Spain is a very good game choice. Lots of kingships you can form, plus declaring holy war on the moors gets you lots of love from the pope. Last game I played there it was a reliable part of my income. You want to give me 50 gold every few months? Don’t mind if I do.
Italy probably would be another good avenue to explore. Either as a vassal of the HRE or one of the independents down in the boot. Former has a goal of forming the kingdom of Italy and (maybe) going independent. Latter has goal of reconquering Sicily and forming the kingdom, though you risk Byzantine de-jure reconquests.
Another option is someone on the edge of northern/eastern Europe, as there’s Pagans there you can declare war on.
I’d probably go with Spain, though. Infact, the “learning game” the game offers when you first install it these days is in Spain, so perhaps just start that?
For anyone left who hasn’t tried it: CKII is a must have experience if you’ve ever read the Game of Thrones books and want better insight to understand the whys and hows of well, everything. That being said, this game is really meant to be multitasked in windowed mode due to the long simulator aspect of game years passing by in the blink of an eye into generations. Of course being drunk on a very fine vintage will produce favorable effects for CKII too ;)
cough Highly Recommended cough
Now onto all the dirty little secrets we’re not supposed to know. The true reason this game has loads of random DLC scattered all over the place is because it’s still one great big work in progress. If this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on how you look at it. On on hand, continuously expanding and improving such a great product is always welcome. On the other hand, it causes serious long term conflicts in game design between multiple versions with retinues, “Way of Life” and other DLCs. The end result is counterproductive unless everyone buys it and I mean everyone.
All I can say now is speculative but it feels like the cumulative new content systems slowly being released are an experimental pre-alpha for a future sequel or fantasy spinoff like Game of Thrones or something and I’M PAYING FOR IT!
EDIT: Curious to know what you think guys
I think CK2 works great as it is right now with no expansions, Ralph, so I’m not sure what conspiracy you’re on about here.
Actually, I think Paradox has hit upon a rather ingenious release strategy for DLC with CK2 and EU4. They release DLC that has ancillary content, but where that content includes gameplay additions, deletions, overhauls or adjustments, it’s included free in the patch. For instance, you don’t need whatever DLC introduced the power projection mechanic in EU4; it was patched into the game for all users.
Thus, with CK2 DLC if you’d like to play with provinces in India or the Middle East, or through different time periods…you can, and there’s DLC to cover it. But you don’t need the DLC to experience the gameplay adjustments made in those expansions.
The result is that Paradox continues to add legs to a game that is now over 3 years old, but can continue to offer even veteran players a reason to boot it up.
I suppose there are conflicts if people are playing this multiplayer…but for the life of me, I’m not sure if anyone’s doing that. Do people play this multiplayer?
At any rate, CK2 is a wonderful experience, and yes. You are paying for it. And I didn’t even need to shout!
As far as Game Of Thrones goes, I think Paradox is pretty happy not having to do a licensed product. CK2 sells well enough and the mod community has made a fine GoT version anyway.
I can appreciate good game engine maintenance as much as the next guy and yea they do try to add new and interesting things. But take Way of Life for example, that’s some pretty core mechanics they’re playing with and that system is really entrenched. If you don’t buy into it you just state at that Focus button and have a good portion of events sitting right there on the drive excised from your dynasty’s Way of Life. I’ve bought into it of course but I really wish it would be just one solid holistic design and not this wierd ever growing subscription, yes it’s cost me far less than WoW but lets not kid ourselves it’s a subsciption.
Tom M
I think Crusader Kings’ DLC is the best kind, the “real” kind. It’s not day 1 DLC, but the type that comes by polishing and adding to the game after full release, even years down the line. I mean, the base game is already elephantine in size, I don’t blame them for adding an extra detachable trunk after the fact.
The dozens of sprite packs are kind of annoying, though. I gobbled up most of them when the whole Collection was 75 % off, so I wonder how much I paid for them. Way to inflate the price of the full package, though.
Hm? If you don’t have WOL, the old ambition events are all still there and working. The system works exactly the same way it did before.
Something I’ll never buy is Charlemagne, because I dislike how some of the systems added that overwrite the original systems.
It’s a shame you don’t get the cool Dynasty Book without Charlemagne. That’s one of the few features I wanted in CK2 from the start, and it’s a pity it’s in DLC.
edit: What are the systems in the DLC that you dislike (and that aren’t in the patch)?
Paradox DLC is very similar to “expansion packs” from days gone by, and most people didn’t get uppity about those, so it’s no surprise people like this model.
Interestingly, I don’t think they put a lot of content in the free patches to be nice to customers (aside from bug fixes) – I suspect the main reason they did it was to make multiplayer work properly. Multiplayer in EU3 was a bit of a nightmare as all of the DLC fragmented the community, EU4 and CK2 are free of this worry: You can play as an Islamic ruler whilst your friends on Vanilla can play as Catholic. (The only quibble is over start year, I guess).
Anyone try the Rajas of India?
Hmm…looking at it, I can’t actually remember. I think viceroyalties replacing some aspects of the vassal management system?
I have it, but I have yet to play in India. I think one undocumented(?) ability it gives you is that you can take a decision to convert your characters religion or culture to your capital province’s (costing piety or prestige), which is fun for gimmick playthroughs or for meeting the requirements for forming specific kingdoms and such.
