Jon's Crusader Kings II Blog

It's me, King Matt. My dad sent me into hiding, and it didn't appear to do too well for me. Let's come out of hiding. Worst thing that happens, we start the rule of my son, Count Kettil soon. Somehow, I've inherited a county surrounded by the Byzantine Empire. Can I figure out how to give that away? Gave it away to someone in my court, but it's still part of the realm. Defeated the revolting bishop, but discovered the King of Estonia was trying to kill my son. So I killed him first. OK, if anybody is actually reading along, I'm going to end this experiment here. I think I've learned a little bit about chronicling. In particular, this has been too haphazard and too dry. To do something about the haphazardness, I think I'm going to incorporate the chronicle from the Charlemagne expansion. Maybe that will free me up to be more interesting. Here's an idea of what the chronicle looks like for Matt's reign: King Algot of Uppland died a natural ...

OK, so I'm 12, and I don't have much territory. Not great. Let's start off by getting myself betrothed to a Greek princess. I don't have much in the way of troops (see small territory above), but I can probably afford to hire the smallest company of mercenaries (the Sami band) and take over an adjoining county. The Sami band is hired out right now, though, so I'll wait. I'm 12, I have my whole life in front of me, so I can wait. OK. That worked. Now I have three counties under my control and (in theory) bringing in money and providing troops. I have been avoiding serving my king, since I view that as rightfully mine, but perhaps I need to chill out and play along. Besides, I might be best off taking back the kingdom of Sweden rather than Noridake. So now I'm Chancellor of Noridake. I am saving up some money for another war, and waiting out my truce with the guy I took the last county from, when Count Rolf gets snippy with me. I try to throw him in ...

I'm not sure what to do with this guy. I don't have that long to ponder it.

So, who is Duke Niklas, I hear you ask? Well, we are nothing if not about the family history, so let's take a look. He is the 28-year-old son of Count Bror of Finland (1177-1227) and Marta Ostendotter (1201-1219), Bror's third wife (of four). He has five older half-sisters, no brothers. Bror was the son of King Peter . So, my dynasty started Stenkil-Inge-Boris I-Peter-Boris II-Saga-Iliana. We are now backing up to the line of Peter, with his nephew Niklas (Saga's first cousin, the late Iliana's first cousin once removed.) This is who were are depending on to reclaim the throne. He is married to the 33-year-old Duchess Elin, and they have three kids, Bror (9), Elin (5) and Lars (3). I am a Duke four times over, holding the Duchies of Uppland, Finland, Ostergotland and Halsingland. Bror is going to inherit two, and Lars two. This is the problem with gavelkind succession. I am currently at war with the Teutonic Order, and losing. Since I started it, ...

OK, literally ruled by a newborn. I raise a bunch of money by ransoming prisoners. I set up a betrothal, looking 16 years down the line, but am instantly subject to Marta's second revolt. Guess I shouldn't have ransomed her. I use my treasury wisely and am winning that one, when the King of Denmark decides to have another go at Sweden. I think I have to put down the revolt as my first priority. So I give away another county and fight until my treasury is almost gone, but Marta is back in jail. Here I lost some of my updates, but basically, when I was 3, Norway invaded, two people tried to usurp the throne of Sweden and one the throne of Noridarke. I gave away a county to Norway, and held out until I was 10 before my first cousin once removed, Count Bror, took Norway from me, and I was left as Queen of Noridarke. Well, at least I am down to one revolt. For a few months, before I'm up to two. Somehow, I get a white peace offer out of one of them, and I get to put the re...

Well, this is difficult. My first queen, betrothed to her 12-year-old cousin. My cousin, Prince Bror, is the heir for now. Let's see what happens next. And...my weakness means I have to accept autonomous vassals. I have enough of a treasury to put down any attempts to disrupt my rule directly, but I think I will save it for emergencies. And...there it is. The King of Denmark thinks he sees weakness, and invades. And...I am maimed and captured in battle. And...my regent accepted the peace offer, losing a province. And...a Norwegian duke sees weakness and attacks, just after I let my armies stand down. And...Duchess Marta tries to claim the throne for herself. At least since the duke was claiming one of Marta's territories, that ends the previous war. And...I win the war while pregnant. Things may be turning around. Or maybe not.

OK, what do I do now? Well the first thing is to figure out who my heir is. I for some reason married my aunt, who is 17 years older, and no longer of childbearing age. We have one daughter, Princess Saga, who I make my heir. But I need to fix this, so I petition the pope (it's good to have your own pope) for a divorce, which he grants because, hello, she's my aunt. I remarry a young Russian princess and set out to produce a son. The antipapacy ended for some reason I can't determine. I am fairly weak, so I had to agree to gavelkind succession. And...it looks like I married a lesbian. No son yet. Let's see if I can get another divorce. Nope. And, I couldn't manage to kill her before I died of Camp Fever. Lame.

