Top 5 Most Underrated Duchies in CK3!

In this video I go over the top five most underrated duchies in Crusader Kings 3 (CK3)! A list video occurs.

[@mateuscaldeirabrantaraujo]

Upper and Lower are not related to North or South on a map. Remember, maps have arbitrary position of north. In medieval times the upper part of a map was supposed to be the East. Upper and Lower Lorraine have this name because of height, which is correct since that's the meaning of the words Up and Low. Other examples of this use is Low Countries, for the area around Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg. You can also see this example in other regions: Lower and Upper Austria, Lower and Upper Bavaria, Scottish Lowlands and Highlands. Pretty much every country or land has a division based on its medium height in comparison to another. Source: I'm a historian and museologist.

[@henkhenk1601]

That’s really interesting actually, nice!

[@mateuscaldeirabrantaraujo]

@@henkhenk1601 Glad you could learn on this beautiful day. Have an amazing weekend.

[@talitek]

Another example of this! I live in a rural area of Norway, and one of the farms nearby is split into Lower (on the coast, by the sea) and Upper (inland, across the road, where the hills start)!

[@ScreamingEagles.]

Thank you for the detailed comment! I have heard of Upper and Lower Austria before, I guess I never put two and two together. It also doesn't help that in North America we mostly just say "screw geography!" and name things randomly lol

[@norbertlipusz3892]

The Upper and Lower parts of an area could also be understood by the flow direction of the local river. This could be misleading because a river can flow through a higher elevation terrain if the bed of the river is in a lower elevation. In this case, the upper part of x river flows through lower y area and the lower part of x river flows through the upper part of y area.

[@troylazzarino5546]

Lower Lorraine and upper Lorraine refers to the position on the Rhine river

[@SirSquier]

This

[@erickpoorbaugh6728]

It’s similar to Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt.

[@jacthehack]

@@erickpoorbaugh6728 not similar, identical.

[@MrArthoz]

Yeah...upriver and downriver. So later people just shorten as upper or lower.

[@DrClumber]

Even better, Lower Low Rhine, think about it! It could be true :)

[@carl4889]

Mogadishu - A rather peaceful 16 barony coastal duchy. Ajuraan is one of the smallest and easiest to form empires in the game. Keep the Abyssinians friendly and you can basically do what you want all game. Manding - Two gold mines, 23 baronies, and a high-dev floodplain running through the middle. Perfect place to channel your inner Mansa Musa. Achineck - Off in the Canaries, with only 5 baronies which is kinda terrible, but you start with the best religion in the game (Achamanism) and are pretty much unconquerable if you play your cards right. Galicia - Probably designed with larping in mind, but it's still an 18 barony coastal province with three special buildings, one of which gives flat gold. Like all of Iberia it's pretty mountainous, but that can be worked around. Bohemia - 35 baronies! It's also a de jure kingdom, so you can basically become a king immediately. Prague is in mountains, but you can build a new castle in Melnik then move the county capital there to turn it into a farmland county. There's also the mine in Caslav. Upper Bosnia - A sleeper pick for mountain enjoyers. Has the compact Krstjani religion, 15 baronies, a mine and a holy site. Al-Said - The whole Nile is excellent. This is the biggest duchy in it with 19 baronies along a floodplain. Kushite is a uniquely good religion for tall play, as you can potentially get an extra 10 stewardship from it, just what out for the Abbasids next door. Merv - After taking the overpowered Restore Bactria decision in neighbouring Balkh, Merv with it's highly compact 28 baronies snowballs like crazy. Also of note is the starting ruler of the Samanids begins with 19/5 on his domain limit. Dzayul - Another sleeper pick. Only 11 baronies in the mountains is horrible, of course, but this place is special in having its holy sites all packed closely together. Deal with the mountain development penalty and you can do some fun hermit kingdom stuff with it. Just watch out for Pala. Pagan - 23 baronies and three farmland counties, a unique temple, and you're off in the corner. Again watch out for Pala. Silahara & Chera - For the elephant enjoyers out there. 11/14 baronies respectively, but most are coastal jungle. Silahara is quite defensive despite being a line thanks to the unpassable terrain. Surprisingly one of the best spots to play Jewish (Malabarism) in the game. Tamil and Kannada cultures can build wind furnaces from the beginning of the game, which give the same gold as farms&fields, but also buff your military. Pandya - Similar buffs to Silahara & Chera, but swap out the jungle for farmland. Madurai is the best county in the game. Only 14 baronies, though. No special buildings, but the Brihadeeswarar temple and Sri Lankan gold mines are a small jump away. Paramara - 14 baronies, two farmland counties, two special buildings and a holy site. Neighbouring mine, too. Malwa is often overshadowed by the other strong spots in India, but stands on its own merits. Only downside is it straddles the Rajasthan/Deccan boarder, so forming an empire is difficult. Magadha - 14 baronies. You get the Mahabodhi temple, Nalanda university and an 18 dev county from the beginning of the game. Pala is one of the strongest starts in the game for a reason.

