Survive the Norman & Norwegian Invasion 1066 - Crusader Kings II

[@nazzy19canucks]

I managed this once by beating the Norwegians and then William the Conqueror died of an illness, ending the war.

[@LegendofTotalWar]

I'll try not to win these using luck. Anything can happen in CK2. Got lucky on the Byzantine video and got called out on it. If something like that happens I'll probably just restart.

[@nazzy19canucks]

Yeah, I remember the Byzantine one, bit of an anti climax! But that's what makes CK2 great.

[@jpanda79]

There was some serious luck on that William surrender

[@tameursgarden148]

That happened to me too just plot to kill him then 😂 that's the game of thrones talking 😂

[@jasonli2474]

Normans are tough, but a real challenge would be holding off Genghis Khan's Mongol Horde as the Khwarezmid Shah. You start off with a large kingdom and quite a few men, but the enemy is the greatest conqueror in world history. Good luck.

[@spudrow2004]

not to mention one of the deadliest weapons in all of CK2, horse archers.

[@Scrungge]

@@spudrow2004 their morale should be 1000 and maintenance 0 since they learned their horses only to live on grass and managed the art of preservation of food in small packages for themselves.

[@xUmb3]

The hardest challenge of all of CK2 is surely restoring the Persian Empire as a Zoroastrian, either playing as Karmen (if i remember it's their name) as an independent nation or as the zoroastrian subject of the sunni caliphate. Thing is you have basically no friends and if you start as the subject you get rekt early on as they want to revoke your title all the time as you are a heathen That is most probable the hardest campaign as you basically are the only zoroastrian country in the world, sitting right next to the caliphate and later on to the mongols

[@pavelsosnovschi5120]

With the secret religion mechanic it´s quite easy acctually as a vassal to become persian emporor because of the sunni conquest against all . You just conquer all the provinces you need and then become independent after that you openly worship the zoroastrian religion . I have that archivment I did it the good old way with the count of gilan in the 867 start but I tried it with the vassal way and it´s a lot easier and faster

[@Baktrianos]

I believe the hardest is to make a viking kingdom in india and create zunist empire

[@xUmb3]

Pavel Sosnovschi damn I forgot about that shitty dlc monks and mystics... well, he could choose not to use that """feature""" to get a harder campaign

[@Caststriker]

Tom G shouldn't be that hard when you get the Religious War CB's where you can conquer entire kingdoms

[@dantenarede]

My hardest campaign was playing as zarma, a count-level, unreformed pagan tribal chief under songhai and trying to conquer ghana, north and east africa; I also disabled the seljuk, turkish invasion, set the sunset invasion to random and black plague to dynamic. I had to restart that thing three times, the first one the Umayyads expanded south and blocked my progress, the second the abassids expanded towards tunis and the third the Aztec spawned within the first 80 years.

[@khorps4756]

finally another challenge video, i love these ledeng

[@spudrow2004]

Very cool divide and conquer strategy, i dont use it very often because AI suddenly wises up and starts to chase them off. I actually had a HUGE stroke of luck with this achievement, William decided to move against Harold first where both were wounded . After his costly victory William decided to move on London where my fortified army was waiting for him (fort and merc company) between my fort and the landing penalties we manage to break one of his flanks and win the battle. I hounded his army to dust and then moved on his lands claiming victory. My alliance with Scotland paid off and together we were able to finish Harlolds army where he later died of his wounds.

[@picktak]

Surviving the Mongols with the Shah of the Khwarezmian Empire in the Mongol bookmark. Would be a cool remake of an older TW series you did a few years ago.

[@JasonFanny]

This may be the hardest challenge in the game: In 1197 play as Queen Isabelle of Jerusalem and retake the holy city from Saladin. I highly recommend you use the Historical Immersion Project mod for this challenge.

[@WarriorWithin111]

That is indeed hard, but not the hardest jewish campaign. At the earliest age, there is a single jewish 2-county duchy all the way down in Ethiopia, surrounded by Ethiopian christians and threatened by the coming sunni caliphate from the north. Try retaking Jerusalem and establish Israel from there.

