Current Events > I'm re-learning how to play Crusader Kings II. Come and help, please!

(+) Yeah! (+)

@Dash_Harber

1) I start the game in a war. I can't remember how to find out what the war is over and what happens when I or they win it

2) I need to change my Succession Laws. What's the best way to do this?

3) I haven't played in about six months now and the main game changes with each DLC, even if you don't get that DLC. What are some of the newer things that game has added recently that I may need to know about?
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Bad_Mojo posted...

1) I start the game in a war. I can't remember how to find out what the war is over and what happens when I or they win it

There is a small portrait of your opponent with the warscore underneath in the bottom right corner next to your map. If you click on it, it will bring up the war overview, with the aggressors, yourself, anyone allied to either side, and the goal of the war.

If you go to the diplomacy menu for the character you are at war with, and you click 'negotiate for peace', you can hover over each option to see what the outcome will be. Generally, surrendering as the defender gives them the war goal, white peace makes the aggressor lose a bit of prestige, and victory for the defender results in prestige and sometimes monetary reparations.

Bad_Mojo posted...

2) I need to change my Succession Laws. What's the best way to do this?

Well, it depends entirely one where you are and what is available. A few cultures have unique successions, like Tanistry for the Irish.

Basically, the more stable succession laws require you to increase your crown authority. If you are tribal, most laws are going to be locked off to you.

In general, Elective is usually more stable and is available from the get-go, but it allows all dukes or higher to get a vote, and they can elect themselves, meaning you only want to do this if the majority of your dukes are part of your lineage.

If you want more specific advice, let me know where you are and who you are playing as.

Bad_Mojo posted...

3) I haven't played in about six months now and the main game changes with each DLC, even if you don't get that DLC. What are some of the newer things that game has added recently that I may need to know about?

I'm honestly not sure what free features are added because I usually buy DLC day 1, but I know for sure the map was changed. Some of the borders were redrawn and the map now includes a lot more of Africa.

I looked it up and Jade Dragon expanded eastward and reworked the silk road, as well as a free captives CB, whereas Holy Fury reworked a little bit of everything, added more Africa, added some more flavor for duels and battles, and completely changed the crusades.

Okay, thank you

I need some boats. I won the land war, but the guy I have to beat is in Africa and I can't easily get over there right now. Guess it's time to assassinate him. . .
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Bad_Mojo posted...

Okay, thank you

I need some boats. I won the land war, but the guy I have to beat is in Africa and I can't easily get over there right now. Guess it's time to assassinate him. . .

Some groups can conscript boats in times of war for money. Otherwise, you need to build shipyards. You can divide troops into smaller units, but only to a point (IIRC, it's when they are broken down into their home units). Early on, shipyards are going to be limited, but you need technology after that. Also, if you are a Viking, you get free shipyards when the Viking Age fires.

Are you playing the tutorial? Do you need to attack the Canaries?

Dash_Harber posted...

Are you playing the tutorial? Do you need to attack the Canaries?

Nope

I've play this game a lot over the years, I just forgot a lot of the things. I also was never really that good at it anyways, lol

I'm playing in Siracusa and I have the Duchy of Sicily. Trying to win my island down here from The Sultan of Africa. Mohammad II of something.
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@DarthAragorn

Didn't 3.0 add a (experimental) UI scaling feature?

Holy shit they did!!!!! OMG, I'm so happy right now. I can finally see!!! I put it up to 1.60 and it's great
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Why do I have the, "Vassals raised too long," message when I don't have anyone raised? Am I just blind and do somewhere? It's the Temple, I believe. 15 Bishop and 6 Mayor. No idea where the units are. . .
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Who should I be giving my lower titles to? Like Mayors of towns

Whats the best way to divide up lands? If there are 4 places that make up a Duchy should I give 4 different people is it better to give the whole bundle to someone like my second or third son?

Im the Gaurdian of my heir and I think thats for the best, but what should I do with him when hes a man? Should I give him land?
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Bad_Mojo posted...

Who should I be giving my lower titles to? Like Mayors of towns

Preferably people with higher martial and stewardship, so you get more taxes and troops. Give it to content people if that's an option. Don't give it to ambitious people, since they're likely to give you trouble in the future.

Whats the best way to divide up lands? If there are 4 places that make up a Duchy should I give 4 different people is it better to give the whole bundle to someone like my second or third son?

It's a double-edged sword. Creating larger, more powerful vassals will make realm management easier, but can come back to bite you if they get unruly. Personally, I give the whole duchy to a single person. I usually don't give my sons any land to keep them weak.

