Crusader Kings 3 - Downton Abbey for the 12th Century

Games
1472

I don’t really like Ironman in these games, because I always feel that it is so easy to make mistakes because the 3-speed is too slow, and the 4-speed is too fast. Not fun having a bunch of raiders hanging around ina a place for several months because one forgot them.

I’ve decided that I’d like to try a reeeally munchkin game, though, so I decided to go ironman with that just to have a little challenge. So off goes Valdemar, the 7-year old Viking handsome prodigy to subjugate the world to the Danes.

Personally, the part that keeps me entertained with this game even when things start repeating is to just try and build legendary characters - like the warriors lodge emperor in CK2 who successfully managed that insane quest where you end up fighting a bear.

Off to a good start with this one, picking up Diligent and Ambitious as personality traits (and a pet cat). Assuming his life isn’t cut short, this is going to be a legendary king.

1473

I love the ruler designer. Meet my hideous 1-legged, 1-eyed, albino, scarred, scaly, hunchbacked, club-footed, lisping, stuttering, but fertile Dwarf who’s only 16 years old lol.

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1474

Argh, hideous!

1475

1476

(I’ve been either laughing, chuckling, or giggling since I first saw this. Good work!)

1477

Counterpoint:

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(Stole the DNA from reddit. Some people have a lot of talent.)

If you want to start with a royal court:
Brittany, 867. Arrange a marriage with France and c’est voila, you’re safe for the duration (the neighboring French counts love to fabricate claims on Brittany.) If you start in 1066, you’re only a Duke and need another duchy (and 500 gold) to form the Kingdom of Brittany. However, Brittany is a really small kingdom and in short order you can own all the provinces for yourself, just don’t have too many sons Expansion can go any number of directions: Cornwall/Wales and/or Ireland, or if more adventures Castile. Or stay small and end up as the most advanced realm in the world. :)

Holland, 867. (Default duke is actually Norse, although you can convert through event. However I almost always make a custom ruler.) Can consolidate the duchies required to from Frisia fairly easily. Just need to wait for an opportune time to declare independence from Lotharingia.
Dutch culture:

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(Bureaucratic ethos is quite strong.)

(Note: I’ve not actually played the following)
With some initial warfare but with event troops:
Jorvick, 867. Feudal Norse. Win the initial war, form a kingdom and get a Norse court.

Haesteinn of Montaigu. Feudal Norse. You start with one province, but he’s pretty famous in CK lore for hopping all over the world, even to India to form kingdoms (I’ve seen the AI take over Lotharingia with him.)

1066:
The Pagan kingdom. Really. It’s “Burma”, the far edge of the map. Not only do you start with a court but with like 12 artifacts too. You can peacefully vassalize your immediate neighbors and avoid war entirely (conceivably.)

French Dukes (Toulouse or Aquitaine.) Occitan culture, which is pretty cool:

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(edit: Both border many different cultures and experiment with the different culture options available.)

Since this post is already super long, if you’re not achievement hunting I can’t recommend More Game Rules highly enough. You can really customize the game to your liking (e.g. I turned off AI seduction; every game previously and without exception, almost every son and daughter ended up as an adulterer.)

1478

I don’t care what title he has. NOPE. Also a NOPE for any of my in game kids.

1479

It’s really pretty great - very clear that a lot of work went into that part of the game.

If you want peaceful, I’m not sure Northern Europe is the place to be, though. Seems to me there is always a lot of conflict there - if not with other Christians, then because the Norse are constantly visiting. Don’t have any experience with good places as that’s not the kind of game I go for, but I’d think something in a remote part of the world might work better.

1480

I love the stories this game can generate.

So my now 30-year old King of Denmark and Norway (and soon Sweden) finds a gifted bride-to-be in Kiev (the daughter of Dyre the Stranger - always a good match). But in order to reduce the time without a heir (potentially wasting the game) and avoid the prestige loss, he takes a couple of concubines.

One of them turns out to be unfaithful, which I should probably have guessed since she already had a child out of wedlock. My spymaster exposed the first black-haired daughter (both the King and the woman are light blond) she had while a concubine - fathered by Hrolfr, a minor vassal that I had landed. Decided not to do anything about it beyond that (also, I was curious to see what would happen). Then she presented the King a second daughter - again with black hair. And she wanted to call the daughter the female version of the vassal’s name.

Well, no real harm done (the illegitimate daughter can be married off same as any other daughter), but the mother got kicked out after that. Then a few years later, Dyre requests help against a Norse band. The leader of that band? None other than Jarl Hrolfr - now an adventurer. And still very happy with his former liege lord.

Normally, I’d just ignore such calls for help, but in this case, I think I may have to intervene - both to avoid the bride-to-be getting captured, but also just for the sake of a little old-fashioned revenge, heh.

1481

How goes the game @jpinard ?

1482

I too would love to hear how things went with this character.

1483

Well, it went…
TERRIBLE!

Maybe there’s a way to make it work if I was better at the game, but for the most part the entire world and my own people hated me. Apparently clear skin is all the rage in Medieval times and if you vary just a tiny bit off of that, say a wart, or tree bark skin… suddenly they all think you’re a heinous witch.

I went for Navarra to try and make my own little kingdom, but neighbors from everywhere wanted me out. I did last long enough to create a child, but soon after I was reduced to holding one county with massive debt. I bailed.

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1484

Navarra has always been a fun start in CK, notably as you get the Basque culture which makes it easier to elevate women to equal inheritance rights with men. But it is a HARD start, more suited to when you feel like you’re a good player and need some humbling.

1485

I got so scared out of Europe that my new game is taking place in Southwestern Africa. Trying to see if I can turn the entire African sub-continent mixed race. And wow does that sound horribly racist lol.

So I’m pretty puny, so I married tough women. My first wife died in battle, and then my second wife lost an eye so far. I’m in like year 10 and I already have 7 kids! I’m terrified of what my kingdom will look like when I die.

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(red circle is me in the far South)

1486

That’s exactly why I went for them. I dislike the men only stuff. In my next game or two I’m going to try and take a male dominated religion/culture and make it “women only” hehe. Maybe I’ll be brave and do it Ironman.

1487

Dumb question time!

What’s the most common way to acquire territory outside of conquest? In all my hours I don’t think I’ve ever gotten new lands any other way outside of war and it’s time I learned how to play “for real”.

1488

Marriage and inheritance, one assumes?

1489

That’s what I figured but how does that work if you’re a lowly Duke or Count and women can’t really lay claim to anything?

1490

Marry your heir to someone’s daughter and then assassinate anyone between them and inheritance of their father-in-law’s lands! That works in this game, right?

1491

Oh good idea! Finally have a use for that whole Intrigue tree.