Crusader Kings 2

[shawn michaels]

Yeah, just popped out another kid, she's fine. So it must have been an unfortunate coincidence. Now I know how Tywin Lannister feels. ¬_¬

 

Update: William conquered England, so Normandy (and Maine) is now part of the Kingdom of England under his rule. Poor Joffré...

 

So...France is almost ceasing to exist. Nice! I hate the French! (Yeah, Zidane and Platini, i mean you guys! You know what i'm talking about, Zizou! ) Can't wait to start playing this! But still nothing from Amazon.

[lazorbeak]

Quick geography lesson, in 1066, Portugal and Galicia were actually one kingdom, in a de jure independence that lasted drom 1065 to 1072, with Portugal later continuing as dependant part of Galicia's kingdom until Afonso Henriques began the independence war. So, yeah, you're wrong and yeah, Galicia's kingdom at the time included part of modern day Portugal, well, the part that we Portuguese had at the time, as the rest would later come with the "Reconquista." So...D-Lyrium was correct, you are wrong, i'm Portuguese, trust me. And D is also right about the political situation in the Iberian peninsula being pretty messed up at the time. It was.

 

Hey, guy, my comment was in response to D-Lyrium saying Galicia was "modern day Portugal," which... it ain't. It might have encompassed part of Portugal, but Portugal is a separate kingdom. But thanks for your attempts at being informative!

[bigtplaystew]

So here's how my game went. Over about 150 years (using some console cheats btw so I'm not saying this to impress anyone) I managed to become King of Ireland.

 

The King of Scotland was my brother in law but he turned on me after I helped him with some wars against England. He tried to take Ulster. So at this point my current king went "mad" and I played full out tyrant. LOTS OF FUN.

 

So I married a girl with a claim to the scottish throne and fought with scotland for about 30 years until I finally beat them, slaughtering prisoners, and taking lots of titles for myself.

 

A raging tyrant can get stuff done for you, btw. You just need money. I noticed the lack of popular opinion means you'll miss out on some taxes.

 

Rebellions started popping up so frequently he could get very little done. In a last ditch move, the Mad King assassinated all but one of his children, then promptly killed himself (using the console cheats) leaving the Scottish and Irish thrones to his only son, a four year old.

 

The new king tried to be benevolent. He had a lot of titles to give out to keep his demesne size down. It worked for awhile, but I grabbed up a betrothal to a girl with a claim to the throne of England. Took it surprisingly easily.

 

Now the rebellions are getting crazy again so the new king is having a hard time trying to be peaceful. I'm trying to find creative ways to keep lands under my kingdom and expand, but it's getting later in time so now the kindoms are pretty well shored up. I'm probably just going to try to stabilize my region for a reign, rebuild my finances and see how expansion might be possible.

 

It's interested to see and read about the creative ways people can take land and keep it in their family. This game is a historical sandbox. So much fun.

[shawn michaels]

Hey, guy, my comment was in response to D-Lyrium saying Galicia was "modern day Portugal," which... it ain't. It might have encompassed part of Portugal, but Portugal is a separate kingdom. But thanks for your attempts at being informative!

 

"Guy", no need for sarcasm, i was infact being informative and no more ans you said Portugal was a separate kingdom at the time, (do i need to quote you?) when it was not. But i'm not here trying to insult anybody, so no need for you to act like that. And the name is Shawn Michaels 82.

 

Ps: One just can't say anything, i guess.

[lazorbeak]

So here's how my game went. Over about 150 years (using some console cheats btw so I'm not saying this to impress anyone) I managed to become King of Ireland.

 

The King of Scotland was my brother in law but he turned on me after I helped him with some wars against England. He tried to take Ulster. So at this point my current king went "mad" and I played full out tyrant. LOTS OF FUN.

 

So I married a girl with a claim to the scottish throne and fought with scotland for about 30 years until I finally beat them, slaughtering prisoners, and taking lots of titles for myself.

 

A raging tyrant can get stuff done for you, btw. You just need money. I noticed the lack of popular opinion means you'll miss out on some taxes.

 

Rebellions started popping up so frequently he could get very little done. In a last ditch move, the Mad King assassinated all but one of his children, then promptly killed himself (using the console cheats) leaving the Scottish and Irish thrones to his only son, a four year old.

