Crusader Kings II

By Ross Evans

As a life-long fan of historical strategy games (most notably the Age of Empires and Total War series but with a significant nod in the direction of Empire Earth) spotting Paradox Interactive's sequel to the famously popular Crusader Kings on sale for only £7.99 excited me greatly to say the least.

Being such a deep and complex title, from a studio that produces nothing but deep and complex titles, I shall attempt to break Crusader Kings 2 down into its constituent parts and attempt to explain and somewhat analyse them. Rounding off the article with a short account of my experiences as Duke of Brittany.

Gameplay

Crusader Kings 2 is best described as a 'dynasty simulator.' More simply put, which ever county, duchy, kingdom or empire you choose to start as is ruled by a family. Your entire objective is to keep that family in power for as along as possible whilst accumulating the highest score by the time you fall out of power. This is the simple concept at the heart of CK2, and sounds rather underwhelming at first. But once you dive into the plethora of game mechanics specifically designed to usurp your seat of power from under you, it becomes mighty intriguing. Whilst a brilliant concept, and new take on the global dominate game-type, it is also mighty daunting and to the newcomer can appear nigh on impenetrable.

Highlighted Area - County of Penthièvre, Maroon Area - Duchy of Brittany

As ruler you will be presented with a court and vassals. Even if you only rule a single province, the towns, castles and churches within that province will have named Mayors or Clergymen who consider you their liege. Your family, immediate and distant, representatives from neighboring provinces as well as travelling dignitaries from foreign lands are all presented to you as characters to be interacted with in your official capacity as ruler. Managing these relationships is the key to success in CK2. Ensuring you choose the right courtiers to fill positions in your advisory Council, granting landed or honorary titles and finding spouses will help to keep people's opinions of you positive. Failure to meet their needs, or ruling in a haphazard and unjust manner will only serve to fuel rebellion and plotting amongst your inferiors, and could lead to your assassination. This is where all the fun kicks in. Having the foresight to predict when and how the inheritance system of your lands works and bending it so you have a claim to nearly everything in the nearby vicinity is a great power trip. Spreading rumours about neighboring Barons so their sons begin to plot to usurp them is ridiculously satisfying, especially when those sons reward your assistance in the matter by swearing fealty to you and offering their lands as a reward. There is a heavy lean towards historical accuracy with, as far as I can tell, every ruler based on an historic figure. Obviously, if you start marrying people and begetting children who never got married or begat then the historical accuracy will break down, but the effort and attention to detail is a very nice touch. Where possible, characters also have a direct link to their Wikipedia page in their character panel, which is a great example of the level of detail Paradox is willing to include. It also encourages tangential learning, which I'm all for.

De jure kingdoms of Europe

Continuing this attention to detail theme, the game introduces a rather complex concept to the player right from the start. I needed to Google 'de jure' and 'de facto' fairly early on in my time with CK2, and I'm still not 100% sure what they mean. The closest I have come to defining them is this: a de facto duchy describes the provinces that swear fealty to Duke, be they under his direct control or under the control of a loyal vassal Count; a de jure duchy describes the provinces that *should* make up the duchy, regardless of who owns them at that time. For example, Brittany is a de jure duchy of five provinces in Northern France, independent from France itself. However, the de jure Kingdom of France includes Brittany, meaning that were you to choose to play as the Kingdom of France, you would not be in control of any of the provinces in Brittany at first, and bringing them under your control would be a prime objective in order to complete the de jure kingdom. Simply put, de jure should be read as 'wants to be together,' and de facto as 'current ownership.'

