Crusader Kings II

[The Stranger]

lol! XD

Biggest challenges for me in my first campaign were fighting the Great Company hired by the Pope in a claim war for a barony (very tough commander!) and an holy war with the egyptian Caliph, who assembled 12k men, all I had at that time were 3k (got attacked after a war in Kabylia) and I managed to lure them in deserts where they lost 60% of men, then I hired the Hospitallers and was a victory march :P

as puny ireland i have been owning france in a claim for the french kingdom. i also conquered england but i did not get the kingdom, i just put a different king on the throne. i did own them quite easy but the king was on a crusade so i guess that made a huge difference.

however ive found the following tactic immensely effective and it allows you to win vs much bigger nations (with bigger armies) you hire 2 merc comps and raise your vassals. you combine one army of mercs with your vassals and you send them in first. they will attack the armies of your enemies before they can assemble to form a big army. this way you can dominate a country which can raise thousands of men with just an army of 3000. the other merc army will be used to siege places. and ofcourse ransom back all the nobles you capture to pay for the upkeep of your mercs. this is truly cripling and you need to actively hunt for nobles to pay for upkeep.

in my war vs france i could raise a 1000 levies from my county and vassals. france could raise 8k. however i hired 2 of the small companies, used the above tactic and dominated france. in the end i made so much money from capturing nobles that i could hire all the 5 mercs which were available to me and still make more money by the war than i was losing from paying their upkeep.




sooo... pope calls crusade for ascalon. i go declare on the biggest meanest caliphate, the Holy war for the Ascalon!!! I hire the Templar Knights of NII and raise my vassals for war! I sail to the holy land with 17000 men. I lose like 2000 to artrition on the way. My vanguard of about 6000 men gets attacked by a 12000 strong army of the Caliphate with the Caliph leading the army. My main army arrives just in time to come to aid and we crush their army completely. like 4000 losses vs 11000 kills. I capture the Caliph and end the crusade in one battle! I am happy as can be, impose my demands, claim ascalon and think ye!!!...

turns out i declared war on the wrong caliph for the wrong piece of ascalon -_-

[frogbeastegg]

Initial load time (first boot up) takes around 45 seconds to 2 min. In game loads (loading saves) are almost instant. I have 8gb of RAM and a well cared for HD though so take that as you will

That's a similar time and setup to my own, so it must be something to do with the game itself. Strange. Vicky 2 AHD loads in almost half the time. Oh well, it's not important since the game only needs to load once per session.

[The Stranger]

one thing that is really bugging me now is that the kings of europe do not cooperate in a crusade. there are like a bazillion noblemen all declaring their own crusade and occupying different territories. therefor there is no possiblity to get a conclusive victory. resulting in one crusade lasting for a 100 years -_- it should be a joint venture, with possible rivalries ofcourse but if one of the crusading nobleman conquers the territory and another crusader conquers another they should be able to sue for demands together and each gets what they have conquered, thus ending the crusade.

[Monk]

Paradox has posted a post mortem dev diary discussing the reaction to Crusader Kings II. They talk about (in limited terms) what went into making the game, how the game has been recieved, as well as what they have planned for the future. Of particular interest are the things they intend to patch into the game.

So, what are we planning for the future? Crusader Kings II will have many major DLC packs that are actually more like small expansions. Every time we release a major DLC, we will also release a major free content patch. I cannot say exactly when we will be adding what, but here are some things you can expect for free in the coming months:

Enhanced, more focused Crusades with a "contribution" score
Causes of Death
Asking to join an ongoing war
Lots of more plots and ambitions
Events, events, and more events
Improved GUI where it's needed the most (plots, marriages)
Flexible de jure liege structure
More de jure kingdoms

You can read the entire dev diary here: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...rtem-Dev-Diary

[The Stranger]

sooo i just became the holy roman emperor, next to being the king of france and the king of ireland on sundays. by god im so busy...