 

The new king tried to be benevolent. He had a lot of titles to give out to keep his demesne size down. It worked for awhile, but I grabbed up a betrothal to a girl with a claim to the throne of England. Took it surprisingly easily.

 

Now the rebellions are getting crazy again so the new king is having a hard time trying to be peaceful. I'm trying to find creative ways to keep lands under my kingdom and expand, but it's getting later in time so now the kindoms are pretty well shored up. I'm probably just going to try to stabilize my region for a reign, rebuild my finances and see how expansion might be possible.

 

It's interested to see and read about the creative ways people can take land and keep it in their family. This game is a historical sandbox. So much fun.

 

Yeah there's a lot of different ways to approach things, which I think is most of the fun. I think everybody's first impulse is to fight everybody, but it's fun to work your way through things without being a monster.

 

A lot of the fun is in delegating and watching families you've helped or hurt over generations. You have to be careful because you want talented people and not a bunch of louts, but that ambitious trait is just a recipe for disaster.

 

My current game I'm a duke in the northern HRE, and I've got to do something to make sure my second sun ends up winning the eventual rebellion; he's ambitious and has great skills, but my eldest is a homosexual dwarf who really has no business leading anyone. Right now I think I'm going to gradually start giving every county under my direct control to son #2, so that when he rises up the instant my current character is dead, he'll have a solid power base.

 

"Guy", no need for sarcasm, i was infact being informative and no more ans you said Portugal was a separate kingdom at the time, (do i need to quote you?) when it was not. But i'm not here trying to insult anybody, so no need for you to act like that. And the name is Shawn Michaels 82.

 

It will be hard to quote me since I never said that. D-Lyrium called Galicia "modern day Portugal," and I made it clear that Galicia and Portugal are not synonymous to avoid confusion. I never said Portugal was a separate kingdom at the time or anything like that, which is apparently the thing I was so wrong about you had to say "yeah, you're wrong" twice?

 

I didn't say anyone was "wrong" while (apparently) not understanding what they were saying. I just made a distinction clear, and got "corrected" for it.

[shawn michaels]

Quick geography lesson: Galicia is in Spain. Maybe its most significant aspect during this time period was Santiago de Compostela, which was an extremely popular pilgrimage site for the rest of Europe. The Kingdom of Portugal is a separate kingdom, south of Galicia, both in the game and in real life.

 

 

Also El Sid is around somewhere and can be helpful for protecting Spain against the Moors.

 

Sure.

[bigtplaystew]

Because I'm a grown up and stuff... I give all my sons and daughters horrifically unrepeatable names. One humorous side effect is that they name kids after themselves and whatnot. When Prince Yummybutt from Scotland wants something it makes me giggle.

[lazorbeak]

Sure.

 

Also true. It has different de jure territories and is a separate title. Which is why I said those things.

[shawn michaels]

Because I'm a grown up and stuff... I give all my sons and daughters horrifically unrepeatable names. One humorous side effect is that they name kids after themselves and whatnot. When Prince Yummybutt from Scotland wants something it makes me giggle.

 

Nasty!

[D-Lyrium]

Can we just calm down a bit? Everyone is perfectly aware that Galicia is separate from Portugal. None more so than SM82, who lives there.

 

All I meant by my comment was that the Kingdom of Galicia in 1066 sits in the same geographical area as modern day Portugal, for the benefit of people who might be reading but unaware of where Galicia is/was. That's all.

 

 

Anyway, I realise I've spammed this thread a bit today, but this is the most interesting game I've had for ages, possibly ever. So continuing from where we left off:

 

Burgundy won the war against France (but not without me contributing 27% to the warscore (for which I got the same +15 opinion as if I'd contributed 2.7% I occupied five entire provinces for the ungrateful sod! Helping out with other people's wars doesn't really seem worth it...). So France is now divided into 5 (7, really).

 

In the northeast you've got actual France, now ruled by the de Bourgogne family of Burgundy. This extends from modern day Belgium (*slight cringe*) down to Dijon, then across to Anjou, Tours and Bourges.

