@Zavian can you give a summary of each tier? I'm considering picking up at least a portion of this, but I'm not certain the $15 tier is worth, since it appears to only be additional "factions"/eras. Are any of these needed to unlock game features?
Zavian can you give a summary of each tier? I'm considering picking up at least a portion of this, but I'm not certain the $15 tier is worth, since it appears to only be additional "factions"/eras. Are any of these needed to unlock game features?
The tiers are largely done by order of release.
The base tier contains the two most essential bits of DLC: The Old Gods, which lets you play from an earlier start date and as pagan rulers (who otherwise exist in your game but aren't playable), and Legacy of Rome, which adds a bunch of events if you try to recreate the Roman Empire as the Byzantines but also adds the ability to have standing armies which is one of the biggest mechanical additions useful for any ruler. Other bits let you play as a Merchant Republic instead of the default feudal ruler or as an Islamic ruler. All of these have differences from Catholic and Orthodox feudal rulers that the base game consisted of. And Sunset Invasion adds an what-if scenario with Aztecs invading medieval Europe that you'll quickly disable because you have enough invasions with the Seljuks and Mongols.
The BTA average tier is mostly situational stuff. Horse Lords lets you play nomadic steppe cultures as a distinct playstyle whereas without it they are treated as tribal rulers. Neat in theory but many find the play style repetitive. Sons of Abraham fleshes out the Abrahamic faiths a bit more and lets you play as Jewish rulers to try and restore Israel as well as adding events related to that faith to other realms. Rajas lets you play as Indian rulers who otherwise exist but aren't playable. And Charlemagne adds an even earlier start date you can choose as well as a bunch of events if you actually play as Charlemagne or Karloman. But the biggest reason to go for this tier IMO is Way of Life. Unlike all the others, WoL affects every character in the game by letting them all choose a focus for a few years that gives relevant stat boosts and events. You might switch to Intrigue if you need to dig up a reason to justifiably imprison a troublesome vassal, War if you want to duel a bunch of people, Family if you need to create heirs, Seduction if you're willing to piss people off to create heirs, etc. It doubles down on the role playing aspects of the game.
The top tier is stuff that expands on stuff you might have decided you liked and where the game can be made more fantastical if you want to have weirder stories. Holy Fury and Monks and Mystics add various societies a character can join such as monastic orders for Christians wishing to become better people (which adds stat boosts and removes some negative traits), Warrior Lodges for pagan rulers that want to fight better, the Hermetics for Abrahamic rulers that want to be smarter and create gadgets, and Demon worshipers for people that want to be rat bastards corrupted by dark magic. Monks and Mystics mostly focuses on the Abrahamic faiths (though all belief systems get some form of Demon worshipers) while Holy Fury adds the warrior lodges for pagans. Conclave adds more depth to court politics which is another way of saying it can create more problems for your character. Reaper's Due adds more depth to the disease system giving you tools to resist the spread of epidemics but mostly just giving you the ability to seclude your court away from the world during a plague and occasionally exiling someone that can't take it or cannibalizing people if food stores run low. And Jade Dragon adds a lot of things related to China. China is not playable but rulers can interact with the Emperor/Empress for various favors such as useful items or sending off a troublesome relative to live life as a eunuch or concubine in the East. By default this is limited to rulers within a certain distance of China but options exist to allow every ruler to interact with China. It's your DLC after all.
You can think of it as each tier providing more opportunity for weirder things to happen in your games. I'd say the top tier is not essential but societies really do add a lot of flavor for characters and drive home that the game is at least as much role playing as it is strategy.
Zavianuniversal peace sounds better than forever warRegistered Userregular
$1:
Crusader Kings II - Base vanilla game, let's you only play as Christians.
The Old Gods DLC - Adds an earlier start date, playable pagan characters
The Republic DLC - Adds playable merchant republics like Venice
Sunset Invasion DLC - Adds alt-history Aztec invasion, note this is kind of a gimmick DLC and most play with it off.
Legacy of Rome DLC - Adds events and flavor for Byzantine Empire as well as crucially standing retinue armies which is a key game mechanic to have
Sword of Islam DLC - Adds playable Islamic characters
BTA:
Horse Lords DLC - New nomadic mechanics and playable nomad characters
Way of Life DLC - CRUCIAL IMO as it adds lots of new RPG mechanics for all characters by way of focuses enabling stuff like Seduction
Charlemagne DLC - Adds an earlier start and has more playable pagan characters, and, you know, Charlemagne
Rajas of India DLC - Adds playable Indian characters and religions. Not CRUCIAL but I enjoyed getting out of Europe and playing in India
Sons of Abraham DLC - Adds playable Jewish characters and events. This will also let you borrow 200 gold from Jewish bankers which can be very useful
PAY $15
Holy Fury DLC - My personal fav, adds shattered and random worlds letting you play on an even ground with everyone else, but even more than that this is the DLC that enables you to play as a cat (or dog, horse, bear, etc)
The Reaper's Due DLC - Another fav, adds disease mechanic and supernatural events. This is also the DLC I think which lets you get a pet cat (then deal with dumb peasants that want to kill all the cats)
Jade Dragon DLC - Adds playable Tibet and China interactions and flavor. Not a must have but I enjoyed snipping eunuchs and sending them off to China. Also adds more casus belli options making it easier to start wars.
Monks and Mystics DLC - Another personal fav, adds cults and secret societies. Satanism, yay! Lot of fun event chains added to this one
Conclave DLC - Ever watch Game of Thrones? This adds that small council of the king. It can be great if you game it right by putting dangerous powerful vassals on your council as then they can't plot against you, meaning larger kingdoms and empires can be easier to run. Adds micromanagement but intuitively IMO.
