I really hate it when you just get stuck in a stupid position. I started out as Jylland, and did a prepped invasion of Wessex, and since then I have been able to do literally nothing else. My ruler died randomly like a month after we took over Wessex and while his successor was putting down the ensuing billion rebellions Ivar the Boneless took over more or less the entirety of the rest of the British Isles except for Mercia, which I for some reason cannot invade (I should logically be able to do this as part of a subjugation of England, but my character *refuses* to want to become King of England, only wanting to become King of Wales, which is a) owned mostly by Ivar, and b) not a Kingdom a Norseman can form in-game). So I'm basically fucking done and I have to start over after two hours of play that accomplished nothing unless I want to go the "swear fealty to somebody and work your way up through the ranks over the course of several generations" route, which I don't.
I have revisited my Zoroastrian game and made significant progress.
after putting down about a dozen rebellions while I was technically still like six years old, I realized that the Arabian Empire to our west was in similarly dire straits, so I went in and snapped up just enough counties to restore the Ancient Persian Empire* on my 16th birthday (hell of a birthday present if you ask me).
soon after, we restored the high priesthood, and in a small twist of irony the first Moabadan-Moabad was a presumable Muslim convert named Ahmad.
*specifically, the game's "Persian Empire" title, when held by a Zoroastrian ruler, appears to be a direct continuation of the Sassanid Empire. If you go into the title history, you can see all the old Shahanshahs from the 600s on back. This also means that the regnal numbering takes them into account.
not directly relevant to Crusader Kings 2, but someone on the Paradox forums some time ago played through CK1, and exported his game (via modding) to Europa Universalis (another paradox game that takes place in the immediately subsequent time period) and continued to do this until he finished a game of Hearts of Iron, which ends at the end of WWII.
Though I really wish I could get The Old Gods DLC, apparently starting as a Muslim Nation is a lot easier earlier on. :o
Most recent game was the Mali Empire, I managed to bring it up to a Sultunate and also stole a bit of the Marrakech from underneath the Almoravids during a civil war.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Padishah Gunduz pushed his luck during Ramadan, got sick, got infirm, got coma, got dead. He managed to expand territory quite nicely in all directions before his death. Hilariously, the last Holy War with Egypt ended abruptly when I capture the Caliph.
Granted that battle was epic with both sides pouring troops in. Gunduz himself was there, infirmity and all.
Who knows? If I had lost that battle maybe Gunduz would have been the Caliph's prisoner.
Anyhow, Gunduz finished with a score just shy of Alp Arlan's.
The Emperor is dead, long live the Emperor!
His son inherited everything with the normal new amount of people who hate him. I did something I usually don't do. I gave one of the pretenders a couple of the Sultanates. Not because I was concerned about a war with him, but because he has a frickin' Diplomacy of 32.
As my half-brother, getting the titles back will probably just mean some imprisonment, murder, and maybe some pissed off vassals down the line and the titles pass to some little, useless snot who doesn't deserve them.
One of Gunduz kids died and passed all his stuff to HIS kid who had no uses, so we went to war, I took his stuff, and murdered him.
And now to spend the next few years scheming, murdering, and diplomatically dealing with my relatives and vassals to keep the Empire intact.
Here is the save. Game was Old Gods originally but is closer to the 1066 start now.
RECOMMENDED CHARACTERS
Emperor Andre of Britannia: You're a Frank who inherited the throne from your grandfather due to purely Agnatic succession laws, and are a distant descendant of the great Norse king Bacsecg the Eagle. As all rulers do, you respect the Pope, but Christ himself speaks to you, and you must follow his will. Your heir is your popular cousin Prince Cnut, and one of your vassals is the powerful King of Scotland. Threats from within thus abound.
Empress Euphemia of The Byzantine Empire: You're the aging ruler of the dying Byzantium. Once nearly Rome's own equal, it's been reduced to a rump state in Georgia and Croatia, flanked by the Seljuks and the Fadilid Caliphate. Worse, the prince of Lotharingia has a claim on your throne. Can you persevere? Possibly a doomed start, if her name's any indication.
King Karl of Scotland, Duke of Gowrie & The Isles: Thanks to the country's elective monarchy, you've become the first Ivaring King of Scotland since it was independent. Can you regain independence and set up a Norse-ruled Skotland once again?
