Good tips, I'll offer another random one: War-time hostages Sometimes when you are sieging an enemy, you capture the leader and can end the war. If you ransom them, you can no longer end the war. But if you're taking their capital, or about to win by conquest anyway, just ransom them then finish the war. There's been many times when I capture the leader from sieging a capital, ignore the option to end the war, ransom him, finish the siege, and can instantly end the war again. It's free money.
This is a solid point. Always deal with hostages BEFORE ending a war. If you are going to win anyway, you need to make as much money to offset the war expenses. And RECRUIT all the single women so you can use them bring in more knights and quality candidates for court positions. Recruit all the men with high Prowess to be cannon fodder for future wars too. Dont just cut the lowborns lose because you cant get a ransom. Early game is about getting all the people you can into court. Just force conversions so they dont hate you so much and dont stick them in high risk positions.
@@zombieinferno Not always. It works for leader + heir. Often you can get huge ransom change after war. It depends on family of hostage. One example: You fight against petty count who has a Karling dynasty son as his guest or ward. Before end of war, you receive 10g as "this guest is dear to him". After war, the count is count no more. And - voila - you receive 100g from Karling house head for "dear family member". There are defensive wars as well. If your oponent loose war, he is depending on war type maybe "demoted and replaced by new one"? The unimportant 10g value hostage you hold in house arest might be the new king after war due replacement - and now is valued 100g instead! So, in phase when I really need money, I evaluate each hostage before end of war based on multiple conditions.
Or, if you capture the leader or heir and several other hostages, put on slow, but ransom the ones you can that dont affect warscore. You can make quite a bit from ransoming. Will only take a day or three per prisoner.
Microing for supply is so tedious once you get up to 40-50k troops I wish they’d implement a “send for supply” button or something that functioned similarly to station besiegers,
Nah, i think they should straight-up give you a whole new set of keybinds when you're in the "army" tab, at which point they could let you make all sorts of macro/micro managing commands... Basically, giving you the same control as you would have in a true RTS title. In lieu of this though, i would settle for having a key to hold down during which any movement commands dispatched while highlighting several SEPARATE stacks of your army would simply cause them to populate the tile that you click, PLUS any further neighbouring tiles that are required to accommodate your troops while staying below the supply limit. We already see the AI do something similar, so it might even be as simple as flipping a switch in the code and making a UI for it, so might not be too far fetched.
My way of managing this is putting Commanders with Logistician on the army. Only get -5 supply per month, -7 in winter. When you have an army of 40k+ chances are you will steamroll your enemy during the 10 months that it would take to have your army starving.
@@robertsiems3808 But surely this is something that would’ve theoretically worked, historically speaking? Spread word that the commander deserted, but as the army advances into a vulnerable position, have the commander resume his place?
Unlike some youtubers out there, your voice is very calming and I personally think it is the best for explaining games like CK3. Out of context but hopefully I'm actually waiting for another long videos from you! Those gameplays between 20 to 40 mins are my preferences
Seconding his voice being calming -- I'll confess I've fallen asleep late at night watching him play, so when I get tired I sometimes have to switch to a louder streamer!
😂😂 Lmao exactly this. I clicked another ck3 tips video with more views and it was a british dude just yelling the entire way through, I had to come to this guy
Something that's really cool about Zieley is that I learned all these tips he mentioned just by watching him play the game in his videos. I highly recommend subscribing to him cause the content he does is entertaining and he is doing the challenges that are insane which allows you to learn to best play the game for when you play in more favourable circumstances. Huge fan!
Another very important thing to understand is how the game decides which army is considered to be attacking and which is defending in a battle. This might seem obvious to an experienced player, but I think figuring it out was the most key factor for me in learning how to approach warfare more strategically in CK3. Understanding this is essential in order to take advantage of river crossing and other terrain advantage modifiers, since these modifiers are always applied in favor of the defending army. The thing that makes it somewhat confusing is that there are two separate cases for how attacker and defender are decided. One is if there is no castle of tribe holding in the barony tile where the battle takes place. In this case, the army already located on the tile is the defender, and the one entering it is the attacker. Pretty straightforward, but watch out for cases such as two armies both moving into the same tile, in this case the one which arrives first will be the defender, since it will then be located on the tile when the other army enters it. The other case is when there is a castle or tribe (i.e. a siege-able holding) on the tile where a battle happens. In this case, if the holding is controlled by a participant in the war, then their side's armies are always the defenders, regardless of who entered the tile first. Note that controlling the holding includes occupying it after winning a siege. This might sound complicated, but in practice it boils down to two main rules: 1. An army that is being chased will usually be the defender. So, when your army is being chased or chasing down an enemy army, look out for terrain modifiers and river crossings, which will aid the defending army. 2. A besieging army will always be the attacker. So, when breaking a siege, you may have defender bonuses, and don't have to worry about river crossings. By the same token, be careful when sieging enemy holdings, as they will have defender advantage if they engage you.
With really large armies it might be best to raise your Men at Arms & Knights separate from Levies so you don't have to consolidate them later. Click the rally flag and the bottom button says raise men at arms only. You can always add some levies to increase army number. If you want to raise all your levies in the same spot click on the rally point and click raise all force while holding the CTRL key (useful for large armies on low supply ground so you don't have like 10 different armies)
if your army is really large you shouldnt even need the levies, your income should be high enough for you to have sick man at arms that instantly kill anything. Also the levies are pretty expensive and hurt the economy a lot when raised.
I commend you on the content you create. As a veteran of CK2 I decided to watch your CK3 vids to gauge if I should buy it. I promptly purchased CK3 and subscribed. Thanks a bunch.
Yes please! More short, digestible hints and tips videos like this one. You’re very good at explaining things in a way that’s easy to understand. Would love to see something on the new plague mechanics and exactly what we should be weighing up to mitigate them.
I play on Xbox and I skipped the tutorial lol so I didn't even know about the supplies thing. I just thought every army just has a limited amount of time they can be up before they start dying. Guess I was wrong. Thanks for the tip...
