Of all the long hours I have played this game. On my last few play-throughs it finally dawned on me. I had one of those 'moments of enlightenment' if you will.



With a beam of light shooting down from the sky, the sound of Gregorian monks chanting around me and every one in my court standing amazed at the sight I finally figured it out.



Not really this is the result of many a mistake made and lessons learned from them.



While most of this is related to the problems of Gavelkind/Pagan kingdoms it is in general good to know for any kind of kingdom really.



Rule Number One: Feed the Flock

While many a time people will give out titles and such then sit back and enjoy the royal life, wine and oh my the pretty concubine girls/seducing your daughter in law/plotting to kill that young courtier that keeps plowing your wife..... Keep in mind as a King you have a duty to feed the flock. If you do not or cannot then expect trouble if not during your rule then guaranteed when you die and your successor steps up to the throne . What is meant by feeding the flock is keep the conquest momentum going . This means you will always gain counties and the more you have to give your Dukes-Counts the better.



This works two ways, because pissing off foreigners by taking their lands will cause them the invade you giving you massive 'defending against foreigners' opinion boost. Remember opinion is everything. and when the flock starts to get restless (especially that troublesome uncle or demanding Duchess two counties over), remember you have counties to give out, that is always good to shut them up keep them happy for another 10 to 20 years.



Rule Number Two: Feed them Slowly

This rule is so under-rated. Never shoot someone up from courtier to Duke. Rising too fast to power creates greed (i.e. the person you just made Duke/Duchess will expect more) and animosity (other courtiers will expect you to give them titles as well).



In other words think of feeding them but feed them with a spoon, don't give them a whole plate. Remember you always need a reserve of titles in your pocket to give out, and these titles must be given out slooooowly.



There is no point in giving someone something that will shoot their opinion of you above 100 (unless absolutely necessary). By spoon feeding you can ensure you have something in your pocket for that feisty Aunt/Uncle of yours when their opinion drops to uncomfortable levels. (you are the best judge of comfort levels). Also when feeding be VERY mindful of rule number three.



Rule Number Three: Mind their levies.

Also easily overlooked. This means that when giving out titles or duchies to keep in mind how much levies you are giving them. If you are giving out a large duchy (or slowly forming it) it helps to weaken the Duke. Do not give the duke to many counties in one duchy. This means ensuring that the counties under a duke are ruled by different people. What you are doing here is you are in effect limiting the number of armies any given duke can and will have in case the inevitable rebellion happens, while ensuring he has enough to quell any problems he may encounter in his duchy. (as in he does not have enough troops to be a threat to you but just enough to keep his own counts at bay).



As an example think of a four or five county Duchy. Two counties would be owned by the Duke and the rest owned by different counts.



Rule Number Four: Rule with a Feather

It is so easy to use the obvious and quick solutions. Troublesome counts and rebellions can really upset you and the rage you might have towards someone for trying to tear up your kingdom from the inside can trigger a mass of title revocations/executions when a rebellion is brought under control. Don't.



Be the better/smarter person. Restraint is key. While revoking/executing/banishing be very aware of the long term impacts of such decisions. To many revocations will only cause the problem to repeat itself as the other (loyal) Dukes and Counts lose opinion and as such they might not be as loyal next time if their opinion drops to low.



Having a troublesome subject in your dungeons for ten/thirty years or for his entire life can be and is a viable option. This has two main benefits: A: you are controlling how many kids he has (he can't make more children if he is in your jail) and B:by having him rot in your prison for decades; you are avoiding generating a vassal opinion penalty by doing the most obvious and immediate solution of (revoke/execute).



While some situations almost BEG for the iron fist of the King/Queens Swift justice; keep in mind sometimes a little restraint goes a long way as well.



Rule Number Five: Keep the Chancellor Moving

While it is easy to think Chancellor=Foreign Affairs, this is not the limit to his job. Wise rulers would use him much more often internally (i.e. within their Kingdom) than externally. Keep in mind the smaller your realm; the more active your chancellor should be externally. The larger your realm; the more active he should be internally.



When your realm is small keeping the bigger fish around is key to longevity. When you Realm is big the plus 30 opinion boost your chancellor can provide to your vassals helps immensely in keeping your realm together.



Do Not Overlook This! Other wise you might even forget your chancellor has been sitting in some foreign Kings court for the last two years that is far less of a threat to you than rebellious vassals.



Rule Number Six: Mind Those Houses.

This is pretty advanced here, it is also one of the keys to success so stay focused.



Your Nobility is made up of houses. You have much more control on these houses and the kind of people they breed than you think. It's a game of genes, play it to your advantage. A good King will always know all his subjects Houses/lineage and the general behavior of people from a certain house. A better king can outright control them, shape them and to an extent form much more loyal subjects or if the need be, outright kill a house by breeding them out into newer houses.



