Crusader Kings II

[rickinator9]

With 30000 men, you won't stand a chance against mongols.

[Monk]

Your confidence is overwhelming I still have a full century to prepare. I'm still expecting to lose but getting my dynastic ties so deeply ingrained with my neighbors has given me some reliable allies, which i fully intend to keep.

It's gonna be world war one and win or lose I'm gonna have a blast!

[The Stranger]

you guys really give too much credit to the mongols

chose ground wisely, preferably near the water (since you can avoid attrition that way while on water :P), if not possible then doomflank on a mountain county preferably with a rivercrossing.

theyll bring what? 60k? you can take that np if you play smart

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

So I just took the plunge since it's $20 on amazon. What ruler or country do you guys recommend for starting? Is the tutorial any good? I'm going to really dig in over the weekend but some direction would be welcome.

[scottishranger]

To start out you might want to be an Irish county. That will prevent you from getting overwhelmed. When you feel confident enough to be a King, I would suggest either Sweden or Poland. Both have pagan neighbors which will get you an introduction to warfare, and both have a decent number of vassals but not to much.

[The Stranger]

or if you like spain, take the duchy of barcelona, nice one to start with, allthough i dont know what differences the new patch have made for their starting position in 1066. i think it might be alot harder as them now, so in that case ireland would be good.

[Monk]

Welcome to the game ATPG! The tutorial is fine and will get you comfortable with the UI, how to declare war, how to use plots, and so on. But beyond that it's not much help. Like any Paradox game you're going to need to run some training campaigns to get a good feel for all of the mechanics. Until you learn more about the mechanics don't worry about losing, instead only concern yourself with learning and having fun.

To start out you might want to be an Irish county. That will prevent you from getting overwhelmed. When you feel confident enough to be a King, I would suggest either Sweden or Poland. Both have pagan neighbors which will get you an introduction to warfare, and both have a decent number of vassals but not to much.

Sweden is a relatively poor (in terms of money) game. I consider it more advanced solely due to the fact that if you don't manage yourself smart in the early game, by the mid-game you're broke and essentially not much of a threat to anyone. If you want my advice go Ireland first and foremost. Any of the counts there will introduce you to the absolute basics of character relations. You will learn the hard way of what to do/not to do, this thread also has helpful tips for anyone new to the game You willl also have the chance to form duchies and later the Kingdom of Ireland with very little outside hindrance. It's a great training sandbox.

After you feel comfortable I would follow Stranger's advice and go to Spain. Any of the Jimena brothers offer a great game for someone trying to learn more how to play. Iberia will teach you the intricacies of the character relation system, it's there you'll learn about multi-faction wars, title claimaints, de jure duchy importance and so on. Poland is also a good choice when your understanding of the game is intermediate and you want to get a bit deeper into things.

you guys really give too much credit to the mongols

chose ground wisely, preferably near the water (since you can avoid attrition that way while on water :P), if not possible then doomflank on a mountain county preferably with a rivercrossing.

theyll bring what? 60k? you can take that np if you play smart

Catching them on favorable terrain for your side is really the key. If you fail to do so their free 20k attrition proof doomstacks will get ya, which is what I am afraid might happen. It can be easy to get caught out of position on the eastern side of the map and facing down an attacking force on even terrain. Not something I want to do with the Mongols. But if I keep my coalition alive and continue to strengthen my levy pools it'll be a fun fight if nothing else.

[Secura]

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

It's alright, my Chancellor eventually fabricated a claim on Salerno, which I seized with both hands! The real difficulty in claiming the rest is that Genoa has rooted in deep and they're more capable of spamming mercenaries than I am.

My dynasty has moved onto it's third character now, which looks to be a tough ask since he's only sixteen and heavily reliant on his uncle. Still, his demesne includes the Kingdom of Trinacria and Naples (titular only, heh), the Kingdom of Sicily (save Apulia) and the Kingdom of Africa (rather, Tunis and Tripolitania, both given to me by the Pope for a successful crusade).

My cousin currently holds Jerusalem, having inherited from his father, who was the third son of my starting character; he's managed to fend off some attempts to reclaim the land (both de jure claims and jihad), but I'm unsure how long he can hold off against the Caliphate. Still, it's good to see my dynasty name stretching across various parts of the Med. :P

[Ishmael]

Man, appointing an antipope lets you rake in the cash. In the early-game, when I only controlled 5 counties, my income jumped from 3.75 gold/month to 18 gold/month, simply from all those taxes my bishops had been evading.

Also, a question for you guys - is it possible to change your capital city (e.g. from a castle to a town)? I ask because I'm fairly certain that I only receive full taxes from holdings that I personally own, and if I try to add a city to my demense when my capital is a castle I get a major penalty.

