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u/thepkizzle

r/CrusaderKings r/plotholes r/buildapc r/crusaderkings2
Totally bored with Asturias starts and stepping out of my comfort zone. Any thoughts on this start using the character creator for the first time?
▲ 27 r/crusaderkings2

Totally bored with Asturias starts and stepping out of my comfort zone. Any thoughts on this start using the character creator for the first time?

u/thepkizzle — 4 days ago
▲ 0 r/buildapc

Casual Truck Sim gamer, is this build ready?

Hey, building a PC for a friend of mine who is going through a divorce. He mainly putzes around on YouTube, but he likes to play that trucking sim game and has a full steering wheel, and all that jazz. She's taking the computer, which is fairly nice, and I told him I'd put something decent together that should get him through the next few years.

Main concern is whether to go with a different GPU, as well as open to any criticism about specific brands / recommendations for easy swaps.

Thanks.

https://newegg.io/071b913

u/thepkizzle — 23 days ago
▲ 23 r/crusaderkings2

Pros & Cons of Retinues

What they are:

  • Generationally powerful.
  • Great for defense if you fuck up.
  • Ideal if you have a civil war when you have a very large empire.
  • Expensive. Really. Really. Expensive. Like really. Suffocatingly expensive.
  • Excellent for waging war, after war, after war continuously against new targets that are weaker than you.
  • Game changing for the period right after starting a new empire, and you have a heavy purse from a recently won crusade, and have already considerably improved your own personal holdings in the dutchy where your capital resides.
  • A better use of gold than great work hoarding.
  • A lot better if you have special units.
  • Special forces that can be used supplementally to make levies better.

Why they are not:

  • Ideal for using offensively on crusade unless in a special forces capacity (e.g. supplemental calvary.)
  • Cheap. Seriously. Even once you have a fully matured retinue it costs a lot if you lose 5,000 heavy infantry, but it costs absolutely nothing to lose 20,000 levies which would crush a single retinue of 5,000 heavy infantry.
  • Quick to resupply. This adds to their overall cost considerably because the entire time they are resupplying you are paying for them.
  • At all good for handling revolts, hosts, raiders, or even most invasions. This is the largest misconception that I have read. If you have a small empire then you can easily handle revolts using levies, preferably from vassals so they don't cost any gold. If you have a large empire then sending a retinue from one corner to the other to suppress a revolt is not ideal.
  • Great for defense. Seriously. If you have a fully developed demense, and even a half decent ruler then you can easily get a doom-stack exceeding 30K. By this point you should be competitively strong with everyone else, and should you be invaded have ample savings to pay for a huge amount of mercenaries.
  • Worth wasting your savings prematurely to eliminate your ability to field a large mercenary army should... I don't know, the Aztecs randomly show up? Don't misread me. I'd rather have a 10K retinue to accompany my personal levies to go meet the hoard than I would having 10K mercs, but if you get caught slipping with only 4.5K in the retinue you should consider that for the relative gold you're going to spend on the retinue you could probably hire twice as many mercs, or even three/four times as many.
  • Super heroes who are always going to defeat a vastly larger force. If you have a 10K retinue that is a 7.5 out of 10 in terms of composition, and you have really solid bloodlines, commanders, and luck, you can take on armies twice your size. You're not going to have a good day at the office if they are 3X larger, and even if you win see the point above about speed to resupply, and the cost. Sure if you retreat to a mountain and have a bunch of pikes, blah blah, but if we're talking about a mixed bag retinue being used to attack a larger force, or even if they're attacked in an open plain while sieging a holding? Bad time.

Here is a great image that sums up everything about them: https://i.imgur.com/PR6q87L.png

  • V1: These are the personal levies of a powerful vassal in the region.
  • V2: These are the vassal levies that I raised from a powerful vassal in the region.
  • R1: These are my very expensive retinues, which are nearby, but still rather far from the action.

Outcome: https://imgur.com/a/7Tvb1f4

u/thepkizzle — 1 month ago
▲ 127 r/crusaderkings2

Can someone explain SPQR to me, and what the hell retinues are?

I've done more than my share of looking at the Wiki but I can't really understand these two things. Why don't I have the SPQR achievement with a map like this?

Also, what the hell are retinues and why do I care? Are they just a completely useless game mechanic, or have I been making my life harder than it needs to be all this time?

u/thepkizzle — 1 month ago
▲ 0 r/plotholes

One Battle After Another (2025)

Wasn't a huge fan of this movie, had some great acting, but am I the only one who thought it made no sense?

