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Table of Contents
0:00 Intro & Summary
1:30 Great Moravia: Easy (867)
3:39 Pratihara: Easy (867)
6:20 Abyssinia: Medium (1066)
8:44 Castille: Medium (1066)
11:04 Great Liao: Hard (1066)
13:48 Mjinjaa: Hard (1066)
15:49 Count of Vermandois: Very Hard (1066)
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#crusaderkings #guide #campaign
Beginner's Guide: kzhead.info/sun/nJ2JYphwp52djIE/bejne.html Small correction: For Vermandois he is a COUNT, not a Baron as I said in the video. I apologize for that! Thank you so much for watching today guys!! I will be making some more guides over the next few days. The Tribal to Feudal transition seems to be the thing people are struggling with the most so I'll see what I can do! If you haven't picked up the game, you can grab it through my link here: www.nexus.gg/italianspartacus . This helps me out a TON as it gives a direct commission to the channel, and depending on what time you see this, a discount to you as well.
One Sancho (Castile) you have the unite the Spanish Throne as mid to late Game Choice. As Alfonso (Leòn) you have to do it early game (first 6 years). Sancho is the strongest Military wise, he is the hire to his two brothers and the oldest Sister, wich is btw the lover and spymaster of Alfonso and has a county in the dutchy of leon. But Alfonos is the hire to Sancho ... So i thought if i don't assasinate Sancho he will do it to me or wage war. And Intrigue is realy Alfonso strong side he starts with 22 or 23 intrigue his sister,lover and spymaster has 21 and is 100% loyal because of the lover trait. The third Brother is the Dynastie Head and the Jiménez Dynastie starts with 900+ renown and gets over 5.8 Renown at the start of the campaign. If you want to chose the first Dynastie Perk you have to be fast. I only played the Tutorial a littel and had learn fast about Intique and how strong it is and to marry you lovers fast to homosexuel knights xD. To the Hook idea for Sanches, Alfonso should have a hook 100% for sure incest lovers wiht the oldest Sister. But they are both master of intrigue!
I really feel that the game has so so many choices for character selection that it makes it easier for me to select leaders . I opted for Paramara in 1066 instead of Pratihara of 867 cause it is more stable imo. Thanks as always brother .
Nice video! Will you ever consider about playing as Pratihara empire?
Considering how easy it is to be paralyzed by choice, I appreciate these suggestions man.
Good thing the map is lovely to stare at while trying to choose!
Yeah, no joke, I've already played 3 partial or "accomplished goals of small rulers". And each time I've finished I moved to a character that was fairly close to my original start that also looks interesting. Haven't even left the Slavic faith yet lol
Lol, I've just been screwing around with Italy carrying on from the tutorial and as someone who is pretty unfamiliar with strategy games in general it's a wee bit overwhelming to say the least.
It's easy for us Europeans
Which is proof that dictatorships are way better than democacies. All hail Kim Jong Un.
Correction: You cannot play as a baron as of today.
Yeah, I think he just mixed-up counts and barons there.
Shit sorry about that man!! I even have "COUNT" Written down in my notes hahah
@RamblingBaba _ yeah apparently because basically they feel the gameplay would suck
@@italianspartacus First thing I was going to mention. xD It is a great video though.
@RamblingBaba _ no, it wasn't possible to do so. In CK2 baronies were only different 'slots' which you could fill with cities, castles and temples. Now they're actually visible on the map, but you still can't play them. As some other people said, Paradox decided that it would be boring.
I gotta say i love this game already, imagine what it’ll be like after 10 dlc’s
It really is way more satisfying than CK2, even though it's currently limited compared to the full CK2 game.
It's a good starting point for me, because the DLC's really scared me off from trying CK2.
