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I have to say, I finally bit on The Old Gods DLC and I'm pretty disappointed. The 867 start is full of inaccuracies and compromises, plus I had no trouble uniting the British Isles as Ivar the Boneless, a four-county duke, in twenty years. It's no Sword of Islam one-county world-conquest on my first try, but it is pretty bad, especially since it cost twice, even three times as much as the other major DLCs.

 

I wonder. On a recent Three Moves Ahead episode, Rob commented on the demise of the Paradox "publish and patch" mentality, but in some ways, it feels like it's alive and well, just in the balance and theme of their DLCs. The Muslims, merchant republics, and now pagans all got ludicrous boosts that ruin the game for everyone else, so that people who play the base game regularly just have to wait for Paradox to take in fan reaction and pare things down. Is that what's going on here, Paradox pleasing the power-gamers and then kowtowing to backlash?

 

Honestly, I should just stop buying Paradox stuff at launch. The vanilla game is a total mess now, with the real historical outcomes all but inconceivable, and the mods take so long to catch up, I could almost just wait for a sale. I've definitely hit Bruce Geryk's "educated wargamer disenchantment" with the Middle Ages and it's making me feel constantly ripped off. I don't know if this will be the case with Europa Universalis IV.

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I bought CK2 when it was on sale for $9 leading up to the release of Old Gods.  I haven't really had much time to play it so I haven't noticed anything, but did the release of Old Gods only change things if you own the expansion, or was there also a patch for the vanilla game at the same time.

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I bought CK2 when it was on sale for $9 leading up to the release of Old Gods.  I haven't really had much time to play it so I haven't noticed anything, but did the release of Old Gods only change things if you own the expansion, or was there also a patch for the vanilla game at the same time.

 

Paradox's current policy is to patch everything into the base game, but only unlock new playable character types through DLC. So Sword of Islam added decadence and invasion mechanics to Muslim characters, but only people who pay for the DLC can play as them. The exception is Legacy of Rome, which added standing retinues for DLC owners only, but Paradox says that retinues are not part of the core game experience, which might explain the lack of attention paid thereafter.

 

My main complaint with the DLC is not that Paradox continues to expand their game, but that in doing so, they have upset the balance in a way that is uniquely hostile to new players, as well as often counterintuitive to history. For instance, factions! They were added in Legacy of Rome as a way of replacing revolt plots, which were ineffectual to all but the newest newbie. On the surface, the change was straightforward: factions were simply standing plots, with the same mechanisms and goals, but reorganized to allow for more concerted action against the player. But time and experience has shown that, since factions cannot simply be broken up with bribes and arrests like plots could, they turn an obvious system (AI who hate me and have something to gain will plot against me) into a black box (AI will join factions for various reasons, often beyond the game's ability to convey).

 

Now, if you go on the Paradox forums, anyone will tell you that managing factions is child's play. You simply keep all your vassals' opinions of you in the 80+ range and assign your Spymaster to intrigue against faction leaders. But I say, in addition to that being an incredibly boring way to interact with a system, it's nowhere documented or even reflected in the game. It's one of several systems bolted on post-release that deviate from the game's original vision of "personal relationships are everything." Many mods have fixed factions by making them more like abstract advocate blocs for certain playstyles, but Paradox seems uninterested in adopting that thus far. Instead, they've moved onto the next DLC concept after patching the factions just enough so that the king of Sweden wasn't getting made Byzantine emperor through some random plot.

 

...

 

Wait, did you want to know about The Old Gods in particular? My bad. I don't think it changed much for the vanilla game, though. If you're playing as one of the Rurikovich princes or Hungary, you might see a little of the new raiding system used against you, but otherwise it's just a slight change to how rebels work and a more active point-buy tech system, both of which are slight but not really appreciable improvements on the base game. Nothing like the messes that are trading posts and factions, at least.

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I'm pretty sure I'll be buying this.... but 40 quid seems a little steep. Worth that price or should I wait for a sale? 

