Crusader Kings II

[Hajutze]

The muslim equivalent is Mali. Only 1 nation can attack you and they have the same army as you and they are usually in civil/defensive wars.

[Alge'n]

A surprising number of people seem to play as Ireland. I know why I chose to play it, I'm curious as to other people's reasons though.

You get to start as far away from HRE as possible so that's already a plus. It's a collection of small independant states so it's unlikely you'll piss off someone really important on your way to unifying Ireland. As you are independant, you don't have to worry about your liege taking your troops to war or your vassals revolting against you until you are experienced enough to deal with it.

I started with a duke of Wales, which is pretty similar (on a smaller scale) unless England suddenly decides to destroy you. Now I'm the King of Wales, working on getting Ireland, then Scotland (next generation should have a claim on the crown), and finally being the Emperor of Brittania. And then, THE WORLD! MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Aidan305]

You get to start as far away from HRE as possible so that's already a plus. It's a collection of small independant states so it's unlikely you'll piss off someone really important on your way to unifying Ireland. As you are independant, you don't have to worry about your liege taking your troops to war or your vassals revolting against you until you are experienced enough to deal with it.

I started with a duke of Wales, which is pretty similar (on a smaller scale) unless England suddenly decides to destroy you. Now I'm the King of Wales, working on getting Ireland, then Scotland (next generation should have a claim on the crown), and finally being the Emperor of Brittania. And then, THE WORLD! MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Co-incidentally, I started with Ireland and now there's only one person between me; the Queen of Wales' spymaster, and my son's inheritance.

[Sharoth]

I was wanting to play CK II after reading this thread, but I doubt that my computer could (effectively) run Crusader Kings II. So that means giving Crusader Kings I a shot. How do they compare and did you all have any suggestions about CK I?

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

CKII is pretty well-running even on crappy machines. I know it runs really well on this here laptop, which is not at all a gaming machine.

CK1... when it comes to accessibility and such-like, it's the OPPOSITE of CKII. CKII is the most-successful, best-balanced, least-buggy, most-stable, and most-accessible release Paradox have done to date.

CK1, on the other hand, is the least-balanced, least-buggy, least-table, and least-accessible release. In fact, it was literally half-finished when it was released. Now, it's PLAYABLE with the Deus Vult expansion, and even enjoyable, especially once you add mods.

But there isn't a single think CK1 does that CKII doesn't do better. I loved CK1, but I couldn't go back to it now.

[Kesnit]

I got curious about CKII, so downloaded the demo. (As an aside, you can't play as Ireland... )

I keep wondering if I am missing something, since almost nothing seems to happen. (I'm playing as the King of Poland.) I sent my advisors off to research stuff and that takes time, I know. That's not my concern.

1) I also sent an advisor off to fake a claim to a neighboring territory, but nothing happened. Do I have to keep sending him off until I get a message he succeeded?

2) My northern-most territory got attacked. OK, so I sent my army off to fight. Half-way there, everyone just disappeared. They were still in my territory, and I didn't get a message that they were attacked. Just all of a sudden, the figures were gone.

[hayabusa]

I got curious about CKII, so downloaded the demo. (As an aside, you can't play as Ireland... )

I keep wondering if I am missing something, since almost nothing seems to happen. (I'm playing as the King of Poland.) I sent my advisors off to research stuff and that takes time, I know. That's not my concern.

1) I also sent an advisor off to fake a claim to a neighboring territory, but nothing happened. Do I have to keep sending him off until I get a message he succeeded?

2) My northern-most territory got attacked. OK, so I sent my army off to fight. Half-way there, everyone just disappeared. They were still in my territory, and I didn't get a message that they were attacked. Just all of a sudden, the figures were gone.

You can if you click on the province you want to play fast enough. Yes, bugs are awesome.

