Crusader Kings 2 Redux

[Ideologue]

Man, gavelkind sucks.  It broke my collection of duchies in twain, and the richest (if smallest) part went to my asshole brother.  How do you get rid of it?

My stopgap solution has been to try to kill my relatives, but the HREmperor threw me in a dungeon and I had to stop.

[garbon]

Man, gavelkind sucks.  It broke my collection of duchies in twain, and the richest (if smallest) part went to my asshole brother.  How do you get rid of it?

My stopgap solution has been to try to kill my relatives, but the HREmperor threw me in a dungeon and I had to stop.

Change your succession law?

[Ideologue]

It didn't give any options away from gavelkind.  I don't think.  Maybe I misread it.

[jimmy olsen]

Hey Marty, guess what causes homosexuality

I gotta admit that as a homosexual between this and the events to beat the homosexuality out of a ward (child you are educating) that Paradox seems to be playing this a little cavalier.

Wouldn't their explanation be that that's how people of the time thought of the matter and they're just being historically accurate in reflecting that?

[sbr]

Goddammit is Robert d'Hautevilles oldest legitimate kid always this bad?

Hunchback, cruel, greedy, wroth,arbitrary...

He destroyed my realm then died in battle leaving his 2 year old kid in charge, who everyone hates too.

[garbon]

Hey Marty, guess what causes homosexuality

I gotta admit that as a homosexual between this and the events to beat the homosexuality out of a ward (child you are educating) that Paradox seems to be playing this a little cavalier.

Wouldn't their explanation be that that's how people of the time thought of the matter and they're just being historically accurate in reflecting that?

Like they historically represent the nazi symbol and the holocaust?

Or rather to stick to the period that this particular game covers...Like how they chose to represent slavery?

Oh and nevermind you, Tim, the constant refrain that homosexuality wasn't really an identity then but an act that one might sometimes indulge.

[garbon]

It didn't give any options away from gavelkind.  I don't think.  Maybe I misread it.

On the laws tab you can see the various succession and gender laws.  Isn't always possible to change the laws but you can see the pre-reqs.

[OttoVonBismarck]

So I'm still mostly getting my toes wet with this, haven't had a chance to play too much. I played a few counties my first few games (just for an hour or so each) just to get a feel for the new interface and all the new features. Then I tried a hand as the Duke of Lancaster, I was a bit aimless at first and was mostly just working on the general thought that I'd be able to break away from whoever was King of England at an opportune moment. However while Harold was in the South fighting William my lands were getting slowly sieged/conquered by a 6500 Norwegian Army under Hardrada so I decided to try and assassinate him since I was limited to raising around 1500 troops so couldn't fight his army one on one.

I was surprised when I went to to option that I was given some stupidly high success % (like 41%), because in CK1 assassinations of rulers was so hard to pull off I think I quit even bothering to try.  Sure enough, my assassination is successful and since his claim to England wasn't inherited by whichever of his sons got the Norwegian crown that totally ended the Norman invasion. Right around that time William is really tearing up Southern England so I decided to DoW King Harold and break away in the hopes he would either agree to a peace recognizing my independence given his dire situation or William would outright win and wouldn't be at war with me. Instead, Harold was able to get peace with William like instantly and turned all of his armies onto me and that was basically game over.

After that I ran several more games (all of them so far taking place mostly in the British Isles) and then finally started my current game as Norway where I'm about 60 years in. I've found that as Hardrada becoming King of England is very easy because of how AI England/Normandy tend to go after each other. Harold Godwinson really likes leading all of his forces down to Normandy itself, and he slowly captures all of William's provinces (this seems to happen in most of my games.) Meanwhile William takes most of Southern England, but then when Godwinson has 100% of William's provinces he pretty reliably forces a peace and keeps the English crown. Where I come in is as Hardrada I just basically captured all of Northern England with the 7k army you start with and also hired 1500 worth of mercenaries so I was consistently taking two provinces at once. By the time Godwinson is done fighting William I've already got a 90%+ warscore against him (and in my game the King of Scotland DoWed England and captured a few provinces for some random reason as well.) So I just sue for peace and demand the English crown.

