Changes from Early Middle Ages to Late Game

[Kaiserlicher Ritter]

Well, so I started playing Charlemagne with goal to keep playing all the way to 1444, now I'm at 850, and I have two questions.

First, will Eastern Europe and Scandinavia ever become Christianised? Is there some event in game or something like that?

Two, will the kingdoms actually change, like Sweden, England get unified, and Castille, León and Portugal ever forming over the Moors or something?

Sometimes I have this feeling that we will have dark ages forever, and I'm basically the only Christian ruler in the entire world lol. I really hope that changes.

 

[Naughtius Maximus]

It's a Sandbox style game, every game is different.

Pagans don't always convert, only under extreme external pressure. By external pressure I mean constant holy wars. In most of my games when left alone only areas up to Poland convert. Lithuania and Russia remain pagan. Lithuania even reformed the faith I believe, but I'm just in the 1100s.

Actually no, in my Iconoclast game the Khan of Khazaria converted to Iconoclasm, which was my religion. So Russian Orthodox/Iconoclasts.

 

[Kaiserlicher Ritter]

It's a Sandbox style game, every game is different.

Pagans don't always convert, only under extreme external pressure. By external pressure I mean constant holy wars. In most of my games when left alone only areas up to Poland convert. Lithuania and Russia remain pagan. Lithuania even reformed the faith I believe, but I'm just in the 1100s.

Actually no, in my Iconoclast game the Khan of Khazaria converted to Iconoclasm, which was my religion. So Russian Orthodox/Iconoclasts.

Ach, I know it is a sandbox game, I have almost 400 hours on it already. But EUIV for example as events that are LIKELY to happen and cause accuracy, for example Iberian Wedding, the Burgundian Inheritance, the PU of Austria over Hungary, etc. I'm hoping that at least some familiar stuff exist in the transition from Early Middle Ages to the normal time of game campaign, 1066. Otherwise this campaign is going to be ridiculously stupid.

 

[Maldeus]

You're out of luck. The Charlemagne start has a few well-known problems that prevent it from transitioning well to a recognizable High Middle Ages. The Holy Roman Empire is rarely formed, the AI has no idea how to gavelkind which leaves all of France and Germany a horrifying mess of border gore, the Umayyads almost always win Hispania, and so on.

 

[Naughtius Maximus]

Be prepared for stupidity then, haha. About the only worldwide scripted events are the beginning of great holy wars/crusades and the accompanying holy orders.

And the Mongols/Aztecs.

Of course occassionally it leaves gems like my Zorastrian game Charlemagne start, with an Empire of Francia and a Miaphysite Egypt.

I have about 15 Charlemagne games (not completed.) I had one time where Francia formed (this game) and one with HRE.

But the most unicorn of unicorns is and always will be AI Miaphysite Egypt.

 

[Kaiserlicher Ritter]

Be prepared for stupidity then, haha. About the only worldwide scripted events are the beginning of great holy wars/crusades and the accompanying holy orders.

And the Mongols/Aztecs.

Of course occassionally it leaves gems like my Zorastrian game Charlemagne start, with an Empire of Francia and a Miaphysite Egypt.

ACH! I could have fun playing from 769 to 1444 to get the achievement, now I see the campaign is going to be a burden! I'll probably have to do it in stages, compensating with a nice Stanford Bridge as William the Conqueror from time to time.

 

[Naughtius Maximus]

Yeah. For the most part 1066 is the most balanced start. You pick Old Gods for cheesy world conquest and you pick Charlemagne to roll the dice.

About the only constant in Charlemagne are Byzantines, and perhaps a united Muslim Hispania (usually Umayyads.)

Chaos everywhere!

 

[Kaiserlicher Ritter]

You're out of luck. The Charlemagne start has a few well-known problems that prevent it from transitioning well to a recognizable High Middle Ages. The Holy Roman Empire is rarely formed, the AI has no idea how to gavelkind which leaves all of France and Germany a horrifying mess of border gore, the Umayyads almost always win Hispania, and so on.

I didn't see your comment, well, at least the HRE is formed because I did so. Now I feel almost alone against a countless kingdoms of heathen hordes. Only the British are catholic, and they are like tiny petty tribes and kings.

 

[mudcrabmerchant]

The Burgundian Inheritance was not, in fact, likely. CKII, on the other hand, does have events for generally likely historical events - pagan conversion for one. As others have said, it's usual for all areas up to Poland to convert, and I even see Russia convert a lot of the time without my interference. Remember, you can send your chaplain to pagans. Go through 20 or so of them, and you'll probably end up converting them.

IMO, the worst thing about CKII's historical progression is caused by messiness of the base mechanics, along with a lack of mechanics for important deciding factors of history that are easy to overlook.

For example, massive bordergore outside of European feudal areas. It always triggers me to see Anatolia and the Caucasus split between 3 realms with illogical patchwork borders, and the HRE owning Iconium for some reason. Or the near certainty of Christian Iberia falling without external aid. Yes, it was likely, but 90% of the time? There exist no mechanics for Al-Andalus splitting up, or for the effects the geography of Northern Iberia had on staying off full Islamic conquest. It's a simple holy war for Galicia, then for Leon, then Castile. The tributary mechanic would work well for representing temporary periods of Islamic or Christian influence on neighbors, but it's always holy war, holy war, holy war. No subjugation, not possibility for local lords to shift towards de fact independence once again. And similar problems arise in other parts of the map.

