Let's Play Crusader Kings 2: This is How Tiims Are Made.

[fermun]

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Throughout this update Aragon had enough money to build improvements, I don't say where I was building them but they were mostly in the 3 castles of the County of Barcelona and the 2 castles of the County of Empuries.

Hispania as we left it.



The big problem facing Aragon is vassals being complete dicks. There is only so much that can be done, but giving out titles and outright bribery should be able to keep the vassals from revolting.


This is the nephew of the count of Lleida. He's just a child but he should be loyal until he's an adult at least.


That alone did quite a bit to reduce the revolt risk.


Aragon has some cash reserves and only 4 disloyal vassals. How about some outright bribery? It's not quite enough but it's a good chunk of the way there. There's still the option of honorary titles though!





So close!



It was not quite enough, and in July 1101, Lukeington declares a war for the throne.


2 weeks later, Count Gomez of Lleida also declares a war for the throne, this makes it a 3-way battle to be the king.


Lukeington convinces Driscoll to join his side and the total number of troops for the rebels now outnumber the number of loyalist troops since the loyalist armies were the ones fighting the holy wars for the last decade.


Karlski joins the rebellion on the side of Count Gomez of Lleida. The two rebels are at war with each other too, so they should weaken each other.


Leon also has called us into a holy war for Toledo. This isn't a huge deal as Leon has an army large enough to win by themselves.


4 months later Leon gives up on conquering Toledo.


The pope calls a crusade to retake Alexandretta.


That is over here, if you did not know. This is also the location of that canyon of the crescent that the holy grail is in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.


Count Gomez is defeated and Karlski, who was backing him, is brought back into the fold.


God damn it, Karlski! Also, Kabylia has declared a holy war against the rebels and I can not join the defense because I'm at war with them.


In March 1106, Kabylia takes the county of Tarragona from Driscoll


The regency is over!


Dang Sancho II is one awful king. What is the opposite of a golden age? This is the sort of king that brings that on.


Sancho II proposes a marriage to Berenguela de Oviedo, considered the best diplomat and steward in Europe, which will help make up for his deficiencies.


A bit of money will help rebuild when the rebellion is over.


Dang. As long as Sancho II is king, Aragon is going to have some seriously rough times.


With Sancho's excommunication, Lukeington convinces Count Salvador of Calatayud, and the entire kingdoms of Leon and Castille to join his bid for the throne. It's a bit too late though, Lukeington will acknowledge defeat as soon as Albarracin is captured.


Mallorca declares a holy war for Barcelona. Alberracin is captured shortly afterward and Aragon is united again.


I don't have time to pay attention to every little prisoner in my dungeon, very well Count Gomez can go free for now. I have a war to fight!


You rebelled, lost a county to Kabylia, and now you want a duchy? Hell no.


Mauretania declares a holy war for Valencia.


That is a really good trait in a wife.


Illiterati is betrothed to the King of England. That will be an extremely useful alliance in conquering more.


I don't even need to rename this kid to get it named after one of you guys!


The levies are depleted, but with 429 gold on hand, mercenaries can be hired.


Karlski must have died while I wasn't paying attention, that's his son Pelayo.


Mercenaries are expensive, but I have a plan for that!


That is useful, we need good commanders as war seems to be a constant for Aragon.


Yeah, holy shit Drunkpiano is mostly an idiot, but he's a god damn genius commander.


I give him the county of Urgell and get under the demesne limit again. This also puts the most annoying baron vassal under his command for him to deal with.


Another mercenary army is hired to help fight the war, this costs about all of the money Aragon has.


The battle is a victory though, and 2 counts and a mayor are captured, giving 165 in ransom money.


I'd be stressed too, dude. One mercenary army is sent into Mauretania to chase down the remnants of the army and who cares if they die, they are mercenaries. The other hangs out in Valencia to lay a siege and end the occupation.


6 months or so into the siege of Valencia, Mauretania tries to lift the siege but fails. Mercenary troops are pretty great.


The court chaplain converts to Cathar and tries to convince Sancho to as well. If it weren't for how crap a king Sancho is, I'd probably do this just because fuck the pope, but Sancho already has an impossible time keeping you assholes in line.


BondFiction becomes an adult.


This is the highest ranking person eligible for marriage. Not that the Duke of Luxembourg is a particularly great choice but there's not a ton of options.


C'mon dude, I just put you in there, hang out for a bit.


Victory!


Not-a-loss!



Europe.


The local area.


I think it's time to start conquering again. I'll need to put someone as duke of Valencia and duke of any new areas I conquer but I should be able to get Toledo, the remaining bits of Barcelona, or La Mancha. Maybe all of them. I could also REALLY use a less crap king. This was pretty hectic to play with the constant warfare.

