In Progress Let's Play Crusader Kings 2: I want to be a Basileus!

[XenomorphII]

Spartenos Family Chronicle:


Update 1- Looking Around
Update 2- Getting started
Mini-Update 1- State of the Family
Update 3- The First Stone on the Road to Basileus?
Update 4- Ho-hum, Waiting. Or not.
Update 5- Progress?
Update 6- Moving Up in the World.
Update 7- End of Line...
Update 8- Mercy?
Mini-Update 2- State of the Family
Update 9-DAMN IT!!!
Update 10-The Winds of Fortune
Update 11- Long Live The Doux
Update 12-Surprise
Update 13-FREEEEE-DOMMMM
Update 14-Pretty Pretty Princess
Update 15-Rise! Rise!
Update 16- Stop the Ride I Wanna Get Off
Update 17-Oh Glorious Fortune
Update 18-Being a Jerk
Update 19-The Pretty Princess Marches On
Update 20- Stuff
Update 21-Herp Derp: How I Managed to Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
Update 22-A Great Smiter's Last Smiting
Update 23-We Have Always Been at War With Mauretania
Update 24- Luck Streak: ENGAGE!
Mini-Update 3- State of the Family
Update 25-Peacetime
Update 26- Once More Into the Breach
Update 27-Tidying Up
Update 28-Gaining a Crown
Update 29-Mauretania's End
Update 30-Hey I Made it to 30 in One Piece!
Update 31-Going East
Update 32- The Caliph is Laid Low
Update 33-Chipping Away
Update 34-Storm on the Horizon
Update 35-Rebellion!
Update 36-Enlightenment Time
Update 37-Back in Action
Update 38-Fun with Rebels
Update 39-Making the Caliphate Irrelevant
Update 40-Into Iberia
Update 41-A Scheme is Hatched
Update 42-Islam's Continued Decline

If any of the above do not work correctly please let me know, so I can fix them.

Most recent is: 42

 

[laclongquan]

If you want to be Basileus, King of Kings, The Republic is right the fuck out. Empire here we come. And in that case, heavy calvary is the way to go, in the point of larping, because infantry is more the tool of ancient republic and calvary is medieval.

 

[Lord Chambers]

The amount of pictures, so far, is not too much. The menus eventually will feel redundant, but this is a new game. If anything, you should be blowing them up so we can focus on the text.

Also, some LPers assume too much from the audience. So far you look as if you might expect everyone has prior knowledge of Crusader Kings 1, which isn't true for me. Since you're doing the work make the LP how you want, but that is one suggestion I would make.

 

[XenomorphII]

Thanks for the tip. I will try and explain things, though some things I don't really know yet (tech is something which never seemed to matter in the first and I don't know what to expect here.) You should (in theory) be able to click on the images an blow them up a bit, making the text more readable.

Update 1- (Moved from the first post to here to make room for an index, because this is getting long)

Okay Codex. Here goes. My first LP.

We are the glorious (not really) Count of Napoli, Sergios Spartenos. Last Greek Orthodox lord in Southern Italy, and I aim to change that. Significantly. So here is our starting situation...

As you can see, I have a long way to go before I restore the glory of the Western Roman Empire, and become Basileus. As you can also see, Segios is unmarried and childless. Let's change that.
Also note that the fellow is kinda old, so we need him to make with some babies, quickly, as the House of Spartenos is small (just three characters - Sergios, his half-brother, and his nephew).

That is the daughter of the nearby Duke of Apulia, who can make this a very short LP if I am unlucky, so here's hoping this makes him not come after me.

Now then. This is my council.

Chancellor goes to Capua to fabricate claims...

Marshall hangs out in Napoli to train troops...

Steward is going to squeeze those filthy peasants for extra cash...

Spymaster is uncovering plots at home...

and lastly our Court Chaplain is going to work on converting the now Catholic populace of Napoli to Orthodoxy.

Back to dealing with family issues, I go ahead and set up a betrothal for my half-brother and current heir. I settle on the eldest daughter of the reigning Byzantine Emperor of House Doukas. Might make for a handy alliance down the road.

Next up my ambition. Going with getting married. It is kinda cheap to select because it is about to happen but oh well.

I can currently create the title of Duke of Capua, or could if I wasn't a poor hobo of a nobleman. This is probably my first major goal. Hoard money, and buy that title and become Doux Sergios! HAHA! Basileus here I come!

Alrighty then, moving on. This is the laws screen for my realm. My goal is to set up a primogeniture succession. I need to reign 10 years, for the Byzzies (because I am a du jure part of the Empire) to have High or Absolute Crown Authority (currently high), and I also must have positive relations with all my vassals.

