Happy Wednesday everyone! I’m your friendly Community Manager Ryagi, and it’s time for another Tinto Talk. Today we’re keeping with tradition by rounding out our DLC talks with some artistic flair.
But before that, incase you missed it, over the past few weeks, Pavia has taken us through a tour of what content Across the Pillars has to offer, you can find links to those here:
View game pageView game pageView game page
Now onto the art!
Across the Pillars art:
Content and Code are cool and all, but a little eye candy can go a long way in giving you an immersive experience. So let’s take a quick look at what kind of art AtP has to offer. Before we start listing things off, I wanted to highlight 3 particular pieces of art! 2 from our art team here at Tinto, and 1 from our Marketing folks in Stockholm.
You can probably see for yourselves this is quite a detailed image! The scene depicts the Puerta de Indias in Seville around 1500, with Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon united in marriage. Christopher Columbus reports to his patron, the queen, with news from the Americas, with the Giralda and the Torre del Oro behind them and ships waiting on the river. The Iberian union has always been an iconic event in EU4, so we wanted to give it some dedicated representation both in art and through gameplay. Finally above the stage you can see the famous “Tanto Monta”. This is a phrase the monarchs shared, which came to represent their cooperation and unity. The tabards of the heralds show the addition of the pomegranate in celebration of the recent conquest of Granada.
Across the Strait, Morocco's loading screen offers a different mood. Instead of a royal court, we get an army on the march, with red banners marked with golden crescents, dust in the air, and a donkey (That’s our animal for this loading screen!) carrying its load behind the spearmen. One of my favorite aspects of this loading screen is the variety in the soldiers uniforms. Unlike our 1.1 Rossbach loading screen for example, this depicts an arguably more grounded, earlier era army.
And last but definitely not least, our Across the Pillars key art! Two leaders, blades locked, with a battle raging all around them, and it's not clear who has the upper hand. And that’s the point. Who comes out on top is up to you once you start playing. This piece was put together by an artist who worked with our Marketing Department. They worked from a previously established setup pose created by Magoo, the agency behind our trailer. Huge thanks to both for helping us capture the heart of Across the Pillars.
2d Art isn’t the only thing on offer though! We’ve also got a good amount of 3d Art to go through, mainly, portraits and units. We’ll be showing a small selection of them here below.
Across the pillars also comes with Unique DNA for the following Iberian Characters:
Pedro I, Enrique de Trastámara (Enrique II), Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Francisco Pizarro, Pedro González de Mendoza, Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros
And the following Moroccan characters:
Ibn Battuta, Ibn Khaldun, Muhammad VI Nasrid, Yusuf I Nasrid, Abu al-Hasan Ali, Abu Inan Faris, al-Jazuli, Sidi Ahmed ou Moussa
Let's start with the Castilian cultural outfits! This lineup runs from nobles all the way down to commoners in plain caps and hoods, so you can read a character's standing at a glance. (Headwear is tied to rank, so the fancier the hat, the higher up the political ladder)
An Iberian themed chronicle pack would feel incomplete without some holiness.
Author note: Cardinals and Crusaders sounds like an alternate reality CK3 DLC
And of course some new Moroccan portraits as well.
At some point many of these characters will be commanding an army. And that’s where unit models come in!.
Across the Pillars features 25+ new Unit Sprites and Illustrations. But remember EU5 has a dynamic army composition on the map! So when we say sprites, we’re talking about the individual models.
First the Castillians:
“The Alabarderos are the halberd-bearing guard of the royal person — a single company of a few score men, raised to stand at the door of the chamber rather than in the line of battle. Their polearms guard the monarch as much as they grace the court, and a king who finds himself relying on them in the field has already lost the field.”
Not directly recruitable, instead these boys show up through the conquistador mechanic
A new look for the Age 1 Castillian Knights! Used by all countries with certain Iberian Cultures (Castillian, Leonese, Catalan, Portuguese, Galician, and Basque)
“Inspired by the Moorish jinete, the Lanzas de Castilla ride lighter than a knightly lance but fight heavier than a skirmisher, closing to break a formation where a true light horseman would only harass and withdraw.”
