Well that does sound like a bug. I've personally noticed that it says that it takes like half a year for my levies to return when I disband them. Considering that the AI expanding is currently so broken, that it calculates the fact that some vassals have land in Iberia etc, while my primary empire is in Germany.

 

Yeah I saw that message a couple of time. It should be clearer, but I'm pretty sure it means they're asking for you to release with nothing given in return; I got a couple of similar message but with ransom and it was clearly indicated.

That being said, I'm having a blast with CK3 so far. I'm a huge fan of the graphic upgrade: I personally think that the 3D model are great and lead to more immersion and will only improve as the game goes on. It makes most character recognizable at first glance, and easier to keep track of them. I've had great fun raising new vassal and then following their line from time to time.

The UI itself is indeed a bit too big, but there's an option to reduce the GUI, and I've brought it down to 80% with no problem. Love the war system so far, much clearer than it was in CK2, and the way tooltip works definitely help a lot in understanding what's going on for a new player.

In terms of systems, I love most of them. The system for religion is pretty sweet, although I haven't had the chance to run a reformation yet, the idea of doing so is enough to fuel a long term goal of mine. I'm also a big fan of the lifestyle one as well: I like that it might not be efficient to always go all the way down a tree (e.g. I switched to the Learning: Whole of Body at age 60-ish on one of my Queen, leading to another 18 years of reign!) or how some trees have synergy with others in different category. I'm not sure I'm a big fan of having to take every perks to reach the last one; I think they could require a certain number of perks in military or in that tree to unlock the last one, which would lead to different builds. I also like the technology bit from the Culture: it's way more clear than what it was in CK2 (from memories) and has a lot more impact on gameplay.

I've played two games so far. One being the tutorial, which I dropped after uniting Ireland, and another one as Viking(!) creating Norway. I've had a lot of fun with that one. So much, that my brother and I started a multiplayer game playing Ragnar's sons, one in England and one in Sweden, and trying to make the biggest scandinavian empire. I had an awesome Queen in that game, it was fun!

I know there was a succession game in the past; could be cool to do that again!

 

It is not a bug, It is a feature. If you disband your army during at War it needs take a long long while to reorganize or you could cheese the game with disband army, move the rally point and raise army in a better position. The time also depends on the distance to your capital if i am not mistaken, with a minimum time for 2-3 months.

 

So again, in my case it was clearly a bug. As I disbanded the army, reformed it one province away from my capital, and it proceeded to take 9 months (6-7~ months in which the army was back to full strength) and it did not move at all. Did not even start to move. And did not have the option to disband again.

I'm aware that it takes time to re-form after disbanding. That's not the issue, the issue was it re-formed, got to full strength and then proceeded to glitch in place and wouldn't take any orders.

 

This game doesn't stop me from anything, it's really dark. I am afraid to publicly write down the things I have done... Sadistic trait rewards me for it! The weird shit that happens is amazing, I just wish there were some more tools to follow what/why is happening around me to put some context to it. Like a long 'combat log' of actions, with different filters too like the map.

There are already so many UI menus and I still feel like there have to be atleast 20 more for all the infor I want. First time into Crusader Kings btw.

 

All I'll say on that front is that one of the intrigue paths includes a bunch of rewards for torturing prisoners, and some of the things you can unlock going down that path were clearly inspired by Ramsay Bolton on Game of Thrones. Heck, one of my kings even became known as "The Flayer."

And, of course, in the grand Crusader Kings tradition, incest is far too easy and there are far too many strategies built around it.

 

Played a solid few more hours last night. First ruler being a generally nice guy and turning into a legendary king while his almost perfect son with fantastic traits ended up going straight down the focus tree for seduction. I'm loving these trees and the stress function. Makes RP far more interesting.

 

Oh yeah, the focus trees are amusing as hell. Really enables you to also go for specific strategies with your ruler, though I feel like Stewardship (Avaricious, specifically) is a bit too efficient at generating money.

Nothing says good diplomacy like diplovassaling 15-20 odd counties (across a bunch of characters) with a Diplo focus though.

 

The abduction mechanic in one of the intrigue trees is flat-out broken. With a high intrigue character it's usually 95% to abduct anyone. Combined with the 100% war score for capturing the enemy leader and you can grab anything off of anyone. I've subjugated people with 3-4 times my army size with a bunch of allies by waiting until the scheme is almost done, declaring war, and capturing the enemy ruler before the troops are gathered.

 

@lopeck you can also use it to make dead religions revelant, you abduct a heathen King and demand him to convert to your shitty religion.

 

I've just been using that as an easy money maker. (And torturing a Pope...)

 

Reddit's AskHistorians is doing an AMA (AUA?) for anyone interested, focusing on CK2/3 and what they got right and wrong. Found HERE

Given how well sourced their general answers are, this is a fantastic option for anyone who has any queries on whether it was okay to marry your sister-daughters and become a witch.

 

Ck3 is free to play for a couple of days.
Anyone interested in a Royal Rumble?

 

We looking at playing sometime tomorrow if anyone else is interested?

 

Heads up - don’t play as a vassal if you’re going to be raiding, and try not to live too close to anywhere with a bunch of vassal that can raid. Stupid restrictions for playing the Northern Lords DLC I know but there’s a bug atm where vassal raiders are neutral to those they’re raiding, so there’s nothing defenders can do to stop all their family being kidnapped while their armies stand there and watch - pretty dark stuff honestly. I’m waiting for a hotfix to play personally.