Europa Universalis 4: Third Rome, the next DLC and first “immersion pack” for the popular grand strategy game, is coming out in June for $9.99. The game was revealed in May, but since then, Paradox Development Studio has revealed a number of details about the latest mini-expansion in a series of developer diaries. There’s a lot of detail and they’re worth checking out in full, but let’s run through the big picture stuff in Europa Universalis 4: Third Rome.

Europa Universalis 4: Third Rome Features: Lots of Russia Stuff

As you might expect from the name, the new Europa Universalis 4:Third Rome features focus on the lands of Russia and the power of the tsars. First up, the whole map of the region has been redrawn to include a much larger number of provinces, which will better reflect the importance of the region and the tactical and strategic complexity within it. The Lithuania region has also been expanded, and the expansion hopes to make the area of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth more interesting to play, in part because of Russia’s greater power. The expansion adds two new states to the map: Rostov and Beloozero, both of which are already under Muscovy’s power. Both nations get new sets of National Ideas. In addition, both Muscovy and Russia proper (once formed) have different National Ideas than before.

The DLC also includes three new government types: the Veche Republic, the Principality, and the Tsardom. The first two are both Duchy-rank titles, respectively similar to a Merchant Republic and a Monarchy; Tsardom is an Empire-rank title. The first two are widespread throughout the Russian lands in 1444. The Tsardom government is unlocked and adopted automatically when forming Russia. All the forms get special Russia-specific bonuses, and they’re very powerful:

The Russian abilities work like this. All actions have a bar to fill up before they can be used. Bar fill up from 0 - 100, increasing yearly by the ruler’s monarch point in the category, and a base +3. The actual bar can hold 150, so you don’t lose by not using it immediately.

• The Administrative ability is called Reform Sudebnik, and reduces autonomy by 10% in all provinces you own.
• The Diplomatic ability is called Support Oprichnina, and reduces progress of all your rebel factions by 30% each.
• The Military ability is called Raise Streltsy, and reduces war exhaustion by 2, and raises 20% of your forcelimit as Streltsy Infantry in your capital.

The Tsardom also has its own unique powers, including the ability to fabricate claims on entire regions. It can also create Siberian Frontier establishments in uncolonized land on its borders, without using a colonist or paying exorbitant colonial maintenance; like Russia’s other powers, this is designed to help the country approach its truly massive real-world size.

Cossacks have also been added as a unit type for players who already have The Cossacks DLC; they’re recruited directly from the Estate interface.

But wait, there’s more! Third Rome also includes an array of features available to all members of the Orthodox faith. Patriarch Authority has been revamped, and can now be spent on Icons that grant powerful bonuses. Highly developed countries can also create Metropolitans in their most developed states to further boost Patriarch Authority.

Europa Universalis 4: Third Rome will be out this month (June) for $9.99. As usual, some but not all of the new features will also be available in a free patch, but for the really cool stuff and the enhanced Russia-playing experience, you’ll need to pony up.