Can i make someone my vassal without fighting them?

[God Snek]

I wanna be a nice king duke guy person ruler thing (also fighting takes a boatload of cash which takes time etc etc). I'm in ireland and i already took over one place and made him my vassal through war but it cost a lot of money. So, any ideas?

[battlecattle]

You can offer someone vassalization if you are more powerful than them, have a higher rank (i.e. king > count), and they are considered a dejure vassal of one of your titles.

[aaronmv]

Well there are a couple of ways of doing this...but the easiest way is by being a King or Emperor level ruler.

Once you are at that level, you can usually ask Count level rulers to be your vassal. However, this should only work if a) you are their de jure ruler (i.e. if you are King of Ireland, only counts of Ireland would respect you enough to do that), b) you must be of the same religion and culture as them and c) you have much more power than they do (men and money).

Otherwise, the only way is through war as far as I know.

[aaronmv]

Another way which is slightly more complicated would be to get a vassal (or your heir) married to the heir of another land outside yours (provided they are lower rank). Then it should fall inside your lands as long as your heir is landed with a title. It is more difficult to get a vassal to do it as you usually don't have control of who they marry - so you would typically do it with a child or sibling and then give that person land after the betrothal takes place.

[God Snek]

Originally posted by aaronmv:

Well there are a couple of ways of doing this...but the easiest way is by being a King or Emperor level ruler.

Once you are at that level, you can usually ask Count level rulers to be your vassal. However, this should only work if a) you are their de jure ruler (i.e. if you are King of Ireland, only counts of Ireland would respect you enough to do that), b) you must be of the same religion and culture as them and c) you have much more power than they do (men and money).

Otherwise, the only way is through war as far as I know.

So... One of my goals is to rule ireland. It seems (?) from what your saying is if i become king, by going and fighting and taking over enough countries to be able to get the title (which i need to look into i suppose), i can automatically, PROBABLY, instantly vassalize them?

[aaronmv]

Yes, assuming they don't dislike you for some reason.

I don't recall how many counties Ireland is made up of, but you would have to take control of 51% to form the Kingdom of Ireland. You could do this either by war, or by marrying your heir to the daughter of another ruler in Ireland, and then killing the heir of that other county until your heir's wife is set to inherit.

For Ireland, the most logical way would be taking on the Duke level rulers in Ireland (Petty Kings) because someone at that level would almost never submit to a King without a fight. Once you eliminate enough of them and control enough of Ireland, you could form the Kingdom, and then most of the counts should submit to you freely.

[God Snek]

Originally posted by aaronmv:

Yes, assuming they don't dislike you for some reason.

I don't recall how many counties Ireland is made up of, but you would have to take control of 51% to form the Kingdom of Ireland. You could do this either by war, or by marrying your heir to the daughter of another ruler in Ireland, and then killing the heir of that other county until your heir's wife is set to inherit.

For Ireland, the most logical way would be taking on the Duke level rulers in Ireland (Petty Kings) because someone at that level would almost never submit to a King without a fight. Once you eliminate enough of them and control enough of Ireland, you could form the Kingdom, and then most of the counts should submit to you freely.

Hm. Understood. This is gonna take a while... Need moar monies. But i'll totally do it and rule and everyone will love me :D Thanks for the help.

[aaronmv]

My memory came back - here's what you'd probably need to do, this is the easiest way I can think of quickly.

Start as the Duke/PK of the duchy in southern Ireland (forget the name). Wage war/marry and gain control of the Duchy of Ulster (4 counties of northern Ireland). Once you have control of those two duchies, that should be enough as I believe Ireland is composed of 13 counties - having control of 7 counties would be enough.

Once that happens you should be able to request the other 4-5 counts to submit, leaving only the PK of Connacht, who you would need to de jure war - but at that point he probably would not be able to fight you on his own. Or you could probably go the marriage route - it's just slower than war.

[God Snek]

Originally posted by aaronmv:

My memory came back - here's what you'd probably need to do, this is the easiest way I can think of quickly.

Start as the Duke/PK of the duchy in southern Ireland (forget the name). Wage war/marry and gain control of the Duchy of Ulster (4 counties of northern Ireland). Once you have control of those two duchies, that should be enough as I believe Ireland is composed of 13 counties - having control of 7 counties would be enough.

Once that happens you should be able to request the other 4-5 counts to submit, leaving only the PK of Connacht, who you would need to de jure war - but at that point he probably would not be able to fight you on his own. Or you could probably go the marriage route - it's just slower than war.

Good to know though i'll continue with my character as is and see where it goes. I think i'll try another area altogether after this one. I'm learning but there's still a lot (like whats seduction? How does that work? Is religion important? can i become the pope? What will that do?) etc etc. It's super interesting.

[aaronmv]

Seduction is part of one of the DLCs that replaces the ambition mechanic. Basically seduction lets you start trying to seduce people in your court/realm and so you have a better chance of having children, but you also increase charisma which improves standing with your vassals. There are other foci you can select which affect your other attributes as well as giving you random events.

You can never become the Pope. Religion can be important, though it's main use is for holy wars/crusades - you can holy war anyone who is another religion or heretics of your religion and it's a good way to gain land, but is risky because any other rulers of that religion can join as allies on the side of the defender.