The $15 tier is the best and has my fav DLC. You can always disable DLC you don't want active like Sunset Invasion. I'm at work so can't do a bigger writeup, but CK2 is one of my fav games of all time so had to sneak in a break to at least type this up
Zavian can you give a summary of each tier? I'm considering picking up at least a portion of this, but I'm not certain the $15 tier is worth, since it appears to only be additional "factions"/eras. Are any of these needed to unlock game features?
The tiers are largely done by order of release.
The base tier contains the two most essential bits of DLC: The Old Gods, which lets you play from an earlier start date and as pagan rulers (who otherwise exist in your game but aren't playable), and Legacy of Rome, which adds a bunch of events if you try to recreate the Roman Empire as the Byzantines but also adds the ability to have standing armies which is one of the biggest mechanical additions useful for any ruler. Other bits let you play as a Merchant Republic instead of the default feudal ruler or as an Islamic ruler. All of these have differences from Catholic and Orthodox feudal rulers that the base game consisted of. And Sunset Invasion adds an what-if scenario with Aztecs invading medieval Europe that you'll quickly disable because you have enough invasions with the Seljuks and Mongols.
The BTA average tier is mostly situational stuff. Horse Lords lets you play nomadic steppe cultures as a distinct playstyle whereas without it they are treated as tribal rulers. Neat in theory but many find the play style repetitive. Sons of Abraham fleshes out the Abrahamic faiths a bit more and lets you play as Jewish rulers to try and restore Israel as well as adding events related to that faith to other realms. Rajas lets you play as Indian rulers who otherwise exist but aren't playable. And Charlemagne adds an even earlier start date you can choose as well as a bunch of events if you actually play as Charlemagne or Karloman. But the biggest reason to go for this tier IMO is Way of Life. Unlike all the others, WoL affects every character in the game by letting them all choose a focus for a few years that gives relevant stat boosts and events. You might switch to Intrigue if you need to dig up a reason to justifiably imprison a troublesome vassal, War if you want to duel a bunch of people, Family if you need to create heirs, Seduction if you're willing to piss people off to create heirs, etc. It doubles down on the role playing aspects of the game.
The top tier is stuff that expands on stuff you might have decided you liked and where the game can be made more fantastical if you want to have weirder stories. Holy Fury and Monks and Mystics add various societies a character can join such as monastic orders for Christians wishing to become better people (which adds stat boosts and removes some negative traits), Warrior Lodges for pagan rulers that want to fight better, the Hermetics for Abrahamic rulers that want to be smarter and create gadgets, and Demon worshipers for people that want to be rat bastards corrupted by dark magic. Monks and Mystics mostly focuses on the Abrahamic faiths (though all belief systems get some form of Demon worshipers) while Holy Fury adds the warrior lodges for pagans. Conclave adds more depth to court politics which is another way of saying it can create more problems for your character. Reaper's Due adds more depth to the disease system giving you tools to resist the spread of epidemics but mostly just giving you the ability to seclude your court away from the world during a plague and occasionally exiling someone that can't take it or cannibalizing people if food stores run low. And Jade Dragon adds a lot of things related to China. China is not playable but rulers can interact with the Emperor/Empress for various favors such as useful items or sending off a troublesome relative to live life as a eunuch or concubine in the East. By default this is limited to rulers within a certain distance of China but options exist to allow every ruler to interact with China. It's your DLC after all.
You can think of it as each tier providing more opportunity for weirder things to happen in your games. I'd say the top tier is not essential but societies really do add a lot of flavor for characters and drive home that the game is at least as much role playing as it is strategy.
Oh yeah, so I've been playing a decent amount of Super Animal Royale lately. I picked it up in that Multiplayer humble bundle, which I'm not sure is still running. I think there's a free demo out, too, which you can use to check it out if you want. It's basically a 2D top down battle royale game. So 64 cute little animals jump out of a plane onto a Jurassic Park-esque island and shoot each other with guns until he last animal is left. There's a duos mode as well, and I believe squads is being added on Friday. The rounds go really fast and the gunplay feels pretty fun. Instead of attachments you find in PUBG or Apex, it's just tiers of guns, so there's a lot less management of stuff to worry about. You just need to factor what sort of gun type you want and the rarity of the gun vs the gun you have, which means you can make decisions on that stuff really quick. There's also just armor, not armor and helmets, also with tiers. For healing, there's a pool of healing drink you add pickups to and a limited number of armor repairs (tape!) you can pick up. Vision is based on fog of war/line of sight, so you can end up in like a dense bamboo forest and not know if there's someone on the other side of the reeds, which is fun. There's also a crate mechanic and a circle mechanic, which are both fairly traditional. Anyway, every round you get a chance of getting a cosmetic item, which goes up every time you don't get one. You also get animal DNA every round and sometimes some special compound or a dna magnet, which you can use to get a dna type you want for the next 3 rounds. You can use the DNA and the compound to unlock new species of animals to play as, or unlock different color/skin variants of the different species. So you could unlock a Husky skin or a Shiba Inu for the dog species or a Fennec skin for the fox species. It's all very cute and just has this really fun and charming aesthetic I really enjoy. And the short match times make it much less of a time investment than something like PUBG. And the 2D shooting makes the gunplay a lot more casual than something like PUBG, where you have to worry about bullet speed and bullet drop and recoil and whatnot. Anyway, I'd definitely recommend people check it out, there's that free demo that should let you. I don't know what restrictions are on the demo, but you should at least be able to play the game. And if you want to pick it up, the price for the multiplayer bundle is pretty alright. It was like $7 for the tier that has this when I got it, idk if it's increased or anything.
