Crusader Kings II

[toasty]

Bah, king had syphilis, dies early, son dies randomly at age 30 (Wtf?) and now I have an imbecile on the throne and the entirety of England rebelled.

[Flickerdart]

Huh, just learned a little while ago that you need to be Frankish to create the Empire of the Franks. While it makes sense, I was hoping ruling the entire territory would let me form it. After all, ruling the HRE and being heir to the ERE is nice, but come now, three imperial titles? That is much nicer.

Anybody know some workaround that could make this so short of spending 3 generations on a culture shift [which would suck considering about 90% of my vassals are german]?

Give the land away, let someone else form it, and then crush them mercilessly.

[Nightson]

Anybody know some workaround that could make this so short of spending 3 generations on a culture shift [which would suck considering about 90% of my vassals are german]?

You can cheat and change your characters culture by hitting the "~" key and typing culture followed by whatever culture you want to turn into.

[toasty]

Success! My Imbecile ruled England for a good while. He never had any Children though, but that's alright because his brother and heir can form the Kingdom of Wales due to being an Irish lord.

Goals for this King: form Kingdom of Wales and Kingdom of Ireland. After putting down the usual rebellions that come when a new king comes to power.

[Kurgan]

Give the land away, let someone else form it, and then crush them mercilessly.

The problem with this is that my entire personal powerbase is in Burgandy and around Paris, ie: right in the center of this new empire, and probably lands they need to form it. Otherwise, interesting thought.

You can cheat and change your characters culture by hitting the "~" key and typing culture followed by whatever culture you want to turn into.

Suppose that could work...though seems kind of, as you said, cheating. Is there any advantage to having a second imperial title? Like, if I just cheat it into existence, does it give me an edge that I wouldn't have already from being the Emperor of both the HRE and the ERE? Namely, would cheating only give me the title, or would it also give me an edge somewhere in terms of gameplay itself?

Honestly at this point my big epic plan is to create a bunch of kingdoms and put second sons on the thrones, then keep forcibly inbreeding them until we have a bunch of horrible inbred monstrosities on the throne. I am kind of curious to see how long they would last.

[Weezer]

Honestly at this point my big epic plan is to create a bunch of kingdoms and put second sons on the thrones, then keep forcibly inbreeding them until we have a bunch of horrible inbred monstrosities on the throne. I am kind of curious to see how long they would last.

So you want to recreate the Hapsburgs? Should be fun

[Rockphed]

So I just finished the demo playing as the heir to the Byzantine empire. I had 3 children, the my heir I married to the daughter of a no-name duke in southern russia (I was going to marry him to the heir to one of the russian duchies, but her dad died before his father, taking her out of the succession). The second I married to one of my vassals(who I made the duchess of vidin). I should have made him the duke of Wallachia and let the two of them have nice big brawls. I don't remember if my daughter was betrothed at the end of the game.

Once I figured out why all my vassals were mad at me, it was a piece of cake to get them to stop revolting. First I dropped the crown authority to medium(would you believe my father wanted absolute authority). Then I gave away a couple of my duchies and got my demense within my limit. Then I utterly destroyed my opponents. I banished the infidel my father had put up in bira, and released the other three from prison. (As a note, you only get 1 bonus for releasing a prisoner at a time, I should have ransomed 2 of them). At the end of the game I was putting down two rebellions caused by trying to imprison people with plots on my life.

Note for future campaigns: keeping a couple counties at the edge of the realm as mine will help keep my enemies at bay. Also, being emperor give lots of prestige. I ended the game with about 1700 prestige, I could probably have had a couple hundred more if I had been more proactive in conquest. My starting character was kinda inept, but my heir was pretty boss. Also, he was about 1 assassination away from being king of Georgia.

[Aidan305]

Hmm, it appears that after marrying the sister of the Holy Roman Empire he died under mysterious circumstances.

Oh dear, what a pity.

All hail emperor Mael-Dún I.

[Flickerdart]

So, all of my DLC un-bought itself. I've shot an email to Steam support but so far they haven't replied.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

So, all of my DLC un-bought itself. I've shot an email to Steam support but so far they haven't replied.

I had a thing when installing on my new computer where the DLC wouldn't activate unless I started the game through the Steam interface first, rather than the normal shortcut or direct through the .exe. Try that?

[Flickerdart]

I always use the Steam interface. It's not just that the game doesn't recognize them - Steam doesn't "see" that I own Sword of Islam or the Ruler Creator or any of the other things.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I always use the Steam interface. It's not just that the game doesn't recognize them - Steam doesn't "see" that I own Sword of Islam or the Ruler Creator or any of the other things.

Even when you right click and press "See Downloadable Content"? huh.

[Weezer]

Try validating files, this is a bug I've heard a lot of people talk about lately and that seems to be the quick fix.

[Flickerdart]

Oh, you're right - on my laptop (which, the greatest of shames, cannot run CK2) shows that I do own the DLC after all. I will try validating. Thanks!

[toasty]

Update since my last post:

I rule most of Spain, a little bit of Northern Spain is Idependent/Ruled by France. The Holy roman Empire has expanded into Africa (which is slightly worrying but it shouldn't be a problem for at least 100 more years likely). The Muslims are thus, no longer any threat to my Spanish Conglomeration of Kingdoms. The Federation of United Spanish Kingdoms? For now, the title will do.

