My vassals are not doing anything

[Rambo]

One of the things I liked most about the original crusader kings was that when I went to war, my vassals went to war with me. In some cases they even started their own wars of conquest. All you needed to do was make a few strong Dukes, and guarantee'd the next time you went to war, you could count on your Dukes raising their own levies and leading their own armies to do war against your enemies. Hell, sometimes they would even start their own wars of conquest, especially if you had some weaker heathen neighbors nearby, and it didn't always end up good when your duke drags your small little kingdom into war with Egypt or some other large kingdom. But, it was fun, and it was also realistic.

So what happened ? Why in CK 2 are my vassals not doing anything? Every single war, they never raise any levies, never go out on the attack, hell, they don't even raise levies to put down revolts, I have to do that for them as well?
I hope this is just an issue that will get patched and hopefully in final release.

Edit: Would love it if a Dev could comment that this function is planned to be added to the game in a patch later.

 

[Ekstrakt]

I was wondering if this was a feature as well. I think it's implemented somehow though, as the Byzantine Emperor, I often had the Armenian Duke attack and form the Georgian Kingdom. Still under Byzantine control, he went on gobbling up everything.

 

[sylverCode]

I hope this is just an issue that will get patched and hopefully in final release.

Indeed, this would make the game much more enjoyable.

 

[Rambo]

I've seen the AI vassals acting normally, in one game, I saw the Duke of Aquitaine starting a war with the moors in Spain, while the King of France did nothing. So it seems it's only been coded for player vassals to do nothing. I don't know they would have made it that way.

 

[GuileMike]

I have not played it yet, but can you basically take control of their levies before you declare war and use them then?

 

[Zaku]

In my game they go to war constantly with each other, or even go crusadeing. They are not going to help you if you wage war though. You must raise their levies and use them as your own but if they don't like you then you don't get any army from them.

 

[Dark3lf]

Obviously our vassal is cheapskate, they already give us levy (tax) and they won't donate anything more even for their safety

 

[Rambo]

I've seen the AI vassals acting normally, in one game, I saw the Duke of Aquitaine starting a war with the moors in Spain, while the King of France did nothing. So it seems it's only been coded for player vassals to do nothing. I don't know they would have made it that way.

No, becuase you cannot declare war while having levies raised.

 

[maskeddingo]

In the demo at least I saw one my heir/duke in ireland taking out one of the independent counts(part of the de jour dutchy title he had) and as a result adding that province to my kingdom without me lifting a finger. But I feel like they should at least raise there own levies to put down peasant revolts which i have never seen happen? Or when I press one of my own dukes claim he doesn't seem to interested in joining the war nor can I help him in a war he started it seems.

I'm wondering though if this is the result of the AI realizing it can't take on the kingdom of Scotland's 5000 levi army with the size army it can raise, so it doesn't bother. Admittedly though, him throwing his 2000 levies against 5000 would result in 2000 deaths and maybe 500 kills. Kind of counterproductive to his claim to not aid me though at least and tack its army onto my stack while I siege his claim county.

Can't wait to get home so I can activate my pre-order and d/l.

 

[Rambo]

In my game they go to war constantly with each other, or even go crusadeing. They are not going to help you if you wage war though. You must raise their levies and use them as your own but if they don't like you then you don't get any army from them.

Yeah, they will go to war with eachother if you have medium or less Kingdom Authority, but like i said, i want to see them going on their own wars of conquest like they used to. It was a great feature late in the game when you had a large Kingdom and didn't want to fight each and every war against some small enemies. Just sit back and watch your Dukes conquor you neighbors, at least until they became powerful enough to make their own Kingdoms.

 

[MasterofMagic]

One of the things I liked most about the original crusader kings was that when I went to war, my vassals went to war with me. In some cases they even started their own wars of conquest. All you needed to do was make a few strong Dukes, and guarantee'd the next time you went to war, you could count on your Dukes raising their own levies and leading their own armies to do war against your enemies. Hell, sometimes they would even start their own wars of conquest, especially if you had some weaker heathen neighbors nearby, and it didn't always end up good when your duke drags your small little kingdom into war with Egypt or some other large kingdom. But, it was fun, and it was also realistic.

