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Author Topic: Crusader Kings 2 is released.  (Read 2110886 times)

Loam

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13410 on: May 29, 2018, 07:37:44 pm »

More from my Persia game, just 'cause I feel like sharing it.

It's been a century since Parviz Karen restored the Persian Empire and declared himself the Saoshyant; now his descendant, Ardeshihr VI, rules over the largest and mightiest empire in the world:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Over the past decade's we've been mostly busy continuing the long Persian tradition of fighting Greeks, along with batting away occasional Muslim jihads. Arabia was taken in a great holy war which ultimately led to the destruction of the Arabian Empire and the Sunni Caliphate in the east. The conquests in the northern steppes, the Tarim Basin, and Abyssinia have all been vassal's doings. Egypt and Africa have almost completely switched places, and are the only two Sunni kingdoms in the east. Across the Indus the Hindu Pratiharas have formed a mighty Rajasthan--no match for me, of course, but I'm not too concerned with India... yet.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
In Iberia and the Maghreb are the last remnants of the Hispanian Umayyads. After the fall of the Abbasids, Badshah Wannaqo reclaimed the title of Caliph, but with the greatly diminished moral authority of his religion and the strength of the new Germanic faith his empire began to fracture. Then the Shi'a pretender rose and conquered al-Andalus for himself and his followers, and with his mighty armies it looked like this new caliph might sweep the whole peninsula. But he made the mistake of sending those troops against Ardeshihr IV of Persia to reclaim Mecca, and in the long march across the desert and the dreadful battles in Sinai he lost all--and I mean all, every last one--of his troops.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The past 150 years looked grim for Catholicism as their lands were taken by the newly-reformed northern heathens and their authority dwindled to near-nothing. At one point they were pushed back almost solely into Italy, and might have been destroyed there, but that the Norsemen fell victim to a scourge worse than plague or war--Elective Gavelkind. Once-unified Germanic realms were shattered and devolved into a mess of enclaves, exclaves, and independent counties, all fighting amongst themselves just as much as with their Christian rivals. Most of continental Europe is controlled by the af Munso dynasty, relatives of the Fylkir; the British Isles are entirely under the command of the Ivarings. Meanwhile Christendom took advantage of the Norsemen's distraction to re-take Aquitaine from the Sunni Caliph.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Religion map: mostly Zoros, of course, with Hindu and Germanic being the second biggest. Catholics and Orthodox are a little below that. Suomenusko has also reformed, but hasn't accomplished much of note, yet.
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USEC_OFFICER

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13411 on: May 29, 2018, 07:41:18 pm »

Very nice. Mind telling me how you managed to form the Persian Empire and become Saoshyant? I've been chasing that achievement for a while now but always seem to get crushed in the early stages. I rarely manage to get past a single generation before the Abbasids or someone similar swoops in to stomp me to a paste.
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Loam

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13412 on: May 30, 2018, 12:29:26 pm »

I don't know if I can give a good answer: I think I was mostly just very lucky. The Abbasids lost to a few independence revolts that seriously weakened their power-base, and Samanids and Saffarids were busy in the east I think.

Basically, though, if you start as Karen you'll have enough event troops to discourage most early attackers. Use that time to build a power-base, improving your holdings and taking land from easier targets: there's a nearby Shi'a emir who can pretty easily be holy warred (since the other Muslims are Sunni). Be sparing with those event troops though, since they don't come back, and if you use them up too early it really weakens you against the other powers: save them for emergencies, and in the meantime make money for hiring mercs. County Gurgan has a silk road trade post, so I moved my capital there to get some extra cash.

Keep an eye on your big neighbors always: Samanids, Saffarids, and Abbasids. Don't take any of them on at full-strength: wait until they've just fought a war and their friends are busy with wars of their own. Again, you might feel tempted to use your event stacks to overwhelm them, but this will weaken you in the long run.
Also: don't take Baghdad unless you're ready to fight a Jihad, as that is one duchy that can enable them. It also enables the formation of the Sunni holy orders, who can be dangerous to fight against.

Once you're decently strong it becomes pretty much like any other game: just be aware of who will join your enemies in holy wars, and if you can take them on you're good.  Having powerful vassals on your borders also helps, as they can holy war for themselves.

Like I say, though, I think luck plays a big part. If you find yourself in dire straits you can try swearing fealty to the Caliph -- I'd only do this once I was a king, since Iqta allows free duchy revocation.
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Teneb

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13413 on: May 30, 2018, 01:21:16 pm »

I think a Shaoshyant run (also Zunist) should be easier now thanks to secret religions. If things get rough pretend to be Sunni while spreading Zoroastrianism covertly.
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hector13

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13414 on: May 30, 2018, 02:18:09 pm »

That's more or less what I did with my recent Zunist run. Secretly remained Zunist, ate my way through the Abbasids for a bit, then they fell to a decadence revolt and then an independence revolt and then my independence revolt. Then all the titles I had became gavelkind because I tried to kill myself and ended up a vegetable.

My Zoroastrian run was pure though. Took me about 500 years, but I got there.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2018, 02:19:41 pm by hector13 »
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ZeroGravitas

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13415 on: May 30, 2018, 03:14:51 pm »

I think a Shaoshyant run (also Zunist) should be easier now thanks to secret religions. If things get rough pretend to be Sunni while spreading Zoroastrianism covertly.

honestly, i think this is a big reason why they were implemented

also the hilarity of secret Bon cults spreading through India
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Sartain

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13416 on: May 30, 2018, 04:07:16 pm »

I love the silly situations that arise in this game sometimes. I starting a game as Holmgard and apparently the king of West Francia's wife went for a nice little vacation in my country, which is pretty much a barbarous waste of various pagan denominations endlessly fighting each other, and now we have diplomatic relations with them because... she liked it, I guess?  ???
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scriver

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13417 on: June 02, 2018, 12:45:37 pm »

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Dutchling

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13418 on: June 02, 2018, 02:42:10 pm »

Somewhat paradoxically, the more awesome features CK2 gets, the more I hope for a CK3 that can distill it into something that is not the bloated mess that CK2 has slowly become over the years.

Still, this looks like a potentially great feature.
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scriver

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13419 on: June 02, 2018, 03:32:00 pm »

Oh, and in case anyone else, like me, reacted to the Karling bonus to melee skill being a whopping +8, that's because according to a dev later on in the tread they have rebalanced the melee skill bonuses and now, to paraphrase, "+5 is a small bonus"
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hector13

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13420 on: June 02, 2018, 06:30:04 pm »

Oh that's good I was worried this would be incredibly stupid.
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Tawa

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13421 on: June 02, 2018, 07:38:51 pm »

"I am the greatest knight to ever walk these lands. I have trained in battle since the age of four and have learned the secrets of war from Jesus himself. I have slain kings, ended dynasties, and slaughtered cities of infidels.

"o yea? pepin the short fuked me mum. 1v1 me m8"
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MCreeper

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13422 on: June 03, 2018, 09:30:29 am »

Oh that's good I was worried this would be incredibly stupid.
Now it's just "moderately stupid". :P And everyone who says so on paradoxforum gets downwoted pretty fast, for some reason.
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pisskop

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13423 on: June 03, 2018, 09:42:21 am »

So the plan is to further blur the line between genetic, perceived, and actual personality traits?
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Teneb

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Re: Crusader Kings 2 is released.
« Reply #13424 on: June 03, 2018, 09:49:54 am »

Paradox is justifying the combat bonus as a sort of intimidation. After all, fighting random joe is more palatable than a scion of Temujin.
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