I'm scared to play Crusader Kings III again. I first played this game a couple of years ago just to try it, because I love strategy games. I love medieval books, things like Ken Follett, Pillars of the Earth, World Without End. I love that stuff. And I thought, man, this game looks like so much fun, I've got to try it. But I tried it and I'm like, my God, this is difficult. It's so deep. It's amazing. But I've been scared to play it again, because I couldn't even make sense of anything I was doing when I played it before.
So today I'm facing my fears. I'm going to jump in. I'm going to start a new game fresh, because I don't even remember what I did in my last game. Facing a brand-new game is hard, because you're so ignorant going into it. This is why most of us just play the same kind of games all the time. If you want to see what else I get into, this is all part of my Games playlist.
The tutorial is a humbling admission that I don't know what I'm doing
Right away I have to do the tutorial. I swear I did the tutorial last time, and I don't want to do the tutorial, but I need to do the tutorial. It's just hard playing a new game. Just sitting through the tutorial is a humbling admission of, I don't know what I'm doing at all. It makes me want to jump into my other game and flail around, just so I can tell myself, oh no, I'm not that bad at this.
Then I open it up. Oh my God. The advanced tutorial is two hours and 13 minutes. Two hours. "Your medieval ruler, your reign may be brief." There's a two-hour advanced tutorial and a shorter 13-minute one. This whole experience of starting over from scratch is exactly what I get into in the hardest thing in gaming is starting a new game, because the hardest part really is just beginning.
So I start going through it, and at first it feels a little too simple. I know how to move on the map. I know how to use the scroll wheel. Come on, man. Then it tells me to put my cursor over the highlighted blue text to open a tooltip. Where is that at? Oh, here we go. Hover over it to read inside a tooltip, and it actually uses the word "neat" inside the tooltip. I can't get over the word neat. I'm so bad at this I actually did play this one already, and I still can't get over it. "Do not show me again." I swear to God.
Kung Fu Classics, nice to see you. Thanks for watching live. I played this once a few years ago too. This is my character. I remember the spouse, just choosing the spouse was crazy. Here you see yourself and your closest family. These are your traits: temperate, gregarious, and impatient. Look how this is just getting started, and I'm already going, huh? Diplomacy, martial, stewardship, intrigue, and learning. Okay. Let's take a look at your domain. This is my little kingdom. Who wouldn't want to be an emperor in this setup, right?
My real question is, will I ever actually play this again? I love trying different games, but the real question is, what game is so much fun that I'd play it off stream? That's always the test for me, and it's the same reason I'm careful about the games I let take over my life, which is something I dig into in why I treat video games like alcohol.
This is a coat of arms. For those of you that have played this a long time, I did enjoy the game last time, but I was scared. I was scared to play the game last time because it was so hard. It was so hard. I played for an hour or so before and didn't hardly figure anything out, and literally the advanced tutorial is two hours. You currently hold three titles, which represent territories on the map. Your primary, most important title is the leftmost one. Even the tutorial has me going, huh? Wait, is this it? Now I'm literally struggling to even understand the tutorial.
Oh, here we go. Title: Barony of Lumenniche. This is a Rome capital, and I'm also the Barony of Innis, and I guess that's mine. You also possess titles. Okay.
Someone asked about my question on a YouTube video about Lee, the captain who makes ICP videos as well as tens of videos a week, and why I think quantity doesn't work for him. I don't know. I need to check his videos out and see.
Choosing a spouse, and why that hits close to home
So we have other characters. You have a kid. This is cool. There are more games out there than I even have time to play. Parents, grandparents. Why do they look dead already? Are they dead already? Are y'all dead already? I think like a terminator. You're dead already. Secondary spouses. I'm trying to get a secondary spouse. I got divorced last year. I'm trying to get a secondary spouse.
This includes your family. Can you believe a guy like me having zero? Well, not zero luck. I mean, I've been on like 20 dates. Someone said it'd be interesting to see what I think, that his work rate is insane but he gets nowhere. I'll take a look at that. Children, siblings, anyone you have a special relationship with. Oh man, 26 courtiers. This is just the initial tutorial. My spymaster, my vassal. Family, relationships, wards. Lovers. Got no lovers, ha, just like real life.
What if I found a woman that watched my YouTube videos on gaming? I'd be like, oh my God, I've got to marry this woman. The game says it's usually a good idea to have a spouse. Yes, it is a good idea to have a spouse. You're right about that. I just talked to my ex this morning. We've been really friendly, and she's like, we need to stop being so friendly, I've got a new man, you need to move on with your life. Well, you're right. I do. I do.
So I've been courting the goddess, the feminine goddess, all day in my mind. That's right, I remember now. I'm like, I wish I had a selection of women like this. I guess you could set it up like that. Where's the oldest one? Can we sort by age? I like how the women are sorted in terms of relevance. Can we get a YouTube dating thing like this? I want to sort it. Why is the age zero? Are we scheduling this in advance or something? Can I sort top to bottom?
