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Disclaimer: Charlemagne and the accompanying patch have changed up many of the fundamentals of the game. Seasons actually matter now and there are other pesky things like vassal limits and tribal governments to worry about.  Use the OP to link to your LP of choice. It can get a little confusing and repetitive reading the thread page by page, so refer back here for a link to the next chapter if you get lost.Try to post updates on the test post website. If this is unduly burdening for you, post the update in the thread, but please take care not to clutter up pages with more than 3 updates This is a tutorial LP megathread for all those of you who are trying to figure out Crusader Kings 2, whether you’re on the edge about getting it, or if you’ve recently picked it up and have no idea what to do, or if you’ve had it for a while and you’re still hopelessly lost. Fret not, you'll find answers here!  Wait, haven’t I seen this thread before? Yes, to an extent. About a year ago, a fantastic goon and LPer named Kersch (whom you may also remember from his Europa Universalis 3 playthroughs) did a very detailed LP of CK2. And indeed, many of the basic gameplay elements have survived over the past year. In that period of time however, Paradox has released a number of DLC expansions to flesh out the various types of rulers and governments that make up the political landscape of Medieval Europe, so many mechanics have changed. This will be a comprehensive tutorial LP involving the efforts of 6 LPers with the purpose of explaining not only the basics of the game, but also the various mechanics that are unique to certain playstyles This collaborative LP is the brainchild of CapnAndy, our resident expert on Catholics, and he has passed off the base tutorial responsibilities to me, but this was originally his idea so please thank him first!  What is this game? Really, this is all you need to know: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y53_GV2aAg8 Crusader Kings 2 is one of several “grand strategy” games released by Swedish developer Paradox, the minds behind games such as Europa Universalis, Victoria, and Hearts of Iron. As of July 2013, it covers the years 867-1453 AD, and you can choose to play as any ruler in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East during those years (but sadly not 868-1065). This game is not just about conquering your neighbor, storming his castles, and covering the map with your colors like in a Total War game. You’ve got much more than just outside threats to worry about; you have to worry about stuff like your realm exploding because the laws of your kingdom prohibit you from disinheriting any of your male heirs, crooked councilors embezzling your gold when you least expect it, or the mild to moderate inbreeding that may result when you marry your tall, attractive cousin for her claims and to produce tall, attractive children. Losing wars or getting murdered/blinded/castrated/cuckolded/deposed in this game is half of the fun, and produces some of the best emergent storytelling in the gaming world today. There are no end objectives except the ones you set for yourself, and the medieval world is your oyster. Not to mention the devs have a refined sense of humor, which it displays often through events and flavor text. The common, grim happenings of the Medieval Era, such as catching the Black Plague or having your taxes raised by your oppressive feudal lord, are punctuated with stuff like this:    We will be playing CK2 with no additional mods. If any of the other goons LPing in this thread are using different versions of the game, they’ll mention it in their initial posts. In order to play anything other than basic Catholic or Orthodox feudal lords, you will need some of the DLC expansions. These include: Sword of Islam: Required for playing as Muslim rulers Legacy of Rome: Required for more intricate Byzantine mechanics and retinues The Republic: Required for playing as merchant republics The Old Gods: Required for playing as any other pagan ruler, adds new 867 AD start date Sunset Invasion: Silly alt-history DLC that adds a horde of invading Aztecs, whom you can play as provided you have The Old Gods installed Sons of Abraham: Released 11/18/2013, adds more depth to Christianity and Islam (such as pilgrimages to Christian holy sites, College of Cardinals, Ash'arite/Mu'talizite schools of Islamic thought, etc.), also adds playable Jews. NEW - Rajas of India: Released 3/25/2014, expands the map all the way to Bangladesh, adds a poo poo ton of new provinces and playable  How will this LP work? This is going to be a collaborative screenshot LP dealing with all of the different playstyles in the game. There will be a variety of people working on this LP, each covering a different playstyle. NB: Since I know several of the other authors have updates ready to go, we will probably not be posting in that order. As a result, it is always best to check the OP first for links to the latest LPer posts.If any of you have questions about how someone does something in his LP, please PM that respective LPer. I personally (as far as my LP goes) will make a post in between each update to answer each of the questions I receive. Furthermore, if any of you CK2 veterans want to chime in and offer their inputs and tactics, please do so. UPDATES Knuc U Kinte (Republics) Knuc was kind enough to give us a nutshell LP of basic strategies for republic games. Use this as your handy cheat sheet if you get confused with his LP or just want some solid general advice for growing your merchant state. Serene Doge Tedice della Gherardesca Part 1: Welcome to Pisa Part 2: Dwarves and kebabs are a dangerous mix Part 3: The best laid plans often go awry Part 4: The Two Sicilies Part 5: In which we lose our sugar daddy Serene Doge Ugo della Gherardesca Serene Doge Guido della Gherardesca Part 6: We have gold for Africa Part 7: David Flings Gold at Goliath Part 8: Expanding into Africa Serene Doge Gabrino della Gherardesca Part 9: A Brief Stint as a Patrician Serene Doge Alessandro della Gherardesca Part 10: Big Trouble in Little Pisa Part 11: Between the Alps and a Hard Place Serene Doge Conone della Gherardesca Part 12: As the italianos say... Absolutamente. The Mighty Biscuit (Muslims)(867 start date) Emir Muhammed Hashimid Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Year 870 Part 3: Year 876 Sultan Abdullah Hashimid Part 4: Year 880 Part 5: Year 894 Part 6: Year 911 Advent Falls (Miaphysites) (867 start date) Ashot IV Bagrationi Part 0: Who the gently caress are Miaphysites? Part 1: Don't Panic Part 2: Consolidate and Wait Part 3: Hail to the King Part 4: Setting Things in Order King Smbat Bagrationi Part 5: Steppe Wolfe Part 6: It's Georgia, Jake Part 7: Hurry Up and Wait Ashot II Bagrationi Part 8.1: Opportunistic Smbat II Bagrationi Part 8.2: The Nightmare Scenario Part 8.3: State of the World, 909 AD Part 9: Revolt-ing Part 10: Purple Whacks the Hornet's Nest, Brown Gets the Bite Part 11: When Empires Attack Part 12: Breaking Byzantium Part 13: It's Unlucky for Everyone King Hovhannes I (Ivan) Bagrationi Part 14: Carpe Diem Part 15: Defense! Part 16: The New Age King Vladislav I Bagrationi Part 17: Free Vassals Part 17.1: State of the World and New Direction Part 18: Factionista Emperor Ashot III Bagrationi Part 19: This Could've Been a Bad Idea Part 20: The Times and Troubles of Emperor Ashot I Emperor Vladislav Bagrationi Part 21: Balance in the Bosphorous Part 22: The Pretty Borders Faction Part 23: The Karling Faction is Displeased Part 24: Robin of Damascus Part 25: The Karling Glass Jaw Part 26: In Search of Pax Romana Bonus Update: The Great Schism 1100 Timestamp: Madness Deceitful Penguin (Defensive Pagans, 867 start date) This one includes a nice guide to maximizing your potential through the Ruler Customizer and/or handy console fuckery. High Chief Pingu Fingerpori of the Tavastians Part Yksi (1): Defensive Pagans, Character Creator and Console Shenanigans Completed LPs CapnAndy (Catholics) By far the most prolific tutorial in this thread and a worthy successor to Kersch's LP. Note that a lot of the mechanics have changed since the first post, but later posts cover Sons of Abraham and Rajas of India features as well. Murchad I Ua Briain 1066-1093 Part 1: Catholics Part 2: WAR!! Part 2 1/2: What We Missed Part 3: Consolidation Part 4: Expansion Part 5: Further Expansion Part 6: Long Live the King Part 7: A Peaceful Realm Part 7.5: Catholicism WOW! Part 8: Tournaments, Crusades, and Other Courtly Amusements Brian I Ua Briain "The Conqueror" 1093-1120 Part 9: Life Is What Happens When You're Making Other Plans Part 10: Everything Changes Part 11: More Beating Up On the Welsh Part 12: Fortune Favors the Bold Part 13: Inns and Invasions Part 14: Winning an Empire is Easy; the Challenge is to Rule One Part 15: Nobility Christmas Part 16: The Charm Offensive Part 17: Vikings and Other Annoyances Part 18: Unexpected Gains Part 19: Everything Goes to Hell Part 20: Plots, Plots, and More Plots Part 21: Killing Time Part 22: A Tragedy in Three Parts Fingen I Ua Brian 1120-1157 Part 23: Meet the New Boss Part 24: Short Reign Blues Part 25: Swimming with Sharks Part 26: WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW Part 27: Managing the Realm Part 28: The Further Adventures of Fingen-san Part 29: Indirect Conquest Part 30: Sons of Abraham Part 31: Back to Work Part 32: Military Matters Part 33: An Unlikely Alliance Part 34: What I Did for Wales Part 35: Fingens Gonna Fingen Part 36: Vikings and other... wait, didn't we do this already? Part 37: Of course it's not that easy Murchad II Ua Briain 1157-1183 Part 38: Fingen's Legacy Part 39: Not a Very Good Start Part 40: Murchad's Follies Part 41: Narrowly Avoiding Disaster Part 42: More Problems Part 43: Turning the Tide Part 44: A 9 Step Plan for not Losing the Game Part 45: Murchad Makes a Friend Part 46: Nothing You Ever Expected Part 47: A Most Remarkable Transformation Part 48: Eternal Glory Ruiadri I Ua Briain 1183-1194 Part 49: Two Wars Part 50: Rule Britannia Murchad III (Emperor Murchad I) Ua Briain "The Great" 1194-1242 Part 51: An Imperial Childhood Part 52: Messing With Scotland Part 53: All Grown Up Part 54: Uneventful Times Part 55: Odd Behavior Part 56: I Hate Scotland So Much Part 57: Settling the Inheritance Part 58: A Lull in the Action Part 59: Deus Vult Part 60: Nobility Christmas, Part II Part 61: Cleaning Up Part 62: Playing Defense Part 63: Building Peace Part 64: The Next Generation Beatrix I Ua Briain 1242- Part 65: Girl Power Part 66: History, Repeated as Tragedy Part 67: One Way Out Part 68: Musical Chairs Part 69: Hell on Earth Part 70: A Trumphant Return Part 71: Small Province, Big Problems Part 72: Waiting a While Art I Ua Briain Part 73: The Great Reign Begins Part 74: Preparations Part 75: Twelve Years Later Part 76: Cedant Crucis Togae Part 77: Hispania Falls Part 78: Vassal management, God-King style Part 79: Holy Land Part 80: Payback Donnchad Ua Briain Part 81: The Great Reign is Ended Part 82: Unifying Europe Part 83: Conquering More poo poo Part 84: The Short, Sad Reign of Emperor Constantin Part 85: Back on Track Part 86: Alba vs. the HRE (round 1) Part 87: World War TheMcD (Vassals) TheMcD shows off his strategy one of the more interesting starts in the game, the last surviving Karling landholder in 1066. While this particular start is pretty challenging, this is a great introduction to playing a vassal landholder and working in secret to gently caress over your liege and claw your way to the top. Count Herbert Karling Part 1: Patience is a Virtue Duke Eudes Karling Part 2: Because Sometimes Life Will Just poo poo on You Part 3: Road Trip Part 4: Soap Opera Shenanigans Part 5: Coast to Coast Emergency Part 6: The Mortality Gambit Duke Menasses Karling Part 7: I Claim, You Claim, We All Claim Together Part 8: GeminEyes on the Prize Part 9: The End of the Beginning Part 10: The Beginning of the End King Aubrey Karling Part 11: Deal With the Devil? Part 12: Growing Up Is the Hard Part Part 13: The Pope: Your Best Friend Part 14: Landgrabbing: The Christian Way Part 15: I Have Become France, Destroyer of Empires King Ebbon Karling Part 16: Murder, He Wrote Part 17: I Have Become France, Destroyer of Empires, Part II Part 18: Return to Normalcy Part 19: Sometimes, Boredom Ensues Part 20: Imperial Aspirations Queen Raisenda Karling Part 21: The One on Top, The One That Writes History Mr. Morgenstern (Indians) India is unfamiliar ground for most CK2 players, but Mr. Morgenstern does a good job of explaining the new features and hazards of playing a Raja. The Beginner's Guide to India Maharaja Ramapala Pala Part 1: An Introduction Part 2: Beating up people for their lunch money Part 3: In Which Wars are Fought, People are Killed by Snakes, and Many, Many, Many Babies are Born Part 4: What Can Change the Nature of Man? Maharaja Narendranarayan