Image credit: Paradox Interactive
By God Alone, the latest expansion to the medieval simulator Crusader Kings 3, brings massive changes to the game. Chief among these are huge overhauls to pretty much every part of the religion system, as well as the ability to play as Theocracies – governments ruled by the authority of the church rather than that of a noble dynasty.
Most of By God Alone is focused on fleshing out Christianity, adding in new historical context and allowing for power struggles between Feudal rulers and the Ecclesiastical powers of the Pope and the lower Bishops. I found that By God Alone added wonderful flavor, but was better if you didn’t end up playing Papal Spreadsheet Simulator.
New spiritual depths
By God Alone has made religion an awful lot more complicated. Previously, each religion had three possible Tenets that would define what a belief system did. If you changed any one of them, it was a big undertaking and redefined how the religion worked. However, now there are multiple layers to how that works.
There are still the main three Tenets that affect all characters of a particular religion, but now there are also a lot of other Tenets that make up the religion. These are Tenets that can be picked up by individual characters as beliefs they personally embrace above all others, giving different benefits from character to character.
How well these personal Tenets align with established religion, as well as your actions, will change your Spiritual Fulfilment – a measure of how at peace you are with your Faith.
If you act in line with the church’s expectations, then you will find it easier to be pious and to have a good relationship with the ruling spiritual powers. Deviate too far, and it will be hard to regain your virtue – but it will make it easier to act as a tyrannical manipulator.
The additions add new layers to your character’s interactions with religion, and give more options to customize yourself as a benevolent ruler or a scheming bastard. This also gives a glimpse at just how many Tenets there are in the game, and where this particular expansion’s issues lie.
Eve Online: Catholic Edition
There are an overwhelming number of Tenets in the game, and they were previously only really important once or twice when you founded or diverged a religion. Now, they’re important all the time for how your personal Tenets affect your individual skills or Spiritual Fulfilment, especially in Catholicism, when the foundation of the religion seems to change every five minutes.
If the Pope feels like it, he can use faith to change the Tenets and doctrines of Catholicism pretty much on a whim, and he’s not the only one. Ecclesiastical rulers can hold Ecumenical Councils, whereby any available Priest can debate over changes to the religion.
Even when you’re actually playing a Priest, you only have so much control over how these go, so Catholicism can shift massively over very short periods of time.
Add to that the fact that smaller Rites can exist within larger religions, and you have a whole system that’s deep and interesting, but is too complicated and random.
So long as you’re not being branded an active heretic, I think it’s better to be a landed ruler trying to keep up with the latest updates to doctrine than it is actively trying to muddle through how you want to vote on every little issue.
God over glory
Similarly, as much as I’m happy that the game has finally added all manner of mechanics surrounding Christianity, I’m not sure I actually want to get personally involved in them.
It’s great that finally the College of Cardinals are electing Popes, and that there are rules involving the schism between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, but playing as Theocracy just seems to drain a lot of the fun out of the experience.
Unless you set things up just so, it’s not like you can nurture a dynasty, for example. A lot of the roleplaying elements that make Crusader Kings 3 so great fall apart when you’re playing an office rather than a string of characters, because even if I can tell that my confessor will be taking my place after I die, I just don’t really care. It’s so much harder to get into playing a Theocracy compared to basically any other government type in the game.
Your options suddenly become quite limited as well. You can’t just go around claiming land, of course; you can only really declare wars if they’re Holy Wars. Rather, you’re supposed to be manipulating local Lords to do this kind of thing for you – but without gaining much for yourself.
Ruling in the name of God requires a whole different outlook from the rest of CK3, closer to that of playing an Administrator in China, where the greater good matters more than your individual desires.
It’s just not for me. I didn’t even find being the Pope all that interesting in the end, as you can get all the benefits from trying to make him your puppet instead. By God Alone adds so much to Crusader Kings 3, and on the whole I think it makes the game better, especially as a Christian ruler.
However, I don’t think I’ll quite be taking the vows yet, at least not for a whole game. Far more fun, I think, is to puppet a man of the cloth and put them on the Papal seat for my own benefit.
FAQs
Absolutely, Crusader Kings III is such an excellent time, though it will be enhanced by having access to some of the core expansions. If you’d like to try it, whenever a new DLC is on the way, Paradox will usually let new players get a free weekend to play.
A full game of Crusader Kings III from the starting year of 873 to the end date of 1453 can take an awfully long time; upwards of fifty hours or more, depending on how in-depth you get.
Neither starting date in Crusader Kings III is necessarily better, though they do play differently. The 867 start is better for engaging with Tribal playstyles, which rely on raiding, and the progression to becoming a more established style of Government. The 1066 start has higher starting tech levels and a bigger focus on massive wars.
