CKII is released.

[Kattze]

From easiest to hardest:
Karen - Gilan - Bavandids (vassal of the only Shia emir in Persia and has no free stacks unlike the other two other zoros)

 

[eric__s]

https://twitter.com/producerjohan/status/341505597478432768

oooh shit.

I hope they expand the map. I don't even care what direction, just make it bigger.

 

[RK47]

10 k prestige 8 k piety.
Every girls just go kyaaa at Basileus-kun.

 

[Average Manatee]

Karen has more land to start, but is holed up in a corner and will often be hemmed in by powerful kings and even emperors to your N/S/SW, and to your W you have Gilan who you can't quickly annex since they are the same religion (or they are eaten up by the Abbasid's), so your expansion is limited. Gilan OTOH can absolutely abuse holy war on so many things at once, rapidly ballooning in power.

I dunno, I think Gilan is a bit easier if you are lucky enough to not be holy warred by the Abbasids for the early years. In 5 years as Gilan I had everything straight up through Armenia to Georgia along with a duchy each from the Alavids and Dulafids. Those 3k troops you start with let you push over a lot of minors, but Karen's 3k troops end up being used up in your first war against some muslim sultan early on because you are literally the only target they have in that corner.

 

[RK47]

The toughest challenge for Gilan is to get that Duchy title asap.
Mind you, the Justinad liege has decent stats, not a single one below 7 - but he has very limited demesne limit.
You have to quickly usurp a Duchy title if you want to get anywhere.

Also, last night FUUUUUUCK moment.

 

[mondblut]

I hope they expand the map. I don't even care what direction, just make it bigger.

Fuck no. There is already a fuckton of empty England-sized provinces the further south and east you go, and rest assured, they would get even bigger, making inland warfare even more boring and frustrating than it already is.

Cut every province bigger than the average german county into 2 or more pieces - that's what has to be done before any external expansion.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

https://twitter.com/producerjohan/status/341505597478432768

oooh shit.

I hope they expand the map. I don't even care what direction, just make it bigger.

Guess BEARD really sold it to the masses.

 

[Space Satan]

Map is okay but church, monastic orders and intrigues are very weak. Especially religion. You could simply ignore it and still be successful. Plus, serious lack of common and family\dynasty events and decisions.

 

[Borelli]

They should cut off the useless parts of the map. East africa, north scandinavia, iceland, west africa(TPATT) and do this.

Cut every province bigger than the average german county into 2 or more pieces - that's what has to be done before any external expansion.

 

[RK47]

I hope they expand the map. I don't even care what direction, just make it bigger.

Fuck no. There is already a fuckton of empty England-sized provinces the further south and east you go, and rest assured, they would get even bigger, making inland warfare even more boring and frustrating than it already is.

Cut every province bigger than the average german county into 2 or more pieces - that's what has to be done before any external expansion.

I feel the same, my foray into the Russian wastelands told me there's really not much point in having more land to conquer. The revolts would annoy you to death.
I rather they improve the holding upgrades now, I feel they're lackluster in TOG.
Money is easily translated into power by mercs and we all know how sub-1000 garrisons and half-morale levies deal with 3600 mercs.

 

[RK47]

Map is okay but church, monastic orders and intrigues are very weak. Especially religion. You could simply ignore it and still be successful. Plus, serious lack of common and family\dynasty events and decisions.

This. Was expecting wife and concubine intrigue - but nothing. The only noticeable thing is how reduced birth rate is. I have married my heir with his sister for 10 years. Not a single child.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Map is okay but church, monastic orders and intrigues are very weak. Especially religion. You could simply ignore it and still be successful. Plus, serious lack of common and family\dynasty events and decisions.

This. Was expecting wife and concubine intrigue - but nothing. The only noticeable thing is how reduced birth rate is. I have married my heir with his sister for 10 years. Not a single child.

The ultimate challenge is producing an heir with your granddaughter wife who's also your daughter.

 

[Quilty]

Any tips on how to avoid the succession crisis as a viking when your king dies? I've tried killing off my sons and turning them into priests, but shit's not working. Can't change gavelkind either. I guess maybe I should just get one son, then divorce my wife and set aside all concubines so I don't get any more sons? Cause the succession crisis is a real pain in the ass, and usually drags on for 5-7 years, often followed by another crisis...

 

[oscar]

Reform lol. Or be prepared to engage in a lot of fratricide.

 

[Space Satan]

Any tips on how to avoid the succession crisis as a viking when your king dies? I've tried killing off my sons and turning them into priests, but shit's not working. Can't change gavelkind either. I guess maybe I should just get one son, then divorce my wife and set aside all concubines so I don't get any more sons? Cause the succession crisis is a real pain in the ass, and usually drags on for 5-7 years, often followed by another crisis...

