i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
So, my play-through of Sultan Arp Arslan has proved a good way to learn many of the games functions, albeit, in an environment where my focus is probably a bit different from average games.
I began at war with the Byzantine empire. The Byzantines sent several large armies to do battle with the forces led by the Sultan and his Grand Vizier. Thousands of Troops poured into the Sultan's territory and slammed into his forces like a blood torrent hitting a very pointy and sharp rock. The Byzantines retreated to lick their wounds.
Afterwards the Sultan looked in, he had a few titles he needed to pass off and his vassals where quite perturbed that he only had one wife!
Things where quiet for a while (save the standard keeping tabs on various plots and making sure his four wives didn't kill each other) until one of his vassals suggested another vassal had too many titles. Sultan Alp Arslan suggested the vassal give the title to another vassal which prompted Mr. property hoarder to declare war.
In retro-respect, probably not a great idea given the Sultan's army was a few countries away. The Vassal's armies where crushed, he was thrown into jail, and one of his titles removed.
The Sultan celebrated by declaring himself Sultan of the Persian Empire. A few months later, the Byzantine empire sent an army to fight Alp Arslan's now smaller army, only to have a repeat performance of the last attack.
Sick of war and wanting to go on pilgrimage, the Sultan offered peace which was accepted. He went on pilgrimage where he was nearly drowned when his ship crashed, starved when he shared the meager supplies he had with his survivors, but was picked up by other travelers and made a successful Hajj.
When he came back, he discovered the religious head had declared independence and was fighting the rest of his empire. Reflecting on the lessons he learned about all being equal before Allah, the Sultan proceed to raise levies, command an army, have loyal men form giant regiments to help him, and have many more battles eventually capturing his rebellious Caliph and ending the war via prison execution.
He sent gifts to his Caliph's successor, donated to charity and was eventually thanked when the new Caliph formed another group looking for independence. Tragically, this Caliph dies in a mysterious "chocked on his own blood" accident. HIS successor also was gifted, had money donated, and apparently had the heredity trait of forming a group looking for independence, but tragically dying while chocking on his own blood.
The Sultan would live long enough to see his peace treaty with the Byzantines expire. Seeing his empire had for to much decadence, he declared a Holy War and rallied the troops to take some territory and break face. The Sultan handily won and settled in for managing his affairs when the Egyptian Empire decided they heard someone was just giving out free ass hangings and that they wanted a piece of that.
The Sultan lead some troops into Egypt and mostly sat as army after army was sent to be crushed by his superior forces. He eventually accepted a surrender complete with a tidy sum of money.
After many wounds, and many sicknesses brought from fasting even when it wasn't advisable, the pox eventually did him in.
I'm currently onto his Grandson. When the Empire went to Alp Arslan's heir, the world exploded into greedy brothers vying for control and lots of factions declaring independence. Armies and mercenaries could not help his poor heir against mysteriously exploding inns and his reign lasted only four months. HIS soon had managed to stay alive for four years and even has ended the war with his uncles, even executing one.
I think I may reload back to just prior to Alp Arslan's death and do some degree of preemptive damage control (probably pass a few more titles on before he dies to get the decadence score down lower, at least).
It also took me a long time to figure out armies and levies. The game does something rather silly and starts you out with 40,000 troops all in one palace. Pretty much guaranteeing you'll loose a large fraction of them before you can even split the army into something not dying from attrition.
Though, it was fun when I got the hang of it. It's interesting when I move on to the heir. With Alp Arslan dead, it was hard to feel for this guy who I barely knew and got to play as. Still, I think with a little more planning, I could give him more than four months...
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I knew it wasn't normal. Though it would be nice if it spread them out over a few countries so I didn't loose a quarter of them to attrition.
I decided to do that thing I said with the better organization and passing off of titles before my character dies of the pox.
Trouble is, he didn't get the pox after the reload and is still kicking it 3 years after his previous game death.
This seemed like a good opportunity to get back at Egypt and maybe do a little conquering of Syria.
It's going slowly but surely. Mostly because The Egyptians aren't fielding as large armies against me probably due to the other problem they where having...
