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EU4 - Development Diary - 7th of May 2019

Hi there and welcome to another dev diary for EU4. I am Pierre, I’ve been part of the EU4 Content Design team since December, and I feel honoured to be able to give you your first peeks at the new content we are making for the big European update and expansion we have planned for the end of the year.

This is the first of several dev diaries that will focus on the map changes we have made, giving large parts of the European map a much-needed revamp. I’ll be starting with Germany (which for purely arbitrary reasons shall for today include Switzerland and Bohemia, but not Austria). As @neondt stated in an earlier dev diary, our aim was not to recreate Voltaire’s Nightmare or to populate the entire HRE map with OPMs (this would have been eminently possible) but rather to create more depth and more interesting gameplay situations within it, righting various wrongs and finding ways to better represent the various dynamics of the empire’s territories along the way.

As with previous patches, all map changes shown here will be part of the free patch. In previous map previews, we have often revealed the idea groups of the new tags, and rest assured we will be adding new ideas to replace the generic German ones. However, the work to do so still lies in the future, so in the meantime I’d just like to give a shoutout to this thread – if you want to know what we are looking for in terms of threads suggesting new idea groups, look no further.

So without further ado…

South Germany

upload_2019-5-6_13-44-8.png


The lack of primogeniture in Bavaria until the 1500s led to several splits of the Duchy in the 14th century before its reunification in 1503. At game start, Wittelsbach Bavaria is divided between Munich, Landshut and Ingolstadt, who will have to fight it out for the duchy (or hope they inherit it). However, Bavaria can console itself with the fact that, once united, it will have considerably more resources at its disposal than in 1.28, with new provinces in Innbaiern (modern Innviertel, ceded to Austria in 1779; capital: Braunau), Freising, Rosenheim and Donauwörth (which has Swabian culture and is a releasable tag). We hope for Bavaria to become a strong power within the HRE in the next patch. To make this more likely, we will be adding DHEs such as this one to the Bavarian sub-duchies:

upload_2019-5-6_13-44-46.png


Also new to Bavaria is the inclusion of Regensburg as a Free City and Passau as a Bishopric. At present, the latter is a vassal under Munich, since historically Munich’s territories more or less surrounded Passau and we do not wish the latter to be easy food for Bohemia or Austria. Finally, Salzburg (already in the Bavarian geographic area) now has Bavarian culture, which more correctly represents its situation in 1444 – it was part of the Bavarian Circle and was only annexed by Austria as late as 1805.

Moving south, the large province of Tirol has been split in several pieces, with the independent County of Bregenz (currently Austrian culture) to the west representing one of the more challenging starting positions in the HRE (they have 5 development and an heir with low legitimacy). The main province has been further split between Inntal (capital: Innsbruck) and Etschtal (capital: Meran).

Switzerland, too, has seen a makeover. The Swiss Confederacy was a growing power in the 15th century but was not yet close to controlling all of what would become Switzerland. Whilst we elected not to start with individual independent Swiss Cantons (this would simply make them easy prey for Austria, Milan, Savoy and Burgundy), we did split off the largest independent force, the Three Leagues. In the process, Graubünden was split to become Illanz and Chur, and Fribourg/Freiburg was added west of Bern.

Finally, Swabia has seen considerable changes. Firstly, Austria’s holdings in Swabia (or “Further Austria” are better represented, with Breisgau now being ruled by Austria, as it was in history. Baden has been compensated with the addition of Durlach (which would later become Karlsruhe) to its north. Wurttemberg, which was the largest territorial state in Swabia but somehow is an OPM with 6 development in EU4, now has a new province in the form of Urach (capital: Reutlingen) and a substantial buff in terms of development. Additionally, Ravensburg has been swapped for the Free City of Konstanz, Alsace is now the Bishopric of Strasbourg, the new tag of Mulhouse has been added to represent the Decapolis in southern Alsace, and Ulm is no longer wildly mislocated.

To add a bit more interest to the area, states of Swabian culture will now be able to form Swabia.

Central Germany and Bohemia

upload_2019-5-6_13-45-34.png


Saxony has been given several new provinces but has also been split in two. Like Bavaria, Saxony did not have primogeniture; unlike Bavaria, Saxony never fully resolved this issue. As a result, in the 15th century, it was split several times, with the end result being the Treaty of Leipzig in 1485, where Saxony was split between the two brothers Ernest and Albert on lines similar to those displayed on the map above, except that both continued calling themselves Saxony and Ernest (Thuringia) gained Wittenberg and the Electorate. Thuringia/Ernestine Saxony later lost the Electorate to (Albertine) Saxony and split into many, many pieces. This all lies in the future in 1444 (via several planned DHEs), so the current division is based on that in 1445 between the brothers Friedrich and Wilhelm. Thuringia starts under PU by Saxony, but there will be several events which will make it a difficult subject to keep quiet for Saxony. New provinces are Zwickau in Saxony and three in Thuringia (previously one province with low development), which is now much better represented by Erfurt (Mainz has a core on this province to represent certain historical complexities), Weimar and Coburg (Franconian culture).

