Just out of curiosity: I know it's a little on the expensive side, but if you had the money, would you get the Old Gods expansion pack? From what I've seen of it on Northernlion's LP, it looks very interesting.
I actually do have the money (the expansion packs are all $15 aren't they?), but it's a matter of whether or not I want to spend it on that.
I may. I might also just wait until they go on sale. Not that long ago they were having a sale where you could get the game and every expansion pack for $10. So Paradox are nothing if not generous.
If I do that I might just get the bundle, which has all the major DLC (not the dumb stuff like "additional BGM" or w/e), but that's another $40 I don't really want to blow.
the only DLC I don't really want is Sunset Invasion which is....silly.
anyone have any tips on how to pass crown authority laws? I need to change the inheritance laws in Wales or my lands are gonna get split up, and to do that I need to have at least Low Crown Authority (non-independant vassals).
Duke Alfonso the Cruel of Gwynnyd has proven to be a major pain in my ass.
I'm probably gonna start a new game soonish honestly. Only real goal (and a lofty one) would be to form Britannia (not that Britannia), and that's like, hard, and stuff.
I might try starting out as a Holy Roman Duke but I have no idea how hard it would be to either gain independence or work my way into the position of emperor. Starting out as the Holy Roman Emperor just seems like cheating.
The Emperor is an elective position, so it can be pretty tricky to grab. Although once you do have it, you can change the succession laws just to be a dick. Granted you'll annoy most the empire.
Also I've decided to buy the Old Gods DLC. As I understand it, Old Gods makes the game a bit easier, while the other main DLC (Sword of Islam, the Rome one, and the one about republics) make it significantly harder.
I'll not speak on Sunrise Invasion, since, as stated, I have no real interest in it.
well I think the idea behind the alternate history presented in that DLC is that the Aztecs are sort of Mongol-esque conquerers of everything. The explicit purpose of the DLC was also to make the game harder for western Europe (who don't have to deal with the Mongols normally).
my main beef with the DLC is that they don't seem to have done much research into how Aztec government actually worked and use the "alternate history!!" excuse to cover up the lack of knowledge they have on the topic.
I don't think too many people liked Sunset Invasion except for maybe the "wow this is pretty wacky" factor, which I can understand on the one hand, but on the other, I like the style of alt history the game normally takes better. The kind SI goes for is more suited to books imo.
anyway
debating who to start as in my first Old Gods game after I purchase it. Any suggestions ladies and gentlemen of the heap?
Remember back in the 50s when they'd record like Elvis singing YOU AIN'T NOTHIN BUT A HOUND DOG and then they'd turn the record over and reverse it and it was all NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP and people were all like, "That is actually the voice of Satan coming from that song."
Well, Northerlion already did Sudreyjar, I don't know any other Norse kingdoms besides Jorvik, and the ruler of Jorvik has an awesome title. So I say do Jorvik.
Remember back in the 50s when they'd record like Elvis singing YOU AIN'T NOTHIN BUT A HOUND DOG and then they'd turn the record over and reverse it and it was all NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP and people were all like, "That is actually the voice of Satan coming from that song."
something cool to do at some time in the future might also be to try and make Monophysite Christianity the dominant religion in Europe. I'll save that for when I'm better at manipulating the religion mechanics though.
this is probably the best run of Crusader Kings I've yet had.
we began as Rurik of Holmgardr. Probably best known for being the founder of the Rurikovich dynasty (paradoxically, he is also given the "Rurikovich" surname in-game, presumably to avoid coding conflicts).
We're already pretty large at game start, and furthermore, we are Norse Pagan, giving us free reign to invade more or less anybody we fucking want. Furthermore, if we don't invade often enough, we get a Prestige penatly, which is bad.
The tradeoff is mainly that for the earliest part of the game, you're your own worst enemy. Rurik here has had to put down about a dozen rebellions in his relatively short time as Petty King of Holmgardr, but they drop off relatively quickly even if you're considered a tyrant, since all the prestige you get from conquering all those lovely provinces dwarfs the opinion penalty from Tyranny.
Only two years into his reign, Rurik has already conquered quite a lot of territory. Most of it formerly owned by the Meryas Chieftanate.
