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Tinto Talks #70 - 2nd of July 2025

Hello, and welcome to another Tinto Talks, the happy Wednesdays where we talk about Europa Universalis V!

Today, we will talk about another very impactful early-game situation: the Hundred Years’ War!

Historically, the war started when, in May 1337, Philip VI confiscated the Duchy of Aquitaine from Edward III of England, for the reason of breaching his obligations as a vassal, which was responded to by Edward III claiming the throne of France by the rights of his mother, Isabella of France - the situation was way more complicated than this, so let’s leave the historical events here.

In our game, a couple of months after the start of the game (so, in June 1337), this event will trigger to France:
1. Robert de Artois.jpg

2. Robert de Artois.jpg

3. Robert de Artois.jpg

While this is the English point of view:
4. Robert de Artois.jpg

5. Robert de Artois.jpg

6. Robert de Artois.jpg

If the historical options are followed (which is set to always happen to AI countries), this will happen:
The Crown of France.jpg

And it will also trigger the situation:
HYW TT.jpg

HYW Panel.jpg

HYW Map.jpg

The starting situation of the Hundred Years’ War, with the French and English subjects. You can notice the striped vassals, which mean that these are disloyal subjects.

As you see, each contender has its own set of objectives:
English Victory Conditions.png

French Victory Conditions.jpg

You can also see that there’s a Strength comparison:
England Strength.jpg

France Strength.jpg

Note: Numbers are a matter of balance, so please consider them WIP.

With the situation and claims in place, it’s just a matter of time before one of the sides declares war on the other:
The Throne of France.png

CB Defenf the Throne of France.jpg

War Declaration.jpg

Something interesting is that each war is considered a ‘phase’ of the situation, so until it ends, any war between France and England will be considered ‘the 1st Phase’, ‘the 2nd Phase’, and so on:
Phases.jpg

The Situation panel will also refresh when the war starts, so you can quickly check there everything related to it:
War Panel.jpg

Let’s talk now about the actions. There’s a common action that any of the sides can do, if the war has lasted for longer than 4 years, that requests the Pope to enforce a white peace among the contenders:
Request Papal Delegates.jpg

The most important are those related to the French subjects; the objective for France will be to rein them in and have them contribute to the war effort in the conflict phases, while for England, it will be about convincing them to abandon the French king in the peace phases:
Grant Subject Titles.jpg


Influence French Subject.jpg

The French subjects have their own gameplay and actions, related to their relationship with the French sovereign, and if they stay loyal to them, or not:
Subject Actions1.jpg

Subject Actions2.jpg

Subject Actions3.jpg

Subject Actions4.jpg

Subject Actions5.jpg

So, at the end of the day, one of the contenders will probably be strong enough to defeat the other. In the case of France, it’s straightforward: No more independent English presence in the continent. In the case of England, beside pure conquest, the ‘Claim of Throne of France’ peace goal requests:
  • England (or their subjects) must control more than 15% of the ownable locations in the French Region
  • England must control the capital of France
The cost of this treaty also depends on 2 factors:
  • A base cost
  • A fluctuating cost based entirely on the relative strength between the two countries. So, a stronger England would inevitably make this peace treaty option somewhat cheaper.

And that’s it on the mechanical part of the situation; but there are also a bunch of events, both random and historical, that are dependent on it:
Scots King.jpg

Mercenaries.png

Jacquerie.png

Jeanne dArc.png

Jeanne dArc2.png

And that’s all for today! We will come back on Friday, as we will talk in Tinto Flavour about France!

And also remember, you can wishlist Europa Universalis V now! Cheers!
 
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The stats for Jeanne seem insane. In the accounts from around that time she comes off as an inspiring figure, but not a military genius. Even if you argue that the accounts of her proposing extremely rash military decisions were perhaps from those who didn't like her, she does not come across as being all that well versed militarily, maybe average at best. I don't know what the rationale is for her amazing administrative ability, either.
She wasn't a good diplomat either, she wanted to launch crusades in Bohemia against the hussites and was overall too direct instead of speaking what the crown wanted, The French king wasn't too happy when you need to recover your country from the war.
 
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Why is the County of Namur a part of the Hundred years war on the side of France ?
Guillaume Ier, who became count in 1337, fought on the English side. Furthermore he somehow seem to be a vassal of France ? Namur could be considered a vassal of Hainaut at that time, although it will obtain direct vassalage to the HRE emperor in 1362. It then puzzles me that in all previous maps it is arbitrarily depicted as a French vassal.
 
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Some feedback:

"Sieur" is the object case form of "Sire" (Sir) in Old French. Since Modern English (the language of the game) doesn't have declensions apart from pronouns, "Sieur" should be replaced by the nominative "Sire".

The English equivalent of the name "Jacques" (in the Jacqueries event) is actually "James", not "Jack". Side note: it would be very cool if we could tag switch to the rebel tag in this event and try to found a peasant republic.

Jeanne d'Arc should have the Lorrain culture, even if you don't give her her native name. She is famously born in Lorraine.
 
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Also any event for the war of Britanny?
 
  • These read weirdly. Relative Military Strength implies that E/F = 0.50 instead E/(E+F) = 0.50 (or E:F = 0.50:0.49).
  • As these are the same numbers situation main screen they should be at the same precision (50.13 and 49.84)
  • How is it that you can take two numbers find the percentage weight between then and not have the add to 100%? 99.97 what is the other 0.03%?
  • Does Navy have no effect?

