[MOD] Britannia 479 AD - The Winter King

[Mixxer5]

Justinian never reached the Gaul or Britanny. As far I am concerned, those titles were hollow in the West since the fall of the Western Empire. They were only meant to appease the barbarians (Just like honorary titles do ingame).

He reached Italy, so he bordered with Gaul. Also, he was extremaly unlucky (plague, gothic insurrection), so his conquests were very exhausting for country (only in Italy- North Africa and chunks of Iberia were conquered almost effortlessly). With more luck he would be possible to at least threaten Gaul with invasion. And with much more luck, he could revindicate all lands of former Western Empire. After all, barbarian conquests weren't too stable (only Frankish).

And about titles like ceasar titular- they were empty, but they wouldn't be if proper Roman would restore Empire (there were 2 such tries). It's not impossible in this mod, I've done it already few times. If only map would encompass whole Mediterranean...

 

[Immortal Impi]

Not at all possible. He was threatened on too many fronts, both at home and abroad, and he had no interest in attacking the Franks. They were too far away and even Belisarius could not have managed an invasion of something so far away. Those 'effortlessly conquered' chunks were hard as hell to hold and he faced pressure from Persia which stopped him from expanding.

 

[Sparticulous]

He reached Italy, so he bordered with Gaul. Also, he was extremaly unlucky (plague, gothic insurrection), so his conquests were very exhausting for country (only in Italy- North Africa and chunks of Iberia were conquered almost effortlessly). With more luck he would be possible to at least threaten Gaul with invasion. And with much more luck, he could revindicate all lands of former Western Empire. After all, barbarian conquests weren't too stable (only Frankish).

And about titles like ceasar titular- they were empty, but they wouldn't be if proper Roman would restore Empire (there were 2 such tries). It's not impossible in this mod, I've done it already few times. If only map would encompass whole Mediterranean...

I would dare say his campaigns in Italy were not effortless. I think it lasted decades and required Justinian's armies to depopulated and devastate the infastructure of the region. Destroying everything the Ostrogoths and Odavacar kept going in what was Western Empire's Italy. I think the Ostrogoth's even called in allies that eventually came to cause many problems for the Eastern Empire.

 

[Viden]

He reached Italy, so he bordered with Gaul. Also, he was extremaly unlucky (plague, gothic insurrection), so his conquests were very exhausting for country (only in Italy- North Africa and chunks of Iberia were conquered almost effortlessly). With more luck he would be possible to at least threaten Gaul with invasion. And with much more luck, he could revindicate all lands of former Western Empire. After all, barbarian conquests weren't too stable (only Frankish).

And about titles like ceasar titular- they were empty, but they wouldn't be if proper Roman would restore Empire (there were 2 such tries). It's not impossible in this mod, I've done it already few times. If only map would encompass whole Mediterranean...

Italy did not bordered Soissons nor Armorica. It seems that in the English section one must be obsessively specific too.

Franks were as stable as any other Germanic invasion. The difference was that Franks crushed everyone else (aside the Visigothics and the Vandals who had the bad luck of beng closer to the Muslims) and also where the only Catholics, which made them friends of the Pope.

It is extremely unlikely that Constantinople reclaimed more than what she reclaimed, because the main reason of Belisarius's failure was Justinian himself, who never gave him enough reinforcements to score decisive victories after his initial victory. Moreover, the whole campaign nearly bankrupted Roman treasury and the conquest were too streched that the Visigothics had no problems to reconquer the Iberian Byzantine gains.

If the Western Empire would be restored, be sure that those titles would hardly go to Barbarian chieftains.

 

[Luca0312]

A new version of The Winter King will be available in a couple of days. Below you can find a list of changes and features.