Oh yeah, so I've been playing a decent amount of Super Animal Royale lately. I picked it up in that Multiplayer humble bundle, which I'm not sure is still running. I think there's a free demo out, too, which you can use to check it out if you want. It's basically a 2D top down battle royale game. So 64 cute little animals jump out of a plane onto a Jurassic Park-esque island and shoot each other with guns until he last animal is left. There's a duos mode as well, and I believe squads is being added on Friday. The rounds go really fast and the gunplay feels pretty fun. Instead of attachments you find in PUBG or Apex, it's just tiers of guns, so there's a lot less management of stuff to worry about. You just need to factor what sort of gun type you want and the rarity of the gun vs the gun you have, which means you can make decisions on that stuff really quick. There's also just armor, not armor and helmets, also with tiers. For healing, there's a pool of healing drink you add pickups to and a limited number of armor repairs (tape!) you can pick up. Vision is based on fog of war/line of sight, so you can end up in like a dense bamboo forest and not know if there's someone on the other side of the reeds, which is fun. There's also a crate mechanic and a circle mechanic, which are both fairly traditional. Anyway, every round you get a chance of getting a cosmetic item, which goes up every time you don't get one. You also get animal DNA every round and sometimes some special compound or a dna magnet, which you can use to get a dna type you want for the next 3 rounds. You can use the DNA and the compound to unlock new species of animals to play as, or unlock different color/skin variants of the different species. So you could unlock a Husky skin or a Shiba Inu for the dog species or a Fennec skin for the fox species. It's all very cute and just has this really fun and charming aesthetic I really enjoy. And the short match times make it much less of a time investment than something like PUBG. And the 2D shooting makes the gunplay a lot more casual than something like PUBG, where you have to worry about bullet speed and bullet drop and recoil and whatnot. Anyway, I'd definitely recommend people check it out, there's that free demo that should let you. I don't know what restrictions are on the demo, but you should at least be able to play the game. And if you want to pick it up, the price for the multiplayer bundle is pretty alright. It was like $7 for the tier that has this when I got it, idk if it's increased or anything.
Oh yeah, lots of puns in the game. There's a pie shop called Pie of the Tiger.
Regarding the demo, apparently it's the full game, entirely playable for free as much as you want, but any cosmetic items you earn will be locked until you purchase the full game, so you can't do any pretty princess animal dress-up or create Super Animals. Everything is carried over, though, so you can buy whenever you want and you won't lose any items or progress you've accumulated.
Also that bundle is still up at time of typing for another six days, and that tier is cheaper than the game's regular Steam price; almost half the price in UK money.
Oh yeah, also, there's a lobby system while you're waiting for the game to populate and there's a campfire off to the side with a no dancing sign next to it. So obviously lots of people go over there to dance. It's great.
Zavian can you give a summary of each tier? I'm considering picking up at least a portion of this, but I'm not certain the $15 tier is worth, since it appears to only be additional "factions"/eras. Are any of these needed to unlock game features?
The tiers are largely done by order of release.
The base tier contains the two most essential bits of DLC: The Old Gods, which lets you play from an earlier start date and as pagan rulers (who otherwise exist in your game but aren't playable), and Legacy of Rome, which adds a bunch of events if you try to recreate the Roman Empire as the Byzantines but also adds the ability to have standing armies which is one of the biggest mechanical additions useful for any ruler. Other bits let you play as a Merchant Republic instead of the default feudal ruler or as an Islamic ruler. All of these have differences from Catholic and Orthodox feudal rulers that the base game consisted of. And Sunset Invasion adds an what-if scenario with Aztecs invading medieval Europe that you'll quickly disable because you have enough invasions with the Seljuks and Mongols.
The BTA average tier is mostly situational stuff. Horse Lords lets you play nomadic steppe cultures as a distinct playstyle whereas without it they are treated as tribal rulers. Neat in theory but many find the play style repetitive. Sons of Abraham fleshes out the Abrahamic faiths a bit more and lets you play as Jewish rulers to try and restore Israel as well as adding events related to that faith to other realms. Rajas lets you play as Indian rulers who otherwise exist but aren't playable. And Charlemagne adds an even earlier start date you can choose as well as a bunch of events if you actually play as Charlemagne or Karloman. But the biggest reason to go for this tier IMO is Way of Life. Unlike all the others, WoL affects every character in the game by letting them all choose a focus for a few years that gives relevant stat boosts and events. You might switch to Intrigue if you need to dig up a reason to justifiably imprison a troublesome vassal, War if you want to duel a bunch of people, Family if you need to create heirs, Seduction if you're willing to piss people off to create heirs, etc. It doubles down on the role playing aspects of the game.
The top tier is stuff that expands on stuff you might have decided you liked and where the game can be made more fantastical if you want to have weirder stories. Holy Fury and Monks and Mystics add various societies a character can join such as monastic orders for Christians wishing to become better people (which adds stat boosts and removes some negative traits), Warrior Lodges for pagan rulers that want to fight better, the Hermetics for Abrahamic rulers that want to be smarter and create gadgets, and Demon worshipers for people that want to be rat bastards corrupted by dark magic. Monks and Mystics mostly focuses on the Abrahamic faiths (though all belief systems get some form of Demon worshipers) while Holy Fury adds the warrior lodges for pagans. Conclave adds more depth to court politics which is another way of saying it can create more problems for your character. Reaper's Due adds more depth to the disease system giving you tools to resist the spread of epidemics but mostly just giving you the ability to seclude your court away from the world during a plague and occasionally exiling someone that can't take it or cannibalizing people if food stores run low. And Jade Dragon adds a lot of things related to China. China is not playable but rulers can interact with the Emperor/Empress for various favors such as useful items or sending off a troublesome relative to live life as a eunuch or concubine in the East. By default this is limited to rulers within a certain distance of China but options exist to allow every ruler to interact with China. It's your DLC after all.
