CKII is released.

I agree with you, though I wouldn't have put it so inflammatorily. The game does lack depth, and the dynasty system doesn't quite make up for the richer gameplay you'd find in Paradox's other titles. It's still fun, but it could be better. Hopefully the expansions bring it up to par.

 

It's not like EU3 (after 4 expansion packs!) had any depth. What was its greatest depth exactly? National Ideas? The difficulty? if I played EU3 today I would run circles around the AI and conquer the whole world. I can do the same in CK2 and people always find new exploits, which arguably are more numerous given the clusterfuck character system.

 

That would make it rather hard: I've frequently found myself contending aganst enemies that don't apparently have an army. Either their army is lost in space somewhere, or that was it and I killed their puny 300 guys for a measly half-a-percent warscore. The territory in question is now mine. I get a measly 30% warscore out of the deal. Now what?

If you've occupied 3 or 4 provinces, already, isn't it quite possible that he just doesn't HAVE an army? Besides, 3 or 4 entire provinces already IS kind of a major territorial concession. How much bigger a concession are we talking about? 3 or 4 provinces is generally an entire duchy's worth, and I figure if I've completely overrun the entire target duchy and none of their armies are bothering to contest this, yeah, it's mine now.

Yeah, that works in real life, too.

Yeah, but what if the entire POINT of the war was over a bunch of border areas? If this is "war over random 3-province Duchy on the border" and his armies are nowhere to be seen as I overrun the entire mess and take it over, yeah, I think I've earned my 100% warscore, seeing as the object in question is now 100% mine and the opponent's army either doesn't exist, or is lost somewhere out in Bumfuckistan. It's mine now. I'm keeping it.

But for something like an entire Imperial crown, I should probably have to accomplish more. I should have to smash the Empire's entire army and occupy his entire personal demesne at least, not merely gank a few of his minor vassals out on the border. It should evaluate "What does he stand to lose from here?". When you've already taken everything he was going to lose anyway, he doesn't lose much, but if he still has much to lose by giving in, then he should keep fighting until he runs out of army.

This was in CK1, if your King wasn't there personally, the commander at the scene ganked the title for himself and kept it.

 

The problem is that the particular wars I am thinking of there are not wars over those border provinces but for the guys primary title (emperor or king level). Sorry for not being more clear and specific. The warscore system works great as is for small changes and little shifts, it just kinda falls apart once you have large empires and kingdoms giving up because a few provinces that are effectively the boonies for them are lost.

And yes attrition should be a valid tactic, but armies replenish way too quickly as it is. I feel like with virtually any kingdom in game I can wage war endlessly and never ever run into manpower problems and that's just silly.

 

B-but Crusader Kings 2 is a Game Of Unfortunate Accidents!

 

Before they patched CK2 to show cause of death on characters I thought I had a string of Unfortunate Accidents when all my male heirs died and put a princess in line for the throne. Imprisoned her to death, then cause of death was patched in and I learned that those Unfortunate Accidents were really unfortunate accidents. SORRY DAUGHTER.

 

If you patch your game, then load a pre-1.05 save, all causes of death will be set to natural causes. (Presumably because, prior to 1.05, the game wasn't keeping track of how people died, and natural causes are the default.)

So uh don't worry, your family-murdering ways might have been justified!

 

Oh. Well then I'll continue thinking my paranoia was entirely justified! Thanks bro!

 

Well, the BE in my game surrendered the KINGDOM OF BYZANTIUM (Everything except Cherson) after I blitzed Byzantion, Tharke, and Lykia...
At that time BE is still a giant red blob, not in war with any of Seljuk, Shia Caliph, Aljebaizan, ect., and their total army is ~60k (well, my ~200k army is still much more than his though...)

After the war my demense is ~180 ... and that's less than 3 months after I started the war... I guess I took 15-20 minutes to distribute the spoils.
It doesn't take a genius to guess what happens to BE after this war...

 

This is why I split the kingdom title in my mod, with a Kingdom of Greece in where Greece is and a Kingdom of Rum in the East. With Sword of Islam, I might split it further to Kingdom of Bulgaria and Kingdom of Nicae as well.

 

new dev diary: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?614293-The-Sword-of-Islam-Dev-Diary-3

 

Raw News (TM) delivers something worthwile.

 

Crusader Kings II: Andhaira Edition is now out!

Let the infidels tremble!

(Fuck, I gotta go to work right now)

 

Not on steam. Neither the 1.06 patch or the Sword of Andhaira DLC.

 

It's out on GG (together with a African Unit Pack and an arabic music DLC) and should be on steam in the near future. Dunno what time steam usually updates but rumors are that it should be in the next two hours.

Though I recall the last DLC to appear a day later. We'll see.

EDIT: Nevermind. It's here.

 

You mean it's on Steam for you? Cause it's not there for me...

 

So far it seems preaty good.

 

Just the patch. Seems the DLC is either going to appear later on (some dev said so) or will pull another ruler designer and appear a day late. We'll see. Must admit I'm getting rather tired of paradox products continuously appearing late on steam.

And no, I'm not going to start a new christian game with 1.06. I want to sack Rome and install a caliphate dammit.

 

Serves you right for buying Paradox games on steam :p

I've been playing SoI for a couple of hours now, and it's been pretty fun. The easy casus bellis muslims get to attack any neighbouring province, combined with the need to give land to each of your many sons to avoid decadence makes for a different kind of dynamic than playing the Christians. My liege kept giving single counties to his sons, and I kept attacking them until I controlled most of the realm.

The kind of dynastic maneuvering and strategic marriages that are very important to the Christians matter little to the Muslims, since women don't inherit shit. You do get alliances, but I've never found them very useful in CK2 anyway.

 

It's out on steam as well. 14 euro for the lot. Looking forward to give it a spin now.

 

I paid 10 euro for CK2 + vicky2 + magicka + magicka dlc + SotS 1+2.

And now they want me to pay 14 euro to play as mudslimes? :hahaohwow:
Sorry paradox, I'm not THAT interested in finding out if Djinn exist.

 

You mean you have doubts about Djinn existing?

 

The new patch buffed the muslims a lot. Now playing as a christian count/duke/king in Spain is more difficult than ever.

 

Just saw the south of Italy being invaded by an emirate. Spain is a bloodbath and the Balkan is, well, balkanized. Been awhile since I saw so many sparks along the frontiers. I like.

They also really put some effort into the islamic faith. I was afraid it would be nothing more than a faction unlocker with a skinset but muslims really do have some new mechanics behind them that add to the game.


Still no childbirth death events and still a lack of ambitions, decisions and plots however. Meh. I'm trying to revive my old mod in a less ambitious way to at least give the game a bit more oomph. Expect a simple version to make combat, childbirth and life in general a bit more deadly any time soon.

 

Guys, did any interesting mods show up on the horizon? I'm especially interested in more varied events and random shit which makes CK so fun to play.