History YMMV / CrusaderKings

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: If by some miracle you completely wipe out the Aztec invasion in ''Sunset Invasion'', than you will get a message stating that one day the old world nations will follow the Aztec's back to the Americas and repay them with intrest. This implies that the decimation of the Aztec civilization in the age of discovery was a RoaringRampageofRevenge.

** Pretty much everything having to do with Islam. Islamic characters have to have four wives in order to stop their Prestige from falling, ignoring the fact that the Quran stipulates four wives as a ''maximum'', not a requirement. Islamic characters suffer from encroaching Decadence, Christian characters do not (despite almost stereotypically corrupt societies like Byzantium being playable). Christian characters have the option (however difficult it is to pull off) of altering the law to let women inherit. Islamic characters do not, even though there have been historically female Islamic Queens, and even three female Caliphs (Calipha Sitt al-Mulk from the Fatimid Caliphate, Zaynab an-Nafzawiyyah and Al-Khayzuran bint Atta). Islamic characters are also beholden to a style of succession modeled on that of the Ottoman Empire, despite that being one state, and not indicative of Islam as a faith or culture. Generally speaking the game plays to some of the worst medieval and Orientalist stereotypes about Islamic states.

** Pretty much everything having to do with Islam. Islamic characters have to have four wives in order to stop their Prestige from falling, ignoring the fact that the Quran stipulates four wives as a ''maximum'', not a requirement. Islamic characters suffer from encroaching Decadence, Christian characters do not (despite almost stereotypically corrupt societies like Byzantium being playable). Christian characters have the option (however difficult it is to pull off) of altering the law to let women inherit. Islamic characters do not. Islamic characters are also beholden to a style of succession modeled on that of the Ottoman Empire, despite that being one state, and not indicative of Islam as a faith or culture. Generally speaking the game plays to some of the worst medieval and Orientalist stereotypes about Islamic states.

** Pretty much everything having to do with Islam. Islamic characters have to have four wives in order to stop their Prestige from falling, ignoring the fact that the Quran stipulates four wives as a ''maximum'', not a requirement. Islamic characters suffer from encroaching Decadence, Christian characters do not (despite almost stereotypically corrupt societies like Byzantium being playable). Christian characters have the option (however difficult it is to pull off) of altering the law to let women inherit. Islamic characters do not. Generally speaking the game plays to some of the worst medieval and Orientalist stereotypes about Islamic states.

** The fact that the game lumps all "pagan characters together is also rather problematic.

* UnfortunateImplications: Islamic characters have to have four wives in order to stop their Prestige from falling, ignoring the fact that the Quran stipulates four wives as a ''maximum'', not a requirement. Islamic characters suffer from encroaching Decadence, Christian characters do not (despite almost stereotypically corrupt societies like Byzantium being playable). Christian characters have the option (however difficult it is to pull off) of altering the law to let women inherit. Islamic characters do not. Generally speaking the game plays to some of the worst medieval and Orientalist stereotypes about Islamic states.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: The original game, while it had its fans, was definitely a flawed game, with a TroubledProduction and quite a lot of bugs. Crusader Kings II, on the other hand, has received by far the smoothest launch of any Paradox game to date, and received almost universal acclaim from the fans. Expansions like Sword of Islam, Legacy of Rome and The Old Gods have only served to make it even better.

* EndingFatigue: It's entirely possible for a player who knows what they're doing to achieve their goals -- up to and including World Conquest -- well before the game ends.

** [[http://downloads.khinsider.com/game-soundtracks/album/crusader-kings-2/legacy-of-rome.mp3 Legacy of Rome]]. Not sure what the lyrics are, but it sounds pretty badass.

