With a new expansion, the strategy game Crusader Kings 3 on Steam (Rating: 91% positive reviews) has received a new feature: 100 historical characters are now in the game. Among them is William Wallace, the main character from Braveheart. Crusader Kings 3 is well-suited to replaying some well-known series and films from the Middle Ages, including the TV series Vikings and the Crusades epic Kingdom of Heaven.
This is the new feature in Crusader Kings 3: The feature came with the DLC “Road to Power” and is called “Echoes of History”.
In total, 100 historical characters have been added to the game, mostly individuals who are well-known but were not lords in their time, but rather artists, adventurers, or theologians.
If one of the characters appears at the right time in the game and in a province that the player directly or indirectly controls, the player has the opportunity to either switch to the character and start as a landless adventurer with them or to take the character into their court. They can also completely ignore the character, but what kind of madman would do that?
Additionally, there is also the option to play “crafted” campaigns with a few characters, such as the Spanish folk hero El Cid.
“Historical land princes” have always been part of Crusader Kings: For years, you could steer the fate of Sweden in the 9th century as Björn Ironshield or attempt to unite England as Alfred the Great.
Crusader Kings 3 is considered one of the best strategy games on Steam and has received a strong new expansion with “Road to Power” that many enjoy:
William Wallace as a Great Warrior in Crusader Kings 3
How is William Wallace portrayed? The character made famous by Mel Gibson as “Braveheart” appears in Crusader Kings 3 between 1290 and 1296 in the province of “Lennox”.
William Wallace is a 5-star warrior, an extremely strong training, and he is 20 years old. Wallace has traits such as brave, stubborn, and vengeful. Furthermore, he is strong and has the skill “Gallant” – making him an outstanding military leader at just 20 years old, provided the other randomly generated values are somewhat favorable.
However, there are no historical events related to the character. Only a brief historical outline appears about him.
Warriors and Priests Join Crusader Kings 3
Are there any other stronger characters that appear? Yes, there are numerous exciting figures with strong base values, but none have the important “genetic factors” that players might use, to shape the Kwisatz Haderach.
The characters start with “Inspirations”, so they can be set directly to create an artifact, provided you have the necessary funds.
Especially religious figures like Hildegard of Bingen or Thomas Aquinas have great starting values and are suitable for special roles in your court like physician, empire priest, or poet. The poet Dante Alighieri is also in the game.
Furthermore, Paradox traditionally places great importance on giving exotic regions in the game their own characters.
A character in the game, “John the Orphantotrophes” apparently served as inspiration for the master schemer Varys in “Game of Thrones” for author George R.R. Martin. He is also a great puppet master in Crusader Kings 3, always hatching some schemes..
Additionally, there are warrior figures like the warrior-poet Egil Skallargrimsson, who appears in Vestisland from Iceland between 930 and 936 and whom you can certainly use as a knight.
A list of all new historical figures and their parameters can be found here (via ck3paradoxwiki)
He appeared in my game, with 35 combat power an outstandingly strong warrior. But he died in his mid-30s from some absurd virus he caught. Not a very glorious end for a true Viking:
Vikings and Kingdom of Heaven are Conceivable Scenarios
Which historical films can be replayed? The first expansion of Crusader Kings 3 brought several main characters from the TV series Vikings into the game, the sons of Ragnar Lothbrok, who has already died at the beginning of Crusader Kings 3, and characters like Harald Finehair, who desperately wants to become king of Norway.
In Crusader Kings 3, characters like Björn Ironshield or Ivar the Boneless are playable, which also represent strong starting characters. With “Road to Power”, now Rollo and Ubbe have also come as playable characters to Crusader Kings 3.
With the new update, Paradox also gifted players of Crusader Kings 3 a new starting date with characters that we know from the film “Kingdom of Heaven”.
The landless adventurer “El Cid” is also known from a major television series. And if that is not enough, players can simply replay Game of Thrones with mods: Steam: Game of Thrones is becoming a new game this week – The only right way
This is what’s behind it: The feature is great and fits perfectly into the world of Crusader Kings 3. Apparently, care has been taken with the balance, as the characters are strong and also “relatively” young, but do not have the exaggerated genetic advantages that players are after, such as “Genius”, an advantage that gives a tremendous boost to all values.
It is thus more of a “flavor” feature that brings variety. In the future, this could be further expanded and more campaigns could be conceivable that focus more on the historical development of the characters – currently, they are merely characters that are inspired by the historical figures in terms of traits.
