Crusader Kings II

[rickinator9]

That very large bulgar nation can't stand against those free mercs they have. Be on the lookout for backstabs.

[Beskar]

Secura came and saw my save, and this is how she summed it up.
"You played 15 years and you have done.. nothing?"

Ouch. That is the price of the Crusade bugging indeed.

[rickinator9]

Post 1.05 western empires have been seriously nerfed, mostly due to the independance war changes. If one vassal rebels they can usually handle it. Two? Still, probably handle it. Any more than that and it's a good bet at least one of those wars will end with a new independant faction:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Toscana and Provence both look to be in very good positions to win their independence early in the game, especially if they work together. Weak emperors are now a huge problem for our familiar grey blobs. Will be interesting to see how this further pans out as I play deeper into the campaign.

You haven't even looked at the byzz.

[Monk]

You haven't even looked at the byzz.

They seem a bit scattered in that shot, true, but that's a civil war for the throne not independance.

Byzantium is holding together well in my current game, however they aren't expanding much. It's actually refreshing to see. Empires are no longer then rock solid institutions they were a couple patches ago and take a very good ruler to hold together. Incidentaly the HRE has reclaimed Toscana and Pisa, who rebelled at the start of the game after around 25 years, once they got a ruler worth his salt. Bugs and quirkiness aside I am really enjoying life post patch.

And THIS is why i like causes of death!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Poor Duke William. He was set to unite all of England but dies in 1068 from a bought of pneumonia. With their would be king dead, the Normans prove to be little threat and Saxon England survives. Under the rule of King Harold.. the great?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[rickinator9]

I had a pretty nice happening in this game. Trebizond began expanding on the Crimea and beyond. The GH conquered them and evoked the 'king of Trebizond' title. The GH somehow collapsed and now a lot of small states emerged in the steppe. Trebizond was now divided into four states: The Crimea, Chersonesos, Armeniacon and Trebizond proper. Soon, the wars started and the target was the Crimea. Crimea was partially subdued under Trebizond. Armeniacon was divided between Byzantium and Rum. Chersonesos and Trebizond became vassals of the Byzantine empire. That was the epic tale of Trebizond.

I will have a full report tomorrow in the challenge thread.

[The Stranger]

what is the prize? or challenge?

[johnhughthom]

Secura came and saw my save, and this is how she summed it up.
"You played 15 years and you have done.. nothing?"

Ouch. That is the price of the Crusade bugging indeed.

Hmm, I'd hate to think what Secura would say about some of my games, I have gone over 100 years as a one county family in the original.

what is the prize? or challenge?

The challenge is to recreate the Byzantine Empire's greatest extent, with the Byzzies, Crusaders or Rum from a 1205 start. Prizes are dlc for the game. Or just check the thread, you lazy Dutch man.

[rickinator9]

The challenge is to recreate the Byzantine Empire's greatest extent, with the Byzzies, Crusaders or Rum from a 1205 start. Prizes are dlc for the game. Or just check the thread, you lazy Dutch man.

The De Jure isn't the real extent of the Byzantine Empire. They never expanded above the danube River, or so far into the desert.

[johnhughthom]

The De Jure isn't the real extent of the Byzantine Empire. They never expanded above the danube River, or so far into the desert.

Pfft, I'm calling you nitpickinator9 from now on.

[Arjos]

BTW as for patch notes, playing with Rum I encountered some bugs: sometime I can see my vassal's council members (marshal or steward usually) and the regent event (a new regent should get appointed due to his skills and winning a duel) seems broken, as the same regent remains, unless it's supposed to go that way, but they didn't write "the same regent remains in office" text...

[Monk]

BTW as for patch notes, playing with Rum I encountered some bugs: sometime I can see my vassal's council members (marshal or steward usually) and the regent event (a new regent should get appointed due to his skills and winning a duel) seems broken, as the same regent remains, unless it's supposed to go that way, but they didn't write "the same regent remains in office" text...

The council in general seems to have been bugged a bit thanks to 1.05. Council members will leave their positions sometimes for no obvious reason. In the past I always knew why a council member left, eg i appointed him to a duchy so now he has his own court, ect. But now, sometimes you'll have council members leave but they dont seem to be following any reason for it. Thankfully it doesn't seem to happen that often and most times you can rehire them back.

[johnhughthom]

That actually happened to me a few times pre 1.5.

[Arjos]

sometimes you'll have council members leave but they dont seem to be following any reason for it.

Another one, that I know of, is if their spouse dies...

[Monk]

Okay...
So I joined a crusade where I did the most work as in taking the most territories. At the end of it, it said King of France was biggest contributor (boo) and then it gave all the land to the already present Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Not sure how this is working..

Just encountered something like this. It turns out if a catholic ruler already owns the de jure kingdom that's being fought for, in this case, the KoJ, then you are fighting to restore land for that guy's faction. So basically, the pope called this crusade to expand the KoJ's borders, not to let anyone grab land.

