- Dec 14, 1999
- 19.189
- 79.776
Welcome to the 28th development diary for Europa Universalis IV and today we’ve got lots of variety for you - three different subjects. We look at two smaller European countries, each quite different from the other, and then we look into what’s changed with one of the most important events in the game - the Reformation.
Scotland
Scotland has an outsized importance in history considering its meager geography and wealth because of its location. After breaking free from English rule in the 14th century, Scotland was a constant thorn in the side of her larger southern neighbor, and, until the kingdoms were united again under the Stuart dynasty, the Scots were an essential ally for any continental power that wanted to threaten the English. Even after union, Scottish rebels and dissenters could be counted on to counter the throne in London.
Scotland starts the game in an enviable position, actually. England is deeply immersed in a costly and bloody war in France, and so long as England is occupied on the continent, Scotland has opportunities for expansion in Ireland, the Orkneys or even northern England. Her hilly terrain is friendly to cheap infantry armies, so a defensive footing isn’t a bad idea if the English or Norwegians get aggressive.
Scotland is narrow, as well, so a large army can stand in the bottleneck and preserve some territory. On the downside, it’s all coastline so it will need some way to protect its shores. Do you cozy up to the Royal Navy of England or try to build your own?
Scotland has a few historical events, including ones connected to the Auld Alliance with France (a reliable partner), and about John Knox, the great Presbyterian reformer.
National Ideas
Scotland starts with +1 leader shock, and +5% to morale recovery on armies. (which is rather awesome, as default is 15%) as traits.
With these ideas, Scotland is a flexible country. Early on, it relies on strong leaders and morale, enhanced by extra manpower. If they survive long enough, Scotland will have the wealth and stable monarchy that may allow expanding in Britain.
The Hansa
Ah, the Hansa. The country that isn’t really. To speak of the Hansa as a nation is a fudge in the game, since it was actually a very powerful trading league. But the close relationship between some of the northern German cities in the league at this time justifies giving them their due as more than single cities united in alliance.
Founded in the 13th century, the Hansa dominated Baltic and North Sea trade for centuries. Based in Lubeck, it eventually had ports of call as far east as Livonia and far west as England. Though the cities were all independent and free, they acted as a commercial cooperative whose collective power of negotiation made them a political and military power as well. Eventually, their ports in foreign lands were squeezed out by local competition and new regulations. For you to avoid that fate, you’ll need to understand the trade map.
The Hansa starts with the cities of Lübeck, Bremen & Hamburg – three major German ports, As a merchant republic, they get one extra merchant to assign. Lübeck is the name of their home trade node, and it contains most of northern Germany and southwestern Scandinavia.
But the real power lies in the traffic that passes through. There are trade links through Lübeck coming from Wien, Frankfurt, Baltic Sea and the North Sea. Trade only leaves Lübeck through Antwerp. This means that a Hanseatic Player can control the trade in Eastern Europe if you so desire, by just dominating all nodes that feed into your home port. Or, if you’re ambitious enough, you can attempt to take part of the North American trade by steering it through the North Sea and into Lübeck.
There are a few historical events for the Hansa, many focused around their most famous traders.
National Ideas
The Hansa starts with +15% on trade range and +10% Trade Steering, making them better able to control the Baltic trade with their ships.
When fully powered up, the Hansa gets +10% trade efficiency.
This means that the Hansa are an extremely trade oriented nation – probably the most trade heavy of any state in EU4. They should be able to control the Baltic trade easily – if these three small cities can survive.
The Reformation
The Reformation is one of the central events in European history, and, necessarily, in Europa Universalis IV. Through the years of the series, we’ve changed how Protestanism appeared and when. In the first two EU games, it stuck pretty much to its historical place. In EU3 the Reformation was dynamic, and therefore more interesting, but it was also rather hidden. You never knew when an uppity monk would start nailing things to church doors, and you couldn’t do much to stop it.
In EU4, we have made the process more visible to the player, and actually made possible to direct the course of Catholicism and faith within your own country.
The Catholic faith has a concept called Reform Desire, which is shown on the religious screen.* Whenever Catholic countries opt for short-term gains at the expense of the legitimacy of the church in various events and decisions, the Reform Desire slowly rises. This reflects growing disenchantment with Rome and with duplicitous monarchs that claim to be following the word of God.