I played the tutorial and I still never internalized the supplies stuff until I watched Zieley. There's so much to learn in this game that it just didn't stick at first.
It'd be cool to get some more obscure tips, as I knew all these already, bit it is definitely awesome that there are gonna be resources for people who are lost like I was when I started playing ck2 all those years ago
Another point for the embarked armies is while being embarked they do loose supplies faster, they do not take attrition. If your soldiers are on the coast, embarked armies can join a battle and not incurred the embarked penalties if the battle went on for one day before they landed. So if you have an army (without embarked penalties) being attacked you can move all of your embarked armies when the enemy army says it will arrive in 9 days. Disembarking takes 10 days regardless of movements speed as far as I know.
i restored the roman empire and i have like 360.000 total army, hard to keep the well supllied… grat tips overall, the free commanders one i’ve alreay learned it from your videos before and i’m really grateful, early free commanders or council members is great much love ❤
This is historically accurate - the Romans had very complex supply chains to maintain their forces. Each individual contubernium (smallest unit of men in the army) was responsible for their own meal preparations - there was no large mess for the entire army, or even centuria. These men all lived in the same tent, combined their food rations and prepared all their meals together. They also typically had their own slave or servant that was devoted to helping with these tasks, including caring for the contubernium mule, milling their grain rations, and getting water. An army travels on it's stomach and the Romans would pretty much decimate the surrounding areas for supplies as they traveled. So yep - it was extremely difficult to keep them all supplied when they traveled in force.
I haven’t played all that much of CK3 because of how daunting it all seems (I mostly play HoI4). Would love more of these tip videos to help me feel more at ease when I finally decide to spend more time in this game!
Started my first ever campaign a couple of weeks ago and it all comes together so much easier than I thought it would. Took maybe 20 hours before it started to feel second nature. Never played a paradox or grand strategy game before either. Would highly recommend giving it a shot!
as a hardcore eu4 player (3000 hours) im trying to get into ck3, really like game, but is looks very complex and hard to master. This was very helpfull, thank you!
Great short video with nice beginner tips. From myself I’ll add: read the little pop up’s when you hover over anything, you’ll get small tips and explanations.
Always enjoy your content Zieley - going at an easy pace and clearly explaining as you go, and with a nice slash of humor. I love your little "Where's Waldo" style openings as well! :D Thx for sharing!
Very useful. A lot of beginning tips describe the mechanics directly, which is also useful. But I have found that this kind of information doesn't really tell you what to DO as a beginner. This video gives me very specific strategies I can apply to solve problems: get more money, get more knights, defend territory, enhance development, etc. So thanks brother.
great vid as usual :) a thing I can't find anyone cover and I always struggle with is succesion but hear me out, not just succession. When I play I don't always want to pull a spiffing brit and exploit the game to its fullest, sometimes I just want an authentic roleplay experience and play my monarch fitting to their traits. Sounds crazy I know. So, that means, it may happen that the current monarch is for example compassionate. And their heir is honest. Well yeah, that means, there will be no disinherit or even worse, killing sprees. Not to have kill siblings upon inheritance, not to have to kill kids. Just have a family getting along. . Long wall of text short: How to do succession without family murder?
This happened to my game recently, I just kinda "let it happen" and roleplayed that the 3 siblings all got along decently well. I used it as an opportunity to develop the core kingdom more. But I was secretly waiting for one of my siblings to die, or a random event to cause drama in the family. Eventually both siblings died and I invaded their kingdoms and formed an empire right before i died. You can also change your succession type towards high partition or primogeniture (late game) to control this. The most straight forward way, however, is still to just to get an empire title to control all the kingdoms so you'll never split your realm upon death.
@@wifoutteef High partition/primogeniture come super late, thats several generations in. I had often the same situations, only that the siblings survived. Making less kids is also not always an option, as you may grow old sometimes and your kids start having kids, giving you an uncontrollable amount of grandkids. Just having one big title works fine sure, but the holdings still get split and over time your main heir is down to a single holding, and thats my prime gist with inheritance. Want more than one? Well go war your siblings then. Unless someone has solutions for this?
@@InuyashaHanyu welcome to medieval times, the mechanic is intentional and makes sense historically and roleplay wise. What you can do is just develop to the maximum your primary land and chose a county with several baronies available so you can make the best from your core land.
Another way to get free knights is, ironically enough, to become really hated. If you are hated, people will run murder plots on you, and the AI is *always* sending a huntsman to map out your castle. Those huntsman are usually nobles with decent prowess. You capture them, throw them in your prison... and then immediately recruit them. bam, free champion. Just make sure your spymaster likes you and doesn't suck. A great way to get courtiers/champions if you are in a bad culture/faith, is a hook on an unlanded character allows you to forcefully recruit them to your court. So even if you don't have golden obligations, a highly rated spymaster can be key to populating your court. Also, make sure to look at your intrigue window, as a hook on a noble often also involves an unlanded person you ALSO get a blackmail on. Also, the manufacture hook perk in the intrigue tree gives an Opinion boost if you choose not to manufacture the hook, so if you have really bad relations with your own courtiers or vassals start hook hunting at your own court for opinion boosts.
would love this as well. i always feel really silly chasing the enemy across the map and eventually giving up. i understand there's different movement speeds but i think my technique is also just horrible
It's great how the player can learn about the different specialization and get so much more effect out of it. I played for so long before learning how to keep supplies up.
I wish I found this months ago. I recently cracked the code on CK3 combat, and agree with everything said on strategy. However, one thing to note about blackmail, not all extortion is created equal. Some of the blackmail targets might not have money, so if your ruler happens to have the just trait, honest, forgiving, or anything else that gives him stress for doing it, then you want to be very careful about who you blackmail, and check the target to see if they have any money to begin with. Can't bleed a stone, after all. Great video, keep it up.