Franconia has seen a few more provinces and tags added. Most importantly, Franconia itself is now a formable tag if you manage to unite the Franconian lands. This is however easier said than done as Franconia now includes two Free Cities and lands owned by strong neighbours (i.e. Coburg by Thuringia). Würzburg, the titular holders of the duchy, remain the strongest power, with a new province in Fulda (Rhenish i.e. Hessian culture) and vassal in Bamberg. Their main rivals, Ansbach, now have Bayreuth as their junior partners in PU. They are now also bordered on the west by Rothenburg, another new Free City. Finally, the large province of Mainz has been split and the new Franconian culture province of Aschaffenburg has been added.

Moving West, @Ofaloaf did some pyrotechnics to the lower Rhineland map to make space to squeeze in Jülich (owned by Berg). The Palatinate has a new province in Zweibrücken, and although Hessen has no new provinces, its provinces have been renamed to Oberhessen and Niederhessen, with Niederhessen (Kassel) now the capital and more affluent province.

Finally, Bohemia, like other regions, has gained some new provinces. Lusatia has been split in three (with Oberlausitz split between Bautzen and Görlitz). This has allowed us to make Lusatia an area and releasable tag, with the provinces now having Sorbian culture. Silesia, as you can see, has been split in two between Glogau and Opole. Silesia the tag still exists and can be formed by a Silesian country that owns all of Silesia and is not a subject. Bohemia and Moravia have seen three more provinces added, with space being made for Jindrichuv Hradec, Pardubice and Ostrava. Although this is quite a few new provinces, we split the development of existing provinces to make room for them, so Bohemian starting development is not noticeably higher; we will of course be paying attention to the balance side of things to avoid Bohemia becoming the Ottomans of Europe.

Northern Germany

upload_2019-5-6_13-46-21.png


We restrained ourselves from adding too many provinces to Brandenburg, mainly because this was not a very densely inhabited area and in 1444 few would have predicted that it would later rise to power. However, they did gain a new province in Brandenburg (the city) and are stronger than most of their neighbours, so if they can secure the alliances needed to keep the likes of Bohemia away, they are still well-placed to expand – especially since the sale of Neumark will now also grant them Dramburg.

Pomerania had a bit of a situation with their lack of primogeniture too (I seem to be repeating myself here). In fact, they split many, many times and were united much more seldom than they were divided. We went for a fairly conservative split and made them into Wolgast in the west and Stettin in the east, with new provinces in Wolgast and Rügen. A united Pomerania will of course be able to form Pomerania. Also, Rügen is a releasable tag that, in homage to Klaus Störtebecker and the hotbed of piracy that was the Baltic, will have the opportunity of going pirate if you own Golden Century.

The smaller states to the west of Brandenburg have each gained provinces, with Mecklenburg now correctly owning Stargard, Lüneburg’s significance better represented by the addition of Celle, and Magdeburg now owning the bishop’s summer residence of Halle. Braunschweig (previously one of the largest provinces of the HRE) has had the city of Göttingen split off it to the south (still owned by the Brunswick tag though) and is bordered to the east by the new Free City of Goslar, and the tag Verden now also owns a province called Verden as well as Stade.

Further west, Cologne too has an extra province in Paderborn (which is a releasable tag) and Berg is our new bordergore galore tag, owning Bielefeld as well as Berg and Jülich. Last but not least, Dortmund has also been added as a Free City.

Another change that we made in the north is in the cultures. There have been many calls for a “Lower Saxon” culture, and we have heeded these calls by splitting the Westphalian culture. Conveniently, this allows us to make the Kingdom of Hannover into the formable for the Lower Saxons and Westphalia into that for the Westphalians and Rhenish peoples.

upload_2019-5-6_14-54-18.png


As a final note, I’d add that our focus on the Holy Roman Empire gives us a good opportunity to add flavour events for the tags populating it. I’ve been loving reading through the suggestions in threads such as this one. Please keep them coming, and if there is any interesting historical event you would like to see in the game, feel free to ping me (I can also read German and French, so you can send me links in those languages too).

That’s it for now. Next week, I’ll be presenting a few of the German mission trees we have prepared so far.
 
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They later starts are virtually ignored. I can't remember when it was, but they did mention years ago that very, very few people choose a game start that isn't 1444.
Yeah, I just thought I'd mention it because there is actually a point in the game where Austria is not unified, even if it is barebones and poorly implemented it's something at least.
 
