Hi again folks! It's a big day today with the release of the Common Sense expansion for EUIV! Naturally, we are releasing a patch for CKII in tandem, in order to keep the save game converter up-to-date.

Patch Notes here:

Spoiler

- Updated government calculation to be up to date with EU4 1.12
- Fixed the localisation issues on Mac and Linux with country names
- Ibadi is now its own main religion like it should be

NOTE: We are aware of an issue on Mac and Linux caused by EU4's recent engine upgrade, which broke EU4's ability to find the exported games from CK2. For now, you have to manually copy the exported save from eu4_export/mod to EU4's mod folder but this will be fixed ASAP by the EU4 team.

Now then, this time I thought I'd talk about the internal dynamics of the nomadic hordes. As I mentioned last time, Nomads use population and manpower rather than relying on levies and taxes from Holdings, so they tend to have a lot fewer normal vassals than other realms. To compensate for this, Nomad hordes rely on a variable number of member Clans instead. The Clans are similar to regular vassals in some respects, except that they also employ Manpower and Population (oh, and you are allowed to play as a vassal Clan too, of course), and each Clan has a special opinion called Clan Sentiment of the other Clans, separate from that of its chief. As a horde grows, it will be encouraged to increase the number of member Clans. Likewise, you can have too many Clans for the amount of available land.

Effective management of the Clans takes some effort due to their infighting and Sentiments. We have added a new screen to give you a proper overview of the situation. Red lines between the Clans indicate an ongoing "Blood Feud" and green lines a "Blood Oath". A Clan can only have one "blood brother" Clan, but many feuds. Feuds are started either by simple declaration, or by raiding one of the other Clans in the realm... Yes, even though you might all be serving same Khan, nothing stops you from raiding a fellow Clan's land! Blood Oaths are similar to marriage alliances; they last as long as both of the Clan Chiefs are alive, but they are only type of alliance that allows you to call another Clan to war in internal wars (and that includes the Khan!) Blood Feuds are much more persistent and can only be settled with a payment of blood money... or by the other Clan's extinction.

Another twist to the Oath and Feud status is that actions taken against one Clan will affect the Sentiment of its enemy or blood brother, as appropriate. For example, an oath-bound Clan will also become hostile to whomever is raiding you, and will dislike any clans you are in Feud with for as long as the Oath lasts. Feuding parties are allowed to freely declare outright wars against each other, fighting over the grazing lands in a single county.

Clans can be a bit tricky to manage, not just because of their own infighting but also because they don't follow any system of laws like the Feudal realms do; they are more about frankly expecting and demanding things from their Khan. If they view the Khan as weak and pathetic they are quite prone to attempt to have him replaced with another Clan chief (usually through membership in a special Faction.)

Apart from proposing Blood Oaths and declaring Feuds, the Khan also has access to a number of special actions against the other Clans. He can demand that they split in order to maintain balance within the tribe, or even absorb them; unless they refuse, of course! Clans are also free to adopt the religion of another Clan, should they like it better for some reason (steppe nomads are fairly open-minded about religious matters.)

I am sure there is more I should mention about Clan management, but since I really need to get back to work, I'll leave you with this. Next time; Tributaries, Nomad succession and dynamic mercenaries!

 

[Ccllnply]

This looks great! Nomads could be very fun to play with.

 

[Rationalsanity]

Also, are we going to keep getting 2.4 patch note previews? The last two updates haven't given us any.

 

[Ralphthf]

"Fighting over the grazing lands in single county"
Does that mean you can own empty holding slots.

Hope I haven't missed something and that this is a dumb question...

 

[sreckom92]

Would be nice if you gave Manicheans a religious head in Baghdad, apostles and bema feasts to give them some flavor.

Zunists were basically a side feature in Charlemagne expansion. I certainly didn't expect to see such a small religion receive those events and decisions.
It would be awesome if Manicheans got the same treatment. Some little custom flavour wouldn't be hard to add before the release, right?

 

[Dakilla TM]

I'm a little disappointed that Manicheism isn't getting anything to flesh it out at all, since as of right now it has no special mechanics and is barely a step up from playing Hellenistic. Considering that it was an important religion for hordes in the earlier start dates, even just giving it a feast day and a head of religion would give it something. The expansion sounds amazing, don't get me wrong, and even if nothing is added for religions I'll still play it and love it, but this would be a good chance to give Manicheism a slight bit of extra depth.

Actually Manichaenism has less content than Hellenic. With Hellenic and Zoro, you can have concubines, while with Manichaen you can't. I tried playing a Manichaen Karluk game, but the lack of everything made me flip to Zoroastrian.

 

[Labrynian Rebel]

"Beware the Akhun. They are without honor."

I see what you did there.

Khitans confirmed?

 

[sreckom92]

"Fighting over the grazing lands in single county"
Does that mean you can own empty holding slots.

Hope I haven't missed something and that this is a dumb question...

