I tried a HISTORICAL START and it was AWESOME!

[@lordlegendian0287]

Laith's favorite King is obviously Richard the Lionheart!!!

[@StjepanBojanic-fj8qn]

I mean he did improve the tax system so of course he 'loves' him

[@Yurie722]

Yes Richard the Lionheart!!! Son of Henry and great-great grandson of William the bastard/Conquer Who is further great-great-great grandson of Rollo

[@cba2make1up]

Definitely not Henry II Edit: I could swear Henry II was his favorite but apparently it is Roger II lmao

[@Lady_Amelia-Eloise]

Why does he Richard the Lionheart? He was a great King

[@KyllisAugustus]

I always forget he's a Norman

[@fedyui4865]

What surprises me with Laith is not that he knows every single detail of Roger II of Sicily's life, but the fact he treats Bohemond de Hauteville as a nobody and doesn't know who he is lol, Bohemond was an absolute unit in real life who had one hell of a life, fighting against the Byzantines and in the First Crusade among others.

[@steveng6721]

He and his brother kidnapped and ransomed the Pope for political legitimacy and a bunch of treasures

[@historyafficionado478]

Yeah, Bohemond is basically the main antagonist of The entirety of The Alexiad, and the stunts he pulled off during his life from Taranto to Antioch is legendary.

[@bipedleek241]

Genuinely the only explanation I can think of is that he doesn’t realize this bohemond and crusade bohemond are the same dude

[@moxla9562]

34:10 House Knytling (i.e. the House of Cnut the Great) getting their revenge on the Normans as an adventurer, really cool to see randomly

[@derekskelton4187]

Cultures are one of the deepest mechanics in the whole game. You can add so much flavor to your runs with the right cultural pillars for what you're trying to build

[@deathgnomes]

True, in one game with the Asia Expansion Project mod I created a Norse/Japanese hybrid so I had Viking Samurai xD

[@jpcofferip5325]

33:10 Actually this "Bohemond" was historicaly the first prince of Antioch.

[@barriath8841]

24:25 Those Akritai Units are actually one of the best skirmisher units you can get. They literally own Heavy Infantry and get bonuses in literally about every terrain that other units struggle with. Their pursuit is also useful for killing off beaten armies. Why are people disregarding them so wantonly xD? Get those, the Russian archers, the norse heavy inf, the arab light cavs and horse archers as well as the georgian heavy cav that has the fewest terrain disadvantages and you got yourself an elite monster army. Sure, as a monarch it takes a while but as an adventurer its a lot easier to get certain men at arms :D

[@tigrecito48]

I'm reading about the FIRST CRUSADE right now and my book says this: "In 1170, al-Bira sent at least sixty-five troops to the defence of Gaza. As the villages' names suggest, the Franks probably replaced Muslim inhabitants, indicating some process of ethnic cleansing to match that in the city of Jerusalem. Settlers in cities appeared to come from a more international background, including most parts of France as well as Italy & Spain. Mention is also made of Scots, English, Germans, Bohemians & Hungarians. Some towns & cities had been evacuated during the First Crusade and those conquered before 1110 had their inhabitants massacred or expelled.

[@Donderu]

6:36 when you inherit a province in which the previous holder held temple holdings, you’ll inherit them too. But if your religion disallows this, then you have to wait until the month tick for the game to give out the temple holdings to your chaplain and afterwards you can give it out. Probably a measure to avoid bugs

[@knightofarthenor3234]

Laith's favorite King is, King Roger II de Hauteville of Sicily, Apulia, Calabria, Southern Italy, and North Afrika, the son of Roger I de Hauteville, count of Sicily

[@drakan4769]

34:09 holy shit that's the knytlings, those are the line of canute the great coming back

[@henryglennon3864]

Roger II is only Laith's second favorite king. His first famous king is, of course, the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. In fact, Laith used to be an Elvis impersonator in college, performing under the name "Tunis Presley". He only dissolved the act when he moved on to his next project, a Charles Manson tribute band. It requires less time getting dressed up.

[@wiel5908]

tunis presley

[@OsoPardove]

Try Matilda. It's one of the most fun starts in the game with it's unique event chain

[@spaceranger1444]

Pretty much one of my favorite characters since you get Theologian at the start, and you can easily complete the scholarship tree. I then afterwards go for stewardship. Yes, I know you can go with the witch Intrigue route, but I think it's too risky. Also, I can get a child of my house as the duke of Matilda's father-in-law's duchy and then disinherit that kid, so I have a powerful ally in the HRE.

