May 20, 2012 - Crusader Kings II review. War is a particularly tricky thing to begin at all, really, for you must have a “casus belli”-in short, a reason to fight. Iv been playing EU4 since release, and Crusader Kings 2 for a few years and love them. You can declare war in EU4 without casus belli. May 22, 2017 - Crusader Kings II is changing war claims and siege assaults. Important aspects of CK II is the need for a Casus Belli to not only declare war. Oct 28, 2014 - +190 hours and i still dont know how to attack christian.Doing Casus belli is too slow and only 1 city we can take at each time.So how can i gain.
If you’ve just picked up Crusader Kings 2 and can’t wait to get started, then it’s worth taking a look over my. It goes over the most basic mechanics that will help you to create a successful first game, from which you can self-learn everything else you need to know.Of course, the advice in that guide is very basic, and I intend to flesh it out with followup articles to help you make your way through a game without complete cluelessness at a later date.
However, if you’ve already read it and just can’t wait to dive in (my definite recommendation) then you might be looking for advice on the best place to start.Thanks to Crusader Kings 2’s character-based play, there are plenty of options open to you, from mighty Emperors down to measly provincial Counts and everything in between. Even without any of the DLC there are potentially hundreds of starting characters to choose from across a 400 year timespan, before even including non-Christians and 2 additional, pre-1066 start dates.The game does have some options for you, including interesting historical bookmarks and the characters who are most relevant and enjoyable in that time period. However, a few of these are DLC-only, and for a beginner, I don’t really recommend any of them anyway. As strange as it sounds, the best place to start a Crusader Kings 2 game is not as one of the largest powers, but among some of the weaker options.
Starting as a Duke or CountStarting as a king seems like a fun idea, but is fraught with peril. Any but the smallest of kingdoms will have to contend with a mess of vassals, each of whom will contend to bring about your downfall. Not to mention a historical setup that’s a horrible tangle to try and figure out. It’s fun in its own way, but similarly quite complicated, and a new player will have enough on their hands just trying to figure out the basics.Starting as a Duke will give you the best ratio of power to responsibility. As a Duke you can have vassals, but your vassals will generally be small and weak.
Added together they give you a strong force to fight with, but individually aren’t too much of a hassle. As an independent Duke you can often begin to absorb some of your smaller neighbours, or as a vassal to a king you have less to worry about from threats outside the realm. As you grow you can shape your realm into a system that works for you, rather than against you, and eventually become a king with a much better grasp on internal politics.Starting as a count offers slightly more of a challenge than a Duke, but with similar rewards. You won’t have any real vassals until you can upgrade yourself to a duchy rank, which also makes it harder to absorb your neighbours. However, you’ll be shaping your entire realm from the ground up, so that you never have to deal with a vassal you didn’t choose yourself.
A king who used to be a count will usually have a strong powerbase within their realm, and dominate internal politics. If you can make it that far of course. Starting in the British Isles or the Iberian PeninsulaRegardless of which DLC you’ve got, I always think that the best place to start is in the British Isles or Iberian Peninsula (Spain). Particularly Ireland or one of the Iberian kings (yes, despite what I said about Dukes).Ireland: Ireland is often colloquially referred to as “Beginner’s Island” thanks to its opportunities to learn the game relatively undisturbed. Right on the Western edge of the map, and fractured into plenty of minor powers, Ireland is safe from most outside threats. The only superpower you might have to contend with early on is England, and they have enough worries with the joint Norwegian/Norman invasion and subsequent unrest to bother you for a while.
Not to mention, they don’t really care that much about conquering Ireland.Starting as one of the Dukes in Ireland means that you can begin to fabricate claims on your neighbours and take their land, and the Casus Bellis you get from duchy titles will help speed the process along. Once you have about half of Ireland conquered you can form the kingdom and the rest tends to fall into place quite quickly.
