How do i beat the enemy king who has 20K army ?

[Gladiator]

I am the high king of Ireland and i have half the Ireland and i want to capture the entire Ireland. I have about 3.5K army. How the hell am i suppose to beat the enemy king with 20k army ? He the king of lotharingia. He has hafl my ireland, half england and an enitre kingdom of his across the ocean.
please help.

[pauloandrade224]

its actually pretty easy

Destroy ur kingdom title and ask as a duke to be his vassal and destroy him from within

[AC Denton]

You ally someone strong enough that you win the war.

Otherwise just wait until the King of Lothringia dies. His Irish land should go to one of his heirs, now independent and significantly weaker; attack him.

You could ally try swear fealty to him, then attack your fellow vassal that holds the Irish land. It means doing an independence or claimant war later though.

Sometimes in CK3 it's all about waiting for the situation to change. Bide your time until you can make your move. Instead of uniting Ireland, you could focus on conquering wales and form Wales. Brittany might work too.
Orrrrr form a custom kingdom. You only need like 3 duchies I think. They can be from anywhere.

[Skorpius]

Assassinate him and then conquer the next heir. May have to assassinate a couple heirs before they get weak enough, also will break the alliances they had.

[Gladiator]

Originally posted by pauloandrade224:

its actually pretty easy

Destroy ur kingdom title and ask as a duke to be his vassal and destroy him from within

Wow, that's a nice trick. This will definitely open up several paths for me.

Originally posted by Skorpius:

Assassinate him and then conquer the next heir. May have to assassinate a couple heirs before they get weak enough, also will break the alliances they had.

This could work too.

Originally posted by AC Denton:

You ally someone strong enough that you win the war.

Otherwise just wait until the King of Lothringia dies. His Irish land should go to one of his heirs, now independent and significantly weaker; attack him.

You could ally try swear fealty to him, then attack your fellow vassal that holds the Irish land. It means doing an independence or claimant war later though.

Sometimes in CK3 it's all about waiting for the situation to change. Bide your time until you can make your move. Instead of uniting Ireland, you could focus on conquering wales and form Wales. Brittany might work too.
Orrrrr form a custom kingdom. You only need like 3 duchies I think. They can be from anywhere.

I tried allying with others and the best i could bumb up my army to was 8.5k soldiers. Waiting for king is waste of time that why i asked help from you guys.
yeah, ill try to destroy him from within.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ guys, thats some pretty devilish ideas there I'ma try and break him from within. This is perfect as my character has a focus on intrigue so i can pull this off with ease.

Damn, I cant wait to hear more tips and tricks from other members in this forum.

[Abacus]

Allies.

of course the true ck way is to do as mentioned and destroy them from the inside as a duke.

[Don-Meisner]

Save up money for mercenaries.
Get allies
Wait for him to die so his successor will lose all of this allies and be weaker.
Timing is everything

[desaix]

Allies. Mercenaries. Delaying tactics in the hopes he gets distracted by a second war, or just gets tired of your war and offers a white peace. Better quality troops (unlikely being largely tribal Ireland vs feudal Lotharingia, but that's one way of handling it when heavily outnumbered). Assassinate him in the hopes a less competent king takes over his throne who might not be able to handle so many soldiers. Worse comes to worse, do as others have said -- dissolve your title and vassalize yourself to him, then rebuild until you can declare independence again.

[pauloandrade224]

Originally posted by desaix:

Allies. Mercenaries. Delaying tactics in the hopes he gets distracted by a second war, or just gets tired of your war and offers a white peace. Better quality troops (unlikely being largely tribal Ireland vs feudal Lotharingia, but that's one way of handling it when heavily outnumbered). Assassinate him in the hopes a less competent king takes over his throne who might not be able to handle so many soldiers. Worse comes to worse, do as others have said -- dissolve your title and vassalize yourself to him, then rebuild until you can declare independence again.

or take over his title!

[Razorblade]

If you're still Tribal, just spam out high damage men-at-arms for Prestige. Levies are pretty much useless in comparison to MAAs.

If you're Feudal, then just make allies, or wait for succession to weaken his realm.

[FuscusNight]

1. Assassinate him and his heirs over and over, absolutely destabilising his realm to the point the kingdom is about to explode or has such a weak ruler that can hardly muster any men to fight for him.

2. Don't even fight , see if you can get some strategic marriages where their sons take on your daughters last names, making future potential heirs be part of your dynasty house.

3. Make incredibly strong men-at-arms by creating structures in provinces you directly own that heavily buff specific men-at-arms then set the correct men-at-arms to the correct provinces containing the structures that buff them the most, keep upgrading and overtime you will have a very high quality army that can win situation where they are heavily outnumbered.

4. Just wait, potentially something will go wrong for em and they will splinter or get weaker and then you just show up like a volcher and get easy pickings while they crumble.

5. Go for someone else first, someone that is a bit weaker and then user their lands to grow your army to take on lotharingia.

6. Breed like a rabbit, make a ton of daughters and sons and get a lot of strong alliances going that can help you steam role lotharingia.

[Gladiator]

Originally posted by pauloandrade224:

or take over his title!

How do I do that ? please explain ?

[Gladiator]

Originally posted by FuscusNight:

1. Assassinate him and his heirs over and over, absolutely destabilising his realm to the point the kingdom is about to explode or has such a weak ruler that can hardly muster any men to fight for him.

2. Don't even fight , see if you can get some strategic marriages where their sons take on your daughters last names, making future potential heirs be part of your dynasty house.

3. Make incredibly strong men-at-arms by creating structures in provinces you directly own that heavily buff specific men-at-arms then set the correct men-at-arms to the correct provinces containing the structures that buff them the most, keep upgrading and overtime you will have a very high quality army that can win situation where they are heavily outnumbered.

4. Just wait, potentially something will go wrong for em and they will splinter or get weaker and then you just show up like a volcher and get easy pickings while they crumble.

5. Go for someone else first, someone that is a bit weaker and then user their lands to grow your army to take on lotharingia.

6. Breed like a rabbit, make a ton of daughters and sons and get a lot of strong alliances going that can help you steam role lotharingia.

Got it thanks.

Coming back to your point 3. are you saying that if I buff my men at arms, my 3.5K army would be able to take on the enemy's 20k army ?

[Ordinary Cat]

Not poster for point 3, but that does sound like a big ask for an army of your stated size.

But, if you want to declare war, you do have a potential advantage. Lotharingia is quite an ocean away and that's where his capital is, right? So when he raises his army, they'll have to cross a whole ocean to get to your capital. However, the lands you want are a stone's throw from your capital.

The play is risky, but if the King of Lotharingia can't get his armies to your capital (or to your army) faster than you can successfully siege one of his irish lands, then it's very likely you'll achieve the war points in time to force his surrender. The kicker here will be your army's siege capabilities, not their ability to weather an opposing army several times their size.

Potentially bonus points if the King of Lotharingia has allies, because usually the AI will want to group up before the attack. If his allies are particularly distant, this could mean months of wait before he's likely to send his army over.

If you'd feel more comfortable with a larger army and if vikings are threatening raids for land right now, you could relinquish some land for their fealty. They usually come with huge armies, if you can get them to ally with you. However, usually they're also super old and childless/have children with other ties, so when they die, their vassal land will be transferred to Norway or something. A future issue, for sure, if the now need is great enough.