TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- How to Offer Vassalage
- Vassalizing Italy & Burgundy
- Aquitaine
- Resetting Perks for True Ruler
- India (Tamilakam, Andhra, & Orissa)
- Armenian Principalities & Frisia
- England
- Africa (Jenne, Ghana, & Mali)
- Summary
- Byzantine Empire in 867
- Holmgardr in 867
- Abbasid Empire in 867
This article was written under Crusader Kings 3 Game Version: Peacock (1.11.5)
Please note that much of the information in this article is based on anecdotal evidence and a lot of trial and error. I have not had the opportunity to delve into the actual source code, but I am happy to make any corrections if more accurate information is discovered. If you have any comments, you can either post here or e-mail me at: [email protected]
1. INTRODUCTION
Crusader Kings 3 is a sandbox game that offers you different ways to play and experience life as a medieval ruler. While conquering new lands is most commonly done via warfare, there are also various peaceful ways to expand.
The previous game in the line, Crusader Kings 2, was noteworthy because it allowed you to focus on political marriages which could result in your dynasty inheriting kingdoms and empires (murder plots optional). And this strategy is still viable in CK3. CK3 also introduces the Convince De Jure Territory task for your Steward to peacefully gain control of a county that is in your de jure territory, though it takes a long time to complete and is unreliable because the target often refuses. If you are a vassal in a larger realm, a faction demand can sometimes install someone as King or Emperor without bloodshed if the liege gives in to the demand. Though if the liege refuses, this results in war.
And then there is the Offer Vassalage option, which is the focus of this article. While CK2 also had the offer vassalage function, back then it was really hard to vassalize a ruler of another religion. I remember being unable to vassalize Catholic rulers when playing the Orthodox Byzantine Empire. In CK3, the vassalization system is far more complex with many possible modifiers. By differentiating between different religious families (Abrahamic vs Eastern), different religions (Christianity vs Islam), and different faiths (Catholic vs Orthodox) the game allows for a wider spectrum of possibilities.
First, this guide is going to discuss how to offer vassalage and the factors that make it easier or harder to succeed. Then I will introduce a case study of my current game where the unexpected death of a foreign ruler and the splintering of their realm allowed me to peacefully conquer 3 kingdoms by offering vassalage and made me realize I could peacefully vassalize another 6 kingdoms all around the world. That interesting experience is what inspired me to write this guide. Last of all, I will provide illustrative walkthroughs in 867 for the Byzantine Empire, Holmgardr, and the Abbasid Empire on how you can vassalize some realms right from the start.
2. HOW TO OFFER VASSALAGE
In order to offer vassalage, either both realms need to be independent or both realms need to have the same liege. You can only offer vassalage to a ruler that is of lower rank than you (i.e. can't be equal or higher rank). Also, the potential vassal needs to be at peace (it is okay if the potential liege is at war).
If you right click the other ruler, there should be an Offer Vassalage option under the Vassalage & Court category near the bottom and if you click it, this will bring up a screen that provides more information.
There is a base reluctance of -50 for Offer Vassalage but there are many factors that provide bonuses or penalties. A net positive value will be accepted, a net negative value will be rejected, and I've seen 0 values be accepted sometimes and be rejected other times.
Here are the most significant factors in determining whether your offer of vassalage will be accepted or rejected:
A. Obligations
The government type of the potential vassal determines what options (if any) are available.
#1. With feudal vassals, you can offer different options that set the initial tax and levy contribution levels for the vassal contract:
Low Feudal Obligations (Low Taxes, Low Levy Contribution) for a +30 bonus
Normal Feudal Obligations (Normal Taxes, Normal Levy Contribution), there is no bonus or penalty
High Feudal Obligations (High Taxes, High Levy Contribution) for a -40 penalty
If the potential vassal is of a different faith, then you can also offer Religious Exemption (Normal Taxes, Low Levy Contribution, Religiously Protected) for a +60 bonus
Generally, you should be willing to offer Low Feudal Obligations or a Religious Exemption if that is what is needed to vassalize the target. You can always change the contract later on though since you are limited to one change per lifetime of the vassal, you may need to wait another generation.
Providing a Religious Exemption is not a big deal either. If you really do want to demand conversion, then just offer a Religious Exemption and then immediately modify the contract by trading a level of taxes to remove Religiously Protected (this does count as the once per lifetime contract modification).
#2. With clan vassals, the amount of taxes and levies they provide are based on their opinion of you. As a result, they don't have set tax or levy levels in their contract.
The only thing you can offer potential clan vassals is a Religious Exemption, if they are of a different faith. This gives a +30 bonus to the vassalization check.
