Crusader Kings II

[tru1cy]

Very nice, Mr.B. I agree I wish I could write AAR this well. Anyway, You inspired me with your "natural causes" tactic and my Duke of Oxford with only the county of NorthHampton used marriage and subterfuge to become Duke of Normandy and now pressing my fabricated claims for the coast of Brittany. All this is happening while the England and The HRE are gang-banging the child king of France. In my game it looks the France is going to be a dead kingdom soon. Also, The Duke of Hereford who has bristled under the Crown's rule took the opportunity to push for independence and is occupying lower England. As long as he doesn't touch my holding in Northhampton and Kent I'll leave him to it.


Enjoying this game....

[El Guapo]

I'd totally be caving and getting this game if ME3 weren't coming out in two weeks.

[Chaz]

On the other hand, that's two weeks that you could be spending marrying off your young daughters to bishops and kings in their 50s.

[Sepiche]

Played a bit more of my England game last night... King Magnus the Bold still holds the throne of England and is as secure as ever, even with the expansion of his holdings in Spain.

When we left off the good king had just taken over the Duchy of Porte, and dealt with the Duke of York. While militarily the realm has been flourishing, there are still problems within the royal family that could eventually rip the kingdom apart. While they have been married now some years the king and queen have yet to have a child leaving the king's uncle, a former bishop, as heir to the throne. While he would make a decent king, he had no children of his own and was getting rather old to inherit in addition to not liking King Magnus much.

The king decided to proactively clean up the lines of succession and ordered agents sent to deal with his uncle the pretender. It took a few failed attempts, but agents of the crown were finally able to reach the elder Prince and he was found dead in his bath in the court of an Elector Count of the HRE where he had been serving as a marshal and guaranteed no foreign powers could use him as a pawn to make a claim on the crown of England. This made the new heir a young cousin of the king who was already well disposed toward the king and was even more so when the king granted him a ducal title and land in newly freed Spain.

While the king still lusted for more heathen lands, his vassals had been at war for some time in his name so he wisely decided to let the realm rest for a time and build up it's strength. He ordered new improvements to improve the baronies of Middlesex and soon it alone could boast of providing 3000 royal troops, nearly 1/4 of the whole royal army.

During this time a beautiful young courtier arrived at the court of King Magnus recently widowed after her husband, the Duke of Kent, died of old age. She was immediately smitten with the dashing young king and they began what would ultimately be a many year relationship. They were even caught multiple times by the Queen, but surprisingly she seemed unfazed by the kings actions, so he carried on with the vigor of a young man. This eventually led to the king first becoming lusty, and not long after fully embracing his hedonism. Strangely the kings dalliances didn't result in a bastard child, but instead seemed to fuel the fires of passion with his wife and after 8 years of marriage led to their first child, a daughter.

With the kingdom replenished and nobles happy the king decided it was time again to expand his holdings. Another two successive campaigns in Spain saw two more Muslim held duchies fall under the king's control also giving the young king lands enough to claim the thrones of Portugal and Leon. This brought much more prestige on the young king and made him King of England, Wales, Portugal, and Leon. Sadly though the king's adventures were not with out a price... while fighting on campaign near Lisbon the king's party was ambushed by Muslim fanatics and the king was badly maimed in the fighting. Still possessing a strong spirit though, the king carried on and finished his campaigns before returning to England to rest and recuperate.

The following years saw more tragedy befall the kingdom when the Queen unexpectedly died of illness making the young princess the Duchess of Lancaster and freeing the king to marry again. He chose a lusty young girl who was a distant cousin of his and this soon led to another royal daughter being born. Once again the king was able to balance both his wife and mistress and they both remained completely devoted to him.

Meanwhile in the north of England, one bitter old vassal still plotted the downfall of King Magnus. Nearly forgotten at the royal court in Westminster, the Duke of York still raged at his treatment at the hands of the king and so sent agents to attempt to deal with him, hoping to take advantage of the kings recent injuries. Luckily, the king's loyal spymaster got wind of the plot and was able to stop the king from drinking poisoned wine just in time.

