Tinto Flavour #16 - 9th of May 2025 - Brandenburg & Prussia

[Pavía]

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

Today we will be talking about Brandenburg, and the main tag that it can form, Prussia. Therefore, today is even more special for two reasons. The first is that this is the first country that we talk about in which the content for the base country and the formable is aligned, as it was the historical result; in this category we have a few more important countries, such as England/Great Britain or Castile/Spain, of which we’ll talk more about in future TFs. The second is because we considered Brandenburg/Prussia one of the relevant tags in the period, and thus, it has more baseline content than the previous one; so far, we’ve only taken a look previously to one tag of that category, the Timurids (and you may have noticed that it was a long and meaty TF).

Let’s start now taking a look at the content, then:

The Electorate of Brandenburg was established as the Northern March in the Slavic Wends' territory. The region features loamy uplands and depressions with rivers and lakes, pine trees and heat, and a soil which is predominantly dry and sandy, but suitable for agriculture, making it to be called 'the sandbox of the Holy Roman Empire'.\n\nIn 1157, after claiming these lands from Jaxa of Köpenick, Elector Albrecht ‘the Bear’ Askanier officially became [GetCountry('BRA').GetGovernment.GetRulerTitle]. Initially limited to Havelland and Zauche, he encouraged the #italic Ostsiedlung#!'s process towards the Neumark east of the Oder, gradually incorporating it into his possessions, and colonists coming from Flanders and the Rhineland were invited to settle, fortifying their towns in the process. After his death in 1170, the Askanier dynasty continued this expansion for over 150 years, acquiring neighboring regions like the Oder Lagoon and the Uckermark, which expanded their influence to the Baltic Sea, but also led to conflicts with Denmark. However, the last Askanier, Elector Heinrich II., died without a direct heir in 1320.

Now, the von Wittelsbach dynasty has arrived, but the lack of interest in ruling over these lands casts a shadow over the future of the Electorate of Brandenburg.

As usual, consider all UI, 2D and 3D art WIP.​

The starting situation of Brandenburg:

We are not attached to just showing the flatmap mode anymore! Yay!​

It starts with a similar content setup to that of Saxony, which we showed some weeks ago:

Here are some of the unique advances of both Brandenburg and Prussia:

Brandenburg & Prussia might have some military-related advances, yeah… But take into account that this approx. half of the amount available, so there are non-military-related ones.​

Let’s now take a look at the narrative content, which is quite meaty. This is one of the first starting events for Brandenburg:

Slightly painful…​

As you see, there are around 30 events that may be triggered after this, of varied topics, that impact the governance of Brandenburg in the first decades of the game. One of the most interesting ones are those related to the ‘False Waldemar’ event chain:

I don’t think you should trust a guy that looks that way…​

After the year 1500, if certain triggers are met, you might receive an event regarding this Teutonic Order, which may lead to the formation of Prussia:

Although you can also form it organically, by expanding into the area (although the Emperor may have a say in this, as historically happened):

This is a lovely color, isn’t it?​

You may now figure that Prussia is a country with much more content in the late game, so I’m just going to show you some of it; but take into consideration that of the following events, the first one can trigger after 1530, the second after 1637, and the others in different dates after 1700:

Did you know that the Engine we use is named after him?​

And some other content that you might get in the last two ages, as well:

And that’s all for today! It was an intense week! And the next one, even more, since we will start publishing a second Tinto Flavour on Tuesdays! Therefore, the schedule will be the following:

• Monday -> Tinto Maps Feedback for Great Britain & Ireland
• Tuesday -> Tinto Flavour about Vijayanagar and other ‘minor’ Indian countries
• Wednesday -> Tinto Talks about Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism
• Friday -> Tinto Flavour about Delhi

Cheers!

 

[Pavía]

And Ireland Right? Right ....?

OFC

 

[Pavía]

Is there a difference in in-game architecture between northern Europe and the Mediterranean?

Not yet, there's currently a common 'European' graphical culture. But we want to add more graphical cultures, eventually, for a better immersion.

 

[Pavía]

In one of the videos Prussia was formed easily way too early. How are you going to address this?

Since we don't use the system 'Admin Tech = 10/20/etc' as EU4, the only way to gatelocking this effectively would be to add an 'Is Age of Absolutism' requisite, which we think would feel arbitrary and opposite to dynamic content. But we're open to suggestions on how to improve the immersion about this, as usual.

 

[Pavía]

I'm noticing for the first time that you've got Judaism as just "Judaism" rather than something more specific. Are there any plans to portray different Jewish movements, such as Haymanot Judaism? It seems like exclusionary naming if you have Judaism and Haymanot, as if the latter is not part of the former.

It's not much of a priority for us, sadly. There are many things we want to improve and keep working on, and the depth that we can now add with the new systems of EUV is incredible. But that also means that we need to prioritize our resources and development time, as we aren't a big studio.

