Lol! As much as I would love to have that board game I worry that if it is anything like CK2 if anyone were to record my buddies and I playing it they’d have a treasure trove of blackmail material.
“There’s a secret cabal of Jews trying to undermine the Govt!”
“My son is gay! How do I make him a eunuch?”
“”What’s the best way to murder my kids?”
“I accidentally fucked my sister!”
I've heard there's been an update recently, is it liable to break my game in progress? I was getting pretty attached to my almost-Emperor and I'd like to continue his murderconquest of Europe some day.
I've heard there's been an update recently, is it liable to break my game in progress? I was getting pretty attached to my almost-Emperor and I'd like to continue his murderconquest of Europe some day.
It's usually only the patches that come with DLC and new content that break older saves. Anything patches between those are just fine.
You can always revert to an old version of the game with the beta tab if it does break it in some way.
I was under the impression that the China expac was the last dlc.
Guess I was wrong
People having been saying 'this DLC is going to be the last DLC' since, like, Rajas of India. Probably before.
Thing is, as long as CK2 DLCs keep selling, Paradox is going to keep on making them,
Maybe, one day, Paradox will officially announce that they're finally going to release what is really absolutely going to be the last CK 2 DLC ever. And I still wouldn't believe them until the release of CK 3.
I was under the impression that the China expac was the last dlc.
Guess I was wrong
People having been saying 'this DLC is going to be the last DLC' since, like, Rajas of India. Probably before.
Thing is, as long as CK2 DLCs keep selling, Paradox is going to keep on making them,
Maybe, one day, Paradox will officially announce that they're finally going to release what is really absolutely going to be the last CK 2 DLC ever. And I still wouldn't believe them until the release of CK 3.
I've listened to interviews with current and former CK2 developers where they address this. There are ideas for CK3, and they do feel very limited by the game's current engine. The major issue, as you'd expect at this point, is figuring out a way to release a CK3 that doesn't feel like a shell of a game since it is replacing years of DLC at this point.
Phillishere on
+9
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Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
I was under the impression that the China expac was the last dlc.
Guess I was wrong
People having been saying 'this DLC is going to be the last DLC' since, like, Rajas of India. Probably before.
Thing is, as long as CK2 DLCs keep selling, Paradox is going to keep on making them,
Maybe, one day, Paradox will officially announce that they're finally going to release what is really absolutely going to be the last CK 2 DLC ever. And I still wouldn't believe them until the release of CK 3.
I've listened to interviews with current and former CK2 developers where they address this. There are ideas for CK3, and they do feel very limited by the game's current engine. The major issue, as you'd expect at this point, is figuring out a way to release a CK3 that doesn't feel like a shell of a game since it is replacing years of DLC at this point.
Yeah, that's definitely going to hurt, the same problem The Sims has every iteration. Hopefully they can at least reuse some things, like the title and character lists they've constantly added to.
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Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
Today I’ll cover a minor feature of the upcoming Holy Fury expansion, the ‘Kill List’. The Kill List is, simply put, a list of everyone a character has killed and how they died. The list is accessed from a button in the character interface
I'm not sure I see the point of keeping a record of all the people everyone's killed.
Although I say this as someone who only ever assassinates anyone when they've really pissed me off, which practically makes me a saint by CK 2 standards.
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
I'm not sure I see the point of keeping a record of all the people everyone's killed.
Although I say this as someone who only ever assassinates anyone when they've really pissed me off, which practically makes me a saint by CK 2 standards.
Now that you can do things like kill people in duels if you put the time in it'll be more interesting, I'd guess. Plus you can find out who it was actually took the head off Duke So-And-So at the Battle of Wherever.
+4
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Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
I have to say, the entire "event spawned troops"-mechanic is utter horseshit. It completely invalidates player choices and locks down the gameplay until the character with the (free to recruit, no upkeep) 20-50k free troops dies, and they are essentially impossible to assassinate in this nerfed assassination system.
Your neighbor spawns more troops than the entire continent can amass? Have fun waiting for the next 50+ years for them to die of old age, while jihading all of your provinces, which you'll then need to painstakingly take back one by one over the next century.
I'm hoping Paradox fixes UI issues on 4k monitors at some point. Ever since I got a 4k monitor I can't really play this game even when I run at 1080p and use bigger UI mod (the mouse doesn't know where it is supposed to be).