The aforementioned 'score' is calculated upon the death of a ruling family member, by adding their Prestige and Piety scores together. This number then becomes the score for that ruler, and is added into the family score, together with all previous rulers. Piety is generated by ruling in a just, magnanimous, solemn or zealous manner by pandering to the Pope, the local bishops and the religious needs of your subjects. Should your clergy favour you over the current Pope, and should you chose to, you can even elect one of your Bishops to become Antipope and break away from Rome. Prestige is awarded for ruling in a more Feudal manner, with gallant acts, defeating enemies in combat and becoming the envy of your courtier through lavish feasts, construction of superior infrastructure and settlements. Most key decisions you are presented with will most likely increase one of these key factors whilst decreasing the other. For example, when throwing a mighty feast in honour of your recent successful hunt, a courtier might suggest you hire some Jewish jongleurs as entertainment. This will improve the Prestige haul you get from throwing the feast, but will most likely upset your court chaplain by having Jews in the palace, thus reducing your piety. It is, in essence, a balancing act. This system could be considered a moral choice compass, but only very loosely, as neither option is consistently the 'right' choice to make. It is a great tool to simply allow you to mold your leader, and subsequently your domain, however you see fit. I find myself leaning towards the pious choices more often than not, as my experiences with the Total War series have taught me time and again to never, ever aggravate The Pope lest he call a Crusade.

Finances are also a consideration, however there is no periodical upkeep or expenditure from the treasury, unlike most other empire-building simulators I've played. Taxes are collected from your subjects and added to the reserve for you to spend at will until there is nothing left, at which point you just wait for more taxes to be collected. There is a financial penalty for having a standing army that increases with time as soldiers become more disgruntled with war and require more pay for equipment and supplies. Whilst this certainly makes the game easier to play, I'm not sure if it was the right choice because it boils down the military aspect of the game to simple numbers - he who owns more land, has more levies, wins more battles. There's no sense of strategy to combat other than choosing the time to strike. Example: during a brief play as an Irish Count I chose to invade Wales just after the local levies had been raised to deal with an English incursion. Taking advantage of the lack of defenders I laid siege to a province. Unfortunately, the Welsh forces returned home and ousted me rather brutally.

Making a decision to shape the next generation

There is a heavy slant towards selective and careful breeding in CK2, with an entire mechanic devised purely for accurately assigning genetic traits of the mother and father to any offspring they might have, as well as blending these traits to create entirely new ones. This means that choosing the correct débutante for your son can make the difference between him fathering a military genius to lead your family in future generations or a simpleton who becomes the butt of all the court jester's jokes. Having certain traits, such as Arbitrary or Gregarious, which can be acquired through making key decisions presented to you during your rule, enables you to choose additional options in future decisions. For example, my family ruler received Gregarious after throwing one too many lavish feasts. The next decision I was presented with regarding how to respond to a drunken insult from one of my courtiers, presented me with the usual two options but a third option to give the bloke another drink and laugh it all off, due to being known as Gregarious. The idea of shaping a person by their lineage, decisions, actions and experiences is a highly rewarding experience, and is as close as any game has come to simulating the lives of a medieval ruler that I have so far experienced.

By breeding in the correct traits your future leaders can gain advantages when ruling. Each character has an individual skill level across five statistics: Diplomacy (for negotiating with all other characters), Martial Skill (for commanding troops and the respect of military leaders), Stewardship (for managing finances), Intrigue (for uncovering the nefarious actions of others and conducting your own) and Learning (for researching new technology/for spreading faith). Every trait your character gains during their life, from inheriting their mother's silver tongue to becoming a renown vanquisher of enemy forces in battle, will affect these statistics, and these statistics are what mostly define your success as a ruler. For example, it's very difficult to dissuade your courtiers from plotting to kill your heir if you have a very low diplomatic skill, and it can be most troubling to find that your army refuses to fight for you due to your woeful martial abilities. Knowing the traits of your ruler, and understanding the applications of each statistic is vital to success. However, a good player can adapt their style to suit these statistics. For example, a ruler with high Intrigue should quickly grow accustomed to the most slimy and duplicitous roads to more power - assassinations, usurping and deceit, whereas a leader with a high Martial Skill should be used to gain power by way of the sword, not the tongue.