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I'm pretty sure I'll be buying this.... but 40 quid seems a little steep. Worth that price or should I wait for a sale? 

 

It actually was on sale last week, but you can count on it showing up again for the Steam summer sale.

 

Honestly, I can't imagine playing Crusader Kings II without all the DLC content, not really because it improves on the base game, but because there are a dozen major features the game now expects you to have available that you need the DLC to access. Wait until it's on sale for seventy-five percent and buy it all, then play an Ireland 1066 start and cross your fingers.

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Got it on that Steam sale, cheers. 

 

There might be some links elsewhere in this thread, but I figured I might as well ask; can you recommend any links/video tutorial type stuff for absolute beginners? I've tried the game a few times now and come up against an impenetrable wall of interface complexity! 

 

I'm far from quitting it (it's fun running a lordly dynasty into the ground with a series of nonsensical decisions), but I might actually like to know what the hell is going on at some point. 

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Got it on that Steam sale, cheers. 

 

There might be some links elsewhere in this thread, but I figured I might as well ask; can you recommend any links/video tutorial type stuff for absolute beginners? I've tried the game a few times now and come up against an impenetrable wall of interface complexity! 

 

I'm far from quitting it (it's fun running a lordly dynasty into the ground with a series of nonsensical decisions), but I might actually like to know what the hell is going on at some point. 

 

The video tutorials I used back in the day are out of date now. In fact, the game just had a major update, so almost all tutorials are out of date, including the in-game tutorials. Honestly, I think this site has a good laundry list of the basic concepts, with a couple of bare-bones Let's Plays from the wiki for reference. If you can find someone playing a slow Ireland game (at the 1066 start, mind you) on Youtube, it's useful to watch that. Anything else, I've given a lot of advice in this half-dead thread, so I wouldn't be adverse to giving more.

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Rather than clog the twitch.tv stream thread with general gameplay advice, I thought that I'd collect here a few conceptual pointers I've said during the streams, along with some recommended starting characters.

 

1) Crusader Kings II is about people. There is no political or social entity that is not embodied by a single person ingame. This means that there is no "right" or "wrong" in the logic of the game, except the opinions of others make it so. Territorial claims and righteous imprisonments are the two most obvious ways this is expressed, but there are many other situations where the positive or negative opinions of often minor characters makes all the difference. Like they say, if you've got to do something wrong, do wrong right.

 

2) Because Crusader Kings II is about people, instead of civilizations or cultures, you actually have a pretty narrow range of interactions with the game as the player at any given time. Generally speaking, you either effect change inside your realm though the missions you assign your councilors (except for the Chancellor and Court Chaplain, which have some other uses with other rulers), or you effect change outside your realm through the character screens and their associated diplomacy menus. Every landed character, count and above, is their own AI running their own court. As the player, you have absolute control of the people in your court, but you are at the mercy of everyone else in their own affairs, so you have to be careful to appeal to their interests, either through astute positioning or brute force.

 

3) Some people will hate you no matter what, just as some people will love you, though the latter is much less worrisome. The character traits, which each have opposites that make both parties hate each other, mean that it is impossible to be beloved by all. Your enemies, may they be few, express these unlovely feelings mostly through plots and factions, but better to outmaneuver them than just snuff them out, because Crusader Kings II is a long game, played over generations, and you don't want to burn time and resources better spent on your son's inheritance ending the Count of Podunk's delusions of grandeur instead. If you're rich and powerful, who cares who hates you?

 

4) Paradox will always have UI issues, I think. Crusader Kings II is vastly improved over earlier games, but there's still obscure bits everywhere. Fortunately, some valiant designer(s) added tooltips to literally everything in the game. Every number and object in the game has an associated pop-up box with information, like travel time for individual armies and hierarchy for the realm size value. A lot of the time, figuring out what's going on in Crusader Kings II is about finding the right thing to mouse over and get a tooltip that clears it up.

