One downside to the approach is that you can forget about joining the Luciferians for at least the initial stage, since you can only be part of one society at a time. That may or may not be a huge problem, though - as far as I can tell, not having gone very far down the event chain, the Luciferians can be really helpful for intrigue types, but it takes a while to build up enough rank to be able to do anything with them, and in the meantime you're at constant risk of being exposed or picking up bad traits.
Crusader Kings II - Paradox Entertainement (02/12)
- Thread starter Tellus
- Start date
One downside to the approach is that you can forget about joining the Luciferians for at least the initial stage, since you can only be part of one society at a time. That may or may not be a huge problem, though - as far as I can tell, not having gone very far down the event chain, the Luciferians can be really helpful for intrigue types, but it takes a while to build up enough rank to be able to do anything with them, and in the meantime you're at constant risk of being exposed or picking up bad traits.
For asnys:
After testing a bit - no you cannot raid as Christian Viking, if you do not have generic Norse culture (a thing of the past in 1066). Apparently, boat raiding is seen as faux pas by Danish, Norwegian nad Swedish cultures
.
Until 1100 you can holy war only when sharing land border with unbelivers. After 1100 - up to two sea zones away.
After testing a bit - no you cannot raid as Christian Viking, if you do not have generic Norse culture (a thing of the past in 1066). Apparently, boat raiding is seen as faux pas by Danish, Norwegian nad Swedish cultures
.Until 1100 you can holy war only when sharing land border with unbelivers. After 1100 - up to two sea zones away.
Just had an ironman Eleanor of Aquitaine attempt collapse thanks to a demon child.
The little bugger (also called Eleanor, for extra irony) had killed off two brothers, put another in a coma, and destroyed one fantastic steward and two court chaplains. Even taking the tyranny hit, then throwing her in the oubliette didn't work. She was out before the year was up.
And I haven't even bought monks and mystics!
The little bugger (also called Eleanor, for extra irony) had killed off two brothers, put another in a coma, and destroyed one fantastic steward and two court chaplains. Even taking the tyranny hit, then throwing her in the oubliette didn't work. She was out before the year was up.
And I haven't even bought monks and mystics!
Just the patch. Every society is in Monks & Mystics... except for the ones associated with the secretly religious, since secretly keeping the old faith is Free Patch content.
I hope Zoroastrians will get their own Angra Mainyu-themed secret evil society instead of Lucifer's Own at some point, given that Paradox has indicated they intend to add more to Monks & Mystics. Mechanically mostly irrelevant, but would be nice localisation-wise.
Took another crack at the County of Dal. Got a bit further this time, but still needs work. I managed to assassinate Prince Erik the Heathen's wife - with his assistance, in fact - and betroth him to my 2-year-old daughter. Then, I managed to betroth my 1-year-old son to a pagan count with no male heirs, and forge an alliance with both the count and Prince Erik. So far, so good. The king successfully pressured the last pagan holdout in the south into switching religions. Less good, not fatal. I used the subjugation CB and conquered a random pagan tribe. That gets me a little extra resource base, though it's not much. I hadn't managed to successfully forge a claim yet, but I was working on it.
The problem arose when I started trying to actually get Erik on the throne. I forgot that Sweden is an elective monarchy at this point, and the only guy voting for Erik is Erik (I'm a count, so no vote - dukes only). Even if we managed to convert some of the dukes, the king is making new duchies faster than we can convert them. I tried to start an "Erik for Sweden" faction, but nobody joined - not even Erik - and I couldn't figure out how to try to persuade anyone to join my faction. Is there a way to do that, incidentally? Finally, my idea of pretending to convert was a big bust - while I can "convert" and remain a crypto-pagan while still getting in good with the king, the crypto-pagan secret society isn't available until paganism has been reformed, so I think I might as well just stick with the Luciferians next time. (Or, as they're known to the pagans, the Fellowship of Hel.) Overall, it seemed like I was doomed to slowly but surely lose ground.
I think what I need to do is start an "Erik for Sweden" faction and then wait until the kingdom loses a war with Norway (which seems to happen pretty frequently). Then, pounce while the king's levies are still drained. But to make that work, I need to find a way to at least get the damned claimant into his own faction. Any suggestions?
The problem arose when I started trying to actually get Erik on the throne. I forgot that Sweden is an elective monarchy at this point, and the only guy voting for Erik is Erik (I'm a count, so no vote - dukes only). Even if we managed to convert some of the dukes, the king is making new duchies faster than we can convert them. I tried to start an "Erik for Sweden" faction, but nobody joined - not even Erik - and I couldn't figure out how to try to persuade anyone to join my faction. Is there a way to do that, incidentally? Finally, my idea of pretending to convert was a big bust - while I can "convert" and remain a crypto-pagan while still getting in good with the king, the crypto-pagan secret society isn't available until paganism has been reformed, so I think I might as well just stick with the Luciferians next time. (Or, as they're known to the pagans, the Fellowship of Hel.) Overall, it seemed like I was doomed to slowly but surely lose ground.
I think what I need to do is start an "Erik for Sweden" faction and then wait until the kingdom loses a war with Norway (which seems to happen pretty frequently). Then, pounce while the king's levies are still drained. But to make that work, I need to find a way to at least get the damned claimant into his own faction. Any suggestions?
You can use your spymaster to blackmail people into joining your factions, you could try that on the strongest vassals in Sweden to strengthen yourself and weaken the king. You don't actually need to get Erik to join the faction to put him on the throne you just need to win the resulting war.
Will he join in on my side if he's not part of my faction? Because I don't think there's any way to put enough troops together without him, even if the Norwegians just finished beating up the king.
