Paradox games but definitely NOT GAMES OF THRONE

[TEOL]

The tutorials aren't particularly good but they should show you how to do some stuff

[Ruki]

I played the tutorials and then tried to play the game...didn't care for it.

Then, a few days later I decided to just jump in and had a blast.

Not really sure what to do...continue my Ireland/Wales game? Try the GoT mod again (and hope I can get a claim OR that the war will end)? Try a new mod?

I like starting small and growing from there...which is what makes Ireland perfect. You're near a bunch of other independent counties, so you don't have to worry about an army of 10k killing off your 500 troops.

[Ruki]

CK2Plus mod sounds awesome.

But, for some reason, it doesn't load for me :/

Any ideas?

Edit: Apparently the mod no longer works. Needs to be updated to 1.06. BOO! All these add ons sound awesome.

Edit 2: Decided to play a game of Broken Kingdoms....that was freaking short! My first guy dies after 2 years, thankfully he had a son in that time. The son takes over, goes on a fishing trip and BAM! Drowns after 10 years. I managed to only claim one other county and was in the process of taking another :/

[Hailtothechimp]

I've found a pretty good Let's Play for CKII if anybody needs some help or something. I'm still quite new to the game and it's helped me out some. The guy ends up playing the King of Scotland, but what happens in England is incredibly fascinating. It's what has kept me watching because his scene is rather boring for a bit. I'm 5 videos in though and shit just got real for him.

Enough of my blithering on though, here's the link!:

[Gongsun Zan]

Sword of Islam is pretty fun! The Muslim mechanics make their games great for hyper-expansion and aggression. Formed the Kingdom of Africa and just took Sicily. Can't wait to kick the Pope out of Rome

[MalaCloudy Black]

Man, watching that let's play and reading CKII diaries in the Cube make me want this.

[Ruki]

Woo! Sounds like the CK2Plus mod will be fixed up sometime tomorrow ^_^

I've read a lot of good things about it (like, how people can't play the vanilla game anymore)...so kind of excited to give it a try.

[NobBe Nobbs]

EU3 update: Last time I looked, about 1500 or so, England was having trouble in the highlands but otherwise was doing fine. I look now, at about 1555 and England is GONE. The island is divvied up between Scotland, Northumberland (got a couple of provinces in the south) and, with the lion's share of the territory...fucking Wales. All this has been going while I've been expanding in the south, so it's not surprising I didn't notice, but whoa. Good on Wales.

In other news across the continent...Sweden is basically no more, as Norway and Denmark aggressively expanded and reduced the Swedish kingdom to two provinces...Poland has gone from being the powerhouse it was to getting crushed between Hungary and the Golden Horde and is now down to one province...Austria has taken a beating (more than a little of which was at my hands) and has been reduced in effectiveness, but is still going...Hungary have made out like bandits, it's them vs. the Golden Horde vs. Prussia in Eastern Europe...and, of course, France are expanding like maniacs. I'm thinking my next game will be as Denmark, because things there are interesting.

[TEOL]

Sword of Islam is pretty fun! The Muslim mechanics make their games great for hyper-expansion and aggression. Formed the Kingdom of Africa and just took Sicily. Can't wait to kick the Pope out of Rome

Curse you, I haven't had a chance to play it yet!

[Thrilla]

Someone make this game cheap again >_>

[Katsuya]

Bought it. Getting here tomorrow

[Ruki]

Still need to attempt multiplayer some day.

[TEOL]

Still need to attempt multiplayer some day.

If only someone kept bugging you to play multiplayer with him.

[Ruki]

Do it when I'm not busy!

[Liam]

What even is the CK2plus mod?

[Ruki]

Everything.

[Liam]

.......

[Ruki]

Purpose

The purpose of CK2+ is to create a broader, deeper, more challenging and more balanced CK2 experience without straying too far from the original game mechanics or tacking on deterministic railroading events and modifiers. The purpose of this mod is not historical accuracy (although I try to preserve it whenever it is not a major detriment to gameplay) but rather to embrace and enrichen the medieval intrigue sandbox that is CK2, while fixing its various little issues and exploits.

Features

- More provinces and sea zones.

- Martial and Learning are no longer useless stats for rulers, as the former will affect the size of your levies and the latter determines your chance of spreading your culture and religion to your provinces.

- Reduced fertility/health and altered attributes for old characters: 80-year olds will no longer have a new child every year while leading their armies from the front, and characters that live to very old ages are suitably rare.

- New tyranny system that assigns reasonable but noticeable penalties for imprisoning, banishing and executing characters and allows for more leeway in dealing with traitors.

- New education system. Children's attributes now matter in how well they take to an education (so a high martial child will do better in a martial education), and characters will not simply always end up having the exact same education trait as their tutor.

- Crusades can result in independent Crusader states with a special truce that makes them able to survive their first few years. A Crusade for Jerusalem will now much more closely mirror the historical First Crusade with an independent Jerusalem being created.

- Civil wars are more dangerous: A revolting vassal that is trying to depose you will ask all other vassals to join him, which can result in a major revolt among vassals that like him better than they like you.

- Councillor opinions of you matter: A councillor that really likes you will work harder and do better at his job, while one that dislikes you will perform worse.

- Holy Wars cost piety to fight, so that the general rate of expansion in Iberia and the Middle East is slowed. Overseas Holy Wars cost a large amount of piety, and the AI will largely avoid fighting them. Crusades/Jihads are not affected.

- More lethal diseases and battles, making medieval life the violent and uncertain existance it should be.

- Many more Empires and Kingdoms to create.

- Rebalanced combat where the martial score of the generals is an important factor.

- More mercenaries and holy orders.

- More cultures.

- It is now more difficult but also more rewarding to raise your crown authority.

- Tweaked succession laws to make it possible for non-Basques to use Absolute Cognatic. Authority requirements for other succession laws have also been eased.

- Rebalanced levies and laws that reduce the military capabilities of large kingdoms with weak authority (like France or the HRE).

- Many more ambitions and plots.

- Women of your dynasty can hold some council positions under Cognatic or Agnatic-Cognatic laws.

- Many minor and major balancing tweaks for a more challenging and enjoyable experience.

- German and French localisation.

Future Plans

- More nuanced way of handling prisoners: A count should not be able to execute the child of a king and expect to get away with it scot free.

- More dynamic civil wars: Vassals without high loyalty that demand titles or favors to stay loyal, while loyalist vassals give you additional support.

- Vassals with whom you have marriage alliances become more loyal. Marry your way into a stable realm.

- Even more ambitions and plots.

- More character events, especially everyday life events.

[Liam]

Wow, sounds cool.

[METALMAN]

Yeah it sounds like it but all these increased depth mods don't add much besides mind-numbing micromanagement that would never result in anything tangible. There was a mod for EU3 that was supposed to be really good and hyper realistic but it just made the game boring. This looks the same.