Protestantism, then, has a chance to appear whenever the Reform Desire is high enough.*Eventually someone is going to push the people too far and the church will be split. So how do you avoid this plague of Protestants from banging on your doors, then? Well, there are several viable ways to keep your country on the Road to Rome.*If youa are the Defender of the Faith, your provinces are less likely to convert. If you join the Counter Reformation (which occurs about 20 years after the Reformation) or picking the Religious Ideas group, you also have fewer things to worry about. And, of course, having cardinals in the curia assures your people that His Holiness knows when they are sleeping and knows when they’re awake.
As with many of the changes to our core systems, the idea is to give players chances to engage with history and become caught in waves of change, but never to leave them with the feeling that there was nothing they could do. If you aren’t worried about your religious unity or a slow and steady alienation from your Catholic neighbors, you can let the Protestants spread. But if you are France and want to keep the religious wars calm or playing a Spain that already has millions of Aztecs to convert, you should have ways of stemming – if not stopping – a Protestant takeover.
ps. Hear our Call to Arms: http://signup.europauniversalis4.com/
Europa Universalis IV: A Call to Arms to Strategy Gamers of the World!
[video=youtube;PjPW6jRQAe4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjPW6jRQAe4[/video]
Scotland
Scotland has an outsized importance in history considering its meager geography and wealth because of its location. After breaking free from English rule in the 14th century, Scotland was a constant thorn in the side of her larger southern neighbor, and, until the kingdoms were united again under the Stuart dynasty, the Scots were an essential ally for any continental power that wanted to threaten the English. Even after union, Scottish rebels and dissenters could be counted on to counter the throne in London.
Scotland starts the game in an enviable position, actually. England is deeply immersed in a costly and bloody war in France, and so long as England is occupied on the continent, Scotland has opportunities for expansion in Ireland, the Orkneys or even northern England. Her hilly terrain is friendly to cheap infantry armies, so a defensive footing isn’t a bad idea if the English or Norwegians get aggressive.
Scotland is narrow, as well, so a large army can stand in the bottleneck and preserve some territory. On the downside, it’s all coastline so it will need some way to protect its shores. Do you cozy up to the Royal Navy of England or try to build your own?
Scotland has a few historical events, including ones connected to the Auld Alliance with France (a reliable partner), and about John Knox, the great Presbyterian reformer.
National Ideas
Scotland starts with +1 leader shock, and +5% to morale recovery on armies. (which is rather awesome, as default is 15%) as traits.
- Break the Black Douglas: -1 Revolt Risk: A prominent noble clan of Scotland, the Douglases used their record during the battle for independence to challenge the power of the Scottish throne. When their power became inconvenient, seizures and murders settled the issue in favour of the king.
- Modernised Royal Scots Navy: -10% Ship Cost.: The Royal Scots Navy underwent a great expansion in the 15th century under the guidance of Kings James III and James IV. Scottish ships harassed Tudor trade lanes throughout their reigns.
- Reined in Clans: +20% Manpower: Limiting the power of the Scottish clans to act as alternate authorities to the royal house allowed the king greater freedom of movement in caling up men.
- Comets?: -10% stability cost: There is no reason to fear these heavenly objects.
- Royal Revenue: +10% Tax Income: Decline in the lands and assets available to the throne led to new and more regular taxation through the 17th century.
- Basilikon Doron: +1 Legitimacy: This 'Royal Gift' from James VI to his sons was a guidebook on how to be a good king. Unlike Machiavelli’s more cynical 'The Prince', the 'Doron' emphasized Christian virtues and choosing capable advisors.
- Act of Revocation: -20% cheaper cores.: To further centralize royal power, the kings of Scotland occasionally has to reclaim lands that had been parceled out to nobles while the crown was in the hands of weak regents.
With these ideas, Scotland is a flexible country. Early on, it relies on strong leaders and morale, enhanced by extra manpower. If they survive long enough, Scotland will have the wealth and stable monarchy that may allow expanding in Britain.
The Hansa
Ah, the Hansa. The country that isn’t really. To speak of the Hansa as a nation is a fudge in the game, since it was actually a very powerful trading league. But the close relationship between some of the northern German cities in the league at this time justifies giving them their due as more than single cities united in alliance.
Founded in the 13th century, the Hansa dominated Baltic and North Sea trade for centuries. Based in Lubeck, it eventually had ports of call as far east as Livonia and far west as England. Though the cities were all independent and free, they acted as a commercial cooperative whose collective power of negotiation made them a political and military power as well. Eventually, their ports in foreign lands were squeezed out by local competition and new regulations. For you to avoid that fate, you’ll need to understand the trade map.
