Welcome to Tinto Talks, the Happy Wednesdays, where we talk about what is happening with Europa Universalis V.

Here, one more week, your friendly Content Design Lead, Pavía. Today, we will be presenting to you the first sneak peek at the upcoming DLC, Across the Pillars - so let’s start by taking a look at our vision for it.

Across the Pillars is our first Chronicle Pack DLC. What does it mean, and what makes it different from Fate of the Phoenix? The main difference is that the latter was an Immersion Pack, so it was more of a focused experience, mostly revolving around one country, the Byzantine Empire (or however you prefer to call it with our in-game rules!); whereas a Chronicle Pack is more of an immersive experience encompassing a region with multiple countries involved, and roughly double the amount of content in comparison.
Therefore, we have developed content and mechanics for Across the Pillars around two main starring countries, Castile and Morocco, and the struggle they were involved in during the central decades of the 14th century, known by historians as ‘the battle of the Strait \[of Gibraltar]’. An important side actor in this struggle was Granada, a true third party between them, sometimes leaning towards one side (either in a friendly or forced way), sometimes towards the other, most of the time trying to assert its own independence between two behemoths. But not only that, other countries and peoples around them, both Iberian and Maghrebi, were involved in this struggle, usually following their own objectives and goals.

Our focus has been both wider and deeper compared to FotP, in terms of how many countries have gotten content and how deeply that content is connected to other mechanics and features. The time scope has been limited mostly to the first two ages of the game (1337-1537), as it’s where most of the narrative of this struggle and period remains consistent. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t any content based on the post-1500s history - you’ll see a bit about that later down the road in that post, and we have also worked on unique Expeditions based on colonial endeavors, etc. However, we wanted to center the scope of the DLC on the narrative and content of the development of the Iberian and Maghrebi countries in the Late Medieval period.

Let’s now move from this general vision into the two main content features that structure the narrative that I’ve just talked about - two entirely new situations available with Across the Pillars.

Starting in 1337, the situation for Castile, Morocco, and Granada was different, but all of them led to the campaign that historically ended with the Castilian victory at the Battle of Río Salado in 1340, and following it, the siege and conquest of Algeciras in 1344 - this was probably the most defining point in the reign of Alfonso XI of Castile, Abu al-Hasan Ali of Morocco, and Yusuf I of Granada.

We have portrayed this in the DLC with a new situation, called ‘The Battle for the Strait’. It portrays the struggle between these countries, pivoting mostly on control of the Strait and, most importantly, Granada, which is the key strategic point for everybody involved. 

This is done in the situation via two axes. The first is called ‘Influence over Granada’; the tug-of-war between Castile and Morocco over the control of Granada. There are 3 shared actions, and some unique ones (4 for Castile, 6 for Morocco, and 6 for Granada). The Castilian ones mostly revolve around enforcing Parias over Granada (which starts as its Tributary), while Morocco can establish its influence both in peaceful and forceful ways.

The second axis is called ‘Granadan Sovereignty’, which is a unique value that empowers the country against its powerful neighbours. There are several actions that Granada may take towards firmly establishing its Sovereignty, and it will have to play a delicate balance between the Castilian and Moroccan influence to be able to win the situation on its own.

It should be noted here that the AI has been instructed to fight tooth and nail to win the situation. Both sides have a wide variety of options to put their thumb on this scale such as Cabinet Actions, events, country interactions, winning wars, taking territory and more. And speaking of that, to win the situation, each country has its own set of different winning conditions and rewards:

To end up with, you have here some of the actions, both generic and unique, and flavour associated with the situation - which is wide: Beside the situation actions, there are Cabinet Actions, Character and Country Interactions, 2 Decisions, and more than 30 events:

Let’s now move into the second situation of the DLC…

There are actually three different versions of this illustration, one for each of the potential starrings of the situation (Castile, Morocco, and Granada) - this one is the Granadan one.

Whoever wins ‘Battle for the Strait’ will get a second situation, called ‘The Golden Century’ (I promise this time we are committing to doing it well!). It portrays the follow-up narrative of whoever won, would likely become the hegemonic power in Iberia and Northern Africa, and as such, it would lead to both trying to extend its influence abroad, while being contested and countered by other neighbouring countries and powers. Therefore, it’s more of a mid-game challenge for an already-winning country.

