History YMMV / CrusaderKings

*** The sparse content for Sub-Saharan Africa in general can be a sore point. It doesn't help that you actually have to buy dlc to have black people in Africa at all, and that the African Portraits pack is painfully generic, dressing people in plumes, leopard skins, and facepaint regardless of culture. This is in contrast to numerous portrait packs for Europe. There are fanmods that address this issue.

** The tribal transition to feudalism or republicanism is a real thorn in the side of pagan players. Reforming a tribe into a more advanced form of government is expensive and time-consuming at the best of times, but pagans can't reform their government without first reforming their faith. The AI almost never does this on its own, with the occasional exception of Tengriism and Germanic paganism. This means that pagan players have to conquer essentially an empire-sized realm first, since it's impossible to reform pagan religions without controlling at least three holy sites. Pagans by design have great difficulty holding a large realm together, and given that the realm is militarily gutted immediately after the transition, it leaves the fledgling kingdom defenseless before surrounding states [[ThisIsGonnaSuckwho would ''really'' like to get back at you for a few decades of continual raiding]] -- which, incidentally, is the ''only'' way tribal states can support their economy.

** The Abbasids in ''Charlemagne''s 792 and 867 starts. Paradox attempting to fix Decadence for ''Charlemagne'' introduced a bugged system that essentially '''[[GoneHorriblyRight gives all Muslim dynasties immunity to Decadence, leading to the infamous 'Abbasid blob', locking down the entire Middle East and conquering Russia and Byzantium in rapid order.]]''' Unlike its historical counterparts, the Abbasids will laugh off the Seljuks and even halt the Mongols' advance into Europe.

** The Abbasids in ''Charlemagne'''s 792 and 867 starts. Paradox attempting to fix Decadence for ''Charlemagne'' introduced a bugged system that essentially '''[[GoneHorriblyRight gives all Muslim dynasties immunity to Decadence, leading to the infamous 'Abbasid blob', locking down the entire Middle East and conquering Russia and Byzantium in rapid order.]]''' Unlike its historical counterparts, the Abbasids will laugh off the Seljuks and even halt the Mongols' advance into Europe.

** The Abbasids in ''Charlemagne'''s 792 and 867 starts. Paradox attempting to fix Decadence for ''Charlemagne'' introduced a bugged system that essentially [[GoneHorriblyRight gives all Muslim dynasties immunity to Decadence, leading to the infamous 'Abbasid blob', locking down '''the entire Middle East and conquering Russia and Byzantium in rapid order.'']] Unlike its historical namesake, they would usually laugh off the Seljuks and could even lock down the Mongols.

** The Decadence system, which, while not necessarily a bad idea, means that in practise, [[GuiltByAssociation Muslim players can see their entire dynasty collapse because they have one drunken second cousin, whose existence somehow brings enough shame on their house to trigger an invasion by fundamentalist desert tribesmen]].

* 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.

** The Abbasid dynasty in ''Charlemagne'''s 792 and 867 starts. Paradox attempting to fix Decadence for ''Charlemagne'' introduced a new (bugged) system that essentially gave all muslim dynasties immunity to Decadence, leading to the infamous 'Abbasid blob' that locked down the entire middle east and usually conquered Russia and Byzantium in rapid order. Unlike its historical namesake, they would usually laugh off the Seljuks and could even lock down the Mongols.