 

 

Suggested Characters to Play on the September 15, 1066 Start, from Easiest to Hardest, and Why You Should Play Them

  • Murchad Ua Briain, Petty King of Munster - Yeah, this is probably the best place to start. The player has about an even chance of forming the Kingdom of Ireland during Murchad's or his son Brian's reign, at which point you can start annexing parts of Wales, Søreyar, or even Brittany in order to take down Scotland. Once you've united all the Celtic lands of the Isles, invade England and reclaim Pyrdain for the heirs of Brian Boru!
  • Svend II Estrid, King of Denmark - So what if you've got the Holy Roman Empire lurking at your doorstep? They have a civil war coming up once the game starts, whether from Burgundy or Italy, and that gives you enough time to make a marriage alliance with them or against them. Meanwhile, Norway is busy fighting with the Normans over England and Sweden has a succession crisis, so you're the only one really set to conquer Pomerania and Lithuania for Christendom. Once you've secured these kingdoms and doubled your territory, it's your choice whether to unite the Scandinavian lands under one rule or take on your neighbor to the south!
  • Guilhèm VIII de Poitou, Duke of Aquitaine, Gascogne, & Poitou - You rule over three of France's nine duchies and could form the rival Kingdom of Aquitaine, if you could only break free. Lucky for you, your king is a fourteen-year-old child. Unlucky for you, you're forty-three and only have a seven-year-old daughter to inherit. Will you become the power behind the throne or get one of your own?
  • Otto II von Nordheim, Duke of Bavaria - You're on the periphery of the Holy Roman Empire, but you have the most secure position. A few wars with your neighbors, nothing to gain the emperor's notice, and you can crown yourself King of Bavaria, making you a powerful vassal as well as a kingmaker. Or will you reach too far in your plotting like the historical Nordheimer family, which lost all of its lands when it turned against the emperor?
  • Ioannes Doukas, Doux of Nikaea - Your half-brother rules an empire that has lasted eighteen hundred years, but a storm is coming. As his richest and most powerful vassal, will you help him stop the Turkish hordes, even if it would suit you more to see him weakened for the civil war that must soon break out over his idiot son and heir?
  • Boleslaw 'the Bold' Piast, King of Poland - You rule over a united kingdom, but Seniority Succession means your brother, who owns half the country, is next in line. You must survive his intrigue and redistribute your lands among loyal followers, before the Premyslids of Bohemia or the Rurikovichs of Russia start to look your way.
  • Alfonso VI Jimena, King of León - The Muslims are at the door, but your family has been granted a reprieve for a generation, now that the Umayyad Caliphate of Andalusia has fallen apart. You are the strongest of the three brother-kings, but two assassinations would make you the sole ruler of Galicia, León, and Castile. Surely your brothers would give their lives to see Spain freed from Muslim rule, even if you don't let them make the choice?

There's a few other favorites that I'd recommend, like the Duke of Barcelona, the Duke of Provence, the Duke of Lower Lorraine, the King of Scotland, and the Duke of Apulia, but between the seven I've listed here, you'll get a full experience of everything the base game of Crusader Kings II has to offer. Hopefully we can start to hear some stories about people's games, if the stream has been any indicator!

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The Idle Thumbs Crusader Kings stream is a great way to see someone playing Crusader Kings badly, yet entertainingly, and you'll learn how to pull you butt out of the fire in a few crazy ways.

 

I've had a lot of fun playing as the the Duke of Rostov on a few different starts. As long as you can nail down your power base before the Golden Horde shows up ;)

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I played through the first time as the Swedish which is like playing as the Denmark except you will have a civil war involving you pagan brother or uncle at the start to deal with people you get down to business of conquering pagan and engaging in numerous war with Denmark over the Baltic pagan states

 

Ended up Emperor of Scandinavia (in part by putting my son on the throne of Denmark), King of France and Jerusalem (Crusades) and with a  random scattering of land in Germany, Italy and England. 

