Crusaders Kings 2

Primogeniture is not ideal... I regret switching to primogeniture because with elective you can pick the heir you want and discard a bad heir in the direct line. With primogeniture all you can hope for is for that character to meet an untimely demise.

In any case managing the succession of an empire is a real pain... My second emperor got the imperial throne in his 40s, he lost Aquitaine which went to his younger half brother the king of Ireland. As you can imagine soon enough the new emperor had several rebellions on his hands (never less than 2 and usually 3 at the same time). For ten years my armies kept waging wars crushing nobles and peasants and fighting from Spain to Italy and from Provence to Flanders and Brittany.

I got a break when the emperor's half brother died in battle, his son lost Ireland and was captured. My emperor took the crown of Aquitaine from his nephew and had him executed as a traitor.

Unfortunately the emperor's son was killed in one of the many battles so the heir of the empire is the emperor's grandson which is a bit of a problem as some titles are going to pass to the emperor's second son (who is ambitious by the way).

Anyway, my emperor is now 54 (he looks pretty old) and if he has managed to secure the empire without losing land (he even won a few counties) his treasury is gone (mercenaries are expensive), his retinues have been destroyed, his subjects don't like him and he has been excommunicated by the Pope...

Right now I'm hoping he doesn't kick the bucket any time soon so I can lay the ground for a smoother transition and further my expansion in Spain.

I think I have a bug in my game that is screwing up my stuff big time. My character had two bastard girls (one of which was legitimized). With Daenarys, he had 3 children (chronologically, a boy, a girl and another boy). But my character's heir keeps changing between them. I'll randomly get messages all of a sudden saying "If you die, you will play as that character". And it keeps changing every few years. Makes no sense, I'm supposed to be in a succession law that allows the eldest child to inherit, but the oldest boy always has priority (a girl will only inherit if there are no male children). Last night, my character had an accident and the legitimated bastard girl inherited the titles, even though she wasn't the heir and there were boys in the succession line. I have no clue what the hell's happening. It especially frustrating because Daenerys gained the High lordship of Dragonstone (a duchy title) and her heir is our oldest son. My heir should be the same so my next character inherit both. But now, since it keeps changing for no reason, I'll lose the title...

Yeah, it wasn't just my gaming session of last time. I played yesterday and the heir keeps changing for no reason between my children. Uck, it screws my stuff up because I wanted my heir to inherit both Dragonstone and my Three sisters duchy.  I might "cheat" and reload if my character dies when my eldest son isn't the heir (he always my wife's heir, so it appears to be just my character).

Anyways, besides that, I might have another bug. I don't know if I'm missing something, but my finances are also screwed up. I was the lord of two islands (in the Game of thrones mod, Lord=Count, Highlord=Duke, Lord Paramount=King and King=Emperor) and I was making 3 gold per month. Not too high, but sort of reasonable. I push my fake claim on the third island, then I conquer the castle seat of the Highlord. And my gold per month is now of 1.5... waaaa? I directly control two more castle and I make half of what I was making??  And the scarce income is truly a big problem. For some reason, the Highlord title was destroyed when I conquered the four lordships. To recreate it, it cost 37 gold. I was low on gold because I had to hire mercenaries to help me fight. So I had to wait a year or a little more to have enough gold to create the Highlordship title. Then, in rapid succession, my chancellor was able to put claims on three other lordships, but they come with a price tag of 30-40 gold. I was able to conquer one relying only on my army, but for the others, I need mercenaries. And considering I have -48 gold, and making around 2 gold per turn (while directly controlling 3 lordships and having two lord vassals, no less), it's all "Uggghh"...

And on top of that, my levies regenerate at a snail pace. So I'm dependent a lot on mercenaries.

(And for the record, I played this mod for three generations before and I never encountered those three problems, so I think it's a bug with my present game...)

Maybe you should try a new game and see how it goes... I've never had such a problem with the original game. Have you tried reporting that problem to the modders to see if it's already documented?

