Before giving you some tips on how to start a game of CK3, let's briefly remind you what this game is all about. Crusader Kings III is a medieval version of a "Civilization" strategy game: it offers the player a historical simulation over several centuries, through the destiny of a dynasty whose various heirs you incarnate. It is up to you to increase the fame of your dynasty through the various alliances, wars, crusades or through your devotion to your religion. For those of you who have already played Crusader Kings III, you may have noticed that it is a very complex game. But as with any complex game, if you look a little deeper, it all becomes crystal clear. So let's take a closer look at it together, to spare you dozens of decrepit counties, dukedoms, kingdoms and empires that will force you to start from scratch. You might as well start with the right basics, and that starts with the game interface, which is essential to keep in mind because you'll be using it all the time.

1. Your character

This is the person from your dynasty that you are currently playing. If she dies, her heir takes her place, and if there is no heir, your dynasty dies out. Who will be your heir? That depends on your laws of succession, and I'll come back to that later. In addition to the character, you note the presence of 3 icons, referring (from left to right) to your house, your faith and your culture.

At the very top of the character window is a visual of your character as well as that of your fiancée/wife. You also see who will be your heir. The character here is 66 years old, as indicated next to the golden heart, which means that his health is not great, so it's time to worry about that.
Succession plays an important role in Crusader Kings 3, I'll come back to that in another part.
Most important in this part of the character sheet are traits and skills. The squares represent a character's traits, innate (roughly on the left) or acquired (small on the right). Everyone has them, and this influences his or her abilities and skills. Many traits offer bonuses and maluses and interact with each other. Someone with the "Honest" trait, for example, will have a lower opinion of characters who prefer intrigue.
Skills are represented by 6 symbols, from left to right:
- Diplomacy - Talking with diplomacy can bring many benefits.
- Martiality - Imposing one's dominance by force, whether psychological or physical.
- Stewardship - Being a good manager can pay big dividends.
- Intrigue - Conspiracies are commonplace, a good plot makes it easier to get out of the world of manipulation
- Scholarship - Important especially for all matters of faith
- Prowess

The prowess is a little different: it represents a character's ability to fight without suffering negative consequences. A commander with a good prowess will give his army a better chance of winning a battle. He will also avoid being taken prisoner, maimed or even killed.
To the right of the skills are indicated the character's faith and culture, as well as temporary bonuses (the symbols in green). Finally, the coat of arms is that of the dynasty to which you belong.

What is important here is the largest title the character has (here Kingdom of Ireland) as well as his other titles and claims. Each title confers a certain power according to the "de jure" structure, to which we will return a little later.
Claims are titles that do not belong to the character but to which he or she is entitled. A minus sign means that the claim is weak, a plus sign being the opposite. I'm not drawing you a picture.
Note that you can quickly identify a title by the crown perched on the coat of arms. You will notice that they are arranged from left to right in order of importance: this figure is King of Ireland, King of Alba (Scotland), King of Jerusalem, and others. Next come the titles of duke, then earl, and so on.

Finally, you have a summary of the character's relationships. This allows you to see quickly whether you are rather appreciated or not, how many children you have, who holds which title, etc.
Note the presence of tabs that allow you to have a quick overview of the relationships.

2. Resources and issues to manage

To the far left of this bar is the small icon for notifications. Don't hesitate to check it regularly, it's a little help from the game to help you find your way through all this mess when it comes to determining your next action to take.
Keep in mind, however, that not everything the game tells you is necessarily the most relevant (despite a system of sorting by "relevance" for certain decisions). The focus here is on telling you what is worthy of your intent. Just because you are told that you can declare war on 12 countries doesn't mean you should jump the gun.
Then, from left to right, you have :
- Gold - Use it to build buildings, bribe people, maintain your armies, raise regiments, etc. This is pretty much true to real life: you need it.
- Prestige - Can be used to call allies to war and, depending on your political system, to replace gold in some instances.
- Faith - Faith is also a currency that can be used in certain instances, such as ... changing your faith, but also in your interactions with your religious leader or in declaring holy wars.
- Dynasty Score - The more your dynasty is known, the better your chances of being recognized by foreign courts. This can be helpful in arranging your offspring into advantageous marriages.
- Your Troops - To wage war, you need troops. That's all I have.
- Your property - Property that belongs to you, not to one of your vassals.

