Crusader Kings II Thread IV: Time to Create a New Title

[IthilanorStPete]

Hello thread, I've recently discovered that I owned a vanilla copy of Crusader Kings II (amongst other things I did not know I owned) and have decided to give the game a try. I don't have much experience with Paradox titles or mapgames in general. I started the tutorial map, but I think I got off the rails and didn't get through the whole thing. I'm currently not feeling too confident in my understanding of the game, and was hoping for a) some basic tips and b) some good characters to start with.

For just starting out, there's no better place than Ireland, 1066. Basic tips? I'm not really sure, I've never played vanilla. The basic of basics is marriage: marry so your heir inherits more stuff from your significant other, marry your direct lineage for that and also alliances. Get up to a duke as soon as possible so you can actually tech up.

Seconding the recommendation of Ireland 1066; the Duke of Munster is where I first learned to play. Marriage is a good start; also use your chancellor for fabricating claims to expand. You can also try building your military by subjugating some weaker neighbors as tributaries (can you do that in vanilla?), then using their forces to bolster your own in wars for claims.

[Avilan the Grey]

I would suggest starting as a duke in a rather stable region because that's the best way of getting a hang on things. Being a count can get very limiting unless you grow quickly due to luck.

I would also suggest starting with either family, intrigue or hunting focus depending on if you already have a large family, plan on warring a lot or feel the need to assassinate ppl.

[Nerd-o-rama]

CK2 is honestly another one where the wiki is your best friend and the only one who won't betray you. Some scattershot thoughts:

1. Your character is your number 1 priority, followed by your character's heir, followed by the rest of your dynasty, followed by your realm. If you run out of inheritance-eligible family members, you lose. Of course, if you run out of landed titles, you also lose, but that's harder to do when you're not bordering someone who can declare Holy War on you.
2. Your first priority is marriage. If you start with an heir but no wife (as does the Petty King of Mumu, a common starting character), don't worry too much about claims or titles, marry a girl with good Stewardship and stats in general (if you start as a woman with no dynastic heirs, such as the Duchess of Milan, make absolutely sure you check the "Matrilineal" box on the marriage screen, or you will game over as soon as she dies).
3. Your second priority is your heir's marriage, if you start with one. In this case (or your own case if you have no heirs), take a look at prospective marriage partners' titles, claims, and claims and titles they might inherit. The last one is kind of hard to figure out, but basically take a look at the realm her parents rule, make sure the inheritance in that realm is "Agnatic-Cognatic", and see if she's in the five or so eldest siblings. Or if you're a woman, matrilineally marry the oldest son who will accept.
4. There are basically two ways to get land: war and inheritance. To claim a title through war of someone who's in your religious group (a Christian, if you don't own any DLC), you or someone in your realm has to have some kind of claim on it, whether because they're a pretender to the title, they once held the title, you're a Duke or King and they have land that "de jure" belongs to your title, or you fabricated a claim on it. Assuming you start as the Petty King of Mumu (aka the Duke of Munster if you turn off cultural titles and names), the first thing you should probably do is prepare for and then declare war on your immediate neighbor to your south, as you have a "de jure" claim on his county. This will force him to become your vassal and expand your territory. At the same time, send your Chancellor to Fabricate a Claim on one of your other neighbors, which will get you a pressable claim on their territory. Generally, repeat that process until you own more than half of Ireland, and you can claim the title of King of Ireland and everyone else will probably swear fealty to you peacefully if you ask.
5. If you don't want to fight, you need to arrange things so that you or your heirs inherit titles; see point 2 for the general gist of how to do that, just be prepared to make sure the people who marry into your family inherit their titles by arranging Unfortunate Accidents for any older or more male siblings.
6. Once you get vassals, they have a nasty tendency to gang up on and revolt against you for any number of reasons. The way to avert or squash these rebellions is to have a large Demesne (holdings you own personally) with a large Demesne Levy. The most efficient way to do this is, generally, pick two de jure duchies and try to have, create, inherit, or usurp those titles (more than two duchies will cause vassal opinion penalties once you're a king). Within those de jure duchies, personally hold as many counties as you can manage (if it takes you over your demesne limit, deal with it until someone with better Stewardship inherits). You can take counties from your vassals without ticking off your other vassals only by using the "Plot to Revoke" missions in the Intrigue menu, by arresting them after winning against a rebellion, by them being of the wrong religion if you have certain Crown Authority laws, or (life hack) if you fabricate or inherit a claim on their county for yourself. Odds are good you can use the first two options on your starting vassal and the first guy you force-vassalize as the Petty King of Mumu, so try it out. Aside from that, make sure to upgrade the Keeps in your County holdings (and Baronies if you can afford to build new castles and hold the titles to them yourself) to increase your Levy size.
7. Important: Change your inheritance law to something that isn't gavelkind, or you will lose a lot of titles every time a new character inherits. Especially, do this before forming a Kingdom because that makes it much easier to get Primogeniture. Although, if your immediate heir is trash, Elective inheritance is also good if you control most of the duke titles within your kingdom. Tanistry is flavorful for Celts like the Irish, but tends to make your next heir basically random.
8. Don't give your heir land until you've had a chance to marry him off and, ideally, educate his heir to adulthood. The AI tends to make incredibly poor decisions on this when they're out of your court. I think in the next patch there will be an option to control heir marriages/education even outside your court but that might be a paid feature.
9. In general, educate your heir personally. Childhood is when they pick up most of their character traits, and you can pick and choose the good ones flawlessly. For characters you can't educate yourself, try giving them guardians that have good traits and educations. If they're not the heir you want, though, try not to give them to anyone with the Ambitious trait or an espionage education...
10. There is an incredible amount more, but in general, have fun and go with the flow. The game is much more interesting when things go wrong than when they go right, and things will go wrong.