The king's wrath at this latest injustice was terrible, and he immediately ordered the old Duke imprisoned. The old Duke was nothing if not cunning however and he and his guards were able to fight their way clear of the arresting party and he set about raising his banners to war with the king. The war was short and brutal with the king's loyalists swiftly overwhelming and besieging the Duke's holdings. Still seething at this bitter betrayal, the king wrote to his loyal pope who followed the king's wishes and excommunicated the Duke of York.

Finally pushed to the breaking point the Old Duke surrendered to loyalist forces and was taken back to London for trial. He was stripped of his title of Duke of Northhampton, and sentenced to death for heresy. The Old Duke's son and heir was not the fool his father was and swiftly swore fealty to the king and was allowed to keep what holdings remained to their house in York, but their power was a shadow of it's former glory.

And so England stands in 1132... immensely powerful (for it's size) on the battlefield, but still lacking a truly powerful royal heir to ensure the realm remains whole when King Magnus finally dies. My plans now are to continue to expand my holdings in Spain and push forward with converting the Muslims in my Spanish provinces to Catholicism. If I can succeed in doing that it should allow for a massive expansion in the number of troops the king could call up from the rich holdings of central Spain.

[Madmarcus]

The Subic family is getting very frustrated in my version of the Middle Ages. Starting from the Count of Zadar they have risen to being independent Dukes of Dalmatia, Rashka, and whatever it is that contains Ragusa. Yet for over 100 years they have looked on Ragusa and been annoyed by the flags of the Byzantine Emperor flying over the city (the county is mine). Twice the Duke of Dalmatia has fought the Byzantines only to die in battle before the war could be finished (warscore 90+ but he won't give up the city yet).

Purely from a return on investment there is no way that the one city could be worth it.

[tgb]

Note to self: Next time betrothed reaches maturity, check traits before procedng with marriage



I finally managed to get the Duchess of Transylvania married off to the King of Hungary, only to find that he's a little light in the goulash, if you get my drift.

[Kelric]

The more I read, the more I want this to hurry up and be on sale on Steam so I can afford it.

[Mr Bismarck]

King Francisco's tale is a short one, as he passed away a week before Christmas 1156 handing over the Welsh crown to the now King Meurig II.



Meurig 2 : Electric Boogaloo has been in power for 22 years now and his stabbing tally stands at : none. Despite this embarrassing swing away from the traditions that made his family great he has been a pretty good ruler who has done much to advance Welsh fortunes.

The new King had been sent to court in France at age six and in the following 28 years political machinations led to him rising to the position of the Duke of Upper Lorraine. This caused him to be seen as French by the Welsh and Welsh to the French, with the result that the day he came to power was not a good one, as Verdun, Metz, Dyfed and Perfeddwlad all rose up to dispute his ascension, joined by the county of Sundgau who took the field demanding independence.

With a war on five fronts I decided to let discretion be the better part of valor and immediately surrendered to Sundgau, granting them their independence muttering "I'll be back" like a French-Welsh Arnie. Of the two remaining enemies on the mainland only Verdun had a force large enough to cause issue, so I choose to put him off, ignoring his attack into Santois and waded into Metz to kick the crap out of those people. A sharp engagement drove the Metz army from the field and when two of their holdings were captured they offered surrender. I allowed their leader to keep his head and headed back to Santois.

The fight in Santois was a very close run thing because although we had a numbers advantage Verdun had a ridiculously good Marshall rated something like 27 for ability. Our victory was Pyrrhic with Meurig II's army being written down to just a few hundred men before they claimed the field, capturing the Count of Verdun in the process. M2 then turned his eyes to Wales, raising a significant mercenary force in Glamorgan to just end the uprising as quickly as possible. The backwater of Perfeddwlad was first and he smashed their 450 defenders with 4,000 men.

Then came the sad moment of turning south to attack Dyfed. King Francisco had granted the Dyfed title to his brother, Bernado and Uncle Bernado had been a Guardian for Meurig II for a short while and had always been loyal previously. He had to go though, and he couldn't raise anywhere near enough men to face off against our mercenaries and soon Bernado joined Verdun and the Countess of Perfeddwlad in Glamorgan's jails.

With all these counties returned to sanity I now had enough galleys to ship people about and so it was that I returned to Sundgau to have a chat with them about their independence. I hoped they enjoyed their 18 months of freedom as we absolutely squashed them flat and publicly executed their leader.

