Paradox Games

What does GSG stand for?

Grand Strategy Game.

Maybe we get to start colonizing the moon/Mars?

So who wants to start a betting pool on how long it'll take someone to develop a Legend of Galactic Heroes mod for it?

I don't know, but I am more curious to see how long it will take for someone to make a medieval mod for it. CK2 got a space mod, so nothing more fitting than a space Paradox CK2 to receive a ck2 mod.

After The End has just taught me what Tributary wars are for. Comancheria thought they could avoid paying me back on a loan, and thanks to tributaries, I can now MAKE them pay.

So a Tributary war is basically 'WHERE'S MY MONEY, MAN?!'

edited 1st Aug '15 7:15:13 AM by theLibrarian

Basically. I mean, it also paints your name across their clay and lets you call them into whatever wars you please, but the important part to me was that I got like half of their income until their deadbeat defaulting king kicked the bucket.

Getting back into the Game Of Thrones mod. Decided to play as the Starks in the "Crowned Stag" (i.e. post-Robert's Rebellion) scenario.

It's about, oh, twelve years after where the books started. Robb is Lord Paramount of the Riverlands after all the Tullys (save Catelyn) got wiped out by a Greyscale outbreak, and married to one of Robert's many, many bastards (I think he managed to "make the Eight" and get kids out of every one, and then some. Unfortunately all of his sons with Cersei were stillborn), because I thought that was a good idea. Might mean I have a shot at the Throne for Robb's daughter/future sons. I married Jon to one of Stannis' daughters, Sansa to one of the Karstarks, Arya to Loras Tyrell. Instead of Bran and Rickon, we have Lysa and Lyanna Stark. The latter was married to some Lannister who's currently ruling Castamere (probably not one of Tyrion's kids), and the former is part of the clusterfuck that happened in the Vale (long story short, Jon Arryn got usurped by some tyrant lady, Lysa Stark married her son Nestor, they had a kid, Lysa died of natural causes, Nestor died under unknown circumstances leaving Lysa's daughter as LP of the Vale, then she was murdered (at the age of two), and now an Arryn is back in the Eyrie.)

Somehow, despite having gonorrhea and unfortunate amounts of insanity, Robert's managed to outlive Balon Greyjoy, Tywin, Jon Arryn, and Mace Tyrell. Cersei got herself executed, and it's looking like Stannis is eventually going to inherit the throne.

And Eddard's doing just fine up in the North. All is calm, winter comes and goes, I occasionally help out with a peasant revolt, I went to war with the Vale once, and I did almost fail to repay a loan to the Iron Bank that I got for Jon's wedding.

But other than that, it's been peaceful.

I conquered two places today (well, conquered two, my vassal conquered one, I got another myself, and then got the third to peacefully bend the knee) in my Wessex game, also fought a civil war to keep from becoming an Elective Monarchy. My heir (a sickly little boy) died and thus a grown man took the throne. So far we haven't gotten any other rival claimants, most likely because there aren't any, so that's good. I'm thinking, when I get enough money, that I'll declare the Empire of Britannia and use that as a cause to conquer the remaining provinces before I move on to the Continent. I've also crowned myself King of Ireland so that's also a thing.

If I crown one of my sons as King of a place (and if so how would I do that) are they still my vassals?

edited 4th Aug '15 11:35:44 AM by theLibrarian

Depends. Are you an emperor? If yes, they'll be your vassal. If no, they will get instant independence because you cannot have a same-rank vassal.

To give them the title, they either need to already be landed or you need to tick the box for giving all titles under the title you're handing out, as you cannot give an unlanded character anything higher than a county without it.

Alright then. Maybe I'll just declare myself Emperor of Britannia, remain King of England, get rid of Wessex (if they fixed the bug where vassals become randomly independent), then give my sons Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.

edited 4th Aug '15 11:57:48 AM by theLibrarian

Just make sure to arrange their marriages before you land them, or else they'll do stupid things.

Have they fixed that bug, by the way? Or do I need to test it myself?

Just checked, they fixed it.

edited 4th Aug '15 1:19:46 PM by theLibrarian

Interesting happening in my current CK2 game (Charlemagne start, pre-Horse Lords patch):