Im the Gaurdian of my heir and I think thats for the best, but what should I do with him when hes a man? Should I give him land?

Don't give your primary heir any land. They'll do dumb shit and ruin everything you've carefully built up through their childhood.
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Thank you
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Oh, and about the levies, you can check quickly if you still have any raised because the icon in the military tab will be red. If you click that, it will disband any you currently have.

Also, the opinion modifier for raised levies sticks around and decays over time instead of going away as soon as the levies are disbanded. That's probably what happened if you don't have any troops raised.
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Preferably people with higher martial and stewardship, so you get more taxes and troops. Give it to content people if that's an option. Don't give it to ambitious people, since they're likely to give you trouble in the future.

Also, personally, I frequently use the 'create new vassal' button on lesser holdings. The reason is that people in your courts tend to already have ties and possible claims, meaning that a minor vassal can possibly become a horrible threat if they inherit or press their claims at an opportune time.

UnholyMudcrab posted...

It's a double-edged sword. Creating larger, more powerful vassals will make realm management easier, but can come back to bite you if they get unruly. Personally, I give the whole duchy to a single person. I usually don't give my sons any land to keep them weak.

I agree with the idea of handing out entire duchies. Alternatively, you can also give each land to a count and then choose the least ambitious/most useful one to hold the duchy title. Even if the duke revokes all the other counties, it will be years before they are established enough be an issue.

As for handing out titles to family, it depends on your situation. If you have elective monarchy, it actually makes your realm incredible stable, since even if a Duke wins more votes, they are of your line and you will play as them upon ruler death.

Ambitious and (to a lesser extent) Envious and Proud are bad traits for vassals. Content and Humble make them significantly less troublesome. If you want to, you can try and game it a bit by offering to educate your vassal's heir(s).

I'm personally fooling around trying to reform a faith. Germanic seems to reform ~90% of the time in the 769 and 867 starts, so I figured I would try my hand with Romuva. I already have 3 holy sites, but moral authority is exactly that high(once you get big, you're basically the only Romuva ruler), so I'm going for a fourth and then scrounging up the last 10 authority. Definitely doing Temporal Power, and not even just power-gaming: I'm the only independent Romuva realm, so it doesn't make sense for their to be another power-base.

Also, good luck if you want to reform Suomenusko or Slavic. The holy sites are scattered everywhere, and the former is on the chopping block from the Germanic blobs. The latter is super-vulnerable to early conversions and getting overrun by hordes.
Still better than Tengri though.

ElatedVenusaur posted...

Ambitious and (to a lesser extent) Envious and Proud are bad traits for vassals. Content and Humble make them significantly less troublesome. If you want to, you can try and game it a bit by offering to educate your vassal's heir(s).

This is true, but there is one exception with Envious/Proud; IIRC, having the same trait can actually make them like you more. It's more of a risk either way, though.

ElatedVenusaur posted...

I'm personally fooling around trying to reform a faith. Germanic seems to reform ~90% of the time in the 769 and 867 starts, so I figured I would try my hand with Romuva. I already have 3 holy sites, but moral authority is exactly that high(once you get big, you're basically the only Romuva ruler), so I'm going for a fourth and then scrounging up the last 10 authority. Definitely doing Temporal Power, and not even just power-gaming: I'm the only independent Romuva realm, so it doesn't make sense for their to be another power-base.

IIRC, Romuva is really easy to reform since most of the holy sites are all very close to Lithuania, or at least within spitting distance. I've done it a couple times, unless they've changed the Holy Sites.

I've only reformed once since the update, with Germanic. I went Unyielding/Meritocracy/Sea-Bound/Autonmous. The latter was because Saxony was still strong and I had a good relationship with them, and I wanted to encourage a few more realms to convert (which they did). The faith was pretty much indestructible, though, and basically min-maxed for raiders. It's impossible for the enemy to make inroads, and I'm able to basically infinitely withdraw from the Bank of Abraham.

If you were Germanic, why didn't you go with Sons of Ragnarok?
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Thanks for all the help and advice
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What the fuck?!

My ruler died and the game just ended. I had 4 sons, none of them an age, but I still had heirs. God damn it, lol

I also tried to get the ASoIaF mod, but it crashes each time I open it up
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I'm the king of Sicily now.

