Crusader Kings 2 Intrigue Guide
Crusader Kings II - Beginner's Guide to Kingdom of Ireland. Game: Crusader Kings II Apr 11, 2019. Are you new to Crusader Kings 2 and don't know where to start? You probably encountred the tip to start from Ireland for the begging but the game is still slow and/or confusing? This impose tyranny (-40 opinion, ouch). The way of intrigue. Crusader Kings II is a grand strategy game with RPG elements developed by Paradox Development Studio. This Crusader Kings II Wiki is a repository of Crusader Kings II related knowledge, useful for both new and experienced players and for modders.
Like many strategy games, Crusader Kings II is about ruthlessly conquering your neighbors. Unlike many strategy games, however, it is also about marrying their daughters and then having affairs with their maidservants. This can sometimes be a difficult aspect of the game for even the most battle-hardened strategy gamers to get their heads around, and so I thought it might be appropriate in honor of VGG Valentine’s Day Weekend to post a guide to the complex world of love and marriage, Crusader Kings II style.Please note that for stylistic purposes, this guide is generally written from the perspective of a male, Christian ruler. Nonetheless, most of what is said will hold true for non-Christian and matrilineally married female characters. Finding a SpouseBefore delving fully into the reasons one should marry in CKII, I thought it best to include a note about the interface that could save a lot of headache when trying to find a suitable spouse. Many new players go about locating a character to marry by navigating through the Character screens until they find a character that seems acceptable to them, at which point the propose and are rejected.
Then they repeat this process ad infinitum until someone mercifully accepts.There is a much easier way to go about this. On your character screen (or your heir’s or whoever you are trying to arrange a marriage for), you will see a small button next to their portrait with joined rings.
Clicking this opens a “marriage browser” of sorts that displays a sortable list of all available spouses who would accept a proposal from that character. Occasionally, something changes while an offer is in transit any you’ll still get rejected, but this is very uncommon and using this interface takes a great deal of frustration out of the process of finding a match.Marrying for ProcreationMany veteran Crusader Kings players prefer small-dynasty starts, i.e. Starting a campaign as Count Neverheardofem of Backwatersville. In these scenarios, and in instances where your once proud dynasty has been pruned by plague and misfortune to a single, struggling branch, marriage with the primary focus on procreation is probably advisable. After all, if you are not able to produce heirs (or exclusively male heirs under some succession laws) you could watch all your hard-earned titles evaporate upon your passing. Here are a few points to keep in mind when marrying to procreate:Age matters. Especially for women, the age of peak fertility in Crusader Kings II is short and belongs to the young.
The closer to 16 (the age of maturity in game, before which only betrothal and not marriage is possible) the better. For men, the fertility drop off is a lot less steep, and as far as I can tell male characters can continue to father children, though with increasing difficulty, into their 70s or 80s.
So even if you are pushing 60, get over the creepiness factor and marry that 16-year-old. The future of your dynasty may depend on it!Look for fertility-increasing traits.
Lustful is an obvious one, but there are other traits in CKII that boost a character’s fertility. Those studied in the more advanced ways of diplomacy and stewardship will receive increased fertility (I suppose they understand the political necessity of getting the job done, so will give it that extra bit of effort). There is also a genetic component to fertility, though the stats are buried in the game engine and never visible to the player, but characters with a ton of siblings and especially those who are twins (rare, but you will see it in game from time to time) are likely to have inherited high fertility from their parents. Of course, the flip side of this equation is to be sure to explicitly avoid fertility reducing traits, of which there are many ranging from temporary conditions like illness to less transient traits like inbreeding.Treat your lady right. You will be presented from time to time with opportunities to earn your wife’s affections. Make the best of these. Go the extra mile.
Buy her jewelry, a fine steed, maybe even that hunting falcon she’s had her eye on. These can provide fertility boosts. If you can earn her love along the way, even better.Be ambitious. I have only anecdotal evidence, but it seems like setting your ambition to “have a son” or “have a daughter” provides a slight fertility increase.