[@JasonFanny]

WarriorWithin111 I've done that, it's easier than being a Queen stuck in a regular marriage with your most powerful vassal while being attacked by the entire Middle East.

[@LuisAldamiz]

But holy orders help a lot! I have to test that challenge anyhow, all I did once with Jerusalem (3rd crusade scenario was surviving as lesbian daughter to a too-early deceased king whats-his-name), with a matrilineal marriage to a Genoese patrician. I actually expanded the kingdom somewhat.

[@Vince-tt1uj]

I did it without sieging any of William castles. Traditional way, using some merc, war of attrition, the main point is they will not replenish their forces like the English, so after few battles its a good idea to disband armies, recruit them again.

[@usernameulpentruyout]

As the Bulgarian Tsar beat the Magyar invasion (the old gods start date)

[@khorps4756]

YES

[@Fish4Man61]

This one would be good.

[@serbiaball9056]

But Bulgaria isn't a Tsardom?

[@LuisAldamiz]

That's perfectly possible in fact. You must be careful but just let him waste troops into siege and, in these cases always always commit genocide against the Jews for mercs. Sorry Jews but the game mechanics demand it.

[@OriginalSoulbourne]

It does bear noting your capital county gets +50% levy size(Every personally owned fief, so optimally could have 5 castles with this) and the counties in the capital duchy get +25%(same rules). Alongside that your ministers train troops affects all fiefs in the county. I use this to have 5 castles with +200% levy size between train troops, capital county bonus, and high martial king. In vanilla it's also possible to easily revoke this via a plot in the intrigue screen selection, both capital county and duchy, so if you have an emporer title it becomes advantagous to have gavelkind as you can pretty much revoke 10 lost fiefs within around 2 months of succession and be back to full power with zero tyranny.

[@OriginalSoulbourne]

That's the issue-you are the king, meaning you have some of the lowest authority among the internal nobility in a feudal system. The majority of land troops and economy is owned by vassals who enjoy their freedom and do their best to keep the king poor and weak so that if he ever decides to do something they dont like a quick armed revolt will easily overwhelm him. It wasn't until after the black death that the king began to reverse this event and become a real power rather than a "First among equals" as he was traditionally.

[@OriginalSoulbourne]

A lot of people think that until they're facing down an army 20x their total levy that's only a partial mobilizaton from all the angry nobles upset at your tyranny and who think it'd just be easier to stab you and give someone more reasonable the title :P

[@OriginalSoulbourne]

Also: Start as a welsh count and restore the briton holdings driving out saxons normans, norse and whomever else may come, reclaiming the land and declaring yourself the once and future king of the lands lost first to the romans then countless invaders after, driving your people to ground in the last bastion of wales!

[@Enmerkar_of_Uruk]

You could do something similar as Strathclyde/Ystrad Clyd, and first focus on restoring the Hen Ogledd in the north, before reconquering Lloegyr from the Saxons.

[@Warpmek]

If you want to keep an England theme, try doing the "Outside bet" achievement. That requires you to conquer England before Norway or Normandy conquer it.

[@pavelsosnovschi5120]

No you only have to be king of england as the Danish King . They can win their war you only have to hold the title in the lifetime of Svend II of denmark.

[@LuisAldamiz]

Start as Wessex in Old Gods (or even more challenging: Mercia) and unify England. Too "easy"? Start as the brother of the Wessexian king (a double earl) and get his throne and then do that. Too "easy"? Then start as Northumbria!

[@poganpagan]

Play as the King Erik the Heathen,Petty Kingdom of Uppland, and win the war (26 December 1066)

[@MaXiMoS54]

Bonus to unite Scandinavia under it

[@poganpagan]

Jep, i have done that ^_^

[@BigGrease1]

that's a hard one, it's easy to become king of Sweden, but im still trying to become emperor of Scandinavia and reform the faith. I've been close, tho.

[@thegamingworld100]

Your videos are very entertaining, just found this channel and I'm glad that I did!

