CK 2

[marylandstoke]

Was wondering, as it seems that there are some good strategy game players on here if we could do a CK2 help, questions,comments section kind of a thing. 


I kind of got into this game from you guys on here. I’m probably about eh, a thousand hours in. I gave myself some ambitions when I was starting out. Starting from the earliest age I wanted to make 1066 (cos I’ve heard of that) 

Twice I have managed to play to the end which was very cool. One time starting with all of a England and generally just pissing it away until I was left with a bit of Northumberland (exactly where my Dads family were from) and having a few good marriages.

I can’t seem to organize a good army. I can’t seem to defend a siege. I kind of think I worked the vassel  thing out. I just know there is so much more I am missing.


I feel like the equivalent of chess. I know how the pieces move, so yeah, I can play chess.
But there’s a bit more to it than that, isn’t there?

[hcstokie]

Hiya mate, I’ve sunk a fair amount of hours into 2 and 3. I’m by no means an expert and even now pick up things from forums/YouTube.

My tip for sieges would be to transfer your capital to your most defensible province. Mountains are favourable terrain so defenders here receive a buff.

You probably already know this given how long you’ve played (and lasted until the end) but don’t sink money into upgrading provinces too early. Wait until you have a few and a steady income then level up. Make the capital a stronghold by levelling up the castle, walls, buildings that contribute to garrison, etc.

This can help in wars as they’re usually determined by whose capital falls to an enemy siege, so if you become a real tough nut to crack you can let your army replenish whilst the enemy wears itself down on your capital.

Getting knights with good stats in your army also helps so combine that with choosing good places to fight to give you the best chance of you’re outnumbered. Also have a look at what professional soldiers the enemy has and counter it (also counter it using terrain).

After all that, always make sure you keep hold of your capital upon your death as it won’t necessarily stay with your heir as your kingdom gets bigger.

I always try to have a few alliances as well to call on.

Sorry for the lengthy message, I bloody love CK and enter full-on geek mode when talking about it!

[marylandstoke]

Apr 10, 2021 20:15:24 GMT hcstokie said:

Hiya mate, I’ve sunk a fair amount of hours into 2 and 3. I’m by no means an expert and even now pick up things from forums/YouTube.

My tip for sieges would be to transfer your capital to your most defensible province. Mountains are favourable terrain so defenders here receive a buff.

You probably already know this given how long you’ve played (and lasted until the end) but don’t sink money into upgrading provinces too early. Wait until you have a few and a steady income then level up. Make the capital a stronghold by levelling up the castle, walls, buildings that contribute to garrison, etc.

This can help in wars as they’re usually determined by whose capital falls to an enemy siege, so if you become a real tough nut to crack you can let your army replenish whilst the enemy wears itself down on your capital.

Getting knights with good stats in your army also helps so combine that with choosing good places to fight to give you the best chance of you’re outnumbered. Also have a look at what professional soldiers the enemy has and counter it (also counter it using terrain).

After all that, always make sure you keep hold of your capital upon your death as it won’t necessarily stay with your heir as your kingdom gets bigger.

I always try to have a few alliances as well to call on.

Sorry for the lengthy message, I bloody love CK and enter full-on geek mode when talking about it!

Oh no, no. No apology needed. The exact type of help for me, and yet it makes me realize how far I have to go.

Please do not imagine I had any skill getting through to 14** whatever. At one point I just padded my court with old people who had a bit of land and hoped I’d pick up an old mayoral or something. All a bit Rain Wooney but, sadly, effective in a couple of cases.

[santy]

I found most of my England based 1066 games to be really flat, there isn't a lot of money there in the early game and your armies aren't that big so its difficult to really do much.

Going earlier and picking a Norse start especially Sigurd Ring in 769 helped me learn the game enormously. Norse have larger armies (although not as heavily equipped), can raid for money and give you more options for building up and establishing yourself.

