New Player needs advice on DLC

[LeftHandManGary]

In a nutshell, I'm looking at getting EU4 when it goes on sale, and was wondering what DLCs were good choices to get, and which I could hold off on, if not avoid entirely. The pack I'm looking at on steam has the base game, as well as the following:

- The Art of War
- Common Sense
- The Rights of Man

Everything I've researched myself has indicated that these are the Big Three to get, Art of War being important enough to consider necessary alongside the base game. The other two I'm primarily looking at are:

- The Cossacks
- Third Rome

What can I say, I like playing Russia, and I do like the idea of having more to do with the three estates in-realm while waiting for truce timers to expire, but some people do consider The Cossacks a bit too micro heavy for enjoyment. So, what can you say for or against the above DLCs, and what do I need to know about the other ones?

 

[Viktor Vaughn]

Cossacks is great, and Third Rome isn't nearly as bad as some vocal critics will say (especially if you like Russia). Cossacks is only micro heavy if you want to get the absolute most out of estates, and if you do that for any aspect of the game it will get micro heavy. It's really easy and simple to let estates run in the background and just check up on it every now and then.

 

[hagen_hase]

Cossacks is not needed at the start and 3rd rome is meh.
better get some of older DLCs for realy cheap, than cossacks and 3rd rome. they all add stuff that makes the game more interesting, and you will have enough to do without estates in your first 200 hours anyway.

 

[Kergan]

The favor system Cossacks introduces makes it worth getting immediately IMO. I remember buying it with Estates and Hordes in mind, but it was the favor system that actually was the killer feature.

Without Cossacks, you can count on your much larger allies every 10 years if memory serves. With favors you can't reliably count on them without building favors. It completely transforms the game and makes it much more interesting, by going from "Every 10 years I'll use my XYZ sledgehammer to fight a war for me" to "How can I win this war without my XYZ sledgehammer or get more favors from them to bring them on board?". It makes the DLC worth it all by itself. Estates and Horde-related stuff are just icing on the cake.

 

[SolSys]

PDX had a "3 for 2" promotional deal in the last sale so you may want to check their store as well [in case it would be cheaper for you].
Also, I should point out the Third Rome includes the Russian unit packs which is part of the reason for its seemingly high price**.


**it is not even mentioned on the store.

 

[LeftHandManGary]

I wouldn't have even considered Third Rome that expensive, to be honest. It's only $10, at least at my local store.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. The Cossacks' favour system isn't even mentioned on the wiki, so that was definitely a useful tidbit.

 

[Dauth]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. The Cossacks' favour system isn't even mentioned on the wiki, so that was definitely a useful tidbit.

I contest this statement. https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/The_Cossacks lists the diplomatic feedback system which includes favours in the expansion features. The diplomatic feedback page also states it is only available with The Cossacks enabled (https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Diplomatic_feedback).

But if you have any suggestions how we can make this clearer for other users please let me know. We want people to find the wikis easy to use.

 

[LeftHandManGary]

When I looked up the info, I just checked the Downloadable Content page: https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Downloadable_content

Didn't look at the other pages, to be honest. It does say "Entice Allies with promises of land" in the description, and I didn't realize it was describing a favour system until it was pointed out.

 

[SolSys]

I wouldn't have even considered Third Rome that expensive, to be honest. It's only $10, at least at my local store.

That is indeed the general price -- depending on location even less.
It is a combined price of 6/4 for the content/art -- not all users like this.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. The Cossacks' favour system isn't even mentioned on the wiki, so that was definitely a useful tidbit.

The "favor" system is a smaller facet of the "diplomatic feedback" and advertised under its name.

 

[LeftHandManGary]

The sad part is I never even thought to look up The Cossacks on the wiki, lol. Went straight to the downloadable content page, assumed that was it, and went back to Quill18's tutorial series. Worst part, that's not even the first time I've ever done it, and probably won't be the last...