Art of War
Art of War
Type
Release date / Patch
Store: Expansion
Store: Content pack
Store: Music pack
Art of War is the 4th expansion for Europa Universalis IV. It was announced on 2014-08-14[1] and was released on 2014-10-30[2] alongside patch 1.8.
Features[edit | edit source]
- 30 Years War: Unique mechanics and events for the religious conflict that ravaged Europe.
- Napoleonic Era: Fight for or against the revolution and create entirely new custom client countries on the map from your conquests.
- Fighting with Armies: You can now sortie from sieges, and give objectives to your subjects and allies.
- Improved Diplomacy: Sell Surplus Ships, Fight for your subjects CB, Declare War in support of rebel factions in other countries and new peace options like give up claims and pay monthly war reparations.
- Gameplay Enhancements: Build entire armies in one click, abandon cores that you no longer wish to fight for, and abandon entire idea groups that are no longer useful to your nation.
- New Bookmark: A new, much more detailed bookmark for the 30 Years War.
- New early game flavour events and decisions.
- Free Features for the accompanying patch: Completely new rebel mechanic, local autonomy on province level, new cardinal system for Catholics, new reformation mechanics, a new look map, and new Mapmodes: the "Simple Terrain Mapmode", the "Local Autonomy Mapmode", and the "Fort Level Mapmode".
Fleet improvements[edit | edit source]
With Art of War it is possible to mothball individual fleets. This reduces maintenance cost to minimum (50%) for the specific fleet. Mothballed fleets cannot move or merge with other fleets, and their strength is slowly reduced until it hits 25%. Mothballing can be undone at any time, at which point the ships will start to recover their strength normally.
It is also possible to upgrade individual fleets at once rather than having to build the new ships. This costs as much as it would've cost to build new ships from scratch, but is instant, and requires far less management. Strength for upgraded ships is reset to 1%, so they will have to recover in port before being able to fight.
A new diplomatic option in Art of War is selling a fleet to another nation. This can be done as long as the fleet is in supply range of the receiver. The seller decides how much the ships will cost, and will incur inflation proportional to the payment divided by their income.
Finally, it is possible to set a fleet containing transports to automatically transport armies. When this is enabled the fleet will ferry armies across to where they're going if doing so would be quicker than walking there. It is now possible to allow your allies to use your transport fleet, to ferry their own troops across. You too can take advantage of their fleet.
Marches[edit | edit source]
Marches are vassals that have bonuses to a variety of military properties, namely manpower, force limits, and fort defense. However, they cannot be annexed, and do not provide vassal income. Any vassal can be turned into a march.
It is possible to revoke march status, but doing so reduces your stability by one and severely reduces your relations with that vassal. March status is also lost if your subject grows too big over the max basetax of 60 (this limit no longer applies as of Patch 1.12).
Revamped peace mechanic[edit | edit source]
The peace screen now explicitly lists the nations involved on either side, and shows their opinion of the offered peace treaty. Allied relations can either improve or deteriorate with the war leader depending on how he deals with the peace terms. It is now possible to make enemies revoke claims on provinces, and to force them to pay war reparations (10% of income) for the duration of the truce.
Sorties[edit | edit source]
Garrisons can now sortie to attempt to break a siege. The Sortie button is accessed from the Siege Screen. When pressed, an army is generated in the province, equal to the strength of the province's garrison, at the cost of ten military monarch points.
If the army performing the sortie is wiped out in combat, then the attacker automatically seizes control of the province, otherwise the army disengages after battle and returns to garrisoning the province. They are composed entirely of infantry.
Allied objectives[edit | edit source]
Allied objectives gives the player more influence over the actions of AI allies and subjects in wars. Allied objectives are split into two parts: province objectives and subject military focuses. Province objectives are handled from the province screen and allows the player to tell their AI allies to focus on specific enemy provinces. This will both make them more likely to send armies to besiege that province and to engage enemy armies that are located in it.
Subject military focuses are handled from the subjects screen and allow the player to change the military priorities of their subject nations to either aggressive or supportive. Aggressive subjects will not attach to your armies and will instead focus on their own operations, engaging enemy armies and besieging their provinces. Supportive subjects will behave in the opposite fashion, attaching to or staying near friendly armies and avoiding independent operations in enemy territory. If you have no military focus set, they will behave as they currently do, attempting to judge for themselves when it is best to attach and when it is best to act independently. The military focus can be changed or removed at any time, and you can easily change the focus of all your subjects with a single click.