[Monk]

Ways to keep vassals happy #145: have an affair with your duchesses. Her husband was so mad but since she had all the power i got to reap the rewards of a huge +75 bonus to relations. With no consequences i might add since my King's wife was dead. Well, bastards are kinda a consequence i guess.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The reconquista has been complete for 80 years, ever since then I've been struggling with both interal politics and trying to curb France's attempts to grab power. I've had mixed success in both areas but overall France simply cannot hold a candle to me. Militarily, culturally or technologically. I can levy 70k men when my vassals are in high approval (35k when they are not) and own 8k from my own personal base. France can only manage a fraction of that. They keep losing crown authority wars and its killing their power in the long run.

To be honest I think I am going to call it a game if and when i push France out of Iberia. This has been one wild ride of a campaign but i feel that would be a good place to hang it up and start again. I've built such a good groundwork that even when civil strife does happen to crop up at home, its easily picked apart and dealt with. I've learned so much about this game from both my Irish campaign and my castile one. If anyone is wondering whether Iberia is worth it, my recommendation is an enthusiastic yes. Its a much more complicated game than Ireland and can teach you the intricacies of vassal/lord requirements. But it requires a bit of luck at the start due to the way claims fall on the different kingdoms.

Here is the world at 1301



The Rus looked really strong ending the 1100s but then out of nowhere the horde came knocking. It wasn't even a fair fight if you want my opinion, within 20 years the Horde had absorbed pretty much the entire Russian steppe. They've been marching west steadily since then. A slow dread march that, at the time of this screenshot, just finished swallowing Poland. To be honest I think the collapse of the Byzantines served as a big factor for the Horde to just walk over the steppes - at least initially. With only one threat to focus on they easily steamrolled the Rus and are looking like nothing can stop them. Again, i'm glad I'm over on this side of the map...

The HRE is coming out of a full century of internal strife and constant succession wars. They at one point lost pretty much all of Italy to smaller itallian states who took the opportunity to break away, but have since fallen back into the fold, one by one, as the structure of the empire is solidified. Its a good thing the HRE finally got its act together because the Horde has come knocking. The two aren't doing much, but I think its only a matter of time.

The remnants of the Byzantines continue to fight. Syria and Georgia have become the breakout stars of the assorted chaos with both successor states taking over large chunks of the map, Right now either one has a really good chance of going on a conquering spree. Unfortunately, Georgia has lost at least half its territory to Trebizond in a recent uprising. So unless they can reabsorb that soon, i'm not sure about their chances! The lawful ruler of the empire has by now lost absolutely everything and only controls one relatively small blob of land, they've even lost Constantinople by now.. He's currently fighting 6 wars, each of them have the potential to wipe him off the map once and for all.

A surprise has cropped up, legit crusader states! The largest is controlled by Sweden which holds most of Ascalon and the coast. Georgia holds Jerusalem and a stretch of land a bit more inward - together they have successfully defended their little pieces of land for the last 70 years. It's been a sight to see.

Lastly Scotland has become a surprise powerhouse, establishing a firm hold on Ireland and fighting numerous wars against the English since 1230, and winning most of them. England seems hell-bent on attempting ducal claims but each and every time they get sorely beaten.

[Sylon]

Here is the world at 1301

That's a beautiful map of the world you have. I can only wish the hordes were so successful in my game; alas, it is not so.

In my current game, the Christian world has been divided into 3 great powers, each of them capable of singlehandedly taking the remaining smaller kingdoms all at once. Needless to say, the Mongols are not half the threat as they were historically.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In the corner of Europe is my powerful Kingdom of Navarra, controlling all of Iberia, Mauretania and most of Egypt. My policy of scrambling duchies up by splitting every single duchy into one province counties and transferring them to dukes on the other side of the kingdom has made for a fairly stable kingdom despite its massive size. A full half of Iberia and most of Mauretania has converted to Basque culture thanks to my cultural settlement program- my goal is to convert all of Iberia to Basque culture by game end.



The Holy Roman Empire, ruled by the Von Lenzburg family. Norway became part of the HRE very early on in the game, leading to the Emperor launching crusades into Finland and Russia. They do suffer from some stability problems, however, not least due to the Norwegians and Russian dukes rebelling every decade thanks to long distance penalties/foreigner penalties.



