Crusader Kings

[Lonnie]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Pagans get a bonus to the number of troops they can raise. It's meant, I think, to prevent them from being overrun early in the game.

I guess that would explain it then. Looking back I though he just hired some mercenaries.

[Izulde]

Putzed around with Boleslaw and noted a few things

-Evidently you can only change the crown laws once per reign? That kinda sucks.
-It seems like in a few games, wars have been started without claims on titles between vassals, including this one. The war title says it's over some city or the other, but it would be nice to have a place that lists all your causus bellis.
-I ran out of money to pay a merc outfit with and he declared war on me, getting a claim on the Kingship of Poland. Whoa! I won after the Pope gave me enough money to buy a bigger band the HRE, my allies, helped me after I warred with the pagans for them.
-A bunch of my vassals started a war to depose me and in the treaty I accidentally clicked Surrender when I meant Enforce Demands. End result? The dude I negotiated with became King of Poland and I was reduced to a Duke with him as my new liege. That also changed the ruling dynasty, which was also pretty neat.

[Izulde]

Oh and can I just say, I love the ordinal numbers? I was like awesome when I saw Boleslaw III even with the dynasty change.

[PraetorianX]

BTW, you can play as anybody in the demo.

You have to click on one of the four first, then press play, then quickly press on a province of whomever you wish to play as.

Playing as Harold I of England is not easy, let me tell you.

[DaddyTorgo]

Yeah - I started a demo game as some random somebody or other last night.

[Lonnie]

Pre-order is up on Steam now. Same two free DLC as GamersGate and others.
I don't see why the Dynasty Shields DLC was not just part of the game. I'll have to check the demo again, but I guess it doesn't show shields for the dynasties. Or maybe the base game ones are fictional and this DLC is the actual historic shields? The Mongol pack seems like a more appropriate DLC; seven new sprites and thousands of faces.

[Lonnie]

Dola, you also get the complete first CK when you pre-order. Not that you'll be playing it much after this one is released.

[Izulde]

Yeah, map readability issues aside, CK2 is so much better than CK1, it's ridiculous.

I might even want to get back into long dynasty writing.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Izulde

I might even want to get back into long dynasty writing.

Me too. I'm thinking of doing a CK2-EU3-Vicky2-HOI3 dynasty, even if I have to take a long break in between games to do a bit of modding and editing of the saved game file. Not getting too crazy with populations, tech and whatnot, just making sure the right nations exist and they hold the right provinces.

[Icy]

What is the price in steam USA? 39,99€ in Europe, so around $50.

[Lonnie]

$39.99

[DaddyTorgo]

Aw lordy - that's balls.

Icy - if you want someone to buy it for you at USD price and gift it to you, let us know!

[MrBug708]

Man, started as the brother of King Harold and waited while Norway marched through his demise. I decided to declare independence and went after some of his lands as well. I had picked up three and got greedy and marched south. During that time, Harold surrendered England to Norway, so I suddenly found myself at war with Norway, who was also now the King of England. One of their three 6K+ armies in England annihilated my 1500 strong army and I was forced to do a white peace. Now I was under England/Norway, who was at war with half of Europe. Poland marches into England and lands on the British Isles with a 4000 strong army after me. Of course, that Norwegian army had moved on so my lands were being picked apart and I couldnt offer anything to Poland since we both the lesser parts of the alliance. It went bad to worse as Poland moved on, but Harold's small demise decided for some revenge and came after me. I was getting raped again when the demo ended...haha

[DaddyTorgo]

Is there a way to like...search for eligible marriage prospects across Europe? I want to marry someone...useful...and I don't want to have to click on every county in Europe.

[MrBug708]

YEs. In the far right icon out of the groups along the top left corner. It allows you to search for a whole lot of people

[DaddyTorgo]

Nevermind. I found it.

[DaddyTorgo]

There's also the little rings icon/button thingy on your character's screen that is for "Arrange Marriage" that searches Europe.

Good stuff.

[Icy]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Aw lordy - that's balls.

Icy - if you want someone to buy it for you at USD price and gift it to you, let us know!

