Tunis

Primary culture

Tunisian (Maghrebi)

Capital province

Tunis (341)

Government

Iqta

State religion

Sunni

Technology group

Muslim

Tunisian ideas

Please help with verifying or updating this infobox. It was last verified for version 1.33.

Traditions:

+20% Galley combat ability

May raid coasts

Catalan Guard

+5% Infantry combat ability

+5% Mercenary discipline

Dual Diplomacy

+1 Diplomatic relation

Corsairs

+1 Yearly navy tradition

+10% Privateer efficiency

Attract Foreign Pirates

+25% National sailors modifier

Board of Captains

+1 Naval leader fire

Export Monopolies

+5% Trade efficiency

+20% Domestic trade power

Tunisian Caliphate

+1 Tolerance of the true faith

+0.1% Monthly piety

Ambition:

+25% Naval force limit modifier

Tunis is a country in Maghreb. In the 1444 start, Tunis guarantees the independence of Fezzan. Tunis follows the Maliki school of Islam. If Tunis ceased to exist, then it is reformable by any country with Tunisian or Berber culture.

Raid coasts[edit | edit source]

Costal Raiding is a naval ability added in the Mare Nostrum expansion which allows fleets belonging to nations with the Raid Coasts idea to raid the coasts of other nations of a different religion for loot (ducats) and sailors. The Golden Century DLC introduces Pirate Republics and Custom Nations with the Pirate Republic government. This idea is also available to Custom Nations. Pirate Republics, Normandy, Somalia, and countries with Norse ideas may also raid coasts of countries with the same religion.

Historically, this ability reflects the raids carried out by Barbary pirates which were active in the Mediterranean Sea during the mid-16th to early 19th centuries while in the case of the three Pirate Republics, it simulates the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean Sea from the mid-16th to the early 18th century. So is a special case, as it represents a resurgence of the Japanese Wokou Pirates that raided the coasts of East Asia intermittently from the 4th century to the 17th century.

Raiding can provide a significant early-game boost to the income and sailor pools of nations that can do it and can also serve as a way to damage the economy of other nations. An example of this is So, which can employ Coastal Raiding against Ming to pile up devastation and cause Ming to potentially lose the Mandate of Heaven and collapse.

Reformation[edit | edit source]

id

Form Tunisian Nation

Since time immemorial Tunis has been the center of any strong state in the eastern Maghreb. Once we control this great city as well as its hinterlands we can reunite the entire region under one banner.

Potential requirements

The country:

was never an end-game nation.
is not the Holy Roman Empire, The Papal State, Tunis or Morocco.
has not yet enacted this decision.
is not a colonial nation.
has Tunisian or Berber primary culture

If the country is AI-controlled then it:

is not a custom nation
is not a former colonial nation.
has at least 5 cities
Tunis does not exist.

Playing with normal or historical nations

Allow

Tunis does not exist.
The country:

is not a subject nation other than a tributary state.
is not at war
is not a nomad nation.
owns the core provinces:
- Tunis (341)
- Sousse (2473)
- Kef (2454) or Tripoli (354)

Tunis (341) is part of a state

Effects

The country:

becomes Tunis.
gains 25 prestige.
gets new missions
adopts 'Tunisian' as primary culture
becomes a monarchy if has a tribal government
gets the event ‘New Traditions & Ambitions’, unless it has custom or Tunisian ideas
increases rank to kingdom, if it is a duchy
removes all provinces from the Holy Roman Empire, if it is a member and not an elector or the emperor.
gains a permanent claim on Tunisia area

If Tunis (341) is part of the HRE, but its owner is not a member then:

the province is removed from the HRE.
the Holy Roman Emperor:
- gets the opinion modifier “Removed provinces from the Empire” towards the owner, worth −50 opinion with a yearly decay of 1.
- loses 1 imperial authority.

Tunis (341):

becomes the new capital of the owner country.

AI will always take this decision.

AI gives "high priority" (400) to this decision

All provinces in orange and one provinces in red must be owned and cored. After formation permanent claims on all provinces in yellow (and Kef, if not owned) are gained.

Missions[edit | edit source]

Main article: Tunisian missions

With Golden Century Tunis has a unique set of missions.

