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

[Leecros]

Really? China can interfere with the Byzantine Empire? Is there not a diplomatic distance for them? That just seems ridiculous; the east shore of the Caspian Sea should be the absolute farthest they could go, and even that would be farther than they ever went IRL.

There is a diplomatic distance for them. Their region of influence spans the entirety of The Silk Road. Which means that any nation that lies along it can ask for boons and favors from China. The Byzantine Empire lies just barely within that extent.

China also almost lost that war, because the AI is awful at waging wars across long distances. They just trickleed in one 15k stack of troops every now and then which got trashed. I don't think throwing china at The Byzantine Empire is a guaranteed way to deal with them.

With that said, I do think China is silly broken and all of the boons should have an extra zero at the end of all of their costs. As i said, it only takes a generation or two to get the 5000 influence necessisary to ruin someone's day.

3. The duke of Brittany in 1066.

The Duke of Brittany in 1066 was my first playthrough of CKII way back on the dawn of its release.

It was a different time back then. There were only two empire titles that mattered and half of Persia didn't exist!

[Avilan the Grey]

The Duke of Brittany in 1066 was my first playthrough of CKII way back on the dawn of its release.

It was a different time back then. There were only two empire titles that mattered and half of Persia didn't exist!

And I heard that in the voices of the four Yorkshiremen.

Seriously though, I have decided to do the count of (whatever Krakow is in) in the earliest date (790s?). My plan is to become Catholic ASAP, because pagan religions aren't interesting to me.

[Avilan the Grey]

ZZzzzzz

Well that was a snorefest.
I remembered too late one other reason I never start before 1066. 99% of all gameplay is booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring.
I spent 20 years just fast forward and picking concurbines and getting daughters. I finally got a son at 50, then another, and then I died so I lost basically everything, and was looking forward to another 10 years of fast-forwarding (due to regency).

I just quit, will start over tomorrow.

[Avilan the Grey]

So... I am tempted to start two parallel games.
One earlier than usual (old Gods start, not King Karl start, because it seems more fun (the best start for just carving out your own realm, ahistorically, I think). Still going to start as a Slavic noble, but not sure where yet. I am a coward and don't want to start near the coast. I don't like Viking raids.
At the same time that is another reason I abandoned the first game: The Norse reformed already in 810, and basically I don't want to play a game where the Norse wins and takes over everything.

The other game is another start date I have never tried: April 1081. Not sure what to play as there, but I do think I will love the setting. All the historical powers are back in play, and the Byzantines are on the ropes.

[Avilan the Grey]

Okay, I just bought Monks and Mystics despite saying before I wasn't interested in it.
I discovered today that it was 50% off all CK2 stuff at Paradox Plaza (NOT Steam, which is why I didn't know about it. I figured it's worth 80 SEK and besides I can always turn off the Supernatural parts of it.

[Rockphed]

So... I am tempted to start two parallel games.
One earlier than usual (old Gods start, not King Karl start, because it seems more fun (the best start for just carving out your own realm, ahistorically, I think). Still going to start as a Slavic noble, but not sure where yet. I am a coward and don't want to start near the coast. I don't like Viking raids.
At the same time that is another reason I abandoned the first game: The Norse reformed already in 810, and basically I don't want to play a game where the Norse wins and takes over everything.

The other game is another start date I have never tried: April 1081. Not sure what to play as there, but I do think I will love the setting. All the historical powers are back in play, and the Byzantines are on the ropes.

Is 1081 the "Alexiad"? I did a byzantine run from then and really enjoyed it. I made all sorts of questionable decisions during the process (I really should have let the catholics take Afganistan), but in the end I controlled from Italy to the Indus. On the other hand, trying to play as Rum and restore the Roman Empire might be a fun/!!FUN!! run.

[Avilan the Grey]

Question:
If I keep Demon worship ON but turn off General Supernatural stuff... Do all the magic stuff in Devil Worship still happen?

[SZbNAhL]

Question:
If I keep Demon worship ON but turn off General Supernatural stuff... Do all the magic stuff in Devil Worship still happen?

If you're actually playing as one, I think the supernatural stuff's still there (it'd be a pretty weaksauce society otherwise), but if you're just a regular ruler then no, they're no more effective than anyone in real life who claims to be a witch.

Regards interesting 1081 starts (assuming you haven't already picked one), I had a rather fun game as the King (or maybe Duke? It's been a while) of Croatia. Imminent danger in the form of your Hungarian neighbours, but if you can fend them off you've got decent holdings, a nice coastline and boundless potential to spread Catholicism among the Baltic heathens. Or do what I did, accidentally convert to Zoroastrianism and become the Saoshyant.

