Relearning CKII? AKA No Idea How to Play Now

[Zardnaar]

I used to love CKII. I was not particularly good at it but the game was fun as an Irish king and I mucked around as the Hapsburgs as well along with a Byzantine Duke.

Then EUIV came out.

I still kept buying CK DLC usually when it was on sale, the last campaign I really played was an Old Gods game. Never really played a Republic or Islamic nation much and gave up playing when Rajas of India came out due to the game slowing to a crawl.

The last DLC I bought was Way of Life, not even sure what it is about. No more assassins it seems. Anyway can anyone help e out here? I have no idea how to inherit stuff anymore, make money, get rid of less than desirable heirs or win crusades. Probably doesn't help I tend to play counts a lot but I used to be able to go from count to Emperor in around 2-3 generations or establish a kingdom with the 1st crusade.

I'll be using the 1066 start date. Do I need to go back to playing an Irish Duke which I kind of got sick of years ago?

 

[thevmag]

As always, build up your economic infrastructure. This will help your money woes and keep you competitive at any stage of the game.

With way of life, you can take the focus that gives +2 stewardship and +city vassal opinion, as this will occasionally give you the means to improve your tax rate or give you direct cash rewards. You can even declare wars to make other nations pay tribute to you, giving them a chunk of their tax monies for the duration of that ruler's life. As a small start or weak tribal, having tons of tributaries is big bucks + prestige.

Apart from some changes here or there (rip epic assassination wars with my half-brother), the game generally plays the same. You can still marry into claims, or invite people over and drop them a barony before declaring war for their claims. Take it slow at first till you reacclimate to everything, and you'll find there's more familiar than you expected.

 

[RagingJaws]

Duke Vratislav of Bohemia is another good place to start. Play him and fool around with conclave/way of life stuff. See what all the changes from a strong vassal.

You can never go wrong with Haesteinn of Nantes, Chief of unlimited possibilities.

 

[Zardnaar]

Thanks so far. The idea is to still marry noble women with titles so you get their stuff and try to marry off younger suns in remote realms to spread your dynasty all over?

INvite heirs to your court, matrilinial marry them to 2nd and 3rd sons?

 

[Naughtius Maximus]

Hey, your username sounds awfully familiar.

Anyways if you wish to return to the game but wish for a more dynamic game I would heavily recommend playing as the Duke of Apulia.

Sicily as a kingdom is not particularly strong, but it is very easy to form with just a few holy wars for the duchy of sicily. Then you have a bunch of independent counts you can de jure into oblivion to secure the kingdom for your dynasty.

Although I say Sicily is not strong, it is incredibly rich. You have two very large neighbors providing a buffer. One who is too busy with muslims to declare war on you (Byz) and one who has no interest in your kingdom (HRE.)

From that position of security and wealth you can practice the marriage game for pieces of land until you can form Italy, forging claims on Serbia/Croatia, or blob massively into Africa.

You can even swear fealty to either the Byz or HRE, although I do not recommend it. They rarely if ever vote for foreigners. Byz in particular as you will also have religious differences.

The only weakness in this start is reaching empire tier is a challenge. Other than that you sit in a position of security in close proximity to two of the richest duchies in the game in Sicily and Tunis. Great expansion opportunities into Africa, Croatia, Serbia. Or you can challenge yourself and create the empire of Italy.

 

[Bernard95]

Definitely no need to be bothered with an Irish campaign since you know the bare essentials. In all honesty, if you start as pretty much any Christian Duke in 1066 it's nigh impossible to mess up badly. Some notable starts include Tuscany, Apulia, Bohemia, Brittany, Bavaria, Toulouse, and even some of the smaller kingdoms such as Poland or Leon work just as well (just watch who you holy war though if playing in Iberia or the Baltic). At least if you take a start like that you'll have an income and some troops to work with, as well as having a better shot at the marriage game. You go for something like Ireland instead you're going to be dirt poor in both levies and gold, plus you'll be completely dependent on fabricated claims which is never fun.

Regardless, nothing has really changed on either the income or marriage front since the old days. Build up your capital duchy the best you can and you have the right idea as far as marriage goes- marry your sons to their daughters (or otherwise find a male claimant and do a matrilineal marriage) and something is bound to work out in your favor eventually. As you noted earlier yourself, the assassination button was taken out since it was seen as too gamey and plotting is a bit harder than you might remember. The intrigue focus from the Way of Life DLC does somewhat harken back to that time however, since you might get a random event to kill someone or at least sabotage their reputation to the point where courtiers would now be willing to off their liege. Other foci from Way of Life also have their own uses in addition to giving you a more "focused" way to improve your character versus the old ambition-based system (business for example can get you extra gold and improve your stewardship).

