Are Crusader Kings or Warlock worth it?
- Thread starter DoPo
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Sorry to quote this specific bit (as I haven't tried CK1 myself), but from what I've heard coming from grand strategy fans CK2 is a definite must buy. Just got into the genre myself, and with all the random things that can come about in this game it is a pretty fun experience.DoPo said:
And, before I continue in gushing mode on how awesome it is, there is a demo available for you to try. This is also good as I've heard rumor that CK will be the main special tomorrow on Steam so you might save a couple more bucks. If it isn't it'll still be at half price.
Hey, how many strategy games do you know that will let you conquer a Kingdom by losing a war against them, swearing fealty to the crown, and then assassinating everyone in the line of succession until you're the King?
Warlock is good, not great mind you, but good. Personally I'm waiting till there have been a few expansions and DLC and whatnot to expand the core experience and add some diversity before picking it up for myself but it is a game I will eventually end up purchasing for myself. Buy the inevitable 'complete' version or whatever it'll be called a couple of months from now, that's my plan.
Crusader Kings 2 however... genius. It's one of the best strategy games I've played in years and perhaps even among the higher echelon of best I've played ever. If you don't believe my love for this game just take a look at my steam profile where I'm 40+ hours of gameplay despite only having gotten this game a few weeks ago. It's devoured my time and my attention like only a great strategy game can, making every moment I'm playing it pure strategic bliss while every moment not spent playing it is time spent thinking about it... alright, I'm exaggerating, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't one of those games I find myself thinking about while working or heading off to sleep. "Hmm, what if I did ___ to ___, maybe it'll result in _____".
Paradox really knocked it out of the park with that one. Amazing game, I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone with an interest in grand strategy titles. Not the easiest game to get into admittedly, but once you have it's simply sublime. Crusader Kings 2 is a game I'll probably still be playing years from now, joining the ranks of strategy games like Galactic Civilizations 2, Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic and Age of Empires 2 which always have a place on my computers hard drive.
Crusader Kings 2 however... genius. It's one of the best strategy games I've played in years and perhaps even among the higher echelon of best I've played ever. If you don't believe my love for this game just take a look at my steam profile where I'm 40+ hours of gameplay despite only having gotten this game a few weeks ago. It's devoured my time and my attention like only a great strategy game can, making every moment I'm playing it pure strategic bliss while every moment not spent playing it is time spent thinking about it... alright, I'm exaggerating, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't one of those games I find myself thinking about while working or heading off to sleep. "Hmm, what if I did ___ to ___, maybe it'll result in _____".
Paradox really knocked it out of the park with that one. Amazing game, I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone with an interest in grand strategy titles. Not the easiest game to get into admittedly, but once you have it's simply sublime. Crusader Kings 2 is a game I'll probably still be playing years from now, joining the ranks of strategy games like Galactic Civilizations 2, Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic and Age of Empires 2 which always have a place on my computers hard drive.
number 1 is more complicated, number 2 is a bit more polished but a tad more simple still with 90% of the same first gameDoPo said:
Well, Crusader Kings is on sale today, so I just ended up buying both. It's £11.50 in total, so why not? Thanks to everyone for the input, I really appreciated it. I'll hold off Warlock for now as suggested - even though it sounds fun, it might be better to get it with the expansion(s) when they come out.
Crusader Kings 2 is awesome, at least if you can get past the difficulty curve. I mean, how many games have killing your own kids as a valid gameplay strategy? And it never gets old to repeatedly assassinate the Byzantine Emperor and watch his Empire fall apart in a long war of succession (and secession). But the game is kinda brutal at first and the tutorial, while decent doesn't begin to cover the mechanics. I had to fail a bunch of times before I managed to get a kingdom rolling. A great game, but you need to be in it for the long haul. If you're just looking to jump in and win games on the fast, it might be a poor choice.
Warlock is a good game. Well, that's not quite true - it's more like half a game. And that half is good, no mistake there. Most of that half is reskinned Civilization 5, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. However, the game is totally focused on combat and lacks meaningful empire building, tech advancement and all that good stuff that I personally love. Also, not much variety to it. You can see everything the game has to offer in a single playthrough. If you can get it really cheap (say, under $10), it might be nice for a quick fix, but don't expect much from it.
I haven't played CK1, but from what I've read CK2 is an improvement in almost every regard, so I'd stick with that...
