Playing in the Iberian Peninsula

[Pedroga]

Serious question, has anyone successfully played out from any Iberian Peninsula Kingdom?
I must have tried 20x on ironman mode and failed. Gameplay wise feels like the Ummayad Kingdom is fair more united. The infighting between Asturian/Castillian/Leonese kingdoms seems to always bring down any chance of against a much stronger unified Ummayad kingdom. Historically there was a critical event which broke up the Ummayad into smaller independent groups, but this doesnt seem to play out in the same scale.
Any ideas/advice on winning strategies? I've tried both military or diplomatic maxims but no success in either.

[volcaniclastic]

I had some luck with Asturias, first conquering north for haestienn and then leon (in britanny), if you can build up some decent power in the north, conquering south gets much easier

[snuggleform]

I mean in 1066 it's really easy if you play as Emir, take Cordoba then steamroll from there. However since you mentioned Umayyad I assume you're starting as 867?

[pauloandrade224]

Originally posted by Pedroga:

Serious question, has anyone successfully played out from any Iberian Peninsula Kingdom?
I must have tried 20x on ironman mode and failed. Gameplay wise feels like the Ummayad Kingdom is fair more united. The infighting between Asturian/Castillian/Leonese kingdoms seems to always bring down any chance of against a much stronger unified Ummayad kingdom. Historically there was a critical event which broke up the Ummayad into smaller independent groups, but this doesnt seem to play out in the same scale.
Any ideas/advice on winning strategies? I've tried both military or diplomatic maxims but no success in either.

I have did a Full portugal Run even up conquering a lot of africa and europe but it wasn't easy no sir.

[CrUsHeR]

1066 is "the way it's meant to be played". The 867 start is just very very bad for feudals and clans.

- You have extremely low income, iirc even Byzantium cannot build new holdings because they don't have the technology at game start. Which means you can hardly wage wars without getting lucky with frequent ransoms, and still your troops are extremely weak unless you can also hire mercs.

- You have no laws to maintain order inside your realm via crown authority, so everyone can declare war on anyone they want. This always leads to vassals growing grotesquely powerful, and larger realms ultimately implode via independence factions.

- Everyone is restricted to Confederate Partition for so long that their realms can technically not survive, which is probably the dumbest design decision.

[javnj1974]

Ive never been able to survive iberia for more than 2 generations in 1066. The muslim nations stack allies and declare war on you with like 2000-4000 troops and they have another 7000-10000 from allies.

[snuggleform]

Originally posted by javnj1974:

Ive never been able to survive iberia for more than 2 generations in 1066. The muslim nations stack allies and declare war on you with like 2000-4000 troops and they have another 7000-10000 from allies.

Ally france or sneak your way a bit east and submit to the HRE? If you play from the muslim side of iberia you run into a roadblock when for example galicia allies up to france, so why not do the same if you're playing the jimenez side? The muslim alliances also aren't always lockstep you can poke weaknesses in one of the many splintered nations there.

[pauloandrade224]

Originally posted by javnj1974:

Ive never been able to survive iberia for more than 2 generations in 1066. The muslim nations stack allies and declare war on you with like 2000-4000 troops and they have another 7000-10000 from allies.

Actually you can totally convert but not really convert to muslim then get vassalised by them then Gain power while ur powerful lord protects you then rebel and take over to then own the Peninsula!

I started in 867 tho so i probably had an easier time

[Pedroga]

Originally posted by CrUsHeR:

1066 is "the way it's meant to be played". The 867 start is just very very bad for feudals and clans.

Yeah, i think that was a good summary of the challenges. I always try to start in 867 but yes, feels like the chips are stacked against you that way.

[Pedroga]

Originally posted by pauloandrade224:

Originally posted by Pedroga:

Serious question, has anyone successfully played out from any Iberian Peninsula Kingdom?
I must have tried 20x on ironman mode and failed. Gameplay wise feels like the Ummayad Kingdom is fair more united. The infighting between Asturian/Castillian/Leonese kingdoms seems to always bring down any chance of against a much stronger unified Ummayad kingdom. Historically there was a critical event which broke up the Ummayad into smaller independent groups, but this doesnt seem to play out in the same scale.
Any ideas/advice on winning strategies? I've tried both military or diplomatic maxims but no success in either.

I have did a Full portugal Run even up conquering a lot of africa and europe but it wasn't easy no sir.

Thats epic. I'm happy to start with Iberian Unification. = )

[Fane Whitefang]

I did duke nuno achievement and currently doing reconquista achievement and some others, Starting in 1066 is much easier than 867 in Iberia that being said just wait for the kingdoms to implode in 867 starts because of competitive partition

A little tip in Iberia the province of Cordoba is insane it is probably one of the best provinces in the game, The only downside to that province is it's farmlands so making it your capital is nice but not ideal as the game goes on

Succession is what you want to pay attention to and how many children the current rulers have, Like I said competitive partition will make any great kingdom a small fry once inheritance starts kicking in, You can keep rerolling a start if you want until the ruler of those kingdoms have a trait that boosts fertility this will make it so they have a good amount of children allowing the succession law to make the kingdom collapse on death

I hope you can grab any helpful piece from this at all if you did great =) if not I tried :P

[Dark Money]

I started with King Sancho II (Ironman mode) and I united all the Spanish thrones. I've led my dynasty for 8 generations and have fully created the Empire of Hispania. Powerful alliances and scheming can be the best bet in most dire situations.