Your favorite part of the week is here! Another developer diary for Europa Universalis IV: Art of War - the next major expansion/DLC for, what I hope, is your favorite grand strategy game. Nothing against those other games, but we have so many great things happening in Art of War that EU4 has to be your favorite now, right?
OK, maybe not. But the improvements we’re talking about today are pretty great. Some are legitimately game changing.
Custom Client States
As time goes on in Europa Universalis, the memories of the old medieval states fade away, as they have long ago been conquered. This creates potential problems for some types of conquerors as there may be no viable flag and identity with which to manipulate the population’s loyalty.
As is often the case, Napoleon was an inspiration here. We have added the concept that the great Emperor introduced to so many places in Europe, creating countries with new identities and flags out of territories he liberated from the decadent monarchies of Europe.
Once you have reached Diplomatic Tech 22 in Art of War (about the 1690s in game-time, for Western European powers), you get the ability to create Client States. You do this by designating a capital province on the map, and then pressing the client state button in the province interface. When creating a new Client State, you can edit its name, its flag and map color, and decide which symbol should be on its flag. Then you can add any adjacent province to that new country at any time. There is no upper limit to the size of these new vassals. When created, a Client State is treated as a very loyal vassal.
Allied Transports
One of the fun little things we added in Art of War is the possibility to allow your allies to board your fleets as needed. You can toggle any of your fleets at any time to allow or disallow this. This is very useful if you lack a large navy, and your ally have good transporting capacity.
Improved Battle Displays
Ever wanted a bit more information about an ally’s battle before joining it, such as whether they decided to attack across a river or have their entire frontline made up of cannon? In Art of War, you will be able to view your allies’ battles even if you are not participating in them, simply by clicking on the battle on the map.
We’ve also spruced up the battle results display a bit. When a battle is over, the results screen will now show 3D models of the leading participants’ infantry, allowing you to admire your victorious soldiers in full detail after they are done routing the enemy.
Central Asia
Now I turn over the keys to Danubiancossack who did the work on remapping this part of the world.
Ok so let's begin. As a result of my well known Russophilia (and I suspect the ability to read Russian Cyrillic), and some rumored map editing skill, I was rewarded with reworking this general region of the map, comprising the modern day -stan republics of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Basically everything North of the Persia-Afghanistan line, everything South of the Russian southern steppe borderlands and everything between the Qing border and Caspian Sea. How did that happen? Well kind of like this: Johan spoke to me and said "DC get it done" and, lo, Johan's will was done.
As was foretold.
So lets begin with some screenies, shall we?
First of all we have the region comprised of modern Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It’s a pretty straightforward place, with great centers of trade following the ancient Silk Road that connected the east with the west. On top of that we also have rising stars such as city of Samarkand (I assume most Paradox fans have heard of Timur and his cruelty) but also places that will have their own peaks throughout EU4 time frame, such as Bukhara and Khiva. This region’s geography is dominated by two things: the Amu Darya river, which is the region's lifeline, and the Zarafshan Mountains to the south east, with their passes connecting it with other neighboring regions (covered by previous dev diaries). You can now also see cotton production in the southern provinces of what is modern day Uzbekistan.
And we now move on to Nogai and Kazakh realms, the second half of the region that was assigned to me. The first thing you might notice is that the really big provinces that were the hallmark of this region up to now are gone. We have reduced Kazan's southern borders to match more accurately refllect the historical split, as well as cutting the Uzbeks in size, in favor of Nogai. That little green puny country is now gone, and Nogai is a serious source of power, one that nobody will simply annex in one go. With that said, Nogai is no longer a single culture country, now; it has Kazakh provinces as well as a new addition, the Bashkir culture (which emorteUA will cover in more detail later in this dev diary).
