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Tinto Talks #50 - 12th February 2025

Hey everyone, and welcome back. Johan is busy today (allegedly) so instead I will walk you through this Tinto Talks on Formable Countries in our little project called Caesar. It’s a fairly tight feature so this should be nice and quick.



What are Formable Countries?

Basically, formable countries are new tags that you can switch to. Typically they represent historical unions and conquests, but some represent aspirations that never materialised.

Generally speaking, the vision behind Formables is to offer roleplaying and historical immersion, and support player fantasies, rather than modifier stacking. They will change your country name, national flag, and map color. So while you may unlock some content such as advances or other minor unique content, the tag change is often the goal in itself.

Screenshot 2025-02-12 113332.png
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Spain gets some unique advances in the later ages, but not all do.

Rather than your country changing automatically every age, you achieve it by completing certain objectives. Usually, you'll need to control a certain percentage of a predefined set of locations, for example Scandinavia needs 75% of the locations in the Scandinavia region.

There’s typically additional requirements as well such as your Primary Culture belonging to a certain Culture Group. Forming Spain also requires you and all the independent countries in Iberia to be Christian, as it is thematically closely tied to the completion of the Reconquista. Iberian Muslims have the reverse rules for forming Al-Andalus.

Some are directly tied to actions in International Organizations, like the Holy Roman Empire or the Ilkhanate.

Formables also have a Tier that represents their natural order of precedence. You can only form countries that are the same or higher tier than you. For example, England (Tier 2) can form Great Britain (Tier 3) but Great Britain can’t form England. The AI will only form countries that are a higher tier.


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Country formation is just a click away.


There are 3 settings to the relevant game rule.
  1. Only Historical Formable Countries
    1. Only countries that actually formed in the game’s time period will be allowed.
      1. Examples are Spain and Great Britain
  2. Allow Plausible Formable Countries(Default)
    1. Countries that could plausible have formed, or formed just after the time period will be allowed.
      1. Examples are Germany and Italy
  3. Allow Ahistorical Formable Countries
    1. Aspirational or fantasy countries can be formed. Examples include
      1. North Sea Empire (which is a Tier IV) if you control Britain and Scandinavia
      2. Europa (Tier V)



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Some countries have different flags depending on the exact manner in which they are formed. For example this variant of the Union Jack with a dominant saltire when you start as Scotland.


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And some formables come with little treats to sweeten the deal.


Screenshot 2025-02-12 123920.png

The Teutonic Order has a long way to go before they can become Prussia…


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But it might be worth it…


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Some exist to fulfil common player fantasies, but only appear if the player chooses in the Game Rules to have the less historical ones.



This is our current list of formable countries, let us know which ones you would like us add!

FormableTierNote
Europa5Ahistorical
Rome4Ahistorical
Hindustan4Plausible
Holy Roman Empire4Plausible
Byzantium4
Ilkhanate4
Iran4
Mongolia4
Mughals4
Rûm4
Russia4
United States4
Celtica3Ahistorical
Latin Empire3Ahistorical
North Sea3Ahistorical
Al-Andalus3Plausible
Arabia3Plausible
Canada3Plausible
Egypt3Plausible
Germany3Plausible
Italy3Plausible
Malaya3Plausible
Ruthenia3Plausible
Scandinavia3Plausible
Shan3Plausible
Banten3
Bengal3
Deccan3
Delhi3
Ethiopia3
Great Britain3
Gujurat3
Hausa3
Inca3
Kongo3
Manchu3
Maratha3
Mexico3
Poland-Lithuania3
Punjab3
Rajput3
Siam3
Sokoto3
Spain3
Timurids3
Two Sicilies3
Yamato3
Africa2Ahistorical
Carthage2Ahistorical
Hen Ogledd2Ahistorical
Aotearoa2Plausible
Greece2Plausible
Jerusalem2Plausible
Livonia2Plausible
Maya2Plausible
Albania2
Armenia2
Austria2
Ayutthaya2
Bahamis2
England2
Georgia2
Golden Horde2
Holstein2
Ireland2
Navarre2
Nepal2
Netherlands2
Poland2
Prussia2
Scotland2
Serbia2
Sweden2
Switzerland2
Tibet2
Wales2
Connacht1Plausible
Ulster1Plausible
Aïr1
Bavaria1
Beja1
Mazovia1
Mecklenburg1
Mossi1
Nassau1
Northumbria1
Pomerania1
Sardinia1
Saxony1
Silesia1


That's it for today's dev diary. Thanks for reading, and we'll see you next time, where we will talk about Subject Types, and an interesting part of the Castilian player fantasy…
 
