Expansion - Crusader Kings II: The Reaper's Due DLC

>be the duke of Flanders >meets a lovely lady on my way home >offers her a place to stay the night at my castle >during the night she invades my room >reveals herself as death >challenges her to a game of chess >makes a good move >then a bad move >then cheats >loses >"i bet the life of my son too" >"sure thing fam" >loses >death kills me and my child >daughter becomes the duchess of flanders >everyone hates me now cuz ima woman >random dynasty member declares war >i decide to go to the battlefield >gets wounded >war ends (not sure why, guess the claimant died) >suddenly i have diarrhea >dies >game over 10/10, would bet my child and die of diarrhea again

-Played as the Duke of Sicily. -Managed to invite a young, ambitious princess with a heritable claim on the Byzantine Empire to my court. -Developed an elaborate scheme whereby I would marry her off to one of my content, landless courtiers and then marry her child to my heir such that my grandchildren will have a claim on the Empire. -Plan goes swimmingly. Princess becomes pregnant. Marriage alliances are formed. Troops are prepared to press the claim. -The princess (and my dreams) die on the crapper from dysentry just before she gives birth. 10/10 would have my plans flushed down the toilet (literally) again.

The Reaper's Due expansion tramsforms the realm of illness and disease from a minor sideshow to a hugely important part of gameplay. Epidemics will ravage the Eurasian continent all throughout the game, reaching a lethal climax when the Bubonic Plague arrives to turn your provinces into mass graves. Hospitals may be built to help ward off the most devastating socioeconomic consequences, while characters with high learning stats may be employed as Court Physicians to prevent your dynasty members taking an early departure from the game. Be mindful that provinces with trading posts and/or owned by Merchant Republics will be hit especially hard. On the flip side, the new prosperity mechanic will help you prepare for the worst during years of plenty. Failing that, you can always close the gates and gamble that the epidemic will pass before your court starves to death, but beware the negative opinion modifiers one encounters when leaving the peasantry to fend for themselves. The DLC also adds new methods of torture and execution, as well as a few other flavor events that range from fun to rage inducing. Fancy a chess match with death itself? While it will not make your games any easier, "The Reaper's Due" will certainly make your grand strategy experience much more interesting.

I'm mixed on Reapers Due. I feel it is a great content addition for CERTAIN scopes of gameplay. I tend to play in the germanic pagan Old God's 768 start date - Tribal, no technology, no existing family, and no marraige opportunities except lowborns. On these games, I've had 1 in 4 end due to: randon flu before getting a male child, random cancer, random infirm, random fever deaths, etc. It seems my early start rulers gets a random (non epidemic) diseases every 4 years or so, each with a 10% chance of death (sometimes health debuffs get up to -2.5 for vomiting, diareah, and fever). If you go the route of doing your sacrifices to your god, I've had a number of runs end in the first MONTH due to "Eh, it's just an eye", and dead. While the diseases, pandemics, and such are awesome, I feel the regularlity of the non endimic diseases are far too harsh for these early start dates, kinda ruining my favourite start. If you play catholoic / english religions, you shouldn't have an issue with this patch. It is balanced as long as you can invest in hospitals/invite doctors. But for early start pagans, entire families are wiped out not due to endimics, but due to "gout", "cancer", "flu", "fever", "insanity" debuffs regularly occuring to anyone at any age. If the health debuffs got worse as you age, it would be cooler, but it seems to be excessive for the early start dates. 10/10 great content, but 4/10 balance with Old Gods / non reformed tribal pagans.