[The Stranger]

I think it is possible, but I think you will still get the penalty. and it wont net you more cash. the -30 wrong type bonus is negligble for the money you get anyway.

[rickinator9]

Guess I had a rough start then. I started as the byzantine duchy of Anatolia. After a while the civil strife began, and I was wondering: How come they get so many units? I wanted to be a loyalist, but the emperor didn't seem to care about me and the usurpers started to occupy my land. I was forced to declare war on the emperor. I really hated the game after that, but my next game was as the Komnenoi of Paphlagonia. I'm happy I didn't quit the game.

[Secura]

I think it is possible, but I think you will still get the penalty. and it wont net you more cash. the -30 wrong type bonus is negligble for the money you get anyway.

I was under the impression that you can only change capital across counties (say, from Reggio to Palermo as I have done), rather than between the county's holdings (castles, cities and churches)?

Besides, castles are supposed to be the main holding in any feudal lord's territory; the only occasions where this is not the case is for bishoprics such as Mainz and grand cities like Venezia.

[The Stranger]

yes but if you change it to a county where your primary (only) holding is a city, you can thus make your capital a city. it requires some work tho... and its not worth it

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Holy cow this is fun. I'm playing Ulster as my first campaign, I'm on my second Count, a 19 diplomacy ~15 steward just/gregarious/kind total coward (craven). His wife is 15 diplo 10 steward and the heir to a near by (but not neighboring) county (her dad had a rebellion and is now a Cathar heretic). Not sure what happens when he kicks the bucket - I assume I end up having control over it, right?

Anyway, I forged a claim on Tyrone and I'm building up my levy buildings to get a healthy lead over them, but it's slow going. I'm also worried about giving my marshal troops - he's level 12 mil but he's my brother and a pretender to the throne. With my diplomatic super powers he's only ~-30 relations. Can he steal my troops to seize the throne?

Also I have two daughters, the first (my heir) is a bona fide genius.

SO GOOD

[Monk]

Holy cow this is fun. I'm playing Ulster as my first campaign, I'm on my second Count, a 19 diplomacy ~15 steward just/gregarious/kind total coward (craven). His wife is 15 diplo 10 steward and the heir to a near by (but not neighboring) county (her dad had a rebellion and is now a Cathar heretic). Not sure what happens when he kicks the bucket - I assume I end up having control over it, right?

If your wife inherits then she will become a landed character, as in she'll rule from that county and have her own court, ect. You won't get the county but if you've been popping out children there's a good bet your number one heir will get her county along with inheriting everything you have. Unless you're running gravelkind succession in which case it's a bit more complicated.

Anyway, I forged a claim on Tyrone and I'm building up my levy buildings to get a healthy lead over them, but it's slow going. I'm also worried about giving my marshal troops - he's level 12 mil but he's my brother and a pretender to the throne. With my diplomatic super powers he's only ~-30 relations. Can he steal my troops to seize the throne?

No nothing like that. He cannot steal your troops while in command of them. But there's nothing stoping him from using his own personal levies when/if he rebels. In fact, putting guys who hate you at the head of weak armies is a good way of getting them killed and removing them as a threat. Provided you can spare the loss of the men who die with them, of course.

Glad to hear you're enjoying yourself

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I started with agnatic-whatever gravelkind and I think my first dude died too soon for me to change it. That's the one where the other potential heirs get parts right? Screw that lol.

I still only have one county so my brother doesn't have any land (and so I assume he has no personal levies). I really need him to die in a glorious victory. :P

[Monk]

I started with agnatic-whatever gravelkind and I think my first dude died too soon for me to change it. That's the one where the other potential heirs get parts right? Screw that lol.

I still only have one county so my brother doesn't have any land (and so I assume he has no personal levies). I really need him to die in a glorious victory. :P

Yeah exactly. It has its uses at the Kingdom/Empire level, but in my opinion you want to change that to primogeniture ASAP. Especially at the count/duke level, otherwise it causes way more trouble than it's worth

Good luck in managing the dynasty!

The Crusader kings II official forums are also a good place to look for stuff. for starting tips as well as stories from other players. Very good resource to be had.http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...sader-Kings-II

As well as this post here at the org.https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...post2053427135

I wrote it to give new players some starter tips, things that aren't blindingly obvious but also things that are incredibly useful.

