A great sequel that could have been better if it was less random.
For this reason the only army you are ever able to completely control is your own. You control others based on a number of factors, like laws in effect or your relations with the lord of that province. You can get betrothed or married and the game tracks your relations with your wife and/or children. Your eldest son won't be too happy if your younger kids are in line to receive some of your titles, and in contrast that will go in reverse if your eldest son is the only one who receives titles. There are random events where you might catch your sons plotting something they shouldn't be plotting.
The graphics look great, the UI is well done and everything is what you would expect of a sequel. Having played the first Crusader Kings though I can't help but feel like some overall experience is missing. Everything seems very random. The (french) King does not usually share old Duchy titles for example. Instead he will give a title he conquers from the Iberian peninsula and has taken from the Muslims. This makes it seem very random as if the only thing the AI is built to consider are the management of war. War is usually always happening unless you're too far away. This wouldn't bother me if there was anything more to it that the first one seemed to have. In the old game the King gave his old titles, in this case the Duchy of Orleans, but instead my county was in the northeastern part of France and my land was near Barcelona in Iberia.
It gives the impression that the only one playing the game with any logic or reason is you, and the AI is doing things completely random. That feeling that the previous game gave off was part of it's success. And, for me at least, that feeling is gone in this sequel. I really wasn't looking for better graphics or a fresh UI when I picked up Crusader Kings 2. A release of what was that simply didn't crash would have been fine. I'm not sure what a patch can do to make it feel less random, as if I was in a medieval casino, but we will see I guess.