[Avilan the Grey]

If you're actually playing as one, I think the supernatural stuff's still there (it'd be a pretty weaksauce society otherwise), but if you're just a regular ruler then no, they're no more effective than anyone in real life who claims to be a witch.

Regards interesting 1081 starts (assuming you haven't already picked one), I had a rather fun game as the King (or maybe Duke? It's been a while) of Croatia. Imminent danger in the form of your Hungarian neighbours, but if you can fend them off you've got decent holdings, a nice coastline and boundless potential to spread Catholicism among the Baltic heathens. Or do what I did, accidentally convert to Zoroastrianism and become the Saoshyant.

I'm going to start with my 867(?) start as a Polish pagan.
Any way, I have not yet made a decision about the satanists; I kinda like the "evil secret society" (with no real magic) thing but...

[Avilan the Grey]

Dumb question: Will I be able to pick my coat of arms when I become a feudal lord or am I stuck with the "generic tribal" symbol?
I ask because for the first time ever I want to do Iron Man, but only one of the Polish dukes has a proper coat of arms, and I don't want to play as him because well.. He's the IRL legendary founder of Poland AND starts off not only married, but already with a heir.

[Caelestion]

Can you use Ruler Designer with iron man?

[Grim Portent]

Can you use Ruler Designer with iron man?

It negates achievements but you can use Ruler Designer in a game with Iron Man active.

[Leecros]

Dumb question: Will I be able to pick my coat of arms when I become a feudal lord or am I stuck with the "generic tribal" symbol?
I ask because for the first time ever I want to do Iron Man, but only one of the Polish dukes has a proper coat of arms, and I don't want to play as him because well.. He's the IRL legendary founder of Poland AND starts off not only married, but already with a heir.

Sadly, you don't get to pick your coat of arms when you become feudal.

What you can do is use the customization pack to change your coat of arms. It's pretty much the only reason to buy it to get some of the minor features of the Ruler Designer in game that you can use in Ironman.

It gives you access to this customize house button which lets you customize your Coat of Arms.

[Avilan the Grey]

Sadly, you don't get to pick your coat of arms when you become feudal.

What you can do is use the customization pack to change your coat of arms. It's pretty much the only reason to buy it to get some of the minor features of the Ruler Designer in game that you can use in Ironman.

It gives you access to this customize house button which lets you customize your Coat of Arms.

So to be clear:
No. Because if I edit the character it loses all relations.
So basically if I want to start in Poland the ONLY character with an actual coat of arms is the least fun one to start with.
The other three dukes have almost the same as eahother: the Celtic Circle. Two of them are IDENTICAL despite not being of the same dynasty (black circle on white) and the last one is white circle on red.

I guess I start the game and see if the other dukes actually have family or are all alone. If they don't, I can just copy them in the ruler designer I guess.

[Leecros]

So to be clear:
No. Because if I edit the character it loses all relations.

Hmm? I'm confused?

If you edit your house coat of arms in-game with the customization DLC feature, you don't lose anything. I just did it real quick here on my Zoroastrian character to give him a more christian coat of arms.


unless i'm misunderstanding what you want...

[Avilan the Grey]

Hmm? I'm confused?

If you edit your house coat of arms in-game with the customization DLC feature, you don't lose anything. I just did it real quick here on my Zoroastrian character to give him a more christian coat of arms.


unless i'm misunderstanding what you want...

No that's what i want. But I never bothered with buying that DLC. Still on sale for a few more hours, so grabbing it now.

[Leecros]

No that's what i want. But I never bothered with buying that DLC. Still on sale for a few more hours, so grabbing it now.

I don't blame you. As mentioned, the only value of the Customization DLC is to edit a few minor things in Ironman that has little influenc on actual gameplay.


The only reason I bought it was because Paradox own my soul and multiplayer hijinks.

[Avilan the Grey]

I don't blame you. As mentioned, the only value of the Customization DLC is to edit a few minor things in Ironman that has little influenc on actual gameplay.
The only reason I bought it was because Paradox own my soul and multiplayer hijinks.

Well it was worth half price (which basically is the same as a 2l bottle of soda in this country). If it hadn't been on sale I wouldn't have bought it.

[Rockphed]

I think I have that DLC. It came with the "oodles of stuff for way too much unless it is on sale" pack. That pack also came with every major DLC up to Sons of Abraham, I think. So I have Rajas, and Sword, and Republic, and The Old Gods.