And finally: Megazantium. Outcomes like this is why people say the empires are overpowered. Right now, Byzantium has both the Mongol Khanates boxed in, and it has been that way for the past several decades. The Mongols are too scared of the Empire's power to declare war on them, and thus languish in their corners of the map.



And finally, the ledger. I am currently leading in military power over Byzantium, but this is with 90% of my vassals being buddies with my ruler thanks to the shared Crusader trait. On the other side, the Emperor has just newly ascended to the throne, which limits the amount of support he has at this point in time. However, in ten years, the power balance would be overwhelmingly in favour of the other side.

A better comparison would be to look at the number of holdings they have- a whopping 727 to my 341, or more than twice what I have. Once they get over their brief period of not-quite-instability, they'll be able to roll over the Mongols entirely.*

Mind you, I'm not angling for world conquest or anything, it just irks me to see the Byzantines strutting around with their gigantic empire while I had to work my way up from my troubled starting two provinces. Pah, silly Romans.



*Note that the ledger only shows levies. The Mongols actually have much more troops than what is displayed in the ledger, thanks to their event-reinforcements.

[The Stranger]

i own half of bloody europe and i cant get more than 60000 :S you guys only have spain and top that.

no fair

[Monk]

i own half of bloody europe and i cant get more than 60000 :S you guys only have spain and top that.

no fair

Spain has a ton of manpower apparently. Pushing your levy/crown authority laws to high also is a huge help :D

That's a beautiful map of the world you have. I can only wish the hordes were so successful in my game; alas, it is not so.

In my current game, the Christian world has been divided into 3 great powers, each of them capable of singlehandedly taking the remaining smaller kingdoms all at once. Needless to say, the Mongols are not half the threat as they were historically.

Great maps there, Sylon. Looks like you're quite a bit better at this game than I am. I've had to scrape and claw my way to hold onto Iberia while keeping france at bay, while you've managed the same and taken North Africa decades ahead of me. Well done.

Good luck dodging the mailed Imperial fist! No doubt if it came to a confrontation it'd be bloody for sure.

As for the balance situation: I don't think the problem is Empires, per say, its more how fast levies seem to replenish. And since empires get lots of levy pools they suffer very little long term penalties for constant civil war, which is the opposite of how it should be. The limited peace options dont help much either. Would like to see the AI not be willing to white peace in civil war situations - since thats usually why wars get dropped, that or the claimant dying early on.

Empires are definitely a tad too resilient in those respects, but I think the HRE is worse than the Byzantines. I've seen a few games where the Byz have imploded now but so far have never seen the HRE go down without some sort of player intervention.

As for the Mongols in my game I was really surprised. When they first arrived it looked like they were floundering. I ended up getting caught in a REALLY nasty civil war, so i got distracted. When i looked back about 20 years later the Rus were gone as were a number of Khaganates in the Crimea. Everything was Horde territory. Their slow march west has been scary to watch.

[Fisherking]

No matter what your goals are, this game is fun.

I took Ireland and inherited the HRE in 1110. But my ambitions are a little different.

I am seriously thing of giving that crown away so I can go back and follow the path I had planed.

Everyone is going to hate an Irishman on a German throne and the whole thing will end up in pieces for a generation or two.

I would also rather that I fight for what I have and not just have it because of who my mother was. It is a great path to power but a very bloody one this early in a game.

It is still basically my fist campaign and I am new to Paradox.

Gosh, I only just discovered how to pick my bishops.

I may still be discovering things two months from now that would have made all this much easier.

There is so much depth in this game I think I have almost every day paused just to take care of some other task.

Within my court I have claims to almost every throne and about a quarter of the duchies of Europe and this is only some 50 years into the game.

[The Stranger]

Spain has a ton of manpower apparently. Pushing your levy/crown authority laws to high also is a huge help :D



Great maps there, Sylon. Looks like you're quite a bit better at this game than I am. I've had to scrape and claw my way to hold onto Iberia while keeping france at bay, while you've managed the same and taken North Africa decades ahead of me. Well done.

Good luck dodging the mailed Imperial fist! No doubt if it came to a confrontation it'd be bloody for sure.

