Had that happen to me as well. Not sure if it was a bug or what. The solution was to run and hide until their other war finished.
Unfortunately, after the Italians helped them win their civil war, they were able to raise a respectable levy and call new allies. So I had to eat the 2,000-gold cost of a war that should have been very quick and easy.
I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
Outside of Vikings the Zunbils have the most events for a pagan religion.
One of your intrigues that you can do every year is called the Festival of the Sun. It has given multiple characters of mine the quick or genius trait, as well as the Strong trait.
Judged by Zun is perhaps the best imprisonment in the game.
And many more.
Also the start is super fun if you're alright with being constantly menaced by the Blobbasids.
Outside of Vikings the Zunbils have the most events for a pagan religion.
One of your intrigues that you can do every year is called the Festival of the Sun. It has given multiple characters of mine the quick or genius trait, as well as the Strong trait.
Judged by Zun is perhaps the best imprisonment in the game.
And many more.
Also the start is super fun if you're alright with being constantly menaced by the Blobbasids.
I have to agree, following Zun was fantastic. It might actually rank as my favorite overall campaign ever. It had everything a great campaign needs - tension, triumph, disasters, recovery, worse disasters, an unstoppable army, terrible luck, and a badass queen finishing the job.
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
0
Options
Zavianuniversal peace sounds better than forever warRegistered Userregular
Okay, so I just got the base game, and the DLC options appear daunting. Anyone have any DLC recommendations? I heard that there are "must own" DLC, which ones are those?
There aren't any DLC required to play the game normally, and I suggest you play around for a few hours before buying any to see if the game clicks for you.
If it does, I personally suggest old gods as the best one
My friend is working on a roguelike game you can play if you want to. (It has free demo)
AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
I'm getting so used to the events and options from Way of Life that I'm tempted to nominate it as near-essential, but I don't actually know what the game looks like without it.
I'm getting so used to the events and options from Way of Life that I'm tempted to nominate it as near-essential, but I don't actually know what the game looks like without it.
Way of Life is easily top three for me. More so once they patch the obviously gamebreaking stuff like seduction to something more tame.
In fact, here's my top 3:
Old Gods
Charlamagne
Way of Life
I know a bunch of people who would say that Legacy of Rome is critical because of retinues, however I usually play smaller rulers like Dukes and Counts so that isn't much of a factor for me. However, if you're going to play as or try to become one of the massive empires like France or Byzantium then you'll probably want it. Standing armies are pretty legit.
Eh, retinues are good, yes, but not critical. You can live without em.
They were critical until Paradox nerfed them into being bad compared to hiring mercenaries.
Retinues are fine late game in my opinion. Early game? Total waste. But then, it mirrors the arc of actual history, so I guess I'm OK with it.
Levies are where it's at in the game at the moment, with mercenaries to help against people your own strength or stronger.
Depends on how quickly you can get some going. That first retinue stack, if it shows up early enough, can be really helpful in putting you over the top of someone else's army, pushing raiders away, or getting military events applied to someone via "helping" in someone else's wars without much risk.
But yeah, they're not a be-all end-all any longer.
Retinues do help you snowball like crazy as a culture that can raid, get the one that's like 550 units (Skirmish I think), flag it to raid mode, and just pop it on a single province ruler. He'll never raise his military and 500 units is all you need to get the max efficiency in stealing from the loot bar. Once you have a nice big stack of retinue, you can pop a siege leader into the middle flank and the more units you have the faster you'll tear down the walls for even more loot (Double the province's tax income if you fully siege it out).
You can even ignore the tedium of removing all the leaders to avoid losing men to siege events since your retinue will just refill.
Retinues are mostly great for supplementing your levies in areas they lack in. Like more archers, or more cavalry, or more *insert unit type here* to allow more well-rounded armies.
