CK Post II: Joffrey Part I

WARNING: The net is dark and full of spoilers. Read at your own risk.

At the request of my (rather few) readers, I have decided to post a Joffrey playthrough. Also at reader request, there will be some roleplaying of Joffrey. As an aside, I can no longer continue my Stannis playthrough because .7 games are incompatible with the .71 patch. I may post the remaining screens at a later date.

At any rate, Joffrey starts at a strong position in the mod thanks to the Lannister armies backing him up. However, the Iron Throne is hopelessly in debt, and the real battle is living up to the Lannister motto.

So let's get started.

Joffrey begins with a speech raging at Robb, Renly, and Stannis.

Our King-to-be leaves much to be desired, it seems. Cruel and Craven are nasty traits to have as a leader. We've got our work cut out for us.

Stannis makes a shadow baby with Melisandre, murders Renly, and lays claim to the Iron Throne. This does not always happen. If it doesn't, Joffrey still has a chance against Renly and the Tyrells, just wait until attrition wears down the Tyrell doomstacks.

The Lannister armies are forming up to fight Robb Stark, and I get this event. Contrary to what happens in the books, I reject the offer, and keep my betrothal to Sansa. Yes, it makes little political sense. But hey, this is Game of Thrones, a world in which the hard-ons of teenage boys leads to massive political upheavals (just look what happened with Rhaegar).

Balon Swann, my head commander, leads the Kingsland armies against Robb Stark. Together with Tywin Lannister, they envelope and murder the Northern forces.

Even after I spurned his daughter in favor of Sansa, Mace Tyrell sides with me after hearing about my glorious victory. With the Tyrells, this becomes a lot easier.

Euron is rallying support for his claim on the Iron Isles, which he will attack with an army of over 10K men. Seeing as this will weaken Balon Greyjoy, one of our enemies, I give him money.

Tywin destroys Stannis' army at a battle near King's Landing.

It appears Robb Stark died in combat. I suppose it was a better and more honorable death than the Red Wedding. In any case, the Northerners will push Brandon Stark as King of the North, but a crippled young boy poses little threat to our illustrious king Joffrey.

Joffrey celebrates the death of Sansa's brother by taking her "maidenhead," as the books put it. Also, Joffrey intended to make Sansa kiss her brother's severed head, but unfortunately the Iron Islanders took it after Victarion Greyjoy, one of their greatest warriors, slew the Young Wolf in single combat.

I guess Harold Arryn has a thing for MILFs, as it makes little political sense for him to marry a nearly post-menopausal Queen Dowager. Nevertheless, I accept, although Cersei doesn't take too happily to being separated from Jaime.

It's a nice gesture, I guess. The war is pretty much over, though.

The regency council is taking advantage of me. Only later will Joffrey find out just how much they mismanaged the realm for their personal gain.

It's a boy! I think "Victor" as a name is a bit out of place, but the game chose it, so whatever.

We'll end this segment with Joffrey receiving Brandon's surrender. He has no choice, as his lands were ravaged by Lannisters, Tyrells, and Greyjoys alike.

Oh, and here's a glimpse of the future:

CK2 v2.1.6 and GoT v.71

So I updated yesterday to both of these. Spent some time playing around with Bulgaria, which became the Carpathian Empire. No screenshots for that playthrough yet, but I'll see how long I keep the empire going and expanding.

After that, I'm debating on playing either a French Count and going all the way up to Emperor of Francia, or a Pagan Count and establishing Tartaria or Russia or whatever.

Also, in GoT v.71, it seems that the Reyne Rebellion is a bit weird, in that you don't start in a rebellion against the Lannisters, nor do you have a claim on the Westerlands.

Oh, and I'll post Part II of the Stannis playthrough either today or tomorrow.

CK2: Updating to 2.1.6

So, I'm at v2.1.4 right now. I was going to update to 2.1.6 so I could get to raid pagans as other pagans, and play the updated GoT mod.

