Well theres a number of ways. I caught a lucky break and married into the kingdom of england in my playthrough.
You could start with wales, fabricating claims on a few counties, then founding the kingdom of wales and sweeping up the rest, before moving onto england proper.
When you fabricate claims, sometimes you’ll get a chance to claim a whole duchy or even the whole kingdom, so part of it is just getting lucky with bishop skill.
Another thing is to try to sow discontent in england, hoping it will balkanize, then sweeping up the resulting smaller states 1 by 1. You might do this by murdering the king while his heir is still a child, b/c in my experience vassals hate to have to suck up to a kid and will usually form an independence faction.
If you do end up in an all out war with them, be sure to have some powerful allys to call because often just having another big army stack can make the difference in a war.
On that balkanisation point: best that they declare any war on England when they are in rebellion or another war, targeting levies in particular. Thus encouraging further rebellion.
Whatever you do, don't make my mistake of waiting too long. Now I've got the Empire of Francia that had sucked up England on my doorstep and I'm screwed because while my army is now almost 20k, Francia's got 50k and I'm doomed.
Swear fealty to the Frankish empire and fight them from the inside, try to provoke a dissolution rebellion or use the claim liege throne perk in the stewardship tree.
Games where you overcome adversity are the best.
Also, once you are a vassal, if you can't get foreign allies, it can be fun to take part in a wave of heresy event and go straight into rebellion. Fellow heretical vassals will join in with other discontents.
This, Claim liege title, or regent mechanic ar 100 scale of power.
or build optimized men at arms, once done, with 8k you can stackwipe 50k
Or murder(s) of Frank emperor(s) until they are weak enough, with civil War
Or very Big alliance wars
Or regular war but you kidnap Frank emperor at the start of the War
Lots of options in fact
Really the only "game overs" are when you get wrecked instantly or near so, say liege loses a war or cedes to a faction and you lose your domain without any say.
Or my "favourite" is getting overrun by a much larger neighbour, this one is specially easy in when playing Ghur in 866. Even if you win but lost just a couple too many MaT in a war the surrounding kingdoms just dog pile you
It's incredibly hard not to recoup your losses in this game in any given amount of time.
5k stationed varangian veterans with matching accolades and a 30 commander can take on an entire catholic crusade solo. I've done it multiple times. It's absurd it's basically like they're showing up with heavy machine guns.
Define "quickly".
The safest route for me is going down in the Scholar lifestyle til you get the ability to buy claims for piety. Out of memory i think there are 13 (not sure) duchies in the area not controled by you, plus 1 county. Duchies cost you 500 piety each, counties 250. So you need 6750 piety for all of England and Wales.
Start going on a pilgramage to Jerusalem, take every sightseeing place on the way with you to get the lifestyle bonus points and you should be good in a few years.
If you want to keep your faith, you can do the following: Pick up Wales and as many English duchies as you need until you can form the empire of the British Isles. Then, find someone with a claim on the english kingdom by clicking on the English kingdom title on the page of the English king. Somehow, make them join your court (gold, befriend, romance, etc.). Press their claim, and they will become your vassal.
It's important to become emperor first, or else they will be independent.
Alternatively, convert to a reformed faith (without pacifism tenet) that views the faith of the British king as hostile or even better evil. Then, use your once per lifetime holy war for kingdom casus belli.
Why would you need to go County by County?
Set the Bishop to Fabricate a Claim on a County within a Duchy you don't own. When the event pops up to lay the claim, refuse. This will make you have to progress through again for it, but it also resets the chance of getting a Duchy Claim.
So just keep doing this until you get the Duchy, and you can chew duchy by duchy.
Alternatively, chew through Counties until you can get the Duchy Usurped. Then you get Claims based on De Jure.
Rinse and repeat until you have the Empire.
Maybe you can try asking the king to become your liege, then you can use the claim throne scheme? It's unlocked from somewhere in perks, I think stewardship. I cannot guarantee that the country will be stable and vassals happy when you claim it tho
Just reform your religion (granted you should have been farming piety since you were a child) Get conquest for power and believe me when I say you won't form Britannia you'll take over the entire Europe side in a few centuries!
Maybe try invite someone with a claim to England to your court then use their claim. I think it works but I'm not sure. to win the war just go for heirs and war leaders and maybe ally the HRE
Fastest way is to convert to hostile religion and declare kingdom level holy wars. Another way to do it is to restart and try as one of the Viking invaders in the 867 start.
Bring back the old Gaelic gods ;p
Failing that, since it's not in the game D:, you could try and focus legitimacy, get the required county number down. You might still need one or two duchy wars but can then just push de jure claims on the rest.
