Crusader Kings

[El_Cid]

Hmmm its been a while and some things have changed in the patch release(like intrigue is used to govern how many lands you can control easily - it used to be your stewardship in the pre-patched game), so i not exactly sure on all the roles now. You best bet might be to check the actual games forums for that level of detail?

As for marriages - the women will travel to the husbands place of residence. So if your excellent chancellor is female - try to marry her into your family, or atleast deny her marriage to suitors.

If your important courtiers are men then marry away - their wives will become part of your courts.

Bishoprics are good - its also the only way you can get a chance at controlling the pope. I dont know how they work, but my bishopric guy became the papal leader sometime.

Genes do work, but are hard to work out and its not simply a case of a+b=c, as you've found out.

Sadly you can only directly control the marriage of your immediate family(it would be nice in a later patch if you could also do the same for your court/vassals - or atleast the ones that are very loyal to you?).

Intrigue rating is what determins how many lands you can directly control before lack of efficency sets in(in pre patch stewardship does that).

i'd really check out the paradox forums as there are many aspects i dont fully understand - and good luck on your empire building. Being set in the near east/eastern europe you will have fun with the mongol hordes when they appear

[Heresson]

I've already had "fun" when I was playing Byzantium... because I've conquered lands over Wolga. Great were the battles between Byzantines and Golden Horde... many brave knights became martyrs in the vast steppes between Caucasus and Crimea... but I had to give up, eventually - they just don't seem to lose their men, while my own armies get small very quickly.
I left the game when Golden Horde was in a deadly struggle againt Ilkhanate and declining, so I may have a chance of getting back at least a couple of my provinces.
Yet my only success was pushing Mongols north of Caucasus.

[El_Cid]

If i had a main critisism of the game it would be that it doesn't always make it clear what is going wrong and how to fix it - the manual is full of not very usefull info, and the game often leaves you to guess at how things work.

Other than that i think its very promising - i personaly like it a bit better than EU2, but thats due to the very tight game mechanics of EU2(playing as a small nation trying to get big enough to become a player is almost doomed to failure); which are great for keeping the game run along historic events, but dont really give you room to explore around that history.

Crusader Kings gives you a bit more in that area from what i can tell. It also simplifies some things, but the bit i like most is the whole 'personalities' thing and trying to breed the next El Cid to lead your empire to victory

[Heresson]

Oh not. Small nations have a lot of possibilities in EU2. They have quicker tech progress for example, and that was enough to make my 1-province Tuscany the greatest power in the world... on the other hand, it is completely possible to build a big nation, though it may be hard in the beginning

[Nikolai]

The reason you got bad stats on children of great courtiers can be easy. Aside from the randomness you must expect, the stats of the children is determined from the parents' base stats. If a courtier has diplomacy stat 10, but it has a trait combination that gives a total of +8 diplomacy, it's the base stat of 2 that is used for the calculation.

[Heresson]

how can I check basic stats?

[Verrucosus]

I don't believe you can check them directly, but you can check the pop-up help for the character's traits and calculate the basic stats by subtracting bonuses and adding penalties from the effective stats shown on the character screen.

[Nikolai]

Verrucosus is right. You also can use a bridefinder, there you'll always see the base stats.

[Heresson]

bridefinder?

[Nikolai]

Go to the official forums. There you can find several external programs that among other things find suitable brides for you grooms.

[BeBMan]

It should be noted that they only work in the game

[Heresson]

Damn

Nikolai... gimme link, plz

[Nikolai]

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=238366

Bear in mind I do not know if all links still work.

[El_Cid]

Originally posted by Heresson
Oh not. Small nations have a lot of possibilities in EU2.....

ok play as Wales - tell me if you can take control of england(at any point)
Thats what i mean - EU2 is a game 'about' history, its very difficult to change history. Thats how it feels to me.

And its one of the reasons i like Crusader Kings - i feel i have a liitle more room to move in in that respect.
Although i still havent managed to play as a welsh intrest from start and survive long.....BUT i can become a welsh king of all the uk by marriage and breeding, so thats an exceptable option for me

[Nikolai]

You know El_Cid, there is possible to conquer the world with any country in EU2, I have seen it being done with f.ex. Trezbizond and Chimu.