CKII is released.

[Smashing Axe]

What's the mod scene like these days? Any good historical mods? I miss the Prince and the Thane.

 

[Abelian]

Bugs still here and there. Jeez.

I'd say that's a definite feature

Edit: what would be even more horrible, thought, is if buttons did not do what the tooltips suggest they do.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I'm kinda bummed, I haven't gotten any other hilarious bugs besides the Bavarian Double Nose.

 

[Kattze]

When can you form the Jewish holy order? After you created Israel or after building the temple?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Both IIRC.

 

[Tigranes]

Fired up CK2 after a long break, using the HIP modset. There seem to be a lot of cool stuff out but I can't really be arsed setting up anything complicated.

Wish the new Pdox faces wouldn't make all the Greeks look like rotten pumpkins though.

 

[XenomorphII]

Those are so horrible. Just disable them in the launcher.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Yea it's astonishing just how BAD the Mediterranean faces are. Must have been some kind of unpaid intern job or the like.

 

[Whisky]

Fired up CK2 after a long break, using the HIP modset. There seem to be a lot of cool stuff out but I can't really be arsed setting up anything complicated.

Wish the new Pdox faces wouldn't make all the Greeks look like rotten pumpkins though.

Personally, I've always thought they were sculptures made of oatmeal.

 

[Brinko]

What file has the assimilation requirements for duchies and kingdoms? Recently discovered that in Paradox's infinite wisdom that they had made Jerusalem non assimilable to other nations but this also makes it impossible for them to assimilate other duchies into the kingdom as well.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

landed_titles.txt

 

[Average Manatee]

After 2 decades of chipping and breaking truces just to get that 80% to form Francia...
I discovered that I couldn't form it even by usurping Kingdom of Navarra.

I think the problem was that you had one of the French kingdom titles. Empire of Francia is one of those absurd req titles that requires you to NOT have certain kingdom titles. It's not as bad as Empire of Mali tho, which forbids you from having kingdom titles anywhere NEAR the de jure (and since only West Africans can form it, shit gets kinda retarded due to having to conquer your way to flipping Spain just to qualify for an inferior imperial title, since Mali empire de jure is just the same as Mali kingdom de jure).

That's not how it works, at least for Mali. The kingdom titles just don't count to the min 2 required to form the empire, holding them doesn't prevent you from forming it.

EDIT: this is wrong. They do count towards the min 2 required to form the empire. You just need to hold a kingdom outside the pre-defined zone. e.g. Mali can be formed by holding the Kingdom of Mali and Kingdom of Africa.

Fired up CK2 after a long break, using the HIP modset. There seem to be a lot of cool stuff out but I can't really be arsed setting up anything complicated.

Wish the new Pdox faces wouldn't make all the Greeks look like rotten pumpkins though.

Personally, I've always thought they were sculptures made of oatmeal.

I'm assuming paradox intended to add trait-specific faces and these were the ugly ones.

 

[RK47]

Huh, it seems even Byzantine 1337 start is not even THAT hard.
Start :

Yeah, the Byzantine where it's pretty much half dead, nom nom'ed by Ottoman Turks.
I picked a count under Basileus.
Nearly a century later, they basically re-blobbed back into a proper Empire.
High point of the campaign was when I switched to Catholic and called 14k Holy Order stack for free to beat back Mongols who turned Sunni.
Just a Duke, meh.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

The problem is generally just that BE is not a titular title.

 

[RK47]

Yeah, 1453, Game Ended and Byzantine is well on its way to reform itself. Ilkhan split into three and was being slowly crushed.

Spoiler

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

The other thing is that Byzantines have one of THE most powerful retinues in the game (Heavy Cavalry AND Horse Archers what the shit).

 

[Average Manatee]

Or the problem is that de jure/de jure drift could use some tweaks. As it is Muslims who expand into non-dejure land in Anatolia have to deal with much greater instances of factions for indepedence and much less levies from non-dejure vassals. And this exists until a single muslim realm has held the area for 100 years straight. AI fracturing or at least suffering heavily from infighting is common.

