Tell us about your current campaign, /his/torians. What kind of autistic shenanigans are you trying to pull?
>Tfw went from a lowly independent Count to King of Sicily, and just emerged from a civil war in which I imprisoned my vassal-brother
>Tfw I'll revoke his title and grant it to my two sons once they come of age
>Tfw have conquered the Republic of Ragusa, and am preparing an offensive against the Byzantines, who are dealing with both a large revolt and a war against the Seljuks
Feels GOOD, man
I stopped playing when they implemented the shattered retreat garbage, but I did have a rather interesting playthrough shortly before.
>Be Venice
>Swear fealty to worst Rome
>Expand wares throughout the entire Mediterranean for a couple of centuries, crushing rival republics while I'm at it
>Fund civil wars constantly so I can wage my trade wars
>Through a careful mix of strategic marriages and assassinations, put my grandson on the throne
>Naturally the empire explodes again, declare independence
>Betray grandson, leave him in the wreckage
>Opportunistic Muslim caliphate starts conquering the warring nobles, before exploding due to degeneracy
>Sit back and watch the fire
>Swoop in after it's all over and conquer myself most of Anatolia and the Levant
It was pretty fun.
>>882472
I don't particularly mind shattered retreat - why the hate for it? If anything, it benefits me: the enemy army disperses very far away, and I am free to lay siege to their territory without interference.
>>882484
Can't chase down large armies, so in most situations my doomstack dies to attrition while the enemy takes almost no losses. They then come back with their army to crush whatever is left of my troops. It's particularly bad with adventurers, because while their 30k stack is running aimlessly around the country, your army is costing you upkeep and angering your vassals.
It's unrealistic, if anything, shattered retreat should be an uncommon occurrence that allows me to just run down the enemy, not watch them run about taking no attrition while I am unable to attack them.
>>882498
Well, you could just install a mod that does away with shattered retreat. Also, why would they have a 'large army' when they're retreating? Usually, they retreat because you dealt so many casualties, so even if they come back, they'll return with a smaller number that you can easily dispatch.
>>882512
You defeat a smaller army, it takes a few casualties, probably retreats because low morale, and suddenly they're invincible, faster than you, and take no attrition. You can siege comfortably, yes, but in most cases they'll come back reinforced and at full morale to annoy you again. This is especially bad in the desert and against adventurers, for reason I already explained.
When an army shatters and routs, it should bleed out men through desertion and injury, and break off into smaller fractions if actively chased. This is the greatest problem I have with the mechanic. They not only retain form, but they become immune to being chased and suffer no desertion/attrition/fragmentation whatsoever. At least it was that way when I stopped playing, don't know about now.
It's way too easy after nearly 900 hours tb h
should add something that allows you to start as a mercenary force officially since the mod for it is shit
>>882443
>Be Mali
>Buttfuck Songhay and north african kingdoms
>Beat back the Jihad from Umayyad caliphate and Kingdom of Africa
>Cuck rulers of kingdoms I conquer whenever I can
>Stay pagan the entire time
>Spain gets BLACKED
>tfw I made t. Alberto Barbosa happen
>>882443
>start as Habsburg count in 1066
>work my way up to duke, and eventually, king of Burgundia
>get a shitload of sons, marry them to daughters of important vassals of the Holy Roman Emperor
>chose intrigue focus, murder the men in said families
>after 1 or 2 generations, most of the main titles in the HRE are held by Habsburgs
>get elected as emperor by my relatives
the real life Habsburgs would be proud.
>>882472
>VENICE
Long live his majesty, Saul of the house Jeno, ruler of the Magyars and emperor of all India!
End of a Horse Lords campaign from the earliest period. Instead of invading Pannonia, the Magyars went east and settled in the Indus valley.
I stopped after I united India, Buddhism is shit for further expansion if you can't get claims.
>>882686
DESIGNATED
SETTLING
VALLEYS
>>882629
stay mad byzaboos
>>882443
I was playing a Rurik game where i invaded North Africa then blobbed Spain, Egypt, France, the Levent etc. before the council mechanic fucked me over. They didnt even revolt i just had to keep bribing them which was tedious. And theyd get pissed and not let me hand out titles because i held too many titles.
I think im done with CK2. They seem to be adding tedium and pretending they are making the game more difficult.
>>882704
Venice exists to fuck other other nations in strategy games. Be it simple shit like Civilization or hardcore grand strategy games Venice is the that is tailor made to fuck your game up, and because of this in EU IV I make it a major goal of mine to eliminate Venice in the least peaceful way possible to stop them from fucking me in the ass later in the game no matter how far away they are.
>>882738
the faction that*
>>882472
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcXBtOaKC28
>>882443
> King Edward of England has succeded on the casus belli "Invasion" on King Alexander III of Scotland
> King Edward of England earns 999% of threat
> King Edward of England is now known has "Longshanks"
> King Edward "Longshanks" of England has increased crown authority
> Unrest increases on Highlands by 10%
> William Wallace has declared Scotland Liberation War on King Edward "Longshanks" of England
> King Edward plots to kill William Wallace sending his spymaster Isabella
> William chooses the seduction focus, decides to fuck Isabella and invites her to court
> Stirling
> William Wallace of Scottish Liberation War is now known as "Braveheart"
> Falkirk
> The "Scotland Liberation War" on King Edward "Longshanks" has ended
> Wallace is sent to the oubliette and then executed giving King Edward -10 penalty for tyranny
> King Edward still has 999% of Threat
>>882512
IRONMAN
>>882686
>Thats a big empire
>>882860
for you
Does anyone have any advice on how to keep the kingdom of Jerusalem? I am playing as a duke in Ireland currently, i control half the island and decided to join a crusade the Pope called. Well i went a little hard and the pope gave me the entire kingdom. Currently i am fighting against two jihads with only the HRE as my ally. Is there any hope for me?
>>882886
>king of Jerusalem
>"Is there any hope for me?"
>>882886
Sure. Give away all of Ireland to vassals and add the components of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to your personal demesne.
>>882886
Jerusalem is basically throwing money down the drain, unless you are contiguous to it and thus able to defend it more easily. I took Jerusalem as Britannia once, wasted a lot of shekels building retinues to police the place only to have them dashed away by hordes of Arabs every few years or so.
If you want to keep it as Ireland I advise you to hold the line until the caliphate blows up and then take as much land as you can. Convert that, then take more land, and you'll ideally be able to reduce the relevant Muslim territory (Levant). It's gonna cost you a lot of money and soldiers though. I'd also advise trying to ally the Byzantines. You can probably support each other and take chunks of the Levant.
>>882897
i should probably add that this is my first play through of CK2. I didn't even know i would get the kingdom after the crusade so it was a pleasantly surprise when my kingdom increased 3 times its size.
