Development Diary #17 for Europa Universalis: Defying Destiny – Where are we in the Project? – More Italian content – Illustrations from Joeri!
Happy New Year! Where are we with Defying Destiny?
Hi, all! Hope you've had a great holiday season and a festive new year's celebration! It's been a while since the last update, so let's get down to what you are all wondering about – where are we at with Defying Destiny?
Defying Destiny Development Diary #17:
Well, I'll get straight to the meat without too much talking. Here's a PDF that shows an overview of Events for Age I & II. As you can see, we now have Events for all Realms except 2 for Age I, and all except 3 for Age II, as well as all the generic Events done for both Ages – that's 89 ready Events or Age I and 2, which should allow for quite a range of new scenarios. I won't be talking about all of those here, but you get some more details on the Italian Events for Age II a bit further down. As you can see, the illustrations are coming along nicely as well.
We've been working hard over the holidays as well to move the project closer to the finish line, and while we're close to wrapping up Events for Age III as well, there are still a few left to pin down in Age IV. We will get into all the details about Age III and IV in a couple of weeks.
Of course, there aren't just Events, there are a number of other cards as well, and the biggest job has been to write the Missions. We already had most of the Realm-specific Missions written earlier, but now we also have the new deck of Generic Missions ready.
There will be 46 new Generic Missions (43 different ones) to construct Missions decks for almost all thinkable combinations of Realms and scenarios. The new Generic Missions have IDs that fit into the existing structure of Generic Missions from the core game, but with a small extra identifier that lets you tell them apart from the existing ones easily. This means you'll be able to swap out a Mission in an existing Mission tree, with a new one with a matching number, and all of the links in the tree will stay intact, but you could also of course construct entirely new Mission trees.
Some of these Generic Missions have been constructed specifically with the HRE Realms and Italian Realms in mind (marked temporarily with a light gray Imperial eagle or Papal keys respectively on their shield in the overview file above), which should make it easier to play different combinations of these smaller (but still very interesting) Realms together.
Furthermore, we have 20+ new Action Cards written, 20+ new Ideas, and 6 new Power Struggles, but they still need a bit more polishing, and we need to make the final selection and decide how many copies we need of each of the Action Cards, so that's also something we will highlight in the next Update.
Meanwhile, Black Magic Inserts have been working on some adjustments on the Special Player Trays, which we will also talk more about in the next Update here we'll show some nice and detailed renders. Here's a quick render as a teaser (never mind the colors here, those are just used in the software in order to tell the different parts apart). Panda received the preliminary step files for these before the holidays, in order to create some test samples.
Italian Pack, Age II
We continue this time with Age II in the Italian bundle of cards, please note that while some of the illustrations are shiny and new, some are still old placeholders, and the ruler portraits have not been inserted yet here.
Florence/ Tuscany
As we saw in the last Update, Florence saw a period of turbulence, due to the invasion of Charles VII of France. This period lasted for several years with alternating periods of Medici rule and periods with them expelled from a newly proclaimed republic. The rule of Cosimo I would finally put an end to this turbulence, with Pope Pius V elevating his rank to that of Grand Duke of Tuscany, and making the title hereditary.
Ferdinando I would further consolidate the economic power of the new Grand Duchy, thanks to his practices that fomented Commerce and Tolerance. The Medici banks located all across Europe brought wealth and prestige to Florence. At the same time, Ferdinando fomented Religious Tolerance towards non-Catholics, such as the Jewish people who had been expelled from Spain (including the creation of the “Medici Oriental Press”, which produced some of the earliest books printed in Arabic).
Milan
The power struggle for the Duchy of Milan (that started with Ludovico’s Ambition – Age I Event, see the previous Update) saw France, who ousted the Sforza rulers, challenging the Habsburg dominance in a series of conflicts that have come to be known as the Italian Wars.
Francesco II, The Last Sforza, was restored as Duke of Milan by Charles V, when he conquered the city from the French. However, this did not prevent him from switching sides in the conflict, subsequently joining the French side in the League of Cognac.
Francesco did not have any heirs, and his death would spark the Italian War of 1535 where Spain and France would dispute the Duchy, with Charles V of Spain gaining control over most of Italy, installing his son, Philip II, as Duke of Milan, thus ending Milanese Independence.
Following this event, Spain exerted dominance over the Duchy of Milan through various nobles serving as Viceroys and Commanders. One of these was Carlo d’Aragona Tagliavia, an excellent administrator who raised funds as Sicily’s Viceroy for his king, Filip II, participated in the Battle of Lepanto as one of the Holy League's admirals, and served as a diplomat while governing the Milanese Duchy.
Savoy/Piemonte
While the other Italian Realms were siding with either France or Spain, the Savoyard rulers for a long time tried their best to stay neutral. However, due to its location and marriage ties, Savoy gradually fell under French influence and strayed away from the Holy Roman Empire. Savoy eventually did try to make a stand against France, but instead ended up being completely occupied by Francis I of France during the Italian Wars.
Emanuele Philibert I, known as The Ironhead (or Testa di Ferro, in Italian), for many years, was the ruler of Savoy only in name. In order to recover his land, he assisted the Habsburgs to earn their favor. He was appointed as governor of the Spanish Netherlands, and also served as a General in the Spanish Army on many occasions, like in the battle of Saint-Quentin.
Emanuele would finally recover control over Savoy from the French after the signature of the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis in 1559. To secure the autonomy of his Realm from the French, he moved the capital of the Duchy from Chambéry to the more shielded city of Turin.
His son, Carlo Emmanuele I, had one of the longest reigns of Savoyan Dukes. Nicknamed The Hothead due to his rash and aggressive nature, he tried to play France and Spain against each other, in an attempt to gain the most from both of them, with the ambition of creating a Kingdom. He also tried to expand Savoy at the expense of their smaller neighbors, but was famously humiliated at the Geneva Escalade in 1602.
More? More!
Last, but not least, we have one more Mercenary Leader to showcase today, Ferrante Gonzaga. But he is not affiliated with any specific Realm, instead, he is just an Opportunist Condottiero.
Ferrante was the son of the governor of Mantua and was sent at the age of 16 to the court of Charles I of Spain. From this moment, he would enroll in service to the king of Spain on many occasions, participating in the Sack of Rome in 1527, the Siege of Florence in 1529, and in many battles in Tunis and Algiers against the Berber pirates.
Throughout his career he was also the Viceroy of Sicily, acted as the Spanish ambassador at the English court, and as the Governor of Milan.
His final service to Spain was during the battle of Saint-Quentin, where he endured many injuries, which would prove fatal.
More illustrations by Joeri
The maestro surprises us every time he sends us an email with more of his work. Please keep visiting his webpage and social media profiles to see more of what he does.