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Tinto Flavour #27 - 13th of June 2025 - Japan, Nanbokucho, Sengoku

Hello and welcome once more to another edition of Tinto Flavour. Today we will continue the Japanese theme by taking a look at the flavor of Japan and the Japanese clans, as well as the situations of the Nanbokuchō and Sengoku Jidai.

After a long period of peace under the Kamakura Shogunate, the islands of Japan were plunged again into war during the Mongol invasions. That debilitated the authority of the Shōgun to the point that Yamato Go-Daigo Tennō was able to wrestle control of the country away from him. However, his intentions of restoring imperial rule were not to come to fruition, as his former ally Shōgun Ashikaga Takauji established a new Japanese Shogunate.

Now Shōgun Ashikaga Takauji rules over the country after Go-Daigo Tennō fled the capital and established himself in Yoshino. The struggle between the central government and the fleeing Emperor is far from over.

Japan.png

These are the estates of Japan:
Japan Estates.png

And it has this unique reform:
Shogunate Reform.png

While the other clans and the imperial courts have these other ones:
Clan Reform.png

Imperial Family.png

Japanese countries have some common advances, and some of the individual clans have also some unique ones. Some examples:
Bushido.png

Head Hunting.png

Codified Bushido.png


Some unique ones (try to guess which clan they are for):
Clans of Tosa.png

Izumi Sea.png

Unlikely Alliances.png

Uninspiring clan.png

Furinkazan.png

Let’s talk now about how the clans behave. Let me start by saying that our recommended country to play in Japan generally is the country of Japan itself, as the clans, being building-based countries, play quite a bit different than regular tags, and thus are rather suited to experienced players that want to try a different and more challenging game style.

That being said, let’s look at how they work. Being building-based countries, they are of course dependent on their buildings. Here is some of them:
Shoen.png

Yamashiro.png


The next ones are exclusive for the imperial court countries and the non-imperial clans, respectively:
Gosho.png

Yakata.png

And another important building that cannot be built manually but it will instead be built automatically when a clan is assigned to be Shugo of a province (see yesterday’s Tinto Talks for that mechanic):
Kokufu.png

As you can see, both their economy and their troops will depend directly on the buildings that they own, so their strategy is to expand their presence by building more of those buildings and also taking the ones owned by other clans in war.

Now that we mention war, it’s time to talk about the two civil war situations in the game. Let’s start with the Nanbokuchō Jidai, a situation that starts just at the beginning of the game. Initially, all countries all assigned to support either the northern or the southern court, according to their historical alliances, but when the situation starts, countries will get the following event:
Nanbokuchou start event.png

With this, the clans will be able to choose to switch loyalties, or even declare neutrality, although for obvious reasons neither the two courts nor the shogunate are able to change their allegiances. The whole country will thus be divided into sides:
Nanbokuchou panel.png

Nanbokuchou map.png

Even after the situation has started, countries can choose to change their loyalty, not only via the actions in the situation panel but also through events that will fire during the situation allowing for that. Besides that, there will also be other events firing with options of getting casus belli or even declaring wars, making it so that chaos is ensured.

One important thing to note is that as long as the Nanbokuchō Jidai situation is active, countries will not be able to declare war on others supporting the same side as them. If you want to attack another clan that is supporting the same side as you, you will have to do it after the situation is resolved (or choose to change your loyalty, of course).

To end the situation, one of the two courts must be forced to disappear, through a special peace treaty “Force Imperial Abdication”.

So, we just had a civil war, what about a second one? Whether the Nanbokuchō Jidai situation resolves successfully or not, an even bigger civil war will still be looming. The Sengoku Jidai situation can happen after 1400 if there is no Shōgun, or if the Shōgun is in a weak position (low legitimacy or stability, or with rebellion problems), or if there are more than 6 wars currently active among the clans. As such, a strong shogunate will be able to avoid falling into it if they manage to keep their children in check.

Once it starts, the stronger and bigger clans will automatically transform into landed Daimyō, with the rest receiving an event with the option to also become landed, at the cost of opinion with the shogunate.
Sengoku Event Start.png

Becoming landed will have many consequences. For once, all locations in the shogunate in which they have a presence with their buildings will become owned by them, and they will receive a new government reform replacing the “Japanese Clan” one:
Daimyo Reform.png

Even if a country does not choose to become landed with this event, they may have the option to do so in the future, both via further events that can fire during the situation, and also directly through the action “Proclaim Independence” in the situation panel:
Sengoku Panel.png

The actions available in the panel are slightly different for the Shōgun, giving extra tools to control the many clans, both the ones that have been already landed and those that are still as building-based countries:
Sengoku Shogun Actions.png


The objective of the Shōgun will thus be to curb the autonomy of the clans, while the objective of any clan would be to gain sufficient power to either become the Shōgun themselves or to destroy the shogunate entirely. The situation will end when there is only a single country in the shogunate (with the exception of allowing for the presence of a building-based emperor), or when the Shōgun has managed to reduce all other clans to just a single location building-based country.