Since then Meurig has done his best to keep the English off balance, finding Dukes who have an extremely poor opinion of England's King Wiglaf and giving them money until they suddenly had enough to raise a mercenary army and revolt with friends. Eventually the right combination of events happened and for a few months Gwynedd was considered independent as they were part of an English uprising. M2 immediately declared war on the House of Hereford, smashed his way into Gwynedd and captured the county before the rebels were destroyed by Wiglaf.

M2 is now missing only Powys and Gwent to completely reform the Kingdom of Wales to original levels.

The Scots also gave the King a chance for expansion as they got a little over confident and started a major war. The Scots had captured most of Ireland and two English counties in the North West and then found a toehold in both France and Spain. Their push into France caused a war on the Brittany peninsular that left the door open to Nantes - a county that I randomly had a claim to, so in we went.

England is still fractured with Bedford and York rising up against the King, but sadly neither of those Dukes own Welsh counties.



On the mainland you can see the Welsh enclave in Eastern France.



Beneath the "3,838" soldiers is Nantes - the newest Welsh county.

Scottish adventures got carried away though as they attacked a Caliph in Spain and suddenly thousands of Muslim soldiers were afoot on mainland Europe - they landed in the newest Scottish holdings in Brittany and in Ireland and routinely destroyed Scottish armies and at one point there were Muslims in Carrick and Argyll, which led to the fall of the Scottish King to be replaced by the Duke of Moray, and the loss of some Scottish holdings in Ireland.

So Meurig II's reign has, thus far, been largely devoid of the sort of intrigue and espionage that had kept Wales alive with earlier Kings, but there has been a significant improvement in the size of the Welsh demesne. Of course, being a bubble of independence between France and the Holy Roman Empire is going to go very wrong at some point, but that will probably be the next king's problem.

Now though, working in the third decade of his rule the King has realised that he can't suitably bear the Morgan shield without getting his hands dirty somewhow...





Cheating on his wife and overthrowing the Pope should do it.

[tgb]

Be careful what you wish for:

So my daughter inherited the Kingdom of Hungary, while I soldiered on as her Chancellor and Duchess of Transylvania. I was too busy paying attention to what my daughter was up to, because I had a couple of uppity vassals that kept launching plots to take my title. I didn't even pay attention when she started levying all of my armies.......

Until those two bastiches again each demanded the title, and this time they DOW'ed me. With only a measly army of 300 of my own, I could barely afford a single mercenary company, and the war did not go well when a third vassal decided to jump in. I decided to surrender, which seemed the most prudent course of action, and was forced to abdicate all of my titles.......


.....which meant I immediately took over my daughter, the Queen of Hungary. Who was in the midst of three wars I knew nothing about (Croatia, Bohemia, and the HRE). I have no idea what the crazy bitch has been up to, but no sooner did I manage to absorb and start to get a handle on the situation, when I was excommunicated.

I'm on the fence whether to see how this plays out (not good, I'm sure), go back to an earlier save, or just start a new game.

[tru1cy]

So, I usurped the throne in England and as soon as I claim the throne my fellow plotters go into open revolt. I spend the next 10 years and most of my treasury putting down the revolts. I am regretting taking the throne. I can't keep my Dukes happy and I am constantly putting down plots and assassinating pretenders to the throne.


Anyway, I am having fun, but it's a pain in the ass being the king

[Sepiche]

I didn't get a chance to play much over the weekend, but in the time I did get to play the unthinkable happened... the good king Magnus the Bold has died.

The injuries he sustained on crusade in Spain finally caught up with him and he passed away of an illness while he was on campaign in Wales trying to put down a rebellion. His young son Aerys inherited the throne at the age of 5 and has has been able to cut enough deals with his vassals to remain solidly in power, despite most of Wales rising up in rebellion a few years into his reign.

Otherwise most everything has been quiet except for a small war to put a friendly duke in power in Munster, and war with Scotland will soon be on the horizon now that my chancellor finally came through and created a claim for me on some Scottish border provinces. The only other news is the continuing construction being done in Middlesex, which now can boast of alone supporting over 4000 royal troops... more troops than many small kingdoms could muster.

