The bombshell announcement of the PDXCON Remixed of 21 May 2021 it was definitely Victoria 3, sequel to the saga expected for more than a decade, but during the digital conference of Paradox Interactive was also announced Royal Court, a sponsored by Crusader Kings III, included in the package DLC of - for now first - Season Pass.
Crusader Kings III is a grand strategy game by Paradox Interactive, a title strategic 4X set in the period of the crusades where the mechanics emphasize the role-playing aspect of the game, called to interpret every ruler and descendant of a royal dynasty (or regent). For more details, please see our detailed review.
In recent months Paradox had released a minor DLC focused on Vikings, a "Flavor Pack" called Northern Lords, but now it's about to come into play there first real big expansion at Crusader Kings III, Royal Court.
The announcement trailer begins with a sentence that makes it clear what the whole expansion means: "It's not enough to just have the power, you also have to show it." Royal Court, in fact, for the first time in the saga it just expands the royal court system, introducing new mechanics that emphasize the role-playing aspect of Crusader Kings III rather than simply expanding an area of the game map.
Royal Court will add a new 3D window with the throne room where the player can exhibit his artifacts, treasures and family heirloomssuch us weaponry also usable in duels, and where he can interact with others characters who will ask for an audience from all over the kingdom. It will also be reintroduced in this wayInventory which was implemented in Cursader Kings II: Monks and Mystics. The Royal Court, however, will be accessible only to kings and emperors with a feudal or clan-based government. This means that tribe, and the lower ranks of the fiefdom (dukes and counts), will only have a 2D environment.
There is also a new statistic called Grandeur, translatable as grandeur or magnificence, which can be increased by spending money on one's court, making it a symbol of power and opulence. With magnificence, vassals can be kept at bay and interesting characters such as blacksmiths or famous poets can be attracted. And the larger one's kingdom, the more one expects one's Court to be maintained with an appearance of grandeur: neglecting it could also damage relations with one's vassals or diminish prestige.
In other words, Royal Court adds a new management element within Crusader Kings III; this complicates the game a little, but also introduces notable ones advantages. A good blacksmith lured by his own opulent court can be in charge of forge a special weapon, a crown or memorabilia set, which will become part of the family inventory and can be handed down through the generations. But be careful… some objects also need maintenance: Great-grandmother's sword may need to be reforged to remain useful in combat and to keep the ruler's prestige high.
Investing money and resources in your own Royal Court, however, is not an end action to simply increasing the Grandeur stat. The player's court can unlock new offices, new tasks like the royal taster, new guardians who can teach, for example, new languages useful in diplomacy. In short, expanding your court expands gameplay opportunities.
As usual, to accompany every new paid DLC of a Paradox game, Crusader Kings III will also arrive a free patch that will rearrange game stats and mechanics a bit. In this case, the update will introduce a Complete modification of the Culture game system, which will be rendered in a manner similar to how the system of Religion currently is; each Culture will have its Ethics, Traditions and Pillars:
- Ethics: whether they are warlike or spiritual, they define the main aspect of the culture to which each character belongs;
- Traditions: each Culture can have 6, and they consist of game bonuses such as being good at farming in rough terrain or being prone to combat, and so on;
- Pillars: these define things like the type of clothing, and also the old Cultural Group, an umbrella term to encompass multiple similar cultures (e.g. the Latino group), now replaced by the term Heritage, "heredity".
Of course, whoever procures the Royal Court DLC will also notice further improvements to the new cultural system. Players will be able to create divergent cultures by hand, by spending your Prestige to rearrange the above strokes. This mechanic is already present in the game with Religions, where the player, by spending enough Faith, can create a personal cult of him. In this way, for example, a ruler from a distant land can create a hybrid culture between his own and that of the subjugated country.
We don't have a release date for Royal Court yet, but following the Paradox release cycle we assume that the new Crusader Kings III DLC will be released later this year.
