In Today's episode: A Mad Emperor Who Ruined the Empire.

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Asexual reproduction and asexual marriage is coming soon.

So I did the usual thing. Messed around with the tutorial. Played as some random count to try it out then decided to do a proper play as King of Dublin.

All in all, going okay. Kind of waste my first ruler because I'm not sure of the game mechanics but I end up in a crusade in Egypt. I'm the top contributor so my daughter inherits the whole Kingdom as my beneficiary. Big win for the dynasty.

Next ruler is a bit more successful in Ireland. Conquers a few counties. Gets a duchy, has good marriages in France, England and Scotland. Starting to get the hang of this game. It's not too hard eh?

My son has 2 daughters with duchess of Aquitaine. He comes of age and moves to her court so I have no control over him or his kids.

I die, he inherits. His eldest daughter is married to a nobody and has a son under his name. Not good for the dynasty.

I (third character now) kill off the husband and marry my eldest off matrilineally. She has a daughter of my dynasty. Considering changing to Tanistry but I stick with Primogeniture because it feels right. In the meantime I'm trying to kill her eldest son so he can't inherit.

I unite the Kingdom and have three duchies under my name. Five counties are held by vassals, a couple of kinsmen and a few others who hate me because I conquered them.

In the meantime my wife dies in a civil war in Aquitaine. She never asked me for help, plus my daughter now inherits, so I don't mourn. I'm around 50 and my previous characters survived until around 62 ish. So I decide to re marry an heiress to an English County. On the one hand I want to see if I can get a couple sons, on the other hand I just wanted my ruler to be happy and not on his lonesome.

My eldest daughter becomes Queen of Aquitaine and I'm starting to get excited to play as her. Would be interesting being Queen of Ireland and Aquitaine. Only problem is I still haven't killed her son, I'm bribing everyone to try get them to join the plot but its only sitting around 85%. I end up marrying him matrilineally to my niece. Thinking it's better than nothing. Still plotting to assassinate him.

Boom. A son is born. Rejoicing and jubilations.

Boom. My character dies.

Now I'm a 1 year old boy with my older sister (not queen of Aquitaine, another one who is married matrilineally into some Scottish Duchy) as regent. She really hates me. Guess I didn't really plan ahead when I chose her as regent. Oh well.

The heir to my whole kingdom, and all the duchies and counties with it, is my nephew who is of a separate house. I can't plot to kill him and my regent won't allow his matrilineal marriage back into my family.

So now I'm just sending gifts to vassals and sending my council around to improve relations while racing through time until I come of age.

Obviously there's multiple threats and eventually when I'm 6 one of my sisters usurps me as Queen of Ireland. But I hold on to all my holdings and vassals apart from Dublin.

A few things.

1. I absolutely love this game. What a Rollercoaster.

2. What's my best move in this situation? I'm kind of happy she's taken the heat off me but also am now obviously in a very weak position.

3. I need to remove some vassals and try consolidate power in my duchies. Am I better off speed running it until I'm 16 and try deal with it then?

4. Any clever ways of disinheriting my nephew? Make him a bishop?

Thank you for your time and god speed.

This guy plotted to kill his younger brother, only reason he didn’t is because consumption did the job first, had his first bastard at 17, castrated ALL of his major vassals, because they laughed at him for being impotent, let Bogomilism take over ad the majority religion, joined Lucifer’s own, only to be a pathetic satanist whose tainted touch only caused a mild flu and converted to Hellenism shortly before he died childless (except for the bastard) of leprosy and got called patient and godly in his onituary.

The Mongols are invading the Yuan Dynasty, which has been ruled by Mongols ever since the fall of the Tang dynasty...

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesday!

Whether you need some help with your current game or are simply curious about a game mechanic, system, or mod, that's what this thread is for!

If you've had something you've wanted to ask but weren't sure it merited its own post, you can ask it here too. This thread is for any and all CK2 questions!

Veterans are encouraged to check back regularly or follow the post, so you can get updates when someone has a question!

R5 - al-Muzaffar ironman. This is Mu'nis of Galilee's dynasty. I'm sure people know this but you join the the satanists to remove the eunuch trait at tier 3. I only found out about his achievement when he was 65 and opted to try it in a separate run.