Warlock is a good game. Well, that's not quite true - it's more like half a game. And that half is good, no mistake there. Most of that half is reskinned Civilization 5, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. However, the game is totally focused on combat and lacks meaningful empire building, tech advancement and all that good stuff that I personally love. Also, not much variety to it. You can see everything the game has to offer in a single playthrough. If you can get it really cheap (say, under $10), it might be nice for a quick fix, but don't expect much from it.
I haven't played CK1, but from what I've read CK2 is an improvement in almost every regard, so I'd stick with that...
In my experience, Crusader Kings is sort of like a hyper complex Civilization game, where individual characters replace the buildings to manage.
I gotta mirror some one else in here and say you should get the Mount and Blade pack. It was about $7 when I looked, it's got the whole series in there and they can suck hundreds of hours from you, lol.DoPo said:
Crusader Kings 2 is a brilliant game if you can get past learning how the game works. It took me a few tries to understand how the game works in its basics (By tries I mean getting hammered into the ground by other vassals who had smoothly managed to manipulate the kingdoms around me and attacked me when I had absolutely no standing with anyone.)
Now I started off with teh county of glouchester. Formed the duchy and expanded to south wales and a part of north west wales and regularly earn more money then the Kingdom of Englands ruler and supply a third of his army by myself.
Now I started off with teh county of glouchester. Formed the duchy and expanded to south wales and a part of north west wales and regularly earn more money then the Kingdom of Englands ruler and supply a third of his army by myself.
I would go for Crusader Kings II, but then again I'm not into fantasy 4x games and I'm a huge fan Paradox's grand strategy games (EU, Vicky, etc).
Pharsalus said:
I noticed that from the beginning (well, it was on sale yesterday, though). Although it sounds good, unfortunately, it's not to my taste. Too little dragons, too much medieval. I'm joking - I had a friend of mine who played it and it just didn't appeal to me. It was a good deal though, I almost bought it to give out as a gift but...well, I didn't in the end.Clearing the Eye said:
Fixed for you.veloper said:
The only game worth comparing to Warlock: Master of the Arcane.On topic, start with Crusader Kings 1, move up to Crusader Kings 2. Then if you enjoy those games, move onto Victoria or Europa Universalis and if you enjoy those games, try Hearts of Iron. Crusader Kings is the best entry into that particular genre, and Hearts of Iron is something you don't touch unless you not only enjoy it, you're looking for a challenge and have a masochistic streak the size of Europe.
Which is to say it's great fun but not to everyone's taste.
However, if you do decide you like the genre, might I interest you in a great campaign? Start a game in Crusader Kings, export to Europa Universalis II, then to Victoria and finally to HoI II.
One of the podcasts that I listen to sang nothing but praise for Crusader Kings II for about a month after it came out. It sounded like an interesting game and I later won a copy from them on Steam but my computer won't run it at this time so I picked up Crusader Kings Complete today to see what I was missing but came away fairly confused.
I'm pretty sure I'm doing it all wrong.
Got any tips for someone just starting out with Crusader Kings I? The complete lack of any sort of tutorial kind of threw me off so I found and downloaded a copy of the manual and read some of it, then played the game for a bit and managed to assassinate a few people including my own wife but that's about as far as I got with it.kingthrall said:
I'm pretty sure I'm doing it all wrong.
how is crusader kings compared to europa? i love the Europa series, but CK seems, on the surface, more about politics and relations than europa (which i have never succeeded at in any game).
i am more of an infrastructure/scouting/waiting for the opportune moment to strike/military kind of guy.
i am more of an infrastructure/scouting/waiting for the opportune moment to strike/military kind of guy.
Sounds like EU is definitely your thing, as it's more the empire building & map painting game (to over-simplify it a bit), where CK is more character driven as you're running a dynasty, not a kingdom/empire. Most of the fun I've had is dealing with the uppity dukes & counts in my kingdom as they plot to usurp either my current ruler or the next in line, as a direct application of one's massive doomstacks isn't always an option.Ryotknife said:
Personally I prefer it to EU for that simple added random factor from all the characters the game keeps track of. Seeing that someone had your Spymaster killed is one thing, finding out it was done by the his replacement's wife is quite another (and certainly adds to his qualification for the job).
Good rule of thumb I've heard, and ended up doing myself when starting, is start a game with one of the Irish counties. It's small and quiet enough to let you do your thing at your own pace, and any mistakes you make aren't as costly. Extra distance from any Jihads and the Golden Horde (when they show up) is also a major plus. There's also no shortage of tutorials or video/written LPs across the webs to help you out in that too, so watch/read a bit, try out what you saw in Ireland, rince repeat.Stryc9 said: