Back from smoking and time to check on how the King of Sweden is doing.
So Bjorn died and his underage son took over and is in a whole ton of wars. Good news for us, as that'll keep him out of our affairs while we have some of our power consolidation work to do.
Speaking of which, Sverker?
As the legitimate child of the Queen of Jorvik, he's also heir to the petty thrones of Jorvik and Norrland, and their attached counties, plus one of the Finnish counties. Where's Jorvik, for those not familiar with this setup?
That fractured mess of England, still dominated by the Scottish kings who maintain a strong presence in the Scandinavian isles (And I need to kick them out at some point).
But I, as Bjorn the Brilliant Gay Man, am not without my own inheritances.
The problem is, apparently if I inherit those lands from my brother, the counties pass out of my realm? I'm not sure I understand that, but hopefully that doesn't mean I'm back under Sweden's banner.
In any case, now that we've won the war started by Valedmar, it's time to...
...Change primary titles and make my ambition...
...Well damn.
Pro Tip: The Kingdom you can go for is apparently tied to the county your capital is in, not your primary title.
Guess I'll have to change that.
And here's the problem of gavelkind. The territory you're left with is so small in most cases, that people like this can tell you to sod off. I'm hoping he declares war against me.
Happily, he does, and it's time to play every small army's favorite game.
AKA hire mercs.
The Chief of Riga and that small county whose name I can never remember sends me a letter demanding independence. I tell him to go to hell.
Not a smart move, buddy. Not when I have mercs hanging around, who I had to fund by ransoming prisoners, incidentally, and not when your own troops aren't full strength yet.
Especially not when the Chief of Memel surrenders a few days later, freeing me up to launch the brunt of my armies at you.
You can bet I revoked his title.
I start noticing other red armies on the map and I get scared, even though I didn't notice rebelling Riga calling anyone into the war. The answer to the fear arrives quickly:
Apparently by going independent, other wolves started circling and trying to claim the territory, so he comes crawling back. As you can see by the state of the armies here, and my own rapidly thinning purse, I was happy to take it.
I decide to take a huge, *huge* gamble and risk him fleeing to another court, by trying to righteously imprison him despite an only 50% chance of success.
Happily, it succeeds, and I'm free to take all his titles and that fat, fat load of cash. My vassals already hate me, so what's a little more hatred?
Having now consolidated my power in our Lithuanian possessions, I'm now free to:
Easily the best territory in the lands and the natural capital.
And now...
Time to game on.