More than just sowing your wild oats

Crusader Kings and Deus Vult Expansion
Game Category: Strategy - Real Time, Simulation
Developer / Distributor: Paradox Interactive / Gamersgate
Release Date: 28 Sep 2004 and 4 Oct 2007

Crusader Kings and the Deus Vult expansion (CK-DV) is a real time strategy simulation from Paradox Interactive that brings to life the High Middle Ages. Unlike earlier games from Paradox Interactive, this iteration puts you in the role of a leader of a medieval dynasty.

You must master the art of juggling the many different aspects of medieval life in CK: from ruling your lands and deciding what to build upon them, to taking care of family matters like arranging marriages for your offspring (and hiding the fact that you have sired an illegitimate child), to researching technological advances, to growing your economy so that the strength of your desmesne (pronounced as di-mayn) rivals your enemies, to attacking the rival provinces of your enemies, and finally to supporting the Pope when he calls for the Crusades.

And to think, life in the modern times is already complicated enough, just looking at the responsibilities that CK charges you with may be enough to make you shudder and back away from this game.

Don't! This game is definitely worth your time.

Predestined to reign

CK can be played either in single player or multiplayer on Paradox Interactive's network called Valkyrie, the Internet, or on LAN. Personally, I prefer the single player experience for a game of such scope. Frankly, I think there is just too much to see and do in the game, and it is not likely that you will meet your multiplayer opponent if he has selected to play a ruler who is located at the opposite end of the world, that is unless you have already made arrangements to select pre-arranged locations. Multiplayer may also become unbalanced especially when rulers decide to gang up on one another.

You have three scenarios to choose from when you start a game of Crusader Kings. Hastings (1066) is the scenario which starts the earliest and this gives you the biggest value in terms of fun. It starts off during the reign of William the Conqueror as the first Norman King of England and allows you to develop your dynasty from 1066 all the way to 1453 - that's a timeline of 387 years of whopping fun. You could even take on the role of King William the First himself and shape history your very own way.

Take your pick

The next two scenarios place you slighty ahead in time. There is The Third Crusade (1187) also known as The King's Crusade where an attempt to recapture the Holy Land from Saladin could be reenacted. The last scenario The Hundred Years War (1337) places you in the midst of turmoil within France. This period starts when King Philip VI of France made his attempt to expel the English territories in the Duchy of Acquitaine. The Duchy back then was very much larger when compared with modern Acquitaine - a region located in the south western part of France.

PS - I visited Bordeaux and Pau about ten years ago and I must say that this game brings back memories of the beautiful countryside in that part of France. Of course, today the region of Acquitaine is well known for its many resplendent vineyards that you must visit at least once in your lifetime.

Fancy being William?

Once you have decided on a scenario, you will have to choose a dynasty to play. There are three levels of play that you can choose from. You can either be a King, a Duke, or a Count. The higher you are in the hierarchy, the larger the realm you have to manage, and the harder the game will be. Each category is represented by a shield - the flatter the base of the shield, the larger will be your responsibility. There are quite a handful of Kings you can assume control over - about 17 to 21 for you to choose from, whilst at the other end of the spectrum, you will have a huge list of Counts that you choose from - close to 235 of them to be exact.

After you have made a choice of which ruler and realm you want to play, you will start the game proper. However, once you enter into the main game, you are left entirely on your own; alarm bells will start to ring as you realize there isn't any tutorial here that will handhold you through this complex game. All you get is a measly screen's worth of help information summarizing the most important concepts in the game and giving you an idea of the different icons used throughout the interface and map.

You will definitely feel overwhelmed by it all after exiting from this help screen, and will very likely turn to the manual for help. The handy manual that comes with the game does a valiant job of explaining much more, and it even equipped with a useful appendix section detailing character traits, diseases, education, laws, technological advances, province effects, and province improvements that you may encounter in the game.

That's all the help you get

According to the manual: "To a large extent winning is achieved by accomplishing your personal goals: conquering land, wealth, Prestige, Piety or whatever else you strive for." Obtaining Prestige is really dependent on your skill on attaining power, wealth, and fame. On the other hand, you gain Piety only by performing acts for the Church. Bottomline is, set your own targets and begin playing. If you are just starting off, all you have to do is set small targets.

Despite absorbing all the knowledge that has to be offered in the manual, you may very well still feel lost. One thing I rely on are the useful tooltips that pop up whenever I hover my mouse over any terminology or icon that I need help on. The help text that appears is normally useful enough to point me in the right direction of what I should do next.

If the manual and tooltips are not enough for you, then you should know that the Internet has a number of very useful tutorials that will help you understand the intricacies of the heavily modified Europa Engine in CK. Let's see, there is a good tutorial over at the parent company's forums, an excellent series of tutorials on Youtube, plus another writeup over at the Crusader Kings Wiki that I usually refer to.