Rurik's main drive here is to graduate from a mere petty king into a real king, with all the prestige and power that this entails.
It's not long before he can do exactly that, and we form the Kingdom of Gardariki, a sort of Scandanavianized Russia.
Rurik even names his newborn son (the latest of many) after his new kingdom, christening him Gardarikov ("son of Gardariki").
Currently, I've begun expanding into Lithuania.
I don't plan to actually form it as a Kingdom-level title until I get an Emperor title though. I've learned my lesson from my Ireland playthrough.
The Wendish Empire may actually be the easiest for me to form. It's not nearly as large as the requirement for the Russian Empire.
Remember back in the 50s when they'd record like Elvis singing YOU AIN'T NOTHIN BUT A HOUND DOG and then they'd turn the record over and reverse it and it was all NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP and people were all like, "That is actually the voice of Satan coming from that song."
The slashed-D symbol is apparently called "eth", and it's pronounced with a soft "th" sound (the example Wikipedia gave was the "th" in "them").
Anyway, Garethariki kinda fell apart in a big way after King Rurik the Terrible died at age 74. I should add as a testament to his badassery, he was a beserker up until a year before his death.
his sucessor only reigned for like a year before someone killed him and the succeeding queen keeps getting in civil wars and also I seem to have accidentally locked myself into a position where I can't call on any vassals ever whoops.
Álmos, often called "Grand Prince" or King of The Magyars, is our first character.
We are given 11,000 free, upkeep-free troops to do with as we please, and start at war with Bulgaria.
The obvious option is to take their land for ours. In a matter of months, we have entirely overrun the Bulgarians, and Álmos declares himself King of Hungary, and is christened "The Great". But the Hungarian war machine does not stop with the declaration of an independant nation. For three decades, the Hungarian soldiers conquered every inch of territory that they could get their hands on. This initial empire stretching south to the borders of Byzantium, and north to what was left of Grand Mazovia after most of it was integrated into Hungary: East to Cumania, and west to Bavaria.
After Almos' death at the advanced age of 73, his son Arpad ascended the throne and spent the vast majority of his 20-odd year reign holding his father's empire together. The Rebellion of The Provinces in particular, was a defining conflict that recurred throughout his reign. Arpad was also the first Hungarian ruler to lose territory, seceding a small Duchy to Byzantium to prevent further conflict.
His son, Linutika, would further solidify his grandfather's holdings. He too, would earn the title "The Great", for his conquest of Poland and most of Bohemia. He later officialized his claim by crowning himself King of Hungary & Poland. More spectacularly, by gathering a group of the most prominent shamans of the Tengri religion to function as a pseudo, paganized version of the Papacy, he was granted the authority to be recognized as Emperor. Now calling his domain Carpathia, after an ancient Latin name for the area in which the Magyar originally settled.
Linutika's reign was also beset by constant plots on his throne from disgruntled uncles, as well as frequent peasant uprisings and attempts at independence. Currently, his son, Linutika II, stands to inherit his Empire.
out of character, I basically just made my first Empire and I'm inordinately proud of myself.
pictures!
I'm basically really proud of this dude.
Also wondering where I should expand to next. Europe atm is basically three empires. Byzantium down south, us in the East, and Francia to the west. Might try to expand up north into the Russian territories and Scandinavia.
so the regime change when Linutika died came with the expected 55 million revolts and rebellions. What it came with that I did not expect was Linutika II's uncle's claim on the throne of Hungary (not the empire mind). I just decided to secede said claim to him, since I was fine with him being the King of Hungary as long as I got to keep being emperor. I also had bigger fish to fry with a number of counties warring against me for independence.
Here's the thing though, he didn't become the King of Hungary
he reorganized Hungary into a republic.
inside the empire.
so now he's the elected "Prince-Mayor" of "The Serene Republic of Hungary", which is pretty strange but honestly I find it cool and it doesn't seem to fuck with my ability to raise troops at all. So why mess? Plus, he accidentally created what's essentially a constitutional monarchy. Except like, only for half the country (the Polish Crown is still held normally, and is currently hereditary).
also I think we somehow gained a County somewhere along the line, and finally, The Emperor picked up the "Gardener" trait during the war via some random events.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
More spectacularly, by gathering a group of the most prominent shamans of the Tengri religion to function as a pseudo, paganized version of the Papacy, he was granted the authority to be recognized as Emperor.