This is the tech screen with my selected techs. I don't really know what to expect as far as tech goes, so I just sorta randomly choose stuff. Heavy armor sounds like a good thing for me, improved keeps sounds good too, and legality boosts demense size.

Well anyway that is the first update (yeah I know BANAL SHIT BORING! You didn't even unpause it! Your writing is worse than Bioware's is!) I am tired right now and will be beginning a fooling around campaign to get a better feel for this game.
Also I haven't slept and that will probably cause me to fubar the lp in some manner.

Anway, I would like some feedback about how I am doing on this as we go along. I feel like I am using a lot of pictures and that I should probably cut down on them, as I am sitting around waiting for them to upload to imgur, and they take up lots of space, and that I should probably be writing more.
Also note that a lot of the more mechanical stuff (such as the council) will just be written up past this point, unless they are doing something new.

 

[corvus]

I'd like it as well if you explained things a little more in-depthly, but I don't mind it so far. Will be following so I can understand wth to do when I get the game.

 

[XenomorphII]

Part 2- Getting started

I should probably clarify a few things from the first update, so that those unfamiliar with CK will know what is going on.

First off, in CK2 all characters have 5 attributes: diplomacy, martial, stewardship, intrigue, and learning. My council is made up of the courtiers of my court, and my vassals. Each one of the council members has one of these stats that is their primary and is used to determine their chance of success in whatever they do.

So my chancellor his primary attribute is diplomacy, marshall is martial, etc, etc in the order they were presented. Their primary attribute also adds to my current rulers to give the state attributes, which is used in determining how liked you are by other lords(diplomacy), no clue what the state attribute for martial does, income is increased(stewardship), success chance on all plots and assassinations (intrigue), and increase the rate of tech advancement (learning).

Technology all researches at a steady pace, but you can focus on one of each category to make them go faster. That's all I really know on it for now.

Next thing I need to mention is that the only way for me to declare war on other Christians is through a claim, which is why I sent out my chancellor immediately to start trying for one on my northern neighbor. I can declare on non-Christians any time, but at present they would beat me terribly. Also note that whenever immediate family members of lords are married off to other immediate family members of lords(or the lord himself), an alliance is created.
Additionally it seems that any family member who has land can be called upon for assistance.

Okay. Now then. Here are the religious and independent realm maps for the general area around me...

My biggest problems are that the Muslim hordes of N.Africa and Sicily, which WILL come knocking soon, luckily they are pretty divided up, and hopefully I can nab a few territories from my neighbors before they come to kill me. Time to unpause and see what doom awaits me.

Basileus Kostantinos Doukas accepts the betrothal offer, and asks us if we would support a move to Absolute Authority. I agree and get to wait and see how the other lords of the realm vote. I want this largely because Konstantinos's heir is a complete idiot and I expect the authority to drop and would like to be able set myself up with primogeniture law (eldest son inheirits) instead of gavelkind which divides all my titles equally amongst my male heirs, as it generally makes for a more powerful ruler, since one person gets all the territory and he is likely to have a decent reign time ahead of him.

A few days later Sergios's proposal of marriage to the Duke of Apulia's daughter is accepted and the dowry payout is chosen over the prestige boost.

Sergios's ambition of being married now being fulfilled, he receives a minor piety boost, and he gets to have a new ambition. Considering the situation of the family, have a son, was chosen.

Napoli's coffers now have enough gold in them to allow me to develop my province some.

This is Napoli, my province. Notice the little buildings. Each of those represents one holding. The big one by Sergios's head is the capital and is a castle.

The others are a city, temple, and another castle, with the last being an open slot for me to build a holding in later. Holdings can be either a castle,city, or temple. Cities will make you more money, castles will field you larger and better armies, and temples keep your religious relations up. They all have troop and income boosting facilities to be built, but they differ in the degree of boost.

With only 50 gold I can build only the most basic upgrade in any holding so I am going to focus on the castle I own personally and build a wooden palisades there because of the slight boost to my levy (which is what I will be fighting my wars with since I cannot hope to afford mercenaries) and my income..

Not to long after starting the construction my chaplain dies, leaving me to choose a successor from among this pathetic lot...

and now I have to assign the new guy to restart the inquisition in Napoli so it will convert to Orthodoxy.

Sergios's fortunes improved days later though when he received this wonderful news...

not only does that happen, but a few days later Sergios gets word from his steward...

that he has managed to gather extra taxes. It isn't much money, but it is a decent boost for my county, which right now has a monthly income of only 1 gold.

