Hi, I was just wondering if there was a certain group of territories that were considered the best in this game, or are they all upgradable to the same potential? Right now I'm playing Spain, so is there a certain group of Iberian counties that are specifically the best.

I live in America and I know thats not on the map, And I dont know much about European Midevil History, except that the crazy guys over there stole stone from buildings to build buildings, but I always thought Amsterdam made good beers.

Iberia... Toledo and Sevilla are the best Iberian provinces, but most of them are fairly good. Crusading can't hurt either, lots of really good provinces in Egypt and Jerusalem

I like Ireland cause it's an easy kingdom to manage once you take it.

Many of the major cities of Eastern Europe/Western Asia are pretty badass. Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, is probably the best starting city in the whole game that I've seen. Baghdad, Damascus, and Cairo are also awesome, but you do have to do some major crusading in order to claim them. Or have the DLC that allows you to play Muslims, which I highly recommend to anyone who is invested in this game.

Poland is also a good starting place. You're in a fairly inoffensive portion of the map, with no major threats (you're a long way from the Islamic kingdoms, and the Golden Horde rarely stretches further west than Poland and Hungary (which is historically accurate btw)), and in the early game you get to swallow up a lot of small pagan duchies to the north and north east and convert them to your faith. So long as you don't do anything to piss off the Holy Roman Empire, it's a pretty good kingdom to start playing as.

And here's a good rule for playing CKII; never play as France unless you're up for a stiff challenge. Seriously, the number of times I've seen that kingdom absolutely cut to shreds is ridiculous. The vassals are incredibly unruly, and if the Muslims take a significant hold in Hispania, which they often do, then...

I like Ireland cause it's an easy kingdom to manage once you take it.

I would play as the Starks in Winterfell. I suppose you could try a go as the Baratheons, but honestly you are just going to get surrounded in the early game.

The Dutchy of Bruges is actually really good. You start with a 5-6 slot county and a number of smaller but still high quality counties, and even though you are a vassal of the King of France, you're probably the strongest Duke in France and have a lot of good options when either England or France implodes. As stated earlier, Ireland is the good 'easy' choice too, hard to go wrong with an entire island you can easily take over in a few generations.

The Dutchy of Bruges is actually really good. You start with a 5-6 slot county and a number of smaller but still high quality counties, and even though you are a vassal of the King of France, you're probably the strongest Duke in France and have a lot of good options when either England or France implodes. As stated earlier, Ireland is the good 'easy' choice too, hard to go wrong with an entire island you can easily take over in a few generations.

@Leptok said:

@Silvergun

The Dutchy of Bruges is actually really good. You start with a 5-6 slot county and a number of smaller but still high quality counties, and even though you are a vassal of the King of France, you're probably the strongest Duke in France and have a lot of good options when either England or France implodes. As stated earlier, Ireland is the good 'easy' choice too, hard to go wrong with an entire island you can easily take over in a few generations.

Few? Should be able to do it in like one generation.

Absolutely, but considering that a lot of people who are starting with Ireland are less experienced with the game, I think 2-3 generations is a more reasonable goal. Doing it in a single generation requires a little luck and good execution.