14 DAY TRIAL // 
Crusader Kings II - Horse Lords is a tale about powerful invaders, coming towards Europe on horseback, uninterested in holding castles or in managing towns, who use their superior tactics and their brutal efficiency in order to strike fear into the settled dynasties of the continent.
It also remains a grand strategy title where the player can send his sons away as mercenaries, hoping that they spend their pillaged money on more men and equipment rather than on wenches and gambling.
The expansion had me assassinating relatives because they were eyeing Christianity rather than staying true to Tengri religion and carefully moving armies in order to put down big stepper rebellions that were keeping me from attacking Eastern Europe to get more tribute.
Horse Lords manages to flesh out the nomad mechanics in Crusader Kings II and will certainly appeal to those who have followed the title since it was first introduced.
Story
Crusader Kings II - Horse Lords moves the focus of the action, as the name implies, to the steppes of Central Asia, the space from which a succession of nomads have emerged in order to invade Europe and North Africa.
Paradox is not expanding the time, but the addition of nations with an entirely new government system and attached gameplay mechanics significantly changes how each of the eras play out and makes playing already known dynasties more interesting, especially if they are located closer to the East than the West.
Gamers can basically role-play Genghis Khan or any other major nomadic invader, and The Horse Lords manages to make the experience very exciting, filled with events that emphasize both the ruthless nature of the tribes and the problems that they had to deal with.
The interplay between vassals is replaced by the squabbling between smaller clans, who tend to have low opinions of each other and sometimes of the leader of the entire horde, especially when he is not spreading the wealth and land around.
Gameplay
Crusader Kings II - Horse Lords allows gamers to choose from an incredible variety of rulers, now boosted with nomad options, and then guide that dynasty through the ages, trying to get it to rule a lot of lands or to choose any other objective a player can think of.
Along the way, players will need to interact with a massive cast of characters, plan the best possible marriages, secure heirs, improve their lands, manage armies, conduct warfare, plan assassinations, and generally behave like a Medieval ruler with both subjects and peers.
The Horse Lords expansion introduces a new nomad form of government, which comes complete with new mechanics and choices.
Population and manpower become more important than before, and the armies that the Mongols and other people from the steppes can raise are both capable on the battlefield and big when compared to what some Western rulers can muster.
They also have little use for castles and towns, which means that they are best left in the care of the new Tributary states, while the player-controlled empires focus on the empty building slots that boost their power.
The nomads also have a unique way of dealing with realm inheritance, which is one of the main elements of Crusader Kings II, and they make prestige the most important element.
Each potential heir will compete with his siblings to gather more and to impress the current ruler, which they can do by using a new mechanic that allows them to become mercenary leaders and go on adventures in distant lands.
The concept is great and the events associated with it are some of the best of the expansion, but it also generates a lot of insecurity and, especially when my rulers got old, it got me carefully checking the prestige race every few months to see who would become the next Mongol ruler and how I could influence the result.
Playing as a big nomad nation, as the Mongols or the Golden Horde or the Cumans, generates a sense of power that's very different from the way playing a European medium-sized dynasty makes me feel.
“I tried to get to the doors of Vienna with my hordes, making neighbors tributaries and not paying attention to my clans because I thought myself invincible on the battlefield, which I pretty much was.”
But rebellions and succession issues quickly brought my invasions to a standstill and I spent 10 whole years losing manpower and my patience as I attempted to make my empire whole again and to eliminate some sons in order to have a more orderly succession.
Horse Lords creates some superb stories, with less outright intrigue and a lot more battles than in the middle of Europe.
The big rebellions are a little problematic, but I suspect they stem from the fact that I failed to keep my clans content with new lands to exploit.
Warfare in Crusader Kings II continues to be a little too focused on numbers and lacks a certain strategic elegance, although the focus of the game is more on role-playing and careful dynasty building rather than on outright contest.
Graphics and audio
Crusader Kings II - Horse Lords offers minor changes when it comes to the graphics quality of the title, but it does introduce a set of changes to the user interface, all of them designed to make it easier for players to interact with other characters and the world.
It's easy to get possible actions by simply right clicking, and the new tabs added to the various windows deal with new mechanics like clans.
Crusader Kings II can be a little overwhelming when it comes to the amount of details that it offers, and the best suggestion for players is to initially ignore the ledger at the bottom and only focus on their nation and the region around them.
The soundtrack of the expansion is also well suited to the nomadic theme and really powers the effort to invade Europe with thousands of mounted warriors.
Multiplayer
Crusader Kings II - Horse Lords continues Paradox's long-term plan of making its titles more appealing for multiplayer sessions, but I still believe that the core of the experience is linked to single-player campaigns.
The experience works best for players who already have groups that know the game and are ready to learn the new features, but the community is generally helpful and welcoming to those who want to try out multiplayer sessions.
The Good
- Nomad focus on manpower
- New inheritance system
- More events
The Bad
- Information and event overload
- Rebellions have a big impact
Conclusion
At the moment, there are a lot of bug reports associated with the expansion on the official forums, but Paradox has a solid history of delivering hotfixes and patches to deal with all issues the community discovers.
The modding potential associated with Horse Lords for Crusader Kings II is also significant, and there are a lot of community teams out there that could take the new ideas and craft new experiences around them.
When the Way of Life expansion was introduced for the role-playing focused aspect of the grand strategy title from Paradox, I was almost sure the experience was reaching the end of its life, but this new addition shows that there are plenty of new ideas that gamers can explore.
The base Crusader Kings II launch is a great way for players to check out the core features and see whether they suit their interests, and The Horse Lords is probably in the top three when it comes to expansion quality.