[@nicetas2344]

Man, thanks for this 😂

[@MrArthoz]

Thanks. I'm looking up these duchies due to the Witchcraft mod. Once you gathered all the magical artifacts, you'll explode into dominance. I had unlocked just one artifacts of true magic and all neighboring kingdom requested to buy peace truce with me.

[@laszlobandi6456]

manding but with jenne capital, sonnike but sanguine religion. best combo. faster hybridization in options or it's a shitfest with succession.

[@Andaraxi]

I like the Galicia duchy in northwestern Iberia: it has a - Site of Santiago special building (which both Christians and Muslims can use!) - The Roman walls special building - The lighthouse special building. Not to mention that the number of baronies you can hold there is a lot.

[@laszlobandi6456]

played it as the other bro, no drama like Irucca. bell artifact was great, forming Portugal as first kingdom, to get 2 random innovations, in case of 100% tribal, gives special ones. events might offer landing a sheppardi steward, hybridization makes it easy to invite all others. quite fun.

[@QuisUtDeus828]

I'll keep this in mind for my next playthrough. I'm either going to do somewhere in Iberia or Bavaria.

[@tetrafletcher2871]

Bohemia is by far my favourite duchy for playing tall, it has lots of farmland, a mine and it's surrounded by mountains

[@ominousflames14]

Bohemia is probably the most powerful duchy in the game. But this list is about underrated duchies. Personally I like the duchy of Provence, but that is mostly case you can easily snipe the duchy of Genoa without going over your force limit rather easily, and cause I like forming the kingdom of Burgundy.

[@saintjiubtheeradicator]

KC Deliverance is why I always go with it.

[@viroshanargiri4641]

You can also snatch Nithra from Hungary which has another mine.

[@JB-xl2jc]

@@saintjiubtheeradicator In the run-up to KCD2's release I think I'll both do a KCD1 runthrough but also a runthrough as a Bohemian minor count who works his way up and is named Henry.

[@user-sw8tj5sl5e]

Ferghana is crazy good because supposedly the best horses were bred there. Virtually every great power in history that was remotely close wanted to control it for access to the horses.

[@mlgdigimon]

Well the best horses are the Arabian horse.

[@Chadius_Thundercock]

@@mlgdigimonFerghana isn’t Arabian though

[@mlgdigimon]

@@Chadius_Thundercock I know. I was saying it’s horses are much smaller then Arabian horses. And people didn’t want ferghana for its horses but rather the fertile farmland

[@noblest_sir_Avalon]

4:09 Its most likely the same reason why Upper Egypt is actually beneath lower Egypt: "In 953, the German king Otto I had appointed his brother Bruno the Great Duke of Lotharingia. In 959, Bruno divided the duchy into Upper and Lower Lorraine; this division became permanent following his death in 965. The Upper Duchy was further "up" the river system, that is, it was inland and to the south." -Duchy of Lorraine, Wikipedia

[@birbolea8720]

Muntenia is also a pretty good duchy, it has 5 counties and 16 baronies, most of the counties are in plains, a couple are in forests and wetlands, also it's quite defendable in the southern part because of the danube river. It's a pretty great place for playing tall and making tons of cash, and you can expand into the north and south if the byzantines are weak or collapse.

[@Andaraxi]

This was a great video, screaming eagle. Really love the concept. You also could make top 5 best duchies period (+ some honourable mentions).

[@RKGrizz]

I did a Saka start with Ferghana as my main duchy and oh man it was powerful. I could fully support a maxed out Horse Archer army and I conquered everyone around me in a few years. Eventually I recreated Baktria and defeated the Mongols on my own. It was a good time.

[@ooo_Kim_Chi_ooo]

Bohemia is the god of duchies. One of the few capitals that touches all surrounding counties and with culture modifiers it gets insane.

[@bennyjax1237]

4:00 I’m pretty sure it is about development and river position just like the old upper Canada being south of lower Canada because of the river position and development of the lands

[@sandythethird2292]

Technically it's 3 duchies but Makuria might be the best start im the entire game, wether your playing as coptic ok kusite its amazingly strong and well positioned.

[@IskenderH]

Upper Lorraine is named as such due to being closer to the start of the river, thus upper although its position on a map is further south. Not like map position matters in terms of the start of a river being further inland than towards the English Channel.

[@justinmalangoni]

thanks for explaining that "2" isn't a lot.

[@getavas]

For the Mother to us all playthrough I quickly made Manding (Mali) my capital duchy. Niani and Bure has gold mines, and several floodplains terrain baronies in the area, ideal for playing for high income and boosting development.

