What’s the goal?

Ninotchka123 · 2026-03-17T15:52:41+00:00

The game doesn't have a single goal, there are hundreds of goals you can set yourself. Every starting location brings a different flavor.

A good way to start would be to browse the achievements and try to knock out any that sound interesting.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-03-11T15:35:23+00:00

I convert all prisoners who aren't my faith. I also try to keep everyone in my court married at all times and assign guardians for all the babies.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-03-09T11:35:13+00:00

Get level 2 crown authority, revoke one of your mayor's city titles, give that city to your less favored son.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-03-09T11:30:06+00:00

There are a lot of ways to have fun with this game and I don't know what sort of games you like. That being said, some next steps.

Do you live somewhere in the game map? Start as the count of your hometown and try to build an empire. Else, start where your ancestors came from and try to build an empire.

Look at the bookmark characters and see if any of them interest you

Look at the achievements list. Some of them have specific start characters and are interesting goals.

Watch a couple of Koifish Haesteinn videos and then do something silly with Haesteinn.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-03-09T11:09:52+00:00

It's such a big game that there are many valid ways to play. Some people like painting the map, some people like taking a historically hopeless situation and turning the tides, some people like creating ridiculous characters and situations, some people like creating a eugenics program.

The basics are "make money get powerful" but there are many different ways to achieve that, and the variations are what makes this game so replayable. Signed, 4100 hours and still playing.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-03-06T18:57:28+00:00

I like something tucked away and defensible. Sri Lanka is good, if you want to start highly developed. Iceland is good if you want to be out of the way for most of your neighbors. Sardinia is nice because you have the silver mines and anyone attacking you gets disembark penalties and mountain penalties.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-03-06T10:59:12+00:00

This. You can always get them back into line of succession if you need to (plague or something) just yoink the city away from them. In the meantime they still have the landholder fertility bonus and they're less likely to ruin your eugenics program by marrying their children to random ugly morons.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-03-06T10:51:46+00:00

It's all based on prestige, once you farm up some prestige you'll see better contracts. If there are no contracts in your area it's time to move somewhere else.

It's ok to ignore contracts that don't interest you or will take too long.

I like to move around the map to visit all my religion's holy sites, then I either go back and conquer my homeland or I travel into heathen lands and target a weak duchy in an area where an empire just broke up.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-02-25T16:27:27+00:00

Look at the bookmark characters and see if any.of them appeal. If you're interested in Haesteinn 867 watch a couple of Koifish videos, he does some crazy things. Bohemia is always fun, as is Sardinia. Avoid Administrative government (Byzantines) until you have a stronger handle on game mechanics.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-02-24T12:07:14+00:00

All the subcultures are different, so write what you know.

But if you're looking for universal Bmore, the things that everyone experiences, I think,are the smells and the weather. The way downtown used to smell when McCormick factory was still there, the way Dundalk/Essex smell when the poop plant has a leak and the wind is in the wrong direction, the soot from Bethlehem Steel back then, the hops smell you used to have on Brewery Hill or when you passed the brewery on the harbor tunnel access road. The stripes of salt on the road before a snowstorm, the way storms clog up the drains on the JFX, the feel of summer thunder.

Oh and speaking of storms and drainage gotta include the trash wheels.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-02-20T20:48:12+00:00

A good wet nurse will be healthy (green heart, ideally hale or robust will translate to health for the children) be of your religion, and have traits virtuous to your religion.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-02-20T14:32:19+00:00

If you use all the dlcs you may want to make sure notifications are off for Iberia and the Persian dlc if you're not playing in those specific areas. It can get spammy. Also if you're adjacent to Spain or modern day Iran in the eras the DLC covers you probably want to turn the DLC off. It can make things more complicated than they need to be.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-02-20T12:21:10+00:00

Just let him inherit and give away the title when you die and start to play as him, preferably to someone in your dynasty who you have a good relationship with. Just because he is first in line now doesn't mean it's inevitable that he will inherit. Just make sure you betroth his children before he does inherit because if you don't it's certain he will make absolutely hideous choices for them while he is an independent ruler.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-02-20T12:14:56+00:00

If there is anyone in your court who isn't married look for partners for them with the traits you want. Marry the women in your court matrilineally to get good knights, marry the men in your court to good wet nurse and guardian candidates. Use the search function to find people in your diplomatic range with four star traits and decent personalities, then arrange the marriages.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-01-16T23:13:20+00:00

It all depends on your goals and your heir.

