AD 1255. Italy is in chaos.
Five years ago, Frederick II "Stupor Mundi", King of Sicily, is dead.
Just one year ago, his son and rightful heir to Kingdom of Sicily and the Holy Roman Empire, Conrad IV, is mysteriously dead, and now there are many who claim the Kingdom.
Manfred, son of Frederick and stepbrother of Conrad, crowned himself King of Sicily; the Pope called him usurper and claims the Kingdom as his feud; from the North the young Conradin can enforce his rights on the Kingdom.
Everywhere in Italy is war, the ancient struggle between Guelfs and Ghibellines is reaching the highest peak.
In a escalation of violence and bloody battles, the Cross and the Eagle fight without mercy.
Someone has to take control of one of the two parties and bring order in Italy.
THE PROJECT
Crux et Aquila -The Cross and the Eagle- is a project which covers a period never used before by mods, and the only one which fits with vanilla papacy mechanics: the fight in XIIIth century between Guelfs and Ghibellines.
CAMPAIGN TIME-FRAME
1255-1325, 4 turns per year probably with 280 turns.
A short time frame, I know but full of events, and these two dates are important: in 1250 Frederick II died, and in 1254 his rightful heir Conrad IV died; so, in 1255 Manfred crowned himself King of Sicily, and the Pope declares war to him.
During these years we have the most bloody battles of Middle Ages, such as Montaperti, Benevento, Tagliacozzo, Campaldino.
I close the campaign in 1325 'cause historically the previous year Aragon complete the conquest of Sardinia, and in this year there's a great battle between Guelfs and Ghibellines at Altopascio.
These are the years of the most cruel fights between Guelfs and Ghibellines, and this is the reason of the name: the papal Cross, and the imperial Eagle.
FACTIONS
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
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I made a deep research to insert the most important States in 1255, but also I used different parameters: for example, you can see there are "family" factions, because at the time the grew and became great powers (Visconti defeated Della Torre family only after a long war, and Fieschi family was establishing a personal lordship, but they were stopped by genoese consul Oberto D'Oria).
Also, I prefere some Communes like Perugia and Parma instead of others because they fit better in campaign map and they covers better rebels "holes". Also, in Southern Italy we find rebel regions because many cities and barons rebelled against Manfred.
We'll have complex family trees, like the one of Lords of March of Treviso (I'll made a family tree with both Ezzelini and Della Scala).
Communes won't have family trees.
MAP
Of course the map covers the entire Italian Peninsula, but also external areas. I have to apologise with non-italian users for the lack of settlements out of Italy, but I wanted to focus on Italy.
But I want to simulate the missing cities with permanent stone forts, I'll make a research to add the most important ones.
Map pics (many images!)
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
FACTION ROSTERS
One of the great problems in making a sort of "regional" campaign, is that faction rosters are going to be very similar between them, so I have some solutions such as:
-a good AoR
-special buildings depending on regions and factions
Also, I'll put mercenaries to be hired in buildings and not on the field, and I'll make an AoR for them (for example, Venice could easily recruit dalmatian mercenaries, but more difficulty french ones).
Many factions historically had contacts with factions which are not in campaign; for example, Ancona had always friendly contacts with Eastern Roman Empire, so some byzantine unit could be recruitable for them; in 1266, Genoa had the port of Caffa in Crimea, so some units from that place could be available from that date.
Under Crux et Aquila I'm developping a sub-project, a roster pack called "Milites Italiae", which I'll use for CeA and I'll release.
Up to now this roster pack will allow you to compose a generic communal army of XIIIth-XIVth century, the roster is composed by:
-peasants
-archers
-palvesarii
-pikemen
-billmen
-crossbowmen
-mounted crossbowmen
-berrovieri (medium-light cavalry)
-stipendiari (heavy mercenary cavalry)
-milites (heavy cavalry composed by nobles)
I'll release it with different skins: one generic, more suitable for rebels, and other for those factions most used in mods (Venice, Genoa, Milan, Pisa, Florence).
UNITS
GENERIC COMMUNAL ROSTER
MILITES
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STIPENDIARI
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BERROVIERI
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MOUNTED/DISMOUNTED CROSSBOWMEN
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PALVESARII
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BILLMEN
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PIKEMEN
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HISTORICAL EVENTS AND SCRIPTS
This is what could make unique CeA campaign: interactive and historical scripts. Just an example to make clear what I mean.
For instance, we are playing as Anjou, conquering in the north as we want; in 1265 we receive the call of the Pope to go in Southern Italy and destroy Manfred...well, we can decide to not go down there! And because of this, obviously we won't have a scripted battle of Benevento, niether the appereance of Aragonese.
This is the goal that more than others I want to complete.
SPLASH SCREEN (by Goofy)
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
MENU (by Goofy)
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
CREDITS/CONTRIBUTORS
Zames: team leader, all modding areas, historical research
Mr. Crow: CSUR, support and advices
=Shia=: a MTWI user which created the base map
Goofy: new logo and signatures, menu and splash design
Charge: map textures, a bit changed by me
Rusichi team: horses, various stuff
Kostantinos XI Palaiologos: advices and hints about North-Eastern Italy
Whoa . First of all great preview. Second thing I feel this is going to be great mod. Nice choice of the factions and great looking map! Definitely tracking this mod!!!
Wow, wow, wow. I am super impressed, this is really a complete looking preview for an exceptional-looking product! Congrats Zames, thanks for sharing with us your "secret"!
Good work +rep. Italy deserves a focused mod for sure. Also looking forward to your Italian unit pack and hope it will have just as much success as CSUR.
Thank you yes, apart from the base map it's all made by myself.
Added pics of a new unit, stipendiari (mercenary heavy cavalry, mostly from Germany); saddles are green only because I'm using the milanese faction to built the roster, they'll be changed.
Crux et Aquila (navigable Po pics on page 7!)
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[/UR
. First of all great preview. Second thing I feel this is going to be great mod. Nice choice of the factions and great looking map! Definitely tracking this mod!!!
