Legends and Plagues - Pindicator Plays the Newest CK3 DLC

[haphazard1]

Sounds like you are stuck in a pretty constricting box. If the current problem is the small domain limit, is there any way to increase that? You wrote that it is at least partly due to Count Smbat's poor stats; is there any way to improve those? Advisors or councillors with better stats to compensate, or other means? (I don't know much about CK3, but seem to recall advisors having that effect in other game reports.) Or are you stuck waiting for your heir to take over and hoping he develops into a better ruler than his father?

[pindicator]

Is it possible to just be eliminated outright early on in CK3 like is possible in Civ IV? Could that happen to you with this start?

This is a very real danger, especially when you are small.

Sounds like you are stuck in a pretty constricting box. If the current problem is the small domain limit, is there any way to increase that?

There are ways, but none of them quick. I could start down the Architect lifestyle tree - the second to last perk gives +2 domain limit.

Every 6 points of Stewardship grants +1 domain limit. We could switch lifestyle trees to Stewardship to give a boost. Our wife's traits help: we either get 20% of all our wife's traits added to ours, or we can specialize and add 50% of one trait.

Lastly domain will go up with technology unlocked, but this is on the scale of hundreds of years been tech.

[aetryn]

Is it possible to just be eliminated outright early on in CK3 like is possible in Civ IV? Could that happen to you with this start?

It's less likely here than in EU4 where the big AIs will scarf up any minors they can get a claim, but it's still very possible. That's kind of one of the charms of non-symetrical starts - some of the AIs are Byzantine, or in EU4, the Ottomans or France and can absolutely hand you your head early on. Some of the AIs are just food. Ironically, what makes this start hard (lands in 3 different de jure duchies) also probably protects it a little, since it's unlikely any one rival will have claims on all 3. That won't help against a dogpile, though.

[pindicator]

Count Smbat, Part One: An Easy Victory

Let's play the game, shall we?





We'll start with our lifestyle trees.  The crossed swords icon with the single star means our character's education is in military.  The single star means he's the worst rank (Misguided Warrior).  Still, we get +10% lifestyle experience as opposed to going in another tree.  Smbat is actually alright when it comes to the strategist branch, with most of it filled out.




Bellum Justum means our wars cost less prestige or piety to enact, and the 6 perks we have branching off from there all make our armies stronger.  Here is a link to the CK3 wiki if you want more detail as to what exactly they do.

On the left there are also 3 areas of focus.  Each lifestyle has 3 of their own, each with different bonuses.  I select Chivalry for Smbat because it will make my marriage prospects a little better, will help out my Prowess (how well i fight in battle), and also because it stacks more Advantage bonus (how well my army fights when I lead it).  As a reminder about Struggles, as an Interloper I get +10 Advantage when leading my own troops during the Unrest phase of the Iranian Intermezzo, and so I want to stack that even higher here.

While we're talking about military, let's look at what we command:




Our army is almost 1,000 troops though that will fluctuate as we go through the game.  Each holdiing provides its own share of levies, which is the bulk of our army.  The knights can be real powerhouses on the battlefield - they are all the people in our court.  The Prowess attribute of each player helps determine how good of a knight they are.  And then there are the men-at-arms regiments.  We start with 300 bowmen and 20 onagers.  The bowmen are selected, and there's more detail on the screen about their stats.  I'll answer any questions if you want me to go into more detail there.

Because we are a culture with the Eastern Roman Traditions tenet, we have access to build Cataphracts!  I want to get some regiments of those, but they are expensive.  Also, I'm full up on my Men-at-Arms.  I need to wait for more technology to unlock before I can get a third slot.  I thought about going into culture and technology, but perhaps we'll wait there.  Right now I don't have any control over that anyway.

One more thing with the military screen:  I make an Accolade for my Marshall:




He is known as the Most-Feared in the Household.  Seems a fitting title to bestow on the only other living adult of my dynasty.  Basically I spend Prestige now to give my knights an accolade, and if the knight wins glory through battle or tournaments they level up their accolade, which can then give me bigger bonuses to armies and such.  I think the top end is unlocking special men-at-arms regiments.

Next up is getting married.  Let's find a nice princess whose father has a large levy to call in our aid!




Prospects unfortunately are very thin.  The only decent marriage I can make is with the daughter of Count Yakinthos of Lykia.  He has 700 men and is on the southern shore of Anatolia.  Everyone else is under 200 men and farther away.  Nobody wants to marry an Apostolic Count who seems fated to be gobbled up by the Abbasids or the Byzantines.  The same for my son, so I hold off on any betrothal for him yet.


And finally we unpause.

Start by ordering my marshall to train commanders, my spy to find secrets in the court of the Yazidids, and my Court Chaplain to forge me some claims for the county of Kakheti.  We'll gobble up one of the one-province counts while waiting to see how the Yazidids shake out.

We hire Aspuraces (37, Aspostolic, Armenian), as our Court Physician for a sum of 50g.




Physicians are a lot more important now that plagues are a part of the game, but let's hope Aspuraces isn't tested too quickly.  (Roupen was one of the worst chocies I've ever seen, by the way.)