Look back at the prices on my province upgrades, and also know that the cheapest mercs cost 60 gold to hire and around 6 gold monthly to maintain.

In other random news...

William "the bastard" de Normandie is off to a rough start. He has been imprisoned by Harold Godwin, King of England, and is no longer fighting for the

English crown, leaving it between Harold Godwin and Harald Yngling. So Willy is just going to be the Bastard.

Back to Napoli. As I was about to go bride hunting for my nephew, good news arrived from the chancellor...

Basileus here I come! Oh and I hooked my nephew up with a random Portuguese noblewoman as she was the only one in his age range that was marriageable.

Sergios decided to go ahead and press his claim on Capua, and war is declared. Here is the glorious army of Napoli marching on the enemy position.

Notice that the army has three leaders, it is very important to be sure and pick someone to lead each branch if you have the people available to do so, as your army fights better then. Let's see what happens...

but it is not time to siege yet, I need to pursue and eliminate the enemy army that remains

and as we fight the enemy again at Capua, joyous news arrives...

Hooray a male heir! I choose Alexander for the name. Give me suggestions for future sons that aren't ridiculous and they may be used.
That ambition completed, Sergios decides it is time to up his game and be more ambitious...

and decides to become a paragon of virtue. It is unlikely this one will succeed as it requires me to have 500 piety of which Sergios currently has 43.

Back to the war though now. The army lays siege to Capua, and it looks to be a long one.

Our building is completed in Napoli though now. And while waiting for the siege to go somewhere we get an event for Sergios...

and Sergios does become gregarious as a result. Also went ahead and sent my chancellor down to Salerno to work his magic there.

Uh-oh...

my vassals are starting to have problems and I cannot bail them out. Hope this doesn't blow up in my face. Also note that I have noticed on events like this one and events were somebody wants to take over for an advisor that the first time it fires it gives you and easy painless out, but that if it is fires again for the same people, you end up with bigger relations hits, which stick, then the original penalty. So you cannot indefinitely flatter people for no losses.

What is this?

Huzzah! The first of the holdings is taken. Now onto the next.

And that is were I am going to stop for now.

 

[JarlFrank]

I would've chosen "Have a daughter" as the next ambition in your place, cause it's more easily attainable than becoming a paragon of virtue, and would give you a small piety bonus which would then be a further step towards paragon of virtue.

Other than that, interesting campaign idea, has potential to become awesome. Be sure to show a screenshot of your leader's stat sheet so we know how old he is and what his stats are.

 

[corvus]

Good stuff!

 

[XenomorphII]

Waiting in antecipation.
How much time until the Muslims come knocking? I've heard they're quite agressive now.

Also, in before the rape.

I give it a decade, maybe two, depending on what happens.

I would've chosen "Have a daughter" as the next ambition in your place, cause it's more easily attainable than becoming a paragon of virtue, and would give you a small piety bonus which would then be a further step towards paragon of virtue.

Other than that, interesting campaign idea, has potential to become awesome. Be sure to show a screenshot of your leader's stat sheet so we know how old he is and what his stats are.

I thought about it, but figured it would be a bit more fun to go for something a little larger.

Good point on the leader stat's I will try and remember to have a shot of him at the start of the next update with a detailing of his traits as well. Though if you cannot wait, the first updates first pic will give you his starting abilities.

 

[Luzur]

I would've chosen "Have a daughter" as the next ambition in your place, cause it's more easily attainable than becoming a paragon of virtue, and would give you a small piety bonus which would then be a further step towards paragon of virtue.

Other than that, interesting campaign idea, has potential to become awesome. Be sure to show a screenshot of your leader's stat sheet so we know how old he is and what his stats are.

he is 41, as you can see on the first pic if you squint.

 

[Hellraiser]

I want to be a Basileus!

Catholics all around with a bunch of sunny ragheads in sicily and shite ragheads in northern africa. Looks like lots of tasteful rape fun will happen.

BTW how is CK2 performance? Worse/better than vanilla Victoria 2 before the patches? Or does this one actually run decently?

 

[Fafnir]

The performance is much better in CK2 than it ever was in Vicky 2 for me. I think Holy Roman Empire will come knocking on your door step before the Muslems.

 

[Hellraiser]

Guessed as much, it doesn't need to track all the filthy Chinese peasants getting employed in factories in freshly industrialized china. Still wanted to be sure just in case, you never know with paradox.

