Crusader Kings 2 Thread III: Keeping Up With The Karlings

[Flickerdart]

So if you were to form a Kingdom of Lesser Poland and then conquer the Kingdom of Poland, it would remove your custom title?

[Hydranova]

Oh goody, soon as I get the DLC im going to try to make it so that we've got the kingdoms of Poland, Lesser Poland, and Greater Poland running around.

[Narkis]

So if you were to form a Kingdom of Lesser Poland and then conquer the Kingdom of Poland, it would remove your custom title?

Nope, it works like any other kingdom title. Unless you destroy it, you'll be the King of Poland and Lesser Poland.

[Flickerdart]

Hm.

Can you form a kingdom, then create a de jure kingdom that almost completely overlaps your kingdom, and then declare an empire?

[Avilan the Grey]

So I got really lucky.

I love Elective monarchy. I don't know why anyone would play anything else.
Case in Point: Lage IV realized that his oldest son's son (the future heir of the heir) had gotten married to a courtier and sprouted kids. Plus, his eldest son himself was already 45. Luckily enough he (Lage IV) had a 16 year old son with his third wife that was married to the only child of the King of Rus... So he changed heir, and presto!

...Then he died. Not anyone's doing, but good timing. So now his (then 16, now 22) year old son inherited everything, and um... helped along events in Rus (without his wife's knowledge of course) so she is now the Queen of Rus, and he's the King of Sweden.

[Flickerdart]

Make sure to get Scandinavia together ASAP - personal unions can get finicky under Elective since each one has separate elections, so the sooner you cover that with an Empire, the less of a chance you'll lose it.

[Artanis]

All work and no play make Artanis something something:

Spoiler: A Topic-Relevant Flow Chart

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[Pokonic]

So, while playing a relatively simple game as Egypt, I decided to see how ol' Charlie was doing.

Spoiler

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The Father of Europe is a norseman, his original heir was killed by his Slavic god-worshiping wife, Carloman lived to the age of fifty but never sired a son, Pepin the Hunchback is legitimized, and his first son is French.

[Hydranova]

What is that red fist with the gray shield? Never saw that trait before.

In other news,

Spoiler: Scholarship Spoilers

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Oh goody, I found the Necronomicon! Though I'm sad no eldritch legions poured through the gate.

[Avilan the Grey]

Make sure to get Scandinavia together ASAP - personal unions can get finicky under Elective since each one has separate elections, so the sooner you cover that with an Empire, the less of a chance you'll lose it.

Not interested in creating an empire, actually. And Rus is not elective, so my son is automatically the heir now. All I have to do is wait until he's older to nominate him in Sweden (his brother is now his heir, on purpose. Even if I die, that brother will just nominate him right back. Because meta gaming...).

[Flickerdart]

Not interested in creating an empire, actually. And Rus is not elective, so my son is automatically the heir now. All I have to do is wait until he's older to nominate him in Sweden (his brother is now his heir, on purpose. Even if I die, that brother will just nominate him right back. Because meta gaming...).

Mixed succession laws are even worse! Now you have to make sure that your firstborn or whatever is also the one elected if you want to keep both titles.

[Avilan the Grey]

Mixed succession laws are even worse! Now you have to make sure that your firstborn or whatever is also the one elected if you want to keep both titles.

We'll see. So far getting the stupid dukes to nominate my son of choice has just been a matter of having them over the age of 14 (they prefer someone that soon will be an adult) and feasting their asses off. One feast a year keeps their approval rating so high at least half of them nominate him.

[Sange]

So, a question for people with Charley, since I'm not one of them; does the AI ever form its own custom kingdoms/empires? And do territories in the custom kingdoms you make start out as de jure, or do you still have to wait the 100 years (which is what I imagine the slightly under 100 years start date push back helps with) for them to be incorporated?

When making a custom kingdom, all duchies that you fully control and whose kingdom above them doesn't exist drift to you.