Hi Zieley, did you know that you can make your allied troup attack with you more efficient when they are a little bit far away? Normally when you rush in a battle and your allies are two tiles away from your position and your enemies are one tile in front of you, when you start attacking, your army is about to be defeated already, till your allies are jumping in the battle and also lose all their men. sometimes when you just wait, your allies will only siege the enemies holding instead of helping you. What you can do is control right klick on an empty tile next to you, then control klick to your tile again (repeat that more times if you allies are more far away) and only then control klick on the enemies position. because your end waypoint is the enemy army your allies AI will check that. your allies will calculate the (detoure) you take and then jump in the right time to fight with you against the enemy. i use that strategy a lot of times.
One added tip for the first one, check after wars from captured enemies men with high stat's to recruit and women to recruit using the negotiate release to have more knights and better counsellors.
Your math at the start made me think it os far less expensive than to spam men-at-arms than hire knights. I love the gold hook, but i was so stupid, i only thought you could do that in your own realm! My bishops thank you.
you are one of my favorite ck3 youtubers, i have been learning a lot from you, you explain things very simple as you show examples because you are playing at the same time, streaming one of your full games on twitch would be something id like to watch.
When it comes to war tactics, logistics is more important than strategy. A well supplied army can survive multiple defeats while one that is not will be done after one defeat.
Zieley, your meme-game is amazing! I just watched some of your earlier content and your presentation has improved so much! I think I've watched all your gameplay vids and their balance of length, tempo and focus is just right for me, I always click when I see a new one. All the love!
Man this really helps. Using women to marry them to high stat NPCs is such a good tip I didn't think to use. Could you do a video on how to avoid succession civil wars? I tend to have that issue.
One thing at the end: you definitely do want to pay attention to all the battle modifiers, even if you have a massive advantage in numbers. If you don't, you lose more men killed, which depletes your overall manpower. This affects how the AI calculates whether or not it will declare war on you or not. It also affects the threshold for factions submitting their demands. I've seen players before where an 'easy war' turned into a disaster because they bled out half their manpower with poor battle tactics, then ended up with a revolt and their large neighbor declaring war on them. This is because their manpower fell too low, making them look like easy prey to the enemy. Also, look for traits like 'Forder' (I think it is) on your generals and be ready to swap them out if the situation merits it. This is good in singleplayer but has literally won me wars in multiplayer. You approach the enemy with your main commander. The enemy entrenches behind a river, thinking this massive boost will let them win. As you approach, you swap to your 'forder' trait commander. You proceed to spank the enemy army. I've had people rage-quit over this and also accuse me of cheating because 'there's no way you won crossing a river like that'. Flexible strategist is also a great perk in general for commanders.
I'm curious, how hard is it to bait the enemy to attack at poorly favorable conditions ? I remember CK2 had this strategy of splitting your army and using the smaller army to bait the enemy into attacking to then use the rest of the army to reinforce. I never tried it in CK3, but the AI feels a bit smarter when choosing where to fight most of the time, is it still possible ?
In my experience, when the AI thinks it's going to lose a battle, it tries fallback to a defensive position, such as hills, mountains, or across a river. You can exploit this by using bowmen, pikemen, and commanders with the flexible leader or forder traits to half or negate those defensive bonuses. The AI does not seem to consider this and will gladly try to defend a river crossing against a superior army with a fording commander. So to answer your question: no, but you can exploit their behavior in a different way.
Now that you're planning on streaming and being consistent with uploads I would love an FAQ video from you soon! Curious about your setup, hardware/software, what your job is, how you got into ck3, etc. etc.
Hey mate. I recently subscribed on one of your "playing tall" videos. Learned a lot of it! But this guide was so much more helpful. I'd love to see more of those advanced Tipps for CK3 :) thanks in advance for your great help.
Good kind people of the comment section... How do you secure ALL county titles in your duchy AND make sure they aren't divided up upon succession and are inherited from heir to heir? I've been working on a tribal to feudal playthrough for the first time and we recently hit the feudalism mark. I then decided to create the empire of Russia and that threw everything into a mess. From there it has been disinherit city. Is there a better way to do this?
One area I struggle with is the realm tiers and succession timing. For example, I'm trying to create a kingdom and maybe I'm down a county or two. Right now, I'm doing my best to steam roll that last county and build funds to make a kingdom so my duchies aren't partitioned betwixt my idiotic children when I die (this is early game). Should I make those duchies hoping I survive long enough to form a kingdom or just have a single duchy and have a ton of angry count level vassals (because they all want council positions)? This also applies to forming empires. One king, many duchies and counties until I can secure the imperial title.
I disagree with your last point. "You could lead a starving, recently disembarked army across a strait and probably still win". With triple the manpower and equal men at arms and knights yes, but not with only double. Remember that'd be a -180% damage reduction, you wouldnt do shit. And combat width is important as well.
Width can be crucial when armies of very different sizes encounter each other on terrain that only permits narrow width. You can hold defensive position much easier then I think with a smaller army vs a large one.
Loving the content. I hope you get sponsored by Paradox. They should do, because your vids already inspired me to buy the game. I want to try out your playing tall techniques.
When using my Spymaster to ‘find secrets’ instead of ‘disrupting schemes’ how dangerous is that trade off? Am I super likely to miss schemes and lose people? This idea intrigues me, but I an afraid of my success rates for finding schemes will drop drastically. Any and all input id appreciated!
I think you should stream here on RUclips since you already have a bigger following than on Twitch. And yes, more "teaching" videos, even though I know what you are showing us, I do enjoy them.
Also look at prisoners after almost every war you'll have night from you enemies in your dungeon if there worth a dam they can be recruited for free I often get knights steward even doctors from my dungeon it's not uncommon to have a 20 plus learning skill character with some traits that make them an amazing doctor who you can recruit for free amymake them a amazing doctor for 10 gold the dungeon is a useful tool people sleep on that and training commanders with your marshall big help in getting monster commanders with good traits
Great Tips video! I have a questions though: The marry courtiers for profit game - isn't that an unfair advantage for the player against the AI? The AI is not using the courtier marriage method to improve its court... I am strictly talking from a "make the game not totally overpowered for the player" perspective here. I am thinking I will just limit myself to never doing matrilineal marriages, because neither will the AI. Thoughts?