Go at your own pace and you’ll feel nicely in control for most of the start of the game. Once you’re a king, you’ll have a good powerbase to expand from and experiment with.Castile: I mention Castile as the foremost of the Iberian powers, partly because (spoilers) they end up winning, historically, and partly because they’re nice and central in the area. Unlike in Ireland, Castile does border an immediate threat in the form of various Muslim kingdoms and duchies, and has dynastic problems with neighbouring kingdoms too. View this as a blessing rather than a curse.Having other kings of your dynasty around is a good way to build alliances, and potentially inherit their thrones too. You’ll have claims on your relative’s titles, especially if you keep intermarrying with them, and when they show weakness you can expand quickly by taking them over.Meanwhile, your Muslim neighbours to the south offer you quite a nice Casus Belli in the form of Holy War, which allows you to take entire duchies at a time. Just watch out, because neighbouring Muslim dukes will join them in the defense of their titles, so be ready for a big war, or plan it out opportunistically.Other than the Iberian Muslims and your dynastic neighbours, however, Castile has very little to worry about in 1066 and shouldn’t have too much trouble eventually securing the entire Iberian peninsula for themselves.
Much like Ireland, once you’ve expanded a little, you should have a good powerbase to play and explore from. Other Starting OptionsFrance: France offers you plenty of choice when it comes to duchies, but relatively little options to expand. You’re surrounded by other, equally powerful dukes, so will need to be patient and opportunistic to grow your realm. If you want to try playing just as a vassal, however, France is a great place to start, with nothing much to do but play the diplomatic game.Holy Roman Empire: Like France, the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) offers a player peace and relative stability as a vassal, without having to worry about outside threats. The HRE also offers a bit more opportunity to expand, with so many dukes and counts that you can marry or fabricate on your neighbours and almost always find someone weaker than you.
Thanks to its start as an Elective Monarchy, it also offers you the chance to become Emperor for a while, just to experience the sort of headache that starting with a large title can give you.England: Starting as Harold Godwinson is a huge mistake. If you hadn’t heard, he has a very short and turbulent reign. However, starting as an English duke can be a bit more interesting.
Once the Norman and Norwegian invasions are over, and the dust has settled, internal politics becomes very interesting and, like Ireland, you have very little else to worry about. Set yourself up as a powerful Duke and rule the realm by proxy, or have a go at the crown yourself.Hopefully that should be plenty to start with, and with the knowledge of how to get married and go to war you’ll be well on your way to creating a fruitful and long-lasting dynasty.Keep your eyes peeled for my next post on the different Casus Bellis you can use to expand your realm, and how to get hold of them.
Since its name impliesthe Jade Dragon expansion for PC / Windows presents the current presence of China in to the game but maybe perhaps not as a playable faction, but it functions as an outside empire that indirectly affects the growth of events, notably in India and Transoxiana.Additionally, the addin represents a totally new menu of their Chinese emperor from the game, which clarifies their country and needs, helping to make it much a lot easier for your player. The player can become a vassal of China, which can be useful. As befits a collection of Crusader King II, human personalities play a part in the match.Princes and raiders regularly render the borders of China to look for fame and fortune in all other nations. You can also gain from the Silk Road, Based on the stability in the Middle Kingdom. This expansion also includes portraits of characters, Chinese artifacts objects and eight casus belli. Crusader Kings II Jade Dragon MinimunSystem Requirements:CPU: Intel® Pentium® IV 2.4 GHz or AMD 3500+CPU SPEED: InfoRAM: 2 GBOS: XP/Vista/Windows 7VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon X1900, 512 MB graphics Memory required.PIXEL SHADER: 3.0VERTEX SHADER: 3.0SOUND CARD: YesFREE DISK SPACE: 2 GBDEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 512 MBInstallation tutorial video.
Dum inter homines sumus, colamus humanitatem. ('As long as we are among humans, let us be humane.' ) Lucius Annaeus Seneca'The church must be where there is need, and homosexuals have suffered innumerable discriminations.
If the church doesn't free people from oppression, what purpose does it serve?' Jacques Gaillot, Titular Bishop of Parthenia“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?” Mohandas K. Managed to get going in the end.So for like 4 generations I had no progress. I had schemes to inherit a couple of counties but those went nowhere. But from the third generation on I had the hellene secret society running, and it got almost 100 members in the end. But with the fifth guy I got stuff running with a bunch of merceneries I was able to declere independence from the duke of Hellas (in 769 Byzantium controls only one county in the duchy of Hellas. The emperor had then essensially no other choice but to grant it to me as a viceroyality, but I lost it when more de jure territory was conquered) (also that's why he got known as 'the traitor') and got my wife to be duchess of Achea.In the end the only part of that that mattered was getting to become a direct vassal of the emperor though (at one point I was the vassal of a duchess that was a vassal to the king of Trebizond, so many steps away from the emperor).
