian I think). If you open up the family tree and start following through the paternal line you will eventually bump into your ancestral emperors. So it adds another layer of depth and the ultimate playthrough to restore the legacy of your ancestors and ultimately become the Saoshyant. Very cool, very difficult
@@italianspartacus yeah, not even same dynasty, I think the Vimaranes kind of died out before that. Afonso was only count as the muslims took some land back before he was born, and he was grandson of Alfonso VI of Leon, and Duke Robert of Burgundy, which makes him a cadet branch of house Capet.
@@italianspartacus Nuno was one of the first to try to get independence for the county of Portucale he died at the Battle of Pedroso its not an uncommon mistake...
i have not done a campaign as this guy yet, but i intend to do so soon, but i found a count in india who is the only person of his religion and culture. on top of that his liege is surrounded by bigger kingdoms or empires and remains as the last unreformed religion in the area. this start is ngap na hang of darmdin in 867, located next to nepal
I recommend Duke Bernard II of Barcelona at 867 start; vassal in West Francia. You're house head with 6 other cousins; one of which you can call into any war you start, and a marriage alliance with another duke in the realm you can also call into war. You have 4/6th of the Barcelona Duchy, only one vassal along with claims on Duchy of Mallorca, Toulouse and a few other counties within West Francia. You have the option of converting to Catalan culture at start which means you can play around with culture mechanics. You can take 2/3rds Duchy of Mallorca within first year of game start with dynasty alliance alone (no cost to prestige). Sardinia and its gold mine is also open to you, along with entirety of North Africa coast with holy wars. You have options to either stay as vassal as West Francia and can take over Toulouse, or stick with Barcelona /n Mallorca, or eventually break away and fight Uyyamids and try to go for Hispania, Maghreb, etc etc.. lots of possibilities due to holy wars. I'd rate it an easy difficulty start. Only one Duke wants your lone county of Poiters and aside from that you are free to build up your forces and focus on expanding your domain without worrying about Uyyamids fighting you.
Ælla Oswulfson of Northumbria (Northern England) 867 is an interesting/extreme start suggestion. You begin being invaded from north and south by two vastly superior Viking neighbours that each outnumber you more than 5 to 1, on top of that other big Viking armies are raiding you. It seems all is lost. Until you notice Ælla starts with abnormally high intrigue and a full tree of intrigue perks... even if RNG smiles and you get the abduct skill, its still a challenging one.
I’ve been liking Gallura in 867. It’s the Northern part of Sardinia. First step obviously is to press your claims on your father’s land to the south to form Sardinia and then you can go and take Corsica to form your Kingdom. From their I either expand towards Naples/Southern Italy or go North to try and make your own Sardinia-Piedmont. It’s also nice because the starting character is 18 and unmarried so you can Eudoka cheese if you feel like it and he gets random stats so different play throughout can feel totally different.
Ace video. Look forward to more historically referenced starting positions. Maybe some positions based in more ace available formables and decisions. Another idea for a video is what you would like to see in future content for ck3 .
Starting as the King of Leon in 1066 is a really strong start imo. He usually has a very high interigue and can quickly assassinate his brothers to unite the kingdoms. Then using the kidnap to instant war victory, you can take much of Iberia before you die.
I have been playing as the Rurikid dynasty starting in the 867 bookmark. This is the dynasty that would later form Kievan Rus, the earliest Russian state. It's quite an easy campaign since I'm not that skilled in CK games. You start as a Duke but have enough money to immediately form the Kingdom of Novgorod. The Rurikids were Norse noblemen who later adopted the ways of their Russian subjects and eventually converted to Greek Orthodoxy. So that's two interesting choices that you can decide what to do with. If you stayed with your unreformed pagan faith, you'll have quite an exciting time conquering all the Christian lands to the south of you once you consolidated the lands in Russia and Ruthenia and eventually have the choice to unite all slavic lands under one gigantic empire. From such a strong position, you can push west into Italy and east into Anatolia and the Levant and convert to Greek Orthodoxy, earning yourself the privilege of mending the Great Schism. It's a very noob friendly campaign that's full of conquest and interesting choices which I am currently enjoying quite a lot.
The Count of Mazandaran, in your last section, is also of the Bavandid dynasty. Which is interesting because the Bavandids were a cadet branch of the Sassanid Dynasty, which was the ruling dynasty of the Persian Empire before the rise of Islam. So a cool objective as the Bavandids would to create basically the Neo-Sassanid Empire, and avenge the Islamic conquest of Iran and the destruction of the ancient Sassanid dynasty.
My current playthrough is a pretty wild ride for someone fairly inexperienced with the intricacies of the game, definitely learning a lot as I go 😅😂 I started as the Duke of upper Lorraine, vassal in the HRE, and married Matilda of Tuscany right out of the gate (I think a divorce from an elderly wife was in order). It's a bit of a challenge without a wife and the stat boosts present, but while upper Lorraine starts with smallish amount of troops, Tuscany will always assist in any wars. Your heir will inherit a fairly sizable, if disjointed, domain. From there it gets fun to combine them in a coherent whole, get some prestige from crusading, and if you do as I do and get involved in a rebellion against the emperor, if you're powerful enough you'll end up with the emperor's crown by the third generation. I guess technically it could've happened in two but my character died from being too fat just before the war ended 😂😂
Ireland Ormond 867. You've got to deal with all the other counts vying for control around you, and contend with the constant thread of the Vikings, whilst still be tribal yourself.
I'm currently playing with the Habsburg in 1066, i'm not sure were they start (I think in Transjurania) but it's fun to try to raise them to the prominence they would gain in the future
Yup, it's quite a nice campaign and I'm having lots of fun doing it. It's my first real campaign in CK3 and still learning a lot about the game, but somehow in 3 generation I was able to become King of Burgundy and put my brother as King of Jerusalem. I don't know how I'll continue this run, but would love to get as many Habsburgs on the thrones of the world as possible
England and 867 Prussia have been my favorite starts by far. I went and formed the southern Baltic Empire as Prussia. I also played tall as England and owned Brittania and conquested my unbeatable army until the end. Looking for something else.
A really fun campaign start as well is Meath on the Irish Isles (playing as High Chieftain Aed mac Gormlaith). A tribal duchy in 867 that is secluded for the most part. HOWEVER, the biggest difference being the Sons of Lothbrok (Lodbrok technically) invasions that are going on make your new neighbors not as caring as surprisingly William the Conqueror. It's comparable to a hard mode version of the 1066 start in the duchy of Munster with Murchad. It's very hard though if the neighbors decide to pay you a visit. Another challenging aspect is the fact that Dublin is currently owned by one of those brilliant neighbors. Gives a diplomatic/marshal side to the game. ---- Ruler: High Chieftain Aed mac Gormlaith Family: 3 sons Married: Yes Alliances: None Government Type: Tribal Religion: Insular (Christianity) Culture: Irish Holdings/Titles: - High Chiefdom of Meath - Earldom of Ailech (county) Claims: - Earldom of Oriel (unpressed) - Earldom of Athlone (unpressed) ---- Notables: - Starts on secluded Irish isles - Starts with a duchy, and two counties (one vassal) - Early game alliances such as Gwynedd are possibilities - You aren't actually a strong leader, no extremely notable stats (under the notables section still) - Can form Ireland relatively quickly (holding it is a whole different story) ---- It isn't easy by any means, but you can conquer the Irish Isles pretty fast (pretty much need to) and form Ireland. The difficult part comes later when the brothers turn their attention to the Irish Isles.