Events[edit | edit source]

id

Hayreddin Barbarossa

The notorious pirate and admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa has arrived in Algiers seeking to establish a base from which to mercilessly raid the Mediterranean sea. Nominally a subject of the Turkish Sultan, the feared captain is willing to consider entering our service if we support him in his war against the Christians.

This event happens only once during a campaign.

Trigger conditions

None

Is triggered only by

completing the ‘Sponsor Piracy’ mission.

Option conditions

Enabled if: Algiers does not exist.

Let him rule over Algiers.

Tunis:

cedes Mitidja (338) to Algiers.

Algiers:

becomes a republic with the Pirate Republic government reform.
gains government reform progress spent on current reforms by Tunis.
gets a new ruler named ‘Hayreddin Barbarossa’ with 95 legitimacy and the skills 3/ 4/ 5 that is a Legendary Pirate
becomes a March of Tunis.
Gain 150 ducats
Gain 12 000 manpower
Gain 6 000 sailors
Gain 96 administrative power
Gain 128 diplomatic power
Gain 160 military power

Enabled if:

Algiers doesnt exists

Give him free autonomy over Algiers.

The human player plays as Algiers which gets released in the above explained state, but as an ally of Tunis instead of their subject

Always enabled:

Appoint him as our Grand Admiral.

Tunis gets an admiral named ‘Hayreddin Barbarossa’ with:

4 shock
4 fire
4 maneuver
2 siege

Strategy[edit | edit source]

The below is one of many player suggested strategies for Tunis. Bear in mind, due to the dynamic nature of the game, it may unfold differently for other players.

Initial position and actions[edit | edit source]

Tunis starts out in a good position to expand. Its western and southern neighbours are weak, while Sicily and the door to the Italian provinces are just a seazone away. The rich Egyptian and Moroccan provinces are also nearby, slightly further afield. Tunis begins with some good provinces of its own in Tunis, Bizerte and Sousse compared to the rest of North Africa. While the Mamluks begin the game in a strong position on Tunis’ eastern border, they will inevitably clash and usually lose to the Ottomans. This means that allying the Ottomans is highly recommended though not necessary from the very beginning and if the player is unable to get an alliance or at least friendly relations, restarting could be necessary. (It should be said, however, that this alliance is not necessarily from the very beginning of the game.) Not only will Tunis and the Ottomans both be interested in taking Mamluk territory, but both nations have an interest in becoming great naval powers in the Mediterranean, as well as in stopping other nations like Venice, Aragon, and eventually Castile/ Spain or one of the other Italian nations.

In addition to allying the Ottomans, Tunis should also attempt to ally Morocco, but it will sometimes rival Tunis, making this impossible. Special care needs to be taken in relations with Fezzan, because although this is territory that is seemingly a natural part of Tunis, Tunis begins the game guaranteeing Fezzan. Fezzan will often ally itself with the Mamluks and if the guarantee is broken, the Mamluks are likely to vassalize Fezzan. If this happens, however, the Mamluks will often annex the country as soon as possible, allowing the player to later capture the region in a war against the Mamluks with Ottoman support. Although at least one of Tunis’ smaller southern neighbors will be friendly toward Tunis, the military discrepancy between Tunis and all of these nations means that annexing and force-vassalizing them is both quick and easy. It is relatively easy to quickly conquer Mzab, Touggourt, and Djerid in quick succession or even in some combination if necessary.

Tunis begins the game with a fort in Kef, bordering its capital in Tunis. The player may wish to save up and build another fort on the border with Fezzan to protect against a possible Mamluk invasion. (Alternatively, if the player wishes to wait, Jufra is an excellent location for a fort once conquered due to being desert terrain and bordering many provinces.) The arid terrain in the eastern provinces of Tunis will slow any Mamluk advance and force them to take attrition penalties as they attempt to siege down the fort. Building another fort on the border with Tlemcen may be helpful, but if Tunis takes or vassalizes Tlemcen early on that fort won't be useful unless Europeans land troops there later, and by then the player should have a large enough navy to prevent a landing.

If the mission to “protect our brethren in Laghouat” is available, this allows the conquest of Mzab to begin as early as December 1444. Tunis’ diplomats should then be put to work fabricating claims on other Berber minors to the south, particularly Djerid and Touggourt. The player can consider using one diplomat to fabricate claims on Tlemcen if Tlemcen has not allied with Morocco as Tunis is unlikely to win an early war against both Tlemcen and Morocco.

