Which Great Works should you build first in Crusader Kings 2?

The Great Works you choose to build in your empire will vary depending on what your goals are in your game.

There’s a Great Work for almost every player - although some are stronger than others. Check out this list below for the best Great Works and their focuses.

10. Grand Amphitheater (Best For Commander Recruits)

CK2 | Exclusive Great Works (12:43)

The Grand Amphitheater is a little niche since it’s restricted by culture and religion. Only Roman, Italian, or Greek cultures can build it. Hellenic religions and any religions with Ritual Sacrifice can also build this work - but peaceful religions can’t.

The buffs from the amphitheater aren’t amazing, but the Training Academy upgrade allows you to recruit Gladiators. These courtiers have combat traits, high martial, and high personal combat, so they make great commanders.

The Grand Amphitheater provides these bonuses:

• Skilled Gladiator recruits
• -4% local revolt risk
• +0.65 monthly prestige
• +2.5% local taxes
• +5% mounted troops

There are a few opinion bonuses here, and reformed Pagan religions with Ritual Sacrifice can hold Blood Games for 200 prestige.

Building this great work is only recommended if you want to recruit better commanders. There are other ways to get better commanders and train them, so this may be best for players who are at war frequently and need more commanders of a higher quality.

9. Great Temples (Best For Conversion)

CK2 | Exclusive Great Works (0:12)

Depending on your religion, constructing a Great Temple will speed up conversion in your realm. Most temple works have unique upgrades that increase the conversion rate of culture, religion, or both.

Great Temples have upgrades for:

• Improved culture and religion conversion (Muslim and Hindu rulers)
• Improved culture conversion (Jewish and Buddhist rulers)
• +10% local taxes (Buddhist rulers)
• -24% local revolt risk in total (reformed Pagan rulers)

There are also smaller opinion, prestige, and piety buffs depending on religion. 

If you're playing with these religions and looking to spread your beliefs or culture, build a few temples in any location. Buddhist rulers who need more income and Pagan rulers who want to suppress revolts should consider temples too, but ensure they’re placed strategically.

8. Grand University (Best For Attributes and Technology)

CK 2 | Generic Great Works (14:26)

To build a Grand University, you must have Tolerance 3 and Legalism 3. Only non-nomadic governments can build this, and your religion must be Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Zoroastrian, reformed Pagan, or from the Eastern group.

Universities provide permanent attribute buffs to your ruler and also help advance your technology.

Universities give:

• +1 each to every attribute
• +0.3 culture tech points
• +0.07 economy and military tech points
• +15% tech spread rate
• +0.4 monthly prestige
• +5 opinion with Scholars

Universities also Inspire Learning, which improves the result of the Invite Holy Man decision. This is a reliable way to invite Shrewd and Genius characters to your court, who make amazing guardians.

The permanent attribute buffs are also worth getting if you want to improve your rulers, and the extra technology bonuses help push your advancement ahead of the rest of the world. 

This great work is worth getting earlier if possible since it will have a greater impact. Later in the game, these bonuses won’t be as useful.

7. Grand Fortress (Best For Weapons and War)

CK 2 | Generic Great Works (4:15)

The Grand Fortress great work, as you might expect, is great for defense and additional troops. Its buffs and upgrades are centered around siege defense, extra troops, and some increases to arrest and assassination chance.

The best part of this construction is the Armory upgrade. This provides +100 heavy infantry and better local smiths, who can create higher quality artifacts for you.

If your culture is in the Germanic, Latin, Iberian, or Celtic cultural group, these smiths have a chance of creating an extremely powerful Zweihander weapon.

In summary, the Great Fortress offers:

• The Zweihander weapon for certain cultures
• Siege defense buffs: +0.8 fort level and +25 siege defense
• +5% arrest and assassination chance
• +100 heavy infantry
• A higher chance of escaping capture after battles
• Execution flavor options

If you’re focused on war it’s worth building at least one fortress so that you can use local smiths to forge weapons and armor. Even if you’re not part of the above cultures, the artifacts forged will always be of higher quality.

6. Underground City (Best For Inland Taxes)

CK 2 | Generic Great Works (7:44)

The Underground City is an alternative to the Great Harbour mentioned later, if you don’t have access to the coast and want to increase tax income. Note that the Underground City can only be built in a desert or mountain county that’s adjacent to another mountain or hill.

This great work grants you some tax buffs for inland counties. The unique upgrades can grant you:

• +10% local tax
• +10% plot power defense
• +10% local movement speed
• +10% arrest chance

The base upgrades also grant a little prestige. This is a good build for players looking to maximize their income without coastal counties, although it’s still limited in location. 

5. Great Walls (Best For Siege Defense)

CK 2 | Generic Great Works (0:59)

Building Great Walls will net you some hefty siege defense if you choose to build their unique upgrades as well. This great work comes with base buffs of +1 fort level, +10% siege defense, and +0.4 prestige at max level.

