CKII is released.

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Hungarian vassals thought they could fuck with ROME

They never fucked with anyone again.

Feels good to be Emprah

 

[RK47]

Father, Mother, and Son

Spoiler

War claims many lives. The Khan died a glorious death as he charged upon the defenders of Denmark. His son will assume his throne. That is, if he lives up to his 16th birthday.

Protective of her eldest son, Queen Valdrade wages war for the Papacy. Yes, she installed an Anti-Pope, taking a page from her father's history books. Pope Lando II will feel the same pain of loss as his predecessors had.

A massive fleet gathers at Alexandria.

Carrying the Retinue of Fury towards Rome.

Elsewhere, in Europe...

The Papal forces never stood a chance. Rome was taken slowly and the Crusades is certain to end in a disaster - until -

With the death of Queen Valdrade, the Golden-Jerusalem alliance dies with her too... but before leaving this world she gave Jerusalem a gift....

It appears the Khan has taken to her mother's culture. King Henry knows he must move quickly. He is very young and unrespected, the alliance must be re-established without fail. Already the other kingdoms and his own nobles are plotting against him.

Even if it means marrying his own niece, Princess Temulun, the sister of Khan Alchidai.

Meanwhile, the war for Papacy is over - the victor is no surprise. Pope Adrian V takes the seat of power.

Yet he is unwilling to abandon the Crusades. A dangerous mistake.

Elsewhere, the Ilkhanate stopped their march. It is unknown what plans they have in store...

Except that the Khan has no desire to make babies anymore.

 

[eric__s]

gatdam, look at all the new Finnish cultures in the Old Gods. Estonian, Mordvin, Samoyed. This is Vaarna Aarne's wet dream. They also added Bolghar, Khazar, Avar and it looks like something new in between Avar and Russian. I wonder what it is. Slovakian maybe? It also looks like they're not going to unify and then split up the Slavic cultures like they are with Norse. Wonder how that's going to work out.

Edit: Oh huh, just looked it up and apparently they're the Croatians that didn't migrate to the Balkans. That's c00l

 

[RK47]

There is no plan, only action

Spoiler

With the death of Queen Veldrade, the Golden-Jerusalem alliance is no more. King Henry II, facing severe lack of loyalty amongst his kin had to resort to assassins to make their ambitions disappear. The hired blade was not perfect however, and slipped up - exposing the plot to the whole world - branding him as a Kinslayer. No apologies will disperse this blood feud as more assassins are sent to the leaders of the Independence factions. Coffers are empty - what to do?

Embargo wars of course. The rich, fat, Doges are ripe for plunder. The Retinue of Fury landed on Pisan capital of commerce and pillaged everything. It was enough to fund several more assassinations to restore order in Jerusalem.

What is more worrying however, is the news of the Crusade's success.
How?

The Crusades retook Poland. Potatoes were handed freely and Denmark survived the Golden Onslaught. No one could have foreseen this outcome. What stopped the Horde?

Historians claimed it was Queen Valdrade. Before her death, the good queen educated Alchidai in the ways of the Norman. This caused a severe clash of culture between the Khan and his vassals. Even more so, when Alchidai adopted the title Emperor instead of the traditional Khan!

A great divide is about to split the Golden Horde apart...
But greater troubles awaits Jerusalem, for slaying kin is not very Christian-like.

It's only a matter of time before someone calls upon the King to be ex-communicated.

A hasty crusade against the excommunicated Zaragoza was a waste of time and gave very little redemption in the Pope's eyes. Time is running out for Henry.

And Alchidai is growing up.

He has claim to the throne of Jerusalem. Unthinkable.

But his empire is in no shape to face Jerusalem. A great separatist movement meant the Horde will have to spend a lot of time quelling internal unrest and rebelling vassals. An opportunity that Jerusalem cannot miss...

An opportunistic Holy War was called - and Itil was conquered under Christ's banner.

Reverting to tradition as old as William di Normandie - a county was gifted to the Pope for further redemption in the eyes of Christians. It will have to do.

1293, the Golden Horde is stopped, just barely.

An uneasy peace - for now.

 

[eric__s]

Some more maps. Looks like they've collapsed the Abbasids a little prematurely but who cares, it'll be more fun this way. The Old Gods looks really good and I can't wait for it, I'm never playing in 1066 again.

 

[RK47]

the time limit will be insane. a bit too much perhaps.

 

[oscar]

Guess they're going to stretch out the tech chart then?

Wonder how they'll balance the economy and army sizes of it all.

 

[RedScum]

I thought it would have similar end date to the original campaign, that it maybe ends before 1066 or something.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Perhanan mämmikourat saatana, the set-up in Novgorod is seriously fuck-up mang. The culture map is probably far worse (not to mention my pet-peeve, the namefile).

 

[RK47]

The latest patch changes made it impossible for distant kingdoms to declare distant Holy Wars.
No more grabbing pagan territories in Africa when you start in UK.
Also truce breaking will create relations penalty with everyone.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Perhanan mämmikourat saatana, the set-up in Novgorod is seriously fuck-up mang. The culture map is probably far worse (not to mention my pet-peeve, the namefile).

Khanate of Russia before Rurirk?

As the rest go Modders will fix them.

 

[eric__s]

Perhanan mämmikourat saatana, the set-up in Novgorod is seriously fuck-up mang. The culture map is probably far worse (not to mention my pet-peeve, the namefile).

Khanate of Russia before Rurirk?

As the rest go Modders will fix them.

Haha, he's in and he's got the best stats of pretty much anyone in the game.