Thanks i will!
I need to download the demo and give it a go to decide, hopefully today.

[PraetorianX]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

There's also the little rings icon/button thingy on your character's screen that is for "Arrange Marriage" that searches Europe.

Good stuff.

I've found that the most useful option, as it usually lists some good matches.

[PraetorianX]

Oh, btw, they just released the manual for download.

Crusader Kings II - Manual

[DaddyTorgo]

Thank god - i needed the manual.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Is there a way to like...search for eligible marriage prospects across Europe? I want to marry someone...useful...and I don't want to have to click on every county in Europe.

heh... CKmatch.com

[DaddyTorgo]

So I got tired and quit my demo, but not before marrying the Polish king to the daughter of the HRE and losing a war with Mecklenburg (need to work on my war tactics).

[Izulde]

Played a game as the High Chieftan of Mecklemberg. Some cool things and oddities.

Oddities
*I was an elector for both the King of Poland and the Holy Roman Empire despite being independent. I don't know if this is WAD or a bug.
*I couldn't change my succession laws to Seniority or Primogeniture because the HRE didn't have enough crown authority. Again, I'm independent, so why does that matter?
*As a pagan, I couldn't wage war on Catholics, even though they're religious enemies. I could war on religious enemies as a Catholic in all my other games, so that kind of pissed me off. Seems like it's a way to nerf pagans.

Cool Things
*I married a Basque princess and she fell in love with me, so I was able to get her to convert to my pagan religion.
*I then became the King of Navarre's vassal in order to convert to Basque and Mecklemberg ended up converting to Basque as well by event later on in the game.
*An event fired where I turned Catholic under the influence of my liege, so the Christanization of my land was afoot, including re-converting my wife back to her old religion. My eldest daughter, who originally was pagan, converted to Catholicism on her own as time went by.
*I switched to elective law because I hate Gavelkind. I supported my eldest daughter and firstborn, a vassal I elevated to Count supported himself, but then when I elevated two Bishops to Count-level (Prince Bishop), both of them supported my oldest son (#2 child), presumably because he had the higher piety.
*One of my sons had a Portuguese woman as his guardian, with an eye to making the son a Steward. His culture converted from Basque to Portuguese.
*My ruler became Incapable when he was 48 and my wife took over as Regent, but before I could go too deep into that, the demo ran out.

Things That Irk Me
*Other than the oddities above, I really, really miss Consanguinity. I still don't know the difference between Seniority and Primogeniture. Give me Consanguinity back!!!
*Nobody higher than a Baron wanted to even give my eldest daughter a regular marriage, even though she was the heir to what was a massive duchy (I controlled three Duke titles by the time I switched to Elective). I mean hell, it's not like I was asking for a Matrilineal marriage!

Other Cool Things Overall
*I love being able to name my children whatever I want.
*I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of missions for council members and those are pretty cool, especially sending out your court chaplain to convert provinces and nobles to the liege faith.

I can't wait for this game to come out. So, so much cool stuff.

[bhlloy]

Yeah, the logic for who will marry how seems funky as hell right now. Had a fun game going as Powys (was able to create Wales and ended up with over 1300 prestige by end of 20 years) but I was able to marry off all my close relatives to some of the most powerful kingdoms in Europe. I think I had a princess of France, a princess of Galicia and a princess of HRE in my court and was able to marry off a few daughters into other powerful families.

On the flip side, if I tried to marry somebody from my court to a less powerful duchy or barony closer to home they would reject it most of the time. So there might be a reason behind that but god knows if I can figure it out. Seems backwards to me.

[Lonnie]

I did another play through as the Duke of Bohemia.

Goals were immediately apparent as a tip told me two titles could be created. Duchy of Moravia and Kingdom of Bohemia. Currently I am under the HRE Kaiser. I should rebuild the Kingdom!

Lucky for me I was married to the King of Poland's sister and also by brother had in laws in Hungry. My other borders were all HRE, which so happens I am the Marshall of. I was able to play the entire 20 years in peace building up Prestige and Piety and making babies. My worst enemy was my brother Ota who didn't like me that much, so I kept my councilor in his county repeatedly telling him how great I was.