You can think of it as each tier providing more opportunity for weirder things to happen in your games. I'd say the top tier is not essential but societies really do add a lot of flavor for characters and drive home that the game is at least as much role playing as it is strategy.
Thank you so much for this, this is a huge help.
Short answer is you should go for the $15 one, because every tier has something that would be considered must-have by most. Basic has Old Gods, which until recently was considered the best DLC, BTA has Way of Life, which is perhaps more important than Old Gods for keeping you occupied between wars, and top tier has Holy Fury (Old Gods' usurper) and Conclave, which might not be something you turn on your first game as you are learning the ropes of conquest, but something you'll probably want as you start to yearn for depth in internal politics, whether as a ruler or vassal.
Welp. Apparently I don't have to wait for a sale any more.
Many thanks to @Spoit for a copy of Cosmic Star Heroine!
I've been a fan of Zeboyd ever since the original Breath of Death VII and Cthulu Saves the World- I've beaten both of those games and almost completed a Cthulu's Angels run of CStW, and I've beaten both of the Penny Arcade Adventures they put out. I'm looking forward to giving this a whirl, and I'm hoping the new game lives up to the rest of them!
I find it hilarious, especially since Baba Yaga translates to "Old hag."
It's less that and more Baba Yaga is like the ur-boogeyman in Slavic culture who features in a ton of myths and legends that outright terrifies all those famous heroes because she can either help or hinder them on a whim, and gods help the ones who decide to be disrespectful to her because she can make them pay very dearly for any perceived slight.
So... Baba Yaga-chan will be a tsundere?
Honestly, sometimes I feel we should all be willing to take our history as lightly as the Japanese do. "Oda Nobunaga as a teenage witch? Sure, why the fuck not".
I find it hilarious, especially since Baba Yaga translates to "Old hag."
It's less that and more Baba Yaga is like the ur-boogeyman in Slavic culture who features in a ton of myths and legends that outright terrifies all those famous heroes because she can either help or hinder them on a whim, and gods help the ones who decide to be disrespectful to her because she can make them pay very dearly for any perceived slight.
So... Baba Yaga-chan will be a tsundere?
Honestly, sometimes I feel we should all be willing to take our history as lightly as the Japanese do. "Oda Nobunaga as a teenage witch? Sure, why the fuck not".
Anime where the founding fathers are all moe blobs and know magic.
Crusader Kings II - Base vanilla game, let's you only play as Christians.
The Old Gods DLC - Adds an earlier start date, playable pagan characters
The Republic DLC - Adds playable merchant republics like Venice
Sunset Invasion DLC - Adds alt-history Aztec invasion, note this is kind of a gimmick DLC and most play with it off.
Legacy of Rome DLC - Adds events and flavor for Byzantine Empire as well as crucially standing retinue armies which is a key game mechanic to have
Sword of Islam DLC - Adds playable Islamic characters
BTA:
Horse Lords DLC - New nomadic mechanics and playable nomad characters
Way of Life DLC - CRUCIAL IMO as it adds lots of new RPG mechanics for all characters by way of focuses enabling stuff like Seduction
Charlemagne DLC - Adds an earlier start and has more playable pagan characters, and, you know, Charlemagne
Rajas of India DLC - Adds playable Indian characters and religions. Not CRUCIAL but I enjoyed getting out of Europe and playing in India
Sons of Abraham DLC - Adds playable Jewish characters and events. This will also let you borrow 200 gold from Jewish bankers which can be very useful
PAY $15
Holy Fury DLC - My personal fav, adds shattered and random worlds letting you play on an even ground with everyone else, but even more than that this is the DLC that enables you to play as a cat (or dog, horse, bear, etc)
The Reaper's Due DLC - Another fav, adds disease mechanic and supernatural events. This is also the DLC I think which lets you get a pet cat (then deal with dumb peasants that want to kill all the cats)
Jade Dragon DLC - Adds playable Tibet and China interactions and flavor. Not a must have but I enjoyed snipping eunuchs and sending them off to China. Also adds more casus belli options making it easier to start wars.
Monks and Mystics DLC - Another personal fav, adds cults and secret societies. Satanism, yay! Lot of fun event chains added to this one
Conclave DLC - Ever watch Game of Thrones? This adds that small council of the king. It can be great if you game it right by putting dangerous powerful vassals on your council as then they can't plot against you, meaning larger kingdoms and empires can be easier to run. Adds micromanagement but intuitively IMO.
The $15 tier is the best and has my fav DLC. You can always disable DLC you don't want active like Sunset Invasion. I'm at work so can't do a bigger writeup, but CK2 is one of my fav games of all time so had to sneak in a break to at least type this up
Also, most of the DLCs at the $15 tier normally cost $15 individually.
Crusader Kings II - Base vanilla game, let's you only play as Christians.
The Old Gods DLC - Adds an earlier start date, playable pagan characters
The Republic DLC - Adds playable merchant republics like Venice
Sunset Invasion DLC - Adds alt-history Aztec invasion, note this is kind of a gimmick DLC and most play with it off.
