The games brilliantly capture the court intrigue, mysticism, religious conflicts, and devastating plagues that dominated this fascinating period in history, helping make it a real masterpiece of both the strategy and historical game genres.Ī key thing to note about Crusader Kings and the other Paradox grand strategy games is they are excruciatingly difficult for new players because of the many detailed elements of your nation you control. The Crusader Kings games focus on the medieval period with the vanilla game starting in 1066 and ending just before the fall of Constantinople in 1452. Once you’ve selected a country, you are tasked with managing the economic, military and diplomatic affairs of that nation. You play on an interactive map covering different areas of the world, at a different period in history. On my dad’s now ancient and dusty desktop, I buried hour after hour into the first of the Crusader Kings series, kindling an immense love for Paradox Interactive’s historical grand strategy games that persists to this day.Įvery title within this grand strategy series incorporates several standard features. One game in this stack, however, received infinitely more playtime than the others. These include iconic classics including Age of Empires II and Pharaoh. To this day, I still own a sizeable stack of hard-copy historical games for PC that I accumulated during weekend trips to charity shops throughout my childhood. When I discovered gaming, this love for all things historical influenced what games I chose to play. Much of my childhood was spent in museums, devouring books about history, or roleplaying as medieval knights with friends in the playground. Since I was young, I have possessed an undying love for history.

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