Cataphracts are still one of the stronger retinues, but the way they take losses once the battle enters melee can hurt your wallet quite a bit under the new retinue costs
Archer retinues were nerfed, but they're still superior because against most opponents, the battle will never hit melee phase and the archers will walk away with minimal losses
Archer retinues will destroy most armies/flanks even if they are grossly outnumbered, as long as you have under 60% archers on your flanks
Heavy cavalry (knight and cataphract) retinues can change the battle to melee phase from day 3, but they're not a hard counter because they will take losses before the battle enters melee phase
It doesn't really matter outside multiplayer though since the AI will never concentrate its retinues on one flank or use a retinue army in the way a player uses it
A retinue of 100% pikemen also has a fair chance to take down an archer retinue, but once again, the AI will never use these tactics against you
Pikemen are arguably better than a generic archer retinue if you're not English or Welsh, but archers also have the almost gross bonus of being the best at sieging
Okay, so I bought this game in the holiday sale, and for some reason I've become obsessed with playing as Scotland. No other country really seems to appeal to me at the moment; I've always really liked the idea of Scotland becoming a major player in world politics, maybe even absorbing England and Ireland and starting a Scottish Empire over northern Europe. But the game doesn't want to let me do that, and in fact seems to enjoy fucking Scotland over at every opportunity. Any start other than 1337 seems to result in me being immediately invaded by either England or Norway, and a 1337 start is still no guarantee that things will go my way, it just means that England starts off too occupied with France to immediately fuck me over. Mostly my problem is that regardless of how well I play, Scotland is eternally at the mercy of the bigger fish. I was doing really well one time, having grabbed two Irish counties, kept my vassals happy, gained the approval of the clergy and had nearly 500 gold in the bank, but then I noticed that England had somehow finished the "Hundred years war" 96 years early and taken over all of France while I wasn't looking.
Any advice how I can prevent the English from taking both our lives and our freedom every time?
That, and it's usually a good idea to post-haste arrange an alliance with some local power that can help you fend off invaders. Might be very worthwhile starting with conquering Ireland too, since if the worst comes to worst, you can hide over there plotting your return. Ireland is pretty safe. It'd also afford you some more underlings and armies to resist the saxons with.
That, and it's usually a good idea to post-haste arrange an alliance with some local power that can help you fend off invaders. Might be very worthwhile starting with conquering Ireland too, since if the worst comes to worst, you can hide over there plotting your return. Ireland is pretty safe. It'd also afford you some more underlings and armies to resist the saxons with.
Yeah, I just realized just how many brothers and sisters (and half-brothers, and half-sisters and bastards...) David De Brus actually has, and now I'm allied with HRE and Denmark, so I guess that's a start.
One thing that confuses me, low crown authority is supposed to grant me the ability to revoke titles... except that I still seem to have that ability with min crown authority... so what's going on there?
That, and it's usually a good idea to post-haste arrange an alliance with some local power that can help you fend off invaders. Might be very worthwhile starting with conquering Ireland too, since if the worst comes to worst, you can hide over there plotting your return. Ireland is pretty safe. It'd also afford you some more underlings and armies to resist the saxons with.
Yeah, I just realized just how many brothers and sisters (and half-brothers, and half-sisters and bastards...) David De Brus actually has, and now I'm allied with HRE and Denmark, so I guess that's a start.
One thing that confuses me, low crown authority is supposed to grant me the ability to revoke titles... except that I still seem to have that ability with min crown authority... so what's going on there?
I'm pretty sure that revoking titles is only possible at medium crown authority and higher, but I don't know if that's been changed.
You get the ability to revoke titles at Limited CA, only the Autonomous Vassals level doesn't allow you to revoke titles.
You should be fairly safe as Scotland if you prevent the English king from gaining any titles on your land. In many starts, Scotland will have some part of de-jure England, but I would just cut losses in that case if you're the target of an early war. Try to gain a claim on England and then press your claim backed by mercenaries and a strong ally like the King of France. Or expand into Ireland and Wales first to consolidate your power. If you can place your dynasty on the throne of another kingdom or even gain that kingdom yourself, that will also put you into a good position.
re:Scotland, I think it's also important to remember this game is about the long play, not the short. You shouldn't expect to build up and beat England or Norway in a war, it's unrealistic and isn't really how this game works. Similarly, it makes historical and logistical sense for both to want to invade Scotland and take over the resources it provides. However unlike in most games, you don't lose when you get invaded. Things aren't decided in a battle or a war but over hundreds of years. If diplomatic alliances aren't keeping invaders away, let them invade. Become a part of the kingdom of England and then devour it from the inside. Plot against the colonial power and incite revolts to weaken it, marry tactically and grab whatever you can, until eventually you can destroy the title kingdom of England and make the kingdom of Scotland the one true kingdom of the land.
