Crown of the North

[Chaingun]

Crown of the North

Game: Crown of the North (hey it's the name of this CK game )
Scenario: Modified 1066 (see why below)
Dynasties: Duchies in Sweden (and Norway where appropriate)
Day: Sundays (starting this Sunday the 31st)
Time: 13.00 CET (GMT + 1)
Players wanted: Mainly Scandinavians, but other Europeans are welcome too, about 4-8 people
Status: Theoretically full, but we'll need subs
GM: Enigma (I)
Co-GM: Gen. Joohoo
Host: To be determined

Player list (and ICQ):
Enigma (150 858 672) – Duke of Uppland
Joohoo (298 342 882) - Duke of Västergötland, King of Sweden
Devil (95 526 937) - Duke of Skåne, King of Denmark
Seen (271 719 753) - Duke of Småland
Krispin (253 554 969) - Duke of Something (we will have to find a new duchy)
Byakhim (328 925 130) - Duke of Akerhus, King of Norway
Nitram (190 638 897) - Duke of Bergen
Gatenhielm (166 783 491) - Duke of Something to be determined

This will be an attempt to play a game of Crusader Kings based on the Scandinavian peninsula. It is so for two reasons; the first is for increased stability since we do not trust CK completely in 1.03b. It can be argued against in many specific cases, but there is a general trend of increased stability when plotted against decreased distance of connection. The second thing is that mainly Scandinavians would enjoy a game of alternative Scandinavian history (or at least, perhaps it increases the level of play a notch ), but I am sure that as a game it would be enjoyable for any other player. It would also be nice to be able to speak/listen to some Swedish, or Norwegian, or Danish inside the game (unfortunately I don’t understand any Finnish). However we will have to take in other Europeans as I am in doubt there would be enough Scandinavians around.

When it comes to the scenario selection the most important choice that we made was to select the base scenario for this game. We arrived at 1066, because all three primary kingdoms of the game exist (Norway, Sweden and Denmark). Furthermore there are plenty of Finnish and Baltic lands to liberate even though there are house rules about this that you can read below.

Of course, the tiny amount of duchies in the standard 1066 scenario aren’t enough. Therefore we will rearrange the power structure Sweden, Norway and Denmark quite a bit. All duchies that can be created will be created. These duchies will be ruled by the dynasties “of Uppland”, “of Västergötland” etc. since those placeholder dynasty names seem rather convenient (we do not try to exactly recreate history here). Also, all counties that are the standard territory of a duchy will be added as the personal demesne of that duchy’s ruler. These changes may be quite brutal but they are necessary for turning Scandinavia into an interesting playing field for dukes. In order to even out starting conditions a bit certain fictional courtiers will be added to provide players with a solid base for breeding programs.

Regarding house rules there must be quite many because of the focus on Scandinavia of this game. If any are broken a suitable punishment will be invented. I have a long list below that can be changed at the two GMs’ digression:

1. Obey the GMs. Although we aren’t dictators and will strive to apply democracy where possible, we must have full authority if it comes to a situation where it is required.
2. Be on time. We are not responsible for the consequences if you don’t have a sub. We will of course try to get one, but if we don’t find one the AI will manage your dynasty…
3. Owning provinces in any other territory than Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, or any other provinces bordering the Baltic, England, Wales or Scotland is prohibited. This includes having vassals in those areas. The Holy Land is an exception; read below.
4. Each dynasty may own a maximum of two provinces in Muslim lands is Africa or Asia. Once again, I count vassals as owning the province. Also, capturing Jerusalem is also prohibited because it generates massive amounts of piety and prestige if you capture it.
5. Finland and other Baltic provinces are also limited with another rule. Each dynasty may only capture one province in these areas once every five years; this amount starts to accumulate once the Pope calls for a crusade. The reason is to prevent a rush for these provinces, and where the player initially being king will have a great advantage because of the tier of his leader.
6. A player may only change allegiance to another player. That is, you cannot swear fealty to the King of Germany or something similar. Let’s say if you are a duke in Sweden and get overtaxed by the king of Sweden, then and only then may you switch to for example Denmark if a human player has that title.
7. Any inheritance laws are allowed unlike many other games. This is since if players would be forced to use semisalic-primogeniture they would be much less inclined to marry away their daughters to foreign families.
8. Fighting a war against a dynasty that has a daughter married to your ruler or if a daughter of yours if married to their ruler is prohibited if that daughter is alive (and of course that is a required condition of the ruler as well). This is to make marriages more useful as peace factors. An exception is if your liege or vassal forces you into the war at which point you may join to defend him.
9. Max two count titles or one duke or one king title may be taken from an opposing alliance in a player versus player war. An alliance here is defined as multiple players warring against an enemy at the same time, and whether they like it or not the deliberately or undebliberately cooperating players must decide who will get what. If they cannot agree, they may only take one count title each (but a max of two is still applied as a player entering after will get nothing in that case). Also note that vassals are not covered by this rule; you may grab another dynasty’s vassals at will because it’s their job to defend them. Of course they may grab yours as revenge. This rule is up for adjustment as the game progresses and may even be changed in game, because it’s supposed to resemble something of the EU2 decency rules (that is, you do not conquer 100% of an enemy in one war).
10. Once the entire demesne of a player has been captured he is forced to sign peace to whatever terms the enemy makes (but it has to follow the rule above).
11. You may marry AI dynasties outside of the designated areas for expansion (Scandinavia, the Baltic surroundings, and Britain). Beware that you may not inherit anything however! If you still manage to do that it will be a cause of massive edit penalties in the save game after the session (I am thinking of negative gold editing and of course removing any damage done).
12. NEW: Alliances to AI countries may only be accepted/proposed in the same designated areas as above. The reason is that else a lot of countries will get involved even if they have absolutely nothing to do with this campaign. Also, it would risk them to take territories of our areas; Bohemia conquering Öland for example would not be funny.

