Crusader Kings 2

[uat2d]

This is a lot of discussion and not enough pics, here's some prints I took in my latest Lancaster game:

Spoiler :

In the beginning, the Norman and Norwegian invasions failed because Harold held to power with the help of the Holy Roman Emperor.

Unfortunately for Harold, he wasn't so popular at home and I, duke of Lancaster, got my rightful claim on the throne of England and deposed him easily shortly after while he was off fighting wars in Sardinia for the HRE.

However not everyone liked their new king and so Eadwin, first of his name, did what was right - after putting down the Cornish independence war that was at -90% WS when he was crowned king, he imprisoned and banished every other duke and count in the realm, increased crown authority and lived for some months with an incredibly oversized demesne, no expenses and no income and everyone in the realm but his closest family hating him -100 for tyranny.

Fortunately enough, his grandson wasn't hated (his father as well suffered on the hands of Eadwin I, who imprisoned and executed his own son because his grandson had better stats) and when he inherited the throne, he gladly distributed a lot of the land fairly to his most loyal and infertile vassals.

Apparently celibate dukes can get children:

Also ugly dukes with syphilis:

My second character, the grandchild from the Saxon duke of Lancaster:

Hedonist chaste?

This is a cruel world for children:

The king is dead, long live the king! Fortunately there was a Jihad called on Portugal and I had plenty of money leftover, so my kingdom didn't collapse (increased relations and decreased revolt chance when defending against infidels). It did however took a lot of mercs:

I guess I overshot it. Damn them, since I had the manpower, I went for 100% WS!

Pregnant at 45 when they turn sterile at 46? Damn, Lancaster is rightfully mine!

Now this is what I call crusading! Damn muslims, declaring Jihad on Portugal, this is what you get:

Now that I think about it, it's too much of an hassle to hold on to this sand. Pope, want some of this sand?

Damn hash-smokers, perhaps I should have never got into Jerusalem after all!

All this prestige and piety and only 19 years old? And I'm humble?

Scotland in charge of putting up a fight:

We Britannia now!

And so I'll soon have a nephew as king of Scotland.

The Hashshashin killing the mother of the emperor of Britannia? Dayum!

Great internal diplomacy:

Norman overlord? I think there must be some mistake..

Mark I the Great is dead! Long live Mark II!

(continues in the next post)

 

[uat2d]

Spoiler :

I guess it's up to us to finish the Reconquista!

That a nice plot power you have there:

Mark II is Great as well! Also, excellent diplomacy, the guy who hates me the most likes me 11! This with harsh taxes and levies for cities and absolute crown authority!

Does this affect me?

I also hate you but I guess killing that slut in Moray is more important:

There, she's gone and I have a kinsman on the throne:

He died as well and since there wasn't any more heirs eligible, I guess I inherit what was left of Scotland.

The British isles are finally united!

The kid died with his mother on that carriage yet it counts as a natural death!

I got you in the throne of Scotland and you didn't accept my vassalisation, so I took it myself. You're still alive, aren't you? Well, I guess not for long.

My grandson will have the chance to rule over France as well? Sweet!

Mark II the Great by the end of his life:

His heir, a Midas Touched and not a Grey Eminence because it's a bit shameful that the ruler of such an Empire can't even hold 10 counties:

The Emperor is dead, long live the Emperor!

In the mean time, I invited claimants to the thrones of Norway, Sweden and Denmark, married them matrilineally to women on my dynasty, gave them holdings in Iberia and claimed their thrones for them and for the great good of the realm of Britannia.

Something wrong with the graphics:

Norway, Sweden and Denmark claimed for Britannia:

A pope and three kings as counsellors:

Yup, the Saxons winning definitely broke something:

You go, Swedish king:

I know it was expensive, but I can't hold all of this dosh and, truth be told, if it's to paint the map red, it's worth it!

 

[madviking]

How'd you get so many claims?

 

[uat2d]

Good chancellor, lots of ducats and prestige.

 

[Ailedhoo]

I have over the last time since I last posted:

Spoiler My Empire :

And a list of my rulers along with where I am thinking of taking complete control of:

Spoiler My Rulers :

I lost the Kingdom of Jerusalem from it rebelling, then later getting reclaimed by Eygpt. Then came a Crusade that saw the Kingdom of Jerusalem go to Croatia.

 

[uat2d]

Civil wars? How?

btw, you can easily clean the borders in Iberia, SW England is a mess and that province near Calais owned by the HRE needs to be claimed.

 

[Ailedhoo]

Civil wars? How?

My subjects keep rebelling after a succession. Its as if each of my emperor's are put through a test of "beat your subjects to get their loyalty."

btw, you can easily clean the borders in Iberia, SW England is a mess and that province near Calais owned by the HRE needs to be claimed.

I will deal with Iberia.

The English crown is owned not by one of my subjects. I will try to get it but it will be difficult.

