Hardcore Casual

My conquest of Spain continues, and I’m now on the 4th generation of rulers.

The first King did well in gaining new land and setting up the basic structure for the kingdom. He changed the succession law to ensure his first male heir would inherit everything, and had a good number of children, both male and female. He lived until his 50s, dying in battle.

His son, the second King, also did well. He further expanded the kingdom by taking land from the Muslims via holy war, and further upgraded key castles, villages, and churches in critical regions. These upgrades mean that at worst, the king could raise a sizable army from just a few concentrated areas to fight off invasion or rebellion. While not as fertile as his father, he still managed to have a son and a few daughters. He died when disease struck the region in his 40s.

The third generation King accomplished more than either of his predecessors. Through the extensive use of Knights Templar, he conquered many Muslim nations and secured more than half of the Spanish peninsula. These wars were also highly profitable thanks to ransoming off the numerous war prisoners. These funds were used to further upgrade infrastructure, and the result of that was the ability to raise a massive army when needed. He had two sons, but one died at an early age due to birth defects, and the other died in his 20s from disease. Luckily the second son did have a male heir to continue the dynasty. The third King did in battle; a fitting end to a great conqueror.

Unfortunately he died a little earlier than ‘expected’, and the child of his deceased son became King. Inheriting such a large kingdom so young did not sit well with the nobles, who launched a string of rebellions. At the peak of rebellion, a full ten counties were rebelling, and it was only thanks to hired mercenary companies that the child-King regained some control. Even so, two counties successfully declared independence, and before they could be brought to justice, the peasants in a few regions also rebelled and had to be put down. All of this infighting drained the kingdoms supplies and funds, stalling and further expansion or conquest.

As things currently stand, the now-adult King has regained control of the nobility, but has not yet regained all the land he once inherited. As he was dealing with local rebellion, a rival Kingdom captured many regions from the Muslims, and has now risen to power on the peninsula. A blood war for final control is sure to come.

(In other words, CKII is pretty f’n great)

I picked up Crusader Kings II (CK) off Steam this weekend. It’s been a game I’ve wanted to play for some time, but figured it would be a $5 Steam sale game sooner or later. I paid full price for the all-DLC bundle, so I fully expect a 50% sale this weekend. That’s how those things always work, but happily CK has so far been worth the price.

I love these types of sim games, where the level of detail is silly and the systems are so complex that they make the EVE UI look like WoW. You literally spend the first few hours playing without knowing wtf is going on, and even now I’m sure I’m missing some major stuff. And I played ALL of the tutorials.

CK is in many ways a “watch what happens” type of game rather than a click-and-play game. I can’t really explain it well, other than to say that when ‘playing’ CK, you might not click or interact with the game for minutes at a time, and when you do click it’s usually to execute one action and go back to watching/waiting. It’s literally the furthest thing from a twitch game in every sense. Now I love that style, but I can very easily see how it would bore most gamers to tears.

Which is not to suggest that CK is light on decisions and strategy, because it has both in spades. And many of those decisions are long, LONG term ones; stuff that might not kick in or matter for decades of in-game time. Other actions have instant repercussions, and not ones that are easily predicted.

Speaking of decades, to me the coolest aspect of CK is that you don’t just play one ruler, but the heirs as well when you pass away. And believe me, you will pass away. CK is very accurate in that regard, and there are LOTS of different ways for people to die. Having children is key, and setting the laws how you need them to continue your kingdom/progress is critical as well. As blood lines mix, alliances form and break, kingdoms reform, and old enemies become friends. It’s all very cool to just watch, and even cooler when you ‘get it’ and start lining things up to take advantage of them.

If you still have no idea what kind of game CK really is, I’m sorry. Someone asked me on vent what game it’s most like, and after mumbling some nonsense for a bit, I just gave up. It sorta plays like Sim City, if you replace the “make buildings” part with “run a kingdom”. If you as the major could die. And have neighboring cities invade you. Sorta…

All I know is, CK so far is great at what it does.

Just don’t ask me what exactly it’s doing, because I’m still not sure…