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 Next dev diary
Show only dev responses

Tinto Flavour #15 - 25th of April 2025 - Military Orders

Hello and welcome one more week to Tinto Flavour, the happy Fridays in which we take a look at the content of the super secret Project Caesar!

Today, we will be talking about the Christian Military Orders, and specifically, the Teutonic Order and the Knights Hospitallers! Let’s start without further ado:

The glorious Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, also known as the Teutonic Order, faces its destiny on the stormy coasts of the Baltic Sea. Created to protect the Christian pilgrims on their way to the Holy City of Jerusalem, its objective shifted to Christianize the Pagan tribes of Prussia and the Baltic through the creation of a state on those lands.

Under the leadership of our predecessor, Hochmeister Werner von Orseln, the Teutonic Order has expanded its territorial holdings, but this expansion has not come without consequences. The Order's aggressive policies have created powerful enemies, as the Pagan tribes to the East have united and formed the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, then allying with our Catholic southern neighbor and rival, the Kingdom of Poland, which has set aside their Christian duty, joining with the pagans against us.

The time has come for our Order to prove that we are up to the crusading task that we have set for ourselves, and show the world that even surrounded by enemies, our faith stands triumphant.
Click to expand...

The Knights Hospitaller conquered the island of Ródos in the early 14th century, spurred by the fall of Acre in 1291, establishing a stronghold that would allow us to pursue our mission to protect Christian pilgrims. Ródos, a picturesque island in the Aegean Sea, has become a thriving center for our Military Order, marked by fortifications and a bustling economy. However, this prosperity is countered by relentless attacks by neighboring Muslim fleets. But we have demonstrated remarkable resilience, defending Ródos through ferocious battles, showcasing our martial prowess and unwavering dedication.

Nonetheless, the future of our Order looks bleak, as our enemies become more powerful and the disunity among the Catholic countries runs rampant. Recovering the Holy Land seems to be a fading hope with each passing day, but our determination is unbreakable, and we will pursue that objective until our last man falls.
Click to expand...

Country Selection Teutons.png

Country Selection Knights.png

As usual, consider all UI, 2D and 3D art WIP.​

The Teutonic Order starts with an interesting political and diplomatic situation:
Teutonic Order.png

Teutonic Diplomacy.png

The Teutonic Order has several vassals, including the Livonian Order; but also starts at war with Poland and Lithuania - something that is not final, since we’re considering representing this Teutonic-Polish conflicts with a truce, instead, as it was resolved peacefully a few years after the start of our game.​

While the situation of the Knights Hospitaller is also interesting, in a different way:
Knights.png

A Unique Location Minor with unique content spotted!​

All Military Orders share some common flavour, starting with a Major Government Reform:
Military Order.png

That unlocks some unique buildings:
Order Headquarters.png

Order Stronghold.png

Order Commandery.png

The Order Headquarters is a capital-only building (so just one per country). The Order Stronghold is a building that you can build in any location you own. While the Order Commandery is a foreign building, that you can build in the lands of any Catholic country with which you have good relations, making it a powerful tool to support your crusading effort.​

There’s also this Estate Privilege for your Clergy:
Military Orders.png

That unlocks a unique diplomatic action with other Catholic countries, the Sponsorship of Military Order:
Sponsorship Military Order.png

Sponsoring.png

Sponsored.png

As being theocracies, the Military Order also have access to unique Laws & Policies, such as:
Law Divine Cause.png

Law Holy Mission.png

Law Monastic Order.png

Law Celibacy.png

Going to the more unique content for each, the Knights have access to a couple more reforms and privileges:
Reform KNI Crusade Sea.png

Privilege KNI Local Commanders.png

The Teutons start with another unique Estate Privilege, and a Work of Art:
Privilege Kulm Law.png

Chronicon Terra Prussiae.png

And both have their own set of advances:

Teutonic Advances
Advance TEU Crusader Discipline.png

Advance TEU Teutonic Heavy Cavalry.png

Advance TEU Reformed Army.png

Advance TEU Teutonic Religious Authority.png

Advance TEU One Estate, One Religion.png


Advances for the Knights Hospitallers
Advance KNI Assistance Suffering.png

Advance KNI Reconquista.png

Advance KNI Scourge.png

Advance KNI Crusade.png

Advance KNI Order State.png

The Teutonic Order and the Knights also have a few dozen unique events each, but since today’s Tinto Flavour is already long enough, let’s just show one example per each:
Saint George1.png

Saint George2.png


Aftermath Crusade Era.png

And that’s all for today! Next Friday is a bank holiday in Tinto, so no Tinto Flavour; but remember that on Monday we will take a look at the Tinto Maps Feedback for Eastern, Central and Southern Africa, and on Wednesday there will be a Tinto Talks about Protestantism and the War of Religion. Cheers!
 

