Let's talk about the conclusion first: There is no absolutely strong career line in this game, but the profit curves of the three typical dominance styles in the early, middle and late stages are very different. If you are struggling with your starting ideas, or feel tired halfway through the game and want to change your play style, this article can give you a reference.
I divided the main gameplay in the game into three categories: military expansion type, internal affairs development type, and conspiracy type. Note that this is not a career choice, but your decision-making tendency as the king. It is not locked in the game, but the later you get, the more you need to be the best in a certain line.
Military expansion.
The core is to quickly annex small surrounding forces and use war dividends to support the country. Ten years before the start of the actual test, the military type relied solely on plunder and vassal tribute, and the speed of resource acquisition was about 40% higher than that of the internal affairs type. Note, this is the first ten years. Because there is an upper limit to the increase in prosperity brought by war, and each recruitment of soldiers consumes a lot of food and gold coins, once a tug-of-war enters, the economy will easily collapse. I fought a war and used troops abroad three times in a row. In the end, the national treasury was in deficit and the people's moral support fell below 40, which directly triggered civil strife and three rebel groups rose up at the same time. Therefore, the key to the military type is rhythm. You cannot fight continuously. After a wave, you must spend two to three years digesting the results, upgrading buildings, and replenishing the population. Otherwise, you will be gambling on the national destiny.
Internal development type.
Stable, very stable. The early stage was so slow that it made people want to sleep. I actually measured that by the sixth year, the military type had already occupied four pieces of land, and the internal affairs type was still saving money to build the market. But starting in the mid-term, population growth and tax increases will be reflected. There is a hidden value in the game called the natural growth of people's hearts. As long as your food production is stable and your security value is maintained above 70%, people's hearts will continue to rise, and the amount of tax revenue will increase accordingly. I tried not to go to war in the whole process, relying only on trade agreements and infrastructure expansion. By the 20th year, the fiscal revenue could already support a full standing army, and it could still maintain positive income. Only then will you truly understand what it means to accumulate more and gain less.
Machiavellian type.
This style of play requires the most operation and judgment. The core is to use the hatred value between vassal countries to sow discord and let them consume each other, and you reap the benefits. The advantage is that there is almost no need to send out a single soldier, but the disadvantage is that the probability of overturning is extremely high. During my test, I succeeded in instigating a two-star vassal, which directly caused the enemy kingdom to lose 30% of its troops. However, another operation error was reported to the Pope, which directly triggered religious sanctions. The national faith value plummeted, and then a series of knights rebelled. How to put it, the income ceiling is very high, but the fault tolerance rate is extremely low, so it is not suitable for novices.
In the long run, the most stable route is to do internal affairs in the early stage, shift to military affairs in the mid-term, and choose conspiracy or continue expansion based on the situation in the later stage. That is to say, it first takes fifteen years to build up the infrastructure and population base, save enough resources, then use relatively strong military power to crush the surrounding small forces, and finally rely on deterrence to maintain the loyalty of the vassals. I have run this route three times, and I can basically stabilize the kingdom within forty years without having to load and restart.
One last reminder, no matter which style of ruler you choose, vassal management can never delegate power. There is a loyalty threshold in the game. If it is below 60, vassals will begin to privately hoard troops. If it is below 40, tribute will be directly refused. If you find that the loyalty of a certain vassal is declining rapidly, deal with it first and don't let them get together to form a group. When a collective rebellion is triggered, even gods can't save it.
So if you ask which genre is the strongest, I would say there is no strongest, only the choice that best suits the current situation. But if you insist on recommending a starting direction, domestic affairs will always be the least likely to overturn when starting. After all, the toughest threshold in this game is not war, but that you cannot survive the first twenty years. 😌