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Dev Diary #94 - Conquest and Reconquest

Hello there!

For this week, we are going to take a look at the Iberian Reconquista and the Northern Crusades. Keep in mind that things aren’t finalized yet, so there might be small errors etc.

NorthernCrusade01.png


Late 12th century or afterwards, the Teutonic Order can decide to start converting the north (Scandinavia/Baltics/Russia), if they aren’t already holding lands in the south or fighting for any lord at the moment. After the original announcement event, any King or Emperor living in the north will be able to ask the Teutons to target a specific ruler to conquer.

NorthernCrusade02.png


After asking the Teutons to target a specific character, the Teutons will send a response letter with their demands, be it land, money or that they will do it for free. After the Teutons have received a target, they will focus their efforts from now on, to convert that specific DeJure Kingdom to Christianity, fighting wars for one Duchy at a time. In other words, other rulers won’t be able to ask them to target any character outside of the DeJure kingdom later on.

NorthernCrusade03.png


After the Northern Crusades start, the Teutons will potentially ask a local ruler for help, receive event troops and start marching upon the Duchy they fight for. Should they win that war, they will become the Teutonic State and start actively pacifying the region. If they lose, they will wait for some more years, before re-launching the Northern Crusades once more. If they keep losing their wars, they will eventually give up their Northern Crusade, and leave the north.

NorthernCrusade04.png


For those helping the Teutons in pacifying the north, there is rewards in the form of gold, piety, artifacts and potentially a bloodline if you are truly pious.

NorthernCrusade05.png


Turning down south, we also have the new Reconquista. For any Iberian Christian ruler (of Duke or higher tier) with lands in the Iberian Peninsula, they can start fighting to reconquer the peninsula for Christendom. A new decision has been added, to start preparing for a Reconquista. This will cost a ruler a substantial amount of prestige, piety and gold. One thing I want to point out, is that the Reconquista wars can be started at any point throughout the game, and it is not attached to the start of the normal Crusades.

Reconquista01.png


Reconquista02.png


After the Reconquista has started, the ruler will start gathering troops and resources the following year. Every month or two, special events will fire for the ruler, to ask the Pope for gold, finding ships, troops etc.

Reconquista03.png


After a year has passed, the preparation events will finally stop, and the ruler will have one more year to find a fitting target to attack. They can of course start attacking someone prior to the preparation year has passed as well, but then at the cost of the special events attached to that period. The new Reconquista Casus Belli will let you attack special regions in Iberia, each one of them consisting of two Duchies (with the exception of Navarra and the Balearic Islands, which is 1).

As a Reconquista is ongoing, a Muslim in the Iberian Peninsula will be able to sell their services to the Christian Reconquistador and vice versa for Christians. This is to simulate the chaotic type of warfare that often happened at the Iberian Peninsula. For those who want to simulate El Cid, there is a special bloodline for someone winning several Reconquista wars from both sides (helping both the Christian attackers, and the Muslim defenders).

Reconquista04.png


The Reconquistador will also be able to set up a beneficiary, akin to normal Crusades, but it isn’t necessary nor pushed as heavily. After all, spreading the faith locally at the Iberian Peninsula is quite the pious task!

If you have a Beneficiary to gain the land, they will have some extra benefits akin to how the Crusaders usually do, with no penalties to the area when the war is won, etc.

Reconquista05.png


A Reconquista will be considered a success when all the lands of Iberia has been taken, or a Christian Emperor of Hispania is crowned. Similarly, if a Muslim gets the Empire of Hispania, they will stop the Reconquista as well.

The title has been changed slightly to reflect this, and you can no longer create the Empire, unless there are no rulers of another faith holding any DeJure Kingdoms. E.g, the Sultan of Andalusia cannot create the Empire of Hispania while there is a Christian King of Asturias.

Of course, there is a bloodline for those who stay loyal to the faith, and fight for Christianity as well. None of that wishy-washy both sides nonsense!

Reconquista06.png


Finally, if Christendom is desperately trying to survive in the region, Reconquista adventurers can start spawning for the Christian rulers of Iberia. They have a shortened preparation time of 1 month, before they declare war on the closest Muslim. If they win the war, they will settle down as a Beneficiary would, with some of those benefits.

