Crusader Kings II

[rickinator9]

Playing as a Count or Duke will probably be slow because of Crown Authority, but the 2.01 patch should make it slightly easier for rebellions to succeed because the Emperor gets less levies.

This is probably my greatest criticism of 2.0. They tweaked levies to make the big blobs less strong by making everyone have less vassal levies. The blobs however have one trick up their sleeve: Crown laws. Demesne laws only add a maximum levy modifier(so they are only useful if the vassal likes you a lot), while Crown laws makes the amount of minimum levies you get higher.

As the duke of Bolghar with no people who hated me, I could only get 200 men from my count vassals while I got 300 from vassal baronies. By the times I created Cumania, I got 1000 and when I passed the first crown law I suddenly got 3000 men from my non-baron vassals.

This shows how broken this system is, because it makes the dukes and lower much weaker while the kings and emperors get just a little bit weaker. Apart from this it lays more emphasis on retinues and mercenaries, making the rich more powerful. This means the merchant republics and holy orders are a lot more powerful because they can afford the mercenaries.