How do you play CKII?

[Timpookie]

That is to say, what types of characters do you ordinarily play as, and what do you try to do? I've taken a liking to playing dying but still alive religions and religious sects and turning them back into major religions in the world when historically they were wiped out or nearly wiped out. My current game as Abyssinia (and Nubia and parts of the southern Arabian peninsula and most of Egypt of so far) is the perfect example of that, as I took a religion that, though it still exists today, is a very minority religion and hasn't really been very influential for quite some time (Miaphysites) and made it the official religion of the second most powerful kingdom in the Middle East&North Africa, after the Umayyads.

Also, as a side-note, what do the NPCs like to do in your games? In the game that I mentioned religion has decided that it really doesn't give a damn about history and, in addition to my large Miaphysite empire threatening Mecca and Medina in the 880s, my computer decided to reform both the Germanic and Slavic faiths, literally destroy any large Catholic nations aside from the Lombards and have the Umayyads control a third of Africa, the entire Iberian peninsula, parts of southwestern France and half of Brittany.

 

[Timpookie]

I just saw and reread the title and realized that it is very misleading. I was asking the way in which you, the reader, play CKII as opposed to the generic "you" as in asking how to play CKII. I sincerely apologize for that ambiguity in the title, it was my mistake.

 

[GCRust]

Funnily enough, that's what my current game was all about - installing the Coptic Pope in Alexandria and seeing Miaphyisitism spread globally.

Instead, the bulk of my Abyssinia has flipped Catholic, Monophyisitism is the dominant school of thought, and for some strange reason a hundred years ago the kings of Abyssinia decided they really wanted Alania.

 

[Greyjeth]

I tend to play anyone who is not a Christian. I barely play the Byzantines and barely look at the Catholics. I played so much of them in my beginning plays of CK2 that I felt bad about not experiencing pagans, sunni, shia, hindu, bhuddist or jain. I still need to play more religions but I do tend to be a pagan, typically around the Slavic, Germanic and Romuva parts. I don't just play one group of pagans either. My current play-through is a Slavic pagan Poland that I intend to take to Vicky 2 and I hope HOI4. What can I say, I really like keeping old faiths alive past the date they did die in history

 

[n00bypl4y3r]

Play a country that interests me, pick a goal (typically size I want to expand to), then complete that goal. Attempt to maintain that situation until either 1) I lose or 2) I get bored. I have never completed a game of Crusader Kings 2 after 1,300 hours in the game. The game runs far too slow, too soon into games for me to ever do that now.

 

[Metanetwork]

The game I am most proud of is actually my first one. I started as Caliph Al-Mansur in 769, but immediately after my death I was overthrown twice in close succession. I played for nearly 300 years at duke tier (as emir of Baghdad), then became sultan of Mesopotamia through a revolt.

I keep characters of many different cultures and religions at my court. I dedicate some dynasties of courtiers to a specific culture or religion (there is a bedoin kharijite dynasty for example), and I'm currently having some fun at changing religion from one character to the next (it makes for a great revoke reason nowadays). My current character is a yazidi kurdish child (the child part is obviously unintentional). As soon as I have 1000 piety I will create the yazidi caliphate. I'll try to unite all caliphate titles before the end date. Then I'll get a catholic heir and vassalize the Pope. If I get a century or so ahead of time I'll try to reform the Germanic faith.

 

[Runite]

I don't play, I watch the AI play.

 

[Misterawesome93]

I don't play, I watch the AI play.

Any particular reason you do that or do you just enjoy watching the map turn into a Picasso painting.

 

[Jackwagon]

My go to game when I wanna scratch the CKII itch is count Aribo in the kingdom of Bavaria in 867
The goal being to form the HRE but normally don't get that far

 

[RhaegarTelcontarTargaryen]

I prefer pagans, so usually I play Slavic or Norse. When I play Christians, it's either Karlings in 1066 start, or William the Conqueror -> Empire of Britannia and Jerusalem, sometimes some HRE state. I prefer 1066 start, because it seems the most plausible. When I start in 867 ( I usually play with HIP so that is the earliest starting date) or with CK2+ in 769, I almost always play untill 1066-1100 and then quit.

 

[Runite]

Any particular reason you do that or do you just enjoy watching the map turn into a Picasso painting.

The game feels absurdly linear whenever I play it, there's no challenge and whatever role playing I do is forced to a standstill due to the inevitable lag.

Watching the AI play is like watching a chicken fight, it's fair until the cops show up and bust the show, playing CKII makes me feel like the cops because the AI are chickens and clearly they don't know what a "cop" is and will continue fighting even if the cop is shooting at them. You can't predict the outcome of a chicken fight but you can probably guess what happens when something with intelligence appears in that arena.