Reconquista07.png


And like last week, there is of course two new game rules attached to the two new Crusades.
  • Northern Crusade:
    • Enabled
    • Disabled
  • Reconquista:
    • Enabled
    • Limited (No Adventurers)
    • Disabled
Reconquista09.png


That was all for the Baltics and the Iberian Peninsula! Hopefully you guys are as stoked for the two new Crusades as we are. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed these extra summer Dev Diaries, and we are back to the usual from next week on!

(Ps. Yes, there isn't really a huge change from the summer Dev Diaries to the usual ones, just that these weren't originally planned)
 
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As a Reconquista is ongoing, a Muslim in the Iberian Peninsula will be able to sell their services to the Christian Reconquistador and vice versa for Christians.
That's awesome. It is what I really wanted.

For any Iberian Christian ruler (of Duke or higher tier) with lands in the Iberian Peninsula, they can start fighting to reconquer the peninsula for Christendom. A new decision has been added, to start preparing for a Reconquista. This will cost a ruler a substantial amount of prestige, piety and gold. One thing I want to point out, is that the Reconquista wars can be started at any point throughout the game, and it is not attached to the start of the normal Crusades.
Finally, if Christendom is desperately trying to survive in the region, Reconquista adventurers can start spawning for the Christian rulers of Iberia.
It will be cool if Muslim rulers on Anatolia or Levant can similar act. It could simulate real Jihad for crusade kingdoms and Ottoman invasion for Byzantine.
 
Thats cool, as always.

I was wondering, though, if you guys can make a game rule that enables the crusades (both normal and special) to trigger at any time. The 769 start is pretty popular and being able to start crusades right on can only add up to Holy Fury popularity.
 
I am quite interested in this too. Historically, the Teutonic Order went - in modern terms - full-on "rogue state", and paid for it with a considerable reduction in donations from most of the Catholic world; said weakening ended up spelling its end in the closing years of CK2. It should be possible for a Holy Order to become... well, pretty much unholy, and suffer from it.
Yup. When last Baltic pagans were defeated, everyone assumed Teutons would either go find new heathens to fight, or just settle down as any other contemporary state.
Except... normal feudal states are were run by warriors, who were married, with children, and therefore somewhat tamed by family life. Other states, like Papal States or semi-independent German archbishoprics, were run by old priests, not warriors, and therefore had lesser natural inclination to violence.
Whereas Teutonic State was run by unmarried warrior men with nothing to do. So they behaved like modern unmarried violent men in good shape with nothing useful to do: frat boys.
 
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I like it, but what about unique clothing and armour for the Holy Orders? I need a Hochmeister helmet, even if all of it won't fit inside the portrait.
Hochmeister helm has already been shown in the portrait of a Teutonic knight. You can see it on the thread where people are looking for new portraits.

EDIT:
templar.png
 
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Por Santiago! La reconquista de lo que una vez fue tierra cristiana, una tarea sagrada encomendada por Dios y el Papa en Roma

i just want to play my one hundredth campaign in Hispania resisting with Asturias the muslim invaders
 
So far, I really like what Holy Fury is offering.
Great job Paradox, all these changes from the patch are great as well.
 
Could it be possible to have the weakest part of reconquista (christians in early starts, muslims in laters) have bonus when they fight on county of their religion ? Just like the defensive pagans actually ? If not, I am afraid the Reconquista will be end in few decade, instead of the centuries it took historicaly...
 
A few questions:
  1. It looks like the reconquista is started by decision by one ruler, so who has access to the CB? Only that ruler, all christians, or everyone?
  2. Connected to the previous, is this a long-term state of reconquista, or does a ruler have to use that decision for every war declared?
  3. What happens if the reconquista finished, but the religion that was pushed out conquers back into Iberia? Can the reconquista start up again?
  4. How about if christians are pushed out without starting the reconquista? Can christians that return to the peninsula later still start them?

1. Only that ruler.
2. It is meant to signal one large campaign to retake one part of Iberia, rather than a constant war to retake the whole peninsula, so it is not a long term state of Reconquista.
3. At the moment it cannot start up again, but I have considered putting an event to restart it. But for now, no.
4. It will still count as a "Reconquista lost, and has given up", so they wouldn't be able to start them later.

