CK2 - Completing Conquista

[Cyneheard]

You can also destroy ducal titles now, but there's a very large negative opinion modifier for doing so. But it does mean that if you won't have whole duchies revolting. (and you can destroy the title at the end of a reign to make the modifier irrelevent considering you'll have a new ruler soon.

If you holy war for a province, you can usurp the ducal title, destroy the title, and THEN give away the holdings without any negative opinion modifiers. The destroy title option is very easily broken if you try at all to game the system. I recommend we not destroy ducal titles, although since we can revoke them at no tyranny, it's not that big of a deal.

[Mist]

Can I request a lot of detail for this upcoming section? I'm usually loathe to incur the -20 to all vassal hit for imprisoning, so I'd like to see how you overcome / get around / absorb this.

He started with 7 ducal titles (HOW did that happen?), so there's 5 extra ones to give out.

Cyneheard's right, this one will be mostly handouts and making sure the troublesome, ambitious vassals stop being *my* direct vassals. The easiest way to make someone give up his land is to raise his regiments and start incurring penalty for having them up too long. Eventually he will revolt, at which point you can lock him up as a traitor and strip of one title. You were also able to revoke titles of pagans / heretics, which meant a lot of court chaplains setting up inquisition tribunals all over the place, but that seems to have been patched out ( or at least moved to medium crown authority ). Third option is to plot to revoke title, those plots tend to open for vassals your character dislikes and those holding titles you have claim on.

Also, I think the Muslim rules are different on ducal titles (I'm 95% sure we can revoke them without incurring tyranny). Maybe that's the answer to my question above.

You can revoke titles of your dynasty members and of infidels once your crown authority is medium or higher. All other target include normal tyranny penalties.

[Sareln]

If you holy war for a province, you can usurp the ducal title, destroy the title, and THEN give away the holdings without any negative opinion modifiers. The destroy title option is very easily broken if you try at all to game the system. I recommend we not destroy ducal titles, although since we can revoke them at no tyranny, it's not that big of a deal.

Primary purpose of destruction of ducal titles seems to be to let kings have a larger ducal-penalty-free demense if they're coming up from say... Ireland (where most of the duchies are 2/3 counties each...)

[Mist]

OK, not much time for updating, but let's carry on.

Great land giveaway.

I start by figuring out which emirates do I want to keep. From west to east we have :

Algrave - Small, seven holdings currently, eight max. Three castles, two cities, two mosques. Troublesome ambitious vassal in Sheikh of Silves. This one needs to go. The most loyal local vassal is Youssuf from Youle mosque in Faro, he gets the county and the emirate, sheikh of Silves becomes his underling. His heir is 4 years old, when he grows to six I'll take over his education to make sure he grows into a content administrator.

Sevilla - this emirate is five provinces, but about half of it is ruled by Almoravids and the rest is severly undeveloped. I don't want to take it over before it's unified. Until then there's a content local noble in mayor of Ecija that can do a nice job of paying us taxes and not causing problems. Giving him county and emirate makes it an republic, which is a nice little bonus. Big vassal paying at 40% is not bad.

Granada - our home turf. Stays.

Cordoba - one of our earliest conquests. Cordoba province is also one of the strongest in Spain ( along with Granada, Sevilla and Barcelona ). Stays.

Murcia - a poor backwater that has no future. Given away to a local, content, mayor which makes it another republic

Valencia - all three provinces have a sheikh. Ewww. The least troublesome of those rules Valencia itself. Honest and lazy won't be plotting against me much. His heir is already 14 and content which is fantastic news for the future.

Mallorca - now talk about bad land. Surprisingly there is a sheikh there who's a distant relative, content and with no claims. Perfect kind of family His heir is educated by a content brilliant strategist, which makes that an even better fit. He gets the job and brief of not dying to any future crusades.

This leaves me with four vassal Sheiks.

Catalyud, Tarragona and Lleida are ruled by converted Sunni Catalans. I'd prefer to replace them with Andalusians, but lack proper legal pretext to do so. For now my court imam went thataway to look for heresies.

La Mancha is a cowardly, envious lout with no education, ruling over a piece of land that's not really rich. I transfer him to emir of Toledo to offset the hit from increasing crown authority.

[Tyrmith]

What exactly is the benefit of having a vassal a republic?

[Cyneheard]

What exactly is the benefit of having a vassal a republic?

City tax and levy laws apply to the district, instead of feudal ones. More money, fewer men.

[NobleHelium]

You also get a penalty for different government type...

[Mist]

You also get a penalty for different government type...

Yes, that too. But extra money, and a vassal that won't blob up by inheritance is usually worth that modifier.

