Steam Summer Sale: Soliciting opinions on DLC for DEI

[Red_Barron]

I have been so busy with work and house tasks that I have just now seen that Steam has their summer sale going on. I had told myself that I won't purchase DLC unless it is at least 50% off retail price in the past, and originally figured I'd be waiting until Christmas to pick any up. Since DLC is 50% off now I thought I'd pick up something. I'm hoping to solicit some opinions on the more costly DLC. Specifically as to how it relates to DEI (I could care less about vanilla).

My thoughts so far:

1. I have no interest in the Beasts of war pack.
2. I already have the Greek States pack (pre-ordered the game) and have had fun messing around with Ephirius and Sparta a bit.
3. Blood and Gore for a measly $1.50 seems like an easy pick up to me.
4. The Nomadic Tribes Cultures pack for less than $5 seems okay to me, as I have interest in playing them. It unlocks the faction, but do the other features of the DLC translate well to DEI, or are they basically lost in the mod?
5. Pirates and Raiders pack isn't on sale, so I'm not buying it. Though the new culture sub-type seems cool, I can wait until it goes on sale.
6. CiG and HaG campaign expansions. These are the ones I am not as sure about. At $7.50 each it is a bit much for DLC for my tastes (almost the same price as the pack not on sale). I think I have a fair amount of mileage left with the grand campaign, especially as DEI updates and improves. With that in mind, I'm not sure I need to drop any money on those at this time, and I could wait up to another year to maintain mileage out of this game. Am I missing out big time with he new maps?

If I'm still happy with the grand campaign, is it better to skip out on the campaign DLC and pick up the latest at full price? I'm a patient guy, so I don't have to pick up anything. But spending $15 on DLC is something that I'm comfortable with, if it will give me a 25% boost over the (virtually) DLC free experience.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the matter!

[Phil2]

Blood and Gore for a measly $1.50 seems like an easy pick up to me

Don't like it at all. Bought it, and now desabled!
Way overdone and too much. Looks like for retarded teen imho!
Furthermore not well realized: as soon first unit row touch ennemy, the whole unit is blood covered.
No, even worst Hollywood blood effects are better.

[Augustusng]

4. The Nomadic Tribes Cultures pack for less than $5 seems okay to me, as I have interest in playing them. It unlocks the faction, but do the other features of the DLC translate well to DEI, or are they basically lost in the mod?

I'm not sure what other features you mean. All that DLC does is unlock those 3 factions for campaigns and custom battles. However, the nomadic faction units have not been overhauled yet for DeI. I think there are plans to overhaul them and give them some new units, but for now they're stuck with the vanilla units, +AOR units.

[Red_Barron]

I'm not sure what other features you mean. All that DLC does is unlock those 3 factions for campaigns and custom battles. However, the nomadic faction units have not been overhauled yet for DeI. I think there are plans to overhaul them and give them some new units, but for now they're stuck with the vanilla units, +AOR units.

From their features list:

New Cultural Traits – All Nomadic Tribes benefit from extra recruitment slots in their home provinces, enabling them to raise armies swiftly. They have also refined raiding and looting to an art-form, and their forces gather greater wealth through raiding than other factions.

New Cultural Objectives – The Nomadic Tribes have their own new set of military, economic and cultural victory conditions, as well as sharing a unique set of bonus objectives drawn from the history of The Steppes. Additionally, each faction will have to contend with its unique events and dilemmas.

New Military Tradition – The armies of the Nomadic Tribes can benefit from a unique new military tradition: Nomadic Horde. This tradition increases the movement range of the army, increases its unit morale when fighting in enemy territory and, commensurate with the tribes’ heavy use of horse and rider, reduces the recruitment costs of cavalry units.

The 1st one could be modded out mostly by my guess. The second one might add to playing their factions, and I don't know if/how the third would be modified.

[Augustusng]

I don't think those have been modded, except maybe the last one. I know that DeI adds new military traditions, but I don't know if the nomads are affected.

[krunsh]

I have all the DLCs, here's my oppinion.

1. I have no interest in the Beasts of war pack.

Most of the Beast of wars additions are removed by DeI, so definitely skip.

3. Blood and Gore for a measly $1.50 seems like an easy pick up to me.

Some like it some don't. There is a mod that makes it less ''extreme'', otherwise it is kinda way over the top. It doesn't translate very well with DeI's low kill rate (Units get covered in blood fast even though no one dies.). Oh and I have yet to see a single live decapitation or any form of new kill animations (once again, probably due to low kill rate.).

4. The Nomadic Tribes Cultures pack for less than $5 seems okay to me, as I have interest in playing them. It unlocks the faction, but do the other features of the DLC translate well to DEI, or are they basically lost in the mod?

They have yet to be fully redone by DeI (I believe.), but they are still affected by the general changes and thus I would recommend getting it if you are thinking of playing them.

6. CiG and HaG campaign expansions. These are the ones I am not as sure about. At $7.50 each it is a bit much for DLC for my tastes (almost the same price as the pack not on sale). I think I have a fair amount of mileage left with the grand campaign, especially as DEI updates and improves. With that in mind, I'm not sure I need to drop any money on those at this time, and I could wait up to another year to maintain mileage out of this game. Am I missing out big time with he new maps?

