Episode: 3934
Title: HPR3934: Crusader Kings II
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3934/hpr3934.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 17:36:16

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3934 for Thursday the 31st of August 2023.
Today's show is entitled Crusader Kings 2.
It is part of the series' computer strategy games.
It is hosted by Tukuturo Toe and is about 38 minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is Tukuturo Toe Rambles about her all-time favorite strategy, Game Crusader
Kings 2.
Hi, this is Tula Tuto and you are listening to the Hacker Public Radio.
Today's episode is about one of my all-time favorite games, Crusader Vikings 2.
This episode is inspired by the Ahugas series about the strategy computer games.
So the Crusader Kings is a dynasty simulator set into middle ages, some sort of rule and
you have to guide your dynasty through that time frame from 7.69 to 14.63 and it's a
paradox game.
So there's plenty of skills if you are interested in trying this out, don't go buying all
of those.
It gets expensive.
You can just try out the base game and see if you like it or not.
So like I said, this is a dynasty simulator meaning that while you are playing as a rule
you can get count or dash, duke or dushes or king queen, emperor, emperor and then there
are some other titles depending on the deals you have.
You are playing as that ruler, making a choice that ruler would make but your focus is the
dynasty.
Your ruler will die at some point then somebody else will inherit the titles and carry
on.
So your primary focus is to make sure that there's always somebody in your dynasty that will
inherit your stuff and keep going.
So there's some stats and traits and such that affect on your character.
You can be good or bad in things like stay craft or spy craft or muscle.
You could be an intricate weapon if you are very good at spy craft.
And those affect what kind of things you can do.
And basically it's not a turn-based game, it's a powerful real-time game, well real-time
game in a sense that when it's unpost the time will keep ticking but of course it won't
be the real real real-time game but actually the one because otherwise that those hundreds
of years will take hundreds of years to play and you don't have any specific goals except
of reaching to the end you can basically choose what you want to do.
Because I have wanted to conquer as much of the land as possible sometimes I have wanted
to build some really cool, cool monument to show off my power and wealth and sometimes
it's things like I was playing as a Finnish tribe and then managed to unite all the
tribes and form the Finland as a country and then in the later one form the kingdom
of Scandinavia that was kind of kind of neat.
There's a lot of choices, a lot of things to do in the game and those depend on what
kind of culture you are playing.
If you are playing a Finnish tribe you have quite a few different choices than if you
are playing as a say a nomadic tribe in a someday in the Siberia.
The geographical area of the game is Europe and big portions of the Asia and some portions
of the Northern Africa.
Because the focus is in ruling your dynasty and keeping it alive you of course need
a spouse so that you will have somebody to inherit the stuff for as warmly your children
but depending on the laws of your realm somebody else might inherit your titles and the
inheritance is a pretty big part of the game, there's a lot of different kinds of systems
that you can not really choose but sort of kind of choose.
If you want to change your inheritance laws not everybody will be happy about the change
and not all choices will be always available.
One of the hardest one for example is the Gavelkind where it allows you to have a really
big control of the, like you can control a lot of land but when you die all your titles
are basically split to between the all your children and then there's an opposite
and there's a one way you can nominate your inheritor here and they will inherit everything
so there's a bit of play in that one.
This in your hairs will also be a big part of a big part of the game because say you
have a couple of sons, couple of daughters you can actually get them engaged with the
children of your neighbors and that will form a, but that's not true but basically those
neighbors are not no longer a threat to you so you don't have to be afraid of them attacking
you.
Of course if you are going to marry your son to the princess of the next kingdom that
will have effect on the who will inherit the kingdom in the end so there's quite a bit
of political maneuvering that you can do with engagement and marriages and such and
it's a good idea to get your offspring as this engaged is not married soon enough because
otherwise when they turn off the age they will call just marry of somebody who might
not be the test from the political standpoint.
