[MOD] Imperator Invictus
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DD80: Caucasian rework, Gordyene tree and Nexusmods
Dev Diary 80: Caucasian rework, Gordyene tree and a new Nexusmods page
Salvete!
Today we’ll be talking about the upcoming update’s changes to the Caucasus overall as well as giving a sneak peek at 2 new Caucasian missions coming with the next update.
But first i'd like to talk about the new Nexusmods page: https://www.nexusmods.com/imperatorrome/mods/1
From the Nexusmods you can download ALL versions of the mod without needing to use the Workshop, the installation is very easy. All you have to do is extract the archive in your Documents\Paradox Interactive\Imperator\mod folder directly. (Remember to Endorse the mod.)
From now on, all old versions of the mod you can use to continue old saves will only be uploaded on the Nexus. The Steam Workshop will only be used for the latest version. You cannot use both the Workshop, and a Nexusmods versions of the mod.
Now onto OmegaCorps!
Omega here with an agenda on how to show you what we’ve done to better-represent the greater Caucasus region in geographical, political, cultural, and other senses. In this endeavor, I cannot thank the likes of Izn, Juto, and Zorgoball enough for their scripting, localization, and research assistance in regards to this region. I also want to give a shoutout to Samitte, who committed a lot of time to creating a Caucasian region-reform guide a few years ago on the PDX Imperator forums - the provided bibliography and notes have been an invaluable foundation to work off of.
The New Caucasus:
While Armenia in the vanilla-setup was surely a juggernaut, we wanted to give its environs more character and depth. The mission(s) for Armenia are not done yet, but its story as a growing power historically becomes intertwined with its related/subject kingdoms: those of Lesser Armenia, Sophene, and the Gordyene Kingdom of the Karduchoi tribes who swore fealty to Armenia for a time.
It is not an exact science, determining when Armenia’s subsidiary kingdoms and polities split off from it, but the Armenian realm’s separation from Seleukid obeisance is thought to have been a time of fragmentation, especially within the Orontid dynasty’s cadet branches. Rather than hinge the existence of Lesser Armenia, Sophene, and Gordyene on the playing of an Armenia tree and a scripted event the player would control, we preferred to have all the options on the table at game start, and to let the player write a different narrative for each entity. At the moment, the mission tree for Gordyene is nearly finished and Armenia is in-progress. It is not certain whether Sophene and Lesser Armenia will have full mission trees by this coming update, but they will surely have a full package of content by the following update. One piece of content which both Lesser Armenia, Sophene, and Armenia will have is a cultural decision to form “Greater Armenia” with a new, unique flag and color (WIP).
For information on Sophene, Gordyene, and a future content-candidate, Adiabene, much information has been gleaned from Micha Marciak’s Sophene, Gordyene, and Adiabene, Three Regna Minora of Northern Mesopotamia Between East and West (Impact of Empire: Roman Empire, C. 200 B.C. -A.D. 476, 26).
Gordyene:
As the first to be focused on for a short mission, Gordyene now has a working flag and map-changes in terms of borders and trade goods. The Kingdom of Gordyene, as it was referred to by the 3rd-2nd century BCE, stretched from the Bitlis Pass by Armenia proper to around the northern borders of Adiabene. These borders were fluid, and the Karduchoi built their greatest cities and settlements both along the Tigris river in order to control trade and along the southern Armenian Mountain range for a defensible backbone. Behind them lie the legendary Mt. Niphates where Noah’s ark is said to rest and Mt. Masion of the Tauros Range.
Just north of the well-endowed city of Nisibis, the Karduchian capital of Pinaka, a 3-citadel city straddling the Tigris, was home to a decent Syriac-speaking and Assyrian population. It was also said that many Euboeans lived among the Karduchoi in the time of the Achaemenids, so those have been represented as well. Many important figures from the land of Qardu have been noted by scholars as having semitic names, especially those later recorded by the church at Nisibis, so it is fair to say that Aramean and Syrian language as well as culture populated the region.
Similarly, while Greco-Roman authors claim that the Hurrian god Teshub was worshiped by the Karduchoi, and evidence of primordial Hurrian deity altars has been found, the Karduchoi shared the most culturally with other peoples of Mesopotamia and shared in their gods as well. The exception was a strong Armenian influence in the north, such as at the Bitlis Pass and in the up-and-coming city of Tigranakert (which was by this time already a city, and was simply added on to in the time of Tigranes). For these reasons, Gordyene will start with Chaldaean as the national religion, but have a great deal of local mixing in its provinces.
Master craftsmen, the Karduchoi and their homeland were known for rich minerals, metals, a seductive set of spices known as ‘Amomum,’ and the mineable jewel called Giganitis, which turned lizards and other critters away when burned for medicinal or crafting purposes. The wine and pasturelands of the Tigris were also noted by historians both contemporary and modern, so all these components have been reflected in the trade goods produced in the land of Qardu.
Gordyene has access to a small but regionally-impactful mission. The right-branch sees you develop their rich homeland for economic prosperity.
The left branch sees you attend to their great building projects and raising the historical cities along the Tigris that used the local geography to take advantage of regional trade and act as hubs of economy.
The people of Gordyene have long needed to swear some oath of allegiance to a great northern or southern power. At game-start, you are a subject of Armenia and, by proxy, a subject of the Seleukids. As the greater powers around you spin the dial of Fortuna and Armenia breaks away from the Seleukid sphere of influence, it will be up to you to block the Bitlis Pass and scream in your war cries, “NO MORE.” Once you have thrown off the yoke of tribute, your ambitions over the Upper Tigris domain shall guide you. Biting off chunks of the Seleukids in their period of decline will remain a challenge, and you must watch for your southern regional rival, Adiabene, which historically fought against Gordyene on multiple occasions for economic and political control of the river-region.
This image provides a rough estimate of the bare territory that the mission requires you to conquer, comprising the general Upper Tigris. Mission Tasks might also see you conquer some parts of southern Armenia, Adiabene, and other borderlands around the Tigris which might increase your regional economic and political control. This tree is not meant to be a world-conqueror...but should lead to the creation of an influential regional power under the rule of a unique people. Not pictured here, but this mission (like that of Albania), will include an option to reform a Hurrian-worshiping kingdom and will have unique cultural innovations characteristic of its historical achievements. One such example will be the “Karduchian Longbow.”
More awaits you when the full package of Gordyene’s content launches with the coming update. I want to leave you with 1 final note about this nation:
- The Karduchoi/Qardu are not, in fact, related to the modern-day Kurds despite what many sites claim. There is a lengthier scholarly explanation found in the book referenced above, but a shorthand is that the Kard/Qard beginning of the name has an Eastern Semitic origin or connection and does not develop linguistically into ‘Kurd’ as might be assumed - Qard refers to ‘strong’ in Akkadian/Semitic forms. The more likely ancestral origins of the Kurds can be found in a similar migratory/predatory group: the Kyrtioi/Kurtioi, for whom the western Zagros mountains were their home. Kyrt/Kurt→Kurd has been accepted as a more plausible linguistic evolution and lacks a clear Semitic or otherwise Mesopotamian connection, which is more inline with the Kurds’ linguistic Western-Iranian nature. In this mods, the Kyrtioi do not currently exist, nor would it be realistic to give them a tag at game-start, but we may consider spawning them and other predatory tribes in through a triggered event to add some dynamism to the game or as part of a tree down the road - more to come, but it could be fun.
And, while we’re on the topic of misconceptions…
This is modern “Albania”
And this is “Caucasian Albania”
These are not the same…The term Albanoi, is given by the Greeks in both instances, to the ancient Albanoi Illyrian tribe and the Albanoi of modern Azerbaijan. They have no other connection and are not part of some migratory conspiracy. However, we may add a decision where you Albanian nationalists can create modern Albania with ancient Albania…maybe.
A few things we did not cover in the last Developer Diary on Albania:
The trade goods of many territories throughout the Caucasus have been adjusted or rearranged based on researching both ancient and modern sources. In the case of Caucasian Iberia and Caucasian Albania, there were many ancient tales of healing crystals and icy dreams brought on by crystal rituals, so we are looking at adding decisions and events related to those, in order to provide content outside of missions, but, for now, we have made C. Albania more of the rich mineral and pastureland that the Kura-Araxes basin and Caucasian range was in those times—Albania was known for being rich in a similar manner to Colchis (which has also been ‘goldified’ to fit its historical and legendary symbolism). The Cinnabar in C. Albania should also help add to the map’s short supply of the rare resource, and you may have the opportunity to expand the search for more deposits along the mountain range.
And, of course, we failed to cover what is closest to an overhaul of the Armazic religion in the last Developer Diary because we were too busy showing off the Hurrian deities. On the surface, it would seem like little is known of Caucasian ritual and faith, but a collection of ancient sources, archaeology, medieval sources (which tell of a legendary past society before Christianization/Islamization), and modern study have shed light on many deities which populated this culturally bizarre region. Our team has relied heavily on JUTO for being our native Georgian translator in order to read Georgian literature and scholarship which has yet to be translated into English or other common Romance languages.
In both the west, the east, and the north of the Caucasus, we have made a great effort to give many deities holy sites where they will buff the territory and give visual life to the region. In the area of C. Albania, many of the deities come to us from Medieval Christian depictions within the family of the Biblical Togarmah. Like many biblical figures (Ex/ Lilith), Togarmah and his children are connected to the Abrahamic ‘God,’ while still being the genesis-figures for local tribes. We have included deities such as Heros, Bardos, Movakanos, Lekos, and Durdzuks in this situation.
We have also added many deities from the tales of the demonic Devi vs the Heroes of ancient Georgian folklore.
Other deities are locked behind certain cultures within the Caucasian Culture Group, such as the Suani (modern Svans), Abasgoi (modern Abkhazia), Legians, Albanians, and Laz peoples.
Many of the pre-Christian deities of the ancient Caucasus have pastoral elements (fertility deities in part or in whole) and have Greek elements or comparisons. This was especially true for Kolchis, where there was an entrenched Greek cultural hold and religious pervasion. Cities such as that in the Vani archaeological site and Rhodopolis and Phasis sent Greek pottery, wine, crafts, weapons, and ideas up the river towards the Colchian hinterlands. Phrixus, Lekothea, and the Dioscuri were worshiped by Caucasian peoples here.
Kolchis itself shall be discussed in the next Developer Diary but, before we go for today, I wanted to also show off some of the new flag art that our wonderful artists, Derek and Retcon, have been able to make for tags both new and old.
That is all from me for now. Next time, await the unveiling of Kolchis’ new mission and all the juicy content that comes with it.
I was OmegaCorps, your legally Caucasian but not ethnically Caucasian host, and this was…Gordyene and the greater Caucasus.
Salvete!
Today we’ll be talking about the upcoming update’s changes to the Caucasus overall as well as giving a sneak peek at 2 new Caucasian missions coming with the next update.
But first i'd like to talk about the new Nexusmods page: https://www.nexusmods.com/imperatorrome/mods/1
From the Nexusmods you can download ALL versions of the mod without needing to use the Workshop, the installation is very easy. All you have to do is extract the archive in your Documents\Paradox Interactive\Imperator\mod folder directly. (Remember to Endorse the mod.)
From now on, all old versions of the mod you can use to continue old saves will only be uploaded on the Nexus. The Steam Workshop will only be used for the latest version. You cannot use both the Workshop, and a Nexusmods versions of the mod.
Now onto OmegaCorps!
Omega here with an agenda on how to show you what we’ve done to better-represent the greater Caucasus region in geographical, political, cultural, and other senses. In this endeavor, I cannot thank the likes of Izn, Juto, and Zorgoball enough for their scripting, localization, and research assistance in regards to this region. I also want to give a shoutout to Samitte, who committed a lot of time to creating a Caucasian region-reform guide a few years ago on the PDX Imperator forums - the provided bibliography and notes have been an invaluable foundation to work off of.
The New Caucasus:
While Armenia in the vanilla-setup was surely a juggernaut, we wanted to give its environs more character and depth. The mission(s) for Armenia are not done yet, but its story as a growing power historically becomes intertwined with its related/subject kingdoms: those of Lesser Armenia, Sophene, and the Gordyene Kingdom of the Karduchoi tribes who swore fealty to Armenia for a time.
It is not an exact science, determining when Armenia’s subsidiary kingdoms and polities split off from it, but the Armenian realm’s separation from Seleukid obeisance is thought to have been a time of fragmentation, especially within the Orontid dynasty’s cadet branches. Rather than hinge the existence of Lesser Armenia, Sophene, and Gordyene on the playing of an Armenia tree and a scripted event the player would control, we preferred to have all the options on the table at game start, and to let the player write a different narrative for each entity. At the moment, the mission tree for Gordyene is nearly finished and Armenia is in-progress. It is not certain whether Sophene and Lesser Armenia will have full mission trees by this coming update, but they will surely have a full package of content by the following update. One piece of content which both Lesser Armenia, Sophene, and Armenia will have is a cultural decision to form “Greater Armenia” with a new, unique flag and color (WIP).
For information on Sophene, Gordyene, and a future content-candidate, Adiabene, much information has been gleaned from Micha Marciak’s Sophene, Gordyene, and Adiabene, Three Regna Minora of Northern Mesopotamia Between East and West (Impact of Empire: Roman Empire, C. 200 B.C. -A.D. 476, 26).
Gordyene:
As the first to be focused on for a short mission, Gordyene now has a working flag and map-changes in terms of borders and trade goods. The Kingdom of Gordyene, as it was referred to by the 3rd-2nd century BCE, stretched from the Bitlis Pass by Armenia proper to around the northern borders of Adiabene. These borders were fluid, and the Karduchoi built their greatest cities and settlements both along the Tigris river in order to control trade and along the southern Armenian Mountain range for a defensible backbone. Behind them lie the legendary Mt. Niphates where Noah’s ark is said to rest and Mt. Masion of the Tauros Range.
Just north of the well-endowed city of Nisibis, the Karduchian capital of Pinaka, a 3-citadel city straddling the Tigris, was home to a decent Syriac-speaking and Assyrian population. It was also said that many Euboeans lived among the Karduchoi in the time of the Achaemenids, so those have been represented as well. Many important figures from the land of Qardu have been noted by scholars as having semitic names, especially those later recorded by the church at Nisibis, so it is fair to say that Aramean and Syrian language as well as culture populated the region.
Similarly, while Greco-Roman authors claim that the Hurrian god Teshub was worshiped by the Karduchoi, and evidence of primordial Hurrian deity altars has been found, the Karduchoi shared the most culturally with other peoples of Mesopotamia and shared in their gods as well. The exception was a strong Armenian influence in the north, such as at the Bitlis Pass and in the up-and-coming city of Tigranakert (which was by this time already a city, and was simply added on to in the time of Tigranes). For these reasons, Gordyene will start with Chaldaean as the national religion, but have a great deal of local mixing in its provinces.
Master craftsmen, the Karduchoi and their homeland were known for rich minerals, metals, a seductive set of spices known as ‘Amomum,’ and the mineable jewel called Giganitis, which turned lizards and other critters away when burned for medicinal or crafting purposes. The wine and pasturelands of the Tigris were also noted by historians both contemporary and modern, so all these components have been reflected in the trade goods produced in the land of Qardu.
Gordyene has access to a small but regionally-impactful mission. The right-branch sees you develop their rich homeland for economic prosperity.
The left branch sees you attend to their great building projects and raising the historical cities along the Tigris that used the local geography to take advantage of regional trade and act as hubs of economy.
The people of Gordyene have long needed to swear some oath of allegiance to a great northern or southern power. At game-start, you are a subject of Armenia and, by proxy, a subject of the Seleukids. As the greater powers around you spin the dial of Fortuna and Armenia breaks away from the Seleukid sphere of influence, it will be up to you to block the Bitlis Pass and scream in your war cries, “NO MORE.” Once you have thrown off the yoke of tribute, your ambitions over the Upper Tigris domain shall guide you. Biting off chunks of the Seleukids in their period of decline will remain a challenge, and you must watch for your southern regional rival, Adiabene, which historically fought against Gordyene on multiple occasions for economic and political control of the river-region.
This image provides a rough estimate of the bare territory that the mission requires you to conquer, comprising the general Upper Tigris. Mission Tasks might also see you conquer some parts of southern Armenia, Adiabene, and other borderlands around the Tigris which might increase your regional economic and political control. This tree is not meant to be a world-conqueror...but should lead to the creation of an influential regional power under the rule of a unique people. Not pictured here, but this mission (like that of Albania), will include an option to reform a Hurrian-worshiping kingdom and will have unique cultural innovations characteristic of its historical achievements. One such example will be the “Karduchian Longbow.”
More awaits you when the full package of Gordyene’s content launches with the coming update. I want to leave you with 1 final note about this nation:
- The Karduchoi/Qardu are not, in fact, related to the modern-day Kurds despite what many sites claim. There is a lengthier scholarly explanation found in the book referenced above, but a shorthand is that the Kard/Qard beginning of the name has an Eastern Semitic origin or connection and does not develop linguistically into ‘Kurd’ as might be assumed - Qard refers to ‘strong’ in Akkadian/Semitic forms. The more likely ancestral origins of the Kurds can be found in a similar migratory/predatory group: the Kyrtioi/Kurtioi, for whom the western Zagros mountains were their home. Kyrt/Kurt→Kurd has been accepted as a more plausible linguistic evolution and lacks a clear Semitic or otherwise Mesopotamian connection, which is more inline with the Kurds’ linguistic Western-Iranian nature. In this mods, the Kyrtioi do not currently exist, nor would it be realistic to give them a tag at game-start, but we may consider spawning them and other predatory tribes in through a triggered event to add some dynamism to the game or as part of a tree down the road - more to come, but it could be fun.
And, while we’re on the topic of misconceptions…
This is modern “Albania”
And this is “Caucasian Albania”
These are not the same…The term Albanoi, is given by the Greeks in both instances, to the ancient Albanoi Illyrian tribe and the Albanoi of modern Azerbaijan. They have no other connection and are not part of some migratory conspiracy. However, we may add a decision where you Albanian nationalists can create modern Albania with ancient Albania…maybe.
A few things we did not cover in the last Developer Diary on Albania:
The trade goods of many territories throughout the Caucasus have been adjusted or rearranged based on researching both ancient and modern sources. In the case of Caucasian Iberia and Caucasian Albania, there were many ancient tales of healing crystals and icy dreams brought on by crystal rituals, so we are looking at adding decisions and events related to those, in order to provide content outside of missions, but, for now, we have made C. Albania more of the rich mineral and pastureland that the Kura-Araxes basin and Caucasian range was in those times—Albania was known for being rich in a similar manner to Colchis (which has also been ‘goldified’ to fit its historical and legendary symbolism). The Cinnabar in C. Albania should also help add to the map’s short supply of the rare resource, and you may have the opportunity to expand the search for more deposits along the mountain range.
And, of course, we failed to cover what is closest to an overhaul of the Armazic religion in the last Developer Diary because we were too busy showing off the Hurrian deities. On the surface, it would seem like little is known of Caucasian ritual and faith, but a collection of ancient sources, archaeology, medieval sources (which tell of a legendary past society before Christianization/Islamization), and modern study have shed light on many deities which populated this culturally bizarre region. Our team has relied heavily on JUTO for being our native Georgian translator in order to read Georgian literature and scholarship which has yet to be translated into English or other common Romance languages.
In both the west, the east, and the north of the Caucasus, we have made a great effort to give many deities holy sites where they will buff the territory and give visual life to the region. In the area of C. Albania, many of the deities come to us from Medieval Christian depictions within the family of the Biblical Togarmah. Like many biblical figures (Ex/ Lilith), Togarmah and his children are connected to the Abrahamic ‘God,’ while still being the genesis-figures for local tribes. We have included deities such as Heros, Bardos, Movakanos, Lekos, and Durdzuks in this situation.
We have also added many deities from the tales of the demonic Devi vs the Heroes of ancient Georgian folklore.
Other deities are locked behind certain cultures within the Caucasian Culture Group, such as the Suani (modern Svans), Abasgoi (modern Abkhazia), Legians, Albanians, and Laz peoples.
Many of the pre-Christian deities of the ancient Caucasus have pastoral elements (fertility deities in part or in whole) and have Greek elements or comparisons. This was especially true for Kolchis, where there was an entrenched Greek cultural hold and religious pervasion. Cities such as that in the Vani archaeological site and Rhodopolis and Phasis sent Greek pottery, wine, crafts, weapons, and ideas up the river towards the Colchian hinterlands. Phrixus, Lekothea, and the Dioscuri were worshiped by Caucasian peoples here.
Kolchis itself shall be discussed in the next Developer Diary but, before we go for today, I wanted to also show off some of the new flag art that our wonderful artists, Derek and Retcon, have been able to make for tags both new and old.
That is all from me for now. Next time, await the unveiling of Kolchis’ new mission and all the juicy content that comes with it.