I understand why characters outside their lord's dejure borders get more restless, but when the de jure lord of your county is another religion and looking to fuck you up you should be able to ignore that. Would be better if there were overlapping dejure borders or something.

The other thing is that Byzantines have one of THE most powerful retinues in the game (Heavy Cavalry AND Horse Archers what the shit).

It's a really crappy retinue actually. Even taking into account the AI being too stupid to use skirmish cheese, just about every other retinue other than light cav performs better. Stuff like Housecarls or Ethiopian Skirmishers are probably the best retinue for AI.

 

[XenomorphII]

Their retinue is also really, really, expensive. I frankly much prefer the longbowmen of Wales/England, or the heavy infantry of the Norse.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Personally I'd just replace the BE de jure empire with a muslim-only empire to represent the Ottomans. BE itself SHOULD be a titular title to reflect that it's an empire in terminal decline.

 

[XenomorphII]

Personally I'd just replace the BE de jure empire with a muslim-only empire to represent the Ottomans. BE itself SHOULD be a titular title to reflect that it's an empire in terminal decline.

That would be really stupid though in earlier start dates.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Personally I'd just replace the BE de jure empire with a muslim-only empire to represent the Ottomans. BE itself SHOULD be a titular title to reflect that it's an empire in terminal decline.

That would be really stupid though in earlier start dates.

Personally I think BE being an unshakeable juggernaut in any start is more stupid.

EDIT: The ideal solution would be some manner of new mechanic to represent gradual decline for BE, with a state of decline causing increasing immediate penalties across the board that are very difficult to reverse, and in the long run the de jure shrinking one kingdom at a time until only Greece is left. There's just not enough byzantine politics in the byzantine empire, all the vassals are too happy to cheer the emperor along.

 

[Abelian]

The other thing is that Byzantines have one of THE most powerful retinues in the game (Heavy Cavalry AND Horse Archers what the shit).

That's just historical accuracy. Kataphraktoi FTW.

Joking aside, you're right. By the time CK2 starts, the ERE was in decline and its armies were no longer as good as when led by Justinian's generals. Fun fact: the cataphract was initially based on the Parthian horse archer (namesake of the Parthian shot), but later on stopped used bows as much.

 

[trais]

I think that other part of the problem is that muslims are very weak: in every game I played they get quickly pushed out of Spain, lose 9 times out of 10 whenever there's crusade for Jerusalem called etc. And if they're too weak to put any pressure on Byz emperor, then he always has plenty of manpower to deal with internal conflicts and thus can keep his empire intact.

I don't know if it's the decadence mechanic that fucks them over, but it seems they are always at disadvantage compared to christian kingdoms.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I think it's a numbers game. Without a pagan counter-balance, Christians are going to have multiple times the manpower on a crusade compared to the muslim total.

 

[RK47]

Not to mention Orthodox has no issues with missing temple taxes and Anti-Pope mechanics. All you gotta do is please the Basileus and the Empire will cover your ass from any external threat.
If a Crusade is declared that means ERE face no pressure from either Catholics & Muslims for the time being and can use the window to press de-jures or holy war or deal with internal shit.
Their serious threats would be the Venetian Republic that can pull off 20-40k stack mercs that obliterate most levy easily. Seen it happen in my game. It was the only thing that the ERE liege levy is incapable of handling. If the vassals are actually willing to commit merc and their own levy into the war, it could be done. I tried it myself. I felt confident in backing 20k liege levy with 300 gold worth of 7k merc. Just bleed out the Republic's gold reserve and watch their offense falter and vanish. Bonus points if you actually assassinate the doge and put another house in charge, a house that is actually too broke to fund the war is going to lose badly.

While Muslim Jihads / Mongol Invasions are tricky, it's manageable IMO. As vassal, I put in some work with mercs and they can be beat as long as I got the gold stockpile ready. Curb my own ambition and settle for a Duchy or two. Although it was funny seeing the Basileus trying his very best to educate every son/daughter/nephew to turn them back to Orthodox. All I had to do is give them 20 g and turn them back to Catholic once the education is over.