However. If no one holds the de jure kingdom being fought for, then the one with the largest contribution score is given the kingdom.

[Beskar]

I thought as much, but yes. The crusade cost me really dearly too and I found out too late.

What is silly though, after a few years, KoJ collasped and half of it is owned by cyprus, and the other half is back in Muslim hands.

[rickinator9]

Has anyone noticed the 'Join war as allies' feature is being spammed by the AI. I went to war against the latins as Rum and all of a sudden France joins in. Nasty!

[Monk]

Has anyone noticed the 'Join war as allies' feature is being spammed by the AI. I went to war against the latins as Rum and all of a sudden France joins in. Nasty!

In the challenge scenario the Latins start with many frankish characters, so that's no surprise. The AI is much more careful about which wars it joins in 1.05c. If it dogpiles in you better watch out

[Chaotix]

Just got the game tonight. Took the stereotypical route and made William of Normandy into the Conquerer. Beat both the Saxons and Norse by 1071, and now I'm biding my time waiting till I have enough cash to usurp Anjou. After that, hoping to go after Wales pretty soon.

So far, I'm enjoying the game a lot. It's very time-consuming and difficult to pick up, though - the only other Paradox game I've played was the demo for EU2.

[rickinator9]

If you play a lot, you'll learn the basics very fast. I haven't even mastered the advanced strategies.

[The Stranger]

Just got the game tonight. Took the stereotypical route and made William of Normandy into the Conquerer. Beat both the Saxons and Norse by 1071, and now I'm biding my time waiting till I have enough cash to usurp Anjou. After that, hoping to go after Wales pretty soon.

So far, I'm enjoying the game a lot. It's very time-consuming and difficult to pick up, though - the only other Paradox game I've played was the demo for EU2.

ye its a bit overwhelming at first :P i had the same, never played a paradox game. i could only play on normal speed everything else was too fast, now 3 months later i find the fastest speeds not fast enough except for the times that i am too slow to hit the pause button :P

[rickinator9]

I find my own 4.5 speed(my system is below system requirements) the best.

[Secura]

I'm unsure if someone has mentioned this already, but there's a Game of Thrones mod in the making, the forum for which can be found here.

It's going to be based around Robert's Rebellion initially, though they're keen to expand onto other campaigns once the mod is running perfectly; alot of care and effort is going into it, which you can see for yourself in a few of the screenshots milling around, such as this one:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Family members (note his second child's parentage!), religion, titles held, nickname, even the creepy Bolton eyes... this one screenshot alone has me excited for a proper release. :3

[Arjos]

Very nice! ^^

[Chaotix]

I'm unsure if someone has mentioned this already, but there's a Game of Thrones mod in the making, the forum for which can be found here.

It's going to be based around Robert's Rebellion initially, though they're keen to expand onto other campaigns once the mod is running perfectly; alot of care and effort is going into it, which you can see for yourself in a few of the screenshots milling around, such as this one:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Family members (note his second child's parentage!), religion, titles held, nickname, even the creepy Bolton eyes... this one screenshot alone has me excited for a proper release. :3

I have to say, while I was playing I thought to myself, "this would be the perfect game for a Game of Thrones Mod," and "that means there must already be one in development". Eagerly awaiting its fruition.

[rickinator9]

Hmm, I hope they don't raise the bar too high, otherwise my pc won't be able to play it.

[Secura]

I have to say, while I was playing I thought to myself, "this would be the perfect game for a Game of Thrones Mod," and "that means there must already be one in development". Eagerly awaiting its fruition.

The original Crusader Kings had a Game of Thrones mod too, but I think these guys can be more faithful to the novels with all the new changes in the sequel.

On the vanilla game, I'm currently playing a game where I started as a custom Countess of Reggio; I'd like to form Sicily, but I've only got 8/17 provinces and lack any claims to the rest of it. Still, I managed to ascend to Queen, by claiming the titular Kingdom of Trinacria. Now to consolidate my demesne (and convert them from Orthodoxy/Islam!), fend off the vengeful Tripolitania/Kabylia and cross my fingers for a claim on Salerno or Apulia. ^_^

[The Stranger]

are you a duke? if so invite a claimant to a county and give this claimant a county in your duchy and then press his claim, this should add the county to your lands and this give you the 9/17 you need. or take the long road and use marriage or take the even longer road and use fabrication XD

ps if none of the claimants wish to accept the invitation then marry them to a courtier, the women are easiest since they dont need matrilinial to come to your court, but if there are only men among the candidates marry them matrilinially

[rickinator9]

That won't work. He doesn't have a kingdom that's de jure and as such will stay independent using this method.

PS: Stranger, you don't have to give the courtier a title. Being in the court will do.

