Well, the year didn't begin that well for the blog, with me pretty instantly managing to take something of an impromptu break from writing. It wasn't really intended, but I quite simply didn't have the motivation to write anything, even though I had a thought here or there what I might write about. Even now, it's somewhat difficult for me to do so, since I have been rather captivated by Crusader Kings 3 the last few days, and am somewhat loathe to take time away from playing it.
It's curious how it happened, since I've dabbled in both the first and second game before, but never really for this long a time, mostly just for a few hours, afterwards getting simply too frustrated with the limitations that the game imposes on actually doing things. I'm not quite sure what's so different this time, perhaps it's me having begun in an earlier era where there were more opportunities for wars and expansion which gave me the motivation to actually build to empire size, and now that I've managed to get there I have a vested interest in keeping the empire going. I also think I might've gotten somewhat inspired by quill18 and his playthrough, since it allowed me to take the whole family dynasty approach to my gameplay which means that I can in a sense be more accepting of any potential lost wars or the like since I can just feel content as long as the dynasty is going well—it also makes this early game of forced partitioning of the titles between heirs a bit more bearable, since at least it's all staying in the family most of the time. It is really annoying the level of control and power each consequent death brings with it though, and the significant slowing of the pace of the game that brings with it as well.
What also really helped—something I think is now an option for the first time but maybe I've just overlooked it—is the game setting to just put the gender rules to equal in the game. I know, it's a lot less historically accurate and whatnot, but just always being essentially forced to play dudes gives me bad vibes for some reason—ironically, I'll probably end up playing as one soon anyway since both of my heirs ended up being male, but should rectify itself before long at least.
It's also kind of funny now that I've played a bunch looking back and actually thinking about the history of the empire I've built, and above that the family dynasty of over 500 living members, and just consider the absurdity of it. What started out as a single village in Africa, has evolved into an African empire lead by a afro-greco muslim empress leading her odd clan-based empire to victory—or more often at this point, merely peace, since with the change from tribal to clan government the cost of wars in gold went up such a huge degree that I can scarcely afford them. Probably doing something wrong there, probably related to how much my vassals like me or such, as that impacts how much they pay me in the clan-type government; probably also just growing pains, having relatively recently changed the government type and all of my vassals not even having done so yet, so there are a lot of upgrades missing I assume.
The one drawback of this recent, I think obsession is appropriate, is that I think it might be affecting my sleep, or rather my ability to go to sleep, since I essentially just end up planning what I'll do next and essentially playing the game, which seems to keep me awake—or maybe it was just a unlucky coincidence and that'll rectify itself soon enough. Still, I think the joy I'm currently getting is worth that small downside, just curious to see how long it all lasts, which of course also means enjoying it as long as it does! So back to the game.