Crusader Kings II Spirit-all

Is there a newbie Island (Ireland) equivilant for playing a horde?

I really need to set this up again.

How about actual magicians and wizards?

My Venetian game is more and more about England. I forgot how, but I took over spot of land there and ended up taking over a county, taking more and more after that. At the moment I am looking at the option to crown myself King of England. I own 45% of the land needed.

On the other hand England is starting to become Italian. I must say that this time I like the culture change. The last time this happened my own IRL country (Holland) changed into German - which was a real shock that it could even happen! Not being English probably helps accepting this

The province that changed culture first didnt recognise itself as de jure part of England anymore. Does that mean I need more and more land from now on to form that Kingdom? Shouldnt take long now tho. I only need Wesses - 3 provinces.

I got a standing army in England that can beat everything they throw at me there. I dont even have to hire mercs.

Very interesting first gameplay as a merchant!

SparrowOne wrote:

On the other hand England is starting to become Italian.

If it means we get better pizza I'm fine with it.

kergguz wrote:
SparrowOne wrote:

On the other hand England is starting to become Italian.

If it means we get better pizza I'm fine with it.

I can see the benefits indeed!

I'm glad to hear you're having fun with it.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/fI1NTCu.jpg?1)

"And now for the (Jade Empire) Changelog - the biggest one in the history of CK2. As this picture shows (courtesy of Meneth) the changelog measures two QA, one Project Lead, one Content Designer, one Programmer and half a Groogy."

LOL.

I've played 5 or 6 hours of a game recently as a Duke in Wales (or a petty King as I am known), and it's the first time I've played around with the Monks and Mystics stuff. Honestly, it's a bit of a let down so far. I've done a lot of the Dominican Order and Lucifer's Own quests, and it just seems as though the same events are popping up over and over and over again. It's getting quite tiresome to the point I may not bother joining any societies with my next character, unless anyone can tell me it gets much better. Are any of the other societies more interesting?

Gonna keep playing, because as always it's turning into an interesting run even without the M&M stuff, just disappointed that the DLC seems like a waste of money.

Pretty gutted that my current save game appears to be corrupt. I was going for the 700 years achievement but the game keeps crashing on or around 1st October 969. Anyone had any experience recovering a borked save before?

They just released a big patch, which are usually not save-compatible with previous versions. However, it is easy to go back if you are on Steam. Select the game from your library, right-click, select "Properties...", select the "Betas" tab, and then select the version you want (probably 2.7.2 which is the version before the current one).

tboon wrote:

They just released a big patch, which are usually not save-compatible with previous versions. However, it is easy to go back if you are on Steam. Select the game from your library, right-click, select "Properties...", select the "Betas" tab, and then select the version you want (probably 2.7.2 which is the version before the current one).

Yeah, unfortunately I carried on playing since the patch, and all seemed fine until this morning. Now, I don't appear to be able to load the save in 2.7.2. at all. I can load it in the most recent version but it then crashes at the same date. Very weird. If only I could find out what's happening on that date to make it crash. In future I just won't let steam update the game until I've finished the game I'm on.

kergguz wrote:
tboon wrote:

They just released a big patch, which are usually not save-compatible with previous versions. However, it is easy to go back if you are on Steam. Select the game from your library, right-click, select "Properties...", select the "Betas" tab, and then select the version you want (probably 2.7.2 which is the version before the current one).

Yeah, unfortunately I carried on playing since the patch, and all seemed fine until this morning. Now, I don't appear to be able to load the save in 2.7.2. at all. I can load it in the most recent version but it then crashes at the same date. Very weird. If only I could find out what's happening on that date to make it crash. In future I just won't let steam update the game until I've finished the game I'm on.

Sorry to hear that man. Been there and it sucks. Turning off auto-update for all Paradox games is a good idea as it will happen for their other games too. Usually when the upgrade goes from X.Y to X.(Y+1) saves break but if the version goes from X.Y.Z to X.Y.(Z+1) saves are usually compatible. The patch notes will say for certain.

Also, maybe send the save to their support, they may be able to fix it so you can finish. I have not done that but have heard other people have successfully done it.

tboon wrote:

Also, maybe send the save to their support, they may be able to fix it so you can finish. I have not done that but have heard other people have successfully done it.

Thanks man, definitely worth a try. I'll report back!

Just getting into CK2 and I'm looking to pick up some of the expansions in the Steam sale (or on the Paradox site because they're doing 3 for 2 and 50% off so it's cheaper than Steam).

Anyway I read through tboon's DLC guide. Is it still accurate? Do others agree on the DLC that I should grab?

Right now, I'm looking at:
Way of Life
Sword of Islam
Sons of Abraham
The Republic
The Old Gods
Conclave

Good choices?

Way of Life and Old Gods are definites. Ruler Designer is handy.

Conclave is good too

PWAlessi wrote:

Just getting into CK2 and I'm looking to pick up some of the expansions in the Steam sale (or on the Paradox site because they're doing 3 for 2 and 50% off so it's cheaper than Steam).

Anyway I read through tboon's DLC guide. Is it still accurate? Do others agree on the DLC that I should grab?

Right now, I'm looking at:
Way of Life
Sword of Islam
Sons of Abraham
The Republic
The Old Gods
Conclave

Good choices?

I'd like to think my buying guide is still good. I try to keep it up to date as new stuff comes out and change recommendations as I get to play with new expansions.

As for your list, Republic and Sword of Islam if you want to play as a Republic or as a Moslem ruler, respectively. If you don't care about either of these, you can take a pass IMO. Or get them later. Or get them now if they are cheap enough and then you have them if/when you want to play as either of them. I think the other ones on your list are the best expansions, almost must-haves.

Awesome, thanks for the feedback everyone!

