Seeking Advice, New Player.

[Facarwi]

Hail,

I am an extremely new Crusader kings 2 player. I only recently got into strategy games with civilization 5 and then found Crusader kings 2 and decided to give it ago as its unique approach to controlling dynasty's and not countries sounded great. I went a bit nuts and bought all the DLC reading up in attempt to learn as much as I can.

While the game is definitively complex a decent chunk of the process has been learning the ins and outs of feudalism, pagans, casus belli etc which has sparked an interest in the time period. While the game centers around the middle ages/dark ages I have started learning about the Holy Roman Empire as it seems like a perfect place to start but I digress.

I plan to roleplay mainly using traits and such as a guide for working out how each of my family members would act etc. I also under games have limits and want to avoid gamey opportunities that the game might present to me that would never really of existed such as marrying straight into a prestigious royal family as a humble earl of Desmond.

Now my main question is to do with DLC and patches. I have read and received a fair few tips so far almost everyone recommends disabling sunset invasion as its meant more as a what if rather then providing anything historical. The second is not so clear, some say disable conclave others keep it enabled, if I do disable it should i still use the latest patch or use the one just before it was introduced?

Also I have played through the tutorial, I have also seen Arumba's now somewhat dated tutorial which still had plenty of value, where should I go form here just start playing or is there a source I can consult as I play to learn more?

Thanks for taking the time I really appreciate it.

 

[joos]

I personally do not own Conclave or Sunset Invasion, but here is my two bits anyway.

1. Conclave introduces a council mechanic that gives more power to your councillor vassals. This is an engaging mechanic, but apparently there are a couple of issues with the council factions and demands. To put it in a nutshell, a powerful council can quickly make you into a EU4 style regency in that your options will be limited. Even handing out titles can be blocked if your council is full of dynasty members, for instance. I think the devs are planning to address the various issues, but as it stands, the DLC has a few problems.

2. Regarding updating to the recent patch - it introduces two systems: defensive pacts and shattered retreat. Shattered retreat is a mere annoyance while the defensive pacts can bog you down in your blobbing adventure. If you are anyway planning to roleplay the traits, I doubt you will find them irritating. So my suggestion is to update because the patches also fix a couple of minor bugs here and there.

I personally find CK2 to be a fairly intuitive game. My advice to you would be to start in the William bookmark as a christian feudal lord. Starting as a French vassal usually leads to some interesting games I've noticed. Or, you can start as a Norse chief in the Old Gods bookmark and wreak havoc. So just start playing.

 

[Facarwi]

I personally do not own Conclave or Sunset Invasion, but here is my two bits anyway.

1. Conclave introduces a council mechanic that gives more power to your councillor vassals. This is an engaging mechanic, but apparently there are a couple of issues with the council factions and demands. To put it in a nutshell, a powerful council can quickly make you into a EU4 style regency in that your options will be limited. Even handing out titles can be blocked if your council is full of dynasty members, for instance. I think the devs are planning to address the various issues, but as it stands, the DLC has a few problems.

2. Regarding updating to the recent patch - it introduces two systems: defensive pacts and shattered retreat. Shattered retreat is a mere annoyance while the defensive pacts can bog you down in your blobbing adventure. If you are anyway planning to roleplay the traits, I doubt you will find them irritating. So my suggestion is to update because the patches also fix a couple of minor bugs here and there.

I personally find CK2 to be a fairly intuitive game. My advice to you would be to start in the William bookmark as a christian feudal lord. Starting as a French vassal usually leads to some interesting games I've noticed. Or, you can start as a Norse chief in the Old Gods bookmark and wreak havoc. So just start playing.

Thanks for the comment. Yea from I think ill leave Conclave out for now as well as sunset. Once I learn more about the game mechanics and time period I can decide if its something i want but at the movement sounds like something that I can do without. As for the patch, defensive packs and shattered retreats sound like a great addition for me.

 

[Dragatus]

If you disable Conclave you'll still have shattered retreat and defensive pacts as those are part of the base game. If you want to get rid of them you'll have to revert to the 2.4.5 version of the game. Instructions for that can be found here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...your-version-of-ck2-to-a-previous-one.764752/

I think you should just start playing. Yes, you'll make mistakes. But that's part of the fun and the best way to learn. And if you ever have a specific question, there's a quick answers thread on this forum.