- Added 10+ land provinces and several sea provinces
- Added 5 duchy-level titles (in Anglia, Cantia, Demetia, Broceliande, Munster)
- Reworked all duchy-level titles in Anglia, Cantia, Gwent and Powys
- Introduced culture-based renaming of provinces and titles (especially for Anglo-Saxons)
- Added the High Kingdom of Cymru (exists only later in game if certain conditions are met)
- Implemented an "Offa's Dyke" event chain to separate Aenglaland from Cymru upon Anglo-Saxon conquest of Central Britain
- Implemented a customized version of the new Duel Engine by Gregory Hayes (Galle) and Ran Miller (Ogaburan)
- Improved flags and CoAs
- Improved and expanded localization
- New custom historical and immersion events
- Reworked and expanded mechanics and conditions to claim the High Kingdoms of Britannia and Aenglaland
- The former eastern part of Gwent now is an independent realm (Cynwidion) in 479 AD
- Improved revolts and rebels behaviour (including rebel armies in case of massive revolts)
- Rebalanced all invasion armies
- Expanded and improved retinues (all of them cultural based, with a lot more variety in sizes and costs)
- Reworked and improved combat tactics (they now change daily, creating far more interesting battles)
- Attrition effects of winter are now slightly less severe
- Tweaked and improved CBs
- Balanced and expanded the factors involved in cultural assimilation and conversion
- Added a few cultural restrictions to succession and gender laws
- Titles revocation is now allowed at a lower crown authority level (but not with "Autonomous Vassals")
- Pagan rulers now gain piety (in addition to prestige) when they win a war
- Added more than 40 new historical characters
- Improved and expanded dynasties
- General improvements to the map (terrain, trees, textures, etc.)
- Ports are now correctly placed and ships do not appear underwater anymore
- Campaign end date is now 867 AD
- Fixed a bug with unique Imperial Roman buildings (Senate House, Castra Praetoria, etc.) disappearing on ruler's succession
- General optimization to reduce CPU load
- Hundreds of other fixes and tweaks

These are all confirmed and already in. There are more features in the works that I hope to complete in time for release (like the 'reversibility' for anglo-saxon de jure titles, Senate-related event chains, a deeper and more immersive system to claim/assign the High Kingdoms, etc.) but I don't want to promise anything I'm not sure I can deliver...

Stay tuned.

L.

 

[Viden]

¿Te new land provinces are only in Britannia or also in the Gaul?

 

[Luca0312]

A couple of other notes on the upcoming release... any comment or suggestion is always really appreciated.

The game engine 'clock' is now set to EVENT_PROCESS_OFFSET = 1 (used to be 3, Vanilla is 20). This allows the maximum possible timing precision. Events that are supposed to fire on a specific day (for example seasonal changes, but also more critical events related to elections, battles, trade, rituals, etc.) will now fire exactly on that day all the time. This was not possible before. With a process offset value of 3, an event supposed to fire on March 1st could actually fire anywhere between March 1st and March 3rd. In vanilla the offset is 20, so timing is very sloppy and there is no way to ensure any precision below 20 days. Of course there is a drawback: a lower offset means higher CPU load, which makes the game run slower. This is noticeable only at the maximum (5x) speed. However, I've made a lot of general optimization fixes recently, which apparently are quite effective. Also Paradox has introduced a few new commands (like realm_size) that I really needed, allowing me to basically remove whole blocks of code that were needed to achieve the same effect using more complicated and CPU-heavy checks. Result: the mod now is 3x more precise but runs just slightly slower than before at max speed. Considering that it's still incomparably faster than Vanilla, I'm quite satisfied with this solution.

L.

 

[Luca0312]

¿Te new land provinces are only in Britannia or also in the Gaul?

Also in Gaul.

 

[Luca0312]

I've also got a few questions for you players... consider it a 'poll' to decide a few things.

1. Should the Franks be able (and willing, in case of AI) to invade Britain if/when they conquer and unite all Gaul? Or should they rather focus in keeping/developing their own lands (as they do now)?
2. Same question as above, but for Irish. After/when the High Kingdom of Ireland is created, should they look to invade Britain? I don't mean raid, I mean invade and occupy.
3. Regarding the possible extension of the map, what would you like to see first: more continental Europe or the full remaining northern part of Scotland? I planned a two-step expansion and I've got to decide what to do first. North or South?
4. Should Christians be able to wage Holy Wars against pagans? There is no religious CB in The Winter King right now. Do you think there should be one? I wouldn't call them 'Crusades' anyway...
5. What is your favorite/most played culture? I am planning several culture-based event chains (stuff only for Anglo-Saxon, only for Ireland, only for Romans, etc.) and again I need help to decide what to focus on first. If 90% of you are playing Anglo-Saxons and nobody ever plays Ireland, the decision comes easier.

Thanks!

L.

 

[Viden]

I've also got a few questions for you players... consider it a 'poll' to decide a few things.

1. Should the Franks be able (and willing, in case of AI) to invade Britain if/when they conquer and unite all Gaul? Or should they rather focus in keeping/developing their own lands (as they do now)?
2. Same question as above, but for Irish. After/when the High Kingdom of Ireland is created, should they look to invade Britain? I don't mean raid, I mean invade and occupy.
3. Regarding the possible extension of the map, what would you like to see first: more continental Europe or the full remaining northern part of Scotland? I planned a two-step expansion and I've got to decide what to do first. North or South?
4. Should Christians be able to wage Holy Wars against pagans? There is no religious CB in The Winter King right now. Do you think there should be one? I wouldn't call them 'Crusades' anyway...
5. What is your favorite/most played culture? I am planning several culture-based event chains (stuff only for Anglo-Saxon, only for Ireland, only for Romans, etc.) and again I need help to decide what to focus on first. If 90% of you are playing Anglo-Saxons and nobody ever plays Ireland, the decision comes easier.

