Crusader Kings II

[Monk]

People are indeed overreacting though.

To take this...



I have seen A and B, but C is more like:
c) zomg paradox suckzozors republics mongols theoracy pope n' stuff

I agree. Personally I think it's a stupid idea but I'm not gonna burn down Paradox's home or kick their pets because of it. I can simply not buy it and be perfectly content, (as well as post over the top .gif images to express my lack of interest )

I stand by my words far earlier in this thread that the paradox forums are a sordid hive of scum and villainy.

[rickinator9]

I stand by my words far earlier in this thread that the paradox forums are a sordid hive of scum and villainy.

Yup, but you can't go around it if you're a modder or interested in mods. The policy of that site is just so arbitrary. Threads are locked if paradox doesn't like them(for example the suggestion of a CKII modding nexus didn't make it out alive). There is also the rule of 'No external links'. I mean come on, who doesn't allow external links?!

[Arjos]

And here it is :P



Started in 1081, I actually united it a little earlier than this pic: was hoping for civil wars in some kingdoms to be over, but got eventually tired of waiting lol
Restoring it too soon, was a bad move, it reset the imperial incorporation of the kingdoms, so in the end most areas are outside of the crown law...
Still there are so many Despots, that there is virtually no chance of rebellions, unless one starts to play as a maniac I guess...

BTW, no title was gained by marriage: proper roman bloodshed XD
My vassals in the east and around the Black Sea, went crazy for Holy Wars ahahahah
I've also started to advance towards the Elbe :)
The most incredible thing for me, was the failed mongolian invasion (there used to be a Sultanate, stretching from Egypt to India) and after that, they never showed up again lol

[The Stranger]

nice :D

[rickinator9]

there used to be a Sultanate, stretching from Egypt to India

Still better than Fatimids.

The most interesting thing in that screenshot for me are the Ghaznavids. They are mostly the same as in the 1066 start.

[Monk]

I think you should pacify Germania

[Arjos]

Bringing peace to the soul of Varus, is proceeding well, but now this happened:



Never played this far in the game, perhaps I'll finally have a place to send my milion levies XD

[The Stranger]

i can never set myself to finish such games :S once i hit a certain size i just get bored by it

i should perhaps learn the art of losing with ck2 :D

[rickinator9]

i can never set myself to finish such games :S once i hit a certain size i just get bored by it

i should perhaps learn the art of losing with ck2 :D

It isn't the boredom for me, but the speed. After you get past 1200, the game just seems to become much much slower. You can go through a month in 5 seconds in 1066 at speed 5, but in 1200, that's 20 seconds, and that's boring in peacetime.

[The Stranger]

so in the end its still the boredom :P but ye it gets all too slow n stuff... too many plots to cancel etc -_-

but as the habsburgers im doing good :P almost became emperor, i was heir but i died before the emperor died...

[naut]

Tried the GoT mod. Is it just me or does it deteriorate into an inbreeding mess after a while? The AI really has no scruples when the inbreeding modifiers are removed.

Edit: Looking through the events it appears that the lover events do not discount adult children from the equation. That's where all these inbred bastards are coming from, mothers taking their sons as lovers (or fathers and daughters!)

[The Stranger]

havent tried it yet lately. but it might be rdm because i had one game in spain campaign where my family not in my court was only inbreeding. it was so annoying :P but that was just 1 game where it happened

[Arjos]

Argh, it was building up for the show down of the century and... Automatic Game Over XD

The Timurids, conquered Norway: yes, they stretched from Iceland to Ethiopia lol (well with few kingdoms in the middle, but nothing they couldn't have conquered in few years)...
I was so interested in playing this east vs west scenario :(

Bottom line, coming January 2nd 1453, it all ends...

[Beskar]

You can edit the define so it can go past that date.

[Double A]

Or transfer your save onwards.

[Monk]

Two days until the mini-DLC hits and 1.08 is forced upon us. You know the drill if you're on steam by now, set to "do not update" and hope for the best if you have a game going!

Some good stuff in this patch.

