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[s0]

What is Crusader Kings 2?

It's a historical simulation/strategy game about medieval politics by Paradox Interactive, available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. You can buy it on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/203770

Any combination of DLCs is allowed for this Game Club, but please don't use mods. This is an open ended sandbox game. If you're the type of person who needs goals, you can use this to generate some for you: http://www.scenariogenerator.net/game/crusaderkings

Why should I play it?

It's character driven. Unlike in most strategy games, where you play as a generic abstract "ruler" or "commander", in CK2 you take control of the head of a dynasty. The game features numerous playable characters from lowly counts to mighty emperors, each with their own traits and stats. Call it the Sims for nerds.

It's emergent. There's very little scripted content in CK2. Almost every gameplay situation arises out of emergent interactions between characters. Following the history of your dynasty and seeing what sort of interesting stuff happens is a big part of the fun. This also makes it a very fun game to talk about.

It's incredibly replayable. The game changes a lot depending on what sort of character you play as. You could be a duke trying to win favors from your king (while at the same time plotting against him and trying to take over the kingdom of course). You could be the Holy Roman Emperor micromanaging your vassals, keeping your empire from falling apart and trying to get your heir elected for next emperor. You could be a marauding Viking chief, a Mongol khan, an islamic ruler defending against the crusaders, an Indian Raja, the head of a merchant republic, etc. etc. The possibilities are nearly limitless.

It's huge. The game simulates an entire world and its (mostly feudal) political systems. In CK2 you're not an omnipotent godlike ruler (or at least you don't start out as one ), you are only one among many, many characters.  

This game has a lot of DLC. Which do I need?

This is a good breakdown of the 9 actually game changing DLCs: http://www.ckiiwiki.com/Downloadable_content#Expansions

From my perspective, these are the 2 absolutely essential ones:

Sword of Islam: Allows you to play as muslims and thus adds a huge number of fun playable characters. Muslim rulers have some unique game mechanics.

The Old Gods: Allows you play a as a slew of "pagan" characters and adds an earlier start date (and thus makes longer games possible).

Buy the others as you see fit, theyre almost all good. I personally wouldn't recommend The Republic (republics were kinda broken last I checked) and Way of Life (it's simply overpriced for what it is, even if it SOUNDS fun on paper). I also don't care for Sunset Invasion and usually disable it when playing. Buy the ruler designer if you really NEED to create your own character and buy the various cosmetic DLCs at your own discretion.

This game looks complex. Where can I learn how to play?

I'm not going to lie, this IS a game with a learning curve, though it's more accessible than it looks, I promise.

 The in-game tutorial was revamped recently as is probably a good place to start. The beginner's guide on the CK2 Wiki is also useful. Once you have the basics down, you can just pick up the rest as you go along. Don't concern yourself with optimal strategies yet and remember: losing is fun.

In addition, I can answer most questions you might have in this thread.

[s0]

i probably won't participate in this myself because i have other things to do (read: bloodborne). but like i said, i can answer your questions.

ps tell me if the formatting of the writeup is too messy.

[saturdaymorning]

I launched it for the first time today. I went into a normal scenario not knowing anything. I was William the Bastard of Normandy. My opinion of my wife was -38. The game was paused for the longest time. After I realized that, I let time go by as I hovered over all of the icons and menu items. In the span of a year and a half, I sent two of my kids to school, raised taxes, approved the appointment of someone I didn't recognize to a position I couldn't make sense of, and won a battle. The game unfortunately crashed as I was celebrating. I'm going to go through the tutorial next go around.

I'm watching a Twitch stream in the background as I work now, and he wants to imprison and banish his kids because they're slow.

[s0]

btw: for the first game i recommend a character who doesnt own more than 4 or 5 provinces (including vassals). That means a duke or a king with a small kingdom. also either a catholic or a muslim character because those are the most "vanilla" game experiences and should help you get to grips with the mechanics.

[Areku]

Got it on a sale a year or two back, still play it every now and again.

As was said before, getting at least Old Gods is pretty essential for the best experience. With the later starting points, many empires are already so consolidated that it's very hard to do any significant shaping to world politics.
...Unless you're either very good or very lucky, that is.

It's a pretty enjoyable game, as long as you take it more as an epic tale simulator than a balanced challenge. Once you look at the choices the game offers from a purely practical point of view, it starts to feel a bit of a sociopathic experience.
Which I presume is alright too, since that's a big part of the power play mentality of the age.

