[Introduction]
Crusader Kings 2 is a meme about medieval rulers and their courtiers doing crazy shit while painting a map of Europe and parts of Asia in different colors.
Crusader Kings 2 is a grand strategy game developed by Paradox Interactive. It's predominantly centered on Europe but features a map that extends as far east as India.
It's also a sequel to Crusader Kings, a game no one played.
[First Impressions]
I actually remember my first impression!
It went something like "what the hell am I looking at and what the hell am I supposed to be doing?"
When I say it took a long, long time for me to figure out how to play this game, it's no exaggeration. It took me something like a year of playing Stellaris before that game became a gateway for me to get into Crusader Kings 2. Now, that's not to say everyone will have the same initial experience that I did, but fair warning: the learning curve can be pretty steep.
[Development]
Finding details regarding development was surprisingly difficult, not least of all because most of the developer diaries for CK2 seem to be focused more on explaining game mechanics, rather than the work that went into said mechanics or the general development history of the game. I did find one that took a step further and actually showed examples of modding, however! The game, incidentally, is very mod friendly, but more on that later. I also managed to find screenshots of early alpha builds:
The interface was clearly streamlined quite a bit since that stage of development, and widescreen support was added as well. It might come as no surprise that these early builds had a lot in common with CK1.
Other general additions between CK1 and CK2 include proper empire titles, expanded de jure mechanics, actual control over imprisonment and ransom, control over education and a new war system. Really, it's a flat improvement all around, from the engine being upgraded to Clausewitz to the UI to the complexity allowing greater variety in how the game world evolves.
Also, unlike its predecessor, CK2 allows you to play a much wider assortment of cultures, religions and governments... provided you have the necessary DLC. This is, after all, the game that really made Paradox infamous for having an inordinate amount of downloadable content. That's not to say that previous title had no DLC, but never before had so much content been locked behind a price tag. We're not just talking unit models or music here, but actual game mechanics.
Even with the base game being free, you have to pay $182.85 to get the full experience, although purchasing the bundle will give you a 10% discount, and you get a further price cut if you already own some of the DLC. If you want the whole shebang with unit models, extra music and all the bells and whistles, it's a staggering $317.35. You can get 17% off if you purchase that bundle, but that's still a lot of money.
[Game Mechanics]
Start the game, pick a date, choose a ruler, cross your fingers.
On the base level, down at the very bedrock, you have only have one goal: your dynasty must survive. Your only state of GAME OVER is if your dynasty has no heir and your line ends. Everything around that is secondary, regardless of your culture, religion, rank, hopes and dreams.
There's a sizeable toolbox available to you in your perpetual mission to persevere. You can wage war and expand your territory, acquire new vassals to provide taxes and levies, you can leverage your economy to influence others, you can plot to kill your rivals, fabricate claims to their lands to give you a valid reason to invade, all sorts of things - and that's just scratching the surface.
Whether it's for altruistic purposes or to further your own agenda, you can also invest to improve in your lands, both technologically, defensively, aggressively and economically, but the latter three all require investment in the former. Build castle walls, establish new settlements, construct training grounds for your militia, the works.
All of this is centered around your character, of course. Even if you decide to be generous and invest in the lands of your vassals, it ultimately comes back to you: you decided to do that, likely because you felt the investment was worthwhile. Maybe you wanted your vassal to be able to provide you with more levies, maybe you wanted to help get his new settlement rolling so you'd get more taxes out of the place sooner rather than later. Maybe you just wanted to improve relations so the guy doesn't revolt.
The education of your children is also important, even the education of your extended family. As the big poobah of your dynasty, you often get a say in who fosters what child, and the guardian of your choosing will seek to instil their own traits in their new charge. For example, a character who's brave will encourage the child to be brave as well, while a character who's craven will do the same. It's easy to stop caring, particularly when your family grows particularly large, but it's a good idea to stay involved to ensure the future of your dynasty is in good hands.
Another aspect of education, namely that of your people, also comes into play, particularly if you start out as a tribal leader. The spread of technology enables growth and prosperity in your lands, but the transition from a tribal society to, for example, a feudal one can be a game changer.
Similarly, religion (and religious disagreements) can make the difference between a stable realm and open rebellion. There's a myriad of religions, religious branches and even heresies that are available to the player, and all form a crucial aspect to how characters get along with one another. For example, a Muslim might outright refuse to have anything to do with a Norse Pagan.
Culture, too, is important, and plays a similar role to religion, albeit less complex. Characters can adopt different cultures, but it's impossible to reform a culture. Cultures also decide whether certain actions are available; blind Greeks can't inherit and Norse cultures can raise runestones. It also determines certain naming conventions, both of characters and kingdoms.
