Which DLC would you recommend for playing in the HRE?

[PkK]

I haven't played CK II in a while but want to get back to it.

While my CK II itself is still there, all my DLC was lost in the Gamersgate vs. Paradox issue during the Steam migration.

Rebuying all the DLC I had seems expensive. And new DLC has been released since anyway.

I used to play mostly in the HRE and nearby parts of Europe, also participated in Crusades. What DLC would you recommend for that today?

Philipp

 

[Eliyahu]

LoR, SoA, WoL and maybe Conclave. Charlemagne and ToG are also good if you want to play pagan or the earlier starts.

Edit: From the 11 main DLCs, I think we can safely rule out, SoI, The Republic, RoI and Horse Lords. These don't really add anything to the game other than unlocking the selected religions/government types for you to play, and these aren't really present in the HRE (except for maybe the Hansa republic in later game starts). You probably don't want Sunset invasion either as it's more of a fantasy DLC that doesn't add all that much to the game, but it's on the cheap end when it comes to price.

As for actual DLCs to buy, I think I would go with WoL > Conclave > SoA > ToG > LoR > Charlemagne. It really depends what your priorities are though. WoL adds a lot of flavor mechanics to the entire game, while SoA adds flavor and more religious mechanics to Catholics which I imagine you will be playing a lot. Conclave gives you a lot more power as a vassal so that's definitely recommended if you will be playing as a vassal to the HRE. ToG gives you access to the earlier start date (867) and gives the pagans on the map more options, which may affect you even if you are not playing as them. Charlemagne gives you access to the even earlier start date of 769, but also custom kingdoms and empires, and maybe more importantly if you are going to be playing as the Emperor, Viceroyalties. Finally, LoR doesn't do all that much for the HRE (I think?), but it does unlock retinues, which I think is a nice addition.

 

[Rationalsanity]

Way of Life, Conclave and Sons of Abraham are the essential ones. Legacy of Rome would be secondary, retinues could help in the late game.

 

[RX2000]

Have you tried contacting Paradox? Looks like if you had legitimately bought the game before on any platform they'd be able to get you back anything you had lost......

 

[AntZudan]

Charlemagne for obvious reasons. Ive heard it doesn't work with conclave as it screws up the start so I'd avoid that it add it later during your campaign. Way of life legacy of Rome and sons of Abraham are pretty much required which ever game you're playing. And horse Lords for tributaries if you're wanting to stick closer to history.

 

[PkK]

Have you tried contacting Paradox? Looks like if you had legitimately bought the game before on any platform they'd be able to get you back anything you had lost......

No. I contacted GamersGate. And I did a forum search on the issue here at the Paradox forums. Apparently there are many people with this problem (see e.g. the locked 11-page thread "Where are my DLCs that I bought from GamersGate !!!???") and there is no solution. GamersGate says it's Paradox' fault. Paradox says it's GamersGate's fault. So I decided not to bother with contacting Paradox as that apparently didn't work for the others either.

Philipp

 

[PkK]

Hmm, all those DLC seem expensive. Maybe I should wait for a Steam sale or something (and play Dominions 4 again in the meantime).

Philipp

P.S.: Just got the free South Indian Portraits DLC from the verified email.

 

[Rationalsanity]

Hmm, all those DLC seem expensive. Maybe I should wait for a Steam sale or something (and play Dominions 4 again in the meantime).

Philipp

P.S.: Just got the free South Indian Portraits DLC from the verified email.

At the latest, the game and all but it's latest DLC will go on sale around Christmas.

 

[Rubidium]

I'd put Conclave as the most essential (you'll likely spend a lot of time as a vassal, and Conclave makes that much more interesting, both with the favor/council system and due to not being locked out of internal wars with Medium and above CA). WoL and SoA are roughly equal in the next tier, depending on your preferences; I'd lean toward WoL but you could go the other way if you don't like the focus system. LoR is the next one down, as it gives retinues.

The rest are mostly only relevant if you want to unlock different religions/start dates, and it sounds like you don't care about those; they make some changes to core mechanics (e.g. Charlemagne unlocking viceroys), but much less significant ones.

 

[Wagonlitz]

Have you tried contacting Paradox? Looks like if you had legitimately bought the game before on any platform they'd be able to get you back anything you had lost......

Paradox did try to solve it, but in the end Gamersgate failed to deliver on every deal Paradox proposed. Paradox even sent Gamersgate extra keys, but people still didn't get their DLC back and those extra keys just sort of vanished---Gamersgate at least kept claiming that they hadn't any keys whenever people contacted them and complained. What happened initially was that around a year ago (i.e. shortly after Gamersgate had been sold and they stopped selling PI games) many people experienced that the games and DLC they had bought on Gamersgate had their steam keys disabled by Gamersgate. The keys being disabled then led steam to remove the games/DLC from people's profiles. Though not all Gamersgate customers were affected. I for instance weren't despite having bought most CKII and EU4 DLC there and others weren't too so it appeared to be rather random who got hit.