I was OmegaCorps, your legally Caucasian but not ethnically Caucasian host, and this was…Gordyene and the greater Caucasus.
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I really for the life of me understand how you guys can be this productive with just getting more and more material out there for us. I only know that you can and are doing it and so I salute your brilliant work.
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DD81: the converter, Yaudheya, Tartessia and the Western Greeks
Dev Diary 81: the converter, Yaudheya, Tartessia and the Western Greeks
Salvete!
Today we'll be talking about 2 new missions for the Tartessians leading to the unification of the Iberian peninsula, a big rework of the vanilla missions for the Western Greeks, a full new mission tree for Yaudheya and more content for Pentapotamia.
But first, let's go over the updated Imperator to CK2/3 converters by the amazing converter teams for those who love a megacampaign.
Imperator To CK3 9.0 Titus:
Compatible with Imperator: Rome 2.0 and Crusader Kings III 1.9 - 1.11.
The latest version can be downloaded here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/imperator-to-ck3-release-thread.1415172/post-29272151
Imperator: Invictus saves are recommended. Support for vanilla I:R saves is deprecated.
Compatible with CK3ToEU4.
Thanks to everyone who contributed in any form!
Imperator to CK2:
Compatible with Imperator: Rome save files from versions 1.3 to 2.0.4 and with Crusader Kings 2 version 3.3. Compatible with Imperator: Invictus and the unofficial CK2 to EU4 converter.
The latest version of Imperator: Rome to CK2 can be downloaded from the Paradox Forums: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/imperator-to-ck2-release-thread.1496613/
Help in any way is always appreciated, and if you'd like to join the team or would like to give suggestions, feel free to hop on over to the development thread: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...pment-thread-not-for-troubleshooting.1294757/
And thanks to all those who contributed, without whose help this project would not have been possible: https://imperator.paradoxwikis.com/Imperator_To_CK2_Converter#Credits
Now onto the missions.
Greetings and salutations, Zorgoball here with a bunch of brand new mission trees to show off today. But first, a reminder that our AAR contest is still ongoing. https://discord.com/channels/839056459202953237/1110215875912536115 We have some outstanding entries already; tales of Monapian expansion, the Boiian menace, the rise of the Sea Peoples, and Carthaginian shenanigans are all keeping us entertained and excited for the next chapter. The contest ends in December so there is still plenty of time for you to write your story.
But now…let’s start breaking down some of the new content. We are going to start by examining a vanilla tree that has been completely reworked, but before I begin, I want to thank our very own Herodotus for suggesting this idea in the first place; if not for his exceptional vision, this undertaking would have never happened! First things first - let’s compare the vanilla “Far From Home” tree to its new version.
The size of the tree has basically doubled, and while the bones of the original mission are still there, you will now have some side quests to assist with your efforts to rebuild the Phocaean League. Massalia, Emporion, Elea and Hemeroskopeion all have access to this mission, and each have their fair share of regional tasks for times of peace and war. As a quick side note, Elea starts off as a tributary of Lucania, so if you want an exceptional challenge, you will have to liberate yourselves before you can begin the FFH tree…fingers crossed you will be able to do so before the Roman wolf turns its attention towards your borders. The AAR for Elea from our tester Salt was a gripping read, all but guaranteeing that you will have an exciting campaign as you struggle for Massiliot supremacy.
Because FFH is a vanilla tree, I will not spend as much time as I normally do explaining what happens with the mission, but I will show off some of the new tasks right now before we turn our attention westward. After you conquer your immediate region, your ruler will hear the call of the ocean and will want to pragmatically secure the nearby islands. Some old friends will make an appearance right off the bat; if you have played a campaign as Gymnaesia or one of the Nuragic tags, then you will already be familiar with the Pirates of Mago. Perhaps the two of you can come to some sort of mutually beneficial arrangement?
Before you reconquer the old Massiliot colony of Alalia, you can explore some business opportunities on the island, and once the friendly climate is secured by commerce, your settlers will have a much easier time colonizing the shores of Corsica. Many of the new tasks sprinkled throughout the tree are focused upon building up your economy, as we shall see below.
The virgin forests of Corsica are destined to be the source of lumber for your Massiliot fleets.
The wildlands will not be the only targets of your Massiliot surveyors; the rich cities of the coast, with their thriving workshops, will also receive upgrades.
As your engineers and architects work diligently to expand your industrial capacity, all roads will be leading towards a Grand Marketplace that will be built in your capital - the crowning jewel of your economy and a testament to your domination of the lands that surround you.
As you conquer more and more territory, your levies and legions could potentially adopt some of the traditional martial techniques of the native inhabitants.
As usual, I will leave a few surprises for you to find on your own. The time has now come to set sail for the south of the Iberian peninsula, where the descendants of the proud Tartessians are seeking to reforge their broken polity. In the brand new mission “Heirs of Tartessia”, you shall guide one of the Turdetanian tags as they attempt to consolidate into Tartessia!
This mission tree is available to seven starting tags - Onubaia, Orippaia, Hastaia, Karmoia, Urso, Kartubaia and the brand new OPM Astigi, and each has a slightly different path to wander down. For the purposes of this DD, we will be looking at Onubaia, but let’s take a peek at the variations available to you. I would also like to give a very special thanks to our dev Olivenkranz for helping with scripting and design; without his help, these first trees would have had no variety. We will compare the vanilla map setup to the newly expanded layout before diving in.
Now it is time to take a look at some of the unique tasks, and we shall do so by starting in reverse order. This last mission, available for Hastaia, gives you a special branch on the left wherein you can embrace the Punic religion that has taken hold of your capital. This religious initiative will bring you closer to the Carthaginians, who will seek to expand their influence throughout your nation by building up your trade connections.
While the Hastaians are keeping themselves busy making money, their neighbors to the north, Karmoia, are attempting to annex the nearby cities of Urso and Astigi, finishing off their regional rivals once and for all. Your ambitious leader has a few diplomatic tricks in store, however…
It will take some time and effort to dispel the rebellious sentiments found within your latest conquests, but with the right attitude, all things are possible.
I will let you discover what other fun problems await you, but for now, a whistle-stop tour through the shared tasks in which claims over the former Tartessian lands are given…
There is a small complication, however; not everyone within your nation will be on board with your Chief Magistrate unilaterally setting themselves up as the new King of Tartessia. Will your leader acquiesce to the demands of the Tribal Elders, or will the dark shadow of civil war taint the rebirth of your nation? If you want to rule unopposed, then you will have to shed Turdetanian blood.
Regardless of whatever decision you take, once you have settled this political distraction, the “Conquerors of Iberia” tree will be unlocked as your fledgling nation attempts to unify the entire peninsula.
Iberia has five regions; Baetica, Lusitania, Contestania, Gallaecia and Tarraconensis, and there will be claims and tasks for each of these theaters. Before you lead your forces northward, however, pragmatism dictates that you take all of Baetica first.
Before you move into another region of Iberia, you will first need to control the borderlands of the frontiers.
Each region will need to be developed, naturally, so we will briefly look at some of the tasks that your Tartessian governors will be entrusted with.
In addition to expanding and developing your Tartessian holdings in distant lands, you will be tasked with growing the capital region. Much of the material wealth of Tartessos was guaranteed by the thriving mining network built throughout its mountains, and the first step in emulating the glory of your ancestors involves restoring this long-neglected infrastructure.
Once a steady stream of ore is headed to your capital, you will then be able to rebuild your nation’s industry in earnest.
As the capital expands its capacity, specialized workshops will augment the abilities of your fighting forces as your blacksmiths begin to craft Turdetanian armor.
There are a couple of very special tasks that will only appear if certain conditions are met, and one of them, “The Wandering Strategos”, will tell the story of a friendship forged in the fires of war. A stranger, a refugee from the Galatian invasion of Anatolia, will show up at your city gates dressed in a battered suit of Turdetanian armor, and for a brief moment in time, you might be able to persuade this general to stay. And yet if the wars to destroy Galatia resume, then the Strategos will leave Iberia forever, hoping for one last chance to avenge his fallen brother…
You will be able to develop trade with both the Punics and Greeks, who will happily invest in your nation as long as you enjoy good relations with each other.
The culmination of your efforts to build the preeminent civilization in Iberia will see your capital turned into a metropolis, and as word spread far and wide of your accomplishments, another secret task could reveal itself…if the Sogdians have lost their homeland, they might end up on your doorstep.
A petition from the recently-conquered Hemeroskopeion will unlock a couple of tasks that will allow you to develop your feudatory.
Taking specific cultural inventions will also open new paths for you to explore…
One of the final branches we will be looking at will be available to you if you have kept true to the Iberic Faith, so you should avoid converting to Punic in your first tree if you want to indulge (sorry, Hastaia). Your zealous ruler will drive out the Punics and Druids from Iberia, destroying the abominable shrines of the foreigners and spreading the true faith throughout your country. A very special thanks to our scholar Tudhaliya for coming up with the initial sketches of this idea.
So much more awaits you in the Conquerors of Iberia tree! I now will turn things over to Izn.
Holy Ishtar in Nineveh, isn’t Zorgo the best? Hard to follow up that, but I’ll try so anyways. I’m surprisingly not here to talk about religion at all, but actually my own mission trees. First off, a tree for the people of East Punjab, you (don’t) know ‘em, you (don’t) love ‘em, Yaudheya! Before I get into it, here’s my sales pitch: it is the Sparta of India but a republic.
The Yaudheya Confederacy, or the Yodheya Gana, was a militaristic Kshatriya republic that stood in opposition to a state like Paurava, a wisdom-focused monarchy. I saw this and realized this is literally like an Athens VS Sparta type rivalry but the governments are reversed. Seeing this, I decided to completely rework Paurava in addition to adding a tree for Yaudheya. Without further ado, here’s the look of the new Yaudheya tree.
The ‘Lone Republic’ tree is unique among trees I’ve created. People who have played my trees will certainly note that I include many tags on religion. Not this time, it simply doesn’t fit with the narrative. Religion is more something those stuck up Pauravans like to debate about, in Yaudheya, it’s the god of war, Kartikeya, or feel free to die in the battlefield without his blessings.
The tree revolves around two separate themes. While one theme is more about conquest under the Mauryans, the second theme is specifically about building up cities. I’ll start with the city focused tasks.
The reason I’ve decided to have such a focus on these cities in particular is because the Yaudheya Confederacy was hardly one entity. Rather, it was a group of about three republics, all of which spawned on the corpse of the ancient Kuru Kingdom. Regardless, together they formed this confederacy. Think about it like a league formable. Thus, each republic within the confederacy had their own capital, administration, and way of life. Finally, within the borders of Yaudheya lay Sthanishvara, the future first capital of the Pushyabhuti dynasty almost 900 years later! It’s also been given a spotlight foreshadowing its eventual rise to stardom.
These four cities here are located outside of Yaudheya’s starting borders, and so have been placed apart from the rest. You will likely notice these cities as major cities within the Paurava tree. My favorite of these tasks is Nokhar’s development, which highlights the growth of the Loh-Kot fort in the Luhwar district, which would eventually become the city of Lahore, the walled city.
Now, onto the conquest portions of the tree. Like Paurava, you begin as a vassal under Maurya, but your situation is a bit different. Unlike Paurava, the Yaudheyans have been loyal and willing subjects. This isn’t unique in Yaudheyan history, they always willingly served as an elite unit in whoever dominated the region. So, even if you don’t play as Maurya, you might want to keep Yaudheya as a vassal in order to utilize a special decision.
This is a theme you’ll see throughout the tree. Warrior code, trust in the warriors, these men are loyal, disciplined troops ready to serve Maurya. Those who have played Paurava or Nabhapakti know that those nations’ trees act as poison to the Mauryans. The Yaudheyan’s however are in a sort of symbiotic relationship with them. Yes, you will grow in power and ask Maurya for land, but you will also be encouraged to stay loyal till the collapse.
Of these tasks, my favorite is ending the Kingdom of Porus. It uses a special pseudo-mechanic that goes rather in-depth with the choices. You have to meet with Chandragupta himself and convince him of why you should be able to attack their other subject.
However… let’s say you are abysmal in your charisma, you won’t be so convincing.
Or what if you have a lisp?
There are more options too, hidden away depending on your traits! So take care of your ruler traits, perhaps it’s best to wait for the next election for someone better at talking, or perhaps you can’t wait and go ahead with the risks.
Success means that you will be able to hit the mission task that allows you to declare war on Paurava.
This is a good intro to the concept that this tree will be interactive with Maurya and Paurava both. I did this all with multiplayer in mind! I hope that those who play in multiplayer give this trio a try. I can just imagine the squabbling Pauravans and Yaudheyans trying to gain an advantage over one another while the Mauryan player gets a headache having to listen to their whining while managing more important issues. Historically, it would be Yaudheya that conquered Paurava, but that certainly doesn’t have to be the case.
The final task I want to talk about in this tree is the Panchanada’s Panchnagara task. Let’s assume you have managed to conquer all of Panchanada. The many cities will want to be able to rule themselves, after all, as a republic people tend to have more voices than in monarchies (at least sometimes). While you can indeed keep your land to yourselves, you’ll also have the option to create this cute little vassal state. Panchnagara, aka, the Five Cities League.
The… borders are much to be desired, but you can always establish some nicer borders yourself, maybe by making more republics or maybe by expanding the Panchnagara League. Oh, and for multiplayer, perhaps if Yaudheya ends up winning, you can still have the Paurava player exist via this subject state?
Speaking of Paurava, let’s finally move onto the rework of the Paurava tree.
You’ll notice it’s a lot wider but overall shorter. Don’t worry! Paurava will be blessed with a second tree as well based on the India-focused part of the original tree. It’ll act as a middle-tree before forming Bharat. For now, I’ll mention some of the differences.
Four new development tasks exist now, emphasizing the importance of Nokhar, Mallia, and wheat. These tasks resemble some of the tasks you’ll find in the Yaudheya tree. After all, they’re both Punjabi tags, thus there should be some crossover despite the vast majority being quite distinct.
Replacing the old task that allowed you to gain independence from Maurya, these two will break it down some and add for some interactive gameplay with Yaudheya and Maurya. Paurava is undoubtedly the harder of the two, but Yaudheya has to be much more loyal to Maurya as they were historically. Paurava will be dealing more in demands, which can have dire consequences if you’re not careful.
And To Kill an Empire is probably my favorite of the new tasks to Paurava. In it, you get a very powerful modifier for 3 years, and then you’re out of luck! It’s a very difficult objective, one that perhaps equals that of Porus’ attempt to defend against Alexander! Perhaps the Mauryans will treat you with similar honor and respect if you manage to beat one of their armies. Or perhaps you can defeat more than just an army and actually manage to take all of Gandhara.
“But what about Pentapotamia!?” Pentapotamia was by far the most popular part of the Paurava tree, but as I played through it, I realized I wanted to expand it. I loved the idea of a ‘Reverse Okeanos,’ and becoming a strange Indo-Greek state that’s really more Indo than Greek. So it’s now become it’s very own tree, accessible by either Yaudheya or Paurava, each with their own special variant in narrative. Paurava-Pentapotamia will focus on claiming a ‘Diadochi’ status through the idea of Porus being a rightful successor to Alexander. After all, King Porus was indeed a governor of Alexander’s Empire. Yaudheya-Pentapotamia on the other hand will seek justification through inspiration of the Spartans, gaining the ability to adopt a Spartan Diarchy as they near their very very distant cousins. While I don’t have either variant done yet, I do have the designs for the first Pentapotamian tree.
The first part here is about hybridizing your culture. In this, you’ll be able to convert to Hellenic optionally. You will have to take a very nasty modifier, but you’ll be able to dispel it in the task ‘A True Yavanaraja.’
The other side of the tree meanwhile is about conquests and development, showing you both can earn the right to go for a Reverse Okeanos as well as are worthy to carry on the legacies of both Raja Porus and Alexander the Great. In fact, the Blood of Alexander mission will allow you to claim yourself as a Diadochi successor, citing Raja Porus as a worthy contender for the Indian parts of the Empire. You will optionally get to change your name to the Poravid Kingdom/Empire, echoing the style of the Diadochi, but either way, your rather shaky claim has to be proven worthy quickly, which brings me to the next half of the tree.
This part of the tree above is all about the actual act of Reverse Okeanos. It’s a lot more in-depth than the original tree was. Reverse Okeanos has to be completed in just 30 years! But don’t worry, you get a pretty nice modifier and each task will net you either a reduction in AE, a stability bonus, or a cultural bonus to keep pops happy… just don’t fail because all those rewards you get to help you will be taken away, including the AE reductions, meaning you will surely crumble like Alexander’s Empire did. Good luck forming the funkiest Diadochi claimant!
I wish I could show more, but it is simply not done yet. The last thing I can talk about before signing off though is a little easter egg formable I’ve added for Persian speaking nations that land themselves in Panchanada. Of course, five rivers is easily translated into any language, but Persians hold a special honor giving the region’s modern and most popular name of Punjab.
Hope you’re excited as I am about the Punjabi content comin’ your way! And hope you enjoyed me not talking about religion for the first time ever. Until next time, that’s all from me, folks!
Salvete!
Today we'll be talking about 2 new missions for the Tartessians leading to the unification of the Iberian peninsula, a big rework of the vanilla missions for the Western Greeks, a full new mission tree for Yaudheya and more content for Pentapotamia.
But first, let's go over the updated Imperator to CK2/3 converters by the amazing converter teams for those who love a megacampaign.
Imperator To CK3 9.0 Titus:
Compatible with Imperator: Rome 2.0 and Crusader Kings III 1.9 - 1.11.
The latest version can be downloaded here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/imperator-to-ck3-release-thread.1415172/post-29272151
Imperator: Invictus saves are recommended. Support for vanilla I:R saves is deprecated.
Compatible with CK3ToEU4.
Thanks to everyone who contributed in any form!
Imperator to CK2:
Compatible with Imperator: Rome save files from versions 1.3 to 2.0.4 and with Crusader Kings 2 version 3.3. Compatible with Imperator: Invictus and the unofficial CK2 to EU4 converter.
The latest version of Imperator: Rome to CK2 can be downloaded from the Paradox Forums: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/imperator-to-ck2-release-thread.1496613/
Help in any way is always appreciated, and if you'd like to join the team or would like to give suggestions, feel free to hop on over to the development thread: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...pment-thread-not-for-troubleshooting.1294757/
And thanks to all those who contributed, without whose help this project would not have been possible: https://imperator.paradoxwikis.com/Imperator_To_CK2_Converter#Credits
Now onto the missions.
Greetings and salutations, Zorgoball here with a bunch of brand new mission trees to show off today. But first, a reminder that our AAR contest is still ongoing. https://discord.com/channels/839056459202953237/1110215875912536115 We have some outstanding entries already; tales of Monapian expansion, the Boiian menace, the rise of the Sea Peoples, and Carthaginian shenanigans are all keeping us entertained and excited for the next chapter. The contest ends in December so there is still plenty of time for you to write your story.
But now…let’s start breaking down some of the new content. We are going to start by examining a vanilla tree that has been completely reworked, but before I begin, I want to thank our very own Herodotus for suggesting this idea in the first place; if not for his exceptional vision, this undertaking would have never happened! First things first - let’s compare the vanilla “Far From Home” tree to its new version.
The size of the tree has basically doubled, and while the bones of the original mission are still there, you will now have some side quests to assist with your efforts to rebuild the Phocaean League. Massalia, Emporion, Elea and Hemeroskopeion all have access to this mission, and each have their fair share of regional tasks for times of peace and war. As a quick side note, Elea starts off as a tributary of Lucania, so if you want an exceptional challenge, you will have to liberate yourselves before you can begin the FFH tree…fingers crossed you will be able to do so before the Roman wolf turns its attention towards your borders. The AAR for Elea from our tester Salt was a gripping read, all but guaranteeing that you will have an exciting campaign as you struggle for Massiliot supremacy.
Because FFH is a vanilla tree, I will not spend as much time as I normally do explaining what happens with the mission, but I will show off some of the new tasks right now before we turn our attention westward. After you conquer your immediate region, your ruler will hear the call of the ocean and will want to pragmatically secure the nearby islands. Some old friends will make an appearance right off the bat; if you have played a campaign as Gymnaesia or one of the Nuragic tags, then you will already be familiar with the Pirates of Mago. Perhaps the two of you can come to some sort of mutually beneficial arrangement?
Before you reconquer the old Massiliot colony of Alalia, you can explore some business opportunities on the island, and once the friendly climate is secured by commerce, your settlers will have a much easier time colonizing the shores of Corsica. Many of the new tasks sprinkled throughout the tree are focused upon building up your economy, as we shall see below.
The virgin forests of Corsica are destined to be the source of lumber for your Massiliot fleets.
The wildlands will not be the only targets of your Massiliot surveyors; the rich cities of the coast, with their thriving workshops, will also receive upgrades.