I have to say, for as much as I like the game itself, the Clausewitz Engine is one of the clunkiest, most resource-inefficient, uncustomizable pieces of shit I have ever come across.
I can't get this thing to run in a window. And the suggested fix (going into the settings document and switching fullscreen=yes to fullscreen=no) just makes the game crash on startup.
also because of this whole "Serene Republic of Hungary" business, and because Namor has chosen to rule in that little speck of Italy I own, I now have a roughly 5,000 strong army in Italy.
Linutika himself rules in Krakow for some reason. I guess since it's near the border of the two largest parts of the empire (Poland and Hungary), but still.
I am considering invading the Papacy, yet I feel that such an idea would be poor.
as of now, we're one of the largest nations on the map.
Only Cumania, Byzantium, Francia, and one of the Emirates are larger than us. Sweden is about the same size.
some goings-on around the world:
Most of Spain is held by the Abdulid Sultanate. The other nations on it are mostly small, one- or two- county duchies or shiekdoms.
Byzantium has been my major rival throughout the game. Despite being able to field around 20,000 troops in a single go, I still can't even begin to match their military strength. I've had to concede land to them more than once.
Denmark was a major power and empire in all-but-name under the Kingship of one Knut Ironside. However, he was technically the King of Denmark and Pomerania, and since the vast majority of his territory lay under one kingdom or the other, it split in two upon his death and fell into civil war. I used the opportunity to absorb Pomerania for my own and am currently the titular and de facto King of Pomerania. Denmark itself has collapsed into a rump state, and neither of its current holdings (a pair of disparate counties) are actually in Denmark.
On another Norse note, Sweden owns a good chunk of Russian land, though less than they used to.
The British Empires possess only one sizable nation of their own, Sudreyar, a Petty Kingdom encompassing parts of Scotland and Ireland (Northernlion fans will recognize). The rest is owned by one of the Norse powers, or is a small independent county.
Francia is an Empire that resulted from the unification of Eastern Francia, Western Francia, and Lotharingia under Louis The Stammerer's son Louis II. It's a major power and also the main reason I haven't conqured Bavaria yet, since their Queen will always call the current emperor (a man named Valen) to her aid.
on the home front:
Linutika holds the most King-level titles of anyone on the map. He is the titular King of Poland, Bohemia, Bulgaria, and Pomerania. Each of these titles will go to a different child when he dies, but they will remain united under the Carpathian Empire. Ironically, he is not the King of Hungary. The current ruler of Hungary is Prince-Mayor Konrad. Who was elected to succeed Namor upon the latter's death.
Emperor Linutika II. This picture was taken about 12 game years ago, you can see parts of Knut's Denmark in the background.
Carpathia as it stands today. Mainland & Italian holdings.
So, Linutika II's last act in life was to assassinate his own firstborn son, mostly because the dude was a Catholic and frankly I'll be damned if I'm letting the last great pagan state in Europe fall to the second most boring branch of Christianity.
As such, not only did Linutika have the Kinslayer trait for the rest of his short life, he also passed his empire on to his second son, Ambrus.
Poor, poor Ambrus.
Despite earning the title "The Just" for...his sense of justice presumably, pretty much every major area in the empire (Bohemia, Poland, several duchies) revolted shortly after he took the throne, and I don't think there's any feasible way to put down the revolts, Hungary in particular has an absolutely huge army compared to ours.
I'm not sure if I want to start a new game or just see how long I can hold out as lord of what I am almost certain is a doomed state.
But really, I should've seen all this coming. On Ambrus' first day in office I noticed he'd had a daughter.
So, having trouble with plots? No problem, I am here to explain away your doubts!
Step 1: Choose your target. Children and the hated work best. If you want someone well loved to shuffle off this mortal coil, you'll need to get your chancellor sowing dissent in the region.
