Paradox Games

Yeah, a bunch of Sheikhs are considered powerful vassals in the Abbablob as well.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

Well sheiks and emirs are basically dukes and whatnot, just via Arabic culture.

IIRC it runs off troop strength so if someone takes heavy losses you can end up with random vassals marked as powerful temporarily.

One of these clowns was in a freshly conquered temple. The only thing remotely in defense of their claim to being "powerful" is that I only have one count-level vassal, as I normally try to skip straight to duke vassals.

Fortunately, soon Rayy (gonna stack castles sky-high there) and Esfahan (gonna make mad Silk Road bux here) will be mine and I'll have a nice block of high-power duchies that I can abandon Dihistan for.

But one county plebs in the largest empire on the map being considered powerful is a bit funny.

Hey Balmung, did you mod out Infamy? If not, how is your Karen game doing coalition wise?

edited 5th Feb '16 12:30:30 PM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

So EU 4's on sale because of the Lunar New Year sale so I bought El Dorado and Conquest of Paradise for like 10 dollars. I think my next game is going to be to form a custom nation in the New World, then conquer both Americas before invading Europe.

So, someone took apart the new education system, I'm honestly not sure about it. It feels way more rigid than the old one.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/comprehensive-guide-to-education-in-conclave.906590/

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

I modded out coalitions, yes. And it seems that removing the ability to form a coalition (I also set it to require nearly 100k prestige/piety/cash in case I hadn't disabled it right) also disables infamy.

It's not really Karen (custom non-Persian character because I don't care much for dynasty-named titles), but I've taken huge bites out of the nearby Muslims (tore Khorasan and Kerman (totally going to give this to a child of mine that I will name Jebediah) out of the guys the Saffardis start invading and the Saffarids, respectively. Currently on the chopping block is a revolt against the former that controls Esfahan, followed by taking chunks of Hamadan and such until I can form Persia, then as big of a bite as I can take out of Khiva.

How is your experience with the education system so far?

edited 5th Feb '16 8:23:04 PM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

I 'unno. My firstborn is like three years old, so I haven't been able to do any real education.

On the upside, now I have a kingdom and Vandad has his normal starting duchy back (and count and a tribal count swept away under him).

Fortunately for me, despite many positive opinion modifiers being reduced, attractive was not one of them, and it neatly offsets the "wah, I want my talentless ass on the council" penalty. Also, presumably due to where I started, I start with abolished council authority, meaning I can declare war, grant titles, revoke titles, execute, banish, and so on as I see fit.

edited 5th Feb '16 8:29:10 PM by Balmung

Anyone here with Conclave for CK 2? I'm interested in knowing how the new Realm laws work, can't really find much info about them. For example, what kinds are there, can you instantly change or is it more a step-by-step action (like old crown laws) and are there any requirements to unlock each law?

Seeing as I love playing Cathar because of their female rights, I'm especially interested in the Status of Women laws. (You haven't played CK 2 until you have had a 20-something pregnant Empress leading an army of 26k into battle!)

"I'm always alone. Sometimes I'm just alone by myself."

The laws are still step by step, and if you empower your council then they (not every vassal) get a vote. Status of Women is attached to the Tolerance tech level and is noted as being one of the more difficult to change.

Levies and Taxes are now on a spectrum, so getting more taxes means less troops and vice versa.

Crown Authority is gone, some succession laws are tied to the Late Administration law (which is locked by Legalism 3 and is a step between Feudal and Imperial Admin) which means that its actually easier to get Primo if you start in 1066 and not as a tribe.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

No Crown Authority? Good, that's one of the most annoying faction types out.

If you empower your council and don't go against them then the members can't join factions. That's a full 5-7 vassals they you can keep tame (overtly anyway) if you don't override them.

Vassals can faction more for council rights though.

edited 7th Feb '16 7:50:38 AM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

So what does all the female rights laws do? Seeing as there are five (I believe?), what are the effects of each stage? Are there negative effects as well?

Thanks for all the info, by the way! :)

"I'm always alone. Sometimes I'm just alone by myself."

So far as I can tell, no negative effects, aside from more potential "powerful vassals" demanding seats on the council (to my knowledge, female vassals will never demand seats on the council if they are not legally allowed to hold them).

It unlocks various council positions and commanderships with the first few ranks, then succession laws, with full status allowing true cogantic succession (even for Tengrists, Muslims, and merchant republics) and I think eliminating the female ruler/heir penalties and allowing matrilineal marriages, even for religions and governments (meaning Tengrism and Islam for religions and republics for governments) that do not normally allow them (normally limited to your own court for Islam because few, if any, other realms you could theoretically marry with will have the same laws allowing this).

---

So long as I don't have factions that can even remotely threaten me, I personally have no intention of empowering the council. If they can ever do such a thing, then maybe I'll throw them a bone, but so far, I'm enjoying not having to listen to them on anything. As always, my policy is to never budge a micron more than I must, for vassals will take 63,360 times as much as you give them.

edited 7th Feb '16 10:21:17 AM by Balmung

So far the new laws (and well, Conclave overall) sounds pretty damn good. I was considering getting it, but was a bit worried about how the law system was implemented.

But I hear Infamy/AE & shattered retreat are still somewhat silly at the moment though.

"I'm always alone. Sometimes I'm just alone by myself."

Yep. Even if you just take a Duchy you'll have a coalition breathing down your neck, and shattered retreats for small kingdoms get annoying when you're chasing them back and forth whittling them down

Infamy is beyond busted right now, shattered retreats are pretty meh, the councils don't have the teeth they should have, and education is still really iffy.

I'd wait for a few patches.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

Two upsides to coalitions in CK 2. One: they're only defensive and can never force you to give up conquests or launch a unified offensive war against you like in EU 4. Two: you can completely disable them in defines.lua.

I recommend the second because coalitions are silly in EU 4 (where their implementation has never really made sense and their current status as things that only rarely form is the best they've ever been) and even essentially harmless coalitions don't make sense or add fun in CK 2.

edited 7th Feb '16 10:59:47 AM by Balmung

So I bought Sunset Invasion...

Did you get Sunset Invaded?

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

I haven't started a new game yet xD Been playing XCOM.

If as a vassal you press a relatives claim on a kingdom will they become a vassal of your liege?

Sunset invasion can be interesting.

I wouldn't know though. Only time I had it enabled I ended up with a restored Roman Empire before they made the crossing and I stomped them out before they could even win a war. Managing 4-5 stacks of troops all suffering attrition to all meet in a province close enough to fight them was a major challenge, much less ensuring that it happened behind a river, but we wiped out their main force in France in one go, then spread out and regrouped to smash their Portugal stack just before they won that war.

Never heard from them again after that. But, too be fair, if Cortez got wrecked, and then spain sent an army 100k strong to try again and it got wiped, I doubt they'd have even thought about coming back.

I'm baaaaaaack