MAJOR:
- Added Nahua culture and Aztec religion

MINOR:
- Retinues no longer get free leaders
- Liege levies raised via the province view are now raised in the selected province
- You can now forbid your council from leading armies
- Optimized succession calculation, which could cause massive slowdowns in big dynasties with many landed members
- Intrigue plots vs barons or their courtiers can now include their liege's courtiers and other vassals
- Fixed Scottish Schiltron building giving 10x defensive bonus to pikes
- Fixed Dutch cultural retinue lacking pikes
- Fixed an issue with AI strength calculations the first month after loading a game
- A bit more randomness in the size of the rebel reinforcements in civil wars
- The Pope now receives even less war contribution score in Crusades
- Fixed a crash with a null war list in Province View and Diplomacy View
- Mercenary regiments and Holy Orders will now automatically get a new leader when the old one dies
- Less likely that the captain of a merc regiment gets reassigned to lead something else
- Kingdoms no longer assimilate out of de jure empires that have no holder
- Fixed a bug with not being able to move capital back to your title's preferred capital
- The Imperial Reconquest CB now only works for the restored Roman Empire
- The Imperial Reconquest CB no longer clears out all rulers under the title
- Disbanding multiple selected units will never disband retinues if there are non-retinues in any selected unit
- Liege levies will now disband if their owner is at war with the owner of the unit
- Retinues no longer reinforce if their owner has no money
- Diplo AI: Imprisoned vassals or below will always accept a demand for religious conversion, and go free from prison
- AI: Much better at assigning flank commanders for important armies
- AI: Less likely to go overboard with Crown Authority
- AI: Not interested in Lower CA plots in irrelevant kingdoms/empires
- AI: Fixed a bug with it not dismissing liege levies when done with them
- Army AI: Fixed a bug with invasions not happening when they should
- Ledger page with independent rulers now shows troops including retinues
- Shift or Ctrl clicking buttons in Ruler Designer coat of arms designer now multiplies the frame change by 5 or 10
- Fixed bug where byzantine unit pack was replacing all eastern europeans
- Raising troops via raise all or raise on province will now merge units
- Now allowed to ask to join tribal invasion wars
- Fixed bugged altaic culture building modifier
- Fixed the history of c_sodermanland
- Fixed consistency issue with German characters name Philipp
- Fixed faulty employment date for Robrecht van Gent
- Fixed broken Ua Conchobair dynasty
- Province of Bira no longer stays Orthodox for the entire game
- Fixed bug where imprisoned underage rulers could kill their regents
- Gave The Two Saltuks from Erzurum their correct names
- Corrections to Phillip IV of France and many related characters
- Sigrid Ylving no longer has the wrong mother
- Fixed the deathdate of King Charles IV of France
- Added missing Ecumenical Patriarchs
- Fixed a bug where courtiers of landless characters would be listed in a weird location
- Fixes and additions to various Frankish and Occitan dynasties
- Fixes and additions to the Hunfirding dynasty
- Missing marriages, mothers, children of Valdemar II and Erik V of Denmark added
- Fixed a rare crash in 'on_siege_over'
- AI: The independence faction does not present an ultimatum until it has at least 33% of the liege's strength
- AI: De jure vassals of your culture and religion, except kings, will not start or join independence factions
- Reduced the chance of massive rebel reinforcements for the Independence faction
- Diplo AI: Mongols and Aztecs will no longer revoke titles off human players just for having the wrong religion or culture
- Armenian, Georgian and Alan cultures updated with new names, name linkings and patronymics
- Fixes to the County of Melgueil
- Ingeborg Magnusdotter now has the correct gender
- Sartag Khan now converts to Nestorianism instead of Orthodoxy
- Corrections to the religion of several Zirid characters
- A few Catalan name fixes
- Changes and additions to the Godwin dynasty
- Fixed a bug with Primogeniture when tracing back through the current holder's mother
- Fixed a very rare crash with Holdings with no holder
- Fixed an issue with inheritance by landless characters when there was no de jure vassal title they could take off the previous holder
- Diplo AI: Much more careful about imprisonments
- Imprisoning characters no longer affects their position in the line of succession
- Fixed a bug with the event pictures on Mac and Linux
- Added blinded trait to historically blind characters in the database
- Added missing space to Armenian dynasty prefix and Irish male patronym
- Byzantine, Armenian and Georgian character fixes and additions
- Fixed wrong liege for Duchy of Champagne and County of Gevaudan at certain dates
- Welsh/Hiberno-Norse Dublin character fixes and additions
- New dynasty for the Kurdish Shaddadids, extended Mirdasid pedigree
- On player agreement, the game now sends information to the Paradox backend when you start a game, containing the names of the DLCs and Mods you run (can be toggled with "dont_track_data = [yes/no]" in settings.txt)
- AI: The leader of a claimant faction will no longer leave the faction in an elective realm where the claimant is currently the heir
- AI: Fixed a slight bug where current heirs would not back claimant factions for themselves
- Spymaster Scheme job has been overhauled and simplified
- AI: Fixed an issue with the number of available galleys check