They're lime green. I'm Yellow. You may notice a big purple blotch around there...
"It is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected.... Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him." -- Charles Dickens
I hadn't realized how broad this game is with the DLC. I'll have to buy it at the beginning of the month if it's not full price again.
I decided to do that thing I said with the better organization and passing off of titles before my character dies of the pox.
Trouble is, he didn't get the pox after the reload and is still kicking it 3 years after his previous game death.
This seemed like a good opportunity to get back at Egypt and maybe do a little conquering of Syria.
It's going slowly but surely. Mostly because The Egyptians aren't fielding as large armies against me probably due to the other problem they where having...
They're lime green. I'm Yellow. You may notice a big purple blotch around there...
That's the result of a crusade. Sometimes it creates an independent Kingdom of Jerusalem but usually the land goes to whoever sent the most troops.
I'd keep an eye on Cumania, especially if they're still Tengri. They're in a great position to reform the religion which is BadTM for you. If possible, try to get chummy with the current Khan and then send your Court Imam to do some preaching, hopefully you'll be able to convert them to Islam.
So, I've got this game and chose Rostov as my first country to mismanage. My ruler turned out to be a very average, low-stated guy (bad stewardship and intrigue, average military and diplomacy). However, his simple-minded honesty and bravery apparently won the hearts of his vassals, as he was liked by everyone at the start of the game, and had great council. He also possessed an obscene amount of counties, which he proceeded to give away, thus endearing him to his underlings even more. A lot of those lands went to the bishops, as Orthodoxy does not have that pesky paying to the Pope thing.
As it happens, my ruler had enough lands to form the kingdom of Rus. The problem? He's broke, and raising enough money would take ages.
He also has a talented genius son, whom he'd really want to see as his sole heir, preferably without enraging his sprawling and crazy family
Raising money is always a laborious process. Upgrading certain things in the Tech menu can help bring a little more in, as can raising your stewardship stat.
As for the sprawling family, as long as you don't have any more male children you're fine. If you do, you may have to murder them, or just grant them a church title (Bishoprics), which will disinherit them.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Syria is now part of my ever expanding Sultanate (my character is proving more pox resistant this time). Controlling it allowed me to create a THIRD Sultanate, so my character is now a triple Sultan!
Also my direct heir has way more duchies, my 2 other heirs that I'm allowed to give giant titles too have a couple duchies each as well.
One of my Half-Brothers tried to plot against me and I striped him of all titles and executed him. One of my sons also plotted to fabricate claims on on of the Sultanates so I had him exiled. Sadly, he died of the pox a few years later. I pawned his imbecile, pox-ridden son on one of my younger kids.
Kinda hilarious to think this kid is in line for the throne, but with lots of kids and their grand-kids, it's a long line...
Also, I figured out successful sieges tend to end military confrontations the quickest. Unless, of course, both sides have gigantic armies and one side can dominate the other killing tens of thousands of troops.
Also, took me a while to figure out duchies aren't really something you should wait around on creating if you have the cash. As creating them might net you more countries to tax, raise levies from, etc...
Syria is now part of my ever expanding Sultanate (my character is proving more pox resistant this time). Controlling it allowed me to create a THIRD Sultanate, so my character is now a triple Sultan!
since you're Muslim this isn't a problem, but if you were literally anything else this would be a potential game ender.
The reason for this is that under Gavelkind Succession Law, which is the default for most non-Muslim nations (the only exception that comes to mind is the Holy Roman Empire which uses Elective Succession, which is an entirely different kettle of fish, and Byzantium, who have their own problems) all of your top-level titles get split up among your kids.
Meaning, since you have three sultanates, your first title would go to your oldest son, your second to your second son, third to your third, etc.
This isn't the case if you also have an emperor-level title, but it's always the case if you have more than one of your top-level title. Eg. three kingdoms if you're a king, three duchies if you're a duke, etc. Not sure if it applies to counties since I've never played as a count (I'm not that crazy).
Also OOC, what's your son's name? I don't recall if Arp Arslan starts with one already.
