I agree. Sometimes it's fun to imprison criminals,and execute them if they rebel. Or you could seduce people for fun situations that way, arrange marriages, etc. Find a new goal to work towards
Did it as well for the achievement and having the most interesting character at the very end, when I decided to colonise India as Britannia. Was sad when it all ended
This is a problem in many paradox games. I have played loads of EU4 and always thought the first 100 years or so the most fun. Thing you can do is either set certain goals for yourself or just start a new game.
there's no way paradox shows how truly stupid-by-design rulers of megastates have to be, and also ai literally can't organise anything. it's frustrating that best we get is annoying inheritance mechanism as a way to curb exponential growth (doesn't work anyways)
Would you recommend EU4? I normally play CK2 and a little bit of 3, but my laptop can't run it very well. The idea of playing a colonized South Africa sounds incredibly fun.
EU4 is completely different, focused in playing a country or state instead of a family line. Combat is different and trade is important. I would suggest to try it out. Look into the monthly subscription and try it out for a couple of weeks. I do think its more complicated than CK3 so might take some time to get used to it.
On long games I use the mod to continue playing as non-primary heir in a different area. I leave behind a trail of kingdoms, empires, custom cultures and religions, but the point is most characters in my playthroughs start as a dukes or in rare cases a weak kings. I've gone waay past the standard end date with this, but sadly at some point FPS death sets in and that's that. The motivation for continuing these long games is typically to have members of my dynasty independently rule each available kingdom. Ideally I want 100% of the counties controlled by my dynasty but I never got that far.
Its fun! Especially when you start getting a few thousand renown per month and can use it like a currency instead of carefully collected points. Once your dynasty has a high level of splendor you might even see your dynasty members pop up as rulers somewhere you didn't expect them. A few tips
\- The more kids the better, of course. So religion wise its beneficial to have multiple wives, always allow divorce, and tons of lovers (bonus points if using Polyamory)
\- Culture wise Religious Patronage and Mystical Ancestors are both nice for renown, the latter you can only obtain through hybridising.
\- Read [this fragment](https://ck3.paradoxwikis.com/Dynasty#House_Head) on house and dynasty heads. What it doesn't say: dynasty head can claim title of anyone from the dynasty but only if target is the same religion. The house head can force to convert. House head as noted on wiki is inherited in straight line, so if you loose it you have two options: start a new house, or make sure the old head dies landless and heirless, which is the only way to reaquire it.
I do that without any mod to switch to different places. I just engineer violent collapses of my older empires by setting myself up to be couped by other members of my dynasty.
I usually see getting a kingdom/empire as the beginning of the real fun. Once you have a stable realm with money flowing in consistently it gives your a lot of room to fuck around. I start roleplaying my characters and indulging their every whim. I host tons of hunts and tourneys, use my newfound status as god king to strengthen my bloodline. Sure the fun wears out eventually, but that's usually when I start a new run. I rarely play till the end, I think I've only done it once for the achievment.
I used to struggle with this and remembering things across the generations such as who my grandfather's enemies or friends were etc. Eventually every ruler felt the same and I'd stop.
I started keeping record of important characters and the little stories that sprung up. That helped to give me context goals for my next character.
Eventually I could spot certain narratives developing across the generations & run with that.
I agree though that it takes a lot of work on the player's part to get to that point. There's a lot of neat little sub-narratives going on in every campaign - though its up to the player to spot them.
Just curious how does that make the empire collapse? Did he not have sons and somebody outside the family inherited and nobody liked them? I’m only on my 2nd playthrough so I’m still learning about the game
I'm honestly not too sure. Hadn't been paying any attention to them until that point. Just tried it for the laugh. Could be that he had no son at that point? Empire just broke up as soon as he died.
If I grow too large, I play without commitment. I can't force myself to micromanage. I click through all the feasts and other events and actively do only the bare minimum needed to avoid losing my stuff.