FOR MODDERS:
- The criterion for determining who can lead troops is now determined by the allow trigger for 'job_marshal' (so women can now be modded to lead armies)
- Added trigger 'is_adult'
- Added trigger 'is_marriage_adult'
- Hid the religion screen when playing pagan, it was semi-broken looking anyway

[Monk]

When news broke last month that EUIV was nearing it's alpha state (and looking pretty good i might add), Paradox teased in a joking way that they one day might include an official converter DLC. Well, while that news has largely died away and only resides in the hearts and minds of crazy people like me, it appears that Paradox is making great efforts to bridge the gap between CK and EU with the next CK2 expansion: Republics!

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/12/08/cr...-the-republic/


Crusader Kings 2: The Republic will be launched alongside the 1.09 patch and will bring with it new gameplay mechanics such as: The rise of merchant leagues, Patrician Families who vie for the seat of the Doge and who scheme against one another, and the ability to lose complete control of your nation and not receive a game over.

The DLC will also feature "trade zones" which can be directly controlled by the patrician families, and an election mechanic wherein you invest money to increase your chances to win the control of your home faction.

There's also a humorous remark about how 1.09 will be a fairly meaty patch with loads of new features, "some of which players have even asked for!" No doubt in reference to the last DLC. Read up at the link for a few more interesting details.

[Beskar]

Republics? Finally. The first faction I tried to play as was Venice.

[komnenos]

when is the beginning year of that?

[komnenos]

And also what about other expansions of that? Do they start at the same year?

[Beskar]

when is the beginning year of that?

Same as normal.

[rickinator9]

I spotted a nice 'Find Character' search engine for the characters tab in one of the screenshots.

[rickinator9]

You may not have noticed but DevDiary 1 and DevDiary 2 have been released on ParadoxPlaza for a few days.

[Monk]

I hope you guys had a great holiday. If you hadn't noticed, CK2 has been on sale numerous times in the steam sale. If you haven't bought it by now you are a very silly person. Or not, I'm sure you have your reasons!

I just finished one of my longest games yet and had an absolute blast. It had everything. War, treachery, fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, chases, escapes, true love, miracles. Whew. Took me two weeks to get through it and I had a great time. If you want a laugh and got some time to kill, why not read some of the crazy stuff I saw.

Here's a map I made for fun, I'll try to run down a bit of interesting parts of the world and some stories behind them.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The world at 1425, when I stopped, starting as Matilda of Tuscany in the Project Balance mod




Gosh where to start? I supposed the start date choice, which was The Alexiad start, 1081. I like this start for a number of reasons. One, England doesn't fall apart like they usually do from their invasion start, and two, the Byzantines are at a very manageable size and have to earn their big blob. Speaking of the Byzantines, let's start there!

