May 14, 2020

Coronation Day Announced for Crusader Kings III

Crusader Kings II - Nicou12313

Crusader Kings III will take its throne on September 1, 2020!
Now available for pre-order!

The herald rides forth to make the announcement all have awaited. Court and commoners hold their breath in anticipation. Jealous rivals, thwarted in their plots, sulk in the shadows, for the glorious day is coming. Crusader Kings III, the heir to the crown of grand strategy gaming, will take its throne on September 1, 2020.

Now available for pre-order, Crusader Kings III is a medieval grand strategy role-playing game from Paradox Development Studio. Guide a royal dynasty through the centuries. Claim new lands through diplomacy and marriage, or use your armies to conquer your neighbors or unite a divided realm. When swords and seduction fail, however, spies and poison may still be effective.

Crusader Kings III is the sequel to one of the world’s most beloved strategy games. Rich with new historical content and character options, it has never been easier to wrap yourself in the ermine cloaks of power, writing your own story of castles, knights, crusades, and murder.

Features of Crusader Kings III include:

Character Focused Gameplay: Every character you play or interact with has their own unique personality. Events and options in the game are largely determined by the type of person you are.
Infinite Possibilities: Play as any noble house from Iceland to India, Finland to Central Africa over five centuries. Interact with wandering guests, stubborn children, devious spymasters and saintly holy men in an elaborate tapestry of medieval life.
Waging War: Rally your vassals and raise your men-at-arms to besiege enemy castles or put down rebellions. Personal prowess on the battlefield can win you great honor, but strategic planning is the path to victory.
Royal Marriages: Spread your dynastic DNA throughout the world, stamping your royal seal on the crests of kingdoms and duchies far and wide. Marry for power and raise children to press claims on new lands.
Saints and Sinners: Keep faith with your religious leaders or perform great crimes in the interest of the state. When the going gets tough, you can always embrace a heresy or craft a new religion more in line with your character’s priorities.
Schemes and Skullduggery: Learn the secrets of your courtiers and vassals so you can blackmail them for their support. Seduce your way into a superior’s good books, or plot the untimely demise of an unfortunate relative.
Events Inspired By History: Experience great holy wars, peasant revolts, cadet branches of dynasties, heretics, superstition, castles, knights and wars over inheritance.
3D Character Portraits: Characters age and change appearance as their traits take a toll on their body. The higher the rank, the fancier the clothing.
And much more: Holy Orders, mercenaries, pagan and Viking raiders, easily customized rule sets and a beautiful new map to play on.

Crusader Kings III is available for preorder at a suggested retail price of $49.99/ £41.99/ €49.99 and will be available to desktop monarchs on September 1, 2020.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1158310/Crusader_Kings_III/

May 13, 2020

Europa Universalis IV: Emperor is coming June 9th

Europa Universalis IV - BjornB

Emperor is the newest expansion to Paradox Development Studio’s epic grand strategy game about the rise and fall of empires from the fall of Constantinople to the rise of Napoleon. This expansion opens up three central game systems, offering new gameplay opportunities for the Papacy, the Holy Roman Empire and Revolutionary movements, as well as a host of other changes.

Features in Europa Universalis IV: Emperor include:

A Powerful Pope: Appoint cardinals, publish Papal Bulls and gather tithes. The Vatican and Papal Controller now have new abilities to sway the souls of Christendom.
New Holy Roman Empire Systems: Imperial Incidents provide new challenges to the Emperor's power and authority. Will your empire follow a course to a centralized monarchy or decentralized federation?
Revolutions Revamped: The spirit of Revolution is a contagion that must be either embraced or vigorously opposed. Use the zeal of revolutionary guard units to fight reactionaries at home and abroad.
The Hussite Faith: Bohemia has an early game chance to embrace heresy and stand alone against the Pope until The Reformation.
Hegemonies: Seize the mantle of global leadership if you accumulate great wealth and armies, but be prepared to face great opposition from those who question your right to rule.
New Missions: Over 20 new unique mission trees for a variety of European nations
Defender of Faith: With great responsibility comes great power. Defending a major religion should be different from defending an insignificant one. Now it is!
The Council of Trent and Counter-Reformation: Join other Catholic rulers to slow down the spread of the Reformation by making concessions to the unruly mob or harshly imposing the will of God.
Provoke Rebellions: Risk a larger rebellion now while you think you can manage it instead of waiting for discontent to take its course

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1259360/Expansion__Europa_Universalis_IV_Emperor/

May 12, 2020

Dev Diary: Germany and Lübeck Missions

Europa Universalis IV - Addaway

Good afternoon! I’m back again with another content-driven dev diary. Today we’ll be taking a look at two of the new mission trees coming with the Emperor expansion: Germany and Lübeck.

The German mission tree takes a lot of inspiration, as you might expect, from Imperial Germany and the accomplishments of Bismarck. Although very much outside of the period, we felt that it was an appropriate way to go given the ahistorical nature of a united Germany within our timeframe.

