So I recently started playing EU4 as well and the amount of Dlcs that seems to be required to make the game up to date is a little bit infuriating. I'm kinda starting to feel the same with Warhammer. Like gate keeping certain units etc. certain races and factions are fine but when something fundamentally change how a faction works like what essentially happened to the lizard men Then it's a little bit messed up. Like you can't play online with just vanilla units, you will need those extra skirmishers.
i don't know it just leavesbad taste in my mouth. I have mixed feelings about dlcs in rts and strategy games in general. it feels like pay to win.
I don't know how it is in multiplayer but in SP the DLC are very optional.
Unlike in EU IV (and other pdx games) where you kinda need the DLC for the map/mechanic features to be available. In (recent) total war the DLC are just extra content. Any core mechanic changed or added is given for free. IMO its mindboggling the ammount of QoL that EUIV DLC art of war has that is not in the base game. Does the right click on an island to have the game automatically move my fleet to pick my army need to be DLC gated?
WHiel yo usay DLC gives you a bad taste in your mouth, imo, it seems like you are being very reductive on the ammount of content the DLc has added to this game.
This is the map of the original wh1 game
We are talking about 4 different races 1 start pos to each race with 2LL.
Only 6 different rosters (GS, VC, empire,dwarfs, brets and WoC).
Now we are that he absurdity that we have a continent where there are 2 starting pos in the same province. You can barely transverse a province without stumbling into a playable faction.
IMO another + point towards DLC is looking at other big strategy titles. CIVs and dawn of war all required very expensive expansion yet they never reached what total warhammer 2 has reached in just 4 years.
How cool XCOM2 could be if the game had more DLC for unique chars/enemies/nemesis + new general content like new enemies/weapons ?
IMO calling the DLC pay to win feels disingenuous at least in terms of SP. Specially when one considers that many DLC units are very niche and not very useful.
Note that despite the multiplayer options total war is a SP game. If you look at the achivements generally speaking about 1/3 of the playbase play 10 or so online matches. This means that the content is generally speaking never balanced too well for multiplayer. Total war is at its weakest in multiplayer specially mutiplayer battles where the campaign strategic level doesn't exist.
I first realized how embedded the DLC was when I saw that some of the upgrade technologies were exclusive to DLC units only. I had never seen that in a game before. I don't think it is pay to win, but it definitely makes me want to buy some of the DLC content.
I think this is something that CA needs to heavily improve in the game. The way the game shows what is DLC and what isn't is drab.
I'd say while the UI heavily improved between game 1 and game 2 it still feels very clunky and unintuitive. For example if i click help when using the new elector campaign mechanics I get a text to explain how elven influence works.
I bought the dlc, don't get me wrong, but yeah some factions play very differently. I was originally playing the lizard men without any dlcs and I kept wishing I had something to chase the enemy skirmishers with. I googled it and saw online that I needed the salamander units. So I went and teched up and kept wondering why I wasn't able to train those, thinking that I researched the wrong buildings. I later find out that I need a dlc to access them. It's messed up especially if you're a new player especially if you bought the game on sale like I did. The dlc cost just as much as the game! Lol.
I don't think anyone has ever said DLC are cheap. Just that they are very optional. As lizardmen you have options on how to deal with skirmishers. Steg with art, spells, chameleon skirmishers + cold ones, cold ones army ability, routing the rest of the army and just tanking it out. In huge saurus have like 10000 HP. Most non WE skirmishers will do jack shit to shielded saurus.
If assume you are talking about multiplayer where there is a need to use a very cost effective army then having the DLC is very beneficial because it gives a lot of tools to use. That said In a multiplayer campaign unless the enemy player is palying in bad faith and cheesing then you can still use the above.
For just multiplayer battles there isn't a good enough balance.
