Count to Duke Progression?

[Zalym]

This is my first real game of CK3. I've bounced off it a couple times.

Anyway, I have all but one county in the Duchy of Acquitaine, and it is the one I'm pursuing at the moment. But this last county (and the Duchy) is held by my Duke/liege.

To obtain the ducal title I need to do more than just get a CB for the county and take that title, right? Meaning, even if I take and hold all of the counties, I do not automatically get the Duchy title.

Would I need to try and get a CB for the Duchy of Acquitaine instead of the county?
and/or
Would I first need to declare independence from my liege with a target being the Duchy? If that is even possible.
or
Is there a way to persuade the king to grant me the Ducal title without initial combat with my liege?

I read that I couldn't be a Duke under my Duke (obviously) so I wasn't sure of the order of steps I needed to do to make this work. Thanks for any help!

[AC Denton]

You should just become said duchy upon conquest of all counties as the current duke will no longer exist - well he may still exist elsewhere but not in that duchy.
You can also create a faction against your liege and declare an ultimatum for independence if you feet like it.

Also a tip:
The bottom right of the screen.
There are options for counties, duchies, kingdoms, empires and realms.
Select duchies.
Click on the duchy you're going for.
If you have enough counties in said duchy already and the funds, you can click usurp.
This will give you a CB on all counties in that duchy and make you the duke/duchess.
If you share the same liege, your liege may assign your foe as your vassal.

This goes or usurping Kingdoms also.

[Zalym]

Thank you and thanks for the tip. I'd used that map to see the boundaries but never thought to click on it to see if it acted differently.

[teron]

How powerful is your liege? Since if you have a much higher force limit and better forces then him, you could form an independence faction and try pressing your demands. With forming the faction, you get the choice of when to fire it.
If it fails you are in an independence war, if it succeeds you are out from under your liege.
If he has non de jure vassals, you can try making them like you more so they join.

Edit: Just checked, liege has to be independent for you to form that faction against him. So no go with him being a vassal to a king.

Alternatively there is a stewardship perk in the administrator tree called Meritocracy. Which allows claim throne scheme. It gives a claim on your liege's primary title. Though I have only used it as a Duke to claim a kingdom. Thus I am not 100% sure it works as a count on a Duke. Then you can war him.

Also keep in mind, how poor is your liege. Since he needs money for mercs, and being negative gold gives bad bonuses over time. Or act when he is busy fighting a war somewhere else, especially if it is far away. Since his troops are likely to be lower supply when they return.

Since once you are out from under him and have the king as your liege, you can usurp his title. Also if that is his only ducal title, he becomes a count and all his count vassals release from him.

Some prep stuff for this can be the following:

• Try to get on your liege's Council as the steward. Since being the steward to a duke is +1 gold per month, +10% holding taxes and -10% construction costs.
  
• Keep improving your domain to increase your income and levies. Income meaning more man at arms and gold stockpile to hire mercs.
  
• Try to get a hook on your liege, and renegotiate your contract. Basically force your taxes to him as low as possible. So you get more gold, he gets less from you.

Note if while trying to get a hook on your liege via the spy masters find secrets you happen to find very bad dirt. E.g. serious crimes like being a cannibal, witch, attempted murder of the king or something else. You can expose the secret to see if the king will arrest and revoke the title.

Finally, since it is a lesser known thing. If he was not your liege, and you took all the land within the de jure of his title. The title will auto destroy after some time. You can sometimes use this to really screw over people, since if it is their primary title and highest ranked title it can possibly shatter their realm.

[Zalym]

Originally posted by teron:

How powerful is your liege?...

Thank you, for all of that information!! I'll read that a couple of times before trying this scheme tomorrow.

[teron]

One other thing to check, the succession of the title by clicking on it. It will show who is in line for the title, primary heir, and then who gets it if that person is dead.

This is mainly if the liege has a lack of heirs you will see the Duke's Liege (the king) in line of succession. There being rare cases when vassals will die out, and the title transfers to the king.
So for example if a couple accidents were to cause the king to get the duchy title, and you were to happen to join or ideally form a faction for some reason against the king. He may be motivated to bribe you with his new ducal title to get you out of said faction.