CKII is released.

[Zero Credibility]

Yeah, yeah, longbow spam is still working fine. CK2 battle system is really FUBAR. Even if you don't have access to longbows you are still better off using generic skirmish retinues than any cultural retinues you might have. Or trying to make a balanced force - what a joke.

 

[Konjad]

Bought Charlemagne. Kinda made a point to only buy Paradox DLCs at 75%. I buy their games at launch though. I wish they made the DLCs DRM-free and able to run without Steam like the base vanilla game. Or best yet bring the games to GOG.

But you can run them without Steam just fine, same as vanilla. They are stored in /home/user/.paradoxinteractive/Crusader Kings II/ in Debian, or C:\Users\kony\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings II in Windows.

 

[Ulminati]

IIRC the main beef with retinues was that you could have fucked-up army compositions. A full retinue of nothing but archers would murder doomstacks and castles with barely any damage to themselves because they got to do damage first and tended to wreck the enemy morale. But it's been well over a year since I last touched CK, so that may have changed in the meantime.

 

[cw8]

Bought Charlemagne. Kinda made a point to only buy Paradox DLCs at 75%. I buy their games at launch though. I wish they made the DLCs DRM-free and able to run without Steam like the base vanilla game. Or best yet bring the games to GOG.

But you can run them without Steam just fine, same as vanilla. They are stored in /home/user/.paradoxinteractive/Crusader Kings II/ in Debian, or C:\Users\kony\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings II in Windows.

I'll give it a try again. I copied the gamedata files out of Steam common folder and that didn't work before.

Anyways, wish came true Paradox's on GOG!
http://www.gog.com/games##sort=bestselling&devpub=paradox_interactive&page=1?as=1649904300
At least the older games.

 

[Average Manatee]

IIRC the main beef with retinues was that you could have fucked-up army compositions. A full retinue of nothing but archers would murder doomstacks and castles with barely any damage to themselves because they got to do damage first and tended to wreck the enemy morale. But it's been well over a year since I last touched CK, so that may have changed in the meantime.

Has not changed at all.

Though you've always needed less than 60% archers to not be charged in melee on day 3. With under 60% you usually get to spend a week or two in skirmish.

 

[jcd]

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

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Personally with the changes to reinforce rate and cost I've focused my retinues on being a specialist force that I use when and where needed, otherwise avoiding any needless attrition (since attrition is the retinue's worst enemy). Almost never sieging, except when raiding, I leave that to levies that can just stand and wait.

 

[Zero Credibility]

If you remove all leaders from all flanks you will not get any siege events and therefore no siege attrition either.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Now that the sale is advertised on Steam Paradox dropped the Charlemagne discount to 33%. Oh, Johan.

 

[kris]

Now that the sale is advertised on Steam Paradox dropped the Charlemagne discount to 33%. Oh, Johan.

you called? Oh, wait you mean the programmer/designer at Paradox that dont decide about pricing and things like that.

 

[Abelian]

I'm glad I snagged it yesterday, then.

 

[sser]

What the fuck? I was going to buy it on the last day, too.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Haha. Loaded up my bigass 400-odd year game (Forget the viking start, 1200 currently) which I haven't played since before Charlemagne. Slapped Charlemagne and Way of Life on plus whatever patches and now I'm just trying to figure out how it broke my save. Things are looking mostly functional although the niece I had locked up in my rape dungeon for killing my son has somehow changed her name (Name listed on son's murder is her old name, now her character's called something else) and I'm over the new vassal limit. I also have a max retinue cap of 31k, of which my retinue is using 68k because of old retinue not being disbanded yet.

Now my empire faces its greatest challenge, holding it together against the forces of Johan breaking everything.

 

[Ulminati]

Way of life is amusing me. Fylkir Phoenix of Codexia has 5 different lovers (all married to other people) and they keep popping out children for him. Unfortunately, all the strong/quick male children don't get discovered and all the attractive/strong wimminz become his bastards, r00fles!