** Adventurers, introduced in the Old Gods DLC, randomly lets characters gather a host to assault a realm they have a claim on, or which follows a heathen religion. Adventurers automatically scale with the realm they assault no matter how little sense that would make, making it perfectly possible for a pre-christianised Finland to produce a 50,000 man army out of nowhere to attack your Frankish Empire or for one of your courtiers to go adventurer and form a 20,000 man expedition to take your kingdom... From inside your own capital. Worse yet is that adventurers are treated as non-rebellious and saddle you with tyranny, dishonourable or kinslayer penalties for dealing with them (clearly, arresting your son-in-law for [[TooDumbToLive openly declaring the overthrow of your realm from inside your own court]] is the mark of a tyrant) and leave you at the mercy of the RNG.
** The tribal transition to feudalism or republicanism is a real thorn in the side of pagan players. Reforming a tribe into a more advanced form of government is expensive and time-consuming at the best of times, but pagans can't reform their government without first reforming their faith. The AI almost never does this on its own, with the occasional exception of Tengriism and Germanic paganism. This means that pagan players have to conquer essentially an empire-sized realm first, since it's impossible to reform pagan religions without controlling at least three holy sites. Pagans by design have great difficulty holding a large realm together, and given that the realm is militarily gutted immediately after the transition, it leaves the fledgling kingdom defenseless before surrounding states who would ''really'' like to get back at you for a few decades of continual raiding-- which, incidentally, is the ''only'' way tribal states can support their economy.

**** Only true for Sultans and Emperors. Remember it's about Prestige, not Piety. Having the multiple wives is about power and flaunting it, not showing how pious of a Muslim you are. Additionally, Muslims get some incredibly powerful mechanics, like the ability to use the Invasion casus belli on any non-your-sect-of-Islam kingdom.

* 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.]]

** The tribal transition to feudalism or republicanism is a real thorn in the side of pagan players. Reforming a tribe into a more advanced form of government is expensive and time-consuming at the best of times, but pagans can't reform their government without first reforming their faith. The AI almost never does this on its own, with the occasional exception of Tengriism and Germanic paganism. This means that pagan players have to conquer essentially an empire-sized realm first, since it's impossible to reform pagan religions without controlling at least three holy sites. Pagans by design have great difficulty holding a large realm together, and given that the realm is militarily gutted immediately after the transition, it leaves the fledgling kingdom defenseless before surrounding states who would ''really'' like to get back at you for a few decades of continual raiding.

** The Abbasid dynasty in the early days of the ''Charlemagne'' expansion's 792 and 867 starts. Paradox attempting to fix Decadence introduced a new (bugged) system that essentially gave all muslim dynasties immunity to Decadence, leading to the infamous 'Abbasid blob' that locked down the entire middle east and usually conquered Russia and Byzantium in rapid order. Unlike its historical namesake, they would usually laugh off the Seljuks and could even lock down the Mongols.

** Adventurers, introduced in the Old Gods DLC, randomly lets characters gather adventurers and mercenaries to assault a realm they have a claim on, or which follows a heathen religion. Adventurers automatically scale with the realm they assault no matter how little sense that would make, making it perfectly possible for a pre-christianised Finland to produce a 50,000 man army out of nowhere to attack your Frankish Empire or for one of your courtier adventurer to form a 20,000 man expedition to take your kingdom... From inside your own capital. Worse yet is that adventurers are treated as non-rebellious and saddle you with tyranny, dishonourable or kinslayer penalties for dealing with them (clearly, arresting your son-in-law for [[TooDumbToLive openly planning the overthrow of your realm from inside your own court]] is the mark of a tyrant) and leave you at the mercy of the RNG.

** Adventurers, introduced in the Old Gods DLC, randomly lets characters gather adventurers and mercenaries to assault a foreign realm they have a claim on, or which follows a heathen religion. Adventurers automatically scale with the realm they assault no matter how little sense that would make, making it perfectly possible for a pre-christianised Finland to produce a 50,000 man army out of nowhere to attack your Frankish Empire. Worse yet is that there really is only one way to rid yourself of adventurers, namely murder, which basically forces you to never let relatives marry out of your realm since [[MortonsFork they saddle you with Kinslayer if you do manage to get rid of them]].

