War focus

Taking the War focus increases a ruler's martial skill by 3 and personal combat skill by 10. It also allows challenging certain characters to duels. Like all foci, it requires the Way of Life DLC.

The war focus can increase martial skill by up to +16:

• +3 from the focus itself
• +1 from the character modifier Student of Strategy or Adept of Strategy, one more if choose Strategist lifestyle trait
• +2 from the character modifier Great Warrior, one more if choose Duelist lifestyle trait
• +10 from triggering success in war focus:
  • +3 from Duelist
  • +3 from Wroth
  • +2 from Brave
  • +2 from Brawny

Players may find it useful to gain the Zealous trait (e.g. from the Scholarship focus) before taking the War focus. The trait adds +2 martial, and it gives Christians and Muslims more valid duel targets.

Success in war focus

The success in war focus event gives you a random benefit:

Weight	Requirement	Effect
20	Level is none Isn't a Duelist nor Strategist	Level up to Warrior (+1 martial, +10 personal combat)
15	Level is Warrior Isn't a Duelist nor Strategist	Level up to Great Warrior (+2 martial, +20 personal combat)
10	Level is Great Warrior Has not declined Duelist No lifestyle trait	Level up to Duelist (+3 martial, +30 personal combat) You can choose to decline instead, if you want to aim for another lifestyle trait
30	-	Gain 100 prestige
30	Not already Wroth	Gain Wroth (or lose Patient )
30	Not already Brave	Gain Brave (or lose Craven )
5	Not already Brawny or Strong	Gain Brawny (or lose Weak and Frail )

When the requirement for an outcome is not met, it is removed from the list of possibilities. So once you are already a wroth brave strong duelist, the outcome will always be to gain 100 prestige.

Event-triggered duels

Having the War focus increases the likelihood of the following event-triggered duels:

• A vassal is at your feast, and you both hate each other
• Holmgang, special duels for Germanic Pagans
• A "trait effect event" for Duelist , which requires having an eligible opponent in your court (martial = 10 or also Duelist)

Minor events

There is a MTTH of 36 months chance to fire several training events, war game event chain or upset about slothful courtier event. These events WON'T fire if the character is leading an army or is busy.

Training events fire Success in war focus as a result.

War game (has a 1095 day timer) allows you to progress toward Strategist trait if you win. You can level up to Student of Strategy or Adept of Strategy modifier even if you have a lifestyle trait (and even already Strategist ). If your enemy decides to do a strong frontal assault towards your center flank, slowly withdraw troops from the center and fold the flanks, or if your opponent decides to hold their line, prepare a counterattack in the center flank. If your enemy begins by advancing up the hill, bring all your forces to contest the defensive grounds, then quickly try to defeat the hidden troops. If there are no hidden troops, choose to spread your light and heavy units evenly across the line.

Focus pulse random events

Random pulse events let you:

• Level up martial education. More likely with strategist, high martial skill, low level of military education.
• Choose from a set of leadership traits. More likely with strategist, high martial skill, high level of military education, and zero leadership traits.
• Teach your marshal or commander one of your leadership traits.

Ambition events

If your martial skill is below 8, the following events may occur to help improve it:

• Toy Army
• Street Ruffians
• Drunken Warrior (the above three events can only be done once per lifetime in total)
• Training with the Guard
• Horsemanship
• Alexander the Great / Ashoka the Great (the above three events can occur multiple times until any once per lifetime event mentioned above is completed)

These events also exist without Way of Life DLC. Without the DLC, they instead require the Improve Martial Ambition, which similarly requires having less than 8 martial skill.

The final event has special mechanics with Way of Life enabled. When characters with the War focus have no lifestyle trait, it can fires even with martial skill above 8 and once per lifetime event completed. When martial skill is above 8, rather than directly improving martial skill, it adds a character modifier, Student of Strategy (+1 martial). After 300–900 days, the character can become an Adept of Strategy (+1 martial, +1 stewardship), and can choose to advance further to gain the lifestyle trait Strategist (+2 martial, +1 stewardship) if already Adept of Strategy. The latter option is only available with continued War focus and no other lifestyle trait.