My Emperor game is running it's course. I've managed to stay in power although it's been tricky. My next character died at 70, his heir was maimed (not the greatest trait) but he kept crushing rebels and had 7 daughters in a row before eventually having a male heir. 7 daughters (including a bastard) and three sons not bad considering... He died at 58 leaving a young heir who was lucky to be in the care of his (genius) mother (otherwise his life expectancy could have been rather short).

Right now the new Emperor is 18, he crushed the rebels, got rid of his two younger brothers and had a few pretenders assassinated. He is not very popular but he has a decent Intrigue score so he doesn't care.

Spain has been broken down between Francia, the Byzantine Empire and what is left of the former Spanish kingdoms. Currently my empire is the second largest but catching up with the Byzantines is going to be difficult (they have been Catholic for ages).

The good thing is that my current Emperor is a young man and if he lives long enough it could be a long reign allowing for some decent expansion.

Considering there is only a century left this could be my last major character (provided he doesn't die anytime soon).

I'm not feeling like starting a new game because I really like my starting point but it'd be the second time I start over. It takes forever to fake claims on the other two islands, which I need to do before doing anything else. And I won't know if the succession bug is still there after I have children (which occurs late because I like marry and have children with Daenarys, which only happens after 18 years of play or so.

But messaging the modders is a good idea, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for the tip!

I understand not wanting to start over.

If my save doesn't give up I will be completing my first complete game soon! I started in 867 and it's already 1394 so I only have 57 years left...

My previous emperor died aged 49 (of natural death after murdering vassals and family members for more than 30 years). He was on pretty good terms with the Pope after taking part in the 5th crusade (and conquering Jerusalem). My only regret is that I was unable to secure the Italian crown for his heir after taking over from the annoying vassals (which means I'll have to strong arm my way into Italy one more time). The good thing is that I got 46 new counties during that reign which is certainly not staggering but satisfying after spending so much time and effort on keeping the empire together.

My new emperor is 28 and got something like 7 or 8 kingdoms from his father (except for Italy but I lost the exact count). The good thing is that he already has a male heir (less headache provided he doesn't die).

So now my goal is to maintain his control over his empire (which is a full time job) and see if I can expand towards Germany and Bohemia (I've given up on Ireland, boats are a pain especially when I need my army on the mainland to crush Italian rebels).

Here is a screen (I haven't seen such a low piety score in ages).

Spoiler:

57 years left!  

My guy died at 40... He ruled 12 years. I was just getting over the short reign penalty and starting expanding again when he kicked the bucket (and I don't think it was foul play -the guy had gained the stressed trait which is pretty bad).

So now I'm dealing with a young heir who is getting screwed with his traits and who has to face increasingly large factions that want a piece of his lands.

The only good thing is that I've betrothed him to a Russian queen who has a very large domain.

In the meantime I'm taking out my exasperation on peasants and bandits in Mount & Blade Warband (another awesome game).   

Yeah, so in my Game of Thrones game, I'm not doing too badly. I'm still playing my first character. He was 18 years old when I started, he's now around 52. I started as a lord (count) on one of the Sisters island, Sweetsister, which is located in the Vale (Jon Arryn was Lord Paramount (king) of the Vale in the opening of the GoT book and it's where Catelyn Stark brings Tyrion to her sister, widow to Jon). The Sister islands are located north of the Vale mainland, just underneath the North mainland (and White Harbour).

Anyways, my short term goal was to gain the highlorship (duchy) of the Sisters. Middle goal was to grab all the northern Vale and then move on the nab the title of Lord Paramount in the long run. So I was able to unify the Sisters (3 counties and 1 barony) under my rule, mainly with fake claims. I was also able to fame a claim on a county on the shore of the Vale's mainland, part of the Bite Coast (3 counties), just underneath the islands. I invited a claimant to another of the Bite's counties, and pushed his claim. I made two mistakes though. First, I stupidly gave the claimant the county on the Bite Coast that I already had. Down the line, this will be a real problem because he now owns two of the three counties making up the Bite. He kinda feels *he* should get the duchy title. It's alright now, because I have great relationship boosters from giving him a title and pushing his claim. But his children will not be as forgiving. On the other hand, maybe I can push them to revolt and freely revoke one of the titles. Anyways, second mistake I made was new to me. Since the Bite Coast duchy title didn't exist, I had to create it. But it appears you need to directly control at least one of the components to create the duchy. -_-  So I had to wait forever to fake a claim of the third county....