“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
― Marcus Aurelius
I have to say, the entire "event spawned troops"-mechanic is utter horseshit. It completely invalidates player choices and locks down the gameplay until the character with the (free to recruit, no upkeep) 20-50k free troops dies, and they are essentially impossible to assassinate in this nerfed assassination system.
Your neighbor spawns more troops than the entire continent can amass? Have fun waiting for the next 50+ years for them to die of old age, while jihading all of your provinces, which you'll then need to painstakingly take back one by one over the next century.
I love doing careful research, making sure that my neighbor has smaller levies than me, that they don't have the money or piety to summon mercs or holy orders, and somehow them still showing up with a stack three sizes larger than I was expecting.
I have to say, the entire "event spawned troops"-mechanic is utter horseshit. It completely invalidates player choices and locks down the gameplay until the character with the (free to recruit, no upkeep) 20-50k free troops dies, and they are essentially impossible to assassinate in this nerfed assassination system.
Your neighbor spawns more troops than the entire continent can amass? Have fun waiting for the next 50+ years for them to die of old age, while jihading all of your provinces, which you'll then need to painstakingly take back one by one over the next century.
My favorite was definitely the time I invaded and took the Crimea as Dyre the Stranger before a huge Byzantine army literally teleported into the one province they still held and rolled me up like they were making bread.
I have to say, the entire "event spawned troops"-mechanic is utter horseshit. It completely invalidates player choices and locks down the gameplay until the character with the (free to recruit, no upkeep) 20-50k free troops dies, and they are essentially impossible to assassinate in this nerfed assassination system.
Your neighbor spawns more troops than the entire continent can amass? Have fun waiting for the next 50+ years for them to die of old age, while jihading all of your provinces, which you'll then need to painstakingly take back one by one over the next century.
My favorite was definitely the time I invaded and took the Crimea as Dyre the Stranger before a huge Byzantine army literally teleported into the one province they still held and rolled me up like they were making bread.
As a status update, I've curbed the Shia aggression as Persia.
Basically what happened:
Shia event fires, 30k troops spawn next to my capital and holy war the entire duchy of Jibal (my central hub of power, most of my income and troops were from here)
My characters keep dying for the next 60 years, while the event troop shia caliph keeps trucking, taking over 75% of my kingdom. I have no recourse against at this point 50k troops, and have lost all my claims due to characters keeling over every 15 years.
My queen decides to become the top satanist, and starts popping out devil children through the Unholy Impregnation event.
I manage to become independent from the Abbasids when they're busy civil warring, and proceed to holy war and take over the (previously mine) shia lands after the event troops disappear with my satanic progeny and their armies of cultists and witches. And plenty of demon possession and tainted touch and assassination.
I'm back where I started.
Kinda interesting, but I would've definitely preferred to keep my original heading as opposed to this 150 year sidetrack. Protip: Satan is a swell guy.
(this is probably huge, sorry i forgot how to ensmallen it)
I pretty much single-handedly won this crusade against Andalusia for the Pope, so he made it my problem. Now I'm at 190/9 on my limit and I'm way out of my depth. What should I do?
OK, so, option one, laboriously right-click on every barony-tier title and have the game auto-generate those vassals for you and then hand out all county-level titles to whatever unlanded characters happen to be lounging about in your court (hint: Content is good in vassals, Ambitious is bad). Or just hand out county- and duchy-level titles and click the button that says you're also handing them all lower-level titles that goes with it.
Option two... I believe there's a special decision in the decisions menu somewhere where you can ask your Steward to divvy up all your superfluous titles and just have the computer handle it.
This is what's known as a "high-class problem to have."
When you win a Crusade or holy war, three things (usually) happen:
You get the title you went to war for (this can occasionally not happen for reasons (TM))
All rulers from baron on up of your religion become your vassals, if possible
All rulers from baron on up who are not of your religion lose their holdings and you take it over
This usually results, at the end of such a war, of you shooting immediately above your demesne limit and getting the "You have the wrong holding type!" because you've now got a bunch of cities and temples under personal control.
You can just click on the "Let the steward handle this" button, and they'll hand out titles to your existing using some kind of method. I hate doing that, because they do a totally crappy job.
