Crusader Kings II ~ Quick Answers

[jonjowett]

I altered my plan a bit, used the ruler designer to create a Hellenic count of Anfa. Thus, my starting character (y767) is a tribal Hellenic. Plan is to conquer what I need as a tribal and then change to Merchant Republic. If possible, I'm aiming to eventually have my capital in Alexandria. I remember something about merchant republic capitals though, is it so you can't change your capital at all?

also, according to the Wiki Hellenism doesn't limit succession laws even if unreformed. But as a tribal that doesn't help. So if I want to get rid of Gavelkind, I have to reform Hellenism anyway, right?

Unreformed pagans cannot become merchant republics. You could presumably game that by converting, switching to MR, and converting back again... Merchant republic succession should trump unreformed pagan mechanics, but I wouldn't want to risk it myself. So, yeah, plan on reforming first. That won't allow you to play super-tall, though, since the holy sites are spread out over Greece, Italy, and Egypt. (But maybe that part of the plan was altered, too?)

I'm also not 100% certain that MR mechanics will override unreformed paganism - but I think it's very likely. (If a pagan reforms the faith, then becomes an MR, there will still be many unreformed pagans hanging around. Eventually one of them might become doge.) All in all, I'm not too worried about this.

The only concern I have about temporary conversion in order to become an MR is that the 4 auto-generated patrician houses will be of your temporary religion (not unreformed hellenism). If @Tur8oed has access to the console, he could fix this immediately by painstakingly forcing the religion of every member of the 4 patricians' dynasties immediately after forming the MR. Otherwise, he'll probably have some difficulty for a while.

For that reason alone, I'd suggest waiting to form an MR until after you've reformed hellenism.

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On the other point about staying tall - you could always keep 3-5 holy sites in your personal demesne, and grant independence to everything else.

 

[Tur8oed]

Thanks for all the input very helpful!

...

Asking if I'm seeing a bug now with my ships;

On all counties that were previously feudal (where I pillaged all castles and built new tribal holdings there instead) - I seem to be getting extra ships when I raise ship levies. Military -> fleet levies AND tooltip when hovering over ships shows 3 for example, yet 5 ships spawn. The small green window next to the ships shows 5 ships, the hovering tooltip says 3, and the military window shows 3. Cargo capacity says 5 again...

Dispay bug or actual bug? It might have to do with the fact that these counties were 'altered' somehow by me removing the castle holdings there and switched them to tribal holdings. Or maybe I'm simply getting to keep some ships that were built by the castle holding when the pillaging was still in progress?

Any thoughts?

 

[knppel]

Once you're a republic, going pagan works just fine and will keep you a republic regardless (Try Gotland 1066 and pushfor Erik the Heathen immediately, if you wanna try it)

 

[jonjowett]

Asking if I'm seeing a bug now with my ships;

On all counties that were previously feudal (where I pillaged all castles and built new tribal holdings there instead) - I seem to be getting extra ships when I raise ship levies. Military -> fleet levies AND tooltip when hovering over ships shows 3 for example, yet 5 ships spawn. The small green window next to the ships shows 5 ships, the hovering tooltip says 3, and the military window shows 3. Cargo capacity says 5 again...

Dispay bug or actual bug? It might have to do with the fact that these counties were 'altered' somehow by me removing the castle holdings there and switched them to tribal holdings. Or maybe I'm simply getting to keep some ships that were built by the castle holding when the pillaging was still in progress?

Any thoughts?

Actual bug, albeit a minor one.

I don't know what's causing it, but you do always receive a few more ships than the tooltip suggests, and you can use the full cargo capacity of these phantom ships (for both troops and loot).

It's been a while since I tried with a very small number of ships. With largeish fleets, I would normally count on 5-10% extra, not the 67% extra that you're receiving. But maybe the bug is granting 1-2 extra per county, rather than a % multiplier.

 

[DPS]

Actual bug, albeit a minor one.

I don't know what's causing it, but you do always receive a few more ships than the tooltip suggests, and you can use the full cargo capacity of these phantom ships (for both troops and loot).

It's been a while since I tried with a very small number of ships. With largeish fleets, I would normally count on 5-10% extra, not the 67% extra that you're receiving. But maybe the bug is granting 1-2 extra per county, rather than a % multiplier.

