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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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!!
@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!
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.
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
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...
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.
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.
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.
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 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
@@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...
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!
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
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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 😂😂
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 on my 4th game and seriously enjoying playing as Asturias! Only downside is there is a bit of RNG involved (Will West Francia bring her armies? Will the Umayyad collapse or centralize further?) But I feel like that mild RNG is an element in any start. Next gonna try out house Karen up in Gurgan but I've heard its brutal. Loving your content man keep it up!
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.
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.
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.
One thing I'm gonna do when Royal Court releases is play as a group of Turks in 867, migrating and keeping my realm small as a vassal of various local kings, and then the Abbasids, and then when creating the sultanate of Rum, also create a greek-turkish hybrid culture. (Essentially going for a more friendly/intergrationist approach than the historical Rum sultanate and ottoman empires did.)
If you decide to make a third video in this series another interesting campaign to look at is Countess Amalia Kan of Krasso, in southern Hungary in 1066 Interesting things about that campaign: - You're husband is the count of the adjacent county (Temes) - You can instantly swap your culture to Mogyer (Old Hungarian) - Doing so gives you the overall goal of "Revive Taltosim" by conquering hungary and reviving the ancient religion of the Mogyar It would probably be Hard or Very Hard because: - Opinion penalties for being Mogyer - If you're unlucky and your husband does not convert cultures with you you're going to have to off him quickly and remarry into the Mogyer culture because you start as the dynasty head with no heirs inside your own dynasty - Not a very strong army to start wth, have to use your (usually high) intrigue and diplomacy to
I did the bavanids playtrought in ck2, I wanted to restore Persia with zoroatrian and play a dinasty that descended from the sassanids, I was in indecised between Karen and bavanids but choose bavanids because of the name, I had to restart once because I lost to the abbasids, although my pc went to shit and I didn't end the campaign I was able to gain independence and eventually rule over most of the Persian heartland without secretly converting to Islam, I was like 2 counties away of forming the Persian Empire
So there's two Rollo's in the game? Either that or the first one is wrong. Because there is Hrolfr de Normandie as an unlanded character. Came to me when I was playing Haraldr Fairhair
I'm greatly enjoying playing as Salerno in the 867 start. It's a really difficult start to me cause youre an independent single county surrounded by Italy to the north, the Byzantines to the east, who already control the counties next you, and a few muslim faiths to the south and west. You really have to fight to stay alive with that start haha
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.
I played the duke of Eipirous in 1966. Pretty easy campaign I should say coz you are vassel the the bysantine epmire still. You got claims all over the place and you are very close to Sicilly and Apulia which are land w8ing to be coquered. Creating the kingdom of Apulia and Eipirous should grant to enough power to try to get independent or even try to userp the bysantine throne through smart marriges.
Well i would recomend two starts. They are both child rulers. One is a count named Vlad. He is in the kingdom of Bulgaria, in the county of Transylvania Alps. You are Vlach and Slovianska Provda. Your culture is dieing and mostly everyone around you is Coptic, Cathlic, or Tengri. But you start off with a holy site. The other is up to the north in the heart of Norway. He is a independent guy. Ulfr of Gauldeala is his name. He is alone, surrounded, and out maned. But if you use your wits and brawn you can claw your way up to the top and king of Norway.
Can we get more non-aggressive campaigns please? I know aggression is important to expand, but most of these suggestions have conquerors with high martial.
Ok, I feel better about not being able to get my Karen playthroughs started. I'm going to round back and try the Zoroastrians when I have some more mastery of the game
Great video as always. I have one question, i was playing as Aelfricson family, stanrting in 1066 as Earl Eadric "the Wild" of Shropshire, conquered my way to have all mercia, hwicce and essex, with the three titles of duke, but as the last anglo saxon vassal of the now english "de normandie" king. Was investing london, constructed the tower of london special building and a lot of other buildings there, also was developing the county and then i only got a notification that my king has taken the county from me. He has no CB, don't treathen to revoke, just take. He has the county of hampshire and all of east anglia, and he was king for some time too, its not because he didn't have any more land and had to take some. Thks for the videos, you content is amazing!
Sorry, but I don't think Rollo is that guy that you showed us from Hälsingland. Both cause Björn and him were born in different times, but also cause Rollo was Danish (or Norwegian), great video otherwise. Also I grew up in Hälsingland so thank you for showing this :) Edit: Nvm, just realised that they might've taken some creative liberties haha
Rollo has martial skill of 1? Wasn't he supposed to be so huge that no horse could bear him so he had to walk into battle thus earning the nickname "the walker"?
I don't really understand this game sometimes and I'm trying to learn. I declare war. The enemy's army is inferior, and I have way more allies, yet when the war starts, my allies go about their own way, rarely helping me where I decide to go AND the enemy's army suddenly becomes massive for no reason??? Like, it will say the enemy "has an army of 2140", and then in the actual war the pull up with 4000+ and massacre my army. I don't get it. It takes the fun away. I literally look up and compare all my troops and allies before deciding to declare war, only to sometimes be hit with that. You might say "They bought mercenaries". The tiny duchy of some area of Galicia does not have enough money to pay for that. No way in hell.
