As I've mentioned a few times, I honestly think that elective succession is the best, but that said you have to set up your kingdom/empire the right way or it won't work. The main reason why I love it so much is that it means that whenever I get a really awesome son/grandson, instead of having to murder through all the others to let him inherit, I can just vote for him, meaning I don't then lose all of those less awesome, but still useful, sons.

Although there is the risk that somebody else could get voted in by your vassals, there's a very simple way to stop that, don't let anybody else vote. Basically, all vassal that are a duke or higher get a vote, so if you don't have any vassal dukes or kings, you have the only vote. This only real downside is an increase in micromanagement, but it also means that since all ot you vassals are counts or lower, it's very difficult for them to get enough soldiers to ever rebel against you. It also means you never get the "desires the duchy/kingdom/county of whatever" which is also nice.

tl; dr Elective Succession is awesome.

 

Managing Duke and King vassals is easy: hold feasts, give them honorary titles, have them be on your council, let them raise your extra children/grandchildren, and, when they have that "desires duchy/couty/kingdom" modifier, GIVE IT TO THEM (as long as it doesn't make them independant, of course).

Having a high Diplo score helps a lot.

 

Even with all that and no matter how much you try, there's always going to be an odd rebellion here or there. You can't avoid that. But, imo, that adds to the flavor of the game. It makes it that much more interesting. Just so that you don't end up curb stomping others which tends to be the case later on in the game.

 

Well sure it's easy to manage them, but here's the thing right. Ever since I've started not have dukes or higher as vassals, I've never had a civil war that I didn't cause. Since all of my vassals have at most a 500 soldier levy, there's simply no way for them to get enough power to fight against me, plus I don't have to worry about vassals trying to grow larger from fighting each other which is nice.

 

Kinda takes away from the challenge there, I think. I don't play these games to have a smooth run every time.

 

You can only bribe once for each character, and the bonus is determined by Diplomacy, so if you're managing opinion or plotting by money, you need high Diplo rather than Stewardship anyway.

 

Been waiting on getting this for a while after I was reading through this thread in my final year at Uni and caved in the recent 75% off sale - Also grabbed the Old Gods DLC because popular opinion seemed to be it was the best; and an extra 150~ years game-time doesn't seem that bad.

So I started off in Munster, Ireland as everyone recommends and in a short summation of my first 12 years, assuming I'm correct in my theorising;

- Currently own 5 territories, so just over halfway to becoming King of Ireland
- Somehow got myself tied in with the Papalcy and have the Pope as my Liege; He's 82 so hopefully he'll die off soon, though I'm not sure if this is good/bad for me.
- Nearly murdered my way into becoming King of England, sadly the Queen-Mother didn't put out before she died and the lone female heir is now a 7 year old Queen; should be problematic for them.
- I myself might have a problem when my son dies, as he has 2 sisters, plus 2 daughters of his own... Or he would if his wife wasn't also my lover and I the unknown father of his eldest daughter. Either way, I fear for my family succession in the future once I die.
- Just before I call quits on my first 4 hours, the Pope made me his Marshall; Aged 52 I don't see this working out well for me, though bar a Tournament in which I embarrassed myself and raising minimal city taxes he's asked little of me.

I believe that sums it all up thus far, beyond that I think I'm ok... I mean, one of my half-brothers is imprisoned after a civil war, the other married and content, I have maybe half a dozen nephews running around with two married off to foreign powers, albeit very minor courts in Spain and I think Brittany so, It'll be interesting to see what comes of that.

I suppose advice would be handy, though I'm just assuming at this point that I haven't completely ballsed up, though the Papalcy thing has me worried.

 

I got tied to the Papacy like that in an early game I played as well. It won't end when the current Pope dies, every Pope is your liege until you gain independence. It isn't too bad a thing, unless you're really desperate to be your own liege. Just bide your time, build up your power and declare your independence when the Pope is weak.

Women can inherit, so you don't need to worry about your son only having daughters. The only real issue with having a female heir is the negative modifier to your vassals opinions, which can get quite annoying.