GoT Mod Post I: Stannis AFFC, Part I

Beware, for the net is dark and full of spoilers. So don't read ahead if you don't want GoT spoiled through ADwD. I will be playing Version .7 of the GoT mod for CK2.

In any case, I was hunting for a good game to post here. Tried some Robb Stark runs, but those kept getting spoiled by Daenerys invading early. I tried some Tywin, but eventually challenged myself to see if I could successfully play Stannis in AFFC, where he is without a doubt the most difficult claimant to play as.

When you play as Stannis, you first need to defeat Roose Bolton, which isn't too difficult, but it can turn into a mess if you move your armies around poorly like the AI frequently does. Then you pray that you get the "Iron Bank Offer" event as Stannis got in the books, because the scenario is pretty much unwinnable without it.

Then, you need to consider your strategy regarding Aegon VI. Some people say you should get Melisandre to "shadow baby" him (done by making an assassination plot against him and waiting for the event to fire), but IMO that's a bad idea, because then you leave Tommen unopposed. You need Tommen and Aegon VI to bleed each other dry while you are marching towards King's Landing. So you should surrender to Aegon VI, but not too early so that he stomps Tommen and takes the Iron Throne.

If Dorne does not side with Aegon VI, then you can surrender the Stormlands relatively quickly, because he has no chance of taking the Iron Throne without the help of House Martell. If Daenerys marries him and gifts him a dragon, may Rh'llor help you.

In any case, my playthrough:

This is Stannis Baratheon, who doesn't really have much going for him except a gigantic martial score. I select the "Have a Son" ambition because it gives him a much needed Fertility boost so he can try to get a male heir from Selyse Florent.

                                  

As the game opens, I (Stannis) had to decide whether or not to offer Jon Snow a writ of legitimacy so he could rule. I decided against it for this playthrough, because I wanted to stick to the books as closely as possible.

And speaking of the books, it looks like Davos' quest was successful. Gameplay-wise, it doesn't make too much of a difference. If Davos had not found Rickon, the game would give me the option to install a Northman of my choice after I won the North.

Stannis destroys the Bolton army.

I accept the offer, as Stannis did in the books. You aren't going to win this scenario without the Iron Bank's sellswords unless you are insanely lucky.

Roose surrenders to Stannis, and I install Rickon Stark as Lord of the North.

Me marrying Shireen (matrilineally) off to a random dude. She needs to start producing babies if her mom doesn't.

In the next part of the playthrough, Stannis will endeavor to take his birthright from the bastard Tommen and the usurper Aegon VI. 

CK2 Game Series 1: Zoroastrian Count

Not much to say here, it ended in abject failure. I had to convert to Islam to avoid DoW after DoW from the Saffarids. From that point on, I could have conquered the Tengri kingdoms and forged an Islamic empire of Tartaria, but I've had enough Islam games for now.

I guess you guys will want to see some screens. Well, here we are.

As a Zoro, I took over Karen from the Count (thanks to loan/merc/war/usurp) and Holywarred for Merv, but after that, things went downhill.

Me converting to the Ashari school. Notice that I'm gobbling up the Samanid land and will Usurp the Kingdom title when they are at peace.

In any case, I'll probably do a real playthrough on the Game of Thrones mod, I underestimated how difficult a Zoroastrian game would be, lol.

Screenshot Test

Just wanted to check to make sure image hosting was working fine.

This event happens when you beat "A Feast For Crows" as Jon Snow when you accept Stannis' Writ of Legitimacy.

Introduction

So I figured I might as well lay out the point of this blog, as well as what I will discuss.

Honestly, the point of this place is more autobiographical than anything else. There will be an amalgam of gaming, studying, music, rage, and various other things.

This specific blog will focus more on gaming. I may set up some others to discuss the aforementioned other topics.

The topics about gaming will relate to Path of Exile, League of Legends, Crusader Kings 2, CK2:GoT, and various indie and classic games.

Some people have described me as one of the strangest men you will meet. I take it as a compliment. Being strange makes for a better story.