This will always come down to your specific goals, character, and situation you're in, I think. There are definitely some excellent perks in each of the trees I've tried so far. The Diplomacy perk that gives all your kids bonus stats (it works even on already adult children!), the Stewardship (? maybe intrigue?) perk that lets you extort money from hooks, and the Learning perk that lets you buy a claim with piety have all been pretty great for me. I think if my leader that got the Make Friends scheme from a perk (would have lived longer if he got it sooner, due to the stress relief that friends can provide.
Is it possible to marry your own kids? Because one of my vassals did just that.
I had an option of marrying my son to my granddaughter 🤷♂️
If they are in your court they will usually never marry on their own, barring any possible random events the game might have, so the only time limit is pretty much for women being too old to have children. I have forgot about some children before and had them be in their 50s before I noticed they were never married off.
As you learned though if they landed they will marry on their own.
I was so sad when I learned this. If they end up making disinheirting children more expensive, or nurfing it so say it can't be your second or third in line, it would make controlling succession much more difficult for me.
So i did a run with scandinavian norse raiders (sweden or whatever the proper nation name is). Raiding is super fun, this run i learned how to split stacks (is there a way to see which armies/groups/levies are active, where they are and select them ? I find it hard to manage stacks with groups of them all over the place).
Couldn't reform the faith because i got high on the conquest CB and taking on every nation smaller than me (and also vassalizing whoever was willing), so i ended up with lots of land all over the place, some in scandinavia, the british isles, Holland and iberia. After the Christians declared a holy war on me to reclaim some of iberia i got into a slog where smaller nations would attack me from all over at the same time, it got so boring to manage.
Couldn't form an empire because the realms of northern europe got consolidated in alliances i couldn't challenge, and getting stuck with a low stat terribad shy ruler and unwilling to partake in my eugenics campaign (he had beatiful, and married to a genius, but hated his wife, wouldn't even try and have kids with concubines, hated them too), was hated by his vassals (gaining stress from social schemes is the worst) . Still learned quite a bit, so i will do another run, but this time i'll be try the election thing to decide my heir. After that maybe i'll try a run in India.
Couldn't reform the faith because i got high on the conquest CB and taking on every nation smaller than me (and also vassalizing whoever was willing), so i ended up with lots of land all over the place, some in scandinavia, the british isles, Holland and iberia. After the Christians declared a holy war on me to reclaim some of iberia i got into a slog where smaller nations would attack me from all over at the same time, it got so boring to manage.
Couldn't form an empire because the realms of northern europe got consolidated in alliances i couldn't challenge, and getting stuck with a low stat terribad shy ruler and unwilling to partake in my eugenics campaign (he had beatiful, and married to a genius, but hated his wife, wouldn't even try and have kids with concubines, hated them too), was hated by his vassals (gaining stress from social schemes is the worst) . Still learned quite a bit, so i will do another run, but this time i'll be try the election thing to decide my heir. After that maybe i'll try a run in India.
I think I am going to have to take a break until the devs patch the AI performance during wars or a mod comes out for it. I just can't deal with my allies watching me lose my entire army anymore. I just had yet another playthrough come to an end thanks to the AI moving it's army out of the way at the last second and leave me for dead. They could have joined me and we would have won. But instead I was left with no army, my best 2 Knights killed, and my ruler captured.
I don't understand why they decided to take away the ability to attach armies. Or at the very least give the players a "follow" option of some kind. I don't want to have to try and guess wtf my ally is going to do and then guess wrong and lose the whole freaking war over it. It's so unfair and ridiculous. And yes I know I can save scum, but I don't want to have to keep loading and reloading the same scenarios multiple times just because the AI is stupid.
I don't understand why they decided to take away the ability to attach armies. Or at the very least give the players a "follow" option of some kind. I don't want to have to try and guess wtf my ally is going to do and then guess wrong and lose the whole freaking war over it. It's so unfair and ridiculous. And yes I know I can save scum, but I don't want to have to keep loading and reloading the same scenarios multiple times just because the AI is stupid.
If I use the the claim of someone in my court to go to war, will they become my vassal automatically?
If you disinherit someone does that cut off their decedents from inheriting from dynasty members as well? My assumption is yes, but just asking because it might come into play in a small dynasty and long term planning.
Last edited:
If it mirrors ck2, I think they need to be landed to equal or greater than the claim. If they are not landed (or it's not your dejure territory) than no.
I have to be missing something. I'm king of Ireland. Son is a Duke. One of his vassals just went to war with him with an army 4x his size. I cannot stop the war. I cannot send troops to my son's aid. I can tell my son to surrender, but can't tell his vassal to do squat. The only solution I came up with was to revoke the vassal status so it became mine which stops the war, which of course pissed him off. There has GOT to be a way I could join on my sons side, but I could not find any way to do it.
