Tips on how to make Britannia?

[Cyber_Wizard]

I am now 9th in my line and keep losing england to my brother. EVERY TIME. Should I just wait for late medieval to get Primogentuine?

Also My damn Brother keeps taking one of county. Making me have to once again make another Duchy....

[Athmet]

When I started as Wessex, I quickly move my capital to Lunden and appropriated all the counties of that Duchy. That way, I would at least keep England and that Duchy since they would be your primary title ?

There might be wars to fight when some other kids will get the Wales or Scotland, if you have those counties/duchies. But if you are quick enough, you can manage to create Britannia with your 2nd descendant I would say.

It helped me that a lot of duchies were taken by the first Norse invasion so I could holy war them a lot and with enough Piety you can go for the whole duchy each time.

[Cyber_Wizard]

Originally posted by Athmet:

When I started as Wessex, I quickly move my capital to Lunden and appropriated all the counties of that Duchy. That way, I would at least keep England and that Duchy since they would be your primary title ?

There might be wars to fight when some other kids will get the Wales or Scotland, if you have those counties/duchies. But if you are quick enough, you can manage to create Britannia with your 2nd descendant I would say.

It helped me that a lot of duchies were taken by the first Norse invasion so I could holy war them a lot and with enough Piety you can go for the whole duchy each time.

WTF I didn't know you could just move you capital to a new Duchy! This whole time I could have at least have england to reconquer ireland.

Forgot to mention I am playing Ireland. I formed it many times lol.

[50 Shades of Gandalf the Grey]

There is no need to ever switch inheritance laws away from Confederate Partition.

What you need to do is control your line of succession. First step is to get Male or Female Preferred. I'll assume you go male.

After this (which is I think a start for most of the major Brittania players, meaning you don't need to do anything), just control your line of succession. Get rid of extra sons by making them knights and 'forcing' them to go into battles. There are other choices too. If all else fails, 'Disinherit' them as your House Head, for 300 prestige/150 renown.

Dip 2 perks into Learning lifestyle to get the ability to become Celibate. Have kids until you have the desired heir, then go Celibate. Kill/Disinherit/Other method (example of other method is to imprison a son and force him to take the vows, exchanging the renown cost for mild tyranny) out the extra heirs.

Daughters are gravy to farm for incestual trait farming/alliances.

Playing smart with your succession removes hundreds of years of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around with Partition based Succession laws, and lets you get real big real quick.

[archonsod]

Switch your primary title to the King of England and it'll ensure it goes to your primary heir.

You don't need to worry about kingdoms going to other heirs provided you still have (or can get) enough provinces to create the Empire title. Once you do you'll get DeJure claim over all the British isles, at which point any wayward kingdoms held by your family are usually happy to peacefully become your vassals.

Depending on your partition type you can pre-empt it rather than letting it parcel lands out after you die. If you grant your second son the Kingdom of Wales for example he won't get another kingdom until all other heirs have one, and for obvious reasons if you do need to reclaim the land by the sword it's much better to be England versus Wales than the other way around (the same applies prior to claiming any king titles for that matter; if you're going to have to war with your brothers to take the land back, it's much easier if they're stuck with smaller titles like the Duchy of Mann than if they inherit all of Wessex).

You can use other kingdoms for much the same purpose (Brittany being an obvious example), which has the benefit of largely removing them as an obstacle to forming Brittania, however they will still be in the line of inheritance for any loose Duchy or Earldom titles you're holding when you die, and since they're not part of the empire force is usually the only means of taking them back. On the plus side though having them as independent kings will boost your renown income, and in somewhere like Brittany they're usually much more interested in grabbing land in France or Spain than they are interfering with your conquest of England; just be careful with signing alliances to avoid being dragged into pointless conflicts in the Basque,

[NorPhi]

