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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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Do the Visigoths now have a chance at beating back the Muslims without play intervention? Or are the Iberians still screwed in the earlier start dates?
 
So if you custom create an empire in the hispania does that cancel out the reconquista? and are there any offshoot kingdoms that can come with it i wonder. Teutonic order honor guard are really cool and i hope there will be chances for other kinds of holy order uniqueness.:D
 
Is there any mechanics to stop the annoying Aquitania or France or HRE taking a lot of land through the mediterranean coast of spain? Like no Reconquista CB for them, they can only join to help or create their own claims or have their adventureres going on their own even if they are of french culture for instance.
 
Is there any mechanics to stop the annoying Aquitania or France or HRE taking a lot of land through the mediterranean coast of spain? Like no Reconquista CB for them, they can only join to help or create their own claims or have their adventureres going on their own even if they are of french culture for instance.

I don't know, but the below sounds like only rulers in the Iberian group (so Catalan, Visigoth, Castillian, Suemi?, and Basque) rulers will be able to declare a reconquest. I don't think anything has been done about the usual French poaching of Valencia.

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.
 
I don't know, but the below sounds like only rulers in the Iberian group (so Catalan, Visigoth, Castillian, Suemi?, and Basque) rulers will be able to declare a reconquest. I don't think anything has been done about the usual French poaching of Valencia.

Thats what I thought. The question then remains, si the holy war CB removed then so there is only the Reconquista one available? That would make sense and would fix the problem. Because if spanish kingdoms go through the reconquista event while France goes on their own nicking spanish eastern provinces, it doesn't make much sense if at the end of the day the hardest and biggest reconquest is going to be against french/HRE :p
 
Thats what I thought. The question then remains, si the holy war CB removed then so there is only the Reconquista one available? That would make sense and would fix the problem. Because if spanish kingdoms go through the reconquista event while France goes on their own nicking spanish eastern provinces, it doesn't make much sense if at the end of the day the hardest and biggest reconquest is going to be against french/HRE :p

I rather doubt standard holy wars have been made unavailable in the region since there could be many circumstances when it makes sense for other realms to attack the region (and a player playing as/in one of those realms might not appreciate it being blocked just because those realms didn't really intervene historically (especially since not everyone appreciates railroading and there are many other places where there are no historical restrictions on wars)), and there might also be cases where the Iberian kingdoms cannot afford the new CB but can afford holy wars.
 
Will these types of crusades also apply to reformed pagans and such?
In which I mean will they get their options to do the same towards Christians through their respective holy orders?

As I understand, all these new Crusade Mechanics are Catholic-only (and for some of their heresies). All other religions mostly continue to use the current Great Holy War mechanic.
 
Which I suspect is because the game can only run 1 of the new type of crusades at a time. If other religions could call them as well, they would "block" each other, which wouldn't make much logical sense.

Also: Should the reconqista be opened so that Andalusian rulers of Catholic religion can active it? It is an iberian specific culture, so it would make sense for them to claim Hispania. Sadly, as it is in the arabic group they wont be able to utilize these cool new mechanics.
 
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I don't know, but the below sounds like only rulers in the Iberian group (so Catalan, Visigoth, Castillian, Suemi?, and Basque) rulers will be able to declare a reconquest. I don't think anything has been done about the usual French poaching of Valencia.

Not to mention the ridicilous beelining of Karlings into North Africa in the 800s. This really annoys me quite a bit.
 
Not to mention the ridicilous beelining of Karlings into North Africa in the 800s. This really annoys me quite a bit.

The best I have seen was an Acquitaine and Aragon (ruled by Basque of all people) that controlled almost enough of Francia, about half of Hispania, and the African coast from the Canaries to Egypt. I'm not sure what the Karlings are up to in that game.
 
Not to mention the ridicilous beelining of Karlings into North Africa in the 800s. This really annoys me quite a bit.
I've made a mod eliminating the extra condition that Christians and Muslims have, that allows them to declare holy wars across sea zones. So far I've seen plenty of religious warfare but only in points of direct contact: Spain, Sicily and the Levant. It would be nice if they made it a game setting. So no France beating the Spaniards to Valencia or German Balearic Islands.
 
I've made a mod eliminating the extra condition that Christians and Muslims have, that allows them to declare holy wars across sea zones. So far I've seen plenty of religious warfare but only in points of direct contact: Spain, Sicily and the Levant. It would be nice if they made it a game setting. So no France beating the Spaniards to Valencia or German Balearic Islands.

This should be part if the game. Locking Holy Wars across the sea until year 1300 ir something like that.
 
This should be part if the game. Locking Holy Wars across the sea until year 1300 ir something like that.
I believe "any Holy War involving Muslims or any Holy War involving Christians after Crusades have started" is the limit. Personally I think non-crusade Holy Wars across anything other than straits only start to make sense in the 15th and 16th centuries.
 
I have a question...will the Albigensian Crusade be fleshed out in the DLC?
 
I've made a mod eliminating the extra condition that Christians and Muslims have, that allows them to declare holy wars across sea zones. So far I've seen plenty of religious warfare but only in points of direct contact: Spain, Sicily and the Levant. It would be nice if they made it a game setting. So no France beating the Spaniards to Valencia or German Balearic Islands.

german balearic islands is completely accurate tho.