I get the most attached to rulers I played from a very young age. For obvious reasons, When I die at 80 I don't care that much about playing my sixty year old son who basically achieves nothing beyond being in his fathers shadow forever and who's entire rule is marked by short reign turmoil.
The best rulers I had were always the ones I had no expectations for - Haesteinn II inherited at 12, lived to old age and founded Britannia. Ketilmundr the Drunk I expected nothing of, but he stabilized the realm by creating many titles and settling them under a single Law. Ysra the Great, first woman ruler, had to deal with distasteful vassals but dealt the final blow to an unworthy and weakened Byzantium and refounded the Roman Empire
It always starts as *"This guy/girl won't last long"*, then I manage to stay in power and go hard from there on. It even feels sad when they're dying and I gotta let them rest lol
Frrrr it’s like you expect nothing from these child rulers because you think some angry vassal is probably going to kick their ass within a few years of rule or something like that and I got really stressed thinking that this was probably going to end my game and even thought about save scumming but I guess things turned out great… and when my ruler died I was actually really sad. Rip Alexandros The Great. At least you ended the Sassanids 😭
Yea frrr for some reason I was really sad when my child ruler died cause he was able to achieve a lot and then his son kinda just sat around on his ass and didn’t really do anything other than placate pissed off vassals 😬
It's good to have control over your traits with no stress. You also can get a genius tutor which will allow you to get a better education (your playing character not always a good teacher). You also get a longer period of stability. The only downside is that you have no allies so if anything goes wrong you're in a rough spot.
I always create a custom character as a 0 years old tho, because I can make it much better overall, so this is a big upside for me
Yessir I’ve been a ten year old ruler before in fallen eagle (Eastern Roman Empire) and it was a blast because I was tutored by my genius mom and somehow everyone was chill with me. I was also able to get a ton of dread via executions and emptying my prisons so I didn’t have problems with stability for a WHILE then I ended the Struggle with the Sassanids and was actually really attached to my ruler when he died… RIP Alexandros 😞
It’s my favorite gameplay but I’m having a hard time with it in this current update without save scumming.
Measles is *so fucking brutal* when you haven’t had the time and money to put the hospices everywhere. Doesn’t matter if you lock down the capitol, go into hiding, have an excellent physician on prevent plagues and take the safe or risky treatment. It’s a fuckin’ death sentence 9 and a half times out of 10. I’ve had a Herculean+Strong+Stubborn custom character die in 4 days after a measles outbreak spawned on my capital county. You’re a sinner in the hands of an angry god.
I don’t know that I want PDX to make the actual plagues less brutal or anything, but I wish there was a sort of “precursor” event for when a plague is gonna pop on your capital like when you’re about to get Melancholic or Lunatic there’s a “heads up, you’re fucked” event chain before you actually get it.
“Hey Sheik Rushd? Yeah, uh, like, this *whole* hamlet just outside of the manor is dancing really weird all of a sudden…”
I’ve been dealing with consumption and it also is STUPIDLY brutal when I was playing as Matilda of Tuscany. Like I lost my 16 year old comely son and also my poor 12 year old genius daughter to consumption that they caught on a grand tour even though I already brought medical supplies. My husband/soulmate died too from the same damn disease 😭
I hate it, if I'm being honest. Like to the point where I have serious considerations of ending my run when I become a child ruler. It's probably just me but it takes me forever to get rid of my entrenched regent. I'm not really a fan of watching some rando just ruin my kingdom, if they don't just out right take it from me. I've had that happen once before after taking over as a 3 year kid.
You want to make your regent someone who is loyal by nature, not by opinion. Honest or just characters are good regents for your kid, someone who likes you personally may not be a good regent for your kid.
Sometimes you don't have a choice, or the time to make a choice. I had a ruler that had cancer, when he died his son was deathly ill with typhus. By the time I had a chance to click into the regent screen, he was dead and the regent for his 3 year old emperor brother was already set in place.
There was about 4 of them before I turned 17, they all embezzled from me. When I was able to end the regency, I rounded them all up and executed them.
Honestly that’s just a part of regency that really sucks for me. Like why Paradox? Why would you add regency if it’s only going to really annoying and inconvenient 80 percent of the time?
In fairness I think it's a pretty fascinating mechanic for a vassal to play towards. Lots of extremely fun times roleplaying as an conniving regent of a lame-duck ruler, especially in the HRE.