That, and it's usually a good idea to post-haste arrange an alliance with some local power that can help you fend off invaders. Might be very worthwhile starting with conquering Ireland too, since if the worst comes to worst, you can hide over there plotting your return. Ireland is pretty safe. It'd also afford you some more underlings and armies to resist the saxons with.
Yeah, I just realized just how many brothers and sisters (and half-brothers, and half-sisters and bastards...) David De Brus actually has, and now I'm allied with HRE and Denmark, so I guess that's a start.
One thing that confuses me, low crown authority is supposed to grant me the ability to revoke titles... except that I still seem to have that ability with min crown authority... so what's going on there?
I'm pretty sure that revoking titles is only possible at medium crown authority and higher, but I don't know if that's been changed.
I can definitely revoke titles at low authority, but it gives me such a big opinion hit (with everybody) that it isn't ever really worth it. I'm wondering if maybe higher crown authority just reduces / removes that penalty? I dunno, the whole thing confuses me.
re:Scotland, I think it's also important to remember this game is about the long play, not the short. You shouldn't expect to build up and beat England or Norway in a war, it's unrealistic and isn't really how this game works. Similarly, it makes historical and logistical sense for both to want to invade Scotland and take over the resources it provides. However unlike in most games, you don't lose when you get invaded. Things aren't decided in a battle or a war but over hundreds of years. If diplomatic alliances aren't keeping invaders away, let them invade. Become a part of the kingdom of England and then devour it from the inside. Plot against the colonial power and incite revolts to weaken it, marry tactically and grab whatever you can, until eventually you can destroy the title kingdom of England and make the kingdom of Scotland the one true kingdom of the land.
I actually did manage to finally engineer a successful war against England though, through triggering a WWI-esque chain of alliances that ignited a pretty big multi-national war over the Isle of Man. I forgot to mention France in my last post; I'd married off all of David De Brus's female relatives to Kings and Princes in France, Germany and Denmark, resulting in a Scottish dynasty tree with three monarchs on the same level. Then I waited until England's army had left for the crusades and declared war, inviting France and Denmark to the party as soon as the option became available. France generously sent 10,000 men to help out, which was nice of them seeing as I only had 8,000 to begin with and England was about to roll 15,000 at me. Denmark declined to help, demonstrating a severe lack of viking spirit. I'd kept my piety high and had enough to call in the Knights Hospitalier if I needed to, but I never did need to, the French reinforcements were enough to turn the tide on their own. I called for help from the HRE at the same time that England did, but HRE decided that they liked England better and joined their side instead. Thankfully they never actually sent any troops to England, as France kept them busy. The end result was basically a huge proxy war between England and France, with Germany growling menacingly at the sidelines and thousands of casualties on each side over one tiny island.
But now its my tiny island. And I'm sure there will be no long-term diplomatic consequences for this whatsoever.
Seducing women is way too easy. As King of West Francia, I wooed multiple other kings' wives, apart from the two nearby who were chaste. People should really take their wedding vows much more seriously, especially if they're nobility with many eyes on them (and lineage at stake).
Was England not Catholic? The Knights won't fight against other Christians. Only infidels.
They're currently Catholic but have set up an anti-pope, so I don't know whether they'd count as heathens exactly. So would the knights refuse to be hired by me, or just refuse to actually fight, because although it makes total sense, I hadn't heard of the "no heathens" rule anywhere before.
0
Options
AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Was England not Catholic? The Knights won't fight against other Christians. Only infidels.
They're currently Catholic but have set up an anti-pope, so I don't know whether they'd count as heathens exactly. So would the knights refuse to be hired by me, or just refuse to actually fight, because although it makes total sense, I hadn't heard of the "no heathens" rule anywhere before.
You can hire them and merge them with your troops, but they won't fight any armies of your religion (although they will happily fight against heretics). I think it's somewhere in a tooltip on the screen where you can hire them.
The only way to dodge the opinion malus for revoking titles is to have a reason for doing so - you can freely revoke titles if you have a claim on them (you can also engineer one inside your realm) or if the holder is a traitor. The Byzantine Emperor could also freely revoke duchies before Charlemagne, but I'm not sure how that works now under Imperial Administration.
Okay, so I just got the base game, and the DLC options appear daunting. Anyone have any DLC recommendations? I heard that there are "must own" DLC, which ones are those?
I managed to get all the clothing and face DLC for like under $15 during a sale, if your gonna play the game it really gives visual variety.
