欢迎来到十字军之王3的入门指南，这是一个了不起的战略游戏，你可以在这里通过战争、外交以及阴谋手段带领你的宗族在中世纪走向辉煌。无论你是同名前作的回归玩家还是这一系列的新玩家，你都可以通过这个指南在游戏中先人一步地娱乐并获得成功。
At the time of writing there are no expansions for Crusader Kings III, and thus this guide assumes you have none enabled.
选择一个角色
Template:Evt 在 CK3 中你将扮演一个宗族或统治者，而不是一个国家。在开始的时候，通过点击 新的游戏 在867或1066年代中选择一个有趣的角色。你可以从屏幕顶部的标签选择这两个时间段的不同而有趣的人物，或者，通过点击屏幕左下角的 以任意统治者开始游戏 在你选择的年份中选择地图上的任意合适的统治者。
从地图上大量的人物中选择角色可能会让你在试图选择一个好的统治者开始游戏时感到难以应付。考虑选择一位1066年 白手起家 剧本的角色开始游戏吧。他们包括：
- 芒斯特的小型国王穆尔哈德，他在南爱尔兰统治着面积不大却很强悍的疆域，你可以通过他恢复祖父的王国的过程中学习怎样成为一位征服者。 这个开局相当容易，因为你可以将更多的注意力放在爱尔兰岛上，并且爱尔兰岛有独立的教会并且很少受到岛外的干扰。
- 波西米亚公爵弗拉提斯拉夫，他作为神圣罗马帝国的一个封臣统治着捷克民族；一旦他积攒了足够的财富，他就会加冕为波希米亚国王。波希米亚王国使用年长者继承法，这个继承法降低了在换代时领地被分给几个心怀鬼胎的兄弟的风险。作为一个神圣罗马帝国的封臣，你不用担心外部的侵略，并且你可以学习如何做为一个 强大的封臣 而成为领主的内阁成员。
- 阿普利亚公爵罗伯特，他是一个在南意大利有很大声望的诺曼征服者。作为一个想要创建王国的独立统治者，你有足够的上升空间，并且有足够的机会与强大的相邻统治者结为同盟。
作为一个大王国的统治者可能看着很诱人，但紧接而来的，就是取悦并管理许多潜在的对你不忠诚的封臣的责任。在早期你经常会发现有强大的封臣计划反对你，让你在叛乱中变得地位不稳或直接攻击你当你不能使他们息怒时。
做为一个拥有大量领地的统治者封臣，会使你从领主那里受到保护，当然代价是给领主提供一些税收和兵力。你仍然容易受到来自国内其他人的攻击，以及对你感到愤怒的领主可能会对你采取行动当他认为你威胁到他的王权时。既然有这么多潜在的选择有你受到战争或阴谋的风险，你就应该在进行游戏时保持警惕并提前计划。
在开始游戏之前，你可以在游戏菜单中通过修改一些游戏机制来使游戏更好的适应你的个人喜好。屏幕下方找到这个选项。你可以选择较低或较高的难度，改变疾病的几率，设置宗教异端、文化演变，或者改变诸如飞地独立以及外交范围的游戏机制。如此多的设定是很复杂的，最好在初次游戏时选择远离它们。
在开始之前
在装载时你会不假思索的拉近镜头以观看你的直辖领地。在这种情况下，当你是独立统治者时，你会看到周围的其他的独立统治者；作为一个封臣则会看到其他的封臣的领地以及领主的直辖领地。
在开始游戏之前，有一个很关键的任务你应该注意到。最重要的任务由菱形图标沿着屏幕顶端表示，至于哪个最为关键则取决于它们本身，而相对不重要的任务则被归类到一个标有数字的三叶草图标內。
大多数统治者在第一天需要做好以下任务。
选择一种生活方式
During the course of their lives, rulers will focus on many different aspects of governance and personal development that will determine how effective their rule is. In the choose a lifestyle menu, shown in a red diamond with three gold arrows pointing upwards, you will be prompted to choose from 5 different categories of lifestyles, each with three subcategories. If your ruler is a child, you will not be able to unlock a lifestyle until you reach the age of 16.
The five categories are connected to the five main skill point groups in-game, being diplomacy, martial, stewardship, intrigue and learning. Depending on what kind of education your ruler received, you will receive a bonus in experience gain in the relevant category.
Choosing a focus will immediately give you a bonus to skills or attributes and will begin to unlock further bonuses as you progress ingame. Your choice of focus should reflect the priorities in your realm, which could include earning money, fighting in wars or murdering your enemies. Choosing a focus does not stop you from taking actions connected to other focuses, but you may miss out on benefits from other choices.
Marriage
Many rulers in-game will start unmarried, although others may already have a spouse and children. If you have no other eligible family members to inherit, getting married will be a crucial early step to avoid a sudden game over. Finding a spouse before you unpause is crucial because many of the best choices will be married off to other rulers very quickly.