I've been spending a lot of time on Alexandria and I have to say, the early game is SUPER easy, but the further you get into early expansion the harder the game gets. You have to compete with your leige, and your brother, and two major religions, and even Byzantine sometimes.
Hiya, my Alba campaign is SO FUN so far. Start off as King Constantin little brother in Morey, Duke Aed. Both of you are unmarried and the Auld Alliance is ready to begin at game start letting you marry into the Karlin-Bruges French family. Lets you stay reletively safe and take advantage/pick your moments for the Viking Invasion of Northumbria. Duke of Morey little bother always seems to spawn with more Intrigue than Big Brother, and even employed as Spymaster, making Kingdom Alba perfect for a hostile takeover by you. Have your cousins etc as a large Dynasty in Ireland, and can help them unite it too. Scotland VS World ftw.
Can you check out "Gallura" in 867, south of Italian Empire and West of the Papacy? I chose this Judike on a whim for one of my first play throughs, and I think it's worth a shot from someone who can play the game better than I could. What makes Gallura really interesting to me is the fact that your father ( and your heir) owns the land south of you. You're on good terms, but will always declare war on you first for your lands... The other counties owned by your father are split up between you and your brothers, so its a power struggle between the father and the 3 sons, and is almost always a nail biter.. It gives new players a taste of what war can be without really overwhelming someone. As soon as you get the whole island, you have to compete with the Aghlabid and Rustamid. There aren't a lot of real "fun" major decisions, but it gives whoever is playing the sense of always being behind the 8 ball. I'd love to get good some day and actually be successful as this guy, but at the moment, always get wiped due to holy wars from Africa. Let me know what you think!!
Small "error": in CK3 the count of helsingland was not meant to be Rollo. There is actaully a "Hrolfr de Normandie" who starts out as the martial of Trondheim. He bears the coat of arms of the House of Normandie. He starts as a courtier but it is possible to play as the chieftain of Trondheim, conquer Neustria and give it to Rollo, then switch characters (or in ironman mode, kill off all your heirs so you get a game over and have Rollo inherit everything, then you can reload the save to continue as Rollo).
I personally enjoy the challenge of playing a pretty king of Wales in either 867 or 1066. 867 is slightly easier because England is still split but you also have to deal with vikings. But 1066 where the real challenge is because you have to defend against whoever has taken the English throne while also trying to unite Wales. You can chose to ally with the other Welsh kings to defend against England or try to subjugate them at the risk of making yourself weaker to England.
hey, just finished a really fun run. It's Mesfin Dawit II of Aksum in 1066. It is one of the two jewish leaders in the game at that time. It's a tough start but it has the great objective of forming the Kingdom of Israel (conquering Jerusalem). I also found the Haymanot religion to be really fun to play with.
amalia kan in southern hungary near temesvar is neat, she's married to the count of temesvar (which is farmlands for dev bonus as a capital) but has more land than him, with great intrigue
eric the heathen should be very hard if you stay pagan because his king will revoke his title within few years. It is hard to against the King because his army is stronger and has stronger allies, moreover, Eric doesn't have any good alliances around due to his faith. The best way to play him to change your religion to catholic and make someone follow pagan to educate your heir to make him to stay pagan so that you will have much time to deal with him like plot murder or make faction to press claim
Yes, I pointed this out on the previous video, but have since been able to do a successful play through with him. One of the keys to this is to get an alliance with the high chief of Lappland, who is of the same faith but has an impressive amount of troops to start with. By gaining this alliance I was able to bide my time until I could build up enough of my own domain to get my troop count to a respectable level, and then winning the war against the king once he tried taking my duchy away from me. This will probably require several restarts as the king likes to try to snag away your duchy pretty quickly.
Do we have any videos on creating your own ruler? I have played 2 campaigns in both of them most I could do is having kingdom.. starting as tikkana (county ruler) in south India. First time I have made my ruler by giving lot of army and martial Ratings.. any tips would be appreciated. I want to create my own ruler and grow from Tikana (county ruler) to Empire
for 1066 hre, i'd like to recommend countess hedwig of gottingen. 2 counties, unmarried, lots of claims, has a tier 1 MINE. it's going to be hard to form germany but you can gobble up all the saxon duchies in one generation. if you want you can push for independence and create your own kingdom of saxon lands.
I find playing king solamon of hungary at 1066 is good for new players due to the fact that he has o nly two provinces and faces against really strong vassals who all have claim on your titles. I had to restart few times to keep him as a king, i really learned how to deal with hostile vassals a lot from it.
Will personally recommend starting as Duke Of Dorset, 867. Because it's meant to be Alfred the Great historically, you get insanely high stat rolls. Don't just take my word for it, check out Muh Dry Bread's Livestreams of the game with the same start, has well over 30 martial and over 20 in anything else except intrigue.
Just a correction mate, Duke Nuno of Portucale wasn't the founder of Portugal, it was indeed a tale short lived, after the partitioning of the Spanish kingdoms, Duke Nuno tried to claim independence from King Garcia of Galicia, seeing he had almost as much power as his king... He went to war and died in 1071 ( 5 years after this start ) in the Battle of Pedroso against his liege, from there on Garcia proclaimed himself King of Galicia and Portucale. Only 25 years later, the County of Portucale was restored by King Alfonso VI in 1096 ( "The Brave", the brother from Leon who took Garcia's title ) Nuno, was the last of his dynasty to rule over County of Portucale ( only had an daughter Loba, bastards are rumored ), he still represents our will and culture, being the first to contest Spanish rule over our land... King Alfonso VI married his bastard daughter to Henry of House Burgundy ( cadet-branch of the Capetians of France ), and his son Afonso Henriques proclaimed the Kingdom of Portugal in 1139... Regarding the gameplay, he is very well positioned, with fun objectives all over, i usually focus on getting alliances that can help me defend our Duchy against the muslims since in the beginning your liege is more interested in spanish affairs than fighting the muslim invaders... As the game progresses i try to conquer the rest of Portugal, so i can get more land and troops, until im sufficiently strong to proclaim independence and form the great Kingdom of Portugal! From there, you can try to conquer Iberia and for form the Empire of Hispania, or you can expand southwards with Holy War causus bellis while introducing your lineage in other big european powerhouses, lots of variety...
