The Gamefound Preview Page is up!
We don't have an exact launch date for you just yet, but go and sign up on the Preview Page to become a Follower and get the campaign notifications when things start happening. We will publish more content on that page as we get closer to the launch date.
What can you expect from Defying Destiny?
In this expansion, we will zoom in on a lot of new Realms that we didn't have room to feature in the base game. Some of these will be Realms that took center stage at a later date than 1444, some will be Realms that had great potential but for various reasons collapsed or faded out of history, and yet others will be Realms that had roles to play throughout the EU timeline but never attained the status of great powers – now, you will have a chance to defy destiny, and bring these Realms the glory they (perhaps) deserved!
So, what will be the actual contents of the expansion box, you say? Well, we are going to be a bit coy about it, and not reveal everything all at once, but rather bit by bit in coming Updates. But we can tell you that the box will be jam-packed with cards! We are talking 180+ bridge-size cards, and 100+ mini-cards, including tons of new Events and Missions, as well as new Action Cards and Milestones!
One thing that we have decided for this expansion is, as much as possible, to avoid adding new rules. This decision is both based on our own conclusions and on the feedback that we have received – while there are always those who want us to add more of everything, there are many who think that there is enough to sink their teeth into in the current rule set. Also, this will allow us to develop the expansion much faster, and to focus on making content that adds more replayability and variation, rather than more complexity. Of course, there may be some cards that add new effects, and, as seen in the Scenarios III booklet, we may include some new scenario-specific rules to spice things up. But that is about how far we will go this time.
Speaking of scenarios, there will certainly be a new scenario booklet included with the expansion too. With the new scenarios, Realms, and Events, we are talking hours upon hours of new gameplay to explore. We will return to these a bit further down the line, giving you a chance to test and try things out.
Defying Destiny: Development Diary #1 – Persia, The Empire of Iranians, or Eranshahr
We couldn't overlook the fact that Persia, as a clear winner, came out at the top of the poll that we did a couple of months ago, on what Realms YOU would like to see in an expansion, so we dived into it.
Persia, however, is one of the trickier Realms we have had to make Events for because Safavids seemingly come from nowhere to overrun a fractured Timurid Empire in the historical blink of an eye – initially a religious movement rallying from smaller Sufi sects, gaining followers among marginalized groups, placing strategic diplomatic bets on rivals of the ruling Qara Qoyunlu clan, and it worked out. It worked for more than 2 centuries for the Safavid dynasty, even if Ishmail I died young. His son Tahmasp I ruled for 9 days short of 52 years and Abbas the Great reigned for more than 40 years. The Persian Empire lasted well beyond the Safavids of course, with the still powerful Afsharid and Qajar Dynasties.
The challenging part of making the Events for Persia is its tumultuous beginnings and the fluency of its borders, culture, religion, and people. We have decided to view Persia as the legacy of its people and geography more than that of its ruling elite. Therefore, we have decided to let Persia, as a Player Realm, start the game with the Provinces ruled by the Qara Qoyunlu clan in 1444, serving as a cocoon for the rise of the Safavid dynasty, and you as a player can build from there.
We want every game session to tell a story within history and within the constraints of the rules of the game. While the Realm-specific Events come out in a certain sequence, they are also open enough to be played in different ways and have meaning by themselves, allowing them to be used for different start dates and scenarios.
Víctor: My father (who is from Iran) used to tell me, and this has been confirmed later in books and documentaries I've read and watched, that the Iranian culture has been alive since thousands of years ago in the same manner, welcoming the conquerors of many empires, like the Assyrians, Sassanians, or the Timurids, assimilate and letting them go, in the knowledge that empires are ephemerous. So, while every dynasty eventually dies out and another comes along, the Iranian culture all along has kept its identity, and even put theirs onto the intruders making them one of them, "the same" until today.
Still a work in progress! The illustrations are merely placeholders.
The Persian Empire, like any other empire, tells a story of huge personalities, with skills and luck, who reigned and destroyed their enemies. Then, in their opulence, these emperors had big families with equal parts of debauchery and luckless ambitions, consequentially destroying the country from within, making other neighboring empires taking advantage. This ebb and flow is something we are trying to capture in the Events we are writing.
