CK3 Introductory SG

[Banzailizard]

I'll probably jump in depending on how things line up with my schedule and when saves are posted.

[Jowy]

So the first one was because dad is 59, he wasn't expecting to have any kids, even though the prospective wife is fertile.

I don't know how close to 16 the betrothal was (in CK2, there was a single "child" photo that then changed at 16, so you couldn't tell by the photo the kid's age) - and I wouldn't want to have a 20-year old betroth someone who's too young (13-15 would be fine, but not a 4-year old where you're not going to have kids for 13+ years). In CK2, betrothals were usually the best way to find choice prospects because the AI aggressively finds spouses once they reach adulthood.

And then Jowy misclicked something and ended up having the son marry the stats-prospect wife. My general rule of thumb for marriages for fertile dynasts was that claims/prospective claims and to a lesser extent alliances take preference over stats - even for heirs and rulers, but am 100% fine with dad marrying for stats alone since he's not going to generate any claims through children.

This. I accidentally sent out two marriage proposals on behalf of my son. When the first one was accepted, the second one was invalidated by the game. In reality I imagine it would be quite a mess if both proposals get accepted. Thanks for agreeing to bind together our houses by the marriage of my son and your daughter, but actually he already married this other chick. You snooze you lose. Sure, we'll come over for dinner anyway. Oh, I love this song. What was it's name again? Rains of something... Ah, The Rains of Castamere! ... Wait, hol' up-

Jowy, the save says it's from 867_1_1 - is that the save you want, because that should be the starting save, not the one you've played the opening with?

Usually the rule for an SG was "play as long as your character lives", but that's your choice.

Ironman auto-saves on the same slot always. It should be correct.

[Lewwyn]

[haphazard1]

Can lurkers ask questions? Or would it be better to do that in another thread? I don't want to interrupt the flow of the SG. Thanks!

[Jowy]

Can lurkers ask questions? Or would it be better to do that in another thread? I don't want to interrupt the flow of the SG. Thanks!

For this game at least hell yea, ask away!

[haphazard1]

OK, first question from a CK newbie: How much of an edge do you need to feel confident about a battle? With your ally called in to aid you, you had a substantial numerical advantage plus what looks like an advantage in troop quality and number of champions (although I have little idea yet what goes into determining those). So this battle looked pretty lopsided in your favor. Where would you draw the line for a fight to be too risky?

[Jowy]

OK, first question from a CK newbie: How much of an edge do you need to feel confident about a battle? With your ally called in to aid you, you had a substantial numerical advantage plus what looks like an advantage in troop quality and number of champions (although I have little idea yet what goes into determining those). So this battle looked pretty lopsided in your favor. Where would you draw the line for a fight to be too risky?

The very simple answer is that when you go to declare war, the game tells you how strong you and your allies are compared to what you'll be fighting.

The complicated answer I don't have yet, we'll have to fight more wars in CK3 to figure everything out

These might not be accurate for CK3, but for CK2 what matters is:
- Troop composition (Trained soldiers > Levies > Tribals, to put it simply, though different trained soldiers have different strengths and weaknesses)
- Commander stats/education/traits (Different educations and traits enable new tactics, some are good and some are bad. For example Craven opens Timid Advance Tactic, which heavily penalizes Heavy Cavalry and Infantry offense, but buffs Pikemen offense)
- Army size (You can overcome larger armies, but you could get overwhelmed when a flank falls)
- Terrain (Like attacking over a river into mountains will give you massive penalties)
- Every holding has some amount of troops defending it (different from the units you can call to arms). To siege it, you need more troops than they have.

[Rowain]

The game tells you roughly what to expect but a) your opponent might find a new ally and b) both sides can hire mercenaries which bring several hundred men too.

[haphazard1]

Thanks, Jowy and Rowain! Helpful stuff to know. Hopefully there will be lots more examples as the SG rolls along.

[Kaiser]

I got the game as a gift and will play some this weekend, I am willing to joing the SG for a later session as I am currently way to inexperienced (no real CK2 experience even)