Question how did the veterans play ck2 back when it first come out? I genuinely cant imagine it as it would be so basic.
Crusader Kings II - Paradox Entertainement (02/12)
- Thread starter Tellus
- Start date
Married sons to the daughters of the HRE eight generations in a row without realizing it...
Then when I did I married the kids off to as many different areas as possible. Some daughter of an Italian count wound up Basilea of the Roman Empire after that. Gotta imagine her dad passed out when the envoy setting that marriage up arrived.
St. Ogier "the Spark of God" became the first saint in my game, and the second to be beatified. Apparently fire would blast from his hands.
Maybe that was why his military rating was in the mid 30s
Maybe that was why his military rating was in the mid 30s
Currently playing Jewish Siemen run. I have take over abyssinia by cheesing the hell of the miaphysite kingdoms around me, but I have currently hit a brick wall. I have Egypt to my North, the Sunni Caliph to my East and some central african provinces with 1K pop limit to my west. Every time I try to advanced (even it the middle of revolts) I get rofl stomped by Empires with a larger and better army. The only saving grace has been that after losing a Jihad for Yemen I manage to eat the resulting Jihad kingdom alive in a laughable amount of time. Then it was just a matter of assassinating all of my new muslim vassals and replacing them with my old vassals. However Egypt is now holy warring me for my main province, and I only survived that because they didnt immediately mass their army in a doomstack, so I was able to hold out long enough for a white peace.
Any advice?
On a slightly related now
1. Is it better to use your demesne limit on baronies in your capital duchy or counties outside of it.
2. What is the optimal retinue composition for Ethiopia? I know for ireland it was just max heavy infantry.
3. After the economic upgrades on your castles, what do you guys usually upgrade (light infrantry, cav, heavy infantry, or keeps )
Any advice?
On a slightly related now
1. Is it better to use your demesne limit on baronies in your capital duchy or counties outside of it.
2. What is the optimal retinue composition for Ethiopia? I know for ireland it was just max heavy infantry.
3. After the economic upgrades on your castles, what do you guys usually upgrade (light infrantry, cav, heavy infantry, or keeps )
It’s always the son you want to live that dies first.
Le sigh.
My starting character’s secondborn son died young leaving his own second born son alive (the first had died an infant) only for the second born son of the second born son to die without having any children. Thus his line was completely extinguished.
Granted my starting character still has plenty of sons and grandsons and greatgrandsons...
But he was my favorite and he was going to be given the Kingdom of Mierce (Mercia)
Le sigh.
My starting character’s secondborn son died young leaving his own second born son alive (the first had died an infant) only for the second born son of the second born son to die without having any children. Thus his line was completely extinguished.
Granted my starting character still has plenty of sons and grandsons and greatgrandsons...
But he was my favorite and he was going to be given the Kingdom of Mierce (Mercia)
Just had my first character get sainted - King Guihelm I of Corsica and Sardinia (I only managed to get the Kingdom of Burgundy when his granddaughter inherited). He ruled for 72 years, having inherited the Duchy of Provence at 5, took part personally in the First and Second Crusades, even making his eldest son Duke of Ascalon and a younger son Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitallar, and supported the children of the Third Crusade, which actually worked until the uber-Seljuks smacked them down like the first two KoJs. He reformed the legal code of Provence, which founded his first bloodline and gained him the title “the Benevolent” (replacing his previous title “the Young”), held the item for Jesus’s foreskin, and stormed Jerusalem itself during the Second Crusade. Just wanted to share one of the cool emerging stories from Holy Fury.
Does anyone else think reforming a pagan religion should start a bloodline? Especially if your temporal?
Don’t have that dlc but yeah makes since. A Fylkerate descendant bloodline
Well, Mursalin II's reign has been... eventful.
Religious revolts, a djihad for Arabia (One of my vassals controls the de-jure Duchy of Bahreïn) and my vassals that keep expanding the Empire beyond my control.
That's fun but also reminded me that having a large Empire can be a bit of a hassle past a certain point. Especially since I have nomads that keep raiding my Northern borders... And some of my vassals apparently didn't get the memo that invading Nomad lands requires you to build castles in them FAST! But hey, since I'm swimming in money, I might be able to correct that.