Instead, you should look at this as an opportunity to play the Real Crusader Kings (it starts here!) and get your extended family some land.
Specific advice behind the spoiler, in case you'd like to figure this out for yourself.
First off, go through each of your new holdings and find places where you've got the wrong kind of holding. In places with two or more temples (which will happen a lot in Muslim lands, because Muslim feudal lords can hold temple properties without penalty) create a new bishop by right-clicking on the temple holding and choosing "Create a new vassal." That'll randomly roll a new ecclesiastical vassal of your culture and religion and automatically give him the title. Then, go to the diplomacy screen with that new vassal and give him the title to the other temple in the same county. Generally, if there are two or three temples, I'll give them all to one new bishop; if there are 4 or more in the same county, I'll create two new bishops and split the holdings.
Do the same thing with cities. Except that, if haven't before, now is a fantastic time to create a merchant house of your dynasty by choosing a family member, giving him the city in a holding first, and then giving him the county title (with the castle) in a sweet coastal province. More on that later, though.
Then, decide what holdings you're going to keep for yourself. The best choices are single counties with more than one castle in them, where you keep all of the castles, or places with a single castle and a bunch of cities, depending on whether you want money or soldiers more. If possible, keep all of the counties in a single de jure duchy (and then, if you need to keep your duchy count low, destroy the duchy title; the only vassals you'll piss off are barons (who don't matter) and ... yourself).
For everything else, your goal is to avoid creating strife within your kingdom (especially with you), and so you want the lines of vassalage to be as clear as possible. If you can, give every county (and all the castles in it) to a separate person - focusing on Content family members first, but always prioritizing your culture and your religion. Over time, your vassals will work to convert the provinces they own to both, which will reduce the long-term revolt risk. The more individual rulers there are, the more court actions are going on (e.g., deploying a chaplain to convert a province), and so the faster this tends to happen.
Then, within each de jure duchy, give one of the counts the duchy title. This will result in you only needing to deal with, e.g., 4 or 5 vassals to cover the entirety of your new lands, rather than 15 or 20 (which is unsustainable, probably). If you made a family member a city-controller, above, make sure to give him all the cities in a county and at least one castle. Then, when you make him a duke, he'll turn into a Grand Mayor of the duchy and Patrician of [Your Family]. Vassal merchant republics are excellent banks.
If there is a problem character that you really, really want to or need to give land to, for some reason, make them a count with a different duke over them. Make it someone else's problem.
Anyway, at the end of all this, you'll have made a bunch of your family members landholders, increasing your dynasty's prestige and power (and points!), built the foundation of a long-term stable realm, and plucked the best fruit for yourself.
Enjoy! And watch out for Muslim rebels, counterattacks from Muslim rulers, the French mooching in on your stuff ... You know, CK things.
AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
If I reach that point in CK where I'm not an Empire yet but have a bunch of Dukes I start giving them overlapping counties so they'll constantly be fighting each other and trying to win my favor.
I don't always do that, but it is my go to if I suddenly find myself the ruler of a ton of new counties or if my vassals are making nice with each other or one of them has a serious claim to my throne or one of them is getting too powerful or because I feel like it. :razz:
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
OK, so, option one, laboriously right-click on every barony-tier title and have the game auto-generate those vassals for you and then hand out all county-level titles to whatever unlanded characters happen to be lounging about in your court (hint: Content is good in vassals, Ambitious is bad). Or just hand out county- and duchy-level titles and click the button that says you're also handing them all lower-level titles that goes with it.
Option two... I believe there's a special decision in the decisions menu somewhere where you can ask your Steward to divvy up all your superfluous titles and just have the computer handle it.
In any event, welcome to micromanagement Hell.
I would VERY heavily recommend against letting the computer handle it for you.
Because in my experience, the AI loves nothing more than leaving you with spread out newly gained hellhole titles all over the place, while happily giving away the core provinces you've painstakingly developed for the past century or two.
I always give generate vassals for baronies, then hand out county titles as needed. If I'm really strapped for courtiers and have gotten a ton of new titles I'll give out entire duchies to people
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
I always give generate vassals for baronies, then hand out county titles as needed. If I'm really strapped for courtiers and have gotten a ton of new titles I'll give out entire duchies to people
I like giving Baronies to people with decent skills I've invited to court, personally, on the idea that they'll raise heirs with similar talents I can use as advisors in perpetuity.
