Benchmarks that you mastered the game

[shandou]

Hey everyone. If you could pick 5 benchmark achievements (not Steam achievements per say) that would indicate that someone truly mastered the game, what would it be (updated to the most recent patch)?

For me in no particular order:
1. As a duke in the HRE, become elected as Emperor and retain the title for at least 2 consecutive generations. And have all of them crowned by an independent Pope.

2. Engineer a takeover of an outside realm (kingdom or empire) without warfare

3. Become from a feudal count to duke to king to emperor with only Gavelkind succession law

4. Using a non-elective, non-ultimogeniture succession law, ensure that your 3rd eldest son inherits.

5. Engineer the ascension of a dynasty member to become the Pope through the manipulation of the College of Cardinals

Personally, I still need to achieve number 5, hasn't really gotten much into religious power-play yet.

 

[n knbk]

Five is pretty easy as an Italian Merchant Republic like Venice. Make your dynasty member a bishop then name them court chaplain and have them improve relations in Rome.

They get +200 points towards election for being Italian and +200 for being in Rome.

As for the question, Immortality is the benchmark I prefer.

 

[sreckom92]

1. When you outmaneuver and defeat a Holy Fury Crusade as a King-level character.
2. When you don't consider Zoroastrian and Zunist characters a challenge anymore to play with.
3. When you have to deliberately sabotage your own realm to create yourself a challenge.
4. When you tear down the Abbasid Caliphate and Byzantine Empire.
5. When you defeat Golden Age China.

 

[majdavlk]

1.) Become the hereditary religious head of all religions (that have religious head)
2.) Eliminate feudal government
3.) Your dynasty owning every title that currently exists
4.) Make only a single realm exist.
5.) Be able to explain how gavelkind works (technically not possible)

 

[guest1749]

1) Conquer golden age expansionist China as a castilian de Vivar descendant of el Cid.
2) Unify the religion of all the steppe without absorbing or exterminating vassal clans as a self-worshipping bloodthirsty Tengrikut.
3) Create independent coptic Egypt without changing culture.
4) Survive as Aella of Northumbria.
5) Make moral authority of Taoism reach 100.

 

[DmUa]

1. You know how this game works. Thats all.

 

[mrinku]

Get ALL FIVE of those f*cking tier IV education traits on your kids.

I came so close last game until one of the genius sisters had her 12 year old genius brother assassinated...

 

[Vohen]

1. As a duke in the HRE, become elected as Emperor and retain the title for at least 2 consecutive generations. And have all of them crowned by an independent Pope.

As a duke, it might take a while to get enough money, but eventually you should be able to buy enough favors to become emperor, and then it's quite easy to keep it, as now you'll be getting way more money than before.

2. Engineer a takeover of an outside realm (kingdom or empire) without warfare

As I was doing precisely that in my second game ever, to get a good grip on the plotting and succession mechanics, really wouldn't call it an advanced achievement.

3. Become from a feudal count to duke to king to emperor with only Gavelkind succession law

That's almost no different from doing it with primo, the difference being that you should always keep only one of your top tier title up until you're able to create (or usurp, overthrow, inherit or whatever) the next tier title.
It's going to be slower, surely, as you'll lack de jure claims and will have to pacify your realm more often (as your personal demesne keeps getting split), but with enough patience you'll get there eventually.

4. Using a non-elective, non-ultimogeniture succession law, ensure that your 3rd eldest son inherits.

Easily doable by giving away temples to your 1st and 2nd sons, last time I checked.

5. Engineer the ascension of a dynasty member to become the Pope through the manipulation of the College of Cardinals

Personally, I still need to achieve number 5, hasn't really gotten much into religious power-play yet.

Yeah, that'd be the one I can't say I know much about, as I don't really get into that catholic power-play myself.

Overall, from 1-4, I'd say you're not a beginner anymore, I'd even put these objectives in an advanced tutorial of sorts, but nothing close to "mastering" the game.

Five is pretty easy as an Italian Merchant Republic like Venice. Make your dynasty member a bishop then name them court chaplain and have them improve relations in Rome.

They get +200 points towards election for being Italian and +200 for being in Rome.

As for the question, Immortality is the benchmark I prefer.

Even outside of Italy, just get an Italian to educate a kinsman in heritage, then proceed as usual.

