CK3 Needs These DLC In 2026!
Folks, we are right before Christmas. It is just a week away. Can you believe it? Just a week away and then it’s Christmas and this is the time to make some wishes. So, today I want to tell you about my wish list for Crusader Kings 3’s 2026. It is going to be a big year and personally I am getting the feeling that I will really enjoy it. But more on that in just a second because as I will be walking you through my wish list for DLC’s and updates, I would ask you to do the same. Let me know what you want to see in the game, what you’re looking for, what you’re most interested in, so that we can kind of compare lists and at the end of the year 2026, see whether our wishes came true. Now, before we look forward, I think it would help if we look back. By and large, and I think this is fair to say, the player base enjoyed all the DLCs that came out in 2025 with the exception of Coronations. That one definitely didn’t work out that well. We did of course have the Nomad DLC and this is a lot of snowballing, but it also is a very unique play style, something that can catapult you into a longer story later down the line. So honestly, yeah, it’s a good addition and without a doubt better than Crusader Kings 2’s nomad system. It should be said that yeah, Coronations really wasn’t, as we say in Germany, the yellow from the egg. Back when they announced 2025’s content and Coronations was mentioned, it kind of felt like the Elder Scrolls 6 of announcement for Crusader Kings 3. something to tide me over while they are working on East Asia and the Nomads until we hit 2026 and topics come out again that are interesting for me personally. >> All of this just works. >> Now, of course, it is all the worse that this Elder Scrolls 6 announcement really ended up in a disaster. Let’s hope that the real Elder Scrolls 6 doesn’t, but let’s be honest, it probably will. The DLC ultimately crashed and burned being pretty much horrendous. But they did address some of the criticism at the very least that went the way of the DLC and they full well know that it really didn’t work that well. On the other hand, East Asia worked incredibly well. I really like having this additional section of the map now in the game. And I think I can really only repeat myself in saying that I like that all of the people that never had a medieval game of their area or an area of their interest now can look at Crusader Kings 3 and just jump straight in. After 5 years of post-release development, I think it is fair to say that CK3 today is at its strongest now that it has tested out so many different approaches of content delivery. We had struggles, we had situations, we have of course a lot going on with the new clicks in China as well. There’s a lot going on there and the game has developed and learned a lot that should hopefully lead to a dream 2026. Now, they have actually already teased some stuff coming in 2026. for example, that they yet again want to do realm maintenance, a dedicated update that exists solely to rework old content to make sure that it becomes better and isn’t left behind entirely. I think this is a great idea. What they’re showing off here with accolades should make this into a much less tedious and much more engaging feature. They are also showing off that they are reworking story cycles, making content that previously was hidden into something that is much more visible, and that should just be a lot more fun. I think those are without a doubt great changes coming with the free realm maintenance update 2026. But okay, let’s get to the stuff that is actually juicy here. I love when they rework stuff that is of ye older years where they still had kind of bad systems, a lot of bugginess, and weren’t as experienced as they are today. But obviously, we are all looking towards the big content updates, the DLCs that are coming next year. and they already did kind of tease it that if 2025 was the year of going wide, 2026 is meant to be the year of going deep. They’ve also shown off this image right here. And while I would like to believe that they are doing an officially licensed DLC based on the Shrek universe, I think that is relatively unlikely. What comes to mind, of course, they’re saying that this references both expansions, so the core expansion and the full expansion. I would argue that we’re probably looking at trade. And then alternatively for the core expansion, I’ve seen certain proposals, some being about religion because, well, of the obvious implication of Jesus. But also, I will tell you, I could live quite well and it would still be a nice reference here, even if slightly less like they indicated if this donkey indicated the donkeys that you have to work with as you vessel manage. So, something about domestic politics might also be a part of the core expansion coming. Typically, the way Crusader Kings 3 has come to do DLC is with one instant unlock, which literally nobody cares about, one core expansion, one event pack, and one major expansion per year. As far as I’m concerned, quite frankly, we can throw out event packs. I don’t think that event packs have ever really made anybody happy. I I think some of them are relatively okay and come with decent mechanics in the free patch, but in general, let’s be honest