Sell me on CK2+DLCs

[Nabuchadnezzar]

Hi everyone!
I bought on steam and played a lot of Paradox games in the last months, including EU4, HOI3, HOI4, Vic2 and Stellaris. I like them all in different ways, although I spent the most hours on EU4.

I only miss CK2 and my grand strategy appetite will perhaps be sated somewhat, but the price seems a bit high: only counting the base game and the expansions listed here the grand total on steam is €172.82, making it possibly more than what I paid for all the other games combined.

Even the largest collection costs €144.99 but lacks the latest expansions and I'm not overly interested in graphical/music DLCs unless the discount is such that I actually pay less for the collection than for the individual expansions. This was true for EU4, HOI3, and Vic2, while HOI4 and Stellaris don't have expansions yet.

Is this game worth every cent of those €172.82? What would you advise for a moneystarved university student? Will there be any sales in the foreseeable future? Please sell me on this game!

Thanks

 

[Bernard95]

It's certainly a game that will have you playing for hundreds of hours, but there is no need to pay full price on anything. CK2 goes on sale constantly (in fact, you just missed one about a week or two back) and you could probably get the Complete Edition for around $40 duing a good sale. While it won't have the most recent DLCs, it's definitely the ideal starter pack compared to buying piecemeal- unless you're truly trying to penny pinch.

If that's more the case, just remember that not every DLC is essential. A general rule is that you should only buy what pertains to the areas you like to play in- many have a thing for certain parts of the map or exclusively play certain religions. Many DLC are purely cosmetic like the unit packs and music like other Paradox titles. Others are namely for unlocking new religions or government types such as Sword of Islam for playing as Muslims or Rajas of India for playing the Indian religions. There's only a few that effect all characters, such as Legacy of Rome and Way of Life.

Regardless, if you're having trouble on what DLCs to get, simply search the forums. There are many, many threads on the topic. Going back to sales though, when Rights of Man for EU4 comes out they may have another general sale on Steam or even here at the Paradox Store. Should you not feel like waiting that long, try looking at Steam key sites such as G2A. More than likely you can find the Complete or any other DLC for less any day.

Edit: The Humble Store has the CK2 Collection for $40 and while you're there you can also grab a free copy of Tropico 4.

 

[BaronIronmaggot]

There are three types of DLC's.

• Width DLC's - they make new areas and characters playable that are not playable in vanilla.
• Depth DLC's - they expand existing mechanics in some way.
• Cosmetic DLC's - they add either music, portrait packs or Unit models.

Width DLC's:

• Sword of Islam
• The Republic
• The Old Gods
• Rajas of India
• Horse Lords

Depth DLC's:

• Legacy of Rome
• Sunset Invasion
• Sons of Abraham
• Charlemagne
• Way of Life
• Conclave
• Reaper's Due

Cosmetic DLC's - everything else.

I'd reccommend you to play vanilla first without any mods. (Cosmetic DLC's are optional, you can get them all right away or not get them at all, or you can get one or two at a time, whatever you prefer)

Then start getting DLC's one by one, playing a campaign before getting another DLC. This will keep the game fresh in each campaign.

Also, there are awesome mods.

• Warhammer
• HIP - historical accuracy mod
• CK 2+ - "funner" gameplay mod
• Elder Kings - The Elder Scrolls Mod
• Game of Thrones
• WTWSMS - a mod that takes place right after the Roman Empire collapsed
• Crisis of Confederation - a Dune styled space empire mod
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms
• The Legend of Zendar - a mod that creates Calradia from Warband
• Azerothian Kings (WIP) - Warcraft mod
• Quenta Silmarillion - Lord of the Rings mod
• Witcher Kings - The Witcher mod
• Diadochi Kings - ancient mediterranean mod
• Thedas Kings - Dragon Age mod
• My Little Crusader Ponies - My Little Ponies mod

 

[JonathanOfArc]

My comment won't be the most helpful, but anyways.

Sale, just wait for a sale. I feel like the last sale on steam could have gotten you everything for under $60. Super damn worth it at that price. The regular price for everything would be kind of crazy, yes, but that's just because there are so many pieces that are optional. For someone who has lots of it's parts but not the whole, they can go ahead and buy the pieces at their own pace. That's why the regular price for the whole thing is so high. I don't think they're expecting many people to buy everything at that point, but with everything included, yeah, that's the price, and it's pretty high. So yeah, sale, just wait for the sale and it will all be worth it.

I too have and played EU4, Vicky2, and Stellaris. EU3 is what brought me into Paradox games years ago, and I still love the EU series, EU4 is awesome. Even still, nothing compares to CK2. This game ruined gaming for me because it's almost the only game I play. Hell, I'd enjoy a game of EU4, but it doesn't take long until CK2 is back in the foreground.

I couldn't imagine playing without all the DLC's, well except for maybe the cosmetic stuff. I've gotten all the cosmetic stuff too though just as add support for the company, and they do look good (i appreciate the added effort in these sorts of things).

