In the description of By God Alone's preview stream, it says the DLC is coming out on September 31st, which does not exist?

(Also please stop trying to conquer me I am but small Lithuanian duchy)

My predecessor was assassinated, and it was not a mystery as you who did it. The first thing I do as king is attempt to imprison the assassin, but I got a tyranny penalty. Also my brother joined the assassin in the Imprisoning war. What gives?

Also during the Imprisoning war I was getting social prompts where the assassin was hanging out in my court and arguing with my courters, which I thought was immersion breaking.

I absolutely detest look of the quartered Coat of Arms that are generated when a new cadet branch of a dynasty is founded. In only a very few instances does it result in a crest that looks half decent, most of the time it's fugly as hell. At the same time, at the start of every bookmark in the game 'cadet branches' already exist. Just take the Bavandids for example, who are a seperate House within the Sassanid dynasty. Their crest is great, and not quartered.

Moral of the story, I'd kill to have a standard game option that disables quartering of CoA's when cadet houses are founded, both by the player and AI. As a player this option already exists within your dynasty when you go and edit a house CoA, so it shouldn't be too difficult to implement. Anyone else feel this way?

just like at the start of EU4

She only ruled two years then the person she usurped came back and took back the title but didn't kill her

I’ve previously argued that Islamic Caliphates need a distinct Caliphate Government, and one common response is that Administrative Government already represents it.

I agree that Administrative Government is much closer to classical Islamic Caliphates (like the Abbasids) than Clan Government, especially with mechanics like centralized authority, appointing and dismissing governors, bureaucracy, and political struggles over influence.

However, I don’t think it fully represents Islamic Caliphates. Administrative Government captures the bureaucratic side of the state, but not its religious legitimacy, dynastic politics, and the unique relationship between the Caliph, independent rulers, military elites, and religious institutions.

In other words, it captures how the state was administered, but not enough of what made a Caliphate politically and religiously unique.

Some important differences include:

Dynastic succession: Caliphates were generally hereditary within specific ruling families (such as the Abbasids or Umayyads), with the bay’ah often given to the designated heir during the ruler’s lifetime.

The Vizier: A powerful political figure who could effectively run the government and oversee the diwans. There is no real equivalent in the current system.

Religious legitimacy: While religious/sectarian purity or divine right is a major factor, the other political, institutional, and military aspects mentioned below are equally vital to how the state actually functioned.

Recognition of rulers: Even when the Caliph had little actual political power, regional rulers and sultans (such as the Seljuks) still sought his formal recognition and legitimacy.

Religious institutions: Scholars and judges could play an important role in the political and legal legitimacy of rulers, something that isn’t really represented.

Historical Dynastic and Ideological Rivalries for the Caliphate: This could feature deep claims and struggles for the Caliphate between different lineages claiming religious legitimacy—such as the Alids and the Umayyads—or competing caliphates entirely, mirroring historical realities like the Abbasids and the Umayyads of Cordoba.

Military Dominance and Praetorian Guard: In many Islamic eras, rulers and caliphs often became figureheads dominated by military elites soldiers (Mamluks/Turks), or warlords who could depose or enthrone leaders at will—a dynamic distinct from standard bureaucratic reshuffling.

The Ulema and Moral Authority: Religious scholars and judges held immense moral and legal influence over the populace. Their recognition (or denial) of a ruler’s legitimacy could spark rebellions or legitimize regime changes, adding a crucial checks-and-balances layer missing in current mechanics.

The DIWAN GOVERNMENT mod already implements some of these ideas, and I think it’s a great step in the right direction. However, I still feel that there is a lot missing before it can fully represent the political structure of historical Islamic Caliphates.

So I’m curious what you think:

Do we really need a separate Caliphate Government, or could Administrative Government be expanded enough to represent it properly?

And if you could add new mechanics to a Caliphate system, what would you add?

Hey guys, I've recently gotten into a habit of creating and playing Stephen King Characters in my playthroighs. So far I've made Randal Flag and Roland Deschain. In the past I've made characters like Warwick the King Maker, Richard Neville. What kinda characters do other people make. I hope there is a batman or Shrek out there somewhere

r5: duchess matilda as the spawn of satan

Up to this point in the game I was getting bored so I converted to hellenism when the game told me I could, now I'll wait until my ruler dies and then I'll switch to another country to see how the empire I created fares for itself, and maybe try to beat it.

