The “Spins and Tournaments” expansion for crusader kings 3 it adds to the many activities in which rulers can participate. Grand Tours, Grand Tournaments, and Grand Weddings are available for players to explore. The last new activity is especially useful since a big part of medieval politics was marriage alliances.
However, players cannot plan a Grand Wedding whenever they want. They first need a partner who is ready to get married, making the activity less common than the others. That may be why large weddings can be some of the most expensive activities available in crusader kings 3. But when a couple is ready to get married, here’s what players need to do.
organize the wedding
To host a grand wedding, players must first host a normal wedding. The interactions and interface work the same as usual, but with “Tours and Tournaments” active, a new button will appear in the “Arrange Wedding” menu.
There are some restrictions on when a large wedding can take place. First, the only party that can propose a Grand Wedding is the ruling family. That is the family of the man in a regular marriage, or the family of the woman in a matrilineal marriage. Next, a ruler can only propose a Grand Wedding if the person getting married is the ruler or a close relative. Player rulers may marry distant relatives and courtiers, but never with a Grand Wedding involved.
One big advantage of a Grand Wedding is that players can use it during alliance negotiations. Promising a big wedding is worth +40, making it a strong (if expensive) way to convince a reluctant or powerful ally to commit. In addition, if a character’s Faith or Culture allows them to have multiple spouses, any or all of them may marry during Grand Weddings. However, rulers can only marry one spouse at a time.
After promising a grand wedding, the two soon-to-be spouses will get engaged instead of instantly married, and players will have 3 years to find enough money to plan the event. If they wait too long, the other family will cancel the betrothal and gain an opinion modifier of -50. If one or both of the fiancées are too young, this waiting period will begin once they are both old enough to be married.
planning the wedding
Once players have fulfilled the conditions to start a big wedding, they can start planning it from the Activities menu. Its icon is the golden chalice on the right side of the screen. Like a regular feast, players can only host a Grand Wedding on a property that is directly owned by its ruler.
There are some buildings that offer bonuses and penalties to Grand Weddings, including the ruler’s capital. The best option is a barony with the building of the duchy of the Palaces of Pleasure. This building offers a 50% discount on the price of the wedding, since it is the perfect place.
Like a feast, players can choose their character’s intent, plan a guest list, and decide how much to spend on activities. Intentions include Recreation (stress reduction), murder, seduce (which may include the fiancé), Diplomacyand Matchmaker (Only close relatives). As for the guest list, players cannot choose guests individually, but they can choose guest categories such as “Close Family”, “Vassals”, and “Neighbor Rulers”.
The activity categories are Entertainment, Food & Drink, and Wedding Venue. Unlike normal parties, where paying more money is always better and paying less is worse, players will have to take into account the positions of their vassals for weddings. Parochial vassals and zealots are happier with a more modest religious wedding. Glory hounds and court vassals adore it when their lord goes all out. Each category also provides other benefits when paying extra, such as a higher health boost for each guest by serving better food, and a better personal modifier for the host with a better wedding venue.
There’s another way Grand Weddings are similar to banquets, and that’s the option to turn it into a death trap. If player rulers get the accomplished counterfeiter perk from the diplomatic lifestyle tree, they can choose a bloody wedding where the real goal is to murder the other family, fiancée and all. A bloody wedding has a decent chance of failing, especially if the target is the player’s ruler’s lord or religious leader, but it’s a spectacular way to avoid the usual pitfalls of an assassination plot.
the main event
The ceremony
A Grand Wedding takes place in three phases. First is the wedding ceremony itself, during which players will interact with other guests and have a chance to de-stress. If the player’s ruler is one of the betrothed, he will have the opportunity to say “I do” or “I don’t!”, the latter of which can really ruin the event. Canceling a wedding in this way will provide a partial refund of the wedding costs, but it also carries a large Opinion penalty with the other family, -1 Fame level, a Prestige penalty, and even an embarrassing nickname.
Party
Whether the player’s ruler is the host, a spouse, or just a guest, they will have the opportunity to talk to other guests during the party. Rulers can get anywhere from 50 to 500 lifestyle experience depending on who they agree with and what level of education they have, so pay close attention to the results of each choice. The downside is that the person the players disagree with gets a -15 opinion towards the ruler. These decisions also have a third option that grants Prestige and reduces Stress.
The wedding banquet can also trigger regular banquet events, and there is always an event where the player’s ruler has to deal with a wordy guest. Additionally, these events are in addition to the minor events that take place in the background which include opinion boosts, weak hooks delivered, cultural acceptance gains, etc.
Wedding night
The third and final phase is the wedding night, which is very different for spouses compared to everyone else. There is a relatively good chance that the spouses will become soul mates during the wedding ceremony, but outside of that, the events of the wedding night can have a huge impact on how the rest of the marriage between the newlyweds will go. married. Meanwhile, a wedding guest will only have one or two more events that involve chatting with the other guests and wondering if the marriage will be good or bad.
When the grand wedding is over, all guests will get a final set of opinion boosts for the spouses and host along with modifiers based on how much gold was spent, such as “Luxurious Feast” and “Had a Magnificent Wedding” . And if the wedding night went well, then nine months later the first child from the new union will appear.
crusader kings 3 is out now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
