How To Create Accolades In Crusader Kings 3

There are a lot of systems at play in Crusader Kings 3, and they only introduce more and more with each update and expansion, to the point it gets hard to keep up. With trying to run your own domain, it can be hard to keep track of the the interconnecting systems, though even the smallest thing might give you a massive boost.

Accolades are one such system, introduced in Tours and Tournaments. They are focused around your knights and making them more powerful, but they have plenty of benefits for you personally, as well. Here’s everything you could possibly need to know about Accolades and how to keep on top of them.

What Are Accolades?

In the simplest words, Accolades are the achievements of your individual knights. Knights are themselves a major part of your military, leading your armies in war and bring plenty of their unique skills to the battlefield. They may also participate in duels on your behalf and, with Tours and Tournaments, partake in Tournies.

Accolades are a way of adding more personality to each knight, and letting the station they represent be something with a legacy rather than a one-and-done occupation. This stretches to more than just roleplay opportunities, however, giving tangible benefits to the knight and their liege (which in most cases will be you), both on and off the battlefield.

Accolade Attributes

Accolade Attributes make up the bulk of the Accolades system. They are the individual traits given to each knight, turning them into an Acclaimed Knight. This position is held until the knight either dies, or is no longer applicable for the Accolade in question. These Attributes can have many effects, from increasing the strength of your armies to giving you natural Dread to keep your subjects in place.

You can check the benefits of an Attribute by hovering over it prior to creating the Accolade.

An Accolade is made up of two attributes, a primary and secondary one. To create an Accolade, you must have a courtier that has at least eight Prowess, a +15 opinion of you, and a personality that fits the available attributes. If they meet the requirements, you must make them into a knight before you can grant them an Accolade to turn them into an Acclaimed Knight.

Once an Accolade is created with its Attributes, they can never be changed unless you fully destroy the Accolade, so be mindful to actually choose ones that you want. Since Attributes are tied to personality traits, try to choose them based on those that are most common within your realm to ensure the role stays filled.

Glory

Once an Accolade is created, it can be leveled up multiple times, up to level six. Each Attribute levels up in alternation, with the primary attribute increasing on odd levels and the secondary attribute on even levels. To increase an Attributes level, you must acquire Glory.

Glory is both gained and lost in multiple ways. Let’s focus on the ways you can gain it first:

• Winning battles with this knight in charge of an army.
• Winning wars against higher-ranked rulers.
• Participating in activities, Grand Tournaments in particular.
• Personally defeating other knights in combat.

Knights do not need to win in a Grand Tournament to gain Glory, though they will gain more by doing so.

Glory maxes out at 2100 to reach the highest Accolade level, though Glory can still be accumulated past this. This is important because of how Glory can be lost. This isn’t lost when the Acclaimed Knight loses battles, but rather when the titles changes hands. This happens when the current Accolade Holder dies, or leaves your court, leaving the Accolade vacant. If there is no Successor appointed, the Accolade immediately loses Glory.

Glory is always lost when someone succeeds the title, though the amount lost is determined by a few factors. You can appoint a Successor in advance if another knight in your court fits the Attributes, reducing the Glory loss. If the Successor meets both Attributes of the Accolade, then the Glory loss will be fairly small. If they only meet the primary attribute, then the Glory loss will be higher.

Choosing A Knight For Accolades

Accolades are the titles bestowed upon your knights to Acclaim them, offering benefits to both you and your knight. Because they are a position ideally held for life that is then succeeded, you will want to be very careful in choosing your Attributes and the knight to represent them, as destroying an Accolade will cause it to be reset from the beginning.

Choosing Your Accolades

You can have a maximum of five Accolades active at a single time. This is increased by your title rank up to a total of three, with the Bannus and Knighthood Innovations offering the final two. While you can have more than five Accolades, you can only make new ones when there is a slot available for it, so prioritise the Accolades you actually want.

Certain Accolade Attributes will unlock unique Men-At-Arms units, though this will remain even if the Accolade loses the Glory that unlocks them.

When creating an Accolade, you are presented with the Attributes, a primary and secondary one. These can be changed to whatever is available from your knight’s personality and traits, and can be swapped to determine which is the primary or secondary attribute. The position is important as it determines both the order the attributes level up, and who can succeed the Accolade. A successor must only succeed the primary Attribute, so choose the one that will be easier to succeed.

If you have Inactive Accolades that no one can currently fulfill, feel free to make new Accolades that current knights can fulfill. Even if the Glory is lower than the Inactive Accolades and the bonuses aren’t as good, there is no negative to it as there is no passive Glory decay. The game will also inform you when Inactive Accolades have a worthy successor in your realm, and will prompt you to reinstate it if a slot is available.

Appointing A Successor

Appointing a successor is an important part of Accolades, as it reduces the Glory loss when the previous holder is no longer applicable, and ensures you do not lose the benefits that it provides. To appoint a successor, they must meet the requirements of the primary Attribute of the Accolade. There will be less Glory loss if they meet both, but it is possible to succeed with only one.

If a Successor meets both Attributes, the Accolade will continue as it previously was. If they only meet the Primary Attribute however, they will change the Secondary Attribute to match their own personality. As such, it is important to be mindful of who you choose as a successor to ensure the Accolade does not change one of its Attributes that you may have wanted to keep.

Reactivating Inactive Accolades

Eventually, due to the relative strictness of the Accolades system, an event will befall you where you do not have someone to succeed an Accolade after its previous holder passes on. In this scenario, it becomes an Inactive Accolade, losing some Glory and being removed from your Active Accolades. This does free up a slot to make new Accolades, but does mean you forsake what could have been a very powerful Accolade.

All is not lost, however. There are two ways to reactivate an Inactive Accolade, regardless of how long has passed since it was last active.

• If someone who does fit its Attributes enters your court, they can be appointed to the Accolade provided they meet all other default Accolade conditions.
• By using the Restore Accolades decision.

You can also, in advance of an Accolade Holder dying, specifically search for a successor to that Accolade so it has a successor prepared.

Using the Restore Accolades decision will call for knights to appear that meet at least the primary Attribute of all of your Inactive Accolades, not just one of them. While this might result in a rather large Glory loss for some of them, it is better than letting them lie dormant.