Little story: - Decided to play as an Irish ruler with two counts, not married but with a 10 year old son. - Found a wife, she gives me a second son. - Turns out that the count next to me is ruled by my cousin. - Sent a spymaster to plot his death so I can inherit his land. - Six years later my cousin still hasn't been killed, I need his count to become a Duke. - [b]Suddenly my character starts coughing, develops cancer and dies within a month.[/b] - Due to Galvekind succession law, my land is split between the two sons. - Now I play as the firstborn; I plan a plot to kill my 6 years old brother. - His nanny killes him with a pillow for a bag of coins; I reclaim my fathers land. - Start plotting death of my fathers cousin so I can become a Duke. - [b]I start coughing. Suddenly I get Pneumonia, Great Pox and Measles. (?!?)[/b] - Give an order for a doctor to be summoned to my court. I appoint him as my Court Physician. - [b] Now I get cancer.[/b] - He's able to help me, gives me three options; I go for an experimental cure. - [b]He found the diseased tissue. It's my face. HE RIPS MY CANCER FACE OFF![/b] - Now I have a cool mask but no woman on the map likes me so I throw the physician into jail. - [b]Just as I'm about to execute him... my character dies due to diesease![/b] - *Me thinks it's game over as I have no son.* - [b]NOPE! THAT COUSIN NEXT DOOR INHERITS MY LAND!"[/b] - He becomes the Duke... and now I play as him! 10 years of plotting his death and he's the one who saved my game. He's the last guy representing my house. Och the irony. xD - [b]Six months later he starts coughing...[/b] Best 30 minutes in CKII! This DLC is a game changer!

>Playing as a petty Irish kingdom. >My king (me) is a miserable old fat dude married to a hot young Spanish princess. >An outbreak of fever hits and we're forced to seal ourselves up in our castle to avoid the sickness. >I start hogging all the food to myself and refuse to ration any to the rest of the court. >One day I catch my wife stealing food rations from the pantry. >I decide to kill and eat her as punishment. >The disease epidemic vanishes a few days later. >Now everyone fears me because I'm known throughout the world as a cannibal who ate his own wife. Yeah, I'd recommend this expansion.

[h1]The DLCs in a nutshell, and in order of my opinion of necessity:[/h1] [b]More cultures / governments / religions available to play:[/b] [b]Charlemagne[/b] (earliest start date, more cultures) [b]Sword of Islam[/b] (Islamic cultures, Iqtar, Islamic government / religion) [b]Old Gods[/b] (Vikings + new start date) [b]Horse Lords[/b] (Nomads, Mongol Hordes, Silk Road) [b]Rajas of India[/b] (Hinduism, Buddhism) [b]Legacy of Rome[/b] (Byzantine, retinue's, factions) [b]The Republic[/b] (Merchant republics) [b]Jade Dragon[/b] (China, but hardly) [b]Sunset Invasion[/b] (Aztec, but even less so than China) [b]More actions / events while you play:[/b] [b]Way of Life[/b] (form your character) [b]Holy Fury[/b] (more control over religious aspects and wars) [b]Monks and Mystics[/b] (adds secret societies and items) [b]Conclave[/b] (council votes on your actions) [b]Sons of Abraham[/b] (Abrahamic religious options) [b]The Reaper's Due[/b] (adds court physician, illnesses and hospitals) The Reaper's Due is not a bad DLC, the content added is fun, but in my humble opinion, it's the last one you should get of that category of DLCs. The events can be gamebreakers and seldom work in your favor, but for veteran CK2 players that is a welcome challenge.

This DLC is one of the better ones so far. The new 'prosperity' mechanic makes it feasible to build tall rather than wide. The new disease mechanic makes dynasty management much more interesting, as your plans for your heirs are constantly thrown in disarray due to family members dying from various illnesses. Overall, the DLC gives many more aspects to focus on during peace time, which was something severely lacking in the game before. What's more, the free patch that came with the DLC really did optimise the game. There is at least a 30% increase to speed at game start, and at 200 years in I am still not noticing any severe lag or slowdown. Paradox did a fantastic job with this DLC, definitely a recommendation.

