Crusader Kings 2

[absinthia]

to stopp an adventurer invasion, invite him to your court and the invasion will never happen. he will not allways accept, depending on culture and religion, but a wife might if she likes you and he will follow.
you can also support an adventurer that is launching his invasion from your court or is of your kin.

[John I Tzimisces]

I've done that before. One of my norse sons converted to orthodoxy in the varangian guard, so since he wasn't gonna inherit (I think i'd switched to primogeniture by then, having reformed the faith), he formed an adventurer band and called me to war, and seized apulia lol.

[Goofy]

If remeber well aren`t rebels linked to kingdoms?So in some rise in a kingdom they will not necessarily rise in another?

There are multiple types of rebellions: peasant rebellions, religious rebellions and vassal rebellions. The first one is quite random, while religious rebellions only take place in counties where the county religion is not that of yours (this usually means Islam or Christianity, mostly after holy wars, depending on which you are playing, or a heresy of your religion). These two types of rebellions are usually very weak, just a few thousands of men, but to prevent them you should convert any counties to your religion if they are not already. You can use your court chaplain for this.

Vassal rebellions are a whole another thing. They are usually quite powerful, perhaps slightly weaker than yourself. These rebellions might happen if your vassals don't like you, and that's why you want them to like you. If your realm is large and your income is high sending monetary gifts to certain vassals might not be a bad idea because that's an easy way to make them like you better.

Isn`t better to hold all the king titles and have Archduchess in almost all of them to better control them?I don`t mean get two huge duchies together, only those that are small.

The weaker your vassals are the better, so you should never give two duchies to anybody if you don't have to. If you're running out of people to grant titles, the character search in the bottom right corner of the UI is your friend. I use that a lot. If I have conquered some land and can't keep it because my demesne is too big I usually search for a character that is an adult male of my religion and culture, preferably with good attributes and not of a "great house". This way you'll get a vassal that will probably somewhat like you and doesn't have any relatives that hold land (that's what it means that he isn't of a great house) so undesired vassal inheritances will not happen.

How about demesne and those two duchies that you can hold as king/emperor.
So it is advised for me ho hold my demesne in only two duchies and me have the ducal title.

Exactly. You'll want to hold two duchies and all the counties within their de jure borders. If your demesne limit allows for you can also have a county or two outside them, but in that case make sure they are next to your two duchies and that the de jure duchy in these counties doesn't exist - dukes will get a -25 opinion penalty on you for each county you hold within their de jure region. If you can you should keep your demesne somewhat in the central part of your realm. Also, when building military buildings you should focus on your capital duchy (the duchy your capital is in) because you'll get a levy bonus (i.e. more troops) in any counties within that duchy.

By the way, as a rule of thumb you should never move your capital later in the game because your capital usually has the most advanced technology.

I was thinking that I will need one central duchy so that the capital penalty is smaller

Capital penalty? There is no capital penalty in CK2, but I agree on that you need to hold land in the central part of your realm.

this will help with empire wide control but provide less gold because it`s not costal.

Your demesne always consists of castles which, I think, don't have any coast-specific buildings to bring more money to you directly, so you would only get a bit more through city vassal tax which means you're not missing a lot if your demesne is located in the inland.

The second duchy should be costal, but which one?I was thinking of nicking Holstein from Denmark, that is one juchy duchy.Any other ideas?

That duchy definitely has to be next to your capital duchy so that your demesne is focused in one geographical region - for example in my current game I hold the duchies of Castille and Léon and all land within them.

And since you want to hold as many counties as you can yourself, a good choice would be the biggest (most de jure counties) duchy next to the other duchy.

and i load my heir with duchies and counties once he is well married, usually i give him land in troublesome or newly conquered kingdoms.

I usually never give my heir land, haha. I want to have him under my absolute control. I have earlier experiences of my heir getting stupid traits once he has become a ruler so I prefer not to make him one. Although I do face problems with this approach at times. Based on my observations non-ruler characters don't procreate as eagerly, so I more often than not keep my heir unmarried until I die to prevent him from having a wife too old to get children when my heir has inherited my titles.