[spoiler]I have a very strong feeling i am going to be ACHMED[/spoiler]
I just managed to reform the slavic religion last week, made a massive pan slavic empire with Bohemia as its head, and then two heirs later, I was killed by my cousin and had no choice but to watch the realm fall apart into individual kingdoms from civil wars, which eventually broke up into duchies and counties, which eventually fell prey to Christians. I had become a drop of slav in a sea of Catholic.
But what I wonder, how would history be different if from Berlin to Sarajevo to Moscow were all a single, non-abrahamic religion. What would things be like if Christiandom stopped at Germany and never made it any further east?
>>883020
>What would things be like if Christiandom stopped at Germany and never made it any further east?
Glorious
>>882443
I haven't played this game on a year.
Do the Abbasids and HRE ever stop blobbing/blow up?
>>883607
the Abbasid's always fall apart in my playthroughs
>>883671
When I played they stayed from Charlemagne till the end.
They even BTFO the Mongols lol
>>883685
>from Charlemagne till the end.
fuck i'm trying this now. it's soo fucking BORING!
it's 940 and I already reconquered Iberia form the Umayyads and formed Hispania. now i'm trying to from Charles V's Empire but it takes for ever to fabricate claims
And I don't even have the Aztec invasion dlc so it's just me and HRE(who blobbed to tak all of France, Germany, and Italy)
every war is just me vs them over and over.
how long did it take you to finish?
>>883719
Tbh I stopped in the 1300s. I had conquered Western Europe and NA by 1100.
After that I waited for the Abbasids to explode. Every time they were at war with the ERE I would destroy their armies and the ERE would still lose.
So I waited for the Mongols.
In the end the ERE got Jihaded while my whole realm exploded because I went full despot and revoked all titles meanwhile my decadence meter went to 100%, my King died and got replaced by a kid that everybody hated lol. It took like 8 kings to restore order.
It was like my own crisis of the 3rd century lol.
Once the Mongols came and got BTFO by the invincible Abbasids I quit.
>>883804
As the Umayyad
>>883804
damn. right now the HRE is in a huge civil war to lower crown authority and 3 out of 4 kings rebelled.
and i'm still trying to fabricate a claim on Barcelona.
>>883821
Once the micromanagement becomes too much and the game becomes boring, quit.
Once you become better at the game try to restore a Zoroastrian Persian Empire surrounded by Muslim empires.
Now that's a challenge.
>>883719
>formed an ahistoric empire
>complaining about it being boring
the empires make thing too stable. If you want to keep being entertained, don't form them and then laugh and cry as you struggle to hold 4 king level titles
>>883850
>try to restore a Zoroastrian Persian Empire surrounded by Muslim empires.
I actually tried that for my 2nd playthrough at the old gods as like the only independent Zoroastrian count
didn't last.
>>883854
>Empire of Charles V
>ahistoric
but i did have trouble at the beginning because i was king of Castile and king of Asturias with gavelkind succession and 3 sons. but after a quick war and destroying the crown of Castille and it was ok
>>883881
Well of course its ahistoric, it didn't exist during the CK2 time frame. Plus Spain was a kingdom, the Imperial title came from the
>
>
>
>but after a quick war and destroying the crown of Castille and it was ok
And yeah, this is why its boring. CK2 is really easy wants you start removing titles and consolidating territories into big empire blobs. It's no wonder you find the game boring in 940
>>882443
>800 AD
>Playing as one of the turks
>Invade the Persian Steppe
>Then the rest of Persia
>Create Persian Empire
>Invade Armenia
>Then Georgia
>Lose battle
>Padishah gets captured
>Padishah gets castratred
>fffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
>Padishah dies a week later
>Complete Invasion of Georgia
>Capture the entire Georgian Royal Family
>Execute the all the males
>Distribute their wives and daughters to my vassals, and kidnap all other female members in other realms
Retribution.
>>882443
By the last time I played, I had unified Ireland as the one count who starts with 2 provinces in the Charlemagne period, inherited Mercia and other bits of central england, and was trying to unify the islands. Also, France exploded into fifteen different kingdoms
>>882443
By the last time I played, I had unified Ireland as the one count who starts with 2 provinces in the Charlemagne period, inherited Mercia and other bits of central england, and was trying to unify the islands. Also, France exploded into about fifteen different kingdoms
>manage to reform west africanism and create an empire after several failed tries
>horse lords patch fucks my game up hard before i can conquer all of africa
>>884155
I feel for you bro. I managed a Zoroastrian game where I restored Persia to its kingdom borders, then conclave fucked everything up before i could become the Saoshayant.
>playing france
>aztecs invade (not my realm thankfully)
>tempted to go completely bonkers, have an aztec educate my heir and burn europe to the ground with the invade a kingdom CB
>>882443
Started as the Magyars early on, worked by bringing tons of tribals under my fold as tributaries. Reluctant allies, but they provide soldiers none the less. This gives me a leg up on some of my other nomadic neighbors. Every time they have a civil war, I attack right after the conclusion. Rinse and repeated that process several times until it scared the neighbors. This was the result:
>>884155
>OOGA BOOGA
>>884262
do it bro. do it for the Glory of Quetzalcoatl
Has anyone else ever tried a female rulers only run? Shits fun as fuck, ive gone from countess in navarra to empress of hispaina, france, england, and the HRE using basically nothing but seduction focus. Conclave probably fucks this ip bad with non-aggression pacts insteaf of alliances for marriage but
>locate single male with powerful father/brother, seduce, invite to court, force into matrilineal marriage
>try to find someone beautiful whenever you can, it will help you a ton later if you can get it into your genepool
>try to survive being a female ruler till you have adult daughters, use husbands family to win wars.
>never stop sedicing males with important claims/inherantence/allies and inviting them to court.
>once your daughters are adults force the seduced males into matrilineal marriages with them.
>youll get male heirs sometimes of course, as no one starts of with an enatic preference obviously. But with most good overhaul mods that you shiuld be using anyway enatic becomes an option and you can work towards it over a few generations
>all your vassals hate their slut leige, but if you do it right you can just win every civil war with external allies.
>once you are too large for external allies to be helpful the game is easymode anyway if you know what you are doing.
Seduction is just a opinion printing machine for females, which should be obvious but still hilariously strong when every important character in the game outside your dynasty is male.
Gonna try it again with conclave, probably somewhere in ireland/england so I can try to mix in a celtic run.
>>883881
>>883850
My older vanilla Zoroastrian game. Went well. Abbasids are also Zoroastrian.
>>885276
Dynasty spreader game
>>885280
>>885261
Also, some random problems I encounted
>It doesnt matter if you are the greatest dynasty to ever exist, fully enatic, and with a long history of matrilineal marriages. If you land your daughters before marrying them, they will marry some nobody nonmatrilinealy and create a dynastic dead end.
>everyone with any claim on your titles is going to decare war on you constantly. I said it was fun, not easy.
>random death to childbirth is a bitch.
>>885261
Playing as females is easymode because your vassals are usually male, so seduction/attractive/gregarious etc give you huge opinion boosts.
They nerfed it a bit though by making the "Lover" opinion boost smaller.