Also, Mursalin II is now known as "the Lionheart". Just love that nickname.
Religious revolts, a djihad for Arabia (One of my vassals controls the de-jure Duchy of Bahreïn) and my vassals that keep expanding the Empire beyond my control.
That's fun but also reminded me that having a large Empire can be a bit of a hassle past a certain point. Especially since I have nomads that keep raiding my Northern borders... And some of my vassals apparently didn't get the memo that invading Nomad lands requires you to build castles in them FAST! But hey, since I'm swimming in money, I might be able to correct that.
Also, Mursalin II is now known as "the Lionheart". Just love that nickname.
Yes. It's a bit of my greatest regret with my Zunist run actually. Especially since Reforming a Religion is basically on the same scale as other events that can result in you getting a bloodline like restoring the Roman Empire or becoming the Shahoshyant.
So Empress Solene the Blessed lived a long and peaceful life, before being succeeded by her son Baldwin X, who proceeded to use her claim that the House D'Anjou were descended from Alexander to justify a full scale invasion of Persia. He spent twenty years conquering it then rather fittingly died immediately.
He was succeeded by his son, Baldwin XI, who, well...
He was succeeded by his son, Baldwin XI, who, well...
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Cyning Beorhtwulf I began as a Asatru Anglo-Saxon Scir (Count) of Cardigan (custom character) before expanding across Wales and becoming the Cyning of Wealas. From there, he became the Cyning of Mierce (Mercia), Westseaxe (Wessex), Iraland (Ireland), Bretland (Brittany), and Norþanhymbra (Northumbria). He ruled for 57 years and became the progenitor of a vast dynasty begat by 4 or 5 wives and a few concubines.
Upon his death, his eldest son became Cyning Beorhtwulf II of Wealas, Mierce, Westseaxe and Norþanhymbra, having followed his father's wishes and making one half-brother, Beorhtfrith, Cyning of Bretland and Normandig and another other half-brother, Beorhthelm, Cyning of Iraland. Never well liked, he was subject to numerous assassination attempts before succumbing 4 years into his reign.
He was succeeded by his second born son, Beornwulf, an imbecile. Cyning Beornwulf I was quickly assassinated during his coronation festivities with poisoned wine.
Beornwulf I was succeeded by his eldest son Beorhtwulf, who made the decision to move the royal court to Oxenforda (Oxford) in Mierce and make Mierce the primary title. As a result, Beorhtwulf was IV of his name of Mierce, while only being the III of his name of Wealas. Beorthwulf IV and III had grand visions for his realm. However, shortly after having a daughter, Wulfwynn, with his great-aunt, he died putting down a Catholic revolt in Norþanhymbra, having only reigned for a year.
His younger brother, Beornwulf III (of Mierce) and II (of Wealas et. al), a drooling imbecile, managed to defeat the Catholic rebellion with the help of his Great Council. Beornfwulf III is also married to a great-aunt and has his brother's widow as a concubine. Through his wife, he begat a son, Beornwulf, who he promptly betrothed to Wulfwynn, the daughter of his deceased elder brother.
*****
Both his son and his son's betrothed are descendants of 4 out of 5 of the sons of Ragnar (Halfdan Hvitserk, Ubbe Ubbing, Bjorn Ironside af Munso, and, Sigurd Snake-In-Eye Sigurding) and of the great Rurik Rurikovich of Garðaríki (Russia). They're also double cousins.
Purity of the Sons of Ragnar bloodline! Though we still need to get a descendant of Ivar Boneless af Ivar... However, most of his descendants have died. One female descendant is betrothed to a member of the Beorhtwulfing dynasty so once they are wed and produce children they will be married into the main branch to complete the Sons of Ragnar set.
I'm not playing with the recent DLC so I'm keeping track of bloodline all on my own.
Can you no longer use factions to place/ push people or own claim anymore i have a claim to Egypt yet their is no faction option. Btw im playing as a muslim could someone see if this is the case with them?
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I did the same thing in my de Brienne Jerusalem game (an Alexander bloodline-assisted invasion of Persia), though my borders are... less nice, with Muslims still holding chunks of Arabia and Iraq. Is that Mongol blue on your eastern border?
