Renovatio Europam campaign

Renovatio Europam
Playable factions

• Start: Castle Age (1350 CE)
• End: Castle Age (~1530 CE)
• Length: 40 turns
• Penalties for non-completion: Reformation
  

This CtW should be made to concentrate more on strategic choices than tactical ones. So that means while there are indeed 24 "epic scenarios" or such, not every one should be an epic scenario.

Notes

Unlike the Rise of Chivalry campaign where you start off either with weak to moderately powerful nations, the setting for Renovatio Europam is one where many parts of the map, except for Asia, are fully colonised by the major powers. Most of Europe and the Middle East has already been colonised, only Germany, Russia and Scandinavia remain "free".

So what this means is that while expansion is fairly easy especially for the Japanese, Timurids and Ming, in Europe it is far less so. The many alliances and concentrations of factions in specific regions means that those based in Western Europe and Southern Europe will need to be more cautious in their approach to strategy, factions such as Russia, the Norse, and Poland however can choose to expand freely and quickly if they so choose.

Events

• Castille is at war with Aragon
• France is devastated, with Britain holding Gasconha e Lenghadoc, and England, but nothing more.
• The Welsh are limited to Powys and are a vassal state - there are only 23 playable factions.
• Denmark controls vast tracts of Scandinavia which are poorly fortified.
• Austria/Carinthia is now free and independent of the Empire, and is the sole seat of the HRE.
• Turks are now based in Galatia, next to the Romans
• Saracens control Egypt and Syria.
• Japan is reduced to 1 territory - Japan, and is under the Ashikaga, with Kyushu forming a breakaway territory.
• AI behaviour: France is eager for alliance against larger enemies. If France, Poland, or Austria possesses at least 10 territories more than you, and you are at war with one of its enemies it is eager to make an alliance with you (so long as you are not England, Russia, or the Turks).

Barbarians

See here.

Tribute

Tribute is the main currency of the game, and can be used for the following purposes:

• Upgrading fortification levels of your regions
• Buying bonus cards
• As a medium of exchange
• Supplying armies for offensive actions

There are several ways of collecting tribute:

• Destroying enemy factions - their entire tribute score is added to your own
• Vassals
• Colonies

Because tribute is so hard to come by, you need to carefully balance your need for armies against your tribute score. If you run out of tribute, your expansion will also grind to a halt, so you need to be very, very careful.

Vassalage

Vassals can be created only by the following factions:

• China
• Egypt
• Turkey
• France
• England
• Habsburgs
• Venice
• Byzantine Empire

Vassalage is possible only as long as the Reformation doesn't happen.

When you play one of these factions and take the capital of an enemy, you may choose to convert it into a vassal instead of destroying it outright. The vassal's territory becomes appended to your own and what armies it used to have also belong to you, but you will not have access to its colonies or its rare resources. Over time, vassals will provide a small but steady stream of tribute to you, that amount being 25% of what that faction had prior to being defeated.

Politics

Political systems are locked but can be manipulated by Dilemmas. Whenever you win battles with a certain threshold in your score, you will be given an opportunity to change your political system. Only the first two tiers of the political system are pre-determined.

The three dilemmas that change your political stances are:

• New Men: win a battle with all 7 levels of any one track researched, changes your government to Urban Corporation or Feudalism. This triggers twice per campaign.
• Stupor Mundi: enemy either has no units left, or no cities left upon winning, may change government to Monarchy but reduces your tribute, until the next battle.
• Science versus religion: maintain 40 scholars and 4 universities and win the battle, changes government to Republic and locks it as such until the next battle.

Colonisation

Towards the end of the game, you will be allowed to colonise new territories, if you are playing as either China, Spain, Portugal, England, Scotland or France. Every so often you will be asked if you would like to create a colony. Colonies can count as a victory condition, and basically are a reflection of your faction's cultural and economic development (some wonders have effects on colonies). To win, you must acquire ten colonies. Upon obtaining them, you will be asked if you would like to continue the game. Should you do so, expect the game to become much harder!

Colonies are not cheap, and cost as much as a medium-sized vassal state. However, if done right, they will pay back good dividends. The cost structure for founding colonies is as follows:

• Chinese, Scots: Most expensive
• English, and French: somewhat costly
• Spain: cheap
• Portugal: cheapest.

If you chose not to expel Jews, your second colony will always be created for free.

Once you have agreed to create a colony, it will take some time before the new colony is set up. Additionally, you can create armies from colonies. To generate a new colony, you must create or acquire a set amount of overseas colonies to generate a new army:

• Chinese, Scots, other factions: every 6
• English, and French: every 5
• Spain: every 4
• Portugal: every 3.