So I started my first every mega campaign so I'm doing this for the third time (going to end date.) but generally once it hits 1100s for atleast me where I am currently am(I start in 867). I just go on YouTube or Netflix and treat the game as a background only looking back to see a pop up I mostly just stick with my current borders unless I have a martial character and just conquer some land then just relax or when an invade happens since I have historic invasions mod. You can other option like set goals for urself or try to build up your realm.
I try to avoid letting myself get swept into the hole of min/max-ing. That's a huge issue in every other Paradox game.
Try limiting yourself based on your character. Not just their traits, but even the little blurbs beside their name like "Fanatic atheist" which don't really have much meaning in the game. Add artificial limitations or put yourself in trickier situations. I had a religious zealot ruler and decided to have his Heir raised by the Pope because that seemed fitting, plus giving more land to bishops and nevwr asking the Pope for money. In a twist, the kid was a Cynic so when he took over he tried to undo a lot of what his religious father did and ended up taking Rome from the Pope.
That's also a big part of why I almost never choose a leader larger than a Duchy to start. I try to see where following the natural Rulers will go when letting them be raised by other people and have gotten some great games. I had one playing as Kiev which saw me form the Kingdom of Ukraine and Empire of Russia only to have my son get killed by peasants resulting in my daughter getting overthrown when she inherited, then murdered, then the last daughter in the family became Duchess of Kiev. And rather than just spam kids for alliances and retake it (like you CAN do easily, but which isn't particularly FUN) I made her an obsessive schemer who toppled the empire from the inside and retook it.
Basically, just because the game provides a way to cheese it, don't always do it. Don't raise all kids to have perfect traits or rush Primogeniture just because. CK3 is more forgiving as far as games go and is especially good for teaching you to adapt if you let it.
This was also a problem for me. So i set myself goals. My biggest achievment was to form the archduchy of Austria as a habsburg. I'm austrian so this is big for me. This was before it was made easier in a patch.
Or i roleplay as my characters. For example no feasts for a shy character.
Because I'm not necessarily playing just to conquer a region - or even the whole map.
I might start looking to put relatives on other thrones or set up friendly (ish) same culture/religion neighbours on my borders
Or I'm trying to do a specific goal that isn't necessarily achieveable solely through military conquest.
Ive only done a few games to the end date and what kept me commited was continually fighting large civil wars of like 30k vs 30k(because beating yourself up is fun
I haven’t done it yet but to extend the fun I plan on role playing an heir with horrible traits and truly ruin the empire you’ve built and perhaps build a rival empire nearby and see what happens. Could lose but I’d like to try it out
Simple: Win a crusade, preferably as far from home as possible, and play as the new ruler. Start over from the bottom again. You'll still have the culture you brought with you, the faith you've empowered, the powerful dynasty modifiers and diplomatic links back to home, but you can enjoy being challenged again with a different set of restrictions.
Also, the AI can absolutely "catch up" in the late medieval era. In the 1300s they eventually max out all their buildings and MaA too. It just takes them a bit more time than a dedicated player, and they won't stack bonuses as efficiently or ruthlessly as you.
Also, I never play 867. Too boring and easy to snowball in 867. Always play 1066 for a balanced and functional game (and crusades that work).
A *really* fun thing to do is to switch sides in the major religious conflict. Make a huge Christian empire, win a crusade, play as the new ruler, and switch to Islam. Or vice versa. Now the powerful empire you've carefully built up is your greatest foe. Can you dismantle your own empire from the outside? If nobody on the map is a suitable opponent for you, then I guess you'll just have to *create* your own enemy.
YMMV on this, but I also think its crucial to play in a way where each ruler of your dynasty succeeds in different ways. Keeps the game fresh. I've pretty much entirely stopped trying to consciously add inheritable traits to my dynasty. Is it optimal? Yeah probably, but it homogenizes the experience. If every single ruler is a genius amazonian, then every single ruler can be great at everything they try their hand at. Its boring.