[Guancyto]

I kinda wondered, would that also be true of a custom Empire?

[Avilan the Grey]

Well, that wa amusing...

My wife, the queen of Rus, gave me twins. A girl, a boy. All good.
Then she got pregnant and my character found out it most likely wasn't his. Now, I didn't want to ruin a spare heir, so I picked the choice "trust her".

All well and good.

Until that brat turned six, and I was to find a guardian... only to find out he was incapable. Looking at his traits he was severely inbred, she had slept with her brother(!).
I figured she should take care of her own problems, and gave her the job as guardian over him. She still got the 20 points boost to opinion!

...Six months later he died comatosed in bed. As horrible as it sounds, it probably means he was so brain damaged that he spent his entire life in a coma, and died at 6,5 years of age...

[Avilan the Grey]

Well scratch the russian plan.
My heir turned out a complete idiot. As close to an idiot as a heir without the trait "idiot" can be, at least.
My younger son is quite the prodigy though, so hey, he become king of Sweden, moron becomes king of Rus. Both has married into the Golden Horde just south of Rus (ortodox, but their wives happily converted).

Speaking of conversion... about 15 years ago I hired a Greek spymaster and eventually made him first count and then Duke of Prussia.
Now... somehow... he has inherited about 15% of the land in Byzantine, and it's actually marked as "Sweden" now. ALso, he happily forces all his counts there to convert to catholicism (I had him convert when i invited him to my court).

No idea how that happened, but as far as it lasts, I get more taxes. So why not.

[Artanis]

Well scratch the russian plan.
My heir turned out a complete idiot. As close to an idiot as a heir without the trait "idiot" can be, at least.
My younger son is quite the prodigy though, so hey, he become king of Sweden, moron becomes king of Rus. Both has married into the Golden Horde just south of Rus (ortodox, but their wives happily converted).

Too bad there weren't any Norse around for you to send the idiot son to get hanged by bring the light of Christ to.

[Rockphed]

Too bad there weren't any Norse around for you to send the idiot son to get hanged by bring the light of Christ to.

Are norse the only pagans who kill missionaries?

[Flickerdart]

Are norse the only pagans who kill missionaries?

AFAIK the Norse are the only ones with a pagan festival that lets them kill captives. Any pagans might want to execute captives though.

[Avilan the Grey]

Speaking of the Golden Horde...
That was... anticlimactic.

This is the first campaign that have lasted past the "launch date" of the Golden Horde. And nothing happened (worth noting).
I have seen so many playthroughs and screenshots from After Action Reports where the GH has cut a swath through Poland and denmark or Scotland and sometimes even ending up in Iceland.

This time... They formed, they conquered the plains they almost by default conquer, and then hit Bulgaria, Byzantine and Russia like a watermelon hits a wall of bricks. They never managed to conquer any real land outside the starting steppes. In fact if I recall correctly neither Bulgaria or Poland even had to raise their levies, the "horde" had already been stopped completely.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Are norse the only pagans who kill missionaries?

Aztecs can sacrifice their prisoners as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the AI would execute a missionary depending on personality/claims.

[Flickerdart]

Speaking of the Golden Horde...
That was... anticlimactic.

This is the first campaign that have lasted past the "launch date" of the Golden Horde. And nothing happened (worth noting).
I have seen so many playthroughs and screenshots from After Action Reports where the GH has cut a swath through Poland and denmark or Scotland and sometimes even ending up in Iceland.

This time... They formed, they conquered the plains they almost by default conquer, and then hit Bulgaria, Byzantine and Russia like a watermelon hits a wall of bricks. They never managed to conquer any real land outside the starting steppes. In fact if I recall correctly neither Bulgaria or Poland even had to raise their levies, the "horde" had already been stopped completely.

The saddest Golden Horde I've ever seen is one that attacks the Ilkhanate, gets its ass handed to it, and amounts to nothing more than a few counties in Cumania. In fact, I've never actually seen the Horde do well.

