
While you might have to accept Norway on your northern shores, The Isles are ripe for conquering and should give you a solid foothold early on.

With Ireland still splintered and England embroiled in war, 1066 isn’t a bad time to play as Scotland. Sure the Nordic countries will come knocking at some point, but in the meantime you can slowly work to increase your holdings while learning the ropes.īest Starting Countries in 1066 Scotland – King Malcolm of Scotland It’s fractured so there’s lots of territory to gain without ending up on a super powerful country’s shit list and it’s on an island so you don’t have as many foes to worry about. Anyone in IrelandĬrusader Kings 3 starts you off as Ireland in the tutorial for a good reason.

Plus it’s feudal which comes with the aforementioned succession benefits. Located between a few different clashing religions and cultures, Pratihara is unique in that it has vastly more soldiers than all of the surrounding empires even though some very much rival it in size. No more pesky Confederate Partition! Pratihara – Maharaja Bhoja of the Pratihara Kingdom Basileious has already brought about feudal law too, so you can more easily manage how your titles and lands are handed down. The nation starts at war with a much smaller foe, but it has about 4,000 troops, is entirely Orthodox, and almost entirely Greek. It doesn’t get much easier than the Byzantine Empire. Byzantine Empire – Basileus Basileios, Byzantine Empire That doesn’t mean it can’t also do raids or conquering by sea, but it has some more immediate places to bring into its fold. Whereas Sweden primarily relies on the seas to get around, Novgorod has a lot of smaller to mid-size duchies and counties around which it can conquer one by one. Novgorod is a nearly landlocked version of Sweden which has more neighbors to conquer early on. If you want to go conquer and raid any region in the world, you can do so! Novgorod – Jarl Rurik of Holmgardr We recommend Sweden primarily because the Nordic nations are very strong in these early years and they don’t need any kind of claim to war for territory outside of their empire. While Sweden starts off splintered, it’s not too hard to gain the title of King before Bjorn Ironside kicks the bucket.
