Octopus Overlords

tru1cy wrote:Well, I have two brothers that I plan to pass the those titles too along with land with in those Kingdoms... At least that was the plan


Anyway, I'm going to try to hold onto the titles... I just don't think at the time I can afford another revolt

In terms of who you grant titles to, your best bet is to someone who is your kinsman (as that gives you a relations bonus) but who does not actually have a claim to your titles (as that gives you a relations penalty). The brothers might be problematic because they probably have claims on your titles (depending on your inheritance laws). If you have any cousins, though, that can be ideal.

And *definitely* check to make sure that they are not ambitious before you grant a title (ideally they'll be content).

I tend to ruthlessly hunt down and prune vassals with the Ambitious trait. At the first sign of it, I begin working towards their eventual demise. It's incredibly hard to keep those people satisfied, and they'll actively work against you at the drop of a hat.

More often than not, my plans end with the Ambitious noble revolting, followed by him being tossed into jail, where he remains for the rest of his life, still holding his titles.

So my Empire of Britannia (Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, Andalusia, Navarre, Galicia, and Leon (thank you Crusades!)) is having some issues. I have kept Scotland, England and Andalusia for my own line and granted the rest to various relations. I do have two counties in Ireland and one in Wales, however. Should I give those away and lose the tax dollars? I only bring in about 25-ish per month, which seems low for such a large empire, but I don't want to raise the taxes more than the default settings.

I also have a lot of vassal Dukes: would it have made sense to not create so many Duchies early on? Do you get later penalties from vassals for NOT creating Duchies?

Almost 200 hours in and I still don't really know this game as well as I should.

TiLT wrote:I tend to ruthlessly hunt down and prune vassals with the Ambitious trait. At the first sign of it, I begin working towards their eventual demise. It's incredibly hard to keep those people satisfied, and they'll actively work against you at the drop of a hat.

More often than not, my plans end with the Ambitious noble revolting, followed by him being tossed into jail, where he remains for the rest of his life, still holding his titles.

You know when a vassal revolts, after you win you get to strip one free title from him (presumably his highest title). So, he shouldn't rot away with ALL of his titles.

El Guapo wrote:

TiLT wrote:I tend to ruthlessly hunt down and prune vassals with the Ambitious trait. At the first sign of it, I begin working towards their eventual demise. It's incredibly hard to keep those people satisfied, and they'll actively work against you at the drop of a hat.

More often than not, my plans end with the Ambitious noble revolting, followed by him being tossed into jail, where he remains for the rest of his life, still holding his titles.

You know when a vassal revolts, after you win you get to strip one free title from him (presumably his highest title). So, he shouldn't rot away with ALL of his titles.

Of course I know that. You can't strip away his ambition though. The only way to get rid of those negative effects is to either keep that person in jail, or strip him of his last title.

TiLT wrote:

El Guapo wrote:

TiLT wrote:I tend to ruthlessly hunt down and prune vassals with the Ambitious trait. At the first sign of it, I begin working towards their eventual demise. It's incredibly hard to keep those people satisfied, and they'll actively work against you at the drop of a hat.

More often than not, my plans end with the Ambitious noble revolting, followed by him being tossed into jail, where he remains for the rest of his life, still holding his titles.

You know when a vassal revolts, after you win you get to strip one free title from him (presumably his highest title). So, he shouldn't rot away with ALL of his titles.

Of course I know that. You can't strip away his ambition though. The only way to get rid of those negative effects is to either keep that person in jail, or strip him of his last title.

The only good duke is a jailed duke, amirite?

Well, the HRE sort of came to my rescue. The Kaiser declared Holy War for Normandy which is one of my duchies, so this rallied my Dukes against HRE. I was also able to bring my Brother in Law the King of Sweden into the war and the other Catholic Holy Orders requested to join. The war is into it second year with the war score hovering about 30% in my favor.


Probably going to hire some mercs to supplement my Army as the HRE just keeps chugging out troops... Just don't know how long I can afford the upkeep

Is the HRE Cathar (or another heretic) in your game?

TiLT wrote:

El Guapo wrote:

TiLT wrote:I tend to ruthlessly hunt down and prune vassals with the Ambitious trait. At the first sign of it, I begin working towards their eventual demise. It's incredibly hard to keep those people satisfied, and they'll actively work against you at the drop of a hat.

More often than not, my plans end with the Ambitious noble revolting, followed by him being tossed into jail, where he remains for the rest of his life, still holding his titles.

You know when a vassal revolts, after you win you get to strip one free title from him (presumably his highest title). So, he shouldn't rot away with ALL of his titles.

