Crusader Kings 2: game over

I finally finished the game. From the previous post, I needed 4 more rulers till the game ended in the year 1453.





I managed to increase the score by over 40k since then to a total of 88,555. Quite good considering that best dynasty (the game has a list of historical dynasties with associated individual score) has a score of 100k but then again I was playing on easy difficulty level.

By the end of the game, my ruler was Emperor of Britannia, King of Ireland, King of Wales, King of England, King of Andalusia, King of Poland and King of Anatolia.

King Gabran the Bold reigned the longest (63 years) while King Zee 1 Mau's reign was the shortest (10 months). The latter died of "Slow Fever". Poor boy.

Here was the extent of my territory at the end of the game (marked by the number 12, symbolising the number of rulers):









Some of the more significant events since the last post are as follows:

1. After capturing a few more counties in England, I managed the create the land title Empire of Brittannia.

2. As Emperor of Britannia, I then had justification ('casus belli') to declare war to capture all counties in Scotland and some counties in France but I could do it only 1 county at a time, with peace treaty lasting 10 years with the opposing ruler. I could declare war before the treaty ended but I would suffer penalty in relationship with all Christian rulers. Gah.

3. Due to marriage to a duchess in Hungary, eventually my ruler had control over some counties there.

4. I participated in another crusader called by the pope to wrest the Kingdom of Poland from the Golden Horde. Unfortunately, the Timurid had similar idea and separately declared war on the Golden Horde for the same territory and they battled fast and furious. While the crusaders were running in stacks of at most 5 digits (i.e. tens of thousands), I spotted a Timurid army of more than 200k! @_@ In the end, Timurid got most of Poland while I (the crusader who contributed the most to the crusade) was awarded, by the pope, a few counties but with the land title Kingdom of Poland.

5. Byzantine Empire, an empire that was bigger than Empire of Britannia, declared war on me for a county is Kingdom of Anatolia. Previously, when they declared war on me while I was in the midst of putting down a major revolt, I smply surrendered the county they were warring for but not this time. I was determined to put a stop to their foolishness.

Unfortunately, ironically in the midst of this war with Byzantine, some of my vassals revolted by declaring independence. The counties of these vassals were spread all over my empire in these kingdoms: England, Andalusia, Hungary and Anatolia. I knew I couldn't successfully handle both wars. Curiously, this time my ally, the Queen of Hungary (who was my wife then), was willing to help to put down the revolt whereas she wasn't interested in helping me to defend against Byzantine. It turned out to be a ruse of some sort because since my revolting counties were, at least temporarily during the revolt, independent, other rulers, with valid casus belli, could declare war on them without triggering a war with me.

In the end, Byzantine gave up (soonner than I expected, thank goodness) and I then concentrated on crushing the major revolt, which I did. However, I lost about half of my counties in Hungary due to some opportunistic rulers. I forgot to check but the culprit was likely my wife, the Queen of Hungary. Grrr.

Overall, I enjoyed playing this game but it was addictive and as such I had to be extra conscious of the time while playing it. Recently I bought the 'Ruler Designer' DLC and started a game on normal difficulty with a customised ruler. Hope that will go as well as this one.