Counties are the smallest holdings you can hold in Crusader Kings 3 and therefore need to be managed carefully. In particular, controlling and developing your parish is vital to your gold mining and collection, so it’s worth improving where possible. Here’s how to tighten up your county control and development in Crusader Kings 3.
How do control and progression work in Crusader Kings 3?
Control and development are important aspects of the profitability and success of your direct ownership. They can be a little tricky to work through, though, so here’s our guide to improving your domain’s design and control, and what each is useful for.
How controls work in Crusader Kings 3
Control shows what influence your character has on a given county. The maximum is 100, and anything below this will incur penalties for both fees and taxes – 0.5% per point of control for fees and 1% for taxes. Your custom domain should have 100% control if possible, because you get all the benefits of a higher level of control, not just the small percentage offered by your vassals’ domains.
How to increase control
Of course, higher control throughout your realm doesn’t hurt, and there are several ways to improve your level of control in order to give yourself more taxes and fees. Some of them may take a while, but there are several ways:
- Base value increases control by 0.1 per month
- Lifestyle perks like Serve the Crown (+0.3) grant additional growth control per month.
- Controlling your religion’s holy places greatly increases control
- Certain buildings, such as the Leisure Palaces Duchy building, can increase control over all holdings in the duchy.
- Use your marshal to increase control in the parish (click the bottom option in his council menu) – enhanced by the Strict Organization perk
If your leader specializes in combat, you can even get bonuses from maximum control over the parish. The Absolute Control perk gives you tax and levy bonuses when you have 100 Control, making it a great choice for your local empire, especially when you upgrade to the Overseer perk, which improves your control growth factor by + 50% per month.
How development works in Crusader Kings 3
You can see your current development level by clicking on your chosen land holding and checking the number to the right of the word development. It has a maximum of 100 and is slowly but surely going up every month – you can see the breakdown by hovering over your development number. The level of development directly affects your supply limit, fees and taxes, increasing the last two by 0.5% per development point, so you will want to develop your cities as consistently as possible.
It’s best to keep it handy when developing. Focus your development on your directly controlled counties, as you will receive 100% of the benefits from this, not your vassals removing bonuses.
How to increase development
So how can you improve your development? There are several ways to improve your kingdom in the long run. It is absolutely worth doing both if you want to build a strong small kingdom and if you are more inclined to expand. Here are some ways to improve your level of development in Crusader Kings 3:
- Neighboring cities – if you have direct control over neighboring counties, they share their development
- Lifestyle orientations, including centralization and scholarship
- Ask your advisor to increase development in the area (middle option in the steward menu) – improved by the Planned Cultivation perk
- Choose cities based on the landscape, for example, Marrakech has an oasis that increases building growth by + 10%.
- Buildings in your parish can increase development, such as Guild Halls, which at level 1 offer a 5% increase if they are in the same parish as the city you are trying to develop.
- Religious principles can help develop your cities, as can holy sites owned by a ruler who shares your religion. For example, Baghdad offers + 10% per month if it belongs to your religion.
Make sure you have a focused focus for your empire and development starts effortlessly. This will give you an ever-growing source of income and fees, offering long-term growth for the future of your dynasty.