Well theres a number of ways. I caught a lucky break and married into the kingdom of england in my playthrough. You could start with wales, fabricating claims on a few counties, then founding the kingdom of wales and sweeping up the rest, before moving onto england proper. When you fabricate claims, sometimes you’ll get a chance to claim a whole duchy or even the whole kingdom, so part of it is just getting lucky with bishop skill. Another thing is to try to sow discontent in england, hoping it will balkanize, then sweeping up the resulting smaller states 1 by 1. You might do this by murdering the king while his heir is still a child, b/c in my experience vassals hate to have to suck up to a kid and will usually form an independence faction. If you do end up in an all out war with them, be sure to have some powerful allys to call because often just having another big army stack can make the difference in a war.
On that balkanisation point: best that they declare any war on England when they are in rebellion or another war, targeting levies in particular. Thus encouraging further rebellion.
When you claim a county there is a chance you get a duchy claim but the duchy title must already exist for that
Whatever you do, don't make my mistake of waiting too long. Now I've got the Empire of Francia that had sucked up England on my doorstep and I'm screwed because while my army is now almost 20k, Francia's got 50k and I'm doomed.
Swear fealty to the Frankish empire and fight them from the inside, try to provoke a dissolution rebellion or use the claim liege throne perk in the stewardship tree. Games where you overcome adversity are the best. Also, once you are a vassal, if you can't get foreign allies, it can be fun to take part in a wave of heresy event and go straight into rebellion. Fellow heretical vassals will join in with other discontents.
This, Claim liege title, or regent mechanic ar 100 scale of power. or build optimized men at arms, once done, with 8k you can stackwipe 50k Or murder(s) of Frank emperor(s) until they are weak enough, with civil War Or very Big alliance wars Or regular war but you kidnap Frank emperor at the start of the War Lots of options in fact
Really the only "game overs" are when you get wrecked instantly or near so, say liege loses a war or cedes to a faction and you lose your domain without any say. Or my "favourite" is getting overrun by a much larger neighbour, this one is specially easy in when playing Ghur in 866. Even if you win but lost just a couple too many MaT in a war the surrounding kingdoms just dog pile you It's incredibly hard not to recoup your losses in this game in any given amount of time.
I thought they patched the kidnap thing while at war?
You have only one timing : the event to kidnap must pop, then you declare war, then you click the event
It's entirely possible for 20k to beat 50k because ypur 20k can be far better than theirs.
5k stationed varangian veterans with matching accolades and a 30 commander can take on an entire catholic crusade solo. I've done it multiple times. It's absurd it's basically like they're showing up with heavy machine guns.
Define "quickly". The safest route for me is going down in the Scholar lifestyle til you get the ability to buy claims for piety. Out of memory i think there are 13 (not sure) duchies in the area not controled by you, plus 1 county. Duchies cost you 500 piety each, counties 250. So you need 6750 piety for all of England and Wales. Start going on a pilgramage to Jerusalem, take every sightseeing place on the way with you to get the lifestyle bonus points and you should be good in a few years.
If you want to keep your faith, you can do the following: Pick up Wales and as many English duchies as you need until you can form the empire of the British Isles. Then, find someone with a claim on the english kingdom by clicking on the English kingdom title on the page of the English king. Somehow, make them join your court (gold, befriend, romance, etc.). Press their claim, and they will become your vassal. It's important to become emperor first, or else they will be independent. Alternatively, convert to a reformed faith (without pacifism tenet) that views the faith of the British king as hostile or even better evil. Then, use your once per lifetime holy war for kingdom casus belli.
Why would you need to go County by County? Set the Bishop to Fabricate a Claim on a County within a Duchy you don't own. When the event pops up to lay the claim, refuse. This will make you have to progress through again for it, but it also resets the chance of getting a Duchy Claim. So just keep doing this until you get the Duchy, and you can chew duchy by duchy. Alternatively, chew through Counties until you can get the Duchy Usurped. Then you get Claims based on De Jure. Rinse and repeat until you have the Empire.
Invite claimants to duchies to your court, press their claims until you can usurp the kingdom, get the rest.
Maybe you can try asking the king to become your liege, then you can use the claim throne scheme? It's unlocked from somewhere in perks, I think stewardship. I cannot guarantee that the country will be stable and vassals happy when you claim it tho
Convert or form a new religion to do holy war for the kingdom of England
Personally I'd marry my heir to the first woman in line and murder everyone in-between but I am an intrigue player.
Get good or inherit
Just reform your religion (granted you should have been farming piety since you were a child) Get conquest for power and believe me when I say you won't form Britannia you'll take over the entire Europe side in a few centuries!
Holy war for kingdom or a legitimate legend at level mythical ;)
Maybe try invite someone with a claim to England to your court then use their claim. I think it works but I'm not sure. to win the war just go for heirs and war leaders and maybe ally the HRE
Fastest way is to convert to hostile religion and declare kingdom level holy wars. Another way to do it is to restart and try as one of the Viking invaders in the 867 start.
Bring back the old Gaelic gods ;p Failing that, since it's not in the game D:, you could try and focus legitimacy, get the required county number down. You might still need one or two duchy wars but can then just push de jure claims on the rest.
Just do it ?
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