[fermun]

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Look at all the Catharism!


Holy hell, that's one serious Holy Roman Empire! Norway became a vassal of the HRE.


Here is the bastard running things. That absurd diplomacy is what is keeping things going.


Here's the Kaiser's wife.


Aragon's family tree:




The other counts in Aragon are from this line:

Gomez of Lleida and Salvador of Calatayud can be seen here. It took a couple Matrilineal marriages to get them.


Realm tree. All vassals are counts, all hate Sancho II.

Anything else you want to see let me know.

[Lukeington]

am i in jail?

[fermun]

Nah, you were imprisoned for losing your rebellion but the kingdom needed money to hire mercenaries to survive and so you were ransomed. You paid 70 gold (your income is 1.06 gold a month), and the kingdom survived.

[Karlski]

Remind me, who controls Tarragona and Rosello? They've got some pain coming their way.

[fermun]

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The peninsula.


That is Kabylia and yes, pain going their way.


2 bribes, 3 honorary titles are handed out to get rid of almost all revolt risk.


That'll do it!


Peace is boring. Let's make a war.


I have no idea who this is, but thanks for letting me know, Driscoll.


The first Christian holy order is formed! These guys are like mercenaries that are bought with piety instead of cash. They only work for holy wars and for non-excommunicated rulers, at that, but they are absolutely fantastic at what they do.


I forgot that these don't work for non-excommunicated rulers until I was writing about this so I made the attempt to hire these guys and wasted 157.5 piety.


King Sancho's younger brother.


Also King Sancho's younger brother.


You dick, Driscoll.


Aragon is in good shape though and This rebellion is not at all worrying, really.


The king's son and heir is sent off for education. I forget why I chose this guy, maybe there wasn't a reason. Berenguela looks like she would be the best choice, but whatever.


I've kind of figured that one out already, but thanks.


Let's put this jackoff in prison.


Good work, team. I assume a team was involved in that.


2 short months later the kingdom needs money more than it needs a non-traitor in charge of a county.


There's a sheikh to ransom off too and Driscoll has called in Castille.


Sancho has a shot of losing stressed.


Another sheikh captured! These dudes are great, they pay 70 gold in ransom.


Illiterati is married off and an alliance with England is formed.


England calls us into their crusade for Antioch. Sure, we'll join that, cant really send any troops though.


Driscoll is put in prison.


Kind of bad timing, dude. I can totally deal with this one right now.


Gomez gets a few jerks to join him.


2 local jerks, and 2 foreign jerks support Gomez in his 2nd or 3rd attempt to take the throne. I should probably just kill this guy.


Sancho is a bit of a whiner.


Peace! Well, one of the 3 wars is ended. The vassals are no longer in rebellion and this lets Aragon once again focus on conquering Tarragona and Rosello from Kabylia.


Ransom money is about the only thing keeping Aragon going right now.


Well yes, Driscoll, this is kind of the point of a dark cell in the dungeon.


Then again, Driscoll has money and Aragon needs money.


Wuh-oh, a bunch of messages popped up!


Sancho II is dead, Dustbuster II is the king now.


Ransom money!


I noticed up in the top right, Parcae is dead! I'll have to remember to name a kid Parcae again when I get a chance, otherwise that name is not going to go on.


The war with Kabylia is almost over, just one army left to defeat and the war should end.


That battle was won, and a look at Dustbuster II. He's 9 and only has 1 trait so far, genetic ugliness!


Another holy order is formed. There are 2 now, and mercenaries should no longer be necessary against Muslim enemies.


The war is won. We're over the demesne limit again.


Dustbuster (brother of King Sancho, the uncle of Dustbuster II) is given the county of Rosello, new vassals are created for Tarragona's city and bishopric.


The capital is moved to Barcelona.


Europe.


The HRE still going strong, still going ridiculously Cathar.


The local area.

[dustbuster]

That battle was won, and a look at Dustbuster II. He's 9 and only has 1 trait so far, genetic ugliness!

Did you forget to assign him a guardian?  Or did his guardian die at some point?

[fermun]

Hmmm, he has a guardian 2 or 3 pictures before he inherits and then lacks one as he inherits. I had given him off to a guy http://i.imgur.com/jkgrh.jpg and that person died shortly before Sancho II died and then it looks like I did not reassign a guardian. He's only 11 so there's time to give him a new one.

[fermun]

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The local area.


Driscoll seemed the best choice to pass Dustbuster off to. I was looking for someone with good diplomacy, both stat-wise and primary-trait.