@@italianspartacus no problem man, i also didnt realize that this man was from an entire different Dynasty then that of our founder King Afonso Henriques , but CK3 made me go and research a bit more eheheh, love the Gameplay keep it coming
Playing as Nuño is very fun since you deal with a ton of internal intrigue in the spanish kingdoms, but also do holy wars against the muslims. A word of warning tho, if you're going for his achievement, be ready for a ton of headaches.
Beginner's Guide: ua-cam.com/video/i9P248pkgYI/v-deo.html
Small error here, Duke Nuno was NOT the individual to help create the Kingdom of Portugal. That would not be until 1139, and it would be Afonso Henriques! I apologize greatly for that. I'm pretty passionate about history, and was recording a little later than I should have haha.
If you haven't picked up the game, you can grab it through my link here: www.nexus.gg/italianspartacus . This helps me out a TON as it gives a direct commission to the channel, and depending on what time you see this, a discount to you as well.
Another thing is you cannot own a Kingdom and make Portugal.
Important to note: You don't HAVE to become independant, it's perfectly fine to play as a vassal, it's a simulation that doesnt have to be about painting the map in your color
Very very true!! :)
@@italianspartacus last run I did I became independant and I'm not entirely sure how it happened... I mean I know what I did that caused it; I was roleplaying a dynasty with a grudge against the karlings and I spent a century or so doing my best to murderize every last one of them and somehow my son ended up in the line of inheritance :P
yes. I love playing the renown game. spread my dynasty over land grabbing.
Being a powerful vassal is a pretty sick strategy by itself. Get a hook on your liege, establish garanteed council seat and enjoy
in my Sweden run i just united the Asatru lands, and it fell apart a few times, but still, we caused so much ruckus in Europe, that a nephew was fighting with Africa having Iceland, i was like what does an emir do up there :D when they painted a circle all around Spain, i was like: okay, let's just take this now. France was shattered into tiny bits and we got a piece of land next to Rome too.
And then the weirdest thing ever happened, no wars, no interaction at all, my best explanation is that we hit 240k in size, so the country split in half, Sweden and Scandinavia, both blue, both Asatru, weirdest border ever, split in half from Finnland to Lithuania, till the Netherlands, then we had spots in France and Spain, they had spots in England. countries like Murcia and Spanish kings, Frech kings who converted on their own will, became vassals, thee weirdest one was one emir in Africa bu also Norway and Lithuania.
I tried subjugating them, cause managing that border gore is impossible, i was winning Franc, had to turn an English liberty war, then when i finished, had to go back to Spain, Lithuania, meanwhile the Pope went full crusaders on a dutchy using 60000 troops, then i had a love triangle in Lithuania, and when i finally closed, we had a contestant i0n France, 2 years of cat and mouse for a few duchies we had both claims on.
Anyway, my point: introducing a new layer of kings under you is unstable, won't pay much, your biggest income is still baronies, being on council is great, it gives extra points, on the lower crown authority you might even take over fellow vassals, you don't get so many wars, you can help out if its a contested land, but you can ignore if its a faraway land, being on council yourself boosts your skills and you can be a shadow ruler. With a single kingdom in Sicily, i managed to finish all innovations faster than anyone else, the middle of the chain has more perks, more stability, less internal struggle, closeby powerful vassals with better relations.
Rollo, you mentioned here, is not THE Rollo. The Rollo is in the Court in Traendheim, and he is the dynasty head of the House of Normandy at 867 start.
Thank you for the helpful contents! I really like your videos!!
so does that mean to be Historically Accurate you would have to play as House of Normandy Rollo not Uppland Vassal Rollo?
And secondly if you say fuck it and roll with the Uppland Rollo how do you go about doing it? Ive tried a couple runs, as hes not a preset character and has random rolls on stats, and it seems you either get
1) shafted by Vastmannaland blobbing out of control or
2) if Vast doesn't andyou claim some land for yourself you kinda get shafted by France having the Feudal Government type and you don't (as Feudal scales so much more than tribal due to better men)
UppRollo seems to always have a lot of Daughters but there is never anyone to be allied with except for like the same 3 people. If you try and conqur more of Scandi land's you basically get blocked by troop count as basically everyone that doesn't get swallowed up has large troop count and will clap you so hard.
Maybe im just being dumb in playing and not figuring out a way to actually play?
@Jared ik im about a month late but as a norsemen all you need to do i raid towards your riches. just keep raiding and making men at arms, its really easy once you get rolling😀
i'd also recommend marrying a wife with high martial so you can destroy anyone on the battlefield
I figured this out because 5-10 years after starting a playthrough as this guy, Hrolfr de Normandie came and asked for an invite onto my court. His stats and perks seemed more in line with the way he was portrayed on Vikings.
Just a note: the Battle of Tours was actually won by Charles Martel, not Charlemagne.
Yup, his grandfather.
Grandpa also had a badass moniker - "The Hammer of God". I feel like it was probably awarded posthumously, as myths were built around the guy's life.
@@MedicineMan55 I think it was a play on his name since Martel = Hammer in french.
This is all kinds of awesome, but it basically means Charles Martel lethally meme-d on the Moors. Raises a new question though - given how long ago Charles Martel was alive, is the French word for hammer "martel" because of him?
Came here to say this. lol
I am having a lot of fun playing "Last Jews of Africa" in Dembiya (Ethiopia) to be precise. As a small vassal in a kingdom of Abyssinia. Your liege has a hostile faith (Coptic) and also you're feudal surrounded by tribal nations.
I'm also currently playing some Ethiopian Jews. Started as Axum in 1066 and plan on bringing the borders of Beta Jerusalem to Jerusalem, and its been real fun. Biggest threat is the Coptics but its a fun challenge.
Starting in 867 as the county of Vestisland in the Dutchy of Iceland is my personal favorite. The ruler, Auðr (hope I spelled that right, doing this off of memory), seems to live forever for me (70+) and she has the ability to really quickly take the Dutchy of Iceland right at the beginning. After that, expanding through the islands between Iceland and Norway and then contesting for the Kingdom of Norway is very fun. I find the viking starts to be very satisfying if you like a lot of action early on. However, Auðr is very gifted at Learning and I've been able to get 30+ learning on her in all my playthroughs. She is also Catholic and Norse in 867, which adds a really interesting element to conquering other Norse rulers since you have to work to install other Catholics as your vassals.
I would love to see a list of unlanded characters that you can land and then play as. El Cid comes to mind.
Historical ones? Good call! :D I am using El Cid in my playthrough as Castille, but you can't switch to him unfortunately
@@italianspartacus could you grant him a title and switch if you're non-ironman?
