Crusader Kings II - Paradox Entertainement (02/12)

Okay, so a quick back story:

Current game is as Kaiser Christoph von Hohenzonnier. Earliest start (743?). I deciced to do some early game save editing because I wanted the Founder of the Dynasty to be a man of legend. Starting as a Germanic Pagan in Sorbia, I rapidly expanded to the east and south. Within about 15 years I'd founded the Kingdoms of Pomerania, Poland, and Lithuania. I got pulled into a war with Saxony against Neustria and Austrasia. Luckily I had also married the daughter of the Bavarian King and had him as an ally as well. I swept through the Karling holdings. Austrasia collapsed nearly entirely and I'd established the Kingdom of Frisia from the counties I'd taken from Neustria.

By the end of 770, I'd also managed to found the Kingdom of Ruthenia and ally myself with the Dukes of Svithod (Svíþjóð) and Sjaelland. Then again Neustria, Lombardy, the remains of Austrasia, and now Bavaria, invaded me and my Germanic allies. The Kingdoms of Saxony and Bavaria managed to hold the western front while I pushed east further and secured the Crimea from the Byzantines. My son, now serving as Duke of the Crimea, had married an Avarian princess, bringing Avaria into the war. Bavaria took Verona, I took Dalmatia from the Byzantines. Saxony took the rest of Austrasia and some other territories. All in all things were shaping up well with my Legendary King.

Then something weird happened. My wife died while pregnant. But then a month later gave birth (never experienced that before or since). That final child was a daughter, whom I'd raised as a shield maiden. She seduced me. And had a son. Now this son had managed to take nearly all the same traits as I had, with the exception of him being inbred. Fuck. So I sent him to the front. By the time the war was finally over with Neustria, I'd basically conquered the entire Holy Roman Empire and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth north of the Alps (notably excluding my Saxon and Bavarian allies). I'd married off my inbred son to a duke in Gascony just to get him out of my realm.

I'm working on upgrading my realms in the East when suddenly I'm declared war on by the King of Aquitaine. It's about 790 now and I hadn't been paying much attention to France or Iberia. Turns out my inbred son was also a Genius, and was a 4 star martial leader. He'd somehow called me into a war for him to control the Kingdom of Burgundy. Fuck yeah! Jumped on that shit, crushed Aquitaine (Neustria wanted in too and gobbled Toulouse). Established the Kingdom of Burgundy in the peace. Then my eldest son killed my inbred child king of burgundy and things got hectic. I eventually ended with the crowns of Burgundy, Austrasia, Pomerania, Poland, Lithuania, Ruthenia, Crimea, Bohemia, and Lombardy. Figured that since I was still Germanic, I'd take Bavaria. Took until 820 but I had Bavaria. Then I flipped the script and went Catholic. SURPRISE PAGAN FUCKERS! turned my entire army onto Saxony and took that title for myself as well. Then I established the Empire of Germania. And a year later was prompted to accept the crown of the Holy Roman Empire.

Its now approacing 850 and Christoph has outlived all of his children... and several of his grandchildren.
 
Can someone give some cool character to start with? I already did the early start with Prussia, in 200 years I founded the Wendish Empire and reformed the religion, won Poland thanks to a Pagan Holy War against them, and I changed the laws of the three Kingdoms, Poland, Prussia (changed the name of Lithuania) and Pomerania to Elective Monarchy. I also did the early Asturias start and by 1012 I had finished the Reconquista and was doing a Conquista of NA.

Have you gotten the "Little Brother Rules!" achievement? I had a lot of fun with my Karloman playthrough.
 
Been thinking of trying a HRE vassal with the goal of keeping Crown Authority to a minimum... so if I'm elected Emperor I will be sure to keep it elective and mantain the authority low, increase my family demesne, and will vote for somebody else for succesor.
 
Then something weird happened. My wife died while pregnant. But then a month later gave birth (never experienced that before or since)

She was only mostly dead.

