这是一份针对我比较喜欢的开局的指南，也就是在1066年作为一个伯爵或公爵开始游戏。但如果你开局时是某人的封臣，你的第一个目标可能就是接管你的领主的土地。如果你不想这样玩的话，你最好还是作为一个独立的领主开始游戏。 Note that independent counts get a +50% bonus to their levies in their capital, while vassal counts do not get any bonus. In addition to the capital county bonus, independent dukes and above get a +25% bonus to levies in their holdings within the capital duchy. (For vassal dukes and kings, the bonuses are +25% for capital, and +15% for capital duchy).
I tend to go for ahistorical conquests, as radically different from history as possible. To that end, a couple of interesting vanilla map starts in 1066 are the Count of Napoli, who is the only Greek Orthodox in Italy and Lübeck, which starts nestled between three incredibly strong powers and a single county with a claim next door. There are obviously quite a few more but these serve as good examples since both of these are extremely difficult to survive, much less do well with, so I pull out all the stops as I will outline below. Be warned that some of these tactics are quite gamey.
Day 1
在你考虑解除暂停之前，你有很多事情要做。
评估你的邻国
周边的王国是否比你强？他们有针对你的宣战理由吗，特别是篡夺你的头衔而不是仅仅让你变成封臣的那种宣战理由？
如果你是独立的: 是否对一个级别比你更高的邻居或是法理领主进行宣誓效忠会更加安全？注意，你有可能在得到回应之前就被攻击！同样如上所述，你可以通过减少你的征召兵数量来换取你的安全。
同时也需要考虑你能使用的潜在的宣誓效忠的理由。如果计划进行迅速扩张，尽快让公爵或者是和你相同的文化和宗教的伯爵级别角色变为你的封臣，这能让你毫不费力地增加实力。对一个实力更弱但是级别更高的统治者进行宣誓效忠能使你通过派系反抗来获取权力，通过一场战争来同时获得高级头衔以及其所属的封臣。
婚姻
- 主条目：进阶婚姻指南
你需要在第一天就找一个妻子，因为大多AI也未婚并且它们会很快开始抢走最好的妻子。关注遗传特质，生育能力，以及管理（增加你的直辖领上限）。理想的妻子是年轻，
点石成金者，
天才，
强壮，以及
色欲。
你可以使用安排婚姻来找到一个有高管理能力的妻子。如果你能找到一个文化相同的，那就更好了。你未来的妻子必须是和你在相同的宗教组，否则AI将永远不会同意安排婚姻。使用角色查找器只找未婚女性，按照管理排序。由于按照属性排序，天才（最好的遗传特质）以及点石成金者（最好的教育特质）会显示在最前面。如果需要，你可以输入"天才（genius）"或者"点石成金者（midas）"进行搜索。
巩固权力
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这依赖于一些虽不是作弊，但通过给予玩家巨大优势从而显着破坏游戏平衡的行为，而这在历史背景下是没有意义的。 |
暴政统治
通过暴政统治你逮捕所有的封臣，并且夺取他们所有的头衔。如果你的邻居盯着你的土地，在第一天就这样做, 在你的邻居评估你的力量并决定是否攻击你之前。如果你有足够的虔诚，一路逮捕到男爵。
如果你在执行你的暴政统治之前能等待一段时间，那会更容易，因为你将有机会获得内阁和虔诚让你的计划更顺利地进行。在逮捕你的城市封臣以及主教封臣时他们会有更多钱，同时你会在你的首都有更多的军队（通过军事总管的"训练军队"任务）以应对他们的反叛。
在第一天，你可能没有足够的虔诚进行一个完整的暴政统治。进行逮捕，为消除我的罪孽购买赎罪券（天主教） 或者给予施济以赎罪(自愿慈善)（穆斯林并且你的教派有哈里发），最后以驱逐囚犯结束来获取额外的虔诚。
现在保留所有的头衔，忽略任何"持有不符合政体的直辖领地类型"以及"超出直辖领上限"的通知.