• The Abbasid Caliphate is (as usual) absurdly powerful. They curb stomp the Byzantine Empire (which is a theocracy). Fortunately, by the time the Abbasids conquer Greece (and trigger the Crusades), they are so far over their vassal limit that the Caliph only has about 7000 forces. When the Pope calls for a Crusade to retake Greece, my HRE wipes the floor with the Abassids. Greece has remained an HRE kingdom ever since. The Byzantine Empire currently consists of a handful of counties.
• When the Caliph I defeated in the Crusade dies, most of his excess vassals leave the Caliphate, restoring Abbasids to being absurdly powerful. Fortunately, the Caliph focuses on reclaiming his lost vassals and ignores HRE Greece.
• Somewhere among the line, the Abbassids conquer an Indian Jain kingdom. They eventually lose the kingdom, but maintain a duchy or two as vassals.
• After about 200 years, the Abbasids reclaim most of their former vassals, which places them far above their vassal limit once more. Because of this, a decadence revolt finally succeeds in toppling the Abassids. Most of the Aramid's Caliph's new vassals decide to break away. The former Abassid Caliph breaks away as well and retains his rule over the kingdoms of Syria, Egypt, Khiva, Georgia, and Baluchistan, as well as a few Indian vassal duchies. The Abassid Sultanate is far stronger than the Aramid usurper.
• The Aramid Caliphate is so weak that I easily win the next Crusade for Jerusalem, triggering the Jihads.
• The head of the Abassid Sulatanate, befriends one of his Jain courtiers. Sometime later he converts to Jain and adopts the Rajput culture.
• So now there's a Jain superpower in the Middleeast. The Shia Caliph has declared a Jihad against them, but since the only Shia realm is the Kingdom-level Caliphate of Mauretania, which keeps losing territory to my HRE (which conquered Hispania about 100 years ago), the Sunni Sultanate of Africa, and the unreformed West African Pagan Kingdom of Mali, nothing is likely to come of this.

Oh and Suomenusko has been reformed and Wales is the dominant power in the British Isles.

edited 5th Aug '15 1:36:55 PM by lrrose

Okay, managed to conquer another territory (part of the only independent chiefdom left in Ireland) and vassalized another area. I also destroyed the Wessex title...and my heir (my SON) died suspiciously. I wish you could find out who was responsible.

Anyway I'm having my Chancellor fabricate a claim in Leon on the Continent. Maybe I can persuade the other Counts of that area to become my vassals and use that as a springboard to move into Francia and conquer it. I also need to conquer Ross as well, along with the Orkney Islands before I can declare Britannia.

I also need more money >.> Maybe I can borrow money from Jewish moneylenders?

Okay, so, question.

In a hypothetical situation where Eddard committed suicide after Catelyn's death (hypothetical because that's kinda out of character and also I want more time as him), Robb inherited the North and the Riverlands and was LP of both. Problem is, this pushed me over the vassal limit, which became a problem when the peasants of Winterfell revolted and I had barely any people to quash it.

How do I make this not happen?

Give low-value vassals independence

Reduce centralization for more vassal limit

Increase centralization for more demesne and lean on your demesne troops to the exclusion of vassal troops

Find some way to get and stay rich and use mercs and retinues more

Put vassals under other vassals (my rule as a king or emperor is to never have count vassals, but hold off transitioning to king vassals until duke vassals are entirely unsustainable)

If the AGOT mod has barons count against the vassal limit, give your mayors and bishops two or three holdings instead of one

Unfortunately all of the post-Conquest Westerosi kingdoms are empire sized (they become empires if independent of the 8 empire sized Iron Throne), so you can't create king vassals. Your best option is to somehow obtain independence and then give the Riverlands to a Lord Paramount.

Speaking of money, for some reason I keep losing like 10 gold each month and because of that I can't get out of the negatives. Anyone know what to do?

If you like to "live dangerously", you could make double-dukes or even triple-dukes.

Question one: do you have mercenaries or personal levies raised? Those are expensive (vassals have to foot the bill for their own levies). Question two: do you have retinues, especially retinues that are understrength and/or have full reinforcement activated? Reinforcing retinues is hella expensive and you may be able to get back in the black by cutting them to 50% reinforcement. Question 3: Are you squeezing your mayors' and priests' wallets as tightly as you can? If not, why not? Question 4: Do your vassals like you? If so, why are you not taxing them for a bit more money? Question 5: How are you doing on various revenue-boosting buildings? Those can add a fair bit to your revenue, especially if you have holdings the Silk Road or mod-equivalent. Question 6: Where are your steward and spymaster? Get the steward boosting taxes in your capital and the spymaster stealing tech from whoever has the best castle/city/church infrastucture tech (if this is you, ignore the spymaster bit). Question 7: Have you considered setting up a merchant republic vassal to litter your land with trade posts and pay taxes on their crazy-high income?

edited 5th Aug '15 6:32:00 PM by Balmung

I have retinues but they're not reinforcing right now. I was thinking it may be that my vassals are constantly fighting wars and revolts but if everyone has to pay for their own levies I don't think that's the problem.

Also my spymaster is currently busy keeping factions from revolting.

edited 5th Aug '15 6:32:42 PM by theLibrarian

Try clicking on your title's coat of arms under your portrait to see your balance sheet.

Also, a dirty trick is to flood your capital with as many personally-held castles as possible and park your steward and marshal there to raise taxes and levies.

Do any of those factions involve counts who can be silenced by making them a duke's problem?

edited 5th Aug '15 6:35:16 PM by Balmung

Ah, that's how you see what you're spending your money on. Okay.

And transferring vassals is a thing, right. Does that keep them from making factions against me?

edited 5th Aug '15 6:35:54 PM by theLibrarian

They can only faction against their direct liege. So long as he's under a duke, it doesn't matter what a count thinks of his king because the king is not his direct liege.

If they ever successfully declare independence from their duke, just give them back to their duke. Or give them to another duke. For extra fun, make sure that all of your dukes have de jure claims on other dukes' de facto land to help play them against each other.

edited 5th Aug '15 6:45:25 PM by Balmung