I really appreciate the efforts of the voiceover man in this launch trailer for the new Crusader Kings expansion, Rajas of India. He’s doing his very best to make the game sound exciting and dramatic, even as the camera pans slowly across colourful cartography and static menu screens.
Except, as we players of Paradox’s medieval soap opera know, this is exciting. You don’t need to say it in a dramatic voice: Rajas of India adds the Indian subcontinent, three new religions, and a lot of new ways to commit lusty barbarism.
… [visit site to read more]
Rajas Of India is the next gargantuan expansion for 2012-2013′s best strategy game, Crusader Kings II. Your date with the Rajas is set for March 25th, which should give you just enough time to buy something nice to wear and book a table at that fancy restaurant that everybody keeps going on about. I’ve already gathered a wealth of information about what to expect, as well as thoughts on the expanded map, and new faiths and cultures. The ten minute video below contains much of the same information, delivered directly from the mind and mouth of Henrik Fåhraeus, the man who made the Middle Ages.
… [visit site to read more]
I don’t think anyone at Paradox expected Crusader Kings II to spread into India with quite as much gusto as it will this March. The next expansion adds around 50% to the world map, with almost 400 new provinces, three new religions and a continent’s worth of new events, including the possibility of chained ‘reincarnation’ plotlines. As always with these generous chunks of DLC, a free patch will be released alongside the expansion and it will contain a surprisingly hefty amount of content, including the entirety of the expanded map, and Steam matchmaking and Workshop support. While it may not have the immediate appeal of the Old Gods to many (Vikings vs Buddhists anyone?), Rajas is the biggest expansion since. More details below.
(more…)
Crusader Kings 2 is one of my personal favourites of 2013, as it was in 2012, but it didn’t have a place in our calendar. It could been included using the Trojan Horse of DLC, as XCOM did thanks to Enemy Within, but it’s hard to pick out the stand-out expansion for CK II. Even The Old Gods, which expanded the timeframe, felt like part of the whole rather than a distinct item. That is part of the brilliance of the design, but it also makes it much harder to say ‘Crusader Kings II: Old Gods’ is one of the games of 2013 rather than simply saying, ‘Crusader Kings II is one of the games of the year. Again.” Here’s why I think that argument is valid.
(more…)
If you enter in to Crusader Kings 2 with a plan to win, you’re going to be frustrated. It’s a complex turn-based strategy game set during the Middle Ages in Europe, with an overwhelming array of options available whether you start as a mighty King or a lowly Count. If you approach it as a role-playing game though, with an interest only in being interesting, then it’s an accessible, surprising delight to muddle your way through and craft your own stories.
That’s why any new expansion to the game is so exciting; every added layer of detail gives you a new role to perform. Sons of Abraham focuses on expanding the Jewish and Muslim faiths. It’s out now and there’s a new developer diary below.(more…)
Apparently, Crusader Kings II is still missing something, which seems unlikely considering the amount of content that each major expansion has added. The Old Gods took the cake* – Forseti loves a slice of Battenberg – adding a couple of centuries to play with, a host of religions and new raiding mechanics mechanics. That’s not the end of the road though. It seems the one God and the diverse groups that claim to know Him best is a little jealous of the Old Gods and the Sons of Abraham expansion is hoping to make Him feel better by honouring “the big three in Medieval Europe: Christianity, Judaism and Islam”. More details below.
(more…)
Paradox have sounded the news bugle to announce that Crusader Kings II, the game that has continued to expand and consume my days throughout 2013, is refusing to abdicate its crown. A polite ruler would step aside to make room for the next in line to the throne, but CK II has never been polite. It’s a devious, murderous omnicidal lord and it will never die. Today’s grand strategy news is this – Europa Universalis IV will couple with Crusader Kings II via a save-game converter.
Fans of Crusader Kings II will be able to maintain the empires they have established and guide them through the age of exploration in an all-new strategic experience, continuing their personal stories of expansion and conquest.
There’s a very good chance I won’t be playing anything else ever.
(more…)
Jim is basically the J. Jonah Jameson of RPS: I was handsomely making sweet news for you guys when he stormed into the forbidden RPS chatroom of mystery, slammed his fists on the desk with the rage that only an editor can muster, and demanded I find some mods. “It’s the weekend!”, he angrily typed. “If there you don’t find at least three mods by the end of the day that the readers can play, you can go and beg VG247 forra job.” And then he stormed out, muttering about page impressions, tea, and robots. Luckily I’ve been on a bit of a modding binge of late, so I have a few interesting things for you. Do you have Arma 3 installed? That’s nice.(more…)
The Old Gods expansion for Crusader Kings II is out now. It costs £9.99 and for a few short hours, the base game is actually cheaper than its expansion thanks to a 75% price reduction. The Old Gods moves the start date back a couple of centuries and adds playable pagans, among other things. I’ve played CK II more than any other game in the last 12 months and it’s going to end up at or near the top of the list over the next 12 as well. That’s at least in part thanks to the DLC, which has opened up new features, factions and play styles. I shall be playing with the Old Gods tonight. I hope they’re friendly.