Preußen is also very hard.. I started as a count there and after 4 Generations i greatet the Great Kingdome of Preußen... The Kingdome was almost all East and Nordeurope but then i made a bad decicion and fucked up everything ^^
I don't think I'm avoiding him, but he's not necessarily off the beaten path. The goal of these videos is to present options to people that they might not otherwise know, or ones that are maybe overlooked because most people think of playing their liege :)
I am really loving Croatia in 867. You have the option to start as a Duke or the Duke's first son. You can take control and convert the Greek provinces along the Adriatic, including Dubrovnik, or you can start to expand into Slovenia, Bosnia, or Serbia to form the Kingdom of Croatia or go further and unite the Slavs in several major decisions. You are relatively safe from Italy and Germany because they are focused on the Karling succession, but you do have to worry about the Byzantines as they continue to expand.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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!!
@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!
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.
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
I love you. I've been craving for more
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...
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.
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.
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.
This is a great video! Thank you, it will be cool to play as Rolo and the others to fallow their historical path.
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 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
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
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!
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
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!!
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.
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.
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.
Cant wait to try these. You really deserve more subs your vids are so good
Great video mate :)
Duke Nuno did NOT create Portugal though. It was Afonso Henriques in 1128.
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.
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 😂😂
Armenian Principalities! Starting off as the vassal of the Abbasids, independence is relatively easy. I would highly recommend it.
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.
Being born and raised there I really enjoyed seeing beautiful Hälsingland go first! :)
Love these lists! Always want more.
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.
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.
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.
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 on my 4th game and seriously enjoying playing as Asturias! Only downside is there is a bit of RNG involved (Will West Francia bring her armies? Will the Umayyad collapse or centralize further?) But I feel like that mild RNG is an element in any start. Next gonna try out house Karen up in Gurgan but I've heard its brutal.
Loving your content man keep it up!
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.
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).
Avenging the battle of tours is a really fun role play. I’ll have to try it out
867, Viken :) Really interesting character. Harald Fairhair united Norway IRL. Pretty easy as well. Vikings in 867 are OP af imo.
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.
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.
One thing I'm gonna do when Royal Court releases is play as a group of Turks in 867, migrating and keeping my realm small as a vassal of various local kings, and then the Abbasids, and then when creating the sultanate of Rum, also create a greek-turkish hybrid culture. (Essentially going for a more friendly/intergrationist approach than the historical Rum sultanate and ottoman empires did.)
Small correction, Duke Nuno wasn't the historical creator of Portugal, that only happened about 80 years later.
If you decide to make a third video in this series another interesting campaign to look at is Countess Amalia Kan of Krasso, in southern Hungary in 1066
Interesting things about that campaign:
- You're husband is the count of the adjacent county (Temes)
- You can instantly swap your culture to Mogyer (Old Hungarian)
- Doing so gives you the overall goal of "Revive Taltosim" by conquering hungary and reviving the ancient religion of the Mogyar
It would probably be Hard or Very Hard because:
- Opinion penalties for being Mogyer
- If you're unlucky and your husband does not convert cultures with you you're going to have to off him quickly and remarry into the Mogyer culture because you start as the dynasty head with no heirs inside your own dynasty
- Not a very strong army to start wth, have to use your (usually high) intrigue and diplomacy to
Also a note, Sultanate of Rum is the forebears of the Ottomans.
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.
1066 the last living karling is nice start
My favourite feature about erik the heathen was my priest bodlund with the historical id easteregg_tobias_bodlund . Very fun character.
I did the bavanids playtrought in ck2, I wanted to restore Persia with zoroatrian and play a dinasty that descended from the sassanids, I was in indecised between Karen and bavanids but choose bavanids because of the name, I had to restart once because I lost to the abbasids, although my pc went to shit and I didn't end the campaign I was able to gain independence and eventually rule over most of the Persian heartland without secretly converting to Islam, I was like 2 counties away of forming the Persian Empire
So there's two Rollo's in the game? Either that or the first one is wrong. Because there is Hrolfr de Normandie as an unlanded character. Came to me when I was playing Haraldr Fairhair
I'm greatly enjoying playing as Salerno in the 867 start. It's a really difficult start to me cause youre an independent single county surrounded by Italy to the north, the Byzantines to the east, who already control the counties next you, and a few muslim faiths to the south and west. You really have to fight to stay alive with that start haha
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.
I played the duke of Eipirous in 1966. Pretty easy campaign I should say coz you are vassel the the bysantine epmire still. You got claims all over the place and you are very close to Sicilly and Apulia which are land w8ing to be coquered. Creating the kingdom of Apulia and Eipirous should grant to enough power to try to get independent or even try to userp the bysantine throne through smart marriges.