Even if it doesn’t, it provides a nice little prestige bonus when you succeed, so it’s worth a shot.Focus on the family. As of the Way of Life DLC, you may choose a focus for your ruler. A great way to boost your fertility is to choose the family focus.
Not only that, but this will give you some extra opportunities to improve relationships with other family members. It’s a win, win. Except when it doesn’t workWhen all else fails, fool around.
If you’ve done all of the above and nothing has worked. Perhaps your wife, despite all her traits is secretly infertile.
Perhaps she has aged out of her fertility window without bearing any children. Perhaps she finds you disgusting and won’t come within a mile of you no matter what you try.
Regardless, if all else fails, you can use the Way of Life DLC’s focus mechanism to select the seducer focus for your ruler. This will greatly increase the chance of events presenting you with the opportunity to take mistresses and generally get busy with everything that moves. The potential downsides are many (a hostile marriage, sexual diseases, angry husbands), but the potential upside is a child to carry on your legacy.
Be sure to legitimize any out-of-wedlock children so that they can inherit titles and grow your dynasty.Be gullible. Of course, you may not be the only one in your marriage fooling around. Especially if your wife is lustful, she’s likely engaging in her own extracurricular activities. It’s not uncommon in this situation for your wife to become pregnant at a time when you’re pretty sure she was at home while you were attending that mead and ale convention three counties over. If she’s claiming the child is yours, it’s best not to question these things.
Though he may look suspiciously like your steward, the child will be born of your dynasty and will be able to inherit as normal. Being a father is so much more than just contributing genetic material, isn’t it?Marry off your daughters matrilineally.
The goal here is the long-term growth of the dynasty. You ideally want to get to a point where your dynasty is large enough that you don’t need to worry for the rest of the game about it dying out, and can therefore marry for reasons other than procreation later in the game. One of the most effective ways to do this is to marry all daughters in the first generation off matrilineally. This will greatly reduce their pool of potential suitors, but all offspring of those unions will be of your dynasty instead of their husband’s. Of course, no self-respecting landed gentleman would agree to this, so it means you will be marrying them off to bastard sons of noblemen and local stable boys instead of dukes and princes, but if all you care about is head count, it’s a great way to grow a dynasty quickly.Marrying for AlliancesAlliances in Crusader Kings II need to be sealed with marriage.
Not only is this militarily advantageous, but it’s also a way to rack up some quick prestige. The most obvious way to do this is to marry a ruler or a ruler’s offspring directly, but marriages of children and siblings to a ruler’s family will also often cement alliances as well.
Distant relations, however will not. This means alliances often shift when you or the ruler you had an alliance with dies.Do your research.
As a result, you should always ask yourself, “what happens to this alliance when I die, and what happens if the allied ruler dies?” If you marry your heir to a king’s daughter, you are in pretty good shape. If you die, your heir becomes your character and you are married to your ally’s daughter so the alliance is maintained. Marry your sister to a ruler and he will become an ally, but if you die and take over as your heir, he will be married to your aunt, which is considered too distant a relation to be politically binding.
The alliance would lapse. Also, pay attention to crown law. Elective monarchies, for example are unpredictable, so your alliance could disappear entirely if the title passes out of the family you married into to secure it.An alliance is only as good as your ally’s ability to act on it. To a lowly count, an alliance with a powerful duke might sound quite appealing. If that duke is a vassal of a king, however, he will be unable to come to your aid unless you are within the same realm.
In the end, he rides off into the sunset with your daughter and you get nothing for it. Don’t marry away your daughters for nothing! Try to ally with independent realms, or (if you are a vassal yourself) other direct vassals of your liege.Yes, she’s quite lovely. How many horses does she come with?
Needless to say, when marrying for alliances, marry the strongest ally you can find. Not only will this put more men at your disposal if you need their aid (or intent to leverage their strength for your own conquests), but it will make it less likely that they will draw you into the losing side of a war.
