This isn’t a game where you have to care about juggling complex trade routes, or build individual infantrymen. CKII doesn’t ask you to worry about how much timber you’ve got in a warehouse, or how many catapults you’ve built. Only what you expect and what you get with this game are two very different things. There’s an economy, and fighting, and diplomacy, and everything else you’d expect. It’s asking you to do what every other strategy game does: play cerebral whack-a-mole, balancing a number of variables and threats in whatever way seems most prudent to you, the ruler. You’re then in charge of that person’s affairs (and by extension those of their lands) until the day they die.Īnd when they do, provided you’ve managed to secure a successor, you start playing as them, and so on and so on until you run out of heirs or the 15th century draws to a close.Īt face value, CKII is a traditional strategy game.
Starting in the 8th century, players are asked to look across the medieval world and select a single ruler, from the mightiest Emperor to the lowliest local official. This story has been updated since it was originally published in 2016. The “grand” part of that label is well-deserved like its labelmates Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron, CKII is a game whose complexity is matched only by the number of buttons and menus it’s packing to accommodate it. Crusader Kings II is a grand strategy game from Paradox Interactive.