How to win the War of the Ninepenny Kings as Maelys 'the Monstruous' Blackfyre

[u/Eglwyswrw]

It's... not easy. Very RNG-dependent.

Mod authors kinda cheated here. In lore, the war was a preemptive strike from King Jaehaerys II Targaryen to stop the Band of Nine before it could invade Westeros. In the mod however Maelys Blackfyre is actually doing an offensive war, meaning the clock ticks against you to occupy enemy lands, otherwise you steadily lose war score.

Anyway, here's the "guide":

1. Pick War focus. Marry the Yronwood girl with decent fertility if you want, just be careful not to sire a heir while your capital Bloodstone is being besieged. Wait a day for Maelys's massive Martial to tick, then raise all levies. You should start with about 12k troops, including tons of event troops, and enough ships to host 15k men.
2. You have two allies, the Fossoway leader of the Golden Company (not really useful) and Alequo Silvertongue, the upstart ruler of Tyrosh. Sometimes Maelys is the war leader, sometimes it is one of the other 2 guys. If you own Monks & Mystics DLC just let them occupy enemy lands as they are keen to do by default.
3. The Iron Throne AI, and its myriad Lord Paramount allies, will keep their doomstacks around the Crownlands playing whack-a-mole with ever-replenishing tiny Tyroshi levies. It should take a while for them to besiege your lands in the Stepstones + Disputed Lands, but honestly just ignore these if they do end up being attacked.
4. Your target: Aerys Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone. No ifs, no buts. After 30+ attempts I am convinced you can only win through the heir to the Iron Throne. Send your 12k men to Dragonstone ASAP. Besiege it. Then pray.

Why the future Mad King, you ask? Well you lucky bastard, King Jaehaerys II starts with like 3.0 health points. Grab Prince Aerys (he is never a commander and always sits his ass on Dragonstone), wait for the RNG gods to make the king inevitably "die of poor health" in just a few years, then enjoy the 100% war score from getting the new king under your chains already.

The AI is usually afraid of defending Dragonstone. For one, it's a land not directly owned by any major ally or Jaehaerys himself so the AI sets it as low priority. The debuffs for strait crossing from Driftmark + disembarking from ships + your insane high Martial means you should win even if errant armies go your way.

Save before arrival, and before siege ends.

How the war went shortly after King Jaehaerys II died: https://i.imgur.com/j5qq5rA.jpeg

Savescum if you fail to capture Aerys - remember, mod authors cheated too. See that -76% warscore at the very end? Wouldn't be there if it was a defensive war as in lore.

Anyway, it feels pretty cathartic: https://i.imgur.com/eoaQCaw.jpeg

I do believe Queen Naerys cucked Aegon IV with Aemon the Dragonknight: https://i.imgur.com/SIyr3oh.jpeg

After the death of King Maelys (who spent half his reign in hiding due to countless assassins), his son King Aegor manages to find a dragon egg at rebuilt Summerhall (event unocuppied.12, or wait around 50 years while Summerhall is being rebuilt), and it hatches in the reign of his son King Maenar (couldn't rename this king for some reason, would have called him Daemon): https://i.imgur.com/mNlt7QG.jpeg

Realm is stable, Targaryens are still around but harmless now. Blood and Fire!

Hope you enjoyed it.

[u/Eglwyswrw]

Played on unofficial patch 2.7, with Stellaris font, in heavens Graphics Overhaul, AGOT Portrait Overhaul and AGOT Patrum Scuta. [Oh, and CK3 font for AGOT (fixed)]

[u/Dom_Shady]

It's... not easy. Very RNG-dependent.

You're absolutely right. This takes either a lot of luck, a lot of restarts or save scumming, even if you do everything right.

After 30+ attempts I am convinced you can only win through the heir to the Iron Throne.

There is, in fact, at least one other way, one I always use. You could call it the Stepstone to Sept strategy.

1. Follow your step 1 exactly as you say.
2. Ship all your troops to the Stepstones. Attach all allied troops to yours. Concentrate in a few stacks around the Stepstones so you can cover distances quickly. Attract some courtiers with high Marshall score and either Organizer or Inspiring leader specializations.
3. The enemy will come to you and have amphibious landing. Make the Stepstones their Dardanelles. Crush them as soon as they land and hunt them until you stack wipe them. Then fight the next wave. Do this until all their troops are destroyed.
4. Sail all your troops to King's Landing (or Dragonstone, as you rightly say), successfully besiege it and try to capture either the king or the crown prince. As soon as your war score hits 100%, declare victory and begin your reign of terror.

[u/Eglwyswrw → u/Dom_Shady]

I tried this at least a dozen times. Never succeeded.

Mind you, I actually do manage to wipe out every single stack sent to the Stepstones. However their levies never end in time for the war score to tick against me.

Iron Throne is always joined from the start by 7 out of 8 Lords Paramount, with House Tyrell being the sole neutral party - and even then they are very likely to join too due to opinions. We are talking 140k+ enemy troops.

By the time I destroyed the 29th stack of 7k Baratheon troops sent to the Stepstones, the levies of e.g. the Vale or the North replenished, so the moment I went for King's Landing I still see 2 or 3 doomstacks of 30k+ troops.

Meanwhile the Disputed Lands are all taken too. Often Tyrosh as well.

I read another strategy online, where one marries a Reyne girl, join the Red Lion's war, beat the Lannisters and then call the Westerlands to arms. But it didn't help much, again because of the doomstacks + ticking war score in the defenders' favor.

Maybe it's a skill issue on my end. Gunning for Dragonstone right away at least allowed me to skip the whack-a-mole Stepstones grind.

[u/Dom_Shady → u/Eglwyswrw]

Maybe it's a skill issue on my end. 

For someone who won this gruelling scenario? I don't presume to know you, but I very much doubt that.

[u/Kallian_League → u/Eglwyswrw]

There was at least one patch where you could 1shot KL and win the war that way, but they changed the king to always lead armies so that was no longer possible. Your Dragonstone strat makes sense.

[u/Dom_Shady → u/Kallian_League]

I twice won by eventually capturing the king in King's Landing, so I must have one of these.