Army builder[edit | edit source]
The player is able to create army and navy templates from the military production screen. This allows the player to designate the composition of army/navy stacks, which they can then save and place in individual provinces, assuming they have sufficient manpower and money, making it easier to mass-produce armies/navies. The production will happen sequentially in the province, or across adjacent provinces. Regiments raised in neighboring provinces will automatically move to the initially targeted province and merge. Army templates became part of the base game in version 1.30.
Declare war in support of rebels[edit | edit source]
Nations can now declare war in support of a rebel faction they're supporting inside another country. After doing so, they cannot cancel supporting the rebels until the war is over. Using this "support rebels" casus belli, one may enforce the rebels demands on the defeated enemy.
Fight for your subjects[edit | edit source]
It is now possible to push one's subjects' casus belli. So for example, if your vassal has a claim on a border province, you can now declare war on behalf of your vassal using that CB.
Client states[edit | edit source]
- Main article: Client state
Available at Diplomatic Technology 22, client states may be created on cored or un-cored land that either has a land connection to your capital, or is in the same continent as it. Their coat of arms, colour, government and name can be customized. Provinces can only be added to a client state if they directly neighbor its existing provinces, though straits are exempt from this. The most Client States a country may have is 10.
Religious League Wars[edit | edit source]
To allow for the 30 years' war to be reproduced, after 1550 and if there is a Protestant elector (as well as a few other factors), religious leagues can be formed. The leader of the Protestant side will be the newly-Protestant elector, though it can change. The leader of the Catholic side will be the current Emperor. Anyone can join either league, even if they're not in the HRE, or any of the religions (e.g. the Ottomans usually enter on the side of the Protestants). This allows for huge, continent spanning wars. If the war drags on for too long, a peace treaty is usually made which allows for both to religions to be elected. If the Protestant league wins, the league leader becomes the Emperor and Catholics cannot become the Emperor or Electors — they can start another league war, though. If there is no war for more than 30 years or it is past 1650, the Emperor's faith is declared the sole religion of the HRE and all states with this religion gain several bonuses, namely an increase in Legitimacy, Missionary Strength and Tolerance of their own faith, with Protestants getting a slightly larger bonus to represent the greater difficulty they face in achieving it. If a league war drags on long enough, instead the Peace of Westphalia event occurs which allows any Christian to become emperor. Finally, an Emperor whose religion is official will get bonuses in gaining Imperial Authority and to their ability to pass reforms, putting the Empire on a fast track towards unification.
Cancelling Idea Groups[edit | edit source]
You now have the ability to cancel Idea Groups, refunding 10% of the cost you paid. This also takes into account any modifiers to idea costs you had.
Giving up Cores[edit | edit source]
You can now give up your cores on provinces. This costs 10 prestige to do, however.
Revolutionary Targets[edit | edit source]
- See also: Disasters#Revolution
In the second half of the 18th century any country in Europe that ends up in a rough condition may experience a Revolution and become the revolutionary target. Beyond the Revolutionary name and flag, this nation will receive significant bonuses and a large score boost, which can make it dangerous to push a country too far in the era of revolutions. They can be targeted by other monarchs who wish to stop the spread of this revolution, and the revolutionary target gains a new CB to use on monarch countries, to spread the revolution.
Free features[edit | edit source]
Free Features for the accompanying patch includes: Completely new rebel mechanic, local autonomy on province level, a replacement for the current cardinal system for Catholics, new reformation mechanics and a huge map improvement, making the rest of the world as detailed as Europe. There are lots of interface, AI and gameplay enhancements. When it comes to the map, Paradox has worked closely with the best map-modders in the community, and this apparently completely revolutionizes play outside of Europe.
New Reformation Mechanics[edit | edit source]
Instead of there being a chance of provinces turning to Protestantism/Reformed faith, there are now “Centers of Reformation”, which are hubs for the spread of the Protestant and Reformed faiths. A Center of Reformation is created for the first three countries to convert to Protestantism and Reformed Protestantism, respectively, and will exist in their provinces spreading their faith to the surrounding provinces unless the province holding the Center of Reformation is conquered and then converted to another religion.
Cardinal system[edit | edit source]
There can now be up to 50 cardinals in the Holy See. New cardinals are added automatically and they are prioritized according to its home country's size and wealth.
Papal influence can now be used for other types of benefits, such as ducats, legitimacy, stability and prestige. For example: 30 PI gives 100 ducats, 80 PI gives +1 stability, etc.
The Papal State itself can't get cardinals nor papal influence but is still able to become the papal controller.
Map Overhaul[edit | edit source]
- Arabia: Arabia has been overhauled to contain more provinces, and to better show how important trade and the coastal provinces are. There are now more defined wastelands, for more realistic military wars. There is now a new state, "Shammar".
