Paradox games but definitely NOT GAMES OF THRONE

[JasonM]

The aztec-clown car deserves all the diseases they can get!

Also, having played numerous failed games with east-slavic chiefdoms, i've come to the conclusion that.
A: Hordes are fucking evil, they can wipe stacks triple their size purely because tribals don't have horses, and their armies are entirely horses!
B: Diseases, also evil. Especially when your awesome wife croaks from cancer in her early 20s... (But I do like that growing old has become much less unlikely now, which was a big issue before Reaper's due where you could have almost every leader get past 60+)
C: The other tribals, also evil. Since even if you conquer them, they're effectively just subject allies. They won't tithe you shit, and if they hate your guts they'll probably wont even join a war that would increase THEIR holdings.
C2: Additionally, you can bet your ass that whoever is at war, will be at war with all his neighbours too. AI are extremely eager in jumping in, and stealing all the land you threw your men into the grinder for...
D: I've also noted that the game now skews heavily towards giving you daughters instead of son's. In like 4-5 saves I've never had two heirs (which is good, I guess?) at the same time. Which effectively made the game even harder, because you'll be 1/2 deaths away from having a game over screen in your face.
F: Have I said the hordes are assholes yet? Because they are!
G: You can't get rich easy either, since you're smack-dab in the middle of Eastern-Europe with no ocean in sight, and no juicy cities you can rape and pillage. Raiding parties are effectively useless as anything but the norsemen.

Needless to say, the game is a lot harder than before Reaper's Due. But honestly that was something that should've been a thing four years ago when the game came out. The mortality rate has spiked, and that is how it should be since it's the god-damned dark/middle ages, and people were barbaric idiots with no sense of sanity.

I imagine as you get on into the mid-game, the difficulty lowers again, since you'll have more a bunch more heirs to take over the reigns when you inadvertently die because you tripped and fell down the stairs and broke your neck.

Also, I've learned that the best and only thing you should do as a Slavic tribal is to max out your demesne, and dump your money into market villages first, else you're going to be suffering badly money wise.
And as you vassalise your way to reforming the faith, the only thing you can do is pray that the hordes are too busy shagging their horses, and not roflstomp their way through your pagan unhorsed lands.

[Gazz]

When the going gets tough, the tough eat their courtiers...

[Mick]

6 hours ago, Gazz said:

When the going gets tough, the tough eat their courtiers...

How delightful! Can't wait for the GoT mod to work with this: 

 

[OctoberRaven]

Huh. Always thought the Smurfs lived in Ireland.

[Gazz]

Belgium

[OctoberRaven]

Huh. TIL then.

Had no idea they were created in 1958. I just figured the cartoon was what started it.

[OctoberRaven]

So Holy Wars question:

If I call a holy war to take a county held by members of a different religion, will all rulers of said religion come defend, or just the ones nearby? And what constitutes nearby?

Edited September 3, 2016 by OctoberRavenO

[JasonM]

1 hour ago, OctoberRavenO said:

So Holy Wars question:

If I call a holy war to take a county held by members of a different religion, will all rulers of said religion come defend, or just the ones nearby? And what constitutes nearby?

Pretty sure every neighboring ruler of the same faith is allowed to join in defending a holy war against their faith. Additionally the main defender can call in his allies if he has them.

It's not as strong as it used to be, as opinion, power, and traits (zealot, cynical) will affect whether or not they'll join their comrades in faith.

Remember that if you're fighting tribals, they'll also be able to summon a 2.5K stack for 200 piety as long as they have enough piety. So a soft target could easily become very very hard if they're pious pagans.

[OctoberRaven]

In this case it's the Tuetonic Order and the counties I plan to take over don't have any Catholic-lead neighbors... BUT the Tuetonics have other lands which DO have Catholic neighbors.

Do I still need to worry then?

Also will my vassals join in on the throwdown? The Jorrsvikings neighbor the lands in question, so I hope to have their aid too. The vassals will really make this a curbstomp for me so I want to know if this is a viable option.

[JasonM]

3 minutes ago, OctoberRavenO said:

In this case it's the Tuetonic Order and the counties I plan to take over don't have any Catholic-lead neighbors... BUT the Tuetonics have other lands which DO have Catholic neighbors.

Do I still need to worry then?

Also will my vassals join in on the throwdown? The Jorrsvikings neighbor the lands in question, so I hope to have their aid too. The vassals will really make this a curbstomp for me so I want to know if this is a viable option.

You can call in allies just like in any war, same terms apply really, make sure they like you enough. I don't know about how it works when there are exclaves in play, but i'm gonna assume they'll count as bordered lands despite of them not being contiguously connected to the mainland.

So yeah, beware, expect the worst. So if your vassals wanna join in, go for the roflstomp.

[Gazz]

So the Black Death is pretty grim...

[Noah]

 

[Gazz]

It's worked out OK for me though, somehow, my 10 year old son is now the Petty King of East Anglia and Duke of Desmond in Ireland and I haven't done a single thing.

[OctoberRaven]

Black Death barely even happened in my game. Then again I'm in Scandinavia and literally the first thing I did when I played with Reaper's Due installed was put hospitals in my three chief counties.

[OctoberRaven]

That feeling when you crush the most powerful Catholic kingdom's attempt to invade you and get 1700 gold because of it.

[OctoberRaven]

Guys?

I think my conquering France broke CK2.

[OctoberRaven]

So the Papacy has tried to take France from me three times via Crusade.

I quickly learned that no matter how much they occupy, as long as I'm green in the battles column they can never get 100% warscore. In other words I can win a couple battles then just make them waste all their gold occupying random places. As long as they don't take my capital or actually win a significant battle I'm golden.

The first time I exploited this to make him just give up and offer white peace.

The second time, I won enough battles to give me a nice comfy 10% and then promptly sent my entire army to Rome. Capturing all the holdings in it gave me 100% warscore.

And I did this the third time too. Silly Popes, France is for vikings!

Hoping to take Saxony before game end (have about 30y left).

Edited September 13, 2016 by OctoberRavenO

[OctoberRaven]

Taking Saxony would have been too long, as it turned out they were Orthodox and you can't Great Holy War the Orthodox?

So I decided to capture Rome instead and put my second daughter in charge of it. Catholics get rekt.

Aztec Empire ended up hilariously weak in this game. They managed to conquer Spain and most of Eastern Africa but then lost it after they converted to Muslim; I'm not entirely sure but I think they decadence'd themselves to oblivion.

Edited September 14, 2016 by OctoberRavenO

[thatshortguy]

Base game is $9.99 on Steam if anyone's still interested in jumping in.  The Complete Edition is $40 and much of the DLC has been discounted 33-66%.

[OctoberRaven]

Europa Universalis is also slashed. Thinking of getting it.