@@usasoldiern you did not miss a lot, ck2 was a train wreck from start to finish plus most of dlcs are a joke, like really a joke
Sadly my xbox store version wont even launch, so now I have to use a cracked version which has no dlc :(
dude dlcs would be awsome, imagine being able to do wars in G.O.T or Middle Earth so many possibilities
I recommend starting as the count of Holland! You start as one of 2 survivors of a dynasty that used to have the kingdom of Frisia, so it's a good background story :). The start is relatively safe as you're in Lotharingia. First order of business is kicking your Norse duke (of Holland and Frisia) out of office, then continue on to form the Kingdom of Frisia and become independent. Next, your options are pretty endless. In my game, the duke of Brabant (who was my vassal), somehow inherited the kingdoms of Italy and East Francia. This annoyed me at first (since I lost him as vassal), but I had a good relationship with him, so managed to marry my heir to his youngest daughter, then proceeded to murder his other 3 children. Result: I now possessed three kingdoms. Ended up taking over the Byzantine empire and reforming the Roman empire later on, pretty great game :)
Epic
867 Start. Harald Fairhair of House Yngling in Norway is a fun start. Historically the first King of Norway. He is also featured in the new assassins creed game if you have played it. Kyotve the cruel from the game is also his neighbour. An interesting campaign considering you are surrounded by Sons of Ragnar and you are relatively small at the start. I would definitely reccomend it.
The only "right" way to form Portugal is to start as the duke of Portucale, it's actually a fun, but quite hectic at times campaign.
Duke level is still moderately easy to play, it is always hardest to start as a count
County of Aargau in 1066 has Habsburg as its ruler
Did you inbreed them tho 😂
I played as him and managed to get my nephew as the king of Jerusalem, inherited his kingdom after he died with no heir, expanded the kingdom and founded a new empire if Jerusalem, then managed to take the entirety of the byzantine empire through a claim. Very interesting playthrough!
I just finished my campain as Count Herbert of Vermandois and I'm happy that you talked about this one, it's amazing fun if you like dificult starts that you have a lot of option to go for.
This is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thank you so, so much
Awesome thanks for the suggestions! Hope for part 2 in the future.
Awesome! I was just wondering which starts to try out (apart from the default ones suggested by the game) and here you give some excellent suggestions together with useful information and valid arguments. Thanks!
Little late to the (raiding) party, thanks for the extra insights and ideas, been mostly puttering around Iceland and Finland and been looking for inspiration for other starts
Damn I was looking exactly for this. Awesome vid, thanks.
I did a campaign in Spain as Leon. The King had a really high intrigue stat. The interesting thing about that location with the three kingdoms. None of them start with an heir. So I managed to take both my brothers kingdoms relatively quickly simply by assassinating them. Not a single war was needed.
Your videos are so well made and explained, you give us all the tools to learn what we need how we need it. Keep it up plz! I think its a bummer you don't have more subs and views, compared to other youtubers that do this sort of content, none of them are as fluid and easy to learn from. THANK YOU FOR YOUR VIDS!
Thank you very much man!! That's such high praise dude. I promise I'll have more coming out
I like your enthusiasm. Keep up the good work. subbed.
Great video - sometimes having too many choices can be paralyzing, so it's nice to have some suggestions (aside from the game's). My first campaign was with Bjorn Ironside in 867 but it was too easy to form Scandinavia - now I'm playing as Wessex on the opposite side and it's certainly been more interesting (trying to fend off the Vikings and not being able to declare war with ease). I can see myself giving some of these a try next.
El Cid... Ah, to be young and playing AoE2 Conquerors again.
Great video! Definitely going to try a playthrough of Great Liao after I finish my current playthrough. Always love seeing these types of videos and how people discover new and interesting starting locations in this game, and hope to see more in the future.
I'm definitely considering a follow up! Thanks so much for watching man :)
Would enjoy seeing another of these videos, as it is pretty tough to find campaigns as there isn't much direction. Good stuff!
Today I was about to start my first Ironman run. Thanks for the recomendations. Perfect timing
Great video. Hope to see more campaign start location overviews. More maybe by region and more in the early start also.
Yo man, just wanted to say I really appreciate your videos! I'm new to Kings Crusader 3 and your videos have really helped make sense of everything and make the game more fun! Thanks for all your hard work!
it is my absolute pleasure bro, I'm glad you're enjoying them :)
I’ve been playing as the Hapsburg Dynasty, they start as a count somewhere in modern Switzerland. (1066) Created the Kingdom of Austria, been lovin it!!!
