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Western Europe 410-962 - The Winter King

Western Europe 410-962 - The Winter King is a Dark Ages Total Conversion mod for CKII, with a focus on Western Europe and bookmarks spanning from 410 to 530 and a playable timeline into the 10th century.
The current version 1.12.1 is compatible with CK2 3.3.5.1.

- A completely new map covering Britain, Ireland, Gaul, Scandinavia, and part of Germania. The map is zoomed in with much more detail than vanilla and the mod is "sped up", with troops march much more quickly and battles resolving in a day or two.
- A main campaign scenario starting in 479 AD, and revolving around two major struggles: the barbarian invasions of Sub-Roman Britain and Gaul, and the religious conflict between the ancient pagan Gods and the "new" Nicene faith. The campaign end date is set to 962 AD.
- Numerous playable historical and legendary characters, including King Arthur, Syagrius of Soissons, Clovis I, and Beowulf, along with long, fleshed out king lists and pedigrees.
- Custom Events and Storylines. There are hundreds of new or modified events and mechanics, including a high kingship system, events regarding Anglo-Saxon and Frankish invasions, Roman restoration events, religious conversions, a search for the legendary thirteen Treasures of Britain, a dedicated season and climate system, and much more.
- A number of new traits, modifiers, decisions and ambitions/objectives, and a complete overhaul of the casus belli system.
- A large variety of new music and sounds to better fit the time period
- A dynamic 'de jure' map system that allows multiple 'de jure' map configurations.
- Custom buildings, appropriate for post-roman Britain. Several of them are culture-based or terrain-based. Many unique historical buildings (the baths of Aquae Sulis, the tidal bay of Mont Saint Michel, etc.). All buildings have a larger array of effects compared to vanilla. Barracks, stables and military buildings, for example, will reduce your tax income, increase risk of disease, and so on. There are custom building "sets" for specific purposes: justice buildings to reduce revolt risk, health buildings to prevent diseases, smiths and forges to improve your units effectiveness, etc.
- Culture-based de jure titles and kingdoms. In 479 AD most of Britain is divided among the various Brythonic kingdoms. However, with the Anglo-Saxon invasions new de jure (non titular) kingdoms and eorldoms will slowly emerge: Mercia, Northumbria, Lindsey, Bernicia, Deira, and so on. Each title has different requirements and some of them may never appear, but in the long run at least some of these new Anglo-Saxon realms will pop up and grow, aggregate, etc. The Franks will similarly replace the de jure setup of Gaul with their own, and a resurgent Roman Empire can also restore the old Imperial administrative setup.
- New military unit types (there were no knights or pikemen in 5th century) and combat tactics.
- Custom graphics, artwork, icons, portraits, etc.

Isinfier's portraits have been added as an additional module, available here. DO NOT enable the The Winter King - Portraits submod unless you have all of the required portrait packs (Celtic, Norse, Mongol, Iberian, Early Western Portraits, Monks and Mystics, and Holy Fury), as otherwise you will face graphical issues.

We also have a music module, replacing the vanilla soundtrack with a new set of custom music to better fit the time period of the mod.

Is this mod historical? Do I need to read the (Warlord Chronicle) books to understand it?
The mod strives to be as historical as possible, except for bending the scenario in Southern Britain to be generally faithful to the Warlord Chronicle series. You definitely don't need to be familiar with the books, although you should note that the books do give a considerable twist on many of the main Arthurian characters and so some of them may not be exactly as you expect. There will be a number of spoilers for the books, however, particularly if you decide to play later bookmarks.

Will the rest of the map be filled in?
Yes, it is our plan to expand the playable area to eventually cover most of the ingame map. While map expansion is always ongoing, it is a huge project and progress is rather slow and gradual. Our current focus is to finish up what's left of Gaul.

Is this compatible with any other mods?
As a general rule, total overhaul mods like this one are not compatible with any other mods. However, some mods may be specifically designed or have a compatibility patch that allows you to use it along with The Winter King.

What DLCs is this mod compatible with?
All DLCs are compatible with the mod. Most unlock the relevant corresponding mechanic that it does in vanilla, though some (e.g. Sword of Islam and Sunset Invasion) do not (currently) have any ingame effects. We recommend that you just leave all your DLCs enabled.

Does this mod require any DLCs?
No, although The Old Gods is highly recommended due to the large amount of pagans at start.

I've noticed a bug, or something doesn't seem right. What do I do?
Report the bug in the thread. Nothing matter is too small or minor to be reported; it might be 5-minute fix, but it'll never get fixed if we don't know about it! If it happens in a certain situation, be sure to keep a save, as we will usually just ask for one anyways.

The mod crashes on startup/has missing cultures and religions/has events that pop up over and over again/is generally broken. What do I do?
Try the following:
1) Make sure that no other mods are enabled
2) Make sure that you're running the correct CK2 version (currently 3.3.5.1 for BTWK v1.12.1)
3) Verify the game cache of your CK2 version
4) Redownload the mod (possibly from another mirror)
As well, if you do manage to make it to the main menu, check that you have the correct checksum (GYTX for BTWK v1.12.1 if all modules are enabled). If the checksum is different this indicates that you have other mods enabled, you are on the wrong version, or your install is corrupted, all of which are likely the source of your problem.

Answers to more FAQs can be seen on our CK2 wiki page here[ck2.paradoxwikis.com].

For more information, and for a full list of included mods and contributors, visit our Discord server[discord.gg] or go to our thread[forum.paradoxplaza.com] on the Paradox forums.

We're always looking for more artists, scripters, beta testers, and team members in general. If you'd like to join, just message any of us across any of our platforms and we'll be more than happy to have you.