And last, a map of the scenario:

 

[Chaingun]

This is a preliminary list of duchies and with the associated countries that you can choose from:

Sweden:
Småland (taken) - Småland, Finnveden, Öland and Kalmar Län
Uppland (taken) - Uppland, Västmanland and Åland
Östergötland - Östergötland, Södermanland, Närke
Västergötland - Västergötland, Dal and Gästrikland (the last two as vassals and you are king)
Bergslagen - Dalarna and Värmland
Norrland - Hälsingland, Medelpad, Ångermanland, Västerbotten

Denmark:
Skåne (taken) - Skåne, Halland, Bornholm and perhaps Rügen
Sjaelland - Sjaelland, Fyn (Kingdom of Denmark)
Slesvig - Slesvig, Jylland

Norway:
Bergen - Bergenhus, Agder, Rogaland and Telemark
Akerhus - Akerhus, Vestfold and Oppland (you'll be king with Härjedalen as a vassal)
Trondelag - Trondelag, Hdemark, Naumadal and Hålogaland

Note: I would prefer as many people in Sweden as possible .

 

[Chaingun]

Devil says he's in, but I'll have to remind him about choosing a duchy...

 

[Chaingun]

To quote: "Mainly Scandinavians, but other Europeans are welcome too, about 4-8 people"

This means that although we like to have as many Scandinavians in the game as possible other Europeans will be accepted. I did edit the post now because it wasn't clear with the original wording.

EDIT: I have now managed to create new duchies and remove counties, but the lession learnt is that CK is very picky for editing. If you make a minor error anywhere it will crash; additionally there are very many things that must be edited at the same time to be consistant or it will crash.

EDIT2: To be evil I will resign Devil from his king title. I'll hand it out to the one who is the duchy of Sjaelland/Fyn instead (which will probably be AI). I'd prefer to have noone start as king of anything.

 

[Chaingun]

Just to remind people, I'd prefer to have one more player before we start tomorrow. I might have been able to recruit two more but I'd say it's about 50% chance they bother to sign up hehe.

 

[Chaingun]

Hehe, well it is good that people complain about my rules. Else I wouldn't know how to improve them from other players perspectives. So, you think the Pagan limit is too harsh? Then we must do something about it: Either 1) decrease the amount of years between the taking of each province, 2) reform or remove the rule completely.

It's your decision, I only made the preferred rules. Oh, and if you want somewhat wealthy territories you should choose Västergötland (and the connected titles like Närke etc.), or one of the other other Danish duchies that are not already taken. Also, remember this is not the standard scenario and you'll probably have at least 2 wealthy or 3 otherwise moderate counties under your direct control. I think that speaks for it itself.

I'll try to finish a preliminary version of the scenario tonight, because I'm now growing somewhat comfortable with editing although it's still a knit-picky job that demands constant attention to details.

 

[Chaingun]

About the Holy Land and defeating an enemy: You actually don't need to capture provinces to defeat them. It is enough to kill off their armies.

