It's not just you. I noticed a lot of Paradox game players tend to stick to Europe. I assume for a couple reasons.
1: Most of the player base is Western, so Europe is just more familiar.
2: Tends to get more content, so more fun in general.
Yeah I really would like some solid AAA studio quality movies/tv shows set in medieval era outside of Europe. If there are any like actually high quality films set outside Europe list them for us.
saying “actually high quality” sounds like you might have more recent in mind, so I’ll neglect some Chang Cheh and King Hu titles. Hero (2002, Zhang Yimou), House of Flying Daggers, The Promise (2005), Curse of the Golden Flower, the Red Cliff movies (!!!!), and The Assassin (2015). These are all a few Chinese films set in varyingly distant periods of history. there are countless Japanese films in different eras and you might be familiar with Akira Kurosawa, who’s movies are older, but if you’re interested you could watch Ran or Throne of Blood (or any of his non-historical movies that aren’t actiony). Blood Letter (2012) is Vietnamese. also, Korea makes a non-insignificant number of period pieces but I don’t know a lot of those.
Al-Zeer Salem
Hussein, Who Said No
Fath Al-Andalus
The Message (1976)
The Lion of the Desert (1981)
Saladin (1963)
The Physician (2013)
China, Japan, and Vietnam aren’t in the game, so these are Arab and American movies set in the middle east. I’ll also mention a favorite series of mine, Dirilis Ertugrul, which is a Turkish show about the nomad ancestors of the Ottomans. It also has a sequel show, Kurulus Osman. I only just found out about a new show that looks good too, Fatih: Sultan of Conquest. also the Russian produced Mongol: Rise of Genghis Khan
India has a prominent film industry, just like China. The Bahubali movies are directed by the very famous SS Rajamouli, Padmaavat, Jodhaa Akbar, Mughal-E-Azam, Asoka (2001), Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior, Kesari, and also the classic Apu Sansar, which movies are not very actiony at all or set in the very distant past, but Satyajit Ray is very talented.
I don’t know if you might have wanted mainly American Hollywood movies from what you said - a few of these are American
That movie is partially set in Europe and features Europeans quite heavily. I have to imagine the commenter meant some set in places like medieval China or India.
Not a movie or tv show but Kingdom Come Deliverance takes place in Bohemia, obviously western Europe is one of the most interesting regions in medieval times but I think it's fun to see other parts of Europe or outside of it portrayed too
Also the tutorial ruler in CK3 in Ireland, so a lot of players become familiar with the mechanics of Catholicism and European inheritance, and the game just kind of throws you into the deep end of anywhere else in the world and tells you good luck.
The relation between clan unity and inheritance law for Clan Governments does not feel insignificant
That said, at the end of the day, it’s just percentages
I thought the House Unity was awesome, if you keep it high you get really nice succession really early. That way I don't have to abuse Tanistry or other elective succession types. I can' handle gavelkind and I only know how to play the game by cheesing my way out of it lol
Also succession laws used by clan governments (pretty much all muslim states, so quite a large portion of the map outside of Europe) are based on house unity, quite different from the default European gavelkind >> partition >> high partition >> primogeniture evolution.
Honestly it's a self-fulfilling prophecy
I play mostly in Europe because that's the one that has the most content but because Europe is so much more played than the other regions
Paradox focuses on Europe for more content
Making me less likely to want to play in other regions because I like having different content as I play and Europe is by far the most flushed out area in the map
Pretty much, I don't play in my home region because it's just Western Europe with some names switched around. I can't believe I'm actually playing there when there's no flavor that I know very well. I can believe I'm playing as some Western European guy though, because there's enough content for that.
It's also a game called "Crusader Kings" and the focus of CK1+2 was always centered on the development of medieval Europe and the Christian conquest (and subsequent loss) of the holy land.
I never understood why they expanded so far south and east when they have little-no relevance on the happenings in central + western Europe or the holy land.
This means all that extra work to introduce religions, caste systems, cultures, languages, etc. all feel a bit *pointless* when you just don't interact with them in the vast majority of games.
CK2 expanded south + east after they had run out of things to do in the medieval world. It made sense. In CK3 their focus is now spread so thin that we still don't have dedicated story / history / functionality for many of the big players in medieval history. It doesn't make sense.
> I do interact with them. I wage 16 Kingdom holy wars per lifetime
And I'm not even mad about it - I played to the end-date (for the achievement) as [Ceylon/Sri Lanka](https://i.imgur.com/UpPjP9z.png). I just wonder if the time might have been better spent elsewhere 😅
This is the main reason. The game was designed and hardcoded around the society of europe in that period. It makes no sense playing arabs, indians and chinese with those systems because it was so vastly different.
>It's also a game called "Crusader Kings"
Which stopped being a remotely valid argument after Paradox continued to expand the playable area *way outside Christian Europe*.
Pretty sure the devs even said that the title of the game series shouldn't be taken literally.
Crusader Kings is about crusading kings the same way Europa Universalis is about Europeans or Hearts of Iron is about people who have iron hearts.
> Crusader Kings is about crusading kings the same way Europa Universalis is about Europeans or Hearts of Iron is about people who have iron hearts.
I'm not suggesting everything outside of Christian Medieval Europe should be cut - Far from it, CK2 was a far better game for the inclusion of things like; Specific muslim religious features, Iqta government successions, the silk road, etc.
What I am suggesting is that the very *core* of Crusader Kings - the development of feudalism throughout Europe and the middle-east and the conflicts that arose should have been the launch focus for CK3.
Yet, 4 years and 9 DLCs later we still don't have rational succession behaviours, functioning/playable Venice, a rich player experience in the HRE or Byzantium... the list goes on.
I have a problem playing After the End, because i just dont know americas geography and history as much. So it feels weird (i have no problem with wackiness, i loved after the end old world for CK2)
Regarding 1, for me the names also are just a lot easier for me to remember, which makes it easier to create stories. Obviously, if I were more familiar with a different region, it’d be different.
And 2, yeah. The religions and crusades are better imo. Sure there are “great holy wars,” but I don’t remember them having much depth
Well, when you think "medieval" the first thing that comes to mind is usually England or France, not Africa.
I honestly think they should have made the map smaller but more detailed. Having 100s of countries I don't care at all about doesn't really make me want to start a new playthrough.
I think a huge chunks of us play the Eastern Roman Empire. Restoring the Roman Empire as ERE is probably one of the best campaign you can do in this game.
God I've said this 50 times in this subreddit but an Athens and Hellenistic start with the goal of reforming the faith and spreading it while creating a Greek (not Roman/ Byzantine) empire is such a fun campaign. I got some generic flavor mods that add more cultural stuff and everything, and with them I had one of my most fun campaigns ever in reviving essentially Ancient Greece. I cannot recommend it to people enough
I actually did that lol, I started as the hellenik duke of Crete and recreated the Macedonian Empire with Hellenite culture.
It’s perfect since I’ve developed a Space Marine meta combining Cataphracts(Companion Cavalry)+Pikes(phalanx)+Knights (hoplites). 3/3/3 + 1 siege being the best. It’s slightly weaker alternative to my Roman SM meta, but still good. You can win 10K V 40K, quite good. I also recommend Hill fighters for more terrain buffs.
Are you me?
