Incidentally, this image from a Reddit thread gave me a huge laugh.
Is it Win 8.1 compatible?
You could put them in command of a single army unit then send it against those peasants that are revolting. If that doesn’t work, park him in the diseased region.
The game’s system requirements are extremely modest. I haven’t heard of any problems running it under Windows 8.1.
Yes, that’s what I used to do before pressing a claim.
I love elective succession for this reason. You can pick either the genious, or the guy whose wife is an heiress or important claimant.
People should stop talking about games. Someone started a thread asking what games you never finished, so I decided to finish all Elder Scrolls games (started all, generally many times, never finished one) so, I began playing Arena. Someone else started a thread about XCom (which I started often and never finished either), so I began to alternate (welcome change because Arena can get boring). Then a thread appeared for the release of Wasteland, and I’m playing three games at the same time. Then tropico. I resisted so far but not sure I will for long (plus, Tropico games are relatively short, so maybe I could squeeze one somewhere?). And now I have the urge to play CKII too and I suspect I won’t resist. :smack:
The barony idea does sound good for the Welsh lady. 700 gold to build a castle is obscenely expensive though, esp. this early in the game. But I don’t really want to give her a county.
Ok, Prince Olaf has come of age (he was born with a stutter, so I picture him walking around the castle going, “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck and fuck! Fuck, fuck and bugger! Bugger, bugger, buggerty buggerty buggerty, fuck, fuck, arse!”) and I’ve reached a decision point as to who he should marry. My primary plan is to try and marry the Duchess of Moray, but her husband needs to take a dirt nap first (and the plotters sure are taking their sweet time, even with his Spymaster, Chancellor, Marshall, and even the Duchess herself in on the plot!) but I don’t know yet if she’ll even accept. Plus, she’s 37, and I’ve already arranged a matrilineal marriage between her son and King Gudrod’s daughter, so there’s a backup plan. The other option I was looking at was a Norwegian Duke’s daughter, who’s 16 and may gain a claim on the Duchy north of Scotland, which is good because I want to keep my dynasty’s bloodline pure. (In the words of King Longshanks: “If we can’t root them out, we’ll breed them out…”)
However, by randomly clicking through menus I discovered a potential bride who has 22 INTRIGUE and would make a great spymaster! She has no titles, but at least is related to a king so I won’t take a prestige hit. Should I go for it?
Eff those Moray bastards.
Another question: When going to war with someone, do I have to actually occupy the county I have a claim on to gain it? Or do I merely have to bash their army around & besiege some weaker counties while leaving that heavily-defended county alone?
You don’t technically have to actually occupy it, but if you don’t actually hold it, the guy who does gets a pretty big bonus to his warscore.
My biggest problem is crashing. I’ll play it for a little while, and then it’ll start crashing after maybe about 10 minutes. If I do a clean install, that fixes it, for a little bit, then after a while, it does the same thing again. No idea what’s going on there or how to fix it.
Your real objective in any war is to gain warscore. Once you get to 100% warscore the enemy will be forced to surrender. They may surrender before it reaches 100% (and it’s often worth it to negotiate) but surrender is guaranteed at 100%. Similarly, if your warscore is -100% (i.e., the enemy’s warscore is +100%), then you will be forced to surrender.
You can gain warscore in several ways:
[ul]
[li]winning battles, depending on the number of enemy solders killed[/li][li]occupying enemy holdings; you get significant bonuses for occupying the enemy demesne, capital, or territory under dispute[/li][li]capturing prisoners; if you capture the enemy leader, your warscore immediately goes to 100%[/li][li]you gain ‘ticking’ warscore if you continuously occupy all of the war goal (this includes minor holdings)[/li][/ul]
You can certainly run around the countryside bashing enemy armies. Indeed, if you’ve defeated the entire enemy army, you’ll get 75% warscore. But consider while you’re doing this, the enemy will gain ticking warscore simply for holding their territory intact. Better to occupy at least some of the war goal; even a single county will do. If that single county is the only one under dispute, you might as well occupy the minor holdings, too. Then you’ll be the one gaining ticking warscore.
See the CKII Wiki for Warfare for more information and strategy tips.