The conquest branch of the mission tree begins with Blood and Iron, which requires you to own at least 50 provinces across the North Germany or South Germany regions, essentially completing your early German unification. This mission rewards perhaps the most extensive set of permanent claims of any single mission in the game: the Low Countries, Italy, France, and Poland will all simultaneously become your next targets. This is pretty extreme for a single mission, but given the requirements not only of the mission but also of forming Germany in the first place, the player is likely already in a very dominant position by the time that they unlock this mission tree. Completing the Annex Poland mission gives even further permanent claims, this time on the Baltic, Scandinavia, and Carpathia regions.

Next we have an economic branch of the mission tree. You are charged with building manufactories to Industrialize the Rhineland, permanently improving local goods produced in applicable provinces by 15%. You must also Promote Urbanization by reaching at least 30 development in 10 German provinces, and achieve Protected Markets by reaching 75% trade share in all German trade nodes. Completing these missions unlocks the Dominant Economy mission, which requires you to have the highest income of any European nation as well as 10,000 ducats with no loans.

Next up, Germany has a branch of its mission tree dedicated to overseas expansion, beginning of course with the construction of an Imperial Navy. After building 30 heavy ships, you must Burn the Wooden Wall by ensuring that no British country has more than 5 heavy ships. Achieving this will grant you +10% naval morale for the rest of the game, as well as a permanent claim on London. Scramble for Africa and Overseas Empire see you building an empire in Africa and Asia respectively.

Germany and the Holy Roman Empire share a large portion of their missions trees, but each of them have a unique branch available only to them. The German unique branch focuses on state-building, for instance hiring skilled advisors, gaining Crown Land, constructing universities, and gaining absolutism.

This is the Holy Roman Empire’s unique branch of the mission tree. It has been said that the HRE was neither Holy, Roman, nor an empire, but you have the chance to change that. You must become Defender of the Faith (giving you an opportunity to launch a final crusade for Jerusalem), become Papal Controller (if Catholic), and finally centralize the disparate states of Germany into a single nation. Completing the Roman Resolution mission as a Catholic nation fires the following event, representing victory of the Emperor in the dispute between Church and Emperor:

Hi I’m Alfray Stryke , a new addition on the EUIV team. Currently working as QA, although I have assisted with the design and implementation of Lübeck’s mission tree in the Emperor expansion.

The four paths for their missions are:

End the Sound Toll, By forcing or convincing Denmark to end the toll and increasing your trade in the Lübeck trade node, you continue to increase your trade in the Baltic. This leads to gaining claims on the Jutland peninsula and then Norway (subjugation if Norway is independent, permanent claims if they are not).
Ties with England requires either strengthening relations with England or Lübeckian merchants or privateers having at least 25% of the trade power in the English Channel. Completing this will strengthen Lübeckian traders in the British Isles, granting claims in order to form trading cities in London, Edinburgh and Ayr. Setting up trade cities in Edinburgh and Ayr will lead to dominating the North Sea trade and recruiting an explorer to settle Newfoundland (giving a Center of Trade there) and founding the American colony of Neulübeck.
The London Steelyard was historically the main trading base of the Hanseatic League during the 15th and 16th centuries, thus either owning London directly or indirectly via a member of your trade league will grant you a substantial boost to trade.
Defend the City, although Lübeck starts as a relatively wealthy but militarily lacking nation, their first goal should be to ensure they have a standing army capable of holding their own against any neighbours inside the HRE. Complete this via your own soldier or recruiting mercenary companies and you will gain claims on the rest of the Mecklenburg area. After building up your own strength, it is time to return the cities of Visby and Novgorod to the Hanseatic League by either owning them directly or indirectly.
The Merchant Navy, by building up your merchant navy and increasing your coffers, you are then led to formalising bookkeeping and building the Lübeck Krantor (replacing the old decision). After increasing your ship building industry, commissioning the Adler von Lübeck (for owners of Golden Century, the decision now requires a flagship), and asserting naval dominance over the North and Baltic Seas Lübeck can be declared the Queen of the Hanseatic League. This rewards you with increased diplomatic reputation and decreased advisor cost.

The culmination of their mission tree after increasing the reach of the Hanseatic League is to unite the league into a solidified political entity - making any members of the trade league that own historically important trade cities into vassals, with a boost to their diplomatic relations in order to compensate for this. Then using the same system for the Kingdom of God and the Caliphate renaming you are rightfully termed the Hanseatic League!

And that’s all for today! Join us next week for the last in our series of content-focused dev diaries.

May 5, 2020

Dev Diary: Burgundy

Europa Universalis IV - MagnusPDX

Click here for the latest Dev Diary

Hello! Welcome to another dev diary for Europa Universalis IV: Emperor. Today we’ll be revealing new content for Burgundy, famous in this era for its immensely confusing succession crisis that forever altered the balance of power in Europe and laid the foundations for Dutch independence.

We’ll begin with the new Burgundian mission tree. Wedged between France and the Holy Roman Empire, Burgundy has a challenging but rewarding path to follow.

The leftmost branch contains some familiar missions, involving the conquests of Savoy and Provence. We’ve also included a couple of additional missions in this chain: Invade Lombardy and Kingdom of Italy push you to continue your southward expansion. Completing the final Kingdom of Italy mission rewards you with the Rex Italiae modifier, granting -5% Idea Cost and +10% Institution Spread for the rest of the game.

