Crusader Kings II

[Monk]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Paphlagonia after the inheritance of Charsianon.

I'm about to have my biggest gain yet. My heir will inherit the duchies of Paphlagonia and Nikaia. I appropriately named him Basileus 'Anatolikos' Komnemnos. I had to invest about 800 gold to take all of the male members of the Nikean Doukos branch down. But despite the kind of protection you have, the knives of Paphlagonia will always get you! But that isn't even the best going on in the empire. The emperor is old and will probably die within a few years. His heir is a very bad heir. He's an imbecile, he is incapable and needs regency around the clock. I'm pretty sure that when he succeeds, I'm not the only one who sees an opportunity.

The emperors estates are pretty weak, Thrace had been lost by them about 100 years before this picture, now the imperial court is in northern Bulgaria.

Very impressive.

In my game while I expanded my personal power in the east, the Emperor (or should I say, Empress? The Imperial court had a female ruler for over 120 years!) expanded her powers just as adeptly. She ruthlessly imprisoned nobles and stomped out plots so effectively that no one could do anything. In fact.. she instituted absolute crown authority really quickly and from there, it was near impossible to plot anything! The best I managed was two duchies before it became clear I wasn't going to be moving up in the world.

I think I'm gonna try one of the Russian principalities next. They look like a really interesting game.

[rickinator9]

Very impressive.

In my game while I expanded my personal power in the east, the Emperor (or should I say, Empress? The Imperial court had a female ruler for over 120 years!) expanded her powers just as adeptly. She ruthlessly imprisoned nobles and stomped out plots so effectively that no one could do anything. In fact.. she instituted absolute crown authority really quickly and from there, it was near impossible to plot anything! The best I managed was two duchies before it became clear I wasn't going to be moving up in the world.

I think I'm gonna try one of the Russian principalities next. They look like a really interesting game.

I stopped with that save, as I noticed the emperors had pretty much expanded into Iraq. I wanted to recreate the roman, or at least the byzantine empire to it full glory. That dream subsequently collapsed. Anyway, after I gained Nikea, I inherited the duchies of Adrianopolis and Thrace(Constantinople is mine!) through my heir. I gained my independence and all of my counts loved me. After the old ruler died, disaster struck. The heir was a woman! After fighting several civil wars and wars against the Byzantines, Paphlagonia was exhausted. Still there was the possibility of civil war, so I joined the byzz again. That was the point where I quit.

I have started a new campaign in 1100. Against all odds(most of the middle-east was ruled by the seljuk dynasty), I took out Rum in the 1140s. I took little Armenia from Aleppo. I conquered the Syrian coast from the little states and the Shia caliphate. I took Edessa from Edessa(former aleppo, after losing some land to huge damascus).

A game as the russian principalities seems nice. The AI usually unites into the Rus. Nothing can stop them. There also doesn't seem to be any mongols to tame them, the event pops up but I don't notice anything.

[Monk]

A game as the russian principalities seems nice. The AI usually unites into the Rus. Nothing can stop them. There also doesn't seem to be any mongols to tame them, the event pops up but I don't notice anything.

Forming the Kingdom of Rus seems a forgone conclusion for someone. The problem is being the one to get there. The Pagans might be divided but they are no push over, and in the early game they can levy way more troops than you can. Which means you can't just go crazy conquering your fellow Rus, you have to keep a good balance between choosing enemies and making friends. Its an interesting and unique campaign thus far, one that's been filled with surprises.

Has anyone else noticed Poland going berzerk post 1.04? Every game i've played they expand quickly and become truly frightening by 1120.

[rickinator9]

I play on 1.03b and poland is very tame.

I tried to play a game as rostov, and I took out the brown pagans to the east. The strength of the rus is that they are all the same dynasty, and can help themselves out. I quit the game when another family member from galich attacked me and destroyed all the levies I could get.

After that I started a game just before the byzzies retook constantinople.

Edit:

· Buffed the Caliphates and the Seljuks. Nerfed the Byzantines.

Damn you!

[Monk]

After that I started a game just before the byzzies retook constantinople.

Edit:

Damn you!