So because you're rule you're not going to deal with or everything by yourself you're
going to have a wassals depending on the what kind of system you have like mostly most
systems have a some most cultures have some sort of wassals system this means that
for example if you are king of the scan king of the France for example then you directly
don't control all of that land but you you have your primary title like you could have
a for example you could have set up your court in the burgundy and that's what you control
directly and some counties yeah and then your wassals who are well your wassals you have
handed them titles and they control rest of the France you could in theory have all
that land by yourself but then everybody would hate you and the bigger you realm grows
the more you will have wassals and then more difficult it will be because all those wassals
well not all some of them are happy to be your wassals but some of them will have ambitions
to replace you with themselves so you have to keep an eye on the all the political moves
that they are making and here it is a good if you have some somebody who's good in
spycraft to help you to detect various plots because they might want to have you assassinated
or you might want to have them assassinated or something like that so there's an all kinds
of political maneuvers and then from those your wassals some amounts are selected to form
your council they are the closest ones to you there's the authentic guidance but they also
are like you have a for example Marshall you can send that person into a to train your
troops first or you can have them to help you to rule better in your country and your spy
master can either try to detect plots against you or they can go and sue some disorder to
some neighboring country that you want to conquer eventually so they are really useful for
you but the council will will fight for the power they will like in the beginning for example
you can declare wars easily you can just you need a casual spell you like you need a real
reason for a war you can't just really really go that I want to conquer this place but in the
beginning you can if you have some reason you can start a war in the later on the council
might start saying that no we don't want to attack this one they are going to veto your
decision so they are they are fighting for that power and you're fighting against them because
the stronger the council is the harder it is for you to rule and then comes into play you can
promise favors to your council members and vice versa they might promise favors for you meaning
that when the council is voting about some decision you can calling those favors and make them
to vote in the way that you like would like to happen the things okay so the titles are
big part of the game title means well it means who you are basically what you control if you are
king you are a you are a kingdom to rule and if you are count you have counted to rule and you
probably if you are only a count in the game you probably will have a tool called Duchess who is
your leech and they might do things like when you leech it's veging a war they don't want to only
use their own nine power from their own holdings but they will call their vassals to provide
fighting for them so that's why the vassals are nice to have of course if you have raised your
armies of your vassals for a long time they will get angry and like I said you need a
reason for a war there's a again depending depending on the your culture or your how you
what you actually exactly ruling the singles fun is that you have your council member to forge
some documents that stated yes this king has a right for this piece of land so now you can
attack that piece of land of course it's that is the slow it takes it can take years in the game time
and on the other hand if you are a tribe you have a cousins fairly to just subjugate your
neighboring tribe you don't need anything else you can just say that I'm a Finnish tribe and
you're a Finnish tribe and I want to I want your land so let's fight for but while the conquering the
land is a one way of growing your kingdom or real down there's a other ways and I like these
other ways a lot a lot more I like the political maneuvering in this game because you can if you
want to plan for the longer you could say you are king of France and you notice that you're
neighboring king of Spain for example example that they have a daughter who is unmarried and then
they have couple sons who are older than so and by the inheritance laws that those sons would
inherit the kingdoms to stay but you can you can just have your son engage with that princess of
the Spain and then at some point you can arrange accidents like plots against those other people in
the line of succession making sure that in the end that princess will actually be the queen of
the Spain and they are offspring who you have said that he will be of your dynasty not the
Spanish dynasty that this can be said in the when you are negotiating about the marriage terms
so that's son who is of your dynasty will inherit the kingdom of Spain so this will take
couple generations to come into the fruition so it's a slow but you can grab a big piece of land
if you get lucky another thing that I did in the when I was playing as a Duke of Burgundy
was that there was a kingdom who was a they had a elective monarchy so basically all the
all the drugs when the when the king dies all the drugs get together and they vote who of the
drugs will be the next king and I wasn't part of that kingdom in any way so I first conquered
one one small douche so I could get a I would be a Duke in that kingdom I was also a king of
the France at that time but I also had that title of Duke that need that I would vote in those
those elections for the next king and then I just needed to party up with all the all the
drugs or rather enough of the drugs pride them have throw them parties give them gifts all that
stuff so that they would vote me so in the end I got that kingdom through a voting and sometimes
they said just pure luck for pure court reasons in one game I was a I think I was a king at that
point in the I think it was actually a king of France again and next to me was the
disonting empire which is huge like they're one of the most scariest empires in the game they're
gigantic so I tried to give a good turns with the neighbors they were some some drugs
but I've just left the whole disonting empire peace otherwise there was nothing I could do
against them they were so huge and powerful but I kept good turns with those drugs that were my neighbors
and then I get the message that one of those two has has said that they don't like the current
emperor and think that I would be a better emperor and have declared that civil war and of course
that yeah whatever I cannot do anything about that that will not affect me in any way except that
couple years later the action managed to one that civil war and whole disonting empire was