Now, my sight is on the Fingers. It's a set of five counties bordering on the east. I already nabbed one of them by inviting a claimant and pushing his claim. I need two more and I can have that de Jury claim on the other two!

On the family level, I married my character to Daenerys Targaryen. When she came of age, they started banging it out and I quickly had two children (two daughters). And then, nothing. They were lovers and everything. I finally had a third child as my character turned 50 or 51. Another daughter... -_-...  Could be worst though. My eldest daughter and heir just came of age at 16 and has 20 in diplomacy and 10 in martial. If I can squeeze at least 1 more point in martial, she'll be a good military ruler (10 is average military ruler). The only thing is I don't know what to do with marriage. There's nothing worthwhile hanging around. I don't want to waste my heir on just a good character, or an alliance with one county. And there's not much I can get maternally as far as claim inheritance. The best I could find was a boy (not yet of age) who is a duchesse's heir (it's a vale duchy, though more southern than I'd like). Thing is, he's not the oldest boy of the couple (second oldest I think), and the husband is a count with the eldest boy as his heir. So I'm thinking betrothing the two and plot to kill his oldest brother, in order for him to inherit everything and then give all that to his and my daughter's oldest child (who will be my third character).

There's also something that quite surprised me. After Jon Arryn died, a cousin of his became Lord paramount of the Vale, since Arryn didn't have any children. I became a sort of brown nose man, racking a few relationship point. Only the new Lord declared his independance from the Iron Throne. He lost and was imprisonned. The king, Robert II (the son of Robert who's king in the book) just destroyed the title. All of the Vale are directly vassals of the King. I continued my brown nose approach, and boy, did it work. My character's rating towards the king is 49, but the king's rating toward me is 100!  I can technically ask that he creates the Vale title with me as it's head, but I'm too small time for that to work. The King did name me Master of Laws for the Iron Throne as well as Warden of the South, though (meaning I'm the head of the southern defenses in the realm). In a bid to actually have an alliance as well, I betrothed my second daughter to him (although that may have been a mistake. My second daughter is growing up to be quite an strong character. ). Having the entire realm behind you would be quite a boon when you're gunning for a powerful county or duchy.

Awesome game Tri. Warden of the South? Now that's pretty cool.

My last guy died at 36... That's not old! The only good thing is that his heir was of age (which is a relief).

I managed to get the Kingdom of Bohemia but my expansion hasn't been spectacular because I'm still busy crushing rebels. I've been crushing revolts for centuries. Bloody peasants.  

24 years to go...

Haha, nice! Must feel great to actually get to the finish point!

That's one thing I sort of dislike about the game is the end point. You sometime get engrossed in your world and it would suck for it to end. After those 24 years, you'll have to start over, all of events and characters you worked on will be gone. That's why I liked the way Civilization handled it. When the game finishes, it's over on the points department, but you can still knock yourself out extending your game as long as you like. Wonder if there's a time limit on the Game of Thrones mod...  

But you're "bloody peasants" made me think of this :

Dennis: Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
King Arthur: Bloody peasant!
Dennis: Oh, what a giveaway! Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That's what I'm on about! Did you see him repressing me? You saw him, Didn't you?

Love that movie!   

I'm looking forward to the end actually. I've reached a point when it gets pretty repetitive. I get a new ruler, manage to maintain him on the throne, fend off various factions, plot a lot, expand a little... My guy usually kicks the bucket once the empire is a bit stable so it has to be repeated all over again.

Right now my new guy is fighting 4 different wars. He has the support of the Pope (his kinsman) and a few allies but still it's a bit annoying.

My previous ruler had a few years of calm during which I had absolutely no faction activity (it was scary) but one thing lead to another and the proverbial dung hit the fan again.

Achk, yeah, that's the hard part of staying on top. Factions sprouting everywhere, rebellions. It's like extinguishing one fire as two sprout up. Good luck!