Legacy of Rome DLC - Adds events and flavor for Byzantine Empire as well as crucially standing retinue armies which is a key game mechanic to have
Sword of Islam DLC - Adds playable Islamic characters
BTA:
Horse Lords DLC - New nomadic mechanics and playable nomad characters
Way of Life DLC - CRUCIAL IMO as it adds lots of new RPG mechanics for all characters by way of focuses enabling stuff like Seduction
Charlemagne DLC - Adds an earlier start and has more playable pagan characters, and, you know, Charlemagne
Rajas of India DLC - Adds playable Indian characters and religions. Not CRUCIAL but I enjoyed getting out of Europe and playing in India
Sons of Abraham DLC - Adds playable Jewish characters and events. This will also let you borrow 200 gold from Jewish bankers which can be very useful
PAY $15
Holy Fury DLC - My personal fav, adds shattered and random worlds letting you play on an even ground with everyone else, but even more than that this is the DLC that enables you to play as a cat (or dog, horse, bear, etc)
The Reaper's Due DLC - Another fav, adds disease mechanic and supernatural events. This is also the DLC I think which lets you get a pet cat (then deal with dumb peasants that want to kill all the cats)
Jade Dragon DLC - Adds playable Tibet and China interactions and flavor. Not a must have but I enjoyed snipping eunuchs and sending them off to China. Also adds more casus belli options making it easier to start wars.
Monks and Mystics DLC - Another personal fav, adds cults and secret societies. Satanism, yay! Lot of fun event chains added to this one
Conclave DLC - Ever watch Game of Thrones? This adds that small council of the king. It can be great if you game it right by putting dangerous powerful vassals on your council as then they can't plot against you, meaning larger kingdoms and empires can be easier to run. Adds micromanagement but intuitively IMO.
The $15 tier is the best and has my fav DLC. You can always disable DLC you don't want active like Sunset Invasion. I'm at work so can't do a bigger writeup, but CK2 is one of my fav games of all time so had to sneak in a break to at least type this up
Also, most of the DLCs at the $15 tier normally cost $15 individually.
Judging by the UK pricing, Holy Fury goes for more than that on its own.
I find it hilarious, especially since Baba Yaga translates to "Old hag."
It's less that and more Baba Yaga is like the ur-boogeyman in Slavic culture who features in a ton of myths and legends that outright terrifies all those famous heroes because she can either help or hinder them on a whim, and gods help the ones who decide to be disrespectful to her because she can make them pay very dearly for any perceived slight.
So... Baba Yaga-chan will be a tsundere?
Honestly, sometimes I feel we should all be willing to take our history as lightly as the Japanese do. "Oda Nobunaga as a teenage witch? Sure, why the fuck not".
Anime where the founding fathers are all moe blobs and know magic.
We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Nyoro~n
Zavian can you give a summary of each tier? I'm considering picking up at least a portion of this, but I'm not certain the $15 tier is worth, since it appears to only be additional "factions"/eras. Are any of these needed to unlock game features?
The tiers are largely done by order of release.
The base tier contains the two most essential bits of DLC: The Old Gods, which lets you play from an earlier start date and as pagan rulers (who otherwise exist in your game but aren't playable), and Legacy of Rome, which adds a bunch of events if you try to recreate the Roman Empire as the Byzantines but also adds the ability to have standing armies which is one of the biggest mechanical additions useful for any ruler. Other bits let you play as a Merchant Republic instead of the default feudal ruler or as an Islamic ruler. All of these have differences from Catholic and Orthodox feudal rulers that the base game consisted of. And Sunset Invasion adds an what-if scenario with Aztecs invading medieval Europe that you'll quickly disable because you have enough invasions with the Seljuks and Mongols.
The BTA average tier is mostly situational stuff. Horse Lords lets you play nomadic steppe cultures as a distinct playstyle whereas without it they are treated as tribal rulers. Neat in theory but many find the play style repetitive. Sons of Abraham fleshes out the Abrahamic faiths a bit more and lets you play as Jewish rulers to try and restore Israel as well as adding events related to that faith to other realms. Rajas lets you play as Indian rulers who otherwise exist but aren't playable. And Charlemagne adds an even earlier start date you can choose as well as a bunch of events if you actually play as Charlemagne or Karloman. But the biggest reason to go for this tier IMO is Way of Life. Unlike all the others, WoL affects every character in the game by letting them all choose a focus for a few years that gives relevant stat boosts and events. You might switch to Intrigue if you need to dig up a reason to justifiably imprison a troublesome vassal, War if you want to duel a bunch of people, Family if you need to create heirs, Seduction if you're willing to piss people off to create heirs, etc. It doubles down on the role playing aspects of the game.
The top tier is stuff that expands on stuff you might have decided you liked and where the game can be made more fantastical if you want to have weirder stories. Holy Fury and Monks and Mystics add various societies a character can join such as monastic orders for Christians wishing to become better people (which adds stat boosts and removes some negative traits), Warrior Lodges for pagan rulers that want to fight better, the Hermetics for Abrahamic rulers that want to be smarter and create gadgets, and Demon worshipers for people that want to be rat bastards corrupted by dark magic. Monks and Mystics mostly focuses on the Abrahamic faiths (though all belief systems get some form of Demon worshipers) while Holy Fury adds the warrior lodges for pagans. Conclave adds more depth to court politics which is another way of saying it can create more problems for your character. Reaper's Due adds more depth to the disease system giving you tools to resist the spread of epidemics but mostly just giving you the ability to seclude your court away from the world during a plague and occasionally exiling someone that can't take it or cannibalizing people if food stores run low. And Jade Dragon adds a lot of things related to China. China is not playable but rulers can interact with the Emperor/Empress for various favors such as useful items or sending off a troublesome relative to live life as a eunuch or concubine in the East. By default this is limited to rulers within a certain distance of China but options exist to allow every ruler to interact with China. It's your DLC after all.
