Crusader Kings II - Paradox Entertainement (02/12)

I lost the password to my Pixelr account and their servers aren't sending the replacement code to my email, and the files are too large to upload, so, apologies for the lack of screenshots.
My first character, Malsnectan I "The Gentle", King of Scotland and Jerusalem (you know him in 1066 as the Duke of Moray), has just died naturally on the 11th of March, 1122, at 74. Using my soft-cheat method outlined earlier, I had a 20.9k score in one generation. I trait cheated to get all the positive traits from 1510 to 1720 (temperate, charitable, diligent, kind, patient, humble zealous, brave, gregarious, ambitious, just, and honest) along with chaste, and also cheated to restore them in case I lost them randomly. Several other good ones, such as besieger, just happened, and I gained a few others through event. This resulted in attribute scores of 21, 18, 16, 10, and seven, on a Business focus. Needless to say, I have had True Christian Knight for the last five decades.

Let's see what I've done, in roughly chronological order. I: married a Danish princess, overthrew the Dunkelds while Gospatric of Lothian rebelled, with my reign beginning in 1068, (with the nice consequence that I imprisoned him afterwards; I kept him in there for 10 years, so I could wait to revoke his duchy), supported the Scottish-culture vassals in Gudrod of Soreyar in their independence revolt, and them vassalized them. The father of the Earl of Carrick is the Earl of Man, who stayed loyal to Gudrod, so I eventually got that peacefully. I then conquered Gudrod's domain holding of Argyll, and then, after a full truce Inse Gall, and, a few years later, with the help of my Danish allies and a Jewish loan, I defeated Harald Hardrade (he had peaced out of England) and took Caithness, restoring Scotland to its de jure borders.

I spent the 25 years from then to 1110 holding off William the Conqueror, siring nine children, building a shit-ton of internal improvements (Moray went from, I believe, 29 gold in tax at the beginning of my reign to 93 at the end), and just accumulating prestige and piety, interspersed with slowly fabricating and using claims on just under half of Ireland. Then, I spent all my money on joining a crusade for Jerusalem. nice I got there,, I realized that Fatimid armes were simply 4,00 men to large to have a chance, so I literally switched to them (I do individual saves) and dismissed 3,000 levies while disbanding and releasing their vassal mercenary company. We won, and I, albeit barely, was the largest contributor. I beat down five revolts, granted my children and smarter grandchildren holdings, and gave the Duchy of Ascalon to a republic as a money engine. My last conquest was Dublin, in 1121. By the end of my reign, the lowest opinion anyone in my realm had of me was +5, as the people I hurt to get to power were long dead, and I had all of the positive traits.

So, everything's looking good, right? Wrong. I could handle a mediocre heir, and it's impossible to top my current one, but my grandson-heir Lulach is slow, somehow, has a shitload of other negative traits, and, with an intrigue focus (he inherited Teviotdale from his father, the brilliant diplomat but-mediocre-everything-else Beathan), his ability scores are :0,2,0,12, and 0. And has has the Gates of Hell. Fuck. Me. So I created Oultrejordain just to give his younger brother Malsnectan a fighting chance. Ditto with the Duchy of Ulster (actually, all my Irish holdings) and my younger son Gilliecomgain.

Boy, the one thing Scotland has going for it at the beginning is Primogeniture, and it bit me in the ass. I'm going to have to cheat so hard to get Malsnectan II on the throne that I'm going to fully switch away from a standard playthrough, to an RP one. My goal is to get Tanistry after a War of the Thistles (because they're Scottish.)

My question is, what would be the level of attention given to an incredibly successful and good ruler like Malsnectan, who trebled his realm's size and is probably the best individual ruler Scotland will have for centuries, but didn't really introduce any huge revolutions. Assuming Scotland's continued existence as a vibrant cultural nation, how would Malsnectan "The Gentle" be remembered in 2016?
 
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The more I play the more I think Conclave is one of the worst DLCs to come out, not just for all the aggravating new mechanics but for how much of a missed opportunity it all was.

