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Crusader Kings 2; Charlemagne vs Carloman, Fratricide 2.0
Posts
I love Paradox patch notes out of context.
I'm doing OK in a Wales game at the moment. I decided early on that I was going to expand only in ways that let me put my own people into new counties, so my dynasty would be safe. I've bred characters like mad and kept women in matrilineal marriages to increase the supply of cousins without claims to my titles. My latest king had a brush with dangerous factions, reaching 70% of his strength, but they eventually settled down. All but one of my vassals are family members or priests, and I plan on forging a claim/revoking the title of the only non family member. I control most of England, most of Ireland, and absolutely none of Scotland. I control Wales (sans Cornwall) and Middlesex as my personal demesne.
One thing I've learned about Ironman: it's super important to have at least 1k gold available at all times, no exceptions.
If I succeed in getting the Empire of Britannia, I plan to avoid expansion, and just work on getting the Empress achievements, the four kingdoms achievement, the gold achievement, and the survive to 1453 achievements.
Paradox always has great patch notes, but that takes the cake.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Paradox has the modding community for that.
After 250 years of being "confined" to the Duchy of Zhumud on the Baltic Coast as a High Chief under leadership of the Republic, my Family Patriarch decided that it was time for me to be the Designed Heir of the family. So in the year of our Lord Jarilo, 1229, I finally assumed control of the Kingdom of Pommeria once again. Patience pays off, eh?
Gonna be weird being in control once again. I quite liked the fact that the AI handled the bigger things (with some stupidity of course) while I could sit back and plot from the shadows. Now I have to deal with all.
Guess it really doesn't matter. Poland has become GIANT BLOB POLAAAAAND while Pommeria has gown equally big. The only other kingdom/empire to oppose the Slavic dominance is the Byzantine Empire (but they got a mighty whopping twice in a row - first through a holy war and then a Great Holy War right afterwards).
I am chomping at the bit for a game with the simulation depth/politcking of EU4/CK2, but where my cassus belli for my latest war is based on an embargo of griffin eggs from the twilight emperor of the elves.
1. Feudal Japan mod for CK2
2. Just shitloads of weird looking maps for EU4 and CK2
Just a 2D map with little red and blue dots or something I dunno. I don't need to control the battles but I'd like a visual "show" as it were.
I heard sengoku was a kind of proto-ck2
I went back to the Karen Zoroastrian 867 start and had actually managed to pull off quite a decent start, but then I just kept getting hit by shit over and over and over again. In the 40 or so years before I quit, my ruler died really young and his child heir was deposed in a war I had no chance of winning. So the kingdom of Khiva was controlled by my aunt, who was quite popular, so I set about killing off everyone else ahead of me in line to re-succeed to the throne. I pull that off, and help my aunt fend off several wars against her, but then I die at only 31 while my aunt is still alive at 64. My new child heir is now down to 2 holdings, from the 8 that I was holding onto prior, and had lost the capital county with the upgraded tech. In the last 15 years, a Sunni uprising fires off at the same time that Hungary decides to do an invasion of Khiva. How Hungary managed to gobble up the southern half of Cumania to be in range of me, I have no idea, particularly since it was no where near connected to the basic Hungarian holdings that are way over in central Europe.
I'm having income problems as well, but one thing at a time, right?
You assassinate all your wife's siblings to put her on the throne, and then in the next generation you assassinate all your half-sister's family members to make her the heir, and then you assassinate the pretender who throws her in jail, and then the second she inherits you shove her off a parapet before another claimant crops up. What are you supposed to do, NOT be the king of Denmark and just stick with Scotland and Ireland like some pauper?
I'm sitting on 2k wealth. I have exactly one vassal who's successfully managed to reach the rank of Duke, and he's at 100% opinion despite that I still have one of his de jure vassals under me (so, a free major opinion boost when I do need it). My heir is a strong Grey Eminence with strong, temperate, brave, zealous, humble, kind, diligent, and patient, married to a strong woman with high stewardship. There are no external threats in my vicinity that could conceivably threaten me, all of north-west Europe is a mess outside my borders, and the Norse have been totally unable to get their act together to reform. Scotland is still hanging around my islands, but I'm making progress in forging claims against them and should be able to invade soon. I have a huge family with a ton of backups in case my excellent heir dies, with multiple 20+ diplomacy heirs available to me, and I'm set to elective and I have the only vote. My vassals all like me; the one most displeased with me is a one-province count with +40 opinion. I have a 22 skill spymaster with +100 opinion of me. I have multiple 20+ generals to lead my troops.