Marriages and betrothals (an arrangement to become married after both of the betrothed come of age at 16) can be used to secure alliances (which can help you to survive early on with support in wars), or to gain claims on titles, which under specific circumstances can be passed on to children. Marriages have an impact on the prestige of the spouses as well, based on their house and and the relative title ranks of their highest ranking close relative.
Congenital traits (which can potentially be passed on to children, or even augmented if both parents have the trait, and can be either beneficial or detrimental) and fertility, (which is influenced by age, especially for females, who become completely infertile after the age of 45) are important considerations when selecting a spouse. Keep in mind that marrying close relatives (inbreeding) can also result undesirable congenital traits.
Spouses can also help manage your court, based on their own skills (you can direct your spouse to focus on helping with a particular skill by clicking Choose Task under their portrait on the Council screen, or leave them on the default task of Assist Ruler, which adds a small degree of each of their skills to yours). An especially important skill for the spouse of a ruler is stewardship, as every five points of stewardship increases a character's domain by 1.
A matrilineal marriage will cause any offspring of the marriage to be of the wife's instead of the husband's dynasty. This is important for multiple reasons, including determining which court the couple resides at and the inheritance of titles and claims. The potential spouse's liege (which may be themselves) may prefer a patrilineal or matrilineal marriage, depending on the balance of power between the potential spouses. Note: as of version 1.0.3, female AI rulers won't enter matrilineal marriages. This will inevitably move titles held by independent female rulers out of your dynasty. Until this is patched, female preferred/dominated games or equal gender rights are much harder.
To find a spouse for an unmarried character in your court, click on the silhouette with wedding rings to the right of their character in the character screen, or right click on the character and under the Diplomacy heading, choose Find Spouse. To find a spouse for a character from among your own court, right click on that character's portrait and under the Diplomacy menu, click Arrange Marriage. To select a potential spouse, click on the rectangle that contains the potential spouses' attributes (not the prospective spouse's portrait). A hook or a gift may be used to help persuade the character's liege to allow the marriage. You can narrow down the list of potential spouses by clicking the magnifying glass icon to Toggle Filters, or click the arrow icon, drop-down list or a skill icon to sort the list in ascending or descending order.
Educating children
A child tends to develop traits that belong to their guardian, especially their education trait, which gives a bonus to experience gained toward a specific lifestyle. When your own character educates a child, you can make choices that direct what traits the child develops, but some of these choices may produce stress if they are contrary to your character's personality.
Managing your titles
As a general rule, always fully control at least the duchy where your Realm Capital is located; doing so helps consolidate your power and avoids offending your vassals who might desire your titles. Conversely, if you have domain counties who are de jure part of your vassals' titles, you might want to make a mental note to eventually dispose of these counties. If you are playing as a count-level ruler and hold multiple titles, its important to note that early game succession for the majority of rulers is limited to a form of partition, which will see the titles divided and made independent upon death. To avoid this, you will want to get to a duchy level title, or higher, as soon as possible, or in rare instances, adopt a different form of succession.
Foreign affairs
Look around the neighbourhood and the foreign rulers nearby. Check if they have any claims on your (or your vassals') titles. Also, see if any marriages (and thus alliances) can be made. If playing as a vassal, should your Liege becomes weakened or distracted by other adventures, you should be prepared to join your Liege as an ally to defend your titles. If you are playing as a vassal of a stronger liege lord, check the status of factions in your realm and make sure you are not inadvertently part of a faction that might draw you into an early war (i.e. Duke Vratislav of Bohemia in the 1066 start is a member of the Independence faction in the HRE.)
Status of Innovations
In 867, many cultures are missing innovations, such as Casus Belli (for De Jure County Claims) and Plenary Assemblies (for Limited Crown Authority, vital for Feudal and Clan rulers as this allows them to revoke titles). Before unpausing, you'll have to decide if you want to pursue the goal of becoming your Culture's Head and thus be able to pick the Innovation for your culture to be Fascinated by. If not, a possible way to hasten Innovation discovery is by increasing the Development of counties of your culture.
Early game
After unpausing the game (␣ Space), you can adjust the speed (+/-), as the default speed of 1 is very slow. Faster speeds allow things to go by quickly in peacetime while slower speeds make managing wars easier. Speed 5 causes game time to pass as quickly as your computer can run the simulation and should only be used to pass a large amount of time quickly. Be warned that running the game on Speed 5 can make it difficult to micromanage the different aspects of your realm.
Domestic affairs
In addition to foreign affairs, there are often many small domestic affairs that need handling in the first few days. It is important to ensure that your Court Chaplain endorses you, which provides a boost to levies. This can be as simple as appointing them to the position of court physician, or might require you to win their approval with gifts or a sway scheme. You might also want to adjust the composition of your council and ensure that powerful vassals are represented to avoid them creating or joining factions against you, and also assign them tasks to perform throughout the realm. Finally, check the status of your laws and succession.