[@whiteoctober4582]

You did this one in Stainless Steel, but can you do it here: As Khwarezmia defeat the Mongols in the age of the Mongols start

[@MilanPavlovic540]

Even your Multiplayer button is corrupted. LoL. Also, I saw people, down in the comments, talking about the hardest challege and wanted to add few suggestions: 1) Restoring the Roman Empire 2)Unifying India 3)Conquer de jure Empire of Britannia as the Mongol Horde(or any horde in general, but there is an achievment for doing it as mongols) and the least. but not last - 4)Amassing 20k ducats.

[@Hugh_Morris]

This guide helped me out allot, cheers mate. Greetings from Yorkshire, England.

[@1911Zoey]

Do the last Karling and take back all the lands of the Carolingians which include France, HRE, Italy, and the Spanish March. It's gonna be yuuuge so it won't cover a single episode. Take your time.

[@JasonFanny]

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa he just did a Karling world conquest series...

[@1911Zoey]

Oh my bad. I haven't seen that one yet.

[@nurk1468]

Challenge: Survive the Mongol invasion in 1220 as Grand Principality of Smolensk

[@SuperAerie]

Like the good ol Sun Tzu said, "supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting". Pretty much what you did there

[@TurtleGamers1]

you can just split the army so that the AI will be baited into attacking, then when they are in combat ýou move the other half up and crush them goes really well since you'll be defending and especially if they got a river crossing penalty

[@wolfbrosunited7519]

Legend are you going to do any longer campains för ck2

[@DLWildcard]

Really liking these short challenge videos

[@comandarian4591]

Love this kind of videos! Keep it up!

[@robinkouwer6318]

When I was playing Ireland norway won instead of Normandy and short after the house of Godwin regained their independent england not long after.

[@turmuthoer]

To make it even easier, you can normally invite somebody to your court with the 'Siege Leader' trait. This will give you a handy advantage over the Normans and the Norwegians in that it you will siege down holdings much faster than them when you put them in command of your stacks. You'll be able to grab holdings in a shorter amount of time and there are fewer opportunities for your army to be chipped away by those random siege events.

[@tighnarix3229]

Mistakes in first 5 min(just suggestions not a complaint) btw love your videos -Landing your sons (the prestige penalty for landing your sons is very minor and when succession happens your now brothers will be very angry and strong as pretenders) -Siege Normandy (it is a defensive war so you don’t actually need to make him surrender. The faster you end the war the better.)

[@saikro221]

I'm liking these short, challenge videos!

[@thisisabot7025]

How did you select the ships without selecting the armies, it's really annoying going around selecting one ship at a time

[@Ulupipo]

great vid and nicely done!

[@zablujnc]

I was yelling at the screen for ignoring the French King's marriage proposal (at around 19 minutes in). An alliance with them would make toast out of Norway.

[@1000Hejsan]

Well, making Sweden/the north Norse again in 1066 start could be one

[@rsap80]

I enjoyed that video. Thank you.

[@efeolgunsoy9787]

Why did you not expell the jews and hire 2 merc groups and attack immediatelly? In a war retaking stuff is secondary if you have a larger army in ck2.. you crush your enemy and then retake to force surrender or else it becomes province swap as you've seen

[@Calypso993]

Hats off, well played.

[@jaredkidd1]

Interesting video and skilled gameplay. One piece of advice I would add on top of this video is to use the find character function to see if you can invite any better commanders to your court with the Siege leader trait being especially useful since a lot of this relies on racing against your opponents to gain war-score and said trait increases seige speed

[@murismael]

I like this CKII challenge videos. They are short but intense.

[@Артём-к7у4у]

Well, it's probably the first video that I have seen on your channel, but it is the first one that I have seen "from cover to cover", I have really enjoyed your ability to dictate ! I shall not waste my time and watch some more of your letsplays)))

[@timothyoneil5355]

I never knew you played this. I love you even more now!!!