Pala Part 5: Old Habits Die Hard Part 6: Nothing Says "I Love You" Like Getting Your Spouse an Entire Kingdom Part 7: Sometimes a Maharaja Dies Just When You Need Him To Maharaja Narendranarayan II Pala Part 8: Inns and Outs Part 9: State of the World Part 10: More Than a Maharaja Part 11: In the Name of the Emperor Part 12: A Good Regent Samrat Lakshmichandra Pala Part 13: Appeasing the Demon Part 14: France, What on Earth Are You Doing Up There? Samrat Kalyanachandra Pala Part 15: Superstar Kalyanachandra Part 16: Egypt Burns Samrat Devabhuti Pala Part 17: The Magnificent Part 18: The Second Fall of Zoroastrianism Samrat Kalyanachandra Pala Part 19: Islam Strikes Back Part 20: State of the World Samrat Dhirsingha Pala Part 21: The Rider on the Pale Horse Epilogue: The Emperor of Emperors BONUS: The Other Events of Rajas of India BONUS: The IRL Palas BONUS: Fake Gurus Jenner (Norse) (867 start date) Norsemen are loving powerful. Jenner shows us in just two lifetimes how they can cut a gigantic swath through Europe in the name of Odin with a little finesse and care from the player. Haesteinn I Part 1: A Norse is a Norse, of course, of course Part 2: A Paper Trail of Tears Part 3: Fiddling While Rome Burns Part 4: Deathseekers Part 5: Long Live The King King Ragnarr I Part 6: Gotta Have Faith Part 7: Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better Part 8: Just for the pun of it Epilogue Sorites (Zoroastrians) (  this LP is absolute madness, and employs some outside-of-the-box thinking)NB: this playstyle is no longer viable in part thanks to this LP. Sorites, you are the reason we can't have nice things! Part 1: "What the hell are you doing?" Part 1b: The First Zoroastrian/Muslim War Part 2: "What the gently caress are you doing?" Part 3: "That poor man... Why would you do such a thing?" Part 4: If you give a mouse a cookie... Part 5: The Worst Courtier Part 6: "Are you still doing this poo poo? Part 7: No Rest for the Wicked Part 8: Vandad vs. The (Shia) World Part 9: I Did Not See That Coming Part 10: The Tyranny Ends Part 11: The Last Days of Vandad Karen One Less Enemy of Mann: Veloxyll shows us how even the lowest playable level of vassal can create an empire while playing as the Count of Mann. Also later on the Aztecs invade leading to much bloodshed and hilarity, and he shows us how to handle them very nicely. (Spoiler alert: it involves ripping out hearts for Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Romance of the Four Kingdoms. Also Stabbings. Part 3: Loan Sharks and Hosts Part 4: Where Things Get a Little Weird Part 5: In Which I Try To Make Up For Past Oversights Part 6: In Which I Learn an Important Lesson About Vassals. Also About Your King Leading From the Front in Battle. Part 7: In Which We Beat Up the English. Part 8: In Which I Get Sidetracked Once Again Part 9: The Regency From Hell Part 10: An Empire Against the Sunset Invasion Part 11: In Which I Have a Cunning Plan Part 12: In Which... Whoops Time Travel! Part 13 Inactive LPs Amnistar (Byzantines) (This is up to date for Rajas of India, but came to an early stop due to technical difficulties, becoming the second LP in this thread to be murdered by a cat) Konstantinos X Doukas Intro Part 1: Defending Our Home Part 2: Some People Are Just So Stupid Part 3: The End of an Era Michael VII Doukas Part 4: The Prodigal Son Niphon I Doukas Part 5: Whoops? Part 6: What's better than one revolt? Part 7: Time Passes By Part 8: Quick Expansion and Discussion of Plans Part 9: More Expansion and a Mistake beefart (Norse): Haraldr I "Fairhair" 867-905 Prologue: Concerning the Ways of the Feudal System (UPDATED) Chapter 1: In Which the Player Asks "Holy gently caress What Are All These Buttons?" Chapter 2: How Haraldr Taught the Southern Chieftains an Arithmetic Lesson Chapter 3: Concerning Haraldr’s New Diet, and How Olafr Guðröðrsson and His Nephew Came to Blows Chapter 4: Concerning the Storming of Frisia, and How Haraldr Fairhair Made a Friend Chapter 5: How Haraldr Fairhair Broke a Promise and Rededicated His Life to Odin Chapter 6: Concerning the Early Days of the Fylkirate and the Departure of Prince Eirikr Chapter 7: How Haraldr Spent His Twilight Years Eirikr I 905-912 Chapter 8: Concerning the First Norse Succession and the Troubles it Caused Chapter 9: Concerning Haraldr's Dream, and How Eirikr Fulfilled It Haraldr II 912- Chapter 10: As Far as the Raven Flies Chapter 10a: On poo poo I'm Covering in Chapter 11 After I Fix My drat Computer  Cease to Hope (Byzantines): Doux Isaakios Komnenos 1066- Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Never Get Involved in a Land War in Asia (Minor) Part 3: Five Wars for Five Brothers Part 3.5: A Vassal's Guide to Factions SpaceViking (Muslims) Emir Munis I Riyahdid 1066-1089 Part 1: Introduction and Orientation Part 2: So Much For Muslim Unity Part 3: Meccabound and Down Part 4: Jockeying for Position Part 5: Just Kidding! Interlude Between Wars Part 6: One Province at a Time Part 7: I'm Running Out of War-Related Names Part 8: Zoghbadid Blues Daeren (Merchant Republics): Domenico II Contarini 1066-1068 Part 0: An Introduction Part I: The Foundations Part II: The Contarini Curse Begins Iacopo Contarini 1066- Veloxyll (Jews) Khan Manasseh II 867- Update 1 Update 2 Update 3 Update 4 Khan Nisi I Update 5 
beefart fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Oct 30, 2014 |
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Jul 13, 2013 22:49
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Part 0: An Introduction Have you ever looked at your pitiful monthly income and scowled, furiously trying to find more ways to squeeze gold out of your filthy peasants? Do you want to swim in Scrooge McDuck money bins of gold and spend your way to economic victory in a world where serfdom is the hot new thing? Are you tired of your enemies being easy to politically (or literally, if you're Byzantine) neuter? Are you a fan of picking and choosing your heirs, grooming them perfectly, only to die suddenly at the exact wrong moment and get screwed out of the ruling seat for another thirty years? Do you want to have a playstyle whose spirit is encapsulated in the following image?  