 

[Sunspawn]

I'd wait 2 months and buy the game and it's DLCs during the Christmas sale. You're likely to get all but RD and maybe Conclave in it.

 

[Vokasak]

I'm going to echo other people in this thread and advise you to wait for a sale if you're a moneystarved university student. The discounts have gone up to 75% in the past

 

[Nabuchadnezzar]

Thanks everyone for the tips, they have all been very helpful!

However, I guess this one earns the "most helpful" qualification easily

Edit: The Humble Store has the CK2 Collection for $40 and while you're there you can also grab a free copy of Tropico 4.

I literally couldn't believe this, didn't know about the Humble Store and registered as soon as I noticed this answer!

Thank you all very much for letting me play this awesome game with a HUGE 75% discount as well
At least for all but the latest DLCs, but I guess I shouldn't be too stingy right now, and buy Charlemagne and onward normally

 

[Aotrs Commander]

I bought CK2 (and indeed EUIV before it), at a 75% off sale, where I bought the collection, plus a few of the older DLCs which totted up to about £35 (basiclly, it ended up being to be everything but the (now) three most recent DLCs and some of the content packs). I felt (especially with EUIV, the first grand strat I tried) that was as much as I was prepared to invest in a game I wasn't sure about.

The 75% sales come often enough - I've found that Paradox, rather smartly, have a sale on at least the main game and the collection (and sometimes but not always the DLCs) upon release of a new expansion.

It also means that you can always pick up more DLC on sale later (and as the DLC get older, Paradox increase the sale percentage) - with the release of Reaper's due (which I bought at release), I spent about £25 on all the remaining DLC except conclave (which I didn't fancy); after spending 180-odd hours, I was happy to jusutify it.

(My current benchmark is Grey Goo, which I paid about £35 for about only 18 hours of entertainment. In terms of pennies for hours, Paradox grand strats do very well.)

 

[RhaegarTelcontarTargaryen]

If you are in no rush, wait for some sale, they often have 75% down on older items (like the game itself, or collectors edition) and 25-33-50% on newer DLC's.

 

[Bernard95]

Thanks everyone for the tips, they have all been very helpful!

However, I guess this one earns the "most helpful" qualification easily

I literally couldn't believe this, didn't know about the Humble Store and registered as soon as I noticed this answer!

Thank you all very much for letting me play this awesome game with a HUGE 75% discount as well
At least for all but the latest DLCs, but I guess I shouldn't be too stingy right now, and buy Charlemagne and onward normally

Glad to have been of a use to you. Humble has been thing for quite awhile, though I had never bothered to look at their store until a friend of mine mentioned they were giving away free copies of Tropico 4 until noon today, Pacific Time. Granted there's plenty of other places out there where you can score stuff on the cheap, but at least when you buy from Humble you're giving a little bit back to charity. They also frequently have Humble Bundles where they give away a selection of several games or DLC and you choose what to pay.

On a side note, when you boot up the game for the first time look to either follow along with Arumba's old tutorial on Youtube or if you're a bit more adventurous dive right into a game as a Christian feudal duke in the 1066 start. Tuscany, Apulia, Bohemia, Toulouse, and Bavaria would all be ideal in particular. You can pretty much ignore the in-game tutorial, because like other Paradox games it's not exactly the most useful thing ever.

 

[Aries666]

I really think PDX are missing a trick with the pricing of older stuff. I would say putting anything over say 18 months on to a straight and permanent 50% sale could do wonders on stimulating further sales. If you think about it any piece of software should have paid for itself by then so hooking people into paying full whack on new DLC by permanently reducing the cost of older stuff seems sensible to me.

 

[Tatterhood]

You can pretty much ignore the in-game tutorial, because like other Paradox games it's not exactly the most useful thing ever.

I found it useful when I started. It definitely doesn't teach you all (or even most) of what you need to know but it helps you get your bearings in the UI and teaches how to do a few key things.

 

[Rath12]

Horse lords is deapth too. It adds nomads.

 

[Nabuchadnezzar]

Yeah I noticed the charity thing, and although I don't live in the US, I was pretty pleased anyway, charity is charity no matter the nation doing it.

I always follow a few let's plays before buying a game, that's much more useful than just reading a description or a review. One of my favourite let's player was running a Byzantium LP for EU4 with the aim of restoring the Roman Empire a few months ago... yeah I know, that's a very popular thing to do, and it doesn't help that I am from Italy too and love the history of my country, so after the EU4 tutorial I jumped straight to Byzantium as well for my first game, it was hard but awesome!

So I'll probably just do the same here too and start with the tutorial, but the byzantines seem stronger and I'd rather try something much smaller, such as a small vassal, possibly in the italian peninsula near my own town, I like to RP as well and since this is a dynastic simulator, it'd be awesome to start small and become famous over time. Also, I think I'll start with the earliest date available, I like marathon games and would not be opposed to continue a game in EU4, Vic3 (if that will ever be a thing) and HOI4... 769-1950 timespan!