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[scriver]

Look at those pretty portaits!

[CABL]

What retinue should I choose? I can choose between Generic retinues or Baltic Warrior (+30% Heavy Infantry Defense and +10 Heavy Infantry morale), but Baltic warrior looks kinda crappy.

[Iceblaster]

Hm. Based on my earlier post, how would I go about adding the 'all occupied territory goes to the victor' wargoal to surrender and victory conditions? Because it sounds like it could be interesting.

[umiman]

Hm. Based on my earlier post, how would I go about adding the 'all occupied territory goes to the victor' wargoal to surrender and victory conditions? Because it sounds like it could be interesting.

You could copy paste the nomad invasion CB into the CBs you want. Nomad invasion gives you all the holdings you conquer.

CrusadesInvasions also work like that.

[misko27]

What retinue should I choose? I can choose between Generic retinues or Baltic Warrior (+30% Heavy Infantry Defense and +10 Heavy Infantry morale), but Baltic warrior looks kinda crappy.

There was like a week long period in which I was obsessed with retinues, and let me assure you Heavy Infantry is bad. Despite that, +30% defense is very good, actually, so it's probably one of the least bad heavy infantry out there (I believe Russian Heavy infantry is the best of the worst). I don't recall if the Baltics have any special tactics, though, and that would determine it. Also, in general, it's nice to optimize, but unnecessary I think. I know I go around with some Byzantine troops even though they are straight up terrible. Best Generic retinue is Defense. Just pure defense. Maybe a cavalry flank to handle Pursuit, but pure defense crushes, and does even better if you can at all import a Scottish or Italian commander.

Speaking of Satan, I haven't been able to sleep (again), so I dropped by the official forums in time to spot this go up:

Spoiler: Dev Diary 36: The Witching Hour (click to show/hide)

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a good time during the Holidays. I know I did, but now it’s time to don the crown, strap on the sword and get back to work on Crusader Kings II (and my other game, of course...) Now, what better way to start off the new year than with a bit of harmless witchery? In the terribly long eras before the great thinkers of the Age of Reason would have us replace magic with science, the “occult” was of course seen as a normal part of life, and society lived in fear of curses and evil spells. But… just because you’re superstitious does not mean the witches aren’t out to get you! Just like today, the desperate and the unscrupulous would seek power by any means necessary, including the worship of demons and evil spirits...

This brings us to my favorite Society in the upcoming expansion Monks and Mystics; the Demon Worshippers. These brothers and sisters of the left-hand path come in several varieties: Abrahamics get “Lucifer’s Own”, Tengri pagans get the “Plaguebringers”, the Indian faiths are afflicted with a particularly nasty type of Kali worship, Baltic, Slavic and Finnic pagans get “The Cold Ones” (evil shamans) and Germanic Pagans have those who curry the favor of Hel and of powerful jotuns. Regardless of religious context, they are all united in their self-serving, utterly ruthless quest for power in the world of the living, and care little for their fate in the afterlife. As they advance through the ranks, Demon Worshippers get powers like “Dark Divorce”, “Summon Familiar” and “Tainted Touch” (a health curse.) Through their network of agents, they can also attempt to abduct relatively low ranking characters. Now, a lot of the content for the Demon Worshippers is hard to explain in terms of placebo effects and natural phenomena, so if you don’t care for the supernatural I suggest simply not joining those Societies (because rooting out their covens and persecuting them through your Court Chaplain is reasonably historical and adds flavor to the game.) However, if you really don’t want them around, you can turn them off through a Game Rule.

Next up are the infamous Assassins, a Shiite Muslim Society that - unsurprisingly - specializes in murder. The elusive Assassins consider themselves the true followers of Allah, and will do anything to further the advances of Shia Islam and protect their fellow believers. Consisting of loyal warriors as well as competent spies, wielding manipulation and social skills as expertly as a dagger, they specialize in asymmetrical warfare, striking hard at the heart of their enemies. Their special powers include intimidation and murder. For example, they can get a Favor with someone (if you have the Conclave expansion) by leaving a dagger on their pillow. At higher ranks, they can also mark someone for death, so that lower ranked members will get that murder as a mission. Since this Society is also a political entity and a Holy Order of sorts, the Grandmaster gets the power to raise special troops.

There is more to say about these Societies; their other powers, missions and semi-random events, but I don’t want to spoil it all. Oh, and if you have the Way of Life expansion, you can use “Spy On” to find out if a character is a member of a secret Society like the above...

There won’t be a CK2 stream today, but stay tuned for something next week (and a new dev diary, of course)!

Nice to know I don't actually need to have demon-worshippers running around in my game if I don't want a supernatural game, though that Hindu cult sorta grabs at your heartstrings.  Also, though it's unsurprising, it's been confirmed as moddable.

Guys! Note in that picture, for the assassins, it says "Is secretly Shia" and "Is not secretly worshipping a different religion". That's a pretty huge reveal. Right there. We are, officially, getting crypto-religions, which has dramatically improved my opinion of this DLC. Such potential!

Hm. Based on my earlier post, how would I go about adding the 'all occupied territory goes to the victor' wargoal to surrender and victory conditions? Because it sounds like it could be interesting.

You could copy paste the nomad invasion CB into the CBs you want. Nomad invasion gives you all the holdings you conquer.

Crusades also work like that.

Not Crusades, but the Papal Invasion casus belli (the one William of Normandy is using in 1066) automatically gives you all sieged down locations at the end of the war (which can be used to AMAZING effect to consolidate your power).