As with the Nanbokuchō Jidai, there will be some events firing during the situation, giving the countries options to gain casus belli, declare wars, etc, and there are also some event chains of interaction between the Shōgun and the clans when the former uses the action to “Summon to Court”.

And that is all for today. With almost 150 countries in the Shogunate, there is much more to unpack in the game, but this is as far as we can show here.

As an extra treat, because many of you asked about it, here's an updated view of the terrain map for Japan, with an especial effect of cherry blossoms during spring:
Japan Terrain.png


Next week @Pavía will be back, so I'll leave you in his care (I still don't know what will be the schedule for next week, sorry).

And remember to Wishlist Europa Universalis V now!
 
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I'm really curious about some aspects of building based countries, but this post creates more questions than answers.

We saw from the dev diary on Shinto that clans have population numbers, and now we know the clans are BBC. What does their population mean. Is that the number of people in their buildings? Or the number of people in any location in which they have presence. Or the share of people in those locations that the clan has claimed? Can workers move between being owned by the location owner and the BBC who has building in there? How??

Becoming landed will have many consequences. For once, all locations in the shogunate in which they have a presence with their buildings will become owned by them
How do building based countries expand into new locations? For this effect the advantages of being in many locations seem large, so I assume the cost will be too. But does that cause problems for people like the hospitallers or banks who were much more international? The clans special government type didn't seem to have any penalty that sounded like this.

If the owner of the location has not gotten rid of the clan there before it can be landed, then it's their fault.
How does the owner of the location go about that? Do they have any of the buttons that the Shogun has for dealing with the clans?
 
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".. the Unify Culture Group cabinet action can be used on a culture group belonging to your primary culture that has no other countries with that culture group.."
Is it applied to landed countries only, or also to building-based countries? Because if it's the latter, then as the shogun, would I never be able to unify Japanese cultures until I kill off every other clan - including the Imperial?
 
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I'm really curious about some aspects of building based countries, but this post creates more questions than answers.

We saw from the dev diary on Shinto that clans have population numbers, and now we know the clans are BBC. What does their population mean. Is that the number of people in their buildings? Or the number of people in any location in which they have presence. Or the share of people in those locations that the clan has claimed? Can workers move between being owned by the location owner and the BBC who has building in there? How??


How do building based countries expand into new locations? For this effect the advantages of being in many locations seem large, so I assume the cost will be too. But does that cause problems for people like the hospitallers or banks who were much more international? The clans special government type didn't seem to have any penalty that sounded like this.


How does the owner of the location go about that? Do they have any of the buttons that the Shogun has for dealing with the clans?
If i recall correctly, you can't change your government type - with the Japanese clans being the outlines, and they can only do that in special situation and event interface. So I don't think the bankers or holy orders can flip the entire Europe to their tag.
 
Will the Kanno Disturbance by Ashikaga Tadayoshi be implemented? The Southern Court, which was once on the brink of destruction, regained its momentum through this disturbance, and as the Northern Court led by Takauji sought peace to defeat Tadayoshi, the Southern Court was able to seize the three sacred treasures, thus enhancing its legitimacy.
 
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I'm really curious about some aspects of building based countries, but this post creates more questions than answers.

We saw from the dev diary on Shinto that clans have population numbers, and now we know the clans are BBC. What does their population mean. Is that the number of people in their buildings? Or the number of people in any location in which they have presence. Or the share of people in those locations that the clan has claimed? Can workers move between being owned by the location owner and the BBC who has building in there? How??

How do building based countries expand into new locations? For this effect the advantages of being in many locations seem large, so I assume the cost will be too. But does that cause problems for people like the hospitallers or banks who were much more international? The clans special government type didn't seem to have any penalty that sounded like this.

How does the owner of the location go about that? Do they have any of the buttons that the Shogun has for dealing with the clans?
Different extraterritorial countries work differently. There's almost certainly no way for the Hansa or banks to become territorial nations.
 
Different extraterritorial countries work differently. There's almost certainly no way for the Hansa or banks to become territorial nations.
I get that. But why didn't we see a mechanic making it hard for clans to expand to new locations? Or is it hard for everyone? Or easy for everyone?
 
Cool, the terrain map looks better now. Although I wish the city models sprawl was more visible and that we had visible roads. Like in Imperator. I'm still convinced Imperator had the prettiest map in PDX strategy game history.
 
next week schedule is still not added…

Looks very suspicious, maybe the next week’s plan is something special :D
 
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Hey on an unrelated note will rulers in EUV be entirely RNG or will you be able to improve there stats like through education and such ?
I've not seen any way to improve their stats other than events, which aren't a reliable method by any means, so once they hit adulthood (they start as a 0/0/0 baby but develop until they become adults, similar to CK) you're probably stuck with the stats they have.
 
Is there a finite amount of Clans in Japan, as in, once a bunch of them have been destroyed during gameplay there's no way for new ones to spawn replacing them outside of specific historical events that portray the rise of new Clans, or is there a system in place that makes sure that there will always be a bunch of Clans in Japan, at least until the Shogunate or whoever doesn't manage to centralize the country?
 
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