Crusader Kings 3: How to Found the Mongol Empire (2024)

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 3 naturally has him appear in Mongolia during the 13th century and begin his conquest of the world.

However, Crusader Kings 3 lets 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:

• Mongol
• Oirat
• Buryat
• Naiman
• Kerait
• Khitan
• Ongud
• Jurchen
• Tuyuhun
• Hybrid or Diverged Cultures with Mongolic Heritage (Royal Court DLC required)

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.

Of course, the decision has several more requirements you must meet if you want to enact it.

• Reach the Level of Fame of Exalted Among Men (4)
• Hold an Empire title
• Control 100 or more counties
• Maintain a Tribal government
• Maintain a capital in the Steppe Region. This includes:
  • The starting de jure empires of Khazaria, Volga-Ural, Siberia, Tartaria, and Mongolia
  • The starting de jure kingdoms of Oghuz Il, Syr Darya, Khotan, and Xia
• Pay 350 Prestige and a scaling amount of Gold

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.

• Start as Khagan Uzur, raise Tribal Authority to High as fast as possible, then revoke a Mongolic vassal's county. Move the capital to your new county, choose the Adopt Local Culture decision, and then start working on the decision's other requirements.
• Start as one of Khagan Uzur's Mongolic vassals, pick up the Meritocracy Stewardship Perk, then begin a Claim Throne Scheme. If you pull it off, you can start a Claimant faction, or you can attempt the Challenge the Khagan decision and win the empire in a one-on-one duel.

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 can 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 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.

• Your ruler's nickname becomes Genghis Khan
• Your ruler gains the unique Greatest of Khans trait, which provides:
  • +2 Diplomacy
  • +2 Martial
  • +1 Stewardship
  • +2 Prowess
  • +50 Natural Dread
  • -50 Dread Decay
  • +75 Vassal Limit
  • -50 percent Army Maintenance
  • +25 Same Culture Opinion
  • +50 Hostile Scheme Resistance
  • -100 Hostile Scheme Success Chance
  • +40 Minority Vassal Opinion
  • +0.5 Light and Archer Cavalry Siege Progress
  • +100 Light, Heavy, and Archer Cavalry Damage and Toughness
• 1 Level of Fame
• All held Empire titles are destroyed and replaced with the Mongol Empire (this doesn't give the Mongol Empire any de jure kingdoms, however)
• Your succession law becomes High Partition, even if you wouldn't otherwise have access
• Your Tribal Authority law becomes High, no matter if it was higher or lower
• You gain 31,350 free troops, including:
  • 7,400 Horse Archers
  • 8,000 Light Horsem*n
  • 700 Armored Horsem*n
  • 250 Trebuchets
  • 15,000 Levies

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 Horsem*n and Trebuchets appear even if the world hasn't entered the High Medieval era, so make good use of them while you can.

Another benefit you get is access to the special Mongol 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:

• Your ruler gets every county title in the de jure kingdom held by the defender, along with every existing duchy and kingdom title.
• If you grabbed the last kingdom title a ruler had, all of that ruler's vassals outside the kingdom's de jure land become your vassals. This includes vassals whose land you conquer during the war.

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.

Crusader Kings 3

Franchise

Crusader Kings

Platform(s)

PS5 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , PC

Developer(s)

Paradox Interactive

Genre(s)

RPG , Grand Strategy

How Long To Beat

70 Hours