Aspuraces' salary is paid for with my wedding to Aigidia.  Whenever your character gets married you always get an event asking if you want to collect a Royal Aid Duty - you can accept for gold, or decline for prestige.  We're poor, so I go with the gold.

Unfortunately Emir Haytham also got married:  to the daughter of Caliph Mu'tazz.  The Abbasids and the Yazidids are now allies.  So much for attacking them.

By the end of the first year, Chaplain Ashot has discovered who to bribe.  I pay 75 gold and declare war:




Our 830 men vs his 530.  I decide not to call my ally in and handle this myself.




We march straight to his capital and engage his armies there.  A decisive victory!




With their army scattered we lay a five-month siege to the capital.  By June of 868 it falls and we declare victory.




A new mechanic for this DLC is Legitimacy.  This is a bit of a solution to give players more friction in some game mechanics:  no more marrying the lowborn landless peasants just for their traits, or being able to disinherit bad heirs without penalty.  Depending on your title, you are expected to have a certain amount of Legitimacy.  Being a Count, I'm only expected to hold the lowest level.  I gain 50 Legitimacy for winning this war, and move up to the 2nd level.




In the following year, I try to assassinate Emir Haytham's wife (to nullify his alliance with the Abbasids) but my plot was quickly discovered.  I earned a claim on the county of Tblisi thanks to a blunder by the Caliph's chancellor.  This would give us enough de jure territory to form a duchy - if we ever get in a position to attack the Abbasids.  Our son, Sahak, gets his first trait event:  I choose Content for him (-1 Intrigue, +2 Diplo) over Fickle and Trusting.  The Abbasids get into multiple wars, which becomes the norm over the years.

But the biggest news happens in February of 869:  Emir Murr ibn Isa of the Banu Tayy Emirate has paid the High Chief of Vogulia to invade, inviting the steppe horde clan to come south and conquer them.  Inviting a horde is part of the Iranian Intermezzo, and it also seems a bit problematic - if they win I think the horde gets the duchy.  But this also explains why the Abbasids aren't able to help:  they cannot be called in as an ally to attack one of their own subjects.

In 870, the Yazidids are conquered.  Our new neighbor is Chieftain Yerneslu of Mugan:




He has taken up the local Zoroastrian faith, and commands 1400 troops.  And then the game gives him 1000 more special units to help solidify his gains:  500 horse archers, and 500 light horsemen.  I will have to save up for mercenaries before I can match his numbers.

But I realize another problem with my situation:  I cannot declare for the whole duchy.  The only way I can get the whole duchy at once is to declare a Holy War - but I do not have enough Piety built up for the Duchy conquest, only the County conquest.  I will have to go on a Pilgrimage in order to earn the Piety.

Which means we need to go on an Activity!

[pindicator]

Count Smbat, Part Two: Holy War

I realize that a lot has changed since the last time I posted a playthrough here.  Before, when you would go on an activity you would select an activity and then wait for several events to pop up, make your choices, and that was it.  Hunts, Pilgrimages, Feasts - it didn't matter what or where the activity was.

But now the characters actually have to travel there.  And so when we go on a pilgrimage, we actually walk to the site.  Provinces can be more or less dangerous depending on terrain, attitude of neighbors, plagues, war, or a number of other factors.  You can hire a caravan master or other specialists to help mitigate this danger.  And you can make a number of selections to tailor the experience of your journey.

I'll go in a little bit of detail here for the first activity.

The first thing we do is plan our activity.  I choose a Pious Pilgrimage, as gaining enough Piety to declare a holy war is my goal.




Next, we have to choose which of our religion's holy sites we make the pilgrimage to:




I don't think I need to go crazy here to get enough Piety, and I am rather poor, so I choose the closest holy site at Suenik.  The farther sites will give more piety, but also cost more gold.

Then there's the actual travel to play:




A Caravan Master is a court position, and a bit of a must-have here.  I have a courtier with Average compentency, Vakhtang.  He gets the job.  I could also hire some additional specialists, which generally will help for safety along the way.  Notice the path on the map showing the way I travel from the capital at Ganja to the holy site at Kapan?  Depending on the route it can increase danger along the way, or we can take a longer way to go around.  In this case we have a 14% chance of danger at Kapan due to the mountainous terrain there.  I decide to save some money and risk the 1-in-7 dice roll.

Finally, some more options in the lower right:  I set an Intent of Altruism to gain more piety.  I could spend more money to increase my Piety as well, but i want to keep this cheap and save my gold for the mercenaries after.  I will feel foolish if I don't earn enough Piety at the end!

With all the planning complete, I hit Start Pilgrimage and watch Count Smbat begin to move across the map.




we arrive in Kaplan without incident.  I gain the trait Pilgrim (+5 Travel Speed, +5 Travel Safety, +5% monthly piety).  Smbat stays in Kapan for some time with events popping up roughly every week, sometimes events you can make a choice in but often just a pop-up saying what you did.  I While there I donate funds to the holy sites at Suenik, spend time in prayer, tour the site, buy an Indulgance through my Bishop Ashot, spending another 25g for 100 piety.  My time there also causes Smbat to bond more with Bishop Ashot, his physician, and his son.  Whenever I got an option I picked to earn piety, though I tried not to spend much gold.