 

Then there's Normandy (and Maine), ruled by the English under King Richard I, who went mad (literally) and was a far cry from Richard the Lionheart (which is lucky because the Aquitaine situation is a little delicate as it is, see later). Also, it's a little early for that guy. Now they're under the rule of William II. It's worth noting that the Duchy of Normandy hasn't actually been created, and the area it occupies is ruled by several counts (and a few provinces by William directly).

 

In the northwest there's me, of course. Shamefully I haven't expanded into France yet, though Brittany does now own most of Wales. We'll gain some of France (potentially A LOT of France) via succession though, due to my Crowning Moment Of Achievement which I'll get to later.

 

Orléans (and Paris) are independent, ruled by 3-year-old Duke Evrárd. Get this, his heir? Prince Joffré of France. Yes, THAT Joffré. Joffré Capet. Now 28, Marshall of the Realm and doing quite well for himself. The king of France is at war with Evrárd currently though. Currently the capital of France is Dijon.

 

The whooooole of the south of France, from Thouars/Poitiers/La Marche/Bourbon all the way to Spain, is ruled by the KINGDOM of Aquitaine. It's worth pointing out that Lyon and Bourgougne aren't French yet, they're still HRE territory. Now, here's where it gets interesting.

 

Ages ago while she was still a child I had Oreguen (my second-born daughter that was 'normal') betrothed to Guilhém de Poitou, who at the time was heir to the duchy of Aquitaine (remember my 'throwing my apples in their basket' comment?). Well, things changed.

 

By the time he'd become ruler, Aquitaine had become a Kingdom. So when he married Oreguen, he was Prince Guilhém. Then King Guilhém, with a bigger kingdom and more manpower than the King of France. And she was his queen. They had a son together.

 

Then she murdered him. That's my girl.

 

So my grandson is now King of Aquitaine, and my daughter is her regent. I've raised Cersei Lannister. Brilliant.

 

But that's not all (though it is significantly more important). My heir, Imanol, was married off to the heir to the county of Anjou (I'll admit, I thought at the time she was heir to the DUCHY of Anjou... but the Aquitaine thing made up for that). They had a daughter together, but sadly not a son. Then Imanol's wife died, the daughter inherited and he's now her regent (and heir. C'mon man, kill her already. This is 1100, love doesn't exist. ¬_¬).

 

So basically my family own southern and western France. And I've fought... zero military battles to achieve it. When I die, and my heir dies, I'll control most of France.

 

Talking of military battles, there have been a few. Because I'm Duke of Brittany yet only actually have three provinces in my demesne (Rennes, which I started with, and two of the Welsh ones I won) there is usually a plot going on to institute Elective Succession. And because it's common sense and perfectly fair, it usually gets a fair amount of support quite easily, and war is then declared. So far it's only been two counties at a time, though (Nantes and Cournuailles (same Duke) and then Vannes and Léon), so they're easily crushed. And now my vassal in Dyfed (I don't get why she's a vassal, when I took over the other two Welsh provinces I conquered...) is rebelling. Which is laughable, really.

 

Oh, and my son/heir is plotting to kill me. I haven't tried to end it, because the sooner he succeeds, the sooner I get more powerful. ¬_¬

 

Also, now-70-year-old Conan II just had his third daughter with his third wife. His eighth child in total if you count the bastard he starts the game with. Nice going, Conan.

[Irish Wolf]

Ok so I stared over again in Ireland this time as the only Duke available. Ireland has 13 regions and he controls two so it seemed wise. Plus the seat of his Duchy contains Limerick which is where my grandparents are from so it seemed fitting.

 

My first ruler did well. taking over the third region in his Duchy fairly early on cementing himself as the only duke in town. He then went on to take another region next to his Duchy which was one half of the Duchy next to him although he never created the Duke title for that Duchy before dying.

 

Since his only son died before my Duke his Grandson took over but he was god awful just horribly bad. On top of having some of the most atrocious stats I've ever seen he also had like -120 prestige. That's right NEGATIVE. But I went a head and played with him anyway and he went and tried to take another province that was one half of another Duchy (The second half of which was controlled by the same guy who controlled the second half of the first Duchy). With the battle almost over the sucky Duke was killed in battle leaving the territories to his only son who was much more bad ass and only 4 years old.