An update on my Jerusalem game, Charles 'the Pious' and 'the Hammer' lived to be 75 before dying a few days before his 76th birthday of stress from the antics of his grandson Prince Charles 'the Just' and great-grandson Prince Frederick. During the long, long, LONG reign of Emperor Charles I the Empire of Jerusalem saw major expansion since the crusade for Persia saw the Seljuks lose control of Iraq, a series of holy wars on Jerusalem's part saw much of that Kingdom fall... But two counties fell to an Alan Orthodox adventurer and with my threat level so high I had to wait many years, and defend the adventure twice from muslim adventurer invasions before getting the threat level down enough to invade without incurring TOO BIG of an alliance against me.
The Emperor's half-brother Vittorio de Jerusalem (bastard son of Emperor St. Eudes I) became head of the Knights of Calvarias, while a nephew, Prince Eudes of Arabia became Pope Hadrian IV.
During all of this, the Arabian/Yemen branch of the family became heavily inbred and died out a year before Charles turned 70, and since Charles was the eldest male sibling of the line of Sophie of Arabia he inherited both Kingdoms since for some reason they adopted Seniority succession. I tweaked their successions and gave them to a couple relatives and with the fall of the last Muslim holdouts in Bastra, I proclaimed the birth of the Empire of Outremer, and Charles got to enjoy it for a few years...
However his grandson Prince Charles decided to launch a bid for the Swedish crown as an adventurer... Along with three other rebellions and invasions of Sweden going on at the time. And Prince Frederick became the rival of the Emperor... Then sadly the Emperor's wife died after a LONG marriage and the Emperor got remarried, and the new wife quickly became pregnant with 'their' child. In truth she had an affair and Charles decided to cover it up, she gave birth to 'Prince' Richard two years before the Emperor died.
The new Emperor Eudes II is a 54 year old man with two sons and many daughters, his heir is Prince Charles the Just, who is currently fighting to take the throne of Sweden.
Prince Charles has four sons and one daughter. The eldest boy is Prince Frederick who is betrothed to a minor Byzantine lady, but with some new good will with a recently re-opened China methinks Frederick will be getting a Chinese Princess...
The Emperor's half-brother Vittorio de Jerusalem (bastard son of Emperor St. Eudes I) became head of the Knights of Calvarias, while a nephew, Prince Eudes of Arabia became Pope Hadrian IV.
During all of this, the Arabian/Yemen branch of the family became heavily inbred and died out a year before Charles turned 70, and since Charles was the eldest male sibling of the line of Sophie of Arabia he inherited both Kingdoms since for some reason they adopted Seniority succession. I tweaked their successions and gave them to a couple relatives and with the fall of the last Muslim holdouts in Bastra, I proclaimed the birth of the Empire of Outremer, and Charles got to enjoy it for a few years...
However his grandson Prince Charles decided to launch a bid for the Swedish crown as an adventurer... Along with three other rebellions and invasions of Sweden going on at the time. And Prince Frederick became the rival of the Emperor... Then sadly the Emperor's wife died after a LONG marriage and the Emperor got remarried, and the new wife quickly became pregnant with 'their' child. In truth she had an affair and Charles decided to cover it up, she gave birth to 'Prince' Richard two years before the Emperor died.
The new Emperor Eudes II is a 54 year old man with two sons and many daughters, his heir is Prince Charles the Just, who is currently fighting to take the throne of Sweden.
Prince Charles has four sons and one daughter. The eldest boy is Prince Frederick who is betrothed to a minor Byzantine lady, but with some new good will with a recently re-opened China methinks Frederick will be getting a Chinese Princess...
Yeah the Mongols rule pretty much everything east of me except for a bit of India that’s Chinese.
I reached the end date last night (after the reigns of three successive devil children) and have ported to EU4- I’ve got all sorts of internal problems (and am Muslim tech group, irritatingly) but at least super-Mongolia has collapsed.
