The gameplay revolves around dynasties of european's middleage. You start by picking a Lord (either an Earl, a Duke, a King or an Emperor) who have vassals, a court, etc... And you just play with the sandbox. You need casubelli to declare war, but you can forge these by a multitude of ways. You need to maintain strong relations with your vassals otherwise their taxes and levies will have penalties, etc..
At first, you will be lost. But after an hour of gameplay, there is a good chance you will start to have fun in your plotting, and grasp at the very cruel and complex nature of the political game.
For example, I started of as the Duke of Munster, in Ireland. My ambition was to become King of Ireland, and eventually, of Wales, England, Scotland, etc...
The Duchy of Munster has been united rather quickly under my command. And I now have ambitions laid upon the Duchy of Connagh and the Duchy of Leinsten. Bear with me for a minute:
My own character started off the game with an adult son and as widower. I quickly remarried to a rather intelligent and skilled Spanish wife, who gave me 3 children. The problem is, she probably had ambition for her own sons, and she spent about 10 years trying to assassinate my firstborn. I eventually had her imprisoned, and I plotted with my firstborn to have her quietly assassinated. I was 58 year old, probably too old to remarry.
When my first daughter of this 2nd marriage came of age, I looked around to find a potential suitor. I noticed the Duke of Leinstein's heir is unmarried, so I arrange the match rather quickly. It doesn't take long for my new son in law to inherit the Dukedom, and I decide to get closer to this family, so I marry his recently widowed mother of 38. I am 61 now.
I think I may have some Frey blood in me, because my new wife gives birth to a healthy son! And my daughter the Duchess of Leinstein gets a daughter and a son from her husband. It doesn't take long that I betroth my newborn son to their newborn daughter, and have their only son assassinated so my kin would directly inherit throne!
During that time, I also plotted with the heir of the Duchy of Connagh, and invited him to my court to support his claim to the throne. While he was at my court, I married off his 2nd son to one of my kinswoman, arranged to have his 1st son assassinated. So when, finally, my armies appointed him as Duke of Connagh, my blood was now irremediably linked to this line of succession, so a generation of two later I could lay claim upon the Duchy.
It sounds complicated at first, but the game has a rather easy interface to follow, and makes blood relations easy to track. Otherwise, you simply have to make sure the people with the best stats are in the right positions, that your vassals are happy, that the children are educated with the best Courtsmen possible (or dimwit children be raised by vassals who need a boost in relation).
I just cannot figure out what is the family relation between my son and my granddaughter. My son is the half-brother of the Duke of Leinstein, and the half-brother of the Duchesse of Leinstein.
I just hope there will be inbreeding stats!!
