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[Lactose_Intolerant]

King of Leon beat me up when I was fighting the Sunni hoards. Will play again, game is fun.

am I missing something or do you have to disband all your troops to declare war on people?

 

[ctrayne]

Damn. I need to pick this up.

 

[zoku88]

I just had my first bug (after like 200+ game years and god knows how many hours playing) and it's a whopper. At around year 1219 the Mongols finally showed up over in the east, but for some reason 101,000 (101 thousand!) of their troops over on the east edge of the map were mine. I could control them, fight with them, disband them, whatever. I disbanded them. Not only that, but like 20 or so Mongols showed up in my court (this is in Spain, basically the other side of the map of where the Mongols should be). And the Mongol leader has a favorable opinion of me; one of the reasons listed is our "diplomacy." What?

Weird shit. I hope this doesn't screw up their conquest because I was looking forward to watching that unfold.

That's quite interesting.

I finally finished my first game as the Count of Silesia -> King of Poland and Denmark (I lost Denmark later.)

The Mongols and the Muslims did pretty well in my game.

Croatia, who were my hated enemies for most of the middle game, were totally taken by the Mongols completely (it almost looks like they inherited the lands. I don't remember seeing that many wars between Croatia and the Golden Horde.)

Somewhat sad, since me and Croatia had this thing going on ever seen the minor Queen of Crotia inherited the Kingdom of Poland somehow (wasn't even in the old man's dynasty.)

I took the title away from her, but Poland only ended up with a third of its traditional lands. So, we had lots of wars concerning the remaining lands.

My characters were Croatian for some time, as were some of my vassals, though...

The muslims... somehow got the southern half of France. I went on a crusade against them many times, but the amount of troops they could field was way above anything I could muster up. I'm talking 36K stacks >_<

King of Leon beat me up when I was fighting the Sunni hoards. Will play again, game is fun.

am I missing something or do you have to disband all your troops to declare war on people?

Yes, you can't have any levies up before declaring war.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Speaking of trees chugging, you can turn off just about everything in the game by using the settings.ini in your documents folder. You can even turn off the terrain, which was interesting.

 

[Torraz]

If my character ends up as the spymaster of his liege, does that open up any interesting possibilities?

 

[Clevinger]

If my character ends up as the spymaster of his liege, does that open up any interesting possibilities?

I'm not sure, but I don't think so. There might be events that show up though.

 

[Oldschool]

Outstanding historical game.

 

[Clevinger]

I just had my first bug (after like 200+ game years and god knows how many hours playing) and it's a whopper. At around year 1219 the Mongols finally showed up over in the east, but for some reason 101,000 (101 thousand!) of their troops over on the east edge of the map were mine. I could control them, fight with them, disband them, whatever. I disbanded them. Not only that, but like 20 or so Mongols showed up in my court (this is in Spain, basically the other side of the map of where the Mongols should be). And the Mongol leader has a favorable opinion of me; one of the reasons listed is our "diplomacy." What?

Weird shit. I hope this doesn't screw up their conquest because I was looking forward to watching that unfold.

It's been a couple years and now the Mongols are sailing right by Spain and are invading Ireland. Whuuuuut? They're still conquering the east just fine, but they're also sailing around and fucking random shit up. Oh god, please don't invade me, please don't invade me, please don't invade me.

 

[zoku88]

It's been a couple years and now the Mongols are sailing right by Spain and are invading Ireland. Whuuuuut? They're still conquering the east just fine, but they're also sailing around and fucking random shit up. Oh god, please don't invade me, please don't invade me, please don't invade me.

The mongols invaded up to Western Europe?

In my game, they don't really get passed the Polish eastern border (besides having all of Croatia except for Bosnia.)

You should post a map screenshot. (Does CKII still have that nifty EUIII map screenshot thing?)

 

[ctrayne]

I just noticed that every version of this game, including retail, requires Steam except for the GamersGate version. I'm not a Steam hater, but I'm kind of annoyed. I thought Paradox was super duper anti-DRM. Almost every Paradox-developed game has no DRM at all.

Edit: Maybe not - looks like you can just run the .exe like usual.