As your engineers and architects work diligently to expand your industrial capacity, all roads will be leading towards a Grand Marketplace that will be built in your capital - the crowning jewel of your economy and a testament to your domination of the lands that surround you.
As you conquer more and more territory, your levies and legions could potentially adopt some of the traditional martial techniques of the native inhabitants.
As usual, I will leave a few surprises for you to find on your own. The time has now come to set sail for the south of the Iberian peninsula, where the descendants of the proud Tartessians are seeking to reforge their broken polity. In the brand new mission “Heirs of Tartessia”, you shall guide one of the Turdetanian tags as they attempt to consolidate into Tartessia!
This mission tree is available to seven starting tags - Onubaia, Orippaia, Hastaia, Karmoia, Urso, Kartubaia and the brand new OPM Astigi, and each has a slightly different path to wander down. For the purposes of this DD, we will be looking at Onubaia, but let’s take a peek at the variations available to you. I would also like to give a very special thanks to our dev Olivenkranz for helping with scripting and design; without his help, these first trees would have had no variety. We will compare the vanilla map setup to the newly expanded layout before diving in.
Now it is time to take a look at some of the unique tasks, and we shall do so by starting in reverse order. This last mission, available for Hastaia, gives you a special branch on the left wherein you can embrace the Punic religion that has taken hold of your capital. This religious initiative will bring you closer to the Carthaginians, who will seek to expand their influence throughout your nation by building up your trade connections.
While the Hastaians are keeping themselves busy making money, their neighbors to the north, Karmoia, are attempting to annex the nearby cities of Urso and Astigi, finishing off their regional rivals once and for all. Your ambitious leader has a few diplomatic tricks in store, however…
It will take some time and effort to dispel the rebellious sentiments found within your latest conquests, but with the right attitude, all things are possible.
I will let you discover what other fun problems await you, but for now, a whistle-stop tour through the shared tasks in which claims over the former Tartessian lands are given…
There is a small complication, however; not everyone within your nation will be on board with your Chief Magistrate unilaterally setting themselves up as the new King of Tartessia. Will your leader acquiesce to the demands of the Tribal Elders, or will the dark shadow of civil war taint the rebirth of your nation? If you want to rule unopposed, then you will have to shed Turdetanian blood.
Regardless of whatever decision you take, once you have settled this political distraction, the “Conquerors of Iberia” tree will be unlocked as your fledgling nation attempts to unify the entire peninsula.
Iberia has five regions; Baetica, Lusitania, Contestania, Gallaecia and Tarraconensis, and there will be claims and tasks for each of these theaters. Before you lead your forces northward, however, pragmatism dictates that you take all of Baetica first.
Before you move into another region of Iberia, you will first need to control the borderlands of the frontiers.
Each region will need to be developed, naturally, so we will briefly look at some of the tasks that your Tartessian governors will be entrusted with.
In addition to expanding and developing your Tartessian holdings in distant lands, you will be tasked with growing the capital region. Much of the material wealth of Tartessos was guaranteed by the thriving mining network built throughout its mountains, and the first step in emulating the glory of your ancestors involves restoring this long-neglected infrastructure.
Once a steady stream of ore is headed to your capital, you will then be able to rebuild your nation’s industry in earnest.
As the capital expands its capacity, specialized workshops will augment the abilities of your fighting forces as your blacksmiths begin to craft Turdetanian armor.
There are a couple of very special tasks that will only appear if certain conditions are met, and one of them, “The Wandering Strategos”, will tell the story of a friendship forged in the fires of war. A stranger, a refugee from the Galatian invasion of Anatolia, will show up at your city gates dressed in a battered suit of Turdetanian armor, and for a brief moment in time, you might be able to persuade this general to stay. And yet if the wars to destroy Galatia resume, then the Strategos will leave Iberia forever, hoping for one last chance to avenge his fallen brother…
You will be able to develop trade with both the Punics and Greeks, who will happily invest in your nation as long as you enjoy good relations with each other.
The culmination of your efforts to build the preeminent civilization in Iberia will see your capital turned into a metropolis, and as word spread far and wide of your accomplishments, another secret task could reveal itself…if the Sogdians have lost their homeland, they might end up on your doorstep.
A petition from the recently-conquered Hemeroskopeion will unlock a couple of tasks that will allow you to develop your feudatory.
Taking specific cultural inventions will also open new paths for you to explore…
One of the final branches we will be looking at will be available to you if you have kept true to the Iberic Faith, so you should avoid converting to Punic in your first tree if you want to indulge (sorry, Hastaia). Your zealous ruler will drive out the Punics and Druids from Iberia, destroying the abominable shrines of the foreigners and spreading the true faith throughout your country. A very special thanks to our scholar Tudhaliya for coming up with the initial sketches of this idea.
So much more awaits you in the Conquerors of Iberia tree! I now will turn things over to Izn.
Holy Ishtar in Nineveh, isn’t Zorgo the best? Hard to follow up that, but I’ll try so anyways. I’m surprisingly not here to talk about religion at all, but actually my own mission trees. First off, a tree for the people of East Punjab, you (don’t) know ‘em, you (don’t) love ‘em, Yaudheya! Before I get into it, here’s my sales pitch: it is the Sparta of India but a republic.
The Yaudheya Confederacy, or the Yodheya Gana, was a militaristic Kshatriya republic that stood in opposition to a state like Paurava, a wisdom-focused monarchy. I saw this and realized this is literally like an Athens VS Sparta type rivalry but the governments are reversed. Seeing this, I decided to completely rework Paurava in addition to adding a tree for Yaudheya. Without further ado, here’s the look of the new Yaudheya tree.
The ‘Lone Republic’ tree is unique among trees I’ve created. People who have played my trees will certainly note that I include many tags on religion. Not this time, it simply doesn’t fit with the narrative. Religion is more something those stuck up Pauravans like to debate about, in Yaudheya, it’s the god of war, Kartikeya, or feel free to die in the battlefield without his blessings.
The tree revolves around two separate themes. While one theme is more about conquest under the Mauryans, the second theme is specifically about building up cities. I’ll start with the city focused tasks.
The reason I’ve decided to have such a focus on these cities in particular is because the Yaudheya Confederacy was hardly one entity. Rather, it was a group of about three republics, all of which spawned on the corpse of the ancient Kuru Kingdom. Regardless, together they formed this confederacy. Think about it like a league formable. Thus, each republic within the confederacy had their own capital, administration, and way of life. Finally, within the borders of Yaudheya lay Sthanishvara, the future first capital of the Pushyabhuti dynasty almost 900 years later! It’s also been given a spotlight foreshadowing its eventual rise to stardom.
These four cities here are located outside of Yaudheya’s starting borders, and so have been placed apart from the rest. You will likely notice these cities as major cities within the Paurava tree. My favorite of these tasks is Nokhar’s development, which highlights the growth of the Loh-Kot fort in the Luhwar district, which would eventually become the city of Lahore, the walled city.
Now, onto the conquest portions of the tree. Like Paurava, you begin as a vassal under Maurya, but your situation is a bit different. Unlike Paurava, the Yaudheyans have been loyal and willing subjects. This isn’t unique in Yaudheyan history, they always willingly served as an elite unit in whoever dominated the region. So, even if you don’t play as Maurya, you might want to keep Yaudheya as a vassal in order to utilize a special decision.
This is a theme you’ll see throughout the tree. Warrior code, trust in the warriors, these men are loyal, disciplined troops ready to serve Maurya. Those who have played Paurava or Nabhapakti know that those nations’ trees act as poison to the Mauryans. The Yaudheyan’s however are in a sort of symbiotic relationship with them. Yes, you will grow in power and ask Maurya for land, but you will also be encouraged to stay loyal till the collapse.
Of these tasks, my favorite is ending the Kingdom of Porus. It uses a special pseudo-mechanic that goes rather in-depth with the choices. You have to meet with Chandragupta himself and convince him of why you should be able to attack their other subject.
However… let’s say you are abysmal in your charisma, you won’t be so convincing.
Or what if you have a lisp?
There are more options too, hidden away depending on your traits! So take care of your ruler traits, perhaps it’s best to wait for the next election for someone better at talking, or perhaps you can’t wait and go ahead with the risks.
Success means that you will be able to hit the mission task that allows you to declare war on Paurava.
This is a good intro to the concept that this tree will be interactive with Maurya and Paurava both. I did this all with multiplayer in mind! I hope that those who play in multiplayer give this trio a try. I can just imagine the squabbling Pauravans and Yaudheyans trying to gain an advantage over one another while the Mauryan player gets a headache having to listen to their whining while managing more important issues. Historically, it would be Yaudheya that conquered Paurava, but that certainly doesn’t have to be the case.
The final task I want to talk about in this tree is the Panchanada’s Panchnagara task. Let’s assume you have managed to conquer all of Panchanada. The many cities will want to be able to rule themselves, after all, as a republic people tend to have more voices than in monarchies (at least sometimes). While you can indeed keep your land to yourselves, you’ll also have the option to create this cute little vassal state. Panchnagara, aka, the Five Cities League.
The… borders are much to be desired, but you can always establish some nicer borders yourself, maybe by making more republics or maybe by expanding the Panchnagara League. Oh, and for multiplayer, perhaps if Yaudheya ends up winning, you can still have the Paurava player exist via this subject state?
Speaking of Paurava, let’s finally move onto the rework of the Paurava tree.
You’ll notice it’s a lot wider but overall shorter. Don’t worry! Paurava will be blessed with a second tree as well based on the India-focused part of the original tree. It’ll act as a middle-tree before forming Bharat. For now, I’ll mention some of the differences.
Four new development tasks exist now, emphasizing the importance of Nokhar, Mallia, and wheat. These tasks resemble some of the tasks you’ll find in the Yaudheya tree. After all, they’re both Punjabi tags, thus there should be some crossover despite the vast majority being quite distinct.
Replacing the old task that allowed you to gain independence from Maurya, these two will break it down some and add for some interactive gameplay with Yaudheya and Maurya. Paurava is undoubtedly the harder of the two, but Yaudheya has to be much more loyal to Maurya as they were historically. Paurava will be dealing more in demands, which can have dire consequences if you’re not careful.
And To Kill an Empire is probably my favorite of the new tasks to Paurava. In it, you get a very powerful modifier for 3 years, and then you’re out of luck! It’s a very difficult objective, one that perhaps equals that of Porus’ attempt to defend against Alexander! Perhaps the Mauryans will treat you with similar honor and respect if you manage to beat one of their armies. Or perhaps you can defeat more than just an army and actually manage to take all of Gandhara.
“But what about Pentapotamia!?” Pentapotamia was by far the most popular part of the Paurava tree, but as I played through it, I realized I wanted to expand it. I loved the idea of a ‘Reverse Okeanos,’ and becoming a strange Indo-Greek state that’s really more Indo than Greek. So it’s now become it’s very own tree, accessible by either Yaudheya or Paurava, each with their own special variant in narrative. Paurava-Pentapotamia will focus on claiming a ‘Diadochi’ status through the idea of Porus being a rightful successor to Alexander. After all, King Porus was indeed a governor of Alexander’s Empire. Yaudheya-Pentapotamia on the other hand will seek justification through inspiration of the Spartans, gaining the ability to adopt a Spartan Diarchy as they near their very very distant cousins. While I don’t have either variant done yet, I do have the designs for the first Pentapotamian tree.
The first part here is about hybridizing your culture. In this, you’ll be able to convert to Hellenic optionally. You will have to take a very nasty modifier, but you’ll be able to dispel it in the task ‘A True Yavanaraja.’
The other side of the tree meanwhile is about conquests and development, showing you both can earn the right to go for a Reverse Okeanos as well as are worthy to carry on the legacies of both Raja Porus and Alexander the Great. In fact, the Blood of Alexander mission will allow you to claim yourself as a Diadochi successor, citing Raja Porus as a worthy contender for the Indian parts of the Empire. You will optionally get to change your name to the Poravid Kingdom/Empire, echoing the style of the Diadochi, but either way, your rather shaky claim has to be proven worthy quickly, which brings me to the next half of the tree.
This part of the tree above is all about the actual act of Reverse Okeanos. It’s a lot more in-depth than the original tree was. Reverse Okeanos has to be completed in just 30 years! But don’t worry, you get a pretty nice modifier and each task will net you either a reduction in AE, a stability bonus, or a cultural bonus to keep pops happy… just don’t fail because all those rewards you get to help you will be taken away, including the AE reductions, meaning you will surely crumble like Alexander’s Empire did. Good luck forming the funkiest Diadochi claimant!
I wish I could show more, but it is simply not done yet. The last thing I can talk about before signing off though is a little easter egg formable I’ve added for Persian speaking nations that land themselves in Panchanada. Of course, five rivers is easily translated into any language, but Persians hold a special honor giving the region’s modern and most popular name of Punjab.
Hope you’re excited as I am about the Punjabi content comin’ your way! And hope you enjoyed me not talking about religion for the first time ever. Until next time, that’s all from me, folks!
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Hello
Now that I’ve done my first unmodded campaign and as 2.0.4 ironman is achievements-compatible with mods, I'm really interested into trying Invictus
In June 2021, the DD stated "Now finally we have an announcement for you, the mod will be translated into French, German and Spanish".
I would like to know if it's the case now. I used to be part of translation team for a CK2 mod and I remember that it was difficult and tiring to translate a mod that was in development because it kept changing^^
So, is it advised to only play in English or not?
Thanks
Now that I’ve done my first unmodded campaign and as 2.0.4 ironman is achievements-compatible with mods, I'm really interested into trying Invictus
In June 2021, the DD stated "Now finally we have an announcement for you, the mod will be translated into French, German and Spanish".
I would like to know if it's the case now. I used to be part of translation team for a CK2 mod and I remember that it was difficult and tiring to translate a mod that was in development because it kept changing^^
So, is it advised to only play in English or not?
Thanks
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I have a question regarding religious sites. In the game, we often see the destruction of very important holy sites by nations of the same faith. Is there any measurements that can done to prevent this?
Also, I believe that the consequences are way too light of doing exactly that. Other nations of the same faith are just slightly upset, when the Temple of Zeus is destroyed and looted by a nation of the same faith. Maybe there should be something to prevent this. The event could also trigger a declaration of war by neighboring countries of the same faith and political isolation as an example.
Also, I believe that the consequences are way too light of doing exactly that. Other nations of the same faith are just slightly upset, when the Temple of Zeus is destroyed and looted by a nation of the same faith. Maybe there should be something to prevent this. The event could also trigger a declaration of war by neighboring countries of the same faith and political isolation as an example.
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I'd like to offer my support for the notion of more consequences for looting sacred sites.
Historical examples of this are the Three Sacred Wars of Ancient Greece, these cases centred around the oracle of Delphi, and the Third Sacred War was specifically due to this sacred site being looted, but all three wars were between Greeks (with Macedonians joining the fray in the Third Sacred War).
What I would suggest is that when a sacred site is looted a third option for a CB on the looters to be provided in addition to what we've got now.
Amphictyonic league - Wikipedia
First Sacred War - Wikipedia
Second Sacred War - Wikipedia
Third Sacred War - Wikipedia
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The mod's playable in mainly Spanish but yeah it is extremely difficult to maintain and you will encounter missing loc. The translations also became subpar due to increased reliance on AI tools.
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Thanks for the answer, I understand the issue
I'll play in English then
DD82: Raetia, Messapia and Kolchis missions
Dev Diary 82: Raetia, Messapia and Kolchis missions
Salvete!
Today we'll be presenting 3 new mission trees, one for Raetia, one for Messapia and one for the Kolchis.
To start, i'll hand you over to Derekmark for Raetia.
Salve everyone! Derekmark here with a new tree, this time for the northernmost Italic nation of Raetia.
An ancient people, the Raeti were the Pre-Indo-European inhabitants of the central Alps, distantly related to the Etruscans. Once, long ago, their presence extended towards the Padus (the Po river), with the ancient Camuni and Eugani tribes possibly having been related peoples, or even Raetic tribes themselves. Nevertheless, the Rhaetian tribes remained in their mountain home for millenia, mixing with incoming Celtic peoples, such as the Vindelici, before being conquered by a Roman expedition in 15 B.C.E.
Under Roman domination, the Rhaetians would lose their language, becoming assimilated into the empire. However, in-game, things could go very differently.
In Imperator, Raetia finds itself as a uniquely cultured nation nestled within a mostly Celtic mountain range. If Raetia is to become powerful enough to resist titans of the classical world, it must first consolidate a fragmented and diverse region. If the player succeeds in doing so, then you should be just about sufficiently equipped to defend against the threat of more powerful states to the south, providing the player is shrewd enough to outmaneuver strong and numerous enemies.
To achieve this, the tree that Raetia receives will include tasks to push you to expand in multiple directions, as well as develop a population base in your mountain home, taking full advantage of your geography to make it untouchable.
Starting off this tree, Raetia will first have to consolidate the Rhaetian tribes of which the federation already consists of to gather the will of the tribes so that you may both expand and build up your country (though this won’t take long).
Once done, you will be free to consolidate the surrounding area, bringing surrounding valleys, where Rhaetian presence was felt, directly under the control of the tribes. (With the many tribes united together, the Rhaetians will reform into a true Tribal Federation, changing your government)
But the Raeti weren’t alone in their area of the Alps, together with the Rhaetian tribes lived those of the Vindelician Celts. In fact the ample mixing of these two groups lead some writers to view them as indistinguishable from one another. With such fraternization, it would be useful to absorb these tribes into your own Rhaetian realm to increase its power.
With the Vindelician tribesmen held within your borders, you will be able to fully integrate them into your society, giving you a few bonuses to cultural happiness, and a precious boost to Levy size.
Along with the entrance of Celtic individuals into Rhaetian society, there was also the influence of Celtic religion, with the Raeti having practiced magic rituals involving Celtic gods and traditions. If you are to bring at least two Druidic deities into Raetia’s pantheon, you can reflect this religious syncretism, with permanent bonuses to boot.
As well as the integration of the Vindelicians, you must also deal with other surrounding peoples, either through diplomacy or conquest. To your immediate west lies the Lepontii, of which you will have already fought for control of the Rhaetian Alps by this point. If you have not already completely conquered them yet, now will be your chance.
Beyond the Lepontic Alps reside the Helvetian Celts. While these fierce people must be brought into your realm, if you are to have dominance over the region, it is your choice whether to do so through diplomatic means or by the sword.
Meanwhile, you will be expanding Raetic influence east as well, pushing your borders further and further until all of the Alpes Carina is under your control. And once the Alpine Noricans have been conquered, it will be time to push North, into the commercially opportune lands of Norica.
With most of the Alps under your control, you will finally have the opportunity to reorganize your state into a grand confederation of Alpine peoples. An Alpine Confederation.
And with the reform of your federation into a much larger state, a reform of your governance will be necessary too!
But is this the extent of Raetia’s expansionist ambitions? No, for to your south you must deal with the old tribes of the Po Valley.
As I have briefly mentioned, the area of the Padan plain directly below the lands of the Rhaetians were historically inhabited by peoples called the Camuni and the Euganei. The former having left only a few inscriptions, and the latter being a semi-mythical people that once reached across the Western Veneto region. Though we aren't quite sure of the identity of these peoples, there is a possibility of them having been tribes of Lowland Raeti. As such, this will be your justification to enter into these lands, to take control of these areas back from the hands of those who invaded centuries ago.
Once you have managed to completely control the historical regions of the Camuni and Euganei, you may re-establish these long lost tribes as Rhaetian feudatories. Though if you are feeling selfish, you may as well keep these lands for yourself.
On the subject of looking southwards towards the Padan, you may also want to look towards the shores of the Adriatic. The Raeti had little prospect of obtaining precious salt from the Alps, so it would be opportune to do so from Veneto's coast (as they did through trade).
But now, with your limited foothold in this fertile river plain, you must expand quickly to establish a Rhaetian repopulation of the region, failure to do so could result in the endangerment of your subject tribes to local powers.
Finally, with the complete consolidation of the Po Valley, you can encourage further colonization of the region, and claim dominion over the rest of the Cisalpine Gaul region.
In addition to the paths that I have already explained, there are a couple more branching tasks that give Raetia the opportunity to expand into Carina, and even to cross the Alps into southern Gaul. Raetia is not, however, the ‘biggest fish in the pond’ so to speak, especially so close to the ascendent Romans.
As such, we must turn our focus to the left side of the tree, which will focus on defending and building your central lands up, so that you may look to match larger states coming from all sides.
First off, you must gather funds to pay for defenses in your capital province. You are surrounded by many other tribes that may make your capital their principal target for raids or other attacks, so defense here will be your first priority.
Next, you will need to fortify the Reschen Pass to your West. In real life, a Roman army, under the leadership of Drusus, marched through the pass on their way to conquer the Rhaetians, before quickly annexing them. To avoid this fate, you must quickly construct fortifications in the pass.