There is a little mistake in your second tip regarding the "fabricate hook" ability. Fabricating hooks wouldn't help you to get more gold from blackmailing, because fabricating hooks costs gold when you go through with it (similar as with forging claims, you can start the scheme for free, but you have to pay gold to actually get the hook when the event pops up that let's you complete the scheme). Usually, the cost of fabricating a hook is more than you would get from using that hook for demanding gold. However, there is still a benefit to having the perk while searching secrets: Whenever your spymaster can't find a secret, they will instead offer you to either fabricate a hook on a person in that court (which costs gold, so we won't do that unless we actually hase a good use for a hook on that person other than just demanding payment) or to improve the relationship with that courtier by letting them know that you could easily have gotten them on the hook, but decided not to do so. That latter option is free, so you can improve opinion with characters while you dig for secrets (especially useful if you search for secrets at your own court) and you can get the follow up perk "digging for dirt" to generally speed up the search.
Another thing you can do early game when you are low on good courtiers is to set your spymaster to find secrets in a nearby court - then blackmail and use those hooks on EVERY woman you can. Most of the time you are finding adultery and fornication secrets so they often agree with it. Then use the hook to Bring to Court, then marry them off to good knights and whatever Council or Court positions you need to fill. It doesn't matter if they are ill, dying of cancer, possessed or have terrible traits. Just get them to court and matrilineally marry them to bring in new quality men for knights or council positions. Nothing worse than starting a game and having 1 single female to use to bring qualified men to court. Usually have tons of men to marry off so those are good for filling Court positions and women with 4-star educational stats that can educate all the children of the court. Also ALWAYS educate every single kid you can from the beginning. Since you will likely be giving away counties and duchies as your holdings expand you want to make sure all the children of your courtiers are being properly well educated. I make a point of micro-managing my court a LOT in the early game when you have limited options. So I always try to find a Mastermind Philosopher with Patient as soon as i can for my Court Tutor - even better if you can find one with Mystic or Herbalist so they can double as my Physician. Male courtiers should be married to 4-star females that will improve the male's best skill, while also looking for extra traits in the females that will allow them to fill court positions - so Midas Touched + Administrator, Grey Eminence + Gregarious/Poet/Stubborn, Mastermind Philosopher + Administrator or Scholar/Shy. Too many people just play the game as a battle simulator - but it truly is about managing your court as well as you can, bringing in the right courtiers to fill the positions you can and maximizing potential from the beginning. Oh and i am never shy about marrying terrible courtiers to great recruits and then murdering the terrible starting courtier and then using the spouse to bring in a much better candidate. Eliminate the weakest links all the time. And definitely make sure ALL your knights are married, so if they get killed on the battlefield you can easily fill their slot with a new knight immediately. ALWAYS be looking for the best and brightest people to bring to court that you can.
Are you using any mods? When I mouse over an enemy army, it doesn't show me their amount of supplies or many of the details you have. It just says the commander and types of units.
I’ve always exploited the marriage curtiers mechanic. Also I search for courtiers I can invite. I almost always change my stewards and physicians this way
Hey Zieley and other Ck3 players, does anyone have suggestions for the crashing and bug patches? I am so sad when I have to give up on a game because of the game not playing.
@8:25 how often the borders around war goal makes really hard to see a tiny river and then you engage an enemy defending river crossing? I do it all the time after 3k hours played
I'm so confused about duchy buildings you build for your vassal. Do they benefit the entire kingdom or only the duchy? The wording implies it benefits your entire realm, in fact it states that explicitly. But it doesn't appear to actually benefit you. I can't find any solid info anywhere either. Do you know?
Good tips, I'll offer another random one: War-time hostages
Sometimes when you are sieging an enemy, you capture the leader and can end the war. If you ransom them, you can no longer end the war. But if you're taking their capital, or about to win by conquest anyway, just ransom them then finish the war. There's been many times when I capture the leader from sieging a capital, ignore the option to end the war, ransom him, finish the siege, and can instantly end the war again. It's free money.
This is a solid point. Always deal with hostages BEFORE ending a war. If you are going to win anyway, you need to make as much money to offset the war expenses.
And RECRUIT all the single women so you can use them bring in more knights and quality candidates for court positions. Recruit all the men with high Prowess to be cannon fodder for future wars too. Dont just cut the lowborns lose because you cant get a ransom. Early game is about getting all the people you can into court. Just force conversions so they dont hate you so much and dont stick them in high risk positions.
And sometimes you recapture the leader and can ransom him again
@@zombieinferno Not always. It works for leader + heir. Often you can get huge ransom change after war. It depends on family of hostage. One example: You fight against petty count who has a Karling dynasty son as his guest or ward. Before end of war, you receive 10g as "this guest is dear to him". After war, the count is count no more. And - voila - you receive 100g from Karling house head for "dear family member".
There are defensive wars as well. If your oponent loose war, he is depending on war type maybe "demoted and replaced by new one"? The unimportant 10g value hostage you hold in house arest might be the new king after war due replacement - and now is valued 100g instead!
So, in phase when I really need money, I evaluate each hostage before end of war based on multiple conditions.
Or, if you capture the leader or heir and several other hostages, put on slow, but ransom the ones you can that dont affect warscore. You can make quite a bit from ransoming. Will only take a day or three per prisoner.
Microing for supply is so tedious once you get up to 40-50k troops I wish they’d implement a “send for supply” button or something that functioned similarly to station besiegers,
Rely on strong maa instead of levies. Like lower the levy contract and raise the gold one instead
I couldn’t agree more with this, it genuinely puts me off big wars!
Nah, i think they should straight-up give you a whole new set of keybinds when you're in the "army" tab, at which point they could let you make all sorts of macro/micro managing commands... Basically, giving you the same control as you would have in a true RTS title.
In lieu of this though, i would settle for having a key to hold down during which any movement commands dispatched while highlighting several SEPARATE stacks of your army would simply cause them to populate the tile that you click, PLUS any further neighbouring tiles that are required to accommodate your troops while staying below the supply limit. We already see the AI do something similar, so it might even be as simple as flipping a switch in the code and making a UI for it, so might not be too far fetched.
simply press f on them, it splits them in half (or at least tries to) . ofc doing it on 5x is suicide
My way of managing this is putting Commanders with Logistician on the army.
