We Need a Jagiellon! - A Crusader Kings 3 Story

[Miguelito]

I've also been enjoying these, keep it up please
Is it feasible to remain a pagan until late in the game? If yes I'd love to see that. Or does it just mean to get attacked from all sides all the time?

[pindicator]

I've also been enjoying these, keep it up please
Is it feasible to remain a pagan until late in the game? If yes I'd love to see that. Or does it just mean to get attacked from all sides all the time?

I am going to do my best!  But those pesky Catholics are already coming in through the cracks and converting Vidilist provinces

[Krill]

Can't you burn them at the stake?

[pindicator]

Can't you burn them at the stake?

Only if they're my prisoner first.

But thank you for the reminder!




I really should clear our those dungeons, but I have an idea for that.

[sunrise089]

Good thread

[Bobchillingworth]

This is a great read; I found CK2 overwhelming and barely comprehensible when I bought it several years ago, but your LP at least is easy enough to follow.

[Krill]

Can't you burn them at the stake?

Only if they're my prisoner first.

But thank you for the reminder!




I really should clear our those dungeons, but I have an idea for that.

...I was taking the piss. This game is nasty.

[pindicator]

Sventaragis, Part Four: Defender of Dievas

The Livonian Chiefdom has splintered!




High Chieftain Kahar died of his injuries from battling with the Estonians and his sons, Deryab and Tarva, have each splintered the realm into their respective duchies.  I'm not sure why this did not show upon his death as I was not watching too closely. We are all in Confederate Male-Preferred Partitions for inheritance law; should this not have split back in January when he died?  Is this a bug or is something else at play?

In any case Latigalia has been a target of mine since it is within the de Jure kingdom of LIthuania and this seems like the perfect time to move in.

As we are sieging down the tribal towns of Latigalia, I receive word that Kukovaitis has died in exile.  Sventaragis is now the Dynasty Head of the Palemonaitis Dynasty.  Kukovaitis left behind 4 daughters, the youngest of whom is Kenna and has ended up in my court, and 1 son.  I decide to keep an eye on the son, I feel a responsibility for him now that I am the head of the family.  If he does not resent me.  He is currently in the Chiefdom of Memel.  I do not know where his other sisters have gone.

Back to the war, it was never really a war.  The boy-chief had 600 men at his command.  We siege the capital and capture the boy-chief and the Duchy of Latigalia is claimed for Lithuania.  His vassals become my vassals, and his land my land.  I give the provine to someone who doesn't look to cause any trouble, and then create the High Chiefdom of Latgalia, then bestow that title on my brother Sotvaras.




As far as giving my brother this much power, I don't see any harm in it now.  We get along well, my high Fame and Prestige helps vassals tow the line for me and provide me with more troops.  It could be an issue for my heir if he has to fight with any ambitious uncles who want the kingdom for themselves.  But for now I want to reward family, and so that means both brothers will become High Chieftains once I have conquered the duchies I gave them provinces in.

Sventaragis has 2 more goals now:  continue conquering the lands that are within the de jure Kingdom of Lithuania, and control any Vidilist holy sites that have fallen under pagan hands.

But then Grand Prince Vseslav II of Polotsk died, and his realm splintered among his sons.



I decide to ignore the Russian duchies and go for the Holy Site at Chelmno.  In part, I want to knock down Poland.  King Boleslaw is starting to win his war against Pomerania and I'd rather see him not do that.  Poland conquered this land from the Prussians back at the beginning of the game, and now Poland's strength is sapped in a long war against Pomerania.  Despite the Duke dying his sons have banded together and are putting up quite the fight.  The remains of Prussia also have launched a war against Poland to retake Chelmno, and while it was defeated it cost more manpower.  I decide this is the right time to strike against the Catholic power to my south.

Unfortunately King Boleslaw sieges down his war goal and wins his county against Pomeralia shortly after we declare.  We will have Poland's sole attention.

But it mattered little.




My vassal, the Chiefdom of Bartia, has taken the initiative and taken a county off of Prussia.  We are sieging down Poland right now, and I reach the next Level of Devotion: Devoted Servant.  This one is important because it gets me one of the steps for the Defenders of Deivas decision.  I need to be Devoted Servant level of Devotion, I need a Vidilist Holy Site, and I also need for 4 of my Vassals to be powerful vassals and have 60 opinion of me.