I always give generate vassals for baronies, then hand out county titles as needed. If I'm really strapped for courtiers and have gotten a ton of new titles I'll give out entire duchies to people
I like giving Baronies to people with decent skills I've invited to court, personally, on the idea that they'll raise heirs with similar talents I can use as advisors in perpetuity.
And then their heirs end up as slow or inbred instead.
I always give generate vassals for baronies, then hand out county titles as needed. If I'm really strapped for courtiers and have gotten a ton of new titles I'll give out entire duchies to people
I like giving Baronies to people with decent skills I've invited to court, personally, on the idea that they'll raise heirs with similar talents I can use as advisors in perpetuity.
And then their heirs end up as slow or inbred instead.
Sometimes, yeah. But that's fine, those guys are probably going to get murdered or inherited-out by someone else. The goal is to have options / claims to press!
Well, decided to try this out.
Got conclave, way of life and reaper's due dlc's.
played couple hours, got nowhere, started over, and now couple hours more later my first ruler is on deaths door with 2 counties and about to loose one of them one death.
I'd have 3, and no worries of inheritance, except my minion failed to fake a claim on the higher tier title.
On hindsight, might have been smarter to start as a vassal of a larger realm, instead of an independent ruler of a single region surrounded by stronger realms.
Well, decided to try this out.
Got conclave, way of life and reaper's due dlc's.
played couple hours, got nowhere, started over, and now couple hours more later my first ruler is on deaths door with 2 counties and about to loose one of them one death.
I'd have 3, and no worries of inheritance, except my minion failed to fake a claim on the higher tier title.
On hindsight, might have been smarter to start as a vassal of a larger realm, instead of an independent ruler of a single region surrounded by stronger realms.
Best first time start (after messing with the tutorial) is the count of Dublin, or his father, who's ancient and will die fairly soon after start, giving you two counties and their entire levies at your command, more that pretty much anyone else on Ireland. Being Irish also lets you set the succession type to Tanistry, which keeps all your holding within the hands of a single family member when you die (though you might not be able to pick "which" family member that is.) You will struggle to expand beyond the island as England and Scotland are bigger than you (unless William or Harald conquer England and suffer the consequences) but it's a nice safe place to learn the ins and outs of conquest and dealing with vassals before going to one of the more established or dangerous starts.
Might also consider disabling Conclave for your first couple of goes, at least until you learn how to manage you vassals' opinion of you and their own plots, which is extremly important for getting the most out of the council as a liege.
+1
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
Yeah Ireland is a great sort of "newbie island".
If you want to try your hand at something bigger I personal like the Byzantine Empire. France I think is the easiest, but Byzantine feels like the right blend of challenging but forgiving.
Although I suppose that depends on when you start. Early years Ireland (pre-1066?) maybe isn't the easiest thing and later years Byzantine is also in a pickle.
Before you know it you'll be playing a one county Jew and reforming the Roman Empire.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
If you want to try your hand at something bigger I personal like the Byzantine Empire. France I think is the easiest, but Byzantine feels like the right blend of challenging but forgiving.
Although I suppose that depends on when you start. Early years Ireland (pre-1066?) maybe isn't the easiest thing and later years Byzantine is also in a pickle.
Before you know it you'll be playing a one county Jew and reforming the Roman Empire.
Old Gods Ireland is harder, because you're going to be fighting off Vikings as much as the Anglo-Saxons, but as a tribe instead a feudal.
Charlemagne, on the other hand, all the counts of Northern Ireland are in the same dynasty, and old to boot, so with Tanistry its quite possible to get most of counties need to declare yourself king just by bounceing around the family tree as your holdings get past to a landed cousin or uncle.
+1
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Zavianuniversal peace sounds better than forever warRegistered Userregular
I've tried Byzantium campaigns before and they always end up with my vassals hating me and pushing for lower crown authority resulting in civil wars, which is the opposite of my SPQR achievement goal. I don't have conclave which apparently makes that a lot easier playing empire level since you can appease your council and they won't push for lower crown authority (what I read on reddit anyway)
Posts
"I don't care, I'm marrying that horse"
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Barony's good as well if more about demense-placement.