Mauretania declares a holy war for Valencia.


D'awwwwww.


That didn't last long.


Woah, there is a heck of an army coming in.


Holy orders can't be hired due to not having enough piety. 157.5 piety is not an absurd amount, as Dustbuster II is gaining 0.72 piety a month plus you gain piety for winning battles against heretics and heathens as well. It does mean that you're not going to be hiring holy orders in your first decade or two of rule unless you have a successful holy war though.


The sultan is personally leading that army marching our way.


The Company of the Hat is hired, I think this is enough to win the main battle which will hopefully then give time to start invading Mauretanian Al-Andalus.


It seems I was wrong.


More levies were raised from vassals and gathered to relieve the siege.


Victory this time!


A valuable life lesson.


With another big army on the way again, the current army is dismissed and the leaders are sent home to organize reinforcements.


More mercenaries don't hurt either.


Disloyal vassals are ransomed back to pay for upkeep.


Dustbuster is seeming kind of a shit.


Gregarious is pretty nice, gives a decent bonus to diplomacy with no trade-off.


You might have decided too late here, bud.


Aragon is all Catholic again.


That is a really nice reparations payout. We're not totally at peace as there's some kind of war going on with Beja for the last... while, I don't even know how long.


Europe. That Holy Roman Empire is still going strong.


Religion map, Catharism is spreading like crazy in Germany and northern Italy but has also made inroads into HRE Norway and HRE Scotland.


The local area.


Any opinion on what we should do now? We can easily conquer with 3 good options on the table:
1) The last county in Valencia (owned by Mallorca)
2) The two islands of Mallorca and Menorca (owned by Mallorca)
3) The two counties of La Mancha (owned by Cordoba)

[Lukeington]

I don't really know because I don't understand what is more beneficial in this game, but I say option one, then move on to the islands afterwards.

[Parcae]

What factors affect building a navy? It strikes me that, if you use maritime provinces for that, then a navy might be quite useful to interdict reinforcements from Moroccan Mauretania in the next war. So I guess that's another vote for the rump of Valencia.

Cordoba looks like a bad idea because it will give you a border with Beja and I assume they would dogpile you if given half a chance.

[fermun]

I don't really know because I don't understand what is more beneficial in this game, but I say option one, then move on to the islands afterwards.

It comes down to how rich a county is and what de jure kingdom it is under.


Green is richer, the color takes into account everything including stuff like the recently conquered flags. Most of the red tinted stuff in the peninsula is because of the recently conquered of a different religion flag on the county. Basically to get rich enough to start improving everything until we're powerful enough to crusade, we need to take bright green counties and then convert them.

The last county in Valencia and Mallorca/Menorca are part of the de jure Kingdom of Aragon

What factors affect building a navy? It strikes me that, if you use maritime provinces for that, then a navy might be quite useful to interdict reinforcements from Moroccan Mauretania in the next war. So I guess that's another vote for the rump of Valencia.

Cordoba looks like a bad idea because it will give you a border with Beja and I assume they would dogpile you if given half a chance.

Building a navy is the same sort of idea as raising levies. All baronies in coastal counties get some ships which you can raise as needed.

We can raise 16 ourselves and get another 46 from vassals if we need to, but at the cost of a temporary loss of relationship with them. Navies can not interdict though, there is no naval battle in Ck2. A larger navy would just allow us to strike at their home.

As for a war with Beja, yeah that's pretty likely, but we can almost hire holy orders now, just 50 more piety to go, easily possible, though the Templars and the Hospitallers are both currently under contract with the King of Denmark conquering Finland and Prussia. They are normally 7000 soldier armies that work like mercenaries but super cheap.

[Karlski]

Yeah finish beating up Mallorca, grab those islands since one of them is rich, then move on to take Cordoba's shit.

[Gitro]

I agree, take the last county in Valencia then move on to the islands.

[fermun]

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The local area.


First things first, war for Denia!


This guy rebelled against me once and he thinks I'm going to make him the duke of the home duchy? What a dumb dude.


Regency over!


Oooooooh. That sounds nice.


Stats are decent, not great. Dustbuster badly needs some stewardship.


Engeltraud had the second best stats of all Princesses. The only one better was someone with a club foot and I don't want a bunch of club-footed kings.


Off to the west, Cordoba has pushed back Castille.

You might also have noticed that I'm building improvements, focusing mostly on stables. This is because cavalry is pretty dang powerful.

