Crusader Kings II ~ Quick Answers

[noobermenschen]

I don't think allies are better than vassals in a war; they are very difficult to control. Never going where you want... Showing up at the wrong battle and wrecking your tactics... Marching to that tiny stack of yours that you forgot and happens to be accross the empire from the fighting... Standing along with your finest retinues in a province that exactly supports your retinues...

But more of their soldiers do show up, I'll give you that.


769 is the lowest tech start, with the least build up. Tribals don't depend much on tech, so that favors them over their christian feudal neighbours. Catholicism is quite divided in 769. Islams largest realms haven't splintered yet. Yep, this a challenging start for catholics.

On the other hand, for those of us who don't mind a tribal start, the possibilities are so much greater... A little Military Organisation Tech and some Lvl 1 Hillforts go a long way towards Hunting Parties...

In my experience for 769:
Low catholic MA is very common, as are herectic characters, split realms as well while less so, pagan saxony dominating Europe rare
in comparison. The Ummayads have been about 50/50 in conquering western Europe.
Depends on one hand how much Charlemagne is distracted and weakend by the war with Saxony and revolts and on the other how
much the Ummayads are preoccupied with Mauretania. Faction and claim war revolts can help to reduce their threat potential.



I don't see how that would help when the Ummayads come knocking.
Remember the old meme i relatively recently posted and which you liked, where a noob is happy to have finally founded the Kingdom of Ireland
only to recognise the Ummayads appearing nearby ? Defending in mountains etc can help, but at some point the sheer number of troops will overcome any negative modifier. That said, it depends how you "got punked". Remaining in Alba can help to consolidate and defend ( beat them on the shores ! ), while them wasting their troops against others and you trying to assasinate their rulers and cause chaos that way.

Thank you for the advice! Pity, If I had stuck to the original plan this could have gone another way. I certainly had enough opportunities for holy wars, especially against my Cathar neighbors. If I try it again I will probably ditch Ironman until I learn the ropes, though I did pick up one achievement (gained Theologian).

 

[Andrew0Red]

Hmm, I think a mistake many beginners make is getting too attached to their first games. This is a very complex and quite difficult game; your first many, many playthroughs should be considered tutorials rather than serious attempts. "800 hours of CK2? Wow, you must be very good!" "No..."

 

[TheRealRemus]

Hmm, I think a mistake many beginners make is getting too attached to their first games. This is a very complex and quite difficult game; your first many, many playthroughs should be considered tutorials rather than serious attempts. "800 hours of CK2? Wow, you must be very good!" "No..."

But its not my fault I cant finish my campaign! I *must* crossbreed all the bloodlines into my line!!!

 

[noobermenschen]

Hypothetical question, asking for a friend: If one plots to kill a neighboring ruler, what are the odds the target will go into hiding? I do not like scheming and am not good at it, but provoking a regency might come in handy if one has a weak claim to press...

 

[jonjowett]

Hypothetical question, asking for a friend: If one plots to kill a neighboring ruler, what are the odds the target will go into hiding? I do not like scheming and am not good at it, but provoking a regency might come in handy if one has a weak claim to press...

I don't know, and I can't think of any easy way to find out, but I can speculate. I think the target is more likely to go into hiding if they are craven or paranoid. And, possibly, they might need to find out about your plot - ie. it might be necessary for your plot to be discovered, so it might be useful to recruit drunken/gluttonous plotters.

 

[Cyfral9]

What a best options for reform pagan religion (slavic)?

 

[Andrew0Red]

Tricky question... What do you want? Personally, I'd go for:

Ancestor Veneration: Unlocks the Succession type Eldership, which keeps the realm together and also in the dynasty. With a little effort, you can also choose which dynast inherits.

Sea-bound or Children of Perun: Allows you to sail your fleets up and down all those rivers and cross accross the portages. Seeing how most slavic lands are far from the coast, this will greatly speed up your armies. Be aware that you can still only build fleets by in ocean-coastal provinces, no matter how large the lake or broad the river... Sea-farer adds -90% upkeep on fleets, while Children of Perun adds Stability, removing the Short Reign-penalty.

But of course, it all depends on what you want for your people.

 

[Cyfral9]

Tricky question... What do you want? Personally, I'd go for:

Ancestor Veneration: Unlocks the Succession type Eldership, which keeps the realm together and also in the dynasty. With a little effort, you can also choose which dynast inherits.

Sea-bound or Children of Perun: Allows you to sail your fleets up and down all those rivers and cross accross the portages. Seeing how most slavic lands are far from the coast, this will greatly speed up your armies. Be aware that you can still only build fleets by in ocean-coastal provinces, no matter how large the lake or broad the river... Sea-farer adds -90% upkeep on fleets, while Children of Perun adds Stability, removing the Short Reign-penalty.

