I’ve been wanting to dive back in and enjoy some of the newer DLC, but what’s stopping me is the fact that I haven’t played CK in years - probably since the year it was released. I know a lot has been changed and/or added to the point that it’s almost a new game I’m going to have to learn from scratch.
Is there a Let’s Play series that’s up to date on all the changes so I can ease back in? I don’t want to invest time watching something already obsolete.
I’ve been looking for the same type of refresher. Someone recommended this Let’s Play from Nerdstalgic. It’s from February of this year, so it includes everything up to and including Conclave, but not Reaper’s Due.
Haven’t checked it out yet, but it’s a tutorial series.
That looks very good. Thanks
Newest DLC. It’s just a trailer though, no gameplay specifics:
From their forum:
STOCKHOLM – 2 December 2016 – The bells of the abbey summon monks to prayer while, a continent away, the faithful are summoned by a muezzin’s call. Religious practice imposes a schedule on the chaos of medieval life, and the routine adds harmony to a divided realm.
Routine and harmony. We can’t have that, can we?
Monks and Mystics is the latest expansion to Crusader Kings II, the hit medieval grand strategy role-playing game from Paradox Development Studio. In Monks and Mystics, the religious aspect of the game is further explored with new mechanics and character associations that can tie a faith closer together or render it asunder.
The major feature of Monks and Mystics is the addition of Societies – secret and otherwise. Characters can join monastic orders, secret cults and Gnostic heresies. As the society gains members, it gains power and prestige for its leaders. Societies open new actions for characters and can lead to new event paths.
Monks and Mystics includes:
Monastic Orders: With lay offices available to non-clerical characters, monastic orders will increase your character’s piety - but they have expectations.
Cults: Gnostic heresies may flourish and its is rumored that the worship of Satan continues in the darkened fringes of the world
Climb the Ranks: Characters work their way up the ladder of Societies, unlocking new abilities and triggering new event chains
Hunt for Heretics: Send your chaplain out to find secret societies that undermine the holy church and your realm. But what if the hunter is guilty himself?
Other New Councillor Actions: Your councillors have a fourth action that will make them more powerful and integral to sound rulership
And much more: Assassins, archaeological expeditions, holy relics, great treasures and more
Looks fun!
I’ve been engrossed with this game for about the last 3 weeks. In fact, I played a game right through to the end of 1453 for the very first time since I bought the game, I guess pre - The Old Gods DLC when Ireland was the place to start in 1066 for learning the game. I think it would have taken close to 40 hours to complete, including quite a few nights staying up until 3 or 4am, trying to get some stability in my empire, keeping the vassals happy and in general, riding the rollercoaster of highs and lows that this game delivers time and time again.
My intention wasn’t to blob, I wanted to form the Empire of Britannia, run the game through, try out many of the new systems in play that I never really experienced with Conclave or Reapers Due DLC. I stated out in the Vikings start as the Petty King of Wessex, a small duchy on the southern coast of England and thought I’d see if I could live up to the same life as Alfred the Great. What I started with was an ok king, but died after a year to cancer, detected initially thanks to a pain behind the eye. Well done cancer. His brother took charge who ended up being immediately better at everything, just overall better stats, and I think that really coloured my perspective of the game from the start. After all, my first moves were to go for London and move my capital there whilst avoiding the Viking stacks as much as possible. Figured it wasn’t my war, not my problem. So much for living up the Alfred’s high standards. But I was playing the brother instead.
After that, the slog of forming a kingdom of England became a huge hurdle. Every single time I’d set up a nice succession via inheritance, something would happen (typically death due to disease) that would foil my plans. I also had the Iberian problem to my south. The Catholic rulers of Spain were steadily losing to the Umayyad dynasty, and they had even successfully pushed past the Pyrenees mountains to take a chunk out of Aquitaine. And from this point, the Crusader in Crusader Kings lived up to its name.
House Wessex formed a custom kingdom (the Kingdom of Kent) in lieu of forming England until I could toss the last of the Vikings out and claim the rest of Northern England. With a shiny Kingdom title to my name, I felt more powerful and started to believe I could punch a little stronger. I married off a family member to an Iberian royal line in order to secure a claim to their lands and develop a better defence against the Umayyad. Furthermore, the Pope called a crusade for Aquitaine which was going badly. I jumped in with a big stack towards the end, managed to get a major victory that turned the crusade on its head, but couldn’t maintain any momentum thanks to dumbarse AI that didn’t want to join the fights. I pulled my armies out from there, gave up and let the first of many failed Crusades go. I should say that time after time, the Pope kept on calling Crusades, each one failing despite my best efforts.
The Iberian solution had a short term success. I made a claim for one of the Spanish kingdoms, held it for a short time, but lost it all too soon thanks to factional demands. It was a case of cutting my losses, essentially one of the darker moments of the game, one of the moments where I was up hideously late trying to push through what was a period of uncertainty. I was barely 300 years in and things were getting tough. I had a council that was getting too powerful, Iberia felt lost and I was struggling to pull in Scotland and Ireland as part of my greater kingdom and develop the empire.