Only get -5 supply per month, -7 in winter.
When you have an army of 40k+ chances are you will steamroll your enemy during the 10 months that it would take to have your army starving.
What about removing your commander to bait enemy to engage your army and then adding him when they're baited
That's a great one!
I've never even thought of that. Great advice
A bit cheesy...
@Zieley can you please do a playthrough where you take over the world. it will be hard. but it will be epic. a few episodes be awsome.
@@robertsiems3808 But surely this is something that would’ve theoretically worked, historically speaking? Spread word that the commander deserted, but as the army advances into a vulnerable position, have the commander resume his place?
Unlike some youtubers out there, your voice is very calming and I personally think it is the best for explaining games like CK3. Out of context but hopefully I'm actually waiting for another long videos from you! Those gameplays between 20 to 40 mins are my preferences
Seconding his voice being calming -- I'll confess I've fallen asleep late at night watching him play, so when I get tired I sometimes have to switch to a louder streamer!
😂😂 Lmao exactly this. I clicked another ck3 tips video with more views and it was a british dude just yelling the entire way through, I had to come to this guy
Something that's really cool about Zieley is that I learned all these tips he mentioned just by watching him play the game in his videos. I highly recommend subscribing to him cause the content he does is entertaining and he is doing the challenges that are insane which allows you to learn to best play the game for when you play in more favourable circumstances. Huge fan!
Another very important thing to understand is how the game decides which army is considered to be attacking and which is defending in a battle. This might seem obvious to an experienced player, but I think figuring it out was the most key factor for me in learning how to approach warfare more strategically in CK3. Understanding this is essential in order to take advantage of river crossing and other terrain advantage modifiers, since these modifiers are always applied in favor of the defending army.
The thing that makes it somewhat confusing is that there are two separate cases for how attacker and defender are decided. One is if there is no castle of tribe holding in the barony tile where the battle takes place. In this case, the army already located on the tile is the defender, and the one entering it is the attacker. Pretty straightforward, but watch out for cases such as two armies both moving into the same tile, in this case the one which arrives first will be the defender, since it will then be located on the tile when the other army enters it.
The other case is when there is a castle or tribe (i.e. a siege-able holding) on the tile where a battle happens. In this case, if the holding is controlled by a participant in the war, then their side's armies are always the defenders, regardless of who entered the tile first. Note that controlling the holding includes occupying it after winning a siege.
This might sound complicated, but in practice it boils down to two main rules:
1. An army that is being chased will usually be the defender. So, when your army is being chased or chasing down an enemy army, look out for terrain modifiers and river crossings, which will aid the defending army.
2. A besieging army will always be the attacker. So, when breaking a siege, you may have defender bonuses, and don't have to worry about river crossings. By the same token, be careful when sieging enemy holdings, as they will have defender advantage if they engage you.
With really large armies it might be best to raise your Men at Arms & Knights separate from Levies so you don't have to consolidate them later. Click the rally flag and the bottom button says raise men at arms only. You can always add some levies to increase army number. If you want to raise all your levies in the same spot click on the rally point and click raise all force while holding the CTRL key (useful for large armies on low supply ground so you don't have like 10 different armies)
if your army is really large you shouldnt even need the levies, your income should be high enough for you to have sick man at arms that instantly kill anything.
Also the levies are pretty expensive and hurt the economy a lot when raised.
I commend you on the content you create. As a veteran of CK2 I decided to watch your CK3 vids to gauge if I should buy it. I promptly purchased CK3 and subscribed. Thanks a bunch.
Yes please! More short, digestible hints and tips videos like this one. You’re very good at explaining things in a way that’s easy to understand. Would love to see something on the new plague mechanics and exactly what we should be weighing up to mitigate them.
I play on Xbox and I skipped the tutorial lol so I didn't even know about the supplies thing. I just thought every army just has a limited amount of time they can be up before they start dying. Guess I was wrong. Thanks for the tip...
I played the tutorial and I still never internalized the supplies stuff until I watched Zieley. There's so much to learn in this game that it just didn't stick at first.
It'd be cool to get some more obscure tips, as I knew all these already, bit it is definitely awesome that there are gonna be resources for people who are lost like I was when I started playing ck2 all those years ago
Another point for the embarked armies is while being embarked they do loose supplies faster, they do not take attrition. If your soldiers are on the coast, embarked armies can join a battle and not incurred the embarked penalties if the battle went on for one day before they landed. So if you have an army (without embarked penalties) being attacked you can move all of your embarked armies when the enemy army says it will arrive in 9 days. Disembarking takes 10 days regardless of movements speed as far as I know.
i restored the roman empire and i have like 360.000 total army, hard to keep the well supllied…
grat tips overall, the free commanders one i’ve alreay learned it from your videos before and i’m really grateful, early free commanders or council members is great much love ❤
This is historically accurate - the Romans had very complex supply chains to maintain their forces. Each individual contubernium (smallest unit of men in the army) was responsible for their own meal preparations - there was no large mess for the entire army, or even centuria. These men all lived in the same tent, combined their food rations and prepared all their meals together. They also typically had their own slave or servant that was devoted to helping with these tasks, including caring for the contubernium mule, milling their grain rations, and getting water.
An army travels on it's stomach and the Romans would pretty much decimate the surrounding areas for supplies as they traveled. So yep - it was extremely difficult to keep them all supplied when they traveled in force.
so basically i’m doing it right :D
Are you seriously raising all your army?
@@ChristianAuditore14 i have to, the abbassid has 310k so…
@@memesandbronze6591 how? 0.0
I haven’t played all that much of CK3 because of how daunting it all seems (I mostly play HoI4). Would love more of these tip videos to help me feel more at ease when I finally decide to spend more time in this game!
I think it's way less daunting than hoi4 is. But it's still a pretty steep learning curve I think
HOI4 is a way more complex game than CK3. Most difficult thing to understand in CK3 in the succession.
