Next patch , v 1.05, is coming on the 17th; going to be a big one - more like a small expansion, with lots of changes + new additions. They've posted 3 dev diaries as previews:

Crusade changes: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...arch-30th-2012
Dynamic kingdoms: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...5#post13666175
Character additions: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...5#post13693045

Thanks for sharing! sounds really promising. I guess I'll start a new game when the mods are updated to the new patch.
Lost interest in my old game, because it was my first try with low difficulty level and vanilla. Time for a new round, as a count somewhere in Spain I guess

Like the new patch. Things are arranged a bit more logically.

Assassinations cost 200g now (expensive enough to not try it). And you can plot to kill anyone.

Paradox games get better as they go.

the ruler designer is nice too. it adds age to your character if you give him good stats/traits but there are some bad traits that take away age. I think adding content dropped it like 20 years so I could add genius without being 40

they have some new music too, anyone get that yet?

Really? Is content that bad? As I recall it ads .5 Piety/mo then like -1 to intrigue or something. Are there other bad effects from it?

BTW what are some fun dynasties to play in this game? I've already played Duchy of Apulia which was an old fave from CK1 and I quit my Poland game about half way through because it was pretty meh and I screwed a lot of stuff up.

I started my new game as the duke of Tiberias (in the Kingdom of Jerusalem) in 1101. The holy land is crazy. You get a front row seat to watch crusades. Every time you go to war it's a desperate struggle to fight off the Muslims who are orders of magnitude stronger. I'm liking it.

Otherwise my first game as king of Croatia was pretty cool. But I'm probably unique in that I like the role-playing and never use the assassinate button under any circumstances.

In my latest game as the Taillefer (trans: Iron Cutters), Counts of Angouleme, the first few Capet Kings of France died quickly in succession, but not before raising the crown laws to Medium in the 1070s. I now bide my time amassing money to build more Castles, while looking for countesses to marry into. Though this is about the worst thing that could happen at the start, I'm confident this game will turn out OK. It is, after all, CK2.

ya im not sure of some of the thinking on the traits adding or subtracting years. im pretty sure giving your ruler a stutter added a year. lol

Content removes some plot availabilities, plotting against your leige's laws & for prestige are both out, possibly more.

The Taillefer game is going well, switched to full intrigue mode with no wars possible. Taillefer inheretances were arranged in neighbouring Perigod, Marsan (Duchy of Gascogne), Rougere (Toulouse) Eu (Normandy) and Artois (Flanders). Marsan was elected as my next leader to add another province peacefully. The Countess of Rougere revolted against the excommunicated King of France, got crushed and had her county revoked, but the others are all under Taillefer rule. Plus I got my castles all built up - 3 in Angouleme, making me one of the stronger rulers in France. I just finished marrying the Duke of Berry's daughter and killing her only brother, so that will bring a nice upgrade in rank in the future, if she takes the time to make me an heir (she's gay). Can't make things too easy now, eh?

Didn't it historically get formed/conquered by neighboring countries? At least in "The Tutors" Henry VIII was King of England, Ireland and France. I know personally it's the first crown I always take after my native one.

Bump, got a new computer and can finally play this late game without slowdown. CK2+ mod is the nuts, makes the game harder and much more fun. There's also an upcoming Game of Thrones mod which looks amazing

I think you just convinced me to get this game

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...ame-of-Thrones

Its out its out!
http://www.reddit.com/r/paradoxplaza..._v01_released/

trying it out now will report

Amazon has CK2 for 10$, activates on steam!

awesome just bought

Started as Littlefinger so that I could sit out the initial war and kind of play hands off. Played up to 8335. Robert won the war after like 5 years or so. Was checking up all the major houses ~30 years in and notice Stannis has 6 kids which is p funny, should probably give some -fertility to Stannis. But what was more funny is that his wife had 8 kids despite Stannis being her only husband. I check the kids out to see who the daddy is, and both were Robert's bastards. So good.