[@tscchope]

Several scenarios spring to mind: As Byzantium (three scenarios) don't lose Manzikert, Myrocephalon or the 4th Crusade As Wales defeat Edward I's conquest of Wales As Edward I conquer Scotland As The Kingdom of Jerusalem instead of making Fatimid (Shia) Egypt a Protectorate, conquer it and make it Christian As the Kingdom of Jerusalem defeat Saladin As Kiev defeat the Mongol invasion As the Knights Templar stop the dissolution of the Order

[@kristiannicholson5893]

First bit of money was inherited when your baron died.

[@bobthetop3242]

Oh yeah!! Thx for the vid!

[@jumpanama]

I'd love to see you play as the Reynes of Castamere when Tywin takes over House Lannister in the ASOIAF mod

[@lukeg8466]

I suggest you do a bigger series and try to revive the norse faith in the 1066 start

[@oldkabar8093]

Hey Legend, I've been following your channel for a couple years now and I really like the change to the different games. I'm particularly interested in this one as I've just started playing it myself. I'm not very good and was wondering if you've ever considered a tutorial series for some of the games you play?

[@richardgauthier2901]

I've played a fair bit of CK2 and there are a lot of little goodies you can find. Some examples for more long-term challenges would be reforming the Romuva faith (pagans in Lithuania), making a catholic heresy accepted, forming Isreal as a Jew, you name it.

[@TheKingDain]

Well....restore the Zorastian Persian Empire as the Zorastian duke of Tabriz in the 769 bookmark.

[@Kim-uu8fc]

I've found Commanders can make a big difference when forces are roughly matched.

[@johnpeach5051]

One of the challenges I personally enjoy is bringing back the Norse faith in the 1066 start, very difficult as I think their is only a few Norse counts left. I will be impressed if you manage it without a few restarts due to its difficulty. After that, would love to see you check out some mods, such as the warhammer mod. However will enjoy any you choose, warhammer one is just a personal preference. Lastly, want to try something ridiculous, make a Norse faith republic, it also helps you learn how to create and manage a huge family. Would be interesting to see you paint the dynastic mapmode with Legend

[@Phaxar]

Love this format

[@jakehatton2910]

Great video as always, if I were to make a suggestion it would be to play as one of the Welsh characters at any start date where England doesn't control Wales, then unite the Kingdom of Wales and conquer the Kingdom of England. Maybe if you wanted a longer-form series you could go on to try and create the Empire of Brittania :)

[@allisterforest1842]

I think the AI doesn't have very good logic when it has to fight England ever. They always will send their entire army to your island so you can just easily destroy it. They should instead wait for you to bring your army to them depending on the context of the war

[@daanyalhussain5188]

great video i really liked it.

[@samuelmontenegroserniotti7146]

I dont know exactly wich Paradox game would be best to do it, but repeating Napoleon´s Egypt campaign would be nice to be seen (he actually intended to conquer all the way back to France, going through Judea, Syria, Anatolia, the Balkans, and Germany) Sounds like quite the challenge.

[@tribaln7122]

Dude's wife dies of a cough and zero fucks are given. My kind of channel.

[@PhoenixFires]

I was playing as Aksum to make a Jewish Empire at this time and the AI did it easily. And William died almost when he really did but because of syphilis.

[@jacobtrebilcock2070]

hard challage for you: play this time frame but come in as denmark they also have a claim

[@supergamer2401]

probably wasnt the best idea to go around assaulting all the holdings before the big battle

[@zac3473]

This is so weird literally yesterday I tried this on Ironman and got destroyed xD great video as always

[@DIY_Miracle]

I would have done a couple of things instead of trying to fight the Norwegians on the battlefield. Great thing about CK2 is that fighting is optional. When I play that scenario, I extort tribute from the British minors to bolsters the numbers as potential tributaries that feel threatened by you, your allies and tributes armies will surrender without a fight. You can also get a large income this way for merc. I also try to assasinate William or Harald as as soon as they die, the war ends. Enemy armies tend to also burn troops through the siege ticks.

[@saldar2722]

What a coincidence, I was planning on starting another campaign with this exact start

[@anglosaxon5874]

That's paradox for you with their continous rebellions or distractions with murder plots and other stupid things!

