Changes have ruined this game for me. Vassal control is almost impossible now.

[d.a.t.a]

Whatever balancing changes that's been done to factions and vassals, I HATE IT. It's completely ruined this game for me. I used to be able to get to emperor with a fun/reasonable level of difficulty before. Like 8 out of 10 games I would make it.

Now, almost every game I play, as soon as I'm close to getting my emperor title, the game just spams bad events. Literally was waiting for the response to a peace deal after which I could form my empire, then I get murdered. RAGE.

So my splintered kingdoms now belong to my siblings. I don't rage quite this time and manage to get both my other kingdoms back after some sibling rivalry. Not as soon as I'm back to stable does everyone in my kingdom start deciding it's time for independence. Had 5 independence wars, one after another, and due to me being at war constantly all the vassals that did like me then start to hate me because of the offensive war penalty. So then they rebel.

I've played over 20 games and this has happened almost every time now. As soon as I'm close to achieving emperor, everything just starts to go wrong.

I know it didn't use to play like this, so I now just hate this game cause it's just no longer fun when it seems so unfair.

[Razorblade]

Marry your family members to troublesome vassals' families to get an alliance, which prevents them from rebelling. If you have more rebellious vassals than you have children and sibling to marry off, start handing out duchies/kingdoms to vassals you have alliances with. Indirect vassals cannot rebel, so placing would-be rebels under a loyal vassal complete neutralizes them as a threat.

With those two easy strategies, you'll never have another rebellion again. Realm management in CK3 is actually ridiculously easy when you understand the mechanics.

[d.a.t.a]

Yeah, thanks for that. I do understand the basics. |3

I was more venting about the balancing changes made because it seems that now you are more frequently simply overwhelmed for attacks/factions/claimants/rebellions than before.

[Maison De Cornusiac]

It really should become tougher, the higher your ambitions are. Like in real life.
Posts at the top are getting sparser and sparser and people wanting them use more and more ellbows (armored ones in medieval times) in increasing competition over them.
No idea what is there to complain about, unless someone wants to play a Disney kind of fairytale.

[Jackochainsaw]

Feeling your pain dude. Had the same problems recently. Haven't enjoyed the most recent patch. I find the vassal management infuriating. After about 8 hours of play I got demolished by 12 vassals after 7 months on the throne as King in Maghreb. Couldn't do anything to stop them, couldn't get an alliance strong enough to help me out. I find the only thing that works well is if you know your leader is dying, you make sure to have about 10 prisoners in stock and leave them to fester. Then when your new guy or gal takes over, drop a dread bomb by executing all your prisoners. It intimidates all of the lesser vassals. The other nuclear option is if you know you are going to have a really troublesome individual who is going to turn over the apple cart, let them go independent then consolidate your forces and kick the bejesus out of them later. It's painful but less painful than a game over screen.