What's going on in your current game?

[unmerged(490199)]

I started with William the Bastard and conquered all of England, Wales, Ireland, Normandy, parts of Europe including Brittany, parts of Holland, Germany, Portugal, Aragon, Castellan and stretching South and East as far as Tunisia amongst other little tid bits. Its heavy going but very rewarding til I got to a point where I have eight sons. All of which have excellent capabilities but due to quirks in the game will not allow me to marry them off and unfortunately due to their tutors have all different cultures. This has made several retries very very difficult as my king dies and then the land gets torn to pieces within a few turns and even after going to extreme lengths to kill off my sons and their heirs til it returns to the one English son.... Well it still all falls to bits no matter how hard I try. The limitations on changing culture is the most crippling aspect for me personally. Even a loyal member to my court gets appointed to a county the treacherous little ungrateful wretch goes for indepedence. The lords popping up for indepence way out number the amount of time I have to bribe, threaten, imprison or murder the lot of them and their replacements come just as rebellious.

I wonder how many other people get to a point where there is just no chance of staying even partially united?

 

[J0kk3]

...\I wonder how many other people get to a point where there is just no chance of staying even partially united?

Happens to all of us. I just start a new game when that happens. like my persian game for example:
I conquered everything from persia to france prussia still left of the HRE otherwise i had it all. BUT my Decadence were +25 each month, so no way could i fix that

 

[Fibur]

In my Dublin>Ireland game, the one remarkable feature is the creation of a Piast empire in central Europe. The King of Hungary is also king of Croatia, Poland and Sicily. All through marriage and inheritance.

 

[unmerged(508419)]

Continuing on with my Ireland game (page 2 update)... All stable in Ireland itself, so I've pretty much spent the last 60 years helping other causes...
The Pope could see the muslims from his balcony, so he called a crusade for Sicily and I got involved. Victory was quick as far as crusades go (2 out of 2, Jerusalem already HRE), with Brittany somehow getting a jumpstart on everyone else and claiming it, even though they were down to their last 2-3 counties before the crusade. Now its the other way around, the Bretons are the Kingdom of Sicily with counties nthwest of france. Whats interesting though is this... sth italy is Sicily, nth italy is Tuscany. The heir to Tuscany is the queen mother of Sicily!! Meaning that the Breton king of Sicily will most probably inherit almost all of italy in the not too distant future... and he asked for my genius sister's hand before I realised all this, I knocked it back, but upon realising I quickly checked again, still single, marriage and alliance now promptly secured with possibly europe's newest power-to-be... unless they lay claim to my kingdom of course.

Before the above, I'd been busy helping France with their rebellions and islamic invasion. My sister at the time (currently aunt) was the queen, so that was our primary alliance. Then later the Papacy announced their 3rd crusade so far, this time for Aquitaine, ruled by the mighty Ejaid (sp?) empire. Seemed like it was heading for a loss, until a recently stabilised England jumped in and swung things in Christendom's favour, although its still ongoing.

Scandanavia is now mostly Sweden after a war to acquire the weakened Norway. Then there is Denmark. They got a little too close with the Rus, so much so that the Danish rulers are Orthodox. Not only that, the queen was the heir to Hungary. Then one of the few remaining Catholic dukes in Denmark launched a war to have the lone Catholic left in their inner royal family, Prince Mstislav, installed as king. Couldnt just sit and watch two nations potentially lost to the faith, so I sent my Irish troops to Denmark to help the cause. Unfortunately it was to no avail. Hungary is now part of the scattered Danish kingdom.

ERE and HRE are both still sizeable and also aligned through marriage. but independence movements and jihads have stopped any major progress on their behalf.

 

[unmerged(445458)]

Playing Volga Bulgaria, I've seized all of de jure Russia but I can't form it because I'm Cuman. (That's racist!) I also took Hungary, and just finished beating back the Mongol menace. Thinking about launching an invasion of Bavaria, because the HRE is the only power that can realistically challenge me at this point. The tedium of trying to rule a bunch of Russians and Hungarians is starting to wear on me though, so I might just call the game won and try something else.

