CKII is released.

I was about to ask whether I should buy Way of Life, then this hits me:

 

Like most Paradox DLC, i'd only buy it on sale.

 

Someone made an LP with release version Way of Life where the sole idea was that his Somalian character was going to impregnate every lady in Europe.

 

You're all forgetting the best way to expand as a christian: righteous crusading to expand the good word of the Lord! You even get bonus piety if you're into that sort of thing.

Yeah okay, you do have to get some sort of power base before that, but still, few things make me happier than seeing super abbasid breaking up to be eaten in cute little morsels.

And regarding the expansion, additional map will probably mean that I'll never play it as my toaster already has trouble running it after the Rajas expansion. I guess I'll have to stop the game from updating if I still want to keep on playing it.

Where can I find that?

 

Someone... you mean everyone hasn't done that by now?

Though my character was Malian.

 

Playing as a heretic on the Island, even a single county one is perfectly doable, if not actually easy. At least in the old gods start - all those small targets that can be obliterated in a single holly war or two, and vikings and catholics are so busy killing each other they almost never go after you. So once wars break out all you have to do is hire some mercs and holly war the shit out of the loosing side. After a few rounds of this you will be powerful enough to take on the winner as well. Ireland or Wales in less than 10 years starting from scratch is not that hard. Dealing with those fucking raiders once you grow big though, now that's fucking annoying.

 

Raiders quickly get to a point where it's nothing but annoying, since you can easily curb them but if the Norse pagans stay around you will be stomping their raiders almost every goddamn day.

 

I started out as Harold II during the Battle Stamford Bridge, and one hundred years later, I also control the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Moorish Spain, and most of the Baltic states due to crusades. I had fun conquering territories, but my new challenge is to form an empire to simplify succession.

 

Gave the claim thing a shot tonight. By a strange stroke of luck, England was ruled by a Queen, married to a bastard brother of mine. We killed him together, Married her. Married family off to the King of Scotland, but the Pope would only grant a claim on Albany, and not Scotland proper. Took what he'd give me though. Wife died, son now rules England and Albany, along with an irish county. Kind of waiting to die to form the empire. Thanks for the tips guys. It helped.

 

They supposedly improved optimization and the 2.3.4 version runs as fast as 1.0 did according to one of the developers. We'll see when it's out though. I'm waiting for the new version especially for all the bug fixes.

 

Aye, that 8000 prestige is quite steep. I'm playing as the saxon's Ludolfinger (now emigrated into ex-muslims controlled Greece) controlling the kingdoms of Greece, Jerusalem and Anatolia, and my rulers keep dying between 25-30 years old. The best one was a quick ruler aged 28 with 4000 prestige who died commanding a regiment, not a flank (thus I had no choice to not let him command it, a good thing they're fixing that) against one piddly Finnish raid . Many profanities were sworn against the RNG God.

Well, that is good news, good news indeed.

 

Good kings dying young are a staple of the CK experience. During my Zunist campaign I decided to stick to Gavelkind in lieu of Ultimogeniture. Miraculously my demesne almost never ever got split. Also miraculously about 10 of my sovereigns rose to the throne as kids. Successively. The RNG God was trying to tell me something that day.

 

After months of inaction, I started a new Byz game as. Anatolian count. The Seljuks invade and completely wipe out the Imperial Army, occupying several cities. A great opportunity for the imperial diadem, I call for the emperors head.

As soon as I declare war, the Sultan sues for peace with nothing gained

 

This expansion is actually sounding pretty good.

 

Some Horse Lords stuff:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/horse-lords-ride-into-camp-on-july-14.865865/

 

Well, you've tried your best. It's time for our army to do their work.





Round 2? K.

 

Okay, I like the general Germanic politics and especially the idea of being a count in the HRE because it's like you can expand but you've got to be sneaky and subtle about it because if not the Emperor will be like "What the hell are you doing down there." So what's the best character for this? Also what's the best start? I feel a need to start at the earliest date but I haven't played the game too much and as a result am afraid that if I play as Bavaria (usually my preferred Germanic state in EU and Viccy) Charlemagne will eat my ass for breakfast (uhhh, metaphorically). Also, no HRE.

 

I don't own Charlemagne, but the Old Gods start seems to be dominated by purely Karling Kings in Western Europe.
I'd recommend playing there as one of the counts who plot to end the Karling domination on Europe.
It was fun toppling them one by one and helping other non-Karlings to the throne as well.

Welp, got a decent session done. Let's do this. France swore fealty to HRE > War for Throne

 

Fucking Karling!
Damn those Krazy Karling Kings!
A pox upon Europe, that's what they are, with their huge power-bloc that spans Italy, France, Germany and often other countries.

 

It doesn't mean the Karlings will always work together though, I played a few session during those era which involves me taking part in the inter-Karling wars. Those are so profitable with the constantly depleted levies = quicker sieges for ransoms and cash. Eventually once I hit Emperor level, playing with vassal Karling-Kings is so fun, especially when you turn Italy and Germany into Republics.

Also 1034 - Crusade for Jerusalem successful without player intervention.
Guess who won the prize?

 

As long as you don't give refuge to his wife (?) when the event triggers, he doesn't have a CB against you iirc and you should be fine. Marry Byzantine princes and princesses and you got an ally.

 

Sworn fealty, time to be the Kaiser.





Time to slice the eurozone apart

 

HRE under new management.

Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler

Lots of unhappy Germans, but they can easily change their tune with a few land grants.
Of course, I keep an eye on easy conversion to turn all HRE into Orthodoxy. It will take time.
Ordered 15k retinue build up, cost me 2000 gold. Time to reward subjects with land.



Grabbed slavic clay.
I have a count with claim on Poland.
So that's next.




Not a chance. 7000 pollacks were wiped in battle.
We welcome Poland into the Eurozone.



Next stop: Anything Pagan

 

Horse Lords is out, anyone got some early impressions?

Other than the mandatory PDX bugs, of course:

 

What are the major new features for non-pony fetishists?