Lübeck and the Hansa
Hey all! This is my take on how to rework merchant republics using the Hansa/Lübeck as role model, together with soem special flavor for Lübeck
Factions:
The more energy is invested into the estate system, the more factions becomes, sub-par. They have a certain simplicity to them but can't compete with the bonuses offered from estates as well as the missions that estates offers.
There's been some suggestions to make factions into a quasi-estate system, I've not gone that far but I made some sketches on how to improve the power of the estates:
Current merchant republic factions:
| Name | Type | Effects | Description & notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Aristocrats | 
|
| Representing the aristocratic Patrician families that dominate the political life in the capital. Their main concern is ensuring that the Republic is victorious in war and achieves the glory that they view as their own. |
| The Traders | 
|
| Representing the Merchants and Ship Captains that are the lifeblood of the Republic's trade. Their main concern is the control of lucrative maritime trade routes. |
| The Guilds | 
|
| Representing the Artisans and Master Craftsmen inhabiting our cities that have banded together in Guilds for mutual economic gain and assistance. Their main concern is the economic well-being of the cities. |
First of I want to remove the negative modifiers that the different factions give, comparing to the massive benefits of estates making this buff is not that much of a deal.
Second I want to make it that you get bonuses from all factions scaled to their influence, with bonus maxed out at 50 influence. i.e. if the guilds have 50 influence it gives -10% construction cost and +10% goods produced modifier, at 25 influence it gives half of that, no matter which faction is in power.
Third the faction that is in power get's it's bonuses doubled, i.e. if guilds are in power with 30 influence, they get doubled the modifiers of what normaly 30 influence scales to.
Furthermore the faction in power gives +1 monthly monarch point of it's associated value(alternatively it has an additional bonus modifier triggered only when in power)
Considering the relatively low bonuses of most of the factions I don't see combining them like this, especially when it's impossible to max out all of them as making factions overpowered
Joining a trade league:
For a lot of purposes the lübeck trade league was broken by emperor update which gave new provinces to a lot of OPM's. Therefore the province limit should be tweaked for trade leagues, instead the likelyhood of joining a trade league reduces for each owned cities, roughly capping so countries with 4 provinces would almost never join, then instead of auto-leaving when receiving a new province there should be a modifier for wanting to stay in the league heavily affected by amount of provinces. the cap for provinces staying in the league should be 6 provinces, at that point the negative modifier for staying would be so large any country would leave.
The negative modifier to join trade leagues with more than 5 members remain
Republics would be more inclined to join/stay in trade leagues than non-republics.
Also a country will only join a trade league if the trade league leader have an active merchant in their home node (we all hate it then some random north german OPM joins the genoan trade league)
Benefits of trade leagues:
I believe trade leagues are a little bit misunderstood, they have the wonderful benefit of increasing goods produced in their active nodes, with the effect doubled for trade league members. This gives all provinces in the node a direct increase in production income + increases the amount of money generated in the node, I think this fairly well represents all the small cities and local offices etc that merchant republics had which are too small to represent on their own.
Still I want to look at effects of joining a trade league.
Currently:
The trade league leader gets an automatic “Trade Dispute” casus belli on any countries they would be able to generate such a casus belli on via spy action.
- The trade league leader gets 50%
trade power from all the league members.
- The trade league leader gets a +2.5% bonus to
trade steering for each member in the league.
- All members get a +20
relations bonus with all other members.
- All members except the trade league leader get a +0.5%
goods produced modifier for each percentage of trade power in the local trade node controlled by the trade league leader.
- All members get a +20% bonus to their
ship trade power.
To this I want to add following modifiers.
All members + leader get +15% trade range (make sure the league extends it's reach) (could also be moved to plutocratic government only)
All members (not including leader) gets +15% burgher influence and -10% maximum absolutism (makes sense that a trade federation of cities give these modifiers)
The diplomatic status of the league.
Currently the league solely works as a defensive alliance.
I want to improve on that and make trade leagues somewhat more flexible, first step is to make trade league into a form of soft vassalage.
Forming a trade league works the same way, it costs one diplomatic slot for every member, members are still free to form external alliances and go to war on their own.
However no longer will being in a trade league work as an automatic join for defensive war, instead trade league members will be requested to join wars as normal allies. They will tend to be favorable to join defensive wars, but it's no guarantee anymore (exact modifiers needs to be looked at)
However now the league also shows up as possible call to arms, there the league leader can call upon league members to join offensive wars. To not break this for players playing as a member, declining such a request will not cause a removal from the trade league, or any other maluses normal to declining calls to arms.
