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Tinto Flavour #10 - 14th of March 2025 - Scotland

Hello, and welcome one more week to Tinto Flavour, the happy Fridays in which we take a look at the flavour content of the super secret Project Caesar!

Today we will be showing the content for the Kingdom of Scotland. Let’s start without further ado:

Scotland is once again in peril.

A mere generation ago, our national hero King Robert de Bruce freed us from English rule alongside the famous martyr, William Wallace.

Now his successor — the bairn King David II de Bruce — lies exiled in France as our loyal nobility continues their struggle against Balliol, the English king's lackey who falsely claims the Scottish crown.

Though the people of our realm are currently united in our cause, this is not guaranteed to last. Embedded in our kingdom are deep cultural and societal divisions, especially between the wealthy English-speaking Scots burghs of the Lowlands and the Highland people who dwell in the inland hills.

The fate of Scotland is at risk.

A mere generation ago, the illegitimate King Robert de Bruce expelled the English from the country and crowned himself king.

As the legitimate heir of the previous King John de Balliol, his son King Edward de Balliol has laid a claim to the Scottish throne. Along with his English-backed supporters, he plans to fight against the usurper and return Scotland to its legitimate ruler.

Country Selection.png


Balliol.png

… The only problem for Scotland is that it starts in a civil war between the followers of King David II de Bruce, who is exiled to France, and those of King Edward de Balliol, nominally backed by England. This makes for a very different and interesting setup, therefore. Also, as always, please remember that any UI, 2D and 3D art is WIP, as usual.

This is the starting situation of the Scottish Civil War:
Scotland.png


The starting diplomatic situation of King David II de Bruce:
Diplomacy Scotland.png

France is Guaranteeing, while England is an Enemy (has selected Scotland as a Rival).

And that of King Edward de Balliol:
Diplomacy Balliol.png

England is Guaranteeing, and the Lordship of the Isles is a vassal.

Let’s start with the content related to the Civil War. Both sides have events available for them, but let’s focus on a couple that you get while starting as Scotland - the supporters of the de Bruce dynasty.

This event will trigger early on:

Maybe you can figure out which aspect gets favoured depending on the tutor you pick for the king…?

And also this one:
The King's Education.png

Halidon Hill.png

You may notice that King David’s name has changed. In the previous event, I selected the second option, the Highlander chieftain, so the culture of the king has changed, and now his name is reflecting that since it has a different variant available.

We’ve made it so the outcome of the Civil War is not an instant end game; if while playing as Scotland you lose it to Balliol, an event will pop up, so you can decide to continue playing with them (or not! That’s up to the player!). This would be the result, thus:
Edward de Balliol.png

King Edward de Balliol ruling over a once-again unified Scotland.

Let’s now move towards the structural content that you might find while playing with Scotland. This is a unique starting government reform:
Shires of Scotland.png

Scotland also has some unique privileges for the Lairds (Nobility):
Scottish Clans.png

Commissioners (Burghers):
Royal Burgh Commissioners.png

And Clans (Tribesmen) - this is the way we’re representing the Highlanders from a pop-type perspective, which also allows us to have them operating as a different estate:
Clans.png

United Scottish Heritage.png

Manrent.png

Fosterage.png

Creach.png

There’s also this law, with three different policies:
Distribution of Scots Clans.png

Direct Inheritance.png

Distributed by the Crown.png

Dynastic Holdings.png

Scotland also has two unique buildings available:
Clan Seat.png

Peel Tower.png

Also something new, Scotland has available some unique parliament issues in later ages, such as:
Presbyterian Education Act.png

College of Justice.png

And a bunch of advances; today we will show mostly late-game ones since it had been requested by you previously to show more of this type of content, and also as a good example of some plausible alt-historical content - you may notice that the advances that Scotland has available for the Age of Revolutions, when they already had ceased to exist as an independent polity (since the Acts of Union of 1707), have a historical background:

This is a specific advance for a Balliol-ruled Scotland:
Longbowmen.png

Warbows.png

Warbows2.png


Highlander Regiments.png

Scottish Highlander.png

Scottish Highlander2.png


Scotch Whisky.png

Scotch Whisky Distilleries.png


Scottish Enlightenment.png

Related to the latest, there’s a late-game event that may lead you to get this important work of art:
Wealth of Nations.png

… And much more, but that’s all for today! My fellow colleagues @SaintDaveUK and @Roger Corominas will be replying instead of me today. And for next week, we will travel south, to take a look at the Kingdom of Ethiopia! Cheers!
 
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Oooh now I want to play as Scotland for my first playthrough. I don’t know if it’ll be this or Morocco. So excited!

Does Scotland-formed Great Britain get unique flavor, aside from the flag (and I assume keeping the capital)? Or does it just get access to British flavor?
 
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Maybe indeed there could be a rule for ironman (or other achievement related runs) that loosing a civil war IS indeed game over. Tbh I don't mind either way since I don't intend to play ironman, but it's true there is room for exploit if some people want.
yes, if you want, but it's probably more fun to try to win with the side you want to end up playing with.

It's not really a problem so much as it is a weird gameplay incentive for "optimal" runs. Also a little weird to inevitably tell a new player, yeah it's going to be easier to play as Scotland by picking balliol and then losing on purpose.
 
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Damn, this is probably the meatiest TF so far. Nice Clan content!

@Roger Corominas & @SaintDaveUK, tangentially related to the Highlands, but on last week's topic, do you have any content for Székely (and Cuman-Jász) privileges, autonomy and military obligations? It's a rather similar case in many aspects.

And does Hungary have a unique government reform? Seems to be the trend to give unique reforms to most major countries with flavour content
I did ask this in that thread too btw, didn't mean to go off-topic, but unfortunately didn't get an answer for either in the relevant thread, hoping to get a bit more luck here
 
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Is there any flavour to allow the clans to become building based countries similar to the treatment of the daimyos? I think it would be cool to see this happen if the state become de-centralised or if their is a revolt from the clans.
 
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Any information on how the Stuarts can take power, given that the Stuart dynasty would be prominant during the time period of this game until the end of the Jacobite Rebellions?