[tgb]

I decided to start a new game as King of Poland, since I can play longer than 20 years this time. Everybody polka!

[Citizen]

I read throught the demo tutorial and started a game as the King of Poland, but am pretty confused. Should I play this as an RPG or a Grand Strategy...or both?

I thought I was doing good - set a marriage ambition for myself then married some 20 year old princess from Norway, gave my council members jobs to research this and that and set up spy networks etc....then two people in my country started making war on each other. One kept telling me he was under seige, but no matter what I clicked I couldnt find a way to make them stop or get myself involved. Just not sure what I should be doing. I feel like I should control my country 100%, but maybe thats not how this game is meant to be??

Is there a list of starting moves that folks usually do?

[tgb]

I read throught the demo tutorial and started a game as the King of Poland, but am pretty confused. Should I play this as an RPG or a Grand Strategy...or both?

I thought I was doing good - set a marriage ambition for myself then married some 20 year old princess from Norway, gave my council members jobs to research this and that and set up spy networks etc....then two people in my country started making war on each other. One kept telling me he was under seige, but no matter what I clicked I couldnt find a way to make them stop or get myself involved. Just not sure what I should be doing. I feel like I should control my country 100%, but maybe thats not how this game is meant to be??

Is there a list of starting moves that folks usually do?

Both. You can play as a role playing game, you can set out to create claims on your neighbors, you can let the game drive itself and just react to events.

As far as vassals fighting each other, it sounds weird, but in 1066 Kings have little authority over vassals. If you click on the "laws" button (just to the right of your Council) you will see a bunch of laws that govern succession, levies, etc. You can make one change every few years (I think it's 10), except that a character can only change succession laws once. One of the laws is "Crown Authority", and it starts at the lowest setting. Until you get it up to "Medium" (and your Vassals have to approve the change - good luck with that one), your Vassals can and will war on each other, and there is nothing you can do about it.

As to how to get started, there are tons of beginners guides on the Paradox boards, as well as AAR's. There are also several good tutorials and Let's Play.... videos on Youtube.

[coopasonic]

I'd totally be caving and getting this game if ME3 weren't coming out in two weeks.

I bought this and Amalur in the same purchase and pre-ordered ME3 the next day.... and i'm subbed to SWTOR... oh and then got Sequence in a steam sale. CKII has not seen much play for me as a result. I'm hoping maybe between ME3 and Diablo 3 I can give it a shot.

[Isgrimnur]

I've played the King of Poland demo a few times

As KoP, one of your western vassals really wants one of the NW cities, and twice, he immediately went to siege it. Attempt 1) I sent troops that didn't help out, probably because there's no real clear way to take sides. Attempt 2) I increased the laws, stripped the aggressor of titles, and threw him in jail. This, of course, made everyone else unhappy with my autocratic style. Attempt 3), I just gave him the damn city. The guy that was mayor didn't seem to mind, the guy that got the city was happier with me, and life went on without any evident negative repercussions.

[Mr Bismarck]

I read throught the demo tutorial and started a game as the King of Poland, but am pretty confused. Should I play this as an RPG or a Grand Strategy...or both?

I thought I was doing good - set a marriage ambition for myself then married some 20 year old princess from Norway, gave my council members jobs to research this and that and set up spy networks etc....then two people in my country started making war on each other. One kept telling me he was under seige, but no matter what I clicked I couldnt find a way to make them stop or get myself involved. Just not sure what I should be doing. I feel like I should control my country 100%, but maybe thats not how this game is meant to be??

Is there a list of starting moves that folks usually do?

If you've ever played EUIII, then imagine you aren't playing that, but instead are shouting instructions are someone who is playing it, while hoping that they don't get typhoid. Or stabbed.

As tgb mentions, crown authority can get in the way of you having any definite say in how things are going in your own lands. So having two people squabble in your kingdom sounds like a perfect time to pick the one you like and then stab the other one.

Starting moves depend on what you're starting as. There's an incredible amount of variety available depending on both the size of your starting demesne and the location. A county in France is pretty much going to be locked into step with the King of France, attempting to politick the family to prominence. A county in Spain is going to be trying to grow out into lands filled with Muslims - people you are free to attack without censure, but at the same time knowing that over-reaching can lead to you being wiped out.

