This guide will help you understand the basics of geopolitics in CK3. It will show you where to place your capitals and which counties are best to develop in your domain. Skip if you are a roleplayer who doesn’t want meta spoiled.
 

The fundamental principles of geography exploitation

You've played a few campaigns, and now you want to optimize your gameplay. This section will help to explain the basic rules of geography in CK3.
 
 

GEOGRAPHY MATTERS

 
Understanding the core mechanics is the first step in optimizing your gameplay. The game could be divided into multiple basic systems of volatility that stack on top of each other in order from most volatile to least volatile assets: leaders and nations, land.
 
Leaders is the name of the character you will play or who will accompany you on your journey. They will usually change every 30-50 years depending on how skilled and luck you are at dynasty management. Your interactions with the world will be influenced by their skills. However, they are only mortal and frail humans. Therefore, it is important to have a solid base that even the most unfit ruler can use.
 
nations is a reference to religions and cultures you will encounter around the globe. Your immediate diplomatic situation is determined by religions. NPC rulers tend not to base their policy on the boundaries of spiritual domains. Brothers in faith often marry each other and form alliances. The more they see a faith as hostile, the more they become suspicious. Some religions also offer bonuses/debuffs for leader traits and geography. Cultures are similar to reiligion in terms of their effects. However, they have less effects on diplomacy (. No one will attack you for having a different heritage or language, but it will affect their opinion of you) and have bigger effects on the bonuses. Both religions as well as cultures can be customized, but they do not have a lot of RNG (, unlike genetics and education). This means that they should not be altered at all (. However, you will most likely need to hybridize or diverge cultures and create the best religion at the least once per campaign. You'll have to be ready for large conversion campaigns and unrest as a result).
 
The land is the final. It is impossible to alter the game's most important aspects. The land is divided into counties, which will be the basis of your interaction with it. There are also smaller subparts called baronies that are less important. Counties are always part of dejure duchies. These are a part de-jure kingdoms. You can also divide the land into vassal and personal domain. Personal domain is any land you own, which means you will get 100% of the benefits. However, you will have to invest in it. Vassal domains are owned by your vassals. While you won't get all of the benefits, you do get a small portion of what vassals get, but you don't have to invest. Feudalism is a form of internal conflict. You are part of the constant arms race between your neighbors and your vassals. It's why it's so important to have a wealthy personal domain. Every barony has a terrain. This is why ck3, IMO is so different from its predecessor. It was difficult, but not impossible, to play in Arctic Russia (. See my profile for a screenshot. I achieved 7 slot counties of Kolguyev through strategic investments), Steppes and Mountains, and other areas considered less habitable by our human race. However, in ck3, you will encounter the limited building chains glass ceiling — yes, it is possible to invest into a mountain barony but it will not be as profitable as one in floodplains or farmlands. Here's the secret: FARMLANDS & FLOODPLAINS ARE ALWAYS BETTER AS A BASE . We are limited in our ability to choose the best regions for gameplay because ck3 is a game about historical geography.
 
TL;DR Develop your farm and floodplains areas with your domain!
 
 
 

The pursuit of development

The order in which they work will determine how useful a personal domain is.
 
 

Terrain

 
Each barony has a designated terrain. The Ck3 Wiki has a list of all terrains. The usefulness of the barony will be determined by its terrain. While supply limit, combat width, and movement speed all affect the armies that pass through it, the most important aspect is the bonus/debuff at developement growth. Each county has a certain amount of developement that it is assigned from the beginning. However, this number can change during gameplay. The more developement a country has, the more armies you have and the more money you get from it. It is vital to have a steward who is responsible for developing the lands (to the tech cap). This is why it is so important that you maximize its efficiency. You get +20% to developement, but plains (, which is the most common terrain type,), do not grant any bonuses. Steppes, deserts, and desert mountains will cripple your ability to developement grow.
 
 

Building chains

 
A barony with a basic holding will not provide you with much resources (, mainly men to organize them into armies and money for them to pay the armies). This is why you need to invest in them to build holdings which, surprise, are heavily dependent on a particular terrain type of barony. You should be focusing more on making money. This will allow you to get the best men at-arms and not go bankrupt for building an army (. Otherwise, you will literally debilitate your troops), and hire mercenaries if you need more troops. I build three money buildings to boost a specific men's-at-arms type. Can you guess which terrains produce the best buildings? FLOODPLAINS AND FARMLANDS on the coasts .
 
Coastal holdings can give you access to tradeports that will allow you to make money and grow your business.
 
Farmlands will give you Farms&Fields and Manor Houses that will give an enormous amount of money. They will also give you bonuses to heavy infantry (. I just love them more than the other men at arms types). Farmlands are rare and often found in small areas among other terrains.
 
Floodplains grant you Orchards which give you a moderate amount of money, development and some levies. However, floodplains are more common than Farmlands and are less spread out.
 