The best start for a new player is 1066 as either a petty king in Ireland or a duke in the Holy Roman Empire. Matilda of Tuscany is quite popular as she owns about half the kingdom of Italy from the start, but I'd sooner recommend one of the German ones. You'll have more fun climbing up the ranks, since you have further to go.

The Jimena brothers that you may know from the learning scenario aren't bad either, but the Jimenas require a certain degree of aggression and if you mess up and lose your army you'll be severely punished. As a HRE duke you still have the emperor's army to shield you from outside aggression.

 

[deadhand13]

I'd just play with everything except Sunset Invasion activated and at the latest patch. The game's going to change soon© so no sense in getting too attached to any one set of rules.

Playing as a count in Ireland (1066) is standard recommendation for beginners. There's not a lot going on and it's a good chance to figure out what all the interface elements are about without getting the smackdown put on you by das Blüb. I would recommend the count of Dublin. It's the de jure capital and your dad will soon die, making you the largest landowner in Ireland. Also, you get to see a cultural conversion happen (or reverse it...). You won't have much to do in the realms of intrigue, empire/kingdom management or diplomacy mind you. For that it's usually recommended to play as a vassal in HRE. Little outside threat, lot's of opportunities for acquiring land via marriage and other shenanigans.

 

[Arsonik]

where should I go form here just start playing or is there a source I can consult as I play to learn more?

Thanks for taking the time I really appreciate it.

If you are interested in the 769 start date "Duke Liutprandt" of Ivera (vassal under King of Lombardy) or Duke of Flanders (Forgot the name of the guy, shame on me) is also a good one, but a little more advanced, not by much.

Although Liutprandt is probably a bit easier to just play, learn, and survive, I recommend Flanders. You have the 6 holding county Brugge as your capital and a 6 county Duchy. One of the best Demense in the game (IMO). If you are smart, you can pick up the rest of the Kingdom of Frisia easily. Once you learn the ropes of this start, try playing as Charlemagne (not expecting success) just to learn the ropes of being the big dog.

 

[es333]

Disable Conclave until Paradox fixes the bugs and use the 2.4.5 patch as it doesn't have shattered retreat (almost game-breaking) and coalitions (not a big problem).

Paradox just announced that there will be a new patch sometime in the future where you can freely disable/enable these features, luckily. Well, most people are not surprised that a solution like this came out, as many people hated the new added mechanics.

 

[ponasozis]

disable concalve play on 2.4.5
you will have terrible experience playing newest patch with conclave as its just game breakingly bad

 

[Markush100]

A good pagan start is rurik of Holmagdr. You can easily conquer all the surrounding tribes, but be wary of elective gavelkind, and try not to interfer with eastern nomads.
I recommend not giving titles to your sons, early, because you dont want your grandson having 2 martial because they are idiots.

 

[josefrees]

I disable sunset invasion

I think you should play it with conclave. You paid for it so you might as well and it does make things more interesting

I would also think that understanding the European feudal system first would be the best.

Also, while you are waiting for things to happen it is a good idea to look at prospective actions and what conditions you need to achieve it. Really helps in learning. Seeing the conditions for things like laws and diplomatic actions are important. Especially if you try to succeed as a feudal vassal. Learning who I could declare war on was annoying.

 

[Rags17]

First off - great shield design !

Second, the best advice I could give would be to simply hover over or right click everything you see in the game - you will be amazed at what pops up ! Hovering generally provides tool tips (which effectively substitute for a working tutorial in this game), right clicking generally brings up all sorts of possible actions, such as settlement decisions, character decisions etc.

I think that I might be in the minority here but my motto is also "when in in doubt - cheat". Until you get the handle of the game I would recommend just trying whatever seems "right" and seeing what happens. If all else fails hit the tilde key (the ~ key) and type in the words "cash 5000": (no quotes), this will give you a free 5000 gold, which goes a LONG way in this game, especially when starting out. No one is keeping track in this game - it's just you vs the game so I have no qualms about giving myself a leg up if it helps my enjoyment of it.

