Crusader Kings II ~ Quick Answers

[lymond]

Coupla questions:

1) What determines how many extra holdings you can build in a county? I notice it varies considerably. At one point I had what appears to be 3 open spots for new holdings in my capital county. I built a new city. Once done, I could build no more holdings in that county. In other counties in my demesne, I can build no additional holdings at all. However, I see some counties with 5 or more. So is there something I can focus on or strive for to allow for building additional holdings? Basically I want to max out my demesne counties with cities and baronies.

2) Personal levies - I've noticed something odd with the total, over time. My demesne has remained static for a very long time across several characters. I'm an emperor with 2 duchies and corresponding counties in my demesne. Gold income has been good for some time and I've built stuff constantly. However, my total personal levies seems to remain rather stagnate. At one point Leader X had...say...up to 8,500 personal levies after I built some buildings during his reign. His son takes over and it drops to around 7,000. He builds a bunch more advanced military buildings over time getting back up to 8,000. His son takes over...back to 7,000. What is going on here? I feel I should probably be closer to 10K levies at this stage with all I've built and nothing else changing, but it pretty much averages out to no gain at all. What am I missing here? I thought personal levies weren't affected by vassal opinion within the demesne, although I've always kept my demesne vassals more than happy regardless.

(my guess is traits or stats may play a factor - like Marshall score - but at some point it seems it should balance out regardless.)

thanks

 

[Marzen64]

Hey! So, I'm newer to CK2, but I understand it well enough to know how land and declaring war works. I'm still confused as to why sometimes I declare war for a county I don't take all the cities and stuff, but whatever. I'm playing as the Byzantines currently, and I declared war on Rome after fabricating a claim with my chancellor. It all went fine, but now the Pope has control of about three of the cities and for some reason I can't declare war on him. He himself has this land, but there's still no declare war button. Shouldn't I have a claim on these cities? Italy also had a city but I could declare war on them for it, but I can't on the pope.

 

[Drake_Hound]

Hey! So, I'm newer to CK2, but I understand it well enough to know how land and declaring war works. I'm still confused as to why sometimes I declare war for a county I don't take all the cities and stuff, but whatever. I'm playing as the Byzantines currently, and I declared war on Rome after fabricating a claim with my chancellor. It all went fine, but now the Pope has control of about three of the cities and for some reason I can't declare war on him. He himself has this land, but there's still no declare war button. Shouldn't I have a claim on these cities? Italy also had a city but I could declare war on them for it, but I can't on the pope.

It is a bug , with some holdings a mess , cause of them counting as county . So check which holdings belong to the pope and assassinate the owner of the barony , to force the pope to land back there .
Once you got all the other 2 city/bishop then declare war for the castle and county !

 

[Drake_Hound]

Coupla questions:

1) What determines how many extra holdings you can build in a county? I notice it varies considerably. At one point I had what appears to be 3 open spots for new holdings in my capital county. I built a new city. Once done, I could build no more holdings in that county. In other counties in my demesne, I can build no additional holdings at all. However, I see some counties with 5 or more. So is there something I can focus on or strive for to allow for building additional holdings? Basically I want to max out my demesne counties with cities and baronies.

2) Personal levies - I've noticed something odd with the total, over time. My demesne has remained static for a very long time across several characters. I'm an emperor with 2 duchies and corresponding counties in my demesne. Gold income has been good for some time and I've built stuff constantly. However, my total personal levies seems to remain rather stagnate. At one point Leader X had...say...up to 8,500 personal levies after I built some buildings during his reign. His son takes over and it drops to around 7,000. He builds a bunch more advanced military buildings over time getting back up to 8,000. His son takes over...back to 7,000. What is going on here? I feel I should probably be closer to 10K levies at this stage with all I've built and nothing else changing, but it pretty much averages out to no gain at all. What am I missing here? I thought personal levies weren't affected by vassal opinion within the demesne, although I've always kept my demesne vassals more than happy regardless.

