Surviving (one of) the Hardest Starts in the Game | Reforming Jewish Ethiopia in CK3

I play through one of the hardest starts in Crusader Kings III! Starting as a Jewish second tier vassal I have to break out from my shackles.
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Become a member of the channel here: / @zieley

[@TheToastieCakes]

Interesting, when I played as the ethiopian jews on release the route I went for was to fabricate hooks on my Duke and the King, and to use those hooks to get religious protection vassal contracts. Staying as an abyssinian vassal I was able to expand quite a bit whilst the king consolidated a bit and kept me safe from holy wars. That said, if I knew I could just kill my way to becoming king that would have saved a bunch of headaches!

[@tommerker8063]

you don'T even need hooks, just offer your liege more levies for the protection. you can be safe within the first week

[@torinjones3221]

Honestly though I prefer to play a vassal. It feels more like a challenge.

[@TrueXyrael]

You don't need a hook to get religious protection. Just bump your levies or taxes up one step, "balance" out the positive and negative requests. You can do the same as a liege, if your vassals used hooks for council rights, when they die you renegotiate the contract (contracts can only be negotiated once during a characters life), lower taxes and remove their council rights. Oddly, if you offered vassalization to somebody on religious exemption grounds (easier to do than low vassal commitments) you can immediately turn around and renegotiate the contract and bump their taxes from medium to low, and remove the religious exemption. Meaning the bonus to vassalizing with religious exemptions is useless.

[@snapgab]

Yeah that was my first thought too, just fabricate a hook to change your contract and make your liege unable to revoke your title or demand a conversion.

[@KacperRybicki-v7t]

They are not jews The religion is judaism but they are not jews cuz jews are nation

[@Joachim_Meyer]

Thank you, I've failed this when I first tried it a couple weeks ago, but I will probably try again now that you've done it. I did fairly well, using intrigue I was able to inherit the Kingdom of Abyssina and form a pocket of the Jewish faith. The realm was stable and growing steadily until boom, I got hit by holy war after holy war and due to my religion, I wasn't able to form any alliances to help me. I had forgotten to use the kidnap scheme and force conversion and eventually I gave up the save after I was still a "king" holding one puny county in lands far away from my original capital.

[@desperatesub1762]

Honestly astounded at how your not a bigger channel with such a soft sultry narration

[@antonio44581]

Just as a tip, I also started on same location and form the empire, have all 5 hly sites, create the "papacy" and form Israel. For the early game, you can negotiate your agreement with your liege and request to respect your faith, this disable the option to convert your counties or force you to get converted, this way you can be more comfortable at start and play with no rush.

[@Fat_Paws]

For feudal starts where your leige has a hostile religion, the best way to ensure you survive is to change your feudal contract to get religious freedom, usually in exchange for higher military contribution. In this case, I'd say Zieley got lucky. Normally for this start, if gold income is decent, offer higher taxes and take religious freedom. The impact is relatively small and leaves you free to build up your own domains free of threats like title revocation and imprisonment. The inability to do this makes tribal hostile liege starts way harder than feudal starts.

[@hexoslaya3696]

Religious freedom is useless. My liege always offers to educate my kids until he becomes my rival.

[@willmckee1632]

@@hexoslaya3696 Yeah but he can’t revoke your titles simply for being your rival whereas if he demands your conversion and you refuse he can start revoking

[@noone7206]

He didn't get lucky, he save scums.

[@EgonCholakian69]

I love this channel. He gives me such earnest little brother energy.

[@MrVvulf]

I agree. But he's also gleefully psychotic. I cracked up laughing at the nonchalance he exhibited when deciding to assassinate the 6 year old ruler of the kingdom he wanted to claim.

[@meimphisto]

I think Northumbria is one of the hardest starts because of the viking invasion at the start which is scripted for northumbria to get conquered.

[@willroth7521]

I don’t think it’s scripted I think there’s just basically no way for the AI to be able to win, either way you’re right that it’s hard as hell

[@cameronjohnson9361]

This start from arumba on ck2 is what got me into this franchise all hail house Gideon

[@stellar7933]

16:20 fun thing about those, I don't think they factor in knights. I played a random religion and random world game in Italy and this dude had an army half my army's size but he had very high prowess champions in the early game which completely wrecked my army, even with allies. But the battle thing said I would decisively win so that was a big lie lol

[@turkeyman1123]

So at 16:00 that weirdness with the outcome predictions I think what's happening is that since the game sees that fleeing army will be in the tile at the same time as the fight, it assumes they will be a part of the battle when estimating the outcome. I've noticed the same weirdness and the thing that always seems to be related to it is the fleeing armies going through the same tile. It seems to fix itself once the fleeing army gets out of the way. Not sure if it broke during an update or if it always worked like that.