[Neon Knight]

Thanks for the advice; I'll take the Duke of Munster as my first game and see how it goes.

The DLC sales are up for the new release, and I decided to snap up some key pieces of DLC like Way of Life and Legacy of Rome while they were cheap.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Good call, those are both good ones. Amend my suggestions with "take the Family focus to pump out kids and the Hunting focus to boost your health, use others situationally" and "always build up to your maximum retinue when available, focusing on Heavy Infantry or Pikemen, especially if you get those as a cultural retinue, which the Irish do."

Speaking of which I guess now's the time to flip a coin between Sword of Islam and Charlemagne. I mainly want the latter for custom empires and viceroyalties and not the start date, though...

[Corvus]

The business focus is a good one for the purpose of setting up a trade route.

Once that is done, as long as you have 200 gold on hand every so often (10 years, 20 years?) you can just renew it.

And the scholarship focus is good for teching up - you can build an observatory for lots of tech points and you also have an increased chance at random tech events.

Casus Belli are getting some additions in the new DLC in a few days, including, from memory, going to war just cause you want the land without having to actually establish a claim. The downside is that it really annoys your other neighbours who may think you might look there way next...

[Leecros]

TCasus Belli are getting some additions in the new DLC in a few days, including, from memory, going to war just cause you want the land without having to actually establish a claim. The downside is that it really annoys your other neighbours who may think you might look there way next...

and by in a few Days you mean TODAY.

I haven't done anything with the new DLC yet, but I have booted up a game just to derp around in CKII. Decided to go for a Pict ruler at the earliest start. I started as the Chief of Ce and helped my liege get on the Pictish throne. In gratitude, he made me High Chief of Fortriu and I immediately revoked all of my vassal-chiefs so I didn't have to worry about them. After that, I worked on ranking up in the Lucifer's Own and abused my powers horribly to kill off my liege. He and I were Lucifer-bro's, so he didn't mind me being in that sect even after I was outed. Still. It cost him his whole family as I kept abusing Luciferpowers to give his family horrible diseases, then assassinated the remaining two in murderplots after I ran out of dark power. Thus landing me the whoole kingdom. I paid for it though. Club foot, Lunatic, Stressed, maimed from a failed church raid, and possessed.

I died shortly after and my son had to give out a bunch of titles. Unfortunately, I forgot to check my crown laws to see that granting land was in the hands of the council and i accrued up something like a -50 opinion malus for going against the council. I figured I could handle them though and prepared my coffers to hire mercenaries to join with my personal army which was also quite big(Daddycakes managed to get Feudalism before he died).

....They decided to poison me instead.

So now my realm is split between my many daughters as I didn't have a son before I died. At least they're all married Matrilineally.

[Avilan the Grey]

OKay...
If you never have any interet in playing China, is there anything really important in the DLC that doesn't come in the pre-dlc patch?

Also, what exactly COMES in the DLC patch?

[tyckspoon]

From the changelog as posted by dev diaries:

Spoiler: DLC features

Show

###################
# Expansion Features
###################
- The Chinese Empire:
- China Screen:
- China is now present as an off-map power, accessible through a new button near the minimap
- The Status and Policy of China affects their behavior and how you can interact with them, beware an Expansionist China!
- Chinese Dynasties and History present throughout all bookmarks
- Tribute & Boons:
- Send the Emperor tribute in the form of Eunuchs, Concubines and much more in order to gain his Grace
- Spend Grace to receive powerful boons, such as Siege Engineers, Scholar-Bureaucrats, Chinese Artifacts, Imperial Marriages and MUCH more!
- Flavor & Immersion:
- While playing in the East you will feel the presence of China though new flavor events and interactions
- Beware ambitious adventurers spilling out of the east, such as Rebel Generals, Displaced Imperial Princes and Jurchen Raiders
- Numerous new China-themed Artifacts to add to your collection; The Art of War, Classics of Poetry, Serpent Spears, Ceremonial Silk Gowns, to name just a few!
- Hostile Actions:
- Disregard the Emperor's opinion and raid China for instant rewards
- Invade China and put your dynasty on the Dragon Throne