Byzantium - After nearly three centuries of turmoil the Emperors of Constantinople have finally turned their fortunes around and reclaimed the majority of Anatolia, with the exception of the crusader state of Nikea, which is controlled by the King of Scotland. They might have united much sooner and posed a problem had it not been for one of my cousins. Married to the Doux of Thrace, somehow, one of my dynasty managed to put together a rather impressive array of inter-realm alliances in Byzantium. For two hundred years, no Emperor sat on the throne in Constantinople without his blessing. If they tried, he and his descendants would spark a bloody civil war to put someone else on the throne. It was only after the powerhouse Duchy of Thrace was broken up and divided around 1290 that the Emperors could consolidate their power and begin to push against the Rumites

Crusader States - From the founding of the first Crusader Kingdom in 1160, European knights have fighting in many distant lands and founding kingdoms in their wake. The lone bastion of Christianity in Spain, the Kingdom of Portugal (that kinda brownish, orange color in spain) stands against the might of the Almoravids, who until very recently were a huge threat to southern France. However, a powerful crusade backed by the Kings of Italy, Scotland and France, secured the power base of the Almoravids in Northern Africa and completely broke their advance. The Holy Roman Empire holds the holy city of Jerusalem, but the growing power of Syria threatens their borders daily. Not even the numerous holdings of the Knights Templar in the Levant can hold back the tide forever.

Syria - (the darker grey/brown in the near east) When the great Ilkhanate invaded the lands of the Seljuk Turks, few could predict how absolute the Turks' defeat would be. Completely broken and scattered, most of the Turkish successor states were either swallowed up by the march of the Hordes, or fell to constant infighting, unable to increase their power. The exception was Syria, who in the aftermath of the fall of the Seljuk Empire, forged a powerful state to withstand the ferocity of the Horde. Surviving two invasions by the Ilkanate, Syria now directs its focus to the Crusaders who have occupied Jerusalem for nearly 250 years. Syria's strength is unrivaled in the east with only the Byzantines having a more powerful army at their command.

The Hordes (or lack there of) - After their dramatic rise to power in 1230 it seemed that the Horde was destined to rule the world. Destroying the Great Seljuk Empire, casting down the great State of Cumania, there was no stopping them. Until time caught up with them, that is. Stretched thin over so much land, the hordes eventually fell. First to infighting amongst each other as the Golden Horde attacked the Ilkhanate in the late 1270s, and then finally, themselves. The Golden Horde fractured and was overtaken by the powers they conquered. The Ilkhanate on the other hand consolidated its last remaining territories and has managed to hold onto a bit more land than their treacherous brothers. Though largely disconnected, the strongholds of the Ilkhanate are some of the most heavily fortified locations of the known world.

England - The fall from grace if there ever was. A powerhouse of the North for over two centuries, England envied no kingdom. Her mighty armies clashed with France annually in the 70 years war, fought for control of the Duchy of Normandy. For ages, I thought the English were going to be a big breakout power, as not only were they keeping things together at home, they were winning territory from France almost every other war. Early in the 1200s however, a plot by a forgotten kinsman of the ruling King turned the realm upside down. A war to usurp the throne soon spiraled into 50 years of bitter factional fighting, loyalist, rebel, they became simple meaningless labels thrown around as an excuse to kill. When the war ended, England was in tatters. There was nothing left of the great Kingdom of England that William the Conqueror had forged. The line was extinguished somewhere in the war, and with no authority of succession, the title passed to a lowly bishop where it remains to this day. The Prince-Bishopric of England was a micro-state covering the grounds of single temple for over forty years, and only recently has begun to piece itself back together.


HRE/Italy - I can't really talk about one without the other, because Italy (controlled by me) and the HRE's history go back centuries to the first founding of the kingdom in 1163. Andrea II, the great grandson of Matilda of Tuscany, was a bit of a schemer. For twenty years he had bribed, threatened and forged illegal documents to ensure that nearly all of northern Italy belonged to him, and if not directly under his command, than they certainly owed him their allegiance. Such behavior wins you very few allies, and it wasn't long before one of his enemies pleaded to the Pope for help, who responded by promptly excommunicating Andrea. This would have been really annoying had it not been for a crusade that was called just a few years later. The Pope, who recognized Andrea's considerable military power could be of use, offered a compromise. Go on crusade and have all your sins absolved!

