Tinto Flavour #18 - 16th of May 2025

[Pavía]

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

Today, we will be taking a look at the flavour content for the Sultanate of Delhi, the most powerful Indian country in 1337 - but not without a few curveballs to tackle. Let’ start without further ado:

A series of swift and legendary conquests in the last century gave birth to our great Sultanate of Delhi. With territories under our jurisdiction that span from Deccan to the fertile fields of Lahore, none other has dared measure up to the prestige and status of our accomplishments.

However, it has become apparent that we have overextended our authority across such a big Sultanate that it is nowadays quite difficult to control. Our enemies are many, and they covet to undo our great heritage. To the east, our subjects in Bengal have started questioning their masters, while our southern territories have long disputed our hold over them. And the Hindu countries of Southern India may further entrench their resistance to our rule, led by the rising power of Vijayanagar.

We trust the guidance of Sultan Muhammad Tughlaq, whose watchful eye may safeguard our lands and prevent our downfall...

As usual, all UI, 2D and 3D are WIP.

The starting situation of Delhi. There’s a bug with the coloring of subjects of subjects, but Gaur has a subject itself, Taraf.​

This is the starting Government setup content for Delhi, and other Indian Muslim Sultanates, as well:

The last one was already shown, but it’s super important for Delhi’s starting setup, as only 2% of its pops are Sunni, the state religion, as shown in the Country Selection screenshot.​

Related to this, a tab that we usually don’t show, the Rebels one, as it’s also quite relevant to Delhi’s start:

This is not final, but gives an idea that managing Delhi at the start may not be easy…​

Delhi also starts with a Work of Art:

And here are some of its advances:

Delhi’s advances are quite interesting - the country will need those modifiers…​

But the most interesting for Delhi is its narrative content, because soon after the game starts, a situation will pop up, ‘The Fall of Delhi’:

So, when the situation is active, several events may trigger, which may influence the ‘Share of Power’ of the situation:

This modifier scales based on how many countries support the Opposing side.​

This might end up being the situation some months after it starts, if the player is not careful enough:

The situation may last for years, even decades, creating a very challenging gameplay for Delhi, with even more events popping up:

The end requirements of the situation are the following, with different possibilities:

One of them is a disaster that may trigger to Delhi, making the situation even worst:

While this disaster is active, some historical revolters may appear: the Bahmanis, Malwa, Gujarat, or Jaunpur. The player can choose to either keep playing as Delhi or to start playing with one of them.

Besides that, Delhi has dozens of other non-Situation, non-Disaster related events, such as:

… And much more, but that’s all for today! This will be the schedule for next week:

• Monday -> Tinto Maps Feedback about India
• Tuesday -> Tinto Flavour about Sweden, hosted by @Johan
• Wednesday -> Tinto Talks about Unit Graphics, hosted by @SaintDaveUK
• Thursday -> Second ‘Behind the Scenes’ video!
• Friday -> Tinto Flavour about Muscovy/Russia

Cheers!

 

[Pavía]

It took some more time to cook today's Flavour; we hope you enjoy it, though!

 

[Pavía]

Question: will there be any specific culture for Muslim rulers of India? Given how meticulously you portray cultures here, I think it would be wrong if the Mughals had the same culture as any hindu indian ruler who would conquer Delhi, given most Mughals and Mughal elites were of Iranian or Central Asian origin (as late as XVIII governors of key provinces were Iranian migrants). Maybe there could be emerging indo-Persian, or urdu culture, something like that? Or at least correctly portraying culture of elite characters?

It could potentially be interesting to have an Indo-Persian culture and Urdu language, noted!

 

[Pavía]

Playing as Delhi be like:

View attachment 1300235

You got it quick!

 

[Pavía]

Nice flavour! Will it be possible to revoke the non conversion of population privilege, and start some conversion attempts? By game's end, around 15% of subcontinent's population was Muslim I think..

If you pay the Stability cost and can afford the Satisfaction reduction, of course!

 

[Pavía]

I'm guessing making Delhi into a duchy is what speeds up their decline, however what exactly does being a duchy rather than an empire do?


Or is it a thing we're you'll only become a duchy after losing loads of locations anyways?

1. The higher the country rank, the better modifier it gives.
2. By the time that happens, you might potentially have already lost a good chunk of locations, yes.

 

[Pavía]

Is there any passive conversion at all, both for Delhi specifically and in general?

A bit of a spoiler of the Tinto Talks for Islam, but well:

 

[Pavía]

Wait two tinto flavors a week is standard now!!?

Yes!

 

[Pavía]

I thought the flag would be green like in aoe4.

We're following the flag in the Catalan Atlas, as with many other models - it's a great source for 1337! -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Delhi_Sultanate_Flag.svg

PS: Our flag artist doesn't base his research on Wikipedia, but it's the quickest link I can share with you guys.