You can think of it as each tier providing more opportunity for weirder things to happen in your games. I'd say the top tier is not essential but societies really do add a lot of flavor for characters and drive home that the game is at least as much role playing as it is strategy.
Thank you so much for this, this is a huge help.
Short answer is you should go for the $15 one, because every tier has something that would be considered must-have by most. Basic has Old Gods, which until recently was considered the best DLC, BTA has Way of Life, which is perhaps more important than Old Gods for keeping you occupied between wars, and top tier has Holy Fury (Old Gods' usurper) and Conclave, which might not be something you turn on your first game as you are learning the ropes of conquest, but something you'll probably want as you start to yearn for depth in internal politics, whether as a ruler or vassal.
That was kinda the impression I got from the breakdown, and exactly what I did
Checked the community to see why i keep getting wrecked on this first stage of the final battle and learned that the word bubbles were giving me clues to boss behavior.
Still some rng fuckery as the boss that shits out minions can be spawned on the other side of the room from your heroes
I LOVED CK2 back in the day but put it on the shelf for awhile, the $15 was an easy buy to drown in DLC and have a reason to check back into it.
Which means! I have a free copy of the base game, and the Sword of Islam expansion to share. First code here is for the base game, 2nd for that expansion, I recommend whoever wants the game claim both.
Loading...?
And if these remain unclaimed for awhile and you're like "well CK2 doesn't seem like my type of game, but I'm a huge game of thrones fan and maybe I could check out the best Game of Thrones video game ever made", the GoT mod for this is pretty awesome:
There was a steam sig here. It's gone now.
+11
HiT BiT🍒 Fresh, straight from Pac-man'sRegistered Userregular
Which means! I have a free copy of the base game, and the Sword of Islam expansion to share. First code here is for the base game, 2nd for that expansion, I recommend whoever wants the game claim both.
@Raiden333, just a note: I believe that if you use a single Fairshare container to share more than one key each forum user will be able to claim only a key from it (in this case either the base game key or the DLC key but not both of them).
This thread still always makes me smile when I see the gift bombs. 💣
I'm been doing the ketogenic diet since Christmas. But I still can't get used to black coffee. Bleh. Terrible. Makes mornings a lot less fun. I went to bed at 10pm last night...
Looking forward to the Hearthstone reveal stream this afternoon.
There's a new F13 patch coming (already out on console) and reading the people talking about it so far is hilarious with all the things it broke. That coming to PC is going to be a nightmare headache.
Hide or Die beta left a lot to be desired imo. That game feels super incomplete so far.
Torchlight Frontiers Alpha is kind of fun but feels very repetitive. The enemies are super generic too. I've played a lot of ARPGs but none of them can ever replicate the feeling that Diablo II had & I'm starting to think a lot of it now is just because it's not 2000 anymore, I'm not 17-18 years old anymore, and I'm not playing with friends anymore as everyone got older, had kids & has a lot less free time now.
I will probably relearn that same lesson when I try Classic WoW later in August when it re-releases.
Since those were all I already had, that bundle was a complete no-brainer. Even in sales, the cost of the CK2 DLC is prohibitive if you're looking to start from scratch. Getting the whole lot (well, everything important) for twelve quid that I could then choose to entirely donate to the local charity I actually have some involvement with and friends in, just makes it even better.
One of these days I'm going to figure out how to actually play the damn thing too
Checked the community to see why i keep getting wrecked on this first stage of the final battle and learned that the word bubbles were giving me clues to boss behavior.
Still some rng fuckery as the boss that shits out minions can be spawned on the other side of the room from your heroes
Chroma squad
Been loving your travels through Chroma Squad and wish more people would play it.
I flushed my salt and did outside research on how to improve my Hunt Showdown experience in both optimization and gameplay and I no longer hate it. Calling it a King of the Hill Battle Royale disguised as a competitive survival horror game is a gross, salty overgeneralization.
...And then I played the Test Server. A tutorial worth a damn, 16 ping, insane optimization. I actually won a gunfight after 36 hours of gameplay *chef kiss* now we have something I want to play with my brother. The official release will be aces, but now is the time to practice and burn up all your practice dollars, because all money will reset upon release.
Really stopped giving fucks about director choices for this final runthrough. Making it through the boss gauntlet was the worse part.
Anyway, final boss was a rush with that weapon summoning thing. At one point, I was just accepting getting smacked with the lava sword because that would just be one hero injured, rather than all of them. Or one being afflicted. Or a portal summoned.
Then final form
Then final final form.
Then credits
Lots of credits
Lotta fucking Seans sponsored this.
Lotta fucking Wills, and williams.
Then the narrator....and that's it.....nothing else....good times had.......good times....good times with that fast forward button.
Which means! I have a free copy of the base game, and the Sword of Islam expansion to share. First code here is for the base game, 2nd for that expansion, I recommend whoever wants the game claim both.
"Raiden333", just a note: I believe that if you use a single Fairshare container to share more than one key each forum user will be able to claim only a key from it (in this case either the base game key or the DLC key but not both of them).
Do I have to sign up for the bundle by today or is after tomorrow acceptable?
There are 13 days left in the Crusader Kings bundle.
Humble Monthly reveals the remaining games at the end of this week (or is it next week?); so you still have time to chip in for it.
Thanks. Pretty much in for CK2 et al because that's like ~$100.
And then some. $222.
So, I've never done much with the Humble Bundle stuff. Can someone walk me through how it works? You get a game key or something or do you have to use their service or what?
