Paradox Games

Oh for fuck's sake, another timeline extension? The game engine in it's current form can't handle migrations, we have plenty of under developed regions and room to develop (actually make it worth playing a vassal) and plenty of glitches leftover from Raja's. Hopefully this comes with content for the rest of the timeline.

I don't know how they can go so far back, we don't know who was ruling a good 40% map at that time.

At least it isn't another map extension...

If the title's indicative, I'd guess an earlier start date so we can play from the very beginning of Feudalism.

edited 25th Jul '14 6:55:01 PM by Journeyman

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?791717-CK2-Dark-Ages-Steam-Key-!-!/page2

Apparently this might be a translation issue, it might not be the dark ages after all.

Too bad. I'd love to see how they revamped the Hellenic religion.

What? MORE time for me to conquer Europe in?

I've yet to pull off a total conquest but that's mainly because I derailed my closest attempt to setting up EU 4 to be interesting. Helped build a large Russian empire to compliment the restored Rome.

Speaking of world conquest, what's the best nation for it if not going for the ultimate challenge (Ryukyu, etc.)? The obvious answer is the Big Blue Blob, but I could see how a country that starts in the HRE, is better positioned to colonize/block colonization of the Americas, or has faster access to Asia might be preferred.

edited 25th Jul '14 10:34:12 PM by montagohalcyon

Countries with coring cost/time reductions like Timmy, Ottomans, and Italy are popular choices, as is anyone who can dominate the HRE, as it can be used to (relatively) easily gain control of Europe.

Timmy?

Tam-tam's dynasty, thus lending its name to the country too.

edited 26th Jul '14 5:52:30 AM by entropy13

The timurds I'd assume.

Romes actually slightly worse at coring than Italy is.

Total conquest in CK 2 is probably easiest as a Zoroastrian or a reformed Pagan (ideally the Norse cause you can use/target Great Holy Wars to your liking); as you can declare Holy War on almost the entire map.

A Catholic heresy is fine, too. You don't get easy crusades or GH Ws like Reformed Norse, but everyone on the map who isn't some variety of Eastern Christian is fair game, and Byzantium is better taken by getting a claim anyway.

I don't think Catholic heresies can Holy War other heresies, unless they become dominant.

Is it just me, or do Reformed Pagan vassals act more aggressively? Because when I did world conquest with Britannia, I seemed to be the only one attacking, but with Scandinavia, everyone's falling over themselves to kill and pillage.

"Unless" is the wrong word. Try "until." My Cathars have rather thoroughly broken Papal power, and Catharism triumphed about a generation ago. And other Catholic heresies are usually minor enough that they can be ignored or absorbed through other means until you reach the triumphant stage, at which point they're all fair game for absorption into the True Faith.

Norse, in general, are aggressive sorts.

I just lost a second diplogod king to a slow fever that killed him before the notification that he was sick popped up. He was only 18 too. I'm starting to think that I have done something to offend the Random Number God.

edited 29th Jul '14 8:44:30 PM by lrrose

Woop woop, on a new CK 2 game as my favorite start: Zoroastrian replacement for Rurik. So far, I've formed the kingdom and smacked a good bit of the pagan scum around me. At this point, I'm big enough to keep Karen and the Justanids alive despite the best efforts of the various angry Sunnis surrounding the two of them.

Does anyone know a way to force vassals to follow the same gender law as their liege when you make them? Everyone going agnatic-cognatic is really annoying when I want to establish enatic for the whole realm. I'd settle for just getting them all to do enatic-cognatic, though.

I'll probably buy CKII when it next goes on sale; I hope the succession laws are explained clearly in-game because I've never heard any of the words I see in these discussions. Closest is gavelkind, which probably has nothing to do with a judge's gavel...

I can now form Italy as Milan but can't decide if I want to. Assuming the wiki's information is still up-to-date, several national ideas are the same but with better stats, several others aren't comparable, but I'm wondering if -5% tech cost, -10% idea cost, +1 diplo relations (Milan) vs. -25% core cost (Italy) will save more in the long run.

It would certainly be hilarious to gain -85% core cost on claimed provinces though (claim, administrative ideas, Italian ideas, holy roman emperor).

One of the nice things about the second game is that just about everything has a nice helpful tooltip that pops up to help you explain what things are and how they affect you. The Succession page on the CK2 wiki has a nice breakdown of how the succession laws work, which might prove helpful.