I have one question. Do you know how to easily augment your character's relationship rating towards another character? It'd be fun to be friends with the king, since he his rating towards me is 100. But mine is 49. How do I get that number up?    (the only time I ever made friends was through random special events, mainly when I organize a feast).

I don't think it's important. As far as I know it's just an RP value and in any case your guy is not going to say what he really thinks of his lord.

I've finally finished my game and the end was epic!

My emperor inherited the kingdom of Ruthenia from his mother and that gave him an advantage over the Byzantine empire. Unfortunately at the end of the 7th crusade for Jerusalem the Byzantines got most of the Holy Land (it was a miscalculation on my part although my armies were the ones taking Jerusalem). I had less than 5 years left to catch up and I did (realm size 762 vs 753).

Spoiler:

My final score is 138221. I had 28 different rulers (including 2 women -matrilineal succession saved my game). I had some serious setbacks (I even went back to being a count before climbing back to king level). Staying on top proved to be a lot of work (I can't tell you how much I've spent on assassins).

Ironman is no joke but the drawback is the autosave (you have a delay every time it saves the game) and that's the reason why I'll probably play regular games from now on (besides I've read there was some problems with autosaves corruption and achievements not unlocking is annoying). I'm keeping my last save if I ever get Europa IV I may continue expanding my empire.

Over 60 hours according to steam, I've started this game back in December so it's been a pretty long ride but playing 586 years takes some time. 

Haha, nice Cara!  Yeah, it probably was one hell of a marathon! La question qui tue : which ruler was your favorite?

In my game, my second daughter who was betrothed to the King came of age and the King went through with the marriage. I did end up getting an alliance with the King, but it seems we can't call our liege into war, so that's that. However, the King's brother is a count in the Vale, so I can call him into war.

My female heir is also now married with the son of a count and a duchess. He was the second son, but I spent good money to assassinate the eldest brother so that my heir's husband is now heir to that county (in the vale) and the duchy. I thought it was a vale duchy, but it turns out it's the Neck, the duchy that controls the way into the North, into the Vale from it's northern entry, as well as the way into the south. The Twins county, controled by the Freys, is located in that duchy. The interesting part is that it's part of the Riverlands kingdom, but I guess it will be merged to my kingdom once the grandson inherits. And the northern entry into the vale is my lands, so it will all be connected!

Speaking of my heir, she and her dude had two sons. Their oldest is named Samwell...     I hate when heirs have children before I start controlling them. I like to have control, like naming the children..

Which ruler did I prefer? I had some unlucky rulers especially one who was maimed and sick with the pox and still managed to live to an old age and had ten kids (with three or four different wives).

It seems to me that things are looking up. You are carving a nice domain for yourself Warden of the South!   

As far as names are concerned... I never liked names in GoT. They often sound way too mundane (Robert, Jamie, yeah right).

That being said, now that I've started reading the first book I don't have much respect left for the people responsible for Dragon Age. They stole so many things from GoT it's beyond ridiculous.

Yeah, well, I noticed last time I played that my character is no longer Warden of the South. Probably due to him getting older and losing a lot of attributes (as well as his fighter skills). At least, if I'm lucky, his daughter might be named Master of Laws, since she has something like 20 in diplomacy.

It's not so much names in GoT. I just like to add french first names, to make it more like my dynasty. It adds a little customization to the game, for me.

Hmmm, I haven't made the link between GoT and Dragon age. What are the stolen things that nagged at you?

I don't mean to rant but there is the use of the title "Ser" and certain names like Ser Jory for instance which are taken verbatim. Some similarities are simply too obvious like the Grey Wardens and the Night's Watch; the Couslands and the Starks... I'm just glad I played Dragon Age before I started reading the books. I loathe plagiarism. The fact that Dragon Age borrowed from other novels as well doesn't excuse that.

I'm having a hard time getting into Sengoku. Don't get me wrong, ninjas are awesome and the honour mechanic (leading to seppuku) is absolutely great but (and that's a big but) it's pretty hard to tell between all the different lords... In CK2 the somehow goofy portraits would look a bit similar after a while but we still had different hair colours, facial hair and features. In Sengoku they all look the same except for the hairdo and only a few things that set them apart (if you're paying attention). Last but not least there is also the oriental names that can be a bit confusing. All these things make Sengoku a much harder game for me (at least until I find my marks and get to know the map of 15th Japan a bit better).