The winner is the one who can dictate the situation and unfortunately the AI is incapable of being a real threat and there's no fun without unpredictability.

Even the AI isn't capable of making this chicken fight interesting, if I had to compare it to a real one, CKII's AI chicken fight is more or less scratching at each other. I have to mod the AI and encourage more violence and outcomes else they just don't do anything. It's like adding blades or guns to chikens, lol.

 

[xXConquerorXx]

Either play Norse pagans or the Saxons in 1066, in the former, I tend to create a Kingdom of Nordland if playing as Hastein or become a "Norse Charlemagne" as Dyre or Rurik, or recreate the Danelaw as one of Ragnarr's sons. With the saxons, I tend to beat both Harald and William and then just hold my domains until 1090-1100, when I start to slowly expand into Wales and Ireland.

 

[StarSword]

Well, my first game was Dál Riata (d_isles) in 769, which has the interesting distinction of being Irish in de jure k_scotland. Picked them because I'm part Irish (also Lowland Scots and Welsh, with some other stuff mixed in) and my favorite brand of Scotch is from the Hebrides, plus the name and coat of arms of Clan Mac Gabraín looked cool. Went from there to High King of Ireland and eventually Emperor of Alba.

My second game was Ironman, Ilmen (d_novgorod) in 769 with the plan to create the borders of the Warsaw Pact as Reformed Slavic or Orthodox Russia (Slavic as it turned out).

My current game takes a Persian dynasty that never amounted to much, the Barmakids, and turns them into the Kurdish rulers of the restored Persian Empire, with the eventual plan of establishing the Yazidi Sheikhdom. Because fuck Daesh.

I tend to play pragmatic villainy: avoid tyranny as much as possible but otherwise realpolitik is the name of the game. I happily redistrict counts into the wrong duchies and kill inconvenient children and women.

 

[abauer2]

I too like to play outside of the Christianity/Islam heart of the game. I also like to do and see ahistorical things based on weird random stories from history. One of my favorite games was recreating the Roman Republic with Hellenic religion (with CK2+) as the descendants of the possibly apocryphal son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesarion

Another fun Roman restoration game I tried was based on the theory that a bunch of prisoners of war from the Battle of Carrhae ended up in western China, close to the province of Dunhuang in game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liqian#Theory_of_Roman_descendance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carrhae

I also really like to see what the AI can do over a couple centuries. I like the HIP(?) "Lucky Ruler" trait/stuff for that. I especially like to give it to the Capets and see if they can become the dominant family in France when I'm elsewhere on the map. In my current game I'm trying a little slow RP as the Mongols in the Charlie start (vanilla). I also gave a few characters a little boost, via console, to get things moving forward in Europe. In particular I wanted to make sure Charlie formed the HRE, but I also apparently gave Ragnar Lothbrok a bit too much to go on as he reformed Germanic, formed Scandinavia, and his heir (only 1 son too) has gained Scotland and is starting on England now. I think he's going to switch to feudal in the next ~5 years, so maybe a little hiccup before getting right back to it. It looks like the western half of the map is going to be dominated by the HRE, reformed Norse Scandinavia, Sunni Umayyad empire, Orthodox Byzzies, and Abassid Arabian empire. And in a fun recreation of history, the Shia caliph has formed the Persian Empire.

I'm going to have fun over the next 400+ years watching what happens. Also thinking about exporting to EU4. Who knows, a couple ambitious rulers and maybe I'll recreate the empire of the Great Khan. Oh, and the Aztecs are coming too at some point.

 

[DocDesastro]

I start as Tribe of Dublin and try to become King of Ireland while installing all important dukes from my dynasty and using elective monarchy with meath and laigin as core provinces. While becoming King might be done in some few generations after that it gets a bit clunky since my dynasty evolved into a bunch of weak, clubfooted and homosexuals despite my effords to marry good traits. So there a not many ua Neill Noiglesach - at least in my realm to hand the count titles to. Since I cannot get everyone into council almost automatically X for King or independence fractions form. I answer with huge armies from Dublin where I hold two baronies...techwise I almost outmatch Constanople and we do not have 1000 A.D.
It is not the Adventurers that annoy me...it is my own dukes and counts. :/
Oh, and promising crusades, where the AI thinks, it is a GOOD idea to split stacks of 12k men into 1-2k stacks running around to be gobbled up by one (!) islamic 'doomstacks' of 8000 (the whole caliph's army - lol). 2 Crusades were lost like that.