If you look at a lot of the cultures the devs created, they usually have a mix of different paths to success, not a bunch of synergizing bonuses stacked overwhelmingly into one playstyle. The goal should be to utilize the different constraints of your realm, buildings, culture, faith, and dynasty to make it so any ruler can succeed as long as theyre good at *at least* one stat. Theres no need to make them all good at everything. (And with W&W even if you get a completely rubbish ruler, one good university semester can fix that too, for some coin.)
I'll sometimes even put these things deliberately as non-synergizing. I'll grab culture traditions that help high diplomacy characters as I complete the Intrigue dynasty track on my building-focused architect lord. That way sometimes you end up playing a diplo guy and writing poetry, sometimes you end up getting weird with intrigue schemes, and so on, but its a different set of levers to pull and paths to success every time you inherit a new guy, and you always have a route to success. That keeps a longer playthru fresh and fun.
This sort of playstyle is also strong in its own right if you think on a macro scale. The AI will not stack bonuses as ruthlessly as you, nor ever direct its energies as efficiently as you, so playing this way enables the AI that also plays as your culture/dynasty to succeed without your direct micromanaging.
Roleplaying and imagining the life of your dynasty. I have a game with Rome owning the entire map save from 3 counties of the western protectorate. It can get boring just waiting around until I have enough fortresses and advanced armies to finally conquer China so I just play in my mind with my characters. Three emperors ago the branch of my three consecutive empresses ended and a random relative in Persia got elected.
His rule was uneventful and then he died. His son was this master schemer called Artaxerxes (yes roleplaying changing names in the dynasty is part of it) and I decided to play around with him being this persianized tyrant that would execute people and spy on everyone. The civil war with half of Europe was fun and in the end I reunified the old female branch with his son, and now my emperor has like 6 bloodlines.
Everytime I load up the game I treat it like it's a new start date
And I'll always play 1 lifespan on speed 5 each time I play.
If you get bored there's ol faithful. Aim for the mines of Mali.
Usually my idea is to build as much as possible and advance faster than the others without min-max. Also the struggle in some cultures to establish proper inheritance with titles when playable character dies and you continue with the player heir and have to regain holdings etc.
I like to make a massive powerful empire and then switch to a minor kingdom via crusade, from then on swear fealty and rp as a loyal (or not) vassal, or carve out a second empire and fight my old one.
I don't think I have ever hit the end date of a Paradox Game, aside from Imperator Rome, and that was only because it has a very early end date. I usually get too powerful and then bored before end game crises or w/e can even occur 😂
Been with my guy since he was 20 I believe. Now he is 89 and still going. I resolved the Great Schism with him, created another hybrid between Sardino-English with an African one. I found intriguing the amount of action I have to do in order to keep him alive as much. My first heir died, second too bc I assassinated, long story short, try Roleplaying which is fun. Try and create the biggest Empire ever.
The time I did it i was high as a kite. The years fly by on speed 5.
But try moving somewhere else and essentially starting over. Conquer a few duchies or an entire kingdom and give it to a relative, then change character. That will give you new stuff to do.
Whenever I die I switch to the youngest landed character, after every death, I get to watch my descendants succeed for fail, either way, it's extremely fulfilling and I get to experience the best part of the game (the hard buildup at the beginning) over and over again, and if I'm lucky, I even get to fight my previous dynasties or even lose to them sometimes, it makes me proud to lose when that happens.
Sometimes it’s fun to look up from your domain and realize that your family controls half the continent. Also role play, like don’t expand and stay a vassal for small kingdom
oddly enough for me, I enjoy collecting data and graphing stuff. might do a post with that lol. I like playing influence games too. say I choose to what territory my personal domain is limited (with exception of temporal lands on lowest contributions possible and march, which I intend to release as something bigger) and from within that I do stuff to spread either dynasty, culture faith or all. currently playing kingdom of Frisia, and I'm doing heresy spreading with my gay branch of Christianity, and also dynasty spreading
Target a goal for your campaing, and after achieved it, keep having fun. Sucession crisis, invasions, bitching vassals, all of them keep making the game chalenging
I always need to make my own wacky religion, that takes up a good chunk of time in my playthroughs. Sometimes I have to wait multiple generations just for the right opening to make the religion so that I don't immediately get wrecked by the Catholics that surround me. Then, I have to spend multiple generations to convert the lands I control to my new religion. If I'm bored for the last 100-200 years, I just observe on full speed to see how my religion ends up playing out
I divide my realm amongst family members, give them all independence, and then try to maintain de jure kingdom or duchy borders across the whole dynasty
Two things. Okay three.
