No.1326[Last 50 Posts]
Starting up a CK2 game to test out Charlemagne. Goals for the run
-form Kingdom of Lappland
-reform Suomenusko
-spread culture and religion without blobbing
-when our eastern Mongol brethren arrive, convert them and breed with them to ensure a master Mongol race
No.1327
Rapid progress thanks to the still overpowered Pagan Subjugation CB. Tribal mechanics are at least interesting.
No.1335
>>13272 questions:
wouldn't you need to upgrade the chiefdom of lappland to a high chiefdom before forming the kingdom?
any thoughts on "elective gavelkind" inheritance?
No.1336
have they fixed the constant crashing?
No.1338
>Saxon NorwayIt begins early.
>>13351. As I understand it, I merely need three duchies to make a kingdom. Presumably it will be named after my primary title, but I can (and plan to) simply rename it Lappland.
2. I would call it a good thing, overall. From my admittedly rudimentary knowledge on the subject, it seems like a more accurate representation of a typical tribal system, and it's slightly less annoying in terms of game mechanics.
>>1336I haven't experience any crashing yet, so probably.
No.1339
>we can now encourage culture conversion
Best feature of the expansion I've seen so far.
No.1340
Despite expanding as fast as I possibly can, I simply can't keep up with how fast Sweden is coming together. Luckily for me, at least he wasted his lifetime external subjugation on a single county.
No.1341
Iconoclasts were right all along.
No.1342
Yes, this new feature pleases me greatly.
No.1343
>tfw /gsg/ is so dead that two consecutive posts are almost 7 hours apart
Oh well. I will keep posting this here anyway. Still expanding; still way weaker than Sweden. Might have to break my rule against blobbing to survive.
No.1344
>>1343Reading right now.
Pretty interesting stuff.
No.1345
Successfully created my new kingdom. The decision is a little bit overpowered in my opinion, as it costs only an extremely small amount of gold to do - far less than creating a de jure kingdom. Also stole the county of Lappland (soon to be my capital) from Sweden while it was revolting, which unfortunately has also become a kingdom.
No.1346
I'd formed the Empire of Francia, including Spain & Italy within 50 years. It was true easy mode
Playing as Slavs on the other hand was true FUN mode
No.1348
So ends an era. This new chief is marginally better anyway.
>>1346I've never really enjoyed playing as already powerful characters/nations, but maybe I've just been playing GS too long to enjoy an easy run.
No.1349
>Sweden is busy trying to shed the blood of Saxon men
My only chance.
No.1350
Karl successfully defeated.
I would like to be happy for the Norse, but this means I have no choice but to offer a white peace. Not sure how I'll ever manage to defeat the now ridiculously powerful Sweden.
No.1351
>>1342This is by far the best feature they added.
No.1352
>>1345It also a lot less useful to create a kingdom without De Jure vassals, and the realm score needed before creation is much more difficult to get than half the provinces of an existing kingdom. I think it's a decent trade.
No.1353
>>1350Let winter devour their troops. Kite around the mountains.
No.1354
>>1353Currently I am able to raise a total of less than 2,000 troops, while Sweden has over 15,000. Even with mercenaries and a tribal army, I doubt it would be enough. My only hope now is to eat away at the blob during civil wars.
No.1355
>>1354Is that at max levies or are they drained?
If they're drained, kiting can help. If you can get Sweden's death stack to follow you into Jamtaland and north along the mountains they should die off in winter, especially if they send the full 15k death stack.
If your total max levies are 2k, then yeah you're fucked though. I've done basically this same fight from the other side. Lost a 4k stack in full during winter in Kemi or Kola, I forget which.
No.1356
>>1355Yeah, 2k is max. Taking a break from it for a while; later I will try the long war of attrition and start blobbing to the east to build my strength.
No.1357
>vassal limit is broken>we germanic now>adventurers, adventurers everywhere>the ai characters don't give a fuck about improving their shitty tribal holdings, so it's up to you (about 500 gold/holding)>upgrading to feudal holdings seems to be broken for vassals>From about 8k soldiers to barely 3k thanks to feudalismJOHAAAAAAAAN
>>1351it's not that good, you can only using during the tribal phase and only in directly owned provinces. And your vassals don't seem to care about it.
No.1358
>>1357>you can only usinggood lord, I butchered that
No.1359
>>1357Personally, I just enjoy the feature, even if it isn't incredibly useful. Honestly, culture conversion has never been much of a problem in CK2 anyway; as long as you install vassals of your culture, it spreads naturally within several decades.
I agree that the tribal mechanics need fixing, though. Fortunately the core of the expansion seems good, and the problems are pretty easily fixable through minor updates.
No.1360
the powerful hosts of King Dyre (upgrading to feudal depletes levies, and you get less levies from tribal vassals)
thank god for my pagan allies
No.1361
>>1360
>upgrading to feudal depletes leviesWhy.