 

[RagingJaws]

Ooooh it depends.

Currently, I'm going back to my favorite area (Scandinavia) to try out Conclave before the <Secret DLC> comes out. Lots of raiding, tyranny, and empire building only to see if successors can manage to preserve something. If not, they were not worthy! Eventually, after reforming the faith, I plan on converting the Isles and tackling Eastern Europe. Create De jure kingdoms with distant relations at their head. See which ones swim and drown. I have Sunset invasion turned on, primarily to get that darn achievement, so that's an end game event to tackle.

Usually though, I like to play in one of the western kingdoms around 1066. Flanders, to see how long I retain cultural identity. Barcelona, for 50 years of never ending religious war. Ireland, for the occasional observer game. Random counts in England and France for fun, to see how far one can rise with marriage and intrigue. I rarely dabble in the Byzantine Empire or with Islam oriented starts though, just too big with the former and I really dislike decadence with the latter.

 

[DocDesastro]

I just solved some of my problems...using some tyrannical actions I installed a merchant republic in Connachta with one of my sons and an Archbishopric in Ulster. Now I wait for my ruler to die and unite Meath and Laighin to my central crown lands.
It is cumbersome to overrule the council...but hey, that is what is is supposed to be.
Trying to gnaw at Wales now.

 

[Dahoota]

I usually roleplay something or play the minority-religion challenge too.

My current game is trying to create a Jewish republic in West Africa with the later aim of getting the Kingdom of David Achievement (starting tribal Miaphysite in 769).

 

[Matt the Czar]

Currently in my first Muslim game as the Caliph of Arabia in the Old Gods start. My goal is to conquer all of Islam, then most of Christianity.

 

[Timpookie]

Funnily enough, that's what my current game was all about - installing the Coptic Pope in Alexandria and seeing Miaphyisitism spread globally.

Instead, the bulk of my Abyssinia has flipped Catholic, Monophyisitism is the dominant school of thought, and for some strange reason a hundred years ago the kings of Abyssinia decided they really wanted Alania.

So far my Abyssinia (an empire-tier title, by the way, because if I didn't conquer my Nubian allies the Egyptians would have gotten to them first and I needed to get Egypt anyway to get the Coptic pope to Alexandria) is completely Miaphysite in terms of nobility that is there and most provinces are being converted to Miaphysite if they are not already.

I tend to play anyone who is not a Christian. I barely play the Byzantines and barely look at the Catholics. I played so much of them in my beginning plays of CK2 that I felt bad about not experiencing pagans, sunni, shia, hindu, bhuddist or jain. I still need to play more religions but I do tend to be a pagan, typically around the Slavic, Germanic and Romuva parts. I don't just play one group of pagans either. My current play-through is a Slavic pagan Poland that I intend to take to Vicky 2 and I hope HOI4. What can I say, I really like keeping old faiths alive past the date they did die in history

Are you going to reform the faith?

Play a country that interests me, pick a goal (typically size I want to expand to), then complete that goal. Attempt to maintain that situation until either 1) I lose or 2) I get bored. I have never completed a game of Crusader Kings 2 after 1,300 hours in the game. The game runs far too slow, too soon into games for me to ever do that now.

I once finished a no-DLC Ireland 1066 game but that was it for me. I'm hoping to get through to the end with my current game, though.

The game I am most proud of is actually my first one. I started as Caliph Al-Mansur in 769, but immediately after my death I was overthrown twice in close succession. I played for nearly 300 years at duke tier (as emir of Baghdad), then became sultan of Mesopotamia through a revolt.

I keep characters of many different cultures and religions at my court. I dedicate some dynasties of courtiers to a specific culture or religion (there is a bedoin kharijite dynasty for example), and I'm currently having some fun at changing religion from one character to the next (it makes for a great revoke reason nowadays). My current character is a yazidi kurdish child (the child part is obviously unintentional). As soon as I have 1000 piety I will create the yazidi caliphate. I'll try to unite all caliphate titles before the end date. Then I'll get a catholic heir and vassalize the Pope. If I get a century or so ahead of time I'll try to reform the Germanic faith.

So there's only one religion in your game because all religious heads are the same?

Any particular reason you do that or do you just enjoy watching the map turn into a Picasso painting.

HRE

I prefer pagans, so usually I play Slavic or Norse. When I play Christians, it's either Karlings in 1066 start, or William the Conqueror -> Empire of Britannia and Jerusalem, sometimes some HRE state. I prefer 1066 start, because it seems the most plausible. When I start in 867 ( I usually play with HIP so that is the earliest starting date) or with CK2+ in 769, I almost always play untill 1066-1100 and then quit.

