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.