How does Normandy work for the player?

[Chataboutgames]

About to play my first game (have some experience with Empires) and thought I'd try Normandy to England. Not sure how that's meant to work. It seems England is still divided in to some Saxon kingdoms like Mercia and I get randomly thrown in to war with them a couple of turns in to conquer a random claim. Do I just use that claim war to eat as much of England as I can, or are there special mechanics/events at work that I can't see?

[PocusFR]

You can get extra reinforcements, and you can become England yourself as the Normands if you take over London, but there is no specific mechanism relatively to the Normans conquest.

[Chataboutgames]

Originally posted by PocusFR:

You can get extra reinforcements, and you can become England yourself as the Normands if you take over London, but there is no specific mechanism relatively to the Normans conquest.

Thanks! Does that mean I'm meant to rush London, or does it just play out like a normal war where I need to eat all of England so I can claim the title?

[loki1006]

the war itself uses the normal rules. So if you take London then the current Kingdom of England loses the title but you don't gain it till you actually own the province. So basically exploit the division of Saxon England and you should be able to conquer all of Wessex and Mercia. Possibly Northumbria but that might start to run up your war score.

when they are fully conquered you get the Kingdom of England title and shift tag. But of course keep Normandy.

If you see your future as France, then take Paris first (=King of France), I think that means you can't later on become England - unless you lose Paris etc

[Oubley]

Originally posted by loki1006:

If you see your future as France, then take Paris first (=King of France), I think that means you can't later on become England - unless you lose Paris etc

I'm not sure taking paris changes you. In my irish game the AI Normandy took Paris and France took Normandy. Like they literally "flipped" places for awhile.

then normandy took France which was technically normandy (in terms if land) and it was all still normandy as a nation. "france" disappeared from my game and doesn't exist. Unless that some bug.

[loki1006]

worth bearing in mind the rules to gain or lose the title are different.

usually to gain, its a mix of the region in question and a certain level of govt/size. To lose this is triggered by loss of the key region.

so its feasible to become King of France and hold onto it with only the Isle de France, or to lose while ruling most of France but you lose the capital. So yes if France is basically AI the title gets tossed around like a seal caught by orcas and can completely disappear (like what happens when the orcas get bored) if no faction meets the other criteria

also factions can spawn so its possible for Normandy to have died and then pop back up, esp again in an AI area.

What I'm not sure about is if Normandy goes the France route, ie takes Paris before London. I think once its fixed to either a French or English tag it can't swap but not sure