What's your favorite animal race

[forfor]

Mine is dragons with the caveat that I modded their fertility malus to be -25% instead of -50%. (Otherwise they literally go extinct within 2-3, generations)
Setting aside the fact that I'm sortve cheating, I like their combat bonus, and the joy of burning my enemies alive. Also, I always set random religion, and reroll until I have a pagan dragon society to play with. Warrior societies are op when run by dragons.

 

[WJS]

If you didn't reroll religions and kept the -50% fertility malus, who would be your favorite race?

Me, I like the red pandas, because they are cute.

 

[forfor]

If you didn't reroll religions and kept the -50% fertility malus, who would be your favorite race?

Me, I like the red pandas, because they are cute.

Probably ducks just because I find them hilarious. On the more practical side it would be cats. The intrigue bonus can easily make all the difference on an assassination attempt

 

[Rubidium]

If you intend to replace your entire realm by members of your species, horses get a surprising number of options for opinion boosts.

 

[Elden]

Dogs. because they're dogs. Seriously; what more could you want?

 

[Pzt_Kami]

I'm wondering if this thread about a mod or something new that I missed in the game???

 

[forfor]

I'm wondering if this thread about a mod or something new that I missed in the game???

I don't remember which DLC it is, but one of them let's you play as animals. They're part of the system that generates randomized borders/religions/cultures etc at game start. They're kind've an easter egg though. You have to cycle through the culture options a bunch of times until the animal culture option appears if I remember right. I think the list is dragons, horses, dogs, cats, ducks, and hedgehogs. Those are the ones I remember off the top of my head. The species are implemented as cultures with particular culture bonuses that specialize them in different things. (cats are good at intrigue, but have a natural dislike for each other, dragons are good at combat, and can burn prisoners alive. Things like that.)

 

[eastcoastceojam]

The Holy Fury DLC is the one that adds the option to play as animals. You have to start a new game, pick the Random World option, and then keep clicking through the culture options until the animal cultures appear (like the poster above mentioned).

 

[Rubidium]

A few animals (most notably horses) have other ways of appearing in normal games.

 

[forfor]

A few animals (most notably horses) have other ways of appearing in normal games.

I run across dragons every rare now and then in more normal playthroughs, but sadly any attempt to breed them in order to create an impromptu dragon empire tends to end poorly. Either they have dragon culture, at which point the -50% fertility renders them nearly incapable of breeding, or they have your culture, and their children revert back to human.

 

[Pzt_Kami]

WoW I was unaware of this feature all the time It should have been advertised more. At least a reason to get back to CK2 again )

 

[forfor]

WoW I was unaware of this feature all the time It should have been advertised more. At least a reason to get back to CK2 again )

One thing I would say is that it's worth taking a second to mod dragon culture's fertility malus. With the -50% you get in vanilla, dragons are functionally incapable of maintaining their population. You'll find yourself constantly having to raise up new nobles, and no matter what you do your dynasty eventually dies out. -25% is a good balance to maintain the original intent of the culture numbers without having dragons literally go extinct after 2-3 generations. Even if you aren't playing dragons yourself, it's still worth doing so you have more interesting interactions with any dragon neighbors.