Development Diary #18 for Europa Universalis: Defying Destiny - HRE Realm from I to IV - A closer look at new Action Cards - The Expansion Box Insert

Defying Destiny Development Diary #18: 

Greetings backers and strategists! We have a lot of content to take you through today, and we'll dive right in. First, we present to you all the completed Events for Age I, II, and III, for Defying Destiny, for you to see and review:

We are providing you with more details on the Events for the three German Realms, Bavaria, Bohemia, and Saxony, further down in this update, including their Age IV Events. But before we go in-depth, let's continue with the bigger picture.

Card Count & Storage Solutions

We put together an overview of the number of cards that will be available of each type in Defying Destiny (DD), as well as the combined total of DD and the Deluxe Ed./Extended Standard Ed. (same as current Standard Ed. + Fate of Empires). We also listed the Flavor Packs and Extra Bot Decks add-on for those interested (FLA+ADD3). We may still move one or two DD Events between Ages, but other than that, these numbers are set.

As you can see, there'll be 30 new Action Cards that we haven't talked much about in the Development Diaries so far, and we will get right back to those in a bit.

Card Storage

But first, looking at card counts brings us right over to storage space solutions. With a whooping 630/648 bridge-size cards and 468/540 mini-cards, we know that many of you, understandably, are concerned about how you will be able to store all of the new cards and content in good way. We have done what we can to provide a future-proof solution that helps you organise things in a good way whether you prefer to keep using the base tray in the core box or not, so let's take a look at how everything will fit.

Cardholder Add-on

For those that get the Cardholder, there will be plenty extra space already there. Let's take a look at the capacity it offers if you want to fill it up to the max for storage purposes.

If you do not sleeve your cards, you'll easily be able to fit all the bridge-size cards from both the core game and Defying Destiny in it. The bottom wells can take 130 cards each, and the top wells take 110 cards each, for a total of 960 unsleeved bridge-size cards. For example, you could store the Action Decks and Trade Deck in the top wells, and all the Events the bottom wells (one Age in each).

If you prefer sleeving your cards, the bottom wells can easily take 75 cards each, and the top wells take 60 cards each without any trouble, for a total of 540 sleeved bridge-size cards. You'll be able to squeeze some more in if you really want to. In other words, you could keep all the bridge-sized cards from the core game in the cardholder and leave the DD cards in the expansion box, or you could keep most of the cards in the expansion box and use the cardholder for decks prepared for your upcoming game sessions.

In either case, you won't really need the base tray in the core game anymore, allowing you to remove that and fit the cardholder inside the core box if you like, as we showed in Dev Diary #4.

Defying Destiny Expansion Insert

The vast majority of our backers have the new expansion included in their pledge, so let's take a look at how things will fit inside that box too.

Here we've worked closely with Bryce at Black Magic Inserts™ to create an insert that will let you organize your cards in the manner that you prefer. The insert has been completely re-worked compared to the mockup shown on the campaign page, in order to accommodate Stretch Goal #10 – storing the cards upright (the long edge oriented horizontally) instead of lying flat in the wells.

Below, you can see a 3D render of the box insert inside the box. The render has been made directly from Bryce's production-ready STEP files, which have been sent over to Panda for them to make sure that everything is in order and can be manufactured as intended.

Each of the bridge-sized card wells can hold about 85 unsleeved cards or 60 sleeved cards according to Bryce's calculations. The middle well is slightly slimmer and can hold about 55 unsleeved or 40 sleeved cards. That makes a total capacity of 735 unsleeved or 520 sleeved bridge-sized cards. You should more easily be able to tuck sleeved cards tightly into these wells, compared to the cardholder.

Additionally, the wells for the mini-sized cards will be able to hold about 70 unsleeved or 50 sleeved cards, again with slightly less (55/40) in the well in the middle. In total that's about 475 unsleeved or 340 sleeved mini-sized cards.

Obviously this will easily fit all the cards coming in the expansion, with plenty room to spare! If you are not sleeving your cards, you can fit all cards from both the core game and DD into the expansion box if you like, and still have room for new Flavor Packs. If you have all your cards sleeved, there will still be plenty space in between the core box (or Cardholder) and the DD box. Together, the DD box and Cardholder can fit 1060 sleeved bridge-sized cards, so that should serve you well for years to come!

