Quickly skimming the Steam forums, it seems that this has happened to at least two people who're in shitty countries [Jordan and Columbia] but were using payment systems from first world countries [a prepaid credit card from Canada and a Paypal account with a US billing address, respectively]. The fellow on vacation in Columbia also tried purchasing through Click'and'Buy and direct Visa without success. A third example is of someone in Egypt using a Canadian Visa and Paypal account. There may be other examples if you dig further.

It seems to be a problem of your billing address not matching your current location. Potential fraud.

Other people have had the same error but solved it by re-installing Steam. None of them seemed to be in special circumstances though, such as being in Chile. Re-installing Steam doesn't apply to you anyway.

This might hint at a solution. SG90 received the same error. Steam was also giving him prices in Sterling instead of Euro. The problem continued until he tried purchasing from a different internet connection where Steam gave prices in Euro.

This link might help you, but I doubt it. It'll bring you to a Steam store where everything is in GBP. http://store.steampowered.com/?cc=uk It's worth a go.

If that fails, then possible work arounds are to use a payment system with a Chillean billing address. Or have someone on IRC gift it to you and you forward them the money with Paypal.

 

I've contacted Steam Support about it. Unfortunately the UK link didn't work. And I don't have Paypal - I really don't like it, as a company. You have pretty much no rights.

 

When I was reading the Steam forum threads no one had ever heard a reply from Steam support regarding this error. One user had been waiting for five weeks with no response. I'm guessing that when it comes to potential fraud, Steam doesn't make a habit of circumventing the system currently in place.

I doubt you have a great deal of rights when it comes to Steam either.

Paypal seems to be fairly safe for consumers to use. It's the retailers and people receiving large amounts of money who I hear about getting screwed over by Paypal with no recourse.

 

Update:

1. Massive thanks to Tehan for gifting me a copy of CK2 out of nowhere. I owe you one man.

2. Steam actually responded to my problem. It was as you said, Yak.

Incidentally, the IE or Firefox thing was exact. I tried logging into Steam using Chrome and it wouldn't let me (incorrect login). Tried on Firefox, and I got in.

 

Tried the Game of Thrones mod for the first time, took Eddard Stark in the time period just after Robert Baratheon took the Iron Throne.

And, uh. I completely demolished it all completely, pretty much by accident. It started innocently enough - I legitimized Jon Snow - but then things went completely to hell.

Within the first year the Tyrells made a claim on the Iron Throne, backed up by the Lannisters. Okay, I thought, Eddard and Robert are still BFFs at this point so let's ride out and kick some traitorous arse. So twenty-five thousand northmen mustered and marched on the South, demolishing all that dared stand before them. Three Lords fell in single combat with Eddard, upwards of two dozen were captured, and finally, within a week's walk of King's Landing, Eddard's forces clashed with those of Tywin Lannister. The Lannister forces were routed, those loyal to the king victorious...

And Tywin Lannister was captured by the Starks.

I poked around and discovered, to my shock, that Jaime Kingslayer had taken the black. Making the six-year-old Tyrion Lanister heir to the Westerlands and Casterly Rock. I knew what had to be done.

Tywin's head rolled that day.

I set to work ransoming off the inconvenient wealth of traitors I had acquired, but it seemed having so many oathbreakers at arm's reach was too much of a temptation for Lord Eddard. When one sent a request for better chambers, Eddard had his cock cut off and fed to the goats. He tortured two to death personally. Three asked for trial by combat and Eddard slew them all with his own hand. The rest were ransomed off, but not before Eddard had become a cruel, hedonistic drunkard who spent all his waking hours not drinking and whoring turning his two heirs, Robb and Jon, into absolute combat machines.

...and Bran died of pneumonia .