(my guess is traits or stats may play a factor - like Marshall score - but at some point it seems it should balance out regardless.)

thanks

1 the holdings or free places are fixed in common , history provinces , they are done to represent historic accuracy (or what Paradox consider historic) . They can be modded if you really want .
But if you don't want to mod , or don't understand scripts . Then just keep looking around for good places with max 7 total squares (empty or filled) .

2 personal levy is quite difficult to explain after the nerf , if you have direct control .
You have always 100% of the green bar levy , if you give it to a vassal it is like the vassals martial rating -50% ( the vassal always cut the number in half sneakily) and then the levy tax .

So holding a county or barony etc personally (if you have high martial) , gives you together with the tax and crown authority and your marshal bonus , a extreme higher personal levy , then any npc vassal would .

Confused ?
simple term , 1 Ruler martial rating , 2 marshal martial rating , 3 levy tax number ! Then Crown Authority .
(this is without the upgrades yet from the holdings)

 

[Anthropoid]

1) F11 doesn't seem to save to my clipboard (Gamersgate version). When I click it, I get the brief popup "Screenshot taken" but then when I try to paste to an image program (Irfanview and Paint), I am not getting option to paste, Ctrl+V does nothing.


2) King Rorgon of France, 915 AD, ruled for about 2 years. My father was Arnault King of France (succeeded via AI motivated Faction war) who was son of my 1st character: Rorgon, Duke of Burgundy <aside>Pretty good eh! 2nd Character after an 867 start as count, and I'm already KING! :laugh:<end> My grandfather Rorgon's wife 2nd wife was Berthe, Countess of Vexin and Evreux.

As a result I have a weak claim on Vexin. Berthe was also plotting to kill my son, so I imprisoned her (weird thing here, I kept failing to imprison her and she would flee to the court of her liege, Duke of Normandy, but after each failed attempt to imprison [at about 59%] I still had the option to imprison her again, so I just spammed it until she wound up in my dungeon).

In Berthe's diplomacy window, I do not have an option to Revoke Title, the line for that is just not there at all. In diplo window of her liege, Valeran, Duke of Normandy, Count of Mortain, I have the Revoke Title button at top of list, but only option there is his Duchy of Normandy.

I'm perplexed by this. The conditions to press the weak claim on Vexin seem to hold true, i.e., she is a female and my character is a male. However, the game doesn't even seem to recognize that she is my vassal (well, vassal of my vassal), as I do not even get the "Revoke Title" button at all, which I should have for ALL my vassals, right?

Is it possible that she is somehow 'technically' in one of those limbo states, where she is actually the vassal of somebody whose realm she doesn't even live in??

ADDIT: and just an aside comment, this game shines once you are playing a Duke, and especially at the level of King. I just wish the game was a bit more 'spicey' and less boring for playing Counts.

 

[Tom013]

1) F11 doesn't seem to save to my clipboard (Gamersgate version). When I click it, I get the brief popup "Screenshot taken" but then when I try to paste to an image program (Irfanview and Paint), I am not getting option to paste, Ctrl+V does nothing.

F11 isn't copy-to-clipboard. It's "take screenshot" and I believe you should look for it in your Documents/CK2 directory.
(Also, you hopefully already know this, but the Gamersgate version hasn't been getting updates for a while and you can switch to Steam whenever you want to move to a new version)

2) King Rorgon of France, 915 AD, ruled for about 2 years. My father was Arnault King of France (succeeded via AI motivated Faction war) who was son of my 1st character: Rorgon, Duke of Burgundy <aside>Pretty good eh! 2nd Character after an 867 start as count, and I'm already KING! :laugh:<end> My grandfather Rorgon's wife 2nd wife was Berthe, Countess of Vexin and Evreux.

As a result I have a weak claim on Vexin. Berthe was also plotting to kill my son, so I imprisoned her (weird thing here, I kept failing to imprison her and she would flee to the court of her liege, Duke of Normandy, but after each failed attempt to imprison [at about 59%] I still had the option to imprison her again, so I just spammed it until she wound up in my dungeon).