So, after Vsevolod (my ruler) handed out excess counties, the rest of them suddenly became somewhat profitable, so, despite me knowing nothing of how game economy works, it became possible for me to create the kingdom of Rus in about two years. Piety gain for granting lands to bishops definitely helped (guess the church is quite willing to overlook the ruler's cynicism in such circumstances).
The first few years of his reign were peaceful, occasional councillors assassinating each other notwithstanding (as it happens, the councilor who ended up assassinated was a spymaster. Guess he wasn't that good after all). The reason for peace is that I still have no idea how combat works, besides, my neighbours are either very bitey or my close kinsmen. Or both.
On one ocassion, the King of Sweden (our ally) issued a call to arms. Just what help he expected from a (then) land-locked country that would take several years to get to him overland, I still have no idea, so Vsevolod accepted the call and then proceeded to ignore it.
Of numerous relatives, Mstislav the Grand Prince of Novgorod, the nephew, proved to be the most prone to intrigues, so Vsevolod sent his councillor to quietly sow some dissent, so that the schemer would (hopefully) have his hands full. The result turned out to be... greater than expected.
Vsevolod's popularity, coupled with dissent-sowing, led to Mistilav's own brother Sviatopolk create a faction that insisted on Vsevolod becoming the Grand Prince of Novgorod. Before he even had a chance to say "Thanks, but no thanks", Novgorod became torn apart by a civil war, in which Vladislav finally decided to interfere - after all, one of his nephews is risking so much for him, and the other one he never liked anyway.
"Our" faction emerged victorious, and suddenly Vladislaw finds himself in possession of Novgorod duchy (though not, as it happens, of any counties within it). He also finds himself in the company of an angry relative who still remains very good at intrigue, and whom he cannot imprison, assassinate or even strip of remaining titles without losing the goodwill that carried him this far (war, an extra duchy and recent change of crown authority from nonexistent to low already substantially lowered that).
I still have no idea whatsoever about how the combat works, and I am yet to figure out how to give away any titles other than counties - how to give away a duchy (which I'd really rather have out of my hands) or, conversely, how to assign someone a town or bishopic). I also still don't understand economy, so it's a wonder that my guy still lives, even on the easiest difficulty.
Meanwhile, his son came of age, and so had his sweet daughter, to whom he'd better find a husband that might be useful but won't come steamrolling our kingdom a couple of generations later. The big screwed up family is a problem again - can't marry the daughter to one of my own counts, as most of them are also kinsmen.
You distribute a duchy by going to the "grant landed title" screen, selecting a county to grant them, and checking the "include lower titles" box. After you do that (but BEFORE you actually hit "send" to grant them the title) you should be able to grant them Duchies (and kingdoms as well, if you had an empire).
Towns and bishoprics should be grantable at all times but only if you actually own them, which usually only happens if you use an invasion casus belli on someone.
You're one of the two remaining Zoroastrian nations on the face of the earth (the other is a single-county Emirate that falls in months without fail), you have literally no friends except a few Manicheans in far-off Pechneg territory (even then, Manicheanism is considered a Zoroastrian heresy in-game, so they're not REALLY your friends), you have to constantly keep concubines (at least one!) so that way you don't create inbred children with your wife who is ideally also your sister or something (Zoroastrians get a vassal opinion boost by marrying close relatives, and trust, you need it), and furthermore you start out surrounded by two powerful Islamic powers to the south and east, and the Sokal Khan's Cumans to the north.
I managed to get this far by doing a lot of save-scumming (it's basically the only way) and knocking the Sultanate to the east mostly out of the picture early on. I've recently managed to catch Sokal Khan off guard and carved out a nice chunk of Cumania for myself.
The Saffasid (yes, an obscure dynasty that starts as single county Emirs somehow took over most of the former Persian Sultanate territory, I have no clue how) Shahdom to the south is going to be the biggest problem. I'm thinking more expansion into Mongol territory so I have enough forces to cut them up. Currently I have a paltry 4,000-ish troops at my command and no money for mercenaries.
My cchancellor, despite having high stats, managed to botch the attempt to improve relationships with one of my less reliable vassals. Three times in the row. Whose side is he on, anyway?!