Guess I was wrong
WoW
Dear Satan.....
I can't believe this game is still going strong after 6 years. I'm not even wanting a CK3 yet.
It's usually only the patches that come with DLC and new content that break older saves. Anything patches between those are just fine.
You can always revert to an old version of the game with the beta tab if it does break it in some way.
That said, they are changing the counties in the next update, so it probably will affect older saves.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
People having been saying 'this DLC is going to be the last DLC' since, like, Rajas of India. Probably before.
Thing is, as long as CK2 DLCs keep selling, Paradox is going to keep on making them,
Maybe, one day, Paradox will officially announce that they're finally going to release what is really absolutely going to be the last CK 2 DLC ever. And I still wouldn't believe them until the release of CK 3.
I've listened to interviews with current and former CK2 developers where they address this. There are ideas for CK3, and they do feel very limited by the game's current engine. The major issue, as you'd expect at this point, is figuring out a way to release a CK3 that doesn't feel like a shell of a game since it is replacing years of DLC at this point.
Yeah, that's definitely going to hurt, the same problem The Sims has every iteration. Hopefully they can at least reuse some things, like the title and character lists they've constantly added to.
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/ck2-dev-diary-87-killing-spree.1105581/
Although I say this as someone who only ever assassinates anyone when they've really pissed me off, which practically makes me a saint by CK 2 standards.
Now that you can do things like kill people in duels if you put the time in it'll be more interesting, I'd guess. Plus you can find out who it was actually took the head off Duke So-And-So at the Battle of Wherever.
Now today I saw this: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/06/27/crusader-kings-ii-fork-challenge/amp/
Your neighbor spawns more troops than the entire continent can amass? Have fun waiting for the next 50+ years for them to die of old age, while jihading all of your provinces, which you'll then need to painstakingly take back one by one over the next century.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
I love doing careful research, making sure that my neighbor has smaller levies than me, that they don't have the money or piety to summon mercs or holy orders, and somehow them still showing up with a stack three sizes larger than I was expecting.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
My favorite was definitely the time I invaded and took the Crimea as Dyre the Stranger before a huge Byzantine army literally teleported into the one province they still held and rolled me up like they were making bread.
As a status update, I've curbed the Shia aggression as Persia.
Basically what happened:
Kinda interesting, but I would've definitely preferred to keep my original heading as opposed to this 150 year sidetrack. Protip: Satan is a swell guy.
I want to wait until there's an 'official' Shattered World and see what happens with that.
Also I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that West Africa is going to get some love in the map update.
Official Shattered World is going to be one of the features of Holy Fury, IIRC.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
(this is probably huge, sorry i forgot how to ensmallen it)
I pretty much single-handedly won this crusade against Andalusia for the Pope, so he made it my problem. Now I'm at 190/9 on my limit and I'm way out of my depth. What should I do?
Option two... I believe there's a special decision in the decisions menu somewhere where you can ask your Steward to divvy up all your superfluous titles and just have the computer handle it.
In any event, welcome to micromanagement Hell.
This is what's known as a "high-class problem to have."
When you win a Crusade or holy war, three things (usually) happen:
This usually results, at the end of such a war, of you shooting immediately above your demesne limit and getting the "You have the wrong holding type!" because you've now got a bunch of cities and temples under personal control.
You can just click on the "Let the steward handle this" button, and they'll hand out titles to your existing using some kind of method. I hate doing that, because they do a totally crappy job.
Instead, you should look at this as an opportunity to play the Real Crusader Kings (it starts here!) and get your extended family some land.
Specific advice behind the spoiler, in case you'd like to figure this out for yourself.
Do the same thing with cities. Except that, if haven't before, now is a fantastic time to create a merchant house of your dynasty by choosing a family member, giving him the city in a holding first, and then giving him the county title (with the castle) in a sweet coastal province. More on that later, though.
Then, decide what holdings you're going to keep for yourself. The best choices are single counties with more than one castle in them, where you keep all of the castles, or places with a single castle and a bunch of cities, depending on whether you want money or soldiers more. If possible, keep all of the counties in a single de jure duchy (and then, if you need to keep your duchy count low, destroy the duchy title; the only vassals you'll piss off are barons (who don't matter) and ... yourself).
