Current Events > I'm just not getting Crusader Kings as an enjoyable strategy game.

(+) Yeah! (+)

A lot of the depth seems superficial, especially when it comes to kingdom management. I think it's a bit odd that the relationship system can be cheesed so easily. It only takes a few traits and edicts (idk what they're called in-game, stellaris term) to make 95% of your council + vassals adore your player character. But none of it matters except solely to avoid rebellion. My point is, I have a spymaster who can detect hostile nations' own intelligence agency, or steal some tech, or something. If he/she is my +100 friend, shouldn't their efforts go higher than determined by their skill roll alone? Why can't I have my Warmaster or Spy or Lead Diplomat or Bishop talk to me or answer questions about internal affairs? Hey, Ares Facebasher, who would you invade if you could? What army have you heard we can match? Hey, James Bond, who should we spy on? Who has appeared impressionable in my court on the yearly feasts? Etc. There's no agency or interaction with your own kingdom and agents.

A very niche rant, but the inability to interact with dozens of unique characters in your court seems like such a waste. If you don't want to bang, kill or blackmail someone then how /anyone/ feels about you is utterly pointless beyond the risk of rebellion. No wonder the meta is dread + owed favors. It interacts with the only real gameplay mechanic that exists.

I'll show this to my wife tomorrow when she wakes up, but she's put several thousand hours between the three games... she loves them so hard.

I havent played 3 yet, but I played 2 modded specifically to make it harder, because 2 also generally made it too easy to balance everything and expand. CK2+ funnily enough, it was originally started by Wiz, who is now Vicky 3s project lead and overhauled Stellaris was my sweet spot mod for making shit harder while adding a bit of flavor without going overboard.

Crusader Kings was always something you made your own stories for though. Like the time in CK1 the Hapsburgs lost their land and one became a refugee in the Sicilian Court, only for the ruler to die without an heir and him to become King of Sicily, so I pretended he had seized power. Or another time, when I seized Sicilys throne, I had made my current characters younger brother a bishop, so I imagined him crowning his older brother. He later rebelled, so obviously he was bitter over being excluded from the succession by his father.