Personally, I like to start out as backwaters and see where I end up. This may lead to several decades where the most important decision I make is whether or not I should boink my sister's lady in waiting and if I do, should I commission a portrait of the event or will that annoy my wife. But the good news is that if I end up with a ruler who's too weak to expand, but too sensible and capable to explode in hilarious fashion I can just hit "+" until he falls off his horse onto a fence post to be replaced by his four year old nephew who has a hunchback and a stutter.

Other people like to start out as the Holy Roman Empire which, with its million vassals, conflicting families and reach from Mediterranean to Baltic sounds to me like a party game in which you're blindfolded and have to cross a highway while carrying a greased crystal vase filled with snakes. Four weeks into the job I'd probably be hyperventilating on the floor and babbling in Latin.

My starting moves are usually :

1) Examine my ruler - How old is he? Does he have and heirs? Is the heir male? Can he realistically get a male heir before he dies? What are the rules for succession. If I expand the demesne, am I going to have to give some of it away on death, or does it all go to one person, (either the eldest, or the one with most votes)? Can I marry him to someone nearby, in position in their own family line? What physical traits does he have? What family are about? Do they hate him? If I have a wife is she young enough to churn out more kids? If so, is she lusty or celibate? If she's either too old, or too celibate, how difficult would it be to have her killed?

2) Examine my demesne - How's my tax income? How's my technology? Research is very slow and nearby counties will learn your stuff, so any advantage needs to be pressed early. Do I have any claims on nearby counties? Are those counties independent, or am I going to be declaring war on someone's "Dad" to get control? From the people around me, is there anyone with a good relationship to me? Do they have a terrible relationship with their own liege?

About halfway through all that I get bored of being sensible and just zoom ahead until something hilarious happens.

[Normann]

I have started a few games as the Hungarian Count of Aba with two counties to learn the mechanics as I am new to this one. It was supposed to be though and it is. But I am having a good time with it.

My question is: What is up with all the "inconclusive war" resolutions? The past 50 years or so all my war efforts for further expansion end without results. Very annoying.

In my latest game the Hungarian Crown got grabbed by the Croatian King relatively early in the game. I ended up without a league and I am still independent. A lot of others around me are independent as well, but the moment I start to fight them they sign up with someone. I am still too weak to take out the Croatian King or the Bohemian. in addition the Croatian Vassals keep rebelling so there are ongoing wars and peace resolutions. So I have tried and attacked the Croatian King for different titles but when I get close it is game over because he signs peace with the vassals that hold the counties I am fighting for.

So any ideas? This keeps happening to me just about every direction I am trying to expand.

[Madmarcus]

I don't have an answer to the inconclusive wars issue but I sympathize. Its so tempting to attempt to press a claim on newly independent realms but the major power can generally reabsorb then before you can succeed.

[tgb]

"inconclusive war" is usually the result when the independent leader you were at war with is no longer independent (or is no longer alive).

[Normann]

"inconclusive war" is usually the result when the independent leader you were at war with is no longer independent (or is no longer alive).

I got that part. But when I am in war, I can't just sign up with a liege to avoid the consequences. But the AI seems to use this all the time.

As my game goes on things started to turn for the better again. Hungary broke free with only Transylvania and Esztergom and now I am free to walk all over them, and I already took one county from them. I doubt the Kingdom of Hungary will sign up with anyone to avoid the peace treaty

[baelthazar]

"inconclusive war" is usually the result when the independent leader you were at war with is no longer independent (or is no longer alive).

IIRC, inconclusive wars can also come when the dynasty with which you are at war loses control of the territory. This can happen if their title gets revoked or if they die without heirs.

It is actually a good mechanic, IMHO. If I declare war in Bernard, Lord-Mayor of Ferrara and he gets eaten up by the Holy Roman Empire, with the Emperor as the new lord of Ferrara, I don't want to suddenly be at war with the entire empire!

In a way, you declare war on a dynasty, not a territory. If the territory gets claimed by someone else before you assert your claim, then you have to assert your claim to that other person. It shouldn't give you a truce, so you should be able to send your troops home, declare war on the new owner, then restart.