No.1362
>>1361and why did I choose orthodoxy. Life is full of questions, anon.
No.1363
>>1360>>1361ok, maybe it doesn't
No.1364
>>1362The Greeks somehow fought off a Jihad for Anatolia, but I don't know how long they can hold on against the ridiculous Abbasid blob.
No.1365
that took a fucking while. I'm still not sure about the levies depleting, maybe it's just the difference between holdings.
>>1364have they buffed the ERE? I feel like they have, but it's been so long since the last time I played without mods.
No.1366
Joining a dogpile to take at least some territory from Sweden. After the old chief died, Karl got his chance to exact revenge and take back part of Saxony. Shame I wasted my subjugation CB already.
No.1367
Well, that's weird. Iconoclasts managed to rise to almost total dominance over Orthodoxy, then lose to the very same doctrine in less than 30 years.
No.1368
Feels good to finally be bringing the pain to the Norse. If only I were getting more than a single county out of it.
No.1369
Slavs have become vampires. Absolutely terrifying.
No.1370
Managing to mooch some eastern clay during a moment of Russian weakness. It's starting to look like Lappland might make it after all.
No.1371
>>1365
>tfw playing for over an hour and posting without noticing this postIn eventual response, it seems like either they're buffed or Abbasids are nerfed. Everyone has comparatively tiny levies at the moment, but the two of them are on roughly even footing despite Abbasids being dramatically bigger.
No.1373
>pretty much all provinces have a single holding, and you can't build new ones until going feudalresult: pic related. At least I'm not the only one with shitty levies.
>>1371Are the abbasid tribal (or mostly tribal) in the early middle ages scenario? Arabia is mostly tribal in the viking age one, the roman and persian areas being feudal.
No.1374
vassals take their time upgrading to feudal, even with fully improved tribal holdings. And I don't think you can go feudal if your direct liege isn't, so it's kind of a bottleneck.
No.1380
>>1373Looks almost entirely feudal to me. The only tribal settlements are in the Arabian Desert.
No.1382
>>1357I'm intending to stay tribal. Starting as Iceland, my goal is conquer and convert all of the British Isles to Norse/Reformed Norse Pagan, making it all de jure to the Kingdom of Iceland titular kingdom, then import to EU4. Cultural conversion was always the hardest to achieve, even ensuring all counts were proper culture, so even a +2% chance per year helps immensely. Hopefully averaging 10 additional provinces over the 500 year span and saving me some diplomatic points in EU4.
It is disappointing that you can't settle in vassal provinces though. Hopefully that gets changed.
>>1359On decently sized empires I've never found culture to spread fast enough.
No.1384
>tfw finally beating Sweden in a fair fightAdmittedly, their levies are still mostly depleted from fighting Germany, but still.
>>1382
>It is disappointing that you can't settle in vassal provinces thoughI agree, though that could probably be modded in very easily.
No.1385
>King
I didn't realize that transgender characters were a feature now.
Also, shame on Johan for misgendering xir.
No.1386
>>1373Tribes get more income and levies the more open holding spots there are.
Either way there's really no need to go feudal given how OP tribals are.
No.1394
>>1386Won't tribes be shit late game, though? It seems like their possible holding upgrades are very limited.
No.1395
I for one plan on making my great curonia (by now, just a re-name of Lithuania) a merchant republic, just for the shits of it.
No.1397
>>1395Sounds like a pretty good plan; it's a good location for a Baltic monopoly.
No.1399
>>1394The power of tribes isn't their holdings, but their free event troops.
No.1400
>>1399Again, those are a lot less useful late game. A 2500-man event stack is great when your entire levies are 2000, but when you have an empire and 10k retinues sitting around all the time, they're scarcely worth their maintenance.
Also, the holdings will clearly make a huge difference later on. I'm not even 50 years in, and I'm already within sight of my limits. Looks like each holding will probably max out at around 1,000 levy size under tribal rule, which is pretty weak in the later centuries. In other words, a tribal lord with all maxed out holdings will probably have less than half the levies of a feudal lord in the same situation.
No.1401
>>1400As long you keep at war the event troops won't go away. I invaded Germania with around 50k event troops as Mali. Never needed a single levy.
Also the event troops from your council gathering troops scales bigger and bigger the larger your army is.
No.1402
>>1394Very late game, it probably is, but it's viable through early mid-game at least.
A fully upgraded province has, what,
~300 base levy
+40*4 LI (War Camp)
+15*4 A (Practice Range)
+20% (Hillfort)
+25% (Training Grounds)
+50%*number of unoccupied barony slots
At 5 unoccupied barony slots (I've only seen 5) that's roughly (~300+120+60)*(4) or basically 2k troops per province, before martial ability, without vassals.