Thanks!

L.

I would prefer more Gaul (and more Soissons!).

I think it is too early for Holy Wars.

My most favourite cultures are Roman/Romano-Gallic/Romano-British.

 

[jmberry]

I've also got a few questions for you players... consider it a 'poll' to decide a few things.

1. Should the Franks be able (and willing, in case of AI) to invade Britain if/when they conquer and unite all Gaul? Or should they rather focus in keeping/developing their own lands (as they do now)?
2. Same question as above, but for Irish. After/when the High Kingdom of Ireland is created, should they look to invade Britain? I don't mean raid, I mean invade and occupy.
3. Regarding the possible extension of the map, what would you like to see first: more continental Europe or the full remaining northern part of Scotland? I planned a two-step expansion and I've got to decide what to do first. North or South?
4. Should Christians be able to wage Holy Wars against pagans? There is no religious CB in The Winter King right now. Do you think there should be one? I wouldn't call them 'Crusades' anyway...
5. What is your favorite/most played culture? I am planning several culture-based event chains (stuff only for Anglo-Saxon, only for Ireland, only for Romans, etc.) and again I need help to decide what to focus on first. If 90% of you are playing Anglo-Saxons and nobody ever plays Ireland, the decision comes easier.

Thanks!

L.

1. Yes for the player, no for the AI
2. Yes
3. Aquitaine and the Goths (and Moors) first. There's really not enough information on the Picts
4. Not until 732 or so. Before Tours the Christians were content to send missionaries
5. Briton/Romano-Briton
Extra: I'd like to request new start dates - one for the start of 'Enemy of God', one for the start of 'Excalibur', and one post-Camlann

 

[Mattobro]

1.No, I don't think the Franks should try get a foothold in Britannia, that doesn't really make sense IMO. If the roman domain unites Gaul the Romans should try reconquer Britannia for sure though,
2. Yes, maybe more so Scotland area of Britannia then England area though, I can see an ambitious high king taking warriors across the sea to conquer new lands.
3. Hmm, very hard decision, both sound so good. I would like to see more of Gaul aswell, It would allow more Frankish politics I guess Merovingians!
4. Yes, Some early form of it, maybe it can unlock after a certain amount of years have passed? Like maybe in the 500's or 600's to ramp up the pressure on the Old Gods worshipping realms?
5. I've only played one full game of the winter king so far, that was as Uther Pendragon and his offspring. I think more culture events for either the Romans/Romano-British or Anglo Saxons would be great.

 

[Elmer777]

Hello Luca0312, glad too see that you return and "Winter king" alive again
I want remind you about pagan heresies, that Knives tell about.

Luca0312 says:

Thanks Knives, you're absolutely right about pagan heresies, I never thought about this but your points make 100% sense. Heresies should exist only for Christian religion (at least in this mod's setting), and any other 'version' of the roman, druidic and norse religions should not be considered as heresies but different faiths in the same religion group.

Thank`s for great mod

 

[Hiyo]

I've also got a few questions for you players... consider it a 'poll' to decide a few things.

1. Should the Franks be able (and willing, in case of AI) to invade Britain if/when they conquer and unite all Gaul? Or should they rather focus in keeping/developing their own lands (as they do now)?
2. Same question as above, but for Irish. After/when the High Kingdom of Ireland is created, should they look to invade Britain? I don't mean raid, I mean invade and occupy.
3. Regarding the possible extension of the map, what would you like to see first: more continental Europe or the full remaining northern part of Scotland? I planned a two-step expansion and I've got to decide what to do first. North or South?
4. Should Christians be able to wage Holy Wars against pagans? There is no religious CB in The Winter King right now. Do you think there should be one? I wouldn't call them 'Crusades' anyway...
5. What is your favorite/most played culture? I am planning several culture-based event chains (stuff only for Anglo-Saxon, only for Ireland, only for Romans, etc.) and again I need help to decide what to focus on first. If 90% of you are playing Anglo-Saxons and nobody ever plays Ireland, the decision comes easier.

Thanks!

L.

1. Yes, but under certain conditions only, with an event granting casus belli/war. Those would require high marshal, ruling for X years, high/max crown authority (organizing a full-scale invasion), and complete control of Gaul. At least, that is my take on it.