handed me on a silver plate which sounded first like this is really cool this is what I wanted
but then I realized that I was a French king speaking France having a French culture and all that
and then suddenly I'm an emperor of disonting my court gets moved to the other side of the
Mediterranean and everybody else they have different religion different culture and everybody hate
my guts because I'm just nobody from nowhere so rest of lifetime of that now emperor was spent
pacifying that empire no way I can do anything about expanding or anything rest of the couple of
decades when the keeping of the vassals as happy as possible but after the
next person in the line came to be a emperor things got a bit easier so there's some there's
some types there's a really funny events there and of course if you are playing a
Catholic ruler there's a really powerful ally or opponent you can party up with the pope
so basically private them and sending your court chaplain into the room to improve your terms
and when you are in a good terms with the pope you can ask them to ex-communicate somebody
other Catholic ruler which means that you can attack them freely and then you can just craft their land
of course it means that others other people can do that to you too so if you are playing a
Catholic ruler you better be in a good terms with the pope
okay so I also like the whole vassal managing thing that you have plenty of vassals
that you have to look after I mean it depends on what role you are playing if you are
and for example you will have tons of vassals if you are king you will have a lesser vassals
and all your laws and traditions will affect on how many vassals you can effectively keep
but managing vassals is an important part of the game like basically you have to make sure
that they hate you less than they hate each other if that's the case then things are usually fine
if vassals are fighting with each other it's at your realm king kingdom empire whatever
it's not actually as bad as it sounds because it means that when they are fighting with each other
they are not fighting against you sometimes somebody will manage to convince other vassals to form a
plot and say that they want to be a king instead of current king and those are always dangerous
situations you have to try to first break up that plot in where your another if that doesn't work
you could decide trying assassinate that vassal which is risky because if you get caught people
will hate you even more and if you don't manage you have a civil war in your hand
and that is that is always a tricky situation so you each better if they hate you less than they
hate each other and there's no one single vassal who is stronger than everybody else and this game
is a little bit different maybe from the other 4x games that there's all kinds of funny events
that may happen in the game like your for example your ruler might there's a thing called
ruler focus that means what particular aspect that ruler is focusing it might be that they are
focusing to be as good ruler as possible or they might be focusing on the hunting or from the
vassal there's a lot of things to choose from and this will affect with the events like
if you have a person who is focusing on hunting you can get yourself a hunting dog
that actually boosts your health a little bit you can go on hunting trips
and from there you can bring a like a what's that called trophy like some you can show off how
strong you are to your vassals by bringing bring down a beer for example on foot of course
of course hunting trips can be that you might have an accident if you are hunting a dangerous
animal or somebody actually might arrange an accident to happen to you you can have crantour
remnants you can build observatories all kinds of all kinds of things and these little little
events are actually what really brings up this game in the life
managing your court is interesting like you have vassals there they are the big part of the game
but you also have all those minor titles depending on the culture you are playing us you like
you might have a keeper of the swans which is basically just a
scientific title that you can crant to someone they get little prestige boots
boost from that it's like other people think that they are more important and that's that's all
that doesn't and they are of course a bit happy because you cranted them that
so and those small minor titles are actually good way to get your next in line to get started with
their life because if other people then they will be a ruler if other people already think that
they are important and prestigious it's easier to start start with that
okay and I like to approach them from the role of playing game point of view like if I'm playing
the game I'm not thinking I'm not usually thinking what is the optimum choice I'm just thinking
what would this specific character do and like it's fun it's fun some of those events can be
really powerful if you know how to take advantage of them like you might have your
martial in the county to organize a fighting force and then suddenly you have a 500 men
who is just showing up and saying that even to go and raid the venice for example
like if you if you're playing a say Finland you can actually take a long boat
throw all the way to the venice and raid it and then come back with a loads of gold
if you are successful that is and of course if you don't get those 500 men to do something soon
enough they will go home and be unhappy about the whole thing that's not good for you as a ruler
so the game is pretty complex I'm probably misremembering or to talk about all the things like
it's it's about managing your courtments and your vassals then you have the technology to research
it's not as big as in say civilization it's a basically it's a small improvement over time but
it will it will affect through the game a little bit you can if you have plenty of money you can
build a volume and you could say build a huge cut a cut a draw that takes hundreds of years
to complete takes a lot of money through but it will be a grand and it will give you a boost to your
country realm but whatever you want to call it and of course you can try to catch those from other
other realms then there's a especially if you have the playing as a pagans in the game say
city stripe in the beginning of the game the religion is a unreformed meaning that
it it varies a lot there's no central authority each village basically the village honestly
actually cities are represented in the game but every city has a little bit different customs
and beliefs so it's not very thick one but if you manage to I don't remember exact details but
you need to first of all you need to have a control of all the holy sites of that pagans religion
and enough of religious authority and then you can actually reform the religion you can
recreate your own religion there you have a head of the religion and then you have the customs