In my most recent game, starting as the King of Scotland, within 3 generations I lucked (and assassinated) my way into inheriting 6 Duchies in Europe. I'm also due to inherit the Duchy of Lancaster from my mother, and I'm married to the Duchess of Northumberland so my son will inherit it. I've also conquered the bits of Scotland you don't start with, and half of Ireland.

So all in all, the outing is moving a damn sight faster than I was expecting it to.

 

You won't be able to create a title if it is equivalent to the level of your Lord. So you can inherit the kingdom of England, but not create the kingdom of Ireland.
Time to go to war with the pope.

 

So yeah, my current game has been pretty hilarious in that every single one of my characters has barely fallen short of their grand ambition. First character died when I only needed one more county to form the Empire of Britannia (which for some reason is now called Alba...). Second character formed Britannia almost straight away, but decades later died right before being able to form Scandinavia. Third character made that Empire, but then died only a few years before being able to form Francia. Fourth character formed that Empire, but if anything did the worst since he was only able to get ~60% of Hispania and a chunk of Africa/Mali and all of Mauretania. Which means that a decade into my fifth character I still haven't gotten a new empire ;-;, although I am getting closer and closer to forming the HRE since I've been slowly grabbing counties during characters 2-5.

 

So yeah, my current game has been pretty ...fucked up. I fucked it up. Lost. :V

Those grand ambitions man.

 

Bump in light of the ASOIAF Mod Update (Essos has been fully added, with functional Republican City-States and Daenerys's Clash of Kings scenario), Sons of Abraham Expansion (Judaism has been added, and religion has been revamped), and upcoming Rajas of India Expansion (Map will be expanded 50% to add over 300 provinces in India).

Surely one of the Indians on DLP will want to play the new Expansion pack?

 

One or two of us non-Indians might give it a go, too.

 

Me and Raps are definitely looking forward to Indian expansion.

 

Has anybody managed to start off as a lowly count in the Byzantine Empire and end as the Emperor of a successfully reunited the Roman Empire, mending the Schism? That feature is one of the highlights of the Legacy of Rome Expansion, and I'd love to follow the journey of a DLPer's path to recreating the triumphs of Rome.

 

I've recently lost an ironman game. It was rather expected - and a complete surprise.

To top it off, it was probably the worst played game of Crusader Kings 2 that I've ever played, and I think it wasn't ever as exciting.

I've started as a nobody count in pomerania, in the age of the old gods. Quickly as I've changed my faith to Romuva from Slavic, I've established first a Duchy of Pomerania, then one of Saxony, and finally the whole Kingdom of Pomerania.

I've constantly been under siege of slavs, germany was trying to grab a bite with a crusade every five years and some norsemen were rather interested in invading by sea. Add to that a shaky small dynasty, and a desire to hold the foreign faith next to the expanding christianity.

I think there were at least seven times when the holy wars of the christian world proved too strong, and a ruler changed his faith to christianity only to secretly teach his oldest son about the true faith - a desire to keep all pagan dukes also made for an interesting game, where everyone wanted more power from the ruler of a "wrong faith" and whenever I'd change religions, the power struggle would be innevitable.

At the height of things, my ruler had the whole of Pomerania, Poland and Volga-Bulgaria - and the dynasty had grown to have kindred in Germany, Hungary, Bohemia and assorted duchies all over the eastern Europe.

My last (christian because of his father's conversion and too stubborn to lear from his romuva teacher) King had lost it all - too many wars and vultures, giving rulership to his younger romuva brother.

However, it was looking good once more since he was married to the queen of Bohemia, and had a very promising son that was betrother to high-in-the-line pretenders to the kingdom of Germany (no holy empire on this game, but Germany was a powerhouse still) but then, someone put a knife into his back.

Given a young child to play, I took a stronger hold on the remaining duchy while my king uncle was trying to broaden the Pomeranian reach into the east - as my older sister became the queen of Germany.

Sadly, my heir was the Queen of Bohemia - and not any of the two older sisters - before I had passed my ten year term and could fix the situation - or sire a son, I died of illness, and the game was over.

Nevermind my aunt, ruling the Poland, Pomerania and Volga-Bulgaria, nevermind my sister, sitting by her matrilineary married king of germany, and nevermind the fact that in the end, both Pomerania and Germany would have been in the hands of kindred of the right faith.