Certain troublesome houses can be bred out by cutting off their male head and diluting that house into the house of another Male creating a new House. Educating Children of certain Houses with certain people gives you many options on shaping the nobility. Try not to think of individual courtiers as often as you think of their house and lineage.



Done right you can slowly bring up new noble houses, much more loyal than previous rebellious ones. Done masterfully and you can pretty much have your own 'caste' system if you will.



In my previous play-through I had a house devoted to Commanders, another devoted to diplomats. I even had a house that had the sole purpose of breeding pretty girls with fantastic stats for potential concubines/queens where the women of that house were only allowed to marry lowborns matrimonially if not marrying into my house. this kept my Rulers with some very nice pillow ornaments. When I was ready, and over two generations I even had a male from that house groomed and ready to take a county then SLOWLY a Duchy of his own. That Duchy became one of the most loyal I had, not to mention the source of the prettiest girls in my lands.



Keep in mind this (made up) 'caste' system is not unbreakable, as exceptions always sprout out/someone from a house of well known diplomats might be a star Steward. Remember your not in complete control but you do have more control than you think.



Randomly educating courtiers and randomly marrying them into each other makes it hard to track who is what and why they act the way they act. If a courtier is from a proud house that held a Duchy for three generations then he should be dealt with as such. If it is a nobody that rose through the ranks of your court due to his star steward/intrigue stats then he would be dealt with differently.



Remember how you treat someone from a certain house DOES cause a ripple effect on that houses opinion of you. Carrying on penalties such as "Imprisoned my father", 'Killed a close relative", 'Marriage Ties". It is easier to breed a house out than it is to outright kill a whole dynasty.



REMEMBER you can always bring up a new house by inviting a noble person to court and marrying him to a lowborn. You can also ensure a certain house continues to live by having the female marry some random lowborn matrimonially. Hell in my court their are always people from great and different houses destined for great things. Their are also people their that have the sole purpose of breeding, others still that are there to educate and help me form my future nobility.



When dealing with courtiers and subjects that hold titles don't be shy to pull up the family tree. The amount of prestige a house has REALLY should be a factor when making a decision about someone.



As a side note and from my experience AVOID making a house of spies. A house of spies is dangerous and can backfire easily if it gets to big/power hungry. Spy masters should always be dealt with delicately and on an individual basis. While it is fine to have a spy master training a few potentials for the future; having a house of vipers running around your court is not what you want no matter how loyal the head of that house is, a viper is a viper.



Rule Number Seven: About Hosts

Hosts are annoying, they come at the most inopportune time and really slow down your growth. Not being prepared is always a disaster. but a few key things to remember about hosts:



-While the urge to take a hosts wife as concubine and degrade him in your dungeon by making him watch you soil his beloved wife right before you execute him is high. Remember you gain much more by banishing him. He will usually have a ton of money, enough money to reimburse any mercenary costs used during his uprising. Also once he lost his 'adventure' he will lose his claim so banishing is better. Another benefit of banishing him is he takes his wife with him, usually his wife is to old to marry off to another realm and leaving someone (like his wife) with a bad opinion/different religion in your court opens a door to potential plotters.



-Play it calm when you get word of the adventurer. Don't do the knee jerk reaction thing of sending the spymaster to his realm and activating the 'plot to kill' so fast. Usually the resistance to plot in the court a future Host resides in is pretty high. So planting your spy master there for awhile BEFORE activating the plot increases your chances that they will work their magic BEFORE you try to activate the plot. Giving you a better chance to have better recruits to a plot the longer you let your spy master do their thing before activating.



-Easy on spending. Remember while the urge to pay off potential plotters with their hands out is high (ESPECIALLY if their plot power is big) don't go all out and spend more than needed. In general dont spend more than 20 or MAYBE 40 gold to have a host killed. In the long run you will find that your taking a gamble the plot will even trigger in time. Also keep in mind that 40 or 60 gold (paying off three people) would go much farther if used to keep mercs paid and up when the host does arrive.



Rule Number Eight: DOOMSTACKS......Be Patient, be Optimistic and most importantly USE the Terrain

We all know the dread of the doomstack. Seeing hostile armies sometimes in the thousands if not tens of thousands can be a huge downer on your morale. But always remember the golden rule of warfare, the longer the invasion goes, the more advantage the home court has. That huge stack of thousands and thousands will dwindle with time as it sieges your counties. It will also suffer attrition. Pull out levies from counties closest to the lands of the invaders, let them siege and take a few of your counties, it works for you as the more they siege the more numbers they lose.



Keep your levies down if not needed or ready to fight. Sometimes keeping your levies down for a month or two when being invaded makes it easier to save up MUCH needed money for mercenaries. While you may think you are doomed, invasions can draw out for extended times ESPECIALLY when the AI army is doing stupid things like pulling away from a siege right before it's done to siege another county.



When the time comes and that doomstack is marching towards your capital don't despair, time to fight and keep what is rightfully yours. Use the terrain, mountains and rivers are a huge factor, let the doomstack come to your army going across a river or try to climb the mountains and hills your inferior numbered army is in. Remember you might lose a few engagements but knowing when to retreat your armies from the doomstack is key. Fighting 50000 man armies with 10000 man armies is possible if you keep them chasing you from mountain to mountain or from one river shore to another. You will lose a few initial engagements, but the plan is to keep them engaging you at a disadvantage, soon you will notice the tide is swinging in your direction as you are constantly retreating accross a river or to another mountain making the doom stack follow you then engage you again and again at a disadvantage.



Another tactic to fighting the doomstack is to keep moving. Keep in mind the longer the invasion goes the easier it is for you to reinforce your levies and disband your armies and reform them with the numbers you get from reinforced levies.



NEVER overlook the ability to bring your armies back into owned lands/disbanding them/then reforming them with the levies that have been built up over time while you army was out and marching.



REMEMBER disbanding armies in foreign lands is BAD. Disbanding them in realms you own is GOOD as it means the numbers of that army will be added to the available reinforced levies. While this may be elementary knowledge, many a new player makes the mistake of disbanding armies in foreign lands. Don't do that. The long march home is worth it to keep those men.



Rule Number Nine: Sleep with your Snakes.

Keep your spy masters close. I mean Really Close. Sleep with them if possible. A concubine Spy Master is HUGE, a WIFE Spy master is better. Keep in mind not to let a spy master get to strong. I once had a concubine spymaster that got so strong she went through three kings and in the end she ended up ruling the Kingdom. Friends close, enemies closer, spy masters in your bed.



Also early on in any game having the tech advantage is HUGE. So don't be shy to have your spy master study tech. Pull up the tech tree and see what you need, let them focus on counties that have what you need. Having an numerically inferior army with level two Calvary is far better than a numerically superior army with no tech advantages.



Another thing about spy masters; spreading rumors is by far one of the most overlooked tools a ruler has. Let me give you an example from one of my play troughs:



I was trying hard to rule and reunite my fractured lands as a duke when a message came: It said I was a suspected coward and would incur certain martial and approval penalties from my court as such until so and so date a few years later. In other words someone's spy master spread rumors in my Duchy about me and as such I suffered penalties for it. So looking at it from that light you will now see that spreading rumors is a way to weaken your opponent from the inside. Whereby attempting to blackmail someone would grant you immediate rewards sometimes (gold from the blackmail). The spread rumors is more of a long term political disease you can plant in your opponents court. This works if your plan is not immediate action but to weaken someone over the long run for when you are ready to take action.



Rule Number Ten: Use your Sanctuaries

Remember those little cities, churches/temples/castles you have in each county?



Yes a lot of people overlook those. Those need to be used right. Remember rule number six? these little sanctuaries are great for keeping nobles safe from plotting in the court. They can be used as little breeding jars for future nobility. Proper use of normal/matrimonial marriage into those sanctuaries means you always have extra pockets for future/wives/stewards/spymasters/diplomats/commanders/concubines and teachers. They also provide a safer (although not completely safe) haven for princes and princesses during their upbringing from potential plotters if they are sent off to a really good teacher that lives in one of those little cities/temples.



While in the long run you might not have complete say in who rules those little cities/temples/castles (due to default open elective law there), people born there or sent there due to marriage will stay there/ so will their children.



Think of these as little jars for potential nobles, use them to your advantage.



Another thing is you CAN and should consider giving loyal courtiers positions as mayors of those places. While they do not provide as significant a boost to opinion as say handing someone a county or Duchy does; they do provide enough to keep someone quiet for a few years.



Note of caution do not over do the handing out of titles to these cities/castles/temples as you might find three or four generations down the line you have a mess of who owns what. You might have a county where a city is owned by a Duke in another realm (a realm different from where the city is) this may and can open up a total jar of worms you do not want open. You also do not want the owner of that county to lose the tax/levies benefits of said sanctuaries.



Rule Number Eleven: Properly Carve the Cake

Always bear in mind how you will carve your conquered counties/duchies. Who is going to get what and how. Avoid (when possible) a situation where duchies and de jure ownership of counties is messed up. Don't allow dukes to own scattered tittles. It is better to have dukes own titles of counties that are close to each other than by being far flung. A proper Duke/Duchess own counties that border each other. NOT where counties are scattered around your map i.e. one here and another one three counties away.







P.S. Keep good music on hand, having a certain playlist to play during peace is calming and important. But when that declaration of war comes, you better have a playlist with EPIC BATTLE music. Your morale is just as important as your armies.



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I will try to add a few if any come to mind. But I hope this helps players get more out of there games.



Live Long, Rule Well, and May your flag be planted on the corpses of all your enemies.