Crusader Kings 3: on Steam and PC Game Pass

[Sly Boots]

Ah that's a shame. I'll have a look further down the succession and see if I can do something about his heirs.

Although, I might have to wait until this king has popped his clogs, as being a compassionate and learned ruler he has to go and write furiously in his diary to relieve stress anytime he attempts anything nefarious.

Also:

https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/this-crusade ... -the-pope/

[Tommy]

Re-downloaded CK2 since it's F2P.

[Sly Boots]

For a slight change of pace for me, and dictated largely because he was skilled in the Learned trait, I've gone down more of a pious route for my current ruler.

Now, in addition to having set up my own holy order, I'm just a few hundred piety points away from being able to implement my own religion. Having already looked at the available tenets, I think it's very hard to not make one centred around orgies and promoting lying and deceitfulness

My desire to speed up the process led to me discovering a few hiccups with my succession plan (house seniority, son selected as heir)... I merrily sent my 60-year-old emperor off on a pilgrimage, he soon died thereafter and I got the Game Over screen.

A reload and some poking around later, and it turns out my 52yo cousin (via House Seniority) inherited my realm rather than my son (who was a player heir, apparently, and not an actual, you know, heir heir).

I've gone back to High Partition as at least my sons will split my kingdoms between them - my eldest will probably having to declare war on his siblings to reacquire Ireland and England sadly - unless I can make this emperor last until he's 70, by which time I'll have unlocked Primogeniture.

Going to be a race against time... I hope all the orgies and murder plots don't finish kingy off too soon

[Sly Boots]

Oh man, I've got the definite feeling that things are starting to unspool for me.

Yesterday made my new religion, which centres around ritual feasting, polygamy and just spreading the love, in all its various squishy and squelchy forms.

Having plunged the empire into this new faith, kingy promptly popped his clogs, leaving his heir to pick up the mess, which primarily he did by immediately marrying three more wives. He's also mega-fertile so babies are just popping out left and right

Unfortunately, with primogeniture still to be unlocked, his brothers inherited the crowns of Ireland and England, so naturally the first thing I did was to betroth a daughter to one of his heirs and start bumping off everyone ahead of them in the succession line.

As well as putting down a civil war when first crowned, as of logging off last night I've had another Empire declare war on me for the crown of Britannia, which is quite scary. Infinitely worse though was the Pope, presumably angered by the summer of love now taking place in the British Isles, declaring a holy crusade against me at the same time.

Not entirely sure how I'm going to get out of this one :/

[DjchunKfunK]

Yeah that's the risk with starting your own religion. Holy wars are a really powerful tool but you don't want them to be used against you.

[Sly Boots]

Yeah that's the risk with starting your own religion. Holy wars are a really powerful tool but you don't want them to be used against you.

I guess I'll just let it play out, to be honest since conquering Britannia, my self-directed goal at the start of this campaign, I've been at somewhat of a loss as to what to aim for, spending most of the time since amusing myself with murder and abduction plots, and a silly religion. If it all comes crashing down it will probably be a fitting end for this dynasty

[Snowy]

Go somewhere else and be someone else. I have a litany of CK3 saves from doing so - when I have kinda played a story out I save it and go elsewhere, putting a particular dynasty down for a while. They are generally pretty easy to come back to and it is a lot of fun to revisit old saves and decide on new aims etc.

[Sly Boots]

Go somewhere else and be someone else. I have a litany of CK3 saves from doing so - when I have kinda played a story out I save it and go elsewhere, putting a particular dynasty down for a while. They are generally pretty easy to come back to and it is a lot of fun to revisit old saves and decide on new aims etc.

Yeah, I think this is the point I've reached.

I carried on yesterday, I lost the holy war (unsurprisingly, I was vastly outnumbered) and lost England as a kingdom as a result. I was able to beat back the other claimant on my Empire through alliances (seriously, so many kids ).

After some years I saw that my numbers exceeded that of Crusader England, so I launched a war and reclaimed it, only to then discover there was still a Kingdom of England with its own Queen, and I was left slightly confused as to what I had actually achieved.

Never mind, I thought, launching a serious of murder plots against the various English heirs and betrothals with a view to getting myself back into the succession somehow and reclaiming the crown that way (meantime I've unlocked primogeniture so can keep it this time)... and have just about done so... when the Pope launches another crusade against me -_-

So, it all feels like it's got rather messy and things are spiralling out of my control a bit.

