Paradox games but definitely NOT GAMES OF THRONE

[Bobfoc]

There's a fair bit of waiting involved. You also can't declare war unless you have a casus belli, i.e a legal reason to do so, such as by having a dynastic or fabricated claim on someone else's title.

[Schlitzbrille]

2 hours ago, Bobfoc said:

There's a fair bit of waiting involved. You also can't declare war unless you have a casus belli, i.e a legal reason to do so, such as by having a dynastic or fabricated claim on someone else's title.

Addendum to the waiting advice: Don't be totally idle while waiting for your main goal. Building, casually imprisoning a troublesome vassal when you can/triggering a rebellion, etc.

[Meacon Keaton]

And never stop making babies. 

[Schlitzbrille]

56 minutes ago, Meacon said:

And never stop making babies. 

Only if they can also be counted as either your own cousins or grandchildren.

 

 

[edcq]

Just played a quick game where I went Merchant Republic instead of Feudal... got so lost when I died.

It was fun since I’ve never done that before. 

[Benjamin]

So I got this game since it was free too, just the base game because I probably don't want to spend money on something if I'm not going to be good at it and get frustrated super fast.

I built up my holdings and increased my levies and my tax income pretty well, I think, but how the hell do you get your alliances to join you in your wars? I made an alliance with the next county, then I pressed my claim on another county that was adjacent to only me. But for some reason I wasn't able to ask the other guy to join in my war for my claim on that county? Is there some other way for me to do that? Did I miss my step? Do I have to press my claim as a plot in the intrigue section or something?

Would be glad if someone can answer me this because otherwise I'll never know how to defeat the next county, their alliance keeps helping them and it ends up weakening my army before I siege their holdings and so end up losing the war (and then going into debt  ). I've done that twice now.

Also, does anyone know why am I unable to select anybody at times to lead my army? 

[OctoberRaven]

On 02/11/2019 at 18:44, Bobfoc said:

There's a fair bit of waiting involved. You also can't declare war unless you have a casus belli, i.e a legal reason to do so, such as by having a dynastic or fabricated claim on someone else's title.

Unless you're a viking, you need to have The Old Gods to get that IIRC. Then the only reason you need is because one of their borders has either a coast, or you.

[Schlitzbrille]

1 hour ago, Benjamin said:

So I got this game since it was free too, just the base game because I probably don't want to spend money on something if I'm not going to be good at it and get frustrated super fast.

I built up my holdings and increased my levies and my tax income pretty well, I think, but how the hell do you get your alliances to join you in your wars? I made an alliance with the next county, then I pressed my claim on another county that was adjacent to only me. But for some reason I wasn't able to ask the other guy to join in my war for my claim on that county? Is there some other way for me to do that? Did I miss my step? Do I have to press my claim as a plot in the intrigue section or something?

Would be glad if someone can answer me this because otherwise I'll never know how to defeat the next county, their alliance keeps helping them and it ends up weakening my army before I siege their holdings and so end up losing the war (and then going into debt  ). I've done that twice now.

Also, does anyone know why am I unable to select anybody at times to lead my army? 

In no real order:

• Should be a diplomacy option if you right-click on their character portrait. Distinct possibility of confusing a non-aggression pact for an alliance is there, made that mistake a few times .In which case, twiddle your thumbs until you can sneak a good marriage alliance in or save up enough to fund some mercenaries for...dunno, until the first decisive battle and the first siege is done?
• Possibly no commanders assigned, I make that mistake MANY times even now.
• Game will take a good solid while to git gud at, in my case ~30 hours to not totally suck.

[Benjamin]

4 minutes ago, Dickon Manwoody said:

In no real order:

• Should be a diplomacy option if you right-click on their character portrait. Distinct possibility of confusing a non-aggression pact for an alliance is there, made that mistake a few times .In which case, twiddle your thumbs until you can sneak a good marriage alliance in or save up enough to fund some mercenaries for...dunno, until the first decisive battle and the first siege is done?
• Possibly no commanders assigned, I make that mistake MANY times even now.
• Game will take a good solid while to git gud at, in my case ~30 hours to not totally suck.

• The only diplomacy option I could find were to join their ongoing wars, not mine  I distinctly formed an alliance because I didn't even realize I had a non-aggression pact with them until I saw the pact list in my character lol. Also, I forgot to ask this, but I assume I can't ask higher level areas like dukes or petty kings to help me in my own war, right? Unless I'm guessing it's a real solid pact?
• When you mean assigned, do you mean in the honorary titles listing?
• Yeah, I put in like 4 or 5 yesterday, but so far I'm just considering it a victory if I don't get assassinated and I get to makes lots of babies (with LOTS of lovers). 

