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Dev Diary #94 - Conquest and Reconquest

Hello there!

For this week, we are going to take a look at the Iberian Reconquista and the Northern Crusades. Keep in mind that things aren’t finalized yet, so there might be small errors etc.

NorthernCrusade01.png


Late 12th century or afterwards, the Teutonic Order can decide to start converting the north (Scandinavia/Baltics/Russia), if they aren’t already holding lands in the south or fighting for any lord at the moment. After the original announcement event, any King or Emperor living in the north will be able to ask the Teutons to target a specific ruler to conquer.

NorthernCrusade02.png


After asking the Teutons to target a specific character, the Teutons will send a response letter with their demands, be it land, money or that they will do it for free. After the Teutons have received a target, they will focus their efforts from now on, to convert that specific DeJure Kingdom to Christianity, fighting wars for one Duchy at a time. In other words, other rulers won’t be able to ask them to target any character outside of the DeJure kingdom later on.

NorthernCrusade03.png


After the Northern Crusades start, the Teutons will potentially ask a local ruler for help, receive event troops and start marching upon the Duchy they fight for. Should they win that war, they will become the Teutonic State and start actively pacifying the region. If they lose, they will wait for some more years, before re-launching the Northern Crusades once more. If they keep losing their wars, they will eventually give up their Northern Crusade, and leave the north.

NorthernCrusade04.png


For those helping the Teutons in pacifying the north, there is rewards in the form of gold, piety, artifacts and potentially a bloodline if you are truly pious.

NorthernCrusade05.png


Turning down south, we also have the new Reconquista. For any Iberian Christian ruler (of Duke or higher tier) with lands in the Iberian Peninsula, they can start fighting to reconquer the peninsula for Christendom. A new decision has been added, to start preparing for a Reconquista. This will cost a ruler a substantial amount of prestige, piety and gold. One thing I want to point out, is that the Reconquista wars can be started at any point throughout the game, and it is not attached to the start of the normal Crusades.

Reconquista01.png


Reconquista02.png


After the Reconquista has started, the ruler will start gathering troops and resources the following year. Every month or two, special events will fire for the ruler, to ask the Pope for gold, finding ships, troops etc.

Reconquista03.png


After a year has passed, the preparation events will finally stop, and the ruler will have one more year to find a fitting target to attack. They can of course start attacking someone prior to the preparation year has passed as well, but then at the cost of the special events attached to that period. The new Reconquista Casus Belli will let you attack special regions in Iberia, each one of them consisting of two Duchies (with the exception of Navarra and the Balearic Islands, which is 1).

As a Reconquista is ongoing, a Muslim in the Iberian Peninsula will be able to sell their services to the Christian Reconquistador and vice versa for Christians. This is to simulate the chaotic type of warfare that often happened at the Iberian Peninsula. For those who want to simulate El Cid, there is a special bloodline for someone winning several Reconquista wars from both sides (helping both the Christian attackers, and the Muslim defenders).

Reconquista04.png


The Reconquistador will also be able to set up a beneficiary, akin to normal Crusades, but it isn’t necessary nor pushed as heavily. After all, spreading the faith locally at the Iberian Peninsula is quite the pious task!

If you have a Beneficiary to gain the land, they will have some extra benefits akin to how the Crusaders usually do, with no penalties to the area when the war is won, etc.

Reconquista05.png


A Reconquista will be considered a success when all the lands of Iberia has been taken, or a Christian Emperor of Hispania is crowned. Similarly, if a Muslim gets the Empire of Hispania, they will stop the Reconquista as well.

The title has been changed slightly to reflect this, and you can no longer create the Empire, unless there are no rulers of another faith holding any DeJure Kingdoms. E.g, the Sultan of Andalusia cannot create the Empire of Hispania while there is a Christian King of Asturias.

Of course, there is a bloodline for those who stay loyal to the faith, and fight for Christianity as well. None of that wishy-washy both sides nonsense!

Reconquista06.png


Finally, if Christendom is desperately trying to survive in the region, Reconquista adventurers can start spawning for the Christian rulers of Iberia. They have a shortened preparation time of 1 month, before they declare war on the closest Muslim. If they win the war, they will settle down as a Beneficiary would, with some of those benefits.

Reconquista07.png


And like last week, there is of course two new game rules attached to the two new Crusades.
  • Northern Crusade:
    • Enabled
    • Disabled
  • Reconquista:
    • Enabled
    • Limited (No Adventurers)
    • Disabled
Reconquista09.png


That was all for the Baltics and the Iberian Peninsula! Hopefully you guys are as stoked for the two new Crusades as we are. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed these extra summer Dev Diaries, and we are back to the usual from next week on!

(Ps. Yes, there isn't really a huge change from the summer Dev Diaries to the usual ones, just that these weren't originally planned)
 
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All of these neat bloodlines appearing everywhere is neat.
 