If so, then welcome to Republics. Merchant republics in Crusader Kings 2 were introduced - or rather, drastically overhauled and made playable - in the expansion The Republic, go figure. Originally, merchant republics were just city owners with a feudal rank, like how counts and above are feudal governments and church owners with feudal ranks are part of theocracies. In The Republic, merchant republic mechanics were massively changed from the standard, and became the first playable government type other than strict feudalism. Its release was met with cries that the new mechanics were broken right in half, and, well, I can't really argue that. On release, merchant republics could flatten anyone, anywhere by simply burying them under piles of bribe money, assassins, mercenaries, and retinues. A balance patch fixed a lot of the crazier issues, but merchant republics still have the potential to get stupid powerful much faster than another government type if you're experienced and unafraid to be cheap. The problem is, though, if you go in inexperienced, most merchant republic starts given to you by the game will crush you. Merchant republics have tons and tons of strengths given to them by their unique forms of commerce and government, but this is balanced out by them losing some key benefits of feudalism, baked-in weaknesses, and, most importantly, absolutely pitiful land holdings. If you've played much CK2, you know real power is in how much land you have, how many minions you can call on, and how many dudes you can catapult into a neighbor's civil war to steal things. The default merchant republics have an extreme lack of all of those in most every starting scenario. This means your early game is a very tricky balancing act, trying to expand enough to let your money super-charge further growth while trying to be inconspicuous enough that your neighbors, rivals, or God forbid, your feudal lords, don't stomp you flat. This tutorial LP will probably be a bit different than the others posted in the thread, in that I'm not trying to do a perfect run. In this playthrough, I will not savescum, I will not be a cheap bastard with gamey mechanics, and I will not sugarcoat how badly I gently caress up Since Patrician houses always have their manors, you can get into a position where you're utterly boned but haven't actually lost, because to actually lose a Republic game your entire dynasty has to bite it or be ineligible for inheritances. This is great to make comebacks, but sometimes comebacks aren't really possible in practical terms if you've been screwed badly enough. If I get into a position like this, one I consider to be the point where most sane people would quit, I'll quit and restart if necessary to show off things I didn't get a chance to. One last note: since I'm not doing the tutorial with the basic information about "oh god what do all of these buttons do," I'll be operating on the assumption that you have a grasp on the absolute basics of the UI and some of the general gameplay. If you don't, just wait for the updates that'll walk you through all that. Daeren fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Jul 14, 2013 |
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Jul 14, 2013 02:40
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Part I: The Foundations Ahh, the world map at 1066. A familiar sight at this point.  But, uh, where are we?  Somewhere in the Holy Roman Empire, perhaps? Or an Italian state near the Papacy?  Oh.  Oh wow. I wasn't kidding when I said that merchant republics don't start with much land. We're playing as the Serene Doge of Venice, which means we only have legitimate control over this tiny-rear end island, and a few cities along nearby coasts. We are one of the puniest entities on the map in terms of footprint. Even the Pope's got more land than us.  So, this is us. Serene Doge is the King-level title for a republic. Oh, by the way, to get this out of the way: I will probably be using "merchant republic" and "republic" interchangeably, but there's a difference between the two. Republics are republican governments with no access to the sea, while merchant republics have access to the sea and thus trading posts and all fun mechanics associated with them. Serene Doge Domenico Contarini here is in a pretty cushy spot. He starts with a long reign bonus, several kids, a couple grandkids, a nice chunk of change, some monthly income, and his stats and traits this go-round are pretty great.  This is the oldest son, Iacopo, our heir. Republic succession is a little hairy and I'll get into it in a little bit, but for now what matters is that Iacopo is the oldest dynasty member besides us, so he's our heir. He's unmarried, which we'll have to fix, but he has two sons, which is a good start. He's got some nice Stewardship but the rest of his stats range from okay to abysmal.  Andrea here has a kick-rear end set of traits and is more well-balanced than his brother. He also is unmarried with a kid.  Carlo's not too shabby himself, and has a son and no wife. I suppose records of this period in Venice just didn't bother to count the wives.  Poor Ricciarda has just about the worst stats I've ever seen on someone without one of the inbreeding or idiocy traits. I'll be trying to marry her off to someone I hate to set up a ticking genetic time bomb.  Right, so, priority one: pick ambition. I choose to amass wealth, because we're a goddamned republic.  Next: look through all of Christendom (the character search option) for the eligible wife with the highest stewardship. This is a personal preference; a lot of people use wives to shore up weaknesses in their husbands, but I prefer to just crank up stewardship to increase my demesne and money. A lusty, lazy, content wife with 19 stewardship's about as good as I can ask for at the start of the game.  Since she's not from a Great House, I don't even have to bribe anyone's opinions up to marry her.  Next: find similar economic genius to marry to heir. Our bachelorette, soon to be daughter-in-law.  Our council. Pretty good overall, but the reason I bring them up is the presence of patricians. Each republic has five patrician families, including your character's. They're five dynasties that make up the ruling parliament of sorts, and the head of each family serves as their representation in government. Patricians will rapidly become your worst enemies, beating out any vassal you may have in terms of sheer frustration and opposition. The ideal endgame for a republic is to have the other four patrician families solidly under your bootheel and too terrified of you to start poo poo, but until you amass enough personal power you want to kiss their asses with unbridled zeal. If the other patricians all hate you, your life is going to become extremely difficult. Fun note: patricians have a -20 "Not on the Council" penalty if they aren't, well, on the council. If you have a patrician with miserable stats, this means either accepting they're probably not going to like you, or filling one of your seats with a moron.  