* DemonicSpiders: [[ZergRush The Mongol Hordes.]] [[TheHorde Yeah]], ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. [[CurbStompBattle THEY WILL KILL YOU DEAD.]]
* FridgeBrilliance: Have you ever noticed how courtiers of a dynasty, when not influenced by the player, tend to 'not' marry after some two generations or so of sitting on their hands as courtiers, and subsequently ending that particular branch of the family? Well, what if it's the way of the game representing that that particular branch pretty much became plebeians, and thus the records have been lost to history due to unimportance?
** This goes hand in hand with the mechanic of inviting (read: creating new) nobles to your court. They didn't just form out of thin air. They were always around, but when invited they become a part of recorded history.
** They seems to be a divergence between a character's physical traits relating to their appearance (specifically the "Attractive" and "Ugly" traits), until you realise that you are looking at their ''portraits''. ''Portraits'' [[AdaptationalAttractiveness which can be embellished.]]
** This one is very sad, and very appropriate for the time period. Did you ever notice, out of all the marriages that are contracted throughout the time period, [[TearJerker how few wives and husbands love each other?]]
*** Of course, if your are lucky, your couple may well cultivate a romantic relationship between each other, leading to a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage. [[TruthInTelevision Just like in actual history.]]
* GoddamnedBats: ''The Old Gods'' adds raiders who will plunder your territory, then flee back onto their longboats before your army can get to them.
* GoodBadBugs: The demo for the sequel restricted play to only four characters. However, almost imminently players found out they could play whichever character they wanted by picking a character from the demo list, then quickly clicking on a province on the map before the game loads - and play as the ruler of said province.
** They also found out that the demo doesn't end twenty years later but specifically in 1086 and that if you set the start date at 0AD you could get 1086 years of playtime out of the demo. [[NoFairCheating However, this screws up the triggers]].
** A bug in the release version of Rajas of India allowed [[MisterSeahorse men to become pregnant from homosexual couplings]]. There was much laughter.
* HolyShitQuotient: If [[http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?736028-From-Holy-Kingdom-to-Unholy-nightmare-Why-this-is-the-best-DLC-yet&s=34329792796db8c9cfc52de3b11d796f "From Holy Kingdom to Unholy Nightmare"]] is any indication, ''Sons of Abraham'' does this for the second game. [[spoiler: Having your children and heirs to your realms be the ''spawn of Satan'' (complete with insanly high stats) will do that for anyone.]]
* KarmaHoudini: A successful (villainous) player character will often be this, [[DeliberateValuesDissonance especially from a modern perspective]]. [[WouldHurtAChild You can smother infants in their cribs to steal their titles]], [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil force female prisoners to be your concubines (if you are a pagan)]], [[FalseFriend murder trusting friends for power and land]], [[MaritalRapeLicense have children with a wife who hates you to the core]] [[TheUsurper because you killed her father for the throne]] and ''still'' die peacefully in your bed, wealthy, powerful and esteemed by your peers.
* MagnificentBastard: What the player is aiming to be. [[XanatosGambit Results]] [[XanatosSpeedChess may]] [[OutGambitted vary.]]
* TheScrappy: The Karling[[note]]Descendants of Charlemagne[[/note]] dynasty in ''The Old Gods'' 867 start, who start with the powerful and prosperous kingdoms of East and West Francia,[[note]]Later known as Germany and France, respectively[[/note]] Italy, and Lotharingia (among others) within their realm. Due to the way alliance and title mechanics work in the game, they often hold onto their thrones much longer than they historically did, and any attempt to unseat one of them (or half the wars they get involved in at all, really) ends up dragging literally half of Europe into the fray.
* SpiritualLicensee: A [[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/23/wot-i-think-crusader-kings-ii/#more-95722 Rock Paper Shotgun review]] of the second game calls it "the best ''Series/GameOfThrones'' game you will probably ever play."
** The first game had an Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire mod. Another [[VideoGame/CrusaderKingsIIGameOfThronesMod mod]] for the second game [[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05/28/a-mod-of-a-game-of-thrones-crusader-kings-ii/ has been released]].
* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: The original game, while it had its fans, was definitely a flawed game, with a TroubledProduction and quite a lot of bugs. Crusader Kings II, on the other hand, has received by far the smoothest launch of any Paradox game to date, and received almost universal acclaim from the fans. Expansions like Sword of Islam, Legacy of Rome and The Old Gods have only served to make it even better.

* EvenBetterSequel: The original game, while it had its fans, was definitely a flawed game, with a TroubledProduction and quite a lot of bugs. Crusader Kings II, on the other hand, has received by far the smoothest launch of any Paradox game to date, and received almost universal acclaim from the fans. Expansions like Sword of Islam, Legacy of Rome and The Old Gods have only served to make it even better.

** The first game had an Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire mod. Another [[VideoGame/CrusaderKingsIIGameOfThronesMod mod]] for the second game [[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05/28/a-mod-of-a-game-of-thrones-crusader-kings-ii/ has been released]].

* TheScrappy: The Karling[[note]]Descendants of Charlemagne[[/note]] dynasty in ''The Old Gods'' 867 start, who start with the powerful and prosperous kingdoms of East[[labelnote:note]]Later known as Germany[[/labelnote]] and West[[labelnote:note]]Later known as France[[/labelnote]] Francia, Italy, and Lotharingia (among others) within their realm. Due to the way alliance and title mechanics work in the game, they often hold onto their thrones much longer than they historically did, and any attempt to unseat one of them (or half the wars they get involved in at all, really) ends up dragging literally half of Europe into the fray.

