Grand Strategy Crusader Kings II — DLCs

[Althorion]

I just got the CK2 of the Humble Bundle, with The Old Gods DLC. What about other DLCs? What are must-haves, what are nice-to-haves, which ones are useless?

 

[catfood]

Way of Life, Conclave and Sons of Abraham add more depth to the game mechanics, and IMO are a must have.

Reaper's Due adds more difficulty in the way of plagues. It could be cool to play around with it.

With Monks and Mystics you can join secret societies and become a satanist and shit. I find it gimmicky tbh and I consider it a waste of time.

Charlemagne, The Republic, Sword of Islam, Legacy of Rome, The Old Gods, Rajas of India, Horse Lords and Jade Dragon extend the time line and/or map and add new mechanics for a specific culture group. Also, bear in mind that the base game only allows you to play as a christian feudal ruler, so if you want to be of another religion or government system you'd better pay up sucker! The problem is that these DLC's also add some nice mechanics. For example Legacy of Rome lets you recruit retinues which act as standing armies. The AI won't have them either if you don't have this DLC, so you won't be playing at a disadvantage, don't worry. Also some types of religions/government systems I found boring to play as, such as republics (hint: The Republic is NOT a must have DLC)

Sunset Invasion is retarded.



tl;dr

Just sail the seven seas and don't give these money grubbing swedecucks any money.

 

[spectre]

Biggest problem in the base game was there were lengthy periods in which you fast forward the game cause there was not a lot to do.

I'd get Way of Life and Reaper's Due first because they flesh out the game and let you play it as an rpg-lite.
Reaper's Due adds a bit of difficulty because characters seem to die a bit more than in the base game, but I think its a decent trade-off for the detailed injury system
in which you can cut off hands from captured foes and pagans can sacrifice their eye to please the ancestors, leading to the Baltic Sea area being inhabited by a bunch of one-eyed cunts.

Sons of Abraham adds a bunch of stuff to dick around religion-wise, so I'd pick it up along the way perhaps together with Legacy of Rome which is also somewhat minor but seriously QoL stuff.
It's a pretty dick move on behalf of Paradox, half of this shit should be added in regular patches.

So, it would be Way of Life, Reaper's Due, Sons of Abraham and Legacy of Rome - at this point the game feels feature complete and playable.

Monks and Mystics adds some more stuff to do, mostly centered around secret societies and artifacts. Artifacts were a pretty nice addition, but the societies are a bit hit and miss as higher ranks
have some overpowered stuff that may be too borderline supernatural. Not to mention that one time when the King of Pomerania joined the Assassins and went shouting allahu akbar from the highest rooftop in Szczecin.
So yeah, it's a bit derpy at times, but overall I like to keep it on even though I don't always use it.

Some folks say Conclave is the shit, but for me it felt like it adds too much micro to the game that isn't really needed at this point.

Charlemagne, in my view, was mostly attractive because of the earlier starting date, but it doesn't change too much unless you want a very long and epic games.

Rest of the stuff pretty much boils down to whatever cultures you would like to try and which parts of the world you'd like to see more fleshed out.
I'd say Old Gods was the best of the bunch so it's great that you already got it. Read up about the other stuff on the wiki:
https://ck2.paradoxwikis.com/Downloadable_content

 

[Rostere]

Charlemagne for starting date (more time to get those difficult cheevos ). Sons of Abraham for Jews and Abrahamic religious stuff. Monks and Mystics is massively fun but might make the game start to feel weird. Way of Life might be good at this point, but when it was new I thought it massively unbalanced the game - it made me stop a playthrough.

Others depend mostly on what you want to play. Buy the DLC corresponding with the faction you are interested in playing. Do NOT buy Sunset Invasion under any circumstances, that shit is just absurd.

I've never tried Conclave, so no idea if it is good or not.

 

[Nirvash]

The old gods with the old gods update world (no india, no china) is still regarded as the best version of the game.

 

[KazikluBey]

Worst part of their DLCs are paid features like these from Monks and Mystics, but there are similar in other DLC:

• Allies in Wars: a player can command its allies in a war, ordering them to hunt for enemy armies, to siege strongholds (either by itself or a specific province), or attach them to a specific army.
• Prisoner mass actions (release, ransom, or execute all)

Some serious quality of life basic gameplay stuff that have absolutely nothing to do with the theme of the DLC. It's not enough to simply buy the DLC to get these though, IIRC you have to actually enable the DLC so you can't get the gameplay improvements without the DLC themes like the societies in Monks and Mystics that you might dislike. Some DLC things can be turned off or tuned in the options when starting a new game, but far from everything.

