EU4 Victorum Universalis BC Server – Guelphs and Shibellines

We are back again with another update to the BC Server Victorum Universalis. This time the focus is on some of the early game events. The highlight of the update is on the improvements made to France and Scotland, giving them a fighting chance against England. In addition, new even chains have been added to Italy to reflect the turmoil that occurred in the 13th and 14th century. Numerous re-balancing issues have been addressed, along with some additional disaster types which are placeholders for later additions.

The Auld Alliance

A new special alliance has been added for France and Scotland. It fires whenever the two countries formalize an alliance and go to war against England. In real life, Scotland was looking for allies as its sovereignty was being threatened by England. Two alliances were made, one with Norway which was largely a naval alliance, and a second alliance with France which was an agreement to jointly invade England if one of the two countries went to war. The second, known as the Auld Alliance, became the more important due to its influence in the Hundred Years War, even going so far as having Scottish troops in France fighting against the English on numerous battles.

When the Auld Alliance is active, it will give bonuses to both France and Scotland when they coordinate wars together. The modifiers are extra generous to AI players because England can be a hard nation to take down when played by a human player with the 1215 start. If England is played by an AI player, it helps create a situation of parity between England and it’s opponents, creating a situation that was similar to the world of the 14th century prior to the Black Death.

Guelphs and Ghibellines Update

This update includes numerous updates to Sicily, France, the Papal States, and the rest of Italy and the Lombard League. The Guelphs and Ghibellines represent two factions in Italy that were vying for diplomatic control of the peninsula. In some cases, this was mafia-like behavior on the streets of cities across Italy, and other cases it resulted in whole armies marching against each other. It was a chaotic time which later led to the Sicilian Vespers as well as the Avignon Papacy. In real life, it ended with the extinction of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, and the eventual rise of Naples.

This is a heavy work in progress, because of how extensive it is, but there are finally some events that tie specifically to this continent. It creates a bit of early game intrigue if you start in Italy. Sicily is specifically a winner in this case, as it helps develop the country’s early game start. At the 1215 start, Sicily was at the height of its diplomatic and miliatary power, but the country can be underwhelming to play because, in VU, it lacks certain things other countries have like a fully developed mission tree and custom events. And of course, because the Hohenstaufen dynasty was right in the middle of the conflict between Guelphs and Ghibellines, this becomes a central part of the early game if you play as Sicily.

General Updates:

Below is the list of general updates made to improve gameplay:

• Increased the aggressiveness of AI in the first two centuries of the game. This is to address periods where the AI will stall out and not take any actions if the human player does not make any wars for an extended period of time (the AI is waiting to see what the player does)
• Modified the helper modifiers for beginner level players to better accommodate the skill differences of ongoing games.
• Updated the modifiers for the Papal States when they are on the back foot.
• Added a manpower boost to the Defender of the Faith when on a Crusade (accounting for the Crusade of the Poor)
• Removed the duplicate Defensive March code. A larger update will be required to bring this back into the game properly.
• Increased AI willingness to vassalize rather than incorporate territories won through war in the Middle Ages time period.
• Changed Autonomous Papal Subjects to be less harsh. This is meant to fix an issue where the AI will convert them to Papal Subjects instead of other subject types, which puts them at a disadvantage as a result.
• Changes technology cost in the early game. This prevents an issue where some countries expand to higher technologies before they should, such as in the Americas.
• Modified the Pax Mongolica event to allow better moderator control. This will prevent an issue where firing the decisions at certain times could cause unwanted events to occur. Now they can be fired in sequence instead of all at once.
• Updated the Proto-Protestant event to include a more accurate placement of heathens.
• Updated the event that will alert the moderator if a country has switched to an illegal form of Republic too early in the game. At present this still has to be fixed in the save file.
• Updated the Kurultai event to allow moderators to control the mongol vassal structure in instances where the AI messes it up.
• Added the ability for the moderator to control the size of ai navies. Previously, they could only control armies.
• Fixed a bug where the Marinid Dynasty couldn’t be formed, even when it met the prerequisites.
• Updated the Vassal Decisions to correctly differentiate between Monarchies and Theocracies.
• Republic vassals will now convert to the correct vassal type instead of selecting monarchy types. This fixes an issue where some countries will get “nogovernmentname” errors.
• Corrected an issue where the AI will for the Byzantium frontier territory earlier than the despots/rump states are ready to re-take it.
• Modified the Levy Troops events so the AI is more likely to pick options that are beneficial to it’s situation.
• Added a Defender of the Faith event that will allow a country to take it when no one is the Defender of the Faith. This is to address a bug with the VU version of the game that makes it so no one can take Defender of the Faith
• Added Stormy Seas event to make it difficult to leave large fleets at sea for extended periods of time.
• Fixed an issue with FEE events that occurs if the mod is active.
• Added 6 new event pictures to the game.
• Fixed an issue with the religious section of the Sicilian Mission Tree.