Very excited to see you include the changes I suggested for Hesse. It's just details, but it shows you care about your community. I still hope for a bit more detail (like Katzenelnbogen in the map revision proposed by Mingmung) or flavor though. :D

One last nitpick: While the city is spelled Kassel these days, the official spelling was Cassel til 1926. Either way it's definitely not a huge deal, since other cities use their current spelling as well.
 
Rothenburg's placement is a little weird. It should be a little further east and have a land connection with Wurzburg. Right now, it seems to be where the County of Hohenlohe ought to be.
 
I really love the changes, they made my day. It's great to see Thuringia splitted, a slim Brunswick, and playing in Franconia will be so much more fun :)
However, there are three things I'd like to mention.
1. Leipzig.
In the current map and the new one, it is somewhere in the west of Wittenberg, where the south of the Prussian province of Sachsen and the modern Sachsen-Anhalt are.
Map-saxony1900.png

Apparently, Leipzig is ascribed to the province in the west whose most eastern part it then must be. This causes terrible late game borders: Without Leipzig, Saxony looks pretty much as it looked, but it then would lack its most important center besides Dresden. Even worse, it is part of the area "Thuringia"...
An easy way to improve this would be to rename the province of Leipzig to something else in that region, maybe Merseburg; it should be considered to rename Wittenberg to Leipzig.

2. Bayreuth
...should not be called "Bayreuth" but "Kulmbach". Kulmbach was the original residence of the Margraves and the official name of the territory in the Imperial register. The Margraves didn't move to Bayreuth until 1604.

3. Bielefeld
I don't understand the reason for it being added, it must be because of its modern status as the biggest city in East Westphalia. But, it was by no means an important city in the EU4 timeline. It had a population of only 2500 people in 1510 and 6500 in 1820 in total. It wasn't politically independent and played no outstanding role in history until the post-EU4 time.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einwohnerentwicklung_von_Bielefeld
The space should be used to add at least one of the counties of Lippe and Schaumburg, due to the position, rather the first one. Lippe is definitely big enough to be a province and existed for the whole EU4 era (12th century - 1947) without disruption. It included Lemgo, a member city of the Hanseatic League, that was bigger than Bielefeld, it is historically interesting as a center of witch hunts during the reformation and Bernard VII was known for being the longest-ever ruling monarch in Europe of all time. Unlike the many Wettin duchies, Lippe cannot be subsumed under any other tag.

Again, thank you for the good work, please keep it up.
 
Glory to Ulm.
 
Konstanz
For inspiration for DHE, NIs etc please have a look at my Konstanz thread (link in signature). I really like your changes in the extended South-Western region! Well done! Nie please add as much flavor to the region with new events, (again see my links please) maybe a Swabian League, a special Swiss Confederacy mechanism, etc.
It would be so nice to have also OPMs and smaller nation receiving some love with historic events to enrich the game play and make them unique and interesting to play :) I know, not everyone will match the richness of unique events of Sweden, but please tab into the many suggestions to add to the game:)
 
This all looks amazing, but my fear is that it won't be feasible to unite Germany nearly as often as it is now. While I can appreciate the HRE getting a facelift the fact is that you already accrue AE at an alarming rate within it even if you're part of it as well. I think I would personally prefer that the enormous penalties are at least lessened slightly, since probably about 300 development (or more) total will be added to the region. I hope it will still be possible to unite Germany before 1600, but I doubt it based on these additions. Once again, I do like the additional flavor, and I hope that the HRE minors will finally get some unique trees and ideas, but I'm also worried about the ability to play both inside and outside the HRE.
 
This all looks amazing, but my fear is that it won't be feasible to unite Germany nearly as often as it is now. While I can appreciate the HRE getting a facelift the fact is that you already accrue AE at an alarming rate within it even if you're part of it as well. I think I would personally prefer that the enormous penalties are at least lessened slightly, since probably about 300 development (or more) total will be added to the region. I hope it will still be possible to unite Germany before 1600, but I doubt it based on these additions. Once again, I do like the additional flavor, and I hope that the HRE minors will finally get some unique trees and ideas, but I'm also worried about the ability to play both inside and outside the HRE.
why should it be feasible to unite Germany considering it never happened in the game's time period nor ever came close to happening?
 
I hope this means that HRE states that were more relevant in history like Bavaria and Brandenburg won't be swallowed up by literal who's as much. Both those states in particular seem to have a hard time surviving.
 
Maybe tie it to development instead of number of provinces?

I think both of the options should be possible e.g. one province or two, but total development below 30.

On the other hand, with some new free cities (probably less then there were single province nations before) the profits for each member could be buffed.

But on another hand, after dharma release i've seen many trade leagues outside of Europe, so there are many things to consider when thinking of leagues change ;)
 
Bielefeld

I made a post in the forum suggesting replacing bielefeld with Lippe. Appearently Lippe is a revolter tag in the province