As for the balance situation: I don't think the problem is Empires, per say, its more how fast levies seem to replenish. And since empires get lots of levy pools they suffer very little long term penalties for constant civil war, which is the opposite of how it should be. The limited peace options dont help much either. Would like to see the AI not be willing to white peace in civil war situations - since thats usually why wars get dropped, that or the claimant dying early on.

Empires are definitely a tad too resilient in those respects, but I think the HRE is worse than the Byzantines. I've seen a few games where the Byz have imploded now but so far have never seen the HRE go down without some sort of player intervention.

As for the Mongols in my game I was really surprised. When they first arrived it looked like they were floundering. I ended up getting caught in a REALLY nasty civil war, so i got distracted. When i looked back about 20 years later the Rus were gone as were a number of Khaganates in the Crimea. Everything was Horde territory. Their slow march west has been scary to watch.

to be fair, the HRE was quite resilient historically :P

No matter what your goals are, this game is fun.

I took Ireland and inherited the HRE in 1110. But my ambitions are a little different.

I am seriously thing of giving that crown away so I can go back and follow the path I had planed.

Everyone is going to hate an Irishman on a German throne and the whole thing will end up in pieces for a generation or two.

I would also rather that I fight for what I have and not just have it because of who my mother was. It is a great path to power but a very bloody one this early in a game.

It is still basically my fist campaign and I am new to Paradox.

Gosh, I only just discovered how to pick my bishops.

I may still be discovering things two months from now that would have made all this much easier.

There is so much depth in this game I think I have almost every day paused just to take care of some other task.

Within my court I have claims to almost every throne and about a quarter of the duchies of Europe and this is only some 50 years into the game.

funny, im in about the same position as you. but it is really annoying to hold the title and you will spend nearly all your time trying to keep your vassals in check and fighting civil wars (definitly after a succesion) so ye... it would be smart to give it away or let it pass to a diff ruler when you die.

[Subotan]

Great maps guys

My Duchy of Lombardy <3

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It's on Direct Vassals mapmode, so don't get excited.

My Duchess of Lombardy had three sons - one who was literally an imbecile, and who I assassinated, a second son who was pretty decent, and a third son who I married to the daughter of the Duchess of Capua. I later realised that she was heir to more than just Capua, and that she stood poised to inherit everything there which doesn't border the Po Valley/Apulia. I was fearful for a future civil war in the House of Este, but happily, my second son died tragically, and heirless, leaving Ugo as my future Duke. He then died, meaning that his son Ugo stood poised to inherit everything. However, he only inherited Capua and Modena, thanks to Capua's gavelkind succession policy. I assassinated both of his aunts, and ended up lawfully gaining everything you see there - to be fair, one of them went after me as soon as I inherited (I still bear the scars ;_;) and you could just tell that the other was totally going to. Strangely, I now get half as much income as before, despite still having the strongest military of any vassal of the HRE.

I'm planning to rebel from the HRE with this dude, as soon as my vassals warm to me and I get some allies. Swabia just inherited Bavaria, so they would be good, but Bohemia, Mecklenburg and Brunswick would also be good choices.

Christendom:



The Byzantines have been Byzzy - not collapsing, but neither painting the map an imperial purple. They're doing well for themselves, and I'm happy with their current level of strength. The HRE are doing extremely well, and I think the reason why they always do this is because the Papacy is ahistorically weak. I've pretty much ignored the Papacy the whole game. France is in a state of permanent semi-crisis, with Dukes rebelling every 20 years or so. They've never recovered from that war when the HRE snaffled Aquitaine. All of the Iberian Dynasties are extinct - there is not a single Castillian/Catalan/Basque count. The Moors have recently consolidated into Al Andalus, which is terrifying, as England and France (As well as the HRE) were only able to make inroads whilst they were extremely divided.

England is doing pretty well, and has a nice little Cross-Channel Kingdom. Scandinavia has gone to the dogs, and is complete chaos, as has Poland. Poland were doing really well at one point, and had established a territory as large as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but somehow, a Russian Orthodox inherited Poland and all hell broke lose. That was about a hundred years ago, and most of Poland is now Orthodox, whilst most of the nobles are still Catholic. Rus appears to be doing well, but it's fragile, and I doubt it will stand up to the Horde. Hungary and Croatia are at each others' throats constantly - I think Hungarian internal weakness is the only thing keeping Croatia on top.