Who can argue with that? Not only did Andrea lead the crusading armies of Christendom himself as he stormed Tyre, but he personally captured the fabled city of Jerusalem itself. The Pope, so impressed that such a man could redeem himself, that upon the victory of the crusade crowned Andrea King of Jerusalem and Italy. It was a great day for the di canossa dynasty. But it would not last. The Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire began to feel threatened by the sudden rise of one of his vassals to the rank of King. Not only that, but rumors were spreading that Andrea was planning rebellion (it doesnt help that I was in the Independence faction ) . Perhaps a rebellion to take the seat of Emperor for himself! Andrea was a hero, a legend, a tale mothers tell children about to inspire them to good deeds. Everyone loved him, and where he lead, many would follow. So it wasn't a shock that a few years later, the Kaiser demanded Andrea relinquish his control of Jerusalem and hand the title of King over to the man who "rightfully deserved it", the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire...

It very nearly caused a war. But in the end, Andrea adjudicated and agreed to the demands of the Emperor. This event would spark a blood feud between the di canossa and the Salian dynasties that would last for over seventy years where it was finally settled in the Italian war for independence. There, not only would the Kings of Italy break free of the Holy Roman Empire and begin to build their hegemony over Italy, they would also claim the Kingdom of Jerusalem in a separate war and win back the holy city for the last surviving child of Andrea II, if only briefly. And just to add insult to injury, the war saw the last Salian Kaiser of the HRE to hold power, as when he died shortly after a new house took control. The the last child of Andrea II still living at this time was named Eve, as she had been born the year of the city's capture, would rule in Jerusalem for 15 years afterward. Her children would eventually lose control of the kingdom to political infighting, which opened the door for the HRE's to return to the Holy Land.

Italy would grow considerably after their breakaway from the HRE, and for the next two centuries would enjoy a rapid growth in both territory and military power. Numerous small wars were fought on the boot itself to increase the power of the growing kingdom and unite the Italian culture provinces, which until now, had been separately governed. Many incredible characters came and went in that time, but the last truly great ruler of Italy was Dorota I the Bold.

In 1290, as Byzantium power was rising in the east, the new masters of Italy were falling upon hard times. A brutal civil war had torn the northern half of the peninsula apart. The powerful dukes of Genoa and Venice were demanding more and more autonomous power, and as their demands went unheeded they decided they would force the issue. Newly crowned King, Candido I, was killed at the battle of Tuscany as he tried to rally his loyalists in defense of the dynastic homelands, leaving no heir. The Kingdom passed to his half-sister... who happened to be married to the new Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire. Dorota soon found that she had inherited a Kingdom fast falling apart. Powerful dukes were overshadowing the central authority of the crown, and the list of vassals who were allied to her was growing shorter by the day. When her husband, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, denied Italy military aid, the aid Dorota desperately needed to save her Kingdom, she petitioned the Pope for a divorce. The marriage had lost its convenience, not only in being a useless alliance, but it had been agreed that children born of the union would be of the father's dynasty. Without a divorce, it would mean the end for di canossa control of Italy!

The new Queen of Italy quickly took a new husband (with a much better arrangement for her children), rallied the remaining retinues and loyalists in Modena, and solidified her power with a terribly bloody victory over the Duke of Venice. A victory hard won by a massive army of mercenaries, made possible only by the huge warchests Italy had filled in her long years of slow careful expansion. One by one the disloyal fell to Dorota's mercenary backed army until finally the faction was broken. Every traitor was dealt with, and as they soon found out, as Bold as their new queen was, she was also a cruel hearted woman. It was not uncommon to find her in the dungeons, personally torturing those her men had captured on the battlefield.

