Welcome to Europa Universalis IV: Third Rome hird Rome is the first “immersion pack” for Europa Universalis IV. Immersion packs are a new type of expansion for EU4, intended to bring T greater detail and historical customization to a particular region. For Third Rome, we have chosen to focus on Russia, one of the most popular starting regions for many of our players. Russia is big. It stretches from Lithuania in the West to the Pacific in the East, from the Baltic in the North to the Black Sea in the South. The story of how a princely backwater became one of the most important nations in the world is a colorful one, full of terror and triumph. Third Rome starts with a more detailed map of the Russian region and then adds new government types, new special Russian abilities, and revised idea groups that include a unique colonization mechanic that is better suited to Russia’s historic cross- ing of Siberia than the current Idea System. The title of the immersion pack comes from a letter written by a Russian monk to the Muscovite Grand Duke Vasili III. For this monk, Muscovy was the final bulwark of Christendom after the fall of Rome and Constantinople, so, naturally, the Orthodox Church plays a big part in this expansion. We have also introduced new government types for the princely states of Russia and the local merchant republics, as well as raising the Tsarist government to its own level, on par with other empires, but a thing with special powers of its own. Plus some rewards for just being Russian – oprichnina, streltsy, sudebnik...all words we will explain shortly. A lot of our players enjoy starting with Muscovy in 1444, since it is a flexible start with a lot of early drama and the potential for immense power and wars versus strong rivals (the Ottomans, the Commonwealth, Denmark/Sweden and the larger Central Asian nations). The hope is that Third Rome adds even greater value for Russian play- ers by introducing more history, more flavor and more decisions. 2 Russian Government Forms hird Rome introduces three new forms of government to the Russian region. Russian Principalities: The Russian system of states evolved differ- ently from that in Western Europe. The relatively late conversion to Christianity, the river and Baltic trade systems and centuries of Mongol and Tatar pressure or sponsorship led to the development of princely states centered on serf- dom and a strong noble backbone. The Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 broke the back of the Golden Horde, and the Principalities established themselves as an independent system with Muscovy at the center. A Russian Principality is a Duchy level of government that reduces national unrest (-1) and increases tax income by 5%. The Russian principalities are Muscovy, Tver, Ryazan, Yaroslavl, Odoyev and two new nations, Beloozero and Rostov. Veche: Descended from Slavic tribal forms, the Veche was a council of nobles and local officials that served as the legislative and judicial official in parts of Eastern Europe in the late Middle Ages. Details on the precise makeup of these councils is sparse and debated by scholars. But this system of government persisted in the Russian states that bordered the Baltic trade zones into the 15th century. The Veche Republic is a Duchy level government that gives the nation +1 merchant. The Veche Republics in Third Rome are Novgorod and Pskov. 3 Tsardoms: Tsar is a Slavic royal term derived from the Latin “Caesar”, and it has been adopted by many Eastern European monarchs over the centuries, few of whom had the imperial pedigree of Caesar and almost none of whom even had that poten- tial. After all, we rarely hear of the glorious tsars of Bulgaria. The Tsardom of Russia was the first to even approximate an empire. The title was first formally adopted at the coronation of Ivan IV, who laid claimed to not just inherit Muscovy, but Kievan Rus as well. In Third Rome, a Tsardom is an Empire level government that is created by any Russian nation that forms the country of Russia, and takes the RUS tag. Tsardom is unique to Russia (but available in the nation designer for custom nations). The Tsardom gets a 20% bonus to manpower, increases absolutism by 0.10 every year and reduces autonomy by 5% every year. The Russian Tsardom also has a unique diplomatic ability. When it sends a diplo- mat to build a spy network, it can not only fabricate claims on provinces, it can also 4 Fabricate Claim on an Area, meaning it can swallow whole states more quickly, reflect- ing the rapid expansion of the Russian state through the Europa Universalis era. This requires a spy network score of 30.0, slightly more than the cost to fabricate a claim against a single province. 