OT: Crusader Kings

MythicalMino · #1 June 29th, 2004, 05:35 PM

well, it finally arrived....12 days after direct ordering from Paradox games....from Sweden....

and the wait was ABSOLUTELY worth it. AWESOME GAME!!!!

I started finally playing it Last night, at around 6:30-7:00 pm....and finally went to bed at 4:30 this morning....and even then, had to FORCE myself to shut the game off and go. It is a rare game that causes me to stay up and play it for nearly 10 hours.

This game is quite different from the other Paradox game i have played, EU2. In EU2, you basically control the nation, you play as the "grey emminence" behind the throne. In CK, you play as the count, duke, or king, whichever one you start the game as. And there are quite a few to choose from. The goal of the game is to survive, keep your family name alive through male heirs. Along the way, you "stumble" upon new technology, assassinate rivals, claim thrones, and duke it out on the battlefield.

There is just so much in this game that i really enjoy. The technology race (and spread) is really different than most other games. Well, ok, any other game I have played. You choose 1 area of tech from 3 differnt types (military, cultural, economy). Your capital is where the research takes place. There is no set amount of time it will take to research something....but once you do, it is only available in the counties (provinces) that konw that technology. How does your other counties benefit from the new tech? It has to "spread" to the other counties. In other words, lets say I discover Chain Leather in the military advances. At that moment, only my capital county has knowledge of it. After a while, that advance will spread throughout my territory. Now, also, Chain Leather will spread into neighboring lands also. I have in my current game, discovered stone pit mining because a neighbor actaully discovered it, and the word of the advance travelled into my territories. This shows the way technology was just sorta "found" during the time period. Like I said, you "research" one area from the 3 types of advances at the same time.....so, you will be able to advance in the 3 areas at the same time.

Assassination is a fun little tool to use, also. In my current game, I started out as the Duke of Lancaster in 1066. My brother was the Duke of Cumberland. I noticed he didn't have any male heirs that were of age, so, I assassinated him, and took his land through inheritance that way. Too bad that my assassin was discovered, which caused my prestige to drop, put me on bad terms with the church. Oh, and I became known as a "kinslayer". So, even though I took those other lands, the church didn't care much for me, the folks around me, the neighboring dukes, counts, and kings, didn't really care for me, and my own children and wife didn't want to be around me too much.

Also, in my current game, I started out with only 4 provinces (I believe, it was either 4 or 5, but pretty sure it was 4). By the time Edwin (my original Duke) died in 1082 of old age (he was 56 yrs. old), I had secured the title Duke of Cumberland, and had wrested control of 8 provinces, which I had given to my oldest son, Estmond. Estmond rose to the title of Duke when Edwin died, and quickly moved into position to lay claim to the title, Duke of York. I "grabbed" the titles Count of Lincoln and Count of Liecester, and then moved in for War. I was able to take over Lincoln, and became Count of Lincoln. But my leige, William King of England (William the Conqueror), made his way to Leicester, and took over the seige. When Leicester was finally captured, William took the county as his own. During the time I was seiging Lincoln, William also took over Durham and Norfolk. This gave him at least 66% of the duchy, and he took the title Duke of York (the very title I was aiming for myself). That was when i finally tore myself away from the game to go to bed....

Wow....just an awesome and fun game....

Boron · #2 June 29th, 2004, 05:42 PM

do you have other paradox games too ?
eu 2 , hoi , vicky ?
i have all three and they are very good too .

MythicalMino · #3 June 29th, 2004, 06:46 PM

i had EU2 and HoI....i need to get EU2 again now, since games from CK can convert over to EU2....750 yrs of history you can play....

I will wait for HoI2...i do want to get Victoria...that looks pretty good

Tuna-Fish · #4 June 29th, 2004, 07:39 PM

The only problem with the 750 years of play is that anyone can do a world conquest in Ck in ~300 years with the help of your friendly neighbourhood mongols.

Anyway, CK is a very good game. Unlike other paradox games, where there usually isn't a set goal, but you simply try to amass VP's without any clear purpose, CK has a very good "goal". Like, "could duchy of flanders make it against mongols if i never claim a king title but just all the duchies and conties of lowlands?"

Also, it's quite remarkable as a paradox game in that it's only Version 1.03b and I think the game is actually complete, stable and gives you a good challenge.

Boron · #5 July 4th, 2004, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tuna-Fish:
The only problem with the 750 years of play is that anyone can do a world conquest in Ck in ~300 years with the help of your friendly neighbourhood mongols.

Anyway, CK is a very good game. Unlike other paradox games, where there usually isn't a set goal, but you simply try to amass VP's without any clear purpose, CK has a very good "goal". Like, "could duchy of flanders make it against mongols if i never claim a king title but just all the duchies and conties of lowlands?"