  • Sean Penn is shot in the face while driving, but doesn't die. He then goes back and gets in contact with the Christmas Adventurer's like nothing ever happened. Really?
  • A prominent member of the Christmas Adventurer's is shot and killed in the desert. Sean Penn never finds out? No one ever asks questions about him, his weapons, and the shooting of a US government agent just a few miles away?
  • How do they even find Sean Penn in the first place? He's just driving around in the desert and this guy shows up out of nowhere? How did they know where he was?
  • Why does the Christmas Adventurer's not check into Sean Penn's background before asking him to join their club? They go ask him if he wants to join before checking him out?
  • How does Sean Penn even know about the club? Are they like a group that are known to the public and operate in plain sight, have large gatherings, etc., like the Bohemian Club? Is it secret like Skull and Bones?
  • Why would the club even want to kill Willa? Just because her father's application was rejected? Is killing all biracial children across America part of their mission statement?
  • French 75 bombed buildings, and apparently taking down one of their major safe houses and exposing deep cover assets like Bob is apparently not that hard if you're worried that your half black daughter might be found by the Christmas Adventurers... but actually finding Bob for the whole building bombs thing? Nah.
  • After Perfidia gets caught for bank robbery and murder... why didn't everyone connected to her in the French 75 not flee? This is the part that makes the least amount of sense. She was caught after a murder in broad daylight in front of witness, without wearing a mask. Hell, I think they even told the witnesses their names.
reddit.com
u/thepkizzle — 1 month ago
▲ 18 r/crusaderkings2

She has been Empress since she was 16, and has been barren like all of her genius sisters until now. I have no idea who the father is.

imgur.com
u/thepkizzle — 2 months ago
▲ 26 r/crusaderkings2

Now that I've mended the schism, what happens if I convert to Catholic and spread it to be the majority?

Pretty much the title. My bloodline has a lot of +catholic perks and I'm wondering what would happen if while the world is in turmoil I just switch back to Catholic once I retore Rome.

edit: My goal is for religion to just have no real value. I want to be able to be Catholic as a young ruler so I can have kids with the Catholic bloodlines, but then switch over and play with various warrior lodge bloodlines at will without anyone hating me, or beng able to call crusades, etc.

e2: I did it. Nothing seems to have happened of any note. Life is good?

e3: Yeah being Rome is awesome, and being a Catholic heretic is also awesome. This has to be the most stable political arrangement in the entire game. It's amazing. No factions, tons of troops, no drama. I'm so popular with the entire realm, whether they're Orthodox or Catholic, or any sort of Christian that it's just silly. Inheritance is so easy now.

reddit.com
u/thepkizzle — 2 months ago
▲ 13 r/crusaderkings2

This game has gotten away from me. I originally started with the intent to restore Rome, but I deviated from that plan and while it turned out good, sort of, I am now paying for the success by not really understanding where to start here.

High level bullet points:

  • I am Empress of the HRE and Tengri. Everyone in the Catholic world hates me. I control Rome, but not Orvieto. None of this really matters considering I have >225k troops and handily sacked Rome against the entire Catholic world.
  • My daughter matrilineally married one of the heirs of the Byzantine Empire. They (my grandchildren) have claims on the Empire, but I cannot make them my heirs because of Princely Elective, but my daughter is my heir.
  • I am planning to press this claim when I die and my heir inherits the HRE, then I am planning (hoping) that once pressed I can make the new empress of Byzantium the heir of the HRE.
  • I completed the Blood of Alexander quest earlier in the game and have not used it, yet. I could invade parts of of Byzantium but that seems useless considering the longer term plan. Meanwhile I could take the kingdom of France, move into Bulgaria, focus my plans to unify England, Scotland, Wales, & Ireland, or move towards Seljuk lands to get closer to Tengri holy sites. The long term plan is convert to Orthodox, restore Rome, then go back to Tengri and reform it to finish the game. Or maybe Germanic if I manage to get this warrior lodge bloodline which seems very unlikely.

Should I just do nothing and wait to die? It feels like a waste not using the Alexander CB to gain something. I've never restored Rome before so I'm just not sure what to do.

https://preview.redd.it/ye4s5ec028zg1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6197337d4da0176a3b7197d08c4efea9339a9c16

reddit.com
u/thepkizzle — 2 months ago