该条目是对《十字军之王3》困难级成就之一“七世列王”的攻略。成就的描述相当简单：以867年的安茹伯爵厄德·卡佩（厄德·罗贝尔）开局，带领你的家族统治法兰西王国（游戏里显示为西法兰克王国）。 一般来说，这个成就对于有经验的玩家来说都很简单，但有时也会出现一些复杂的情况。伯爵厄德在开局时间是一个父母双亡的10岁男孩，有两位领主是你登上王位的最大障碍，而与你有杀父之仇的维京人就在你的卧榻之侧。这是个很可能默默无闻的小角色，若要缔造一番大业，就必须积极进取。如果你打算在一生中达成此成就将使难度翻倍，而这就是这篇攻略的主要内容。
开始[编辑 | 编辑源代码]
在取消暂停之前，您需要处理几个问题：
年幼的厄德[编辑 | 编辑源代码]
游戏开始时厄德尚未成年，你需要选择教育重心。他在开局时拥有冷静特质以及随机的童年特质与教育重心。强烈建议刷出一个以管理为教育重心的开局，而第二个特质最好是固执或节制，以获得管理能力加成。如果特质是天主教美德之一也行，这能使其他人更待见你，并且你还能获得有用的虔诚。游玩前期你会在很长一段时间里只是一名三地伯爵，而且还没有任何实地封臣。提高管理能力以让自己能直辖4到5块领地对培养力量至关重要。
你要尽快为自己选择一位好监护人，但如果没有任何好监护人（即管理能力高，没有会教坏你的负面特质）可供选择，请先等到有为止。
结盟[编辑 | 编辑源代码]
在正常游戏中，你大多数时间将扮演一名封臣。虽然你终将成为一名强大的封臣, 但早期你的军事力量堪忧。为了弥补这一点，尽量把一些无用亲戚送去联姻来缔结盟约，让邻近王国的一些友好封臣站在你这边对未来的战争更有利。理论上与封臣同僚结盟对你夺得王位很有帮助，只不过在法国北部没有与您友好的封臣。另外要注意的是避免与您最终要征服的人结盟，尤其是您的领主，因为您的目标是取代他，不是支持他。
内阁[编辑 | 编辑源代码]
游戏开始时，你的内阁成员能力普遍很糟糕，所以要尽早找到新的人选取代他们。你的廷臣和宾客当中一般很少会有适合的人选，所以要积极联姻以获得贤才。你会有一些女性廷臣，所以在为他们安排婚姻的时候记得选择母系婚姻，然后在候选人列表里找到能力最强的缔结婚姻。尽可能让军事统帅、财政总管和掌玺大臣都是贤才，如果不行也要确保军事统帅和掌玺大臣是才堪大用的人。
然后就要为你的骑士安排婚姻了。用同样的方法来得到合适的间谍首脑和宫廷医师（医师要求高学识），因为这两个职位在天主教中允许让女性担任。最后就要找个合适的教育者，教育者不限性别。
安排婚姻[编辑 | 编辑源代码]
如果你因未到16岁而无法结婚，你可以提前订婚，这样就能防止你的梦中情人被其他人抢走。通过“能力总和”或者“等级”筛选会更容易找到合适的配偶。如果一开始搜到的配偶不合你心意就慢慢等，过几年就会有新的角色出现了。当年成年的时候有个支持你的妻子会给你很大的帮助。
少年时期[编辑 | 编辑源代码]
当你不得不作为一个儿童进行游玩时，很多标准的游戏选项你都不能使用。个人和敌对阴谋都不能使用，这意味着你应该关注于你的另外两个工具: 秘密和战争。
秘密[编辑 | 编辑源代码]
在你死之前登上王位是一项昂贵的冒险，所以你会想要获得尽可能多的收入。对于一个聚焦管理、拥有金钱义务的角色来说，牵制（尤其是强牵制）的利润是惊人的。每个宫廷一开始都会相当安静，所以让你的间谍主管在头几年保护你的宫廷——你的对手不时地会试图谋杀你，所以不要浪费时间在没有价值的时候把她从你自己的宫廷赶走。一旦你年满12岁左右，全世界的人就有时间开始做出糟糕的生活选择，你可以开始把他们收获起来。尤其是勒索的首选目标包括你的两位君主（重新谈判你自己的封建契约是非常有利可图的，再加上它会削弱你未来的敌人）或教皇（一个不太可能的打击对象，但如果你能做到这一点，对勒索非常有用），但任何持有牵制的人都可以很快被勒索30-50块钱。如果你有强牵制，这些收入每五年就会发生一次。你小时候收集的秘密越多，16岁生日的奖金就越高。
请注意，具有“诚实”或“公正”特质的角色通过这样做会产生压力。不管怎样，还是去做吧。压力冲击很小，你应该能够通过狩猎和宴会来应对，只要你把事情安排好。不要让你处于压力的情况下整整四十年，因为你有很多家庭成员将在未来几十年里死去。不要仅仅是为了一些钱就给自己带来精神创伤。
战争[编辑 | 编辑源代码]
If you're accustomed to playing as a giant empire, smashing your opponents under massive hordes, you might be heading for a bad time here. Your targets early on are limited to enemies of the faith and counties you have claims on. While it's possible to call all your allies to come to your assistance, the Prestige cost for doing so means you should do so sparingly. Fortunately, Eudes begins with a pair of choice targets right off the bat. Just north of your capitol lies the county of Vendome, held by a count with no other territory. Devour his territory immediately, restoring Control afterwards if needed. Every county under your control is another source of tax income and levies to scare off attackers with, and the sooner you reach maximum size, the better. Your fellow vassals are unlikely to attack you for your territory, but the weaker and less popular you are, the more likely this is to happen.
