Crusader Kings III News

Grand strategy games are an emerging sub-genre of strategy gaming - encompassing long periods of history (or, if sci-fi, time), they involve many intricate layers that players need to contend with. It's not just about winning that war or setting up this mine; you've got to develop infrastructure, set policy, and manage internal dynamics as well as international or extra-polity relations.

This genre often involves the exploration of the map in order to better understand the resources at your command and the position of your enemies - and your friends. Lines blur when picking apart the edge cases, but by and large count on grand strategy games to make the management of your faction the primary part of the experience. They often over-lap with other genre within strategy gaming, especially 4X games, but a key difference can be in framing. Games like Civilization, for example, typically put the emphasis on managing military resources in particular, with other mechanics in a supporting role.

It can also be just as much down to accepted definitions and chosen marketing. More and more game are choosing to identify as grand strategy, so it's definitely a genre worth exploring in more detail.

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In Crusader Kings 3, you probably won't live past 60

It doesn't take long to find out that there are quite a few ways to die in Crusader Kings III, and that death - in whatever form it takes - will eventually come calling for everyone. One data-hungry player decided to compile the data on death in Paradox's newest grand strategy game, and the results indicate that your ruler is most likely going to die of 'natural causes', and they probably won't live far beyond the age of 60.

Redditor Imnimo has posted a graph detailing the ages and causes of death for every character in one 600-year playthrough of Crusader Kings III. Using a simple script, Imnimo was able to pull a good amount of data out of their save file, using a weighting system to assign a 'cause' of death from among multiple health penalties if more than one were present.

That means, Imnimo explains, that a character who died having both the bubonic plague and depression traits is coded as having died from the plague, since that's the more physically deadly condition. The categories of death include childbirth, imprisonment, genetic disorders, homicide, stress, injury, disease, war, and natural causes, and the chart breaks down how frequently each of these was the leading cause of death for all the game's thousands of characters.

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Medieval games: the best knight games on PC

Medieval games are less common than you might think. Rare is the videogame that doesn't feature at least one sword, suit of armour, or roast chicken, but they're usually mixed in with bearded hermits slinging magic fireballs, which we're reliably informed your average medieval peasant had very little knowledge of.

To that end, we've assembled a list of the finest PC games that eschew all the prophecy and pyrotechnics for some good old fashioned steel-on-steel action. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is, after all, no basis for a system of government. Similarly, a level ten Necromancer against a blacksmith wearing a potato sack is no basis for a fair fight.

Nothing is quite as satisfying as putting your feet up in the local tavern after a hard day mucking out your liege's pigpen for pocket change. So, put down the healing potion and prepare to liberally apply leeches to any and all wounds you might have, before living a miserable life of poverty and probably dying of the plague. Here are the best medieval games and knight games on PC.

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In Crusader Kings 3, you probably won't live past 60