[@TheTyrfish]

Roger II was Robert Guiscard's nephew, a son of Roger I the Great Count of Sicily, the youngest of the Hauteville brothers.

[@Edgelite306]

Who is also playable at the start date in Messina.

[@Cbreezy74]

Yeah idk why he said Robert’s Roger would be the one to sire Roger II when he didn’t even come from his line lol they weren’t even the ones to start the Kingdom of Sicily

[@derekskelton4187]

Highly recommend a Prince Erik the Heathen run. One of the only difficult somewhat difficult viking starts. Kuzarites are also super fun

[@danvonhall9846]

Bohemond deserves his own video just because the way you disrespected him. Time to make a playthrough on him and read about his badass life.

[@icaricc]

This is Guaimar's world and we're just living in it

[@votecthulhu9378]

In Catania you can still see a Norman Castle, its called Castello Ursino.Current version was built by Friedrich II in the 13th century but the foundations/layout of the castle is even older. Used to be on the coast when it was built but a volcanic eruption actually spewed so much lava, the coast was moved hundreds of meters and now its just on a random hill surrounded by black rocks (hardened lava)

[@enddzi2469]

Love the quick escalation from 18:55 to 19:05 lol also that GarnattaH pronounciation 10/10 can tell bros half tunisian

[@AkodoGarou]

I'm going to assume and guess its King Tancred of Sicily! I guessed wrong, but I was close with the Grandson, haha.

[@charliecussans7638]

The Norman's were professional super-heavy shock cavalry in an area which hadn't seen such a unit, of course they were powerful lol.

[@raaaalf]

the conquerror trait being inheritable is very silly

[@cba2make1up]

You can change it in the game rules

[@suspicious241]

I love Roger II. He also wrote a defining treatise on falconry which i find super funny.

[@Edgelite306]

Wasn’t the Frederick II?

[@suspicious241]

@@Edgelite306 You are right! My mistake. Thank you for correcting me :)

[@africanchild3784]

Just found your videos and I love the historical rambling Keep it up, just got a new sub

[@derekskelton4187]

I highly recommend disabling conqueror inheritance. It can really devolve the game into conqueror battle royale which kinda ruins the fun if that's not what you're going for

[@PrimaDonnaBoi]

Hey Laith! KZbin Recap said that you are the Top 1 gaming channel that I watch. I don't know how to feel about that.

[@PrimaDonnaBoi]

Maybe Anguish?

[@mattg9632]

I wonder if you would like playing as earl Alfred. He's in 867 wrath of the northmen. There is early inheritance but you are prompted to push back after the great heathen army takes the north of England

[@drakan4769]

10:20 moving capital right into a plague stricken county, what could possibly go wrong?

[@Gamereal6286]

When there is a way to play as Roger II of Sicily in videogames, Laith surely isnt far away. As we know Roger is the second favorite king of him, next to Richard the Lionheart. Sicily is equally as interesting as Malta which gave the Ottomans one of their biggest losses.The Conqueror was scary, he almost attacked you, but something stopped him, lucky you. Unfortunately, the Byzantines didnt look that way and wanted their one piece back. Oh well. Also no bad word about Herbert okay? He was a good king. 😤 Funny bit: "Pope! We will conquer this land and you cannot stop us!" "Then I will excommunicate you!" "Do you think we care?" "Oh no Apathy! My weakness!"

[@havokstriker]

pretty sure from previous vids richard the lionheart is your favourite. you can't big him up enough. when you get talking about it you can just feel the love

[@arnigubjartsson7778]

One of my favourite game started with the same start. When the game ended a random member of my house was first in line for the Byzantine throne.

[@theRadioman621]

Robert is even more fun if you play with RICE because you get a struggle for sicily

[@zachmoore6084]

“Hold these nuts.” Legendary

[@g-unit-rl7xz]

"I need kids, Wife Where are You?? Oh right I Imprisoned you..."

