While it's downloading I figure I should ask, what should my first play through be as? I was thinking of being a duke for my first game just to get a hang of all the mechanics but I don't know everything. To reiterate the question is : Starter dynasty?
I started with the Duke of Saxony, but i had played CK1 a bit before. However, the game isn't that hard to learn, unlike some (vicky 1, i'm looking at you). You for sure don't want to choose the Saxon King of England to start off, though XD
I tried Victoria 2 (which was all right to figure out, slow off the start but once you got the hang of it you were fine) and hearts of iron 3 (which I to this day do not understand) . This seems a lot less complicated and approachable . From watching Stalin's LP's I know the concepts if not which exact buttons to press. Will not be the saxon king though. Noted.
Just keep your Nobles from gutting you with a spoon and you can do alright with most countries (except those in Spain & Portugal, they are under constant hellfire from the Muslims)
If you want a nice challenge and you're decent at grand strategy I would recommend Aragon. Just declare war on those two states right next to you and have your allies jump in and you should be off to a good start. Though you will have to wait a long while before any of those provinces are useful. Or if you want something a little bit more relaxed being the Duke of Bohemia looked like it was fairly easy.
Well I started as Leon at first and quickly was ganked by the ebul mooselams after I fought off all my supposed "allies" with a mercenary band and was left with no money and like 300 guys left in the face of 3000 ebul mooselams. So I resigned and started a different reign as Castile and everything's been going swell. The ebul mooselams are almost eliminated from the peninsula all ready and it's been like 30 years. Barcelona has become very strong though which is a problem for me. I've been pretty good about keeping my vassals weak and have only had one rebel who was quickly thrown in jail.
Iberians are pretty difficult, imo. Just had a nice game as the Saxon Duke of Northumberland (Starting after Bill takes over England), i put King Harold I's Son, Harold II, on the throne restoring the Saxon rule, and i had a son named Beowulf. heck, yes.
Most people seem to start with Ireland, which is a pretty good idea. It's not too hard to unite the island, and after that you can easily follow the crusades and kick some ebul mooselams ass.
Sounds Like you'd be invaded by england or scotland and made a bitch of quickly to be honest. You'd have to unite that island pretty fast. I started a file as Rostov just to see how hard it was to do what Stalin is doing and I made it pretty far but My dynasty ended at the 5th person. Also interestingly I became the duchy of Yaroslavl after I handled a succession crisis poorly and changed my primary to yaroslav so that I didn't lose everything to my bastard brother (who I later pressed claims on and kicked out of rostov). Yaroslavl ended the game in an interesting shape and the Gallich were set to unite Rus after they beat me to conquering Novgorad.
Duke of brandenburg, easy pagans, easy poles, loved by the land, conquer Germany, abolish hre, name child bismark, win.
Well, England invaded the island historically, but if there are no wacky inheritances and you don't do anything crazy, neither England or Scotland can get a decent CB on you, leaving you to inherit around and forge some claims to unite the island. I haven't done so myself yet, but the last game I started is with Apulia, which is another decent starting nation.
I'll try an Ireland dynasty when I get home, and maybe a HRE duke or something. I'm tempted to try a russian principality again as well. I have many hours ahead of me.