Still, I feel like I've learned am awful lot through this campaign, and there's quite a lot I think I would do differently next time.

[Sly Boots]

Started a new campaign in eastern Iceland in 867. Playing as a small nation to begin with and trying to carve out a decent legacy appeals to me more, I think, than beginning as one already militarily superior.

Playing as a race for whom going out on raids is not only a key part of their culture but also the main way to gather gold and prestige is an interesting change of pace, I've already plundered most of Ireland, the Shetlands and Orkneys, while I've also conquered the latter (it was a bad few years for them ) and, just now, the kingdom to the west of Iceland, merging the two parts of the country into a single duchy.

It does suck a bit though not being the head of the culture, so I can't set which innovation to research. But I'm coming for you, Norway!

[Mantis]

So I finally got in on this thanks to Game Pass so that I can try to form a United Kingdom with some friends. Had a quick dip tonight to be told the basics and boy does stuff come at you thick and fast. I just about figured out how to go to to war and appoint vassals etc before a botched attempt at curing gout left me missing a leg and on deaths door. The dissolution of the upstart kingdom of Wales soon followed as my kids carved up my land between them, leaving me with bugger all back at square one.

I definitely need to watch some tutorials.

[Mantis]

Am I missing something with this game? Could do with a couple of tips.

It feels like it takes an entire lifetime of my monarch to actually accomplish anything. For instance, unless you spec really far down the intrigue tree you can only have one plot going at a time; likewise with diplomacy. I've spent an entire adult lifetime for one king trying to get someone to like me with the sway option, only for it to never have any significant impact on their opinion and all while forgoing any other sort of meaningful sway/seductive interactions. I get that you can pay people gold as gifts to increase their opinion too, but it seems to default to 100 gold and when you're only a small fry petty king it uses a huge portion of your reserves which I feel like I should be spending elsewhere, like on buildings within my cities.

I've had a small amount of success playing as Wessex, but trying to persuade people to marry my kids so that I can line myself up for strong inheritances of other territories just never seems to work. The diplomatic angle seems far more time and resource intensive than just having your bishop fabricate a claim and going to war.

[Snowy]

You need to think dynastically. I try to come up with a goal for each king, while setting up what I want to achieve from the dynasty as a whole. That said, I do also enjoy the random stories that play out too.

Oh and I try to never waste money on gifts, way too much other important stuff to use it on

[Mantis]

From my experience so far, there's pressure to try and get things done asap as otherwise you'll end up a lowly duchy lord or petty king against someone who has managed to unite the rest of the country as a single kingdom. I think it's just going to take a while to sink in how to accomplish things in an efficient manner; at the minute I've only played multiplayer and we don't really slow down or pause from standard speed so it's hard to keep track of everything and figure out whats what when most of the systems are new to me.

That said, in our five way free for all last night I did manage to start as Munster in 1066 and almost create a unified Kingdom of Ireland in a short period of time before we called it for the night. Though apparently that's a fairly easy task as you play the same chap during the tutorial which I skipped over.

Our previous game was hilarious. We wanted to form a United Kingdom so all started in various areas of the British Isles (Wessex, Mercia, Gwynedd and Alba) and ended up in a standoff with everyone being their own kings (England, Wessex, Wales and Alba) and nobody wanting to become a vassal of the other. A few intrigue plots and wars backed up with foreign allies later and we decided to call it a day and start again a bit further afield from each other as we'd all managed to successfully wipe out our dynasties so that every corner of the British Isles was being governed by children between the ages of 0 and 3.

[Snowy]

Ah right well I have never played MP so have no idea what additional complexity that could bring to the table. Single-player keeps me occupied enough

I never feel a particular rush to get ahead, for me the game does not tend to play out in such a 'standard' way (thinking of other grand strategy titles such as Civ, some Total War titles etc where there is a definite benefit to brutal early expansionism), it is more nuanced. Might just be me though

[DjchunKfunK]

Yeah I agree Snowy, if you take Ireland for instance there isn't really a push for unification from all the other pretty kings, most are just happy to carry on as they are with the odd war. Having played multiplayer in CK2 it does add a bit more pressure as you don't get a chance to stop and think which is something you really need to do in the Crusader Kings games, especially if you are new to them.