>>885285
>>882686
>playing india
>ever
>>885286
How disgusting
>>882709
My empire. I wanted to conquer Byz, convert and then create rome but the bullshit got to me.
Apparently offering vassalisation incurs infamy. 40 years of defensive pacts because i offered a duchy in southern arabia vassalisation.
GJ PDX
Here it goes lads
>be me
>get CK II
>have HIP mod
>start as a Welsh count
>in 867
>manage to unite the Kingdom of Wales by 890
>would've done it sooner but viking fucking shits REEEEEEEE
>slowly take over ireland
>keep Wales to myself and my heir
>unite ireland
>split the duchies between my grandsons
>one of the grandsons gets a lucky claim on the Kingdom of Mhonn
>take over that shit too
>England manages to finally unite
>attacks me head-on in 943
>beat them at the cost of my economy, almost all of my troops and retinues
>after 6 years
>manage to get a daughter to marry an English prince
>wew lad
>fucking Scotland decides Mhonn is ripe for taking
>not_again_fml_wake_me_up_inside.jpg
>another costly war that lasts 4 years
>by 970 I have recovered
>don't do shit except put down rebellions for the next hundred years
>1073
>pope calls crusade
>3deusvult5me
>ok, i join after 2 years
>somehow my archers absolutely btfo the muslim armies
>get Jerusalem
>what_is_jerusalem_worth.gif
>well, 50 years of constant attacks apparently
>there is no muslim ruler with more than 3 shithuts and 5 camels that didn't attack me
>they must have lost around a million troops between 1077 and 1134
>relative peace until 1145
>stop playing for a while
>PC runs like shit
>decide to clean it
>forget to copy the saves on my other drive
>it all gets deleted
>mfw
Anybody know where I can download the dlc's free?
I don't want to spend that much money on a couple dlc's
>>885431
Just find a repack on a tracker. Kickass is my suggestion. Add mods otherwise the whole experience will be kinda dull
Started from Thüringen
>>885387
I'm soory for your loss...
>>885484
>holy
>roman
>empire
You check all boxes lad.
R8 mine
>>885560
>Islamic Rome
delet this
>>882686
>Jeno/Magyars
>In a Hundred Years
>All of India
HOW
>be me
>be count of durham (CL start)
>a few generations worth of intrigue, marriage and conquest later
>am king of york, mercia, northumbria and lancaster
>kent is also under the control of my dynasty
>have to deal with constant viking invasions from brittany and scandinavia
>tens of thousands of vikings keep destroying my levies
>last three kings have all been assassinated just before they press their claim on wessex
>have triple chin heir
I just want to become Bretwalda.
>>885560
Scotland is one of the few good Catholic countries. Sweden just converted from paganism and finalnd (sweden's brother) is still a pagan. I t would be cool if they united once more.
>People still play vanilla ck2
>>885294
>playing india in empire total war
>conquer the muslims and colonize britain
>blow every other power out of the water with the might of the pooloo armada
>>886030
>people still play that bloated mess
>>886077
>His "computer" can't run a few mods
Wowwee anon its about time you upgraded
>>882443
Started a campaign with ruler designer as a Catholic king in India before the DLC
I formed the Bengali empire and had nearly converted all of East India when all of a sudden, coalitions were introduced which completely fucked me up as now every Poo in India declares war on me.
200 years of ingame time wasted. Fucking Paraducks.
>>886095
You can revert to the previous patch anon and your game should be fine.
just did a relaxing roleplay in HIP.
>Started as Alexios Komnenos in 1066, he is just a boy duke with the brave trait.
>Seljuks invade in the 1070s and the Sultanate of Rum gets established
>The empire turns on itself in the 1090s and I see a golden opportunity
>Coup the throne and become emperor
>By then I had a couple of kids, girl named Anna and boy named Konstantinos
>Expand the Empire
>Alexios dies and Konstantinos inherits
>Kinsmen keep trying to coup and there are a lot of angry nobles
>Have to hand out titles to avoid civil war
>The westerners have a successfull crusade and Jerusalem is conquered
>My son married the king of Jerusalem's daughter and I killed the heir
>My daughter in law becomes the heir of Jerusalem
>I reclaim Alexandria, balkans and fight against the Seljuks
>Konstantinos dies and Alexios II comes into power
>Keep expanding the empire
>Wife becomes queen of Jerusalem and our son becomes heir of both realms
>Both Alexios II and the queen dies, uniting the realms
>Looking like a proper Byzantine epire at that point
>Kept going
>In the 1200s I got a female empress named Anna Komnenos which mended the schism and got the nickname 'the saint'
>Matrilinnealy married a French prince
>Tried to kill off his dynasty to inherit the throne
>By then I got tired, since there wasn't much opposition and I could just continue conquering the world if I wanted to
Like in every CK2 game, fun for a while, but you get bored quickly.
>>888393
Do what I did and load up as a different ruler and try to take down the empire you built
>769 start as thane of Oppland
>go on to create Fylkirate of Norway
>convert all Scandinavia and northern Germany to Forn Sithr
>currently allied with Sweden and launching holy wars in Britain to install independent Forn Sithr kingdoms
>going to see how much of the world I can convert, might import to EU4 if I get to the end date and I haven't got bored yet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBS-oS723qI
Anyone ever try and bleached/blacked play through? I was able to make all of Africa pretty much white by the end of one game, going to attempt to make France Arabian now
>>888393
>Norseshit Empress
Someone didn't keep his bloodline pure
>>882886
Kek I'm the Holy Roman Empire with Italy and Poland/parts of russia and hungary vassalized and I struggle just to hold jerusalem.
Sell it now or give to pope.
>>882443
Running a "when the world stopped making sense" game, for a pagan reversion in europe attempt, so far I've reunited Gaul, Celtiberia and Alba and managed to convert all of Alba and Gaul back to celtic paganism.
Around the same time some danish lady established an empire across half of germany and dalmatia, so I've married my current ruler with her and she managed to reform germanic paganism. The slavs managed to reform their religion really early and have nearly fucked up the baltic pagans and the eastern half of the germanic pagans. Meanwhile after oddoaccer sacked rome some roman hellenist has restarted a hellenic state in northern italy and is slowly eating down towards the boot.
I'm now trying to generate and support a fledgling Illyrian pagan state on the northern boarder of the eastern roman empire without either my wife's empire or the wannabe romans invading and conquering it while my forces are half a map away while simultaneously attempting to prevent my wife's empire from wiping out the hellenic roman state with her 60k migration wave doomstacks if anything it would be cool if she could go fight the reformed slavic kingdoms while I stabilise things in the south.
Oh, lastly a hyperboran kingdom has managed to appear around crimea, I'm waiting for the scythians to crush it though.
>not starting a glorious viking empire
>>890711
>gotaland not fully under control
>pick the afghan zunist start in 700 whatever the date is
>can only expand into india while getting fucked in the ass by kebeb empire
>two or three of my holy sites are in kebeb empire
>religion is trash and doesn't allow me to do anything special
Is there an actually fun but challenging start other than a one county Mongol or African?
