Switching to Linux and Getting an APU

So, it's getting near time to build a new PC. My current one still works, but it has become a bit of a Frankenstein system over the years. The motherboard, CPU, and RAM have been there since its first iteration was assembled in 2011. Since then, video cards have slowly been cycled into it, there have been a couple of HDD swaps, and it has a relatively new power supply. Nevertheless, those core elements of the board, processor, and RAM are really starting to show their age, and I'm not sure how much longer I'll use the system as a daily driver.

As a result, I've been perusing components to build a new PC from the ground up. This time around, though, I'm considering a couple of things that I haven't until now. First, there is a very good chance that the OS I go with will be Linux. Which specific distro remains to be seen, but at this point there doesn't appear to be much reason to use Windows. I've been wanting to move to Linux for a while, but it was only halfway there for my uses. Applications-wise, it's basically fine and has alternatives for anything that I might use in a Windows environment. Up until recently, the one thing holding me back was how well games run on it.

Rise from Your Grave...

I haven't posted anything here in almost a decade! Wow. Not that this was a hotbed of activity with a vibrant audience...

Anyway, it's to start posting again. After all these years, the desire to write has finally returned. I doubt many people will come across anything that I do here, but whatever. If nothing else, the whole process will be cathartic. Sometimes writing things out helps to process thoughts and digest something I recently experienced.

There will still be plenty of chit chat about video games here, but I also want to expand into books, as I do enjoy reading. Also, expect forays into anime, technology, and other nerdy things.

Sure, most people have long since moved on to video, or short form outlets, but I don't particularly like producing content for either. Good ol' old fashioned long form written content has always been my favorite to produce as well as my favorite to consume. Text is so much more efficient to deal with in my view.

Anyway, if this post somehow meets human eyes, hello! Hopefully others will come across the blog in time as well. With that, it's time to get posting and such!

Skyrim Screenshot

Just a screenshot I took while playing Skyrim.  I really like the way the moon looks in it, and the foliage is nice to.  I'm surprised how nice the game looks and runs on my laptop.

Crusader Kings II Continues Some More: Well, hmmmm

How about no?

Remember how I said last time that the Scots were starting to expand, and had gotten themselves a foothold in Ireland? Well, they've decided to push right up to my borders. I have a feeling that the only thing keeping them at bay right now are all of the political marriages that my family has. If Scotland were to invade I'd have my pick of a number of powers to ask for help in trying to repel them. Perhaps they're not be keen on getting in war that may see them fighting the likes of France, Norway, Sweden, Castille, and the Byzantine Empire. So, I think I may have time on my side for figuring out what I want to do in order to deal with the Scots.

Before that, though, I've got another problem to sort out. Enri's eldest son is still off fighting the Crusades, and has sworn fealty to a foreign power. For a time it looked like he would be ineligible to take over Connacht, and Enri's second son, Coleman, would be the next duke. However, that's no longer the case, as Emich managed to get himself back in line for the throne. With that I managed to convince him to return to my court, and a few years later Coleman hatched a plot to have his older brother killed. I knew about it and could have had Coleman arrested, but I chose to look the other way because I wanted Emich dead as well.

Scotland is getting a little too close
for comfort

After a couple of years Emich was assassinated, but he does have two sons, and they're both next in line for the throne, so I'm going to have to plot to assassinate them as well, ensuring that Coleman can run Connacht when Enri dies. It's still a bit of a mess, my areas current succession situation. I'm hopeful, though, that I can get people on board fast to assassinate the kids. They're orphans now anyway, so they're pretty helpless, so I suspect bumping them off shouldn't be too terribly difficult. (Good god, that whole paragraph sounds so terribly cold and heartless!)

Things haven't been entirely grim, though. I've had another bishop go heretic on me, this time Enri's own brother who decided to embrace Lollardism. I promptly tossed him in prison when he told me this, and after a few years he had the gall to complain that his accommodation weren't up to snuff, and that he wanted something nicer. I told him to stuff it. After a time he died in there since he absolutely refused to convert back to Catholicism. Sad. But on the plus side, his death freed up a landed title which I gave to Coleman since he was still my heir at the time.

So, I've got a lot to work on next time I play. First and foremost is wiping out the last of Emich's family. I don't want Connacht falling under Enri's grandchildren's liege's control. After that it'll be time to deal with Scotland. Thankfully after hopping on the Paradox forums, the people there gave me a bunch of nifty tips for dealing with a larger, aggressive nation that's on your borders. I'm liking the idea of trying to assassinate the King of Scotland, and a few of his successors just after they take the throne. If I can pull that off and create a lot of instability there, I'll be quite happy.