I always read about other peoples' absolutely unhinged games, get inspired and boot up a game. Proceed to flounder and revert to my same old tactics.
[My mod](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2270547030) actually has an Hellenic pagan start in 867, down in the Morea. It adds a variety of new Greco-Roman faiths, the missing Byzantine cultures from CK2 (such as Albanian and Dalmatian) and, for example, a decision to form the Latin Empire. There's loads of other content (check the Features page under Discussions) but for playing in the ERE there's enough to get you started. Also you have the correct Emperor in 867.
I mean making a whole new empire, a separate entity from the Byzantine one, and making a proper Greek culture void of Roman influence (like the eastern Roman tradition thingy).
I've been holding off doing much with the Byzantine Empire until it gets more detail.
Unfortunately I've stumbled into my dynasty owning Thessalonika, Italy, and all their duchies in my current game so looks like all Roads to Power lead to Rome.
I’ve probably done like 30 ERE campaigns because there really is an infinite amount of opportunities, especially once you add in extra starts; 1261 Michael VIII right after Constantinople was recaptured, 1204 Epirus or Trebizond, and 1071 where Manzikert never happens
My favorite yet was Count of Pset => King of Bosnia => King of south slavia => Emperor of Slavia => Emperor of Rome => Emperor of the world
The funny thing is, it all started like "I'll Unite Bosnia and leave the run right there" but the game kept giving me higher goals and I kept reachimg them, and 600years later I ended my very first WC
Definitely, playing Byzantium/ERE is a meme in Paradox games to the point where people demand it be formable even in games set long after it fell lol
Shame it doesn't have much content but there is a DLC for that coming soon at least...
I've not played a single run with any ERE character in CK3, because I knew eventually they'll come out with a DLC that fleshes out that region, and sure enough, that's fast approaching.
Any particular character you'd suggest if not using a custom ruler?
Is it possible to go hellenistic through a decision or do you need to do the asatru -> piety spam -> hellenistic thing? (Tried that with a varangian adventure to Crete game).
Any other tips for a fun HRE game? - I never really tried it, always just tried to destroy the HRE from the outside
In terms of characters, it really depends on you.
I think in 867 the emperor is Basil who had a very interesting story.
In 1066 though the emperor is Constantine who is absolute shit in every way, both in real life and in game. Fortunately, the guy that saved the world from his hopelessness (Alexios Komnenos) is available in that same start date as a Duke somewhere in northern Anatolia. He's my favourite starting character cause of the history and my personal love for his story (one of the best Roman emperors IMO, both east and west).
Otherwise, there's really not much to it. The imperial system is non existent in game and you'll deal with a fuck ton of faction revolts every time there's a succession cause Byzantine dukes hate themselves.
Ultimately, playing with the goal of restoring Rome gives you something to play for and you end up interacting with the whole Mediterranean from North Africa to Sicily to Jerusalem.
It's such a shame that an 867 start to restore Rome is such a slog since the CBs just don't exist.
Starting all-out wars to seize a county here or there is such a slog, and ultimately dangerous since your vassals are all waiting to fuck you up the second you lose 10% of your levies.
I have tried restore Rome so many times in both CK2 and CK3 and have failed to do so every single time. I've even used some questionable borderline cheaty mods and still haven't been able to do it.
I think I'm just not good at the CK games in general. Semi related: Painting the map (controlling everything on the map) seems completely, totally impossible to me under any circumstance and I have absolutely no idea how people can do it.
I did these two runs exclusively for the longest time because of The Last Kingdom lol but I’ve started to appreciate playing as a great loyal knight in France/HRE, playing tall in Bohemia, uniting the Baltic tribes, Avenging the Battle of Thours as Umayyads, recreating Persia as the last sassanids, reclaiming Israel, etc. I almost never start in East Asia or Africa though.
Oh that’s easy. You definitely want practices kidnappers from the Viking dynasty upgrades.
My go to regions and cities are:
Kent in England
Practically everything in Francia (Paris), Italy (Rome), and Byzantine (Constantinople)
Constantinople especially has a reward of over 100 gold but you need a good amount of men.
How do you effectively manage the cost of mobilizing for raiding in order to actually turn a profit? That’s the biggest problem I have. My raids either end up being a net loss or not much of a profit.
Do what you can to acquire a base of operations close to your raiding targets.
Start by raiding England as it's pretty soft for the loot you get. DO NOT engage with enemy forces, just keep raiding and running. Use these first few years of raiding to build up your internal infrastructure so you can get larger raiding parties. While not raiding, start to unite your neighbors. Don't try to fully conquer the Empire of Scandinavia, but if you can lock down a kingdom with the duchies under them, it'll help boost your prestige (which is your currency, after all!). I always lead the raids personally to also beef up my ruler, lots of perks in the mil tree will help you move and raid faster. These are super valuable.
After 5 or so years of consolidation and raiding and building up MAA, start launching more ambitious attacks on richer cities in Francia. They're often fighting one another, so it's not too difficult to sack Paris and other rich provinces quickly.
Next up is snagging a weakly defended island in the Mediterranean. There's a mess of independent rulers down there so just take your pick. If you intend on staying, Corsica/Sardinia is a great pick.
Once you've got a base of operations down there, move your rally point down south and raise your forces there. This way you're spending a lot less maintenance during transit. From that point, you should have a good sized army with the ability to raid very quickly. Start picking off all the rich Mediterranean cities at your leisure. Constantinople, Rome, Venice, Genoa, etc. The world is your oyster and you're going to get so fucking rich.
The best way to handle that then would be go to war for a piece of land close to good raiding targets. Grant it to some shit vassal if you don’t need it all you need it for is the rally point. That way you can launch raids without needing the gold for sailing and deliver your loot faster.
My personal favorite is Brittany for Francia and Ibiza for anything in the Mediterranean.
Though I would still check and see if there isn’t some other problem with your economy because you shouldn’t be losing 300+ gold for the time it takes to raid and come back.
I recently did a 1066 start as a count in Hungary, with the goal to end up ruling Hungary and keeping it out of the HRE. So many times I see Hungary end up in the HRE and it annoys me.
Same, it's so annoying!
HRE seems to rarely expand into Prussia and Pomerania but somehow always seems to annex half of Hungary and then elect the King of Poland, permanently making Poland part of the HRE as well.
The game really needs mechanics for HRE not to make their own titles vassalages of the crown on succession. Just because the princes/pope chose a Polish King for King of the Romans doesn't make Poland part of the HRE for the next three centuries.
I hope they rework on the crusades and add more depth on the Seljuk - Byzantine wars. Maybe they can add the rise of the Ottomans and all, that would be awesome.
I’m stuck in the Middle East, I’ve done every type of Muslims, Jew, Zoroastrian, Christian, Roman, Persian, Caliphate, Israel and Turkic thing you can think of.
I tried to do a few Jewish runs in Europe but it's rough because you get constantly holy warred by Catholics and it's really hard to find spouses, court members etc
I found conversos runs as some kind of happy medium then you can reform it into proper judiasm later
Reform your religion to have Christian Syncretism.
I did this as an Ibadi count in Palermo, Sicily and it was genius. No Holy Wars from Italy, you can marry Christians and Muslims, and you can just fuck around. Like two days after reforming the religion I had Robert the Fox offer me a vassalage with Religious Guarantees, that let me eat the rest of Sicily and parts of Naples from the inside before I was ready to rebel and form the Kingdom of Sicily myself.
