"What's a Nubian?" A Crusader Kings, EU, Victoria, HOI Quadfecta dynasty
 

We'll see how this works. I just bought CK last week and haven't messed with it much. I'm not going to do much storytelling here, at least not initially -- it'll be mostly me figuring out what I'm doing (which means I welcome any advice). The goal is to make Nubia into a major power throughout time. I'll be using Crusader Kings to start, importing the game to Europa Universalis X (whichever works best), Victoria, then Hearts of Iron X. Info on that can be found in this thread. Has Anyone Done the Quadfecta? - Front Office Football Central Since the stuff I've read makes it sound like Nubia is a pain, and I'm new to the game, I'm playing on the Very Easy level (plus success makes the dynasty more fun). So here we go!

December 26, 1066 – Georgios of Dongola (seriously?) surveys his realm. He is King of Nubia, and Count of Nubia, Sudan, and Aswan. He’s 27 years old, with 50 Gold (earning 4.4 per month), 100 Prestige, and 100 Piety. He’s Aribtary, Modest, and a Tough Soldier (a trait I don’t see in my manual). His Martial is 10, Diplomacy is 6, Intrigue is 8, and Stewardship is 7. (The game says being arbitrary makes him +1 martial and -1 stewardship – does that apply on top of the numbers already mentioned in his profile? Also, after the 7, there’s a 16 in parentheses – some other kind of modifier?) He controls three provinces – Nubia, Sudan, and Aswan. There is nothing of interest to the South or West. The Red Sea lies to the East, and the Kingdom of Egypt is North. I can’t help but feel that Egypt must go away. Luckily, the King of Egypt, al-Mustansir Fatimid, is a Coward and Stutters. However, he is also a Tough Soldier. We’re not about to attack Egypt now, but our goal is to be King of Egypt (will I be able to call myself Pharoah then?), and of course, to take Jerusalem. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Right now, Georgios can declare himself Prince of Aswan. He controls all of Aswan, so he can claim this title, though he still needs to work on the scratch for a coronation ceremony.

Time to check out the court. The Steward is already set – it’s Syragia of Nubia, Georgios’s wife. She’s got a 9 in stewardship, so that should suffice. She’s 17, and has a Court Education. However, there’s no other court members to appoint to other positions. Good times.
In about a year’s time, we’ll have the 100 Gold needed for the Prince of Aswan coronation ceremony. However, it’d be nice to invest that money in something that can make us more money. A fishing wharf in Nubia province should help there. Georgios starts saving for that.

January 11, 1067 – Good news! Georgios and Syragia are expecting a child!
January 19, 1067 – Another bit of good news. The King of Egypt, al-Mustansir Fatimid, has given his son Muhammad Fatimid, some land in Quena, which borders me. Hopefully with some tension between them, I can lay claim to Quena.
January 23, 1067 – I notice that my court has shown up! I make some appointments.
Our Chancellor is Fahd of Ghazali, age 33, with a 10 in Diplomacy. He’s Generous, Just, and has a Silver Tongue.
Our Marshal is Zafir of Sinkat, age 38, with a 5 in Martial. He’s Selfish, Arbitrary, and a Crafty Merchant.
Our Spy Master is Najmaddin of Dau, age 18, with a 9 in Intrigue. He’s Deceitful, Suspicious, and a Flamboyant Schemer.
And we even have a Bishop now! Muzaffaraddin of Garamantes is age 17, with a 1 in Martial, 12 in Diplomacy, and 10 in Intrigue and Stewardship. He’s Sceptical and a Master Theologian.

Good luck!

March 21, 1067 – My Bishop and Spymaster are competing in the same market. These two are teenagers, so I guess tension is to be expected among them. I tell them to steer clear of my territory. Seems like that pacified the situation with no effect.
April 28, 1067 – My wife, Syragia, finishes her court education, becoming a pettifogger. This makes her a worse Steward than before, but the guy I would rather have as my Steward is my best Martial by a bigger margin. Oh well.
September 12, 1067 – War! Two Muslims declare war on me – the Emirate of Cyrenaica, and the Kingdom of Zirid. I’m going to hope they don’t bother actually attacking me, since they’d have to go across the Kingdom of Egypt to do it.
September 14, 1067 – To distract myself, I find a pretty wench. I indulge the impulse, and a bastard son named Yahya is born. It does not look like I became Lustful, though.
October 9, 1067 – A daughter is born, named Radiya. Still no proper heir. I’ll have to get working on that.
November 15, 1067 – The Emirate of Cyrenaica’s army is spotted in Gizeh, on its way to attack us. I mobilize.
November 20, 1067 – We are attacked in Asyut!
November 23, 1067 – Georgios’s army based in Sudan arrives in Asyut to help the army there. It was a pretty even fight before, but now we outnumber them 2 to 1.
November 28, 1067 – The Tartar Free Corps offers us their services. 1000 men for 40 Gold. Seems like a fair offer, and I have two enemies, plus Egypt lurking over me, so I accept. They arrive in Sudan, and I immediately send them to Asyut.
December 7, 1067 – Victory! We lost 136 men, but Cyrenaica lost 380 men, and is retreating. We disband the armies and send them home. Nice to win, but pretty annoying that we lost about 70 Gold, and the plans for that fishing wharf will be delayed.

