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A Flame Against the Dark: A Zoroastrian Crusader Kings 2 Succession Game

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Game Rules
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    • Blazinghand

    Blazinghand

    O cursèd spite
    Location
    California
    Hi everyone! I'm getting together another succession game for CK2. This thread will be used to organize, set up, sign up, play, and post AARs of the game we play.

    Other succession games:
    The Cerdicings of Wessex/England/Britannia

    Succession Game

    A Succession Game is basically a Let's Play done by multiple people. The first player plays the game until a certain checkpoint, then saves it and sends it to the next player down the line. In some games, like Dwarf Fortress or Civilization, you play until a certain amount of in-game time or turns have passed. Say, a year in DF or 100 turns in Civ V. For the purpose of this Let's Play, each player will play until a succession happens. That is to say, each player will play one ruler from the dynasty, and when that ruler dies, it's time to save the game and send it to the next player.

    Zoroastrian Special: A Flame Against the Dark
    We'll be starting as Vandad Karen, independent Satrap (Duke) of Dihistan in the Old Gods start. Surrounded on all sides by enemies centuries in the wake of the Muslim conquest of Persia, we're one of the last rulers of our religion and may represent the last hope for loyal worshippers of Ahura Mazda everywhere. As a supplementary rule to the normal rules, you must remain Zoroastrian, openly or secretly, and your heir must also be Zoroastrian when you die (so that the next player can be Zoroastrian, too).

    Rules
    • No Cheating! Console commands, etc are not allowed.
    • Don't savescum. If something bad or interesting happens, stick with it, it will make a more interesting story.
    • Once your character dies, stop playing immediately. The next character is for the next person in the succession game.
    • You have a week to complete your turn. If you can't do so, send the save file, and write an AAR (doesn't need to be long, just cover the basics, like X happened and X county was acquired etc) please let me know.
    Additional rules:
    - If your ruler dies within 1 year of taking the throne, play the next ruler too.
    - If you're offered the immortality event chain, turn it down
    - Zoroastrian Special: You must remain Zoroastrian, and your heir must also be Zoroastrian when you die (so that the next player can be Zoroastrian, too).

    DLC

    DLCs we're using:
    Sword of Islam
    Legacy of Rome
    The Republic
    The Old Gods
    Sons of Abraham
    Rajas of India
    Charlemagne
    Way of Life
    Horse Lords
    Conclave
    The Reaper's Due
    Monks and Mystics

    DLCs we're not using:
    Sunset Invasion


    Player Queue

    Completed turns:

    Coming Up:
    Blazinghand
    Theravis
    EliudFS1
    Zooboss
    BCK233
    Death and Faxes
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • AAR Turn 1, Blazinghand as Vandad Karen Part 1
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    • So here we are as Satrap (Duke) Vandad Karen in 867 AD:


    Surrounded on all sides by infidels, we're an independent Zoroastrian in a Muslim region. Let's dive in!


    Educational trait is pretty run-of-the-mill, and my only double-digit stat is Martial. Cruel won't exactly help with the vassals, and Humble isn't worth shit. Ambitious and Patient provide nice bonuses though, especially to my combat ability.


    My sister (soon to be sister-wife) is also cruel and has an even worse educational trait. This is a rough spawn.

    The next few steps are a little tricky, but work reasonably well for what we're trying to do here.


    First, I marry my sister for that sweet divine blood bonus piety.


    Next, I swear fealty to the Samanid Shah to the east so I don't get Holy Warred...



    Then I spend my newly-earned marriage piety to keep my zoroastrian flame alive as I falsely adopt my liege's religion.


    After doing some Muslim events to raise piety, I start spending it on a series of holy wars against Marzoban (Count)-level rulers who are fellow vassals of the Samanids.


    My continuous War focus gives me a trait. I pick Direct Leader for the easy-to-use advantage.


    One of my wives gets pregnant, which is good. Currently my sister-wife and I are the only members of the Karen dynasty.


    Oh, don't mind if I do! Too bad these are all crappy nomadic titles in the north.

    In time..




    Check out that sweet direct vassals view. Granted, about half of my land is crap, but that's still a lot of force I can bring to bear if I need to.And now I have the prestige to found the Magi, the secret society of Zoroastrianism!