[Schlitzbrille]

4 minutes ago, Benjamin said:

• The only diplomacy option I could find were to join their ongoing wars, not mine  I distinctly formed an alliance because I didn't even realize I had a non-aggression pact with them until I saw the pact list in my character lol. Also, I forgot to ask this, but I assume I can't ask higher level areas like dukes or petty kings to help me in my own war, right? Unless I'm guessing it's a real solid pact?
• When you mean assigned, do you mean in the honorary titles listing?
• Yeah, I put in like 4 or 5 yesterday, but so far I'm just considering it a victory if I don't get assassinated and I get to makes lots of babies (with LOTS of lovers). 

Yeah, commanders are in the honorary titles listing. 

As a general rule, I normally don't play as someone's vassal (which is what it sounds like you're doing) so I can only answer from the BIG DAWG perspective: I'm not entirely sure you can, couldn't hurt to try.

Also, don't stop the lovers train until you disown a female bastard who then comes onto you when she comes of age not that I would know how awkward it is to realize your new lover is also your daughter-cousin. 

[Benjamin]

48 minutes ago, Dickon Manwoody said:

Yeah, commanders are in the honorary titles listing. 

As a general rule, I normally don't play as someone's vassal (which is what it sounds like you're doing) so I can only answer from the BIG DAWG perspective: I'm not entirely sure you can, couldn't hurt to try.

Also, don't stop the lovers train until you disown a female bastard who then comes onto you when she comes of age not that I would know how awkward it is to realize your new lover is also your daughter-cousin. 

Yeah, I didn't realize when I selected this dynasty that I had a petty king as my liege. I think that might be part of the problem. 

Haven't had a daughter as my character's lover yet, but a bunch of my sons are all having kids who are actually mine but they don't know it. This then just made things confusing for me when the first main character died and I had to play as my heir. Couldn't figure out which kids were his and which were his dad's. 

[Benjamin]

So when they say you will lose a certain title of a different dukedom (not the one I started with) upon succession, does that mean that when my son inherits it, I lose control of that other dukedom? But in that other dukedom's line of succession, it says that one of my younger ones will inherit it instead. Can anyone let me know if that means I get to be the liege lord of that other dukedom still for me to eventually create the kingdom? 

Because I super screwed up and gave it to one of the counts I had put in power but wasn't in my family, and now I think I lost that entire dukedom it took me the whole night to get  

[OctoberRaven]

25 minutes ago, Benjamin said:

So when they say you will lose a certain title of a different dukedom (not the one I started with) upon succession, does that mean that when my son inherits it, I lose control of that other dukedom? But in that other dukedom's line of succession, it says that one of my younger ones will inherit it instead. Can anyone let me know if that means I get to be the liege lord of that other dukedom still for me to eventually create the kingdom? 

Because I super screwed up and gave it to one of the counts I had put in power but wasn't in my family, and now I think I lost that entire dukedom it took me the whole night to get  

Succession, quite simply, is fucking complicated.

But as you describe it, yeah you're losing the duchy as part of what sounds like a Gavelkind inheritance scheme. This is why pretty much every CK2 vet makes it a priority to switch to good old Primogeniture ASAP.

So you'll either need to change succession laws (hard even under ideal conditions), or kill your spare heir (slightly harder and fairly risky).

Hence why CK2 is the game known for, among other things, causing a drastic uptick in Google searches for "How do I murder my son".

[lanky316]

I'm assuming you're gavelkind succession, yes? What it means is that when your current character dies your titles are distributed throughout your sons. If you hold multiple ones of the same status they will all go to different people so you personally lose control of them as your brothers bloodline goes on it's own tangent. So if I have two dukedoms, when I die my oldest son would get one and my next in line would get the other. As they are of the same status you can't have the other duke underneath you, you're equal. If you can't change your succession laws to primogeniture it's a good idea to have just the one dukedom and several counties even if you could make them dukedoms as well. Note it won't stop you forming a kingdom as it's all based on holding the various counties and titles rather than all the dukedoms, I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) when forming a kingdom it says something like "must control X de jure counties to found Y"

[Schlitzbrille]

And to think I started as a Duke with only two counties.

 

ANYWAY, realm shite:

Ruling from Wilmington is Christine Derren, First of Her Name of the Delawarean Empire and Kingdom of Maryland, President of the Americanist Faith. 68, ruling for 33 years to date. Four marriages, only two of which were during her child-bearing years:

Children and grandchildren from her first marriage to {Edward Hollidaysburg}

1. Joshua, current heir presumptive, 48, m. {Gerlinde fon Welland}, m. Madison Bartram
   (by Gerlinde)
   -{Bayley}, died in 2843 at the age of 25 from cancer, m. Michael Cookeville
   --Aloysius, 7
   --Luff, 5
   -Alexa, 9
   
   (by Madison)
   -Edward, 2
   -Joanne, newborn
    
2. {Laura}, died in childbirth in 2836 at the age of 36, m. {Rubén Trujillez}, m. {Stansbury Hazard}, m. {Hendrick Laurinsburg}
   -Stanley Stedvor, her bastard by Benjamin Stedvor of Alleghania, 25, m. {Lois Derren}, m. Philomena Loyalsock
   --Stanley, 7
   --{Rowland}, died a sickly child in 2841 at the age of 2
   --Sara, 2
   (by Hendrick)
   -Christine, 12
   -Hendrick, 6
    