@@bbalmer7878 yes,in fact i am doing a campaing,i give two countys to el cid and then i played as him
@@bbalmer7878 I did the same thing but with Rollo cause he starts as a martial
10:30 people maybe sometimes forget, you can marry a queen with a really high stewardship score and gain 2-3 to your domain limit.
every 5 stewardship + 1 domain, and your wife 's half of stewardship with be your bonus
Honestly when i feel like i've gotten the heir i want or there are just to many male heirs and its 867 so getting rid of partition is a pain in the ass i just murder or get rid of my wife somehow and just marry a infertile high stewardship wife get free domain spaces and extra income one of the best thing ive come up with i know its not a big revelation but its very usefull
The challenge of achieving to get the Archduchy of Austria starting as Ernst of Austria in 1066 is a really tough one in terms of diplomacy or intrigue other than most alternative starts. You get rewarded by having great succesion laws. Makes for an interesting non-aggressive campaigns.
Try it as the guy in Argau instead ;)
One of the most interesting starts imo is playing as a member of the Habsburg dynasty in the 1066 start date, with the count of Argau, located around modern day Switzerland.
Thanks for these and I hope you continue this as a series. I followed the Carolingian count playthrough and had a great time navigating the court diplomacy and intrigue to becoming a powerful duke then eventually king of France. Thanks!
I strongly recommend playing as "Vijaya" for players looking for an extremely difficult but rewarding start. Vijaya is north of Guge (Tibet). They have holdings with oasis terrain, and the areas around the capital can have up to 7 holding spots. I start in 867 for this because it is a slow burn. You'll likely need your first couple generations to position yourself to pick apart your neighbors as they splinter apart. Has incredible late game play since India is conquerable and is pretty much the best area for wealth.
One downside: You may get attacked almost immediately by Guge, which means you'll need to restart.
Can swear fealty helps?
yeah, i noticed its pretty interesting over there, i would say Sicily is really challenging and wealthy, overall development higher than the rest, growth is concentrated along the shores. One other i found is Manding in central south Afrika, which is right under ghana, holding 2 mines which are rich but only come in play in feudal, its already behind in culture, and the culture map sticks into ghana, the religion map sticks into other cultures, the leader is likely intrigue focused rather than martial, and you need to hold your own against Ghana and take over a whole religion and 4-5 cultures to have enough levies to fight ghana back. Development wise is bad, but if you make it into feudal, has 3 mines in a very small zone, which is the biggest concentration in the whole world.
THX for those incredible video, i went from clueless to a great ruler, i really enjoyed them
Glad it helped!
Great to see a second of these, the recommendations out there are scare. Would love to see more, not nessisarily all difficult, but just interesting.
I'll probably make another one soon :)
@@italianspartacus super appreciate it! Love your stuff!
Hey ItalianSpartacus! I think a really hard and challenging faction that is often overlooked is the Norman Duchy of Capua in 1066. Usually people just play Apullia, also a Norman Duchy. The tough thing about Capua is you are pretty weak, and only start out with 300 levies. You really only have one area to expand to at the start as well, to Naples, since your northern neighbor is the Papal States and they can thoroughly crush you. You also have to directly compete with the house De Hauteville for Norman supremacy in Southern Italy.
867 Makuria is a really fun start for tall play. You start as Feudal and have a bunch of cities and temples already built.
Thank you for your great video! Starting in Mazandaran and becoming the Saoshyant was pretty challeging and so much fun!!!
btw I’m Persian and you nailed the pronounciation of Mazandaran!!
Forming Portugal was one of my fav historical playthrough, it auto sets Lisbon as your capital as well! The hardest is quilling the muslisms down south
It's not super hard, but you got to juggle around your diplomacy between the brother kings to the north. With some effort you can secure 1-2 alliances, and you'll get the necessary duchies in 2 wars. Most times it might actually be more difficult to gain independence, especially if your initial liege in Galicia gets smacked by one of his brothers since the result is a much stronger liege. If you're lucky they'll begin warring each other just as you finish acquiring the southern duchies, making it easier to press an independance faction's claim without fighting your liege.
@@admontblanc well yes Ive done about 3 plays on PT and you gotta wait till Galicia is smacked around by the waring bros. I should have set more dipos and vassals as same faith and make them convert
The Duke of portucale was one of my final CK2 campaigns, and I played tall, only allowing myself to hold de jure Portugal, while I tried to put my dynasty on as many thrones as possible. The only wars I allowed myself to join after I had the kingdom were crusades and defensive holy wars in Iberia. The campaign was a total blast
Informative video! I really wanted to draw attention to a certain unlanded character who could make a fun campaign, though, and I've really enjoyed so far. Really roleplay heavy, too.
PROGENITORS OF PRUSSIA - In the 1066 start date, one Friedrich von Hohenzollern is a wandering character and the only member of his house. He would be otherwise uninteresting, if his house was not one that would become one of Europe's most famous as the Marcher Lords of Brandenburg, Dukes (and later Kings) of Prussia, and eventually in the 19th century Kaisers of Germany. This is more difficult to set up than playing as the Habsburgs, since the character is a landless courtier at start. It requires the use of console commands (which means your game must be in debug mode) just to give him land first and then switch over to him, so unfortunately no ironman. You choose any land you want, but I would recommend the Duchy of Veletia, on the northern coast of Germany. This can be done in two ways. The first is less console-heavy, but also means you miss out on real earlygame setup. Begin the game as the Holy Roman Emperor, Heinrich IV Salian, and invite Friedrich to your court, then declare a holy war for the Duchy of Veletia. You can make him the commander of your army, and afterwards you can roleplay rewarding him with the Duchy for his service. It will be renamed Nordmark under a German-culture ruler, and then you can switch over and begin your campaign as a vassal Duke of the HRE on its very fringe. Alternatively, you can start as any ruler and just use console to give him the land and switch over so you can play as him from day 1, swearing fealty to the HRE for protection from Scandinavian conquerors. In any case, from this point on, early game goals include defeating the Slavic Pomeranians and taking all of their land for your growing Marcher realm, and ultimately form the Kingdom of Pomerania. Afterwards, you can expand into the Duchy of Prussia (after I conquered Prussia, I renamed the Kingdom of Pomerania title to Prussia and moved my capital) and beyond into the vulnerable Baltics, though you will often have to contend with Scandinavian and Rus kingdoms. Or, alternatively, you can focus on internal HRE politics, building a powerbase within the HRE and vying for the Imperial throne yourself. Either way, you can lead the historical Hohenzollern dynasty to greatness!
I love you. I've been craving for more
Jarl Dyre "The Stranger" of Könugarðr is my favorite campaign start currently in the earlier time period; starting a campaign with the genius trait, but dealing with starting your own dynasty due to being a disinherited bastard from your Norse origins make for an interesting start in an area dominated by Russian culture and Slav religion
He was actually in the honorable mentions section, but I decided he will just be in the third one ;)
This is a great video! Thank you, it will be cool to play as Rolo and the others to fallow their historical path.
