![crusader kings 2 iceland crusader kings 2 iceland](https://i.redd.it/5ar5dedwcud21.png)
Then one of the Irish lords started snowballing enough, for me to start preparing invasion.
![crusader kings 2 iceland crusader kings 2 iceland](https://i2.wp.com/www.glitchfreegaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/CKII_ireland.jpg)
Ireland is pretty tough to settle in because your neighbours will probably start declaring holy wars, which is what happened to me. Once you have Orkney and the faorese, and established the petty kingdom of Iceland, you should either aim for Norway, or Ireland. it gives you a lot of prestige and money, which you will require. Raid and raid and raid and raid once you can begin to do so. I once managed to start as Iceland and end up as the emperor of Brittania, and the fylkir of the reformed norwegian faith. Just become a vassal and then work at conquering it from the inside. If someone else forms the Kingdom of Noregr first, don't worryabout it. Avoid Orkney until you're strong enough to fight the Picts.
![crusader kings 2 iceland crusader kings 2 iceland](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Zu2LRAEB7BE2LbUUPTaBeY-480-80.png)
If you're really lucky, you can expand to the Faroes and maybe the Shetlands and even to mainland Norway. Ireland is poor but you can usually field enough troops to take on single county rulers. Kent is usually pretty rich by 793 and some of the single county rulers in Wales.
#Crusader kings 2 iceland free#
Now you just have to wait for 793 and your free ships and you can start raiding Ireland and any Anglo-Saxon single county rulers who look weak. Learning is a good choice but too expensive at first to build and maintain that observatory. Intrigue and Seduction are mostly useless until you can get off the island and interact with the wider world. Then switch to another useful focus, like Carousing for the prestige or Hunting. Keep 150 gold in reserve to pay monthly merc and troop costs and invade your neighbor for real if you haven't already gotten lucky with event troops. If all goes well, you should end up with 200+ gold and now you can afford to hire better generals, better councillors in general and by now there should be some small mercenary bands available for hire. That gives you even more gold if you're careful to spend only money on the ship at first and then 5 gold for rare herbs for the foreign ruler. Now you can afford the trade route event if it fires. It gives you the greedy trait and 100 gold. What you want is the minting your own coins to fire. Don't bother if the foreign trade route event fires. Money is actually easy to get if you're patient. Just don't spend too much time doing either because calling your troops up costs money you'll need later. Invading unsuccessfully or sending in a raiding party which isn't enough to siege satisfies the requirement to be at war and has the added benefit of keeping your neighbor from spawning his own troops. You don't need to succeed at raiding or invading to keep the peace too long penalty from happening. If extra troops don't fire and you get the peace penalty notification, just call up your army and set it to raid, then go into the neighbor's county and then back out and disband the raid. The goal here is to keep your prestige penalty for being at peace from firing. You might not have enough troops to successfully siege, but you should have enough extra troops to beat any army he has.
![crusader kings 2 iceland crusader kings 2 iceland](https://images.2game.com/screenshot/crusader-kings-ii-legacy-of-rome-buy-cdkey-0.jpg)
If the extra troops fires from your steward's building your legend, call up your own troops too and go attack the other county in Iceland. Never field a commander with less than 7 in martial. Use some of your starting money and prestige to promote a commander from the intrigue options if you don't have one with 7+ martial skill. Set your court chaplain to build zeal even though you won't be able to use any religion troops which spawn, because you'll get 0.1 piety per month per the chaplain's learning stat. Send your spymaster off to steal tech from any province he or she can reach which has better military tech, preferably organization. Set your steward to build legend for the extra prestige (0.1 point per month per councillor's stewardship) and eventual troops. Extra raiders is a poor choice for this councillor at the start because you have no one to raid except your neighbor. You'll need them to keep your neighbor on the island at bay and eventually to attack. Set your military councillor to train troops. Most of your council will be important at this point, except for your chancellor who is useless until you have vassals, money to fabricate claims or neighbors with vassals to upset. Start in 769 and then it's a waiting game until 793 and you get free shipbuilding and ships.