My playthrough as an Irish noble had one of the most soap opera crap I've seen in a game not named The Sims. He fell for his son's wife and she managed to get pregnant (I swear, they coded fertility ultra high for events like this...) He initially refuses to claim that the resulting kid is his, despite her looking like him (in fairness, he probably claimed that the resemblance came from his son). Daughter in law gets pregnant by her actual husband around the same time that the noble's wife finds out. Said noble then plots with his lover to have her killed and the plot easily succeeds.

The noble then goes completely mad and imprisons his eldest son and heir and then executing him so he would be free to marry his daughter in law. He kills her child by the heir, causing the line of succession to fall to the earl's second son with his original wife. He imprisoned him, but didn't have the heart to kill him personally and banished him from the realm.

All this in about five of the 20 years the demo gives me. The rest was just spent speed-running to see what else would happen since I couldn't start a war.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I got curious about CKII, so downloaded the demo. (As an aside, you can't play as Ireland... )

I keep wondering if I am missing something, since almost nothing seems to happen. (I'm playing as the King of Poland.) I sent my advisors off to research stuff and that takes time, I know. That's not my concern.

1) I also sent an advisor off to fake a claim to a neighboring territory, but nothing happened. Do I have to keep sending him off until I get a message he succeeded?

2) My northern-most territory got attacked. OK, so I sent my army off to fight. Half-way there, everyone just disappeared. They were still in my territory, and I didn't get a message that they were attacked. Just all of a sudden, the figures were gone.

Alright! Advice!
Sending the advisor off just gives you a tiny chance for an event to fire while he's there that'll give you the option of either taking the claim, or getting some prestige but passing the claim by. It could happen in the first few days with a horrible advisor, it could never happen despite having the best advisor ever. Y'never know. Not to say that advisor quality doesn't help, it does, but yeah.

Possible ways armies disappear: you accidentally hit the "disband" button either on the armies (I know I've done this before), or on the military page. If you can't pay mercenaries, they can disappear. If your vassals rebel, the part of the army that is of their soldiers disappear.

That or you accidentally had the battle popups disabled, and you got defeated without noticing.

Or it was a completely unrelated bug.

As for nothing happening, even the big exciting stories play out slowly, except for wars and stuff. And some of the civil wars can get intense. I had a game where Hungary had over 100 years of constant civil war, due to the entire ruling line of Arpad's going heretic. Eventually, all of Hungary was heretic, mostly because none of the nobles could get any of the others to agree to replace the DYNASTY, only replace the Arpad-of-the-Month with the Arpad-of-your-choice (who was also a heretic).

Eventually, the entire Arpad family got eliminated until there were only 5 living Arpads, and all the noble families except 1 were heretic. Oh, and Croatia took the opportunity to seize some land.

But when you're not at war, the game is pretty slow. That's what 5x speed is for.

[Flickerdart]

Leinster revolted another two times, and I learned the value of allies as the King of Scots showed up with three thousand men while I was busy capturing a county, so I had to sue for peace. Still, I finally got enough to declare myself King of Ireland. What's a good next step - do I take on the Scots, try to pick off what remains of Wales or what?

I also switched to Primogeniture, but it complains that your kids don't have land, so I can't really see the difference between this and Gavelkind, other than people not liking me now.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Leinster revolted another two times, and I learned the value of allies as the King of Scots showed up with three thousand men while I was busy capturing a county, so I had to sue for peace. Still, I finally got enough to declare myself King of Ireland. What's a good next step - do I take on the Scots, try to pick off what remains of Wales or what?

I also switched to Primogeniture, but it complains that your kids don't have land, so I can't really see the difference between this and Gavelkind, other than people not liking me now.

Primogeniture means that your realms doesn't split into 3 seperate duchies on your death, which is iirc a legit possibility under Gavelkind.

As for the next step. Wales'll be easier than Scotland generally. If the Isles are still independent and/or under Norwegian control, that'll be worth going for. If Scotland seems weak, go for that. If nothing's looking nice and England's freaking you out, take Iceland or go on crusade.