Started my first ever campaign a couple of weeks ago and it all comes together so much easier than I thought it would. Took maybe 20 hours before it started to feel second nature. Never played a paradox or grand strategy game before either. Would highly recommend giving it a shot!
Ngl hoi4 is way challenging for me for some reason lol 😭😭
That’s funny I’m the exact opposite, Hearts of Iron is way harder for me to figure out
as a hardcore eu4 player (3000 hours) im trying to get into ck3, really like game, but is looks very complex and hard to master. This was very helpfull, thank you!
Unlike EU which is ... easy?
Great short video with nice beginner tips. From myself I’ll add: read the little pop up’s when you hover over anything, you’ll get small tips and explanations.
Always enjoy your content Zieley - going at an easy pace and clearly explaining as you go, and with a nice slash of humor. I love your little "Where's Waldo" style openings as well! :D Thx for sharing!
Please archive any twitch streams here on youtube for us non-twitch folk. This is my favorite CK channel by far, keep it up!
I feel like I’ve watched a hundred CK3 videos and not once has someone explained supply limits and disembarkation. Thanks for the video.
Can you PLEASEEE do a renown play through?! Preferably one that reaches the max level? It’s the hardest mechanic for me
I think your stuff is great. I work the 9-5 and barely have time to play, let alone play, edit and upload. Keep up the good work!
Thanks! its tough out here trying to please the corporate overlords 😵
Hello again from me and splinter. We still love your videos. It’s always hype when you post a new one
Very useful. A lot of beginning tips describe the mechanics directly, which is also useful. But I have found that this kind of information doesn't really tell you what to DO as a beginner. This video gives me very specific strategies I can apply to solve problems: get more money, get more knights, defend territory, enhance development, etc. So thanks brother.
I LOVE YOU ZIELEY!!!
great vid as usual :)
a thing I can't find anyone cover and I always struggle with is succesion
but hear me out, not just succession.
When I play I don't always want to pull a spiffing brit and exploit the game to its fullest, sometimes I just want an authentic roleplay experience and play my monarch fitting to their traits. Sounds crazy I know.
So, that means, it may happen that the current monarch is for example compassionate. And their heir is honest.
Well yeah, that means, there will be no disinherit or even worse, killing sprees. Not to have kill siblings upon inheritance, not to have to kill kids. Just have a family getting along.
.
Long wall of text short:
How to do succession without family murder?
This happened to my game recently, I just kinda "let it happen" and roleplayed that the 3 siblings all got along decently well. I used it as an opportunity to develop the core kingdom more. But I was secretly waiting for one of my siblings to die, or a random event to cause drama in the family. Eventually both siblings died and I invaded their kingdoms and formed an empire right before i died. You can also change your succession type towards high partition or primogeniture (late game) to control this. The most straight forward way, however, is still to just to get an empire title to control all the kingdoms so you'll never split your realm upon death.
@@wifoutteef High partition/primogeniture come super late, thats several generations in.
I had often the same situations, only that the siblings survived. Making less kids is also not always an option, as you may grow old sometimes and your kids start having kids, giving you an uncontrollable amount of grandkids.
Just having one big title works fine sure, but the holdings still get split and over time your main heir is down to a single holding, and thats my prime gist with inheritance. Want more than one? Well go war your siblings then.
Unless someone has solutions for this?
@@InuyashaHanyu welcome to medieval times, the mechanic is intentional and makes sense historically and roleplay wise.
What you can do is just develop to the maximum your primary land and chose a county with several baronies available so you can make the best from your core land.
Another way to get free knights is, ironically enough, to become really hated. If you are hated, people will run murder plots on you, and the AI is *always* sending a huntsman to map out your castle. Those huntsman are usually nobles with decent prowess. You capture them, throw them in your prison... and then immediately recruit them. bam, free champion. Just make sure your spymaster likes you and doesn't suck.
A great way to get courtiers/champions if you are in a bad culture/faith, is a hook on an unlanded character allows you to forcefully recruit them to your court. So even if you don't have golden obligations, a highly rated spymaster can be key to populating your court. Also, make sure to look at your intrigue window, as a hook on a noble often also involves an unlanded person you ALSO get a blackmail on. Also, the manufacture hook perk in the intrigue tree gives an Opinion boost if you choose not to manufacture the hook, so if you have really bad relations with your own courtiers or vassals start hook hunting at your own court for opinion boosts.
Love theses videos. Would really appreciate a video on manoeuvring your army. Keep getting outmanoeuvred chasing opposing army around
would love this as well. i always feel really silly chasing the enemy across the map and eventually giving up. i understand there's different movement speeds but i think my technique is also just horrible
It's great how the player can learn about the different specialization and get so much more effect out of it. I played for so long before learning how to keep supplies up.
I wish I found this months ago. I recently cracked the code on CK3 combat, and agree with everything said on strategy. However, one thing to note about blackmail, not all extortion is created equal. Some of the blackmail targets might not have money, so if your ruler happens to have the just trait, honest, forgiving, or anything else that gives him stress for doing it, then you want to be very careful about who you blackmail, and check the target to see if they have any money to begin with. Can't bleed a stone, after all.
Great video, keep it up.
In depth vid about the different terrains n the advantages/disadvantages men at arms have when fighting on them
I come for the RuneScape and stay for the CK3 ❤
Hi Zieley, did you know that you can make your allied troup attack with you more efficient when they are a little bit far away?
Normally when you rush in a battle and your allies are two tiles away from your position and your enemies are one tile in front of you, when you start attacking, your army is about to be defeated already, till your allies are jumping in the battle and also lose all their men.
sometimes when you just wait, your allies will only siege the enemies holding instead of helping you.
What you can do is control right klick on an empty tile next to you, then control klick to your tile again (repeat that more times if you allies are more far away) and only then control klick on the enemies position. because your end waypoint is the enemy army your allies AI will check that.
your allies will calculate the (detoure) you take and then jump in the right time to fight with you against the enemy.
i use that strategy a lot of times.