I'm playing a Hellenic as well, but I don't think there is any fun things to do with them. My main goal right now is to make it a popular religion again. My priest never does a god damn thing, though. I've had him spreading Hellenic around here, and I've had 3 of them now, and they haven't brought a single person into the faith.
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If you haven't reformed the faith, your priest isn't going to get anything done unless you get very lucky. Unreformed pagans generally have yearly conversion chances of ~2%.
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

If you haven't reformed the faith, your priest isn't going to get anything done unless you get very lucky. Unreformed pagans generally have yearly conversion chances of ~2%.

Is that what happens when I take the Holy sites? Rome, Lampsako, Edessa, Piraeous, Alexandria?
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Yeah, it's tied to control of holy sites. There are two ways to do it: one way only requires 3 of the 5 holy sites, but also requires the faith to have a Moral Authority of 50, which might not be feasible. The second way requires control of all holy sites but doesn't have an MA requirement. Both ways also require 750 piety.
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Okay, thanks. I'll have to take a look at the map to see where they all are. I know I can take Rome. Well, it's an option. I don't know if I can or not. Rome should be a pretty big force

It also kind of a let down that I can't make my wife convert. The option is blacked out
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Yup, you also can't demand conversion until the faith is reformed
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Yup, you also can't demand conversion until the faith is reformed

Seems like I have a goal!
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Holy shit, they are way spread out. And I'm not even sure if I'm at the correct place for Edessa and Piraeous since that isn't the name in the game, just a Temple



Is that the correct location?
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Yeah, the actual holy sites aren't really the counties themselves, but a temple holding in the county.
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Yeah, the actual holy sites aren't really the counties themselves, but a temple holding in the county.

And advice to clam them? I'm over in the Kingdom of Sicily. . ., but at least I'm next door to Rome
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Yeah, the actual holy sites aren't really the counties themselves, but a temple holding in the county.

And advice to clam them? I'm over in the Kingdom of Sicily. . ., but at least I'm next door to Rome

Should I take one of them and maybe send a second son over their to hold it? Or do I have to have the titles?
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You don't need to control them directly, just have them in your realm.

Your best bet to take the counties themselves is probably to have your chancellor fabricate a claim on them, but that might take a while.
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My guy is fat now, lol

I can go on a Hard Diet, but I might fall off. But since I'm such a good warrior, I also have another option that might has less effect, but easier to achieve.
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

If you were Germanic, why didn't you go with Sons of Ragnarok?

I wasn't looking to get evangelical. Sea-Bound covers raiding, and unyielding makes defensive wars a breeze. There was just no point to Sons of Ragnarok, since Saxony held all the territory in Germany, and my only real enemies are the fins in the north who are basically a bunch of broken tribal states I could stomp with a quarter of my troops as is.

Bad_Mojo posted...

What the fuck?!

My ruler died and the game just ended. I had 4 sons, none of them an age, but I still had heirs. God damn it, lol

I also tried to get the ASoIaF mod, but it crashes each time I open it up

Not sure why this would happen. Was you marriage matrilineal? If it was, the children were of her house and therefore didn't count as your heirs.

Bad_Mojo posted...

And advice to clam them? I'm over in the Kingdom of Sicily. . ., but at least I'm next door to Rome

Should I take one of them and maybe send a second son over their to hold it? Or do I have to have the titles?

So reformation is actually a bit more complicated than that. You only need 3 of the 5 sites, plus 50 Moral Authority for your religion, as well as 750 piety. Each site gives you 10 Moral Authority, meaning all 5 means you automatically can reform. You don't need to directly control them, but they have to be in your realm and the priest in charge has to be part of your religion (if they aren't, it will be considered 'partially controlled', giving you only +5 Moral Authority).

I should just go back to Messalianism
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Bad_Mojo posted...

I should just go back to Messalianism

Honestly, it seems daunting, but it's actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. The trick is focusing on taking those Holy Sites specifically. Don't worry about expanding your borders around them. Just get claims to those counties and take them when the opportunity arises.

Dash_Harber posted...

Bad_Mojo posted...

I should just go back to Messalianism

Honestly, it seems daunting, but it's actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. The trick is focusing on taking those Holy Sites specifically. Don't worry about expanding your borders around them. Just get claims to those counties and take them when the opportunity arises.

I have someone over in Alexandria right now trying to get a claim on it
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Drives me crazy that I can't help my vassals out.



Three of them are under attack and I can't do shit

Also don't know why Rome turned Pink. It was my color before I turned it off last
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Yeah, it's tied to control of holy sites. There are two ways to do it: one way only requires 3 of the 5 holy sites, but also requires the faith to have a Moral Authority of 50, which might not be feasible. The second way requires control of all holy sites but doesn't have an MA requirement. Both ways also require 750 piety.

