Nov 29, 2013
Crusader Kings 2 mod brings zombies to the middle ages
Crusader Kings II
Crusader Kings Z


You see folks, this is why April Fools' Day is dangerous. Or awesome. Delete depending on your affinity for zombies. Back in the dark ages of seven and a bit months ago, Paradox Interactive released a teaser for a fictional Crusader Kings Z, a game that hypothetically merged zombie invasions with medieval European strategy. Months later, and that joke is now a real thing that you can play in Crusader Kings 2. Thanks mods!

For those who've played Sunset Invasion, Paradox's own alternate history add-on, Crusader Kings Z follows a similar pattern. At some point past the year 1000 AD, an event will trigger that unleashes a zombie horde in Ethiopia. From there they build in strength and numbers, spreading from Africa to Europe. It's your job to build a big enough army to stop them, all while stopping your dick half-brother from poisoning you. Just because there are zombies, that's no reason for regal intrigue to cease.

It's a small but enjoyable mod, with an understandably significant impact on campaigns. You can download Crusader Kings Z from here, although you'll need a Paradox forum account to access the page.
Nov 22, 2013
Hotfix 2.0.1 Released!
Crusader Kings II - doomdark
- Added missing Jewish religious icons
- No longer possible to play as a Jew without the Sons of Abraham DLC
- The "Legitimize Bastard" decision now sets the correct dynasty
- Cathars now have access to the "Absolute Cognatic" succession law
- Jewish priests are now allowed to marry
- The kingdom of Jerusalem decisions to vassalize the Knights Templar and Hospitaller now work
- Heresies are now also shown on the religion page in the ledger
- The Knights of Santiago now have their historical activation date and first Grandmaster
- Fixed a bug where an antipope installed as proper Pope in Rome would get an antipope successor
- Fixed a bug where the Pope could restore himself in Rome infinitely, for astronomical amounts of Piety
- GamersGate users no longer incorrectly get the Steam overlay
- Different platforms don't get different checksums anymore
- You can no longer get a barony level character when pressing the Random Character button
- Added more descriptive text when Ironman is disabled
- Removed some ways in which one could cheat in Ironman
- Disabled autosave to cloud storage option in settings if no cloud storage is available
- Fixed some bugs with the new 'hold_election' effect
- AI: Massively reduced the chance that it will create antipopes, for now
- Fixed an issue with ridiculously powerful Mongol stacks if there were Jews in the world
- Fixed so Shift + I does not act like Shift + Insert anymore
- Religion status changes (Mending the Schism, etc) are now properly reset on resign
- Fixed a bug where most councillor job action events were men only
- Blocked Ultimogeniture for West African pagans
- Limited the intrigue gained from certain successful plots
- Fixed error in 'Viking Raider' achievement script
- Fixed a bug with Zoroastrian Xwedodah marriages not being considered sacred
- No longer possible to select Jews in multiplayer if the host does not have Sons of Abraham
Nov 22, 2013
Hotfix 2.0.1 Released!
Crusader Kings II - Doomdark
- Added missing Jewish religious icons
- No longer possible to play as a Jew without the Sons of Abraham DLC
- The "Legitimize Bastard" decision now sets the correct dynasty
- Cathars now have access to the "Absolute Cognatic" succession law
- Jewish priests are now allowed to marry
- The kingdom of Jerusalem decisions to vassalize the Knights Templar and Hospitaller now work
- Heresies are now also shown on the religion page in the ledger
- The Knights of Santiago now have their historical activation date and first Grandmaster
- Fixed a bug where an antipope installed as proper Pope in Rome would get an antipope successor
- Fixed a bug where the Pope could restore himself in Rome infinitely, for astronomical amounts of Piety
- GamersGate users no longer incorrectly get the Steam overlay
- Different platforms don't get different checksums anymore
- You can no longer get a barony level character when pressing the Random Character button
- Added more descriptive text when Ironman is disabled
- Removed some ways in which one could cheat in Ironman
- Disabled autosave to cloud storage option in settings if no cloud storage is available
- Fixed some bugs with the new 'hold_election' effect
- AI: Massively reduced the chance that it will create antipopes, for now
- Fixed an issue with ridiculously powerful Mongol stacks if there were Jews in the world
- Fixed so Shift + I does not act like Shift + Insert anymore
- Religion status changes (Mending the Schism, etc) are now properly reset on resign
- Fixed a bug where most councillor job action events were men only
- Blocked Ultimogeniture for West African pagans
- Limited the intrigue gained from certain successful plots
- Fixed error in 'Viking Raider' achievement script
- Fixed a bug with Zoroastrian Xwedodah marriages not being considered sacred
- No longer possible to select Jews in multiplayer if the host does not have Sons of Abraham
Nov 19, 2013
Patch 2.0 Released!
Crusader Kings II - doomdark
Major changes (full patch notes here):

- Ironman mode
- Steam Achievements
- Religious (non-heretic) rebels
- Women can now die in childbirth, and there can be other complications, like illness and sickly infants
- Added a bottleneck logic to battles where the defender benefits from the surrounding terrain to make the opponent fight on his terms
- Being outflanked is now much more devastating, especially through the center or from two sides
- Support for the metaserver dropped
Nov 19, 2013
Patch 2.0 Released!
Crusader Kings II - Doomdark
Major changes (full patch notes here):

