Historical Direction

"Let me see the script…" – Robin Hood

What does this mod do?

It adds some new game rules focused on the 867 start to make events that were on the cusp of happening actually follow through. Not quite as expansive as Historical Invasions but a lot of these adjustments are aimed at improving the historical setup within existing game mechanics.

Rules available fall within 3 categories to help tailor your experience.

Historical: The ‘best’ choice for tilting the odds in the favour of history. Mainly aimed at helping rail road the AI to a certain conclusion.

Anachronistic: Functions much like the Historical setting but instead makes the Historical outcome happen after starting the game. Useful if you want to guarantee something happens.

Ahistorical: A setting for something that would’ve been interesting to happen in history but didn’t. Feel free to suggest any additions.

Vanilla: Disables this hack job of a mod so you can use other mods in its place.

Current rules are:

Wrath of the Northmen Improvement: Halfdan ‘Whiteshirt’ and Ivar ‘the Boneless’ have their initial war with Northumbria adjusted so the end borders resemble the power structure of Britain that came to be after the establishment of the Danelaw.

Haesteinn of Montaigu: Now you can play as the fan favourite viking but as a adventurer if you have Roads to Power, army included. Or let the AI take him on strange adventures when you’re not playing as him. Otherwise, he can be scripted to attack Cheshire and join Jorvik, helping the Danelaw form.

Guthrum – The Great Summer Army: Just an adventurer in the vanilla game, Guthrum conquered East Anglia with a second viking army and was a rival to Alfred the Great. These game rules will help set up the board so to speak and make defeating the vikings as Alfred, a bit more of a challenge.

Ubbe Ragnarrsson: Ubbe, the landless brother of the other sons of Ragnarr will join in on Halfdan’s conquest of England. Targeting the eastern part of Mercia, the region that would come to be known as the ‘Five Boroughs’. When he wins his war, he will join Jorvik as a vassal.

Alfred of Wessex: The main character of Wrath of the Northmen can actually start in control of wessex from the start of the game, giving you or the AI full control over the kingdom to prepare to fight off the newly introduced viking enemies. Plus with the added introduction of the missing children of his brother Aethelred who were ignored by paradox due to potential problems with succession.

Rollo de Normandie: He can start as the duke of Normandy as a tributary to West Francia or remain as a adventurer. I chose to do it this way since it preserves RICE’s event content which presumably you would want to play as if you choose to play as him with that mod installed. If you choose to play him with the landed setting, he will be pagan – letting you decide when or if you wish to convert to christianity.

Harald ‘Tanglehair’: Will actually conquer Norway using vanilla game mechanics, the weak conqueror buff is just enough to make an AI controlled Harald unite Norway without the player. ( It’s like 3 lines of scripting that should be vanilla, please ask Paradox to add it )
It’s less flashy than Historic Invasions but a choice you have available to you now.

Oleg ‘the Seer’: New game rules to ensure a historically timed and pre-scripted Rurik death. He should hopefully have some children before he dies creating an heir to his realm who is not Oleg. You can also have Rurik die on game start and have Helgi be in control of Novgorod from the start. (Pairs well with Historic Invasions who spawns an heir for him)

The Khitans: Neglected in All Under Heaven, the Khitans were a rising power after the collapse of the Tang Dynasty. It is difficult even for a player to get strong enough to match the historical timing of their rise to power, requiring some luck but with this rule. The Khitans will be bad news on the frontier, just in time for the collapse of China and even with the option to have ‘Great Liao’ appear in 867. Pairs Nicely with Historical Invasions and the Historical invasions Fix mod which has a scripted invasion for them.

Huang Chao: Huang Chao received a starting event that can make him into a conqueror. The AI never takes this choice but he did lead a huge uprising that brought the Tang dynasty to an end. With the Anachronistic game rule, he will declare himself emperor of Qi and conquer a large portion of central china (the region where his early historical rebellion was active) crippling an already ailing AI Tang. He has a huge event stack because Paradox did not properly implement logic for AI to target vassals under a liege, they are peasant militia so he should bleed them off fairly quickly.

Karlmann of Bavaria: He can be made the King of Bavaria on the start of the game with Louis ‘the Younger’ as the heir to East Francia. Has a high chance (though not guarantee) of fixing the East Francia inheritance problem that can sometimes happen.

Christian Bohemia: A game rule to convert the dukes of Bohemia to Catholicism. The christianization of the region was already well underway and this helps Bohemia not get holy warred into oblivion.

Confederated Ireland: Tribal Ireland in 867 can now start in a united Confederation to help resist viking incursions and somewhat model the decentralized nature of the high kingship.

Anachronistic Kingdoms: New game rules to create various kingdoms upon starting a 867 game, giving them to the historical ancestors of the dynasties that would go on to form said kingdoms. This is to improve long-term stability for the AI who can’t plan long-term. Fully modular so you can disable the rule if you are playing in that region.

Game rules for West Francia and Al-Andalus: West Francia can start with Aquitaine integrated at the start of the game. Similarly, Al-Andalus can have the kingdoms of Badajoz and Valencia integrated into it’s de jure. Keeping Muslim Iberia united.

Titular Caliphate: Destroys the Arabian Empire on game start and replaces it with a titular empire of the same appearance. This helps model the dissolution of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Iranian Intermezzo is still able to achieve the Renewed Caliphate option though it requires Re-creating the Arabian Empire first, which makes sense given the ending.

Tibet: New Ahistorical game rule, this will make the sons of the emperor Langdarma weak conquerors – giving them a chance at uniting the Tibetan Empire or at the very least, somewhat modelling the era of fragmentation of 867.

India: Ahistorical game rule to restart the Tripartite Struggle between the three major powers by creating the three empire titles of India on game start.

I am open to adding more small ‘nudges’ though whether they will be anything more than functional is another thing entirely. If you like what I did please leave a rating.

Chinese translation: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3403925213
Korean translation: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3674930338