One of the major new features of the "Tours and Tournaments" expansion of Crusader Kings 3 is the titular Grand Tournament. Tournaments last appeared in Crusader Kings 2, but in that game players would only see a series of notifications about who got injured and eventually who won. This time around, tournaments are more interactive.
Instead of pressing a button and waiting for the results, the Crusader Kings 3 Grand Tournament lets players visit the grounds, practice for the contests, get to know the locals, and otherwise enjoy themselves. In fact, player rulers can even visit Grand Tournaments held elsewhere to try their luck and boost their prestige. Here's how.
Planning a Grand Tournament
The first thing players must do to host a Grand Tournament is select the new Activities menu. This menu's icon is a goblet, and it's on the right side of the screen. All sorts of events can take place during a Grand Tournament and players can adjust some features, and so the decision to hold a Grand Tournament mentions "anticipated rewards" and "average cost." These will change depending on what players decide to do.
One other thing to note is that no ruler can host a Grand Tournament more than once every 10 years (although players can host one sooner if their current ruler dies). A Grand Tournament is a big event, and cities need time to recover from them. If players have money to spare on tourneys, they can check the box that says "Notify when this Activity becomes available" to always know when to host the next tournament, or uncheck it if money is tight.
After choosing to host a Grand Tournament, players must decide which county will host the event. Only counties that are part of the ruler's domain are available, and players can get discounts or penalties depending on which buildings are present in the county capital, what the capital's terrain is like, and how developed the county is.
Next, players must choose one or more contests to base the tourney around. The default number of contests is one, but this number goes up as players enter new cultural eras and can also go up thanks to cultural traditions. Each contest type has different skill requirements and will improve different aspects of the participants' skill set.
Contest Type | Skills | Format | Requirements |
|---|---|---|---|
Melee | Foot, Horse | Teams | Non-Tribal government, correct cultural Tradition |
Archery | Bow | Turns | |
Recital | Wit | Turns | |
Joust | Foot, Horse | Knock-Out | Horseshoes or Arched Saddle innovation, correct cultural Tradition |
Wrestling | Foot | Knock-Out | |
Duel | Foot | Knock-Out | |
Board Game | Wit | Knock-Out | |
Horse Race | Horse | Race |
Players should note that, at least at the moment, access to the Melee and Joust contests appears to be based more on cultural heritage than on traditions, which is what the game mentions. Cultures with a heritage based in Europe can perform these contests while others can't.
After choosing one or more contests, players can decide whether their ruler will participate in each contest or sit back and spectate. However, there's no guarantee that player rulers will take part even if they want to.
With the contests chosen, players must choose their travel plans (assuming they're hosting the Grand Tournament away from the capital), then choose their intent, champion, and options. Grand Tournament intents include Recreation, Triumph, Recruit, Murder, Seduce, and Befriend. Choosing one will make random events that favor this outcome more likely. A Champion can be a courtier or a court guest, and if the Champion wins the ruler will get a portion of the winnings.
Activity options for a Grand Tournament cover accommodations and prizes. Better accommodations are more expensive but make negative events less common, and better prizes are more expensive but give the winner a higher-quality artifact.
Hosting a Grand Tournament
After the Grand Tournament begins, player rulers will automatically head for the tournament grounds and players will get to see a special screen with several local destinations: Village, Tavern, Temple, Tourney Grounds, Artisan Quarters, and Tent Camp. Players can visit each location to get different random events, and they can see the most common results of events by hovering over the location name. For instance, players can get County Control or Popular Opinion by visiting the Village, and they can get artifacts or clothing from the Artisan Quarters.
Something else players need to do on this screen is qualify for the competition. Player rulers need a certain number of Progress to Victory points to join in, and the best way to get them is through location events. The fastest way to get them is to choose the Triumph intent and visit the Tourney Grounds several times. Note that players can visit different locations every 20 days, but they must wait 30 days to visit the same location twice in a row.
Players get up to 4 months to qualify for a contest. During that time, other rulers may show up at the tournament as guests or participants, and the host gets prestige based on their rank. Players can also attend other rulers' Grand Tournaments, although travel time may be a factor. Finally, players can set up a tournament and then ignore it, because other things might be happening at the same time. A minimum number of random events will fire, but players can otherwise focus their attention elsewhere.
One last thing players should know is that their ruler may be unable to join a physical contest because of issues like disease, age, or gender, but still gather Victory points. However, their points will drop seemingly at random and the ruler will fail to qualify even if they should have. This false-hope qualification appears to be a bug that should hopefully be fixed in the future.
Enjoying the Contests
Once the contest begins, another month of in-game time will pass as the competitors fight it out. Whether the player ruler is a competitor or a spectator, several more events will fire as the contest unfolds. Eventually, someone will win, the victor will get a prize, and if the player ruler wins (or their champion), they'll get a special bonus.
After the contests comes the closing ceremony. The host gets an opportunity to speak to the guests, which is a Diplomacy check with a fairly minor prestige penalty for failure and an option to avoid it entirely. And as the Grand Tournament concludes, the only thing left to do is go home.
Crusader Kings 3 is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.