 

[ElectricThunder]

Missed out on the original, but I think I'm going to have to add this one to the wishlist as my first foray into modern Paradox Grand Strategy games.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Haha, I restarted my Northern Spain game and like within the 1st month I get sick. So I'm all worried I'm going to die right away. All through the 1st year I was just waiting for it to happen. Then on December I get a message and it turns out my brother got sick and died too. I was his heir so I got his Kingdom + like 100 gold. So now I have like 180 gold + 9 territories. I will still find a way to mess this up.

 

[Clevinger]

The mongols invaded up to Western Europe?

Nah, the Mongols are just getting started in the far east, as it's only been a couple years. They've conquered a small line of Muslim lands on the east edge of the map. But for some reason they started a war with an Irish duke and sailed to the other side of the map to invade them. It's hilarious. A couple years have passed and the Irish have reconquered their lands, but they're still at war.

You should post a map screenshot. (Does CKII still have that nifty EUIII map screenshot thing?)

Yeah, it's something like F11 for a screenshot and F12 for a huge map screen thing.

 

[Lach]

I was playing the king of France yesterday and everything was going good for a while until some of my heirs died of the plague. My only heir and then subsequent ruler was, get this, a homosexual, heretic dwarf. After he became king he was quickly excommunicated, he never produced an heir, and then all my vassals revolted and split up France, eventually uniting behind some asshole. My gay dwarf character didn't lose everything; he hung on to one piece of land... until he died and my dynasty died with him.

Holy shit.

This post right here, made me buy the game (I was uncertain beforehand).

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

It's awesome that my heir is slow (don't marry your cousin), homosexual, and has a bunch of other negative attributes. I even tutored him with a guy that has awesome stats and 27 martial.

I love my big gay son!

I might have to kill him though. His brother is a econ whore. He's 9 and already has like 15 econ score.

 

[Clevinger]

It's awesome that my heir is slow (don't marry your cousin), homosexual, and has a bunch of other negative attributes. I even tutored him with a guy that has awesome stats and 27 martial.

I love my big gay son!

I might have to kill him though. His brother is a econ whore. He's 9 and already has like 15 econ score.

I've had a really unfortunate string of heirs. My Spanish king character married an English princess and the heir they produced had English culture. Then my king dies and I become the English character and a vassal immediately revolts because besides all the other ways they hate me, I'm also a foreigner in their eyes. And now my kings keep having English heirs and this annoying cycle of Non-Castillan Spanish kings is going to continue.

 

[Basileus777]

The lack of attrition in this game is a pretty big issue. Super stacks are way too effective, especially the Mongols with their absurdly large armies.

 

[Stahsky]

I played the demo, having never played anything like this before.

This guy wanted to be my marshal, so I killed him, then my marshal died, so my bishop became the marshal. I got married, had some kids, went hunting, thought about killing my wife, and then the game ended.


My dude had a pretty great life, all things considered.




I have no fucking clue what I was doing. I just hit play and picked choices as they popped up.

 

[zoku88]

I've had a really unfortunate string of heirs. My Spanish king character married an English princess and the heir they produced had English culture. Then my king dies and I become the English character and a vassal immediately revolts because besides all the other ways they hate me, I'm also a foreigner in their eyes. And now my kings keep having English heirs and this annoying cycle of Non-Castillan Spanish kings is going to continue.

try getting the kids tutored by Spanish coutiers. Sometimes they will change culture.

The lack of attrition in this game is a pretty big issue. Super stacks are way too effective, especially the Mongols with their absurdly large armies.

There is attrition. The supply limit is too big though.

 

[Lach]

Started out as the very young Count of Grisons, who's the second son of the duke of Lombardy. I scored a marriage with the Duchess of Tuscany and some other duchy, so my son should be well of. But then, while the HRE-Emperor was fighting a holy war against some pagan enemy in the north, various italian dukes decided to take this chance and declare independence. One of them was my wife (so at that moment she's directly at war with me). The dukes witnessed the mighty hammer of the Empire and my wife is now in prison. She got to keep all her titles.