King Thomas the Bastard (Thomas III) of Lotharingia: Decades ago, Italy and Lotharingia were one, and formed the strongest power in central Europe. Now, after reclaiming the throne from a pair of pretenders in the twilight of your life, you posses both the power and the claims to make it so again. Also, your son was briefly Emperor of Byzantium. Maybe put him back on the throne while you're at it.
King Barthelemi of France: You're the infant ruler of a weak nation, with powerful vassals and no legitimate heir. But you're a genius, and if you make it out of minority you could restore France to her former glory.
King Gastone II of Italy: Your father (Gastone I, natch) took control of Italy from The Karlings. Flanked by powerful rivals (Lotharingia to the North and the mighty Amalfi Republic to the south) and with lots of claimants to your coveted throne, keeping it won't be easy. Show them that nobody rules like Gastone.
King Daugvilas of Lithuania: You rule the most stable of the great pagan realms of Eastern Europe, but now that the coward Wojciech in Poland has embraced the cross, maybe the time for stability is over, and maybe it is time to add his realm to your own.
King Hysing of Sweden / Svithjod: Sweden exploded into civil war at the turn of the century and has been catastrophically unstable since. Having true control over only a few islands and some of Pomerania, reuniting your rightful realm will not be easy. Making things worse is Andre of Britannia, who eyes your rivals' territory hungrily.
Wali-Emir Hippolytos of Tripolitana: You rule over the world's only Muslim Republic and are fighting a losing war against Amalfi. Can you save your nation, and make a tidy profit to boot?
Count Hagos the Liberator of Atbara: Ya done fucked up.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Coincidentally, I just today figured out a saved game will work for ANY ruler from that time. I accidentally figured this out when I spun up a game of The Republic and looked at the map.
My characters awesome diplomat -halfbrother started a faction and I tragically had to kill him as he had a sizablechunk of my kingdom. His son inherited the Sultanates which I couldn't just nab because of uppity vassals. Luckily the brat decided that a Muslim equivalent to a duchy was worth going to war over (he had a bit less land than his dad after I stripped his dad of some lower titles). After kicking his ass, I was able to take one sultanate back, but not the second without pissing off vassals.
Thankfully, my vassals don't really care if I murder children as long as they're my relatives. When the Sultanate passed to his brother, I was able to claim it without issue.
All this being said, now that I realize how saved games work, I may trying loading an early save and play the half brother and actually see if I can overthrow my current character. Alternatively, I may go back to before I dumped most the Sultanates on my current player, give them to Mr. uber diplomat and just kick my older half-brother's ass when he inevitably decides to war.
My Republic game is much less interesting. Maybe because it's just a handful of countries in Italy, and therefore less epic.
I did beat up someone and stole their town because I had more troops. Also, converted a bunch of local Shias to Catholicism.
PSA: editing a character's name in a save file makes the game crash when resigning. No idea why.
also Byzantium is in a neat place. It's ruled by a Russian Tsar, it's still small as hell but the Caliphate collapsed recently. Might save hop and try to rebuild the empire.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I was wondering what it would do to my score.
Played a bit more of the Republic.
It's actually kinda boring (unless you're like..super ambitious and war with everyone, I guess...) I found elections where no big deal as I could easily make enough money to win them handily.
Maybe it's just because I found a well off Republic in my save.
Speaking of my save, with out me to keep order, my Empire apparently went to shit:
I mean.. Tartaria has seen better days, but the Arabian Peninsula looked like it fell to all the civil wars, all of them.
That happens. The AI's programming for handling the decadence mechanic just isn't there, so you'll often see even large Muslim empires collapse and enter new hands (and thus, change names) every few generations.
Also the republic game isn't really about territory early on. It's about making enough money that you can win elections while also expanding your trading empire, switch to the "republic trade zones" map mode.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
That might explain why this game is kinda boring. It looks like the trading empire is already established, so earning enough money to win elections is a cake walk.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Pisa might also work as an easy way to sort out the Republic mechanics. Aside from beating up Sicily or "poking the bear" and warring with the Pope, not a ton to do there.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Eh, maybe later. I just figured I wasn't getting all out of my DLCs by not playing any of the Republic. I kinda want to maybe play more Seljuk until my latest ruler dies, then go back and try playing as his brother and perhaps seeing which one I did better with then picking a decedent to continue on as.
Otherwise, waiting for Old gods to drop in price. The Tengri look fun.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
So, Padishah Gunduz's eldest heir acquired a higher ruler score than even Alp Arslan. Though Sonmez 1 never was given a title.