If you're stuck in shitty frozen wastes of finland without stacks of +50% multipliers, then yeah, you're fucked. But if you can wrest Holstein from Saxony, or take Jylland and Sjaelland, you can easily have 2k+ levy per demesne point, which, while not godly endgame retinue deathstacks, is more than enough to hold your own through to midgame.
No.1403
>>1402I can see how it would work in that kind of situation, but that basically requires moving your base of operations into already feudal lands, as most tribal areas only have 1-2 empty holding slots.
Personally, since I am indeed stuck in the shitty frozen wastes of Finland, I'll probably be switching to feudal as soon as possible.
No.1404
>>1402>bad at math: the post120 LI -> 160 LI
+400% -> a multipler of 5, not 4
Probably more errors, but it looks like 2k was a safe estimate, and 3k is possible before martial ability.
No.1405
>>1404Still, you're being extremely generous by assuming 5 holding slots; virtually no tribal territories start off with that many.
Also, it's worth noting that staying tribal completely gimps fort level. It looks like 2.0 is the max fort level for tribes, compared to 10.0 (if I recall correctly) for feudal.
No.1407
>>14053 and 4 isn't uncommon though. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden all have them around their capitals. Northern Finland is mostly 0s and 1s, but Southern Finland has some 3s (Finland, Kalevan, and Narva). Once you head south from there along the coast you find 3s and 4s everywhere and that's all tribal.
Whether you're tribal or not, taking the most fertile lands with the highest number of barony slots to minmax demesne points to income/levies is a fairly integral part of the game, especially when playing at a disadvantage. I don't think it's an indication that tribal isn't feasible if you're choosing to stay in untenable land.
No.1408
>>1407Like I said, tribal is clearly feasible, at least until late game, but not switching at all is probably not a great idea. Also, if you intend to convert, converters base population (/base tax) on number of holdings, so you'd be gimped going forward.
I admit I'm slowing myself a bit here, but hey, you have to role play a bit sometimes. The game is more fun ruling from my ancestral Lappish homelands rather than simply minmaxing.
No.1409
No.1420
Kiev-guy here: I think I "feudalized" too soon, spending all your prestige improving all your holdings (vassals included) for a few generations seems like a better idea, keep your money to buy holdings when going feudal. I've been feudal for more than 100 years now and my army is still dramatically weaker. At least it's mostly HI, not fucking LI.
The ai doesn't really do it, thou. Poland has just gone feudal and is a fucking mess. And the bottleneck I mentioned before is a real problem, the tribal provinces have more levies so they can overthrow their feudal lieges easily and everything starts over.
No.1421
>>1420What about spending money on town upgrades? Do those stick around when you advance?
No.1425
>>1421Everything gets divided by two and rounded down, except shipbuilder which goes 1:1, and Training Ground which is lost entirely.
www.ckiiwiki.com/Tribes
No.1426
>>1425Oh, I should add that this is pretty fair since 1 tech level unlocks 2 tiers of buildings. Well, with the exception of shipbuilder which is a tech level per building tier. So it's just giving you the equivalent building if you had maxed it to your tech level.
No.1445
What the fuck is the point of so many of the mechanics to come out after roughly old gods came out?
There have been more patches to restrict gameplay and prevent you from playing in a particular way than there have been to actually improve it.
I don't understand the dev team's philosophy on so many things that I can't seem to understand why they ruined such a good game. Was it bad that people were having fun playing the game? Was that the problem? I can't even begin to guess.
I wish it were open source so someone could have forked it a long time ago and made something actually decent instead of a blight on my hard drive that wishes it were victoria or eu4.
No.1446
>>1445
>or eu4Too far, Anon. CK2 is still dramatically better than EU4.
No.1447
>>1446eu4 is fucking fantastic
No.1450
>>1447>whines about no fun allowed mechanics>loves EU4 No.1451
>>1450What exactly is no fun allowed about eu4? It's more fun allowed than eu3.
No.1452
>>1451EU4 limits everything you can do by RNG mana, and everything fun gets nerfed.
Short list of non-fun things in EU4 off the top of my head:
- PUs are shit and are being made more shit in next expansion.
- Trade is shit (lol China can't profit from European trade even though that was the one thing it did so well that it caused several major wars).
- Did I mention trade will be more shit in next expansion with locked trade prices?
- National Ideas means you are irrationally gimped unless you choose a major, and means you have no means to change your nation's leaning over time like sliders allowed.
- Hordes suck. Literally their only advantage now is that they have events to kill their heir and get a new one. It says a lot about EU4 that you can make a nation OP by letting them re-roll their mana generator a few times.
- Absolutely no tact or finesse to CB generation. Literally anyone can fabricate a claim on anything with no cost other than spending some diplomat time.
