The Shrine

Ok I know some of you nerds picked this up. Talk about it and convince me to buy it. lol.

Paradox's games always feels more like a RPG where you happen to manage an empire instead of 5 guys, and that's something I never quite got into.

I came here just to ask the same thing. I just noticed it was out on Steam. I'm still working on Wasteland 3 and Ghost of Turo-whatever. But right after that, I'm diving in to CK3.

Hey Kali, does Wasteland 3 have that like Fallout/Outer Worlds gameplay, or is it the Dungeons and Dragons everything misses and you die in the first battle because you didn't roll your 99% hit 5 times from Baulder's Gate?

Well, as far as rolls go, a 95% chance to hit feels like a 95%.

Wasteland 3 is definitely a solid game (only issue is it crashes a lot. a LOT [ps4]).

: I've given the game a spin. But, unfortunately, I've been swamped lately, so I've only played it for 15-20 hours or so.

I like what they've done with the tech system; it's more direct.
Crusader Kings 2 had tech levels, and each level, you unlocked a series of new things. In this one, it's more like a civilization game where you're going for specific tech items instead of levels.

They brought a lot into the initial vanilla release; it feels a lot bigger than CK2 and Stellaris were at launch.

They've also opened it up a little more than CK2 was. So, for example:
Do you want to devise your own religion?

In CK2, it required developing the conditions to a certain level as a pagan to reform your faith into something unique. You could only do this as a pagan, and once reformed, you were locked into adhering to one of the existing religions.
In CK3, any character who has reached the conditions can develop their own religion/heresy. It's more in-depth too, so, if you have a lot of extra Piety, you can build your heresy more than otherwise.

Combat is less grindy feeling and more straight forward. There's not all this micromanaging. And, in CK2, it was more like complexity for complexity's sake; there was nothing gained by micromanagement unless you were a save-scummer, which is not a thing in multiplayer. So, CK3 uses one commander and a series of Knights. Units are all there too. The game increases what you can do with your military and simultaneously simplifies it. Also, Rally points make for a great experience.

Raiding - combat has notably improved with raiding. If you want to jack the British Isles and have a province in Cornwall, you can rally all your troops there and send out your raiding parties to ravage the Brits and take their gold. Also, you don't need to stick to coastal provinces any longer, your army will carry gold, and they will embark into ships on their own; boats are no longer a separate unit....... which, as a Viking, makes the game WAY less of a hassle.

It captures the same spirit as CK2, but I miss the warrior lodges. I am sure that will be an early expansion. The game, otherwise, loses nothing else; most of what was in the CK2 expansions is there, which is VERY unlike the Civ series, which tends to have the same basic model every single time. Warrior lodges, in my opinion, was probably the best of the many expansions of CK2; it was also the swan song, the last one.

I'll have to play it longer to get a real handle on how I like it, but right now, it feels very similar to CK2 with a lot of quality of life improvements, and things are done differently, for the better. But, otherwise, unlike CK2 and Stellaris, this one won't take 2-3 years of expansions for me to get into it =P

The map is WAY better than CK2. You can get all the information, and the beauty of the world, all in one thing.

kali o. wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 10, 2020 4:58 am

Well, as far as rolls go, a 95% chance to hit feels like a 95%.

Wasteland 3 is definitely a solid game (only issue is it crashes a lot. a LOT [ps4]).

Well, looks like I'm off to pick this one up....

Did you find any other issues with the PS4 version, other than crashing (which is almost a deal breaker already for me). Thinking I'll likely grab it on PC....

Crusader Kings 3 is EXTREMELY good. The tutorial is a bit tough to wrap your mind around, but it eases you into it pretty well. The systems in it are so unlike any other games that it's really worth giving it a try.

It's a part of PC gamepass, so if you haven't used a free trial or $1 for the first month or whatever deal they have on it right now, it's really worth it. You'll get a chance to try out flight simulator and whatever else is on the service.

It's much less about tech trees and strategic battles and MUCH more about marrying off your daughter who has a lisp to the Swedes so you can have an alliance while you are fending off a holy war from the Catholics. It has a very good level of polish to for such a strange game.

Check out a video of someone you like playing it and you'll probably get romanced into it.

bovine wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 11, 2020 1:44 am

Crusader Kings 3 is EXTREMELY good. The tutorial is a bit tough to wrap your mind around, but it eases you into it pretty well. The systems in it are so unlike any other games that it's really worth giving it a try.