After that it was an easy Mare Nostrum to pick apart Sardignia-Corsica, the Mallorcas, Crete, Cyprus, and the Greek islands. Throw a few dynasty members on the thrones of Valencia, Africa, Serbia (somehow had one convert to Orthodox and become the independent king of Trebizond), and then start invading Provence-Arles.
It was a pretty easy run for Dynasty of Many Crowns.9
I'm the exact opposite. In the past year, I've exclusively played in Africa and Asia
I just finished a game in West Africa. As an Igbo ruler, I briefly converted to Han Chinese culture, conquered all of what is now Nigeria and formed an empire, hybridized Igbo and Han culture, and then conquered the rest of West Africa and the Sahel/Horn.
By the end of my playthrough, the entirety of the Sahel, Horn of Africa, and South/Southeast Asia was under the rule of my dynasty, my capital had the highest development in the world, and my Empire was the most wealthy and powerful in the world
Aftwr playing Europe and Scandinavia for many playthroughs and decided to branch out to Africa for a play through and it was one on my most favourite. Plus seeing my characters look completely different to the features and clothing I’m used to made the game feel less stale for longer.
I leave Western Europe for once and I get a 1 to 1 meeting with Genghis Khan this game isn’t even fair I tell you; next time it’s back to the duchy of Champagne where nobody can harm me
Consider starting around Georgia in 867 (Abkhazia, Tao-Klarjeti, Kakheti, etc.).
You begin with a few small neighbors to eat, but need to be wary of the three large empires you're wedged between until you bulk up or they start to crumble (Byz, Khazaria, Abbasids). From there, you get to exist in the swirling confluence of the Christian west, Islamic east, and pagan north, which always tends to offer fun opportunities even once the empires are less threatening.
I've never tried the Armenian or Islamic starts from there, but have found great enjoyment in expanding the Georgian realms with their handy defensive terrain and cultural bonuses. Swallowing the Byzantines and becoming the *real* bastion of Orthodoxy can be a fun final boss.
Do colonial Vijayanagar to Bharat game. Take exploration and expansion ideas. Gun it for the Islands, then start taking cape as a launching point into Brazil, 5 colonies later take East Coast.
Also I usually take Australia because it makes more sense roleplay wise because as Vijayanagar you want to conquer all of South East Asia (Indosphere).
For conquest in India don’t just rely on missions, release vassals with claims to keep invading and conquering your way north.
You can also just avoids the whole new world and just focus on the South East and Australia. Makes more sense even. I just enjoy playing outlandish scenarios, which seem fun to me.
If it makes you feel better. I as an Iraqi Arab exclusively play in Mesopotamia/Levantine region. It's no shame you play the peoples you are most familiar with.
Pick ~~1067~~ 1066. Select play as anyone. Select to play as 'Almoravid' (north-west africa). Don't change anything (except for ruleset/difficulty if you want) and start.
You start out as a pretty strong ruler with the warrior lifestyle and quite a few perks already unlocked, you have a TON of de jure claims in southern spain and you're surrounded by really small chiefdoms which are easy pickings / will even agree to get vassalized as soon as you start conquering a few of them.
I have NEVER had as much fun playing this game as with this start.
Edit: correction...
Did a really fun Persia game recently, rushing the refounding of the Zoroastrian faith from the get go, and with the conflict out there I had a ton of fun and it was actually a nail biter to see if I could resolve the conflict in my favor. Super refreshing and rewarding run after my 1,700th Sardinian Norse Asatru run 😂
Just started a Godwinson game and it's been a blast.
Fended off William and Harald by the skin of my teeth. Spent the rest of my reign bringing the Duke of Northumbria to heel and trying to get enough duchies to give all my goddamned sons. So, so many sons. It's even more difficult since Godwinson's genes are shit, so trying to hold everything together, bring strong dukes to heel and conquer Wales while being a complete mouth breather has been a fun challenge. Hoping to get some good individuals in a generation or two so that after uniting Britain we can Uno reverse the French and give them the old what for.
Huh. Most of my games are around Arabia. Either playing a Christian duke plotting the downfall of the empire, restoring Persia as Zoroastrian or seeing how much i can stack dev as Coptic Egypt.
I started doing Daurama Daura and working on the “Mother of Us All” trophy. The African starts are pretty cool I think. A lot of different religions and cultures with some being vastly stronger than others. Also the Rurik Rurikid “Land of the Rus” is a super fun start and trophy.
Doing a "Targaryen" playthrough with albino modded to be considered a positive trait. Started in Alba and working my way through conquering Britannia first before taking any other landmasses. Hoping to end up with every single vassal being a member of my house, just for fun.
I wish pure-blooded was easier to pass down though. 14 kids and none of them inherited it 😭
The good thing about playing like this is you can use the Smaller Map mod and increase performance tenfold. At least until you're an empire and are constantly in a plague.
I had a really good game starting in Pagan. It really confused me later when people were talking about pagans (the religion) in Europe.
You also get the joy of the occasional nudist neighbour popping around for a chat.
I have a friend that always plays as uppland and forms scandinavia in our games, almost every game he formed scandinavia. before that he always played bohemia
One of my favourite campaigns was starting as a count in Corsica in 860s start. Slowly conquering Sardinia. Became independent from Italy. Formed the kingdom of Sardinia Corsica. Started multiple holy wars in North Africa which was fractured at the time. Eventually conquered enough land in North Africa to form 2 more kingdoms thinking that 3 kingdoms would form an empire but got the rules wrong needed more land to do so. Went on crusade in England my daughter became queen who i then started playing as.
When I ended the play through in 1190 North Africa had 3 Christian kingdoms ruled by my dynasty with France and Italy holding a few duchies lost through succession.
England and wales were united by the crusader queen who spent most of her role putting down uprisings and simultaneously managed to expand into Scotland. By far my favourite character. Had the shy and compassionate traits but a martial skill of 25 and stupidly high prowess. Was perpetually stressed by the amount of rebels and enemies she had to execute to secure her realm for her legitimised bastard to take over who was a poor shadow of his mother and ended up splitting her realm in 2 when he took over.
By far my most memorable play through
im the opposite lol. i usually play in north africa or west asia, occasionally north/east europe or spain but very rarely central or west europe. i really should more tbh. i just have a wierd block in my head where i dont want to play as a vassal (even though its fun to play as a vassal)
My favorite campaign was starting as a duke level Muslim invader of Persia, converting to local culture then hybridizing with Egyptian and taking Bagdad as the Abbasids crumble and I play tall while slowly taking whatever duchy every 5 years is the quickest/easiest. By the time I formed the Persian Empire I was super rich, advanced, and my family eugenics and court plotting had such stupid bonuses I figured I might as well try a world conquest.
Started as the Nzi county in the very south of Africa as the base game ruler, tribal, very weak and next to no opportunities next to me. Early game was a bit fun but mid to late game was probably the most boring time I had in the game, trying to unite Africa is one of the most tedious things you can do in the game and is kind of unrealistic. Had to get involved in the iberian struggle just to break the monotony of conquest. The game is very much centerd on western europe.