Of course, with the powerful Cisalpine Gallic tribes to your south, you should also protect the only pass directly into your lands from there as well.
With this focus of fortifying the Raetic lands, Raetia will need to look to the techniques employed by Celts (such as the Vindelicii) in making both walled cities and fortifications, and apply them to mountainous terrain and existing Rhaetian methods.
However this still may not be enough. Raetia must therefore put into practice a prioritization on manning its fortifications (in practice, diverting manpower to garrisons), though this will put a temporary strain on your manpower.
The final step of your defense-oriented reforms will be to attune Raetic warriors and tactics to specialized Alpine warfare. Beware of having a war for at least a year though, as such a shakeup will certainly negatively affect fighting spirit in the short term.
Though these reforms and defenses will certainly aid in your goal in uniting the Alps under Raetia, you will still need a worthy capital to project Rhaetian power from. At the game's start, your capital province starts off as a rural settlement with only a small capacity for holding a sizable population, and you must therefore change this by establishing a city there.
While their population never reached the highest of quantities, the Raeti did reside in houses that were remarkably well adapted to the frigid cold of the Alps. With this in mind, the new Rhaetian capital at Sublavione must make good use of unique local techniques to make a well acclimated, yet grand, city in the middle of the Alpine mountains.
Finally, with all of Raetia’s growth and expansion, into a grand confederation of Alpine peoples, headed by a grand and guarded city, the state formed by Raetia will be ready to dominate their surrounding area. However with the numerical advantage of the Italic states to the south, and perhaps even of the Gauls, Raetia cannot afford to have its homeland breached. Your final task will therefore be to block off all entrances to the Alps, spending extra funds to make every pass as treacherous as possible to any invading enemy so that they may never reach your main population centers in the center.
Will you be able to act quickly as the Raeti, and forge a grand, mountain-based state, or simply fall to more numerical powers or tribes? That will depend on your ability to manage Raetia’s early wars, and take advantage of the area’s unique geography to build defenses quickly, before great empires arrive at your doorstep.
Well I hope you enjoy this tree, and good luck!
Also, for who’s interested, a couple of new flags:
Rhaetia:
Alpine Confederation:
Camunia and Euganeia (mission task feudatories):
Guess who’s back, back again! (It’s me Izn). Today I’m presenting the Messapia tree! This tree was one I worked on with Olivenkranz together. Here’s the look before we get into it.
Now, before the tree even begins, we have a war to fight! Historically, the Messapii tribes were involved in a war against the Lucani and Samnites, on the side of their age old enemy, Tarentum. However, the war ended up being… more or less nothing in terms of land acquisitions. The Spartans arrived, and the Lucani gave up. So this war is handled entirely through event chain, done by Olivenkranz.
The chain has quite a few outcomes and involves several powers in the region. Now then, let’s look at the first parts of the tree.
Your initial tree is all about diplomacy. Whether you are Apulia or Messapia proper, you will be able to peacefully unite with your Iapygian brothers. The task ‘Pyrrhic Plans’ is designed to give you an alliance with Epirus in order to join Pyrrhic War against Rome using the systems of alliance in game rather than adding you to the war directly. You can also net yourself a nice bloodline using this task, or you can choose to ignore it if you’d rather not ally Epirus.
After this initial bit of diplomacy, you will have to take out your spears and go to war! But Messapia’s place in the world is at quite a crossroads. Between three cultures, Italian, Greek, and Illyrian. Between many government systems; the Roman Republic, the Etruscan League, the Itallian tribes, the Illyrian tribes, the mainland Greek republics, the Epirotes and their Diadochi monarchy, the Syracusians and their monarchy, and the many city states of Magna Graecia. Point is, you have a lot of choices to expand, and regardless of where, you’ll be taking on different influences. I think this makes this tree rather replayable.
The right side of the tree is all about those conquests, and while it is interesting, I think I’ll leave most of that side for you to discover. I will point out the Marulum Nostrum end task though, because it is quite cute! It effectively means Mini Sea, and I think it’s quite obvious what that ‘Mini Sea’ represents. But if not, here’s a highlight of the territory you can expect to go for.
Anyways, onto the part of the tree that makes it unique!
This here is all based on who you conquer and which traditions you adopt. As Messapia or Apulia centralize, you will have many options as previously stated.
Once you’ve decided which influences to take on, you will finally be able to centralize into one of nine different government types depending on your choices.
Now, there’s also the faith aspect to this, and I don’t want to say too much, but I will highlight the Illyric path.
I’m very excited about this path in particular because Illyric, in most of my research, revolved around three cults: Sun, Snake, and Thracian Horseman. However, in Italia, the Iapygian/Messapian speaking Illyrians would eventually adopt a cult of wolves. This was a belief unique to the Messapians, particularly the Daunian Iapygians to the north, but the idea of wolf worship is a very Itallian one in nature. Thus, the wolf cult is born in Invictus as a new choice.
On the topic of new Illyric Cults, there is one more cult I decided to add to the other Ilyrian tree.
This cult is a bit more fictional, however, I find it quite logical and a fun easter egg for those who are interested in it. I will also point out that the Monthly Ship Repair at Sea is a very unique modifier as well, one that is all but banned to use due to its powerful nature, so don’t scoff at the 0.01+ modifier! Additionally, the cults have been slightly rebalanced so that they are more equal in value.
Ah, I’ve gotten quite off topic, this is supposed to be about Messapia! I’m pretty close to finishing my teasers on the tree, but I’d be remiss to talk about the ending. After having decided your government, your religion, and having conquered your Mini Mare Nostrum, you will be able to finish the final task and be rewarded with a mission formable.
Annnnd, for those who don’t like the name Magna Illyria, I decided to put in an alternate name being Magna Messapia. It’s purely an aesthetic choice, but if you’re like me, aesthetics matter a lot!
The formable’s aesthetic is meant to mirror that of Magna Graecia. You’ll even notice that the flag is loosely inspired from Magna Graecia’s.
That’s all I have to share today, folks, so I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope that ya’ll will give a try to the newest contenders for Italian domination; the unlikely and unique Illyrians of Italia.
Omega here with yet another update on the Caucasus. I come with good news and bad news.
The bad news: while it was hinted at earlier, Armenia content has been delayed until the next major update so that an Armenian content package can be released with missions for Armenia and a mission for Sophene and Lesser Armenia individually. This news will disappoint some, but the delay is to make sure that the missions for all Armenian tags can be interactive and fully-researched. I have collected many monographs to make sure we design the missions with the most up-to-date information.
The good news: today I’m here to talk about Kolchis and everyone’s favorite Argonautic tale!
The new Caucasian Cultural Setup:
While previous Dev Diaries have discussed and hinted at the new cultural setup in the Caucasus, we now provide you the full picture. While Iberic, Albanian, and Legian remain the same, many small cultures have been added to represent the very diverse nature of the region, and some cultures have been converted into the Caucasian group.
Mentioned by Herodotos and other historians, the Sasperies don’t have an exact location, and appear somewhat migratory, but their culture here represents several smaller groups of peoples in the southern Caucasus who dwelled among the lower Caucasus range and infiltrated much of the Armenian sphere.
To their east are the Caspians, whom I have already covered in Albania’s Dev Diary, and represent the so-called Caspian tribes whose horses were valued as chariot-pullers and cavalry beasts by Cryus and his descendants.
The Colchians, the ruling culture and class of the kingdom of Kolchis, the likely Mingrelian-speakers, still exist all along the domain of the Colchian delta, but are joined by many other groups as well.
The Suani, modern Svan people, have long inhabited the northern Caucasus range, and were famed for their goldsmithing and mining practices. They have been added throughout the mountains, the Colchian heartland, and the ports where they would sell their goods from workshops. The Suani, should you take control as their culture, have a unique formable:
Another new culture added to the Colchian area is the Laz or Lazi people. Fans of Imperial Rome might remember the kingdom of Lazica in the region formerly known as Kolchis. The Lazi once roamed in the northern reaches of the Colchian coast but, by the time of the game-start, they had mostly migrated to the southeastern Pontic coast where modern remains of the Laz language still exists. The Laz culture represents the Lazi themselves as well as the individual tribal groups mentioned in ancient sources such as the Mossynoechi, Macronnes, and others. For those eager enough, Lazica can be reformed by the Lazi.
The last culture added to the Colchian lands is that of the Abasgoi.
Representing the ancient predecessors of the Abkhazians and other tribes in the region, the Abasgoi lived between the Northern Caucasus range and the coast, with nobles in the capital and major cities of Kolchis itself and the Greek cities along the northern Pontic coast. Like the other added cultures, the Abasgoi get a formable.
As part of the upcoming update, and following it, the team will be adding cultural innovations and other unique content to these cultures to make them worth integrating and engaging with beyond assimilation.
The last major cultural change was to flip the Sindian and Maeotian cultures from the steppe cultural group of the Sarmatians into the Caucasian culture group. While the Sindi (especially if you just read the wiki page) seem to take a lot of influence from the Siraci and other steppe groups, they themselves are closely intertwined and were likely just the most dominant faction of the many diverse Maeotian tribes along the lake Maeotis (the Azov Sea). What little archaeology we have from the area in terms of burials and settlement post-holes indicates a lifestyle that was uncharacteristic of steppe populations in the northern Caucasus, and many fort towns, similar to oppida, were located in the region. Materially, the Maeotians/Sindi also shared much artistically and in trade with the Suani and northern Caucasian groups. For this reason, and because many theories still exist regarding a much larger ‘Caucasian’ archaeological/cultural complex stretching down to northern Mesopotamia before and during the early periods of the Bronze Age, I have added them as members of the Caucasian culture group. This change will also help balance the population count of the culture groups, seeing how small the Caucasian group was in the vanilla setup. Of course, as the Maeotians join the Caucasian Culture Group, they earn a formable…
As a bonus, to represent the intense level of Hellenization which occurred in Kolchis between the fall of the Achaemenid Empire and the wars of the Diadochi (and afterwards), Pontic, Bosporan, and other Hellenic pops have been strewn about the lands of Kolchis, especially at cities like the archaeological site of Vani, where a greek archon of the is known from inscriptions and there were many Hellenic temples and public buildings with many Hellenized or Greek-origin names appearing on ostraka.
Now, to the mission everyone has been clamoring for - Kolchis’ pinnacle mission.
While it may appear small, it is quite mighty, and quite flavorful.
Resources consulted in the making of this mission and the cultural setup included but weren’t limited to: Christoph Baumer’s The History of the Caucasus, Strabo’s Geographica, Herodotus' Histories, David Braund’s Georgia in Antiquity, and The Georgian National Museum of History’s Iberia-Colchis: Researches on the Archaeology and History of Georgia in the Classical and Early medieval Period Essay Collection.
Besides the mission itself, flavor in the form of deities (as has already been shown in previous Dev Diaries), unique decisions, and event chains will be added to cultures and countries in this area based off of the above-mentioned resources. As an example, the Iberians were said to have believed in white crystals from the northern Caucasian range having the power to conquer nightmares and end all bad dreams…
For the Kolchis Mission, the narrative involves:
Dioscurias, modern Sokhumi, was a very cosmopolitan trading hub, renowned for its salt deposits and its centrality when it came to migrants and merchants from the 4 corners of the Caucasus. This mission task sets you about dealing with the politics of this city, its many neighbors (such as the Heniochi tribe to the north), and the trade benefits of the town.
Who could imagine that one lone city could be so…eventful…
Few have not heard the tale of the Golden Fleece and the exploits of Iason and the sailors of the Argo. Yet, few do know the historical realities that may have led to threads of the tale. While Kolchis has always been a region rich in resources—the burials of commoners could be found littered with golden foil and fragments, it was their method of collecting golden flakes in the river Phasis (which flowed from the favorably rich mountains) by dredging sheep’s wool through it that led to the image of golden wool. You have the ability to profit off of the river Phasis’ trade and deal with the many peculiarities of the body of water.
Not so much a political reference as it is a physical obstacle, the swampy nature of the Colchian delta both characterized the cultural development of the place while also hindering its ability to become a more powerful kingdom. The people of Kolchis were forced to settle upon artificial mounds and high places in the topography, while they sailed along a dense network of canals in the delta region—a unique and awesome image, but not efficient for empire-building. Draining this swamp with engineering solutions won’t be easy, but it’s well-worth the price.
What could top all the Kolchis content presented so far better than a new Great Wonder in the game, and having it be the palace of king Aeetes himself. While the myth of the Argonautic tale has no precise geography, and archaeology cannot conclusively determine the existence of an ancient palace or its whereabouts (the region of Kolchis before the time of the Achaemenid empire was most likely a dizzying array of small and medium-sized kingdoms and chiefdoms controlling sections of the delta and mountainous lands), the palace of Aeetes is thought to coincide either with the town/area of Phasis, where the Argonauts entered the kingdom of Kolchis, or up the river at the site of modern Kutaisi (possibly called Aea/Aia in antiquity). For the purpose of the mod, and flavor around the town of Phasis, we have chosen to make the palace a Great Wonder that can be constructed in Phasis, which will later give you the option to move your capital to Phasis and rule from the wealthy coastal port city.
The Georgian Chronicles and other mostly Medieval sources record a long history between Kolchis and Caucasian Iberia under the Kujid and Pharnavazid dynasties. While much of it (especially the story of legendary Pharnavaz I) is drenched in retroactive narrative-creation and influence from Persian epic forms of storytelling, there are few other sources on the individuals living at this time, so we enjoyed running with the stories and allowing you to follow them as they are told or completing diverting towards your own path. As told in the chronicles, Kuji of Kolchis married the sister of Pharnavaz I after he supported Pharnavaz’s overthrow of the supposedly Macedonian puppet king Azo. Here, the player will be able to marry one of Pharnavaz’s sisters (realistic Cacuasian and Median-Persian names have been chosen because his mother was said to have been from Aspadana). However, if you buck the narrative expectations and marry Pharnavaz I’s own mother, you get access to her Acahemenid bloodline trait, taking into account her supposed status as a daughter or relative of Darius III, the last Achaemenid king of kings.
The narrative after this marriage allows you to become an equal of Pharnavaz’s Iberia, a willing puppet, or the a-historical dominant player in a partnership—choose your narrative.
Define your position in the Caucasus with the Caucasian Union task, where the subsequent events will shape the look and play of the Caucasus irreversibly.
Many other secrets and unique moments await you in the Kolchis mission, but the overall conquest goals largely encompass: every coastal territory in the entire Pontos Euxinos, and a majority of the middle Caucasus region encompassing Kolchis, Caucasian Iberia, and Caucasian Albania.
We look forward to seeing what spells you cast and what narratives the fates weave for you.
Salvete!
Today we'll be presenting 3 new mission trees, one for Raetia, one for Messapia and one for the Kolchis.
To start, i'll hand you over to Derekmark for Raetia.
Salve everyone! Derekmark here with a new tree, this time for the northernmost Italic nation of Raetia.
An ancient people, the Raeti were the Pre-Indo-European inhabitants of the central Alps, distantly related to the Etruscans. Once, long ago, their presence extended towards the Padus (the Po river), with the ancient Camuni and Eugani tribes possibly having been related peoples, or even Raetic tribes themselves. Nevertheless, the Rhaetian tribes remained in their mountain home for millenia, mixing with incoming Celtic peoples, such as the Vindelici, before being conquered by a Roman expedition in 15 B.C.E.
Under Roman domination, the Rhaetians would lose their language, becoming assimilated into the empire. However, in-game, things could go very differently.
In Imperator, Raetia finds itself as a uniquely cultured nation nestled within a mostly Celtic mountain range. If Raetia is to become powerful enough to resist titans of the classical world, it must first consolidate a fragmented and diverse region. If the player succeeds in doing so, then you should be just about sufficiently equipped to defend against the threat of more powerful states to the south, providing the player is shrewd enough to outmaneuver strong and numerous enemies.
To achieve this, the tree that Raetia receives will include tasks to push you to expand in multiple directions, as well as develop a population base in your mountain home, taking full advantage of your geography to make it untouchable.
Starting off this tree, Raetia will first have to consolidate the Rhaetian tribes of which the federation already consists of to gather the will of the tribes so that you may both expand and build up your country (though this won’t take long).
Once done, you will be free to consolidate the surrounding area, bringing surrounding valleys, where Rhaetian presence was felt, directly under the control of the tribes. (With the many tribes united together, the Rhaetians will reform into a true Tribal Federation, changing your government)
But the Raeti weren’t alone in their area of the Alps, together with the Rhaetian tribes lived those of the Vindelician Celts. In fact the ample mixing of these two groups lead some writers to view them as indistinguishable from one another. With such fraternization, it would be useful to absorb these tribes into your own Rhaetian realm to increase its power.
With the Vindelician tribesmen held within your borders, you will be able to fully integrate them into your society, giving you a few bonuses to cultural happiness, and a precious boost to Levy size.
Along with the entrance of Celtic individuals into Rhaetian society, there was also the influence of Celtic religion, with the Raeti having practiced magic rituals involving Celtic gods and traditions. If you are to bring at least two Druidic deities into Raetia’s pantheon, you can reflect this religious syncretism, with permanent bonuses to boot.
As well as the integration of the Vindelicians, you must also deal with other surrounding peoples, either through diplomacy or conquest. To your immediate west lies the Lepontii, of which you will have already fought for control of the Rhaetian Alps by this point. If you have not already completely conquered them yet, now will be your chance.
Beyond the Lepontic Alps reside the Helvetian Celts. While these fierce people must be brought into your realm, if you are to have dominance over the region, it is your choice whether to do so through diplomatic means or by the sword.
Meanwhile, you will be expanding Raetic influence east as well, pushing your borders further and further until all of the Alpes Carina is under your control. And once the Alpine Noricans have been conquered, it will be time to push North, into the commercially opportune lands of Norica.
With most of the Alps under your control, you will finally have the opportunity to reorganize your state into a grand confederation of Alpine peoples. An Alpine Confederation.
And with the reform of your federation into a much larger state, a reform of your governance will be necessary too!
But is this the extent of Raetia’s expansionist ambitions? No, for to your south you must deal with the old tribes of the Po Valley.
As I have briefly mentioned, the area of the Padan plain directly below the lands of the Rhaetians were historically inhabited by peoples called the Camuni and the Euganei. The former having left only a few inscriptions, and the latter being a semi-mythical people that once reached across the Western Veneto region. Though we aren't quite sure of the identity of these peoples, there is a possibility of them having been tribes of Lowland Raeti. As such, this will be your justification to enter into these lands, to take control of these areas back from the hands of those who invaded centuries ago.
Once you have managed to completely control the historical regions of the Camuni and Euganei, you may re-establish these long lost tribes as Rhaetian feudatories. Though if you are feeling selfish, you may as well keep these lands for yourself.
On the subject of looking southwards towards the Padan, you may also want to look towards the shores of the Adriatic. The Raeti had little prospect of obtaining precious salt from the Alps, so it would be opportune to do so from Veneto's coast (as they did through trade).
But now, with your limited foothold in this fertile river plain, you must expand quickly to establish a Rhaetian repopulation of the region, failure to do so could result in the endangerment of your subject tribes to local powers.
Finally, with the complete consolidation of the Po Valley, you can encourage further colonization of the region, and claim dominion over the rest of the Cisalpine Gaul region.
In addition to the paths that I have already explained, there are a couple more branching tasks that give Raetia the opportunity to expand into Carina, and even to cross the Alps into southern Gaul. Raetia is not, however, the ‘biggest fish in the pond’ so to speak, especially so close to the ascendent Romans.
As such, we must turn our focus to the left side of the tree, which will focus on defending and building your central lands up, so that you may look to match larger states coming from all sides.
First off, you must gather funds to pay for defenses in your capital province. You are surrounded by many other tribes that may make your capital their principal target for raids or other attacks, so defense here will be your first priority.
Next, you will need to fortify the Reschen Pass to your West. In real life, a Roman army, under the leadership of Drusus, marched through the pass on their way to conquer the Rhaetians, before quickly annexing them. To avoid this fate, you must quickly construct fortifications in the pass.
Of course, with the powerful Cisalpine Gallic tribes to your south, you should also protect the only pass directly into your lands from there as well.
With this focus of fortifying the Raetic lands, Raetia will need to look to the techniques employed by Celts (such as the Vindelicii) in making both walled cities and fortifications, and apply them to mountainous terrain and existing Rhaetian methods.
However this still may not be enough. Raetia must therefore put into practice a prioritization on manning its fortifications (in practice, diverting manpower to garrisons), though this will put a temporary strain on your manpower.
The final step of your defense-oriented reforms will be to attune Raetic warriors and tactics to specialized Alpine warfare. Beware of having a war for at least a year though, as such a shakeup will certainly negatively affect fighting spirit in the short term.
Though these reforms and defenses will certainly aid in your goal in uniting the Alps under Raetia, you will still need a worthy capital to project Rhaetian power from. At the game's start, your capital province starts off as a rural settlement with only a small capacity for holding a sizable population, and you must therefore change this by establishing a city there.