The Council exists literally only to stymie the king. There's no real reasoning behind it; doesn't matter if they love you, if they owe you their position, their lands, doesn't matter if the man you want to imprison is literally plotting to kill them or you. The AI's logic is way too simplistic and there's no nuance or immersion, I always just wind up treating the council as something I need to spend 20+ years and hundreds of ducats bribing into obsolescence or just going hamfisted tyrant and tanking the stupid -40 opinion on everything because it's easier that way than trying to be conciliatory or play by the "rules" set up. Ditto with the new childhood mechanics- the old system was much more interactive and fun than the "click button for bonus" thing which infests Paradox games like a virus.

There should really be a Crime and Punishment/Legislation DLC, with imprisonment/punishment completely revamped to be something more detailed than it is now. Ideally the actual council should also be split from the Conclave mechanics- make the vassals vote on everything as part of some proto-Parliament thing, with actual election mechanics to let you negotiate/bribe/intrigue your way to power.
I don't really see what was more interactive with the old education system to be frank. You complain about "click button for bonus" but how is that exactly different from the old system where we clicked a button to make a decision regarding our child? Not to mention that in the old system, that only happened if you took the child as your ward: you had very few interactions with your children (if any at all) if they weren't your ward... Plus, I like the new system introduced in Conclave: education is now split between a childhood (6-12) and teenager phase (12-16) where you get to decide what kind of education your child should receive, instead of the kinda random old system. I also like the concept of childhood traits, even if I feel it's bit underused. Not to say the Conclave system doesn't have its drawbacks (events seem less common, children will get 3 traits max and there are also a few balance issues with the education foci) but I still think it's better than the old system.

As for the Council... While I get the complaint that it's made the game way more difficult than it used to be, that was the point. Before Conclave, you had complete freedom on the people you could name on the Council... Which basically meant you never had to worry about the council going against your wishes. Conclave was basically introduced to force you to pay attention to power dynamics within your realm (Powerful vassal mechanic) and who you're going to name on the council (Councilor attitudes). So yes, the Council basically only exists to basically stymie the King's actions but that's because it's intended to work that way. It's also kind of wrong to say your councilor's opinion of you doesn't matter since the whole game as an opinion system determining how people feel about you from absolute hartred (-100) to absolute loyalty (+100), which itself influences their AI behavior. Same with saying it doesn't matter if they ower their positions or land to you: both grant a major opinion bonus. Again, the system isn't perfect but it's not the concept that is wrong, it's the way AI behavior is coded as you mentionned. Most of the time, you will only get support from your councilors if they have the Loyalist attitude: otherwise, with a few exceptions, they always oppose your every decisions... There is also the fact that they can make factions but frankly the way factions are designed in CK2 is something that has always annoyed me ever since it was introduced (for the simple reason that it can be started and/or joined by people that have a 70+ opinion of you at times...). The solution is to simply rework the AI behavior, which Paradox is more or less aware of (parth 2.7.1 will change the conditions on when a faction will be created), not to remove the system.

Regarding your suggestion to have the vassal vote on everything like a Proto-parliament... That's basically what we had before Conclave came around. And it was a mess at times, especially if you had a large empire, because you needed to get a majority for the law to pass and that could require up 25+ people agreeing with your idea... Voting could take months if not years as a result because the vote could get stuck. It was also arguably not very reaslitic.
 
I lost the password to my Pixelr account and their servers aren't sending the replacement code to my email, and the files are too large to upload, so, apologies for the lack of screenshots.
My first character, Malsnectan I "The Gentle", King of Scotland and Jerusalem (you know him in 1066 as the Duke of Moray), has just died naturally on the 11th of March, 1122, at 74. Using my soft-cheat method outlined earlier, I had a 20.9k score in one generation. I trait cheated to get all the positive traits from 1510 to 1720 (temperate, charitable, diligent, kind, patient, humble zealous, brave, gregarious, ambitious, just, and honest) along with chaste, and also cheated to restore them in case I lost them randomly. Several other good ones, such as besieger, just happened, and I gained a few others through event. This resulted in attribute scores of 21, 18, 16, 10, and seven, on a Business focus. Needless to say, I have had True Christian Knight for the last five decades.