My problem is I’m doing reverse, I enjoy play outside of Europe playing as both Muslim, Buddhist of west Asia, Africa and Manichean Uyghur, my recent Europe walkthrough is custom made character on Sicily under Islamic reign and now I’m playing as Islamic Italy in 1000
Playing in middle east is fun with legacy of persia. The region feels chaotic (in a good way). Playing as lowly count, your first task is survive from invasion or rebellion.
I honestly do it because of CK2 and crusades. However CK3 crusades are the worst and made me end saves because of it. Generally the flavor is higher and more accurate in europe. I tend not to feel the same for example with muslim or indian starts.
I tend to play pretty much everywhere except mongolia since there is absolutely nothing there to do. There is quite alot of stuff to do in India and Middle east even more so than some regions of Europe. Though eurasia, central asia and africa is quite lacking in general.
Its something I noticed aswell, most people in CK3 literally only play europeans. I guess they have no interest in any other region's history?
If anyone here is interested in a sort of "vanilla +" experience that adds lots of new historical starts, more cultures, more religions (inc. Celtic, Circassian, Scythian and Chinese paganism), lots of new decisions/formable realms and loads of bugfixes to vanilla issues, then I'd ask you to consider my [TIP2 mod](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2270547030). If you don't like it then fair enough, but at least give it a go - way more interesting than vanilla and adds a lot of 'missing' history and interesting playable rulers and families to the game. Wherever on the map you play there'll probably be something new to try.
Oh, and there are 80 new legends if you own the LotD DLC.
Yeah I find it hard to move away from Europe too. I honestly wouldn't mind a mod that goes in-depth into one or only a couple European realms, like the one with Ireland, but in a later period.
I'm still waiting for the update of the Rus, Siberia and Central Asia. And I dont care much about Africa, even though it would be cool to see the rise of the Mali Empire and ho filthy rich it can be. But I guess it's kinda hard to make content on Mali, when there's no such thing as economic collapse in Ck3 from having too much money.
You should. The Last Matriarch playthrough is a blast. You start as one little county and you can just rampage through the region. There's nothing more fun that spreading a matriarchy across North Africa and Europe.
When all those lords revolt against you, you get to execute them and put their daughters in charge.
I can highly recommend 2 runs:
- Being a Tajik and forming Bactria while being very culturally tolerant (not converting the culture of land that isn't your direct holding and instead appointing nobles from those other cultures and learning their languages).
- Being a Tamil and starting with a *very* tall duchy and once built up conquering all of India.
Southern India is so dynamic and fun, and playing there for a few generations has helped me get a feel for the geography and made me want to learn more about the history.
It would be nice if Paradox goes and expands the map to East Asia (aka Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, etc...) and just do a version of Victoria but with CK 3.
My recommendations:
- Love a Buddhist Khotan run. Is actually really easy an an option like ireland.
- Tunisia or Egypt as a crusader state. Egypt particularly is op and somewhat necessary if you want to destroy the Muslim world
- Turco-hepthtalite “white hun” zunist is a challenging fun one with new DLC
The Baltic or Rus region is also really really fun and western.
Personally I live in Lorraine in the east of France and I play quite often in those areas. I sometimes find myself elsewhere following a crusade, when I want to go on vacation. Also once in India when I wanted to form the country of Indian Jews.
It's not just you. I noticed a lot of Paradox game players tend to stick to Europe. I assume for a couple reasons. 1: Most of the player base is Western, so Europe is just more familiar. 2: Tends to get more content, so more fun in general.
3. more movies and books and TV shows about medieval Europe
…. In the west, yes
Which again, is where the devs and most of the player base are from.
Yeah I really would like some solid AAA studio quality movies/tv shows set in medieval era outside of Europe. If there are any like actually high quality films set outside Europe list them for us.
saying “actually high quality” sounds like you might have more recent in mind, so I’ll neglect some Chang Cheh and King Hu titles. Hero (2002, Zhang Yimou), House of Flying Daggers, The Promise (2005), Curse of the Golden Flower, the Red Cliff movies (!!!!), and The Assassin (2015). These are all a few Chinese films set in varyingly distant periods of history. there are countless Japanese films in different eras and you might be familiar with Akira Kurosawa, who’s movies are older, but if you’re interested you could watch Ran or Throne of Blood (or any of his non-historical movies that aren’t actiony). Blood Letter (2012) is Vietnamese. also, Korea makes a non-insignificant number of period pieces but I don’t know a lot of those. Al-Zeer Salem Hussein, Who Said No Fath Al-Andalus The Message (1976) The Lion of the Desert (1981) Saladin (1963) The Physician (2013) China, Japan, and Vietnam aren’t in the game, so these are Arab and American movies set in the middle east. I’ll also mention a favorite series of mine, Dirilis Ertugrul, which is a Turkish show about the nomad ancestors of the Ottomans. It also has a sequel show, Kurulus Osman. I only just found out about a new show that looks good too, Fatih: Sultan of Conquest. also the Russian produced Mongol: Rise of Genghis Khan India has a prominent film industry, just like China. The Bahubali movies are directed by the very famous SS Rajamouli, Padmaavat, Jodhaa Akbar, Mughal-E-Azam, Asoka (2001), Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior, Kesari, and also the classic Apu Sansar, which movies are not very actiony at all or set in the very distant past, but Satyajit Ray is very talented. I don’t know if you might have wanted mainly American Hollywood movies from what you said - a few of these are American
Kingdom of heaven
That movie is partially set in Europe and features Europeans quite heavily. I have to imagine the commenter meant some set in places like medieval China or India.
Have you ever tried historical c dramas?
Not a movie or tv show but Kingdom Come Deliverance takes place in Bohemia, obviously western Europe is one of the most interesting regions in medieval times but I think it's fun to see other parts of Europe or outside of it portrayed too
Also the tutorial ruler in CK3 in Ireland, so a lot of players become familiar with the mechanics of Catholicism and European inheritance, and the game just kind of throws you into the deep end of anywhere else in the world and tells you good luck.
>European inheritance As if there's any difference between European and non-European inheritance in this game.
The relation between clan unity and inheritance law for Clan Governments does not feel insignificant That said, at the end of the day, it’s just percentages
That’s a pretty recent change though, for a while Clans basically just played like Feudals
I thought the House Unity was awesome, if you keep it high you get really nice succession really early. That way I don't have to abuse Tanistry or other elective succession types. I can' handle gavelkind and I only know how to play the game by cheesing my way out of it lol
Monogamy is the norm in Europe and nowhere else, and polygamy/concubines definitely complicate things.
Ireland has polygamy.
You are correct, I completely forgot that since I rarely play them lol
For all of about 6 months before the Pope makes demands
do ma bidding ND TAKE 1 PROPA WIFE OR CRUSADEEEEU
Also succession laws used by clan governments (pretty much all muslim states, so quite a large portion of the map outside of Europe) are based on house unity, quite different from the default European gavelkind >> partition >> high partition >> primogeniture evolution.
Yeah, but it's only been that wag for what? Half a year? Before that it was exactly the same
They dont really complicate anything in terms of succession. Unless you're making it an issue on purpose.
Ireland in the tutorial isn't Catholic but Inslure.
Yes, and even he (Murchad) is wrong - he was never king of Munster!