2. Yes, but under the same conditions as above. In addition, they should have an option, by event, as to where they attack (north/south). There should be historical equivalents for kingdoms that could be formed in either, although my bookmarks fail me at this moment.

3. Scotland first, the Picts are important.

4. No, too early for Holy Wars.

5. I would love to see more Pictish stuff, but I play all the other cultures as well.

 

[athas65]

I've also got a few questions for you players... consider it a 'poll' to decide a few things.

1. Should the Franks be able (and willing, in case of AI) to invade Britain if/when they conquer and unite all Gaul? Or should they rather focus in keeping/developing their own lands (as they do now)?
2. Same question as above, but for Irish. After/when the High Kingdom of Ireland is created, should they look to invade Britain? I don't mean raid, I mean invade and occupy.
3. Regarding the possible extension of the map, what would you like to see first: more continental Europe or the full remaining northern part of Scotland? I planned a two-step expansion and I've got to decide what to do first. North or South?
4. Should Christians be able to wage Holy Wars against pagans? There is no religious CB in The Winter King right now. Do you think there should be one? I wouldn't call them 'Crusades' anyway...
5. What is your favorite/most played culture? I am planning several culture-based event chains (stuff only for Anglo-Saxon, only for Ireland, only for Romans, etc.) and again I need help to decide what to focus on first. If 90% of you are playing Anglo-Saxons and nobody ever plays Ireland, the decision comes easier.

Thanks!

L.

First of all can't wait for the update!

1. I don't think so, and by the way you should slow down the speed in which they are turn to Christians, as far as I know they didn't fully converted until Charles the Great.
2. I think so, if an Irish king is able to unite Ireland (or maybe even just an other strong enough Irish) should probably start to expand to Britain, probably to Scotland first.
3. Both would be nice, but if you expand to the south I would love if you could expand a little bit to the east, adding more of the Frankish lands and maybe even Frisland.
4. No, I think its more of a later thing, and it will give Christians an unneeded boost.
5. Absolutely the Anglo-Saxons! every mod that have them is a favorite of mine! (and I'm not even related to them in any known way), so, the more the merrier!

 

[Luca0312]

Thanks for all your answers guys, and keep them coming! They're very useful.

I want remind you about pagan heresies, that Knives tell about.

Well I actually spent some time on this. What I found is that in order to have the religions 'appear' randomly they have to be heresies (that is, without having to rewrite the whole vanilla events system, of course...). So what I did was to differentiate and re-localize as many of the events as possible. This way, if you are pagan the events should feel more like... "Hey look, these people believe in a different God... but I still prefer mine." than "Heresy! They shall all burn!".

For Anglo-Saxons, Seaxneat is now a proper religion (not a heresy anymore) and is the starting faith in all 'Saxon' lands (as opposed to 'Anglians', who have Norse religion). That leave the Anglo-Saxons with only one possible sub-religion (the Cult of Wodanar) which will appear rarely.

The sub-religions for Roman and Old Gods are still the same and they are still treated as 'heresies' by the engine. However, the actual events localization is different, and there are no province or characters modifiers like 'Heretic Stronghold' involved. These modifiers now exist only for christians and christian heresies.

Finally, the opinion modifiers towards 'heretics' are not as bad as in Vanilla. This makes sense for paganism but also for early Christians, since I guess they were a lot more tolerant in 5th century than 1000 years later.

This also combines well with the new cultural and religious flexibility modifiers that were implemented a few versions ago but were actually broken until now (sorry about that). Since they now work as intended, you'll have more realistic relationships between various groups. For example, Romans and Romano-British belong to two different culture groups but will like each other more (or rather dislike each other less) than, for example, Anglo-Saxons and Franks, who both belong to the same culture group. This produces very interesting results. There are also religious flexibility modifiers but unfortunately they can't be religion-based (making a religion less tolerant then others), they are culture-based. So a few cultures will be more sensible to religious differences, while others less so (any suggestions about this subject is greatly appreciated, by the way).

Romans in general are the ones who 'benefit' more from this system, because they are the most flexible (centuries of an inter-cultural Empire must have produced some effect).

L.