I had one son who I'm playing as now. I had a daughter as well. There was a third daughter but I thinkI used the seduce focus and had her because she was tutored by Glitterhoof so she's of horse culture. I'm hoping to have more horse characters because it sounds fun.

Anyway, long story short the caliph wanted me dead and succeeded so I put this game on the side while I played a nomad and feudal Indian game instead. I came back because I felt being sniped at 12 was anticlimatic. Now instead the caliph just revoked my duchy because he can of course. My new liege is also an Abbasid which seems counterintuitive as he's also the emir of Oman. Shortly after the caliph enforced realm peace.

This is why I'm making the post for discussion. My new liege went into hiding. Had it not been for realm peace I would've just pushed it for myself which makes sense. However I noticed my sister can also push her own claim. As someone who almost always plays as an independent person I found this quite jarring because externally I've never been able to push a female claim on an agnatic realm even if the man is in hiding or there's another claim war. My hypothesis is it's just because Sword of Islam was the first CK2 DLC and women pushing claims in general was restricted later. I don't know if I've ever noticed women rising to power in other agnatic realms but I did see it happen in my Indian game so I could be 100% wrong.

I'm in a bad position but my strategy in this game, and future vassal games, might have changed permanently as it means having marriages isn't for non-aggression pacts, alliances, and claims to push with their children but claims they can have pushed themselves. I'm probably thinking too much and it's just unique to earlier DLCs; I can't remember women in the HRE with claims that can do it. I just want to know what the people of this sub think.

This is going to be lengthy, but I really wanted to share what can only be described as an absolutely awesome game so far...Now I decided to try my hand at a Bavanid run after my previous post about Nestorian Persia in here is almost a blow by blow acount of how I formed the Persian empire from the 769 start date in less than a 100 years...

1. My starting ruler just sucked all round as you can see, but did do some pretty useful things before he bought the farm. Before I even unpaused the game I borrowed money from the Jews and formed Gilan...and a few months later Dihistan. I also revoked the county of Qwilan and Qwivir, and assassinated the count of Gilan. My heir decided to plot for the duchy of Gilan and revolted when I tried to imprison him...one of his generals killed my ruler in battle so revolt and rule over...died July 769.
2. Shervin's main thing was converting to Sunni for protection against the Caliphate, and forming the kingdom of Daylam. It took almost 3 years to get enough piety to convert, and when I did I went on Hajj to make use of the large amount of piety you get from doing that to form the kingdom. Then I hit for de jure on Tabriz and made that part of my personal demesne. After that I destroyed the duchies I owned, handed Dihistan to the Karens, and went about increasing tech growth and also upgrading my demesne. He died in 791. I destroyed the duchies because the Caliph is a dick and they revoke duchies arbitrarily from vassals...and under Iqta they can do that without pissing of everybody except the guy they are doing it to. He was also the first of my rulers to join the Hermetics, and after him every 1 of them followed suit.
3. Next was Shahryar and he only ruled for 5 years...didn't do much except instituting religious control mandate and revoking Tabriz from 1 vassal, and Azerbaijan from another...destroyed Tabriz, gave Azerbaijan to a Muslim Persian, and invited 1 of the Samanids to court and gave him land to preserve as many Partian bloodlines as possible...died in 796.
4. Was Yazdegerd...and this guy was terrifying...he took over at the age of 21, and almost immediately afterwards there was a revolt to install the Shiehk of Rayy as the new Caliph. It was successful, which meant that I could hit de jures for both Dihistan and Azerbaijan...which I did. I had been sending family members to China steadily since Shervin's rule and had about 2000 grace, but was keeping my eye on the Arc of the Covenant, which was in the possession of the Duke of Gojjam at the time...He was unlanded somehow and ended as the regent of Wag, and this is when I bought a favour, assassinated his wife, and invited him over when the Countess of Wag reached adulthood...he died shortly afterwards and I used the Arc to get the Chinese (Who was in a golden age) to invade the Abbasids...They won and I was free to start ruining Sunni MA...My first target was the Caliph, who had no vassals above barony level. I then in order went after. Jibal, Khozistan, Khorasan, Jazira, Samarra, Mudar, Armenia, Khiva, Merv, Fars (vassalized because he was Persian) Kerman, Makran, Baghdad, Palmyra, Aleppo, Mesopotamia and Herat. That gave me enough land to form the empire and restore the Priesthood. The Duke of Baghdad went after Basra, and the duke of Kerman got Sistan (Half of it anyway). The Duke of Makran hit de jure for his duchy. I created Iraq, formed the empire and handed Iraq to my expanisve vassal down there. The duke of Jibal hit Mafaza. The priesthood declared a GHW for Transoxiana, which I won and gave to the duke of Khiva...this left me with the following to do to become Sheoshant...1 county in Sistan, the full duchies of Kabulistan, Zabulistan, Balhk and Fergana. 1 county in Khuttal under Tibetan rule, and the county of Merv. There was also a castle in Merv under the rule of the Maharaj of Kashmir, who had not been bodied by the Tibetans as is usually the case. My Makran vassal took on Zabulistan and won, and the last county in Sistan also fell to me at the same time. The king of Transoxiana went after Balhk, The duke of Merv hit his de jure, I went for Fergana, Khuttal and Kabulistan in that order...my guy was old by now, and I only needed the castle in Merv to become Sheoshant, but he died before I could finish the job. Died in 853 of extremely old age lol...