- Revised Silk Road:
- Many more Silk Road paths, it now branches through all of India, Tarim, Tibet and reaches as far away as Jerusalem
- Fight to claim Counties containing Silk Road Trade Posts to reap massive monetary benefits
- Construct new Silk Road buildings to reap other benefits than purely monetary ones

- New Playable Religions:
- Bön Pagan; the ancient religion of the Tibetan plateau, a fusion between unreformed and reformed pagans, this religion offers unique possibilities
- Taoist; a collection of ancient traditions from China, with many administrative advantages this religion is perfect for players who enjoy playing tall

- Casus Belli Expansion:
- Revised Tributary system, with new permanent Tributary States that also provide you with soldiers in addition to golden
- Many new CB's specifically tailored for the early game, such as Border Dispute, Ducal Conquest and Force Vassalization
- Additional CB's for larger nations without many options, such as Great Conquest and De Jure Duchy claims

- Rally Points:
- Rally points can now be placed to allow for easy management of your levies in wartime, your troops will automatically move to and merge at destinations you define
- Set rally points for navies, which work much like the ones for levies

- New Artifacts & Ways to Get Them
- Compose a Book; set your scribes to work writing a new work of literary wonder, based entirely on the personality of your character of course!
- Search for a Smith; send word for a smith to forge you new sets of weapons, armor and jewelry

TL;DR: If you're not in the China-influenced area you get new Silk Road stuff, new Casus Belli, some new options for creating artifacts, and rally points for your armies and boats so you don't have to manually gather and merge your whole realm's levies every time you get into a big enough war to justify raising them.

Spoiler: Free patch changes

Show

################
# Free Features
###################
- Added Tibet as a new playable region
- Filled in the 'Tibetan Plateau' wasteland with new provinces and mountain passes
- Added the Empire of Tibet title, which consists of 4 new Kingdoms
- Full history for the 769, 867 and 1066-1337 bookmarks for the region
- Added new Sogdian Zoroastrian heresy 'Khurmazta'
- Added Game Rule controlling Siege Assaults
- Added Game Rule for Siege Events (On, Off, Defenders only)
- Added Game Rule for Multiplayer Assassinations
- Added Game Rule for Multiplayer Invasion CBs
- Added Game Rule for Multiplayer 3rd Party Claims
- Added Decisions to form the Knights of St. Anthony and the Knights of St. Addai
- Added Assyrian culture and some historical Assyrian characters
- Tweaked the Nestorian Holy Sites
- Added Manichean Holy Sites
- Added a "Bema" festival for Manichaeans
- Added a "Sadeh" festival for Zoroastrians and Khurmazta
- Added Holy Order for Manicheans
- Added a Manichean Head of Religion
- Artifacts can now be destroyed from the Treasury screen
- You now receive a notification when receiving a new artifact, or when an artifact you should have received was destroyed because you already had one (if it is non stackable)
- Added a special Honorary Title called Teacher. Teachers become the default Educators of children.
- Armies now use whichever flank leader has the best siege modifier for determining the leader bonus to sieges, and the best movement speed flank leader for determining movement speed
- Increased the number of Counties and Baronies in the Tarim Basin area from 17 to 32, which should make it more interesting to play there
- Increased the amount of overall Holding Slots in the Tarim Basin area
- Non-Jain/Buddhist Monastic Orders get a new rank 1 power which gives a chance for their wards to gain attribute points during their education and upon reaching adulthood a chance to remove a wicked trait or gain a pious one
- The target of a tributary war now receives an event where they can offer peace right at the beginning of the war, only weak realms are likely to do this
- There are now three tiers of Kinslaying based on how close to you the person you killed was. The closer the relation the bigger the punishment:
1) Kinslayer - Siblings, parents, children any direct ancestor or descendant.
2) Familial Kinslayer - Blood aunts/uncles, cousins, nieces/nephews.
3) Dynastic Kinslayer - Any other dynasty member.
Muslims are exempt from gaining Kinslayer traits and you will only get the traits if the death is public knowledge.
- Unlocked the Charlemagne culture conversion events as those cultures are also present in the Old Gods start date.
- The golden hand, iron hand and prosthetic leg modifiers are now artifacts. They can not be gifted or inherited.
- Map Update of the Middle East
- Added the kingdom of Daylam
- Added the kingdom of Khorasan
- Added the kingdom of Yemen
- Added the kingdom of Iraq
- Also added a few new duchies to go along with the new kingdoms
- The Syrian desert now exists to restrict county placement and army movement
- Moved and reshaped most provinces in the Middle East, including the Arabian Peninsula all to way to the Indian border
- Added 18 new counties
- Renamed several counties, duchies and kingdoms to better represent the updated layout
- The "equip" button is no longer disabled if a slot is filled; instead clicking it will replace whatever is in that slot (the first item it finds if the slot holds more than one item). E.G., the Equip button for "Golden Bracelets" will cause those to be equipped in place of your equipped "Silver Bracelets"
- When dying, the game will now ensure that your heir has the same items equipped as you did if at all possible
- Equipped artifacts no longer have any chance of being destroyed on succession, except if there is no dynastic heir
- The "has guardian" icon on a character now takes you to the guardian's character page if clicked
- The "leading troops" icon on a character now pans to the unit they're leading, and selects it if it is yours
- The "council action" icon on a character now pans to the province they're taking the action in
- When a landed character is selected, their realm will now be highlighted on the map, similar to how CB targets are highlighted
- If you click the currently selected character again, the game will now pan to their location
- When assigning "Proselytize" job action, the map coloring will be different if the province is of the wrong religion, or if the target is an independent ruler rather than one of your provinces
- You can now arrange marriage on behalf of your landed children and grandchildren, not just those in your court. They will now also always accept your marriage proposals. Both of these features are only usable if they are your vassals or below, and have been rulers for at most 10 years
- Your children and grandchildren now have a checkbox on their character page that can be used to prevent them from getting married by the AI, though they may still get married by event and similar. Useful for ensuring your landed relatives don't get into bad marriages. Like arranging marriage on their behalf, this can only be used if they are your vassals or below, and have been rulers for at most 10 years
- New artifact pictures for the Gjallarhorn, Image of Edessa, Weeping Statue, Sampo, Saintly Skull, David's Sling, Handgun, Compass, Saintly Tongue and Yada Tashy
- Added an option to switch between grey wastelands and wastelands showing terrain
- Added an option to have wastelands be colored by neighboring realm if a single realm controls more than 2/3 of bordering provinces

