Like Europa Universalis 3,
Crusader Kings 2 is a grand strategy game from
Paradox Interactive, but there's a
twist. Instead of a state or a country, you play a dynasty. Pick a ruler from across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East and try to ensure your survival and prosperity from your start date (1066 for us) to 1452. You must survive wars, assassination attempts and the schemes of your vassals and fellow lords so that your family might survive. The game is full of characters, each with their own stats and traits, determining whether they're a dutiful cleric, a clever strategist or a syphilitic-ridden hedonist. Also like EU3, there are no ultimate objectives beyond "survive", so you can largely decide how you want to play- and the game is real-time, but with a pause function and different speeds of play.
That's the crux of it- I recommend a read of our CK2 thread if you fancy seeing a bit more of what it's all about. Meanwhile, we need to pick a character. Here's where it gets interesting! There are four levels of playable ruler. From smallest to largest, they are
Count,
Duke,
King and
Emperor. My preference would be for a Count or maybe a Duke for this Let's Play, as it would mean more time to show people the basics before we move on to bigger and better things, but that's up to you guys. With the Sword of Islam DLC, we can pick Islamic rulers as well as Catholic and Orthodox ones, meaning only the Pagans, Republics and Theocracies are off-limits. We also have access to the Ruler Designer DLC, so once we've picked a region to rule we can custom-build any sort of maniacal pervert we fancy.
I probably won't play the following:
- Orthodox factions. I know, no Byzantines, but there's far more material in the game for Catholics and Muslims, which will make for a better LP.
- Emperors. Only rules out the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantines, and this is for complexity reasons I mentioned above.
- Monophystites in Africa. Whilst this can be hilarious for LP purposes, we'd run the risk of being utterly annihilated early on by Islamic forces.
Other than that, run wild-
let's hear your suggestions for who we should play as! I've included sliced-up portions of the map below to help get a feel for things, and if anyone has any questions, just ask!
The North
The British Isles
Scandinavia
The Steppes

Africa
North-West Africa
West Africa
East Africa

Around the Mediterranean
Italy and the Balkans
Central Mediterranean
The Byzantine Empire
The Levant

Russia and the Middle East
Around the Caspian and the Black Seas
The Middle East