While their population never reached the highest of quantities, the Raeti did reside in houses that were remarkably well adapted to the frigid cold of the Alps. With this in mind, the new Rhaetian capital at Sublavione must make good use of unique local techniques to make a well acclimated, yet grand, city in the middle of the Alpine mountains.
Finally, with all of Raetia’s growth and expansion, into a grand confederation of Alpine peoples, headed by a grand and guarded city, the state formed by Raetia will be ready to dominate their surrounding area. However with the numerical advantage of the Italic states to the south, and perhaps even of the Gauls, Raetia cannot afford to have its homeland breached. Your final task will therefore be to block off all entrances to the Alps, spending extra funds to make every pass as treacherous as possible to any invading enemy so that they may never reach your main population centers in the center.
Will you be able to act quickly as the Raeti, and forge a grand, mountain-based state, or simply fall to more numerical powers or tribes? That will depend on your ability to manage Raetia’s early wars, and take advantage of the area’s unique geography to build defenses quickly, before great empires arrive at your doorstep.
Well I hope you enjoy this tree, and good luck!
Also, for who’s interested, a couple of new flags:
Rhaetia:
Alpine Confederation:
Camunia and Euganeia (mission task feudatories):
Guess who’s back, back again! (It’s me Izn). Today I’m presenting the Messapia tree! This tree was one I worked on with Olivenkranz together. Here’s the look before we get into it.
Now, before the tree even begins, we have a war to fight! Historically, the Messapii tribes were involved in a war against the Lucani and Samnites, on the side of their age old enemy, Tarentum. However, the war ended up being… more or less nothing in terms of land acquisitions. The Spartans arrived, and the Lucani gave up. So this war is handled entirely through event chain, done by Olivenkranz.
The chain has quite a few outcomes and involves several powers in the region. Now then, let’s look at the first parts of the tree.
Your initial tree is all about diplomacy. Whether you are Apulia or Messapia proper, you will be able to peacefully unite with your Iapygian brothers. The task ‘Pyrrhic Plans’ is designed to give you an alliance with Epirus in order to join Pyrrhic War against Rome using the systems of alliance in game rather than adding you to the war directly. You can also net yourself a nice bloodline using this task, or you can choose to ignore it if you’d rather not ally Epirus.
After this initial bit of diplomacy, you will have to take out your spears and go to war! But Messapia’s place in the world is at quite a crossroads. Between three cultures, Italian, Greek, and Illyrian. Between many government systems; the Roman Republic, the Etruscan League, the Itallian tribes, the Illyrian tribes, the mainland Greek republics, the Epirotes and their Diadochi monarchy, the Syracusians and their monarchy, and the many city states of Magna Graecia. Point is, you have a lot of choices to expand, and regardless of where, you’ll be taking on different influences. I think this makes this tree rather replayable.
The right side of the tree is all about those conquests, and while it is interesting, I think I’ll leave most of that side for you to discover. I will point out the Marulum Nostrum end task though, because it is quite cute! It effectively means Mini Sea, and I think it’s quite obvious what that ‘Mini Sea’ represents. But if not, here’s a highlight of the territory you can expect to go for.
Anyways, onto the part of the tree that makes it unique!
This here is all based on who you conquer and which traditions you adopt. As Messapia or Apulia centralize, you will have many options as previously stated.
Once you’ve decided which influences to take on, you will finally be able to centralize into one of nine different government types depending on your choices.
Now, there’s also the faith aspect to this, and I don’t want to say too much, but I will highlight the Illyric path.
I’m very excited about this path in particular because Illyric, in most of my research, revolved around three cults: Sun, Snake, and Thracian Horseman. However, in Italia, the Iapygian/Messapian speaking Illyrians would eventually adopt a cult of wolves. This was a belief unique to the Messapians, particularly the Daunian Iapygians to the north, but the idea of wolf worship is a very Itallian one in nature. Thus, the wolf cult is born in Invictus as a new choice.
On the topic of new Illyric Cults, there is one more cult I decided to add to the other Ilyrian tree.
This cult is a bit more fictional, however, I find it quite logical and a fun easter egg for those who are interested in it. I will also point out that the Monthly Ship Repair at Sea is a very unique modifier as well, one that is all but banned to use due to its powerful nature, so don’t scoff at the 0.01+ modifier! Additionally, the cults have been slightly rebalanced so that they are more equal in value.
Ah, I’ve gotten quite off topic, this is supposed to be about Messapia! I’m pretty close to finishing my teasers on the tree, but I’d be remiss to talk about the ending. After having decided your government, your religion, and having conquered your Mini Mare Nostrum, you will be able to finish the final task and be rewarded with a mission formable.
Annnnd, for those who don’t like the name Magna Illyria, I decided to put in an alternate name being Magna Messapia. It’s purely an aesthetic choice, but if you’re like me, aesthetics matter a lot!
The formable’s aesthetic is meant to mirror that of Magna Graecia. You’ll even notice that the flag is loosely inspired from Magna Graecia’s.
That’s all I have to share today, folks, so I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope that ya’ll will give a try to the newest contenders for Italian domination; the unlikely and unique Illyrians of Italia.
Omega here with yet another update on the Caucasus. I come with good news and bad news.
The bad news: while it was hinted at earlier, Armenia content has been delayed until the next major update so that an Armenian content package can be released with missions for Armenia and a mission for Sophene and Lesser Armenia individually. This news will disappoint some, but the delay is to make sure that the missions for all Armenian tags can be interactive and fully-researched. I have collected many monographs to make sure we design the missions with the most up-to-date information.
The good news: today I’m here to talk about Kolchis and everyone’s favorite Argonautic tale!
The new Caucasian Cultural Setup:
While previous Dev Diaries have discussed and hinted at the new cultural setup in the Caucasus, we now provide you the full picture. While Iberic, Albanian, and Legian remain the same, many small cultures have been added to represent the very diverse nature of the region, and some cultures have been converted into the Caucasian group.
Mentioned by Herodotos and other historians, the Sasperies don’t have an exact location, and appear somewhat migratory, but their culture here represents several smaller groups of peoples in the southern Caucasus who dwelled among the lower Caucasus range and infiltrated much of the Armenian sphere.
To their east are the Caspians, whom I have already covered in Albania’s Dev Diary, and represent the so-called Caspian tribes whose horses were valued as chariot-pullers and cavalry beasts by Cryus and his descendants.
The Colchians, the ruling culture and class of the kingdom of Kolchis, the likely Mingrelian-speakers, still exist all along the domain of the Colchian delta, but are joined by many other groups as well.
The Suani, modern Svan people, have long inhabited the northern Caucasus range, and were famed for their goldsmithing and mining practices. They have been added throughout the mountains, the Colchian heartland, and the ports where they would sell their goods from workshops. The Suani, should you take control as their culture, have a unique formable:
Another new culture added to the Colchian area is the Laz or Lazi people. Fans of Imperial Rome might remember the kingdom of Lazica in the region formerly known as Kolchis. The Lazi once roamed in the northern reaches of the Colchian coast but, by the time of the game-start, they had mostly migrated to the southeastern Pontic coast where modern remains of the Laz language still exists. The Laz culture represents the Lazi themselves as well as the individual tribal groups mentioned in ancient sources such as the Mossynoechi, Macronnes, and others. For those eager enough, Lazica can be reformed by the Lazi.
The last culture added to the Colchian lands is that of the Abasgoi.
Representing the ancient predecessors of the Abkhazians and other tribes in the region, the Abasgoi lived between the Northern Caucasus range and the coast, with nobles in the capital and major cities of Kolchis itself and the Greek cities along the northern Pontic coast. Like the other added cultures, the Abasgoi get a formable.
As part of the upcoming update, and following it, the team will be adding cultural innovations and other unique content to these cultures to make them worth integrating and engaging with beyond assimilation.
The last major cultural change was to flip the Sindian and Maeotian cultures from the steppe cultural group of the Sarmatians into the Caucasian culture group. While the Sindi (especially if you just read the wiki page) seem to take a lot of influence from the Siraci and other steppe groups, they themselves are closely intertwined and were likely just the most dominant faction of the many diverse Maeotian tribes along the lake Maeotis (the Azov Sea). What little archaeology we have from the area in terms of burials and settlement post-holes indicates a lifestyle that was uncharacteristic of steppe populations in the northern Caucasus, and many fort towns, similar to oppida, were located in the region. Materially, the Maeotians/Sindi also shared much artistically and in trade with the Suani and northern Caucasian groups. For this reason, and because many theories still exist regarding a much larger ‘Caucasian’ archaeological/cultural complex stretching down to northern Mesopotamia before and during the early periods of the Bronze Age, I have added them as members of the Caucasian culture group. This change will also help balance the population count of the culture groups, seeing how small the Caucasian group was in the vanilla setup. Of course, as the Maeotians join the Caucasian Culture Group, they earn a formable…
As a bonus, to represent the intense level of Hellenization which occurred in Kolchis between the fall of the Achaemenid Empire and the wars of the Diadochi (and afterwards), Pontic, Bosporan, and other Hellenic pops have been strewn about the lands of Kolchis, especially at cities like the archaeological site of Vani, where a greek archon of the is known from inscriptions and there were many Hellenic temples and public buildings with many Hellenized or Greek-origin names appearing on ostraka.
Now, to the mission everyone has been clamoring for - Kolchis’ pinnacle mission.
While it may appear small, it is quite mighty, and quite flavorful.
Resources consulted in the making of this mission and the cultural setup included but weren’t limited to: Christoph Baumer’s The History of the Caucasus, Strabo’s Geographica, Herodotus' Histories, David Braund’s Georgia in Antiquity, and The Georgian National Museum of History’s Iberia-Colchis: Researches on the Archaeology and History of Georgia in the Classical and Early medieval Period Essay Collection.
Besides the mission itself, flavor in the form of deities (as has already been shown in previous Dev Diaries), unique decisions, and event chains will be added to cultures and countries in this area based off of the above-mentioned resources. As an example, the Iberians were said to have believed in white crystals from the northern Caucasian range having the power to conquer nightmares and end all bad dreams…
For the Kolchis Mission, the narrative involves:
- Developing the land of Kolchis itself
- Engaging with the historical ties between Kolchis and Pharnavaz I’s Iberia
- Negotiating between the many different and relations-tense tribes in the eastern Pontos Euxinos
- Rediscovering and engaging with the legendary history of Kolchis
- Expanding Kolchis’ trade and military domain to eventually cover the entirety of the Black Sea
Dioscurias, modern Sokhumi, was a very cosmopolitan trading hub, renowned for its salt deposits and its centrality when it came to migrants and merchants from the 4 corners of the Caucasus. This mission task sets you about dealing with the politics of this city, its many neighbors (such as the Heniochi tribe to the north), and the trade benefits of the town.
Who could imagine that one lone city could be so…eventful…
Few have not heard the tale of the Golden Fleece and the exploits of Iason and the sailors of the Argo. Yet, few do know the historical realities that may have led to threads of the tale. While Kolchis has always been a region rich in resources—the burials of commoners could be found littered with golden foil and fragments, it was their method of collecting golden flakes in the river Phasis (which flowed from the favorably rich mountains) by dredging sheep’s wool through it that led to the image of golden wool. You have the ability to profit off of the river Phasis’ trade and deal with the many peculiarities of the body of water.
Not so much a political reference as it is a physical obstacle, the swampy nature of the Colchian delta both characterized the cultural development of the place while also hindering its ability to become a more powerful kingdom. The people of Kolchis were forced to settle upon artificial mounds and high places in the topography, while they sailed along a dense network of canals in the delta region—a unique and awesome image, but not efficient for empire-building. Draining this swamp with engineering solutions won’t be easy, but it’s well-worth the price.
What could top all the Kolchis content presented so far better than a new Great Wonder in the game, and having it be the palace of king Aeetes himself. While the myth of the Argonautic tale has no precise geography, and archaeology cannot conclusively determine the existence of an ancient palace or its whereabouts (the region of Kolchis before the time of the Achaemenid empire was most likely a dizzying array of small and medium-sized kingdoms and chiefdoms controlling sections of the delta and mountainous lands), the palace of Aeetes is thought to coincide either with the town/area of Phasis, where the Argonauts entered the kingdom of Kolchis, or up the river at the site of modern Kutaisi (possibly called Aea/Aia in antiquity). For the purpose of the mod, and flavor around the town of Phasis, we have chosen to make the palace a Great Wonder that can be constructed in Phasis, which will later give you the option to move your capital to Phasis and rule from the wealthy coastal port city.
The Georgian Chronicles and other mostly Medieval sources record a long history between Kolchis and Caucasian Iberia under the Kujid and Pharnavazid dynasties. While much of it (especially the story of legendary Pharnavaz I) is drenched in retroactive narrative-creation and influence from Persian epic forms of storytelling, there are few other sources on the individuals living at this time, so we enjoyed running with the stories and allowing you to follow them as they are told or completing diverting towards your own path. As told in the chronicles, Kuji of Kolchis married the sister of Pharnavaz I after he supported Pharnavaz’s overthrow of the supposedly Macedonian puppet king Azo. Here, the player will be able to marry one of Pharnavaz’s sisters (realistic Cacuasian and Median-Persian names have been chosen because his mother was said to have been from Aspadana). However, if you buck the narrative expectations and marry Pharnavaz I’s own mother, you get access to her Acahemenid bloodline trait, taking into account her supposed status as a daughter or relative of Darius III, the last Achaemenid king of kings.
The narrative after this marriage allows you to become an equal of Pharnavaz’s Iberia, a willing puppet, or the a-historical dominant player in a partnership—choose your narrative.
Define your position in the Caucasus with the Caucasian Union task, where the subsequent events will shape the look and play of the Caucasus irreversibly.
Many other secrets and unique moments await you in the Kolchis mission, but the overall conquest goals largely encompass: every coastal territory in the entire Pontos Euxinos, and a majority of the middle Caucasus region encompassing Kolchis, Caucasian Iberia, and Caucasian Albania.
We look forward to seeing what spells you cast and what narratives the fates weave for you.
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The attention to detail is just incredible. I have never seen a foreigner take interest in Kolchis and Ancient Caucasian history in general to this level.
A big thank you to Omega and to the devs for making such a wonderfully well made and researched mod, you guys should all be hired by paradox to continue the legacy of this game.
Thanks by Omega's biggest fanboy - JUTO
A big thank you to Omega and to the devs for making such a wonderfully well made and researched mod, you guys should all be hired by paradox to continue the legacy of this game.
Thanks by Omega's biggest fanboy - JUTO
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Historically, this term "Transcaucasian" for the region originated in Russia, reflecting the Russian viewpoint (as the area is across the Caucasus from Moscow), and it seems silly to use for a country whose capital is on the same side of the mountains - the empire is across the Caucasus from what, exactly?
I'd suggest "South Caucasian" or even just simply "Caucasian".
I'd suggest "South Caucasian" or even just simply "Caucasian".
I believe what meant is "across" in a sense of "encompassing", which trans also means.
I agree. I think those are good suggestions. That would add a little bit more flavour to the game.I'd like to offer my support for the notion of more consequences for looting sacred sites.
Historical examples of this are the Three Sacred Wars of Ancient Greece, these cases centred around the oracle of Delphi, and the Third Sacred War was specifically due to this sacred site being looted, but all three wars were between Greeks (with Macedonians joining the fray in the Third Sacred War).
What I would suggest is that when a sacred site is looted a third option for a CB on the looters to be provided in addition to what we've got now.
Amphictyonic league - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
First Sacred War - Wikipedia
Second Sacred War - Wikipedia
Third Sacred War - Wikipedia
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Gorgeous new mission trees and formables, though I had to ask if there are alternative titles for the Alpine League? From the Transcaucasian one I think people are ignoring the other events that might have alternate names, like Colchis-Iberia or simply a greater Colchis, though for the Alpine League I wanted to know if there was any way to keep the name Raetia.Dev Diary 82: Raetia, Messapia and Kolchis missions
Salvete!
Today we'll be presenting 3 new mission trees, one for Raetia, one for Messapia and one for the Kolchis.
To start, i'll hand you over to Derekmark for Raetia.
Salve everyone! Derekmark here with a new tree, this time for the northernmost Italic nation of Raetia.
An ancient people, the Raeti were the Pre-Indo-European inhabitants of the central Alps, distantly related to the Etruscans. Once, long ago, their presence extended towards the Padus (the Po river), with the ancient Camuni and Eugani tribes possibly having been related peoples, or even Raetic tribes themselves. Nevertheless, the Rhaetian tribes remained in their mountain home for millenia, mixing with incoming Celtic peoples, such as the Vindelici, before being conquered by a Roman expedition in 15 B.C.E.
Under Roman domination, the Rhaetians would lose their language, becoming assimilated into the empire. However, in-game, things could go very differently.
In Imperator, Raetia finds itself as a uniquely cultured nation nestled within a mostly Celtic mountain range. If Raetia is to become powerful enough to resist titans of the classical world, it must first consolidate a fragmented and diverse region. If the player succeeds in doing so, then you should be just about sufficiently equipped to defend against the threat of more powerful states to the south, providing the player is shrewd enough to outmaneuver strong and numerous enemies.
To achieve this, the tree that Raetia receives will include tasks to push you to expand in multiple directions, as well as develop a population base in your mountain home, taking full advantage of your geography to make it untouchable.
Starting off this tree, Raetia will first have to consolidate the Rhaetian tribes of which the federation already consists of to gather the will of the tribes so that you may both expand and build up your country (though this won’t take long).
Once done, you will be free to consolidate the surrounding area, bringing surrounding valleys, where Rhaetian presence was felt, directly under the control of the tribes. (With the many tribes united together, the Rhaetians will reform into a true Tribal Federation, changing your government)
But the Raeti weren’t alone in their area of the Alps, together with the Rhaetian tribes lived those of the Vindelician Celts. In fact the ample mixing of these two groups lead some writers to view them as indistinguishable from one another. With such fraternization, it would be useful to absorb these tribes into your own Rhaetian realm to increase its power.
With the Vindelician tribesmen held within your borders, you will be able to fully integrate them into your society, giving you a few bonuses to cultural happiness, and a precious boost to Levy size.
Along with the entrance of Celtic individuals into Rhaetian society, there was also the influence of Celtic religion, with the Raeti having practiced magic rituals involving Celtic gods and traditions. If you are to bring at least two Druidic deities into Raetia’s pantheon, you can reflect this religious syncretism, with permanent bonuses to boot.
As well as the integration of the Vindelicians, you must also deal with other surrounding peoples, either through diplomacy or conquest. To your immediate west lies the Lepontii, of which you will have already fought for control of the Rhaetian Alps by this point. If you have not already completely conquered them yet, now will be your chance.
Beyond the Lepontic Alps reside the Helvetian Celts. While these fierce people must be brought into your realm, if you are to have dominance over the region, it is your choice whether to do so through diplomatic means or by the sword.
Meanwhile, you will be expanding Raetic influence east as well, pushing your borders further and further until all of the Alpes Carina is under your control. And once the Alpine Noricans have been conquered, it will be time to push North, into the commercially opportune lands of Norica.
With most of the Alps under your control, you will finally have the opportunity to reorganize your state into a grand confederation of Alpine peoples. An Alpine Confederation.
And with the reform of your federation into a much larger state, a reform of your governance will be necessary too!
But is this the extent of Raetia’s expansionist ambitions? No, for to your south you must deal with the old tribes of the Po Valley.
As I have briefly mentioned, the area of the Padan plain directly below the lands of the Rhaetians were historically inhabited by peoples called the Camuni and the Euganei. The former having left only a few inscriptions, and the latter being a semi-mythical people that once reached across the Western Veneto region. Though we aren't quite sure of the identity of these peoples, there is a possibility of them having been tribes of Lowland Raeti. As such, this will be your justification to enter into these lands, to take control of these areas back from the hands of those who invaded centuries ago.
Once you have managed to completely control the historical regions of the Camuni and Euganei, you may re-establish these long lost tribes as Rhaetian feudatories. Though if you are feeling selfish, you may as well keep these lands for yourself.
On the subject of looking southwards towards the Padan, you may also want to look towards the shores of the Adriatic. The Raeti had little prospect of obtaining precious salt from the Alps, so it would be opportune to do so from Veneto's coast (as they did through trade).
But now, with your limited foothold in this fertile river plain, you must expand quickly to establish a Rhaetian repopulation of the region, failure to do so could result in the endangerment of your subject tribes to local powers.
Finally, with the complete consolidation of the Po Valley, you can encourage further colonization of the region, and claim dominion over the rest of the Cisalpine Gaul region.
In addition to the paths that I have already explained, there are a couple more branching tasks that give Raetia the opportunity to expand into Carina, and even to cross the Alps into southern Gaul. Raetia is not, however, the ‘biggest fish in the pond’ so to speak, especially so close to the ascendent Romans.
