Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Loud Whispers]

Apparently I'm too stupid for this game.
I've tried 4 times so far but every time my first character dies and my heir takes over I lose 2 years later.

It always goes the same way:
- Start new game as count, because I figured having to watch over only one county must be easier then trying to rule a kingdom.
- Spend 20 years producing babies, getting rid of retainers that hate me too much and building up my county.
- By now everyone, from other lowly counts to the frikkin' kaiser, thinks I'm the most awesome guy since Jesus and worships the air I farted into.
- I die of [insert cause of death here] and suddenly my usually popular heir turns into the love child of Hitler and Stalin.
- Half the kingdom is at -20 opinion (or worse) and 10 different unrelated people start making up claims to my county.
- They invade, The End.

One count runs are usually the hard ones because you have to worry either about everyone around you trying to destroy you, with not all accepting appeasement, and if you serve someone you must be wary of the prospect of some ambitious liege just revoking your titles into oblivion. And with exception to some city states, your military will be too insignificant to resist meaningfully. Being a powerful ruler who can bash problems into oblivion with armies will help you learn the ropes more until you are ready to pit Empires against Empires just to keep your little county independent, or help you infiltrate Empires as a lowly count to make designs upon the great Throne yourself/carve out a Kingdom within for yourself

[gimli]

- I die of [insert cause of death here] and suddenly my usually popular heir turns into the love child of Hitler and Stalin.
- Half the kingdom is at -20 opinion (or worse) and 10 different unrelated people start making up claims to my county.

Welcome to the middle ages.

[Cheeetar]

Damn. An offcast mercenary captain who I got rid of claimed territory close to me, and eventually holy warred me out of the game. I was doing so well, too.

[Cyroth]

So for my newest campaign I started as an irish single-province petty kingdom and wow, it really is much easier then playing a single county and sucking up to your liege.
I'm in the third generation now and have already united most of ireland, only the 2 southernmost counties are left.

I've also finally found out how hilarious assassinations are when you combine a hypercompetent spymaster (my sister, with I think 22 intrigue) with an uber-popular ruler.
My current character, ironically nicknamed "the Just", only needs to waggle his eyebrows and throw a bag or two of gold around and sudddenly half my victims court falls over each other to kill the poor shmuck.
Combined with made up claims to other counties those murders are how I got most my territory. I'm at somewhere around 20 murders, in this generation alone.

Also my heir is married to the oldest daughter of the current king of France, and she has only one brother. The king himself is close to the end of his baby producing days and his heir has somehow no living children.
Which means that, thanks to the power of murder, my grandchildren will own France.

[EuchreJack]

So for my newest campaign I started as an irish single-province petty kingdom and wow, it really is much easier then playing a single county and sucking up to your liege.
I'm in the third generation now and have already united most of ireland, only the 2 southernmost counties are left.

I've also finally found out how hilarious assassinations are when you combine a hypercompetent spymaster (my sister, with I think 22 intrigue) with an uber-popular ruler.
My current character, ironically nicknamed "the Just", only needs to waggle his eyebrows and throw a bag or two of gold around and sudddenly half my victims court falls over each other to kill the poor shmuck.
Combined with made up claims to other counties those murders are how I got most my territory. I'm at somewhere around 20 murders, in this generation alone.

Also my heir is married to the oldest daughter of the current king of France, and she has only one brother. The king himself is close to the end of his baby producing days and his heir has somehow no living children.
Which means that, thanks to the power of murder, my grandchildren will own France.

Probably not.  France usually doesn't let daughters inherit, sorry.

[stabbymcstabstab]

So for my newest campaign I started as an irish single-province petty kingdom and wow, it really is much easier then playing a single county and sucking up to your liege.
I'm in the third generation now and have already united most of ireland, only the 2 southernmost counties are left.

I've also finally found out how hilarious assassinations are when you combine a hypercompetent spymaster (my sister, with I think 22 intrigue) with an uber-popular ruler.
My current character, ironically nicknamed "the Just", only needs to waggle his eyebrows and throw a bag or two of gold around and sudddenly half my victims court falls over each other to kill the poor shmuck.
Combined with made up claims to other counties those murders are how I got most my territory. I'm at somewhere around 20 murders, in this generation alone.

