Nick Breckon

Crusader Kings II: The Triumph of Ragnar

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Oh god dammit, i think this stream probably just finally sold me on Crusader Kings II.

 

Or it would have if the Steam sale hadn't just ended.

Gaaah.

 

It goes on sale every few months or so, take heart. Or, if you can't wait, buy the base game now and get all the DLC during the sale. Pretty much all the DLC that's five dollars and up are must-haves for repeated playthroughs, so you'll be getting it sooner or later.

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I'd be super down for a multiplayer game using this save if anyone's interested.

 

The stream was cathartic for me and watching the Thumbs boys struggle with CK2 made up for me sitting in a dark room considering whether wifeslaying was cool or not cool to do.

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I'm rewatching the stream right now because we were half-asleep during the last half-hour of last night's stream, and I keep noticing things I missed.  This game seems Dwarf Fortress deep.

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The stream was cathartic for me and watching the Thumbs boys struggle with CK2 made up for me sitting in a dark room considering whether wifeslaying was cool or not cool to do.

 

Yeah! The amount by which Nick and Chris were distressed at marrying a thirty-five year old man to a thirteen-year-old made me feel really awful about the values this game has instilled in me.

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Also, I started playing CK2 around the same time I noticed that Tom Fontana's Borgia: Faith and Fear was on Netflix. It's pretty much this game distilled into its very good sociopathic essence.

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King Sean I Vanaman will surely be the greatest Petty King Ireland has ever seen. The saga of Ragnar though definitely propelled that guy to being the titular character of the series. You can't beat the sheer volume of intrigue and drama that is Ragnar's poor beset life. At least his wife never got murdered..... His only friend and his only enemy, King Murchaud, finally dead though. Long live King Sean Vanaman.

 

Are you sure? I think his first wife might have been murdered... can't remember honestly.

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Are you sure? I think his first wife might have been murdered... can't remember honestly.

I think he was only married once and she died, but wasn't murdered.

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I think he was only married once and she died, but wasn't murdered.

 

...as far as the crown was aware, it wasn't murder...

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I think he was only married once and she died, but wasn't murdered.

Yes. No one can prove she was murdered.

 

Indeed.

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She was lowborn and, given the state of Ragnar's son, was related to him.  I suspect she died of a poverty-related illness, like scrofula or "looked at Brian funny".

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She was lowborn and, given the state of Ragnar's son, was related to him.  I suspect she died of a poverty-related illness, like scrofula.

 

Well, technically speaking, all Lowborn characters are "related" to each other, since the game just handles them all as part of one giant dynasty. The "inbreeding" between unrelated Lowborns has been a known bug for a while now.

 

There used to be another Lowborn-related bug that was even better. Most popes in vanilla Crusader Kings II are Lowborn, so if you ever married a Lowborn woman, he'd never grant you a divorce, and he'd excommunicate you if you got caught killing her, because the game would consider them close relatives. Fun stuff.

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So you're saying Ragnar's son is only inbred due to a bug?  Imagine, if he weren't inbred he could be brought into the Vanaman fold.  

 

In fact, I have an idea.  Ragnar is unlikely to have any more issue since he's old, and his son is probably not good for too much, since he's inbred and lowborn.  

 

But you can begin to elevate the family, little by little.  Marry him to a courtier, educate him, install him somewhere and keep your fingers crossed that his kids do better.  Pull his kids up the ranks into the gentry, making sure each generation does better than the one before through a well-considered campaign of strategic marriage and hereditary grants.

 

Make sure each generation learns that it was the sacrifices of Ragnar that led to their status.  Give them a coat of arms with crossed-trowels rampant over a trug courant.

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...as far as the crown was aware, it wasn't murder...

 

 

Yes. No one can prove she was murdered.

 

Indeed.

 

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In fact, I have an idea.  Ragnar is unlikely to have any more issue since he's old, and his son is probably not good for too much, since he's inbred and lowborn.  

 

But you can begin to elevate the family, little by little.  Marry him to a courtier, educate him, install him somewhere and keep your fingers crossed that his kids do better.  Pull his kids up the ranks into the gentry, making sure each generation does better than the one before through a well-considered campaign of strategic marriage and hereditary grants.

 

Sadly, it's rather hard to make a Lord Mayor into a Lord. You'd have to give him a county (but not the one his town is in, that will disinherit him when you revoke the town), then revoke his town. If you do it quickly and smoothly enough, he'll become a Lord, with hereditary succession, but will hate you anyway for taking his town. It's really unfortunate, but raising Lowborn to nobility is not something for which this game is really designed.

 

Also, crossed trowels over a pool of blood, I'd say.

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Hah, I'm honored. Hopefully those events in the Ragnar Recap are mostly correct. It was from memory and I was a few drinks in. Looking forward to the continued adventures of King Sean Vanaman.

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Sadly, it's rather hard to make a Lord Mayor into a Lord. You'd have to give him a county (but not the one his town is in, that will disinherit him when you revoke the town), then revoke his town. 

 

Could you not just elevate his son, and leave Ragnar as Lord Mayor?

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You could, but inbred kids have a high chance of dying when they hit puberty. Maybe wait for him to come of age first?

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Jesus, this game.  Sorry I suggested a course of action that ended up with Brian camping outside Jerusalem and then being voted heir!

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I got this game because of the stream and the storytelling aspect of it is amazing.

 

I start out as the earl of dublin. I create a petty kingdom by annexing kildare. I stack the vassals with my family, because they had the highest opinion of me and it would make it easier to raise taxation. All of the sudden, I'm assassinated by my heir. Apparently, no one likes this heir and I get a dislike penalty from all my family member vassals because I am now a kinslayer. It is not long until my grandfather Leinster declares war on me and all my vassals start plotting my demise, leading to the death of my last heir in 1081

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chris (in a tone of polite interest): "hm, so should we just kill our shitty son?"

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So funny hearing these guys pronounce place names etc. from where I grew up.

 

Nenagh = Nee-Nah (soft gh not 'nag')

 

Donnchadh = Duh-Nuh-Kah (went to school with a lad called this)

 

Killaloe = Kill-a-loo

 

Munster for life!

 

Content-History-Crest-02.gif

 

Edit: I started a new playthrough of this yesterday starting in Munster too. I'm currently King of Ireland, thought I could keep the English out by fighting alongside Norway. Scotland sneaks in and takes Northern Ireland in bascially the same shape as current Northern Ireland. I'm not a hardcore Republican or anything but it still made me sad...

 

Also now the Queen of Norway is trying to murder the hell out of me and I have just barely survived several assasination attempts.

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Chris, Nick and Jake should take note that any custom names they give their kids will be stored in their dynasty's namelist. Don't be surprised to find in 50 years to find some country cousin also named their kids after Jake or Sean or Kerbal Space Program

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