Once I paid off the Pope enough times I had to 200 piety needed to claim King of Bohemia. That severed my duties as Marshall of HRE, but the Kaiser asked me if I would like to still do the job. Why not?

Now a King it was harder to find suitable mates for my daughters. No one came calling, and all I could find were a couple of Duke's sons and some counts. By 21 my oldest daughter was worried that she would not wed, so I promised her I would find her someone. Just so happen the Kaiser of the HRE had a 12 year old son, so I betrothed her to this young Prince.

Cruising right along, and the Kaiser dies when the kid is 17 1/2. He names me regent. I though cool, I can control the troops now, but no... seems it was a title only. Six months later he was in full control.

I lived to the ripe age of 54 when the demo ended with a score of 1427. It would probably have been boring to some, but I thought it was cool that I could play as a pacifist and still get things accomplished.

[Izulde]

I played a low born count and discovered you can only matrilineal marry noble women, so I did that with Princess Urraca who went to war with King Alfonso and got herself imprisoned, then executed, so I normal married a low-born woman.

Happily, the Khan of Cuman decided to give me a county so this new county elevated me to legitimate house status. Unfortunately the ending was bugged to say No Dynasty after the demo ran out which sucked. I wanted my nifty CoA flying there that I got for doing absolutely nothing.

I did, however, start a war for a nearby County and was winning, but then the Duke who was liege of said Count (and who I had to start the war with), called in two of his Ducal allies so I had to white peace out.

[PraetorianX]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Played a game as the High Chieftan of Mecklemberg. Some cool things and oddities.

Oddities
*I was an elector for both the King of Poland and the Holy Roman Empire despite being independent. I don't know if this is WAD or a bug.
*I couldn't change my succession laws to Seniority or Primogeniture because the HRE didn't have enough crown authority. Again, I'm independent, so why does that matter?
*As a pagan, I couldn't wage war on Catholics, even though they're religious enemies. I could war on religious enemies as a Catholic in all my other games, so that kind of pissed me off. Seems like it's a way to nerf pagans.

Things That Irk Me
*Other than the oddities above, I really, really miss Consanguinity. I still don't know the difference between Seniority and Primogeniture. Give me Consanguinity back!!!
*Nobody higher than a Baron wanted to even give my eldest daughter a regular marriage, even though she was the heir to what was a massive duchy (I controlled three Duke titles by the time I switched to Elective). I mean hell, it's not like I was asking for a Matrilineal marriage!

You were playing as a Pagan, that may explain some of the oddities because I don't believe the game is set up to be played as a non-Christian.

The elector thing is likely because you're within the de jure limits of the HRE. No clue about Poland though. Again it may have something to do with playing as a Pagan, dunno. I'd suggest bringing it up on the Paradox forums (if it hasn't been brought up already).

And you may be able to find out why they rejected your marriage proposals by looking at the modifiers for their decision. When you're on the diplomatic screen to do the marriage, before you hit the ok button (or whatever it is, I forget at the moment) above it will have a "No", "Maybe" or "Yes"...hover over it and it'll give you the reasons for why they are likely (or not) to accept.

[MrBug708]

On startup, it did say that crown laws can affect your land even if you are not specifically part of that du jour kingdom (Paraphrasing)

[Izulde]

Fair enough.

Played another game as a low-born, who only seem to be present in the Cuman territory and this time the Khan gave me a bunch of counties.

So I spent the game marrying a bunch of Swedish Norse pantheon worshippers to my court and gradually ended up converting all my children into Norse pagans. Only problem was, they also turned Swedish culture, which I didn't want.

My first ruler died and my Swedish Norse Pagan daughter took over but it was too late before the demo ran out to start converting everyone to Thor and Odin while still retaining Cuman culture.

The way to do the culture/religion changes for your kids is have their guardian be a different culture and/or religion.

[MrBug708]

These next few days are going to go by slowly

[Lonnie]

Yep, I stopped playing the demo so I can try to not think about how my Dynasty would have continued.

