Who's Haesteinn of Nantes ?

[Nukkxx]

I'm new at ck2. I'm starting a new game in 867 (with old gods and sons of abraham expansions)I decided to pick an indedendant duchy in Brittany and picked this dude Haesteinn. He just has the province of Nantes and two vassals running cities within the province.
However, HAesteinn has a relatively fair army of 1700 soldiers, he's sitting on a big pack of gold (500) and, the most surprising, he has a prestige of 1000 ! And when I google the dude I get no information.

2 questions:

- What's going on here ? is this normal or a bug ?
- Do you think he's good to play for a newbie ?

[Legionary Guard]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastein

Pretty sure this is your guy.

[Nukkxx]

Oops thanks. No idea why my first google search didn't send any results, I took his name fromm the French version of teh game. Maube a typo ? ... One more mystery in the universe.

So you think that the 1000 prestige is OK ??
Is it a good character to play for a newbie ?

[Exothermically Eclectic]

Probably not; he makes an interesting and fairly strong start in the hand of an experienced player, if a risky one, but between his rather precarious position and the high likelihood of revolts, not such a great one if you don't know enough to avoid mistakes. That said, you learn by failling, and it's not like losing will make you unable to play the game again, so...

[Langkard]

He is ideal for the It's Good to Be the King and It's Better to Be the Emperor achievements, going from count to king or count to emperor. As a Viking he gets prepared invasion. Hasteinn's positions looks hopeless, but it isn't. Being on the continent sucks, but packing up and heading for the British Isles doesn't!

So make a prepared invasion of one of the Welsh petty kingdoms. You have 24 months before the clock ticks down on the invasion. By the time you're ready to sail in 20-22 months, you'll have a good-sized stack of adventurers in your army - maybe 5-6K even and 40 ships. With that, it's easy to conquer the Welsh duchy. Then conquer the other 2 Welsh duchies and make the kingdom. Count to King achievement done.

Now you just have to wait while the Ragnarrson's Great Heathen Army eventually settles down and then begins bickering among themselves. Raid yourself to riches in the meanwhile. In only a generation or so the territories of Whiteshirt and Ivar in Britain will fracture. Then the Viking kingdom of Wales can begin expanding into the remaining southern Anglo-Saxon duchies, across the Irish Sea to the easy pickings in Ireland and then north to Scotland. Viking Empire of Britannia formed. Second achievment done.

[Pippin123]

Similar to Langkard strategy, except I usually aim for Wessex.

But, no, it's really not a "newbie friendly" start, given that your French holdings are very fragile, and you really must carve a small kingdom for yourself in the British isles before the "timer" expires.

The usual recommendation for a first game is any small county in Ireland at the Hastings start.
You'll be free to unite the Irish kingdom at your own pace. They also improved the tutorial a lot, I think.

[octopiii]

I like to sail him off to Sicily. Best Duchy in the game!

[Legionary Guard]

Originally posted by octopiii:

I like to sail him off to Sicily. Best Duchy in the game!

Also sandwiched between hostile Byzantium and hostile Kebab.

[Austriaco]

Best thing to do as a new player is to ♥♥♥♥ around in Iberia with cheats. That's how I learned how the game mostly functioned. After that set it to easy mode with Ironman on and attempt it without cheats. Starting as a Duke tends to be easiest as it's a balance with not as many vassals as most Kings; and not as difficult a ladder to climb as a Count.

[octopiii]

Originally posted by Legionary Guard:

Originally posted by octopiii:

I like to sail him off to Sicily. Best Duchy in the game!

Also sandwiched between hostile Byzantium and hostile Kebab.

North Africa is really easy to holy war your way across. Easy expansion. You can either swear fealty to the Byzzies or Italy (if you didn't take enough african territory during your invasion to get the African Kingdom) and basically have half the mediterranean as your fiefdom. Also easy access to either Jereusalm and Spain if you go catholic for that sweet Crusade reward.

[⛧ Morslyte ⛧]

Originally posted by Pippin123:

Similar to Langkard strategy, except I usually aim for Wessex.

But, no, it's really not a "newbie friendly" start, given that your French holdings are very fragile, and you really must carve a small kingdom for yourself in the British isles before the "timer" expires.

The usual recommendation for a first game is any small county in Ireland at the Hastings start.
You'll be free to unite the Irish kingdom at your own pace. They also improved the tutorial a lot, I think.

Who is Langkard?

[Varainger]

Originally posted by Kaiser Joseph I:

Who is Langkard?

Author of post #4 above.

[⛧ Morslyte ⛧]

LOL I thought it was a character in game.

[Rincewind]

Use him to conquer Myaphisite Africa,
convert to christian,
get Prester john achievement
get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ by muslims few years later.
or
do the same,
attack one muslim county
get concubines,
grant independance to your african holdings,
convert to Islam,
get Viking Umma achievement.