Crusader Kings

[Peregrine]

Having a blast in my current Aquitaine game - first time I've gotten the whole Spawn of Satan storyline (which I think was introduced in Sons of Abraham)- my current ruler is the said spawn, despite being super religious, a crusader and has gone on a pilgrimage. My advisors include the creepy Omen-like nun who follows the guy around as my chaplain, Morgana le Fay as my kick-ass spymaster and Circe as my Treasurer.

[Umbrella]

Looks like another major expansion is coming. Charlemagne. From what I gather, it will start 100 years earlier, have some changes to early tribes, nation forming is changed, a record is kept of your dynasty, and assassinations have been completely redone.

[korme]

I like that you can start an empire or kingdom from essentially scratch.

[Peregrine]

One thing I don't like is how crusades currently work - I don't like that a successful crusade simply gives all the land to some country - I want to see a Kingdom of Jerusalem if a Jerusalem crusade succeeds, not just some part of a larger Kingdom of Italy. I did laugh when an Iberian crusade succeeded and a huge chunk of modem-day Spain was given outright to Castille which was at that point a two-province kingdom which had just been taken over by a conquering host. Some random Norse third son who got bored pretty much instantly became the most powerful ruler in Western Europe.

[DaddyTorgo]

How can I tell which DLC I own these days? I can't tell at a glance anymore?

nevermind - found it

[JPhillips]

The new CK2 launcher also shows you everything.

[Peregrine]

Anyone tried out the Charlemagne DLC yet?

[MrBug708]

When did it come out?

[Izulde]

Yesterday

[dzilla77]

Don't have it, but from the forums, it seems a lot of the new mechanics are pretty buggy right now. Specifically viceroys and republics are broken. It looks like a hot fix/patch is in the works so it probably won't be too long until its playable.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by dzilla77

Don't have it, but from the forums, it seems a lot of the new mechanics are pretty buggy right now. Specifically viceroys and republics are broken. It looks like a hot fix/patch is in the works so it probably won't be too long until its playable.

There's apparently a ton of parse errors even in the vanilla Charlemagne events according to the guys on the Game of Thrones mod. Simple shit.

[JPhillips]

Never buy Paradox on release day. Eventually it will be great, but never buy on release day.

[MrBug708]

The update gave me a crash to desktop. It also wouldn't let me tell my ships to stand down due to not being in a friendly port, despite being in my capital province.

That's not the new DLC, that's just the patch

[Peregrine]

Anyone know much about the new DLC, CK2: Way of Life? Seems like the idea is to give a lot of more personal events and try to guide the development of your character a bit more.


Way of Life features:

New diplomatic interactions – Dispatch foes by challenging them to duels, choose who to seduce, break up with lovers, spy on people, free prisonors from captivity, and more are now available to players.

Set a Focus - Give your rulers a “way of life” by assigning them a Focus that will give an immediate boost to their skills and help shape the course of their development through events and decisions – new and old. There are ten different Focuses available to your characters:

• Rulership – Be a better king!
• Business – Gold is good
• Hunting – Kill the beast!
• War – What’s yours is mine
• Family – the most important thing, right?
• Carousing - ahem
• Seduction – double ahem
• Intrigue – sneaky, sneak
• Scholarship – We love to learn
• Theology – Do it for the big guy upstair

New events – Hundreds of new events have been added into Way of Life, alongside 20 new event images, which tie in directly to a character’s Focus. Specific events can be triggered only if a character is assigned a corresponding Focus.

[Honolulu_Blue]

It seems like the new DLC is focusing on all of the stuff that I really enjoy about the game.

I would say that I understand maybe about 30-40% of what's going on in the game and how to play it at any one time. This is a sufficient amount to enjoy the game.

I haven't played it over a year or so. I fear I've lost the tenuous grip I had on that small portion I understood. The learning curve would be steep.

I had a great game going where I had conquered a good portion of Spain. The French had bled into some of the north and western portions, but I had a pretty sizeable country going.

[gi]

Basically what I love of the game, expanded. Looking forward to getting it and making Scotland strong.

[Umbrella]

So has anyone played Charlemagne or Way of Life yet? I'm thinking about getting them, now that it looks like most of the bugs have been resolved.

[gi]

Picking it up soon. Was hoping it would be on sale during the holidays. Never saw it discounted.

[JPhillips]

Way of Life looks bugged right now, so I'm waiting. I don't have Charlemagne yet because I'm waiting for a sale.