Location is Aarau ;)
Holy shit, If not you I wouldn’t even start playing ck3, so thank you so much for that!!!
HARALDR "FAIRHAIR" YINGLING is very fun too Count level Viking Raider with awesome hair
He's also pretty easy to conquer norway with. Pretty good second character to play when learning to play militarily.
@@whatrnames Dag Hede, Fairhairs neighbor was my second run and starts with more soldiers than Fairhair. Wiped Norway in like the first 20 mins :P
Yeah my second game run is with Harald and it's been a blast with such a capable young ruler. I love starting as a count in CK games.
@@lakuspakus8782 yes but Haraldr has op stats and good genetics traits as well for a perfect start.
@@MrGazlo Agreed! he is my current playthrough. and is already able to steam roll armies twice his size. only caveat is your starting spouse wants nothing to do with you... so i divorced her and married someone with both the intelligent and giant congenital traits. Norse super-soldiers, here we come!
I started a couple of times with Alfonso of Leon, and every (really every) time he gets a kid with his spymaster Sister right at the start. Might be an Excellent hook for Castille to look for.
Funny cuz historically it was Alfonso of Leon who managed to actually outplay his brothers, who all "mysteriously" died of course, and went to proclaim himself emperor of Hispania. He was also the grandfather of Afonso of Burgundy, the first king of Portugal, making him basically the grandfather of all Hispania.
Hey I'm a veteran CK player and I think your videos are super informative and helpful! Thank you and keep up the good work!
Nice video! I recommend start as count of Barcelona, I think its a very different and unique campaign! Wish you do a video about it to recreate the crown of aragon
For what appears a relatively easy start (I'm not a great player, and very defensive/cautious at that), I just started a campaign as Thukkar Udayin of Kotivarsa (in Bengal) in 876. Udayin has great stewardship stats, great income (it's one of those 18dev territories you mentioned) and (after pressing a claim on the kingdom). It's now 915, Udayin is Maharajah of the Bilar Kingdom (yay for realm splitting) and doing nicely tyvm. Obviously, ymmv
As a fun, and slightly more challenging flavor of Abyssinia I recommend Aksum. They start out with the Jewish faith and can immediately bend the knee to their giant neighbor then slowly work to usurp the kingdom title from within. I'm not a great player, but I managed to take and convert the kingdom in about 50 years and I'm slowly moving towards creating a Jewish Empire with a fantastic end game goal of retaking the holy land.
OHHH that's a very awesome recommendation man. Thank you
Thanks to ck3 I learned that what we call England is incredibly diverse. P.s- anyone notice the nation named Shityy
Hahaha it's true! England is separate from Britain is separate from the UK!
This is extremely helpful - there are so many starting character choice it's difficult to have an idea if playing them would be worth the investment of time.
Actually the furthest Christian is the one RIGHT ON THE EDGE of the map located in Tibet
Who is it?
@@frederikhoke7562 it's a nestorian count in the area of Xia in the 867 start. Makes for a fun game since you are surrounded by pagans.
Hey ItalianSpartacus - I hope you don't mind if I suggest an honorable mention for your list. Maybe this is a bit obvious for people who've played a bunch of CK2, but Dyre the Stranger (Jarl of Kiev in 867 AD) looks very interesting in CK3. I haven't tried him yet, so I can only guess at the difficulty, but he is almost an ideal sandbox character. He's situated in a 6-county duchy with a ton of development potential (personally controlling 5 at game start w/ no vassals), starts with the genius trait, and is the norse/astaru lord of a completely russian/slavic realm. Stiff challenges but so many options. Half your kingdom de jure is in Khazar territory, so this is a good character to try forming a custom kingdom with. You can remain norse for awhile to use the Dnieper river for raiding. Your capital is one of the slavic holy sites - the central of the 5 - so you can convert and try to reform a pagan religion. When I play Dyre, I may chose not to form an empire and instead try putting my dynasty on 10 independent thrones. With all the small kingdom de jures in this region, ruled by unreformed pagans, this is another plausible challenge. Highly recommend you check Dyre out.
