In Progress Let's Play Crusader Kings 2: I want to be a Basileus!

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Bump for the bump god?

Update 33-Chipping Away

So, as I am sure you remember, we ended the last update with a declaration of war on the Shia Caliphate.



We have now rallied people and deployed.

The reserve army heads to our isolated territory to help out. However before they arrive...



Not exactly great timing, but I will be pursuing this at some point.



Just as my army is about to engage the enemy, another province converts.



My army wins, and some prisoners are taken. Time to execute!



Not long after taking some heads, another little army rolls in, and gets wiped out.



And an enemy army all the way from Persia comes to me to get beaten. The Caliph called in Persia and Abyssinia to back him up in this.

Also I need to be sure and remember to change the laws for Africa when I win this war. I don't think it is updating properly as every so often, I get the title loss notification and it shows my brother taking it over, then it goes back to my daughter in a few days (which it shouldn't since it is Agnatic).



As more and more troops show up, I go ahead and disband my army over there, and opt to give them a chance to recover.



Somebody needs money so I oblige them.



First siege is won. The difficulty in this war is not the Caliphate itself but its allies, who have not been engaged in constant fighting.



The army of Abyssinia is beaten. Pursuit engaged.



They are wiped out shortly thereafter. However elsewhere:



The enemy takes a holding. That is all the army that the Caliph can muster though, so once I knock his allies around a bit, I should be able to take on just him.



Province taken. The army loads up onto the boats, travels around dealing with rebels, and then disbands.



As my army rallies, another holding is taken. One great thing about all this African holdings is that they have huge garrisons, so my enemy have to take their time going through them, same as me.



My army arrives. Attrition on the sea (even the short hop from Sicily to there) cost me about 3000 troops.



The battle is one-sided and I quickly assault and re-take my territories. Now back to the sieges. I assault and take one holding back in Cyrennica. In other news:



Another conversion and...



The Empire is growing.

Oh, and one other minor note:



The Il Khanate has arrived in a big way and is now beating down Rostov.



Capua goes Greek! Yay!

After waiting around for awhile:



We win a siege. The army heads to deal with the enemy force in the area.



We win and return to our siege area.



A few assaults later and the province is ours time to withdraw disband and re-raise, but first they go on a rebel stomping tour.

As my armies rally to go forth and enlighten some Muslims I notice something that I find rather odd:



Yes. Yes, that is a Mongol fleet. I have no idea how or why. Oh wait nevermind:



Good thing they have exploded into civil war. For now.

Anyway back to us and our war:



We engage the enemy and win. Then pursue:



And win some more and get some prestige.



Eventually my secondary force shows up and we lay siege to what remains of our goal duchy.

I also take this opportunity to:



Hire some mercs to go and deal with small forces that show up to take over our isolated duchy.

As they move into position I decide to ask Croatia to join me in the war:



And they agree? The Caliphate must be weaker than I though if they are willing to hope in.



The mercs deal with one small army, but there is an actual threat approaching. I will be keeping them near my boats in case I need to evacuate.



We dodge them with our navy, but we need to go reinforce the main army.



Croatia's dumb-ass is causing me attrition, so I throw every one together and assault. It goes well. Now to rush back to the other province and end this war.



I assault a few times, but I am still just shy of 100%, so I break off and pursue the small army, while the main enemy whittles itself to death.



The enemy wins a siege before I can finish off the small army and go after them, but they don't last much longer. Soon my troops set sail and engage the enemy:









A battle, and a war, are won:





Land is handed out, and a title is usurped:



Now before I forget or get side tracked by another war:





Now then. There should be no issues with the succession. Theoretically.

I also realize my old friend Mauretania is no longer at war so:



I jack the ducal title from them. I think I will wait before taking the kingdom level title. Kallinikos is getting old, and I don't want my little empire

being split up because I doubt he will have ten years to reign on that title (he is 54). But I may change my mind.

Anyway that is this update. Here are some extra shots that show our situation and how the rest of the world is doing:



Mmmmm. That's sexy. I really wish my Sicily was a nice Roman Red though instead of that lime green stuff it is.



We are taking back North Africa.



And we bring the light with us.



A-A split, and France sits around doing nothing. Also part of Sardinia was inherited by Croatia. Hehehehehe.



Hungary and Poland lost. Boo. The HRE growing is never good.



The Caliph is coming back together, but his position is fragile. I will probably leave him alone for a bit, and let his vassals turn on him again before going after him again.



And the Il Khanate and those it is going to crush. I expect the rebellion will end soon in favor of the Khan. On a plus note if Rostov stay his vassal, it is possible the Khan might become Orthodox, which I would just love.



What a glorious line and what glorious incline.

You know, at this point I think making King of Africa your primary title would make sense.

There's a image double up where the first conversion should be (showing the claim on genoa twice)

But well done, be good to link up your north african holdings

Also switch the capital to somewhere in Libya.

Actually I wouldn't recommend that. Southern Italy is good real estate, it's good to have your core ducal realm there.

Fixed.