England%20Strength.jpg

France%20Strength.jpg
 
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Joan should definitely have her diplomacy skill be the best. She inspired the troops and convinced the king. And of course she was valiant leader on the field, so a high military skill is fine too. But I'm not sure about such a high administrative skill though, she was not really a commander or general as much as warrior and battlefield figurehead.
 
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If you as England get the “Throne of France” and manage to keep hold of it, conquer all/most of France, and still have Plantagenets ruling could you form the actual “Angevin Empire”? I understand it is a concept that was created years later by historians, but it would be cool
 
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Can French vassals form leagues with the intent to gain greater independence/crownlands?

As I recall Burgundy tried it during the 100 y war once they fell out with the French king.

Will there be methods for vassals to gain regency powers/military assistance from the French crown?

This was vital for early Burgundy to secure Flanders, which made up most of their income, but was hard to control with powerful revolts from the cities before the dukes of Burgundy gained enough other lands/wealth to be able to put these revolts down by their own.
 
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If the historical options are followed (which is set to always happen to AI countries), this will happen:
Could we please have it as at least 99% chance for the historical options to happen? I'd love to see the super rare French Union and how it affects the rest of the game to have such a superstate in the west!
 
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Is there any possibility for semi proxy wars such as the war of Breton succession? (Long story short: duke of Brittany dies childless, two claimants, one married into the French royal house, Plantagenet therefore supports the other; both sides fight each other with support from both crowns, including an invasion led by Edward III in 1343; after 20 years of on-off fighting, the English-supported claimant wins and swears fealty to the Valois for some reason.)
It could be an event chain dedicated to Brittany, or be extended into a full mechanic for any French vassal undergoing a succession crisis.

Also, kinda hoping Bertrand du Guesclin is in the game. He was commander through the latter half of the Breton succession war, and most of all was the Constable of France (ie chief commander of the French military) from 1370 to his death in 1380, and is generally credited as one of the main artisans of the French comeback in the second phase of the HYW, after the disasters of Crécy and Poitiers. He should probably have a really high military stat (70-80), but a low diplomacy (he reportedly was prone to quick anger, and incredibly ugly which probably didn't help). For admin, medieval songs said he couldn't read or write (though this is unlikely for a noble in that time), so he shouldn't be too high either. And obviously, if commander traits similar to CK3 exist, he should have something about attrition for enemies, as he was best known for what is best termed as medieval guerilla/commando tactics.
 
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She wasn't a good diplomat either, she wanted to launch crusades in Bohemia against the hussites and was overall too direct instead of speaking what the crown wanted, The French king wasn't too happy when you need to recover your country from the war.
I think she's one of the rare case where aving stats account for everything is quite bad... She was absolutely excellent at leading armies as far as I know, but absolutely awful for "actually administring a realm" or conducting diplomacy missions...
 
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How do you simulate the rise of Burgundy? Can you share any related events?
We are not simulating it at all. Since I know that this will be controversial, I'll explain a bit more in detail why we've made this decision.

The Duchy of Burgundy in EU5 (1337) is very different from the Duchy of Burgundy in EU4 (1444). These are the historical events that, in summary, led to it:
- The heir to the Duchy, Philip of Rouvres, grandson of Duke Odo (the ruler in 1337), died in 1361, with 17 years, and had no descendants.
- The Duchy was then inherited by King John II of France, who granted it to one of his sons, Philip 'the Bold', in 1363; the grant was confirmed by his brother, King Charles V, in 1364, after the death of their father.
- In the following decades, by marriage and conquest, the Dukes of Burgundy secured a number of Duchies, Counties, and principalities in Eastern France and the Low Countries, reaching their height under the rule of Duke Philip 'the Good' (ruler in 1444).
- The country entered a dynastic union with Austria after the death of Mary of Burgundy, with her grandson, Emperor Charles V, inheriting not only Austria and Burgundy, but also Castile and Aragon.

All of this is extremely convoluted to represent with scripted content, but it can actually happen through the mechanics of EU5 (although it's unlikely to happen, as there are tons of 'RNG rolls' for this to happen). Therefore, we decided not to create content about it, as it would need to be extremely railroaded, which goes against the dynamic content approach that we're following in this game.

Maybe in the future, we could have in the game some more new/different narrative tools to follow a different approach regarding this. But, in general terms, we've favoured gameplay-attached content over railroaded content, as a complement to the game mechanics, not a replacement for them.
 
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  • I don't know if this has always been the case or when it might have changed. I like the fact that you are going with only indicating (and I assume tool-tipping) the first instance of an item within text. I.E. de Bruce is mentioned 4 times in the visible text and only the first is indicated.
Scots%20King.jpg
 
Pavia old pal I've been thinking, you didn't give me the release dates release dates release date, but you could give me the release date of the release date of the release date of the third DLC's second patch, how does that sound?
Dude, what's a DLC? We're talking here about the base game! :)
 
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Absolutely loved the TT, thanks for that situation, hopefully the whole "diplomacy" part of it can be made even bigger and more intricate, but I already find it quite impressive.
Thanks a lot!
 
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I think that it's technically possible to marry the character with the ruler/heir, although getting the penalties for being a lowborn.
I don't think that should be allowed since Joan swore a vow of virginity.
 
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1000030748.jpg

Can you please explain what's going on in this image? I'm confused how these various numbers work together.
Why do you add France's 45 to England's 16 to get 61? Why is there not a +11 from 61-50?
 
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You guys really need to have a native English speaker proofread all this text.

1751465730750.jpeg

This is a run-on sentence and 'as' used three times in a row sounds quite bad. Split the sentence in two after 'Salic Law', and try to only use as once.

1751465880110.jpeg

It should be Let's.
 
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