Probably one of the only major gameplay changes involves the current defensive pact and threat system. If the terms sound somewhat familiar from other Paradox games, they're CK2's take on coalitions and AE/infamy. Playing as a Christian Duke winning the occasional holy or claim war you should leave you with nothing to worry about, though as you might imagine high threat can lead to large defensive pacts. Until you've established yourself as an empire at least, whatever you do not go over 50% threat (viewable with a right click on a character's portrait) since that is the threshold where different religions can band together against you.

Some other notable changes include shattered retreat and changes to the alliance system. Shattered retreat is basically copy/pasted from EU4, but the alliance system is something completely new. These days upon bethrothal or marriage you receive only a non-aggression pact, but do have the option to upgrade the pact to a full alliance provided you decent opinion of each other. Dynastic kin are also no longer your automatic allies, though you at least have a pact. If you need a full alliance and they're not close kin, then you'll need a marriage. A full alliance also means both you and the other party will always be called into each other's wars, which can be a blessing or a curse. Thankfully, the next patch will revert this particular change back to the old system where you had the option to decline. The next patch will also allow you to disable or enable threat, shattered retreat, and other options as well.

 

[Kumicho]

As an FYI, probably the biggest change is going to be DRASTICALLY reduced levies. You get far fewer levies from your vassals, and far *more* demesne levies from your capital county (and them somewhat higher from your capital duchy). So focus om building up your capital, and castle stack when possible (own multiple castles in your capital county).

Enjoy relearning the game!

 

[Zardnaar]

Thanks everyone started playing as the Duke of Apuli or whatever the name is. Formed Kingdom of Sicily, holy war in Tripoli.

 

[Njolnin]

As always, build up your economic infrastructure. This will help your money woes and keep you competitive at any stage of the game.

With way of life, you can take the focus that gives +2 stewardship and +city vassal opinion, as this will occasionally give you the means to improve your tax rate or give you direct cash rewards. You can even declare wars to make other nations pay tribute to you, giving them a chunk of their tax monies for the duration of that ruler's life. As a small start or weak tribal, having tons of tributaries is big bucks + prestige.

Apart from some changes here or there (rip epic assassination wars with my half-brother), the game generally plays the same. You can still marry into claims, or invite people over and drop them a barony before declaring war for their claims. Take it slow at first till you reacclimate to everything, and you'll find there's more familiar than you expected.

I think it's generally unwise to spend money on economic infrastructure, at least from a 1066 start onward. It can take generations to even make your money back, and in that time that cash is much better used to bankroll your own conquests. That's a serious opportunity cost. The eventual increase to you income is not that significant, and in the many years before you earn a return on that investment, you'll be that much more at risk when, say, you suddenly need to raise a mercenary army but can't afford it.

If you don't spend your gold on economic improvements, you'll acquire a large empire much more quickly and, conveniently, be making more money too.

 

[thevmag]

It's just what works for me. Starting relatively small and losing 7 gold per month just when raising demesne armies always makes things a little more difficult for me, so being able to actually bankroll my conquests is more personally helpful than an easier conquest. I tried the multiple held castles in my capital with military investments first, then couldn't afford to expand.

Apulia and Sicily are my bread and butter. This time around, I focused a lot on improving economy before levies, and now I've got permanent mercenary employment, 10k+ in the bank with nothing to spend it on, and enough personal levies to keep my vassals "happy". Only limit to my expansion now are the claims I can pull in, when everyone else is agnatic elective.


If there's a better way to do it, then so be it. I'm just giving the advice I know.

 

[Gwyn ap Nud]

As for your assassination comment, you have to use Plots now to assassinate, rather than just throw money at assassins until they die.

 

[Aries666]

As an FYI, probably the biggest change is going to be DRASTICALLY reduced levies. You get far fewer levies from your vassals, and far *more* demesne levies from your capital county (and them somewhat higher from your capital duchy). So focus om building up your capital, and castle stack when possible (own multiple castles in your capital county).

Enjoy relearning the game!

This is one of the important tips in my mind. If you have The Old Gods or Charly I recommend starting in Kiev as you can build yourself 5 castles in that county alone. However, it can be a tough region for reforming your religion presuming you don't just flip Orthodox and it's a race against time to get yourself strong enough to resist the Mongols.