A problem with any merchant republic that you don't create yourself and transfer into via save/load or cheats is that you're probably going to start the game with patricians entrenched into holdings. Here, the Morosinis control one of the cities in the county of Venezia.  Note just how much income that one city gives him. Patricians in direct control of cities will hoover up money at terrifying rates, which they will use to compete with you. One of your goals as a starting republic is to de-land your patricians as fast as possible, which is tricky because republic crown authority is capped pretty low, so you can't just go on a revokation spree and sacrifice one ruler's reputation forever.  This is the Republic screen, which you will probably be spending a lot of time looking at and fuming. The succession of a ruler's titles in a republic works very differently from any other succession law in the game, except some forms of elective. Each of the five patrician families runs for election after the ruler dies, and the one with the most respect wins. Respect comes from a combination of prestige and a bonus from how old the candidate is. You can, however, spend some of your truckloads of cash to fix an election, artificially inflating your heir's respect by putting gold into the Campaign Fund. You can actually take money back out of this fund at any time, but when you die, you lose everything that's in it whether you win or not, so it's best to be very careful about taking money out. The parts under each candidate are the Manors, which I will address in a bit, amount of trading posts owned / trading post maximum, and a link to each trading post in the republic, sorted by owning family.  This is the map mode that shows the presence of trading posts and the control of sea zones. Genoa is reddish, Pisa is yellowish, Venice is blue-green, and the dark blue up near Sweden is Gotland.  This is the Grand Mayor (Duke) of Gotland. He hates our guts because we're another republic, which is an automatic -75 Rival malus to opinion. The important bit to note is that he's ruled by a feudal liege, the King of Sweden, which can cause a lot of tension between the two. Feudal lords like republics because they're a fantastic source of tax income, but hate them because they're a different government type and they don't give their lords ALL of their fabulous riches. Gotland, in my experience, only lasts a few decades before one of their kings gets greedy and tries to revoke the title, relations become strained enough (usually because of tax hikes) to start a civil war, or Gotland tries to become independent and gets squished. They're an interesting start because of this balance of a feudal lord with zero competition in the region, but it'd be a little too different from the core gameplay for a tutorial.  Switching modes, we now view trade posts and trade zones by family. Venice has five trade posts at the moment, each controlled by a different family. The Contarinis (us) control the one in Venice, though, which is the most lucrative. Note that you can set up trade posts in provinces and countries you have no other relation to. This is extremely important for the expansion of republics.  In county view, two tabs are on the side of coastal provinces. The bottom one switches from general county view to Trade Post view, which shows the stats of the trade post present in the county, or the option to create one if there is none. Because Venezia's starting holdings are incredibly high value, this trading post is doing pretty well for itself even without any upgrades, giving us 12 gold a year on its own.  Hovering over the gold icon shows us bonuses and penalties to its current generation of income. The base value is 6 gold a year, Trade Zone bonus can be increased by upgrading trade posts and putting them near each other, and the connected to capital bonus is the reason you want to gently caress over other Patricians who keep breaking up your giant trading chain and ruining the capital bonus. . Trading posts increase the tax income of provinces they're in and provinces in their trade zone, which is why the AI tolerates their presence at all, considering certain...problems, trading posts can cause for them later down the line. Of course, these bonuses apply to provinces you hold too, meaning that the income of your stuff near the heart of a trading empire reaches pretty ridiculous levels.So, the end goal of all of this is to make absurd amounts of money, but surely you'll be making more money than you can possibly spend?  Welcome to the biggest money sink for most of a Republic's game. Manors give fantastic bonuses to the head of their dynasty, and count as a magical source of troops not tied to any province on the map once you get the appropriate upgrades, but they cost more than many Catholic rulers will ever have at once, per upgrade. Upgrading your manor is vital if you want to succeed long-term as a republic!!!The upgrades are what let you get way more trade posts than your rival patricians, make retinues your chief military force, give a constant income bonus, give permanent stat bonuses to each ruler, and many, many other things. Upgrade it whenever you can without going broke. Next time: We actually unpause! Daeren fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Jul 14, 2013 |
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Jul 14, 2013 02:43
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Does that 142.3 trade zone value do anything in and of itself, or is its only tangible effect the percentage bonus to city tax and trade zone income? Is it just the amount of gold that another ruler gets from razing it, maybe?
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Jul 14, 2013 04:23
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Kersch posted:Does that 142.3 trade zone value do anything in and of itself, or is its only tangible effect the percentage bonus to city tax and trade zone income? Is it just the amount of gold that another ruler gets from razing it, maybe? Off the top of my head, that is the total value of the holdings that make up the trade zone, and is what determines the income of the trade posts within.