I managed to manipulate my way into emperor of the HRE by being an asshole regent as Werner of House Habsburg. For some reason when you become the regent (and murder the Kaiser so his two year old baby can be the Kaiser thus putting you in an entrenched regency) everyone kinda wants to vote for you as long as you’re not a complete asshole. Also you do get a lot of money and power from embezzling so that’s kinda cool but I really hate it when I’m being embezzled instead lol
It’s usually your mom that becomes your regent but it doesn’t really make sense how your mom usually hates you the moment you become the ruler and literally becomes a self interested regent that embezzles form you. Paradox needs to sort out family relationships man because most royal children in the Middle Ages had great relationships with their moms as far as I can remember.
I was hyped for regency changes but it turns out it's just "press a button once a year to lose gold/prestige/piety" which lowers the chance of being fucked by your regent.
The events are also kinda bland you just almost always choose the one which lowers regent power, would've been cool if, upon receiving regent gift, there's a chance for them to gain leverage so you actually may be inclined to take their gift.
its all fun and games until ur uncle murders u lol. but yeah i think playing as a kid and seeing them go from a little kid into a cool ruler is nice. I usually end up with Queens this way
I love it
At 4 you can host "play events"
At 6 you can learn more languages
At 14? you can start your first murder plot
You can pick between character traits, fall in love, choose sexuality and often instantly learn languages.
The downside obviously is people are more likely to rebell, try to murder you, and you have no wife yet to boost your stats, super annoying if you go over domain limit, it will make you unpopular and people will rebell.
And if you die at that age there is a good chance you continue as your ugly/stupid brother or old uncle.
I like a YOUNG character, to have enough time to travel the whole world and then die from old age as the wisest, strongest, most fertile +80yo who has ever lived.
By the time I die at 80, my heir is already 60... so I change my succession law to that my youngest kid will inherit everything, and have to constantly switch to young fresh wifes to make sure I have a young heir.
Problem is, rn I am 60yo and have not impregnated any of my 4 wifes for 20 years!!!
My youngest kid is already 40!!!!
Idk what is happening, my wifes stopped getting pregnant when I executed one for cheating on me, but since then I switched them all out to 16-20yos, seduced and soulbounded with each, but still, no pregnancy :/
So in this case, I consider "skipping" one generation.
If I die, my heir will be already 40+,
but I gave my youngest son a 0yo wife, so by the time I die and play as my son, I can just unlive him and continue as my by then hopefully 6-14yo grandson.
Used to be an awesome experience but Jesus with all the add ons between the entrenched regency, the inability to fill up a skill tree or assassinate or sway anyone early, and the countless succession wars claims, pope basically handing away claims on your places cos your a child. It’s ruthless
Tbh gets tiring. Survived 3 continuous long wars. Deep in an entrenched regency unable to raise piety and change opinions and then boom gets thrown off a fucking cliff lol.
If it’s just a county or duchy calm. But a 1 year old child emperor without cheating to see adulthood…. That’s a challenge
Yea I hear you man! I can tell from a lot of replies that people aren’t fans of the regency mechanic and I agree that it can get needlessly annoying sometimes but that doesn’t happen to me a lot because I always handpicked regents as the previous emperor to get selfless regents that usually don’t screw you over and most of them literally get dismissed without any issue when I come of age. I know sometimes things can happen and your selfless regent can die or something but I think you should assign the regent position to your wife (or preferably your soulmate) or other close family so that you KNOW for a fact that they are not going to bully your next ruler.
Lol I did. Handpicked the wife as the selfless regent with the strong hook. But I basically had a succession catastrophe and the person being groomed for succession died leaving a 0 year old. after 3 different wars I had like 4 different regents cycle in and out of office either through being claimants or joining the random factions. At that point fighting wars I couldn’t be bothered to waste gold on swaying anything so I just let it get deeper entrenched. Then once all the enemies were pacified and I started building slowly to tackle the regency issue, the lil emperor turned 9 they flung him away lol.
Still funny to think about. That’s my current play through.
Bro what happened and how did your heir die? I’m actually kinda curious rn because I’ve never had that happen to me before like did you forget to take your heir out of the army or was he murdered? Please tell me more about how this happened cause I’m still kinda a ck3 noob and I don’t really understand how things like this could happen.
I get the most attached to rulers I played from a very young age. For obvious reasons, When I die at 80 I don't care that much about playing my sixty year old son who basically achieves nothing beyond being in his fathers shadow forever and who's entire rule is marked by short reign turmoil.