Tibet is a playable area instead of mapfill wasteland. Many regions in that area of the map updated, filled in, or otherwise modified to be more interesting to play in. Lots of Quality of Life changes in the UI, like the map focus snapping to the current location of a character when you click on status such as 'leading troops'. You can boss around your children and grandchildren's marriage plans even if they're not in your direct court.

Also a bunch of balance and AI changes; I don't think anything too major is happening in the balance changes. AI change can mostly be summed up as 'we think the AI will be less stupid about moving its armies around now.'

[Avilan the Grey]

From the changelog as posted by dev diaries:

Spoiler: DLC features

Show

###################
# Expansion Features
###################
- The Chinese Empire:
- China Screen:
- China is now present as an off-map power, accessible through a new button near the minimap
- The Status and Policy of China affects their behavior and how you can interact with them, beware an Expansionist China!
- Chinese Dynasties and History present throughout all bookmarks
- Tribute & Boons:
- Send the Emperor tribute in the form of Eunuchs, Concubines and much more in order to gain his Grace
- Spend Grace to receive powerful boons, such as Siege Engineers, Scholar-Bureaucrats, Chinese Artifacts, Imperial Marriages and MUCH more!
- Flavor & Immersion:
- While playing in the East you will feel the presence of China though new flavor events and interactions
- Beware ambitious adventurers spilling out of the east, such as Rebel Generals, Displaced Imperial Princes and Jurchen Raiders
- Numerous new China-themed Artifacts to add to your collection; The Art of War, Classics of Poetry, Serpent Spears, Ceremonial Silk Gowns, to name just a few!
- Hostile Actions:
- Disregard the Emperor's opinion and raid China for instant rewards
- Invade China and put your dynasty on the Dragon Throne

- Revised Silk Road:
- Many more Silk Road paths, it now branches through all of India, Tarim, Tibet and reaches as far away as Jerusalem
- Fight to claim Counties containing Silk Road Trade Posts to reap massive monetary benefits
- Construct new Silk Road buildings to reap other benefits than purely monetary ones

- New Playable Religions:
- Bön Pagan; the ancient religion of the Tibetan plateau, a fusion between unreformed and reformed pagans, this religion offers unique possibilities
- Taoist; a collection of ancient traditions from China, with many administrative advantages this religion is perfect for players who enjoy playing tall

- Casus Belli Expansion:
- Revised Tributary system, with new permanent Tributary States that also provide you with soldiers in addition to golden
- Many new CB's specifically tailored for the early game, such as Border Dispute, Ducal Conquest and Force Vassalization
- Additional CB's for larger nations without many options, such as Great Conquest and De Jure Duchy claims

- Rally Points:
- Rally points can now be placed to allow for easy management of your levies in wartime, your troops will automatically move to and merge at destinations you define
- Set rally points for navies, which work much like the ones for levies

- New Artifacts & Ways to Get Them
- Compose a Book; set your scribes to work writing a new work of literary wonder, based entirely on the personality of your character of course!
- Search for a Smith; send word for a smith to forge you new sets of weapons, armor and jewelry

TL;DR: If you're not in the China-influenced area you get new Silk Road stuff, new Casus Belli, some new options for creating artifacts, and rally points for your armies and boats so you don't have to manually gather and merge your whole realm's levies every time you get into a big enough war to justify raising them.

