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[Descan]

I'm wondering what you'll control if you're not the doge of a republic... Are you a count? Are you a nebulous entity that owns trading posts but no counties, just the gold?

[a1s]

Are you a nebulous entity that owns trading posts but no counties, just the gold?

You are. And the words "just" and "gold" should never be next to each other.

[Tarran]

Are you a nebulous entity that owns trading posts but no counties, just the gold?

You are. And the words "just" and "gold" should never be next to each other.

Indeed. Gold buys troops. Gold buys people's deaths. Gold buys people's loyalty. All potentially lead to more power.

[scriver]

Great news, I've been waiting. I was also hopic for an economy overhaul, but it doesn't seem to be part of it... Maybe in the free patch features. Won't get my hopes up though.

[Euld]

Decided to download the demo and give this game a whirl.

I haven't the slightest idea what I'm doing o_O  I barely managed to find the little cluster of... duchies?  counties?  lands? I own, and... then what, I don't know.  The tutorial explains how to do things... but I have no idea what I should be doing exactly.

[Bdthemag]

Decided to download the demo and give this game a whirl.

I haven't the slightest idea what I'm doing o_O  I barely managed to find the little cluster of... duchies?  counties?  lands? I own, and... then what, I don't know.  The tutorial explains how to do things... but I have no idea what I should be doing exactly.

Basically it all depends on what you want to do, but usually most players aim to become a king/emperor. I highly suggest you start at as a county on Ireland (Generally referred to as the tutorial island.), pick any of the counties it doesn't matter and play as them trying to form ireland. Really, just make sure to have a community written tutorial handy (All grand strategy tutorials fail to inform you of jack-shit.) and play for awhile. Crusader Kings II isn't that tough once you get used to it, as a matter of fact it's generally considered the easiest grand strategy games. Just wait until you try Hearts of Iron 3.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

From an earlier post.

Start as either an Irish count or duke. Ireland is one of the best starting locations for a new player to learn the mechanics. It's mono-cultured, mono-religious and has plenty of room for expansion. Scotland and England will almost always explode into warring states due to culture shifts, leaving you to take Wales easily and possibly uniting the Isles.
If Ireland gets boring try a Russian Prince. The Russian states are all the same dynasty which can either be exploited early for a rapid expansion or can be held onto for alliances. Holy wars against pagans hold much room for expansion and finally forming the Russian empire and fending off the Mongols makes a nice end-game goal. Your low-tech and lack of navy will also change your tactics.

Do NOT start anywhere near a Muslim, even more so at the start. Muslims are crazy over-powered at the start of the game. There are mods that address this and are worth looking into after a few games. I enjoy "Project Balance" since it's goal is to really just improve the base game.

Great chain of being:
Baron (owns a castle) -> Count (owns a county with castle as capital) -> Duke (owns a duchy)-> King (owns a de jure Kingdom) -> Emperor (owns a de-jure empire)
Mayor (owns a town) -> Republic (owns a county with a town as capital) -> Grand Republic (owns a duchy) -> Most Sincere Republic (owns a de-jure kingdom) -> ??? (owns a de-jure empire)
Bishop (owns a church) -> Prince-Bishop (owns a county with a church as capital) -> Arch-Price Bishop (owns a duchy) -> Theocracy (owns a de-jure kingdom) -> Theocracy (owns a de-jure empire)
Note that republics will have a -30 relationship hit with you due to "wrong government type", this means they make sub-optimal vassals. Prince-Bishops no longer have that penalty and are quite good vassals and are better than dukes, some consider them bugged and exploits. Prince-Bishops will not plot for the throne and will always vote for your choice in an election.

Remember to always own 2 duchies, all the counties inside them and to upgrade the holdings as much as possible in each. You'll want the brunt of your military to come from personal levies and mercs, relying on vassal levies is sub-optimal.

If you're having trouble picking traits; a general rule of thumb is to stay with as many virtues as possible. Virtues give you more piety which is often harder to come by than prestige which you can easily win in wars. Plus the church always makes a powerful ally.
I prefer Just over Arbitrary although arbitrary does have some nice decisions linked to it. Honest versus Deceitful doesn't really change much, there seems to be more events with loss of relationship surprisely more with honest rather than deceitful.

Change your succession law from Gavelkind as quick as possible, it offers NO benefits to a new player. I personally prefer Feudal Elective since you can pick your heir. However if you're having trouble keeping your realm under control then Seniority or Primogeniture are decent choices. Primogeniture will generate a lot of pretenders if you have a lot of children so only land the first-born to prevent revolts.

For tech you'll usually want to stick to "tactics" for military, "castle infrastructure" (or city, if you're a coastal nation) for economic, and your choice for culture (I like "legalism").

Another thing that might seem strange for a new player is the concept of wanting to keep your vassals as weak as possible. It might seem odd but it's a rather important part of the game. 
http://crusaderkings-two.wikia.com/wiki/Keeping_Your_Vassals_Weak

[krisslanza]

Now I wonder if you can still custom create a female ruler and try to only have female Patricians. Hmmmm.

[Seraphim342]

So... just got the game, played through the tutorials and was feeling pretty confident.  Started up as King Malcolm of Scotland in 1066... and got stomped by a revolt in the first year.  Tried again, managed to take two counties from the Islanders next door... then got THREE revolts.  Actually managed to defeat them each in detail with my 600-strong army... then got attacked by England with a 10,000-man army and wiped out in half a season.  This game is hard as BALLS! 

Reading through some newbie guides now =p

[majikero]

Try any of the Irish counts. It's like the noob trial island.

If by some unholy curse, the English invades you, your screwed. Unless that happens, you probably form Ireland in 2 or 3 generations.

[justinlee999]

It's on sale right now, time to get the Legacy of Rome DLC, yeah?

[Seraphim342]

Noticed there are almost 20 DLCs.  Are they worthwhile?  Total cost's more than the whole game.  A lot more. 

[lordcooper]

All but three are purely cosmetic, and the Ruler Designer actually makes the game slightly worse.  You should definitely get the two that affect gameplay though.  I'm sure you could figure out which two these are within about five seconds.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

It's on sale right now, time to get the Legacy of Rome DLC, yeah?

The only thing it really adds (unless you're a filthy heretic Byzantophile  ) is retinues. They're a little bit wonky balance wise at the moment although a few mods have ironed them out and made them a lot more balanced and fun.

It's on sale right now, time to get the Legacy of Rome DLC, yeah?

Technically there's no mandatory DLCs. The major ones, such as Legacy of Rome and Sword of Islam are generally worth it. The rest are just cosmetic stuff. I personally love the African sprites and faces.

If I have to rank it I'd say the faces are the more important cosmetic DLC (since you can tell at a glance what culture is what), then the army sprites (because some of them are really pretty), the historical dynasty coat of arms packs I'd place next, finally with the songs. Note that the songs are restricted to a particular culture so if you don't plan on playing that culture at all they're really not worth it (unless you mod it so they play in the standard tracklist)

Ruler designer is really a waste of money imo. There just isn't enough you can do with it and there's plenty of other unhistorical rulers to pick from. Sunset Invasion is the one DLC I'll never buy.

[Tarran]

Besides not being able to mess with families and claims, I don't have any real complaints about Ruler Designer. I mean, really, how else are you going to get yourself a Greek-race German in Ireland at the beginning of the game?