What you have is two axes to interact with, ‘Colonial Dominance’ and ‘European Dominance’. Each of these has 4 thresholds, which unlock both passive bonuses for the player and its contenders, plus a unique powerful action for the player.

An interesting aspect of this situation is that there are 2 mirrored versions of it. One for Spain/Castile and the other for Andalusia/Morocco. Both versions offer completely different actions. Many events will also be either exclusive to each version or completely different, both in terms of effects as well as localization. Let’s take a look at some interesting events for the Golden Century from the perspective of a powerful and resurgent Al-Andalus!

A unique new IO, ‘The Grand Alliance’, is created at the start of the situation for countries that resist the rise of Spain/Andalusia/Morocco in and beyond Iberia, and will act as a counter to the rising power. It will also be able to rise in power in turn, as it will get in members and influence / strength based on how strong you are and every 25 years they may come together and attack you / try to undo your dominance values if they reach a too high value.

A new feature that we have added to this situation is Flashpoint Events. These are events that occur when you reach a Flashpoint threshold, and are more meaningful an important than regular events, being either obstacles to overcome or opportunities to grow bigger, with both huge rewards and penalties depending on how they’re handled. In the Golden Century, they’re mostly based about the history of Spain around the 1500 - adapting also that to an alt-historical, but plausible win of either Morocco or Granada. Because, speaking of that, although we’re only showing today the Castilian/Christian version of it, the situation is symmetrical, by having two mirrored versions, that use the same base mechanics, but with an entirely different set of features and associated content.

Finally, there are different outcomes to the situation - another new system that we’re using to flesh out the ending conditions and effects of situations. Here you have the GC ones, and the effects in case you win as Castile:

And that’s all for today! Next week, we will be talking about the machinery that a proper empire needs to work - the ‘mechanical content’ of the DLC: unique Bureaucracies, Expeditions, Iberian Military Religious Orders, the Iberian Union, and much more! But before that, remember that tomorrow, Thursday 1st of October, we’ll start with the 1.4 Open Beta - we hope that you enjoy it! And stay tuned, because we might have some more news coming along with it - cheers!

Welcome to Tinto Talks, the Happy Wednesdays, where we talk about what is happening with Europa Universalis V.

Here, your friendly Content Design Lead, Pavía, is back on hosting duty. It’s been a while since April, but I’ll be with you for 4 weeks in a row to present and show the last features of the 1.4 ‘Río Salado’ update, and also the new content and features of the upcoming Across the Pillars Chronicle Pack DLC. It will be a ride, for sure!

As promised last week, today we’ll focus on the update's religious features. In 1.4, the Catholic Church will be less of a menu and more of people: cardinals with names, holy wars with a chest and a leader, and orders that live in your provinces. We'll cover three sections: the Cardinals and Curia rework; the Crusade and Jihad overhaul; and the introduction of a new mechanic: Religious Orders. Let’s start without further ado.

Cardinal and Curia rework​

The most important change about Cardinals is simple: They are now characters! We were not really very sold on the idea of the ‘Cardinal Seat’ building, so we decided that it was now the moment to replace it with proper characters that you can interact with, etc.

Here you have Cardinal Gil Álvarez de Albornoz[en.wikipedia.org], a historical Castilian character who was the main Papal leader in the reconquest of most of the Papal States in the 1350s. Note: The 3D model for cardinals will be unlocked by Across the Pillars; in the base game, they will use regular ecclesiastical models.​

Although Cardinals are not buildings anymore, they will still hold a seat in a specific location; therefore, the College of Cardinals now visually appears on the Catholic Church map, which shows where they’re seated. But, more importantly, they will now be directly shown in the Papal Curia, which will be composed of them:

There will be a new religious action, Appoint Dynasty Cardinal (a member of the ruling dynasty), related to Cardinals, while two others stay from the current version: Request Cardinal Seat, and Remove Cardinal Seat:

Related to our country, Cardinals who have a Seat in one of our locations can be appointed as Generals or Cabinet Members. And something interesting may pop up from that: a newly introduced Cardinal regency. A Cardinal can now hold the regency for a minor if he is in Cabinet when the regency begins.