here, if you get a ton of random events and maybe some mechanics attached to it, you won’t really think about this update twice. Most of these free mechanical updates that come with the event packs are so limited in their scope because well it is just an event pack that ultimately they have to be reworked later on anyway. One of the greatest examples here is of course friends and foes. Everything related to the idea of feuds. Well, yep, that had to be reworked in the Asia DLC where all of a sudden it got formalized. It is a good mechanic and I like it. Although I think even that could still be expanded upon quite frankly uh as far as I’m concerned we can kind of scratch the entire idea of an event pack because as it turns out especially if we look at coronations when you have a really big DLC that is simultaneously in the works in this case with All of the Heavens I can’t imagine that we can really expand these event packs into something worth my time either which means making it into a flavor pack while keeping the core expansion and the major expansion intact as well isn’t really going to happen. Though, if we can’t take the event pack and turn it into something mechanically and flavor oriented that is much more expansive, so for example, a flavor pack, I would argue just get rid of this thing and instead turn it into a purely cosmetic pack. My first wish right here would be that the event pack goes away and instead we get a beautiful map beautifification pack. I think just clothing, throne rooms, or just 2D art wouldn’t really do anything for me here. When I look at, for example, Victoria 3, I can see Dawn of Wonder. I know, I know Dawn of Wonder is only sitting at midling reviews, but I got to be honest, I’m getting so much value out of Dawn of Wonder every time that I play Victoria 3. Seeing my buildings at night with the little lights and all that stuff, it is just gorgeous. I’m not sure that I would like to see day and night for Crusader Kings 3, who knows? But really, what I want is something that impacts the map massively, something that I see everywhere and that tells a story as I build up my kingdom, empire, whatever you have. Something here that also would play into this is that if indeed the major expansion were to be trade, it would really work well together. Instead of doing an event pack, we could be doing a cosmetic pack that gives you an early look at what is going to happen when the world of Crusader Kings 3 actually visually will come to life. And I would really love that. It could literally be night and day more seasonal kind of work, right, that flows into this. We do of course already have snow, but by and large, yeah, I would like to see something that makes it so that looking at the map really gives me a feeling of me impacting the world. I was even showcasing this once when I was doing my road map mod where I essentially said, “Hey, we could have these little villages.” And over time, depending on what I built, my buildings could be represented. It could be an organic shape rather rather than just an amalgamation of different buildings put together. I really would like it if we could finally move on from just having circles everywhere to signify that there is something in this holding. If we were to do this patch, I should add as well, I think we could even have another layer of rail maintenance where previously people would be working on content and mechanics for the event pack. They could yet again simply be working on making sure that old mechanics work better than they currently do. So that would mean that this patch would have a cosmetic DLC that indeed also actually run along with a nice mechanical upgrade of existing mechanics. Now next up is of course the core expansion. And the reality of the core expansion is that it shouldn’t really be all that far away. I mean who knows what the actual schedule of this year will look like, but in 2025 at least, Nomads came out in April. What I would like to see here is something that I think would enrich my game the most. I would get so much out of it. And while I can see the people that are saying religion, and I wouldn’t be opposed to religion, I will say I would love it most if the core expansion was all about running your realm. Now, I will tell you I would be happy with a lot of things because the game has so many more things that it can do without me really going, “Oh, no. I didn’t want this.” I would love a religious overhaul to make it more interactive and wouldn’t complain about that. I would also want playable holy orders. What about an overhaul to the crusades with an accompanying situation of crusader states? I would also love it if we specifically had updates catering just to the church hierarchy, deepening lifestyles, or something that comes around with ambitions and basically mini quests like in CK2. But what I really want most, I think, is something for inner politics. My wish core expansion in 2026 would do exactly this. Factions, laws, customs, and so on. In Crusader Kings 2, we had Conclave as a DLC, and it is a rather controversial one, but honestly, I don’t think we need something that just makes the game harder. Rather, I would want something that grounds the game while making the game more interesting. A feudal realm isn’t