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Tinto Flavour #23 - 30th of May 2025

Hello, and welcome one more Friday to Tinto Flavour, the happy days in which we take a look at the flavour content of Europa Universalis V!

Today, a day after an infamous anniversary, we will be taking a look at the Byzantine Empire - or Eastern Roman Empire, as you’re free to pick the custom name you prefer for it, as it’s a game rule that you can set before starting the game:
Game Rule Byzantium.png

Game Rule Eastern Roman Empire.png

Let’s now start with the content itself:

Once a proud Empire that stretched from Egypt and the Levant to Iberia and Italy, Byzantium now faces a decadent period that began almost three centuries ago. During his reign, Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos saw fit to dissolve several key institutions, such as the Navy, in an attempt to save the dying economy of the country, while the Theme System continued to be a shadow of what it was, as the Empire lost territory across all fronts.

His successor, Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos, is now faced with the difficult task of safeguarding what remains of our once-glorious Empire. To our east, the Ottomans have started amassing a large army to wipe out our remaining holdings in Anatolia, threatening to set foot across the straits. At the same time, King Stefan Uroš IV Dušan Nemanjić eyes Thessaloníki and Northern Epirus like a vulture. Meanwhile, our treasury runs dry of precious coin, and the country may yet be thrown into a perilous civil war, as the family of our Emperor conspires with the Dynatoí behind closed doors.
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Country Selection.png

Country Tooltip.png

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

Byzantium1.png

Eastern Roman Empire1.png

As I don’t want to spark yet another Byzantine discussion, and its subsequent civil war, here you have a couple of map screenshots, with a different country name option each!​

Byzantium (which is the name that I will use from now on, as being the most commonly used by the community) starts with a bunch of reforms and privileges:
Estates.png

Most of the Estate Privileges are generic ones, but there’s a unique one for each estate. We will show them in a later section of the TF, as they’re related to the Byzantine Succession Crisis, a disaster that may happen to Byzantium early on.

Regarding the starting reforms, the first is a generic one, while the other two are unique ones:
Reform Autocracy.png

Reform Theme System.png

Building Thema Headquarters.png

Reform Kritai Katholikon.png

Byzantium starts with a ‘State Patriarchy’ policy, as shown last Wednesday:
Policy State Patriarchy.png

And some other unique policies:
Policy Pronoia System.png

Policy Byzantine Law.png

It also has quite a bunch of starting works of art:
Works of Art1.png

Works of Art2.png

The Theodosian Walls are also represented through a unique building:
Building Theodosian Walls.png

Byzantium also has a bunch of advances; we are going to focus on the early-game, historical ones, as they also unlock some Byzantine unique units:
Advance Heart of Orthodoxy.png

Advance Late Cataphracts.png

Unit Byzantine Cataphracts.png

Advance Akritai.png

Unit Akritai.png

Advance Shield of the West.png

Cabinet Action Extensive Conscription.png

Advance Poikilia.png

Advance Expand Varangian Guard.png

Unit Varangians.png

Advance City Taker.png

Unit Modernized Helepolis.png

Let’s now move on to the narrative content for Byzantium. As I mentioned previously, a Succession Crisis is latent in the country, and that would historically lead to the Byzantine Civil War of 1341-1347, which allowed King Stefan Dusan of Serbia to occupy Macedonia and proclaim himself emperor, the Bulgarians to recover some borderlands, and seriously debilitated the country, making it easier for the Ottomans to gain a foothold across the Sea of Marmara, from Gallipoli.

We’re portraying this latent crisis and the general state of decay of the country by some starting privileges, plus some starting inflation, low funds and stability, etc.:
Privilege Corruption Nobility.png

Privilege Corruption Burghers.png

Privilege Corruption Clergy.png

Privilege Corruption Commoners.png

This situation will also spawn in your neighborhood a couple of months after the game starts, although we will talk more in detail about it next Friday:
The Turkish Threat.png

And it’s very likely that this disaster may end up triggering early after the start of the game, if you are not careful enough:
Succession Crisis.png

Succession Crisis2.png

Succession Crisis3.png

It is something we internally call Semi-Generic Disaster. This means that while it uses the texts, panel, etc. of the generic ‘Succession Crisis’ disaster, some countries have unique triggers, events, and content attached to it, so the player can experience similar, but different crisis. The Byzantine Succession Crisis is one of those, therefore.

