Ironman Elevate Kingdom of Mann

[Yhvh10]

Would like to elevate kingdom of mann and the isles in ironman. I dont play ironman much though, Any ideas for a starting character build and strategy?

[Germaine's Bra]

Ironman can take a bit of Luck at times. The best things I have found to know is having a Plan that is rather agile. If you are kinda those who bail when things go slightly sideways you'll hate Ironman. It helps you not make mistakes, and also helps you learn to recover instead of reloading.

1:Know how succession works and keep an eye on it.

2: When to end a war. Sometimes it can cause other issues that will snowball and lose you alot.

3: When to start a war. You need to be aware of if their faith has a Holy order, and if the Holy Order is raised/in service, and how large it is. I have seen a guy with 3k troops all the sudden pull an order and have 20k

4: Taking risks of any kinda are more punishing if things go bad. However You still will have to take some, and some will go bad but you can recover. The biggest thing here is knowing when to submit/bail.

I've been through Haestien (Took over most of map), Eudes, Russian, and now working on Poland.

With Poland, I just had a massive Crusade 168,000 troops invading my 38k Empire with a total of 65k troops when counting Allies. Due to reading what where the Ai would be approaching from, changing plans to defensive hold-out strategy I was slowly able to turn the tide over 10 years and win the war. Having Empire of France mostly staying out of the war was a big asset due to marriage. (The smaller Vassals of France attacked but Empire of France and Kingdom of Aquitaine and Brittany did not.)

[Yhvh10]

Originally posted by Wawrzyniec:

Ironman can take a bit of Luck at times. The best things I have found to know is having a Plan that is rather agile. If you are kinda those who bail when things go slightly sideways you'll hate Ironman. It helps you not make mistakes, and also helps you learn to recover instead of reloading.

1:Know how succession works and keep an eye on it.

2: When to end a war. Sometimes it can cause other issues that will snowball and lose you alot.

3: When to start a war. You need to be aware of if their faith has a Holy order, and if the Holy Order is raised/in service, and how large it is. I have seen a guy with 3k troops all the sudden pull an order and have 20k

4: Taking risks of any kinda are more punishing if things go bad. However You still will have to take some, and some will go bad but you can recover. The biggest thing here is knowing when to submit/bail.

I've been through Haestien (Took over most of map), Eudes, Russian, and now working on Poland.

With Poland, I just had a massive Crusade 168,000 troops invading my 38k Empire with a total of 65k troops when counting Allies. Due to reading what where the Ai would be approaching from, changing plans to defensive hold-out strategy I was slowly able to turn the tide over 10 years and win the war. Having Empire of France mostly staying out of the war was a big asset due to marriage. (The smaller Vassals of France attacked but Empire of France and Kingdom of Aquitaine and Brittany did not.)

Thanks! Yeah I have a love/hate thing with ironman.

On one hand I LOVE the challenge and I actually feel accomplished when doing it.

On the other hand I dislike the 400 limit build for my character (I usually do about a 1000 character build) and I also dislike not being able to use mods. The final issue I have is the big one of hating the fact I cant swap characters and fix issues on the map.

So yeah. Love/Hate thing.

I guess the big thing is just whats the character build to get enough assets to elevate the kingdom of mann and the isles for me.

[Germaine's Bra]

Originally posted by Yhvh10:

Originally posted by Wawrzyniec:

Ironman can take a bit of Luck at times. The best things I have found to know is having a Plan that is rather agile. If you are kinda those who bail when things go slightly sideways you'll hate Ironman. It helps you not make mistakes, and also helps you learn to recover instead of reloading.

1:Know how succession works and keep an eye on it.

2: When to end a war. Sometimes it can cause other issues that will snowball and lose you alot.

3: When to start a war. You need to be aware of if their faith has a Holy order, and if the Holy Order is raised/in service, and how large it is. I have seen a guy with 3k troops all the sudden pull an order and have 20k

4: Taking risks of any kinda are more punishing if things go bad. However You still will have to take some, and some will go bad but you can recover. The biggest thing here is knowing when to submit/bail.

I've been through Haestien (Took over most of map), Eudes, Russian, and now working on Poland.

With Poland, I just had a massive Crusade 168,000 troops invading my 38k Empire with a total of 65k troops when counting Allies. Due to reading what where the Ai would be approaching from, changing plans to defensive hold-out strategy I was slowly able to turn the tide over 10 years and win the war. Having Empire of France mostly staying out of the war was a big asset due to marriage. (The smaller Vassals of France attacked but Empire of France and Kingdom of Aquitaine and Brittany did not.)

Thanks! Yeah I have a love/hate thing with ironman.

On one hand I LOVE the challenge and I actually feel accomplished when doing it.

On the other hand I dislike the 400 limit build for my character (I usually do about a 1000 character build) and I also dislike not being able to use mods. The final issue I have is the big one of hating the fact I cant swap characters and fix issues on the map.

So yeah. Love/Hate thing.

I guess the big thing is just whats the character build to get enough assets to elevate the kingdom of mann and the isles for me.

Dude,

I don't even remotely use the Character Creator at all. I pick a lord (some from Achievements or suggested start) and just use them. Use your marriage options, education to build successors and you'll be fine. I've even done Whales for the Best Longbow archers Using everything I could find to build them and take and hold just Great Brittany. That dude in 867 starts with like 5 counties but 4 or 5 damn heirs that you have to focus on disinheriting or everything goes to hell quickly.

If I used the creator it would (and is) far far easier. If i was to use one it would be a Tyrant build only as I would want to breed into my blood line both Scaly and Albino for Natural Dread.