As recently deposed Mstislav of Novgorod and certain count Roman (also from Novgorod principality) became the only vassals who hate King Vsevolod with a passion, he decided to solve the problem in an elegant way which, predictably enough, backfired. Spectacularly. Namely: a) Roman's dislike stemmed from wanting the Novgorod duchy for himself b) Vsevolod had too many duchies already and needed to pawn one off c) Mstislav's dislike stemmed because of the same duchy, so the "solution" was to give the duchy to Roman (immediately raising his attitude to 100) and assigning Mstislav to him as subordinate, thus making him Not My Problem. What could have gone wrong?
A lot, apparently. The errant nephew still had a rather impressive army, and, while he was not strong enough to attack the king yet, was more than strong enough to attack Roman, which he did. And apparently, I could not even interfere in their fight and help my guy, as Mstislav indeed became legally Not My Problem. In addition, no competent people wanted to join Vsevolod in his plot to kill his nephew, and the only guy who did agree blabbered it all out in drunk stupor.
So, plot failed. Assassination attempt cost 250. Vsevolod did successfully press for Mstislav's excommunication, but in just a few weeks his brother Sviatopolk (who kind of started the whole mess by pressing Vsevolod's claim to Novgorod in the first place, if you remember) cajoled the patriarch to forgive him. Can't he at least be consistent?!
Meanwhile, the king continues to grow in popularity. Despite all the troubles with Novgorod, suddenly another relative of his decides to be "generous" and presses the king's claims to Ryazan duchy against the current ruler Svyatoslav - Vladislav's brother, by the way. This time it apparently did not even need the war - the duchy (a big chunk of territory, and a whole new set of bigger problems) was handed to the vaguely baffled king in just a few days.
As it happens, Svyatoslav held some crazy number of counties within the duchy, and he got to keep them all. And, needless to say, he is very, very angry with the recent turn of events. And the first thing he does is to answer Mstislav's call to arms for the claim to Novgorod - apparently he could interfere, being of equal rank and all.
Looking at the army more than half of the size of his own realm marching to take back Novgorod, Vsevolod had nothing to say except expletives. Fortunately, right at that moment he finally raised enough money to pay an assassin. After thinking long and hard about whether to kill his nephew or brother, he decided on nephew, as this, at least, would certainly end this particular war right now, even though the brother is more powerful. However, said brother is also old, so it's possible to hope for the best. Assassination attempt succeeded against all odds (finally), and the king swore never to pawn off his troublesome vassals to someone else again.
Honestly, I feel somewhat bad for Mstislav - I admire his persistence, besides, technically, he was completely in the right. His uncle plotting against him for no discernible reason just because they're both paranoid (Properly Paranoid and Self-Fulfilling Prophesy anyone?), his rightful title usurped, his uncle plotting to kill him.... Alas, poor nephew
hey Beholder are your characters currently of the Slavic faith or are they Orthodox?
also you should probably start thinking about succession (educate your heirs yourself if possible). Vsevolod has to be getting a little long in the tooth.
also I think today I am going to take a break from my hard-as-balls Zoroastrian run and go back to my muslim Tartaria.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Not sure if you figured out Combat yet, but it took me a while to figure the following out:
Clicking on an army and then right clicking somewhere else is telling that army where to go.
Going to the Military tab and raising all vassal levies + your own levies is what you want to do when you need to throw down. This gives you pretty much as much army as you can expect.
Clicking on the armies and assigning a competent general/captain is advisable. A smaller army led by a much more competent commander can come out ahead or even crush larger forces.
Also, make sure your green bar is full or pretty damn close if say, your opponent is in the next country before attacking. This is your morale bar, and once it's all read, your army runs for it. A larger force can get trounced by a smaller force if the larger has not much in the morale department.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Regarding Alp Arslan's son:
Dude starts the game with FIVE sons all by one wife. I have a few more sons (one deceased) and a single daughter. Some, again, by my first wife, and I think a few by my second and third.
I'll have to look up the name later. I will not have access to my game laptop for a few days due to travel.
I'm expecting son two and three to flip their shit again once I'm onto my next character. Though, this time It seems he's had more time with more territory to build his power base and deal with people who are messing with him already.