 

So my 4 year old Duke won the battle thus gaining 100 prestige and some more territory and claim to two titles. So basically I wait 12 years building up a nice nest egg while building the infrastructure of my main territory. When he comes of age the first thing he does is usurps the title of one of the two Duchys he has half off and goes to war. He quickly seizes that territory and then saves for a year and usurps the other Duchy and declares war taking the second and last territory from his rival giving him a total 7 territories. It takes him a year and a half to save up the gold but he does and creates the kingdom of Ireland and Declaring himself King at age 21.

 

Now king my third rule goes to five of the six other counties held by Irish Earls and says "Hey how about you be my Vassal?" and they all say, "well hot damn sounds like a plan". My gold quickly stockpiling I create the last Duchy and making myself the Ruler of all of.... hey wait a minutes why does the King of Scotland have Ulster County. So I save up a butt load of cash use my Ducal right to claim Du Juen (or whatever) on Ulster and Send the King of Scotland back to .... well Scotland. The thing is I was backing this other dudes plot to oust him anyway so after his loss to me he is no longer the King of Scotland.

 

So what does the new King of a unified Ireland too. he saves up some cash and attacks the Isle of Mann claiming his first outside territory as his own. Problem is nw I'm not sure what to do. There are three factions controlling England, The English, The Scottish and some small two Territory Duchy that's about to get its ass kicked by Scotland and my only allies are Russia and some other far away place. So not sure what I want to do next.

 

Any ideas for the first Irish King?

[ampulator]

Ok so I stared over again in Ireland this time as the only Duke available. Ireland has 13 regions and he controls two so it seemed wise. Plus the seat of his Duchy contains Limerick which is where my grandparents are from so it seemed fitting.

 

My first ruler did well. taking over the third region in his Duchy fairly early on cementing himself as the only duke in town. He then went on to take another region next to his Duchy which was one half of the Duchy next to him although he never created the Duke title for that Duchy before dying.

 

Since his only son died before my Duke his Grandson took over but he was god awful just horribly bad. On top of having some of the most atrocious stats I've ever seen he also had like -120 prestige. That's right NEGATIVE. But I went a head and played with him anyway and he went and tried to take another province that was one half of another Duchy (The second half of which was controlled by the same guy who controlled the second half of the first Duchy). With the battle almost over the sucky Duke was killed in battle leaving the territories to his only son who was much more bad ass and only 4 years old.

 

So my 4 year old Duke won the battle thus gaining 100 prestige and some more territory and claim to two titles. So basically I wait 12 years building up a nice nest egg while building the infrastructure of my main territory. When he comes of age the first thing he does is usurps the title of one of the two Duchys he has half off and goes to war. He quickly seizes that territory and then saves for a year and usurps the other Duchy and declares war taking the second and last territory from his rival giving him a total 7 territories. It takes him a year and a half to save up the gold but he does and creates the kingdom of Ireland and Declaring himself King at age 21.

 

Now king my third rule goes to five of the six other counties held by Irish Earls and says "Hey how about you be my Vassal?" and they all say, "well hot damn sounds like a plan". My gold quickly stockpiling I create the last Duchy and making myself the Ruler of all of.... hey wait a minutes why does the King of Scotland have Ulster County. So I save up a butt load of cash use my Ducal right to claim Du Juen (or whatever) on Ulster and Send the King of Scotland back to .... well Scotland. The thing is I was backing this other dudes plot to oust him anyway so after his loss to me he is no longer the King of Scotland.

 

So what does the new King of a unified Ireland too. he saves up some cash and attacks the Isle of Mann claiming his first outside territory as his own. Problem is nw I'm not sure what to do. There are three factions controlling England, The English, The Scottish and some small two Territory Duchy that's about to get its ass kicked by Scotland and my only allies are Russia and some other far away place. So not sure what I want to do next.

 

Any ideas for the first Irish King?

FREEDOM!!!

 

Go after the Scottish.

[bigtplaystew]

With my King of Ireland/Scotland/England game I won the Crusades and got the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Which sucks because my demesne is ridiculous right now.