 

Best part of the game was holding unto Finland against the Golden Horde (thanks in part to having just installing my son as the king of Denmark meaning he sent troops). It involved the Horde running up and down Finland taking castles and starving cause it was an army of 60-80,000.  I landed troops on the opposite side of Finland taking back the castles so that my warscore didn't drop too low and avoided battle by loading them onto ships when the Mongols got too close and dropping at the other end of Finland where they just marched from.

 

When their army dropped low enough from starvation I beat in battle, disbanded my  (greatly reduced) vassals, raised Holy order and mercenary troops (paid in part by gold from the Pope for fighting pagans) to deal with the next Mongol army. Rinse and repeat for a few years (with the Horde having to deal with an Crusade lead by France to retake Hungary) had me secure a white peace and keeping Finland and when my king died and his son inherited Sweden I ended up taking about half of Poland from the Golden Horde over a couple of wars

 

 

I am currently playing as the Byzantines from the time of the Alexiad where they have lost about half of their land. I currently have all of the Balkans, North Africa from Tunisia to Egypt, southern Italy and most of the land surrounding the black sea with the Mongols due to arrive in the next 25 years.

 

 I took the land surrounding the black sea cause I plan to repeat my Swedish plan and stalling them invasion by running troops up and down the coast while their armies starve except this time I am building up a massive war chest since I won't have any holy order troops or money from the Pope

 

Best part of the game so far was my Emperor daughter's becoming Queen of Hungary and killing her son so that she also inherited the Byzantine empire. Best part was she joined the plot to kill him. I have been dealing with a decent few rebellions in Hungary cause it turns out she is fond of castration and blinding people which doesn't make for peaceful vassals.

 

I tried playing as Ireland but after Sweden it was too easy and I have already created the Celtic empire in the Viking invasion expansion pack for the original medieval : total war. 

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I just got into this and got a couple of questions.

 

I've started as the Petty king of Munster. I've expanded until I had de jure claims on Ireland and formed that kingdom. I've offered vassalage to the remaining counties to get them into my kingdom.

 

1. Should I be creating more duchys? All my vassals are pleased with me, and keeping them small will make a potential rebellion less effective. Are there any advantages to making duchys?

2. I'm eyeing the kingdom of scotland. How do I best get a casus belli?

3. I accidentally married my son off to a countess. On sucession, will I get her lands and if they become part of Ireland, how fucked am I with her liege?

 

Any law changes I should be working on beside primogeniture, since all my vassals like me?

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1. Should I be creating more duchys? All my vassals are pleased with me, and keeping them small will make a potential rebellion less effective. Are there any advantages to making duchys?

 

Generally speaking, unless you have specific goals you want to achieve in a given game, you should always create duchies and hand them out to the best of your relevant vassals, otherwise you're kneecapping your prestige income, since the liege gets the same monthly prestige as the sum of all his vassals' titles. Also, most of the laws only consider the vassals immediately below you when calculating eligibility, and four dukes are easier to keep happy than ten counts. Just make sure to give them the whole duchy, with all lands and vassals, or they'll resent you for it.

 

2. I'm eyeing the kingdom of scotland. How do I best get a casus belli?

 

Hard way: fabricate claims and gobble up the kingdom up over the course of a century. Easy way: marry a daughter of the King of Scotland. If she's first, second, or third in line for the throne, which can happen if Scotland is Agnatic-Cognatic succession and without a couple male heirs, she'll have a Strong Claim, but chances are it'll be a Weak Claim, which is given to each of Scotland's other children not as high in the succession. Wait for your heir to have a son, who will inherit the Weak Claim as an uninheritable claim, then press your grandson's claim, which being a Weak Claim is only valid if a woman or child rules, unless there's a succession war going on already. Alternately, you could press your daughter-in-law's claim, if the opportunity arises, but be warned that you won't have control of your son or any children he has subsequently until you die.

 

Either way, you're probably going to need to be smart about it. Unless you've been making bank and building like mad, Scotland will have a five thousand-man advantage over you. If England's not still a big pile of shit after the Norman Conquest (or lack thereof), it might be good to send a spare daughter their way to ensure a blind eye, if not outright aid, in your bid for the throne. If you're pious and the King of Scotland is not, maybe throw an Excommunication his way too, since vassal levies are a function of opinion.