[The Stranger]

nah man primogeniture all the way, otherwise agnatic open (turkish succession) and in some cases, such as being in jimena spain or rurokovich russia, go for seniority. gavelkind kinda sux but its the default option :P worst of all is ofcourse elective -_- which i recommend never to use unless you really want to do some serious roleplaying :P well.. it can come in handy if your son is like a total retard but killing him would be easier

[The Stranger]

is the GoT video game already out? not the rts but the skyrim/AC type game

[Chaotix]

In my limited experience gavelkind is good to keep on your Duchies/Counties once you're a King - it keeps your Dukes from acquiring too much territory and becoming usurper-capable. Only a real problem if you have Min Crown Authority though.

But I've run into problems with both in my England campaign.

[rickinator9]

New patch 1.05d is online.

Change log for 1.05d:

- Fixed an MP issue where clients would go OOS if the host had clicked around on the bookmarks or time widget at all
- De jure kingdoms can now assimilate into empires
- Fixed a bug with the Crusade CB where the kingdom title was usurped even if the holder was not involved
- Fixed a bug with the 'other_claim' CB where, on success, a title could be broken out of the top realm of the attacker
- Fixed a bug with the 'other_claim' CB where it would make the claimants your vassals when it should not
- Fixed some bugs in the new regency events
- The hostility of attached armies is now determined by the army they are attached to
- A very high opinion of the liege now has a greater effect on reducing the revolt risk
- Can't pick intrigue plots against people with no possible backers (lacking courtiers)
- No longer possible to revoke religious head titles, or plot to do so
- Halved the Varangian Guard in strength
- Removed some more initial Byzantine holdings
- Reduced the initial Crown Authority of the Byzantine Empire a bit
- Increased the initial Crown Authority of the Seljuk Turks and Mauretania
- Fixed a bug with dynasty 715 having a historical CoA when it should not
- Fixed another issue with de jure assimilation
- Vassals in revolt who _attack_ an outside state will no longer make their pre-war liege hostile to the target
- Fixed an issue with too many plots being evaluated for the quick plot button in the Character View
- Fixed another issue with huge plot power values due to the wrong cached military power
- Should no longer be possible to attach armies to navies in port
- AI: Should never try to revoke titles off landless vassals (Varangian Guard, etc)
- AI: Even more likely join a plot with the same goal a character is already plotting for, if the plot power of the asker is higher
- Added trigger 'yearly_income'
- Asking the Pope for an Indulgence now costs a minimum of 25 gold
- Fixed a rare crash when a plot target died while you were inviting a backer in the Diplo View

Why all the hate on the byzantines? At least give them a culture specific building. And if you halve the Varangians, do the same to the 8400 strong rumite Ghilman. I have to see what holdings they removed, but I guess they don't care about history.

At least I actually got a funny screenshot from 1.05c:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

At least I can revoke your name

[The Stranger]

lame.. i think ill remod the varangians.

[Arjos]

Afaik the largest recorded figure for the Varangoi was 5.000...
And actually in most battle reports they are given at about 2.000ish, after all they were "volunteers", already trained professionals...

The Turks usually demanded children in tribute from the steppe's communities or purchased them, going over 12.000 sometimes...

[Monk]

New patch 1.05d is online.



Why all the hate on the byzantines? At least give them a culture specific building. And if you halve the Varangians, do the same to the 8400 strong rumite Ghilman. I have to see what holdings they removed, but I guess they don't care about history.

At least I actually got a funny screenshot from 1.05c:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

At least I can revoke your name

I believe it's due to wanting to replicate history that they are nerfing the byzantines and buffing the Seljuk's. As it stands while the Byz empire is more unstable than the unbreakable powerhouse it was in 1.04, they can keep it together pretty easily. There's almost no chance of the empire imploding unless a huge series of events takes place that makes it so.

Nerfing the varangians is perfectly fine imo, reducing the CA is a bit much though. But CA doesn't even make sense for the Byzantines in the first place anyway... so

[The Stranger]

ur right so i modded the great companies and the catalan company :P

[rickinator9]

I'm dissapointed with this patch. This day, my plots percentages were going sky high(260000.0% for example) and my basileus was on first and second place in his own grand tournaments.

[The Stranger]

i had none of those problems, i think it is happening because you are playing with an old save and not a new game. that can cause problems

[Monk]

i had none of those problems, i think it is happening because you are playing with an old save and not a new game. that can cause problems

NO NO NO *flips a table over*

Aaaagh... man. I really need to remember to set this game to not update. My Rus game has been ruined due to this.

[rickinator9]

i had none of those problems, i think it is happening because you are playing with an old save and not a new game. that can cause problems

I actually started it post-patch. I guess you are one of the lucky ones

[The Stranger]

hmm thats weird. perhaps it did not install correctly? or are more people having problems?