Seriously, when I learned about marrying your courtiers to knights on my own my mind was blown.
you hust know it is going to be a good video when you hear a chicken at the start of a Zieley video!
Holy shit I play on console but the way you explain it makes me feel like found the holy grail of ck3 RUclipsrs
siiiuuuu
One added tip for the first one, check after wars from captured enemies men with high stat's to recruit and women to recruit using the negotiate release to have more knights and better counsellors.
Your math at the start made me think it os far less expensive than to spam men-at-arms than hire knights.
I love the gold hook, but i was so stupid, i only thought you could do that in your own realm! My bishops thank you.
You had a perfect opportunity to put in french dub "hello there" when you zoomed on king of france, and you missed it...
Writing this comment to support you man. Those vids are epic. Music, humor, memes. This is what RUclips was ment to be.
Thx for your work
you are one of my favorite ck3 youtubers, i have been learning a lot from you, you explain things very simple as you show examples because you are playing at the same time,
streaming one of your full games on twitch would be something id like to watch.
When it comes to war tactics, logistics is more important than strategy.
A well supplied army can survive multiple defeats while one that is not will be done after one defeat.
130 hours on the game and did not known any one of those tips.... thanks A LOT! :D
Tips videos are okay, I enjoy when you rehabilitate people’s save files too. Also, the narrator character is awesome, makes me laugh every time.
Zieley, your meme-game is amazing! I just watched some of your earlier content and your presentation has improved so much! I think I've watched all your gameplay vids and their balance of length, tempo and focus is just right for me, I always click when I see a new one. All the love!
The intro animation gets me every time, great to see a few more!
You should be a scriptwriter for a comedy show, Natasha! Brilliant! Keep up the protest, using irony and humour.
I knew every one of these..... After playing for 200+ hrs. So this really is a good video especially the free knoght one
Man this really helps. Using women to marry them to high stat NPCs is such a good tip I didn't think to use. Could you do a video on how to avoid succession civil wars? I tend to have that issue.
Just discovered your channel, your videos are awesome, about to jump back in CK3 and they've been a big help, keep up the good work!
One thing at the end: you definitely do want to pay attention to all the battle modifiers, even if you have a massive advantage in numbers.
If you don't, you lose more men killed, which depletes your overall manpower. This affects how the AI calculates whether or not it will declare war on you or not. It also affects the threshold for factions submitting their demands. I've seen players before where an 'easy war' turned into a disaster because they bled out half their manpower with poor battle tactics, then ended up with a revolt and their large neighbor declaring war on them. This is because their manpower fell too low, making them look like easy prey to the enemy.
Also, look for traits like 'Forder' (I think it is) on your generals and be ready to swap them out if the situation merits it. This is good in singleplayer but has literally won me wars in multiplayer. You approach the enemy with your main commander. The enemy entrenches behind a river, thinking this massive boost will let them win. As you approach, you swap to your 'forder' trait commander. You proceed to spank the enemy army. I've had people rage-quit over this and also accuse me of cheating because 'there's no way you won crossing a river like that'. Flexible strategist is also a great perk in general for commanders.
I'm curious, how hard is it to bait the enemy to attack at poorly favorable conditions ? I remember CK2 had this strategy of splitting your army and using the smaller army to bait the enemy into attacking to then use the rest of the army to reinforce. I never tried it in CK3, but the AI feels a bit smarter when choosing where to fight most of the time, is it still possible ?
In my experience, when the AI thinks it's going to lose a battle, it tries fallback to a defensive position, such as hills, mountains, or across a river. You can exploit this by using bowmen, pikemen, and commanders with the flexible leader or forder traits to half or negate those defensive bonuses. The AI does not seem to consider this and will gladly try to defend a river crossing against a superior army with a fording commander. So to answer your question: no, but you can exploit their behavior in a different way.
Very keen for you getting to 50k, love this channel and even if I know the tips being reminded to be diligent about marrying in courtiers is good
I love tips videos, they help me make sure I'm actually playing the game the right way
Now that you're planning on streaming and being consistent with uploads I would love an FAQ video from you soon! Curious about your setup, hardware/software, what your job is, how you got into ck3, etc. etc.
Thanks for the tips. Just got CK3
more vids like this pls! or just cover any topic you deem interesting and just share your thoughts
Good vid to show to my friend whom i want to get them into ck3
Thanks! Really educational! Keep doing this kind of tutorials if you ever have any others great ideas like that!
Hey Zieley just wanted to say you really got me in to ck3 thanks for the amazing videos and keep it up
Cool video, i understood the supply mechanics better now.
Oh yus another Zieley video! Thanks for all your hard work and effort in your content mate ♥️
Sick video! Thanks for the great tips me and my friend owen didnt know a lot of these so it helps a ton❤
Hey mate. I recently subscribed on one of your "playing tall" videos. Learned a lot of it! But this guide was so much more helpful. I'd love to see more of those advanced Tipps for CK3 :) thanks in advance for your great help.
best ckc3 content imho
Good stuff, just started to play the game, you were really helpful!
Have a nice day and do something worthy each day :)
Could use more of these videos! Just picked up the game in the Humble Choice Bundle.
Thank you! I needed a video like this :)
Multiple knight finds in one video?? Oh, you!
Good kind people of the comment section...
How do you secure ALL county titles in your duchy AND make sure they aren't divided up upon succession and are inherited from heir to heir?
I've been working on a tribal to feudal playthrough for the first time and we recently hit the feudalism mark. I then decided to create the empire of Russia and that threw everything into a mess. From there it has been disinherit city.
Is there a better way to do this?
One area I struggle with is the realm tiers and succession timing. For example, I'm trying to create a kingdom and maybe I'm down a county or two. Right now, I'm doing my best to steam roll that last county and build funds to make a kingdom so my duchies aren't partitioned betwixt my idiotic children when I die (this is early game).
Should I make those duchies hoping I survive long enough to form a kingdom or just have a single duchy and have a ton of angry count level vassals (because they all want council positions)?
This also applies to forming empires. One king, many duchies and counties until I can secure the imperial title.
