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| The graphics in this game aren't impressive... |
...and they don't try to be. They present a lot of information quickly and efficently. |
The object of this real time strategy game is not conquest or combat per se, rather it is to accumulate the things that mattered to medieval monarchs, namely, gold, prestige and piety. Each of these is expressed in the game by positive and negative numbers. In addition, your reputation is also tracked, and this affects the loyalty of vassals, as well as who other kingdoms view you. Your starting character has four abilities, each from 0-15, that show his basic abilities. These are, Martial (war), Diplomacy (foreign policy), Intrigue (spying and dirty tricks), and lastly, Stewardship (leadership, more on this later). Each rank can be augmented by your court, provided you appoint ministers. In addition, characters have traits, and can be educated differently, male heirs can have martial, religious, or court training, females can only have court and religious training. Women can hold any minister post except the Marshal and the religious title. They can, and often do, hold the minister titles of Steward, spymaster and chancellor. You select these people from a court screen, and it may sometimes happen that you have nobody to select, so you must make do without them. You can also arrange marriages, which for the males is to produce heirs. The daughters may be married, as their is a prestige penalty for each turn the eldest daughter is unmarried. You may marry them within the court, or to other leaders. If to other leaders, they leave your court. The abilities of the husbands and wives effects the stats of children, so the selection of wives must be done wisely. Also, women in this game are only fertile between the ages of 16 and 39, so get the youngest wife you can, it does make a difference. How long she lives, and whether she survives child birth, is handled at random, but you can always remarry if she passes on. The male characters stay fertile a lot longer, I have gotten children from men in their 60s in the game. Also, be careful whom you marry, as dynastic succession plays a large part in the game. You can select laws as to whom will succeed you, so this is an interesting sub-game, one with great detail, that has a number of possibilities. Since you can also send assassins, there are prospects of gaining territory without war, through inheritance, provided your dirty tricks work and are undetected. If you are found out, prestige and reputation take huge hits, so have a top spymaster and act wisely.
Crusader Kings uses yet another variation of the tried and true EU system, which separates the map into a number of areas, each with unique terrain, as well as economic and political conditions. The game has three scenarios, the earliest of which begins in 1066, shortly after William of Normandy takes England. The choice of what nation to select can be truly staggering, and hundreds and available to play. You can select to be a Count, a more powerful Duke, or, be a King. The choice of nations will have an effect on the game, Kings have larger ares to control, as well as vassals, Dukes have less responsibility, and may also have vassals, but may in turn be the vassal of a king. A Count may be independent, but is usually the vassal of a more powerful ruler. The only limitation is, you must select a Christian ruler, the Muslim and pagan are unplayable. Of the Christians, they come to two different types, Catholics, who are subject to the pope and who will be called on too crusade, and Orthodox, whom the pope cannot control directly.
In this game, your kingdom is made up of areas, called your demesne. You may have only a single province, or control many of them, however, there are limits and penalties for having a huge demesne. The number of provinces you can directly control is shown in your leader's abilities, namely, his Stewardship. This is expressed as a number from between zero and 15. It is augmented by appointing a Steward, who's ability is added to the leader's, and this is the number of provinces you can directly control without economic penalty. You will want to control more expensive and wealthy provinces directly, as they can yield more gold, but you can also allow someone from your court to take over a province, through vassalage.
The game has a a number of subscreens on which you can control certain aspects of your court, control the development of your lands, lay out the types of laws you will employ, and what areas of research you will attempt. Unlike previous Paradox games, research is more hit and miss, and reflects the middle ages in that, even if one province in your demesne gains a technology, it will not be known in others areas of the demesne right away. For example, you may want batter seige engines, so you study this. When it is discovered, only the capital knows it, it will takes months and years for it to spread to other areas. This may seem odd, but it does represent the stagnation of knowledge of this period. One interesting benefit of this is, quite often, the tech of other kingdoms nearby is absorbed by your demesne, so you get free techs. Each tech has five complete levels, and there are three groups of knowledge to study at the same time, none of which costs any resources or gold. The three areas are military, culture, and economy. Each advance helps the demesne in different ways, military techs can bring better castles, armor for soldiers, better tactics and weapons.