It was while I was away in my conquests of Poland, on October 29 of the year 1084 that Queen Gaila succumbed in her fight against cancer.



I remarry shortly after, Queen Noaidi, the mother of Chieftain Paavo of Onega.  I do not do it for the alliance - he only commands 600 men and I never would call them to war - but because Noaidi has a good set of stats at 9 / 7 / 7 / 11 / 20, and she is too old for children.  (Remember that 25% of those stats go to my ruler, thanks to my Gallant tree perks.)  I have 2 sons already and that is enough for when the realm will be divided. Noaidi turned out to be a rather wonderful wife. She would give me gifts in later years and her ability to run the household earned much opinion and prestige in events.

Returning to the war, the Metsanvartija are just crazy good in the forests.  Either that or my Commander trait gives me such an advantage that I am winning my battles more decisively than the game can anticipate.  When you move your troops to engage with an enemy it gives you an indication of whether you should win, win decisively, lose, lose decisively, or if it is about even.  I engaged Poland in a battle with equal numbers and they gave me the indicator that I should lose.  Instead it was a clear victory, and Poland lost several hundred men.  From that point on I was sieging down cities to earn enough war score.

For example, here it gives me the indicator that we will have about an evenly pitched battle at Chelmno:



And here is the result:



All his levies and men-at-arms were slaughtered.  Needless to say, we won this war shortly after.  I give Chelmno to one of my Champions, Ako I believe.

I really should have gone north to Courland and taken the Holy Site there next, but those duchies of Polotsk and Minsk were now fighting each other.  And since they were both so weak to begin with, I could no longer help myself.  My 3,700 men invaded in May of 1085 against the 900 from Polotsk and 700 from Minsk.    A year later the war is over.




This may turn out to be a poison pill.  These 5 new counties are all different religion, different culture group, and so their rulers and populace are all going to be more likely to revolt.  In addition, the number of wars I have been going on is starting to add up.  Every time you declare a war your subjects and the populace gets an opinion malus that goes away over time.  I'm not entirely sure how it increases, but I read that after being in a war for 6 months it goes up by 2 per month.  Similarly I believe you have to wait 6 months and then it goes down 1 each month after.

In the meantime, I also need to find someone to rule over these lands as I am over my domain limit.  Count Rogvolod has started a faction for Independence; Chief Kugis is Sambia is still upset that I don't put him on the Council (your stats suck, Kugis!) and so has joined.  Together they are not strong enough to demand anything, but I would rather nip this now.

And here I remember Kukovaitis' son.  I didn't want any Palemonaitis to go landless if I could help it.  The eldest son Svarnas is now of age.  I invite him to court, let him marry his betrothed (my niece? Well, I'll allow it...) and make him Count of Polockas, and then decide this will really be a test so I spend the 125g on the Ducal title for Polotsk and make him Duke.  Because Polockas is Feudal he becomes a Duke and not a High Chieftain - or perhaps it's tied to culture?  Either way, now I have a combiantion of Chiefs and Dukes and Counts and High Chiefs as my vassals.  I find Zealous rulers for the other 3 holdings I took off Vseslav's sons and create the Duchy of Minsk as well.  Perhaps I should not have made them Dukes, but it does bury the troublesome Count Rogvolod underneath a layer of bureaucracy; he will revolt against Svarnas now and not me.



Duke Svarnas is Ambitious, Just, and Generous.  His education earned him a Charismatic Negotiator trait.  The cracked egg means he has the congenital trait Delicate, good for -2 Prowess and a minor health detriment.  It's on the same sliding scale as Robust, but the bad version.  Honestly, he could be a problem down the line.  His ambitious trait combined with the claims on the High Chiefdom of Samogitia could lead him to revolt against me, especially if he does not like my heir.  But it is also just as likely that he gets revolt after revolt against him and ends up losing his duchy to an Orthodox Russian.

And a peasant revolt did occur a year later, but it was relatively small and limited to just my counties of Vatvyagi and Trakai.  They were quickly defeated.

