#ck3 playthrough

[panzergeist]

Crusader Kings III Playthrough III, Part III

I began this run by having Pentti start some wars for land in Sweden. For some fucking reason, it seems like everyone I declare war on immediately hires mercenaries so that I cannot properly judge if I can take them on alone. In 924 he conquered the title of High Chiefdom of Finland, and so was no longer merely a chieftain. In 927, he tamed a warhorse and named it Xanthos (The same name I pick every time I get a warhorse because Greek names are the coolest). Then in 928 Pentti's heart started failing. In 930, he started going blind. Later that same year, a form of typhus called the Taiga Fever appeared in the realm. In 936, Pentti needed only one more county in order to found the Kingdom of Sweden, but then he died of a heart attack, passing the throne on to his son Terho II. Who was Terho I? Who the fuck knows?

Pentti's land was divided amongst his descendants, and unfortunately Terho II inherited his father's war and got captured in 937, and was then forced to surrender, mercifully ending the war that no longer made sense. Some guy tried to have sex with Terho's wife, so he tried to have him imprisoned, and he rose up in rebellion. Then, of fucking course, that's precisely when some other asshole decided to declare war. Then for no reason Terho lost one of the wars (I really don't know which one) and somehow lost his title and became an adventurer instead. I ended the session in 938 because this was just getting annoying.

[panzergeist]

Crusader Kings III Playthrough III, Part II

Starting out with a bang, I enforced my heir's divorce because I realized that his daughter is 30 and still has no children, and so I needed him to remarry someone who was actually fertile and hopefully produce a male heir so that the Kingdom of Finland eventually passes to someone who is actually capable of producing children. Will this come to pass? I have no idea right now, because King Olavi died in the year 907, passing the throne on to his garbage son Armas. Olavi had 14 children and had at some point earned the name 'the Wolf.'

At this point I plan on taking control of a new dynasty because I find it's more fun to start small and get big rather than expanding an already sizable realm forever. It's just very boring to me. I would never go bigger than an empire size realm again.

...

Okay, so apparently I can't just select any new character I want, and so it literally has to be in my current dynasty. I decided I'm going to play as Pentti, who is one of Olavi's other sons. He has far superior traits to Armas. My goal as Armas is to conquer some lands outside of Finland and found his own kingdom.

So Pentti started out by doing some unsuccessful raids, and in 910 he was given the option to challenge the king, and he took the challenge, knowing that his fighting prowess was far superior. Obviously he won, and became King of Finland, which is really not what my plan was, but at least I'm not playing as the garbage son. I decided that perhaps I would take land in Sweden, form the Kingdom of Sweden, and then eventually play as a descendant who would control that land instead of Finland, and immediately some Samí asshole decides to declare war on me. A few other wars happened around the same time, and a smallpox plague known as Chieftain Ámmot's Pox started the same year, killing the garbage son Armas. In 914, the war against the Samí was lost and a small chunk of land left the realm. The same year, some land was lost in Sweden. Pentti's army was too crippled to do anything about it. The pox died out in November of 914, not that it was really good news since a number of dangerous factions began organizing against Pentti. In 915, these factions declared war, and their forces were far stronger than Pentti's. One was trying to take the Kingdom of Finland, and the other sought to destroy it. Pentti could easily take out the ones who sought to destroy the Kingdom, but he could not defeat the usurpers. He decided he'd rather see the Kingdom destroyed than have it fall into another's hands, so he surrendered to the dissolution faction in 917.

The Kingdom was no more, and Pentti was now a chieftain of Satakunta.

[panzergeist]

Crusader Kings III Playthrough III, Part I

I decided I'm going to end my 2nd playthrough and just leave it where it is because it has stopped being fun. I think it's best to just leave that dynasty as leaders of the Kingdom of Wales and not bother doing much more than that.

This 3rd playthrough will be a bit different however. For one thing, plagues will be more common. I had the Black Death disabled in prior playthroughs, but now it can happen more than once per campaign. This will make the game more lethal, obviously, but it will also help keep the population low. Also, after each character death, I will be allowing myself the option of playing as a new dynasty, and so I would then be tracking multiple dynastic lineages. The previous game rules I had been using will still apply.

So, my first character is a Finnish chieftain of the Väenusko faith named Olavi of House Mäkelä. Immediately in the starting year of 867, Olavi began expanding his territory, and in 875, he formed the High Chiefdom of Finland. In 881, he founded the Kingdom of Finland. That same year, his son and heir, Armas, was imprisoned after being beaten in battle. In 885, Olavi got a cat named Mittens. Armas was still imprisoned because he had terrible traits, and Olavi was secretly hoping he would just die in prison so that one of his better sons could inherit his lands instead. Unfortunately, Armas was finally relased from prison in 887. Immediately, Olavi sent his garbage sons to go raiding in hopes they would be killed and his good son Pentti would become his new heir. In 891, his garbage son Asikko was imprisoned, and Olavi refused to pay the ransom. Unfortunately in 896 he was released. I ended the playthrough in 902 after expanding the Kingdom of Finland some more.

[panzergeist]

Crusader Kings III Playthrough II, Part VII

Oh boy, in 1037 the new King Oucydd became a drunkard after his wife drank herself to death. Then later, the plague known as King Murchad's Flu came to Wales. Next year, Oucydd became ill with the disease and began dying. Later that year, his heart began failing. In 1039, he died by drinking himself to death at age 53, passing the throne on to his son Briog.