And now their rivals to the south:
Early age regular troops for Morocco
“The Black Guard is an elite corps of slave soldiers: enslaved men, haratin, and free Muslims raised from childhood to a strict religious creed and drilled in archery, horsemanship, and musketry. They form the backbone of our army.”
Moroccan levies got a face lift!
Age 2-3 regular troops get some color!
“Heavily-armored camel riders, Heavy Camelry trade the speed of lighter camelry for staying power, crashing into enemy lines and enduring punishment that would scatter lesser horsemen.”
Lastly, some boats of course! It IS a battle for the straight after all.
Built for speed, Moroccan light ships will keep your coast firmly under the influence of its rightful sovereigns!
The humble Galley can punch far above their weight if utilized correctly
Before we jump into the achievements, let's also take a quick look at some of the monuments and buildings! Firstly the monuments.
5 new Moroccan Monuments (Alhambra, Rock of Gibraltar, Qarawiyyin, Kutubiyya, Ksar Aït Benhaddou)
The 3 new Monuments Castilian Monuments (Alcazar de Segovia, Mosque/Cathedral of Cordoba, Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela)
And now the buildings:
1.4 Achievements:
Some of the base game achievements have already been made viewable in game, via the open beta, while others tied to DLC are to be revealed here. For the sake of completeness, we’ll be showing them all today. Steam also has a new feature allowing achievements to be categorized by DLC. Naturally we’re interested in using this feature, so we’ll be taking the opportunity to try it out for AtP! More details on that soon though.
For now, strap in, it’s time to get things straight:
Getting Things Strait: Starting as Castile, have a cored city with a Coastal Fort on each side of the Strait of Gibraltar.
Live Forever: Enact the “Masters of the Sahara” decision.
Re-Re-Reconquista: Starting as Granada, form Al-Andalus, and control (directly, through subjects) the former Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba territories.
The Catalan Atlas: Starting either as Aragon, Mallorca, or Sicily, reunite (directly, through subjects, or with Junior Personal Unions) all the lands of the “Aragonese Titular Holdings.”
The Last Crusade: As a Catholic country, lead a winning Crusade in Northern Africa or the Middle East.
The Road to El Dorado: Discover the legendary city of El Dorado with an expedition.
There and Back Again: Complete the “Circumnavigation of the Globe” expedition.
Tinto Monta: Starting either as Castile or Aragon, become the Senior Partner of the Iberian Union.
Crossing the Pillars: As Castile, Morocco or Granada, win both the “Battle of the Strait” and “The Golden Century” situations.
Divide the Land: Build a Canal.
Endured Atlas: Starting as Morocco, secure a strong homeland and either centralize your government or maintain strong support among your Tribesmen.
Family Matters: Starting as Tunis, remove the “Hafsid Familial Governor” reform and have no remaining “Familial Governor” subject.
Across the Pillars Music:
Finally, across the Pillars will come with 9 unique musical tracks, and these tracks join with our already existing dynamic music within EU5. Ensuring that tracks like these have a level of authenticity continues to be one of our goals for the EU5 OST, so to expand upon that I’ll pass the mic to our Audio Team:
When playing Castile or Morocco, it should be a unique experience that feels fresh, new and exciting. Our goal for the music was to support this experience with distinct and culturally authentic musical expressions and flavours that expand the palette of performances compared to the base game soundtrack. In order to achieve that, we worked with top class performers that are experts on Castile and Moroccan musical heritage and traditions. Ensemble Altamar with their vibrant and colourful performances of period repertoire really bring historic Castile to life. It’s also been a pleasure for the team to have been able to work with Asmâa Hamzaoui, master of the Gnawa spiritual musical tradition, on creating the Moroccan soundtrack for the game. The photos below show some of the traditional instruments that we recorded for Morocco.
We hope that you enjoy playing Castile or Morocco in Europa Universalis V alongside the wonderful performances of these great artists. You’re probably curious to hear this music yourself, and you’re in luck! We’ll be releasing Across the Pillars OST This Saturday October 24th. You’ll be able to listen to it on Spotify, Apple music, or directly over on our YouTube Channel.
Now it’s time to wrap up, we’ll be skipping next Wednesday's Tinto Talk to focus instead on the Across the Pillars and 1.4 release themselves. We can’t wait for you to join us there on October 28th!
Until next time.