And yet I cannot feel I am wasting the few years that Sventaragis has left.  He is into his 60s now and characters can very easily die in their 60s.  So while I do want to wait for the opinions to pip up, I also want to continue carving out a kingdom.  When I noticed that we have lost the holy site in Pokaini, that the High Chieftain there has converted himself and the majority of the populace to Catholicism, I cannot bide my time any longer:




Like most of my other fights, it was not a fair one.  But I wanted to show just how large of an Advantage I am getting in these wars.  +41 is rather insane.  I think in previous games I was used to seeing Advantages in the single digits, I think a +18 was the highest I could recall ever having.  But this battle topped out at +48 for one round.  The lands were taken and proper Vidilist rulers were found.  My other brother, Poklius, became High Chieftain of Courland.  Now both my brothers are high chieftains, though they rule over challenging lands.

Although I did not have the authority to remove the Catholic vassals which stayed in the realm - I have never raised my Tribal Authority in an effort to keep my vassals happy.  So all I could do is ask some to convert, which not all were happy to do.



Rogvolod is fighting against Duke Svarnas for the county of Polockas and the Duchy of Polotsk.  I asked him to convert in an attempt to harm him: if he is Vidilist and his county Orthodox then he will have less levies from the populace.  Which is exactly why he is besting Duke Svarnas, he has more troops.  However he declines and I decide not to do anything further for now, but to keep an eye on it.  Perhaps Svarnas will find a way out.




It is here that Dravenis comes of age.  I have neglected to set up a betrothal for him and so I find a Genius wife for him, like I found for Skirmantas.  Both sons are betrothed as their wives are still too young to marry, but hopefully both wives will help my sons along because neitiher of them have particularly good stats!  To celebrate my middle son's betrothal to such a genius I decide to host another feast (plus the 5 year cooldown was finally up).  I had been working on swaying my vassals' opinion of me, but after the war my powerful vassals have opinion of me of 54, 54, 100, -63, and 62.  This feast should bring them over the 60 Opinion threshold.

The feast itself has a couple good events:  I am praised for how marvelous everything is pulled off, and give the credit to my new wife.  This gives her more opinion of me, but also a small boost to my vassals for 5 years.  I stare at a bowl of gruel and draw battlefield lines, working through a scenario and gaining hidden insight into how I might use my pikemen better ... if I had any pikemen.  At the end of the feast I gain the trait Eager Reveler for all the feasts I've gone to, giving me 2 Diplomacy and 1 Intrigue.  But the best piece is the end, where all the feast participants get 20 Opinion.

I can now undertake the decision:




Breslau gets a special building called Hall of Heroes which gives 150 Levies, 75 to the local Garrison, and then for my ruler they will have +1 Prowess, +0.1 Piety Per Champion/Knight per month, and +5% Knight Effectiveness. This building can also be upgraded, adding to Levies, Garrison, and Knight Effectiveness. In addition, I gain the 'Defender of Dievas' nickname, but better gain the Holy Warrior trait: +10 Advantage against hostile faiths.  A number of my champions also gain this: Giemund, Chieftain Visvaldis, Vingoldas, Chieftain Pukuveras, Ako, to name a few of my best Champions.




You can see the new Holy Warrior and Eager Reveler traits listed under my character's name and title, and his new title as 'the Defender of Dievas'.  Age is also starting to take its toll as my character's Prowess has dropped from a high point of 20.  At 13 he is still better than average, but he is no longer the dominating force on the battlefield.  He still retains his high Commander trait, though, and still can lead troops.

But even writing this after the fact it is still hard to realize just how quickly age will turn on Sventaragis.  I'll cover his final years in one more update; this one is has become large enough.

[Commodore]

How is the son situation? Just kind of general dullards or "oh hell, these morons are going to wreck the kingdom"?

[Brian Shanahan]

I've also been enjoying these, keep it up please
Is it feasible to remain a pagan until late in the game? If yes I'd love to see that. Or does it just mean to get attacked from all sides all the time?

I am going to do my best!  But those pesky Catholics are already coming in through the cracks and converting Vidilist provinces

Hey it's a win, win. More blood for the blood god.