When I noticed the emperor had secretly converted to hellenic, I decided to openly adopt the religion. With that I guess I got a lot of popularity, and with only a few bribes I became the leading choice to inherit the empire. I didn't waste time and got the emperor assassinated and inhereted the empire. At the same time, the Abbasids collapsed due to decadense.I then started to reconquer a lot of land (the previous emperors had even managed to lose Constaninopel) and revoked territories where I could, and placed relatives there to ensure that no matter who got elected it would probably be someone in my dynasty.
I got a long way, but in the end there was a massive 'overthrow ruler' revolt. I then decided to give in to that, because that just makes me play as my heir.However then, there was a slowpox epidemic and I didn't get to shut the gates. The prompt said I couldn't do it while doing special activities, which I mean I wasn't doing, but I ended up dying shortly after that.
I had managed to get the Traitor to be elected heir, but he suffered the same problems and also died of slowpox soon after (he also ended up getting morbidly obese (in general I've had a lot of fat characters this game, but only like a couple in the zun game)).Now was the problem: even though a lot of people had converted to hellenic, not everyone had. And this new guy I got was Iconoclastic. I sort of ragequitted then (again not seriously, I had played for several hours and felt like taking a break anyway).
I'm conflicted on whether to try and restore a savegame, or kill my wife, get a hellenic one, and use that to convert to hellenism.Also I've never had the imperial diadem. I've found some guy in the realm has it, related to one of the previous emperors. I've wanted to try and get it, but I've not prioritised it and have focused on warring and installing family members to titles instead.Also made a stupid custom family seal because I only started with a generic one (unlike for example the zunbils who get a unique one)however, more important than any of that is that the duke of Abkazia identifies as a horse(I've gotten about all of Anatolia since this screenshot was taken). Dum inter homines sumus, colamus humanitatem. ('As long as we are among humans, let us be humane.' ) Lucius Annaeus Seneca'The church must be where there is need, and homosexuals have suffered innumerable discriminations.
If the church doesn't free people from oppression, what purpose does it serve?' Jacques Gaillot, Titular Bishop of Parthenia“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?” Mohandas K.
Polykarpos the Traitor was just a count the first 30 years of his adult life, so it's not as janky as it seemsanyway I did end up reloading and changing a bit:Being forced to abdicate and then rewin the throne is now my new favourite thing lolanyway you can see I got the huge country of Serbia that used to be north of me. That was a bit unexpected, because I simply used the 'take an entire de jure duchy' casus belli, but apparantly that makes the holders in that duchy your vassal if possible, and it was, since I was an emperor and he only a king. So half the country is now tengri.Unfourtunatelty, Hellenism doesn't get holy war casus belli, so I can only take one province at a time through war. I've been trying to favour invite claimants, but haven't had any luck with that so far. This has been an issue with trying to reach 50% religious unity, because Alexandria is far away. Also I've gotten religious unity malus because of raiders looting temples at the edge of the empire, which I hardly notice when are around.Additionally, after all this time, I've only managed to convert a single province to hellenism.
Not sure how to get better at that. With religious reformation I did cosmopolitan nature last time, but managed to convert so little, that I'm thinking about doing maybe prozelytising this time.In neater news though, Polykarpos the Bone-Squeezer created the olympian fighters society, so that was cool.Anyway this kid is the son of a horse mayor:I've unfourtunately not been so dilligent in trying to preserve the horse culture that was beginning to form in Georgia. I think Only one province is ruled by a man with horse culture at this point. Dum inter homines sumus, colamus humanitatem. ('As long as we are among humans, let us be humane.' ) Lucius Annaeus Seneca'The church must be where there is need, and homosexuals have suffered innumerable discriminations. If the church doesn't free people from oppression, what purpose does it serve?'
Jacques Gaillot, Titular Bishop of Parthenia“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?” Mohandas K. Unfourtunately I think this was the last of the georgian horse lordsAnyway I've now reformed Hellenism. I get heir designation, but the imperial elective overrides that. Also the pontifex maximus title is kingdom-tier, which goes to my son no matter if I get another one of my dynasty to be successor.
