REVIEW of Roads To Power (CK3)

Roads To Power for CK3 is the newest expansion and it promises to change A LOT. But does it do that well? I walk you through everything you need to know in this review video of the new expansion!

The glory and might of the Byzantine Empire are yours to command in this Major Expansion to Crusader Kings III. The unique politics and cultures of the heir to the Roman Empire are on display through a new governing system, new ways for characters to progress up the societal ladder, and new activities for them to engage in. You can also explore a new exciting lifestyle as a landless Adventurer, seeking fame and glory across a living map of the medieval world.

00:00 Intro
00:22 Verdict
00:34 The Scheme Rework (What changed? How does it feel?)
03:59 Landless Adventurers (Gameplay Loop, Adjacent Mechanics, From Landed POV)
08:45 Everything Byzantine (Flavour, Mechanics, New Government, The Military, Co-Emperors)
14:17 General Changes (Start Date Options, 1178, Misc Changes)
17:04 Art & Music (I love them)
17:32 Conclusions & Thoughts (Must Have DLC, Paywall, Future)

#ck3
#review

[OneProudBavarian]

Good morning, say it back!
Ja. Weird one. Let me know your opinion BEFORE and AFTER you play it tomorrow!

[francesco]

The impossible choice of where to put key feuture in a new expansion:
-if it's in the free update people will say that the DLC is lacking and overpriced
-if it's in the paid DLC people will complain that there is a paywall and it should have been free

[matheus.bueno]

Given my opinion on CK3 DLCs is proportionally inverse to OPB's opinion, I am sure I will love this DLC like mad.

[aegorbittersteel]

I am so annoyed I can't just play this all day tomorrow

[The_Real_Shakespeare]

Players not being able to offer contracts to landless adventurers is something I was afraid of when it was never mentioned in the dev diaries, and I'm extremely disappointed to hear that's the case.

Paying an AI freebooter to kidnap my rival as he travels to my grand wedding seems like such a fun and obvious synergy. This is part of an ongoing problem with CK3: new systems aren't integrated well enough to act as one piece of a greater web, and instead they just hang off the side of the gameplay like some awkward skin tag.

They really need to wake up and start making these new elements actually interact with each other.

[prodigalsonofsuns]

"Unholy Roman Empire" - classic Latin barbarian playing tricks again. As expected from a subject of the German King!

[Sam_Kings]

Interesting review. Glad to see you so upfront with your criticism of the dlc.

I really do like CK3, but the game has a load of problems still. I would really like to see paradox focus more on focusing fixing existing issues. Crusades are still a fundamentally broken mechanic, which is sort of embarrassing considering the game is called crusader kings.

[Nesta]

I wasn’t expecting you to not be really positive. Everything I’ve seen looks amazing, but I really hadn’t seen the scheme rework very much

[maxcroft]

To be fair on landless. It seems like a fallback option if you fail. So you shouldn’t feel the repetition that much, especially if you are the type of player who only plays the game for a 100 hours or so when a new dlc drops.
I think you are only bored of it because you are actively reviewing it and therefore playing a lot of landless games in quick succession.

Also event spam is not unique to landless. Every system in the game spams you with the same mundane events.

[joeessen]

A reminder that this guy thought legends of the dead was a 9/10

[duceron]

Unholy Roman Empire cracked me up, maybe german humour really is good

[warbandplaysAU]

Say legends of the dead was ass then I may trust your opinion is genuine

[lo]

curious if this is gonna be the opposite of LOTD where you don't like this one but everyone else does.

[tutentyp]

I kinda understand why they didn't go with modular government types. It's indeed a shame but it seems like a great pain to properly implement and balance. Governments are many times more complicated than cultures and religions with basically the whole game loop depending on them. I think the devs drew up some concepts and ideas but probably concluded that it would take too much time without guranteeing satisfying results.

It would be amazing to depict the feudal/admin mix the Seljuks had or the declining authority of the HRE over Italy or Abbasids over their governships instead of making them outright independent, but it is what it is. I think any reasonable chance of that happening died when the devs initially decided to take the fixed system we have now.

[LSOP-]

I think this rpg traveller mechanic is going to get my wife into ck3.

[lujoviste]

You loved Legends of the dead but you are bashing this DLC that looks like the only good DLC so far.

Whats going on

[dasty]

Now, I understand the criticism. However... my brain is fried, so i probably wont mind the landless loop as much and also hopefully some talented modders can work some magic in due time

[rixyarbrough]

Honestly, landless being grindy sounds balanced. Fun? idk

[thegreatdodo]

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I believe the community should actively push PDX to implement a 'First Aid Season', similar to what Rainbow Six Siege did. Instead of releasing new content, they focused on fixing bugs, improving existing mechanics, and addressing missed opportunities highlighted by the community.

CK3 and its expansions feel incredibly dull and artificial at times. There’s so much potential for deeper, more intertwined mechanics to enhance storytelling and world-building, but it just isn’t happening. It's frustrating to see huge missed opportunity after missed opportunity. The core mechanics of CK3 are superb on their own, but they don’t interact in meaningful ways.

How can we encourage PDX to focus on a 'First Aid Season' and make these improvements?

[stairfall]

Well, at least if the landless events aren't good, we can hope that modders will be able to add enough events to keep things interesting.
Great review, I enjoyed it a lot!