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Paradox games but definitely NOT GAMES OF THRONE


METALMAN

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http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/crusader-kings-ii

Just got this and I've been having great fun with it. I started off as England in 1066, with William the Conquerer as my character. Basically spent the first few years kicking out the Saxon lords, and replacing them with my friends and family. However, things start getting really interesting when my two eldest sons (Robert and Richard) start squabbling over who should be the Duke of Normandy. Robert, the current Duke, tries to assassinate Richard, the claimant. So Richard comes whining to me and I tell him that he and his brother must sort it out themselves. So Richard tries to kill Robert, and this time it is Robert that comes whining and crying to me, and I tell him the exact same. Eventually Richard successfully kills Robert at the age of 26, so Robert's eldest, confusingly also named Richard, becomes Duke of Normandy. However, the elder Richard still wants to be Duke, so he keeps trying to kill the seven year old Richard - and eventually succeeds. I decide that the elder Richard might have overstepped the mark a bit, so I lock him up in jail. for the murder of my grandson. Meanwhile, Robert's youngest son, Serrill (I know!), becomes Duke of Normandy, as well as my heir.

While all this is happening, my third eldest son, William (and the real life William II of England), who I very kindly made Duke of Northumberland, isn't too happy at being behind his nephew and his brother in the line of succession, so he starts a revolt from up north. It isn't long before he joins his brother in prison.

Down on the south coast, I hadn't noticed one of my vassals quietly killing counts all over the place, and amassing for himself a pretty large holding. So I was quite threatened when he decided he wanted to be king. Eventually he joined my two sons in prison.

A couple of years later, my wife died at the age of 65, so I, the 67 year old King, take on a new wife - the 17 year old Duchess of Flanders, Adele. She's hot stuff, and she makes me feel young again. :shifty: And she gives me a son! A son who is not dead or imprisoned!

The next year I die, and my new playable character (and King of England) becomes my 21 year-old grandson, Serrill, the Duke of Normandy. Having moved from the provinces to London, Serrill decides that his current wife isn't really hot enough for a King, so he begins a passionate affair with Adele, who is now 19. Yes, that's right, he's sleeping with his dead grampa's wife!

Also, Serrill is not like his angry grampa. Serrill is a lover, not a fighter. So he releases his uncle Richard, the man who killed his brother and dad, from jail. How kind!

Crazy!

I really want to make an anti-pope at some point as well. That looks cool.

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I keep seeing this and wanting to play it so badly, and have to keep making up excuses not to buy it (not having money related excuses). But screw it, I'm not going to last much longer at this rate, it looks so awesome.

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I'm playing a game as the Duke of Munster. My one vassal tried to rebel against me. After ruthlessly crushing his rebellion, I locked him in prison, stripped his title, and gave it to my son. He's going to die in prison. I haven't executed him because my other subordinates wouldn't like that.

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This game is great. It's crazy to think this game has just been released. Paradox games have a history of being a little bare at the release. For example I don't think EU3 got really good until the 2nd expansion.

In my current game I might have had one of the best reigns that I will probably ever get. I started up a game as Caradog of House Gwynn. He starts the game with no wife, a newborn son, and the county of Gwent in Wales. Dude reigned for 56 years. In that time he united all of Wales, sired nine children between four wives (including the wife that dies right before the game starts), and was even about to upgrade his kingdom before kicking the bucket.

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metalman turned his back on Scotland?! :o

Yes, but only because William the Conqueror is cool!

In the end I chose to keep the King of Scotland in prison. I didn't really need the money I'd get from a ransom, and executing him wouldn't be very nice. Plus I thought it would be pretty cool to have an actual king in my jail. We became pretty good mates actually - I let him stay under house arrest rather than the actual dungeon, and he just chilled out while his son did the tough work of running the country. He died after twelve years in captivity.

It's 1139 now, and my King Serrill is sixty years old and is in the 40th year of his reign. I started the game in 1066, so hardly any of the chatacters alive then are still around now, which is a shame. Of William I's children, only his youngest, Henry, is alive -he's forty or so, having been sired by William at the age of seventy to his seventeen year old wife.

When William died, his grandson and heir Serril was Duke of Normandy. Upon moving to London he fell in love with the King's widow Adele, who was four years younger than him. He continued this love affair in private, but also unsuccessfully plotted the murder of his existing wife. Eventually, he was able to get a divorce and marry her, and they had three children together, in addition to the four he had with his first wife. So Prince Henry, William the Conqueror's son, was both King Serril's uncle, and step-son. Anyway, Adele died at the age of fifty, so Serril went and found another wife, who, at 21 is his junior by more than thirty years, and wow, this woman is a baby making machine! Five babies in five years, giving Serril twelve in total! This is a real problem because you get a prestige hit for any sons who are over 16 and don't have any titles, so I keep having to take titles off people and giving them to my sons, which doesn't make the former title holders very happy.

My two eldest sons are dead. so it looks like it will be another case of my grandson becoming the new king. I made him Duke of Normandy - something I've decided I will do for all heirs so they can get some experience in the nicer climes of France, but so that they also still have to answer directly to me.

Vassal system is a bit of a mess though - like the Duke of York is a powerful man, but he has no actual jurisdiction over the actual county of York, because that is in the realm of the Duke of Northumberland. Also, I've tried to stop any of my nobles from becoming too powerful, in case they rise up and depose me. Unfortunately, the Duke of Somerset has been really powerful for some time - he's also the Duke of Norfolk. He was even the Duke of Anjou until I took that off him.

I've tried to counteract this by making two other "double dukes" in the south of England to rival Somerset's power, but that might be playing with fire. I gave the title of Duke of Bedford to the existing Duke of Kent (who I now hate), and made William the Conqueror's youngest son, and my uncle (although I am older than him) Duke of Oxford and Duke of Hereford. This is especially dangerous because as William I's son he has a pretty strong claim to be King of England that he could try and enforce at any moment. Thankfully we are getting on quite well for the moment at least.

My heir is my grandson Gregory, and given that Serril is 62, I feel his time will be coming sooner than later. This is a shame, because while William and Serril were both pretty aggressive and warlike, Gregory is all pietous and humble. Boooooooooooooo!

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