摆脱致命的威胁
为了摆脱你那些讨厌你的卑鄙的/高密谋的庭臣，你有两个选择。 一、你可以用入赘婚姻把他们嫁出去（穆斯林不适用），我喜欢用这种方式来对付那些高阴谋的人，因为试图逮捕他们可能会让一个高密谋的人逃到另一个人的宫廷里，并且永远密谋要杀你；二、或者干脆监禁/处决他们。通过入赘婚姻，他们的新妻子/宫廷不可能忽视你，所以他们更有可能关注自己的新环境。当你想要以入赘婚姻的方式摆脱的一个庭臣时，试着挑选有土地的女人（比如Matilda） - 这会防止AI在你还没有建立王朝之前就获得早期的继承权，并至少在下一代让他们保持独立。他们不会为此感谢你，但当你在20年后不再面对窘境时，你会感谢你自己。
至于要留下谁，基本上是留下任何一个你不能用更高的数值来取代的庭臣。一般来说，15+是我的'好吧，我要留住这个家伙'的平衡点。显然，这并不适用于间谍，因为-100好感的间谍就好比乞求任何哪怕是最微小的理由（甚至根本没有理由）的人来通过阴谋百分之百来成功谋杀你。还记得要摆脱那些恨你的女人——那些阴谋诡计的女人会对你的阴谋起到推波助澜的作用。通常家庭成员和女人都不在乎暴政，但有时他们确实在乎 - 我不确定确切的条件，因为我还没有找到，不管怎样如果她们在乎了就把他们嫁出去 - 我们会尽快找到superwomen，所以尽快把那些你搞不定的女人处理掉。和入赘婚姻一样，我试着把他们嫁给我能找到的最高等级的有土地的男性 - 从我的宫廷里随便挑一个女孩，这样就阻止了她们获得联盟/继承权。这是件小事，但你也是。
选择一个首都
既然你现在已经控制了你国家的每一个男爵领，你就可以决定哪一个是你的首都。
它应该以这个优先顺序来：任何一个你拥有超过一座城堡的省份，任何一个拥有超过三座建筑的省份，或者你拥有的最高法律化的省份。如果你有一个省份的法律化高于其他地区整整1到2格，那它的优先级应该排在最高。例如，克里米亚地区的Theodosia一开始就有+2的法律化，这与周边地区相比实在是好太多了。
直到你放弃多余的男爵领之前，不要真的去点击"设为首都"按钮 -- 也许你很走运，根本不需要挑选首都。
重新分配你王国的土地
现在你已经拥有了每一个男爵领（或者是一些反叛的封臣，我们将在解除暂停后来处理）。不管怎样，仇恨你的人在某种程度上并不能掀起什么波澜。如果你超过了你的领地上限，你将需要建立一些封臣。如果你幸运的话，这可能也会帮你节省一些时间去寻找新的庭臣来填补你现在荒凉的宫廷。很有可能他们会和前任一样糟糕。这些新来的人不仅不知道他们正在从他们前辈的尸体中拔出他们新男爵领的钥匙，而且还将从授予男爵领中得到+20好感。
在决定是否需要放弃男爵领之前，应当考虑您未来妻子的管理加成。应按以下顺序放弃男爵领：
- 首都以外的主教区
- 首都以外的城市
- 你首都的主教区
- 你首都的城市
- 您主要公爵领之外的伯爵领，非文化/非宗教的伯爵领
穆斯林统治者会有其它的考量：清真寺没有收入惩罚并给予虔诚；Jizya显著增加收入，特别是在城市（减少惩罚）; 穆斯林地区的一些城市已经发展得很好了。确定一个明确的放弃顺序很难，所以用你自己的判，比较它们的收入和未来的潜力。
Building a new council
If you are lucky, some of the vassals generated at the end of your tyranny will have decent stats. Probably not, either way it's time to do probably the most tedious work which is to fill your council with top talent. This will become much, much easier later on when many courtiers are claimants eager to leave their current court. Initially, however, you are completely at the mercy of the RNG.