What you really care about is more grazing land for your sheep and horses. Thus, nomad hordes simply have a total population, which grows relative to how many empty Holding slots exist in your provinces (steppe provinces are best, but some other terrain types are also acceptable).

I think this (kinda) answers your question.

 

[sreckom92]

Khitans confirmed?

I believe someone mentioned that they will be random name for a clan, nothing else.

 

[Red Khan]

However, you will not be able to become feudal if you are of a religion that is locked by a DLC you do not own.

So that means that you can settle? What are the prerequisites and what are the reasons for doing so?

 

[Tapio]

Actually Manichaenism has less content than Hellenic. With Hellenic and Zoro, you can have concubines, while with Manichaen you can't. I tried playing a Manichaen Karluk game, but the lack of everything made me flip to Zoroastrian.

This, and if you take the decision to reform the Church as Manichean, you end up with a Zoroastrian Moabadan-Moabad as your vassal boosting something that's heretical to your religion in current game.

 

[DarthJF]

I believe someone mentioned that they will be random name for a clan, nothing else.

They are confirmed to be a potential random name and might be in history files.

Because we couldn't do it any other way and yes of course they are in. They are a potential random name for a clan. (not scripter so dont remember if they are in history database)

 

[riadach]

so it sounds like this clan system is designed to prevent the steppe / mongol hordes from ever being big enough to actually do anything, by creating and encouraging constant in fighting - at least until some great man unifies them (yes I'm talking about Genghis Khan).

If so, then that sounds like a pretty good system, but I am openly pondering (I doubt there'd be an official answer anyway) is this event driven, and only once per game, if it is the AI, and similarly if it is the player. I don't want it to be the case that once every century or so, the hordes unify and conquer vast sways of territory.

In fact I'd go as far to suggest the hordes shouldn't even be technologically able to attack any fortified peoples before the 13th century, as they'd have no siege tech, considering they didn't really even manage that by the time they were conquering entire continents.

They should still be able to starve them down, rather than directly assault.

 

[riadach]

I was wondering, since historically Nomads loved invading Hungary, Wallachia, Moldovia and Bulgaria, given these areas were dominated at one time by groups such as the Avars, Bulgars and Magyars, will terrain bonuses to manpower in these regions be used to encourage nomads to attack/conquer them? Would be quite dynamic imho.

 

[Labrynian Rebel]

I believe someone mentioned that they will be random name for a clan, nothing else.

Well I hope they at least have the Great Khan Temujin himself spawn

 

[riadach]

I wonder will there be an Age of the Mongols event that gives Mongols less attrition and able to gain more manpower from steppe provinces.

 

[Sunbro BigBoss]

Population, Clans and Bloodfeuds sound very exciting, and we have yet much to hear.
I wonder what modders will be able to do with all these new mechanics.

 

[solamyas]

Sorry no the top khan is called Khagan, they are all Khans/Clan-Chiefs. Its a cultural thing I believe.

Also the tier is not moddable.

Then why Khagan use king tier hat and not the emperor tier hat?

 

[Thrake]

It sounds good really, although I hope you will be able to make clans more challenging to the player than patricians within a republic. The lack of competition is the main thing that keeps me from playing republics...

 

[riadach]

It sounds good really, although I hope you will be able to make clans more challenging to the player than patricians within a republic. The lack of competition is the main thing that keeps me from playing republics...

If you look at the screenshot you can see that if you reward one member, you get a malus with a party feuding with them. That's a challenging line to walk.

 

[gorillacakes]

Zunists were basically a side feature in Charlemagne expansion. I certainly didn't expect to see such a small religion receive those events and decisions.
It would be awesome if Manicheans got the same treatment. Some little custom flavour wouldn't be hard to add before the release, right?

It is entirely feasible. Most of the code for potential new features are already in game for things such as the Bema feast and reincarnation. Not only were Zunists a bit out there but in reality the addition of Judaism for the Khazars is also an important reason. It seems only the ruling elite rather than the common folk adopted Judaism yet the religion was added as the tribe and the faith were integral to each other. Far more steppe tribes and a far greater percentage of their people adopted Manichaeism than the Khazars did Judaism. In that way it makes even less sense that they continue as a Zoroastrian heresy, especially since it was the main religion for the Uyghars who we know are now in game.

This, and if you take the decision to reform the Church as Manichean, you end up with a Zoroastrian Moabadan-Moabad as your vassal boosting something that's heretical to your religion in current game.

Yeah, it makes little sense that the Manichaeans would restore the institution of Moabadan-Moabad when that position under Kartir executed Mani and his handpicked successor, who was the first Archegos, named Sisin.

Actually Manichaenism has less content than Hellenic. With Hellenic and Zoro, you can have concubines, while with Manichaen you can't. I tried playing a Manichaen Karluk game, but the lack of everything made me flip to Zoroastrian.

Well put, the mechanics for Manichaeans as is are very lacking compared to some of the minor faiths and it makes it rather dull to play as them when gameplay could and should be far more dynamic.