Edmure died at 21 with no kids and Cat inherited the riverlands, which were then inherited by her + Neds son, Brandon. Brandon somehow has a claim on the Vale and went to war with them. More on that in a sec.

Speaking of the Vale, Jon Arryn had no son and his daughter Elana wound up inheriting, and then marrying Mace Tyrrel after his 1st wife died, eventually leading to Tyrrels owning both the Vale and the Reach, but its 2 different half-brothers so not unified unlike the North/Riverlands under the Starks.

Back to the war, Brandon was owning the Vale since it was basically 2v1 since he had the riverlands too, but as he was sieging the vale provinces with all of his troops, apparently 1/2 the north rose up to overthrow him, led by Freja Glover, daughter of Galbart Glover (dude who ruled Deepwater Motte). No idea how this went down im guessing a plot? Who knows. Anyways with all of his troops in the south, the rebellion easily succeeded, resulting in Freja Glover as Lady Paramount of the North. Brandon then proceeded to white peace the Vale, resulting in the Glovers owning the north, starks the riverlands, and tyrrels the Vale. However, Brandon still owns Winterfell so Freja rules from Wolfswood.

Tyrion crapped out a bunch of ugly and/or dwarf kids before dying young at 38. His son Tywin II is LP now.

imgur album
http://imgur.com/a/b2Hk7

1.06 Information & First Expansion:

^That DLC looks cool, but the Songhay and Ghana icons annoy me. West Africans don't look like that.

Hopefully the christian Ethiopians can get some mercs. and have a chance against the Muslims.

Thank you, that was awesome *wipes away tears of laughter*

This game is just great.

Played my first game as the Duke of Munster, since many guys seem to recommend Ireland as a starting point for noobs. Took over the 6 southern counties by fabricating claims and de jure duchy claims. After that, created the Kingdom of Ireland somewhere around 1090, and vassalized the upper regions (except for Ulster, where the Scots had invaded).

I changed the law to primogeniture, which seems to be standard if you don't want all your holdings to be split up everytime your current character bites the dust. Somehow I got a random county in previously scottish territory via a weird vassal inheritance, and 2 counties in Normandy inherited from the wife of my second ruler. Had a claim on the duchy of Normandy, but that got usurped from my brother by the English king (any way to defend against this without pressing de jure first? I couldnt do that because the English king was fighting infidels).

Now it is 1150, I also conquered Wales via the same claim/de jure strategy). Somehow I owned some spanish fools (Castille?!) in the process, who had their last county in Southwest Wales after the moors conquered 80% of Spain. I created the Kingdom of Wales for some extra prestige points.

There is one problem now that kind of makes me want to start over: I didn't pay any attention to culture or breeding at all. Vassals and my heirs slowly changed cultures (passed on from guardians, or I granted titles to guys outside of my culture sometimes). My ruler is now of Welsh culture, which sucks for relations etc., and my vassals are a weird mixture of 50% Irish vs. 50 % Welsh/Breton/Franks/ ... I don't know how to reconciliate this, and I don't want to deal with the bad stats for 300 years to come. Also, Kind Numbnuts IV has a bag full of bad traits and almost no good ones, which my vassals don't exactly appreciate.

Going to check out the GoT mod now, and see if I want to continue the current scenario...

Don't quit - the game's not about winning. Dealing with terrible rulers and a seriously divided empire is 90% of the fun in this game.

Probably everybody ITT that has played CK2 for a while has already seen this, but for anybody looking to get into this game - there is an awesome User Guide written by community members, a 140-page long gorgeously layouted PDF, which is invaluable for grasping the core game mechanics.

Link (hosted on the official Paradox forums, you might need to create an account to access it)

Seriously, this thing is just straight up incredible and the best community effort for creating a game guide I have ever seen, don't skip this just because of having to sign up, it is soooo worth it.

Just pulled off a successful crusade for Italy against the Lollard HRE. Being the biggest contributor, I'm now king of Italy!