I've put in well over 1,200 hours with CK2 and have recently (with the new update) fallen in love with the Caratanians, who I played maybe 4-5 ironman games as where things would randomly go terribly wrong within the first two decades to the point where it was a better idea to restart than try to salvage the damage. One I was subject to a subjugation war by the Bohemian ruled Pannonians and a holy war from Lombardy where the Pannonians crushed my armies with a raised tribal army + their levies and then went home to fight a revolt, allowing Lombardy to come in and successful steal away all my best land. Another had me swear fealty to the Lombards after having conquered most of what would someday be Yugoslavia IOTL, only to end up imprisoned by the king for years and finally executed, left to play as my slow younger sibling and suffering at the whims of the council who wanted me to never do anything. And another one I had suffered from a religious revolt by the pagans in my realm who carved out a two county pagan state from my two best counties and left me ruling a rump, doughnut-shaped Catholic realm.
But after all of that. After all the nonsense and just randomly getting screwed pretty early on, I finally was able to get a good game going. I formed the Kingdom of Caratania and did a little roleplaying. I am now over 250 years into an ironman game and have some highlights:
Hope people enjoyed this, I needed to blow off some steam after having written pages upon pages of essays for my finals. It's nice to unwind from writing about things I like and take very seriously by writing about things I like and find very fun.
Edit: wow, just realized this got to be 2,500 words. That got out of hand, I just wanted to offhandedly mention a few of the really interesting things that had happened in my game. LMK if I should put this in like a spoiler tag or something because it is long.
But after all of that. After all the nonsense and just randomly getting screwed pretty early on, I finally was able to get a good game going. I formed the Kingdom of Caratania and did a little roleplaying. I am now over 250 years into an ironman game and have some highlights:
- Every one of my kings who rules between 20-30 years were widely seen as awesome and likable. They had reigns with few, if any, factions or internal difficulties and succeeded at mildly expanding or improving the realm in this or that small way. A holy war here, a realigning of ducal borders there. Everybody who ruled more or less than that range was incredibly troubled, which I will get into in a bit.
- King Stojan, my second actual king and fourth ruler, was a particularly pious fellow who appreciated the closeness that Caratania/Carinthia has with the name of the Biblical Corinthians and makes purposeful allusions to them, most prominently in naming his son and heir Peotr (who was a fantastic commander with a pretty good stewardship too).
- The problem with Peotr the Heir was the he went and got himself killed in battle roughly five years before his fathers death. And so he would set the precedent of all Princes and Kings named Peotr suffering dreadful tragedies in their time. He would be one of two Peotrs who would be Prince and Heir, but never be king.
- King Krilan, the grandson of King Stojan, would be one of the most consequential kings in the nation's history and would only rule for nine short years. He was notable for attempting to simplify the language by abandoning the letter "c" and replacing it with the letter "s" or "k," changing the kingdom the Karatania from then on. He would also be the first king to abandon mainstream Catholicism and embrace Fraticelli Christianity, converting all of the major lords of the realm to this faith, although some minor Catholic lords still exist after two centuries.
- The first King Peotr, Peotr the Wise, would be a towering and controversial figure in the countries history. His mother died soon after childbirth and his father, King Krilan, only two years later, committed suicide after having been depressed much of his life. Peotr, ruled from the age of 2 to the age of 53, after being deposed by his cousin in a faction coup. Peotr was the first king born into the Fraticelli Faith and he had a priest as his regent for the first two years and another last five of his minority. In between there must have been some considerable intrigue taking place, as first his aunt, then his Chancellor, the Duke of Bosnia, and then his spymaster, the Duke of Balaton, all served short reigns as regent and were replaced without their removal from the Council or their death. Peotr in his majority would reshape the realm by cracking down on scheming and plotting with lifelong house arrests at his court and would wage holy war abroad. After a minor lord inherited the Duchy of Pisa, Peotr used this proximity to the holy city of Roma to conquer it and rename it to Rima, one he found more fitting. Unfortunately, his permanent imprisonment strategy was widely unpopular and as these old lords, often childless, died and were succeeded by their siblings and nephews, hatred for King Peotr I only grew and he was eventually thrown out of power, replaced by his cousin, the Duke of Kranj. Peotr could never accept this and declared war upon his cousin soon after for his throne. The kingdom was suffering an invasion by the Avars at the time, so Peotr's lack of troops in comparison to the rest of the realm (about half of what they had) mattered little as he laid siege to the new king's lands. He sat occupying those lands for two years as his cousin was humiliatingly defeated by the Avars and a country, to the south in the duchy of Rashka, was taken from the proud Karatanians. But now the king's army turned on the rebellious deposed king, and they would clash in battle, only for Peotr the Wise to be maimed in the fighting and die some weeks after the loss.