Do I have to sign up for the bundle by today or is after tomorrow acceptable?
There are 13 days left in the Crusader Kings bundle.
Humble Monthly reveals the remaining games at the end of this week (or is it next week?); so you still have time to chip in for it.
Thanks. Pretty much in for CK2 et al because that's like ~$100.
And then some. $222.
So, I've never done much with the Humble Bundle stuff. Can someone walk me through how it works? You get a game key or something or do you have to use their service or what?
It's all Steam keys. You log into your account and they show you all the keys you own and whether you've redeemed them or not.
You don't have to use a special launcher or any other hoops.
Do I have to sign up for the bundle by today or is after tomorrow acceptable?
There are 13 days left in the Crusader Kings bundle.
Humble Monthly reveals the remaining games at the end of this week (or is it next week?); so you still have time to chip in for it.
Thanks. Pretty much in for CK2 et al because that's like ~$100.
And then some. $222.
So, I've never done much with the Humble Bundle stuff. Can someone walk me through how it works? You get a game key or something or do you have to use their service or what?
It's all Steam keys. You log into your account and they show you all the keys you own and whether you've redeemed them or not.
You don't have to use a special launcher or any other hoops.
Posts
The tiers are largely done by order of release.
The base tier contains the two most essential bits of DLC: The Old Gods, which lets you play from an earlier start date and as pagan rulers (who otherwise exist in your game but aren't playable), and Legacy of Rome, which adds a bunch of events if you try to recreate the Roman Empire as the Byzantines but also adds the ability to have standing armies which is one of the biggest mechanical additions useful for any ruler. Other bits let you play as a Merchant Republic instead of the default feudal ruler or as an Islamic ruler. All of these have differences from Catholic and Orthodox feudal rulers that the base game consisted of. And Sunset Invasion adds an what-if scenario with Aztecs invading medieval Europe that you'll quickly disable because you have enough invasions with the Seljuks and Mongols.
The BTA average tier is mostly situational stuff. Horse Lords lets you play nomadic steppe cultures as a distinct playstyle whereas without it they are treated as tribal rulers. Neat in theory but many find the play style repetitive. Sons of Abraham fleshes out the Abrahamic faiths a bit more and lets you play as Jewish rulers to try and restore Israel as well as adding events related to that faith to other realms. Rajas lets you play as Indian rulers who otherwise exist but aren't playable. And Charlemagne adds an even earlier start date you can choose as well as a bunch of events if you actually play as Charlemagne or Karloman. But the biggest reason to go for this tier IMO is Way of Life. Unlike all the others, WoL affects every character in the game by letting them all choose a focus for a few years that gives relevant stat boosts and events. You might switch to Intrigue if you need to dig up a reason to justifiably imprison a troublesome vassal, War if you want to duel a bunch of people, Family if you need to create heirs, Seduction if you're willing to piss people off to create heirs, etc. It doubles down on the role playing aspects of the game.
The top tier is stuff that expands on stuff you might have decided you liked and where the game can be made more fantastical if you want to have weirder stories. Holy Fury and Monks and Mystics add various societies a character can join such as monastic orders for Christians wishing to become better people (which adds stat boosts and removes some negative traits), Warrior Lodges for pagan rulers that want to fight better, the Hermetics for Abrahamic rulers that want to be smarter and create gadgets, and Demon worshipers for people that want to be rat bastards corrupted by dark magic. Monks and Mystics mostly focuses on the Abrahamic faiths (though all belief systems get some form of Demon worshipers) while Holy Fury adds the warrior lodges for pagans. Conclave adds more depth to court politics which is another way of saying it can create more problems for your character. Reaper's Due adds more depth to the disease system giving you tools to resist the spread of epidemics but mostly just giving you the ability to seclude your court away from the world during a plague and occasionally exiling someone that can't take it or cannibalizing people if food stores run low. And Jade Dragon adds a lot of things related to China. China is not playable but rulers can interact with the Emperor/Empress for various favors such as useful items or sending off a troublesome relative to live life as a eunuch or concubine in the East. By default this is limited to rulers within a certain distance of China but options exist to allow every ruler to interact with China. It's your DLC after all.
You can think of it as each tier providing more opportunity for weirder things to happen in your games. I'd say the top tier is not essential but societies really do add a lot of flavor for characters and drive home that the game is at least as much role playing as it is strategy.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
- Crusader Kings II - Base vanilla game, let's you only play as Christians.
- The Old Gods DLC - Adds an earlier start date, playable pagan characters
- The Republic DLC - Adds playable merchant republics like Venice
- Sunset Invasion DLC - Adds alt-history Aztec invasion, note this is kind of a gimmick DLC and most play with it off.
- Legacy of Rome DLC - Adds events and flavor for Byzantine Empire as well as crucially standing retinue armies which is a key game mechanic to have
- Sword of Islam DLC - Adds playable Islamic characters
BTA:- Horse Lords DLC - New nomadic mechanics and playable nomad characters
- Way of Life DLC - CRUCIAL IMO as it adds lots of new RPG mechanics for all characters by way of focuses enabling stuff like Seduction
- Charlemagne DLC - Adds an earlier start and has more playable pagan characters, and, you know, Charlemagne
- Rajas of India DLC - Adds playable Indian characters and religions. Not CRUCIAL but I enjoyed getting out of Europe and playing in India
- Sons of Abraham DLC - Adds playable Jewish characters and events. This will also let you borrow 200 gold from Jewish bankers which can be very useful
PAY $15The $15 tier is the best and has my fav DLC. You can always disable DLC you don't want active like Sunset Invasion. I'm at work so can't do a bigger writeup, but CK2 is one of my fav games of all time so had to sneak in a break to at least type this up
Thank you so much for this, this is a huge help.
