• Crusader Kings 2 Macbook

This article may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current of the game. It was last updated for2.7.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.

Crusader Kings 2 Macbook

Crusader Kings II for Mac Free Download 3.1.0 – The Dark Ages might be drawing to a close, but Europe is still in turmoil. Petty lords vie against beleaguered kings who struggle to assert control over their fragmented realms.

Consider the following when choosing your first character:. The William the Conqueror bookmark in December 1066 is the safest starting date for beginners: there are few major ongoing events, most dynasties are small, levels are low and most have little development, so is low and are small. It's a good opportunity to learn the game with few consequences for mistakes before the carnage really starts.

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. Choose the Build a War Chest and aim to complete it as a first priority. The target for the ambition varies depending on the level of the ruler—300 Wealth for a Count, 500 Wealth for a Duke, and so on.

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.

OverviewCrusader Kings 2 is a Grand Strategy game developed by for, and was released on the 14th of February 2012 worldwide. A version of the game, developed in-house by Paradox, was released on May 24th of the same year.

GameplayThe game, in the typical Grand Strategy sense, is played from a map screen, with you controlling your character and his lands, and your vassals, if you have any.Players can take the role of any Christian Count, Duke, King, or even Emperor from any time past 1066 (769, with the Charlemagne DLC) - the Norman Invasion of England - until 1453 (though the latest start date is 1337) - the end of the 100 years war. The DLC adds the ability to play as others; Sword of Islam allows playing as muslims, The Republic allows you to play as merchant republics, The Old Gods allows you to play as one of the many pagans (norse, romuva, slavic) or a Zoroastrian. The focus of this game is more about building your dynasty and improving relations with allies, and playing as a character instead of a nation, than it is about building an army that can conquer the world like in other strategy games.Every court has characters, and the player can marry important characters (princes/princesses etc) off to faraway courts to gain favour with that court's ruler.

As the game takes place during the dark ages, religion is very important, and players must make sure not to anger the pope; that is, unless they want to create their own anti-pope. The pope will call on his Catholic leaders to Crusade on the religious opposition to take back the Holy Lands from the Muslims. Likewise, the Sunni or Shia Caliph can call a Jihad to take back lands from the Catholics.If the player plays as a king, or even a duke, their lower counts and vassals each have their own opinion of them: if they don't like you, they can break away, or even plot to assassinate you. The game does not end if your kingdom is taken over, and instead ends if the player's dynasty ends. This can occur if the current played dynasty has no legitimate heirs.

ExpansionsThe first expansion - and large content patch - to Crusader Kings II, the Sword of Islam, was released on June 2012. The expansion allows players to take control of Muslim dynasties and expands the map further into Africa and Western Asia. A second large content patch came and added new formable Empires in places that did not have them before (Britannia, Scandinavia, Hispania).The second expansion - and large content patch - to Crusader Kings II is the Legacy of Rome, which was released on October 16th, 2012. It is focused on the Byzantine empire, as well as the Orthodox Church.

The expansion added a retinue system where rulers could have a base standing army rather than raising one from their demesne; more events and decisions for the Byzantines, and Orthodox kingdoms can now appoint their own Patriarchs, rather than be subservient to the one in Constantinople. The patch added the faction system, where vassals can more easily band together and revolt against their liege; it made armies more reliant on their leader's stats and added more traits for army leaders, and added one new religion: Miaphysite, and two new heresies: Nestorian and Monothelite. It also fixed memory leak and speed bugs.The third expansion - along with a small patch - is Sunset Invasion, Paradox Development Studio's first non-historically accurate venture. The DLC features an Aztec civilization - the culture is called the Nahua culture - that has come to invade Europe - in boats that look suspiciously like Viking long boats - in a Golden Horde/Il-Khanate style invasion. They also bring a new plague; specifically syphilis. With it they have new events, such as sacrifices to their gods, the introduction of Cocoa as a resource/good, as well as coloured beads. It also features new portraits as well as new sprites.

The patch along side it came with many fixes to retinues and the faction system. It was released on November 15th, 2012.The fourth expansion is The Republic, which was released on January 15th, 2013. The expansion allows players to play as the republics of Genoa, Pisa, and the most Serene Republic of Venice, as well as others that may come later -such as the Hanseatic League; it also adds the ability to play as any maritime republic, although it does not allow players to play land based republics. It will add a new type of holding, the Family Palace, that a doge may own, and there is more of a focus on gold and trade. You can be voted out of the dogedom due to new election mechanics as well; it will be hard for a player to keep control of the republic for a very long time. However, the player does not need to control the republic in order to continue playing.

