14 DAY TRIAL // Charlemagne was one of the most important leaders in Europe during his lifetime, both a solid military mind and a diplomat, and he managed to create an empire which almost recaptured the glory of Roman times, despite the fact that it was centered on modern France rather than Italy.
In Crusader Kings II with the most recent expansion, this once powerful and capable king succumbed to three simultaneous rebellions that appeared in the span of 5 years and were followed up by a war instigated by his brother Carloman I.
I was controlling the brother at the time and I was happy to pick up quite a few provinces for my own lands, while leaving the rebels to rule the rest, knowing that the fragmented lands would be easy pickings for me or my sons in the coming century.
Another time, the Byzantines managed to get the upper hand early on against the Lombards and quite spread their domination to the line of the Alps, and in less than 50 years, I was fighting a major war against the magenta blob, allied with other Catholic rulers all through Western Europe.
There are plenty of situations when Crusader Kings II diverges quickly and in clear ways from real world history, and even campaigns that largely follow established trends have small differences here and there.
Re-living versus re-making
When the first Crusader Kings was launched, many gamers were focused on taking one ruling line and on trying to make it as successful as possible in the long term, while the world around them only existed to offer context.
This second installment, especially with all the expansions installed, is much more of a soap opera, with plenty of betrayal and pointless rivalries, which is punctuated by moments of extreme cruelty and violence, like plots to take out older spouses in order to get more sons from a younger one.
Paradox Interactive allows gamers to explore almost any kind of "what if" situation and the results shown in some After Action Reports are truly impressive.
The problem is that everything diverges from the actual history of the real world so fast that it sometimes feels like this world is a little alien and unconnected.
Crusader Kings II is a game which can quickly take over a player’s life and Charlemagne is a solid expansion that increases the possibilities that gamers can pursue at any point.