#3. Republic (City) and Tribal vassals do not have a contract with their liege. As a result, you don't have any options - not even a Religious Exemption. This actually makes it harder to vassalize them. Furthermore, Tribal vassals incur a "You are not Tribal: -20" penalty if the potential liege is not Tribal.
B. Major Blockers: Kingdoms, Distance, and Religion
- Is a King (ranges from -50 to -200)
- Their realm is distant from yours: -100 or Their realm is remote from yours: -500
- You are of different Faith (ranges from -20 to -120)
These tend to be the biggest blockers and are often so insurmountable that it's not even worth trying.
Generally you are going to be vassalizing Counts and Dukes. Even if you have a lot of positive modifiers going for you and the Kingdom is in your de jure Empire, it's extraordinarily hard to vassalize a King. Large kingdoms tend to be -200, medium size kingdoms are -100, and tiny kingdoms consisting of just a few counties are just -50.
Most of the time, you can only realistically vassalize adjacent realms. De jure lands that are connected to you by water are a special exemption from this penalty but de jure lands that are landlocked and not adjacent to you will have this penalty.
In CK3 it is still very difficult to vassalize completely different religions unless there are special faith tolerances. When playing as an Orthodox ruler, I have the full -120 penalty trying to vassalize any Muslim or Pagan rulers so it's not even worth trying.
Unlike CK2, it is possible to vassalize what CK3 considers different faiths. An Orthodox trying to vassalize a Catholic only has a -40 penalty and an Ash'ari trying to vassalize an Ibadi has a -80 penalty.
Eastern religions tend to be more tolerant of other religions. An Orthodox trying to vassalize a Jainist ruler has a -80 penalty and trying to vassalize a Buddhist or Hindu ruler is only a -40.
And some religions also have a Syncretism tenet that makes them more compatible with other religions. An Orthodox trying to vassalize an Arewordi ruler (Zoroastrian faith with Christian Syncretism) only has a -40 penalty. This came as a pleasant surprise when I ended the Iranian Intermezzo as the Byzantine Empire. After hybridizing Greek culture with Persian and then converting to Arewordi so that I could usher in the Iranian Resurgence, I converted back to Orthodox and found that I could still vassalize some Arewordi rulers (it also doesn't hurt that the Flame of Persia modifier gives a +20 bonus to vassalization within the Persian Empire).
Kuzarism is an unreformed Jewish religion with Syncretic Folk Traditions. When trying to vassalize, you get -80 against Slovianskan or Ukonusko rulers but only a -20 against Norse or Tengri rulers.
C. Opinion
- Potential vassal's Opinion of You (ranges from -35 to +35 if you are a feudal liege. It looks like this value is doubled for clan lieges because I have seen this modifier get up to +70)
- Your Powerful Vassals Opinion of you (ranges from -20 to +20)
There are lots of things you can do to improve opinion:
- Increase your diplomacy skill (choose a Diplomacy lifestyle focus, set your spouse's task to Court Politics, equip artifacts that improve diplomacy, choose a Patron deity)
- Gift gold or artifacts
- Award court positions
- Sway schemes
- Set your Chancellor to Domestic Affairs (to improve opinion of powerful vassals) or Foreign Affairs (to improve opinion of vassalization targets)
- Stack artifact modifiers that improve General Opinion, Independent Ruler Opinion, Vassal Opinion, Powerful Vassal Opinion, and in some cases Attraction Opinion.
- Acquire traits that have a Same Trait opinion bonus. Eager Reveler, Hunter, Traveler, and Hastiluder are good examples of this and are relatively easy to get.
- Consider lifestyle perks such as Defensive Negotiations, Dignitas, Open-Minded, and Apostate
D. Military
- Difference in military strength (varies with a max of +20)
To improve this you can:
- Let your levies replenish
- Construct buildings that increase your levies
- Increase the levy obligations of your vassals
- Invest in your retinue men-at-arms
- Save your special event troops by not using them for battle
- Form alliances with rulers who you can call to war
It does not look like hiring mercenaries boosts your military strength for this check.
E. Personality & Culture
- Content and Trusting each provide +5
- Fickle and Stubborn each provide -10
- Ambitious, Arrogant, and Paranoid each provide -20
- Target is part of an Isolationist Culture: -20
What matters are the traits of the potential vassal (not the potential liege). So at best, a potential vassal can give you +10 if they are both Content and Trusting. At worse, a 3 trait vassal with Ambitious, Arrogant, and Paranoid will give you -60.
A few cultures have the Isolationist tradition which gives a -20 penalty if you try to vassalize them.
Generally there is not anything you can do to change the traits and culture of the foreign ruler.