You never want to refuse a call to arms, not only because you take quite the prestige hit but also because it lets your ally off the hook when it comes to answering your calls. Strong allies ensure that when you answer a call to arms, you can do so without worrying about your own lands being invaded by their enemies.An alliance in hand is worth two in the nursery. Only marriage, not betrothal, secures alliances. Betrothing your daughter to the newborn son of the Byzantine Emperor will not secure an alliance for another 16 years and only then if everyone survives and manages to hold onto their titles that long and only then if relations haven’t changed to a point where the Emperor no longer wants to accept the match. Much better to have a sure thing now with a lesser power than tie up your daughter until she’s 30 hoping for an alliance that may never come.Marrying for ExpansionConquest is not the only way (or even necessarily the best way) to grow your lands in Crusader Kings II.
Marriage and inheritance can be a very effective way to build and grow an empire.Aim high. When marrying yourself off, don’t be afraid to aim high. If you are childless and can marry a childless queen or duchess without having to do so matrilineally, than the heir you produce will be of your dynasty and also heir to your wife’s kingdom or duchy.
Once you and your wife both pass on, both realms will be bloodlessly united and ruled by your heir.Aim low. When arranging a marriage for one of your family members or vassals, you can also create an opportunity to grow your realm.
The process goes something like this: Arrange a betrothal between your third son and a neighboring duchess. Then grant your son lands within your realm. He will likely stick to the betrothal once he and the duchess are both of age. When he dies, his heir takes over his lands within your realm. When the duchess dies, the heir inherits the duchy, remaining your vassal and incorporating his mother’s former lands into your realm.
This only works, however, if the titles being inherited are of lower rank than your own (otherwise your vassal will become independent upon inheritance), and works best if the titles being inherited are of equal or lower rank to those you grant the would-be heir (there is some chance the lands will pass outside your realm instead of the other way around).Pay attention to laws. Not all inheritance laws are the same, so when trying to bring titles together via marriage do not assume that other realms have the same laws as your own. Gavelkind, Elective, Seniority or even a difference between Agnatic/Cognatic laws can cause different children to inherit the different titles, thus keeping them separate and outside your realm.Be culturally sensitive. If marrying a ruler, it is important to note that they have a court of their own. Be mindful of where your children and grandchildren might be raised and tutored. If your wife or daughter-in-law is a different culture or religion than you are, children or grandchildren raised in her court are likely to adopt those practices as well. This is not a bad way to deliberately shift the religion or culture of your dynasty, but it is not the sort of thing you want to see happen accidentally.
If your German Catholic vassals suddenly find themselves with a Berber Sunni liege, they are unlikely to be particularly happy about it.Talk isn’t always cheap. Opportunities to directly inherit vast tracts of land are, unfortunately, pretty rare. The next best thing is to inherit claims to land. These can serve as future casus belli for your heirs and any claim you successfully press on behalf of a dynasty member will see that dynasty member swear fealty to you as their liege (as long as the claimed title is of lower rank than your own). If you can’t inherit land outright, marrying your dynasty members into claims on land is often the next best thing.Marrying for StatsDon’t forget that in Crusader Kings II your spouse, in addition to being a factory for children and a political pawn, is also a person, too. As such, there is significant merit in finding a skilled, capable spouse able to contribute to the effective administration of your realm.Good governance matters. Keeping your vassals happy and your holdings well administered is important in CKII.
The only problem is that sometimes you are less than adept at the necessary skills for these tasks. Not to fear, your spouse can help you out. The most important area that your spouse contributes to is your stewardship. A high-stewardship spouse can have the effect of increasing your maximum holding limit by an additional holding or two.
Not inconsequential, especially if you are trying to personally rule a large area without maxing your centralization law. Your spouse (as long as they don’t rule in another realm) will also join your court and may be appointed to your council. This means a wife with very high intrigue will often times be a better spymaster than your vassals and other lackeys. Just remember to keep her happy or your heir may be inheriting sooner than expected.Nature.