 

3. I accidentally married my son off to a countess. On sucession, will I get her lands and if they become part of Ireland, how fucked am I with her liege?

 

When your grandson, the heir to both your son and your daughter-in-law, comes of age, you will get her lands and they will become a de facto part of Ireland, but not de jure until the entire duchy of which the county is a part has been under your control for a hundred years and is assimilated to your crown. Until then, the de jure king, if he exists, will resent you for holding it, though probably not enough to go to war over it, unless you're particularly vulnerable. If it's a real issue, you can establish a marriage alliance with the offended power. The AI is slower to declare war on allies, regardless of relations.

 

The more pressing concern is that, since your son is unlanded and your daughter-in-law is a count, all their children will be born into her court, educated by whomever she chooses, and married to whomever she likes. There's not really much you can do, since the AI won't let a "foreign power" educate its children except in extreme circumstances, but when your son's firstborn nears the age of sixteen, you can invite a woman you'd like him to marry to court and then betroth her to him. Fingers crossed that the kid won't be a sub-ten wonder across the board.

 

Any law changes I should be working on beside primogeniture, since all my vassals like me?

 

So long as you're raising crown authority every generation until you hit High in order to switch to Primogeniture, you're fine. I prefer Harsh Taxes and No Levies from towns and churches, as well as No Taxes and Max Levies from feudal vassals, but there are some people who don't like to piss off their baron-level vassals, even though they can be safely ignored once you've got your second duchy title, and others who think you should inch up feudal taxes as high as you can, since that makes you money hand over fist. Your call, really.

 

Sometimes I like to switch to pure Agnatic succession, because it causes less headaches with female inheritance in the long run, but changing anything makes all your vassals pissed, so I don't often get around to it.

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That makes my brain hurt.

 

Crusader Kings is a game I love the IDEA of playing. I say to myself "Man, if I got into Crusader Kings I could just play this damn thing all weekend!"

 

Then I do something else.

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That makes my brain hurt.

 

Crusader Kings is a game I love the IDEA of playing. I say to myself "Man, if I got into Crusader Kings I could just play this damn thing all weekend!"

 

Then I do something else.

 

That's the relationship of a lot of people with Paradox games. Honestly, I like the idea of Victoria II more than I've ever liked playing it. Still, with Crusader Kings II, you don't really need to understand the systems in full, like I've laid out above, but just roleplay. Nine times out of ten, the game's responsiveness is such that you'll do fine.

 

The tenth time, everyone you know and love will die, though.

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When your grandson, the heir to both your son and your daughter-in-law, comes of age, you will get her lands and they will become a de facto part of Ireland, but not de jure until the entire duchy of which the county is a part has been under your control for a hundred years and is assimilated to your crown. Until then, the de jure king, if he exists, will resent you for holding it, though probably not enough to go to war over it, unless you're particularly vulnerable. If it's a real issue, you can establish a marriage alliance with the offended power. The AI is slow to declare war on allies, regardless of relations.

 

 

This is true unless Crown Authority of your daughter in law's kingdom is High, in which case counties of that kingdom can't pass outside the relm. That's where it gets a little complicated. I think that if your Grandson inherits first before you die, he will become a count under the kingdom his county is currently in. Then if you were to die and he were to inherit your lands, they would become part of the same kingdom (if possible.) If you die first and your Son or Grandson inherit, I think they'll leave the county and take your throne instead. Usually this only happens with the Holy Roman Empire, but it's possible that England has marched its way up to high crown authority as well.

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This is true unless Crown Authority of your daughter in law's kingdom is High, in which case counties of that kingdom can't pass outside the relm. That's where it gets a little complicated. I think that if your Grandson inherits first before you die, he will become a count under the kingdom his county is currently in. Then if you were to die and he were to inherit your lands, they would become part of the same kingdom (if possible.) If you die first and your Son or Grandson inherit, I think they'll leave the county and take your throne instead. Usually this only happens with the Holy Roman Empire, but it's possible that England has marched its way up to high crown authority as well.

