CKII is released.

[Sranchammer]

Paulician heretics turning Iberia into a mexican standoff is a good playthrough if anyone is interested

 

[eric__s]

If you participate in a Crusade, you should get a trait. And if you successfully defend against a Crusade, you should also get a trait. Successfully defeating the entire Catholic world gets you nothing and the penalty Catholicism gets for losing is pathetic. Oh no, Catholicism's moral authority is only 86% now!!

Charles Martel successfully defended against Jihad in Tours and is considered the savior of Western Civilization. You should get something to that effect too.

 

[Whisky]

I got that too, but the Pope actually told me to do as I please with them as they're responsible.

 

[Mortmal]

Its clearly not the same team working on stellaris, this dlc is good. It adds some depth and historical features , refocus the game on the important stuff and dynasty maangement. Plenty of new events,adapted for each culture like the immortality quest, the way they implemented diseases is very well done, very contagious and deadly, most of your physicians are frauds, things ends up very badly as they should.Really lot of fun
. You have to be extra carefull and lock up yourself as soon epidemics are at your doors, be careful to not put too important people as army commanders as they will likely get diseases during sieges and bring them back home. I've read people complaining that their entire dynasty was decimated by plague, but i think they did the right thing. If you play poorly it should happens,now you need to build up provinces hospitals for significant amounts of gold.
One of their best DLC ever, if not the best!

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Anyone checked if the game crashes when you expel Jewry from Sweden?

 

[Beastro]

Might actually play this game again after Charlemagne DLC. I'll wait though until they're finally done with DLC spam though.

 

[wwsd]

What we need is a DLC that makes heresies fundamentally different from each other, so that you have a reason to join one other than that you want to start killing Catholics now. There is 0 difference between Lollard, Fraticelli, Waldensian and all the rest so there's huge room for improvement.

Fraticelli have their own Pope, Cathars and Messalians have full cognatic succession... But I agree with the main point, most heresies are too generic. There is little reason to play any of the other ones except for flavour. It would definitely be nice to see the other ones more realised, especially since a lot of the heresies are heavily anti-clerical or egalitarian. So having them take power in a medieval kingdom should have some real social and gameplay consequences.

I'm actually having loads of fun at the moment with the single-county in Naples in 1066. After many centuries, my scholarly Despot of Sicily probably dug up some old histories of Iconoclasm, and he decided to lead a resurgence of icon-breaking before seizing the imperial throne of Constantinople by force. His three sons all successively ruled as Emperors after him, one of them dying trying to reincarnate, and the last son leading the Empire through the Black Death, surviving the plague himself. The religious competition is hard, because the regular Orthodox are also gaining converts in Catholic Europe and amongst settled Mongols, so I wonder if I'll ever catch up.

 

[eric__s]

At the onset of the Black Plague, I had 463 living dynasty members. When it was over, I had 310.

 

[Mortmal]

At the onset of the Black Plague, I had 463 living dynasty members. When it was over, I had 310.

33% casualty for a black plague , but thats for nobility, sounds rather historic. Its estimated between 30% and 50% of the population in five years.

 

[Starwars]

I'm playing a Patrician for the first time (Amalfi) and I'm under the Byzantine Empire. What's the best way to expand my shit? Do I wait until I'm the Doge or how does that work? I'm trying to upgrade my mansion and create trade posts as I go.

 

[triari]

i'm not an expert, but have played full 1066 game starting as the 21 year old venician patrician (not doge)

• wardec for tradeposts (other patricians/republics) whenever possible
  
• invest heavily in prestige/income upgrades at house, upgrade trade posts starting w/ those inside duchy. garrisons are needed too, for retinue boost.
  
• try to get serene doge ASAP, it's a big gold/forces boost. once you get it, make sure to not give other patricians prestigious temp titles, spots on council, etc., prestige counts in election.
  
• once you have it, and your income engine gets to a certain point (you can dump gold in every election to guarantee re-election), invest heavily into your capital and make sure you don't lose the election to dumb stuff, like early death (esp. relevant in this DLC)
  
• in the meantime, just do the traditional claimant/chancellor stuff, but republics really can't scale super well that way, you just don't get the same levy floor from laws that feudals do. retinue/mercs will be main forces for you until empire.
  
• new holdings: i always did castles for troops, gold wasn't a problem after like 75 years.
• make sure other patricians are stripped of titles: when they plot, disable spymaster, try jail, crush revolt, revoke title and assign to foreign claimant, etc. i like leaving them in jail/oubliette, keeps them young, cheaper to maintain dogery.
  
• good steward is crucial, you'll be building a lot of long-term buildings at house/capital. carefully manage construction boost/wealth generation. i always trained troops at capital/house, levy multiplier is really important.

 

[Kos_Koa]

Good to hear that they made a decent expansion. The last I played was during the release of The Republic, and I've been meaning to get back into CK2.

How's the current state of mods? Any essential ones, or is vanilla good enough?

Also what are the best total conversions (regardless of the setting)? The Geheimnisnacht mod seemed interesting, despite not being familiar with Warhammer lore.

