CK3 Dev Diary #3 - War

[Servancour]

Will religions/cultures that allowed Shieldmaidens in CK2 (e.g. Norse Germanic) be allowed to have female Knights and/or Commanders?

Yes!

I read before that 20 knights or so equal 200 levies. Tbh I'd think this makes knights, aside from role-play purposes, rather useless. There's a few things to take into account here: firstly I would assume that I, as the ruler, am the one responsible for knighting and knighthood? I don't want to micro manage 30-40 minor titles and then these knights only have the power of 300-400 levies.

Knight isn't a title as such that you hand out. They default to the most capable characters within your realm (based on Prowess), which you then can adjust if you want to.
The game is still in the process of being balanced. I can't say how powerful a single Knight will be, but rest assured, we want Knights to be powerful and a force to be reckoned with.

 

[Maxsimg]

What about mercenaries? They will be levies and men-at-arms or only men-at-arms?

 

[Federalist girl]

Nice. I don’t play paradox games for war, but I like the changes I see. Particularly the changes to retinues with different types of men at arms. Levies really should be generally garbage — professional troops are few but deadly.

Also like the changes to supply. Reminds me of food in Imperator. Adding that strategic element and making it less randomly dependent on a province stat is good.

 

[Krajzen]

Will the battle system have tactics depending on army composition?

Will muslims, pagans, Byzantium, India, all have the same system of levies, men at arms and knights?

 

[Vohen]

Alternatively, you can have a high amount of Screen to make losing battles less penalizing.

Won't this make screening quite the overlooked stat in comparison to the others?
It only benefits you when you lose, and if you're playing well, well, you won't.

Not as such, but as mentioned in the DD, there are plenty of different Men-at-Arms that are unique to different cultures. Steppe cultures will for example, have access to Horse Archers, while Greeks have access to superior Heavy Cavalry in the form of Cataphracts.

What about commander culture?
Will it have an equivalent to cultural tactics or some other bonus?

 

[Andrzej I]

Soldiers on the combat line damage the enemy on every tick. When a soldier “dies”, he will be considered to be either a Casualty, or to be Routed. Casualties, you guessed it, are considered dead and will have to be replenished over time. Routed soldiers, on the other hand, are troops that are injured or fled the battle and are added back to the army once the battle is resolved. Battles are resolved once either side runs out of fighting troops.

I do hope that it is weighted more towards routing than towards casualties, as Medieval warfare tended to have fairly low casualty rates (with exceptions, of course).

Keep in mind that battles will grant you a fairly limited amount of War Score.

Bit of a shame to hear that. Major battles tended to be fairly decisive for Medieval wars - though I suppose this may be a gameplay-influenced change so as to not trivialize sieges, which were far more prominent in history.

Chasing armies deep into enemy land is certainly not recommended.

Excellent! I'm glad to hear borders will actually matter, or so it sounds. Is it possible that perhaps attrition could be influenced by fort levels as well, so that passing by powerful fortresses would cause more problems for supply? Such would incentivize the taking of fortresses rather than passing them by, and make the creation of border marches a thing, too!

 

[Servancour]

weird that battle efficiency is represented by a tangible character but its nice that if you counter them theyll swing by for a visit

You saw nothing...

 

[Col. W. T. Philmore]

Men-at-Arms are the equivalent to the Retinues of CK2.

Does it mean that retinues in their classic way are gone and now we have cannon fodder for everyday fights and elite taskforce for special cases?

Next we have a special kind of Men-at-Arms: Siege Weapons.

Will they be useful in common battles as artillery?

Castles and County Capitals are all fortified by default,

So minor cities and temples have no defense by default? can I build walls everywhere?

Armies now carry an amount of Supply with them.

Yay nice u played Three KIngdoms. Where is our China then? )

 

[Maxsimg]

Yay nice u played Three KIngdoms. Where is our China then? )

Knights of Honor have this feature too

 

[Wuddel]

It would be nice if the game had a sophisticated enough economic/population system that it can reflect a society being devastated from loss of manpower if, say, your army of peasant levies gets wiped out, and therefore not enough people are left to harvest the fields at home.

I am not sure if this was a thing. The armies were comparably tiny. They did directly devastate the land, but not indirectly through loss of manpower that much.

 

[travro]

So will the AI take attrition into account and do something other than rush my capital?

 

[Drakken]

I am not sure if this was a thing. The armies were comparably tiny. They did directly devastate the land, but not indirectly through loss of manpower that much.

Agreed. Devastation was more a by-product of pillagers, scorchers, and disease rather than conscripting levies.

 

[LeandroB]

War seens nice, but this CK3 map kinda look bad compared to Imperator's map...

 

[Drakken]

So armies don't have 3 commanders 1 for each flank anymore?

Hallelujah!

 

[Heiliges Thüringens Reich]

Very nice!
Really like the change on commanders. Needing to put 3 for every big stack was tiresome.

Some suggestions and questions, if I may:
- that little Knight helmet could change to reflect the era the player is playing; the helmet shown in 867 would be different from one shown in 1337, for example. Is that doable?
Being a bit more far-fetched, the game could show culture-based helmets (so a Berber Knight has a different helmet from a Bengalese Knight).

- in the men-at-arms window, I think it would be clearer if the attribute categories (damage, toughness, etc) were written under or above their symbols.
In the same window, telling us by how much the terrain effects add or reduce their effectiveness (+20%? -15%?).

- will we still be able to see troop numbers whe selecting a landed character? If so, their men-at-arms composition as well?

 

[PDX-Nicou]

[...]About the knighthood mechanic[...]

Knights fight alongside your normal troops, but are much more powerful than any single Levy or Men-at-Arm, dealing and taking damage much like they would.
They can be wounded, captured or worse: killed... so be careful who you send to war! ... Or maybe do it on purpose in an unfair fight

 

[Maxsimg]

It would be nice if the game had a sophisticated enough economic/population system that it can reflect a society being devastated from loss of manpower if, say, your army of peasant levies gets wiped out, and therefore not enough people are left to harvest the fields at home.

In medieval warfare peasants was conscripted only for short time (usually 3 months) and was demobilized during summer to work in fields

 

[Andrzej I]

- are Knights automatically selected among the highest Prowess guys in my realm or can I appoint/change them?

Answer seems to be given below:

Knight isn't a title as such that you hand out. They default to the most capable characters within your realm (based on Prowess), which you then can adjust if you want to.

At least, I do hope I'm interpreting this right and am able to say "No, son, you aren't going to be my realm's knight. I need you alive."

 

[Drakken]

Knights fight alongside your normal troops, but are much more powerful than any single Levy or Men-at-Arm, dealing and taking damage much like they would.
They can be wounded, captured or worse: killed... so be careful who you send to war! ... Or maybe do it on purpose in an unfair fight

This is something I've waited for since CK1 - characters with Martial prowess should be on the battlefield with their host, not sitting at home doodling around.

 

[Pied-Noir]

War seens nice, but this CK3 map kinda look bad compared to Imperator's map...

I agree, but it's early days and the map will receive plenty of polish between now and release. Look at the CK II map in early dev diaries and the map at release.