It's a part of PC gamepass, so if you haven't used a free trial or $1 for the first month or whatever deal they have on it right now, it's really worth it. You'll get a chance to try out flight simulator and whatever else is on the service.

It's much less about tech trees and strategic battles and MUCH more about marrying off your daughter who has a lisp to the Swedes so you can have an alliance while you are fending off a holy war from the Catholics. It has a very good level of polish to for such a strange game.

Check out a video of someone you like playing it and you'll probably get romanced into it.

I'd love to get into a game like this... I just don't know if the rest of my life could continue to function if I did

P.S. - Hey buddy!

I started a serious game. 867, the Petty King of Uppland (which I renamed Niflheim). So I began, forged alliances, fought a few wars, and died.

My heir, Finwe, named for the first High King of the Noldor (High Elves) in Tolkien's book The Silmarillion.
He wasn't the greatest, some of his Lords rebelled, and his realm shrunk down to his demesne and about 5 other counties. Again, I forged several alliances. The first major attempt on my realm was from the realm of Ostergotland (Swedish is a bit messed up with the g=y, so it's pronounced a little like Austeryauteland). They got their asses kicked. Right after, Denmark invaded with around 4000 troops. I was about ready to surrender because my only allies with any reasonable troops were in Jorvik (York, England) and they still only had like 750 to add to my ~1900. Thanks to having great Knights, I somehow crushed the entire Danish army in one long battle where they sent half their troops at me, and then the other half hit after Niflheim’s forces defeated the first half. The Knights seemed to make a big difference in the battle’s, lots of "Svein tore of Hrothgar's head" type stuff =D

For a while, it was calm, I focused on building up my three counties.

When Finwe was in his 40s, he expanded a little, and seized Gotland and Ostergotland County, the capital of the first guys who invaded me - they had broken up a bit thanks to the inheritance laws. Finwe then expanded his demesne to 4 counties. And began raiding + building them up.

When he was in his 50s, Finwe looked to the future. His realm had grown to 13 counties, thanks to conquests from his vassals. He had three sons with his Genius wife - Feanor, Fingolfin, and Finarfin. Feanor and Fingolfin were inferior in traits to Finarfin, so spending some precious Renown and Prestige, Finwe disinherited them,. His entire realm would go to Finarfin - who was way younger than the other two. Finwe had made sure people of his dynasty had married into the families of Counts ranking below them... he then orchestrated the murders of several, making those of his House and dynasty the probable heirs to those lands. But he was now a known murderer (since he got caught on a few occasions).

In his late 50s, with two sons out of the inheritance line, Finwe gave Feanor and Fingolfin, and their young families some land. So he seized a county from a vassal. Being unpopular, this triggered a massive civil war against the Tyrant, with most of the realm of Niflheim rebelling. Niflheim crushed them, imprisoned the leaders, and had their counties revoked and given to Finwe's kin. Around this time, Finwe crowned himself King (instead of Petty King, which is the same as a Duke) of Niflheim. Finwe then expanded his realm by a few counties, nothing major.

Finwe noticed Denmark had expanded. He beat them once, and so invaded their realm to vassalize the entire Kingdom. He conquered Denmark, and then also declared himself King of Sweden, making Finwe King of Sweden, Niflheim, and Denmark. It looked like a small Empire of about 40 counties (foreshadowing for a later post, I'm not there yet).

And to end the story, Finwe isn't dead yet. He's into his sixties now and still conquering pieces of Norway and accepting the fealty of anyone who will bend the knee.

I'm more or less waiting for Finwe to die at this point so I can play my Genius character, Finarfin. My goal for Finarfin is to crown himself Emperor of the North. But it's the title that's of concern, not the lands and responsibilities that come with it. The expansion to get there is incidental, and I'll likely do what I can to shed off a few pounds. A small and powerful realm focused on raiding and becoming rich, marrying off members of my house to foreign realms and helping them rise to the top. Although, if my vassals build an Empire for me, I won't complain, more tax dollars later.


I haven't figured out how to duel yet? Ah well, it was kind of a repetitive action which killed more than a few good characters in my games of CK2, just to gain stats and bloodlines.