 

[Luca0312]

...
3. Aquitaine and the Goths (and Moors) first. There's really not enough information on the Picts
...
Extra: I'd like to request new start dates - one for the start of 'Enemy of God', one for the start of 'Excalibur', and one post-Camlann

Hi jmberry,

when I read 'Moors' I got scared. The expansion of the map to the south will surely cover lands that were occupied by the Visigoths in 479 AD, but as far as I know the Moors weren't even in Spain by that time, and there is no way the map can reach the modern border between France and Spain. The expansion will actually be to the south-east, and will put on the edge of the map places like Frisia to the east and Burgundy in the southeastern corner. But no Alps. No Pyrenees. And so probably no Moors (not a lot of them anyway for sure, but they could be a non-ruling culture, like Numidians who are already in).

And this also answers:

Both would be nice, but if you expand to the south I would love if you could expand a little bit to the east, adding more of the Frankish lands and maybe even Frisland

Regarding the new start dates (at least the three that mark the beginning of the books), they are definitely one of the major items on my to-do list. However, some time ago I asked in this thread what was most desired first, either the map expansion or the new bookmarks, and the answers were mostly for map expansion. Unfortunately writing titles history and creating characters to cover 40 years is quite a lot of work. So at the moment I guess it's safe to say no new start dates at least for a while. Unless someone else is available to help of course! :happy:

L.

 

[McBeanie]

I've also got a few questions for you players... consider it a 'poll' to decide a few things.

1. Should the Franks be able (and willing, in case of AI) to invade Britain if/when they conquer and unite all Gaul? Or should they rather focus in keeping/developing their own lands (as they do now)?
2. Same question as above, but for Irish. After/when the High Kingdom of Ireland is created, should they look to invade Britain? I don't mean raid, I mean invade and occupy.
3. Regarding the possible extension of the map, what would you like to see first: more continental Europe or the full remaining northern part of Scotland? I planned a two-step expansion and I've got to decide what to do first. North or South?
4. Should Christians be able to wage Holy Wars against pagans? There is no religious CB in The Winter King right now. Do you think there should be one? I wouldn't call them 'Crusades' anyway...
5. What is your favorite/most played culture? I am planning several culture-based event chains (stuff only for Anglo-Saxon, only for Ireland, only for Romans, etc.) and again I need help to decide what to focus on first. If 90% of you are playing Anglo-Saxons and nobody ever plays Ireland, the decision comes easier.

Thanks!

L.

1. No, from what I remember, the Franks never tried to take any parts of England, even though they probably had the manpower to do so.
2. Yes, probably starting at Scotland and working their way down, but maybe it should be through an event/decision that requires high martial, reign for 10 or so years and the ambitious trait.
3. North, I'd like a complete Scotland because the current map bothers me that it's cut off partway. And as long as we eventually get both, I'll be happy either way though.
4. No religious CBs, they make the game too easy and I'm not sure they would have occurred very often back then.
5. Most played is probably Briton/Romano-Briton.

 

[al3xytp]

I love this mod ! And also, the game is so fast that it's even better. Just one question: what the requirements for the conquest CB ? (and most of the mod's CBs)

 

[hferguson]

I've also got a few questions for you players... consider it a 'poll' to decide a few things.

1. Should the Franks be able (and willing, in case of AI) to invade Britain if/when they conquer and unite all Gaul? Or should they rather focus in keeping/developing their own lands (as they do now)?
2. Same question as above, but for Irish. After/when the High Kingdom of Ireland is created, should they look to invade Britain? I don't mean raid, I mean invade and occupy.
3. Regarding the possible extension of the map, what would you like to see first: more continental Europe or the full remaining northern part of Scotland? I planned a two-step expansion and I've got to decide what to do first. North or South?
4. Should Christians be able to wage Holy Wars against pagans? There is no religious CB in The Winter King right now. Do you think there should be one? I wouldn't call them 'Crusades' anyway...
5. What is your favorite/most played culture? I am planning several culture-based event chains (stuff only for Anglo-Saxon, only for Ireland, only for Romans, etc.) and again I need help to decide what to focus on first. If 90% of you are playing Anglo-Saxons and nobody ever plays Ireland, the decision comes easier.

Thanks!

L.

1. No, Dumnonia has its hands full with Saxons, don't need random invasions from Gaul too. The Franks should be focused to the south.
2. Yes. Ireland is part of the British Isles proper, and according to the lore (the books) at least one Irish warlord crossed the Irish sea and took a kingdom. No reason a High King of Ireland wouldn't do the same.
3. Picts! Piiiiiicts! I know there's no information on them in the books (or anywhere else for that matter), but this mod is about Britannia, and Pictland makes a lot more sense than continental Europe.
4. No. The Church didn't have the full centralized authority at the time to call a Holy War. Perhaps more importantly this would seriously unbalance Christian factions.
5. Well I've only played two games, but they were both Picts. I mean, they have tartans for their coats of arms!