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Construction (Guide)

From Crusader Kings II Wiki

In Crusader Kings II you can construct buildings inyour county capitals, and in any holdings in the county that belong to your direct vassals.

Construction is a long-time prospect, as it will take very long for most buildings to pay off. As it works on such a large timescale, quite a bit of thought

should be put into what you build, where, and when.

Contents

1 Where

2 What3 When

4 The Maths

5 Vassal holdings

6 A Few Notes

7 Summary

Where

When constructing buildings, your first priority should be your capital. The reasons for this are two-fold. First, your capital will almost always be inherited

by your heir, even if you're using Gavelkind succession. This is important, as buildings often won't pay back the investment within a single character's

reign. Second, your capital will generally have the highest tech level of your holdings, and many technologies enhance the output of your buildings, thus

buildings in your capital will repay your investment faster.

Second, you should focus on your own holdings, not your vassal bishoprics and cities. Your own holdings give you their entire income, while vassals will

only give you a percentage. In addition, the benefit you get from your vassals is also subject to change in the long term due to changes in opinion, while

your own holdings are unaffected.
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What

Your focus should be on improving your economic situation. The higher your income, the faster you can construct or upgrade your buildings, so while at

first you'll lag behind on the military front you will quickly catch up once your economic buildings repay their cost.

After you have reached decent economic capital, with at least Castle Villages in all your holdings, you should go onto upgrading your military capabilities.

At this point you should have a pretty high income, so this should be relatively quick to do. As before, concentrate on your capital holding first, then goonto other holdings.

For each military building you construct, your personal military capacity increases, and this capacity will be there for you even in times of crisis, and as

such gives you a base military capacity at all times, thus vastly improving your capabilities during civil wars and also helping you in both defensive and

offensive wars.

When

In general, you want to upgrade your holdings as fast as you can. The quicker you build the sooner your investment is repaid, and the more you canconstruct in the future as well.

However, you should always keep a reserve. How large this reserve should be depends on your size. Essentially you should imagine the worst possible

economic scenario that could happen to your realm, and keep that much money or more in reserve at all times. As a small realm like say, Scotland,

having 50 gold in reserve at all times would likely be enough most of the time, but it wouldn't be enough if you suddenly needed to hire mercenaries. As

such I would recommend a reserve of 100g at the very least for any realm, as then you'll be able to recruit a band of mercenaries and pay their upkeep

for almost four months through your reserve alone.

The Maths

For the economical buildings, the return on investment is easily calculated.

For the castle town buildings, you get these numbers:

Level 1, cost 100, income 1.5 - 67 years






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A Few Notes

As long as you have good stewardship, the break-even point for construction will be considerably sooner, as you get 2% more demesne income for

every point of state stewardship beyond 5. Thus, at 30 state stewardship, you'll get 50% higher income, reducing the time to reach break-even by one

third.

If your succession laws are gavelkind, try to keep your buildings concentrated in your capital duchy, as any other duchy could end up getting inherited bysomeone other than your heir. Building up a county and then losing it 20 years later due to gavelkind isn't too great an idea.

You can also build new holdings in a county if there are free holding slots. Doing so costs 400 gold, plus 100 gold per holding already in the county.

Thus, the lowest possible cost is 500 gold. Cities can bring in quite a bit of money, at a base rate of 12 gold per year. However, even on harsh taxes this

will take 75 years to repay itself, and is thus seldom worth it for the gold alone. However, constructing cities or temples does bring the added benefit of

more tech growth slots, letting you speed up tech growth even more. Castles will repay themselves in 166 years, and are as such not worth it for the

money alone. Build new castles only if you've maxed out all your other holdings.

SummaryBuild in your capital first

Don't build anything in your vassal holdings, except for monastic schools as long as you have places left to build elsewhere

For any specific building type, get it to the same level in all your holdings before going to the next

Prioritize economic buildings over military buildings

Always keep a reserve of at least 100g, and preferably more

If you're under gavelkind succession laws, keep your construction within your capital duchy as much as possible

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