League members still auto-embargo countries that the leader embargo
New actions regarding trade leagues (numbers are tentative of course):
Now Merchant republics gain a tripartite button in their government screen with interactions they can take which affects them and the entire league.
The three buttons have a cost of 100 of respective monarch point +20 for each member of the trade league and can be used every five years
The three buttons are:
Joint league banking (administrativ):
Gives all members + leader -0.10% yearly inflation and -0.5% interest, for five years
league leader gets cash money corresponding to 50% of all members yearly tax income (money is not taken from the members but generated out of thin air)
Joint naval enterprise (diplomatic):
All members + leader gets -10% light ship cost and -10% ship building time, for five years
league leader gets sailors corresponding to 100% of all league members monthly sailor gain
Joint military enterprise (military):
All members + leader gets -10% regiment cost and -10% recuitment time, for five years
league leader gets manpower corresponding to 100% all league members monthly manpower gain
Vassal actions:
Since trade leagues now form a kind of vassalage, all trade league members now show up in the vassal window as well. There are a few action that can be taken here, (league members do not contribute anything to force limit nor gives direct money to the leader as normal vassals do, their benefits are the same as it is now)
Promote mercantilism: spend 100 diplomatic power to increase members mercantilism by 1%, increases relations by 50 and gives league leader cash money corresponding to 10% of that members production income.
(promoting a members mercantilism have positive effect for the league leader as mercantilism improves provincial trade power modifier and embargo efficiency which translates to better control over trade for league leader as well)
Request member to chase pirates: Will siphon money to member corresponding to 10% of their naval maintainance and they will put all their light ships to hunt pirates.
Request membership fees: Takes 1 years income and decreases relations
Several already existing interaction are also available (as there is no subject liberty desire for league members instead that effect will be translated to normal relationship):
Knowledge sharing
pay of debt
Send additional troops
More interactions can be created for sure
Lübeck/hansa national ideas
Traditions:
+15% Trade range +10% Trade steering
The End of Victual Brothers
+10% Global trade power
Strong League Obligations
+1 Merchant
Improved Shipbuilding
+15% National sailors modifier −20% Light ship cost
Reformed Hanstag
−10% Stability cost modifier −10% Cost to justify trade conflict
Hanseatic Levy System
+15% Manpower recovery speed
Regularized Contributions
+20% Provincial trade power modifier
The Hansa Bank
−0.5 Interest per annum
Ambition:
+10% Trade efficiency
Fairly good set, but not great by any means
Especially the trade range tradition is genuinely garbage (I checked with a custom nation and they can reach any relevant trade node nearby without it), still I gave the modifier to trade leagues overall for precautions. Instead I will move the +10% global trade modifier from the first idea here.
New first idea is instead:
Lübeck city law: -25% state maintainance and +0.3 yearly republican tradition (the state maintenance is nearly pointless but the republican tradition is the main catch of the idea and useful enough)
I also kind of feel lübeck don't need an extra merchant from ideas. It's currently so easy to get merchants in the game, especially if going trade oriented there trade ideas alone gives 3 merchants and plurocratic can give another. So that one will also be tentatively removed.
Instead we get “Protecting the Hanseatic envoys” giving +15% light ship combat ability (I want to give Lübeck an imporved edge on naval game as they're currently surprisingly weak on that front,
Reformed Hanstag gives a pretty pointless -10% cost to justify trade conflict (it's pointless as trade leagues have this automatically). I replace the bonus with +10% embargo efficieny (still gives reduced stability cost)
Also the 7th idea (hansa bank) have been rendered not so important when the effect is available from the merchant republic interactioninstead. So that too have been changed to "Hanseatic league" giving +1 dilpomatic reputation
Brief look at Lübeck missions:
My main concern is that Lübeck mission requires a lot of conquest, when all some people want to do is sit back and trade and relax. I propose that some of the lübeckian missions are altered, especially those concerning conquests across northern europe in GB, norway and Russia. There should be an alternative way of clearing those missions, which instead of controling provinces would give a “”Hanse Kontor” trade modifier in the trade node (a modifer which appears in the trade node window and grants trade power, most often appear temporarily, but there does exist some permanent modifiers as well)
Furthermore I moved some missions and created missions to conquer (join to trade league) riga and danzig instead. I also changed some of the flwo of the missions, so it is no longer required to have novgorod to do the unite the league mission, instad it's riga and danzig that need to be included.
Now doing the unite the league mission no longer makes all members vassals, isntead it integrates all member republics into the league.
And finaly for missio:
Safe Hansa (reference to swedish insurance company trygg hansa) as lübeck, enact the confirm thalassocracy decision (since it requires strong (safe) control over a lot of waterways
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