Crusader Kings II

[Greyblades]

Sent him on a fool's crusade to take Jerusalem, only problem is he didn't have the good sense to die and instead became a huge hero by winning nearly every battle he was in. Occupied 4 provinces despite me only giving him 5k men to crusade with and just would not die, no matter how many sieges I threw him up against. He won great prestige for the kingdom though, and no doubt recieved a hero's welcome home. That is until he got a knife in the back later that night. Oh sure.. everyone suspects me, but no one can prove a thing.

Wow, personaly for such a good general I think I would risk rebellion.

[Monk]

Wow, personaly for such a good general I think I would risk rebellion.

The craziest thing: He was only like martial 4 when i first sent him out, by the time he came back he'd wracked up so many +martial traits he was downright scary. I was seriously tempted to do just that in all honesty as I'm sure he would have made a good King.

[Greyblades]

I suspect a king like that could take on all his vassals at once, what were you thinking?

[Monk]

I suspect a king like that could take on all his vassals at once, what were you thinking?

Thinking I don't want it all to fly apart so soon after completing the Reconquista. France and I have been in a starring match for the last 15 years and the political situation is getting unstable. Probably going to be war soon and I dont want to give my vassals a reason to be opportunistic when the casualties start to mount.

But under different circumstances you're absolutely right, that guy would have made for a beast. I probably could have conquered all of North Africa and taken on the Shiaa Caliphate with a king that good.

Poor guy - he could have been the greatest King to grace the throne of Castile, to be done away with due to his culture and the threat of internal rebellion while a potential enemy stands at our door. Wasn't even his fault really - too bad.

[Arjos]

I tried being a vassal this time (picked Bohemia), boy you are in for some maltreatment XD

Enemies in the Emperor's court fabricate documents and you end up in the dungeons; seniority succession gives you the worst possible heirs, most of all you can hardly manage peaceful years of reign, long enough to change that bloody law XD

At least you really don't have to worry about foreign enemies, but only your own possession :P

In the end I dropped it, got around stabilizing the duchy by the 3rd (or 4th can't remember) heir, but my demesnes were in such a bad shape, I didn't care to sat down for years and watch them recover...
I'm playing as Harald Hardrada, he is a beast! I got the Lion, Great and Conqueror titles in the same war lol!

[Fisherking]

Well, there are bugs in the game.

In mine I am still waiting for someone to die before the maelstrom begins. But when I was looking around for good people to invite to court, I noticed England’s southern end is all taken over by someone, so I had a look at who did it.

It turns out that some Arab Kingdom from the southern map edge made an amphibious assault. They seem to have taken everything except Cornwall all the way up to the Welch Border.

I have to assume it is a Baronial War, as York and North Umbria are not at war.

With no naval warfare islands are tough to keep a handle on.

[Subotan]

I pre-ordered it, and I'm so glad I did. My first game as the House D'Hauteville was great fun - Robert I of Apulia was a complete badass, who managed to unite the whole of Southern Italy, found the Kingdom of Sicily, and make tentative inroads into capturing the island of Sicily itself before dying at the age of 82. My first son, Bohemond, was a bastard; Robert was an incapable hunchback who died a year before his father; King Guy was king for a mere year before being slain, childless, in battle against the Saracens; and the lustful King Rainulf, my best son, had married the lustful Countess of Passau - in what was apparently a matrilineal marriage. By the time I realised my mistake, Rainulf and Passau had pumped out five sons and four daughters at the age of 31/32, all of some German dynasty. Shortly after, the rule of the House D'Hauteville came to an end in Sicily, despite there being absolutely tons of members of the dynasty hanging around in the Kingdom.

I'm on my second game now, as Duke Ugo d'Este II of Lombardia. Had an excellent game sofar - captured Brescia, lost a province in the Alps to a vassal's stupid marriage, and inherited the Duchy of Apulia from Ugo's mum. Currently, the Holy Roman Empire is engulfed in a ferocious civil war featuring French intervention, who are presumably still annoyed that the HRE somehow got the whole of the Duchy of Aquitaine. Had a particularly awesome war against Bavaria - straight after capturing Brescia from the massive Duchy of Toscana/Capua, Bavaria declared war on me for it, in alliance with Capua. Thanks to the geography of the Alps and an attack by Muslims on the Capuan heartland, I was able to pick off their armies one by one, and render their massive numerical advantage useless. My third daughter came of age, and I married her to the 19 year old King of Croatia - unfortunately, I could not then call him into the war to help me as he was busy fighting for the Hungarian throne. Happily, he dropped dead very soon after, and I married her again to the second son of the brother of the King of Bohemia. Apparently, this warranted an alliance, and Bohemian forces swept into Bavaria like a tide - Czechmate. I fought the Bavarian-Capuan alliance to 100% warscore, and forced them to abandon their claim to Brescia.

It also doesn't feel like it needs many patches, unlike any other Paradox game I've played. Good work guys, this is definitely the best release in years.

[naut]

Well, there are bugs in the game.

In mine I am still waiting for someone to die before the maelstrom begins. But when I was looking around for good people to invite to court, I noticed England’s southern end is all taken over by someone, so I had a look at who did it.

It turns out that some Arab Kingdom from the southern map edge made an amphibious assault. They seem to have taken everything except Cornwall all the way up to the Welch Border.

I have to assume it is a Baronial War, as York and North Umbria are not at war.

With no naval warfare islands are tough to keep a handle on.

If you played CK I then that ain't a bug, that's standard practice.