This is my wife for this campaign

A thing that Crusader Kings has inherited from all the games using the Europa engine is that everything runs in real-time; all the little provinces that you see on the huge sprawling map are usually busy building something, or moving huge armies of troops across the map. Their AI rulers are either busy scheming or putting some short term plans into action.

The biggest difference in CK is that you have the added element of managing characters. The main character is the ruler (be it king, duke, or count) whom you selected at the start of the game. You must pay attention to his four attributes - Martial, Diplomacy, Intrigue, and Stewardship as well as the traits that he has garnered for himself. I will give you a sample to let you have an inkling over what to expect when playing CK.

So, should you sow your wild oats?

Let's say you get to meet a character with the following two traits:

Arbitrary -

• Advantage: Likes people with the Arbitrary trait. 
• Penalty: Dislikes people who are Just and also has a penalty in the Stewardship attribute.
• Opposite trait: Just. 

Lazy -

• Advantage: Likes Lazy people and has a bonus to the Intrigue attribute.
• Penalty: Dislikes people with the Energetic trait and has a penalty to the Martial, Diplomacy, and Stewardship attributes.
• Opposite trait: Energetic. 

If your ruler happens to have the traits Energetic and Just, then you will know that any dealings you have with this character is going to be a challenge.

Making a mess of it all in Brandenburg

During play, a dialog may appear bearing choices that you must make as a ruler. There is no right or wrong answer when picking a choice. You can always hover your mouse over a choice to see the effect of picking it. Once you have made your selection, it is very likely that your leader acquires a new trait, spends some money, earns an enemy, or a multitude of other options that has been painstakingly catered for by the game programmers. Whatever your choices, you can rest assured that the life of your ruler will be more interesting as you accrue more traits or make more friends and enemies.

Here's what I normally do when I start a game of Crusader Kings: First off, I familiarize myself with my family, my liege, and my courtiers. When setting off for the long haul, it is also important that I place the right people to the do the right job in each of the available positions in my court.

A Marshal helps run my army and determines the speed of research in military advances. A Steward helps me run my realm and handles economic advances. A Chancellor is essentially like my Ministry of Foreign Affairs who helps out in negotiations with characters who approach me with their proposals of peace, offers of marriage, and so on. A Spymaster is great in improving my ability in spying and reducing the chances of being assassinated. Finally, a Diocese Bishop acts as the main figure in charge of all affairs of the Church.

This ledger screen shows my enemies

The Deus Vult expansion released 3 years after Crusader Kings comes with a whole bunch of features that have made the game even better.

For starters, there has been a graphical overhaul to the the entire game which makes for an even better playing experience. Several windows have been redrawn, and you will also now be notified of critical events that affect your entire realm. DV additionally ensures that you are no longer overwhelmed with popup spams. The less important notifications are either channeled to the log appearing at the bottom of the screen or appear as some form of visual cue.

A useful ledger has been added to the game and serves as a handy reference tool that you must visit time and again. You can see which provinces are your greatest enemies or friends, find out what improvements has been built in the various provinces of your domain, and even act like a fatherly figure as you matchmake for your son with the most beautiful bride that you can find (or perhaps a bride whose father is all powerful - politicking is such great fun).

A list of potential brides for my son

Another important addition to CK is the concept of fosterlings. From the age of 5, you can send your child to another court as a fosterling. There are pros and cons of doing this, it may be good to expose your child to the world than to let him be subjected to the intricacies of your court, or to earn the enmity of a sibling. DV has even added a handful of new traits such as Fosterling, Realm Duress, Shy, Romantic, and even Prodigy - do watch out for them as they add more than just a new variable to the entire equation.

In my opinion, the music offered in Crusader Kings is rather fitting for the time period that the game is trying to emulate. Once again, Inon Zur has done a good job in scoring the music for this game. I think its pretty obvious why he was chosen to compose music for this game, after all Inon also had a hand in the stirring music for Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader (a game I reviewed earlier this month).

Here is a link to the soundtrack for CK. Listen to the thirteen pieces by Inon, and do leave behind any comments you may have about the soundtrack at the end of this review.

Time to research a new advance

Incidentally, CK-DV is very easily moddable for those who have an interest in tinkering with the game. In fact, the Paradox Interactive forums are very active when it comes to the sub-forums titled Scenarios and Modifications. Do pay a visit there to extend the life of this game.

Alright, I must confess that I have barely touched the surface of CK-DV. It is not an easy job reviewing such a game, and moreover I have been stressing that there is so much complexity in the game that you may now be wondering whether it is the right type of game for you. In my opinion, you can put as little, or as much dedication to learning this game. You could simply adjust a few parameters and sit back and let the game run its course and just handle the decisions that come your way. The more effort you put into it however, the more you will reap from this rich simulation and strategy game.

If you do own CK-DV, why not share with me and the readers (using the blog comment system) about your personal experiences with this game. Tell us what are the most important mods to play, or even drop a useful hint or two for other readers.

Daily PC Game Review Score: 8.5 / 10
Review Date: 22 Mar 2011