What you CAN do, however, is scheme to murder them, in the hopes that their heir is more amenable to vassalization. It is much easier to check what traits the heir has and whether this will be enough to allow for vassalization. Most heirs tend to have the same culture if they are the children of the current ruler. But if the title is going to a distant relative, there is a chance that the heir is of a different, non-Isolationist culture.
Also, murdering someone will also allow you to bypass the "Recently Waged War: -50" penalty since you declared war on the dead predecessor and not the newly installed ruler.
F. Other
In rough decreasing order in terms of how easy it is to achieve these modifiers:
- Intimidated by you: +10
- Terrified of you: +20
Gaining dread is easy by torturing and executing prisoners. However, this modifier doesn't always appear and is heavily dependent on the personality traits of the other ruler.
- Speak same language: +5
Spend a year to learn their language for a +5 bonus. If you plan to vassalize a lot of rulers, then learning a key language could give you +5 to several vassalization efforts.
- You are Allies: +20
The cheesy thing you can do, is establish an alliance by betrothing your child to their family, vassalize them, and then break the betrothal.
- Friend: +10
A single Diplomacy perk unlocks the Befriend scheme. The Ritualized Friendship tradition also unlocks it. And so does being Involved in the Iberian Struggle during the Opportunity or Conciliation phases.
- Major difference in our Tiers: +10
Kings get this bonus when vassalizing Counts. Emperors get this bonus when vassalizing Counts or Dukes. Generally you just want to reach Kingdom/Empire level if possible.
- Not rightful liege: -20
- Rightful liege: +20
- Encircled by your realm: +20
Being the rightful de jure liege gives you a net 40 point swing because it changes the -20 to +20.
Sometimes this means that by conquering nearby lands and then forming the higher title, you can then peacefully vassalize some rulers. If you conquer everyone else around and completely encircle them, you get a separate +20 bonus.
Also note that you have to hold the title yourself. Having your vassal hold the title is not sufficient. This could mean that you need to revoke the de jure title from your vassal so that you can then vassalize another ruler.
- Cultural Acceptance (ranges from 0 to -35)
Sometimes there is not much you can do to improve Cultural Acceptance, especially if that culture is outside your realm and is far away.
Sometimes there is A LOT that you can do to massively boost Cultural Acceptance. The Steward's Promote Culture task, granting counties of that culture to local nobles, Grand Tours with Cultural Festivals, traveling through counties of that culture with a Cultural Ambassador, learning that language when your dynasty has the Language Scholars Customs legacy, etc.
Also, if the Cultural Acceptance penalty is very high but there is someone down the line of succession who is of a different culture with higher Cultural Acceptance, you could try murdering them until someone of a different culture inherits.
- True Ruler Perk: +20
This requires investing 5 Diplomacy perks in the August tree which is a major commitment. But it does give a significant bonus.
If vassalization is really important but you have already spent your perks elsewhere, remember that once in every character's life they can reset their perks.
- Diplomatic Court Grandeur (varies up to +30)
If you have a Diplomatic Court, then this is easy since you just need to improve your Grandeur.
While you can change your court type, sometimes you are changing away from a type that you can't switch back to.
Furthermore, the available court types are based on your culture. Most cultures won't even have access to Diplomatic Courts. Only Ceremonious, Egalitarian, and Stoic cultures do.
- Belongs to your Dynasty: +5
Not much you can do about this.
- You are not Tribal: -20
It's not easy to change your government type. And while it is theoretically possible to go back to tribal if you only have tribal holdings, it's generally not advantageous to do so.
3. VASSALIZING ITALY & BURGUNDY
A. Background
In my current game (867 start with the Byzantine Empire), I'm a little more than 100 years in. I just recently completed 5 wars:
Conquered Calabria in a Holy War against an Islamic Emirate.
Conquered the rest of Sicily in a Holy War against a second Islamic Emirate (in 867 you start with Siracusa and Malta so this was for the remaining 3 counties).
Conquered the rest of Latium with personal claims. Early in the game I had taken Rome with a personal claim. And then a century later I followed up with fabricating a claim on the Duchy of Latium. Interestingly enough, this let me vassalize the Pope (who has the Kingdom of Romagna/Ravenna).
Conquered Ancona with a duchy claim possessed by one of my vassals.
Conquered Spoleto with forced vassalization (from the Forced Vassalization perk), though I could have also used a duchy claim possessed by one of my vassals or from a courtier.
I now completely control the Kingdom of Sicily and have most of the Kingdom of Romagna (except the Duchy of Romagna). I control nothing in the Kingdoms of Italy, Burgundy, or Aquitaine. And the map is very clean looking with well defined borders with Lotharingia (whose King also holds the Kingdom of Italy).