Will we be able to create / modify the holy orders in our religion?

Sadly, no.

Will Teutons attack (maytbe with local ruler's persuasion) non-pagan targets in northern regions, like Orthodox Christians?

Not as part of the Northern Crusades, but I figure they will work like a normal ruler if they actually turn into a proper ruler.

Is the Reconquista mechanic exclusively only for Iberia or you can fight such wars on other places in the world ?

Exclusive to the Iberian Peninsula.

Ah, forgot one question earlier:
Is there bloodline for non-christians that defended against the reconquista as well?

Not yet, at least.

Can we have a game rule so that Northern Crusade starts earlier? Similar to turkic conquerors game rule.

I can put it into consideration, if nothing else.
 
Looks really great! Can't wait to play with the new patch :D
But at the same time... I thought before that there are too much game rules, and you guys are still adding more game rules every patch/dlc. While I do like to have the option to turn certain things off/on and so on, I feel it is actually more confusing and a "big task" to be done before a major playthrough.

That's why I usually play with the standard settings. Would have liked to see these game rules simplified! Altough I don't know how that could be done without actually losing content to choose from.

Maybe consider to use headlines to explain how much/big changes these would be to the game, to make it easier to navigate?
 
Looks really great! Can't wait to play with the new patch :D
But at the same time... I thought before that there are too much game rules, and you guys are still adding more game rules every patch/dlc. While I do like to have the option to turn certain things off/on and so on, I feel it is actually more confusing and a "big task" to be done before a major playthrough. That's why I usually play with the standard settings. Would have liked to see these game rules simplified! Altough I don't know how that could be done without actually losing content to choose from. Maybe consider to use headlines to explain how much/big changes these would be to the game?

What I suggest to do, at least I do this myself, is to find a ruleset that you enjoy playing with, and save it. Then you can just load it up every time you are going to play a game, and it should be all right.
 
What I suggest to do, at least I do this myself, is to find a ruleset that you enjoy playing with, and save it. Then you can just load it up every time you are going to play a game, and it should be all right.
I suppose, but i'm afraid of the "oh... it reset when the new patch came out again" altought I don't know if this is actually the case. But then, could we have something to name our saves? Gamerules save1 isn't really rememberable. (Last time I checked, which is a long time ago, naming your gamerules in a save wasn't a thing.)
 
I suppose, but i'm afraid of the "oh... it reset when the new patch came out again" altought I don't know if this is actually the case. But then, could we have something to name our saves? Gamerules save1 isn't really rememberable. (Last time, which is a long time ago, naming your gamerules in a save wasn't a thing.)
Just save the settings you use most often as the first one and load it automatically. Then the changes you may want to adjust for other campaigns will probably be small ones so you can change them really quick. The rules are less of pain in the A than creating a custom ruler, if one desires so.
 
Hey, don't forget the Livonian Order too. :)
 
I was waiting for some kind of unique Reconquista mechanics or events since the beginning, and it's perfect. But also I was hoping for some new provinces added to the region, and a De Jure rework (splitting that huge Andalusia, for example). Anyway, I really hope this could help Asturias surviving the Umayyads, specially in the 769 date.
 
Just save the settings you use most often as the first one and load it automatically. Then the changes you may want to adjust for other campaigns will probably be small ones so you can change them really quick. The rules are less of pain in the A than creating a custom ruler, if one desires so.
Yes, could just do this and just do that, but that isn't really a solution to the problem, but rather a way to best cope with the problem. The problem is that, if you have more saved gamerules, naming them "preset1" and "preset2" isn't really rememberable enough. When creating a custom ruler, things are at least navigateable. It's easy to find what you are looking for. And the more gamerules comes out, the harder it becomes to navigate through them.

I don't think it would take long or hard to "set the different rules apart" so to speak, I really can't find the word I need on my tongue :( Or just allowing people to name their preset to something they will more likely remember.

Not trying to be a total ass, but to me at least, and surely many others, as you are rarely alone, would be greatly apriciated. Not that this is a very major issue... it just would be very, very nice.