>>890711
>Doesn't own all of Scandinavia nor the Baltics
>>891154
>Try to play Zunist
>Either fucked by kebabs (although attrition helps narrow them down), poos, or religous rebellions
>Religion has very low chance to convert
>>891154
If you're playing CK2 for the challenge, you're playing it wrong.
>>891218
I furiously jack off to it with the help of the "pollinate" and "marry_anyone" console commands while conquering the world from a difficult start, in what way am i playing it wrong?
>Room mate has a game going, playing as Ireland, acts cocky as fuck because he can into Mumu
>Thinks he knows fucking everything about the game
>Nigga doesn't even know about the console
>Tells me CSK2 is too easy despite him not doing anything remotely challenging
>He goes to take a shower
>I use commands to take control of his characters faggot ass jealous brother
>Give his brother heaps of gold
>Max all his stats
>Go back to his character
>Make all his vassals heretics too
>Give is only son the imbecile trait
>Give the viking shitters a claim on his kingdom and thousands and thousands of coins
>Watch the salt unfold when he starts playing again and can't figure out how everything went so wrong.
>>891154
>>891215
It's possible, this was on Ironman too.
>form kingdom of afghanistan, dow the old buddhist guy in de jure afghanistan and finish the war before he dies so you can blob as quickly as possible
>take counties in india
>your no.1 objective should be reforming the religion, big zunist blobs will be crippled by constant religious rebellions that make it unplayable
>grab cairo as soon as it rebels, always have a fabbed claim on it
If Abbasids don't fall apart in the first few years you may as well restart.
>>891240
There's a bunch of stuff you need to make sure you do at the start, the one I can remember is knocking out all the buddhists in de jure afghanistan before they get enough karma to summon holy orders.
>>891240
>>891261
>>891285
>size 16
I hope it spread a lot more in 70 years.
>be Dutchy of Apulia
>declare Holy War for Sicily
>remove kebab from premises
>invade Salerno, and other neighboring city states
>take about half the southern Italian peninsula, bordering the Papal States and HRE now
>Venice attacks me
>beat their asses, get paid 700 gold in reperations
>declare Crusade for Malta and Tripolitania
>get that shit done
>Pope declares a Crusade for the Holy Land
>can't attend right away because Anacona decided to start shit
>wife dies, king becomes stressed and depressed
>finish subjugating them just in time to arrive and defeat the Fatmid doomstack that was outnubering the Hospitaliers and Flemish Army 3 to one.
>Kingdom of Jerusalem saved
>fighting the heathens gives me the trait "zealous" and while in battle he lost the trait "stressed and depressed"
Deus DEFINITELY Vult
>>891351
Gloria
>>888393
HiP seems to be surprisingly good for comfy games and roleplaying, I wonder why that is.
Playing as a kingdom based in Cyprus and later the Levant without a single assassination or civil war for centuries was one of my fondest memories, I got really attached to my dynasty too.
>Play as a Sicilian vassal of the Byzantine emeperors
>Become independent, gradually build an empire that includes Southern France, all of Italy, and a large part of North Africa
>feelsgoodtobeemperor.jpg
>Have my brother, whom I don't particularly like, run Italy as my vassal king
>My spymaster tells me that my brother's a fag
>Try to blackmail him, so that he stays out of all factions
>He tells me to go fuck myself
>Try to arrest him
>He escapes and starts a rebellion
>A bloody war starts that lasts for many years
>Hundreds of thousands men die on the battlefield
>Millions of civilians perish from calamities of war
>Scandinavian pagans come to rape and pillage in the war-torn lands of Western Mediterranean
>After many years of bloodshed, the war is finally over and Italy is subdued again
>Mfw future generations will know that one of the bloodiest conflicts of world history was fought because some guy loved to put his dick in other guys' assholes
>>882528
I believe shattered armies suffer attrition now.
>>882443
The filename says it all
>>891480
Pardon my Ignorance, What's HiP? I want to play as Krete for a few hundred years, and it sounds helpful.
>>882443
One year truce mod
>1066 start
>defeat Seljuks
>launch Holy War for Alexandria
>Seljuks too busy fighting independence wars to do shit
>Fatimids collapse in aftermath
>free to conquer the Levant
>created a sort of Islamic pocket for a while before taking it all over
>East is ruled by Viceroy kings to prevent any revolts directly against me
>West is less-organized, and I am currently trying to solidify rule over Southern Italy and the city of Rome (Great Schism is mended) before launching a Holy War for Carthage
>holy war
>king keeps dying of fucking depression
>keep reloading because the only son is 11 years old and a regent in CK2 is pretty much guaranteed civil war
>he keeps dying anyway
>remove the depression with console commands
>he dies of old age instead
>only 50 years old
>keep saving and reloading every time he dies
>suddenly claimant faction in the middle of the holy war
>reload and bribe everyone
>game crashes
>be Bulgaria under Iven Asen II
>lose Bulgaria to the Mongols
>only have Serbia left
>go full on North Korea, confiscate every castle and turn the country into my personal fief
>stockpile money
>make an army of 15,000 mercenaries, invade Bulgaria and peace out before the Mongol horde can arrive
>only get one duchy at the cost of thousands of ducats
>truces only apply to the invaders, Mongols just declare war on me right back
>I've only held Bulgaria for a month and a 50,000 Mongol rapestack arrives to retake it
>already disbanded my mercenaries, only have 2k levies, wouldn't matter anyways
>I stockpile money and try it again
>this horrible stalemate goes on for centuries
>all of Bulgaria loses its culture and religion and becomes a godless Mongol shithole
>Turks take over Byzantium
>life is shit
Only fun game I ever had.
>>885607
Its pretty fucking obvious, he cheated
>>890711
>not starting the De Normandie dynasty as Rollo
are you even trying
>>893290
http://www.ckiiwiki.com/Historical_Immersion_Project
>>882443
>CK experience
>>891228
This is DEFINITELY the right way.
I wish peace were more stable. It seems like every year the kingdom will erupt into civil war and the king and his heirs die and some literally who dynasty takes the throne.
This is the closest thing to a Total War thread. So I will ask this here.
I am very ignorant when it comes to history but, I am playing Total War Atilla and just had a question. Which tribe/peoples did the Britain spring from?
>>897719
Not sure what you're asking. Which tribes inhabited Britain before Rome and the Saxons?
>>897725
No I mean, who did the British people who inhabit it today come from? Like Are they purely immigrants from tribes? All from a tribe?
>>897731
Celtic Britons and various peoples from the continent. Mainly Anglo-Saxons and French.
