A Veteran Newb asks.

[Daffius]

I bought CKII during it's release and I've been playing it on and off for years. I haven't really delved into the game for a while now, although I do have all the DLC's (except SI of course). It is surprising how quickly you dwindle back to a newb even after hundreds of hours of gameplay. Lot's have changed.

So I start a game at the earliest start, as an OPM (Coloneia) in Byzantium. I chose it, cause it's next to heathens = expansion, it is an OPM = challenge, under the empire = schemes/internal politics.

It starts slow, I gather my warchest, marry a countess and my heir now has 2 provinces. Great. I get into the council. Looking good. Then the empire annexes a huge chunk of land and I have the option to ask the emperor to help out with distrivution. I do and he agrees. I have 3 options and the 3rd option is give it to myself. I go with the 3rd option - thinking it'll have some repercursions - and then proceed to give myself all 6 (!) counties... nothing happens. Everyone is fully fine with an upstart nobody just grabbing all the territories. To add salt to it, the emperor agrees to give me extra land on top if it all and noone bates an eye.

Not that I'm complaining or anything, but that felt a bit cheesy and I'm not sure if it's working as designed. Or should it be reported as a bug (I have the savegames)?

Another question while I'm at it. 100 years later, I'm king of Armenia, with some vassal duchies. Essentially the strongest vassal by a long shot. I have 19 stewardship, while the duke level steward on the council has 14. Yet, I don't get a council seat. I always get the response that he'll consider it "good news" and I've been receiving that for over 10 years now and councillors have died since then. Is there anything I can do to get a seat? Favour perhaps (not yet sure how that works)? Also it's elective monarchy, how can I get votes from people to become emperor? Even those that have 70+ relations with me, vote for other guys (not direct descendants of the royal line).

Overall I'm enjoying it a lot and happy I picked it up once again. I did notice shattered retreat had reared it's ugly head and I hate it with passion. I read the new DD, so I might wait until I can switch that off. Still enjoying it a lot though.

 

[kmh42]

It starts slow, I gather my warchest, marry a countess and my heir now has 2 provinces. Great. I get into the council. Looking good. Then the empire annexes a huge chunk of land and I have the option to ask the emperor to help out with distrivution. I do and he agrees. I have 3 options and the 3rd option is give it to myself. I go with the 3rd option - thinking it'll have some repercursions - and then proceed to give myself all 6 (!) counties... nothing happens. Everyone is fully fine with an upstart nobody just grabbing all the territories. To add salt to it, the emperor agrees to give me extra land on top if it all and noone bates an eye.

There I so special event or opinion modifiers when you grab all land for yourself, I think. You just got lucky to get so much land in one go, this is very uncommon, at least in my games.

Another question while I'm at it. 100 years later, I'm king of Armenia, with some vassal duchies. Essentially the strongest vassal by a long shot. I have 19 stewardship, while the duke level steward on the council has 14. Yet, I don't get a council seat. I always get the response that he'll consider it "good news" and I've been receiving that for over 10 years now and councillors have died since then. Is there anything I can do to get a seat? Favour perhaps (not yet sure how that works)?

You can simply buy a favor from your liege or some random events give you one. This Favor can be used to get you into his council. AI lieges are very picky, so maybe he like the other candidate more or he got the seat with a favor.

Also it's elective monarchy, how can I get votes from people to become emperor? Even those that have 70+ relations with me, vote for other guys (not direct descendants of the royal line).

Elective became much harder since the last patch. I still don't know the exact calculations of the AI when picking a candidate. Age, Opinion, Diplomacy, Culture and Religion play a role.

Overall I'm enjoying it a lot and happy I picked it up once again. I did notice shattered retreat had reared it's ugly head and I hate it with passion. I read the new DD, so I might wait until I can switch that off. Still enjoying it a lot though.

Just of personal interest: What exactly are you concerns with SR, or but what better in the old system in you opinion?

 

[Daffius]

Thanks for the feedback, appreciated.

I don't like SR because I feel it takes away the edge of a decisive battles. I liked it when there was a war and the first couple of battles could significantly alter the outcome. When fighting a superior foe I now have to chase him around or he regroups. When fighting a weaker one it becomes pointless exercise. So I see no benefit in it while in turn it causes unnecessary frustration. You could argue that it makes it easier for me to defend as a minor... but I don't like that. I can accept being defeated and fight another day.

Perhaps a bit long response.

 

[mudcrabmerchant]

You can easily edit shattered retreat down to just a few provinces.

Open up defines.lua in the common folder in the game's install location, ctrl+f "SHATTERED_RETREAT_PREFERRED_PROVINCES", and change the values to match the following (or whatever you want).

SHATTERED_RETREAT_PREFERRED_PROVINCES = 2, -- Units will try to move at least this many provinces away in shattered retreat
SHATTERED_RETREAT_MAX_PROVINCES = 4, -- Units can not move longer than this many provinces during a shattered retreat
SHATTERED_RETREAT_DISTANCE_MULTIPLIER = -20, -- Value added for each province away from the prefered distance (whether too close or too far)

Almost all of my shattered retreats are just two provinces, although occasionally I get up to 4 (a good mix IMO). It feels alright to me - it give you the chance to get the hell out of there if you are defeated, but it doesn't make it a pain in the ass to chase down enemy armies.