No.1453
>>1451
>can't ally with nations "you" don't like>can't switch between monarchies and republics>can't print money at the cost of inflation>can't affect mercantilism; it's only by eventIt's almost a literal case of no fun being allowed. On top of no fun being allowed:
>no population>instant stability button>tech is gained by magical monarch points instead of money>tech advances suddenly in spurts rather than gradually over time>cookie cutter governments; no customization of policies>shattered retreat mechanic allows armies to retreat for hundreds of miles while invincibleEU4 is a shit game. Arguably the worst grand strategy, and certainly far worse than EU3.
No.1454
This fucking wrong government type penalty for tribes holding Feudal castles is dogshit. I get taxes being penalized, but garrisons? A garrison is literally sit here and don't open the gate, kill them if they get through. It's no different in a castle than it is in a hillfort. Light infantry acts as fodder, archers arch, cavalry waits for a charge, etc.
I wouldn't mind if it was nerfed to basic tribal levels (~200) but I'm rocking 97 troops here. I guess it's because scary stone stacked on ground, can't feel wind in hair.
Also, how can we not raze baronies yet.
No.1455
>>1452>PUs are shitno they're not
>trade is shitbetter than eu3
>unimplemented feature is badneat
>hordes suckuh no, they don't - better than eu3 by leaps and bounds
>you can fabricate a claim on anyonehow exactly is this no fun allowed?
>>1453>can't ally with nations "you" don't likealright this is bullshit I agree
>can't switch between monarchies and republicsit is no-fun allowed but it's not bullshit like above
>can't print money at cost of inflationnew loan system is better
>can't affect mercantilismyeah but events fire way more frequently than slider changes in eu3
>no populationrather have none than have it implemented in a shit way like eu3
>instant stability buttononly instant if you have saved points
>tech changestech is way better, monarch points are a better GAME mechanic because eu4 is exactly that: a GAME
>cookie cutter governmentswhat exactly are you looking for here if idea groups, government types, and decisions don't cut it for you?
>shattered retreat mechanicbetter than ping ponging
I'm not seeing it guys, but then again you like ck2 so maybe there's something wrong upstairs.
No.1456
>>1455I skipped national ideas in the first post, I agree that needs to be fixed.
No.1457
>>1455>>1456tl;dr - I have historical objections to both games but eu4 is more fun and all the no-fun allowed mechanics are there from day one and don't only show up as soon as you've actually started to enjoy yourself as is the case in ck2.
No.1458
>>1455>PUs are shit>no they're notIn EU3 they were a game mechanic. In EU4 they are now entirely luck based.
>trade is shit>better than eu3If by better you mean dumbed down and with more glaring holes.
>uh no, they don't - better than eu3 by leaps and boundsIn EU4 they are nothing but a normal government with a special CB and OP leaders. In EU3 they are an entirely different way to play, with you at war with every non-horde by default, conquer land by controlling it, other nations needing to use colonists to take land back, succession crises literally spawning rebels on 95% of your provinces, etc etc.
>you can fabricate a claim on anyone>how exactly is this no fun allowed?Because it dumbs down the game and takes away all the flavor of playing. Remember when a CB actually meant something?
>can't print money at cost of inflation>new loan system is betterIt's literally the same loan system as before with the possibility of minting taken out.
>can't affect mercantilism>yeah but events fire way more frequently than slider changes in eu3Except slider changes actually presented meaningful gameplay differences between becoming mercantile or not. EU4 has no meaningful gameplay choices.
>no population>rather have none than have it implemented in a shit way like eu3Then you just have bad taste.
>instant stability button>only instant if you have saved pointsThat's not a defense for any part of EU4's mana system.
>tech changes>tech is way better, monarch points are a better GAME mechanic because eu4 is exactly that: a GAMEIt's a worse GAME mechanics because the player doesn't have CONTROL of monarch points. MONEY and average WEALTH of a region are both player-influencable mechanics that also correlate closely with historical tech advances. EU is a historical simulation, and therefore the GAME mechanics should correleate with HISTORICAL SIMULATION, not monarch power bullshit.
>shattered retreat mechanic>better than ping pongingJust as shit as ping ponging, when Paradox could easily have simply fixed ping ponging.
No.1459
>>1455>monarch points are a better GAME mechanic because eu4 is exactly that: a GAMESo, let me get this straight: you're saying that a mechanic that makes no sense and is less realistic is better, not in spite of this, but ==because== of this?
No.1460
Returning to thread topic, I have a new chief on the throne, and within his lifetime I should be able to reform the religion and possibly switch to feudalism.
Who shall be the target of my lifetime pagan subjugation CB? I'm thinking Sweden when the time is right.
No.1465
Fuck the tribal stuff. Just going to restore rome with byzantium again, because the fight with Charlemagne seems to be like a fun future prospect.
