CKII is released.

[Malakal]

That screen doesn't make sense unless you somehow converted western Europe without conquering it and thus dont have enough power to stop Mongols. But then how did you do it?

 

[Fens]

most of it was inviting disgruntled pretenders to my court, converting them, matrilineally marrying them to daughters of my house and then stabbing or fighting people until the pretender becomes count/duke/king/emperor which resulted in this:

without me, the emperor of byzantium, actually being in control of most of that... also: the mongol doomstacks (~150k core + 50k extra) don't suffer attrition, while my doomstack (7k house troops + 150k heir's troops + 160k levies) does

 

[RK47]

My Jerusalem game is a deadlock.
Byzantine getting stronger after beating back Rum, regained almost all their territory and Croatia.
Crusade for Andalusia was won by HRE - hence - the Castilles, Nevarra and Leon can gain nothing out of the Reconquista.
England formed, Scotland Formed.
Ilkhans beaten back by Rus.
Golden Horde convert to Sunni. Majority of Holy Land muslims are Sunni.
Which means nobody dared to attack the Horde out of fear of muslim mobbing.
Golden Horde stopped at Rum territory - hmm.

I'm not sure what I can do next. I tried taking single muslim counties but the zerging by the other Sunnis are costing way more than the reward.

And my heirs are terrible stat. So using Elective succession, I nominate my super diplomat & espionage sister as the next Queen of Jerusalem. Here's hoping nothing bad happens.

 

[RK47]

Also question about Retinues
Are they took expensive to maintain or is it a good idea to have 10k retinue force ready?
Do you go for balanced setup or just HC 400 LC 100 for the speed of movement and power? I assume horsemen move quicker than Archers?
I'm fully upgrading my 6 holdings at the moment for the max levy out put and income but would really love to know if it's worthwhile having a large retinue force.

 

[Spectacle]

Also question about Retinues
Are they took expensive to maintain or is it a good idea to have 10k retinue force ready?
Do you go for balanced setup or just HC 400 LC 100 for the speed of movement and power? I assume horsemen move quicker than Archers?
I'm fully upgrading my 6 holdings at the moment for the max levy out put and income but would really love to know if it's worthwhile having a large retinue force.

Retinues only cost money when reinforcing, so they are definitely worthwhile to have around.
And all armies move at the same speed, regardless of unit makeup.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

So yea, you'll probably want your retinue to be your Panzer Elite (aka Heavy Cavalry for the most part).

 

[RK47]

Ok. That's gonna cost a lot of gold. But I think it's a nice addition to the 15k Holy Order stacks when defending against Muslims. I almost fully upgraded Jerusalem's 4 castles by now...I wish I can destroy a town / church to make space for another castle. The marshall Train Troop bonus can be quite useful when stacked on a multi-castle county.
As well as the steward tax collector bonus.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

You'll want to keep towns upgrading too, as the mayors are a big source of income (especially in coastal provinces). There's no case when you don't want Town taxes set to maximum (Feudal taxes should be set to minimum so you can handle Medium authority better).

 

[Turisas]

I guess I should try playing with a ruler that has crappy traits for once, just for the lulz.

 

[Mortmal]

So yea, you'll probably want your retinue to be your Panzer Elite (aka Heavy Cavalry for the most part).

Or heavy infantries , especially if you want to fight the nomads, they surive the skirmish phase , horse archers are dealing the most damage during that phase

 

[RK47]

yeah i think the cavary is just costing too much to be worthwhile. 168 per retinue starter, man, a merc company can drop in 10k reinforcement for that pirce and stay around for 2-3 months with some more gold...
retinue does a good job during those slightly stable time against smaller kingdoms / duchies. but it sure is bad vs muslim hordes.

I nearly lost a holy war when the sunnis invited every fucking one of them to a buffet in syria.
over 8 chiefs joined that fight, + a golden horde.
they had over 2-3 stacks of 10-20ks and several other smaller stacks pouring from every direction
I had 10k demense levy + 10k retinue + 50K vassal levy + 21k holy order + 20 k mercs.
by the time the war ended - there were 10k order, 8 k mercs, and 1800 retinue + around 10 k levy.

i had to declare white peace when my 20k stack just broke morale under a 30k horde assault. warscore was 68% but I was running out of coin.

too fucking close.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

You'll want to keep towns upgrading too, as the mayors are a big source of income (especially in coastal provinces). There's no case when you don't want Town taxes set to maximum (Feudal taxes should be set to minimum so you can handle Medium authority better).

Won't that make town upgrading slow down because Mayors lack cash to build more stuff?

The ones directly under you (as in, located in a province where you hold the castle) can be upgraded with your own cash.

 

[Lorica]

If you manage your money right, it's no big deal to splash out for big ticket items for your mayors, especially if you do it early and you're confident that you'll be holding the province for the rest of the game. It sounds like anybody fully upgrading four castles in a county isn't planning on losing it... I like doing ports and universities, sometimes walls.