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Jul 14, 2013 04:52
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Been playing as a republic lately, and I've got a question. When I wasn't Doge, the sitting Doge took over one of my trade ports, and now that I've usurped the bastard, I can't do the same. Is taking over a trade port of a rival family that's still part of your republic an AI-only decision, or can players do it too?
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Jul 14, 2013 04:53
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IIRC, you need to have fewer trade posts than the family you're taking them from. Since the AI is much worse than you are at building trade posts, this is almost guaranteed to never be the case.
Grizzwold fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Jul 14, 2013 |
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Jul 14, 2013 05:10
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Wow, I'm really impressed a good number of people are lined up to participate in this thread. I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone has to say about the game. It's always great to see informative LPs of Paradox games, because while I really like the idea of these games I find it can be very difficult to deal with the interfaces and lack of feedback. Looking forward to seeing how distinct the different playstyles are!
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Jul 14, 2013 05:31
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I like that you're starting with the Republic tutorial, curious to see if I missed anything about them thus far. Is it possible to seize trade posts from your own patricians if you're the Doge and have more posts than them? They completely cockblocked me from expanding my chain of trade zones to Constantinople.
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Jul 14, 2013 15:00
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I have a suggestion for Daeren over something that causes me inordinate amount of distress: Can you turn off the mediterranean portraits? Please? They are hideous. 
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Jul 14, 2013 15:26
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fspades posted:I have a suggestion for Daeren over something that causes me inordinate amount of distress: Can you turn off the mediterranean portraits? Please? They are hideous. Yeah, those screenshots reminded me again just how unacceptably poor quality that pack (which Paradox opted to sell for actual money) is. There is a great mediterranean portrait modification that makes them much more human-like and tolerable. If you use it, the portrait pack actually enhances your experience, like it should. It's a great addition in any situation, because it doesn't change actual gameplay at all. You just activate it on the mod screen, and voila!
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Jul 14, 2013 16:46
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This is the start of an amazing tutorial thread. Thank you. I hope it doesn't end up like the now dead Victoria 2 tutorial thread that explained nothing and was ill-advised at the start due to the premise.
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Jul 14, 2013 18:00
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Yep, Incidently very viable to maneuver things so you take every non church holding in venice itself. Screwing over the other 4 houses is a key thing to do.
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Jul 14, 2013 18:12
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Daeren posted:
Nitpicking, but it doesn't work like this. Only the genetic bad traits (Imbecile, Hunchback, Ugly, etc) are inheritable. Her low base stats aren't. The only way her kids would end up with bad traits is if she ends up educating them or being their regent, but the AI is usually smart enough to avoid that.
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Jul 14, 2013 19:31
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While there's no direct genetic code for simple bad stats, a newborn will have some stat bias from it's parents, iirc. So while Ricciarda isn't quite the ticking genetic bomb hoped for, it's likely her offspring will be relatively poor statwise.
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Jul 14, 2013 20:48
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While she might not be a genetic bomb, she's still an awful wife and will contribute next to nothing to her future husband's stats.
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Jul 14, 2013 21:23
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Catholicism, Part I: Introduction I’m going to be showing off the “normal” way to play the game -- as a European Catholic ruler. As a hat-tip to Kersch’s excellent LP, I will be following in his footsteps and playing as the Ua Briains of Ireland. They’re actually ideal for a tutorial; you start off with a vassal and a de jure claim, so we can jump right into both aspects of the game. So let’s start off!  Here is beautiful Ireland, where we’ll be playing. I’m in Terrain Map mode, which nobody ever uses because it is terrible. I’ll be switching to Independent Realms in a moment and pretty much never moving from there unless I want some specific information, but first let’s see who we are and what we’ve got. I’ve started this game in September 1066, which will make sure England stays out of our business for the foreseeable future (they’re about to have some visitors).  This is me. It says I’m a King, but ignore that, I’m not. I’m a Petty King, a Duke with no liege. Stats-wise, I’m not terrible, but I’m certainly not great. I’m mediocre at diplomacy, fighting, and stewardship, and bad at intrigue and scholarship. Also, my education trait is Tough Soldier, the second (of four) martial trait. This makes me a pretty bad option to educate children. When kids turn 16 they get an education trait based off their mentors’, and I want diplomatic rulers.  Here’s my council. They are all pretty bad at their jobs. Ideally, you want your councillors to be in the high teens at least in their governing stat. Nobody’s there yet, but they’re each the best man in the realm for the job. Since my realm is currently two whole counties, that’s not surprising. I’ll get more talented people later, as I expand and start breeding some intelligent sorts.  The Independent Realms map at game start. I am Munster (it’s the name of my Duchy). As you can see, Ireland is fragmented; everybody else in the entire country only controls one county each. This is good. It’ll make it easier to conquer.  This is the De Jure Duchies map, and it’s important information. You want to keep to the de jure borders as much as possible (greedy-rear end vassals will generally make it impossible, but it’s the goal), and as you’re conquering, it’s crucial to know what each county belongs to. When we get to usurping and creating titles, you’ll see why. For now, notice that my de jure territory includes Desmond, the county directly to the south. We’ll be doing something with that information shortly, but first, I have two more pressing matters to take care of. Both I and my son are unmarried, and no I don’t know where the son came from in that case, also shut up. In Crusader Kings II, you’re going to die. And that’s okay. You play as one person at a time, but what you’re really playing as is the dynasty. When your guy dies you immediately start playing as his heir; the only way to get a game over is to have no family member left alive to inherit your titles when you die. Right now I’ve got a son, so I’m set for one generation, but I’ll need my son to have kids, and also life is very fragile in these times. It’s best to have spares. So, we need to get married. Here’s how you go bride-hunting in CK2: open up the People Finder and do a worldwide search for any unmarried women. You can sort them by rank, or opinion of you, or any particular attribute score you’re looking for. Women can’t hold council positions (with the exception of Spymaster, which you can appoint your wife or mother to), but they can educate children. I’m planning on having some children around for them to educate, and I want diplomats, so I order my search by Diplomacy.  