1.) Become the hereditary religious head of all religions (that have religious head)

Didn't even know that was possible tbh.
Don't religions head titles have a requirement for the character to at least be of that religion?
It'd seem odd if it doesn't.

 

[Mindel]

1.) World conquest in about 5 years

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/my-final-abbasid-speed-run.1167700/

 

[geckoman1011]

Yall got this wrong, this is CK II. You gotta impregnate your (unbeknownst to you) bastard daughter. #spawnofsatan!

 

[jwalche]

Have done all that and I don't feel that I have mastered CKII at all. Always finding new things.

 

[Strangedane]

Mastered is a big word, but some moments of understanding for me have been:

Understanding the silk road and trans saharan salt route mechanics.
Knowing when to drop walls and when to drop castle towns.
Succesfullly running tribal NK mode on elective gavelkind. (tons of work, small rewards, better just go with eldership or tannistry)
Being poped and getting a game over screen. (not sure if this can happen anymore)

 

[Rogan de Auria]

Here are my favorite (in terms of fun) personal benchmarks.

-First time count to emperor.

-First world conquest attempt (didn’t ended it because of boredom but had most of it -it was before india, expanded steppes and africa, etc-).

-Recently I managed to win all elections while playing as a Merchant Republic, no assassinations (for 150 years I think)

-Changed the religion of an orthodox Russian empire playing as the catholic Duke of Burgundy, only through marriages and alliances.

-Exterminate one of the big religions (I did exterminate catholics as a sunni)

 

[Vohen]

An interesting benchmark could be to restore a Hellenistic Roman empire and eliminating all of Christianity and Islam in your lands (or anywhere).
I haven't played the Byzantines since HF yet, but I'd recon that this isn't an easy run anyway, though on earlier start dates it gets easier for just how much time you have in your hands.

Being poped and getting a game over screen. (not sure if this can happen anymore)

A funny one happened to me recently, as the Duke of Toulouse.
Bad RNG with an epidemic killed my three sons and me (at a quite young age even), so my daughter I had married off inherited (regular marriage, so her children weren't of my dynasty).
Then bad RNG struck again when, not even a year later, she turns incapable.
So now I'm stuck with a line of non dynastic heirs and this character who can't do literally anything to change the situation besides waiting for the sweet release of death and the game over screen.
Lost a few hours of my day, but had a good laugh at least.

 

[jwalche]

I will give one. Hitting 10k living dynasty members. That seems is about the technical limit as the game becomes unplayable from lack due to dynasty members interaction or something.

 

[majdavlk]

Didn't even know that was possible tbh.
Don't religions head titles have a requirement for the character to at least be of that religion?
It'd seem odd if it doesn't.

It is possible. Not knowing how shows that you have yet to master this game.
Being of the religion you are the head of is not a requirment, a common misconception.

The hardest religious head to acquire is probably k_orthodox, as its quite random. You have to make the ai either try to imprison you and fail, or try to revoke one of your titles.

 

[Vohen]

I see.
That's quite the oversight.

Not knowing how shows that you have yet to master this game.

Never said I did though
That's why I wasn't into OP's points to begin with, they seem fairly elementary to me and I definitely wouldn't call myself a "master".

 

[jwalche]

1.) World conquest in about 5 years

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/my-final-abbasid-speed-run.1167700/

That's me. And I conquered in less than 2 years with my real last attempt with all the tricks. You can see the last image on that thread that it is nearly done and still less than 16 months past from 769 starting.

 

[Mindel]

That's me. And I conquered in less than 2 years with my real last attempt with all the tricks. You can see the last image on that thread that it is nearly done and still less than 16 months past from 769 starting.

My mistake. But I think I was able to communicate the spirit of it.

 

[geckoman1011]

An interesting benchmark could be to restore a Hellenistic Roman empire and eliminating all of Christianity and Islam in your lands (or anywhere).
I haven't played the Byzantines since HF yet, but I'd recon that this isn't an easy run anyway, though on earlier start dates it gets easier for just how much time you have in your hands.

This is my current play through. I restored rome and was working on reestablishing the empire, meanwhile expanding Hellenism. Ive stopped playing for a while because the rebellions are getting tedious. Maybe Ill go back when Im ready to deal with all the crap.