House Rules (or how do YOU play CK?)

[Cromelex]

Hey,

Just wanted to thank again for all these replies - I'm learning more from this thread than I'd expected. It's great! Keep 'em coming. I like these ideas and they will definitely shape the way I play my next campaign - I'm indebted to you guys.

x2

I'll certainly use some of the ideas mentioned here next time I play.

 

[unmerged(114598)]

The only real house rule i follow is not cheating. Otherwise I rp my characters and never really kill off useless leaders. From there the game always ends up interesting for me.

 

[Kordian]

I – I play only as an Orthodox rulers. Or I start as Catholic one but my first “target” is to convert my ruler to orthodoxy. (I guess that’s a zealous part of me). However not by moding, but true breeding and event forcing. I have weird results like huge dynasties of Norman orthodox leaders.

lol, I usually do the opposite! I always start as Catholic or if I start as Orthodox I always try to convert to Catholicism by joining western Kingdoms.

Anyway my house rules are:

1)Always start as a Count. If no pre-existent county inspires me I can create ex-novo a county by starting as a King, creating it, saving and loading and choosing new count dinasty.

2)Not to many King titles, 4 or 5 are enough ("stolen" arab titles such as King of Fatimids or Knightly Orders titles like Teutonic Order doesn't count if well roleplayed)

3)If I inherit big titles (such as King of Germany) or far titles (e.g. King of Portugal while I'm in Finland I will give away that title.

4)Marriages with other cultures are accepted, indeed encouraged. Particularly with other Kings or powerful Dukes' daughters.

5)I'm allowed to modify save file to change the name and the culture of my heirs if they were born with diffent and far cultures (e.g. my heir is named Jose and has Portoguese culture while I'm King of Finland just because his mother is portoguese)

6)Always give titles to other families preferably of the same culture of the King. I do this because IA vassals tend to marry people of the same culture, generating inbreed children. Creating various dinasties can extend the genetic pool and avoids inbreed vassals. My style: 95% Other families dukedoms and Archbishops, 5% my first-born dukedom.

7)Sending the first-born heir (and sometimes also his brothers) as fosterling is always a good thing to do. It's plausible to send him to other kingdoms such as England, France, Germany, Byzantium, Gerusalem, Scotland or even Venice.

8)Generally my games should have a sort of historical and geographical coherence, but sometimes I enjoy playing odd situations like the creation of a gigantic welsh kingdom in Africa. In these cases one primary target is to spread my King culture and religion, using as far as possible other families from my homeland (e.g. Cynfyn family as dukes of Marrakesh, Clydog family as dukes of Fez and so on...)

9)Cheats must be avoided or used only to stop paradoxal situations.

 

[johnbecool]

I play like this ( from begining tyo the end:

1- Institute salic law ( I prefer to be sure of the succesor name andwhat i have to do to the succession be easier)

2- For religious ideas ( if it's not ) if i need troops a lot : Regal supremacy; if not ecclesiatical balance

3- I always try to have a unify territory ( including vassals) then, when i'm begin to be strong ( kingdom title ) Give at each Duke all of their lands ( i keep some if it's rich provinces)And don't keep count as vassals as possible

4- I manage my empire like that: I keep the more powerful provinces near my potentially revolting vassals, making sure i can beat him...

5- When a vassal revolt or declare independance ( or the 2) I just beat him and push him undr new vassalization( when i have claim on me, it gives me a lot of prestige to don't demand it), if it happens too many times, i confiscate the duke title( always pushing him under vassalization) and give it to his natural successor

6- when i have developped all my provinces, i finance the improvements of my vassals...( if they have enough, i keep money for future wars)

7- i try to make sure 2 duke titles ( or more) are not in the same hands...

resume: keep rich provinces, give all the rest, don't let vassals became so powerful like me and conquer the world

 

[unmerged(22430)]

III – I also lately start with person that I create. Not by moding again but by picking some random guy who is a courtier in a court of some King or Prince and give him a title count, and than I start to play a game like him. This is also since I played to many games with all possible dynasties so I want an underdog unknown person.

I do this but I usually create a person and dynasty. I'll often even create a culture also. I went from the petty Count of Torzhok to the "Emperor" of "Greater" Sweden with the titles: King of Sweden, Norway, England, Ireland, Finland. After 14 kings his decedent is by far the most powerful man in the known world.

County of Torzhok 1066 - 1084
Kingdom of Sweden 1084 - 1217
Kingdom of Sweden-England 1217 - 1308?
Kingdom of Greater Sweden 1308? - 1312?
Empire of Greater Sweden 1312? -

 

[truth is life]

I (almost) never conquer land I'm not adjacent to, like some earlier posters in this thread. The only exceptions are Crusades, inheritances, and some other special conditions (eg., playing as a Russian state, I'm not going to be too gung-ho about keeping all my land together, at least until I've formed Rus).

I also don't keep together too many king-titles, usually based on the amount of land I'm trying to control and historical plausibility. (I might, for example, unite Castille, Leon, Aragon, Navarra, and Portugal, or even have a King of Kahzaria, Rus, Lithuania, and Finland--but I wouldn't have a King of Germany be anything else, as well, or a King of France)

 

[Parsley Magnet]

• Generally, only marry within my culture, geographical area, and/or "status". The Duke of Saxony would never marry off his second-born son to the daughter of some Greek martial who just turned 16, even if she was lustful and had 21 INT. He'd much rather marry him off to the King of Germany's firstborn daughter, or barring that the daughter of the Duke of Lower Lorraine.
• Grant the lands closest to the heartland to relatives. Grant rich provinces to particularly good nobles. Grant provinces conquered in Crusades to high martial characters, particularly any that may have "distinguished themselves in battle" in taking the province. Grant poor provinces to whoever.
• If I have multiple King titles (within limits, "if I'm "King of Leon and Portugal" I'll proceed as normal but If I'm "King of Lithuania, Germany, and France" I'll do it) I'll divide them up among my heirs as I'm about to die in a Carolingian fashion.