  Aesthetics

Not Pictured: Playable provinces in Iceland and The Middle East

Crusader Kings 2 doesn't need to be pretty, as it's focused around managing people instead of fighting grand battles. The game is less than 1GB in size and contains enough gameplay to allow you to rule from Morocco to Scotland to Dubai; more than most Total War titles I might add. The main map is detailed enough, with basic terrain visually represented, such as forests, mountain ranges and rivers, without being too crowded that you lose sight of who owns what. There are eight different colour-coded overlays to the map, allowing you to quickly see how a certain County is ruled at every level, from the local Baron to the Duke he owes direct vassalage to, up to the King who rules the immediate area and finally to the Emperor who holds sway over the region. This is great, as it allows you to easily see the ramifications of attempting to take over a certain region. Other overlays present you with the dominant religion, the de jure duchies, kingdoms and empires, any casus beli you might currently have as well as a general opinions filter; where all provinces have a spectrum from green to red depending on how strongly they feel about the leader of the selected province. These tools are vital to governing an empire, and presented in just the right way so that, once learned, they can be rapidly referred to at a glance instead of having to try and fathom how many different rulers of various levels will come crashing down on me if I invade county X.

Character models for the Council figures and armies are, similarly to the map, enough to get by. This is certainly not a complaint as there really is no need for anything more than what they are. 

The shining jewel in the presentation of Crusader Kings 2 is most definitely in the score. In fact, four out of the available nine DLC packs are for more music. Have a listen:

Longevity

Considering the objective and the number of playable positions, CK2 can be considered endless. So long as you have a desire to play you'll be able to find a county, duchy or kingdom you haven't tried yet, starting during a time period you haven't experienced yet. This combination of really quite a daunting number of possible starting positions does mean even the most die-hard fans will tire long before the game has been exhausted - which is the right situation to be in. With the additional DLC 'Sword of Islam' even more playable areas are unlocked across Spain, North Africa, The Middle East and Pagan Europe; not to mention the Custom Ruler DLC pack that allows you to design and flesh out characters to be used in general gameplay. There are also online/LAN multiplayer options which I haven't tried yet, but I can imagine that would be one ridiculously lengthy LAN session. One of the more popular aspects of CK2 is the modding. Paradox have a fairly open-door policy when it comes to customer feedback. Register your game code on their forums and start throwing suggestions for new DLC, new maps, mods, music, colour palette anything, and they'll listen to the community and take the time to produce the most popular suggestions. And of course, the most popular mod to come about so far is Game of Thrones. I'm a huge fan of the HBO series, haven't read the books, but after playing CK2 and understanding the political sport in Westeros I can definitely see how the two could gel very well.

Very excited to try my hand as a Lannister

Conclusion

The best way to sum up Crusader Kings 2 would be 'Football Manager: Total War.' It has the complexity and detailed stats analysis of a roster game but with the historical depth and appeal of an empire builder. It certainly is good to see a game where conquest isn't based on than having a bigger stick that the other guy, but on being clever, attentive and forward thinking. The bigger you play, the bigger you have to be thinking, and I'm not ashamed to admit that sometimes everything does get a little too much for me, especially when playing as a kingdom or empire, but I count that in the game's favour as it just indicates the quality of the ruling simulation. In short, some cracking mechanics and stunning depth, mediocre on the aesthetic side but not to the games detriment. The staggering replay value certainly makes this a game to grab, but I would suggest watching a few Let's Play videos on YouTube first, just to be sure you're comfortable with it not being Total War. A solid suggestion to all strategy fans, if for nothing else than it's a fresh look at ruling the world. If you've already played any of the other popular Paradox games then you'll be right at home here. As promised, here is an account of the first few decades of my experiences as Conan II, the Duke of Brittany:

King Conan II and the Duchy of Brittany

King Conan II inherited the duchy from his father Alan III. Being an independent state, Brittany is autocratic but cultures a strongly peaceful relationship with neighboring Kingdom of France, despite the French desire to claim Brittany as part of the Kingdom. But in 1069, Conan's uncle, Count Eudes of Penthièvre, became displeased with the result of his brother's death. Duke Alan III's titles had been divided amongst his children, in accordance with the agnatic-cognatic gavelkind inheritance laws of the duchy. Count Eudes saw himself as a more fit ruler, and was quite vocal about it at court. Several months passed before his words became actions, however. Duke Conan tried to appease Count Eudes, by allowing him to remarry after his wife had died of consumption the year before leaving him childless. Conan even saw fit to grant Count Eudes the honorary title of Master of The Hunt, as well as throwing a feast in his honour, in an attempt to quell his dissent, but it was to no avail.