My approach was like this: Pick someone who easily can conquer all his neighbours. House Neil in the 867 would a a contender. They also start with one county of and the duchy title of Meath in Tanist elective which makes it a little easier to keep that one (until some idiot decides to elect his bastard who then becomes a different dynasty). The neighbouring irish counties are very easy to subdue as they all are weak, poor and at each other throats. I push aggressively for enough stuff to form Ireland and use the truce time to secure land in Wales and Scotland. Kingdom of Alba has tanist elective and is hold by your dynasty, so there is a small chance that your house ends up in the throne there. When succession comes around I hold Kingdom of Ireland, most of Wales (but one county short of a kingdom, that's important!) and some odd bits here and there. With my next character the focus was to secure the title of Kingdom of Alba, I had a subjugation war goal so I used that. It was ruled by Morray which controlled most of Scotland (AI went full NK mode). So pushing for Alba earlier might be better. However, once the title is secured, I immediately removed tanist elective. Cannot risk the title falling back to the other houses. Then it was waiting for succession to split of the ango saxon realms and picking off the weakest. Took a while, needed to help some rulers to kick it but in the end I managed to form Britannia with my second character. I moved the capital to London (Salisbury is also nice because of Stonehenge giving some great boni).
Ireland seems quite weak compared to the other Kingdom titles. Wales may be weaker and Cornwall has a Kingdom without counties for some reason, so it's important that your main heir gets the Empire and England. giving all your stuff outside of England to vassals will ensure that extraneous heirs only get the Kingdom titles and have to revoke stuff to fill their domain limit this should keep them busy enough to get them killed, which downgrades their claims on your stuff.
Intermarrying with your vassals will keep them from forming factions, just don't marry your heir to a landed person. The AI is horrible at picking knights and send this 0 Prowess diplomat to be mauled by a peasant revolt.

[Captain Crummy]

Originally posted by 50 Shades of Gandalf the Grey:

There is no need to ever switch inheritance laws away from Confederate Partition.

What you need to do is control your line of succession. First step is to get Male or Female Preferred. I'll assume you go male.

After this (which is I think a start for most of the major Brittania players, meaning you don't need to do anything), just control your line of succession. Get rid of extra sons by making them knights and 'forcing' them to go into battles. There are other choices too. If all else fails, 'Disinherit' them as your House Head, for 300 prestige/150 renown.

Dip 2 perks into Learning lifestyle to get the ability to become Celibate. Have kids until you have the desired heir, then go Celibate. Kill/Disinherit/Other method (example of other method is to imprison a son and force him to take the vows, exchanging the renown cost for mild tyranny) out the extra heirs.

Daughters are gravy to farm for incestual trait farming/alliances.

Playing smart with your succession removes hundreds of years of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around with Partition based Succession laws, and lets you get real big real quick.

I disinherit sons by puttign them in jail and only let them go if they take the vows. Costs no Prestige or Renown, and they will reject their lineage.

[NorPhi]

Originally posted by Jim Puff:

I disinherit sons by puttign them in jail and only let them go if they take the vows. Costs no Prestige or Renown, and they will reject their lineage.

How do you deal with the massive -20 opinion penalty through tyranny that this incurs?

[Captain Crummy]

Originally posted by NorPhi:

Originally posted by Jim Puff:

I disinherit sons by puttign them in jail and only let them go if they take the vows. Costs no Prestige or Renown, and they will reject their lineage.

How do you deal with the massive -20 opinion penalty through tyranny that this incurs?

Well if my son gets -20 opinion of me, who cares? I just turned him into a monk which means; no spouses, no children, no heirs and he holds no lands. What's he gonna do?

Edit; and I forgot to add, by the time they are 16 their opinion of you is usually way above 50 anyway.

[NorPhi]

No, it's tyranny, it's -20 Opinion for everyone.

[archonsod]

Originally posted by NorPhi:

How do you deal with the massive -20 opinion penalty through tyranny that this incurs?

Dread. Doesn't matter if your vassals hate you as long as they're too terrified to do anything about it.

[JuX]

To make it happen you gotta remember that tittles equal to your main tittle will break away on succession which is to be remembered when forming kingdoms and empires.

[Cyber_Wizard]

This some good advice. Thanks everyone, I am still having fun, even more fun when I have many family members in distant lands of Jerusalem ^^

[The Former]

Now that all the real advice has been given out...

Hire a wizard and search a lake for a sword.

[Cyber_Wizard]

Originally posted by World's Coolest Old Guy:

Now that all the real advice has been given out...

Hire a wizard and search a lake for a sword.

Thus I shall, seek one.

[BoydofZINJ]

I started in Alba - Capture both Ireland and England... form both those kingdoms... then form either Wessex or Alba (or have the title) and then form the Empire of Britannia.