I had my shortest complete game ever last night. I started with Old Gods and picked Capet as a nice count setup. I married right away and two years later my wife was pregnant. About a month before she was to give birth, I died due to illness. Having no heirs, the game ended. I played for less than three years.

[Peregrine]

I've been pretty happy with Way of Life - haven't messed with Charlemagne much yet. I like WoL because the character focus kind of opens up a lot more options for immersion/RP or just helping your characters. It does change the UI which to be honest is mostly better but some of the changes (like to assassination) have been controversial.

[JPhillips]

I've read that seduction is way too prevalent. Have they fixed that?

[Peregrine]

Not sure as I haven't tried it yet - I focus more on the things that help weaknesses in my ruler - like the stewardship one, or the family one which boosts fertility.

[whomario]

everything except "way of life" (well, of course ...) down 75% until the 20th at steam, just if anyone is still missing some DLCs or on the fence regarding the base game

[Grover]

I'm still trying to get into it like I have EUIV

[gi]

Picked it up and Way of Life. Scotland, here I come!

[MrBug708]

Grabbed Charlemagne. All that is left is Way of Life, which should come on sale here in a month or so

[Izulde]

In addition to Way of Life, the Iberian Portrait and Unit Packs are *not* on sale, because those just came out in December.

Really sweet deal, though... for $4 less than the regular price cost of the Charlemagne expansion, I was also able to fill in the Unit Packs, Portraits, Dynasty Shields, and Clothing add-ons I didn't have before. (I couldn't care less about the music add-ons, as I play with sound off or Pandora/Youtube anyway).

[korme]

So is EUIV basically the same as CK2 except more recent eras? I play the shit out of CK2, have never touched EU

[Peregrine]

It's not really the same - it's not really character/dynasty focused for one thing, and more focused on developing your nation. The warfare is a bit more "realistic" I guess - not able to just send your troops all over the place willy-nilly to get through 6 countries for a war. The strategy is deeper - you have a lot more economic/trade/diplomacy options to deal with.

It's a hell of a lot of fun but overall is more complicated and doesn't have the fun family/character elements of CK2 - you have kings but they are essentially just names with stats, no control over them.

[Dutch]

Yep, that's it in a nutshell. Despite the additional learning curve, I've found more success in EUIV than I ever had in CK....but my starting points are different. In CK, I always start at a county whereas in EU I am essential starting as a major country.

[Peregrine]

Think this is going to make me do another run at EUIV - been a while.

[Dutch]

Major patch and El Dorado to be released in the next couple of weeks...Im waiting for that.

[Grover]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

Think this is going to make me do another run at EUIV - been a while.

Pfft and my Georgia dynasty hasn't convinced you to do this?

[thesloppy]

CK II is free for the week on Steam, for anybody on the fence.

[Mike Lowe]

For someone who has never played this game, who loves Civilization, and who has seen lots about CK but has never pulled the trigger...

No brainer?

[gi]

Originally Posted by Mike Lowe

For someone who has never played this game, who loves Civilization, and who has seen lots about CK but has never pulled the trigger...

No brainer?

Yes, hours of fun await you.

[Groundhog]

I'd rate CKII waaaay above Civ.

[Umbrella]

I have enjoyed CK2 way better than the Civ series myself. They are very different games. I think one of the beauties of CK2 is that you can play so many different ways. Some like to take over the world as fast as they can. I like to role play, which is a lot of fun, although it leads to a ton of sub-optimal play.

For example, if I have a content character, I won't try and take new lands. If I have a character with an economic background, I spend most of my time doing infrastructure improvements. If I have a craven character, I will acquiesce to all of my vassals commands. This gives the game to me more life, and can lead to some really unusual situations.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Mike Lowe

For someone who has never played this game, who loves Civilization, and who has seen lots about CK but has never pulled the trigger...

No brainer?

It's a no brainer.

I love CK2 and I love Civ. It's hard to compare the games because they really are very, very different.

You can't really play CK2 like you do Civ. It's much more of a role playing type of experience. Conquering lands and taking over territory is a LOT more complicated and difficult in CK2 (for the most part).

The other thing to note is that CK2's learning curve is ridiculous. The tutorial isn't that great. I printed out two pretty sizeable guides off the internet and had two friends with me the first time I really tried playing it. I still think I understand only about 60% of what's actually going, but that's enough. I have a blast whenever I fire it up.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by Umbrella

I have enjoyed CK2 way better than the Civ series myself. They are very different games. I think one of the beauties of CK2 is that you can play so many different ways. Some like to take over the world as fast as they can. I like to role play, which is a lot of fun, although it leads to a ton of sub-optimal play.