Open up the character finder. Select "men", "adult", "my religion group", and "not ruler". Sort by the stat you want, work your way down. Get a chancellor first, because his boost to your state diplomacy will increase foreign opinion toward you and make bribes much more effective. Alternatively, depending on your religion/culture/game rules, you might be able to take female courtiers with high attributes as concubines and then appoint them as councilors. This is especially helpful in cases where your diplomacy stat isn't high enough to invite them normally, as well as potentially saving bribe money.
It is ridiculously difficult early on to invite someone who hates their liege and loves you and have them accept, and it is one of my pet peeves with this game. Later on the 'unable to press my claims' modifier will make it a ton easier to find people to invite but right now you are out of luck.
A courtier (with no reason to move) is a potential invitee if their opinion of their liege is 12 or lower. You must then increase their opinion of you to be 75 more than (double their positive opinion of liege, or half their negative opinion of liege). Bribes are your main tool here. In some cases, you can abuse the "entrusted ward" bonus. Be sure your bribes will tip them, because your income is probably horrendous despite having a bit of cash.
Hopefully you can quickly find someone with 15+ skill, going straight down the list. Eventually you will find that charitable great steward with the cruel greedy arbitrary liege. If you're incredibly patient, you can sometimes grab unmarried men by suggesting for them a wife who would hate their liege, and then inviting their wife.
Using your new court
Your invitations are now flying through the air via the magic medieval post office. You may also be putting down a rebellion from a failed imprisonment. Luckily, those who witnessed your tyrannical attempt at imprisonment are gone, and by the time you put down the rebellion, you will have a free revoke. If you can't revoke due to Crown Authority then you may end up killing/banishing again but for only one or two with any new vassals starting with +20 it isn't as big of a deal.
Arrange marriages
Find wives for your unmarried men, focusing on women who will tutor your future council members and heirs. Also consider marrying in high-intrigue, content women so you can plot against other courtiers as needed.
You may wish to leave lowborn councilors unmarried, so that when they die, you inherit back the bribes and salaries you paid them.
Council tasks
The main reason you kept the baronies in your capital is for your marshal and steward to apply their magic. If you own a city, you get -75% to income. However, if you got a decent steward and he applies a +50% it's only -25%. If you have Trade Practices 2 then it's only -5%. With much higher income cities, you will quickly notice your capital city outstripping any castle you have. Temples remain negligibly useful with sub-castle income but I keep them in the capital until I have something better simply for the levies, which brings me to the fact that the marshal job will also increase levies for all your holdings in a county, so the 300 to 375 troops with just the castle becomes a 700 to a respectable 1k-ish combat group. Just so you know, even if you get it to the point where you have no penalty it will always be annoyingly red with the icon up top.
Send your spymaster to Study Technology in a province where key technologies are higher than your capital. Most likely, you want to improve Legalism and Military Organization. The following locations are frequently good: Firenze in Italy (later starts), Alexandria in Egypt, Constantinople in Greece, and Dwin in Armenia.
Your chancellor should probably be sent to Improve Relations with a scary neighbor or a powerful vassal. This is less because the diplomacy mission is secretly useful and more because it has no chance of dying and keeps him from leading troops. The chaplain is probably busy converting but after that just put him on Culture research to improve Legalism.
Preparing your realm for long-term survival
Start upgrading your holdings, beginning with your capital's castle. If you expect to stay in your location for a while, start with economic buildings, so you can upgrade military buildings faster in the future. If you stay put for a long time, it may be worthwhile to also upgrade your city and then your church, even though you only get some of their income. See Holdings#Strategies.
Acquire a coastal duchy. The maneuverability of ships gives you many advantages in warfare. You may even be able to defend against larger enemies, by offloading your army into enemy territory just long enough to distract their army from sieges in your realm.
Once you get to the point where you own at least an entire duchy of coastal provinces without conquest modifiers, you are now officially a monster yourself and unlikely to be wiped out (except by disasters such as a Jihad). I will leave this guide at that point, as you are not a small fish any more and should be able to pursue normal avenues of conquest/expansion.
I hope this guide helps and feel free to post any feedback in the discussion page.