 

I forgot to mentioned that, thanks! Yes, in a realm with High or Absolute Crown Authority, vassals already holding landed titles are passed over for succession outside the realm and vice versa.

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High Crown Authority is basically great if you have it and a huge pain in the butt if anyone else does :)

 

I recall at one point somehow drumping a huge portion of Norway and Sweeden into the HRE by accident due to being inattentive to succession laws.

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Do you ever make the push to Absolute? I always do, but I suspect that says more about me than about its utility.

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When I play, I usally stay at Medium with Elective Monarchy, but I realize I'm not the typical player. I very rarely do anything to piss of my vassals, assasinations  are saved for particularly important moments, so I'm usually able to elect whomever I want to be my heir and most everyone agrees with me.

 

Here's a couple of posts from one of the dynasty games I was in on my other forum that illustrates my style of play, scheming and guile.Applogies for broken HTML, we have some custom codes over there and I can't post regular images yet.

 

Here's a look at my starting situation. Decent traits so far, 11 years old, 2 over the demense limit, and 6 pending revolts.

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578100776682/2B8BBE7C26708B0AA49169021DE0DE77B1ED811E/[/bigimg]

Spreading a little (surprisingly little) money around, I got that down to just the Count of Bilyar who was grumpy.

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578100787186/8E41E0DA65191625B14934E6B6729CE99339E8AA/[/bigimg]

He's ambitious, so he's on the short list for assasination. Unfortunately, since I'm a kid, there are no plots. I ended up just appointing him as the court jester (the only title I have left to give out) and leaving him to revolt soon. Thankfully, my spymaster is appointed my regent, leaving me with a decently high Intrigue to protect me from assasination, as well as getting my demense limit up to 7.

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578100881462/42B55CD74BAE2B6448585E5A1F8D5C3B261D1AC4/[/bigimg]

I'm now a coward

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578100901131/EEE31A50496BD91FD516CB6ACE8838D077D5A962/[/bigimg]

And then suddenly not

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578100907141/D54D3E1DF9C3CA24924616D444C1C98B010B9607/[/bigimg]

Now Novgorod wants to get me involved in a war.... Norway is huge.

[bigimg]http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578100917076/DD6B2BE9BF3E157233A96035863CC1E60041A85A/[/bigimg]

I didn't want to take the prestige hit so early, so I said yes anyway in hopes that Norway won't make its way over to me before winning the war. Then I learn patience.

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578100939075/5772389BE62BD40C2FF016AEA347E44220A1D2B0/[/bigimg]

Then my bitch of a mother takes over.

[bigimg]http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578100945988/7A0D75E176E3AF128483CBF7D381C912CF5B637B/[/bigimg]

Her crappy stats send my demense limit back down, angering all my vasals again. I only have to make it two more years and then I'm adult. But then, an opportunity.

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578100960759/71D27CB1D7B61008D71D715579058509C1E1C17A/[/bigimg]

Sadly, she survives. (There's a 50% chance she dies and then, if she doesn't die, there's a 50% chance of wounding. The math is multiplicative, not additive, so there's a 25% chance that nothing happens. That's where I landed.) The war against Norway is going poorly, and finished shortly after I took this picture. Also, (not pictured) I jumped into a war to help my cousin once-removed (Duke of Cheremisa) take over a couple of counties from Bulgar. Thankfully that one went better and I got a nice relations boost.

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578100988950/A4D5E21823B6445D41F4749E47ED33667B904D3F/[/bigimg]

And then, I'm 16!

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578101033343/BCA0DDE85A063B179328B5AB3912D4939FF4ADB3/[/bigimg]

My demense limit is back up, and I even have some room to spare. Finding a husband who's got decent stats and isn't too picky about a matrilenial marriage proves to be difficult. Still, I manage to net a Genius!

