CKII is released.

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Once or twice I've seen Hindus conquer parts of Persia, but very little comes out of India because it's bottlenecked tightly at Afghanistan. You need a very strong Punjab to break out, and Persia usually has very strong Abbasids or Seljuks or Mongols. Hopefully Tibet will help because it connects India to other parts of the world instead of just putting it in its own little corner.

I've seen a big-ass indian power starts eating parts of Persia in my last Zoro game, but that was after I had killed all the local muslim powers in Persia, Afghanistan had been turned into a hindu vs muslims vs buddhists vs me clusterfuck and the Abbasid blob had broken up in pieces.

The reworking of the Middle East and Persia should also help by decentralizing powers. Persia used to be humongous and now it's significantly less so, making its peripheries easier to conquer.

Did they take out provinces or did they just diminish that HUGE Kingdom of Persia into something smaller?

I also frequently see the lower Arabian peninsula fluctuate between Ethiopia and Muslims. The introduction of the Kingdom of Yemen should help whoever has it to hold on longer.

I have never seen Ethiopians in Arabia. Abbasids and other muslims always run million man trains on it. Perhaps that has changed in the lastest patch, but Ethiopia keeps getting rekt in my games.

 

[Fedora Master]

I dislike the Zun gameplay for the established Afghan family buuuuut "acquiring" a Zun concubine as a steppe nomad can be pretty rewarding.

 

[Makabb]

Just leaving this here for myself and others who are searching for HIP link because paradox forums are retarded.


http://hip.zijistark.com/releases/latest.pl

 

[AwesomeButton]

I've started a warm-up campaign with Nuernberg on 1.1.1337. Would you say it's a good strategy to bethrothe/marry off (patrilineally or matrilineally) everyone eligible during the first days of the campaign? I usually like to keep a few people unmarried, "in reserve", so to speak. This time however I married everyone I could. I took care not to take spouses with the ambitious trait.

Keeping the family tree slim, or letting it spread both have their advantages and disadvantages. What are your opinions?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

There is only one marital strategy:

The Kwisatz Haderach

 

[AwesomeButton]

What does this strategy consist of?

 

[Commissar Draco]

I've started a warm-up campaign with Nuernberg on 1.1.1337. Would you say it's a good strategy to bethrothe/marry off (patrilineally or matrilineally) everyone eligible during the first days of the campaign? I usually like to keep a few people unmarried, "in reserve", so to speak. This time however I married everyone I could. I took care not to take spouses with the ambitious trait.

Keeping the family tree slim, or letting it spread both have their advantages and disadvantages. What are your opinions?

Make as many children as possible and marry them off to distant heiress; while seeking brides for your heir in same duchy/kingdom/Empire; remember you are not RP state here nor a single ruler but dynasty... so having a few lands ruled by your relatives can be game saving when your main line is destroyed by plague or made destitute by foreign invasion. Breeding some super human is funny but A) He is not invulnerable and game with plagues can be brutal and B) its not game about map painting. Just avoid the perks which made your vassal disloyal and you can make Austria/HRE great again with medicare on average rulers. Game is not that hard unless you have misfortune to rule some duchy standing in the way of Turks and such as regular Jihad often gives you option to convert to retain lands (and yes now it can be fake conversation like one Bosniak Nobility did in XIV century).

 

[TheEntitledOne]

What does this strategy consist of?

It consists basically in hunting for candiates with inheritable traits and then pray that the RGN God doesnt fuck you over anyway.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I've started a warm-up campaign with Nuernberg on 1.1.1337. Would you say it's a good strategy to bethrothe/marry off (patrilineally or matrilineally) everyone eligible during the first days of the campaign? I usually like to keep a few people unmarried, "in reserve", so to speak. This time however I married everyone I could. I took care not to take spouses with the ambitious trait.

Keeping the family tree slim, or letting it spread both have their advantages and disadvantages. What are your opinions?

Make as many children as possible and marry them off to distant heiress; while seeking brides for your heir in same duchy/kingdom/Empire; remember you are not RP state here nor a single ruler but dynasty... so having a few lands ruled by your relatives can be game saving when your main line is destroyed by plague or made destitute by foreign invasion. Breeding some super human is funny but A) He is not invulnerable and game with plagues can be brutal and B) its not game about map painting. Just avoid the perks which made your vassal disloyal and you can make Austria/HRE great again with medicare on average rulers. Game is not that hard unless you have misfortune to rule some duchy standing in the way of Turks and such as regular Jihad often gives you option to convert to retain lands (and yes now it can be fake conversation like one Bosniak Nobility did in XIV century).