Also, it's quite remarkable as a paradox game in that it's only Version 1.03b and I think the game is actually complete, stable and gives you a good challenge.

in hoi the goal is to win world war 2

in general in all paradox games the ultimative goal is a WC

@ cpbeller
vicky is a very nice game but unlike eu2 / hoi the main focus is on improving your economy

it plays quite different from these 2 but is ihmo the best of the 3 .
but it is microhell and one thing is annoying :
revolt risk(RR) is checked daily so when you conquer e.g. china you will have in whole china a RR of 2-10% and this Lasts for i think 10 years . so you will have each day 10-20 revolutions

10k killed rebells mean depending on difficulty settings something like 5-20k killed population .

Norfleet · #6 July 4th, 2004, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Boron:
10k killed rebells mean depending on difficulty settings something like 5-20k killed population .

Meh. This is freakin' CHINA we're talking about. 5-20K is an insignificant drop in the bucket. More people than that die of natural causes every day.

Boron · #7 July 5th, 2004, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Norfleet:

quote:
Originally posted by Boron:
10k killed rebells mean depending on difficulty settings something like 5-20k killed population .

Meh. This is freakin' CHINA we're talking about. 5-20K is an insignificant drop in the bucket. More people than that die of natural causes every day.

you don't know the game do you ?
and this was only for 1 typical revolution . they are very common so in order to repacify china you kill at least about 50-100 million of chinese most likely in the 10 years you need .
50-100 from ~300 million cause it is the china from 1830-1920 .

Norfleet · #8 July 5th, 2004, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Boron:
you don't know the game do you ?
and this was only for 1 typical revolution.

Haven't played it. 5-20K people killed over one revolt is a reasonable number, though.

Quote:

they are very common so in order to repacify china you kill at least about 50-100 million of chinese most likely in the 10 years you need.

50-100 *million* people in 10 years? What the hell are you using on them, NBC weapons? Obviously this game of yours is a little warped in the realism department. These kind of numbers sound less like pacification of a revolt and more like systematic genocide on a scale that would not really fit with the timeframe you say this game is in.

Quote:

~300 million cause it is the china from 1830-1920 .

That's still a lot of Chinese, even if it's not modern billion-plus.

Boron · #9 July 5th, 2004, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Norfleet:

quote:
they are very common so in order to repacify china you kill at least about 50-100 million of chinese most likely in the 10 years you need.

50-100 *million* people in 10 years? What the hell are you using on them, NBC weapons? Obviously this game of yours is a little warped in the realism department. These kind of numbers sound less like pacification of a revolt and more like systematic genocide on a scale that would not really fit with the timeframe you say this game is in.

it really fits in the timeframe .
because in real history china was never conquered by the colonial powers.
but plans to divide it between mainly russia / britain / france existed .

the main focus of the game is to industrialize your nation + reach the historic goals like unification of germany with prussia or creating the british empire .
this is already quite difficult but if you get expierienced you can set yourself the goal of WC ( = world conquest ) .
especially as russia / great britain it is very possible

but the result is that you kill about 1/3 - 1/2 of the foreign population of the whole world in that attempt because for the first 10 years they are under your reign there is something called nationality which keeps them revolting very often .

you don't know eu / eu 2 too right ?
the revolt risk ( monthly or here daily ) is a common feature of paradox games . but in eu it was only monthly and didn't kill population .

now in victoria it does and with daily revolutions it was a bit overdone ihmo. because i wanted to proofe that i gave the china example .

but expect for the too heavy revolutions it plays very realistic .

Stormbinder · #10 July 5th, 2004, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Norfleet:

quote:
Originally posted by Boron:
you don't know the game do you ?
and this was only for 1 typical revolution.

Haven't played it. 5-20K people killed over one revolt is a reasonable number, though.

Quote:

they are very common so in order to repacify china you kill at least about 50-100 million of chinese most likely in the 10 years you need.

50-100 *million* people in 10 years? What the hell are you using on them, NBC weapons? Obviously this game of yours is a little warped in the realism department. These kind of numbers sound less like pacification of a revolt and more like systematic genocide on a scale that would not really fit with the timeframe you say this game is in.

Quote:

~300 million cause it is the china from 1830-1920 .

That's still a lot of Chinese, even if it's not modern billion-plus.

LOL. Typical Norfleet. Arguing about the game he have no clue about whatsoever.

EU1/2 are not perfect by any means, and I could write an article on the areas where it could use some imporvement, even after dozens of pathes and beta-pathces, although they did improve the game a lot. Nevertheless EU games are by far the best and most realisitc historical simulators made in the history of computer games, period. If you are history buff - you'll love this game. If you are not - beware, you may easely become one if you'll stick with it long enough.

And this is not a joke btw, I've read countless stories on EU Boards when I was actively participating in the gamers community there, from the people who were not particulary interested in the europwean history, but have eventually gained history as thier strong hobby, as the result of playing this game.

Also general maturity level of the gamers community there was higher than in any game I have ever played in my life, inculding Dom2, and trust me - I've played a lot.

Personally I attribute it to the fact that you'll not find a lot of "CoWl DuDeZ" or lame exploiters, with the active interest of XV-XIX centuries european history.