Step 2: View your potential backers. Organise the list by plot power. Now, check for green thumbs up. Does that person have A) a high plot power, or B) >=10 Intrigue? Perfect! They will be wonderful for your plan. Once you've dealt with that, scour the red thumbs down for the same attributes. Hover over the thumb to discover their issues with your plan. Everyone has a base -2 to murder, with various modifiers, such as a positive opinion of your potential victim, or a negative opinion of you. Your goal is to get that to 0 or above. The best people to search for are people who are amoral, or have a low opinion of the target. Now, if they have these traits, your best bet is to increase their opinion of you. So bribe them. After that, invite them to the plot.
Step 3: Get your plot power to over 100%. Any number over is fine, but the higher the better. You will want to try to minimise the number of backers, as at any point, one could blurt out your plan, nosediving the target's opinion of you. Fine if they're a kid, less so if they're the pope.
Step 4: Play the waiting game. Eventually, your target will shuffle off for good.
Decided starting a new game up would be the most fun thing to do. So I did just that.
I began as Bjorn Ironside in Svithjod, a Petty Kingdom in Scandinavia.
our first goal here is to create The Kingdom of Sweden. Less than a decade in, we've already amassed enough territory to do so.
now it's just a matter of money. Which we can raid to get.
No major historical divergences elsewhere in the world as far as I can tell yet. Updates will be continual.
Our long-term goals here are twofold. The first is to create the Scandinavian Empire, and the second is to reform the Norse religion into a "proper" religion with a religious head and so on.
Remember back in the 50s when they'd record like Elvis singing YOU AIN'T NOTHIN BUT A HOUND DOG and then they'd turn the record over and reverse it and it was all NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP and people were all like, "That is actually the voice of Satan coming from that song."
Are those actual ambitions in the game? That sounds a lot cooler than just "get married" and "boost up my stats" like Northernlion was eventually left with.
the "Become King of [whatever]" is. Reforming the religion is not to my knowledge, I was just speaking on my own personal goals. You can reform the religion in game however, you need to control 3/5 holy sites and have a shitton of piety. I think Norse is probably the easiest to do it for however.
At any rate, we eventually enlargened our kingdom to become even larger than historical Sweden
Remember back in the 50s when they'd record like Elvis singing YOU AIN'T NOTHIN BUT A HOUND DOG and then they'd turn the record over and reverse it and it was all NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP and people were all like, "That is actually the voice of Satan coming from that song."
I was having trouble telling how different it was from modern-day Sweden, but then I noticed that the western border runs through what would be modern-day Norway.
And duly noted. Religious reform just seems like something that should be an ambition, though.
there is "Become a Paragon of Virtue" which is triggered when you hit, I think, 300 Piety.
It also gives you one of the "holy" nicknames if you don't have one already (offhand, I think they're "The Holy", "The Pious", "The Apostle", and "The Confessor". The only nickname I ever seem to get is The Great, which is, well, great, but it's also kinda generic. I got The Terrible with Rurik Rurikovich once though).
I may try The Latin Empire at some point. I've heard it's one of the most difficult start points.
The historical Latin Empire was the last important crusader state, being formed out of the core of Byzantium after the fourth Crusade.
Historically, it was ruled by only a few people and lasted about sixty years. Furthermore, the emperor was a devout Catholic ruling over a largely Orthodox population.
Remember back in the 50s when they'd record like Elvis singing YOU AIN'T NOTHIN BUT A HOUND DOG and then they'd turn the record over and reverse it and it was all NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP and people were all like, "That is actually the voice of Satan coming from that song."
Starting in Ireland gives you the lifetime ambition "Become King of Ireland".
I'm not surprised. Starting as a Norse king in Scotland gives you the ambition "Become King of Scotland."
I kinda wonder how difficult starting off in Spain or Portugal would be.
Spain and Portugal don't exist yet. I don't think you can even form the Kingdom of Spain actually (you can form Portugal, though it's hard as balls), historically it existed far after CK2 ends (specifically, I believe it was formed about 100 years after the game's end date). I know you can form the kingdoms of Aragon, Castille, Navarra, and Leon, which are all kingdoms that existed in the area, but starting there, your biggest issue (unless you're Navarra, which is a single-county state IIRC. And of a different culture [Basque] than the surrounding ones to boot) your main problem is the Umayyad Caliphate that controls most of Iberia.