As you can see in the image below, since the insert is so deep, we are also looking at including 2 smaller trays to help organise tokens, if the production cost allows us to do it. The boards will go on top, serving as a lid over the cards, and are also kept in place by the insert.

Production Update

Panda have let us know that they passed on the miniature sculpts to their plastics team back in December, but sadly they were already booked out for resculpting before the CNY holidays, so they could not get started on them before that. However, the team came back from the CNY holidays a couple of days ago, and should be working on that already now. The situation is the same for the Special Player Trays.

The moment we have them, we will show them to you. While this has caused a setback in the plastics schedule (we really have to make sure those trays work the way we want them to!), we are using that delay to finish off the print files.

We expect that we can get the miniatures, trays and insert to the stage where we can approve them and give the go-ahead to start making the Pre-production copy (PPC) within the next 3 weeks. We will move on with the PPC with the print files we have at that stage, even if there are still some bits remaining to fix, since we can make those fixes while the PPC is being assembled and update the print files we submit for mass production.

This also means that we are moving a bit closer to closing the Late Pledges, but there is still some time. More on that next time.

Talking Events: Some Prince-Electors just want to see the HRE burn

Bavaria

As covered in the first Dev Diary on Bavaria, the first Age saw Bavaria embroiled in many conflicts, like the Princes’ War, against Albert Achilles of Brandenburg, but also internal ones like the War of the Succession of Landshut, which saw the Reunification of the Duchy under Albrecht IV.

Meanwhile, in Age II, Bavaria will have to center its attention on the Protestant Reform and its spread within its lands. It will do its best to minimize the Religious Strife, either supporting the reformers or showing that they are truly the Pious Duke, opposing the Lutherans and relying on the Jesuits to fight Protestantism.

During the Thirty Years’ War, Bavaria’s support of the Catholic League saw the Birth of a New Electorate, due to the occupation of the Palatinate’s Elector Lands during the war(who supported the Bohemian revolt against the Emperor). 

Maximilian II spent most of his life on the battlefields of Europe, participating in the Great Turkish War (including the Battle of Vienna and the Siege of Belgrade), the Nine Years’ War, and the War of Spanish Succession. He combined that with his service as the Governor of the Netherlands, and his duties as the Duke of Bavaria. His Regnal Aspirations only grew larger when other Dukes within the Holy Roman Empire fulfilled similar ambitions – the Duke of Saxony becoming King of Poland, the Duke of Brandenburg becoming King in Prussia, and the Duke of Hannover becoming King of England.

Maximilian's successor, Karl Albrecht I, would take those aspirations and turn them into Imperial Ambitions, rejecting the Pragmatic Sanction, denouncing the arrival of Maria Theresa to the Austrian throne, and fighting her in the War of the Austrian Succession. He managed to conquer Bohemia in 1741 and was elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1742, but in the meantime, his own lands were occupied by the Habsburg forces.

With Napoleon’s rise to power in Europe, Maximilian IV aligned himself with France, supporting them in battle, but also marrying his eldest daughter to Napoleon’s stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais. Napoleon paid Maximilian back elevating the Duchy to the Kingdom of Bavaria.

Bohemia

To catch up with Bohemia’s Events for Ages I and II, visit Dev Diary #6. In this Dev Diary, we will continue with Bohemia’s defiance starting with Age III.

As mentioned in Bavaria’s section, Bohemia rebelled against the Emperor, Ferdinand II, during the early stages of the Thirty Year’s War, receiving support from Frederick V of the Palatinate, who was crowned King of Bohemia in 1619, but quickly ousted by the Austrian troops, the reason for which he was nicknamed the Winter King.

The aftermath of the Peace of Westphalia, saw a Habsburg Consolidation of power in Bohemia, decreasing the local autonomy and favoring the Catholic nobility in positions of relevance, in what was known as The Dark Age, which focused on eradicating Protestant Hussitism in Bohemia.