In the years that followed I've found that keeping England isn't impossible, but CK2 demands certain play that is counter to what I was used to from CK1. In CK1 for example I typically took a "light hand" with my nobles, if they rebelled I'd quash the rebellion but let them keep their lands. In CK1 this made sense because the bad boy you got from taking a rebellious vassal's lands could cause problems where you slowly were hated by more and more of your vassals and then realm duress would kick in and the whole empire would fall apart (if you had a massive empire anyway.) In CK2, I learned after some rough going of it that if I see a plot ever I imprison that person right away. In a move that I think makes sense, Paradox has made it so that you can do this to plotters and not suffer relationship damage with the rest of your vassals.

With England, I was able to get on very good terms with the Duke Somerset, Norfolk, and Oxford just by giving them honorary titles, a gift here and there and etc. I've essentially never had problems with them. The Duke of Bedford (who is the deposed King) basically has to go right away, in my game I had him as a relatively low revolt risk and was building up diplomacy with him when I discovered a plot. I didn't act then, and paid for it big time when he started an uprising with the Duke of Lancaster (who only controlled Derby, Worcester, and Gloucester--I had basically everything else in Northern England when I took the throne and had parceled it out to Norwegian nobles.) Because of the fact you can't raise levies in England for a long time as the Norwegians it was very long and painful to put down the rebellion, and involved lots of money.

I also had serious issues in Norway, as my son Olaf (who starts out as your nominee to succeed you as King of Norway) rebelled against me at one point as well. Again, I had discovered a plot being lead by him and didn't act because he had a low revolt risk and I assumed I could diplomatically resolve it somehow with gifting or etc. That's why 20-30 years in after Hardrada had died and I was learning how things worked a bit better I've pursued a zero tolerance policy on any shenanigans. Basically if you ever have a situation where you can imprison someone with no penalty to vassal relations I think it's always the right move regardless of anything else.

[garbon]

Basically if you ever have a situation where you can imprison someone with no penalty to vassal relations I think it's always the right move regardless of anything else.

Agreed unless, although sometimes I've found it good to delay if I'm currently in more than one war and the chances of imprisonment are low.  If you don't watch out, you've just added another belligerent. /It is always lovely when a vassal does declare independence. If you conquer them in war and imprison them - then you can freely revoke their titles without your other vassals caring because they were traitorous.

[Sheilbh]

I stopped playing as Ireland (I wanted to try the Reconquista - which is fucked by France ).  But my second to last king Murchad the Great came out as gay after some fun at a grand tournament, aged 67.  He will be played by Christopher Plummer in the biopic.

[jimmy olsen]

Hey Marty, guess what causes homosexuality

I gotta admit that as a homosexual between this and the events to beat the homosexuality out of a ward (child you are educating) that Paradox seems to be playing this a little cavalier.

Wouldn't their explanation be that that's how people of the time thought of the matter and they're just being historically accurate in reflecting that?

Like they historically represent the nazi symbol and the holocaust?

Or rather to stick to the period that this particular game covers...Like how they chose to represent slavery?

Oh and nevermind you, Tim, the constant refrain that homosexuality wasn't really an identity then but an act that one might sometimes indulge.

Nevermind you?

Yeah, I understand that homosexuality as an identity didn't exist before the 2nd half of the 19th century. However doesn't that make the actions you're complaining about more understandable. If it's just "a vice" that people can choose to do, than treating it like any other vice (caused by satan, can be beat out of you) makes sense. After all I had the chance to be beat another vice out of my kid (greed I think).

[Martinus]

I stopped playing as Ireland (I wanted to try the Reconquista - which is fucked by France ).  But my second to last king Murchad the Great came out as gay after some fun at a grand tournament, aged 67.  He will be played by Christopher Plummer in the biopic.

[Martinus]

Hey Marty, guess what causes homosexuality

I gotta admit that as a homosexual between this and the events to beat the homosexuality out of a ward (child you are educating) that Paradox seems to be playing this a little cavalier.

I don't mind really. It's part of the "These are middle ages. We all have knives." thing. 

[Martinus]

Goddammit is Robert d'Hautevilles oldest legitimate kid always this bad?

Hunchback, cruel, greedy, wroth,arbitrary...

He destroyed my realm then died in battle leaving his 2 year old kid in charge, who everyone hates too.

The traits are acquired through education. If you allow your heir to be educated by someone else you allow stuff like this to happen. In my game, Robert was Kind, Just, Proud, Brave, Honest and Charitable. Of course that did not prevent the moslems to kick his ass.

[Jaron]

I've only played a game or two so far, but yes - France loves to play around in Spain, and the HRE feels like an unstoppable juggernaut. In my Habsburg game they conquered all of Italy and also Finland. I do wish that France was less zealous in invading Iberia.