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Welcome one and all to our second mod spotlight! I am Europa Universalis Community Ambassador @Ryagi, and today we proudly feature Ante Bellum, an alternative history mod. To showcase this glorious mod we have Ante Bellum lead developer, @Parmelion.
Let's get into it!
Take it away Parmelion.
Let's get into it!
Take it away Parmelion.
Greetings fellow map staring fans!
I am Parmelion, the lead developer of Ante Bellum, and welcome to our wild and crazy world where France is yellow, Wales claims to be a successor of the Western Roman Empire and Japan can turn Sunni! For those of you who are not familiar with the mod, Ante Bellum is an alternative history mod currently covering Europe, most of the Middle East as well as Central and East Asia, but our plan is to eventually update the entire Old World (our major updates are region-focused). With close to 90,000 subscribers, it is the largest alternative history mods and one of the most content-heavy mods ever released for Europa Universalis IV.
In this mod spotlight, I’d like to show you some of the most important features of Ante Bellum and I’m hoping to catch your interest so that you’ll explore the rest for yourself. Without further ado, let’s dive straight into it!
Saying that your mod is one of the most content heavy mods is a bold claim, so let me defend my claim by showing you a list of some of the mod’s most important features:
⦁ Close to 300 new provinces and wastelands
⦁ New mission trees for more than 170 countries
⦁ New events, event chains and decisions
⦁ Tens of new formable nations, ranging from the Latin Empire, Great Moravia, Kievan Rus’, Goguryeo, Kushans, Assyria to the mighty Celestial Empire
⦁ New cultures and culture groups
⦁ New age, age screen, age objectives and splendor abilities
⦁ New idea groups and policies
⦁ New special units
⦁ New religions such as Nestorian, Zunist or Manichaean
⦁ Extension of the timeline to 1900 accompanied by new institution and technologies
⦁ New dynamic province names (some cover pretty much the entire world)
⦁ Tens of new monuments, including the Hadrian’s Wall, House of Wisdom, Lighthouse of Alexandria, Aachen Cathedral or the Tomb of Saladin
⦁ New original soundtrack composed by Utopia
⦁ Evolving national ideas
⦁ Pre-set colonial nations
⦁ Navigable Caspian Sea
⦁ Original loading screens
⦁ Custom achievement system
⦁ Lore startup screens explaining the history of the world for almost every updated nation
...and much more!
Although this might seem like a lot, do not be scared. Sometimes, it is very difficult to get into a massive mod, since what people often expect is a ton of new mechanics. While most mods of similar size and popularity take pride in the fact that they add many new mechanics, Ante Bellum takes pride in the fact that it does not add a single invasive mechanic to the game, meaning that you will not have to learn how to interact with any new mechanic at all. If you know how the play the base game, you will immediately know how to play Ante Bellum! The massive amount of the newly added content ensures hundreds, if not thousands of hours of fun and replayability.
Before we move on, I would like to address one quite important concern that many people have regarding Ante Bellum (and I don’t mean yellow France now): the fact that the map of Europe looks like it was stuck in the 12th century. The mod was originally intended to take place during 11-12th century and was intended to be purely euro-centric. Due to the sheer amount of work that would have to be done in order to make it a reality (overhauls of systems like ages, technologies, units, institutions and the fact that you’d play for 300 years without colonization), we just decided to go with the base game start date. The mod has since abandoned its euro-centric scope, so the regions outside of Europe are not affected by it that much, but there is simply nothing we can do about Europe 4 years after the release.
With that out of the way, here’s a look at the map of the world of Ante Bellum. Colored nations are those which have received new mission trees.
Just two weeks ago, the mod received its eight major update – Princes of Persia, which focused on the regions of Mesopotamia, Persia, Khorasan and Central Asia. The update added fifteen new mission trees to every single updated nation, enhanced the AI performance, added the Iranian technology group, Immortals special units, Manichaean and Zunist religions, Reformed Pagan faiths and so much more! In case I already managed to catch your interest, I’d highly recommend you to play either the Sassanids or the Shapurids as your first Ante Bellum campaign. You’ll have a blast, I promise!
Most players cannot imagine playing a nation without a good mission tree. As I’ve stated previously, Ante Bellum adds mission trees to more than 170 nations. Let’s look at some of the most extensive mission trees in the mod:
Mission trees are not the only sources of flavor in Ante Bellum. Most updated nations have received many unique events, including the Ottomans. In Ante Bellum, Osman decided to go a different route, and instead of the warrior’s path, he became a humble merchant. Centuries later, the Ottomans are the wealthiest merchant family in Constantinople, and they are in charge of a true Ottoman Trade Empire! Upgrading the Osman’s Bazaar great project will also give you access to 0% interest halal loans.
I have also mentioned many formable nations. Some of the fan favorites include the Dual Monarchy, Outremer, North Sea Empire, Prydain, Xi Xia, Wendia and Iberia. There are of course many more, such as Intermarium, Arles, Great Moravia, Goguryeo, Kushans and many more! I would strongly recommend you to check out all of them
The mod also includes many crazy alt. history paths. The Nicene Kingdom can revive the Hellenic religion, Wales can form the Western Roman Empire, Japan can convert to Sunni via the new Spread of Islam incident, Nestorian Christians can claim the Mandate of Heaven and form the Heavenly Empire and the Golden Horde can embrace Judaism and become Khazaria.
Many nations in Ante Bellum have branching paths which can take them into vastly different directions. Scotland can embrace the Celtic roots and become the Gaeldom, turn into an “Anglophone” nation or pick a middle ground, Yuan can become Sinicized, Nestorian or turn into a horde, Rum and Persia have 3 or 4 variants of the mission trees respectively, depending on their religion, and Lithuania can return to the Old Gods or embrace Slavicization and form a Litvin Tsardom.
Other than that, the mod adds flavor in many different ways, including dynamic province names, cosmetic country renames, new unit sprites and even new building models.
Ante Bellum adds new religions too, all with new and fleshed out mechanics. Europe is home to many old Pagan faiths, Manichaeans and Zunists still survive in Persia, and East Asia is home to Nestorian and Maitreya religions. Nestorianism is probably the fan favorite, both due to their use of Orthodox mechanics, but also due to the fact that in Ante Bellum, the religion was spread by Saint Timur the Lame (yes, THAT Timur!(he became a pious Christian in Ante Bellum)).
The mod is way too huge to be properly covered in a single mod spotlight, so I’ll leave you a few more screenshots to look at as well as some links you might find useful.
The mod was also covered by many content creators. If you like watching EU IV playthroughs, then I’d recommend you check the following videos:
⦁ Assyria by Laith
⦁ Sassanids by Ludi
⦁ Byzantium by Chewy
⦁ Ottomans by Quarbit
⦁ Qara Khitai by Quagersall
Steam Workshop
Paradox Plaza
Thank you for reading the mod spotlight and see you in Ante Bellum!
Community Ambassador Ryagi back now.
If you want to hear more about Ante Bellum or have any questions or suggestions for the mod Author feel free to ask in the comments. Additionally, Ante Bellum has a thriving Community Discord with over 9000 members which you can find here. (*Note this discord is not owned or affiliated with Paradox)
Parmelion's work in Ante Bellum is something to be admired, so we hope you enjoyed this mod spotlight.
Have suggestions for future mod spotlights? Let us know!
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