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The exact specifics of how combat haven't been released but the devs have endorsed this explanation of mechanics. A soldier is taken out of combat in one of two ways: he dies (which his defense rating protects against) or he flees in terror (which his morale rating protects against). He causes those effects in the enemy by attacking them. So the basic measure of worth in combat is called the ADAM rating: Attack, Defense, Attack, Morale, multiplied together.

But there are multiple phases of combat, and each unit has different attack and defense ratings for each phase, so different ADAM ratings. The 3 phases are Skirmish, Melee, and Pursuit. It's easy enough to compute those different ADAM ratings, but combining them is trickier and needs to be done to compare archers (strong in skirmish) to heavy infantry (strong in melee). The formula used is 2*Skirmish ADAM + Melee ADAM + Pursuit ADAM. That number for each unit type then gets divided by the rating of light infantry (the lowest overall value unit) to get a relative scale shown below in order of increasing power.


Unit Relative Battle Value
Light Infantry 1.0
Archers 1.7
Heavy Infantry 3.3
Pikemen 5.1
Light Cavalry 14.8
Horse Archers 23.1
Heavy Cavalry 48.5



There's also an element of randomness in battles so the strongest army doesn't always win, but this allows useful comparison and more importantly, this allows you to compare what improvements to make to your castles. If I want to pick between a Militia Training Grounds (+80 Light Infantry, +10 archers) and a Small Stable (+45 light cavalry), both of which cost 100 gold, I know that I should go for the stable first.

CatAstrophe didn't have any children named CatAstrophe, so I'm giving her another shot at getting the name established.


This is a bug! For some reason when I conquered Tarragona, the court chaplain of Kabylia didn't get kicked out. First bug I've come across.


The King of Galicia has an awesome nickname! Nicknames are earned by various actions, the amount of piety you have, the amount of prestige you have, completing ambitions, etc. They are usually based on someone from history with that nickname, but there are some unusual ones to me. The Dragon is given if you do lots of fighting other religions and are either excommunicated or an impaler. The Terrible is the strangest one to me, as it is given if you are a bad ruler rather than a fearsome despot.

Also, the war is basically won, Galicia did about all of the work and we just gotta wait it out now.


The war is won January 25th, 1127. That gives a truce with Mallorca until 1137 when we can capture the last bit of the de jure Kingdom of Aragon.


Here's a look at our counts. They all hate us right now because Dustbuster's demesne limit is 7 and he's holding 9 landed titles right now. They also hate us because they'll only accept us holding 2 duchy titles right now without being angry. We hold 3, but there's a fix for both these problems.


Already pretty loyal, Karlski Karlskez loves us for giving him land. This is Karlski's son, if the Karlskez didn't give that away already.


This dude is given the county of Tarragona to get us under the demesne limit. I picked him because he wasn't terrible, he liked us ok, and his heir is named Karlski.


Europe! France has fallen into civil war, with the massive Duchy of Aquitaine fighting for independence.


Religion. Catharism is still going strong but the Cathar emperor is now 59 and infirm, he won't last long and then there could potentially be some crazy crap going on, depending on who manages to inherit.


The local area. The vassals might revolt warning up top will go away as soon as we give away a duchy title. Since the capital is now in Barcelona and the old capital was in Alto Aragon, plus all the territory we personally hold is in the Duchy of Barcelona or the Duchy of Aragon, I figure to give away the title for Duke of Valencia.




Who should I put in charge of the Duchy of Valencia? The other two will become their vassal.

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This is Count Driscoll's grandson.

[Lukeington]

Karlski seems like the best choice.

[SteelFan714]

What are the pros/cons of giving the higher title to the most powerful person? I'd imagine there's a greater risk that if Karlski does revolt he will be difficult to put down, but if he stays loyal will his higher stats make him better at supporting the empire?

[fermun]

The better the stats, the better they run their duchy. Namely the stats you're looking for in a good vassal are Diplomacy (1st stat) and Stewardship (3rd stat). If they get disloyal, the stats to worry about are Martial (2nd stat) and Intrigue (4th stat). Learning doesn't matter too much in your vassals. Karlski's relationship with us will max out if we give him the duchy title.

There's also the trait Ambitious to think about, Pelayo is ambitious (the little circle with the thought bubble with a crown in it). That means if he's a count, he will want to kill the duke and take his place, if he's a duke, he will want to kill the king and take his place. I've been dealing with him, but now it's going to be a choice of either putting him into a more powerful position or putting someone over him and hoping they deal with him well.

[Karlski]

My namesake seems to have the best stats, he seems the obvious choice. Plus, look at that beard.

[SteelFan714]

In that case, if Karlski is going to be about as pro-King as we could ask for, then giving him the title seems best given he is much better at the helpful stats and fat enough to not be bothered with ambition.