Transfer Occupation
Transfer Occupation is a new feature in the province interface that allows you to change the controller of a province that you have occupied in a war. This allows allies to coordinate their war effort more effectively, so that the nation that intends to conquer the province no longer has to be the one to siege it down. The AI will of course also make use of this feature, transfering control of provinces they do not want for themselves to the war leader.
Allied Objectives
Allied Objectives gives the player more influence over the actions of AI allies and subjects in wars. Allied Objectives are split into two parts: Province Objectives and Subject Military Focuses. Province Objectives are handled from the province screen and allows the player to tell their AI allies to focus on specific enemy provinces. This will both make them more likely to send armies to besiege that province and to engage enemy armies that are located in it.
Subject Military Focuses are handled from the subjects screen and allow the player to change the military priorities of their subject nations to either Aggressive or Supportive. Aggressive subjects will not attach to your armies and will instead focus on their own operations, engaging enemy armies and besieging their provinces. Supportive subjects will behave in the opposite fashion, attaching to or staying near friendly armies and avoiding independent operations in enemy territory. If you have no military focus set, they will behave as they currently do, attempting to judge for themselves when it is best to attach and when it is best to act independently. The military focus can be changed or removed at any time, and you can easily change the focus of all your subjects with a single click.
New Tradegoods
With so many provinces being added by Art of War worldwide it soon became apparent that the old 21 trade goods really wouldn't be enough to cover the many new areas expanded by the new map.
Therefore an additional 3 new types of trade goods have been added to go with the map expansion together with Art of War.
Silk
While EU4 prior to Art of War already had a number of trade goods related to textiles (cotton, wool and cloth) the addition of Silk lets us further differentiate the textile producing areas of the map.
The new Silk commodity represents woven silk textiles as well as very finely woven cotton textiles rather than just raw silk and you'll find it in highly developed regions throughout the Middle East, Persia, India, South East Asia and, of course, China.
As textiles was one of the most sought after commodities by Europeans traveling east this new trade good has allowed us to implement a hierarchy where cotton represents course cloth, cloth itself the finer variants with Silk for the very best textiles the east can offer.
Dyes
Many dyes where once quite rare and Indigo especially was sought after in India in the period covered by EU4. Historically this is something that the British tried their best to capitalize on by dramatically expanding the areas used for production of Indigo just after the end of the game.
This trade good represents both Indigo and an assortment of other rare dyes found throughout the east in this era and will be found in provinces in India and Persia in the old world. As the new world opens up alternative sources of the indigo and other dyes may also open up there.
Tropical Wood
This trade good represents finer, rarer and more expensive types of wood such as Ebony, Teak or Mahogany. Much like the existing Ivory trade good this is a commodity that, while exclusive and treasured in both Europe and the far east, isn't to be found in the richest provinces but rather in some of the less accessible parts of the map.
Tropical Wood will primarily be produced by jungle provinces in India, South East Asia, Indonesia, Africa and South America.
West Africa
Now I hand over the keys to Guillaume HJ, who has been the beta in charge of making the new map of West Africa.
Europa Universalis has changed much since the dim past of EU II. Asia (Divine Wind), America (Conquest of Paradise) and Europe have undergone constant improvements in their setup. South of the Sahara, though, the changes have been rare. A small handful of empires (Mali and Songhai, joined in EU III by Hausa and Kanem-Bornu), and a number of empty provinces. To this day, EU's Africa remains a static region, where a handful of states squabble over a small number of backwater provinces until they invariably fall to a Scramble for Africa that happens four centuries (and one Paradox game) too soon.
In reality, in the 1444-1821 time frame, West Africa was a land of rising and falling empires; a land of thriving city states fighting over the wealthy commerce flowing down the Niger river. It saw the Golden Age of Timbuktu, when a city south of the Sahara became a renowned center of learning among the Muslim world. It saw immense Tuareg caravans, thousands if not tens of thousands camels strong, cross the desert bearing exotic wealth from Africa to the shores of the Mediterannean.
It's that dynamism we set out to bring to you on overhauling Africa. To that end, we've added nearly sixty provinces and seventeen new playable nations.
