Crusader Kings 2

How does the scoring system work? Is it a score of your whole dynasty or just your character? The score only seems to be added upon your character's death, but if your brothers are kings of a foreign land and your children are heirs to others, is this factored in the scores somehow?

The score you see when you exit the game is just the sum of the scores of all the PCs you personally played though I'm not sure exactly how they arrive at that number; probably a sum of the prestige your character earned, the titles he held and for how long, the number of provinces ruled, the number of upgrades to buildings, etc... Then you have your dynasty prestige which partially influences if other people want to marry into your family or not and it seems to mainly be the number of people in your family tree, who they were married to, and what titles they held.

I had my chaplain try and convince me to convert to Fratacelli. I think it's just a random event.

Spoiler :
I chopped his head off. :evil:

I believe there is a random event which isn't as random as you'd think (well, it's random but it's frequency depends on the level of religious respect/conformity so as more people undermine the Pope or the Patriarch the more frequent the heretic events become) though characters can also learn about religion as children if their teacher is part of a heretical sect, if one of their parents are part of a heretical sect, or even if you marry someone who is part of a heretical sect they sometimes get the choice to convert to their spouses religion. I noticed before the patch made it harder to marry foreigners I'd see a ton of Ethiopian monophystites around Europe; after a generation or two their culture would change to what ever the local culture was but many of the kids would retain the Ethiopian heresy.

The good news is if you convert to one of the many heretical sects in the game you can freely declare war on any group at any time even if you don't have a CB but the downside is all the loyal Catholic rulers hate you and the AI gets very aggressive about invading you.
 
Can anyone help me figure out how to prevent a Church from reverting out of my control?

I played the Demo as Duchess Matilda I, and conquered Genoa when their Doge was getting too cocky for his own good, making veiled threats about stealing the title for Parma, and soon after conquering it I got a message that the old Bishop of the Church in Genoa was old (70+) and that the line of succession meant the church property and all of its taxes would revert to some other duchy who is next in line and is not under my immediate control or the control of my vassals. I have revoked claims before but seem unable to do so with a Bishopric. Is this a church thing and thus something I have no direct authority to do much? Also the other two communities, a city and a castle will remain under the Duchy of Genoa, only the Bishopric will revert to another Duchy. I am confused here and unsure of what would happen. The demo ended 10 years later without the Bishop dying so I don't know what would have happened.


Regardless of the minor bump, I ended the 20 year period conquering much of Northern Italy and fought and won my independence from the Holy Roman Empire, who was fighting Sweden and France, roughly a year before the demo ended. My plans were to conquer Rome to see how taking it would affect the religious world. (In EU3 I would get bombarded with threats or appeals to release Rome as an independent state and wondered if the same would happen here.)

The demo has convinced me to buy the game, hopefully this Friday when my paycheck comes.
 
Don't know if any other Australians are playing this, but after talking politics with people the last couple of days it struck me that it's downright spooky how much this game reflects the current succession crisis in Australia.

The ruling dynasty had the elective monarch (Rudd) who was popular but tried to increase his crown authority and increase his personal demesne too much; and while he was relatively popular with the serfs, doing this made him unpopular with his direct vassals (and the burghers who didn't like his proposal to raise their taxes) who started a plot to depose him for his heir (Gillard). The old king went pretty peaceably without going into open rebellion, so the new queen couldn't imprison or exile the old king because she couldn't afford the tyranny penalties, so she gave him some prestigious but out-of-the-way lands and the chancellorship to try and keep him relatively happy. She then gave a bunch of nice titles to her cronies in the plot, and signed a sweetheart deal with the burghers, to keep up her personal support.

But the new queen had dreadful stats and personal characteristics and once in power had an awful lot of trouble holding the kingdom together, especially since she gained the kinslayer trait. The serfs kept revolting, and the vassals started to become terrified that she couldn't keep the kingdom together enough to protect their own personal lands from their neighbouring enemies (Abbott), who had quite strong claims on a lot of lands and even on the throne, a closer relationship with Rome, and the armies and the casus bellis to potentially take the kingdom by force. Her popularity with the vassals, never particularly high, started to drop the more worried they became and the more she seemed to fumble her rule.

One of the younger but most ambitious in the direct line of succession (Shorten) started plotting pretty openly almost immediately, but with low plot power, and he clearly would not be able to get the backers for the plot to succeed any time soon.

Whereas the old king, still loaded up with prestige, got a huge boost to his piety for peaceably accepting his overthrow without a damaging war, and went off on retreat to further boost his piety and personal charm. Being out of power, the vassals began to forget the huge penalties he had with them for raising the crown authority and his huge demesne; and with his high stats, piety and prestige, his relationships with the vassals started becoming higher than those with the queen. He also gained the ambitious trait.