** The game also automates guardianship contracts for female Muslim characters, operating, apparently, under the assumption that [[GameFavoredGender anybody who plays as a Muslim won't care who mentors their daughter.]] Not only can this destroy one's immersion in the game (it's hard to stay in character, when the game decides your worst enemy would make a dandy mentor for your daughter and assigns her accordingly), but it can actually become a serious problem [[ArtificialStupidity when the computer decides that it would like to reassign her to a new mentor, and, in the process, earns you a massive -30 "Lost a Ward" penalty with the old one]]. Worse yet, the game can then decide that this pattern worked out so well statistically, that it is going to repeat it ''exactly'', earning you ever increasing negative penalties with her previous mentors.
** Finally, it only gives Muslim players access to one kind of succession, which aside from being historically inaccurate (not all Muslims are the UsefulNotes/OttomanEmpire), pretty much ensures a civil war after your heir takes the throne.

** Amongst pagans, the new tribal mechanics have a special place of contempt. In short, a player can go from the scourge of Europe to a tottering non-entity with the press of a button. Adopting feudalism has long term advantages, but given how much time, money, and micromanaging is required to prepare for it (especially for a pagan), and how the immediate disadvantages can destroy your realm anyway, some players are actually saying adopting feudalism is actually ''dis''incentivized.

** ''Charlemagne'' continues the base breaking tradition. Several features in the DLC itself didn't work as planned, while the patch containing free content introduced new bugs. In addition, the fanbase is divided over the inclusion of "Zunist" pagans. It's either a fun exploration of a fascinating pre-Islamic faith in Afghanistan, or overly obscure add-on that no-one asked for, ignoring fan interest in adding content to existing religions and heresies such as Hellenism or Yazidism.

** ''Charlemagne'' continues the base breaking tradition. Several features in the DLC itself didn't work as planned, while the patch containing free content introduced new bugs. In addition, the fanbase is divided over the inclusion of "Zunist" pagans. It's either a fascinating nod to pre-Islamic faiths in Afghanistan, or a gratuitous, overly obscure add-on that no-one asked for, ignoring fan interest in adding content to existing religions and heresies such as Hellenism or Yazidism.

*** As of Old Gods, this is no longer the case. Each of the different faiths (Norse, Romuva, Suomenusko, West African, and Tengri) under "Pagan" are given different mechanics and only the Norse and Aztecs (which historically did perform some human sacrifice) offer human sacrifices. The real UnfortunateImplications is the fact that West African pagans have no flavor text or events whatsoever while [[CreatorProvinicalism the Norse]] get absolute boatloads. For a long time the West Africans had ''no advantages at all''.

** ''Charlemagne'' continues the base breaking tradition. Several features in the DLC itself didn't work as planned, while the patch containing free content introduced new bugs.

*** As of Old Gods, this is no longer the case. Each of the different faiths (Norse, Romuva, Suomenusko, West African, and Tengri) under "Pagan" are given different mechanics and only the Norse and Aztecs (which historically did perform some human sacrifice) offer human sacrifices. The real UnfortunateImplications is the fact that West African pagans have no flavor text or events whatsoever while the Norse get absolute boatloads. For a long time the West Africans had ''no advantages at all''.

* 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 Aztecs 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.
* AntiSue: It is possible to create one of these with the character create, and to use console commands to shift the plot in their favor.

*** [[DoubleStandard Islamic characters suffer from encroaching Decadence, whereas Christian characters do not]] (despite almost stereotypically corrupt societies like the Byzantium Empire being playable). Christian characters have the option (however difficult it is to pull off) of altering the law to let women inherit (i.e. Agnatic-Cognatic Inheritance). [[HeirClubForMen Islamic characters do not and are fixed solely to Agnatic Open Inheritance,]] [[RealityIsUnrealistic even though there have been historically female Islamic ''Sultanas'']], and even a female ''Calipha'' ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitt_al-Mulk Calipha Sitt al-Mulk, from the Fatimid Caliphate]]).
**** There are in fact female Muslim rulers like Raziyya Ghulam in the game and it's possible (but very unlikely) for a Muslim woman to become a ruler. Female rulers historically were very rare. [[DeliberateValuesDissonance Moreover, it could be said that the game says Muslims are more moral than Christians because they actually care that their ruler are corrupt, as opposed to Christians who don't seem to mind. Additionally, Muslims are actually bothered by warring against your sect, unlike the Christians who will fight each other continually with no loss to Piety.]]