>>897719
>>897731
The British Isles were Celtic for thousands of years until the Romans invaded in the first century. Germanic tribes invaded during the Migration period of around the 5th century when the Romans pulled out of Britain. The main tribes being the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons, hence the names Anglo-Saxon, and Angleland/Englaland/England. These tribes set up a series of small kingdoms known as the heptarchy, Mercia, Wessex (West Saxony) etc that you see in Total War or Crusader Kings. Then the vikings invaded in the 9th century and settled northern England in an area called the Danelaw. And you had the Normans, who were descended from vikings, invade in 1066, which is probably the most famous invasion, and the last. Basically English history is a long story of cultural enrichment.
As far as I know English people are still ethnically British, as in all the invasions didn't replace Britons with Germans or anything, Britons are still the vast majority. But culturally obviously a lot changed. You can see this in the English language especially.
I think Wales managed to escape most of it, and their language and culture is descended straight from the original Celtic Britons. Same for Scotland (though Im not sure). Ireland was never invaded by Germans but they were by vikings and of course the English, which is why nobody in Ireland speaks Irish anymore.
>>897719
there's a fucking total war general on /vg/ you dumb Frank
>>897895
/vg/ is fucking shit. You can't ask or discuss anything there because the 15 or so people who circlejerk the general 24/7 have already discussed it to death and just resort to shitposting and memes because there's no moderation. If you ask any question you will get "kill yourself" or "uninstall the game" or no answer at all. Every general on /vg/ is this kind of worthless circlejerk. Especially /gsg/. It's a containment board.
Started as Ioannes of the Kantakouzenos dynasty in Mesembria (coastal Bulgaria) in the Eastern Roman Empire. Started holy wars for the Orthodox church on the steppes and managed to found the Despotates of Volga- Bulgaria and Perm while simultaneously raising his children to be good cathar scots.
These successes bolstered the ERE at a time of endemic civil war after the Seljuk Turks had conquered Armenia. Ioannes never rebelled.
His son married into Ethiopian royalty and gave birth to a black cathar scot, Farquhar the Great, Ioanne's chosen successor, who would marry the bastard daughter of Basileus Alexios the Accursed of the Komnenos dynasty. Alexios was throned as a baby after Constantine X's disastrous defeat resulted in a civil war, he was dethroned, later rethroned then dethroned again by rebels supporting his legitimate daughter.
Farquhar the Great died at age 26 unexpectedly, the Kingdom of Perm went to his brother while the Kingdom of Volga-Bulgaria went to his daughter Deirdre. The Kingdom of Perm then seceded from the Empire. However soon his daughter came of age, pushed her claim, using troops and wealth from Volga-Bulgaria to fund the campaign, conquered Perm then returned it to her uncle.
She rapidly consolidated her power, converting most aristocratic families to the cathar religion, raising a retinue legion of 10000 or so schiltrons, archers and a cavalry flank to counter the inevitable future rebellion while holy warring against catholic Sicily and Croatia, nominally still part of the empire, to set up relatives as powerful allies. The last rebellion by orthodox christians a few years later failed and her rule was secure.
Now I'm just blobbing, I don't see why people hate this so much, it only took me a few years to conquer persia by breaking treaties and constantly trashing their capital over and over.
clockwise from top left) independent states, religion, direct vassals, culture
my Cascadia game, pre-Horse Lords
>>899144
What mod is that?
>>890711
>not taking Pomerania straight to the top
I can't figure out CKII for shit but I do play EUIV.
>finally claimed Europe for the glorious Spanish Empire
>Muscovy, Mamluks, and Persia hate my guts
>all are decently sized and in a coalition
>colonies are reaching critical liberty desire
>can't do shit about it
It was fun while it lasted.
>pic related
>>899230
>>>/reddit/
>>883719
starting from anywhere but 1066 is piss easy, try and take up a challenge and try to play by your characters given traits rather than blob building
>>899245
>can't figure out ckii
>le go back to >>>/reddit/
I like to enjoy my games, anon, not arrange a billion marriages and plan a 147 part strategy for my favorite son to take the throne. CKII is tedious work, EUIV is simple fun.
>sack Rome for the fourth time
>manage to pick up two qt sisters from the same raid
who knew graphs and numerals could make my dick so hard, god damn
>>899258
Fuck off back to rebbit BIG_BENIS_IN_MY_ANUS
>>899267
proofs
>>899230
EU IV is utter shit
>>899258
Endgame CK2 is too easy, but paradox is trying to fix this by making gifts useless. Before conclave you just shoveled money to your vassals to keep them happy.¨
Just try to get into CK2, it is not that bad.
>>885387
Memetastic story breh
>>891228
Pollinate is a fun command. I made St Peter impregnate the byzantine empress and then had Prophet Mohammed do the same to their daughter
>>891228
If I'm playing CK2 as a pagan, I sometimes play it one handed. I especially love playing as an English Viking who goes shopping for concubines on the Mediterranean coast. I also enjoy taking concubines from prestigious dynasties, marrying them off matrilineally before I knock them up and giving their offspring some shitty county somewhere in a forest.. It amuses me to have English Karlings, Ummayads and Abbasids available to install on overseas thrones to go eternal Anglo on their kith and kin.
Where can I get the latest HIP that isn't the forums?
Is it worth playing with uncivilized nations at all?
Westernizing is so fucking boring and by the time i do it i missed all the fun
>>899496
Obviously meant this for vicky 2, not CK2
>>899499
Yes, if you have goals in mind, like uniting Oceania or going full East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
I finally got around to finishing one of my first ever games. Started as the earl of Dublin and ended it as the Holy Roman Emperor.
King of Ireland came quickly, obviously, as did the Kingdom of Wales. Took over Scotland piece by piece. Acquired Brittany somewhere along the way. Spent a hell of a long time picking counties away from England. Had whittled them down to a small, central cluster of counties but it wasn't enough to usurp or create the Empire of Britannia.
About twenty years from game end my mother dies and I inherit Lotharingia. I join the Holy Roman Empire. A few years later I'm elected Emperor. Kill some Muslims, kick France around a bit. Game ends.
>>899580
Were you still Irish when you were elected kaiser?
cruisin n bruisin
HIP mod best mod.
I like using the New World Order option to split the map into Dukes, then try to recreate a Zoroastrian Persian Empire.
>Play as Isaakios Angelos
>he's a garbage ruler but I make it work
>he eventually dies leaving it to his more capable heir, Markos II
>Markos II is a very good Emperor and recovers a significant portion of Anatolia, Croatia, and Jerusalem
>due to shitty infamy mechanics I had to give Jerusalem to my heir, not a big deal
>helping heir with revolts
>suddenly he dies in battle and I will no longer have this capable son and the Kingdom of Jerusalem when I die
>not that big of a setback, my new heir has a claim of Jerusalem and is decent
>eventually Markos dies and leaves it to the new heir
>New Emperor is a lunatic
>thisisfine.mosiac
>suddenly Emperor dies and leaves the Empire to a Craven, Content, Detached Priest who looks like he has autism
JUST
>>900407
>HIP
Muh sandnigger. I'd recommend playing an Irish duke starting 867. That shit is hard and balanced enough to play
>>900777
Ever tried playing some viking fucking shit and then going republican? Republican Iceland(king-tier) is GOAT
>>895253
nope. I started in 769 and stayed nomad for some time so I could use the invasion and the subjugation casus belli several times. after conquering most of northern India I settled down and converted to Buddhism and got the Kingdom of Bengal via marriage (and assasinating male heirs of course).
finally, I invited the claimants of the remaining Indian kingdoms and duchys to my court, landed them so they became my vassals, than pressed their claims. that way, they became the kings of wathever country they claimed, but also my vassals (by that time I had emperor titles).
to be fair though, horse nomads are really overpowered in Horse Lords, even if they are played by the AI. I have seen the khagan of Khazaria and even Alania become the Byzanthine emperor after using subjugation.