Still, I went back and loaded a game just prior to Gunduz gaining the title "the magnificent" and gave my super-diplomat son most the Sultanates.
I was going to settle in for a few more decades as Sonmez again, but he got ill and died. So I'm playing as Mr. Super diplomat much earlier than expected.
That being said, the game has gone exactly to plan. One of his younger brothers rebelled while the older was dealing with another war, I was able to take him and and get tons of titles off of him and pass them around. I then revoked a title from my older brother just to piss him off, then took him out (this was actually harder than usual, this brother had a decent amount of troops and was well poised to cause some damage, but it wasn't enough).
Bayezid's high stats have definitely been a boon, the only thing that's very low is his intrigue, and making it his ambition to work on that should net me a higher score in the long run.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I also picked a wife with a high intrigue stat to compensate for his own low stat. She ended up complimenting him perfectly, having relatively low stats where his are high, and very high stats where his are low.
if you play as Haesteinn of Nantes in the Old Gods start you get a free Invasion CB against any one de jure kingdom (you have to go into the diplomacy menu for the ruler you plan to use it on, so using it ain't super intuitive). You're supposed to use it on Brittany, but I decided to go elsewhere.
and a generation later (Ragnarr is Haelsteinn's infant son at the start date), there is a fairly powerful Norse, Christian (I converted the first chance I got. Which is why my prestige is in the negatives) Kingdom of Sicily that controls a sizable chunk of the Mediterannean (as well as a single county in Aquitaine, which may or may not be enough to trigger the "create Norman culture" event). Plus, the Pope likes us a whole lot because we drove all those Muslims off the island of Sicily itself. We're also in a good position to expand into more of North Africa, since there are two fairly weak Muslim powers right next to our holding there (the Duchy/Jarldom of Tunis).
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I love the strange alternative history possibilities with this game.
My current game is full of female rulers at the moment, or at least a few women found themselves in control of large nations.
Both France and the Byzantines currently have a female ruler. A few other Duchess are about.
In lighter news, my crazy amount of quick-saves actually chocked out my hard drive noticed when the quick-save seemed to be taking no time what-so-ever.
Turned out I wracked up almost 60 GB just in save files. I picked out a few choice ones then performed a sort of reverse decimation Redeemer style where I deleted 9 out of 10 saves.
I could definitely clean out a bit more, but that's more than enough to continue playing safely.
So how's everyone's crusading going? I've been doing a somewhat difficult challenge run of my own design (I'll put it below in spoilers if anyone cares), as a side effect of it, Brittany rules half of what used to be france and a fairly large strip of Andalusia.
Spoiler:
The Conquerer Challenge Run: Start as a Norse character at the Old Gods Historical Start date, by 1066, be of the Norman culture and hold the title "Kingdom of England". Your character may not be named "William".
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I ended up taking a short break because of work/family/A Dark Room.
It's going mostly well, if a little depressing. The decadence systems often means you'll be murdering family members sooner or later. Sooner if you don't want to deal with having to give them land, later if you give them enough land they think it's worth while starting a faction against you.
I actually took out an uncle I liked along with his son because they started a faction (son went first...I kinda wish this game understood the importance of sending a message here...).
I also took out my eldest. He wasn't my heir because his stats sucked and one of his younger brothers was clearly going to out perform him before they even hit of age. He still had lots of lands, but apparently not enough to support another relative to take over. I ended up taking most his land in a small civil war and having him assassinated quietly.
Other than that, still going to Holy Wars with just about everyone. I actually tend to do one large nation and one or two smaller ones to make the most of my levies and maximize decadence losses.
Comments
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
ugh.
I really hate it when you just get stuck in a stupid position. I started out as Jylland, and did a prepped invasion of Wessex, and since then I have been able to do literally nothing else. My ruler died randomly like a month after we took over Wessex and while his successor was putting down the ensuing billion rebellions Ivar the Boneless took over more or less the entirety of the rest of the British Isles except for Mercia, which I for some reason cannot invade (I should logically be able to do this as part of a subjugation of England, but my character *refuses* to want to become King of England, only wanting to become King of Wales, which is a) owned mostly by Ivar, and b) not a Kingdom a Norseman can form in-game). So I'm basically fucking done and I have to start over after two hours of play that accomplished nothing unless I want to go the "swear fealty to somebody and work your way up through the ranks over the course of several generations" route, which I don't.