If he's not part of your faction his troops will actually fight for the king against you but he'll still be grateful if you win the war and put him on the throne. You might want to consider making some strategic marriage alliances with foreign powers for extra soldiers. Try and save up as much money as possible before you rebel so you can hire mercenaries. Another bit of advice raise your personal levies before you rebel, and try to catch the smaller pieces of the king's armies before they're all in one place.
I'm gonna need him, then. Does it make a difference if I have an alliance with him?
That's not completely impossible, but it would definitely require that I go crypto-pagan for a while, because all of the nearby powerful kings are Christian.
I get 1 gold a month. I need to scrounge all the gold I can get just to be able to afford to keep my own troops in the field for more than a month.
That should help.
Thanks for your help!
If you've gone crypto-pagan try getting a loan from Jewish merchants that'll give you an extra three hundred gold. If your lucky you might be able to get a loan from the Pope as well.
I know the Satanism is overpowered, but right now I'm playing Richard the Lionheart as a convert to Satanism and it's just hysterical to see him become so corrupted and evil. He's got bastard children out the ass, two dead Queens, and I'm waiting for John to have some sons to kill him off with my evil Satan powers and break up his lands.
MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
I played a few characters since the DLC came out. Lately I tried playing as a Shia ruler, mainly to check out the Assassins secret society and it is so much fun. I started out as a custom created character in the duchy of Afar. I started to build up my power and I got to the point where all the Sunni rulers where gone from the region and it was just me,the Jewish duke of Axum and the king of Abyssinia. what followed after was like a game of chess. Fending off holy wars, waiting and biding my time to strike until my adversaries where no more! Also I had one ruler become the grand master of the Assassins and I got up to a point where I could kill off any character I wanted since members of the order automatically join every plot. Now tho I'm stuck between a rock and hard place, To my north are the Shia Fatimid and my west the Sunni Seljuks. both realms are way stronger then mine, I think the Seljuk troop count is triple that of mine. For the time being I have a non-aggression pact with both. I plan to rise to the rank of headmaster of the order again so I can take out their leader and hopefully cause enough trouble so that I can still expand without being wiped off the map.
Tried another test game as Dal, and got a bit further. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this. I kind of want to do an AAR as Dal once I actually get to the point of playing it for real...
One thing I've learned is that - and I'm sure this is no surprise to anyone here, but it's something I had to learn - you can play the same character in the same place with the same strategy, and the game will still go differently, because NPCs' personality traits are all semi-randomized. This time, for example, Prince Erik refused my attempts to betroth him to my daughter even after I killed his wife for him. I did, though, pick up two alliances with fellow pagan counts, including the lone holdout in the south, which kept him in the pagan camp this time around. And this time I managed to forge a claim on a neighboring county and, with the aid of my allies, mop the floor with 'em. But I still couldn't get anyone to join the Erik-for-king faction, even Erik himself. At this point it's almost looking like it might be easier to just do it militarily: grab as much land as I can, make as many alliances as I can, conquer a duchy, and then launch a civil war to make my own damned self queen. Screw Erik. (Literally, in the unlikely event he'll agree to a matrilineal marriage.)
Anyway, at that point I went back to my desperation tactic of trying to assassinate the existing heir in hopes that if I just murder enough people, Erik will be the only potential heir left. Also spying on the king and trying to smear him with rumors. That didn't work, and I got caught, but before it became a problem, I managed to forge a second claim. I was winning, too, but I forgot to never lead my armies personally, got an infected wound, and died... Leaving my Christian chancellor in place as regent for my heir. So, going to try again.
I'd appreciate some input: how actually useful is the diplomacy attribute for my character? I've been setting her up as a Diplomacy+Intrigue machine, with Elusive Shadow and Attractive, but I'm wondering if it might make more sense to focus on Martial+Intrigue instead, given how most of my success so far has been through underhanded dealings and just straight-up marching armies over people. On the other hand, alliances have been absolutely vital to what successes I've had, but I'm not sure how big an impact my diplomacy stat had on that, and how much was being Attractive. And at this point, there's an appeal to just stomping on people's faces with boots.
One thing I've learned is that - and I'm sure this is no surprise to anyone here, but it's something I had to learn - you can play the same character in the same place with the same strategy, and the game will still go differently, because NPCs' personality traits are all semi-randomized. This time, for example, Prince Erik refused my attempts to betroth him to my daughter even after I killed his wife for him. I did, though, pick up two alliances with fellow pagan counts, including the lone holdout in the south, which kept him in the pagan camp this time around. And this time I managed to forge a claim on a neighboring county and, with the aid of my allies, mop the floor with 'em. But I still couldn't get anyone to join the Erik-for-king faction, even Erik himself. At this point it's almost looking like it might be easier to just do it militarily: grab as much land as I can, make as many alliances as I can, conquer a duchy, and then launch a civil war to make my own damned self queen. Screw Erik. (Literally, in the unlikely event he'll agree to a matrilineal marriage.)
Anyway, at that point I went back to my desperation tactic of trying to assassinate the existing heir in hopes that if I just murder enough people, Erik will be the only potential heir left. Also spying on the king and trying to smear him with rumors. That didn't work, and I got caught, but before it became a problem, I managed to forge a second claim. I was winning, too, but I forgot to never lead my armies personally, got an infected wound, and died... Leaving my Christian chancellor in place as regent for my heir. So, going to try again.
I'd appreciate some input: how actually useful is the diplomacy attribute for my character? I've been setting her up as a Diplomacy+Intrigue machine, with Elusive Shadow and Attractive, but I'm wondering if it might make more sense to focus on Martial+Intrigue instead, given how most of my success so far has been through underhanded dealings and just straight-up marching armies over people. On the other hand, alliances have been absolutely vital to what successes I've had, but I'm not sure how big an impact my diplomacy stat had on that, and how much was being Attractive. And at this point, there's an appeal to just stomping on people's faces with boots.