Spoiler: Free patch changes

Show

################
# Free Features
###################
- Added Tibet as a new playable region
- Filled in the 'Tibetan Plateau' wasteland with new provinces and mountain passes
- Added the Empire of Tibet title, which consists of 4 new Kingdoms
- Full history for the 769, 867 and 1066-1337 bookmarks for the region
- Added new Sogdian Zoroastrian heresy 'Khurmazta'
- Added Game Rule controlling Siege Assaults
- Added Game Rule for Siege Events (On, Off, Defenders only)
- Added Game Rule for Multiplayer Assassinations
- Added Game Rule for Multiplayer Invasion CBs
- Added Game Rule for Multiplayer 3rd Party Claims
- Added Decisions to form the Knights of St. Anthony and the Knights of St. Addai
- Added Assyrian culture and some historical Assyrian characters
- Tweaked the Nestorian Holy Sites
- Added Manichean Holy Sites
- Added a "Bema" festival for Manichaeans
- Added a "Sadeh" festival for Zoroastrians and Khurmazta
- Added Holy Order for Manicheans
- Added a Manichean Head of Religion
- Artifacts can now be destroyed from the Treasury screen
- You now receive a notification when receiving a new artifact, or when an artifact you should have received was destroyed because you already had one (if it is non stackable)
- Added a special Honorary Title called Teacher. Teachers become the default Educators of children.
- Armies now use whichever flank leader has the best siege modifier for determining the leader bonus to sieges, and the best movement speed flank leader for determining movement speed
- Increased the number of Counties and Baronies in the Tarim Basin area from 17 to 32, which should make it more interesting to play there
- Increased the amount of overall Holding Slots in the Tarim Basin area
- Non-Jain/Buddhist Monastic Orders get a new rank 1 power which gives a chance for their wards to gain attribute points during their education and upon reaching adulthood a chance to remove a wicked trait or gain a pious one
- The target of a tributary war now receives an event where they can offer peace right at the beginning of the war, only weak realms are likely to do this
- There are now three tiers of Kinslaying based on how close to you the person you killed was. The closer the relation the bigger the punishment:
1) Kinslayer - Siblings, parents, children any direct ancestor or descendant.
2) Familial Kinslayer - Blood aunts/uncles, cousins, nieces/nephews.
3) Dynastic Kinslayer - Any other dynasty member.
Muslims are exempt from gaining Kinslayer traits and you will only get the traits if the death is public knowledge.
- Unlocked the Charlemagne culture conversion events as those cultures are also present in the Old Gods start date.
- The golden hand, iron hand and prosthetic leg modifiers are now artifacts. They can not be gifted or inherited.
- Map Update of the Middle East
- Added the kingdom of Daylam
- Added the kingdom of Khorasan
- Added the kingdom of Yemen
- Added the kingdom of Iraq
- Also added a few new duchies to go along with the new kingdoms
- The Syrian desert now exists to restrict county placement and army movement
- Moved and reshaped most provinces in the Middle East, including the Arabian Peninsula all to way to the Indian border
- Added 18 new counties
- Renamed several counties, duchies and kingdoms to better represent the updated layout
- The "equip" button is no longer disabled if a slot is filled; instead clicking it will replace whatever is in that slot (the first item it finds if the slot holds more than one item). E.G., the Equip button for "Golden Bracelets" will cause those to be equipped in place of your equipped "Silver Bracelets"
- When dying, the game will now ensure that your heir has the same items equipped as you did if at all possible
- Equipped artifacts no longer have any chance of being destroyed on succession, except if there is no dynastic heir
- The "has guardian" icon on a character now takes you to the guardian's character page if clicked
- The "leading troops" icon on a character now pans to the unit they're leading, and selects it if it is yours
- The "council action" icon on a character now pans to the province they're taking the action in
- When a landed character is selected, their realm will now be highlighted on the map, similar to how CB targets are highlighted
- If you click the currently selected character again, the game will now pan to their location
- When assigning "Proselytize" job action, the map coloring will be different if the province is of the wrong religion, or if the target is an independent ruler rather than one of your provinces
- You can now arrange marriage on behalf of your landed children and grandchildren, not just those in your court. They will now also always accept your marriage proposals. Both of these features are only usable if they are your vassals or below, and have been rulers for at most 10 years
- Your children and grandchildren now have a checkbox on their character page that can be used to prevent them from getting married by the AI, though they may still get married by event and similar. Useful for ensuring your landed relatives don't get into bad marriages. Like arranging marriage on their behalf, this can only be used if they are your vassals or below, and have been rulers for at most 10 years
- New artifact pictures for the Gjallarhorn, Image of Edessa, Weeping Statue, Sampo, Saintly Skull, David's Sling, Handgun, Compass, Saintly Tongue and Yada Tashy
- Added an option to switch between grey wastelands and wastelands showing terrain
- Added an option to have wastelands be colored by neighboring realm if a single realm controls more than 2/3 of bordering provinces