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578101055334/EED593FFA71C10D00630CA4F9B3CBA9AC9EE6031/[/bigimg]

Leaving me with some pretty hot realm stats.

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578101064914/C0D95F97F203F14FC156115C676F43C24987080B/[/bigimg]

I sense there's a chance for getting some land without using the barbaric methods of my father. I imagine my cousin-once-removed, the Duke of Cheremisa (and the lands I helped him take from the Muslims) is probably sweatting being all alone in this dangerous world.

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578101083702/1CFE44EEA9B907BD7AE6523AB21009533B403B3A/[/bigimg]

And POOF! 6 free counties!

First thing starting up today I realized that the Duke of Novgorod (who lost the war against Finland last night) is probably feeling pretty damn vulnerable. Let's see....

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115372038/CD35A1D208D2CA29D21B28D87308CA90DF968985/[/bigimg]

Sure enough, there's five more counties for me. I also married one of my sisters into the Bizantine Empire, which I thought was going to be a good idea, but the moment the marriage went through I started getting war invites for every little civil war.

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115408475/DE2785B54F537A0E2A928264A7E439A5B9CF990C/[/bigimg]

I accepted that one since it was so far away, but I eventually learned to ignore them regardless of the prestige hits.  That's when I realized that some of the tactics that I'd used to curry favor with my new aquisitions had a price.

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115756936/319E1F8D5F124EEFB350E6180FA7E6049769D9CC/[/bigimg]

Just as I had gotten everyone back in line, now I had a couple more revolts pending. Since I had armies raised anyway, and Vitebsk is starting to fall apart, I jump in their war. I figure if I can stabalize it now, maybe I can convince them to join later.

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115769897/BA76E4A2B58D1E0D1111BF59319D43CA7F1BF95F/[/bigimg]

It falls apart even worse, seperating into 3 seperate waring states, but a quick battle and imprisonment (all my doing) ends the war real fast. Unfortunately, even with the wonderful opinion Sofia has of me, there are some blocks to bringing her into the fold.

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115800452/F8FD1478CA1FA8DDFCAA7F1F446EF087989EEBE2/[/bigimg]

Obviously, I need to figure out how to become her de jure liege. That means creating a third Kingdom (Ruthenia.) Unfortunately, the only bits of the kingdom that I don't have are either with Vitebsk (the country I'm trying to absorb) and Galich (a pretty sizable country in its own right.) Let's check the ledger. There I am with 7366 army and Galich is....

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115830047/201BE4889F936D896638786EBF19C3B7A34BA349/[/bigimg]

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115840795/CF67750923D9AD6F42788C9C667C51FFB85CEBD4/[/bigimg]

I make quick work of taking over Vyazma for one of my Dukes and Smolensk for myself. That leaves me just two counties short. Thankfully, the Duke of Novostok (whom I bought earlier) has claims on one of Galich's Dutchies. I press that claim so I can get what I need in one swoop rather than going through two more wars. It's a risk because Duke Rostislav will have quite a power base after this.

[bigimg]http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115912915/7FD7E07715CBF8CA0EA727B493A0B60226934335/[/bigimg]

Unfortunately, just as I declare that war,  that annoying Duke of Perm bugs me again.

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115855246/F635DC0125FC92E240988419FE7374592EC25859/[/bigimg]

I pull my troops off the fight in Galich and take care of that pretty quickly

[bigimg]http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115895029/1329966D133966424F0FE03252C209CF991DE66F/[/bigimg]

Meanwhile, a count I imprisoned a while ago dies and passes me the county, I get pregnant twice, and I marry my other sister into the royal line of Sweden (not matrilinialy unfortunately.) Then disaster (not really, I needed some more alliances anyway.)

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115927168/43A015E4A30FB9D54579E849B23A256799BC84D5/[/bigimg]

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115932795/E6DEDA769FDBA0F2527477AC0AAE3C1B169222EE/[/bigimg]

None of that stops the war...

