YOU'LL BE ABLE TO FIND OUT THIS FALL IN THE NEW CRUSADER KINGS 2 DLC, SUNSET INVASION.

this is basically the best thing ever, the paradox forums are rife with historical accuracy grognard tears, it's so great.

Pull Up the Drawbridge, Barricade the Gates, the Aztecs are Coming!

New York – October 31, 2012 – Just when Europe thought it was safe from troublesome Eastern foes, a new blood-curdling threat looms off the Western coast in Crusader Kings II: Sunset Invasion.

In the latest DLC for the critically-acclaimed strategy/RPG Crusader Kings II, Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studios pose the question – what would have happened if the Aztecs invaded 13th Century Europe?

For the first time ever, Paradox Development Studio is introducing a fantasy scenario in their strategy games. Introducing a wealth of new features to appease the angriest of sun gods, the upcoming Crusader Kings II DLC brings the savage, blood drenched Aztec civilization to European shores, determined to wreak carnage on its inhabitants. Cower in fear at the invaders strange gods and rituals including the potential peril of having your vital organs offered up to these vengeful deities in sacrifice. Anything to keep them happy!

It will be survival of the fittest to survive the onslaught of the menacing Mesoamerican warriors, bringing with them exotic and deadly diseases, and an appetite for destruction.

Main Features:

- A new invading threat arrives at a random point in the mid to late game, conquering from the West

- Unique new portraits, on-map shields and units for the great Mesoamerican Menace

- Cower in fear at the Aztec gods: New Aztec culture and religion

- Human Sacrifice! When a province is lost, no-one is safe from the threat of losing their hearts on the obsidian altars

- Survive the terrible disease brought by the pagan oppressors: A new plague from across the Ocean

Crusader Kings II: Sunset Invasion arrives November 15th 2012 on all major digital download portals for 4,99 USD.

Get ready to face the biggest threat Europe could have known!

You won't be able to play with them (nor is the promise that you'll be able to mod the ability to play as them is assured, though that's unclear), but this is amazing and fantastic.

They would have caught a terrible disease.

Well, I figure they'd die pretty quickly.

Probably would have died due to disease.

I love history, specifically European pre-modern because guess I'm racist or something, but Goddamn I wish this game wasn't as systemically complicated. Or had better tooltips or explanation of how to play of whatever. I'd love to play as my Frankish ancestors and deal with the Germanic tribes and the Roman vestiges, but I can't make heads or tails of those Goddamn spreadsheets.

Yeah, this definitely looks awesome.

@Brodehouse said:

I love history, specifically European pre-modern because guess I'm racist or something, but Goddamn I wish this game wasn't as systemically complicated. Or had better tooltips or explanation of how to play of whatever. I'd love to play as my Frankish ancestors and deal with the Germanic tribes and the Roman vestiges, but I can't make heads or tails of those Goddamn spreadsheets.

it's not as complicated as you think it is, or even as complicated as it wants to believe it is. There's a good LP on the SA forums that's a good teacher for the game, but unfortunately it's not on the LParchive and I think the paywall is up.

Still, it's not super complicated; there are intricate parts of the game to be sure, but you don't need to delve into them if you don't want to.

@Brodehouse said:

I love history, specifically European pre-modern because guess I'm racist or something, but Goddamn I wish this game wasn't as systemically complicated. Or had better tooltips or explanation of how to play of whatever. I'd love to play as my Frankish ancestors and deal with the Germanic tribes and the Roman vestiges, but I can't make heads or tails of those Goddamn spreadsheets.

After AWHILE, I was able to play the game competently. But I still don't feel like I have a good grip on the systems.

@Brodehouse said:

I love history, specifically European pre-modern because guess I'm racist or something, but Goddamn I wish this game wasn't as systemically complicated. Or had better tooltips or explanation of how to play of whatever. I'd love to play as my Frankish ancestors and deal with the Germanic tribes and the Roman vestiges, but I can't make heads or tails of those Goddamn spreadsheets.

it's not as complicated as you think it is, or even as complicated as it wants to believe it is. There's a good LP on the SA forums that's a good teacher for the game, but unfortunately it's not on the LParchive and I think the paywall is up.

Still, it's not super complicated; there are intricate parts of the game to be sure, but you don't need to delve into them if you don't want to.

Joke aside, I'd actually like to get in to this game. It seems like it'd be up my ally. I don't know if it's anything like Civ, but I do love historical games like this.

