MEIOU&Taxes 2.0 Brittany AAR/Mod Showcase -- Part 16: Means of Production

*Listens to the Internationale at 100% volume, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the October revolution (which took place in November)*

Hm? Oh, sorry, I didn't see you there. Let me turn this off... there we go. Now, let's continue with this AAR, shall we?


Francois continues to work on his most ambitious project, the SUPERCATHEDRAL. He's already drowning in work as a Duke, but his passion as an architect burns brightly enough for him not to care. Unlike you, dear reader, he's not afraid of hard work and never procrastinates.

His ambitions turn out to be too great. He's running over budget and is late from schedule. An unexpectedly large number of conscripted peasant workers have died or been injured. He has no other option than to pour more money into it by increasing the budget, which doesn't exactly please the nobility.

After the Rape of England, Francois gets a reputation of a cruel lord who cares little for the suffering of others. He doesn't mind that reputation at all, as long as it doesn't intervene with his building projects. Besides, he deserves to be called callous as he really is. Stand in the way of his ambitions or insult him and you will be force fed your own balls.

Speaking of projects, he begins building a a large granary in Nantes. It's not exactly the most prestigious construction, but for him it's just a side project while he works on the SUPERCATHEDRAL.

First level of warehouse is kinda shit, but the second level (warehouse district) helps cities with more than 5 pops acquire food from the continental market.

Castile stops paying generous subsidies. :(

Meanwhile in southern France the last great battle of the long civil war is fought. Initially the army of 6000 seems like it will win against the frenchies, but they keep throwing one army after another into the fray until finally the rebels are vanquished.

Seriously this battle lasted for almost a month, it was ridiculous.

For Francois, the marriage with Isabeau was purely for the sake of getting an heir. But apparently the Count of Albret thinks they're best friends now and asks him to send help. Francois grumbles and refuses to send any administrators at first, for he needs them for his projects. But then Isabeau refuses to have sex with him for a week and he caves in. A number of bookkeepers and managers are sent south to the court of Albret.

Poor little Corfu is bullied by the big evil Naples and Hungary heroically defends it from the Italian invaders.

I still have no idea how Corfu, a nation with two provinces and about 4 pop, managed to ally Hungary.

I check on the Irish requirements for uniting the clans. They have everything they need except admin power and admin tech/ruler skill.

They've woefully fallen behind in tech, sadly.

But the heir does have 5 admin skill and the current ruler is getting old. Not much longer and the clans shall be united! Well, half of them, at least. The other half will remain in the confederation of Thomond.

The state forest now has an impact on Breton timber production and it's hell of a big impact. A surplus is now produced and sold abroad.

This gives us this neat little modifier. I'm not sure if the bonuses are bigger if you sell more timber to the market.

I'm cheating again to showcase a new feature added in the latest patch: Management of urban production, available in the province interaction menu. Note that Food Information Tab submod is NOT compatible with the new patch because of these changes.

At this rate I'm going to build a shrine to Demiansky and reconquer Iberia for the muslims in His hallowed name.

There's two options always available: Change urban good and Attract qualified artisans. Here's what the first one does.

And here's the other one.

The new patch also added new urban production bonuses for some ideas, like this one from the Economic idea group.

By the way, if you're wondering what these hand symbols mean, it tells that unlocking ideas from this group will increase your piety. The hand symbol with a red cross means the opposite, your piety shrinking.

Not sure why Diplomatic ideas hurt your piety while none of the military ideas do. Apparently it's pious to murder people professionally but impious to make diplomatic negotiations in order to preserve peace.

Speaking of Piety, Brittany's piety actually reached 100% during the reign of Jane the Pious. This gives some nice bonuses.

I'm checking my church influence as well. These are the maximum bonuses.

These are my current bonuses.

Jane's donations of land to the church increased admin tech cost and hurt production, tax and manpower. I mostly did it for roleplaying, because honestly church influence is useless unless you're dealing with a lot of heathens and heretics.

Angers next door has become a notable centre of art and intellect, with many talented and ingenious people chatting about hipster stuff.

Breton students are missing out from all the civilized fun as they're no longer studying there. Bro Naoned's culture changed, and upper class students can only study in places whose people belong in their culture group. Breton obviously does not belong in the French culture group and sadly Brittany, Wales and Cornwall have no universities so there are no places to study in.