Briog's reign began with an invasion by the Kingdom of England. Immediately the realm went into debt, but at least the plague had dissipated. Wales was forced to surrender in 1041 and lost a small bit of land to England. The next year, Briog was forced to deal with the usual asshole rebellious vassals. Then in 1043 he was forced to surrender to England again, who took yet another piece of land. Then he surrendered to the rebellious vassals, who separated from the realm to form their own realm, and unfortunately this included a small piece of Wales itself. In 1044, Wales was still in debt, with seemingly no clear way out, but over the next few years it slowly improved, but the economy would continue to struggle. Just like his father, in 1048 when his wife died, Briog became a drunkard. Later that year, he declared war on the Lordship of Ceredigion, hoping to reconquer the piece of Wales that rightfully belonged to him. In 1049, he was threatened by Welsh Celts (And this was when I realized that Briog was a French Noaidevuohta for some fucking reason), and so in order to prevent a war he decided to adopt the Welsh culture and the Celtic religion. In 1050 he was able to reunify Wales. In 1051, some asshole vassals rebelled, and Briog was temporarily imprisoned, but he was able to escape before they could force him to surrender. Briog kept waiting for his allies to arrive to the war, but for some reason they were not coming. But then in December of 1052 they finally arrived. I decided to end the play session in 1055.

[panzergeist]

Crusader Kings III Playthrough II, Part VI

Okay, so today's play session begins in the year 967. Not a lot going on. Ailbe II keep getting called to assist with wars on the continent that cannot possibly be won. In 973, Ailbe II's uncle attempted to murder him, so he attempted to imprison him, knowing full well it would spark a rebellion, and of course it did, but it was easily squashed. Ailbe II allowed it to happen because he believed it would be good to get his troops some battle experience. In 981, Ailbe II noticed that one of his counties somehow drifted into the realm of Castile.... which holds lands in Britain now for some fucking reason, so Ailbe II decided to declare war for that county which is legally a part of Wales. In 984, the war was just barely won, and Wales was unified again. In 997, he became celibate because he already had 9 children and really didn't need anymore. In 1000 he got a pet cat named Snow. In 1017, Ailbe's heart started failing. In 1022, he started going blind. Then in 1024 he began losing his mind. In 1028, the plague known as Morgannwgian Sweats came to Wales. Ailbe II caught the disease in 1029, and he asked his physician to use a risky treatment, but the treatment was a disaster, and Ailbe could tell he was dying. Later that year, he recovered, yet he still knew that his death would come soon. In 1030, the Morgannwgian Sweats ended, and then Ailbe II died, passing the throne onto his son King Oucydd. He lived until age 80.

As is typical with successions, some vassals rebelled against Oucydd so he had to take care of that for the first few years of his reign. Initially the war was going well, but somehow the rebels secured an alliance with the King of England, and so everything started going to shit, and the war was lost by 1036. Oucydd was forced to lower his crown authority. He then just raised it up again immediately after. I ended the session that same year.

[panzergeist]

Crusader Kings III Playthrough II, Part V

Starting off the session in 957. My current plan is to earn enough piety so I can modify my religion so that it's male dominated... which I'm aware sounds fucking terrible, but I need to do this because my current heir's children were born prior to House Ceiteach's conversion, and so were born into their father's house. If I had anticipated that I would be having my current dynasty switch to an equal gender religion then I would have married her matrilineally, and so her children would be born into House Ceiteach, but they weren't, so I wanna make sure that my heir is one whose children have been born into the correct house. In 959, Ailbe's oldest son, Meirchion, died in battle. In 963, King Ailbe founded a new Sami faith called Celticism... it's just the same type of Sami shamanism that they embraced already but they're calling it Celtic. Anyway, now that House Ceiteach is of a male-dominated religion again, the player heir is Ailbe's grandson Ailbe, son of Meirchion. That same year, a disease called the White Plague started spreading through Wales. King Ailbe caught it himself. It killed Ailbe's wife Queen Walpurga in 964. The White Plague ended in 965, but Ailbe never recovered from it. In 966 it was clear that he was dying. Yet in 967 he recovered from his illness... though it didn't matter because he wound up drinking himself to death, and so passed on the throne to his grandson Ailbe II.

[panzergeist]

Crusader Kings III Playthrough II, Part IV

Starting off in the year 937, we continue the story of House Ceiteach as King Ailbe of Wales. In 938 he was called to war by an ally, and while that was happening he earned the Wise Man trait while engaging in mystical introspection, and he also fulfilled his oath to strengthen the house by having a bunch of kids. In 939 he got a dog and named him Killer. In 940 he conquered Cornwall. In 951 he converted to the Sami faith of Noaidevuohta because in CK3 you have to be a member of an organized faith in order to go feudal, and for some fucking reason it was not allowing me to reform Insular Christianity (I'm using a mod that starts all faiths off as unreformed). In 952, Wales became feudal. In 954, some Catholic assholes weren't very pleased with Ailbe for becoming pagan and rebelled, but they were put down easily. Play session ended in 957.

[panzergeist]

Crusader Kings III Playthrough II, Part III

Starting off with a bang in the year 921, our 11 year old hero King Ailbe beat the shit out of his 14 year old cousin (And aunt) because she was being mean to him. At age 12, he had his coronation, and swore an oath to strengthen the house (Meaning he needs to have a bunch of kids). During the feast afterward, he drank a middle aged man under the table (Is this kid a fucking reincarnation of Hercules or Samson or something?). In 930, he competed in a grand tournament, performing poetry, and somehow won. Then he started learning the Welsh language, and in the process he became so enamored with it he converted to the Welsh culture, as is befitting of a King of Wales. In 936, the King of Ireland declared war and took the final lands that House Ceiteach had held in Ireland. King Ailbe had scrambled to create new alliances to fend off the Irish king, but their combined forces did not arrive in time.