I think his son may be of age already, as well. So if by chance Alp Arslan's son only lasts a few months again, at least his son won't have a regent who starts lowering crown authority like crazy.
I may still let the first group that demands lower crown authority get away with it to avoid more people trying to kill me and to appease vassals. Though, I think I'll TRY a a play-through where my character's official policy is "FUCK EVERY ONE! I'M TRIPLE SULTAN! You don't like it, you can choke on expensive mercenary and DIE, mother fuckers!"
something I don't like about this game is that about a quarter of the time the outcomes of battles don't seem to make any logical sense.
for instance, if you have a larger force than an attacking army, a defensive bonus, and a higher attrition score, you'd really think you'd win. Most of the time you do, but sometimes you just kinda don't.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Huh, not sure I've ever encountered an example I thought didn't make much sense. Granted, Alp Arslan has an obscenely high Martial score of 24 and I tend to make sure he's in all major combats and either has a force roughly equal or high enough to simply crush any opposing force. It's also quite possible that given the vastness of the the land I started with and accumulated, I simply don't have a great perspective on events like this because wars tend to be things where dozens of countries send troops that I march into various large armies and mostly proceed to crush my opposition.
For instance, what type of troops I have making up a force seems to mean very little, but that's probably due to the huge amount troops in each army.
I DID notice that many expensive mercenary groups seem to be composed entirely of light mounted warriors and mounted archers which tend to crush even larger forces with relative ease.
I'm almost positive I know why it's happening (I've heard of similar problems arising from having too many saves), but I don't know where the save files are.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
It'll be something like Documents > My Games > Company that made Crusader Kings 2 > Crusader Kings 2 > Saves.
Sorry for not telling you exactly, as mentioned, gaming laptop did not come with me on this trip for it wieghs about 10 pounds with it's charger included.
Comments
I would buy you the game if I had any of the monies
but I do not.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
the game only did that because you started as the Seljuks and thus got event troops.
that's not the norm. Other cases where you get event troops include the Magyars, as William the Bastard in the 1066 start, and as the Mongols.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
I think any of the playable mongol hordes (The Ilkhanate, The Golden Horde, and the Timurids) do.
The Cumans do as well, just far less of them.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I hadn't realized how broad this game is with the DLC. I'll have to buy it at the beginning of the month if it's not full price again.
This will always happen.
always.
That's the result of a crusade. Sometimes it creates an independent Kingdom of Jerusalem but usually the land goes to whoever sent the most troops.I'd keep an eye on Cumania, especially if they're still Tengri. They're in a great position to reform the religion which is BadTM for you. If possible, try to get chummy with the current Khan and then send your Court Imam to do some preaching, hopefully you'll be able to convert them to Islam.
As it happens, my ruler had enough lands to form the kingdom of Rus. The problem? He's broke, and raising enough money would take ages.
He also has a talented genius son, whom he'd really want to see as his sole heir, preferably without enraging his sprawling and crazy family
Raising money is always a laborious process. Upgrading certain things in the Tech menu can help bring a little more in, as can raising your stewardship stat.
As for the sprawling family, as long as you don't have any more male children you're fine. If you do, you may have to murder them, or just grant them a church title (Bishoprics), which will disinherit them.
playing as the Karen Satrapy is torture.
Torture.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
since you're Muslim this isn't a problem, but if you were literally anything else this would be a potential game ender.
The reason for this is that under Gavelkind Succession Law, which is the default for most non-Muslim nations (the only exception that comes to mind is the Holy Roman Empire which uses Elective Succession, which is an entirely different kettle of fish, and Byzantium, who have their own problems) all of your top-level titles get split up among your kids.
Meaning, since you have three sultanates, your first title would go to your oldest son, your second to your second son, third to your third, etc.
This isn't the case if you also have an emperor-level title, but it's always the case if you have more than one of your top-level title. Eg. three kingdoms if you're a king, three duchies if you're a duke, etc. Not sure if it applies to counties since I've never played as a count (I'm not that crazy).
Also OOC, what's your son's name? I don't recall if Arp Arslan starts with one already.
