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Tinto Flavour #5 - 7th of February 2025 - Aragon

Hello, and welcome to one more Tinto Flavour, the happy Friday in which we take a look at the content of the new, super-secret Project Caesar. This week we will take a look at the Crown of Aragon, the lands where, centuries later, a certain video-game studio would be situated… But, in 1337, its situation is different:

The Crown of Aragon stands proudly as a significant power in the western Mediterranean region thanks to its maritime prowess, diplomatic weight, and flourishing trade networks.

The stabilization of the Kingdom of Valencia and the ongoing conquest of the newly-created Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica might ensure it a dominant position in the seas. However, despite its relative stability, challenges loom on the horizon. To the East, the Kingdom of Mallorca faces economic difficulties and its ruler's animosity towards King Pere IV ‘the Ceremonious’ might convince him to act foolishly. In the peninsula, the threat of the Crown of Castile is more and more real as the Reconquista comes to an end. To the north, the Kingdom of France has consolidated its domain over the Languedoc in the last century.

How would the young King Pere IV face the challenges to come? Will he focus on the Mediterranean Sea and rule the waves from Barcelona to the Holy Land? Will he turn around and claim dominance over Iberia? Or will he try to get revenge from the Battle of Muret in 1213, and recover its ancient holdings north of the Pyrenees?
Click to expand...


Country Selection.png

The young King Pere IV ascended to the throne in 1336. As usual, please consider the UI, 2D and 3D art as WIP.​

These are the lands of Aragon:
Aragon.png

And this is the starting diplomatic situation, the Kingdom of Mallorca being a vassal, and the Military Order of Montesa being sponsored by Aragon (something we will talk about in a future Tinto Flavour, with other Catholic Military Orders):
Diplomacy.png

These are the lands of the Order of Montesa, which is a Building Based Country; the first screenshot is what you see when you hover over the country flag in any panel (such as the Diplomatic one shown just above), while the second is the BBC map mode - both show in which locations is the Order present through a building:
Montesa1.png

Montesa2.png

Oh, yes, and there are also some Florentine bankers present in Barcelona and Palma…​

The Crown of Aragon starts with a major government reform of the same name:
Crown of Aragon.png

And also another unique one, that portrays the traditional fueros used in most of the Pyrenean towns and cities for their government; it is unlocked by a functional Culture Group called ‘Pyrenean’, shared by Aragonese, Basque and Gascon cultures (because, as we mentioned in a past Tinto Talks, a culture may belong to multiple culture groups, which are fully scriptable, and thus, moddable, so they can be created and used for multiple purposes):
Pyrenean Fueros.png

Beside these reforms, the Nobility of Aragon starts with this unique privilege, which is one of the most important cornerstones of the realm:
General Privilege of Aragon.png

This privilege may be relevant in the future…​

Aragon also has a unique Maritime policy, the Consulate of the Sea:
Consulate of the Sea.png

And starts with some Works of Art, of which I’m going to show a couple, the Virgin of Montserrat, most widely known as ‘La Moreneta’:
La Moreneta.png

La Moreneta2.png

And the Basilica del Pilar of Zaragoza:
Basilica del Pilar1.png

Basilica del Pilar2.png

There are some unique advances for Aragon, so let’s show some of them:

The Almogavars is a unique Levy unit unlocked through an advance:
Almogavars.png

Almogavars2.png

Almogavars3.png

Related to the former:
Desperta Ferro!.png

Aragon has another unique land unit, the Catalan Crossbowmen:
Catalan Crossbowmen.png

Catalan Crossbowmen2.png

And also a unique naval unit, the Catalan Galley:
Catalan Galley.png

Catalan Galley2.png

There’s also a couple some more advances related to the Maritime prowess of Aragon, as this one:
Fleet Ordinances.png

And a couple more advances from the Age of Discovery:
Remença.png

It might be dangerous to oppress the remenças, though…

Valencian Golden Age.png

​
There are some events related to Joanot Martorell and Ausiàs March, so you might be able to hire them as artists, and also sponsor the famous novel, Tirant lo Blanch!:


Ausias March.png

Tirant lo Blanch.png

About the narrative content for Aragon, there’s an event chain that can trigger early on, about the fate of the Kingdom of Mallorca:

The Mallorcan Issue.png

There’s also a unique disaster, the War of the Aragonese Union, that may trigger in the case that Jaume, Peter’s younger brother, is no longer the heir:

The Union Reignites.png

War of the Union.png

The purple section in the disaster tooltip is from the debug mode, so it wouldn’t be present in a regular game; I added it to show that there’s a chance for some additional events to trigger.​

There’s also some regional content. The first is an event that may trigger a chain about the most important institution in the Kingdom of Aragon, the Justicia (‘Chief Justiciar’):
Justicia de Aragón1.png

Justicia de Aragón2.png

Justicia de Aragón3.png

Not all are troublesome, as some more pleasant may trigger, this also related to Valencia:
Llotja Seda.png

Llotja Seda2.png

And much more, but that’s all for today! Next week we will travel to the Holy Roman Empire, to take a look at the Kingdom of Bohemia! Cheers!
 
