Ck2 Best Character Build

It’s probably completely unrelated to any fears of pandemic disease that might be circling the globe, but this weekend Paradox is offering The Reaper’s Due DLC for Crusader Kings II free of charge. You can add it to your account permanently for zero currency units until 13:00 EDT March 9.

Crusader Kings II is the game that launched a thousand DLCs, and pretty much spawned an unprecedented system of post-release expansions that could see a game supported even five or six years after the original launch. Some of the best events in CK2 came out of this DLC. Really give your character enough to do that you can play CK2.

The Reaper’s Due handles The Black Death, the devastating bubonic plague that swept across the known world during the 14th century, wiping out somewhere between 30-60% of the European population by the time it had run its course. In the DLC, Crusader Kings II’s epidemic system gets overhauled to include this particularly virulent outbreak, and you can watch it spread using a new map mode.

You’ll also be able to build hospitals to care for the sick and appoint court physicians who come with their own event chains as the disease arrives in your territory. If your ruler becomes afraid of infection, you can hide them away in sequestration as the people struggle to survive and maintain as the Black Death sweeps across the countryside.

It’s about as cheerful as you might expect:

Medicine in the middle ages wasn’t what it is now, so you’ll have to figure out political solutions when the people begin questioning your judgment – or perhaps assigning blame. There’s always the option to blame the cat.

Since the Crusader Kings II base game is now free to play, you can start right in on the Reaper’s Due just by heading over to the Steam page and adding it to your account. Just remember to count your blessings and wash your hands with soap and water frequently – we’d prefer to keep our plagues in the past.

Please help with verifying or updating older sections of this article.At least some were last verified for 2.7.Welcome to, a unique blend of RPG elements within a grand strategy game. This guide is meant to get first-time players into the game with an idea of what to do.The first thing a new player should do is play the Learning Scenario from the prompt that appears after the game loads, which introduces the basic and mechanics. After action reports and Let's Plays of CKII posted on various websites, such as and, are also informative.This guide assumes that no are enabled. In CKII, you play as a ruler rather than a country. When starting a new game, click Custom Game Setup to choose any date and character.

There are many options for playable characters and it can be overwhelming trying to get started. Consider the following when choosing your first character:. Starting as King Murchad of Mumu in Ireland in 1066 is generally considered the easiest way to learn the basics of conquest, as all of Ireland's other realms are smaller and the nearby kingdoms will leave it alone for a long time. The head of a big kingdom or empire starts off with a lot of responsibility. Though you probably will not be wiped out immediately, internal strife caused by power-seeking vassals can quickly leave a large realm vulnerable.

You have to be prepared for malcontent vassals and the eventuality of a fairly large war with a neighboring realm. For beginners, the safest starts as independent kings are King Boleslaw 'the Bold' of Poland and King Svend of Danmark. Playing as a vassal of the head of a large realm allows you to have a liege protect you from outside threats. However, you are still vulnerable to from other vassals within the realm.

Click the Dukes map mode button. See for more details. Good choices are Duke Vratislav of Bohemia and Duchess Matilda of Tuscany in the Holy Roman Empire, Doux Michael of Adrianopolis in the Byzantine Empire, and Duke Guilhem of Toulouse in France.After selecting a character, the screen will appear. One of the alerts is most likely Ruler Unmarried, though some characters start already. If you are the only living member of your, this is even more critical. This is best dealt with before unpausing the game, because most of the other nobles will also be unmarried and good brides will be snatched up very quickly.

Click on your portrait. Before searching for a spouse, first pick the Get Married for a quick +10 gain. Then click the Arrange Marriage button. This will open a list of potential spouses sorted by general desirability. As with the, it is also possible to sort by other criteria.

Always choose the type of marriage that will result in children of your dynasty: a regular marriage when playing as a man or a matrilineal marriage when playing as a woman. Half of your spouse's are added to yours, so target a bride with high skills. A high Stewardship is particularly useful as it will increase your, although high ranks in any skills other than Learning are useful. Avoid marrying anyone with any negative. Try to marry someone with positive congenital, especially Quick or Genius which improve everything a character does. Lustful is also a great trait for spouses (and your character, for that matter) - it gives a bonus to fertility, and having many children early in the game gives you a good foundation for building a mighty dynasty. Avoid marrying other members of your dynasty.

Inbred is rare in marriages between cousins, but its effects are devastating if your children do get it. Try to arrange a marriage that gives you a non-aggression pact with a nearby ruler. This pact can later be upgraded to an that lets you call your in-laws into your wars. It may be difficult to make your first marriage a useful alliance as at the start most potential spouses will be randomly generated lowborn. Characters are considered adults at 16 and women become infertile at 46, so younger is better.

