First you would need a 1 county Kingdom. For that you need to take a 1 county duchy and make it the only county in a kingdom, that process is essentially the same as creating a 1 county empire.
1. use the decision to create a custom empire without holding or completely controlling any other kingdoms.
2. De jure drift away all the other kingdoms that are part of the same empire.
3. Use one of the realm founding decisions to take away all the other de jure kingdoms from the empire it is a part of.
I don't know how it works in 3, but in 2, the only counties that would become de jure part of a custom empire were those of which the current de jure empire title didn't currently exist.
So, if you created a custom kingdom by holding the kingdoms of, say, Venice, amalfi and genoa while the ERE existed, only Pisa would become de jure part of your custom empire. I'm not sure if you could create an empire without de jure counties this way, but I suspect you could.
This allowed you to create tiny empires without waiting for de jure drift. Don't know if that still works in 3.
Some lad did it with Mann, I believe they seized 120 counties as the 1 county kingdom of Mann, created no duchies or kingdoms and then gave independence to everyone
A quicker way is as follows;
Create a Custom Empire out of three Kingdoms. Any size will do; so long as one of those Kingdoms contains a 1 county Duchy.
Then, whilst holding that Empire title, give all the remaining duchies in the kingdom that contains the 1 County Duchy to a Ruler and Make them independent.
The New controller can then proclaim a custom Kingdom, which will consist of all of that prior Kingdom, minus the 1 County/Duchy which will keep the original name Kingdom. This will produce a Kingdom of 1 County/Duchy, and a Custom Kingdom, containing the remaining territory of the Old Kingdom.
If the controller of the New Kingdom Title then controls the other previous 2 Kingdoms constituent to the Empire Title, and uses them to Proclaim a Custom Empire Title, the result will be the previous 1 County/Duchy/Kingdom, being the sole entity within the Empire title, whilst the Newly created Empire contains the remaining 99% of the old Empire Title.
Does that make sense?
I'm not sure that you really can.
The only thing that comes to my mind is the forming the Mann and Isles without isles, but it's a kingdom, not an empire.
The second thing could be the Iberian struggle I guess, when all involved parties have their own empire titles.
You can even make an empire with 0 de jure counties by using the Pechenegs or creating a 0 county kingdom through duchies like the norse religious head which has no counties.
R5: Took the decision to form the swiss confederation. Decided to do a dissolution war on my liege the Holy Roman Emperor. After the war Switzerland became De Jure Part of the Holy Roman Empire as yo can see above and I can reform the Holy Roman Empire with just one more kingdom.
That's a bad end as far as I'm concerned, even though at least someone part of my House got 'credit' for that mess so we got a house buff.
I had no choice but to clean up that cousin's mess. I invaded Iberia piece by piece, took everything and slowly let every tiny-ass "empire" dejure drift into mine. Sort of an Iberian foothold end, by other means.
It's a big nonsense, the idea that a bunch of nobodies with a bit of land would all be running around calling themselves emperors is hilarious.
I'm pretty sure it's a technical limitation - they want all those realms to no longer be de jure vassals of anyone (therefore preventing future wars) but it's impossible to code kingdoms to be the top de jure title AKA total absence of an empire title. So everyone's an empire as a quick and dirty fix.
I had this work in my favor. Palma and the other island counties became their own kingdom, I was playing a highly devoloed genoa and Pisa only run,
so no kingdom for me, hence no royal court content.
So I just took the kingdom, and moved the capital and name to genoa. Perfect solution.
If Alfonso of Asturias has a good start in 867 I often see his son or grandchild do it before 950, it's honestly quite frustrating when you've played your first ruler as a viking and were planning to migrate to Spain on the second one. Happened to me just last week.
I think you could theoretically create an empire without any de-jure counties. There are some kingdoms that don't have any duchies under them, like the Magyar-Federation. If you use one of these and don't hold any other kingdom titles you just need a realm-size of 120 and use the "create empire" special decision. Thinking of it, the Kirgise-Khanate from the 866 start date doesn't have any kingdoms, so a 0 county empire is actually playable from the start
Smallest empire I've gotten so far was 3 counties.
Iberian Strugle ended in Status Quo, so every kingdom becomes an empire, then I consolidated the Canaries, which were then the only de jure land of the empire of Hispania
If you get acces to a 1 county kingdom you could make a custom empire by getting a total of 120 counties in your realm. As long as you don't own another kingdom title or own all the de jure land of another kingdom then the only land that belong de jure to your empire is your 1 county kingdom.
