It’s this lack of given resources that drives the real meat of Crusader Kings III: politicking. Each rung of the nation building ladder takes both time and money, two resources that the game gives out sparingly. If your last leader died as a king of two realms but failed to found an empire, then the player’s heir can only inherit one kingdom title. Enough kingdoms? That earns you an empire. Enough duchies in the same area and you’ve got yourself a kingdom. With enough counties in the same location, you can form a duchy. Individual counties are the smallest titles of a realm. They can only take over one of your highest titles at a time.

There’s no checkbox that ensures your heir can take over your entire realm. But making sure your heir is half the leader you were-or even gets half of what you led-is no easy task.

Half the game saw me carefully cultivating my realm in anticipation of the next conquest while the other focused on making sure my son could fill my shoes once I was gone. Through a dynasty of leaders that the player controls, you are tasked with creating, conquering, and maintaining control of your territory of Afro-Eurasia. While other grand strategy games put you in the role of an immortal and omniscient leader, Crusader Kings III places the player in the decaying body of a noble who may or may not know how to read. Then my king, Ivar the Boneless, died, and his fledgling empire was shattered.īuilding an empire over a lifetime only to lose it all in an instant is an experience I’ve come to love and hate in Crusader Kings III. Scotland became mine, and for the first time while playing Crusader Kings III I felt like I was actually winning. I converged my forces on him and managed to subdue him, giving me enough leeway in the war to enforce my demands. With five Scottish counties newly under my control, I saw the king of Scotland crest a hill towards my weakest army. Splitting my forces into several armies, I set out to quickly claim some cities and end the invasion I had just launched. The country had been severely weakened by both a civil war and skirmishes with invading Nords. With Ireland comfortably in my grasp, I set my sights on conquering Scotland.

Crusader kings 2 scotland