Assuming that the game counts ships the same as it counts troops, there's probably usually a rounding error when things don't match up. It doesn't actually calculate numbers in whole numbers; when it shows that you have, say, 13 out of 16 ships available to be raised in a county, then as I understand it, you often actually have something like 13.6 out of 16.2 If you have 2 counties like that, if you raise the levies at that point, you might get 27 or 28 instead of the 26 you expect. He has something else going on, though, if he's getting 67% more.

 

[Morte66]

So it seems quite often my character dies and when I take over the heir they're trying to "sway" someone that I don't care about in the least, don't want to expend any resource on, and I don't want a message every two or three minutes about it. The messages are very irritating.

Can you actually stop trying to sway someone? If so, what the hell do you do in the GUI to make it happen? Where do you click?

 

[jonjowett]

So it seems quite often my character dies and when I take over the heir they're trying to "sway" someone that I don't care about in the least, don't want to expend any resource on, and I don't want a message every two or three minutes about it. The messages are very irritating.

Can you actually stop trying to sway someone? If so, what the hell do you do in the GUI to make it happen? Where do you click?

Yes, you can stop swaying characters. (Ditto for antagonising.)

• Locate the character being swayed. (They should appear in the list of interesting characters on the right-hand side of the screen. Or you can wait for one of the irritating messages.)
• On the screen with their portrait, the "sway" button should have a red X. Click it to "stop swaying" that character.

 

[henryk5pio]

Which abilities allows you to fabricate a reason for the imprisonment of a vassal faster? "Scheme" or "Build spy Network"? As I understand I use them on the target capital, right?

 

[Aardvark Bellay]

Which abilities allows you to fabricate a reason for the imprisonment of a vassal faster? "Scheme" or "Build spy Network"? As I understand I use them on the target capital, right?

I don't recall any of the two options doing that.
PS: Well actually, you might be lucky with "Scheme" and catch someone in the act of plotting, but i haven't experienced that for years now
in real life for whatever reason. If you got WayofLife DLC, then the intrigue focus is better.

 

[EllisDee]

Does anyone know what the little country flag on the top-left corner of the trade post clickable image is supposed to mean? The one when you expand the provincial view to show hospitals/forts/trade posts.
I think it's meant to mean a trade post that's occupied (i.e., a trade post that's been captured in a war). Problem is, i always see random ones with the little flags even in times of peace. I'll upload a picture if nobody knows what i'm talking about.

As an example: there's a vassal trade post in Byzantine land that was besieged about 50 years ago. The war is long over, but it still has a little Byzantine flag on it (but still belongs to my vassal, and i can still pay for upgrades on it). Or there's a trade post in my demesne that was occupied by another patrician family centuries ago, but still has their little flag on it.

Doesn't look like it has any effect on income, but what with how opaque the ledger is, it's hard to say for certain. Anyone else at least noticed this bug?
Thanks.

 

[Morte66]

I'm playing the reformed Slavic king of Poland and Wendish emperor. I moused over the "create Slavic union" item on the intrigue screen and saw that I don't fully control the kingdom of Poland. I control everything I can see in Poland, Pomerania, what was Bohemia but is now drifted into Poland, plus other stuff.

It turns out it's the Slavic holy order, who hold two baronies in my vassals' counties in now-Poland. Since I'm not on Ironman, I tried expelling them from the intrigue menu for 1000 piety and after that I showed as controlling all of Poland.

I wonder can I really ever make them vassals? They're mostly Russian (I'm Polish), and I'm not their de jure liege, and it's not like they're a small weak outfit. Any thoughts on the feasibility of that?

Edit: found something on wiki that I somehow missed earlier, I'll leave a link in case anyone is interested: https://ck2.paradoxwikis.com/Vassalizing_mercenaries_and_holy_orders#Methods

 

[CoSMoS]

Is there no way to influence who will be the "beneficiary" in a non-Catholic Great Holy war? I just won one, and my cousin got the newly formed kingdom, but that was actually quite the bummer for me to "lose" him. The religious head just decides what will happen?

 

[Mr_Plumrich]

Is there no way to influence who will be the "beneficiary" in a non-Catholic Great Holy war? I just won one, and my cousin got the newly formed kingdom, but that was actually quite the bummer for me to "lose" him. The religious head just decides what will happen?

It's the same rules as for crusades, except that crusades have the extra layers of beneficiaries that might get titles. The one who gets the titles (kingdom and/or lower tiers) is:
1. Someone who have a strong claim on the title and is of the right religion,
or
2. Already holds land within the de jure territory of the targeted kingdom,
or
3. The one who contributed the most during the war.

