CK2; What are your most favorite/least favorite starting positions?

[Zkribbler]

Most favorite:

Apulia: Big, friendly family. Easy to expand southwest into Muslim territory; no claims needed.

Bavaria: On the crossroads between Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Croatia. There's got to be at least one direction in which to expand. Good relations with the Kaiser.

HRE - Busy place; nobles and peasants constantly rebelling; lots of murder plots to uncover.


Least favorite:

Brittany; Savoie: No viable way to expand. Boring game.

Turow: One of the remnants of the Rus Kingdom. Although it's possible to start putting the kingdom back together, to do that, you must forever battle your brothers for their shares.

[Rhoth]

Well, so far I've played about 100 years each in Ireland (Ulster) and Wales (Gwynedd). Wales seems a little more difficult namely because England has a direct border with several Welsh counties, but they are both fun.

Least favorite: Tried Scotland for my first game, got pulled into a war by my liege within a year, and decided to take Rob's advice and go with an independent county instead.

[Penry]

I've only played Munster (Ireland) and Salerno so far. I did try an attempt at an English Duke (my very first game) but that lasted approx 10 minutes before I realised I didn't have a clue what was going on or how to do anything - talk about in at the deep end.....

[Arnelos]

I've enjoyed both Normandy & Swabia (in the HRE) so far.

As the Normans, I now own all of England & Normandy along with the duchies of Flanders & Anjou.

As the Swabian Germans, I'm on my 2nd generation of holy roman emperor with my first born son leading the vote to become my 3rd generation of emperor... though the empire itself was reduced to only its German, Czech, Austrian, Slovene, and some Burgundian territories by the time my own dynasty took control from the disastrous series of previous emperors.

I'm not sure where else I'd enjoy playing, though... I think it might be nice to start out as a count somewhere, but those options are really limited.

[Zkribbler]

... my first born son leading the vote to become my 3rd generation of emperor...

Good luck! If you win, keep your spymaster looking for plots. They're more numerous than ants at a picnic.

[Arnelos]

Good luck! If you win, keep your spymaster looking for plots. They're more numerous than ants at a picnic.

My 1st emperor's wife is my spymaster (which is why I married her - 23 intrigue) and she's currently found 21 plots that I'm tracking. I'm allowing most of them to proceed, as I couldn't possibly care less whether they succeed or not. I do pluck the occassional plotter and throw them in prison for the sole purpose of then releasing them for the +10 bonus or ransoming them for the cash infusion now and then, though.

[Nikolai]

Hard to say, so many good starting positions!

Most favorite: Poland, Denmark,(both good for some early pagan bashing) Byzantium(good for Muslim expansion and it's the BYZANTINES for crying out loud ).
Least favorite: Sicily (easy in the beginning, then the Shia Caliphate comes knocking again and again until you die...), France (small demesne, powerful vassals, you pretty much depend on one lucky first strike of banishment at the most powerful vassal).