Crusader Kings 2

[Zakilevo]

Muhahaha I am king of Britain with all of Ireland. Managed to get the northern France. Damn French bastards are trying to take their northern regions back at the moment. Feels like I am having the hundred year war .

[Telrunya]

I don't really get the difficulty system though. It doesn't seem very helpful to use.

[Norrel]

I don't really get the difficulty system though. It doesn't seem very helpful to use.

It isn't, at all. It's just a measure of how powerful someone is, rather than how difficult it is to play them.

[loren]

The absolute worst thing I can't stand right now is you can't join other people's wars to help them.

I had co-opted Leon as the King of Wales by getting my daughter to matrilinially marry the once removed heir, assasinated the heir and voila now my dynasty had two kingdoms.

Leon had actually inherited the kingdom of france along the way, but in a civil war with Aquitaine lost it.  I'd done a lot of the reconquista at that point but couldn't goto their aid even tho I had nothing better to do while truces wore off with the muslims.  So bitterly annoying.

My worst transition was a king who ruled for 50+ years, his son got killed in a battle, and the 3 year old grandson inherited.  The spymaster regent (it always seems to be the spymaster) had terrible diplomacy and there went rebellions.  Then when the grandson died his heir had so many bad traits every single one of the independent vassals tried to press their claims on the kingdom in turn.  Every single lord died in jail.  But hey, the King never got tyranny, nor did he lose a single region.

[loren]

PS - Is it just me or is having a high diplomacy the most important stat for established kingdoms across multiple cultures?  Every single time I've had someone with bad diplomacy I've managed to get war declarations flying left and right.  Only burning a lot of golds on assassinations to end the wars has proved worthwhile.

[Telrunya]

I'd say Diplomacy and Stewardship are the two most important stats. Diplomacy to keep your Lords happy (especially in the beginning of your reign) and stewardship for your demesne (As they will heavily complain if you go over the limit and having a strong demesne will help greatly putting down rebellious lords). Note that good traits really help in the Diplomacy part as well. Also, the relationship with the Pope is crucial, as you'll end up excommunicated with a rebellious Lord if the Pope doesn't like you (They do that like every single time). Basically, for me, all is stable until a new heir comes. Then everyone rebels (like now in my game) and I have to try to put them down one by one. Then, after a few more small incidents, everything is stable till my next heir comes along.

You can only help others in their War if you have an Alliance with them and they ask for your help or if they are fighting heathens. I've had it happen several times.

[loren]

It makes no sense that you can't just come to someone's aid.  You can help them if you have a claim on the other guy and then just never accept peace with them, and never go after the title you want.  But that's so gamey as to make it silly.

I think it comes down to an artificial limitation on the player.  They probably couldn't ask because I'd asked for help in my rebellions and they said no within 5 years so they couldn't call on me.  Which makes sense that you can't call on your allies again, but not that they can't call on you.

My other big gripe is that someone's wars aren't visible on their character screen.  You have to find a region they hold and then see their wars and the progress there (Curiously the war score is always displayed as positive for attacker negative for defender in this screen, not the relative score for who you're looking at)

[Adriddae]

Recently, I've realized that low stats aren't all that terrible as it may seems. I played as William the Conquerer, who died right away. Cue his deadbeat son inheriting with the only good stat is martial at a "high" 6, and having every sin imaginable. Luckily I kept the realm together with him and bred a nice heir for him.

Six kings later, I quit and look, this guy had the longest reign out of all my rulers :-/

[Norrel]

Recently, I've realized that low stats aren't all that terrible as it may seems. I played as William the Conquerer, who died right away. Cue his deadbeat son inheriting with the only good stat is martial at a "high" 6, and having every sin imaginable. Luckily I kept the realm together with him and bred a nice heir for him.

Six kings later, I quit and look, this guy had the longest reign out of all my rulers :-/

Dude, stats matter enormously. Diplomacy is so important that I often kill my heir if his younger brother is better.

[loren]

Recently, I've realized that low stats aren't all that terrible as it may seems. I played as William the Conquerer, who died right away. Cue his deadbeat son inheriting with the only good stat is martial at a "high" 6, and having every sin imaginable. Luckily I kept the realm together with him and bred a nice heir for him.

Six kings later, I quit and look, this guy had the longest reign out of all my rulers :-/

You're lucky it was so early.  If people had claims on your lands you would've been facing multiple wars against foreign enemies, who could've even been pressing a claim of their vassals against you.  The more the game's webs get built up the more you need to keep everyone happy even your neutral realms that you've married people off into for old old alliances.

[Zakilevo]

Goddamn it. I should have assassinated my son. The idiot was excommunicated even before he was crowned. Now I have to deal with my entire kingdom...

[Telrunya]

Join the crusade (If there is any), send your new Ruler to the City you're crusading against (You will become a Crusader), send your Court Chaplain to Rome (Good chance of relation boost), if you have a lot of gold you can also send a gift (For another relation boost), get rid of Free Investiture (That really hurts relations). If there is any unwanted land, you can grant it to the Pope as a last resort. That all together should hopefully get you in favour with the Pope, allowing you to undo your excommunication.

I've only had it happen like 4 times with new Rulers >.>

[Zakilevo]

Thank god they are fixing that annoying excommunication spamming. I am really fed up with computers constantly excommunicating my guy.

[loren]

I think it's kind of fun actually.  I had huge problems with a succession war because I got excommunicated and had all of France marching through my lands.  I quickly discovered that at that point it was better to just blow money until I killed the pretenders and then surrendered and abdicated to my heir.

The absolute most annoying thing that happens I think is that I marry my Prince grandson off before giving him lands, you know so I can arrange the marriage.  His betrothal is to a Duchess.  He joins that court, and lo and behold starts a war of independence.  His father somehow manages to die giving the new heir the titles to Barcelona which (accurately) wasn't part of a kingdom, and so can't be kept in with high crown authority.  Now he's losing his war to the HRE and I can't do a thing about it.  If I lose that duchy to the HRE I'm going to be soooo pissed.

[Zakilevo]

damn it just lost Ireland because my bloody grandson declared independence during a succession war.  That motherless goat! Now I have to get the permission from Pope to start an invasion. Can't expand beyond the British Isle because my heirs are keep declaring independence. Bastards!