You will note that there is a maximum number of properties that you can personally dispose of. I insist on the fact that these are properties and not titles, even though it is often related: a county will usually have a castle, and if you are a count... it is yours. But thinking like this avoids imagining that you have a maximum number of titles, which is not the case in principle.
You can exceed this limit, but the taxes and levies you will collect will be greatly reduced. Very quickly you will have to grant land to vassals. The easiest way to do this is to go through your character sheet and choose from your relationships. Try to target members of your house, especially your heirs, in order to try to avoid a possible partition of your lands when you die.

Once you have chosen someone, the question remains as to what you will entrust to them. Let's take the thorniest case and the one that will intervene the most quickly: the counties.
Each county brings you gold and levees. Those that belong to you give you as much as they can, the others give you only one faction. It is therefore advisable to sell off the counties that bring in the least money to avoid cutting off too much of your financial and military income.
Note that from 3 duchies on, you will have to give one of them to someone, otherwise your vassals will be dissatisfied and will end up rebelling against your tyranny. This is why it is imperative to move towards the conquest of a kingdom, which will give you a superior title in order to keep all the dukedoms under your control, even if they belong to vassals.

3. Management

The management of your domain goes through several tabs. We will focus on the main ones, which you will need to properly manage your beginning of the game:
- Decisions - the nib and the inkwell
- The Council - the Chair

3.1 Decisions

The decisions will be regularly updated as your game evolves, so feel free to check it out from time to time.
When you start, you will mainly have the use of 2 elements:
- Inviting knights
- Search for a doctor
For any decision you will have to spend prestige. Invite knights if you run out of them (depending on your character's skill tree, the contingent of knights can quickly climb) or if you feel that their prowess (their combat level, remember?) is too low. Avoid this command from the beginning of the game, however, as each knight will cost you gold.
The very first decision you have to make when starting a game is to look for a doctor, and preferably take the one with the best level, even if you have to pay 50 gold coins. Still avoid doctors below level 10 - remember to come back for a doctor later if you don't recruit anyone with that first search. Keep in mind, however, that this decision, like others, has a recharging delay. If you don't have a doctor and someone in your backyard or even you are injured, that's too bad for you.
That's the whole point of having a good doctor. There are many risks in Crusader Kings III: illness, battle or event related injuries, plots... having a good doctor can quickly make a huge difference.

3.2 The Council

The Board will accompany you throughout the game. Its members will change with your appointments, but their skills will remain the same.
At the very beginning of the game, here are the councillors who should draw your attention:
- The religious leader, top right
- The master spy, bottom right
- Your spouse
In principle, you will start the game by being disliked by your religious leader, start by influencing him by right-clicking on his portrait and choosing "Influence". This will start a conspiracy with a very high chance of success.
Why is it important to be in your religious leader's good graces? Simply because religion has baronies, and if your religious leader can't cheat you, he won't have to pay taxes, which means not only less gold, but also fewer men.
Your master spy will serve you just that, so make sure his "Intrigue" skill is as high as possible. The advisors you start with may not necessarily be the best in their field, so don't hesitate to make some adjustments if necessary. Keep in mind, however, that powerful vassals (marked with an upright point, like my master spy), expect to sit on the board, and disgruntled vassals make the best candidates for revolt.
Your religious leader, to come back to it, will be able to create claims from scratch for a fee. So you can click on the last icon at the bottom of his portrait (the shield with one hand) and then click on a county nearby so that you can legitimately declare war on it (it is impossible to declare war without a legitimate reason, also called cassus belli).
As for your spouse, you will be able to have her exercise in any field. She will add her associated skill value. Don't hesitate to choose the field of her highest competence or advise her the weakest one just to give her a little boost.
Because what you need to know is that a bad counselor will not only fail, he will fail miserably. You will be able to get caught in some not-so-superior circumstances, such as the legitimization of a foreign claim on one of your securities, for example.

In the second part, we will discuss the notions of title and ownership, as well as the importance of alliances and lifestyle.