Children by her second marriage to {Elon Gaspé}

1. Eve, 38, m. Samedi Freret
   -Gallagher, 6
   -Stansbury, 3
   -Petra, 1
2. Henriette, twin of Eve, m. {Outerbridge Myrtle Beach}, m. Philander Derren
   (by Outerbridge)
   -Edward, 7
3. {Jennifer}, died from rabies in 2814 at the age of 2

Christine's other marriages were to {Peludo Beggs} and Callaway Skidmore, children with them were impossible due to age

[Benjamin]

5 hours ago, OctoberRaven said:

Succession, quite simply, is fucking complicated.

But as you describe it, yeah you're losing the duchy as part of what sounds like a Gavelkind inheritance scheme. This is why pretty much every CK2 vet makes it a priority to switch to good old Primogeniture ASAP.

So you'll either need to change succession laws (hard even under ideal conditions), or kill your spare heir (slightly harder and fairly risky).

Hence why CK2 is the game known for, among other things, causing a drastic uptick in Google searches for "How do I murder my son".

Yeah, my succession law is currently Gavelkind. I don't know if I have the ability to change it to Primogeniture, didn't seem to be one of the options for my petty kingdom in Ireland, I'll have to check when I get back. Really sucks that I'm losing that duchy, man that was fun to win. I almost felt like I was getting a bit good at the game 😂

5 hours ago, lanky316 said:

I'm assuming you're gavelkind succession, yes? What it means is that when your current character dies your titles are distributed throughout your sons. If you hold multiple ones of the same status they will all go to different people so you personally lose control of them as your brothers bloodline goes on it's own tangent. So if I have two dukedoms, when I die my oldest son would get one and my next in line would get the other. As they are of the same status you can't have the other duke underneath you, you're equal. If you can't change your succession laws to primogeniture it's a good idea to have just the one dukedom and several counties even if you could make them dukedoms as well. Note it won't stop you forming a kingdom as it's all based on holding the various counties and titles rather than all the dukedoms, I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) when forming a kingdom it says something like "must control X de jure counties to found Y"

That sounds like a good idea, I might try that next, thanks. 

[Schlitzbrille]

38 minutes ago, Benjamin said:

Yeah, my succession law is currently Gavelkind. I don't know if I have the ability to change it to Primogeniture, didn't seem to be one of the options for my petty kingdom in Ireland, I'll have to check when I get back. Really sucks that I'm losing that duchy, man that was fun to win. I almost felt like I was getting a bit good at the game 😂

That sounds like a good idea, I might try that next, thanks. 

Not sure how different it is in the base game (considering I'm running on all the expansions up to Monks & Mystics), but you have to meet a few prerequisites to get it; all of these basically boil down to being at peace, your vassals not totally disliking you, reigning at least ten years, and either the correct Crown Authority (without the Conclave expansion) or Legalism level and Late Feudal Administration passed (with Conclave).

 

Once y'all think you've got the hang of things, 1066 Poland is a good place to learn and is actually where I figured out the game. The Holy Roman Empire will more or less leave you be (and there is the option to swear fealty to them and take over from within), plenty of pagan realms to your north and northeast so you can learn about properly timing holy wars (ideally wait until your neighbors are fighting each other), primogeniture can be passed relatively quickly, and Hungary has some decent claimants to marry into.

[OctoberRaven]

I actually jumped into it as William of Normandy, lost the Norman Invasion and instead focused on my existing holdings in the Norman coast. Had a pretty good run there, gaining independance from France and becoming King of Normandy. I had to contend with the Aztecs breathing down my neck because they made a beeline for Paris and Barcelona though.

[Benjamin]

So, getting maybe a little better at this?  I don't know, I haven't screwed up much yet, but I'm still too chicken to declare myself as King of Ireland, so perhaps I just haven't done much.

I did however, make a pretty bad mistake, as my wife had a claim to one of the other duchies, so I went to war and won it for her, thinking that once she dies, her titles and everything would go to our oldest son, who's also my heir (as I changed my laws to Primogeniture succession). When I checked for the first couple of years, it did say that my heir was her heir. Later on, it suddenly said that I was her heir, and I was like, alright cool, not sure how that worked out but whatever, I wouldn't mind taking it first since she's a little older and a little frail so she might die first, if not, I'll die and my son will be heir to it again anyway, and I'll be playing him.

Left it for a bit and did other stuff, then I went and looked and suddenly it's her damn brother (who I had fucking usurped for her in the first place), and our son or me is nowhere near the line of succession. I'm guessing she changed her inheritance laws so that my heir wouldn't be able to inherit it after she died (which turned out to be only like 5 years later too  ). Good thing she died soon, so that when I become my heir, I can press the claim I have on it (I hope?) that I inherited from what would then be my mum. 

[Schlitzbrille]

Way to make me be the asshole here, game.