Crusader Kings / Paradox Games

@ Alex; Sorry I had meant to comment earlier. Looks like an interesting game with many large nations forming already! I had always been tempted to play as Gotland, I went there on holiday and it's a rather awesome island, with a colourful history in the Viking era. Are you planning to continue into EU3?

Nah, I won't continue into EU3.

I'll probably edit this so that I can play until I dominate the whole map if I desire.

Then, as soon as my empire get sufficiently large, destroy (or remove with cheats) my empire title, get as many king titles as I can, have as many kids as I can with concubines after a conversion to Norse, then switch to Gavelkind and watch the world explode when I die.

Alexander wrote:

Then, as soon as my empire get sufficiently large, destroy (or remove with cheats) my empire title, get as many king titles as I can, have as many kids as I can with concubines after a conversion to Norse, then switch to Gavelkind and watch the world explode when I die.

Although I don't actually know the game.. this sounds awesome.

State of the world circa 1063. In preparation for the great explosion:

Spoiler:

Bloody hell.

... But you lost Gotland! The place it all began.

Not so much "Lost" as "Let Sweden borrow and forget to reclaim"

Holy crap.

I started a game as Jorvik and completely swallowed up Northumbria with King Halfdan 'Whiteshirt' but he died prematurely in 874. I'm currently finishing up a prepared invasion of Mercia, the last Christian kingdom in England or Scotland. But what's more surprising is across the English Channel!

Spoiler:

West Francia is huge! Italy is too! And it's only 889! I'm hoping to off King Louis II before primogeniture or elective can be instituted or I'll never reform the Norse faith. Then I'd have 3 separate kingdoms.

Aaaaand.. explosion.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Some people just want to watch the world burn.

@ Lucius; I have been really tempted to play as Jorvik, but I just cannot bring myself to play as York, even if it's Viking York (I went to Lancaster University, there is a "small" rivalry between the two).

@ Alexander; that is awesome! Turkey and France under the control of one power, part of France and Russia as another. That would be really interesting on EU3 Completely nonsensical starts.

Actually, turkey is pretty much an independent set of duchies right now. It's just the Hungary/Bulgaria region controlled by the Byzantine sect right now.

I think you missed something though. Look at the southern half of the map. One Arabia, from Africa to the other edge of the map.

That's not unusual for the Ottomans in EU3, just means they start out with it. Anyway, converter isn't out yet, they came to me asking about how Norse should translate into Swedish / Danish / Norwegian cultures in EU3 (outside of Scandinavia that is).

I've been playing the GoT mod again.  At first just as Iron Islanders, but I decided to try the Stormlands for once.  I've been doing quite well in the After Spring scenario.  About ten years ago I warred to install Bittersteel as King, and succeeded.  Just before the war I had arranged a betrothal for my heir to the female heir of the Riverlands... they were both young so it was accepted.  During the war the Riverlands sided with the Targs, sooo no immediate marriage.  Ten years pass, they do marry, no children... and then I notice it: Matrilineal marriage!  My last save was that 10 years prior when I started the war. >.<

Yeah the AI sneaks them through sometimes, have to be wise to it and read the dialogue carefully!

I've had to re-fight that war several times to make it work out.  Bittersteel ended up incapable twice.  Sadly he appears to be infirm at the start, that's not something I remember the first time around.  Oh well!  At least he joined the war trying to support him, complete with the full 10k men of the Golden Company.

Oh well... thanks to marrying the eventual princess of Dorne, the Baratheons will rule the Stormlands, Dorne, and the Riverlands soon!  Plus we have a very friendly Blackfyre on the throne, and control of the previous Targ king!  I love this mod.

This has been the weirdest freaking CK2 game I've ever had. Heresies usually tend to be minor annoyances, but look at this.

Granted, that's 275 years in, but that's a prolific spread. Orthodox is extinct and Catholicism is almost there. Just nuts.