A plot started to reinstate the old king and began to gather backers amongst the vassals, and while everyone knows the old king is now running the plot, his involvement hasn't yet been proven so the queen can't imprison/exile/strip titles from him without a huge tyranny penalty she can't afford. Her own spymaster has been sent to focus on trying to discredit him, but his intrigue skill must be pretty low because he only manages to fumble and make her look worse and the old king look better. There's rumours that the ambitious successor with the high plot power (Shorten) has been offered the most prestigious duchy in the kingdom and the stewardship in return for his support against the queen. While another close successor (Crean) has hitched his wagon publicly to the queen, gambling that the old king's plot will fail and that his loyalty will get him a higher relationship with the queen and her vote for the succession when it comes (even if it's only a claim to usurp the kingdom from the enemy, without any lands). A minor baron on the border with the enemy has come out publicly to support the old king (Cheeseman - yes, that's actually his name). The independent counts within the de jure kingdom seem to be aligned more towards the old king, especially the one harbouring a grudge because the queen made a personal promise to him and then broke it (Wilkie).

Now everyone is in a position they can't back down from, and the civil war is pretty much inevitable - the question just remains whether the old king will be able to gather enough vassals and levies to win back the kingdom, and of course whether the victor will have enough strength of arms left after the bloodshed to defeat the neighbouring enemy when they inevitably declare war. That is, of course, if the enemy king can survive his own unpopularity and prevent a succession crisis of his own (far less likely, but Turnbull is paying only $3.40 at the bookies, so who knows?).

Am I overthinking this? :D

(the answer is of course I am, but it's still impressive that the game models all these real-world factors so closely - and that in both worlds the desires of the serfs count for so very little)
 
Let us know when/where the voting is happening and I'll be sure to vote for you. :p
 
Let us know when/where the voting is happening and I'll be sure to vote for you. :p

I've cross-posted my Demo-AAR submission into this forum, for anyone who wants to read it consecutively instead of in little isolated bits.

It's called "Women's Troubles". Feel free to comment, since this is just a cross-posting.

I figure two or three more updates should finish it.

The voting starts on the 26th, and runs to the end of February.
 
My advice to you all: check the map frequently!

I was just scrolling around when I noticed an awfully strange coat-of-arms in northern Italy. Turns out that the Most Serene Republic had somehow become the Most Serene Sheikdom. He had no allies, no liege, a Muslim name, an African portrait, and Christian barons so it clearly wasn't a conquest and I have no idea how he got himself in the line of succession....(actually I have no idea how it works for Doges)
My pious king of Sicily felt an immediate spiritual calling from the Almighty to immediately jump to the aid of the poor oppressed Christian subjects of a province that just happened (entirely coincidentally, of course) to be the richest in Europe. It was already besieged by rebels, and ended up being one of the easiest fights ever.
Being the Count of Venezia is very, very gooood.....
 
Just bought CK2 today and played my first game as Duke William the Bastard and took the English throne after several seesaw battles.

Can anyone explain what the Wrong type of Holdings in Demesne means? Thanks.
 
Your demesne is that part of your holdings which is under your personal control, instead of being held in your name by your vassals. Churches should be held by Bishops. Towns should be held by Mayors.

You are allowed to hold them yourself instead... but at a penalty.
 
Just to clarify, castles can be held with no penalty. Try and own as many castles without exceeding your demesne as you can for maximum income and manpower.

EDIT: Just look at this Byzantium and Britain!
 

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That Britain is similar to what I believe is normal if the AI handles 1066 badly. Although, France and Brittany...

That is the single worst Byzantine civil war i have ever seen.
 
Is it that good to higher crown authority to absolute? I did it, but my vassals keep revolting, I do everything to please them, but they still do! I'm playing with the Kingdom of Ireland (Munster at first) I am the king of Ireland, Scotland and Wales and on my way to England. Is it because my ruler is young (14)? He's Nedim VI and has 2 sin traits because I want him to get the 7 sins event.
 
Is it that good to higher crown authority to absolute? I did it, but my vassals keep revolting, I do everything to please them, but they still do! I'm playing with the Kingdom of Ireland (Munster at first) I am the king of Ireland, Scotland and Wales and on my way to England. Is it because my ruler is young (14)? He's Nedim VI and has 2 sin traits because I want him to get the 7 sins event.

It might be because vassals want your throne, and your current ruler is a child?
 
So, I broke down and purchased the game (my brother wants to play multiplayer and is a fan of it). Started off as the King of Leon, and promptly made tons of mistakes. I instituted a higher level of crown authority, and all three of my vassals led by my sister rebelled within a month. Put them all down and let them rot in prison for their treachery. I didn't know you could build in castle-towns, so I have been dumping money into towns and local bishoprics when it could have been better spent. I've mangled some diplomatic actions and although I have survived the mishandling, I missed a chance to gain all of Galicia and to maintain better relations with Castille.

Finally spent an hour reading the strategy guide on the Paradox forums to pick up on some other pointers. It's been enlightening.

That is the single worst Byzantine civil war i have ever seen.

Mine looked pretty similar (fought in the 1080s), but the Emperor reconquered everything by the end of the decade. William conquered England in my game, but now the entire middle of the island belongs to the Duke of Lancaster. It's roughly equally split between Scotland, Lancaster, and Norman England, with Wales struggling by on the coast with a handful of counties.
 
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