 

[Smashing Axe]

I remember the Warhammer mod lagging ridiculously due to the gigantic map. It certainly was interesting, I liked how the game felt like there was a lot to discover wtih various traits and paths to go down. Each nation and culture played differently too. If it weren't an unplayable mess I'd consider it my favourite.

All that said I've not played CK2 for about a year and a half, so it might well be changed now.

 

[not an artichoke]

HIP and CK2+ are the two big boys on the modding block. I much prefer HIP and won't play the base game without it. You'd be best off shuffling over to the Paradox forums to get a good idea for yourself though

 

[Kos_Koa]

HIP and CK2+ are the two big boys on the modding block. I much prefer HIP and won't play the base game without it. You'd be best off shuffling over to the Paradox forums to get a good idea for yourself though

I have, but because of all the changes in each mod it's hard to figure out which is better without giving each mod a play-through. Why do you prefer HIP? Personally I'm leaning towards HIP because I really like the swmh map, but I read that HIP modders change things for the sake of changing them, and I much prefer a focused experience, which CK2+ supposedly is known for.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

HIP modders change things for the sake of changing them, and I much prefer a focused experience, which CK2+ supposedly is known for.

In a way. HIP changes more, but the changes are mostly sensible and overall the mod is consistent. And CK2+ mostly addresses vanilla's shortcomings in key areas.
HIP is more of an overhaul, and CK2+ is more of an enhancement. The difference is more in how tired you are of the vanilla game.

Also, as mentioned a page or two ago, HIP can remove India and parts of Africa, which I think makes a good bit of difference. I don't think I've seen an up-to-date separate mod that does that.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Good to hear that they made a decent expansion. The last I played was during the release of The Republic, and I've been meaning to get back into CK2.

How's the current state of mods? Any essential ones, or is vanilla good enough?

Also what are the best total conversions (regardless of the setting)? The Geheimnisnacht mod seemed interesting, despite not being familiar with Warhammer lore.

Hip is good although personally I like WTSMS, MEP and Winter Kings somewhat more cause late antic/early medieval era is something not often portrayed and well but game is perfectly playable and enjoyable as Vanilla now; just turn off Aztecs, shattered retreats, coalitions, seductions and intrigue focus... You can finally make CK2 Great again by few clicks Comrade.

 

[Whisky]

Good to hear that they made a decent expansion. The last I played was during the release of The Republic, and I've been meaning to get back into CK2.

How's the current state of mods? Any essential ones, or is vanilla good enough?

Also what are the best total conversions (regardless of the setting)? The Geheimnisnacht mod seemed interesting, despite not being familiar with Warhammer lore.

Hip is good although personally I like WTSMS, MEP and Winter Kings somewhat more cause late antic/early medieval era is something not often portrayed and well but game is perfectly playable and enjoyable as Vanilla now; just turn off Aztecs, shattered retreats, coalitions, seductions and intrigue focus... You can finally make CK2 Great again by few clicks Comrade.

Seduction doesnt seem as powerful. Every king in Europe was gay at one point and mine couldn't seduce any of them. I've also seen a lot less unfaithful wife events.

 

[Kos_Koa]

I thought I'd pick up some of the expansions that I've missed over the years now that there's a Steam sale on Paradox titles, but damn I didn't realize how much they would add up to. I bought everything in blue over 3 years ago for $10 on Amazon (which was a pretty good deal in retrospect), so I assumed I'd get the rest of the DLC for around $20 on sale since most are over 1-2 years old. It seems like I was made a fool. Damn my "wanting a complete game" OCD.

So I removed every DLC that I don't really care about, like unit packs (except for the East/Western Clothing Pack which apparently the HIP mod requires), Dynasty Shields, EUIV converter, and the customization pack. So far the total is $65.64. Anyone have any recommendations on what else I can scrap? The green bars show what is in my cart, blue bars show what I already own.

 

[Tigranes]

Why the fuck are you paying money for all the visual candy and shit what is wrong with you

Just get the content DLC

 

[Kos_Koa]

I'll probably scrap the portrait and music dlcs, but I thought they might be worth it since I'd at least hear and see them, unlike the unit packs which I'd probably never even notice.

 

[Popiel]

Yeah, well, about the portraits - you should consider at least thinking about buying some of them. Vanilla portraits are ugly as hell, break immersion, besides, one of the best mods for this game (CPR+) requires all of them installed.

 

[Tigranes]

Music - I'd just say put on some period music online and go for it. Unit packs, god no.

Portraits are a bit more justifiable, some of them do look nice, but they should go if you want to put cost down.

If you cut out all the fluff and stuck only to the actual DLCs you'd reduce the cost by 1/3 or half.

 

[IDtenT]

Considering I've been buying the DLC since the start... I think I've made quite the financial investment in CKII.

 

[Sranchammer]

4. User Generated Content

Some of Paradox´s Games allows you to create and make available to other users your own created content (“User Generated Content” or “UGC”). You hereby grant Paradox and its affiliates the nonexclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable, perpetual right to use, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, transmit, broadcast, and otherwise communicate, publicly display and publicly perform your UGC, and derivative works of your UGC, in connection with the operation and promotion of the Game.

:hmm: