Hey, thanks for the heads up. Free stuff is always appreciated. :D

26 paid DLCs? Remarkable. I mean, I know Paradox was extreme, but not THAT extreme.
A question: if there are so many DLCs... how is the main game as standalone? Also, how many average salaries does one need to complete the package?

The base game is huge and complex and deep and challenging and varied and compelling. There's hundreds of hours to be sunk into that alone. It would be churlish to dismiss it as merely a vehicle for the dlc. If you don't enjoy the base game, the dlc is not going to improve your opinion. If you find you do enjoy it, though, some of the dlc is worth buying. Seriously, pick it up for free.

There were actually even more of them but it got so out of hand that Paradox bundled them. Now some of the single DLC contain much more of the former ones. But those can still be bought separately if one wants.
Ultimate Unit Pack contains 11 formerly separate DLC, Ultimate Portrait Pack 11 as well, Ultimate Music Pack 12 and Dynasty Shield Pack 4 of them.
So that's 38 DLC in place of 4.

And your point is? In the long run, all games start to get repetitive and boring. Personally, I've clocked over 450 hours on CK 2 according to Steam, and quite a bit of that was before I bought any DLCs, so I think even base CK 2 has most games beat in terms of longevity, though obviously not everyone will agree.


Edit: To anyone who wonders about the amount of DLCs, those are basically modular and are designed so you don't need most of them. There are basically 3 kinds, cosmetic stuff that's imo pointless, ones that adds more features and depth to the game, and ones that adds more options on what to play. For instance there is one DLC that lets you play as a muslim ruler, another as a merchant republic, another adds India to the map and lets you play there, etc... Obviously you don't need those if you don't want to play as one of those things.

The base game "only" lets you play as any Christian ruler of a rank count or higher from 1066 to 1453, which is more than enough content to keep you busy for a while and let you decide whether you like the game enough to buy some of the DLC.

Yeah, it's on sale right now. And if I'm reading this right, getting all the DLC at 50% off will cost you 489 Chinese Yuan. That's the equivalent of 75 US-Dorra!

And that's the price in Mainland China, the US-/Euro-price will probably be double/triple that. No small fries, if you ask me.

Giving away the base game for free is still a pretty cool move. The fact that the game is DRM-free makes it all the better.

thanks

After a lot of gameplay time in CKII, i can confirm that the base game is great and you don't need any expansions to enjoy it. Of course you may consider buying an expansion or two to be able to play as a non-Christian ruler (i'd like to buy The Old Gods myself, but i'll wait for the GOG release, if it ever comes..), but the base game already provides a lot of entertainment and doesn't feel like it's missing stuff. Other than that, you can skip all cosmetic DLCs.

The base game is amazing and should satisfy any grand strategy fan for dozens upons dozens of hours.
I doubt Paradox will release it here. They gave an excuse about Steamworks integration a while back.

So did I, but I could not find much related to older Paradox games, such as EU2 or CK1.

The first hit is free, kid.

I'm sorta banking on the idea that they're conceptually similar enough to allow easy learning after I learn one of the more popular ones.

The point was that once the novelty wears off, I was highly put off by the glaring holes in the "base" game (fun fact: early on you could play Islamic rulers without any special handling before Paradox patched it out... which happened right after somebody started modding in unique content for them and about two months before Sword of Islam got released as a separate DLC) and lack of variety in random events.

It was nowhere near as bad as Stellaris, but people surprised at the latter's lack of content were exactly the ones that were fine with the way CK2 was handled, so very much a self-inflicted wound there.

Unfortunately, a lot of the interesting game mechanics is locked behind paid DLCs.

Exactly as planned. Not a fan of that kind of business practice, because whether you want to acknowledge it or not it absolutely leads to pre-designed content being removed from the "base game" to be sold separately later on.

Thank you for sharing this, I did not know. Guess I'll add a comment in my notes about blocking this game if/when I decide to try it.