What does this strategy consist of?

It consists basically in hunting for candiates with inheritable traits and then pray that the RGN God doesnt fuck you over anyway.

So, what I usually do.

What actually worked out very well was how I kept one of my sisters unmarried, "in case of an emergency". I had to decline one offer from some Hansa bigshot, and in a few months the bigshot returned, this time with an offer of 250 gold dowry. This was just what I needed in order to fulfill my ambition to Build a War Chest, so it got me another +10% tax for 3 years. Money follows money.

 

[Delterius]

Coming back to Crusader Kings II after a year or so was like a crash course in development insanity. Who knew the new and improved 'game rules' window was not so much a convenience but a cautionary warning.

Three hundred years into my jewish Abyssinian Empire game, I've finally converted most of the counties I own and rebuilt the Third Temple. I thought the reason why a bunch of heretics would surface now and again had something to do all the heretics within the Empire. Not so. Turns out half the Sunni Caliphate was secretly Shia. The Ummayads were Catholics all along and so was the Byzantine Empire. The Holy Roman Empire went heretic back and forth and I'm pretty sure the AI Pope is desperately trying to become a Jew.

Quit when my perfect little Merchant Republic vassal went Sunni and wouldn't go back. Got tired of revoking half of my domain due to the Sunni psy-ops.

Fucking hell.

 

[Average Manatee]

Coming back to Crusader Kings II after a year or so was like a crash course in development insanity. Who knew the new and improved 'game rules' window was not so much a convenience but a cautionary warning.

Three hundred years into my jewish Abyssinian Empire game, I've finally converted most of the counties I own and rebuilt the Third Temple. I thought the reason why a bunch of heretics would surface now and again had something to do all the heretics within the Empire. Not so. Turns out half the Sunni Caliphate was secretly Shia. The Ummayads were Catholics all along and so was the Byzantine Empire. The Holy Roman Empire went heretic back and forth and I'm pretty sure the AI Pope is desperately trying to become a Jew.

Quit when my perfect little Merchant Republic vassal went Sunni and wouldn't go back. Got tired of revoking half of my domain due to the Sunni psy-ops.

Fucking hell.

Classic example of the paradox problem of "if the AI has a button to push, it can either never push it or push it constantly". Seducers would seduce every available female in the realm, schemers would try to kidnap anyone and everyone, and cults constantly spam people in your realm to secretly convert until eventually RNG says they accept.

 

[IDtenT]

Coming back to Crusader Kings II after a year or so was like a crash course in development insanity. Who knew the new and improved 'game rules' window was not so much a convenience but a cautionary warning.

Three hundred years into my jewish Abyssinian Empire game, I've finally converted most of the counties I own and rebuilt the Third Temple. I thought the reason why a bunch of heretics would surface now and again had something to do all the heretics within the Empire. Not so. Turns out half the Sunni Caliphate was secretly Shia. The Ummayads were Catholics all along and so was the Byzantine Empire. The Holy Roman Empire went heretic back and forth and I'm pretty sure the AI Pope is desperately trying to become a Jew.

Quit when my perfect little Merchant Republic vassal went Sunni and wouldn't go back. Got tired of revoking half of my domain due to the Sunni psy-ops.

Fucking hell.

Classic example of the paradox problem of "if the AI has a button to push, it can either never push it or push it constantly". Seducers would seduce every available female in the realm, schemers would try to kidnap anyone and everyone, and cults constantly spam people in your realm to secretly convert until eventually RNG says they accept.

It's almost like real life.

 

[Average Manatee]

It's almost like real life.

Totally different. Rational people understand risk, paradox AIs just work on the logic of "as soon as a decision can be taken, take it". Programming some basic intelligence to tell the AI when something is a good idea to do is much harder than just setting "AI_will_take = 1 or 0", so Paradox doesn't do it.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Stupid me. After a year behind the closed fortress gates, while the Black Death raged, I opened them again to prevent getting the Depressed trait. In a year's time much of my family had died of plague as a result. Yet myself and my three oldest children (successors, gavelkind) survived. I was even cured once by my brother who was also the court doctor.

The second time I got ill, I used the special response provided by my having the "Brave" trait, asking my brother to try some innovatove cure. I thought answers to events provided by traits always have better outcomes, lol. It turned out that it's a lottery and the healing method my brother tried was very bad. I died soon after. Now his three sons each rule one of the three counties I had manged to collect under my control, but I never managed to get a ducal title for Bavaria, so the character I'm playin as is again down to one county.

