I started playing Crusader Kings II earlier this week. Crusader Kings is similar to other grand strategy games from Paradox Interactive, but the twist is that this time you play as a single individual, instead of the intangible will of a nation. Set in medieval Europe, you become a noble lord and have to manage relationships with your vassals, family, and liege if applicable. Much more than building an economy, waging war, and growing your empire, the game is about managing relationships in a feudal setting. When your character dies, your score goes up by the Prestige and Piety he (or rarely, she) accumulated during his reign, and then you immediately start playing as your primary heir. If you have no heir, game over.
Below I will highlight some of the events of my reign as William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy, which began on the eve of my war to claim the throne of England. Actually this war was pretty much a pushover as my 12000 man army walked all over the English resistance and also the simultaneously invading Norwegians.
The start of William the Bastard's campaign. I control the Duchy of Normandy. This view shows independent duchies within larger kingdoms, the one labeled "England" is the territory controlled directly by the King of England.
After becoming William the Conqueror, King of England, I was immediately faced with the problem of having too large a “Demense”. A Demense is the collection of baronies, cities, and bishoprics which are under a noble’s direct control. Immediately following the conquest I had forty-three in my direct control when my limit was eight. In the cases of the cities and temples the solution was the appoint new mayors and bishops to manage those for me. In the case of baronies though, I had the naive notion to split the extra ones amongst the remaining English dukes whose territory I had not immediately seized via conquest and my two sons who were of legal age (16). The dukes’ opinions of me would improve greatly because of the gifts. My sons I was just feeling generous toward because, hey, they were my sons. Good intentions, but these moves would hurt me as powerful, ambitious dukes who were also angry at a foreign king are actually pretty hard to placate. Giving land to my sons was a good move but I didn’t pick which baronies went to which son carefully, causing them to become jealous of one another.
While I was off warring I had paid almost no attention to the upbringing of my eight children. Three sons, five daughters. I had not generally selected strong mentors for them to be educated by, leaving some with less than desirable traits and talents. In particular, my eldest son Robert, heir to the Kingdom of England, had all of the following negative attributes: Detached Priest (meaning his education as a theologian was a mess), Lisp, Envious, Slothful, Paranoid, and Drunkard! To his credit, he was also Temperate and Just, but the negatives far outweighed the positives. I was faced with the grim possibility that he would someday be my heir and I would have to play as him.
Also shortly after the war, my eldest daughter, unmarried, gave birth to a bastard son! I had neglected her by not arranging a marriage. Silly me! I married her off right quick to the Duke of Lothian.
Things got worse when Crown Prince Robert began to fall ill repeatedly. I was really starting to worry and then Robert became incapacitated by sickness. His duties as the Duke of Anjou had to be covered by a regent. I was definitely concerned at this point by the prospect of him inheriting the kingdom and how that would go over with my other children and the dukes of England.
In arranging a betrothal for Constance, my fourth daughter, I had selected a prominent duke of Denmark, the Duke of Toke of Sjaelland. They were betrothed when Constance was 16 and Duke Toke was only 9, but hey, how many dukes are there to go around anyways? I had five daughters and was growing annoyed with finding husbands for all of them, since it was often difficult to find suitable princes or kings, forcing me to downgrade to dukes and lose Prestige (victory points) in the process.
Seven years passed and Duke Toke of Sjaelland came of age. He sent me a letter proposing that he and Constance wed. I looked into the duke’s situation and found, to my horror, that his duchy was now a total mess, occupied by the armies of Estonia. I quickly called off the betrothal (to the anger of Duke Toke) and looked about for another eligible bachelor. I was quite pleased that Crown Prince Fernando of Leon was now an option, though he was 10 years Constance’s junior and only 13 at the time. But I would gain Leon as a powerful ally so I went through with the betrothal!
Finally, to my delight, sickly Crown Prince Robert died of some disease or another, and his place as heir was taken over by my second son, Richard. Richard was much the superior to Robert, and though he too had flaws his virtues included Charismatic Negotiator, Humble, and Brave.
The ex-king of England, now Duke Harold the Cruel of Cornwall, had actually got up the nerve to rebel against me, pulling the Duke of Norfolk into his rebellion. I crushed these rebellions and imprisoned both dukes.
The alliance with Leon, it turned out, was actually more trouble than it was worth, pulling me into a pair of wars against the small but financially powerful Emirate of Murcia. My territories in England had actually not really started providing a lot of income or soldiers, because they were still getting over having a Norman king. Supporting these wars was actually a pretty large drain on my resources.
After some years, I decided to release both rebellious dukes from prison, gaining me a lot of respect from all my vassals for being kind. Vassals who respect you will pay all their taxes and provide larger levies (soldiers), so this was worth quite a bit. Not a good idea, it turned out, as only a few years later Duke Harold would rebel against me a second time! This time I locked him up for good!
My second son and heir, Richard, would eventually die without explanation. Though he had been afflicted with syphilis for some time, I suspected that my third and only remaining son and Duke of Bedford, William, was responsible, but I had no proof. Richard did not die without producing a son himself, however. Anquetil, my grandson, was age 1 and I was looking at the very real possibility that he would inherit the throne as a boy-king. I was 60 years old at this point.
Not long after, my spymaster discovered proof that William, Duke of Bedford, was plotting against young Anquetil! My own son plots the death of the grandson and heir! Good work to my spymaster for catching this. I now had two major options: I could confront the Duke with evidence and demand that he cease his plotting, or I could attempt to imprison him and end his plotting once and for all. The chance to imprison successfully was only 55%, leaving the remainder to result in either his escape to a foreign court or his immediate rebellion and civil war. I decided to confront him, and he agreed to end his plotting, but I’m unsure whether this will come back to bite me again in the future.
July 1094 – Peasants rebel in the County of Somerset. I decide to lead the troops into battle, as I have been throughout my reign, even though William is now getting on to the ripe old age of 67. My judgment worsened and I chose to assault the rebels amphibiously, rather than disembarking in an uncontested area first. Though the battle is won, William is slain, ending his rather successful reign. Score is 4467, mostly from the prestige accumulated though his various conquests and for holding such a large area for the duration of his reign.
The extent of the Kingdom of England at the end of William's reign.
It now falls to young King Anquetil, age 7, to follow in my footsteps. Thankfully, there are no disloyal regents so being age 7 only means that I have to use my regent’s stats instead of my own, until I reach age 16. Anquetil will immediately have to deal with lots of angry dukes and uncles before he can get things back on track, however…