Cultural Expansion: CK II - Sword Of Islam

June 2012 will bring the Sword of Islam expansion to Crusader Kings II, allowing players to select any Muslim dynasty at the beginning of the game and "delivering a wealth of specific new mechanics distinctive to these rulers, creating a whole new gameplay experience. Laws, marriage, holding, traits, titles and more will work completely differently." Equally exciting is the news that a major patch will be arriving at the same time as the DLC, expanding the map into Mali-Songhay, and adding more complexity to claims, a new plot and expanded combat. The actual DLC will set you back $9.99 or an equivalent of your local coinage. A trailer of maps below.

I'm still infatuated with the game and haven't been too bothered by what is admittedly extremely basic combat. I enjoy the balancing of campaign length and levy demands enough that the brute arithmetic simplicity of conflict hasn't been much of an issue. That said, I await the changes eagerly, although expanding the map cruelly makes me hope that every patch will make it a bit bigger until the entire world can be mine.

And then the moon.