- His son, Duke Radivoj, had not been his heir. In fact, out of Peotr's five sons, Radivoj was the youngest but the only one living at the time of his death. Radivoj had not been trained to be a warrior or a diplomat or even a steward. He'd been trained in the arts of intrigue and assassination. With his father's death, the rebellion ended and Radivoj was the King's first and only choice as Spymaster of the Realm. As spymaster, Radivoj immediately began to plot the assassination of the heir, a teenage boy much to competent in battle and lording to be allowed to live. If he were to assume the throne than Peotr's successors would never take the throne again. He died with nobody knowing he was even murdered, a mysterious death where a wagon drove off of a cliff. Next came the King himself, who died on a hunting trip, nobody knew, by Radivoj's own bow. The king's three year old daughter was his successor, Draga would be the only king to rule the realm as a king. Her regent was Radivoj, who had her smothered in her sleep. The next day the maid who did it confessed before the court, but it hardly mattered. Draga's uncle, Stojko, would succeed her and would make the horrible mistake of keeping Radivoj on as spymaster, despite disliking the man. Radivoj would kill Stojko as well and the childless man had no heir but his scheming spymaster. Radivoj rose to the throne on a pile of corpses well into his forties. He would repent for the murder of his second cousin and queen before the Fraticelli Pope and then rule the realm as King. As Peotr had a lowly view of Catholic niceties, naming his children in ways that sounded traditionally pagan and war-like to him, Radivoj would hold similar disdain towards women and would pass law to prevent a woman from ever taking the throne again (I set the kingdom to agnatic only because I prefer to play with matrilenial marriage turned off because of how rare it was IRL and how game breaking i find it).
- After Radivoj came his grandson, Branimir. Branimir I was an extremely capable ruler who would govern the realm as a well liked king, solving disputes and dealing with issues in a public and visible way, using his natural skills at stewardship and diplomacy to guide the realm in a time of peace as war and chaos gripped the rest of the world, namely with the Mongol Invasion (coming extremely early) to the east and the great Catholic Crusade for Saxony in the west. Saxony's Crusade established a rump Catholic kingdom surrounded on pagans by all sides except for in the south, with that kingdom slowly shrinking until it is a one county kingdom by the most modern time I've reached. But the difference is the impact. This was the first called crusade (with several having been called off) and this is the first successful Crusade, bringing much fear to the King of Karatania over what could be their fate. After Branimir's capable rule came his son King Peotr II.
- Peotr II became known as Peotr the Unready. An ambitious, shy king, he would often find his plans and goals to far outreach what is reasonable to achieve in reality. He would declare many holy wars, in Lombardy, in Bavaria, in Pannonia, and the recently Catholicized Kingdom of Bohemia, but would fail every single time. He was a capable ruler who governed a united realm, but couldn't turn any of his lofty ambitions into any actual conquests or achievements and would die after seventeen years of rule to pneumonia.
