Well, Heart of Darkness is coming out in Q1 and The Old Gods is in Q2, which at least means one doesn't have to pay all at once. Though it also means that we have to wait all the way until Q2 for the Dark Age starting date... :wah:

Speaking of Heart of Darkness (since we have no active Vicky II thread). It looks like they're bringing a few of the best features of Pride of Nations into it, which is immensely awesome.

Really wondering what will become of this. On one hand it's filling a big gap in the game as far as playables go and on the other hand it sounds like an over ambitious one size fits all solution which ends up being super generic for everyone except the vikings. Depends on how they'll implement the group specific events and how many there will be.

Personally I'm a little underwhelmed that they went with vikings, but I suppose money and mental images talk louder than, say, pagan groups that actually mattered in the majority of the game's period (the Mongols and the Baltic pagans for one.) Wondering how well the special earlier start date will cure this.

Forum talk says it'll be released in Q2 of 2013, so seems they are at least taking plenty of time to make it. A good sign.

That is the problem with paganism, there were a lot of different sects so if you were to model all of the known ones then it would be a new game in itself...however, that's not to say that they won't flesh out the other tribes in later DLC, the Mongols in particular I suspect will get a closer look in a later DLC. I imagine though it'll be the most common pagan sects that are represented in detail and generic events for others. But, we shall see, it's certainly got my vote. :yep:

Aye, that's my hopes as well. Don't get me wrong, I want this to succeed. After all, my own ancestors in the game's period were pagans and are properly portrayed as such, however insignificant they might have been in the larger scale of things.

I'm not asking for Finnish pagans DLC because it wouldn't make any sense. It's just that after the Republic DLC I'm a little wary. While it's good, it still feels very empty even when its focus is on very small scope. Now try applying such a huge scope as "Pagan DLC" and try telling me it somehow won't end up the same?

Crossing fingers.

Paradox said that while the Vikings are the main focus of this expansion, the Zoroastrians and all the other pagan groups will also receive unique content. Hopefully that will be enough to make them not generic (particularly the Baltic pagans and the Mongols which are the most important ones for the game's original time period). If not, there are always mods.

The 9th century starting date is by far the most interesting thing in this DLC in my opinion. I wonder how they'll represent some of the bigger changes in setup from 1066 and 867, like the Frankish Kingdoms not yet becoming France and the HRE, the various kingdoms inhabiting Britain (and their eventual unification) or the schism between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches still having not completely occurred.

Events might be one solution. But if they go that way, I hope they make sensible conditions that have to be met before they fire. The thing I like in CK2 the most compared to the other Paradox games I have played is that it's believeable enough (OK, bar the silly Aztec DLC), but does not force historical events to happen even when they make no sense in the current game's context.

Like saying I went bankrupt with Spain in EU2 when I was in fact doing much better than Spain in reality was, or saying the Winter War was a horrible mistake for the Soviet Union in The Darkest Hour while my tanks were busy chasing the remnants of the Finnish army around their Western coast. :har:

Edit: Oops, I think I misunderstood your question and took it to mean how things will develop from the new early start date's different background to the 1066 start's conditions.

No, that's part of what I meant. I'm wondering both how things will be represented in the initial setup and how the game will handle the changes that occur between 867 and 1066.

Take West Francia for example, it's essentially the same title that France is later on, but under a different name. Are they just going to have the Kingdom of France there from the beginning? Are they going to have a (titular?) Kingdom of West Francia, separate from the Kingdom of France which would then be formable? Are they going to have a decision that renames West Francia into France under the right conditions? There are a lot of things like that which are pretty well established during the time period between 1066 and 1453 but change fairly significantly between 867 and 1066.

I'm correct in thinking that about that time was the time of Mercia, East Angle, Hwicce and the like? :hmmm:
Played a great Civ III mod based in that area once, The Rood and the Dragon (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downlo...do=file&id=263), very nice indeed.
Will make a nice game-play mechanic having to fight and conquer the other Breton nations to become Bretwalda. Admittedly though, having to fight and conquer most of Britain is something that seems to happen every ten years in most CKII games... :hmmm:

I'm not sure what exact Kingdoms were independent in 867, but yes, that was the general situation until Wessex managed to unify most of England in the 10th century.

Which reminds me that I should really get the books I'm missing from Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories series...

The fact that the Kings keep dying in suspicious accident after a year on the throne, thus resulting in yet another succession crisis, might have something to do with it.

It's not my fault they can't make proper railings on their balconies. Honest!

(Stupid woman, start making babies so I can inherit.)

Just bought the first one :up:. Though I don't know when I have the time for it. Got quite a lot of books in line waiting to be read...

Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods Interview - Everything we know so far.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/02/05/cr...e-know-so-far/

HunterICX

I expect a lot of that to happen around the fanbase when the DLC is released. Along with the huge tidal wave of disappointment spiced with the flotsam from all the broken dreams. The usual.


Well there you go, artificially curb our awesomeness again because you're still better...I mean bitter that we are bitter...I mean better hockey players than you are. Stupid revisionist imperialist bättre folk [grumble mumble Winter War grumble mumble beeb].

Pre-order... Canceled...

It's not even realistic, for goodness' sake! You only need to open your eyes to realize that Finns are invading Spain all the time. We even have a colony on the Southern coast! Trust me, I know, I've lived in there.

I demand a special Finnish Tourist CB that lets the Finns form free doomstacks with bonus to martial but malus to diplomacy due to the amount of alcohol drunk before the war and then use them to invade any coastal city along the Mediterranean. Paradox, fix or do sumfink!