- Egypt: Egypt has been overhauled to show how important the Nile was to people who lived there, and how heavily populated its banks were. There are many more provinces on the river, and in general Egypt is more detailed. A new country nearby is Shia Makuria.
- The Levant and Mesopotamia: Created a more detailed and realistic area, i.e. a lot more provinces and details added. Two countries were added also: Bhotan, which doesn't exist but has cores on Qara Qoyunlu's lands, and Lebanon, which also has cores there.
- Anatolia: A few more non-existent countries are added to the Ottoman lands (Germiyan and Eretna), which can be released. The rest of the area is mainly small Turkish states, almost certainly about to be annexed by the Ottomans. This is to set the foundation of one of the greatest empires of this period.
- Maghreb: The Maghreb has undergone a lot of change: Algiers does not exist, replaced mostly by Tlemcen. Morocco has been expanded slightly to the South, as well as having a path leading to the Heart of Africa. Many new tribes were added, such as Mzab (the only Ibadi theocracy at game start), Touggourt, and Fezzan. Tripoli does not exist any more, but is now a formable nation by the surrounding nations. Morocco and Tunisia can also be formed if they cease to exist. Another path was added to central Africa, south of Fezzan. Morocco now has a lot of dead nations' cores on their land, allowing for more interesting revolts and conflicts in the area.
- North America: Tribes are now more isolated, many more new provinces, so one tribe doesn't simply quickly gobble up all their neighbours
- Mesoamerica: Mesoamerica has been completely overhauled, with a much more historic start now. The Aztecs are a rapidly expanding alliance,
- The Mayas: The land of Maya has been reworked much like Mesoamerica, i.e. split up into a more historic fashion.
- Central America and The Caribbean: Though there are no new nations here, there are a lot more provinces to colonize.
- Western North America: There are now a lot more provinces to colonize, as well as more native tribes.
Map modes[edit | edit source]
The Manpower, Trade Value and Missionary map modes were removed since they weren't useful enough. In their place came:
- Fort Level, showing the level of the fort in each province
- Local Autonomy, supporting this new feature
- Simple Terrain, with a colour for each terrain type, compared to Terrain which shows a realistic view of the terrain.
Some other map modes received updates:
- Player mapmode shows vassals, protectorates and colonies, with the same color as their overlord.
- Sphere of Influence and Economic map modes were also reworked.
Local autonomy[edit | edit source]
Provinces now have a modifier called autonomy which replaces the revolt risk mechanic. Increasing autonomy will penalize the economic and military output of the province but will decrease unrest.
Usually it is natural to increase autonomy in freshly acquired provinces to overcome unrest from separatism.
It is a per-province variable that ranges from 0 to 100%, and represents how freely the province operates from central authority. The higher the autonomy, the less tax income, production income, and manpower the province provides, and missionary work and recruitment is slowed down. However, the autonomy of the province will also reduce unrest in the province.
Every 30 years the player can choose to lower or increase autonomy. Doing so will decrease or increase autonomy by 25%, and add or remove 10 unrest. Autonomy also goes down passively by 1 point per year while at peace (depending on government type), and goes up by 1 point per year while occupied. Conquering a non-core province will increase autonomy in the province by 50% unless the conquering nation has a claim, in which case it will only increase by 40%.
Hordes can never go below 25% autonomy, and Ming cannot go below 50% when using the Celestial Empire government form.
Overseas colony provinces can not go below 75% autonomy.
Unrest & rebels[edit | edit source]
Revolt risk is replaced by unrest, which reduces the randomness inherent in the current system. Rather than rebels having a chance to rise each month, each rebel faction has a progress bar which has a chance to increase each month based on the unrest in provinces aligned with the faction. When this progress bar hits 100% the faction will rise in the aligned provinces, in strength proportional to the support it has in those provinces. When this happens, unrest will be reduced in the aligned provinces, and the progress bar reset to 0.
Unrest also increases recruitment times in the province.
This system is meant to encourage the use of courthouses, employing theologians, and other methods of reducing unrest in order to slow down rebel factions. The harsh treatment mechanic will target specific factions rather than provinces, reducing faction progress at the cost of military points.
Accepting the demands of rebels will be equivalent to them enforcing their demands. Players will no longer be able to escape the worst effects of rebels simply by giving into a few relatively minor demands.
Rebels will lift the fog of war for nations they're friendly with, so if you support rebels in a foreign nation, or if they're aligned with you for cultural reasons, you'll be able to observe what actually happens once they rise.
Rebels can now move across single sea zones if they've occupied everything on their side of the sea. As an example, the rebels in Gotland in 1444 may move to Skåne to actually threaten the Danish establishment. Blockading the port of the province they're in prevents this.
