With the 1.30 Austrian Update and the Emperor Expansion, a lot of Europe has been updated. But one thing that did seem overlooked was the Merchant Republics in general and especially The Hansa. I think the Hansa and features tied to merchant republics ought to be expanded and updated.
The Hansa
I think we need a new overarching Body for this similar in a way to perhaps the Holy Roman Empire and the Emperor of China.
There needs to be an interaction with and increased powers of the Hansa.
Currently the Hansa works roughly like any other trade league with no distinction in its importance and its member cities, while in reality the Hansa was integrated pretty much everywhere in Northern Europe. So we must create a member system where it lists all members of the Hansa together.
These are the Nations I propose to be part of a Hansa body:
Lübeck, defacto capital and meeting place
Hamburg
Bremen
Lüneburg
Mecklenburg
Stettin, as one of Pomeranian Duchies
Greifswald, as the other Pomeranian Duchy
Magdeburg
Goslar
Verden, as the Archbishopric of Bremen
Brandenburg
Teutonic Order
Livonian Order
Riga
Dortmund
Utrecht
Friesland
Münster
These nations won't be in a trade league, rather, these nations will get bonuses as part of being in the hansa. Bonuses I thought made sense were decreased shipbuilding cost and build time, increased trade efficiency, 1 extra merchant and potentially reduced development cost and reduced diplomatic tech cost.
They get to vote on what decisions to take. And the leader of the Hansa, which should be Lübeck, could make decisions. I feel that free cities should get more votes than other types of governments. And Lübeck get the most votes, while other nations get only 1 vote.
So what decisions should they have?
I think first of all an aggresive diplomatic ability. Embargo nation. It would force the entire hanseatic league to embargo a single nation.
Second, ask for contribution. This would force members to donate to a hansa treasury.
Third, spend the Hansa treasury. I think having decisions potentially linked to previous bonuses make sense, such as subsidize shipbuilding, subsidize technological innovations and other things.
Lastly, perhaps there ought to be a way to declare war, maybe on nations who harbor pirates and privateers or nations who threaten the trade or independance of Lübeck.
With these mechanics in place, the hansa could become a very unique mechanic in the game and really project its power. But in contrast it should remove the defensive alliances that are created with the current trade leagues. Its power should be economic and trade, not warfare necessarily.
But things brings us to another point.
The many districts the hansa had in other countries such as London, Bruges, Bergen and Novgorod.
Trading Posts
These nations dont really fit in the same category as the other members, but were a big part of the Hansa. And I think they ought to be included in some way, but there is a problem, there exists no mechanic which has a sort of trade post type system where one owns a small trading posts in another countries province.
Thus this should be included in this update. It would be a small trading post increasing trade both ways for the nations involved. The host of the trade company should get some increased trade power but also Lübeck or the Hansa in general.
But why stop there. Having a trade post mechanic can easily be expanded to other areas of the world. Venice and Genoa are good examples. They generally didnt control entire provinces in Crimea for example, but held on to trade posts in the region. With a mechanic like this this nuance can be much better represented.
Factions
In my opinion, factions are currently a subpar mechanic versus the strength that Estates now offer. Thus I think it only makes sense to integrate the faction system somehow into the new estate system.
How would it be different though? Well the factions would be retained much the same way as they would function as an estate. Instead of using crownland, perhaps their influence or power in your government should be shown in the piechart instead and crownland owned by the crown should be ignored for the factions.
This way, the mechanic is in many ways similar with the same type of diet system, but also slightly different in the way of how factions currently operate ingame.
Center Of Trades
With the Dharma update we gained access to 3 levels of Centers of Trades.
I think this ought to be expanded as well.
First of all there should be a base center of trade, say level 0 or something. This would signify that the province has POTENTIAL to become a center of trade later when investments are made.
These should most likely be found in places where a center of trade would appear later in the game, primarily in uncolonized places across the world but perhaps also in other places.
Level 0: NO BONUSES - Just Potential for Centers of Trade
Inland: Crossroads
Coastal: Natural Harbor
Level 1: Low Level Bonuses, current level 1 effects
Inland: Emporium
Coastal: Harbor
Level 2: In Between Current Level 1 and Level 2 - would require that your nation has at least 5% trade power in this tradenode, probably something like +7.5 trade power and +5% institution spread
Inland: Market Town
Coastal: Entrepot
Level 3: Current Level 2 - Would require at least 25% trade power in this tradenode
Inland: Regional Market
Coastal: Regional Port
Level 4: Current Level 3 - Would require at least 50% trade power in this tradenode
Inland: World Trade Center
Coastal: World Port
Last Notes
Would this all be added, I think there is potential for a lot of interesting mechanics, while the Hansa mostly faded out after 1500s, by adding this early game institution of power I think there can be a lot of counterplay with Nations across the Baltic and North Sea in how to deal with it and could lead to much more interesting gameplay for the Netherlands and the Kalmar union.