After that Way of Life effects everyone but unless your gonna play a Viking/Muslim/Indian character there is little reason to get those DLC(old gods, Rajas, Sons of Abraham).
You should totally play as a Viking/Muslim/Indian character at some point though.
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
I've run into what seems like a bug. My majestic Empire of Kiev, home of the reformed Slavic faith, is in a holy war with the Khan of Volga Bulgari, faaaaar to the east over the kingdom of Cumania. A war that the high diviner of the Slavic faith had declared. Like a good Slav, I offered to join the war like the rest of the Slavic kingdoms did. The holy-war has now lasted 11 years, but we have finally managed to push it to 100% warscore, with me as the key contributor, but because I didn't begin the war, I can't offer terms. So despite the 100% warscore, the blasted thing wont end, because the High Diviner seemingly has no intention of offering peace.
I'm still a learner myself so I'm mostly guessing, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that 100% warscore doesn't necessarily mean an instant end to the war. I'd guess either the high diviner (who I'm further guessing is like a Slavic version of a Pope or Caliph) or the target of the holy war doesn't want peace for whatever reason.
I had a question of my own about wars, actually, specifically about pressing a claim on behalf of someone in your court. I know how to invite claimants to a foreign kingdom to my court, and how to press their claims, but how do I make sure the territory is actually under my control afterwards, without having to give away a county first? For example, if I recruit someone with a claim to some small independent Irish County to my court he'll join no problem, and I'll get the option to press his claim. But unless I also make him Count/Earl of one of my existing counties, he'll just end up forming his own independent county and refuse my offer of vassalage. It seems as though he needs to already be a land-owning vassal before I can press his claims and keep him in the Kingdom, is that the case?
If they're a member of your dynasty or you are the de jure leige of the title or they're already your vassal they'll be your vassal after you press their claim. You can give them a county, press their claim, then plot to revoke the title you gave them though.
My friend is working on a roguelike game you can play if you want to. (It has free demo)
Posts
Unfortunately, after the Italians helped them win their civil war, they were able to raise a respectable levy and call new allies. So I had to eat the 2,000-gold cost of a war that should have been very quick and easy.
That sounds like no challenge at all!
Outside of Vikings the Zunbils have the most events for a pagan religion.
One of your intrigues that you can do every year is called the Festival of the Sun. It has given multiple characters of mine the quick or genius trait, as well as the Strong trait.
Judged by Zun is perhaps the best imprisonment in the game.
And many more.
Also the start is super fun if you're alright with being constantly menaced by the Blobbasids.
I have to agree, following Zun was fantastic. It might actually rank as my favorite overall campaign ever. It had everything a great campaign needs - tension, triumph, disasters, recovery, worse disasters, an unstoppable army, terrible luck, and a badass queen finishing the job.
If it does, I personally suggest old gods as the best one
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Way of Life is easily top three for me. More so once they patch the obviously gamebreaking stuff like seduction to something more tame.
In fact, here's my top 3:
Old Gods
Charlamagne
Way of Life
I know a bunch of people who would say that Legacy of Rome is critical because of retinues, however I usually play smaller rulers like Dukes and Counts so that isn't much of a factor for me. However, if you're going to play as or try to become one of the massive empires like France or Byzantium then you'll probably want it. Standing armies are pretty legit.
They were critical until Paradox nerfed them into being bad compared to hiring mercenaries.
Retinues are fine late game in my opinion. Early game? Total waste. But then, it mirrors the arc of actual history, so I guess I'm OK with it.
Levies are where it's at in the game at the moment, with mercenaries to help against people your own strength or stronger.
Depends on how quickly you can get some going. That first retinue stack, if it shows up early enough, can be really helpful in putting you over the top of someone else's army, pushing raiders away, or getting military events applied to someone via "helping" in someone else's wars without much risk.
But yeah, they're not a be-all end-all any longer.
You can even ignore the tedium of removing all the leaders to avoid losing men to siege events since your retinue will just refill.
Archer retinues were nerfed, but they're still superior because against most opponents, the battle will never hit melee phase and the archers will walk away with minimal losses
But damn, do 20k raiders generate some ducats.