Hah, they need all the help they can get! In my experiences post 1.04 the Seljuk keep it together but still cannot mirror their historical counterparts. I've not seen any drastic Manzikert moments in the early game for the Byzantines, but their overall stability does seem to be lowered. It takes exceptional emperor to keep things together, which unfortunately, i saw in spades when i attempted my Byzantine vassal game

The Caliphs seem more unstable believe it or not post patch. The Shia in particular seem to be a coin flip away from either prosperity or collapse. I've seen large vassals successfully win their independance in two different campaigns now.

One thing I love about CKII is, barring certain almost inevitabilities (fall of saxon england, strength of western empires, ect) the game is highly "unstable" and can go either way. Sometimes the Reconquista works and Spain unites against northern Africa - sometimes it fails and the French are fighting for their life against a scary muslim united Iberia. Sometimes the Mongols get thrashed by Europe and thrown into a corner, but sometimes they unite an empire that spans the entire game map. Sometimes the fun of the game doesn't even revolve around you, its based in watching another "what-if" unfold in a completely new way.

I think I am gonna pick a nobody count in the far edge of the map one of these days and turn the game speed to max and just watch.

[rickinator9]

Odd, the mongols always failed to even take one country in my games.

I have seen a game where all the byzantine duchies gained independence when the old emperor was knocked off the throne, not sure how that happened. After that the empire was reduced to thessalia.Then the old emperor took his title back and we still kept being independent. All the while the seljuks were attacking our duchies.

I usually don't have much problems keeping a unified empire in the previous patches. I will have to see that in the new patch. Just throw a grand tournament and pretty much everything is cemented again.

Historically though, the devs should have a modifier making seljuk family members hating eachother, because the seljuks had a lot of trouble keeping territories under it's banner(FM took these for themselves).

I'm up for a multiplayer game.

[Monk]

Odd, the mongols always failed to even take one country in my games.

There's a screenshot earlier in this thread (from me) where they took over pretty much everything east of Poland. It was pretty scary.

Historically though, the devs should have a modifier making seljuk family members hating eachother, because the seljuks had a lot of trouble keeping territories under it's banner(FM took these for themselves).

I wouldn't put it passed them. In their CKII post-mortem one of the things they mentioned was the desire to add a bunch more events into the game. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a lot of historical events that are aimed to keep things a little more grounded in reality.

[Arjos]

Admittedly that is something I dislike about the game in many respects. In order to have the best vassals, you simply go to character panel, search for same culture and religion, then give it to the guy with the highest stats. I want to give lands and titles to my children, brothers, uncles, to have the entire dynasty run through the core of society, then have them marry into other families across Europe, spreading their seeds, power via blood.

Instead, you end up having a child who is a psychopath which kills all your family and your heirs if you give them a duchy title.

I still do it nonetheless :P
As you I prefer to part the land among my kin, thanks to imprisoning in the end I manage to stabilize it for few decades, then it's rinse and repeat every generation :D

But I agree that for them it's far too easy to kill heirs, I can understand if they declared war and won sieges after sieges, but assassinations are so cheap...

the seljuks

BTW checked my ongoing game and in 1092 they are in a dynastic struggle ^^

[Arjos]

A game as the russian principalities seems nice.

I got bored of my Hauteville game (controlled everything from the Atlantic to Arabia and from the Alps to Africa) and started a Novgorod game days ago :)

Thanks to the alliances it's going smoothly, but Hungary claimed most of Turov, Kiev and Galich, backed by the HRE: pretty scary combo :P
Good thing Poland started a war with them ^^

had a lot of trouble keeping territories under it's banner

Give duchies to your kinsmen and you'll see assassinations daily XD
I think they are pretty stable at the start date, because that's how it was in history, iirc by 1070ish they gained most of the Middle East...

[Beskar]

Give duchies to your kinsmen and you'll see assassinations daily XD

Admittedly that is something I dislike about the game in many respects. In order to have the best vassals, you simply go to character panel, search for same culture and religion, then give it to the guy with the highest stats. I want to give lands and titles to my children, brothers, uncles, to have the entire dynasty run through the core of society, then have them marry into other families across Europe, spreading their seeds, power via blood.

Instead, you end up having a child who is a psychopath which kills all your family and your heirs if you give them a duchy title.