So that time of the week again and its time for me to make something up to write about. Today I decided to talk about regions and forts, two new concepts in Crusader Kings II.

First, regions isn't something that is going to affect you directly but it works somewhat like how it have done in the Europa Universalis Games. It's an area on the map that denotes a region with a name and it's mostly used to improve on our localization of things, such as hunting for tigers in India or hunting a deer in western Europe. So no longer will you find Tigers in the woods of Poland if you manage to move your capital of your Indian Empire out of the subcontinent. You can see these regions by opening up a province and click on the new region icon to get an outline of the region. It's also possible to search for regions in the old title finder.

Next is a gameplay feature you will actually interact a bit more actively in. It's called forts which is an additional type of holding you can build in provinces next to the normal ones and trade posts. Because of this we had to extend the province view with a window you can open and close which will show "extra holding slots" which will contain the trade post and fort slots. The fort can be built anywhere from your own territory even enemy provinces that you have under your control. Their biggest advantage is that they are fortifications that you can build up really fast and very cheaply. The main point of them being to let you build up a region as your march towards a big neighbor which will let you slow down their advance but at the same time let you set up forward positions in the enemy territory.

They do have some added bonuses though beyond that, for instance in Tribal land where you have the homeland attrition bonus, that bonus will be removed from the province as long as you have a fort there to supply your troops with. There is also a feature for the forts that is too related to the expansion so I can't delve into that any deeper.


And again here's some more random changelogs

Spoiler

- Fixed crash when a war is invalidated because of no defender
- Fixed the "hostile against everyone" bug
- Fixed bug where the AI would keep their units attached to characters they no longer participate in a war with.
- Added alert for having high prio minor titles available to grant.
- Fixed various provinces in India that had no rulers scripted for some start dates.
- Monks and other people living in celibacy will no longer try to arrange stealth marriages if ruled by a patrician.
- Defensive religions now properly also give defensive modifiers for Camel Cavalry and Elephants.

 

[omega20056]

In my reality everybody spoke pig latin

You'd actually be 99% correct for most of Europe (The good bits anyway).

 

[Groogy]

You'd actually be 99% correct for most of Europe (The good bits anyway).

... I don't think you understand what I ment with Pig Latin...

 

[Groogy]

And to expand on the Romanization and "Colonization" of Roman culture, there's a reason why not every province was a Senatorial Province, and being a Colonia was a mark of progress within the empire and only the most converted regions would actually be recognized as fully roman and be allowed part of the senate for instance (now I'm no expert in Roman history and politics because I find it dull and boring) But I can safely say that northern France or Spain was not recognized as Senatorial provinces, however what is later known as Granada and Aquitaine was as they had become successfully colonized by Rome.

 

[sreckom92]

... I don't think you understand what I ment with Pig Latin...

Isyay ethay ewnay dlcay aboutyay edgehogshay?

 

[omega20056]

... I don't think you understand what I ment with Pig Latin...

Romanes eunt domus?

 

[omega20056]

And to expand on the Romanization and "Colonization" of Roman culture, there's a reason why not every province was a Senatorial Province, and being a Colonia was a mark of progress within the empire and only the most converted regions would actually be recognized as fully roman and be allowed part of the senate for instance (now I'm no expert in Roman history and politics because I find it dull and boring) But I can safely say that northern France or Spain was not recognized as Senatorial provinces, however what is later known as Granada and Aquitaine was as they had become successfully colonized by Rome.

Northern Spain had a legion so the emperors weren't going to give that up and Gaul was the main buffer for Italy (Plus it had eight legions and accompanying auxiliaries) so there was no way the Senate was getting a hold of it.

 

[Groogy]

... You are now comparing two fundamentally different things now. that's strategical interest not political. The point is that they would never allow non-romans into the political system without converting them first. And apparently there were plenty of population excluded.

 

[TheDungen]

The Frisians were confined to the coastal areas, the interior was Frankish.

Regardless of how poor the peasants in Spain and Gaul were, they still spoke Latin and were Roman cultured. The Visigothic elite spoke Latin and the vast majority of the people in Charlemagne's empire spoke Gallic Latin.

Again with the languages. And no they were not roman cultured they probably lived very much like they did before the punic wars. Just like the people of pommerania probably lived pretty much the same before they were conquered by the slavs

And so the interior was frankish? where did these frankish come from becuase it certainly wasn't frankish under magna frisia. So they had to move in people from somewhere. And if they had that much people to move in then my didnt they into west frankia? Because again west frankia was frankish centuries before the low countries were.

 

[classicist]

Northern Spain had a legion so the emperors weren't going to give that up and Gaul was the main buffer for Italy (Plus it had eight legions and accompanying auxiliaries) so there was no way the Senate was getting a hold of it.

Indeed. The provincial status as an imperial or senatorial province was not a factor of 'successful Roman colonization' (or indeed 'Romanization', an enormously complicated concept which has been usefully redefined in recent scholarship), but rather depended on the perceived security of the province. Provinces that required the presence of legions or the attention of the princeps in his role as the imperator (continuing essentially the consular imperium, the mandate to command armies, from the Republican system) were 'imperial' for the most part.

... You are now comparing two fundamentally different things now. that's strategical interest not political. The point is that they would never allow non-romans into the political system without converting them first. And apparently there were plenty of population excluded.

