Check out the in depth/userguide on the FAQ section of the Paradox CK2 subforum, it’s from 2012 but it goes over all game concepts. The wiki is your best bet for updated documentation: http://www.ckiiwiki.com/Guide_overview
In my current game as Sweden I’m playing as an unreformed pagan and as such I’m stuck with elective gavelkind. Up until now I haven’t had too much trouble with gavelkind but my latest succession resulted in the creation of Norway which was entirely unexpected because I did not create the kingdom of Norway. I made sure not to do that because I didn’t want to deal with one of my dudes splintering off with his own kingdom. I wanted to keep everyone under the one roof of Sweden. Can anyone explain how this happened?
Well anyway my latest heir pushed ahead with the subjugation CB against Norway which brought her provinces back under Sweden. Unfortunately it looks like I"m going to have to do this every time I get a new ruler until I reform the faith which is still sometime away until I get 3 holy sites under my control as well as having a moral authority of 50%.
Elective gavelkind creates titles that you can create to distribute to your sons.
So, I’m very much enjoying this. I’ve discovered that, unlike most strategy games, it’s actually more fun when things fall to shit. I was humming along as King of Ireland, didn’t have much to do, made a mistake, and found myself not only no longer king, but in prison by the new king. I eventually died, and now I"m trying to win my crown back.
So, what’s the best deal on picking up all the dlc?
Paradox DLC goes on sale for 75% off fairly frequently. It’s almost guaranteed to do so when a new DLC comes out, along with other random sales.
Something that simple is the appeal of this game for me. Every game can be a different role playing story. I just have to frikken learn to play, LOL! Have to get a document that tells me what legistivate graviture and similarrry bondonkatude mean in terms of who gets my crown when I’m gone, and all the other terms that make no sense to me! ;)
Hm, why isn’t “Prima noctae” in this game? (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Droit_du_seigneur&redirect=no)
It should totally be in this game.
Probably because it’s not real (in medieval Europe). It’s the 3rd sentence of the wikipedia article, in fact: “There is no evidence of the alleged right in medieval Europe.”
It’s in Braveheart, of course it’s real.
There’s a random event where a random vassal of yours will demand those rights (accepting = increase in province revolt risk).
Like, +1, etc :)
So, I don’t really get how to play as a vassal. I started out as Duke of Mumu and managed to battle myself up to King of Ireland by my second ruler. Then, through some poor decisionmaking and several imprisonments, I managed to bust myself back down to Duke of Mumu. But now I’m the vassal of the new King of Ireland (well, actually the leader of the Irish revolt, who is strangely located somewhere in Norway) and everyone is all lieged up, so I can’t war my way back up to King. I’m guessing this is the heart of the game, the maneuvering and the intrigue and such. But I’m not sure I get it.
If you have a CB against your fellow vassals, you should be able to wage war. There are some exceptions: e.g. if there’s maximum Crown Authority. But I highly doubt you have that! Do you have valid CB? What does it say when you try and declare war on someone using it?
As a vassal, you can still declare war on people outside your kingdom. (e.g. Wales, Brittany).
For intra-kingdom stuff, a basic guidelines is to try producing as many dynasty members as possible and getting them into every title possible ;)
I hate it when I lose a response thanks to hitting the wrong button.
Medium crown authority prevents vassals from warring with each other in the realm. If the crown laws of Ireland are at medium crown authority or higher, then you have to be patient, looking at the flaws in your liege and getting as many of his vassals as possible to dislike him, and hope a myriad of factions start up. The easiest of course is reducing the crown laws, then there is installing someone else (make yourself as appealing as possible, so that other vassals join you) or full blown independence. Of course, it all depends on military strength, which can be a little harder to read when the numbers don’t marry up nicely when vassals go to war against their liege. Having a less than desirable son take the throne is a good place to start when it comes to overthrowing the current Head of State.
The other option if crown law is at medium (and not absolute) is to press weak or strong claims that you might have outside of the realm, and build up your powerbase that way. I did so as a Duke of Saxony, I couldn’t exactly fight the HRE by myself so instead I moved east and with a godlike Chancellor, fabricated claims along the coast, essentially giving myself a chance once I claimed indepedance of forming the Kingdom of Pomerania. When the HRE lost a major war, I told my liege to stick it, went my own way and didn’t turn back…
If crown law is absolute, you can not declare war at all, so pressing weak/strong claims is not possible, and then you really need to plan long term and play the waiting game. You can still fabricate claims, but that is meaningless if you can not declare war and take the land for yourself.