[@1992zorro]

That's the reason why crusades are so damn difficult

[@GDPanda69]

Ethiopia was always one of my 'dream' campaigns in CK2, but I could never keep the Muslims out of my lands any time I tried, and then all the attempts in CK3 (as you not in the beginning) have similarly ended not so great (grrr, tribal raids!). Glad to see you had some success! First, GREAT job doing it the HARD way with trying the Jewish start, all my attempts were Coptic! Second, one thing I always try to keep in mind when I have troublesome neighbors is to keep a strong gold buffer before splurging on things like buildings or units so the AI doesn't get triggered by 'AH-HA HE BROKE!", and third is retinue selection: I always struggle with this one on this start while your core lands are indeed mountainous, most of you most bothersome neighbors are not, so I think it's a real on the fly call as to what units are best to focus on. Great vid as always!

[@MrVinnyable1]

I f-ing love your content man! Keep it up

[@jaskapenttila7644]

Dude basically started Mossad in the 700s at the start.

[@Mackerdaymia]

Am I secretly a pro CK3 player? Completely independently came up with the exact opening moves as you 😄 The mid-game is a struggle as well as all the kingdoms around you have consolidated plus Egypt and Arabia will come for you every couple of years. I've tried my best to pick counties off the weakest around me but the fact they can declare holy wars at any moment adds another layer of difficulty. Waaqi, Coptic and Muslim neigihbours brimming with fervor waiting for you to have low gold reserves, levies or bei in a war. Luckily picked off all the Kushites now so that religion isn't a problem. Currently expanding north into Nubia... wish me luck!

[@Jam-xg3qx]

Was waitingfor this!

[@pseudo5338]

Yessir been waiting

[@bobbyray9166]

Excellent video! I've tried this start and managed to get the kingdom. Not being able to get allies sucks.

[@1337-Nathaniel]

-I would have loved to see you restore Israel as Jewish Ethiopia, but this was real educational for me too! I've tried so many times to make Jewish Abyssinia happen lol- Edit: spoke too soon (and too late) you already did this.

[@clairdeloona]

used to try with this start (as well as the other christian kingdoms in africa) and the struggle is real over here.

[@simoncodrington]

Great video mate!

[@scharb]

Where was Gondar?

[@ryanbarber6481]

I know this is a rather older video, but, it's perfect because it lands under the same category of "Surviving one of the Hardest Starts" In 867, Northern England, start as Petty King Aella, and defend Northumbria against Ivar, Halfdan and possibly (I've seen it happen) Haesteinn, and survive the entirety of the game. It's rather rough mainly because well, you're VASTLY outnumbered, but, your only Ally that can possibly help you is hard-coded to not help you because they are in a war with Ivar as well, that is the Petty King of East Anglia.

[@gerd1546]

Is the video lagging or ur game? Nice content on ur channel anyways!! Helped me alot

[@randomicelander5307]

looks like a fun campaighn .great video man not many that do ck3 videos. would be fun to see you in a mp game.( lots of games on the snapstrategy discord lots of interesting games when the murder hobos arent involved)

[@alliestrauss]

Very cool video idea!

[@viggo1324]

How do u not have 100k subs ur voice is so nice

[@BasedBatman069]

This run is only possibly using Intrigue in my opinion, I’ve run it a couple times and it’s the only way I could break free for myself. Just rushed assassinations until I inherited all of Abyssinia

[@brett76544]

The route I ended up taking was kidnapping one of the daughters of the byzantine empire as a 2 year old. killing off her brothers, then the wife just happened to die. Got a few heirs out of her, (a few of my boys also had to go.) before she took over. So by that time my character was and a son took over to me and a bit later her. Lets just say taking over with 12 k troops behind you in that area is not too hard.

[@MrDuculetul]

Do an Erik the Heathen in 1066 next :eyes:

[@andersonanderson1009]

If the number for levies wasn't so prominent, I wouldn't have made the same troop miscalculation. Honestly the way the UI is set up if you're quick glancing you think the top big number is the total of all sub-categories.