Later on of course the goal should be to take life as it comes without recourse to the cheat button, there is nothing more enjoyable in this game than building an empire, losing the lot and coming back as the wayward son / eternal champion and winning it all back again, all without cheating. That is the stuff legends (and TV miniseries !) are made of !

 

[Dracko81]

Use everything you can, throw it into Ironman and jump in. You will make mistakes, but the great thing is then learning how to deal with those mistakes and how to prevent things from happening in the future.

Cheating to combat this can help to some degree, but then you become reliant on such things to play.

The best way to learn IMO is to find out how your actions will play out, without outside intervention. Which allows for learning in the long term.

As for DLC's and patchs. People have hates about every patch and DLC. Since Conclave and the latest patch are the latest, they will be fairly vocal about their hatred. My best answer to dealing with that is to actually play the game and learn to deal with the mechanics. This is you playing the game after all not someone else, what they like shouldn't represent what you like, when you haven't even played with it. Additionally, something being hard to deal with isn't a bad thing. It is hard to deal with for a reason, disabling it to make your game easier is silly. CK2 is very easy to play when you learn all the mechanics, it just has a steep learning curve. You are far better off asking how to deal with situations specifically, then asking how to play.

 

[Facarwi]

So decided to update the post.

I have been playing a little as a pagan on Ireland and playing as a Breton near France. I was struggling to "get" the game for a fair while, I didn't feel invested in my character and Paradox's odd real time/pause function can make pacing feel odd until you start to feel comfortable and floor it in the slower periods. But as my first character started to get old I felt a rush as I realized I am not going to live forever still wanting to complete my lifetime goals and leave my name in history.

I have some really good goals I believe and currently am just playing around with the game working things out, I would love to play as a Ireland independent slowly changing to feudal and making Ireland. As a Breton I formed the kingdom of Brittany (I believe that is the name) and married into house Karling which has a claim to my kingdom so I also formed a strong alliance. I look forward to getting involved into some jolly old fashion crusades and can't wait for the new patch to address the conclave issues as overall it looks extremely fun.

Conclave addresses one of the issues I am having, I say I because I am unsure if it is due to lack of knowledge or the game itself but the game seems very war orientated which is totally understandable as the middle ages hardly saw peace. But at the moment my game consists of fabricating claims on lands needed for my current or next duchy. Going to war and rinsing and repeating. That said however I am yet to really get 3 or 4 generations into a game as I am still playing around.

One of my daughters however made for a fantastic story that I couldn't stop laughing about, as she was being raised she came to me begging to become a nun, being my daughter I couldn't say no as it was in my kind nature (and the horror of seeing my eldest being imprisoned now for years was still haunting me). However she was a harlot giving birth with a random father then leaving my court and joining a band of Breton who was being led by my Rival. I was furious... Adding to the insult this barbarian maimed my eldest son who ended up dying. I ended up dueling him and winning showing no mercy killing him. My daughter finally accepted a invitation back to my court, by this stage I was old and stressed with only weeks left (something I was unaware of) so I promptly tossed her into the dungeon and executed her and got negative opinion for it.

As I play more I see more possibilities open up. So while I am playing around in my families early generations I can see how things can get pretty intense later on as bloodlines mix and who owns what blurs. I can honestly see myself spending thousands of hours with this game and also have preordered Stellaris which looks fantastic. My only real gripe is how Paradox handles DLC, the amount is fine, honestly but even after the game being out for 3 years it would be nice if they consolidated some of the DLC into better priced packages such as DLC PACK 2013/14 etc.

 

[Dragatus]

Don't let powerful vassals or powerful external rulers get any claims to your titles. That gives them a -20 opinion penalty which may make a vassal rebellious, but is even worse when the person in question is a powerful king with an army several times the size of your own. It's a good thing you managed to an alliance with the Karlings or else you would've been in serious danger.

I see you started games in one of the earlier start dates. That's not recommended for beginners, but you seem to be doing well enough.

 

[Morgothic]

I'd go for Conclave, sure it has a few issues but overall I think it works pretty well, and gives you some more to do during peace especially as a smaller player. As you seem to be role playing I doubt it would be too problematic for you - some of the big issues stem from people trying to build huge empires, which Conclave (if hamfistedly) attempts to slow.