Of course I know that. You can't strip away his ambition though. The only way to get rid of those negative effects is to either keep that person in jail, or strip him of his last title.

Oh, I know that you can't strip traits. Just the reference to rotting away with his titles made me want to make sure that you were at least stripping one.

It does feel like the King or Emperor should be able to do more to punish traitors. They revolt against me and I can't strip them of *all* titles (at least, not without people getting pissed)?

El Guapo wrote:Is the HRE Cathar (or another heretic) in your game?

Yep, Cathar.. Its the reason why I grabbed the English Throne by one of my relatives as the King fell to the heresy as the Cathar religion exploded across Europe.

tru1cy wrote:

El Guapo wrote:Is the HRE Cathar (or another heretic) in your game?

Yep, Cathar.. Its the reason why I grabbed the English Throne by one of my relatives as the King fell to the heresy as the Cathar religion exploded across Europe.

Interesting. Did something bad happen to Catholicism that hurt its moral authority substantially?

Pretty cool - I love random twists on history in these games.

El Guapo wrote:

tru1cy wrote:

El Guapo wrote:Is the HRE Cathar (or another heretic) in your game?

Yep, Cathar.. Its the reason why I grabbed the English Throne by one of my relatives as the King fell to the heresy as the Cathar religion exploded across Europe.

Interesting. Did something bad happen to Catholicism that hurt its moral authority substantially?

Pretty cool - I love random twists on history in these games.

Probably happen once the HRE grabbed most of Italy including Rome. The Papal state is in exile and has been since the 1100 or so. I'll see if I can post a screen shot later.

Did it move to Avignon?

El Guapo wrote:It does feel like the King or Emperor should be able to do more to punish traitors.

You mean besides imprisoning them, assassinating their wives, sending their eldest son to the fight on the frontlines in Bjarmia, excommunicating them from the Church and throwing them into the Oubliette?

Lagom Lite wrote:

El Guapo wrote:It does feel like the King or Emperor should be able to do more to punish traitors.

You mean besides imprisoning them, assassinating their wives, sending their eldest son to the fight on the frontlines in Bjarmia, excommunicating them from the Church and throwing them into the Oubliette?

Yes, besides those things.

El Guapo wrote:

Lagom Lite wrote:

El Guapo wrote:It does feel like the King or Emperor should be able to do more to punish traitors.

You mean besides imprisoning them, assassinating their wives, sending their eldest son to the fight on the frontlines in Bjarmia, excommunicating them from the Church and throwing them into the Oubliette?

Yes, besides those things.

Well, there's Banishment... although that just makes them come back with a vengeance.

On the topic of Holy Roman Empire - man, in my games the HRE just turns out a big, straight Catholic anti-heresy blob in the middle of Europe with enough Piety and cash from the Hansa to buy out all mercenaries if you so much as think about annexing Bremen.

Really I just want their titles. And above all, I want my other vassals to not get so ornery about it. I mean, what are they so upset about, unless they are also planning treason?

El Guapo wrote:unless they are also planning treason?

They are always planning treason. They just don't know it yet.

El Guapo wrote:Really I just want their titles. And above all, I want my other vassals to not get so ornery about it. I mean, what are they so upset about, unless they are also planning treason?

You want to fire someone AND you don't want them slashing your tires in vengeance. Got it.

TiLT wrote:

El Guapo wrote:unless they are also planning treason?

They are always planning treason. They just don't know it yet.

Oh, and CK2 just went up for the 8-hour Flash Sale.

Jeff V wrote:

El Guapo wrote:Really I just want their titles. And above all, I want my other vassals to not get so ornery about it. I mean, what are they so upset about, unless they are also planning treason?

You want to fire someone AND you don't want them slashing your tires in vengeance. Got it.

Well, it's more like after they slash my tires, I want to be able to fire them, not just demote them.

Charlemagne released.

Crusader Kings II: Charlemagne is the seventh expansion for the much praised strategy/RPG Crusader Kings II and introduces the gamer to an absorbing story of conquests of Charlemagne.

This expansion moves the game back almost a 100 years to 769 AD and will offer a unique new story driven narrative about the rise of Charlemagne and The Holy Roman Empire. It’s more of what you’ve come to know and love from Paradox Development Studios.

Crusader Kings II explores one of the defining periods in world history in an experience crafted by the masters of Strategy where medieval times is brought to life in this epic game of knights, schemes, and thrones...

Main features:

• New Earlier bookmark, 769, almost 100 more years of Crusader Kings II
• Special story event series for Charlemagne
• Annual Chronicle in the style of the Saxon chronicle
• Create new dynamic/fantasy kingdoms and empires based on your current duchy or kingdom, named the same, with the same flag.
• Dozens of new cultures.
• Brand new system for climate and seasonal transitions.
• Regency overhaul

Sometimes I feel like I spend more time buying expansions than playing games.