I can try changing the pontifex maximus to imperial elective too (haven't done so so far because I've been at war) or work around it by granting it as viceroyality to some old dude when I get old, but all that would've been avoided if it was duchy-tier insteadthe guy I'm in that screenshot was a fairly distant relative I chose to get elected only because he had managed to get the imperial diadem in his inventoryeh I'll screenshot this too. He looks pretty neat with the pontificial scepter. Ended up giving the Pontificial College to my chosen successor, which for most of Kyros' life was the eldest son, but I changed it to another one, because he got a weak claim on the holy roman empire (which is about the best I could do.Also got to restore the Roman EmpireAnnoyingly that makes the imperial diadem unusableAlso created the stoic intelligensia (so roman culture will appear soon) and burned down all the churches in RomeAnyway, a tip from me I guess: There're two ways to convert to hellenism. The first, like I did, involve holding one of the holy sites, delving into the classics and then secretly converting to hellenism. You'll then have to secretly spread the religion, and work from 0% moral authority and upwards.The other is that you get the option tio convert when you restore the roman empire.
I'd recommend doing this instead, because then you'll have all the holy sites, and get to reform hellenism immidiatly (more or less, I reckon). I think this is the better choice, because unreformed hellenism is really weak, you don't get holy war casus belli, and can't demand conversion (reformed hellenism gives you both of these (unless you choose peaceful or cosmopolitan nature, maybe)). So use the more powerful orthodox religion until then.Also horse lords dissapeared from Georgia, but reemerged in SerbiaI know it all is less impressive than my last game, but I've kinda checklisted world conquest now.
And it might still happen, because I'm working to get my children claims on the huge hispanic empire. Time for a screenshot of my Horse Lord game! I'm still a human - the same human - but my horses are conquering the steppe!I am the Yabguid clan of the Oghuz Turks, in central Asia.
It may not look like a ton yet, but we've gone from four provinces to the mid-20's in the current Khagan's lifetime. I'm currently expanding in almost every direction except northeast, where the Uyghurs have conveniently made all their neighbors other than China tributaries, rendering themselves a non-threat. Call of duty advanced warfare pc download completo. I'm currently adding a province at the time while awaiting a big opportunity - perhaps the Khazars (suzerains of the Byzantines), perhaps Tibet, perhaps even the Abbasids if they continue to run into internal difficulties.
But those provinces are adding up.I find being a Horse Lord to be a fairly good life. Lots of quick wars, no complaints from vassals about levies being raised, and relatively quick recovery after missteps. Gold is plentiful through pillaging, if rare within the empire - only recently have I started accumulating settled vassals for a more steady supply of gold.In the greater world, the big news is the Magyars settling down as Vitebsk, and, hot off the parchment, a newly-converted-to-Islam warlord conquering Pannonia on Christmas Day, 808, after the failure of the Catholic Bavarians to do so earlier in the same year. None of the Pannonian provinces are Muslim - the vast majority are either Slavic or Tengrii - so it's hard to say whether it will last, but it certainly introduces an interesting religious variable into the picture in Europe. It seems pretty good considering how little time has passedI tried playing nomads a couple of times, but couldn't really get into it.
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One pretty annoying thing was the fact that you only get the good casus bellis when you get so and so much population, and it's hard to get to that point without those casus bellis.Anyway I ressurected roman culture:However I am a bit tired. I'm over the vassall limit after taking over HRE, even though it was hardly more than France, and I've given out as many viceroyalities as I canAnd even though I've got like 9 children with claims on Hispania (although all daughters, my one son died) and a vassal with claims on all the Muhallabid kingdoms, I'm kinda tired of dealing with it allstarted a bit as doge of venice in 1066, but felt kinda like nothing really happened there (little room to do stuff, and hard to seize other's tradeposts)so I dunno, maybe I should just take a break from the game. It's kinda annoying how the game is kind of a rush when things go well, but a drag when thing doesn't. Yeah, I've only been using the one-province-at-a-time CBs, because of the pop requirements. I am starting to approach the 30K Invasion casus belli as my max pop, but it requires quite a few good provinces, and it takes time to acquire those.It's kind of funny how you have such a large empire, but due to the vassal limit can only raise about 7000-8000 troops.