[Weezer]

Primogeniture means that your realms doesn't split into 3 seperate duchies on your death, which is iirc a legit possibility under Gavelkind.

As for the next step. Wales'll be easier than Scotland generally. If the Isles are still independent and/or under Norwegian control, that'll be worth going for. If Scotland seems weak, go for that. If nothing's looking nice and England's freaking you out, take Iceland or go on crusade.

Gavelkind is better once you have a kingdom, you wont hold all the duchies anymore but there isn't a chance to lose it. I like primogeniture or seniority if I'm deLing with a duchy but gavelkind if it's bigger. I hate elective, lets my vassals steal my stuff if they're popular.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I had a game where Hungary had over 100 years of constant civil war, due to the entire ruling line of Arpad's going heretic. Eventually, all of Hungary was heretic, mostly because none of the nobles could get any of the others to agree to replace the DYNASTY, only replace the Arpad-of-the-Month with the Arpad-of-your-choice (who was also a heretic).

Eventually, the entire Arpad family got eliminated until there were only 5 living Arpads, and all the noble families except 1 were heretic. Oh, and Croatia took the opportunity to seize some land.

Odd, when the Arpads went heretic in one of my games then they got partitioned in holy wars by all their christian neighbours and I then won the soggy remnants and the crown for Denmark in a crusade. For some reason nobody else joined the crusade and decided to take a duchy via holy war instead.

I gave the crown of Hungary away to a second son because its mostly just a pain to rule from Denmark.

Gavelkind is better once you have a kingdom, you wont hold all the duchies anymore but there isn't a chance to lose it. I like primogeniture or seniority if I'm deLing with a duchy but gavelkind if it's bigger. I hate elective, lets my vassals steal my stuff if they're popular.

Elective is the best really. You can just murder anyone who's more popular than you.

I like Gavelkind when I have neighbours I can expand easily against through holy war. The demesne bonus means I don't have to worry about giving newly conquered land out straight away and when I die my heir gets tons of free room in his demesne cap for to fill with new lands.

You just have to be careful to never raise your crown authority high enough for your relatives to swap out of gavelkind and become more powerful than you. But hey, when they rebel due to gavelkind you have loads of room in your demesne for any counties you strip them of.

[Hajutze]

Elective is THE BEST if you tend to give land to your kin. Even if they dont vote for the person you want, they have no chance - they'll vote for someone from your house :D.

If you tend to give land to non-kins - give to bishops they almost always vote for the person you want, unless they either hate you too much or they have ambitious.

[Jamin]

Sadly my evil plan to vassalize the pope seems to failing i thought that making my brother the anit-pope would mean he would be my vassal after the war with the pope it seems that no that is not the case with the pope it is very.

[Hajutze]

Actually in the latests patches vassalizing the pope is impossible (literally).

[Jamin]

I know that now that I spent like half-hour trying to

[Closet_Skeleton]

This is why you play Byzantine instead, then you start with your Pope vassalised. The Seljuks do as well but their Pope is basically useless.

Basically its:

Catholics: You can't hope to control the Pope, he's really powerful and he hates you.
Byzantines: This Pope is your bitch but he's not as useful as the Catholic one.
Seljuks/Mamluks: The Pope is you slave but might as well just be another vassal.
Fatamids: You are your Pope but nobody else cares.

[Hajutze]

Well the Fatmid/Seljuc's "pope" is more useful than the patriarch, at least they can call a crusade (jihad), while the patriarch only functions are giving divorce and excommunicating.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Well the Fatmid/Seljuc's "pope" is more useful than the patriarch, at least they can call a crusade (jihad), while the patriarch only functions are giving divorce and excommunicating.

Muslims can invasion anyway, excommunication is more useful than a redundant invasion cassus belli.

[Hajutze]

I am 99% sure they are going to nerf the invasion. It's the single most broken thing in the game.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Gah, I can't get BLC to work! All of the added content, the Cumans/Turks/Pecheneg faces, they all just show up as black, with a hat floating in the middle.

