These Events can effect your dynasty, or the dynasty of other players. Instead, the game does a wonderful job of making you feel that no matter how well you plan and prepare, life is going to throw you some serious curve-balls, especially when you are playing on such a grand stage as the one presented in the game.Įach card has an Event that must be played if possible. This lends the game a semi-random element that is impossible to predict, but it's not simply there to cause confusion and chaos. You can plan out which cards you will play, which often gives you at least some control of the Events that will happen that you trigger, but there is no way to know what Events your opponents are going to play nor how they are going to effect you or shake things up in the game. These events often result in simple things, such as the birth of a child for the next player in line who has a married monarch, but they can also result in absolutely ludicrous things happening, like the aforementioned burning at the stake of a person in your dynasty that has been accused of being a witch. If successful you can gain lasting bonuses, but your returning crusaders bring home negative traits that leave lasting impressions on your dynasty.Įvery card that is played by a player will have some sort of Event printed on it. Players are required to contribute to the Crusades throughout the game. It's entirely possible to form and attempt to carry out strategies, and the method of doing so is relatively straightforward, but it's nearly impossible to plan for all of the various Events, and how they might shake up the game before you get to exercise your grand scheme. In each round you plan out two actions, and the order that you are going to take them in, and then you take turns with the other players playing one card, taking the action, and then resolving the event listed on the card you played. Actions range from taxing your territories, to manufacturing Cassus Belli against an opponent in order to be able to attack their territory, to buying technological upgrades, to sending someone out to fight in the Crusades and so on. You can pay money for additional draws, and your opponents can pay to cancel your additional draws and, assuming that you succeed, you carry out that action. Most actions require you to reach into your trait bag and pull out one or more Trait tokens to see if you succeeded or failed.
Every turn you play one card, take the action, or actions, allowed by the card. While it looks like a dudes-on-a-map game War is only a small part of this game.Ĭrusader Kings is a strategy game, but if you slap it down on your table hoping for a purely strategic experience it's going to leave you wanting. The character cards on the board represent eligible bachelor and bachelorettes. It's in that pursuit that the fun of Crusader Kings is really found, and where all of the ridiculous, hilarious, aggravating and, most importantly, memorable stories are found. While, at the end of the day (and game) you win or lose Crusader Kings by the amount of land that you control, with a few points for achievements sprinkled in, the majority of your time spent with the game will be in trying to get those traits that you need into your bag, while avoiding the negative traits that will hold you back.
That means that with careful dynasty management you can fill your bag with Traits in such a way that some actions will be impossible for you to fail at. Some Traits are "critical" traits, and count as the opposite when drawn for the actions that pertains to. It's not quite as simple as green/good and red/ bad though. Queen Juliana always got along well with her Kind sister Cecilia, although her Haughty sister Cecily often thought she should have inherited the throne. As you play through the game, people with various traits will find their way into your family, and if you aren't careful, those undesirable traits can become a permanent part of your dynasty. Half of the Traits are "good" green traits that contain such descriptors as Strong, Pious, and Brave, while the other half are "bad" red traits that contain such negatives as Lame, Ignorant, and Haughty.
You see, Crusader Kings is a strategy game where success and failure in nearly every venture are determined by the traits that you draw from your bag. The best part of Adelaide's murder rampage is that I initiated it against myself, all in the name of keeping a few negative traits away from my precious Trait bag. Adelaide's story is only one vignette from the tapestry of ridiculous tales that have been spun, and unraveled, in our various games of Crusader Kings.