2025 is the year of the Nomads of the Great Steppe in Crusader Kings 3, whose next DLC aims to significantly flesh out gameplay in the region by introducing a host of new features centered around nomadic governments.
The team working on CK3 is “knee-deep in the production of the expansion” and has shared an overview of the upcoming changes to both build up hype and start gathering feedback before its launch.
Crusader Kings 3 2025 DLC Nomadic Governments
CK3’s Nomadic Governments heavily emphasize “herd, might, and land,” promising a distinct style of gameplay. The wealth of a nomadic ruler is measured in Herd, a new currency that represents the number of cattle and horses owned.
“In the Steppe, Herd is incredibly valuable and plays a big role in how other Nomads perceive you: it can be used for ransoming, dowry, bribes and even be stolen via a scheme or raiding,” reads a dev diary dedicated to CK3’s 2025 expansion. “It controls who the Cultural Head is and serves as a gate for increasing Dominance.”
Nomad rulers do not have the luxury of a stable income, so they instead obtain it by exploiting the land’s fertility and from their subjects’ contracts.
They also do not use levies, relying on Horde Riders, who do not have any maintenance cost, which are obtained by converting a percentage of their Herd.
Horde Riders can be upgraded into other types of men-at-arms, such as Horse Archers, for a cost of gold and a maintenance cost of prestige.
“We’ve opted for this change because warring was an essential part of the Steppe life, and levies did not exist per se, as every able warrior would be called when the time was needed. From a more mechanical standpoint, we wanted Nomads to have fewer, but stronger and more significant, MAAs.”
Crusader Kings’ Nomadic Governments are built around might, so Dominance and Obedience are vital concepts for any ruler following them.
The former is described as “a measurement of their perceived power” and “a mountain that Nomads have to climb” by having your Herd reach “a significant enough size.” It affects vassal and domain limits and, at said mountain’s peak, waits the title of Genghis Khan, awarded to a single ruler who has to fight hard to keep it.
Obedience is instead “a binary state” that reflects a subject’s loyalty towards Nomadic rulers.
The developer diary linked above delves into several other features, explaining how consuming the land’s fertility encourages migration, which inevitably leads to conflict.
The Great Steppe is also getting a seasonal system in CK3’s next DLC, while nomads get access to the yurt, a type of settlement that seems to resemble, at least at a UI level, the camps added last year.
Tributaries are “a new and looser type of subject” that, as their name suggests pay tribute to their suzerain but can get unruly, should the latter look weak.
There’s plenty to digest when it comes to Crusader Kings 3’s next DLC and, although weekly developer diaries won’t start just yet, Paradox plans to discuss each feature in detail over the coming weeks and months.
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