My King is still Norman. Eventually this will change, and thus, eventually I will form the Empire of Hispania, but it might take as long as another 40 or so years. Pity, but such is life. I rule tiny bits of France, Italy, etc, but its hard to keep control of them with constant civil war in Spain, which is mostly a result of me not making sure my vassals/close relatives don't gain a huge chunk of land. I swear the king's brother rebels and half of Spain is at war with me!

The British Isles seem rather stable, but dis-unified: Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England all exist, but no one seems near close enough to unite the four kingdoms.

France is very strong and seemingly stable. The Byzantines have managed to expand... backwards, while losing out on Anatolia. So they rule Greece and some of Eastern Europe. The Golden Horde is also Orthodox so that should make Eastern Europe's life easier, I guess.

[Flickerdart]

Hah, the Golden Horde got converted? That's brilliant. Is there any way to marry into the Horde and take over it somehow (thereby effectively winning the game because I mean come on) or does the game have culture-based safeguards against that?

[GenPol]

Well, I've just beet off Harald and William, and now I've got a fully Saxon England. I suppose I'll go for creating the Empire of Britannia now. I snatched Cumberland from the Scottish, and the Duchy of Deheubarth from the Welsh minors, with the intent of creating the Kingdom of Wales, and then offering the opportunity to be my vassal the last guy, but it turns out that only Celtics can create the Kingdom of Wales.

Any ideas where to go next? I suppose I could go for some royal marriage shenanigans in Scotland, and then maybe just snatch up the little guys in Ireland until I hit 80%.

[Flickerdart]

I wouldn't bother with the Irish until you create the empire. There's a whole bunch of two-county duchies in Ireland so it takes forever to get Casus Belli on them. Your best bet would probably be to snipe some land off Scotland during a rebellion or civil war, and supplement that with marrying duchesses until you can usurp the King of Scotland's title.

I started a Wales game not too long ago, myself. In addition to the de jure territory I've managed to cut a few pieces from England, as well as France, when they collapsed. France is now half-Muslim and half-HRE, and what's left of England belongs to Denmark. Also I took over Ireland, because even with fully upgraded regions I still can't hold a candle to England in power, and can only match Scotland's troops with extremely expensive mercenaries that I can only afford thanks to a long line of Fortune Builder kings.

[Rockphed]

So I just had 2 very interesting games that tell me I really should delete the demo until after this semester, when I can buy the full game.

Both were played as the duchess of Tuscany. In the first, I had a series of holy wars resulting in control of about 5 duke titles, including all of sardinia. Then someone came into my court with a claim on a sicilian province, so I invaded and gave him the territory. Then I spent about 5 years rebuilding my army, and invaded the other territory in the duchy I founded with the one I captured. I had a muslim vassal in Malta, which was more trouble than it was worth. I pretty much had to employ my chaplain there constantly to keep him from converting the people back to sunni. The game ended with me conquering a single territory on the african mainland, in preparation for my ultimate conquest of all of northern africa.

The second game saw fewer marriageable prospects, so I yoinked a husband from somewhere and had a couple kids with him. Then I decided to have a fling with the Kaiser, which resulted in a daughter he declared trueborn. Then I decided to kill off my husband. Then I found a new one with claims on irish holdings, and married him matrilinealy. My conquests were much less impressive, only getting sicily, and that by the bare bones, but I did manage to conquer a territory by fabricating a claim on it, which was cool.

Finally, how do you make kingdoms? I had 9 of the 17 sicilian territories, but it wouldn't let me make a kingdom. What was I doing wrong?

[Sanguine]

Finally, how do you make kingdoms? I had 9 of the 17 sicilian territories, but it wouldn't let me make a kingdom. What was I doing wrong?

As someone who has never played the game, stupid computer won't run it, but has watched several LPs of it: You need to spend a significant chunk of Gold and Piety to create a title. So it could be that you were lacking the necessary amount of one of those.

[Rockphed]

As someone who had never played the game, stupid computer won't run it, but has watched several LPs of it: You need to spend a significant chunk of Gold and Piety to create a title. So it could be that you were lacking the necessary amount of one of those.

At one point I had 500 gold and 400 piety, so I don't think it was that. Also, when I could create duchies, they showed up as options even when I could not afford them. Maybe I needed to wait for my son to take the throne of the duchy of Sicily before the Kingdom of Sicily could be founded.

[Sanguine]

At one point I had 500 gold and 400 piety, so I don't think it was that. Also, when I could create duchies, they showed up as options even when I could not afford them. Maybe I needed to wait for my son to take the throne of the duchy of Sicily before the Kingdom of Sicily could be founded.

My only other thought then is Culture. Certain titles, possibly all of them, require a person to be of a certain Culture group to create them. For example, the Kingdom of Wales requires the Celtic Culture group, so if you are Irish, Scottish, or Welsh, you can create it; if your Saxon or Norman you can't.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Most titles don't require a specific culture. Its only really the ahistorical ones that do, mainly to stop them popping up all the time.

Anyone can make Sicily. I've made it loads of times and seen the AI make it too.

Assuming the Demo hasn't been updated with all the patches it should really only be Finland that you need a specific culture for.

If something specific is needed then it will tell you so.