We made Cardinal Gil Álvarez de Albornoz a member of our Cabinet, and we can even promote him to be Head of the Cabinet if we get enough Political Influence for the appointment.

​

Now, how do Cardinals work in the Curia itself? Well, first a Papal Bull needs to be proposed by any Catholic country, as usual:

Now, the main change is that the ones voting for it to pass or not are the countries that control a Cardinal in the Curia, which limits the number of voting members.

Here is where diplomacy kicks in: there are now two Diplomatic actions that allow you to Ask to Support or Reject:

The first screenshot was taken as Castile, the second as the Papal States, both targeting the country that controls more Cardinals at the start of the game - France.

The College of Cardinals agreed upon our proposal, and the Dei Gratia Rex bull was enacted!

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All in all, the addition of Cardinals and the rework of the Curia will allow for more strategic gameplay related to the Catholic Church, as Cardinals will become not only the main resource to hold and control the Curia votes, but will also give more options regarding the management of the Cabinet and of the dynasty - e.g., allowing your ruler’s son to become a Cardinal.

Crusade and Jihad overhaul​

Let’s now take a look at holy wars - Crusades and Jihads. These are features that definitely deserved some more attention and love, and we thought that they would make a good bundle with both the overall improvements for Catholicism coming in this update and one of the main topics of the DLC, the fight between the Christian Castile and the Muslim Morocco and Granada. This is why we decided to overhaul both Crusades and Jihads at once, as they mirror each other - although with some differential features between them.
Let’s start with what’s common. Crusades are called via a Curia vote (which, as we’ve previously seen, requires a majority of Cardinals to pass), while Jihads are called via a Religious action:

Now, let’s take a look at two new features. First is the Leadership of the holy war: a Crusade has a Spiritual Leader (always the Papacy) and a Temporal Leader (the founding realm) holding secular command; a Jihad has only one leader.

Second, Crusades and Jihads have two phases. The first one is the preparation phase to gather members, gold, and zeal. Religious Zeal is a 0 to 100 scale that only wanes at war, and that gives bonuses to the damage done versus heathen troops, war exhaustion tolerance, and peace offer acceptance.

Here you have the new panels for Crusades and Jihads. You can see in the overview both the Spiritual and Temporal leaders, and the target; then the Crusade and Jihad Treasury Contribution, the Preparation, the Main Actions, and in the second tab, the Members. That coupled with new custom art for both IOs, of course!

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When the Preparation reaches 100%, two things will happen: A war will be declared against the objective of the Crusade, and 20% of the contribution will be split between all the participating members.

Castile started a new Crusade over Morocco, and Tunis decided to declare a Jihad to retaliate against it!

New actions will unlock in this phase, and if a country that joins a Crusade or a Jihad has a higher Great Power score, or becomes a bigger contributor may take over the Leadership:

As you may have noticed, there are both common and unique actions for Crusades and Jihads, available either at the Preparation or War Phases. They are the following:
Shared actions (4): Hasten Preparations, Convert the Conquered, Discipline the Faithless, Distribute the Spoils.

Crusade actions (6): Claim War-Leadership, Offer a Cardinal Seat, Preach the Crusade, Grant Indulgence, Levy the Saladin Tithe, Recover Holy Relics.

Jihad actions (7): Claim Leadership, Offer Recognition, Issue a Fatwa, Promise of Martyrdom, Levy the War Zakat, Plunder the Conquered, Proclaim the Merits of Jihad.

There are also some unique ones for Iberian and Maghrebi countries - but we’ll talk about them in one of the future DLC-related Tinto Talks.

Other content and action revolve around both Crusades and Jihads: a “Crusade Privileges” papal bull while a Crusade is ongoing; an “Incite Desertion” country interaction; the “Take Up the Cross” and “Answer the Holy Call” parliament agendas; and 35 events covering the life of a holy war.

