What is the easiest faction and start date to start off as a beginner?

[HunterFromAbove]

Title.

[Bordric]

Byzantium is pretty easy. But large and simple succession process.

[Supercow ツ]

In my opinion, Duke Bernat of Toulouse is a very comfortable start (867). You have tons of possibilites to spread out and develop your counties without hitting against a wall.

[Flybox]

Originally posted by Supercow ツ:

In my opinion, Duke Bernat of Toulouse is a very comfortable start (867). You have tons of possibilites to spread out and develop your counties without hitting against a wall.

Is he the Basque guy or one of the Occitan guys? I've tried a French Basque run a few times, and it was fun, but I didn't find it especially easy.

[Yhvh10]

Byzantium. No really.

You do not struggle with ANY of the succession issues that partition brings. And its impossible crawl out of partition until the late game. On top of that, Byzantium is located in a great spot, its quite powerful and the only possible rival for you is the Abbasids which usually collapse within 50 years. And if they dont, a few murders will solve that. To add to that, Byzantium also provides alot of fun interactions and you have an amazing decision that allows you to restore the roman empire as either a pagan or christian.

Ultimately Byzantium really is playing on easy mode. However something you will find is that CK3 isnt particularly challenging.

If you dont want to go with Byzantium - my personal favorite is Smalland just south of Uppland. Its nice because you start off with a massive army thanks to having nearly an entire duchy and zero vassals. Which is nice because it lets you make your kingdom or empire exactly how you want it.

[Razorblade]

Ireland in 1066. That's why the tutorial character is the Duke of Munster; it's literally the devs telling you "start here" in no uncertain terms.

[Supercow ツ]

Originally posted by Flybox:

Originally posted by Supercow ツ:

In my opinion, Duke Bernat of Toulouse is a very comfortable start (867). You have tons of possibilites to spread out and develop your counties without hitting against a wall.

Is he the Basque guy or one of the Occitan guys? I've tried a French Basque run a few times, and it was fun, but I didn't find it especially easy.

It is the young occitan guy, who can take over the Gascogne quite easily (the french Basque, you meant) after some time of playing, when things go well. When I've played him, I've waited until my liege became quite weak due to wars and became independant. The duchy of Barcelona (Gothia) was the buffer to the muslims in spain for quite a while and also kept me safe.

I also think, that Ireland is quite easy for a start (Murchard of Munster in the tutorial) but it becomes much harder after you've formed the kingdom of Ireland. Scotland, England and the Welsh are quite strong opponents, so without practice you get easily stuck, when you can't form good alliances.

[Daedrius]

Startng off as a Duke in a large kingdom or empire is a pretty chill way to learn the game.

[vortex_13]

Duke of Apulia in 1066 or Matilda in 1066.

[PostalGibbon]

Haesteining 867, Rurikid Novgorod 867, Charles the Bald King of France 867, Byzantine emperor Basileios 867, Björn Ironside jarl of uppland/king of Sweden 867

[Theandal]

867 Thaton Duchy, located in bottom right corner.
Everyone around there are pacifists so you will have a easier experience since you can completely ignore raiding and holywars.

[Twelvefield]

Unite Sri Lanka, and then use that as a power base to take over southern India, and then all of it if you want. Sri Lanka is great for rookies because you won't come across much in the way of large kingdoms: rulership is fractured so there are plenty of opportunities. That, and you can start with some high Learning characters in a place where holy sites are easy to grab. Southern India is rich and unprotected, and you can quickly make your own religion.

[mitchincredible]

Byzantium. I pretty much only play it - people might think that's lame but CKIII is so devoid of flavour that you could literally be and do anything by starting out as the most powerful nation in the game.

[ShadowRFox]

Originally posted by Razorblade:

Ireland in 1066. That's why the tutorial character is the Duke of Munster; it's literally the devs telling you "start here" in no uncertain terms.

This. Even after the dlcs/updates, playing as Duke of Munster is the easiest and laid back start. Invade your southern neighbor (you can start this war right when the game start and they have a weaker/smaller army then you so you can just overwhelm them. Then just finish off conquering each faction on Ireland one by one (try form an alliance with one of the bigger faction so they can send help for any of the more troubling Irish faction. Once you secure the kingdom of Ireland, you can just lay back and relax. I find at this point you either have a big enough army or enough allies that no one will want to bother you if you just want to hang back. Alternatively you can keep expanding into England, Scotland, or France.