Well, as a new king, there sure is a lot of housekeeping to take care of. Appointing guardians and so on. The most important thing is to name a successor. I'm going with my son, Prince Boris. Duke Inge, however, is the current heir to Sweden. He's 64, so I could plan to out-live him. I could also plan to help that plan along. I have the opportunity to throw him in jail; maybe this is a good move. Of course it doesn't work, and he revolts. He was a useful ally to my father, but I think it's time to clip his wings. I have enough coin to hire some mercenaries to help me out. In the middle of this battle, Prince Boris favors Duke Inge as heir to Noridake instead of himself. I have to wonder about this boy. I get Duke Inge in jail, and Prince Boris is back to favoring himself. Unfortunately, I notice that Prince Boris only has daughters, and his wife is exiting her childbearing years. Well, something to sort out later, I suppose. Let's expand the empire (OK, ki...

King Boris is only 11, so he doesn't have any kids to name as heir. We'll stick with Prince Chopper (hey, I name these on the assumption they won't inherit) until Boris comes of age and can father some princes of his own. I married my sister off to the King of Rus, and was rewarded with an alliance. I suspect this will come in handy. I am planning to move on Satakunta (Finland) when I grow up. Five years fly by, and me and my buddy King Sviatopolok of Rus try to take down Satakuna. The attrition in the north is just terrible, though, and it takes up most of the treasure I've spent a couple generations putting away to win the war. But win it I do, and I am halfway to my goal of turning the Baltic into a Swedish lake. It is 1141. I have been on the throne 10 years. I think I am eligible to tighten up some of the laws of the kingdom, but after all that war, I want to make sure people get happy again. Also, I have two daughters now, so my brother is still my heir. T...

I decided to limit these entries to one per monarch. If I had realized how long-lived King Inge would be, I might have made a different decision. King Inge got off to a slow start. I set things up so my son Prince Stenkil was my heir. But my uncle, Prince Erik, seemed destined to cause trouble, and on January 30, 1097, he demanded the throne. My uncle is a major jerk! I fought him for two years, freed my daughter, and sued for "white peace", meaning he lost prestige and I gained it, but it was inconclusive. He is 68, so I'm hoping to wait him out. But he's got my mom, two of my daughters and my wife in his dungeons, so that is not cool. I end up ransoming my mom and my wife back, but he keeps my two minor daughters. My mom dies soon afterwards. Fortunately, so does Uncle Erik as we reach the year 1100. I think it's time to teach Cousin Sven a lesson. He is plotting against me, so I get to throw him in jail. That doesn't work, so he rai...

I'm going to want to move to primogeniture eventually, so my first step is to move the laws up to "Low Crown Authority". Also, time to marry off my kids and grandkids. But not to each other (though this game does let me do that). There is a lot of scheming in my court. In particular, people keep murdering my spymasters. In 1086, my heathen brother-in-law, Prince Erik, goes to war against King Erik of Denmark. I'm going to ignore that, and in Spring 1087, take my conquests to the heathens. Holy War for Kola! The High Chief of Satakunta joins his pagan brother in the war. Good thing I saved up for those mercenaries! The war dragged on to 1089. I was on the brink of victory when I discovered a downside to these Holy Wars. My opponent converted to Catholicism, and the war was over. Hmph. In late 1091, I had to put down a peasant revolt. That wasn't such a big deal, but the Pope chose that time to complain about my investiture laws. I figured I could dea...

So what next? Let's absorb more pagans to the north. I also had to put down a couple of revolts, and I created a duchy. That costs money, but it prevents my vassals from getting there first. I would create more duchies, but I like to save my money for a mercenary emergency (if I need to hire mercenaries to win a war). But then I get a chance to hold a grand tournament, so I blow 200 gold on that. Unfortunately, tournaments are dangerous and I lose one of my sons (the spymaster). Prince Inge now has three kids, but his wife died in childbirth with the third. A month later, he has a new wife, so I can't set up a new marriage for him. For some reason, the King of Denmark has been trying to kill my wife the whole game, so she's in hiding. I tried to extend my holy war into Finland, but the infidels ganged up on me. I knew I needed my mercenary piggy bank for a reason. No more wars until I save up 500 gold. While I am saving up, I notice my brother-in-law and vassal,...

I am starting my second full game of Crusader Kings II as King Stenkil of Sweden. He is married with four sons. Annoyingly, Sweden has an elective monarchy. I really prefer some sort of primogeniture; anything else seems unnatural. Or at least gavelkind. Maybe I'll live long enough to change it. Until then, Prince Inge is my heir. That's fine. Let's make sure he has a good kingdom to inherit. You can see what the immediate neighborhood looks like. Norway and Denmark are things, and there are some small entities waiting to be embraced by the Swedish fatherland. First we marry our heir off to a Hungarian princess. Then we gobble up Dal, a county between us an Norway we have a de jure claim on. Next, here's something I get to do that I never did in my first game -- a holy war against the infidels. We look to the north and annex Hälsingland. The pagans to the north joined the war, but had no effect on the outcome. In both wars, I had about 2000 men to less ...