 

[Dennis]

I am getting a Crusade Kings II banner ad here on GAF. Nice to see an ad that makes sense!

 

[Basileus777]

There is attrition. The supply limit is too big though.

Yeah, that was my point. The amount of attrition is very low, you can put huge stacks together and they don't suffer from it nearly enough.

 

[Randdalf]

I played as the King of Poland in the demo, ended up having 7 children. Nothing much of interest happened for a while except a rebellion I quashed in Silesia (then starved to death their duke in prison). When my firstborn son Konrad came of age, he decided it would be a good idea to attempt an assassination on my fifth son Wario, so I had him imprisoned and then executed. Then my spymaster rebelled against me and I was finishing mopping the floor with him when my demo ended. Oh yeah, and my sister's husband decided he had a claim to one of my counties and invaded it with an army twice as large as all my vassals could muster. I then couldn't take back the county since I had no claim.

I'm going to hold off buying the game 'till a Steam sale though, and probably in the summer.

 

[Hari Seldon]

I am totally addicted to this game and I cannot play anything else. Definitely my favorite strategy game since Civ 4. Absolutely love it! Can't wait for all the mods and the expansions, but even until then there is just so many ways to play it it is unreal.

 

[Hari Seldon]

Yeah, that was my point. The amount of attrition is very low, you can put huge stacks together and they don't suffer from it nearly enough.

I think the attrition is fairly decent. However the Mongols are a special case and do not suffer it at all, which makes sense since the Mongols brought their entire civilization with them when they went campaigning.

 

[Clevinger]

I wonder if there's much point to creating extra Kingdom titles besides the 400 prestige or whatever it gives you. All it seems to do is make my Dukes hate me and want to steal it from me.

 

[Basileus777]

I wonder if there's much point to creating extra Kingdom titles besides the 400 prestige or whatever it gives you. All it seems to do is make my Dukes hate me and want to steal it from me.

Creating the kingdom gives you dejure claims and a monthly prestige bonus. Each dejure kingdom has its own set of crown laws, and you also can't change them unless you take the title.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

I wonder if there's much point to creating extra Kingdom titles besides the 400 prestige or whatever it gives you. All it seems to do is make my Dukes hate me and want to steal it from me.

It just makes people hate you, try to kill you, or rebel when you die. Its not worth the hassle really. The only benefit is that it cuts down all the people complaining too you that are in your court.

My big gay son just had a girl. I also took over most of Spain so far. Barcelona got taken over by Sunni tribes so the Pope called for a crusades against them. Now I don't have to spend money on a claim for it. woot woot.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

RPS has their review up.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/23/wot-i-think-crusader-kings-ii/

One of the reasons that Crusader Kings II is brilliant is because it understands that losing is fun. In fact, I don&#8217;t think winning is as much fun. Better the slow and noble decline than the bloat of victory and expansion. I&#8217;m sure it&#8217;s possible to learn exactly how the game works and be better than it but there&#8217;s so much happening with every minute that passes (the game is real time but can be paused) that I can&#8217;t be bothered to understand half of it and I certainly don&#8217;t want to decipher it because I&#8217;m not viewing the world as a machine but as a collection of minds.

...

My absolute most favourite thing about Crusader Kings II is that the world will happily continue without me. Maybe if I play my kids right I&#8217;ll be the centre of attention for a couple of years over the centuries covered, but most of the time this is one of the games that suffers least from Truman Show syndrome that I&#8217;ve ever played. In that respect, Crusader Kings II is up there with Football Manager and Dwarf Fortress. It&#8217;s a strategy game, it&#8217;s an RPG but it&#8217;s also a simulator. Yes, it&#8217;s not a historically accurate simulator, with plenty of alterations to reality made for balance and to sustain dynastic evolution, but it is a remarkable study of alternatives, a playground of &#8216;might have beens&#8217;.

...

The interface is simple as well, even though it may look daunting. You&#8217;ll only ever have to click the right button to interact with people and move armies, and the left button to bring up information, whether cycling through map overlays or selecting tabs. And there may seem to be a lot of them, but don&#8217;t be daunted. Ignore what you don&#8217;t understand until the need arises to understand it. Context may help when an event occurs, or you can dip into the dry but useful tutorials.