So, after Vsevolod (my ruler) handed out excess counties, the rest of them suddenly became somewhat profitable, so, despite me knowing nothing of how game economy works, it became possible for me to create the kingdom of Rus in about two years. Piety gain for granting lands to bishops definitely helped (guess the church is quite willing to overlook the ruler's cynicism in such circumstances).
The first few years of his reign were peaceful, occasional councillors assassinating each other notwithstanding (as it happens, the councilor who ended up assassinated was a spymaster. Guess he wasn't that good after all). The reason for peace is that I still have no idea how combat works, besides, my neighbours are either very bitey or my close kinsmen. Or both.
On one ocassion, the King of Sweden (our ally) issued a call to arms. Just what help he expected from a (then) land-locked country that would take several years to get to him overland, I still have no idea, so Vsevolod accepted the call and then proceeded to ignore it.
Of numerous relatives, Mstislav the Grand Prince of Novgorod, the nephew, proved to be the most prone to intrigues, so Vsevolod sent his councillor to quietly sow some dissent, so that the schemer would (hopefully) have his hands full. The result turned out to be... greater than expected.
Vsevolod's popularity, coupled with dissent-sowing, led to Mistilav's own brother Sviatopolk create a faction that insisted on Vsevolod becoming the Grand Prince of Novgorod. Before he even had a chance to say "Thanks, but no thanks", Novgorod became torn apart by a civil war, in which Vladislav finally decided to interfere - after all, one of his nephews is risking so much for him, and the other one he never liked anyway.
"Our" faction emerged victorious, and suddenly Vladislaw finds himself in possession of Novgorod duchy (though not, as it happens, of any counties within it). He also finds himself in the company of an angry relative who still remains very good at intrigue, and whom he cannot imprison, assassinate or even strip of remaining titles without losing the goodwill that carried him this far (war, an extra duchy and recent change of crown authority from nonexistent to low already substantially lowered that).
I still have no idea whatsoever about how the combat works, and I am yet to figure out how to give away any titles other than counties - how to give away a duchy (which I'd really rather have out of my hands) or, conversely, how to assign someone a town or bishopic). I also still don't understand economy, so it's a wonder that my guy still lives, even on the easiest difficulty.
Meanwhile, his son came of age, and so had his sweet daughter, to whom he'd better find a husband that might be useful but won't come steamrolling our kingdom a couple of generations later. The big screwed up family is a problem again - can't marry the daughter to one of my own counts, as most of them are also kinsmen.
You distribute a duchy by going to the "grant landed title" screen, selecting a county to grant them, and checking the "include lower titles" box. After you do that (but BEFORE you actually hit "send" to grant them the title) you should be able to grant them Duchies (and kingdoms as well, if you had an empire).
Towns and bishoprics should be grantable at all times but only if you actually own them, which usually only happens if you use an invasion casus belli on someone.
essentially.
the thing's fussy.
playing as the Karen Satrapy is so goddamn hard.
You're one of the two remaining Zoroastrian nations on the face of the earth (the other is a single-county Emirate that falls in months without fail), you have literally no friends except a few Manicheans in far-off Pechneg territory (even then, Manicheanism is considered a Zoroastrian heresy in-game, so they're not REALLY your friends), you have to constantly keep concubines (at least one!) so that way you don't create inbred children with your wife who is ideally also your sister or something (Zoroastrians get a vassal opinion boost by marrying close relatives, and trust, you need it), and furthermore you start out surrounded by two powerful Islamic powers to the south and east, and the Sokal Khan's Cumans to the north.
I managed to get this far by doing a lot of save-scumming (it's basically the only way) and knocking the Sultanate to the east mostly out of the picture early on. I've recently managed to catch Sokal Khan off guard and carved out a nice chunk of Cumania for myself.
The Saffasid (yes, an obscure dynasty that starts as single county Emirs somehow took over most of the former Persian Sultanate territory, I have no clue how) Shahdom to the south is going to be the biggest problem. I'm thinking more expansion into Mongol territory so I have enough forces to cut them up. Currently I have a paltry 4,000-ish troops at my command and no money for mercenaries.
Host Invasions are basically the most bullshit thing ever and I don't understand why they're in the game.
