Paradox games but definitely NOT GAMES OF THRONE

[Sousa]

I do too. This game is very, very good at knowing when to stab you in the back. The King of Scotland always knows exactly how many troops I can raise.

[TKz]

Oh my god. I suck at this game.

I know that feel.

[apsham]

I have no clue what to do, even reading that guide. I realized when I first started that I was letting time run too slow.. but then when I let time run fast, holy shit! Things got out of hand quickly! Maybe I should run a few months and then pause and manage everything.

[TKz]

I have no clue what to do, even reading that guide. I realized when I first started that I was letting time run too slow.. but then when I let time run fast, holy shit! Things got out of hand quickly! Maybe I should run a few months and then pause and manage everything.

My problem is that everyone is really fucking equal. I figured hearing Ireland was easy that I'd have an easy win against an enemy and could start building up my armies and how many areas I have in control, but everyone has basically the exact same amount of guys, so I always lose any siege. I never make enough money to hire mercenaries and there's no one I can marry anyone too to get some claims to land or even get some armies. Am I missing something here? Is there a really obvious way to start things off that I'm just totally oblivious to?

[Sousa]

Start as the Duke of Munster and revoke the Lord Mayor of (I think) Ossory's title from the back. Voila, you are now twice as powerful as everyone else in Ireland.

[Schlitzbrille]

Any good places besides Ireland for someone to learn how to play this?

[Benjamin]

So according to canirunit.com, the only thing I'm missing from my PC to run this is a proper graphic card. What's the lowest GEForce thingy I can use to play it

[Gazz]

I do too. This game is very, very good at knowing when to stab you in the back. The King of Scotland always knows exactly how many troops I can raise.

You can find out how many he can raise too.

Click that 'realm tree' button (right hand side under the family name) and you can see how many troops they can raise. For example...

I can usually raise 5.7k, but because some of my vassals are being racists and rebelling, currently I can only raise 4.2k.

I have no clue what to do, even reading that guide. I realized when I first started that I was letting time run too slow.. but then when I let time run fast, holy shit! Things got out of hand quickly! Maybe I should run a few months and then pause and manage everything.

My problem is that everyone is really fucking equal. I figured hearing Ireland was easy that I'd have an easy win against an enemy and could start building up my armies and how many areas I have in control, but everyone has basically the exact same amount of guys, so I always lose any siege. I never make enough money to hire mercenaries and there's no one I can marry anyone too to get some claims to land or even get some armies. Am I missing something here? Is there a really obvious way to start things off that I'm just totally oblivious to?

The King of Norway has at least two unmarried daughters at the 1066 start and there are a couple of Jimena sisters available who would give you alliances with one of Leon, Galicia, Navarra or Castille, though they are generally too busy killing each other to help. I think you can ally with Denmark too.

[Gazz]

It's great playing as Norsemen, my vassals have conquered Ireland in my name and I haven't even lifted a finger.

[The Lusophone]

I wonder if they hated me because I used the Ruler Creator.

That was your first mistake in Spain. The 1066 scenarios are great to build up your lands quickly due to the fact that the other christian kings are all your relatives. So a well placed assassination here and there will see you inheriting their lands. (or you could use the kill [characterid] cheat but w/e)

[METALMAN]

I tried a game as King of France. THERE IS FAR TOO MUCH GOING ON

[The Lusophone]

King of France is usually fucked in the early game.

[Sousa]

King of France is a little kid and starts surrounded by a bunch of scheming siblings, right?

[JasonM]

King of France is a little kid and starts surrounded by a bunch of scheming siblings, right?

Yup, and you got both England/William, Duke of Aquitaine and also the HRE to keep away from ruining your shit.

[The Lusophone]

Aye. Although the Duke of Burgundy i think it is is your first problem. Duke Robert the Old. Also your Uncle. Dealing with him (because him rebelling is essentially guaranteed. You're in a regency. He has a strong claim. You see the situation developing here right?) is task number one.

I'd personally recommend trying to send yourself, your sister Emma and your brother (and heir) Hugues out of France to be tutored elsewhere. Italy is probably the safest place. Speaking of Italy, you should seriously consider marrying Duchess Matilda of Tuscany. There's only a 6 year age gap between you and her and she's the most powerful land owner in Italy. If she manages to keep them then your heir will inherit those lands. That's really the only viable marriage if you want to expand your holdings outside of what frequently is a country racked by civil war.

Emma you have a fair few options for marriage, depending on whether you're playing Stamford Bridge or William the Conquerer scenarios. You don't have a lot of options within France in either one, except the heir to the Duchy of Troyes. So in the earlier setting maybe try Lazlo, the Duke of Translyvania, Malsnectin, the Duke of Moray or either the Duke of Greater Poland or the Duke of Silesia. All four of these have p. good chances at taking their kingdom's throne (Hungary, Scotland, Poland, Poland respectively) and should be good prestige boosts and allies. In the later scenario consider either the King of Denmark or the King of Sweden.