[s0]

i think min-maxing in this game is boring as hell to be honest. it really shines when you approach it with a "roleplaying" mentality.

but this is the game club thread, not the game criticism thread so play the game and tell us about ur experiences.

[Rat Casket]

psh. let me know when the next game club starts, and we get to play an actual game instead of micro managing menus.

nerds.

[s0]

thank you for your valuable input, now shut the hell up.

[Rat Casket]

you shut up. and add me to psn so we can blubborbe.

but really enjoy the game. my roommate used to crack out on it for a long long time. its 2 complicated 4 me.

[Areku]

Finally found the time to fire up again. It's a bit harder than I remembered.

The Scots are invading, and the jarl of Norway wants me to become his vassal. Did I mention my ruler is a 10 year old? My ruler is a 10 year old. His regent has an opinion of -60 of the boy.

Oh look, it's the irish monks, declaring war on me. How... Un-monk-like.

[Tobers]

Damnit! It's so hard to keep things together when the king dies! Rebels are no problem, keeping track of claims are no problem, but a if the kind dies at like 25 years you're screwed!

Also, most awkward walk cycle animations ever.

[Areku]

Today I enacted a plot to kill my son.

I was the king of Iceland, Faroya and Scotland. 60-odd years old, sickly. Only two kids, wife died of the plague.
The boy was to inherit the whole realm, but he was also infirm, stricken by fits of madness and in general completely unfit to rule. His older sister, on the other hand, was a natural leader. By the Norse law, however, she could not be crowned unless there was no male heir.

So I did the natural thing. The boy was poisoned, and the death lamented as being caused by his disease. His father died a few days afterwards, peacefully in his sleep. His sister is set to marry the king of England. Their son will rule over Britain, an empire founded not on great battles and conquests, but on quiet plots of marriage and murder among petty rulers.

Sometimes, this game gets to you. 

[Tobers]

I'd appreciate that more if I hadn't spent ridiculous time and moneY trying to do the same. Stupid little kid ruined everything.

It's cool how well represented real history can be in this game, but BALLS it's frustrating sometimes!

[Areku]

Ayup. More often than not, the RNG tends to screw the player over. I tend to appreciate the challenge, but sometimes it's a bit heavy-handed.

[Dragonmaw]

A good start is the King of Leon during the time of El Cid. Good immediate objective (reunify Spain), plenty of expansion opportunity (Islamic states in Spain/Northern Africa), and the good old fashioned opportunities for family shenanigans, especially since your main opponent is your :O BROTHER

I'm gonna start a King of Leon game in a few days. Anyone wanna join?

[Mittens]

I've had this game on my steam list for quite some time.
Finally installed it and gave it a shot.
So far I am completely overwhelmed by the interface and all the tiny buttons and fonts have given me a headache
I think I'm beginning to grasp how I'm supposed to manipulate the political landscape but damn it's complex.

I think I would much prefer a game of this depth if the other kings were real life players able to make up thier own minds rather than NPC's acting on numbers alone

[Dragonmaw]

You can play it multiplayer.

[Tobers]

Along the same lines as the King of Leon, an easy start elsewhere would be any of the Ireland counties Munster, ulster, etc... And start reunifying the kingdom of Ireland. Just don't ask me what to do after that.

[s0]

ya thats true. ireland isnt called "noob island" for nothing.

[Richard Kain]

The thing that always amazes me about Crusader Kings II is that I am often having the most fun when the game is going poorly for me.

While there is a certain satisfaction in having things go my way, and seeing my ambitions realized, the game gets incredibly entertaining when things are falling apart. It's like getting to watch an incredibly entertaining soap-opera. In a multi-player game I was playing with a friend, I managed to marry an incredibly capable women. Her stats were fantastic, and she swiftly proved herself useful as the spymaster in my kingdom. She even started cranking out some great children, who would make prime new rulers when my current king bit the dust. Everything was going swimmingly.

Then, almost out of no where, my queen attempted to assassinate me. Her opinion of me hadn't diminished, she simply wanted her own son on the throne instead. (and her ambition was crazy high) Since she had been such an effective consort, I decided not to try to kill her, and instead divorced her and sent her back to her father's court.

She promptly married one of my chief rivals, (who also happened to have a weak claim on my throne) and attempted to assassinate the friend that I was playing the game cooperatively with. (he was also in her way) My friend was understandably upset that I had let her off so easily. Her position outside of either of our courts, and her exceptionally high skill at espionage made her incredibly difficult to deal with from that point forward.

While things weren't going my way, the drama that this situation created was frankly, fantastic!