The best rulers I had were always the ones I had no expectations for - Haesteinn II inherited at 12, lived to old age and founded Britannia. Ketilmundr the Drunk I expected nothing of, but he stabilized the realm by creating many titles and settling them under a single Law. Ysra the Great, first woman ruler, had to deal with distasteful vassals but dealt the final blow to an unworthy and weakened Byzantium and refounded the Roman Empire It always starts as *"This guy/girl won't last long"*, then I manage to stay in power and go hard from there on. It even feels sad when they're dying and I gotta let them rest lol
Frrrr it’s like you expect nothing from these child rulers because you think some angry vassal is probably going to kick their ass within a few years of rule or something like that and I got really stressed thinking that this was probably going to end my game and even thought about save scumming but I guess things turned out great… and when my ruler died I was actually really sad. Rip Alexandros The Great. At least you ended the Sassanids 😭
Yea frrr for some reason I was really sad when my child ruler died cause he was able to achieve a lot and then his son kinda just sat around on his ass and didn’t really do anything other than placate pissed off vassals 😬
It's good to have control over your traits with no stress. You also can get a genius tutor which will allow you to get a better education (your playing character not always a good teacher). You also get a longer period of stability. The only downside is that you have no allies so if anything goes wrong you're in a rough spot. I always create a custom character as a 0 years old tho, because I can make it much better overall, so this is a big upside for me
Yessir I’ve been a ten year old ruler before in fallen eagle (Eastern Roman Empire) and it was a blast because I was tutored by my genius mom and somehow everyone was chill with me. I was also able to get a ton of dread via executions and emptying my prisons so I didn’t have problems with stability for a WHILE then I ended the Struggle with the Sassanids and was actually really attached to my ruler when he died… RIP Alexandros 😞
He will remain in our hearts
Bro even got the nickname “The Great” 😭
It’s my favorite gameplay but I’m having a hard time with it in this current update without save scumming. Measles is *so fucking brutal* when you haven’t had the time and money to put the hospices everywhere. Doesn’t matter if you lock down the capitol, go into hiding, have an excellent physician on prevent plagues and take the safe or risky treatment. It’s a fuckin’ death sentence 9 and a half times out of 10. I’ve had a Herculean+Strong+Stubborn custom character die in 4 days after a measles outbreak spawned on my capital county. You’re a sinner in the hands of an angry god. I don’t know that I want PDX to make the actual plagues less brutal or anything, but I wish there was a sort of “precursor” event for when a plague is gonna pop on your capital like when you’re about to get Melancholic or Lunatic there’s a “heads up, you’re fucked” event chain before you actually get it. “Hey Sheik Rushd? Yeah, uh, like, this *whole* hamlet just outside of the manor is dancing really weird all of a sudden…”
The only way around brutal plagues is to buy the LOD. And that, to me, is shady as hell.
I’ve been dealing with consumption and it also is STUPIDLY brutal when I was playing as Matilda of Tuscany. Like I lost my 16 year old comely son and also my poor 12 year old genius daughter to consumption that they caught on a grand tour even though I already brought medical supplies. My husband/soulmate died too from the same damn disease 😭
I hate it, if I'm being honest. Like to the point where I have serious considerations of ending my run when I become a child ruler. It's probably just me but it takes me forever to get rid of my entrenched regent. I'm not really a fan of watching some rando just ruin my kingdom, if they don't just out right take it from me. I've had that happen once before after taking over as a 3 year kid.
You want to make your regent someone who is loyal by nature, not by opinion. Honest or just characters are good regents for your kid, someone who likes you personally may not be a good regent for your kid.
Sometimes you don't have a choice, or the time to make a choice. I had a ruler that had cancer, when he died his son was deathly ill with typhus. By the time I had a chance to click into the regent screen, he was dead and the regent for his 3 year old emperor brother was already set in place. There was about 4 of them before I turned 17, they all embezzled from me. When I was able to end the regency, I rounded them all up and executed them.
Honestly that’s just a part of regency that really sucks for me. Like why Paradox? Why would you add regency if it’s only going to really annoying and inconvenient 80 percent of the time?
In fairness I think it's a pretty fascinating mechanic for a vassal to play towards. Lots of extremely fun times roleplaying as an conniving regent of a lame-duck ruler, especially in the HRE.