Not having any sons is much muc much more risky than having a lot. Just put all efforts to reforming the faith and in the process of fucking every cunt in europe change to Elective. -1 Diplomacy is a good tradeoff if you can gamble a Genius of Strong son from chicks you abduct.
On the other part - your only son can end up a celibate craven faggot just because game likes to troll players so much.

 

[Kattze]

Map is okay but church, monastic orders and intrigues are very weak. Especially religion. You could simply ignore it and still be successful. Plus, serious lack of common and family\dynasty events and decisions.

This. Was expecting wife and concubine intrigue - but nothing. The only noticeable thing is how reduced birth rate is. I have married my heir with his sister for 10 years. Not a single child.

The ultimate challenge is producing an heir with your granddaughter wife who's also your daughter.

I notice that incest marriages tend to produce less children than normal pairings. RNG or intentional?

 

[Kattze]

They should cut off the useless parts of the map. East africa, north scandinavia, iceland, west africa(TPATT) and do this.

Cut every province bigger than the average german county into 2 or more pieces - that's what has to be done before any external expansion.

Would be better if they improve these areas rather than cutting it off.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

From paradox tweeter

CrusaderKings keeps doing better and better.. Old Gods breaks all records! And we just finished plans for 2 more years of expansions

 

[Spectacle]

One effect of the reduced fertility is that there are a lot more female rulers around, since the chance of a landholder having only daughters is much higher with fewer children. From what I've seen the pagans aren't very eager to take concubines in order to ensure male offspring, they'll take any young women they happen to capture, but won't look for voluntary concubines. And of course Christians are stuck with a single wife.

They should add a new succession law, "semi-agnatic", that allows for inheritance to be traced through the female line but not for female rulers. That would allow for dynastic preservation without 1/4 of europe being ahistorically ruled by women.

 

[RK47]

For Zoros, Concubine is a decent insurance policy while the marriage is simply there for the +10 vassal opinion bonus from Divine Marriage (It basically cancels out -10 from Noble Small Tax, do it! It's pays a shitload of money when you have a vast empire!)
Someone mentioned it before, the moment you see genius, quick, strong candidate, take them .
You can even dismiss them once you found someone better.
Also, if you just want to marry off the prisoner to one of your vassal / courtier, you can. Simply take them as concubine, fuck n suck for a day then cast them aside. They'll arrive at your court, unable to leave. But hey, at least they're not in prison anymore.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

They should have added a new nickname to make full of the concubine shenanigans and rape dungeon: The lovemachine.

It's also worthwhile doing one night stands with every single female ruler or princess you capture, since it's 50+ prestige (the way I see it is like some kind of medieval "hehe bro, you dawg" from all the other guys raiding about).

 

[LundB]

It's also worthwhile doing one night stands with every single female ruler or princess you capture, since it's 50+ prestige.

And so it was that CK2 and Sengoku Rance took another step towards being the same game.

 

[Space Satan]

One thing that bugs me is that your wife have no objections about you having shitload of whores. It's not about this being illegal, it's about women having competitors, dammit.

 

[Spectacle]

They should have added a new nickname to make full of the concubine shenanigans and rape dungeon: The lovemachine.

It's also worthwhile doing one night stands with every single female ruler or princess you capture, since it's 50+ prestige (the way I see it is like some kind of medieval "hehe bro, you dawg" from all the other guys raiding about).

I prefer ransoming them unless I plan to use them for breeding, money is always useful and you don't end up cluttering up the court with useless people.

I've got I say I'm surprised there hasn't been a Politically Correct shitstorm about a game that allows you to abduct an infant girl, raise her personally in your dungeon and then rape her as soon as she turns 16. I guess Paradox games are too far under the mainstream radar.

One thing that bugs me is that your wife have no objections about you having shitload of whores. It's not about this being illegal, it's about women having competitors, dammit.

Traditionally in polygamous systems the main wife gets to boss the concubines around and their presence increases her man's prestige and so highlights her important position, so it's a good deal for her too.

 

[Mortmal]

yes its missing seriously court intrigues, your concubines should plot against each other , try to murder your wife or your first son to get hers to inherit, those are things bound to happen. Also i think the vikings are much more fleshed out than the other pagans, that was expected, but the others really get the bare minimum of events and are crippled compare to them. No adventurer band doom stack to join with for zoroastrian and no looting. Now i see theres 2 years planned of extensions , they should focus on christian as oddly in a game named crusaders kings, theres no reason at all to play them now .