I was unsure of this game because I found ck2 to be really complicated and I felt like the interface was pretty terrible, but I took a chance because I like the concept a lot. I'm much happier with the mechanics of this one and look forward to my journey to master the game
100% agree with you man. Ck2 was impossible to get into, but this is so amazing!
I’ve been playing my first game as King Dyre of Könugarðr in 867, which has the very rare bonus of starting with the Genius congenital trait. This means I’ve been able to push for the strengthen bloodline goal really fast, but has also taught me a lot about the game as I’ve had to work out a lot to get my land from a tribal jarldom to a feudal kingdom, all while trying to spread the Ásatrú faith and Norse culture into Kiev, and fending off raids from all sides. It’s really difficult but incredibly good fun as someone new to paradox games, and I imagine it would be good fun for many more people too.
Im quite pleased that you mark Great Moravia as easy because i allready decide to play it after tutorial. And that because its my history ( and web are quite proud of it) and also my father gave me name after this famous king Rastislav 😁👍. It brings great roleplayimg aspect for me to it.
It's pretty easy to play as King Alfonso of Leon, he's always intrigue focused so just murder your brothers in discreet, inheriting 2 kingdoms without war. The rest is claims against your cousins, and then wage Holy Wars all the way south until you have enough counties to create the title of Empire of Hispania.
Converting religion, at the same time as trying to fabricate claims on the Big Blue French Blob that has spread down the coastline of Hispania, has been the longest part for me. Started getting quite repetitive. Especially since your realm bishop can only do one thing at a time (fabricate or convert) and the constant bottoming out of Catholic fervor due to random Catholic bishops doing bad thing events all over causing conversion times to skyrocket. Taking the third perk on the Learning tree, which eliminates the penalty for difference in fervor regarding conversion, is a must for every new ruler I have. Taking territory was the easy part. The rest has become a long-term slog.
Yeah, he was one of the best starts in CK2 as well. Kill your brothers, marry your cousin who is the heir of Aragon, and holy war or claim war the rest of Spain. You could easily form the Empire of Hispania in CK2 in just one or two generaions
@@guardianofthehill I prefer marrying a Genius, then murdering my cousin and his kids until I inherit the Kingdom
I've been waiting for lists like this. Really surprised not many people have covered it yet, but I guess there's a lot of lords to cover
800 start in england "hard" of Dorest is the BEST campaign imo. Super fun to defend/unite england, super fun to start as a count and work your way up. High stats to start with low lands with lots of enemies. You are the heir of your brother so you can choose to assist him or try to assassinate him. You start with a high level deceitful spymaster which can work against you more often than not! Best start imo.
I started as Count Suppo of Ferrara in 867, and managed to claw my way into reforming the Roman Empire by 1150, mostly through heavy use of eugenics to always have a genius ruler. Btw, the Blood Dynasty Legacy is so incredibly powerful, and it can help you reach the requirements to get the Strong Blood decision, which basically makes it so you always have at least one inheritable trait, even if none of the parents do, and it's also a great health boost.
It's my favourite legacy tree, the rest seem underpowered. Like getting a bit of stats in one skill - meh. Getting a bit higher opinion - meh. Getting +5 years of life is good but it's behind a 10k Renown point barrier so meh. While Bloodlines tree is uber good from the start.
'the last of the karlings' man that hit home. How quickly the most powerful dynasty in medieval europe fell.
As someone who had a 45+ "barren" concubine give me a son... HAAAAAAAAA.
Awesome channel and guides dude...greetings from new Zeakland.
thank you so much brother! and Ahoy from California! :)
I found a lot of enjoyment playing as Alfonso of Leon instead of Castille. With Alfonso's high intrigue level, you can murder your brothers with 90% or higher chance of success. I was able to take both Castille and Galicia within the first 3 years with no wars having to be fought. Playing as Alfonso also helps players get used to schemes and how useful they can be.
Definitely just learned from this video that you can change objectives and view development 😂 thanks so much dude!
My pleasure dude. Thank you so much for watching
I found Ansbach in 800 really cool, since you are dispropotionally stronger than your fellow counts, I took over all the weak ones in swabia and adapted their culture, instandly making me a culture head in central europe with a very strong economy and potential to play tall or take over east francia after usurping the dutchy of swabia with no problem at all.