[@wallybonejengles5595]

My current fav historical game is to start as Durama Duara and travel to the East to become Ghengis Khan. It was kind of hard but honestly easier to do the achievement in this roundabout way

[@tigrecito48]

is your favourite King, King Canute? (C/N/U/T)

[@aruik8332]

Casual videos with historical characters are the best!

[@aaronfire359]

King Roger II of Sicily! That's Your Favorite. What's cool about Norman Sicily is that is was such a pluralistic society and very culturally sophisticated for its time. I remember also that the Normans would employ Muslims as soldiers and royal bodyguards so when the Pope would excommunicate them or fight with them their soldiers would remain loyal and unaffected by any of it.

[@smack80]

Yeah, to play as the future historical king of Sicily, you have to start as Robert's brother, the count of Messina. His branch of the family rose in power over the senior branch and created the kingdom.

[@AnomalyWarning.]

This dude is gonna wait til the entire American Continent is done with on Old World Blues. Hoi4 Mod.

[@somemeansfish8987]

I just wanna say that I had wanted to RP playing the Hautevilles in the past and NONE of this flavour was in at that point,if it was I would have loved it

[@Jordanian2865]

I’m baffled that Duchess Matilda of Tuscany didnt attack. Any time I start as The Fox she attacks me

[@IcyPandaGirl]

id love to see a playthrough of the real st nicholas, the one that lived in the byzantine empire in the 11th century, for a christmas episode

[@cba2make1up]

If there isn't a whole history segment about the Normans ruling Tunis I'll be disappointed

[@SereglothIV]

I usually drop out of CK3 videos quite early but this one was pretty interesting to watch to the end :P

[@ToxicDouble]

Laith saying he has also never played the bookmarked people makes me feel better about myself. I literally hate playing bookmarked nations, always so much going on it’s so overwhelming.

[@brookek3116]

you mentioned his successor and I just KNEW you meant Roger

[@elsonvictarion7101]

I want an entire video of history talk from Laith on Roger II of Sicily lol

[@derekskelton4187]

At a guess your vassal did a legend that got them a ton of claims. It's technically possible he has the relations, but in general when you see that many claims it's a legend

[@PseudOnym-mc6vg]

Laith, I always want to hear the historical digressions.

[@Calvinwhight]

bro both tancred and bohemond did some wild shit in the crusades

[@barriath8841]

I had an eastern slavic conqueror on my run that managed to make the slavic empire and hell did that guy piss me off while I was constantly being bothered somewhere around the russian borders to the north by him. even his heir managed to get conqueror right after him and even smashed the byzantine empire which gave way for me to snack up good amounts of land for free xD

[@LunarRegicide]

Doing the Bosphoran Kingdom could be a fun video!

[@mustardjar3216]

my two go to playthroughs are playing as chrsitian italians in 1066 and conquering africa, and playing as muslims in italy in 867 and conquering italy

[@corbwools0203]

as Robert of Apulia, Secure the Mediteranian and hybridize with at least 1 culture!

[@minnumseerrund]

but the Sicilian Normans didnt just fight the Pope, they were also fighting FOR him at times, while also duking it out with the HRE

[@derekskelton4187]

They fought for themselves, alongside whoever would give them an advantage at the time. If the Muslims could afford them they would have been on their side

[@tatsuya8696]

34:09 is that the descendant of cnut the great?

[@Lady_Amelia-Eloise]

Don’t lie we all know your favorite King is Richard the Lionheart Jokes aside, you should try the classic run of Duchess Matilda of Tuscany

[@dannyholwell3273]

Laith loves Dicky the lionfart, we all know that XD

[@adrianofeixa5026]

Laith you shoud make an canal about history I would love to see it.

[@highgrounder5238]

Part 2 where you take the Byzantine throne and create the Hellenorman Empire (HRE for short)

[@emilianohermosilla3996]

The parallels between Granada and South Italy are a beauty! regions that thrived from the multicultural mix of Muslims, Jews and Christians as well as the cultures that ran them and their coexistence. A complete shame that these regions couldn’t keep that development once they were integrated into the bigger kingdoms, Andalusia was taken by the Spanish and then the inquisition happened and bam, downfall. Something close to that happened to Sicily; inquisition, immigrants with that radicalized mentality and finally the disregard of the region by the crown of Aragon sent South Italy towards where it’s today. I hope that these two regions can be revived, or better said, rise in their notability, there’s just too much beautiful history there for them to be disregarded or abandoned

[@carltonleboss]

Funny how your second ruler was both greedy and profligate 16:30

[@Stasio800]

I would have to recommend princess Tamar of Georgia.