[@kensebego199]

Much like real life though lol

[@ThatIcelandicDude]

-Sir we're being invaded on two fronts what is our next move? -We shall Invade france!!! -...

[@NoName-cp4ct]

You could assault domain of William, since AI raised all levies. And I bet you could easily assault his vassals' holdings with mercenaries too. And then proceed to fuck over norvegians. As one said, "Wars are not won by iron and blood, but by jewish loans and mercenaries".

[@dirgtheorc1685]

*Gets invaded* No you *Invades back*

[@chainsaw5302]

I mean they almost won the battle pf hasting

[@Fish4Man61]

Pretty much. A couple of decisions made differently IRL, and the Norman failed invasions would be a historical footnote. Though the consequences of which would be quite interesting speculation :)

[@LuisAldamiz]

An obvious consequence would be that the word "consequence", among many others (half of English vocabulary) would not be there. Also no 100 Years' War, whatever that means (basically a historically stronger France).

[@kensebego199]

France would've been much stronger considering England would have no French territories.

[@insightsman196]

I survived both, and am on my 4th king each ruled like 30 to 50 years or so , , any way my way I married off my daughter to the king of France son, then form a none aggressive pact or an alliance, you may have to give him gold , it doesn't always work ,I tried his way first, then found a way out of that, cause William was taking more land faster than my self lol, then up north I went and just beat him after taken back some lands he took and waiting for my allies like the king of France and Scotland, I married off a relative and got an alliance real easy, just make sure you save a lot , great work tho can't imagine how many time you had to back to get this result, nice work

[@rawpotatofella9654]

I like these, great if you can do one every week

[@dantenarede]

Legend, a suggestion if you would take it, before every game, I go into the find character tab and look up anyone willing to join me on my court (it helps if you have high state diplomacy and ranking) to get better council members and commanders, as the latter are extremely important for a battle, 3 level 18-16 martial commanders could have let you crush the scandinavian army in gloucster.

[@danm5266]

is there any way to make the ui bigger as i cant see a thing on mobile

[@rateeightx]

Yes: Watch On A Computer.

[@rateeightx]

Or Get A Larger Screen.

[@shacklock01]

Should try the outside bet, its a fun one in this situation. Took me bloody ages (winning as the third claiment, Sven of Denmark)

[@dams6829]

Hi just found out your channel. Really awesome. Maybe try Baltic Pagans winning Northern Crusades or England winning 100 years war?

[@dams6829]

Varangian Guard Well to be honest war didn't go 100 years. It was more like collection of many wars in same time period.

[@dams6829]

Varangian Guard No it was good comment. Tbh I agree even there have been occasions in my gameplay when smaller army wins but most of the time you are right.

[@Baktrianos]

Hardest/weirdest campaign i've done/tried to finish: Create the Empire of Kabulistan and reform Zunist faith (charlemagne bookmark) with the Zunbil family. Create a Norse Kingdom in India (Age of vikings) I almost did it with Halfdan of Nantes, but lost the invasion war and got blobbed by abbassids later.. Crazy episode: while trying this in the 3rd or 4th attempt, I actually became the varangian guard and all my provinces automatically became Byzantine's. Miss my indian opportunity tho, and restarted. Never seen an article on reddit or in the web of someone who had the same experience Also, give konugardr a try.. is a germanic genius viking chief in slav ukraine... unlimited potential King of the loosers: The nestorian guys living in Socotra

[@slavicgandhi3414]

This looks like a fun Idea for a challange

[@Radorkanass]

Do the reconquista starting as the one province kingdom of Aragon in 1066

[@andrewgray2213]

how about playing a nepotism/gavelkind CKII playthrough as in only have your royal family controlling land in the entire world?

[@aksmex2576]

As kawazirites (turkish Persia) survive the Mongol invasion. Idk if it is too hard, or too easy but I believe Mongols do spawn with like 100k stacks of horseback troops

[@asambi69]

Don't you take attrition dmg from being in his lands?.

[@arthegor]

@Legend if you want to get cash I recommend going Business focus not the other option that one give you like justice and more events that you need to pay money.