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115939489/C5A371186BD6664662A6B133F3E6D6364635EEC7/[/bigimg]

Or the creation of our third kingdom

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115946874/1A6579EB23534FFCA62C6E7F0BCEEDC83A38E84E/[/bigimg]

Or the subsequent absorption of Vitebsk

[bigimg]http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578115955231/EEA76444A76F7E8830AB91CCA0D30836515744DA/[/bigimg]

Which leaves the realm looking like this

[bigimg]http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/576713578116115495/D8E69D91FE8D9BCE24C4B0D2A453897870206FE7/[/bigimg]

That's a total of 17 counties added via vassalization and 4 via war from Galich. Next up is bullying Galich into joining us as well, and then a further period of prosperity and building. Currently there's at least a castle town and wooden palasade in every county we own personally, and I plan on continuing to build out the finances of the kingdom relying on our size to scare off any potential enemies. We have one overly powerful Duke who will need to be delt with, as well as a couple of ambitious counts.

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You play much more pragmatically than me. I'm all about neat borders and controlled expansion. I'll edit this post with a screenshot of my 867 Armenia game tonight.

 

 

EDIT: Here we go. The darker purple blob is me, with the lighter purple blob what remains of Byzantium, which is now ruled by my cousin. I grabbed a bunch of Muslim emirs through holy wars, then swore fealty to the Empire before the Abbasids could eat me. I inherited Georgia and grabbed Alanica and Taurica through holy wars while the Seljuk invasion gutted the Cumans, then gobbled up all of Anatolia before breaking free. Jerusalem, Syria, and the beginnings of Egypt are all since then. I reached the tipping point maybe fifty years ago, so once I conquer Egypt, it might be time for me to move on.

 

Cool things to note? Denmark ate Sweden. England united under a Frisian adventurer, then went Christian. Lithuania holds Poland, Pomerania, and most of Rus, though it's hard to tell since it's been fighting a ten-year civil war to keep them. Same with Mauritania, which holds everything north of Ghana, west of Cyrene, and south of the Pyrenees, except for Aquitaine's few toeholds. I kinda hate how the Karlings never sort themselves out in the 867 start.

 

armenia-1170.png

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Well, my heir died, so succession went to his son. Because he's a foreigner and a baby, all vassals hate him and he's killed in the Irish war of succession.

I'm probably playing this game a bit wrong. Occasionally I just put the time on max to wait for the end of sieges or claims to be fabricated. I could be using that time to scheme my rise to power, but I have no clue where to start.

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Well, my heir died, so succession went to his son. Because he's a foreigner and a baby, all vassals hate him and he's killed in the Irish war of succession.

I'm probably playing this game a bit wrong. Occasionally I just put the time on max to wait for the end of sieges or claims to be fabricated. I could be using that time to scheme my rise to power, but I have no clue where to start.

 

That's a bummer, DMorsing. A outlander baby rarely survives to adulthood, since they have the maluses for a regency and foreignness. It just takes one more bad turn for the entire country to take up arms. Did the throne pass to another relative or is your game ended for good?

 

Also, don't worry about playing on max speed. Most players of Paradox games who I know also do that, in between the years where they have stuff to do. It's not good to have too many goals, anyway.

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That was the end of that run.

 

Now that I have some basics down , I'm going to try a character with some more external factors. Maybe the king of denmark.

 

In the grand scheme of things, how important are city upgrades? I haven't looked at them at all.

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In the grand scheme of things, how important are city upgrades? I haven't looked at them at all.

 

A proper complement of well-upgraded cities will provide half your wealth and most of your ships in the late game, in addition to contributing the vast majority of economic technology points. A rich capital with a a lot of open holdings can be made even richer by building towns there, though of course in the long run you'd probably be better off building castles to hold yourself if your Stewardship is high enough.

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I'm inching ever closer to actually loading the game and starting.

 

Even with gentle coaxing from hundreds of concerned onlookers the Thumbs elevated a low-born, killed every wife, sent a man to die in the Crusades, have elective succession, and they still made Sean King of Ireland.

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