One of the best strategies we have ever got from Paradox Interactive – Crusader Kings II offers a huge amount of sophisticated entertainment in the rich and living medieval world.
My last game (and I suppose current, as I never finished it) was in India. It’s not too different from Europe, really.
So apparently they replaced the old version of legalism with one that gives you access to crown laws that control vassal #s vs desmesne size? Or is that just something I’m only seeing because I’m playing as Welsh?
Ah yes, “legalism” tech used to just bump up Demense size, but now it unlocks the different crown law and succession types. (Demense size is now controlled by centralisation law, which is unlocked by legalism. Looking at the history of the formulas on the wiki, previously the size was a function of your legalism limit and your current rank).
The AI plays the game that way, so it’s even. And even if you disable all DLC on startup it still happens, so I guess it’s in the patch and not the DLC.
meh :P
edit: Starting up my previous game it looks like I can now finally use Indian Subjugation! Fancy choosing to play an Indian faction for the first time and it’s the only time they break one of their abilities! I’d taken over 1/4 of the Indian subcontinent the old fashioned way. Though, saying that, it wouldn’t be that useful, as the two major blocks in India, which are both a bit bigger than me, and allied to each other, are the only ones left of my culture group… :(
Yes, but what character? And more important, what year? I don’t understand the major gameplay implications of the different starting points.
I don’t know why I’m having such analysis paralysis. I can’t seem to just pick a start and see where it goes.
Whoever the starting game picks. Leon, I think.
The game I had was King of Asturias in The Old Gods start (867) if you have it. It can be a little challenging. The Duke of Castille is powerful, and getting him offside can lead to an opportunistic attack from the Umayyad Sultanate from the south and the ever present Holy War CB. Getting the Kingdom in order is the first order of business. The next is making a statement, one which involves claiming land from the Sultanate and creating the Kingdom of Leon, a special decision in the intrigue menu that changes the Kingdom name to Leon (from Asturias) and grants 500 prestige. Following on from that is a duchy by duchy war, slowly chipping away and growing in power.
The game I had was a bit of a rollercoaster ride of winning and losing wars, the meddling of vassals, and sadly, plenty of waiting. Allies are unreliable, there are no Holy Orders this early in the game, there are no Crusades being called from the Pope (except if Umayyads are too successful and hit Acquitaine). But what a rush when I reached that moment of claiming all of the Iberian peninsula for myself. I tried to build up a powerbase in Ireland also which failed quite badly, and I only stopped that game when I had managed to take the Kingdom of Acquitaine for myself some years later thanks to insertion of dynasty member onto the throne and the Hispanic Empire became ridiculously overpowered.
Yeah Spain can be immensely satisfying. My favourite run through this game was as the king of navarra in the standard start. Managed to change the succession laws so that females inherit on the same standing as males, united Christian spain under my leadership (thanks to some choice conquests and a great royal marriage), and then drove the heathens out to create the first empress of Hispania. Unfortunately my game crashed and the save game corrupted itself at that point, a very sad ending.
Had a pretty amusing experience in my current game. So I’m playing as Powys in a Charlemagne start, and I’ve grabbed my de jure territory, holding the counties directly. I look around and find a claimant to a nearby territory to invite to court, then grant him one of the counties and win him the one with his claim.
Meanwhile, I’ve married a genius and had 3 sons, the third of which inherited the genius trait. So I’m considering options that will allow me to play as the third son. Just as the war is ending, my second son takes ill and dies.
Now I’d like to expand further, but I can’t pull the giveaway-press claim trick unless I revoke a territory first. So I plot to revoke one of the two my new vassal now has, succeed in the plot and the vassal rebels to stop me. I move my armies in to crush him, and get killed in the battle. I win the war, but as my son who is still 9 or 10. So now the genius is my brother and heir, at the age of 5 or so.
I’ve now got 3 counties, plus a vassal in prison who hates me. I invite a claimant to the remaining county from Gwynedd, give him the Gwynedd county I own, and attack and conquer the remaining one. So now I have a powerful vassal that loves me unconditionally and another one that hates me completely, and is running a faction from prison. And my ambitious uncle (who therefore also hates me), has taken over as regent.
Unbeknownst to me, my powerful ally in East Anglia has died, so just as I settle in to consolidate and regain strength, my southern neighbor attacks and calls in Mercia. I try a desperate gamble, hiring mercs I can barely afford and bribing my uncle with honorary titles and wards so he’ll let me sell off a prisoner. I win a big battle and disband the mercs, but Mercia brings in more troops and destroys me. I find out that my rebellious vassal is leading a plot so I have him arrested with the plan of revoking his county so I can get more troops. He escapes arrest and attacks.
So faced with 2 wars and very few troops, I surrender to my neighbor and his allies (losing a de jure county, but it became independent). I gather all my troops and just before the rebellious count is going win a siege, attack a raise the defending levies. I hope to reduce his forces enough to break the siege, but the end result is that losing the battle loses me the war instantly.
So game over right? Or at least a long rebuilding process ahead of me. Except it turns out that the war the rebel count waged was to install my brother as king instead of me. Instead of being down to 3 counties, only 1 directly held, and still having to find a way to play as the genius brother, now I am the genius, I have 4 counties and easily take back the 5th, the rebel has a positive opinion of me, and to top it all off, I no longer owe money to the Jews.
This game rules.