So I have been going over it in my head. Can someone explain to me if I did something wrong or if the AI just bugged out?
I'm fighting a defensive war. Between me and my allies we have around 7300 troops and my enemy has around 5200. All 7300 troops are sieging the enemy capital and we are at 90% win rate. If we take the city we win the war. The 5200 soldiers starts marching directly at us and I think "hell yeah we got this". Then at THE LAST POSSIBLE SECOND my allies pull their troops away from the siege. Leaving just my 3k or so troops sieging the capital. I try to move with my allies but it's too late I can't get out of the way soon enough. So the enemy army comes crashing down onto me and my allies just start marching away. No help whatsoever and I lose basically my whole army and get captured.
What am I supposed to do there? Can anyone tell me? The war was won but my allies just abandoned the siege that would have won the war and also refuse to fight a battle that we 100% would have won. We even had the terrain advantage.
I'm fighting a defensive war. Between me and my allies we have around 7300 troops and my enemy has around 5200. All 7300 troops are sieging the enemy capital and we are at 90% win rate. If we take the city we win the war. The 5200 soldiers starts marching directly at us and I think "hell yeah we got this". Then at THE LAST POSSIBLE SECOND my allies pull their troops away from the siege. Leaving just my 3k or so troops sieging the capital. I try to move with my allies but it's too late I can't get out of the way soon enough. So the enemy army comes crashing down onto me and my allies just start marching away. No help whatsoever and I lose basically my whole army and get captured.
What am I supposed to do there? Can anyone tell me? The war was won but my allies just abandoned the siege that would have won the war and also refuse to fight a battle that we 100% would have won. We even had the terrain advantage.
These AI stories are making my day. CK2's AI wasn't amazing but at least your allies mostly tried to stay close to help you out.
Why does it make your day though? You want people to be upset with the game?
It's very possible the attacking army had some other advantage (men at arms, commander) that would tilt the fight against your side, your allies caught wind of that and retreated. I've definitely won head to head fights with worse numbers, even attacking uphill.
I believe personalities are supposed to play a part there too - Craven or Deceitful allies might be more willing to abandon a fight if it seems risky? I'm skeptical if the AI is coded that intricately, though.
I believe personalities are supposed to play a part there too - Craven or Deceitful allies might be more willing to abandon a fight if it seems risky? I'm skeptical if the AI is coded that intricately, though.
Because the AI can be seemingly such shit it has reached the point of absurdity and I find that very humorous. I want a decent AI or if the AI is behaving in some non-obvious way, like jph139 speculates about I want to the game to explain it better. I will still laugh and get enjoyment at all the seemingly dumb shit the current AI does in the meantime.
Last edited:
Oh okay. I just hope the devs are paying attention and fix it.
Me too. It takes some of the fun out of conquest when the AI decides to fuck off to nowhere and just embark and disembark while you siege their holdings or when you can't rely on your allies because they can't decide between following you or also playing the embark and disembark game. Well that is my biggest problem with the AI in Greece anyways. The AI seems obsessed with taking ships to nowhere only to sail back disembark and repeat the process again.
When you declare a war using someone's claims look at the "if you win" section, it shows if they become your vassal or if they become independent.
Now is about the time you really learn how to play the game lol
Question: If you don't have a kid, does your heir become your brother? My character's younger brother has a claim to a whole other Kingdom (different mom) and I'd rather play as him. But I cant see the path because my own kid would need to have an accident first. Is there a way to see who the back up heir would be? I dont want to go through all the motions if it wont work like I think it will.
If you click on the title "duchy of ____" you can see the line of succession
Edit: I'm pretty sure you're in the clear tho. I've found leaving my heirs as champions in my armies regularly leaves them eyeless, legless and dead within a couple of years if you're not looking to, uh, get your hands directly dirty
There's a perk in the learning tree that speeds up fascinations by 35% which imo is by far the strongest perk long term and I get it on all my characters.
as now they are very unbalanced. The firts perk in Diplomacy let you ask 100 ducats for every hook you have.
It prints money.
Got a fun game running with Sardinia now. Started in 867 with the count of Cagliari, managed to peacefully unite the Sardinian island and was then attacked by the Algeria. Had enough cash in the bank and they were occupied on multiple fronts so I managed to win the defensive war. Quickly swore fealty to East Francia as protection against future incursions from muslim rulers. Over the past ± 100 years or so I've been improving my duchy with development and buildings that grant tax, primarily in my main seat Cagliari. Got a steady income of cash now, even after partitition upon my ruler's death.