>>900806
Yeah, usually as the count/duke of Gotland. It's historical too.
Started from the bottom (first playthrough tho)
>>901822
now we here
Which is better, HIP or CK2+?
>>902061
HiP.
>>899230
I had a similar problem in my last Spain run.
Although I only took Occitania and Italy in Europe and mainly focused on my colonies and my trade companies.
The answer is: war.
They cannot declare independence if they are fighting by your side. Just start meaningless wars against some Africans that you can drag out for 5 years or more.
And whenever someone supports the independence of one of your subjects, declare war on them before they do on you.
Try to keep your prestige up and placate whenever you can. Don't be Trump and keep your tarifs low, even though you lose money you still got to keep your little Rubios.
>Finnish Invasion of Greece
Do Muslims get insane bonus's or something in HIP? Castille keeps fighting muslims with almost twice as much men and keeps losing even when they are the defender.
>>891228
I thought I was the only one who did this. Feels kinda degenerate to go down the dynasty list, fucking every female in the dynasty and then disowning the inbred ones. But damn it does feel good when my 3rd daughter-wife's 5th son goes off and conquers a ducal title and then accepts vassalization. I managed to basically win a good portion of my empire just by fucking my strong genius qt daughter/granddaughters
>>902470
The Second Mongol Invasion?
Do you guys ever play as dukes or counts?
>>888393
This is what should have happened IRL all those years ago
>>902914
all the time
usually i pick some irrelevant fucktard count with no influence and climb the ladder, first to duchy and than to my own kingdom
it's more fun that way than playing some big ruling family
>>903022
*then
>>901000
I'll get you one later lad
>>903325
Not him but I'm waiting, anon
>>903427
Thanks a mundo mang.
>>903405
Thanks man
>tfw can't open it with my computer somehow so I'm downloading it in my phone
>>882443
>drunk as fuck
>use the ruler creator to make a Venetian patriarch named Shalom Sheckleberg
>Jewish
>all of my counselors are Jewish, vow to never land or grant titles to any non-Jew
>while the other families fight over the Adriatic I deicide to put my trade posts around the Aegean
>trade grows with no competition
>filthy rich
>start saving up money for mercs and using them to take over random Croatian coastal provinces I fabricate claims on
>pour tons of money into elections and become doge
>use my authority to convert Croatian provinces to Judaism
>kingdoms around me use the fact that Venice is not a Jewish nation to spam me with holy wars
>lose almost all my money fending them off, in addition to one of the provinces I took
>ruler dies in battle and I go back to being a regular patriarch so no more holy wars
>convert one of the other families and eventually take back Croatian provinces and usurp the duchy with their help
>most of the provinces still Jewish
>getting even richer now that ive upgraded all my shit plus got all this land
>mfw I have created a Jewish enclave inside venice that's stronger and more wealthy than all the other patriarchs combined
>>903466
is now a jewish nation* fuck
>>901030
>surviving as magyars in 769
that's pretty much the synonym of cheating
R8 my blob, lads
>>904160
Post religion
>Be Oldenberg in HRE.
>Slowly convert to a republic by making a family member the grand mayor of Holstein.
>Somewhere along the way, he converts to Fraticelli.
>Decide just to roll with it as the one true faith, surely there must be some validity to it if he converted?
>Unite most of northern Germany.
>Emperor pissed as shit at me but can't deal with my massive technology advantage and retinues.
>Pope unhappy.
>Eventually usurp all of HRE.
>Become Holy Roman Republic.
>Capture Pope, have him executed and install Fraticelli Pope.
>Catholic world is slowly converting to the one true faith.
>Only England remains as a holdout for Catholicism, hosting their own pope.
Wonder what things would've been like had Fraticelli been the center of the reformation rather than Luther.
>be Harald Fairhair
>enjoy life as viking
>beat all neighbours into Norway
>get two kids
>Strongman McRapesalot and Fatman
>Strongman inherits, as is tradition
>After seeing his brother having fun being king, Fatman decides to usurp
>He has vassal support
>fuck_my_longboat.rune
>Abdicate peacefully
>Spend years carefully planning assassination
>No luck
>About to give when I checked vassal status
>tfw vassals are sworn to the king and not the crown
>The whole of Norway marched on an OPM
>Fatman turned into a moose cocksock
>Strongman lived to oversee invasion of England
Always check your vassal status, don't be a retard like me.
>>899602
Nah, German. Grandfather was Irish and grandmother was queen of Lotharingia.
Does the traits of your current ruler change your play style?
For instance, if you are playing a cruel character, do you try to get rid of that trait, keep it but only choose cruel decisions, or actively do cruel things (execute courtiers for their money, for instance)?
>>903896
The Magyars are one of the easiest people to play as in the entire game, what the fuck are you talking about
>>904439
>fuck_my_longboat.rune
my sides are in orbit now...
I'm so fucking frustrated with this game. It's the old thing where the more you play a game and the better you get the more you start to notice the annoying game-breaking stuff.
I'll load up CK2, play for like three hours straight and then quit and not touch it again for weeks after running into one of Paradox's arbitrary brick walls.
I tried to destroy Byzantine Empire from within to create Iconoclast kingdom in Sicily. Stage one of plan was success. I weakened Empire with pretty well timed rebellion and took independence. Then Muslim Khazars conquered entire Byzanitum and on top of that conquered me. So I just draw coats of arms now and roll to next character to continue the game.
>>899230
On paper CKII is the better, more interesting game, but in execution of EU4 is vastly better to the point when it is much more fun to play.
You're really not missing much anon. It makes me sad to say that because I'd love to be able to recommend it worth your time to learn.
>>905987
CKII is more interesting if you lose and EU4 is more interesting if you win.
>>891228
There a mod that makes all rulers females except yourself you may like it
>>899258
>CKII is tedious work, EUIV is simple fun.
It's tedious because the interface is so amazingly awful. It should be way more interesting than blob map painting in EU but after an hour, even when you know full well what you're doing, it's simply a vile way to spend time. There's no need for any interface to be that horrible.
>>906001
Yes, but I posted 906026 â–¶ which sums up my feelings. I love the idea of CK2, but for already mentioned reasons: no, sorry. I don't care about the ending either way if the journey is pointless unpleasant. It doesn't even need to be remotely that unpleasant which is the most infuriating part.