Also my heir is married to the oldest daughter of the current king of France, and she has only one brother. The king himself is close to the end of his baby producing days and his heir has somehow no living children.
Which means that, thanks to the power of murder, my grandchildren will own France.

Probably not.  France usually doesn't let daughters inherit, sorry.

Depending on laws the daughter might inherit by default of no living males.

[hector13]

Surely it'd be if there were no legit male heirs? Brothers and stuff of the king, for example.

[Putnam]

France starts agnatic AFAIK, so no women ever

[Chosrau]

I think women can inherit if they have sons themselves who would be eligigble? Or maybe it just skips the women and jumps straight to said son?

[Teneb]

France starts agnatic AFAIK, so no women ever

This both in the game as well as history. If there are no eligible men to inherit then the title goes to another dynasty. Salic law and all that. I think France was the only kingdom/realm in Europe at the time that actually went full agnatic.

I think women can inherit if they have sons themselves who would be eligigble? Or maybe it just skips the women and jumps straight to said son?

It skips the woman.

[bulborbish]

So for my newest campaign I started as an irish single-province petty kingdom and wow, it really is much easier then playing a single county and sucking up to your liege.
I'm in the third generation now and have already united most of ireland, only the 2 southernmost counties are left.

I've also finally found out how hilarious assassinations are when you combine a hypercompetent spymaster (my sister, with I think 22 intrigue) with an uber-popular ruler.
My current character, ironically nicknamed "the Just", only needs to waggle his eyebrows and throw a bag or two of gold around and sudddenly half my victims court falls over each other to kill the poor shmuck.
Combined with made up claims to other counties those murders are how I got most my territory. I'm at somewhere around 20 murders, in this generation alone.

Also my heir is married to the oldest daughter of the current king of France, and she has only one brother. The king himself is close to the end of his baby producing days and his heir has somehow no living children.
Which means that, thanks to the power of murder, my grandchildren will own France.

Don't forget to use the power of murder to kill claimants as well, of a revolt may depose your grandchild for another king

[Sirbug]

I bought CKII recently and I have no idea what am I supposed to do. Tutorial really didn't help much.
My first campaign ended with me being six year old girl
Another campaign I ragequitted unable to murder my husband and restore my dynasty.
Also that one time I executed a woman who plotted to kill me who turned out to be my mother

What am I supposed to do? Try to survive and laugh at my failure?

[Teneb]

Play as an Irish dude or Byzantine emperor, keep going until it finally clicks. Took me about 14 hours before it actually did.

Alternatively, one of the Basque kings in Iberia, if you want a quick understanding of how heritage, alliances and assassination work.

[Sirbug]

When I start a new game, it offers me very few options per era. Do I need DLC for more or something?

[Delta Foxtrot]

What am I supposed to do? Try to survive and laugh at my failure?

It's a systems based game. Like Dwarf Fortress, here's no end goal as such. Just do what you like. As with any systems driven game, until you learn how the basics work you're just floundering around. But if you want some ideas, you could look at history. Maybe pick an Iberian noble and go for Reconquista. Or go east and try to convert the pagans. Or pick someone in Germany and try to gain control of HRE.

For learning, I'm a fan of Ireland myself. Start with a count or a duke in Ireland and try to gain a duchy or two. Then create the kingdom of Ireland and subjugate everyone within your de jure borders. It's simple and reasonably hassle free. It's easy because everyone is independent, and you learn how to handle vassals as you gradually gain more. Many online guides also talk about Ireland specifically so it's easy to follow along if you check those out. But like Teneb insinuates, it's a simpler place to play in so you won't learn all the mechanics until you play somewhere else. But I really like Ireland for a gradual step-by-step learning.

When I start a new game, it offers me very few options per era. Do I need DLC for more or something?

Click 'Custom game setup'. You can click on a region to play as the ruler of that region. There's buttons in the up-centre that let you filter things by counties, duchies and other criteria.