How the Franks came to rule over most of Europe

Oct 31, 2014 15:46 GMT  ·  By

The Charlemagne expansion for Crusader Kings II is, in some ways, a more centrally driven narrative experience that fans of the series have encountered so far when someone choose to play as Karl the king of West Francia.

In the 769 start date he is the ruler of one half of the Frankish kingdom and his path to greatness means that he first needs to get rid of his brother and rival, Karloman.

Historically he died in unclear circumstances, with an assassination seen as likely by historians, and the famously intrigue heavy Crusader Kings II makes it rather easy to appoint a good spymaster and then launch a plot to kill him.

Once the brother is disposed of I tend to try and consolidate power in my kingdom and aim to deal with the problems created by the presence of too many vassals for my leader to work with.

Historically Charlemagne managed to significantly expand his empire, both via warfare, using new tactics and his loyal knights, and via diplomatic action.

Crusader Kings II asks gamers to try and emulate these achievements via a system of dynamic events and it’s actually difficult to achieve the same results using the core mechanics, especially given the number of troops that tribal nations can sometimes quickly recruit and use.

Chronicling the deeds of the great leaders

My first Charlemagne campaign ended before the protagonist died, with the Frankish kingdom in flames after three simultaneous revolts that I was unable to put down.

Basically I ended up ruling over a country smaller than modern day France and it would probably take two generations to reconquer the starting provinces and little change to stand up to the non-Catholics on my borders.

Crusader Kings II has so many interacting systems that it is impossible to get the same result in two different campaigns so it’s always a pleasure to see what curveball the game throws when starting over.

Playing as Charlemagne or his brother is very interesting because it allows players to see how hard it is to deal with the moments when a ruler has power and needs to decide how to wield it.

I tend to play with smaller families in the game while trying to gain territory and rank but in Charlemagne taking on the leaders of the most powerful factions is a good way of experiencing the new mechanics while dealing with a wide variety of external and internal threats.