[Iceblaster]

Fun. Honestly, I'm just interested in seeing a world where winning or losing a war could have massive gains/losses. Does the AI automatically go into full siege mode when that addition is added or does it generally stay within the CB? Never really seen an AI invasion that isn't against a realm that contains multiple de jure kingdoms.

[umiman]

Fun. Honestly, I'm just interested in seeing a world where winning or losing a war could have massive gains/losses. Does the AI automatically go into full siege mode when that addition is added or does it generally stay within the CB? Never really seen an AI invasion that isn't against a realm that contains multiple de jure kingdoms.

It doesn't. It acts like normal.

[Iceblaster]

Again, fun. Might do that later today then. Might post pictures if I remember

[CABL]

@misko27:

What about Light Skirmish retinue? I've heard Light Infantry is great for holding assault. And no, neither Baltic or Finno-Ugric have special tactics.
BTW, after finishing my holy war for Beloozero, I was wondering if I can use religious order's troops as raiders against infidels. And the answer was yes. After dozens of burned down holdings and twenty or so prisoner ransoms, my balance was increased from 865 shekels to 1745 shekels. My current goal is to become king of Rus (It's also very likely that I'll need to fight against Mongols), then I'll probably also try to become king of Lithuania. Man, it's glorious to be Suomenusko!
Anyway, can someone recommend me AAR or something like that? I prefer gameplay-focused AARs over narrative AARs.

P.S Almost forgot! I also captured Russian woman with "Strong" trait. Maybe I'll even convert the wench to Suomenusko, so my son can marry her and bang her harder.

[umiman]

Light infantry and skirmish troops are only good for the first phase of combat, the skirmishing phase. Against other light infantry, it's pretty okay but comes down to numbers.

However, once you get into melee or anything else, both those unit types get absolutely annihilated. It's why you can easily see feudal armies completely roflstomp tribal armies 5x their number. Here's the stats: http://www.ckiiwiki.com/Combat

Check out the melee phase stat difference between heavy infantry, cavalry, light infantry, and so forth.

That being said, light infantry is pretty stinking cheap. Not to mention it is entirely possible for archer heavy armies to obliterate enemy forces before the skirmish phase even ends.

Additionally, cheap retinues are amazing at rapidly declaring war and sieging enemies before they can even do anything. In sieges, basically all that matters is numbers. However, other than that they're pretty worthless.

Here's a retinue guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/CrusaderKings/comments/4533oo/optimal_retinue_calculator_conclave/

[Lukewarm]

I tried to settle my nomadic tribe after conquering most of the Byzantines and Italy. I handed out eastern steppe provinces to my tribes, so I owned all of the counties and all of the duchies that I've taken, mostly from independence revolts.
And then when I settled, everyone hated me because I was 100~/8 on demense size when I tried to settle in Constantinople.
Not quite sure what to do, as Distribute title only got me down to 50/8.

[hector13]

I tried to settle my nomadic tribe after conquering most of the Byzantines and Italy. I handed out eastern steppe provinces to my tribes, so I owned all of the counties and all of the duchies that I've taken, mostly from independence revolts.
And then when I settled, everyone hated me because I was 100~/8 on demense size when I tried to settle in Constantinople.
Not quite sure what to do, as Distribute title only got me down to 50/8.

Either gotta keep handing out titles or deal with the revolts that are going to happen... presumably, anyway, I think it's a -10 modifier for every county over your cap? Good luck with that...


I became the Saoshyant. It was very underwhelming, though it did take me 5 centuries to do it from an 869 start.

It is also not very nice when you think you've managed to deal with the Sunni Caliphate and it pops up a few years later that they're Jihading you. Ah well, easily dealt with I s'pose...

My Maobadan-Maobad likes to holy war the biggest, baddest bastards around me though. First it was Egypt for Arabia, which had Jerusalem and Abyssinia too, and then the Byzantines for Georgia, as it had a little bit of the Persian Empire that had drifted away 'cause of some Georgian bugger. Then back to Egypt for Egypt. They were simultaenously dealing with a Crusade, that ended about a week after I beat them, which was funny. Now they're an ugly brown colour.

Closing in on the end of the game, Byzantines slipped through Southern Germany a bit, and Italy is also Orthodox for some reason. Carpathia had England at one point, the Mongol's bothered me for all of 40 years before I was able to get under their yoke their final guy had too many vassals, so I got out without having to deal with their pitiful army. Aztecs hold Spain, Morocco, Tunisia, and a bit of Libya.

Not really sure what to do now. Will probably try to get rid of the Caliph again, maybe take Jerusalem and Rome so I can get the Holy Places achievement thing.

Tangentially, I discovered what Scaphism is. Unpleasant.

[pisskop]

Well Ill be a son of a Geebus.

I actually got legit ended on hard and increased ai aggressions.  They all piled onto me and wouldnt let me go.

and I made a few bad choices, but ....


So one of them even broke truce (our truce) to reattack me

[Iceblaster]

You were supposed to destroy the Libertarians, not join them!

or alternative title

'Are we really libertarian if we're a merchant republic?'

EDIT: Bad joke

[Rolan7]

Falcone... sounds familiar...
Ah, yes, it's one of the big mafia families in Gotham.  Excellent.

Also, uh... yes?
Merchant republics being primarily defined by (UNFORTUNATELY HARDCODED misogyny and) being insufferable peasants who must, somehow, be suffered.  Distinctly ignoble stock.  Yet so very powerful that they demand consideration above their status.

So, seems like a libertarian ideal to me