Crusader Kings 2

[xcorps]

ok, thanks a lot. i think i finally got the hang of it now. one final questiogn though: do you always lose so much prestige when faking a claim? is there a way to prevent it? and how bad is it to lose so much prestige?

Yes, No (it actually gets more expensive as the game progresses.I once paid over 1500 presitige and 1700 gold for a duchy), and it's not all that bad. Prestige counts toward your ultimate score, gives a bonus to some interactions and diplomacy options, and unlocks some event responses. You can buy it with grand tournament, hunts, feasts, and festivals. You get a per month prestige income based on holdings and titles. You get a prestige award for winning the claim war anyway.

i seem to be unable to make him court jester. is there any place i can see if soemoone already is?

Scroll through the vassals list and hover your cursor over the portraits.

[grumph]

ok. now i screwed up my game by my son in law that murdered my heir and now the duchy passes out of my dysnasty, and thanks to my non gavelkind succesion my oldest daugther gets it all, and thus my evil son in law. my 82 years old me is probaly not going to get another son, so i started a new game as tyrole. bad starting traits and no family, but i married a genius and now have a genius heir. TAKE THAT, GENETICS!

i just married a lot of the people with the best stats in europe to my courtiers. i now have a court existing of people with 21+ stats that are not ambitious, and even have some heirs between them(though that sucks, but at least itl divide some countries for me). hello massive state diplomacy and easy claims:p

doing quite well in my first generation.

i can create the duchy of ulster or so(forgot the name) and am saving up to create it to usurp my 2 little neighbours.
i got 2 sons and 2 daughters. my heir is a genius, no other of my childs has it poor enough, and i dont think ill get more children from my old starting personage. my heirs being thought from my master steward(the one with midas touch) to hopefully get some of his great skills as commander(somewhere in the 20) and steward.
one of my top priorities is getting the king of england a heir. I DONT want the king of norway owning england as well. he's already from his dynasty. i want to gobble it up myself later on. i think ill marry him to a lustfull 16 years old when he comes of age.

anyway, its my best game so far.

[nhytgbvfeco2]

Evil triple post of doom!

[grumph]

yeah, sorry for the tripple post.

i unified ireland now(and have some problems with rebelius dukes n counts after increasing crown authority, i decided to put in hold for a moment and started as the king of leon. as my starting moves i married a genius and assembled my master court again with people of 20+stats, and assasinated my brother, the king of castille. now i have a sister with 150% chance of revolting() after increasing crown authority to medium and a vassel with 55%, but my armies are FAR superiour to theirs so it wont be a problem. i just need to make my vassels a little happier again. i plan on taking over the whole north of spain quite fast through inheritance n murder, and at least drive out some muslims to further increase my millitary might while trying to become the sole king of spain. goes quite nice till now. 1 down, 3 to go. with some luck ill have galicia ubder my control fast, that should make me the unchallenged ruler of spain and allow me to quickly become emperor of spain and subjegate people like the king of france ect.

EDIT: im now the major power in spain, at the end a meaningless count reblled i quickly dealt with and gave his county to my sister that now did not rebel(as she became my heir and liked me big time from that). the duke of portugal rebelled though and he has both me and a holy war on him. i hold too many duchies though. did i need to give them to people that already owned counties int here or none at all, and do i need to hold counties in there?

[Nutsack]

Download the empires mod, really good mod where you can transform 4 duchies into a kingdom and 4 kingdoms into an empire. You can do this with any duchies/empires/counties as well.

[nhytgbvfeco2]

4 duchies for a kingdom? doesn't that disqualify a bunch of existing ones? (bohemia, denmark, brittany, wales, navarra, portugal, leon, syria, jerusalem..)

[grumph]

whats the most important skill for a king? stewardship+martial? i'd liek to know that so i can let my master court train him appropiatly.

[xcorps]

Stewardship, Diplomacy, Intrigue, Learning, then Martial is the order that I value them. Although early in the dynasty I might value learning over intrigue if I have a good spymaster.

Stewardship for demesene and income. The income modifier is dramatic.
Diplomacy affects just about everything in the game, from the rewards of peace outcomes to your income. (Opinion is modified by diplomacy, opinion affects income). It affects every person in the game. High diplomacy gives you event options that low diplomacy does not.

Intrigue is obvious.

Learning affects your dynasty most at the begining of the game because it gives a modifier to technology increases.

Martial skill has an important effect on a much more limited portion of the game throughout.

[Ketzerfreund]

And for that portion you send your marshal out, anyway.