In Berthe's diplomacy window, I do not have an option to Revoke Title, the line for that is just not there at all. In diplo window of her liege, Valeran, Duke of Normandy, Count of Mortain, I have the Revoke Title button at top of list, but only option there is his Duchy of Normandy.

I'm perplexed by this. The conditions to press the weak claim on Vexin seem to hold true, i.e., she is a female and my character is a male. However, the game doesn't even seem to recognize that she is my vassal (well, vassal of my vassal), as I do not even get the "Revoke Title" button at all, which I should have for ALL my vassals, right?

Is it possible that she is somehow 'technically' in one of those limbo states, where she is actually the vassal of somebody whose realm she doesn't even live in??

ADDIT: and just an aside comment, this game shines once you are playing a Duke, and especially at the level of King. I just wish the game was a bit more 'spicey' and less boring for playing Counts.

The title is not directly subservient to you, so you can't revoke it from her. Your Duke could revoke it. And you could revoke it from your Duke IF he held it. So, then, you can also revoke his duchy and then revoke her county. You have the Revoke Title option, like you said, for all of YOUR vassals but not for your vassal's vassals.

 

[Drake_Hound]

You have run into the infamous in transit bug , that happens very rarely .
solution use the console ( right alt button , + , 1 then 2 (1 and 2 of the numpad) )

type in charinfo 1 , then click on berthe and see her number , then type imprison (her char id number) and release .
You gain +5-20 mercifull , but the real reason is to force her to relocate to your country .
If that still doesn't fix it , imprison again and type move (berthe id) while in prison , and then release .

 

[Anthropoid]

Ah! Thank you gentlemen!

My next question:

3. I'd like to take a crack at playing a Pagan northern type, Norse or Slavic I guess. I have the character designer so I can soup-up my starting character. However, I don't know the culture history there so much. I like to start with a Count, and aspire to rise to King then Emperor and generally play French or German counts with the intent to "Restore Charlemagne's Empire" and "outdo the HRE."

If I wanted to play with a similar goal as a Pagan, which Count / County would you guys recommend and what would the long-term goal be for the playthrough?

The title is not directly subservient to you, so you can't revoke it from her. Your Duke could revoke it. And you could revoke it from your Duke IF he held it. So, then, you can also revoke his duchy and then revoke her county. You have the Revoke Title option, like you said, for all of YOUR vassals but not for your vassal's vassals.

On further examination, it appears Tom is correct (and it isn't the 'transit bug'). I have another Vassal (Duke of Berry) who has two count vassals, and the window looks the same under those Counts (cannot revoke their titles either).

 

[Tom013]

Ah! Thank you gentlemen!

My next question:



3. I'd like to take a crack at playing a Pagan northern type, Norse or Slavic I guess. I have the character designer so I can soup-up my starting character. However, I don't know the culture history there so much. I like to start with a Count, and aspire to rise to King then Emperor and generally play French or German counts with the intent to "Restore Charlemagne's Empire" and "outdo the HRE."

If I wanted to play with a similar goal as a Pagan, which Count / County would you guys recommend and what would the long-term goal be for the playthrough?

This is all a personal preference sort of thing. You want to stay pagan forever? Most of the non-Norse Pagans are pretty hum drum, but a goal of uniting Lithuania and reforming the Romuva faith is a reasonable goal. I had fun doing it once but probably wouldn't be bothered again. Norse pagans have quite a lot more going for them. If you want to play for power, from a fairly weak position, start somewhere in southern Sweden or Norway. You want a county that has ships to start so that you can set out to raiding. One of the Norse invaders in the British Isles is also an option. The obvious goal is to form a unified Scandinavia and become the Fylkir of the reformed Norse faith. However, with the Norse prepared invasion mechanic, you can actually set yourself up for all sorts of strange and fun games. Like starting in southern Norway, preparing an invasion of southern Spain, and setting up your new kingdom in Andalucia. Or the guy on the forums who decided to become a Norse Indian king...