Most of the other lands you have claims on are controlled by much scarier opponents, but your next target isn't any of them at all. Instead, turn your eyes toward Montaigu, the single county to your west that is held by your rival, Haesteinn. He has a massive army made up of special troops, making him undefeatable in a fair fight and a constant raid threat. Taking his land for your own as soon as possible gets rid of one of the major irritants of this challenge, and thankfully he provides an opportunity to do just that early on.
Soon after the game begins, you'll notice his troops travelling away from his territory. Check his character screen to confirm that he's on an adventuring war against one of the nearby kingdoms. If he manages to win this war, your rival goes from being a dangerous count to a terrifying king, but you can stop this. Watch his war's victory percentage. Once it starts to climb above 0%, he will be fully invested in the war abroad. Take this opportunity to declare a Holy War for his county, then rush in, conquering the place unopposed. With any luck, you'll add his land to yours long before he wins his war and ascends to kinghood. That's your future job, not his.
Once you've grabbed two additional counties, you may be at your managerial capacity. If you can fit a fifth, look around at other counties you have claims on; you should be able to find several that can be taken, although you might need to call for help from allies and attack together. Either way, once you've gotten all the land you can comfortably hold as a count, let your levies recover to full, make sure your Marshal is increasing your max levy size, and then get ready to become a Duke.
Life as a Duke[编辑 | 编辑源代码]
Miniboss: Duke Hugo[编辑 | 编辑源代码]
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[编辑 | 编辑源代码]
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.
Final Boss: The King of France[编辑 | 编辑源代码]
Unlike Duke Hugo, who you go up against in the end is determined by the RNG, but that hardly matters; the easiest way to take the throne involves very little direct conflict. First, save up some funds for mercenaries. Being able to summon a few thousand troops at a moment's notice is very powerful, making any fighting that does happen much less concerning. Next, use the Claim Throne decision against your liege. It'll take a while to finish, though setting your Spymaster to assist your schemes will speed things up significantly. You will want to do this fast to minimize the chance of your liege noticing your actions and deciding to act against you. For extra insurance, first get a hook against your liege, then renegotiate your contract to protect your titles, but ideally this won't be necessary.
Once you have a claim, be patient. War will break out, either on the border of Spain or the northern coast of France. In either case, your liege will commit his troops to deal with the mess, which will be your time to strike. Declare war against the liege for your claim on the kingdom of West Francia. If all goes well, your liege's troops will be so tied up dealing with the first issue that you'll be able to take several holdings before the first battle, and all your allies will have arrived and joined the party. Grabbing the enemy capitol can result in critical prisoners being taken, which may end the war early. If not, your liege's beleaguered armies will eventually march out to face you, reduced by their first war and already well behind in war score. Between your armies, your allies, and your mercenaries, your reduced opponent should be no match for you.
Win the war, declare yourself king, and pat yourself on the back for achieving Kings to the Seventh Generation in just one.
What Now?[编辑 | 编辑源代码]
Oftentimes, after snagging an achievement, a run kind of loses direction. One particularly nasty goal you can pursue from here is the Frankokratia achievement: as a French Catholic (hey that's you), hold the Kingdom of Thessalonika without being a vassal of the Byzantine Empire. There are fastier and cheatier ways to accomplish this, but if you want to push your plucky little Robertine cadet branch to the limits, start conquering eastward! It's a long march and there's a lot of territory to snag along the way, but holding the heart of Byzantium for your own is a solid cap on your story. Just remember that "Invite Claimants" and the Learning branch ability "Sanctioned Loopholes" are very powerful when you need a proper casus belli, and consider grabbing any regional techs along the way that improve vassal mood. By the time you're done, you'll need every advantage you can get to keep your empire from being in constant rebellion under its own weight.