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2017-02-28, 12:25 PM (ISO 8601)
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- a nice pond
Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
My primary criterion for distributing land is: if the land is the wrong religion, give it to high Learning folks; if it's the wrong culture, give it to high Stewardship folks. Even the baronies need to be given to high-stat folks, so the counts have access to good counselors. If it's already the right culture and the right religion, then high Stewardship if I want taxes, high Martial if I need levies.
Sometimes I just do non-major-houses only, so I don't risk lands getting consolidated, but the best stats tend to be found in major houses, so I'll usually try to give temples and cities to members of major houses and feudal lands to members of minor houses and commoners.
My primary criterion for deciding which counts get to be dukes/kings is: Content is best, Ambitious is worst.Last edited by Malimar; 2017-02-28 at 12:26 PM.
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2017-02-28, 12:31 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2007
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
Ducal vassals will still provide their normal proportion of taxes to you; it's less than if you had every count directly, yes, but you'll still get something (and I always find most of my income comes from my demesne holdings anyway, especially once you manage to get things upgraded.) The main benefit of making dukes is not having to worry about all those individual vassals; they get kind of unruly when you want to take decisions that have requirements of 'no vassal can have a negative opinion of you.' It also means you don't have vassals getting all pissed at you for holding a billion duke-level titles or 'Desiring the Duchy of Bladeblah' if you don't have the cash or don't want to take the prestige hit to destroy all of them.
This is a really good opportunity to land some claimants if you want to take that method of expanding your holdings, by the way. Might be worth the time to pause and spend a few minutes digging around the character finder or checking the claimaint lists of counties/duchies you're interested in. Or just look for Content people to invite and give land to, have a less troublesome vassal for at least their life.
If you run out of good candidates to give a title to, don't forget you can create courtiers by decision with your choice of military, religious, economic, or female traits (I usually use the create a religious courtier one if I just want some random people, because it has a fixed piety cost. Which, having just won a Crusade, you should have a surplus of.)
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2017-02-28, 12:31 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2005
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- Back in the USSR
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
That sounds a lot more practical, thank you. I need to find a lot of smart guys to
sacrifice to Sunni rebelsadminister my new Kingdom.
EDIT, see, this is why I'm bothering you guys, that's already way more comprehensive strategy than I've been getting from the wiki. Of course, most of this is going to be irrelevant when I inevitably get pasted by the ensuing Jihad.Last edited by Nerd-o-rama; 2017-02-28 at 12:35 PM.
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2017-02-28, 12:37 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2015
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- UK
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
I just made the mistake of playing as Ireland, and forgetting the Sunset Invasion DLC was on. And set to random invasion.
So come 1180, Aztecs come and wreck Scotland and Ireland, and I'm left with two holdings in Wales. My 30k + mercenaries died instantly.
On the other hand though, my character may be unofficially immortal. He's got to 140 with no real health benefits while maimed. He managed to unite Ireland, change crown laws twice, and fight two crusades even before the Aztecs invaded.
I would continue playing just to see if he actually lives, but as there's a 150k stack not leaving any time soon, and the next crusade is in twenty years, I don't really feel up to it.
Stuff always happens to me in Ireland. After a campaign from count to Empire in the HRH, I tried an Ireland campaign in 867 to get a change of pace. Instead, my son, married to the fourth daughter and sixth child of the King of Italy amazingly, through all the other successors dying in Battle or of sickness, inherited the throne leaving him ruling Ireland and Italy.Avatar by the Incredible Gengy.King of Caligonia in Empire 3. Crusaded into the sunset
Played as The Whitefeather Kingdom in Empire 4. Flew too close to the sun
Played as the Duenem in Empire 5. Ordered a God to stand down, and kept a contingency ready...
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2017-02-28, 12:50 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2007
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
Yup. Winning the Crusade is the easy part. If you want to hold it, you have to be prepared to fight for it.. and do it pretty much on your own, because while most of Christian Europe will show up for the conquest, they don't especially care about defending it. Bonus: The counter-Jihad is probably going to hit while Jerusalem's holdings are still in their New Administration penalties, which means you can't even really use Jerusalem's own levies in its defense. Hope you're ready to ship your entire army plus as many mercenaries as you can find back over to the Holy Lands (..although it's not that bad if most or all of the Christian Holy Orders are available, and IIRC the Crusade triggers the formation of most of them. You can use them to handle the brunt of the fighting and then dismiss them once they've cut down the invaders to more manageable stacks. Also holding King Jerusalem gives you a decision to vassalize one or two Holy Orders, which is amazing both for defense of Jerusalem and expanding your influence in that area via Holy War.)