Yea game is good (probably only one of its kind) but I hate losing everything for no reason. so I decided not to play any Paradox games with Ironman :p

Ironman is a real blessing to me because it prevents me from being a wuss and reloading my saves. Multiple saves per game are also a waste of time and space and make your list of saves look messy. But I do understand why you wouldn't like to play in Ironman mode, and in fact, considering you are a newcomer that is actually recommendable. You'll get better all the time, and once you can handle this game you'll probably enjoy the challenge in this game a lot more. Besides, every CK2 player has experienced a total disaster in one way or another. It's part of the game, and learning to play as well.

to stopp an adventurer invasion, invite him to your court and the invasion will never happen.

That's good advice, really. So far I've resorted the the old and trusted assassination plot, to some avail.

well another reason to delegate that many people I think overlook is the issue of technological development. Counts don't generate any research points on their own; if you're a king and all you have are counts basically your situation will be tech radiating outwards from your capital. This is only advantageous from the standpoint that it will empower you over your vassals...but if you had dukes they'll do their own research and the entire realm will, say, gain more income from taxes since church/city/castle tax everywhere (radiating from multiple nodes) is boosted.

That's a fair point too, never thought about it before really.

[Basil II the B.S]

Perhaps in theory they are realistic. Although even that is a push in my opinion. William had a powerful duchy and the backing of the Pope and, with a degree of luck, managed to successfully press his claim for a kingdom he had a very legitimate right to. He wasn't some landless courtier who, without any employment, managed to accumulate the same amount of money and number of supporters as an entire kingdom to press a very weak claim (if he has any at all).

While I'd agree that the Normans in Sicily were adventurers of a sort, they had already settled in the area after having been invited there as mercenaries. The region itself was very divided between the Lombards, Byzantines and Muslims and the Normans were able to take advantage of that.

I'll admit I don't know about Crete but regardless, I don't think anyone can argue that adventurers work well in practice. A character with no income (or very little if he's a councillor) can out of nowhere amass thousands of coins and tens of thousands of troops to attack an empire or even a kingdom.

I'd much rather a system where these claimants go into exile and can get a decision or event to ask the highest level liege for help. At the moment, if they go into exile, they go to some count's court and sit there till they die.

Fair enough, although adventurers were often unlanded nobles, eg second or third in line for a title. In that respect it makes sense, although in the game you won't see famous name the randomness is ok. Still, you can under certain conditions launch an invasion William's style.

Normans had a crucial point when Robert Guiscard went back to Normandy and then launched a full scale invasion of Southern Italy and then his cousin Roger one in Sicily. The background as they had been mercenaries in the area is kind of irrelevant.
Byzantines had regularly to deal with occasional nobles escaping to Baghdad and getting money from the Caliph to raise an army against Byzantium. Eg Andronikos Doukas.
Or even the random Vikings that ended up creating Rus like Rurik. Most of these were nobles of some sort but not major ones nor had any sort of claim to the lands they conquered.
The fact that the overwhelming number of adventurers were not successful historically doesn't mean that there weren't people massing armies and attempting conquests out of almost nowhere.
I'd agree, the game can be a bit too random, but I find it acceptable.

[Mithridates VI]

Sometimes adventurers are good thing especially when it is their reason why my dynasty get more power. For example my dynasty got Byzantium, France (a couple of times) and Lithuania with adventuring dynasty members in my game with Ruthenia.
In my another game my brother went adventuring not once but twice: First against kingdom of Navarra and then Kingdom of Italy (which was mine). Howerever he failed both times. I must say that he was very good guy to get so much men to fight for him twice.

[John I Tzimisces]

By the way, as a rule of thumb you should never move your capital later in the game because your capital usually has the most advanced technology.

The only good reason to move a capital is the number of holdings. Capitals and capital duchies get bonuses the the number of troops they can raise. Bit of a no brainer to see why it's advantageous to say move your capital from some crummy two province duchy with three holdings a piece to a 4 or 5 province duchy.

[Goofy]

The only good reason to move a capital is the number of holdings.