[Mangalore]

As molon said, concentrate your desmene. Keep 2 duchies under your full control and if they are bordering duchies, the better. You can concentrate your troops quickly and crush rebellions and when you're facing enemies, keeping a protective ring of vassals around your 2 duchies will help you to keep your possessions intact.

Well, played a long game with Denmark where it didn't matter since ships where the way to go and having one army already on the right side of the Baltics was good enough for rebels and running away with the ships was just as time consuming.

Wouldn't keep singular counties either... though vasall pruning is such a nice gardening affair that I actually don't mind them being annoyed here and there.

[hellheaven1987]

whats the most important skill for a king? stewardship+martial? i'd liek to know that so i can let my master court train him appropiatly.

Stewardship and diplomacy are two most critical skills; stewardship allows your king to hold more lands while high diplomacy gives a huge bonus for vassal relation - most times to a point of revolt or not.

[Vanoi]

Stewardship for demesene and income. The income modifier is dramatic.

Are you sure? I have tested this before. Made a character with high stewardship (20) in one game and checked the income. (I also had high diplomacy and intrigue)

I think made a character with high Martial (20) with the rest if the skills low. I checked the income. It was no different than my previous character.

[grumph]

ok. but my last question is still not answered: how to hand out my duchies? i know i soudnt have counties in it, but should the new owner of the duchy persoanlly also have a county there or not?

[hellheaven1987]

Are you sure? I have tested this before. Made a character with high stewardship (20) in one game and checked the income. (I also had high diplomacy and intrigue)

It has more to do with diplomacy actually, since when you are large the main source of income is tax from your vassals, and depends on whether your vassals love you they give different percentage of tax.

[Vanoi]

It has more to do with diplomacy actually, since when you are large the main source of income is tax from your vassals, and depends on whether your vassals love you they give different percentage of tax.

I know diplomacy has some major effects. I could easily see that with my reputation i had with my vassals. I can't see it with my stewardship though.

[Border Patrol]

Same with the troop count. Get a Grey Eminence as your king and take on empires.

[molonthegreat]

I have played The Prince and the Thane lately and I must say that it certainly gives a bit more flavour to the game with all the events. Also Azoth you should get an significant increase in tax revenue with someone who has high stewardship, I had a guy with 25 and he increased my income by 80 % .

[xcorps]

Are you sure? I have tested this before. Made a character with high stewardship (20) in one game and checked the income. (I also had high diplomacy and intrigue)

I think made a character with high Martial (20) with the rest if the skills low. I checked the income. It was no different than my previous character.

If I read the guide correctly, a 20 stewardship should give you a +25% income and a 30 stewardship should give you a +50% income.

Diplomacy's effect is more subtle, as it changes opinion and opinion only changes income when it is negative. So with diplomacy you won't notice an income change unless it brings your vassals out of the negative opion. Also bishops might be influenced enough to pay you instead of the pope.

But the high stewardship should be more obvious.

Are you sure the demesne was exactly the same? The same exact holdings? The same exact construction upgrades? The same exact opinion modifiers? The exact same bishop income and city income? The same technologies (there are 3 off the top of my head I can think of that modify income) and laws? The same State Stewardship? (ie if your steward and wife were different, that effects your state stewardship and thus your income)

Just starting a new game with a different character doesn't automatically mean those numbers are all the same, especially with stewards and opinion.

[molonthegreat]

If I read the guide correctly, a 20 stewardship should give you a +25% income and a 30 stewardship should give you a +50% income.

Diplomacy's effect is more subtle, as it changes opinion and opinion only changes income when it is negative. So with diplomacy you won't notice an income change unless it brings your vassals out of the negative opion. Also bishops might be influenced enough to pay you instead of the pope.

But the high stewardship should be more obvious.

Are you sure the demesne was exactly the same? The same exact holdings? The same exact construction upgrades? The same exact opinion modifiers? The exact same bishop income and city income? The same technologies (there are 3 off the top of my head I can think of that modify income) and laws? The same State Stewardship? (ie if your steward and wife were different, that effects your state stewardship and thus your income)

Just starting a new game with a different character doesn't automatically mean those numbers are all the same, especially with stewards and opinion.

Thanks to having an awesome ruler, awesome wife and awesome steward I had something like 51 state stewardship and my income was through the roof.

[xcorps]

Same here. I just had a genius leige with a genius wife and a 21 steward die. State stewardship was 65, had a demesne of 14/14. Income was 31. He dies, and the demense of his heir who has a state stewardship of 29 drops to 14/11 and income drops to 18. I know that the the +3 over demesne is a hit, but not half.