In the spring of 1071, Conan's wife and spymaster, Princess Maior of Navarra, whom he had wed early on in his reign to secure ties with Catholic allies in Northern Spain, discovered that Count Eudes was plotting to have Conan killed during the next autumn hunt. After his attempt to arrange an 'accident' failed Count Eudes saw no other alternative than to raise the levies of his realm to engage Duke Conan in open war in the winter of the same year. Duke Conan could not hope to raise an equal army on his own. Luckily, he was a generous and strong leader, possessing high martial skill and two trusted vassals; the Counts of Leon and Nantes. These stout men could be relied upon to offer the services of their levies in times of need, and this was one of those times. Rallying the now bolstered army to his stronghold in Rennes, Duke Conan awaited his traitor uncle to make his move. Count Eudes chose to invade Rennes at the height of summer, heading straight for Duke Conan's forces. A bloody battle took place, but the valiant forces of Duke Conan outnumbered those loyal to Count Eudes 3-to-1, and the Count was forced to retreat back to his castle in Penthièvre where Conan besieged him for three long years. 


Eventually the siege was lifted in 1074 and the revolt suppressed. Those levies in the service of Count Eudes were excused their actions and allowed to return home, on account of their commander being the source of treachery, and not the men themselves. As for Eudes, Conan saw fit to have him imprisoned for his crimes, not having the heart to execute a member of his family despite his actions. In the dungeons of St. Malo, Eudes resided for five long years until his life ended in 1079. Having no heir, wife or siblings Eudes' title as Count of Penthièvre passed to his closest living relative; Duke Conan II. As a reward for their loyal services in suppressing the revolt, Conan awarded the Count of Nantes a sizable gift of gold and bestowed upon him the title of Master of The Horse. The Count of Leon was gifted a comparable reward of gold, and the title Keeper of The Swans. Meanwhile, his brother-in-law, King Antso the Unready of Navarra was under attack. The Muslim forces invading Spain had pushed their way northwards to the foothills of the Pyrénées, and Antso was calling for aid. Once again, Conan and his loyal vassals raised the levies and made preparations for war. In 1082 the army departed Leon for the coast of northern Spain.

The Battle of Teruel

A month after landing their forces engaged a Muslim army in Aragoza, at the Battle of Teruel. The two forces were evenly matched but, with God on his side, Duke Conan was victorious and the invaders driven out. King Antso was very grateful for the assistance, and warmly welcomed Conan's bastard son Alan into his court. Young Alan was a promising young man, destined for a life in the clergy, until he fell for a young debutante in the court of King Antso; the daughter of Antso's most loyal vassal - The Mayor of Tudela. King Antso and Duke Conan both blessed the union and in 1083 the two were wed. 


Sadly, Alan's father-in-law passed away in 1085. Owing to the succession laws in Navarra, the position as Mayor of Tudela should pass to the oldest male son. However, Alan was a bastard and therefore could not hold landed titles. Duke Conan sent his envoys to Rome, to ask The Pope to legitimise Alan, and he agreed. Alan became Mayor of Tudela later that year. Unfortunately, owing to an old wound he received on a hunting trip as a child and his dedication to God as a result of his formative years spent in Rome, under the guidance of Conan's court chaplain, Alan never had any children. When he passed away in 1087, killed in battle in the service of King Antso, there was no heir to his position as Mayor of Tudela. The closest family relative able to hold landed titles was Duke Conan II of Brittany. Conan graciously accepted the title, declaring that he shall use Tudela as a base of operations in the war against the Muslim invaders, to secure Christian lands for Christian people once again. 


And that, is how in-depth Crusader Kings 2 can be.