 

[noobermenschen]

Got my new computer and fired up CK2 today. First game - Abyssinia!

I have so far survived into 1068 chiefly because the Muslims are in one giant saloon fight with each other (so are the Christians for that matter, smoking provinces everywhere you look). I took a province from Axum while she was fighting Nubia, I think I'll hand it over to the mayor for the income bonus, these castle improvements won't pay for themselves!

The bishops all hate the king because I'm gluttonous, cynical, lustful and I changed crown authority. Looked at the assassinate strategy for the fatamid caliph, but he's leading an army in Aq`aba and it costs 350 gold for a shot! Where am I going to come up with that kind of coin!?

 

[Kanin_Usagi]

Got my new computer and fired up CK2 today. First game - Abyssinia!

I have so far survived into 1068 chiefly because the Muslims are in one giant saloon fight with each other (so are the Christians for that matter, smoking provinces everywhere you look). I took a province from Axum while she was fighting Nubia, I think I'll hand it over to the mayor for the income bonus, these castle improvements won't pay for themselves!

The bishops all hate the king because I'm gluttonous, cynical, lustful and I changed crown authority. Looked at the assassinate strategy for the fatamid caliph, but he's leading an army in Aq`aba and it costs 350 gold for a shot! Where am I going to come up with that kind of coin!?

I'd start a plot to murder him if I was you. That's pretty the best chance without you getting extremely fortunate.

 

[Tyler96]

Playing my first proper game as the Muirebes (sic?) of Scotland, having previously tried Ireland and messed about in Italy. My first two kings were relatively long-lived (70 and 64) and saw me create the Kingdoms of Ireland and usurp Scotland by the 1130s. Recently however, things have gone downhill, with my King dying at 29 of an infected wound (he suffered like 5 over a 10 year period), leaving the throne in the hands of his 3 year old son. The new king's regent and uncle promptly murdered him, as he had his other nieces and nephews, which has seen the Duchess of Ulster and her husband the Duke of the Isles revolt, and split the realm in two, as I was in the middle of forcing my mother's claim on an independent Lancaster.

Elsewhere, my dynasty are the King of France (mat-married the Fourth son of a French King, whose three brothers died childless or without male heirs), the Duke of an independent York-Northumberland (I assisted), the Duke of Greater Poland (via a marriage to the Swedish king, unfortunately her brother inherited over her Muirebe children, must've been elective) and some low-level counts in the HRE. The English King is also my cousin on my mother's side.

Meanwhile, Castille and Barcelona are holding relatively strong in Iberia; Navarra lost all its Spanish territory but survived in Eastern France; the Byzantines have seen off several Jihads on Armenia and Anatolia; and the Piasts united Poland and Denmark for some thirty years before the Ylvings regained control.

 

[americanu197]

Ibadi...Ibadi everywhere through iberia and mauretania and an isolated sunni malian empire...i am really struggling to keep the faith every time i try attacking someone the others gang up on me but of course im slowly pulling thru

 

[Klarum]

Playing in catholic in Iberia... overrun by muslims.
Restarted... overrun by muslims.
Maybe at third time... no. Still overrun by muslims.

I am not a bad player it is just the game is coded to make muslims ally a little bit too much too easily. You can never fight a 1vs1 war it is always 1 catholic vs a minimum of 3 muslims.

 

[Irons_Of_Hearts]

Playing as Barcelona-Aragon. Muslims are everywhere. They even captured some parts of Norway! Right now I'm fighting against the fith Jihad for Aragon (not counting invasions by Mauretania, surprisingly united muslim Iberia and Mali).
Byzantium is finished. They only hold a little part of Serbia. Croatia is captured by Africa. France was conquered by muslims too but recent Crusade took some land back to Catholic world. All other Crusades failed.
The game is won for muslims now and I see no point in continuing because I'm really alone against the whole Muslim world.