just run by one person after all, even though right now it feels like it. Your council at best are kind of just sitting around you and if somebody gets unruly, you either just give them a piece of land to pacify them or you simply shut them up in a revolution. Making your realm interesting and making sure that you care about the families and individuals in your realm makes it so that the game as a whole becomes a whole lot more interesting. Even if I happen to have no foreign ambitions, having domestic ambitions should be worthwhile your time. A DLC like this one that adds laws that makes the council more important. That makes it so that your laws slowly go from being a custom to an actual cemented and acknowledged law would make it a lot more interesting. Both if you were the leash, but also if you were the vessel. And I think vessel gameplay could do with being improved. Right now, Crusader Kings 3 has a ton of these AI archetypes, but they really don’t do all that much. Yes, of course it impacts when they are happy with you doing something and when they are unhappy, but realistically speaking, this can be expanded upon if instead of factions just being, hey, I either agree with this or I will rebel against you, factions could be reworked into something that has a rich inner life, like an international organization in EU5. They could also participate in passing laws in in making sure that you can actually justify a claim that you want to push onto an enemy. It could also finally make it so that we get per Titan laws. So to paint you a little bit of a picture with this mechanic as the Holy Roman Empire, I would essentially be having two separate realms that I need to govern. The Italians, they have their own customs and what they perceive to be their own rights. Whereas the German princes up to the north might support me fundamentally quite a bit more, but also think that they should have a much much bigger say in how I rule the realm in general. This makes it so that I act differently in these two particular crowns that I hold as king of Italy and emperor of the HRE. I then need to hold diets. I need to interact with different factions, make concessions to them, and hopefully pass whatever I want. If I reaffirm a privilege that I have passed, it later on stops being just a custom, and instead actually becomes a law, strengthening my rule and making sure that my kingdom and my rule is actually unique to this particular location. All while I do this, maybe in England, for example, they are passing something called the Magna Carta. In France, they’re having trouble subduing their vessels as well. But ultimately, a strong central hand wins, whereas I am pushing myself into decentralization, but with a lot of loyalty. Laws would make it more interesting to care about my vassels, to be fair to them, and to make sure that I’m actually shaping my realm. Being a member of a faction then, on the other hand, would be a lot more interesting because I have actual agendas. It wouldn’t be too different, although hopefully more expanded, from the clicks that we have in China in the all under heaven update. In this core expansion, the law overhaul in general would be something that would essentially lead you down paths of different societal values, very similar to what EU5 wants you to do, where you say, “Hey, I can benefit from being centralized if I’m relatively small, for example.” But there are also benefits to being decentralized. This would then make it so that feudalism in Spain would be different from feudalism in Germany, giving you variants of the lore and of what makes a realm a realm all over the singular playthrough that you’re playing. What this update and DLC would do is enrich the domestic political situation, connecting orphan mechanic and allowing for more fun empire building as you build your empire and your council rather than simply doing the same stuff over and over again. Whether you are the top leege or just a vessel, the positive impact this would have on the game would be incredible in my opinion, making for long-term differences between titles and a focus on rights, traditions, and customs becoming laws should be the center here. I got to tell you that is a lot of stuff for a core expansion, but I think a core expansion is simultaneously also pretty accurate. I could see this fitting into a major expansion, but I don’t see it fitting into this major expansion. Obviously, because, and let’s get to it, I have a different wish dream here for this major expansion. This is of course the one, the only, the one that uses donkeys. It’s trade and it’s the economy. The most meaningful change that can currently be made to Crusader Kings 3 and the way that you play it is the addition of an actual economy of some sort. This is the singular way to make people that play tall happy as they now all of a sudden have a lot more to do, a lot more levers to crank, but also make people that play wide a lot happier as well, since they now have a reason to expand into rich markets, into locations that hold, for example, good resources and that are penetrated already by a merchant republic that can facilitate this trade. In Crusader Kings 2, we already had trade, and it was interesting with merchant republics and trade outposts. It