Later, the emperor died of old age, and the title Duke of Bavaria passed to dead character's third son, so my 17 y.o. character is now subordinate to his 7 y.o. brother who is his duke. I guess this is still better than being a count directly subordinated to the emperor.

 

[Sranchammer]

The most interesting games i have are Paulician- Zoro games - they tend to work together against the major powers

 

[Delterius]

Did you get the latest patch?

Things are better than the insanity of before.

To be fair, I stopped buying DLCs back in Charlemagne so I can't hunt for Secret Societies. But from the looks of it neither will the AI. First time the Ummayads turned Catholic and my humble King of Carthage helped them against a Sunni rebellion was awesome. The fifth wasn't so awesome.

Be me. Restore Zoroastrian Persia. Never marry within the family. The next three generations under Primogeniture are inbred.

Legit as fuck.

Also my first son the last three playthroughs was a spawn of satan. I feel like the game is trying to tell me something.

ALL YOUR MALE KIDS DYING IS GREAT WHEN YOU ARE A MERCHANT I GOTTA SAY.

Back to my Irish Cathar Great Heathen Army.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I've never had spawn of Satan happen. It sort of makes me sad seeing all the crazy things it has led to.

 

[Delterius]

Wait what, without M&M you can have societes being on the map without being able to be part of them or hunt them? Damn, that's some retarded design.

More like high stewardship.

eh.

Are you sure you aren't getting cucked over and over by your relatives?

The King might be the only person trying his damndest to save the dynasty from going full retard, yes.

I'm surprised you're getting inbred, actually. Zoroastrians and Messalians get the hidden "Divine Blood" modifier, which gives -5x chance to get the inbred trait, but +5x chance to get the Lunatic trait instead. I don't remember getting inbred in my zoro games, and I inbreed as often as I can, often having my wife and most of my concunbines be relatives, generally sisters and nieces (or nice-looking prisioners with good stats).

Yeah, kill me.

I exiled then killed my last spawn of Satan daughter, because she was killing my male heirs. Fucking hell, that messed up my strategy

I did that the first time, but then the second Spawn of Satan got exorcized in Rome. Meaning you've got a nearly immortal god who can materialize french nannies and ancient witches at will. Very nearly converted to Zoroastrianism because why the fuck not at that point.



More in Delterius' adventures in CK2:

the Merchant Republic of Cathar Ireland has waged so many Holy Wars across the Isles that Catholicism is now a heresy of Waldensian. Damn you HRE.

My Genius + Attractive Son married a Genius girl from West Francia. When I become him I realize he's gay and she's chaste.

 

[Delterius]

I did that the first time, but then the second Spawn of Satan got exorcized in Rome. Meaning you've got a nearly immortal god who can materialize french nannies and ancient witches at will. Very nearly converted to Zoroastrianism because why the fuck not at that point.

Wait, you can do that?!

Yep!

 

[Delterius]

I did that the first time, but then the second Spawn of Satan got exorcized in Rome. Meaning you've got a nearly immortal god who can materialize french nannies and ancient witches at will. Very nearly converted to Zoroastrianism because why the fuck not at that point.

Wait, you can do that?!

Yep!

How can I learn this power?

Its a really rare event that for some reason always happens to me when I'm on pilgrimage. So... cross yer fingers!

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Afghanistan might be a tad on the small side there in terms of geography, though one has to bear in mind that the kingdom de jures don't strictly correspond to modern borders. I mean, parts of Sistan and Khorasan there would be a part of modern Afghanistan.

 

[Average Manatee]

AI improvements look good. AIs being incompetent in terms of knowing how to hand out titles/appease vassals/keep power for itself has always been a big contributor to the game getting too easy too quickly. Also legitimately amusing to read.

Being able to land your children and still marry them to someone competent rather than an inbred septuagenarian

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Got Links for WtWSMS mod and CKII Plus, if anyone want them.

Any prospective interesting plays once next DLC hits? I'm thinking Tibet, or another Zoroastrian play.

 

[Raghar]

Also the AI is less retarded in managing troops, so maybe crusades are actually possible this time rather than the bizarre janky game of having a hundred little crusader stacks running to and from with no reason or rhyme, until a huge Ummayad or Abbasid doomstack shows up and kills everyone.

Isn't that historical outcome?

 

[fantadomat]

I am still pissed that those swedish faggots removed Hellenic fate from the game ....