For example, if I have a content character, I won't try and take new lands. If I have a character with an economic background, I spend most of my time doing infrastructure improvements. If I have a craven character, I will acquiesce to all of my vassals commands. This gives the game to me more life, and can lead to some really unusual situations.

Very interesting, think I might try this on my next play through. The one house rule I've debated going with is some sort of a roll outside the game to make the child mortality rate more realistic to the era - for human and major AI players. I think it would make for a much more chaotic game, far less solid long entrenched dynasties

[Grover]

Originally Posted by Mike Lowe

For someone who has never played this game, who loves Civilization, and who has seen lots about CK but has never pulled the trigger...

No brainer?

Always play the tutorial first though.

Civ is Dr. Seuss to Paradox Games being Tolstoy.

[Peregrine]

Originally Posted by Umbrella

For example, if I have a content character, I won't try and take new lands. If I have a character with an economic background, I spend most of my time doing infrastructure improvements. If I have a craven character, I will acquiesce to all of my vassals commands. This gives the game to me more life, and can lead to some really unusual situations.

I like to keep a bit of role-playing in the mix but haven't really done it this way before - definitely going to give it a try.

To be honest a lot of the time in CK2 I like to be an observer, just watching what's happening in the world. If I can get to a stable position without many wars that's pretty much my ideal most of the time.

[Peregrine]

Okay this is a...w...e...s...o...m....e.

Want some random goals for CK2? Click here.

Challenge Generator for Crusader Kings 2

[Mike Lowe]

I bought the massive $39.99 package. Excited! I was a bit bummed that on the first screen it's asking me to buy another $7 Way of Life DLC. I figured this bundle already included everything???

With Steam then, are all of the ones I purchased installed already?

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Mike Lowe

I bought the massive $39.99 package. Excited! I was a bit bummed that on the first screen it's asking me to buy another $7 Way of Life DLC. I figured this bundle already included everything???

With Steam then, are all of the ones I purchased installed already?

That's one of the more recent ones from memory, late last year? That's likely why. It's got some decent additions but to be honest the game plays fine without it - it makes changes to the events that occur to your ruler.

And yes, they'll all be installed automatically through Steam.

[cartman]

So I took the plunge and picked up the game. I ran through the tutorial to get a feel for a game. I couple of intro guides suggested starting in Ireland for your first game. I must have the worst Chancellor ever. He's been trying to fabricate a claim for invasion for nearly 20 years on a neighboring county.

[Peregrine]

The fabrication claims and other stuff the advisors do basically have a certain percentage change (low) to trigger any given year - so if you get unlucky it can take forever.

[Arles]

Look at claimants in nearby counties for a "thumbs up" and see how their diplomacy value is. As you get a little bigger, I like using the player search for non-ruler males of your same religion type. Sort by Diplomacy for a Chancellor and look for people with the "claim icon" in their picture. If their opinion of you is around 50-60 higher than their lord, they may accept an invitation into your court. If you click their photo, you can see the opinion of both you and their lord. If you find one that fits the situation and they still won't come, you can bribe them, wait a bit and then ask again.

I really wish this area of the interface was a little better. Even showing an "thumbs up/down" icon (like on the claimant list) to show if they would join your court would be very helpful on the player search screen.

[Peregrine]

In terms of "joining your court" it also really aggravates me when you want to give a title to a member of your dynasty but he won't join your court so you can't. You would think becoming a duke or whatever would trump any other concerns in terms of willingness to come back home.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by cartman

So I took the plunge and picked up the game. I ran through the tutorial to get a feel for a game. I couple of intro guides suggested starting in Ireland for your first game. I must have the worst Chancellor ever. He's been trying to fabricate a claim for invasion for nearly 20 years on a neighboring county.

That's less than optimum, but not necessarily remarkable, if my own experiences are to be trusted.

My current run as Emperor of Ireland is quickly approaching unmanageable:



I'm married to the Queen of France as well, so as soon as she kicks off everything blue is mine too (and England has been under control of my dynasty for almost a century, or else it would've fallen long ago). Unfortunately, the Aztecs moved in next door with over double my troop numbers and I also just had my first ever jihad declared against me. I'm not looking forward to attempting to manage that whole clusterfuck, so I'm not sure if I'll ever make it much beyond this point.