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Tinto Flavour #19 - 20th of May 2025

Hello and Welcome to another Tinto Flavor! This time, I have been forced to write it, as I am the one responsible for the country we will learn about today.

Today, we are going to delve into all the fun flavor that you get from playing Sweden! But prior to that, just remember to wishlist https://store.steampowered.com/app/3450310/Europa_Universalis_V/ !


Sweden is a feudal kingdom under the rule of Magnus Eriksson, who also holds the crown of Norway. Skåne was bought from the impoverished Danes just a few years ago. Our realm is vast, but sparsely populated, and mostly covered by forests. Inside those forests, riches of iron and copper remain hidden, but can soon be exploited to enrich our country.

sweden.png


Mostly Catholic Swedes, but there are plenty of different Finnish people as well. Even a few Norse pagans live in the inland forests.

The King is not only ugly, he also has shitty stats. 33/0/33 is a bit boring numbers though, so feel free to suggest any fitting variants within +/-10 of it.


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Sweden is large on the map, but very different from the modern borders of the country.



Sweden starts with a relatively powerful Commoners estate, as they are both represented in the Riksdag and have the privilege to freely move.

estates.png


They also have a unique privilege for the Commoners:

unique_commoner.png


This one requires quite a lot of crown power to remove, and while it's active, you can not remove free mobility and their representation in parliament either. Luckily, a bit more food and better fighting levies are not all bad..


Sweden also has access to this unique cabinet action that can be done in any province in Norrland or Finland that has a total population of less than 10,000 people. This is to simulate the insane population growth that Finland had during the 14th and 15th century, which was the highest in the world at that time.

cabinet.png


While Sweden does not start with any Works of Art, it has a unique bonus in Falun, where the Great Copper Mountain gives a lot of extra copper per laborer working there.

kopparberget.png


Sweden gets two unique units in the Age of Absolutism:

hakkapelitta.png

This cavalry unit has +5 initiative, +10% movement speed and +1 combat speed compared to the regular cavalry units of this age.


caroleans.png

Caroleans have +2 initiative, do 10% more morale damage and take 20% less morale damage.

These units enable a Swedish army to have the possibility of quickly and decisively winning battles in the Age of Absolutism, which was the time period where Sweden had its military successes historically.


While you get these units from advances, there are also plenty of other advances that Sweden has access to. Some of these include the following..



1_advance.png

The mentality of always attacking is an important one! GÅ PÅ!


2_advance.png

A quality government involved both the King and the Estates.

3_advance.png

This used to be a sign of quality….

4_advance.png

One of the greatest scientists of the Age of Absolutism.



Advances alone do not always give enough flavor, so there are plenty of dynamic historical events as well.

While Sweden starts with a historical saint in Erik the Holy, there are others presented as well in the game.

saints.png


After this event, close to the start of the game, where Bridget of Sweden first appears…

birgitta_1.png


Eventually, after she dies, you get this event.



birgitta_2.png

She will become a saint, and you have the possibility to get a minor holy site for the Catholic Faith in Vadstena!


Some of the other over 60 unique historical events include the following..


sala.png




wallons.png



göteborg.png



rudbeck.png



Tomorrow, @SaintDaveUK will talk about how our unit graphics work..
 
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She will become a saint, and you have the possibility to get a minor holy site for the Catholic Faith in Vadstena!
Ohhh, not sure I read about those before.
Are there other ways to get a "minor holy site" or are they tied to the canonization mechanic?
Also what do they do?
 
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that happens a lot though, and makes it very confusing for players, as we use the flags as identifiers..
I'm not asking to do that for every country or dynasty in the game at release and of course there have to be some limitations like Milan always using the Visconti Coa but for major ones like Sweden having two or three flags shouldn't be too confusing especially after you get used to them and besides there are other countries that are doing something similar or even more complex like Hungary (with their Angevin flag at the start), Russia(different Coa on the flag depending who forms it), Florence(swapping colour when supporting the Ghibellines) and so on
 
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Sweden seems one of the most interesting tags to play with, as always.

Only one question, Falun mine, with all advances, modifiers etc, is it going to be "powerfull" as in reality during that time period?
 
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When you say the king is "ugly" is that just you commenting on his portrait, or is that a character trait of his?

the portrait.
 
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Swedish content! Yay!
I know this might be better left up to the Danish Tinto Flavour, but is there content surrounding the Kalmar Union? I know there is a very promising personal union system, but I'm hoping that it can reliably happen and not fall into the trap of "the game can dynamically simulate it" only for it to only happen every so often. Hopefully something related to the ousting of the Bjälbo, as did historically happen

Its Danish stuff..
 
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You are completely correct that the population started to skyrocket in the 1800s before the famine,
The early 1800s were just a continuation, the 18th century is when it started.
but it's also worth keeping in mind that that the structural conditions that allowed for growth (huge amounts of very arable land that allows Ireland to produce food for 40 million people today) existed, a
You can't use modern food production as an indication and Ireland actually doesn't have that much arable land. While two thirds of its area are agricultural land, only 7 percent is arable land.
and the same levels of growth could have also been seen were it not for the constant invasions of the island and other colonial meddling, like the Cromwellian wars killed about 20% of the population and the 1740 famine killed another 20% (while there were net food exports to Britain). So it would be kind of arbitrary to magically increase the island's growth with the introduction of the potato when it always supported a larger population with other crops but those crops were exported. (I'm assuming a run here where you undo colonial rule)
It's not even necessarily the potato, the four field crop rotation introduced at the time made a big difference for agricultural productivity.
The fact that the island's modern population is lower today than it was by the end of EU5's timeframe (the only place in the world where this is the case) shows that Ireland's overpopulation was more of an extreme case, rather than something that was bound to happen due to its geography. You are overexaggerating the agricultural productivity of Ireland's land.

And again, Sweden/Finland's bonus shown here only applies to low population provinces earlier in the game. Sweden and Finland did have significant population growth fairly early on.
But high population growth later in the timeframe is not something that was unique to Ireland and should be handled differently by the game, i.e. by advances.
 
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Is there any reason(aside from resources constraints) not to replace all your infrantry with caroleans?

ofc you will do it..
 
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So Swedish soldiers are just inherently 20% better than everyone else just because they always attack??? (and if anything should "always attacking" not give a bonus to initiative instead)
Svinfylking is a viking age battle tactic too is it not???
1747749350944.png
 
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So Swedish soldiers are just inherently 20% better than everyone else just because they always attack??? (and if anything should "always attacking" not give a bonus to initiative instead)
Svinfylking is a viking age battle tactic too is it not???
View attachment 1302750
It's OP but Hungary has an almost identical one just with Cuman cavalry, so I won't complain bc I don't want them to nerf those too lol
 
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Why is it considered a Kingdom(tier 3) though, wasn't it still officially part of Denmark in 1337? At best it should be a duchy

it was not a part of denmark in 1337.

it was part of sweden since 1332
 
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