Crusader Kings

[Requiem]

It's a tough choice picking a bride.. go for stats or for land holdings...

[Pedro]

At this point I go for whichever takes me, a lot are declining

[Requiem]

I've had that issue before, I just had to ask everyone and eventually someone married my heir. I guess I ticked a lot of people off, including the king, well and that he was excommunicated, lustful, had worms, etc. lol.

[Pani]

Well i picked up this game the other day and have probably played an hour on it so far.

Well its interesting. I feel like you have to set a load of things up and then just watch it all play out over time.

My first story goes like this: I'm playing as Warwick (I seem to remember) and decided to get married. I marry someone from Lancashire who is a spy master and we have our first child, a girl. In order to change my title, I need more land and it points me in the direction of Herefordshire (I think) so I make my claim on their title and think about war. Just as I'm about to push OK, I read the stats and it looks like I can muster 250 troops to their 25000 troops. Needless to say, I back off for another time.

So I'm a bit stuck at the moment. I cant attack anyone cause I have a measly amount of troops, I have virtually no prestige left and barely 40 gold.
To get more money, it looks like i have to raise taxes (in which case the people will lose loyalty). And I have no idea how to get more troops.

I think I'll reread this full post and have another bash later on tonight.

[Pedro]

Army builds up in time you see it in your contruction window, sometimes mercenaries will offer to join for money.

If you research castles you can increase the garrison and better defenses.

As for money build the buildings that give money and some research also increase money gained from certain factions (nobility, peasants, clergy, etc).

When you go to war look at who their liege is, if they are near you the possibility is that you'll be going against your own King which is why you see that big number of troops since you'll be attacking a vassal region of the King you are attacking the King himself.

If you attack another country's region then your King helps you just be ready for the enemy's King army as they will go for your region first.

[Requiem]

What Pedro said. I eventually learned to see how many troops they can muster, which the last time I checked the Count of Surrey (the one I'm trying to get) can muster about 35,000 or so due to being friends with various Counts, Dukes, and the King.. in comparison to my 1,400. I would be crushed pretty fast. You can feud with other vassals of your king, just be sure you have your own group of loyal friends and allies to watch your back. I've seen other Duke's laying claim for the crown, and I think the majority of them got defeated.

[Pedro]

As you can read in another reply, I had to break my ties to my King and pledge to another King for me to attack neighboring regions without problems.

But I recommend you get the money, the factions, research and marriages all learned up before planning on making wars, it'll prolly take you some games, I had to restart about 4 times before I got a semi-successful run.