Playing a state, not a dynasty

[birdboy2000]

I know CK2 is a very character-driven game... but usually I ragequit when I get overthrown and am stuck playing as the count of some small piece of my former realm, or the duke from a cadet branch which inherited land I never touched, with nothing to do but scheme to take back the throne. Usually I try when that happens. Sometimes I fail.

This time, I loaded up as the person who overthrew me and continued anew, with the duchies I built up and a new dynasty. I'm curious if anyone else does this. It's kind of cheating, but I'm enjoying it anyway, because I'm still playing as my realm if not my dynasty.

 

[Nyrael]

I take care such stuff never happens in the first place actually. My dynasty and state tend to stay the same thing.

 

[yezhanquan]

Learn from the slipups. You will receive notification on outside inheritance (You do for vassals, so I assume that is the case for your own holdings), and you don't get overthrown for no reason. Pay attention to factions and opinion. CK2 is a character-driven game, and it is also an opinion-driven one.

 

[birdboy2000]

I certainly try to hold on. Not sure how much of it is CK2+ being more difficult than vanilla versus me just not being a very good player. But gifts can only take you so far when a dwarf kid with a stutter inherits the throne, for instance, and screwing with succession law requires your prior king to have reigned a while. I don't mean to imply I get overthrown all the time - this game I held the throne for over a century, last game I played 'til 1399, got overthrown and took it back twice, but it always stayed within the same dynasty.

 

[yezhanquan]

In that case, be more aware of where the inheritance is going. For your case, NEVER allow yourself to be caught unaware. Know the no.2 and no.3 candidates down the line, and make sure that they are the ones you would like to have (no.1 is already a given, so I won't touch on it). I use Project Balance, btw.

 

[Hackworthy]

I think that defeats the purpose of this game. Being centered on a dynasty instead of a nation is what sets CK II apart from Vicky II and EU III more than anything else.

 

[yezhanquan]

More to the point, even declaration of war is a person-person event, which leads to a bad situation where a powerful opponent wins a war, kill off the enemy liege and declare war on his successor to press more claims.

 

[Federalist girl]

Treat it like a soap opera. I never reload a save no matter what happens -- lost my imperial crown? well, that kind of sucks. Maybe I'll get it back later.

CK2 isn't about winning. It's about enjoying the random hilarity that happens, like when my children imprison and castrate each other. Talk about sibling rivalry!

 

[Ahaz Flagg]

Nope would never do so, I even stopped reading the paradox state sponserd AAR because the guy writing reloaded as the side who was winning the independance war. If I make a boo boo, I made a boo boo. I consider it cheating, but it is your dime so do as you like.

 

[Aramel]

I don't think there's anything wrong with playing as a state instead of a player, if that's how you want to play. In the real world it would be really improbable for one dynasty to control a country with no succession wars succeeding for 400 years, so I don't see why every game should have to be like that.

 

[Brannart]

At times I would rather play a state than a dynasty. Part of the interesting bits of medieval history (and beyond, frankly) is the ebb and flow of dynasties, dynastic politics, and inheritance. I'd like to play a closer-to-historical England, for instance, where something like a de Blois or Plantagenet dynastic shift would be possible.

This said, the current set up bothers me very little. I've logged over 500 hours after all.

 

[kraussda]

In response to the OP. Your game, play it how you like. However, if you haven't played a game out to 1453 with no reloads I'd strongly recommend it. It's quite a lot of fun to "lose" occasionally over the course of a 400 year game.

 

[gnark1ll]

I have to say I agree with Kraussda. We are hard wired by other games to think that because we lost our Kingdom or Empire and are left with a small holding in the middle of nowhere then we have 'lost' but that just isnt the case in CK2.

I see where youre coming from, but in your situation I would have carried on, perhaps looking for a way to seek revenge upon the usurper! Ive been known to massacre whole broods for less : D

 

[Velorian]

Sometimes when I've been too successful and my realm is getting huge (which might lead to boredom), I like to switch to some relatively minor guy somewhere in my empire and work myself up from there with my own success being there to work against me.

I usually then decide my current ruler is my last of this dynasty, then when he dies I switch to the other guy, it makes sense to me as historically almost no dynasties managed to maintain a throne for more than a few centuries, and this way allows me to play a game to the end even though lack of challenge might otherwise threaten to make me start over on a new game.

If someone overthrows me, that's an excellent challenge though. In that case I'd prefer playing as someone from my dynasty somewhere interesting, not the usurper.

 

[Chyll]

I know CK2 is a very character-driven game... but usually I ragequit when I get overthrown and am stuck playing as the count of some small piece of my former realm, or the duke from a cadet branch which inherited land I never touched, with nothing to do but scheme to take back the throne. Usually I try when that happens. Sometimes I fail.

This time, I loaded up as the person who overthrew me and continued anew, with the duchies I built up and a new dynasty. I'm curious if anyone else does this. It's kind of cheating, but I'm enjoying it anyway, because I'm still playing as my realm if not my dynasty.

The only time I do this is when I load up as another member of the same dynasty. Once the family fails, I figure I failed and move on to the next game.

 

[monsterfurby]

I enjoy the RPG aspect, following a family through all its ups and downs.
Regardless, my standard procedure in ALL Paradox games is to reload as whoever caused my defeat if I am completely conquered.

 

[Mods]

The situation in your first post seems like a fun game to me actually, to each his own I guess.

 

[The_Blind_One]

The game is actualy most fun imo by being the strong right hand of the king.

Taking the king title yourself will just turn you (or pretty much always me) into a whiny powergamer that tries to conquer THE WORLD!

Being the strong right hand forces you to stay small, help out that doomned AI king, strategize your marriages and dynasty members and forces you to take pro-active measures against annoying co-vassals. It's fun putting the rightful dynasty back in place or supporting your king/emperor. It's specialy exciting if your king can barely win the war, but it is only due to your personal engagement in the whole affair that he manages to come out on top. I've had one extremely successful game as the doux of trebizond where the emperor started granting me lands in the east to safeguard and he even started joining me in my personal wars for territory in the east. What a great time we had playing tzykanion. Our houses were strongly tied together and my ruler was generaly the regent if neccessary. Many of emperor was educated by the fine learned men from the trabzon court.

 

[Ols]

I enjoy the RPG aspect, following a family through all its ups and downs.
Regardless, my standard procedure in ALL Paradox games is to reload as whoever caused my defeat if I am completely conquered.

My standard procedure when facing certain defeat is to quit. I've lost, that's it.

 

[Lord Finnish]

Only times when I change characters is when I press a relative's claim to the throne and we are closely related. Otherwise, I don't change characters since I rarely have trouble running my kingdoms.

Playing a state isn't tough at all and actually if you don't care about marriages and stuff, your realm will be before your dynasty. For me it's like this in most games as I usually ignore my family and instead give land to people that have distinguished themselves in my service rather than just brothers and cousins. Only in my latest Byzantine game I really took to dynastic game and poof, 90% of the Empire is ruled by Komnenoi. Much more stable than I thought...