Let me get old Elvira who's 45. I remember the tutorial was funny. Let me marry this 45-year-old. Chance of children: low. I bet she'll accept. Nah, give me somebody else. Let me get relevance. Let me get this nice Prince Inger and I'll just take the recommended spouse, born in House Burien. Chance of children: medium. Come on, why can't we have a chance of children high? Can you sort by that? Some of all skills. Damn, your girl Stella's got a lot. Chance of children: high. All right, Stella's getting it. Stella's getting a marriage proposal. Let's go. "The charming petty King. I accept your marriage proposal." Nice. The King sent me back instead of his daughter. How nice. Let me just send out a marriage proposal. I'll watch some woman's YouTube video and send out a marriage proposal. "Congratulations on getting married." Thank you. I was married last time I did this tutorial too, and it was still funny. "The union between you and your spouse has forged an alliance between you and their ruler." Nice.
This is an awesome game so far, but it's so intimidating. How am I going to keep playing this? Abrar, welcome. Thank you for being here for the live stream. How did you end up on Jerry Banfield Gaming? Nice to see you today, Abrar Khan Coach. What's up?
Realms, titles, and a dating tangent I can't get out of
Let's take a look at the bar on the right side of the screen and open the realm view. Remember the titles we saw earlier. They represent more detail. So I've got two titles, an earldom. They're counties, but they have a different unique name because of your Irish culture.
Someone asked, did your wife know her current boyfriend? No. It was completely through dating apps, totally dating apps. That's how she found me too, 15 years ago. And I'm not going to get much more information about him until I meet him, because she doesn't want to talk about anything anymore, which makes sense. Being too close to my ex has made it harder to date another woman, for me. I'm like, man, I'm such a loyal guy. After getting divorced six months ago, I'm still holding on to ideas of getting back together with my ex. And I think I finally released the depth of those in the last couple of days. So we're going to get another goddess up in here and send out marriage proposals, just like this game.
In this view you can expect the lands they represent in more detail. They're counties. Counties are made up of smaller pieces called holdings, and a holding can support several buildings. Vassals. Ormond is included in the outline but not showing up as the main view because he's a vassal. Let me look at my vassal.
I was so jealous. I've been out with at least 15 different women in the last six months. I've spent thousands on matchmaking, you can see that on my dating channel. I had a third or fourth date with a woman that I don't think I'm going to see again on Monday. And now, nothing for me. Nothing. Maybe I'm more picky. She literally, first date, she's still going out with him. Someone asked, are you just not picky, or did you just have that many guys to choose from that you could easily pick out a good one?
China Curious, nice to see you, thanks for being on live. I'm planning to do all my gaming videos and live streams live now. This is a vassal who assists the ruler of your realm, and you receive payment in the form of taxes. That's a nice deal. I need some vassals online.
"Better the devil you know," and getting ready for the next woman
Kung Fu says it's a case of better the devil you know, but she was fundamentally bad for you. Yeah. Our dynamic, especially the last year or so, was not working for us. And I'm really excited to find the next woman. What I'm tapping into today is, I want to laser in on just thinking about the next woman, what her energy is going to be like, and being prepared for her. I had a lot of distracting thoughts yesterday, like maybe I should just forget finding a great woman and just take any woman.
Back in the game. The domain is the land you personally hold, where your realm also includes vassals. Your domain limit greatly discourages you from holding an unlimited amount of titles yourself, meaning you'll need to rely on vassals. Okay, that makes sense. Fortunately, you don't have to manage your realm all on your own.
Someone said I should move out of the US. Well, I've got two kids, and if I didn't find a woman in the next decade, I certainly would move outside the US when my kids were grown up. But I'm kind of stuck here by choice, because if I can't parent the kids I already have, there's no point in trying to find new ones, you know? So I agree, though. I think outside the US I'd have some amazing opportunities, and I'm willing to explore that if I can't find something here.
Someone pointed out I sent my live dating video to a 23-year-old who has other men on the roster. It certainly seems like she's got a handful on the roster.
Counselors, and getting completely stuck on the tutorial
Fortunately, you don't have to manage your realm all on your own. This game is so cool. There are more awesome games than I could even play. A lot of games bore me through the tutorial, but this is so deep. This is your council. You have six counselors, your spouse included. They can collect taxes. Nice. Let's try using a counselor. The game asks, wouldn't it be nice if you had another county within your realm? You'll need a claim, so you need to have a realm priest fabricate one.
China Curious, what country do you think I should move to, China, or would you suggest somewhere else? Vietnam looks pretty nice. Thailand looks pretty nice. China Curious, do you play this too? Did you find me a while ago? Your name looks familiar. Were you the one with all the girls, the China channel that I looked at, that found me through the YouTube Coach channel? Yeah. I love doing these videos live instead of recording them. This is so much more fun. I really appreciate you all chatting.