No.1466
It's finally happening. Caught them with almost totally depleted levies.
No.1467
Sweden is dead. In keeping with my non-blobbing policy, I will release most of this territory as soon as I can convert/replace most of the rulers there.
No.1472
>Umayyads are now an Empire>Abbasids this hugeIt's ogre.
>>1465Do it, but as Hellenic Pagans.
No.1474
Two goals down; two to go.
No.1479
>>1472I feel your pain. Thankfully ai emperors are too dumb to create king-level titles so they're having problems.
>umayyads are invading aquitaine>abbasids are so taking rome in the next 30 yearsgoddamn it johan
No.1513
Just wondering: Is it actually good to create King titles if you're an Emperor? Sure, less people to assassinate, but when they get their factions going…
No.1516
hahah ebin
Is there a mod to make pagan nations not suck?
No.1518
>>1472>>1479
>even attempting to create a Zoroasterian Persia with the Abbasid's next doorFuckers never break up, or even have big civil wars. Johan needs to nerf the damn muslims
No.1529
guys, I am doing my first full playthrough in CK2 at the moment, I played lots of shorter games so far, but I never had a run this good.
I am byzantium and rule over all the de jury provinces.
I own a large part of northern africa, and holy warred my way up to the northern border of the map.
my additional vassals are the kingdom of aquitaine, denmark, scottland, hungary and bohemia.
but Now for the first time I am facing an enemy that is actually larger than me, the Ilkhanate.
they own a rather small area right now and declared war on me for a single province, assaulting sieges with 40k stacks.
I can not move my troops over there fast enough, according to the wiki which I now used for the first time,they start with 100k unique troops and the rest of their army is actual levies, should I just lose this war but make it as costly as I can for them?
or should I attack them when they get into a fight with the seljuks again (world's third largest army after the ilkhanate and me).
No.1552
>>1518johan doesn't give a shit about balance
he busy counting his big piles of cash
No.1565
>>1529>should I just lose this war but make it as costly as I can for them?Yes.
>should I attack them when they get into a fight with the seljuks againYes.
No.1617
CK2+ mod link where?
No.1653
>>1617You don't need a link. It's right in the steam workshop :^)
No.1656
>>1653Yeah but you need a steam copy for those. I pirated my CK2
No.1662
No.1792
No.1811
>get Way of Life
>adultery fucking everywhere
>have chaste wife, in love with me, 100 opinion
>get "my wife is pregnant, but I was away wasn't I?" event
>wtf, turn on charinfo
>has a lover on the side
>get mad
>click to her second lover's page
>go back to her
>she now has a third lover
Jesus fucking christ. Can someone mod in female agency so she just say 'no'? FFS. I play vidya to get away from whores.
No.1812
>>1811Bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks.
No.1814
>>1812I don't even know what to do now. The whole playthrough is soiled. I've got a kid I can't legitimately assassinate, a (lowborn) wife that was supposed to be the mother of
my children, not a baby factory for the rest of the carolingian empire, a vassal that I have a truce with who's currently fucking her (and she's my spymaster and in love with him so assassinating him's out), and some random chucklefuck bishop halfway across West Francia laughing about the bastard kid I get to raise.
I'm tempted to just spam 'kill' in the console until the problem is fixed, but I'd still have to get a new wife. I have heirs so maybe I'll just go gay and avoid all female niggatry. Here's hoping CK2+'s eventual update will include a "Close your goddamn legs, you harlot" diplomatic option.
No.1815
>>1814She had another fucking bastard. This time I outed her publicly, imprisoned her, divorced her, executed her, dueled him, killed him, and married his wife. Not a bad expansion.
No.1816
>new wife – the old wife's lover's widow who watched me kill the first wife and her husband for their adultery – just had another man's child
Burn it all down. Every last bit of it.
No.1817
>>1811>>1814Is she lustful, hedonistic, etc? I've hardly ever seen that level of adultery even since Way of Life.
No.1818
>>1817No, although I altered her traits through the console at the beginning (I typically do that for the first generation of ruler/spouse). Not sure what they started as, but they finished with chaste and every other virtue, no hedonist, no lustful, no seducer, no deceitful. If the unmodified traits have a lingering effect then it's possible that's why, otherwise it's working as designed.
I think the higher the stats the more people target the woman (she was cheated to have genius, fair, and strong) so the entire carolingian empire kept trying to seduce her.
The second wife wasn't altered at all. I just said fuck it let's get married and then bam pregnant. Executed her, got assassinated by one of my first wife's many lovers, now my four kids are trying to survive against her lover who considers them all rivals for some reason and has very high intrigue.
Basically playing 'til game over.
No.1819
>>1817Now that I think about it, she did have both kind and charitable, which may explain why she felt the need to be the village bicycle.