First years[edit | edit source]

In the opening years the player's best course of action is to focus on the minor Berber nations to its south. Mzab, Touggart, and Djerid will likely rival each other and Tlemcen may try to vassalize Mzab. Tunis needs to beat Tlemcen to that, and since a mission to conquer Laghouat (one of Mzab’s provinces) is usually available immediately, Tunis can get off to a quick start and head off potential Tlemceni interference in its acquisition of the provinces to its south.

While diplomatic annexation of the Berber minors is a possibility, force vassalization is relatively easy and quick, though it is ideal to have only one vassal, so a mixture of direct annexation, vassalization, and feeding cores to Tunis’ vassal is optimal. When Tunis can spare diplomats, they should be used to fabricate claims on the nations which can't be vassalized. Once these nations have been annexed in one way or another, Tunis should be able to promote both Berber and Algerian cultures to accepted cultures.

Missions will help Tunis get claims on Tlemcen if rivaled. Although Tlemcen may start out friendly with Tunis, allying with them can hinder expansion, as conquering Tlemcen is an easy path to conquest and avoids immediately going up against Aragon or the Mamluks. Eventually Tunis will find itself in conflict with these larger and more powerful nations, but it needs to strengthen its position first.

If Tunis is not over the relations limit and Tlemcen does not ally a power like Castile or the Ottomans, Tunis can vassalize them in a single war. One down side to vassalization is that it allows Tlemcen to continue to compete with regards to raiding. For this reason the player may focus on taking coastal provinces while optionally feeding interior ones to vassals.

Further expansion[edit | edit source]

At this point Tunis can set its sights on Morocco to take territory and prevent Castilian and Portuguese expansion there, expand north into Sicily and the other Mediterranean islands, or east into Egypt. All of these options are rather more dangerous than those Tunis has faced up to this point.

Portugal and the Spanish powers, which Tunis may face in a fight over the Moroccan region can end up becoming very powerful off their New World colonies, so Tunis should take care when waging a war against them. If battles against these powers go poorly, the player can consider trying to decrease piety before the next war for a morale bonus.

Morocco can be a reasonably powerful rival to Tunis due to its fairly rich territory (at least by North African standards). Tunis does need to take care in invading Morocco since the forts in both Fez and Tafilat are in mountainous provinces, making sieging them quite difficult. However, Tunis should generally be able to defeat Morocco after having annexed the Berber minors and Tlemcen. Tunis may also have a technological advantage over Morocco due to institution spread (discussed further below).

European politics may well determine how easy or difficult Tunis’ expansion to the north will be. If Aragon and Naples split up and Castile and Aragon end up fighting each other and/or France, taking Sicily and Sardinia may be easy, but continued expansion into the Italian peninsula can lead to some large European coalitions, especially if Tunis manages to take Rome. The Ottomans will help Tunis fight these powerful nations, but the player's Mediterranean fleet needs to be powerful enough to keep Europe at bay if Tunis expands this way. If the stars align to place a powerful united Spain in control of the western Mediterranean islands and southern Italy in Tunis’ way, northward expansion will be considerably more difficult.

Raiding will mean that Christian Mediterranean nations within the 3 seazone limit will strongly dislike Tunis, unless care is taken it avoid a particular nation. This affect potential alliances and significantly slows institution transference from the north. One strategy to greatly help with this is to take Sardinia from Aragon and release it as a Christian vassal. It will tend to have very good relations with The Papal State in particular (as Christian nations normally try to do).

Finally, expanding east into Mamluk territory will give rich rewards from Egypt, but getting too close to the Ottomans without being powerful enough to take them on will lead to them betraying and attacking Tunis. A safe point to end eastward expansion is Sirt, as Bengazi (the westernmost province of the Egypt region) will be coveted by the Ottomans to complete their Conquer Egypt mission. Although the Ottomans may eventually get missions to conquer Tripolitania and Tunisia, it is comparatively rare for this to happen, particularly if the Ottomans are allied to Tunis. However, as the game progresses, the player should bear in mind that there is a possibility that the Ottomans might take this mission and the Ottoman alliance may disappear. Ultimately, Tunis will likely want to expand in all three of these directions as well as down into West Africa and come into conflict with Songhai and Timbuktu. The Katsina node is of particularly interest early on since it feeds into the Tunis node, but later on as Tunis gains control of more of the western Maghreb, the Timbuktu node, which feeds into the Safi node, may become an attractive target for Tunisian conquest.