is actually a really accurate depiction of the time period, and the spread of those that trade would interconnect the world in a way that CK3 is currently missing entirely. What do I care what is going on in Egypt? Obviously, it basically doesn’t impact me. Getting trade and those that facilitate it, be they landless or be they merchant republics, would make it so. And all of a sudden, if the fatimate caliphate is calm and peaceful in Egypt, I can derive a real value out of it, even if they are indeed not of my religion and have very opposed interests. Now, I do want to say, and this is extremely uncontroversial. I think I want merchant republics back for sure. Trade without merchant republics is like, I don’t know, the ocean without the sea. They were not just fun in CK2, even though I have my reservations, but they also add nuance to what is happening in your realm. Having a Merchant Republic vessel with Merchant Republic interests, especially wink wink, nudge nudge, if we were to get laws and diets and so on, would make it so that their interests represented that are different from just the standard aristocracy. This means being a Merchant Republic, playing one and interacting with them in general offers a lot of gameplay here. Now, on the other hand, I do have two, I think, relatively controversial takes. If we do a major expansion for trade, there are one thing that I want and one thing that I don’t want. Let’s start with the one that I don’t want. I honestly don’t want pops. I I frankly don’t think we need pops. I think we can have values like a better a deeper development like something like maintenance, prosperity, maybe even something related to a hygiene, whether there is enough space for more expansion in a location. All of that stuff can simulate pops without needing pops. Having them would be a bit much. A while ago, the developers teased a system for minorities to exist in the game. I think that can work, but I wouldn’t want to go any deeper. This isn’t EU and it isn’t Vicki. As Crusader Kings, we can do this stuff without needing pops. Now, what I can’t do without is a quintessential thing. Yet again, something that I think would be controversial. I want trade goods. In the past, we had CK2’s trade, and it wasn’t actually that good. Because doing trade in CK2 really just means you take money and you make it into more money. Why are you trading? Why are you doing any of these things? Well, because it makes you money, not because you need certain goods in certain locations, but just because more money is at the end of the day more money. The purpose of trade, however, means so much more. Of course, it is about money, but if it is just about money, trade becomes very uninteresting because it is just yet another button, just yet another mechanic that gives you more gold. Trading with China won’t feel any different than trading with Europe. Why am I getting resources from Egypt if there are no resources? I might as well get resources from Hungary. All of this obviously overlooks that Egypt has different things to offer to me than Hungary ever could. Having trade goods would make it so that you as a ruler have a certain resource that you can trade with others. It can be beneficial for both or you can force yourself essentially onto the other realm. Give me your pepper. Give me I don’t know your sugar. All that kind of stuff would be something that you facilitate because you are pressing them for it and it gives you bonuses. Be it for example just in the development of your province, be it with certain buildings or whatever else there is. This would be an incredible enrichment for the game. Rather than just going, “Oh, the Mongols have been taking over certain areas of land and they’re not trading with me, so I’m losing money.” You are actually losing resources. Maybe that means you can’t recruit certain troops. Maybe that means that your population all of a sudden will become very unruly. Who the hell knows what it means? But it means a lot more than just I went from 7 gold per month to four gold per month. The ultimate consequence of trade, especially if it involves resources, even if it is just on a very primitive level, would mean that the world becomes more interconnected. I will start caring about different kingdoms and those kingdoms being peaceful. Whereas right now, I just literally don’t really care outside of selecting my next target for expansion. It would be meaningful to make interpersonal relations with other kingdoms, being able to establish trade routes, and safeguarding them. They could expand over certain centuries, right? I maintain good relations with a kingdom over just a couple of decades. That trade route could net bigger benefits than what it does at the start of setting it up. Now, another thing that I was thinking about is whether we need actual supply chains for buildings. Let’s say, for example, I insert sugar into a bakery building and then that produces loaves of bread that I can bring yet again somewhere else or whether it should be entirely about natural resources that I’m trading. And once I’ve traded them into a location, that is it. The buildings still don’t produce anything further. And honestly, I think this might be a little bit too complex just balancing wise. Currently, CK3 