[Avilan the Grey]

I have all the DLC except the Christmas songs and Sunset Invasion which I have deliberately never bought.

[Caelestion]

I have all the DLC, but then the Paradox forums resemble Mos Eisley every time a new DLC rolls around, so you're always best making up your own mind!

[Avilan the Grey]

After all this I have decided to probably go Piast (the dynasty) anyway.
Basically the options for Dukes in 867 Poland are:

• High Chief of Greater Poland. 32 years old, already married, already has a son. Biggest guaranteed army (no vassals, three counties for himself). Of the Piast family, who are the historical founders of the Kingdom of Poland.
• High Chief of Lesser Poland: 22 years old, unmarried. BUT has 5 chiefs under him (a total of 6(!) counties). Either an unstoppable army or nothing, depending on how happy his chiefs are with him.
• High Chief of Plock: 20 years old, unmarried. Only one county that is also the High Chiefdom. Sitting on a holy site, but has nothing else going for him.
• High Chief of ? (can't remember the name). 37 years old, unmarried. Has one chief under him.

In short: Two are EXTREMELY easy. One is pretty damm hard and one is actually basically just a Count (with better marriage options due to higher starting prestige).
So, again, I think I'll just go Piast (Greater Poland).

[Grytorm]

Well I got a new computer and can play this again. Did the exact same thing as I always do, play as Dublihn 1066. If I ever reach the end of a game I will try somewhere else, but I want to finish the game.

I will admit I went and restarted once to avoid complications in my usual start. But I have now gotten the normal stuff done and can prepare for actually interesting things to happen.

[Avilan the Grey]

GAHH
My brainz iz no working.

I have a VERY hard time deciding if I should disable reformed Pagans or not. I don't plan on staying Pagan myself for long myself and I don't really want to face a 10 century Norse Empire...

[Malimar]

Does the AI really reform that often? I hardly ever see them reform even one religion in one playthrough, much less enough to become obnoxious.

[Avilan the Grey]

Does the AI really reform that often? I hardly ever see them reform even one religion in one playthrough, much less enough to become obnoxious.

I've been testdriving a few polish lords over the last two days and the Tengri reformed 868 this morning. The Norse reformed 871 yesterday.
Maybe they just got lucky. I think the Norse has a fairly easy way to reform if you start in 867 because their "far away and difficult site to get to" is very close to that Norse king that is the founder of Russia (that's only playable with an 867 start).

[Leecros]

Does the AI really reform that often? I hardly ever see them reform even one religion in one playthrough, much less enough to become obnoxious.

I currently have Reformed Germanic in my game.

Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Scotland, Ireland, England, France, Saxony,Brittany, Bavaria, and Croatia are all Germanic States.

(The Fylkir went on a Great Holy War for Bavaria at one point before his nation got split up between his kids. That's why it's all the way into Bavaria and Croatia)


With that said, I personally don't really mind reformed pagans.

[Rockphed]

I got a Reformed Romuva (or was it slavic) on a recent attempt at Jewish world domination. I really need to remember that ignoring religious rebels to finish taking a county from the Bulgarians is a bad idea. Also, I shouldn't have tried taking that county: my event troops had pretty much been used up. I should have taken a break from conquering to build up my desmense and let my vassals rebuild their armies.

Up until I got hit by a 10 rebellion pile-up, I was doing much better playing as the Khazar Khan than as the duke of Azov and Derbent, but I'm not sure whether that was because I turned province revolts down to "powerful" or if it was because the AI is just bad at being a stranger in a strange land.

[Avilan the Grey]

I currently have Reformed Germanic in my game.

Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Scotland, Ireland, England, France, Saxony,Brittany, Bavaria, and Croatia are all Germanic States.

(The Fylkir went on a Great Holy War for Bavaria at one point before his nation got split up between his kids. That's why it's all the way into Bavaria and Croatia)


With that said, I personally don't really mind reformed pagans.

For me, the biggest issue is that I want to play as "realistically" as possible. And pagans able to stand against Christians are just not that. I WANT my Pagans to almost completely disappear around 1000 AD.

[Flickerdart]

Does the AI really reform that often? I hardly ever see them reform even one religion in one playthrough, much less enough to become obnoxious.

I haven't played in ages, but when Old Gods first came out, you'd frequently get Khazars or Cumans and Magyars merging into a super-tribe that conveniently controlled all Tengri holy sites, and reforming the faith very early on.