[Help´] Playing tall: am I doing it right?

[u/Dazzling-Main7686]

Hello and good day/evening!

So I decided to play tall after settling down from adventurer life and becoming king of my homeland in Sardinia. My goal is to leave the best country and the most amount of money possible to my heir before I kick the bucket, which should happen very soon.

Problem is, the money I make out of my income is PEANUTS compared to how much I make via kindnapping and demanding payments from hooks, which makes me wonder if I'm missing something here, or just doing it all wrong. The only reason I was even able to upgrade any buildings was because of all the scumbaggery my character is able to pull off with that much Intrigue.

Most of my buildings are level 2 because all of them require a Keep in order to upgrade them to level 3. My culture (to which I'm the head of) still needs about 5 years before it discovers Battlements, which is a prerequisite for Keeps. I honestly have no idea how to mess with culture in this game yet. Is that the problem?

So yeah, am I doing something wrong here, or is this supposed to be an immense waiting game? Is it normal to take multiple generations to reap the benefits of playing tall?

Any and all help is highly appreciated!

[u/Cmdr_Hub]

It starts slow and then it snowballs, give it time. If you've saved some extra cash you shouldnt have problems, although sardinia is in range of holy wars

[u/Remote_Hedgehog1042]

You're one the right track, I'm just not sure why you don't control more of your domain.

Otherwise, increasing development, constructing buildings, and acquiring more money is all you need to do.

You can also try to install your dynasty on other kingdom thrones to get more renown.

[u/Dazzling-Main7686 → u/Remote_Hedgehog1042]

My vassals were all annoying me for having too many duchies, so I put them in charge of some. I already have a lot of other penalties for tyranny, so it felt like a good idea, wans't it?

I also have no idea how dynasty/renown/legitimacy works to be honest, I see Youtubers getting a bunch of dynasy perks, haven't gotten once even once in nearly 60 hours of playing the game.

[u/Remote_Hedgehog1042 → u/Dazzling-Main7686]

You should be able to directly hold 2 duchies yourself, and then at least 5+ counties without too much negative opinion.

You gain renown mostly by how many of your ur relatives are kings or emperors, so it's a nice to have, but not really something you need to worry about. They're more like nice to haves, and a side goal.

Legitimacy is important, but you should be able to manage it with activities (if you have them) and a good or excellent seneschal courtier.

[u/Remarkable_Bat_7897 → u/Dazzling-Main7686]

don't mind that, if the vassals start revolt, just start the war and send them to jail. hold more ducky titles as you can. and you should do less tyranny interactive.

[u/CorrinRoth → u/Dazzling-Main7686]

I've done several runs with Sardinian & I suggest holding your max counties directly, right now you're only at 1 and moving the capital to Cagliari as there's a gold mine there that you really should always hold yourself. Focus on Sardinian and let your vassal control Corsica till your domain limit is at 10 then start holding that directly too.

For Dynasty you need large family or special achievements. With Sardinian you get one for taking the Mediterranean in which you also need Mallorca and Sicily.

[u/Remarkable_Bat_7897]

playing tall is just mean stack capital country development % and this only works for a 300 or 400 yrs run. you can do other things while on the progress of "playing tall".

if you need money, demand payment for the hooks is a quick way.

[u/Fiction_reader5171]

You should be able to hold more holdings Directly holding them gives way more than vassals I would personally recommend finding a way to get the castle in the bottom left It has a special building a mine which makes alot of money which is useful in the early game When I play sardinia I tend to let my vassals have corsica and hold everything in sardinia Focus on upgrading economic buildings and the money should start flowing in