 

[XenomorphII]

I am getting great performance so far. On a side note:

Mini-Update 1

So I really liked JarlFrank's idea and have decided to do a miniupdate on the status of the Spartenos family. This one will be pretty small, but hopeful this game will last for awhile, and these mini-updates on the state of the family will become interesting updates all their own.

That is the current ruler of the County of Napoli, and head of the Spartenos dynasty, sergios. He is currently 43 years old. Attributes are: D-9, M-7, S-5, I-6, L-6. His traits are on the line after the last attribute and are: Amateurish Plotter (I=+1, S=-1),Charitable (D=+3), Humble (Monthly Piety=+1), Cynical (Monthly Piety=-.20, I=+2), Slothful (-1 to all attributes), and Gregarious (D=+2).

An example of what the game does when you hover over a trait:

The items to the right of the attributes are our boy Sergios's money, prestige, piety, and score(the dynasty is scored based on prestige/piety of all the living members and their stations, so right now my family is basically unknown).Just above that shows the characters ambition. Most characters (maybe all) will have something there.

At the top of the box are the Dynasty, Family, and Realm trees on the left side and then on the right side is another way to the Dynasty tree represented by the Spartenos family heraldry.This is what these look like right now.

Dynasty (everybody of your line):

Family (immediate family of whoever is selected):

Sergios:

Ioannes his half-brother:

Realm (all landed nobility in the realm):

Sergios's family and dynasty trees are both very small, as he is only able to trace his nobility back to his father, and the realm tree is small because we only have the three barons of Napoli as vassals.

And here's one more shot before I end the mini-update. It is our half-brother Ioannes character sheet. D-5, M-4, S-9, I-0, L-2, with the ambition of becoming spymaster(LOL). Traits are: Detached Priest (I=-1, L=+1), Zealous (Monthly Piety=+1, Martial=+2), Humble (Monthly Piety=+1), and Brave (Martial=+2)

PS: (D=Diplomacy, M-martial, S-stewardship, I-Intrigue, L-Learning)

 

[Merkwürdigliebe]

Curse you I was going to do this. Oh well nice LP so far, incline.
I guess I will have to make one for Victoria II AHD instead, or perhaps wait a bit for a decent pagan mod comes out and do a LP of that.

 

[XenomorphII]

Curse you I was going to do this. Oh well nice LP so far, incline.
I guess I will have to make one for Victoria II AHD instead, or perhaps wait a bit for a decent pagan mod comes out and do a LP of that.

Hmm, I am sure the Codex would not complain to see more. Also showing another area of Europe might be nice, and the different challenges you would face there. Another thing is that, based on my very weak position, this may be a very short LP. Things could get dicey for me soon.

Oh and we could make a competition out of it if you do a CK2 LP as some small nobody lord. Graded on a wide range of in-game stuff (score, most prestigious/pious king, most power, largest family) just for shits and giggles.

 

[XenomorphII]

Part 3- The First Stone on the Road to Basileus?

The siege of Capua's second holding continued until...

GWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! Suck it Capua!

But wait...

The mighty troops of Napoli have worn down to the point we can no longer effectively siege what remains of Capua. Time to withdraw to Napoli and disband then re-raise and hope for a slight troop boost. Unless...

Ahem. GWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! Suck it Capua!

A few days later-

Sweet, sweet (and lucky) victory. I want to point a few things out here. One, the Count of Capua had been launching sorties against my besieging force every month, which helped reduce my number a little, but it kept his army eliminated, while my fresh troops were chilling back in Napoli waiting for me to send the current batch home and re-raise them for a boost in numbers that would have allowed me to win the sieges anyway.

Two, pretty sure I just got damn lucky on dice roles not only for getting the claim (I literally waited 50 years in another game for one with much higher intrigue values for my state), but also in the fighting. I could have very easily had my balls served to me on a plate. Anyway moving on.

So this is my newly acquired County of Capua.

See all those lovely red icons on my shiny new castle. Well that basically means that for twenty years or so due to wrong religion and culture, I will get much less of everything from it, and for 5 years I will get much less from it for conquering it. Levy size and reinforcment drops as well as tax drops.This acquisition also means I have 3 new vassals who are all in need of conversion to the True Orthodox Faith.

In other crappier news:

That is the Emir of Tripoli. He just began a war against the Duchy of Apulia and the Duchy of Salerno with the goal of acquiring Calabria. I really hope those fellows hold out. Also will point out that at some point Sergios's wife's father died and so I no longer am in an alliance with the d'Hautevilles of Apulia.

Luckily...