I really recommend you look into 867 bohemia. One of the most interesting starts I have found and one of the more difficult slavic nations to unite the slavs with
Didn’t know about El Cid’s presence in the game. Thanks!
Of course! He's a BEAST! :)
Aowin in 867, starting in extreme south of Africa with a 12yo boy alone with one single tribe. A very hard start but quite fun if you pass the first decade. Create the empire of Guinea, pacify all Africa. :) Dyre of Konugardrr, genius and duke, start with 5 counties but viking (grandfather is Ragnarr Lodbrok) in a middle of Asia, a lot of fun, three major threats and you can also convert (need to) slave culture and create a unification, more easy that the first one.
My favourite start so far was Duke Nunes for the form portugal achievment. Had to assasinate the king of galicia so sancho would inherit it; protecting me from the attasids to the south then spent a long time globbling up his vassals until a peasant revolt force converted castille to muwalladi, took indepence and holy warred the whole thing. so much fun
YT: get these nice insights into this awesome deep game My brain: 11:11 heheheheh Shityy
very hard, im ready for this :D
I started with Luticia in 867. Makes a lot of fun, because it can become one of the strongest nations in the east. But it's also possible to expand to the north or to the west. You need strong allies at the begining though.
I might have to play the Great Liao start, just so that I can conquer the county to the north & change my primary title's name to SHITYY before becoming the gahdam mongorians :D
I kept thinking of the way South Park says that word in the Mongol episode
@@italianspartacus haha exactly what I was thinking!
SHITYY with KHAKASS to the west! You can become the SHITYY KHAKASS empire!
Good suggestions! Even before I watched this, I choose myself to try Great Moravia. But to be more interesting and challange try to start not as King Rostislav, but as his heir - Duke Svatopluk of Nitra. King Rostislav as NPC will soon get more heirs before of you, so you get new goals - usurp Great Moravia and become head of dynasty/house
OHhh good call! how is that going for you?
One campaign I enjoyed was starting as Urraca and unifying spain with three or four murders. (She starts with intrigue and a lot of perks already unlocked)
Love halfdan white shirt rn finally used too the game ran it up and got my first kingdom of England and on my way too brittania
you can also play as habsburg dynasty to fulfill their destiny as the future powerhouse of europe with their infamous jaw. you play as count werner of aargau, father of otto von habsburg. this little otto is the very first habsburg to use "count of habsburg" as his title.
Hi Spartacus 😊 Firstly thank you for putting together such an outstanding collection of in-depth tutorial videos. I know I'm late to the party with CK3 but I only really heard of it's existence when it came to XBox Live. I downloaded it for both my Laptop and my XBox Series S and played it for a few days on the PC (Waiting for the XBox version to activate from early download) and thought I'd give your recommended easy realms a go on the XBox. So I played Rostislav the King of Greater Moravia who's heir is (like in history) Duke Svatopluck. Now, from playing the two versions, it soon became apparent that on the XBox, the skills that each character possesses are not random, they are fixed if they have a title of Duke or above, and Rostislav starts with a Stewardship skill of 1 so I married him off to a Queen with a 19 level to give me 9 extra and boost my holdings from 3 to 5 to give me some chance of earning some money. As soon as the chores are done (setting up a council etc) and I get out of pause mode, Svatopluck immediately creates an independence faction against me which contains my 3 strongest vassals and outnumbers me in troops. I thwart this by giving Svatopluck a county he is the rightful liege of and giving one of the other 2 vassals the other as a vassal. This creates a new strong vassal who makes a great spymaster and I end up with quite a decent council. Now the problem is that some of my Kingdom is part of Poland... and they want it back. With the Ally created by marrying my Queen (Who is French) I can quite quickly put together around 2000 troops before being attacked by the High Chiefdom Of Lower Silesia who, together with his 3 allies, throws around 3500 troops at me... I don't stand a chance and have no time to do much else as this occurs in 869 so I only have 2 years grace 😁 Now don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying it and I think they've done a wonderful job of creating the XBox version... but when it comes to Great Moravia, Easy it isn't !!!! I hope you get to read this and found it amusing if nothing else 😄✌and wonder if you have any advice. PS... I actually quite like that the skills appear not to be random like on the PC as it will make each play through reproducible.