Which brings me to another point, Scandinavia. While I will leave that for another time, I do think if there was an update to come to the Hansa, the added content should also be Scandinavia.
The Hansa
I think we need a new overarching Body for this similar in a way to perhaps the Holy Roman Empire and the Emperor of China.
There needs to be an interaction with and increased powers of the Hansa.
Currently the Hansa works roughly like any other trade league with no distinction in its importance and its member cities, while in reality the Hansa was integrated pretty much everywhere in Northern Europe. So we must create a member system where it lists all members of the Hansa together.
These are the Nations I propose to be part of a Hansa body:
Lübeck, defacto capital and meeting place
Hamburg
Bremen
Lüneburg
Mecklenburg
Stettin, as one of Pomeranian Duchies
Greifswald, as the other Pomeranian Duchy
Magdeburg
Goslar
Verden, as the Archbishopric of Bremen
Brandenburg
Teutonic Order
Livonian Order
Riga
Dortmund
Utrecht
Friesland
Münster
These nations won't be in a trade league, rather, these nations will get bonuses as part of being in the hansa. Bonuses I thought made sense were decreased shipbuilding cost and build time, increased trade efficiency, 1 extra merchant and potentially reduced development cost and reduced diplomatic tech cost.
They get to vote on what decisions to take. And the leader of the Hansa, which should be Lübeck, could make decisions. I feel that free cities should get more votes than other types of governments. And Lübeck get the most votes, while other nations get only 1 vote.
So what decisions should they have?
I think first of all an aggresive diplomatic ability. Embargo nation. It would force the entire hanseatic league to embargo a single nation.
Second, ask for contribution. This would force members to donate to a hansa treasury.
Third, spend the Hansa treasury. I think having decisions potentially linked to previous bonuses make sense, such as subsidize shipbuilding, subsidize technological innovations and other things.
Lastly, perhaps there ought to be a way to declare war, maybe on nations who harbor pirates and privateers or nations who threaten the trade or independance of Lübeck.
With these mechanics in place, the hansa could become a very unique mechanic in the game and really project its power. But in contrast it should remove the defensive alliances that are created with the current trade leagues. Its power should be economic and trade, not warfare necessarily.
But things brings us to another point.
The many districts the hansa had in other countries such as London, Bruges, Bergen and Novgorod.
Trading Posts
These nations dont really fit in the same category as the other members, but were a big part of the Hansa. And I think they ought to be included in some way, but there is a problem, there exists no mechanic which has a sort of trade post type system where one owns a small trading posts in another countries province.
Thus this should be included in this update. It would be a small trading post increasing trade both ways for the nations involved. The host of the trade company should get some increased trade power but also Lübeck or the Hansa in general.
But why stop there. Having a trade post mechanic can easily be expanded to other areas of the world. Venice and Genoa are good examples. They generally didnt control entire provinces in Crimea for example, but held on to trade posts in the region. With a mechanic like this this nuance can be much better represented.
Factions
In my opinion, factions are currently a subpar mechanic versus the strength that Estates now offer. Thus I think it only makes sense to integrate the faction system somehow into the new estate system.
How would it be different though? Well the factions would be retained much the same way as they would function as an estate. Instead of using crownland, perhaps their influence or power in your government should be shown in the piechart instead and crownland owned by the crown should be ignored for the factions.
This way, the mechanic is in many ways similar with the same type of diet system, but also slightly different in the way of how factions currently operate ingame.
Center Of Trades
With the Dharma update we gained access to 3 levels of Centers of Trades.
I think this ought to be expanded as well.
First of all there should be a base center of trade, say level 0 or something. This would signify that the province has POTENTIAL to become a center of trade later when investments are made.
These should most likely be found in places where a center of trade would appear later in the game, primarily in uncolonized places across the world but perhaps also in other places.
Level 0: NO BONUSES - Just Potential for Centers of Trade
Inland: Crossroads
Coastal: Natural Harbor
Level 1: Low Level Bonuses, current level 1 effects
Inland: Emporium
Coastal: Harbor
Level 2: In Between Current Level 1 and Level 2 - would require that your nation has at least 5% trade power in this tradenode, probably something like +7.5 trade power and +5% institution spread
Inland: Market Town
Coastal: Entrepot
Level 3: Current Level 2 - Would require at least 25% trade power in this tradenode
Inland: Regional Market
Coastal: Regional Port
Level 4: Current Level 3 - Would require at least 50% trade power in this tradenode
Inland: World Trade Center
Coastal: World Port
Last Notes
Would this all be added, I think there is potential for a lot of interesting mechanics, while the Hansa mostly faded out after 1500s, by adding this early game institution of power I think there can be a lot of counterplay with Nations across the Baltic and North Sea in how to deal with it and could lead to much more interesting gameplay for the Netherlands and the Kalmar union.
Which brings me to another point, Scandinavia. While I will leave that for another time, I do think if there was an update to come to the Hansa, the added content should also be Scandinavia.
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