I played the game a lot at the beginning, then lost interest. Now I consider starting again. Which DLC/mod is worth it to improve the gameplay?
Thank you
Thank you
Which DLC/mod is worth it?
- Thread starter Thangunis
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I've got all of them except for the Sunset Invasion DLC, which isn't really my thing. Sword of Islam, Legacy of Rome and Sunset Invasion are the three that change the gameplay.
Sword of Islam lets you play as Muslims, Legacy of Rome improves the Byzantine Empire and Sunset Invasion adds an invasion by the Aztecs.
Sword of Islam lets you play as Muslims, Legacy of Rome improves the Byzantine Empire and Sunset Invasion adds an invasion by the Aztecs.
Legacy of Rome is mostly a DLC to boost the flavour and events of the Byzantine Empire, but it also enables retinues, which can drastically change your warring strategy as you build up a bigger retinue cap. It makes you less reliant on levies as the game progresses (assuming you manage to control a decent sized independent realm). Historical purists complain about it incessantly, but the way I see it, history diverges as soon as you unpause the game from one of the bookmarks.
Sword of Islam enables Muslims, and all the mechanics that were introduced with them. If you have no interest in playing them, then you can pass on this, as everything else in the DLC was included in the patch. Muslim nations play a lot differently than Christian nations. I haven't gotten a good handle on this yet, so I won't comment in depth.
Sunset Invasion creates a mongol horde style invasion on the western side of the map, in the form of the Aztecs landing with a doomstack somewhere. This one is pretty out there, and has gotten mixed reviews. My personal opinion on this is that Paradox already didn't do a very good job with the Mongol Invasions, and have not really fixed them into anything fun (mongols just blob and replace everyone else), so paying money for another broken not so fun invasion is not my cup of tea. Your mileage may vary.
Ruler Designer is the last real gameplay DLC, as it allows you to design your starting ruler, and customize your dynasty. You start with no living dynasts other than your character. It's interesting, but I've found a large part of what makes CK2 fun is interacting with your dynasty as it exists. It might be fun to try a clean slate dynasty one day, but I haven't personally used it yet.
Everything else is cosmetic essentially. I can say the music is very good, but the various packs will only play by default when playing certain cultures. IMO, the mongol portraits were decent, and they rapidly go downhill from there. I don't even notice the sprites sometimes. I'm also not even sure what was included in the Dynasty CoA packs... but I guess that means it's become integrated into my game well enough that I don't notice.
Sword of Islam enables Muslims, and all the mechanics that were introduced with them. If you have no interest in playing them, then you can pass on this, as everything else in the DLC was included in the patch. Muslim nations play a lot differently than Christian nations. I haven't gotten a good handle on this yet, so I won't comment in depth.
Sunset Invasion creates a mongol horde style invasion on the western side of the map, in the form of the Aztecs landing with a doomstack somewhere. This one is pretty out there, and has gotten mixed reviews. My personal opinion on this is that Paradox already didn't do a very good job with the Mongol Invasions, and have not really fixed them into anything fun (mongols just blob and replace everyone else), so paying money for another broken not so fun invasion is not my cup of tea. Your mileage may vary.
Ruler Designer is the last real gameplay DLC, as it allows you to design your starting ruler, and customize your dynasty. You start with no living dynasts other than your character. It's interesting, but I've found a large part of what makes CK2 fun is interacting with your dynasty as it exists. It might be fun to try a clean slate dynasty one day, but I haven't personally used it yet.
Everything else is cosmetic essentially. I can say the music is very good, but the various packs will only play by default when playing certain cultures. IMO, the mongol portraits were decent, and they rapidly go downhill from there. I don't even notice the sprites sometimes. I'm also not even sure what was included in the Dynasty CoA packs... but I guess that means it's become integrated into my game well enough that I don't notice.
The best mod, in my opinion, is the Prince and the Thane, hopefully it will be working again once the next patch is released.
The best DLC, in my opinion, is actually the Mongol faces DLC. I know it's a very minor DLC compared to something like Sword of Islam or Legacy of Rome, but to have a major power and racial group like the Mongols represented in vanilla CK2 as Arabs is really distracting from immersion and, again in my opinion, the Mongol faces DLC is needed to have a proper and realistic CK2 experience.
The best DLC, in my opinion, is actually the Mongol faces DLC. I know it's a very minor DLC compared to something like Sword of Islam or Legacy of Rome, but to have a major power and racial group like the Mongols represented in vanilla CK2 as Arabs is really distracting from immersion and, again in my opinion, the Mongol faces DLC is needed to have a proper and realistic CK2 experience.