For everything else, your goal is to avoid creating strife within your kingdom (especially with you), and so you want the lines of vassalage to be as clear as possible. If you can, give every county (and all the castles in it) to a separate person - focusing on Content family members first, but always prioritizing your culture and your religion. Over time, your vassals will work to convert the provinces they own to both, which will reduce the long-term revolt risk. The more individual rulers there are, the more court actions are going on (e.g., deploying a chaplain to convert a province), and so the faster this tends to happen.
Then, within each de jure duchy, give one of the counts the duchy title. This will result in you only needing to deal with, e.g., 4 or 5 vassals to cover the entirety of your new lands, rather than 15 or 20 (which is unsustainable, probably). If you made a family member a city-controller, above, make sure to give him all the cities in a county and at least one castle. Then, when you make him a duke, he'll turn into a Grand Mayor of the duchy and Patrician of [Your Family]. Vassal merchant republics are excellent banks.
If there is a problem character that you really, really want to or need to give land to, for some reason, make them a count with a different duke over them. Make it someone else's problem.
Anyway, at the end of all this, you'll have made a bunch of your family members landholders, increasing your dynasty's prestige and power (and points!), built the foundation of a long-term stable realm, and plucked the best fruit for yourself.
Enjoy! And watch out for Muslim rebels, counterattacks from Muslim rulers, the French mooching in on your stuff ... You know, CK things.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I don't always do that, but it is my go to if I suddenly find myself the ruler of a ton of new counties or if my vassals are making nice with each other or one of them has a serious claim to my throne or one of them is getting too powerful or because I feel like it. :razz:
I would VERY heavily recommend against letting the computer handle it for you.
Because in my experience, the AI loves nothing more than leaving you with spread out newly gained hellhole titles all over the place, while happily giving away the core provinces you've painstakingly developed for the past century or two.
I like giving Baronies to people with decent skills I've invited to court, personally, on the idea that they'll raise heirs with similar talents I can use as advisors in perpetuity.
And then their heirs end up as slow or inbred instead.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Sometimes, yeah. But that's fine, those guys are probably going to get murdered or inherited-out by someone else. The goal is to have options / claims to press!
Got conclave, way of life and reaper's due dlc's.
played couple hours, got nowhere, started over, and now couple hours more later my first ruler is on deaths door with 2 counties and about to loose one of them one death.
I'd have 3, and no worries of inheritance, except my minion failed to fake a claim on the higher tier title.
On hindsight, might have been smarter to start as a vassal of a larger realm, instead of an independent ruler of a single region surrounded by stronger realms.
Best first time start (after messing with the tutorial) is the count of Dublin, or his father, who's ancient and will die fairly soon after start, giving you two counties and their entire levies at your command, more that pretty much anyone else on Ireland. Being Irish also lets you set the succession type to Tanistry, which keeps all your holding within the hands of a single family member when you die (though you might not be able to pick "which" family member that is.) You will struggle to expand beyond the island as England and Scotland are bigger than you (unless William or Harald conquer England and suffer the consequences) but it's a nice safe place to learn the ins and outs of conquest and dealing with vassals before going to one of the more established or dangerous starts.
Might also consider disabling Conclave for your first couple of goes, at least until you learn how to manage you vassals' opinion of you and their own plots, which is extremly important for getting the most out of the council as a liege.
If you want to try your hand at something bigger I personal like the Byzantine Empire. France I think is the easiest, but Byzantine feels like the right blend of challenging but forgiving.
Although I suppose that depends on when you start. Early years Ireland (pre-1066?) maybe isn't the easiest thing and later years Byzantine is also in a pickle.
Before you know it you'll be playing a one county Jew and reforming the Roman Empire.
Old Gods Ireland is harder, because you're going to be fighting off Vikings as much as the Anglo-Saxons, but as a tribe instead a feudal.
Charlemagne, on the other hand, all the counts of Northern Ireland are in the same dynasty, and old to boot, so with Tanistry its quite possible to get most of counties need to declare yourself king just by bounceing around the family tree as your holdings get past to a landed cousin or uncle.
If your council has a lot of power, the people on it can't join factions but it also takes a lot of agency away from you
But completely dismantling a Council is one of the most satisfying gaming experiences for me.
The Council are the real final boss of CK2.