how to gain independence from byzantine empire

[Iain the Hunter]

i was playing as cyprus and gave up. now playing as trebizous and can't seem to land a good window of opportunity to gain independence from byzantine empire. any ideas? i watch factions but independence doesn't get much more than 60% force. i nearly became emperor without even trying, but i prefer to break free and start my own kingdom

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

As far as getting an independence faction rolling, I think that going intrigue focus is the best way to get high negatives. Spreading rumors gives a -10 modifier on the emperor himself. Spy on his powerful vassals and you may find out information that you can share with the emperor and he will try to use it against the vassal. Its fairly binary in that it will either force them out of factions of which they were not part of anyway or else it give them a -50 opion modifier which will make them more likely to become part of a faction. Do that and use your chancellor to create dissent and you can get a strong independence faction rolling. I usually wait until it is 100% or more before jumping in, otherwise you get some really stupid ai.

[Sergent H]

each game, i always see the byzantine struggle with lots of riot because of his system
Try to lower royal authority with faction to weaken emperor then go in a independance faction.
If you create it, others may join or you can force them with the spymaster

[markdb92]

why not become the byz leader and revoke everyones title and put loyal people in place. Sure you may get revolts during the revoke phase but once it done you will have a very stable byz empire to conqure the world with.

[Iain the Hunter]

Originally posted by markdb92:

why not become the byz leader and revoke everyones title and put loyal people in place. Sure you may get revolts during the revoke phase but once it done you will have a very stable byz empire to conqure the world with.

i could, but i could also just start as the byzantine emperor, right?. i wanted more of a challenge but it's proving to be quite tricky

[Iain the Hunter]

Originally posted by C2H5SH:

As far as getting an independence faction rolling, I think that going intrigue focus is the best way to get high negatives. Spreading rumors gives a -10 modifier on the emperor himself. Spy on his powerful vassals and you may find out information that you can share with the emperor and he will try to use it against the vassal. Its fairly binary in that it will either force them out of factions of which they were not part of anyway or else it give them a -50 opion modifier which will make them more likely to become part of a faction. Do that and use your chancellor to create dissent and you can get a strong independence faction rolling. I usually wait until it is 100% or more before jumping in, otherwise you get some really stupid ai.

the other thing that happens is the emperor forces me to give up my faction. i can join others but that means i'm at their whim. there are traits that allow me to tell the emperor f** u, do you know which ones they are? if you're kind or craven, i think you get screwed

[Iain the Hunter]

Originally posted by Sergent H:

each game, i always see the byzantine struggle with lots of riot because of his system
Try to lower royal authority with faction to weaken emperor then go in a independance faction.
If you create it, others may join or you can force them with the spymaster

yeah there are lots of riots. i'll just have to get lucky i guess

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

Originally posted by Iain the Hunter:

Originally posted by Sergent H:

each game, i always see the byzantine struggle with lots of riot because of his system
Try to lower royal authority with faction to weaken emperor then go in a independance faction.
If you create it, others may join or you can force them with the spymaster

yeah there are lots of riots. i'll just have to get lucky i guess

I don't know if this a difinitive list, but here goes. Content, Imbecile,, Inbred, Craven, Slow, Kind, Charitable, Honest, Humble, and Just. Those are the traits which modify the npc to stay out of factions. I believe that they are also traits that can be used against you to force you out of factions. I am sure that I have had the Honest trait used against me as well as Kind.