Crusader Kings II Spirit-all

Ooh, I thought this was coming out next week for some reason. Awesome!

Gremlin wrote:
davet010 wrote:

Aztec DLC is out, as well as patch 1.08. Not read the patch notes yet, but have noticed one new addition - a button which prevents your council members leading armies (and hence being away for ages). Oh, and retinues now start without assigned leaders, well...mine did.

Game is also out for £10 (with some of the DLC) at Gamersgate, for those who have yet to get it.

Important question: does that include the ruler?

I don't know, to be honest. For some reason, my characters haven't been very good at military skill (apart from a couple of my daughters, oddly enough), so I tend to appoint people who do. My Ireland game (same one as the map above) is now at 1226, I'm King of Wales as well, but the last Welsh county is held by one of the most powerful English Dukes after the swine took the opportunity of me weakening the holder of it by taking her other county. Golden Horde is just emerging in the East, but no sign of people with odd headdresses yet.

Just thinking though - if these Aztec chappies are coming from the West, then landfall is most likely to be Spain...or Ireland. Better get working on my neglected Western defences, I think.

Oh, and England still holds most of Italy. I managed to marry my daughter into the family a while back, time to see about that Tuscan holiday home - or bolt hole, should there be a need for it.

I mistakenly bought Legacy of Rome on Gamer's Gate today, and I have the Steam version. Apparently you need the GG version of CK2 to use it. I want it to have a good home, so send me a PM if you want it (non coffee grinders please)!

So I just picked this game up on the Steam sale, mostly with the intention of playing the Game of Thrones mod for it, but I am feeling really out of my depth. Does anyone have any recommendations for newbies of this game/genre? Should I play the core game first? Are there any good online guides or videos to get me started? Any stupid noob mistakes I should try to avoid?

EriktheRed wrote:

So I just picked this game up on the Steam sale, mostly with the intention of playing the Game of Thrones mod for it, but I am feeling really out of my depth. Does anyone have any recommendations for newbies of this game/genre? Should I play the core game first? Are there any good online guides or videos to get me started? Any stupid noob mistakes I should try to avoid?

Ditto, King.

How do you get started?

I found this series of videos to be really helpful in understanding not only all the game systems, but how to actually use them to achieve specific in-game objectives.

What BDog said. That series was invaluable for explaining some key concepts as well as being easy to follow. His second series (as Salerno) is amusing as well.

For me, those vids turned CK2 from something I picked up in a Steam sale into something that has given me hours of entertainment...my current game started in 1066 and I'm now at 1339 and keeping a weather eye out for invaders from the West with odd headdresses - at this rate they'll meet up with the Mongol Hordes somewhere around Paris

That sort of info probably belongs in the OP by this point. I'd put it there myself, but I'm feeling lazybusy.

Lester_King wrote:
EriktheRed wrote:

So I just picked this game up on the Steam sale, mostly with the intention of playing the Game of Thrones mod for it, but I am feeling really out of my depth. Does anyone have any recommendations for newbies of this game/genre? Should I play the core game first? Are there any good online guides or videos to get me started? Any stupid noob mistakes I should try to avoid?

Ditto, King.

How do you get started?

A lot of us found Ireland to be a good starting point.

wordsmythe wrote:

That sort of info probably belongs in the OP by this point. I'd put it there myself, but I'm feeling lazybusy.

I don't know what you're talking about, it's been linked there the whole time.

NathanialG wrote:
Lester_King wrote:
EriktheRed wrote:

So I just picked this game up on the Steam sale, mostly with the intention of playing the Game of Thrones mod for it, but I am feeling really out of my depth. Does anyone have any recommendations for newbies of this game/genre? Should I play the core game first? Are there any good online guides or videos to get me started? Any stupid noob mistakes I should try to avoid?

Ditto, King.

How do you get started?

A lot of us found Ireland to be a good starting point.

Yeah Ireland is the best starter. Pick the duchy of Munster; it has a good starting position and you are in the strongest position in Ireland. England and Scotland will have their own troubles and will leave you alone while you learn to play. Make your first long-range goal the unification of Ireland. From there, Europe is your oyster.

I used to think the Duchy of Flanders was a great starting point, but somewhere Paradox gave the HRE a claim on Ghent which means a big war off the bat usually (in 4 games is saw the HRE go for it in each game within the first 15 years).

I haven't played the GoT mod but I would suggest getting comfortable with the base game first. It really is a great game in and of itself.

The key thing to remember is always have an heir. If you run out of heirs and your current ruler dies, it is game over. So always make sure you have a line of succession.'

Second thing is: the best thing to do in a lot of cases is nothing. Yep, nothing. Tinkering with stuff is the videogamey thing to do but resist it. Save your money, you may well need to get some mercenaries down the line.

That said, invest in your desmenses. You can build up the tax base on the lands you own directly; this is always a good idea. You can also build up your vassel's lands but this is a less-good idea. Why? Taxes. As the holder, taxes go directly to you. As a liege lord, you get taxes from your vassals, but they get a cut first (i.e. you get less). So make sure the lands you directly hold get developed. More money == better in CK2 as in real life.

Don't neglect to build non-economic building too; each building gives a bonus of some sort, read the tool tips.

Maintain good relations with your vassals; they pay taxes if they have a positive relationship. Once the relationship goes negative, they pay less the worse the relationship is. Clergy are slightly different; if they like you more than the Pope (or pertinent head of their religion) they pay taxes to you. Conversely if they like the Pope better, they pay taxes to him. Use your court chaplain to improve church relations where needed.

