Aimed at "players who’d prefer to play for a limited time or in a more budget-conscious manner"

Image credit: Paradox Interactive

Crusader Kings 3 developers Paradox have decided now’s the time for the medieval strategy game to take a leaf out of its predecessor’s book - as well as fellow strategians Hearts of Iron IV and Europa Universalis 4 - by getting its own DLC subscription service. Starting today, you’ll have the option to pay a monthly fee for access to all nine billion or so CK3 expansions and add-ons, if you don’t fancy paying to own them outright in the usual fashion.

By taking out a monthly Crusader Kings 3 subscription via the marry your cousin to keep the crown sim’s Steam page, you’ll be granted all all of its major expansions, plus the truckload of smaller add-ons Paradox have put out for it. The price is £8.49 / €9.99/ $9.99 per month, though Paradox do note there’ll be "discounts for longer term subscriptions".

The idea behind offering this alongside the existing DLC buying options is catering to "players who’d prefer to play for a limited time or in a more budget-conscious manner". It’s a chance for folks who only own the base game to try out all of the add-ons for a month, with Paradox’s coffers hoping the end result will be said people opting to keep their subscription running or opt to permanently pick up some DLC they’ve enjoyed. As someone who got into CK3 as a newbie last year, I can see the appeal. Coming to a game that already has half a decade worth of pretty pricey DLC (even if you wait for a sale) out and discerning which bits add enough stuff you’ll use that they’re worth committing to isn’t the easiest, even if there’s plenty of reading you can do to help you judge.

As of writing, a subscription opens up all 25 bits of CK3 DLC included in the Crusader Kings 3 collection, which Steam tells me - a person who already owns the base game plus major expansions Royal Court, Roads to Power and All Under Heaven - would set me back just over £100 to buy right now. There are three other major expansions out right now - Tours and Tournaments, Legends of the Dead, and Khans of the Steppe. The rest are either cosmetics, or event/flavour packs designed to add more royal strategising scenarios you can take on/flesh them out with more choices.

As with Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis’ subscriptions, this CK3 one looks as though it’ll expand to include future DLC Paradox put out going forwards too. It also shares a need to pay for the subscription on top of the base game, which makes this less appealing than it might otherwise be. There’s also the fact that a good portion of the strategy game’s add-ons aren’t necessarily things you’ll miss greatly if you’ve not got them. My three expansions plus base game setup’s still got tons of scope to steal away hours of my life in the coming years, regardless of not having the likes of coronations or in-depth Genghis Khan simulation.