But I have gotten to the point where I can't stand to play without BLC. WHAT DO I DO.

[Avaris]

Assuming BLC is a mod, which mods would people suggest getting for the game? Loving the base game so far, if only for the train wreck which was the rise and fall of my Irish count's dynasty (mental note: having three of your daughters marrying into royalty may give massive prestige, but when you die they'll then steal all the land from their poor 5 year old nephew...)

[Hajutze]

I have the
- Sword of Islam
- African Unit Pack
- Dynasty Coat of Arms Pack 1
- Mongol Face Pack

The only DLC you REALLY need is the SoI, because it lets you play as a muslim the others are just visual/audio enhancements you don't really need.

[Gecks]

Assuming BLC is a mod, which mods would people suggest getting for the game?

It's still new and a little buggy, but if you are a fan of the books and/or TV series the Game of Thrones mod is pretty rad:

http://citadel.prophpbb.com/topic872.html

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

What I've been TRYING to get working is the CK2+ mod, which includes a pile of other mods, with Better-Looking-Characters as an optional add-on (because it slows down some computers a LOT). I also like the Ad Limina Apostolorum mod, it adds really cool features like Cardinals and Beatification, and a whole pile of other Catholic goodies.

If you want I can post a fuller features-list for the mods.

Edit: mods included in CK2+ are Better Looking Characters (optional), All the Way to Timbuktu, Syren's Nicknames Mod, Family Relations Mod, Better Rebels Mod, Council Shuffling Mod, HRE Revised Coronation Mod, Offer You Can't Refuse, and Culturally Different Cities.

[Flickerdart]

Somehow I inherited a county smack dab in the middle of the HRE. Can I give it away to someone? Because if anyone decides to claim it, I can't defend that thing at all from Ireland.

[Reynard]

Somehow I inherited a county smack dab in the middle of the HRE. Can I give it away to someone? Because if anyone decides to claim it, I can't defend that thing at all from Ireland.

Grant it to a random vassal/courtier you hate/hates you, then forget all about it. It'll make you money up until it's violently taken/rebels, and then you can forget about it.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Somehow I inherited a county smack dab in the middle of the HRE. Can I give it away to someone? Because if anyone decides to claim it, I can't defend that thing at all from Ireland.

Best thing to do is give it to a second son. Then find who who the de jure liege of that county is and go to the diplomacy screen. You should see a 'transfer vassal' button. Open it and select your second son.

The reason to use a second son is that you'll get a tiny bit of dynasty prestige from him that way.

If you want extra income its better to marry baronesses in other countries. The AI never goes to war over those. You'll probably end up giving them away in a 100 years or so when you get a real demesne but if you only build income boosters a distant barony can help. I once had the count of Worcester furious at me because as a small count in Italy and Burgundy I owned a barony in his county that produced more tax than his lands and there was nothing he could do about it without challenging the Emperor in a war over it.

I am 99% sure they are going to nerf the invasion. It's the single most broken thing in the game.

They already have. They're probably going to nerf it again though. Just allowing anyone to join with your opponent would help, that's currently the most broken thing about it.

[Hajutze]

He can always give it to the religious head. (the county)

[Flickerdart]

Actually, there was already a rebellion, and my 600-odd troops I only had raised there because of hitting the "raise all" button put it down even though the enemy had thrice that number.

What's the best Crown Authority? I put it up to High so that I don't lose lands from my realm, but people are mad at me for it. They're also mad because I have too many duchies. Should I give away some of my Duchies to surplus family members/courtiers that like me already? My Demesne is currently at 7/7 so that's not a problem.

Also, my king went gay so I'm reluctant to give away any of my kids, especially since they tend to rebel a lot (at one point I'm pretty sure I had almost every single one of my vassals and half of my family in the dungeon) and then I have to disinherit them.