[@heilig8873]

You should've have William the Bastard killed in the Battlefield like how he killed Harold Godwinson irl

[@californiasunbear8420]

It's tough since it's random.

[@hot-bloodedmartialartist3900]

Survive as Asturias in 769. King Aurelio.

[@BloodyCrow__]

Why didnt you just hire mercenaries again at the end?

[@bobthetop3242]

By the way the resolution is so big i can barely read, pls change if you can and if you want.

[@michealboudreaux]

Really fun but watching him ignore all the diplomacy requests - which could have brought him allies was super frustrating.

[@bobek1142]

You can start from 1204 and retake Byzantium as trebizond emperor Alexios Kommenos.

[@ryanpolo1126]

How about Khwarezmid-Mongol Invasion

[@KvaGram]

Want a suggestion? Well, why not what I somehow ended up with. Out of some curiosity I ended up with a Buddhist king of england. I used the search for immortality to introduce it. Now, on very easy (couse it is a casual game, for fun) I am trying to piece by piece turn Europe buddhist. Why don't you try that on hard?

[@theemperorofmankind7706]

High middle ages east Rome winning against the Seljuks with Turkish conquest on and on the hardest difficulty.

[@freddiecawston2892]

You sound like Harold Godwinson's internal monologue if he were competent 😂. "Let's get the fuck out of here!"

[@martyrobbins5241]

He was very competent

[@koob1413]

try the re-reconquista (play as a small muslim duchy in iberia )

[@Infinite_Jester]

koob1413 That's not a problem basically anywhere in the CK2 timeline, because Iberia is mostly owned by Muslims throughout. It's much more difficult in EUIV.

[@koob1413]

but HRE and France always jump in with huge armies + crusades .

[@LuisAldamiz]

Sure: playing the Abbadids (Seville) even is extremely hard: you must actively join others' defensive holy wars in order to impede the Christians (who tend to inherit each other and join their realms, and also tend to act as a single allied bloc) from expanding, while somehow managing to defend from the Almoravids in your rearguard (weaken them as much as you can). And let's not forget the unavoidable massive heretic uprising just at the worst timing. Goal: become King of Andalusia or Emperor of Spain even if you can.

[@LuisAldamiz]

Oh, I was thinking in the 1066 scenario. Ummayads are much stronger of course but Taifas are very weak, even Seville is.

[@shamalamadingdongminecraft5602]

do HOI4 poland 1939 start

[@matthewpinny4997]

Hes done it on second channel, however tauror does it with no alliances with Commies or Germans

[@expelleddux]

Restore Italy as Sicily would be cool if it’s possible to do.

[@supercow148]

idk how challenging it is but you could play the one jewish guy trying to form the kingdom of israel

[@475818]

Something including the mongols ?

[@dantenarede]

Defeat your Liao overlords, unify Mongolia and conquer the world!

[@leehammozza3222]

Wait for it ...the Mongols!

[@willw4957]

Asturias kicking out the Muslims from Spain and North Africa. Had a lot of fun playing that campaign

[@bluevasquez8504]

Napoleon TW win Waterloo for us Legend!!!

[@rateeightx]

Nah Napolean Sucks.

[@youruke2123]

I feel like this start is really not very hard. Both invaders are hostile to each other, so you can easily play them out against each other. And you are in a strong position, being able to invite good Generals. I would usually just beat back Norway and white peace them and then beat up Normandy.

[@LilBlAcK76]

ally the king of france, then call him into your war. there you go you beat normandy

[@rateeightx]

You Mean Norway? Because Calling The King Of France Peace's Out Normandy.

[@Fish4Man61]

Heck with just for difficulty, but this probably has some. I certainly love seeing the Dues Vult win the day though :) Play as the crusaders in that one era that there is almost nothing left of the crusader kingdoms (for the life of me, I can't quite recall which date it was). Try to actively hinder or deny any more Christian help to your area. Win all the crusader kingdoms back, survive the conflict.

[@Seeter1000]

dont understand the problem doing that, did that in ironmode and now my kingdom is almost spreading all over europe