 

[Pavía]

Ok so quite unrelated but do you check the feedback we have from watching the YouTubers' streams about the game as well? Also the right to inherit doesn't mention the effect of the succession law

We regularly read most of the threads in the forum, and make changes based on them, although we focus our replies in the sticky/featured posts.

Also, not on you, but on other forum members, now that we're talking about this topic: Don't bring other threads/posts to the Tinto Talks/Flavour ones, please, as mixing conversations/topics doesn't help us to gather and apply the feedback, at all.

 

[Pavía]

Could you show information screen of Brandenburg, please?
That one with population, urban locations etc.

 

[Pavía]

Brandenburg's capital wasn't Potsdam in 1337, it was Brandenburg an der Havel, also will there be an event for moving it into Berlin?
The rest looks good though

The location of Brandenburg is owned by the Bishopric of Brandenburgum, so...

 

[Pavía]

Are there any events about Moses Mendelssohn and the Jewish Enlightenment?

Yes:

 

[Pavía]

Thank god for PDX leaving their wrong attitude towards Prussian blue in the dust a couple of years ago. How could they ever think that grey was a good a choice when you have this beautifull shade of blue literally righ there with the righ name.

Fun fact: we changed it first in EU5, and then the EU4 one was a follow-up one, for Domination, IIRC.

 

[Pavía]

Seems you accidentally pasted in the raw localization. But that’s fine, it’s good to see italics and dynamic loc are supported in PC… I mean EU5!

Lol. Well, yeah, take it as a 'raw loc script show', lol.

 

[Pavía]

First of all, congratulations to the team — from the gameplay footage, the game looks absolutely fantastic!

My question is: is it possible to organically form Prussia with the borders shown in my uploaded image, without directly annexing the Teutonic Order?

I’m thinking of a historical route where you play as Brandenburg, Poland annexes the Teutonic Order, you acquire Eastern Pomerania, and eventually gain a personal union over Ducal Prussia while it's still a vassal under Poland.

View attachment 1294105

Also... Can you play as the Hohenzollern as whatever country in the HRE are they in at the start the game and acquire Brandenburg through events?

1. Yes, through the event that I've shown.
2. The Hohenzollern start in Hohenzollern, a Unique Location Minor that owns Balingen, so they can end up ruling organically. But some events may lead to them to end up as rulers of Brandenburg, too.

 

[Pavía]

Do they also rule in Nuremeberg?

Nuremberg is a Free City.

 

[Pavía]

Looking at it just as an issue of "Prussia was formed by the Brandenburg player too early" simplifies it too much and the simple solution - gating Prussia behind some arbitrary time period - also doesn't feel right as a result
But, in my opinion, the issue is caused by multiple things currently wrong with the game that lead to unrealistic outcomes.

1. He was able to expand way too fast in the HRE by just creating claims and then annexing allies in wars.
In my opinion, you shouldn't be able to take land in the HRE as a HRE prince by any means other than dynastic claims. What I would do is just disable all other CBs outright. You already disable no-CB, but this is clearly not enough. The HRE only devolved into an empire in name only after Westphalia. Modeling it as that in 1337 is wrong and leads to wrong outcomes like we saw in the videos with the consolidation into 10 blobs in just 100 years. The rules should become looser should the Emperor lose the "Religious war", which is what the 30 Years War is currently represented as, even though irl it was also about imperial authority. It's okay for this part of the world to play different.

2. He was able to have Poland play wrecking ball for him against the Teutons
There is no world where the Polish king would help a German prince conquer Prussia without getting anything for himself. This is also simply a problem of how alliances work in EU4 and seemingly here too. I can't think of a single instance in real life where allies joined offensive wars and helped their ally conquer land they wanted for themselves just because they liked them. If, and this is a huge if, Poland would do anyting of this sort, they would demand the majority of territories for themselves, simply because they are the bigger power.

Really the issue here isn't that he was able to form Prussia. It seems logical that the "King in Prussia" idea would've happened sooner or later once the prequisites were met - a HRE prince wants to be a king but can't because of HRE de jure laws -> rules over an independent non-HRE territory (irl the fealty to the Poles was broken by treaty during the Deluge) -> elevates his non-HRE territory to a kingdom. The issue here is that he as Brandenburg was able to blob into this state so early.

This is the approach we're, in general terms, trying to favor, basing as much as possible in the game mechanics, and trying not to gatelock the content harshly because of it not keeping up (although there may always be exceptions, of course).

The first of the issues you mention is something we're already taking a look at, as adding a few more rules about expansion in the HRE, and also trying to balance the pacing a bit more correctly. The second is also tricky, but please consider that the AI is still WIP, and not final.

 

[Pavía]

Hi! I'll be posting today's TF a bit later, at 15:30.