Independent of whether the player succeeds or not in defeating the Succession Crisis, and not weakening much in the process, Byzantium has a bunch of Dynamic Historical Events:
Event Hesychasm.png


Event Decline Palaiologos Renaissance.png


Event Reforming Kritai Katholikon.png

Reform Reformed Kratoi Katholikon.png


Event Acritic Songs.png


Event Song of Armouris.png


Event Kosntantinos Armenopoulos.png


Event Center of Learning.png


Event Gemistos Plethon.png

Event Gemistos Plethon2.png

Byzantium also has some alt-historical events, one of the few exceptions we make in the game, to include some plausible content in case that Byzantium avoid its decadence…

… However you will have to find it by playing the game when we release it, as that’s all for today! As today is Friday, this will be the schedule for next week:
  • Monday -> Tinto Maps Feedback about the Steppes
  • Tuesday -> Tinto Flavour about the Golden Horde
  • Wednesday -> Tinto Talks about Islam
  • Thursday -> Fourth ‘Behind the Scenes’ video!
  • Friday -> Tinto Flavour about the Ottomans and the Rise of the Turks situation!
And also remember, you can wishlist Europa Universalis V now! Cheers!
 
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matfer13 said:
again brother, what are you yappin about? What does the Afd have to do with the ERE name? How did you come to this conclusion by yourself?
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You don't understand what I wrote? I know my English isn't perfect, but I think it's still quite easy to understand. I don't know how to write it simplier.
 
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nmcj1996 said:
I assume that these are claims - what does that mean in terms of gameplay? Once conquered do these areas start as integrated / do we always have a casus belli to conquer those areas?
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If recovered, they get automatically the core status.
 
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Pavía said:
We have now in this game some super cool and useful filters for things like this. For instance, if I select the Culture map mode, and then hover the Greek culture in the 'Culture' tab of the 'Society' panel, you can check that there are 3.6M Greek pops in the world, and how they're spread:


Then, as it belongs to the 'Hellenic' culture group, you can hover it, and then in any of the cultures, like the 'Pontic' one, to check where you can find it:


This way, the players will be able to know where it is interesting for they to expand or improve their diplomatic and cultural influence, without having to know beforehand which pops or culture is linked to another.
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Could we also see the spread of Cappadocian Greeks?
 
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Aquila SPQR said:
You don't understand what I wrote? I know my English isn't perfect, but I think it's still quite easy to understand. I don't know how to write it simplier.
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No your english is perfect, It's just that what you said doesn't have anything to do with what my initial statement was about, Lambert was saying that Greeks were first called greeks only after the ERE fell, my counterpoint was that at the time people outside the Empire already called them greeks already(due to politics rather than racism/nationalism) and that calling the country "Empire of the Romans" went against the naming conventions that we have in the game right now
 
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How difficult will it be to take Constantinople, considering how they resisted sieges through more than a thousand years. Are the Theodosian walls able to resist massive sieges at the start of the game? Do you need some heavy artillery to take the city, like the Ottomans did in 1453?
 
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I like wars and maps said:
What is up with giving claims to only half of Albania and half of Macedonia?
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We're giving cores to places lost 50 years before the start of the game (in this case, after 1270, to be more precise). If you have any suggestions, they're welcome, as usual.
 
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matfer13 said:
calling the country "Empire of the Romans" went against the naming conventions that we have in the game right now
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First you will have to define what the naming conventions are in the game before I take this silly claim seriously.
 
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Lord Lambert said:
First you will have to define what the naming conventions are in the game before I take this silly claim seriously.
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Counties, duchies and Kingdoms appear before the name of the country(Kingdom of France) while for Empire the title appear after the name of the country(Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire, Holy Roman Empire, Mali Empire)
The only exeption I've seen to this is for the Chinese Emperor(Great Yuan)
Don't tell me you didn't notice it?...

Also let's not forget about this
Screenshot_20250530_173930_Chrome.jpg

There is already a unified Rome formable so calling them both Rome would be confusing
 
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Hezekiah said:
Why "Around Byzantion" and not "Around Constantinople"? Had the new name failed to take after a millennium?
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1. We're taking the name from the province where Constantinople is located.
2. Makes for a more direct connection from where 'Byzantium' comes from.
 
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eddin2 said:
Great TF! Couple of questions:

1. Is the Byzantium going to start with "lot" of buildings and infrastructure already built, like themes headquarters, ports, roads etc? That seem to be historic, even if the empire is in decline.

2. Shouldn't they be more on defensive societal value instead offensive?

3. What about lands which were part of Byzantium/Roman empires for hundreds of years, especially those with orthodox population, do we have reconquest CB on those territories, and if we conquer them, would they already be integrated or at least recquire less time ti reintegrate it, than if we do it as Serbia and Bulgaria for example?
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As usual, take this as WIP, a matter of re-balance, and non-final, both the UI and the buildings themselves:

Buildings.png
 
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