Except one time when they spawned in Novgorod. As I was playing Novgorod. So there was a bit of a rage quit there.

[Avilan the Grey]

The saddest Golden Horde I've ever seen is one that attacks the Ilkhanate, gets its ass handed to it, and amounts to nothing more than a few counties in Cumania. In fact, I've never actually seen the Horde do well.

Except one time when they spawned in Novgorod. As I was playing Novgorod. So there was a bit of a rage quit there.

They have good genes though. Or are very stereotypical, depending on how you look at it.
Both princesses I have married are masters in intrigue, very good at warfare and have the "strong" trait.

[OrcusMcP]

To be fair, the Aztecs will sacrifice everybody.

There's a reason why sending someone off to convert heathens is one of the preferred ways to get rid of terrible heirs/claimants without tyranny penalties. Personally, I like forcing them to take up vows. Let them always be beside power but never getting it.

Unless they turn out awesome and likely to become Pope, in which case I pour money on them.

[Avilan the Grey]

To be fair, the Aztecs will sacrifice everybody.

There's a reason why sending someone off to convert heathens is one of the preferred ways to get rid of terrible heirs/claimants without tyranny penalties. Personally, I like forcing them to take up vows. Let them always be beside power but never getting it.

Unless they turn out awesome and likely to become Pope, in which case I pour money on them.

What was that quote:
"I send all my problems to the church".

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Man, I'm having the worst luck with the Game of Thrones mod recently. First had a game in which Aegon the Conqueror had only managed to subdue the Stormlands and the Iron Islands (for the game to work you really have to declare work on the Iron Islands first, I think, as otherwise all the Riverlords gain independence and you have to take them out one by one afterwards), then when invading the Reach got hit over the head and made incapable. Then one of the dragons died, leaving me with only one usable dragon in my conquest of the Westerlands, during which easily 70% of the riverlords (most of whom had decided to side with me in the first war anyhow!) suddenly hate me and are fighting against me. So I decide to make legitimize Orys Baratheon because hell, I'm probably gonna die super soon anyhow, but he then becomes my heir without changing his dynasty to Targaryen, so I quit.

Decided to play as the Iron Islands in the War of the 5 Kings. Stannis killed Renly, then took over the Iron Throne, burning Joffrey, Jaime, and Sansa alive. Then Aegon VI came and about half of the lords in the Crownlands and Stormlands sided with him, and he became King, and the he captured Robb Stark so the rebellion ended, and so I was left as King of the Iron Islands looking at a newly united Iron Throne, but then the game crashed.
No idea what happened to Stannis, if he survived, but Robb and Edmure Tully had the Lord Paramounts taken from them, so Aegon VI was about to hand out 3 Lord Paramount titles. No idea what Dany's been doing either.

Edit: Oh! Did anybody else see, the When The World Stopped Making Sense 480AD mod got released, and it is pretty darn pretyt.

[Sange]

Yeah the WTWSMS mod is really amazing. Started as the Avars, became Zoroastrian and established a kingdom in Scotland. Long live the Avar Zoroastrian Kingdom of Pictavarland!
Man I love that migration CB.

[Flickerdart]

Explain this mod. It sounds hilarious.

Is the Migration CB part of Charlemagne?

[Artanis]

*Fires up CKII for the first time since WoL came out*

*Sees Seduction Focus*

*Fires up Ruler Designer*

Wow. You could already do a hell of a lot of minmaxing with a female ruler via the Attractive trait, but Seduction Focus turns that up to 11

[Rockphed]

*Fires up CKII for the first time since WoL came out*

*Sees Seduction Focus*

*Fires up Ruler Designer*

Wow. You could already do a hell of a lot of minmaxing with a female ruler via the Attractive trait, but Seduction Focus turns that up to 11

So attractive Basque who uses Seduction to get her daughters matrilineally married to attractive people, thus increasing the chance of continueing the scam in the future?