A couple of lords rebelled, and were quickly demolished. Jon requested a title just as Eddard found himself overburdened, so Jon became Lord Jon Snow of the Barrowlands just as Eddard acquired the title of Lord of White Harbour, happy to acquire the rich region for his own. Robb became engaged to a daughter of Robert and Cersei - a real one, since Jaime was off bothering the Wildlings - and Jon to a ruler in her own right, the Lady of Blackmont. A bit far to rule from Winterfell, but hey, we'll just shove a spare Stark on the throne of it and we'll hack our way down there eventually.

Oh, and in this version of events, Benjen Stark never took the black, and instead became Lord of the Wolfswood and married a lovely Lady of house Tully.

EDIT: I just learned that the Kingsguard oath disqualifies one from succession just as the Night Watch oath does, so even if Jaime didn't take the black we'd still be looking at a King Imp scenario. Groovy.

 

Got my new laptop on Monday, finally was able to play this.

For my first game I played as the King of Scotland. A nice, small out of the way Kingdom where I could keep to myself and be peaceful. Or so I thought.

I started by marrying Princess Maria of Hungary. She was young, had decent traits, and had a positive opinion of me. Then I changed my spymaster, who was plotting against me, for someone more faithful.

And that was about it. I was searching for someone to tutor my heir (answer: there was no one who would say yes) and trying to find a way to marry one of my heirless vassals to a Scot when my half-brother revolted.

I knew he was unhappy, of course, but there wasn't much I could do about it. I had tried making him the Master of the Hunt but it was a drop in the ocean. I raised my personal levies in reaction and outnumbered him, but soon more than half of Scotland rose up to join him. I bought the cheapest mercenaries I could find, but was unable to actually get them to engage the enemy, who kept moving. After one month I had to disband them as I was out of cash.

End result: I had a personal army of three hundred, against the combined armies of my vassals, which numbered just under 2000.

All this happened in the space of about 5 months lol.

I didn't get to the point of actually losing, but I was circling the drain so gave up.

Fuck Scotland XD

(Off to read the beginner's guide).

 

When someone revolts they tend to want your preliminary title, in your case the kingdom of Scotland. You don;t lose all your holdings. In any case this is a game of dynasty so even if both you and your heir died you would then play as your brother.

 

I only had one holding, lol.

 

It's been a while since I played this, but if I remember correctly, you're actually better off just tutoring your children yourself.

 

You're better off playing an Irish nation as a beginner. Less chance of being eaten by vassals, since you choose most of them.

Not a bad choice, but I prefer marrying for alliances early on. It's better to have a powerful friend who can help you out when vassals rebel or you go to war than it is to just have a good wife. I find that marrying one of the English nobles' daughters works well (Lancaster especially) as the King of Scotland.

1) Always tutor your heir yourself. You get choices every year for what traits he'll have, so you get much more control over them. If you don't have a good skill trait (like Grey Eminence or Brilliant Strategist) you can always switch your heir over to someone else when he hits 15, so that they have a higher probability of inheriting their skill trait.

2) He does that. When you first beat him down make sure to revoke his duchy.

Gifts are the best way to improve relations, but in the Duke of Moray's case he's just a bastard and will rebel at the smallest opportunity.

A decent way to catch stacks that don't want to stay still is to get into a position where you can move to the territory the stack is in and the one it wants to go. At that point start to move to where the enemy wants to go. This will make him stop moving. Immediately cancel the order and move to the territory he's already in.

Even if you miss him you'll be able to catch him in the next province, since it's generally a shorter distance between the one he's just moved from (now the territory you're occupying) to the one he's in than it is between his current position and another territory.

Mercenaries are expensive, try to find allies early on instead.

Beginner's Guide is probably a good idea.

 

After five different attempts, I've found that the easiest way to deal with him is to leave the levies alone. The moment you raise them all the other vassals start getting pissy and join him. Instead I blew all my money on mercs, lucked out and pinned him down quickly, before I could run out of my rapidly dwindling cash. Dismissed the Mercs, raised my personal levies and used them to siege.

Course, after all that was said and done I was left with no money and the Duke of (Place beginning with M) started to get antsy too.

 

Welcome to the life of a Medieval King.