Most of the wartime activities are taking place on the island of Corsica. They were briefly independent as a duchy and when the Pope gave me a claim, it was easy pickings. The Duchy of Tuscany then launched three successive wars to reclaim the Duchy and I managed to rebuff them twice, the third time I had to concede. I lucked out and managed to marry my heir off to a French princess and with the French backing me I launched the reconquest of Corsica. I was beating back the Tuscans, only to find out that their ruler had died midwar and the Tuscan Duchy was reintegrated into the Bavarian crownlands, who were the new owners of East Francia. We spent the next 5 years in a bloody war for Corsica but when the French got called back to their homeland to put down a rebellion it was time to settle for a white peace. Still got my eye on Corsica and now I'm waiting for the right time to strike.
Factions haven't been to difficult to beat back thanks to my steady income of cash. It sucks that I usually have to spend cash on mercenaries but on the other hand revoking disloyal vassal titles without severe penalties is nice. Also got a nice breeding program going so both my current ruler and my heir are geniuses. Current rules has been on the throne since he was a kid so that's also nice. Married him off to his cousin who is also a genius.
Most of the wartime activities are taking place on the island of Corsica. They were briefly independent as a duchy and when the Pope gave me a claim, it was easy pickings. The Duchy of Tuscany then launched three successive wars to reclaim the Duchy and I managed to rebuff them twice, the third time I had to concede. I lucked out and managed to marry my heir off to a French princess and with the French backing me I launched the reconquest of Corsica. I was beating back the Tuscans, only to find out that their ruler had died midwar and the Tuscan Duchy was reintegrated into the Bavarian crownlands, who were the new owners of East Francia. We spent the next 5 years in a bloody war for Corsica but when the French got called back to their homeland to put down a rebellion it was time to settle for a white peace. Still got my eye on Corsica and now I'm waiting for the right time to strike.
Factions haven't been to difficult to beat back thanks to my steady income of cash. It sucks that I usually have to spend cash on mercenaries but on the other hand revoking disloyal vassal titles without severe penalties is nice. Also got a nice breeding program going so both my current ruler and my heir are geniuses. Current rules has been on the throne since he was a kid so that's also nice. Married him off to his cousin who is also a genius.
Well, my learned sage character died at age 69 (nice) having succeeded at snagging enough duchies and counties to form a kingdom.
Sadly, his eldest son sucked, and then murdered his second eldest (who I was trying to get to be my heir), so I had to disinherit him and imprison him.
3rd oldest son was gonna be a pretty sweet heir, but 6 months after the murder, victim's son was born, so now I'm ruling as the 6 year old grandson of last character. We will see if any of the older claimants in the family get him before he comes of age...
Sadly, his eldest son sucked, and then murdered his second eldest (who I was trying to get to be my heir), so I had to disinherit him and imprison him.
3rd oldest son was gonna be a pretty sweet heir, but 6 months after the murder, victim's son was born, so now I'm ruling as the 6 year old grandson of last character. We will see if any of the older claimants in the family get him before he comes of age...
Stewardship also has a focus that gives you +10% on income tax. Which is pretty powerful!
My dead character was my dynasty head. Now his heir is not. Hes the house head, but the head of the cadet branch become dynasty head. Why?
You can gain lifestyle experience from your spouse as well if they have a high corresponding stat in your chosen lifestyle, which I guess is also just a mean time to happen like the events.
This happened to me just now. It appears that dynasty head, whether cadet or not, is based on highest military strength. The game for some reason though gives the dynasty head to someone else sometimes - but it'll recalculate within the year and make you dynasty head if you are the strongest. My uncle from a cadet branch became dynasty head when my previous character died but I became it again a little while later.
It's like that bit of Homer SImpsonp playing with his hospital bed "Going up! Going down! Going up! Going down!", but with ally armies and adjacent provinces/seas.
Also, are Byzantines going strong in everyone else's game, too?
Last edited:
Has Catholicism just completely collapsed in anyone else's games? It loses so much fervor when sinful bishops are exposed that heresies have kept cropping up over my game which just further its collapse. If its likewise in other people's games then maybe there needs to be a rebalance to the sinful bishops/archbishops fervor decrease.
There's a bunch of OP perks all over the shop (the hooks into money one is ridiculous imho) but I think ti's kind of balanced by the fact you have to switch focuses for 'em.
Ok yeah that makes sense, it didn't seem like my game was an anomaly in that regard but I wanted to be sure. Not that I'm complaining too much in this playthrough since I'm planning to make a new faith and it'll be easier for conversions than it should be. Definitely hoping for/expecting a rebalance in the next patch though.
Yup, i'm at a point where only two of my duchies are still "regular catholics" in the entire map.
probably the COVID emergency has complicated the usual testing process.
If I have my heir lead an army to war, is there any sort of skill/learning bonus that he gets from winning battles?