Let's see what I've done, in roughly chronological order. I: married a Danish princess, overthrew the Dunkelds while Gospatric of Lothian rebelled, with my reign beginning in 1068, (with the nice consequence that I imprisoned him afterwards; I kept him in there for 10 years, so I could wait to revoke his duchy), supported the Scottish-culture vassals in Gudrod of Soreyar in their independence revolt, and them vassalized them. The father of the Earl of Carrick is the Earl of Man, who stayed loyal to Gudrod, so I eventually got that peacefully. I then conquered Gudrod's domain holding of Argyll, and then, after a full truce Inse Gall, and, a few years later, with the help of my Danish allies and a Jewish loan, I defeated Harald Hardrade (he had peaced out of England) and took Caithness, restoring Scotland to its de jure borders.

I spent the 25 years from then to 1110 holding off William the Conqueror, siring nine children, building a shit-ton of internal improvements (Moray went from, I believe, 29 gold in tax at the beginning of my reign to 93 at the end), and just accumulating prestige and piety, interspersed with slowly fabricating and using claims on just under half of Ireland. Then, I spent all my money on joining a crusade for Jerusalem. nice I got there,, I realized that Fatimid armes were simply 4,00 men to large to have a chance, so I literally switched to them (I do individual saves) and dismissed 3,000 levies while disbanding and releasing their vassal mercenary company. We won, and I, albeit barely, was the largest contributor. I beat down five revolts, granted my children and smarter grandchildren holdings, and gave the Duchy of Ascalon to a republic as a money engine. My last conquest was Dublin, in 1121. By the end of my reign, the lowest opinion anyone in my realm had of me was +5, as the people I hurt to get to power were long dead, and I had all of the positive traits.

So, everything's looking good, right? Wrong. I could handle a mediocre heir, and it's impossible to top my current one, but my grandson-heir Lulach is slow, somehow, has a shitload of other negative traits, and, with an intrigue focus (he inherited Teviotdale from his father, the brilliant diplomat but-mediocre-everything-else Beathan), his ability scores are :0,2,0,12, and 0. And has has the Gates of Hell. Fuck. Me. So I created Oultrejordain just to give his younger brother Malsnectan a fighting chance. Ditto with the Duchy of Ulster (actually, all my Irish holdings) and my younger son Gilliecomgain.

Boy, the one thing Scotland has going for it at the beginning is Primogeniture, and it bit me in the ass. I'm going to have to cheat so hard to get Malsnectan II on the throne that I'm going to fully switch away from a standard playthrough, to an RP one. My goal is to get Tanistry after a War of the Thistles (because they're Scottish.)

My question is, what would be the level of attention given to an incredibly successful and good ruler like Malsnectan, who doubled his realm's size and is probably the best individual ruler Scotland will have for centuries, but didn't really introduce any huge revolutions. Assuming Scotland's continued existence as a vibrant cultural nation, how would Malsnectan "The Gentle" be remembered in 2016?
Anyone for the question?
 
I don't like how I have to set the kid's education more than once, and the icons were all screwed up.Now I forget half the time and they end up without any education whatsoever.
 
I don't like how I have to set the kid's education more than once, and the icons were all screwed up.Now I forget half the time and they end up without any education whatsoever.

Just worry about your heir and your spare, all the other children can fend for themselves.
 
It got a bit easier now that the game helpful shows what traits they have that are bad/good in red and green on the second stage (of course, that requires that you can see red and green) so you don't have to look at the child's traits to see which education they're best and worst suited for.
 
Damn it, forge that claim already! He's got a 20 diplomacy and he's been sitting there for over a decade, I don't know what's taking so damned long... I just need two counties and then I can claim the duchy, and then with that duchy I can make myself Queen of Frisia!
 
I just led a crusade against the heathens in Italy and claimed another territory in the HRE, once again demonstrating how Heinrich the Lion earned his moniker. But the small states starting forming a defensive pact against me again, so I'll probably lay off on the wars for at least a couple years.

Also, I helped William the Conqueror put down a usurper, sending my troops over to fight in England.
 
Frig's sake! Finally forge that claim, I'm laying siege to her castle, and the Kaiser declare's a realm's peace! For five years!