Attachments

  • Order Headquarters.png
    Order Headquarters.png
    576,3 KB · Views: 0
  • 111Like
  • 48Love
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
Sort by date Sort by reaction score
Nice to hear you're reconsidering how to represent the Polish-Teutonic war. Though if it was to remain as an active war I still don't understand why Hungary is not a part of this war, when they were an ally of Poland and they were active in military engagements all the way to the last fights prior to the truce. Seems like an arbitrary nerf to the Polish side.
 
  • 4Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Pavía said:
It's one of the few instances in which we allow alt-historical, since it doesn't feel right if you keep playing as the Teutonic Order, but stop having any unique advances after the Age of Reformation.
Click to expand...
I'd say for something like a Military Order, it actually feels right to have an incentive to abandon an outdated type of state and form a different country (like Prussia), but in general that makes sense.
 
  • 2Like
  • 2
Reactions:
LysanderSage100 said:
Can you re-establish Jerusalem as the Hospitallers?

(Also seeing as the Hospitallers still exist as a technically sovereign military order despite loosing all of their territory it would be fun to have an event for them allowing them to become a building based country if they have no more territory)
Click to expand...
Yes!
 
  • 41Like
  • 9Love
  • 3
  • 3
  • 1
Reactions:
Will there be a Livonian Wars situation? Kinda like Italian wars but as a Poland-Sweden-Russia showdown instead (or dominant Baltic, Scandinavian, Russian country).

It'd be cool to somehow give vassal Prussia the same dynasty as Brandenburg's when it secularises and have AI Poland keep Prussia around so that if the stars align, the historical PU can happen. Then one or two events about the duchy getting independence and a decision to become the King in Prussia and we could maybe have an AI Kingdom of Prussia in like 20% of games or something. Probably still too railroady for some people but personally I like to see historical nations in my games.
 
  • 3Like
Reactions:
  • 17Like
  • 2
Reactions:
Pavía said:
No, it employs your own pops, and if you lose manpower, your pops are killed; but it's a way of getting an early game manpower boost, since the manpower buildings are scarce in the first couple of ages.
Click to expand...
If that's how it works then it should also encourage inmigration from the country its built into your own country.
 
  • 6Like
  • 2
Reactions:
Mef said:
I'd say for something like a Military Order, it actually feels right to have an incentive to abandon an outdated type of state and form a different country (like Prussia), but in general that makes sense.
Click to expand...
Yeah, there's no way the Teutons would have survived the ideals of the French Revolutions and the industrial era with this government type
 
Last edited:
  • 3
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Stevo76 said:
I'm curious about the Prussian culture in the screenshot there -- is this a Baltic Prussian, or a Germanic one? Are they both represented in some form in the game?
Click to expand...
The Germanic one. This is the current cultural setup of Prussia:
Cultures.png
 
  • 36Like
  • 16Love
  • 6
Reactions:
Pavía said:
Intentional, but we need to improve that tooltip, because it's a Privilege available to two different countries (Military Orders, and Catholic countries with neighbors of a different religion), with a different set of modifiers (the 5% Discipline is for the Military Orders, and 2.5% and the 'Clergy Allowed to Lead' is for the other countries).
Click to expand...
Maybe you can make the UI s.t. it only shows the "changing" modifiers, and only shows the "not changing" if you hover over it or activly click somehere
 
Pavía said:
You can replicate that organically through the new mechanics that I just presented, by requesting sponsorship from other Catholic countries, and expanding your Commanderies abroad, as they increase your manpower and income, and military tradition.
Click to expand...
Talking about the commanderies abroad, can you share if they start already with some of them built already? Maybe if possible you could share (now or in the future) a map with the locations where they have commanderies at the start of the game, in case you need feedback from the community
Edit: just saw that you replied to someone with the number of commanderies they already have built at gamestart. Even so, if you could share the map with their locations I'd be nice
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Pavía said:
No, it employs your own pops, and if you lose manpower, your pops are killed; but it's a way of getting an early game manpower boost, since the manpower buildings are scarce in the first couple of ages.
Click to expand...
If so I actually now agree with the point of others that this makes a commandary pointless to build. Just spam training fields if you still have to rely on your own manpower.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
D.Knight said:
If so I actually now agree with the point of others that this makes a commandary pointless to build. Just spam training fields if you still have to rely on your own manpower.
Click to expand...
Can only do that from the Age of Discovery, though.
Commanderies allow Military Orders to have a sizeable standing army from the start of the game.
 
  • 4Like
  • 1
Reactions:
D.Knight said:
Presumes that'll you'll have access to mercenaries no? It's no longer a bottomless pool.
Click to expand...
Then you're probably better of waiting for them to be available. At 2 manpower a month you'll have to wait for 4 years to get enough for a single regiment anyways and that's not taking into account the manpower you'll need to maintain and reinforce your regiment. For 100 ducats meanwhile it seems like you can get 5-6 regiments of mercs who don't cost you further manpower. Realistically the times where it would've been worth it to build commanderies over just waiting for new mercs seem like they'll be few, and it's not like you're going to know in advance if it was worth it so you're always better off betting on mercs.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
How fun are the opm/olms without historical content? Is it going to be a miserable time playing the tiny nations that don't get events, or do opms and olms get special tools in general.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back