Experience in the past has teached me that the HRE is a force to exploit but not to go into direct war with as I found out in a past game where my attempt to invade the HRE... did not go well. Thank goodness in that game my ruler died before a chance of surrender...

 

[uat2d]

My subjects keep rebelling after a succession. Its as if each of my emperor's are put through a test of "beat your subjects to get their loyalty."

I know that, I've also had lousy successions, but I mean, why are they revolting? What's making them so mad? It might happen from time to time, but if it's happening all the time, you're doing something wrong.

 

[hoplitejoe]

It is normally because I am excommunication by the pope. Why can't I quit you free investiture

 

[madviking]

You can either
- get free investiture, appoint an antipope, and go heretic
- crusade a lot for brownie points

 

[Ailedhoo]

I know that, I've also had lousy successions, but I mean, why are they revolting? What's making them so mad? It might happen from time to time, but if it's happening all the time, you're doing something wrong.

Well... I guess all I can do at the moment is to deal with the rebellions...

News: Nicolas I has died due from a illness, combined with him being maimed. I actually ended up taking the advice and attacked the HRE. I won but my emperor was mained near the end of the war thanks to a epic battle against the emperor of the HRE. His grandson (the first child died) only had a year's rule before a plot succeeded to "remove" him. Now Nicolas III is ruling, trying to face rebellion. The Kings of Aragon and Leon will pay for seeking indepedence from my empire along with the other rebels!

 

[madviking]

Just train your heir to be an grey eminence. Solves 75% of revolts.

 

[uat2d]

It is normally because I am excommunication by the pope. Why can't I quit you free investiture

Free Investiture requires either great church traits like Crusader or an Anti-Pope. Or you can either not excommunicate people left and right and go with Papal investiture and not bother about it.

Well... I guess all I can do at the moment is to deal with the rebellions...

Now Nicolas III is ruling, trying to face rebellion. The Kings of Aragon and Leon will pay for seeking indepedence from my empire along with the other rebels!

Why are they revolting so much? Care to take a print of their relations? They only revolt if they hate your guts or if they're far away. Good diplo, avoiding relation hits and some ducats can go a long way, you can go decades without a single rebellion.

For the love of everything that is holy, just make sure you never have a spymaster that holds any titles or that hates you. Spymasters that are dukes or that don't like you at least 10 is asking for a lot of trouble!!

Just train your heir to be an grey eminence. Solves 75% of revolts.

This. Just be nice and avoid relation hits and you'll be fine.

In short, avoid this and this and things will be a lot easier

 

[Ailedhoo]

Why are they revolting so much? Care to take a print of their relations? They only revolt if they hate your guts or if they're far away. Good diplo, avoiding relation hits and some ducats can go a long way, you can go decades without a single rebellion.

For the love of everything that is holy, just make sure you never have a spymaster that holds any titles or that hates you. Spymasters that are dukes or that don't like you at least 10 is asking for a lot of trouble!!

Its comes with after each ruler's begining. The revolts nearly always take place outside of France. Bizarly some of the rebels were in the green before the revolt began...

As for spymasters and titles I think I am guilty...

 

[uat2d]

Its comes with after each ruler's begining. The revolts nearly always take place outside of France. Bizarly some of the rebels were in the green before the revolt began...

Yeah, that might happen if they're too far away. Send them some extra ducats, it's often much cheaper than having to fight them.

As for spymasters and titles I think I am guilty...

That's asking for a civil war. Trust me, it's not pretty having half your country plus a neighbour rising up against you demanding lower crown authority. That's a mistake I won't do again - as the King of Greece (I also owned the Kingdom of Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria), my Spymaster at the time only had the duchy of Bosnia and was Content and he managed to get me fighting half of my vassals and Hungary. Keep in mind that I had a kinsman in the throne Hungary and had 0% RR and positive relations with all my vassals previous to the backstab.

Idiot died in the Oubliette and I never again got a guy with any real power as Spymaster. And no, I wasn't willing to go back to autonomous vassals when I had high crown authority.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Paradox just announced the next expansion, which will be focusing on the ERE and the Orthodox states in general. Looks nice so far:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...r-Kings-II-Legacy-of-Rome-Expansion-Announced!

 

[salty mud]

Indeed it does. Hopefully with this expansion the starting empires will have more of a chance to break up; maybe the new factions dynamic will allow this to happen a bit better?

As an aside, maybe someone can help me. I've downloaded some of the song DLC, ruler creator and Sword of Islam DLC, but now my game isn't noticing it, so it's starting CK2 with no DLC. Any idea why this is and how to fix?

 

[hoplitejoe]

if it is on steam I think the last update messed it up, I had to verify the integrity of the game cache before it would work.

 

[salty mud]

I'll give it a whirl, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[salty mud]

It worked, thanks.

As for the Legacy of Rome... Yikes!