The Long March: A CKII -> EUIV AAR

[Monk]

Welcome to The Long March: A CKII -> EUIV AAR

Saxony to East Francia to Germany.
Lead Character: Otto I of Saxony

Well now, what's this then? I'LL TELL YOU. I'm about to go head first into a massive game of CK2 and later to convert to EUIV. The purpose? Fun! Well.. fun and seeing a full 1000 years of human history rewritten. Sounds pretty cool right?

I've wanted to do this ever since i played EUIII yeaaars ago but i've never been able to. Either the conversions were a pain or I just didn't have time.. and nothing's changed! Joking of course. With the release of EUIV, the community has been gifted a rare thing: A save game converter which can convert games nearly perfectly, whether they are modded or not! Where as before the conversion process was pretty painful and almost always required a bit of modding to clean up the import result, it's now as easy as pushing a button. For an on the go soccer mom like me, that's a must.

An AAR spanning over 1000 years, two games and one unoriginal title, this is going to take quite a long time to complete.. and it's also possible we'll lose along the way! Our precious dynasty could die out. We could get overthrown. An insane ruler could cause a tantrum spiral.. the possibilities are endless. But no matter what happens i'm sure we'll find some fun along the way.

Da House Rules:

General

1. No Save scum

CK2 (playing with Project Balance)

2. No courtier claim exploits
3. Roleplaying your character (No backstabbing unless you have traits to justify it, for example)
4. No exploiting the AI's willingness for alliances if it doesn't make regional logic. (marrying into the Byzantines as the Timurids...)
5. De Jure drift is OFF for kingdom level entities.
6. No destroying titles. Ever.
7. If the player wins a crusade the main character must do one of two things.

a. Leave their primary titles behind to rule in the Levant
b. Grant the crusader kingdom to a sibling.

EUIV (playing with vanilla)

7. Inflation is ON.

Since I am still learning EUIV this section is a bit blank. The main settings will be keeping inflation on and lucky nations at its default.

Should be a really fun experience! I've already played a little bit and I am loving the concept of a super long game, with goals changing as the game evolves... But first off... just who the heck are we?



Well to start us off, we'll be this guy.

Say hello to Otto of Saxony, historically this guy lived the good life under Autonomous Vassals doing whatever he wanted within his realm. His dynasty would also go on to become the "successors" of the Karlings in Germany. This guy's grandson? He became Holy Roman Emperor. We won't be doing that. But we will be succeeding the Karlings.. just a bit more forceful than happened historically..

Speaking of his realm, it's a pretty good chunk of East Francia.

We're one of the most powerful vassals of Ludwig the German and the other vassals of our good king are relatively weak.

We're in a pretty good spot to contest the rule of East Francia, but with the unification between EF and Bavaria an inevitability, as well as the dynastic power plays that are common in the Karling House, i doubt it will be simple to usurp that title. We've also got a significant border with pagans in almost every direction. If East Francia gets raided from the north it's our people who are going to suffer. We've got barbarians at the gates, an aging king on the throne and a famous character as our leading role.

The hall is rented. The orchestra engaged.. Let's see if we can dance...





A basic outline of my CK2 gameplan:

Early Game objectives (CK2):

1. Avoid imprisonment while we build our power
2. Drive the Karlings from East Francia and obtain the throne for our dynasty.
3. See all major Karling bases of power in central Europe destroyed. (Lotharingia and Bavaria, primarily.)

Updates every Sunday and Wednesday.

first update in a couple days.