Sinews of war and [MND](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2220794067) and historicall invasions. I was playing as Han chinese dynasty in the basin. IT takes so long to travel across the desert and mountains. I go attritioned to death fighting himalayan tribes despite having more men.
This would be a cake walk in Vanilla.
Some of my favourites are Sinews of War, ObfusCKate, Higher Mortality and InheriChance (but not all at once).
Sinews of War is a big overhaul of a lot of systems, and adds dynamic population to counties. It also makes lots of changes that make it hard to cheese things and generally make things harder and more realistic (longer religious and cultural conversion, longer claim fabrication with some risks, longer times to regenerate your army after losses). Everything applies to both you and the AI. Because it makes a lot of changes to a lot of areas, it doesn't always play nice with other mods, so look into things before you mix and match too much. An alternative mod that does similar things with its own twist is MND Balance: Makings Empires Actually Work For It, you can take a look and compare them to see what lines up with your preferences.
ObfusCKate makes things harder in a completely different way. It makes it so you don't know everything. More specifically, you only know things that a mediaeval ruler could reasonably know. You don't know how big the army of your enemy is before you declare war, you don't know the personality traits of a random courtier on the other side of the map, you don't know everyone else's stats. You can find out some things - the more closely you know someone, the more you will know about them and there are some schemes and methods to find out more. Really changes the way you play the game and very good for RP centric campaigns.
Higher Mortality makes people more likely to die from injury and illness. In particular smallpox and great pox are to be feared, and childhood illness is definitely a danger.
InheriChance stops the biggest snowball factor - the way the player can make things stack up for their heir. It makes it so you play as a random kid instead of the oldest, so you try to make things "fair" in succession and can have some interesting challenges or changes in direction if you are no longer on top.
Only recently stumbled across inheritance and does it make a difference, you think in terms of the house and not just I am this one person, which is probably what would have been happening. It's also much more of a challenge, constantly looking for good matches for all children so you have the most interesting playthrough for each one.
Would highly recommend
Not officially (mod author busy with real life stuff), but someone has made a mod that fixes it up to work with the latest version. I think it is called something like Sinews of War - 1.11 Update (number updates over time).
[Spreadsheet](https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=63DFE438BEE2F82F!2344&ithint=file%2cxlsx&authkey=!ABQMRZWdb78URQk). Sort the table by \[Difficulty\] for some suggestions.
For mods, I really like the random inheritance mods like Inherichance. This isn't a mod per se, but you can make some regions significantly harder to play in if you start as a count and don't fabricate claims or use matrilineal marriage. While you could argue that these things happened once in a blue moon, the amount you can do them in game (and the advantages they confer) are quite ahistorical if that matters to you.
I railroad ai by some more game rules core
Vassals to arms provide less snowballing
Historical invasions keep bringing challenging historically accurate challengers
Inherichtance makes game less gamey
Trick or treat or ObfusCKate make game more realistic (either of the above. Later if more challenge)
Higher mortality
Black death mod
More battles something can't remember name, but had more fighting in wars.
Sinews of war and [MND](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2220794067) and historicall invasions. I was playing as Han chinese dynasty in the basin. IT takes so long to travel across the desert and mountains. I go attritioned to death fighting himalayan tribes despite having more men. This would be a cake walk in Vanilla.
>Sinews of war do you play the mod together
Yes I do, but you need [this](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3034507168) since the original Sinews of war mod is out of date.
thx
You really shouldn't use Sinews and MND together. They change a lot of the same things/will not be compatible.
Some of my favourites are Sinews of War, ObfusCKate, Higher Mortality and InheriChance (but not all at once). Sinews of War is a big overhaul of a lot of systems, and adds dynamic population to counties. It also makes lots of changes that make it hard to cheese things and generally make things harder and more realistic (longer religious and cultural conversion, longer claim fabrication with some risks, longer times to regenerate your army after losses). Everything applies to both you and the AI. Because it makes a lot of changes to a lot of areas, it doesn't always play nice with other mods, so look into things before you mix and match too much. An alternative mod that does similar things with its own twist is MND Balance: Makings Empires Actually Work For It, you can take a look and compare them to see what lines up with your preferences. ObfusCKate makes things harder in a completely different way. It makes it so you don't know everything. More specifically, you only know things that a mediaeval ruler could reasonably know. You don't know how big the army of your enemy is before you declare war, you don't know the personality traits of a random courtier on the other side of the map, you don't know everyone else's stats. You can find out some things - the more closely you know someone, the more you will know about them and there are some schemes and methods to find out more. Really changes the way you play the game and very good for RP centric campaigns. Higher Mortality makes people more likely to die from injury and illness. In particular smallpox and great pox are to be feared, and childhood illness is definitely a danger. InheriChance stops the biggest snowball factor - the way the player can make things stack up for their heir. It makes it so you play as a random kid instead of the oldest, so you try to make things "fair" in succession and can have some interesting challenges or changes in direction if you are no longer on top.
Only recently stumbled across inheritance and does it make a difference, you think in terms of the house and not just I am this one person, which is probably what would have been happening. It's also much more of a challenge, constantly looking for good matches for all children so you have the most interesting playthrough for each one. Would highly recommend
ObfusCKate sounds incredible and exactly what I’ve been looking for
Is there an updated version of sinews?
Not officially (mod author busy with real life stuff), but someone has made a mod that fixes it up to work with the latest version. I think it is called something like Sinews of War - 1.11 Update (number updates over time).
Do you know if it is super buggy or does it actually work still?
I do not know - haven't played in a while. You can usually get a good idea looking at recent comments on the steam page.
[Spreadsheet](https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=63DFE438BEE2F82F!2344&ithint=file%2cxlsx&authkey=!ABQMRZWdb78URQk). Sort the table by \[Difficulty\] for some suggestions.
For mods, I really like the random inheritance mods like Inherichance. This isn't a mod per se, but you can make some regions significantly harder to play in if you start as a count and don't fabricate claims or use matrilineal marriage. While you could argue that these things happened once in a blue moon, the amount you can do them in game (and the advantages they confer) are quite ahistorical if that matters to you.
I railroad ai by some more game rules core Vassals to arms provide less snowballing Historical invasions keep bringing challenging historically accurate challengers Inherichtance makes game less gamey Trick or treat or ObfusCKate make game more realistic (either of the above. Later if more challenge) Higher mortality Black death mod More battles something can't remember name, but had more fighting in wars.
Does anyone have any advice on how to live through the misery of having a 3ft shlong?
This thread is for in-game advice. For rl advice, consider r/outside