Let's Play Crusader Kings 2 v.1.092

[Machiavelli]

It's also called Prosper's funhouse. Enlighten yourself with Prosper, the world of Prosper, and everything Prosper-related. Just don't feed the animals.

May as well contribute to the LP now, I guess. One more vote for Duklja.

Enlightenment sounds fine. I don't feed animals, I feed myself on animals.

Noted down your vote.

Playing as Republic is just overpowered. :*( Sicily doesn't even have a chance.

Playing as a Republic actually was overpowered. They have been nerfed with a trade post limit related to technology and the number of male dynasty members in your court. Thus making it more expensive to expand.
Sicily is still vulnerable at the 1066 start, but we could fix this by choosing another starting date when the world is different.
Looking around I found the Latin Empire start in 1204 interesting for Venice. The controlled territory is scattered, with the Doge only controlling the Republic itself and an island on the coast of Asia Minor. Secondly, said Doge is a man at the respectable age of 97 and blinded. Probably pissed off the Byzantine Emperor somehow.

darn

In the highly likely event that no one else votes for the poor Bagratunids, I'll throw in my lot with the random Byzantine faction and hope that someone else does, too.

It seems you actually got yourself some support in the meantime.

Byzantine. I wanna see if anyone can actually turn that backstabbing self-destroying empire around before the mongols gets there.
And beat HRE. Somehow. Cause I hate seeing that HRE being so stable and not getting any assfucked anytime soon.

Fucking up the HRE is a goal worth fighting for. No matter what ruler will be the main character of this LP.

Flip-flopping to Byzantines then. Let's do this.

Noted.

Yep, show me if the Byzantine can survive multiple anal rapes and how you deal with it as a vassal, that is located...hmmm.... Let's see....somewhere eastern. No cheating in Sicily. Mwahahah.

I sense that the Bagratuni's might be running for office.

I also vote for Byzantines. Haven't republics been nerfed? Haven't tried playing as one after the first time when the DLC got released. Shit was boring.

Noted. And yes, they have been nerfed (thank you Paradox). It's much more interesting now depending on the starting date.
Changes are the trade post limit explained above. Also ruling doges can't plot against other families' trade posts anymore. So no trade post stealing when elected.

I also vote for Byzantines. Haven't republics been nerfed? Haven't tried playing as one after the first time when the DLC got released. Shit was boring.

I don't have the DLC to play Republics, but seeing the AI making effective headway into North africa, turning half of them into their colonies disgusted me to no end.

They tried to fix this problem by limiting the possibility for going on holy wars with a distance limit. At the 1066 start, Sicily is out of range for Venice, North Africa is out of range for Pisa and Iberia for Genoa. So it shouldn't happen anymore (at least not fast).
My problem with Republics was seeing Genoa reconquesting the east of Iberia before the King of Leon could even think about murdering his brothers.

I also vote for Byzantines. Haven't republics been nerfed? Haven't tried playing as one after the first time when the DLC got released. Shit was boring.

I don't have the DLC to play Republics, but seeing the AI making effective headway into North africa, turning half of them into their colonies disgusted me to no end.

Play with mods who make map bigger and thus Feudal Lords much stronger in my Prince and Thane play through all popamole republics were converted to feudal Kingdoms before Mongols came.

I don't play with mods, because they all seem to bug me with faults I can't bear to witness. CKII+ is a great mod in theory, but it crashed on me too often.

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Flip floppin' around the people have come to vote again.

The Byzantine vassal faction surprisingly leading with 5 votes.
The Duklja faction steady going on 4 votes.
The Republican faction losing ground with 1 vote.

I'll probably post some screenies with possible starts this evening (local time).
We'll see if that influences the voting. I'll cut the crap when one of the factions has a big lead. I could also of course make a republic out of Duklja, swearing fealty to the Byzantine emperor xD.

I'm back to work now!

 

[Gondolin]

The Byzantine vassal faction surprisingly leading with 5 votes.

Read some of the CYOAs around here. The Codex likes its scheming byzantine.

 

[RK47]

in vagina penis

 

[Machiavelli]

The Byzantine vassal faction surprisingly leading with 5 votes.

Read some of the CYOAs around here. The Codex likes its scheming byzantine.

I see, I haven't been reading much on the forum yet. Maybe I should.

in vagina penis

I thought it was anal raping you were talking about? Is it enthusiasm or Tourette? ;-)

 

[Ulminati]

And beat HRE. Somehow. Cause I hate seeing that HRE being so stable and not getting any assfucked anytime soon.

Spoiler

God-Empress Frigg of Finland, The Valkyrie Who Walks Among Mortals fixed that pretty handily. After declaring holy war on a bunch of small independent catholic states, she's lowered the moral authority of the catholic church enough that heresies abound everywhere. After about 75% of the HRE became waldensian heretics, it split open like an overripe melon.

Poland is ~50% infested with Waldensians as well, italy has 5 counties converted to Fraticelli. Ireland and scotland have embraced the Lollard heresy, the Cathar heresy is spreading in Spain...

Meanwhile, the Norse religion has a moral authority of 60% and is happily converting the Finns. Good times.

 

[Machiavelli]

God-Empress Frigg of Finland, The Valkyrie Who Walks Among Mortals fixed that pretty handily. After declaring holy war on a bunch of small independent catholic states, she's lowered the moral authority of the catholic church enough that heresies abound everywhere. After about 75% of the HRE became waldensian heretics, it split open like an overripe melon.

