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[Descan]

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

Depending on what DLCs you have, you can play as almost any single person who owns a county. Barons are unplayable, so are theocracies and county-level/non-coastal republics. Beyond that, everyone is playable with various DLCs, and even the base game, you can play as almost any Christian ruler. As others say, you just need to click custom game and click on a province to play either the top ruler of that province, or if they are duke or above, you click it again to play as the vassal who directly controls that province.

[Persus13]

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

Depending on what DLCs you have, you can play as almost any single person who owns a county. Barons are unplayable, so are theocracies and county-level/non-coastal republics. Beyond that, everyone is playable with various DLCs, and even the base game, you can play as almost any Christian ruler. As others say, you just need to click custom game and click on a province to play either the top ruler of that province, or if they are duke or above, you click it again to play as the vassal who directly controls that province.

You also need DLC to play earlier than 1066, but you still have 500 years to mess around with without them.

[Quartz_Mace]

How exactly do the new coalitions work? Do they form against a single realm or sub-realm or a particular ruler? Do the coalitions declare war on you, or is it more of a defensive pact between all of them? I've been playing for a bit but haven't been able to expand aggressively enough to accumulate enough infamy. (My 2 games right now are as a sultan of Persia hiding beneath the Caliphate for protection while expanding my realm gradually with the intent of making the Persian empire for freedom and a game started as a count in Wales intending to create the kingdom of Wales and take control of Brittania.) All I can find when I look up coalitions is reasons that there unrealistic and a bad gameplay choice, but I haven't actually found much information on how they actually work.

[EuchreJack]

CKII: Relative Murder Simulator

True dat.

As for coalitions, I actually like them.  Ignoring the crowd of powergamers that want to take over the world (literally), I have a game where being in a coalition is the only thing that has kept me independent.

Quartz_Mace, you have to be independent in order for a coalition to form against you.  As far as I can tell, it is a defensive pact against a single independent realm.

Basically, I think about how the world reacted to Napoleonic France or WWII Germany, and it makes total sense.

In your Count in Wales game, you shouldn't incur infamy until after you become the Kingdom of Wales.  Some two-bit duke shouldn't be considered important enough that everyone needs to team up against them.

[Grim Portent]

I can quite cheerfully say all that coalitions have done to my Undead (yay mods are fun! ) Norse Empire is slow down continental expansion. Britain is mostly mine now simply because they're too far away from the vast hordes of Pagans, Franks, Byzantines and Muslims on the continent to receive timely help when I declare wars on them. In theory I can replicate the same effect on the Pagans when I turn my attention towards them because most have fairly small territories.

I have accrued a few Tyrant penalties for declaring wars while my discontented councilors are able to levy favours with my glory hounds and loyalists, but to Helheimr with them, fate waits for no man and it is my fate to rule the world as a viking god among men.

I even hit 100% Infamy once. had everyone west of the Abbassids in the coalition against me, and I think even the Abbassids would have joined were I not just a little smaller than them.

[Putnam]

I got to over 80% just by starting as france in 1066, swearing fealty to the HRE, then gaining control of the HRE through better commanders than they had (I was continually winning 8000 vs 10000 battles)

[Quartz_Mace]

Cool, coalitions actually don't sound that bad. Unfortunately this might make another game* of mine in which I was literally attempting to take over the world a little harder(still Vikings OP),but isn't difficulty the point of a world conquest?

*Starting as a duke in the Old Gods, I managed to reform the Germanic faith and create the empire of Scandanavia. So far, I've managed to conquer the British Isles, France, Germany, and much of Europe. Catholicism has been dissolved and replaced by a number of a heresies and the Muslims are growing in strength. Reformed Germanic is at 100 MA and I'm a 2 year old emperor in control of this blob.

[Grim Portent]

Cool, coalitions actually don't sound that bad. Unfortunately this might make another game* of mine in which I was literally attempting to take over the world a little harder(still Vikings OP),but isn't difficulty the point of a world conquest?

They're only really a threat when you're attacking someone who's just large enough for it to be a long war already, since that gives the coalition time to mass up and use numbers to their advantage.

Good thing is only nations smaller than yours can join a coalition against you.

[EnigmaticHat]

I got to over 80% just by starting as france in 1066, swearing fealty to the HRE, then gaining control of the HRE through better commanders than they had (I was continually winning 8000 vs 10000 battles)

If I were the Holy Roman Emporer (in real life or the game) I would have turned you down.  The internal politics are hard enough without the fricken King of France getting involved.

[Putnam]

"more land's always good"

pffff

[Grim Portent]

Despite all of Europe, Russia, the Steppes and Africa joining against me I still managed to force the King of West France to surrender to me and put my grandson on the throne. 

Superior tactics beats numbers every time. I just kept darting my 2 10k armies back and forth using boats and major rivers to eat away at any stacks I could reach while also capping territory. The king gave up after about two years of being unable to retake Paris.

Big chunk of Finland, Saxony and Burgundy got occupied by the coalition while I was focusing on my target, but a victory is a victory.

Every Catholic Holy Site is now out of their control, all of Spain is under Ummayad rule, England and Koln are under my control, Jerusalem is still under Abbassid control and the Papacy has been ousted by a Lollard revolt.  There's just an independent Lollard duke of Latium now.


I am now big enough that even the Abbassid Caliphate has joined the coalition against me. Personally I intend to wait until crusades roll around before fighting the Muslims on any real scale. The Christians and Pagans of Europe are easy enough to crush with raids and blitzkriegs despite their great alliance, but the Muslims may be a tad harder.

[Descan]

Personally I intend to wait until crusades roll around before fighting the Muslims on any real scale. The Christians [...] are easy enough to crush with raids and blitzkriegs [...]

I sense an issue with your plan.

[Kanil]

He's probably referring to how great holy wars only unlock as a response to the crusades.

[Grim Portent]

Personally I intend to wait until crusades roll around before fighting the Muslims on any real scale. The Christians [...] are easy enough to crush with raids and blitzkriegs [...]

I sense an issue with your plan.

He's probably referring to how great holy wars only unlock as a response to the crusades.

Indeed. 

By the time the Crusade's roll around the Catholics should be more or less defunct and pose no threat to me. If my vassals keep waging their own prepared invasions of mainland Europe (one of my sons already took Burgundy) I dare say all I'll have to do is step on the Italians after they've already splintered from heresies. Once the last Christians are gone there'll be nothing in my way and I can start waging Great Holy wars to sweep aside entire nations in a single go. The Ummayads are already turning all of Spain into one easy to crusade kingdom as it is, by the year 900 they should have absorbed all the kingdoms there into one.

[Xeron]

As for coalitions, I actually like them.  Ignoring the crowd of powergamers that want to take over the world (literally), I have a game where being in a coalition is the only thing that has kept me independent.

Ah yes, god forbid I dislike a poorly implemetned mechanic that was added for "MUHTIEPLIERZ"  balance, clearly all people that hate coalitions must be powergamers.