And sorry, but I won't be moving to Africa. It is going to play a key role in overrunning Europe though.

Currently, I am only getting about a quarter of the possible forces out of Mauretania right now (soon to change) and have a max troop capacity of 30k. Compare that to France (who I loaded up as early to take a peak at their internal situation) who has about 36k max and is not growing, and I figure the HRE is probably in the 40-50k range. Point is all those delicious well developed African provinces are going to make Iberia a steamrolling, and then so on and so forth as I push east from there.

... And then you get hit with regency and you get swamped by a civil war of epic proportions.

wait, what? you died without heirs?

No I resigned. I just wanted to show the end game screen.

Though *Spoiler for the next update alert*:


I may be about to have that problem.

Dun dun dunnnn..

then let us bump to the next page to uncover this new developments

DAS BUMP

the bump god demands more bumps. abide by his wishes, puny mortals

"Knock Knock"
"Who's there?"
"Bump."
"Bump who?"
*witty punchline*

Update 34-Storm on the Horizon

With the war over, I rally together some of my African forces to go around and smash rebels. I also decide to spend some coin:







As my troops move to deal with rebels I notice something:



That poor son of a bitch. He's got another round of rebellions starting.

I am quite pleased however, as now I feel like I can move on Genoa without being attacked by him.





More conversions!



And the situation continues to unravel for the Caliph. That poor bastard.

Since he is occupied at the moment I decide to:



Take Genoa!



Croatia decides to back me up. I am only going to use the Italian forces for this, as my vassals are getting pretty upset with their levies being constantly in use.

The army:



The battle:









We win, but Kallinikos gets wounded again. We pursue and destroy the enemy.

While we do that I receive more news:



Yet another conversion!



And another not long after.



And another, while waiting on our siege.



A siege is won.





And the war is won.

Now Genoa's capital is a city. So I want to revoke the title of the guy that has the castle so that I do not receive the wrong holding penalty and can keep Genoa for myself for now. I take a peak at my vassals to see if I can get away with it:









I think I can afford the -20 to relations. So:





And bam! It is done:



Alrighty. All those cities should bring me lots of money. I won't be creating the ducal title anytime soon to avoid the too many held duchies modifier.

I think I will probably take it easy for a bit now. I have been waging lots of wars lately, and my vassals are pretty upset (though only the Doux of Benevento is considering revolting) and my country could probably use a break.

My chancellor is sent to Venice at this point.

Anyway, at some point my youngest daughter came of age so I marry her:



To one of my courtiers.



I really need to stay at peace for awhile, but they are making it really hard right now. It would be so easy to grab Alexandria (probably).



We get an event it leads to:



That's nice. Though I am already really pious.



My castle in Genoa needs to be improved. A lot.



Despot Kallinikos passes away. For some reason our primary title becomes Africa.



I switch back to Sicily. (Though it took me another switch to Africa and then back to Sicily to get it to work. Maybe because I didn't unpause?)



Rebellion time!



We are now Queen Pavlina and she wants her husband dead so she can get a younger, more fertile man.



Because if we don't get some more kids, things could go badly.



That is our only daughter, Iouliana. She was being tutored by her grandfather, but now I send her to our cousin because he has high diplomacy.

PS. I am only using my personal levies to put down the rebellion. Benevento is pretty weak, and I don't need to agitate the rest of my vassals right now if it can be helped.



Our cousin backs up our plot. So:





We take him out. Now to get the upgrade and some babies (hopefully).

I settle on:



Mostly because he is young and Greek. I though about setting up a betrothal between my queen and the heir to the kingdom of France, but it is highly unlikely that they would agree to a matrilineal marriage. Also I would have to wait a few years for him to come of age, and my queen doesn't have that kind of time, as she is already 35.



Money from the marriage and a rebellion in Africa. This one will require more than my personal levies.

That's this update. I may end up losing this yet. Not because of military defeat, but because my main dynasty line is going to die out.

It wouldn't be too bad for your one daughter to inherit the kingdom, as long as you could keep the rebellions in check, no? She'd have plenty of time to birth children. What you don't want is the current queen hitting 40, 45, or whatever they designate as menopause in the game, then rule for decades more without a son.

Probably a sign to halt the conquest for a decade or so now, though.

I still think you should use Africa as you main title, seeing how that's where most of your kingdom is.

Isn't it acceptable to be inherited by a cousin or other more distant relative, as long as that person is part of your dynasty? Are none of them part of the succession?

i didnt know you can switch titles, you click somewhere in the Realm screen?

You can go to your character's screen, click on the title you want to be your main and then click on the "make primary" button than should be near the top of the box.

But only titles of same rank can be chosen.... And Rome is not even Duchy in CK2... Would be cool to create titular Kingdoms for jewgold send to Basileus, HRE Emperor or Pope.... BTW she has some Uncles or cousins? in My game Spartenos sit in Three Kingdoms. 16 themas and 25 baronies... Plus they were Emperors twice.

The alternative is to give the county to a baron with a castle holding the province, this will make the castle the primary holding thus eliminating the relation modifier for wrong government type.

Bump bump