is essentially not balanced at all. And unless they do a 180 and really balance it through and through, doing something this systemic would basically turn this entire game into a paper tiger. At all points, something could break and then everything is rotten. So maybe we want to keep it pretty pretty basic here. Have a trade good that you trade once and then wherever it is is also where it is being used up. Maybe you can build a special building with it, but you will never have intermediary buildings. Rather, what you trade for is just what you get. Now, when it comes to merchant republics, I will also say that I definitely want to have the feeling of these rival houses vying for the do ship of Venice, for example, or becoming the leader of Amalfi, Janoa Pisa, you name them. I want to see all of this stuff, but I would also like to see other stuff. Sometimes, for example, rulers also were involved in trade. I would like to see the maritime trade route for example and how it directly works together with being a vessel state technically speaking anyway of the hegemony of China. With a map being this big there is a lot of different trade going on. I want to see the Hanza as well and I want to see how these merchant republics can gain privileges in foreign ports so that they can secure the harbor and make trade routes happen. Maybe and this would kind of be the cherry on top I guess a big focus on piracy. Maybe not exactly on naval warfare, but at the very least on being on a level where I want to sabotage my enemies, where I might want to turn towards the pirates of the Mediterranean, for example, and work together with them to facilitate something that will ultimately diminish the wealth of my region as trade routes are being sabotaged, but also make it so that well, yeah, for the moment I am richer. merchant republics, trade goods, maybe supply chains, maybe something even related to naval warfare, and lastly surely to owning trade posts in territories where I otherwise have no personal holding. All of these things could really enrich the game. Trade and a rework of the economy that makes it more complex, that makes it so that I can’t just spiral out of control, or if I do, it’s because I put a lot of work into it would really make this game into a new experience. It definitely is just too much to just be a cool expansion or to just be in a free patch. This needs to be in a major expansion. It also should coincide, and again, if we just turn the event pack into an art pack, then this benefits from this as well. It should coincide with a much more living world. I want to see natural sprawl. I want to see the buildings that are built depicted. Maybe I want to see sophisticated roads being built, and I would even love it if we were looking at roads being built naturally by just having a lot of trade routes between areas. What really matters here is that this year, if it is indeed the year of depth, ensures that we come out of it with an internal realm management that is fun, where a lot is going on, but also an internal economy management that is very much focused on characters and the people that rule the realms rather than the people within the realms like the peasants while still making it so that the economy, development, and buildings of course get a major rework. So that there is simply a lot more depth to it. And I think that trade and the economy as well as a lore, a council, and affection rework would be everything that the game needs to facilitate this. So my wish list is pretty simple. Instant unlock. Who cares? Literally just a couple of crowns or something. It is what it is. For the core expansion, give me laws, give me faction reworks, and give me more impactful counselors. Then instead of an event pack, give me an art pack. And for the major expansion, everything trade and economy, including merchant republics and of course including trade goods. Folks, if this were to be the content that we’re seeing, I would be incredibly happy. But I do want to say outside of trade for me being pretty much non-negotiable at this point. And I mean, given the donkey, surely they wouldn’t pull my legs like this. I am at least somewhat negotiable on the core expansion because, well, there is a lot that I would want from this game, but Laws and Customs definitely is one of them. Let me know in the comments what you want and maybe Santa Claus will listen to you. But okay, chances are it probably won’t because they seem to already have a plan of what they’re going to be doing. I will leave you right here and I’m very much looking forward to 2026. CK3 is a fun game and I think it could be even better with all of these things added. Let me know what you think and I’ll see you later, alligator.
Crusader Kings 3’s 2026 is supposed to be the year of DEPTH. What does that mean though? In this video, I will go over what I want the game to bring to the table. For me, it’s all pretty clear. But do you argee?
Let me know in the comments!
00:00 Intro
00:34 What Happened In 2025
02:24 What We Already Know About 2026!
04:07 I DO NOT Want An Event Pack!
05:28 A Cosmetic Pack Instead?
07:38 Core Expansion – THE FEUDALISM UPDATE!
12:44 Major Expansion – TRADE & ECONOMY!
20:18 Conclusions
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