Enri has also embarked on a quest to improve is intrigue

I'll also need to start thinking about expanding into southern Ireland to increase the size of my own army, and just because it's something I want to do in this play through. My levies are getting pretty big, and I'm pretty close to being able to create a retinue, so maybe it's time to expand again soon. Despite a lot of things potentially going wrong the last little bit, I'm really enjoying this, as I'm seeing that there's a lot more layers to this game the closer I look at it.

Crusader Kings II Part XX - XVIII + III (I Think?): Holding Breifne, and Rise of the Idiot Son

It was only a matter of time before Briefne rebelled

After finally pressing my de jure claim on Briefne and defeating the county, I expected it to be difficult bringing the region in line. In order to keep their now defeated and vassalized leader, Arzhel, happy I tried giving him an honorary title and tossing him a few gold. It worked for a time, but eventually he just said to hell with it, called out Enri as a pretender, and we were back at war.

As luck would have it, though, it was a very short war. I marched my troops back into Briefne, and they got down to the business of smacking around enemy soldiers. Moments later I was informed that Arzhel was dead, and that the war was over, so things worked out rather well there. I didn't even need to call in foreign help, which was quite nice.

The war with Briefne didn't last very
long

Now the dead count's daughter is next in line to run Briefne, but she came to power a child, so there was a Regency over there after the war. This was great for Connacht, though, because with a young, impressionable mind over there, I'd have plenty of time to get on her good side. I kept my chancellor over there telling the girl how wonderful Enri and his regime are, there were countless feasts, fairs, and hunts, and I took every opportunity to improve her opinion of the duke. This worked out quite nicely in the end, as she has a decent level of approval of him now that she has reached adulthood. She can even attend Connacht's feasts herself since she's come of age, so there are even more opportunities to butter her up in the future.

While idly scanning the map, I also noticed that Scotland has been expanding quite a bit, and has even gained a foothold in Ireland. They seem to be staying put in Ulster right now, and neighboring regions are on guard. It'll be a little while until the Scots are a threat to Connacht, but I'm keeping an eye on them for now. If they try to enter my territory I have a number of alliances at my disposal including Castille, Sweden, Norway, and France. Hopefully the threat of being stomped by some of Europe's greatest powers with give Scotland pause before trying to invade my fair dukedom.

During the post-war years, Enri's
wife to a liking to smutty literature

Meanwhile, I've also been learning about the different succession laws as well as how titles pass hands. I finally decided to give Enri's brother a landed title since he wouldn't shut up about it, so he became the Baron of Anchory. He seemed happy about that, but a few years later because he'd married a daughter of the French royal family he somehow managed to become the King of Leon. I don't think he let the title go to his head because he stayed on as Enri's religious adviser on the Connacht council. The problem here is that I also wound up changing my succession laws to agnatic-cognatic primogeniture, which gives all titles and lands to a ruler's oldest son upon death. With that it's apparently important to have a landed title to give to your heir, and now I have none to give. It's not the end of the world, and not entirely necessary, but it would have been nice to make him a baron. Live and learn I guess.

Also, it seems like Enri's heir, Emich, also turned into a complete moron the moment I changed the succession laws.  Suddenly he was running around plotting murders left and right.  My spymaster discovered these schemes twice before getting bumped off himself by the idiot.  It's like he figured he's guaranteed to be duke now, so he can do whatever he wants.  After that I'd finally had enough and figured I'd toss the lad in prison for a few years while he takes some time to think about what he's done.  Instead he managed to avoid arrest, and buggered off to the Continent.  Now he's off fighting in the Crusades.

One boneheaded son may cost me my entire dynasty

With that I'm left wondering how secure my family line is. If Emich is gone, does that mean there's no one left to take the throne in primogeniture succession? Enri has three other sons, so if Emich doesn't take the throne, I really hope one of them can rule instead. If not, I may be facing game over soon assuming the family line cannot continue to rule under the new laws. Next time I play a session of this game, if I have an heir that starts behaving badly I'll likely just have him executed instead. I have a feeling that may be the better way to go. For now, I'm hoping that Emich dies in the Crusades. It'll certainly make my life a lot easier.

Crusader Kings II Part 17.35201593: At last! Briefne is Mine!

Nothing spells fun like having a child on the throne

Obviously the title of this post is pretty spoiler-ific, but before getting into tales of glorious conquest, let's start at the beginning of Heinrich I's reign because he had a lot running against him when he came to power. Hell, he wasn't even allowed to rule by himself, so his mother was appointed Regent until the lad came of age (the game allows me to make all of the decisions myself during this period, so I didn't need to worry about her meddling in affairs). It was a bit of a worrisome situation to be in because if there's one thing that ambitious medieval types like, it's children on the thrown. They're perfect targets for accidents, attempts at marginalizing, and just power plays in general. They see someone weak, and go straight for the jugular.

