When I bought Crusader Kings 2 a few days ago, I made the decision to disavow the vanilla game and set my sights on playing the Game of Thrones mod. You’ve been warned that henceforth I will talk about spoilers for the show/book when referencing the mod. The mod at this point is quite robust, allowing to pick multiple points in Game of Thrones history from the beginning of the 7 kingdoms to Robert’s rebellion leading to A Clash of Kings & A Feast of Crows. As someone who’s dropped over 500 hours of my life into Victoria II, Paradox to me is at it’s best when their strategy games focus on political economy & war is just a tool in your arsenal to get what you want to enact political change. After 27 hours in three days of Crusader Kings 2 I can assure you that for me, Crusader Kings 2 meets those prerequisites. If anything CK2 is an approachable Victoria II, by it’s very nature monastic politics are far simpler to manipulate than the multitude of those featured in Victoria.

In my three days of play, I strictly played the Game of Thrones mod,theorizing a plan to save the North for my strong but naïve leader Robb Stark as Roose Bolton. In the books and the show, the Bolton’s are the festering cancer of the North and their very existence the definition of a broken society. My plan was to start in A Clash of Kings and help win the war for the North while merging the Bolton’s House with Karstark. To my South, Lady Donnel of Hornwood is widowed and to my Northeast the previously betrothed potential heir to Karhold, Alys Karstark is without a suitor. Harrion Karstark her oldest living brother is imprisoned by Tywein Lannister, easily eliminated as he is not popular among anyone in Westeros. The options are to marry myself to Lady Donnel or Alys, and then to arrange a marriage between my bastard Ramsay with the remainder. Hornwood is a powerful house with ties to White Harbor, most powerful economic hub in all of the North and Karhold arguably the third or fourth most powerful house in the North.

Donnel while near past child bearing age at 38 consistently gives me at least one child whenever I marry her off to either myself or my heir. Alys is quite fertile usually, producing multiple children, and I’ve found that ensuring Karhold for my son through Alys is the safest most fruitful option for the Boltons as Alys will consistently produce three to four children minimum with Ramsay & tie our two powerful houses. The next option which I found required me to fabricate a claim on Widow’s Watch. There’s literally no penalty for doing so, the only friends they have are the Flints, and they are easily crushed. At this point you might ask, I thought you were trying to save the North? I am indeed, in order to help my Liege I must first ensure my own house by making it powerful.

From this point further the game gets much harder and far more unpredictable. If Robb gets no help he loses the war 3 out of every 4 times I played, and those are just odds I’m not comfortable with. I’ve found that The Wall will never be conquered, other weaker houses in the North will send troops so you don’t have to worry about the Free-folk of the North getting past The Wall. With them out of the way, I can focus on the two eventualities. If I leave my troops North I can be crushed by the Iron Islands and risk potential death. If I have bedded with Donnel & produced offspring then this is a viable option. In everyone of my tries, if I hold off the Iron Islands long enough that gives Robb enough time & troops to send back South to tip the scales against Tywein, winning the Iron Throne. Another option presents itself but is far more risky: I can also send my entire army South which in two tries presented immediate victory for Robb but ultimately led to my Vassal Lonely Hills revolting.

If I leave my troops in the North, it’s as if the game knows I’m turtling my troops which leads to in every instance the Karstarks find out I ordered the execution of their heir. This never happens in every other instance I played. When they found out I killed Alys brother they denounce Alys as a traitor which leads her losing her title to Karhold which makes my marriage useless with offspring with less use to me than my bastard. I could save the North by just marrying Donnel but Karhold is far too appetizing a house to join with. So right now I’m at an impasse, I can seem to save the North but always at expense of my House. As I look through my notes on how to save the North while making my house more prestigious, I come across peculiar actions I may take. Such as marrying Asha of Pyke islands, & plotting to kill Theon. Difficult sure but hilarious all things considered. While I’ve failed to accomplish the entirety of my goal, Crusader Kings 2 has proven itself worthy of all it’s praise. The game is a dating sim which masks itself as a grand strategy. Play it. If anyone has any tips for how I might make my House more powerful while saving the North, feel free to give me some advice.