@Brodehouse said:

@Animasta

@Brodehouse said:

I love history, specifically European pre-modern because guess I'm racist or something, but Goddamn I wish this game wasn't as systemically complicated. Or had better tooltips or explanation of how to play of whatever. I'd love to play as my Frankish ancestors and deal with the Germanic tribes and the Roman vestiges, but I can't make heads or tails of those Goddamn spreadsheets.

it's not as complicated as you think it is, or even as complicated as it wants to believe it is. There's a good LP on the SA forums that's a good teacher for the game, but unfortunately it's not on the LParchive and I think the paywall is up.

Still, it's not super complicated; there are intricate parts of the game to be sure, but you don't need to delve into them if you don't want to.

Nah dude, I've put 6 hours into this game. I've watched a half hour of tutorial videos on YouTube. I don't even understand _what_ I should be doing, let alone _how_. I was able to beat Civ2 and Romance of the 3 Kingsoms III as a pre-teen (without a manual!), but this mess is way, way beyond me.

Well, what you should be doing is up to you really. I mean I don't entirely understand all of it (mostly marriage stuff but I am getting the hang of that), but I still have fun with it; my advice, is to cheat at the start (using the ~ key and typing cash gives you 5000 ducats), until you're able to figure it out.

This is really interesting!

But poor British Isles, not getting a break from being invaded in this DLC. Why couldn't have the Aztecs landed at Portugal or something?!

I've put 275 hours into the game, and Crusader Kings II is still my Game of the Year with just two months to go - XCOM couldn't topple it, and I've yet to play Dishonored - and I'm immediately in for any substantial DLC they want to put out. That said, I'm really curious about this one. My concern is based on how the Mongols are handled in the game; it's historically accurate, but having to deal with the Mongols is a huge disincentive to play as any kingdom or duchy in the east of the map. I've never seen a game where the Mongols advance further west than Poland - usually the Holy Roman Empire prevents them from wrecking Western Europe - but if this is just a way for Western Europe to have it's own equivalent invasion then that doesn't sound good at all. 100k troops? Only late-game empires and large kingdoms will even have a chance against that kind of manpower, unless the Aztecs dying of Euro diseases cripples them. I think the arguments about anachronism are ridiculous; yes, your game starts off at a historically accurate place, and events like the Mongol and Timurid but from then on shit goes totally crazy. There is nothing historically accurate about the Polish king ruling France, or the Pope being a Scotsman. I'm more concerned about how they intend to implement this new feature in a gameplay context. There might be a way to make this awesome - the Aztecs were a pretty badass people, and I'm not opposed to them shaking things up in concept; my concern though is whether they'll be able to execute on this ridiculous and potentially kickass idea.

And those of you who are intimated by or uncertain about this game: I understand your apprehension, and it is overwhelming at first, but it doesn't take too long until you understand enough about how the systems work to have a good time. You won't get every system at first - hell, there's mechanics in the game I didn't know how to utilise even after 200 hours, but those aren't core mechanics. But trust us; there is an awesome game here that is well worth seeing. Watch the quick look the duders did earlier this year; Dave does a pretty job of preparing you for what's ahead.

Also, anyone been playing with the new Legacy of Rome DLC? I tried a game as the Byzantime Emperor starting with the Alexiad, and didn't grasp the changes at first and things went real bad. I think some of the changes they've made are pretty great and I'm sure at some point I'll take the time to rebuild the Roman Empire.

@Brodehouse: I understand your problem with not having a clear goal in mind, so here's some good advice. There's a tab that shows you the de jure kingdoms and empires in the game; if you have enough counties, duchies, and - in the case of empires - kingdoms within the de jure empire, you'll be able to become an emperor. So depending on where you start in the game your goal can be to build an empire. Starting in Sweden? Why not conquer your Norwegian, Danish and Finnish neighbours and founding the Empire of Scandinavia? A very common and popular starting point in the game is starting as a small count or duke in Ireland - which doesn't have a king. You can create the title for yourself when you rule enough of Ireland...but why stop there? Why not conquer Wales, Scotland, and England and found the Empire of Britannia? There are other goals you can set yourself - one that I still want to do is founding a powerful enough kingdom in Russia to successfully repel the Mongol invasion. Another goal could be to make the game as anachronistic as possible e.g. by building a Croatian kingdom in Italy.

Basically, your goal should be to survive and to become as powerful as you can. This is a game of war; this isn't Civ where you can play for culture. If you are at peace for more than 20 years at a time, then...well, you could play the game like that, no one will stop you. But the best thing in that game is going from a small place like a single county or duchy and becoming a formidable king or emperor. And, in the cathartic SimCity sense, it's also fantastic to put all this time into building something up and then watching it unravel - and in this game, if you're not prepared, shit will go real bad real fast. But as long as you have at least one holding, even just a county, the game keeps going, so you can start the process over again.