Okay, so that’s the cream of the crop. There’s a few other factors I’m looking for here. First off, Muslim girls need to be taken out of the running immediately; they cannot marry infidels. In this case, none of the girls I’m looking at are Muslim. Luck of the draw; all too often you’ll see an amazing marriage prospect who won’t marry your infidel rear end. Remember, kids get an education trait based on their mentors’, so I want a wife with a good education trait. The icon for diplomatic educations looks like a chess bishop, and the best one is Grey Eminence, which is the white bishop that has four stars under it. Hasti has a spying education (odd, because her intrigue score is terrible), so that knocks her out. Adelaide and Duena have three-star diplomatic educations, which isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, but they’re both kinda old. I want a 16 year old, to maximize the amount of time she can get pregnant. They’re out. I also want to look at each prospective bride’s personality traits, because mentors influence their wards and will generally pass on their traits. When you’re playing yourself you can mouseover each trait to get a description of what it is and what it does, but for now take my word for it: Verkhoslava has really bad traits and I don’t want her teaching any kids, so she’s out. Ilsa’s traits are good enough, her diplomacy is high even if her other stats kinda suck, and hey, she’s Catholic. She’ll do.  Of course she’ll marry me. She’s lowborn and I’m awesome. Now, on to finding a bride for my son. This is a bit trickier; while all the previous considerations still apply, I’m also looking for something else - a hereditary trait. Hereditary traits are heart-shaped and come before the personality traits, and are unique in that they can be passed down to offspring. My son will be breeding my next heir, and I want a good one, so it’s time for Medieval Eugenics -- I want a wife for him who is either Quick (meaning smart, not fast; +3 to everything) or Genius (+5 to everything). And since I got my wife as a teacher, her education and personality traits aren’t as important.  There’s one! Cynegyth is Quick. Not ideal, but I actually checked the entire list and there just weren’t any geniuses. Sometimes that happens, it’s a fairly rare trait. Anyway, you. Marry my son.  I also need to pick an Ambition. Ambitions are self-explanatory; they’re what you want to achieve. Each character has one, and their ambitions influence how they behave to an extent.  I game the system a little bit, picking Get Married for the easy 10 piety. Even though I proposed marriage already, I’m not married yet -- it’ll take a few days for my proposal to reach the lieges of the two ladies in question, and then the lieges will decide if I can have their women or not. And by the way, in case you were paying attention: Yes, women in this game are basically property who are only good for marrying off and teaching children. Welcome to the Dark Ages.  Time to put my Council to work. I’ll be going to war soon, so more men is a good thing. A 30% boost in one county is huge when I’ve only got two counties in the first place. I sent him to Thormond, my capital.  Money is good. Get to Thormond.  Scheming! Scheming is very important. Basically, unless you’re trying to kill somebody, park your Spymaster in your capital city, set him to Scheme, and never ever move him. You’re going to want to be aware of all the plots people have in motion, especially as your realm increases and everyone’s trying to climb over and murder each other. Right now it won’t come up so much, just because we’ve got so few vassals and even less titles for them to feud about.  Each county has a bishop, and each bishop has an opinion of you and an opinion of the Pope. They pay their taxes to whichever one they like better. I send my court chaplain to Thormond too.  Ah, Fabricate Claims. Possibly the most important councilor job. We’ll get into this in detail next time, so for now I’ll bottom-line it by saying that I’m sending him to a place I’ll wait to invade later on.  Leinster is a good next target. Okay, all set. Time to unpause the game and let time start moving. One week later, brides start arriving.    When a royal wedding occurs, you get a dialog box offering you a choice: you can collect a Royal Aid Duty to help pay for the wedding (they don’t actually cost anything) and get some gold, or don’t do that and get some prestige because you’re rich enough to pay for your own poo poo. The amount of money you stand to gain depends on your vassals. Right now, I can get a whopping 8.24 gold. gently caress that. I want the prestige, especially since I’m taking a prestige hit for marrying a commoner.  Hooray! Time for a new ambition. This time I’m going to pick an ambition to improve one of my stats. These are only available for stats you have less than an 8 in, and they unlock random events that will increase the stat you chose and possibly give you cool traits.  Having a low intrigue in this game is potentially deadly. I’m going to work on that. Next time: WAR! CapnAndy fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Jul 17, 2013 |
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Jul 15, 2013 23:00
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Huh, I just have my Spymaster sit in either Paris or Constantinople and tech steal all day long.
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Jul 15, 2013 23:16
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When I do a Ua Briain game, I tend to try and nick Ormond from the vassal who controls it before I invade Desmond. He tends to have a low opinion of Murchad, largely because I think he's hardcoded to have the Ambitious trait, and without the fullness of that county's troops at your disposal the invasion of Desmond can be tricky.
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Jul 15, 2013 23:29
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ChrisAsmadi posted:Huh, I just have my Spymaster sit in either Paris or Constantinople and tech steal all day long. With the new technology system that is highly advisable, especially for a relatively primitive place like Ireland.
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Jul 15, 2013 23:32
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Yeah, especially when your realm is so small there's not going to be any scheming other than "Unimportant Jackass A Wants to Murder Unimportant Jackass B", you may as well just send them to one of the major cities to steal tech.
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Jul 15, 2013 23:46
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JT Jag posted:When I do a Ua Briain game, I tend to try and nick Ormond from the vassal who controls it before I invade Desmond. He tends to have a low opinion of Murchad, largely because I think he's hardcoded to have the Ambitious trait, and without the fullness of that county's troops at your disposal the invasion of Desmond can be tricky. And as for the Spymaster, I am teaching the newbies good habits, okay 
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Jul 15, 2013 23:53
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Did the game stop making your kids pick up culture of their mentor? Since otherwise you may end up with an out-of-culture heir, which is pretty painful (since they don't get along with anyone).