But of course, it all depends on what you want for your people.

I am playing this start with Piast (Slavic). I would like to reform Slavic Religion this time and build stable country, stable succession law. Hope to change to feudalism later as well.

 

[randomnamehere123]

And, possibly, they might need to find out about your plot - ie. it might be necessary for your plot to be discovered, so it might be useful to recruit drunken/gluttonous plotters.

Wait, gluttonous affects discovery too?! Anything else?
So far this seemed completely random to me because I avoided drunks but somewhat high intrigue characters still failed to keep their mouths shut occasionally, so when I could i just didn't invite anybody.
And does anything affect plot being discovered after success/failure?
Thanks in advance!

 

[jonjowett]

Wait, gluttonous affects discovery too?! Anything else?
So far this seemed completely random to me because I avoided drunks but somewhat high intrigue characters still failed to keep their mouths shut occasionally, so when I could i just didn't invite anybody.
And does anything affect plot being discovered after success/failure?
Thanks in advance!

I believe the actual factors are hardcoded into the engine, so there's no certain way to find out. I was pretty sure gluttony had an effect, but a related wiki page suggests it doesn't - only slow/imbecile/lunatic/drunkard are listed. Is that wiki page completely correct? Who knows?!

I think that the chance of the plot being revealed as a result of a murder attempt is entirely random - I haven't noticed any factors that bias it one way or the other.

 

[Andrew0Red]

Avoiding being known as a murderer 100% is quite tricky. You have to not murder people.

 

[jonjowett]

Avoiding being known as a murderer 100% is quite tricky. You have to not murder people.

...or be a silent killer.

 

[Grand Admiral Edward]

Raiding question. Can a Merchant Republic raid if the culture is Germanic or Reformed Pagan (from what I've seen, Reformed Pagans who were able to raid as unreformed Pagan can still raid)?

 

[Andrew0Red]

Can a Merchant Republic raid if the culture is Germanic or Reformed Pagan

Well, a finnish-culture reformed Suomenusko MR can raid, so I'd say you're in the clear.

 

[kiannameiou]

Raid ability depends on;
Culture
Government
Religion

If any one is true, can raid.

 

[jonjowett]

Raiding question. Can a Merchant Republic raid if the culture religion is Germanic or Reformed Pagan (from what I've seen, Reformed Pagans who were able to raid as unreformed Pagan can still raid)?

Unless you reform with Peaceful nature, you should be able to raid.

For full details on the criteria for raiding, see the Raiding page on the wiki.

 

[kiannameiou]

Does emperor tier title laws supersede kingdom laws? Like vassal wars forbidden is on the single emperor title I have, which is the de jure liege for every kingdom. Using a deactivate empire title mod to instant de jure drift kingdoms into the custom empire title.

So if I give away a kingdom title to my child is it still bound by vassal wars forbidden or free to choose?

 

[Andrew0Red]

Does emperor tier title laws supersede kingdom laws?

Crown laws - Crusader Kings II Wiki

ck2.paradoxwikis.com

If I understand your situation correctly, your empire-laws should still apply. But if it's important, do make a seperate save and test.

 

[goodcigar]

Subunit Commanders?

Can someone explain how Subunit Commanders work inside an Army? You can select characters to lead the Center/Right/Left Flanks. Below that there are subunits in each Flank. Some of the subunits have Leaders and some don't. Why is that? That seems very strange. Doesn't make sense.

Do I need to assign a Commander to each Subunit? What happens if you don't? It seems like you can only assign a Leader to some of the subunits.

 

[jonjowett]

Subunit Commanders?

Can someone explain how Subunit Commanders work inside an Army? You can select characters to lead the Center/Right/Left Flanks. Below that there are subunits in each Flank. Some of the subunits have Leaders and some don't. Why is that? That seems very strange. Doesn't make sense.

I believe the purpose of the subunit commanders is so that there's someone to take over if the main flank commander becomes indisposed (dead/injured/captured/reassigned). I'm pretty sure that this works outside battle (assign a flank commander and a subcommander in the same flank, then assign the flank commander to a different army, and observe that the subcommander takes over the flank). However, I'm not sure if this will work properly in the middle of a battle (it's rather difficult to test). And it's not obvious exactly what happens if you have multiple subcommanders. (I suspect the order of precedence is top-to-bottom.)

Do I need to assign a Commander to each Subunit? What happens if you don't?

No. And nothing much. In fact, assigning subcommanders is probably a bad idea overall because it means another army somewhere else is probably missing an actual commander.

It seems like you can only assign a Leader to some of the subunits.

I believe you can only assign subcommanders to personal/demesne levies and mercenaries. For personal/demesne levies, the available subcommanders are your commanders. For mercenary subunits, the available subcommanders are the mercenary leader. (And maybe some of his courtiers? Not sure.)