Crusader Kings II - Paradox Entertainement (02/12)

[Xibalba]

I'm still playing around with the idea of making an alternate history start, but doing it all via console command is very tedious. I've read up on modding but i'm still not sure on how to proceed. Creating a custom bookmark would do the trick I think, but I don't really know how to start. I plan on only using the cultures/religions/titles that are available in the base game, so that would make thing a lot easier. If anybody has some advice/help on how to implement my ideas, it would be greatly appreciated.

As far as the scenario is concerned, the basic premise is that the Eastern Roman Empire and the Western Roman Empire switch places. It is in no way meant as a plausible timeline 🙃 .

So far I've come up with the following ideas, suggestions are welcome!

Spoiler

Western Catholic Realms:

Latin Empire: Capital in Ravenna, they control most of the Italian peninsula + the Dalmatian coast and southern Aquitaine. Their culture could be Roman, but Italian could also work. It would be neat if they have acces to the same decisions as the Byzantines, i.e restore the Roman Empire, Mend the great schism etc.

Kingdom of Lombardy: Capital in Milan. They start out as a tributary to the Latin Empire, They control roughly the duchies of Milan, Friuli, Ivrea, Genoa and Modena.

Kingdom of the Franks: Capital in Paris. They would more or less control Lotharingia and France. But their influence would not reach further that that. Could be ruled by a Merovingian.

Kingdom of the Burgundians: Capital in Lyon. They would be German cultured as I'm not planning on adding custom cultures, they would control the de-jure kingdom of Burgundy sans Provence.

Duchy of Tarragonensis (Barcelona): Capital in Barcelona. Also a tributary of the Latins, They act as a buffer between the Empire and the Visigothic States.

Duchy of Vasconia (Gascogne): Capital in Navarra. A Basque state stretching from Navarre to Bordeaux.

Kingdom if the Suebi (Gallicia): Capital in Coruña. They held out against the Visigoths, but are confined to de-jure Gallicia.

Other Ideas that are not yet defined: fragmented Visigoth states in Spain, A Breton or Welsh Britain.

Eastern Orthodox Realms:

The Goths(Kingdoms of Epirus,Greece and Thrace):Capitals: Epirus, Thessaloniki, Adrianople. They would take the place of the Franks in this scenario. they could start out similar to how the Karlings start in TOG startdate. So maybe three kingdoms in the hands of one family. They could have the decision to form the Holy Roman Empire if you manage to hold all three.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate: Capital in Constantinople, like the Papacy but in the east.

The Alans (Trebizond):Capital in Trapezous. Migrated into the decaying Eastern Roman Empire and settled in Trebizond.

Pagan Realms:

Germanic Pagan Kingdoms(Saxons,Thuringians,Allemani and Bavarians): Since there are no Franks to subjugate them, they could remain pagan. However it could be possible that realms near the Latin west like the Allemani could be recent converts to Christianity.

Kingdom of the Avars: They would stay in the Pannonian Basin, as the Magyars are planning to invade somewhere else.

Kingdom of the Bolghars(Kingdom of Wallachia): They would still invade the Balkans but they would be stopped by the Goths and pushed back over the Danube. settling in modern Romania

Kingdom of the Magyars: Like in TOG start date they would start at war, but this time on a Greek rump state in Anatolia.

The Rest:

Less powerful Islamic states leaving the possibility open for more variety in the region. Not yet settled on the details.

Limited Slavic migration into the Balkans, they could go for Pannonia instead.

I don't have any idea what to do with India

 

[floyd22]

I am thinking of starting a Game as Bulgaria soon [at the Latin Empire start date] to see how much of the old Byzantine Empire I can Reconquer before the Aztecs arrive on the scene. Does anyone have any Strategy suggestions, or opinions regarding how long it might take?

P.S: I assume Alternate History is allowed on here? This is alternatehistory.com, after all. [a lot of this is borrowed from a timeline called "The Kalmar Union," which I have been using as inspiration along with a couple of others.]

1326
17th November
In the Arab and Islamic Kingdom of Hejaz, the Islamic Scholar Ibn Battuta Joins a large Caravan of Pilgrims Returning to Iraq from Mecca across the Arabian Peninsula, but Instead, turns Back and Heads to the City of Constantinople. Making the most of his Education, he Persuades Byzantine Basileus Ivan Alexander to Employ him as an Agent for a Diplomatic Mission to Rome.