Oh yeah, lots of puns in the game. There's a pie shop called Pie of the Tiger.
Edit: Oh yeah, game link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/843380/Super_Animal_Royale/
The first one has some gems, too.
“Is that man dismounting an Imperial Titan?!
HERESY!”
Regarding the demo, apparently it's the full game, entirely playable for free as much as you want, but any cosmetic items you earn will be locked until you purchase the full game, so you can't do any pretty princess animal dress-up or create Super Animals. Everything is carried over, though, so you can buy whenever you want and you won't lose any items or progress you've accumulated.
That's pretty amazing.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/843380/Super_Animal_Royale/
Also that bundle is still up at time of typing for another six days, and that tier is cheaper than the game's regular Steam price; almost half the price in UK money.
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/hooked-on-multiplayer-2019-bundle
Steam | XBL
Short answer is you should go for the $15 one, because every tier has something that would be considered must-have by most. Basic has Old Gods, which until recently was considered the best DLC, BTA has Way of Life, which is perhaps more important than Old Gods for keeping you occupied between wars, and top tier has Holy Fury (Old Gods' usurper) and Conclave, which might not be something you turn on your first game as you are learning the ropes of conquest, but something you'll probably want as you start to yearn for depth in internal politics, whether as a ruler or vassal.
Many thanks to @Spoit for a copy of Cosmic Star Heroine!
I've been a fan of Zeboyd ever since the original Breath of Death VII and Cthulu Saves the World- I've beaten both of those games and almost completed a Cthulu's Angels run of CStW, and I've beaten both of the Penny Arcade Adventures they put out. I'm looking forward to giving this a whirl, and I'm hoping the new game lives up to the rest of them!
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Honestly, sometimes I feel we should all be willing to take our history as lightly as the Japanese do. "Oda Nobunaga as a teenage witch? Sure, why the fuck not".
Also, most of the DLCs at the $15 tier normally cost $15 individually.
Gamertag: PrimusD | Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Judging by the UK pricing, Holy Fury goes for more than that on its own.
Steam | XBL
We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Nyoro~n
That was kinda the impression I got from the breakdown, and exactly what I did
Still some rng fuckery as the boss that shits out minions can be spawned on the other side of the room from your heroes
Chroma squad
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
Which means! I have a free copy of the base game, and the Sword of Islam expansion to share. First code here is for the base game, 2nd for that expansion, I recommend whoever wants the game claim both.
Loading...?
And if these remain unclaimed for awhile and you're like "well CK2 doesn't seem like my type of game, but I'm a huge game of thrones fan and maybe I could check out the best Game of Thrones video game ever made", the GoT mod for this is pretty awesome:
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
I'm been doing the ketogenic diet since Christmas. But I still can't get used to black coffee. Bleh. Terrible. Makes mornings a lot less fun. I went to bed at 10pm last night...
Looking forward to the Hearthstone reveal stream this afternoon.
There's a new F13 patch coming (already out on console) and reading the people talking about it so far is hilarious with all the things it broke. That coming to PC is going to be a nightmare headache.
Hide or Die beta left a lot to be desired imo. That game feels super incomplete so far.
Torchlight Frontiers Alpha is kind of fun but feels very repetitive. The enemies are super generic too. I've played a lot of ARPGs but none of them can ever replicate the feeling that Diablo II had & I'm starting to think a lot of it now is just because it's not 2000 anymore, I'm not 17-18 years old anymore, and I'm not playing with friends anymore as everyone got older, had kids & has a lot less free time now.
I will probably relearn that same lesson when I try Classic WoW later in August when it re-releases.
Hi, Steam people. 👋
Loading...?
Steam | XBL
Loading...?
Steam | XBL
Loading...?
Steam | XBL
One of these days I'm going to figure out how to actually play the damn thing too
Steam | XBL
It's a perfectly cromulent cover shooter that very clearly runs out of money like 2/3rds of the way through the game.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
But that clone wars arc made me feel things.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
Been loving your travels through Chroma Squad and wish more people would play it.
...And then I played the Test Server. A tutorial worth a damn, 16 ping, insane optimization. I actually won a gunfight after 36 hours of gameplay *chef kiss* now we have something I want to play with my brother. The official release will be aces, but now is the time to practice and burn up all your practice dollars, because all money will reset upon release.
Anyway, final boss was a rush with that weapon summoning thing. At one point, I was just accepting getting smacked with the lava sword because that would just be one hero injured, rather than all of them. Or one being afflicted. Or a portal summoned.
Then final form
Then final final form.
Then credits
Lots of credits
Lotta fucking Seans sponsored this.
Lotta fucking Wills, and williams.
Then the narrator....and that's it.....nothing else....good times had.......good times....good times with that fast forward button.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
Shoot, oh well
There are 13 days left in the Crusader Kings bundle.
Humble Monthly reveals the remaining games at the end of this week (or is it next week?); so you still have time to chip in for it.
Thanks. Pretty much in for CK2 et al because that's like ~$100.
And then some. $222.
Steam | XBL
So, I've never done much with the Humble Bundle stuff. Can someone walk me through how it works? You get a game key or something or do you have to use their service or what?
It's all Steam keys. You log into your account and they show you all the keys you own and whether you've redeemed them or not.
You don't have to use a special launcher or any other hoops.
Well then. Time to go do some good, I guess.
I'm probably thinking of the Dale prices. Just CK2 was $15.