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Jul 16, 2013 00:26
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You can also get a game over by accidentally becoming a theocracy or non-merchant republic, though those two are pretty hard to manage; or (I believe) becoming either muslim, pagan or a merchant republic without the appropriate DLC.OddObserver posted:Did the game stop making your kids pick up culture of their mentor? Since otherwise you may end up with an out-of-culture heir, which is pretty painful The earlier you switch culture, the earlier you can make greek Ireland 
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Jul 16, 2013 00:30
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Unofficial spymaster rules: Do you have green reputation with all landed vassals? If so, you're probably in the clear to steal tech. Is there anyone baron-level or higher who hates your guts? Stick to scheming. Even this isn't hard and fast though, because even if your vassals like you they may not like your family or your favored courtiers or whatnot.
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Jul 16, 2013 00:41
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OddObserver posted:Did the game stop making your kids pick up culture of their mentor? Since otherwise you may end up with an out-of-culture heir, which is pretty painful I'm intentionally making some rookie mistakes throughout the LP, just to demonstrate them. That's one of 'em.
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Jul 16, 2013 01:02
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JT Jag posted:Unofficial spymaster rules: Do you have green reputation with all landed vassals? If so, you're probably in the clear to steal tech. Is there anyone baron-level or higher who hates your guts? Stick to scheming. In my current game (Old Gods start, Magyars. At this point I'm King of Hungary/Bohemia/Bavaria, half of Croatia and I hold the King of Serbia title because you can't give the Pope king level titles so I was stuck with it), I've found it easier just to crush anyone who tries to revolt, but that might just be a consequence of the fact that with that start, your realm's made from scratch, so all your vassals are single duchy relatives or single duchy bishops. The Magyars are an interesting start, actually. OddObserver posted:Did the game stop making your kids pick up culture of their mentor? Since otherwise you may end up with an out-of-culture heir, which is pretty painful The worst part about that is it makes your culture specific buildings magically disappear from your demense.
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Jul 16, 2013 01:46
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Oh hey cool, I love these Paradox tutorial LPs. I read some of Kersch's LP a while back to first learn the game, but with all the changes, I could use something new to help me out. This game is really fun, but there is just so much stuff, it helps to have a guide to tell you what everything does. Also, the merchant republics look pretty fun, if a bit difficult. I do enjoy making oodles of money in Paradox games, and I might try my hand at playing along with the LP. Looking forward to see how you manage to expand from one tiny little island, and how you manipulate the election system.
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Jul 16, 2013 04:44
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ChrisAsmadi posted:In my current game (Old Gods start, Magyars. At this point I'm King of Hungary/Bohemia/Bavaria, half of Croatia and I hold the King of Serbia title because you can't give the Pope king level titles so I was stuck with it), I've found it easier just to crush anyone who tries to revolt, but that might just be a consequence of the fact that with that start, your realm's made from scratch, so all your vassals are single duchy relatives or single duchy bishops.
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Jul 16, 2013 04:49
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I guess it should be said, CK2 and most of its DLCs are on a steam flash sale right now for 75% off.
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Jul 16, 2013 06:12
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Predictably, if a bit disappointing, The Old Gods does not fall under the heading of "most."
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Jul 16, 2013 06:45
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Most important thing is make sure your council is green on relations or they will SABOTAGE their own positions... more green is better but any green will do.
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Jul 16, 2013 09:20
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I never found claim fabrication to be super useful once I got familiar with the marriage and inheritance mechanics. It's even less useful now that you need 51% control to press a dejure ducal claim and a sure fire way to suck the fun out of a newbies foray into the game.
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Jul 16, 2013 09:37
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Not to mention it takes for ever for even a good chancellor to do it. I know it's percentage-based but it seems like you'd be lucky to get more than one or two claims your ruler's whole life working that way.
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Jul 16, 2013 10:10
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Yeah but unless your relationship with your liege is dangerously low (and you're not about to revolt/plot), fabricating claims is still usually the best job for your chancellor.
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Jul 16, 2013 10:52
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NihilCredo posted:Yeah but unless your relationship with your liege is dangerously low (and you're not about to revolt/plot), fabricating claims is still usually the best job for your chancellor. When you start out, sure, but before long the diminishing worth of maybe getting one measly county is outweighed by the need to keep your vassals happy.
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Jul 16, 2013 12:48
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NihilCredo posted:Yeah but unless your relationship with your liege is dangerously low (and you're not about to revolt/plot), fabricating claims is still usually the best job for your chancellor. That said, if you have a de jure claim on a county but are in a truce with that count's liege, sowing dissent on that county may lead to an independence revolt and you can press claims then. Not a surefire way if said count/duke loses his war, but could go faster than fabricating claims.
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Jul 16, 2013 14:54
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In my Abyssinia game my chancellor was pretty much on 'improve relations' duty constantly, moving between Cairo (to stop them invading me) and Constantinople (so they will answer my call to arms) all the time. He had no time to fabricate claims. But yes if your realm isn't in much danger of being crushed by internal or external enemies (ie if you are playing in the British isles) then it's probably best to have the chancellor fabricate claims all the time.
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Jul 16, 2013 18:11
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Yeah, Improve Relations can be insanely useful, even to the point of being the only thing keeping you in the game, but I'm sure we'll see that with some of the other mini-LPs like the Zoroastrian one.
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Jul 16, 2013 18:18
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ChrisAsmadi posted:Huh, I just have my Spymaster sit in either Paris or Constantinople and tech steal all day long. In the Old Gods start the best places to steal tech are either Syracuse in Sicily or Dorylaion in the Byzantine Empire, at least until Alexandria gets its poo poo together.
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Jul 16, 2013 18:41
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