Ah, eugenics! There are probably a couple of 20th century philosophies more discredited, but it has to be up there. Yet the system of inherited traits in CKII presents the strong temptation to try to breed your dynasty into hyper-skilled supermen. This is generally a fool’s errand, but there is some merit to introducing strong inherited traits (bright, genius, strong, attractive) into the bloodline of your dynasty through marriage. These traits will skip more generations that they hit, but they will hit more often if they are floating around your gene pool in higher proportions.Nurture. A much more reliable way to pass on great stats is to have a spouse with strong learned traits tutor your children to pass these skills on.
This does require some finesse, however, since you want to ensure that your spouse shares your culture and religious beliefs (or at least has ones that you want your children to pick up) since it is likely that the tutoring process will pass on her values rather than yours.Marrying for LoveI think this is a fitting section to end on this Valentine’s Day Weekend. Life in CKII doesn’t always need to revolve around pure strategy and realpolitik.This is, after all, a role-playing game. That’s right, I said it. Even though, like most Paradox Interactive Grand Strategy titles, CKII is played heavily by the hardest-of-hardcore strategy gamers, it is significantly more about role-playing than any of Paradox’s other major titles. It is, at its heart, probably more about roleplaying than anything else. It’s ultimately up to you to enjoy this big, beautiful historical sandbox however you see fit.
So choose your wife because her portrait is attractive to you, or because she has a similar personality to your character, or because she’s your mistress and the Pope finally just granted your divorce. There’s certainly historical precedent for all of those motivations. Though you won’t be explicitly rewarded mechanically for those decisions in game, you will be rewarded by the game with an engrossing and relatable narrative for your characters.I hope you all play more of and enjoy this wonderful game. Have a happy Valentine’s Day, and keep in mind what Crusader Kings II teaches us there’s nothing wrong with making love and war!Deus Vult and happy gaming! He's the centerpiece of the dynasty in my main CK (I) game as the Kingdom of Croatia and Serbia.
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He had 17 children by four wives.It started out normally enough, get married, have some kids. But he was long lived (died at 72), but his wives weren't, and every time there'd immediately be some new kids.He also saw the dual crown turn into a true regional power, and installed relatives in many important duchies.
A few generations later, I was wondering why I was suddenly lord over lands in central Italy, North Africa and Spain. My dukes had been busy and were inheriting counties in far away places. Great guide, thanks for posting it.To magnify one point, the culture and religion thing is really important when choosing tutors for your kids. They will tend to adopt the culture and religion of their tutor, and you can end up with some angry vassals if you aren't careful.
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This is most likely to happen with women like mothers and aunts that married into your court and have great traits (because you chose them as spouses earlier) and would otherwise be perfect tutors, but are from some far off land and haven't converted to the local religion.
Choose plot screenA Plot is a scheme where multiple co-plotters cooperate toward a specific goal.Plots are selected by right-clicking the target character or title. Some plots may also be listed as 'suggested plots' in the Intrigue screen.A character can only lead one plot at a time, but can back any number of plots led by others. They can be cancelled, but doing so will often incur a penalty. There is no cooldown to select another. Characters with the incapable cannot plot, and characters with the imbecile are restricted from using some plots.For most plots, you must recruit a certain number of backers, generally at least one. When selecting them, each character in the list has an icon showing their willingness to back the plot:.: are willing to join.: can be to join the plot (can be marked at +100 opinion or close to it, but bribe would not help).: won't join the plot (even if bribed)Note that this window doesn't necessarily list all characters that can be invited to join.
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The 'Auto-invite backers' checkbox will automatically send invitations to every character willing to join, even if they're not listed here.You will then be able to execute the plot. The plot, however, does not have a related decision. The plotters instead get occasional chances of killing the target, which occur more frequently when more plotters are involved and with higher plot power.The plot power is affected by the plot type:. military plots gain power proportional to the plotters' military strength,. intrigue plots gain power in proportion to the plotters' intrigue attributes.For military plots by vassals, the plot power of vassals of the target is equal to double the ratio of the available of the vassal divided by the levies of the liege. Equal-level rulers as the target who are in the same realm contribute the unmodified ratio.