Crusader Kings III Buildings and Holdings Guide - ISK Mogul Adventures (2023)

Crusader Kings III has a ton of content in it. Many were concerned that the game would fall into the trap of being kind of threadbare on launch. This was due to the perception that the game would be missing many features added as DLC in Crusader Kings II, and this doesn’t really appear to be the case. There are a great many elements that were DLC in the second game that has been included in the base game of the new sequel.

Among these additions is a robust building and realm management system. Players can manage and customize their entire not only their Realms, but also the counties and duchies within those Realms with various addons and new construction. Each type of building has a base cost and construction time, as well as a net effect. Most of these effects are centered around buffs to the economic and military might of your empire.

Let’s start by talking about the Main holdings, which are carried over from the last game.

Main Holdings

So let’s talk more about how this new game handles technology and upgrades.

Culture and Tech

Technology has changed a fair bit in this new game. Technology has been removed from the hands of individual empires or kingdoms and is now culture-wide, in practice. If you belong to a more tribal culture, your technology options for military and politics will be more limited. You can still invest in new tech regardless of culture through the new “fascination” mechanic. You can choose to direct your technological development in this manner to push your kingdom in a certain direction, say if you want to rush a certain society technology.

To help in achieving this though, you will need to spend Gold and Piety. That’s where holdings can be upgraded with a few different buildings to boost tax and resource income. You can also buff you Levies as well.

Additional construction slots and terrain-dependent buildings

The slots seen below the main settlement’s box are for additional structures in that holding. These are the general ones that aren’t affected by terrain (don’t forget that they can still be upgraded):

As you add in more upgrades to your infrastructure, you will notice the requirements changing. Each level of fortification or other upgrade has their own requirements, and you need to pay attention to tooltips here. Each main holding type is also tied to a certain technology tradition. castles require the “Battlements” technology to be upgraded to hit certain levels. For cities and temples, meanwhile, you’ll need the “Manorialism” tech and its equivalents to add new elements in.

And here are some of the buildings and addons you can add for the economic side of things:

Tribal Buildings

Feudal and Clan government types inCrusader Kings III tend to share structure types, as they belong to a similar culture group. Due to low development and tech, tribes only have a small number of options to pick from. They can eventually develop into more complex structures by evolving out of Tribal structures, but this will lock off these older development paths in favor of those enjoyed by the likes of Western European powers.

These cost both gold and prestige, and you can find the costs below:

Duchy buildings

Duchy buildings in Crusader Kings III are all the same regardless of culture or government type. They can only be constructed in a duchy’s capital though. You will be locked out of the realm-wide upgrades until you have a sufficient title. At level 1, all the duchy buildings cost 300 gold and will take five years to construct. The costs go up from there, and like any other buildings, expect the buffs to increase as you move up tiers.

Special buildings or historical landmarks

Lastly, you’ve gotCrusader Kings III‘s special buildings are the pinnacle of engineering and power. Kingdoms able to construct these get massive buffs to their entire empire in some cases, or localized buffs to counties and holdings. These represent both the holy sites of various religious disciplines and major historical landmarks. All CK3 special buildings cost 1,000 gold and would take five to six years to finish.

Controlling these special buildings and historical landmarks will be very important in yourCrusader Kings IIIplaythrough. One look at the bonuses alone would show you that they’ll definitely help throughout your campaign.

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