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.
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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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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)