That’s surprising, bc I first started playing on Xbox as well before switching to pc, and my first Xbox playthrough I did the tutorial, the Earl of Desmond, the guy they have you go to war against in the tutorial, was a total sociopath with horrible skills. I did the tutorial again on Xbox bc I screwed up somewhere along the line, and he had all good traits and decent skills. So it seems random to me on Xbox too. I was also Catholic in my first playthrough yet I went to insularism in all my other ones. Still wondering how that happened Bc I haven’t been able to replicate the Catholicism part.
Heads up, there's 2 House of Wessex (Alfred the Greats House) Counts in the 1066 start in Staffordshire and Warwickshire. One is female and they have claims on the Kingdom of England. Really interesting playthrough. The real life figures are incredibly interesting, I believe the male participated in the first crusade.
Probably Robert the Second - WIlliam the Conqueror's son. He received Normandy in the succession, and didn't want to deal with the squabbling so answered the call after the Council of Clermont!
A quick note on the Great Liao start, on a set date the historical Genghis Khan (Temüjin) will show up in the northeastern corner with a 30k army stack to ursurp the Mongol Empire tag. I feel if you go feudal too quickly you wont have enough levies to reasonably stop him.
For me, I find using Zirid and going for Andalusia achivement quite fun. (Aside from the fact Andalusia Sultanate and Zirid Dynasty's coat of arms has same color) . . . . . . . Maybe it's a bit tricky, because you are surrunded by Dhunnunid and Maghreb, but for me i take Cordoba asap for the golds, then take other county i can take. And when Maghreb invade, i just surrender and be one their vassal, securing my position from Dhunnunid. Take as many land as i can until im strong enough to gain independence
One other start I really like are the Viking starts. Or at least that what I like calling them. A lot of the single county starting rulers in Norway (NW of England) are great starts. Really good if you want to conquer militarily or unite diplomatically the Kingdom Norway. Then play an English invasion late game. Chiftain Eirikr is my favourite start as he is so young you have so many options. Everyone around you is of relative equal strength too baring a 1 or 2 Jarldom (Dutchy) holders.
The Danish and Swedish starts are very similar because you get a lot of easy allies and can declare war on anyone you like. All of the suggested starts of the game in the "wrath of the Northmen" 867 scenario that are located in Scandinavia are very easy and enjoyable I find, except for the fact that developing your government takes literally centuries so you can barely build anything and have nothing else to do but conquer on and on forever.
Let me throw another amazing start in the hat. The Arad dinasty in Hungary 1066 all have claims on each other, along claims on several nearby full nations. My favorite is Prince Lambert, a 15 years old kid with claims in all of Hungary and, Poland along vassals and courtiers with claims in several nearby nations.
0:04 "...you can play as any bear-on.." was that intentional or is my mind busy again, making connections that aren't there?
An alternative to Abyssinia is Makuria in 867 (I haven't looked in 1066). The Duchy of Makuria is one of the best in Africa and, like Abyssinia, you start Coptic and Feudal. You also start in direct control of a holy site. You start with enough land to form the Kingdom of Nubia, and Alodia will likely accept vassalization. A stewardship focused character (if lucky) would help get this done quickly. There's the threat of the Tullanids early game, but I wasn't attacked by them in a couple of test runs. I recommend expanding to the east and south and attempting to form the Abyssinia Empire, before turning north to take on the Tullanids and take back Alexandria (and perhaps Jerusalem and Antioch--the other holy sites). This could also be a run to form Africa if you so desire.
If you play as Mjinjaa and change culture from Tangut to Han, the name of the Kingdom will change to the historical chinese name Xi Xia (Western Xia). You also get reapeating crossbow men-at-arms from Han culture.
OH HO! Thank you!!
Btw thx Spartacus
Dude i just respect the shit out of your work.
Thanks. I spent way too much trying to find a good character to play.