Tibet is a playable area instead of mapfill wasteland. Many regions in that area of the map updated, filled in, or otherwise modified to be more interesting to play in. Lots of Quality of Life changes in the UI, like the map focus snapping to the current location of a character when you click on status such as 'leading troops'. You can boss around your children and grandchildren's marriage plans even if they're not in your direct court.

Also a bunch of balance and AI changes; I don't think anything too major is happening in the balance changes. AI change can mostly be summed up as 'we think the AI will be less stupid about moving its armies around now.'

Thank you thank you thank you.
I have put the DLC on my wishlist, to wait for a sale. So far I have only outright not bought two: Monks and Mystics and Sunset Invasion.

[Malimar]

- Rally Points:
- Rally points can now be placed to allow for easy management of your levies in wartime, your troops will automatically move to and merge at destinations you define
- Set rally points for navies, which work much like the ones for levies
[...]
and rally points for your armies and boats so you don't have to manually gather and merge your whole realm's levies every time you get into a big enough war to justify raising them.

!!!

I would probably pay money for this alone. This has been my biggest complaint for years: once you get big (e.g., Roman Empire around the whole Mediterranean) it takes forever to select all your forces every time you go to war.

I would have been just as happy with a "select all armies" button, but this works too.

[Leecros]

So I accidentally inherited the Holy Roman Empire as the King of the Picts!

This is not what i wanted...

As it turns out, my character's dad was the first cousin(once removed) of the HREmperor due to a marriage that i completely forgot about. The HREmperor was old and excommunicated and apparently was never married and died with no kids leaving the entire empire to me...


Great...Vassal gore galore! The Queen of Italy is also the Queen of Saxony. the Duke of Aquitaine has like eight other Duchy titles. There's like three german dukes that have provinces in southern France. I can't give out any Kingdom-level titles without those kings also getting a bunch of land in other.

This is going to take literal generations to fix assuming I actually hold the throne and don't get immediately outsted by angry French and German Vassals who aren't too happy with some random Pictish King suddenly becoming Emperor.



Edit:

A bit of Karling history. Charlemagne and Karloman basically killed each other.They fought a war against each other that Charlemagne won, but he suffered so many losses that he was overthrown by a faction and his son Chararic "The Great" took the throne, united the kingdoms and formed the Holy Roman Empire. (His other sons died of various causes)

I married Karloman's son Pepin matrilineally to my (at the time) daughter. After I died and my son was assassinated, she took the throne. She ended up dying of Dysentary and my current character took the throne. Then Chararic died of stress. Thus the Karlings died off before 830 AD

[TheTeaMustFlow]

So I accidentally inherited the Holy Roman Empire as the King of the Picts!

This is not what i wanted...

As it turns out, my character's dad was the first cousin(once removed) of the HREmperor due to a marriage that i completely forgot about. The HREmperor was old and excommunicated and apparently was never married and died with no kids leaving the entire empire to me...


Great...Vassal gore galore! The Queen of Italy is also the Queen of Saxony. the Duke of Aquitaine has like eight other Duchy titles. There's like three german dukes that have provinces in southern France. I can't give out any Kingdom-level titles without those kings also getting a bunch of land in other.

This is going to take literal generations to fix assuming I actually hold the throne and don't get immediately outsted by angry French and German Vassals who aren't too happy with some random Pictish King suddenly becoming Emperor.



Edit:

A bit of Karling history. Charlemagne and Karloman basically killed each other.They fought a war against each other that Charlemagne won, but he suffered so many losses that he was overthrown by a faction and his son Chararic "The Great" took the throne, united the kingdoms and formed the Holy Roman Empire. (His other sons died of various causes)

I married Karloman's son Pepin matrilineally to my (at the time) daughter. After I died and my son was assassinated, she took the throne. She ended up dying of Dysentary and my current character took the throne. Then Chararic died of stress. Thus the Karlings died off before 830 AD

"Leecros started Literally Anyone But Me for Holy Roman Empire faction"?

[Valley]

*Ahem* Don't use the new Chinese DLC on a saved, already started, game. That is all.

[Rockphed]

*Ahem* Don't use the new Chinese DLC on a saved, already started, game. That is all.

I must have details about how hilariously wrong things went!

[TheFallenOne]

Need a little help. Decided to try my hand at a merchant republic for the first time and chose Cyprus. Plan is to make my heir into the patrician by in order granting him a coastal city, the corresponding county and then one of two duchy titles I acquired. That way he stops being my vassal, but after some non-Ironman testing with console commands that's the best way I found to start a republic in Ironman without having to acquire a king tier title first.