New provinces[edit | edit source]
Over 900 non-European provinces have been added to the game (and a few in Europe), along with over 100 new nations. China, India, and North America have been substantially expanded, while Indonesia, West Africa, Meso- and South America have been completely revamped.
New Alliance calling mechanic[edit | edit source]
By default all of the allies of the defender will have double war-score costs for demands. However they can also not call their allies. Only Co-belligerents (as specified by the aggressor from the allies of the defender) and the defending nation, can call their allies into war. This means that the chain mechanic no longer works. The Aggressor cannot designate co-belligerents on their own side, and therefore it will always be double cost for a defender to send demands to any nation other than the Aggressor attacking them.
Trade goods[edit | edit source]
With all the new provinces added to the game, the developers felt a need for more trade goods. Thus, three were added as follows:
Silk, that the player will find in highly developed regions throughout the Middle East, Persia, India, South East Asia and China.
Dyes, found in provinces in India and Persia in the old world. As the new world opens up alternative sources of dyes may also open up there.
Tropical Wood, primarily be produced by jungle provinces in India, South East Asia, Indonesia, Africa and South America.
One province, one terrain[edit | edit source]
Instead of having a % chance of fighting in a certain type of terrain, each province now has one specific terrain which it will always use when battles are fought there. Rivers are now also more defined in where they run from, and there is a tooltip at the top right of the Province information screen.
New goods price mechanics[edit | edit source]
Now, instead of having "supply and demand" modifiers that are updated regularly, trade goods are at fixed prices, changed only by global events. For example, slaves are not worth much until the European powers start colonizing, which will cause the Triangle Trade event to fire, making them worth much more.
Major DLC changes[edit | edit source]
- The transfer occupation feature was integrated into the base game as part of patch 1.28.1. The feature allows nations to give up control over provinces they occupy to their allies in war. The AI will transfer the occupation of provinces they don't desire to the war leader. This feature will make it possible to ensure that nations are rewarded for their participation in the war[3].
Dev diaries[edit | edit source]
- Main article: Developer diaries
All developer diaries about the Art of War expansion, patch 1.8, and patch 1.9.
- Patch 1.9
| No. | Title and Link | Description | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | Disasters, New Ideas and Other Free Features | New disasters system and the idea groups added in the patch | 2014-12-05 |
| 11 | New Achievements | Information about 20 new achievements that will be added in the patch, mostly focusing on countries that currently lack of unique achievements | 2014-11-28 |
- Patch 1.8
| No. | Title and Link | Description | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Achievements, Auto Transport and South America | Tenth dev diary about automated fleet transport, miscellaneous mechanics changes, new achievements and the map changes in South America, East Africa, and south Russia | 2014-10-24 |
| 9 | Revolutions, 1618 Bookmark and North America | Ninth dev diary about the French Revolution and revolutions in other countries, the 30 Years War bookmark, new historical events and the map changes in North America | 2014-10-17 |
| 8 | Sorties, Terrain and the Maghreb | Eighth dev diary about the new sortie and terrain mechanics, abandoning idea groups and cores, the change from a supply-and-demand trade system, and map changes in the Maghreb | 2014-10-10 |
| 7 | Religious Leagues, The Reformation and the Near East | Seventh dev diary about the new HRE and reformation mechanics, and map changes in the Near East | 2014-10-03 |
| 6 | Client States, Allied Transports and Central Asia | Sixth dev diary about custom client states, allied transports, improved battle displays, and the remapping of Central Asia and Siberia | 2014-09-26 |
| 5 | Diplomacy, Catholics and Southeast Asia & Indonesia | Fifth dev diary about diplomacy, revamping the Curia, and map changes to Indochina and Indonesia | 2014-09-19 |
| 4 | Army Builder, Rebel Relocation and China | Fourth dev diary about army management, rebels on islands, and East Asian map changes | 2014-09-12 |
| 3 | Military Cooperation, Tradegoods & West Africa | Third dev diary about directing allies in war, new trade goods, and West African map changes | 2014-09-05 |
| 2 | Marches, Unrest & Persia | Second dev diary about vassals, revolts, and Persian map | 2014-08-29 |
| 1 | Fleets, Autonomy & India | A detailed dev diary of the third major expansion | 2014-08-22 |
- Other
List of new national ideagroups in patch 1.8.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Forum, Eu4: Art of War - Announcement Information, 2014-08-14
- ↑ Forum, 1.8 - Checksum 7d1c, 2014-10-30
- ↑ Forum, Developer Diary - Golden Century Feedback & Changes, 2018-12-06.
