Crusader Kings 2 Redux

[Jacob]

I've been playing a game for the first time in a while. Playing a Christian realm is significantly easier when you can switch to seniority succession right off the bat, and free investiture shortly thereafter.

[dps]

Okay, well some people don't like the dynamic setup as they like things to vaguely follow history which is hard when you're suddenly facing say, the Kingdom of Poitou.

And that's why there are game rules so different people can tweak it to be how they like.

Yeah, I can understand why people would want that, but it seems a bit pointless in a game in which, even without dynamic kingdoms, you often end up with things like having Poland where Brittany should be and Denmark where Poland should be.

[garbon]

Teutonic order and Reconquistas.

[Valmy]

Considering that the Iberian and Baltic Crusades had such significant long term effects I am glad to see more focus put on them.

[jimmy olsen]

Speaking of Iberian crusades...my 1066 start as Navara is going well.



That is Anglo-Saxon England by the way. Harold beat the Nowegians and the Normans. They then went on to win the Crusade for Jerusalem around 1105-1110ish.

A muslim khanate conquered most of Hungary around that time and since then has been almost completely partioned between them.

[garbon]

[jimmy olsen]

From 2 province minor to Emperor in 101 years

[garbon]

Actually here's a better version of the full revised path along the bottom of the map.

[Tamas]

Is there an ETA on this DLC yet?

[Jacob]

Had a fun little moment recently.

Earlier the Pope had called a crusade - against pagan Saxons. I went all in, and had something like 58% of the contribution... yet the land all went to a Khazar Khan (who was Christian). I thought I'd be getting it, but whatever... must have missed something somewhere.

Some generations later the Pope calls a crusade for Jerusalem. I decide to sit it out, since clearly I haven't figured out how to make it work for me. Besides, I have other things going on.

The bastard pope then excommunicates me! The nerve. Funny thing is that while the (amazingly coherent) Byzantine empire controlled all of Italy (and Provence) in addition to the usual lands, I had the Duchy of Spoleto, including Rome. In other words the Pope had already lost his holdings - I guess the Byzantines took them away from him before they lost the land to me.

Anyhow, I'm excommunicated so I think "fuck it" and install my an anti-Pope. Nothing much happens.

Reading up, I learn that to get rid of the original Pope I have to declare war on him... but I can't do that, because he doesn't have any actual holdings.

What I can do, however, according to the intrigue menu is "restore the Papacy". So I do that. The Pope gets the counties around Rome, I get 1000 piety (and shortly thereafter "the Holy" as my byname). This finally allows me to declare war on the Pope, which I promptly do, beating him soundly and installing my own man on the Papal throne (surrounded by a bevy of Byzantine cardinals).

I found it amusing anyhow, even if - like most CK2 stories - it probably isn't...

[jimmy olsen]

Byzantine cardinals? Did they go Catholic despite conquering/inheriting Italy?

[jimmy olsen]

Pelaio II is a True Christain Knight!  First time in over 950 hours of play to get that achievement.



Fatamids got lucky while the Byzantines were fighting in Europe.



The young Duke of Fes inherited the Duchy of Champagne.

[Jacob]

Byzantine cardinals? Did they go Catholic despite conquering/inheriting Italy?

Nah, the Byzantine empire controls Italy - except Spoleto. As usual, Italian Cardinals dominate - they're just part of the Byzantine empire.

Had a fun moment where the Ummayad Shah converted to Christianity and was married to a the Byzantine Empress. Luckily the Empress died from stress before she produced an heir to unite the two realms. That would've been a bit uncomfortable.

The Byzantines have been pretty entertaining this game. At one point their emperor converted to whatever the Chinese religion is, which was pretty hilarious. He got done in by empire wide revolts after a few decades though, so they're back to being Orthodox.

Another interesting feature of this game is that there's a sizeable Shi'a Caliphate in play as well. Normally the Shi'a appear and are put down in short order - at least as far as I've seen.

[jimmy olsen]

The Fatamids are Shia in my game.

[garbon]

If you start in a time period post the Shia Caliphate Rising event can happen, that shouldn't be surprising.