Periodically, mercenaries invade the HRE, which causes the Kaiser to freak out and levy all of his reserves. This is very annoying, as the wars themselves often drag on for many many years, as the mercenaries can't be found and destroyed. Anyone else experienced that bug?

[The Stranger]

omg... my entire empire is going to implode. being the HRE will give any mortal soul a headache 2x as big as his realm.

[scottishranger]

Still going as King of Sweden. King Erik II the Pious has crushed about 10 revolts in the last 20 years, 4 led by his disgruntled brothers who thought they could rule better than him. Put Erik, despite his piety, has smashed each one in turn! along with that his wife the Queen consort dared to even revolt against me, so I had her imprisoned for her petulence. But... then my only daughter and heir died so I was forced to free her in order to make some sweet sweet babysss! And thankfully its worked and I have a nice baby boy who is growing up nicely. In foreign affairs I have managed to take a county away from Norway.. and thats it seeing as I have had civil wars every few years. But Poland, which was growing into a blob, has just been split in half by the Duchy of Mazovia, which makes me pretty happy right now

[The Stranger]

do you guys also look to marry your male heir into big houses with agnatic cognatic primogeniture who have a woman as heir. and then wack off the ruler so that your grandson will inherit those holdings?

[Fisherking]

It is not what I eagerly seek out but I have done that, yes.

But you need to be lucky to get away with it. I even had to kill off a couple of sons to get the job done in the end.

[The Stranger]

why not? its an easy way to gain land :P

[Fisherking]

Marrying heirs to heirs takes a lot of research and time. Marrying heirs to rulers is bad because the kids are a different line. They have to be bumped off so you can get an heirs your self.

To me it is too much trouble and too much money spent. It costs as much or more than stealing the thing. If a duke marries a countess or an heiress that is fine but as I usually marry for a good spymaster killing my wife is usually not an option.

[Montmorency]

Do any of you just play the loyal subject?

[The Stranger]

no...

btw i encountered something that seems to be a bug. i am currently the HRE and i gave one of my vassals the kingdom of Aragon (which i got by marriage) and she then conquered the kingdom of Leon and made that her primary title. so far so good. she was ofcourse totally happy with me because i gave her a kingdom so she was 100+. now a few years later suddenly she goes from 100+ to 100- and a 103% chance of rebellion...

WHY!!! i dont get this. when i check her status it seems that the +happiness she got cuz i gave her a kingdom have dissapeared but all the + and - that are still there dont add up to -100

[Fisherking]

There seem to be some problems.

I know when I load up some times it seems everyone has changed their minds and decided to hate me.

I know there are some random factors but they should not jump into saved games.

[The Stranger]

Marrying heirs to heirs takes a lot of research and time. Marrying heirs to rulers is bad because the kids are a different line. They have to be bumped off so you can get an heirs your self.

To me it is too much trouble and too much money spent. It costs as much or more than stealing the thing. If a duke marries a countess or an heiress that is fine but as I usually marry for a good spymaster killing my wife is usually not an option.

hm i found war to be rather crippling here in terms of eco, even if you are winning it empties your coffers. very different to RTW (or the other TW games after it) where war was about the most lucrative you could do if you didnt care about massacring everybody. i really have to hunt for prisoners of war to make sure i dont go broke :P (this was at the start of the game tho, now i got alot of money due to inheritence and such but still if i would hire mercs instead of rely on my vassals i would go broke)

hiring mercs costs so much and your income is usually rather low (for me just enough to pay for my own troops + 1 1500 merc company, and i own a 9/9 demesne...)

all though i did come across a neat trick, give land to the holy companies and then make them your vassal (make sure you put them in a region with the same culture as yourself) then you can hire the companies for 40 piety instead of 170 and since they are your vassal you dont have to pay for upkeep!!!

[Fisherking]

You know, I tried to take England in the 1066 as Norway. They had the smallest army and to build up I had to take Mercs.

I didn’t know how long I could keep them going with what they cost of course so I wanted to rush in and kill off what I could and disband them. But I had to bring them all the way form Norway.