Do you normally reform the religion?

Well, my first game was Dál Riata (d_isles) in 769, which has the interesting distinction of being Irish in de jure k_scotland. Picked them because I'm part Irish (also Lowland Scots and Welsh, with some other stuff mixed in) and my favorite brand of Scotch is from the Hebrides, plus the name and coat of arms of Clan Mac Gabraín looked cool. Went from there to High King of Ireland and eventually Emperor of Alba.

My favourite brand of Scotch is not drinking Scotch because I'm underage. But anyway, did you just have Ireland and Scotland, or did you have other places as well?

My second game was Ironman, Ilmen (d_novgorod) in 769 with the plan to create the borders of the Warsaw Pact as Reformed Slavic or Orthodox Russia (Slavic as it turned out).

So North Asia and East Europe are all reformed Slavic nations?

My current game takes a Persian dynasty that never amounted to much, the Barmakids, and turns them into the Kurdish rulers of the restored Persian Empire, with the eventual plan of establishing the Yazidi Sheikhdom.

I actually want to try to do that now. I'll add it to my to-do list.

Because fuck Daesh.

Agreed.

I tend to play pragmatic villainy: avoid tyranny as much as possible but otherwise realpolitik is the name of the game. I happily redistrict counts into the wrong duchies and kill inconvenient children and women.

Of course, that's just basic strategy!

I too like to play outside of the Christianity/Islam heart of the game. I also like to do and see ahistorical things based on weird random stories from history. One of my favorite games was recreating the Roman Republic with Hellenic religion (with CK2+) as the descendants of the possibly apocryphal son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesarion

Another fun Roman restoration game I tried was based on the theory that a bunch of prisoners of war from the Battle of Carrhae ended up in western China, close to the province of Dunhuang in game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liqian#Theory_of_Roman_descendance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carrhae

I also really like to see what the AI can do over a couple centuries. I like the HIP(?) "Lucky Ruler" trait/stuff for that. I especially like to give it to the Capets and see if they can become the dominant family in France when I'm elsewhere on the map. In my current game I'm trying a little slow RP as the Mongols in the Charlie start (vanilla). I also gave a few characters a little boost, via console, to get things moving forward in Europe. In particular I wanted to make sure Charlie formed the HRE, but I also apparently gave Ragnar Lothbrok a bit too much to go on as he reformed Germanic, formed Scandinavia, and his heir (only 1 son too) has gained Scotland and is starting on England now. I think he's going to switch to feudal in the next ~5 years, so maybe a little hiccup before getting right back to it. It looks like the western half of the map is going to be dominated by the HRE, reformed Norse Scandinavia, Sunni Umayyad empire, Orthodox Byzzies, and Abassid Arabian empire. And in a fun recreation of history, the Shia caliph has formed the Persian Empire.

I'm going to have fun over the next 400+ years watching what happens. Also thinking about exporting to EU4. Who knows, a couple ambitious rulers and maybe I'll recreate the empire of the Great Khan. Oh, and the Aztecs are coming too at some point.

Watching the AI is really fun. In my Abyssinia game, which has nothing to do with Slavs or Nords or western Europe, I often take a look to see how things are going. However, I've noticed that large AI empires come and go as they did in real history, so maybe within a few hundred years something will screw up one of the big empires in your game.

I start as Tribe of Dublin and try to become King of Ireland while installing all important dukes from my dynasty and using elective monarchy with meath and laigin as core provinces. While becoming King might be done in some few generations after that it gets a bit clunky since my dynasty evolved into a bunch of weak, clubfooted and homosexuals despite my effords to marry good traits. So there a not many ua Neill Noiglesach - at least in my realm to hand the count titles to. Since I cannot get everyone into council almost automatically X for King or independence fractions form. I answer with huge armies from Dublin where I hold two baronies...techwise I almost outmatch Constanople and we do not have 1000 A.D.
It is not the Adventurers that annoy me...it is my own dukes and counts. :/
Oh, and promising crusades, where the AI thinks, it is a GOOD idea to split stacks of 12k men into 1-2k stacks running around to be gobbled up by one (!) islamic 'doomstacks' of 8000 (the whole caliph's army - lol). 2 Crusades were lost like that.

My Ireland campaign, as Munster, ended with me being king of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Denmark, France (but not Aquitaine), Andalusia (via crusade), Jerusalem (via crusade) and Leon, though I never held an emperor-tier title (I had Primo succession so everything stayed as one big realm anyway). Ireland is a great start for global conquests.[/QUOTE]