Trouble is, after granting him some cities I cannot grant him any of my county titles and I cannot figure out why. I can grant a county to one of my other mayors just fine. I thought the issue was gavelkind succession so I imprisoned and castrated my only other 0 year old son(you evil evil game...). Still no dice. Anyone know what the problem is?

[Leecros]

Need a little help. Decided to try my hand at a merchant republic for the first time and chose Cyprus. Plan is to make my heir into the patrician by in order granting him a coastal city, the corresponding county and then one of two duchy titles I acquired. That way he stops being my vassal, but after some non-Ironman testing with console commands that's the best way I found to start a republic in Ironman without having to acquire a king tier title first.

Trouble is, after granting him some cities I cannot grant him any of my county titles and I cannot figure out why. I can grant a county to one of my other mayors just fine. I thought the issue was gavelkind succession so I imprisoned and castrated my only other 0 year old son(you evil evil game...). Still no dice. Anyone know what the problem is?

At a guess, I would say that perhaps you're running up against the Softcap for Burgher vassals? You are limited to 10% of your realm being controlled by vassal burghers.

Honestly, I've never tried to turn myself into a Merchant Republic. So i'm just guessing.

[Valley]

I must have details about how hilariously wrong things went!

Long answer - Go look at my AAR. But short answer - Catholic Norse Tibetans.

[Rockphed]

Long answer - Go look at my AAR. But short answer - Catholic Norse Tibetans.

... You say that like it is a bad thing. It sounds like an awesome thing!

[TheFallenOne]

At a guess, I would say that perhaps you're running up against the Softcap for Burgher vassals? You are limited to 10% of your realm being controlled by vassal burghers.

Honestly, I've never tried to turn myself into a Merchant Republic. So i'm just guessing.

I control only five counties so that would check out, but if that was it I should not be able to give a county to my non-son mayor.

Also, I did some testing with the burgher cap with the duchy of Poitou in the 867 start. The limit only kicks in when you are already over it upon trying to grant a title. Giving the first county to a mayor went without a hitch even though it brought me straight to 16%.

Spoiler

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[TheFallenOne]

Alright I managed to make my son doge. Waited some more years until I could change succession law to Ultimogeniture then gave him the county and duchy and there he is, happily building trade posts.

I just can't make him my heir, the line of succession just jumps over him as if he doesn't exist. Are doges forbidden from inheriting a feudal title? I finally managed to have a dynastic merchant republic in Ironman but it seems I won't even get to play it upon my character's death.

[Rockphed]

Alright I managed to make my son doge. Waited some more years until I could change succession law to Ultimogeniture then gave him the county and duchy and there he is, happily building trade posts.

I just can't make him my heir, the line of succession just jumps over him as if he doesn't exist. Are doges forbidden from inheriting a feudal title? I finally managed to have a dynastic merchant republic in Ironman but it seems I won't even get to play it upon my character's death.

What you have to do is make sure that the dynast running the place is the last dynast left alive when you die. Doges don't inherit feudal titles normally, but a dynast will inherit the family business so long as there is at least 1 male, unlanded, dynast alive. I haven't ever managed to transfer my game from feudal to merchant republic in ironman, so I don't have any further advice. Well, there is this: if you try to set up your dynasty as a house in multiple vassal merchant republics, it won't work. Also, the benefits to fertility from the family palace are dynasty wide. You get them even if you don't run the merchant republic.

[Leecros]

Well, due to some hardware issues with my computer, I had to temporarily use my old computer which means no Pictish HREmpire until i get it back. So I decided to derp around in India and play with the new Jade Dragon mechanics.


It's...ridiculously easy to earn grace with China. I sent a couple of generals(spawned through the Promote Commander decision) and a concubine and had something like 600-ish Grace. The generals alone were worth like 230-240 and the concubine 100-something. Then after I Kowtowed Before the Emperor and sent even more generals and concubines to get over the 1000 Grace threshold for the Imperial Marriage.

I know there's a cooldown timer for sending tribute, but it's absurdly easy to get a massive amount of Grace through sending concubines and generals(the latter which is only during periods of unrest) coupled with the intrigue decisions to Promote Commander and Present Debutante.

Here I am, a two-province Duke who's very nearly the weakest direct vassal under Maharaja of Bengal and I'm married to this hot Chinese princess.

I really think the promote commander, Invite Holy Man/Noble, and Present Debutante buttons should just be removed completely.

Speaking of hot Chinese Princesses. I don't really mind that she started with genius. I don't know if that's just a thing that happens or of I got lucky. If it happens every time, then that's fine. They want it to be special.