The Count of Tirgoviste is super fun to try and form the Kingdom of Wallachia
Oh I fucking love that. Vlad Tepes is one of my favorite historical figures
@@italianspartacus If you want to recreate history in the region, you can try to form something like the Wlacho-Bulgarian Empire (or Tsardom) towards the end of the 12 century (~1185-1204, the revolt of the Asan brothers against Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos). It was quite an achievement at the time, with Moldavia, Wallachia, Bulgaria united and afterwards they expanded with portions of southern Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, northern Greece as well. And then the Ottoman Nation attacked...
ItalianSpartacus I’ve been naming all my first born sons Vlad lol
Or the kingdom of Moldavia. I like the moldavian vlachs because they are already christian (like all vlachs should be, btw but oh well)
@@baalrog666 Paradox should consider adding events for the Bulgarian uprising in 1185. It would be nice to have something to counter the Byzantines as in the game they're too damn stable. I mean there was a massive Bulgarian revolt in 1040, just 26 years prior to the start of the game, yet Bulgarian culture is halfway converted by 1100, let alone 1185. Perhaps we need more mechanics about cultural minorities.
Im currently playing and really enjoying Raymond of Toulouse in the 1066 start in Rouerge, your brother is your liege as duke of Toulouse and he is ready to be replaced. Raymond was also one of the famous leaders in the first crusade and became the count of Tripoli in actual history, theres actually a couple of famous first crusade characters in the 1066 start in France. the Rollo (Hrolfr) from the vikings show would be a guy under Count Rognvaldr of Traendheim (coastal Norway) in 867, he already starts out as de Normandie Dynasty, unfortunately not playable without some switch character fuckery tho
I enjoyed my Zunbil campaign in 867. He's the last of his landed dynasty of obscure sun worshippers. He's in the county of bost as a vassal to the saffarids
another good video. I love these start ideas. I don't feel like such a newb now and am looking for odd starts. I'm enjoying my current game where I started as the chieftan of Livonia (1066), conquered Estonia, Karelia, most of the Oulu, and a few more titles around the North Sea until I took on Sweden, then died. I had moved my capital to Uppland. One brother got the Baltic holdings, another got the Karelia holdings and as Heir I got the prime Swedish lands. Soon, the Kukk dynasty will rule the entire Baltic coast!
I've got the Danelaw to my northwest, the danish to my east, Ruthenia looking rather ominous to my south and Poland to my southwest. No one wants to vassalise, so I'm resorting to conquering to keep them out of my enemies hands.
@ItalianSpartacus
(Count of Showa, Ethiopia)
So just managed to grab pretty much the whole of Abyssinia in 20 years.
1. Went hard on diplomacy
2. Perks all on diplomacy too including the useful one that allows you to ally yourself with one person without marriage
3. Befriended potential foes
4. Swayed the African Papal head of religion (took me a while)
5. Had some luck! The head of Abyssinia died and his child took over
6. Put in a claim to the Pope on Abyssinia (had to make sure the Pope really like me first) and he finally agreed
7. Claimed Abyssinia and then declared war on the child!
8. Brought in my allies on Day 1 !
9. Took Abyssinia!
Also, had to manage direct conflict against those who also contested the child's right to the throne so brought my allies back in to help.
NB: Early game married a woman who was heir to another land, which she inherited midway into my Papal swaying. She left my council...! Still married to her though haha!
Fun facts about Mazandaran: I swear, in EU3 (yeah, old-man paradox here), this would just be a forever problem area of both a Timmy, or Ottoman paly through. Once you showed it on the map, I literally had the 'Nam flashback meme flash across my sight :D
Thanks again for this awesome content. Keep it up dude.
Marrakesh was the 1st campaign I played and I have to cosign how crazy fun it was. From taking a large portion of Al-Andalus and usurping the Grand Emirate there is truly unlimited options for him. Ended up expanding all the way into Italy before ending that campaign
Cant wait to try these. You really deserve more subs your vids are so good
I see you took my advice to form Portugal with Nuño. :P
Being portuguese I find it hard to play any other campaign. :D
Thank you for your videos, I've learned about CK3 from watching them.
If you want another for a list, not sure if anyone has mentioned him but there is Bouchard of Vendome in 1066. You start as a 1 year old count with dead parents and two half sisters that are slightly older than you but provide you with two heirs. You have some dynasty members to your south you could potentially rely and you're a direct vassal to the king but it also doesn't take much to become head of your dynasty or you could found a cadet branch as soon as you become old enough.
I'd say its moderate difficulty probably easier than the last of the Karlings but still with some difficulty. You have to figure out how to punch up if you want to grow as most of the duchy of Orleans is controlled by the Duke of Champagne but you have some avenues like the potential for a couple of early claims from the pope. It is also a pretty solid start if you want to play a tall game. Overall maybe 6/10 but that depends on how you play as well.
I really enjoyed playing as Gilan, with is literally the neighbor of mazandaran. You starts as an independent, but you can (and I recommend you do) ask the abbasid empire to become a vassal.
Its not that difficult of a challenge, since the abbasid empire is very powerful, so you will be protected, but when you will want to become independent, then you will have to fight that monster!
Is a very fun campaign, try to unite all of Persia under your religion and becoming the chosen one, while you manage your liege who hates you for you religion and tries to convert your lands.
It's a shame I was playing it in Ironman and suddenly my save become corrupted...
Being born and raised there I really enjoyed seeing beautiful Hälsingland go first! :)
MY favourite campaign so far was starting as Luxembourg in 1066, you're a HRE vassal, stuck between France and the HRE and it was a constant struggling trying to wiggle out space and expansion before going independent, restoring the kingdom of Lotharingia and establishing yourself as a power in Europe
Playing as Count Vasak of Suenik in 867, was an interesting time. You have the threats of the Abbasids to the south, Byzantium to the west, and Khazaria in the north, constantly trying to push into your lands. I struggled to form Armenia but I was able to push southeast and form the kingdom of Daylam. It was a fun challenge that I found while doing a random ruler roulette with a friend.
A fun and fairly difficult one is starting as the high chief of balaton. You start as behind great movara as the head of culture for the Slovenians and early to mid-game goals are forming the kingdom Patagonia (1066 Hungary). Mid to late game goal is uniting all of the slavs. Kingdom of Bulgaria owns most of your land you need to form the kingdom of Patagonia and once you finally do form the kingdom, you have to defend against the Hungarian migration.
My family actually claims descent from Rollo. Not sure how impressive that is considering it's been over a millennia since his death, but it's still kinda cool
Love these lists! Always want more.
Restoring pharaohnic egypt as the bejan kushite rulers in both startdates is really challanging yet fun
Killing it with the CK3 content. 👍🏿
Mentioned him in another video, but Dyre of Kiev (Konugardr) is a pretty solid, easy-tier choice. Good position to either try blobbing into a slavic-reformation or usurp Rurik's place as founder of Russia. Has a fantastic domain at game start and a great congenital trait (genius).
