Whats your advice to new players?

[CyanCatMan]

Is there something you wish you got told starting out?
Common knowledge that isn’t actually explained well?
Strategys you’ve discovered?

What’s some experiences you’d share to help out?

[ShepherdOfCats]

If factions are giving you a hard time, you can open the faction member tab, hover over their portraits, and see what their 'commitment' rating is, as well as a break-down of factors that make up their score. Don't waste time trying to sway/bribe/influence anyone who has a high commitment. You want to go for the ones who are on the fence. Depending on your diplomacy skill, you might only have time to sway/befriend one before the faction fires. ALLIANCES: Check to see if any of the faction members are eligible for an alliance. Could be a nephew, aunt, uncle. They won't ask you first, most likely, but if you can form alliances with those vassals it's a very quick way to get them out of the faction. I've had panic moments before, until I realized that these were close relatives who often will agree with an alliance. Though, it will make it more difficult to get rid of them if they cause trouble later.

I play on the hardest realm stability settings now, but factions are probably one of the most frustrating things to try to manage as a new player.

Be careful with bribes. They may not be enough to get them out of the faction, and if they remain, then you just gave them more war money. A feast is probably a better use of that stockpile of gold (hopefully dad saved money for you) because it will most often influence more vassals at once, the fastest. (unless you get a bad event that makes relations worse)

Also set your chancellor (hopefully a very skilled one) to domestic affairs for a vassal opinion boost. It takes a long time to build up the benefit (+0.5 opinion per month until it maxes, I think), but if it comes down to the wire, it might make the difference. It's not a bad idea to switch to this setting when you're old and probably about to die as well, because it will affect the 'previous ruler' opinion among your vassals towards your heir, indirectly.

[Half-lidded Bruiser]

No. I felt perfectly prepared after playing the tutorial.

[FelipeHssimoW]

I kind of came in with some knowledge of CK2 so I don't know exactly what you're having trouble with, but some of the military mechanics aren't very clear. For example, Men At Arms are infinitely stronger than the game's standard popular army, the AI ​​has difficulty deciding on an army that complements itself, and tends to try to make numbers with the popular army. If you have a good Men at Arms you can destroy twice their numbers with almost no losses.
Knights are absolutely broken and that skill that increases strength and quantity are very good.
The number of Men at arms is defined by their ranking, an emperor will have several units, a count will normally have two, depending on the technology level he may have more.

[CyanCatMan]

Originally posted by FelipeHssimoW:

I kind of came in with some knowledge of CK2 so I don't know exactly what you're having trouble with

More a “general” ask of your favorite / personal tips than “I have X issue i can look up help 3:”

Edit: suddenly i’m not too confident of this games community managment…

[Rex is back, baby!]

With a little bit of coin, you can bribe the pope to forgive all past transgressions and remove a reputation debuff like adulterer or kinslayer and the ilk.

Of course, you can also give gold for faith currency too, but sometimes those bad reputation traits can be a nuisance.

[JC]

Don't obsess with expanding

Don't obsess about loosing land or your kingdom. If you still have some land and are playing you have a claim. Work to get it back. Some of the most fun that can happen in this game is when a kingdom fractures and you have to put it back together for the next 100 years. Don't reload, Lean into tragedy and learn from your mistakes or just bad luck.

Build from your local, Make good allies, and help your allies grow too.

Giving away land and titles is a good thing.

I can't say enough, don't worry about painting the map and expanding, Just enjoy the crazy ride. The game is far more fun when your not the most powerful empire in the world.


A tip, Don't hoard your gold, Giving it away to key people can go a long way to help realm stability.

[Сааребас]

It really all depends on what you want.

Personally, I like roaming the world creating custom cultures install house members to have their own (independent) realms untill I'm ready to settle and then spread my culture and (custom/own) religion. Not necessarily all under my control.
Although I do try to stay as both dynasty and house head.

But that's just the basis of (starting) a playthrough.
Everything really depends on my whims.
Sometimes I try to play as a character, other times I don't.

Something I can really commend is Multiplayer. At least if you have a couple of fun folks to play with.
CK really shines in MP, especially if you bring (a bit of) RP into it.