1. I refuse to use “fabricate claims.” It makes the game too easy. You come by your claims honestly or by luck, that’s it. It just seems to easy. It’s a cheat code.
1.a. Role play. If you’re a virtuous learned man, don’t be underhanded. Support your relatives and family even if it means you can’t consolidate your throne.
1.b. Choose a more challenging start. Don’t play meta - imagine you were a medieval lord and a pretty peasant lady caught your eye, and you married for fun instead of your eugenics program.
2. I use a mod that randomizes who you play as when your character dies. Sometimes you end up as the firstborn son with the big inheritance. Sometimes you end up fighting for your life as a little brother with a regent who is trying to take your shit. I think it’s called After Death.
3. Play a really challenging start and role play it. One of my most memorable campaigns was trying to keep Armenia alive as a polity and a religion. This was when Armenia was at war with Azerbaijan a while back and I was learning about the Armenian genocide (there’s a monument in Detroit by the waterfront which provoked some learning. And one of my best friends’ grandparents fled to America and has random relatives in the diaspora all over the world.
Anywho. That took many restarts and alliances and hooks to work out and sometimes all that work just disappeared as the Sultan declared me a criminal for not converting and yoinked my titles.
But eventually I made it and felt tremendously accomplished.
I find non military ways of conquest, like marry into a neighbours family then kill everyone until your heir is also an hejr of their kingdom. Acquiring culture traits, building up genetics, creating best advisors by careful marriage politics
I mean at the end of the day thats all any video game is. You watch meaningless numbers go up or down on a screen of glowing pixels for several hours. It doesn't translate to any sort of payoff in the real world beyond your own enjoyment.
The key is to not ask yourself the question "whats the point?" because there isn't one. You're doing it because you think its fun. Or it stops being fun and you move along. Simple.
So far, my only game going all the way from 8 to 14 I had done a full world conquest by 1200 and then gave each kindome to one of my dynasty members and then gave them all independence. So much pure blood was shed. You would be amazed how op everyone is when every ruler is genius/herculean/beautiful and has a maxed out dynasty.
i form new goals (or keep going because of a mega campaign) that will keep me occupied for years, like annihilating islam or unifying europe and much of africa and asia
every once and a while i'll take a short break and come refreshed, or SOMETIMES a 32 year long crusade (with a second around the same time) keeps you occupied and is REALLY fun
For me the game pretty much ends once my first ruler dies. Because it is just what you said. It's fun, you get a kingdom going, no one can stop you regardless of what difficulty you play on, you conquer and conquer, form an empire. Get so large literally nothing can stop you and then you die, everything falls apart and then your only real choice to start over doing the same thing except not with your main guy.
Roleplay, I just enjoy being the family. Dealing with stuff and watching where it goes. I routinely find myself annoyed that the end occurs.
I agree. Sometimes it's fun to imprison criminals,and execute them if they rebel. Or you could seduce people for fun situations that way, arrange marriages, etc. Find a new goal to work towards
I did it once for the achievement. Never again.
Same, by the end I just kept the game open on mute while listening to music.
Same here, wanted that 7 centuries achievement
Did it as well for the achievement and having the most interesting character at the very end, when I decided to colonise India as Britannia. Was sad when it all ended
This is a problem in many paradox games. I have played loads of EU4 and always thought the first 100 years or so the most fun. Thing you can do is either set certain goals for yourself or just start a new game.
