14 DAY TRIAL // The team at Paradox Development Studios has announced that the coming expansion for Crusader Kings II is called Horse Lords, and the company is now ready to talk about the elements that make playing as the nomads from Asia different from the more classic European-based powers.
In a new development diary, the studio explains that they will have little use for the classic permanent settlements, but they will be focused on grabbing as much territory as possible in order to get increases in population, which are linked to the total number of empty holding slots they own.
Paradox states, "War on the steppes is fast and fluid; you only occupy an empty province for as long as one of your armies is standing there, or if you build a fort there to lock it down... and even then, you do not get much war score from the open wastes."
The upside is that nomad rulers in Crusader Kings II - Horse Lords can raise a lot of regiments at once, meaning that they have a chance to overrun enemies with their sheer numbers.
The capital for all such factions is important because each clan has one special holding type, which can also sustain a wide variety of upgrades.
The horse lords can also choose to simply move their settlement to another location if they feel that they are being threatened by more civilized powers or that they might soon suffer a big defeat in combat.
Nomads can be defeated, but they have ways to gain revenge
In Crusader Kings II - Horse Lords, a horde can lose its final settlement but it will continue to exist and will use its remaining forces to try and gain another province where it can settle.
Decisions will also allow them to switch to other systems of government as long as they reach some conditions, which means that gamers will be able to start a game as nomads, gain territory, and then transform them into another type of power.
The vassal-centered gameplay of Crusader Kings II will mean that each Khan will have to deal with its clans, but Paradox is not yet ready to deliver info about the new mechanic.
The Horse Lords expansion will be launched in 2015, and the developers are also planning to deliver a big patch for the grand strategy title that will tweak other core elements of the experience.