I'll probably be posting a lot in this thread as I dive deeper into the game and the expansions.

I went with Conclave, Way of Life and Old Gods. I thin that $15 was a good deal for the three.

PWAlessi wrote:

Awesome, thanks for the feedback everyone!

I'll probably be posting a lot in this thread as I dive deeper into the game and the expansions.

I went with Conclave, Way of Life and Old Gods. I thin that $15 was a good deal for the three.

I have also made a vow to the gods of the holidays to put more effort into this game. It's criminal the amount of money I've spent on CK2, but I have yet to really sink my teeth in.

I keep buying the DLC even though I haven't put in any significant time since before my daughter was born. I figure I've already gotten 1388 hours out of it, I'll keep supporting them to make things I like.

I'm kind of the same way, Prozac (I lost a bunch of hours when I moved my install from Paradox's store to Steam a while back). But I can feel myself about to start up another game soon. I always come back to it.

I am tempted to buy the new DLC just because it is there. I got all the other DLC's, so why not ;). I normally play without Sunrise and Conclave.

Apart from the obvious regional extras, is the latest offering any new stuff that would effect my gameplay?

It had been a long time since I played CKII but I picked up all the current DLC that was discounted in the steam sale (so I've now everything except Jade Dragon). Over the Christmas I put in a good 200 years (about six rulers), I only got three successful Fabricate Claims in all that time. Is this usual? Is there something else I should be doing (my Chancellor was always greater than 20 skill)?

Also the 769 start date doesn't seem to be super friendly to start as a one province Christian count. I was playing as the count of Orleans (part of West Francia, the Karlings were completed divided and stayed that way). There didn't seem to be many marriageable claimants around. I used to play the 1066 start date mostly and that one seems more balanced for the Christian feudal game.

Re the above, I kinda view new DLC basically as a tip jar for Paradox at this point.

I don't have thousands of hours into the game like some, but I still feel like CK2 is one of the most important PC releases of the past decade.

It's one of those classics that I always go back to and will never leave my HDD. Until CK3 drops of course!

Average time to fabricate is something like 25 years. 3 in 200 years is bad RNG luck I think.

769 is a bad start date for almost everyone not named Karling. Bad in the sense that it is a lot harder to do anything except sit back and wait. Which is ahistorical, 769 was a great time for ambitious one county rulers as royal control was spread way too thin over too much land for the king to be at all effective. The game does a bad job of modelling this IMO, which is probably why they do not push the start date back further: the simulation in CK2 has reached its limits.

867 is better IMO. Things are more scrambled and ambitious characters can take advantage of the fragmentation in the Francias. Also Viking raids are a thing, they are not a thing at start in 769.

Edit: And remember, the game is really tuned for 1066 start. 867 is not super-awesome starting as a Christian player. Better than 769 but less good than 1066. 867 is really ideal for northern European pagans.

I've been continuing my game from 769 Orleans start. It's now ~1050 and my Character is the King of France.

First on the time to fabricate, it seems that your Chancellor won't fabricate if he is in seclusion. Investing in a hospital so that you don't need to close the gates against plague as much pays for itself rather quickly. I was super paranoid with putting the court in seclusion so I think that explains why I had so few fabricated claims.

Having the Black Plague spread through the land is wonderfully disruptive. The Karlings had allowed the French Crown to become elective. I first became the French King when all the other candidates were down with the sniffles, even though I wasn't trying.

It didn't last though. I had too many Ducal level titles and too many holdings. I had had high centralization as Duke of Orleans, it dropped to very low centralization. So I went from a demense limit of 11 to 3. This pissed everyone off. There was a nice panicky decade as I tried (and failed) to pass the crown onto my heir.

From after the first Orleanist King I was back just the Duke of Orleans with 5 counties. Though now the family has branches in England, Ireland, Northern Germany & Galicia. This also created three new Electors in France of my Dynasty. Then next twenty or so was being the spider arranging things for my uncle (Duke of Normandy) to become King while I pumped the centralization. He chose me as his heir (he only had daughters). Became King again this time in a much better state and I was able to enact Primogeniture on the 10 year to a day.

Now that the French crown is secure (and I'm Duke of Orleans and Normandy). It feels like I've won the mid-game. The Karling Empire is huge (all the start area plus, most of Spain, eaten slavic areas towards Poland and Hungry) and while the Emperor always seems to only have a single county, all the other Kings in the Empire are Karling. What succession laws would the empire have (currently gravelkind) if I (currently primo) was to take it by force?

The kingdom would keep its own. The empire would have its own succession laws (as would any additional kingdoms in it that you owned). Things get weird from there.

I've started a new game (because of course I did) and have a new one for me. Has anyone had a ruler who just refuses to die?

My current ruler is 91. He's survived two wounds leading battles, is missing a leg (thanks to Dr. Horse), survived an assassination attempt, survived the Black Plague, all the while being the leader of the cult of Kali (because of course he is).

The only reason it is sticking out is because I just got informed I have a new heir and when my current ruler dies I will be playing as his great-grandson! Yeah, my oldest male descendant is over 70 years younger than me.

And he just got married for the 4th time. Watch him have another son now...

Anyone have a ruler stick out like that?

He does not have the immortal trait does he?

I once had a ruler that reached an age far in his 80's, but never this far. And your ruler seemed to have quite the exciting life! Mine was a good ruler, with nothing special about it. He kept from leading battles, no doctors around yet nor plagues (b4 that DLC). He just enjoyed the Irish country side (taking it all for himself).

I had mixed feelings: he had so many good traits that it was easy to rule, but to the point of it being boring. Did I want him to die or not? I guess not, since when it happened I felt sad.

Make sure that you give him a monument when your next ruler takes over (if possible of course!)