CKII: A tribal experiment

After the depressing sudden death of the Ua Cheinselaig dynasty of Dubhlinn, I felt like I needed to try something totally different to recover. I wasn't ready to take the plunge with The Old Gods quite yet, as I don't quite feel comfortable enough with the basic game, so I decided to go in pretty much the opposite direction.



So I've gone from playing an Irish Catholic feudalism to a Nubian Miaphysite tribe.



That's us down there:



And this is me, Chief Gabriel of Kassala:



With literally no family and nothing but the grooviest county title in the game to my name, this might be a little challenging.



Here are our immediate surroundings. To the south, the Kingdom of Abyssinia. To the north, our Nubian brothers. To the east, the Muslims.



First things first, Gabriel gets a dynasty started:



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The basic goal of a game as a tribal ruler, at least for me, is to settle the tribe down and become a feudal ruler. If I had the Republic DLC and were on a coast, we could theoretically become a merchant republic, but neither condition applies, so this is what we're shooting for.



Building that fort's going to take some money, though, and we're not exactly rich out here.



Meanwhile, Gabriel is acquiring an enthusiasm for the dynasty.



Speaking of which:



Unfortunately, our succession laws don't permit women to be chiefs; I suppose I could try to change that, but I think I'm going to be an optimist and hope that Gabriel also has a son. Changing laws always comes with penalties, which I'm not sure we could afford right now.

And speaking of vassals...



Seriously, no sooner do I have a daughter, who doesn't even threaten the succession, and my designated heir wants me dead.



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I suppose technically I could just sit here and wait for the money and prestige to build up, but if we're going to be tribal, then let's go raiding.



With Abyssinia fighting its eastern neighbor, this is as good a time as any to figure out how these mechanics work. We're not exactly making a killing here, though:



We try a couple of other provinces, when finally the Abyssinians mobilize.



Gabriel takes this pretty hard.



But hell, there's less of them than there are of us, we can take them!



Only our forces are almost entirely light infantry and skirmishers, while theirs is a better-balanced army.



Turns out we can't take them. Oh well, I think we came out on top anyway.

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Having tried raiding, I think it's high time we found Ńašša a husband. Gabriel's not so young any more, so it might be best to see if we could put together a matrilineal marriage. That's usually not a very popular proposition with anyone, so I'm not optimistic.



Wait, what, really? A kid from an actual Greek dynasty, with a heritable Strong trait?



Really?



Apparently! I wonder what little Philotheos's parents did to the Emperor to deserve having their kid shipped off to the Nubian desert. Also, "vivacious" is a really nice way of putting it. Long live House Hadendoa!

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Or not, as it turns out. The very next thing that happened was that my spymaster had me assassinated.



So my foray into tribal rule ended up being pretty darn short. I'm a bit bummed we never got to see what would have come of the great Greek-Nubian connection, but there we are. In all likelihood, if I'd tried to reform our succession laws, they'd just have killed me sooner. Next time I play as the lord of a more settled locale, I'm going to remember to appreciate courtiers who don't immediately murder me!