Yeah, or if the new capital has considerably more advanced technology, which should be pretty impossible since the AI always seems to be slightly behind. Although if the potential new capital duchy is smaller than the previous one it's not worth it.

What technologies are you guys' favourites to invest in by the way? Mine would definitely be military organization, castle infrastructure and legalism for each technology branch respectively.

[kambiz]

Damn crusade just ruinded my first serious Ironman attempt not long after I managed to create the Sacandinavian empire as the last bastion of Norse pagans ,then swarm of christian warriors all over europe came to destroy us. Fought to the last man and I guess manage to defeat twice the number of troops I could muster (60000+) yet they kept coming and the war ended by losing 90% of my holdings and at this point I've decided I have no desire to continue anymore :p

Why christian units are so powerful? is it historically correct? Also how could I boost my manpower? I really envy those players who paint the whole map with their color But I could not even hold my dejure empire long enough

[Basil II the B.S]

I'm fairly sure it's not the units. Just commanders, location etc..


>playing Alexiad start, Komnenian restoration
>everything going great
>suddenly Emperor Alexious II gets sick at 30, turns out it's pneumonia, dies within few months, leaving a 3 years old heir, a dumb 2 years old and a 0 years old girl as alternatives.
>The Golden Horde declares the Mongol invasion on Taurica on the Byzantine Empire

wonderful

[General Maximus]

I'm fairly sure it's not the units. Just commanders, location etc..


>playing Alexiad start, Komnenian restoration
>everything going great
>suddenly Emperor Alexious II gets sick at 30, turns out it's pneumonia, dies within few months, leaving a 3 years old heir, a dumb 2 years old and a 0 years old girl as alternatives.
>The Golden Horde declares the Mongol invasion on Taurica on the Byzantine Empire

wonderful

I think, mate, that you should've made an AAR out of that game. It would've made even ancient Graeco-Roman tragedy plays look like an overly happy story.

[kambiz]

I'm fairly sure it's not the units. Just commanders, location etc..

But most the times I've assigned my best commanders to fight them. some of them had martial as high as 25+ ?!

>playing Alexiad start, Komnenian restoration
>everything going great
>suddenly Emperor Alexious II gets sick at 30, turns out it's pneumonia, dies within few months, leaving a 3 years old heir, a dumb 2 years old and a 0 years old girl as alternatives.
>The Golden Horde declares the Mongol invasion on Taurica on the Byzantine Empire

wonderful

sounds like an enjoyable game actually I had fun too especially during my last war which had that kind of last stand feel to it Yet what I need to know is how other veteran players win their games and as I mentioned manage to paint the whole map ,let alone manage to hold their empire???

[Basil II the B.S]

But most the times I've assigned my best commanders to fight them. some of them had martial as high as 25+ ?!

What was the terrain? Eg, defending armies in mountains get huge bonuses. You can also micromanage the commanders and the composition of the side they are placed in (eg some commanders are good with cavalry so you want to assign the more cavalry and less infantry).

sounds like an enjoyable game actually I had fun too especially during my last war which had that kind of last stand feel to it Yet what I need to know is how other veteran players win their games and as I mentioned manage to paint the whole map ,let alone manage to hold their empire???

Thing is, I'm not aware of any bonus Christian units get. Especially considering that Pagan Mongols, Magyars and so on have no issue shattering them, but it might be because they are event armies. I might be wrong though but I never really had this problem when I played as the Piast forming Poland.
Or it might be the technologies, in that case send your spymaster to steal them. I'm always top tier, at least in my capital, compared to the rest of the map. It makes sure I don't have nasty surprises.
Other than that, as you can see, no matter how good you are and how perfect your empire is, thing can take the wrong turn within few months. Don't despair, keep playing until your dynasty dies out.



Btw my little kid is now grown up and is out for blood.

