Crusader Kings 2 is to this day one of Paradox's most popular grand strategy games. Since launch in 2012 it has received 24 paid DLC packs with a variety of expansions, unit bundles and customisation features. If you buy all of them alongside the CK2 base game, it costs over $300 in total.
At PDXCon 2018, I suggest to incoming CEO Ebba Ljungerud and business development VP Shams Jorjani that the developer's long-term DLC model has scope to overwhelm new players.
"We want to make really great games for the customer, and that's the outlook," explains Ljungerud. "We're not going to be able to do that if we can't charge something for the development of the games. That's the base of it. You can then discuss margins and this and that, but if we don't make money we're not going to make the game. That's where we're coming from. For us, it's not so strange that we actually charge people for content and better improvements of the game.
"With Crusader Kings 2, you could say, yeah, it's a lot of money over the years—but it's also a game with a lot of hours and a lot of gameplay within it. So, I can't say that I think it's wrong for charging for the development of the games."
Jorjani interjects: "I argue: go out and find any other game that can offer you this many hours of gameplay at the base cost and never [require] any more DLC. If you're not a religious Paradox player and you've never encountered our games, and just buy vanilla, I think we're in the top one percent in the industry, in terms of value that we provide back. Green Man Gaming now puts in a value that tells you the amount of hours and money spent. There was a big discussion [on social media] about how terrible this is. But I love it!"On the other hand, we're pretty… not bad, but there's room for improvement in how we present our DLC. We have to deal with the issue of people being conditioned by other games and how the industry works. The conditioning is: if you don't get all the content, the thing is broken, you're missing out on something. Which is not true in our games."
Jorjani says Paradox must better present the surplus post-launch expansions its games offer, so as to avoid inundating players with DLC. Jorjani adds that it's easy to deride "fucking more DLC" in 280 characters, than it is to have sensible conversations about what you like and dislike—and that the premium business model is nevertheless shrinking. Conversely, free-to-play practices are growing.
"If I'd gone to Henrik [Fåhraeus] and said in 2018 we're going to have $300-worth of DLC, he would've smacked me across the face," Jorjani adds. "So, today I can walk in and have $30,000-worth of content to sell in six years and people don't smack me. Because if we look at what's going on in the industry as a whole, the premium business model is shrinking. That part of the industry is shrinking. That doesn't mean you can't thrive and grow, but as a whole, our focus as a company is growing. What's growing is free-to-play.
"Our games perhaps don't transfer over that well over to free-to-play. So, the interesting [question] is: what is the convergence point that we see in hybrid models, where there is a premium starting price point, but there are other ways to charge for content without upsetting everyone? That's the real challenge for us in the next five to ten years—and how we present that."
"God or the Sword?" asks Crusader Kings 2's latest DLC. Named Holy Fury, it's one of the medieval grand strategy 'em up's most sophisticated expansions—this time drawing inspiration from the Northern Crusaders of Catholic Europe against their Pagan neighbours.
"In Holy Fury, Pagan rulers who reform their religion instead of converting will have a chance to design that new Reformed Paganism," explains Paradox—who unveiled Holy Fury on stage at PDXCON 2018 today. "A religion of peace or one of war? Will you be guided by the stars or bow to the whims of bloodthirsty gods? Who will lead this new church? Build a new creed on the ashes of the old ways."
Here's an announcement trailer:
And while it may not be immediately clear there, Holy Fury promises Pagan 'warrior lodges' that let players raid their way up the ranks, unlocking powerful allies as they go. It lets players leverage Legendary Bloodlines to their advantage; and allows Pias Catholics to become canonised, in turn passing their glory onto their descendants. Moreover, new succession laws alter how realms are unified.
Crusader Kings 2: Holy Fury is due later this year, and asks for a $19.99 donation for its collection basket. Like all CK2 expansions, the DLC will land alongside a comprehensive free update available for all players. More information is expected in the coming weeks.
The greatest hybrid of strategy and roleplaying games ever developed for me, Crusader Kings 2 is a juggernaut of the last decade of PC gaming. It allows players to step into the shoes of a broad range of medieval characters across several continents while wooing, marrying, assassinating, and warring their way to kingships, empires, and—inevitably—grave misfortunes. After six years of iterative development, its panoply of expansions and content packs make it a treasure trove of medievalist miseries.