So I would guess that your cousin either had a strong claim or he owned part of the kingdom's de jure territory.

I have noticed that you can sometimes right-click on dynasty members during a great holy war and "choose as beneficiary" but I do not actually believe it does anything.

 

[jonjowett]

I have noticed that you can sometimes right-click on dynasty members during a great holy war and "choose as beneficiary" but I do not actually believe it does anything.

It's almost certainly a bug, but you can use this to set up Crusader States. You can switch to the beneficiary as normal, which makes it a neat way to change dynastic branches and/or become significantly less powerful.

 

[Helmaur]

Hello,

A small question about religious orders spawn. In a recent game in Iron Man, Omeyyad took kingdom of Aquitaine. In the wiki, it's said that Calatrava and Santiago will spawn if the county owner of Bordeaux is not christian. I checked the cheik and he is still a christian. I bet this is it that block religious orders to spawn.

Am I right ?

 

[henryk5pio]

How to create an Arberian culture? Arberian Stratiotet look very good (+20% Light Cavalry Defense; +20% Light Cavalry Attack; +40% Light Cavalry Morale ), what do you think about this retinue?

 

[jonjowett]

How to create an Arberian culture? Arberian Stratiotet look very good (+20% Light Cavalry Defense; +20% Light Cavalry Attack; +40% Light Cavalry Morale ), what do you think about this retinue?

Modern-day Albania (counties of Avlonas & Dyrrachion), for all start dates after 936.

Easiest way would be to move your capital to one of these provinces, right-click on your portrait, and change to capital culture. (NB: This interaction requires a DLC, possibly RoI?)

As for the quality of this retinue, it seems pretty mediocre to me. Light cav is one of the worst unit types, and I doubt the bonuses will make up for it. But I'm also not deeply immersed in the retinue meta, so I might be wrong.

 

[henryk5pio]

Modern-day Albania (counties of Avlonas & Dyrrachion), for all start dates after 936.

Easiest way would be to move your capital to one of these provinces, right-click on your portrait, and change to capital culture. (NB: This interaction requires a DLC, possibly RoI?)

As for the quality of this retinue, it seems pretty mediocre to me. Light cav is one of the worst unit types, and I doubt the bonuses will make up for it. But I'm also not deeply immersed in the retinue meta, so I might be wrong.

I saw light cav + cruel commander recommended everywhere. And without cheating (because mods are a bit cheating after all) how can I get this culture?

 

[jonjowett]

I saw light cav + cruel commander recommended everywhere.

I guess, maybe. I think I can see the rationale: decent skirmish phase, 100% chance of the decent-looking "raid" tactic in melee, cruel increases morale damage a bit. (Maybe the aim is to demoralise the enemy into retreat?) If the cruel commander has less than 10 martial, there is a "bad" skirmish tactic that is actually rather good: it gives bonuses to light cav and forces the phase to change to melee.

So, this retinue would probably work well as a standalone wing of an army. However, it probably wouldn't "play nice" in a mixed wing (eg. one that includes levies). The latter is why I generally prefer my retinues to have lots of heavy inf, heavy cav, pikes, etc.

But it can be fun to try to optimise your retinues - so, if you want to try for a light cav doomstack, I say go for it!

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And without cheating (because mods are a bit cheating after all) how can I get this culture?

As per my previous post:

Easiest way would be to move your capital to [a province with Arberian culture], right-click on your portrait, and change to capital culture. (NB: This interaction requires a DLC, possibly RoI?)

 

[henryk5pio]

I guess, maybe. I think I can see the rationale: decent skirmish phase, 100% chance of the decent-looking "raid" tactic in melee, cruel increases morale damage a bit. (Maybe the aim is to demoralise the enemy into retreat?) If the cruel commander has less than 10 martial, there is a "bad" skirmish tactic that is actually rather good: it gives bonuses to light cav and forces the phase to change to melee.

So, this retinue would probably work well as a standalone wing of an army. However, it probably wouldn't "play nice" in a mixed wing (eg. one that includes levies). The latter is why I generally prefer my retinues to have lots of heavy inf, heavy cav, pikes, etc.

But it can be fun to try to optimise your retinues - so, if you want to try for a light cav doomstack, I say go for it!

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As per my previous post:

I have a RoI add-on. The problem with the Charlemagne tab is that there is probably no one with Arberian culture in the game. The Scots have a bishop in Alt Clut, if the Reconquest fires, you have the option to get commander with the "Catillian" culture (I just got the last one), and there is no Arberian.