That final child was a daughter, whom I'd raised as a shield maiden. She seduced me. And had a son. Now this son had managed to take nearly all the same traits as I had, with the exception of him being inbred.

CK2: Incest Zombie Clone Babies (Still a Better DLC Than Sunset Invasion).
 
I decided to run a game from 771 onwards as the last of Eudon's successors. In CKII, they're strangely considered as descendents from Loup, who even more strangely isn't considered as a duke. Still, I began as Hunald of Aquitaine, which (strangely seems to be too old to be the son of Waifre, probably confusing with his grand-father)

Hunald (II), duke of Aquitaine (768-774)
As in CKII timeline, Hunald doesn't seems to have revolted, he remains one of the several Loupings in charge of the South-Western Aquitaine, arguably the more powerful of these. He had only one direct descendent, his grand-son Loup. Charles quickly disappeared, leaving Carloman as sole king of the regnum Francorum
His reign is fairly uneventful, except for a nobiliar revolt from which he managed to get victorious, mostly thanks toa general revolt against Carloman which crushed revoltees armies. It allowed Hunald to recover his grand-father holdings in Bordeaux.

Loup (II) "the Just", prince of Aquitaine (774-819)
At first, his reign looked particularily bad : he was considered as lazy and dull, without much redeeming qualities, while Carloman increased his power and conquered Saxony.
In fact, his decision to ally with Saxon revoltees looked like one of the worst ideas he could pull off. But Carloman's reign was shaky enough (general revolts, and unceasing creations of titles) that as Franks get chased out of Saxony, Loup managed to recreate an independent Principalty of Aquitaine as a result, without any real Frankish interventions.
Carloman's successors were unable to preserve the unity of the regnum, and some nobiliar families as Robertians even managed to take the royal title in Austrasia and Bavaria.

His principalty is mostly stuck to the Atlantic shore, and 2/3 of Aquitaine is still under Frankish control, but Loup outgrew his reputation and became a fairly competent ruler who turned back to the traditional alliance with Lombards in order to prevent any tentative of Frankish reconquest : but these are more preoccupied at this point by Viking raids (that did plagued Aquitaine as well). On several matters, the inner policy of Loup II is similar to Hunald II's : curbing down the power of local potentes and building a network of alliance with Neustrian and Aquitain families in the regnum Francorum (mostly Anjou and Gascony)

By the time of his death, he was the most powerful prince in western Gaul, regularily fending off Norse raids and managing to maintain the principalty in order without revolts in decades.
It allowed him, shorty before he died of cancer, to repel Arabo-Berbers (which went trough their own succession crisis, as Umayyads were dethroned) out of Navarra, freeing up the western passes, as a prologue to the Aquitain expeditions in Spain that marked the Xth century, and beggining the Asturian/Aquitain alliance.

Loup (III), prince of Aquitaine (819-827)

Looking like an embettered version of his father at the same age, he still had a pretty much uneventful reign, norse raids going trough a pause, until he decided to claim kingship on Aquitaine from the child-king Adelin. After having made alliance with the Carolingian kingdom of Burgundy (whom he was issued from his mother) and waited long enough to appease some nobiliar concerns, he raised a large ost and advanced in Gascony, hoping his cousins would support his claim, and that the wars in Lemosin and the wars against Moors the kingdom was would be at his advantage for a quick war.
Which didn't happened : the war for Aquitaine was long and costly, and eventually led to his death as he fell on the field at the Battle of Ausc.

Loup IV, prince of Aquitaine (827-829)
Loup I, king of Aquitaine (829-831)

Loup III's son, also named Loup, had to fend off the Gascon counter-attack that advanced as far as Loire, but eventually crushed with Burgundian support, gascon armies at Engoleime in late 827.
From this point, the conquest of Gascony became easier as Gascons and to battle against Aquitains and Moors, eventually giving up the kingship to Loup in 829, after 3 years of conflict that norse used to raid the aquitain coast and hinterland without much opposition.