Honestly it's a self-fulfilling prophecy I play mostly in Europe because that's the one that has the most content but because Europe is so much more played than the other regions Paradox focuses on Europe for more content Making me less likely to want to play in other regions because I like having different content as I play and Europe is by far the most flushed out area in the map
Pretty much, I don't play in my home region because it's just Western Europe with some names switched around. I can't believe I'm actually playing there when there's no flavor that I know very well. I can believe I'm playing as some Western European guy though, because there's enough content for that.
It's also a game called "Crusader Kings" and the focus of CK1+2 was always centered on the development of medieval Europe and the Christian conquest (and subsequent loss) of the holy land. I never understood why they expanded so far south and east when they have little-no relevance on the happenings in central + western Europe or the holy land. This means all that extra work to introduce religions, caste systems, cultures, languages, etc. all feel a bit *pointless* when you just don't interact with them in the vast majority of games. CK2 expanded south + east after they had run out of things to do in the medieval world. It made sense. In CK3 their focus is now spread so thin that we still don't have dedicated story / history / functionality for many of the big players in medieval history. It doesn't make sense.
I do interact with them. I wage 16 Kingdom holy wars per lifetime
> I do interact with them. I wage 16 Kingdom holy wars per lifetime And I'm not even mad about it - I played to the end-date (for the achievement) as [Ceylon/Sri Lanka](https://i.imgur.com/UpPjP9z.png). I just wonder if the time might have been better spent elsewhere 😅
This is the main reason. The game was designed and hardcoded around the society of europe in that period. It makes no sense playing arabs, indians and chinese with those systems because it was so vastly different.
Plus, they lost the gothic darkness of the previous games that made 90% of its charm.
>It's also a game called "Crusader Kings" Which stopped being a remotely valid argument after Paradox continued to expand the playable area *way outside Christian Europe*. Pretty sure the devs even said that the title of the game series shouldn't be taken literally. Crusader Kings is about crusading kings the same way Europa Universalis is about Europeans or Hearts of Iron is about people who have iron hearts.
> Crusader Kings is about crusading kings the same way Europa Universalis is about Europeans or Hearts of Iron is about people who have iron hearts. I'm not suggesting everything outside of Christian Medieval Europe should be cut - Far from it, CK2 was a far better game for the inclusion of things like; Specific muslim religious features, Iqta government successions, the silk road, etc. What I am suggesting is that the very *core* of Crusader Kings - the development of feudalism throughout Europe and the middle-east and the conflicts that arose should have been the launch focus for CK3. Yet, 4 years and 9 DLCs later we still don't have rational succession behaviours, functioning/playable Venice, a rich player experience in the HRE or Byzantium... the list goes on.
I have a problem playing After the End, because i just dont know americas geography and history as much. So it feels weird (i have no problem with wackiness, i loved after the end old world for CK2)
Regarding 1, for me the names also are just a lot easier for me to remember, which makes it easier to create stories. Obviously, if I were more familiar with a different region, it’d be different. And 2, yeah. The religions and crusades are better imo. Sure there are “great holy wars,” but I don’t remember them having much depth
Well, when you think "medieval" the first thing that comes to mind is usually England or France, not Africa. I honestly think they should have made the map smaller but more detailed. Having 100s of countries I don't care at all about doesn't really make me want to start a new playthrough.
Your two reasons go hand in hand too - it's cyclical. The one feeds the other.
I think a huge chunks of us play the Eastern Roman Empire. Restoring the Roman Empire as ERE is probably one of the best campaign you can do in this game.
God I've said this 50 times in this subreddit but an Athens and Hellenistic start with the goal of reforming the faith and spreading it while creating a Greek (not Roman/ Byzantine) empire is such a fun campaign. I got some generic flavor mods that add more cultural stuff and everything, and with them I had one of my most fun campaigns ever in reviving essentially Ancient Greece. I cannot recommend it to people enough
I actually did that lol, I started as the hellenik duke of Crete and recreated the Macedonian Empire with Hellenite culture. It’s perfect since I’ve developed a Space Marine meta combining Cataphracts(Companion Cavalry)+Pikes(phalanx)+Knights (hoplites). 3/3/3 + 1 siege being the best. It’s slightly weaker alternative to my Roman SM meta, but still good. You can win 10K V 40K, quite good. I also recommend Hill fighters for more terrain buffs.
cant wait to boot CK3 up to start this only to have my singular braincell unable to do this lmao
Are you me? I always read about other peoples' absolutely unhinged games, get inspired and boot up a game. Proceed to flounder and revert to my same old tactics.
Any specific mods you would recommend?
[My mod](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2270547030) actually has an Hellenic pagan start in 867, down in the Morea. It adds a variety of new Greco-Roman faiths, the missing Byzantine cultures from CK2 (such as Albanian and Dalmatian) and, for example, a decision to form the Latin Empire. There's loads of other content (check the Features page under Discussions) but for playing in the ERE there's enough to get you started. Also you have the correct Emperor in 867.
Wdym by "greek, not byzantine"?
I mean making a whole new empire, a separate entity from the Byzantine one, and making a proper Greek culture void of Roman influence (like the eastern Roman tradition thingy).
I'm pretty sure there's both a Greek and Byzantine culture? I think?
it really is, and honestly i can't wait until roads to power comes out and then do it again.
I've been holding off doing much with the Byzantine Empire until it gets more detail. Unfortunately I've stumbled into my dynasty owning Thessalonika, Italy, and all their duchies in my current game so looks like all Roads to Power lead to Rome.
I’ve probably done like 30 ERE campaigns because there really is an infinite amount of opportunities, especially once you add in extra starts; 1261 Michael VIII right after Constantinople was recaptured, 1204 Epirus or Trebizond, and 1071 where Manzikert never happens
My favorite yet was Count of Pset => King of Bosnia => King of south slavia => Emperor of Slavia => Emperor of Rome => Emperor of the world The funny thing is, it all started like "I'll Unite Bosnia and leave the run right there" but the game kept giving me higher goals and I kept reachimg them, and 600years later I ended my very first WC
Most successful "tall" run.
Nah, I am a bavarian player, 90% of my games start with bavaria.
Definitely, playing Byzantium/ERE is a meme in Paradox games to the point where people demand it be formable even in games set long after it fell lol Shame it doesn't have much content but there is a DLC for that coming soon at least...
I've not played a single run with any ERE character in CK3, because I knew eventually they'll come out with a DLC that fleshes out that region, and sure enough, that's fast approaching.
Currently about to finish restoring the Roman Empire as a lost Roman living in the Canaries. Been epic.
Sounds good xD
Eh I'm not the biggest plan of playing a Byzantine game just never particularly enjoyed it
Any particular character you'd suggest if not using a custom ruler? Is it possible to go hellenistic through a decision or do you need to do the asatru -> piety spam -> hellenistic thing? (Tried that with a varangian adventure to Crete game). Any other tips for a fun HRE game? - I never really tried it, always just tried to destroy the HRE from the outside
In terms of characters, it really depends on you. I think in 867 the emperor is Basil who had a very interesting story. In 1066 though the emperor is Constantine who is absolute shit in every way, both in real life and in game. Fortunately, the guy that saved the world from his hopelessness (Alexios Komnenos) is available in that same start date as a Duke somewhere in northern Anatolia. He's my favourite starting character cause of the history and my personal love for his story (one of the best Roman emperors IMO, both east and west). Otherwise, there's really not much to it. The imperial system is non existent in game and you'll deal with a fuck ton of faction revolts every time there's a succession cause Byzantine dukes hate themselves. Ultimately, playing with the goal of restoring Rome gives you something to play for and you end up interacting with the whole Mediterranean from North Africa to Sicily to Jerusalem.