To make a long story short, I beat both armies and took England and kept the Mercs to the end.

Each time I took a settlement or county I got money from loot. Sometimes a couple of hundred.

I also used up the Mercs and they got cheaper as they got smaller.

So captured nobles are not the only way money is made from war. Of course the better developed the county the more the money, and I never noticed getting a cent anywhere in Ireland.

[The Stranger]

ive noticed that those starting scenarios are beafed up. you got a lot more money as the Bastard as well and a huge army...

ive never gained a couple of hundred from looting tho... thats alot. ive gained like 10 to 30 at most... maybe this was before the latest patch?

its possible to duke it out with countries who have 2x as much armies or money as you. i like the way waging war is here, its a real challenge. but its not impossible if you do some good manouvering.

[frogbeastegg]

Do any of you just play the loyal subject?

I did in one game, as a duke in the Kingdom of Sicily. The AI drove me to utter ruin in the space of a few years. When it wasn't declaring war after war on large Muslim realms, it was giving me useless lands which left me strategically vulnerable. It loved to ignore the enemy armies and the numerous rebellions back home, and, since the AI had taken the troops abroad, I was the only person left to do anything about these massive armies rampaging across my dukedom. Mercenaries are the only reason I survived longer than a year. I spent the entire brief game bankrupt, out-numbered, and fighting frantically to survive. Each time I managed to pull through the AI would give me more useless provinces and over-stretch my resources. By useless I mean zero income, zero manpower, super-high revolt risk due to different religion and culture, and across the sea. Each time I scraped my way to almost-recovery after the last war, off the king would go on a new one. I swear that my liege had a trollface avatar!

After that, I'm sticking with independent realms.

[Fisherking]

I did in one game, as a duke in the Kingdom of Sicily. The AI drove me to utter ruin in the space of a few years. When it wasn't declaring war after war on large Muslim realms, it was giving me useless lands which left me strategically vulnerable. It loved to ignore the enemy armies and the numerous rebellions back home, and, since the AI had taken the troops abroad, I was the only person left to do anything about these massive armies rampaging across my dukedom. Mercenaries are the only reason I survived longer than a year. I spent the entire brief game bankrupt, out-numbered, and fighting frantically to survive. Each time I managed to pull through the AI would give me more useless provinces and over-stretch my resources. By useless I mean zero income, zero manpower, super-high revolt risk due to different religion and culture, and across the sea. Each time I scraped my way to almost-recovery after the last war, off the king would go on a new one. I swear that my liege had a trollface avatar!

After that, I'm sticking with independent realms.

Oh, but those are perfectly good lands across the sea. You just have to hold onto them for 25 or 30 years to make them pay.

My in-laws managed to lose their kingdom in Spain so I went to get it back.

When I looked around for lords to populate the place, it looks like they all died off. In fact it would seem that other than one or two who have no interest in joining me, the Spanish as a whole are extinct.

The French have a county or two along the border and I have Galicia.

The rest is a patchwork of Kingdoms with duchies scattered randomly about and warring with each other, for the time being.

[Ishmael]

All the people in the Game of Thrones game talking this up are making me seriously consider getting it. Does anybody know how large a download it is if I get it via Steam?

[Sylon]

I don't know how large it is on Steam, but it shouldn't be any larger than the Gamersgate download, which was less than 1GB if I remember correctly.

[frogbeastegg]

Oh, but those are perfectly good lands across the sea. You just have to hold onto them for 25 or 30 years to make them pay.

25 or 30 years. Ha! My game was over in a grand total of 11 years! I'm still amazed I managed to hold on for that long with King Suicide McDeathwish as my liege.

IMO you need either power or peace to make provinces like that viable. If you're able to defend them, that's great. If you don't need to defend them, that's great. If you can't afford to raise both your army and navy at the same time, and are dragged back into war within weeks of each peace declaration, you're doomed. They count for a lot of warscore against you.

[Arjos]

Does anybody know how large a download it is if I get it via Steam?

748 MB, if you like the genre and have spare cash, definitely buy it, it's very detailed, well researched and most of all: addictive XD