As such, we must turn our focus to the left side of the tree, which will focus on defending and building your central lands up, so that you may look to match larger states coming from all sides.
First off, you must gather funds to pay for defenses in your capital province. You are surrounded by many other tribes that may make your capital their principal target for raids or other attacks, so defense here will be your first priority.
Next, you will need to fortify the Reschen Pass to your West. In real life, a Roman army, under the leadership of Drusus, marched through the pass on their way to conquer the Rhaetians, before quickly annexing them. To avoid this fate, you must quickly construct fortifications in the pass.
Of course, with the powerful Cisalpine Gallic tribes to your south, you should also protect the only pass directly into your lands from there as well.
With this focus of fortifying the Raetic lands, Raetia will need to look to the techniques employed by Celts (such as the Vindelicii) in making both walled cities and fortifications, and apply them to mountainous terrain and existing Rhaetian methods.
However this still may not be enough. Raetia must therefore put into practice a prioritization on manning its fortifications (in practice, diverting manpower to garrisons), though this will put a temporary strain on your manpower.
The final step of your defense-oriented reforms will be to attune Raetic warriors and tactics to specialized Alpine warfare. Beware of having a war for at least a year though, as such a shakeup will certainly negatively affect fighting spirit in the short term.
Though these reforms and defenses will certainly aid in your goal in uniting the Alps under Raetia, you will still need a worthy capital to project Rhaetian power from. At the game's start, your capital province starts off as a rural settlement with only a small capacity for holding a sizable population, and you must therefore change this by establishing a city there.
While their population never reached the highest of quantities, the Raeti did reside in houses that were remarkably well adapted to the frigid cold of the Alps. With this in mind, the new Rhaetian capital at Sublavione must make good use of unique local techniques to make a well acclimated, yet grand, city in the middle of the Alpine mountains.
Finally, with all of Raetia’s growth and expansion, into a grand confederation of Alpine peoples, headed by a grand and guarded city, the state formed by Raetia will be ready to dominate their surrounding area. However with the numerical advantage of the Italic states to the south, and perhaps even of the Gauls, Raetia cannot afford to have its homeland breached. Your final task will therefore be to block off all entrances to the Alps, spending extra funds to make every pass as treacherous as possible to any invading enemy so that they may never reach your main population centers in the center.
Will you be able to act quickly as the Raeti, and forge a grand, mountain-based state, or simply fall to more numerical powers or tribes? That will depend on your ability to manage Raetia’s early wars, and take advantage of the area’s unique geography to build defenses quickly, before great empires arrive at your doorstep.
Well I hope you enjoy this tree, and good luck!
Also, for who’s interested, a couple of new flags:
Rhaetia:
Alpine Confederation:
Camunia and Euganeia (mission task feudatories):
Guess who’s back, back again! (It’s me Izn). Today I’m presenting the Messapia tree! This tree was one I worked on with Olivenkranz together. Here’s the look before we get into it.
Now, before the tree even begins, we have a war to fight! Historically, the Messapii tribes were involved in a war against the Lucani and Samnites, on the side of their age old enemy, Tarentum. However, the war ended up being… more or less nothing in terms of land acquisitions. The Spartans arrived, and the Lucani gave up. So this war is handled entirely through event chain, done by Olivenkranz.
The chain has quite a few outcomes and involves several powers in the region. Now then, let’s look at the first parts of the tree.
Your initial tree is all about diplomacy. Whether you are Apulia or Messapia proper, you will be able to peacefully unite with your Iapygian brothers. The task ‘Pyrrhic Plans’ is designed to give you an alliance with Epirus in order to join Pyrrhic War against Rome using the systems of alliance in game rather than adding you to the war directly. You can also net yourself a nice bloodline using this task, or you can choose to ignore it if you’d rather not ally Epirus.
After this initial bit of diplomacy, you will have to take out your spears and go to war! But Messapia’s place in the world is at quite a crossroads. Between three cultures, Italian, Greek, and Illyrian. Between many government systems; the Roman Republic, the Etruscan League, the Itallian tribes, the Illyrian tribes, the mainland Greek republics, the Epirotes and their Diadochi monarchy, the Syracusians and their monarchy, and the many city states of Magna Graecia. Point is, you have a lot of choices to expand, and regardless of where, you’ll be taking on different influences. I think this makes this tree rather replayable.
The right side of the tree is all about those conquests, and while it is interesting, I think I’ll leave most of that side for you to discover. I will point out the Marulum Nostrum end task though, because it is quite cute! It effectively means Mini Sea, and I think it’s quite obvious what that ‘Mini Sea’ represents. But if not, here’s a highlight of the territory you can expect to go for.
Anyways, onto the part of the tree that makes it unique!
This here is all based on who you conquer and which traditions you adopt. As Messapia or Apulia centralize, you will have many options as previously stated.
Once you’ve decided which influences to take on, you will finally be able to centralize into one of nine different government types depending on your choices.
Now, there’s also the faith aspect to this, and I don’t want to say too much, but I will highlight the Illyric path.
I’m very excited about this path in particular because Illyric, in most of my research, revolved around three cults: Sun, Snake, and Thracian Horseman. However, in Italia, the Iapygian/Messapian speaking Illyrians would eventually adopt a cult of wolves. This was a belief unique to the Messapians, particularly the Daunian Iapygians to the north, but the idea of wolf worship is a very Itallian one in nature. Thus, the wolf cult is born in Invictus as a new choice.
On the topic of new Illyric Cults, there is one more cult I decided to add to the other Ilyrian tree.
This cult is a bit more fictional, however, I find it quite logical and a fun easter egg for those who are interested in it. I will also point out that the Monthly Ship Repair at Sea is a very unique modifier as well, one that is all but banned to use due to its powerful nature, so don’t scoff at the 0.01+ modifier! Additionally, the cults have been slightly rebalanced so that they are more equal in value.
Ah, I’ve gotten quite off topic, this is supposed to be about Messapia! I’m pretty close to finishing my teasers on the tree, but I’d be remiss to talk about the ending. After having decided your government, your religion, and having conquered your Mini Mare Nostrum, you will be able to finish the final task and be rewarded with a mission formable.
Annnnd, for those who don’t like the name Magna Illyria, I decided to put in an alternate name being Magna Messapia. It’s purely an aesthetic choice, but if you’re like me, aesthetics matter a lot!
The formable’s aesthetic is meant to mirror that of Magna Graecia. You’ll even notice that the flag is loosely inspired from Magna Graecia’s.
That’s all I have to share today, folks, so I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope that ya’ll will give a try to the newest contenders for Italian domination; the unlikely and unique Illyrians of Italia.
Omega here with yet another update on the Caucasus. I come with good news and bad news.
The bad news: while it was hinted at earlier, Armenia content has been delayed until the next major update so that an Armenian content package can be released with missions for Armenia and a mission for Sophene and Lesser Armenia individually. This news will disappoint some, but the delay is to make sure that the missions for all Armenian tags can be interactive and fully-researched. I have collected many monographs to make sure we design the missions with the most up-to-date information.
The good news: today I’m here to talk about Kolchis and everyone’s favorite Argonautic tale!
The new Caucasian Cultural Setup:
While previous Dev Diaries have discussed and hinted at the new cultural setup in the Caucasus, we now provide you the full picture. While Iberic, Albanian, and Legian remain the same, many small cultures have been added to represent the very diverse nature of the region, and some cultures have been converted into the Caucasian group.
Mentioned by Herodotos and other historians, the Sasperies don’t have an exact location, and appear somewhat migratory, but their culture here represents several smaller groups of peoples in the southern Caucasus who dwelled among the lower Caucasus range and infiltrated much of the Armenian sphere.
To their east are the Caspians, whom I have already covered in Albania’s Dev Diary, and represent the so-called Caspian tribes whose horses were valued as chariot-pullers and cavalry beasts by Cryus and his descendants.
The Colchians, the ruling culture and class of the kingdom of Kolchis, the likely Mingrelian-speakers, still exist all along the domain of the Colchian delta, but are joined by many other groups as well.
The Suani, modern Svan people, have long inhabited the northern Caucasus range, and were famed for their goldsmithing and mining practices. They have been added throughout the mountains, the Colchian heartland, and the ports where they would sell their goods from workshops. The Suani, should you take control as their culture, have a unique formable:
Another new culture added to the Colchian area is the Laz or Lazi people. Fans of Imperial Rome might remember the kingdom of Lazica in the region formerly known as Kolchis. The Lazi once roamed in the northern reaches of the Colchian coast but, by the time of the game-start, they had mostly migrated to the southeastern Pontic coast where modern remains of the Laz language still exists. The Laz culture represents the Lazi themselves as well as the individual tribal groups mentioned in ancient sources such as the Mossynoechi, Macronnes, and others. For those eager enough, Lazica can be reformed by the Lazi.
The last culture added to the Colchian lands is that of the Abasgoi.
Representing the ancient predecessors of the Abkhazians and other tribes in the region, the Abasgoi lived between the Northern Caucasus range and the coast, with nobles in the capital and major cities of Kolchis itself and the Greek cities along the northern Pontic coast. Like the other added cultures, the Abasgoi get a formable.
As part of the upcoming update, and following it, the team will be adding cultural innovations and other unique content to these cultures to make them worth integrating and engaging with beyond assimilation.
The last major cultural change was to flip the Sindian and Maeotian cultures from the steppe cultural group of the Sarmatians into the Caucasian culture group. While the Sindi (especially if you just read the wiki page) seem to take a lot of influence from the Siraci and other steppe groups, they themselves are closely intertwined and were likely just the most dominant faction of the many diverse Maeotian tribes along the lake Maeotis (the Azov Sea). What little archaeology we have from the area in terms of burials and settlement post-holes indicates a lifestyle that was uncharacteristic of steppe populations in the northern Caucasus, and many fort towns, similar to oppida, were located in the region. Materially, the Maeotians/Sindi also shared much artistically and in trade with the Suani and northern Caucasian groups. For this reason, and because many theories still exist regarding a much larger ‘Caucasian’ archaeological/cultural complex stretching down to northern Mesopotamia before and during the early periods of the Bronze Age, I have added them as members of the Caucasian culture group. This change will also help balance the population count of the culture groups, seeing how small the Caucasian group was in the vanilla setup. Of course, as the Maeotians join the Caucasian Culture Group, they earn a formable…
As a bonus, to represent the intense level of Hellenization which occurred in Kolchis between the fall of the Achaemenid Empire and the wars of the Diadochi (and afterwards), Pontic, Bosporan, and other Hellenic pops have been strewn about the lands of Kolchis, especially at cities like the archaeological site of Vani, where a greek archon of the is known from inscriptions and there were many Hellenic temples and public buildings with many Hellenized or Greek-origin names appearing on ostraka.
Now, to the mission everyone has been clamoring for - Kolchis’ pinnacle mission.
While it may appear small, it is quite mighty, and quite flavorful.
Resources consulted in the making of this mission and the cultural setup included but weren’t limited to: Christoph Baumer’s The History of the Caucasus, Strabo’s Geographica, Herodotus' Histories, David Braund’s Georgia in Antiquity, and The Georgian National Museum of History’s Iberia-Colchis: Researches on the Archaeology and History of Georgia in the Classical and Early medieval Period Essay Collection.
Besides the mission itself, flavor in the form of deities (as has already been shown in previous Dev Diaries), unique decisions, and event chains will be added to cultures and countries in this area based off of the above-mentioned resources. As an example, the Iberians were said to have believed in white crystals from the northern Caucasian range having the power to conquer nightmares and end all bad dreams…
For the Kolchis Mission, the narrative involves:
- Developing the land of Kolchis itself
- Engaging with the historical ties between Kolchis and Pharnavaz I’s Iberia
- Negotiating between the many different and relations-tense tribes in the eastern Pontos Euxinos
- Rediscovering and engaging with the legendary history of Kolchis
- Expanding Kolchis’ trade and military domain to eventually cover the entirety of the Black Sea
Dioscurias, modern Sokhumi, was a very cosmopolitan trading hub, renowned for its salt deposits and its centrality when it came to migrants and merchants from the 4 corners of the Caucasus. This mission task sets you about dealing with the politics of this city, its many neighbors (such as the Heniochi tribe to the north), and the trade benefits of the town.
Who could imagine that one lone city could be so…eventful…
Few have not heard the tale of the Golden Fleece and the exploits of Iason and the sailors of the Argo. Yet, few do know the historical realities that may have led to threads of the tale. While Kolchis has always been a region rich in resources—the burials of commoners could be found littered with golden foil and fragments, it was their method of collecting golden flakes in the river Phasis (which flowed from the favorably rich mountains) by dredging sheep’s wool through it that led to the image of golden wool. You have the ability to profit off of the river Phasis’ trade and deal with the many peculiarities of the body of water.
Not so much a political reference as it is a physical obstacle, the swampy nature of the Colchian delta both characterized the cultural development of the place while also hindering its ability to become a more powerful kingdom. The people of Kolchis were forced to settle upon artificial mounds and high places in the topography, while they sailed along a dense network of canals in the delta region—a unique and awesome image, but not efficient for empire-building. Draining this swamp with engineering solutions won’t be easy, but it’s well-worth the price.
What could top all the Kolchis content presented so far better than a new Great Wonder in the game, and having it be the palace of king Aeetes himself. While the myth of the Argonautic tale has no precise geography, and archaeology cannot conclusively determine the existence of an ancient palace or its whereabouts (the region of Kolchis before the time of the Achaemenid empire was most likely a dizzying array of small and medium-sized kingdoms and chiefdoms controlling sections of the delta and mountainous lands), the palace of Aeetes is thought to coincide either with the town/area of Phasis, where the Argonauts entered the kingdom of Kolchis, or up the river at the site of modern Kutaisi (possibly called Aea/Aia in antiquity). For the purpose of the mod, and flavor around the town of Phasis, we have chosen to make the palace a Great Wonder that can be constructed in Phasis, which will later give you the option to move your capital to Phasis and rule from the wealthy coastal port city.
The Georgian Chronicles and other mostly Medieval sources record a long history between Kolchis and Caucasian Iberia under the Kujid and Pharnavazid dynasties. While much of it (especially the story of legendary Pharnavaz I) is drenched in retroactive narrative-creation and influence from Persian epic forms of storytelling, there are few other sources on the individuals living at this time, so we enjoyed running with the stories and allowing you to follow them as they are told or completing diverting towards your own path. As told in the chronicles, Kuji of Kolchis married the sister of Pharnavaz I after he supported Pharnavaz’s overthrow of the supposedly Macedonian puppet king Azo. Here, the player will be able to marry one of Pharnavaz’s sisters (realistic Cacuasian and Median-Persian names have been chosen because his mother was said to have been from Aspadana). However, if you buck the narrative expectations and marry Pharnavaz I’s own mother, you get access to her Acahemenid bloodline trait, taking into account her supposed status as a daughter or relative of Darius III, the last Achaemenid king of kings.
The narrative after this marriage allows you to become an equal of Pharnavaz’s Iberia, a willing puppet, or the a-historical dominant player in a partnership—choose your narrative.
Define your position in the Caucasus with the Caucasian Union task, where the subsequent events will shape the look and play of the Caucasus irreversibly.
Many other secrets and unique moments await you in the Kolchis mission, but the overall conquest goals largely encompass: every coastal territory in the entire Pontos Euxinos, and a majority of the middle Caucasus region encompassing Kolchis, Caucasian Iberia, and Caucasian Albania.
We look forward to seeing what spells you cast and what narratives the fates weave for you.
DD83: 1.7 Vesuvius release + Etruria, Samnium, Umbria and 3 other missions
Dev Diary 83: 1.7 Vesuvius release + Etruria, Samnium, Umbria and 3 other missions
Salvete!
With Saturnalia now over, we have come with a late gift.
The 1.7 - Vesuvius update is out now on the Steam workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2532715348 and on our Nexusmods page for every non-Steam user: https://www.nexusmods.com/imperatorrome/mods/1
(Endorsements on Nexus and likes on the Steamworkshop are greatly appreciated by us if you feel the mod to be worthy.)
For those of you who want to continue your old saves, you can download and install the 1.6.1e version from this Nexusmods link, installation instructions match the normal nexusmods instructions on the main page: https://www.nexusmods.com/imperatorrome/mods/1?tab=files&file_id=1
(While we will continue to upload to our PDXmods page, that version has caused so many issues we can’t recommend you use it and we recommend you instead unsubscribe and switch to the Nexusmods version.)
We also have a thriving Discord community everyone is welcome to join: https://discord.gg/5K9fd3qSjx
As for the changelog:
Some highlights include ~17 mission trees including new ones for the main Italian powers of Etruria, Samnium, Umbria and more; a new Italic religion and a variety of other content for the Caucasus and more. Great effort has also been put in to fix the reported bugs that were reproducible.
And the updated missions map:
As for the rest of the Dev Diary, we will be presenting the new Etrurian, Samnite, Umbrian, Pentapotamian, Aryavarta and Kios missions, the new Italic religion but before I hand you over to present Etruria, Juiss, a member of the community made a list of every invention unique to the Invictus mod and is worth checking out: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12rnfoNPF9CxC45PZhXcXyRe51KacF5c1gcYFo4o1GIg/edit?usp=sharing.
An update to our AAR contest; for the first time in Invictus history, we have had a tie between two of our entries. The winners of the contest are supermash “Monnapia; the League of the Islands” and Ratatosk “From Across the Sea”! Congrats and we will reach out to you very soon to start discussing your mission trees. All stories submitted were fantastic, absolutely top notch, and have inspired us to run yet another AAR contest, so stay tuned for that information…
Now onto Etruria:
Greetings everyone, it's Zorgoball with a look at the first two of eight planned missions for Etruria. We were considering waiting on releasing our Etruscan content until more missions were completed, but since Etruria is one of the most highly-requested tags for flavor, we couldn’t sit on these any longer - Vesuvius is erupting and the Italy update is here! Most of today’s DD focuses on the content we are bringing to Italia, in fact. These initial two Etruscan trees combined the efforts of myself, OmegaCorps and Typhion, and we are very pleased to finally reveal these missions. The first one available to you, “The Roman Incursion”, will deal with the elephant in the room; the unsettled business between you and your long-time rivals to the south.
The time has come to push back against the Roman aggression that has wounded your pride and taken your lands from you. But before your armies gather for battle, there will be a series of events that will help you prepare for the tough days ahead.
Will you lead your people in rebuilding your nation, or will you let revenge guide your hand? Will you be bold enough to aid your kinsmen who are suffering under the Roman yoke? How are you going to avenge the fall of Veii, which weighs upon the minds of your people and stains their honor? Nothing is set in stone, and there are many options with various outcomes for you to explore.
The main paths deal with what you might expect; defeating Rome once and for all. But before you strike out against an enemy that has already bested your armies once before, it is imperative that you make alliances and have the necessary manpower reserves and military expertise to achieve victory.
Success on the battlefield has been known to forge many friendships, and the soldiers that survive the onslaught of battle together will be brothers forever.
Your leadership will not be afraid to dirty their hands when it comes to subduing the Roman state.
I will let you find out what happens when it comes to the final war with Rome and what the outcome will be, because now it’s time to look at Etruria’s second tree “Western Markets”.
This is a tree that will focus on adventure and your economy as your fleets are now free to sail to explore and conquer distant lands. Make sure you have a proper navy before you send your sailors out into the great unknown - your prosperous trade lanes are threatened by piracy and there is danger out on the waters.
A grateful merchant class might be willing to invest in your capital if you are able to safeguard their fleets. But are the pirates potential partners as well? They know the western waters better than your sailors do now, and there is much that they could teach you.
Be careful with whatever decision you make, as each Admiral has…unique…talents that you won’t want to waste. As your fleets make contact with other nations, there will be opportunities for your people to draw closer together in unexpected ways. The Ligurians to the North have always been reliable trading partners, but could they perhaps be something more? It will remain up to your Consul to see how far these connections will go.
An important part of this tree involves building up your holdings on Corsica. Its position is ideal for becoming a trading hub, but its local infrastructure is poor, especially when compared to the many cities of the Etruscan coast - your enterprising Consul will take care of this, however.
You will become familiar friends with the elites living in Alalia, the most important city in Corsica, and it is from this provincial capital that your efforts to develop the island will be located. Whether it is directing the local investments or dealing with the local tribesmen, Alalia is sure to see its fair share of action.
Will you ultimately build up Corsica, bringing the backwater island into the glorious light of civilization? Or will your baser instincts guide you as you allow piracy to spread unchecked through the waterways that you control? There are rewards and options for whatever path you decide to take.
But did you know that your ruler secretly sympathizes with the pirates, and oftentimes wonders what his life might have been if the circumstances of his birth were different?
If you are able to free yourself from Etruria and unify Sardinia under your banner, you will have access to the Sea People tree, so that’s fun. A final peek at a couple of event chains before I hand things over to olivenkranz for a bit - I’ll be back later to show you some more missions.
