---
title: "EU5 Across the Pillars: do Castile, Granada and Morocco justify €19.99?"
description: "Across the Pillars arrives October 28 with the free 1.4 update. Battle of the Strait, Iberian Union, expeditions: what the €19.99 pack really adds to EU5."
url: https://after-strategy.com/en/eu5-across-the-pillars-iberia-dlc-preview-2026/
lang: en
published: 2026-10-06
updated: 2026-10-26
author: "Simon Dougnac"
author_url: https://after-strategy.com/en/auteur/simon/
game: "Europa Universalis 5"
game_url: https://after-strategy.com/en/jeux/europa-universalis-5/
categories: [grand-strategy]
tags: [europa-universalis-5, eu5, paradox, grand-strategy, dlc]
translations:
fr: https://after-strategy.com/fr/eu5-across-the-pillars-open-beta-preview-iberie-2026/
es: https://after-strategy.com/es/eu5-across-the-pillars-dlc-preview-iberia-2026/
publisher: "After Strategy"
---
# EU5 Across the Pillars: do Castile, Granada and Morocco justify €19.99?
> Across the Pillars arrives October 28 with the free 1.4 update. Battle of the Strait, Iberian Union, expeditions: what the €19.99 pack really adds to EU5.
The Across the Pillars pack does not replace update 1.4: it sits on top of the biggest free update EU5 has had, and that makes the price question trickier than it looks. The €19.99 pack launches on October 28, 2026, the same day as 1.4 "Río Salado", and the open beta of that update has been running since October 1.
So the question is not whether 1.4 is good, since everyone gets it. The sharper question is what the pack delivers that the free update does not. Paradox's official sources let us answer without guessing.
## What 1.4 brings for free
Paradox presents 1.4 as the biggest update of the game's first year. The [press release](https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/media/press-releases/paradox-interactive/relive-and-rewrite-the-history-of-spain-and-morocco-in-across-the-pillars) lists Expeditions, a rework of religious orders and cardinals, better dynasties and major trade changes.
Expeditions send a leader and gold on a voyage across the map: transatlantic exploration, diplomatic tours or pilgrimages. Some follow a fixed historical route, others chart their own path, and a few are global races where only the first nation to arrive gets the reward.
On the religious side, cardinals become full characters with their own sub-panel and map mode. Crusades and Jihads move to two phases: a preparation period, then the war. The economy gains tariffs, more customizable trade orders and paid naval canals, according to the [beta announcement](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3450310/view/713414124781961436).
Two changes matter more than the list. The hourly tick gives way to a daily tick, and beta players report a clear performance gain, especially late in the game, according to the [update published on October 26](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3450310/view/676261330313812446).
Politics is not forgotten either. A Political Influence resource measures how much authority a ruler really holds, while betrothals and inheritance contracts give new ways to secure a dynasty. Republics and theocracies each get their own crises: oligarchic capture for the former, a crisis of faith for the latter.
All of this goes to every EU5 owner. Paradox detailed the cardinal and Crusade systems in Tinto Talks #125.
## The Iberian and Maghrebi flavour that is already free
This is the point the pack's price makes people forget: a large share of the regional content ships for free. In [Tinto Talks 128](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3450310/view/697652884114768096), the team describes the biggest flavour content addition since launch, split between the pack and 1.4.
On the free side, Aragon, Castile, Granada, Navarre, Mallorca, Tunis and Tlemcen receive unique events, decisions and buildings. Around 350 advances go to 48 countries, including formables such as Algarve or Valencia, and every starting Iberian tag becomes reformable. A full Jewish and Sephardi package, with its own characters, dynasties and government reforms, comes on top.
The pack is therefore not the only road to Iberian content. It adds a paid layer centred on Castile, Morocco and Granada, on top of a base that is already thicker.
## The Battle of the Strait, heart of the pack
This Chronicle Pack, the first for EU5, focuses on Castile, Marinid Morocco and Granada, who contest what remains of Muslim rule in Iberia. The [Steam page](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3698990/Europa_Universalis_V_Across_the_Pillars/) describes a historical situation, the **Battle of the Strait**, with its own decisions, cabinet actions and country interactions.
