CKII is released.

[RK47]

Got tired of dealing with two kingdom titles.
Finally bribed the duke that's causing negative vassal opinion and then switched to elective.
Then destroyed the title.

Too bored to continue. Victory is probably assured.

 

[thesheeep]

I just tried a game as Finland without getting rid of unwanted sons to really feel the pain of gavelkind for the lulz.

The fun lasted maybe 50 years.
Then my ruler died (yep, over 70 years old, died on the battlefield ), and some few years later I was attacked by Sweden and Norway (or whatever they were currently called) and had under 1k soldiers to defend myself with.
Of course, none of my siblings wanted to give me any of their soldiers. I wonder why.

Now, of course you can easily get rid of unwanted sons (or make sure you never have more than one son) so gavelkind is actually very strong, if you play it right.
But how does the AI manage to actually form lasting nations with this?
Does it also try to get rid of additional sons?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

To me it seems that usually there aren't enough titles to go around after the first few sons, and usually one of the sons just usurps everything from the others.

 

[Average Manatee]

Pretty much what Vaarna said. The reason you survived long enough to be invaded by another nation was because you were strong enough and well-liked enough to not immediately degenerate into civil war. The AI would have immediately started a deathmatch where only one survives.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

A lot of the time one of them just amassing a faction that causes the main heir to capitulate, or the main heir uses their claims to revoke titles if they're well-liked by rest of the realm.

 

[Average Manatee]

That too. Or a string of quick plotting and assassinations.

 

[Brinko]

Is the ability to join rebelling vassals in their independence wars still in the game? Tried to join a few but could never actually join.

Also decided to eventually start just joining every retarded crusade for land as my only means of expansion. Might go Fraticelli just so I have something to do at this point before the Mongols come in and be as ineffective as I usually see them become.

 

[RK47]

You look old, just break truce with those pagans till they all die.

 

[baturinsky]

After listening records of lectures about medieval history for some time I have realised how authentic and fun CK2 was before retinues were added. Retinues killed all the fun. You don't have to care about your asshole vassals, because you can roflstomp wars without their help. And if vassals act up, you can roflstomp them with retinues too. So, no sweet, sweet backstabbing and kinslaying internal politics we all love Medieval times for.

Is there a mod that allows playing with new DLCs, but nerfs retinues back?

 

[Konjad]

The whole game badly needs reballancing after all those over-powered DLCs.

 

[oscar]

Removing routines would require rebalancing adventurers, Mongols, event stacks etc but its an interesting idea for a mod.

 

[Grinolf]

After listening records of lectures about medieval history for some time I have realised how authentic and fun CK2 was before retinues were added. Retinues killed all the fun. You don't have to care about your asshole vassals, because you can roflstomp wars without their help. And if vassals act up, you can roflstomp them with retinues too. So, no sweet, sweet backstabbing and kinslaying internal politics we all love Medieval times for.

Is there a mod that allows playing with new DLCs, but nerfs retinues back?

Retinues, the the Crown Authority, were supposed to represent a slow change in the feudal states in that period, at the begining of which kings depended on the whims of their own vassals, but with time some dynasties managed to gain more power a not only stopped to rely on their vassals, but started to enforce their will over them, being only a step away from forming a centralized state.
Think about Capet dynasty and it's two branches as an example. They started as just formal rulers of France with almost no power and the most famous of them at the zetinth of the power of his dynasty called himself a state. Altrough it was already in the EU games period.
But as always CK sucks at showing a gradual changes. Situation with Papacy and Christianity in general in the CK2 is evem worse.

 

[mondblut]

Retinues killed all the fun. You don't have to care about your asshole vassals, because you can roflstomp wars without their help. And if vassals act up, you can roflstomp them with retinues too.

I thought that's where all fun is.

 

[Konjad]

what's the next expansion for CK2? did paradox say?

 

[Grinolf]

what's the next expansion for CK2? did paradox say?

China is way too big and had nothing in common with european feudalism in that period. Japan became a feudal at that time, but feudalism there peaked after CK2 period, when feudalism in Europe was pretty close to death. And they already released a separate game and EU4 with this feature. So the only obvious gap is theocracies. Also they have a constant request about on their forums since the game release.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

And IIRC they've talked about adding trade goods to provinces since The Old Gods release.

 

[sser]

Is CK2 a difficult game to set up for multiplayer? We didn't try for very long, but a buddy and I had some issues getting a game going.