Hello all, today I (olivenkranz) present to you the 2 trees for Samnium, with scripting by yours truly and featuring localization from our writer NPK. The first is a comparably short tree, designed to be done in about 10 years, give or take. This tree is all about defeating the Romans in the upcoming 3rd Samnite War.
The only task not related to Rome at all is the one about the war of 303 BC. This war was already mentioned in the last DD when Izn talked about Messapia. In this war, Tarentum with the help of Messapia, Apulia and Sparta opposed Lucania who was supported by Samnium. That event happens entirely via an event chain, and at the end of it, depending on the outcome, you will get different small rewards.
The tree as a whole is designed in two halves, a “pre-war” half with tasks such as requiring allies to stave off Roman aggression, sending a spy to Rome to sabotage or trying to convince one of Rome’s feudatories to betray them and join you.
The tasks after the war are all “clean up” so to speak.
You can either force-vassalize Rome as an opm or burn Rome to the ground. The other tasks are about subjugating the remaining Socii, if any remain, as well as dealing with Neapolis, the city that caused the outbreak of the second Samnite war that just ended at game start.
Importantly, while at war, you will get a couple of events the choice of which will impact what the second mission tree will look like. If your nation becomes too traumatized by constant, generation-long warfare it might become a warmonger just like Rome has been historically. Or, maybe you can fulfill the needs of your people in time and simply be a slightly larger regional power - of course, all your neighbors pay tribute to you.
The second tree will have another, larger, part next to the one about conquest and outer relations which is all about the interior affairs.
With the conquest of Rome and the larger seaports, the Hellenic culture and religion have grown in presence and importance. The rich elites of Samnium especially like this new culture, with the wealth and inventions that it brings with it. Other forces fear that the traditional way of life is about to die out due to the pressure of the new (on the left you can see the edge of the military path).
As you can see, this tree is rather large, But fear not, this tree is replayable! The three branches are all mutually exclusive. And combined with the 2 different options for the conquest path, you can have 6 different playthroughs from the mission tree alone.
On the left, you will embrace the Hellenic influences and convert to their religion. More trade, civilization and much more await you on that path, such as a visit to the Greek world or starting to truly urbanize and becoming the centre of civilization. In the example below, our Consul has decided to take a trip to Greece and will sail for Athens.
I’ll leave Gaius’s meeting with the Pythia private, but let’s just say your Consul is in a good mood afterwards and doesn’t seem to mind taking his time heading to Athens - there are many famous cities in Greece that have captured his interest.
(And yes, there's a typo here and there but keep in mind that's one of the last things we fix ). The city of Athens surpasses Gaius’s expectations, but time is limited as his duties call him back to Samnium. What should he do while he is there?
Most of the time you will get home just fine, but there are always dangers that are associated with long trips…
But I digress. In the middle branch of your mission, you will find the path of the opposition, the path where you will purge Italy of any foreign influences and implore traditional, Italic rule again. Living your rural lifestyle marked by pastoralism and transhumance, your people will be able to live and grow as the gods intended.
On the right is the path that comes closest to the historical outcome for the Samnites within the Roman Realm. Syncretising elements from the Hellenic Culture and Religion will change your identity, yet the core, such as the strong rurality will remain almost untouched.
Since burials were an important part of their culture and their form often dictated by religion and the understanding of death, so did their burials change when influenced. For that reason, each branch has three different tasks relating to the changing burial practices. All three tasks will trigger an event on ruler death (or some other overly important character if it’s a republic as well) that was inspired by the “Sky Burial” of CK2. You will have to choose how to bury the deceased character, impacting the relations with the deceased. You could even grab the funds set aside for the burial for yourself. What will the family think of that?
Each of the three branches will unlock a unique option besides the basic ones, for a more distinguished funeral, based on the changing burial practices.
Another new feature for not only Samnium but all Sabellian countries (that is the primary culture of Samnium) is a decision to call for a “Ver Sacrum”, or “Sacred Spring”. The remnant of a Bronze Age migratory ritual, when a Ver Sacrum was called, the newborn (humans and cattle both) of the following spring would be “devoted” to a deity and considered under that deities protection. When these children and cattle were grown, they would be expelled from the home community and expected to either subjugate a settlement somewhere else or to found a new one. This was most likely done to alleviate pressure of overpopulation.
In the game, the decision requires the following: you have not called for a sacred spring for some time (15 years at the time of writing this) and you have a larger settlement that is at least 95% full. In addition that settlement needs to be dominant italic and your culture. What the decision does is migrate some pops of that “Overfilled” territory to an UNOWNED territory, giving you a claim on it as well as some stability. That is to represent the expelling of the “devoted” generation as well as the invading nature of the practice on neighbouring tribes and states.
In the syncretic path and the path opposing foreign influences, there are tasks that will increase the rewards of the decision, in one case it is some military experience and in the other some political influence.
I also added this fun little event for Sabinia, and even though they don’t have a mission tree, this might make it interesting to start as that challenging nation. It is a little bit of flavour after all
And for Rome players, beware the fall of the Eternal City to those who you once betrayed.
As always, all numbers are subject to change.
And as promised, it’s Zorgoball returning with a sneak peek at a few more mission trees scattered about the map, but before we leave Italy, we will travel north from Samnium and check in to see how the Umbrians are doing. Thanks to Derekmark for bringing us another exciting tree for the Vesuvius update!
Umbria lives in a dangerous neighborhood, surrounded by potentially hostile Republics like the Etruscans to the west and those populated by Latins to the south, and the ever-present threat of barbarian invasions from the north have caused the Umbrian elites to lose sleep at night as they fret over your long-term security. You will be tasked with protecting your people moving forward, but as always, the path that you take will be a winding one, with various roads that ensure multiple playthroughs. Let’s look at the Etruscan options first; will you pursue friendship with your neighbors with diplomatic gestures, or will your messengers be carrying proclamations of war?
What does the path of friendship look like? Here are a couple of examples;
Of course, warfare can be very lucrative, and there are many treasures stored within the walls of the Etruscan citadels - why let the Romans have all of the fun when it comes to sacking Etruria? It would be wise to wage a western war…
Regardless of whether you choose battle or pursue your partnership with the Etruscans, don’t sleep on the Latin threat - it will be best to move from a position of strength by seizing the initiative from your enemies. A resurgent Umbria can afford to be bold and brash and besides, you have scores to settle.
Hopefully our levies will make short work of these fools. As your victorious forces continue to move south, there will be glorious opportunities to humble the vicious Roman wolf.
Fingers crossed that these Latins are smarter than the Sabines. But what about the barbarians to the north? There is so much to be uncertain about these days.
Naturally, there will be many optional tasks to keep your people busy during times of peace - let’s look at a few together.
Where does all of this lead Umbria? To becoming the Hegemon of Italia, where new formables await you if you choose.
I’ll save some surprises for you, but mostly because we have a boat to catch - we are leaving sunny Italia for the distant port of Kios. Dementive has reworked some of the vanilla events and brought us a new mission tree for the Mithridatids, so without further ado, let’s take a look at what you can expect. But first, a history lesson/reminder to set the scene…
Mithridates will flee in the dead of night, striking out for the fortress Kimiata in hopes of not succumbing to the forces of the Antigonid “Empire” that are threatening to blow up his way of life.
Our leader, exhausted by the events of the past few weeks, will accept the offer that is given to us - we will take the time to lick our wounds and plot for our wars ahead.
If you are able to defeat the many enemies that surround you, there will be opportunities to embrace your new circumstances wholeheartedly.
While you will certainly have your hands full with war preparations, there are always things to do with any excess treasury that you might have - your new homeland needs investment!
There will be options, as always. In the course of your missions, if you decide to pursue Median culture and religion, you will eventually have access to the “Form Media” tree for Atropatene that was made by OmegaCorps once this initial tree is complete, but if you go the Pontic route instead, you'll gain access to the brand new to Invictus “Pontic Hegemon of the Euxine Sea” made by RetconCrisis!
There will be many more building initiatives for your nation; now that you have conquered by land, the time has come to master the sea. Pontus has need of a navy, but thankfully, you have some of the best coastlines in the world as potential sites for your harbors - the city of Trapezous is an excellent candidate for a Pontic Shipyard.
With a proper navy at your disposal, you will proceed with your dreams of expansion.
You will have vicious tribes to contend with, as well as squabbling Greek city-states and kingdoms that are none too pleased to see your presence in the region. Rest assured that there are a variety of tasks that will help you with all of the above.
Certain issues will arise over the course of the campaign, like the status of the Greeks that you will have conquered - do they not deserve the same rights as their kinsmen back home? The debates are sure to be contentious, but your ruler will ultimately have the final say.
There is so much more in this update, but I will leave you to your adventures - happy campaigning! Before I go, I would also like to mention that many of the old trees have been looked at, adjusted here and there with new tasks and events added, so some of your old favorites might be worth checking out again. In addition to slightly adjusting some existing missions, some cosmetic surprises have been added, like this crown that will be available to both the Sea People and the Illyrian Pirates at various points in their trees - special thanks to Pureon for implementing.
Oh, and since I am thanking Pureon, I might as well offer him gratitude for allowing us to incorporate his Allis Ubbo mission into Invictus (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2443657504), which will be a decision for Carthage to tag switch over once you have conquered the necessary territory. A quick peek at the tree before I vanish;
As for other surprises you might find in 1.7, go find out as the update is already out!
Heyo, it’s Izn. New religion dropped, meaning it’s my time to introduce it. Though, I’d like to make a disclaimer that this religion has been in development since before I even joined the team! Anyhow, let’s take a look at the religious map.
The native religion of the Italian peninsula has been added. This religion is a very decentralized one. The religion in the northeast resembles that of the Illyrics, and the religion of the Etruscans and Rhaetians too are a bit more distinctive. Meanwhile central Italia has a mix of native and Etruscan, while as you move south you have less Etruscan influence. All in all, the religion needed to have a lot of deities. That’s why I… added over a hundred deities for this religion.
The sheer amount of deities means that I won’t be able to show you all of them, but, I will note that Etruscans and Romans have access to the most deities with somewhere around 35 and 30 respectively. A whole host of holy sites will be coming with these many deities too.
And here’s a picture of the modifiers for this religion.
This religion will have a special conversion mechanic to become Hellenic, as even Rome will be starting as Italic. The history of Roman religion is a much more interesting one that many would have you believe! It definitely isn’t just a one to one copy of Greek religion, and hopefully this new Italic religion will help inform our players of that simple but often misunderstood reality!
I also have got to show you the new trees I finished up for the patch. Of course, there’s Pentapotamia.
To form Pentapotamia, there’s one simple requirement: as Paurava, have any Greco-Indian pops and then integrate them! Now, this does mean that Maurya has to collapse to spawn said pops, but I hope the development tasks I added to Paurava will let you play without waiting too too long. Here are the exact requirements to form Pentapotamia.
You’ll notice in green it says you gain access to a new mission tree. I talked about that before, so let me show you the completed product.
Part one here should be pretty recognizable. This is effectively a mix between a custom nation creator and extreme larping. Here, you’ll set up things like what religion you want to be, what culture you’re going to be, and rp wise, how you’re going to claim to be a Diadochi. You can choose any Shramanic religion, Vedic, or Hellenic; and culturally you’ll be able to stay your current culture or adopt Greco-Indian culture. Either way, the narrative specifies that the culture your forging is unique, even if there’s no new culture to paint onto the map.
And now here comes the second part of the tree. The tree was pretty hard to organize, but I decided to highlight via icons which tasks are relevant for Okeanos and which tasks are ‘optional.’ I’ll remind players that this needs to be done within 30 years! So don’t dilly dally too much.
Seriously though, the negatives are… quite brutal. It’s designed so you will have a somewhat ‘natural’ yet sudden collapse that is sure to leave players in shambles when they fail.
BUT, you’re a god at the game, so let’s talk about the positives! There are 3 kinds of tasks in the second part of the tree. Claim tasks that facilitate claims for your future conquests, Alexander’s Step paths which directly push you towards Okeanos, and Alexander’s conquest paths which will push you towards reforging his empire in its entirety.
Example of a claim task.
Example of a step task.
And an example of a conquest task.
The ultimate goal of the tree actually comes before the end of it, so you could stop once you achieve Okeanos.
Or you can choose to continue conquering all the places you chose to skip, or going beyond Okeanos and capturing Egypt, Anatolia, and Greece. The rewards for the latter are… nonexistent however, so do keep in mind that the bulk of the content is for reaching Okeanos.
That said, you will receive a reward for completing the missions allowing you to access another mission tree and continue Indo-Hellenizing the world. In addition, if you chose to keep your original culture, you’ll still be able to form the Hellenic Empire and access the tree that way.
Ah, and I do have to mention that the Yaudheya version of Pentapotamia… is delayed. Sorry, but I just procrastinated way too much to get out that tree. I hope you’ll be satisfied with this though; a new formable and tree for said formable. The land of the Aryans, Aryavarta!
Aryavarta is heavily inspired by Dementive’s fantastic Tamilakam tree, but each task is flavored towards a Pan-Aryan idea.
The first part of this tree has two branches to speak of. The left side is about your conquests. You’ll be uniting the core lands of Aryavarta, those lands being highlighted in green here.
But, the narrative talks about increasing what Aryavarta means, expanding through legitimization via conquest. Eventually, you’ll end up unifying every Aryan in North India. However, Aryans have long since migrated past the Satpura. Let’s touch on the right side of the tree first before we move further south.
This side is probably the most heavily inspired from the Tamilakam tree, the structure being almost exactly the same, however, the nature of that tree allows for me to have a unique Aryan flair to these development tasks.
The temple tasks are also uniquely selected based on places of worship for Aryans rather than the Agamic areas in the Tamilakam tree. Some of the deities are indeed different too, but I implore you to read some of the writing in the tasks because I think they read quite nicely!
Finally, let’s move on to the final part of the tree.
This section of the tree is about walking into the south of India and establishing Aryavarta beyond the heartlands. I think by far the most important task is getting spices for Aryans.
We’re still a few millennia away from curry, but pre-Colombian exchange spices still hit different.
Once you reach past the continuous Aryan culture group, you’re met with two interesting areas, Sri Lanka and the Dravidians. Instead of directly annexing them, you’ll have options to make them into different vassal types. I’m quite proud of the rather ironic name of Dravidavarta.
Last thing I’ll mention is that Yaudheya and Paurava have their own color and flag for Aryavarta since, frankly, their flags are much cooler. Paurava will be given its own unique task as well, while Yaudhyea’s vassal options will be varied to fit a narrative of Imperial Republicanism instead of establishing monarchtic vassals. Here’s a snapshot of Yaudheya’s unique color for Aryavarta as well as their special version of the Lankan vassal you can make; Sri Lanka.
I quite love the red, don’t you? There are certainly more things to this tree, but you’ll have to play them to find out! I’m quite literally out of time to talk about more, so I’m signing off. Enjoy the new update!
Salvete!
With Saturnalia now over, we have come with a late gift.
The 1.7 - Vesuvius update is out now on the Steam workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2532715348 and on our Nexusmods page for every non-Steam user: https://www.nexusmods.com/imperatorrome/mods/1
(Endorsements on Nexus and likes on the Steamworkshop are greatly appreciated by us if you feel the mod to be worthy.)
For those of you who want to continue your old saves, you can download and install the 1.6.1e version from this Nexusmods link, installation instructions match the normal nexusmods instructions on the main page: https://www.nexusmods.com/imperatorrome/mods/1?tab=files&file_id=1
(While we will continue to upload to our PDXmods page, that version has caused so many issues we can’t recommend you use it and we recommend you instead unsubscribe and switch to the Nexusmods version.)
We also have a thriving Discord community everyone is welcome to join: https://discord.gg/5K9fd3qSjx
As for the changelog:
V1.7 - Vesuvius (breaks saves, use nexusmods 1.6.1e version to continue old saves)
New/expanded mission trees:
- New content with 2 missions each for Etruria and Samnium
- Integrated Allis Ubbo mod's mission tree by Pureon (available to switch to as Carthage when owning Porto)
- Added a regional tree for unifying Tartessia and a tree for unifying Iberia as Tartessia
- 12 New mission trees for: Albania, Aryavarta, Colchis, Getae, Gordyene, Kios, Messapia, Pentapotamia, Rhaetia, Umbria, Veneto, Yaudheya
- Reworked mission tree of the Western Greek countries
Added content:
- Reworked Caucasian and Egyptian culture setup
- Added event to simulate the Roman evolution from Italic to a more Hellenic pantheon
- Added Italic, Nuragic and Hurrian religion
- Added 100+ new deities across a variety of religions
- Added Italia, Scandia, Greater Arachosia, Punjab and several mission related-formables
- Added dozens of decision relating to Pentapotamia and Aryavarta missions and formables
- Reworked the Armenian religion
- Added several dozen new flags
- Added new naming scheme to several Italic cultures
- Added lots of new event pictures from the Allis Ubbo mod
- Added pirate crown on characters unlocked in the Nuragic mission tree
- Added events about several historical conflicts in Italy
- Added Castrated trait
- Added some new bloodlines related to the new Indian content
Changes:
- Renamed Cybelene to Anatolian religion
- Countless changes have been made to provide clearer tooltips, especially in missions
- Added/Updated heritages to the Caucasus and Italy
- Rebalanced AI early-game aggression in Italy
- Increased AI naval budget cap to 35% total income (from 25%)
- Added 35% naval maintenance cost reduction to Punic Republic
- Tweaked some levy templates
- Numidia now properly colours in
- Added 5 new inventions to Georgians and North-Africans
- Reworked the Upper Egyptian revolt
- Updated dozens of deity triggers
- Updated several formables to not require 100% of the territories
- Several formables now annex all needed land to form it when they're owned by a subject
- Changing governor policy cost has been reduced to 5 from 10
- Manual divorce has been disabled in republics for now
- Updated internal tags so no country has a tag of X00-X99
- Added a softer variant to change religion in specific circumstances
- Changed Fruits second modifier to local tax
- Updated a number of traits to account for Spearmen
- Made dozens of minor adjustments to various modifiers
- Etruria can now form Corsica when only owning land in Corsica/Sardinia
- Added scripts to fix holdings not being transferred upon conquest, causes slight delay at gamestart
Bugfixes:
- Fixed every reproducible, reported bug for every mission and event in the game too many to list
- Fixed unit abilities becoming locked out when unlocking a new military tradition
- Fixed a lot of duplicate names
- Fixed a dozen bugs related to the Cappadocia mission tree
- Fixed Carthaginian mission bypasses
- Founding cities through missions now properly updates civilization value in neighbouring territories
- Fixed a number of missing icons
- Fixed governors going for conversion policy despite having the major syncretism invention
- Updated localization in all languages for improved grammar and general fixes
New/expanded mission trees:
- New content with 2 missions each for Etruria and Samnium
- Integrated Allis Ubbo mod's mission tree by Pureon (available to switch to as Carthage when owning Porto)
- Added a regional tree for unifying Tartessia and a tree for unifying Iberia as Tartessia
- 12 New mission trees for: Albania, Aryavarta, Colchis, Getae, Gordyene, Kios, Messapia, Pentapotamia, Rhaetia, Umbria, Veneto, Yaudheya
- Reworked mission tree of the Western Greek countries
Added content:
- Reworked Caucasian and Egyptian culture setup
- Added event to simulate the Roman evolution from Italic to a more Hellenic pantheon
- Added Italic, Nuragic and Hurrian religion
- Added 100+ new deities across a variety of religions
- Added Italia, Scandia, Greater Arachosia, Punjab and several mission related-formables
- Added dozens of decision relating to Pentapotamia and Aryavarta missions and formables
- Reworked the Armenian religion
- Added several dozen new flags
- Added new naming scheme to several Italic cultures
- Added lots of new event pictures from the Allis Ubbo mod
- Added pirate crown on characters unlocked in the Nuragic mission tree
- Added events about several historical conflicts in Italy
- Added Castrated trait
- Added some new bloodlines related to the new Indian content
Changes:
- Renamed Cybelene to Anatolian religion
- Countless changes have been made to provide clearer tooltips, especially in missions
- Added/Updated heritages to the Caucasus and Italy
- Rebalanced AI early-game aggression in Italy
- Increased AI naval budget cap to 35% total income (from 25%)
- Added 35% naval maintenance cost reduction to Punic Republic
- Tweaked some levy templates
- Numidia now properly colours in
- Added 5 new inventions to Georgians and North-Africans
- Reworked the Upper Egyptian revolt
- Updated dozens of deity triggers
- Updated several formables to not require 100% of the territories
- Several formables now annex all needed land to form it when they're owned by a subject
- Changing governor policy cost has been reduced to 5 from 10
- Manual divorce has been disabled in republics for now
- Updated internal tags so no country has a tag of X00-X99
- Added a softer variant to change religion in specific circumstances
- Changed Fruits second modifier to local tax
- Updated a number of traits to account for Spearmen
- Made dozens of minor adjustments to various modifiers
- Etruria can now form Corsica when only owning land in Corsica/Sardinia
- Added scripts to fix holdings not being transferred upon conquest, causes slight delay at gamestart
Bugfixes:
- Fixed every reproducible, reported bug for every mission and event in the game too many to list
- Fixed unit abilities becoming locked out when unlocking a new military tradition
- Fixed a lot of duplicate names
- Fixed a dozen bugs related to the Cappadocia mission tree
- Fixed Carthaginian mission bypasses
- Founding cities through missions now properly updates civilization value in neighbouring territories
- Fixed a number of missing icons
- Fixed governors going for conversion policy despite having the major syncretism invention
- Updated localization in all languages for improved grammar and general fixes
Some highlights include ~17 mission trees including new ones for the main Italian powers of Etruria, Samnium, Umbria and more; a new Italic religion and a variety of other content for the Caucasus and more. Great effort has also been put in to fix the reported bugs that were reproducible.