I have him on the list! :) he was originally in "Honorable mentions" but i felt like he deserved his own
@@italianspartacus He's such an obvious fictional sandbox character. In history, only mentioned in passing as one of two lieutenants of Rurik (Askold and Dir). In game, he's an off-brand version of Rurik who arguably has a better starting position than the Troublemaker himself.
Count Johan of Mallorca 867 is the hardest one. You start in two islands with 350 soldiers give or take, and the French Empire with 4k+ soldiers wanting to grab your island, the huge Sultanate in Spain with 3.5k soldiers and a few other 1k+ dukes in the coast of Africa waiting to pounce on you. I have literally started this playthrough at least 15 times. Right now is the one where I got the furthest and it's cause I have a stewardship focus and can get money from my hooks, even so, I lost one of my smaller island and am completely secluded.
Try this playthrough, you'll love it!
I've tried the duke of Barcelona in 867 and it's really fun to try to get independence from the french king like in real life. There are also great options for expansion into southern France!
The start with norse Uppland in 1066 is actually done on UA-cam by "Many a true nerd" and it became a REALLY fun and interesting campaign. I highly recommend checking it out! :)
I've been having a lot of fun so far playing the Xing dynasty in far East Asia. You start as an independent feudal county, and tribal head, and you have a mix of tribal and feudal regions nearby, so you get raided a lot and have to manage that, and also have to manage giving out tribal regions to your vassals so theres plenty of learning opportunities too.
You are weak to start with but there are 3 dukes bordering you so you can swear fealty to one for protection.
Being on the edge of the map means that you don’t get surrounded by enemies, and there's really only the Mongols who are the biggest and they are a fair distance away.
Also I'm not sure if its just my game, but pretty much every leader in Central East Asia is 47 years old.
I follow your recommendation in last video and start as count Vermont. Pretty funny and quite RNG as you need piety to ask the pope for gold then hire mercenary to actually defeat fellow countiers. After 3 generation, I focus on schemer to get abduct and more intrigue, after that focus on stewardship to have a claim on Kingdom of France, abduct him and yeah, thing super smooth after that. 250 years now and my heir gonna unite catholic and orthodox as he inherit byzantine from his mother. The only weird thing is the renown, in 867, Karling already has 1,4k renown but somehow 200 years later it nothing, well-known level of splendor but dynasty legacies empty, other than that, truly a changeling campaign and quite satisfy when you recreate the Carolingian empire.
Oki, your first charcter is wrong. That is not Rollo the Walker, the man who goes of to form Normandy. He is actually located in Trondheim (Trændheim) ingame. He is unfortuantly unplayable, and I hope the devs will make an event out of him some day.
You can use console commands to land him and make him playable, but unfortunately if you like to play ironman it isn't going to happen.
@@jaquestrap Exactly
Not entirely sure if this is the Hrolfr who is supposed to be Rollo. There is a Hrolfr de Normandie in 867 as an unlanded courtier.
A few more fun ones:
Count Hrodulfr of Ostfriesland (867) is a Norse Pagan count in the kingdom of Lothringia, and other than Haesteinn he is the only feudal Norse on the European mainland.
Petty King Dumnarth of Cornwall (867) is the only Cornish ruler, meaning as long as you stay independent then you'll always be the culture head and your cultural advances won't help out any neighboring rulers, only you, and since there are only 2 Cornish counties it is a lot easier to boost your development and passively race ahead in tech.
Maharaja Sena of Lanka (867) is a great start if you just wanna form a new religion easily since the entire island is part of your independent kingdom and your lands are relatively well developed and wealthy, just keep 300-400 gold on hand for mercenaries in case Pandya invades and you can focus completely on other things such as founding a religion.
@ItalianSpartacus I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere yet, but Haraldr Fairhair of Vestfold (Harald Finehair from Vikings) is a fun and fairly easy start. You can unite and create the Kingdom of Norway as he did historically and all the de jure Jarldoms of Norway are splintered from Norway to Iceland. Once you create Norway, you are quite powerful and have armies that rival East and West Francia.
Another note with Mazandaran, the ruler is actually the decedent of the last Achaemenid rulers (the game says Achaemenid but technically it should be Sassanian I think). If you open up the family tree and start following through the paternal line you will eventually bump into your ancestral emperors. So it adds another layer of depth and the ultimate playthrough to restore the legacy of your ancestors and ultimately become the Saoshyant.
Very cool, very difficult
Nuno is NOT the "character that created Portugal".
You're right! i made a huge mistake on that. I apologize! It was Afonso Henrique - and it's a pretty tumultuous history
@@italianspartacus yeah, not even same dynasty, I think the Vimaranes kind of died out before that. Afonso was only count as the muslims took some land back before he was born, and he was grandson of Alfonso VI of Leon, and Duke Robert of Burgundy, which makes him a cadet branch of house Capet.
@@italianspartacus Nuno was one of the first to try to get independence for the county of Portucale he died at the Battle of Pedroso its not an uncommon mistake...
@@AsinineMortal it is
i have not done a campaign as this guy yet, but i intend to do so soon, but i found a count in india who is the only person of his religion and culture. on top of that his liege is surrounded by bigger kingdoms or empires and remains as the last unreformed religion in the area. this start is ngap na hang of darmdin in 867, located next to nepal
I recommend Duke Bernard II of Barcelona at 867 start; vassal in West Francia. You're house head with 6 other cousins; one of which you can call into any war you start, and a marriage alliance with another duke in the realm you can also call into war. You have 4/6th of the Barcelona Duchy, only one vassal along with claims on Duchy of Mallorca, Toulouse and a few other counties within West Francia.
You have the option of converting to Catalan culture at start which means you can play around with culture mechanics. You can take 2/3rds Duchy of Mallorca within first year of game start with dynasty alliance alone (no cost to prestige). Sardinia and its gold mine is also open to you, along with entirety of North Africa coast with holy wars.
You have options to either stay as vassal as West Francia and can take over Toulouse, or stick with Barcelona /n Mallorca, or eventually break away and fight Uyyamids and try to go for Hispania, Maghreb, etc etc.. lots of possibilities due to holy wars. I'd rate it an easy difficulty start. Only one Duke wants your lone county of Poiters and aside from that you are free to build up your forces and focus on expanding your domain without worrying about Uyyamids fighting you.
Ælla Oswulfson of Northumbria (Northern England) 867 is an interesting/extreme start suggestion. You begin being invaded from north and south by two vastly superior Viking neighbours that each outnumber you more than 5 to 1, on top of that other big Viking armies are raiding you. It seems all is lost. Until you notice Ælla starts with abnormally high intrigue and a full tree of intrigue perks... even if RNG smiles and you get the abduct skill, its still a challenging one.
