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pg
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i'm much more interested in this than victoria but i'm not going to jump in and buy it before reading paradox's forums. i'm also thinking of buying it direct but i wonder if the shipping is decent to the usa. i just hope they manage to keep it elegant as grumbold said.
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adi321
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well there are only one or two at the paradox forums who has got a legit copy.
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pg
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love to hear some of your guys reviews...
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Ramo
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Austin, Texas, USA
Oct 1999
time: 23:34
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Just started a game as Robert, Duke of Normandy. Quite possibly the most butt-ugly person in the game, incidentally.
First thing I did was "purchase" (it costs prestige) a claim for a pissant neighboring county, and sent him a declaration of War. Little did I know that he was the vassal of the Phillipe Capet, so he declared war on me (though, luckily, he didn't get his vassals to mobilize to fight me). On the other hand, my dear old dad and liege, William the Bastard backed me up on the war with the full might of the his lands (his demesne is quite a bit greater than the demesne of Capet so I had a major advantage). While the English and French King fought it out, I seized the opportunity by starting to seige the lands of my enemies. Conquering that county, I also took control all three of the land holdings of the French, with England taking the fourth. Further, I used up all my prestige claiming these provinces. So I ended up with four more territories, including Paris! And, as far as I could tell, there was no longer any French king.
Because, there's a severe penalty if your demesne gets too big (for a Duke, the optimal number of territories is three), I gave a couple of them to members of my court as vassals, also creating a bisphoric giving me lots of piety. In addition, I married a girl that has crappy dynastic connections, but with nice attributes (no, not that kind  ) because I had no idea exactly how the marriage system works (and I still don't truly understand).
Robert's wife, made the spymaster of the duchy, started spitting out kids, a bunch of girls, and then the fourth was a boy. Seeing as how I had 16-odd years to sit around before I could start marrying my kids off, I noticed that the pope called a crusade somewhere in Eastern Europe. I had no port (or so I thought), so I figured that I needed to take over one to ship over my troops. So I conquered Brugges (same way as always - manufacturing a claim then declaring war).
I then declared war on some Baltic heathens. But even with Brugges, I still couldn't build ships or anything. And England was taking all the glory and more importantly land (as liege they automatically go to war with me).  So instead, I took advantage of the power vacuum (a bunch of provinces in central-Northern France without a liege since the King of France was gone) and took over some counties, giving away the poorest to vassals. Including one county to my young son, Roger.
I was still hemmoraging piety since the Cruade was going on, so I tried another shot at mitigating that by invading the infidels in Iberia (I figured that since I couldn't ship my troops over, I could march them). So I found a choice little principality and declared war. And clicked on the territories the game automatically ships them to the desired territories for a price, presumably getting Venetians or Genovans or whomever to do it (stupid me  ).
It was a suprisingly easy conquest, mostly because I didn't have to claim any provinces or negotiate to get them. I also got to claim the title of the Duke of Zaragoza. So I took a shot at a smaller state in Iberia and had my ass handed to me - my army being decimated. So I immediately gave away two of the provinces in Spain to vassals, beat the Muslims off at home in France, and bought a white peace.
My girls were coming of age, so I started my choice for choice suitors. The first couple weren't all that interesting choices (married 'em off to heirs of some miscellaneous counties), but I pulled off a great match with my third. I looked at the Emperor of Byzantium, and found that his heir was Prince of Dorostotum, and that his heir and son was unmarried! So I immedately married off my girl to him and he accepted. Thus hopefully, a grandson of mine would eventually become the Byzantine Emperor! I also noticed that the heir to the heir of the King of Scotland was about the same age as one of my daughters, so he'd be a good choice in the future (no marraiges before 16).
Before that coup, I looked a lot closer into inheritances and the like. And I noticed that my character, Robert, was first son and heir to the King of England! So I looked very forward to dad's death. 
Meanwhile, I went after more territories. First, after two other counties in the Duchy of Orleans so that I could claim the title. Then after some heathens in Northern Germany, with me and Will splitting it, and I claiming the Duke of Mecklemburg. Finally, I figured I should make a real effort at taking the Crown of France (I need 60% of the counties as demesne or vassal to claim to the title and I had only about 20%) so attacked the Archbishop of Anjou (I think) and got him to relenquish his title and make me Duke of Anjou (in retrospect, that's what I ought to have done with France, but I had no idea how to do that).
Meanwhile, the heir to the heir of Scotland was coming of age, so I hitched him to my daughter. My son also came of age, I also realized that I made a major mistake in that I gave him a county before marrying him off, so he was no longer in my court and he made his own really crappy choice. A couple years later, it turned out not to be a crappy choice in that my daughter whose son would be heir to Byzantium had a boy. And the game mechanics made him my heir. So when the Emperor dies and the King of England dies, presumably the entire realm of Byzantium and England would be unified to my far smaller collection of territories, making me easily the most powerful dynasty in the game. So I spent several years of peace trying to develop my lands (mismanaging them, really).
I checked up on Scotland, to see what was going on, and noticed that he was younger than his heir, the grandfather of the grandfather of one of my sons. So that if he outlives his heir, my grandson would lose the throne. So I immediately decided to assassinate him. The first attempt failed and was discovered and the second attempt was successful and was also discovered. So my piety went from 400 to 200, but one of grandsons will still inherit the kingdom.
Also, I checked up on Byzantium, to find that it has imploded! The Emperor has lost his lands and vassals, and Muslims own Constantinople! So I decided to retake at least part of my grandson and heir's heritige, Constantinople itself. I invaded the state that owned the city. I eventually took it, but I had to call all my vassals' troops to fight off their fairly large invasions. The Count of Eu and the Duke of Champagne also attacked my vassals, so I had to fight them off as well. I even had to renew my pledge of allegience to the King of England so he would send his men to help defend me (it ended after I became Duke of Anjou, now my primary title) I was eventually left with no men, but I had Constantinople and peace (and a hefty sum of money).
And that bastard, William still won't die (he's at 72 at the moment).
In sum, a bloody awesome game. 
lotm: It'll run fine as long as you have lots and lots of ram (I have 768 MB and it still is a tad slow).
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11-03-2004 20:53
So I only have to wait for the Count of Mantua to croak (Or I might speed it along... . 
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