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In WTW you don't have to worry about your vassals rebelling against you or disliking your warlike antics, so you can do whatever you want as a lord paramount or king (when in reality it's not like that), but of course I understand that total war games are about the battles and sieges. There's so much i can describe about the game that makes it more 'personal' and makes you feel like you're actually in control of a realm because you consider the opinions of your vassals, that it's really worth picking it up and giving it a try. However, if you're Jon Arryn and you know most of your vassals love you, you can pull out as much as 40k (and this is without training troops at all). If you are Lord Paramount of the Vale and your lords dislike you, don't expect them to give you more than 15k troops. The more your vassals like you, the more they will give. You call your levies from your vassals and your lords alone determine how many troops to raise for your cause.
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There is only the 'campaign' mode, but you are still able to declare wars and lead armies into battle although there is a system with a lot of counterparts that determine the outcome of battle. The biggest downfall is that CK2 is not as war-oriented as total war (duh the name TW kinda makes it obvious) because there is no battle mode. There is a system of marriage alliances that's much more fun and immerse than total war marriages. You can also appoint your own council members from maester all the way to master-at-arms.
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He had to trust in the loyalty of his vassals to raise their banners in his name to save his father. Remember in the books how Robb had to call all his vassals to bring themselves and their levies to Winterfell, and how guys like the Greatjon wanted to test his lieges courage by demanding he lead the march in the front? Robb didn't recruit troops with his own money in the castles of the North and simply command them to go where he pleases. Rather than the simple total war strategy of improving economy->training troops->conquering everything in your path, CK2 makes you work for your vassal's loyalty so that you make sure you have sufficient support from your lords and sufficient levies that they will raise in your name when you call your bannermen for war. The game engine is mainly based on king/vassal relations and working towards keeping your kingdom/duchy/county stable. The difference with CK2 is that it's much more accurate when it comes to portraying the feudal system. Any other WTW players here who've played it? I've seen a couple threads on here on this subject but they're pretty old. I just recently bought Crusader Kings 2 and its a pretty great game.
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