[Malcolm Lock]

So I just had a rather annoying little experience in my recent war:

Background: I'm playing as king of scotland, I'd been doing rather well for myself, with the whole of mainland scotland held and happy, King Duncan II is known as Big Dunc the Great, making inroads on ireland and doing a bit of politicking to get a foothold on the continent (not ready to take on england atm).

Because I have truces with the duke of leinster and the duke of munster I can't go further in ireland so I declare war on the duchy of Brittany to stick a lad of mine incharge (it turns out he didn't end up my vassel so this was completely pointless in the end too, haven't got the hang of how that works)
Brittany call on the duke of leinster to aid them, which he does - I assume he can do that without getting a bad reputation because I was the aggressor last time?

I promptly set about occupying ireland first to make sure he doesn't raise an army while my main force is away only for me to get most of the way through it when i'm suddenly not at war with them any more.
The old duke of leinster had popped his cloggs too and there was a new beardy fellow on the throne.
Okay, no biggie, i send my men down to brittany.
No sooner have they left the emerald isle then young beardy declares war on me again helping his dad's mate the duke of brittany.
So I turn my guys back around and head them back off to ireland whilst my main mercenary force is left trotting about brittany, gradually pulling down castle after castle (damn seiges take a long time).

It's around about this time that almost all of my dukes decide it's a good time to declare independence, so i raise whatever else I have left and bring in another mercenary force to whittle them down one by one.
At some point in this whole mess I see the king of england is fighting with some of my dukes, I'm not sure how he managed to, but during the war he got control of 2 of the territories of one of my dukes, northumberland and dunbar

So, how did he manage to declare war on one of my dukes when they were at war with me? And, how did he get 2 territories at once?

In the end, i've managed to pull titles off the grumpy vassels and give them to the less grumpy vassels so i'm a bit more secure in my reign now, just need to grow up fast and then figure a way to get my territories back, finish off ireland, then grab wales

[Normann]

Malcolm L,
I have noticed if a Vassal declares war on you for independence or to lower crown authority, they will become independent for the time being the fighting is ongoing with you. During that time someone else can declare on them. So if they loose that war before the war between you and them is over, they may lose a title. You can do the same and wait until vassal rise up against a lord and then you can directly DOW them. But if you don't get your mini war over before his is over your war will end inconclusively.

There sure is a lot to learn about this game. I guess that is half the fun.
.......

Another interesting thing happened to me. (Ohh yeah btw I usurped the King of Hungary... after many reloads ) So since my King's wife was a weak character, I decided she needs to go... so I put a plot on her and next my King marries a very able person, the current Duchess of Walachia. Thanks to viagra (insert the medieval equivalent), we end up reproducing like rabbits and now have three kids. As it turns out this is great. Apparently taking over a higher title CHANGED MY SUCCESSION RULES. It makes sense but I just did not know this was going to happen. I had elective and suddenly I have primogeniture. So it comes in handy to have two sons who will inherit the Duchy of Walachia as well...

The problem is that the Holly Roman Emperor of the moment does not like this. So he keeps sending assassins one after the other and kills ALL my kids. But he never gets the negative effect. So I reload but it keeps happening again and again. I send assassins to kill him but it takes many attempts... so after many reloads I kill him off without being noticed. Just so that I get this game rolling to learn more... kind of unfair that this dude can send like 6-8 attempts and never be discovered while I had 3 kids slaughtered. I also had a high intrigue at that time and the spymaster on plot discovery duty. Anyways....

[dbemont]

...kind of unfair that this dude can send like 6-8 attempts and never be discovered while I had 3 kids slaughtered.

I don't know, he was just posting that he thought it unfair that you get to reload and he doesn't.

Seriously, sounds like quite a game you have going.

[Normann]

...kind of unfair that this dude can send like 6-8 attempts and never be discovered while I had 3 kids slaughtered.

I don't know, he was just posting that he thought it unfair that you get to reload and he doesn't.

Seriously, sounds like quite a game you have going.

Lol. Who paid for the game? Me or the Emperor?

[Citizen]

Couple questions...