Remember back in the 50s when they'd record like Elvis singing YOU AIN'T NOTHIN BUT A HOUND DOG and then they'd turn the record over and reverse it and it was all NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP NYERP and people were all like, "That is actually the voice of Satan coming from that song."
Heh, I probably should've said modern-day Spain.
But of course, if you had the opportunity to play as the Umayyad Caliphate...
I could if I had the Sword of Islam DLC but I don't really want to buy it, playing as Muslims is complicated as shit (there's only one succession type which is complicated as all hell, and there's a "Decadence" mechanic that requires you to keep all your children occupied with a position of some sort or other countries get free reign to invade you. It's quite complex).
It bugs me that, ATM, reformation is pretty much a straight up upgrade from unreformed Paganism. Granted, now that CK2+ has been updated for TOG, it doesn't really matter, since it removes raiding from reformed pagans, which reins them in a bit.
Comments
I actually do have the money (the expansion packs are all $15 aren't they?), but it's a matter of whether or not I want to spend it on that.
I may. I might also just wait until they go on sale. Not that long ago they were having a sale where you could get the game and every expansion pack for $10. So Paradox are nothing if not generous.
If I do that I might just get the bundle, which has all the major DLC (not the dumb stuff like "additional BGM" or w/e), but that's another $40 I don't really want to blow.
the only DLC I don't really want is Sunset Invasion which is....silly.
anyone have any tips on how to pass crown authority laws? I need to change the inheritance laws in Wales or my lands are gonna get split up, and to do that I need to have at least Low Crown Authority (non-independant vassals).
Duke Alfonso the Cruel of Gwynnyd has proven to be a major pain in my ass.
I'm probably gonna start a new game soonish honestly. Only real goal (and a lofty one) would be to form Britannia (not that Britannia), and that's like, hard, and stuff.
updated the history again.
remaining Ua Briain family holdings, in Wales
things went downhill steeply.
not sure there's really a way for us to recover at this point.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Maybe I should.
Also I've decided to buy the Old Gods DLC. As I understand it, Old Gods makes the game a bit easier, while the other main DLC (Sword of Islam, the Rome one, and the one about republics) make it significantly harder.
I'll not speak on Sunrise Invasion, since, as stated, I have no real interest in it.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
well I think the idea behind the alternate history presented in that DLC is that the Aztecs are sort of Mongol-esque conquerers of everything. The explicit purpose of the DLC was also to make the game harder for western Europe (who don't have to deal with the Mongols normally).
my main beef with the DLC is that they don't seem to have done much research into how Aztec government actually worked and use the "alternate history!!" excuse to cover up the lack of knowledge they have on the topic.
it's the least popular major DLC for a reason.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
You might as well have leaders duel for countries
In those crazy pseudo-basketball matches that they had.
I don't think too many people liked Sunset Invasion except for maybe the "wow this is pretty wacky" factor, which I can understand on the one hand, but on the other, I like the style of alt history the game normally takes better. The kind SI goes for is more suited to books imo.
anyway
debating who to start as in my first Old Gods game after I purchase it. Any suggestions ladies and gentlemen of the heap?
eh, I just got finished with a game in the British Aisles though, so idk.
I might wanna go eastern europe and try to form the Kingdom of Lithuania. I like Lithuania. They've got some awesome naming conventions over there.
aaaaaaaaaa choices
fuck it I'll just pick something and let y'all know when I've started.
this is probably the best run of Crusader Kings I've yet had.
we began as Rurik of Holmgardr. Probably best known for being the founder of the Rurikovich dynasty (paradoxically, he is also given the "Rurikovich" surname in-game, presumably to avoid coding conflicts).
We're already pretty large at game start, and furthermore, we are Norse Pagan, giving us free reign to invade more or less anybody we fucking want. Furthermore, if we don't invade often enough, we get a Prestige penatly, which is bad.
