After finally managing to purchase all of Paradox’s flagship games, I have decided to play and document my “Grand Campaign”, where I start out as the Duke of Apulia, playing Crusader Kings from 1066 (our POD, I suppose) until 1399, then convert the save file to Europa Universalis 3 (1399-1821) then converting that save file to Victoria 2 (1836-1936) before converting the save file yet again to Hearts of Iron 3 (1936-1948) meaning that we will essentially be playing the same nation in a consistent (although probably not entirely realistic) alternative history timeline.
Without further ado, let’s begin what could be an incredible journey through history. Or I could get invaded by the Byzantines ten years in. Regardless, I’m playing the first Crusader Kings game, despite my desire to get the sequel, as I really can’t afford to buy CK2 and am doubtful that my computer would run it. However I personally believe that CK is not as bad as people make it out to be and I’ve always had a lot of fun playing it.
So, as I said, we are playing as the Duke of Apulia, Robert Guiscard D’Hauteville:
He has pretty good stats, and a strong line of succession under the semisalic consanguinity law, whilst he also owns quite a bit of territory in Southern Italy, as we can see in the following screen shot:
The four provinces in dark green are the ones that Robert owns directly, whilst the light green ones are our vassal’s, meaning that they give us most of the money they make whilst we control their military and defend them, but our character does not own the territory outright. The orange provinces are counties that we have a claim on, meaning that we feel they belong to us and that we can therefore declare war on them to try and capture the territory. Originally Robert owned five of the provinces, but owning too much territory makes our vassals angry at our greed and sometimes leading them to revolt against our rule. This was something I didn’t want to deal with right at the start of the game so I immediately gave away the province of ? to the Count of Taranto, another one of my vassals, meaning that I was under my territorial limit and could get on with business without worrying about revolts.
My first action was to appoint some advisors and sort out the budget, before I declared war on the nefarious Count of Napoli who owned territory that rightfully belonged to our people.
As you can see they mobilised an army, but it was pitifully small (946 men) that proved no trouble for the 1870 I called into service from Foggia and Apulia, and within a couple of months I’d destroyed their forces and occupied the county, before suing for peace with the count;
As you can see, I installed myself as leader, but I then gave the county to a vassal (the Count of Benevento) to keep everyone happy, which I suppose defeats the point of fighting for the territory in the first place, but having the county under my influence has certain uses. Not only this but the Count of Benevento decided to give the title to his son, the 17 year old Robert de Hauteville.
In the mean time, the counties of Lecce and Apulia ran out of manure, plunging them into poverty. And people say leadership isn’t glamorous. With the news of the manure crisis fresh in my ears I decided to declare war on my second claim, Capua, to claim more income to help my impoverished people. I forgot to take a screenshot of the declaration, but here’s me taking the land after my inevitable victory;
I also happened upon an event that rewarded me with 200 ducats that paid for my relatively expensive conquests. I gave our new county to the 17 year old Count of Napoli, because inexperienced adolescents can never have enough power.
This means that we now directly own or control through vassals the entirety of Southern Italy (apart from Salerno) as well as Messassina in Sicily;
This means that if I gain 2 more counties in the area I can create the Kingdom of Sicily and crown myself King, which not only gives me a great deal of prestige (the more prestige, the higher your ranking amongst other dynasties) but also allows me to control more territory without having to use vassals. I decided that the best way to get the necessary number of titles would be to gain the two Sicilian provinces highlighted in green below:
In the mean time I was looking at the County of Salerno and realised that the Count didn’t have any children.
Which meant that if the Count tragically died in a terrible accident, utterly beyond my control, then all his titles would pass on to my son, Roger Borsa, the heir apparent to all my possessions...
woops...
nb. Are you guys interested in this, would you like me to keep going? Any C&C will be greatly appreciated
Without further ado, let’s begin what could be an incredible journey through history. Or I could get invaded by the Byzantines ten years in. Regardless, I’m playing the first Crusader Kings game, despite my desire to get the sequel, as I really can’t afford to buy CK2 and am doubtful that my computer would run it. However I personally believe that CK is not as bad as people make it out to be and I’ve always had a lot of fun playing it.
So, as I said, we are playing as the Duke of Apulia, Robert Guiscard D’Hauteville:
He has pretty good stats, and a strong line of succession under the semisalic consanguinity law, whilst he also owns quite a bit of territory in Southern Italy, as we can see in the following screen shot:
The four provinces in dark green are the ones that Robert owns directly, whilst the light green ones are our vassal’s, meaning that they give us most of the money they make whilst we control their military and defend them, but our character does not own the territory outright. The orange provinces are counties that we have a claim on, meaning that we feel they belong to us and that we can therefore declare war on them to try and capture the territory. Originally Robert owned five of the provinces, but owning too much territory makes our vassals angry at our greed and sometimes leading them to revolt against our rule. This was something I didn’t want to deal with right at the start of the game so I immediately gave away the province of ? to the Count of Taranto, another one of my vassals, meaning that I was under my territorial limit and could get on with business without worrying about revolts.
My first action was to appoint some advisors and sort out the budget, before I declared war on the nefarious Count of Napoli who owned territory that rightfully belonged to our people.
As you can see they mobilised an army, but it was pitifully small (946 men) that proved no trouble for the 1870 I called into service from Foggia and Apulia, and within a couple of months I’d destroyed their forces and occupied the county, before suing for peace with the count;
As you can see, I installed myself as leader, but I then gave the county to a vassal (the Count of Benevento) to keep everyone happy, which I suppose defeats the point of fighting for the territory in the first place, but having the county under my influence has certain uses. Not only this but the Count of Benevento decided to give the title to his son, the 17 year old Robert de Hauteville.
In the mean time, the counties of Lecce and Apulia ran out of manure, plunging them into poverty. And people say leadership isn’t glamorous. With the news of the manure crisis fresh in my ears I decided to declare war on my second claim, Capua, to claim more income to help my impoverished people. I forgot to take a screenshot of the declaration, but here’s me taking the land after my inevitable victory;
I also happened upon an event that rewarded me with 200 ducats that paid for my relatively expensive conquests. I gave our new county to the 17 year old Count of Napoli, because inexperienced adolescents can never have enough power.
This means that we now directly own or control through vassals the entirety of Southern Italy (apart from Salerno) as well as Messassina in Sicily;
This means that if I gain 2 more counties in the area I can create the Kingdom of Sicily and crown myself King, which not only gives me a great deal of prestige (the more prestige, the higher your ranking amongst other dynasties) but also allows me to control more territory without having to use vassals. I decided that the best way to get the necessary number of titles would be to gain the two Sicilian provinces highlighted in green below:
In the mean time I was looking at the County of Salerno and realised that the Count didn’t have any children.
Which meant that if the Count tragically died in a terrible accident, utterly beyond my control, then all his titles would pass on to my son, Roger Borsa, the heir apparent to all my possessions...
woops...
nb. Are you guys interested in this, would you like me to keep going? Any C&C will be greatly appreciated