Which leads us to this (sorry it got so long): always make sure your court is out doing something. Each of them can do one of three things, make sure they are doing something. Each of the things they can do can provide some sort of bonus (and, admittedly some sort of malus, depending on how bad they are). But you want them doing something to help you out. Leaving them at court eating up your food and wenching your women is not helping you out. And you are the most important, after all.

With Ireland/Munster you can unite the whole island in several decades (it took me just two kings to do that, i.e. less than half a century) with a combination of cassus bellis, title creations and vassal provocations. After that the difficulty ramps up if you want to keep expanding, because suddenly you need a navy. Or you can just keep boosting Irish economy and enjoy your insular position that keeps you relatively safe from harm.
Starting on the continent makes your situation much more complicated - too many interests to keep in check and too many threats. Ireland will teach you basics without feeling punishingly complex.

As a complete newbie to those grand strategy games, I too was lost when it came to selecting a starting point. I googled a little bit and also found the suggestion to start with Ireland.
However I would suggest not to dive into any guides or such because part of the fun, for me, was to be somewhat oblivious to the game's systems. It's completely playable that way and not that complex.

tboon wrote:

Which leads us to this (sorry it got so long): always make sure your court is out doing something. Each of them can do one of three things, make sure they are doing something. Each of the things they can do can provide some sort of bonus (and, admittedly some sort of malus, depending on how bad they are). But you want them doing something to help you out. Leaving them at court eating up your food and wenching your women is not helping you out. And you are the most important, after all. :)

Your marshall is important, especially if it is expansion you are after. If you make him train troops in your capital province, his boost to manpower can change defeat into victory. Use this knowledge, appease crucial vassals to keep their levies high and you will roll through Ireland in no time. Also, mercenaries are your friends if you have enough money, a thing with which a good chancellor can help. Just dismiss them as soon as you don't need them, they are a huge drain on resources. But they can end a prolonged siege in almost no time at all, which makes them worth the investment.

With mercs, just don't run out of money, make sure you are watching cash-flow. Mercs get an upfront payment and then a monthly payment too (the costs are on the Mercenaries tab in the Military page). They get *pissed* when not paid. The best thing that happens is they just leave.

Just bought Sunset Invasion off Amazon (activates on Steam), because it offered me $5 credit toward any digital purchase in January. Effectively this means that you get the $4.99 expansion for free. Time to get medieval again!

do the amazon $5 credits stack? If so I might jump on it, otherwise I'll wait for january and use a $5 credit for it

Prozac wrote:

do the amazon $5 credits stack? If so I might jump on it, otherwise I'll wait for january and use a $5 credit for it :)

Mine says you may use only one per purchase, so unfortunately no.

wanderingtaoist wrote:

Just bought Sunset Invasion off Amazon (activates on Steam), because it offered me $5 credit toward any digital purchase in January. Effectively this means that you get the $4.99 expansion for free. Time to get medieval again!

Read the fine print carefully. It's $5 off any "2012 Editor's Choice Game", all of which will probably be on sale for more than $5 off during December. In other words, not actually useful.

And next up....Republics !

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/12/08/cr...

davet010 wrote:

And next up....Republics !

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/12/08/cr...

Thanks, just got the email. Sounds cool. I love this game.

garion333 wrote:
davet010 wrote:

And next up....Republics !

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/12/08/cr...

Thanks, just got the email. Sounds cool. I love this game.

Oh yes.

IMAGE(http://img.izismile.com/img/img5/20120224/640/soon_meme_collection_640_03.jpg)

Dixie_Flatline wrote:
wanderingtaoist wrote:

Just bought Sunset Invasion off Amazon (activates on Steam), because it offered me $5 credit toward any digital purchase in January. Effectively this means that you get the $4.99 expansion for free. Time to get medieval again!

Read the fine print carefully. It's $5 off any "2012 Editor's Choice Game", all of which will probably be on sale for more than $5 off during December. In other words, not actually useful.

That's being a bit pessimistic. For instance, Hotline Miami is on sale for $5 right now and you can get away with buying one of the CKII $1.99 DLC to get the $5 credit. Hell, CKII is listed and it's entirely possible the $5 credit could be used towards more DLC. Last year they put plenty of these games on super sale in January, so it's most likely worth it, to me.

garion333 wrote:
davet010 wrote:

And next up....Republics !

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/12/08/cr...

Thanks, just got the email. Sounds cool. I love this game.

I haven't had time to play with the Rome expansion yet, and they go and announce this?

Shush, no one tell him about the Aztecs !

davet010 wrote:

Shush, no one tell him about the Aztecs !

[size=8]They are coming.[/size]

Must have missed the boat in my game, and believe me as Ireland I'm looking out for them

I have not seen them in my byzantine game. Though I had started the game before the expansion came out so I don't know if they will show up.

So hey, this game is pretty fun.

I tried a few times starting as Munster without any walkthroughs or guides, I like to learn for myself as much as possible, each time getting a bit further before getting myself into a position where I didn't see any hope, then I tried starting as Dublin using this rough guide for the early years.

It went pretty well. I united Ireland, joined some crusades then turned my baleful eye to Wales. At that point I had a bunch of rebellions back home and the King of Scotland decided on some expansion at my expense. It's going pretty badly now. I'm going to see how it plays out, but I suspect I'm pretty hosed.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

I'm going to see how it plays out, but I suspect I'm pretty hosed.

This is every game of Crusader Kings ever, so you're doing something right.