So...what now? (an AAR of sorts)

[Vikes546]

I decided to begin my first "serious" game as Earl Alfred Aethelwulfson, Earl of Dorset and Somerset in the year 867.
2 years and 18 days later, on January 19, 869, I suddenly found myself inheriting the petty kingdom of Wessex when my older brother and liege Aethelred died "of his wounds".

I wasted no time in taking over my weaker neighbours, starting with Cornwall and then East Anglia, a task made easier by the Viking raids weakening their armies and completely ignoring me for whatever reason.

By now my brother-in-law Burghred of Mercia was getting his ass kicked and losing territory on the east coast to some Jarls from the north, so I decided to ignore that patchwork of provinces and focus on the west coast. A few short years later and I was the King of Whales, land of the unpronounceable, thanks in large part to my archbishop getting me 2 full duchy claims in a row.

At this point, having nothing better to do, so I decided to take over Ireland. Starting in Desmond and working my way up to Dublin, before redirecting my attention back to the east coast of England because my archbishop managed to get me another full-duchy claim.

Since I now surrounded the remains of Mercia on 3 sides, I decided to pay my sister and brother-in-law a visit and generously decided to take over the administration of their lands. After securing "the home front", I decided to push north up to Hadrian's Wall, and formed the Kingdom of England after a few more years of conquest.

While southern Ireland was firmly under my control, the northern part was a bit of a mess with 4 different rulers controlling 6 provinces, so I decided to invade Scotland, aided once again by my excellent archbishop getting me 2 more full-duchy claims.

After finally conquering what was then known as the Kingdom of Alba, hindered as I was by a very weird declaration of war by some douchebag from Sweden, I pushed west through The Isles, and invaded northern Ireland, ultimately conquering it, and finally establishing the Empire of Britannia.

The date is now the 20th of July, 912 AD. I'm 63, and probably about to drop dead of old age. My first son apparently choked to death on a chicken bone about 25 years ago, and my 2nd son died in battle, meaning the empire I somehow managed to create in just 45 years is going to be split between my 3rd and 4th sons. My gay, celibate, one-armed, drunkard of a 3rd son is my heir, so I guess that'll be interesting, although he did manage to get maimed and lose his arm in the very last battle before I formed the empire, so maybe his stump will get infected and he'll die. That or perhaps another fortuitous chicken-bone will make an appearance. Of course if that were to happen I'd end up playing as my 4th son, who is currently 2 years old, so hopefully good old Emperor Alfred can hang on for a few more years.

Either way though, I don't think the empire or the family dynasty is going to do too well in the near future, especially since I have an empire made up of pissy vassals who all want seats on the council. The problem is there are only 4 slots, and they're all ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with crap skills, except for my marshal, who, despite being a dwarf like his father before him, has a martial skill of 18. I guess being at ball-height has advantages sometimes.

Anyway, my "question" is : so what do I do now? I can apparently declare 21 wars at the moment, a bunch of which are holy wars stretching all the way into Russia for some reason. Doing that would more or less see me conquering the remaining Vikings too, so there's that. I could also invade France and try to get that whole Holy Roman Empire thing done by moving east into Germany, but ehh...that honestly just feels like "more of the same" and I'm a bit bored of conquest right now.

CK3 feels kinda "empty" compared to CK2 at this point, it seems like there's a lot less to do. Maybe I should have accepted that offer to become a witch 30 or so years ago. I guess I could always roll a new ruler and begin a eugenics program to make a race of giant albinos in Moravia to take over the world.

[thomashenders]

Form your own Church? Romance your wife? Romance someone elses wife? Start a murder fest to secure your legacy? Focus on your entire dynastic tree to breed for 9 foot tall genuises?

Or do what every bored British Monarch used to do: Invade France.

[The Former]

It sounds like the wrong kinds of things excited you in terms of whether or not you're compatible with CK3.

[Al120]

I'm sort of in the same situation but with a Kingdom, even mopping up Kingdom of Albia too.I just formed a holy order and is just waging holy wars to get the northeners off my lawn.

[lefty1117]

Restart on a harder difficulty IMO, OP. By the way I believe Aethelred gains mortally wounded every time on the 867 start, that seems to be scripted. I've done several starts as Alfred (big The Last Kingdom Fan!) and it always happens that way whether I help his armies or not.