Now the King of Lotharingia and Italy unexpectedly dies. Although he has two sons who should each inherit a kingdom due to Confederate Partition, instead, one son (who is matrilineally married to my house) inherits all of Lotharingia and also inherits the title of Italy but a lot of the vassals become independent. The King actually had two counties in Lotharingia (Luxembourg and Hainaut) and five counties in Italy but for some reason those five counties went to a random character instead of being inherited by his kids. Instead, the second son received the county of Hainaut, the first son got the county of Luxembourg and both Kingdom titles, and all the Italian and Burgundian vassals were freed (along with some but not all of the Occitan vassals). Nonetheless, this opens up a ripe opportunity for expansion through vassalization.
B. Let the vassalization begin!
So now, I'm going to illustrate how I managed to peacefully take over the Kingdoms of Italy and Burgundy by offering vassalage. Do keep in mind that this is an extreme example of what vassalage can do. I'm in the middle of a long-term game that is highly min/maxed and optimized so it's not representative of what is possible in the average game.
Since the distant realm modifier is significant, the vassalization has to take place sequentially as I vassalize bordering realms:
#1. Countess of Pula
#2. Duke of Friuli
#3. Count of Ferrera
#4. Revoke the Kingdom of Romagna
#5. Duke of Romagna
#6. Count of Brescia and Count of Cuneo
#7. Usurp Kingdom of Italy
#8. Italian Counties of Pavia, Novara, Turin, Genoa, and Arezzo along with Burgundian County of Canavese
#9. Plateauing with the Count of Como
#10. The Dread Option
#11. The Cultural Acceptance Option
#12. Duchess of Tuscany
#13. The Language Option
#14. Burgundy
#15. Duchess of Barcelona is an Alternative Route
C. Step By Step
#1. Countess of Pula
Initially, I'm a few points shy from being able to succeed with vassalization even with a religious exemption.
However, I had just recently vassalized the Pope and he is now a powerful vassal who absolutely HATES me. So I have to get on his good side with a generous gift of gold:
And now the Countess is willing to become my vassal.
#2. Duke of Friuli
Although Pula is actually in the Kingdom of Bavaria, it is crucial because now I border Friuli. Prior to vassalizing Pula, the Duke of Friuli (who is also the Duke of Verona) would not consider vassalization but now he is willing:
And with the counties of Friuli and Verona in my realm, I now have 6 counties in the Kingdom of Italy out of the 15 needed to usurp the Kingdom title.
At this point, the old Pope dies in an unfortunate riding accident. I had nothing to do with it - really! (i.e. I did not have an ongoing murder scheme).
#3. Count of Ferrera
With a new Pope as a powerful vassal, I have to send another gift of gold to get on his good side.
Also, since vassalizing the Duke of Friuli, he is now a powerful vassal so I also need to send him a gift as well.
After that, I can now vassalize the Count of Ferrera (which is in the Kingdom of Romagna).
#4. Revoke the Kingdom of Romagna
Since I had recently vassalized the old Pope, I had a truce with him and could not revoke any of his titles. But with a new Pope in place, I can now revoke the Kingdom of Romagna.
#5. Duke of Romagna
Now that I hold the Kingdom of Romagna, I can vassalize the Duke of Romagna since I am now his rightful liege.
The Duke also controls the 2 counties of Emilia which are in the Kingdom of Italy, bringing me to 8/15 of the counties I need.
#6. Count of Brescia and Count of Cuneo
With new adjacent neighbors, I can now vassalize Brescia and Cuneo:
Brescia is 1 county and Cuneo consists of 6 counties. I now have 15 counties in the Kingdom of Italy, when is exactly what I need to usurp the Kingdom title.
#7. Usurp Kingdom of Italy
#8. Italian Counties of Pavia, Novara, Turin, Genoa, and Arezzo along with Burgundian County of Canavese
Prior to usurping the Kingdom title, I could vassalize Pavia, Novara, and Turin by offering a Religious Exemption:
But with the bonus from being their rightful liege as King of Italy, I can instead vassalize them with just Low Feudal Obligations instead:
So with the Kingdom title, I can vassalize Pavia, Novara, and Turin under more favorable terms.
The Kingdom title also allows me to vassalize Genoa (with Low Feudal) and Arezzo (with Religious Exemption).
I can also vassalize Canavese with a religious exemption. Since this county is in Burgundy, I could have done this without the Kingdom of Italy title.
#9. Plateauing with the Count of Como
The final quick vassalization is the Count of Como, which I do by offering Low Feudal Obligations.