Could I be detecting a Norse bias from Paradox? Nah...

It's going to be really good to play a game without a billion Rurikoviches though. Rurikoviches, Capets, Doukases and von Wittelsbachs can kiss my ass.

 

[RK47]

Y'know i never understood people's fascination with a ruler's Martial skill.
Am I missing something? The last time I tried leading an army to quell a random peasant revolt, my ruler gets killed.
Ever since then, I ignored martial skill completely.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Rurik/Rorik was IRC Northern Swedish title so Rus Rurik the Prince of Novgorod was his son or grandson. Most fun in Crusader game is to take very minor or fallen Family and make it into new powerhouse anyway: Spartenoses, Phokases, Karlings house de Ivera etc... or some random Noble Dude who got His own piss poor county Got my family of Napolitan Spartenoses from One piss poor and isolated by snowfags Dux to 100 people in 80 years. We're 3th Noble House in Roman Empire after Commenoses and Dukases now. Any good and free Screen shot programs? Would post my Tree.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Y'know i never understood people's fascination with a ruler's Martial skill.
Am I missing something? The last time I tried leading an army to quell a random peasant revolt, my ruler gets killed.
Ever since then, I ignored martial skill completely.

Good to have ruler with high martial skill cause who has craven trait... This way you can have all +++ and don't risk your ass at the cost of minor -

 

[AngryEddy]

Any good and free Screen shot programs? Would post my Tree.

gyazo.com

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I thought it would have similar end date to the original campaign, that it maybe ends before 1066 or something.

I think they said you can continue playing all the way to 1453, it's just that there's only one new set start date in the DLC.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...C-(Pagans)&p=14957969&viewfull=1#post14957969

 

[Malakal]

Y'know i never understood people's fascination with a ruler's Martial skill.
Am I missing something? The last time I tried leading an army to quell a random peasant revolt, my ruler gets killed.
Ever since then, I ignored martial skill completely.

Your ruler and his family are the only people you csn train to be godlike commanders honing their martial and correct traits. But yes, its extremely risky and I dont do it unless I have to.

 

[RedScum]

Thanks for clearing it up MHC

 

[oscar]

They should lift in that system that gives you large penalties and bonuses for rulers who have exceptionally high or exceptionally low skills. So a guy with 19 martial but 1 intrigue and 1 learning gets a nice bonus to the size of his levies ('legendary commander' modifier) but is easy as fuck to assassinate ('intrigue challenged') and has a large tech malus and minor general opinion malus ('catastrophically ignorant'). Really helps give more of a unique 'feel' to each ruler's reign with and attaches far more importance to the stats of your ruler.

Ever since then, I ignored martial skill completely.

I've been playing pretty much exclusively Lux Invicta, has vanilla still not fixed martial being the dump stat for rulers?

 

[IDtenT]

Martial is pretty important when you're a vassal.

 

[Borelli]

When you have a large enough realm you will have enough vassals/courtiers to fill all advisors and combat leaders with 15-20 stat people however if you are small and starved for good generals then investing in martial for your ruler is a good idea.

 

[RK47]

Operation Golden Sword

Spoiler

After years spent in repentance, the Pope finally sees Henry fit to be given a complete absolution of his sins.

This is a blessing he cannot afford to miss, his vassals will now be more reticent to his rule. And hopefully, the annual carnival of assassination can stop.

With the internal threats dealt with, the young king quickly gets to work - establishing an alliance with the powerful Holy Roman Empire.

Except...it used to be powerful.

Sensing great opportunities in the west - Henry searches amongst his kin for any claimant to a powerful kingdom.

His nephew is one. Hubert, the Duke of Anjou - is a claimant to the throne of Sweden, ruled by the old Queen Ragnhild.
Sensing that a long war is unwise - Henry's judgment is swift - sending a tribute to his nephew, Emperor Alchidae of Golden Horde - he successfully convinced the Golden Horde to answer the call to arms. Their aim: Sweden.

The unsuspecting kingdom of Sweden never knew what hit them. Ten thousands of the Horde army marches across the steppes, hungry for plunder. Jerusalem's much smaller retinue arrives, very late to the party, finding very little battle left in their enemies.

The war was settled within a year.

With friends like these...

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

This is fucking bullshit RK.

Breed your own ubergeneral ruler and start removing yurt from premises.

 

[RK47]

Golden sunset.

Spoiler

As Jerusalem's influence spread, they remain steadfastly protective of their borders. For the Ilkhanates are never too far away.

They were not ready. The Ilkhanate's demand is a pitiful county. With his forces busy in western Europe, King Henry gave away the lone county to the Khans, buying ten years of truce.

Was it worth the price? It matters not, for he is now aiming for France.

This time, they do it themselves.

But elsewhere, the Golden Horde faces their mightiest foes yet - the Ilkhanates.

Strangely, the Emperor of Golden Horde did not call upon Jerusalem for assistance, nevertheless, Henry knew, once the Golden Horde is devoured, his kingdom is next.

For the first time in many decades, the shadows and secrecy are cast aside - swords are given to the levies. There will be war.

Time is against them. If the Golden Horde surrenders - Jerusalem will stand alone.

Too late.

Wary - a new alliance through marriage is planned with the declining Byzantine Empire.

The angry Khan forces rushes south to meet the swarms of Jerusalem's finest. Thousands fleeing from the massive horde.

Those who cannot flee, are crushed.

In desperation - the Jews resorted to the oldest trick in the book - the hidden blade.

But even the death of the Khan cannot stop the march of the 130,000.

The final battle is at hand.