 

So I'm taking a break and hopefully someone can answer this question. When I'm giving out landed titles how do I make sure I'm keeping everything under my control?

 

I assume if I'm going to give someone in MY court MY land they would be my vassal correct? And when my King dies they would also be my heir's vassals?

 

Either way I've gotta give away a buttload of land. And to prevent them from being too greedy I really don't want to give too much stuff to one person. I want to keep these people under my thumb. I have had High crown authority for decades now so I can easily keep these people weak as long as I don't give them too much land.

 

I really want to play this safe. I need a stable region. I wanna try to make a play on mainland Europe in this king's lifetime.

[Irish Wolf]

So I'm taking a break and hopefully someone can answer this question. When I'm giving out landed titles how do I make sure I'm keeping everything under my control?

 

I assume if I'm going to give someone in MY court MY land they would be my vassal correct? And when my King dies they would also be my heir's vassals?

 

You give away lesser titles then yourself. So if your a king you can give away a few Duchies. Giving the Duke title and general control of the land to a anyone in your court really. I like to give it to my family members. They'll decide what goes on their but the land will still be part of your realm and they'll still pay you taxes.

 

Or you can go even lower and just hand out a few Earl titles and just give people individual territories to control. I haven't tried it but you may be able to give both handing out the Earl titles to some people and then in giving each territory to one person and then also making one of those people a duke giving them control over all those lands. All the while they still pay you taxes and will still Levy troops for you when needed.

[Hashasheen]

Been playing an Abyssinia game with cheats just for fun. Got up to 1133 so far, currently have the Duchies of Axum, Harer, Gondor & Sanaa under the Kingdom of Abyssinia.

 

Some funny notes:

Every time I change ruler, there's always at least one person rebelling. Apparently they haven't gotten word that all my regular provinces have been getting upgraded since the minute I started the game.

My ruling dynasty is currently Frankish. Yup. One marriage to the French Royal Family and now I've only got one Abyssinian girl in the family, and two Frankish provinces. Still Monosphyite, though.

The Shia Caliphate is pretty much morphing into the Druze Caliphate due to me doing a Night of Knives (aka spamming assassinations with money + piety cheats to wipe out the original dynasty and then some, until it got to the Druze somehow). Stroke of genius really, the Caliphate's been getting rebellion after rebellion for nearly a hundred years now, and at the same time they've been turning a good few provinces Druze, meaning that any Holy War I have with them won't bring in half the Muslim states in the region anymore.

I've spent nearly half the game killing my own rulers/brothers/sons/daughters/relatives just to get the specific person I want on the throne, even after surrendering it just to avoid a civil war at times. At last count, I'm fairly certain over a hundred members of my dynasty have been killed + two dozen Kings/Queens by yours truly.

[shawn michaels]

+ 46 hours gone by and no answer from Amazon. I'm guessing they will be late on their answer. I'm never using Amazon again.

[Nathers7]

Started a game as the Kingdom of Leon using the fantastic CK2+ mod, things were going along nicely for the 1st 10 years (conquered a few territories off the Muslims to the south) but then I realised assasinating my niece would mean I would inherit Castille and Galicia from my brother. Only a 25% chance of being discovered, what could go wrong? . So yeah, although it worked I gained the kinslayer and dishonourable traits and was plunged into civil war where my character got crippled and died. Aww well, at least his heir isn't too bad:

 

http://i49.tinypic.com/2hzldty.jpg

 

 

One of the worst characters I've ever had lol, traits are: Twin, Dynastic Stain, Homosexual (he still managed 3 kids though), Wroth, Cruel, Arbitrary, Craven, Gluttonous and he had tyrant for a while aswell.

 

Safe to say he's had a few revolts already (prestige = win) and is holding on by a thread. Didn't even realise until now that he actually has a claim on the Kingdom of Hungary through his grandfather. Also married to the Queen of France so I'll post a screenshot of when my heir inherits both France and Castille. Any bets on how long it takes the French to rebel when that happens?

[shawn michaels]

Gonna buy this on steam. I'll keep you posted on how the whole Amazon thing is going, and, why not, about my game advances to.

[shawn michaels]

It's gonna be my first full time game...so, what's the easiest place to start? Any suggestions? From what i've seen, Spain is definitely not easy, so i'll avoid that for now.