The marriage rule I have because else the fight will not become centered in Scandinavia which is the idea of this game (eg. you're much more likely to have the human players spread out all over France, England, Poland, the Balkans etc.). You are still allowed to marry outside Scandinavia, but watch it so you don't inherit anything or it will be edited away.

EDIT: Seen suggested that we should allow players to fight and inherit on the British isle because it was closely connected to Scandinavia during this period. We'll vote for that tonight before game starts.

 

[Chaingun]

Any Scandinavian duchies should be playable from start (except the ones I've deliberately left out for the purpose of game balance, like Östergötland and Gotland). I'll do some research about Orkney then, if anyone does want to play them.

 

[Chaingun]

Sorry for Nitram and Jarski. I honstely thought Jarski wouldn't come back. :wacko: Anyhow, if he would like to come to next session Norrland is still untouched and has been handled by AI okay during the time (also he can now crusade for Finland since he has 2 Pagan provs saved up).

Session was overall okay though when we got started. I hate my slow techs but I guess it's something I'll have to live with.

 

[Chaingun]

What is this btw Enigma??? :

I wonder....Signature....

You mean... like what part of Sweden it is? Or, I have no single idea what you're talking about.

Sterkarm: Yes you may join as king of Norway. Just be sure to follow the house rules for this game (you may not conquer/inherit anything but Baltic coast close to Poland ). Good to have another king who can balance out the über-Danish kingdom.

EDIT: Rules are updated, I will update player list later today.

 

[Chaingun]

Any Swedish vassals unsatisfied with the unjust scutage of Sweden are welcome to join the Kingdom of Norway...

Problem is I don't think the game allows us to change unless our loyalty drops to a really low level which it won't with a human player's rule.

 

[Chaingun]

Cant we fix that? So its more realistic and fun? You are the great modder Enigma

It's hardcoded into the game. There's no way to affect that with scenario editing. If Paradox let me view their source code I could probably reprogram it though.

 

[Chaingun]

Of course.

about time maybe another day than sunday then? Like thursday maybe?

I could play 20.00 CET on Thursdays but I'm not too keen on this when school starts. Also, I'm afraid that wouldn't suit Sterkarm as that would be 13.00 for him on a Thursday...

 

[Chaingun]

Well sundays are bad for me, as I forgot I had throne of heaven from 18-23 cet.

Hmm we do need some kind of solution then, although the Sunday time was selected with special care. I'm open for more suggestions.

 

[Chaingun]

Well, we could play from 13 cet Suday? or 12...

We also can treat game times more flexible. We could play on thursday or friday whatever till school starts and then stick to sunday.

Im available all except monday after 2200 and Wednesday.

So im up for the game this thursday if Sterkarm is available.

If we play 13.00 CET on Sundays that become 13 - 7 = 6 AM for Sterkarm... We will have to ask him if that works...

 

[Chaingun]

Hmm it seems Sundays are screwing up things majorly, on the other hand this day of the week was picked by I and Joohoo because it works for us both. Either way, I currently see the situation as:

1. Keep the current time. It'd mean the loss of Seen and Devil but the addition of Sterkarm instead.
2. Move time ahead to 12.00-13.00 CET on Sundays? This would mean the loss of Sterkarm but it might work for us others. Also, theoretically Sterkarm could get up really early and participate but I do not believe he fancies our game that much.
3. Some other day, on most óf which I and Joohoo won't be able to agree.

 

[Chaingun]

I and Joohoo have talked it over, and we have concluded that since our most important requirement is for this to be played on Sundays, we can accept a time move to 13.00 CET if that saves two core players. This is a very difficult decision though, because it leaves Sterkarm out of the game.

Our joint applogies to Sterkarm from the GM and the co-GM.

 

[Chaingun]

It is played Sundays between 13.00 CET and 15.00-17.00 CET (we haven't decided yet for how long we will play).

 

[Chaingun]

then if theres a free duchy that hasnt been mauled im in!
has the pope called for crusade yet?

You can probably be a Norwegian duchy, such as the ones of Akerhus, Bergen or Trondelag. Theoretically you can also be a Danish duchy but Devil (your king) has mauled those duchies into one province each.

 

[Chaingun]

Well, I hope you understood that rule Seen. To "conquer two provs every 5 years" does not imply that the Danish king alone can do that. Rather his vassal may conquer one and himself one. In fact, Devil is more likely to be successful in that if he hands out yet another county to the duke of Slesvig, so that that duke will be more interested in conquering than otherwise believed.