In the span of an in-game month, I had two wars declared on me, a host invasion, and fucking five peasant revolts.
what even are you supposed to do about that.
(But seriously, Spymasters generally have ridiculous plot powers like 80-180%, keep 'em happy.)
"This will not raise [name]'s opinion of you further"
I have never had this succeed, even with a stellar chancellor. Not even once.As recently deposed Mstislav of Novgorod and certain count Roman (also from Novgorod principality) became the only vassals who hate King Vsevolod with a passion, he decided to solve the problem in an elegant way which, predictably enough, backfired. Spectacularly. Namely: a) Roman's dislike stemmed from wanting the Novgorod duchy for himself b) Vsevolod had too many duchies already and needed to pawn one off c) Mstislav's dislike stemmed because of the same duchy, so the "solution" was to give the duchy to Roman (immediately raising his attitude to 100) and assigning Mstislav to him as subordinate, thus making him Not My Problem. What could have gone wrong?
A lot, apparently. The errant nephew still had a rather impressive army, and, while he was not strong enough to attack the king yet, was more than strong enough to attack Roman, which he did. And apparently, I could not even interfere in their fight and help my guy, as Mstislav indeed became legally Not My Problem. In addition, no competent people wanted to join Vsevolod in his plot to kill his nephew, and the only guy who did agree blabbered it all out in drunk stupor.
So, plot failed. Assassination attempt cost 250. Vsevolod did successfully press for Mstislav's excommunication, but in just a few weeks his brother Sviatopolk (who kind of started the whole mess by pressing Vsevolod's claim to Novgorod in the first place, if you remember) cajoled the patriarch to forgive him. Can't he at least be consistent?!
Meanwhile, the king continues to grow in popularity. Despite all the troubles with Novgorod, suddenly another relative of his decides to be "generous" and presses the king's claims to Ryazan duchy against the current ruler Svyatoslav - Vladislav's brother, by the way. This time it apparently did not even need the war - the duchy (a big chunk of territory, and a whole new set of bigger problems) was handed to the vaguely baffled king in just a few days.
As it happens, Svyatoslav held some crazy number of counties within the duchy, and he got to keep them all. And, needless to say, he is very, very angry with the recent turn of events. And the first thing he does is to answer Mstislav's call to arms for the claim to Novgorod - apparently he could interfere, being of equal rank and all.
Looking at the army more than half of the size of his own realm marching to take back Novgorod, Vsevolod had nothing to say except expletives. Fortunately, right at that moment he finally raised enough money to pay an assassin. After thinking long and hard about whether to kill his nephew or brother, he decided on nephew, as this, at least, would certainly end this particular war right now, even though the brother is more powerful. However, said brother is also old, so it's possible to hope for the best. Assassination attempt succeeded against all odds (finally), and the king swore never to pawn off his troublesome vassals to someone else again.
Honestly, I feel somewhat bad for Mstislav - I admire his persistence, besides, technically, he was completely in the right. His uncle plotting against him for no discernible reason just because they're both paranoid (Properly Paranoid and Self-Fulfilling Prophesy anyone?), his rightful title usurped, his uncle plotting to kill him.... Alas, poor nephew
hey Beholder are your characters currently of the Slavic faith or are they Orthodox?
also you should probably start thinking about succession (educate your heirs yourself if possible). Vsevolod has to be getting a little long in the tooth.
also I think today I am going to take a break from my hard-as-balls Zoroastrian run and go back to my muslim Tartaria.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
something I don't like about this game is that about a quarter of the time the outcomes of battles don't seem to make any logical sense.
for instance, if you have a larger force than an attacking army, a defensive bonus, and a higher attrition score, you'd really think you'd win. Most of the time you do, but sometimes you just kinda don't.
so it seems that my game has decided to never work again. It crashes on startup now.
Lovely.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
ok, I've found them and deleted the ones I'm not using.
Paradox seems to love putting out games that are good but horribly, horribly unoptimized sometimes to the extent of unplayability (see: Magicka).
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
OK, now I can actually get into the games but it crashes whenever I change the game speed.
What the fuck, Paradox?
ok it actually only happens on a single, specific save file.
That's really fucking weird.