#CRUSADER KINGS III THEME FULL#

This is partly alleviated by the fact that there’s so much to do besides marching armies around, and all of that is done so well. The end result is that you end up doing almost as much work micromanaging your soldiers, manually splitting them into smaller contingents and marching them halfway across the realm, as you would have under the old system. This is pretty annoying, because having too many troops in one spot will cause you to lose men and supplies to attrition, and in a war with multiple fronts it leaves one or more positions woefully undermanned. Usually one rally point would spawn a small contingent of troops, while the entire rest of my army showed up at the other. Setting up multiple rally points is supposed to split your forces somewhat evenly when you call up the banners, but I’ve never found this to work properly in practice. The problem is it doesn’t always send troops where they’re needed, this often leaves you without the fine control you need to stage your invasion efficiently.

In an effort to cut down on the micromanagement that bogs down Crusader Kings 2 at times, Crusader Kings 3 has all of your armies arrive at a designated rally point as a single force, rather than raising dozens of small stacks from their home counties and having to merge them together. The logistics of conducting a campaign of conquest could still use some work.

#CRUSADER KINGS III THEME FULL#

The survivors will be left to return to a completely changed political situation and atmosphere at court while possibly sending your current avatar into a depression spiral full of angst and debauchery. A close but bloody battle, even if you emerge victorious, could end with all of your adult children, your most trusted counselor, and your best friend dead or maimed. A lover serving in your personal guard might sacrifice themselves to save you from a stray arrow. What’s more, the risks of bloodshed now include consequences that can be more shattering to a ruler than losing an entire army. The addition of Knights gives individual, named warriors a bigger role to play in turning the tide, and more opportunities for personal stories to emerge from the din of clashing steel. While combat is still fairly simple and hands-off, from a tactical perspective, the ways it can have repercussions after the fact have been greatly broadened and deepened beyond simple success or failure. Warfare has some strong new ideas too, well beyond the advantage bar that clearly shows you who’s winning a battle at any given moment (a huge improvement over Crusader Kings 2’s arcane and inaccessible number-crunching). Most of the same results were achievable in Crusader Kings 2, but the way you get there is so much richer and more hands-on now. It feels rewarding and viable to work solely in the shadows, building your base of power through trading favors, manipulating the careless, and assassinating those too inconvenient to your schemes. A new system of secrets and hooks allows you to gain leverage over other characters by, for instance, discovering and threatening to expose an extramarital affair. Medieval dynastic politics would be nothing without a little cloak and dagger, and this is another area where Crusader Kings 3 has gone all out. The possibilities are practically limitless, and allow you to customize your experience and leave your mark on the world in very satisfying ways that were never possible in the previous games. Everything is customizable, from the role of the clergy to views on witchcraft and homosexuality.

You can create a new heresy of Catholicism that, for instance, exalts cannibalism, believes in reincarnation, and allows only women to become priests. Of course, due to the in-depth, free-form new religion system, you can always bid farewell to a religious doctrine that no longer suits you. Read the full Crusader Kings 3: Royal Court DLC Review It's the best kind of grand strategy expansion, and while it leaves dukes and tribal rulers feeling a bit left out in the rain as they can't access most of these new systems, I wouldn't want to ever play without it. And rather than focus on one region, all the pillars and ethoses added by the new culture system make it feel like a flavor pack for the entire world. It weaves iron into the very fibers of the base game and makes it feel more complete and cohesive. Whether I'm creating new melting pot cultures, decorating my throne room, or throwing lavish parties to make sure everyone remembers how important I am, Royal Court goes beyond tacking on some new mechanics to the already excellent Crusader Kings 3.

Crusader kings iii theme