It generally works out better than setting taxes lower, because the AI can waste it on stupid shit and won't necessarily focus on building his own income first. Plus, IIUC, stacking high stewardship and greedy magically increases the amount of money you get in taxes from your subjects... An increase they likely won't be able to produce themselves through traits.

EDIT: Whoops, ninja'd.

 

[Malakal]

Just buy them cash upgrades, they can manage the rest themselves. Not like they have anything to do with that money.

 

[RK47]

Yeah I never, ever, will invest on my vassal's holdings. It's counter-productive. These scheming bastards have no sense of loyalty, but in times of desperation, look no further than imprisoning a few mayors and banishing their asses to claim their jewgold. If they ruled for several decades, chances are they have even more bank than yours. The last time I banished some guy in my Cyprus playthrough, I gained 3,000 gold. THREE THOUSAND.

Also this made me laugh.

 

[Average Manatee]

What else are you going to invest in if not vassal holdings? Castles don't exactly have many upgrades to bring cash in. 95% of my dosh is for either building cities or building upgrades in cities.

 

[Average Manatee]

yeah i think the cavary is just costing too much to be worthwhile. 168 per retinue starter, man, a merc company can drop in 10k reinforcement for that pirce and stay around for 2-3 months with some more gold..

Go with the Skirmish retinue. God damned cheap and you'll have far more of them, so better price/effectiveness ratio. Also assaults only count numbers so you can DoW anyone, assault 6 provinces in the first two months and have 90% warscore. Funny when you invade France or something and win the war along with the entire kingdom before their army even arrives.

Keep in mind that once your retinue is reinforced it stays free, FOREVER. At least until you take losses, but that's a pittance unless you get utterly demolished.

 

[RK47]

What else are you going to invest in if not vassal holdings? Castles don't exactly have many upgrades to bring cash in. 95% of my dosh is for either building cities or building upgrades in cities.

Warchest.
A massive warchest to wage wars whenever you need or want it.
The last Empire of Britannia I saved around 5k before unleashing endless streams of mercs and levy troops on Golden Horde collapsing empire around Rus. Moved my capital to Praha to drop merc stacks as needed, constant siege trading treasury for massive territory gains. Prestige flows freely. 100% warscore, take the territory I demanded. Break truce, Repeat while they're still bleeding on the ass. And since Mercs army dont count as Levy restriction when declaring war... I'm READY TO CONTINUE MY CONQUEST the moment the truce is broken.
Ended the game with major territorial gains in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Rus.
AI vassals have no fucking concept of loyalty and just wants to fuck around when you're at war.
Too bad I had 40k Levy reserved just in Ireland case someone decides to fuck around in UK while I'm away.

That jerusalem holy war I could've won if I had more money for example.

 

[Average Manatee]

Don't you understand economy? You invest to make a bigger warchest. You must be the kind of guy who doesn't build more than 4 SCVs in Starcraft because it's a waste of money and those minerals will be collected eventually anyway.

Also, investments in tech prove massive over time. You can be 5/5 in all techs while everyone else is at 2/5. The -80% ahead of time penalty doesn't matter when you have like +500% total from advisors/buildings/stats.

 

[RK47]

Yes, because the SCVs will never betray you.

 

[Average Manatee]

lol

But still, mayors under your direct control won't betray you either. If you thought I was talking about investing in other nobles, hell no. Fuck those guys.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

TC confirmed for Byzantine empire.

 

[RK47]

Well if you're sure about that... I guess there's no harm about doing it then.

 

[RK47]

TC confirmed for Byzantine empire.

Huh? Oh yeah. Yeah. Tacticular cancer.

 

[KoolNoodles]

Hey bros, have a problem with a mod not showing up properly. Asked on the Pdox forums, but it's always slow as hell to get a response or none at all over there so figured I'd try my luck here. I'm trying to get Prince and the Thane working, but it doesn't seem to quite make it all the way. I'll explain: I'm on Win7 64 bit, installed the files into the documents section as per instructions(I'm not a novice with this stuff, it worked with earlier versions). Start up the game, get the launcher, click the mod, loads up... TPT banner is in the upper right, ok good so far. However, when I start a game none of the changes seem to actually be in effect. Same ambitions as vanilla, no new plots/intrigue, normal events start firing as I go along etc.

It's all there in the right place and on the launcher and then menu but doesn't seem to "load". Another curiosity, if I play a multiplayer game, the mod works. Follow all the same steps except for joining a friend who is also running TPT. I've also tested CK2+ and it seems to work, so I'm really at a loss here.

I figure it's some weird Win7 glitch thing....I guess? It used to work for me, several updates ago. I've also installed some DLC in between, but it should be compatible with all that from what I've read.