Great news, the next CK2 expansion is due next week more precisely on March 25th. The new update will also include a Steam Workshop dedicated to CK2.

Be wary though, the game is going to be patched for everyone (whether you buy the expansion or not) and old saves will no longer be compatible.

I can't wait for war elephants and camel riders!   

I'm just getting started with the expansion. I will probably start over as I've made a mistake (didn'(t pay enough attention to the caste system).

I've found a pretty nice start as the Raj of Penugonda (heir to his liege who happens to be his father).

Spoiler:

I've ditched my Indian game (need to get more familiar with the new concepts before getting serious with the new traits and religions) and started a new game with the Karen dynasty.

This is what I like to call the Zoroastrian gambit. The goal is simple, survive (and if possible take over Persia). Basically you are surrounded by Muslims and have Pagans to the North so the only way to avoid getting crushed is to expand. The good news is that you start with some extra troops.

The first step is to swear fealty to the Samanid kingdom on the Eastern border then ask for elective succession (easy when you have twice the army of your liege) in order to start a faction to become the new King (which will work thanks to the extra troops).

At that point the next step is to try and wage a Holy War on the Saffarids to the South.

Some tactics listed on CK2 forums point that you can banish all your vassals to get a huge boost and carve an enormous chunk of Persia for yourself but it's really gamey and I'm glad that North Korean style has been nerfed with the latest patch (you now get significant penalties for going over your demesne limit).

I did the first part and took over the kingdom to the East but the Saffarids have some pretty big armies and I've decided to turn to an easier prey while my own troops are building. I ended up taking Kabul and now I'm looking for ways to seize the land to the South. I have a ten year truce with Indians to the East and the Saffarids have managed to lose half their troops (which were rather big) so it's less of a gamble...

I've started a new game as Nantes in 867. I've picked this start because of event troops and I haven't played much as a Norse Pagan. It was rather fun. I decided to go for a safe expansion by taking over Ireland (easy pickings). My first guy ended up king of Ireland but my second guy managed to take over Scotand, Wales and England (I had to break a few truces to speed up the process) and out of sheer luck I managed to form the empire of Britannia before he croaked (gavelkind and 12 kids would have messed things up a lot). Just before he died I gave everything I could to his genius grandson (which was a huge gamble but I couldn't give more titles to his genius son). It turned out that my next ruler didn't have much to his name except the imperial crown but his son was already starting working on Brittany. So I tied up loose ends and crushed Catholic rebellions (I must have crushed scores of them by now). My current emperor (the genius grandson) is in his 40s and he is now king of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, Brittany and Norway (not half bad considering the limitations of gavelkind) and he has a size 12 demesne (the largest) with the fifth largest empire. Not bad in a little over 100 years. His only problem is that he doesn't have a male heir (yet).

I've finally had time to continue playing CK2, but my previous games were so far in my mind that I wanted to start fresh. So I came back to the real world map instead of the Song of Ice and Fire mod. I wanted to play French characters again and I resisted the urge to create a character and dynasty. I ended up finding Carcassonne and it's 16 year old count (single to boot), Raimond-Rogier de Comminges. The only problem was the succession law, which in that county, was set as Gravelkind.

I started playing in 1066  (I don't have the Old Gods DLC). I married a Welsh princess (her father was Petty King), but she was preeeetty far down the succession line, so it was more of an alliance thing (got an alliance with her father and her brother who's count). It took a while, but I finally had a son. Then, my cousin (also my stewart) had my wife killed because she was my spymaster and had tumbled upon his plotting against another count in France. But I didn't have any option to imprison him without inducing tyranny, even though his involvement was public (wtf!).

It took a while to get a chancellor worthy of the name, and after that, I was able to fabricate a few claims one after another. Only, as I was just one county, I needed mercenaries. Making 1,70 gold/month makes for a long wait, considering you need 150 gold up front and then some more to cover the 8 gold/month fee. So I saved a lot of money. By the time my character was 30 (14 years had passed), I was finally ready to start kicking some ass.... only to notice the crown had set medium authority!!! In medium authority, vassal can't wage war against each other, so I'm stuck in my single county.