During the Austrian Succession Crisis, Bohemia supported Karl Albrecht of Bavaria in his fight against Maria Theresa and his refusal of the Pragmatic Sanction. Karl reached Prague in November of 1741, being crowned King of Bohemia. Just as with Frederick earlier on, Karl was soon overrun by the Austrians, losing not only his new conquests in Bohemia but also his own Duchy of Bavaria.

The later period of the 18th century saw the arrival of Absolutism, with Enlightened Reforms aiming at modernizing the nation. Centralization efforts resulted in a Germanization of both the administration and the nobility, but the reforms and political currents of this time period also led to a Czech national revival within the society.

Saxony

As hinted at in the previous Dev Diary on Saxony, Saxony’s first Event features the Saxon Fratricidal War between the sons of Frederick II, which would see the creation of the Ernestine and the Albertine lines, each of them with a portion of Frederick’s Realm.

1502 would be the year in which the University of Wittenberg was founded. As explained in the previous Dev Diary, this university would help to propagate the principles of Renaissance humanism and had Reformation personalities like Martin Luther and Philip Melanchton working as professors at the university.

The animosity between the Ernestine and the Albertine lines would resurface during the spread of Protestantism in the XVI century, with each line supporting a different side in the war, with Maurice supporting the Emperor, and John Frederick I siding with the Schmalkaldic League. John Frederick ceded the electorate and sizable lands to Maurice in the Capitulation of Wittenberg.

The animosity between the lines would remain with plots like the Grumbach Feud taking place, an attempt by John Frederick II (son of John Frederick I, who lost the Electorate) to regain the Electoral position.

John George I ruled Saxony during the Thirty Years’ War. Threatened by both the Imperial and the Swedish armies, he tried to remain neutral in the conflict, not wanting to choose between helping his fellow Protestant rulers or abiding by his Imperial duties. In the later stages of the war, the Imperial Army invaded and ravaged Saxony, which led to John finally joining forces with Sweden and the Protestants against the Emperor.

Friederich August led Saxony in the last years of the XVII century and the first quarter of the XVIII century. His physical prowess, gave him nicknames such as the Strong and The Saxon Hercules. After the death of the Polish King John III Sobieski, Augustus converted to Catholicism to allow him to be elected King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1697, mainly thanks to the financial support of both Austria and Russia. During his reign, Poland would be ravaged by the war against Sweden, with the Swedes installing Stanisław Leszczyński as a puppet king in 1704, until August regained control of the Kingdom in 1709. The devastation caused by this war saw Poland reduced almost to a Russian Protectorate. Meanwhile, back in Dresden, his capital in Saxony, he led efforts to turn it into a renowned cultural center, opening public museums and art collections, while planning major urban development plans.

Saxony was not the only German Realm to grow in importance (and ambitions) within the Holy Roman Empire, and while they and Prussia, as Protestant brothers, were often allied in their struggles against the Emperor, Prussia's meteoric rise to power eventually led to a great North German Rivalry between them. The Silesian Wars were a series of wars mainly fought between Prussia, to the North, and Austria to the South. Although Saxony joined forces with Prussia in the first Silesian War against Austria, they did join the Quadruple Alliance (Austria, Britain, Saxony, and the Dutch Republic) against Prussia, who rose victorious in the second conflict too. The Third Silesian War started with Prussia’s invasion of Saxony, which was occupied for much of the conflict, which again ended up in Prussian victory, leading to them becoming a hegemonic power in Northern Germany.

Saxony was another Realm affected by Napoleon’s rise. With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the defeat of their only ally, Prussia, Saxony also joined the Confederation of the Rhine. To reward Frederick Augustus III for this decision, Napoleon also elevated the Duchy to the rank of Kingdom. Saxony was eventually the last German state to remain loyal to Napoleon.

The New Action Cards for Defying Destiny

Finally, what you have been waiting for. As a quick comment, before taking a closer look at the new Diplomatic cards, we'd like to say that the main purpose of these new cards is not to introduce new mechanics or turning the game on its head, but rather to provide more richness to certain aspects of the game, and to provide you with an opportunity to rebalance the Action decks slightly to your taste. In scenarios with 5–6 players, it may make sense to include all the new cards alongside the existing Action cards, but you can also use these cards to replace some of the existing cards and keep the number of cards in each deck the same as before.