At this point I've hit a plateau. The remaining holdouts are:
- The Grand City of Luni. As a city ruler, they don't have contracts with their liege. Thus vassalizing them is actually harder because you can't offer favorable contract terms.
This screenshot is from a later date but illustrates why it is harder to vassalize republics.
Tuscany is at war on behalf of an ally. I need to wait for this war to end before I can vassalize them.
The Count of Padua is both Ambitious and Paranoid, hence the difficulty in vassalizing them. Do note that I would be able to vassalize them if I knew High German:
- The Duchess of Provence is in Burgundy and similarly, I am close to being able to vassalize her but am a few points short. I would be able to succeed if I knew D'Oc Vulgar but alas I chose to learn D'Oil Vulgar in high school instead! There are a bunch of other Burgundian rulers who would be more easily vassalized but my progress is being blocked geographically by the duchess.
So now I have to start pursuing a few other options to improve my vassalization chances.
#10. The Dread Option
You can sometimes get vassalization bonuses if the target is intimidated by you or terrified of you. This requires having a high level of dread and is highly dependent on the personality traits of the potential vassal.
To explore this option, I start by perusing my collection of artifacts.
Attila's Sword of God gives 15 natural dread and I also have an Illustrious Skull that gives another 6 natural dread. However, it can take many months (possibly years) to gradually gain enough dread passively.
I also display a Masterwork Skull that improves my dread gain and equip a Camel Head trinket that does the same.
It looks like I have to check my larder (a.k.a. prison) since a quick way to gain dread is by torturing and/or executing prominent characters.
Out of my 20 prisoners, there are only 2 which can give me dread. I need to be more creative in my options.
As a generally fair and benevolent ruler, I usually turn a blind eye to the indiscretions and extracurricular activities of many of my subjects. By checking the Current Situations, I can see a list of criminals that I can rightfully imprison. I choose a pair of Count level vassals.
Torturing and executing them does bring me to 100 dread. Unfortunately, the Count of Padua and the Duchess of Provence are too bold to be intimidated so this option turns out to be a dead end. But I included it as an instructive lesson for how creatively accumulating dread can be useful at times for vassalizing other rulers.
#11. The Cultural Acceptance Option
Another option is to improve Cultural Acceptance between my culture and Franconian (Padua) or Occitan (Provence).
Unfortunately, I don't control any provinces of those cultures. If I did, I could try to revoke them and then grant them to local nobles. Or I could have my Steward perform the Promote Culture task. Or set up a Grand Tour visiting those provinces and organizing Cultural Festivals.
At this point, the only thing I can do is organize a pilgrimage to Rome, employing a Cultural Ambassador, and then making a wide detour through Burgundy and Frankfurt. But that just nets me +1% Cultural Acceptance due to the Cultural Ambassador, which isn't enough.
This option also turned out to be a dead end but under different circumstances, improving Cultural Acceptance might be a sufficient tipping point.
#12. Duchess of Tuscany
During this time, the Duchess of Tuscany concluded her war. Now that she was at peace, I was able to easily vassalize her.
#13. The Language Option
Since the Dread Option and the Cultural Acceptance Option failed, my next course of action is to learn a new language.
It took nearly a year, but I learned D'Oc Vulgar.
#14. Burgundy
The +5 for knowing D'Oc Vulgar is just what I need to vassalize the Duchess of Provence. After that, the Count of Provence, Count of Forez, and Duke of Viennois (in Burgundy) and the Duke of Auvergne and Countess of Gevauden (in Aquitaine) are easily vassalized.
I now have enough counties in Burgundy that I can usurp the Kingdom title from West Francia.
Also in the meantime, the Count of Padua is attacked by my vassal the Duke of Friuli and Verona in a de jure war. Padua is losing and will get integrated into my realm soon enough.
#15. Duchess of Barcelona is an Alternative Route
In this playthrough, I vassalize westward from Istria (Pula) through Italy. I got stalled at Provence before finally going through Burgundy.
Technically there was another route I could have gone. I actually border Barcelona (Barshiluna) in the southwest (I control Castellon and they control Tarragona) and could have vassalized them. I could then vassalize through Burgundy coming from the west and moving eastword.
However, I initially chose not to do this because Barcelona was not part of Lotharingia and this article was originally about taking advantage of Lotharingia's succession dissolution.
But after writing the first version of this guide (which was about peacefully taking over 2 kingdoms), I realized that I could also do the same to Aquitaine. And then apply the same lessons to 3 kingdoms in India.
