Playing a Red Order game lately cuz on a vampire kick and seems hunters fit CK3's "hostile paramilitary belligerents physically occupy territory and attack others" mould pretty well. Some thoughts:
Eventually went empire, noticed my fellow inquisitors were floundering so figured I'd vassalize the remainder. Complication: Oculi Dei set to inherit House Murnau. And do, prior to a reload since mostly just checking out how the inquisitor game plays. Given the advantageous inheritance that hunter organizations start with, makes me wonder if consolidation via inheritance is a valid part of hunter rivalry or if kingdom-level hunter organizations should be pushed into splitting. I'm no lore master, so just musing out loud.
What doesn't seem to work is "oh no, Murnau is going to get inherited by Oculi Dei, lemme revoke this title and give it to her cousin of the same house in Augsburg". Turns out that formerly independent Murnau of the Inquisition faith and hunter trait isn't in possession of the Order Member trait, so giving her the kingdom-level order just made her a Traditions vassal. I think I might have broke Murnau forever
Which seems fine? They're mostly pet orders being collected anyway. They still exist in some form, whereas Sword of St James and Knights of Acre have been wiped off the map. Knights of Acre earlier on, St James within recent years. Nobody holds their kingdom titles but a surviving members of both have been found and landed to keep as pets.
Gotta say, inquisitors feel pretty OP so far. Long-lived and pretty beefy, and while vampires might have objectively better knights overall given their age and perk gains, haven't had much difficulty Finding Lair on all the big-name bad boys around and gutting them for fun. Whether its Mithras or Hardestadt or some schmuck 3 generations down, they go down all the same. Wonder if there's a way to make it more climactic for major characters or at least especially powerful ones, so it's not just "turns out Mithras had mortal family, lured him out and poof lol loser".
Regarding the difficulty curve, still on my first character. At 87 years old, my health has finally descended into Fine and sickness might kill me if I don't keep laying hands on myself. Most of my apprentices have been shy and mediocre, but the quality has been getting better with legacy unlocks. Support from X Order gives a pretty meaty heir when you call support from yourself, though I see that being a one-time thing that can't carry me forever.
Tempted to custom-start an Independent Hunter next. Slapping myself down in vampire country, surviving, consolidating, then showing the inquisition how it's really done sounds like it'd be a fun challenge and narratively appealing.