- Ironman mode
- Steam Achievements
- Religious (non-heretic) rebels
- Women can now die in childbirth, and there can be other complications, like illness and sickly infants
- Added a bottleneck logic to battles where the defender benefits from the surrounding terrain to make the opponent fight on his terms
- Being outflanked is now much more devastating, especially through the center or from two sides
- Support for the metaserver dropped
Nov 18, 2013
Fun And Prophet: Crusader Kings 2 Expansion Out Now
Crusader Kings II - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Graham Smith)

If you enter in to Crusader Kings 2 with a plan to win, you’re going to be frustrated. It’s a complex turn-based strategy game set during the Middle Ages in Europe, with an overwhelming array of options available whether you start as a mighty King or a lowly Count. If you approach it as a role-playing game though, with an interest only in being interesting, then it’s an accessible, surprising delight to muddle your way through and craft your own stories.

That’s why any new expansion to the game is so exciting; every added layer of detail gives you a new role to perform. Sons of Abraham focuses on expanding the Jewish and Muslim faiths. It’s out now and there’s a new developer diary below. (more…)

Nov 18, 2013
New DLC Available - Crusader Kings II: Sons of Abraham, 10% off!
Crusader Kings II - Valve
Sons of Abraham, all new content for Crusader Kings II is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*

Crusader Kings II: Sons of Abraham is the fifth expansion for the critically praised strategy/RPG. Gameplay focuses on the Abrahamic religions; Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

Get your bishops appointed cardinals and tap the might of the Papacy, borrow money from the Knights Templar and send troublesome relatives off to live out their days in a monastery. Sons of Abraham also introduces the Jewish religion and allows you to recreate the Kingdom of Israel and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

Additionally, checkout three additional DLC's that have just released, the Military Orders Unit Pack, Warriors of Faith Unit Pack, and Hymns of Abraham.

*Offer ends November 25 at 10AM Pacific Time

Nov 18, 2013
Crusader Kings 2: Sons of Abraham video focuses on Jewish and Islamic improvements
Crusader Kings II
Crusader Kings 2


Thanks to a slip of the finger, I'm now thinking about the game Crusader Kingz. I imagine it would be a grand strategy in which you formed a hip-hop collective and, through bribery, intrigue, and sick rhymes, conspired to bring down the So Solid Crew. I would play the heck out of that game. As it turns out, though, this development diary is more concerned with Crusader Kings 2 and its Sons of Abraham DLC. Where the last video concentrated on changes to Christianity and Papal politics, this time Paradox show you their new Jewish and Muslim mechanics. That's mechanics as in game systems.



Crusader Kings 2: Sons of Abraham will be released later today, for around $10.
Nov 14, 2013
Crusader Kings II 2.0 patch notes are as hilariously out of context as ever
Crusader Kings II
CKII_SoA_DD_04_Bottleneck


With the Sons of Abraham expansion for Crusader Kings II arriving next week, the medieval strategy sandbox will also receive the massive 2.0 patch. Heralding the arrival of what Paradox Development Studio calls "phase two" of the game's expansion and DLC cycle, 2.0 has one of the longest change lists of any patch the game has ever received. In addition to Steam achievements, workshop support, Ironman mode, and the replacement of the dismal metaserver-based multiplayer, the patch notes are also laden with the usual, hilarious-sounding fixes you only find in Crusader Kings.

The most entertaining pulls from the patch notes include:

Characters of a religion where priests are not allowed to marry will now divorce their wives if ordained
Fixed some bugs with how dead spouses are handled
Fixed a bug where dead popes would have the incorrect character portrait
Changes to the bastard children of Antso IV of Navarra
AI: Will no longer accept giving away women as concubines to characters whose religion they will not intermarry with
Modding: Added "evil_god_names" to religions, to be used in event texts
Modding: Added trigger 'any_spouse_even_if_dead'

Other highlights include a change to enemy war AI to put it more in line with Europa Universalis IV—AI armies will form "hunter-killer" stacks focused on winning battles rather than taking land, and will take army composition into account when engaging in battle (rather than just numbers). The CK2 to EU4 converter is also being updated to import the new Jewish religion and cultures, as well as unique ideas for Jerusalem, the Knights Templar, and the formable Kingdom of Israel.

You can read the full patch notes and a dev diary detailing the patch on the Paradox forums.
Nov 6, 2013
Crusader Kings 2: Sons of Abraham video explains new features and papal politics
Crusader Kings II
Sons of Abraham1


Oh, it's about the Abrahamic religions. I had entirely the wrong end of the stick. I'd assumed Sons of Abraham would transform CK2 into a game in which you played as Tad Lincoln - fourth son of Abraham - running around the White House and getting into comedy scrapes. Come to think of it, an overhaul of Christianity, and the introduction of playable Jewish characters, makes a lot more sense for the medieval grand strategy soap opera. A new development diary provides a complete overview of what Paradox hope to achieve with this latest expansion.



Papal plotting! Papal patronage! Papal palpitations! Today's top tip: say papal more. It's a really good word. It should also make for a good system, providing yet another avenue of familial scheming with which to gain a political upper hand over your enemies and relatives.

For more on Sons of Abraham, check out our announcement post, carefully noting that its URL is "Crusader Kings II: The Something Something Announced". Indeed it was, URL of the past. Indeed it was.
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