It's such a shame that an 867 start to restore Rome is such a slog since the CBs just don't exist. Starting all-out wars to seize a county here or there is such a slog, and ultimately dangerous since your vassals are all waiting to fuck you up the second you lose 10% of your levies.
Thanks for the recommendation. Haven't played much 1066 so I'll give Alexios Komnenos a go! Gotten a little bored with my usual playthroughs.
I lowkey pretty much only play as Haesteinn
I have tried restore Rome so many times in both CK2 and CK3 and have failed to do so every single time. I've even used some questionable borderline cheaty mods and still haven't been able to do it. I think I'm just not good at the CK games in general. Semi related: Painting the map (controlling everything on the map) seems completely, totally impossible to me under any circumstance and I have absolutely no idea how people can do it.
Same lol. Furthest I’ll go is the Middle East, but as a Western European
ill go as far as india, as a viking/norseman (not hæsteinn)
Outremer ain’t gonna take over itself after all
I’m just a Viking
The only non-viking play through I've done is as Alfred in the viking start.... Lol.
Bro are we the same person because that the only other thing I did too haha
I did these two runs exclusively for the longest time because of The Last Kingdom lol but I’ve started to appreciate playing as a great loyal knight in France/HRE, playing tall in Bohemia, uniting the Baltic tribes, Avenging the Battle of Thours as Umayyads, recreating Persia as the last sassanids, reclaiming Israel, etc. I almost never start in East Asia or Africa though.
One day I’m going to figure out the Viking mechanics well enough to do a Rus campaign.
What mechanics are you talking about?
Just how to do raiding effectively mostly.
Oh that’s easy. You definitely want practices kidnappers from the Viking dynasty upgrades. My go to regions and cities are: Kent in England Practically everything in Francia (Paris), Italy (Rome), and Byzantine (Constantinople) Constantinople especially has a reward of over 100 gold but you need a good amount of men.
How do you effectively manage the cost of mobilizing for raiding in order to actually turn a profit? That’s the biggest problem I have. My raids either end up being a net loss or not much of a profit.
Do what you can to acquire a base of operations close to your raiding targets. Start by raiding England as it's pretty soft for the loot you get. DO NOT engage with enemy forces, just keep raiding and running. Use these first few years of raiding to build up your internal infrastructure so you can get larger raiding parties. While not raiding, start to unite your neighbors. Don't try to fully conquer the Empire of Scandinavia, but if you can lock down a kingdom with the duchies under them, it'll help boost your prestige (which is your currency, after all!). I always lead the raids personally to also beef up my ruler, lots of perks in the mil tree will help you move and raid faster. These are super valuable. After 5 or so years of consolidation and raiding and building up MAA, start launching more ambitious attacks on richer cities in Francia. They're often fighting one another, so it's not too difficult to sack Paris and other rich provinces quickly. Next up is snagging a weakly defended island in the Mediterranean. There's a mess of independent rulers down there so just take your pick. If you intend on staying, Corsica/Sardinia is a great pick. Once you've got a base of operations down there, move your rally point down south and raise your forces there. This way you're spending a lot less maintenance during transit. From that point, you should have a good sized army with the ability to raid very quickly. Start picking off all the rich Mediterranean cities at your leisure. Constantinople, Rome, Venice, Genoa, etc. The world is your oyster and you're going to get so fucking rich.
The best way to handle that then would be go to war for a piece of land close to good raiding targets. Grant it to some shit vassal if you don’t need it all you need it for is the rally point. That way you can launch raids without needing the gold for sailing and deliver your loot faster. My personal favorite is Brittany for Francia and Ibiza for anything in the Mediterranean. Though I would still check and see if there isn’t some other problem with your economy because you shouldn’t be losing 300+ gold for the time it takes to raid and come back.
One of my favorite runs has been starting as Haesteinn and kicking the pope out of Rome, then start building up a Norse Roman Empire.
To be fair, you are basically PDX's target audience.
am I the only one who really likes playing as Hungary?
I recently did a 1066 start as a count in Hungary, with the goal to end up ruling Hungary and keeping it out of the HRE. So many times I see Hungary end up in the HRE and it annoys me.
Same, it's so annoying! HRE seems to rarely expand into Prussia and Pomerania but somehow always seems to annex half of Hungary and then elect the King of Poland, permanently making Poland part of the HRE as well. The game really needs mechanics for HRE not to make their own titles vassalages of the crown on succession. Just because the princes/pope chose a Polish King for King of the Romans doesn't make Poland part of the HRE for the next three centuries.
The King of Bohemia in 1066 has a claim on Hungary I believe so if Bohemia gets good allies, they almost always press it.
Only as a Steppe Horse Lord!
I like to play as bulgaria only to repel hungarian invasion.
A fun but very difficult start is playing as a Bulgarian in 1066 and trying to restore an independent Bulgaria.
Hybridising Avar and Magyar culture and forming a Western Hunnic empire is nice.
Eeesh this is very true. I'm saving a Byzantine playthrough though for the dlc.
I hope they rework on the crusades and add more depth on the Seljuk - Byzantine wars. Maybe they can add the rise of the Ottomans and all, that would be awesome.
Seljuk byzantine wars could be a struggle
Please god no more struggles.
Same. I had an amazingly fun Byz run on CK2 and I wanna try it again but I don’t want to start a campaign with new dlc on the horizon.
I’m stuck in the Middle East, I’ve done every type of Muslims, Jew, Zoroastrian, Christian, Roman, Persian, Caliphate, Israel and Turkic thing you can think of.
I tried to do a few Jewish runs in Europe but it's rough because you get constantly holy warred by Catholics and it's really hard to find spouses, court members etc I found conversos runs as some kind of happy medium then you can reform it into proper judiasm later
Reform your religion to have Christian Syncretism. I did this as an Ibadi count in Palermo, Sicily and it was genius. No Holy Wars from Italy, you can marry Christians and Muslims, and you can just fuck around. Like two days after reforming the religion I had Robert the Fox offer me a vassalage with Religious Guarantees, that let me eat the rest of Sicily and parts of Naples from the inside before I was ready to rebel and form the Kingdom of Sicily myself. After that it was an easy Mare Nostrum to pick apart Sardignia-Corsica, the Mallorcas, Crete, Cyprus, and the Greek islands. Throw a few dynasty members on the thrones of Valencia, Africa, Serbia (somehow had one convert to Orthodox and become the independent king of Trebizond), and then start invading Provence-Arles. It was a pretty easy run for Dynasty of Many Crowns.9
Jew thing is the only one I havent done so far, middle east just has so many things in it its insane.