The accompanying patch added many fixes, two new inheritance laws (ultimogeniture and tanistry), lowered the demesne cap across the board, new mercenaries for cultures that did not have them previous, as well as updating the UI. The patch also adds automatically changing province titles; for example, if a Muslim holds Lisboa, it is called Lishbuna.The fifth expansion is The Old Gods, which was released on may 28th 2013.

It allows players to play as Pagans of the Baltic area and Russia, including the Zoroastrians of Persia. It also allows players to play as aztecs and tengri Mongols, who are introduced at a later date. It will also introduce an earlier start date of 867, in which the viking king Rurik has just formed the Kievan Rus, the Karlings control a large portion of Europe and the Umayyad Sultanate controls much of southern Iberia.

This makes the playable time period of the game extend to 586 years. It will also introduce new rebel mechanics, as well as landless adventurers. There will be new conversion mechanics for the christians as well. It also includes many events and decisions for the Pagans, though norse Pagans do get the most events added to them.

There's also a new Raiding mechanic, where you can toggle an army as a raider and go around Europe to siege and pillage provinces for gold and prestige.The 6th expansion is the Crusader Kings II to Europa Universalis IV save converter, which was released on August 13th 2013. It allows you to take your dynasty/nation from CK2 and converts it into a mod file for EU4 to use. It will add in all nations that do not have a tag in EU4 and allow them ideas based off of culture. It will also interact with Sunset Invasion in a special way if said DLC is activated.The seventh expansion is Sons of Abraham, which was released on November 18th 2013. The expansion focuses on the three Abrahamic religions; Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Jewish characters are made available for the first time and Jews get special events for Jewish holy days and the recreation of the Kingdom of Israel.

The Jewish kingdom of Khazars is added to the game and made playable from the start of a new campaign.The eighth expansion is Rajas of India, which will expand the campaign map to the Indian subcontinent was released on March 25, 2014. The expansion adds 3 new religions: Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. The expansion also includes the addition of the caste system, a patron deity mechanic, and a reworking of the East African region. Along with the appropriate Indian cultures the DLC includes a cosmetic pack for Indian characters with new faces, hairstyles, and clothing options. Smaller changes include the edition of War Elephants and the Jungle terrain type to battlefields.The ninth expansion is Horse Lords was released on July 14 2015. The expansion focuses on the Mongol forces coming through Central Asia.

The expansion features a Nomadic government system, a land trade post system to simulate the Silk Road, a clan political tab, and raid system to continue play if all lands are lost (Similar to the Horde Mode in), and new provinces in Central Asia where wasteland used to be.The tenth expansion is Conclave which was released on February 2 2016. The expansion includes a council system where powerful vassals to the ruler have a say in voting on laws and changes within the realm. It has also revised the education system for royal children with new traits and events.

There is also new non-aggression pacts and coalition systems which changes the diplomacy of the game. Finally, the combat system has been overhauled to include new features such as 'shattered retreat', greater emphasis on army morale and new options for mercenary companies.The eleventh expansion is The Reapers Due, released on the 25th of August 2016. The expansion adds more detail to disease in game, including breaking up the generic 'Ill' trait into various symptoms and more historical diseases. In addition, it also adds new ways to punish prisoners, a 'Prosperity' system which rewards players for keeping their territory safe, and many more nicknames for characters to receive.

Included in the patch is a new 'game rules' system, additional content for pagans, and significant performance improvements. ModsThe Clausewitz engine is very moddable, and as such has many mods for it; the most important of which are:CK2+, a mod made by Martin 'Wiz' Anward, is the most played mod according to Paradox's internal data that they collected in the winter of 2012. It is a mod dedicated to making the game harder for both the player and the AI, and includes many changes to the faction system, holy wars, and much more. It also includes many other minimods developed by the community.

It lead to the modder in question being hired by Paradox, to work on AI. Wiz's final update is to make the mod compatible with The Old Gods.The Game of Thrones, made by a large team, is a total conversion mod that takes the mechanics and systems of Crusader Kings II and changes the map and characters to those found in the book series written by George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones. It includes many different start dates that coincide with the book dates, and the characters that are mentioned within.

It also includes many specific events that relate to events in the book. It got much attention from the gaming community and press.Elder Kings is a total conversion mod that allows players to play in the universe; the starting date is much before any of the games, and allows players to play as any of the cultures (including tertiary ones that have never been featured in any game).

It introduces a magic system, an adventurer system, a new court position (court wizard), and a dragonborn system.