Best Place to Start in 867 with Created Player

[BrnwsBucksFanNC]

I like to create my own player after selecting a place to start playing. I have played in Ireland and was able to create the Irish Kingdom and in Scandinavia and was able to create the kingdom of Norway.

I am looking for a place to start a new game. I want to have a small holding, I through Wessex would be fun until I found out that I would be 15 holdings over my limit to start.

So somewhere that is under the 4 holding limit, somewhere that is not constantly being raided and attacked.

Yea, a place to start a family, expand as needed and build up to become a great leader.

I am open to suggestions and ideas. Looking at the county list gets overwhelming so I hope to take advantage of the community's experiences.

Thanks

[El Presidente]

Polania,
the place where the Piast dynasty of future Polish monarchs descend from.
available in 866, it has i think 4 counties from the start, is tribal so one holding per county, i assume thats what you meant with 4 holding limit,
has de jure claims on neighbors and an army big enough for succesfull raids and wars, with maybe silesia and sorbia being just a bit stronger, but kept in check by their own big neighbors, namely great moravia and east frankia. you can make tributaries or conquer lands mostly to the north and east, while gathering strength to attack into south and west.

since siemowit is quite old and with auto generated children already in game i usually swap him out for my own custom made "piast" dynasty, so it would fit your playstyle too. its a good location for forming your own kingdom, trying to achieve some semihistorical or at least good looking borders if you want to RP , maybe unite pomerania, prussia, bohemia and poland in one crown when you form it, or become a vassal of moravia or sorbia and claim their titles.

becoming a vassal of moravia after conquering a lot of land is useful as well, since if you reformed slovianska pravda or went catholic or another organised religion, you can bypass all previous requirements and immediately feudalise through your liege

you get a good place if you want to reform slavic religion, since holy sites are close and easy to conquer from the start, płock and rugen are both near baltic sea, with kiev , barlad or novgorod not far off, just a bit to the east, but held by stronger powers giving you a goal to reach after stabilising locally.

[brownacs]

Bohemia's probably the 'best' duchy in Europe. It's significantly over a 4 holding limit (which isn't a hard one by the way: you get +1 for every 5 stewardship - high stewardship wife helps with that - there's a stewardship perk that gives +2, and there are artefacts that boost it too), but that's what makes it good... well that, the mine and the university. You can give excess counties to counts then revoke them later when your limit goes up.

Other good duchies: Manding in Mali which has 2 gold mines (if you can own temples; 1 if not) and another in the neighbouring duchy to the north, Cairo which is all floodplains, ditto for Baghdad plus the House of Wisdom, Thrace which has Constantinople, Valois which is farmland and has Notre Dame, Magadha in India for the university and farmlands again, er... if you've got the 'All Under Heaven' expansion then Yongxing's got several special buildings (I assume it doesn't without but not 100% on that). There are quite a few options but that's a small selection of some of the better ones. Thrace, Yongxing and Magadha are under/at a 4 county limit and the rest are all over.

[BrnwsBucksFanNC]

Appreciate the suggestions! Polania looks interesting for sure. Bohemia is one that I have been considering as well.

Im going to look at a couple more things...but I think Polania might be my next one. Bohemia is high on the list though.

Thanks!

[The Dragon of PanTang]

I would take a look at the Duchy of Austria with the capital county of Wien (Vienna). I've played this one three times but game crashes caused me to abandon every effort by the early 1000s time frame.. You start as the owner of 5 counties but don't have the Duchy yet. You're a vassal to start of the HRE which isn't a bad thing early in 867. Plenty of fireworks and intrigue with this start. The first time I played I ended up advancing into Bohemia, the second time I played was advanced into Bavaria and the third time I played I advanced through Italy almost to the French border while also pushing toward the Byzantines. Again all three start were a lot of fun but constant game crashes around the year 1000 forced me to abandon the game three times.

[Dumah]

Africa. Anywere there. Super fun region away from boring catholics and annoying swedes. Or if to be more specific - east africa. It was was expanded in AUH with addition of super cursed and super rich Zanzibar, it also has probably easiest empire to create - Azania. In addition, because it is in the literal edge of the map, no one will ever treaten you. While you can easily expand, because region is fairly "balkanized" in all start dates and local muslims and christians are a pushover, because they are copts and ibadis.

[Khatulistiwa]

Sardinia, just play tall and develop the island and chill, the Mine Special Building will also boost your income

[ABoxFullOfKittens]

Originally posted by BrnwsBucksFanNC:

I like to create my own player after selecting a place to start playing. I have played in Ireland and was able to create the Irish Kingdom and in Scandinavia and was able to create the kingdom of Norway.

I am looking for a place to start a new game. I want to have a small holding, I through Wessex would be fun until I found out that I would be 15 holdings over my limit to start.

So somewhere that is under the 4 holding limit, somewhere that is not constantly being raided and attacked.

Yea, a place to start a family, expand as needed and build up to become a great leader.

I am open to suggestions and ideas. Looking at the county list gets overwhelming so I hope to take advantage of the community's experiences.

Thanks

Ukria.. but make your character Saxon and Catholic.

[Devil_JCS]

Originally posted by Khatulistiwa:

Sardinia, just play tall and develop the island and chill, the Mine Special Building will also boost your income

On this recommendation, you don't even have to start as a Sardinian ruler if you don't want to (that culture is pretty bare bones tbh). Of course you can just create a custom character and start there, or pick a Norse ruler and do an adventure CB to take it (it's easy, Sardinia is really weak in 867, plus I noticed the AI leaves it alone for the most part).

Though you do want some events to make the most of it. If you can get the event that allows you to build a university there, you're golden for playing tall. That can be hard to get though. Another good one is if your character is a lunatic and you get the house of glass event (basically a greenhouse special building lol).

The one thing you do have to worry about is if you're not Cristian or Muslim; you are sandwiched between them so if you're a pagan ruler, there's a chance that you'll be targeted by holy wars from both sides. One side is bad enough, but both? Ouch.

[BrnwsBucksFanNC]

Thanks so much for all of the suggestions. Every time I feel like I have figured the game out...I learn something new.

I love how deep the game is...but it can get overwhelming really quickly.

I am so glad I found the CKIII wiki, that has helped quite a bit as well.

Let the learning continue!

[Creampie Senpai]

Try a custom Anui or Emishi character near japan and retake japan. Korea usually breaks into many smaller vassals and they have crazy unique buildings

[Cinemax]

There's a Jewish county in Africa, I think Simens... best run ever, although you will have to fend off constant attacks. I took Jerusalem, made it my capital, hamulated the pope and unlanded both Muslim Caliphs by the end of the run. Oh and replaced all of Europe with independent Jewish kingdoms ran by my daughters.