How do you play CK2?

[SaltySpritze]

I got 3.xk something hours in EU4, decided to try out CK2 that I bought on sale in 2015. Got 165 hours in the game, mainly one campaign as a Norse from the region I grew up in (and probably 60 hours of afk). After not that long I reformed the religion, got rid of gravlekind succession and since then I have just been afking in the game. My kings unde the scandinavian empire continues to expand so all I do is build retinues and raid when I'm bored. This has been going on for 100 years now, getting close to 1100 and I'm well on my way to a WC without doing anything myself cause I can't be bothered microing fighting the coalition that is against me. My kings fight them anyway. So, the past 20 hours or so I have just been afk raiding and going "oh, my kings concquered italy now, look at that". What's the point of this game? Since 980 to 1090 I have not declared a single war or done naything with my provinces other than build stuff, yet all of europe, parts of africa and my kings are now heading towards asia. Not even a civil war cause no one can challenge my army, I just stopped playing at this point. At no point was my reign, kingdom or anythign threatened by any enemy and there is still 300 years left?

I honestly don't understand how you play this game? Only for RPing, cause I don't care for RPing, so I guess that is it? I could try hard settings but even then it would probably give little to no challenge. People telling me to handicap myself can try writing somehwere else, it's like asking for people to play FPS with their feet if they find the game too easy.

I am geniunly wondering why and how people play this game cause you can't play it the same way you play EU4, it's too easy for that.

[Chill°bucket]

you haven't found the rpg 3d feature entering the world and roleplaying? noob.

[TimBerJacK]

Well be honest boo we play what playstyle we like there one like rping ( deus u vault and jihad) there one guy who try from bottom to the top ( county to emperor), try eliminate arabian country as Cristian rulet and vice versa, try become like alexander ( in this case from Europe to asia ( India) or play like u do just sit back and relax and do turtle for me tought im prefer this one than EU4

[SKull]

It's an RPG. I get just as bored by EUIV as you do by CKII.

[K E N N I]

It's very unusual that your vassals are conquering so much land. Normally you would have to do most of the work yourself. I would start a new game.

[Adlerson]

Originally posted by patryk.drobinski:

It's very unusual that your vassals are conquering so much land. Normally you would have to do most of the work yourself. I would start a new game.

Wish my vassals were as useful as his.

[gregoryk64]

Originally posted by patryk.drobinski:

It's very unusual that your vassals are conquering so much land. Normally you would have to do most of the work yourself. I would start a new game.

I find the opposite is true if you play with default demesne and vassal limits, at least when you get large enough. One game in particular I remember a 769 start as a Polish chief. Once I created the Wendish Empire and reformed the faith my vassals started conquest in earnest. Through their expansion I was able to create Scandinavia, Germania, and controlled most of Francia. Pretty much all of it was my reformed Slavic vassals declaring conquest and holy wars.

Finally my empire got so big I got bored with the campaign and never finished it.

[SKull]

Originally posted by Adlerson:

Originally posted by patryk.drobinski:

It's very unusual that your vassals are conquering so much land. Normally you would have to do most of the work yourself. I would start a new game.

Wish my vassals were as useful as his.

He's obviously exaggerating to make some sort of a point.

[Waking]

Best way is to hunt for achievements. Especially the hardest ones. I've never had any fun playing casual non-ironman. Achievements often give you a goal that you can achieve in different enjoyable ways you decide to follow. For example start as Norse, estabilish merchant republic in India and get Indo-Norse achievements, and convert to christianity to get Saint Thomas dream aswell since germanic faith isn't required. Or form Frisia as that single count, succesor of old Frisian dynasty in 769 start. Or become Hellenic with new expansion. Or try politics in new interesting Byzantine Empire. You can try to survive Abbasid onslaught as Zunist pagans or Zoroastrians, and than reform the faith in different interesting ways provided by Holy Fury dlc. Try to found interesting bloodlines, make dead religions dominate, search for interesting mechanics you may fancy. If you got all of the DLC's the options are vast. Staying as Norse in Scandinavia is rather boring.

[soup_boy]

I often find that, hundreds of years from the start of a CK2 game, it does get laughably easy as you and your vassals snowball yourselves into the mess you've described.

The best way to mitigate this is through roleplay, self-imposed limits, or even some mods.

To start, I always play with revolt strength set to maximum (in the game rules) to provide a competent (though at times annoying and inconvenient) check on my expansion and the expansion of others. Revolts in the vanilla game are a joke, but having this setting can cripple even the most powerful AI and player-controlled kingdoms.

Additionally, roleplaying will also help. Do as your character would do. If he's content, engage in massive building projects and strengthen your realm from within, only to attack others to secure dejure territory. If he's ambitious, embark on campaigns of conquest and expand your kingdom. If he's zealous, attack heathens and not the faithful. If he's cruel, have fun treating your vassals and couriers like the garbage they are.

Sometimes even those aren't enough, which is where the self-imposed rules may come into play. If I find myself in the situation you've described, I'll take a step back, stop any wars for expansion, and begin building my realm from within. While this is happening, I try to put my family members onto the thrones of other realms not as vassals, but independent kingdoms, and watch how they do on their own. It can take a bit of time to see meaningful results, but I wouldn't say it's boring.

Hope this helped. I would also look at Waking's post above mine, as his advice is worth a read.