No.1820
Daughter turned 16, got married to a byzantine prince, and had a kid all before she was 17. Kid belongs to duke of burgundy. Now she's 17 and pregnant with another man's child. Maybe her husband will get a chance eventually.
No.1821
Son just got married, wife got pregnant, kid isn't his. Wife's traits are unaltered but she's a genius and has charitable. Daughter is having her third child, another bastard. This is well past the point of absurdity now. I'm just making a new game.
No.1829
>>1818
>altering your characters via console cheatsThe only acceptable modification is via ruler designer for your first ruler; at least that makes you pay a price for adding the best traits.
No.2451
Reviving this thread since I started a new version of essentially the game game premise post-WoL. It's much more fun now that I can alternate between Cuckold Simulator 867 and playing characters with more unique personalities. For a simplistic DLC, I find it adds a lot of life to the game.
No.2452
>Norse have also reformed
>two strengthened pagan faiths vying for power and/or joining forces against the sons of Abraham
Well, this game just gained the potential to get interesting.
No.2460
>>2452It's does, continue.
No.2518
One of my nephews somehow has a claim on Poland and started an adventurer war for it. Decided to throw in with him given how big Poland is now. It will be a good opportunity to spread the faith and/or culture.
In other news, Scandinavia is currently being wrecked by old Germanic uprisings.
No.2519
>both Sweden and Denmark defeated by old Germanic uprisings
Well, this is the first time I've seen a pagan reformation effectively reverse itself.
No.2520
>>2519Spoke too soon, apparently. Despite fighting a massive war for the sole purpose of reversing Denmark's reformation, the new de facto king has decided to convert, thus throwing the Norse world into chaos for no reason whatsoever.
No.2521
>Persian Zoroastrianism back from the grave
I'm beginning to like this run.
No.2524
The Norse have begun to adopt this new "feudalism" as a form of governance. Not to be left behind, we have done so as well, despite the apparent giant setback in levy size.
No.2534
>>1829Ruler designer is meh. I find the pros and cons are too excessive to build a well balanced character at an acceptable starting age. I prefer using mods that let me pick whatever skills and age since I always like making well-rounded characters.
No.2535
>>2534*without having to making him wounded, stressed, or having other idiotic starting traits just to lower his age.
No.2537
>>2534>>2535I disagree. What you call "well balanced," I would probably call overpowered. Normal rulers don't have a top tier job trait, ambitious, just, and diligent all at once(unless you've raised them very well from childhood), and if you want to make such a ruler, it's fair that you shouldn't be able to play him for several decades. Obviously it's not perfectly balanced, but I think it's a good way to customize a starting character without giving yourself an unfair advantage.
No.2540
>Slavs adopting reformed Suomenusko
>Norse slowly getting their shit together
>Zoroastrians almost completely removing Islam from Persia
Fall of Abraham soon.
No.2550
Lappland is now officially a kingdom, and I have ditched the horrors of elective gavelkind succession. Also, after this guy somehow becoming a grey eminence, I've decided to just roll with it with the family focus to see how many progeny I can produce. It's going well so far.
No.2554
I've been forced to take some additional territory to save a holy site from Norse encroachment. Ruthenia is also getting pretty huge and ate another holy site to the east, so I may have to temporarily blob in that direction to rescue my Suomenusko brothers.
No.2563
9000 imprisoned diviners later, and finally someone actually does have a moment to talk about our Lord and Savior Ukko.
No.2567
Abbasids have been removed from existence, and Zoroastrians are officially the greatest heroes of our era.
No.2571
Turn of the millennium report:
In the last few centuries of the first millenium, the Lapps of Kola founded a large kingdom, spreading their culture as they went. While the center of industry in modern Lappland is in the south of the country, this region was originally home to the Finnish tribes, whose descendants are a minority group primarily living in north-west Russia.
This same time period saw the spread of Suomenusko, which is now the predominate religion of most of eastern Europe. Historians believe that the sacred texts of the religion, which allowed it to become more organized and compete with Christianity and Islam, were written initially on stone carvings sometime in the 9th century, though the original tablets have never been found. By now the Persian Reconquest was also well underway, in which Zoroastrian Iranians would go on to retake much of the ancient Persian imperial territory from Muslims who had conquered it during the Muslim conquests hundreds of years earlier.
Importantly, sometime around the 1000 CE the most technologically advanced regions in the western world began to move north, facilitated by the Republic of Estonia, a vassal state of Lappland, which substantially boosted the economy of the Baltic region and set the stage for the much later industrial revolution that would begin there.
No.2572
Normally I might be annoyed to be stuck with a female ruler, but given those traits and how young she is, she's actually the best I've had in several generations.
No.2578
>Byzantium has become a de facto theocracy ruled by the Patriarch of Constantinople
Not sure how this happened, but I'm okay with it.
