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Crusader Kings Review September 01, 2004 Jakub Wojnarowicz |
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Summary: Arm yourself with shield, weapon, torch, Bible and a fertile wife. For you are about to lead your dynasty through four of the most brutal centuries Europe has ever seen. Beat back to the Muslim menace with fire and sword, sow your uh... seed... all over the courts of Europe and make your claims on lands, titles and kingdoms. Convert heathens and pagans alike! Not that you have a choice, mind you.
 Overview | Page:: ( 1 / 4 ) |
"One" would be incorrect. Crusader Kings is arguably one of the simpler games to come from Paradox. Its game mechanics are ostensibly more complicated than in the Europa Universalis games - after all, you're managing a dynasty, its vassals and its possessions, rather than just a nation - but we did find it to be a simpler experience.
For starters, the player doesn't have to run a kingdom. He can settle for any of the numerous Duchies or Counties in the game. After choosing a time period (there are three, but all end in 1453 and the earliest starts at 1066), the player can toggle between lists of Kingdoms - a short list, Duchies - somewhat longer, and Counties - an overwhelming number. What's the difference though?
Well, keep in mind that you do rule a medieval dynasty, not necessarily a kingdom. This is the age of feudalism where peasants exchanged labor for protection from knights who pledged their service to a local Baron for mutual protection who in turn did the same with a Count, Viscount, and they bowed before Dukes who kneeled before Kings. In order to maintain control over their realms, Kings would have to give the Dukes enough power to satisfy themselves but not so much as to make them independent-minded. One of the best ways to ensure loyalty (or claim land) was to marry off daughters to powerful lords or to bring their daughters into the royal household.
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This is, in fact, all simulated in Crusader Kings. The family, the title, and the land are all equally important. A King can have Dukes and Counts pledged to him, a Duke can have only Counts, and a Count is lowest among equals. The titles are important since if you're a Count whose realm is getting large and inefficient for one ruler, and you create another Count hoping that he'll be a vassal, you're out of luck. He immediately becomes independent.
There are three ways to gain titles: to inherit, to create, or to conquer. Say you're Count Blah or Blahcounty who is pledged to Duke Duh, and you married the Duke's third daughter. His sons die, he has no brothers, his other two daughters die… and your son becomes the heir to the Duke. As soon as both the Duke and your Count die, you take over the entire Duchy. Titles can also be created if you have 2/3 or more of the appropriate land. While there is no Duke of Romagna at the start of the game, if you grab the right lands, you can create him. Finally, if you have a claim on a title, you can declare war on its owner and demand it from him. Deep enough for you?
Every character in the game has his own statistics, abilities, parents, probable spouse and children as well as the claims associated to him. A popular activity among Crusader Kings players is to get not the girls with the best claims into your family, but those with the best stats. This is affectionately known as the "Kwisatz Haderach breeding program" in reference to the almighty Paul Atreides of the Dune books. Most players, however, seek advancement and the best way to do this is to get the daughters of weak dynasties - those with few or no sons. Hopefully, nature takes care of the rest… or at least can be given a helping hand with a few hundred gold pieces and the heir apparent might be found in the morning have accidentally brutally disemboweled himself while shaving.
All the player's children can be given the choice of a court or ecclesiastical education, and in the case of male children, a martial one. These improve their statistics, and can lead to traits stemming from that education. The variety of characteristics is bewildering, and some of these are hereditary to an extent. One branch of my Italian family has a strong streak of insanity running through it. Characters there all fall into deep depression and often various manias. If given the opportunity to run a county, they'll often engage in lunatic acts like rebuilding the tower of Babylon. While never permitted to inherit the throne, their insane actions do interrupt the relatively common slow parts of the game to provide needed comic relief. There are simply too many times I've found myself waiting for something to happen if I am in no position to start action.
| More dynasties | Page:: ( 2 / 4 ) |
The court is another point in the game's favor. Court members come and go as their provinces are brought in and out of the ruler's demesne. Employing the courtier with the best diplomacy value as a chancellor, and the best militarist as a marshal makes all the difference. Combine these with the "guided" rather than controlled research, the different systems of law, controlling the power balance between peasants, burghers, priests and knights in any province - and you have a large amount of depth that's also far enough out of the player's direct control so as not to induce micromanagement or the feeling that this isn't a medieval state.
Wars against Christian nations aren't encouraged since they're so costly in terms of reputation. A bad reputation will lead the vassals to lose loyalty and revolt. Putting these revolts down almost and re-acquiring control of the provinces simply results in a worse reputation. Eventually, the player either has to give up, or personally take control of the rogue counties. Since there is a limit to how many of these provinces can be controlled at a time before tax efficiency is lost, taking back all the lands can mean decades without income while the reputation repairs itself.
