CKII is released.

[RK47]

They still haven't fixed that annoying 'Crusade Victory - yet no change in ruler'

I was kinda happy seeing that my decision to swear fealty to the Pope as Greater Poland paid off. We're going to beat the shit out of this Tengri scum with the help of Holy Orders hired by the Pope.

Holy Order guy is next King of Hungary?! Awesome.
Yay...only to get that victory cancelled and meaningless.
Fuck it. Back to screwing my vassals' wifes.

:ntr:

 

[JudasIscariot]

So I got my reformed pagan empire going now I need to know how to undermine my vassals and get rid of those thrice damned kingdom titles without someone weaseling out of my control and recreating the king titles from under me. I am still too scared to play iron man so I already know that if I destroy the Kingdom of Pomerania one of my vassals who somehow managed to get a hold of two duchies will go ahead and crown himself king if I don't keep it.

Halp.

 

[RK47]

What's the big deal about them being kings?
You're still the emperor.
If you really want to solve this problem, incite him to revolt by pissing him off - court jester etc etc.
But if he's popular he might gain support and summon magical stacks to destroy you.

The alternative is to give all the king title to your apparent successor so the heat is off you.
But can he take the heat?
If he can't your successor might give up those title instead.

Empire management is a bitch.
But with your retinue size - not much can stop you.

 

[JudasIscariot]

What's the big deal about them being kings?
You're still the emperor.
If you really want to solve this problem, incite him to revolt by pissing him off - court jester etc etc.
But if he's popular he might gain support and summon magical stacks to destroy you.

The alternative is to give all the king title to your apparent successor so the heat is off you.
But can he take the heat?
If he can't your successor might give up those title instead.

Empire management is a bitch.
But with your retinue size - not much can stop you.

The big deal was that after I destroyed a king title some damn vassal managed to recreate it on his own because I did not keep an eye on him. Kings are a pain because of their inherent -25 opinion malus towards you because they are your vassal.

My problem, after some reading about dukes and all, is that when I created duchies and handed them out I gave the duchies PLUS all the titles under it instead of putting in ambitious vassals at the county level and just giving someone a duchy without any actual land so that those ambitious vassals would be someone else's problem :D

 

[RK47]

-25 opinion is nothing much.
Give him Cupbearer and let him educate an imbecile daughter. Cuckold at will and make bastards for this. As long you don't piss off a demesne holder it doesn't really matter.
Toss him the odd county that belongs to another de jure kingdom bordering your Empire and watch him try to fight a battle he cannot win.
It's not a huge issue imo. Having a large King Vassal is manageable as long your retinue can kick his butt if he turn belligerent.
Stockpile 300-500 gold for merc spam and watch him go to jail if he does stupid shit.

Meanwhile it's 1025 AD in the Arch Duchy of Greater Poland. Pope has enacted maximum Crown Law and the Piast dynasty is starting to feel stifled.
We've expanded greatly and enjoyed the Papal protection from the Slavic scums surrounding us for nearly two centuries.
It was a beneficial arrangement for sure, but the lack of further expansion opportunities is beginning to bother me.
The last major offense we did was during the Crusade for Bohemia that has successfully turned them Christian.
Otherwise, it was just dispatching Norse raiders with retinues over and over.

During peace times, I've unloaded most of our treasury into building no less than 7 cities in every empty holding slot, Town Market - Wall - Guild Office, standard stuff.
Our high Legalism tech enables our mega-steward Arch-Duke in commanding no less than 6 counties and 2 cities on his own.
30 Gold Income Per Month and Annual Feasts Guaranteed. 40 Year Old, 1.5K Prestige.
What else can a Piast want?
53% Control of Poland de Jure is already achieved.
There's no way to form a faction to lower Crown Authority in the Papacy, hence we can only revolt if we want things to change.
Shall we break away or play the game of Cardinals with daggers and coins in Rome?

 

[RK47]

Finally had enough of Rome's bullshit Crown Authority. Seeing a bunch of Pagans raider every year pisses me off.
Decided to tell Rome to gently fuck off.

Spoiler

By the time the Pope's mercenaries arrived, my levies and mercenary army is ready to destroy him.

As victory grew near certain the Court Chaplain presents an interesting opportunity to unite Poland once this whole independence bid is done with.

How can I say no?

Bribes were handed out and we turned up the aggression by invading those dirty Slavic pagans almost immediately.
Then a member of the Piast Dynasty finally crowned himself King of Poland after nearly 300 years of patient wait.