It's a bit unclear to me what you mean by 'conversion' in this context. It is, however, quite true that the admission of provincials to - for instance - senatorial ranks was a lengthy and negotiated process of inclusion (Claudius' speech advocating for the inclusion of Gallic patres in the Senate has fortunately been preserved in two separate versions). I wouldn't say the resistance took place because of a genuine perception of 'lack of Romanitas' among the Gallic provincial elite, but instead because of the Senate's fear of the emperor being able to swamp the traditional power base with homines novi from a province with which the Julio-Claudians had a very special relationship. For the purposes of the senators' argument, of course, the traditional animosity between Romans and Gauls offered a nice weapon. But I doubt if 'strategy' and 'politics' really were separate in such a case - if ever in Rome.

 

[omega20056]

Again with the languages. And no they were not roman cultured they probably lived very much like they did before the punic wars.

For the purposes of the game, language and culture are the same thing. Are you saying the Iberians went back to living like the Celts? The Romans in Visigothia were subject to Roman law, lived in cities and villas, and spoke Latin. If that's not Roman enough for you, I don't know what else to say.

 

[TheDungen]

You'd actually be 99% correct for most of Europe (The good bits anyway).

Pig latin isn't vulgar latin mate, piglantinus is sayinus thingsus like thisus.

 

[omega20056]

... You are now comparing two fundamentally different things now. that's strategical interest not political. The point is that they would never allow non-romans into the political system without converting them first. And apparently there were plenty of population excluded.

The Roman government was quite inclusive, a lot of the emperor's most trusted companions and aides were non-Roman freemen or freedmen. Half of the army was made up either of non-Romans or mercenaries they invited in. The emperors would often force subject peoples like the Danube Germans to send them warriors as tribute.

 

[omega20056]

Pig latin isn't vulgar latin mate, piglantinus is sayinus thingsus like thisus.

Yes, Google enlightened me.

 

[TheDungen]

For the purposes of the game, language and culture are the same thing. Are you saying the Iberians went back to living like the Celts? The Romans in Visigothia were subject to Roman law, lived in cities and villas, and spoke Latin. If that's not Roman enough for you, I don't know what else to say.

Yeah i think you have a sort of romantizised look at rome, very few lived in villas, and even in medieval italy the cities wheren't the same as they had been in the classic era. the vast majority of europes population were farmers.

 

[TheDungen]

The Roman government was quite inclusive, a lot of the emperor's most trusted companions and aides were non-Roman freemen or freedmen. Half of the army was made up either of non-Romans or mercenaries they invited in. The emperors would often force subject peoples like the Danube Germans to send them warriors as tribute.

You're talking about auxillaries then they became auxillaries to become roman citizens. The only way one could. And that didn't make them roman cultured just roman citizens. Which is part of why the system backfired. In the old days the legions had romans in them too and offered up land in the provinces to those who served but as they borders stopped growing that became problematic and thus fewer romans joined the legions menaing that the relied ever more on auxillaries. Who didn't really identify as roman, which became a problem when they were forced to fight their own countrymen.

Also the most common auxillaries in western rome was again germans.

 

[omega20056]

You're talking about auxillaries then they became auxillaries to become roman citizens. The only way one could. And that didn't make them roman cultured just roman citizens. Which is part of why the system backfired. In the old days the legions had romans in them too and offered up land in the provinces to those who served but as they borders stopped growing that became problematic and thus fewer romans joined the legions menaing that the relied ever more on auxillaries.

The auxiliaries often did become Romanised, that was one of the reasons for their existence. They were stationed in provinces far from their homelands to ensure their loyalty and aid the Romanisation of the local population because they would be settled there at the end of their service. You're thinking of the foederati, who were incredibly disloyal.

You can disagree with my post regarding the Romans in Spain if you wish, but it's historical fact. The vast majority of the population in Hispania spoke Latin and lived the Roman way of life.

 

[omega20056]

Yeah i think you have a sort of romantizised look at rome, very few lived in villas, and even in medieval italy the cities wheren't the same as they had been in the classic era. the vast majority of europes population were farmers.

That was after Italy was devastated in the Gothic wars and the Lombard wars, Hispania and Gaul weren't depopulated like Italy.

 

[fromar]

Pig latin isn't vulgar latin mate, piglantinus is sayinus thingsus like thisus.

Ouyay reay givenforay orfay otnay eakingspay igpay atinlay. Eingbay a arbarianbay, Iay erstandunday.

 

[Thure]

The auxiliaries often did become Romanised, that was one of the reasons for their existence. They were stationed in provinces far from their homelands to ensure their loyalty and aid the Romanisation of the local population because they would be settled there at the end of their service. You're thinking of the foederati, who were incredibly disloyal.

You can disagree with my post regarding the Romans in Spain if you wish, but it's historical fact. The vast majority of the population in Hispania spoke Latin and lived the Roman way of life.

Isn't Spanish even one of the most Latin languages? After my knowledge the romanisation in Spain was the most successful one. The Spanish were more Roman than the Italians if I remember correct

 

[TheDungen]

The auxiliaries often did become Romanised, that was one of the reasons for their existence. They were stationed in provinces far from their homelands to ensure their loyalty and aid the Romanisation of the local population because they would be settled there at the end of their service. You're thinking of the foederati, who were incredibly disloyal.

You can disagree with my post regarding the Romans in Spain if you wish, but it's historical fact. The vast majority of the population in Hispania spoke Latin and lived the Roman way of life.

The roman way of life was for a chosen few. The people who worked the fields didn't get any of that, they were lucky if they were free men.