4. AQUITAINE
After deciding to vassalize Barcelona after all, I then proceeded to vassalize the Duke of Gascony, Count of Armagnac, and Count of Bordeaux. It helped that I know knew the D'Oc Vulgar language.
It took me a while to realize that I actually border Poitiers as well and can vassalize the Duke of Poitiers. That then lets me vassalize the Countess of Bellac.
5. RESETTING PERKS FOR TRUE RULER
I realized that I could apply the same vassalage principles and peacefully take over several Indian kingdoms. However, first I needed to get the True Ruler perk.
Previously, my lifestyle perks looked like this:
Normally resetting your perks (which you can only do once per lifetime) generates 100 stress. However, since stress modifiers stack, if you stack enough stress reduction modifiers, you can reset your perks for 0 stress.
Also, if I had simply reset my perks and gotten True Ruler earlier, it would have been significantly easier and faster vassalizing Italy, Burgundy, and Aquitaine.
I have written a subsequent guide on how to take full advantage of resetting your perks:
https://peakd.com/ck3/@byzantinekitty/ck3-abusing-the-perk-reset
6. INDIA (TAMILAKAM, ANDHRA, & ORISSA)
Previously, I had fabricated a claim to take over the Maldives, and then Holy War'ed for Lanka. Here was the initial state of the region prior to the King of Lotharingia dying:
The first Raja (Duke) was the hardest to vassalize because he was a Jainist with a -80 religious penalty. The other rulers were Buddhist or Hindu with just a -40 religious penalty.
I was able to peacefully vassalize:
The Rajas of Pandya Nadu, Chera Nadu, Chola Nadu, and Tondai Nadu to form the Kingdom of Tamilakam
The Rajas of Pakanadu and Vengi to form the Kingdom of Andhra
The Raja of Racakonda and the Thakur (Count) of Katukuru
The Thakurs of Barasuru, Cakrakuta, and Khinjali Mandala and the Rajas of Daksina Kosala and Tosali to form the Kingdom of Orissa
7. ARMENIAN PRINCIPALITIES & FRISIA
The Armenian Principalities (a titular title that is within the de jure of the Byzantine Empire) were a shadow of their former self. Although they had eventually broken free of the Abbasid Empire, they had lost many of their lands to Muslim neighbors and to my growing Byzantine Kitty Empire. Left as a rump state, I had not yet deliver the coup de grace because their Fortification Level of 6 made them tedious to siege due to Onagers topping out at Fortification Level 5. My original plan was to forcibly conquer them once I researched Mangonels but that would be 5+ years from now. So instead, I realized that I could peacefully vassalize them if I learned their language and established an alliance with them.
I then proceeded to peacefully vassalize Frisia. I had never actually taken any lands in this area by force. Previously when I had vassalized several Croatian Dukes in my de jure territory, one of those Dukes had inherited some land in the region.
To the north, the Jarl of Utrecht and Holland had been a hostile Norse Asatru Tribal ruler but he recently feudalized, which made him open to vassalization.
With the Jarl's vassalization, I now had enough lands to create the Kingdom of Frisia and as the rightful liege, I could now vassalize the Duke of Frisia who I now bordered.
8. ENGLAND
With England, decades ago I had previously fabricated a claim on Wiltshire and taken it over in order to control Stonehenge (for the renown and the faith conversion reduction).
But through a series of peaceful vassalizations, I was able to take control of most of the kingdom. This involved offering vassalage to:
- Petty King of East Seaxe
- Countess of Berkshire
- Petty Queen of East Anglia
- Duke of Hwicce
- Duke of Mercia
- Duke of Lancaster
- Petty Queen of Northumbria
- Duke of Wessex
- Earl of Nottinghamshire
- Petty King of Cornwall
Had to wait until Mercia finished a war (where they lost Leicestershire to Alba) before I could vassalize them.
Northumbira was originally Asatru but after they converted to Christianity they were willing to vassalize.
Needed to wait for Wessex to lose a war (lost Gwent to Wales) and put down a peasant revolt before I could vassalize them.
And here is the final state. I started with one English county and peacefully vassalized everything else.
9. AFRICA (JENNE, GHANA, & MALI)
About 60 game years prior, I had established a foothold in Africa in order to hybridize with Akan culture to obtain Mystical Ancestors and Equal martial tradition. Back then, I had found a claimant for the county of Dhraina and pushed their claim in order to extend my diplomatic range to the Akan region. I then found some Akan claimants and used some holy wars to take 9 out of the 17 counties in the kingdom of Akan. By keeping Akan vassals and doing a Grand Tour of the region with a full schedule of Cultural Festivals, I was able to quickly hybridize my culture and I shift my attention to other parts of the map.