 

[RX2000]

Paradox did try to solve it, but in the end Gamersgate failed to deliver on every deal Paradox proposed. Paradox even sent Gamersgate extra keys, but people still didn't get their DLC back and those extra keys just sort of vanished---Gamersgate at least kept claiming that they hadn't any keys whenever people contacted them and complained. What happened initially was that around a year ago (i.e. shortly after Gamersgate had been sold and they stopped selling PI games) many people experienced that the games and DLC they had bought on Gamersgate had their steam keys disabled by Gamersgate. The keys being disabled then led steam to remove the games/DLC from people's profiles. Though not all Gamersgate customers were affected. I for instance weren't despite having bought most CKII and EU4 DLC there and others weren't too so it appeared to be rather random who got hit.

Wow that sucks. Why doesnt Paradox give out free keys to anyone who can show they were affected? I would think that they would like to take care of their customers......

 

[Wagonlitz]

It is not free for PI to give out free keys. And as mentioned they already gave a large amount of extra keys to Gamersgate which wasn't free either. IIRC that was the reason they didn't want to hand out even more free keys.

 

[PkK]

Of the big ones I used to have SoI, LoR, The Republic. I liked the retinues, so I need to get LoR back, but can leave out the other two. I also used to have plenty of the small stuff (I guess stuff like African Portraits no longer makes sense for me, since I've read they changed the marriage mechanic; when I played last time I could still arrange marriages with Abyssinian princes and princesses when playing as a duke in the HRE).

Is playing through the founding of the HRE particularly interesting, justifying a Charlemagne extension?

Philipp

 

[RX2000]

It is not free for PI to give out free keys. And as mentioned they already gave a large amount of extra keys to Gamersgate which wasn't free either. IIRC that was the reason they didn't want to hand out even more free keys.

Taking care of customers sometimes costs money. It would probably be worth it for them in the long run though.

 

[Wagonlitz]

Taking care of customers sometimes costs money. It would probably be worth it for them in the long run though.

Oh I agree that they should have done it---especially given that the Gamersgate buyers mainly are the old, hard core who have supported them since they were small. (As you may know Gamersgate originally was a PI subsidy and back in the day we were told to purchase from Gamersgate, since that was where PI made the most money plus it was their shop. So many of us, me included, used that exclusively or near exclusively for years due to PI making the most from using it. Meaning that the sudden loss of games is even more annoying. Though as mentioned so far I have luckily not been hit by this; but I would be lying if I say that I am not worried that it won't happen in the future, since I have several hundred € worth of CKII and EU4 DLC purchased through Gamersgate.

 

[RX2000]

Oh I agree that they should have done it---especially given that the Gamersgate buyers mainly are the old, hard core who have supported them since they were small. (As you may know Gamersgate originally was a PI subsidy and back in the day we were told to purchase from Gamersgate, since that was where PI made the most money plus it was their shop. So many of us, me included, used that exclusively or near exclusively for years due to PI making the most from using it. Meaning that the sudden loss of games is even more annoying. Though as mentioned so far I have luckily not been hit by this; but I would be lying if I say that I am not worried that it won't happen in the future, since I have several hundred € worth of CKII and EU4 DLC purchased through Gamersgate.

Wow I am really surprised by this. Not sure how I feel about PI right now. I thought they were cool, but their customers get screwed through no fault of their own by buying their games where they RECOMMENDED that they buy them from, & now they are just washing their hands of it & wont come up with some keys for people who ALREADY bought the games? Wow. Just wow.

If I were in that situation I would be mad as hell.

 

[PkK]

Edit: From the 11 main DLCs, I think we can safely rule out, SoI, The Republic, RoI and Horse Lords. These don't really add anything to the game other than unlocking the selected religions/government types for you to play, and these aren't really present in the HRE (except for maybe the Hansa republic in later game starts).

Do the forts from Horse Lords make a difference in gameplay?

Philipp

 

[Thure]

Wow I am really surprised by this. Not sure how I feel about PI right now. I thought they were cool, but their customers get screwed through no fault of their own by buying their games where they RECOMMENDED that they buy them from, & now they are just washing their hands of it & wont come up with some keys for people who ALREADY bought the games? Wow. Just wow.

If I were in that situation I would be mad as hell.

You overestimate Paradox power in this conflict. They did try their best to give the codes out. They can't just give free codes per E-Mail or something. It's way more complex. Paradox did try to give everyone a key so they can continue to play from Steam. Sadly it didn't work that well because GamersGate don't seem to be very cooperative about it. If GamersGate removes the games from your library you have a hard time to prove you owned the game.

 

[PkK]

If GamersGate removes the games from your library you have a hard time to prove you owned the game.

At leaat for me the DLC is still displayed in GamersGate normally. But the "Lizenzschlüssel zeigen" (probably Display License Key" in English) Button does not work, so I cannot use the DLC with the Steam version¹ of CK II.

Philipp

¹ There used to be separate Steam and GamersGate versions of CK II, so those that did not want Steam could use the GamersGate version. But Paradox stopped updating the GamersGate version years ago and recommended users to migrate to the Steam version.

 

[PkK]

With the current Paradox Webshop sale, I decided there was no point in waiting for a Steam sale.

Philipp