If you&#8217;re not terrified of maps then you can play and enjoy Crusader Kings II. It&#8217;s that simple. Do you like pondering alternate histories and creating grand narratives? That&#8217;s what this game is about. Do you enjoy courtly interplay and elaborate plots of succession, marriage and murder? That&#8217;s also what this game is about.

 

[Ikuu]

It's a shame the game just ends, hopefully they'll patch in some stats at Game Over so you can see stuff like longest reign, most successful etc.

Went from Duke of Munster to controlling all of Ireland and Wales, losing it all and then getting it back (several times), when 1453 hit I was Duchess of one piece of land in Wales :lol

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

This game is goddamn brilliant. More people need to buy it and support Paradox. This company is constantly evolving, and it's awesome.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

I imprisoned a rebel countess, hoping that she would die in prison so I could get my land back without taking a hit. Lady has a kid in prison, so now I have to wait that out too. Might just have to kill the kid. I don't feel like waiting 50 years.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I just bought this last night, but even after going through the tutorial I'm confused as shit. This is how it always is with Paradox games for me, though. It's been too long since I played Europa Universalis III, and I think the interface has changed quite a bit since then, too.

Oh well, time to watch some Let's Plays and read their official forums for a while.

 

[Fitz]

This game is goddamn brilliant. More people need to buy it and support Paradox. This company is constantly evolving, and it's awesome.

They really are great, so many awesome games. I picked this up about a week ago but decided I'd have one last game of EUIII before focusing on this, I've ended up enjoying my current game (Byzantium) so much I haven't been able to put that down yet, lol. Can't wait to sink countless hours into this though.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

The graphical improvements to the map are making me get hard thinking about a possible EU4.

 

[zoku88]

It's a shame the game just ends, hopefully they'll patch in some stats at Game Over so you can see stuff like longest reign, most successful etc.

Went from Duke of Munster to controlling all of Ireland and Wales, losing it all and then getting it back (several times), when 1453 hit I was Duchess of one piece of land in Wales :lol

It's kinda weird, since EUIII has a nice ending screen.

 

[Clevinger]

This game is goddamn brilliant. More people need to buy it and support Paradox. This company is constantly evolving, and it's awesome.

It seems to be doing really well in sales, from what I can tell. It's been in the Steam top 10 sellers since before it was released.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

It's a shame the game just ends, hopefully they'll patch in some stats at Game Over so you can see stuff like longest reign, most successful etc.

Wait for the inevitable CK2 -> EU3 save converter mod. Someone managed to make one for CK1 after all.

So then you can just keep going in EU3, and then if you reach the end of that you can then convert the save to the Victoria series, and then at the end of that convert over to HOI3!

 

[Karak]

Would love to back this game, but it looks like I am one of many having the drop to blackscreen right at the starting. Fuckaroo. Last couple bucks in Paypal went to this

 

[Hari Seldon]

Would love to back this game, but it looks like I am one of many having the drop to blackscreen right at the starting. Fuckaroo. Last couple bucks in Paypal went to this

That is weird I haven't heard about that at all.

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

Posted this on the Paradox forums too, but maybe somebody around here can help:

I’m wondering to what level I should directly “control” my area.

Right now I have the Duchy of Apulia and Calabria, and just took all of Sicily back through a succession of Holy Wars. (I have not yet formed the Duchy of Sicily because it’s a big investment and I’m not sure if I should spend the gold on that, or on upgrading my cities.)

Since I am still only a Duke, I will of course be keeping all of the Duke titles.

However, should I also keep direct control of any counties, or should I hand out all of the counties and only keep myself as a duke? I feel like I ought to keep some, but I’m really kind of foggy here. Right now I still have the county of Apulia, the county of Catanzaro(? I think) and the county of Palermo.

Then, once I form the kingdom of Sicily, how should I adjust my holdings?

 

[Clevinger]

Posted this on the Paradox forums too, but maybe somebody around here can help:

I&#8217;m wondering to what level I should directly &#8220;control&#8221; my area.