Heavy cavalry (knight and cataphract) retinues can change the battle to melee phase from day 3, but they're not a hard counter because they will take losses before the battle enters melee phase
It doesn't really matter outside multiplayer though since the AI will never concentrate its retinues on one flank or use a retinue army in the way a player uses it
Pikemen are arguably better than a generic archer retinue if you're not English or Welsh, but archers also have the almost gross bonus of being the best at sieging
But Greeks have the best names, btw
Any advice how I can prevent the English from taking both our lives and our freedom every time?
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Yeah, I just realized just how many brothers and sisters (and half-brothers, and half-sisters and bastards...) David De Brus actually has, and now I'm allied with HRE and Denmark, so I guess that's a start.
One thing that confuses me, low crown authority is supposed to grant me the ability to revoke titles... except that I still seem to have that ability with min crown authority... so what's going on there?
I'm pretty sure that revoking titles is only possible at medium crown authority and higher, but I don't know if that's been changed.
You should be fairly safe as Scotland if you prevent the English king from gaining any titles on your land. In many starts, Scotland will have some part of de-jure England, but I would just cut losses in that case if you're the target of an early war. Try to gain a claim on England and then press your claim backed by mercenaries and a strong ally like the King of France. Or expand into Ireland and Wales first to consolidate your power. If you can place your dynasty on the throne of another kingdom or even gain that kingdom yourself, that will also put you into a good position.
I can definitely revoke titles at low authority, but it gives me such a big opinion hit (with everybody) that it isn't ever really worth it. I'm wondering if maybe higher crown authority just reduces / removes that penalty? I dunno, the whole thing confuses me.
I actually did manage to finally engineer a successful war against England though, through triggering a WWI-esque chain of alliances that ignited a pretty big multi-national war over the Isle of Man. I forgot to mention France in my last post; I'd married off all of David De Brus's female relatives to Kings and Princes in France, Germany and Denmark, resulting in a Scottish dynasty tree with three monarchs on the same level. Then I waited until England's army had left for the crusades and declared war, inviting France and Denmark to the party as soon as the option became available. France generously sent 10,000 men to help out, which was nice of them seeing as I only had 8,000 to begin with and England was about to roll 15,000 at me. Denmark declined to help, demonstrating a severe lack of viking spirit. I'd kept my piety high and had enough to call in the Knights Hospitalier if I needed to, but I never did need to, the French reinforcements were enough to turn the tide on their own. I called for help from the HRE at the same time that England did, but HRE decided that they liked England better and joined their side instead. Thankfully they never actually sent any troops to England, as France kept them busy. The end result was basically a huge proxy war between England and France, with Germany growling menacingly at the sidelines and thousands of casualties on each side over one tiny island.
But now its my tiny island. And I'm sure there will be no long-term diplomatic consequences for this whatsoever.
They're currently Catholic but have set up an anti-pope, so I don't know whether they'd count as heathens exactly. So would the knights refuse to be hired by me, or just refuse to actually fight, because although it makes total sense, I hadn't heard of the "no heathens" rule anywhere before.
You'd think that, but they sure did somehow end up in the Ball of Karlings in my last game.
You can hire them and merge them with your troops, but they won't fight any armies of your religion (although they will happily fight against heretics). I think it's somewhere in a tooltip on the screen where you can hire them.
The only way to dodge the opinion malus for revoking titles is to have a reason for doing so - you can freely revoke titles if you have a claim on them (you can also engineer one inside your realm) or if the holder is a traitor. The Byzantine Emperor could also freely revoke duchies before Charlemagne, but I'm not sure how that works now under Imperial Administration.
I managed to get all the clothing and face DLC for like under $15 during a sale, if your gonna play the game it really gives visual variety.
After that Way of Life effects everyone but unless your gonna play a Viking/Muslim/Indian character there is little reason to get those DLC(old gods, Rajas, Sons of Abraham).
You should totally play as a Viking/Muslim/Indian character at some point though.
I had a question of my own about wars, actually, specifically about pressing a claim on behalf of someone in your court. I know how to invite claimants to a foreign kingdom to my court, and how to press their claims, but how do I make sure the territory is actually under my control afterwards, without having to give away a county first? For example, if I recruit someone with a claim to some small independent Irish County to my court he'll join no problem, and I'll get the option to press his claim. But unless I also make him Count/Earl of one of my existing counties, he'll just end up forming his own independent county and refuse my offer of vassalage. It seems as though he needs to already be a land-owning vassal before I can press his claims and keep him in the Kingdom, is that the case?