Is Ireland even noob island anymore?

[Doom Sayer]

Playing on current save for pretty short time and Norse already have half of Ireland and are impossibly stronger.

[al_x_ator2411]

Since you mention Norse I'm guessing you're playing in the Vikings start date. Well, Ireland was never noob island before 1066.

[DeadRabbit]

Ireland before the 1066 start date is a hell hole. I would never start there, if you don't know waht you're getting into.

[Doom Sayer]

Originally posted by DeadRabbit:

Ireland before the 1066 start date is a hell hole. I would never start there, if you don't know waht you're getting into.

Brilliant. I might be able to salvage it anyway.

[Narrowmind]

Originally posted by DeadRabbit:

... if you don't know waht you're getting into.

Was an epic struggle for me. Love that area and start date. Lol

[Brother Frank]

ireland 769 is pretty noob friendly too. Especially if you pick someone like dublin. You have the most troops, can raid everyone with ease. Take over one of kildara's (your neighbor to your left) provinces asap to form the duchy and begin force vassalizing everyone with your saved up prestige from raiding. Have formed the kingdom in less than 10 years this way before.

[Doom Sayer]

Originally posted by Brother Frank:

ireland 769 is pretty noob friendly too. Especially if you pick someone like dublin. You have the most troops, can raid everyone with ease. Take over one of kildara's (your neighbor to your left) provinces asap to form the duchy and begin force vassalizing everyone with your saved up prestige from raiding. Have formed the kingdom in less than 10 years this way before.

I actually havent figured how raiding works yet. CK2 isnt exactly the most self explanatory game.

[Brother Frank]

Originally posted by Degeneratus:

I actually havent figured how raiding works yet. CK2 isnt exactly the most self explanatory game.

Bro you're going to love it. Welcome to an absolutely broken mechanic which throws cash at you for no effort. Simply raise your levy, select your unit, then toggle raid stance. Its at the top right, circular button.

Few rules. You get loot as long as you have a province in your realm bordering the one you want to get money from. This can be ignored if you have boats and its a coastal province. Keep in mind the border has to be from your personal territory or your vassals, not your overlord or fellow vassals not under your control.

The little orangeish bar when you select the province shows how much loot you can get from the territory. As you raid, it empties out. You also get cash for sieging down the settlement (works exactly like normal sieges) and occasionally prisoners. There's a whiteish line that shows what loot is protected by the fort. If there's no high level castle, it won't be protected and you can steal all of it.

General rule of thumb is to go for cities and temples the most, which is why ireland 769 is so strong since every irishman has a temple ripe for plunder. I like to immediately borrow money from the jews to get hillforts upgraded asap for more troops which you can then invest the rest of the money into market villages for more income.

[Doom Sayer]

Originally posted by Brother Frank:

Originally posted by Degeneratus:

I actually havent figured how raiding works yet. CK2 isnt exactly the most self explanatory game.

Bro you're going to love it. Welcome to an absolutely broken mechanic which throws cash at you for no effort. Simply raise your levy, select your unit, then toggle raid stance. Its at the top right, circular button.

Few rules. You get loot as long as you have a province in your realm bordering the one you want to get money from. This can be ignored if you have boats and its a coastal province. Keep in mind the border has to be from your personal territory or your vassals, not your overlord or fellow vassals not under your control.

The little orangeish bar when you select the province shows how much loot you can get from the territory. As you raid, it empties out. You also get cash for sieging down the settlement (works exactly like normal sieges) and occasionally prisoners. There's a whiteish line that shows what loot is protected by the fort. If there's no high level castle, it won't be protected and you can steal all of it.

General rule of thumb is to go for cities and temples the most, which is why ireland 769 is so strong since every irishman has a temple ripe for plunder. I like to immediately borrow money from the jews to get hillforts upgraded asap for more troops which you can then invest the rest of the money into market villages for more income.

Cool. I actually took like 1/4-1/2 of ireland without knowing about that.

[Brother Frank]

Edited the reply, but just gonna make this its own comment.

Also good thing to keep in mind if you have legacy of rome is that tribal light infantry retinues are busted because you can just spam out thousands and thousands of soldiers who can then go on mass raids. Not uncommon for me to have 4-5 stacks split up raiding everyone and they have 0 chance of stopping me due to overwhelming numbers.

Its for this reason I wait to go feudal until I either A) have a ton of money saved up to start kitting out my castles and to build more barony castles in my de jure duchy or B) have fully upgraded my tribal settlements.

Usually swapping to feudal early is a bad idea but with the inclusion of the super cheap massed light infantry retinues, its not actually scary at all anymore because you can keep your retinues over cap without penalty. Also just in case you aren't aware, be sure to swap your capital to dublin (if you pick them) immediately and put all of your tech for military into organization for higher retinue caps.

[Doom Sayer]

Originally posted by Brother Frank:

Edited the reply, but just gonna make this its own comment.

Also good thing to keep in mind if you have legacy of rome is that tribal light infantry retinues are busted because you can just spam out thousands and thousands of soldiers who can then go on mass raids. Not uncommon for me to have 4-5 stacks split up raiding everyone and they have 0 chance of stopping me due to overwhelming numbers.

Its for this reason I wait to go feudal until I either A) have a ton of money saved up to start kitting out my castles and to build more barony castles in my de jure duchy or B) have fully upgraded my tribal settlements.

Usually swapping to feudal early is a bad idea but with the inclusion of the super cheap massed light infantry retinues, its not actually scary at all anymore because you can keep your retinues over cap without penalty. Also just in case you aren't aware, be sure to swap your capital to dublin (if you pick them) immediately and put all of your tech for military into organization for higher retinue caps.

My main issue is i always end up quitting ck2 for months because I feel stuck. In the end only that really gets me along at all in CK2 is good rng.

[DankDansk]

Originally posted by al_x_ator2411:

Since you mention Norse I'm guessing you're playing in the Vikings start date. Well, Ireland was never noob island before 1066.

I've done it in 769, but it's much more difficult. But Pagans are far better. Better moral, more available land to gobble, and the ability to chain-vassal after you form a de-jour kingdom. And they can gain stupid amounts of piety and prestige with the Holy Fury DLC, especially the Germanics with their wolf warriors, which provides quests for looting, tons of duel abilities, boons to combat and warfare like a larger percentage of heavy troops and the ability to go berserk at will, adding tons of martial bonuses.

[Sel Und Irae]

Real noob start is using console commands
; )

[Brother Frank]

Originally posted by mccartneyconnor280:

I've done it in 769, but it's much more difficult. But Pagans are far better. Better moral, more available land to gobble, and the ability to chain-vassal after you form a de-jour kingdom. And they can gain stupid amounts of piety and prestige with the Holy Fury DLC, especially the Germanics with their wolf warriors, which provides quests for looting, tons of duel abilities, boons to combat and warfare like a larger percentage of heavy troops and the ability to go berserk at will, adding tons of martial bonuses.

I wouldn't say its that much more difficult. If anything its easier than 1066 once you understand how broken tribal warrior retinues & raiding are. Of course for the brand new player feudal is easier.

[SP1]

Newbie island in 769 should be Sardinia imo. Good development, the emperor protects you, far from viking raiders (except berber raiders but far manageable), an opportunity to form a kingdom and super easy to gain independence once the emperor has over +100 rebellions to deal with. The only caveat is that you gotta change your religion to matching the emperor and don't piss him off otherwise you'll just be a lonely count without a theme

[Doom Sayer]

I really just wont ever understand this game.