As for the allies against muslims, they are working pretty well if you marry your daughters into HRE, France and Iberian Christians. Never saw them declining a defensive call for war against Muslims. Also some minor dukes and counts will offer their help.

 

[Mercadi]

About a century ago a king of Aragon invited a group of Persian nobles who were seeking refuge because of prosecution of Zoroastrianism. The king became friends with the Persians, and got fascinated with their faith and ways of thinking. So great was his interest in the old Persian traditions that he gave each of the guests a ward to educate, all from noble families, in order to keep the unique heritage from dying.

Years went by, the wards grew up, and so did their children. The new generation was not truly Persian any more, and the old king would have been sad, if he wasn't dead. However, the offspring of those wards of now gone Persians still kept true to Zoroastrian faith. The new king of Aragon heard about this nonsense, and was ready to demand conversion of nobles in question to the true, Catholic faith. However, his order was interrupted by a herald from a local Prince-Bishop, carrying a letter from the Pope himself. An excommunication!

The king weaseled his way out of disgrace (he would not have been a king if he wasn't savvy enough to carry out something like this), but the memories of the public disgrace kept pursuing him for the rest of his life. In secret he ordered his son to be educated in the ways of Zoroaster. When the son grew up, the king gave him vast lands to rule, in order to become accustomed to his future role. The king gave him plenty of gold as well, and blessed him to act as he willed towards the vassal nobles and the Church. For the rest of his life the king would watch his son's progress in the art of ruling over a land, funding all of his ventures and making the destruction of the Catholic church on his son's lands look like a result of a series of bloody feuds to the Pope.

Then, the time has come for the king to die. On his deathbed he told his son about all of the vices and weaknesses of the lesser dukes he controlled. There were some that liked gold tenfold more than God, there were gluttons and satyrs, zealots, and ambitious political animals. Above all, the king forewarned his son about crusades and jihads, and advised to bribe religious heads as often as possible. Then he passed away.

25 years later - all of the new king's dukes converted to Zoroastrianism. The crusade was started against the Muslims in the Holy Land, thanks to the timely bribe paid to the Pope. That would keep Christians and Muslims occupied while the Zoroastrian stronghold grows in power.

 

[XRW]

Started as the duke of Normandy. After the holy war for Poitou was completed I proceeded to conquer Iberia in the name of christianity. Scotland no longer exists except as a >10 county Kingdom of Jerusalem (they have no territory actually in the de jure kingdom). It is going to be tedious conquering them 1 country at a time. De facto England now consists of France, Aquitaine, Duchy of Flanders, most of Arragon, Navarre, Castille, Leon, Galicia, Portugal, Ireland, Whales, most of Scotland, and OFC England.

 

[Zorlond]

Playing a game of Norse Sweden, modded to allow Pagans to be playable, of course. It's 1125, right now.

After consolidating the loose Norse counties, I violently expanded eastwards into the Finland territories, doing my best to outpace similar efforts by Norway. Once I felt I had enough warrior cultists, I started smacking around Norway and Denmark as well. Currently, I hold three kingships, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, and have started chipping away at Norway in earnest. It's slow going, since much of my effort is in taking back Finnish territory. But I have the coastline all the way around to Estonia, and only two counties of Finland remain in Norwegian control. Rus is apparently too intimidated by my 13k men army. That, or it's too busy trying to deal with Novgorod to do much.

In other news, France has lost all of Aquitaine to the HRE, other than half a dozen counties taken by an enterprising, independant muslim duke... All of Iberia save a single county is in muslim control, even though they have yet to get together as a single country. Seljuk has fallen apart after a massive wave of in-fighting left large patches of it running off independantly. Fatimid has successfully Jihad'ed twice against ERE for Anatolia and part of Armenia, and is currently going after Sicily like gang busters. HRE's about to be neighbors on two sides to a massive amount of muslims, and I'm hoping the fireworks will allow me time to snag some Danish territory that they grabbed earlier.