Diplomatic Web is a new Display Card (as a reminder, those are the cards that you put on display in front of you when you play them, and in subsequent turns, you may take any of the Actions enabled by them) that will focus on establishing and maintaining Marriages with other Realms.

• Its first option, Arrange Marriage, will help you spread your dynasty into an eligible NPR, without needing to have Influence or adjacency with that Realm. Since Marriages are in themselves an Influence cube, this will allow you to then spread your Influence through far away Areas of the map, or you could also use this to prevent other players from being able to easily Subjugate and Annex their NPR Allies and Vassals. Furthermore, Arrange Marriages will be crucial for the other 2 Actions enabled by Diplomatic Web
• Close Ties will get you 1 Influence adjacent to each of your Marriages. With a cost of 1 Diplomatic Power, it may not sound interesting at first sight, but if you happen to have Researched the Cabinet Idea, and you have all 4 Marriage tokens on the board, you are looking at placing 4 Influence tokens with just 1 Diplomatic Power. 
• But, if diplomacy fails, you can always rely on Family Aid to receive Mercenary Units directly into your Armies, ready to support your War efforts. Again, the more Marriages you have, the more you will benefit from this Action.

With Diplomatic Web you will have a good reason why you want to establish as many Marriages as you can, and also why you should look at keeping those as long as possible.

Influential Envoys offers a lot of flexibility to the player, giving you three different options on what you can do with it.

• The first option allows you to gain a Ship in either one of your Ports or your Vassal Ports, and then take either a Trade Action or an Explore Action. Realms like Poland or Hungary will see how their Trade options can open up already in Round 1 if they happen to get their hands on this card. Also, this will make Trade and Exploration much easier in the DC, enabling you to extend your reach without needing to take a Recruit Action.
• The second option will be an easy way to Forge Alliances with Distant Realms, even those that you don’t have Claims on, only needing your Ships near their shores to do so. At a cost of only 1 Diplomatic Power, we hope that this will also encourage some tactical Alliances, for example, to prevent your Ships from being destroyed when resolving Lost at Sea, or to gain additional Military Power when Declaring a War adjacent to this newly Distant Realm by Calling them to Arms.
• The third and final option will get you a Cardinal in the Papal Curia if you are Catholic or Counter-Reformed. Even though Scenario Booklet 3 introduced a requested optional rule to provide a new source of Cardinals (Optional Rule 11: Crowded Curia), we thought that it would still be nice to have another way to get into the Curia, which was previously only possible via Man of the Church. With new Events that deal with having Cardinals (such as Treaty of Tordesillas, Iberian Diaspora, or Jakob the Rich), we felt that having a new source of Cardinals would be of great use (and if you are playing a non-Catholic Realm, the other 2 options would still make Influential Envoys relevant).

Have you ever encountered a situation where you really wanted to Trade somewhere, but a pesky Pirate is ruining your favorite Trade Node? Have you ever wished to get more Trade Cards to try to guarantee a good Trade, crucial to your plans?  

With Shady Business you get to take a free Trade Action (granted, you paid for it), in which you draw 2 additional Trade Cards (which also stacks with Shrewd Trade Practices, if you have Researched it). From those Trade Cards, let’s imagine for a moment that you find a Trade Node in which you have 5 Trade Power at the moment, while one of your Rivals, with their Merchant also there, currently has 3, thanks to their Light Ships. 

Thanks to your Shady Business, you can choose that Node, and move the Pirate into one of the Trade Protection Slots adjacent to it, conveniently pushing your Opponent’s Light Ship out of the Trade Protection Slot it occupied. Now your Trade Power is 6, with no Pirate in the Node, and your Opponent has fallen to just 2 Trade Power. You both collect your money, and then the Pirate goes back to the Node, to make sure your Opponent doesn’t Trade there anytime soon.

Even if you would not target a Trade Node with a Pirate, getting additional Trade Cards will give you a higher chance to guarantee the Trade you need.

Do note that this is a Covert Action, so if the Active Player were to target your Ship, you could react by playing a Counterespionage, to foil their plans.

There are more Action Cards in the works, and we'll talk about them next time, but if you want to playtest them on Tabletop Simulator, please join our Discord server. We also posted a small update to the TTS Mod today, by the way.