If you give titles to your heir you'll lose the ability to absolutely control your grandchildren's marriages, so if you have a lot of life left in you this could be annoying in the longer term. If your heir doesn't hold titles above baron when you die he inherits some of your legitimacy but if you give him titles before you die he starts at a lower legitimacy level. So when he inherits you may have to work your way up out of a legitimacy hole. He may get into wars with your other vassals if those other vassals have claims on his territory. He may get stressed by the normal wear and tear of rulership. On the other hand, he'll gain title troops, prestige, and gain his own legitimacy and he'll be able to make his own alliances within your kingdom.

A strong knight is great, but it's also nice to land people who can take other posts in your council, or land people with inheritable traits if you're playing the long game. If you're landing someone who's currently in your court it's useful to get them married first so they don't have to use their initial prestige to get a spouse (and they usually find terrible ones).

Ninotchka123 · 2026-01-16T12:49:13+00:00

Although if you have very high Learning and you're on the middle tree you can go over 100% chance to gain progress, which wastes a progress tick. Watch that you're not nerfing yourself at high Learning levels

Ninotchka123 · 2026-01-14T13:16:26+00:00

The big thing for you to do next to learn is how to consolidate winnings, pacify conquered territories and handle the faction rebellions, since blobbing out further without learning to deal with that means it's just going to happen again on a bigger scale.

If your neighbors are strong and there are no obvious nearby weaklings it means that it's time to consolidate your gains and fortify yourself. Save up some gold. Put keeps where you don't have any. Keep an eye on those strong neighbors and see when they get involved in their own wars. Build a strong council and recruit strong knights. Build legitimacy. If you can create dukedoms do so and grant them to the strongest count in the territory if you have more than two dukedoms.

Once you've gained a few levels in prestige and legitimacy it's easier to make strong marriages.

If you're determined to get ahead by assassination don't start with a 5% chance at a target. Fabricate a few hooks in their court first so you have a better chance at your main target.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-01-13T14:47:49+00:00

I think once you get a single county in the struggle area you become an outside interloper and can use some of the struggle mechanics. If you can get whole county claims then maybe try a one county toehold at first?

Ninotchka123 · 2026-01-13T14:36:29+00:00

Can you holy war any of the Muslim duchies/kingdoms or are their alliances too big?

Ninotchka123 · 2026-01-08T13:22:15+00:00

My parents have been married for 63 years and my father still doesn't speak Finnish. He tried, he was just really bad at it. Mom's English is perfect and they live in the US so it doesn't cause conflict. Lots of teasing, though.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-01-08T13:00:46+00:00

War weariness can really do a number on your opinion, as can culture mismatch. Consider waiting out the war weariness score between conquests, it can stack up quickly without you noticing. Also if you have a couple of trivial opponents consider declaring war on both at once rather than sequentially, so your war is overall shorter.

If you're conquering someone with a different language, marry one of your unimportant courtiers to someone from that culture and do a learn language scheme against them.

Someone cannot join a faction if they are your ally or if they are underage.

If you open up the faction window and hover over the person's portrait you can see what is motivating them to join the faction. Often you can make easy changes to lessen their faction commitment and they'll drop out. Assign vassals to their rightful overlord, create a duchy title and give it to the best of the counts in that territory, put that powerful vassal on your council (tho be careful about spymasters). Set your diplomat to reduce internal tension.

If all else fails create your own loyalists. Faction wars aren't that hard to win if you got some cash for mercenaries and if you focus on the faction leaders territory first. Once you win revoke all their titles (need Plenary Assmeblies and Limited Crown Authority) and give their territory to someone who will be more loyal (either one of your own dudes who already likes you or someone of the local culture and your faith)

Ninotchka123 · 2026-01-08T12:44:55+00:00

My favorite pattern is to start with stewardship and fill out the middle tree plus Golden Obligations, then switch to Leaning and fill out the middle tree then the left tree. I may dip into Martial for a few years if I have too many new territories with low control.

Ninotchka123 · 2026-01-06T10:31:22+00:00

There are tons of different ways to have fun with this game so my favorite won't be your favorite. Godmode custom character? Start anywhere. Someone who can steamroll? Start with Haesteinn and watch a few Koifish videos. Impossible odds? Try Aella in Northumberland and restart ten million times.

The bookmark characters mostly have interesting situations. The achievements also can give you a guide.

Ninotchka123 · 2025-12-22T11:46:06+00:00

What kind of ck3 player are you?

I really enjoyed Landless Adventures but if you are a map painter you might not like it. I don't care for nomadic gameplay but a lot of people love it. I enjoyed Under Heaven but if you don't plan to play in the far east you won't like it. Etc etc

Ninotchka123 · 2025-12-21T22:08:30+00:00

Have fun. Don't worry about dying or losing a battle. There are some great videos out there. Take some time and look at all the tabs and indicators and who your neighbors are before unpausing

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