So come 1180, Aztecs come and wreck Scotland and Ireland, and I'm left with two holdings in Wales. My 30k + mercenaries died instantly.
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2017-02-28, 12:55 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2008
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
The wonderful thing about holy orders is they are free to recruit for the defender of a holy war. As soon as the Jihad for Jerusalem is declared, raise the lot of 'em - the gold cost to maintain them isn't very substantial.
Also, you probably have a bit of time, since the levies of the local Muslim lords probably took quite a beating in the Crusade. Try and make alliances with as many Christians as you can.
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2017-02-28, 01:05 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2006
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
If you are defending in a holy way or fighting a crusade, the only cost of having a holy order raised is the piety you pay at the beginning. Dismiss them the moment you win (unless the other Jihad has fired too), but use them with vigor to destroy your enemies.
What is the best way to vassalise the holy orders? Then you can use them for significantly cheaper on the offensive.
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2017-02-28, 01:20 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
The Templars and Hospitallers can be vassalized by decision by the King of Jerusalem- all it takes is 500 gold (note - this was apparently added in Sons of Abraham. I don't remember how this stuff worked before then.) Otherwise it typically takes some shenanigans; you have to find or somehow cause the holy order/mercenary group to come into possession of a dynastic title or holding, and then acquire that title into part of your realm in any of the usual ways. If they're already landed somewhere, you can try doing a claimant invite and press, or invite one of the potential heirs into your court, land him as a vassal, and then try to arrange for him to inherit command of the company.
Or you can do it the cheap way - I use a mod that lets you vassalize any mercenary company by decision as long as you have enough gold to pay them and a free duchy-level title for them to take over.
Edit: They changed how rebellions work at some point, so this may not be possible any more - depends on if this was a patch-update change or an actual DLC related feature. But you used to be able to 'land' a mercenary group by hiring them and then going broke. One of the ways they could respond to this was declaring a rebellion against you to try to take over a duchy in payment. Let them win, and then diplo-vassal (if they're the same culture/religion/etc) or de jure claim back the place they rebelled for, and voila, vassal mercs. If you're playing full vanilla, that might still be possible.Last edited by tyckspoon; 2017-02-28 at 01:25 PM.
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2017-02-28, 01:33 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2006
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
This was an edit, but the thread moved on:
Edit for my Byzantine Madness:
I truce broke twice to do this (and was going to do it a third time, but got hit by a rebellion), but my distant cousin/future son-in-law (betrothed to my heir) is now lord of Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Afghanistan. Only he has this stupid thing where his claims are weak and the holder of Baluchistan (and most of nubia, and a couple other places that are horrible holes in my empire) just turned 16. Any good ways to force a regency on him so I can press the final claim? Once I do that, I can start my conquest of India. The year is 1344. In the mean-time, I will be taking over medina and then holy-warring my way through Abyssinia. And then, maybe, figuring out how to get the Mongol Empire added to my dynasty. I have one of the princes matri-married to my daughter. I also have claims to press on HRE.
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2017-02-28, 01:49 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2005
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
Assuming the target monarch has a child (or female) heir, murder seems like the obvious way to force a regency (or get the female ruler justification for a weak claim). I guess you could try Sow Dissent on one of his powerful vassals but I'm unclear on whether it's rebellions or revolts that let you press weak claims...
Last edited by Nerd-o-rama; 2017-02-28 at 01:49 PM.
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2017-02-28, 02:12 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2007
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
Any war involving the title as a justification allows for a weak claim to be pressed. I'll admit I'm not sure exactly what that covers, but if you can somehow get one of the target titles you want to go into rebellion you'll probably be able to press the related claim (possibly against the rebellion vassal rather than their liege.) I'm pretty sure Independence wars count, as do (Insert Claimant Here) For Ruler wars. I don't think rebellions against Tyranny or force law changes/lower crown authority would count, unless maybe it was against the tyranny of trying to revoke a title?
..anyway. Send your dude to sow dissent between the kid and his most powerful vassal, and if you're lucky it'll tip the balance that causes a rebellion/murder plot/something else useful against him. The only thing I know you can do that will have guaranteed (not guaranteed useful, but does *something*) results is repeatedly murdering the guy and his successors until the inheritance roulette puts a child or woman on the throne (alternately, murder his successors until the next heir is a child/woman, then try to kill him.) Send your Spymaster over there too. Helps out with the murder plots and might trigger events that help wreck the target's reputation, making it easier to get people in on your plots.
