I've been reading some things that state the council is often unmanageable and needlessly irritating for the sake of artificial difficulty - any truth to this, or just some day 1 blues? Also, education has been changed and there's some ruffling of feathers there too; how exactly has the education system changed and what're the pros and cons there?
What you wrote above is true for some of us. BTW -
grab the music DLC - it is fantastic.
Pros:
* If you're more experienced and bored with the current game you will like Conclave.
* If you like being a Tyrant you will like Conclave.
* If you found the game too easy you will like Conclave.
* If you want to mess with your liege and have money or high diplomacy you will like Conclave.
* If you want to feel "less in control of your destiny" you will like Conclave. For instance, low spy score + little money + low diplomacy = stalemate at a minimum or complete nightmare at worst. The council can keep passing laws that hurts your power, lowers your income, lowers your troop numbers and another law means you won't be able to remove them. They can really cripple you.
Cons:
* Learning how to do stuff to/with the council was a major pain in the ass since PDX didn't feel fit to provide any documentation.
* It has taken me weeks to figure out the how tos,whys, and whens of council management by spending loads of time on this forum while playing. Without the forum I would still have no idea how to do half the stuff with council mechanics.
* If you're playing as the King of a small realm and want to expand and tech up, the council will be a major pain. It's really bad if you don't have money or decent diplomacy to try and keep them unmiserable.
* Council mechanics feel a bit unbalanced in favor of Muslims sometimes. When the Umayyad's were conquering France I was desperate to find a way to destabilize their realm. Their large realm had over 40 vassals all at 70+ relations which meant all their council members were also supremely happy. Not only fighting the Umayyad invasion but also the council was tiring. If I were a pro at this game this might have been cool. If this had been an ironman game, or I hadn't had a lot of saves to go back to I would have lost 2 real-world weeks worth of game time.
* I liked playing genetic engineer and the new education system kinda nerfs that way of playing (Eugenics).
* Just trying to get a simple 5% increase in city tax can cost you years of income or the AI may take your favors and do some dumb vote a year later to take away what you accomplished. No matter how happy people are on your council they almost always seem to oppose any law changes you need. To me it feels like I have fewer options since more often than not you're going to stick with default levels of taxation, or change them once every 40 years unless you like playing Russian Roulette with the unpaid favor system. This should feel like roleplaying, but
right now it just feels annoying. That may change in the future! Unlike in the past where I changed tax and levy rates often, it now mostly stays at default. In the rare times I had someone on my council who was a Loyalist, they changed their position for no known reason after a bit. I also have 2 people on my council with 30+ relationship value with me yet they are malcontent. Why? Worst of all, to buy a vote from one of those malcontent's would cost 400 gold!
* I would love to hear luis3007 tips for management without vice-royalties. Right now, to manage the same empire vs. pre-Conclave costs me more money and a lot more time than in the past. But once again this could be due to the fact I don't have a bookish knowledge of the game.
In the end, all my negatives could go away depending on how much more there is to learn about the mechanics, and what my goal is in a particular game. Playing as a crazy tyrant could be a lot of fun with Conclave. But if you're still learning the game hold off for a sale. For myself I'm guessing the game without Conclave would feel a but less complete and I'd not have the love-hate relationships I have with my vassals. Then again, without Conclave I'd be able to play man more types of CK2 games since they'd go along a lot quicker.