I could expand outside France. But the HRE is out of the question, obviously, and in Spain, the duchies are too big for me to take on and most of them have alliances with each other (I'm only a single county with an army of 400 men. Unless I can convince the Crown of France to fight for me. Is that possible?).

I tried reloading a previous save, but the only one I had before the crown instituted the medium authority was one year after the starting point. I played 10 years, but I couldn't for the life of me find a decent chancellor and fake a claim. My wife was growing old (32, 33) for childbirth after only birth one child, a sickly girl.

I think I might just start over somewhere else in France...

Making your wife a Spymaster is not a good idea, she will get into trouble and if she has reasons to hate your guts you will end up six feet under.

There are ways to get gavelkind to work pretty nicely. It can be a bit tricky though. I used to hate it but there are some advantages.

I've started quite a few games as the De Forez in Lyon (who have two counties) and I prefer being part of the HRE. The real problem starting as a count is that you have to expand pretty quickly before the competition gets too strong. If you end up stuck with one county then your only option is to wait for an opportunity or play the inheritance game (in my first game I became King of Croatia after failing to expand in France and I had no idea what I was doing).

The real problem with starting as a count in France or the HRE in 1066 is that you are going to get a slower game if you're not lucky.

Check out this thread if you're looking for interesting starts:

http://www.ckiiwiki.com/Interesting_characters_guide

The Old Gods is really good and on sales you can get it for 4 dollars. It brings a lot to the game.

I just had a wicked idea! When I played my first game at CK2, I chose Ireland as it was the easiest map to learn how to play and get started. But after I had reunited Ireland, one of my big problems was that England and Scotland had united and fighting each power (both were more powerful than me) for one county at a time would be rather tedious.

So I had a thought : for my new game, why not start in the kingdom of England (a county on the shore closest to Ireland), and initially expanding there, since all the counties are independent. That way, after I unite Ireland under my (and the King of England's rule), I can go after other English dukes with impunity. Then, my takeover of England (with Scotland after) would be so much more easier.

And I absolutely hate that in most counties, we have to start in gravelkind succession law, even though the crown (in France anyway) is set in primogeniture. Why do you actually need a high or absolute crown authority to change it? Doesn't it make more sense to be able to change your succession law as you see fit when the crown authority is set at autonomous vassals? I might use the cheesy was of using console commands to force change it at the start of the game.

Succession laws add some challenge to the game. It encourages you to deal with younger sons make them join the clergy or something. Gavelkin is not all bad though. It gives you a much larger demesne. As for its place in the game. If you consider how Charlemagne's empire was divided it's rather accurate.

I dislike primogeniture. If your elder son sucks you're really in trouble. Elective is fine as long as you keep all the titles within your bloodline but you can end up with a crappy heir if you're not popular enough to get your own heir in place.

Gavelkin is absolutely great for pagans but the important thing is to make sure that you have only one high level title so whatever happens your heir will remain in control of your territory. It's a good idea to have a few years between your firstborn and your other sons so when your heir gets his title he can dispatch his younger siblings (who are unmarried). It's not absolutely necessary but can be useful at times. Betrothing younger sons to much older (preferably high ranking) females is a nice way to make sure the firstborn will be the one who inherits if his siblings meet an untimely death. You can also influence who gets what if you give away titles to your sons.

What you need to do is make sure that you have only one Duke or King (or Emperor) title so they don't get divided between your heirs. It's really important to get a Duke title with your first character otherwise all your hard work may be wasted (unless your heir can somehow inherit his sibling's titles).

Taking Ireland as a vassal of the English crown could work nicely. You could also conquer Ireland as an Irish lord without creating the Kingdom of Ireland. Then expand as much as you can before swearing fealty to the English King. If you're strong enough you could start a faction to switch to elective succession for the English crown and then get elected as King of England (taking over Scotland this way could be easier though). You could end up marrying to get the last kingdom and form the Empire of Britannia.