If you are unable to find a suitable coastal farmland, floodplain, or plains, forests, and deserts (with desert dwellers cultural traits), or hills (mountaineer rusticism), then these would be acceptable. Never, under any circumstance, trust jungles, steppes or deserts.
 
 

How-to

 
You must choose a specific location to optimize the geography. Then, focus your efforts on consolidating and conquering it. Concentrate your resources. Focus your initial conquest on Stewardship and Education. Stewardship will allow for you to get a lot more money and build better buildings (without having to worry about geography. Education will help you raise the actual development of provinces. You will eventually hit a ceiling with techs. You can't build many upgrades, special buildings, or duchy capital buildings without proper techs. Your developement growth will be virtually zero once you reach the maximum allowed by your tech. The next strategy is to conquer the desired provinces first, then hoard money and spend it on upgrades. Next, you invest heavily in techs, upgrades, and then techs. Culture can have a significant impact on the meta. For example, certain culture traits can make previously difficult terrain more manageable or give you bonuses for terrains that are stronger. The development of religion is less important than you might think. Instead, try to find a religion that has holy sites within your domain. This will allow you to build a powerful special building.
 
 

Additional Notes

 
Some debuffs can be made into buffs with cultural traits. However, nothing can match the agrarian culture trait of farmlands in terms raw development output. You need to consider county capacity. Every county has a limit on the number of baronies it can hold. The more the merrier. Your focus should be on building your counties to their maximum — with castles as an additional source of troops or money in your own domain, and with cities and churches for further development. You also have the benefit of special buildings and duchy capita buildings. Special buildings (mines and holy sites, universities, and important forts and capitals) are hardcoded into the game so you can't move them around. However, the bonuses they provide can transform an insignificant province into a powerhouse.
 
 
 

The best regions

IMO with the reasoning listed above and below these five areas are the best regions to play in.
 
 

Lower Rhein + Denmark

 
 

 
 
Six farmlands are located close together, with four of them being coastal, and five of them being duchy capitals (Holland. Flanders, Zealand. Skane, Cologne, Flanders. Cologne and Scane have special buildings. This could be a base for a viking with dutch mixed culture (to receive the maximum bonus from coast holdings from Maritime Merchants culture traits and farmlands from Agrarian cultural trait). It is also somewhat historical!
 
 

Mediterranean

 
 

 
 
This region could be divided into two subregions: the Iberia peninsula and the Southern Apennine peninsula. Iberia has three farms that are very close to each other. They are all duchy capitals (Cordoba Sevilla and Toledo). This one is enough to get you through the early games, even if your OPM) is a university in Madrid. I generally get an additional Galicia duchy if I play in this region. Galicia is Coruna and Santiago's special buildings that will be of great help to Christians uniting Iberia.
 
 
Four coastal farmlands are available to the Southern Apennine. Three of them are duchy capitals (Latium Sicily, Sicily, Salerno, and Salerno). There are two special buldings in Rome, one in Palermo, and a silver mine on the plains of Cagiliari. This is a powerful position, but you would have to leave Rome to Pope unless you wish to see a crusade once in a few decades.
 
 

Eastern Mediterranean

 

 
 
This region could be subdivided into Mesopotamia and Egypt. Although Egypt has many floodplains provinces and only one is coastal, You can find many duchy capitals in floodplains if you travel further up the Nile river. With Agrarian culture trait of Egyptian culture, you will quickly become the most advanced nation on the planet. You won't find many unique buildings.
 
 
Mesopotamia is home to many floodplains concentrated with three special buildings, five duchy titles, and plenty of other facilities.
 
 

Western Africa

 
 

 
 
River floodplains are the best place to play in Western Africa, but it is severely limited by two duchy capitals as well as divided nature. It is home to three gold mines.
 
 

India

 
 

 
 
The best region overall. Several large areas of powerful farmlands are concentrated close together. There are thirteen duchy capitals (in Tamil kingdom, two each in Punjab and four in Delhi, and five in Bengal). These include isolated ones in Orissa and Burma. You can get a personal domain so powerful you don't need vassals if you add enormous amounts of starting development (to Constantinople).
 
 
 

Conclusion

This guide is meant to provide a basic overview of meta play in CK3. CK3 is not a game you should play optimally. It will quickly drain all of the fun out. Sometimes you have to lose in order to tell a cool story, sometimes you want an isolated mountain dweller nation to play, and sometimes you just want some relaxation. genociding You can either paint the map or raid the area. I would advise ck3 fans to at least try pure meta once to see how fast you can build the most powerful empires using your personal domain.

 
 

 
 
I hope you enjoy the Guide we share about Crusader Kings III – Basic Info for Geopolitics; if you think we forget to add or we should add more information, please let us know via commenting below! See you soon!