But I know what you mean about becoming tired of it all after awhile; I've never finished a game due to that.Update: Conquered four more provinces around (and including) Samarkand in the next four and a half years. I now have two horde armies raised at the same time! I like how as a horde, I can just invade whoever I want without having to fabricate claims first; it makes expansion speedy, and it not only doesn't cost anything, but is profitable. I have 1500 - 2000 gold stored up, even after continual upgrades to our capital and spending several hundred on a couple core heavy cavalry brigades for my shiny new army.I'm running out of small neighbors, though, so Khagan Dogan is considering a large war. Will it be against the Tibetans, who have a moderate-sized army, but enough gold to hire quite a few mercenaries; the Taids in Persia who are weak, but tributaries of the powerful Abbasids, who in turn are fighting a defensive Holy War near Armenia; or Bashkiria, who along with their overlord Khazars are locked in a large and bloody war with the Uyghurs, but still have many troops?
Or perhaps we shall bide our time a bit longer and expand against the northern Caspian against our remaining weak neighbor.Pannonia continues to be a hotspot; they've repulsed another Bavarian invasion, but are fighting an indecisive defensive war against Saxony, and the Chieftess of Poland just declared war along with her husband the Chief of Slavonia. And to top it off, their conquering Islamic King died a natural death at 61, leaving his teenage grandson in charge; if it weren't for the Defending Against Foreigners bonus, there may well be civil wars, and some of the vassals are quite unhappy nonetheless. And there are civil wars in Byzantium, which appear likely to succeed and could call the Khazar tribute into question. It would perhaps trivialise the game a bit, but I'm considering turning off vassall limit in future games.I've already changed to very easy, turned off defensive pacts and shattered retreat (although that one I maybe should turn back on), so it's not really that huge stepshould probably have mentioned turning off defensive pacts when I posted the Ming empire.
Maybe I did and just forgot. Anyway that's like something I've hated ever since it came out, but at the same time as that was introduced they started to let you decide what game rules to play with, so.Also you probably already know but I think that even as a horde you can build silk road tradeposts if you're concerned with getting steady income.That's honestly what's bothered me a lot with playing hordes or vikings. Having to go out and do stuff to get money instead of just generating it. It would perhaps trivialise the game a bit, but I'm considering turning off vassall limit in future games.I've already changed to very easy, turned off defensive pacts and shattered retreat (although that one I maybe should turn back on), so it's not really that huge stepshould probably have mentioned turning off defensive pacts when I posted the Ming empire. Maybe I did and just forgot. Anyway that's like something I've hated ever since it came out, but at the same time as that was introduced they started to let you decide what game rules to play with, so.Also you probably already know but I think that even as a horde you can build silk road tradeposts if you're concerned with getting steady income.That's honestly what's bothered me a lot with playing hordes or vikings. Having to go out and do stuff to get money instead of just generating it.
Click to expand.I also have defensive pacts turned off. I started playing back in the 1.x days, and to me it always seemed like a feature that was backported from EUIV for multiplayer balance purposes, rather than one that made sense in the timeframe. After all, the main 'defensive pacts' - nearby nations of the same faith having the option to join defensive holy wars - has always been in the game, and I have a hard time thinking of other good examples from the time period.
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Even when the Mongols invaded it was not common for former enemies to band together against them.The main other deviation I have from the base rules (I have Shattered Retreat on; I have mixed feelings on it but prefer it to EU3-style ping-pong) is that humiliation/torture/poetry no longer auto-frees prisoners. Again that rule was not present in early versions of CKII, and I have a hard time reconciling it with the time period. But as Khal Drogo Khagan Drogan is a kind Khagan, the modus operandi with prisoners so far has been pretty humane, and centered around collecting ransom.I did recently discover Silk Road tradeposts!
I just conquered one in Samarkand, and also have started building Yams in my capital. So that's a nice income boost. I've also kept one settled province as a vassal rather than razing it, to help with the long-term income problem. I suspect as I go into the Middle East, India, or the Caucasus, I'll start keeping a higher proportion of settled provinces as-is.