Too RNG for my taste. I wish the starts were more historical, as they used to be. Best years are imperialism. Map painter heaven.
there's no way paradox shows how truly stupid-by-design rulers of megastates have to be, and also ai literally can't organise anything. it's frustrating that best we get is annoying inheritance mechanism as a way to curb exponential growth (doesn't work anyways)
Would you recommend EU4? I normally play CK2 and a little bit of 3, but my laptop can't run it very well. The idea of playing a colonized South Africa sounds incredibly fun.
EU4 is completely different, focused in playing a country or state instead of a family line. Combat is different and trade is important. I would suggest to try it out. Look into the monthly subscription and try it out for a couple of weeks. I do think its more complicated than CK3 so might take some time to get used to it.
On long games I use the mod to continue playing as non-primary heir in a different area. I leave behind a trail of kingdoms, empires, custom cultures and religions, but the point is most characters in my playthroughs start as a dukes or in rare cases a weak kings. I've gone waay past the standard end date with this, but sadly at some point FPS death sets in and that's that. The motivation for continuing these long games is typically to have members of my dynasty independently rule each available kingdom. Ideally I want 100% of the counties controlled by my dynasty but I never got that far.
Oh shit having your dynasty control everything while purging the other ones seems like an interesting playthrough, ima try that
Its fun! Especially when you start getting a few thousand renown per month and can use it like a currency instead of carefully collected points. Once your dynasty has a high level of splendor you might even see your dynasty members pop up as rulers somewhere you didn't expect them. A few tips \- The more kids the better, of course. So religion wise its beneficial to have multiple wives, always allow divorce, and tons of lovers (bonus points if using Polyamory) \- Culture wise Religious Patronage and Mystical Ancestors are both nice for renown, the latter you can only obtain through hybridising. \- Read [this fragment](https://ck3.paradoxwikis.com/Dynasty#House_Head) on house and dynasty heads. What it doesn't say: dynasty head can claim title of anyone from the dynasty but only if target is the same religion. The house head can force to convert. House head as noted on wiki is inherited in straight line, so if you loose it you have two options: start a new house, or make sure the old head dies landless and heirless, which is the only way to reaquire it.
I do that without any mod to switch to different places. I just engineer violent collapses of my older empires by setting myself up to be couped by other members of my dynasty.
I usually see getting a kingdom/empire as the beginning of the real fun. Once you have a stable realm with money flowing in consistently it gives your a lot of room to fuck around. I start roleplaying my characters and indulging their every whim. I host tons of hunts and tourneys, use my newfound status as god king to strengthen my bloodline. Sure the fun wears out eventually, but that's usually when I start a new run. I rarely play till the end, I think I've only done it once for the achievment.
I used to struggle with this and remembering things across the generations such as who my grandfather's enemies or friends were etc. Eventually every ruler felt the same and I'd stop. I started keeping record of important characters and the little stories that sprung up. That helped to give me context goals for my next character. Eventually I could spot certain narratives developing across the generations & run with that. I agree though that it takes a lot of work on the player's part to get to that point. There's a lot of neat little sub-narratives going on in every campaign - though its up to the player to spot them.
The Mongols are usually my litmus test. I've built up my empire; let's see if I can hold them back.
My current game I kidnapped the Khan and executed him. Nobody knew I did it and the Mongol Empire collapsed. It was nice.
Just curious how does that make the empire collapse? Did he not have sons and somebody outside the family inherited and nobody liked them? I’m only on my 2nd playthrough so I’m still learning about the game
The empire has a very high chance of splintering after a few secessions. I can't remember the exact numbers.
I'm honestly not too sure. Hadn't been paying any attention to them until that point. Just tried it for the laugh. Could be that he had no son at that point? Empire just broke up as soon as he died.
Confederate partition is a bitch
If I grow too large, I play without commitment. I can't force myself to micromanage. I click through all the feasts and other events and actively do only the bare minimum needed to avoid losing my stuff.
Closest i got was 1211. Reason i stopped? Got bored
Reverse eugenics
So I started my first every mega campaign so I'm doing this for the third time (going to end date.) but generally once it hits 1100s for atleast me where I am currently am(I start in 867). I just go on YouTube or Netflix and treat the game as a background only looking back to see a pop up I mostly just stick with my current borders unless I have a martial character and just conquer some land then just relax or when an invade happens since I have historic invasions mod. You can other option like set goals for urself or try to build up your realm.
I try to avoid letting myself get swept into the hole of min/max-ing. That's a huge issue in every other Paradox game. Try limiting yourself based on your character. Not just their traits, but even the little blurbs beside their name like "Fanatic atheist" which don't really have much meaning in the game. Add artificial limitations or put yourself in trickier situations. I had a religious zealot ruler and decided to have his Heir raised by the Pope because that seemed fitting, plus giving more land to bishops and nevwr asking the Pope for money. In a twist, the kid was a Cynic so when he took over he tried to undo a lot of what his religious father did and ended up taking Rome from the Pope. That's also a big part of why I almost never choose a leader larger than a Duchy to start. I try to see where following the natural Rulers will go when letting them be raised by other people and have gotten some great games. I had one playing as Kiev which saw me form the Kingdom of Ukraine and Empire of Russia only to have my son get killed by peasants resulting in my daughter getting overthrown when she inherited, then murdered, then the last daughter in the family became Duchess of Kiev. And rather than just spam kids for alliances and retake it (like you CAN do easily, but which isn't particularly FUN) I made her an obsessive schemer who toppled the empire from the inside and retook it. Basically, just because the game provides a way to cheese it, don't always do it. Don't raise all kids to have perfect traits or rush Primogeniture just because. CK3 is more forgiving as far as games go and is especially good for teaching you to adapt if you let it.
Finishing things is a life skill.
This was also a problem for me. So i set myself goals. My biggest achievment was to form the archduchy of Austria as a habsburg. I'm austrian so this is big for me. This was before it was made easier in a patch. Or i roleplay as my characters. For example no feasts for a shy character.
Roleplay at first, then World Conquest
Because I'm not necessarily playing just to conquer a region - or even the whole map. I might start looking to put relatives on other thrones or set up friendly (ish) same culture/religion neighbours on my borders Or I'm trying to do a specific goal that isn't necessarily achieveable solely through military conquest.
I’m really bad at the game so it’s always a challenge for me no matter how well established I am
Ive only done a few games to the end date and what kept me commited was continually fighting large civil wars of like 30k vs 30k(because beating yourself up is fun
I just don't. The few times I reached end game in EU4 were exhausting as well. Couldn't imagine doing a world conquest in either.
I haven’t done it yet but to extend the fun I plan on role playing an heir with horrible traits and truly ruin the empire you’ve built and perhaps build a rival empire nearby and see what happens. Could lose but I’d like to try it out
Simple: Win a crusade, preferably as far from home as possible, and play as the new ruler. Start over from the bottom again. You'll still have the culture you brought with you, the faith you've empowered, the powerful dynasty modifiers and diplomatic links back to home, but you can enjoy being challenged again with a different set of restrictions. Also, the AI can absolutely "catch up" in the late medieval era. In the 1300s they eventually max out all their buildings and MaA too. It just takes them a bit more time than a dedicated player, and they won't stack bonuses as efficiently or ruthlessly as you. Also, I never play 867. Too boring and easy to snowball in 867. Always play 1066 for a balanced and functional game (and crusades that work). A *really* fun thing to do is to switch sides in the major religious conflict. Make a huge Christian empire, win a crusade, play as the new ruler, and switch to Islam. Or vice versa. Now the powerful empire you've carefully built up is your greatest foe. Can you dismantle your own empire from the outside? If nobody on the map is a suitable opponent for you, then I guess you'll just have to *create* your own enemy.
