[Three of Seven]

I have been playing Crusader Kings 2 through Ironman mode to get some Steam achievements, it's also been a good way for me to learn bits of the game, recently I started late game as Venice just to get a few achievements, played it to the end of the game. It was different to play as a republic, so much money! But now I'll get into what I did.

First two things I did, I swore fealty to the Holy Roman Empire, it was far easier than getting several attacks on me, gave me plenty of room to focus on my own goals without having to worry about defending. The second thing was marrying off all the men in my dynasty, the house I started with was low on members, so needed more children. Thankfully later down the line and with the Way of Life DLC, one of my heirs was a master seducer.



Yeah, about 6 of them were illegitimate, but nevermind! The dynasty grew thanks to him!

Eventually, I got a number of new holdings and took over land, so I am interested in trying all this again at an earlier start point, one of the big things that helped was also being liked by the pope, he was very generous with gold in my save. All but one election was won as well, I had no problem sinking money into the fund to make sure it was mine, at one point getting a fairly young character which turned out to be my most successful. When the AI had control of the Republic of Venice, it decided to revolt against the HRE and then I inherited that mess, but in the end, this was my result.



This is with the Direct Vassals view, there are some islands at the south of the map which are also mine, mixed in with the purple. With more time, I could have controlled even more!

[Dentari]

Nice to see CK2 on the forums. Looks like you had a good run on this game despite the AI debacle. I really do like the additions brought in with the Way of Life, allows for some interesting twists and developments.

Edit: Also, we should continue with our glorious Sicily/Italy alliance, under the benevolent Kaiser Noram!

[Three of Seven]

What has this game done to you!

It has made me hunger for more land, MORE LAND! That's possibly the best run I have had in a game, most of the time I end up with a mess and silly succession laws. Then I have to go invade my brothers land and take it back off him! The next thing I want to do is take the Empire of Brittania, I get so close but then Scotland...

And we do need to carry on that save! I was taking over Croatia there too.

[McClintock]

The next thing I want to do is take the Empire of Brittania, I get so close but then Scotland...

FREEEDOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!