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All these recent empire postings are suggesting to me that playing HIP is in fact not fun.

In my recent campaigns, all from the 867 start date, I have seen just 4 empires: HRE (or the French version of it, that appears quite often, actually), the Basileia Rhōmaniōn (the only one already formed), the Persian Empire (Éran, I think, formed by Seljuk and others) and España (most of the times being Muslin, and the only one that I think is gamey).
 
In my recent campaigns, all from the 867 start date, I have seen just 4 empires: HRE (or the French version of it, that appears quite often, actually), the Basileia Rhōmaniōn (the only one already formed), the Persian Empire (Éran, I think, formed by Seljuk and others) and España (most of the times being Muslin, and the only one that I think is gamey).
Only with you, if you had seen the ones I sent, would you see that while I was in eastern Europe, AI formed an empire in Maghreb, a Catholic king formed Spain, an Indian empire, and the Arbanon Empire, which AI formed when the Roman Empire(eastern) fell.
 
Only with you, if you had seen the ones I sent, would you see that while I was in eastern Europe, AI formed an empire in Maghreb, a Catholic king formed Spain, an Indian empire, and the Arbanon Empire, which AI formed when the Roman Empire(eastern) fell.

Maybe because you are 200 years in front of most of my campaings, I think. Like, I really don't remember the last time I see Christians survive in the Iberian Peninsula.
 
I return, this time with my Paulician campaign. I began in 867 as the king of Hayk and nabbed Chrysocheir before he seppuku'ed himself against the Byzantines. I converted to Paulicianism, and through a series of (un)fortunate accidents, he and all his heirs died, leaving the patriarchy to me. The crusades began very early, and the Byzantine Empire was destroyed in the mid-ninth century, quickly followed by the destruction of the Latin Empire. I then formed the Empire of Hayk from Qasarstan, Alania, Sakartvelo, Hayk, and the one on the western side of the Caspian Sea whose name I forget. I had an amazing emperor who ruled for sixty-something years and got the blood of Alexander event. This was fitting, as under his rule Jerusalem (I helped the Children's Crusade take Jerusalem), Antioch, and Egypt were invaded and made Paulician. The goal was to spread Paulicianism, so I released all of these kingdoms as buffer states. I also conquered Al-Jazira and Skythia, making them buffer states too.

Then the Mongols invaded, spoiling my fun. I switched characters to play as the king of Skythia, and I tried to spread Paulicianism north and west. In the meantime, the many Paulician states I made had been declaring holy war after holy war, spreading the religion and slowly eradicating every other religion on the eastern half of the map (except in India). At some point the Mongols became Paulician too. I then switched characters to a German duke who somehow had become Paulician, and the HRE (which the Karlings had formed) was destroyed somehow just before the Black Death came. After that, I was free to gobble the weak successor states and created the Empire of Baiern, taking Cologne. I then switched to a Paulician guy in Lucca and was able to conquer all of Latium in about one century. I then switched to a Paulician English duke, converted the king to Paulicianism, and took Canterbury. At this point I was rather tired of the campaign and ended it.

Another oddity is that the papacy relocated to Lithuania after a crusade. Lithuania fromed Polska-Lietuva, but they never reformed Romuva. Still, they stayed Romuva through the whole campaign and were a huge hindrance to the northern spread of Paulicianism. This religion is so much fun. The best part is that it can declare holy wars on Christians, but Christians can't declare holy wars back. The extreme aggression of Paulician characters resulted in the AI steamrolling the eastern half of the map and converting almost every province to Paulician. Somehow Catholicism still had 70ish moral authority despite losing holy sites. Islam was permanently at 0 authority. I don't know how Paulicianism spread to the west; I just saw that it had and switched characters.

Merchant republics are stupidly overpowered. They all had tens of thousands of gold and could take all the territory they wanted due to hiring mercenaries. At least they were Paulician!

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So here's the result of my Old Gods start as the Hindu Shahis. It's 1109 now; there's no Islam east of the Caspian, the ERE imploded some time ago after some Turkic adventurer no-scoped Constantinople and the biggest remnants are Greek Epirus and Levantine Apostolic Syria/Iconium. The Vikings that settled in Iraq are holding on to the northern Egyptian shore but otherwise are subjugated or repelled (I cludged in a Serklander melting pot culture to keep the memory alive). Western Europe is incoherent nonsense that I don't pay much attention to. The Mongol invasion is gonna be weird.

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Ok, here's a weird one. Temujin finally shows up -for almost exactly one month- and every day on December 6th, no matter what I do, he disappears without a trace. I tried imprisoning him, I tried giving him the "immortal" trait, I tried playing as him to see what events are happening. Not only him but his ENTIRE FAMILY just get snapped away and some rando takes over the Mongol Empire.
 
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Ok, here's a weird one. Temujin finally shows up -for almost exactly one month- and every day on December 6th, no matter what I do, he disappears without a trace. I tried imprisoning him, I tried giving him the "immortal" trait, I tried playing as him to see what events are happening. Not only him but his ENTIRE FAMILY just get snapped away and some rando takes over the Mongol Empire.
Looks like Thanos doesn't like Ghengis Khan or his family...
 
The kid killed Three adults, should i worry?
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