 

Found a great guide on Reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/paradoxplaza/comments/q726f/ckii_the_feudal_system_and_its_implications/

14 parts:

The Feudal System and Its Implications
Construction; Where, When, and What
Technology; Why and How
Succession Laws; Pros and Cons
Taxation; Workings and Maximization
Levies; Inner Workings and Maximization
Marriage and Birth; Ensuring Your Future
Claims and Casus Belli; Expanding Your Realm
Warfare; Diplomacy By Other Means
Religion; Keeping the Church Strong
Culture; Unity Through Homogeneity
Holding Types
Crown Law
Distribution of Power; Keeping Your Vassals Weak

 

Another helpful tip is that when one of your vassal dies you get a message about it, if you grant the new owner gold immediatly it only costs 25 instead of increasing once they have had the holding for awhile. It's especially helpful with Dukes and counts. I also try and conglomerate holdings, try and get a VASSAL bishop or Mayor (aka someone who originally had their sole holding in one of your territories (that you intend to keep) so it remains their primary title) and try and grant them aditional holdings of the same type. You can also make them a count if you need to make sure they stay your vassal. This helps as you can then just keep several individuals happy instead of an armada as well as giving them greater gold so they can improve holdings faster but this does has the downside of them being more powerful.

If the vassals are now poweful and don't like you (aka new ruler) you can choose to make them revolt on your own terms then decide to imprison them or assassinate them and make the heir like you before the titles pass. It is helpful as I've had some Mayors who wanted as much as a pope did for a relations boost

- Those brackets seem quite convulated so I hope you understand.

 

There's one issue that continues to elude me: how do you go about gaining personal control over the holdings in your own counties? That is, how do I before the Mayor of Perth? The guide talks about upgrading only your own holdings as you only get the full benefit from holdings that are directly yours, but I have no idea how to gain others.

 

The easiest way is to go to the diplomacy screen of the current Mayor of Perth and click the Revoke Title button. I don't recommend it because revoking titles tends to piss off your subjects something fierce, unless the victim has deserved it by rebelling against you.

I wouldn't recommend gaining personal control over all the holdings in a single county anyway, unless you're planning on immediately using them as a means to reward/bribe someone in your court, or to ensure that a second (or third, or fourteenth) son is not included in the line of succession.

 

Cities and bishoprics don't give you much in the way of cash anyway, because you can't become a mayor or bishop and so get the 'Wrong Type of Holding' penalty. As ruler you want to control as many counties as possible, rather than controlling everything in a county.

 

In all honesty if you're playing as Scotland and you don't have the ruler designer DLC, your early game is all up to luck. If the starting traits you and your vassals aren't good, such as you getting craven and your vassals being ambitious, that's going to make the first few years hell. Probably the best alliance you can get via marriage early game would have to be with the HRE since you can marry the emperor's sister for an alliance with one of the biggest militaries in early game.

What you'll want to do next is send your spymaster for Atholl to catch your brother's plotting, and your chancellor to Moray to make your half-brother like you more. Also, you can offer vassalisation to the count of the isle of man since he's still indepentant. Once you're dealt with their plotting and you''ve got an alliance with the HRE you'll want to declare war on Norway for Caithness, this is due to the simple fact that they're busy dieing in England, and since you can call in the HRE for extra troops, it shouldn't take long to blitz the small islands Norway owns for war points before that can counterattack.

After that, you're going to want to start on the Isles, the best way to do that is to use your de jure claims on the areas comprising the duchy of the isles, and then usurping it. What this does is that it makes him into just another count, and since a count can't have count vassals, you can make his previous count vassals yours without having to declare war.

Something that's also important is getting your heir a good education, since the king of scotland starts with a shitty education trait along with bad normal traits, your best option is to send him to a courtier with the rank 4 stewardship education trait and a high learning+stewardship skill, the more green traits the better as well. It's very risky since you can end up with some horrible traits, but it's your only way to get a good heir as the king of scotland tbh. You'll also want to marry off the count of tevietodale to somebody with as many +fertility traits as you can becuase if you dies before you get a heir, the county goes to england.

