Advice for a Kingdom of Wales - Britannia in 1066. (Long Description)

[Vincent_Krys]

Greetings all, a relatively new player here (CK3 is my first Crusader Kings) and as the title suggestions, I'm stuck where to go from here. I would love any advice from Veterans, or any suggestions and/or corrections to how I do things. It would be greatly appreciated.

For some context: I really enjoy creating my own rulers and starting as a count; I feel very attached to my ruler, wife and court when I start this way and much more achieved when I create a Kingdom. One of my favorite Starts is Wales in 1066, specifically as the Lord of Morgannwg as my own Custom Character. Stewardship is so far my favorite lifestyle (I know I'm boring but cut me some clack, I'm still pretty new).

This is also my first start instead of Ireland, so I've had a lot practice from here, so much so to the point where I can hold all of Wales from a count in about 20 years and I can do it consistently. My strategy for doing this is like so:

1st - I marry one of Gwynnedd daughters - He has claims on all your land and will attack you almost instantly when you start, marrying one of his daughters prevents this. Whenever I can ask the Pope for gold, I do it during this whole time.

2nd - I Immediately start fabricating claims on Deheubarth, preferably individually instead of the whole duchy since getting the whole duchy will mean you'll get vassals which is what I don't want in my strat - I'll explain later. If I do get a claim on the whole Duchy, I accept it, wait for the debt to subside (Quickly make money as a Steward) and take the Duchy with Gwynedd's help. I then revoke the titles on the vassals.

3rd - I start Fabricating a Claim on Gwynedd, and once it succeeds, I move onto Fabricating Powys and assassinate Gwynedd (He is almost always a 95/95 chance, not sure why but he is. Plus even if I'm not intrigue, I have tonnes of Money and I can just hire assassins to always get it to 95/95). if I get the Whole Duchy, I revoke titles from vassals. (During all this, I am betrothing my Children for alliances and doing Marshal Control on my counties) After Gwynedd, I form the Kingdom.

4th - Powys should be done with the Fabricating and I take the 2 Counties there individually or at once, revoking the titles if I get a claim on Duchy, getting help from allies during all this.

By this time, I hold all 3 duchies with no Vassals after 20 years. For some further context, I have Gone Stewardship - Domain Focus into the Architect Tree. All 9 Perks are done just as I reach the end of taking all of Wales, plus all my Stewardship focus plus my Wifes help gives me exactly 12/12 domain at this point. I usually have about 3 Sons too, and with 3 Duchies, it works out perfectly so Gavelkind doesn't screw me down the line.

As for the Tyranny, I have found a really easy way to deal with this. First, did you know that if you revoke a title and the Count and he declares war on you and other counts join him, once you win the war and you imprison all the counts, you can revoke all the titles from lets say 4 counts, and only get penalized as only one title revoked? - It works. Maybe this is well known but I just figured this out on my own not too long ago, so by using this method, by the end of holding the entire Kingdom, I only have 40 Tyranny. This can easily be dealt with as well, since I go down the administrator tree into Soon Forgiven quickly at this time, and in less than 15 years it's all gone. Everyone seems to love Stewards too, so the negative opinion - I don't even feel it. Even the negative opinion from 3 Duchies, I still have a positive opinion from my entire court (Not from Mayors but I don't think that counts) despite all this.

***Now onto the main purpose of this post***

By this time, I'm slowly dealing with Control through my Marshal and I start building with all the gold and bonuses I have from the Architect Tree (I usually have over 1000 gold by this time through the Tree and asking the Pope for Gold whenever I can). I give out a Duchy to my 2nd son once he turns 16, trained by me in Stewardship so the negative opinion is gone, and I'm swaying the Mayors who have negative opinions on me. I am now stuck with a decision: Move into Ireland, Scotland, or England. Ireland seems like the obvious choice, but by the time I take most of Ireland, England has take the northern part of Ireland and France, plus they have so many allies. I try to assassinate William and/or his children from the alliances but they are so resistant to it it seems impossible as a non-intrigue character. I would like some advice on how the hell to deal with this?

- Should I quickly move onto England first when they are weaker with all my allies?
- Should I continue into Ireland first? This saves me money and prestige since I don't need to call them and Ireland is so weak
- Or should I do Scotland first? I can usually crush them but this seems like the least likely path to take first.

[Red_Dwarf]

Personally I'd move on Ireland, if you secure some duchies early on you can had them off to any future children to keep your domains intact.

You seem to have your head screwed on so go after England when your confidant you'll win, If they're too strong try to form an alliance with them or someone strong so they dont move on your land and wait for a chance to attack, like when their Monarch dies. When you do fight them tho make sure you have a good army, I dont like relying on Allies since the AI can be...Questionable.

[Vincent_Krys]

Publicado originalmente por Red_Dwarf:

Personally I'd move on Ireland, if you secure some duchies early on you can had them off to any future children to keep your domains intact.

You seem to have your head screwed on so go after England when your confidant you'll win, If they're too strong try to form an alliance with them or someone strong so they dont move on your land and wait for a chance to attack, like when their Monarch dies. When you do fight them tho make sure you have a good army, I dont like relying on Allies since the AI can be...Questionable.

I'm thinking that waiting for William to die of old age is the only option to take down England during that window. England is stronger than the Holy Roman Empire for God's sake at this point. By the time I take most of Ireland, I field about 7-8k Troops, but England has over 10k at that point PLUS their 4 allies, and as the ultimate goal of forming Britannia this is going to be a problem. I also agree with your statement on the AI - they seem to be very questionable at times as allies.