[@JacoDeltaco]

one of my favorit thing in this game is when I learn that I have claim or is the heir of a random kingdom because of a mariage 3 generation ago

[@otalaedwin]

Did this start a while back and honestly you're only a few assassinations from being king of Abyssinia, can't remmeber how but I did get it really early. The true hard part is when you're the only independent king of your faith trapped there with muslim pushing from the north. got my ass kicked in the end but that wasa fun save. 100% gonna run this back now That i know the game more

[@TheCrusadingSquier]

Everyone loves the underdog story

[@blackmore1030]

21:14 There are 3 Kaffas :D Yes, I know that one is a county, one is a duchy and one is a kingdom, but it's still hilarious :)

[@leothecat8162]

Hi Z, can you start tall and do world conquest?

[@stephenb2817]

Make more please!!! And take back the Holy lands.

[@doggylover7564]

This channel is very good

[@KillroyWasHere86]

Intriguing is big down here. You have to knock down the tribal alliances before they become trouble.

[@DC-iw9ug]

should have heard me shouting "no dont give away Lasta your capital Duchy"

[@reverenddick8562]

So it's like a Plague Inc. Mod.

[@Rasta_124]

Keep it going 😭

[@deadflagxi801]

Would love to see how you would resurrect Isreal with this playthrough.

[@1337-Nathaniel]

The only thing I don't like is that you started as Gideon and not Solomonid, but that's just my personal preference whenever I try a game like this. I just like the idea of restoring King Solomon's ancient empire.

[@David-pf3he]

I have never seen that there is a jewish count in ethiopia is this a mod or character creation ?

[@Zieley]

nah hes in there, just a vassal of a vassal im pretty sure

[@paragonnight437]

Is it just my shitty internet or was this video really choppy when he was zooming in and moving map?

[@johnbernardez1232]

Truly Machaviallian

[@twixz4883]

what mouse do you use

[@1337-Nathaniel]

YESSS!!

[@fistonly]

you really need to fix the stuttering in your recording software

[@Supercatzs]

why are your videos so choppy

[@Zieley]

It was a problem with some of my older vids, it's fixed in the more recent ones!

[@YourRatOverlord]

Have you ever taken the whole world in iron man mode?

[@lilshademoon]

My leg

[@deezlilnuts]

I love the PC fan asmr and frame drop simulation

[@alexwren8712]

tigray is my favourite duchy in the game :)

[@vitorhenriquegoncalves3898]

Vinques Jerusalém as a jewish charachter

[@yourgod3092]

I just stated the exact same campagne lol

[@Zieley]

Thank you God

[@thehaus6998]

כל הכבוד

[@awepen1596]

How many videos do you do in one week ?

[@Zieley]

🤷‍♂️ kind of just go with the flow

[@awepen1596]

@@Zieley ah ok

[@Nikwunu]

why should you ever surrender a war? just keep fighting and wait for something bad to happen to your enemy. it's likely for them to face a rebellion or a foreign conquest.

[@TheMadDoc49]

I hear a fan XD

[@gavinlinville9691]

F@CKING LAG

[@dragonzord6615]

This video quickly became a slideshow hahah

[@cofounder5097]

are you playing on a potato?

[@scharb]

Finish it and restore Israel.

[@trollwayy5981]

Submissions…

[@aspielm759]

2:04 how the FUCK did you get an (=% chance!? Best I can get is 47%

[@AbdulHannanAbdulMatheen]

👏🙂

[@barrybuehre8934]

Love the vids, but miss the memes, but y

[@Zieley]

We still got them in there! But maybe more are required 🤔🤔

[@Zednix]

The mouth noises coming thru the mic make it pretty hard to listen to this. Lot of lip n gum noises.

[@bottleofvodka1927]

1000 like lol

[@funnyguy3D]

your game does not like being recorded, so many dropped frames

[@MundaneThingsBackwards]

Why do you end basically every sentence with an upward inflection like you're asking a question. Are you secretly a Californian sorority girl? xD

[@taran99y96]

Hey no offense but if that email at 0:29 is the real one you mispelled submissions

[@Zieley]

Yikes, the real one is actually [e-mail] thanks for the heads up, it should be fixed now

[@yoursocksuntied6159]

"These people to my south" as they are directly to his east 😂

[@vvkth2500]

My best game was Abyssinia, where i managed to hold the entire Abyssinia, Empire of Ajuraan, and managed to have my dynasty as rulers of Byzantium for the last 200 years! Very fun region to play.