Over time, a massive Tribal multi-kingdom entity emerged (consisting of Gurma, Songhay, Ghana, and Jenne) that adopted Orthodox religion.
After their Malika (Queen) died, it was inherited by her child, a Catholic Queen. However, the Catholic Queen lost most parts of Gurma to Kong. And then one of her vassals usurped the Kingdom of Gurma. The interesting thing is that the vassal didn't get any parts of Gurma (the remaining county was personally held by the Queen) but did get all of the vassals in Jenne and Songhay. So fast forward a few years, and the usurped Gurma kingdom title dissolves because he doesn't have any de jure land, and the Catholic Queen loses her Jenne and Songhay titles because she no longer controls de jure land there either (she does keep the Kingdom of Ghana though).
As a result of the kingdom dissolutions, this becomes a new opportunity for the Byzantine Kitty Empire to add 3 new kingdoms peacefully through vassalization. Initially, I am able to vassalize just the Nyanyagume (Duke) of Adrar.
It takes 4 more years before the usurper (Nyanyagume of Mema) becomes feudal and is willing to accept vassalization.
Since my borders expand, I am now adjacent to and can vassalize the Nyanyagume of Diafunu.
With the addition of Mema, I can create the Kingdom of Jenne and vassalize the single remaining Debegume (Count) of Bindugu.
And with the addition of Diafunu, I can now usurp the Kingdom of Ghana. Since she is a fellow Christian but of a different faith, I only need to possess a majority of the kingdom. If she belonged to a completely different religion, she would have to lose all de jure land before I could usurp the kingdom. Right after usurping the kingdom I can vassalize her as well.
Fast forward 2 more years and the Farba (Duchess) of Loma has feudalized and is now willing to swear fealty. This gives me enough counties to form the Kingdom of Mali.
10. SUMMARY
Let us review the before and after situations in my peaceful takeover of Italy, Burgundy, and Aquitaine:
Without conducting any wars and solely through peaceful vassalization, I was able to conquer 3 kingdoms (Italy, Burgundy, and Aquitaine) by diplomatically vassalizing 9 Dukes/Duchesses and 17 Counts/Countesses.
And if we look at the before and after situations in India:
Without conducting any wars and solely through peaceful vassalization, I was able to conquer 3 kingdoms (Tamilakam, Andhra, and Orissa) by diplomatically vassalizing 9 Rajas and 4 Thakurs.
In Frisia, I peacefully vassalized a Jarl and a Duke.
In England, I peacefully vassalized 8 Dukes / Petty Kings / Petty Queens, and 2 Earls / Countesses.
And in Africa, I peacefully vassalized 5 Nyanyagume / Duchess / Farba and 1 Debegume for 3 more kingdoms.
11. BYZANTINE EMPIRE IN 867
Playing as Basileus Basileious of the Byzantine Empire in 867, there are two rulers (both Greek and Orthodox) you can immediately vassalize if you offer them Low Feudal Obligations - the Count of Naples and the Doux of Dalmatia:
The next most viable target is the Prince (Duke) of Abkhazia. While it is theoretically possible to vassalize him immediately if you are willing to spend most of your gold, given that you start 867 defending against the Aghlabid Conquest of Sicily, it may be better to take a more gradual approach to eventually vassalizing Abkhazia.
But as an instructive example, if you wanted to immediately vassalize Abkhazia:
If you:
Select Foreign Affairs for your lifestyle focus to get +3 Diplomacy (makes everyone like you more and boosts the opinion bonus you get with gold gifts)
Spend around 1000 gold sending 6 gifts to the Prince of Abkhazia and your 5 powerful vassals
Grant Master of the Horse, Master of the Hunt, and Royal Architect court positions to your powerful vassals
then it is possible to immediately vassalize Abkhazia:
But it is probably more efficient to take your time. You can task your Chancellor with either Foreign Affairs to make the target like you more or Domestic Affairs so all 5 of your powerful vassals like you better (Domestic Affairs is probably the better choice). And you can also learn the Georgian language and start a Sway personal scheme.
Given enough time, some additional realms that can be peacefully vassalized include Croatia and Slavonia (learning Serbo-Croatian will help and offering a religious exemption) and Tao-Klarjeti (is Orthodox but you should learn Armenian) and Kakheti (is Orthodox, but it will take some work to border Kakheti and they are in danger of being conquered by Muslim neighbors).
Salerno and Benevento are harder to vassalize because Lombard culture is isolationist.
And you aren't realistically going to be able to vassalize any Slovianskan pagans or Muslims, even if they are within your de jure empire.