While Loup was victorious and acknowledged as king in all western Aquitaine (Tolsan, Berry and Auvergne remaining divided between Neustrians, Austrasians and Burgundians), effectively reconstituting the principalty of his first namesake, he had to face a strong nobiliar opposition fueled both by the cost of the war and the bitterness of his new vassals, critically after the warring king helped Asturias recovering some lands in Cantabrias.
The conflict broke down in early 830, but thanks to Asturian and Burgundian support, hinting at an over-reliance of foreign support, Loup I got the better of it : continuing his father policy of strengthening the Louping holdings in the Garonne basin (mostly at the price of giving up on Loire), he chased of felon lords of the region, while giving the duchy of Poitou to the Abbonids.

This harsh policy and fear of new conflicts probably led to his assassination in 831

Eudes, count of Saintonge (827-831)
Eudes I, king of Aquitaine (831-...)

Eudes succeeded his brother in an uneasy situation : the Louping revival was well established, critically before the succession crisis among Franks and Arabo-Berbers which prevented the appearance of a strong rival at the kingdom's border. But the Burgundian alliance, based on matrimonial ties, was put in a hold.
In order to give nobles something to feed on, the regent Uc of Peitavès launched an expedition against the divided pyrenean emirs. By 833, most of Middle Ebre basin was on Aquitain hands.
 
I decided to run a game from 771 onwards as the last of Eudon's successors. In CKII, they're strangely considered as descendents from Loup, who even more strangely isn't considered as a duke.
In general, CK2 from the Charlemagne start seems to just make up a lot of fine details about many of the nobles of Francia.
 
Can someone give some cool character to start with? I already did the early start with Prussia, in 200 years I founded the Wendish Empire and reformed the religion, won Poland thanks to a Pagan Holy War against them, and I changed the laws of the three Kingdoms, Poland, Prussia (changed the name of Lithuania) and Pomerania to Elective Monarchy. I also did the early Asturias start and by 1012 I had finished the Reconquista and was doing a Conquista of NA.

Could always start as the Angelos dynasty in 1066 and try to make them be the saviors of Byzantium
 
Could always start as the Angelos dynasty in 1066 and try to make them be the saviors of Byzantium

I'm doing that with the Doukas, I know it's a bit lazy but I just wanted an easy game this time around. Currently it's the 13th century and Empress Xene 'the Hammer' of the Roman Empire has recently fought off invading Aztec invaders (because I forgot to turn off Sunset Invasion) and is having a torrid affair with the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church and thinking about invading one of the myriad of mini-states that emerged from the wreckage of the Seljuks Empire breaking apart in the face of the 'Rebirth of Rome', the Mongol Invasions, several failed Jihads against Rome (allowing several smaller states to invade them and take land), and several failed invasions of India.
 
I'm doing that with the Doukas, I know it's a bit lazy but I just wanted an easy game this time around. Currently it's the 13th century and Empress Xene 'the Hammer' of the Roman Empire has recently fought off invading Aztec invaders (because I forgot to turn off Sunset Invasion) and is having a torrid affair with the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church and thinking about invading one of the myriad of mini-states that emerged from the wreckage of the Seljuks Empire breaking apart in the face of the 'Rebirth of Rome', the Mongol Invasions, several failed Jihads against Rome (allowing several smaller states to invade them and take land), and several failed invasions of India.

I started in 1066 as Manuel Angelos and managed to use claims to give him the Theme of Samos. Meanwhile, Emperor Constantine X passed away and his son Michael VII Doukas inherited. A faction installed his sister Anna Doukas who was married to an Armenian. Cue Years of unending civil war between Empress Anna and ex-emperor Michael as both fought for the throne. I decided to help Isaac Komnenos claim the though and executed Anna and castrated her male spawn while executing her daughter, thus ending their claims. Meanwhile Manuel Angelos had to chase after Michael and capture him to end that war....