The next few guys only expanded the realm farther...but I did manage to become Sheoshant with my next ruler ( Vahid I ) I also started focussing mainly on Trebizond, Anatolia, Yemen and Arabia with my rulers. India is almost completely under the rule of the Pala empire, and Egypt is having a terrible time with me as neigbour. I survived a Crusade in 906 and the Children's Crusade in 915...and also won anothe GHW for Africa...it's been fun.

Longtime (~520 hours since like 2014) Player here, I often think I play the game “wrong” because instead of going on world conquests I love roleplaying as my characters and building up my realm. Just a funny observation I finally decided to share.

My current game I started by picking a random leader in 769 and ended up with the Chief of Vychegda. Pretty early on swore fealty to Perm when I saw my neighbors getting invaded, watched one Dynasty assassinate the king and two sons to become king themselves and really kind of take over the place. Anyway, when I left last time, the Black Death had just finished ravaging my Court (haven’t taken a full tally but court went from ~30 at onset of the Plague to 9 when the epidemic ended). I left with my first Female Ruler, I’ve stuck with elective gavelkind and been swapping between branches of my dynasty to keep succession fair - although now that one branch should have their own County/Chiefdom now I can focus on one branch and any of their cadet branches. Hoping to adopt Feudalism if I can with my Chieftess, but at least want to get a hospital (again tech permitting). This world has been having an interesting time, while I just chill and hope to keep surviving and thriving out in the Siberian frontier.

Anyway, just kinda wanted to share my experience, this peaceful builder and roleplay is kinda my general playstyle in strategy games, to the point I have notably been slow to progress when playing PvAI with my friends in Age of Empires 2 lol.

My dynasty finally claimed the whole kingdom Eire rightfully after an excruciatingly long revolt, but it didnt last long. I was replaced by a ruler who was set forcefully by a faction after the prev ruler(me) died. I revolted, failed, revolted again, failure. i thought it was over for me. two of me died in jail, my sons carried the house. from ruling 3 duchies and several counties, to becoming a vassal of 2 counties. it was all falling apart, all my effort, in vein. but finally, after many generations, i revolted again, thousands of souls sent to god. Finally, the crown was on my head, one of my son was landed, other one was betrothed to a foreign duchess. Shortly after, tragedy struck, the landed son died, without my notice, my daughter also died of illness, the other son, although in my court, was refrained from taking the crown. everything that was rightfully mine was given back to that one fucking house, Estridsen, who initially started all the ruckus.

(Estridsen ruled my de jure kingdom for 5 generations. my victorious revolt was during the initial phase of 5th generation, whom i executed after claiming the crown back.)

This was my first play-through of the game, lasted a month, till today.

Here's my Northumbria run in the Viking Age start after throwing like 5 attempts at it.