Awesome video, thanks Zieley !
I disagree with your last point. "You could lead a starving, recently disembarked army across a strait and probably still win". With triple the manpower and equal men at arms and knights yes, but not with only double. Remember that'd be a -180% damage reduction, you wouldnt do shit. And combat width is important as well.
Width can be crucial when armies of very different sizes encounter each other on terrain that only permits narrow width. You can hold defensive position much easier then I think with a smaller army vs a large one.
Loving the content. I hope you get sponsored by Paradox. They should do, because your vids already inspired me to buy the game. I want to try out your playing tall techniques.
When using my Spymaster to ‘find secrets’ instead of ‘disrupting schemes’ how dangerous is that trade off? Am I super likely to miss schemes and lose people? This idea intrigues me, but I an afraid of my success rates for finding schemes will drop drastically. Any and all input id appreciated!
Its impressive, how many places you can pop up from. Great video!
Great video, entertaining and helpful!
I demand Cumania CK2 video next!
I think you should stream here on RUclips since you already have a bigger following than on Twitch.
And yes, more "teaching" videos, even though I know what you are showing us, I do enjoy them.
More tip videos please these were amazing. All the other videos out there are repeating the same sort of absolute beginner tips. These were great.
Also look at prisoners after almost every war you'll have night from you enemies in your dungeon if there worth a dam they can be recruited for free I often get knights steward even doctors from my dungeon it's not uncommon to have a 20 plus learning skill character with some traits that make them an amazing doctor who you can recruit for free amymake them a amazing doctor for 10 gold the dungeon is a useful tool people sleep on that and training commanders with your marshall big help in getting monster commanders with good traits
Man glad I found u
you could do an intermediate or advanced tips video
Great Tips video! I have a questions though:
The marry courtiers for profit game - isn't that an unfair advantage for the player against the AI? The AI is not using the courtier marriage method to improve its court... I am strictly talking from a "make the game not totally overpowered for the player" perspective here. I am thinking I will just limit myself to never doing matrilineal marriages, because neither will the AI. Thoughts?
There is a little mistake in your second tip regarding the "fabricate hook" ability. Fabricating hooks wouldn't help you to get more gold from blackmailing, because fabricating hooks costs gold when you go through with it (similar as with forging claims, you can start the scheme for free, but you have to pay gold to actually get the hook when the event pops up that let's you complete the scheme). Usually, the cost of fabricating a hook is more than you would get from using that hook for demanding gold. However, there is still a benefit to having the perk while searching secrets: Whenever your spymaster can't find a secret, they will instead offer you to either fabricate a hook on a person in that court (which costs gold, so we won't do that unless we actually hase a good use for a hook on that person other than just demanding payment) or to improve the relationship with that courtier by letting them know that you could easily have gotten them on the hook, but decided not to do so. That latter option is free, so you can improve opinion with characters while you dig for secrets (especially useful if you search for secrets at your own court) and you can get the follow up perk "digging for dirt" to generally speed up the search.
more tips videos
SIUUUUUUUUU
subscribed
Another thing you can do early game when you are low on good courtiers is to set your spymaster to find secrets in a nearby court - then blackmail and use those hooks on EVERY woman you can. Most of the time you are finding adultery and fornication secrets so they often agree with it. Then use the hook to Bring to Court, then marry them off to good knights and whatever Council or Court positions you need to fill. It doesn't matter if they are ill, dying of cancer, possessed or have terrible traits. Just get them to court and matrilineally marry them to bring in new quality men for knights or council positions.
Nothing worse than starting a game and having 1 single female to use to bring qualified men to court. Usually have tons of men to marry off so those are good for filling Court positions and women with 4-star educational stats that can educate all the children of the court.
Also ALWAYS educate every single kid you can from the beginning. Since you will likely be giving away counties and duchies as your holdings expand you want to make sure all the children of your courtiers are being properly well educated. I make a point of micro-managing my court a LOT in the early game when you have limited options. So I always try to find a Mastermind Philosopher with Patient as soon as i can for my Court Tutor - even better if you can find one with Mystic or Herbalist so they can double as my Physician.
Male courtiers should be married to 4-star females that will improve the male's best skill, while also looking for extra traits in the females that will allow them to fill court positions - so Midas Touched + Administrator, Grey Eminence + Gregarious/Poet/Stubborn, Mastermind Philosopher + Administrator or Scholar/Shy.
Too many people just play the game as a battle simulator - but it truly is about managing your court as well as you can, bringing in the right courtiers to fill the positions you can and maximizing potential from the beginning.
Oh and i am never shy about marrying terrible courtiers to great recruits and then murdering the terrible starting courtier and then using the spouse to bring in a much better candidate. Eliminate the weakest links all the time. And definitely make sure ALL your knights are married, so if they get killed on the battlefield you can easily fill their slot with a new knight immediately.
ALWAYS be looking for the best and brightest people to bring to court that you can.
Good job Zieley!
Keep it up my dude
It'd be cool to see you play ck2 or maybe its game of thrones mod
Great vid.
Are you using any mods? When I mouse over an enemy army, it doesn't show me their amount of supplies or many of the details you have. It just says the commander and types of units.
I’ve always exploited the marriage curtiers mechanic. Also I search for courtiers I can invite. I almost always change my stewards and physicians this way
Hey Zieley and other Ck3 players, does anyone have suggestions for the crashing and bug patches? I am so sad when I have to give up on a game because of the game not playing.
@8:25 how often the borders around war goal makes really hard to see a tiny river and then you engage an enemy defending river crossing? I do it all the time after 3k hours played
i know what you mean! the small rivers are so hard to see, in that shot theres like 3 or 4 on screen lol
love you and youre videos!!!
I have a quick question? How do you get your game to run smoothly my game lags so much it’s annoying.
Ty bro
Thanks
I'm so confused about duchy buildings you build for your vassal.
Do they benefit the entire kingdom or only the duchy? The wording implies it benefits your entire realm, in fact it states that explicitly.
But it doesn't appear to actually benefit you. I can't find any solid info anywhere either. Do you know?