**** There are in fact female Muslim rulers like Raziyya Ghulam in the game and it's possible (but very unlikely) for a Muslim woman to become a ruler. Female rulers historically were very rare. [[DeliberateMoralDissonance Moreover, it could be said that the game says Muslims are more moral than Christians because they actually care that their ruler are corrupt, as opposed to Christians who don't seem to mind. Additionally, Muslims are actually bothered by warring against your sect, unlike the Christians who will fight each other continually with no loss to Piety.]]

**** There are in fact female Muslim rulers like Raziyya Ghulam in the game and it's possible (but very unlikely) for a Muslim woman to become a ruler. Female rulers historically were very rare. Moreover, it could be said that the game says Muslims are more moral than Christians because they actually care that their ruler are corrupt, as opposed to Christians who don't seem to mind. Additionally, Muslims are actually bothered by warring against your sect, unlike the Christians who will fight each other continually with no loss to Piety.
*** Islamic characters are also beholden to a style of succession modeled on that of the UsefulNotes/OttomanEmpire, despite that being one state, and not representive of Islam as a faith or culture.
**** While it's true that style of succession was limited to the Ottomans, it's a very powerful succession type that allows you to choose your heir (extremely important) and locks it to your dynasty.

** The fact that the game lumps all "pagan" characters together, treats their faiths in approximately the same manner, and makes them prone to offering human sacrifice, is also rather problematic.

** The game also automates guardianship contracts for female Muslim characters, operating, apparently, under the assumption that [[GameFavoredGender anybody who plays as a Muslim won't care who mentors their daughter.]] Not only can this destroy one's immersion in the game (it's hard to stay in character, when the game decides your worst enemy would make a dandy mentor for your daughter and assigns her accordingly), but it can actually become a serious problem [[ArtificialStupidity when the computer decides that it would like to reassign her to a new mentor, and, in the process, earns you a massive -30 "Lost a Ward" penalty with the old one]]. [[ItGotWorse Worse yet, the game can then decide that this pattern worked out so well statistically, that it is going to repeat it ''exactly'', earning you ever increasing negative penalties with her previous mentors.]]

* ScrappyMechanic: A number of mechanics for Muslim players were not thought out at all. The Decadence system, which, while not necessarily a bad idea, means that in practise, Muslim players can see their entire dynasty collapse because they have one drunken second cousin (whose existence somehow brings enough shame on their house to trigger an invasion by fundamentalist desert tribesmen). The game also automates guardianship contracts for female Muslim characters, operating, apparently, under the assumption that anybody who plays as a Muslim, won't care who mentors their daughter. Not only can this destroy one's immersion in the game (it's hard to stay in character, when the game decides your worst enemy would make a dandy mentor for your daughter and assigns her accordingly), but it can actually become a serious problem when, a few years into the mentorship, the computer decides that it would like to reassign her to a new mentor, and, in the process, earns you a massive -30 "Lost a Ward" penalty with the old one. Worse yet, the game can then decide that this pattern worked out so well statistically, that it is going to repeat it ''exactly'', earning you ever increasing negative penalties with the character who comes first in the chain of mentors. Finally, it only gives Muslim players access to one kind of succession, which aside from being historically inaccurate (not all Muslims are the Ottoman Empire), pretty much ensures a civil war after your heir takes the throne.

*** [[DoubleStandard Islamic characters suffer from encroaching Decadence, whereas Christian characters do not]] (despite almost stereotypically corrupt societies like the Byzantium Empire being playable). Christian characters have the option (however difficult it is to pull off) of altering the law to let women inherit. [[HeirClubForMen 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.

** 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, and the addition of a number of terrible mechanics (Decadence, automated guardianship contracts for female characters, Ottoman style succession) means the game ends up sending the message that being Christian is an advantage, and being Islamic, a handicap.