Anna Doukas daughter of the Emperor comes of age and marries her betrothed (my half-brother) hopefully this alliance lasts awhile and will keep the relatively small Muslim powers near me at bay. If not I do have one big advantage over my enemies. They have to sail to me, which at this point means fairly small numbers of troops to deal with. Hopefully.

Also with a fully Catholic Capua (nobles and the people) we shift our chaplain to there, as I am concerned about what might happen if those Catholics decide to revolt on me. Also they can can block my shift of succession laws. Maybe not annihilating them was a bad idea even though it expedited things.

An event for Sergios happens...

I go for boosting relations right now, as my Napoli Barons are still a little upset over the length of time I had them under arms (though they still like me overall thank goodness.)

What is this!?

Looks like the Muslim Menace has arrived next door. Not sure if I want them to fail or succeed. Since it would certainly be quicker to get the title from the Muslims, though more dangerous.

Hey, money again...

and now it is spent on improving the castle in Napoli to a Low Stone Wall, which gives a slight boost to my levy size, income, and fort level. Yay!

Crap.

My nephew Sergios, bites the dust while attempting to get me more tax money. He was a good steward and this is going to hurt my financials abit. I decide to replace him with his father (S-9) and set him to improving our econonmy tech in Napoli.

The change in steward sets me back .2 gold a month. That adds up.

But it doesn't kill me as I still have positive cash flow.

Positive Prestige flow.

Positive Piety flow.

And Sergios is only at half his current demesne limit(which in addition to laws, and tech, is now controlled by the Stewardship attribute not Intrigue).

I also decide to take this opportunity to switch the Marshall over to pumping tech instead of training troops. I hope that I don't regret it.

Well it looks like the attack by the Emir of Tripoli has utterly failed. He only has that tiny army next door, and they aren't even sieging just wandering around. But there is some bad news for Sergios.

He is ill. Which reduces martial by 1, his health by 2 (it is an invisible stat), and his fertility by 10% (also invisible), which is not good, considering our very small, fragile family at present.

In other news. Harold of Godwin held onto England, and behold Europe at this point.

Recovery!

I am relieved. Sergios is 45 at present and illness could easily mean death for him and his only child, Alexander, is only 3. I do not want a regency.

My spymaster has news...

Don't hate bro! He wants to kill the youngest (and prossibly only fertile) member of our dynasty. But because he is our bro (and more importantly, because I desperately need more Spartenos's that are young) I just expose the plot and tell him to cut that shit out. Also with his miserable intrigue, I feel safe.

and his response (note that he is 42 at present and has no children since his son died):

The Duke of Apulia's troops finally do something about the Muslim army that has been goofing around.

Is the dynasty secure?

I sure hope it is not a son though because if it is and I fail to get the laws changed before Sergios dies without giving away Capua to Alexander, then my realm will split between him and the younger son, and since both would be counts the realm would be divided. Which is why I am now saving for that Doux title. On the side note of sons and succession:

Sergios MUST live for another five years, then I just have to get those Catholic asses to like me (or cause an "accident" for them) and BAM better succession laws for me!


Watch out! A wild event appears!

But it only serves to make one of the vassals that sort of dislikes me, like me. Yay event!

Welcome to the family nephew!

And on that note, I am going to stop for now, as it looks like the Spartenos Family Line will be carrying on. At least for a while now.

We are 5 years in and according to the resignation screen the Spartenos Dynasty has a lowly score of 111. Let's see if we can bring some serious incline to that number.

 

[Cassidy]

According to this post there is an event that turns your ruler into a fag.


You know what must be done

 

[Hoodoo]

Good LP and Good choice of duchy. Sandwhiched between muslims and christians, I predict much intrigue and battehl

 

[XenomorphII]

The County of Napoli was always one of my favorite choices in CK1 after I realized the situation for them and the crazy hard time that a player can have as them.

Oh believe me I know. In another non-LP game, I am playing as the Count of Vermandois (now the Duke of Toulhouse because of my liege) and while my good relationship with him has helped me his constant HURRR DURR attacks on Muslim Spain keep the whole of France in a piss poor state and have led to the monarchy being dropped to elective, so while I want to rule France eventually, I decidedly do not want to take it over in the shit situation it is in now.

 

[XenomorphII]

Hey push this to the next page so I can update it, because I feel like there is a lot on this page right now.

 

[Gondolin]

Another bump on the road to Basileus.

 

[Kashmir Slippers]

Bump because I can't play this on my shitty laptop.

 

[riptide]

A bump from me for the update.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Bump because I still suck at CK.