Right now I have the Duchy of Apulia and Calabria, and just took all of Sicily back through a succession of Holy Wars. (I have not yet formed the Duchy of Sicily because it&#8217;s a big investment and I&#8217;m not sure if I should spend the gold on that, or on upgrading my cities.)

Since I am still only a Duke, I will of course be keeping all of the Duke titles.

However, should I also keep direct control of any counties, or should I hand out all of the counties and only keep myself as a duke? I feel like I ought to keep some, but I&#8217;m really kind of foggy here. Right now I still have the county of Apulia, the county of Catanzaro(? I think) and the county of Palermo.

Keep as many pieces of land as your limit lets you. Only give away the bishoprics and towns. If you'd only keep the duke titles you'd lose out on a lot of troops and taxes, and being able to improve your counties. If you have excess counties, give them to your heir.

 

[questionmark]

This game is fucking awesome.

Was not planning on buying it as I assumed I would not have the patience to learn it, but a friend got it and convinced a few others to do the same. I jumped on the bandwagon, and haven't looked back. Even had a dream about the game, though I can't remember the details. One aspect I really love is that it kind of feels like playing a board game, because there are so many things that are beyond your control, just like a dice. Definitely gonna check out Paradox' other games as well, EU3 first of all.

Currently playing as the King of Ireland (started with Munster), and holy shit anti popes are overpowered. I went from a monthly balance of +8 to +28. Rocking +40 at the moment.

 

[Qwomo]

This game has great multiplayer, thank god Paradox finally got that right. Hardly an OOS error, ever! One of the best MP experiences I've had in a while.

 

[FGMPR]

Is this game easier to get into than other Paradox GS games?

I've tried HoI3, EU3 and Victoria 2 and I found all of them a little too heavy for me to have the patience to really understand how they worked. Also, Victoria 2 almost felt like you were barely making a difference. It was so hard to see any kind of direct result from your choices. Is their a more cohesive feeling of achievement here? thanks

 

[Randdalf]

By the way, if you want to play as any character in the demo, after you've selected one of the 4 demo characters click Start and then spam click on the county you wish to control whilst it's loading.

 

[gabbo]

I've been pedaling around in the demo, mostly as the King of Poland.
Still getting my brain wrapped around things, and not even close to knowing the proper ins and outs yet. I find the tutorial kind of lacking and have tried to learn by playing.

A play session hasn't lasted through a single generation yet (partly due to lack of save features in the demo and partly due to me overstepping my military means), but I keep going back for me.

 

[Prophane33]

Is this game easier to get into than other Paradox GS games?

I've tried HoI3, EU3 and Victoria 2 and I found all of them a little too heavy for me to have the patience to really understand how they worked. Also, Victoria 2 almost felt like you were barely making a difference. It was so hard to see any kind of direct result from your choices. Is their a more cohesive feeling of achievement here? thanks

In terms of complexity, in my opinion it goes: HOI3>Crusader Kings II>Victoria II>EU3. However that just may be my bias after playing a ton of EU 3 and Vic 2 (loving the expansion), I haven't played much of CK2 yet, but I find it a heck of a lot more user friendly than the first one. I find it a little daunting but maybe that's because I never put more than a handful of minutes into CK1. My best advice with Paradox's games is read the manual (no, really read it) after messing around for a couple hours. The more you play the game the more you'll pick up on and learn. It takes patience, but you should find it rewarding. I'm still trying to crack into HOI3 (even by playing HOI2 first), but damn that's a complex series.

 

[mavs]

Is there an easy rule to use when giving out titles? I took over England and my demesne was at 92/7. I think it took about 2 hours to give everything out, but I lost track of when I started.

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

Is there an easy rule to use when giving out titles? I took over England and my demesne was at 92/7. I think it took about 2 hours to give everything out, but I lost track of when I started.

Easy, not really. But easier, kind of.

You can click on any individual holding and there is a button that you can press to "create vassal" and it will just automatically give that holding to someone eligible. A bit easier than than manually finding someone for every damn holding and county when you get a boatload of land from wars.