CKII is released.

Got this as an early Christmas present. Anything vital I need to know that isn't covered in the tutorials?

 

CK2 is fairly simple, mechanics-wise. Not sure how good the tutorial is, but chances are, as it's a Paradox tutorial, that it sucks. Advice would mostly depend on your Paradox experience.

Give playing a small, relatively stable place a try first. An Irish Count or Scotland are what I'd recommend, the former allows you easy expansion into the rest of Ireland with weak opponents while the latter is relatively unified and you can potentially take advantage of England being invaded by Norway and Normandy.

One thing you should note: alliances are only formed through dynasty relations, so pump out children and marry them off to powerful neighbors.

 

Yay Serbia Stronger!


Much happiness!

 

Holy shit



Also:

My name is Ivar of Serbia and I want to be a Basileus.

Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler

Will you accept my application into your prestigious company?



Thank you sir, I think we need a change in the company policy.



I will send several highly trained hired diplomats to Constantinople to convince you of this course of action, sir.




A wise move, sir.
But we're just a few steps further to a great change in management of this Empire.



I'm sure you have no issues, as per usual, my highly trained diplomats are on their way to discuss and iron out any issues you may have with this proposal.



Thank you sir, I'm sure you won't mind if I elect myself now.



I waited a few days, but nobody elected me, and I can't wait. What if I tell you to step down now sir?




Oh well, I tried to be reasonable.




Much doge.



Wonderful act of diplomacy engaged in Constantinople.



Thank you for seeing it my way, sir.



They said I'm Unready, but when I'm ready, I always take control of an Empire.

 

Rename the empire Greater Serbia.

 

Right before your death imprison and banish as many people you can and replace them with Serbian nobility and change the culture of the Empire to Serbian.

 

I'm not willing to spend $$$ for the DLC just to rename XD

 

Serbia Stronk!

Well playing Paradox games is paying full price for 40% of a game.

 

Just don't lose the Battle of Kosovo. 1389 is coming up fast.

 

Meanwhile, it is good to be a heretic. Cathars have been assraping their way across Europe from one county in Bavaria to almost forming an Empire. The only disappointing thing is that heresy isn't spreading very fast despite Catholics getting asses kicked in Holy Wars left and right.

 

The Anti Pope mechanic is certainly driving Western Europe nuts, I shudder to think if I have Sunset Invasion installed, cause it's in no shape to fight off the Aztecs.
The Golden Horde literally lost momentum right after devouring Poland and has been flipping between Catholic and Orthodox so often.

 

I accidentally started the Cathar campaign with Sunset Invasion. Massive assrape for everyone but glorious Germania incoming.

 

I heard that in the new patch vassal levy is severely reduced. Does this mean that vassal rebellion>king because they are considered an alliance of individual nobles while king's men are all vassals(and thus reduced)?

 

Everybody's levy is reduced by 50% (although in my game it more like two thirds), so the balance of power should be the same, all things considered.

 

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...Unholy-nightmare-Why-this-is-the-best-DLC-yet

Man I need to start playing this DLC for real, that just sounds like too much fun.

 

byzantine allows revokation of duje titles with no penalty? lol!?!? this is easier than i thought

 

Finally got it a right before the end date.

 

Hahah, it gets boring near the end tho.
Break treaty like a mofo against non Catholic and just watch the retinue grow grow grow grow and grow.

 

I've encountered a strange problem: I invited a claimant to the throne of Hungary to my court, gave him a county so that when I press his claim he will become my vassal, but for some reason I can't select his claim as a cassus belli. I can select the claims of 15 other vassals, but they're for counties/duchies, not the whole kingdom.

Edit 1: I should note that the vassal had a weak claim.

Edit 2: Figured it out, it was due to the weak claim:

Edit 3: I can now push my claim against the newly-appointed regent .

 

Ah, Claimant Kingdom stage - the game of Emperors.
Well, the revocation of Duke titles in Byzantine has no tyrant malus, this creates an easier solution for my aging liege, who picked his Grey Eminence brother (49 yo) to take the throne upon his death.

By repeatedly doing the ducal musical chair (unhappy/ambitious=revocation) going on, I can keep cycling through prospective dukes till one of their heir is converted to Serbian culture. Should they fail to do so, at least try for content vassal. If they grew up ambitious/envious - there's no helping it - out you go, and I put in another duke in place.

I thought of just assigning a non-landed Serbian as Dukes over the Greek counts, but I figure this is just a temporary measure since they will end up getting usurped and not lead to a permanent shift of Greek to Serbian Byzantine.

Fingers crossed, I can complete the Alexiad before 1400 arrive. Then shoot for reformation of Rome, though Plan C also exists.
I can try to convert the Byzantine to Catholic - unlocking the Papacy landing trick (this is how you overcome church vassal cap btw) by gifting him some counties, ask him for cash till he's dry then declaring anti-pope installation.



^_^ Once that's done the reclamation of Holy Lands can begin with permanent Holy Orders assault and templars stack focusing on external threats while the retinues keep the Empire under control.

 

Pah, emperors want no part of this "gave him a county" shite. Emperors keep every barony, county, duchy neatly within their de jure borders. Fuck this "tactic", only holy wars are real.

 

Try saying that when you ran out of kingdoms to holy war and your 50,000 retinue stands still.
Do you still want to start a de-jure war over a county?

 

You run out of kingdoms to holy war? Other than by the way of painting the entirety of the map your color? Christ...

 

you mean breakin truce is the dumb shit to do?

 

I mean you pick whatever religion or heresy nobody else has as your faith of choice. Then you holywar anything that has a different color as often as you wish.