Sometimes you just have to
bring the hammer down on
troublemakers

The only consolation in this was that Heinrich was already 14, and it would only be a couple of years until he'd be considered an adult. He just needed to hold out a little bit longer, all the while trying to improve everyone's opinions of him. It was a rough ride, as a revolt broke out shortly after his father died. It was quashed easily, and Connacht's marshal was assigned the task of making sure no more of these happened during the remainder of Heinrich's regency period. Those jerks in Briefne even used the commotion as an opportunity to once again usurp the title of duke from my region. It would be a short lived changing of hands.

Once Heinrich reached 16, things calmed down a bit. A decent number of his nobles were at least tolerating him, and the members of his council seemed to think he was a pretty okay guy. About the only real problem that kept popping up was that one of my courtiers kept assassinating my spymasters, and these guys had pretty good intrigue stats, so it got annoying after a while, and I had to stop it by plotting an assassination attempt of my own on her. It took a little while to find co-conspirators for this because a lot of people had a high opinion of her, but eventually I found a couple, and we got to scheming. It took about a year, but we finally managed to bump her off through poison. Other than that, though, things were quiet in Connacht.

I took advantage of this time to start making political marriages wherever possible, including marrying Heinrich himself. The most important of these has established ties with Castille, one of the more dominant Spanish kingdoms. These sorts of marriages are something that I want to work on now because I'm probably only 100-150 years away from England starting to push hard into Scotland and Ireland, assuming it tries to expand. I want to make sure I know how to swing some powerful connections around so that I can push them out of Connacht, and whatever other regions I conquer when the time comes.

The assassination was an oldie
but a goodie

It also seems that the Papacy wants to reward Heinrich and his predecessors for throwing Connacht's weight, however minuscule it may be, behind its Crusades. It's been the easiest 400 gold that I've made in the game. I did make sure that it went to good use, spending it on upgrades for both of my castles so that I can increase both of their levies. I should also note that the castle I build and talked about last post is now vassal-free, as the guy died and I have yet to bestow the vassalage on anyone else yet. So, I have a far larger personal levy to draw upon right now since I don't have to worry about relations with whomever might normally be overseeing the castle as a vassal. With that, things have worked out pretty well with all of the free money raining in, and some newly freed up levies. It almost looks like a good time for an invasion. More on that in a moment.

During the early part of his reign, Heinrich was beset with a steady succession of dead bishops. There was nothing sinister about their deaths, they just kept dying of natural causes. Occitan kept freeing up more and more bishops for me to recruit, but I had to wonder about their quality after a while. It got to the point where the only guy available was a certified lunatic. He actually had a trait for lunacy. I hadn't even realized that was a thing in the game until that point. I wound up recruiting him for laughs, though. Figured it would be fun.

Most of my court didn't say anything, but my mayor eventually called out Heinrich on the matter, asking why I had a heretic as a bishop, and why the man was also in his council. First of all, he's not a heretic, Mr. Mayor, he's just crazy. Second, dem learning stats! They're really high. How can I say no to those? Eventually I did capitulate and replace him on my council, but again people in that role kept getting sick and dying, so I had to go and ask the bishop to retake the position. I'm guessing he didn't take the original firing all that well, because when I went to check on him now he had not only the lunatic trait but was now also a drunkard. Great! (Truth be told, I'm half tempted to make him a guardian of someone just to see what happens. Tee hee!)

Free money!

About the only other thing of note to happen during this time is that, for whatever reason, Heinrich started to identify far more with his Irish heritage, and eventually decided to embrace it, eschewing his German half. He changed his name to Enri I, and seems quite happy now.

Oh, and did I mention that I invaded Briefne? Well, I did. The first order of business was to usurp the title of duke back for Enri, which would also return my de jure claim on that region. With that out of the way, I promptly declared war on the county, and marched some 800 troops on it. At first it was a route, as my forces smashed their army, and laid siege to one fortification after the next until finally coming upon the castle of the count himself. This was a much closer battle than I was expecting, as their garrison was quite large, with almost 750 units in it. I only just outnumbered them, and thus was able to win the siege, forcing a surrender from the count.

Oh, and did I mention that I conquered
Briefne?

