Here's de jure Kingdom of Sicily. Looks like most of the peninsular counties are unaffiliated with Italy, so I think the next step is to pick them off and take the crown.
Conversation
OK, so far so good--I've got 10/21 counties in the Kingdom. Most of the non-Italian and non-Byzantine counties were easy pickings, even with defensive alliances--they broke up quickly.
Problem: Foggia, the last province, was part of a 2-county duchy. 10 year truce . . . damn.
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AH! Only a five-year truce!
I'm 52, I *think* I can survive until it clears. Fingers crossed . . .
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But wait! My damn wife killed herself having another son and now I have to deal with a massive split in my holdings in the event of succession before I'm ready.
And I brilliantly just converted to Christianity so I can't arbitrarily just whack off Syracuse.
Damn me!
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Think I just have to risk a border war against Byzantium for Syracuse.
Fortunately Byzantium's in the middle of what looks like a substantial civil war, which ups my odds of success.
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fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck
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Replying to
wait why not camp in messina for the sweet strait bonus? I've won against frankish armies 1.5 times my size that way
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Replying to
no you can't but you can use them as scouts (and I've done so extensively as norse godking because the franks would pop up in the most inconvenient places - it's even better as norse because you can navigate rivers)