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| The late middle ages are a perfect setting for a strategy game. | There is plenty of strategy and complexity here for your money. |
The recruitment of armies and their composition are handled by the AI, and cannot be completely controlled by the players. Each province provides a unit, and the unit is portrayed as a 3d fighting man in the style of the area of the world he comes from, so you can see Vikings, Templer knights, and so on, 15 different types in all. Unlike other Paradox titles, the armies are not paid for when in garrison, you must muster them, that is, mobilize them for war. When you do so, they receive a leader from your court, or none if nobody is available, and the unit appears in the province of origin. They must be moved to be grouped under one leader. The composition and size of the units depends on a number of factors, such as, the loyalty of the four groups in the province they are raised, the prevailing kingdom laws, the economy of the province and the size of the castle. Once sent outside the kingdom, they suffer attrition, and can only be re-enforced by de-mobilizing them. It takes quite some time, years in fact, to rebuild units completely, and you only have limited ability to speed this process up. Armies are very fragile and expensive in this game. Once you have mobilized your army and grouped it, you than send it to an enemy province. If another army is present, a battle is fought, this is handled abstractly, but the AI takes into account the military advances of the troops, the unit size, and the leadership abilities. Defeated armies are not always destroyed, but are retreated to a nearby province. Next, the victorious army lays siege to the province, the armies' seige tech and size as well as the level of the enemy castle determines the length of the siege. If a relieving army defeats the invading army, the seige is broken and must begin again from the start. After the castle falls, you have a number of options, depending on the opponent, if Christian, you can pillage it for gold (and you lose piety for doing so), take the land IF you have a claim on the title of the defeated leader, or end the war, demanding money. The enemy may or may not agree, depending on the warscore, and your diplomatic ability. Vs Muslims and Pagans, you simply take over the defeated province if the siege is successful. Wars can be ended easily, or may drag on, as nations may have allies, and the allies may continue the fight. The Muslim states have a level one advantage at the start of the 1066 scenario, so it is best to leave them alone until your armies are better prepared. Also, there is a historical flaw in the design, Muslim nations can and will make long sea voyages to Crusader homelands, and take them over. Also, armies can march through any kingdom, so there is no stopping an enemy army unless a friendly army appears. Leave the Muslims alone until you can handle them.
Unfortunately, you may not be able to leave the Muslims alone for long. At some point, you will see the message Deus Vult, which is the pope calling for crusades against the infidels. Until you go and take Muslim and pagan lands, you will lose piety. The larger your demesne, the more piety you will lose. This becomes a major problem over time, and can lead to huge negative piety. When your ruler dies, his prestige and piety totals die with him, so you can get a clean slate, or lose huge totals that you wanted to keep! This area of the game is still being balanced, it has been changed in several patches, and in my opinion, still is not quite right. Unless you wipe out the Muslims, the crusades never end. And since you lose huge armies quickly, wiping them out is unlikely, so the players end up in an endless cycle of negative piety.
The last important matters are titles, vassals and player characteristics. Titles are based up what areas you actually control, and you can grab titles from others, but you lose large amounts of prestige and reputation if you do. This may not seem important, but negative reputation will cause your vassals to lose loyalty, and rebel, and once they do, you will have to defeat them and replace them to keep the area as a vassal province. You can create vassals easily, simple present them with a title, either as a count, or if you have control, as a duke. Anyone in your court can get a title, man or woman, even children of one year of age. Characters cannot marry until they reach 16, before then, they appear as a shadow, afterward, they get their own portrait shield. Characteristics are mostly random elements. You can select one of the three types of schooling, and this will effect some traits for good or ill, but most traits are random events. Often, you will get a pop-up, asking for you to select an action, and it gives a percentage of the chance of that action causing a character to earn a trait. Many of the traits are quite negative, and illness traits will shorten lives and end fertility. Unfortunately, you have no influence over any of it. The traits may ruin great kings, reduce ministers to madness, or make great people out of fools.
The game is quite complex, and is also very attractive. There are buttons to show the tech level of each and area of the map, the fortifications, and the owners of each province. Each title has a heraldic shield, an excellent touch, that adds a lot of flavor to the game. The music, unlike previous Paradox games, is completely new, and is quite beautiful, perhaps the best score seen for a game in a very long time. The amount of clicking and subscreens can be daunting, but it isn't too bad. I would have suggested that paradox provide a separate court screen, to easily sort courtiers and ministers, in large courts you can sometimes over look good people for positions, but this isn't a major problem. There is a little decision making in each province, depending on the tech level, certain buildings and roads can be constructed, that add gold, prestige and loyalty to the people. However, bandits and random events may destroy them, or even incite revolts that the army must deal with.
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| The complexity of the game may be daunting at first... |
...but it is worth your time to get acquainted with this game. |
CRUSADER KINGS VERDICT
In conclusion, I found Crusader Kings to be a lot of fun, despite some serious flaws. The worst thing is the naval aspect, Muslims and Christians can zip about the world at little cost, so you have medieval d-days all over Europe. The Muslim states are a little too powerful, and the crusades themselves have to be addressed, as the piety loss is a major problem. I could have gone into even more detail, such as the dreaded and unstoppable Golden Horde, and the intricate web that is dynastic marriage and the interaction of vassals, but I will leave those for the players to discover on their own. I did want to mention Johan Andersson, the lead designer of Paradox and creator of Crusader Kings. This man provides tremendous dedication to game players, working on improvements, patches, and listening to what the players want and don’t want, if one tenth of game designers showed such dedication to their customers, the gaming industry would be a lot better off. Also, thanks to Mr T. beta tester of CK and mod of the CK forum at Paradox, for his help in preparing this review, as well as answering some of my questions on game play. Lastly, I also want to acknowledge the posters of the paradox board, who have helped me to play and understand these complex and interesting games, as well as helping me to see other viewpoints of game play and style. Thanks fellows. Buy this game, it is well worth your time.
TOP GAME MOMENT
Controlling kings with various personalities and building a dynasty of your family name.