I’ve been liking Gallura in 867. It’s the Northern part of Sardinia. First step obviously is to press your claims on your father’s land to the south to form Sardinia and then you can go and take Corsica to form your Kingdom. From their I either expand towards Naples/Southern Italy or go North to try and make your own Sardinia-Piedmont. It’s also nice because the starting character is 18 and unmarried so you can Eudoka cheese if you feel like it and he gets random stats so different play throughout can feel totally different.
Ace video. Look forward to more historically referenced starting positions. Maybe some positions based in more ace available formables and decisions.
Another idea for a video is what you would like to see in future content for ck3 .
Starting as the King of Leon in 1066 is a really strong start imo. He usually has a very high interigue and can quickly assassinate his brothers to unite the kingdoms. Then using the kidnap to instant war victory, you can take much of Iberia before you die.
Avenging the battle of tours is a really fun role play. I’ll have to try it out
Had a great time playing Georgian 🇬🇪
I have been playing as the Rurikid dynasty starting in the 867 bookmark. This is the dynasty that would later form Kievan Rus, the earliest Russian state. It's quite an easy campaign since I'm not that skilled in CK games. You start as a Duke but have enough money to immediately form the Kingdom of Novgorod. The Rurikids were Norse noblemen who later adopted the ways of their Russian subjects and eventually converted to Greek Orthodoxy. So that's two interesting choices that you can decide what to do with. If you stayed with your unreformed pagan faith, you'll have quite an exciting time conquering all the Christian lands to the south of you once you consolidated the lands in Russia and Ruthenia and eventually have the choice to unite all slavic lands under one gigantic empire. From such a strong position, you can push west into Italy and east into Anatolia and the Levant and convert to Greek Orthodoxy, earning yourself the privilege of mending the Great Schism. It's a very noob friendly campaign that's full of conquest and interesting choices which I am currently enjoying quite a lot.
The Count of Mazandaran, in your last section, is also of the Bavandid dynasty. Which is interesting because the Bavandids were a cadet branch of the Sassanid Dynasty, which was the ruling dynasty of the Persian Empire before the rise of Islam.
So a cool objective as the Bavandids would to create basically the Neo-Sassanid Empire, and avenge the Islamic conquest of Iran and the destruction of the ancient Sassanid dynasty.
My current playthrough is a pretty wild ride for someone fairly inexperienced with the intricacies of the game, definitely learning a lot as I go 😅😂 I started as the Duke of upper Lorraine, vassal in the HRE, and married Matilda of Tuscany right out of the gate (I think a divorce from an elderly wife was in order). It's a bit of a challenge without a wife and the stat boosts present, but while upper Lorraine starts with smallish amount of troops, Tuscany will always assist in any wars.
Your heir will inherit a fairly sizable, if disjointed, domain. From there it gets fun to combine them in a coherent whole, get some prestige from crusading, and if you do as I do and get involved in a rebellion against the emperor, if you're powerful enough you'll end up with the emperor's crown by the third generation. I guess technically it could've happened in two but my character died from being too fat just before the war ended 😂😂
Ireland Ormond 867. You've got to deal with all the other counts vying for control around you, and contend with the constant thread of the Vikings, whilst still be tribal yourself.
I'm currently playing with the Habsburg in 1066, i'm not sure were they start (I think in Transjurania) but it's fun to try to raise them to the prominence they would gain in the future
Yup, it's quite a nice campaign and I'm having lots of fun doing it. It's my first real campaign in CK3 and still learning a lot about the game, but somehow in 3 generation I was able to become King of Burgundy and put my brother as King of Jerusalem. I don't know how I'll continue this run, but would love to get as many Habsburgs on the thrones of the world as possible
Alfonso, a descendent of king Alfonso the Brave of León, was the founder of Portugal, not Nuño
Grandson to be precise, on his mother's side, and grandson of Duke Robert of Burgundy on his father's.
England and 867 Prussia have been my favorite starts by far. I went and formed the southern Baltic Empire as Prussia. I also played tall as England and owned Brittania and conquested my unbeatable army until the end. Looking for something else.
i believe rollo is actually a marshal to chieftain rognvaldr who’s domain is trændheim. he has the dynasty Normandie
Just checked and it's true
I was actually gonna comment that also but wanted to see if someone already posted it and lo and behold i found your comment
Sardinia is also really cool especially if you are trying to play tall and build up instead of out, becoming the king of the Mediterranean.
A really fun campaign start as well is Meath on the Irish Isles (playing as High Chieftain Aed mac Gormlaith). A tribal duchy in 867 that is secluded for the most part. HOWEVER, the biggest difference being the Sons of Lothbrok (Lodbrok technically) invasions that are going on make your new neighbors not as caring as surprisingly William the Conqueror. It's comparable to a hard mode version of the 1066 start in the duchy of Munster with Murchad. It's very hard though if the neighbors decide to pay you a visit. Another challenging aspect is the fact that Dublin is currently owned by one of those brilliant neighbors. Gives a diplomatic/marshal side to the game.
----
Ruler: High Chieftain Aed mac Gormlaith
Family: 3 sons
Married: Yes
Alliances: None
Government Type: Tribal
Religion: Insular (Christianity)
Culture: Irish
Holdings/Titles:
- High Chiefdom of Meath
- Earldom of Ailech (county)
Claims:
- Earldom of Oriel (unpressed)
- Earldom of Athlone (unpressed)
----
Notables:
- Starts on secluded Irish isles
- Starts with a duchy, and two counties (one vassal)
- Early game alliances such as Gwynedd are possibilities
- You aren't actually a strong leader, no extremely notable stats (under the notables section still)
- Can form Ireland relatively quickly (holding it is a whole different story)
----
It isn't easy by any means, but you can conquer the Irish Isles pretty fast (pretty much need to) and form Ireland. The difficult part comes later when the brothers turn their attention to the Irish Isles.
Armenian Principalities! Starting off as the vassal of the Abbasids, independence is relatively easy. I would highly recommend it.
thanks king
Small correction, Duke Nuno wasn't the historical creator of Portugal, that only happened about 80 years later.
I've been spending a lot of time on Alexandria and I have to say, the early game is SUPER easy, but the further you get into early expansion the harder the game gets. You have to compete with your leige, and your brother, and two major religions, and even Byzantine sometimes.
Also a note, Sultanate of Rum is the forebears of the Ottomans.
That's not rollo. Rollo is actually a martial in one of the Norwegian duke. The one you are talking about has also a different house
Trondenhiem has house horolf normandie as its Marshall.
Hiya, my Alba campaign is SO FUN so far. Start off as King Constantin little brother in Morey, Duke Aed. Both of you are unmarried and the Auld Alliance is ready to begin at game start letting you marry into the Karlin-Bruges French family. Lets you stay reletively safe and take advantage/pick your moments for the Viking Invasion of Northumbria. Duke of Morey little bother always seems to spawn with more Intrigue than Big Brother, and even employed as Spymaster, making Kingdom Alba perfect for a hostile takeover by you. Have your cousins etc as a large Dynasty in Ireland, and can help them unite it too. Scotland VS World ftw.