That means to play with retinues i need the Rome DLC, but if I don't want to play muslim I don't need Sword of Islam? I always hated the need to put down all those little revolutions everywhere in my realm... by micromanaging levies.... is that countered with the retinues?
What are the important differences between Prince and the Thane and CK+? The descriptions read alot alike (haven't played them).
Sword of Islam and Legacy of Rome 50% off right now on steam, you should definently grab those. The rest is just flavour, but i would suggest you buy some of the music dlc, they're reallly great 
Your retinue is essentially a standing army, so you can have them parked wherever you're expecting trouble. They're best used for speeding up conquests, as they can be on site before you declare war, but having a retinue stack in each general region of your realm definitely helps put down rebels faster.
Grab the portrait packs for sure. You're going to want to play with the BLC mod, I mean, it's just better looking.
Sword of Islam. Decadence and Polygamy and a lot of flavor stuff makes Muslims much more interesting. For mods, CK2+.
As for DLCs
All of them except for the Sunset invasion. My favorite would be from the most important: both Sword of Islam and Legacy of Rome are must buys. The Skin Packs from Afrikans to Mongols, and Russians, because they really add flavour, and the Ruler Designer of course, you'll want to see your own dynasty in game some day and see how large and funny it gets.
All of them except for the Sunset invasion. My favorite would be from the most important: both Sword of Islam and Legacy of Rome are must buys. The Skin Packs from Afrikans to Mongols, and Russians, because they really add flavour, and the Ruler Designer of course, you'll want to see your own dynasty in game some day and see how large and funny it gets.
Sword of Islam and Legacy of Rome are must! Avoid Sunset invasion as it does not add anything good into game and actually makes is worse. Song and face packs are nice thou if you like stuff like that. Ruler desingner is kinda meh but its ok if you want to use your own starting character.
Retinues are ridiculously unbalanced in the current patch. Legacy of rome is cool but I really hate what (massive) retinues does to the game, especially the late game. I understand them representing 10-20% of your army for ahistorical rebel whacking but the way it's implemented at the moment is awful. That said, expect it to get better in the next 2 patches.
It adds aztec faces which can be used in future mods. I wouldn't say avoid, it's more if you think you're never going to use it then it's a waste of money. For me personally the amount of enjoyment I get out of ck2 (over 50% of my gaming time) compared to the amount of money I spend on it means a dlc that I'm hardly ever going to use is still a decent use of 5 bucks. An amusing ahistorical dlc that I might use one game in 20 is still worth it for me. Especially since I like modding and I get to take a look at how those event files work or I might copy the event format. It's best if I'm able to play it, to see what a story narrative in ck2 looks like.
Both Legacy of Rome and Sword of Islam add to the game is pretty immense. The byzantine empire being more interesting and the muslims being even remotely realistic are both very worthy additions to the game. If you play ck2 a fair bit then I'd definitely recommend getting them, if you don't then I guess the question is how much do you, and really can you think of any games that deserve your money more? I don't know how to progam AI:2 total war definitely doesn't that's for sure. Like sure it's nice that some expansions (aka major dlcs) are better than others, but if you're still playing ck2 a fair bit then it's worth it to get all of them IMO. The music/graphics things obviously depends on how much you care about music/visual graphics.
Absolutely, but I was assuming that the focus of this thread is more about vanilla "gameplay/major dlcs" (SOI, LOR & SI).
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Ruler Designer, Sword of Islam and Legacy of Rome are the essentials. You don't need the other stuff for anything, but the audio-visual experience.
I had ll DLCs except the Ruler Designer and Sunset Invasion. The Ruler Designer isn't essential. Only if you want to make you own ruler. And I love it more to play historical dynasties. So... ruler designer only if you want to make a own ruler. But yes, Legacy of Rome and Sword of Islam are the essentials. This is the reason why paradox call them expansions.
It give some dynasties there historical correct shield. Without this all shields are random generated.
I'd recommend the music DLCs if only to listen to them outside the game. The composer, Andreas Waldetoft, is particularly well received by the fans and the price of those DLCs wouldn't be steep for quality MP3 files, I guess. Shields and faces are a matter of taste really (or passing a couple of bucks to Paradox).
Personally, I don't have Sword of Islam because I just wouldn't be able to get myself to play as Muslims and against Christians. Don't have the Sunset Invasion because while I appreciate alternative history (and might one day get around to trying this out), I don't really enjoy the notion of it being the standard part of the game (yeah, I know it can be switched off in the loader) or the direction where that would be taking the game (along with more and more daring creation of de iure kingdoms and empires supported with "gameplay" arguments but going against historical sensibilities)... but when I get myself to the point of having the time to devote to a game like that (i.e. with Aztecs coming down hard on Europe at some point), I just might get it.
