Crusader Kings 2 Redux

[The Minsky Moment]

Also, why is it that virtually everybody else gets gigantic armies but me? I played as the Duke of Portugal and formed the Kingdom with all of Portugal's modern territory (minus the islands and such) and yet even with large levies on all sides and with all of my vassals in love with me, I could barely raise more than 800 or so troops while giant Muslim armies from Seville/Mauretania decided to come at me with 3,000 bin Ladens. What the hell, Batman. Mercs saved my ass one time, and only because the Pope gave me a ton of money to fight the Muslims. Then the mercs all died and 3 months later, here comes another 3k death stack.

This has already been pointed out but if you formed all modern Portugal you must have conquered a lot of Muslim territory and it takes quite a long time for you to get any troops off that land.  Check the holdings in those conquered counties - they may be all giving 0 troops.  Also it is important to build the castle improvements that give you more levies, use your Marshal to train troops, etc,

[jimmy olsen]

Also, why is it that virtually everybody else gets gigantic armies but me? I played as the Duke of Portugal and formed the Kingdom with all of Portugal's modern territory (minus the islands and such) and yet even with large levies on all sides and with all of my vassals in love with me, I could barely raise more than 800 or so troops while giant Muslim armies from Seville/Mauretania decided to come at me with 3,000 bin Ladens. What the hell, Batman. Mercs saved my ass one time, and only because the Pope gave me a ton of money to fight the Muslims. Then the mercs all died and 3 months later, here comes another 3k death stack.

This has already been pointed out but if you formed all modern Portugal you must have conquered a lot of Muslim territory and it takes quite a long time for you to get any troops off that land.  Check the holdings in those conquered counties - they may be all giving 0 troops.  Also it is important to build the castle improvements that give you more levies, use your Marshal to train troops, etc,

I think that penalty should be greatly relaxed if the land you conquered is part of your de jure kingdom.

[Ideologue]

Why?  Did Castille use a lot of Muslim levies to fight the Reconquista?

In my restart from an old save as Modena the Iberian Muslims have pushed into France.  Al-Andalus and France are going to be the Japan and Nationalist China of this game, aren't they?

[jimmy olsen]

There really needs to be an option to join an ally's war of your own accord. They never seem to ask me for help and interests get screwed by this. 

[Martinus]

Also, why is it that virtually everybody else gets gigantic armies but me? I played as the Duke of Portugal and formed the Kingdom with all of Portugal's modern territory (minus the islands and such) and yet even with large levies on all sides and with all of my vassals in love with me, I could barely raise more than 800 or so troops while giant Muslim armies from Seville/Mauretania decided to come at me with 3,000 bin Ladens. What the hell, Batman. Mercs saved my ass one time, and only because the Pope gave me a ton of money to fight the Muslims. Then the mercs all died and 3 months later, here comes another 3k death stack.

This has already been pointed out but if you formed all modern Portugal you must have conquered a lot of Muslim territory and it takes quite a long time for you to get any troops off that land.  Check the holdings in those conquered counties - they may be all giving 0 troops.  Also it is important to build the castle improvements that give you more levies, use your Marshal to train troops, etc,

I think that penalty should be greatly relaxed if the land you conquered is part of your de jure kingdom.

I don't think this is a workable solution - it would just mean you need to conquer enough land to be declared the king and presto the penalty is gone.

[Martinus]

Btw, for all the people complaining about gavelkind - as long as you only have one county, then no matter how many ducal titles you have, your heir inherits everything under gavelkind. So if you are collecting duchies to for a kingdom (like Apulia for example) just make sure you do not have more than one county and you are set.

[Viking]

Battles are too bloody but talking about a "general trend" for such a long period over such a large area is questionable.  Having just read a book on the Albigensian Crusade there were quite a few battles and they were very bloody.  The King of Aragon was killed in battle along with almost all his troops at Muret; a few years later Montfort was killed in battle and his brother badly injured.  There were quite a few battles in the Hundred Years War and a high percentage were as you say quite decisive.  CK2 is kind of capturing this - if you just treat the casualty report as including captured and put to flight/disbanded.  The effect is the same in terms of decisive outcome and time to regenerate levies.

From what I know about the Cathar Crusades is that there were lots and lots of sieges and to my knowledge no pitched battles. The sieges were often bloody for the simple reason that cities and castles usually did not resist siege unless powerful people on the inside expected to be executed if the city or castle surrendered. Both Peter of Aragon and Simon Montfort were killed during sieges by sallly forces during the siege, not pitched battles between armies.

Battles are decisive but seem to have no effect. At present in the game after an army is destroyed the AI can reform an army before the first siege is completed, which then must be destroyed before the next siege. The first pitched battle is not decisive unless the player loses it.

The other stuff we have differning experiences with might simply be functions of whatever inheritance laws and realm size we are operating in.

[Fireblade]

Fuck it, we'll do it live!

I'm going to start a game as either the Komnenus or Paleologus dynasties when I get home. My goals:

1. Become Emperor
2. Conquer Syria and Jerusalem
3. Conquer Persia, convert to Christianity
4. Conquer Egypt and Africa, convert to Christianity
5. Force the Rus and Magyar tribes to acknowledge Roman supremacy
6. Sacco di Roma

[Tamas]

SHIIIIIIT. I had an excellent king of Sweden. near the start. I conquered the whole of the country plus Finland with him.

But, I wanted to get my hand on a norwegian province as well so I married my heir to a duchess there. He went there, but my king lived until like, 75, and my heir died, and his son, my king's grandson, had norwegian culture, and was pretty un-impressive to begin with.

Plus, second mistake, I broke my rule of never-ever-ever-ever marry a child into a place where it may cause trouble in the future.

Long story short: my empire: ruinered, I have become a norwegian ducal family in Sweden.

[FunkMonk]

Al-Andalus and France are going to be the Japan and Nationalist China of this game, aren't they?

Lol cool

[Viking]

Plus, second mistake, I broke my rule of never-ever-ever-ever marry a child into a place where it may cause trouble in the future.

That seems like a supposedly hard and fast rule which seems open to much interpretation....

[Martinus]

So playing as England (post-conquest) is fucking hard. William's sons are ambitious retards who seem unable to breed.

The key is to make sure you don't create any dukes, so it's easier to manage and vassals don't hate you for hogging the titles, but it's still a pain. So, after putting down the rebellions of various Saxons and breaking down the backs of the Lancaster and Northumberalnd dukes, William died, and all the hell broke loose.

Robert was hated by half the country which promptly rebelled. I made Richard a bishop but before I could send William off to the church too, he fled to Northern England. Meanwhile, Richard, despite being a bishop, raised the rebellion flag, claiming the crown and being joined by several barons. He ended up in the Tower and his bishopric went to William who agreed to come back to Westminster. Big mistake. He started a rebellion himself, while someone assassinated Robert... so Richard (with -200 Prestige) got let out of the prison to be the King of this mess.

That's when I quit.

[Tamas]

I think it is a bad long-term idea to not create dukes. Let's say you have 5 dukes. Well, that's potentially a lot of trouble, but it is much easier to keep 5 people content, then 13-15, if you went with counts. And if you just keep huge counts around, what's the difference?

[ulmont]

FYI if you're playing Apulia:  the Sheik of Palermo has enough piety to hire a 6000-man deathstack of Assassins (a Holy Order) if you Holy War him.  Wait until his son takes over, you create the Kingdom of Sicily, or assassinate him first.

[Tamas]

hey people, did you know that if you appoint a son to lead a bishopric, it will eliminate him from the succession? Thats the bad news, but the good news is, that it appears to remove the -50 pretender relationship hit it gets under Primogeniture.