 

[The Wall]

Worst part of their DLCs are paid features like these from Monks and Mystics, but there are similar in other DLC:

• Allies in Wars: a player can command its allies in a war, ordering them to hunt for enemy armies, to siege strongholds (either by itself or a specific province), or attach them to a specific army.
• Prisoner mass actions (release, ransom, or execute all)

Some serious quality of life basic gameplay stuff that have absolutely nothing to do with the theme of the DLC. It's not enough to simply buy the DLC to get these though, IIRC you have to actually enable the DLC so you can't get the gameplay improvements without the DLC themes like the societies in Monks and Mystics that you might dislike. Some DLC things can be turned off or tuned in the options when starting a new game, but far from everything.

Yup, when I saw those 'DLC features' and totally not something which is basic QoL improvement (patch material) I too was surprised even though we're talking about Paradox (which is now in similar position Bethesda was for a long time - they have almost absolute monopoly in their niche which they treat the way duke would treat his fief, like a bitch basically). You know they were desperate to justify steep price of DLC when they had to add couple more bullet points to their DLC 'features section' and they used those two as if they were some groundbreaking features.

When it comes to what DLCs you should have more or less others have summarized the matter well. I'd just add two things: Conclave isn't so bad and though it does add more micromanagement if you want to role play and not constantly paint map in whatever shitty colour they gave you then in the peace times (in war times too though) it does add some necessary internal struggle and power play. Other thing would be - damn you Swedish DLC merchants, I constantly have a feeling that if I don't have all 69069 dlcs that game is somehow incomplete (though I always turn off wave of peaceful Aztec refugees)! Some (worthwhile ones) I acquire from Swedes and others through plunder.

You decide what's the best course of action for you.

 

[spectre]

Yeah, it's a trap right there with CK2. At some point you start thinking you need that one more DLC and the game will *finally* start feeling right.
I'd say, if the game doesn't click with you with Old Gods and Way of Life, there's no point in buying more stuff.

My first experience with Conclave went like this - I tried to pass some centralization law and initiated the vote. The vote failed, then the faggots kept pulling favors to start the same vote for 10 in-game years, and it still wouldn't pass because apparently I was opposed to it for some reason.
I figured, I am uninstalling this shit here and now, but in the end it grew on my and I kept it. Still, I think it's more hassle than its worth when you're trying to run early start pagans because you can't just switch it off.

It's other main feature gives you more control over raising kids, but truth be told it's a bunch of icons you have to learn and that aren't used anywhere else so I have mixed feelings about this as well.

 

[mbv123]

Just pirate them all lol
literally no consequences whatsoever since they work for the steam version

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Just buy a original copy so you can open up the mod forum and say the seven seas for the rest.

Yeah, at least when the DLC milking started it wasn't that bad at 75% off sales etc. but nowadays the sales suck and content/price ratio is very bad. I'm fine with the money I spent over the years but fuck all that if you're just starting out now.

 

[The Wall]

Just pirate them all lol
literally no consequences whatsoever since they work for the steam version

I didn't want to be as blunt as this but basically......yeah ahoy, this.

 

[Deflowerer]

DLCs work with Steam version?

lol what brb gunna sail the high seas for gold and booty

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

I'm not sure that's a good idea, dunno if steam can detect your pirate version attached to original and ban you from it. I run pure pirate, not original + pirate, although I assume the pirate dlls stop the game from phoning home.

Just buy the original to open up the mod section of the forum (AKA the real reason to buy the game) and then sail the seven seas.

Honestly this game really needs a "Ultimate Version". Having so much expensive DLC cripples its potential reach. If I could buy this game up for 50 BRbucks, I would have done that long before.

 

[primalsplit]

In one of my playthroughs I was playing as a Vassal of Byzantine Empire. The guy was castrating and blinding every prisoner he gets his hand on left and right. Empires tend to get into civil wars very often, and duchies within the faction decide which side to take. My county had no choice but to obey the orders of the duchy it was in, so me and my family members has recieved the treatment as well. I kept fighting for independence from the duchy but not the empire itself, won my independence and after a couple of years I was assigned to another duchy. Found myself in the civil war again, and emasculated again in the Constantinople dungeons... for no reason at all.
It is from the Legacy of Rome DLC