The tradeoff is mainly that for the earliest part of the game, you're your own worst enemy. Rurik here has had to put down about a dozen rebellions in his relatively short time as Petty King of Holmgardr, but they drop off relatively quickly even if you're considered a tyrant, since all the prestige you get from conquering all those lovely provinces dwarfs the opinion penalty from Tyranny.
Only two years into his reign, Rurik has already conquered quite a lot of territory. Most of it formerly owned by the Meryas Chieftanate.
Rurik's main drive here is to graduate from a mere petty king into a real king, with all the prestige and power that this entails.
It's not long before he can do exactly that, and we form the Kingdom of Gardariki, a sort of Scandanavianized Russia.
Rurik even names his newborn son (the latest of many) after his new kingdom, christening him Gardarikov ("son of Gardariki").
Currently, I've begun expanding into Lithuania.
I don't plan to actually form it as a Kingdom-level title until I get an Emperor title though. I've learned my lesson from my Ireland playthrough.
The Wendish Empire may actually be the easiest for me to form. It's not nearly as large as the requirement for the Russian Empire.
Coolness.
Anyway, Garethariki kinda fell apart in a big way after King Rurik the Terrible died at age 74. I should add as a testament to his badassery, he was a beserker up until a year before his death.
his sucessor only reigned for like a year before someone killed him and the succeeding queen keeps getting in civil wars and also I seem to have accidentally locked myself into a position where I can't call on any vassals ever whoops.
edit: this was in the wrong thread
update on my insanely awesome playthrough as The Magyars is incoming.
we started as a figure lost to the mists of time.
Álmos, often called "Grand Prince" or King of The Magyars, is our first character.
We are given 11,000 free, upkeep-free troops to do with as we please, and start at war with Bulgaria.
The obvious option is to take their land for ours. In a matter of months, we have entirely overrun the Bulgarians, and Álmos declares himself King of Hungary, and is christened "The Great". But the Hungarian war machine does not stop with the declaration of an independant nation. For three decades, the Hungarian soldiers conquered every inch of territory that they could get their hands on. This initial empire stretching south to the borders of Byzantium, and north to what was left of Grand Mazovia after most of it was integrated into Hungary: East to Cumania, and west to Bavaria.
After Almos' death at the advanced age of 73, his son Arpad ascended the throne and spent the vast majority of his 20-odd year reign holding his father's empire together. The Rebellion of The Provinces in particular, was a defining conflict that recurred throughout his reign. Arpad was also the first Hungarian ruler to lose territory, seceding a small Duchy to Byzantium to prevent further conflict.
His son, Linutika, would further solidify his grandfather's holdings. He too, would earn the title "The Great", for his conquest of Poland and most of Bohemia. He later officialized his claim by crowning himself King of Hungary & Poland. More spectacularly, by gathering a group of the most prominent shamans of the Tengri religion to function as a pseudo, paganized version of the Papacy, he was granted the authority to be recognized as Emperor. Now calling his domain Carpathia, after an ancient Latin name for the area in which the Magyar originally settled.
Linutika's reign was also beset by constant plots on his throne from disgruntled uncles, as well as frequent peasant uprisings and attempts at independence. Currently, his son, Linutika II, stands to inherit his Empire.
out of character, I basically just made my first Empire and I'm inordinately proud of myself.
pictures!
I'm basically really proud of this dude.
Also wondering where I should expand to next. Europe atm is basically three empires. Byzantium down south, us in the East, and Francia to the west. Might try to expand up north into the Russian territories and Scandinavia.
so the regime change when Linutika died came with the expected 55 million revolts and rebellions. What it came with that I did not expect was Linutika II's uncle's claim on the throne of Hungary (not the empire mind). I just decided to secede said claim to him, since I was fine with him being the King of Hungary as long as I got to keep being emperor. I also had bigger fish to fry with a number of counties warring against me for independence.
Here's the thing though, he didn't become the King of Hungary
he reorganized Hungary into a republic.
inside the empire.
so now he's the elected "Prince-Mayor" of "The Serene Republic of Hungary", which is pretty strange but honestly I find it cool and it doesn't seem to fuck with my ability to raise troops at all. So why mess? Plus, he accidentally created what's essentially a constitutional monarchy. Except like, only for half the country (the Polish Crown is still held normally, and is currently hereditary).
also I think we somehow gained a County somewhere along the line, and finally, The Emperor picked up the "Gardener" trait during the war via some random events.