I'm playing as a Scottish Duke. At the start of the game I had a de jure claim (however you spell it) that I pressed and took from some other Scottish gentleman. Since then (10 years time), I've been looking at Irish counties and inviting people with claims to my court, then pressing their claim and taking it over, with the claiment as my vassel after my proud men at arms to the needful on peasant girls. Is that efficient or is there a more sneaky way?

The second question is about my dynasty. I read that it is best to marry the females in my dynasty using the matrilinealy tab, but there is nobody for my young sister to marry on that tab. How does one get gentlemen in that area? I don't want my sister marrying some pig of a man who gets claims on my lands and stops my dynasty from growing.

Last question - Do you guys change the law so that vassals pay taxes? I'd like to, but thought I'd ask before hand.

[Malcolm Lock]

The second question is about my dynasty. I read that it is best to marry the females in my dynasty using the matrilinealy tab, but there is nobody for my young sister to marry on that tab. How does one get gentlemen in that area? I don't want my sister marrying some pig of a man who gets claims on my lands and stops my dynasty from growing.

Matrilineal marriages need to be proposed to the guy you want to marry, so you have to go find the guy in the character searches or whatever and propose it to him, from the daughter you would only be able to choose people from your own court.
Atleast that's been my experience.

Last question - Do you guys change the law so that vassals pay taxes? I'd like to, but thought I'd ask before hand.

Yes! This pisses them off a bit, but not much and i found money a massive problem until i'd got myself about 3 or 4 direct counties and got the vassel taxes in order.

Anyway if a vassel gets annoyed just push them to breaking point so they rebel then kick their ass and take their title, give it to someone who only hates you a little and you'll be much better off

@Normann

I'm pretty sure that when i wanted to declare war on someone in that situation i couldn't because they were already at war. It's probably some obscure subtlety i'm missing i guess. Further experimentation required.

[baelthazar]

In my experience matrilineal marriages are hard to arrange with anyone of importance unless the lady is a direct heir. There is a decent diplomacy hit on trying to arrange them.

[Citizen]

CHANGE LOG:

MAJOR:
- Revised the Message Setting system
- Religion groups are now marked playable in the religion file (no more hard coded rule)
- AI: Improved marriage acceptance. Smarter about "Desires Better Alliance". Values prestige gain or loss higher.
- Added some useful status info to the delayed character tooltip (similar to the info in debug mode)
- Cooldown added to excommunications (only for the same Pope though)
- Doubled the flanking damage bonus in combat
- Increased the flank leader Martial skill bonus in combat by 50%
- Fixed a CTD that can occur in a rare situation with characters having multiple wars against each other
- Nerfed taxes given by bishops to Anti-Popes by 50%
- Holy Orders now cost maintenance if you're in at least one offensive, non-Crusade war
- Halved all peasant revolt risk factors
- Added an "Isolated County" revolt risk modifier and cut the special events that used to simulate it
- Peasant Army size is now determined by the biggest holding garrison size (so they will always be dangerous)
- The Succession War CBs now have the proper success outcome
- Fixed a bug with the usurpation of titles that would hand over all vassals too
- AI: More wary of expensive assassinations
- AI: Fixed some issues with the correct Casus Belli choice
- AI: Tweaked vassal revolt risk to depend more on ambition from traits
- The duchies of Cornwall and Brittany are now de jure part of the Kingdom of Wales
- Buffed the Caliphates and the Seljuks. Nerfed the Byzantines.
- Added vassal Seljuk mercs; the Ghilman
- Now shows a portrait of the target in available player plots
- Hooked in missing plot icon in available player plots