Looks like I really need to build that university at some point.

The patch also made an amazing change with government expenses. They no longer are a penalty to your tax but instead increase state maintenance in your capital state. So now you can easily see in the economy menu how much public services are costing you. Also, there's now a detailed breakdown of costs in the stability and national quality menu.

Fuck, this menu is getting pretty damn cramped, isn't it.

I still haven't covered urban production, have I? Shit, sorry. The patch changes might've been a bit confusing if you're unfamiliar with the mod.

So, urban production is one type of secondary province production, in addition to mining and gathering (with agriculture being the universal primary production). Like all production, it adds trade value to the province. The amount of production is determined by the combination of urban population and the level of production buildings.

Rennes here has 1 urban pop and 1 workshop.

This means it produces one urban good.

Because the crafters in the province are unskilled, the urban good is basic tier 1 with little value.

For urban production, you want to build up your population first and then add workshops.

Let's move to Flanders, where a lot of urban production is happening. Here is a medium-sized production city, Atrecht. It has a corporation guild and 6 pop and thus produces 6 units of urban goods.

From their warehouse bonus, they produce 7 units of linen in total. Linen is a tier 2 urban good, which you can get once there's enough skill in the province.

How do you get urban production skill, then?

The best way is by having a centre of production. To get this bonus, you need to have the most production in a region/sub-continent/continent/the world. Just like center of trade bonuses which appear in provinces with a lot of trade power, these bonuses appear in provinces with a lot of production.

Yearly increase of 1 means that it will take 25 years for the trade good to upgrade to tier 2. You'll receive an event then giving you options to choose which one you want.

Brugge here is producing a ridiculous amount of luxury cloth. Because there's so much cloth for everyone in the country, this gives Burgundy a production bonus. For luxury cloth, it's cheaper diplo tech and something else I don't remember. Goods give different bonuses, and steel for example makes mil tech cheaper. Tier 3 goods require 75 skill.

Production skill is not invulnerable, however. War and looting can demote the trade good to a lower tier and force the craftsmen to become refugees. These refugees can then be received by another country, giving a province with production a large skill bonus.

You might think from the trade map mode that Orthodox lands have a lot of small towns, but you'd be wrong. Monastic towns, a province modifier, produce 1 unit of mundane urban good. Just thought I'd inform you of this.

Phew, that's all, I think. My fingers beg for mercy and I shall now have a break. But for you, the AAR continues.

...

This is just another way to fucking troll me, isn't it? Subsidies, no subsidies, subsidies, no subsidies... STOP RIGHT NOW YOU CASTILIAN CUNTS

i mean thank you for the money dear felipe

Oh, Muscovy has annexed one of the last russian princes?

Ahh, proper name placement at last. Why that isn't a casus belli in the game I'll never know.

Only Novgorod remains free of the Muscovite yoke.

There's three notable conflicts in Europe: Pope having a tussle with Milan which just ended poorly for the former, Hungary's desperate defence of cute little innocent Corfu and Bohemia being raped by Utrecht, of all nations.

JUST FUCK MY SHIT UP
- Emperor Vaclaw of Bohemia, 1462 AD

The defence of Corfu fails and it loses half of its territory.

The weak should fear the strong.

Breton trade ships are dominating the commerce in the Bay of Biscay. Taxation of this trade is filling the ducal coffers and Francois is pleased, for more money means more building projects.

Also, that's a lot of forts France just upgraded. Holy shit, how are they not bankrupt?

Oh right they're France I forgot

After both nations sign peace treaties, Hungary and Milan decide to ally as they both hate the Italian triple entente of Tuscany, Venice and Naples.

More advanced monetary techniques spread to Tabriz as well, which has a lot of wise people debating economics.

This is a great example of the art and intellectual centre's effect on institution spread.

Banking has finally spread to Bro Dreger as well and Brittany can now embrace the institution. However, it'll cost quite a bit.

Francois is more interested in spending that money on buildings. He decides to start constructing a fancy commune hall in Saint Malo, inspired by Italian town halls.

An Italian man in Francois' court is a prime example of a Homo Universalis, a man who excels at everything. To keep him in his court, Francois gives him gifts and orders several works of art from him. In return, he gives him valuable and wise advice.