>Tried to do a ruler creator playthrough where a disgruntled Irish nobleman pagan fled and became a count of Finland to get in on their paganism
>Takes fucking forever to convert a single county to Irish culture (I can't be too mad about that)
>I end up close to forming Lithuania and the game crashes and the only salvageable save (they keep corrupting) is like 10 years back.
>Fuck it I tried
I don't know shit about CKII other than its maximum autismo
How do I into it?
>>904160
nice hacks
>>906199
>its maximum autismo
Not really. V2, HoI, Aurora, Distant Worlds, Dorf Fort,TIS-100, and Spacechem are far more autismo, and that's just what I've played.
>>890711
I started as a catholic count in 867 Britanny, ended up as a Breton, Yazidi, black emperor of Trajan's Roman Empire.
Pretty fun game
>>903466
Start inviting black characters to your court and marry them off to ruling christian dynasties
Any tips for playing merchant republics?
I tried playing as Venice, but found it very boring, nothing but building trade ports, upgrading my palace, but not a lot of opportunities to take part in world politics.
>>908642
Easy: start conquering shit. You have automatic "conquer town" CB against everyone so start doing that. After you get towns, claim counties, then duchies, etc. And remember, keep it seaside.
I think I am going to scrap my Sicilian playthrough and start another game from scratch.
I now am the King of both the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Serbia. However, I am bankrupted from hiring so many mercenaries to put down civil wars, and another civil war is going to invariably break out due to my brother hating me (I accidentally gave him control of a duchy, but I was/am not willing to give up a county that is de jure part of his duchy... Also, he hates me because he's not heir to the throne).
I have claims to some Byzantine lands, but I've been losing every single war against them: they simply have too many troops. I tried to annex a county of theirs (Arsa) while they were fighting a holy war in Aleppo, but they showed up with a +17000 man army and crushed me and I had to offer a white peace.
Luckily, I have a save point just before my brother always rebels. He always rebels, no matter what I do differently: the only variation that changes is that sometimes, he rebels by himself, or sometimes, he manages to convince all my other vassals (another duke, a doge of my vassal republic, and a prince-bishop) to rebel too, meaning I can't raise that many troops to combat them. Once, the Venetians and Byzantines happened to attack me while I was fighting off the rebellion.
But at the same time, I want to see this playthough to the end.
I just wanted to usurp the Byzantine Empire and the title of Basileius
;___;
>>909130
How did your brother end up with enough land to overpower you? Do you have gavelkind succession?
>>906199
CK2 is most casual of Grand Strategies.
>>908642
Improve until you got fast money, pay mercs all of them and burn the Byzantium.
>>909182
He doesn't have more land than me, but he has significant amounts.
See, this is my first playthrough, so I'm barely learning about the difference between assigning duchies and counties. My vassals all hated me, and I realized it was because I "controlled too many duchies" and had no vassals on duke-levels. So I proceeded to hand out duchy and county titles without thinking, just wanting to appease them.
Which worked at first. Really, it's my brother that's the problem: he's at -90 opinion of me, and is duke of one county completely, and nominally duke of another (but he doesn't actually own the territories that come with that dukedom: the only way now is to revoke his titles and assign them to someone else in a more orderly fashion, but this will push my brother and perhaps other vassals to civil war - and I'm bankrupted, and whatever vassals I retain will be angered due to me raising their levies).
>>909197
If you have a one really problematic dude you can just call an army in case of rebellion and imprison him or you can just wait until he is dead.
>>909197
Is your brother your heir?
>>909205
>wait until he is dead
But he has a son (i.e. heir). I need to completely remove his line, and appoint new vassals in a much more consistent way. And he'll rebel if I try to imprison him or revoke his titles.
And sometimes, he rebels only by himself; other times, all my other vassals rebel along with him (in that case, there's no way I can win).
>>909211
No, my son is the heir. The reasons my brother hates me are:
-He isn't an heir and desires the kingdom
-He is duke of some duchy, and wants control of a certain duchy (which I'm not willing to part due to its tax revenue)
-I am a kinslayer (had previous civil wars and exterminated a brother and his son)
-I did revoke a certain county from him in the past
-I have implemented high crown authority, high feudal levies, high feudal taxation
For the most part, all my other vassals are alright with me.
>>909228
Huh.
Easiest way to resolve this is either kill his and his son, or kill yourself and your son. Either way should reunite your lands.
>Be the duke of some spanish backwater
>Supporting Asturias as a good christian
>Have a son
>Breed him into a lean mean kebab removing machine
>Another son
>Throw this faggot into the clergy
>Succession crisis averted 20 years in advance
>Removing kebab when a third son is born
>More inbred than Charles the Second
>I'll assassinate or throw him a-
>Kebab Remover son is removed by kebab
>The downie is the heir
>The bishop flips me off and refuses to take the crown
>I'm 60 and wife is 50
>Put dick into overdriveand stick it into every woman in my court
>Die of acute finnabustanutosis
>Downie is the new king
>Everyone hates him
>Even the King of Asturias thinks he's a peice of shit
>Eternal Ummayad laughing in the distance
Even though I ragequit, it was probably the most fun game I've ever had.
>>909234
I'm probably going to have to go to war against him and win. Once I imprison him, I'll revoke titles from him until he dies in prison. His son, I'll marry off matrilineally to someone and hope an alliance comes of it.
For After the End, what's making the game not launch after I click play? Do I need to un-update to CK 2.2.1?
>>888393
My best game, mind you it was a long time ago:
>start as count of achaia or some shit
>manage to take other counties and the duchy itself
>empire gets rekt by the muds
>I declare independence because fuck it I forgot why
>rebels rekt the empire even more
>meanwhile I went and took Sicily and southern Italy
>declare myself king of "Sparta"
>eventually it only has like a couple provinces in illyria
>inherit the throne by mistake (I had forgotten I even set that up)
>stumble my way through recovering the balkans for the empire
>stumble my way through taking the restof Italy
>stumble my way through taking Anatolia and North Africa
>stumble my way through retaking spain and france
>unite the roman empire and erase catholicism
>watnow?
>stumble my thrugh taking the rest of the map
>convert to EU4
>Invade the Americas (colonize)
>invade Japan
>Invade China
>colonize Russia
>colonize Straya
>Colonize and conquer Africa
>conquer India
Greek orthodox was the majority of the world's population. Yeah by the half of it it was just steamrolling but I really wanted to try it once
>>882498
This is actually one of the reasons I almost always have about 2/3s of my army made of horses. Only way to truly eliminate an enemy army without them frolicking around.
My old save, not sure if I remember everything.
>Europe is in turmoir.
>West Francia and Lombardy are the main powers in western europe
>Sunnis are forming big empires all around mediterranean
>there is no stopping Byzantine
>playing as High Chief of Karelia
>my cousin and heir is controlling tribe of Satakunta, meaning that all brown in Scandinavia is under our control
>Khazarian horse lords are pushing towards my borders and slaving my fellow pagans, but they will break apart into another civil war soon enough
>balancing between keeping danmark/sweden viking realms weak, while trying to capture holy sites from russian tribes
>my main goals were reforming finnish faith and spreading finnish culture into new areas
>Fighting losing war against one of dozen angry Ivan chiefs.