The Uzbeks have also received many new provinces, but their overall situation hasn't changed by too much. They still possess a very small base of their own culture in the south, while most of the center of their megastate is comprised of Kazakh cultured provinces, including the only true city in the steppe region, Orda Bazar - their capital and the mint of an entire region that probably spans a couple of thousand kilometers. At the same time, in the Northern bit of their empire, a Siberian population is eager for freedom and a realm of their own. It is also important that the steppe remain a very big place that isn't densely populated, so don't expect great cities everywhere or high base taxes in nomad inhabited provinces - because there are very few of those. Better make sure those are the ones you take first.
While perhaps very big at first glance, these steppe realms are really "glass cannons". Big and powerful on paper, but also challenging to keep together against both internal and external challenges (specially at the same time). The Uzbeks should provide a unique and interesting gameplay challenge with the potential to achieve greatness and perhaps even challenge the legacy of Genghis Khan.
With all of that said, I now give floor to my Sovi-I mean Russian comrade, elmorteUA, who will tell you more about Siberian overhaul, or in other words explain "why everything belongs to the Motherland!".
Siberia
Now we let elmorteUA take over and talk about the work he provided for Siberia.
Kamchadals?
ON MY KAMCHATKA?!?!
My comrade DanubianCossak told you about Central Asia, now it's my time to tell you about Siberia.
Before AoW Siberia appeared to be one vast lifeless piece of land waiting for Russian colonists to settle there. Looking at the map of provinces it was could notice that they were bigger, and therefore worse detailed, than provinces in any other region. And the extreme north was presented as endless wasteland and nothing more.
New Siberia
In this DLC the situation has significantly changed. More than twenty new provinces have been added that will make Siberian expansion more interesting. The Wastelands have moved further to the north, opening up Mangazeya, a center of the Siberian fur trade developed by Stroganov merchants that made it, in the words of the historian George St. George, "a virtual Baghdad of Siberia". We’ve also added Komi and many other provinces rich with fur or locations that were simply underpopulated areas of the extreme North.
Buryatia
The most important news – Siberia is no longer lifeless. Buryatia now lies to the east of Lake Baikal. The Buryats had formed from different Mongol tribes that had migrated north and separated themselves from the rest of Mongols. De jure, the Buryats accepted reign of the Mongol khans, but, de facto, they were independent - similar to the relationship many regions had with the heirs of Genghis.In 1444, Buryatia owns 4 provinces and could potentially compete with other Mongol tribes in order to become the local hegemon.
Siberian Clans
The rest of new Siberian tribes are settled closer to the Pacific Ocean. They are the Koryak tribe of Chauchuvens, the Yukagiri people of the Khodynts, the Kamchadals on Kamchatka and the warlike Chukchi. These new tribes could seriously change the game style and become base for conquest of Siberia by mighty Spain. Or maybe one of them will defeat all other tribes and manage to create a country, that would be able to protect itself from European invaders.
I think that the most interesting of the tribes are the Chukchi. Throughout their history, the Chukchi struggled with the severe environment around them, and were often fighting neighboring tribes, so these struggles have shaped the unique culture of the Chukchi’s warriors. The Chukchi were so successful that even Russia was not able to conquer them purley by force. In real history, the Chukchi managed to defend themselves even against the vaunted Russian Cossacks, that would raid their lands for a few centuries.
The nomadic Chauchuvens were also not a peaceful people. Significant parts of their stories and legends tell of wars and battles with other tribes including the Chukchi.
The Yukagiri people of the Khodynts is far less dramatic. They were small in number and conflicts with neighbors, as well as disease, led to the Khodynts’ assimilation with other Yukagiri tribes.
Unlike the three abovementioned tribes the Kamchadals or Itelmens had a settled way of life. Nevertheless they weren’t familiar with agriculture, and obtained food mostly by hunting, fishing and gathering.
These tribes are very different from other nations, so a new government type was added for them – the Siberian Clan Council. Besides the name, this government type has one more feature: it allows small tribes to migrate from one place to another just like the North American Indians do.
New culture group
Art of War also adds a new Siberian cultural group – the Evenks. This allows us to show specific demographics of Siberian people better. We’ve also made changes in trade nodes, so Siberia is no longer part of the Chinese Yumen or Beijing nodes.