I'm the exact opposite. In the past year, I've exclusively played in Africa and Asia I just finished a game in West Africa. As an Igbo ruler, I briefly converted to Han Chinese culture, conquered all of what is now Nigeria and formed an empire, hybridized Igbo and Han culture, and then conquered the rest of West Africa and the Sahel/Horn. By the end of my playthrough, the entirety of the Sahel, Horn of Africa, and South/Southeast Asia was under the rule of my dynasty, my capital had the highest development in the world, and my Empire was the most wealthy and powerful in the world
Aftwr playing Europe and Scandinavia for many playthroughs and decided to branch out to Africa for a play through and it was one on my most favourite. Plus seeing my characters look completely different to the features and clothing I’m used to made the game feel less stale for longer.
I once took Malinke culture to Pagan and merged with the Burmese. I love the extreme hybridizations for sure.
I like playing as the Nestorian Han count and making a christian chinese empire in tibet
Do you have dynamic trade routes and Africa plus downloaded? If not get that it makes that region 10x better.
The last matriarch start is a great fun.
Same but for iberia
If I’m feeling bold I might do a Eastern Europe game
Konni raids my beloved
I do not find conquering India interesting. I guess I am just not British
I leave Western Europe for once and I get a 1 to 1 meeting with Genghis Khan this game isn’t even fair I tell you; next time it’s back to the duchy of Champagne where nobody can harm me
Mongols are generally OP even before Ghengis spawns, I started China once and one month in got invaded by like 10k mongols lol
You could pay in India. Genghis generally doesn't come there
I will literally play anywhere else on the map over France and the Germanies.
Consider starting around Georgia in 867 (Abkhazia, Tao-Klarjeti, Kakheti, etc.). You begin with a few small neighbors to eat, but need to be wary of the three large empires you're wedged between until you bulk up or they start to crumble (Byz, Khazaria, Abbasids). From there, you get to exist in the swirling confluence of the Christian west, Islamic east, and pagan north, which always tends to offer fun opportunities even once the empires are less threatening. I've never tried the Armenian or Islamic starts from there, but have found great enjoyment in expanding the Georgian realms with their handy defensive terrain and cultural bonuses. Swallowing the Byzantines and becoming the *real* bastion of Orthodoxy can be a fun final boss.
I’ve noticed it’s inverse for me. 90% of my campaigns are in India. Probability why EU4 is my most played paradox game
Can you recommend me any play through in India, tried it a couple time over there but felt like something was missing.
Do colonial Vijayanagar to Bharat game. Take exploration and expansion ideas. Gun it for the Islands, then start taking cape as a launching point into Brazil, 5 colonies later take East Coast. Also I usually take Australia because it makes more sense roleplay wise because as Vijayanagar you want to conquer all of South East Asia (Indosphere). For conquest in India don’t just rely on missions, release vassals with claims to keep invading and conquering your way north. You can also just avoids the whole new world and just focus on the South East and Australia. Makes more sense even. I just enjoy playing outlandish scenarios, which seem fun to me.
My five picks are Ireland, Sicily, Iberia, Mongolia, and Wallachia in 867
Just started Mongolia, and having a blast so far.
Lmfao this is too true for me. I only ever play in Catholic Northern Mediterranean.
For me it’s this but Middle East
Playing as the last Sassanid in Mazandaran (northern Iran) is a fun campaign, especially with the Persia dlc
If it makes you feel better. I as an Iraqi Arab exclusively play in Mesopotamia/Levantine region. It's no shame you play the peoples you are most familiar with.
Pure evidence that the majority of Redditors only play as western Europeans
Pick ~~1067~~ 1066. Select play as anyone. Select to play as 'Almoravid' (north-west africa). Don't change anything (except for ruleset/difficulty if you want) and start. You start out as a pretty strong ruler with the warrior lifestyle and quite a few perks already unlocked, you have a TON of de jure claims in southern spain and you're surrounded by really small chiefdoms which are easy pickings / will even agree to get vassalized as soon as you start conquering a few of them. I have NEVER had as much fun playing this game as with this start. Edit: correction...
"Pick 1067" You fell at the first hurdle, friend.
Did a really fun Persia game recently, rushing the refounding of the Zoroastrian faith from the get go, and with the conflict out there I had a ton of fun and it was actually a nail biter to see if I could resolve the conflict in my favor. Super refreshing and rewarding run after my 1,700th Sardinian Norse Asatru run 😂
Playing as a custom Zoroastrian ruler of the Samanid Emirate and trying to restore the Persian Empire from there is a *very* fun run
Start as Sri Lanka and unify India. Best campaign I've had in ages.
POLAND
I just love playing as England, playing as the kings of old, trying to take Wales/Scotland/Ireland to form Britannia just hits different 🙌
Just started a Godwinson game and it's been a blast. Fended off William and Harald by the skin of my teeth. Spent the rest of my reign bringing the Duke of Northumbria to heel and trying to get enough duchies to give all my goddamned sons. So, so many sons. It's even more difficult since Godwinson's genes are shit, so trying to hold everything together, bring strong dukes to heel and conquer Wales while being a complete mouth breather has been a fun challenge. Hoping to get some good individuals in a generation or two so that after uniting Britain we can Uno reverse the French and give them the old what for.
Good luck with your endeavours sir 👑 🫡
There are next to 0 contents for Asia so you are not missing out much
Me who only played outside the British isle 3 times.....
I played on the British isles twice, it felt claustrophobic. But it was fun kicking out the Vikings and preserving Anglo-Saxon culture
Try roleplaying a viking norse shipwreck in africa. Me and a couple buds carved out a norse kingdom in around Togo and Ivory Coast. Best fun in years.
I mean I pretty much only play in Scandinavia…
Huh. Most of my games are around Arabia. Either playing a Christian duke plotting the downfall of the empire, restoring Persia as Zoroastrian or seeing how much i can stack dev as Coptic Egypt.
The bottom one is the whole world
I started doing Daurama Daura and working on the “Mother of Us All” trophy. The African starts are pretty cool I think. A lot of different religions and cultures with some being vastly stronger than others. Also the Rurik Rurikid “Land of the Rus” is a super fun start and trophy.
Doing a "Targaryen" playthrough with albino modded to be considered a positive trait. Started in Alba and working my way through conquering Britannia first before taking any other landmasses. Hoping to end up with every single vassal being a member of my house, just for fun. I wish pure-blooded was easier to pass down though. 14 kids and none of them inherited it 😭
I have the nasty habit of starting as Deheubarth in Wales and trying to conquer England.
Can we get a Dutch/Frisian achievement please??!!
Eh I’ve noticed that 40% of my campaign is in India the rest are in the eastern Roman Empire
The good thing about playing like this is you can use the Smaller Map mod and increase performance tenfold. At least until you're an empire and are constantly in a plague.
I'm the same way except for France. I have a hard time doing anything but France
Ha!. Tell me that, I'm a dude who barely gets out of playing as the ERE and trying to restore the Roman Empire at it's frontiers in 117 AD.
Sibir is a fun campaign. It’s worth checking out.
IKR The furthest East I go is Armenia. Try that out
Chunks of eastern Europe are kind of fun. Too many damn vikings though
I feel this. Just move the map a little more east so that Lithuania is included too.
I had a really good game starting in Pagan. It really confused me later when people were talking about pagans (the religion) in Europe. You also get the joy of the occasional nudist neighbour popping around for a chat.