[@revontheus17]

this is a crazy roller coaster lmao

[@johnnicholas1657]

Roger II was awesome

[@SquirrelMaestro]

In the meadow we can build a snowman and pretend that he is king of Sicily. He’ll say am I Sicilian he’ll say Nor-man

[@ishabooo]

Please play more characters like this.

[@rpcollins007]

Please do a part two.

[@speedrunman1239]

very nice history video

[@kappa2972]

This has been crazy

[@adrianofeixa5026]

I kinda like this historical facts to be fair 😁

[@FACM.]

The normands were Mount and Blade characters

[@HenryTumber]

Play as William the conqueror I've done it many times and it's always great as adopting the English culture is absolutely broken as you can get longbowmen who are the best men at arms no joke

[@spencer...---...]

Laith, is it by any chance Roger II?

[@TEVKI]

BRO this start is hell for me idk I'm super unlucky or if you just got lucky on this start lol The Byzantine empire always holds the island on the tip of the boot and Italy holds the heel of the boot every time for me 😢

[@HenryTumber]

Or go Henry the second and prevent Richard the lionheart from taking the throne as Henry II himself was an absolute beast

[@paperbackwriter19]

11:20 LAITH NO SHES NOT EVEN 1 YEARS OLD YET

[@BTea155]

Historical Richard the Lionheart?

[@smack80]

Always keep Palermo as capital!!

[@derekskelton4187]

Laith you could have won that holy war at any time if you had just sieged down their one county. Also you never got Malta which is part of the duchy of Sicily...

[@tejiriagboro885]

I am pretty sure roger the first is robert's brother and roger the second is roger the first's son

[@transscribe]

Good King Rene?

[@mdcynyay]

LAITH PLEASE, PIRATE SICILY, I'M BEGGING YOU

[@derekskelton4187]

Doesn't really work well as a Catholic.

[@mdcynyay]

@@derekskelton4187 why? just ally the pope and raid everyone else, i can raid like the entire med

[@Cbreezy74]

Didn’t Roger II come from Robert’s brother Roger I, Count of Sicily lineage? Robert’s son Roger would rule but he is not the Roger you are thinking of.

[@flaviogoncalves7188]

That guy had all those claims beacuse he completed the roman heritage legend. That gives you claims on literally all the territorries romans held at their peak.

[@ondrapinker3686]

Play as Vratislav of Bohemia

[@Onzo22]

Playing sicily is hype

[@smack80]

lol you forgot Malta. Everybody forgets Malta.

[@Piratejoe44]

Day 352 of asking for an Oranje Free State Playthrough of Vicky 3. Just 13 more videos and it'll be a year.

[@tarnishedhollow6826]

Do Rurik next

[@pratigiovanni6603]

Bro scusa ma se vuoi giocare con gli antenati di Ruggero II avresti dovuto giocare con il fratello di Guglielmo, Ruggero I di Messina -IT

[@johnnicholas1657]

You are a bit off with your history though. Roger II was the first king of Sicily. The roger you call Roger (borsa) I of Apulia (after his dad Robert died). It gets confusing because roger IIs dad was another Roger I (bossa/the great count) of the county of Sicily (this is because Robert was the titular duke of Apulia Calabria and Sicily. The kingdom itself wasn't created until 1120 or something by roger II. By this time he was hegemon of southern Italy and ruler of sicily

[@OrlovKruskayev]

“Where’s your epipen, idiot” Lmfao

[@pangolimazul6055]

Should have made Palermo the capital. The province is a bit better than Syracuse and it was the historical capital of the Kingdom.

[@lema0925]

Do it for Guaimar 🗣🗣🔥🔥

[@andreascovano7742]

Roger II

[@danstn]

Sooooo many adverts on this channel now

[@PerfectAlibi1]

I like starting as Mathilda and keep a female only heir run, under Catholicism. While also unifying Italia in Mathilda's lifetime. ^^

[@otheoakmi]

laith can you please rearrange the rallying point by rightclicking on the map, seeing you press the dedicated button hurts my heart

[@amirnasiri4163]

Wiliam the good?