On Ireland

[Wayreth]

I really like starting out as a count in Ireland, in the earliest game year. It's quite a joy to unite all those independent counties under one rule without the intervention of foreign powers for the most part. Usually, after creating Eire, I tend to go for Wales and then take the independent counties in Normandy.

Do you have suggestions on how to progress further? By this time, England, Scotland, and France are quite a force to be reckoned with.

Also, despite my gaming hours, I think a core aspect of the game may have eluded me, because I tend to gain land solely through the use of fabricating claims and usurping titles... is it possible to fight directly over a duchy or kingdom?

Thanks and happy gaming.

[al_x_ator2411]

It is very difficult to spread as Ireland because it is a vary small and weak kingdom. It's only suggested as a learning scenario because forming it helps you learn the basics. After that only Wales is an easy target. But if the bigger kingdoms all around form then you're in for a tough time.

To answer your last question, to get whole duchies or kingdoms you need personal claims. Play the marriage game. Marry someone with a strong claim.

Another way for Catholics is to wait until a ruler is excommunucated. Then you can attack them freely.

[VoiD]

Originally posted by Wayreth:

I really like starting out as a count in Ireland, in the earliest game year. It's quite a joy to unite all those independent counties under one rule without the intervention of foreign powers for the most part. Usually, after creating Eire, I tend to go for Wales and then take the independent counties in Normandy.

Do you have suggestions on how to progress further? By this time, England, Scotland, and France are quite a force to be reckoned with.

Also, despite my gaming hours, I think a core aspect of the game may have eluded me, because I tend to gain land solely through the use of fabricating claims and usurping titles... is it possible to fight directly over a duchy or kingdom?

Thanks and happy gaming.

Easiest way:
Invite a claimant of the title you want to your court, make sure he is one tier lower than you (if you're a duke, invite a count claimant, if you're a king, invite a duke claimant, if you're an emperor, invite a king claimant).

Give him some land, any land, even a barony counts

Go to war to press his claim

Since his title is one tier lower than yours he will be a part of your realm.

For equal or bigger titles you should plan longterm, try to create a heir with a claim on the throne you want and keep your eyes open for an opportunity to take it, make sure he is your heir as well, once you die you should have both realms under your rule.

That is for christians, other religions can often just take whatever they want.

[Wayreth]

Thank you both for sound advice.

[SKull]

Some of the DLCs add more CBs to play around with. Otherwise, Christians are restricted to fabrications and pressing yours or other people in your court's claims. Exceptions are for religions, which you can use in two ways; either by attacking rulers nearby with different religions in holy wars, which can be waged for whole duchies at a time, or by converting to a heresy or a different religion yourself and attacking all your neighbors. The last option is risky though, obviously. The neighbors tend to gang up on you to remove you and can declare holy wars on you themselves.
You can also control a pope and request crusades, but this takes a bit of time to set up usually.

If you have Jade Dragon you can also fight border friction wars for single neighboring counties. It costs quite a bit of prestige (but you earn much of it back if you win the war) and is considered unjust so you take a rep hit. If you have Conclave your council will also think this is tyrannical if they disagree with the war. But otherwise a nice added way to expand.

[Joe Danger]

As previously mentioned it's pretty hard to expand as Ireland. Excluding mercs both Scottland and England have far more troops than you. The only way I've ever been able to do it is to wait til the Pope calls for a crusade, make sure you are top contributor, then boom there's an extra kingdom title and like 10k men. Once you conquered all of Britain you can just grant it indepence because you won't need the troops anymore and raising all the boats and bringing them back to the mainland get's a bit tedious. So it's a bit roundabout and kinda cheaty but it's a way to be able to expand as Ireland.

[juan_h]

I've done a couple of 1066 Irish games. I generally go after Wales first. With Wales (possibly excluding Cornwall) incorporated into your realm Scotland isn't too hard. England is obviously the toughest nut to crack. If you want to conquer England--or Scotland, for that matter, if Scotland happens to be strong--you need to attack when the English are divided or distracted. Attack while they're in the middle of a civil war or when they're at war with a third party. Especially attack when they are losing. If it's a civil war, attack the rebels if you can because they're probably the weaker side. When attack is impractical, you'll want to try to arrange for yourself, you heirs, or even your vassals to inherit English titles.

If you want a different sort of challenge and you have the Old Gods DLC, you can start as an Irish Chief. You'll be in pretty serious danger for the first hundred years or so because there are vikings everywhere. If you can outlast the viking menace, however, you'll be in an excellent position to form Britannia because (at least in my experience) the AI is unlikely to form the Kingdom of England on its own. Indiviidual English, Scottish, and sometimes Norse dukes generally don't pose too much of a challenge to a united Ireland. If you do try an Old Gods start, I recommend a southern or western county rather than an a northern or eastern one in order to put as much space berween yourself and the Norse as possible.

One last note: if you have a Chancellor with a sufficiently high Diplomacy score--I forget the exact number, but it's something like 17 or maybe 19--you can sometimes fabricate claims on enitre duchies. If you haven't got anybody that good in your realm, use the character finder for high-diplomacy characters who would be willing to come to your court and make one of them your chancellor.

[Doc]

If you can finagle it, an excommunicated king is generally a viable target for a Sanctioned Invasion on from the Pope - presuming you're still Ireland+Wales sized.
And if you can get that squared away, with a good alliance or a distracted enemy, you might be sitting pretty on all the titles in England, France, or (Insert Large Catholic European Kingdom) to hand out at your leisure.