 

[clockworkBabbag]

If you want a replay of history, get yourself a textbook. Nothing is historical as soon as you press play, from any start date. There is not necessarily any reason to expect the things you asked for in your OP to happen if you start before them. Furthermore, CK2 is based off of individual characters. It doesn't make sense to have "flavor" events for specific nations, because the game isn't about nations. And you can't write events for historical characters for starts before those characters, because those characters won't necessarily exist.

That said:

Yes, there aren't DHEs like in EU4, but that was never supposed to be something CK2 was aiming to do. But there are mechanics that force at least some historical developments, namely with regards to culture and pagan conversion and the arrival of certian warlords. For example, you'll see Norse split into Danish/Swedish/Norwegian sometime in the late 900s, I believe. Pagan conversion is absolutely a thing, but you kind of have to actively convert them. Pagan conversion is actually fairly railroaded to fit with history; it's easier for certain religions to convert certain pagans. It also gets much easier to do Pagan conversion after a certain date. I don't remember exactly when though.

There's not going to be any kind of event to force unification or anything - that's something that happens organically, through mechanics - but only if there's actually someone in a position to do so. It makes more sense than arbitrary events.

 

[riadach]

Well you, as the player, can influence that. Try supporting the characters with the appropriate religion and culture to form those historical kingdoms.

 

[Jorlem]

Portugal

I have never once, in over a thousand hours of playing, seen Portugal form.

 

[StarSword]

The Burgundian Inheritance was not, in fact, likely. CKII, on the other hand, does have events for generally likely historical events - pagan conversion for one. As others have said, it's usual for all areas up to Poland to convert, and I even see Russia convert a lot of the time without my interference. Remember, you can send your chaplain to pagans. Go through 20 or so of them, and you'll probably end up converting them.

IMO, the worst thing about CKII's historical progression is caused by messiness of the base mechanics, along with a lack of mechanics for important deciding factors of history that are easy to overlook.

For example, massive bordergore outside of European feudal areas. It always triggers me to see Anatolia and the Caucasus split between 3 realms with illogical patchwork borders, and the HRE owning Iconium for some reason. Or the near certainty of Christian Iberia falling without external aid. Yes, it was likely, but 90% of the time? There exist no mechanics for Al-Andalus splitting up, or for the effects the geography of Northern Iberia had on staying off full Islamic conquest. It's a simple holy war for Galicia, then for Leon, then Castile. The tributary mechanic would work well for representing temporary periods of Islamic or Christian influence on neighbors, but it's always holy war, holy war, holy war. No subjugation, not possibility for local lords to shift towards de fact independence once again. And similar problems arise in other parts of the map.

Biggest problem is the Muslims don't have half the civil war problem that the Christian realms do since they don't have elective succession to cause vassal-liege friction, and Iqta gives so much extra cash compared to Catholic feudal because of bishop taxes it's not funny. And because of the lazy way peasant uprisings were implemented it's impossible for coreligionists to support a Catholic revolt against the Umayyads.

 

[vyshan]

You might try a mod such as the Historical Improvement Project(HIP) or CK2+

 

[Chief of Staff]

You might try a mod such as the Historical Improvement Project(HIP) or CK2+

Don't you mean Historical Immersion Project?

 

[vyshan]

Don't you mean Historical Immersion Project?

Ah, yea. my bad

 

[kmh42]

First: The end-date is 1453!
Second: There are very few historical events in CK2. e.g.: danish Conquest of England (OG start-date), Hordes, Charlemagne and some minor other but nothing that will not be expanded.

The CM start-date has definitely some issues concerning historian accuracy. I recommend you to go for another achivement in the same time or many other. I did all Indian achievements in my 769 run! There are at least 20 achievements you could achieve in this playtrough!

 

[Fishman786]

There are actually quite a few historical 'events', but most of them are not very visible. They're on the Wiki under 'other key years'.
http://www.ckiiwiki.com/Start_date

Aside from these, CK2 operates more under an EUIII-type design philosophy where everything that happens in the game is dynamic rather than pre-scripted. EUIV is much more railroaded, and Victoria II is probably the most railroaded of them all.

 

[Harassercat]

I've playing mostly the Old Gods start so far (867) and one of my main gripes with it is that the Magyars never manage to form Hungary. I think they did when I first got the game and didn't have any expansion, but as soon as I had installed Conclave and a couple other DLC's, it was all over for the Magyars. Now all my 867 campaigns will have a big Bulgarian blob that assimilates most of the Carpathian and Black Sea region both de jure into the kingdom and also to Bulgarian culture and Orthodox religion.

 

[Robert II]

I've playing mostly the Old Gods start so far (867) and one of my main gripes with it is that the Magyars never manage to form Hungary. I think they did when I first got the game and didn't have any expansion, but as soon as I had installed Conclave and a couple other DLC's, it was all over for the Magyars. Now all my 867 campaigns will have a big Bulgarian blob that assimilates most of the Carpathian and Black Sea region both de jure into the kingdom and also to Bulgarian culture and Orthodox religion.

They nerfed nomads so now the ai winning against Bulgaria is a long long long shot. Even before the nerf when they won they would settle as feudal with a half dozen counties in Hungary,2 in Bulgaria and 5 in Poland before the new khagan subjugates them in 2 years. Long story short nomads are stupid.