Holy Order: +10% Discipline: The Crusader legacy of the Catholic Church has given it access to a host of orders of knighthood that fight for God and believe in his divine promise of victory. Church Administration: -10% cheaper stability, -10% core cost: The Church hierarchy can be found everywhere in Europe and is ready to act for a religious ruler to smooth the transitional costs of conquest. True Defender of the Faith: 25% Defensiveness: A mighty fortress is our god. Another mighty fortress? This fort I just built No Witches: +2% Missionary Strength: Though most famous to Americans from the Salem experience, witch hunting was almost epidemic in parts of Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Reformation didn’t help, with suspicion cast on all non-conformists. Onward Christian Soldiers: +10% Garrison Growth: It’s easy to mobilize men once you can persuade them that God is on their side. Turn the other cheek: +1% Hostile Attrition: No matter how holy a populace, a quiet non-cooperative attitude can wear down an army that needs a quick victory. Render unto Caesar: +10% Tax Income: And give to God what is God’s. Fortunately, the Archbishop is both a secular ruler and a divine appointee to his charge, so he gets it all.

Welcome to a new development diary on Europa Universalis. There are only 4 more left before release, so we are close. Not a lot to say this week, since everyone is crunching on making sure everything works perfectly smoothly in the weeks up to launch. Seriously. No one is panicking. All is smooth.This week, we’ll just fill you in on a few changes to game mechanics and then talk a bit about the Christian Theocracies.There are now two types of military access for your navies. Ordinary military access will let you use a neighbor’s ports, just like always. However we’ve added a separate option for more advanced naval matters called “fleet basing rights”. With basing rights, your trade fleets can operate out of their ports, giving you the option to control a trade node where you may have very few or no provinces, but still a large navy to steer trade wealth. Your ships will be able to repair only in ports where you have fleet basing rights as well. However, having fleet basing rights costs money, the precise cost depending on the number of ports the selling country has access to. So don’t go crazy making these kinds of arrangements; the money adds up rather quickly.This is a completely new diplomatic action that you can use on the attacker in a war if they are winning their war. You can demand that they sign a White Peace with their target, or else you will join on the side of the defender. This is a rather potent ability, especially in multiplayer.In EU3, missionaries were placed, and then you had a random chance every month of the heretic or heathen province changing religion to your state religion. In EU4, this system has been changed. Now most of the factors that gave you a percentage chance of success in EU3 instead increase the strength of the missionary. There are of course various factors that reduce the strength of missionaries as well; as richer provinces are less likely to convert, some religions are resistant to conversion, decisions and ideas, etc.Each month, the effective missionary strength in that province is added as ongoing progress, and when it reaches 100%, the province is converted.There aren’t a lot of major Christian theocracies in EU4, but there are enough to consider giving them their own personality, including their own idea group. The Crusade era came to crashing halt with the Battle of Varna (the game’s starting point) but you still have a powerful Papal State, the Teutonic and Livonian Orders holding sway over the Baltic region, tiny archbishoprics in Germany and the Knights that guard Rhodes against the Saracen hordes.These states start with 20% quicker manpower recovery and an additional missionary.When the Theocracies are fully devout, they get 20% extra manpower.