* TheScrappy: The Karling[[note]]Descendants of Charlemagne[[/note]] dynasty in ''The Old Gods'' 867 start, who start with the powerful and prosperous kingdoms of East and West Francia, Italy, and Lotharingia (among others) within their realm. Due to the way alliance and title mechanics work in the game, they often hold onto their thrones much longer than they historically did, and any attempt to unseat one of them (or half the wars they get involved in at all, really) ends up dragging literally half of Europe into the fray.

** ''Rajas of India'' breaks the base even further. The patch containing free content disrupted multiplayer capabilities, while the expansion of the map to include India meant that lower end computers who could play the game previously now struggle to do so, and Paradox's attempt to compress portraits to free up memory resulted in bugged portraits. These problems still persist over two months after [=ROI's=] release.

** ''Rajas of India'' breaks the base even further. The patch containing free content disrupted multiplayer capabilities, while the expansion of the map to include India meant that lower end computers who could play the game previously now struggle to do so, and Paradox's attempt to compress portraits to free up memory resulted in bugged portraits.

* TheScrappy: The Karling[[note]]Descendants of Charlemagne[[/note]] dynasty in ''The Old Gods'' 867 start, who start with the powerful and prosperous kingdoms of East and West Francia, Italy, and Lotharingia (among others) within their realm. Due to the way alliance and title mechanics work in the game, they often hold onto their thrones much longer than they historically did, and any attempt to unseat them (or half the wars they get involved in at all, really) end up dragging literally half of Europe into the fray.

** ''[[SillinessSwitch Sunset Invasion]]'', a not-entirely-serious DLC focused on an AlternateHistory where the [[{{Mayincatec}} Aztecs]] invade of Europe. Some loathe the concept, some like the idea of western Europe having an equivalent of the [[DemonicSpiders Mongols]], others appreciate it as a potential countermeasure against the Moors, and some are content to buy the DLC and just turn deactivate it for certain campaigns.

* BrokenBase: Some parts of the fandom have not taken news of ''[[SillinessSwitch Sunset Invasion]]'', a not-entirely-serious DLC focused on an AlternateHistory [[{{Mayincatec}} Aztec]] invasion of Europe, all that well.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: The Zoroastrian religion. A unique religion of a fallen empire, with fire-worshipping priests and the ability to bring its priesthood BackFromTheBrink and become a prophesied Messiah? [[NeverLiveItDown No, as far as the fandom's concerned,]] [[{{Squick}} it's the religion]] [[ParentalIncest with]] [[VillainousIncest the]] [[BrotherSisterIncest incest.]]

** And with ''Rajas of India'', we have an entirely new continent, new cultures, new Indian events and a potential for the early establishment of Hindustan. What does the fandom care about? The new Messalian heresy, which has '''incest and the worship of Lucifer as a god figure'''.

** Because of its BackFromTheBrink nature, there are very few Zoroastrian nobles in the game. Nobles marrying courtiers get huge hits to Prestige, and the AI tries its best to avoid such marriages. In addition, the Zoroastrian AI prefers to set up marriages to relatives for the boost to vassal relations. The result: it's difficult to ignore the incest when your landed son constantly asks for betrothals to his eight-year-old sisters [[WifeHusbandry (who he may or may not be educating)]]. NO SON, WE'RE TRYING TO EXPAND THIS DYNASTY BECAUSE THERE ARE FIVE OF US. PISS OFF AND MARRY A COURTIER.

** Because of its BackFromTheBrink nature, there are very few Zoroastrian nobles in the game. Nobles marrying courtiers get huge hits to Prestige, and the AI tries its best to avoid such marriages. The result: it's difficult to ignore the incest when your landed son constantly asks for betrothals to his four-year-old sisters. NO SON, WE'RE TRYING TO EXPAND THIS DYNASTY BECAUSE THERE ARE FIVE OF US. PISS OFF AND MARRY A COURTIER.

** The current trend of DLC expansions has players divided on how Paradox is treating previously implemented content, and if favorites are being played. The Old Gods was one such example, as discussion of favoritism being given towards the Norse due to the far greater degree of content and lack of pre-patch balance, with other pagan religions showing a far thinner amount of content. Critics have also argued the lack of post-expansion attention to various mechanics, despite players demanding attention, [[SccrappyMechanic such as]] [[DeadlyDecadentCourt the Decadence system]] that was implemented with the Sword of Islam expansion.