Anyhow, I did mention I inherited a war. What I did not mention is that I also inherited a battle in progress. Our 11k army engaged enemy 8k stack in Leon. And promptly lost The genius leading centre of the line decided that heavy cavalry charge straight into enemy pike wall is the way to go and the whole line collapsed soon after. I managed to disband the surviving 4k before pursuit caught up, reformed the army half a year later and with help of some mercenaries retook the initiative.

The year also saw us complete a castle holding in Almeria. Sigh. This should be a city. All empty coastal slots should become cities, they bring so much more income thanks to the harbours, that building anything else is just plain trolling :neenernee

Now to the key highlight. Plotting!

There was one ongoing known plot in the land



I put an end to it because organiser was from abroad.

My options on the other hand are as follows



I can kill a baron and inherit his castle as a result.
I can kill my nephew and stop him from inheriting claim on Andalusia this way.
I can kill my wife.
I can aim to become a paragon of virtue. This is not exclusive with above three

Let's start with my nephew first. Dear half brother had picked himself a reaaaly bad spymaster, who didn't like his employer ( or his family ) very much and didn't have high moral standards. A little bit of gold



convinced him to lend me his 340% plot power. He promptly found a willing killer



and my poor nephew was laid to rest



This is indeed a cruel world for children.

The death of a nephew opened a chance to kill his father. I enlisted help of my favourite spymaster again, but this time it was not required. Mardoq had a bright idea of his own



and it worked without a hitch



Half-brother dead. No children alive. Whole branch of claimants eradicated *and* we got the sheikdom he ruled too. Next target will be the unfortunate baron, but that will take a while, barons don't have a big court and its hard to get a plot with high power going.

[Mist]

One of the secondary wives got ambitious and pushed for a better position



I went along with it, she has better stats than the primary wife and the primary wife does not like us very much ( AI apparently had an affair *and* legitimized the bastard, imbecile of a bastard might I add ).

Emir of Toledo saw the writing on the wall and capitulated at 37% warscore



Since we were finally at peace, it was time for more plots

pilgrimages ( old man gave a bunch of gold, bleh )

and tournaments

Our cruel steward suggested a direct approach to problem of overdue taxes



And then, with levies rebuilt, heights of Virtue not reached yet and Spain still not unified under our malevolent rule it was time for war again. Especially given a certain... opportunity



it must suck being a big kingdom in the middle of a civil war

Holy War for Navarra, commenced

And concluded about a year later. Despite help of some random christians, including Papacy



France never fielded enough troops to challenge on the field ( max I've seen was around 6k in a stack ) and after few successful sieges, folded with no direct battles fought.



Not long after there was an excellent opportunity to exploit



which was promptly taken.

In foreign news, the Pope called crusade for Jerusalem again and Knights Templar order got land in Palestine.

[Mist]

Played a bit more, got Paragon of Virtue ( yes Mardoc, that means you're Holy ), but mostly expanding soldier base ( archery ranges everywhere ftw ). Now that the heir just hit 18 in some style, time for a family update. I edited the save to give all the children proper name.

From oldest to youngest :

[SIZE="3"]Princess Lewwyn[/SIZE]



Lazy, greedy, unambitious, brave and patient education failure. Married off to somewhere in Caucasus.

[SIZE="3"]Prince Bob[/SIZE]



Ambitious and diligently deceitful Also, unholy 22 intrigue batman

[SIZE="3"]Princess Scooter[/SIZE]



Twin of prince Bob, ain't she cute? Lazy, angry, glutton. About to get married off to somewhere in Caucasus

[SIZE="3"]Princess Selrahc[/SIZE]



A little monster in the making, I'm proud of the results thus far. I'll marry her off to my worst enemy

[SIZE="3"]Prince Jkaen[/SIZE]



Ambitious, moronic, shy, bastard. I'll lock him up soon and will throw away the key. I'm just curious how bad will he end up being

[SIZE="3"]Princess Pling[/SIZE]



See that intrigue? It's coming, there's an elusive shadow in the air And food, lots and lots of food

[SIZE="3"]Prince Sareln[/SIZE]



He's shy. Must be all the rushing. Or his twin sister, make your pick

[SIZE="3"]Prince Pindicator[/SIZE]



Do we have a future soldier here? If yes, he might even not end up locked in a dungeon

[SIZE="3"]Princess Pling[/SIZE] ( yes, again ) ( blame Cyneheard, he gave her three entries on the name list )



And a special mention to one old soldier

[SIZE="3"]Prisoner Bob[/SIZE]



50 years in prison and still going strong!