Best Starting Nation

[Sckalthor]

Hello, I am new to the game and the paradox series, first of all I want to say that is a very good game, rich in history and culture and super addictive, with a modern and simple interface very easy to learn and remember things than the other previous titles, because my problem is the mechanics of the game itself, I restarted several times the campaigns with Munster and Bohemia because I was not able to expand and my vassals went to war with me or because I did not choose the nation well, then I ask what is the best nation for beginners if you want to say some tips are free!

[dwarfpcfan]

Out of the advertised pre-made characters Bjorn Ironside who starts as Duke of Uppland and forms the kingdom of Sweden is one of the easiest starts in the game. He starts with insanely good diplomacy stats so his starting vassals all have high opinions of him and he can leverage that diplomacy to VERY quickly expand then form the kingdom of Sweden it's also very easy with bribes and gifts to then absorb all of Danemark and Norway if you go down the middle tree of diplomacy to get True Ruler as a perk

It's entirely possible to form the Empire of Scandinavia in 1 life time with him using this tactics and he have good stats accross the board.

Another who is a very easy start is Rurik the Norse Ruler of Gardayaki. He starts out the gate with all the prerequisites to form the Kingdom of Novgorod, really good stats, an acceptable heir and a really good wife with an inheritable trait and the ability to use to ally with Bjorn Ironside if you need a strong alliance (which you shouldn't)

That said if you are looking to learn and willing to start a bit more challenging. My suggestion would be to start as the duke of Prussia or Samogtica and try to either form the Kingdom of Lituania or Livonia (with the Proclaim Terra Marianna decision)

The reason I'm suggesting this is because Lithuania with the baltic pagans are probably the best place to learn the fundamentals of the game without too much difficulty while having all the core mechanics to deal explore

You'll have vassals to manage, but as long as you are careful they should not be problem neither lithuania or livonia are too large as kingdoms go too so as long as you take the necessary steps to keep vassals in line and are careful with expansion they are easy to form and hold

their native religion Vidilism also has holy sites that are either within your kingdom's region already or very close, allowing you to pursue devellopment and technology to eventually reform your religion and then feudalize from the ground up.

Both Lithuania and Livonia are also by no means weak as a kingdoms once you start snowballing them and once you form them it's relatively easy to expand outward to form the Southern Baltic empire which is a relatively small empire in a region with a lot of easily conquerable tribal counts and dukes.

Out of the two Livonia is the harder to form but it's definitely stronger because the special decision to form it gives you viking longships allowing you to raid just as effectively as vikings which is a huge boost to your wealth early game before you feudalize.

That said Lithuania while easier is still nothing to sneeze at. It has a lot of good land to build income and military buildings. The holy sites while not the best in the game are also pretty good.

You'll have to deal with raiding and invading norsemen and slavic neighbors nipping at your heels but both are great to learn how to protect your realm and bringing them to heel is a great goal for later in your playthrough.

It won't be as easy as say Bjorn or Rurik as both are hideously well positioned at the start along with being Norse which is the strongest culture in the game at the moment.

But Lithuania has great growth potential and it's well positioned to experiment and learn the game without having too many obstacles to prevent you from feudalizing and forming an empire

[Sckalthor]

Wow thanks so much for the information, i haveing a problem to managing titles and vassals but Tomorrow I'm going to start a new campaign with Bjorn ironside as you suggested, as I said I restarted several times with Petty Kingdom of muster because of Scotland they annex very quickly some lands In Ireland and my troops are no enough to fight, and with bohemia I can't expand much due to my vassalage to the HRE and internal riots with powerful vassals...

[dwarfpcfan]

If you want to expand easily. Bjorn is your man his insane high diplomacy allows him to peacefully vassalize most of Scandinavia in a single life time with minimal effort.

His only downside is his starting heir is very underwhelming, but he's by no mean unsalvageable and there are ways to remove him from succession if your get a better heir through a concubine or if your wife dies,

[Sckalthor]

Bjorn ironside will have 99999x wife's until he has a good heir 😂

[dwarfpcfan]

Originally posted by Sckalthor:

Bjorn ironside will have 99999x wife's until he has a good heir 😂

I'd be carefull with that. You're tribal so you start at confederate partition inheritance law, if you want to keep your realm together, you want as few male heirs as possible at start so once bjorn dies your heir has as much land as possible.

[Sckalthor]

Alright I marked your words bro 💪

[Sckalthor]

What about Domains?
Some times I keep them at max sometimes not I know it's about the successor partitionsl stuff but some times I have them all again I don't know how

[Xi Jinping]

1.Dyre the Stranger(Konugardr)(Kiev) is a million times better than bjorn ironside in everyway although to innacurate OP
Hes younger
more genius and can seduce every genius/beautiful woman

Good luck finding a game with a equally as good Sif with 4 star diplomacy


Haesteinn and dyre the stranger and the best vikings in different ways


Bjorn and halfdan are old and infirm randomly at like age 51 soon as you start the game lol
and gets a lisping kid
Not recommended

Haesteinn infirm at age 110

[Salfordshire]

Cornwall.....

[Rialm]

For me it's going to be Italy, Firenze. Or any place in the middle of Italy. It's so fun, so many things to do, so many place to go.

[Mo0on]

Personally, if you're brand new to CK3 you shouldn't start as a King or Emperor. You have to have a little know-how to keep your realm together and its a lot of things to keep in mind especially for someone brand new.

Pick 1 COUNTY somewhere you want to play and create your own ruler, have some fun. This way you get introduced to the mechanics as they progress in difficulty from count>duke>king>emperor.

If you're brand new and you start as a king/emperor I promise you will lose your realm, many many times before you understand wtf is going on.

IF you must play as a emperor go with the Byzantine empire in 876 because they start with primogeniture, which means only ONE of your children will inherit ALL your titles which means you don't have to worry about your other children stealing your titles/land.

[Sckalthor]

I always like to start from a small country to a large one i will going to try for Jarl Heinsteinn

[A Velociraptor]

Personally i'd recommend starting out as a duke vassal in Germany or France. That way you get exposed to all aspects of gameplay. starting as a vassal with vassals of your own you get experience managing your realm as well as protection from large threats outside of your lieges realm. You also have the chance to get some nice buffs from getting on your liege's council to help develop your land more, especially if you are good enough to become your liege's steward for that bonus to tax income.

[an entire Roman legion]

I always just get steamrolled if I try to start as a duke :(

[Sckalthor]

What is steamrolled?