[InTo_The_Sun]

Jade Dragon gives you additional claims, like "border wars" or "raiding". Ok, raiding isn't new expecially if you are a tribal leader but I suspect Paradox will give us more "religious raiding / crusade" options with the next DLC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7k83jScfi4&list=PLL8Rcj5yq26dQWXE9HGcz0dzMuJl_WpCO

[Wayreth]

Nice strategies, and viable to a certain extent, I'm sure. As for DLC, I don't have Jade Dragon but I do have The Old Gods.

juan_h, starting out as an Irish Chied will be a welcome change for my next run. Thank you for the suggestion. And thank you all for your time.

[Hellrazer]

Okay, if you have any heretics in your court, or people with other religions, try to marry them off to a relative of the ruling famillies of England or France and, with luck, either the relative of the ruler or the relative and the heretic’s child will be a heretic. If you want to nearly gurantee this, get one of your useless children to become a heretic through education by a heretic, then marry them off. This enables the Holy War CB. Your next step is to ally with France or England (depending on who you want to fight) and attack the other. I would say ally with France and attack England, then call France into your war.

[Wayreth]

Originally posted by Thanatos510:

Okay, if you have any heretics in your court, or people with other religions, try to marry them off to a relative of the ruling famillies of England or France and, with luck, either the relative of the ruler or the relative and the heretic’s child will be a heretic. If you want to nearly gurantee this, get one of your useless children to become a heretic through education by a heretic, then marry them off. This enables the Holy War CB. Your next step is to ally with France or England (depending on who you want to fight) and attack the other. I would say ally with France and attack England, then call France into your war.

Now this is machiavellian. I like it.

[TI-Nspire_CAS]

Not sure what everyone else said, but mercernaries, attacking while they engage in war or have internal conflicts. After winning a war against them try killing their leader asap and declare war right after. Their military would be hurt from the last war.

[JC]

I've played mainly as Irish with a 767 start date.. You are tribal, and Picland to the north and england/wales to your east are just more powerful, but that does not mean you are helpless.


the key to playing ireland and taking over GB, which i've done many times is all about disruption. You want to be that pesky thorn in the side of the more powerful nation states, like wessex, merica, picland ect.

Make powerful marriages, these can be key, but be picky. Sometimes all you need is kent to help you win a war verse wessex, or maybe a welsh land. It's not about total power, its about timing. No one bothers with trying to stack claims on erie for a while so as long as you are not taking land in their province, they just don't care.

Take advantage of a weak ruler any time you can. a lot of time things in england are fairly chaotic, so take advantage if a way is going on, Press a claim.. If someone doesn't have many allies invade and turn it tribal,. Sussux, or algiea, sometimes York or one of the smaller places in wales are prime for this sorta thing.

Start raiding as soon as you can, grow wealth and presituge to buy 5k warriors and another 2k mercs.. you can earn the money to do that in just a few years of raiding. Get a nice ally on your side and you can have an army of 5k-10k warriors.. its a full on mercia invasion at 825... and even mercia will have trouble with that.


You are a mindless barbarian invader... ACT LIKE IT!!!! (i kid, i kid) But trust me it works.

Don't be afraid to flip those counties tribal either, it is a good way to expand early and while those castles are not the most powerful, you can actually micro manage a lot of it and make it work for you. Getting 20 brand new castles in england as you flip from tribal to Fuedal is nothing to sneeze at. You can also revoke baron tiltes at this time and make them primary as well. at 400-600 a pop to build a castle later game, if you flip 20-30 instantly.. that is a huge savings and a time saver to. Just help your hords build um up quick, by making markets and barracks. with propper raiding you should easily have 10-20k gold saved up, or even more. Giving them all free level 2 markets really make um kickstart. Also lower your taxes for a bit too.

[Un macaco a lomos de un tejón]

I’ve been playing my first CK2 game as Ireland and I now have all but 2 counties in Scotland, just over half in Wales, and a few English counties. I am over the hump at this point, in that my levies are larger than England’s, so it should only be a matter of time until I have everything. I am not usurping titles for other kingdoms as I want to bring everything under Ireland.

My strategy has been to marry dynasty members for useful alliances and to be opportunistic in expanding. Initially I focused on Scotland, using an alliance with England to ensure the upper hand.

After losing the alliance with England, I was only slightly weaker than Scotland, so I switched over to taking some counties in Wales. When a Scottish civil war broke out, I pressed claims against Scottish Revolt territory and Scottish territory simultaneously and helped the losing revolt avoid defeat until after I’d claimed territory from each.

I have taken a similar approach with England as I’ve stated wearing them down, by waiting for internal turmoil or war declarations from France or others to swoop in with a war declaration of my own at the same time; they’re spread too thin to repel my invasion.

I’ve also continued to marry for alliances, often having 2-4 allies I can call to help press claims; the Holy Roman Empire is particularly useful as they are close by and bring huge armies that pretty much guarantee victory.

[ancistrus]

The problem with ireland :
once you start spreading out of it, you are no longer playing Ireland. It makes no sense to keep your capital in Ireland, because it is so poor and has few holding slots. So you now have capital in London, you rule the british isles, what was the point of starting as Irish again?

But to make your current game more interesting I would advise either try winning a crusade or convert to fraticelli/cathar.