CKII is released.

You know, Paradox games are like MMOs. You play them as they get continuously developed and that's part of the charm. It's an quality that makes it inherently replayable. There is always something new, or something fixed on the horizon. Playing the end unsupported game is flat in comparison.

 

Anyone knows a link for Lux Invicta for the last version of CK2 or something?

 

One thing I'm not sure about - what is the relative effects of handing out ducal titles, compared to keeping them all to yourself and having more counts? Seems like it's handing more power over to your vassals, but having less people to keep happy?

 

Less people to keep happy, I think. When you have something like 200 vassals it becomes a real pain in the ass to deal with. That and having too many ducal titles starts to reduce vassal opinion.

 

Is dissent for > 2 ducal tittles for Kings and Emperors still in? I refuse to patch the game over 1.8 until they nerf republics.

 

I find CK2+ a tad bland, but it's stable and improves AI, so it's a decent trade off. Now if something like Prince and the Thane weren't unstable as fuck, it'd be amazing. There's even unique pagan gameplay. It's just so ludicrously crashtastic.

 

Still can't find a mod equivalent to DVIP.

 

For kings and greater, every ducal title over the second one adds -10 relations with all vassals (Too many held duchies modifier). IN addition to that multi-dukes and up will suffer -20 from any (I think, it may require certain traits) counts under their non-primary ducal titles (and maybe a second ducal title, not sure on that) due to the "desires duchy" modifier.

So holding onto all ducal titles of a relatively small kingdom is possible, but I generally keep myself at two. In larger kingdoms, I don't think it would work, and even if it lasted for some time, succession would be a bitch when it happened.

One could simply not create any ducal titles beyond their first two and destroy all others they gain. Of course, the smaller (2 and 3 county) duchies would be formed by your vassals sooner or later, but as long as you worked at keeping all your counts from gaining over 50% of the duchies it would work and avoid the negative modifiers.

 

I see. So there really is nothing to be gained from forming duchies if you already hold 100% of them (or than the prestige)?

 

You could make the argument your top score is the reason why you play and having many held titles increases from prestige and thus score.

 

Depending on Duchy size, it's possibly to go up to three, but that's a big risk. During my pagan Finland test runs, I generally limited myself to Estonia and Novgorod (and even then generally had recurring problems due to Novgorod being a huge-ass duchy).

 

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?612823-MOD-Lux-Invicta

 

Pro way to exploit duchies is to take all the kingdoms/empires for yourself and give your heir every duchy you can't keep. Keep the powerful 6/7 slot provinces to develop yourself and vassal everything else outside your two duchies to the heir. No relations problems, rock solid kingdom.

Gets annoying when you die and have to re-bequeath 50 duchies to your next heir though.

I think the "desires duchy" modifier only appears if they can create it on their own (>=50% of counties) OR have traits like Ambitious (which means they need to die ASAP). I don't think it necessarily requires you to hold more than 1 duchy for this to happen, but it may loosen the requirements. Ambitious characters at least seem to never be happy until they are emperor.

 

That won't do it.

That said, I did get a link from a bro who is a lurker. Interesting mod so far. The whole map is a immense jumble of colours and religions. Jesus.

 

It all depends how your monarch lives, with good traits you can have as many lands as you want your vassals will love you anyway... So be brave, Pius and avoid being asshole... but be Dick to your Heathen neighbors: Which make CK2 such great RPG game. Only drawback is that such successful Monarch tend to live 80+ so your heir will be raised by your son and turn to be total fop and sodomite... But this how history of Jewrope rolled otherwise some Dynasty would color this map by ages ago.

 

Wouldn't counts spam the heir with revolts?

Also, a landed heir means his heirs won't be groomed by you, i.e. they suck.

 

You can still educate your grandson through diplomacy generally. Just choose educate child under diplomacy with your son.

 

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...Kings-A-Scandinavian-Multiplayer-Extravaganza

Recordings from their stream where the lead designer of CKII plus two other paradox employees playing as Sweden, Denmark & Norway.
Good thing to watch if you're new to CKII or thinking of buying it. They are going through some stuff and some design decisions and also talking about new stuff that will be implemented in upcomming patches (Being able to capture the holder of a county when you besiege it for an example).

Overall, enjoyable experience. Always fun to watch fellow scandinavians fighting it out

 

Sometimes when I tried it they refused due to risks involved or something like that (would become a hostage?) which doesnt really make sense but the point is you cant count on this. Maybe they patched it out.

 

One thing that i would love to see in a paradox game, like Crusader Kings, is tactical battles where you could command your units.

It bothers me that battles in the game amount to little more than who has the most men.

 

It used to be this way but I hear they changed it so that terrain and mainly leaders are way more important. Adding the tactical element would decrease the difficulty even more for the player. Also I seriously doubt they could handle it.

 

No... No. No! You're not a multitude of captains in Paradox games. You are the king, the ruler, the commander-in-chief. You're there to put tin soldiers on the map and paint with it, not fight battles yourself.

Still happens when he is not a vassal.

 

Confirmed married my heir to Douches of Achaia, so my my grand-grandson inherited both from me. So I get land with and heir who ruled 4 months until His uncles rebelled. Your score is not judged by number of your lands but prestige of your dynasty so well developed and ruled duchy can give you more points than shity kingdom. Tactical games would either suck or de rail the game into another Total war popamole.

 

Still, they could add more tactical depth to the combat, maneuvers, formations, etc, which you could choose before or during a battle. Even with Ck2+ i don´t even have to worry about army composition while playing on hard, just make sure you have enough sheep to slaughter and you will (almost) always win.

 

Gotta say I don't see any point to the army composition in CK2, since you have little control over it, outside the retinues.