Francois also continues to support the Franciscan order like his mother had done before.

Naples continues its crusade in Albania and keeps converting and subjugating locals. In Vardar, local heretics are forced to leave or convert.

This is one option for dealing with heretics, the other ones being their conversion in a less forceful manner or tolerating them.

Tuscany has embraced the renaissance and from Florence the ideals spread to rest of Italy.

Even Palermo down south gets it, as it's a minor center of trade.

The Polymath reads old chronicles and finds out that King Alan of Brittany, almost five hundred years earlier, had ruled the counties of Coutances and Avranches and the easternmost border of his realm was on the river Vire, which is also the border between Navarre and France. This means that technically, Constentin was once de facto and de jure part of Brittany.

Francois asks him to write a treatise justifying the Breton claim on the territory, even if it requires twisting history and lying a little.

I didn't make any of that up, by the way, read for yourself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_I,_King_of_Brittany

Poland declared war on the Teutonic order, and Denmark-Sweden, Lithuania, Livonia and Novgorod all joined the war.

Ottomans ally with Tuscany, which makes a bunch of christians raise an eyebrow.

Constantinople still hasn't fallen, by the way. Rome and Ottomans keep signing a truce that lasts 5 years and then renew it. Not sure how it works but there's so many byzantiboo players that they can probably tell you.

Francois sells more meaningless titles to rich idiots to fund his projects.

However, some nobles aren't dumb and don't want something meaningless.

The Polymath notifes Francois that over the years, the nobles have secretly pushed out all commoners from the officers corps. All of them. Now a bunch of talentless hack frauds are commanding and training his personal levies and mercenaries.

Francois is understandably furious and has no pity on the uppity nobility. He fires numerous nobles from officer positions and promotes a number of capable commoners. This makes the nobles pissed as well. But not pissed enough to impact stability, thankfully.

War with Aragon-Navarre is out of the question as both Castile and France refuse to aid. Castile has a peace treaty...

...while France has a huge amount of debt and some war exhaustion.

Francois is so pissed that he decides to strip some nobles of their titles, which is a more cruel thing to do to a noble than killing his newborn. If a baby dies, he can have new ones and pass his title to one of them, but if he loses his title, chances are he'll never gets it back.

Francois doesn't care and just wants to indirectly show middle finger to nobles.

However, demotion would result in disloyalty and that's something he doesn't want. Besides, it'd be even more cruel to give them a gift first and THEN insult them. And so he waits until he has enough cash stored.

Oh, right, that's why France is in debt, it upgraded a fuck load of forts all over the place.

The road network in Bro Naoned and a new street plan in Nantes are both finished. Several hundred workers died during the construction, which doesn't bother Francois at all.

Roads are pretty great, as you can see from these bonuses. But they're more important for nations with a lot of land and few ports, such as Russia. For Brittany, road networks are mostly unnecessary.

Isabeau's cousin comes for a visit. Francois isn't eager to welcome a new distraction and lets his courtiers and his wife handle the uninvited guest. Afterwards the cousin returns home and tells everybody what a wonderful ally Brittany is and that they really are best friends.

"How kind the great Duchy of Brittany has been to her", you mean. Silly flavor text.

FUCK

CONTAINMENT HAS BEEN BREACHED

BRANDENBURG IS BREAKING FREE

FULL ALERT

REPEAT, FULL ALERT

Poland and friends are having fun raping Teutonic and Livonian orders and Novgorod.

In 1465, listening to the advice of the Polymath, Francois drafts new laws regarding loaning and interest rates and legalizes many popular ways of circumventing the ban on usury. The laws are approved by the nobility and the burghers at the Estates, but not by the clergy. However, democracy is a tyranny of the majority so their opinion doesn't matter.

Remeber when I said "if we improve our cities, it (banking) should spread to us within decades?" That was almost a hundred in-game years ago.

*facepalm*

The Polymath says this will help Francois get loans at a better interest rate as Jews receive competition. He also calculates that production will improve as loans help businesses get going.

FUCK FUCK FUCK

RED ALERT

PRUSSIA INCOMING

Brandenburg didn't get their elector title back, though. I guess that's something.