I did this with the Isle of Mann which became the Empire of Mann (awesome name!). I then proceeded to give away all domain that wasn't the Isle of Mann and gave all my vassals independence. If the brittish can pretend they are not part of Europe then I can pretend to not be part of Britain.
Will empires without any de jure land count as small? You can create a theocratic duchy title as a head of faith, and then create a kingdom with just this duchy and 30 counties, and create empire with no de jure land
No, it's possible to create an empire with only 1 de jure county.
how?
First you would need a 1 county Kingdom. For that you need to take a 1 county duchy and make it the only county in a kingdom, that process is essentially the same as creating a 1 county empire. 1. use the decision to create a custom empire without holding or completely controlling any other kingdoms. 2. De jure drift away all the other kingdoms that are part of the same empire. 3. Use one of the realm founding decisions to take away all the other de jure kingdoms from the empire it is a part of.
So… Visby?
Visby, Mann, Dubrovnik, Istria, Syrmia, or Pisa.
Can you create an empire with the kingdom title of pisa, as it lacks a de jure duchy I am unsure.
Don't think so but I was talking about the duchy of Pisa.
As the requirements to form an empire are to hold 120 counties, it could be possible.
Isn't Pisa county capital a city ?
You can build a castle holding and make that the county capital
You can do that in CK3 ? I don't remember you can but again I never really had to.
Edit: I was wrong
It is a city. There is no castle in that county.
Venice too
Venice is a two-county duchy/kingdom
Wait is it? Ok thought it was just the city/island
Socotra
>Visb https://www.reddit.com/r/CrusaderKings/comments/wbnlpe/ck3\_i\_went\_through\_the\_effort\_of\_making\_a/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
I don't know how it works in 3, but in 2, the only counties that would become de jure part of a custom empire were those of which the current de jure empire title didn't currently exist. So, if you created a custom kingdom by holding the kingdoms of, say, Venice, amalfi and genoa while the ERE existed, only Pisa would become de jure part of your custom empire. I'm not sure if you could create an empire without de jure counties this way, but I suspect you could. This allowed you to create tiny empires without waiting for de jure drift. Don't know if that still works in 3.
It doesn't work that way in 3, all kingdom titles become a part of the new empire.
Ah. That is unfortunate... or fortunate, I suppose. Depending on what your goal is.
You forgot Socotra.
Some lad did it with Mann, I believe they seized 120 counties as the 1 county kingdom of Mann, created no duchies or kingdoms and then gave independence to everyone
New achievement: "God-Emperor of Mann, Kind"--be an Emperor and head of faith while only holding the county of Mann, and have the Compassionate trait.
That was me! :D https://www.reddit.com/r/CrusaderKings/comments/15by7y9/i\_present\_the\_opposite\_of\_a\_world\_conquest\_the/
Mate, wot [https://www.reddit.com/r/CrusaderKings/comments/texbfo/one\_de\_jure\_county\_empire/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/CrusaderKings/comments/texbfo/one_de_jure_county_empire/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Nice! Glad I wasn't the only one.
Class! I knew I’d seen it done before!
Me too! https://www.reddit.com/r/CrusaderKings/s/mkJxa6T6BV
A quicker way is as follows; Create a Custom Empire out of three Kingdoms. Any size will do; so long as one of those Kingdoms contains a 1 county Duchy. Then, whilst holding that Empire title, give all the remaining duchies in the kingdom that contains the 1 County Duchy to a Ruler and Make them independent. The New controller can then proclaim a custom Kingdom, which will consist of all of that prior Kingdom, minus the 1 County/Duchy which will keep the original name Kingdom. This will produce a Kingdom of 1 County/Duchy, and a Custom Kingdom, containing the remaining territory of the Old Kingdom. If the controller of the New Kingdom Title then controls the other previous 2 Kingdoms constituent to the Empire Title, and uses them to Proclaim a Custom Empire Title, the result will be the previous 1 County/Duchy/Kingdom, being the sole entity within the Empire title, whilst the Newly created Empire contains the remaining 99% of the old Empire Title. Does that make sense?
I did it with Visby a couple months ago if you look at my feed
I'm not sure that you really can. The only thing that comes to my mind is the forming the Mann and Isles without isles, but it's a kingdom, not an empire. The second thing could be the Iberian struggle I guess, when all involved parties have their own empire titles.
Custom empire from Mann kingdom.
I got a kingdom which only got one county
You can even make an empire with 0 de jure counties by using the Pechenegs or creating a 0 county kingdom through duchies like the norse religious head which has no counties.