I tried to play original CK some and it was painful.

[Izulde]

Part of me is glad CK2 isn't out until next week, because I have a ton of stuff due that I need to work on and finish this weekend.

The other part of me really, really wants it to be out because I'm going crazy having all these demo games run out too soon.

[Izulde]

dola,

I played as an Iberian Muslim my last demo game and that was fun, too. Pledged to Leon and that allowed me to usurp the Cordoba title and go to war with the county of Cordoba to force him to be my vassal.

[MrBug708]

I think my first dynasty will be to unite Ireland

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

I think my first dynasty will be to unite Ireland

This was my first ever goal in the original CK actually. I think the problem is that, once you've done that, you are so far away from the rest of the world that you sorta really have to deal with Scotland or England next.

[Izulde]

Or more specifically, you have to worry about England gobbling you up.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

This was my first ever goal in the original CK actually. I think the problem is that, once you've done that, you are so far away from the rest of the world that you sorta really have to deal with Scotland or England next.

I dont mind creating my kingdom in Ireland and staying pretty independent. I'll usually try to marry my way into another kingdom, usually wales and work from there

[MrBug708]

Had another cool moment where I had a nephew marry a Tunisian and Muslim courtier and the second son had a hue like that of the mother, not the father and the older brother!

[whomario]

some quick questions on the CK2 demo :

can somebody explain to me how to "train" my kids ? I go to the diplomacy menu but there isn´t an option to assign a mentor (same when going to the "mentor" first)

also, daughters show up as sons for me ?!?

also, can someone explain to me how to go to war or how to assist someone ? For some reason when playing as the king of poland my vasals keep whaling on each other, what´s up with that ?

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by whomario

some quick questions on the CK2 demo :

can somebody explain to me how to "train" my kids ? I go to the diplomacy menu but there isn´t an option to assign a mentor (same when going to the "mentor" first)

They have to be old enough to have a guardian. I forget the exact age.

also, daughters show up as sons for me ?!?

Bug, maybe?

also, can someone explain to me how to go to war or how to assist someone ? For some reason when playing as the king of poland my vasals keep whaling on each other, what´s up with that ?

You need a legal casus belli to go to war, usually through a claim on a county, or through an independent vassal being in the de jure region of a title you hold.

Vassals can go to war because your crown authority (found in the Laws screen) isn't high enough.

[Lonnie]

Originally Posted by whomario

can somebody explain to me how to "train" my kids ? I go to the diplomacy menu but there isn´t an option to assign a mentor (same when going to the "mentor" first)

If they are old enough there will be a diplomacy option called Educate Child I believe.

[MrBug708]

6 years old is when you can educate them

[whomario]

Thanks !

-What if someone declares war on me, how can i counter that ?

Damn, i was under the impression that the game would be a little less complex/involve less micromanaging than EUIII, but after a couple hours with the demo i am not so sure about that anymore ...

Is there any step-by-step guide out there for the last version to get more of an idea ? I am especially perplexed by the options for building and military. When is it a good time to build something, where should i sent my advisors for better economy/military ideas etc ?

I wish there were options to leave stuff to the CPU and only concentrate on certain things yourself.

[MrBug708]

If someone declares war, you can only have a defensive war against them. If you go all out on their country, when they surrender, you don't get their land

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

If someone declares war, you can only have a defensive war against them. If you go all out on their country, when they surrender, you don't get their land

That's kind of annoying.

[MrBug708]

It's considered a defensive war so I understand where they are coming from. To take land, you need a CB

[cschex]

I haven't played around with the demo enough, but wouldn't you be able to take land in a defensive war if you have a claim? Example, France declares war on England, if England has a claim on one or more of France's counties, that could potentially get rolled into the peace offer if England wins. Can anyone confirm if that's in place?

[MrBug708]

Possibly, but the war was declared to steal your lands. Not sure in that scenario what would happen, but the peace process is quite simple and you can't demand a lot like previously

[Izulde]

I *think* you can enforce claims you have in a defensive war, but I don't remember for sure.