Weakened Novgorod makes peace with Poles, Lithuanians and the Dane-Swedes but is then immediately raped again, this time by Muscovy.

The Teutonic Order also capitulates and cedes much of their territory.

fuck you castile

When Poland conquers certain provinces from the Teutonic order, they are given an option to turn them into a march and give them back some land. H I S T O R I C A L.

King Edward of England is not afraid of selling land to his cousin in Scotland in order to pay his debts.

The embezzler trait is a bit annoying as it sometimes results in bordergore and nonsensical province sales that only cause unrest and headache for the buyer.

the fuck

uh

i guess Bohemian heirs rather killed themselves than accepted the crown because of how miserable their kingdom is now

Francois finally sets his plan into motion. He sends magnificent and expensive gifts to all nobles of the land.

Days later the announces that numerous nobles will be stripped of their titles and demoted and overall humiliated.

fuck this I'm playing such a small country I don't need the thorough option

Francois' act of cruelty enrages the nobility and shatters the long lasting internal stability of Brittany.

The nobles of Bro Roazhon are now mostly barons, little more.

From the east, worrying news arrive.

The Hussite war has begun.

Oh, it seems like Bohemia is already preoccupied with being occupied by an OPM. Okay.

King of Bohemia: wake me up inside
Also King of Bohemia: CAN'T WAKE UP

Prague, already full of calixtine heretics, is a heretic stronghold. The king is held captive and it's up to the pious catholics to rescue him...

...once the war with Decapolis ends, that is.

Provinces occupied by heretic rebels get this modifier. It's from Dei Gratia and should be replaced with regular devastation, but no one dares to touch dharper's byzantine code.

All of Prague isn't heretical, though. A large minority of catholics still lives there.

It's a miracle anyone lives in this war-ravaged hellhole that is Bohemia. I mean shit, Prague had 30 rural pop and 5 urban pop and one point, now look at it.

Decapolis wins the war and takes Strassbourg after beating the shit out of Bohemia. Now the war of religion can continue freely.

I dunno about you, but I don't think the King will win this civil war.

Speaking of which, it'd be fucking amazing if this mechanic was adapted for regular civil wars. If the pretender occupies all your strongholds he'll become your ruler. Other powers could intervene and either support the ruler or the claimant.

I already have an erection. Fuck, my sexuality is weird. What do you call someone who gets aroused by accurate historical simulation in a video game?

Oh and also bohemian greater nobles are disloyal

SOMEBODY END THEIR SUFFERING ALREADY

Why the fuck HRE re-elected Bohemia, I'll never know.

Speaking of elections, the HRE electors come to their senses and elect the ruler of Saxony. They're an OPM, but have the powerful ally of Meissen.

BOHEMIAN BANKRUPTCY, Queen's new song coming to a digital music store near you.

Ottomans wake up from their slumber and go to war, but only because their ally woke them up.

Eagle-eyed readers might notice that Jalayrids own Cairo. Why? How? What? Fuck if I know.

By the way, I whined about the name of the Hafsids on the forums and look, they were renamed to Tunis! Remember, kids, whining on the internet can result in change!

Well, in moderate change. It won't depose the president of USA, no matter how much you whine.

The bishop of Rennes Michel Guibé is in trouble as his subjects try to take away his holy hat of authority and kick him out of Brittany. He is blamed of supporting the Hussite cause and of being a filthy heretic. The clerics ask for Francois' help, which he gladly offers as he wants to ruin the bishop's career, mostly for shits and giggles, not because he cares about his religious beliefs. He's cruel, after all.

Michel resigns and Rennes is without a bishop. Francois laughs and decides to make it even better by declaring Michel a heretic. He is hunted down and one week after the declaration he is burned at the stake in Nantes.

Francois smiles, goes inside his palace to eat lunch and later at night vomits and shits blood before dying a painful, miserable death.

Rumours spread across Brittany about his passing. Had someone poisoned his food? That'd be a fucking fitting punishment for him, at least, considering that's how he assasinated his mother. Who did it? The nobles? Michel's supporters? Isabeau?

No one would ever know, but theories would be made for centuries, each more ridiculous and insane than the last.

Duke Francois the Builder would be buried next to his mother in the Cathedral of Nantes. His magnum opus, his passion project, the crowning achievement of his life, the new SUPERCATHEDRAL, is left unfinished.