This does raise a question for the audience, though: given that I can't attack anyone in Germany, but I've got an army of almost 6,000 all dressed up and with nowhere to go - plus the cash to hire some mercs if they need reinforcements - who should I go after, given that my goal is to ultimately form the Queendom of Frisia, and then maybe become a Cathar? France and Britain are both hard targets; I might actually be able to crack them if I call in enough favors - I have a ton of girls, all married off to various dukes - but it would be hard fought and cost a lot of resources. In the other direction is Pomerania and Denmark, neither of whom are exactly easy, but who are significantly easier. And the Pomeranians are a bunch of degenerate pagans (boo!). But success would mean a realm split in two, half in Holland and the other half on the Baltic... Or I could just sit tight and invest in more infrastructure, while continuing to groom my Attractive Genius heir. (I've been playing Kwisatz Hederach, and got really lucky with my firstborn. She's got a genius husband with a matrilineal marriage, too. I've got a second genius as backup, but she's a lunatic.)

Incidentally, when do the Cathars show up in-game?
 
Incidentally, when do the Cathars show up in-game?
They'll randomly spawn if you get the moral authority of Catholicism down low enough. There's also a chance for your court chaplain to randomly convert to a heresy on the "converse with scholars" mission or whatever it's called, which offers you the chance to instantly convert to it, too. Obviously the second is the way to go, and then you can start spreading Catharism normally.
 
I'm currently playing as the Holy Roman Empire in 1091, and I'm wondering what my next move should be.

I'm in an alliance with England, I've fought wars against smaller states that caused an on-and-off defensive pact to form against me, and I recently went on a crusade that gave me an isolated province in southern Italy. Also, said defensive pact recently disbanded.

I don't really a definite goal other than making the HRE strong, so I'm asking for a little advice on what to do next.
 
They'll randomly spawn if you get the moral authority of Catholicism down low enough. There's also a chance for your court chaplain to randomly convert to a heresy on the "converse with scholars" mission or whatever it's called, which offers you the chance to instantly convert to it, too. Obviously the second is the way to go, and then you can start spreading Catharism normally.

Thanks. I've had him on that mission for a while now, but I've never seen the event actually fire.

I'm currently playing as the Holy Roman Empire in 1091, and I'm wondering what my next move should be.

I'm in an alliance with England, I've fought wars against smaller states that caused an on-and-off defensive pact to form against me, and I recently went on a crusade that gave me an isolated province in southern Italy. Also, said defensive pact recently disbanded.

I don't really a definite goal other than making the HRE strong, so I'm asking for a little advice on what to do next.

Invade the Holy Land and liberate Jerusalem? It's traditional.

Alternatively, convert to another religion and try to convert the rest of the Empire.

I have finally, finally managed to become a monarch, for the first time in CK2: Gotilda is now Queen of Frisia! It's rather bittersweet, because she's in her 50s and that illness just turned to pneumonia, so there's a good chance she's gonna die. But she fulfilled the driving ambition of her life, and she'll die knowing she'll be leaving her newly founded kingdom to her highly-capable Attractive Genius daughter, so she'll go to her grave happy.
 
Invade the Holy Land and liberate Jerusalem? It's traditional.

Alternatively, convert to another religion and try to convert the rest of the Empire.

I might invade another Islamic region, maybe try conquering Muslim Spain in a German Reconquista.

I have finally, finally managed to become a monarch, for the first time in CK2: Gotilda is now Queen of Frisia! It's rather bittersweet, because she's in her 50s and that illness just turned to pneumonia, so there's a good chance she's gonna die. But she fulfilled the driving ambition of her life, and she'll die knowing she'll be leaving her newly founded kingdom to her highly-capable Attractive Genius daughter, so she'll go to her grave happy.

All hail Queen Attractive Genius!:cool:

Out of curiosity, what's the current year in-game?
 
I might invade another Islamic region, maybe try conquering Muslim Spain in a German Reconquista.

A good choice.

All hail Queen Attractive Genius!:cool:

All hail Queen Joanna Ryansdochter!

Out of curiosity, what's the current year in-game?

1102. We're still vassals of the HRE, but I'm okay with that for now. I'm at a point where I probably could go for independence, but I think it's probably best to stay behind the Kaiser's skirt until I've gotten everything I can from him. In particular, I'm strongly inclined to invade Pomerania.
 
A good choice.

Ja. Then I can mock the Spanish Catholics for their inability to retake their own land:p


1102. We're still vassals of the HRE, but I'm okay with that for now. I'm at a point where I probably could go for independence, but I think it's probably best to stay behind the Kaiser's skirt until I've gotten everything I can from him. In particular, I'm strongly inclined to invade Pomerania.

Solid plan.
 
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