1336
In the Kingdom of Denmark, the Islamic Scholar Ibn Battuta, after Criss ~ Crossing Europe for Several Years as a Byzantine Agent, who find his Accountancy Skills Invaluable, Arrives in Copenhagen. Learning of America from a Vinland ~ Bound Merchant, Ibn Battuta Persuades King Eric V of Denmark to let him Lead a Trading Mission to Vinland. [with Brief stop offs in London, Edinburgh, and Reykjavík along the way]

1337
In the Kingdom of Vinland, the Islamic Scholar Ibn Battuta Visits the Royal Court of Queen Kristjana IV before Moving on to Tenochtitlan. He finds Isafjordhur small and uncultured Compared to Copenhagen, London, or even Reykjavík, but he is Impressed by the hard ~ Working People.

12th September
In the Aztec Empire, the Islamic Scholar Ibn Battuta, Heading Downstream from the River Mississippi, Hugging the Coast, and his Caravan are Twice Attacked by Bandits, but Ibn Battuta Escapes with his Life, although One of his Interpreters and the Cherokee Woman he had Picked up as his Wife are not so Lucky [something which Deeply saddens Battuta] and Arrives in Tenochtitlan, where he is Warmly Welcomed by the Aztec Ruler, Tenoch.

1340
In the Kingdom of Vinland, upon his Return from Tenochtitlan, the Islamic Scholar Ibn Battuta Presents Queen Kristjana IV of Vinland with Three Llamas and a Suit of Jaguar Warrior Armour.

 

[Sevarics]

150 years of cousin marriages in my Jimenez-De Ivrea-De Altavilla CK2 run and now the inbred trait has finally started popping up in some branches of the family

My current Emperor’s daughter wed her uncle (emperor’s brother in law ) Rey Alfonso IV of Naples and so far they have had two inbred sons and an inbred daughter. If Alfonso and Isabella can’t produce a healthy heir, at least Alfonso’s brother Bohemundo has a healthy son of his own.

Damn inbred trait is finally catching up to the various branches of my family tree after 200 years of cousin-cousin, aunt-nephew, and uncle-niece marriages.

 

[herkles]

So the CK3 dev diary on religions came out today and it is amazing. This is a big improvement and makes me rather excited for the game

 

[herkles]

So what do people think of the new religious system? I really like it

 

[Neoteros]

So what do people think of the new religious system? I really like it

It seems like it will be possible to create heresies and religions where being a complete degenerate, inside and out, is looked on very favourably - if there will ever be an After the End mod for Crusader Kings III, playing as a Lovecraftian cultist in New England is going to be fucking wild, man.

 

[Yorel]

So what do people think of the new religious system? I really like it

Looks like they basically took what makes Pagan Reformation cool in CK2 and basically applied it to every Religion. Which is awesome.

We'll have to see next week's Dev Diary to fully judge how exactly everything works but depending on how that works and how moddable it is, it probably is going to make for an awesome update from CK2. And that might actually push me to buy CK3 when it comes out.

 

[black_0]

So what do people think of the new religious system? I really like it

The only major criticism I have is that the religious families other than Abrahamic one seem extremely arbitrary and broad.
I can buy the Pagan family since it would be hard to divide it into smaller ones but the Oriental family could be divided into Iranic and Dharmic families (although even then describing Confucianism as Dharmic religion feels wrong - even if during the period depicted a fair deal of syncretization between Buddhism and Confucianism took place).

Other than that I'm rather impressed by the modular nature of the new system and by the number of religions already present (and playable) in vanilla CK3.

 

[ALF0N53]

Quite late to the party, but I'm happy that Paradox patched the EU4 converter.

 

[BBadolato]

I think CK III will be the EU IV to CK II's EU III. Basically it will have a base game that is for the most part an improvement on the old, because it adopts so many DLC in the prior game as baseline features.

 

[Yorel]

The only major criticism I have is that the religious families other than Abrahamic one seem extremely arbitrary and broad.
I can buy the Pagan family since it would be hard to divide it into smaller ones but the Oriental family could be divided into Iranic and Dharmic families (although even then describing Confucianism as Dharmic religion feels wrong - even if during the period depicted a fair deal of syncretization between Buddhism and Confucianism took place).

Truth be told, even the Abrahamic family could be argued to be a bit too broad. There are similarities between Judaism, Christiannity and Islam sure but you could make the argument that each of these religions is sufficiently different from the other two to warrant its own group like they had in CK2.

