The biggest problem I had coming into Crusader kings and similar games is that I absolutely abhor starting from a place of power, same as I abhor games that start you off with ... level 37 characters or something like that.

I want to start at zip, zilch, nada and work my way up. But in games like this, that seems to mean you start at mediocrity and end there while you really can't do much (at least from when I tried to understand the game).

Also a bit of a shame you can't be a pagan although I guess it makes sense ^^

Start as a count under a duke under a king. It's really difficult to work your way up to king through diplomacy and plots.

You have two choices here, if you don't want to start in a real position of power, either you start as a lesser noble, who only own one or two provinces and then you work yourself up to become the ruler of your kingdom, or you start as the king of a smaller nation and try to take over Europe from there. Combining the two is also possible, but only recommended to the really experienced player.

In Ck1 you had an option to start as a ruler, duke or county (or something like this).

You may either be a king or a minor vassal, it's your choice.

The problem is, when you have only one or two provinces, there's not much you can do.
It's like playing Hearts of Iron 3 (WW2 game) with some African mini-country.

these games are realistic. there's not much chance of being a superpower if you start as nobody.

If you like to start from zero position, try Mounst & Blade

Or New Zealand. You could declare independence when a king kicks the bucket. And then join some other liege.

Yeah, but you have to wait until he's dead. In any other case, declaring war upon your liege = everybody's against you = you're dead in two years...

but i'm not a pro CK gamer, so it' might be different if you're good.

I am going to buy 5 copies of this when I get paid next month. (well actually just 2: one physical copy and one on Gamersgate)

Question: is it worth buying CK + DV if I have CK2?

If it's on sale, and you're Paradox games fan, why not? I like to play Europa Universalis 2 or HOI2 from time to time, even though I have HOi3 and EU3.

They're pretty much different games.

Since my review was approved and published and no longer embargoed, I'm free to say whatever I want. So ask me anything you want to know about the game if you're thinking of purchasing.

I only played a few hours so far. Started a game as Leon who is aligned with pretty much everyone non-Muslim nearby. Main ally is Castile who also doubles as my ruler's brother. We have a thing going on where both hate each others guts but every time one of us starts a war the other brother comes to their aid. It's a lovingly-hate filled relationship. I also married into the Holy Roman Empire for funsies.

The main thing I can say about the game is it really reminds me of HTTT EU3 prior to Divine Wind. It's fun to play. There's really no game play issues I've found that are annoying or fail to work right. I'm sure there's some. And there are minor issues like some of the tutorials being bugged, but I just have fun playing the game steering my country. The only restriction is you can't play as Muslims, and I've heard naval battles are broken like in DW EU3 but I haven't tried them.

Leon is very fun. I got really lucky and my brother died so I inherited Castille within the first year of playing. I pretty much stomped all over the Muslim neighbour and the coast of Africa, while the Pope kept sending me stacks of gold for my crusades. Not being able to play as Muslim or Pagan countries is a bit annoying, but I suppose I understand it. I don't actually know if naval battles are even in the game. I had a stack of boats in an enemy's square and nothing happened. May have just been a one time thing though.

The game does suffer from some Paradox-itis in that it doesn't explain certain things well. The game tries much harder at it then any other Paradox game I've ever played but some things fall through the cracks.

They never explain how to build individual buildings in your holdings and the latest thing that caught me was they didn't explain what "Holder is of wrong holding type" means. I had to look it up. Basically; it means a king or other ruling class cannot own a castle, church, or city. A tool tip could have solved that.

Minor things that that are somewhat annoying, but they aren't major or numerous.

I had the same thing happen in the demo a couple of days ago, so maybe there just aren't naval battles? That seems weird: I had way more ships, I wanted to stop the enemy landing their armies on my island but I couldn't do anything with the ships other than ferry troops.

But like Hawk52 said, it seems that there are some things that just aren't explained anywhere (maybe in one of the tutorials I missed though).

The trick to becoming a someone in the first CK, if you started as a minor noble, was to understand how the succession system work, and use it to work yourself into a position of power. Also, when other nobles were unhappy with the ruler, you could use that to your advantage. Being a minor noble did mean that there was not a whole lot of things to do for long stretches of time though, so large portions of the game would be played at max speed. Also, there is a large element of luck involved.

I actually had New Zealand take Berlin once (sadly it was I who played Germany during that game. Darn sneaky buggers found a gap in my lines and landed a force, then the other allied nations came pouring in through that gap, but as New Zealand had "ownership" of the province, every allied attack through that province gave New Zealand more province claims. And it was a New Zealand army that made the final push into Berlin. So large parts of Germany were considered to be owned by New Zealand at the end of that game. Japan was Russian, France & Poland remained under German ownership though.


Naval battles were not a part of the first CK either. Paradox said that as naval battles were so rare during that time period, they did not consider that an important or accurate addition to the game.

I played some more last night. Things have gone poorly.

While I was building up before a few holy wars, an outbreak of Typhoid Fever hit my court infecting my ruling family. I ended up losing the King to it resulting in my 7 year old Fernando taking over. Not the best result when you're surrounded by Uncle-kings who'd love nothing more then to kill you and steal the crowd.

I put down the usual vassal rebellion and have been dragged into war after war. Then I was dragged into three Muslim Holy Wars. Fernando's only 14 and his entire rule has been plagued by constant warfare. Luckily all the uncles have stayed loyal. Castile's being a bit of a jerk, but Galicia, Navarra & Aragon are very loyal.

And if that wasn't enough, Fernando keeps getting sick. I keep thinking he's going to die which'll spin things further out of control. And if that wasn't enough, a bunch of court members have made it their mission to assassinate my regent.