Good Intermediate Guide

[hkrommel]

Is there a decent, up-to-date guide out there for players with some experience? Most that I've found are very outdated.

I've mostly played as the Byzantines, who have lots of CBs and don't need to deal with diplomacy all that much. Now that I've tried playing as a Western European Duke/Count a few times I quickly realized I know nothing about a large number of mechanics. For example, how does one get claims without relying on RNG Councilor actions? I understand things like desmesne, retinues, etc. but the more advanced (or I guess basic if you play mostly in places with fewer CBs) mechanics have lost me.

 

[Rags17]

I don't know of any current intermediate guides, the game has moved so fast that a lot of the earliest ones are now kind of out of date.

Re: Claims. For starters check out the Wiki for a complete summary of all available CBS - https://ck2.paradoxwikis.com/Casus_Belli

I play West a LOT and only really use fabricated claims in the beginning when I am very small (I usually start as a Count). After the first generation claims will start to multiply out of control due to second sons, title claimants, usurped titles and so on. Simply click on a province and then on its province shield, then on the Claimants button. This will show which claimants are out there and the strength of their claim, as well as whether they are likely to accept an invite to your court. Even if they aren't willing then thanks to all the new mechanics (eg Favors, Swaying etc) if you work hard on your target you should be able to get them to change their mind. If the reason is more fundamental (eg spouse or kids) then these problems can be "corrected" too, but you're Byzantine so you should know what to do !

Apart from claimants there are all sorts of shenanigans that you can pull with dejure wars or Holy Wars, thinking here of thing such as changing religion, holy warring the area you want then changing back - pretty heavy on the piety but you'd expect that for how cheesy it is. If you have Holy Fury then some of the new CBs from that DLC can come in handy, I tend to use Force Vassalization and Border Dispute a lot, the former eats a lot of Prestige while the latter is scaled to your wealth so is great when you are small but not worth it when you get big.

Finally, if you have Horse Lords then don't overlook setting up a bunch of tributaries. They aren't fully in your realm and provide aid as an ally rather than a vassal but this can be a good thing as they don't mess around in your internal politics. I played as the Duke of Normandy once in the Charlie start and managed to take over all of Brittany this way, I then used my Breton tributaries as muscle to press my claims over the rest of northern France and adventures into Cornwall.

 

[prismaticmarcus]

the wiki's definitely the place to go. if you know enough about the game to ask, 'how does X work?' then the wiki should be your first port of call


...and, of course, the forum

 

[hkrommel]

the wiki's definitely the place to go. if you know enough about the game to ask, 'how does X work?' then the wiki should be your first port of call


...and, of course, the forum

Is the wiki kept up to date?

 

[prismaticmarcus]

Is the wiki kept up to date?

pretty much. have a look and you'll see that each topic has a message about when it was last updated

https://ck2.paradoxwikis.com/Crusader_Kings_II_Wiki:Versioning