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I think it would be cool if there was a possibility of creating a Jewish state not only on the territory of modern Israel, but also anywhere, provided that n-th number of provinces would be predominantly Jewish and professing Judaism
Hmm the only other Jewish possible formable I think of is Sfarad which is basically Jewish Iberia, maybe also Himyar
The same could be done, for example, for the Gypsies
First there need to be Romani pops in PC...
I also propose to make it possible to form Caliphates, the names of which will change depending on the current of Islam, and if it is possible to eliminate the religious schism, ultimately create a righteous Caliphate.
We don't know how exactly the Caliphate mechanics work
 
Karluk and Kipchak Turks are dominant in Central Asia right now. Except for the Turkmens, all Oghuz left Central Asia, I pointed there because most of them are in Anatolia and Azerbaijan, otherwise it would be better for them to gather around the dominant Oghuz culture and not a specific land.
I think that the Oghuz state should be formed either in the steppes of Central Asia or not have clear territorial boundaries and be formed only after the capture of provinces in which the cultures of the descendants of the Oghuz are widespread
 
NusantaraMalay EmpireMaritime South East AsiaTier 4Ahistorical
The Four Oirats/Oirat ConfederationMongol KingdomWestern MongoliaTier 3Historical
MoghulistanPersian KingdomTarim BasinTier 2Plausible
AltishahrNon-Horde Turkic KingdomTarim BasinTier 2Plausible
AzawadTuareg KingdomMali, centered on TimbuktuTier 2Plausible
AsantemanAkan KingdomAsante + 3 other provinces in West AfricaTier 1Historical
BeninWest African KingdomControl 3/4 provinces in BeninTier 1Historical
SuluIslamic SultanateControl over provinces around the Sea of SuluTier 1Historical
MaguindanaoIslamic SultanateControl 4/5 provinces in MindanaoTier 1Historical
PrydainWelsh KingdomWelsh variant of Great Britain, gives claims on Brittany instead of IrelandTier 3Ahistorical



Moghulistan should definitely be historical and even inevitable, as it was the Eastern portion of the Chagatai led by the Dughlats tribe, after Timur split away with the Western half. And it was very much a Mongol state, hence the name "Moghul". IE, not Persian.


 
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Karluk and Kipchak Turks are dominant in Central Asia right now. Except for the Turkmens, all Oghuz left Central Asia, I pointed there because most of them are in Anatolia and Azerbaijan, otherwise it would be better for them to gather around the dominant Oghuz culture and not a specific land.
I agree that most Oghuz tribes left their native steppes. However, some remained, such as the Turkmens. I believe that for them, the restoration of an "Oghuz state" should be possible, after which they might lay claims to territories where the descendants of the Oghuz live. This could work through a rebellion mechanic, where, after victory, the rebels do not gain independence but instead become part of the Oghuz state.
 
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Hmm the only other Jewish possible formable I think of is Sfarad which is basically Jewish Iberia, maybe also Himyar
In addition to Sfarad, other Jewish states could have emerged, such as the mountainous Principality of Simien in Ethiopia, Ashkenaz or Magen in Germany, the trade autonomy of Aden in Yemen, or an independent Zarphat in Provence. The name could vary depending on the region in which they were established.


First there need to be Romani pops in PC...
oh yeah forgot about that
We don't know how exactly the Caliphate mechanics work
I hope that religious mechanics will allow us to eliminate schisms in all confessions, and the mechanics of the Caliphate will allow the creation of a righteous Caliphate, it would be really cool
 
Tuscany should definitely be formable. I also think there should be a plausible formable of Emilia-Romagna, the region is fragmented but if someone unified all the cultural provinces I don't see why it wouldn't happen
 
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Tuscany should definitely be formable. I also think there should be a plausible formable of Emilia-Romagna, the region is fragmented but if someone unified all the cultural provinces I don't see why it wouldn't happen
As someone from Emilia-Romagna I don't think it should be a thing, it's a modern construct made to save on administratuve expenses, we are similar but I don't see a unified country in this era and it's not really like a meme tag imo, even separating the two would be weird, I completely agree with Tuscany though
 
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As someone from Emilia-Romagna I don't think it should be a thing, it's a modern construct made to save on administratuve expenses, we are similar but I don't see a unified country in this era and it's not really like a meme tag imo, even separating the two would be weird, I completely agree with Tuscany though
That's certainly fair, I'm not from Romagna so it's hard for me to give a very informed view but just from a gameplay perspective cultural unifying tags are nice and emilian is missing one while it's like one of the most spread out between tags, it would feel nice to unify the region starting as like a bologna or mantua
 
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