September, 1069 -- Well, that was fun. I stopped updating because the attacks came so often, but I was basically annihilated by this time, with no army. I'll have to try again, maybe this time somewhere actually in Europe. Anyone have suggestions?

Depends on what level you're looking for, what type of game you want to play, etc. Germany can be fun if you have the patience to wait until for the rebellions to start. Spain is a tough situation similar to Nubia. Ireland is a little overdone, but there's stuff to do there. Anywhere in Central/Eastern Europe brings the opportunity for pagan bashing, as does Scandinavia.

If you're going for a quadfecta though, I'd avoid one of the strong kingdoms or things will be very boring by Vicky at the very latest, because you'll own almost the entire world.

Well, I played very easy, although the AI aggressiveness was normal -- I figured toning it down would be unrealistic. I dunno. Someone just tell me what to do. I'll probably still play on very easy (unless someone tells me to do it different).

I recently bought EU3. I have opened 3 times in the past 3 days and everytime I just kind of stare at the screen for about five minutes before I minimize it and walk away. I have no idea where to start. One of these days I'll actually play it ( :D ).

I have a little bit of that same thing going with Crusader Kings. It took me a few tries before I figured that I can kind of let the game play me for a while -- I just kind of sit there and wait for things to happen, then react accordingly. Dunno if EU is like that as much.

So my thoughts lately are to take France and make them a tough empire that no one would want to mess with, or maybe someone Swiss, and make them uber-aggressive -- something where I'm bucking a stereotype.

Go with France then :)

You also could try one of the low countries where present day Holland is.

Sounds good! I haven't looked at the playable factions -- is there a "France" to play as, or should I start as a count or duke?

I like to play as French counts. There's a few counties that are pretty wealthy, though I forget what they are offhand.

You can also try to marry Agnes (Duchy of Poitou, I think?) for a fairly gamey Ducal inheritance exploit. Although it's not as gamey as it used to be, since they nerfed her fertility.

So I'm considering a few games:

"Crazy as a Loon" -- somewhere in Holland
"I'm Nice" -- I don't think you can start as Nice, but maybe I'd start nearby again
"What's a Nubian?" redux with the AI aggressiveness turned low
Other ideas?

Also, I've read there's a list of brides available in Deus Volt, but I can't figure out how to find it at all! I've read that it's in the ledger, but I don't know where that is, either. Little help?

The ledger button is the middle button on the right side of the mini map which is in the lower left corner. You could also press f6 or something like that, I believe.

Hope that helps.

Thanks that helps a ton! Are there age restrictions on who you can marry? My 47 year old Loon Count couldn't marry a 21-year old, but could marry a 36-year old. I proposed to the 36-year old -- hopefully we can still have kids?

No age restrictions. Always look for the youngest wife who will benefit your realm the most.

the 21-year old was probably Matilda, the duchess in northern italy, don't think it's possible to marry her, i've never been successful with my main character

It was Mathilda. I believe I was able to propose that my brother marries her, so we'll see how that goes.

Mathilda declined.

Okay another question -- is there an easy way to find a province, once you've determined who you want to propose to?

Double click to bring up the portrait of the said character you want to marry, note her name, then click on the heraldry in that portrait to get to the province she is in.

Tada.

Ah, I need to double click on the last name..thanks!

I can't find this person, and I'm still not sure how inheritance works. I mean, I get how inheritance works, but I can't figure out how to marry into inheritance.

There is more than one way to get lands through an inheritance. The standard way is to manually look at the rulers of every province and find one where an eligible female is listed as the heir. Marry her to a male in your dynasty and hope they have a son. The progeny will be members of your dynasty and not hers.

Depending on the laws of inheritance in a province, there are other ways to inherit lands. They are pretty unreliable, as there are often other lines that can dramatically change circumstances at any moment.

Thanks, that's about what I figured. I'm not sure I'm up for looking at all the rulers like that -- I'll probably just check bordering provinces, and in the meantime, just marry for court members.

Anne de Bretagne is available ? (Duché de Bretagne)

Interesting. I think I'll ignore that stuff, though -- I might as well just start out as them if my plan is to marry into it, anyway. I think I'm going to start this over as the Loons. I don't know how I'll ever get anywhere, but we'll see.