As the last powerful di canossa Queen, Dorota would spend her 56 years on the throne ruling with an iron fist (dying at the age of 87, she proves the old adage of the good die young, but live forever). She brutally suppressed dissent and increased the authority of the crown. Though harsh, her methods returned the true power of the realm back to the throne, and from that centralized base, Dorota was able to support the numerous crusader actions of the late 1300s. She sent troops to back the defense of Portugal in the Jihad of 1342, as well as sending her only son and then heir to the battlefields of North Africa in the crusade against the Almoravids. She even oversaw the defense against the African invasion of Italy, which smashed the landings in the southern boot soundly! Italy's Queen may have been a tyrant to her own land, but in the eyes of the Pope she could do no wrong.

Her passing was a turning point in the history of Italy. None of her vassals loved her, but each learned to respect Dorota the Bold, for she was a true defender of Christendom and a powerful ruler. Those who came after her would lack the same conviction she had shown was necessary to hold the powerful dukes of the realm under their thumb. Little by little, the privileges and rights of the crown were eroded. More and more, the rulers of Italy were forced to contend with wars from within, instead of expanding their influence without. Until at last, the last di canossa king, Candido III, died in 1420. The demesne, which had grown to include modena, Tuscany and Lombardy over the long march of time, had shrunk to just Tuscany by his reign. Blocked by powerful vassals at every political move he made, Candido was unable to move the borders of the Kingdom, nor the borders of his authority beyond that which he inherited. He died childless at age 35, an ignoble end to the line of Italian Kings and Queens.

There was so much more than that, but wow. If I tried to write down every story that happened, i'd be here for three days! It's true that my main line died out, but there were others out there. Di canossa family members ruled as vassals in Portugal, Byzantium, Aquitaine and a few other places! They were even Kings of Castile for a short time, before being ousted by a coup.

Have I mentioned I love this game? Yeah I do. This is why. I could spend weeks reflecting on every little thing I saw my characters do and all the trouble they got into.

[komnenos]

what a good news.I will buy it surely. Thanks for good news!

[Greyblades]

I don't suppose anyone knows any "the different methods of gaining land" and "how to develope your nation quickly" guides? I've been out of the loop for quite a while.

[Monk]

I don't suppose anyone knows any "the different methods of gaining land" and "how to develope your nation quickly" guides? I've been out of the loop for quite a while.

High diplomacy chancellors have a chance to fabricate claims on entire duchies at a time. I think the skill threshold for that ability is around 15, so it's a good idea to always seek out the best people for that job. You will still get claims on single counties but you can ignore them until something better comes along. Of course, fabricating on a duchy is very expensive so remember to float a bunch of cash.

Inviting claimants to your court and landing them. Look at the title you want to acquire and next to the history button you'll see claimants, which is everyone who has a claim on that title. You can either invite random courtiers, or, use marriages to get people of your dynasty with valid claims on that title. Remember that you don't have to directly inherit something to get a claim on it, the 2nd and 3rd in line also get strong claims.

Daughters of your dynasty are one of the most important assets you can have in CK2, you should learn to think about them strategically and make use of the betrothal mechanism. Good heirs usually are snatched up instantly the moment they hit 16 by the AI, but Paradox specifically designed betrothals to give the player an advantage. The AI is programmed specifically not to use them, so check the available betrothals every few years and see what your options are. Line up each daughter as best you can, either for a military alliance or to get claims in the family.

[Greyblades]

Ok I got a situation, the heir I was grooming was assassinated by some smalltime norse bishop who I promptly murdered, now I'm left with a weak heir, is there anything I can do to avert the inevitable sucession war?

[Hamata]

just bought this game for $7.03 on steam sale what a deal

[rickinator9]

Ok I got a situation, the heir I was grooming was assassinated by some smalltime norse bishop who I promptly murdered, now I'm left with a weak heir, is there anything I can do to avert the inevitable sucession war?

Stocking up money for bribes. Killing guys with honorary titles or killing ambitious vassals. Or, if you have more capable children, just kill the heir. Switching to elective might also help, but it is a bit risky with big realms. Elective has become my favorite kind of succession law for small realms. If you mostly have dynasty members as vassals, you have to be doing something wrong if you lost your primary title.