Crusader Kings 2 Redux

[Martinus]

Read the latest dev diary. Sounds like they put a lot of though into the mechanics for Republics, but still unconvinced that it'll be fun to be a non-ruling family.

Yeah. But I will get it anyway.

[garbon]

Faction system sure makes it easier to take on lieges. My gay king of Serbia was able to rouse half of the Empire for his mother's claim to the throne. My event granted doomstacks steamrolled those of the then Emperor.

Ugh I had 4 decades of good emperors (even the gay one was good after he paid everyone off to ignore what was happening in his bedroom). However my next emperor ruled for 10 days before succumbing to the great pox. My current ruler is a 14 year old girl facing down a faction revolt for the rule of her aunt who has been Queen of Scotland for some 20 odd years.

Poor Anthe lost the throne and had to be content with a few dukedoms. Just recently took it back with her son who'd been born in the purple. Oddly when my faction only had 40% strength of the Emperor, said emperor gave in to my demands and abdicated.  Now facing down a powerful faction that wants to see my emperor's brother in charge.

Also, dwarfism got into the genetics of my family at some point and now everyone keeps popping out as dwarves. Tired of having dwarven Byzantine Emperors!

Well that was odd. The emperor I deposed was at war with Poland when I requested he give in to my factions demands.  Strangely, he kept all the Byzantine troops (but got now duchy of Croatia flag) and my new emperor marched around in his armies.  He then started a faction to put himself back on the throne and I got a dangerous faction warning with him have 1000% of my strength.  He's since disbanded all those troops but is still at 200% of my strength. I can only guess that a lot of count/barony vassals are still pledged to him? I guess I'll strip away his duchy title and see what happens (he's already at -98 because I took Byzantine Empire and claimed Constantinople).

[Admiral Yi]

I seriously need to get my hands on a manual, cuz I can't figure out what the hell is going on.

So Pisa starts a civil war in the HRE, of which I'm still a member, never having seen a good opportunity to win a war for independence.  That's all good, except a) I have no control apparently over whether my troops are levied by the emperor or not and b) Bavarian troops are besieging my castle.  WTF?

It also seems like joining a faction might be a good idea, but I can't figure out how the hell to do it.

So basically apart from creating a kingdom and changing the inheritance law and building a few buildings, I'm sitting and watching history pass me by.

[Ed Anger]

When your liege calls up your troops, they are his until he sends them home. Got any retinue troops? They stay under your control.

Factions... Intrigue screen, faction button up top. Scroll throw the list, there should be a tiny arrow butto to join. Or leave.

[Martinus]

So basically apart from creating a kingdom and changing the inheritance law and building a few buildings, I'm sitting and watching history pass me by.

Why is that? You can still press your claims both internally and externally (i.e. both inside and outside of the Empire), and expand that way. Once you are strong enough, you can also declare independence if you so desire.

[Martinus]

When your liege calls up your troops, they are his until he sends them home. Got any retinue troops? They stay under your control.

Not just that but the portion of your troops that is not called by the emperor stays under your control too - these two are totally separate (the proportion he gets and you get is determined by laws), so having your liege romp around with your troops does not prevent you from waging your own wars at the same time.

[Admiral Yi]

Why is that? You can still press your claims both internally and externally (i.e. both inside and outside of the Empire), and expand that way. Once you are strong enough, you can also declare independence if you so desire.

In CK I if you declared war on a vassal, the liege would declare war on you.  Now I'm coming to the realization that this is not true in CK II, but it would have been helpful to put that in the tutorial or to provide a GODDAMN MANUAL that told me this.

[Martinus]

Why is that? You can still press your claims both internally and externally (i.e. both inside and outside of the Empire), and expand that way. Once you are strong enough, you can also declare independence if you so desire.

In CK I if you declared war on a vassal, the liege would declare war on you.  Now I'm coming to the realization that this is not true in CK II, but it would have been helpful to put that in the tutorial or to provide a GODDAMN MANUAL that told me this.

Correct. In CK II you can either (i) declare war on an independent ruler, or (ii) a fellow vassal of the same liege as yours.

If you are a vassal, your ability to declare war may be limited by the crown authority (at medium you cannot declare wars on fellow vassals and at absolute you cannot declare war on anyone).

However, the benefit of being a King (when you are a vassal of the Emperor) is that your own laws trump those of the Emperor's in your de jure lands, so even if the HRE may have adopted Medium Crown Authority, you can still declare war on fellow vassals who are located in the de jure lands of your kingdom.

[Admiral Yi]

   OK.  That's great stuff.  Where the hell did you learn it?

[garbon]

For the most part the tooltips (from hovering over various buttons) are accurate and tend to tell you why you can't do various things.

[The Brain]

Yi's yearning for properly documented software is so 20th century.

[garbon]

Yi's yearning for properly documented software is so 20th century.

Well certainly not in line with owning a p'dox product.

[Martinus]

  OK.  That's great stuff.  Where the hell did you learn it?

From tooltips.

[Admiral Yi]

Tell me if you've learned any of the following from tooltips then please:

If my liege has called up my troops, and I declare war on him, do my levies come back home?

How are war and conquest with Muslims and pagans handled?  Do you now need a war score and a settlement, or do you still automatically get whatever you control?

The tooltip under independence war said the war automatically ends if my leader dies.  What happens to my troops?  Is there any reason I can't just restart the war under my new leader?

[garbon]

Btw, did they ever do anything about being able to transfer duchy vassals? It seems a bit odd that as the Byzantine Empire, I get a negative malus from my vassal - Despot of Croatia, because he wants the Duchy of Dalmatia but I can't hand that vassal over to him. Best I can do is free revoke and then give him the duchy - as far as I can tell.