CKII is released.

[Kattze]

Yeah, decadence is a shit mechanic. They should have it tied to bad/good traits and had high levels of decadence result in poorer relations with vassals (resulting in faction wars) instead of some random doomstack appearing out of thin air.

 

[RK47]

Little surprise that the Muslim AI Kingdoms are falling apart at a rapid rate, you are literally punishing them for doing natural things like marrying off all their male heirs.

 

[CaptainAwesome]

Speaking of wacky muslim successions, I remember that one Ottoman Sultan who was the last in line, and was placed in house arrest for his entire life.

Apparently, when he was the only one left, they had to drag him out by force.

Then, he publicly abdicated in favor of an extremely distant relative and went back to his room.

Said relative then ended up biting it.

So, they had to drag him out of his room again.

This time, when he was put on the throne, he immediately had everyone who pulled him out of his room executed, then went back inside after abdicating again.

They decided to let him stay in his room after that.

 

[RK47]

Soo....after Old Gods DLC ... Holy Orders?

 

[alkeides]

I hope someone creates a mod for Buddhist Mongols.

 

[RK47]

I hope someone creates a mod for Buddhist Mongols.

You can try playing as that Orthodox Khagan actually if you search the starting date carefully, there's a Golden Horde with Orthodox Nestorian heresy.
Went pretty OP as expected if you do a religious cleansing at the start.

 

[oscar]

Lux Invicta has Indo-Hellenic Buddhists (and Hindu-Buddhists).

 

[Commissar Draco]

Lux Invicta has Indo-Hellenic Buddhists (and Hindu-Buddhists).

Rome has them too... but never managed to like this game. In CK2 I don't have to do the things my Stewards and other Council Members should do for their Sovereign.

 

[RK47]

Someone explain Church to me? overall church vassals are shit IMO. There's really no reason to build 2 churches in a single county at all. They pay very little tax - and the amount of loyalty measuring vs Rome which is binary as fuck (71 v 72 - you lose! NO TAX NO LEVY)

 

[Spectacle]

Someone explain Church to me? overall church vassals are shit IMO. There's really no reason to build 2 churches in a single county at all. They pay very little tax - and the amount of loyalty measuring vs Rome which is binary as fuck (71 v 72 - you lose! NO TAX NO LEVY)

Churches give you more troops than cities do, and are much less likely to cause trouble than feudal vassals.

 

[Malakal]

Someone explain Church to me? overall church vassals are shit IMO. There's really no reason to build 2 churches in a single county at all. They pay very little tax - and the amount of loyalty measuring vs Rome which is binary as fuck (71 v 72 - you lose! NO TAX NO LEVY)

Its extremely easy to control church vassals since they dont inherit duchies from other people and dont accumulate lands. They have less allies too. You may or may not lose some income (getting the correct traits to be loved by church is easy) but in return you get troops and stability.

And there comes a time when you dont need that extra gold or troops but having a stable kingdom is just enough.

 

[Trash]

Soo....after Old Gods DLC ... Holy Orders?

I'm hoping for an entire theocracy one. Cathedrals, relics, saints, expanded holy orders, more involving crusades, better heresies, papal intrigues. It could be awesome.

Plus a patch for the islamic kingdoms. Decadence is a fun mechanic but should lead to more interesting revolts and invasions. Am hoping the promise of better rebelions with the next patch includes these.

 

[RK47]

After playing with Latin Empire a bit. I like Gavelkind. The massive demesne cap is insane.

 

[Kattze]

I'm excited about the next DD since its supposedly about Zoroastrians.

 

[sser]

Playing as a North African is really frustrating. Even with pretty good tech and armies, all the Republics across the sea just throw money and troops at you. In fact, what the fuck? Are Republics completely overpowered? They have hordes of heavy cavalry/infantry. Just nonstop shit. And they can own ports on land that I own apparently? I don't know. They're fucking annoying as hell, though. I find it extremely hard to get anywhere after absorbing the whole central North African area. Just waiting for the European doomstacks to come and put me out of my misery. (Now I see why Genoa owns Africa 90% of the time...) I just don't know how to counter European forces. Mercenary horse arches help a lot, but before they arrived I was just getting buttfucked every which way; I even had a battle of 15k vs 15k. I was defending in mountains, I had a leader who was a holy warrior, two other generals were flankers/defenders. Huge bonuses all around. Still got thoroughly trounced.

Weird game, though. Denmark took England and the whole Latvian/Lithuanian area -- they were really huge for a while, but then lost almost everything. Volga-Bulgaria dominates all of Russia. Poland absorbed Hungary. Georgia is very strong and, for some reason, has land just outside Constantinople. Germany cut into France. Fatimids were extremely strong until I dragged them and every Arab nation into a holy war that ended in a stalemate. Now both the Byzantines and Levant are completely balkanized. Spain, too, until a religious war breaks out, of course. Somehow the Emirate on Sicily still lives. I don't know how, because he basically has and does nothing, but the guy is completely surrounded by ultrastacks of Christian crusaders.

 

[RK47]

You cannot stop them from building ports that's why when I play republics, there's no reason to hold back, I'm just throwing gold to rape Pagans over and over. It's disgusting and boring after a while once you have enough gold to outfit your mansion with economic upgrades.

anyways, for interesting games, i highly recommend Latin Empire just after they formed - I'm having a blast.
You're an Emperor with just two counties with a hungry Byzantine and Bulgaria on the rise. You're pretty much ripe for the taking but not entirely helpless.