MINOR:
- Upped the chances of dying due to disease a little bit
- Increased the effects of the genius, quick, slow, imbecile and inbred traits
- Reduced the levy size effect of some of the "recently occupied" modifiers
- Nominated bishops are now properly disinherited at once
- Fixed a bug with the guardian opinion modifiers given when entrusted with a ward
- Combat events will not happen until three days into a combat (to avoid commander deaths and such when overrunning tiny forces)
- When an Anti-Pope is installed in Rome, the old Pope no longer becomes an Anti-Pope
- Waived the opinion penalty for held elector titles for elective duchies and below
- Fixed a CTD issue that could occur in tooltips when hovering over Holding modifiers as they expire
- Vassal mercs can now always be employed by their liege, no matter their religion
- Scaled wealth effects and triggers are now based on nominal peacetime income
- Fixed an error in the opinion warning when banishing characters (not the correct figure.)
- The game will now also auto-generate an appropriate number of traits for children with not enough scripted traits
- Added a text warning/explanation for DoW on a revolter
- Traits are now read from multiple files, facilitating modding
- Fixed an issue with event ids in a namespace
- Fixed an issue with flipping "random god names" tooltips in fire event effect tooltips
- Fixed a bug with the decision 'Demand Duchy from liege' with duke tier lieges (should not be available)
- Fixed a tooltip issue with the "any" type event triggers
- Better tooltips for event triggers 'higher_tier_than' and 'lower_tier_than'
- Re-enabled selection of the same type of plot again for players
- Fixed an issue with save/reload of the last selected plot/ambition
- Fixed an issue with protected inheritance not always working under Gavelkind
- Exported MAX_ELECTOR_TITLES_LEGALLY_HELD to defines
- Exported the max duchies held opinion penalty to defines
- Exported the tax penalty for bishops loyal to the Pope or Anti-Pope to the defines
- The "recently conquered" holding penalties are no longer applied during civil wars or wars between vassals
- AI: Fixed a bug where the AI would grant titles to vassal mercs
- Added 'same_guardian' trigger
- Slightly nerfed William of Normandy's initial army size
- Switched the portraits of Harold and William the Conqueror
- Changed some title colors to conform better to their cultural region
- Added proper history for the Prince-Bishopric of Agen
- The Earl of Atholl is now a _legitimate_ bastard



Next patch is 1.05. It is a major content patch which will be released together with our first big DLC.

[Sarkus]

Direct matrilineal will almost never happen in the game as it currently stands. However, its not that hard to get around it and get high skill courtiers from elsewhere. What I do is filter the marriage candidates by whatever skill I want. So say I want a high stewardship skilll - I find two or three good candidates. Then I go to them directly and through the diplomacy menu invite them to court. A lot of unemployed courtiers or second and later sons will agree to come to your court. Then what you do is matrilinealy marry them to someone in your court - they can't refuse those kind of marriages. That locks them to your court as long as they are married so you don't have to worry about them leaving later.

[tgb]

Have they said when the DLC/next patch is coming out? I've set this aside for a while as I started to get burnt out, but new DLC will certainly pique my interest.

[Baroquen]

Just an FYI for those who have been waiting for a sale... according to Cheap Ass Gamer (and a link from GamingTrend) Crusader Kings going on sale for $17.99 starting tomorrow until 4/8 on Amazon.

http://gamingtrend.com/2012/04/04/amazons-april-game-sale-starts-tomorrow/

[hepcat]

whoo hoo, 18 bucks later and I'm finally one of the cool kids. I'll have to review this thread for hints cause the game's a bit daunting. Are the tutorials worth watching/playing through?

[Baroquen]

I thought the tutorials were worthwhile, but I hadn't really played any of the similar Paradox games.

I'm glad somebody got it on sale. I went looking through the sale games at Amazon and didn't see it listed. Maybe I missed it, or maybe it was pulled. Don't know. If I see it back up, I'll post a straight link to the item.

[hepcat]

Here ya go.

[JonathanStrange]

The Amazon sale is a good deal although they had Crusader Kings II for $12.99 awhile back on one of their "lightning" one hour sales. I bit then - despite the demo giving me enough play. Well worth buying at $18 too.

[El Guapo]

And here I am finish up ME3! Definitely going to snap this up.

[neofit]

I've tried playing CK1 but couldn't go far. Everything was going fine, then my wife died, through no fault of my own. So I thought that it may be wise to get myself a new one, but then couldn't find a way to find one but by clicking on *every* female in every dynasty. Apparently there were some player-made "bride finder" tools, but none that worked with the latest patch from Paradox. I gave up.

So, question: are there some bride finding tools in CK2?

[Sepiche]

So, question: are there some bride finding tools in CK2?

Yup. And the Deus Vult expansion adds one to CK1.