and everything written down and that gives you more more control for that religion and
there's of course there's the usual useless aspects in the religions like
Catholic and then there's the Indian one has a much more nuanced system but like if you want
to focus on that be free and as I'm playing the game I usually at the couple years in as a new
new rule I already have a sort of idea to which direction I want to take this rule sometimes
sometimes I want somebody to be like the peak of the martial proveers so that they can
do a lot of other nobles and they can conquer the lands and everything sometimes I want
them to be very p.o.s and just be a good example to the people sometimes I want them to be a
book form who is doing studies and the late late one is interesting in a way that you can
if you have resources you can filter off serratory you can start writing a book and then you
actually detect that hey it's the it's a thing that the earth is in the center of the universe
but the earth revolves around the sun and then you get to choose the do I am I going to reveal
this to everyone or not and if I reveal this then of course I will answer the church
and things like that you can join enough depending on the reals if you have of course you can
join up in a secret society that's relatively late addition to the game and I have a
bit mixed feelings about that it adds something to do in the game when you don't really have much to
much interesting to otherwise but it's super powerful like you and I am a bit mixed feelings about
that there's a secret societies like you could join into assassins for example and then you
do you think that society you can start that's like on a completely another level you're not
that you're there inside of that society that is not confined by the borders of the countries
you can climb on the hierarchy and be the ruler of that society and that's interesting again
uh what else well I probably missing a lot of but like it's a very complex game and there's
a crusade king speaking that I will link the show notes the basic idea is that you guide your dynasty
through the times and you try to prove whatever you want during the times technology doesn't
improve hugely the nut is always the same countries are always the same uh different for
what test is one of the central things about the game is that there's the the cure and the factor
like you the factor countries is there it's what it is currently and the cure that
cure means that those that by the law or by the tradition should be like this so if it's a
French kingdom manages to conquer some dashes from the Spain then those dashes are the
factor part of the French kingdom but they are not the cure part of the French kingdom which means
that the Spanish king has claims to us titles because they are traditional theirs they're just
captured by the French king so they can try and conquer them back that's a one of the one of the
most common casus bellies are reasons for the war and that actually opens up a interesting
interesting way of expanding your country say you are king of some country and then your neighboring
country has a dashi that you would like to grab and you notice that there's somebody who has
a claim to that title but isn't the current rule they are unlanded they have a claim to that title
but they don't have any land but themselves so you can invite that person into your court you
can say just say that come here and I make you count okay now that person is in your court he's
your vassal and he has claimed to that dashi in the neighboring kingdom so you can press that claim
you can declare that war and say that by by the rightful that this this a vassal of mine has a
rightful claim so we are going to conquer this land after you have conquered that land you don't
get that dashi you're just waging that war because of that another person but because this person
who is now broke off that place is also part of is also count in your in your court so he's your
vassal he stays as your vassal if you are king or emperor and now that
dashi is actually part of your kingdom the big part of the learning about this game for me
was just playing and seeing what happens of course I read quite a bit of the wiki and watch the
tutorial but big part of the funnel about learning the game is just playing seeing what happens
and learning from that because that's probably how the kings back in the times also did that they
did not have a wiki to check how to best conquer the whole Europe they just tried their best they
probably had the advisors and what not to help them but they made up they made up stuff as they
went along then they all right there's a I mentioned those minor titles like keep up of these
ones some of those are more important than others one of the most important one is the court
physician that's the that's basically the doctor who is looking after you and you can
nominate basically anyone to that position but it is a very good idea to spend some cold and time
to find somebody who can do that stuff effectively because when you get sick if you have a
if you don't have a competent doctor to look after you you're going to die or or you can
going to have some depilitating disease because the game is set into the middle age there's of course
chance of black dead like the cramped plague arriving and that is that is just going to
steep through the whole whole Europe that is going to have a huge effect when it happens
and at that point you actually have action to close the cage of your castle so you are just hold
up inside of the castle ruling will be quite a bit more difficult from there the people outside
of the gates won't like that at all and eventually you will run out of the four there's a whole
event chain relating to this and first time I had the plague hit it was extremely scary scary event
you can also have a small small small diseases like measles it is it will form a
pandemic it's a bad thing but it's not as bad as the black dead or you can have just a flu
the funny thing is that the sometimes your not so competent doctor will prescribe you with
some treatment like I had once I had a flu so the doctor just decided that you get rid of that
by doing more of the what gave you that so go run in go run in the court forest but make it
in the night and of course I could even more sick after that in the game
so it's it's fun game I think I haven't checked that that the base game is actually might be
actually free to play currently I remember it being free to play a couple years ago at least
but the DLCs will cost or you can try to subscrive some model if you are uncertain if you like some
DLC and you can just pay some modest amount of money and play with all the DLCs for a bit
and see how they change the game and if you have any questions comments feedback
hit me at the Hague Public Radio or even better record your own episode and tell how you
conquered the bird in the cruiser against two this is Tula Torta signing off
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