And then, sometimes, opportunity knocks. I don’t remember how, but I got Ireland pretty much packaged as a near united kingdom. It came on top of ongoing successes with Northern England that allowed me to form the Kingdom of England properly. I also had Wales under my belt, and all it took was a weak claim on Scotland to tie up that loose end. With my Empire, and a demense that was enviable thanks to the manpower behind me, I could do things. The Umayyad dynasty didn’t feel quite so threatening now when I could holy war and win. The Reconquista of Iberia began. Furthermore, the Pope’s crusade for Acquitaine became a secondary success. And even better, he then called for a Crusade of Jerusalem, which I happily took charge of. Pushing through the bad stuff let me start riding a series of highs, and my Empire kept growing. There was a weak claim for Norway, so I took it. Every time my truce with the Umayyads ran out, I went for another holy war and took another duchy. Those duchies ended up becoming a group of 4 Kingdoms. It was like badge collecting, except instead of badges, it ended up becoming Kingdoms.
After 29 rulers, 3 of whom ruled for 54 years each, accumulating a score of 270,000, and 3 weeks worth of playing on and off, I was tired. I don’t know how people even consider doing world conquest with this game. What I found with my more successful rulers is how much the game swings into Crusader: Total War mode. Bouncing from holy war to internal war with a brief respite in between gets tiring. Dungeons get full, the constant dinging of people coming and going from defensive pacts gets annoying (thankfully can be turned off) and living the life as a Emperor becomes hard work.
But dare I say, I had a lot of fun. I put the game into the converter to see how it looks for EUIV. There’s no way I’ll play it though, it’ll be like playing France, but even easier.
Has anyone actually tried Monks & Mystics yet? It looks good, but I’d like to see a bit more feedback.
I haven’t, but the reviews on steam are very positive (which isn’t always the case for Paradox expansions) and the forums don’t even have the usual doomfest. Most of the constructive criticisms posts there are even disclaimered with something like “I do think the expansion is great, it’s just…”. So all signs point to good! I am tempted myself but just came off a CK2 playthrough.
EDIT: RPS just posted a WIT too, and called it “one of CK2’s strongest DLCs”: Crusader Kings 2: Monks and Mystics review | Rock Paper Shotgun
I’d love to get back into this, but I have some difficulty picking a good starting game. I’ve played a fun game in Wales, and I did a game in Pomerania, and am looking for something different. I tried to do something in Spain that was recommended and immediately got assassinated and confused with the way the espionage had changed since the recommendation was written.
Given that I have Sword of Islam/Legacy of Rome/The Republic/The Old Gods/Way of Life, can anyone suggest an interesting starting character and time?
I can recommend the achievement run of The Frisian Coast is long. You need to form the titular Kingdom of Frisia and expand from the Western tip of France (Brittany) all the way up to Denmark. It involves stepping on a lot of toes, especially the King of France who needs to be kept small and preferably divided.
If I recall, I started off in Amsterdam and basically had to fight for my independence when the French king was occupied. He capitulated, I broke away and then was kept busy with a myriad of other tasks.
A Cannibal Pope. That’s not something you see everyday. Almost as good as my hair lip one armed disfigured hunch back who single-handedly (ha ha) formed the Kingdom of Poland also in this play thru.
This game is so awesome sometimes.
Next DLC is out - Jade Dragon. Adds in offmap interaction with China, where you can send gifts to request gifts back (and apparently call them into a war for tons of chinabucks).
The patch itself does a massive reshaping of the eastern side of the map.
Apparently joke bears and cats have been added to join in with to the horses.
Also more speedups. Looking at that, apparently they’ve doubled the speed of the game over the last 2 years.
So this game is free on Steam for a limited time. Download it and it’s yours forever. No DLC included, of course.
Digital heroin. Sure the first one is on the dealer. Be warned. :) I’ve gotten my money’s worth though. No complaints here. Sort of looking forward to the next DLC but haven’t heard anything.
I’ve bounced off this a few times but still think it would be up my alley if I could get past the initial curve.
Any suggestions for the must-have DLC for someone who would most likely end up a casual player?
I picked this up on Steam today because the price was right.
I can’t figure out the UI well enough to do the second thing the tutorial mission asked me to do. Something about setting an ambition.
Paradox is their own worst enemy at times. LOL They just don’t have the patience to do decent tutorials, and certainly not keep the sparse ones included updated. I always imagine them throwing up their hands saying, “Screw it - just tell them to go watch a 3 hour training video!”
I actually think the tutorial flat has been broken for a few patch/dlc cycles.
They wouldn’t need two hour tutorials that always break if they would just create a UI normal humans can understand.
Hey, @Tortilla I figured it out finally! Only took me 3 minutes of looking at every goddamm icon on the screen.
Good luck on figuring out how to get married! That took me about 8 minutes.
I quit the game after that.