Hugues should either be married to the daughter of the Duke of Aquitaine in the earlier start date or William the Conqueror's daughter in the later one which provides at least a little breathing room from English incursion into France.

Collect the royal levies from these marriages, grab feudal taxation and papal investiture as soon as you can and maybe accept the elective monarchy in france demand - at least, until you can force it to change. Stay out of the Spanish clusterfuck, laugh as England implodes and conquer Brittany asap and you should be in good stead.

Finally, if things are going really really badly for you, cheat. Its not fun to lose again, and again, and again and again.

[METALMAN]

Okay, so it is 1100 and Philip I has grown into a strong and beautiful man! He is 23 for martial with his heir at a similar level. He and his heir routed all the baddies from France and made it secure. Didn't add any land, but didn't lose any either.

Though I did conquer Jerusalem in a crusade for the FIRST TIME EVER.

[apsham]

Very, very slowly getting the hang of this and it's quite fun! Still have almost no clue what I'm doing but I've managed to create a Duchy by overtaking most of the south of Ireland. Not sure what that's done at all really but.. yay?

[Schlitzbrille]

Since seemingly everybody here and their mothers have started off and first learned to play CKII as Ireland, where's another good place to start? It's just the pseudo-hipster in me asking....

[JasonM]

Since seemingly everybody here and their mothers have started off and first learned to play CKII as Ireland, where's another good place to start? It's just the pseudo-hipster in me asking....

Poland is a decent romp to learn stuff. You start out reasonably powerful with pagans to the north, a possible ally in the HRE to the west, and Hungary to the south and also bunch of orthodox dukes and kings to the east.

If you can marry your way into an alliance with Hungary/HRE or just a duke like Bohemia, then you are in a very strong position to own the baltic in 1-2 generations. The pagans can be a boon if they gang up on you, but with friends in your corner it shouldn't be a problem.

And also there is future !!FUN!! when either Sweden or Denmark start to expand into Finland and the Baltic themselves, with 2-3 nations trying to vy for those baltic lands it can get very interesting. And of course the prospects that if the orthodox lands fail to stop hordes, they might end up at your doorstep.

Poland has a steeper-ish learning curve than Ireland, but it gets you into action quicker and also teaches you the more intricate parts of being a King and having Dukes and Counts under you.

If you don't like the idea of Poland, you can always go with either of the Spanish Kings, with the added bonus that the western Kings are all family and if either of them dies without kids (including yours), your lands grow a lot. I had a game where Leon and Galicia had tragic ''accidents'' causing their kings to die, and as a result my Castille made up the entire north of spain. And that made subdueing the muslim factions much easier as a whole.

More interesting options for Duchies/Kingdoms are:

Duchy of Apulia (You start out as a Normandian duke in the south of france, Pure italians and the pope to the north and Muslims in Sicily and in North Africa. You have a huge family, many of them ambitious. But if you can play your cards right, you can become the King of Sicily and become a dominant Southern European power. Sometimes Tuscany manages to split from the HRE too, giving you a big juicy target to the north that you can take to form Empire of Italia.

Kingdom of Sweden (You start out in a reasonable place, you are in a civil war with one of the dukes, but you can subdue him with ease. Denmark to the south is the most aggressive trying to get your lands, but they together with Norway start in a war against England, and they almost never win that war so you got time to establish yourselves. Like Poland, there are pagans to the north and east and after you conquer North Sweden you can focus on taking the fight to the Fins. Eventually you are big enough to take on Norway and Denmark to form the Empire of Scandinavia)

Kingdom of England (This is the very first starting date version, the one where you take Harold Godwinson and defend against three aggressors. Denmark/Norway and of course William the Bastard wants your lands and this is a nice challenge and a good lesson in defensive warfare. If you manage to fight off all three attackers, you are in a very strong position and you can get an alliance with the likes of HRE/France to keep the Scandinavian usurpers away for the future. If you survive, you can quickly build your lands by gobbling up Wales and Ireland, and then waiting for Scotland to blow up so that you can pick them apart too. Empire of Brittania is yours for the taking, and this is a nice revisionist history of having Harold avoid getting an arrow to the kn-eye.)

Edit: And one final thing you might be able to try is to find a mod (or do it yourself) that removes the Holy Roman Emperor. That makes all the lands underneath their own duchies/counts, and that opens up the entirety of central europe for a massive clusterfuck of warring between German/Dutch/Bohemian/Italian lords wanting to kill each other and become the strongest man out there. Trust me, it's not everyones cup of tea but it's a whole lot more interesting than that massive grey blob.

Edited July 23, 2013 by Jasonmufc

[Schlitzbrille]

Hmm....I think I'll give Poland a shot once I get around to getting this game.