And the updated missions map:
As for the rest of the Dev Diary, we will be presenting the new Etrurian, Samnite, Umbrian, Pentapotamian, Aryavarta and Kios missions, the new Italic religion but before I hand you over to present Etruria, Juiss, a member of the community made a list of every invention unique to the Invictus mod and is worth checking out: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12rnfoNPF9CxC45PZhXcXyRe51KacF5c1gcYFo4o1GIg/edit?usp=sharing.
An update to our AAR contest; for the first time in Invictus history, we have had a tie between two of our entries. The winners of the contest are supermash “Monnapia; the League of the Islands” and Ratatosk “From Across the Sea”! Congrats and we will reach out to you very soon to start discussing your mission trees. All stories submitted were fantastic, absolutely top notch, and have inspired us to run yet another AAR contest, so stay tuned for that information…
Now onto Etruria:
Greetings everyone, it's Zorgoball with a look at the first two of eight planned missions for Etruria. We were considering waiting on releasing our Etruscan content until more missions were completed, but since Etruria is one of the most highly-requested tags for flavor, we couldn’t sit on these any longer - Vesuvius is erupting and the Italy update is here! Most of today’s DD focuses on the content we are bringing to Italia, in fact. These initial two Etruscan trees combined the efforts of myself, OmegaCorps and Typhion, and we are very pleased to finally reveal these missions. The first one available to you, “The Roman Incursion”, will deal with the elephant in the room; the unsettled business between you and your long-time rivals to the south.
The time has come to push back against the Roman aggression that has wounded your pride and taken your lands from you. But before your armies gather for battle, there will be a series of events that will help you prepare for the tough days ahead.
Will you lead your people in rebuilding your nation, or will you let revenge guide your hand? Will you be bold enough to aid your kinsmen who are suffering under the Roman yoke? How are you going to avenge the fall of Veii, which weighs upon the minds of your people and stains their honor? Nothing is set in stone, and there are many options with various outcomes for you to explore.
The main paths deal with what you might expect; defeating Rome once and for all. But before you strike out against an enemy that has already bested your armies once before, it is imperative that you make alliances and have the necessary manpower reserves and military expertise to achieve victory.
Success on the battlefield has been known to forge many friendships, and the soldiers that survive the onslaught of battle together will be brothers forever.
Your leadership will not be afraid to dirty their hands when it comes to subduing the Roman state.
I will let you find out what happens when it comes to the final war with Rome and what the outcome will be, because now it’s time to look at Etruria’s second tree “Western Markets”.
This is a tree that will focus on adventure and your economy as your fleets are now free to sail to explore and conquer distant lands. Make sure you have a proper navy before you send your sailors out into the great unknown - your prosperous trade lanes are threatened by piracy and there is danger out on the waters.
A grateful merchant class might be willing to invest in your capital if you are able to safeguard their fleets. But are the pirates potential partners as well? They know the western waters better than your sailors do now, and there is much that they could teach you.
Be careful with whatever decision you make, as each Admiral has…unique…talents that you won’t want to waste. As your fleets make contact with other nations, there will be opportunities for your people to draw closer together in unexpected ways. The Ligurians to the North have always been reliable trading partners, but could they perhaps be something more? It will remain up to your Consul to see how far these connections will go.
An important part of this tree involves building up your holdings on Corsica. Its position is ideal for becoming a trading hub, but its local infrastructure is poor, especially when compared to the many cities of the Etruscan coast - your enterprising Consul will take care of this, however.
You will become familiar friends with the elites living in Alalia, the most important city in Corsica, and it is from this provincial capital that your efforts to develop the island will be located. Whether it is directing the local investments or dealing with the local tribesmen, Alalia is sure to see its fair share of action.
Will you ultimately build up Corsica, bringing the backwater island into the glorious light of civilization? Or will your baser instincts guide you as you allow piracy to spread unchecked through the waterways that you control? There are rewards and options for whatever path you decide to take.
But did you know that your ruler secretly sympathizes with the pirates, and oftentimes wonders what his life might have been if the circumstances of his birth were different?
If you are able to free yourself from Etruria and unify Sardinia under your banner, you will have access to the Sea People tree, so that’s fun. A final peek at a couple of event chains before I hand things over to olivenkranz for a bit - I’ll be back later to show you some more missions.
Hello all, today I (olivenkranz) present to you the 2 trees for Samnium, with scripting by yours truly and featuring localization from our writer NPK. The first is a comparably short tree, designed to be done in about 10 years, give or take. This tree is all about defeating the Romans in the upcoming 3rd Samnite War.
The only task not related to Rome at all is the one about the war of 303 BC. This war was already mentioned in the last DD when Izn talked about Messapia. In this war, Tarentum with the help of Messapia, Apulia and Sparta opposed Lucania who was supported by Samnium. That event happens entirely via an event chain, and at the end of it, depending on the outcome, you will get different small rewards.
The tree as a whole is designed in two halves, a “pre-war” half with tasks such as requiring allies to stave off Roman aggression, sending a spy to Rome to sabotage or trying to convince one of Rome’s feudatories to betray them and join you.
The tasks after the war are all “clean up” so to speak.
You can either force-vassalize Rome as an opm or burn Rome to the ground. The other tasks are about subjugating the remaining Socii, if any remain, as well as dealing with Neapolis, the city that caused the outbreak of the second Samnite war that just ended at game start.
Importantly, while at war, you will get a couple of events the choice of which will impact what the second mission tree will look like. If your nation becomes too traumatized by constant, generation-long warfare it might become a warmonger just like Rome has been historically. Or, maybe you can fulfill the needs of your people in time and simply be a slightly larger regional power - of course, all your neighbors pay tribute to you.
The second tree will have another, larger, part next to the one about conquest and outer relations which is all about the interior affairs.
With the conquest of Rome and the larger seaports, the Hellenic culture and religion have grown in presence and importance. The rich elites of Samnium especially like this new culture, with the wealth and inventions that it brings with it. Other forces fear that the traditional way of life is about to die out due to the pressure of the new (on the left you can see the edge of the military path).
As you can see, this tree is rather large, But fear not, this tree is replayable! The three branches are all mutually exclusive. And combined with the 2 different options for the conquest path, you can have 6 different playthroughs from the mission tree alone.
On the left, you will embrace the Hellenic influences and convert to their religion. More trade, civilization and much more await you on that path, such as a visit to the Greek world or starting to truly urbanize and becoming the centre of civilization. In the example below, our Consul has decided to take a trip to Greece and will sail for Athens.
I’ll leave Gaius’s meeting with the Pythia private, but let’s just say your Consul is in a good mood afterwards and doesn’t seem to mind taking his time heading to Athens - there are many famous cities in Greece that have captured his interest.
(And yes, there's a typo here and there but keep in mind that's one of the last things we fix ). The city of Athens surpasses Gaius’s expectations, but time is limited as his duties call him back to Samnium. What should he do while he is there?
Most of the time you will get home just fine, but there are always dangers that are associated with long trips…
But I digress. In the middle branch of your mission, you will find the path of the opposition, the path where you will purge Italy of any foreign influences and implore traditional, Italic rule again. Living your rural lifestyle marked by pastoralism and transhumance, your people will be able to live and grow as the gods intended.
On the right is the path that comes closest to the historical outcome for the Samnites within the Roman Realm. Syncretising elements from the Hellenic Culture and Religion will change your identity, yet the core, such as the strong rurality will remain almost untouched.
Since burials were an important part of their culture and their form often dictated by religion and the understanding of death, so did their burials change when influenced. For that reason, each branch has three different tasks relating to the changing burial practices. All three tasks will trigger an event on ruler death (or some other overly important character if it’s a republic as well) that was inspired by the “Sky Burial” of CK2. You will have to choose how to bury the deceased character, impacting the relations with the deceased. You could even grab the funds set aside for the burial for yourself. What will the family think of that?
Each of the three branches will unlock a unique option besides the basic ones, for a more distinguished funeral, based on the changing burial practices.
Another new feature for not only Samnium but all Sabellian countries (that is the primary culture of Samnium) is a decision to call for a “Ver Sacrum”, or “Sacred Spring”. The remnant of a Bronze Age migratory ritual, when a Ver Sacrum was called, the newborn (humans and cattle both) of the following spring would be “devoted” to a deity and considered under that deities protection. When these children and cattle were grown, they would be expelled from the home community and expected to either subjugate a settlement somewhere else or to found a new one. This was most likely done to alleviate pressure of overpopulation.
In the game, the decision requires the following: you have not called for a sacred spring for some time (15 years at the time of writing this) and you have a larger settlement that is at least 95% full. In addition that settlement needs to be dominant italic and your culture. What the decision does is migrate some pops of that “Overfilled” territory to an UNOWNED territory, giving you a claim on it as well as some stability. That is to represent the expelling of the “devoted” generation as well as the invading nature of the practice on neighbouring tribes and states.
In the syncretic path and the path opposing foreign influences, there are tasks that will increase the rewards of the decision, in one case it is some military experience and in the other some political influence.
I also added this fun little event for Sabinia, and even though they don’t have a mission tree, this might make it interesting to start as that challenging nation. It is a little bit of flavour after all
And for Rome players, beware the fall of the Eternal City to those who you once betrayed.
As always, all numbers are subject to change.
And as promised, it’s Zorgoball returning with a sneak peek at a few more mission trees scattered about the map, but before we leave Italy, we will travel north from Samnium and check in to see how the Umbrians are doing. Thanks to Derekmark for bringing us another exciting tree for the Vesuvius update!
Umbria lives in a dangerous neighborhood, surrounded by potentially hostile Republics like the Etruscans to the west and those populated by Latins to the south, and the ever-present threat of barbarian invasions from the north have caused the Umbrian elites to lose sleep at night as they fret over your long-term security. You will be tasked with protecting your people moving forward, but as always, the path that you take will be a winding one, with various roads that ensure multiple playthroughs. Let’s look at the Etruscan options first; will you pursue friendship with your neighbors with diplomatic gestures, or will your messengers be carrying proclamations of war?
What does the path of friendship look like? Here are a couple of examples;
Of course, warfare can be very lucrative, and there are many treasures stored within the walls of the Etruscan citadels - why let the Romans have all of the fun when it comes to sacking Etruria? It would be wise to wage a western war…
Regardless of whether you choose battle or pursue your partnership with the Etruscans, don’t sleep on the Latin threat - it will be best to move from a position of strength by seizing the initiative from your enemies. A resurgent Umbria can afford to be bold and brash and besides, you have scores to settle.
Hopefully our levies will make short work of these fools. As your victorious forces continue to move south, there will be glorious opportunities to humble the vicious Roman wolf.
Fingers crossed that these Latins are smarter than the Sabines. But what about the barbarians to the north? There is so much to be uncertain about these days.
Naturally, there will be many optional tasks to keep your people busy during times of peace - let’s look at a few together.
Where does all of this lead Umbria? To becoming the Hegemon of Italia, where new formables await you if you choose.
I’ll save some surprises for you, but mostly because we have a boat to catch - we are leaving sunny Italia for the distant port of Kios. Dementive has reworked some of the vanilla events and brought us a new mission tree for the Mithridatids, so without further ado, let’s take a look at what you can expect. But first, a history lesson/reminder to set the scene…
Mithridates will flee in the dead of night, striking out for the fortress Kimiata in hopes of not succumbing to the forces of the Antigonid “Empire” that are threatening to blow up his way of life.
Our leader, exhausted by the events of the past few weeks, will accept the offer that is given to us - we will take the time to lick our wounds and plot for our wars ahead.
If you are able to defeat the many enemies that surround you, there will be opportunities to embrace your new circumstances wholeheartedly.
While you will certainly have your hands full with war preparations, there are always things to do with any excess treasury that you might have - your new homeland needs investment!
There will be options, as always. In the course of your missions, if you decide to pursue Median culture and religion, you will eventually have access to the “Form Media” tree for Atropatene that was made by OmegaCorps once this initial tree is complete, but if you go the Pontic route instead, you'll gain access to the brand new to Invictus “Pontic Hegemon of the Euxine Sea” made by RetconCrisis!
There will be many more building initiatives for your nation; now that you have conquered by land, the time has come to master the sea. Pontus has need of a navy, but thankfully, you have some of the best coastlines in the world as potential sites for your harbors - the city of Trapezous is an excellent candidate for a Pontic Shipyard.
With a proper navy at your disposal, you will proceed with your dreams of expansion.
You will have vicious tribes to contend with, as well as squabbling Greek city-states and kingdoms that are none too pleased to see your presence in the region. Rest assured that there are a variety of tasks that will help you with all of the above.
Certain issues will arise over the course of the campaign, like the status of the Greeks that you will have conquered - do they not deserve the same rights as their kinsmen back home? The debates are sure to be contentious, but your ruler will ultimately have the final say.
There is so much more in this update, but I will leave you to your adventures - happy campaigning! Before I go, I would also like to mention that many of the old trees have been looked at, adjusted here and there with new tasks and events added, so some of your old favorites might be worth checking out again. In addition to slightly adjusting some existing missions, some cosmetic surprises have been added, like this crown that will be available to both the Sea People and the Illyrian Pirates at various points in their trees - special thanks to Pureon for implementing.
Oh, and since I am thanking Pureon, I might as well offer him gratitude for allowing us to incorporate his Allis Ubbo mission into Invictus (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2443657504), which will be a decision for Carthage to tag switch over once you have conquered the necessary territory. A quick peek at the tree before I vanish;
As for other surprises you might find in 1.7, go find out as the update is already out!
Heyo, it’s Izn. New religion dropped, meaning it’s my time to introduce it. Though, I’d like to make a disclaimer that this religion has been in development since before I even joined the team! Anyhow, let’s take a look at the religious map.
The native religion of the Italian peninsula has been added. This religion is a very decentralized one. The religion in the northeast resembles that of the Illyrics, and the religion of the Etruscans and Rhaetians too are a bit more distinctive. Meanwhile central Italia has a mix of native and Etruscan, while as you move south you have less Etruscan influence. All in all, the religion needed to have a lot of deities. That’s why I… added over a hundred deities for this religion.
The sheer amount of deities means that I won’t be able to show you all of them, but, I will note that Etruscans and Romans have access to the most deities with somewhere around 35 and 30 respectively. A whole host of holy sites will be coming with these many deities too.
And here’s a picture of the modifiers for this religion.
This religion will have a special conversion mechanic to become Hellenic, as even Rome will be starting as Italic. The history of Roman religion is a much more interesting one that many would have you believe! It definitely isn’t just a one to one copy of Greek religion, and hopefully this new Italic religion will help inform our players of that simple but often misunderstood reality!
I also have got to show you the new trees I finished up for the patch. Of course, there’s Pentapotamia.
To form Pentapotamia, there’s one simple requirement: as Paurava, have any Greco-Indian pops and then integrate them! Now, this does mean that Maurya has to collapse to spawn said pops, but I hope the development tasks I added to Paurava will let you play without waiting too too long. Here are the exact requirements to form Pentapotamia.
You’ll notice in green it says you gain access to a new mission tree. I talked about that before, so let me show you the completed product.
Part one here should be pretty recognizable. This is effectively a mix between a custom nation creator and extreme larping. Here, you’ll set up things like what religion you want to be, what culture you’re going to be, and rp wise, how you’re going to claim to be a Diadochi. You can choose any Shramanic religion, Vedic, or Hellenic; and culturally you’ll be able to stay your current culture or adopt Greco-Indian culture. Either way, the narrative specifies that the culture your forging is unique, even if there’s no new culture to paint onto the map.
And now here comes the second part of the tree. The tree was pretty hard to organize, but I decided to highlight via icons which tasks are relevant for Okeanos and which tasks are ‘optional.’ I’ll remind players that this needs to be done within 30 years! So don’t dilly dally too much.
Seriously though, the negatives are… quite brutal. It’s designed so you will have a somewhat ‘natural’ yet sudden collapse that is sure to leave players in shambles when they fail.
BUT, you’re a god at the game, so let’s talk about the positives! There are 3 kinds of tasks in the second part of the tree. Claim tasks that facilitate claims for your future conquests, Alexander’s Step paths which directly push you towards Okeanos, and Alexander’s conquest paths which will push you towards reforging his empire in its entirety.
Example of a claim task.
Example of a step task.
And an example of a conquest task.
The ultimate goal of the tree actually comes before the end of it, so you could stop once you achieve Okeanos.
Or you can choose to continue conquering all the places you chose to skip, or going beyond Okeanos and capturing Egypt, Anatolia, and Greece. The rewards for the latter are… nonexistent however, so do keep in mind that the bulk of the content is for reaching Okeanos.
That said, you will receive a reward for completing the missions allowing you to access another mission tree and continue Indo-Hellenizing the world. In addition, if you chose to keep your original culture, you’ll still be able to form the Hellenic Empire and access the tree that way.
Ah, and I do have to mention that the Yaudheya version of Pentapotamia… is delayed. Sorry, but I just procrastinated way too much to get out that tree. I hope you’ll be satisfied with this though; a new formable and tree for said formable. The land of the Aryans, Aryavarta!
Aryavarta is heavily inspired by Dementive’s fantastic Tamilakam tree, but each task is flavored towards a Pan-Aryan idea.
The first part of this tree has two branches to speak of. The left side is about your conquests. You’ll be uniting the core lands of Aryavarta, those lands being highlighted in green here.
But, the narrative talks about increasing what Aryavarta means, expanding through legitimization via conquest. Eventually, you’ll end up unifying every Aryan in North India. However, Aryans have long since migrated past the Satpura. Let’s touch on the right side of the tree first before we move further south.
This side is probably the most heavily inspired from the Tamilakam tree, the structure being almost exactly the same, however, the nature of that tree allows for me to have a unique Aryan flair to these development tasks.
The temple tasks are also uniquely selected based on places of worship for Aryans rather than the Agamic areas in the Tamilakam tree. Some of the deities are indeed different too, but I implore you to read some of the writing in the tasks because I think they read quite nicely!
Finally, let’s move on to the final part of the tree.
This section of the tree is about walking into the south of India and establishing Aryavarta beyond the heartlands. I think by far the most important task is getting spices for Aryans.
We’re still a few millennia away from curry, but pre-Colombian exchange spices still hit different.
Once you reach past the continuous Aryan culture group, you’re met with two interesting areas, Sri Lanka and the Dravidians. Instead of directly annexing them, you’ll have options to make them into different vassal types. I’m quite proud of the rather ironic name of Dravidavarta.
Last thing I’ll mention is that Yaudheya and Paurava have their own color and flag for Aryavarta since, frankly, their flags are much cooler. Paurava will be given its own unique task as well, while Yaudhyea’s vassal options will be varied to fit a narrative of Imperial Republicanism instead of establishing monarchtic vassals. Here’s a snapshot of Yaudheya’s unique color for Aryavarta as well as their special version of the Lankan vassal you can make; Sri Lanka.
I quite love the red, don’t you? There are certainly more things to this tree, but you’ll have to play them to find out! I’m quite literally out of time to talk about more, so I’m signing off. Enjoy the new update!
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Nice, I hope that Rome itself won't be overwelmed by all these new additions to its neighbours. Will be fun to play as them.
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I like that Italy beyond Rome gets some love.
I don't know if its possible but it would be cool to have syncrenized events, modifiers or whatever between the Italian tags and invasions by non-Italian cultures like the Celts or the Greeks. I am here thinking about th Celtic invasion between the First and Second Punic War and before that of Pyrrhos intervention/invasion of Italy.
I don't know if its possible but it would be cool to have syncrenized events, modifiers or whatever between the Italian tags and invasions by non-Italian cultures like the Celts or the Greeks. I am here thinking about th Celtic invasion between the First and Second Punic War and before that of Pyrrhos intervention/invasion of Italy.
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did you guys try samnium ? i cant pass the a search for allies mission even having more than 2 allies
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