You have to manage all of these things while everyone around you simultaneously does the same thing. And let me tell you: player or AI, they can be difficult to predict. Because they all follow their own agenda, just like you, and are trying to ensure the survival of their dynasty, often at the expense of other dynasties. Just like you.
On top of that, there's an endless cavalcade of random events constantly playing out across the world, frequently involving you. You might get sick. Your daughter might get sick. Your spymaster might try to kill your spymaster, whereupon your spymaster informs you that your spymaster tried to have your spymaster killed so he wouldn't tell you that your spymaster was gonna kill your spymaster... as you might imagine, there are some bugs, but they're mostly pretty funny.
There are no guarantees in Crusader Kings 2, other than that the game eventually ends. Usually it's either because your dynasty died out, you made it to the final year or because you simply stop playing after achieving all your goals.
And you really ought to set goals for yourself. Whether it's uniting Ireland, taking back Jerusalem as the Jews or transforming Europe into a subject of a nomadic steppe culture, half the fun comes from setting increasingly absurd goals for yourself. For example, I know a guy who decided to get an Umayyad character in charge of Tibet. Didn't even take him that long to pull it off.
And then there's the options of questionable historical authenticity. You see, the game is highly customisable. With the Holy Fury DLC, it's possible to have randomised worlds, or even what's called "shattered" worlds. You can change literally anything short of the map itself. You can turn the entire world into individual duchies ruled by nomadic horselords whose culture demands that only teenage girls can inherit if you so desire, but the customisation doesn't end there.
The game is extremely mod friendly and even has Steam Workshop support.
Wanna play Crusadercraft 2? There's a mod for that. Wanna conquer the post-apocalyptic United States? There's a mod for that. Wanna facilitate an Argonian takeover of Tamriel? There's a mod for that. Want every death to be accompanied with the coffin dance? You bet your ass there's a mod for that.
[Graphics]
It's fine.
There's not much to say, it's pretty much just a big ol map of the "known world" as seen from a European perspective at the time. Borders are (for the most part) clearly distinguishable and that's what matters.
The UI is serviceable once you get used to it, although chances are you may have to dig around a bit to find information on county terrain. Still, there are usually very few clicks between you and the information you want to access, which is Interface 101.
At the end of the day, you're probably never going to be awed or amazed when looking at CK2, at least not because the graphics are anything to write home about.
[Story]
The story is simultaneously simple in premise and complex in execution.
By default, the game starts at a date determined by the player as early as 1066. With DLC, this can go further back, all the way to 769. The map is divided by historical borders and individual realms are ruled by as many historical rulers as we're aware of, although some are made up due to necessity and plain lack of information.
Once started, the game plays out until either the player's dynasty ends or it survives until 1452. Everything between the beginning and the end, however, is entirely fluid. Literally anything can happen, nothing is set in stone, and that's the real story of CK2. More importantly, you can change it to a staggering degree if you manage to gather enough land and build up sufficient influence.
This is the primary allure to most people: the ability to change the course of history while other players or AI rulers do the same. Every playthrough will have a different story and different events will unfold. There are certainly some things that tend to be similar, such as Christians ousting Pagans from the British Isles in some way, but there are never any guarantees.
[SPOILERS that one time I turned Siberia into a merchant republic]
There's not really anything to spoil, so instead, here's a recap of my most recent playthrough.
I decided to play as Zavarot. For reference, this is a tiny tribal start in the ass end of Siberia that starts with 2 shitty duchies. It didn't occur to me at the time, but in hindsight, this was obviously a bad idea. It's a frozen hellscape of ice and bears which barely supports life, much less a substantial human presence.
Somehow, I manage to subjugate some neighbors, enabling me to subjugate some more. I'm 90% sure I got lucky with these initial wars, but soon enough, I controlled a substantial enough territory that I could call vassals to help me fight other tribes and get the ball rolling.
At this point, a goal started forming: form a kingdom. I was on the verge of getting multiple High Chief titles, and due to gavelkind succession being what it is, my titles would be split between my children, and my realm would be split.
So I started getting aggressive whenever I could, with the sparse amount of soldiers at my disposal. Raising an army was hardly economical (it's hardly a surprise that my income was abysmal) so I relied entirely on my retinue, which only cost prestige to maintain. It was also around this time that I noticed the Norse Pagans were winning the battle for Britain. Somehow.
And then King Wanko, the Polish king of Denmark, converted his people to a Catholic heresy:
Eventually I conquer enough land to form the Kingdom of Nenetsia.