Francois' son Artur is too young to rule (not to mention that there's no bishop of Rennes to crown him anyways) and so Isabeau becomes Regent of Brittany. A large celebration is held in the ducal palace.

However, many nobles refuse to attend. This, the Duke's death and the start of a regency hurt the stability of Brittany. Many people blame each other for assasinating Francois and threats are flung, some fear a struggle for the throne while others doubt Isabeau's ability to rule. She is indeed completely unprepared for the task.

Isabeau has no idea what the fuck she's doing, but still thinks that she should lead Brittany to war. She's a devout zealot and the news of the Hussite war make her paranoid about any heretics. And there is a large number of them right across the border in Constentin.

She wants to do only one thing: P U R G E T H E H E R E T I C S

Levies are drafted, vassal knights are called for duty and mercenaries are hired. Brittany will go to war once more, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. DEUS VULT!

As Isabeau is hiring advisors for the war and talking with Yann Carne about the war plan, a visitor arrives. It is a captain of a merchant ship and skilled navigator called Gaël de Tinténiac.

He has traded much in the south, sailing from Iberia to Brittany and back numerous times, and knows one big problem: Granada controls the strait of Gibraltar. Any trade vessels coming from the Mediterranean have to pass through their strait, and they can't do that without being heavily taxed by the Muslims. Not to mention how all the gold and ivory from Sub-Saharan Africa has to pass through Granada or how the price of Indian spice has risen drastically due to Mamluk instability.

But Gaël has a solution in mind: A new trade route in the south. At the very least, merchants can trade with Africans via the Atlantic, skipping Granada entirely. But he might also discover a route into the Mediterranean around Africa, or perhaps even... a direct sea route to India.

So he has come to Isabeau, his liege and ruler, to ask for funding, support and a ducal mandate for his expedition. At first, she refuses. She has no time to worry about such dumb things and says money corrupts the hearts of men. Gaël is shocked and disappointed, and considers asking the kings of Portugal, Castile or France to support him.

But then he has an idea. He requests another audience with Isabeau and this time asks her to fund an expedition to find the lands of legendary Prester John.

Isabeau throws money at him and orders him to sail as soon as possible. Gaël chuckles, as he knows Prester John's kingdom has already been found, south of Egypt in the mountains. The ruler calls himself Negusä Nägäst, King of Kings, ruler of Ethiopia. But he doesn't let Isabeau know that, lest he loses her support.

Fun Fact: The Emperor of Ethiopia Zara Yaqob sent a small delegation to Florence in 1441 after the Pope invited the Coptic christians for a visit. The black men raised a few eyebrows but not much else as racism wasn't invented yet and christians welcomed fellow christians, even if they looked really weird to them.

(His name should be de Tinténiac as there's no place or family called Tintériac. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famille_de_Tint%C3%A9niac https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tint%C3%A9niac)

fuck you castile

Two more vessels are given to Gaël, who is the captain of Fortune: Francois and Neptune. The three ships will embark on a dangerous journey into the unknown, and they know not what they will find...

More specifically, they sail south along the coast of Africa, trying to find a route east.

Hussites are victorious and force their captive King to convert.

LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION! DOWN WITH THE CHURCH! FUCK THE POPE!

Isabeau is deeply shaken by the news and fears the spread of heresy. Something must be done.

The peace treaty between Castile and Aragon-Navarre is over and the time for war has come. France is even more in debt and are unable to join, but they're not needed. Castile is a powerhouse.

Yann Carne leads an army north to Constentin, the rightful lands of the Duke of Brittany, where many heretics live.

They won't live for much longer. Yann has orders from Isabeau to hunt them all down. The heretics must be purged.



How fitting. In this part I've talked about means of production, middle finger was showed to nobles, thousands of peasants died in construction projects and there was a revolution against a corrupt tyranny. And Tuscany appeared, a medieval totalitarian one-party state. It's just... perfect. *Tears of joy flow down his cheek*

See you next time, when Brittany and Castile fight against Aragon-Navarre and their strong ally Burgundy, and when the Age of Exploration begins. Good bye. Now if you excuse me...

*The Internationale begins playing again at 100% volume*