Crown authority is on medium. King Svend the I has already raised it so I can't up it again until Knud take the throne.

Inheritance is currently Election, with Agnatic-Cognatic options. So obviously I need to pay close attention to who the vassals want on the throne. My half-brother has been the biggest threat, though recently the HRE was trying to nominate a kid. I have a couple Duchies where I don't also control all the Counties which means I get a say in the HRE succession and he gets a say in my succession. That sucks and I need to clean that up as soon as the HRE gets involved in a big war so I can poach a few counties without facing their combined military might... which would crush me.

I don't really want the headache of Gavelkind succession, so I am hoping to jump it straight to Seniority or (hopefully) Primogeniture. Can you do that? Jump levels?

Yeah, there aren't any levels to inheritance law. Primogeniture is great, but be warned that your children WILL be having each other killed.

I went ahead and pulled the trigger. The trailer sold me in the end.

1st game is quite interesting. Went Dublin as suggested above.

Pretty normal looking set up. My Court Chaplin is one of the most honest, kind, loyal and learned men I have yet to see of any of my subjects. Also, one of the most syphilitic ones as well. Dies very soon after the start in what I can only image a really horrible death. I hope she/he/it/them was worth it.

Kind of hanging out, assigning tasks to various court peoples, arranging some marriages between people. Get my lying, snake tongued spy master hooked up with a rather attractive minor Hungarian noble who is just as snaky as he is. Hook one of my sons up with a woman who is so pious and learned I want to make her my religious adviser. I start to fabricate claims on the Isle of Man because it seems like a nice tactical position and I want to try out some war action. Because I don't know what in the hell I'm doing I raise an army, can't declare war (stupid feature), disband the army, declare war and put my guys on boats and send them up. I have a hell of a time getting my troops off the boats. All the while I see him raise an army and march it over the Glasgow without making any boats. Finally figure out how to disembark and learn that I didn't need the boats anyway.

My old ass father raises and army and sends them up the coast to to Glasgow where they briefly clash with the Isle of Man troops. They say good day and continue on their missions. Dad meets me at Man where we start kicking in the teeth of the castle. the Isle of Man troops make their way to Dublin and start kicking in my rather lightly defended capitol. I win the siege and think that means I own the Isle of Man. I pull the troops over to Dublin and notice that I don't in fact have the the Isle.

What follows is a Key Stone cops version of war in Ireland where I fight them off of my cap and give chase. They turn and hit me afield and I run for it, turn and attack them. All the while dear old, I and I do mean OLD, dad is marching his troops trying to catch up. My vassals are like, when in the hell are you going to give us are troops back?

The turning point hits when Dad dies. I get his title, lands and most importantly, direct control of his army. Consolidate forces and give the bad guys one good swift kick in the jimmies and head back to the isle. Their troops are are so small that the attack Dublin and my garrison holds them off. They can't do any damage to them at all.

So I win the Isle of Man siege, again. But I still can't figure out why I'm not getting the county. Then I see see the warscore thing at the bottom and I'm at 100% and likely have been for some time. I offer him a chance to surrender via diplomacy and he does so readily.

After it's all said and done, I disband the armies and hand a few titles out to the vassals that supported me during the war. I arrange another marriage because I guess I'm a romantic like that and I send out my chancellor to fabricate a claim on another Irish seat who just so happens to not have any allies.

I let peace reign for a time to let garrisons build back up and I also start building a training grounds for heavy troops in the cap with the spoils of the war. I send out the rest of my advisers to help research some tech to advance the cause while my guy grows board with all this peace and happiness. He takes up falconry.

My son starts begging for a landed title and since I'm such a good father I give him the Isle of Man. I also don't know what in the hell I'm doing and I relies I just gave up the land I fought so hard for. That said my son freaking LOVES me now and I have an ally who's view of me is 99%.

I think well, he's keep and eye on the Scots at least. After eyeing the Scots for a year he declares war on Glasgow. And asks me to join him.

What the hell, why not? I raise a small army and keep some levies in reserve in case shit goes bad or my claims come round and send the boys up to help.

My son's army gets crushed and the Isle of Man is getting segied pretty hard. I meet some light troops at Glasgow and start to siege it. Do I leave Glasgow to save my son? Nope. I'm let them kill my son (the one who loves me a LOT) and take the Isle of Man. I'm going to then finish stepping on Glasgow and see if I can take it for myself (don't know how that will work out since I don't have a claim) and make them surrender both Glasgow and the Isle of Man.

We shall see how this goes.

My favorite story about playing this was a guy who was fighting a war against his son, who was trying to make a grab for the throne. He ended up dying and, since you follow lineage and not a person, he was now on the opposite side of the civil war because the player was now playing his old character's son.

I had a CK2 miracle yesterday. It was glorious. So as I said, I was eyeing the HRE to pick off a couple of contested counties and eyeing England for the same reason. Whichever gives me the best shot first gets a visit from the Danes finest. Turns out to be the HRE. He has like *six* vassals rise up in rebellion AND a war down south. Perfect! I push my claim, declare war and start stomping.

At this point, I'm thinking this is gonna take so much out of me that it will be some time before I can invade England. I have two of age daughters, so I go hunting for valuable marriages. For the first, I try for matrilineal marriage. And what do you know, but the King of England's second son is up for it. He's a moron and idiot, but hey, something good might come of it. No one is interested in a matrilineal marriage with my other daughter but the heir to France wants to marry her. Since I have no intention of attacking the French any time soon, we set that up. Well, within a year, the moron from England dies of syphilis. The King of England (the son of William the Conquer) dies and leaves his son, King Robert the Devil on the throne. And what is this? My daughter has a claim... on England!

We wrap up the war on the HRE ASAP! My subjects are tired of war but this is a chance I cannot pass up. Luckily, I have a nice war chest. I push my claim, call up personal levies and hire the best mercenaries I can afford. And they are nice! I also call on my son-in-law, the newly minted King of France. He enthusiastically joins! We land and invade England. It takes some time but eventually we are victorious. By now, I am King Svend III the Ironside. And I figure out why France joined so enthusiastically, William the Conqueror had managed to hold onto some continental counties... which are now mine! The Duke of Oxford rebels almost immediately. He is put down easily. But then the Duke of Benford rebels. He takes more effort. At this point, I am doing all I can to over double my realm, deal with a whole host of new vassals. The King of Lancaster pushes a claim against me and calls Scotland. I barely managed to push them back.

I've now had a decade of peace. My vassals love me. My war chest is bursting. King Svend III the Ironside is old and will die soon. And Prince Knud is more than ready to resume the work of his father.

That has happened to me. What's worse was that I had called in help from some strong allies, so...

The problem you ran into here was that you made him a Count while that's all you were as well. That gave him independence. You grant independence by promoting someone to be your equal. If you were a Duke, he would've remained a vassal.

Or he would revolt anyway... like my ungrateful son. I don't get why he would revolt to rule his own county instead of waiting for the old guy to die and become the duke that rules 3 counties.

Almost made a terrible, terrible mistake! I post here to prevent others from the same horrible fate. WHEN you find yourself as the holder of multiple titles, make SURE you know what the inheritance rules are for all of them! Turns out inheritance for the Throne of England is NOT the same as the inheritance for the Throne of Denmark.

Glad I caught it in time....