The first campaign I actually played to the end was Caesar in Gaul and I had a terrific time with DeI. It translates very well with the 12 turns per year. Obviously it depends on your interested in actually playing them, but the bright side is that they take maybe 1/4 of the time a full campaign does and the maps are beautiful. I have yet to play a full game of hannibal at the gate, but the map is great and playing as Walled Syracuse is a lot of fun. In my eyes, these two DLC are the most worth it of the lot and I would highly recommend that you get maybe one of them (Since it seems you can be kept busy for a long time with what you are given :p) and get the other one later.

It's a nice change of pace from the main campaign.

[Phil2]

There is a mod that makes it less ''extreme''

Any link please?

[Red_Barron]

Thanks for the input krunsh. I took a closer look at the two campaign DLC's. It looks like the factions from them unlock in the grand campaign too. New campaign maps, and multiple new factions unlocked in each DLC looks more appealing than the Nomadic Tribes (which aren't getting love until post 1.0 DEI), once campaign DLC, and the blood and gore. My computer specs have lagged behind this game anyway, and I won't be upgrading until whatever Black Friday / Cyber Monday hardware acquisitions I purchase arrive. So it's Normal to Low settings for me in general.

Plus it fits nicely into my $15 budget (except those stupid sales taxes. Damn you Valve for being in the same state as me!)

[Lieutenant Sharpe]

Haha, I wouldn't have noticed the sale if it wasn't for this thread, so thanks. I picked up HatG as that period interests me the most. As far as I can tell not a whole lot of it has been modified from vanilla. I wonder if the DeI team will look into modifying the Latin allies, as currently they aren't historically accurate.

[Dresden]

Also, CiG and HatG both unlock playable factions in the main campaign. Whether or not that is worth it is a matter of taste for those factions.

In CiG and HatG mini-campaigns, they are setup to work with DeI but we haven't done much in terms of changing them.

[Ivan_Moscavich]

I'm actually interested in this as well, mainly for the more focused Rome vs Carthage scenario in HatG. Really though, I wish the extended cities in Italy you see on the HatG map could be translated to the grand campaign.

I feel like Italy is really lacking compared to how much was there in the first Rome.

Especially if as Dresden mentioned as a possibility pushing the start date back to the war with Epirus. It would require some slight hand changing of a few provinces I imagine, but I think that would be a more fun start date. And in that case the extended Italy cities would be even more of a boon for the multiple factions at work in that war.

Probably quite a ways off though as the mod still needs to finish up getting to 1.0 before cranking out alternate start scenarios.

[Mark of Calth]

How is Italy lacking compared to in Rome 1? There are the same number of settlements

[Ivan_Moscavich]

How is Italy lacking compared to in Rome 1? There are the same number of settlements

What? No there isn't. There was an additional city north of Syracuse on Sicily (Messana I think) and there were three more cities in Italy proper, one in the north, two in the south. One of which was Capua I remember for sure.
The one in the north was located adjacent and East of Rome, and the two in southern Italy were located north of Tarantium and North of Cosentia.

Unless that was something EB added?

[TheOrangeProject]

About Blood & Gore. I kinda like it, sometimes over the top but overall i dont regret buying it. I have actually seen some killing moves, still doent have the time to check it everytime in battle.

HatG: I think Syracuse is a cool faction with DeI in the Grand Camp.

The Nomadic Tribes Cultures: That the sort of dlc i like to go the offical forum and rage a bit about it. Lets copy and paste a few horse units and that's it. (I would be ashamed taking money for it. One my have a different opinion, but also many don't seem to get what the meaning of "c" in dlc is.)

[SamuraiLordofWii]

I get the Nomadic Tribe dlc free mhhh did you guys miss it when it was free ?

[TheOrangeProject]

Nah i got it too, but now people have to paid for it. That is just...meh.

[The Forgotten]

I was always interested in CiG. Are the units still the same as vanilla, or have the rosters been copied over?

[Mark of Calth]

EB must have added some of those. Both Rome 1 and 2 have Rome, Arretium, Ariminium, Syracuse, Lilybaeum, Mediolanum and Patavium. Rome 2 has Cosentia, Neapolis, Brundisium and Genua, Rome 1 has Croton, Tarentum, Capua, Messana and Segesta. I forgot about Segesta in my earlier pos, but that's still only 1 more settlement

[Ivan_Moscavich]

EB must have added some of those. Both Rome 1 and 2 have Rome, Arretium, Ariminium, Syracuse, Lilybaeum, Mediolanum and Patavium. Rome 2 has Cosentia, Neapolis, Brundisium and Genua, Rome 1 has Croton, Tarentum, Capua, Messana and Segesta. I forgot about Segesta in my earlier pos, but that's still only 1 more settlement

You know what'd really be nice is if they release the map editor any time soon. DeI could turn Magna gracia and Sicily into two different regions. With three cities in magna gracia and three in sicily. Then Four in Italia.

[PonySlaystation]

if you want to have the nomadic dlc (or anyone else):

a friend gifted me the nomadic faction dlc and some other DLCs (including some for Company of Heroes which i was able to use) a week ago because he got it from a humble bundle pack. i wasnt able to connect the link with my steam-account because i already had this DLC.

so actually the link SHOULD still work because its not connected to any steam account atm. but if you want to save some money for minor dlcs we could give it a try.
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edit: just gifted the dlc to someone so its not available anymore