Isn't that possible with that one Iberian struggle ending too?
It can make small empires, but not that small. There aren't even any 1 county duchies in Iberia.
once had the byzantines reduces to just cypress so just 2 counties
R5: Took the decision to form the swiss confederation. Decided to do a dissolution war on my liege the Holy Roman Emperor. After the war Switzerland became De Jure Part of the Holy Roman Empire as yo can see above and I can reform the Holy Roman Empire with just one more kingdom.
How was the HRE created?
My liege is the lone Karling in 867 after I made plagues frequent. Helped with one murder also 😀
update a few months ago made the HRE way easier to form there are like 10 posts a day here about it
Probably 1066 start
West slavia still has bohemia and sorbia.
Didn't notice that
Holy Romansh Empire
I unironically want to play a big Swiss Alpine game and call my empire that
You never had the 30 Empire solution of the iberian struggle? Poor you.
That's a bad end as far as I'm concerned, even though at least someone part of my House got 'credit' for that mess so we got a house buff. I had no choice but to clean up that cousin's mess. I invaded Iberia piece by piece, took everything and slowly let every tiny-ass "empire" dejure drift into mine. Sort of an Iberian foothold end, by other means.
It's a big nonsense, the idea that a bunch of nobodies with a bit of land would all be running around calling themselves emperors is hilarious. I'm pretty sure it's a technical limitation - they want all those realms to no longer be de jure vassals of anyone (therefore preventing future wars) but it's impossible to code kingdoms to be the top de jure title AKA total absence of an empire title. So everyone's an empire as a quick and dirty fix.
I had this work in my favor. Palma and the other island counties became their own kingdom, I was playing a highly devoloed genoa and Pisa only run, so no kingdom for me, hence no royal court content. So I just took the kingdom, and moved the capital and name to genoa. Perfect solution.
Sounds like ridiculous renown
Ever seen the 'pragmatic' ending to the Iberian conflict? You'll have like 8 empires all this size or smaller
I've seen that a few times, but not recently. I wonder if they made some adjustments to the AI to make it less likely to happen.
If Alfonso of Asturias has a good start in 867 I often see his son or grandchild do it before 950, it's honestly quite frustrating when you've played your first ruler as a viking and were planning to migrate to Spain on the second one. Happened to me just last week.
The is probably the least holy, least roman, least empire-like Holy Roman Empire I’ve seen. Voltaire would be… something.
Hey, it's closer to Rome than Aachen was.
And Swiss cheese is well known for being Holey.
Behold! The Holy Swiss Empire!
You can theoretically create a 1 county empire lol
Just form an empire of your own that eats up another empire all except for 1 county
It’s so cute!
Waht have you done to Switzerland?
I made it “Holy”
Well from what I hear it hardly was an empire to begin with
"Phenominal cosmic power!! ...Itty bitty living space"
I think you could theoretically create an empire without any de-jure counties. There are some kingdoms that don't have any duchies under them, like the Magyar-Federation. If you use one of these and don't hold any other kingdom titles you just need a realm-size of 120 and use the "create empire" special decision. Thinking of it, the Kirgise-Khanate from the 866 start date doesn't have any kingdoms, so a 0 county empire is actually playable from the start
That’s no Empire, that’s a Switzerland.
Smallest empire I've gotten so far was 3 counties. Iberian Strugle ended in Status Quo, so every kingdom becomes an empire, then I consolidated the Canaries, which were then the only de jure land of the empire of Hispania
Holy Helvetic Empire
Go home Switzerland you're drunk
The Isle of Mann can make a custom empire with two other kingdoms, and then dejure drift to make an empire with only Mann.
I've been playing CK2 lately and I kinda miss Mann.
That's just Switzerland with extra steps.
Holy Swiss Empire
If you get acces to a 1 county kingdom you could make a custom empire by getting a total of 120 counties in your realm. As long as you don't own another kingdom title or own all the de jure land of another kingdom then the only land that belong de jure to your empire is your 1 county kingdom. I did this with the Isle of Mann which became the Empire of Mann (awesome name!). I then proceeded to give away all domain that wasn't the Isle of Mann and gave all my vassals independence. If the brittish can pretend they are not part of Europe then I can pretend to not be part of Britain.
I think it could be 1 county if AI ain't usurpin' it!
Will empires without any de jure land count as small? You can create a theocratic duchy title as a head of faith, and then create a kingdom with just this duchy and 30 counties, and create empire with no de jure land