So I decided to start an ironman game as the Duke of Flanders under Charlemange with the Black Death set to "deadly" and minor epidemics set to "more". In order to keep the duchy under the complete control of one character, I changed the inheritance to elective.... A bad mistake as I'd soon learn, as the Duke of Flanders in this start, Roding, was well into his 30's-40's with no children or other family. Desperate, I quickly married in order to get at least one heir before I die. Uncertain of how far the minor outbreaks spread, I find myself monitoring them anxiously, knowing anything could bring my game to a swift end. I make sure to appoint a court physician just to be safe. However, fate seems to smile upon me, for at the age of 54, I have a daughter and can let out a sigh of relief. The gender law is agnatic-cognatic, so regardless of if I have a son, my dynasty is safe. Then, a year later Roding the Lionheart dies a natural death, leaving his infant daughter, Bertilla, as the Duchess of Flanders. Within two years the poor girl comes down with cancer and the fears I felt as Roding come back full force. "Is she going to die?" I thought as I watched the court physician dutifully start her treatment, only to be relieved when his bizarre remedy works as a treatment. It doesn't cure her, but she'll be more likely to survive. An event comes up where she spends time talking to an elderly mayor and becomes good friends with him and befriends her regent/mother and I can't help but picture this frail girl wandering the castle inspiring and brightening the days of noble and commoner alike with her affectionate and cheerful attitude in spite of her condition, and I can't help but smile. The court physician, ever dedicated and loyal, continues to treat her with success. Eventually, however, the epidemics that had been lingering beyond the borders of West Francia rear their heads and punish me for ignoring them, as Consumption strikes in England and quickly crossing the Channel. Terrified for the life of the young duchess, who has neared adulthood, I have the gates closed, but it was already too late. Some members of the court already had Consumption and the physician did not live long after, forcing me to quickly start a search for a new one and I counted myself fortunate at the time: a renowned physician (a bit of a drunk, which I should have taken into account) was quickly found and I invited him to my court, where he treated the duchess with the same efficiency the one before him had. She survived to adulthood and, much to my joy, recovered from her cancer: she would live after all! A few years later, however, Camp Fever hit Flanders and she contracted it. The court physician offered to treat her and, remembering his earlier success with the cancer, I quickly agreed. This turned out to be a mistake, as he wasn't as loyal or dedicated as the one before him: I watched in horror as he quickly drugged the young duchess and lopped her leg off as "treatment," leaving her even less likely to survive. In a fit of rage I'd never before felt playing this game, I had him imprisoned and promptly executed for his betrayal of the trust of the young duchess, who died from a combination of the disease and an infection from the "treatment" a few months later. This is a DLC that will make you more emotionally invested in your character and their family than ever before. It will make you cry out in anguish when they get sick, you will be relieved when the physician succeeds in easing their suffering, mourn their deaths to the various diseases, and rejoice when they recover. I can't stress how amazing this DLC is.

Simply put, this DLC is worth it. After the last patch (Conclave) I was playing CK2 less and less. I was watching Reapers Due develop and thought it may be worth it. This is why is was. First, this dlc is only 10$. That is considerably less than most other DLC for CK2. At first I was worried that the price meant there was less content than in the other DLC. But I was wrong. There is a great amount of content in RD. Second, and the most praised part of the dlc. You can turn off and customize some of the games rules. The most loved being the ability to turn off pacts and shattered retreats. And with those off the game can still be Ironman! Third, sickness. Getting sick actually affects you. No spoilers here, enjoy watching your beloved ruler die from sickness. Fourth, Prosperity. If you rule your counties well, keeping sickness and war away from their borders, they will begin to prosper giving a host of benefits. You councilors will occasionally come to you with proposals for projects, that if funded, will give the named county a bonus to prosperity and a positive modifier. Fifth, Optimization. The game runs better now. The days run smoother and saving take, at worst, half as long as before. Autosaves have caused trouble for me before, but not anymore. sixth, all the stuff I left out. There is a whole lot more to this DLC, and it ties in things from the other dlc as well. The game somehow feels more whole, or is complete a better term? Perhaps more finished? Ah well. Either way the game feels better with RD than it ever has. Unlike previous patches/dlc this one doesn't seem to have filled the game with bugs. Great DLC, well worth the price. P.S. I don't know how much of this is DLC and how much is free patch. But buy this anyway. Show Paradox that we love this new price.