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The historical Genghis Khan shook the medieval world to its core by forging the largest land empire ever seen. As a game that takes place during the Middle Ages,Crusader Kings 3naturally has him appear in Mongolia during the 13th century and begin his conquest of the world.
However,Crusader Kings 3lets players start in any corner of the map, and their dynasty can come from any culture and religious background relevant to the era. What this means is that a player-controlled Mongol dynasty can found the Mongol Empire early, and they get many of the advantages the AI Genghis Khan enjoys. Read on to learn how to pull this off.
“Become Greatest of Khans” Requirements
To kickstart the Mongol Empire under your personal leadership, you first need access to the decision “Become Greatest of Khans.” This decision only appears if your ruler’s culture has Mongolic Heritage. Valid cultures include:
In addition, no one else can have triggered this decision during the current game. This restriction is most relevant to multiplayer games, since AI rulers will wait for the historical Genghis Khan to appear.
If you want to further secure your chances at becoming Genghis Khan, turn off the “Historic Mongol Invasion” rule at game start. If you’d rather race Temujin to the title, keep the rule on.
Of course, the decision has several more requirements you must meet if you want to enact it.
How to Quickly Become Greatest of Khans
The Kirghiz Khanate of the 867 starting date is an imperial title, and it’s already big enough to meet the size requirement needed for “Become Greatest of Khans.” However, the Kirghiz culture has Turkic Heritage, which means it doesn’t qualify for the decision. Fortunately, there are a few ways to get around this problem.
Not only can you play asTemujin’s historic ancestorin 867; withRoads to Powerand the new 1178 Start Date, you can now play as a 16-year-old Temujin at game start.
If you prefer the 1066 starting date, your best bet is Khan Hongji of Great Liao. Hongji is Khitan, a Mongolic culture, and his starting realm is almost halfway to the size requirement. His biggest drawback is that he’s a Mahayana Buddhist,which has the Dharmic Pacifism tenet. This tenet makes expansion difficult, even when surrounded by non-Eastern realms.
On the bright side, your ruler can follow any religion and still become Genghis Khan, so you don’t need to spend over 6,000 piety to convert Hongji to Tengri. Instead, you may convert to Nestorian, a local Christian faith, for only around 850 piety. Nestorian has Eastern Syncretism, which makes it hard to start holy wars in Tibet and India, but then the Mongol Empire doesn’t need holy wars to expand.
The above paragraphhas outdated information. Your player charactermust follow Tengriismin order to take the “Become Greatest of Khans” decision. Still, it’s true that you don’t need Holy Wars as Genghis Khan, as you will have access tothe single best casus belli in the game. More on that below.
The Benefits of Becoming the Greatest of Khans
Once you meet all the requirements and enact the decision, you get a variety of visible and hidden benefits.
Something to keep in mind about the free troops is that, while they are free and don’t consume supplies, they also don’t restore their numbers, and they all disappear as soon as your Genghis Khan ruler dies. The Armored Horsemen and Trebuchets appear even if the world hasn’t entered the High Medieval era, so make good use of them while you’re able to.
Another benefit you get is access to the specialMongol Invasion Casus Belli.This CB lets you invade an unlimited number of kingdom titles for just 200 Prestige each (really 100 Prestige, since Tribal governments get a discount).When you successfully wage war on a kingdom, your benefits are as follows:
In addition, random independent dukes and counts that border the Mongol Empire may randomly decide to join the empire. This happens without any notifications, and the dukes and counts may decide to swear fealty to one of your king vassals rather than your ruler directly. Even if the ruler would refuse an Offer Vassalage request, they still might join the Mongol Empire thanks to this passive effect. In fact, tribal emperors sometimes give up their imperial title and join the Mongol Empire as a duke or count, at least if their personal domain is adjacent to the empire.
After your Genghis Khan ruler dies, the special troops will leave, but you can continue to wage Mongol Invasion wars, and neighboring rulers will continue to join the Mongol Empire. You’re free to adopt any of the Faiths your empire comes in contact with, or to reform Tengri into an organized religion, and continue the Mongol Invasion. These two benefits only end if you adopt a Feudal or Clan government.
Fortunately, the High Partition law will survive the government transition. This means that, while the Mongol Empire title can never have de jure kingdoms, it won’t break apart even if the rest of the world still has to worry about Confederate Partitions.
After 2-3 rulers of the Mongol Empire have passed, the Empire will collapse and leave behind Khanates relative to the geographical regions conquered by the Mongols.