>The Ilkhanate (80k) went for the invasion of Cumania on the Golden Horde (40k) (pretty much 90% of their lands). The last thing I want is a huge green unstoppable blob at my borders, controlling some lands I need to restore the Roman Empire, so I decide '' why not'', holy war for Coloneia on the Ilkhanate.
Their army is spread all over their huge empire so it takes ages for them to arrive, I occupy the lands I need in the while.
>2 of their stacks pass through Armenia and Georgia under my control, invading Cumania, 3 come to defend Coloneia.
>I have a secret weapon though, Byzantine version of Joan of Arc, ''Gregoria the Maid'', 54 military skill. Two of their stacks get crashed, I need to hire mercs and land them asap in Cilicia because my armies are almost depleted.
>Final battle, Khan Shirgugetu ''The Great'' is slain on the battlefield, their army is crashed. 97% war score in my favour.
>The Sunni Caliph declares the Jihad for Mesopotapia on the Ilkhanate.
>Hungary declares de jure war on the Byzantine Empire. LOL
>The Ilkhanate surrenders Coloneia shortly after so that my talking with Jesus-female commander can lay waste to those pesky Hungarians.

Everything went far better than expected.

[kambiz]

@Basil II the B.S
While I lost my 1st try on Ironman ,the new Danish campaign is somehow going well (Ironman as well). I choose a christian faction to decrease the stress of keep fighting crusader hordes so I can focus more on learning the game and have some fun as well

I have a secret weapon though, Byzantine version of Joan of Arc, ''Gregoria the Maid'', 54 military skill.

OMG highest martial (or any other personal ability) that I've seen so far was under 40 :p In my current game I got a Robinhood kind of event though ,But his martial is only 19 (plus 15 intrigue) !!!

[General Maximus]

Is that the high military-skill girl you get from the 'Demon Spawn' event? I've had one with 39 military skill at best.

[Hobbes]

It looks like it's going to be Charlemagne...

[eXistenZ]

Is that the high military-skill girl you get from the 'Demon Spawn' event? I've had one with 39 military skill at best.

No its the joan of arc event, one that actually matters unlike the pirates and their greek fire.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Dont think ill be giving my money to the new expansion tbh. Another 10-20 euro just for another 150 years, no thanks

[ccllnply]

Dont think ill be giving my money to the new expansion tbh. Another 10-20 euro just for another 150 years, no thanks

Same, massively disappointed with this to be honest. They've just completely abandoned the original mechanics and idea of the game in favour of adding in loads of crap. At the moment Indian rulers have more depth than Christian rulers and they're just going to add in an earlier bookmark? Pointless.

[Basil II the B.S]

No its the joan of arc event, one that actually matters unlike the pirates and their greek fire.

Although pirates and greek fire and the chariot racing one might help you gaining 2-3 skills other than some secondary characters.
Anaximandros can be a fairly good spymaster and the Pirate King daughter has the beauty trait.

Dont think ill be giving my money to the new expansion tbh. Another 10-20 euro just for another 150 years, no thanks

If it's Charlemagne isn't it just 70 years? We have the 870 start already. Kinda lame. I really hope there will be interesting secondary features otherwise it's not worthy at all.

@Basil II the B.S
While I lost my 1st try on Ironman ,the new Danish campaign is somehow going well (Ironman as well). I choose a christian faction to decrease the stress of keep fighting crusader hordes so I can focus more on learning the game and have some fun as well

I think that as long as you are a major religion and not completely surrounded by different ones, the game is relatively easy unless you get particularly unlucky. I found it a lot more overwhelming than other Paradox games when I started playing but to be completely the key features are relatively few, the other are just extras you can use to facilitate yourself but they aren't a must.

OMG highest martial (or any other personal ability) that I've seen so far was under 40 :p In my current game I got a Robinhood kind of event though ,But his martial is only 19 (plus 15 intrigue) !!!

See eXistenz pic . So glad I got her at the right moment because she died young as well. The Ilkhanate never recovered from that defeat. They lost most of their horde stacks and now they are stuck with infinite riots within their borders. Looking forward to the last great horde now.

[John I Tzimisces]

The title creator/customizer kinda has me interested. Not a lot of details about the features; could it be that you can create Titular titles in game? Like, for instance, in order to make realms like Lotharingia possible?

[Hobbes]

They will have to incorporate pre-feudal mechanics and slavery. I hope they do.