Damn, CKII is an awesome game. I'll see you guys later. Gotta go teach the King of France a lesson...the lesson being don't be a Christian with me around (playing as Muslim Emperor in Hispania - Spain and Portugal - and I'm pretty formidable at the moment).

@Atlas: my last game (I had to abandon because of the new patch admittedly) had me starting out as the Norwegian count of Ormond, and then I went on to get Wales, and then I went on to become the Kingdom of Sicily whilst still Norwegian; that was p. fun.

this game isn't that hard to pick if you are resigned to the fact you aren't gonna learn everything in the first two hours.

or maybe even 20 hours but by that point you will know enough to functionally play it and have a good time/ know what you are doing.

this aztec thing seems like a bit of stretch but whatever i'm down.

@Brodehouse said:

@Animasta

@Brodehouse said:

I love history, specifically European pre-modern because guess I'm racist or something, but Goddamn I wish this game wasn't as systemically complicated. Or had better tooltips or explanation of how to play of whatever. I'd love to play as my Frankish ancestors and deal with the Germanic tribes and the Roman vestiges, but I can't make heads or tails of those Goddamn spreadsheets.

it's not as complicated as you think it is, or even as complicated as it wants to believe it is. There's a good LP on the SA forums that's a good teacher for the game, but unfortunately it's not on the LParchive and I think the paywall is up.

Still, it's not super complicated; there are intricate parts of the game to be sure, but you don't need to delve into them if you don't want to.

Nah dude, I've put 6 hours into this game. I've watched a half hour of tutorial videos on YouTube. I don't even understand _what_ I should be doing, let alone _how_. I was able to beat Civ2 and Romance of the 3 Kingsoms III as a pre-teen (without a manual!), but this mess is way, way beyond me.

It's not a game you instantly know exactly how to play. You learn as you go along, and it will take you hours and hours. You're a leader, you lead, people don't tell you what to do, you do what you think you should do.

You should stick with it, I was the same with Europa Universalis 3 (a much more complex game). I played it once for a few hours and was like "what do I do?" then I came back to it a couple months later and I realised I do whatever the fuck I want. So I figured I would conquer the entirety and Scandinavia as Denmark and then go on to colonise the entirety of North America, and it was amazing.

This is the type of crazy that I love in CK2.

I think if the Aztecs invaded Europe in the 13th century we'd probably be closer to aliens. Ancient Aliens Fact.

This wont fare well for my beautiful Éire. Especially considering I'm absolutely shite at the game.

That sounds like loads of fun! Hopefully it is in a separate mode or something so it dosnt interfere with my actual game. This is actually my favourite game right now, game of the year for sure. The systems are not hard to learn as long as you dedicate yourself, after putting 10 hours in I understood almost everything perfectly. Now at about 220 hours I'm still having loads of fun recreating the Roman Empire.

@Sumbog said:

That sounds like loads of fun! Hopefully it is in a separate mode or something so it dosnt interfere with my actual game. This is actually my favourite game right now, game of the year for sure. The systems are not hard to learn as long as you dedicate yourself, after putting 10 hours in I understood almost everything perfectly. Now at about 220 hours I'm still having loads of fun recreating the Roman Empire.

Well it's a DLC toggle like all of the other DLC; if you want it in your current game then you load it with that box checkmarked, and if not then don't.

Although the new patch dropping with this will undoubtedly not be compatible with older saves anyways so (though you still have like 2 weeks so go hog wild)

@Brodehouse said:

I love history, specifically European pre-modern because guess I'm racist or something, but Goddamn I wish this game wasn't as systemically complicated. Or had better tooltips or explanation of how to play of whatever. I'd love to play as my Frankish ancestors and deal with the Germanic tribes and the Roman vestiges, but I can't make heads or tails of those Goddamn spreadsheets.

Do some homework. No seriously, study up on the game. The game is fantastic but Paradox is notorious for having terrible tutorials for their games (The EU3 tutorial is even worse than CK2).

I dunno, this is kinda weird. Europe invading america wasn't just luck, the technological and social advancements in Europe were far superior, mostly because they had access to horses and potatoes. Cheap nutritious food, and key mode of transportation for the Era. That brought societies together and allowed for serious politics. While in America, dudes were still pretty much Isolated, there would honestly be no reason for invasion.

If they're gonna go crazy, might was well do it about an actual extraterrestrial invasion or whatever.