 

[Pavía]

Can we see Delhi's control map at game start?

Not fun:

Take the numbers as a matter of balance and not as final, as usual.

 

[Pavía]

Sorry to be that guy that posts about another thread, but are you planning any changes to Sikhi following Wednesday's tinto talks? There are some important changes that need to happen there and it would be comforting to know that you guys are on it.

Portraying major religious figures like the Gurus is not something paradox have had to do before (there is no Jesus, Muhammed, Buddha etc. in any paradox game) so I hope you are taking this responsibility with as much care and respect as you can.

We read and evaluate all the feedback we receive in any Tinto Talks, Tinto Maps, or Tinto Flavour post; so we might make tweaks and changes based on it, yes. We also like to handle issues like this carefully, so I can't give you a 'we'll do XYZ' reply to this yet, only that we will consider it.

 

[Pavía]

Incredible TT, there's so much content for the Fall of Delhi, and the integration of a situation and a disaster mechanic to represent the same is incredible. I do wanna ask though, as someone who intends to play as the 3 rival Bengali sultanates under Delhi, is it possible for Saptagram to unify and form Bengal while remaining a subject of Delhi? Matter of fact, can you show us what kind of subjects does Delhi own - which of them are Samantas, which are Mahasamantas etc at the start of the Campaign.

Also, can I see the screenshot of the event which pops out the Bahamanid Sultanate pretty please?

Is there an event that spawns the Bahmani Sultanate and can we get a peak of it and its triggers?

1. You need to wait for the situation to start, as you can't attack other subjects at the start.
2. All of them are Samantas.
3.

 

[Pavía]

can we see how the map looks after the dissolution of Delhi?

This is a mock-up of what they would look like if all the historical revolters were to gain independence at the same time, with the same locations that Delhi has in 1337:

 

[Pavía]

I mean, survive the initial disaster and you're on track for a world conquest? I didn't know Delhi was this big. Learn something new every day thanks to Paradox!

1. Survive the disaster.
2. Deal with your multicultural, religiously diverse pops.
3. Increase and spread your control.
4. Deal with Timur and/or his successors to the west.
5. Deal with overpopulated China to the east.
...

EUV is designed to be a complex game, TBH.

 

[Pavía]

Can Dehli become an Empire(tier 4) from the start? I mean they are the second biggest country on the planet with more than 40M pops, what's stopping them to rank up before the situation triggers?
If they can then might as well having them start with an Empire rank, it shouldn't be a problem since it was known as the Empire of Dehli/Hindustan by the people of the time, this is also the reason why I think that having Hindustan being a separate tag is weird

Almost:

 

[Pavía]

How do scaled modifiers like the Opposers Interference work?

They grow based on the size of the Opposers. More countries opposing = more maluses from the modifier:

 

[Pavía]

This looks very cool! Please could you share a little more information on how the fall of Delhi situation actually works? You get increased liberty desire from vassals and independence rebels fire, and the strength of the opposition is based on how many other countries within India are supporting the rebel movement (the support map and situation UI in the OP)? Does engaging with regular game mechanics for (e.g.) decreasing vassal liberty desire or rebel independence desire also increase the "share of power", or is it only impacted through the buttons in the situation UI? And is it intended that you can resolve the situation just through internal management, or just fighting your neighbours, or are there multiple viable paths to surviving?

From @PDXBigBoss , the content designer who scripted it:

As a mechanic, it's designed to portray the fall of Delhi as accurately as possible, while also being fun to play. It's also jam-packed with tons of events that either fire once or can fire many times.

As the leading Opposer, you will get unique events and have access to unique peace treaties and modifiers, a great way to break out of Delhi's sphere like a chest burster.

As Delhi, you will have actions through the Situation GUI to (do your very best to) handle the fall, either by strengthening your diplomatic front, appeasing local nobles or attempting to increase your control. Diplomacy is the main weight behind countries choosing either side. You ARE a foreign heathen conqueror, but who's to say some of them cannot be swayed to see you under a different light ?

The goal is for Delhi AI to explode 99.9% of the time; while for the player, it's a challenging game start as a Behemoth with feet of clay, set to feel like a comeback story.

 

[Pavía]

I wonder about amount of inflation and debt Delhi has at the start

Challenging:

 

[Pavía]

So conversion being blocked by priviledge means NO conversion will happen, or only conversion action from cabinet is blocked ?

None of those pops will be converted, but others might be. E.g.: Nobles.

 

[Pavía]

Is there content for the Mughals to emerge? Either through a formable for Delhi or someone else?

The Mughal Empire is a formable country, with its own unique content, as we commented in the Persia/Timur TF.