Some Martin Luther avant la lettre shit.

 

[RK47]

Now that's a good idea.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

GIVE THEM THE LIGHT

+1 for byzantine vassal, preferably in the Armeniakon Theme or in Pontus.

 

[Tigranes]

Trebizond is also a good idea, doesn't it appear in one of the starting periods?

 

[Hellraiser]

You can always pick a Pomerelian sea-potato Duke, I think one of the starts has a one county duchy (just Gdansk/Danzig) with Denmark's Pomerania to the west (that has de jure on your ass and vice versa), prussian pagans to the east (who will probably get conquered by a HRE duke or the teutonic knights sooner rather than later and vastly outnumber your shitty levy and retainer forces anyway) and far more powerful potato duchies to the south.

Of course being duke it means every vassal is a scheming cunt and your succession laws suck (not progenitor but some bullshit equal titles for all sons), on the upside potatoland is fairly decentralized at that start so other vassals of your king are fair game and you're the only potato with access to the sea so you have better prospects for income.

 

[Imperator]

I vote for a random byzantine vassal.

 

[RK47]

CAN U STOP BARNEY THE PURPLE DINOSAUR FROM GOING EXTINCT ?

ARE YOU MAN ENOUGH TO SPANK UR BASILEUS BITCH ASS FROM WITHIN?

 

[Machiavelli]

Counting the votes.

Random Byzantine vassal faction 7 votes.
Duklja faction 4 votes.
Republican faction 1 vote.

I guess that's a win for Barney the purple dinosaur!

But ehh.. Spank your Basileus' bitch ass from within? Like this??:

 

[CappenVarra]

Belisarius reborn!

 

[Ulminati]

I WANT TO BE A BASELIUS!

Start with a really weak duke or smth. That should provide maximum FUN™

 

[Hellraiser]

Wasn't the very first codexian CK2 LP a orthodox greek in italy (Spartenos family IIRC) one called "I want to be a Basileus?"

 

[Machiavelli]

Thanks for the voting guys, it is now officially CLOSED.

However, we still have stuff to decide. Let's look at the following.

These are the direct vassals of the Emperor. See one you like? All dukes are Greek and Orthodox, except for The duke of Mesopotamia (the one between Coloneia and Armenia). He is Armenian and Miaphysite.
Many counts in the east are Miaphysite and Armenian.
The Bagrationi guys (family to the king of Georgia) are counts in Armenia and Armenia Minor.

Spoiler

The Empire is home to several religions. The two big ones are the Orthodox faith, which is going strong. The east is a Miaphysite. There's also a Bogomilist county, which I'm not going to play :-p.
Will we be Orthodox or Miaphysite?

Spoiler

Look at that culture map! Any ethnic wishes?

Spoiler

What will it be? An Armenian Miaphysite duke or count in the eastern mountains? Or a Greek Orthodox count or duke in the middle/west of the empire, inland or coastal?

 

[Hellraiser]

Bro, ditch imageshack for something better. For one they blacklisted the codex (even if you can get around that with reference headers disabled, blah blah), also their images were always a bitch to use.

If you want quality for free but don't care about having your file names arbitrarily scrambled there is minus.com. You can host hi-res .png there with no problem and directly link them. The only issue is having to put everything into BB code one by one if you want the images directly linked in posts in full res.

If you want a decent free service that doesn't rename your images go to photobucket (just remember to change the untick file name scrambling). They'll resize stuff over 1 MB on free accounts but they don't force conversions from .png to .jpeg like imgur does (nor rename shit like imgur does). Less of a bitch to use for a LP/AAR.

 

[Machiavelli]

Bro, ditch imageshack for something better. For one they blacklisted the codex (even if you can get around that with reference headers disabled, blah blah), also their images were always a bitch to use.

If you want quality for free but don't care about having your file names arbitrarily scrambled there is minus.com. You can host hi-res .png there with no problem and directly link them. The only issue is having to put everything into BB code one by one if you want the images directly linked in posts in full res.

If you want a decent free service that doesn't rename your images go to photobucket (just remember to change the untick file name scrambling). They'll resize stuff over 1 MB on free accounts but they don't force conversions from .png to .jpeg like imgur does (nor rename shit like imgur does). Less of a bitch to use for a LP/AAR.

Thanks for the tips. I'll try photobucket.

Any comments on the questions? I really wasn't preparing for a Byzantine vassal :-p So any help is appreciated.

 

[Ulminati]

Lesbos?

(That'd be the Agaean isles. Smack in the middle of everything geographically).

Otherwise, Armenia Minor looks promising. That will have your duchy split 50-50 between religions and cultures. Surefire way to have Vassals plotting to kill you. Or Trebizond for the same reasons.

 

[Imperator]

Duke of Charsianon.

 

[Kashmir Slippers]

Play as Gagik Bagrationi. Playing him in earlier versions accounted for my most enjoyable run. He was the last King of Armenia of his house. That could give you something to work for. The cultural and religious difference will make it extra fun.

 

[Tigranes]

Bagrationi, or the Mesopotamian Miaphysite. A kingdom to work for, lots of cultures / religions boiling, and in 1066 the Empire is powerful enough that being in the centre might become a bit dull.

 

[RK47]

Thanks for the tips. I'll try photobucket.

try dropbox

 

[RK47]

Duke of Charsianon.

With Cumania so close by, there's a golden opportunity to carve your own empire while using Barney as a shield. But that Empire is going to face the full brunt of the Golden Horde - could be challenging.