    And now, to build our influence.



    Finally ranked up that educational trait. Still focusing War, of course, I need every point I can get here.


    Should this be this easy? My liege who doesn't even like me and is theology-focused is quickly converted to be a secret Zoroastrian.


    Well, time to go public, then...


    ...and it worked!


    Missed the screenshot for the actual wardec, but I've been doing this whole faction to overthrow this asshole Shah. I couldn't get anyone else to join but I'm pretty sure I can do it solo.


    He lets me siege down his capital while he wastes time capturing worthless provinces in the north. I was able to defeat him in one battle early on thanks to my 21 martial, but he ended up buying mercs, forcing me to borrow money and do the same.


    I'm kind of a combat beast at this point. I picked up Brave and in general am just looking great. 21 Martial is like, El Cid tier (almost)




    The Shah hired a band with really good commanders I guess, but the center collapses and I sweep them out with ease due to good numbers on my side. This last battle puts warscore up to 100%. And not a moment too soon, either, I'm nearly out of money to support these mercs.


    Now that's what I'm talking about.

    So, I'm under 10 years in and have managed to gain the Shahdom of Khiva. All my vassals hate me with a passion, I'm surrounded by infidels, half of my direct holdings are worthless tribal garbage, and I'm almost certainly gonna get Wardecced with a holy war CB since the Saffarids seem pretty united and comfy in the south, having completely absorbed the Tahirids at some point when I wasn't paying attention. I'm out of money, already took out a loan, but I'm the Shah and for now life is good. Also, somehow during the conversion back from Islam my wife got converted to a concubine and one of the secondary wives got converted to my wife, and I just noticed when I took this last screenshot. I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen :(

    This is just part one. I was actually playing a lot of this on slow speed because doing the whole internal piety-based muslim conquest CB thing is pretty finnicky and I've basically been spending this entire game up to this point trying to mitigate damage to my event troops while still using them. I'll finish this up on Thursday.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • AAR Turn 1, Blazinghand as Vandad Karen Part 2
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    • Alright, finished! Had to split this into two posts due to the image limit.

    So, now that i'm in charge of the Shahdom of Khiva I notice that forcing the previous Shah to abdicated changed the council laws. We now have Full Council Authority, which is lame, but Elective Succession, which is pretty nice.


    The downside, however, is that the only guy I actually succeeded in turning Zoro is the former Shah, who understandably hates my guts. The other Straps are all Muslim or dislike me.


    Even worse, my son, Vandad, is now a Muslim! I didn't get a chance to make him into a secret Zoroastrian when I was a secret Zoroastrian because you can't do that until the kid is a certain age. So now I have to use Heritage education to fix him.



    On top of that, due to elective succession and the hatred of the Satraps, they're voting for Nasr, the former Shah, over my son, because they hate me. This needs to be sorted out.

    Looks like Nasr is backing a plot. Luckily, he hates me so much he will definitely defy me when I ask him to stop. I move a stack of levies onto his home county before I do this, it'll be easy money. Get him to rebel, beat him, strip his titles.

    Step one, ask him to stop.

    Luckily, my state intrigue is low, so he will rebel. What could possibly go wrong?

    Perfect.

    So, the war begins between me and Nasr. Again. Apparently all this is OK since his plotting is considered a good enough reason to break a truce with no penalties.

    His AI is really bad so he runnins his stack of troops into weird areas while I siege down his capital.

    Offering white peace already? As if!

    Yes, this is easy... wait, what's with that stack of troops in the south?


    Huh, i guess it's just an opportunistic Satrap in the Saffraid Shahdom. I wonder what he's... ACK! What? Man, I'm already busy, I can't handle another--

    Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA


    You're a one province count but at this point I'll take what I can get. Eventually, this guy hires mercs or something and brings a stack of 1.5k dudes to my aid. He's a great guy!

    100% warscore but that Satrap from Persia is has capped a couple holdings which means I can't enforce demands.


    Finally clear him out and stabilize, but the Abbasids are still a huge problem.


    Vandad son of Vandad is a man grown, now. with pretty decent stats, I might add. Giving him Ambitious made him hate my guts, but that's fine.