[Bloodartist]

Originally posted by CyanCatMan:

Is there something you wish you got told starting out?
Common knowledge that isn’t actually explained well?
Strategys you’ve discovered?

What’s some experiences you’d share to help out? :2017cat:

One BIG thing I wish I had known. It turned out to be super important:

- When starting out, put your money into upgrading ONLY your main county. By "main" I mean the one piece of land that your main heir will always inherit. This is your main souce of income in the beginning.

While you can develop other counties that you own, someone else will inherit them and thus money spent into those does not benefit you in the long run. Whereas your main "home" county will always be there, churning out money.

[Resoula]

Originally posted by CyanCatMan:

Is there something you wish you got told starting out?

I wish someone told me how unbalanced the game was and how easy it was to become unstoppable by 900. If I just do grand tours and repeatedly ask the pope for money, I end up with 100,000 liquid gold just chilling in no time.

I also wish someone told me how easy it was to disinherit. By disinheriting, I can pick my exact heir regardless of laws from the start. Never had a kingdom fall apart after I learned that mechanic.

Originally posted by CyanCatMan:

Common knowledge that isn’t actually explained well?

How, to change your kids education, you need to press a teeny tiny button on their character window. I thought I only got the option to change it if I played as my kid. That tiny button was hiding in plain sight the whole time.

Originally posted by CyanCatMan:

Strategys you’ve discovered?

Other than exploiting the mongol title (which is hilariously OP), literally just grand tour (taxation tour), ask the pope for money (or receive communion as temporal head of faith) and within a few decades you'll have enough money to hire every merc on the map at once, and it gets exponentially easier from there. by 1,000 AD you will be bigger than the next 3 biggest empires, have more money than the rest of the map combined, and this works regardless of start. Done it as Bulgaria, done it as Italy, and even as a little barbarian count.

Originally posted by Bloodartist:

- When starting out, put your money into upgrading ONLY your main county. By "main" I mean the one piece of land that your main heir will always inherit. This is your main souce of income in the beginning.

This isn't foolproof. Your main county can change. For example, as Italy. The chances of you keeping Turn as your capital is slim to none. The chances of you keeping Turin, in general, is slim to none. I've always found investing too heavily in my land to be a waste until I start picking up counties that I know I will keep. Counties with special buildings (and duchy buildings, for two of them).

[angel of derp]

If your sister says, "No," it's more like "Mmmmaybe."

Also, let the game come to you, as said above. Don't chase power for power's sake. Don't worry so much about min/maxing. The game's more interesting if you let the story happen. If you're holding on too much, you'll ruin the game for yourself.

Losing a title just means you get to build yourself back up again.

[Bloodartist]

Originally posted by Resoula:

This isn't foolproof. Your main county can change. For example, as Italy. The chances of you keeping Turn as your capital is slim to none. The chances of you keeping Turin, in general, is slim to none. I've always found investing too heavily in my land to be a waste until I start picking up counties that I know I will keep. Counties with special buildings (and duchy buildings, for two of them).

My advice however, was more about "Don't spend money on counties you are handing away when ruler dies the first time" though.

Kind of a needless nitpick, since I specifically referred the county you keep. If you aren't going to keep it, dont spend on it.

[TemplarScott]

Originally posted by Half-lidded Bruiser:

No. I felt perfectly prepared after playing the tutorial.

lmao great comment the tutorial prepares you for nothing at all

[Blabla_Tomatos]

Always, ALWAYS, marry of your female courtiers matrilineally for better courtiers, not only does it set you up for getting more courtiers in the future, it gives you some great council members.

[Neshamah]

Don't modify Christianity in any way until you are strong enough to take on the Pope, because a modified Christianity becomes the target of *every* Crusade.

[Real2aFault]

Originally posted by CyanCatMan:

Is there something you wish you got told starting out?
Common knowledge that isn’t actually explained well?
Strategys you’ve discovered?

What’s some experiences you’d share to help out? :2017cat:

I could look at your gameplay and give some tips if you want, or just to chill for a moment