The Hansa starts with the cities of Lübeck, Bremen & Hamburg – three major German ports, As a merchant republic, they get one extra merchant to assign. Lübeck is the name of their home trade node, and it contains most of northern Germany and southwestern Scandinavia.
But the real power lies in the traffic that passes through. There are trade links through Lübeck coming from Wien, Frankfurt, Baltic Sea and the North Sea. Trade only leaves Lübeck through Antwerp. This means that a Hanseatic Player can control the trade in Eastern Europe if you so desire, by just dominating all nodes that feed into your home port. Or, if you’re ambitious enough, you can attempt to take part of the North American trade by steering it through the North Sea and into Lübeck.
There are a few historical events for the Hansa, many focused around their most famous traders.
National Ideas
The Hansa starts with +15% on trade range and +10% Trade Steering, making them better able to control the Baltic trade with their ships.
- End of Victual Brothers: +10% Trade Power.: The Victual Brothers were notorious Baltic pirates of the early 1400s. Them and their descendants hassled trade ships and raided port towns until they were finally destroyed.
- Strong League Obligations: +1 Merchant: The Hansa was more powerful when it could convince its member cities to act in union.
- Hanseatic Shipbuilding: -20% cheaper light ships.: The light ships of the Hansa will be essential for protecting whatever trade lanes you manage to dominate.
- Reformed Hansetag: -10% Stability Cost.: The Hansetag was a League parliament of city representatives that met irregularly in Lubeck. Its decisions were not binding.
- Hanseatic Levy System: +20% Manpower Recovery Speed.: Free cities full of capable young men, and all the gold you need to keep them fed.
- Regularised Contribution: +20% Provincial Trade Power: Once expectations are in place for member cities, it is easier to plan the trade routes and commitments of each member.
- The Hansa Bank: -1 Interest.: Though the Hanseatic League never established a banking system to compete with those in Bruges or Amsterdam, the capital was certainly there. And imagine if they had…
When fully powered up, the Hansa gets +10% trade efficiency.
This means that the Hansa are an extremely trade oriented nation – probably the most trade heavy of any state in EU4. They should be able to control the Baltic trade easily – if these three small cities can survive.
The Reformation
The Reformation is one of the central events in European history, and, necessarily, in Europa Universalis IV. Through the years of the series, we’ve changed how Protestanism appeared and when. In the first two EU games, it stuck pretty much to its historical place. In EU3 the Reformation was dynamic, and therefore more interesting, but it was also rather hidden. You never knew when an uppity monk would start nailing things to church doors, and you couldn’t do much to stop it.
In EU4, we have made the process more visible to the player, and actually made possible to direct the course of Catholicism and faith within your own country.
The Catholic faith has a concept called Reform Desire, which is shown on the religious screen.* Whenever Catholic countries opt for short-term gains at the expense of the legitimacy of the church in various events and decisions, the Reform Desire slowly rises. This reflects growing disenchantment with Rome and with duplicitous monarchs that claim to be following the word of God.
Protestantism, then, has a chance to appear whenever the Reform Desire is high enough.*Eventually someone is going to push the people too far and the church will be split. So how do you avoid this plague of Protestants from banging on your doors, then? Well, there are several viable ways to keep your country on the Road to Rome.*If youa are the Defender of the Faith, your provinces are less likely to convert. If you join the Counter Reformation (which occurs about 20 years after the Reformation) or picking the Religious Ideas group, you also have fewer things to worry about. And, of course, having cardinals in the curia assures your people that His Holiness knows when they are sleeping and knows when they’re awake.
As with many of the changes to our core systems, the idea is to give players chances to engage with history and become caught in waves of change, but never to leave them with the feeling that there was nothing they could do. If you aren’t worried about your religious unity or a slow and steady alienation from your Catholic neighbors, you can let the Protestants spread. But if you are France and want to keep the religious wars calm or playing a Spain that already has millions of Aztecs to convert, you should have ways of stemming – if not stopping – a Protestant takeover.
ps. Hear our Call to Arms: http://signup.europauniversalis4.com/
Europa Universalis IV: A Call to Arms to Strategy Gamers of the World!
[video=youtube;PjPW6jRQAe4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjPW6jRQAe4[/video]
