The Game of the Year 2020 is, for MeinMMO author Schuhmann, the strategy epic Crusader Kings 3. There he populates the virtual Middle Ages with his descendants.
For those who don’t know Crusader Kings: It’s a mix of historical strategy epic and a dynastic role-playing game.
You embody the head of a noble family in the Middle Ages, have lands and your followers, command armies, conquer provinces and experience the typical problems that feudal lords dealt with 1000 years ago.
99 Problems – and your wife is guaranteed to be one of them
There are 3 types of problems in Crusader Kings 3.
First, there are the major strategic hurdles of the game:
- What do I do when all my neighbors declare war on me at the same time, when raiding Vikings invade, or even when the Mongols attack from the East?
- How can I achieve the strategic goals I have set for myself?
- How do I expand my empire and improve my position?
Then there are a variety of role-playing level events that you must decide on repeatedly:
- The villagers are about to burn a woman at the stake because there has been a poor harvest – Do you allow it, spare the woman, or even hire her as an advisor?
- On a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, you encounter a naked woman who tells you about a new cool religion – How do you deal with that?
- The diocesan priest has embarrassed himself with a stupid remark – Do you protect him, make fun of him, or keep your distance?
The most important problems in Crusader Kings 3 always concern the family and the crucial succession. After all, when your character dies, you must continue playing with a descendant. Here, it’s important to choose the right one and give him a good starting position; ideally, he should inherit the entire empire, not just a part of it:
- I have 5 sons, how do I make my brilliant 3rd son the main heir and ensure my empire does not fall apart just because the other 4 mediocre heirs want to be Duke instead of the Duke?
- Why did I get involved with the wife of a count when she clearly has a sexually transmitted disease? And why does my wife want to kill me again?
- My heir accidentally shot a peasant woman on a hunting trip – Do I cover up the murder, betray the troublemaker, or simply kill him myself?
- How do I create the Kwisatz Haderach, the Overman?
16 Years Ago, Crusader Kings Fever Took Hold of Me
The first Crusader Kings came out in 2004, and I must have discovered and played it shortly thereafter. The game looked pretty bland even for that time. There were only static menus and a huge map where hardly anything happened. Most of it played out in my imagination: I had to think up a lot.
I started imagining what a nasty scoundrel the King of England was; that bastard was surely laughing at me in his palace – he would regret this bitterly! And what were those Vikings doing invading Northern Ireland again?
Moreover, the villagers were surely demanding the head of my French wife, after all, she had not managed to give me an heir in 8 years.
Crusader Kings 1 already offered me a huge variety of scenarios to start with: The game allowed me to start at any time and with almost any character in the game, take them over, and rewrite the history of the Middle Ages.
I always loved the idea of starting from scratch and building a great empire. Ireland seemed to me an ideal sandbox for my plans, as the Emerald Isle was so fragmented that there was not even a regional power.
As my empire grew, so did my family tree. I found it fascinating that specific traits of my starting character were inherited by descendants, depending on which wife I had. The larger my empire grew, the stranger my descendants became over time. After years, I looked up and, although I had started with Ireland, I had descendants from German, French, or Baltic lines.
I loved this idea, even though the role-playing elements were only rudimentary in the game back then and a character basically consisted of a name, a portrait, and a handful of values and traits.
Surprisingly, so many people enjoyed this quirky game, which seemed to consist almost entirely of menus and cumbersome lists. So many people liked it that the Swedish developers Paradox Games could build a large studio on this type of game. In 2012, Crusader Kings 2 was released, which eventually got 15 DLCs and became quite a colossus. Since September 2020, I have been playing Crusader Kings 3.
Please swipe here, My Lord
The great thing about the game is: Paradox Entertainment has retained the core of Crusader Kings over the years, but much of what I used to have to imagine is now actually found in the game.
The events have graphics, the internal logic has been further improved. The characters in the game are now depicted with full bodies and are no longer just 2D portraits; the mechanics in the game have become increasingly elaborate and clever.
The strange thing is that the way I played Crusader Kings 1 in 2004 seems to be the way many people played the game. The developers deliberately developed the series in this direction:
- The tutorial of Crusader Kings 3 takes place in Ireland – the region I instinctively chose in 2004 has become the typical starting area for beginners.
- In a starting scenario, it’s explicitly about taking something big from a small starting position, exactly the type of scenario I had looked for myself.
- In Ireland, a special religion now allows you to have up to 4 wives – ideal for my playstyle.
- The family aspect is much more emphasized than in previous parts of the series – the dynasty now accumulates points, allowing them to unlock special advantages. You are even rewarded with special bonuses for breeding the “Overman”.
Essentially, Crusader Kings 3 is now like someone watched me play the first Crusader Kings 16 years ago and adjusted the game exactly to my play patterns. The game is much prettier, clearer, and better developed than I could have ever imagined.
The soul of the game has never been lost. There’s still the same quirky humor as before. I really had to laugh when Crusader Kings 3 presented a kind of medieval Tinder for the marriage market, and I had the choice of putting the portrait of a potential wife either on the “Interested” pile or on the “Rejected” pile. Please swipe here, My Lord.
Crusader Kings 3 is, in the best way, a “games as a service”: Essentially the same game that has improved over 15 years and utilized new possibilities of the time without losing the charm and spirit of the early days.
For me, Crusader Kings 3 is the game of the year 2020.
For many, Crusader Kings 3 can be intimidating at first. There’s so much to do, and the game gives you so much freedom that you don’t even know how to start. For those who want to walk in my footsteps: I have explained in a beginner’s guide how the first steps can go to later create a great empire and a strong dynasty:
5 simple steps to successfully start and dominate in Crusader Kings 3