Hello. I need help. Recently I started a new run, more like a challenge, as Northumbria in 867 start. I knew it would be a pain in the ass, but I'm getting a bit stuck and frustrated. To be honest with y'all, although I have quite a few hours in this game, there are still some things that go over my head. So that's why I'm here. First, the armies. At the very start, you have two wars going on. The Sons of Lodbrok invasion of Northumberland; lead by Halfdan and supported by Ivar, you only have two allies by default, which are Mercia and Wessex; and then you have the Sons of Lodbrok Invasion of Lothian, lead by Ivar, supported by Sigurdr, no allies by default. Naturally, nearby christian kingdoms will join you in either of these wars. But to make the allied armies group is a problem. Vikings have a 23k-ish warriors at first, but allies from Scandinavia can also join. You have to group the armies to even wish facing the viking. Since there is very little space to maneuver and basically no ships at all, you have to move your troops with a DEVIOUS army of 20k+ angry norsemen just next to you and pray that you don't get attacked. Or go the other way around and cross all of Ireland and Wales to finally get to England, just behind them, but it takes too long and the allies usually disperse. Now, if somehow I manage to build up a nice army of allied christian forces between the anglo-saxons, the bretons, the scots and irish, of over 10k people, there is another problem. Because I never get the full strength of that army. If I attack a fraction of Halfdan's army with those 10k troops, maybe only 60% of them will actually fight against his 4000+, because there are 4 fucking retarded rulers that signed up to fight Ivar, not Halfdan. The other issue is that there is another invasion going on, which is the Sons of Lodbrok Invasion of East Anglia. And Mercia will usually focus on that conflict instead of moving to help me stop the angry viking warlord absolutely scorching my lands in the north. And even when they repel Ivar from East Anglia, FOR SOME DAMN REASON, THEY WON'T GO FIGHT WITH ME AT NORTH (attached image !!). And East Anglia will NEVER EVER EVER join me in any of the two wars mentioned. So.. any tips?

If you go to the independent realms page of the ledger, it includes a list of army sizes, but after cross-checking, these appear to be the maximum army sizes achievable with full manpower. Actually, the numbers don't quite match up with that either, but then the same is true for a lot of numbers in this game. If you go to the character page, it shows you the actual size of the army that can currently be levied (along with mercenaries and retinues). For instance, in my current game, Byzantium is shown in the ledger as having an army size of roughly 50k, while its actual army size, as shown on the Basileus's character page is only 16k due to being in a prolonged war with the Caliph. Is there a mod that displays this number in the ledger instead? I want to be able to see at a glance realms that are transiently weak and able to be taken advantage of.

I just had something very strange happen that I have never seen before. Up front I do use mods but I have been using these for a very long time, say 1000's of hours. Also I do tend to roleplay the character I am playing as and in this case that was 100% in play.

Quick background is as a king got married and had twins by 17. Both wife and I dead by 19. Child me as king and sister are only dynasty members left so we formed a strong roleplaying bond. Us vs the world type thing. She would grow up with very high learning and would become my court doctor and regent. She is my right hand so to speak.

Now to the issue. As king I am married but yet to have a child so sister is my only dynasty heir. One day the court priest brings sister in front of me and claims she worships the devil. I can't believe this and I end up letting her go cause what harm could that cause? All is quiet for a few months then once again this priest has my sister in front of me claiming she must be a witch cause of kids nightmares or something like that. Once again I let her go cause she is my sister after all. Then like 2 weeks latter it happens again and again I let her go. Then it happens again and again and again with each time it happening at a quicker frequency.

After the 6th time I ended up using charinfo to see for myself and turns out she is innocent. The last time this happened was number 7 and it was almost an instant pop up with this stupid priest wanting to desperately to say she was doing something bad. I decided I no longer cared about what my court thought I had that stupid priest arrested and then burned at the stake.

After that no one dared accuse her of anything. Sorry this got kind of long but was this like some kind of stuck in a event loop? My roleplaying mind thought that he was just jealous of her and wanted to get rid of her in a disgraced way possible. Even if it was some kind of bug it certainly felt as like something that could have happened back then.

What non negative trait don't you like on your character? For me it's paranoid. Don't know why but I just do not like it if my character has it