    I recaptured Gurgan and won a fight, which put warscore high enough for white peace.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • AAR Turn 1, Blazinghand as Vandad Karen Part 3
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    • ...and now, the thrilling conclusion!


    I begin consolidating holdings and screwing over vassals, but that 4 province limit hits me pretty hard. I make Vandad son of Vandad a Duke with some of the older holdings to deal with it.



    You were there for me, I'll be there for you.

    Handled carefully, this is actually doable.


    We put up a really good fight, despite being outnumbered 2-to-1, we outkill them by 2-to-1. WE caught one stack of 7k and nearly wiped it before the other stack showed up.

    This is a REALLY BAD time you guys. ANY OTHER Time would be better! I'm literally defending the realms that follow Zoroaster's teachings from the forces of Angra Mainyu, like, RIGHT NOW. I have to cave to these demands, sadly.

    With revocation and imprisonment off the table, it makes some of the best vassal management strats impossible.

    We end up losing and the ruling family of Tabriz, the Justanids, become courtiers at my court. I promise by all that is good in the world, Ahura Mazda, someday, we will reclaim Tabriz.



    This looks like a good target of opportunity.

    ...it wasn't. Got crushed, and went for White Peace before I lost all the warscore. Zoroastrian Moral Authority is low enough as it is.


    Vandad son of Vandad passes away, but Maziar son of Vandad has an even better statblock, so who cares?


    I pass away shortly thereafter. I united a kingdom for Zoroastrianism, but was never able to really push south of the borders of De Jure Khiva. The Abassids rolled up the other Zoroastrian realm, so this is it. We're the only ones left. We may be strong but we have the world against us. I consolidated a lot, moved the capital to Khiva and built two new holdings, and upgraded Military Organization so now we have a retinue. I destroyed most of the duchy titles so we can do elective succession exactly how we want (which is important given all the inbreeding we're doing to avoid bad heirs)

    So, some problems.
    1. All these tribal holdings rebelled. I was only able to lock down one duchy, and only part of it. One of your brothers holds it and is a vassal to you. The other Nomad holdings just, became nomad realms. I didn't have the money to make castles to turn them into regular realms. So we lost most of our land outside De Jure Khiva in the north, but not all of it.


    2. We're within diplo distance of the Abbasids and the Saffarids and they dont' really have anything else to do. Since Pratihara has territory in De Jure Persia I suspect the Saffarids will be busy for a bit. The Abbasids though will likely come for us again at some point. there's a mountainous area right at the bottom of the Caspian Sea that's in our realm that is a good spot to defend.


    3. Zorastrian Moral Authority is low and it's giving us problems.

    We basically have like Manicheanism breaking out etc and this is pretty bad. Not sure how long those Zoroastrian territories are gonna last under the Saffarids either before they convert.

    So, there are a lot of challenges. The vassal situation is... mostly under control. But not entirely. There are some various angry counts. Also, the council is hard to manage since you can't fire powerful vassals from it. So watch out for that.

    A World Map:


    Our Family:

    with 15 living members, we're much better off than the 2 living members we started with. Vandad son of Vandad is dead, leaving behind some children to use. In general, most of the sons I was training up as commanders, and most of the girls for stewardship education for more fertility.

    Nasrin married into the Justanid dynasty to secure an alliance, but now she and her in-laws all live at court with us. Blazingchirh operates a merc company that we support, though you may want to disband it at some point. Nobody is hiring us for some reason. Zarmihr is a duke vassal in the north, and he converted to Islam and refused to convert back.

    I married Mazier (you) off to your younger sister who had a stewardship education. Also, it turns out you're a secret Muslim apparently. :| had I known this I'd have picked a different heir since we're doing a Zoroastrian run. Was Vandad son of Vandad the only ACTUAL zoroastrian son I had? :|


    ---


    Whew, what a run! It really feels like this part was much harder than the previous part.

    Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out. Good luck! @Theravis, you're up.

    Dropbox - Blazinghand_Karen_Succession.ck2
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Blazinghand said:
    I married Mazier (you) off to your younger sister who had a stewardship education. Also, it turns out you're a secret Muslim apparently. :| had I known this I'd have picked a different heir since we're doing a Zoroastrian run. Was Vandad son of Vandad the only ACTUAL zoroastrian son I had? :|


    ---


    Whew, what a run! It really feels like this part was much harder than the previous part.

    Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out. Good luck! @Theravis, you're up.

    Dropbox - Blazinghand_Karen_Succession.ck2
    Click to expand...
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    Sweet Xweodah am I gonna need it!

    There's so much wrong here, I'm not sure where to start.
     
    Everyone's a critic! You should feel lucky we still have that kingdom title at all, it's not exactly easy managing dukes when you can't revoke without council permission and you can't change who is on the council because of Full Council Authority :V

    ...but yeah this was a bit of a struggle for me. Hopefully you guys do better!
     
    Blazinghand said:
    Everyone's a critic! You should feel lucky we still have that kingdom title at all, it's not exactly easy managing dukes when you can't revoke without council permission and you can't change who is on the council because of Full Council Authority :V

    ...but yeah this was a bit of a struggle for me. Hopefully you guys do better!
    Click to expand...
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    Do we have money? The good old standby of "Bribe the council into voting against their interests" might do it for one or two issues.
     
    Theravis said:
    Do we have money? The good old standby of "Bribe the council into voting against their interests" might do it for one or two issues.
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    We have like 300 gold. And... I mayyyy have had to borrow from the Jews then later expel them to seize even more money when defending from the Abassids at one point.

    EDIT:

    Oh yeah I tried to do the gift thing for removing full council authority, and I think you might actually need to buy favors to compel votes, unless they are loyalist. The tooltip showed basically that unless they are loyalist they'll never vote for removing full council authority. The only guy I could ever get to go for it was my heir who loved me because I gave him a duchy.
     
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    Just train-of-thoughting at the moment. Firstly, I undid the full council power via the expedient of appointing completely incompetent lickspittles to all the positions, having them vote their own power out, then firing them with my new ability and replacing them with someone competent.
     
    Uh....

    Why are all the coats of arms just blank blackness now?
     
    AAR Turn 2, Theravis as Maziar Karen Part 1
  • Threadmarks
    • Alright, here we go. Update one of the rule of Shah Maziar
    The very first thing to do is to get rid of that absolute council power. I promptly fill the council with witless lackies, but run out halfway though.....

    We're more unpopular than expected.

    So I immediately bribe one. Problem solved!

    And follow it up by revoking the Council powers and filling the council with competent people who have their own opinions.

    No way this can go wrong.


    Alright, now it's time to quit the Islamic Brotherhood. But not just any old quitting, no no.

    First we mark down all those dirty Sunnis.

    Making a list, checking it twice!
    Gonna find out who's Sunni or nice!
    The Inquisitor is coming to town!


    This sets the tone for the next few years of burning the heretics.

    It's about this time that some asshole starts claiming my stuff.



    New goal: Title "The Cruel" within a decade.



    Not a problem, I suspect.

    More importantly, I managed to educate the heir to the imprisoned Imam of one of our holy sites into being Zoroastrian. More to come tomorrow.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Nice work! Hmm, which version of the game are you using? I ran this on 2.7.1 (BPAH) with all DLCs except Sunset Invasion turned on.
     
    Blazinghand said:
    Nice work! Hmm, which version of the game are you using? I ran this on 2.7.1 (BPAH) with all DLCs except Sunset Invasion turned on.
    Click to expand...
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    I think I'm using the most recent update, but i have to look which checksum that is.

    Even better news, I took another Zoro holy site basically through sheer luck. Was at -30 warscore, but apparently he locked himself in to avoid the epidemic of camp fever, so when I took the Saffanid capital I captured him, which maxed my warscore.

    Then just to add injury and insult to injury, I tortured his wife to death and took his daughter as a concubine.
     
    Theravis said:
    I think I'm using the most recent update, but i have to look which checksum that is.

    Even better news, I took another Zoro holy site basically through sheer luck. Was at -30 warscore, but apparently he locked himself in to avoid the epidemic of camp fever, so when I took the Saffanid capital I captured him, which maxed my warscore.

    Then just to add injury and insult to injury, I tortured his wife to death and took his daughter as a concubine.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Anything we can do to get moral authority up is good. Being able to convert provinces and stop heresy is nice.
     
    I'm afraid the rest of my rule will be fighting factions though. Just so many factions.
     
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