Well it looks like I’m not going to war on Scotland for a little while, since Norway called me into war against Sweden & Denmark over some piddly county and I’m not about to invade Scotland w/o my Norwegian allies. I’m close to having 700 gold to build a castle for that Welsh lady, but the only free land in my demesne is in Ireland – wondering if I should spend the money on that, or upgrade military buildings instead?
Also, what are the best things to look for when selecting a wife for my heir? The Genius Catalan spymaster’s no longer available (though I could restart from an autosave and hook her up with my Genius nephew) but there is a Norwegian count’s daughter available, who’s not only the right culture but has MIDAS TOUCHED as her major stat. Prince Olaf will lose -100 prestige for marrying her, though – is that a problem?
The only things I ever spend money to build are castle towns (for taxes) and retinue increasing holdings. I’ll do number of levy buildings too, but only after those others. Retinue is just so important. Absolutely the most important use of your money is getting your retinue up to cap if you can. You should probably always get skirmish retinue because they have the most units per cap. Why? Because your relative strength compared to your vassals will go way up, which drastically lowers their chance of rebelling. After that, money is good for bribing your vassals.
I also only hold on to land in my capital Duchy. It’s easier to have consolidated holdings because then when people rebel you’re not split up everywhere. You also have more revolving door counties for pressing claims.
That is unless your only county in your capital duchy is your capital county in which case don’t do that. I wouldn’t waste my money on new baronies until way later.
Edit: Also, I was wrong about “plot to revoke” the way it happens is if a duke-level or higher vassal own territory outside their de jure borders that should belong to another duke-or-higher vassal.
I don’t even know what retinues are. 
A standing army. There’s a retinue tab in one of the menus. I think you may need the Legacy of Rome DLC which isn’t very expensive. I’d get it if you get no other expansions, retinues are, IMO, a very important mechanic.
Well, this game’s officially gotten silly. King Godrud’s started having an affair with one of his courtiers, who’s also a dwarf with some really mixed-up traits (Grey Eminence, Diligent, Temperate & Honest, but also Paranoid, Zealous, and somehow picked up “Lunatic” recently.) He’s already had one kid by her, luckily nobody found out, but I didn’t want to create a scandal – so I formed a tiny regiment of soldiers with her husband as the leader, and sent them on a suicide mission to the war in Sweden. So, basically, I just pulled a King David for some crazy paranoid midget sex.
Thing is… it didn’t work. The soldiers were wiped out, as expected, but her husband teleported back to my capital safe and sound! What gives?
Leaders only have a chance to die in battle. Losing increases the chance they’ll get captured or killed, but it’s by absolutely no means a guarantee.
Well it looks like I’m gonna have to fight the upcoming war with Scotland alone, since Norway’s still grinding away at Sweden (and losing badly) so there should be plenty of chances for him to die in battle soon…
By the way, is there any advantage at all to having your king lead the army? His Martial skill’s only 9, but the game always auto-selects him for some reason.
Can’t you plot to murder the girlfriend’s husband?
Suppose I could, but it seems hardly worth the effort. Besides I’ve got too many other plots in the queue – first, the son of the Duke of Orkney needs to die, so my second son’s wife will inherit. Then there’s those pesky descendants of the former Count of Carrick & Galloway, who all have strong claims since their daddy died in prison after I put down his rebellion and stripped his titles. One of them’s already taken a dirt nap, but my stupid half-sister got drunk and blabbed about the plot, so everyone thinks I’m a disgrace now. I’m swamped.
Having your ruler lead an army is a lot like gambling. There are some random events that can happen during battles, which can increase your prestige, give you the brave trait, or remove the craven trait. There is also a laundry list of bad things that can happen, like a very small chance that you’ll be wounded, killed, or receive the craven trait.
Martial skill of 9 is respectable, but not great. In most duke-level realms, or in a small kingdom like Turkistan or Burgundy, one flank of your army will probably be led by someone with around 9 martial skill. The bigger your realm, the more characters are in your pool of available commanders, the higher the threshold is for a “good” commander. Bigger kingdoms will tend toward having better commanders, simply by virtue of having more candidates and more chances for rolling great stats.