[@laszlobandi6456]

jenne is close, huge dev, only belongs to ghana. sonnike culture better, but sanguine faith. jenne easy to defend and go on the river. you connect with 3 goldmines, 3 holy sites and it's great. might try with norse for elections, I hate succesions in multicultural low dev tribal areas.

[@josephpenderson613]

Either I’m missing a huge aspect of this game, or you guys are all very confused about what LARPing is…

[@towermoss]

I don't think this guy is too smart

[@tjbr50]

Although it was already answered, Thought I would mention another example of upper vs lower in europe, and one in africa. The two largest dialect groups of german language are High and Low german. High German is the language of the peoples that live in the more mountainous south, and low german is the language of the germans living in the northern plains and wetlands. In Egypt, lower egypt is the area closer towards the floodplains of the nile delta, whereas upper egypt is the southern section that is characterized by higher elevation

[@somersetbassett4580]

Like the video, if possible repeat the places name a couple times. I like listening in the car and missed some 😢

[@loudradialem5233]

Can you make a video of the best duchies in the Slavs territory?

[@donkarnage6986]

nope, this guy dosnt care at all..

[@brag3320]

Benin is surprisingly one of the best duchies, or at least on of the most fun. It has the walls of benin, which is a real good defensive building. Due to the local culture the jungle is not only really good for defence and decent productively due to bush hunters and hidden cities, but also really fun roleplay wise. And if you are part of the local orisa religion, two of the holy sites are really close by, two are pretty close and only one is kinda hard to get to.

[@JudgeMagikarp]

Upper Bosnia is special in mine Tall Bosnian runs, having a lot of Baronies, an Holy Site with a Grand Catheral and also a Mine really close although available only later after the Banking Innovation.

[@laszlobandi6456]

hungarian migration into krstjani conversion is fun.

[@VicerExciser]

I like Austria, it's not necessarily the best, but it's capitol is farmland and it has 6 counties, which if you have a high Stewardship wife you can easily keep hold of them all. For some reason I always get super rich there and usually get the Kingdom of Bavaria without even trying, I'll have the Pope grant me a claim, then I'll start a claimant faction and for some reason like 90% of the other vassals will join with me and I usually get the Kingdom without even a fight, the King just hands it over. I've done this on two different play-throughs so it definitely wasn't a fluke.

[@ilayohana3150]

i think the best part about ferghana is that its this amazing valley with like 7 farmland provinces surrounded by desert/dryland duchies. you can easily dominate the entire region from ferghana. also, the county of nasaiyan has the most provinces in the game in addition to its farmlands, and the county of ferghana is close, and has a mountain province on which you can (and should) build your capital.

[@zaphodlucs]

upper lorraine is up the river, lower, is downwards, to its delta and the sea, following the height of the terrain

[@Seer_Of_The_Woodlands]

Great Video !

[@Arcanespaghetti]

Ferghana is my absolute favorite, I love to start down near merv as a Norse Muslim and form a hybrid culture with the hepthalites and make ferghana the seat of my empire and conquer south into Persia and Rajputana

[@stefanmohr8450]

i life in Berg, today knowed as Rhein-Sieg-Kreis. nice region. love it and near cologne aswell

[@AC-hj9tv]

Pass the duchy pon the left hand side

[@bobing1752]

You missed the duchy of Mande which has 2 mines with +5 gold each AND increases development AND it also has a great temple of its faith. It's 6 counties 23 baronnies. By far the best duchy in west Africa

[@TheFlemishNut]

Duchy of Flanders is so underrated, it's called a county in rl

[@laszlobandi6456]

kiev/pereslav/chernigov quite unique farm/wetland combo. for development trickling down is great. kerch/crimea as greek satellite, for hybridization to skip innovations, one of best locations early east europe. also a holy site for Táltosism.

[@stollstoll1691]

Disappointed that the thumbnail does not match the video

[@Nebula37]

A dutchy. I love my dutchy.

[@giannivandecasteele5267]

Thanks you for the video

[@IronWolf123]

Thessaloniki has a mine and mountains and is in Greece.

[@mortache]

The duchies in India can be are far better than what you showed, you'll understand if you just open up the terrain map. There's a reason why this region has been the most densely populated in the entire world

[@b1ah73]

We all know petty king murchad but the greatest start is Desmond

[@osaftkiller6991]

Mön and Munding are also very good duchies

[@Corvus-IXxs]

Bro sri lanka you get 0 enemys and plenty special buildings and a kingdom title at 867 its insane

[@enKageKagen]

Naming Transylvania and Ferghana "underrated" - seriously? Underrated by who? They are commonly regarded in group of best duchies on their coontinents. Lower and Upper in geographical names nearly always refers to rivers (Lower / Upper Lorraine distinguishing their positioning upon Rhine, Lower / Upper Silesia upon Oder etc etc) , not placement on the map. I thought this knowledge is pretty basic....