What you'll want to do next is to start on the Irish, you can do this by inviting people with claims to the counties to your kingdom, and then declaring war for them. In all honesty, I don't know how it's decided if they join your kingdom or not, and what I sometimes do is that I give people with good claims a county that I own just to ensure that they join my kingdom.

By this time, somebody will have won the war for england, if england won, odds are they're going to be looking your way soon, so be careful. If the duke of normandy won he'll be busy with France for a while. If Norway won you're fucked.

tl;dr King of Scotland is probably one of the easiest kings to start off with and expand with if you know what you're doing, but if you really want to make things easy grab the ruler designer DLC, not only can you make a ruler with increible stats+traits, but since you're a new dynasty, you don't have to worry about family members who have claims on your lands.

 

After fiddling with the Irish for a bit I returned to Scotland wiser and ready to take my first decent stab at the game. Either I improved more than I thought I lucked out, because it went a lot better.

Wifeless, I started off with the ambition to find me some hot young tail. There wasn't anyone in my area suitable, so I couldn't marry for an alliance, so I went for some hot German jailbait.

With that primary goal satisfied I surveyed my kingdom to find that all of my council loved me, and my vassals liked me a fair amount. Except for the Duke of Moray, who should have revolted last week judging by his attitude towards me. The Duke of Atholl, my shit stain of a half-brother, wasn't far behind him.

I set my council to various tasks and began to plot.

I realised that if the two dukes rose up against me together, I would stand no chance. Moreover, if I tried to take one out aggressively, the other would rise up to join their war. I had to find a non-military means to get rid of one of them. Then I would be free to take on the other one to one. Man to man. Kilt to kilt.

So I set myself the task of killing my my brother through lies and deceit. At first, no one seemed to be down with that, so I tried to buy time by marrying him to a wench from my court. A bit of gold and the Master of the Horse title later, the Mayor of Pitchery - my half-brother's spy master - was coming around to my ideas.

Just in time. The Duke of Moray rose up as I was betrothing my second son to a Norwegian princess. I raised my personal levies immediately, and outnumbered his army by about 50 men. I sent my men over and sat in Atholl, where he chose to attack me. I defeated his army and gave chase, slaughtering his troops as they tried to flee. My treacherous half-brother chose that moment to rebel, and I was forced to raise the levies of three vassals to combat him. Luckily, those vassals liked me a fair amount.

Three days later the Duke of Atholl died in an unfortunate accident, and his armies defaulted to my control. I dismissed my vassals' levies before they even had to fight, joined my personal armies, and lay siege to Moray's holdings.

That took some time, of course, and I began looking outwards. I betrothed my heir to a French Princess. I finished building a palisade and castle village in my own demesne. I started laying the ground work for reclaiming my rightful Kingdom, whole. The Duchy of the Isles will be mine once more.

Meanwhile, the Duke of Moray has yet to surrender, even though I occupy every one of his holdings and his armies are smashed. His lack of surrender irritates and confuses me. I also have to worry about the Earl of Tiver-someplace, who's county will go to English rule if he dies without an heir. I married him to a lusty wife, but the bastard is chaste. Fingers crossed.

I eagerly anticipate the surrender of the Duke of Moray. I think sitting more troops on his counties might help things along. When he surrenders, I hope to have sufficient cash to create the Duchy of Albany, and try to figure out how to make sure Atholl will go to my own heir, instead of my brother.

Said brother is a stormcloud on the horizon. For some reason, he seemed to have a problem with me killing my half-brother. Luckily, he's utterly landless - until he inherits Atholl should I die, that is. Then no doubt my son would have to deal with yet another Athollian rebellion.

If you declare war for someone else, the country will only become part of your kingdom if the person you declared war for is your vassal, and even then only if the title taken is at least one rank below your own.

 

I'm not sure if you know already, but you have to occupy each holding separately in a county. So keep the siege going until you see that everything is occupied (no dotted lines).