5 Russian Government Powers he Russian states have three special abilities that are tied to each of the three monarch skills. Reform Sudebnik (ADM): decreases autonomy in all by provinces by 10. (The sudebnik was the Russian legal code. It went through major reforms in 1497 and 1550 which centralized power and weakened the nobles.) Support Oprichnina (DIP): reduces progress of all rebel factions by 30. (The oprichina was the secret police and intelligence apparatus of Tsarist Russia.) Raise Streltsy (MIL): raises elite infantry units (20% of your unit limit), reduces war exhaustion by 2, and increases the cost of raising stability. Streltsy have a 10% bo- nus to damage in the Fire phase of combat. (The streltsy were Russian guards troops based at the Kremlin.) For each ability, you accumulate monarch points with a base of three per year PLUS the relevant skill of your monarch. So, a Russian ruler with and Administrative skill of 4 will have seven points added to the Reform Sudebnik pool every year. (Events may also add points to the pools). 6 Once you have accumulated 100 points in an ability’s pool, you can activate it. Each pool will hold a maximum of 150 points. You can find these abilities on the Government tab, and an alert will appear at the top of the screen when you have enough points to activate an ability. 7 Russian Ideas and Colonization ach of the Russian principalities, including Muscovy, has its own set of national ideas. Before Third Rome, the Muscovite ideas were the same E as the Russian ones, implying that the two nations were one and the same thing, with just a new coat of paint on top. When any Russian state forms the Russian Tsardom, it will be prompted as to whether it wishes to keep its current idea set or switch to the Russia ideas. The Russian ideas have changed as well. Since the Sudebnik, Streltsy and Oprichnina are now government abilities, they have been removed from the idea list. They have been replaced by: Land of the Rus: reduced impact of aggressive expansion Russian Artillery Yard: artillery is 10% cheaper and 10% more powerful Life Long Conscription: Land force limit increased by 50% More significantly, the Russia Siberian Frontier idea has been moved to an earlier point in the timeline and greatly revised. In Europa Universalis IV, colonies require colonists and this meant that, if it wanted to settle the Siberian frontier, Russia had to choose the Expansion or Exploration idea groups, even though these idea groups are more suited for overseas colonial powers. Russia rarely has any need for explorers or colonial ranges, but if it wanted to colonize its eastern regions, then it had little choice. Now the Siberian Frontier idea reveals any Siberian territory that borders a Russian city, and allows the Russians to spend 20 Diplomatic points on any uncolonized terri- tory that borders one of its cities and can track a land path back to the capital. These 8 colonies use no colonists, have no risk of native uprising and cost no maintenance while they are being settled. Keep in mind that this rapid colonization is great for the assets, but also greatly increases the cost of adopting new institutions. So balance your needs; the Pacific Ocean will wait for you. 9 The Orthodox Church hrough much of the Europa Universalis IV period, the Russian Orthodox church was the leader of the Orthodox faith, especially after T the fall of Constantinople in 1453. But the game itself has not done a great job of making the Russian church an interesting aspect of the empire. The central mechanic for the Orthodox faith is still Patriarchal Authority. The more Authority the church has, the lower the chance of revolt in Orthodox provinces and the stronger the missionaries are. There have not been many ways to increase Patriarchal Authority, however, and the system seemed rather detached. 10 Now, to increase the rate at which you gain Patriarchal Authority, a Russian Orthodox player may Consecrate a Metropolitan in any fully Orthodox state of accepted cultures that has at least 30 development. If any province in the state is not Orthodox or from a non-accepted culture, then you cannot establish a Metropolitan there. Each Metropolitan adds 5% to the Patriarchal Authority, but permanently in- creases the state maintenance by 10%. The Metropolitan also reduces the state’s dev- astation by 5%. Consecrating Metropolitans is done on the State tab of a province info screen. Patriarchal Authority is also a resource you can spend by commissioning Icons to be set up in churches throughout the Empire. Each icon has a unique ability. You can only have one icon active at any one time. Their effects last for twenty years, and they cost 10 Patriarchal Authority to commission.