CKII is released.

[Mikeal]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/ck2-dev-diary-123-iron-century.1178442/

Hello!

As you probably know by now we released our 3.1.1 patch yesterday. Hopefully those of you who have managed to try it are enjoying it, and those of you who haven’t will jump in this weekend. Let us know what you think about the court and tech changes, and as always if you run into any issues, please report them in the bug forum!

Now onto something new, there have been a few hints here and there about what we have been working on. However now we can officially announce that we will be releasing a new historical bookmark called: The Iron Century. The bookmark will start on the 7th of August 936, a previously unplayable date and our first in the 10th century.

In Europe Otto marches on the path to an Empire, Rival Caliphs battle for control of the Muslim world and the last remnants of the vikings stir to the north. Hundreds of other characters have their own stories to tell. A thousand possibilities await in the Iron Century.

Next week we will do something special and have a new dev diary about the 936 bookmark every day from Monday to Friday to cover the setting of the medieval world in the 10th century. Also I want to make it clear that ‘The Iron Century’ update will be completely free.

A correction from last weeks dev diary is that the correct weekday of our Crusader Kings stream is Wednesdays 16:00 CEST and not the previously mentioned Thursdays.

Thanks for reading everyone!

CK2 Team

 

[fantadomat]

It is amazing how they come up with great concept and art,but in the end they deliver +5% modifier and other similar garbage.

 

[HeroMarine]

Big fan of Otto II, hopefully I can take him to the greatest heights he deserved to have reached in life if had he not die at the hands of the infidel.

Of course I will continue to play with my incredibly complex self-modded version of the game after I adapt it to the new changes in court stuff and tactics. Vanilla is too unrealistic.

 

[wwsd]

New start date is always cool.

Court size? Err, does it mean I have to spend more effort culling my court or will there be some kind of possibility to automate this process, or keep out the riff-raff? Always lovely when you're just playing and suddenly you get invaded by 9 courtiers who got exiled from somewhere else. You should get the option to close the gates to these freeloaders.

 

[Catacombs]

Always lovely when you're just playing and suddenly you get invaded by 9 courtiers who got exiled from somewhere else. You should get the option to close the gates to these freeloaders.

If I have disloyal or bad courtiers, I usually find a way to please them, either through marriage or making them a vassal. If that doesn't work, I try to imprison them and put them through trial -- usually with a justisar with very high diplomacy running the show -- that way their guilty and I can execute them. Otherwise, I plot to kill or, if they have bad martial, make them lead an army and have them fight in never ending wars, hoping they get killed in battle. Banishing is the absolutely last option because, as you said, they can return with a vengeance. The best route, always, is selling them into slavery. You remove them permanently AND make a profit.

 

[Average Manatee]

From what I've seen the court costs for going over are very, very minor. Only piss-poor tribals really need to worry about it.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I think the game already does that for the AI, but yea I hope we'll at least be able to have culling automatic for people who are not suitable for breeding the Kwisatz Haderach or some administrative purpose.

 

[vonAchdorf]

The new patch with the new starting date has been released. Did anyone give it a spin?

 

[Catacombs]

The new patch with the new starting date has been released. Did anyone give it a spin?

Same patch with the new court limit?

 

[vonAchdorf]

The new patch with the new starting date has been released. Did anyone give it a spin?

Same patch with the new court limit?

I don't see that in the patch notes.

 

[Higher Game]

Iron Century is probably the best starting date, long enough for just about any culture to become interesting by the time crusading really starts, but not so long that great work spamming becomes absurd. The earlier dates only balance well for pagans or Eastern cultures. Or Jews.

 

[Preben]

Gave it a try. It feels exactly like what it is, ie. the Old Gods start after 50 years. Pagans are converting left and right, vikings are no longer that annoying, Byzantium is an unstoppable juggernaut, Muslim world is a total mess ripe for conquest and so on. The big upside is that you can choose from a new batch of historical characters.

Overall, this is nice as a free patch. Would be a total ripoff is Paradox wanted a single dime for it.

 

[LizardWizard]

Overall, this is nice as a free patch. Would be a total ripoff is Paradox wanted a single dime for it.

Great Works + Iron Century date is more content than the last few nickle and dime Eu4 dlcs.

Hell, Johan's excuse for not adding different start dates in Imperator was that it was too much work

 

[Preben]

Everything is too much work for him in recent years.

 

[hoothoot]

game is still addicting as fuck but I have no idea what is going on at any time tbh

edit: installed all mods and holy fuck wow

 

[hoothoot]

All expansions except the horse/jade/india and conclave

Played count in norway and managed unite before fighting my brother/best friend after a month of drinking. Our wounds got infected and we both died.
Tried aquitaine count.
And venice but i couldnt figure out how to make trade routes.

Use earliest start date. Is it better to play as one the recommended people then? Kinda boring first 100 years otherwise.

 

[Fedora Master]

I checked out the state of Geheimnisnacht and it's pretty pathetic. Runs like ass even with the performance mods and most features are buggy or straight up don't work.

 

[Average Manatee]

I checked out the state of Geheimnisnacht and it's pretty pathetic. Runs like ass even with the performance mods and most features are buggy or straight up don't work.

The original devs abandoned it (after spending a lot of time on a half-heated support for new DLC/patches that left half the stuff broken) and the new team that has taken it on has been working on it for a long time but not made any actual release.

 

[oscar]

Armenia is a lot of fun in the new Iron Century start. A lot of potential to emulate Tigranes and turn her into a regional if not great power if you play your cards right (neither Arabs nor Byzantines are overwhelmingly strong and there's a lot of shaky Muslim states around that can be gobbled up if you're fast). The Middle East in general is a great place in this start with the Fatimids being the only truly scary Muslim power and the Abbasids down but not truly out.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

What's better, a Duchy with 4 counties at one holding slot each, or a Duchy with 3 counties and 4 holding slots each?
Doing playing as Petty Kingdom of Viken in old gods start, about to make a new kingdom.
Vestlandtet has 4 counties, but only 1 holding each, whereas the current capital, Viken has just 3 counties but a lot of holdings per county.