Each colony has a specific faction it is usually acquired by, and also contributes tribute per turn and rare resources as if it were part of the campaign map itself. For a faction such as the Holy Roman Empire, it will have to acquire as many as 6 colonies in order to generate a new army on the campaign map. Additionally, the following wonders have the following effects on colonies:

• Confucian Academy - colonies are created instantaneously
• Marine arsenal - colonies are 25% cheaper

Events

Throughout the era, different events will occur, which may or may not affect you in some way or the other. These are some of the events that normally take place.

Treachery

Treachery and deceit is a frequent theme in Rise of Chivalry, despite its name, and the control of certain "enabler" territories can allow you to influence politics.

As such, Treachery cards can be found in the following regions:

• Northern Asia: Sibir
• Italia: Sicily
• Sclavonia and Danubia: Thrace
• Western Asia: Hayasdan and Iraq

Spheres of influence

A sphere of influence is a collection of regions on the map which demarcates how aggressive a faction will remain. Once all the regions in a faction's sphere of influence have been obtained, that faction ceases to continue aggression. Some fctions like the Mongols, Byzantines and Hungarians, however, are naturally expansionist in nature.

Teutonic Order

At the heart of northern European politics is the Teutonic order. It's quartered around Kurzeme, and on turn 2 will approach both Denmark and the Habsburgs for sponsorship and deals.

Generally, if both deals are accepted, the following takes place:

• Norse receive 100 tribute (historic)
• Pomerania, Lietuva and Kurzeme are automatically moved over to the Habsburgs regardless of ownership, provided the Habsburgs agree to pay the 50 tribute required for sponsorship. This is possible only if the Norse first agreed to the transfer.
• Poland gets 2 Poland Dissidence cards.

Unfortunately, this results in the following quest:

• Poland - secure Lietuva. Flagging Lietuva will immediately allow Belarus to join Poland automatically.

The Jewish question

Whenever as a non-Asian nation, you lose Jerusalem, it will trigger a choice - religious tensions will force you to either expel Jews from your lands, or to keep them. This however has several implications:

• Keeping the Jews will result in 100 tribute being added to your treasury, but will disable Chivalric Orders and Islamic techs at the temple until this option is raised again.
• There will be other effects caused by expulsion or acceptance of Jews, most notably during the Black Plague and colonial period.

Black Plague

Black plague strikes once the following are achieved:

• One faction controls at least 60% of the entire campaign map.
• The average fortification level of your empire, rounded down.

This plague strikes immediately, lasting until the Imperial Era, and causes the following effects:

• Population cap in scenarios is reduced to 100;
• You are unable to fortify your territories
• The Alhambra wonder doesn't spawn units, but can mitigate the effects of Plague on population caps.
• The Aachen Palace Complex ensures that new regions that you capture in CtW are automatically upgraded to Level 2 upon acquisition. Also, income from your vassals during Black Plague cannot fall below 20%. of its value per turn.

The Plague will last for at least 5  turns. If you chose not to expel Jews during the Castle Age, European and Middle Eastern regions you control with a fortification of 4 or higher may revert to 1 if not garrisoned with an army when Black Plague strikes.

Gunpowder

Gunpowder weapons are restricted until the Imperial Era. Choosing to favour Science in the Science versus Religion dilemma at least once and finding in favour of the New Men at least once allows you to build gunpowder weapons during the Clastle Age as a Christian faction...for the cheap sum of 500 tribute.

Dilemmas

Dilemmas always play out once whenever factions achieve certain thresholds during quick battles. Please see here for more info.

Reformation

This occurs with the following:

• Black Plague
• Byzantines are dead
• Schism has taken place
• Past last turn of campaign.

When the reformation strikes, it will divide previously Catholic factions into 2 different warring factions. You will be asked to do the following:

• Side with the Pope (remain Catholic, permanent war with Protestant factions, but gives you the use of 3 extra cards: Missionaries, Cultural Dominance, Propaganda)
• Establish your own church (go Protestant, gain 250 tribute but reduces the fort levels of all your territories to 4 and locks out the Nobles' Court.)
• Do nothing (all vassals break free)

The negative impacts take place 1 turn after you make the choice. Generally, it means that once you make the choice, if you are a Catholic faction, it gives you a great incentive to attack Protestant factions for more territory.

The AI factions choose to enter as follows

• Protestants: Burgundy, England, Scotland, Wales, Norse
• Catholic: France, Spain, Catalans, Habsburgs, Hungary, Papal States (duh)
• Neutral: Venice, Portugal, Armenia, Poland