 

[Drake_Hound]

Well go play duke in Alto Aragon , sadly playing pagan is quite hard during catholic time , especially if you are new .
you need a strong army , and you need to raid often . But playing a count/duke under a catholic king doesn't allow raiding , (unless you are indepedent , but if you are still 2.1.2 or earlier you can still raid under a catholic king , and not be branded and attacked onmass with holywar lmao )

Maybe a beter start is hamburg (yeah that was a pagan country if I remember correctlt in 867)
a bit closer to your home and history , so you might feel more at home there .

 

[tamius23]

Ah! Thank you gentlemen!

My next question:

3. I'd like to take a crack at playing a Pagan northern type, Norse or Slavic I guess. I have the character designer so I can soup-up my starting character. However, I don't know the culture history there so much. I like to start with a Count, and aspire to rise to King then Emperor and generally play French or German counts with the intent to "Restore Charlemagne's Empire" and "outdo the HRE."

If I wanted to play with a similar goal as a Pagan, which Count / County would you guys recommend and what would the long-term goal be for the playthrough?

For your first game as a pagan, it might be best not to play a count, as you won't really be powerful enough to do anything. If you start as a count in Norway - at least, as of a few patches ago - whichever one you pick, Harald Fairhair will day-1 attack you.

I'd recommend one of the five Mordvin (Volga Finnic) tribes, if you're willing to play Suomenusko - Mordvins, Meshchera, Muromians, Merya, Mari - as they're weak enough to feel like you've built something up, like when you go from a Count to a King/Emperor, but strong enough not to be completely at the mercy of the neighbours. Generally Rurik and Dyre. The history is quite thin on the ground, and historically three of the five tribes disappeared.

The goal would be to form the empire of Russia, as Mordvin-cultured characters can form it - rename it if you like - and to pick a religion to convert to, or reform. Crusading Mordvins, anyone?

I'm rather fond of the cultures in that part of the map.

 

[Anthropoid]

Thanks much for those suggestions gentlemen! That definitely helps a ton with some basic info that I can use to survey the map in my current French King game, see what holdings are like, etc., etc. Will let you know what I decide to go with. I often find that having two games going at once can be fun, a French Catholic Crusader King Empire, and a Pagan empire type thing.

One last question:

4. Is it pretty much untenable to STAY Pagan forever, and basically, "Crusade Against the Christians" and essentially destroy or severely damage Catholicism if not also Islam?

Thinking in terms of a Conversion to EUIV, that could be a very fun (though obviously exceedingly ahistorical) long-term project, assuming game mechanics make it in anyway tenable.

I'm still playing with the Gamersgate version (2.0.2 if memory serves) and honestly, with as many complaints as I see about latest versions, I'm not in any particular rush to migrate my game to Steam and patch up to latest.

5. Is playing through to end of CKII period with 2.0.2 patch likely to lead to conversion problems when I get to EUIV stage?

Even if so, I may go ahead and play with it for now, as I find I learn a lot from each playthrough anyway.

 

[Tom013]

Thanks much for those suggestions gentlemen! That definitely helps a ton with some basic info that I can use to survey the map in my current French King game, see what holdings are like, etc., etc. Will let you know what I decide to go with. I often find that having two games going at once can be fun, a French Catholic Crusader King Empire, and a Pagan empire type thing.

One last question:

4. Is it pretty much untenable to STAY Pagan forever, and basically, "Crusade Against the Christians" and essentially destroy or severely damage Catholicism if not also Islam?

Thinking in terms of a Conversion to EUIV, that could be a very fun (though obviously exceedingly ahistorical) long-term project, assuming game mechanics make it in anyway tenable.

I'm still playing with the Gamersgate version (2.0.2 if memory serves) and honestly, with as many complaints as I see about latest versions, I'm not in any particular rush to migrate my game to Steam and patch up to latest.

5. Is playing through to end of CKII period with 2.0.2 patch likely to lead to conversion problems when I get to EUIV stage?

