Domenico Selvo, Doge of Venice, did not bring the fork from Asia to Western Europe. I point this out because Bosnian newspaper, Dnevni Avaz, recently gave him the erroneous credit for the deed in an article spotted by a Reddit user. According to the paper, Domenico Selvo’s wife Theodora had a couple of the eating utensils given to her as part of her dowry, and Domenico Selvo popularized their use in court dinners of the day. But that’s just not true. Theophanu, Holy Roman Empress Consort of Otto II, brought the fork over a few decades before. Not content with just being wrong, the editors of Dnevni Avaz used a portrait of Domenico Selvo from Crusader Kings II. It’s a nice enough image, but come on Dnevni Avaz! You didn’t even fully crop out the game’s portrait border. Nerds, especially European Crusader Kings nerds, see that stuff.
War in Crusader Kings II is a complicated thing. New players are usually shocked to discover that despite the reputation of the time period covered, monarchs can’t just declare wars willy-nilly. Casus Belli is needed. That is, you must have a justification for warfare. Thankfully, there is a loophole for leaders that want to beat the drums. Players can fabricate a claim which will eventually give them the support they need to levy troops and get folks marching, but it takes time. Time they may not have before alliances and strengths shift on the map.
According to Paradox, players expressed frustration with the way Fabricate Claim currently works, so the studio is coming up with a different way to get on war footing.
We’re going to deemphasize the “Fabricate Claim” job by giving all playable entities (including Christians) a form of “Unjustified War” Casus Belli that will allow you to seize a single County for an upfront cost of Piety, Prestige or Gold.
As the Hottentots said to the Dutch, this could be really big. Assuming Paradox doesn’t muck it up, being able to declare war with just a bit of an upfront cost has the potential to upend gameplay. There’s no word on when this change will occur, but it’s a likely bet that an update of this importance will accompany the release of a major expansion, like the next one which is supposed to cover the Himalayas.
Paradox Interactive has released update 2.0 for Crusader Kings II. The content update, which is free for everyone, adds Ironman Mode, a slew of bug fixes, drops dependance on the Paradox-hosted metaserver, and includes Steam achievements. The new achievements include ones that celebrate the sanctity of medieval marriage.
Until Death Do Us Part – Have your spouse assassinated
Black Widow – As a woman, have three different husbands killed
Keeping it in the Family – Sire a child that has the Inbred trait
The 2.0 patch comes hand-in-hand with the new Sons of Abraham DLC, which focuses on adding more options for the Abrahamic religions like Judaism and Christianity.