At this point, most of them will be 16, since that is the starting age of an adult and most of them will have been generated at the game's start. It may take some time for a married woman to become pregnant.Once married, selecting the Have a Son or Have a Daughter ambitions will increase fertility. If you have a dynastic who is not married, you will get the Unmarried Heir alert. You should find him a suitable bride in a similar way. It is prudent to also marry off other members of your dynasty to expand it.Councillors Five will help you manage your realm.

Initially, the best suitable characters in the realm will be appointed.You need to assign them to a mission, for instance:. The in your liege's to a county of an unhappy vassal, to Improve Diplomatic. The in your capital to Research Military Tech. The in your capital to Research Economy Tech. The in your capital to Scheme. The to Proselytize in any counties with a different religion, otherwise in your capital to Research Cultural Tech.

When a councillor dies or leaves the council, you will get the alert Open Council Positions, and should appoint a successor as soon as possible and assign a mission to him. You should generally pick the most skilled character, or a skilled landed vassal to please him. Avoid appointing a character that has a negative of you as your, as he won't warn you of discovered plots against you and will likely join them.The character system A character's strengths and weaknesses lie mainly in their and.A ruler's attributes are added to their councilor's attributes and half of their spouse's attributes to determine the state level of that attribute. The five attributes are:. Diplomacy affects other characters' of you. It is important for having better success with character interactions. Martial affects a character's skill as a commander on the battlefield.

It also bolsters levies, making it core to realm survivability. Stewardship affects a ruler's tax income and, making it essential for getting the most out of your holdings. Intrigue affects a character's ability to plot and uncover others' plots.

It's important for both increasing your options and surviving others' designs on your power. Learning affects technological research. It's beneficial to have vassals with high Learning to improve the spread of technology, but it's not too important for player characters.Further augmenting a character's abilities are traits. Traits range from small modifiers to complete alterations of how a character works. Mouse over a trait to see a tooltip displaying its effects.

These will mostly be modifiers to attributes, opinions, combat ability, and health.In addition to the displayed modifiers, most traits affect certain. This sometimes results in a major effect of a trait not being displayed. For example, Craven, while being the opposite of the purely advantageous Brave and having severe negative effects, does have the hidden benefit of making the character less likely to be killed, wounded, or captured in battle.Each character has an of every other character in the game, based on a variety of factors. Keep vassal opinions high by issuing.

The more vassals like you, the more tax they'll pay and the more men they'll provide when you raise their levies.Early game After unpausing the game ( ␣ Space), you can adjust the speed ( +/ -), as the default speed of 1 is very slow. Faster speeds allow things to go by quickly in peacetime while slower speeds make managing wars easier. Speed 5 causes game time to pass as quickly as your computer can run the simulation and should only be used to pass a large amount of time quickly.Building a war chest One of the first tasks as a ruler is to amass a sufficient amount of before spending it on upgrading your holdings.

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Throughout the game, it is useful to maintain that level of wealth at minimum so that you can hire mercenaries to ward off invasions or wars (or if you want to take on a pesky yet powerful vassal). Excess money can then be used to upgrade holdings.

Thus, you should maintain at least 300 Wealth as a Count at all times, and spend money to build a Barracks, for example, only when you have enough money for it without dipping into the 300 Wealth.Upgrading holdings When upgrading holdings, prioritise buildings that generate Wealth so that you can accumulate wealth faster in order to build more. You should prioritise upgrading holdings in your capital province before upgrading holdings in other provinces. This is especially useful if you are placing your Marshal or your Steward to train troops or increase taxes in your capital. When you start making enough wealth, you may find it useful to build new holdings in the provinces you own. It is usually a good idea to have one province that is filled castles (in order to increase the troops that you can raise as levy), and build cities in all other provinces to increase your income from City Taxes.Expanding your dynasty An early priority should be having as many children as possible to continue your legacy.Your is what the game centers around.

Though you play individual characters within that dynasty, at some point, you will die. Your top priority is to ensure that your heir always is of your dynasty and is as prepared as you can possibly make him - whether that means removing potential threats or possibly removing the heir in favor of another by law changes or even.You should soon get the responses for marriage proposals: select the gain of at this stage rather than gold. This initial Prestige will slightly boost with your vassals. As your dynasty expands, and depending on your realm, you may get the Unlanded Sons alert. As a beginner it might be best to ignore it and take the monthly Prestige penalty, because landing your heir means losing control over him, and landing your other sons means giving power to the future rivals of your heir.Expanding your realm There are two main ways to expand your - war and marriage:.

is the most direct way to expand. There are many ways to declare war, however you must have a (or CB). A CB is simply a valid reason in the eyes of other nobility to declare war. is usually a more complicated way to expand, that involves marrying your within the of a title, and then trying to get to closer via intrigue to ensure one of your descendant one day either inherits the title, or gets a on it.The simplest way to declare war is to press a for yourself. Claims are shown on the character page underneath your holdings.

Claims can be gotten in many ways but the simplest is through the Fabricate Claim mission.You should first expand in your realm, and then try to expand in counties that are de jure part of the title above your primary title. The de jure structure can be seen by going to the title view ( F1) and checking the 'de jure' checkbox, or by switching between map modes - de jure duchies ( I), de jure kingdoms ( O), de jure empires ( P). Some of your or vassals may have claims on titles outside the realm, which you can press on their behalf. In order to vassalize the claimed title, the rank of the claimed title must be lower than yours and the claimant must either already have a title in your realm or be of your dynasty. So you should probably ignore this alert for now.Once you have a valid CB you can declare war. Before declaring war though, you should first review your enemy's capabilities.

Click on the defender's portrait to open the Character Interface for him or her, then check the number next to the Army Levies icon. If you are not outnumbered, next ensure that the defender has no major allies by checking the Allies tab, which displays the names of his or her allies and the ally's relationship to the character. A relationship in green letters indicates that the ally is available to be called to war - though may not necessarily join - while red lettering indicates that the ally cannot be called to war. Then declare war via the Diplomacy View. Now raise all your, gather them together, and march into their land. As long as you significantly outnumber your enemy, victory should come easily.

If your armies are close in size, however, ensure that you appoint the best you can to lead the army and try to ensure that the armies engage in favorable (to you) terrain. Don't attack across rivers if your forces aren't much larger than the enemy, as that puts you at a disadvantage. After defeating his army in battle, you just need to siege his holdings, and victory will be yours.Continue this way and you'll eventually forge yourself a powerful realm, and be able to take on more major powers. If you lose an offensive war, the most you stand to lose is that claim, some Prestige and some Wealth, so it's not if you don't succeed.The effects of a war's different outcomes are fixed, i.e. Unless the peace results say otherwise, you cannot gain counties you're not pressing a claim for by occupying them and they will be returned to their holders when the war ends.

When you control enough of a title's de jure territory, you can create it. Creating titles grants Prestige and, if the title is of a rank higher than your current rank, increases your rank. If you are a count, try to become a Duke, then a King. You will need to look at the requirements for the title to be created. Don't hoard titles, as holding more than two duchies causes an opinion penalty among your vassals. Distributing duchies (and kingdoms if you're an emperor) helps keep you under your vassal limit, as only direct vassals count towards your vassal limit.

If you are a vassal, you cannot create a title of same rank as your liege and you will need to either to usurp him or gain independence.Granting landed titles. When you personally hold too many holdings and exceed your size limit, the alert Demesne too Big will appear. You should give less interesting titles to some characters in your realm with good attributes.Click the Find Characters button and set it to search your realm for men who aren't in prison, aren't rulers, and have your religion and your culture. Only give titles to characters with the same religion and culture as you. In order to avoid vassals becoming too powerful, don't grant landed titles to characters who already have them—ideally, your counts should only hold one county and your dukes should only hold one duchy and within that only the capital county. (The exception is granting multiple titles to your heir, as they will return to you upon succession.) Giving landed titles to your kinsmen helps spread your dynasty, but be careful about empowering pretenders and those with claims to your titles.

Give minor holdings in a county to generated characters by right-clicking on the holding in the Province Interface and clicking Create New Vassal.Also consider the traits your subjects have, as they affect both their skills and behavior. If under succession law, you may get the Title Loss on Succession alert. You should try switching as soon as possible (minimum 10 years reign) to an easier and more stable, such as or Feudal Elective. The longer you wait, the easier it should be, because of the long reign and prestige bonus your vassals will have toward you.Improving holdings Whenever you have a surplus of wealth, you should build in holdings you control, prioritizing your. Improvements provide more income or troops, but it can take a while for it to pay off. Stick to investing in holdings in your demense, as vassals will improve their holdings on their own.Technology There are three categories of: Military, Economy, and Culture. Over time, the realm accumulates points in each category.

When you have a surplus of technology points, the alert You Should Invest in a Technological Advance will appear. You should spend the technology points generated in your realm to boost specific technologies. The others will slowly improve over time.

The most important are:. The unit from your. Military Organization (military)- Benefits all units, makes attrition more manageable.

Castle Infrastructure (economy)- More tax income and unlocks buildings for bigger armies. Improved Keeps (economy). Majesty (cultural)- Reduced short reign penalty makes succession easier. Legalism (cultural)- Unlocks more powerful laws.Succession Eventually your character will die, be it from illness, battle, assassination, or old age. Once your character dies, you continue playing as his dynastic heir.The new ruler is significantly weaker in the first few years after a.

Vassals' opinions of the new ruler will be low, resulting in fewer available troops and a higher chance of revolt. Other dynasty members may attempt to claim your title or kill you. You should first pause the game and review all the alerts and a few other things.