 

[RK47]

This game is pretty much derped itself out.
I started as a minor Count in Brittany during Old Gods and had nothing but Viking Raids to deal with.
Nearly 200 years later, I turned King and still had to deal with 5-6 raiders a year while Umayyad and Abbasid just blobs like crazy.
Karlings kept begging me to join their stupid claim conquests. Fuck that. There's hardly anything I could do to stop the Muslim blob.

 

[Absalom]

My favorite is when the computer spams the intrigue focus. It would be nice of pdox to fix the AI spamming shit but I doubt it'll happen

 

[RK47]

My favorite is when the computer spams the intrigue focus. It would be nice of pdox to fix the AI spamming shit but I doubt it'll happen

I actually understood what Way of Life is trying to accomplish.
Fulfill the player's experience during the quiet times by furthering his goals (focus) with a bunch of events that might hamper or benefit his ambitions.
The hampering part is pretty random, and at times it might just backfire. In the hands of the players, you tend to identify how bad certain focus are - and just stayed the fuck out of it.
But the AI with its ever-endearing (full retard: on) naivety (there is no fucking subtlety) just went full ham and paid for it.

I feel quiet happy not having the DLC installed ever. Sure the years go by quieter when you're not warring and you're holding a single duchy kingdom with 20% levy bonus - but at least you're less subject to random stupid.

The game dies a bit inside when random shit determines too much or one side seems to get over-dominant in the world (Empire of Hispania created by Umayyad pre-10th Century, gg)
I'm curious if the Karlings can get their act together, but I don't really have willpower to watch this endless Viking bullshit year after year gets whacked repeatedly just to see the end result.

Also, I played this for a week on a shitty laptop.

Fuck, that was painful.

 

[Heresiarch]

I've been enjoying the game so far, playing as a Dutch duke, even though I have no idea what I'm (not) supposed to do. I think I should use plots and claims to try to build a Dutch kingdom, but as a nice-guy and pussy myself I've only taken over Sticht from the son of the Emperor of HRE and then not taken any offensive steps at anyone else.

Also yesterday the game had some frequent crashes. They were very random, but mostly happen when I browse lists of marriage potentials or even when I move my mouse over to fucking emblems. Reinstalling and deleting everything didn't fix it. Restarted the game, the game ran fine for an hour, then crashed. Finally I changed the applocale back from Japanese to English and played for two sessions of 1 hour each with no crashes. Fucking technical support forums in Paradox and Steam sites were useless. Any bros here care to share to info?

 

[RK47]

Posting save file in case people want to try and work thru this game with me.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/829607/CK2/1037_08_04.zip

 

[Ulminati]

I've been enjoying the game so far, playing as a Dutch duke, even though I have no idea what I'm (not) supposed to do.

Step 1: Norse/Germanic pagan
Step 2: Longboats
Step 3: PROFIT!

Early game britain is an all-you-can-eat buffet for vikings. Lots of relatively rich provinces, but fragmented and infighting so they can't raise a proper army.

 

[Starwars]

So what mods are good for this? I'm gonna try the GoT mod at some point obviously. Any other mods that'd be good to add/try?

 

[Heresiarch]

So 15 hours of play later, me, the Dutch Duke supposedly trying to build the Frisia kingdom, got myself smothered by a new guard. Some dude in Brandenburg sent his regards.

Now playing as the heir, I was planning out revenge on the Brandenburg dude. Only got smothered by a new guard, again, after 1 year. The same dude in Brandenburg sent his regards again.

God I fucking love this game.

Playing CK2 makes me realize how simplistic and unrealistic Total War and Civ series really are. I think I shall crawl out of this Paradox pit ASAP or I may never enjoy other strategy games anymore...

 

[RK47]

Behold the Demon of Brittany

 

[Ulminati]

38 martial? With steward education? No strong/ambitions/diligent/duelist/berserker/viking? What is this shit?

 

[Zero Credibility]

Probably Voice of Jesus (or Satan) or something like that? Nice stats. Shame about the fat gene in your family. Ugh.

 

[oscar]

If only 38 martial meant something.