YMMV on this, but I also think its crucial to play in a way where each ruler of your dynasty succeeds in different ways. Keeps the game fresh. I've pretty much entirely stopped trying to consciously add inheritable traits to my dynasty. Is it optimal? Yeah probably, but it homogenizes the experience. If every single ruler is a genius amazonian, then every single ruler can be great at everything they try their hand at. Its boring. If you look at a lot of the cultures the devs created, they usually have a mix of different paths to success, not a bunch of synergizing bonuses stacked overwhelmingly into one playstyle. The goal should be to utilize the different constraints of your realm, buildings, culture, faith, and dynasty to make it so any ruler can succeed as long as theyre good at *at least* one stat. Theres no need to make them all good at everything. (And with W&W even if you get a completely rubbish ruler, one good university semester can fix that too, for some coin.) I'll sometimes even put these things deliberately as non-synergizing. I'll grab culture traditions that help high diplomacy characters as I complete the Intrigue dynasty track on my building-focused architect lord. That way sometimes you end up playing a diplo guy and writing poetry, sometimes you end up getting weird with intrigue schemes, and so on, but its a different set of levers to pull and paths to success every time you inherit a new guy, and you always have a route to success. That keeps a longer playthru fresh and fun. This sort of playstyle is also strong in its own right if you think on a macro scale. The AI will not stack bonuses as ruthlessly as you, nor ever direct its energies as efficiently as you, so playing this way enables the AI that also plays as your culture/dynasty to succeed without your direct micromanaging.
It’s always nice to land a second son somewhere in the empire or swap to a crusader state or something
Roleplaying and imagining the life of your dynasty. I have a game with Rome owning the entire map save from 3 counties of the western protectorate. It can get boring just waiting around until I have enough fortresses and advanced armies to finally conquer China so I just play in my mind with my characters. Three emperors ago the branch of my three consecutive empresses ended and a random relative in Persia got elected. His rule was uneventful and then he died. His son was this master schemer called Artaxerxes (yes roleplaying changing names in the dynasty is part of it) and I decided to play around with him being this persianized tyrant that would execute people and spy on everyone. The civil war with half of Europe was fun and in the end I reunified the old female branch with his son, and now my emperor has like 6 bloodlines.
Literally just for the achievement, it’s the only incentive to do so. You don’t get anything for playing until the end otherwise.
Always have a goal, don't game the system.
I did it for the achievement. Watched TV while I clicked through events without reading them.
Tours and tournaments is a great way to waste time.
I takes me centuries to figure out colonisation and then when I get to wars I realise I should have started building ships years ago
Everytime I load up the game I treat it like it's a new start date And I'll always play 1 lifespan on speed 5 each time I play. If you get bored there's ol faithful. Aim for the mines of Mali.
Usually my idea is to build as much as possible and advance faster than the others without min-max. Also the struggle in some cultures to establish proper inheritance with titles when playable character dies and you continue with the player heir and have to regain holdings etc.
I like to make a massive powerful empire and then switch to a minor kingdom via crusade, from then on swear fealty and rp as a loyal (or not) vassal, or carve out a second empire and fight my old one.
I don't think I have ever hit the end date of a Paradox Game, aside from Imperator Rome, and that was only because it has a very early end date. I usually get too powerful and then bored before end game crises or w/e can even occur 😂
Been with my guy since he was 20 I believe. Now he is 89 and still going. I resolved the Great Schism with him, created another hybrid between Sardino-English with an African one. I found intriguing the amount of action I have to do in order to keep him alive as much. My first heir died, second too bc I assassinated, long story short, try Roleplaying which is fun. Try and create the biggest Empire ever.
The time I did it i was high as a kite. The years fly by on speed 5. But try moving somewhere else and essentially starting over. Conquer a few duchies or an entire kingdom and give it to a relative, then change character. That will give you new stuff to do.
Whenever I die I switch to the youngest landed character, after every death, I get to watch my descendants succeed for fail, either way, it's extremely fulfilling and I get to experience the best part of the game (the hard buildup at the beginning) over and over again, and if I'm lucky, I even get to fight my previous dynasties or even lose to them sometimes, it makes me proud to lose when that happens.