Depending on your upgrade choice, you could get a maximum of:

•  +55% siege defense, or +85% siege defense in a coastal county
• +450 archers
• +100 heavy infantry
• +5% local tax
• +7 city vassal opinion

Additionally, if you build the Strategic Exclaves upgrade, all existing holdings in the county get fully upgraded walls. The Hidden Gates upgrade gives defenders in a siege a higher chance of actively resisting, too. If you need to defend a particular county then this is the best defensive great work by far.

Building this great work in a county near an enemy’s border helps to slow their advance when they’re sieging your lands. This is especially useful for players with large empires who may be fighting in multiple wars, as it effectively stalls the progress of a war.

Great Walls are especially useful in counties that are otherwise unproductive in terms of income and troops. You can squeeze some strategic value out of these, if nothing else.

4. Great Library (Best For Artifacts and Technology)

CK 2 | Generic Great Works (16:55)

Great Libraries require a non-nomadic government and reformed religion to build. The library primarily focuses on technology spread buffs. The various Collection upgrades also add events that give book artifacts - these can be quite strong and their buffs stack.

Additionally, if you write a book while owning a Great Library, an event may trigger which increases the quality of the resulting book artifact.

The Great Library includes these buffs:

• +25% tech spread (for all types)
• +25% culture, economy, and military tech spread
• +0.1 culture tech points
• +1.1 monthly prestige

If you use a Spymaster to steal technology, the buffed technology spread rate will effectively increase the amount of technology points gained from this action. If you combine this action with the library you should see much faster technological advancement in your realm.

Even if you’re not interested in technology, the book artifacts that the library grants can buff an attribute by up to +3, so building this great work and some Collection upgrades is a good choice for any player.

3. Royal Palace (Best For Retinues and Prestige)

CK 2 | Generic Great Works (22:28)

If you tend to use retinues in CK2, the Royal Palace buffs these significantly and allows you to maintain larger retinues. Retinues are standing armies that don’t need to be dismissed before declaring war. These are normally capped at a certain value.

The palace’s unique upgrades focus on opinion bonuses and ruler buffs as well. The Automata and Golden thrones provide hefty prestige buffs, although the Automata Throne requires Construction 5 or an Imperial government.

With upgrades, the Royal Palace gives you:

• +750 retinue size
• +20% retinue size
• +3% army morale
• Up to +3.45 monthly prestige
• +5% fertility
• +10% arrest chance
• +3 personal combat rating

There are some sizeable opinion bonuses here like +20 opinion with Cruel characters and +10 opinion with Drunkards as well.

This great work is perfect for retinue users and those who need extra prestige. Retinues are quite strong since they don’t need to be dismissed before declaring war, so it’s worth fielding these if you can afford the expense.

2. Magnificent Gardens (Best For Health and Lifespan)

CK 2 | Generic Great Works (24:23)

If you initially look at the Gardens, you might think this is a weak great work. However, there’s one upgrade that makes this uniquely powerful - the fountain of youth. To build this fountain, you must also have the Mystic trait.

Once you’ve built it, your dynasty can continue to use this fountain through decisions to increase their lifespan. Just don’t use it if you have the Lunatic trait!

The Magnificent Gardens have the following benefits:

• Fountain of youth: de-ages you by 2 years every 10 years (+20% lifespan)
• Herb garden: randomly gives herbs or +1 health (must be in Hermetic Society to build)
• +5% fertility
• +10% disease resistance
• +10% plot power and +10% plot defense

There are also a few opinion and prestige buffs, plus extra events and decisions.

To extend your ruler’s lifespan, the gardens are the best choice. Placement isn’t important for this one and the buffs apply to your ruler, so you can build this great work wherever you like. Just make sure you shoot for the Mystic trait early to start building the fountain.

The Mystic trait can be reliably obtained by reaching level 4 of the Hermetic Society, or by taking the Scholarship lifestyle focus and going down the observatory chain of events.

1. Great Harbor (Best For Coastal Taxes)

CK 2 | Generic Great Works (11:30)

The Great Harbor is the best great work by far for income. Note that you can only build this in coastal counties, so it’s quite restricted. 

The income bonuses only apply locally as well - so it’s best to focus the entire county on income generation by constructing the relevant buildings in each holding.

The Great Harbour, with upgrades, provides:

• A total of +25.25% to local taxes
• A total of +160 to trade value
• A total of +1 to supply limit
• +10% siege defense
• +50% galleys
• +15% siege speed

This is absolutely a must-build for coastal provinces, unless you’re focusing on something other than income. Getting a Great Harbor early will help to fund other great works so it’s an excellent first choice.

The defensive bonuses are useful as well, especially if you’ve min-maxed the county to generate the most tax. This prevents it from being a weak raid target.

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