Our author Schuhmann is busy with the new expansion for Crusader Kings 3 (Steam). It emphasizes the role-playing aspect of the strategy game and turns the dynasty simulator into a travel adventure.
What does the new expansion to Crusader Kings 3 do? The “Tours & Tournament” expansion costs just under €30 on Steam and turns the strategy epic Crusader Kings 3 into a “travel adventure” like the old DSA games used to be: Instead of sitting with your butt on the throne and armies through the Pushing the area so that more and more of the world map shines in your own colors, you now travel around with a retinue of courtiers, knights and lovers and experience adventures.
Hunting, pilgrimages and celebrations are part of the everyday life of a feudal prince – it has always been like this. But with the expansion, these activities are now distinct, filled with choices and role-playing, and require you to travel everywhere.
All sorts of strange things happen on the way to each location. If you play intensively, a lot of things repeat themselves quickly. But it brings variety to the ruler’s everyday life. You can’t flirt with your cousins all the time.
Crusader Kings 3: Trailer
More videos
That has now changed in my gamest: I’ve often written guides for MeinMMO about how to start in Crusader Kings 3. In 2021 it all started with a county in Ireland, later I was drawn to an exiled Viking in Kiev.
I’m currently playing Crusader Kings 3:
Pilgrimages and hunting now determine everyday Viking life
This is how the extension has now changed my flow: I hunt like a lunatic now, go on pilgrimages all the time and try to win archery tournaments.
Pilgrimages and Hunts used to be relatively lame events with little variety, but now there’s an opportunity to keep finding useful artifacts and earning endless amounts of Prestige and Piety.
Because you’re travelling, events keep firing up along the way. I find one new event particularly noteworthy: It is the “Kasper Hauser” event:
On his travels you find a feral boy of about 8 years old who is physically particularly strong but completely uncivilized. The boy was apparently raised by wolves. Depending on how severe his mental disability is, he may not even be able to speak.
In game terms, this means that the character has a positive physical trait (i.e. is “strong”), but also has a negative cognitive trait (roughly like Hodor from Game of Thrones).
Due to the “Feral” trait, he can hardly speak, but has a huge bonus to his combat power.
You have the opportunity to then take this boy under your wing as a ward and train him. Ideally, you get a muscular boy to use as a knight: a kind of private “Mountain That Rides” – a man for the rough.
In one of my games I found such a boy who was even “giant”: After he was reasonably housebroken, I took the opportunity to adopt him and thus take him into my family.
While that comes at a huge cost to my family’s reputation – somehow the other nobles don’t seem to approve of my new wolf cub son – but I now had a loyal and strong, if not overly bright, adoptive son.
In my game, I married him off to a giantess, made him Duke of Iceland, where he provided me with powerful if not overly clever knights for generations to come.
This is how I see the extension: All in all, the “Tours and Tournament” expansion is a must-buy for Crusader Kings 3, which shows the potential that the dynasty simulation still has after all these years. With the expansion you can now feel the progress of time better, because the tribal settlements only have 2 building options compared to 4 as before.
Plus, there’s so much to do that you can’t just shift from looting, pillaging, and conquering like you used to. Such a good pilgrimage already costs half a year, which is then missing elsewhere. The events make the game much more intimate and personal. So you can really learn to hate the neighboring count, who has already sent you onto the boards while wrestling again, before you put a dagger through his back at a fictitious wedding.
However, the game is now even more unbalanced than before: There are many more “strong” characters in the game, and you can always find people with 25 or more skill points in an ability. It used to be that you first had to laboriously breed such “over-characters”.
The events also repeat quickly. I’ve already found the “Kaspar Hauser” boy in 4 games.
I also expected more from the new “special knights” system. That seems a bit unwieldy. But that’s the good thing about Crusader Kings 3 and Paradox games: I have quite a bit of faith in the Swedes that the aspects that seem sticky at the moment will be improved in one of the next patches.
Crusader Kings 3 already offers a lot more variety and is much more rounded than when it was released 2 years ago. This is also shown by the 92% positive reviews on Steam:
In my Game of the Year I have 14 children, 4 wives and I am the Emperor of Ireland