Is the together we rule DLC as bad as the reviews says?

[nullpo]

I'm concerned about the leverage system in particular. In my mind you get leberage by idk, blackmail with your spy and diplomatic intrigue but reviews makes it seems like you get leverage by collecting random dots like ancient era science and food node.

[The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales]

The reviews are correct about it being collected on the map, but that's not the complete picture:
When a grievance is triggered between two empires, it also generates a Leverage Curiosity in the affected territory. You can send your diplomats or spies to collect these Curiosities (basically collecting evidence of the deed). However, if you are one of the empires involved in the grievance, you can also renounce the grievance and immediately gain 5 points of leverage (at the cost of the curiosity disappearing, which has potentially much higher yields.)
So yes, picking leverage up on the map is the most effective way to do it, as you get higher yields and can collect on grievances you are not part of, but you can gain it diplomatically. (For the best leverage yields, being ahead in Influence and Faith is a good idea, because it will generate plenty of "Oppressing my People" and "Oppressing the Faithful" grievances that can be turned into leverage.

However, that's just hos the system functions. Whether or not that is actually deemed good I shall leave to our players to answer.

[nullpo]

Originally posted by The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales:

The reviews are correct about it being collected on the map, but that's not the complete picture:
When a grievance is triggered between two empires, it also generates a Leverage Curiosity in the affected territory. You can send your diplomats or spies to collect these Curiosities (basically collecting evidence of the deed). However, if you are one of the empires involved in the grievance, you can also renounce the grievance and immediately gain 5 points of leverage (at the cost of the curiosity disappearing, which has potentially much higher yields.)
So yes, picking leverage up on the map is the most effective way to do it, as you get higher yields and can collect on grievances you are not part of, but you can gain it diplomatically. (For the best leverage yields, being ahead in Influence and Faith is a good idea, because it will generate plenty of "Oppressing my People" and "Oppressing the Faithful" grievances that can be turned into leverage.

However, that's just hos the system functions. Whether or not that is actually deemed good I shall leave to our players to answer.

Ah thanks for the answers. Now the whole system why I need to collect the resources makes sense. I got the impression that the resources just spawn randomly but collecting evidence of the deeds make sense. I think I'll give it a shot.

[nullpo]

Alright so in middle of my first game with the DLC. So far funny enough the spies and ambassadors do mostly nothing, and my leverage too mostly are untouched. Like I have almost 200 leverage against three of my enemies, the huns, the celts, and the Egyptians. But so far besides lowering war support and revealing agents since the celts love spamming hidden units, no use of those leverages so far. But the other aspect of the DLC I never thought I'll touch (embassy and minor nation) is interestingso far. Really feels good getting varangian guards when I ascend as rome, and funny enough my first opponent with army of veteran praetorian and fresh varangians is a transcended egypt and patron of avernii, making the flavor even better.

The new suzerain system is also great since now I don't have to dump loads of gold anymore and it actually do something imo more useful.

Oh and hidden units are neat but unfortunately moving units marked the hidden units so it ruins the surprise

[utilityguy]

I find that Leverage mainly comes into play once the Humankind Congress comes into being, as that's where your total leverage acts as how powerful your vote is compared to others. Then there's the moment when an enemy of yours builds their embassy, which then allows you use your leverage to do stuff like lower their war support, one purchase each turn, by -10 points.

[nullpo]

Originally posted by utilityguy:

I find that Leverage mainly comes into play once the Humankind Congress comes into being, as that's where your total leverage acts as how powerful your vote is compared to others. Then there's the moment when an enemy of yours builds their embassy, which then allows you use your leverage to do stuff like lower their war support, one purchase each turn, by -10 points.

yea just got to that point. But imo now that I already play 2 full game after buying the DLC congress of humankind seems to not do much, I mostly use it to bait my opponent to declare unjustified war if I can't get enough war support pre-war. I think they need like more sessions in between kinda like civ 6. So the regular 30 turn for policies, and I think every 10-15 turns for daily policies like anyone to sanctions, emergency meeting for imperialist empire, etc.