The new setup: Africa in 1444
The start date in 1444 find Africa in turmoil. Mali, once dominant from Gao to the Atlantic, is fading. It has lost most of the Niger, from Jenné eastward, including the economic heart of West Africa, the inland delta. In the vacuum, old vassals and neighboring nomads have struck out on their own: Jenné once again reassert its independence, while Maga Diallo establishes his kingdom of Macina, and the Magsharen Tuaregs claim overlordship over Timbuktu. Further west, the old imperial provinces along the Atlantic coast in what we now call Senegal have also broken away, becoming the Jolof Empire.
Even a weakened Mali still hold a vast territory, including the old imperial heartland around Niani and the gold fields of Bambuk and Bure. They remain a force to be reckoned with, one good leader away from staging a comeback. In time, when they fall and finally collapse, cut in two by the assaults of Koli Tengella's Fulo empire, it will fall to the governors of Kaabu to carry on the empire's memory, a Malian Constantinople.
The greatest threat to Mali, however, lies east of Timbuktu. The Songhai – now with more than three time the province count they had prior to AOW – eye with great interests cities like Timbuktu and Jenné that now seem ripe for the picking. They're not alone in doing so: Mossi raids have struck fear across the inland delta already, and the Mossi, too, are expanding. This expansion is not without its own risk: as they expand northward, the kingdom of Yatenga will eventually rise, rivaling the older Mossi state of Wagadugu.
South of the Mossi lands, the Volta river flows past Dagbon, the land of the Dagomba people, before reaching the Akan lands, where settlers streaming out of the old kingdom of Bonoman have begun founding a multitude of cities. Soon, they will found Kumasi, from where the Ashanti empire will one day rise. Beyond Bonoman to the west, in what is today Ivory Coast, Dyola settlers have just founded the city of Kong. It, too, will one day be the capital of a great empire.
East of Ghana, the growing power of Oyo has sent Fon people migrating westward, into the plateau of Abomey, forming the roots of what will, someday, be Dahomey. Further east, beyond Oyo and Benin, the legendary king Tsoede has begun uniting the Nupe people into a true state, just in time to resist the conquests of another legendary ruler: Amina, the warrior-queen of the Hausa state of Zazzau (there's some debate as to when she actually reigned, we went with making her playable in 1444). Under her leadership, Zazzau (and yes, their country tag is "ZZZ") will grow to rival the two traditional powers of Hausaland, Katsina and Kano.
Beyond the Hausa, the Tuareg nomads of the Kel Ayr clan have begun to organize in the Air mountains. Within five years, they will have founded Agades, and with it the Sultanate of Air. To their south-east, the old Kanem Empire is reeling from the devastating blow dealt them by the Bilala people of Yao, who have taken the old Kanuri capital, forcing them to withdraw to a new capital on the other side of Lake Chad: Bornu. In time, they'll reclaim Kanem, but the capital will never return there.
The new tags.
So what, exactly, are the seventeen new tags?
At game start (1444), you will see fourteen of them on the map: Air, Bonoman, Dagbon, Dahomey, Kano, Katsina, Kong, Jenné, Macina, Mossi, Nupe, Timbuktu (the Magsharen Tuaregs), Yao and Zazzau. In addition, the pre-existing tag of Jolof will now be available from 1444.
Three more will appear, either via event (the Fulo empire) or via cores (Yatenga and Kaabu). These will also be available in the game on later start dates.
Sending the Scramble Scramming and Assorted African Alliterations
Of course, all of that would be worthless if Africa still just existed to be swarmed down under by whatever European minor. So we've made some map changes that we hope will help limit the scramble a little.
The biggest and most visible of them is the addition of a vast stretch of wasteland in Guinea, between the coast and the inland empires. This region both had hostile mountainous rainforest climate, and saw very little state-like development in the EU era. This will serve to both keep the Europeans on the coast, and prevent border frictions from developing in that region. In the same vein, the Mauretanian wasteland now extend to the coast south of Arguin, preventing the use of Arguin as a base to attack the African nations.
For similar reasons, we've also made sure that any of the few remaining empty inland provinces (there really aren't many, but there's still a handful) do NOT touch empty coastal provinces. This prevent inland colonization, and again limit the possibility for European/African friction.
With such a vast overhaul, we've of course made significant changes to cultures (West African cultures are now split into three broad culture groups, and eighteen cultures, rather than the old seven cultures all in one group, along with the rest of the Africans).