 

[Brinko]

Does converting to a Catholic heresy give me a CB on Orthodox rulers? I'd like to finally crack Byzantium into independent kingdoms as well as remove Croatia out of my way.

 

[Reject_666_6]

I briefly tested it by switching religions around in the console and it seems it doesn't give any CB towards Orthodontists, nor vice versa.

 

[RedScum]

Is CK2 a difficult game to set up for multiplayer? We didn't try for very long, but a buddy and I had some issues getting a game going.

Well since it's steamworks only now it should be alot easier. Just host a game and send an invite through steamchat or something.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Does converting to a Catholic heresy give me a CB on Orthodox rulers? I'd like to finally crack Byzantium into independent kingdoms as well as remove Croatia out of my way.

Unfortunately no. It gives you CB only on your parent religion, not on other christian variants or heresies. I wish it did, I love playing heretics when everyone around me is a target.

Maybe someone here can explain to me some rules on crown authority. Started a game in southern Italy as a single county duke and catholic heretic. The game is much more challenging when there are bigger players around you willing to holly war you - though they can't quite grasp the fact that just because I have less then half their force doesn't mean they can push me around when I have 500 gold in reserve. I even took Rome from pope and made it the capital of my kingdom of Sicily.

Now the Emperor (I'm de jure in his lands but not his vassal) has increased crown authority - why does he bother asking me about that? Does his law somehow affect me or my vassals over my own CA? What about before I created the kingdom, would it affect me then? I'm asking because I would like for my vassals to be unable to switch to primogeniture, but if they have access to it because they are de jure in the empire with high CA it's a lost cause.

 

[Brinko]

Damn, well no matter as Croatia flipped to Catholic somehow and my son went adventurer on his wife who ruled Bulgaria so soon going heresy will allow me to wipe them all out when Bulgaria is fully converted.

 

[Reject_666_6]

Now the Emperor (I'm de jure in his lands but not his vassal) has increased crown authority - why does he bother asking me about that? Does his law somehow affect me or my vassals over my own CA? What about before I created the kingdom, would it affect me then? I'm asking because I would like for my vassals to be unable to switch to primogeniture, but if they have access to it because they are de jure in the empire with high CA it's a lost cause.

Open up your save and play as one of your vassals and see if it lets you switch to Primogeniture. All the vassal modifiers only affect vassals (surprise!), so the succession law option should be the only thing affecting you.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Hmm, doesn't look like it affects them at all then. Their condition for switching succession law is listed as the crown law of my kingdom. So I guess it doesn't matter at all what the Emperor decides as long as I'm not his vassal. Makes me wonder why he bothers asking me about it. Also, if I conquer a county or revoke it and then give it to someone, what are its succession laws? Does it revert to some default (agnatic-cognatic gavelkind)? Have to test that to see.

Had an interesting war - muslims in Egypt decided to holly war me. Only they apparently have no ships because they send their army the long way around. I've beaten their first wave with mercenaries and had the warscore on 96% because they took their time getting to me. But then I had to white peace because their main force has finally reached me and nothing I could field could even touch them. 500 gold... so close.

At this point I'm actually doing pretty good - took all of Sicily except those parts that started in ERE, and a part of Italy, including Rome as my capitol. And all it took was 30 years of almost constant war with everyone. Got a couple thousand in gold just in case and my first retinues are being created (I'm playing as greek, so I have high hopes for those). The only thing that could threaten me at this point is ERE coming for my kingdom (spotted a 25k stack of mostly heavy infantry in their lands and the Emperor is an ambitious bastard), or a jihad or a crusade (though I've already been at war and won against most of Europe).

And can someone tell me where the hell is the pope? He is listed as "residing in Rome". Well I hold Rome and would like to loot that holly money bag.

 

[baturinsky]

If you succeed a duchy in someone else's kingdom, but they have crown authority high enough to prevent ceding on this ground, then you will be considered vassal of that kingdom - but only as that duchy's owner.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

And can someone tell me where the hell is the pope? He is listed as "residing in Rome". Well I hold Rome and would like to loot that holly money bag.

The Pope can exist landless, in which case he's residing in a secret hideout in Rome. Looting the Divine Treasury is a little complicated.

 

[Zero Credibility]

I think I've seen something involving an anti-pope? Oh well, let him rot in his secret pope cave then, with his gold. Thousands and thousands of shiny gold.

On the other hand, can he even declare a crusade while landless? If not, I would be safe from his promised "crusade for Rome" until somebody gives him land somewhere (can that happen?).