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2017-02-28, 03:52 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2005
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
Haha holy crap the Hashashin just got my Chancellor, I had no idea that could happen.
Also both sects are Jihading me. That I did know could happen.
Yeah even with Byzantine help that was a lost cause.Last edited by Nerd-o-rama; 2017-02-28 at 04:10 PM.
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2017-02-28, 05:13 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2006
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
Now to figure out who his most powerful vassal is. I don't think I can get any help with a murder plot: I have not 1 but 2 truce-breaker maluses at the moment. And he doesn't have a liege: The Seljuks are reduced to controlling Baluchistan, but they remain independent. He might be the last Seljuk. That would be quite the reversal since this game started at the Alexiad bookmark. Either way, I think I still need to finish subjugating my vassals and re-distribute their titles to more grateful hands.
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2017-03-01, 12:19 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2010
Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
I am in need of some help.
At the moment i have about 1/3 of the Iberian Landmass with 1/3 being Muslim and tge rest split between France, Castille, Navarra and Aragon. I will probably have the rest of it within the next 50 years. I have a good econonic base (for now. I need some peacetime to really build it up).
My concern is the growing monsters of France and the HRE. France has 20k troops and any revolt dies fast. The HRE is a 30k powerhouse. The two aren't fighting much either, which allows France to take bits of Spain and Africa and the HRE to eat most of Italy and expand East.
How do i even start to fight these guys? I have 10k troops (7.5k from demense). Do i just save the cash for a billion mercs and hope o can murder their death stacks? Neither likes me enough to ally and i really dont want to get drug into their wars.The Chaotic Evil Dungeon Master
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2017-03-01, 12:33 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
Did William win? Then try to ally england. Is Byz doing so-so? Then ally them. How is Poland doing? How about Hungary?
Otherwise, your best bet is to just keep munching Iberia and Mauretania until you can get and press claims on France. Also, computers are bad at wars. If you ever get almost even with France, you can probably beat them.
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2017-03-01, 01:59 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
If you don't mind cheesing the system a bit, you can try to get in a first strike before the AI gets its troops concentrated. The trick is that while you can't declare war with levies raised, mercenaries and retinues (if you have Legacy of Rome) don't count. So you can hire a mercenary troop or two, attach them to your retinue, and march the stack right up to the border of your territory, which is hopefully bordering the target's territory. Then start them marching in and declare the war a day or two before they arrive in the enemy territory. You have a full-morale stack in their borders, and they've just raised levies. Hopefully you can catch and destroy enough armies before they can get gathered to equalize the troop counts.
You can also shuffle your commanders around to try and make sure you have people with appropriate traits for the combat area; the AI doesn't really bother doing this or even seek out especially high Martial scores for its commanders as far as I can tell. This can give your armies enough of an edge to outweigh a modest to major numerical difference, depending on what the troops are. An organized force of mostly heavy infantry can crush a much larger group of light infantry, which is why, for example, you can take out a peasant rebellion pretty easily while significantly outnumbered.
And of course there's always the classic approach of just waiting until the guy you want to fight is stuck in a rebellion/outside war and opportunistically attacking while his troops are already beat up and/or halfway across the world.
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2017-03-01, 08:28 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2010
Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
Unfortunately besides these two everyone else is royally ****ed.
William won, but half of England is Danish now. Scottland won a crusade and owns Jerusalem, but never has any money or troops because of the constant jihads (that somehow they keep defeating). Byzantium looks like a gerrymandered congressional district. Haven't checked up on the eastern european countries, but since the HRE has been expanding that way, I doubt they are in great shape. Scandinavia is a big fat mess. Ireland is a big mess.
The other issue is I have yet to see a Rebellion in France or HRE. France fought a stupidly long war with both HRE and England, was -100 gold for a long time and had massive levy raised penalties and still everyone was happy enough to stick around. At one point I looked and most of the feudal lords had so many same trait bonuses the King could probably be lovers with their wives, get caught and still be loved. France has also spent significant time defending against smaller Muslim nation attacks, so they usually have some opinion bonuses there and don't have to worry about actually losing a war.
I will try to see if I can get a Grand Alliance built up before I finish taking the rest of Iberia. Hopefully the HRE implodes or France does by then.The Chaotic Evil Dungeon Master
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2017-03-01, 12:04 PM (ISO 8601)
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2017-03-01, 05:56 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
So I had my first "I am a genius" moment in this game.