So done with this game. Why can't you press more than one claim at once? Say you absolutely smash another country - you get the chance to try and occupy it. You have to deal with uprisings, guerrilla warfare etc. Hopefully shit like that will be in CK3.
90% of this fucking game is trying to finagle the succession system to your advantage, trying to solve simple solutions which could be solved in real life with a conversation through hours of retarded shenanigans.
>Make demigod Zoroastrian ruler with modded character creator, make him super fertile/healthy
>spawn a fuck load of event troops
>conquer the fuck out of the Muslims and Byzantines, basically reestablish the Achaemenid Empire+Arabia (the rest of the Orthodox/Sunni world collapsing into heresy is hilarious, I think Yazidi became the main 'Sunni' faith
>become Saoshyant
>by the time I die at age 85 I have so many sons, Grandsons and Great-Grandsons that every Duchy and Kingdom is under the direct control of my dynasty
>elective succession because fuck it, it's funny and hardly ever going to move outside my dynasty
>have a save file just before he dies (will otherwise just console it) where I then play as one of the vassal kings and then see what happens to this fuck huge empire
is it worth getting into CK2 if I'm a total war cuck?
>>910360
from what I understand, EUIV is a better entry level game if you're looking into getting into these games.
>>910380
>musketshit
dropped
>>910388
oh I know it's probably one of the worst games they have. It's just the easiest to learn on because there's so little to do besides paint maps.
>>910389
just sounds shit senpai, not my first grand strat.
>>909641
you need to update to 2.5.2 .
the issue of role-play in CKII. My ruler is Kind and Just with no negative traits. But if I don't kill this shit, my son and heir won't inherit that Aquitaine blob. The kid is also the future heir of the Duchy of Normandy too.
What do /his/?
>>903466
Tried the same thing, but after like 12 years I got elected as Doge and I wasn't prepared for holy wars yet. Strange because I didn't even put any money into my campaign fund, I just went around building loads of trade post and upgrading my palace.
>>912101
whack him
>>912932
poor thing never stood a chance
How do I go about doing war effectively?
I can do everything else fine but actual combat usually is the great thing that fucks me over.
I do not know if it is composition, levy vs retinue, martial traits/score/personal combat, or any of the other factors.
>>882688
quality post
>>913124
>the basics
having more men than your opponent is a good start. Also pay attention to troop types. Archers and Horse Archers are good for the skirmish phase but useless outside of it. Heavy Infantry, Pikes and Heavy Cavalry do the grunt work of the Melee phase, and Light Cavalry do their main damage in the pursuit phase when the opposing flank is broken. Light infantry are just shit. troops damage is effected by tactics. Every couple of days in battle, the commander of a flank will roll a tactic, and this will modify the damage and morale of various units in his flank. Generally speaking, the higher the marshal stat the greater the likelihood of good tactics. Also, check if your commander has modifers like "defensive" "heavy infantry leader" or "terrain master" etc, and fight use them appropriately. Attacking armies across rivers, straights, large rivers, in mountains or hills or forests will provide penalties for the attackers.
So in short, have an army bigger than the opponent, have high marshal commanders leading it, and fight defensively by getting the enemy to attack while you're in mountains, hills or across rivers (you can easily do this by splitting your army, then reinforcing once the battle begins).
>>913310
>more complicated shit
until you have a large retinue limit, you'll be reliant mainly on levies, so you won't have much control over troop comp. But look at their stats and what you the most of, and try act accordingly. Don't stick a light infantry leader in charge of a stack that's got a lot of heavy infantry and pikes.
Pay attention to culture. Cultural buildings provide combat bonuses, and its always good to upgrade them first (unless the building focuses on light infantry, then its shit). Culture also effects tactics, and many of the best tactics are restricted by culture.
Tactics are what really determine a battle, and the ability to force good tactics roll will destroy opponents. Every few days, each flank leader chooses a tactic. The tactic is based on the troop composition of each flank, and requires a minion marshal skill to roll. the full list is here
http://www.ckiiwiki.com/Combat_tactics
As you can see, tactics make some units better, and others weaker. For example, Stand Fast increase Pike Offense by 300%, but reduces heavy cavalry and heavy infantry by 150%. Tactics also have affinities, so if Stand Fast goes up against a flank using Charge it gets a 300% bonus. These are battle winning moments. As I said above, certain cultures have unique tactics. Italians and Scots get unique Pike tactics, English get Massive Longbow Volley, French and Normans get Couched Lance Charge and so on. So hiring commanders of certain nationalities can be a good idea if you find their tactics will benefit your flank
>>913370
>continued
Anyway, the best way to guarantee good tactics is through retinues. With retinues you completely control the troop composition, allowing you to all but ensure certain tactics will fire with the right leaders. Once your retinue cap is up to a certain level (enough troops that it won't simply be crushed by weight of numbers), you should have one of your flanks composed entirely of retinues acting as a breakthrough flank, while the other 2 are levy flanks with leaders designed to minimize casualties (traits such as "defensive" are good). By having a flank composed entirely of retinues, you can all but guarantee good tactics will trigger (with good commanders), crushing the AI's opposing levy flank and then rolling up their line. What type of retinue composition should I use? It depends. The short answer is if your cultural retinue contains Heavy Infantry, Pikes or Light Cavalry, spam it. If it also contains light infantry, mix it with generic ones. Otherwise, just spam the generic defense retinue, as Pikeman are ridiculously strong in the current meta.
a full list can be found here, but bare in mind Camels and Horse Archers were nerfed in 2.5
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/comprehensive-retinue-comparisons-for-horse-lords-2-4-x.872371/
R8 me:
I just started a new playthrough as a the Doux of Cherson, a vassal of the Byzantine Empire. My first act was to marry a princess of Kievan Rus', thus forming an alliance. Then I proceeded to declare war on the Crimean Khanate in order to gain the county of Crimea and to stop getting raided by nomads every so often.
After winning the war, a giant revolt broke out in the Byzantine Empire, and I proceeded to declare my independence as well. The Byzantines were so busy cleaning up the other revolt that they didn't even come close to me for most of the rebellion, and I got to 99% warscore without doing anything. When I was at 99% warscore, I saw a giant Byzantine army entering my province, but thankfully, my warscore happened to hit 100% at the same time, at which point I won the war and obtained independence.
My short-term plans:
-Conquer the rest of the counties that de jure make up the Duchy of Cherson
-Establish the Kingdom of Taurica
Long-term goals:
-Begin a conquest of the Byzantine Empire
-(Attempt to) usurp both the Byzantine Empire and the title of Basileus
P.S. Would /his/ recommend me turning the county of Theodosia into a (vassal) merchant republic?
Pic not related.
