

But what truly gives the game its edge are the unique challenges of the rulers, namely Crusader Kings 3's hardest starting characters, which give players ample reason to come back for more. Beginning the game, you can choose one of the hundreds available characters: from counts, dukes or kings to the emperors themselves.

Updated Septemby Allisa James: Crusader Kings 3 continues to be incredibly popular among its user base, thanks to its rich and accurate depiction of historical events, religions, cultures, and ethnicities, political intrigue at every turn, and well-executed simulation gameplay.

It can be hard to anticipate what those mystery characters are capable of. Something else to be aware of is that almost all rulers seem to have their traits randomized. Something to note when perusing rulers: many seem to be without any family, but will in fact have one generated for them as long as "Generate Families" in Game Rules is set to "On." For a harder early game, players should forego having an heir at the start of play. Some characters, though, just have it rough from the very beginning - whether it's due to possessing no natural heirs, being a child themselves during times of great upheaval, a treacherous court, an immediate threat from another kingdom, or some other impending disaster on the horizon. Pick something like Poland instead.It's along the sordid, chaotic lifetimes of Crusader Kings 3 characters that most of their challenges pop up. If you're only just starting, don't pick a country like Sweden with great potential for territorial growth but with major internal weakness. The only thing you've really got going is that you're too useless and bothersome to conquer, but I would say out of the 3 Scandinavian kingdoms, Sweden looks like the weakest, which is quite historical for this time too. it'll result in rebellions when you're at peace, rebellions when you're at war, rebellions when a ruler dies, plots to damage your laws that again reduce opinions and it'll give the others more time to swallow up the pagans. If you thought you could sit back and reform your country before you expand, think again. If you do take Finland then from time to time you'll be attacked by stuff like Bjarmia and Estonia, and good luck taking all of Finland before someone else snags half of it. Taking the Danish-Norwegian provinces that form part of your continuous land takes ages and luck with claims again. You've got to be quick with grabbing Finland because if someone else does, you'll need to wait until some character gets a claim there to take it. 1066 Sweden is a pain in the ass from my experience.
