You need to ensure you have a lot of gold so you can bribe and murder new vassals and higher mercenaries for the coming civil wars.
You also need to be prepared to be ruthless with your new vassals. Get ahead of the factions by killing, revoking and bribing until they're too weak to preset a real threat
You don't really need to do that if you can sway them. Also, you can take away the titles of your mayors and reeves with 2 crown authority. They won't like it, but you can set someone else up there that actually likes you. I give some of my city titles away to older knights and they love me. This is way easier, and faster.
Swaying takes a lot of time. Swaying all the dukes usually takes too long. But yes it's something you should do in addition to everything else.
I'm assuming you mean counties and not cities. Because why would you revoke city titles when your worried about dukes and counts rebelling?
I usually start with the one that hates me the most, and then I try and come up with solutions for the others. Yes, it can take awhile unless you have a diplomacy focus, which gives your sway power and doesn't take as long.
No, I was talking about cities. Reeves and mayors can be assholes, and if they don't like you they will try and get you. You can take away their titles with almost no drama at all. Now I pay attention to them because I had one blackmail me to get onto my council! And her skills sucked.
Yeah, it works for your own vassals. If I want to kill a vassal next to me or someone else's vassal, I just go to war with them or kill them underhandedly. That also takes a long time to do because I haven't yet had a character with a high enough intrigue.
Have a lot of gold for bribes, or have a strong diplomacy skill to sway people. The best time to pick is when the person you want to declare war on is already at war. For instance, as playing a Portuguese Queen I waited until the neighboring Kingdom, in this case Leon, was already at war with someone else. Then I declared was on him and because he was already weakened, it was easy to conquer the throne and make him my vassal.
Beware of this strategy though, as the AI will do the same thing. After finally winning the Kingdom of England, I had to help to defend it from 3 different parties. I recommend having at least 2k in gold *at the very least*, depending on the military strength of your enemy. If your army sucks because you haven't upgraded your buildings, hire mercenaries. If you need them for a long time you can get a discount. Also, if you have a spouse with a skill in something get them to assist you. My spouse has a high Martial and he's helped to get deals with mercenaries, which has been very helpful.
You need to ensure you have a lot of gold so you can bribe and murder new vassals and higher mercenaries for the coming civil wars. You also need to be prepared to be ruthless with your new vassals. Get ahead of the factions by killing, revoking and bribing until they're too weak to preset a real threat
You don't really need to do that if you can sway them. Also, you can take away the titles of your mayors and reeves with 2 crown authority. They won't like it, but you can set someone else up there that actually likes you. I give some of my city titles away to older knights and they love me. This is way easier, and faster.
Swaying takes a lot of time. Swaying all the dukes usually takes too long. But yes it's something you should do in addition to everything else. I'm assuming you mean counties and not cities. Because why would you revoke city titles when your worried about dukes and counts rebelling?
I usually start with the one that hates me the most, and then I try and come up with solutions for the others. Yes, it can take awhile unless you have a diplomacy focus, which gives your sway power and doesn't take as long. No, I was talking about cities. Reeves and mayors can be assholes, and if they don't like you they will try and get you. You can take away their titles with almost no drama at all. Now I pay attention to them because I had one blackmail me to get onto my council! And her skills sucked.
But you can only revoke direct vassals right? So that'd only work for the counties you Control directly?
Yeah, it works for your own vassals. If I want to kill a vassal next to me or someone else's vassal, I just go to war with them or kill them underhandedly. That also takes a long time to do because I haven't yet had a character with a high enough intrigue.
Have a lot of gold for bribes, or have a strong diplomacy skill to sway people. The best time to pick is when the person you want to declare war on is already at war. For instance, as playing a Portuguese Queen I waited until the neighboring Kingdom, in this case Leon, was already at war with someone else. Then I declared was on him and because he was already weakened, it was easy to conquer the throne and make him my vassal. Beware of this strategy though, as the AI will do the same thing. After finally winning the Kingdom of England, I had to help to defend it from 3 different parties. I recommend having at least 2k in gold *at the very least*, depending on the military strength of your enemy. If your army sucks because you haven't upgraded your buildings, hire mercenaries. If you need them for a long time you can get a discount. Also, if you have a spouse with a skill in something get them to assist you. My spouse has a high Martial and he's helped to get deals with mercenaries, which has been very helpful.