 

[Kattze]

Playing as a North African is really frustrating. Even with pretty good tech and armies, all the Republics across the sea just throw money and troops at you. In fact, what the fuck? Are Republics completely overpowered? They have hordes of heavy cavalry/infantry. Just nonstop shit. And they can own ports on land that I own apparently? I don't know. They're fucking annoying as hell, though. I find it extremely hard to get anywhere after absorbing the whole central North African area. Just waiting for the European doomstacks to come and put me out of my misery. (Now I see why Genoa owns Africa 90% of the time...) I just don't know how to counter European forces. Mercenary horse arches help a lot, but before they arrived I was just getting buttfucked every which way; I even had a battle of 15k vs 15k. I was defending in mountains, I had a leader who was a holy warrior, two other generals were flankers/defenders. Huge bonuses all around. Still got thoroughly trounced.

Weird game, though. Denmark took England and the whole Latvian/Lithuanian area -- they were really huge for a while, but then lost almost everything. Volga-Bulgaria dominates all of Russia. Poland absorbed Hungary. Georgia is very strong and, for some reason, has land just outside Constantinople. Germany cut into France. Fatimids were extremely strong until I dragged them and every Arab nation into a holy war that ended in a stalemate. Now both the Byzantines and Levant are completely balkanized. Spain, too, until a religious war breaks out, of course. Somehow the Emirate on Sicily still lives. I don't know how, because he basically has and does nothing, but the guy is completely surrounded by ultrastacks of Christian crusaders.

Playing as an Andalusian Muslim is challenging especially if you've started as a one county ruler. The Jimena kingdoms + France are out to rape you and you could have the misfortune of having pope call the second crusade on your ass. Genoa and Pisa also tends to attack when you're weakened. Your retinues are completely ass compared to the heavy cavalry of Christians, so you need terrain, numerical AND martial advantage over your foes. The Almoravids, instead of being much help, is either embroiled in internal warfare, interferes in Iberia or bitten off by the republics. Your only real hope is allying with the Fatimids and woe betide you if they can't spare any of their doomstacks to help you.

 

[Borelli]

anyways, for interesting games, i highly recommend Latin Empire just after they formed - I'm having a blast.

This. The 1205 start date is so much different than the boring usual 1066. My personal favourite is Trebizond. You start with a titular king title, ALL your counties are on sea so more money for you and you own 100% of the kingdom, fits the despot title perfectly. And finally there is warfare in anatolia where EVERY province is mountaint+river, good luck attacking those!

 

[Trash]

For those interested, I've integrated my own Memento Mori mod with the rather excellent The Prince and the Thane one. Used version is TPATT 2.1.1 which is compatible with CKII 1.092 and all DLC. Basically what it adds to the base mod are childbirth deaths and a whole range of modified stats dealing with injury, birthrate, disease and ofcourse death. It doesn't make the game a whole lot harder but it does mean you won't take a wealth of successors and long living rulers for granted. I've done my best to emulate the average lifespan, chance of children reaching adulthood and birthrate of the period. All to come a bit closer to what made the original Crusader Kings so much fun; making the player invested in managing his dynasty. All kudos to The Prince and the Thane team for their awesome mod which I've merely fiddled with. Hope you like it, enjoy!

http://www.mediafire.com/?e9lz4zqoz6excl8

Install Guide:

-download the .rar archive.
-delete any previous version of the mod.
-unpack the files into C:users\username\documents\Paradox Interactive\crusader kings 2\mod
-tick the mod on the ckii launcher
-pick your time and dynasty and go be a dastardly bastard
-if you experience black flags, go into users\username\documents\Paradox Interactive\crusader kings 2\ and delete the folder called The Prince and the Thane. You only need to do this once.

 

[Borelli]

I am surprised and disappointed at the lack of dead baby jokes coming from CK2 fanbase.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I am surprised and disappointed at the lack of dead baby jokes coming from CK2 fanbase.

Dead babies are only a tiny part of all the Unfortunate Accidents that go around.

 

[RK47]

The vassal loyalty is botched anyway, no matter much loved his father is, the son is always faced by a bunch of cynical vassal when he rises to the throne. I know short reigns casts doubt on this new ruler - but really, a 100 loyalty vassal turning into below 50? That's not right.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

The vassal loyalty is botched anyway, no matter much loved his father is, the son is always faced by a bunch of cynical vassal when he rises to the throne. I know short reigns casts doubt on this new ruler - but really, a 100 loyalty vassal turning into below 50? That's not right.

Yea, it'd be excellent for the whole emergent larp aspect if the barely in his teens grandson of the old king gets bailed out of the vassal gangrape by daddy's old warhorse bro-for-life Duke MacBadass. It'd be nice if they expanded on the rival dynasty system from Republics to cover other kinds of states as well, and had actual allied houses included as well.

 

[Trash]

Not really. Most early middle age kingdoms faced a shitload of dissent the moment ye olde boss fucked off to the nether regions. Kings at the time were usually just figureheads who where merely tolerated by the powerfull nobility. Especially when they had some claims laying around themselves. Vassal loyalty isn't how much they like you, it is merely how loyal they are to you. Just face it, your nobles are a bunch of scrupulous pricks who would stab you in the back as soon as cheer you on. All depending on what they think they can get away with and/or benefit from the most.

And part of the fun is trying to keep the cunts in line through the carrot and the stick unfortunate accidents/blinding/castration. Try the mod btw, it also adds a faction that supports the ruler and really helps the whole faction dynamic.

 

[RK47]

Also, with Free investiture and creative Bishop appointments, there's no threat of land loss for Gavelkind. Whee. I'm loving that 8/8 Demesne Limit.