I have revisited my Zoroastrian game and made significant progress.
after putting down about a dozen rebellions while I was technically still like six years old, I realized that the Arabian Empire to our west was in similarly dire straits, so I went in and snapped up just enough counties to restore the Ancient Persian Empire* on my 16th birthday (hell of a birthday present if you ask me).
soon after, we restored the high priesthood, and in a small twist of irony the first Moabadan-Moabad was a presumable Muslim convert named Ahmad.
*specifically, the game's "Persian Empire" title, when held by a Zoroastrian ruler, appears to be a direct continuation of the Sassanid Empire. If you go into the title history, you can see all the old Shahanshahs from the 600s on back. This also means that the regnal numbering takes them into account.
not directly relevant to Crusader Kings 2, but someone on the Paradox forums some time ago played through CK1, and exported his game (via modding) to Europa Universalis (another paradox game that takes place in the immediately subsequent time period) and continued to do this until he finished a game of Hearts of Iron, which ends at the end of WWII.
His finished game world looks like this.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Italian Africa is historically accurate! That's just not where it was.
also this LP is entertaining.
this LP is really entertaining. Reading about the Iberian Muslim version of George Washington atm.
Really I suppose he's more of a Simon Bolivar figure in some ways. Also a bit of Napoleon too.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Padishah Gunduz pushed his luck during Ramadan, got sick, got infirm, got coma, got dead. He managed to expand territory quite nicely in all directions before his death. Hilariously, the last Holy War with Egypt ended abruptly when I capture the Caliph.
Granted that battle was epic with both sides pouring troops in. Gunduz himself was there, infirmity and all.
Who knows? If I had lost that battle maybe Gunduz would have been the Caliph's prisoner.
Anyhow, Gunduz finished with a score just shy of Alp Arlan's.
The Emperor is dead, long live the Emperor!
His son inherited everything with the normal new amount of people who hate him. I did something I usually don't do. I gave one of the pretenders a couple of the Sultanates. Not because I was concerned about a war with him, but because he has a frickin' Diplomacy of 32.
As my half-brother, getting the titles back will probably just mean some imprisonment, murder, and maybe some pissed off vassals down the line and the titles pass to some little, useless snot who doesn't deserve them.
One of Gunduz kids died and passed all his stuff to HIS kid who had no uses, so we went to war, I took his stuff, and murdered him.
And now to spend the next few years scheming, murdering, and diplomatically dealing with my relatives and vassals to keep the Empire intact.
Here is the save. Game was Old Gods originally but is closer to the 1066 start now.
RECOMMENDED CHARACTERS
Emperor Andre of Britannia: You're a Frank who inherited the throne from your grandfather due to purely Agnatic succession laws, and are a distant descendant of the great Norse king Bacsecg the Eagle. As all rulers do, you respect the Pope, but Christ himself speaks to you, and you must follow his will. Your heir is your popular cousin Prince Cnut, and one of your vassals is the powerful King of Scotland. Threats from within thus abound.
Empress Euphemia of The Byzantine Empire: You're the aging ruler of the dying Byzantium. Once nearly Rome's own equal, it's been reduced to a rump state in Georgia and Croatia, flanked by the Seljuks and the Fadilid Caliphate. Worse, the prince of Lotharingia has a claim on your throne. Can you persevere? Possibly a doomed start, if her name's any indication.
King Karl of Scotland, Duke of Gowrie & The Isles: Thanks to the country's elective monarchy, you've become the first Ivaring King of Scotland since it was independent. Can you regain independence and set up a Norse-ruled Skotland once again?
King Thomas the Bastard (Thomas III) of Lotharingia: Decades ago, Italy and Lotharingia were one, and formed the strongest power in central Europe. Now, after reclaiming the throne from a pair of pretenders in the twilight of your life, you posses both the power and the claims to make it so again. Also, your son was briefly Emperor of Byzantium. Maybe put him back on the throne while you're at it.
King Barthelemi of France: You're the infant ruler of a weak nation, with powerful vassals and no legitimate heir. But you're a genius, and if you make it out of minority you could restore France to her former glory.
King Gastone II of Italy: Your father (Gastone I, natch) took control of Italy from The Karlings. Flanked by powerful rivals (Lotharingia to the North and the mighty Amalfi Republic to the south) and with lots of claimants to your coveted throne, keeping it won't be easy. Show them that nobody rules like Gastone.