I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
had a son, named him Linutika Namor after both his father and his great-uncle.
also because Namor is a sick name and so is Linutika.
I have to say, for as much as I like the game itself, the Clausewitz Engine is one of the clunkiest, most resource-inefficient, uncustomizable pieces of shit I have ever come across.
I can't get this thing to run in a window. And the suggested fix (going into the settings document and switching fullscreen=yes to fullscreen=no) just makes the game crash on startup.
also because of this whole "Serene Republic of Hungary" business, and because Namor has chosen to rule in that little speck of Italy I own, I now have a roughly 5,000 strong army in Italy.
Linutika himself rules in Krakow for some reason. I guess since it's near the border of the two largest parts of the empire (Poland and Hungary), but still.
I am considering invading the Papacy, yet I feel that such an idea would be poor.
as of now, we're one of the largest nations on the map.
Only Cumania, Byzantium, Francia, and one of the Emirates are larger than us. Sweden is about the same size.
some goings-on around the world:
Most of Spain is held by the Abdulid Sultanate. The other nations on it are mostly small, one- or two- county duchies or shiekdoms.
Byzantium has been my major rival throughout the game. Despite being able to field around 20,000 troops in a single go, I still can't even begin to match their military strength. I've had to concede land to them more than once.
Denmark was a major power and empire in all-but-name under the Kingship of one Knut Ironside. However, he was technically the King of Denmark and Pomerania, and since the vast majority of his territory lay under one kingdom or the other, it split in two upon his death and fell into civil war. I used the opportunity to absorb Pomerania for my own and am currently the titular and de facto King of Pomerania. Denmark itself has collapsed into a rump state, and neither of its current holdings (a pair of disparate counties) are actually in Denmark.
On another Norse note, Sweden owns a good chunk of Russian land, though less than they used to.
The British Empires possess only one sizable nation of their own, Sudreyar, a Petty Kingdom encompassing parts of Scotland and Ireland (Northernlion fans will recognize). The rest is owned by one of the Norse powers, or is a small independent county.
Francia is an Empire that resulted from the unification of Eastern Francia, Western Francia, and Lotharingia under Louis The Stammerer's son Louis II. It's a major power and also the main reason I haven't conqured Bavaria yet, since their Queen will always call the current emperor (a man named Valen) to her aid.
on the home front:
Linutika holds the most King-level titles of anyone on the map. He is the titular King of Poland, Bohemia, Bulgaria, and Pomerania. Each of these titles will go to a different child when he dies, but they will remain united under the Carpathian Empire. Ironically, he is not the King of Hungary. The current ruler of Hungary is Prince-Mayor Konrad. Who was elected to succeed Namor upon the latter's death.
Emperor Linutika II. This picture was taken about 12 game years ago, you can see parts of Knut's Denmark in the background.
Carpathia as it stands today. Mainland & Italian holdings.
Carpathian vassalate in Iberia.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
So, Linutika II's last act in life was to assassinate his own firstborn son, mostly because the dude was a Catholic and frankly I'll be damned if I'm letting the last great pagan state in Europe fall to the second most boring branch of Christianity.
As such, not only did Linutika have the Kinslayer trait for the rest of his short life, he also passed his empire on to his second son, Ambrus.
Poor, poor Ambrus.
Despite earning the title "The Just" for...his sense of justice presumably, pretty much every major area in the empire (Bohemia, Poland, several duchies) revolted shortly after he took the throne, and I don't think there's any feasible way to put down the revolts, Hungary in particular has an absolutely huge army compared to ours.
I'm not sure if I want to start a new game or just see how long I can hold out as lord of what I am almost certain is a doomed state.
But really, I should've seen all this coming. On Ambrus' first day in office I noticed he'd had a daughter.
So, having trouble with plots? No problem, I am here to explain away your doubts!