We celebrate the crowning by Holy Warring a nearby Catholic county.

They summoned the Crusaders, to no avail.

No one can stop Poland.

 

[hoverdog]

Bracia Polscy

 

[RK47]

Yeah the decision to switch to heresy paid off handsomely, I perma-hired 4500 mercs with my 2500 retinue and went to town on the infinite CB around me.
Moral Authority went up to 59% after a string of victories worth around 2-3 duchy territories.
Duchy of Lesser Poland converted to Fraticelli when war score was at 98% - he was in the middle of Subjugation war with Ruthenia.

See that green Ruthenia? It's about to turn Pink.
What a nice man. I offered my help and beat the shit out of those Slavic scum. From -39% Warscore to 100% in 3 years. Ruthenia is now Fraticelli.



I'll be sure to try and make use of his as warzone buffer on the East.
And the lack of Papacy isn't a big deal, all Temple Tax automatically goes to me.

 

[Brinko]

I hope the new decadence fixes really help the AI get it's shit together because otherwise this is the shit I will have to constantly deal with. All the blobbing outside of India has been to just boost my moral authority as the Shia in Egypt just raped the Abbasids into submission. Tried pawning off Arabia and the Caliph title to the rube I gave Arabia to and that ended in tears as my MA tanked to 15% and they got sodomized my the Shia.

 

[Vilos Cohaagen]

Does anyone know if Charlemagne is the last expansion? I vowed not to get this one until they are done with the DLCs...

 

[JudasIscariot]

Does anyone know if Charlemagne is the last expansion? I vowed not to get this one until they are done with the DLCs...

No official word on that has been said.

Also, for those of you who want CKII or some DLC for a nice price, there is a fall sale going on here:

http://www.macgamestore.com/showcase/Paradox-Fall-Sale/

Yes, it's the Mac game store but you get keys for the other versions as well.

 

[Vilos Cohaagen]

Does anyone know if Charlemagne is the last expansion? I vowed not to get this one until they are done with the DLCs...

No official word on that has been said.

Also, for those of you who want CKII or some DLC for a nice price, there is a fall sale going on here:

http://www.macgamestore.com/showcase/Paradox-Fall-Sale/

Yes, it's the Mac game store but you get keys for the other versions as well.

They have a good discount, but not all DLCs available.

I have always felt sympathy for the guys in Paradox, but what they have done with this game is just insane. They could as well sell a buying guide that helps you chose among the forty something DLCs.

 

[JudasIscariot]

Does anyone know if Charlemagne is the last expansion? I vowed not to get this one until they are done with the DLCs...

No official word on that has been said.

Also, for those of you who want CKII or some DLC for a nice price, there is a fall sale going on here:

http://www.macgamestore.com/showcase/Paradox-Fall-Sale/

Yes, it's the Mac game store but you get keys for the other versions as well.

They have a good discount, but not all DLCs available.

I have always felt sympathy for the guys in Paradox, but what they have done with this game is just insane. They could as well sell a buying guide that helps you chose among the forty something DLCs.

The only DLC you really need is:

Sons of Abraham
Rajas of India
The Old Gods
Legacy of Rome
The Republic

Those are the content ones as everything else is either some songs or unit/face packs. Also, does the Republic DLC come with the face pack that makes everyone's faces look like a potato? I see this a lot in screenshots of the Republic version of the game.

Also more DLC is on the way.

 

[Abelian]

Also, does the Republic DLC come with the face pack that makes everyone's faces look like a potato? I see this a lot in screenshots of the Republic version of the game.

That's just because most of the republics are Italian and Italy is a Mediterranean culture, so Paradox showcased (and I use the term loosely) the Mediterranean portraits DLC. I checked that the Old Gods does not include the Norse portraits DLC.

 

[RK47]

Didn't matter one bit. Fucking butthurt over changes in gameplay, removal of assassinations, or devs hating players who play a certain way or whatever.
But Appearance DLC is just so easy to ignore.
I don't understand why people pay attention to top left hand corner of the game when the important details are elsewhere in this game.

But if it really bothers you so much there are so many mods in this game that sets it right.
Like this, for example.

 

[Abelian]

Like this, for example.