All of that seems really amazing! How easy are these two crusades to mod? And what is part of the expansion and what is part of the patch? Like can we use one of these systems elsewhere, like idk a Reconquesta-like system if England fell to the pagans for too long, if we don't have the DLC?

And any tip about what next week dd will be about?
 
Oh yes the northern crusades, blood for the...regular God?
 
What will be the subject of next usual Dev Diary?

Long-awaited additions to the game. Any hints as to what next week’s diary will be on?

As I was in charge of every DD throughout the summer, I decided myself what I write about, from week to week. So... I honestly don't know for sure, which is why I refrained from saying anything about it. If it is what I think it is about... Well... It is something to look forward to :D

All of that seems really amazing! How easy are these two crusades to mod? And what is part of the expansion and what is part of the patch? Like can we use one of these systems elsewhere, like idk a Reconquesta-like system if England fell to the pagans for too long, if we don't have the DLC?

Should be simple enough to mod, as it is all script. All "Special Crusades" with the exception of the Shepherds' Crusade is Holy Fury (expansion) content. The Shepherds' Crusade is Sons of Abraham content.
 
Nice. This should give Asturias some staying power.

Wouldn't it makes sense for alternate reconquests, if other parts of western Europe fall to Muslim, or even alternate conquerors, such as Aztecs?

Ummayads love to expand into Aquitaine in earlier startdates (since it's basically only available sensible target of Muslim Invasion CB), so it could prompt French or Occitain reconquista.
 
Can this "chaotic type of warfare" be applied to Christians and Muslims in the Middle East?
 
Will Teutonics attack Orthodox countries like they did in real life?
Well, after they ran out of pagans to fight, they fought everyone, including other Catholics. I assume when all local pagans convert or get conquered, Teutonic State will have its restrictions on fighting coreligionists lifted.
 
I wonder what the Northern Crusades and the Reconquista look like from the other side. Do the non-Christians get a single pop-up telling them Christians are gathering a huge army to attack them or do they also get a bit of help here and there?
 
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Should be simple enough to mod, as it is all script. All "Special Crusades" with the exception of the Shepherds' Crusade is Holy Fury (expansion) content. The Shepherds' Crusade is Sons of Abraham content.
So only the content is locked behind the expansion, not the mechanic itself? Like could we do northern crusades-style wars or reconquista-style wars without checking for Holy Fury in a mod?
 
I wonder what the Northern Crusades and the Reconquista look like from the other side. Do the non-Christians get a single pop-up telling them Christians are gathering a huge army to attack them or they do also get a bit of help here and there?

They should get events telling them about the gathering christians as well. We haven't given them a lot of new events or the like in this specific case, but we often see the Christians failing at getting a foothold into the Baltics, as the Romuvans/Suomenuskos stick together in all Holy Wars against them.

So only the content is locked behind the expansion, not the mechanic itself? Like could we do northern crusades-style wars or reconquista-style wars without checking for Holy Fury in a mod?

There is no new mechanic added with these Crusades. They uses events and Casus Belli as we do so many other places, so it shouldn't be an issue in modding it into any game.
 
Could we perhaps get a game rule for longer preparation times for Reconquista Adventurers (somewhere between Enabled and Limited)? One month is rather short compared to the usual two years...
 
Everywhere in this article there are words like "christian" or "christianity" and not "catholic" and "catholicism". Does it mean reconquista can be done by non-catholic christians as well?

And what if, by any chance, the pentarchy is restored before the XII century and the Teutonic Order becomes orthodox as a result? Can they still do the Northern Crusade?
 
Could we perhaps get a game rule for longer preparation times for Reconquista Adventurers (somewhere between Enabled and Limited)? One month is rather short compared to the usual two years...

The reason they were reduced, were actually because of attrition, and the fact they don't have any way of getting supplies while they are preparing. So they would start taking a lot of attrition damage.

Everywhere in this article there are words like "christian" or "christianity" and not "catholic" and "catholicism". Does it mean reconquista can be done by non-catholic christians as well?

And what if, by any chance, the pentarchy is restored before the XII century and the Teutonic Order becomes orthodox as a result? Can they still do the Northern Crusade?

The reason we used Christian and not Catholic, is pretty much because the Teutons could end up being Fraticelli, Waldensian or even Orthodox.
 
A Reconquista will be considered a success when all the lands of Iberia has been taken, or a Christian Emperor of Hispania is crowned. Similarly, if a Muslim gets the Empire of Hispania, they will stop the Reconquista as well.

The title has been changed slightly to reflect this, and you can no longer create the Empire, unless there are no rulers of another faith holding any DeJure Kingdoms. E.g, the Sultan of Andalusia cannot create the Empire of Hispania while there is a Christian King of Asturias.
This sounds like an impossible task for the AI in the 769 start. :(. Does this mean that if Asturias is conquered, the Reconquista will never be a thing for the rest of the game? I hope those adventurers you mentioned are strong enough to support Asturias at that start date, otherwise, that's kinda brutal.