12. HOLMGARDR IN 867
Playing as Rurik "Troublemaker" of Holmgardr in 867, you can vassalize several rulers in the area but it requires some work. First off, you have to decide whether or not you want to rapidly expand. As a Tribal ruler locked into Confederate Partition succession you have to decide how you want to handle your heirs and the potential splintering of your realm. If you plan to have lots of kids then you need to be careful with how aggressively you expand and what your realm will look like after it partitions. Alternatively, if you plan to use various tricks to ensure one son inherits everything, then you don't have to worry about partition.
However, let's assume you want to expand and vassalize your neighbors. Even though your Norse origins may steer you towards a martial approach, each peaceful vassalization means you can focus your military resources on other targets instead.
You should start by converting to the local culture and religion (Russian and Slovianskan). As a Norse ruler, you have access to a special decision that lets you do so:
Secondly, Rurik can immediately create the Kingdom of Holmgardr. This gives you prestige, a royal court, and makes it easier to vassalize Counts.
If you want, it is possible to immediately vassalize Polotsk with some gold gifts (to the Chieftain of Polotsk and also possibly some of your powerful vassals):
However your first obstacle is Minsk. They can't realistically be vassalized and geographically they are blocking you from many Slovianskan rulers who could potentially be vassalized. What I recommend is getting enough Fame to reach Level 2 Distinguished and then Subjugating Minsk.
Once Minsk is out of the way, there are numerous Russian Slovianskan rulers that you could vassalize if you stack enough positive modifiers:
The Chieftains of: Kozelsk, Babruysk, Pinsk, Berestye, Cherven, Volodymyr, Halych, and Terebovl
The High Chieftains of: Turov and Bukovina
However, you do need to keep an eye on what Dyre "The Stranger" of Konugardr is doing.
As you work your way through, you could eventually expand west into Poland. The following rulers are Polish and Slovianskan:
The Chieftains of: Plock, Stezyca, Sandomierz, Tarnow, Krakow, Leczyca, and Chelmno
The High Chieftains of: Polania and Silesia
Russians and Polish have pretty high cultural acceptance (you only get a -10 modifier on vassalization). If you want to do this, then you should learn the Lechitic language while you are vassalizing your way through your Russian neighbors.
Once you have vassalized the Polish rulers, you have the option of doing the same with Pomerania or Sorbia. Both Pomeranians and Polabians also have a -10 modifier on vassalization and they both speak Lechitic as well.
13. ABBASID EMPIRE IN 867
Playing as the Caliph al-Mu'tazz of the Abbasid (Arabian) Empire in 867, you start the game in a war with the Azariqa Rebellion and embroiled in the Iranian Intermezzo.
There are a few rulers that you could vassalize but it requires spending a bit of gold.
To begin with you may want to:
Select Foreign Affairs for your lifestyle focus to get +3 Diplomacy.
As a Clan ruler your Clan vassals have a -15 opinion penalty with you (-30 for powerful vassals) if they do not have an Alliance with you. You do have the ability to marry 3 more wives, you have two young sons that can be betrothed, and you do have 4 adult half-sisters that can be married off. If you choose to turn off the Generate Families game rule then there will be few marriageable women. If you choose to turn on the Generate Families game rule, there will be more girls that you could betroth and a lot of the male rulers will start off married. However since your vassals are Muslim, you can still marry off your half-sisters to them as secondary wives to form alliances.
The other thing to keep in mind is that as a large realm with lots of vassals, there will be constant internal power shifts. As a result, who is a powerful vassal will constantly be changing. Thus you should be cautious in who to establish a marriage alliance with, who to send gold to, who to put on your council, and who to award court positions to because a powerful vassal may no longer be considered powerful a few weeks or months from now.
You do have some gold that can be send as bribes.
And you can award Chief Qadi, Master of the Horse, Master of the Hunt, and Royal Architect court positions to your powerful vassals.
The Emirates of Ziyadid (Ta'izz), al-Umari (Eastern Desert), Yufirid (San'a), and Yazidad (Shirvan) can all be offered vassalage if you get some modifiers.
It is also possible to vassalize the Yahmad (Oman) Emirate even though they are Ibadi if you offer them a religious exemption but this takes a lot of work and might be better off as a medium term objective.
In the longer term, you can eventually work towards vassalizing the 10 Tribal rulers in Arabia (Yamama, Najd, Harrat Rahat, Ta'if, Jawf al-Yamani, Ahqaf, Hadramawt, Kinda Sakun, Mahra, Dhufar). It will help if you can stabilize who your powerful vassals are and get them to all like you. You can also try to gain Devotion/Piety to get your level of devotion up since that seems like it is a factor too.
Updated March 27th, 2024:
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