(more…)
I’ve played Crusader Kings II’s latest expansion and it’s packed full of exciting things that I’d like to spend at least eighty hours exploring. For pagan characters, who are the focus, there are raids, landless adventurers, river-based assaults, plunder, warbands and human sacrifices. I never found the time to play with previous Republic expansion but I am incapable of ignoring the opportunity to unify every pagan religion beneath Odin’s banner, creating a British empire that clings to the forests and the ancient ways of worship. Paradox are currently running a competition that will include the winner’s historically appropriate event in the game. Rules below.
(more…)
Crusader Kings II is rolling out the pagans, and the game is changing not just by the nature of the idols it worships, but also in a few fundamental game mechanics, game events, and in the start date, which has rolled back to the ninth century. The Paradox team have taken some time to explain these decisions in a series of development update videos, which you can see below.(more…)
Paradox are finally ready to unleash the Pagans, or at least they are finally ready to announce that they will unleash the Pagans in the near future. The Old Gods expansion for Crusader Kings II won’t just allow players to control Pagan leaders, with all new mechanics and events, it will also open up a new start date of 867 AD. Details are scarce but I did speak with members of the studio about raids and Viking bands. Raids sound like a sort of terror event, with bands sprouting from the woodlands and wilds once a trigger is hit, falling under the leadership of a nearby ruler. Their numbers are not tied to the provinces that leader controls, so they can quickly become overwhelming. Trailer follows.
(more…)
If you listen carefully you’ll be able to hear Adam, all the way hidden in darkest Manchester, mumbling to himself about how much he likes Crusader Kings II. Listen now… [mumble mumble awrite ourkid i love crusader kings ii mad for it mumble mumble]. Did you hear it! He’ll be uncontrollable with glee to learn there’s a new trailer for the Republic expansion, as well as two other smaller expansions out now.
(more…)
Last year’s most impressive fratricide simulator, Crusader Kings II, receives another expansion today in the form of The Republic DLC. If you’d like to learn more about trading, nautical dominance, economic skullduggery and political corruption, you could either read several volumes of Serious History, or jog over to the Paradox forums where the designers are responding to questions right now. People are already saying things like, “Doesn’t this cause problems with modeling the Hanseatic League?”, and regarding the upcoming patch, “Could you provide more background about the 1.09 changes to bastardy/pregnancy?” How many games patch in ‘changes to bastardy’, eh?
The expansion should be live at 3PM CET and costs $9.99.
When all of the expansions are in place, Crusader Kings II will be a completely inaccurate title. They’ll just have to change the name to ‘Medieval Chaps and Ladies (also infants)’ because everyone will be playable, even if they have no interested in Papal-dictated conquest or monarchical pursuits. Moving away from the previous alternate history DLC, The Republic is a meatier expansion that should alter the game significantly. Money, not blood, drives the engine of the merchant republics. Venice, Genoa, Pisa, the Hanseatic League and Gotland will all be playable, and Patrician families will have a greater emphasis on trade, cash and political corruption, the latter of which isn’t quite the same as defenestrating your first born. Probably.
(more…)
Aztec invasions of late 13th century Europe have no place in otherwise believable historical strategy games, particularly not when they threaten to shatter the united realms of slothful hunchback Cormac Whittlestump, ruler of the mighty Empire of Britannia. Crusader Kings II’s Sunset Invasion DLC insists on the madness of an Aztec invasion – bringing armies, disease and human sacrifice – and it’s the first significant slab of content that I haven’t immediately installed. I’m not opposed to its existence but I doubt I’d spend much time with it. Any takers?
(more…)
Here’s the inevitable pagan DLC for Crusader Kings II then. I’ll just take a quick look at the feature list: human sacrifice…Mesoamerican Menace? That second part doesn’t with my preconceived notions as to what this next expansion includes. “Brings the savage, blood drenched Aztec civilization to European shores, determined to wreak carnage on its inhabitants”? This might not be the pagan DLC I expected after all, but rather a fantastical alternate history upheaval of the sort never before seen in a Paradox grand strategy game. Set your eyes below the break for more info on what the Aztec invasion might mean for the ever-warring folks of the Old World.
(more…)
This is my first week back from a holiday, during which time I barely looked at an internet, let alone wrote on one. I didn’t play any games either, unless you consider freezing to death on a remote Welsh hillside to be some sort of game. As is often the case, not doing something for five minutes has made me think about why I do it in the first place. Why, of all the wonderful and fascinating things that exist, do I spend so much time thinking and writing about games?
(more…)
The Sword of Islam burns bright and now the embers of Rome threaten to ignite. The second major expansion for Crusader Kings II, Legacy of Rome, adds new features that at first sight (a press release) appear to concentrate on being a big player, with much talk of the Byzantine Empire. Vassals forming factions, becoming smarter and presumably more interesting, generals with further features and more influence, and the possibility of appointing Orthodox patriarchs. Self-improvement ambitions will allow regents to grow as people rather than simply collecting vices and scars, and no doubt there’ll be more to discover before the Q4 2012 release.
I’ve been creating all kinds of stories with Crusader Kings II and with the release of the Sword of Islam expansion I decided it was time to pen a chronicle or two. Somewhat experimental, this is history from several perspectives, being the tale of a thousand men and women, and the genesis of nations. This is how their world ends and how the modern world began.
(more…)