Incidentally, this is around the time I check in on Britain again, only to find that the Pagan Norse have largely united under the banner of Ireland.
I'm sure it'll be fine. They're far away, so I conquer more land for the glory of my shitty realm where nothing grows. I eventually get a hold of two titular kingdoms, but because I'm tribal, I can't destroy one of them, which once again means my kingdom is going to split. Spoiler: it does multiple times, but I manage to rein it in again each time. At some point during all this, I'm notified that a gentleman by the name of THOR THE BONE-SQUEEZER has converted his people to Christianity. He wears a wolf on his head and has killed several people, including family members.
He seems like a peaceful fellow though, so I ignore that. I have a new goal: form an empire so my realm stops splitting in half every time my ruler dies and two successors take over. In the meantime, I forge a legendary bloodline, becoming a legend simply by fighting so many people (and bears) that it ends up becoming a feat noteworthy enough for the history books.
What an absolute lad.
But things are going well enough for me. I'm sorta struggling to fight anyone around be, but I slowly make incremental gains. Not so much because of my substantial military. More because any counter-invasions have to somehow get enough troops through my lands to besiege my tribal holdings, but my lands are literally made of ice and bears, so most invaders find it challenging. Turns out winter is harsh in Siberia. Anyway, I decide to check on the situation in Britain, and...
Well, the pagans have taken it all over and are now starting to colonise the mainland.
That'll probably never be relevant to me. Sounds like a them problem.
Fast forward a few decades and my ruler gets bashed over the head while fighting in a battle. He gets permanent brain damage, but somehow doesn't die in a matter of months. No, the bastard clings to life as an infirm vegetable for almost 10 years and eventually dies in a coma at the age of 64. This is despite at least two assassination attempts, which he fought off despite being a brain damaged invalid.
Anyway, I somehow consolidate enough land that the impossible starts getting within arm's reach: the holy places of the Suomenusko faith are so close to me now that it seems possible that I might be able to reform the faith. This becomes my goal, alongside the more practical matter of forming an empire to ensure stability. And wouldn't you know it, a mere 12 years later, I pull it off!
And only 2 decades after that, an empire is born.
At this point, I'm pretty much the only tribal society left on the map, with the sole exceptions being a couple counties somewhere in the eastern steppes. I also have the worst economy in the world, and so I stood at an impasse. Two goals were left for me:
Do I forever remain tribal and fight back against the "civilised" peoples?
Or do I try to turn the frozen north into a thriving economic state?
To be clear: both are mad endeavors, but the tribal path seems substantially more doable than squeezing monetary gain out of a tundra that primarily exports bears, violence, reduced lifespans, bears and tribal warriors. So of course I opt for economy. I become determined to consolidate the tribes into a merchant republic. I also check on the pagans real quick.
Well, they seem to be doing okay.
And only 40 years later, the empire of Volga-Ural under the leadership of House Tobyid from Zavarot has transitioned from a loose coalition of tribes to a merchant republic.
What a ride. It was only afterwards I learned that some people consider Zavarot to be one of the most difficult starting locations in the game, due to the unforgiving climate, the powerful neighbors, limited potential for expansion, lack of valuable raiding targets, total absence of ports to build ships and having no vassals from the get go. It also doesn't help that even if you do build ships, you're not Norse, so you don't get a cultural 90% discount on upkeep.
Let this server as an example of the stories you can create for yourself. I didn't really touch much on building a gilded statue of one of my rulers or the struggle to reacquire familial artifacts after a weird succession crisis, but you get the idea.
[Pros]
- Base game is free and perfectly serviceable by itself
- Some truly ridiculous scenarios can unfold
- Achieving goals and seeing plans come to fruition is very satisfying
- Exceptional mod support
[Cons]
- Base game is somewhat lacklustre
- Paradox's DLC policy (all expansions combined cost $182.85; aesthetic DLC adds to that price tag)
- You really do have to set your own goals to get any real enjoyment out of the game
- Can be hard to get into; learning curve is steep if you're unfamiliar with grand strategy games
[Conclusion]
While I'm very critical of the absurd DLC policy Paradox has become infamous for, I still love Crusader Kings 2 and the developers behind it. When a friend of mine told me the company had been bought by Activision, I was genuinely distraught, but fortunately that turned out to be an April Fool's joke. Crusader Kings 2 is an outstanding game and provides an entertaining experience. It can be a wild ride, and that's precisely what I'm here for.
Time to execute my 40-something prisoners and cause my realm to dissolve in a civil war as my popularity plummets. Shoulda paid the ransom. Moral compass optional.
/DUX
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