Ayat Soltani start marrying geniuses as quickly as possible. Marry your cousins who are geniuses and build a genius family. If you aren’t getting genius children, your wife is cheating. Genius boosts your stats plus xp. Once you have enough geniuses start marrying beautiful or Herculean. Add those traits.
No the easiest is always Byzantine Empire, primogeniture succession in 867 AD is OP imo. Also, as a emperor leader of greek culture, you are almost always in technology lead over the whole world.
How did they loose to the Turkish Kingdom?
@@sassmos Bc irl their succession was always a mess lol. Constant civil war, assassination, etc.
Count Herbert is definitely fun, but hard as hell. I wanna try it again sometime now that I'm more familiar with the game. Tried it before and managed to make it until my son took over and then the asshole count next door took my land and it was game over. Never managed to expand beyond 1 county lol.
"asshole count" lom
I started as the count of Nordgau - you're right between Bavaria and West Franconia which tend to start wars on each other and siege your territories. Your duchy spreads in 2 different de-jure kingdoms and to the east you've the boarder to Bohemia, a military power-house.
My first (and current) real campaign I started as Earl Cadoc ab Cador of Cornwall in 1066 with the goal of creating the Kingdom of Cornwall. I thought there would be easier if I started with less to manage but going off this list, it looks like I went with a difficult setting on accident.
In case anyone wants to form the mongol empire but doesnt like the idea of starting with so much land to manage, Chugachuk (i think thats how its spelled, its the little orange spot to the bottom left of the great liao) you start as a mongol leader next to some pretty weak neighbors. Its a bit more intense because you are next to massive realms that could eat you but, speaking from experience, you can manage your relationships and expand rapidly enough to gain power and eventually become greatest of khans. Kinda nice imo because you start as a tiny little baby realm with few counties and eventually your descendants will rule the world, because the greatest of khans decision is seriously so busted
For the Castille start: Your player king is the heir to both the kingdoms of Leon and Galicia. So because of that, it's far easier and quicker to simply have them assassinated, as you get the kingdom by default.
I gave a genius peasant carthmenshire and then changed characters to play as him. now he is near death and the new king of gwenedd. I would highly recommend such a campaign, even though my heir will spend most of his life stabilizing the absolute PR Armageddon I left behind.
I think the Habsburg Count of Aargau at 1066 and Capetian Count of Anjou in 867 are also very cool RP wise becuase both dynasties would go on to dominate europe till the Napoleanic wars
I find the 1066 settings generally easier than the 867 settings. It's been my experience with 867, unless you play some major power or some totally out of the way kingdom in lower Africa or something you are going to get eaten alive before you even get a foothold (I've literally had nations that were virtually impossible because you would get invaded by multiple factions only a few turns in).
count herbert was by coincidence my FIRST playtrough directly started an ironman campaign with him after tutorial and a mp round now xD i am nearly trough and i am kaiser of france and i could basicly conquer everything i want, the fun is out if u have 50.000 troops xD
I have started a couple times as Earl Eadgar of Warwickshire in 1066. Surprised more people don’t touch on that one.
I found starting as Gallura in 867 (North Sardinia) Really interesting. You're an Orthodox island surrounded by Catholics and Muslims. You are basically forced to become a neighbouring ruler's vassal to stop being insta-conquered and your dad can be a real dick to the south too. It's my go to start if I want to start with piety or intrigue. Hopefully you can stay alive long enough to befriend the byzantine empire and hopefully Italy doesn't get shattered so you don't find yourself with the wrong liege. If you expand enough you can quickly make progress as cultural and dynasty head if you want to go learning. The joy is, you can fight whoever you want and see anyone coming for miles but you will only be able to take small counts for a while. Also, leaving your island costs loads in embark fees so leaving enough men at home for when the AI beelines for your capital adds flavour (found a holy order and have 1.3k elite homeguard). I find the roleplay and random events much more fun than the fiddly war system and this start powers you through those. This starts early enough for you to experience every lifestyle focus multiple times even before 1066 and works really nice as a learning experience until you put everything into practice in your lategame. It's also good fun to watch your vassals slowly take over the Mediterranean. TL DR: Gallura has unique island start surrounded by differing cultures and religions with the ability to go with any of them or start your own.