- Peotr's second son succeeded him. Named for his grandfather Branimar II would in many ways mirror his father early on, but would soon grow into quite the legacy of his grandfather after ten years into his reign. Early on, he would try and wage war on Pannonia and the emerging power to the east, the Bulgars, which hard gradually began to take over the lands of Avar Lords fighting their Bohemian King. The Bulgars were always seen as the biggest threat to the realm by Branimar II, as they are the only realm whose troop numbers dwarf his own. He would find his first real success in a war against Lombardy. Within weeks of that war ending, the Fraticelli Pope would call upon the Karitanians to enter a "Fratiselli Krusade" against the Lombards, but Branimar was able to convince him to switch his focus to the Kingdom of Lithuania. The King of Lithuania, as was the King of Saxony before the Catholic Crusade and the Kings of Ruthenia and Ilmenia, was a Norseman from the lands of vikings, who had carved massive realms out of the disorganized, pagan east. Lithuania was ripe for the taking, but Branimar did not want to add it to his realm and decided to pick a distant cousin, the youngest brother of the Duke of Vidin (who was the oldest of five and had five children of his own), as the suitable new King for Lithuania. The war was epic, drawing all his forces and some mercenaries, Branimar II crushed his opponents and made his cousin King. He returned home with great treasures as well as a Lithuanian mistress. After his wife died of cancer, he wed his mistress and had sons with her. His cousin did not last long as King, as he would be the target of a subjugation war by the Jarl of some land in Sweden and would be captured in battle before he could rally his troops, effectively ending the war and the Kingdom of Lithuania before it began. The lands that had fallen under the Fraticelli were now vassals to a Norse Pagan, including the former king, who would live in shame as a count in service to a pagan for over three more decades. Branimar II died only three years after the crusade, being succeeded by a son that his Lithuanian mistress had been pregnant with before they were married.
- King Vitor was an infant when he came to the throne, but would become a capable lord in his own, having a relatively unnoteworthy reign except for the fact that he was celebate, charitable, temperate, and fiercely devoted to his faith. However, the Fraticelli Pope, for political reasons rather than genuine ones, would excommunicate Vitor and support the revolt to increase council power against him. This was all a way to weaken the realm and Vitor's place in it to allow for his brother, Prince Milas, to take over. He would die under suspicious circumstances not long after having ended the war in a white peace. Nobody knew if his brother had anything to do with it but apparently he did not.
- King Milas was a good warrior but a rather unimpressive ruler, having to lower the kingdom's centralization due to his poor stewardship. He was well liked by the lords, but that did not make him good, look how the treated Vitor after all, and he would rule capably until his death. He died in a duel with his first wife, the woman he divorced, after she had plotted to kill him. He was first succeeded by his son by her, King Valhun, who did nothing about his father's murder by his mother and would be roundly hated by his family for it. So hated in fact that his own half-brother assassinated: Tihomil. King Tihomil I killed his brother to take the throne and then repented for his sins soon after and was forgiven. He then killed his father's murderer by imprisoning and executing her, caring little if people saw the move as "justified."
- He would go on to rule the realm in a vengeful and near-sighted war, being seen as a capable king in times of war, but then having to govern in a much more complicated time. The Black Death swept the east and then through Karatania under Tihomil's rule and that would have the peculiar issue of causing many lords and courtiers to turn their backs on the Fraticelli Faith in favor of mainstream Catholicism, believing that it could not be the true way if such death and anguish could happen in their country. Tihomil cared little about their converters, convincing them to turn back to the nation's own faith when he could but letting those who didn't be despite the fact that the law allowed for Catholics' lands to be seized. Tihomil's heir was killed in the plague, as were many of his loyal vassals and close friends. After the smoke cleared, the only son he had left was his second to youngest, named Valhun after the brother he had slain. Perhaps it was an odd sort of penance to name your son after the brother you murdered, but he must have seen it as a sign that it was the right thing to do, as neither Tihomil, nor Prince Valhun were ever touched by the deadly plague. When Tihomil died of the flu some ten years after the plague had gone, King Valhun II would take the throne.
Hope people enjoyed this, I needed to blow off some steam after having written pages upon pages of essays for my finals. It's nice to unwind from writing about things I like and take very seriously by writing about things I like and find very fun.
Edit: wow, just realized this got to be 2,500 words. That got out of hand, I just wanted to offhandedly mention a few of the really interesting things that had happened in my game. LMK if I should put this in like a spoiler tag or something because it is long.
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This guy definitely died shortly after this picture was taken.
And so Beornwulf the III and II, also known as "The Fat" managed to reign for 10 years despite being an imbecile. However, he was eventually assassinated as the trend goes for members of the Beorhtwulfing Dynasty. He is succeeded by his eldest son Beornwulf IV and III, as well as a slow son and a slow daughter. He was predeceased by his youngest son, a slow inbred.
Happened to me a while back, IIRC it was a mod, but I can't remember which one exactly ATM.