No.2579
Now if only you would actually ever declare one.
No.2580
>>2579Well, I guess I spoke too soon. Too bad he decided to target a mostly irrelevant and miniscule kingdom.
No.2611
This whole theocracy thing has resulting in a pretty amusing dynastic map.
No.2612
>declaring great holy wars on our fellow pagans
>not using them to smite the monotheistic heathens
Why.
No.2647
>>2611You know, I don't think I've ever seen that happen before. Under what conditions can the Patriarch hijack the ERE?
No.2656
>>2647Someone with a claim probably became Patriarch and then the claim was pressed.
No.2658
>>2612You can change these, but some would consider that cheating
No.2664
>>2647I don't know exactly what happened, but probably
>>2656. I just looked over at some point and it was like this.
>>2658I'll consider it in the future, though my inclination is to keep it as authentic as possible. The only thing that really tempts me about it is creating some excuse to break up the disgusting Francia blob currently in existence.
No.2666
>>2658>>2664Alright, so I took your suggestion and tweaked the crusade weight values slightly, including turning back the clock by half a year to before the Norway war. If that counts as cheating, so be it; I consider it historically nonsensical for a reformed pagan faith to unify against the only other reformed pagan faith in existence, especially when other threats exist. One may as well suggest a Catholic crusade against the Orthodox while Muslims are actively invading Spain.
Anyway, we are apparently now aimed east instead, presumably to save the one brother of the faith who rules over there and is constantly getting attacked by Cumans.
No.2669
After a long and brutal war through the eastern steppes, we have returned victorious. Now time to dump all of this territory on one of my dynasty members so as to avoid blobbing.
No.2670
>crusading for a realm that has never even been held by Christians
>not crusading for Andalusia
>not crusading for Jerusalem
Apparently the Christians are beginning to take the rise of paganism seriously.
No.2671
>>2670I suspect this will end up being a close one. Francia is ludicrously huge, but we do have a lot of pagans willing to defend their homelands.
No.2672
>only one Welsh guy even joins
>Pope is fighting by himself
Well, this is going to go pretty quickly unless someone major gets in on it.
No.2673
I guess I'll just be over here sacking Rome while Francia mysteriously does nothing.
No.2675
>1097
>people still worship the Christ-god
That was probably the most pathetic crusade I've ever seen.
No.2682
>Pannonia absorbs Ruthenia
Well, this could set up an interesting triumvirate. Too bad Ruthenia is still on gavelkind, so it likely won't last.
No.2705
Well, I'll be damned. We have a three-empire system after all. This is honestly shaping up to be the best naturally created CK2 alt-history I've ever played through; it's definitely going to get converted once I'm done.
No.2725
Much as I would normally be happy to see this happen, it will probably just result in Francia becoming utterly unstoppable.
No.2728
The crusade for Andalusia failed, but Norway apparently managed to do a prepared invasion of York, giving pagans a foothold in the British Isles.
No.2743
>>2728The Norse have had quite the run of good luck lately. First York, then Pommerania, and now they've actually managed to catch Francia with her pants down and steal a whole kingdom.
No.2746
Getting pretty tired of these Scandi-poors trying to steal all of my wealth. Typical third-worlders, trying to mooch off of superior civilizations.
No.2748
Lappland has become so technologically advanced that my options for studying other nations' technology have grown slim.
No.2749
Well, I tried. Byzantium is pretty officially unstoppable at this point.
No.2750
So much for those gains against the blob. I had high hopes for this run, but it's starting to look ugly. The mongols are my last hope.
No.2752
Are the Karlings still alive or did they die long ago?
No.2775
>>2752They're still alive, but long bereft of relevance. As far as I can tell, this guy is the only remaining landed member of the dynasty, though some of them still have claims on Middle Francia that might manage to come back.
No.2914
Did OP died?
No.2915
Much to my chagrin, Christians are making a comeback with gains in Persia and Britain.
>>2914Nope, just went on a vacation.
No.3285
Mongol conquest is pretty disappointing so far. Hulegu hasn't even declared war on anyone in years; he's just sitting around converting to Persian culture.
>>3283
:^)
No.3286
In unrelated news, Norwegian pagans have all but taken over the British Isles.
No.3287
I can only hope that the new Mongols prove more useful. With any luck, my sister will convince the Khan to convert to Suomenusko.
No.3290
On the one hand, I'm always a fan of kicking the Moors out of Spain. On the other hand, the idea of this horrible Francia blob getting any bigger is absolutely disgusting.
No.3293
Uhh… so, you guys are going to convert to the t-true faith, right?
No.3294
Deus Vult, you beautiful bastards.
No.3295
>>3293
>tfw no mongol conversion events for religions other than christianity or islam
No.3297
>>3295
They can still convert to the religion of their capital county though, so I have a decent chance.