And then a new civil war starts as 1/3 of the country wants to make Isaac's sister, Theodora Komnena, Empress. Her husband? Manuel.

Manuel decided to just sit back this war and see what happens.
 
Looking to play the first game in a long time. Suggestions?
Latin Empire in 1204 is always a good challenge. If you survive the first decades, you'd find some opportunities ahead.

If you prefer an easier outremer game, the early Kingdom of Jerusalem is interesting while still challenging.

Last but not least, if you had the raja DLC, try out Indias : it's both familiar and exotic.
 
Latin Empire in 1204 is always a good challenge. If you survive the first decades, you'd find some opportunities ahead.

If you prefer an easier outremer game, the early Kingdom of Jerusalem is interesting while still challenging.

Last but not least, if you had the raja DLC, try out Indias : it's both familiar and exotic.

I have not played any games in India. Suggestions for families, places of interest?
 
I have not played any games in India. Suggestions for families, places of interest?
Depending if you want to witness first-hand the arrival of Turks in Middle-East or if you want a but of time to prepare...

Kamarupa seems to be a popular place to begin in 769, fairly isolated from most of the Central Asian action and sitting on the end of Silk Road for what matter the game map. If you manage to fend off Pala, that is.
For a less challenging departure in India, Pala dynasty may be advisable.

If you want to go with a big player right from the start, Rashtrakuta dynasty is the way to go.

For a more classical beggining, in 1066, Chola dynasty (even if you can't play as thallassocratic they did IOTL with the current mechanics) is enjoyable

If you just want to taste a bit with beggining in 1337, Vijayanagara Empire may be interesting.

I didn't played all of these, tough, only Rashtrakuta, so I may have missed a lot of possibilities.

May I suggest reading bits A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century? It would help you relate a bit with Indian history the same way you may more easily with European, and then double the enjoyment.
 
As the civil war raged on... Manuel caught smallpox and was cured of it... only to be caught cheating playing chess with death...

He was survived by four underage sons.
 
In general, CK2 from the Charlemagne start seems to just make up a lot of fine details about many of the nobles of Francia.
It's not just with Francia. One of the reasons the crew of the HIP mod doesn't do a 769 start date is because Paradox apparently had to resort to fill a few holes with semi-legendary if not legendary figures in parts of the map. There are also a few questionable choices that were made: I've seen a lot of debate on the historicity of Zunism for example.

To be fair though, the available documentation on the VIIIth century is pretty scarce in some places. And even in parts of the world where we have a lot of documentation, there are still a few things we aren't sure about and that are more theories than sure things.
 
It's not just with Francia. One of the reasons the crew of the HIP mod doesn't do a 769 start date is because Paradox apparently had to resort to fill a few holes with semi-legendary if not legendary figures in parts of the map. There are also a few questionable choices that were made: I've seen a lot of debate on the historicity of Zunism for example.

To be fair though, the available documentation on the VIIIth century is pretty scarce in some places. And even in parts of the world where we have a lot of documentation, there are still a few things we aren't sure about and that are more theories than sure things.

I wish they had split the difference with Zunism a bit, maybe make a branch of Hinduism, or a heresy that you could shift out of (if desired).
 
So small update on my Angelos games. Killed the Count of Chios and Lykia to gain the two counties and the the Doux Konstantinos "The Careless" died and his bastard son, legitimized bastard inherited the Thema while underage. 10 years after gaining power, so the new Doux Basileios was 26, he lead a revolt to achieve elective succession and then I managed to gain Rhodes from the Emperor. Murdered the main heir, challenged the Emperor for a duel, killed him, and now I'm Emperor in 1132.

EDIT: My reign lasted 6 years... 6 years 2 dead Emperors and now I'm back to be Doux of Samos and I managed to gain the Duchy of Rascia for me and the Duchy of Anatolia to the brother of my current character. Oh and I managed to keep Constantinople.
 
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