Ireland's still in pieces, Scotland and Britany are still hanging in there, England never got it's act together and is currently dealing with major internal issues. Poland and Hungary have gone largely undamaged by time. Unlike the Cumans and Bulgars, who have both completely imploded into bickering duchies.

On the religious side of things, Norse is alive and well, thank ya, thank ya. Other than the recently taken territory, only three Swedish counties are hanging on to Catholicism. Catholics are still in there strong, though, even though the Crusades for Jerusalem ended in failures. Orthodox is dealing with a serious rash of Nestorian Heresies in the Russian area. Surprisingly, both Sunni and Shia are still going strong. Monophysyte and Zoroastrian aren't going to be lasting much longer, however, and Suomenusko is all but dead. Romuva's only got a few strongholds left, and suprisingly, Tengri seems to be the worst-off of the well-established religions. It's got the lowest Authority, and it's all in the shattered mess of the Cuman states.

All in all, it's been an interesting ride.

 

[Klarum]

Surprisingly, both Sunni and Shia are still going strong.

What is so surprising? The Fatimids can overrun anything they want in the first century of the game. Mercenary bands of 8k plus all the levies from their holdings. Piece of cake. In one of my games they decided that France would make a nice garden for their wives so they took Aquitania...

 

[Zorlond]

It's surprising to me since in my experience, when Seljuk falls apart, Sunni goes with it. But the Iberian victories have apparently been enough to keep it together. In the absence of a Sunni collapse, I kinda expected Shia to take a hit or two...

 

[Aegisthus]

I started out as the tiny count of Dal and swore fealty to Sweden immediately. The Swedish king was nice enough to give me the county of Vasterbotten and make me the Duke of Vasterbotten as well. He made a mess out of most other things. I managed to have myself elected king with my third character but by then Norway had conquered most of Northern Sweden and Finland while the rest of Finland and Livonia was Danish. Although Prussia was a Swedish duchy from very early on. I kept myself busy slowly driving the Norwegians from Sweden and later Finland, which became progressively easier thanks to my increasing strength and Norwegian civil wars. I then inherited the Duchy of Holstein. The Danish king was not amused and quickly declared war. I beat him in two big battles and after the signing of the white peace he was gracious enough to exchange his Finnish provinces back for Holstein (that required some editing in the save game files). After that peace the Duke of Skane and the King of Denmark have been slogging it out in a long civil war.

Meanwhile the still pagan Golden Horde had overrun Rus and had conquered all the way up to Novgorod and the white sea. I decided to save and attack them to see what it's like to fight the mongols: every time I think I'm winning they show up with another stack of 20k troops.

France is overrun by Muslims, Byzantium is a patchwork of independent states, Northern Iberia is held by the HRE and France. The HRE also holds modern day Lybia. Ireland is united. England is intact including Normady.

 

[Star Era]

Playing in catholic in Iberia... overrun by muslims.
Restarted... overrun by muslims.
Maybe at third time... no. Still overrun by muslims.

I am not a bad player it is just the game is coded to make muslims ally a little bit too much too easily. You can never fight a 1vs1 war it is always 1 catholic vs a minimum of 3 muslims.

Exactly. I would like for the Christian rulers to help out in holy wars as much as the Muslims do.

 

[unmerged(48470)]

I'm Playng as Dhunnunid Emirate but, unespected, my son(and heir) is become Castillan.

 

[antirelic]

Exactly. I would like for the Christian rulers to help out in holy wars as much as the Muslims do.

I play as Galicia and have a hell of a time dealing with the Jihad, which happens in about 30 days from starting. I've learned that playing in Iberia is no joke, and you are the under dog, so you really can't make too many mistakes. Patience is a virtue, and playing defense is paramount in the very beginning. I defeated 2 separate Jihads in the first 2 years, involved alot of cheap mercs at the right time (worn down enemy). In fact, I'm going to start another game tonight, just to touch up my skills.