The thing about monarchs is they are, on the whole, very keen for you to know they’re monarchs. Thus the crown, the ermine, the jewellery, the palaces and, most of all, the coronations. Whether it’s the Pope dumping a crown on Charlemagne’s head in 800 CE, Napoleon getting ideas above his station in 1804, or Charlie the Third looking bored while they daub him in oils two years ago, they’ve always liked to make a big song and dance of accession and they always will.
Which makes it all the stranger that Crusader Kings 3—first in the market of king-sims—has never made much of coronations. Your forebear dies, you get the crown, and all their vassals hate you. Bish-bash-bosh, you’re done. Well, no more. Paradox has just announced its release date for Coronations, a new event pack for CK3 that makes your coronation, uh, more of an event.
If you’ve forgotten how Paradox’s class system for its DLCs works, this is one of the smaller ones. It’s not a major expansion like Roads to Power or Royal Court, which added big new systems to CK3’s core gameplay. Instead, it’s more along the lines of Wandering Nobles or Wards and Wardens: a bundle of new events and minor mechanics that mostly just add flavour to the game as-is, rather than radically changing it.
Still, I’m into it. On top of being an easy avenue to give yourself a quick positive injection boost among your new vassals at the start of a reign, it sounds like there’ll be plenty of opportunities for conspiracy and skulduggery amid all the pomp and circumstance, too. Before you host a coronation, you can select your intent for proceedings, ranging from a bog-standard Impress Attendees to a more sinister Weaken Detractors.
“Gather your vassals in a grand ceremony so they can bear witness to your ascension to the throne,” reads the marketing blurb, “or use the cover of this majestic event to undermine or eliminate rivals at court.” It’s almost worth being spectacularly assassinated at your own coronation just for the story.
It’s not all about dying and/or doing murders, somehow. You’ll also get an opportunity to make an oath at your coronation: basically a big medieval campaign promise to gin up support and give yourself an opportunity to massively disappoint everyone later on down the line. These can be anything from securing alliances, to expanding the kingdom, to becoming the greatest hunter in the realm. Or you can promise to provide for the poor, which I have to imagine all your aristo pals couldn’t care less about.
And, of course, Coronations will also give you a chance to attend coronations if you’re playing someone’s vassal, giving you ample opportunity to make a huge pig’s breakfast of the entire thing. Sounds good to me. Coronations hits on September 9, for $5 (£4.29).
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