Of course, these are the days of fervent Christianity, where the word of God was spread by fire and sword into Muslim lands as the Pope called for Crusade after Crusade. So, beginning in the year 1100, the player finds himself - alone, apparently - under Crusade obligations. While the AI nations have been known to occasionally venture out to reconquer the Holy Land, their efforts are weak, un-coordinated and often disastrous. If you've ever wanted to see the Holy Roman Emperor (AKA King of Germany) as a Muslim, this is the game for you.
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There are so many problems with the entire Crusading concept it would take a page to describe each in detail, so we'll settle for a brief list. Crusade obligations force the player to take action by reducing his Piety rating. If Piety goes low, the player is susceptible to excommunication (ie, other Christian nations will fall on you like Bricktop's pigs on a fresh corpse), and your vassals become rebellious. Eventually the pressure becomes great enough that the King's Army and vassals are called to arms, march off, find a weak Pagan or Muslim province and start "converting". Suspension of disbelief flies right out the window as soon as the player realizes he can march through Muslim-occupied Jerusalem as easily as the Muslims can walk through Rome, so long as the factions aren't at war with each other. The very same Pope calling for Crusades against the heathens will let them march from southern Italy to the North through his own state. It's utterly mind-boggling.
Eventually, unless one of the two major Muslim states falls apart into its smaller components, the easy pickings run out. Now as the loss of piety increases over time - meaning that conquests have to become bigger with every passing decade in order to just keep Piety in the positives - the pressure to attack builds. Does your 7-province Kingdom of Scotland dare take on the mighty Fatimid dynasty? Surely their weak, unseaworthy Mediterranean galleys would never be able to sail the dreaded Atlantic, Bay of Biscay, English Channel and North Sea, right? Wrong. Roughly 90% of the time it's possible to smash a few armies, capture a couple of provinces and the Fatimids will figure the war's not worth it and they'll agree to a peace of one kind or another. The other 10% of the time, the AI decides it shall wipe your dynasty and people off the face of the Earth. Its "weak, unseaworthy Mediterranean galleys" will cross the worst seas in the northern hemisphere in order to crush your petty kingdom, and there's nothing you can do about it since allies are completely untrustworthy.
Now, on the off chance your king should conquer Jerusalem, smash the combined arms of the Islamic armies and bring Christianity to the middle east, he shall bask in thousands upon thousands of piety points. So your dynasty is set for good, you shall never have to worry about another Crusade again… and then your king dies. Your new king, if you chose an ecclesiastical education for him, might have 10 piety. At this point, a slightly insane laugh escapes your throat as you click the quit button. The game mechanics are simply too obviously trying to manipulate the player and too tough in doing so. Crusader Kings puts too much emphasis on success - on actually capturing and converting heathen provinces - while not giving any ability to co-ordinate the Crusades with fellow Christian nations.
Historically, only the first three Crusades achieved much, the fourth was actually excommunicated en masse and later sacked Constantinople (and pushed the weakening Byzantine empire permanently into decline, ironically enough permitting a relatively quick conquest by various Muslim Turks). Even these generally unsuccessful ventures were far more organized than what the game permits.
| Ballistics Report | Page:: ( 3 / 4 ) |
Pros
Feudal Politics
Feudal politics are fun in and of themselves, but it's actually quite educational to see how well these kingdoms and empires could be run by a feudal system.
Family Values
Whether you dig the idea of breeding the perfect king or simply acquiring as much land as possible through sneaky, underhanded ventures, this is the game for you.
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Cons
Interface
Not so much bad as inconsistent. For example, in order to create a Count, you do it from the kingdom status screen. However, to add to that Count's land or to make him a Duke, you need to find him on the map. Also, after loading a savegame, you MUST remember what nation you were playing before because you have the opportunity to choose from any still in the game. This is more difficult than it sounds, since my Count of Parma became Duke of Karnten by heredity and King of Venice by conquest, and I don't save my games by their default descriptive names.
Slowdowns
Crusader Kings ran unexpectedly slowly at times. Perhaps it's the AI and familial calculations but often there's not much visibly going on while the game slows.
Gameplay issues
The Crusades are poorly implemented, the Pope, oddly enough, doesn't excommunicate you for taking his Papal States away in war, and it takes a very long time to find a good match for marriage, be it for stats or inheritance.
| Final Verdict | Page:: ( 4 / 4 ) |