So what happened ? Why in CK 2 are my vassals not doing anything? Every single war, they never raise any levies, never go out on the attack, hell, they don't even raise levies to put down revolts, I have to do that for them as well?
I hope this is just an issue that will get patched and hopefully in final release.

OMG I hadn't noticed that yet. That is awful news. I sure hope that gets fixed cause you are right in CK1 my dukes and even their vassals did some aggressive things drawing me into wars and i loved it and hated it at the same time.

 

[Rambo]

Remember how in Dues Vult, they were even ask, "will you join us in our offensive or defensive war"? and if you knew you would lose, you could just say "no sorry" haha. Like, when some idiot count thought he could take on the kingdom of Egypt.

 

[Communazi]

you want your vassals to act independently and vastly increase their own power?

...good luck keeping that kingdom together :rofl:

 

[Rambo]

you want your vassals to act independently and vastly increase their own power?

...good luck keeping that kingdom together :rofl:

Yes, like i said, at times they could grow to become very powerful, even start their own kingdoms and break off. I saw that a few times in the original game. But obviously the player has many tools at his disposal to keep them in check. For example in the original, I am pretty sure when vassal rebelled you got a claim on all of their titles.
Overall it just added a whole other aspect to the game, as though your vassals were just like you with ambitions to create their own kingdoms. And to be sure, not all vassals acted that way, only if they were powerful enough. To keep them in check it would be easy to make sure they did not get that power. But I liked powerful vassals, they could be great allies, and if you did not want them to be strong, you simply didn't give them any titles.

 

[MasterofMagic]

Remember how in Dues Vult, they were even ask, "will you join us in our offensive or defensive war"? and if you knew you would lose, you could just say "no sorry" haha. Like, when some idiot count thought he could take on the kingdom of Egypt.

What I'd do when my liege went to war was just put my armies out in my provinces then I never had to give them up for my liege to abuse. And that thing where the vassals would automatically come out and help never worked in Dues Vult like it was presented they would.

 

[Rambo]

What I'd do when my liege went to war was just put my armies out in my provinces then I never had to give them up for my liege to abuse. And that thing where the vassals would automatically come out and help never worked in Dues Vult like it was presented they would.

Ohh damn, i forgot about that as well, you could also refuse to provide your levies! They couldn't just take them. And if you did that enough times you could get huge negative relations and eventually revolt, why is this not in CK II?!

 

[drake000666]

I think its more historic the way it is, it shows how little power kings often had at this time. If you want your vassals to join you in a war you got to make them a ally or you can increase your crown power and get more troops from them that way to help you.

In many ways dukes were their own ruler at this time and even do their might be a king above them they often only sent as little help as they could get away with to them.

 

[Captain Gars]

Rumor control: player vassals have not been coded to do nothing. If they have the power and potential target they can declare war on their own. When I played a King of Ireland game last week, one of my dukes decided to attack Scotland on his own and later try a few attempts of crusading in the Levant.

 

[flame7926]

Your vassals can start their own wars and do. But when you are at war, you can raise a percentage of their levies based on opinion.

 

[Dragnar]

Let me tell you about my quest to rechristianise the iberian peninsula. I, the King of Castille-Leon, declared war on an independent muslim duchy, requested troops from all my vassals and totally destroyed the muslim armies. After I took the provinces I waged war for in the peace settlement and send the soldiers home, my most powerful duke, who happened to border the remnants of the muslim duchy realized that most of his men came back alive, while the enemies were slain.
So, he seized the opportunity and directly declared his own war against the beaten heathen and took the remaining provinces for himself, with no further help from me.

So, vassals DO fight wars on their own, they are just more intelligent and opportunistic about the target. You won't see a meager duke declare war on a powerful kingdom on his own.