Step 1: Choose your target. Children and the hated work best. If you want someone well loved to shuffle off this mortal coil, you'll need to get your chancellor sowing dissent in the region.
Step 2: View your potential backers. Organise the list by plot power. Now, check for green thumbs up. Does that person have A) a high plot power, or B) >=10 Intrigue? Perfect! They will be wonderful for your plan. Once you've dealt with that, scour the red thumbs down for the same attributes. Hover over the thumb to discover their issues with your plan. Everyone has a base -2 to murder, with various modifiers, such as a positive opinion of your potential victim, or a negative opinion of you. Your goal is to get that to 0 or above. The best people to search for are people who are amoral, or have a low opinion of the target. Now, if they have these traits, your best bet is to increase their opinion of you. So bribe them. After that, invite them to the plot.
Step 3: Get your plot power to over 100%. Any number over is fine, but the higher the better. You will want to try to minimise the number of backers, as at any point, one could blurt out your plan, nosediving the target's opinion of you. Fine if they're a kid, less so if they're the pope.
Step 4: Play the waiting game. Eventually, your target will shuffle off for good.
Decided starting a new game up would be the most fun thing to do. So I did just that.
I began as Bjorn Ironside in Svithjod, a Petty Kingdom in Scandinavia.
our first goal here is to create The Kingdom of Sweden. Less than a decade in, we've already amassed enough territory to do so.
now it's just a matter of money. Which we can raid to get.
No major historical divergences elsewhere in the world as far as I can tell yet. Updates will be continual.
Our long-term goals here are twofold. The first is to create the Scandinavian Empire, and the second is to reform the Norse religion into a "proper" religion with a religious head and so on.
the "Become King of [whatever]" is. Reforming the religion is not to my knowledge, I was just speaking on my own personal goals. You can reform the religion in game however, you need to control 3/5 holy sites and have a shitton of piety. I think Norse is probably the easiest to do it for however.
At any rate, we eventually enlargened our kingdom to become even larger than historical Sweden
there is "Become a Paragon of Virtue" which is triggered when you hit, I think, 300 Piety.
It also gives you one of the "holy" nicknames if you don't have one already (offhand, I think they're "The Holy", "The Pious", "The Apostle", and "The Confessor". The only nickname I ever seem to get is The Great, which is, well, great, but it's also kinda generic. I got The Terrible with Rurik Rurikovich once though).
I don't think it does by default does it? You can pick it though. You can pick most "Become King of [x]s" provided you're in vaguely the same area.
Ruler of a small island off the coast of us has the "Become King of Sweden" ambition. Not gonna happen, guy can field like 50 troops tops
edit: you were talking to Gator and I am an ignoramus.
I may try The Latin Empire at some point. I've heard it's one of the most difficult start points.
The historical Latin Empire was the last important crusader state, being formed out of the core of Byzantium after the fourth Crusade.
Historically, it was ruled by only a few people and lasted about sixty years. Furthermore, the emperor was a devout Catholic ruling over a largely Orthodox population.
I kinda wonder how difficult starting off in Spain or Portugal would be.
Spain and Portugal don't exist yet. I don't think you can even form the Kingdom of Spain actually (you can form Portugal, though it's hard as balls), historically it existed far after CK2 ends (specifically, I believe it was formed about 100 years after the game's end date). I know you can form the kingdoms of Aragon, Castille, Navarra, and Leon, which are all kingdoms that existed in the area, but starting there, your biggest issue (unless you're Navarra, which is a single-county state IIRC. And of a different culture [Basque] than the surrounding ones to boot) your main problem is the Umayyad Caliphate that controls most of Iberia.
I'm basically the best at Crusader Kings.
Eriekr II here is a huge step up from his dad Bjorn, who went insane at the end of his reign and had to be appointed a regent.
actually reforming the religion seems to be the hard part. It's easiest with Norse I think, but with Tengri especially it's damn near impossible.
also I have no idea how Fylkir succession works. It's apparently the same as a Caliph's but I don't know how that works either.
also I really love how in this game you can just basically go up to people who are conspiring to kill your son or whatever and just be like
and they do.
I still don't know what actually determines that, but I think it's diplomacy.