编辑“七世列王”（章节）

== Life as a Duke ==
=== Miniboss: Duke Hugo ===
You can't progress beyond this point very far without grabbing your half-brother Hugo's duchy title away from him; it's the only title of that rank you already have a claim on, and besides, Hugo is not a very intimidating opponent - unless the RNG has behaved very oddly, he shouldn't have anywhere near as many allies as you do. Ideally you should be able to take him out before reaching adulthood through use of your own allies and men-at-arms (bowmen are an excellent and affordable option early on, and even a single force of onagers makes sieges go faster), but feel free to save up funds for more men-at-arms or even some mercenaries if you need to. The gold is better spent upgrading your holdings, but failing a war against your liege is not ideal. As soon as he's defeated, the two of you switch places and he becomes your own (very unhappy) first vassal.

=== Serious Growth ===
Once you've become a duke, the cap on your controlled territories is removed and you can start collecting vassals! This is going to be your primary goal for the next twenty years or so, particularly in areas that allow you to create new duchy titles. Along with granting you a pile of prestige and improved tax and levy output, holding a duchy will make your ''new'' liege (the king) hand over his own vassals in that region for you to manage! Any territory that you don't need to fight for is a good thing.

Prestige may be a limiting factor in how quickly you can spread. Waging war on your own claim is much cheaper than doing so on behalf of a vassal, and holy wars are actually quite difficult when your opponent is actually there and willing to fight you. Besides, you should focus on territory within West Francia; the more of the place you control when the final battle starts, the easier it'll be. Having a competent chancellor will provide you with a steady stream of prestige, but you'll definitely need more than that.

Be sure to spend cash on extracurricular activities. Hosting Feasts and Hunts will help you manage stress, gain useful traits, and generate big chunks of Prestige. Going on Pilgrimages generates Piety and makes you more popular with fellow Catholics, but more importantly, allows you to ask the Pope for funding. Don't be afraid of the small popularity hit that comes with begging for cash from the Vatican; that will fade and the gold will be very useful.

Also, feel free to be a good little vassal and join your liege's wars! Yes, he will eventually be your opponent, but for now you should help him keep vikings out. Better still are wars against Italy, as Italy will invariably call its allies to assist it, providing you with a massive neighboring country with a busy military to loot, chock full of sites to siege and nobles to kidnap and ransom. You can acquire far more wealth looting and ransoming than you lose paying for your soldiers. In any case, joining these wars will sometimes make your liege become your Friend, which is not a bad thing. Friends are a lot slower to anger when you generate claims on their kingdoms, after all.

As all this is happening, you'll be gaining Stewardship perks. Take everything in the Avaricious tree, as well as Tax Man, Cutting Cornerstones, and Professional Workforce from Architect; you'll want to build up your controlled territories with as many gold- and levy-producing buildings as possible. By the time you've completed the tree, your liege will likely have died and been replaced by his less competent, less popular son. If West Francia still contains multiple kingdoms, the succession will split them up, greatly reducing your new liege's power. Your next perk should go into the Meritocracy perk of the Administrator branch, because it's time to take the throne.