Next week, we'll be back talking about more new military interfaces, and maybe take a look at China
Transfer Occupation is a new feature in the province interface that allows you to change the controller of a province that you have occupied in a war. This allows allies to coordinate their war effort more effectively, so that the nation that intends to conquer the province no longer has to be the one to siege it down. The AI will of course also make use of this feature, transfering control of provinces they do not want for themselves to the war leader.
Allied Objectives
Allied Objectives gives the player more influence over the actions of AI allies and subjects in wars. Allied Objectives are split into two parts: Province Objectives and Subject Military Focuses. Province Objectives are handled from the province screen and allows the player to tell their AI allies to focus on specific enemy provinces. This will both make them more likely to send armies to besiege that province and to engage enemy armies that are located in it.
Subject Military Focuses are handled from the subjects screen and allow the player to change the military priorities of their subject nations to either Aggressive or Supportive. Aggressive subjects will not attach to your armies and will instead focus on their own operations, engaging enemy armies and besieging their provinces. Supportive subjects will behave in the opposite fashion, attaching to or staying near friendly armies and avoiding independent operations in enemy territory. If you have no military focus set, they will behave as they currently do, attempting to judge for themselves when it is best to attach and when it is best to act independently. The military focus can be changed or removed at any time, and you can easily change the focus of all your subjects with a single click.
New Tradegoods
With so many provinces being added by Art of War worldwide it soon became apparent that the old 21 trade goods really wouldn't be enough to cover the many new areas expanded by the new map.
Therefore an additional 3 new types of trade goods have been added to go with the map expansion together with Art of War.
Silk
While EU4 prior to Art of War already had a number of trade goods related to textiles (cotton, wool and cloth) the addition of Silk lets us further differentiate the textile producing areas of the map.
The new Silk commodity represents woven silk textiles as well as very finely woven cotton textiles rather than just raw silk and you'll find it in highly developed regions throughout the Middle East, Persia, India, South East Asia and, of course, China.
As textiles was one of the most sought after commodities by Europeans traveling east this new trade good has allowed us to implement a hierarchy where cotton represents course cloth, cloth itself the finer variants with Silk for the very best textiles the east can offer.
Dyes
Many dyes where once quite rare and Indigo especially was sought after in India in the period covered by EU4. Historically this is something that the British tried their best to capitalize on by dramatically expanding the areas used for production of Indigo just after the end of the game.
This trade good represents both Indigo and an assortment of other rare dyes found throughout the east in this era and will be found in provinces in India and Persia in the old world. As the new world opens up alternative sources of the indigo and other dyes may also open up there.
Tropical Wood
This trade good represents finer, rarer and more expensive types of wood such as Ebony, Teak or Mahogany. Much like the existing Ivory trade good this is a commodity that, while exclusive and treasured in both Europe and the far east, isn't to be found in the richest provinces but rather in some of the less accessible parts of the map.
Tropical Wood will primarily be produced by jungle provinces in India, South East Asia, Indonesia, Africa and South America.
West Africa
Now I hand over the keys to Guillaume HJ, who has been the beta in charge of making the new map of West Africa.
Europa Universalis has changed much since the dim past of EU II. Asia (Divine Wind), America (Conquest of Paradise) and Europe have undergone constant improvements in their setup. South of the Sahara, though, the changes have been rare. A small handful of empires (Mali and Songhai, joined in EU III by Hausa and Kanem-Bornu), and a number of empty provinces. To this day, EU's Africa remains a static region, where a handful of states squabble over a small number of backwater provinces until they invariably fall to a Scramble for Africa that happens four centuries (and one Paradox game) too soon.
In reality, in the 1444-1821 time frame, West Africa was a land of rising and falling empires; a land of thriving city states fighting over the wealthy commerce flowing down the Niger river. It saw the Golden Age of Timbuktu, when a city south of the Sahara became a renowned center of learning among the Muslim world. It saw immense Tuareg caravans, thousands if not tens of thousands camels strong, cross the desert bearing exotic wealth from Africa to the shores of the Mediterannean.
It's that dynamism we set out to bring to you on overhauling Africa. To that end, we've added nearly sixty provinces and seventeen new playable nations.
