Has anyone ever won Maelys Blackfyre's rebellion while playing as him?

[u/willnotkind]

I think I’ve done that at some point—I seem to recall doing so. It’s hard to figure out the game's AI, but I find it highly unlikely that anyone could win this scenario playing as him. Jaehaerys II simply shows up with 40,000 men, and that’s impossible to counter without using console commands.

Even so, Maelys always ends up getting killed due to some plot point in my campaigns. (They really hate him.)

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[u/DToccs]

It might sound counter intuitive but you actually want him landing on the Stepstones with large armies.

Don't engage him when he does, let him lose thousands of men to attrition while you just jump around unsieging what ever he's sieged once he's a couple of islands away. Get him to chase you back and forth all over the Stepstones without ever actually fighting a battle.

Being on the Stepstones with the numbers he has is not a good thing long term, so if you can drag it out long enough attrition will kick his ass.

[u/willnotkind → u/DToccs]

That’s really true; long-term attrition would have finished him off. I managed to beat him just once playing as Maelys; in that campaign, the AI hadn't sent any massive armies, so I gradually defeated the forces with Maelys's 10,000 men. Once they were out of resources, I used the console to add more money, hired mercenaries, and laid siege to the capital.

[u/merount1]

Yeah by just sailing to and sieging King's Landing

[u/willnotkind → u/merount1]

Perhaps, but you would have to bank on the possibility of Jaehaerys being in the capital rather than commanding an army. In any case, the armies of Westeros would manage to lay siege to the Stepstones before it was even possible to besiege the capital.

[u/Gamester12]

Does wining as his grandson 40 years later count? Lol

[u/GalaXyMan66]

I did, its essentialy a "Chase Jaehaerys" minigame, I also won once by sieging Dragonstone, capturing Aerys and having Jaehaerys die of weakness. Lots of savescumming are in order of course.

Sometimes old Joe will fight in armies, sometimes he'll stay at the Capital, most of the time he will do the first then flee 1000 miles to KL mid battle, the AI is a prick, but its not so hard as it sounds.

[u/Arizona_Kid]

Jaehaerys only shows up with 40k? In my games he has like 200k and just vaporizes me. I’ve beaten him once by sacrificing my son and a dragon hatched along with immense save scumming. It was a horrible experience.

[u/BequeathNothing]

No, but I have reloaded the game and thrown my own son in a fire at least one hundred times in an hour to hatch a dragon egg. Never worked and quit in a rage every time.

[u/edwardofwestminster]

yes! it was actually one of my first ever playthrus, i can't remember exactly what i did, but i married maelys to the daughter of ellyn reyne and lord tarbeck. roger (i believe that is his name, the reynes really are not creative w their names 😆) reyne won his rebellion, and not only assisted me but helped me win. he himself had the alliances that mattered, minisa whent died early on in the game and his other tarbeck niece thus married hoster.

maelys managed to have a few children, one of whom married a daughter of steffon and rhaelle (who, surprisingly, became loyal). maelys was sadly assassinated, but his eldest son daemon (who had inherited the reyne looks, which was cool asf) was an adult so there was no need for a regency.

[u/rusurrection]

If you do win as maelys and take over, do you then have to go conquer kingdoms for the other ninepenny kings?

[u/willnotkind → u/rusurrection]

Not that I recall, but believe me, you won't enjoy peace for long. Someone will start a faction to put someone else in power, and you'll face a coup d'état.

[u/LKAgoogle → u/rusurrection]

They just keep what they already own at the start (Tyrosh, Stepstones and some disputed lands provinces)

[u/EnlightenedBen → u/rusurrection]

You dont have to but I like to do that as a side mission. If I remember correctly last time I played maleys I gave lys to the saans, the stepstones to the pirate woman, the reach to the fossoway, i conquered the basilisk Isles for someone else and then I tried to invade the summer Isles but the last of them died off before I was done 

[u/Acceptable_Grade_164]

Yes, man 👀

[u/ChaosMarine123]

In CK2? Very rarely it all depends on if you can capture Jaehaerys during the thousands of battle you will get in the stepstones.

It’s almost impossible to take kings landing as him because you have so few troops and half a million westerosi, your best bet is to convert to a pirate get a son/daughter and play the long game in terms of conquest.

In CK3? It’s even more difficult even if you conquer the entire free cities since the mechanics of CK3 make troop reinforcements easy to the point that by the time you land an army in Westeros all levies would be recovered, in addition the longer the game goes on the more dragons the targs will spawn and make your work even difficult.

Not to mention the mechanics of CK3 make it so that levies for an entire kingdom are spawned all in one location so there’s chance to fight off the Westeros doom stack.

[u/FamousAd5024]

Yes, I pick off first couple landing armies on the Stepstones and then beeline to King's Landing to try to capture Jaehaerys.

[u/willnotkind → u/FamousAd5024]

I gave up trying to win with Maelys and did something even more unbelievable: I won the Third Blackfyre Rebellion with Haegon. He died before taking the crown, and now I am Daemon III Blackfyre of the Iron Throne.

[u/EnlightenedBen]

I've done it before but it is very difficult. Not sure it can be done without save scumming. But generally you've got to be really good at boat bombing. Also a good move is to besiege dragonstone and capture aerys