Persia also has a unique position geographically, in how it bridges the connection between East and West, in game terms, having one foot on the main map and one foot in the India & Arabia continental map, providing very different paths of expansion in each direction. Another aspect that makes Persia particularly interesting, is of course the religious divide between Shia and Sunni Islam, which sets Persia apart from other Muslim Realms in the region, and we are working on making that a significant factor in the Persian narrative.
We have chosen an array of Rulers for the mighty “Eranshahr”, either by how long they ruled, by their mighty feats, or by their role the eventual demise of the empire. Through these rulers and the Events representing them, we're trying to tell a story of a sudden and explosive rise, of wobbling attempts to stabilize while competing with mighty neighbours, and of a rapid decline and diminution of one of the most powerful empires worldwide during the timeline of the game. We will give you a summary of its beginnings here:
- Jahan Shah – As the Timurid Empire started to crumble and break up, as happens with most empires, it got divided within the family, and Jahan Shah assumed control of the part of the former empire that was centred around Tabriz. Initially, Jahan Shah was very successful in expanding the domain of the Qara Qoyunlu both in the east and south. Then he got involved in a conflict with the Aq Qoyunlu clan, and while making progress to begin with, his fortunes would soon make a turn for the worse. All the while, Sufi sects, and especially the Safavid sect, had been growing in influence the region.
- Uzun Hasan – The cunning and opportunistic Uzun Hasan had assumed control of the Aq Qoyunlu clan, and as brother-in-law to Shaykh Junayd, leader of the Safavids, had the support of the Safavid sect in the conflict with the Qara Qoyunlus. At the Battle of Chapakchur managed to get the upper hand against his numerically superior adversary by luring him into an ambush, killing Jahan Shah and defeating his army. The Safavids, of course, benefitted from this dynastic change and got even more influential.
- Ismail I – As the Safavids grew increasingly more powerful, and with the help of the Qizilbash turned into a military force to be reckoned with, their relationship with the Aq Qouyunlu rulers got ever more strained. The new Safavid leader, Ismail (grand-son of both Shaykh Junayd and Uzun Hasan) gathered 7,000 Qizilbash troops and rebelled, defeating a 4 times larger Aq Qoyunlu force at the Battle of Sharur and claiming the throne for himself (the irony of fate or history repeating itself?), and so began the Safavid dynasty and the rise of a new Persian Empire.
The portrait for Ismail I is coming soon
This chain of events is something we have tried to capture (but not pre-determine) in the Persian Event Cards, and you'll soon be able to try them out on Tabletop Simulator. Just pay attention to our coming Development Diary entries and the Announcements channel on our Discord server.
Remember to follow us on the Gamefound Preview.
Defying Destiny Dev Diary #2 - Great Horde
So, where is Defying Destiny at right now? You haven't heard from us in a while unless you've been hanging around on the Discord server lately. The reason is because we've been hard at work creating content for the new expansion. So far, we have written more than 100 new Event Cards for the game, many of which you can see in the image above, some of which we will go into more detail about in the Dev Diary Chapter below. We have also created a number of new Missions to further enrich the experience of playing the new featured Realms.
Aside from all the new Realms we are adding, we are also adding 10–12 new generic Events for each of the four Ages, to enable you to shake things up for more variation in existing scenarios, and to give you more freedom in creating new scenarios for the game. We'll talk more about these Events in upcoming Dev Diary posts, but we're also providing an example of one such Event today.
For the time being, we are using existing illustrations as placeholders on the new cards, but rest assured, Joeri is already in full swing creating fantastic new artwork for the Defying Destiny Events (no AI involved).
Here's one of our favorite images from the current EU:tPoP Event Cards, but we thought it fit quite nicely here. We've used it as a temporary placeholder art for the new Great Horde Events, but rest assured, we have new art in the making for the Defying Destiny Events.
The Horse is Mightier than the Pen
Of course! A horse doesn't care about what you write about them, it's a war horse, stomping your bones is what they do, you don't even have to write anything.
In all seriousness though, the Great Horde was a Realm that came pretty high up the list of most-wanted Realms, and they seemed like a fun challenge to do since they represent something very different from most of the Realms featured in the game so far. We thought they would provide a nice opportunity to offer a fresh take on gameplay, a new and challenging way of experiencing EU:tPoP.
True enough, it was also a big challenge to write Events for a Realm that faded out of history rather early in the EU:tPoP timeframe, but we found some interesting and relevant events in the real history of the Eurasian steppes that we could build our in-game Events around, which we think can bring a new section of the board to life.
