Crusader Kings 2

[hellheaven1987]

If you desperately need a top diplomat etc and you don't have one, you can just invite a foreigner.

Or just play Cathar.

Huh. Been reading wiki a bit, it doesn't provide much info about that. Do you know if the penalty is gradual, or fixed? I wonder if it's worth, if I can't keep the court size down, to still try to push it, or just go it and get huge court for every possibility.

Same for epidemics, I noticed on wiki that it's also linked with court size.

I am pretty sure no one figure out what the actual penalty rate is, although the penalty seems is fixed. From my experience it seems not just a lower fertility rate but also a restriction of children size.

[hellheaven1987]

After testing Way of Life, Conclave and Reaper for a week, I have to say Zoroastrianism is my new favor religion right now (Buddhism and Pagan close second).

[Basil II the B.S]

Because of incest?

[hellheaven1987]

Because of incest?

Yes, that makes court size and dynasty management easier. Combine with lower default fertility rate and risk of getting 1/3 of your family wipe up in an epidemic outbreak (common since AI rarely build hospital and now an outbreak can often last 5+ years), incest and concubine system is best way to maintain a steady positive growth of clan members for landing without the risk of getting your dynasty wipe out in one outbreak.

For Greek culture at least there is the option of eunuch governor, otherwise for Christian dynasty you often find your clan members are so few that you cannot find suitable candidate for landing.

[Sar1n]

Reading about it....

I guess it's simple and powerful. Concubines take care of breeding, easy access to CB (I think, you can call holy wars-not GHW-on muslims that control most of PE, right?), late game when you restore PE, you get permanent bonus to vassal relations and get access to GHW. No political mess of Catholicism, no decadence of Islam, instability of paganism...

[Basil II the B.S]

Yes, that makes court size and dynasty management easier. Combine with lower default fertility rate and risk of getting 1/3 of your family wipe up in an epidemic outbreak (common since AI rarely build hospital and now an outbreak can often last 5+ years), incest and concubine system is best way to maintain a steady positive growth of clan members for landing without the risk of getting your dynasty wipe out in one outbreak.

For Greek culture at least there is the option of eunuch governor, otherwise for Christian dynasty you often find your clan members are so few that you cannot find suitable candidate for landing.

When did they lower it?

Also the one time I restored the Persian Empire with the Karen, the Saoshyant character was a father-daughter offspring with a genius trait. Fun times.

[hellheaven1987]

I guess it's simple and powerful. Concubines take care of breeding, easy access to CB (I think, you can call holy wars-not GHW-on muslims that control most of PE, right?), late game when you restore PE, you get permanent bonus to vassal relations and get access to GHW. No political mess of Catholicism, no decadence of Islam, instability of paganism...

On the other hand it is you vs the world.

When did they lower it?

Probably sometimes after Way of Life, since there are two life focuses which give 25+% fertility bonus, it would be too powerful without nerfing the default fertility rate.

[Basil II the B.S]

Okay, makes sense.
I often use the family focus so I didn't particularly notice.

[hellheaven1987]

Messalian Sri Lanka start is also a fun run.

[Gandalfus]

Lol, replied to the wrong post.

I need to try out India I think, even though I got that DLC I haven’t even touched it. Might give me a reason to play vanilla again, most of my playthroughs are on Game of Thrones or Elder Kings now.

[hellheaven1987]

I need to try out India I think, even though I got that DLC I haven’t even touched it.

India is a boring place without Ruler Design DLC.

[herne_the _hunter]

India is a boring place without Ruler Design DLC.

How come? I've never needed it for playing there.

Rajas of India is pretty good and is just as good as playing in Europe. Even more so now it's been opened up since the map changes brought in with Jade Dragon/ patch 2.8

I finally got Way of Life and after playing with it for a week I think it's meh. Not the worst dlc for CK2 but still pretty meh

[hellheaven1987]

How come? I've never needed it for playing there.

Lack of CB results very slow expansion and nearly no chance for minors.

I finally got Way of Life and after playing with it for a week I think it's meh. Not the worst dlc for CK2 but still pretty meh

It is pretty much a must when Conclave is on.

Edit: Current best cultures are:

1. Tibetan
2. Berber
3. Hungarian
4. Scottish
5. Italian

Honorable mention: Greek, Andalusian

Everything else sucks.

[Prodromos]

Anyone happen to know of any mods that revamp the Crusade mechanic? Right now the crusades are a boring uncoordinated mess. Just a dozen armies bumbling around the Middle East getting wrecked by 12000-troop Muslim stacks. I have HIP and I don't think it improves crusades much.

[Basil II the B.S]

Crusades get stronger with the time in my experience. Once the Spanish orders and the Teutonic Knights pop up, Muslims can't stop them any longer. One of the most bizarre issues I have had is that in the early crusaders they tend to be dominated by the Irish and Welsh counts and dukes.

[hellheaven1987]

It depends who is crusading; king and emperor tier participants often raise 10k troops each after 1000 AD. General speaking unless Abbasid hold its butt Arabs would often got push steadily by Byzantium (which can easily raise 20k troops around 950) while Catholic would mostly focus on holding southern France.

[Prodromos]

It's more than that, though. Even if Christians win the ruler that contributed the most gets literally everything. So if you contribute 16000 score but another character contributes 16001, he gets the entire kingdom. I think if your contribution is high enough, the victorious crusader grants you a county or barony or something. But I don't know. I still don't like it. The game's name is literally Crusader Kings, but it seems that the Crusade mechanic is pretty underdeveloped.

[Basil II the B.S]

It's more than that, though. Even if Christians win the ruler that contributed the most gets literally everything. So if you contribute 16000 score but another character contributes 16001, he gets the entire kingdom. I think if your contribution is high enough, the victorious crusader grants you a county or barony or something. But I don't know. I still don't like it. The game's name is literally Crusader Kings, but it seems that the Crusade mechanic is pretty underdeveloped.

Indeed developers have been expanding the game eastward a bit too much and have rather forgot the core of the game. It's still great and all but maybe it might be time to touch crusades again.

[hellheaven1987]

I think it is time to make Theocracy playable.

[Gandalfus]

Also time to fix the HRE...