I know, I know, that sounds good.
But I know Crusader Kings II.
Something is coming.
The random number generator is bidding its time.
I don't know how, or why, but I can feel it.
Camelot is going to burn.
Also retroactively murdering all of your idiot children once your amazing heir is born
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
All my extra children get put into marriages for alliances and territory gains. Either for me personally or for them.
Also children with bad genetic traits, matri-marry/normal marry into some other dynasty so they inherit the traits.
Sure you might get the odd claim or so but usually it's more dangerous to kill your entire family than it is to spread your dynasty out. I can't tell you how many times I've done the "kill 'em" trick only to then have my awesome genius heir get assassinated the day he turns 16 with my character at the age of 60 and Ill.
WoW
Dear Satan.....
This works wonders with low crown authority because they just go and conquer new land of their own, and family + same liege lord = invite each other to war. So most of the time they are too busy fighting in the family name to really bother you.
Because it makes keeping a sizable realm together very, very difficult when you're stuck with Gavelkind inheritance laws. It'd be different if you could pick which titles your heir gets - one king title, so he gets it, but I want him to have *this* duchy and *these* counties - but since you can't, you find alternate solutions.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Yeah, I'd be much more likely to actually use Gavelkind the right way if I could decide which counties/duchies went to which kid. I want my main heir to inherit two specific duchies and let my other kid have the ones I recently conquered.
Alternatively, you could hold second titles, but keep them weak, small, and unstable. If you have three sons, and you're a king, then you could hold one stable, powerful kingdom, and two small, unstable kingdoms. Your chosen heir will get the good kingdom and should have little trouble taking the smaller kingdoms back (if you even want them).
I usually start with a family-less Create-a-Ruler character, so killing children isn't an option until I'm long past Gavelkind.
I meant from an RP standpoint.
I'm okay with the concept of Oddr the Viking's sons splitting his kingdom, but I want Oddr II to inherit the main kingdoms and give the newly conquered ones to his younger siblings.
On the RP side, what you want to do is go with Primogeniture or similar and then directly grant the titles to your non-heirs on day 1 of succession.
I've been keeping my families intact for RP reasons, and because they create hilarious situations. Just yesterday, the fuckup evil middle son finally got the title he's always wanted, and thanks me by proceeding to immediately murder his kickass older brother and make himself heir. I was going to toss his ass in jail, but he's *me* in another 20 years, so why? And his younger brother is a complete idiot, so assassination is right out.
But I fucked his wife and had a bastard he doesn't know about, so we're even - with zero Intrigue, so I'm a slightly incompetent Robert Baratheon. In fact, I have about 10-15 kids out there somewhere under various wives and in-laws. This includes 5 ninja daughters who are all Elusive Shadows or better, which I really like for some reason.
The core to wars though, is the casus belli system.
Whenever you go to war with someone, you do so with a goal. That goal is the only thing you will get out of the war, no matter how well you do, if you win.
Hrodfulr is a viking who's not allowed to raid. Instead, he's pressed into defending Lotharingia from his brothers in the faith. We'll need to extricate ourselves from those feudal shackles if we want to claim the danegeld that is our birthright as a son of Odin.
Hæsteinn starts independent, with 4000 event troops and the galleys to transport them. The world is his oyster. An oyster that is burning with relgious hatred for him, and holds claims on his little patch of French soil. Hæsteinn's wikipedia file suggests a lot of crazy possibilities for where to go with this start.
Of the two, Hæsteinn is clearly more the more freewheeling, high-stakes start. A lot would depend on where the first player takes things. Hrodulfr is in a more constrained position: alone on the coast of Holland, with a heavy yoke on his neck, can he rise to carve a Viking empire from the heart of Christian Europe?
Psh. I deal with Gavelkind like to do decadence. Grant the lands to my sons before I kick it. As long as you're in mainland Europe those second and third sons (and fourth fifth and sixth) will be way more interested in killing Frenchmen/Muslims than trying to take the throne from you. You just need to make sure you heir actually gets the most land.
I've actually played a Gavelkind only game before. Dynasty wound up looking like the Karlings after awhile.
Not that I stay in Gavelkind for very long. I prefer Primo/elective myself. Especially elective for Empires.