Sarabi's is Mufasa's sister

... and Zazu is of the same dynasty, but Scar isn't

 

[not an artichoke]

Clearly Mufasa is Zoroastrian

 

[Kane]

Didn't matter one bit. Fucking butthurt over changes in gameplay, removal of assassinations, or devs hating players who play a certain way or whatever.
But Appearance DLC is just so easy to ignore.
I don't understand why people pay attention to top left hand corner of the game when the important details are elsewhere in this game.

But if it really bothers you so much there are so many mods in this game that sets it right.
Like this, for example.

 

[JudasIscariot]

New Dev Diary is up.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...the-Unruly&s=b7c174c925430bce4f417bfbad78d03e

Here's the gist of the upcoming features:

-vassal limits
-viceroys
-many laws are now unlocked by advancing your Legalism technology and Legalism no longer directly increases your demesne size limit.
-designated regents AKA it's another Honorary Title


Discuss!!!

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Being able to designate regents is a very good addition.

 

[Grinolf]

New Dev Diary is up.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...the-Unruly&s=b7c174c925430bce4f417bfbad78d03e

Here's the gist of the upcoming features:

-vassal limits
-viceroys
-many laws are now unlocked by advancing your Legalism technology and Legalism no longer directly increases your demesne size limit.
-designated regents AKA it's another Honorary Title


Discuss!!!

What to discuss there aside from the fact, that all these changes are very logical and it's unclear why Paradox waited so long to implement them? Actually I remember some big mod tried to do something like viceroys, but never was able to mae it work and abadoned this idea a pretty long time ago.

 

[Average Manatee]

Vassal limit is tied to diplomacy? Ehh, don't like. Diplomacy already makes your vassals like you and is a powerful stat. It would be much better tied to the Learning stat gameplay-wise, since its the only stat that doesn't have a good reason to pump it. And is it the ruler's stats or the realm's stats (ruler+marriage+court) that matter? If it's the former its going to gimp the AI pretty hard with how often they have shitty near-0 stat heirs. I do like the vassal cap though as having hundreds of count vassals was the way to go before. I do hope they remove the silly 2 duchy limit for kings and above, since this change makes it kind of irrelevant.

Not sure if Legalism is being nerfed or not. It was obviously the standout tech of its group before, now it might be actually more powerful if you need it to enact max taxation on towns. But preventing players from max taxing towns from day 1 is a good move, since I'm pretty sure that everyone considers it a no-brainer day 1 action and having all of that money to spam mercs so early is OP.

Viceroys sound kind of OP. I'd expect them to be less loyal than normal, not more. A Duke or King is loyal because he knows that the emperor protects him and as long as he is loyal his sons will continue his dynasty. A Viceroy has none of that and has every reason to make his title "real" if he has a chance. As it is it sounds like as Emperor you get perks with absolutely no drawbacks.

Regency stuff sounds like a good idea but will have to wait and see how things come out.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Viceroys sound kind of OP. I'd expect them to be less loyal than normal, not more. A Duke or King is loyal because he knows that the emperor protects him and as long as he is loyal his sons will continue his dynasty. A Viceroy has none of that and has every reason to make his title "real" if he has a chance. As it is it sounds like as Emperor you get perks with absolutely no drawbacks.

Regency stuff sounds like a good idea but will have to wait and see how things come out.

The way I'd see it, Viceroys shouldn't be equal to kings in any measure, be it loyalty or the various other metrics that benefit only you. But it should be something you just have to deal with when blobbing, with no vassal kings allowed period.

 

[Brinko]

The vassal limit having ties to dynasty prestige makes me interested in how they are going to work the new decadence system. Tried going for max dynasty prestige as a muslim and just ended up killing everyone that wasn't my best heir. The biggest flaw comes from just not being able to deal with decadent members of your dynasty if you are on the same rank as him. The king of Syria isn't going to listen to the Shah of Afghanistan, even if they are related.

 

[7h30n]

I bought (vanilla) CK2 not so long ago, I haven't yet finished my 1st playthrough (started earliest possible in vanilla) and I'm enjoying it. One of the best Paradox games I've played. Since everything Paradox is on sale, which DLC should I get? I would probably buy only 1 since I still have a lot of playtime to get out of vanilla.

Also, if anyone has Warlock - Master of the Arcane, same question? Should I get Warlock: Armageddon DLC?

And ugh, ffs what's with all this DLC nonsense from Paradox. Skipped Victoria 2 and HoI3 from them, and when I checked out their games after that, they are all filled with DLC to the max.