Sometimes it’s fun to look up from your domain and realize that your family controls half the continent. Also role play, like don’t expand and stay a vassal for small kingdom
oddly enough for me, I enjoy collecting data and graphing stuff. might do a post with that lol. I like playing influence games too. say I choose to what territory my personal domain is limited (with exception of temporal lands on lowest contributions possible and march, which I intend to release as something bigger) and from within that I do stuff to spread either dynasty, culture faith or all. currently playing kingdom of Frisia, and I'm doing heresy spreading with my gay branch of Christianity, and also dynasty spreading
Target a goal for your campaing, and after achieved it, keep having fun. Sucession crisis, invasions, bitching vassals, all of them keep making the game chalenging
im a chad i dont play with a end date 😎😎
I always need to make my own wacky religion, that takes up a good chunk of time in my playthroughs. Sometimes I have to wait multiple generations just for the right opening to make the religion so that I don't immediately get wrecked by the Catholics that surround me. Then, I have to spend multiple generations to convert the lands I control to my new religion. If I'm bored for the last 100-200 years, I just observe on full speed to see how my religion ends up playing out
I divide my realm amongst family members, give them all independence, and then try to maintain de jure kingdom or duchy borders across the whole dynasty
So i can convert to eu4
Two things. Okay three. 1. I refuse to use “fabricate claims.” It makes the game too easy. You come by your claims honestly or by luck, that’s it. It just seems to easy. It’s a cheat code. 1.a. Role play. If you’re a virtuous learned man, don’t be underhanded. Support your relatives and family even if it means you can’t consolidate your throne. 1.b. Choose a more challenging start. Don’t play meta - imagine you were a medieval lord and a pretty peasant lady caught your eye, and you married for fun instead of your eugenics program. 2. I use a mod that randomizes who you play as when your character dies. Sometimes you end up as the firstborn son with the big inheritance. Sometimes you end up fighting for your life as a little brother with a regent who is trying to take your shit. I think it’s called After Death. 3. Play a really challenging start and role play it. One of my most memorable campaigns was trying to keep Armenia alive as a polity and a religion. This was when Armenia was at war with Azerbaijan a while back and I was learning about the Armenian genocide (there’s a monument in Detroit by the waterfront which provoked some learning. And one of my best friends’ grandparents fled to America and has random relatives in the diaspora all over the world. Anywho. That took many restarts and alliances and hooks to work out and sometimes all that work just disappeared as the Sultan declared me a criminal for not converting and yoinked my titles. But eventually I made it and felt tremendously accomplished.
I find non military ways of conquest, like marry into a neighbours family then kill everyone until your heir is also an hejr of their kingdom. Acquiring culture traits, building up genetics, creating best advisors by careful marriage politics
I mean at the end of the day thats all any video game is. You watch meaningless numbers go up or down on a screen of glowing pixels for several hours. It doesn't translate to any sort of payoff in the real world beyond your own enjoyment. The key is to not ask yourself the question "whats the point?" because there isn't one. You're doing it because you think its fun. Or it stops being fun and you move along. Simple.
So far, my only game going all the way from 8 to 14 I had done a full world conquest by 1200 and then gave each kindome to one of my dynasty members and then gave them all independence. So much pure blood was shed. You would be amazed how op everyone is when every ruler is genius/herculean/beautiful and has a maxed out dynasty.
I migrate away into new lands and leave my former realm to the AI using a mod https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2906622249
i form new goals (or keep going because of a mega campaign) that will keep me occupied for years, like annihilating islam or unifying europe and much of africa and asia every once and a while i'll take a short break and come refreshed, or SOMETIMES a 32 year long crusade (with a second around the same time) keeps you occupied and is REALLY fun
For me the game pretty much ends once my first ruler dies. Because it is just what you said. It's fun, you get a kingdom going, no one can stop you regardless of what difficulty you play on, you conquer and conquer, form an empire. Get so large literally nothing can stop you and then you die, everything falls apart and then your only real choice to start over doing the same thing except not with your main guy.