CK3 Tips & Game Mechanics Every Beginner Should Know 

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,

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.

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

What about removing your commander to bait enemy to engage your army and then adding him when they're baited

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)

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.

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.

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!

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 ❤

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!

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.

I feel like I’ve watched a hundred CK3 videos and not once has someone explained supply limits and disembarkation. Thanks for the video.

Please archive any twitch streams here on youtube for us non-twitch folk. This is my favorite CK channel by far, keep it up!

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!

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.

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!

Hello again from me and splinter. We still love your videos. It’s always hype when you post a new one

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!

Sick video! Thanks for the great tips me and my friend owen didnt know a lot of these so it helps a ton❤

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 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! Really educational! Keep doing this kind of tutorials if you ever have any others great ideas like that!

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 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...

Hey Zieley just wanted to say you really got me in to ck3 thanks for the amazing videos and keep it up

The intro animation gets me every time, great to see a few more!

Thank you! I needed a video like this :)

Oh yus another Zieley video! Thanks for all your hard work and effort in your content mate ♥️

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.

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

Awesome video, thanks Zieley !

Great video, entertaining and helpful!

I love tips videos, they help me make sure I'm actually playing the game the right way

Can you PLEASEEE do a renown play through?! Preferably one that reaches the max level? It’s the hardest mechanic for me

Good stuff, just started to play the game, you were really helpful! Have a nice day and do something worthy each day :)

I come for the RuneScape and stay for the CK3 ❤

Love theses videos. Would really appreciate a video on manoeuvring your army. Keep getting outmanoeuvred chasing opposing army around

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?

Cool video, i understood the supply mechanics better now.

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.

Could use more of these videos! Just picked up the game in the Humble Choice Bundle.

Thanks for the tips. Just got CK3

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 you and youre videos!!!

Its impressive, how many places you can pop up from. Great video!

Holy shit I play on console but the way you explain it makes me feel like found the holy grail of ck3 RU-vidrs

Good job Zieley!

Keep it up my dude

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.

I LOVE YOU ZIELEY!!!

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.

siiiuuuu

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.

Writing this comment to support you man. Those vids are epic. Music, humor, memes. This is what RU-vid was ment to be. Thx for your work

Seriously, when I learned about marrying your courtiers to knights on my own my mind was blown.

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.

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.

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.

I knew every one of these..... After playing for 200+ hrs. So this really is a good video especially the free knoght one

more tips videos SIUUUUUUUUU subscribed

Great vid.

You should be a scriptwriter for a comedy show, Natasha! Brilliant! Keep up the protest, using irony and humour.

you hust know it is going to be a good video when you hear a chicken at the start of a Zieley video!

130 hours on the game and did not known any one of those tips.... thanks A LOT! :D

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.

Good vid to show to my friend whom i want to get them into ck3

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.

Ty bro

more vids like this pls! or just cover any topic you deem interesting and just share your thoughts

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.

Needed this

Man glad I found u

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?

I did enjoy it

Hey! Congrats on the upcoming 50k. Subbed when you were at 2000 or so. Great content, as usual

@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

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.

Thanks

best ckc3 content imho

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.

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'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 ?

I think you should stream here on RU-vid 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.

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?

I have a quick question? How do you get your game to run smoothly my game lags so much it’s annoying.

Multiple knight finds in one video?? Oh, you!

I demand Cumania CK2 video next!

How do I get you to do a Armenia game? Love your content brother keep it up!

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.

You had a perfect opportunity to put in french dub "hello there" when you zoomed on king of france, and you missed it...

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.

More pro tip videos please!

It'd be cool to see you play ck2 or maybe its game of thrones mod

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.

you could do an intermediate or advanced tips video

i love you Zieley

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