Juego re meado

The year is 1176. I am playing as Alberto, King of Italy and Tuscany, and holder of many other titles. Events are progressing well. I am well on my way to my ultimate goal of creating the Empire of Italia, bringing Italy, Corsica, Sardinia and Croatia under my heel. As Alberto I have used my stewardship ability to build up the power of my realm to rival the Papacy, my next target. I fully intend to pass on a legacy to my son and heir, Sinibaldo, a promising child of many talents.

It was my occasional practice to grant titles to my children. This always carries the danger of them falling victim to some battlefield accident, but I sleep better knowing those titles are in the hands of close family. Sinibaldo has his own dukedom and is waging war on my vassal Duke Ugo, who is not a family member but who is a true ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. The war does not go well for Sinibaldo and he becomes a prisoner of Duke Ugo. An unfortunate event, but surely he will simply be ransomed and we will all move on with our lives.

But several months later I get the shocking news: Sinibaldo has been executed! My only son, struck down at the tender age of 14 by the vile Duke Ugo--how can this be? I am enraged. In the heat of passion I move to revoke Duke Ugo's title, but he rises up in rebellion against me. The impudence! As I rally my troops the true extent of my mistake becomes clear--my other powerful vassals have also rebelled. With growing desperation I realize there is no path to victory. My last army is destroyed and I lose the war, my kingdoms stripped away, I am deposed.

I lean back in my chair and think about the rash idiocy of my actions. My son dead, my titles gone. I now have to play as my daughter and heir Benedetta, an eleven year old girl. It is time, I think, to pull the plug on this game.

But what of Duke Ugo? Can he be allowed to go on, after the vile murder of my son? No, I must bend every effort to see him brought down. And so I forge on.

As Alberto I had paid little attention to my daughter. Her guardian was some knight or other, and under her tutelage she had become rowdy, a warrior in a world of men who would never accept her as an equal. This, I thought, did not bode well.

As Benedetta my reign was immediately disturbed as the vassals of Tuscany formed a faction to remove me as Queen. But wait, this faction wanted to install a new king in place, none other than my own father, Alberto! I suddenly realized that as his only child, unless he fathered another male heir I would inherit his titles upon his death and once again the kingdoms of Italy and Tuscany would be part of the same realm. And so when the faction presented its demands I simply capitulated. Alberto was now King of Tuscany and I was Queen of Italy.

Yet my power was still not enough to challenge the evil Duke Ugo. To keep him close I appointed him my steward, but I also sent my spymaster to dig up dirt in his court.

Years passed. I got married, had children, quashed several rebellions, organized my realm and bided my time. When a Crusade was launched I led my troops against the infidels attacking my cousin King Mario of Jerusalem, returning in triumph and finally impressing even the most retrograde of my male vassals. The waifish eleven year old girl had become a warrior Queen.

But Ugo continued to plague me. As my steward he was often in my presence, always there to remind me of his evil treachery. I hosted a feast and there he was again, even trying to strike up a friendship! I coldly refused him, and he became my rival. The stress of dealing with him was almost unbearable.

And then the miracle--my expert spymaster had uncovered gold. Duke Ugo was a deviant!

This changed everything. I now had the key to bringing down my brother's murderer. But it must be done carefully--Ugo was still powerful, and I could not take him down as long as he and the other vassals of my realm opposed me. So I only blackmailed him, getting a strong hook that I would use to ensure his loyalty while I consolidated my position.

In 1211 I received news of my father's death. After the messenger left my chambers, I went to the family shrine and knelt in prayer, vowing to my father's spirit that his son, my brother, would finally be avenged.

More years passed. As both kingdoms were now mine, I slowly amassed enough gold and troops to take on my entire realm. A careful campaign of pacification had made my vassals compliant.

It is the year 1218, and time to put my plan into action. I expose Duke Ugo's deviancy. He is now a criminal. As my father did twenty years before, I revoke his title, and again, he rises up in rebellion, but this time no one will stand with him. My troops outnumber his four to one. With laughable ease I storm his palace and win victory. My knights drag him out and throw him down in the mud before me.

I arrest him and throw him in the dungeon. I revoke all of his titles and grant them to a distant toddler cousin. Years of emotional stress are wiped away in an instant--Ugo, my rival, murderer of my brother is now mine to do with as I will. Shall I torture him? Execute him? Shall I simply leave him there to rot in a den of confined misery? I ponder this choice, and the sweetness of vengeance.

Greedy ass dlc pricing

Before I played Crusader Kings III i had a small wee wee, no friends, no girlfriend, depression and absolutely no will to live. None of these things have changed, but the game is pretty good.

Unplayable without DLC.
Recent "free update" added Legitimacy mechanics that dismantle your kingdom if it gets too low. You lose a ton at random whenever plague strikes.
The only way to reliably build Legitimacy is by using DLC mechanics.

They gave us free poison to sell us a cure.

I will eat 1 tablespoon of MAYONNAISE for every like this review gets.

And yet another game that needs a special, snow-flakey launcher. Because it's not bad enough they reserve the right to siphon of of your private data through their fancy EULA.

It's great that Paradox decided to let us try the game for a free weekend. What's not so great is that you're not actually playing the game if most of the game is locked behind DLC. The cost of entry into this game is way too high to actually know if it is good or not, which immediately gives me a good indication that it is not worth investing into.

I can't bring myself to say I don't recommend this game, so I'll say this: My recommendation is contingent on the use of mods.

There's a review over on Legends of the Dead that points out that essentially the free update made the game worse, and the DLC itself is essentially a 20 dollar fix. This is referring specifically to Legitimacy, which becomes trivial with enough funerals-- funerals aren't very expensive, and can provide piety, stress relief, and positive opinion along with a big chunk of Legitimacy. But funerals are ONLY available with Legends of the Dead. The least charitable interpretation here is that Paradox knowingly made an aspect of the game more difficult, and expects players to pay for an easier time rather than simply providing a fun optional experience.

Now, I personally don't find Legitimacy terribly relevant, but in this case, the principal does matter. I do worry about the direction Paradox might go if this kind of thing goes without comment. Please believe me, I like this game. But honestly stuff like Regional Immersion and Cultural Enrichment (RICE) or total conversion mods like Elder Kings or After the End are what I get most excited about these days, and they're completely free.

I'm not asking for free stuff from Paradox. They have a lot of plates in the air, and the community isn't entitled to gratis gaming. But I would like to feel like the things I pay for are going to give me a positive experience rather than ameliorating a negative one. At the moment, I've got epidemics disabled via mod, because as-implemented they're just not interesting. I'm honestly pretty bored of the legends at this point too. There's minor content I enjoy, but it wasn't worth close to 20 dollars.

If I'm going to keep buying DLC, I need to believe future DLC aren't going to lean toward pay-to-fix instead of pay-for-extras.

This is a good game. I want Paradox to succeed. But I can't pretend I'm not starting to get a little concerned, and I figure this is as good a place to voice that as any. I still believe Paradox is one of the more responsive companies out there, but it's better to express any misgivings rather than pretending they're not there.