Paging @Knightsaber, @BrianRubin, @ArmandoPenblade, @DaveLong and anyone else who plans on finally actually playing this game and maybe pierce the veil of mystery that surrounds its deep and complex mechanics.
Now we just need some volunteers to nudge us towards the right path - any recent LPs, guides, AARs, tips, modding advice or whatever else that could help new players would be most welcome.
I’m mainly interested in pagan and/or Slavic rulers of lower tier (count or duke) and would prefer to play a ruler from south-eastern or eastern europe, mainly because I’m more familiar with slavic names and I think it would help me a great deal in managing the dynasty and diplomatic relations (my attempts at playing Irish were a disaster because of this reason).
I’ve looked over a few possible candidates but most of them seem to start in an unenviable position. And I absolutely refuse to visit the noob island again lol. Fwiw, I have all the dlcs so I was thinking of maybe starting with republics to learn the game.
Anyway, feel free to drop some knowledge bombs on us.
I played it a whole HOUR or so the other day. NO clue what I was doing, just reacting to all those handy alerts that kept popping up, but I had a good time.
So @Bateau you want to play CK II… and as a Slavic nation. So some things to note:
The Byzantines are a power. Be very wary of them. But also be cautious about being too opportunistic at their expense, they form a nice buffer against the caliphates. Honestly I would steer you in the direction of Hungary or the Rus. Plenty of opportunity, some space from major threats, and fits the Eastern European tableau. The Baltic’s have the issue of Byzantium, the Poles the issue of the Viking raiders. The Rus have the Mongols eventually, but you have a decent chunk of time to prepare.
Paradox games are the only games where saying ‘I have a link to a 22 part YouTube series’ is not only a non parodic response, but a legitimately good and useful one!
Sorry @Bateau no specific ruler in mind. Most of my hours were in the British isles, Scandinavia, and Iberia.
Oh, I didn’t realize you’d be loading up any of the 14 major DLC releases for the game. I don’t have much info for those, but there are probably online courses available for them.
According to Steam, I’ve only got 178 hours of playtime with CK2, so I’m very much a newb at this, but I played a recent game starting with one of the single-county chiefdoms just to the southeast of the Baltic Sea, Zemgale perhaps, and had a lot of fun. I started in 1066 though, but for what you’re looking for it sounds like there should be some options near there in the 700s as well.
Until then I’d only played in Spain and noob island, and the mechanics for pagan chiefdoms caught me off guard. It took my first ruler ten years before he clued into the whole idea of raiding. Once he figured that out things got much better.
Holy Fury, the newest expansion, can be a ton of fun if you’re looking for a randomized start. I started a random game with that a little while ago and the randomization of the world makes for a whole new game.
Marry your extended family to make defensive pacts, your close family for claims you eventually inherit, fabricate claims for more immediate goals, turn those defensive pacts into alliances and abuse the latter for wars of expansion. All while making your ambitious vassals small and pissed enough to rot in jail after weak rebellions. It’s actually surprisingly easy once you grasp what levers actually matter.
I’ve only played boring catholics with a dash of norse and GoT, and I should play this a lot more often, but I love it. My biggest issue is how quickly I stop roleplaying and start min-maxing for a stable empire, as the challenge goes away.
As a pagan, your goal is to get as big as you can before having to reform or convert to avoid big holy wars, and in the process you should aim at getting a kingdom so your realm doesn’t split after succession. In the mean time, there’s a few ways to get rid of extra claimants, but you’re likely to have to fight them off after - get allies, numbers win wars.
This is the part I’m interested in - how do you recognize good opportunities for both? For example when it comes to alliances, do you avoid any specific factors such as the ruler being part of a larger empire, or being located in particularly contested area?
How likely are they to drag me to war in some far flung location vs. how likely are they to join me in a war.
So one useful thing to do is often, as a Duke, marry your liege. If you are married to the royal family, it makes it less likely they will intervene against you, perhaps even help, if you get into a spat with one of his fellow subordinates. It also helps if you are going to war for provinces part of the de jure kingdom.
Say, for example, you’re in Spain. The Muslim kingdoms to your south have a few provinces that are part of one of your de jure duchies. If you are allied to the king, it’ll make it more likely he aids you if you go to war for them.
Likewise you may want to consider how likely he is to be attacked, or to have usurpers. Though that can be an advantage! If the kingdom has a split, that will give you an opportunity to grab some land perhaps.
And if you see an old ruler without any heirs? Marriages can be a great way for you to take advantage.
The reality is there are so many ways to play the marriage diplomatic game that almost any target can be valid. You just need to be aware of how you can profit.
How do you estimate if the ruler is vulnerable to usurpation etc? I get the concepts but I don’t know which factors to look for within the data available to the player to make these decisions.
