Crusader Kings III – Ultimate Guide for Playing Tall & Wide

Hey guys and welcome to my very first guide for Crusader Kings 3. In this guide I will tell you how to play Tall & Wide or better known as Hybrid. You don’t have to follow this guide exactly 1 by 1 but this is just my approach of playing hybrid. You can aswell just play wide or tall using this guide. It gives you a lot of informations that you maybe didn’t know.

How to Play Tall & Wide

All credit goes to David!

Tribal Start

Your goal is to adopt feudal ways as fast as possible with all the necessary requirements to have the best start as a feudal ruler. You have to do the following stuff for that:

You could either be the vassal of a feudal ruler and use the “Adopt Feudal Ways Through Liege” decision, which requires you to have “Limited Tribal Authority” and 150 Prestige.

OR

Reach that goal with hard work by completing the following:

• Your Faith has to be Organized
• 70% Tribal Era Innovations
• 5 or more development in the Realm Capital
• Absolute Tribal Authority
• Fame level has to be “Distinguished”

Organize Your Faith

There are 2 ways of getting this requirement done.

1. (easiest method): Convert to an already organized fate. Later on you still have to change the tenets and doctrines for efficency.
2. (harder method, which I prefer):

• Earn piety by doing Pilgrimage, executing people that are not part of your religion (as Asatru) or go for the “Theologian Tree.”
• Get at least 3 Holy Sites to be able to reform your religion.
• Get the “Prophet” perk in “Theologian Tree” for 50% cost reduction.

Now you can just reform your faith without changing the tenets, doctrines etc. Personally I wait until I have enough piety to chage that stuff so I’m directly ready for playing Tall & Wide. Check … in the Feudal Section for more informations.

70% Tribal Era Innovations

• Make sure that you are the “Culture Head” by owing more land than the culture head or diverging your culture.
• If you are diverging your culture make sure that you choose the “Bureaucratic” Ethos and if possible the “By the Sword” Tradition in “Ritual”.
• As a tribal ruler go for the exposed innovations to get 70% as fast as possible.
• You also can pick the “Scientific” Perk in “Scholar” Tree for 20% boost on research.

Have 5 or More Development in the Realm Capital

Just put your steward on “Increase Development in County” Task permanently and let him work on your capital realm. “Collect Taxes” isn’t worth it. You also can go for the “Scholarship Focus” in Learning Lifestyle and “Planned Cultivation” for the 35% boost on development.

• Put your steward on “Increase Development in County” Task permanently and let him work on your capital realm.
• You also can go for the “Scholarship Focus” in Learning Lifestyle and “Planned Cultivation” for the 35% boost on development.

Absolute Tribal Authority

• Everytime you have enough prestige to pass a higher level of authority, do it.
• The best way to farm prestige as Tribal is by raiding, doings feasts and hunts.
• You don’t get that much prestige from raiding but you get gold which you reinvest into these activities.

Additional Advices That I Suggest You to Follow While Converting to Feudal

• Get a lot of land and create duchy titles for more control and prestige. Give these away to vassals, who have the same faith and culture as you.
• You only need 2-3 Men-at-Arms Regiments. Pick only one type, the strongest available.
• Build and upgrade buildings. Build 1-3 “Markets/Small Harbors”, as many “Sparring Grounds” as you have Men-at-Arms Regiments and station them there. Rest with “Gathering Halls”, “Small Harbor” or “Markets”. Don’t forget to upgrade the “Tribal Holding” aswell.
• Farm a lot of gold. As a tribal ruler you literally have 0 gold expenses + you can raid a lot. You should abuse this mechanic as much as possible. Feudal rulers can’t raid. I would suggest you to get at least 2.000 – 10.000 gold since you have to build new buildings and upgrade them. Take your time and enjoy the raiding.
• For the Lifestyle: as tribal you can play any lifestyle you want. I like start with Stewardship since I like the go down the “Architect” Tree for build/cost reduction and +0.30 monthly Growth in Realm Capital.

The Feudal Journey

So, you just started as a feudal ruler or became one through “Adopt Feudal Ways” Decision? Then this is your next step of a successful tall & wide game.

Build the Right Buildings

• The best composition would be to build as many Men-at-Arms buildings as you have Regiments but only build the ones that give your Men-at-Arms the highest boost. The rest should be money making building which give you the highest gold.
• Start with Economic Buildings first, then Men-at-Arms buildings.
• Build cities since they give a high amount of development. Build one Temple if needed.
• Don’t forget to build the duchy buildings. Build at least one “Military Academies” since knights are broken in this game + more Men-at-Arms Regiments. You can build a second one or just go for “Royal Reservers”, “Siege Works” or the one which boosts your Men-at-Arms Regiment (e.g. “Crown Smithes” for Infantry or “Jousting Grounds” for Cavalary).

Your Culture

For this one you should be sure that you are the Culture Head. You can become the Culture Head by owning more land than the Culture Head of your culture or diverging your culture. If you are diverging your culture make sure to pick the “Bureaucratic” Stoic and if possible the “By the Sword” Tradition in “Ritual”.

Priority list for which Innovation you go first

The ones that…

1. Increase the maximum Existing Development limit.
2. Increase Development Growth by 10%
3. Unlock all current Era Fortification Buildings.
4. Unlock all current Era Economic Buildings.
5. Add +1 Addition Building Slot.

High priority Innovation for each Era

• Tribal: City Planning for Cities and Gravelkind for +1 Domain Limit.
• Early Medieval: Burhs for Duchy Building.
• High Medieval: Windmills and Heraldry for better succession.
• Late Medieval: Primogeniture for the easiest succession.

It’s important to get at some point the “By the Sword” Tradition to have no kingdom title war limit.

Your Faith

The best settings for your Faith

Tenets: Communion, (optional) Esotericism and (optional) Pursuit of Power.

Main Doctrines

• Clerical Tradition: Lay Clergy
• Head of Faith: Temporal

Marriage Doctrines (optional)

• Marriage Type: Polygamous
• Divorce: Always Allowed
• Consanguinity: Unrestricted Marriage

Crime Doctrines (optional)

• Male Adultery: Accepted
• Kinslaying: Accepted
• Witchcraft: Accepted

Clergy Doctrines

• (optional) Clerical Function: Recruitment
• (optional) Clerical Gender: Either
• (optional) Clerical Marriage: Allowed
• Clerical Appointment: Temporal, Revocable

Lifestyles

There are 5 available lifestyles but you only need 2 of them.

• Go for “Architect” in Stewardship Lifestyle when upgrading or when you need more Domain Limit.
• Go for “Scholar” in Learning Lifestyle when increasing Development in your counties.
• Go for “Avaricious” in Stewardship Lifestyle if you want the big gold.

Breeding/Eugencis Program

Well, well, who doesn’t want to have that Genius, Wonderful, Herculean, Fecund and Giant child.

There are enough guides on the internet on how to make this program work. I might update this and at my tactic here.

World Conquest

While doing the steps above you can war at the same time and expand your territory. Create duchy titles if you are a king and give them to vassals that have the same faith and culture as you. The more you finish the steps above, the easier it gets and the more land you own. The only problem you will probably have are going to be the factions. Well, you can find your own way to fix this problem. You can beat those factions easily because of your strong Men-at-Arms.