[@Beorthere]

He forgot about Mali... XD

[@dillank3240]

Lower Lorraine is downstream, or lower than Upper Lorraine. It kinda like "Upper Canada" and "Lower Canada," or Ontario and Quebec."Upper" means upstream.

[@zockertomate8718]

Like this kind of video.

[@ScreamingEagles.]

Thank you! I think I'll start making more videos like this, it's a lot of fun putting them together

[@gaming_warrior7927]

try emir al-medina, it's good for newbie. I'm newbie and i play emir al medina

[@molybdaen11]

I see Northumbria in England does not even made it into the top 5. Must be the vikings nearby.

[@saintjiubtheeradicator]

Northumbria is not a great place to start with all the conquest going on

[@laszlobandi6456]

you supposed to play the hungarian migration for Transylvania, avars are placeholders, they swap onto yedisan and become pecsenegs, the event for going catholic, gives 1 development under 5 for all counties. quite weak, also the religion has cheapest tenets, including naval speed. the holy site locations are good tho but needs full conversion for bonus unlike others. krstjani catholic has good sites for hungary. doesn't have to be orthodox or christian.

[@EliteForceICS]

I like Bavaria has nine counties

[@Hulliemam]

Upper and lower isn’t north and south. Simply put

[@Grungeuncle]

I hate all the duchies with bishopric-barony capitals in Europe. We cant even play theocracies yet they're there... hİsToriCal AcCurAcy... I have around 1500 hours ck3 in steam never played in mainland europe, like france and germany especially. once I wanted to larp as old saxon kingdom and just noticed amount of prince-bishoprics in those duchies in northern germany, that was the fastest alt + f4 in my life. My fav duchy is yedisan, obviously after the hungarians migrate away. I usually conquer that with an east slavic char, adopt orthodoxy and culture mix with pechenegs to form "Cossacks". Then I larp as Cossacks conquering & colonizing all the way up to mongolia.

[@cobaltxiv4408]

Also try Karelia (most of baronies can have ports) and Azerbaic(j)an (a lot of baronies, two provinces can have port).

[@verisimuli]

Who cares? Just revoke them.

[@dominicvandermerwe2092]

Did you know that what we consider north facing on Earth is actually south facing in the rest of the galaxy. What we consider north, is south ward in the milkyway. It is percieved the north magnetic poll aligns with the north of the The Milky way, but Earth's polls are currently switched so where we consider north is actually south, but we don't notice it because our magnetic field is flipped so it equals out with our magnetic north being at our falsly perceived North but is actually the South Poll OAP. In the past, the ancient world lower was generally above upper because they traveled down in expanse. This is the case for Anciet Egypt as well.

[@gaberobison680]

Tamil is objectively the best duchy tbh

[@Master_Smurf]

yeah there is only one op duchy and that's Transylvanian with 2 gold mines in one title

[@OpinionfinderNews]

And I've played all of them 😅

[@matthijsvisser7782]

lower Lorraine is lower in alivation

[@sandythethird2292]

Not gonna lie, kinda basic.

[@alb7568]

I live în Transilvania 😂

[@christopherhumphrys7398]

A Tonne of likes!!!!!

[@Schwitzmaul]

Xlickbait and no new infos. No underrated provinzess. Not for me thx

[@donkarnage6986]

Why not use google search instead of asking Why... dont be that lazy.. And it is some really weak duchy you choose.. Those ducky arent underrated, they are just not the best. In every singel area you choose, there is a better ducky

[@Shahi_lancer]

Madurai

[@segevlavi905]

Theres no way bro didn't put bohemia, latium and thrace. Thrace is by far the best duchy, not only it has constantinople, it also has bysis wich is a great county

[@verisimuli]

Did you read the title? "Underrated." Everyone knows that Thrace, Bohemia, and Latium are three of the best duchies in the game. That is the opposite of underrated.

[@AnulaibazIV]

Ne Ísland? 😡

[@ScreamingEagles.]

Sorry man, to be completely honest I chose to put only island nations in the thumbnail because I could just google pictures of them instead of having to manually cut out and recolor ck3 screenshots lol.

[@WorcomSxpro-oy1di]

Muhtarla alakalı daha çok şeyler yapmışım 5 yıldızlı modları kullan

[@Cory-gu7cm]

And he is playing on debug mode on pc nice video cheat

[@ScreamingEagles.]

Yeah bro you exposed me, I wanted to make sure I had integrity 100% legit gameplay for a useless background video where I played for 20 minutes and never touched it again

[@damedanedameyodamenanoyo2594]

Duchy is pronounced Duke-y.