Can you check out "Gallura" in 867, south of Italian Empire and West of the Papacy?
I chose this Judike on a whim for one of my first play throughs, and I think it's worth a shot from someone who can play the game better than I could.
What makes Gallura really interesting to me is the fact that your father ( and your heir) owns the land south of you. You're on good terms, but will always declare war on you first for your lands... The other counties owned by your father are split up between you and your brothers, so its a power struggle between the father and the 3 sons, and is almost always a nail biter.. It gives new players a taste of what war can be without really overwhelming someone.
As soon as you get the whole island, you have to compete with the Aghlabid and Rustamid. There aren't a lot of real "fun" major decisions, but it gives whoever is playing the sense of always being behind the 8 ball.
I'd love to get good some day and actually be successful as this guy, but at the moment, always get wiped due to holy wars from Africa. Let me know what you think!!
Small "error": in CK3 the count of helsingland was not meant to be Rollo. There is actaully a "Hrolfr de Normandie" who starts out as the martial of Trondheim. He bears the coat of arms of the House of Normandie.
He starts as a courtier but it is possible to play as the chieftain of Trondheim, conquer Neustria and give it to Rollo, then switch characters (or in ironman mode, kill off all your heirs so you get a game over and have Rollo inherit everything, then you can reload the save to continue as Rollo).
I personally enjoy the challenge of playing a pretty king of Wales in either 867 or 1066. 867 is slightly easier because England is still split but you also have to deal with vikings. But 1066 where the real challenge is because you have to defend against whoever has taken the English throne while also trying to unite Wales. You can chose to ally with the other Welsh kings to defend against England or try to subjugate them at the risk of making yourself weaker to England.
hey, just finished a really fun run. It's Mesfin Dawit II of Aksum in 1066. It is one of the two jewish leaders in the game at that time. It's a tough start but it has the great objective of forming the Kingdom of Israel (conquering Jerusalem). I also found the Haymanot religion to be really fun to play with.
Any tips for late game in general, like vassal management and opinion ?
Hedwig Billung. That gold mine...
Hrolfr de normandie actually exists as a unlanded courtier champion somewhere in 867,thats the real rollo :) you can find him via search
What are the best places to start of on if you want to build tall?
867, Viken :) Really interesting character. Harald Fairhair united Norway IRL. Pretty easy as well. Vikings in 867 are OP af imo.
amalia kan in southern hungary near temesvar is neat, she's married to the count of temesvar (which is farmlands for dev bonus as a capital) but has more land than him, with great intrigue
eric the heathen should be very hard if you stay pagan because his king will revoke his title within few years. It is hard to against the King because his army is stronger and has stronger allies, moreover, Eric doesn't have any good alliances around due to his faith. The best way to play him to change your religion to catholic and make someone follow pagan to educate your heir to make him to stay pagan so that you will have much time to deal with him like plot murder or make faction to press claim
Excellent point I totally forgot to make!! Great point brother
Yes, I pointed this out on the previous video, but have since been able to do a successful play through with him. One of the keys to this is to get an alliance with the high chief of Lappland, who is of the same faith but has an impressive amount of troops to start with. By gaining this alliance I was able to bide my time until I could build up enough of my own domain to get my troop count to a respectable level, and then winning the war against the king once he tried taking my duchy away from me. This will probably require several restarts as the king likes to try to snag away your duchy pretty quickly.
You can just not convert your capital, which allows you to convert back for free whenever you're strong enough.
Just had a great game as Duke of Hesse in 867, he gets the Rammelsberg Mine...$$$$$$
Do we have any videos on creating your own ruler? I have played 2 campaigns in both of them most I could do is having kingdom.. starting as tikkana (county ruler) in south India. First time I have made my ruler by giving lot of army and martial Ratings.. any tips would be appreciated. I want to create my own ruler and grow from Tikana (county ruler) to Empire
for 1066 hre, i'd like to recommend countess hedwig of gottingen. 2 counties, unmarried, lots of claims, has a tier 1 MINE. it's going to be hard to form germany but you can gobble up all the saxon duchies in one generation. if you want you can push for independence and create your own kingdom of saxon lands.
Having a pretty fun run as Matilda of Tuscany. Usurping the Kingdom of Romagna from under a grumpy Pope is satisfying.
I find playing king solamon of hungary at 1066 is good for new players due to the fact that he has o nly two provinces and faces against really strong vassals who all have claim on your titles. I had to restart few times to keep him as a king, i really learned how to deal with hostile vassals a lot from it.
Aside from my latest start, my favourite start was as Duke of Feher (Transylvania) plotting against Solamon... who's just a kid at that time!
Will personally recommend starting as Duke Of Dorset, 867. Because it's meant to be Alfred the Great historically, you get insanely high stat rolls. Don't just take my word for it, check out Muh Dry Bread's Livestreams of the game with the same start, has well over 30 martial and over 20 in anything else except intrigue.
1066 the last living karling is nice start
Just a correction mate, Duke Nuno of Portucale wasn't the founder of Portugal, it was indeed a tale short lived, after the partitioning of the Spanish kingdoms, Duke Nuno tried to claim independence from King Garcia of Galicia, seeing he had almost as much power as his king... He went to war and died in 1071 ( 5 years after this start ) in the Battle of Pedroso against his liege, from there on Garcia proclaimed himself King of Galicia and Portucale. Only 25 years later, the County of Portucale was restored by King Alfonso VI in 1096 ( "The Brave", the brother from Leon who took Garcia's title ) Nuno, was the last of his dynasty to rule over County of Portucale ( only had an daughter Loba, bastards are rumored ), he still represents our will and culture, being the first to contest Spanish rule over our land... King Alfonso VI married his bastard daughter to Henry of House Burgundy ( cadet-branch of the Capetians of France ), and his son Afonso Henriques proclaimed the Kingdom of Portugal in 1139... Regarding the gameplay, he is very well positioned, with fun objectives all over, i usually focus on getting alliances that can help me defend our Duchy against the muslims since in the beginning your liege is more interested in spanish affairs than fighting the muslim invaders... As the game progresses i try to conquer the rest of Portugal, so i can get more land and troops, until im sufficiently strong to proclaim independence and form the great Kingdom of Portugal! From there, you can try to conquer Iberia and for form the Empire of Hispania, or you can expand southwards with Holy War causus bellis while introducing your lineage in other big european powerhouses, lots of variety...
100% totally made a mistake on that, I'm so sorry man!
@@italianspartacus no problem man, i also didnt realize that this man was from an entire different Dynasty then that of our founder King Afonso Henriques , but CK3 made me go and research a bit more eheheh, love the Gameplay keep it coming
Playing as Nuño is very fun since you deal with a ton of internal intrigue in the spanish kingdoms, but also do holy wars against the muslims.
A word of warning tho, if you're going for his achievement, be ready for a ton of headaches.