There are other ways to get Moral Authority, of course: raiding infidel temples, successful county conquests, paragons of virtue, building temples, certain festivals and successful county conversions all increase it slightly. You can now also build a "Great Pillar" for a cool 5% MA. Conversion rate is affected greatly by the moral authority of the religions involved, but unreformed religions are penalized, as noted.

Speaking of reforming, I'm using a mod that lets you pick 3 doctrines instead of the two, and I did successfully reform Romuva. Unyielding/Defenders of Dievas/Astrology/Stable. I don't really power-game, but the Kingdom of Lithuania will be well-insulated from threats, from within and without.
A note on natures: I've read that they made a mistake insofar as the chances the AI will attempt to convert a county. Only Unyielding and Proselytizing have proper weights: the rest have none, meaning the AI will basically never try to convert anything if you select other Natures. It does sound like they have a bug-fixing patch in the oven though, so hopefully it's fixed soon.

lol, whoops

So my oldest child is a girl and I have her married off to the guy that has the Duchy of Salerno. That's all good and what not, but the woman my son and heir just married as a claim on that, lol
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I really there were more Plots in this game. Is there a mod that adds more to them? I want to try to kidnap a child, I want to spread rumors that someone can't get it up. Stuff like that
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Sounds like the intrigue focus is what you're looking for
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Sounds like the intrigue focus is what you're looking for

Oh shit, I forgot about the Focus! I did it at the start to get some family members out, and then just forgot to switch over. Well, I might have switched to War now that I think of it. . .

Damn it, I need to do that. Thank you for the reminder
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@Dash_Harber
@UnholyMudcrab
@ElatedVenusaur

I need to buy some DLC and it's on sale right now

I need -

Jade Dragon
Monks
Reaper
Conclave
Horse Lords (blah, lol)
Charlemagne
India
Holy Fury

It's not that much, only $70, but I need to know if it will mess up my game right now to get them
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It shouldn't cause issues so long as you disable them before you load. The only thing that will break your game is the free patches. That being said, it would be worth it to start over with those new ones enabled.

Conclave and Holy Fury are worth it alone. The rest are more applicable depending on where you want to start.

Okay, I bought them. I forgot how to install them though, lol. I thought it would just automatically do them. But in the game it still says "See in store", but it shows that I bought them, just not installed.

Go to go to bed anyways

Never mind, I got them installing now
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Conclave is the only expansion that I don't have. I'm iffy with what it did to the council, and I really don't like what it did to children's education.
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Conclave is the only expansion that I don't have. I'm iffy with what it did to the council, and I really don't like what it did to children's education.

What don't you like about it? I thought it improved it in every way.

I played a bit this morning, just seeing what the DLC brought me. Holy shit, the game was so different

My council has different options!
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Man, I don't have a clue what I want to do now. What culture? What religion? What location?
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Bad_Mojo posted...

Man, I don't have a clue what I want to do now. What culture? What religion? What location?

Depends what you like about the game. Some personal favorites;

Haesteinn of Nantes in Brittany in the Viking Age - He's incredibly unique; He's feudal Germanic Viking. From Nantes he can take Brittany, then you can prepare an invasion to wherever you want. The world is your oyster.

The Canaries - You're an African Berber on an island off the coast of Africa. You're pretty set to go wherever the hell you want.

Byzantine - Pretty much anyone in this empire if you are into Rome. Great for scheming.

The Magyars (Charlemagne or the Viking Age) - You are in the center of the world. Your horde is insane. The clans are loyal. Go where you want and conquer. Probably one of the easiest hordes to play as. Hungary is a prime target, but you can also go north and form Russia, or go against the Muslims in Anatolia. You can also convert to any religion to suit your needs, or stick with Tengri. The horse lords are surprisingly progressive about that sort of thing.

Nepal - A cool eastern kingdom that is well insulated. You are going to have to serve someone, but you get to be Kingmaker and your mountain kingdom will probably be unconquerable. Play the diplomacy game and get China on your side, and you can conquer the mountains.

Spain - Navara, Leon, Asturias, or pretty much anyone; straightforward - Recnoquista early and form Hispania. Ally with France early for an easy conquest, and make sure to strike whenever the Muslims start feuding amongst themselves.

Thanks for all of that

I just watched a bit of this guy playing The Teutonic Knights, which seemed like a fun thing to do
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Bad_Mojo posted...

Thanks for all of that

I just watched a bit of this guy playing The Teutonic Knights, which seemed like a fun thing to do

Unless I'm mistaken, they are only playable in EUIV. I don't know if you can play Holy Orders in CK2 without mods.