No.3300
>>3294
Holy shit, that Teutonic Order is beautiful.
No.3302
>>3300
Even better now after an additional holy war. The best part to me is that it gives German culture, which has been all but wiped out by the spread of the French, a new chance to thrive. This game is actually starting to turn into a pretty good alternate history; I might convert it forward at this rate.
No.3303
>Golden Horde actually does convert to Suomenusko
>declares war on me anyway even though we're related by marriage, good friends, and of the same faith
What the fuck, Batu; go invade Byzantium or something.
No.3305
Good thing I had so much money lying around; had to hire every mercenary group possible to win. Almost a shame to kill the horde's doomstacks now that they're my religion, bu oh well.
No.3306
Didn't take long after sending tens of thousands of men to die saving Lappland from Asians for it to be ruled by one.
No.3307
>Fylkir Ivar, the Sword of Thor, Emperor of Britannia
>Teutonic Order controls Spain
>a game map is actually coming together decently for once
No.3309
>>3307
Impressive. Very nice.
No.3312
>>3307
>that carpathia
my dick right now is diamonds
No.3313
>>3307
>That Teutonic order
hnnng
too bad they're just a duchy level title. Can you switch to them and see if they can create a custom kingdom?
No.3314
>>3313
Holy orders can create kingdoms, but when they do so they effectively lose their nature as holy orders. For example, if the Hohenzollern created the Kingdom of Castille, it would functionally be a normal kingdom in which the king also controls the order.
Alternatively, I'm pretty sure he could use the "create new kingdom" decision to create a new King-tier teutonic order (though unfortunately it would also have standard laws).
No.3320
>>3313
>>3314
Shouldn't have said anything. Turns out he did that, but he also created the empire title. Game officially ruined.
No.3321
At least that Asian breeding is working out.
No.3324
No.3328
>>3320
>Kaiser of Hispania
Far from ruined
No.3329
>>3307
>Serbia still hanging in there
STRONKEST!
No.3331
>>3328
That is the good news. Spain is now slowly becoming German. If this new Empire sticks around, the conversion will be largely complete by the game's end date.
>>3329
And somehow still pagan, no less.
No.3336
>>3331
Fucking stupid game
No.3337
>>3336
not at all surprising, it's a Charlememe start
No.3338
>>3337
I just mean that the MTTH for the culture shift event is absurd. Seeing blotches of foreign culture is just stupid. Jerusalem inevitably becomes German or French too.
No.3341
>>3338
I always get tired of seeing Georgian, Armenian, Serbian, and Croatian getting wiped out by Greek culture (or Occitan/Norman by French, or Catalan/Basque by Castillian) In the ironman game I'm currently playing on-and-off, Portugal is Lombard (that was kinda my fault though), Persian culture is 99% wiped out by Bedouin, Britannia is a nonsensical cultural mess, Greeks wiped out Bulgarian and all other Byzantine cultures…
…and all but one or two counties in Finland are French after they won a crusade. I swear within the year one province was already French, and within 20 most of the land with it. It's one of the dumbest things I've seen.
Fuck France.
No.3342
>>3338
>>3341
To be fair, most of this is due to limitations on how the game handles province culture/religion. This is why all GS needs Victoria-style population modeling. It would be dramatically better if the population in each county gradually embraced a new culture/religion instead of patches popping up every several years.
No.3344
>>3342
No, they can easily fix the issue by pushing the MTTH back to like 200 years, right now it's 10.
No.3354
>>3344
Don't forget about that retarded "settlers" event.
No.3355
>>3344
IMO 200 is a little excessive, 150 or even 100 might be better. Also I think there should be a much higher chance for AI rulers to convert to the local culture and/or liberation revolts, especially if the territory is distant (eg. France conquering Finland).
No.3359
>>3331
I like that Hispania OP. I like it a lot.
I await further installments of this.
No.3383
No.3391
Continuing on; yet another shitty attempt at a Crusade for pagan lands in progress.
>>3359
You may be in for a disappointment; somehow it just gained some random French territory and lost some to Bavaria via inheritance. This is what happens when a bunch of Germans are suddenly landed in Spain, I guess.
No.3392
The Sword of Thor does it again with gains in France during a civil war. Hispania picking back some of its rightful clay in a quick changing of hands after the Umayyads took it in a jihad.
Also, my son is a living god; golden age soon.
No.3394
>>3392
>Also, my son is a living god; golden age soon.
>genius, proud, ambitious, deceitful
More like "plot to kill me soon"
No.3864
Is thread dead? I really want to see this progress more.
Also if op is still lurking, can you possibly give a save file of this game?
No.3981
>>3864
this, have been lurking
No.3992
>>3864
>>3981
Have also been lurking.
No.4188
Bump, please come back lapp chan