Alternatively, a very viable strategy is to take Exploration as first idea group and target West Africa and the New World for expansion. For that approach, the player should limit expansion into Morocco to the Eastern and Southern provinces only, leaving the rest as a buffer against the Iberian powers. Then use the colonist to drive towards Timbuktu. Because of the significant technological advantage over the West African nations, expansion should be very easy. Make sure to save State slots for the rich gold mines in Mali and Kong. Once all of West Africa is subjugated, the player should be able to command a very large army that can easily take on Castile/Spain or Mamluks.

Exploration also allows Tunis to reach new shores to raid. Islands off of Mexico, India, China and Japan allow for significantly more plunder every 10 years.

Final goal[edit | edit source]

At this point Tunis should hold significant portions of North Africa as well as the western Mediterranean islands and maybe Italy or parts of West Africa. If the goal as Tunis is to get the Sons of Carthage achievement, or form Andalusia, Tunis will need to expand into Spain. If France has rivaled Castile/Spain, then allying them is a good move. Otherwise, the player can't do much except look out for a moment of weakness from Spain and build up the Tunisian army. If the Iberian Wedding event failed to fire or Granada or León are released in the early game, this will make it easier. If the goal is to control all of Africa then Tunis will also come up against Spain and Portugal as well as any other European powers that have colonized in Africa as well. To do this Tunis will need to build heavy ships to ensure the Tunisian navy can take on the Europeans outside as well as inside the Mediterranean. In terms of technology, however, Tunis should have relatively few problems dealing with nations in sub-Saharan Africa due to its beneficial location for institution spread.

Idea groups[edit | edit source]

Naval ideas will perform well above average for Tunis as gaining control of the Mediterranean will be crucial for any fights against other Mediterranean powers. This should make Tunis’ galleys very powerful. For this reason, the player may also consider taking Maritime ideas unless Tunis seeks to become a colonial power.

Since one of Tunis’ natural directions of expansion is west, if Tunis can eventually gain a significant share (or control) of the Sevilla node, it can cash in on both its and other nations’ colonies. Exploration ideas will allow for the player to do this, though at an initial disadvantage relative to the Iberian powers, since Tunis’ start position is farther from the New World. If Tunis is only interested in expanding into Africa, Expansion ideas may be a better choice.

Other useful idea groups are the usual suspects: Trade ideas (particularly if/when Tunis establishes itself in the Sevilla node), Administrative ideas if heavy conquest is anticipated, and whatever military decisions the player deems appropriate, though Defensive ideas do deserve honorable mention for stacking nicely with the attrition penalty that Tunisian Ideas impose upon invaders.

Trade strategy[edit | edit source]

Tunis begins the game in 1444 exclusively controlling provinces in the Tunis node, and from a trade point of view, expansion does not immediately yield trade rewards. With the exception of Titteri, the Tlemceni provinces to the west all lie in the Safi node, which is not connected to the Tunis node either upstream or downstream. (Both nodes, however, flow into the Sevilla node.) If Tunis does indeed expand west, the natural path from trade routes will push it toward the Sevilla node, where it will run into stiff competition from the Iberian powers as well as Mediterranean powers seeking to transfer trade downstream to Genoa. While Tunis can gain a healthy portion of the Sevilla node from controlling Morocco (and the Important Center of Trade in Tangiers) as well as with a large trade fleet, it will only be with the conquest of the province of Sevilla itself that Tunis can cement its control over this valuable trade node.

However, if Tunis has also expanded to the north, it will face the dilemma of the western Mediterranean islands and parts of the Italian peninsula falling into the Genoa node. Tunis may eventually set its sights on this node, though gaining significant power in it will be very costly, involving wars with Spain, well-connected and wealthy Italian states, and possibly even France.

From a trade point of view, expansion eastward beyond Sirt in North Africa does not benefit Tunis unless it gains a significant share of the Genoa node, as the Alexandria node only transfers to Genoa and not to Tunis or Sevilla. This, in combination with the potential for a falling-out with the Ottomans over the area should make the player think twice before setting Tunis’ sights on Egypt.