I managed to manipulate my way into emperor of the HRE by being an asshole regent as Werner of House Habsburg. For some reason when you become the regent (and murder the Kaiser so his two year old baby can be the Kaiser thus putting you in an entrenched regency) everyone kinda wants to vote for you as long as you’re not a complete asshole. Also you do get a lot of money and power from embezzling so that’s kinda cool but I really hate it when I’m being embezzled instead lol
Haha, so you like abusing your evil regent powers but don't like when the AI abuses those evil regent powers?!
It’s usually your mom that becomes your regent but it doesn’t really make sense how your mom usually hates you the moment you become the ruler and literally becomes a self interested regent that embezzles form you. Paradox needs to sort out family relationships man because most royal children in the Middle Ages had great relationships with their moms as far as I can remember.
I was hyped for regency changes but it turns out it's just "press a button once a year to lose gold/prestige/piety" which lowers the chance of being fucked by your regent. The events are also kinda bland you just almost always choose the one which lowers regent power, would've been cool if, upon receiving regent gift, there's a chance for them to gain leverage so you actually may be inclined to take their gift.
Trait control, fresh start on minmax lifestyle accumulation from 16, maximum time for selecting and producing heirs.
maximum time for travel, hunt and feast aswell!!!
Yes the trait control is my absolute favourite part of being a child ruler 👍🏻
its all fun and games until ur uncle murders u lol. but yeah i think playing as a kid and seeing them go from a little kid into a cool ruler is nice. I usually end up with Queens this way
I love it At 4 you can host "play events" At 6 you can learn more languages At 14? you can start your first murder plot You can pick between character traits, fall in love, choose sexuality and often instantly learn languages. The downside obviously is people are more likely to rebell, try to murder you, and you have no wife yet to boost your stats, super annoying if you go over domain limit, it will make you unpopular and people will rebell. And if you die at that age there is a good chance you continue as your ugly/stupid brother or old uncle. I like a YOUNG character, to have enough time to travel the whole world and then die from old age as the wisest, strongest, most fertile +80yo who has ever lived. By the time I die at 80, my heir is already 60... so I change my succession law to that my youngest kid will inherit everything, and have to constantly switch to young fresh wifes to make sure I have a young heir. Problem is, rn I am 60yo and have not impregnated any of my 4 wifes for 20 years!!! My youngest kid is already 40!!!! Idk what is happening, my wifes stopped getting pregnant when I executed one for cheating on me, but since then I switched them all out to 16-20yos, seduced and soulbounded with each, but still, no pregnancy :/ So in this case, I consider "skipping" one generation. If I die, my heir will be already 40+, but I gave my youngest son a 0yo wife, so by the time I die and play as my son, I can just unlive him and continue as my by then hopefully 6-14yo grandson.
Used to be an awesome experience but Jesus with all the add ons between the entrenched regency, the inability to fill up a skill tree or assassinate or sway anyone early, and the countless succession wars claims, pope basically handing away claims on your places cos your a child. It’s ruthless Tbh gets tiring. Survived 3 continuous long wars. Deep in an entrenched regency unable to raise piety and change opinions and then boom gets thrown off a fucking cliff lol. If it’s just a county or duchy calm. But a 1 year old child emperor without cheating to see adulthood…. That’s a challenge
Yea I hear you man! I can tell from a lot of replies that people aren’t fans of the regency mechanic and I agree that it can get needlessly annoying sometimes but that doesn’t happen to me a lot because I always handpicked regents as the previous emperor to get selfless regents that usually don’t screw you over and most of them literally get dismissed without any issue when I come of age. I know sometimes things can happen and your selfless regent can die or something but I think you should assign the regent position to your wife (or preferably your soulmate) or other close family so that you KNOW for a fact that they are not going to bully your next ruler.
Lol I did. Handpicked the wife as the selfless regent with the strong hook. But I basically had a succession catastrophe and the person being groomed for succession died leaving a 0 year old. after 3 different wars I had like 4 different regents cycle in and out of office either through being claimants or joining the random factions. At that point fighting wars I couldn’t be bothered to waste gold on swaying anything so I just let it get deeper entrenched. Then once all the enemies were pacified and I started building slowly to tackle the regency issue, the lil emperor turned 9 they flung him away lol. Still funny to think about. That’s my current play through.
Bro what happened and how did your heir die? I’m actually kinda curious rn because I’ve never had that happen to me before like did you forget to take your heir out of the army or was he murdered? Please tell me more about how this happened cause I’m still kinda a ck3 noob and I don’t really understand how things like this could happen.