I did get Legacy of Rome. I actually had one game where I became the Catholic Basileus through inheritance around 1442 or so but I finished that game before LoR came out and that would've been too little time to restore Rome anyway. Not particularly a fan of "Mending the Schism" the Orthodox way and without a Catholic way to do it (very symmetrical by the way, if you swapped Constantinople and Rome's respective ranks it would still do as a rudimentary mechanism) but restoring Rome surely is a blast. Wished the HRE could do it, by the way.
I used to think the same but then I thought: this is alternative history anyway. Some AARs have started with setting up the scene while playing as somebody else (e.g. granting land to Eadgar of Wessex). Why not take it a little before the game start and already start with a customised ruler? It's really as good as the story behind it. Obviously, a multiplayer game full of people playing Harry Wales as king of England etc. (I had a Queen Shakira one day after the AI married my heir) is a history teacher's nightmare but there are many cases when a piece of royal demesne had a temporary small-time count or viscount who isn't really shown in the game... or you can make up a plausible story as to why the king or perhaps duke would reward somebody with a county from his demesne... much different from replacing a big time historical dynasty munchkin-style. Especially good for comic relief otherwise (e.g. Kaiser Pwnhard von Blob of the Holy Roman Empire).
A Ruler-Designed ruler probably offers refreshing opportunities not known otherwise unless you start as certain specific counts in the fringes of Europe. No family and all, forging your own dynastic destiny etc.
This said, I've had it for months and never used once.
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P.S. Reading Alyjakal's post made me realise I forgot the sprites. Now, however, I recall seeing rather appropriate unit models in wars all over the world and that's a big plus in terms of immersion, plus, Byzzies are particularly cute. It's even more memorable to see Norse models when Byzzies get serious about things (such as pacifying Swabia or Franconia on behalf of their in-laws the HRE).
They're different and less elaborate but I don't think random, at least for the major dynasties. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Also, from a historical/immersion point of view, not having wrong CoAs on the map should be a bonus (as much as talking about, "the correct CoAs," in 1066 is more ahistorical than spawning shields at random would be, strictly speaking).
Personally, I don't have Sword of Islam because I just wouldn't be able to get myself to play as Muslims and against Christians. Don't have the Sunset Invasion because while I appreciate alternative history (and might one day get around to trying this out), I don't really enjoy the notion of it being the standard part of the game (yeah, I know it can be switched off in the loader) or the direction where that would be taking the game (along with more and more daring creation of de iure kingdoms and empires supported with "gameplay" arguments but going against historical sensibilities)... but when I get myself to the point of having the time to devote to a game like that (i.e. with Aztecs coming down hard on Europe at some point), I just might get it.
I did get Legacy of Rome. I actually had one game where I became the Catholic Basileus through inheritance around 1442 or so but I finished that game before LoR came out and that would've been too little time to restore Rome anyway. Not particularly a fan of "Mending the Schism" the Orthodox way and without a Catholic way to do it (very symmetrical by the way, if you swapped Constantinople and Rome's respective ranks it would still do as a rudimentary mechanism) but restoring Rome surely is a blast. Wished the HRE could do it, by the way.
I used to think the same but then I thought: this is alternative history anyway. Some AARs have started with setting up the scene while playing as somebody else (e.g. granting land to Eadgar of Wessex). Why not take it a little before the game start and already start with a customised ruler? It's really as good as the story behind it. Obviously, a multiplayer game full of people playing Harry Wales as king of England etc. (I had a Queen Shakira one day after the AI married my heir) is a history teacher's nightmare but there are many cases when a piece of royal demesne had a temporary small-time count or viscount who isn't really shown in the game... or you can make up a plausible story as to why the king or perhaps duke would reward somebody with a county from his demesne... much different from replacing a big time historical dynasty munchkin-style. Especially good for comic relief otherwise (e.g. Kaiser Pwnhard von Blob of the Holy Roman Empire).
A Ruler-Designed ruler probably offers refreshing opportunities not known otherwise unless you start as certain specific counts in the fringes of Europe. No family and all, forging your own dynastic destiny etc.
This said, I've had it for months and never used once.
***
P.S. Reading Alyjakal's post made me realise I forgot the sprites. Now, however, I recall seeing rather appropriate unit models in wars all over the world and that's a big plus in terms of immersion, plus, Byzzies are particularly cute. It's even more memorable to see Norse models when Byzzies get serious about things (such as pacifying Swabia or Franconia on behalf of their in-laws the HRE).
They're different and less elaborate but I don't think random, at least for the major dynasties. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Also, from a historical/immersion point of view, not having wrong CoAs on the map should be a bonus (as much as talking about, "the correct CoAs," in 1066 is more ahistorical than spawning shields at random would be, strictly speaking
).