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For a few months I have been thinking a bit about the UI. I know it's a work in progress, but so is everything else we are commenting about when it comes to the game, so the question is if there will be a general thread regarding suggestions about the UI? The UI might be seen as not that important but I say it's a very important topic. Just look at the current release of Civ 7, which got some flak for it's subpar UI. So I think it would be valuable to have such a discussion thread.
 
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Pavía said:
Barcelona, as it was the main residence of the royal court since the reign of King James I. But please note that the Iberian royal courts were still mainly itinerant, which is something that we can't really portray with the current game mechanics.

PS: And we have not stolen that CK3 mechanic (yet)... :p
Click to expand...
Could Itinerant Courts be represented by some form of technology that increases decentralization and maybe give some small bonus to the states happiness?

Lots of places had or have Itinerant Courts during the time period of the game, could be a interesting thing to look into, and a tech could help representing it imo.

And ofc also having a settled Court technology to represent the contrary.
 
Is it possible for pops in the game to commit crimes? This could add a lot of flavor to the game.
The dissatisfaction of pops could result in crimes and riots, separate from rebellions. An interesting idea is that in locations of low control and the presence of fairly dissatisfied pops (perhaps due to starvation), the rate of crimes/riots are increased. Such a thing can have devastating impacts such as money stolen from the player's treasury, murders (which can be represented by the pops in the location being reduced by a percentage, development going down instead of merely stagnating, constructions being paused, etc.
When you quell these riots and imprison the criminals and rioters (which can be taken from a percentage of the pops in question in the location the crime/riot is committed), I think there might be flavorful mechanics that can be added as a new pop: prisoners. You could pardon them (at the displeasure of another pop group) enlist them in the military as a special unit that while bolstering your numbers may not be a particularly good unit, have them work in construction, have them migrate to colonies, execute them (which might shift the societal values and cause further dissatisfaction from the pop group and encourage satisfaction from other pops).
In the event a location with a prison (a building that would need to be built to house prisoners) is occupied by a hostile army, they will join the hostile army?
What do you think?
 
Last edited:
Pavía said:
Hello, and welcome to one more Tinto Flavour, the happy Friday in which we take a look at the content of the new, super-secret Project Caesar. This week we will take a look at the Crown of Aragon, the lands where, centuries later, a certain video-game studio would be situated… But, in 1337, its situation is different:




View attachment 1251648
The young King Pere IV ascended to the throne in 1336. As usual, please consider the UI, 2D and 3D art as WIP.​

These are the lands of Aragon:

And this is the starting diplomatic situation, the Kingdom of Mallorca being a vassal, and the Military Order of Montesa being sponsored by Aragon (something we will talk about in a future Tinto Flavour, with other Catholic Military Orders):

These are the lands of the Order of Montesa, which is a Building Based Country; the first screenshot is what you see when you hover over the country flag in any panel (such as the Diplomatic one shown just above), while the second is the BBC map mode - both show in which locations is the Order present through a building:
View attachment 1251589
View attachment 1251591
Oh, yes, and there are also some Florentine bankers present in Barcelona and Palma…​

The Crown of Aragon starts with a major government reform of the same name:

And also another unique one, that portrays the traditional fueros used in most of the Pyrenean towns and cities for their government; it is unlocked by a functional Culture Group called ‘Pyrenean’, shared by Aragonese, Basque and Gascon cultures (because, as we mentioned in a past Tinto Talks, a culture may belong to multiple culture groups, which are fully scriptable, and thus, moddable, so they can be created and used for multiple purposes):

Beside these reforms, the Nobility of Aragon starts with this unique privilege, which is one of the most important cornerstones of the realm:
View attachment 1251595
This privilege may be relevant in the future…​

Aragon also has a unique Maritime policy, the Consulate of the Sea:

And starts with some Works of Art, of which I’m going to show a couple, the Virgin of Montserrat, most widely known as ‘La Moreneta’:

And the Basilica del Pilar of Zaragoza:

There are some unique advances for Aragon, so let’s show some of them:

The Almogavars is a unique Levy unit unlocked through an advance:

Related to the former:

Aragon has another unique land unit, the Catalan Crossbowmen:

And also a unique naval unit, the Catalan Galley:

There’s also a couple some more advances related to the Maritime prowess of Aragon, as this one:

And a couple more advances from the Age of Discovery:
View attachment 1251613
It might be dangerous to oppress the remenças, though…

View attachment 1251614
​
There are some events related to Joanot Martorell and Ausiàs March, so you might be able to hire them as artists, and also sponsor the famous novel, Tirant lo Blanch!:

About the narrative content for Aragon, there’s an event chain that can trigger early on, about the fate of the Kingdom of Mallorca:

There’s also a unique disaster, the War of the Aragonese Union, that may trigger in the case that Jaume, Peter’s younger brother, is no longer the heir:

View attachment 1251656
View attachment 1251617
The purple section in the disaster tooltip is from the debug mode, so it wouldn’t be present in a regular game; I added it to show that there’s a chance for some additional events to trigger.​

There’s also some regional content. The first is an event that may trigger a chain about the most important institution in the Kingdom of Aragon, the Justicia (‘Chief Justiciar’):

Not all are troublesome, as some more pleasant may trigger, this also related to Valencia:

And much more, but that’s all for today! Next week we will travel to the Holy Roman Empire, to take a look at the Kingdom of Bohemia! Cheers!
Click to expand...
Will there be a Maltese Falcon joke in 1539?
 
alopezme said:
Never heard (I am native) about the 'Catalan Crossbowmen' but insted the Huesca or Zaragota company existed.