This brought Briefne fully under Enri's control, and forced the count to become one of my vassals. The guy is understandably angry, though, so I'll need to keep a very close eye on him. I've had my chancellor over there, trying to butter him up, and it's worked somewhat. I may even try to shower the guy with gifts and honorary titles just to keep him happy. The last thing I want is for him to start forming a faction, and then get an insurrection going. It may be unavoidable, however. He just has too many negative modifiers affecting his opinion of Enri, and I'm not sure any amount of gifts or sweet talk will sway him in the long run.

So, now I wait and watch. Maybe I can somehow get the count on side, and we can start having slumber parties and doing each other's hair. If not, maybe it'll mean another war, and if that's the case so be it. I'll just march on Briefne once more, and crush him. Assuming he survives the battle, I'll make sure he spends the remainder of his life rotting in prison.

Crusader Kings II Cont'd: The Life and Times of Tadg II

Tadg had a tendency to indulge himself during his reign

With a new castle under construction, things were looking up for preparing an invasion of either Briefne or Tyrconnell. However, due to some problems with taxation policy, my lack of understanding when creating vassals, and not grasping retinues, I've had to put those plans on hold. When my second castle was completed, I made the mistake of creating a new vassal to take care of it. Unfortunately I didn't understand that this wasn't really necessary at the time since the place's existence would not cause my demense to become too large, consequently angering my nobles. I could leave it vassal-free, but I didn't. This resulted in my having a far smaller levy than I would need for an attack on Brienfe. I would have to wait for that vassal to die, freeing up the castle, or strip his vassalage from him, which would make him super angry. So, now I wait, and improve my castles. I'll also have to get a handle on making a personal retinue, but more on that in a separate post.

Just because you're a duke, it
doesn't mean you don't have to
answer difficult questions

So, here we are, a new ruler in Connacht with an opportunity to reclaim the title of Duke for his family. Would I usurp it? Absolutely! It turns out that this costs quite a lot of money, though, so I had to be patient while scraping up the 180-ish gold that I would need to perform the deed. With time, Tadg made his move, and became a duke just like his grandfather. As you can imagine, Briefne was none to pleased about this, but they started it by usurping the title in the first places, so, nya!

During his reign I'd have to say that Tadg has been the most ennui addled ruler that I've ever played in this game. He would get bored easily, and eventually decided to go and have an affair with his uncle's wife. I didn't even have a say in it. His bad behavior even resulted in a bastard son who I chose not to legitimize, humiliating his mother, infuriating his uncle, and leaving the boy with a deep-rooted hatred of Tadg and his house. Nonetheless, this went on for years, and for reasons I've yet to figure out Tadg's mistress, Helie, just kept on coming back to him no matter how poorly he treated her.

For science!

As time wore on, the duke began to mellow with age. He eventually gave up his philandering escapades, and realized that he actually loved his wife. From then on, the two got on wonderfully. Tadg even developed an interest in science, taking it upon himself to try and invent a flying machine. Somehow he managed to sucker the local dung collector, Melrick, into test piloting the thing for him, and as you can probably imagine things didn't go so well. Miraculously, the pilot survived the first test, but after that he convinced Tadg to steal another local inventor's flying machine and try to claim it as his own. Upon testing this one, the machine plummeted to the ground, killing Melrick. With that, Tadg decided to give up on his experiments, and just focus on ruling his dukedom. The whole escapade did earn him a couple of points in learning, though, so it wasn't all for nothing.

Shortly after this, Ireland was once again facing the threat of a tuberculosis epidemic. I kept my fingers crossed that Connacht would again manage to escape being afflicted by the disease, but I wasn't so lucky this time. At first it trickled into my region, and before long it was tearing through my court, sinking its claws first into Tadg's brother, then hitting several of my nobles. There were a number of deaths at the hands of the illness. As luck would have it, though, it also managed to kill some of Tadg's enemies in his court, including his uncle who was still none too happy about Tadg's affair with his wife. Even my duke was struck by the disease. He managed to pull through, but died a couple of years later due to another illness.

My first Regency

The worrying thing about this is that Tadg's eldest son, Heinrich I, has not yet come of age, so his mother is acting as Regent until then. Heinrich is already 14 years old, though, so it won't be long until he's a full-fledged ruler. He just needs to tough it out through the transition period, and hope no one holds it too much against him for the heavy German influence upon him from his mother's side of the family.

If he can hold things together, and bring his nobles in line, he could have an interesting run on things. He still has a de jure claim on Briefne that he can exercise, and his father poured quite a lot of money into castle improvements, so maybe he'll be the one to start Connacht on the path to conquest. It certainly helps that I think I have a better grasp on that element of the game as well. Before that, though, I'm just going to focus on getting Heinrich to adulthood in one piece.

To Part V