You also get a much earlier access to the retinue system than you do elsewhere and retinues are how you build your mid and late game armies. The levy you raise becomes a nice bit of padding to back that up but one of the things I like is with the right strategy and well built retinue you can overcome armies double the size of yours if not more.

[hcstokie]

Apr 10, 2021 22:41:21 GMT marylandstoke said:

Apr 10, 2021 20:15:24 GMT hcstokie said:

Hiya mate, I’ve sunk a fair amount of hours into 2 and 3. I’m by no means an expert and even now pick up things from forums/YouTube.

My tip for sieges would be to transfer your capital to your most defensible province. Mountains are favourable terrain so defenders here receive a buff.

You probably already know this given how long you’ve played (and lasted until the end) but don’t sink money into upgrading provinces too early. Wait until you have a few and a steady income then level up. Make the capital a stronghold by levelling up the castle, walls, buildings that contribute to garrison, etc.

This can help in wars as they’re usually determined by whose capital falls to an enemy siege, so if you become a real tough nut to crack you can let your army replenish whilst the enemy wears itself down on your capital.

Getting knights with good stats in your army also helps so combine that with choosing good places to fight to give you the best chance of you’re outnumbered. Also have a look at what professional soldiers the enemy has and counter it (also counter it using terrain).

After all that, always make sure you keep hold of your capital upon your death as it won’t necessarily stay with your heir as your kingdom gets bigger.

I always try to have a few alliances as well to call on.

Sorry for the lengthy message, I bloody love CK and enter full-on geek mode when talking about it!

Oh no, no. No apology needed. The exact type of help for me, and yet it makes me realize how far I have to go.

Please do not imagine I had any skill getting through to 14** whatever. At one point I just padded my court with old people who had a bit of land and hoped I’d pick up an old mayoral or something. All a bit Rain Wooney but, sadly, effective in a couple of cases.

I think the beauty of the game is how different your play throughs can be. You could make the same decisions with wildly different results. I think some people struggle with games that don’t have a set objective to achieve and can’t just enjoy the journey. Some of my most enjoyable ones have seen me lose everything and scrabble around on my arse for generations.

A couple of other tips I’ve found along the way:

1. Marry the females in your court off to men with desirable stats. This allows you to improve your council for free.

2. When you get a decision pop up, check what influences the decision e.g. intrigue, stewardship, etc. Nip into the council screen and set your queen to support that attribute. When you go back to the decision screen the success chance will have improved.

3. If there’s a particularly strong kingdom or empire that you will eventually come up against, start marrying into it. This will give you hooks to use whenever you start plotting so it makes intrigue a lot easier when trying to disrupt it or break it up.

4. Be aware of strong enemy alliances, especially if their rulers are old. The alliances end on the death of the ruler so set your armies spawn point next to the province you will eventually attack. As soon as the enemy ruler dies, declare war and attack as the alliances will have ended so you can pick them off before the new ruler sets up new ones.

[marylandstoke]

Has anyone bought/played dlc?

I am kind of loathe to spend money as I have got so much to improve on within the base game. That being said there are a couple of places I would like to try that need one.

[hcstokie]

May 31, 2021 13:42:30 GMT marylandstoke said:

Has anyone bought/played dlc?

I am kind of loathe to spend money as I have got so much to improve on within the base game. That being said there are a couple of places I would like to try that need one.

I haven’t personally because I started playing 2 and then waited a few months for 3 to come out so didn’t see the point in buying old DLCs.

I’ve seen on a few forums though that people think the main benefit of still playing 2 compared to 3 is due to the additional content of the DLCs.

I guess it depends what you want as you can always pick and choose which ones to buy. Personally I’d only ever buy them for adding game matcha ice rather than aesthetics.

For a game like this I wouldn’t mind buying DLC but I’m usually against them. I don’t like the idea of being milked to get a full version of a game. The whole idea of loot crates, micro transactions and pay to win really winds me up!