Crusader Kings II

[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.