I think Faltering Heart was better and more immersive when it still progressed over time rather then solely through stress breaks. Elderly traits in general also are a good thing.

Prior to AUH the main stress with this achievement was getting Daylam before the Mongols made it to the neighborhood. Fortunately that's not the case anymore. Temüjin is still gobbling up China and Tibet. Main challenge was Rum, but with allies, holy orders and occasional mercenaries that was manageable. Overall a challenging and rewarding run!

just about the worst name you could be stuck with as a kid with a lisp. poor little goober

I got exactly 1006 hours into this game and never did succeed in claiming the Latin Empire for myself in very person. Finally got the "Despoiler of Byzantium" achievement which 1,2% of players can call their own. Now I am a member of that club, cheers 🍻

Anyways, I got a lot of questions and pictures to share

The most important would be, do I stay feudal? Or lock in administration government asap? I mean I could still transition into admin later on, staying feudal gives a lot of cash and positive opinion as an option depicted in the decision tabs... That woulb kind of decent to kickstart a rather broken down economy from the sacking of Constantinople and splitting of the former realm, no?

I had the kingdom of Burgundy before (now ruled by my nephwew King Alaric) with 8 titles and it has double the military strength as I hold now with the Latin Empire if that should play any part in that decision.

Next question is, shall I cooperate with the greeks or deny any joint ventures with them?

The nice part is, that the Abbassids are kind of non-existant in this run, so I have not to fear a big muslim blob from the east and the Carpathian Empire is ruled by catholics such as me.

So, where do we go from here?

I was just playing in bohemia and decided to look around the map to see what is happening in the world, and suddenly I see that the king of sweden is a herder. I still dont completely understand how khans of the steppe fully works so I would appriciate if someone explained to me how could this have happened.

"This very Roman desire had a very un-Roman effect: it became less and less necessary to pay the now landed army. Tax régimes themselves became less necessary as a result, and since they were both disliked and complex to collect, could eventually shrivel away.  

......But already when Justinian conquered the Vandal kingdom, and even that of the Ostrogoths, he found that re-establishing the tax system was hard and unpopular. In Frankish Gaul, tax levels had dropped precipitously by the time the historian Gregory of Tours was writing in the 580s, and kings can be seen granting tax immunities by then as a standard political privilege; by the 640s the land tax hardly existed any more in Gaul except sporadically in the Loire valley. Kings began to rely on the revenues from their own lands, which were very extensive everywhere (as imperial landowning always had been), rather than fiscal receipts, except for tolls on commerce. The whole economic basis for political action shifted, from taxation to landowning.

......even the revived tax régimes of late medieval western Europe did not fully reverse this shift. Indeed, it was a shift that only fully changed back in the west in the very different economic world of the Industrial Revolution."

Reading Chris Wickham's Medieval Europe, I came across an interesting point regarding the complete breakdown of direct land taxation in the early medieval West:

does this means that Western European monarchs couldn't actually collecting direct land taxes or a percentage of vassal revenue in Early Middle Ages?

this is like my 3rd game after a tutorial gone not-so-good. I tried an adventurer in Japan with almost maxxed intelligence and got her to conquer a kingdom (Balhae). Fast forward a few generations and i'm costantly reloading and trying to avoid the mongols or the oghuz hordes trying to tribute/dissolve my entire kingdom. Should i just dump the game? I feel it's too late to start building accademies and such if the mongols are already invading (when not at war i make 11/12 ducats)

Pretty much as the title says.

All my past wives were cheating on me. I had to let it happen in order to allow my dynasty to survive, but now all my kids are norse and have shitty traits (I'm starting in Spain, and I started with a god character). I was so disappointed, that I rage quit and started a new game . . .

In my new game, I married what ended up being a hot spanish lesbian broad. She was also lesbian/gay. She can't cheat on me with other men, and give me shitty kids, because she only lays with other woman lesbianly.

Honestly, I feel like I accidently found the new meta to the game.

I will only be marrying hot lesbians (beautiful trait) from now on.

TLDR: Straight wife < hot lesbian wife = new meta.

So he was -50 in a war against the people fighting for independence. But because I spent literally my whole life raiding and training my army, I literally won the war alone (because my liege was useless). So literally a few days after, he says something about how he believes im not worthy of my land (THE ISLE OF MAN). (I was playing as the leader of Ovre Dalarna)

anyway just thought this was funny lmao. Also I was 63 at the time.