The ‘Bull of Crusading Privileges’ can be enacted while a Crusade is ongoing, and will benefit all the members of that Crusade.​

Last but not least, what are the rewards for winning a Crusade or a Jihad? First, both holy wars are started with Conquest CBs, which means that the land grab is easier. Second, the war chest empties and is distributed by contribution to both the treasury and war among the participants. Finally, the winner also receives an instant modifier giving +10 Prestige and +10 Religious Influence, plus an opinion modifier towards any other member, plus a ‘Victor’ modifier for 10 years. Also, holy war deserters will have a slightly more punishing penalty while the holy war is still ongoing.

The true defenders of the faith deserve a reward!

​

Religious Orders​

Religious Orders are a new feature introduced in the 1.4 update. They obviously aim to portray the Catholic monastic orders that were of great importance across the Middle and Modern ages. In our game, they will be a new kind of body: Orders will operate across many realms, with holdings spread across locations in several countries at once, representing local abbeys, priories, and hospices.

We have currently introduced two main types of orders, monastic and mendicant - although there’s a third one, Iberian military, that we’ll talk about in two weeks from now. We have introduced five generic orders in the game: Benedictines and Cistercians for the monastic type, and Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians for the mendicant type.

Here you have an overview of the Orders tab in the Religion panel, with a couple of orders present in the country, and their holdings visible in the Religious Order map mode.​

Ten callings shape the spirit of each order; for now, let’s only focus on the mendicant, which may be Preachers, Almoners, and Confessors for the mendicants, while the monastics may be Contemplatives, Scholars, or Cultivators.

Here you have an overview of the Cistercian Order; they’re set as Cultivators, which comes with different effects.​

Each Order has a strength value, which is controlled by the global Zeal of that order, but also by its standing in your country.

This is the current Zeal of the Cistercian Order and their Standing in France.​

You can interact with Religious Orders by using Religious Influence on different actions. There are three generic ones: Grant Holding to a Religious Order, Expel Holding, and Change the Order's Calling. Then, there’s a unique action available per Calling, from Preach a Mission to Feed the Poor.

Here you have an example of Granting a Holding to the Cistercians as Aragon.​

Speaking of Holdings, each one will spawn a character who can be used in the cabinet, with their ability being modified by the type of order they belong to. Using Order characters in the cabinet gives them more Standing in your country.

We decided to employ some of the available Order characters in our Cabinet, as they’re quite learned in their matters. Note: Each order will have a different attire that will be unlocked by Across the Pillars, with historically coloured cassocks per order, and also a specific Military Order cape and helmet; otherwise, they wear the generic monk attire.​

There’s also more companion content for Religious Orders, interacting with other game mechanics. For instance, the Orders present in your country will push towards certain Societal Values, depending on their calling; the Clergy Estate may also press you into giving land to an Order via a Parliament Agenda; and there’s also a set of more than 20 events that vary from the rise and decline of a certain Order, to some specific ones per calling, or even some interacting with a conquest from heathens.

The presence and Standing of the Cistercian and Augustine Orders are pushing our country towards being more Spiritualist!​

Therefore, sponsoring different Orders will give different benefits to your country, and will also make for different strategies; Dominicans are good at converting infidels, Franciscans foster Peasants Growth and Disease Resistance, Cistercians increase Food Production and push towards Traditional Economy, and so on. This will also give more opportunities to transform Religious Influence into a tool of internal development, if you prefer to focus on that, rather than high-level Curia plotting and Crusading warfare.

And that’s all for today! We hope you’ll enjoy this fleshed-out set of mechanics, aiming at making the Catholicism-related religious gameplay more interesting and engaging to play. We’ll be gathering and tracking your feedback on it not only today, but also with the 1.4 Open Beta starting next week, on Thursday, October 1st!
Also, as announced in yesterday’s Grand Voyage Update Roadmap[forum.paradoxplaza.com], Christianity as a whole is one of our main focuses for 1.5, so our lovely CM team will start soon to gather feedback on the Christian-related situations (Western Schism, Reformation, Council of Trent, and War of Religions), as they did for G&G and the Italian Wars for 1.3, so we get all the input we may need from the players in due time to work on improving all of them!

Next week, we will start the 3-week stream of Tinto Talks about the content for Across the Pillars, our upcoming Chronicle Pack DLC - the first topic being the Vision for the DLC and two upcoming new situations, ‘The Battle of the Strait’ and ‘The Golden Century’. Stay tuned, cheers!