Forgive me if this has been posted before, but I just loved this AAR: From Nantes to Rome: How a horse restored the Roman Empire. The guy uses an exploit (but doesn’t cheat) to make a horse a bishop, then manages to get his heir to be a horse, and then uses the line of horses to rule the world. Really really great.
I’m not an expert at this game at all, but I think you -never- want more than 2 duchys, because of an opinion modifier (too many held duchies) that kicks in above that. You can have any number of kind titles, but if one becomes elective it can split off into another person if your dynastic heir loses the election for that title.
I like having baronies to give to 3rd or 4th sons, or for landing title claimants prior to pressing a weak claim if the target otherwise wouldn’t become a vassal. I may be using those wrong however… they’re pretty expensive to create.
Sort of, but not completely. The danger is you probably went feudal elective, which your vassals like. Problem is this gives the possibility that someone else could take your top title if you are unpopular enough. That Duke who you handed titles to? Now he’s king. If you can manage that risk it does have benefits of keeping consolidated titles.
<— What’s the preferred amount of duchy titles to hold if you also have a Kingdom title?
Been a while, so don’t have the math, but generally higher level titles are preferred. But you can try and hold as many as you can manage, demense size be damned. There are penalties, sure, but sometimes it is worth them. Be careful, easy to bite off more than you can chew.
<— Was this a bad idea? Is it better to rather revoke some titles of the neighboring counties, rather than building new holdings as the new ones are only baronies and no infrastructure built up in them?
No one answer. Depends on what you are trying to do, what the specific situation is, and the year. Creating new titles and holdings can, in the long run, be more powerful. It just requires time and investment. But I’ve always been a bit of a schemer, and will revoke titles whenever I can get away with it. You get busted for plotting against someone and have a prime title? Well it’s mine now. I won’t always do this, but when I can do it basically consequence free you better believe it.
<— Now what should I do? Try to get the titles back step-by-step slowly electing the same person, or try to revoke the titles? They both feel strong enough and I’m afraid the HRE allies won’t be helping enough. :-/ Or is there any other way?
Good luck! Now you saw the dangers of elective. Sorry. Might I suggest a side of murder combined with a main course of strategic marriage? If that fails then some large scale murder when they are distracted.
Other than that, I have an often asked question: What DLC is “mandatory” and which is “good to have”? And mostly: WHY? I’d like to know what interesting, useful mechanics were added in the ones you’re recommending. I thought about the Way of Life for the ruler focus (no idea what else is in there) and the one which enables the retinues.
Old Gods, Old Gods, Old Gods. I might like playing as a Viking, if you are noticing. For Vikings it is always Murder Thirty, and I can dig that style.
Ah… so that’s how the apes, i mean horses did it!
All this talk of HOI4 got me interested in grand strategy games, but CKII seems like a better fit for me. How often do Paradox games go on sale? With the Steam sale on the horizon, I’m wondering if it’s worth waiting for all of the DLC prices to drop. Also, are any of the DLCs in the $100+ Bundle really worth getting for new players?
They go on sale frequently. For CKII, you’re guaranteed a sale whenever the next expansion releases and it’ll likely be available at a steep discount during the Summer sale, whenever that may be.
Agreed. Until Paradox stops dropping dozens of DLC for each of their game, I usually pick them up piece meal style at a discount, often a heavy discount. Some of their actual expansions though add some fun things I’ve purchased closer to the original price… never the units, songs, or portraits kind of thing.
Yeah, when I bought into CK2, I got some kinda bundle that had the earlier DLCs + some of the unit packs, etc. It was a better deal than Base Game + those DLCs sans the graphics stuff, so I did it. That bundle doesn’t seem to be around anymore, but maybe something like it will show up during the Summer Sale. Which is rumored to start June 23.
Not really. CK2 DLC just “unlocks” features for you, the player. The AI uses it all the time. The base game as it is should be good enough, especially as you’ll want to play as a European Christian ruler with one of the 1066 start dates in your first game. The only DLC of use there would be Way of Life.
Hey, just in time!
I’d reccomend this pack. Gives you everything up to Rajas of India for $40. Well worth it at that price. The base game is $10, and there is a DLC colleciton for $30 which has everything but the base game that the $40 pack has (as far as I can tell).
They are Steam keys, FYI, and the price is going to be as good as you will likely see during the Steam sale. It is possible, though unlikely, that the base game may have a bigger flash sale, but the DLC itself pack I don’t recall being as good a bargain before.
All this talk about HOI4 got me in a Paradox mood last night so I fired up CKII for the first time in a year. Started in 1066 in Ireland as the King of Mumu with the goal of uniting Ireland under my banner. Spent a little time learning the little changes since I last played but it all came back pretty easily and within an hour I was on my 3rd ruler in succession and had pulled the whole southern half of the island under my rule. Then I spend the last hour waiting…and waiting…and waiting for a claim to be fabricated so I could move on the northern half and nothing happened. I was running the game at full speed for over 30 minutes just staring at my screen with nothing to do. Tried to start a few plots to kill someone, no one was interested, educated a few children, married off some siblings but other than that there was nothing for me to do. I think this was the reason I got frustrated with this game and eventually forgot about it. I’m no expert so i’m probably missing some other way to start wars or gain territories but it seems to me like everything hinges on your councilors ability to fabricate a claim. If he sucks at that, you just sit around and twirl your thumbs.
There’s definitely more you can do if you want to expand.
Get claims via marriage. Doesn’t even have to be for yourself. Pressing claims for kinsmen results in the territory staying with you.
Invite courtiers with claims to your court, land them, press their claims (they stay your vassal if landed first).
Non-expanding things to do:
Fooling around with WoL events that focuses provide
Eugenics breeding programs
Of course, still lots of waiting around for everything. There’s nothing wrong with chilling and watching things play out.
Thanks for posting this…looks like I will have to pick up the $30 DLC pack. Not that I have time to play it.
Great find, thanks!!
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Maybe that’s the pack I bought! It’s definitely a good one :-D
Thanks a lot of hoofs for this! I do think though he had to cheat at least to buy all the mercenaries necessary for the conquests.
That’s an ironman save there. Norse if abused correctly is certainly capable of the initial burst. And once emperor size with the Byzantines, you dont need mercs due to retinue abuse.
Soooo, Paradox Interactive released a gamebook app based on this series called Crusader Kings: Chronicles today
Oddly, the official twitter account for CKII, or any of the other Paradox accounts, did not even mention this. They did announce The Repear’s Due expansion though. Here is the annoying, with little info, trailer.
More optimization incoming.
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/ck2-dev-diary-18-optimization-and-modding.962057/
Eyeballing things from the video, looks like the game runs 2-2.5x as fast now on max speed.