Okay, fabricate a claim on a county outside your borders. Like over here? The priest is going to fabricate a claim. How do I do that? Do I need to go to the priest? There's a marshal, chancellor, steward, bishop. To accomplish that, you need a claim, and you can have the realm priest do it. The realm priest is a counselor. Unlike their lazy clergy, affluent realm priests automatically lease all temple holdings in a ruler's domain. Okay. A realm priest with a low opinion of their liege will not provide them. Oh, that's unfortunate. How do I do that, dude? Is it trying to tell me how to do this? I'm trying to figure out how to do this. One title. Oh my God, this game is so deep. This is why I was scared.
You changed your channel name from Asia Curious to China Curious. Nice. Jay Fon asks, when are you going to play some Hearts of Iron IV? Maybe I'll give that a shot and try playing Hungary. Y'all seem to want me to play Hungary instead of Canada or Germany, so maybe I'll give it a try soon. I'm intending to prioritize trying different games, because trying different games is really challenging. But I will try a Hearts of Iron IV live stream soon, especially seeing all the enthusiasm on my last one. If you want a head start on that one, I put together where to begin in Hearts of Iron IV.
I really wanted to try Crusader Kings III again today even though I was scared to. I wanted to face my fears.
So it's flashing here, that's cool. It can help to get more specific. The game even tells you if a character is celibate. That's interesting. Wow, this is so detailed. No holding, but they can theoretically be rulers. Where do you make him do something? Right-click to interact. What does he do? Oh, you can murder him. You can't just murder. Here are grant titles. He's a theocratic bishop, so he can't do titles. Where do you go? Where do you see the realm priest? I don't see how to do this.
Someone said you don't have to move permanently, just get a girl and then plan how to bring her to the US. I'd be down with that. How do I even do this? I'm literally stuck on the tutorial. I'm literally stuck in the tutorial. How do I fabricate a claim on a county outside of my borders? I don't see how to do this. Counselor tasks. So it looks like I need to use somebody on the council, chancellor, steward. Holy crap.
Kung Fu, I see your message, I just saw the last one now too. Are you square at the moment with dating? Do you have any woman still lingering? Nope. I don't have any women I know that are interested right now. I messaged just one that seemed to flame out pretty quickly. She just confirmed she wasn't interested today. I asked her if she wanted to meet up, and she's like, nah, I'm busy. All right. The last one, did she tell you that? No, she didn't tell me that, but I realized I should have asked her a lot more questions.
I cannot figure out how to do this. It says a council task. Oh wow, it highlighted it. Oh, finally. That took so long. Yeah, I'm at square one. I'm at square one. As far as I know, I have no prospects even on the horizon. I do have six more matches from my matchmaker. The next 10K I spend on dating will definitely be a nice trip outside the US if this matchmaking doesn't work, which I'm interested to see. I was really hopeful when it started.
Nice, the counselor's working on getting a claim.
Resources, and wrapping up a wild tutorial
Let's look at the bar in the top right of the screen. We've got resources here. Gold is the measure of personal wealth. Sounds good. Generally speaking, a stewardship skill will get you good gold. Nice. Prestige, glory, and renown. Piety, I thought it said petty. Piety is the resource for how virtuous your character is. Nice. Renown is how influential your dynasty is, and renown is tied to your level of splendor. What is that? Oh, my total soldiers. Time.
Now that we're talking about resources, let's wrap this up, because this tutorial has been wild. I've literally been in the tutorial for 20 minutes. Right now the game is paused, and you can control how fast to unpause by pressing the space bar. I think the last time I played, all I did was go through the tutorial too. "Congratulations on completing the tutorial. From this point, it's up to you to shape your reign." Right now, okay, this is intimidating, isn't it? Now what do I do?
My son can marry. Now late at night an acquaintance came knocking on my chamber door. We'll speak to him. You just started a scheme. Schemes are long-term goals aimed at another character. The days are progressing one at a time. Nice. Let me see how close the kids are to getting home. Let me check my daughter's location on her watch. You just started a scheme, that's cool. You can have hostile goals like murder or abduct, or you can befriend. Open the intrigue view. Where is that at? I should probably pause this right now.
It looks like my daughter's home, so I'm going to wrap this video up. If you'd like me to play some more Crusader Kings, please let me know. This was fun, and I'll be happy to do it again.
Kung Fu says, awesome, you're studying the game while playing and bringing us learning points. He also said most dating channels talk as if they're successful and give advice, but you don't see proof. Yeah. I'm really excited about starting my dating channel totally single, and then seeing where we go from there. So thanks a lot for watching this, and if you'd like more, let me know.