Source: https://www.despertaferro-ediciones.com/2019/companias-de-ballesteros-reinos-peninsulares/
Click to expand...
It's not very well known but they were very important both in the navy and the army. This thread explains about their importance in the navy (in catalan):
If you want to know more about the Navy of the crown of Aragon, this guy has more threads, each explaining one topic/period:
 
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I think there are a many good ideas, but I don't know how the mixture of different local issues will work. Some institutions only for Aragon, others only for Catalonia, and so on. The text speaks of the " Justicia de Aragón" (why in Spanish instead of Aragonese?) as if it would affect the whole Crown instead of just Aragon itself.

I am surprised that the lands controlled by the Order of Montesa are named, but not the last semi-independent Catalan counties (especially Pallars and Urgell) that survived until the 15th century. It would be nice to be able to play with them. But I would also like to name some issues that affect the general gameplay.

1) I suggest the creation of a cultural group for the "Romance-speaking Catholic South-Western Europeans" (sometimes named Romania or Latins), that would be Iberia+Galia+Italy approximately.. The divisions of the Romance-speaking world in EU3 and EU4 didn't follow ethnic, linguistic, or cultural criteria, it was only to promote certain expansions. This was always been a problem for the Crown of Aragon. It makes the player feel forced to expand into Iberia (which didn't happen and there was little interest, beyond a small conflict over Murcia) and any expansion to the north and east leads to massive cultural unrest (as if conquering Provence or Naples was the same as conquering Poland).

2) I'd like to remember that the legitimate owner of Corsica and Sardinia belonged was the King of Aragon, according to the Pope himself. Pope Boniface VIII granted rights over BOTH islands in 1297. Eventually, the Crown managed to take complete control of Sardinia, but only temporarily of Corsica. However, the rights over Corsica lasted until 1448, when Pope Nicholas V ceded them to Genoa (which had already controlled Corsica for a long time). In EU4 terms, that should mean that Aragon would have a core over both islands until 1448, and probably some mission.

3) The Crown began as a personal union that eventually became a permanent federation. This meant that the closest thing to a national capital was wherever the king was. And when Alfons the Magnanimous conquered Naples, he moved there. I think Naples should be temporarily integrated into the Crown, and just have an event that breaks the crown in two when the king dies. Then once the king dies we can decide whether we want to continue playing as Naples (illegitimate son, Ferrante) or as Aragon (brother, John the Faithless).

4) There should be some event or mechanics regarding Charles, Prince of Viana, legitimate king of Navarre and oldest son of John the Faithless.

5) The Duchies of Athens were controlled by the Great Catalan Company in the 15th century, and King Peter the Ceremonious was even proclaimed the duke. There should be some event/mission making these duchies part of the Crown.

6) The 1410-1412 succession crisis is very important, both historically and in gameplay. It should allow us to pick different candidates that would change the history. Likewise, the Catalan Civil War 1462-1472 should only trigger if we go with the Trastamara, and it should allow us to change the king once more, and appoint foreign rulers such as the Count of Provence, which would lead to another union.

7) I hope the ‘Iberian Union’ event from previous games will be fixed. It is a mixture of historical inaccuracy and broken game balance. Castile should not inherit the Crown of Aragon in 1470 or annex it with a simple key so easily. Firstly, the game should take into account the way the players play, the diplomatic policies we take, especially royal marriages. Secondly, it should take into account the results of the War of the Castilian Succession. The heiress of Castile married the king of Portugal in 1475, so Castile was closer to uniting with Portugal than Aragon at that time. John II was king of Aragon until his death in 1479, so Isabella of Castile cannot inherit Aragon before then. Ferdinand and Isabella were two people, not one, Ferdinand did not cede his power to his wife or anything like that. When Isabella died, Ferdinand was expelled from Castile, remarried, tried to have a new heir (only for Aragon), and took some time to return as regent of Castile), so there should be a last chance for the Crown of Aragon to protect its independence. And finally, while it is obvious the personal union under Charles V and his Habsburg successors, it is also obvious that the Crown of Aragon and especially its different states lasted until the early 18th century. Don't make Castile annex everything so easily and the other states disappear so quickly. Take advantage of the game personal union mechanics, or even try to add the viceroys and the six Councils of the Catholic Monarchy for flavour.

8) Forming Spain in EU4 is just changing the name and coat of arms of Castile, this is accurate, but it is a problem for alternative scenarios to create Spain with other countries (Portugal and Aragon). Assuming Aragon forms Spain (and I hope there are alternative scenarios), it should have a different flavour. It feels so bad when you do that and suddenly all your provinces are renamed and your men are replaced by Castilians, like you just lost.
 
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