Who is the Great Horde?
Located in the Steppes of today’s Southern Russia, the Great Horde was a successor state of the Golden Horde (one of the many Realms that the Mongol Horde split into in the 14th century).In the 1444 Setup, we find the Great Horde at a weakened state, with many of the other nearby Khanates having broken off from them (the Kazan Khanate, the Nogai Khanate, and the Crimean Khanate to name a few). But still, they are the most powerful of the Khanates trying to maintain control over the Russian principalities that surround them. Nominally, these Russian principalities are still subjects of the Khan, but in reality the tide has already turned and these roles are about to switch.
How does the Great Horde play?
Their strengths and weaknesses both encourage an aggressive play style, relying on their Missions which will provide them with additional Cavalry Units allowing them to punch above their weight. This is also reflected in the way their Events will pose their neighbours with choices on how to face this aggression, like in the Great Stand on the Ugra, will they bend the knee or will they face them in battle?
As the Ages pass, the Great Horde will have to deal with issues and opportunities inspired by those that the nomadic peoples of the steppes had to face historically, like trying to unite with the remaining hordes against the Muscovite power (One Last Chance to Unite), addressing the new tribes migrating westwards (Arrival of the Kalmyks), or dealing with new rivals arising from the Mongolian steppes (Dzungar Khanate Expands).
To better represent how a realm like the Great Horde would operate, they will also receive their own Government Form, Steppe Horde, which will punish them for not being at war at the end of the Action Phase, while allowing them to ignore the Unrest penalty for staying at war until the following round, and will also allow them to Subjugate Distant Realms from the Northern & Central Asia map.
The Great Horde should hopefully prove to be a fun and unique experience that will please those more focused on combat, with the final objective being to become the Khan of Khans.
We think that we're onto something, and we've had some fun with it already, but a few lines text on some cards do nothing unless we put them to the test, so that the pen might give new life to the horse. "TEST THE TEXT" we say (we don't actually say it, but we could start right now).
So, don’t just take our words for granted – we paired the Horde with the feisty Persians so that you can now try them both in a brand new Scenario over on TTS. This couple could meet over a cup of tea in Samarkand, or engage each other in a race to the Pacific, but we also put them together with the Mamluks and Ottomans, completing an ensemble that will compete for supremacy on the Eastern Europe map board and Distant Continents. This actually allows you to leave the Western Europe map in the box (which also places this among the Scenarios with the smallest footprint to date). We have tentatively called it Middle Eastern Tussle(until I come up with a catchier name).
The TTS savefiles have been shared in our official Discord, where you will also find others to play the Scenario together. And be sure to give us your feedback over on Discord, or via Kickstarter messages, or through our Website Contact Form.
Finally, let's have a look at an example of how the new Generic Events will be supporting the new featured Realms.
With Great Horde and Persia sitting on the border between the Eastern Map and the Distant Continents, adding some new challenges to those Distant Continents was something that made a lot of sense.
We tried capturing the emergence of new powers at the expense of others in those regions with the new Event, Mughal Rise, Timurid Demise. This Event sees the emergence of three new powers in the Indian subcontinent and Central Asian region, the Emirate of Bukhara, the Mughal Empire, and the Kazhak Khanate. The player taking the Event will get to either make friends with the newcomers, gain an Alliance or a profitable Trade Action, or use the turmoil to their advantage to gain Claims against the lands surrounding those newly formed DNPRs (simulating how the Persians, for example, took advantage of the weakening of the Timurids in order to take over some of their western territories).
Cut and sleeved for testing. I threw Abbas in as well since I don't think he was featured in the Development Diary about the Persians.
Remember to follow us on the Gamefound Preview.
Nominated for three CSR 2023 Awards
We are really stoked to share that Europa Universalis: The Price of Power has been nominated in 3 categories in the 2023 Charles S. Roberts Awards for Excellence in Conflict Simulation Games.
- Game of the Year
- Best Strategic Game
- Best Political, Social, or Economic Game
Give Your Vote by May 13!
We'll quote a crucial bit of voting information from the CSR site:"The ballot will be open until Midnight, Eastern Time, onMay 13, 2024. Please vote, but only once!"
Remember to also follow us on the Gamefound Preview.
- 5
