The strategy game Crusader Kings 3 is a puzzle for many newcomers. Our author Schuhmann explains how he plays Crusader Kings 3 and why it leads to strange results. In his game, there are plenty of Irish, beautiful, and bear-strong geniuses. The reason is the decision “strengthen bloodline” and the genes.
Who is genetically optimized in Crusader Kings 3? In Crusader Kings 3, there are some “heritable traits”: Sometimes they are bad, sometimes good, sometimes strong, and sometimes less pronounced. That’s just how people have always been: One has a hump, another is handsome, one is clever, and the fourth one is a hemophiliac.
Crusader Kings 3 simulates all of this and presents it in a simplified form, represented by small icons that have an impact in the game.
Ideally, one can combine 4 positive traits in their strongest form in one character:
- Genius – +5 to all stats and a 30% lifestyle bonus. This is by far the most valuable bonus.
- Beautiful – 30% fertility and 30 attractiveness bonus. This determines how others see you. “Beautiful” is strong. If everyone likes the ruler, his realm stays together, and there’s not constantly anyone rebelling.
- Hercules – +8 points to martial strength, plus a “mighty” health bonus and a 15 attractiveness bonus. With such bonuses, characters live significantly longer and are well-suited as knights.
- Fertile – 50% fertility and 5 years longer life.
In earlier games of Crusader Kings 3, it was hard to find a “Genius” at all. Previously, finding the “Kwisatz Haderach” proved to be laborious. But those days are over.
In my current game of Crusader Kings 3, I have a family with 2866 living members. Of them:
- 1466 are a Hercules or an Amazon
- 1782 are geniuses
- 1936 are beautiful
- 977 are a genius, a Hercules, and beautiful in one person
- 667 all of that and also “fertile”
You can see: Who is “just a genius” in the family is a loser and is only allowed to manage the garden. Governing the realm is miles away.
Genetics in Crusader Kings 3 is apparently completely unbalanced
What is the reason? Genetics in Crusader Kings 3 is a system that is currently completely broken. There are several bonuses that reinforce each other and ensure that eventually only good traits are inherited and they become increasingly pronounced.
A family simply optimizes itself genetically after a certain point.
Three systems interact:
- Firstly, there’s the dynasty tree “Blood,” where long-term advantages are unlocked: Here you can choose perks 5 times that help to inherit “good traits” and eliminate bad traits from the bloodline.
- The AI likes to marry neighbor’s children to each other. If you occupy every free land with your own descendants, the AI constantly marries cousins to each other. Since they all have good genes, the system optimizes itself.
- However, particularly strong is a decision, after which your family receives a “40,000%” greater chance of good positive traits. For that, you need a ruler who is the dynasty head and brings good genetic traits. He then appoints himself as the “blood father”, or superhuman, if you will. You then benefit significantly from that bonus.
This is how the system works: If you want to play this way, you should ensure that
- Good genes come into the family, so find and marry women and men with “good, heritable traits” – as many as possible. In polygamous religions (like island churches in Ireland), rulers can have up to 4 wives.
- In any case, you should give your family members provinces, because in CK 3, primarily “relevant” figures who own land reproduce.
- And you can let your son, if you have given him land, choose his own wives.
- After playing a few generations, the family optimizes itself.
How this works in detail has already been described in our beginner’s guide to Crusader Kings 3.
On GameStar Plus, you will find a detailed review of Crusader Kings 3. Here you will learn how the medieval global strategy game compares to its predecessor and how difficult or easy it is for newcomers.
If you have already decided to play Crusader Kings 3 and are now looking for more tips and guides for advanced players, you will also find it with the GameStar colleagues.
The evil AI practices inbreeding – I don’t!
This is how it goes: I started in 867 AD and am currently at 1190, which is about the 9th generation of player characters. My heirs usually become kings early and then reign for a long time.
I must confess to one slip: I somehow got involved in a war in Eastern Europe, and some pagan ripped my king’s eye out. He somehow succumbed to his injuries on the way back to England and died before he could achieve anything. It happens.
Back to the genetics experiment. It’s interesting when you go through the ancestral line of my player character:
My current player character is an emperor and enjoys all 4 genetic advantages. He descends from my starting character in the 9th generation, the chieftain of Ormond – a character completely without genetic traits. However, he impregnated a “Brilliant Woman”. I chose her; it was my fault.
In the 2nd generation, there was an “intelligent” king who impregnated a robust and beautiful woman. Furthermore, the 1st king had several other children, all of whom reproduced and gave birth to children with good traits.
Then, from the evil AI, cousins were vigorously married, all of whom already displayed good traits. Thus, what happened in the first 2 generations continued to strengthen itself in the courts governed by the AI without my conscious intervention.
In the 5th generation, I had a ruler in power who for the first time fulfilled all the requirements to trigger the event “strengthen bloodline”. And from that moment, this genetic avalanche began. He appoints himself in an event as the “Blood Father”, and these strong bonuses become active and remain active.
Ultimately, the hundreds, indeed thousands of current player characters in my dynasty are based on these first decisions I made 400 years earlier.
Now mechanics from Crusader Kings 3 kick in, and the good traits are surely passed on and even amplified. Because the AI loves to marry the cousins and cousins of my dynasty (or uncles and nieces), the gene pool avalanche really gets going.
In the 9th generation, practically every second person in my family is a muscular, beautiful genius who sets a dozen children into the world.
This creates an empire of powerful and brilliant warriors and administrators who can muster huge armies and support each other because they are practically clones and simply find each other great: “Oh, you’re a genius and beautiful! So am I! I like you!”
Thanks to Corona, we all now know what exponential growth looks like. The question is whether Crusader Kings 3 is really designed for this play style. When I want to click on the “family tree,” the game often hangs up. Probably too many branches.
Crusader Kings 3 is not a game that we regularly cover at MeinMMO. It really doesn’t fit the profile of our site. But it’s just so beautiful. If you want to dive into the game with genes yourself, you can read our beginner’s guide.
It describes exactly how to initiate the first steps to obtain your own band of beautiful, Irish geniuses with magnificent beards:
5 simple steps to succeed and dominate your start in Crusader Kings 3
