During the later stages of the Middle Ages, many kings would regularly tour their kingdoms; this let them be seen by their subjects and ensured that rebellious vassals knew their liege had their eye on them. Crusader Kings 3 simulates this with the Grand Tour.
The Grand Tour is one of the special "Grand" activities added by the "Tours and Tournaments" expansion to Crusader Kings 3. By starting a Grand Tour, a liege can travel to the homes of their vassals and improve some aspects of their reign along the way. It's also a way for lieges to explore the map and visit the many landmarks that might be inside their realm.
Planning the Tour
The first decision players must make when starting a Grand Tour is which kind of tour they want to attempt: Majesty, Intimidation, and Taxation. Unlike other activity types, none of these tours have any prerequisites, and so any ruler with enough land and vassals to host a Grand Tour can choose any type of tour.
- Majesty Tours focus on improving vassal Opinion scores and the ruler's Prestige score. They also include more random events where the ruler has a chance to show off.
- Intimidation Tours focus on boosting Dread and intimidating or forcing vassals out of factions. Random events have opportunities to earn more Dread along the way.
- Taxation Tours focus on squeezing more Gold out of the realm. This can come from vassals and peasants, and the random events offer opportunities for both.
Next, players must choose which vassals they want to visit. Players can only choose direct vassals of count rank or higher, and they can choose between 1 and 10 vassals as stops on their tour. The ruler's travel route may go past a vassal's capital, but only vassals chosen during this stage of the planning will be official stops.
Furthermore, players can't choose to visit a vassal if:
- They are currently at an activity or traveling to or from an activity
- They are at war
- They are in a regency for any reason
Vassals are prevented from starting or joining activities once their liege chooses their capital as a stop on their Grand Tour, but vassals may still end up canceling if a war breaks out or something happens that starts a regency. Since a Grand Tour can take a long time (even in a relatively small realm), vassals will only cancel a stop if their liege is currently traveling to their capital. After all, a war or a regency may resolve itself before the liege gets around to visiting.
One other thing players can do during a Grand Tour is choose the kind of stop they'd like to make at each vassal's home. Tour the Grounds adds more Control to the vassal's county, Hosted Dinner increases the vassal's Opinion of their liege, and Cultural Festival boosts both Popular Opinion and Cultural Acceptance between the regional culture and the liege's culture.
Next, players can adjust their travel route, just like other activities. Since Grand Tours take a long time, they make a good opportunity for players to visit the many landmarks and other travel destinations added by the 1.9.1 update. Since a Grand Tour can only travel to locations within a ruler's realm, players never have to deal with a regency, no matter how long the activity takes.
Intent is another opportunity to change which random events player rulers will encounter on the Grand Tour, and they include Recreation, Lechery, Altruism, and Justice. Rulers can get more Stress loss from each Intent depending on their Personality Traits, but in general, Altruism is a good way to boost Popular Opinion and Piety, Justice can boost local Control, and Lechery is a good way to end up with extra lovers (and possibly some trouble with married vassals).
The Activity Options are Entourage and Luxuries. A bigger Entourage provides more Prestige but costs more. More Luxuries also boost Prestige and the Tour's score, but it can cost even more than a large Entourage.
Taking the Tour
Much like a pilgrimage, a Grand Tour has a score that provides bigger benefits the higher it goes. This score is connected to the tour type, so it can be called "Majesty," "Intimidation," or "Avarice." Many event choices can improve this score, and the game mentions which ones when players hover over the options. Curiously, the score bonuses are the same no matter what kind of tour the ruler chooses.
Once a ruler reaches a tour stop, they spend several months visiting and trigger a few events based on the type of tour and the type of stop. If the player ruler is a vassal, they can end up experiencing the same random events but from the vassal's perspective.
Regardless of all the variables, there are two events that always trigger during each stop. First, a vassal can choose to shut the gates to their liege and refuse to let them in. This is only likely to happen when a vassal hates their liege and isn't intimidated by them. The second event happens at the end of a stop, and it's an opportunity for the liege to demand tribute from their vassal (or an opportunity for a vassal to refuse to provide this tribute). The type of tribute demanded depends on the tour type:
- Majestic Tours demand Prestige from the vassal, and the liege's dynasty gains Renown.
- Intimidation Tours demand that the vassal pledge to never join a faction in the next 15 years, and it comes with a minor -15 Opinion penalty.
- Taxation Tours demand Gold from their vassals, along with the -15 Opinion penalty.
Vassals can always refuse to provide this tribute, but doing so is a crime that their liege can use to imprison them. This refusal also comes with a -20 Opinion penalty. However, NPC lieges are more likely to avoid asking for this tribute if they like their vassal and have a good time during their stay.
Crusader Kings 3 is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