The new setup: Africa in 1444
The start date in 1444 find Africa in turmoil. Mali, once dominant from Gao to the Atlantic, is fading. It has lost most of the Niger, from Jenné eastward, including the economic heart of West Africa, the inland delta. In the vacuum, old vassals and neighboring nomads have struck out on their own: Jenné once again reassert its independence, while Maga Diallo establishes his kingdom of Macina, and the Magsharen Tuaregs claim overlordship over Timbuktu. Further west, the old imperial provinces along the Atlantic coast in what we now call Senegal have also broken away, becoming the Jolof Empire.
Even a weakened Mali still hold a vast territory, including the old imperial heartland around Niani and the gold fields of Bambuk and Bure. They remain a force to be reckoned with, one good leader away from staging a comeback. In time, when they fall and finally collapse, cut in two by the assaults of Koli Tengella's Fulo empire, it will fall to the governors of Kaabu to carry on the empire's memory, a Malian Constantinople.
The greatest threat to Mali, however, lies east of Timbuktu. The Songhai – now with more than three time the province count they had prior to AOW – eye with great interests cities like Timbuktu and Jenné that now seem ripe for the picking. They're not alone in doing so: Mossi raids have struck fear across the inland delta already, and the Mossi, too, are expanding. This expansion is not without its own risk: as they expand northward, the kingdom of Yatenga will eventually rise, rivaling the older Mossi state of Wagadugu.
South of the Mossi lands, the Volta river flows past Dagbon, the land of the Dagomba people, before reaching the Akan lands, where settlers streaming out of the old kingdom of Bonoman have begun founding a multitude of cities. Soon, they will found Kumasi, from where the Ashanti empire will one day rise. Beyond Bonoman to the west, in what is today Ivory Coast, Dyola settlers have just founded the city of Kong. It, too, will one day be the capital of a great empire.
East of Ghana, the growing power of Oyo has sent Fon people migrating westward, into the plateau of Abomey, forming the roots of what will, someday, be Dahomey. Further east, beyond Oyo and Benin, the legendary king Tsoede has begun uniting the Nupe people into a true state, just in time to resist the conquests of another legendary ruler: Amina, the warrior-queen of the Hausa state of Zazzau (there's some debate as to when she actually reigned, we went with making her playable in 1444). Under her leadership, Zazzau (and yes, their country tag is "ZZZ") will grow to rival the two traditional powers of Hausaland, Katsina and Kano.
Beyond the Hausa, the Tuareg nomads of the Kel Ayr clan have begun to organize in the Air mountains. Within five years, they will have founded Agades, and with it the Sultanate of Air. To their south-east, the old Kanem Empire is reeling from the devastating blow dealt them by the Bilala people of Yao, who have taken the old Kanuri capital, forcing them to withdraw to a new capital on the other side of Lake Chad: Bornu. In time, they'll reclaim Kanem, but the capital will never return there.
The new tags.
So what, exactly, are the seventeen new tags?
At game start (1444), you will see fourteen of them on the map: Air, Bonoman, Dagbon, Dahomey, Kano, Katsina, Kong, Jenné, Macina, Mossi, Nupe, Timbuktu (the Magsharen Tuaregs), Yao and Zazzau. In addition, the pre-existing tag of Jolof will now be available from 1444.
Three more will appear, either via event (the Fulo empire) or via cores (Yatenga and Kaabu). These will also be available in the game on later start dates.
Sending the Scramble Scramming and Assorted African Alliterations
Of course, all of that would be worthless if Africa still just existed to be swarmed down under by whatever European minor. So we've made some map changes that we hope will help limit the scramble a little.
The biggest and most visible of them is the addition of a vast stretch of wasteland in Guinea, between the coast and the inland empires. This region both had hostile mountainous rainforest climate, and saw very little state-like development in the EU era. This will serve to both keep the Europeans on the coast, and prevent border frictions from developing in that region. In the same vein, the Mauretanian wasteland now extend to the coast south of Arguin, preventing the use of Arguin as a base to attack the African nations.
For similar reasons, we've also made sure that any of the few remaining empty inland provinces (there really aren't many, but there's still a handful) do NOT touch empty coastal provinces. This prevent inland colonization, and again limit the possibility for European/African friction.
With such a vast overhaul, we've of course made significant changes to cultures (West African cultures are now split into three broad culture groups, and eighteen cultures, rather than the old seven cultures all in one group, along with the rest of the Africans).
Next week, we'll be back talking about more new military interfaces, and maybe take a look at China