I traded my old CCG collecting instincts for scale models and Steam games.

There are ~50 DLC for this game. I think I've figured out which are the gameplay ones based on the wiki article. I'm wondering if they are all worth getting?

Are there any others that I should look at?

I'm generally not interested in cosmetic changes.

Fitzy wrote:There are ~50 DLC for this game. I think I've figured out which are the gameplay ones based on the wiki article. I'm wondering if they are all worth getting?
Are there any others that I should look at?
I'm generally not interested in cosmetic changes.

I posted then deleted my post when I re-read yours and realized my comments weren't really going to help. Honestly I'm a CKII junky and buy all the major DLC the first time they go on sale. I guess my best suggestion would be to decide which country you're going to play and then see which of the major DLC have some effect there.

Fitzy wrote:There are ~50 DLC for this game. I think I've figured out which are the gameplay ones based on the wiki article. I'm wondering if they are all worth getting?

Are there any others that I should look at?

I'm generally not interested in cosmetic changes.

None are absolutely necessary I think. Some of the gameplay changes were carried over into the base game with patches after each release.

If you do decide to get some, I think the "Core" ones would be;
1.Legacy of Rome - Adds Byzantine empire (my favorite)
2. Sword of Islam - allows playable Muslim rulers
3. The Republic - allows playable republic (venice, florence, etc) rulers
4. Sons of Abraham - allows playable Jewish rulers
5. The Old Gods -- this one seems to be a favorite but I have not ever messed with the early start date.
6. Way of Life - adds more characteristics & events. You should get this unless you want to get mods for this stuff instead.
7. Charlemagne gives more start dates I think - I have this but don't quite remember what it does. Seems to be well liked though. EDIT: looks like Isg covers what's in this a couple of posts up.

Extras:
Rajas of India & Horse Lords expands the map to the Far East.
Sunset Invasion is adds a wacky hypothetical invasoion and is not required.
Ruler Designer is a cheat mod.
EU IV importer is buggy from what I've heard.

That said, I eventually buy all the DLC for this game when they are deeply discounted.

Thanks for the answers. It's interesting about the gameplay changes getting into the base game patch.

I'll probably pick up the different playable groups and leave the pictures and soundtracks alone for now.

Has anyone done an updated guide that includes the changes introduced by the patches and DLC? I have the "An In-Depth Guide to Crusader Kings II" By Meneth but that was put out almost two years ago and when I check the forum it appears to be the same document there now.

It also appears that the manual hasn't been updated since release either.

All the DLC have brief manuals linked through their Steam store pages. I just read them in order to get the gameplay changes.

I don't believe there have been any major gameplay changes not tied to DLC. The other patches are just tweaking.

You should look at the wiki for each DLC, there are bits and pieces of interesting gameplay in a few of them, like Legacy adding retinues.
The wiki is pretty much mandatory for figuring out the mechanics, anyway.

Nightwish wrote:You should look at the wiki for each DLC, there are bits and pieces of interesting gameplay in a few of them, like Legacy adding retinues.
The wiki is pretty much mandatory for figuring out the mechanics, anyway.

Thanks, that should be a help.

Every year, I fire this up for about 30 minutes before I remember why I didn't like it as much as the first (even though show-stopping bugs prevented me from ever finishing a game). After a while, senility sets in and I forget why.

It's time to fire this up again.

Ok... Now I just think you are being cantankerous - Crusader Kings 2 not only surpasses the original in every way, it is the best Paradox title!

baelthazar wrote:Ok... Now I just think you are being cantankerous - Crusader Kings 2 not only surpasses the original in every way, it is the best Paradox title!

For me it is this and EU4, but now that they have apparently screwed up the latter, I will stick with CKII

I loved CK II but pretty much have forgotten how to play it. Every time I consider reinstalling it, the thought of having to learn it all over again keeps me away.

baelthazar wrote:Ok... Now I just think you are being cantankerous - Crusader Kings 2 not only surpasses the original in every way, it is the best Paradox title!

Like I said, I don't remember why I keep hitting the eject button. It could be renewed rage from being reminded of all those unrewarded hours of CK.

Hmm...according to Steam, I played 19 minutes since 6/1/2012. Doesn't seem accurate.

Jeff V wrote:Hmm...according to Steam, I played 19 minutes since 6/1/2012. Doesn't seem accurate.

See! Heretic! Burn!

(I wonder about that Steam playtime counter. It never seems correct for me either.)