Controlling Ireland and Wales as primogeniture absolute monarchies (aw yeah), I managed to conquer Scotland, which was a festering swamp of autonomous vassals and elective successions. No matter, I said. I can just bribe the Scottish Dukes to elect my primogeniture heir for a couple generations until I can fix the laws (I thought about revoking and cheesing the elections that way, but then I remembered the insane quagmire that was my attempted conquest of England last game).
That worked okay for the first succession, but they next guy only ever had daughters (and a Celibacy modifier I could never get rid of). There's no way in Monophysite Hell that multiple dukes (including ones outside my de facto realm, hi there Queen-Regnant of England) are going to vote for my daughter no matter how much I pay them or feed them the remnants of the former king's territory, and I was only up to Medium Crown Authority.
In desperation when my guy was 50 and sonless, I switched the succession in Alba only to Agnatic-Cognatic Gavelkind, only to realize that the Scottish laws were well aware of my shenanigans and that my eldest child was going to get Eire and Bretain Bhraig, giving Alba to my second daughter. I hadn't solved the problem at all other than keeping dynastic ties closer.
And then it hit me.
Kingdom of Alba > Make primary title.
Primary title goes to the eldest in Gavelkind. All titles go to the eldest in Primogeniture.
Succession: secured in all three kingdoms. Plus this should break up some of the nastier duchies while I wait for Queen Deirdre to ascend the throne, institute High Crown Authority in Alba, and get everything set to primogeniture. I just have to deal with this nasty blue color instead of beautiful clover green for a few decades until I can switch back...
EDIT: this plan WAS amazing until I accidentally won the Fourth Crusade and got Jerusalem back again. I don't really mind that one going to a branch family though.Last edited by Nerd-o-rama; 2017-03-01 at 09:13 PM.
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2017-03-01, 07:38 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2010
Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
I have tabled France and HRE for now. I am trying to make the HRE an ally of convenience but it isn't going well (srsly no marriages that will give a pact with the HRE).
I did manage to get a few more counties in Iberia and cut a double duke pretender down to single duke with negative money. Then the Pope called a crusade for Andalusia....while I am sitting on nearly full troops and 1500 gold.
I won the crusade, but France nabbed a Navarre county (they did not crusade). I gained.....a lot of territory. It took me the rest of my gold to get that territory disyributed in a non troubling way. I think i got a claim on the duchy of aragon at some point too that I need to press soon.
I need to stop expanding, brace for the inevitable Jihad, and nuild uo my demense.The Chaotic Evil Dungeon Master
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2017-03-01, 10:11 PM (ISO 8601)
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2017-03-01, 11:35 PM (ISO 8601)
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2017-03-01, 11:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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2017-03-02, 12:31 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
Update on my awkward succession situation: after realizing that my Holy Land territories were still part of Alba because I haven't usurped the Sultanate/Kingdom yet, I managed to keep everything in the hands of my character's daughter when my guy heroically died fighting Seljuk raiders.
Queen Deirdre the Holy then proceeded to lead her armies to victory over the next Sunni Jihad while popping out two kids and experimenting with a flying machine, slaughtering Turks and Arabs by the tens of thousands and keeping her vassals in line with the sheer power of her charisma.
Why's a woman on the throne of four kingdoms? Deus VultSpoiler
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2017-03-02, 07:44 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2010
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2017-03-02, 10:22 AM (ISO 8601)
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2017-03-02, 12:38 PM (ISO 8601)
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2017-03-02, 01:17 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title
Somehow, there is a Mongol on the throne of England. Somehow I just took Khiva from the Mongols (I would have taken Khotan too, but I forgot to land my brother-in-law when I noticed he was heir to it. Stupid, stupid, stupid.) I am, as soon as I figure out how to defang 2 factions with 140% power, about to conquer England. Then they will just have Jerusalem, which I do not seem to have a claim on.
My attempts to break up Baluchistan aren't working. However, I could holy-war the one and only duchy in Baluchistan and then Usurp it.
Also, somehow my dwarf first daughter is my heir rather than my high-martial, high-diplomacy, high stewardship, born-in-the-purple second daughter. Any suggestions on fixing it? I suppose I could give her sons temples to get them out of the line of succession.
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2017-03-02, 02:15 PM (ISO 8601)
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2017-03-02, 02:57 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2010