The game does a good job of explaining the laws, but I will give some explanation here.

Succession laws consist of a gender law and a succession law, determining who is eligible to inherit and in what order that inheritance is, respectively.

There are five gender laws and they determine who is eligible to inherit.

• Agnatic: Only men may inherit. Absolutely, positively no women allowed. Mandatory for Muslims, Tengrists, and republics unless you mod the game.
• Agnatic-Cognatic: Male preference. Women cannot inherit if there is an eligible male heir. Default for most titles.
• Absolute Cognatic: Gender equal succession. Men and women are exactly equal under succession with this. Only available to the Basque culture, the Cathar heresy (heresy of Catholicism), and the Messalian heresy (heresy of Nestoriansim), but will be maintained after conversion unless you become Muslim or Tengrist.
• Enatic-Cognatic: Female preference. Men cannot inherit if there is an eligible female heir. Only available through modding.
• Enatic: Female only inheritance. Much like women cannot inherit an agnatic title, men cannot inherit an enatic title. Only available through modding.

Note that agnatic and enatic may sometimes be referred to as "strict agnatic" and "strict enatic".

Additionally, there are eight playable succession laws (and a few others for unplayable titles) that determine which eligible person is the heir.

• Gavelkind: Titles are divided evenly among eligible children of the ruler, with any that can't be evenly divided favoring older offspring. With three exceptions, unreformed pagans are locked into this, and this is the default for most titles. Gives a bonus to demesne size and removes penalties for unlanded sons.
  • Only one gender of child will get the lands unless you are using absolute cognatic, in which case, prepare for fun.
• Primogeniture: Oldest eligible offspring of the ruler gets everything. Children of the firstborn inherit before the second born child of the ruler. Requires at least high crown authority to instate.
• Ultimogeniture: Youngest child of the ruler gets everything. Requires at least low crown authority to instate. Mongols may use this even if unreformed pagan.
• Seniority: Oldest dynast gets everything. Requires at least medium crown authority to instate.
• Feudal Elective: All vassals one tier below (two tiers below for emperors) the ruler vote for the heir. Vassals usually go along with the current ruler's choice unless the current ruler is hated. In the event of a tie in which the current ruler is backing one party in the tie, the current ruler's choice wins.
  • Under feudal elective, there is no meaningful difference between agnatic-cognatic, absolute cognatic, and enatic-cognatic. All three are functionally gender equal under feudal elective.
• Tanistry: ALL title holders in the realm vote for the heir exclusively from dynasts of the current liege. Election is much less controllable than under feudal elective, however. Requires a culture in the Celtic group and will be lost if the liege's culture becomes non-Celtic. Requires at least low crown authority to instate. Pagans may use this, even if unreformed. In the event of a tie in which the current ruler is backing one party in the tie, the current ruler's choice wins.
• Open Succession: Also called Turkish Succession. Used by all non-republican Muslims. The child with the best/most titles gets everything.
  • Do not confuse with Open Elective, which is used for most minor, non-feudal titles and simply randomly generates a new ruler every time.
• Patrician Elective: All (merchant (coastal)) republics use this regardless of religion. There are five patrician families who each determine succession via agnatic seniority and vie for the top title, the Doge/Grand Mayor, largely via the size of their campaign fund.

Additional rules:

• The Byzantine Empire has a mechanic for being Born in the Purple, in which children Born in the Purple will inherit before older children who were not unless the older child is then given the Despot honorary title.
• Buddhists and Jains may designate an heir from among their children, functionally overriding their current succession law

Wow, thanks!

One more thing: you can only grant feudal titles to your preferred gender. If your succession law is Agnatic-Cognatic, you can't land women. So Absolute Cognatic Elective has a slight advantage over Agnatic-Cognatic Elective in that (landing women has a few peculiar uses).

One last addendum to Balmung's explanation: Patrician houses in Merchant Republics can also designate their own heirs via honorary title within the family, but the candidates for Doge of the Republic as a whole are always the Doge's heir plus the patricians of the four other families.

EU 4 time: I'm on a new Korea campaign and decided to have some fun rigging Europe to be really weird. English France, Scottish (soon to be) Great Britain), Navarrese (soon to be) Spain, and Horde (I'm thinking Golden Horde) into Russia ought to make some weird things happen

How are you setting that up?

Great Britain has obtained personal unions over Portugal (inherited, very early too), Poland, and Lithuania in my Italian game. That's about it for naturally-occurring European weirdness.