Well i would recomend two starts. They are both child rulers.
One is a count named Vlad. He is in the kingdom of Bulgaria, in the county of Transylvania Alps. You are Vlach and Slovianska Provda. Your culture is dieing and mostly everyone around you is Coptic, Cathlic, or Tengri. But you start off with a holy site.
The other is up to the north in the heart of Norway. He is a independent guy. Ulfr of Gauldeala is his name. He is alone, surrounded, and out maned. But if you use your wits and brawn you can claw your way up to the top and king of Norway.
Any tips for late game in general, like vassal management and opinion ?
To be clear Hrolfr is Rollo is Robert de Normandie. That’s historical.
I’ve enjoyed Bohemia and becoming the holy Roman emperor
Can we get more non-aggressive campaigns please? I know aggression is important to expand, but most of these suggestions have conquerors with high martial.
Just saying, Nuno Mendes didn't form Portugal, not even his dinasty. It was Afonso Henriques
What are the best places to start of on if you want to build tall?
Ok, I feel better about not being able to get my Karen playthroughs started. I'm going to round back and try the Zoroastrians when I have some more mastery of the game
Great video as always.
I have one question, i was playing as Aelfricson family, stanrting in 1066 as Earl Eadric "the Wild" of Shropshire, conquered my way to have all mercia, hwicce and essex, with the three titles of duke, but as the last anglo saxon vassal of the now english "de normandie" king.
Was investing london, constructed the tower of london special building and a lot of other buildings there, also was developing the county and then i only got a notification that my king has taken the county from me.
He has no CB, don't treathen to revoke, just take. He has the county of hampshire and all of east anglia, and he was king for some time too, its not because he didn't have any more land and had to take some.
Thks for the videos, you content is amazing!
I dont' know what happened but the last 4 timestamps are off by about a minute
I'll fix this right now. Sorry man
I know you're super busy and covering tones of games but can I get your opinion on the imperal army when it comes to ranking them?
Sorry, but I don't think Rollo is that guy that you showed us from Hälsingland. Both cause Björn and him were born in different times, but also cause Rollo was Danish (or Norwegian), great video otherwise. Also I grew up in Hälsingland so thank you for showing this :)
Edit: Nvm, just realised that they might've taken some creative liberties haha
can you do a marriage guide?
What they said!
Rollo has martial skill of 1? Wasn't he supposed to be so huge that no horse could bear him so he had to walk into battle thus earning the nickname "the walker"?
The "establish Bactrian Supremecy" with the Afghan tribe shahi
what about the east? i know its early but becoming the great khan
That's in the first version of this video :)
how about playing as the great khans or early chinese dynasties that expanded out to the silk road
I don't really understand this game sometimes and I'm trying to learn.
I declare war. The enemy's army is inferior, and I have way more allies, yet when the war starts, my allies go about their own way, rarely helping me where I decide to go AND the enemy's army suddenly becomes massive for no reason???
Like, it will say the enemy "has an army of 2140", and then in the actual war the pull up with 4000+ and massacre my army.
I don't get it. It takes the fun away. I literally look up and compare all my troops and allies before deciding to declare war, only to sometimes be hit with that.
You might say "They bought mercenaries". The tiny duchy of some area of Galicia does not have enough money to pay for that. No way in hell.
Preußen is also very hard.. I started as a count there and after 4 Generations i greatet the Great Kingdome of Preußen... The Kingdome was almost all East and Nordeurope but then i made a bad decicion and fucked up everything ^^
Not to be that guy but aren’t you a vassal of Ironside not liege?
I don't think you're that guy! I'm pretty sure I was saying vassal, but I definitely might have messed up here or there :) It happens for sure hahaha
Is there a reason you're avoiding the 1066 William of Normandy?
I don't think I'm avoiding him, but he's not necessarily off the beaten path. The goal of these videos is to present options to people that they might not otherwise know, or ones that are maybe overlooked because most people think of playing their liege :)
I am really loving Croatia in 867. You have the option to start as a Duke or the Duke's first son. You can take control and convert the Greek provinces along the Adriatic, including Dubrovnik, or you can start to expand into Slovenia, Bosnia, or Serbia to form the Kingdom of Croatia or go further and unite the Slavs in several major decisions.
You are relatively safe from Italy and Germany because they are focused on the Karling succession, but you do have to worry about the Byzantines as they continue to expand.
Still not including 867 Aachen or Grisons..... pfft
Surely there is no difficulty per se in this game because you have no objectives. The only way to lose is by having no heir.
You can tweak a ton of things in the difficulty.. But it's mainly about how stacked against you the game is :)
Count of Eu in 865.
First
One other challenge of Mazandaran, your liege follows a heresy so all the surrounding muslims are hostile to him as well as you.
I hate duke nuno hes always a thorn in my side haha
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.
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
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
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.
Playing a different religion to your liege, just gets your title revoked if you get too big. Not fun
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.
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!
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.
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