As someone who lives in Burgos, i can't stress enough how cool is to have my man el Cid riding babieca kicking asses on the battlefield.
I have to say, if you can get past the initial hurdle of defeating Harold Godwinson, playing as William the Conquerer puts you in an incredible position to unite Britannia. There is pretty much nobody that can actually stop you once you have achieved realm stability. Edit: Literally have already united Britannia after two days of playing England. It really is that easy.
Anyone else start as Strathsclyde (spelling?). I found it incredibly difficult since my neighbor was the Isles, who were tribal, and started with a total manpower of over 7k compared to my ~800. Got raided everywhere in my land by multiple one thousand stacks of men and had to just sit and watch as it all burned around me b/c I couldn't fight off even a fraction of his force. Any advice for starts that have you next a raider that's massively more powerful then yourself?
Thanks for the content, and the discount link. I wasn't going to buy it yet because I know there is an endless stream of DLC's coming, but this game is just so good...
Hi, thanks for the video. You mentioned that there was a 867 start for the Great Liao, but i couldn't find it :) please help! thanks
Started the Spanish campaign last night but as the King of Leon instead due to his high intrigue. A couple of murder plots later and you've inherited both kingdoms! Watch out for your sister though... might leave you in some bother with the papacy!
I've heard Leon is the better route, and I agree, but I REALLY like Castille and El CId hahaha
Another fun start is playing as the Keira dynasty in Maninke. They go on to form the empire of Mali irl.
I dig the Abyssinia 1066 rec. East Africa is quite interesting in CK3! In 867 may I also suggest the Tulunids? But not the Sultan, no. Go for one of the two sons of the Sultan, either Prince Shaybad (Damieta) or Prince Khumarawayh (Alexandria) who start as pre-teenage counts with a bucketload of entitlements coming their way. Make daddy proud by deposing him and taking his titles, followed by your brother's titles, and expanding the realm. Both brothers are Ash'ari Muslims with Egyptian culture which gives them a ton of long-term options in Africa, including holy war on pretty much everyone West and South of them, save the area around modern-day Morocco. Busting through the Sahara on your way to Mali and ultimately the Ivory Coast can prove an interesting challenge, due to limited mobility and supply issues. Khumarawayh starts in an interesting position in that he's way over his domain limit so you need to offload some property fast.
HAHAH dude i love that. That's such a unique and fun start. I might be doing a follow up to this video - would you mind if i grabbed this one and gave you credit?
@@italianspartacus By all means! Also a correction on a typo: I referred to the princes as the Sultans brothers -- rather, they are his sons and heirs. I've made that edit to the OP.
Castille is so much fun
I would like to point out that you can also play as the Habsburgs on the 1066 start by choosing Argau. You will start as a count and can make your way up the chain.
I really think playing as a vassal is more fun at least for a while and those sweet sweet counvil benefits are worth it by themselves!
Take a look at Brittany in the west of france in 1066 or even 867 if you want a independant norse (feudal) start. 1066 is a fun start right at the western edge of it with house "Léon", you start out unmarried, relatively young and with an heir. Challenge here is that you start as a vassal with a county which has only two holdings of which one is already a temple. Making smart alliences to grab land of the other vassals or even trying to overthrow your liege is really necessary. First game I used the create claiment faction to gain my lieges title and that was really fun. Afterwards you are relatively free to do as you wish. Offer vassalage to france and overthrow the king of france from the inside (yes I did overthrow both my lieges) and create the Empire Francia. Expand North into Ireland? Challenge William the Bastard for england? Go tall with only Brittany and spit on other cultures since you are breton and your own culture head fairly fast? Choice is yours.
You should do vid on created character starts
Easiest way to unite Castile Kill the king of Leon then you inherit them Galicia is now invadeble or you kill the ruler and inherited them Navarra is usually a little bit more difficult but if they ally France just kill one of them Worked about four times by me
Can you do a video on Easter eggs in CK3? Specifically, can you do one about Count Otger of Brene.