One of the more interesting events I received during Smbat's time in Kaplan was that I got the opportunity to buy Count Vasak's physician and smuggle her out of town with us when we depart:




My physician is better.  She would make a nice spymaster, but her Intrigue is only a couple points better than my current spymaster.  Not worth the trouble.

By July it is time to leave.  We receive a pop-up summarizing the activity and signaling its end.




This does not count the piety we earned from random events along the way, so really we ended up getting over 500 piety for the whole trip. 

We return back home without event.  While my ruler is away, a regent ruled in our stead.  For us, since our heir was too young the game set our Marshall, Movses, as our regent.  He hands back the reins of power without incident.  Sometimes they don't always do so, especially for a long regency and if the regent is not so selfless.

Now with enough Piety to declare for the whole Duchy and gold to hire a strong mercenary band, it is time to invade the horsemen to the east.




As I'm looking for a mercenary group with pikes to hire, I notice Chieftain Yerneslu is on an activity of his own!  Notice the character icon showing him in Zaydid to the southeast.  He has spent his money on a pilgrimage and so will not be able to hire more mercenaries himself.

I wait a few months to reach 183g, then in March 871 hire the Band of Sermaj and declare war.  My 2600 against his 2100.  However, I am still wary as he has horse archers and I have mostly levies.  I must avoid meeting him in the open plains.

Instead our armies skirt around each other and we both siege each other's forts.  This is to my advantage as I have better siege equipment




During the siege I get a random event where my character makes a dagger.  It ends up being a poor artifact weapon, but as I do not have any artifacts I'll take what I can get:  it gives +1 Prowess.  I also successfully ask my head of faith for 100 gold, spending 250 piety.  The Pilgrimage has paid for itself with interest now!

By the end of August I have taken his fort, and his siege is only halfway through.  If I can siege another hold before he finishes I can win this without a fight!  I realize now that I could have split my forces into multiple sieges, but I did not want to risk my forces being picked off piecemeal.

Instead (and it happened so fast I didn't get a screenshot off), he finished his siege as I was tring to finish up the siege of Shaki, and his horse archers raced back to fight my army.  I tried to move a screening force off, to engage while I bought my siege weapons more time - but that was even too slow.

He caught my whole army at Shaki, and slaughtered them all.




Horse archers are no joke. They killed over 1400 of my men and I only killed a handful.

Against a human I would have been dead here, but the AI is not so ruthless.  It ran back to unsiege its capital, and that let my surviving 91 troops get back to Parnes.  Again, I'm the better siege specialist, and even with my 91 I was able to retake my land before him.




This was enough to get White Peace.  Again, a human never would, and if I had not finished my siege before the Chieftain retook his capital then the AI would never have accepted a white peace.  But I'll take what I can get after having my army brutally butchered on the plains of Shirvan.




Somehow I earn 200 Prestige for receiving this beating.

[thestick]

Wow, that was brutal. Really excited to see where this goes.

I'm a bit confused by the Yazidids and the Vogulia horde. In this sentence
"Emir Murr ibn Isa of the Banu Tayy Emirate has paid the High Chief of Vogulia to invade, inviting the steppe horde clan to come south and conquer them."

Does 'them' refer to the Yazidads? You said that the Vogulia horde was a subject of the Abbasids, so even though the Yazidids and the Abbasids had an alliance, the Abbasids couldn't join the Yazidids against the Vogulia?

[pindicator]

Sorry, that needed proof-reading. I jumbled everything up there and made it more confusing.

Emir Murr rules Banu Tayy and is a vassal of the Abbadids. The Vogulia horde was situated somewhere far to the north in the Central Asian steppe. And instead of just invading the Yazidids himself, Emir Murr paid for (or sponsored) a steppe horde to invade. This is a good feature for weakening a large nation, as the steppe horde usually gets a bunch of special troops and are some fierce fighters - as you saw from my failed attempt to invade. But when the target is a single duchy it really doesn't make much sense to invade like the AI did here: the steppe horde gets the whole duchy to rule if they win. And when the opponent only has a single duchy to its name... well, Emir Murr didn't think this one through very well.

[thestick]

Why didn't the Abbasids come to the defense of the Yazidids, when they had an alliance?

[pindicator]

Because of a game mechanic: you cannot be called in as an ally if that would mean attacking one of your subjects. Because the war was started by one of the Caliph's vassals, that means the Caliph was unable to come in on the side of the Yazidids.

Edit: I just finished playing the rule of Count Smbat. Will aim to write up the rest this weekend.

[haphazard1]

Things seemed to be looking up for the pious pilgrim Count Smbat, but then the war went very poorly as his forces were trampled and shot by horsemen. Ouch.

Thanks for posting this, and for explaining things. I look forward to hearing more of the life and adventures of Count Smbat.