What's even more awesome is that about 20 years later, I flipped back to Orthodox but because my prestige was up past the 15,000 mark (that's a new one for me!) and thus all of Byzantium loved me, I could demand conversions from everyone. I've now restored moral authority to 100 and mended the schism, which is pretty crazy given where things were.

Current political map!

So this is my CK2 game at the moment. My goal is to rise from the Count of Gotland, to become Byzantine Emperor and reform the Roman Empire - all while remaining Norse.

Spoiler:

Now it's 1002AD, and I am King of Lithuania (dark green). I was helped really early on (890 or so) by Denmark Reforming the Norse Faith. 

Admittedly this is my 10th or so save from the Reformation save. My early attempts all involved taking Crimea with mercenaries, but Hungary would always invade and take me down. I then tried invading Estonia instead, and met with far more success. 

Thankfully none of the other Norse princes managed to make much of themselves in Russia, so i've had pretty much carte-blanche to conquer and convert to Norse without much trouble. My capital is now Kiev, and it is a centre of learning throughout the world. Everything east of Lithunia is unreformed Sueomenko (the Finnish pagan faith).

Hungary, my arch nemisis managed to take down the Byzantine Empire and have stolen much of their land. They are still Tengri, and have reformed that faith too. This should make taking over the Byzantine Empire easier for me... I just need to swear fealty and then claim the title from within. However, taking back Greece and Turkey from the Hungarian monster will be significantly more difficult. 

Thankfully raiding at the moment is stupidly profitable. I turned Gotland into a republic so they provide me with a massive fleet (140 galleys), so I bring back 1,400 gold each time from Spain and Italy. Venice has been burned to the ground three times in about 10 years...

Elsewhere Norse does well, the British Isles are entirely Norse now (though fragmented thanks to bitter struggles between Norway, Denmark and Skotland... yes, spelt that way thanks to being Norse). I think Skotland is in a civil war there though, they actually own the whole of Scotland and Ireland.

The HRE formed in the last 20 or so years, and France never really had a chance to form, with Aquitaine remaining staunchly independent, while being harassed by continual Viking raids.

I have two prizes for most tenacious nations though; Asturia in North-Western Spain, the small stronghold of Catholicism in Iberia (though the Reconquista very nearly won, but then there was a massive Islamic resurgence), and Bulgaria which has - somehow - survived nestled between Hungary and Hungarian-Byzantium.

Note; I do not usually save scum, I only did it in this instance as it would have been entirely impossible to realise the goal I had set once I'd lost all my Crimean lands. I've lost lands in this run through, and very nearly been deposed twice but kept playing regardless.

Soooo... Norse Byzantine Empire you say? Impossible!

Spoiler:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?730296-Praise-be-to-the-Divine!-Crusader-Kings-II-Sons-of-Abraham-is-announced&s=cb7edcc95b5c9d36b99a6c28a744ebf9

A religion expansion! It doesn't give us much in the way of specifics, but at least the interplay between our feudal lords and the Church will be expanded. I was hoping for a better Crusade system, but perhaps that is still a part of this. I do hope the inclusion of Judaism is more in the form of events for us to deal with than simply adding the religion as playable for custom characters.

Yeah I was going to point that out to you

And that just after I complete a marathon game :S

Tons more info on Paradox's Twitch channel if you're curious.

http://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive/b/472502577

That made me sad, Lucius.

I heard, at right around 23:00, the statement "We're now working on Rome II, by the way." followed by the other person saying "No."

I listened to it several times before I realized it was "We're not working on Rome II, by the way."

So... now I'm sad.

Somebody poked me, their fingers have been chopped off accordingly.

But while I'm here:





Notice anything odd with this next screenshot?



Expanding into Europe will be fun with a Franco Austria/Hungary Holy Roman Emperor

Abandon Europe and conquer your way through the Middle East to India!

Does anyone want a copy of CK2 or know somebody who does? I still have a free copy on Steam from preordering EU4 if there's anybody who wants it! PM me if you're interested.  

An intriguing scheme! I can't wait for the priest expansion, apparently they are going to fix the multiplayer and move it over to europa universalis' system.