Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries
Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Previous dev diary
Show only dev responses

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!
 
  • 75Love
  • 71Like
  • 2
  • 2
Reactions:
Sort by date Sort by reaction score
matfer13 said:
Is there nothing regarding Aragon's expansion in southern Italy? Naples was the capital of Aragon for a while after all
Click to expand...
Aragon has dynastical ties with Sicily, so it might be a good idea to establish a good relationship with them, and it also has a high chance to be one of the main contenders of the Italian Wars, since it already has presence in an Italian area (Sardinia).
 
  • 19Like
  • 4
Reactions:
matfer13 said:
I Understand what you mean but technically Spaim was formed in the late 15th century, that said what's the problem with that?
Click to expand...
In 1492 Castile and Aragon united and formed a personal union however they kept separate laws and governments (similar to Scotland and England prior to forming GB).

It wasn’t until 1707 that these separate states were actually merged into a united Spain that was one unified state
 
  • 8Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Azgabeth said:
Am I correct to assume that Aragon can split into Aragon and Valencia depending on the outcome of the civil war?
Click to expand...
Yes, it may be possible.
 
  • 25Like
  • 4
Reactions:
If you indulge me in a small, pedantic note:
Pavía said:

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.​
Click to expand...
He should be either Peter III of Barcelona or Peter IV of Aragon. The first one refers to its linage and his order in the list of counts of Barcelona and, if I recall correctly, is the one that matches how he himself wrote in family documents. The second refers to his order in his main title, king of Aragon, and is the one used by aragonese historians after Jerónimo Zurita (again, if I recall correctly).

The difference is due to Pedro I de Aragon, of the Jimena dinasty. He was king of Aragon and Pamplone before the House of Barcelona got to the aragonese throne. Since he is related to the counts of Barcelona by a feminine line (being an great-great... uncle by Petronila of Aragon) he was not a direct ancestor of Peter the Ceremonious. He wasn't either a count of Barcelona or a part of the House of Barcelona.
 
  • 3Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Excellent!!

1. Are all the levies raised by Aragon made up of Almogavars?
1.1. Can a fixed percentage of levies be made up of a specific type of unit? (Say 20% unique unit, 80% general levies)
1.2. Will Almogavars stop being available after a certain age?

2. Could we get some further glimpses into which modifiers are available for both land and naval units?

3. Could we have access to a table like this
1000018820.png

for naval units? (If that's not asking too much)

4. Specifically, is there a modifier for land units related to having a fleet present in an adjacent sea location?

Cheers!
 
  • 2Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Polesie Admiral said:
is Zaragoza or Barcelona the Aragonese capital?
Click to expand...
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
 
  • 15Like
  • 15Haha
  • 3
Reactions:
matfer13 said:
Totally fine with this, I'm not an expert on Aragonese administration but have you considered that since Sardinia became a Kingdom of the Crown in 1324 and that it's culturally and geographically separate from the mainland maybe they had more autonomy than the other Kingdoms and therefore could be represented as a PU?
Click to expand...
It had more 'practical autonomy' (=less control), but less political autonony, so that's already kind of represented.
 
  • 20Like
  • 1
Reactions:
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...
ah alright, can you show the control map for aragon(and the previous TFs would be nice as well) please?
 
  • 2
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Álvaro Núñez de Lara said:
Bit disappoiting. No content regarding Castile and and the union? war of the two peters? Kingdom of Napels and Neopatria? Just a catalan civil war and thats it for the rest of the game?

Also i think fueros should have a drawback reducing crown control on certain provinces at least.
Click to expand...
We haven't shown all the content, just some...
 
  • 30Like
  • 2Love
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
matfer13 said:
Is there a priviledge that represents the serfdom in Catalonia? I think it's important considering that it was the only place on the peninsula with it
Click to expand...
There's some more content about the remenças, and different paths to deal with them.
 
  • 19Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Have you thought about creating some vassals to represent the largest territorial domains? Even though the political system of the Crown of Aragon was not as dependent on autonomous territorial domains like the Kingdom of France, still some existed by 1337. The most powerful was probably the County of Pallars Sobirà, which was ruled as an autonomous realm by a very influential dynasty within Aragon until the last ruler picked the wrong side in the Catalan Civil war and was ultimately ousted by Ferran II.
 
  • 1
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Obeliskkai said:
I am probably going to start in the Iberian peninsula for my first game of Project Caesar as a way of learning the ropes, so I do find this all very interesting. I still think Castile is going to win me over Aragon though, as Castile likely has a better chance of crushing and integrating Portugal in the early game than Aragon does (which is definitely going to be one of my goals. No competition from Lisbon for me).
Click to expand...
Castile is a monster, but it will have to deal with constant internal troubles since early in the game...
 
  • 18Like
  • 5
Reactions:
Pavía said:
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):
View attachment 1251594​
Click to expand...
The Fueros not affecting any societal values is odd to me, especially with how important they were to the governance of the states in the region.

As it's a free reform that gives always useful bonuses, you will basically never remove it regardless of your gameplan - strong unique bonuses are good, but perhaps they shouldn't be 100% universal.

I would suggest it gets a small shift towards Free Subjects and towards Decentralization. This makes sense in the context of what it historically meant, as well as the direction Aragon historically moved towards.

Also, someone who wanted to turn Aragon into a unitary, despotic state, would have some reason to change out of the overall strong reform, and I think the balance of trading progress towards free subjects (something most players would want) for progress towards decentralization (something most players probably wouldn't want) makes it quite balanced as well.
 
  • 6Like
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
@Pavía also, what about the War of 2 Peters?

Can you disclose anything about that, or is it tied to the Hundred year war tinto talks? or Castile content??
 
  • 3Like
Reactions:
Sangleded said:
Are the book icons on the event options signaling what occurred historically ?
Click to expand...
Yes! And the historical description in the Justicia de Aragón event is a new feature, called 'Historical Info' that the player can set on or off, depending if they're interested or not in that historically immersive piece of text.
 
  • 25Love
  • 13Like
  • 2
Reactions:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back