I do however, have an issue with the fact that the Chinese Emperor has no family. His family members seem to just spawn in as they are needed. So while at the time, the emperor did have a 40 year old unmarried daughter that he started the game with. The daughter that I was married to was a 16 year old genius with no mother that appeared out of nowhere. This gets extrapolated more as things like concubines don't get given to the emperor. They just seem to wander off the map and sit there until they die. Generals you send I believe get sent to the Western Protectorate. It's just weird and silly that in a game so focused around characters and adventures; this chinese system feels so janky for the characters involved.

I haven't ever managed to transfer my game from feudal to merchant republic in ironman, so I don't have any further advice.

I once became accidentally Feudal from being a merchant republic...Which really angered me at the time because i was so close to the 80 trade post achievement. I've never touched the Found a New Kingdom button since.

[TheFallenOne]

What you have to do is make sure that the dynast running the place is the last dynast left alive when you die. Doges don't inherit feudal titles normally, but a dynast will inherit the family business so long as there is at least 1 male, unlanded, dynast alive. I haven't ever managed to transfer my game from feudal to merchant republic in ironman, so I don't have any further advice. Well, there is this: if you try to set up your dynasty as a house in multiple vassal merchant republics, it won't work. Also, the benefits to fertility from the family palace are dynasty wide. You get them even if you don't run the merchant republic.

In my Poitou test when I console-killed all dynasty members except the doge and then myself I got a game over.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Yeah, Doges are excluded from Feudal inheritance iirc. Either play a historical Patrician, or lose iron-man are your options.

[Maryring]

I have been toying around with societies, but I was wondering. Do any of you know if there's a good alternative to the Satanists? One with a similar semi-mystical qualities, but with powers focusing on empowering the realm, healing illnesses and general do-goodery, ideally at the cost of gold and prestige A mod providing something similar would be pretty cool I think.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I have been toying around with societies, but I was wondering. Do any of you know if there's a good alternative to the Satanists? One with a similar semi-mystical qualities, but with powers focusing on empowering the realm, healing illnesses and general do-goodery, ideally at the cost of gold and prestige A mod providing something similar would be pretty cool I think.

Hermeticists? Otherwise you're out of luck. Societies are fairly limited; you have the Hermetecists, each religion has a Satanist society, most have a monk-like religious society, and the Shi'a have the Assassins. Pretty much it.

[Maryring]

I know. I was specifically looking for mods. I suppose I should've made that clearer.

[Rockphed]

So, I am running a venice game with maximum size revolts. Italy (and just about everywhere else) has been ripped apart by massive revolts. For a bit Catharism beat out Catholicism and Catholicism had 0% moral authority from all the successful heretic revolts. Rome is in the hands of the Fraticelli pope. I think the Byzantine Empire is confined to Menorca and Mallorca.

My problem is that I had the county of Ravenna for about a month before it was ripped out of my hands by a Fraticelli rebellion. Any suggestions on beating the provincial revolts? They inevitably have 14K soldiers pop up and I want to either squash them before they pop up or preempt them by converting the province before they get the chance to pop up. What I really want is to get a second duchy and turn Venice into a kingdom, but that is a bit in the future.

[Maryring]

Wow. My recent Ironman attempt starting as a nobody Norwegian Count has been... pretty intense. The early years were a lot of waffling about. Trying to expand a little, grab some realms while the Danish and Swedish larger empires gobbled up neighbours like snacks. Somehow I managed to get strong enough fast enough so that when the realms inevitably broke down, I could grab the Become King ambition and build up the Kingdom of Norway.

Now, maintaining a Kingdom is hard when you run elective gavelkind. And reforming the kingdom into feudalism would require first reforming the religion. This is where my problems start. I managed to grab the three Scandinavian holy sites, but lacked the moral authority to reform the faith. What followed was about four generations of almost getting the moral authority high enough, then losing a holy site to inheirtance, and getting the holy site back, only for the moral authority to fall because someone else failed their invasion. I eventually decided that I'll just have to grab the infidel sites and get all holy sites. So I prepare raids, manage to complete raiding, and then just as I prepare to invade and take over, I get killed by my devil worshipping daughter. Who then quickly dies from devil worshipping. The one I take over rules for about three years, before he sacrifices himself to cthulhu. So I'm left with this underage girl whom everyone hates for being female and young and yet, somehow, she manages to take over most of Germany and Holland, ensures that, even if not directly held, all holy sites are held by members of the Germanic faith, reforms the religion and becomes Fylkir. Has a single son. Who is Genius to boot. All seems to be going well.

*snrk* But no, of course not. After I reform to a feudal system, I lose a lot of power, so Germany declares a war of independence to go along with several religious revolts. I lose the german territories, but manage to put down the revolts. My son inherits Uppsala from my Half-brother, so he leaves my court. A while later I check in on him... and he's a kin-murdering devil worshipper hated by everyone. And then he declares war on me. I win the fight, throw him in jail, and... yeah.

This game is fun