[@cpt7752]

Yeah same i was playing as the Somali Ajuraan empire and converted to coptic and got a marraige with byzantium, then later down the line one of my heirs grandfather was the byzantine emperor. So i got a claim and took it.

[@scorpioneldar]

if you look at 19:00 ish when you say how can he take this land with only 36 men you will notice that there is no one in that castle. to be precise there is only one man as defender. IRL proper fortifications were considered to act as a force multiplier of 5 to 8 times. not 36 times. (though this fluctuated with fort designs and offensive technology obviously. ) and yes the amount of people needed to siege a holding does change based on how many people are defending. and yes the game

[@dustyrussell6939]

It's Hilarious thinking about a single guy defending a castle.

[@dr0g_Oakblood]

Yeah something that you picked up on later is that tribal holdings are really good early game, as fully upgraded tribal buildings can beat out even tier 2 buildings for feudal, so you really have to keep them down if you can.

[@Gargatul0th]

*starting as a Jewish character* "First things I need to do are SCHEME against my country and snatch up every last bit of gold."

[@davebruneau6068]

Do you want a Hard Start? Become Saoshyant from Mazandaran. You're already a vassal under a Muslim Ruler BUT you can't change religion from Daylamite. Oh,and its even harder to complete than it is to start.

[@Haukipesukone]

The starting character was a Jew who was the steward of his liege. Then he plotted to murder his ducal liege, and the monarch to take over. Hmm...

[@TwinHypeBack]

I was thinking the same thing 😭😭😭😭😭

[@magoochito]

very soothing voice

[@seandylenray8100]

i am a jew from israel

[@tommerker8063]

easiest solution to prevent title revokation, modify your feudal contract, just give your liege more levies in return for protected from revocking

[@tangerine0154]

This is my third time watching this little series of your Ethiopian jews and I love it even after almost a year

[@delphidelion]

Try starting on the Italian peninsula as a hellenic roman and rebuild rome from there without using Christianity as a starting crutch. I take a shot at that every now and then. I can almost make it to a second generation.

[@gorgoramsi239]

This start is actually pretty easy, might I suggest the Zoroastrian start (867) much more fun

[@Zieley]

haha already got you covered man! I did a couple vids on making Zoroastrian Persia from 867

[@gorgoramsi239]

@@Zieley drat, looks like I need to find a harder, more obscure start

[@Zieley]

@@gorgoramsi239 haha please lmk when you do. I'm always looking for hard starts to play through

[@gorgoramsi239]

@@Zieley sounds good!

[@theorixlux]

ngl I'm kinda disappointed by the lack of phantom of the Jews references.

[@neco5740]

Is it my device or is the video quality very bad?

[@hornetguy9063]

I’m trying this playthrough now. I managed to claim the Duchy of Gondar and break free from my Abyssinian liege, but then reality struck and I was constantly having to defend my land from invaders. After a few decades of that, I went crawling back to Abyssinia (new Muslim liege) and went for religious protection in my contract.

[@xk1390]

What I got from this video: if your liege demands your conversion early, you cannot realistically resist and need to restart the game :(

[@cajungangster1654]

Love it... I'd like to see this play out I was looking forward to what kind of kids you would have and how long you can Survive...

[@loneofflaner]

Hi bro, btw I really like your content. You deserve a lot more views. Make some vids on some more popular games and the best of luck bro.

[@loivern8015]

I was playing as a kushite vassal of the Duke of alodia in 867 and I've tried like 7 times but I keep on losing its hard af harder than the Jewish start

[@kionvaliant6286]

I have a good file for you to save. I lost my main title against my liege. Hit me up if you are interested. I, no doubt, have a good feeling it is worth a great challenge!

[@anthonyorosco1850]

0:45 vassal, not liege

[@harz632]

Would have been funny killing the child, so that the mother becomes queen then killing her once she has a child, that child would then be king of Abyssinia and next in line to inherit Byzantium

[@MySelfishPlace]

you got me to buy this game, no idea what the heck im doing, cant make it past 50 years so far, take responsability

[@ROYAL-ob6kf]

10 fps

[@permetras5460]

İ thought you were never gonna kill that kid to became king.

[@richlondonrich]

The Jamal Ginsberg dynasty