Damn, Crusader Kings 2 has to be the hardest game to learn. Every decision leads down a wiki rabbit hole! I started off a game as an Irish Count of Deasmhumhain, who starts the game with children but is unmarried. So, I read up on marriage in the wiki to see the effects of marriage. Basically the main reasons are:
- To create heirs and give them good attributes and traits.
- Add 50% of their attributes to the state’s.
- Possible prestige gain.
- Beneficial alliance.
- Have kids inherit spouse’s title and claims.
I’m guessing as ruler of an Irish county - there really isn’t any reason to try and marry someone with titles and claims in far off places like Italy and Spain. It seems too confusing to manage even if those lands become part of my realm. I find some women with weak claims. From my understanding the best chance to press those would be if a women becomes ruler and I have a male heir who inherits the claim, the country becomes ruled by a regency or there is a succession war.
I do find a girl with weak claims on 3 counties in England. It seems like she might make a good spouse for a son maybe on the small chance that he will get into a situation to press the claim? On the other hand, wouldn’t that make us allies so it might not be good to attack them once I take over Ireland?
It is also a pain using that ‘Select a Spouse’ window as every time you go and start investigating something based on the potential spouses, you lose your spot.
My plan is to take over the pretty kingdom north of me. I can’t find anything to give me a clue how large a levy they can raise. Wouldn’t I want to know that?
I know that you guys have suggested to just let the timer start ticking and respond to things, but I don’t think I’m capable of playing like that. EU IV is sooooo much easier to get a grip on.
I’m watching the first of the Aruma tutorials and it drove a point home that probably should have obvious. Focus on the land surrounding you, especially those you have claims on and / or part of the du jure counties of your dutchy, du jure dutchies of a kingdom, or du jure kingdoms on an empire.
My starting position (County of Deasmhumhain) is independent, so it’s not currently part of some larger dutchy or kingdom. I can look at the du jure dutchy and kingdon map modes and see that my county is part of the du jure area for the Petty Kingdom of Mumu, the Kingdom or Ireland, and the Empire of Britannia. My neighbor holds the title the King of Mumu, so he may be likely to conquer me. So, maybe I should try and generate a claim on the Kingdom of Mumu so I can attack him. Or I guess I could fabricate a claim on the other county that is part of the Kingdom of Mumu? If I attack that county I suppose the King of Mumu may defend his vassal and attack me anyway?
Ahhh, the more I starting thinking about it the more I realize I don’t know. Did what I say above make sense?
Edit: I suppose I could look at his vassals to see how much they like him and therefore how much they may support him if I attack? Is there some way to affect how much a vassal likes their liege, or is there some way to get them not to support their liege?
Edit: Does it ever make sense to try and fabricate a claim on a title that isn’t in your immediate vicinity?
Oh boy that’s a train of questions.
Yeah, you don’t marry for claims that you have no intention of using. Also, keep in mind that to end up with the piece of land a person has a claim on in your realm, you either have to:
a) be playing the as the claimant (duh)
b) the claim is for land in the de-jure borders of one of your titles
c) the person you press the claim for is already your vassal and won’t gain a title of equal or higher rank than your highest
If not, then you just changed the ruler of some piece of land with no gain to yourself. Also note your claimant doesn’t need to be male.
Again, keep in mind the situations where you get to keep the land. Either that son (and then his eventual grandson) is your line of succession and so can take the claim for himself, or you can give him a castle first before pressing so he stays your vassal when you press (and that the claim isn’t for an equal or higher title than your highest). Also remember that your grandson won’t even get the claim until the mother dies, which can be decades down the line!
You are on the latest patch, right? The spouse window shouldn’t go away when you click on someone - it should bring up the character screen with them selected. Also, a character’s current levy strength is also on their character screen in the current version of the game. Another note - the spouse screen isn’t all the eligible partners, though it’s pretty good for everything except marrying purely for stats/traits.
Note that he holds a duke-level title (despite the
King" appellation - he’s only a “Petty” one). So he can call a de-jure war on your county, however, IIRC that only vassalizes you, so not a game-over. If he holds the other county either directly or has it as a vassal, then yes, you’d have to fight him in order to take it (use the independent realms map). You always declare against the top-level lord. Just as if you wanted to take a county off some dude in England, you’d have to fight the king of England for it.
Vassal opinion doesn’t matter directly for feudal rulers. For tribals, vassal opinion directly matters because they get called in as allies (and low opinion means they don’t come). Feudal rulers automatically get some of their vassals troops to directly control, and opinion affects the amount. Check the army tooltip of his character.
Not unless you plan on using it.
Thanks for all the answers. Man this game is confusing!
I just tried it out. If you open the spouse window and left click a lady, you’ll go to her profile. Then if you left click her father, the window closes :/
Yeah, it only stays open for that first click.