King Daugvilas of Lithuania: You rule the most stable of the great pagan realms of Eastern Europe, but now that the coward Wojciech in Poland has embraced the cross, maybe the time for stability is over, and maybe it is time to add his realm to your own.
King Hysing of Sweden / Svithjod: Sweden exploded into civil war at the turn of the century and has been catastrophically unstable since. Having true control over only a few islands and some of Pomerania, reuniting your rightful realm will not be easy. Making things worse is Andre of Britannia, who eyes your rivals' territory hungrily.
Wali-Emir Hippolytos of Tripolitana: You rule over the world's only Muslim Republic and are fighting a losing war against Amalfi. Can you save your nation, and make a tidy profit to boot?
Count Hagos the Liberator of Atbara: Ya done fucked up.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Be aware that changing your main character fucks with your score in weird ways.
Also playing as a Republic is practically a different game entirely.
Also if anyone has any savegames they want to share, I'd be happy to take a look at them.
PSA: editing a character's name in a save file makes the game crash when resigning. No idea why.
also Byzantium is in a neat place. It's ruled by a Russian Tsar, it's still small as hell but the Caliphate collapsed recently. Might save hop and try to rebuild the empire.
OK, or doing it just straight makes your game crash sometimes for no reason.
:sigh:
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
That happens. The AI's programming for handling the decadence mechanic just isn't there, so you'll often see even large Muslim empires collapse and enter new hands (and thus, change names) every few generations.
Also the republic game isn't really about territory early on. It's about making enough money that you can win elections while also expanding your trading empire, switch to the "republic trade zones" map mode.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
http://limelinx.com/b2xuk
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Expanding it beyond the Mediterranean is....hard.
The only republic that sometimes blobs in the traditional sense is Amalfi at the old gods start, and I have no idea why.
If you want a fresh republic game, I recommend The Hanseatic League, who have their own start.
"error, file not uploaded"edit: don't copy/paste the address of the limelinx page, there's a little link at the bottom that'll be like "limelinx.com/nnj19" or somesuch
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
http://limelinx.com/b2xuk
Cooool.
Also this nifty little tool lets you create new de jure titles on the fly. Not sure how to use it yet though.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
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
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
if you play as Haesteinn of Nantes in the Old Gods start you get a free Invasion CB against any one de jure kingdom (you have to go into the diplomacy menu for the ruler you plan to use it on, so using it ain't super intuitive). You're supposed to use it on Brittany, but I decided to go elsewhere.
and a generation later (Ragnarr is Haelsteinn's infant son at the start date), there is a fairly powerful Norse, Christian (I converted the first chance I got. Which is why my prestige is in the negatives) Kingdom of Sicily that controls a sizable chunk of the Mediterannean (as well as a single county in Aquitaine, which may or may not be enough to trigger the "create Norman culture" event). Plus, the Pope likes us a whole lot because we drove all those Muslims off the island of Sicily itself. We're also in a good position to expand into more of North Africa, since there are two fairly weak Muslim powers right next to our holding there (the Duchy/Jarldom of Tunis).
Meanwhile, in another game entirely
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
So how's everyone's crusading going? I've been doing a somewhat difficult challenge run of my own design (I'll put it below in spoilers if anyone cares), as a side effect of it, Brittany rules half of what used to be france and a fairly large strip of Andalusia.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I ended up taking a short break because of work/family/A Dark Room.
It's going mostly well, if a little depressing. The decadence systems often means you'll be murdering family members sooner or later. Sooner if you don't want to deal with having to give them land, later if you give them enough land they think it's worth while starting a faction against you.
I actually took out an uncle I liked along with his son because they started a faction (son went first...I kinda wish this game understood the importance of sending a message here...).
I also took out my eldest. He wasn't my heir because his stats sucked and one of his younger brothers was clearly going to out perform him before they even hit of age. He still had lots of lands, but apparently not enough to support another relative to take over. I ended up taking most his land in a small civil war and having him assassinated quietly.
Other than that, still going to Holy Wars with just about everyone. I actually tend to do one large nation and one or two smaller ones to make the most of my levies and maximize decadence losses.
Perhaps try starting up a secondary game.
The character I use for my challenge run (Haesteinn Haesteining, Count of Nantes) is a really fun start if you know how to do prepared invasions.