Summary
- Event Packs like Friends and Foes lack depth but add unique interactions for characters.
- Cosmetic Packs offer variety but are bundled with other DLC, enhancing the visual aspects.
- Wards and Wardens expand education systems, adding new mechanics for children in the game.
Ah, Paradox. It’s a good word. Something that shouldn’t quite be and yet…is. Paradox has a certain reputation when it comes to its grand strategies, and their DLC especially. Their games are supported for years, provided you have the literal hundreds to support it.
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A few years on from Crusader Kings 3’s initial launch, the game has a healthy handful of DLC to choose from, with smaller event packs to full-scale expansions. But like any Paradox game, the question comes up of which DLC are actually any good. So let’s give it a definitive ranking.
Updated February 11th, 2025 by Hilton Webster: aLike the rising of the sun and the filing of taxes, there will always be more DLC for a Paradox game. Crusader Kings 3 is still getting a healthy influx of new DLC, so let’s take a renewed look at where each DLC falls.
11
Friends and Foes
Event Packs are the smallest DLC for Crusader Kings 3, where they typically pick a theme and set up a series of flavour-text events around them. They’re the little events that add a bit of life to each of your characters, making each run a little unique.
The issue that many have with Friends and Foes, however, is the relative lack of content, since for the most part it covers those who both hate you and love, but only in those extremes. This can be nice in certain scenarios but can feel a little lacking when there’s nothing fundamentally special about the interactions outside of a little extra interaction with your, well, friends and foes.
10
Cosmetic Packs
A big change in Crusader Kings 3 was how every character has a 3D model, giving them a more definitive placement in the world. Alongside this, clothing and hairstyles became a much bigger aspect of the game, and so multiple smaller cosmetic packs were released to add a bit more variety.
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These packs are the Garments of the Holy Roman Empire, Fashion of the Abbasid Court, and Elegance of the Empire. However, you can’t buy them separately either since they’re bundled with other DLC packs, but at least you can rule the medieval world with the greatest drip the world has yet seen.
9
Wards And Wardens
Loading screen artwork of a couple holding their baby, with an assassin in the background. From Crusader Kings 3.
Have you ever been so busy managing your kingdom and felt bothered by the fact that you have so many uneducated little children running around? Assigning them a guardian would probably be a good idea rather than letting them run amok, and Wards and wardens expand on those systems immensely.
Unlike Friends and Foes, Wards and Wardens also adds new mechanics such as hostages, giving new interactions with neighbouring rulers, and the chance to spread your culture through their own children. Plus, special event chains can occur for children now, giving them a much more unique place in the world and how they interact with it.
8
Legends Of The Dead
Health and hygiene was a mixed affair back in the Middle Ages, as was the standardisation of medical practices. There’s a pretty good reason the Black Death was such a devastating event. With the Legends of the Dead DLC, Crusader Kings 3 sought to emulate that event in-game, as well as spreading plagues as a whole. Funerals were now a big event too, alongside building up legacies for dead characters.
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Legends of the Dead is a DLC in two parts – the legacies, and the plagues. The former is fairly limited though and don’t really have the intended effect of building a logical legend around a character. Plagues are much more interesting for the dynamacism they introduce, though the majority of this gameplay is added for free. It’s worth it if you really want to invest in your characters, though.
7
Wandering Nobles
With the Roads to Power major expansion, the ability to become a Landless Adventurer was added. No longer was the loss of all your land a game over, you could just pack up and head on an adventure across the known world instead. Wandering Nobles takes this sense of adventure to heart, adding a whole new lifestyle for the travel-minded individual.
Everything this DLC adds is good, and can apply to a vast number of characters, though it is rather limited in terms of new gameplay mechanics introduced, and the new events will end up repeating fairly quickly. It’s a nice addition for some extra roleplay depth, though nothing that’s going to fundamentally alter the game in any major ways.
6
Royal Court
Royal Court was the first major expansion released for Crusader Kings 3, and since it was released over a year after launch, people had high expectations for the DLC. Of course, this is a Paradox DLC we’re talking about, so it was a far from unanimous reception.
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Royal Court adds a 3D courtroom for you to interact with, the ability to create diverging and converging cultures, deeper artifacts, more interaction with your courtiers, and even more options for smaller rulers when interacting with their liege. That seems like a whole bunch, and it is, but can also be pretty easy to ignore in certain scenarios.
5
Northern Lords
Flavor Packs for Crusader Kings 3 are essentially a cultural deep-dive on a certain section of the map, giving them more unique features and more in-depth historical struggles. For Northern Lords, this focuses on the Vikings of Scandinavia, massively expanding their interactions with the world from the year 867 onwards.
Many of these pieces are included in the base game, such as raids and poetry, though many, such as uprooting your people to form a new kingdom, are locked to the pack itself. The beauty of the pack, depending on who you ask, is how mostly inconsequential it is to people who don’t play Vikings, so it is essential to play the culture itself, yet simultaneously pointless if you plan on never touching Northern Europe.
4
Fate Of Iberia
An often-forgotten part of European history (though probably not if you’re a Crusader Kings fan) is the Muslim history in the region of modern Spain, since they were part of the eponymous Crusades. Fate of Iberia is all about that history, and the struggles between the Muslim and Christian sections of Iberia.
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The struggle mentioned above is literal, as Fate of Iberia adds the Struggle system exclusively to the Iberian region, a bold choice and an interesting direction for future DLC. It is presented as a measure of influence over the Muslim and Christian Kingdoms in the area, with whoever has the most influence by the end of the Struggle getting to decide the fate of Iberia.
3
Legacy Of Persia
Fate of Iberia was a well-respected idea for introducing region-specific mechanics, even if it didn’t add much for any region beyond Iberia. Legacy of Persia builds even further upon that, adding massive depth to the region of the historical Abbasid Caliphate, and the culture of Persia within it.
Legacy of Persia introduces the Iranian Intermezzo, a system akin to the Struggle system of Fate of Iberia, but with a myriad number of outcomes. Rather than simply those with the most power making the final choice, it is a culmination of everyone’s choices.
2
Tours And Tournaments
Have you ever been at a period of peace in your realm, simply biding your time until another war pops up or your ruler bites the dust? Then the Tours and Tournaments DLC is for you! The world around you comes to life, with the journey across your realm taking actual time, with new threats and treasures to be found along the way.
This expansion adds grand events to the game, such as tournaments and weddings, which give new role-playing opportunities and ways to interact with your court, though also give a tangible sense of scale to the world. Taking a pilgrimage suddenly feels like a major choice when your ruler has to leave their realm in the hands of a regent while they sail the seas in search of their faith.
1
Roads To Power
There are very few DLC made for Crusader Kings 3 that are viewed with unanimous praise, though Roads to Power might be the closest we’re going to get. It focuses on two major additions to the game – Landless Adventurers, and the Administrative government-type for the Byzantine Empire. It’s got something for everyone.
Both aspects let you play the game in dramatic new ways. Landless Adventurers can pack up and head to greener pastures and conquer new land even after losing it. The Administrative government is unique to the Byzantines, though has a dramatically different style to any other land in the game. Plus, the new Family Estate lets you still hold political power even without land. It’s got a lot of variety so that everyone can get something out of it.
- Released
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September 1, 2020
- ESRB
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T for Teens: Drug Reference, Language, Mild Violence, Suggestive Themes