Conclave worth it?

[DonDoener]

So to begin i've sunk over 500 hours into this gsme, however by now the thrill is kind of gone. With horse lords i tried to reenthhusiant myself however again that didn't any longer. So is there any chance that conclave alters the game in such a way so I might be interested again?

 

[jpinard]

There was a thread just 2 days ago about this. Check that one.

 

[Bernard95]

The last day or two quite a few threads were opened on that very subject. For me personally, I'm somewhat neutral to whether I'll keep playing with it or not. I'm a skilled player with a 1000hrs in, so I welcome a difficulty hike but there are some things that will get on your nerves such as not being able to hand out titles when you're over your demense limit or having a vassal that loves you in the malcontent faction. From what I've seen it tends to be that if you start late, you'll have some if not all of the Council laws enabled which means you'll have a time and a half trying to do even the simplest of things. If you start in 769 or 867, then your laws will probably be entirely in your favor- you can then set up all of the other laws you want (centralization, vassal obligations) and then when you're a larger kingdom / small empire you let your vassals/council have a little power so they're less prone to be rebellious. So you as might imagine, Conclave sort of adds a meta-game where you'll be fighting back and forth with your vassals and you'll see some large empires like the HRE or ERE have some issues because of this (since as its always been but now even more so, more vassals equals more effort to keep them happy).

The other main feature besides the Council-related mechanics is new education system, which is more involved than the old one but is a bit tedious since you're asked to choose one childhood foci and one teenage foci for every kid in your court. It's also more RNG and event based, which basically translates into no more super heirs with a 12-15+ in every stat that you educated yourself.

Probably the best advice I could give you though is at least play with the 2.5 patch, since Conclave will be useless to you if you want to roll back to 2.4.5. A majority of bad Steam reviews were complaints aimed at the patch features, such as the new threat and coalition system (which was nerfed and is really only a concern if you're an empire or if you're spamming holy wars) or shattered retreats (which were also toned down so armies only retreat a few counties away). So pretty much if you're good with the patch features then Conclave should be a buy as long as you don't mind a difficulty hike.

 

[szmik]

Imho no. I'm not buying it anytime soon.

 

[fivestarultra]

Try the patch first. Then peer closely into a mirror. If you don't look like my avatar, you will enjoy Conclave.

 

[OBRkenobi]

I certainly recommend it. It's a great expansion with lots of fun and interesting features and mechanics. But if you've already lost interest in the game then I doubt it would reinvigorate your enthusiasm.

 

[magnusvejby]

IMO Conclave is one of the better dlc's for CK2, maybe even the best since SoA, if you don't count Way of Life, since that is not really a "Major" dlc. And to be honest I don't really liked Horse Lords, so maybe thats why you couldn't get back into the game, and the charlemange did not add much other than a new start date, and Rajs of India was (no offence) the worst dlc that was released for CKII

Maybe thats just me since I like the roleplaying more than rapid expansion, and Conclave adds quite much roleplaying potential with the new education system, and the much improved council.

 

[Siggerad]

There is 2 games now, 1) if you like be a vassal and "rolplaying" and never be a emperor is a good DLC. 2) If you like be a emperor, war, a world view campaing is not a good moment, be ready for 20-30 years of threat tick down, of clik for a random education, revolts even with 70+ opinion and more.

 

[gdj]

Yes, definitely worth it. It adds a new dimension to the game, especially if you are skilled and already a bit bored with the "old" mechanics like CA.

 

[Strangedane]

Hey there Don.

I was burnt out like you, when I tried to rekindle my love with Horse Lords.
10 hours later I was burnt out again. Horse Lords did nothing for me.

I tried again with Conclave and to my great surprise I really really like the game again.
The new council laws, the lower overall opinions, the NAP/Alliance changes, NAPs to keep vassals out of factions, the threat system, the rework of CA and the rework of the education system all makes the game a ton more fun to play.

At least for me.

Now I'm not some super skilled min-max player who wants to paint the entire world my color in every game.
Though I have done WC on earlier patches it's very rarely something I aim for. Most of my games are me starting as a count and ending up as an oversized kingdom somewhere, playing around with dynastic spread and interventionist wars.

What burnt me out Pre-conclave was the complete lockdown type of control I could have on your vassals with hardly any effort. I can still have the same amount of control, but now I actually have to think about managing marriages and NAPs with your stronger vassals, while still being able to propagate your dynasty.
All in all I'll rank Conclave as the 3'rd best expansion for my personal enjoyment. (Behind Old Gods and The republic. Yes, Reformed Norse MR is still the funniest thing in the game.)