Though people enjoy CK2 for many different reasons, there are common threads of enjoyment found across its broad spectrum of players. People like to shepherd their family of nobles, grow attached to the best of them, and tell the tales of how they met their end. People like to develop their little corner of Europe, build up an army, and ensure the prosperity of their realm. And people love to hate the other families of nobility that surround them—whether it's the kings of the rival kingdom or the other baron just across the river. It's the random surprises, the unforeseen events, and the secret plotting that make CK2 such a thrill ride of a game. An inconvenient death to plague can set your plans back generations—but that’s part of the fun.
There’s a board game that scratches all the same itches. It was made in the late '80s as Fief, and restored recently by Academy Games and Asyncron as Fief: France 1429. It’s a wargame with strategic economic elements and extensive diplomatic negotiation, but what makes it special is its deep reliance on individual characters to accomplish anything in the game.
Fief plants players into some of the great, last gasps of internecine strife in the burgeoning state of France. As the Hundred Years’ War forges the very concept of nationhood in western Europe, you take on the role of a family line of French nobles trying to consolidate power and dominate their country. Conquer baronies and ducal titles for your family, build support in the church by appointing your relatives to bishoprics, and perhaps even claim titles like King or Pope!
Fief is a highly diplomatic game where players are in near-constant communication with those neighboring them. The movement of armies is crucial, with troops mustered on the borders a constant threat to peace and economic security. You’re either reassuring or threatening in turns, telling others you’re securing your interests by amassing forces at one moment and threatening to invade the other.
Targets of opportunity constantly present themselves, forcing mercenary allegiance over strict friendships—sure, you’ve been peaceful with your neighbor the whole game, but why not take advantage of a far-off war to burn down some mills and cripple their economy? Like in Crusader Kings, true alliances can only be bought via marriages yoking two dynasties together, but also increasing their requirements for victory. Plus, a bad plague, death in combat, or assassination can mean the end of an alliance with a heartbeat if one spouse dies.
Which can, and will, happen. Armies can only move if nobles lead them, which means that you’ll have to risk those carefully accumulated titles and offices in defense of your realm or in pursuit of a larger one. Lords can die in combat or be captured, forcing you to re-evaluate carefully chosen plans. The game is mostly driven by a deck of event cards, surprising you with events like heavy weather forcing armies to a standstill, good harvests increasing tax incomes, or the aforementioned outbreaks of plague. It’s the kind of random chance that makes Crusader Kings 2 so enjoyable, and it’s just as good in Fief.
Fief isn’t perfect. It’s very much a 1980s wargame, imperfectly balanced and reliant on simulationist rules rooted in historical fact. A diplomacy-heavy game means you really balance it yourself. You have to know that if one player gets a series of good tax seasons then other players will have to gang up on the now-wealthy juggernaut. It’s also strongest with a larger player group—the game’s minimum is three players, but it really shines with five or six.
Much like CK2, I’m also going to recommend some of Fief: France 1429’s expansions. Politics adds a layer of personality to your characters, giving them positive and negative traits, as well as hangers-on and courtiers. Tactics adds several more kinds of troops that increase the game’s strategic depth to levels more on par with other tabletop wargames, like Archers, Bombards, and hireable Mercenaries.
Exciting to me, of course, is that a new edition of the board game from Asyncron looks to be in the offing for later this year, with an altered map encompassing all of France rather than a limited region. It’ll likely make its way to America, so those with limited board game budgets might want to wait for that release before jumping onto the Fief wagon. Others might want to snap both up, if only so they can have more than one map to play on.
Crusader Kings 2 is a medieval grand strategy game that has players vying to establish and expand their kingdoms across multiple generations during a time of great political and military strife. Those who like it, like it a lot, but it's not the most accessible thing ever, which has likely kept quite a number of more casual strategy fans away from it. But for the next 48 hours it's free on Steam, and if you grab it during the giveaway it's yours to keep forever.
To get it, just click the "Install Game" button, which will register CK2 to your account and begin the install. (The download is about 1 GB, but you can opt to abort the install if you don't want to dive into it right away.) While you're there, you might also take note of the plethora of DLC that's available, all of which is currently on sale for half price except for Jade Dragon, the most recent of the bunch, which brings China to the fight and is 33 percent off.
Crusader Kings 2 is excellent—we gave it an 87/100 review in 2012 (it's been around that long)—and has also demonstrated remarkable staying power: We shared a rundown of the best CK2 expansions just a couple of weeks ago. And if that (and the fact that it's free) doesn't convince you, consider this:
The Crusader Kings 2 giveaway will end at 10 am PT/1 pm ET on April 7.