The winner moves on to the **Golden Century** situation, which lets it project power beyond the region. That two-step structure gives an Iberian or Moroccan campaign a readable goal: win the Strait, then cash in on the victory.
The decisions and cabinet actions tied to the Strait are the gameplay lever, and the events tell the rivalry between the three states. Paradox gives no figure for the length of the situation or the number of decisions. Until the pack is out, judging its balance would be unwise, especially between a strong Christian kingdom and two frailer Muslim neighbours.
## Iberian Union, bureaucracies and military orders
The pack reworks the Iberian Wedding scenario. The player chooses between a centralized monarchy, which heads toward a unified Spain, and a federalized state, slower, where each crown keeps its own laws. The [developers' explanation](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3450310/view/713414759190364338) specifies that the Union is not limited to Castile and Aragon and can also involve Portugal or Navarre.
Bureaucracies add another axis for shaping the state in EU5: twelve options drawn from Spanish and Portuguese history, eight from North African history, each with its own government effects. They come with dozens of new advances reserved for Iberian or Maghrebi nations, and new military orders specific to Iberia.
These elements mostly affect the mid-game, when a kingdom decides on its political shape. That is where the pack can justify its price for a player who stays on the peninsula.
## Unique expeditions and treasure fleets
Update 1.4 gives Expeditions to everyone. The pack adds exclusive ones: unique explorations, gold caravans and treasure fleets. This is flavour content that extends a free system rather than replacing it.
For a player with no link to the Iberian Atlantic, this extra will weigh little. For someone playing Castile, it gives a theme to the great voyage toward the New World, which the base system only does in general terms.
## Events, music and setting
The pack brings unique dynamic events for Castile and Spain, Portugal, Aragon and Navarre, then for Morocco, Granada and other nations of the region. It also adds new unit and ship models, portraits, event illustrations, monuments and works of art.
On Steam, the pack's soundtrack lists six Castilian-themed tracks and three Moroccan-themed ones. The first are played on baroque instruments and sung in medieval Spanish, the others draw on 16th-century call-and-response songs, played on the guembri and qraqeb.
## Who should buy the pack, who can skip it
The real trade-off is not "is €19.99 expensive?" but "do I play in this region?". The pack pays off for those who keep returning to Castile, Aragon, Portugal, Granada or Morocco, because it gives them a historical thread, mechanics of their own and a carefully made setting.
For those who mostly play Asia, the Ottoman Empire, Central Europe or Scandinavia, the free 1.4 does most of the work. Expeditions, the religion rework, trade and the daily tick change the game without costing a euro.
An in-between case exists: players who love great voyages and colonial empires. The exclusive expeditions will interest them, but the base of the system stays free.
The pack is sold for PC only, at €19.99 according to the Steam page. For anyone who already knows they will keep playing the peninsula, the financial risk stays modest, and the pack can be bought later without missing anything from the free 1.4.
## What to check on October 28
Three points remain open before launch. First, the real density of events per country: Paradox announces many events without counting them. Second, the balance of the Battle of the Strait, since three nations of very unequal means clash there. Third, the stability of the final 1.4 build after successive fixes during the beta.
The risk for a launch-day purchase is paying for content whose depth nobody has measured yet. Waiting for the first player feedback costs a few days, nothing more.
## Sources
- [Across the Pillars on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3698990/Europa_Universalis_V_Across_the_Pillars/)
- [Paradox press release: Across the Pillars](https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/media/press-releases/paradox-interactive/relive-and-rewrite-the-history-of-spain-and-morocco-in-across-the-pillars)
- [Steam announcement: trailer and 1.4 open beta](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3450310/view/713414124781961436)
- [Steam announcement: 1.4 and Across the Pillars highlights](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3450310/view/676261330313812446)
- [Tinto Talks 127: the pack's mechanical content](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3450310/view/713414759190364338)
- [Simulation Daily: Across the Pillars](https://simulationdaily.com/news/europa-universalis-5-across-the-pillars/)
## Going further
- [All our Europa Universalis V articles](https://after-strategy.com/en/jeux/europa-universalis-5/)
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Source : [EU5 Across the Pillars: do Castile, Granada and Morocco justify €19.99?](https://after-strategy.com/en/eu5-across-the-pillars-iberia-dlc-preview-2026/) — After Strategy