[The Stranger]

nope, being in court only works if you are pressing a dejure claim for a courtier, giving him a title and then press a same or lower tier title will expand your lands. if you press a title that is similar or higher to your own or higher to what he has he will become independent

thus

if you press a courtier claim for anyone in the dejure lands of france he will become your vassal.
if you give a dukedom to a courtier and then press any duke tier claim it will be added to your land

but

if you press a kingdom tier claim for a courtier as a king he will become an independent king
or if you press a duke tier claim for a count he will become independent if the claim is not on your dejure. (i am actually not sure about this, but i think its right)

[Monk]

A shot from my current game. The Russian Bear has awoken 6 centuries early...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Or should I say the lion? I replaced the Duke of Rostov with a custom character and their symbol is that of the golden lion . I wanted to have one overarching goal for this game: Survive the Horde by any means necessary. To that end I quickly worked to unify the de jure Rus together into one Kingdom and it proved to be a scary experience. Even though I won big against Novgorod, a mislcalculation allowed the southern Rurikovich duchies to unify together beneath Turov. Normally that's not a problem, but Turov had Primogeniture which means they had solidified their hold.. and they were more powerful than my own forces. A cold war settled on the orthodox settled lands of the steppes. My custom dynasty, the House Alexandrov controlled the north, while the Rurikovich family controled the south. When we went to war we tore each other apart. The war for control of Turov ended up being the bloodiest and most back and forth war i've had in CKII. Usually it's over in the first few battles, but this one? Good lord. I lost the first round of engagements, rounded up some mercenaries and won the second round, putting us at Status Quo.

Round 3 (6 years into the war mind you) was a split decision, with each of us losing thousands of troops and my bank breaking. My poor duchess got "the careless" because i went into the red at least three times. But in the end my persistance paid off and I won, destroying the Duchy of Turov and asserting hegemony over the Southern de jure Rus lands. The downside was my levies were in shambles after a prolongued conflict and I had accumulated a HUGE relations hit from raised levies penalties. This was the very definition of war exhaustion. I had to utilise the new plots of rulers to remove some very nasty contenders who could have thrown the realm into chaos in its weakened state. The term "Russian politics" has become synonymous with a knife in the back, a feeling expressed both in jest and in total seriousness. One does not cross the newly crowed Kings of the Rus without expecting quick retaliation. Honorable or otherwise...

The war with Turov was over 40 years ago, and it's been a long road since. I've tied my dynasty into the fates of Norway, Denmark and Hungary. A child of Alexandrov blood is but a heart beat away from the successions in each of those nations. That will be my greatest victory I think. If I could get one of my sons on the HRE as well, that would just take the cake.

While seeing the map turned that awesome Russian green is amazing, the biggest coup ge grace is seeing House Rurikovich almost entirely destroyed. Their legacy is pretty much gone, only small counts here and there claim their descent from that line. Most of the line has been intermingled with the Cumans and as thus isn't even Russian anymore. After the Crimean war of 1130 that severely weakened the power of the Cuman Khaganate, I gave their last surviving successor with any real stats worth it a duchy out of pity. He is now the Duke of Crimea, but he owes everything to the Alexandrovs. House Alexandrov is the Rus. To say anything else is treason.

The Horde is coming but I'm ready. Even if I lose I'll be giving them one crazy fight. I'm making 21 per month and building provincial upgrades all the time. Oh.. and check this out.



The Byzantines and the HRE have been contained completely by outside powers and their own internal pressures. The Byzantines lost a war with the Turks which resulted in domino of civil wars. They have no crown authority now and sit at autonomous vassals. They are pathetically weak, the only reason their empire even exists is due to the divided state of the muslim world. The Turks could take them out but they can't seem to keep their empire in order. Mosul keeps rebelling and is giving them a huge headache, but they were more than happy to swallow up most of Armenia when the Doux of Armenia rebelled.

Some fun narratives have been cropping up in this campaign, and I have to give that credit to the character designer. I know it's limited and perhaps not as extensive as we might've hoped, but creating a custom dynasty changes the campaign in a whole new way. Every character (well not every one, but a lot of them!) are introducing their own little fun narratives into the game. I really care about all of these guys, because I feel like they are my characters. Perhaps far more than I would have just John Malkovich'ing into them without customization.

Like when 15 years removed from the Rus Unification Wars, the newly formed Kingdom of Rus went against its first true test, the Bulgars. The war was evenly matched when at the Battle of Cheremisa, the Alexandrov brothers Dimitry and Alexiv were killed while leading the flanking actions. They were perhaps my greatest generals - a little after that my queen, the original starting character and the founder of the dynasty died, leaving a son to rule after having lost two brothers and a mother to the war. He gathered the reinforcement levies and marched east to lead the final sieges himself... He still rules to this day and has since earned the moniker "The Great"

have I mentioned I love this game? Yes I think so.