Warfare has some strong new ideas too, well beyond the advantage bar that clearly shows you who’s winning a battle at any given moment (a huge improvement over Crusader Kings 2’s arcane and inaccessible number-crunching). Most of the same results were achievable in Crusader Kings 2, but the way you get there is so much richer and more hands-on now. It feels rewarding and viable to work solely in the shadows, building your base of power through trading favors, manipulating the careless, and assassinating those too inconvenient to your schemes. A new system of secrets and hooks allows you to gain leverage over other characters by, for instance, discovering and threatening to expose an extramarital affair. Master of WhisperersMedieval dynastic politics would be nothing without a little cloak and dagger, and this is another area where Crusader Kings 3 has gone all out. The possibilities are practically limitless, and allow you to customize your experience and leave your mark on the world in very satisfying ways that were never possible in the previous games. Everything is customizable, from the role of the clergy to views on witchcraft and homosexuality. You can create a new heresy of Catholicism that, for instance, exalts cannibalism, believes in reincarnation, and allows only women to become priests. Of course, due to the in-depth, free-form new religion system, you can always bid farewell to a religious doctrine that no longer suits you. But developing a temper could lead to you punching out a priest and upsetting the Pope, which is generally a bad idea in this time period. Hamam’s love of booze led her to make new friends with other magnates who shared in her favored pastime. Whether it’s drinking, fighting, or frequenting the brothels, each of these provides authentic-feeling character development and introduces new opportunities for drama and conflict. Accumulating too much leads to a mental break, which offers you the choice of a couple different coping mechanisms you can adopt to deal with the strain of ruling a medieval realm. “Stress never felt like it railroaded me into a specific kind of behavior, though. Fundamentally, it’s a game more about people than things – and that focus is what makes it truly special and memorable. A personal slight between two neighboring rulers can plunge the entire region into bloodshed and chaos worthy of a great historical fiction novel, while a well-planned betrothal can forge a mighty alliance and eventually unite kingdoms under one crown.
![crusader kings 2 text too small crusader kings 2 text too small](https://i.redd.it/5pft43n388a51.jpg)
Like its predecessors, Crusader Kings 3 lets court drama, dynastic feuds, and marriage alliances underpin the more familiar grand strategy game tasks of constructing castles, researching technology, and waging war.
#CRUSADER KINGS 2 TEXT TOO SMALL SERIES#
And its marriage of the personal and the political, the grand and the intimate, is nothing short of glorious.Crusader Kings has always been a series about how individual characters, and their interactions, shape history, and this third installment finds new and intriguing ways to portray that. This is just one of the countless human stories that emerged organically over more than 100 hours I’ve already spent in Crusader Kings 3. Raising that many kids is stressful, though, which led her to develop a drinking habit and a taste for elaborate feasts, ultimately ingratiating her in the eyes of her more revelrous subjects even further. Her passion in life, however, was her 12 children, some of whom would go on to rule in their own right. Hailing from a meager tribe in what would be modern Sudan (eastern Africa), she restored the organized worship of the ancient Egyptian gods and cemented the rule of a new pharaonic dynasty in the medieval Nile Valley, finally ending centuries of foreign rule.
![crusader kings 2 text too small crusader kings 2 text too small](https://assets.vg247.com/current//2020/08/20200817213353_1-600x375.jpg)
Empress Hamam accomplished a lot in her 71 years.