Even if so, I may go ahead and play with it for now, as I find I learn a lot from each playthrough anyway.

4) If you reform, no. If you can reform your faith, you can compete with Christianity forever. In particular, the Norse have it pretty good if they reform.

5) I'm not sure about the conversion. You can test it now, though (you can convert at any time). The converter DOES have problems in the current patch, so that's a reason to NOT move forward yet...

 

[Drake_Hound]

Like tom said you need to reform , and you need to be zealous not cynical norse . If you really want to compete with catholics .

If you are in 2.0.2 , you can also mod some stuff , sadly some command and improvement codes have been released later on that totally change the ball game ,

don't know if you can move raiding to other religions in 00_religion.txt in 2.02 (sorry joined at 2.1.1 and did play 2.0.4)
So in the end make something you really enjoy , take the aspect of some things and combine them together .
So you can play your version of history .

 

[Rotkohl]

So... my genius son and heir died. Luckily, his son is also a genius and the heir of the queen of france, so that's not too bad. I'm under elective succession, so I chose him as a successor.
Problem is, after a couple of months, the notice about choosing a successor reappeared out of nowhere, and even though he is still alive, I couldn't choose my grandson, and I'm not exactly sure why.

Any ideas? I'd be grateful for any response.

If it helps, I am the king of England, and my grandson is also the Duke of Kent, so I probably should be able to nominate him because of that alone, shouldn't I?

 

[Drake_Hound]

Hope it is Not iron man , but save and reload after shutting down the game .
Cause somehow your son probaly got lost in the education bug .

So he is between tutors , when you gave him that duchy .

These bugs happens cause sometimes they are scheduled for events , in the memory and everything happens at the same time , causing huge mess up .
Like the cpu doesn't know what comes first and in what order .

 

[timfi]

So... my genius son and heir died. Luckily, his son is also a genius and the heir of the queen of france, so that's not too bad. I'm under elective succession, so I chose him as a successor.
Problem is, after a couple of months, the notice about choosing a successor reappeared out of nowhere, and even though he is still alive, I couldn't choose my grandson, and I'm not exactly sure why.

Any ideas? I'd be grateful for any response.

If it helps, I am the king of England, and my grandson is also the Duke of Kent, so I probably should be able to nominate him because of that alone, shouldn't I?

I've also noticed a change in Elective succession. My understanding is that only your children and De Jure dukes are now eligible. Grant boy a duchy, and you may have him.

 

[Rotkohl]

It's not ironman. I never play ironman, because the slow monthly saves bother me.

He's my grandson though, and he inherited the duchy when his father died. He's too young to have a mentor, so I'm afraid this isn't what caused the problem...

@ timfi:

If it helps, I am the king of England, and my grandson is also the Duke of Kent, so I probably should be able to nominate him because of that alone, shouldn't I?

 

[Drake_Hound]

Try a imprison on the console and release , to see if that fix it .
Since he would then be in your court and then move back to his own court and duchy .

does he have a reagant appointed or not ? From his vassals ?
Only do this one if the previous doesn't solve it . Just imprison the reagant and release , sadly a lesser capable reagant takes over , but I had one time something similar bug , that had my heir not show up at all in my succession .
Like it didn't excist , so I had to replace the reagant .

If the bug still persist , means he either gone from feudal to republic / theocracy .
And the county he is running is probaly a bishopric or a city .
then giving him a barony (any low level barony castle) would make him feudal again .

 

[Anthropoid]

"Loot protected by fort" can someone please explain to me what this, and the little symbol on the bar under it actually means? (or point me to the exhaustive explanation of raiding)

I figured that the little partition along the bar (looks like a fence or wall with battlements) represented how much fortification you have to knock down to get the loot, so a 'fence' symbol farther right is better, and especially when the "Loot Protected by Fort" value is higher.

So I landed my raiding party of 608 Vikings (already toggled before I left Telemark) in Connaille, which is having a little war, and already had its loot bar pushed to the LEFT of the little fence thing. But I'm not accumulating any loot into my ships.