[Yhvh10]

Originally posted by Wawrzyniec:

Originally posted by Yhvh10:

Thanks! Yeah I have a love/hate thing with ironman.

On one hand I LOVE the challenge and I actually feel accomplished when doing it.

On the other hand I dislike the 400 limit build for my character (I usually do about a 1000 character build) and I also dislike not being able to use mods. The final issue I have is the big one of hating the fact I cant swap characters and fix issues on the map.

So yeah. Love/Hate thing.

I guess the big thing is just whats the character build to get enough assets to elevate the kingdom of mann and the isles for me.

Dude,

I don't even remotely use the Character Creator at all. I pick a lord (some from Achievements or suggested start) and just use them. Use your marriage options, education to build successors and you'll be fine. I've even done Whales for the Best Longbow archers Using everything I could find to build them and take and hold just Great Brittany. That dude in 867 starts with like 5 counties but 4 or 5 damn heirs that you have to focus on disinheriting or everything goes to hell quickly.

If I used the creator it would (and is) far far easier. If i was to use one it would be a Tyrant build only as I would want to breed into my blood line both Scaly and Albino for Natural Dread.

Yeah I like the character creation since I like to build my personal characters.

What do you mean by 'tyrant' build?

[Germaine's Bra]

Originally posted by Yhvh10:

Originally posted by Wawrzyniec:

Dude,

I don't even remotely use the Character Creator at all. I pick a lord (some from Achievements or suggested start) and just use them. Use your marriage options, education to build successors and you'll be fine. I've even done Whales for the Best Longbow archers Using everything I could find to build them and take and hold just Great Brittany. That dude in 867 starts with like 5 counties but 4 or 5 damn heirs that you have to focus on disinheriting or everything goes to hell quickly.

If I used the creator it would (and is) far far easier. If i was to use one it would be a Tyrant build only as I would want to breed into my blood line both Scaly and Albino for Natural Dread.

Yeah I like the character creation since I like to build my personal characters.

What do you mean by 'tyrant' build?

Dread, A guy/bloodline that rules by Fear. Tyrant (Overseers and Torturer trees)

Albino, Scaley are bad traits normally but they add to Natural Dread combine that with traits and you can get it higher, but it's abit harder to breed both of those into a line, as if you go down the Blood tree it will make at least one more rare (if you focus the other that is.)

I wish they would at least let you decide which ones are good or bad. These two and Giant are actually somewhat useful.

[dwarfpcfan]

I've elevated the kingdom of Mann and the Isles many times, the key really is not to over expand focus on prestige and wealth, take your domain limit in land (best done with a stewardship focus ruler that jumps into learning after for medicine focus)

Take the Northern Isles Duchy first, it's 3 islands each one county but it becomes De Jure Kingdom of Mann as long as you hold all 3 Islands. The viking chiefs of that Island are very weak and it's a breeze to conquer them.

Raid, raid, and raid again for wealth and prestige, build up your counties with halls that grant prestige income and markets for additional funds, keep raiding and expanding. Whenever possible go on hunts and feasts.

To get all the De jure duchies of the Kingdom you need Stratchlyde and the Sudreyar

Meaning you either have to play as Ivar or get rid of him. Both aren't too hard.

PErsonally I much prefer a very young ruler (start him off at 16) to give me more time to reach living legend and grab all the necessary duchies.

Provided your ruler doesn't die because of an unexpected event, you should reach living legend around 70 years old with your first ruler, and provided you raided and feasted and created duchies you should easily the kingdom by 70.

Just remember the Kingdom turns you feudal, prepare for that by saving up gold in the last decade or so. Ideally 2K+ gold saved in preparation for immediate feudalization. Pull it off and you have a VERY strong kingdom and starting point to form either Brittannia or the North Sea.

[CrUsHeR]

1. Custom Ruler in Iceland (this is so your enemy won't siege your capital during wars)

2. Marry the mom of the Lodbrok brothers (you get a lot of prestige and an alliance)
Only get a real wife / concubine once your ruler is 30+

3. Always get all courtiers married, where females marry the knights with the highest prowess matrilinearily (poor knights die quickly so you replace those often)

4. Conquer Iceland, the Northern Isles and whatever else you need as base of operations (single counties in Ireland, Iberia, etc to raise troops and drop gold)

5. Keep raiding and invest everything into Varangian Veterans

6. Once you have enough of those and a lot of great knights, try raiding realms with the largest armies while using only the VV retinue. Combined with the Pillage traditions, you get thousands of prestige for defeating the overwhelming numbers of defender armies.

7. Eventually it's time to move into Mön, make sure you also own the Hebrides and Northern Isles when taking the decision so these become part of the special kingdom.

[Yhvh10]

Originally posted by CrUsHeR:

1. Custom Ruler in Iceland (this is so your enemy won't siege your capital during wars)

2. Marry the mom of the Lodbrok brothers (you get a lot of prestige and an alliance)
Only get a real wife / concubine once your ruler is 30+

3. Always get all courtiers married, where females marry the knights with the highest prowess matrilinearily (poor knights die quickly so you replace those often)

4. Conquer Iceland, the Northern Isles and whatever else you need as base of operations (single counties in Ireland, Iberia, etc to raise troops and drop gold)

5. Keep raiding and invest everything into Varangian Veterans

6. Once you have enough of those and a lot of great knights, try raiding realms with the largest armies while using only the VV retinue. Combined with the Pillage traditions, you get thousands of prestige for defeating the overwhelming numbers of defender armies.

7. Eventually it's time to move into Mön, make sure you also own the Hebrides and Northern Isles when taking the decision so these become part of the special kingdom.

Beautiful guide! Thank you!

Ima try this later today