Burgundy begins as a divided realm, with its wealthy holdings in the Low Countries owned by Personal Union subjects. Burgundy must placate these subjects to begin the next branch of the mission tree. After Burgundy finds a way to Unite the Realm, ruling over a united nation and directly owning the Lowlands, you are tasked with securing the region for the long term. You must either continue to hold the Low Countries through the Dutch Revolt or find some way to avoid it (and there will be opportunities to do so). With the Dutch provinces finally secured, you’ll be tasked with Dominating Channel Trade, which rewards you with a permanent bonus to your Trade Efficiency and Trade Steering.

EUIV begins in the midst of the Hundred Years War, with England and France constantly at each other's throats. Burgundy has played a crucial role in this conflict in the past, and can continue to do so from the start of the game. You are tasked with establishing an English Alliance, which unlocks the mission League of the Public Weal. This requires you to achieve very good relations with at least 3 of the French vassal Duchies. As a result, all of these Duchies gain +50% Liberty Desire, depriving France of their vassals support at a critical moment. This will aid you in becoming King of the Franks; owning Paris and 17 other provinces in the France region, as well as being physically and militarily greater than France, will give you permanent claims on all of France, and all of their remaining vassals will immediately be transferred to you.

After improving Papal Relations, Burgundy can organize a new Crusade against the Ottomans at the Feast of Pheasants. To achieve this you must either have 2 allies who have set the Ottomans as a rival, or else 1 ally that has the Ottomans as a rival that is also a great power. When you complete the mission, all Catholic countries with a positive opinion of Burgundy and a negative opinion of the Ottomans will gain a Holy War CB against the Ottomans for 5 years.

You’ve likely noticed that the flag used in the mission tree screenshot above is not the Burgundian flag we know and love. That’d be because Burgundy gets an expanded mission tree upon forming Lotharingia - the medieval realm of Lothair, descendant of Charlemagne. With the Emperor expansion this is handled through completing the Crown of Lothair mission, but without Emperor there will be a decision. Besides expanding your mission tree, you’ll have the option to switch your national ideas to Lotharingian ideas.

I’ll now hand you over to @Meka66, who implemented the redesigned Burgundian Inheritance content.

The Burgundian Inheritance event chain has been completely reworked for Emperor, with the entirety of the old system gutted out and replaced with something much more dynamic and directly involving for the Emperor and France.
The previous incarnation of the Burgundian Inheritance was something that only AI Burgundy would have to contend with, and without diving into the game’s arcane scripted event files, players would be unable to be directly involved in the inheritance and would be limited in how they interact with it.

In the new system however, the Burgundy player takes direct control of Charles’ historical successor; Marie de Bourgogne, and is able to make a direct choice as to which nation they are “inherited” by via a royal marriage with each of these choices triggering a unique Imperial Incident for the Emperor!

Should Marie choose to marry into the HRE, the Emperor will be presented with a choice as to how he distributes his newfound lands and territories.

The first option is to cede lands and territories to France while keeping the rest of Burgundy under personal union. This will of course make France happy, but will be of little benefit to the Emperor outside of that.

The second option is to just keep Burgundy in its entirety which will grant France cores all over Burgundy’s territories in the French region and give France a righteous cause to declare war.

The third option (and my personal favorite) is to integrate Burgundy into the Empire. What this means in practice is that you will “balkanize” all of Burgundy’s territory into smaller independent imperial Princes, leaving Burgundy with only its namesake while Luxembourg and the like are freed from their control.

Should Marie choose to marry outside of the HRE, however, this triggers an entirely different incident altogether. Burgundy can marry back into the French Kingdom or seek the support of a strong marriage partner, and choosing to do so will put the future of their kingdom entirely in the hands of their new overlord.

The Emperor may demand the Low Countries from Burgundy’s new overlord, and should they accept; Flanders, Holland, etc. will be released back into the Empire as free Princes. Should Burgundy’s overlord refuse, the Emperor may go to war to press his imperial claims.

The Emperor can also declare Marie’s marriage entirely illegitimate and attempt to force a union on the entirety of Burgundy.

A particularly cowardly Emperor may choose to just let this issue slide and allow the succession to take place without his interference.

Whomever Burgundy marries, they shall exist under personal union until an event declares Marie’s death and Burgundy in its entirety is integrated in a manner similar to the old system; with all of Burgundy’s territories becoming a core part of one’s own nation.

For those who enjoyed gaming the old triggers in script for the old system, such a thing will still be possible with AI Burgundy; with their various options for marriage partners being decided by a number of factors by the AI. Optimize these factors, and Burgundy will very likely choose your nation to be their protector.

However, Marie de Bourgogne is not forced to marry into any particular house in Europe at all, and may in fact choose to stand on her own against the French Kingdom and the HRE. Doing so will likely lead to war with both, so surviving this version of the crisis will be quite a challenge for the Burgundian player, but may yield some interesting rewards.

That's all for today! Next week we'll take a look at some of the mission trees we haven't yet had the opportunity to reveal. Until then, have a great week.