Looking back, I played terribly. I made rookie mistakes, I let the wish for Romuva faith to survive undermine my power-base, and I had more succession crisises than I can count. I've entered wars that took ages to wage, and lost some of the most important battles by bad tactics and poor maneuvering. I've lost Saxony to the Germany and never took it back - and even if the Pomerania was always under control of my kin, there were a few times where I had been reduced to a single duke - and once, I had been robbed of all but a single county, and the title of King - while I had neither lands nor vassals to that name.

I didn't try for the Dukeless elective game, nor did I try to break the system in the usual ways that make the game too easy, but it was worth it.

All of these times, I still climbed back on top and survived until 1300s - even if my last ruler wasn't romuva as I'd wished him to be. And while the game has ended, I know that my family continues.


In conclusion, losing in crusader kings is akin to a whole new story, and half of the adventure was seeing just how worse could it get.

So, if you're a veteran, start a new game, choose the ironman mode and make mistakes that take years to fix. It will be glorious.

 

I'm going to start a Restoration of Rome challenge. The aim is to start as a lowly count in Greece, become the Byzantine Emperor, and eventually restore the Roman Empire by mending the Great Schism. It's not an easy task to begin with, and I'll be doing it on High Difficulty. But I shall try.

Screencaps will be provided so that you may all laugh at my pathetic antics. Heirs may or may not be named after prominent DLPers.

 

Heh, I really hate the Byzantine. Or rather, I hate all Empires in CK2. They just blob (vassal nerf or not) start civil wars amongst themselves every few years and are a headache to whittle down. Good for playing the political game though.


I'm playing an Abyssinia game right now and I'm up to the 1200s and I've just recently collapsed the Byzantine Empire in what has been a very strange game. Zorastrian come back, Nestorian Kurdish Mesopatamia (though I did help make that happen), the Illkhanate and the Golden Horde just killing each other straight up, Miaphysite Scotland and England (thanks to yours truly) etc...

To put it bluntly, I spent six or seven generatiosn of my lesser heirs marrying into the Byzantine Empire, where it came to the point that my character and his son were married to two sisters of the Byzantine Emperor (who himself was a cousin of the first character) and the man himself was married to my daughter and his heir was my half-brother. Intervened way too damn much to save their asses while I was waiting for Arabia and Syria to get assimiliated and the Seljuks were getting a Mongol beatdown, and it ultimately came down to the point that I killed my brother-in-law and niece twice over when my sister died, leaving it to my wife. Killed her too, and my son inherited the Byzantine Empire. Committed suicide by rebels and made it to the son, who then formed the Abyssinian Empire just as all of Syria and Arabia had been assimiliated, and then proceeded to destroy the Byzantine Empire.

As it's sons and daughters cried out in shock and anger, he quickly handed out half a dozen royal titles (Armenia, Anatolia/Troy, Greece, Serbia, Croatia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Taurica) to various royal families (mostly Greek, one being headed by the previously mentioned half-brother) and gave them all independence, including the Varangian Guard (for some reason they were serving me properly, no troops to raise).

Cue un-freeze and the former empire just goes to shit as everyone tries stabbing the everlasting fuck out of everyone while I just laugh on maniacally.

I think I'll take a look at expanding into Cyprus and Crete (formation of kingdom of Cyprus perhaps) before the game ends. maybe smash Pisa out of Italy and set someone up then look at repeating the trick with the Holy Roman Empire and try to prop up Nestorian Mesopatamia/Kurdistan as much as possible until I get into EUIV.

 

Tehan mentioned the idea last year, but we should also do a DLP Succession game. We have enough members. All DLCs enabled, starting off as a Count in Newbie Island (a.k.a. Ireland). Each DLPer plays one leader, and the aim will be to form Britannica & have the largest domain size in the game within five generations or less.

We certainly have enough DLPers to do this series. Is anybody interested? Aekiel? Mishie? We can email the save-file when we have a new leader.

 

Thing is though, it's not exactly difficult to form Britannia in 1-2 generations if you know what you're doing