[bigtplaystew]

It's gonna be my first full time game...so, what's the easiest place to start? Any suggestions? From what i've seen, Spain is definitely not easy, so i'll avoid that for now.

 

It was recommended to me to start in Ireland. Long story short, it's relatively small, easy to manage, and out of the way. There's lots of territory for you to acquire without bringing massive empires on top of you. Check out this thread's earlier posts if you want more info on where to start.

 

Just play through the whole tutorial (which doesn't cover as much of the game as it should but you'll learn what you need to so you can get started) and get in there. I found myself not getting the finer points of the game and I'm still struggling with a few things (obviously) but it's a complex game. There are console cheats too if you wanna mess witht hem to have fun.

 

Also, this:

http://crusaderkings-two.wikia.com/wiki/Crusader_Kings_II_Wiki

Lots of good helpful things to read there depending on how much you end up liking this game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You give away lesser titles then yourself. So if your a king you can give away a few Duchies. Giving the Duke title and general control of the land to a anyone in your court really. I like to give it to my family members. They'll decide what goes on their but the land will still be part of your realm and they'll still pay you taxes.

 

Or you can go even lower and just hand out a few Earl titles and just give people individual territories to control. I haven't tried it but you may be able to give both handing out the Earl titles to some people and then in giving each territory to one person and then also making one of those people a duke giving them control over all those lands. All the while they still pay you taxes and will still Levy troops for you when needed.

 

 

OK so let's say I'm giving land to a guy in my court who isn't in my dynasty. As long as they aren't of equal rank to me (i.e. since I'm King of Ireland, Scotland, and England Dukes and below) they'll still be my heir's vassals when I'm dead, correct? Meaning as king my heir won't rule these lands directly but he'll rule the men that rule these lands.

[shawn michaels]

Where can i find those cheats?

[Nathers7]

Where can i find those cheats?

 

Google is your friend

 

Wouldn't recommend using cheats though, makes things too easy and your accomplishments are always going to be tainted.

[bigtplaystew]

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?585658-Cheats

 

Of course, you can google around. For character IDs just put "charinfo" into the console and mouse over the characters. It'll be in the drop down.

 

On US keyboards you hit the ~ key to bring up the console.

 

I personally limit myself mostly to cash and kill cheats. and "event 24504" which gets your wife pregnant. You can enter it multiple times in a row (as long as they are right after each other on the same day) to have twins, triplets, etc.

 

Going too crazy with these cheats can mess up your game or totally take the fun out of it.

 

I messed with cheats this first game just to play around and have had a lot of fun. There is absolutely NO WAY I would be King of Ireland/Scotland/England/Jerusalem if I didn't have an endless bank account to be able to bring mercenaries in whenever I want.

[shawn michaels]

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?585658-Cheats

 

Of course, you can google around. For character IDs just put "charinfo" into the console and mouse over the characters. It'll be in the drop down.

 

On US keyboards you hit the ~ key to bring up the console.

 

I personally limit myself mostly to cash and kill cheats. and "event 24504" which gets your wife pregnant. You can enter it multiple times in a row (as long as they are right after each other on the same day) to have twins, triplets, etc.

 

Going too crazy with these cheats can mess up your game or totally take the fun out of it.

 

I messed with cheats this first game just to play around and have had a lot of fun. There is absolutely NO WAY I would be King of Ireland/Scotland/England/Jerusalem if I didn't have an endless bank account to be able to bring mercenaries in whenever I want.

 

Well, i'm gonna need help, i started as Portugal (vassal to Galicia) and i don't really know what to do to get more money. I wanna try and be independent real soon.

 

Edit: I didn't really understood that post. What are the controls to input cheats? I don't even recognize that first one.

[Irish Wolf]

OK so let's say I'm giving land to a guy in my court who isn't in my dynasty. As long as they aren't of equal rank to me (i.e. since I'm King of Ireland, Scotland, and England Dukes and below) they'll still be my heir's vassals when I'm dead, correct? Meaning as king my heir won't rule these lands directly but he'll rule the men that rule these lands.

 

I believe so but not 100%. I'lllet you know when my king dies.