I guess it was just simpler to split all the religions they had into these three groups for gamey/coding reasons. Which I can understand.

 

[Xibalba]

I've already tried this a few years back, but would anybody be interested in a CKII succession game? You play a ruler's lifetime and as soon as he passes away, you give the file to the next player in line who will play as his heir and so on.
Here are some characters and starts I find pretty interesting, but i'm open to other suggestions. Dates in bold are only available if you have the corresponding DLC.

769: Toramana Hunas (The last remnant of the Hephtalites)
867: Hæsteinn of Retz (My favorite character in-game, due to his starting possion you can do almost anything)
936: Thankmar Ludolfinger (Brother of Otto, if he succeeds in his rebellion he has the option to shatter Germany)
1066:Caliph Al-Qu-im Abbasid(Starts as a vassal duke of the Sejuks)
1081:Adele Karling (the very last Karling in game)

 

[Neoteros]

Truth be told, even the Abrahamic family could be argued to be a bit too broad. There are similarities between Judaism, Christiannity and Islam sure but you could make the argument that each of these religions is sufficiently different from the other two to warrant its own group like they had in CK2.

I guess it was just simpler to split all the religions they had into these three groups for gamey/coding reasons. Which I can understand.

I would've subdivided them into Abrahamic (with Zoroastrianism; despite it predating the rise of the Abrahamic religions, it can be argued that Zoroastrianism originated most of their common tropes), Dharmic (Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, etc.), Taoic (Confucianism, Taoism, etc.) and Ethnic (the non-universalist pagan faiths). That said, since Vajrayana Buddhism will be in the game... does this mean that there could be a Dalai Lama? Paradox's about to anger the Dragon...

 

[black_0]

That said, since Vajrayana Buddhism will be in the game... does this mean that there could be a Dalai Lama? Paradox's about to anger the Dragon...

First of all the title of Dalai Lama was not established until 16th c. , secondly Tibetan Buddhism is only one of the sub-traditions within broader Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism.

 

[herkles]

Hmm been thinking of a narrative Crusader Kings AAR and I have two rough ideas. Basically one idea would be set in Al-Andalus and follow a dynasty there that serves the Ummyyad Caliph while the other idea would be following a Nomad clan and their intrigue as well as the transition from Nomads to settled life. I keep going back and forth here. So curious which ones might be more interesting from an AAR perspective.

 

[Tyler96]

Hmm been thinking of a narrative Crusader Kings AAR and I have two rough ideas. Basically one idea would be set in Al-Andalus and follow a dynasty there that serves the Ummyyad Caliph while the other idea would be following a Nomad clan and their intrigue as well as the transition from Nomads to settled life. I keep going back and forth here. So curious which ones might be more interesting from an AAR perspective.

There are many people (...me included) who never really figured out how nomads work. Not sure if that mystique would be beneficial or detrimental to an AAR.

 

[MusuMankata]

Buddhism will be in the game... does this mean that there could be a Dalai Lama? Paradox's about to anger the Dragon...

I mean, China doesn't deny that Tibet ever existed period, they just argue that Tibet was gone by the time the Ming lost the Mandate of Heaven. And in the case of the Dalai Lama, it's exclusively about the current ones.

 

[herkles]

There are many people (...me included) who never really figured out how nomads work. Not sure if that mystique would be beneficial or detrimental to an AAR.

Well I thought of Nomads to settled people more for the story, though Al-andalus also has my attention. I think atm I am leaning towards the Nomadic one because it is more interesting and Nomads won't be in ck3 at launch.

 

[herkles]

Another week, another dev Diary. This time on creating your own heresy and pagan reformation.

 

[Yorel]

Loving thes new heresy and reformation mechanics they've got for CK3.

True, there is a bit of a gamey aspect to this as it's basically "let's create our own religon!"... Especially considering certain tenets and doctrines look to have been just for the lulz (Just look at Carnal Exaltation)... But then again it's a game and let's face it: that was already a bit the case with Pagan Reformation in CK2. Plus, the etimology of Heresy is a word that means "choice", and it can be argued an heresiarchs is basically choosing which doctrines to follow.

Besides, it's not like they haven't made it easy to go completely off the rails: creating a Catholic heresy that's basically the cult of Slaaneesh isn't going to be cheap.