 

[Average Manatee]

What's better, a Duchy with 4 counties at one holding slot each, or a Duchy with 3 counties and 4 holding slots each?
Doing playing as Petty Kingdom of Viken in old gods start, about to make a new kingdom.
Vestlandtet has 4 counties, but only 1 holding each, whereas the current capital, Viken has just 3 counties but a lot of holdings per county.

There's no reason you have to hold only 1 duchy worth of land. You can hold 2 duchies without opinion penalty from vassals as a king, and you can just destroy a duchy if you don't need it after being king. This will temporarily piss off vassals in that duchy, and counts or higher that share land in a duchy with you (even if not created) will also get an opinion penalty, so watch for that. But 7 demesne isn't too hard to attain meaning you could hold it all + some more later (9-12 or so demense is generally the cap for great stewardship + centralization + king or empire rank).

Generally speaking there's two strategies:
1. Have your capital county w/ a bunch of castles that you own personally. This is because the capital has +50% levies and your marshal can probably add another +50% modifier, plus it also has the best tech so it can be a few tiers ahead. This gives you shit tons of troop strength if you have 4 or 5 castles.
2. Have as many money-producing barons as possible. For Catholics this means cities since the clergy tend to always pay the pope. Everyone else can use both but should heavily prefer building new cities over churches. Use this money to upgrade your demesne over time and do everything else that money is good for.

Obviously you can combine these two once your demesne limit is large enough. The specific duchy doesn't matter too much, the duchy bonus is only +25% levies to castles that aren't in the capital county and you won't get your marshal's levy bonus.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

What's better, a Duchy with 4 counties at one holding slot each, or a Duchy with 3 counties and 4 holding slots each?
Doing playing as Petty Kingdom of Viken in old gods start, about to make a new kingdom.
Vestlandtet has 4 counties, but only 1 holding each, whereas the current capital, Viken has just 3 counties but a lot of holdings per county.

There's no reason you have to hold only 1 duchy worth of land. You can hold 2 duchies without opinion penalty from vassals as a king, and you can just destroy a duchy if you don't need it after being king. This will temporarily piss off vassals in that duchy, and counts or higher that share land in a duchy with you (even if not created) will also get an opinion penalty, so watch for that. But 7 demesne isn't too hard to attain meaning you could hold it all + some more later (9-12 or so demense is generally the cap for great stewardship + centralization + king or empire rank).

Generally speaking there's two strategies:
1. Have your capital county w/ a bunch of castles that you own personally. This is because the capital has +50% levies and your marshal can probably add another +50% modifier, plus it also has the best tech so it can be a few tiers ahead. This gives you shit tons of troop strength if you have 4 or 5 castles.
2. Have as many money-producing barons as possible. For Catholics this means cities since the clergy tend to always pay the pope. Everyone else can use both but should heavily prefer building new cities over churches. Use this money to upgrade your demesne over time and do everything else that money is good for.

Obviously you can combine these two once your demesne limit is large enough. The specific duchy doesn't matter too much, the duchy bonus is only +25% levies to castles that aren't in the capital county and you won't get your marshal's levy bonus.

Yeah, I know about having 2 duchies, but its a bit tricky to do that when Elective Gavelkind is involved. I'm still in the pagan phase, though I am doing alright so far. The starting ruler is still alive, unified Norway, has 2 out of 3 of the Germanic Pagan sites and a crap load of prestige and gold from raiding. Turns out Vikings really want to raid.

 

[Average Manatee]

Ahh, are you still tribal? In that case go for the one with the most empty holding slots. Those are a direct multiplier to the value of the province when held by a tribe. +50% to everything the province gets per empty holding slot.

For Elective Gavelkind the best strategy (IMO, excluding stuff like killing your kids or cheesing with bastards) is to aggressively go after troublemakers or intrigue targets (or as a last resort anyone) in the realm and revoke their titles so you can land your secondary heirs before dying. If you give all your extra sons a full duchy they generally don't get anything more when inheritance comes, and your primary heir gets most/all of your land. Do note though that if you have enough land for two kingdoms you can split into two kings on inheritance even if the 2nd kingdom hasn't been created. Have to be in regular gavelkind to avoid this.

 

[Fedora Master]

After the End is really good. Really good.

 

[Norfleet]

What's better, a Duchy with 4 counties at one holding slot each, or a Duchy with 3 counties and 4 holding slots each?
Doing playing as Petty Kingdom of Viken in old gods start, about to make a new kingdom.
Vestlandtet has 4 counties, but only 1 holding each, whereas the current capital, Viken has just 3 counties but a lot of holdings per county.

IIRC, Vestlandet has the best duchy potential in Scandinavia. The number of holdings in a duchy can be increased via a properity event, and I believe it actually has 5 counties, but one of them is kinda small-looking (physical appearance on map doesn't matter), and partially wedged in between two others and the sea, so it's easy to forget it's there.

For Elective Gavelkind the best strategy (IMO, excluding stuff like killing your kids or cheesing with bastards) is to aggressively go after troublemakers or intrigue targets (or as a last resort anyone) in the realm and revoke their titles so you can land your secondary heirs before dying.

For elective gavelkind, or any gavelkind, the best strategy is simply not to HAVE secondary heirs. If you don't want to murder them or play King of Bastards, go with Concubines Only that you set aside once they've shat one out. Alternatively, you can reclaim your clay by fighting each other to the death in a strong claim duel if you're a tribal pagan.