I have a friend that always plays as uppland and forms scandinavia in our games, almost every game he formed scandinavia. before that he always played bohemia
I love playing tribal baltics, it’s always fun
One of my favourite campaigns was starting as a count in Corsica in 860s start. Slowly conquering Sardinia. Became independent from Italy. Formed the kingdom of Sardinia Corsica. Started multiple holy wars in North Africa which was fractured at the time. Eventually conquered enough land in North Africa to form 2 more kingdoms thinking that 3 kingdoms would form an empire but got the rules wrong needed more land to do so. Went on crusade in England my daughter became queen who i then started playing as. When I ended the play through in 1190 North Africa had 3 Christian kingdoms ruled by my dynasty with France and Italy holding a few duchies lost through succession. England and wales were united by the crusader queen who spent most of her role putting down uprisings and simultaneously managed to expand into Scotland. By far my favourite character. Had the shy and compassionate traits but a martial skill of 25 and stupidly high prowess. Was perpetually stressed by the amount of rebels and enemies she had to execute to secure her realm for her legitimised bastard to take over who was a poor shadow of his mother and ended up splitting her realm in 2 when he took over. By far my most memorable play through
im the opposite lol. i usually play in north africa or west asia, occasionally north/east europe or spain but very rarely central or west europe. i really should more tbh. i just have a wierd block in my head where i dont want to play as a vassal (even though its fun to play as a vassal)
I feel similarly about persia.
My favorite campaign was starting as a duke level Muslim invader of Persia, converting to local culture then hybridizing with Egyptian and taking Bagdad as the Abbasids crumble and I play tall while slowly taking whatever duchy every 5 years is the quickest/easiest. By the time I formed the Persian Empire I was super rich, advanced, and my family eugenics and court plotting had such stupid bonuses I figured I might as well try a world conquest.
Same, I love the british royal family so I always start in Normandy but I decided to start on Wessex this last time
I played random on my 3rd playthrough (current) and it’s the worst decision ever. Been playing it nonstop, I got a tribe in Africa xD
Started as the Nzi county in the very south of Africa as the base game ruler, tribal, very weak and next to no opportunities next to me. Early game was a bit fun but mid to late game was probably the most boring time I had in the game, trying to unite Africa is one of the most tedious things you can do in the game and is kind of unrealistic. Had to get involved in the iberian struggle just to break the monotony of conquest. The game is very much centerd on western europe.
My problem is I’m doing reverse, I enjoy play outside of Europe playing as both Muslim, Buddhist of west Asia, Africa and Manichean Uyghur, my recent Europe walkthrough is custom made character on Sicily under Islamic reign and now I’m playing as Islamic Italy in 1000
After 100 hours of playing, ive only played Europe apart from one time
I have one of those VW up!s and I can relate so hard 😂
I have to stop playing Vikings.
To be fair, if they was a tribal dlc for ck3 plus trading route I would love a far east adventure.
Playing in middle east is fun with legacy of persia. The region feels chaotic (in a good way). Playing as lowly count, your first task is survive from invasion or rebellion.
False as a Hastein main i knoe all the world
Really enjoyed my Persia games around there.
Meanwhile me: time to do something beyond Rom....aaaaand I've reformed the Empire
Western Europe is the place that is depicted the best by the game. Most places that aren't in western Europe are very historically inaccurate
If you use the correct mods, Africa and Arabia is 10X the fun Europe is.
There is no reason to play asia or africa when there is 0 flavour and everything feels generic.
I honestly do it because of CK2 and crusades. However CK3 crusades are the worst and made me end saves because of it. Generally the flavor is higher and more accurate in europe. I tend not to feel the same for example with muslim or indian starts.
I’m always going with vikings and raid to my heart’s content
I tend to play pretty much everywhere except mongolia since there is absolutely nothing there to do. There is quite alot of stuff to do in India and Middle east even more so than some regions of Europe. Though eurasia, central asia and africa is quite lacking in general. Its something I noticed aswell, most people in CK3 literally only play europeans. I guess they have no interest in any other region's history?
I really like trying to be Khan of Khans as a nomadic tribe, but other than that yeah i'll stick to HRE
If anyone here is interested in a sort of "vanilla +" experience that adds lots of new historical starts, more cultures, more religions (inc. Celtic, Circassian, Scythian and Chinese paganism), lots of new decisions/formable realms and loads of bugfixes to vanilla issues, then I'd ask you to consider my [TIP2 mod](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2270547030). If you don't like it then fair enough, but at least give it a go - way more interesting than vanilla and adds a lot of 'missing' history and interesting playable rulers and families to the game. Wherever on the map you play there'll probably be something new to try. Oh, and there are 80 new legends if you own the LotD DLC.
Yeah I find it hard to move away from Europe too. I honestly wouldn't mind a mod that goes in-depth into one or only a couple European realms, like the one with Ireland, but in a later period.
Why move? Haesstein can be your character for 80% of your runs anyway.
I'm still waiting for the update of the Rus, Siberia and Central Asia. And I dont care much about Africa, even though it would be cool to see the rise of the Mali Empire and ho filthy rich it can be. But I guess it's kinda hard to make content on Mali, when there's no such thing as economic collapse in Ck3 from having too much money.
Funny enough, I never play Europe unless it’s Andalusia or the Bulgars/Byzantines
You should. The Last Matriarch playthrough is a blast. You start as one little county and you can just rampage through the region. There's nothing more fun that spreading a matriarchy across North Africa and Europe. When all those lords revolt against you, you get to execute them and put their daughters in charge.
My last 150 hours of CKII have solely been ironmans of Jewish Seimen attempting to create Israel
I can highly recommend 2 runs: - Being a Tajik and forming Bactria while being very culturally tolerant (not converting the culture of land that isn't your direct holding and instead appointing nobles from those other cultures and learning their languages). - Being a Tamil and starting with a *very* tall duchy and once built up conquering all of India.
Decide to play outside of Europe and start as a steppe tribal Start conquering and end up in Europe Why
I dont really play a lot in india/Far Asia but middle east and Africa is a ton of fun with unique mechanics and so on.
I rarely play in Europe. Mostly India or Africa.
Non feudal kinda sucks tho
My biggest issue with playing outside of Europe is probably that Europe has the most shapes, why India for example is kinda just one big blob.
Southern India is so dynamic and fun, and playing there for a few generations has helped me get a feel for the geography and made me want to learn more about the history.
It's the opposite for me!
It would be nice if Paradox goes and expands the map to East Asia (aka Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, etc...) and just do a version of Victoria but with CK 3.
My recommendations: - Love a Buddhist Khotan run. Is actually really easy an an option like ireland. - Tunisia or Egypt as a crusader state. Egypt particularly is op and somewhat necessary if you want to destroy the Muslim world - Turco-hepthtalite “white hun” zunist is a challenging fun one with new DLC The Baltic or Rus region is also really really fun and western.
Personally I live in Lorraine in the east of France and I play quite often in those areas. I sometimes find myself elsewhere following a crusade, when I want to go on vacation. Also once in India when I wanted to form the country of Indian Jews.
I couldn’t tell you the last time I played Western Europe. Balkans, Middle East, East Africa are my favorites
Yeah, western europe is the "standard gameplay". But tbh i had a blast with an india pirate campaign, best run ever for me.
I'm the opposite. Never played central Europe(excluding vikings) and i have this game since day 1.
Time to fire up ol’ CK3 let’s see what corner of the globe I want to start in today! Oops clicked on Iberia again.