Balkan Culture?

[Kraut and Tea]

With the recent patch a new culture was added that covers factions throughout the entire Balkans, with the Culture being called "Balkan Culture".

I have to honestly say that I find this to be a somewhat lazy approach.

To categorise all these factions as "Balkan Tribes" makes somewhat sence, but culturaly there were certainly far more differences.

Should there be a seperate Illyrian culture, Dacian culture and Thracian culture whilest Tylis regains it`s celtic culture?








I dont think that CA will bother to change that, but it could be done via mod.

[krisslanza]

I can see why they did it this way, rather then give everyone a unique (if fitting) culture.

You can use Rome as an example. They're the only Latin culture in the game, and as thus, suffer greatly from every faction hating their guts for having a different culture, and they have to slowly culturally convert every single region they march into aside from Italia.

I could see modders doing something like this though, since it does sound like the kind of thing they do.

[rafmc1989]

Two maps for you.
Balkan culture never existed in Ancient Era!

[Stavroforos]

Two maps for you!

Ah yes, I remember 2nd Century Romania. I see the map forgot to include USSR and Yugoslavia.

Anyway, categorizing them all into Balkan cultural groups seems to be a bit of a crap move since they are not the same cultural background as factions, but they just occupy the same region. It would have been best to split them up into the various barbarian factions, just like Baktria is a Successor Faction even though it's nowhere near the other successor states.

[Mortarion]

Im ok with it, especially because the 4 factions each have their pros and con bonuses and they each form their own confederations. They can't forma a Balkan confederation, but instead form a Illyrian or Dacian confederation. Now if they where able to form a balkan confederation and be of same blood thing, then i would be dissapointed.

[neoptolemos]

The ironic is that "Balkan" is not the correct term for the era

[D E C]

I'm Balkan and I find this offensive.

[Sebidee]

No, there shouldn't. These factions were more or less closely related.

I'm not entirely sure of the name 'Balkan' for them though. Was that name in use so early? I would have thought Thraco-Illyrian would be more fitting.

I think giving each their own culture would be the wrong choice. There are only so many cultures they can have in game and having one for almost every faction would be awkward, complicated and would drastically affect gameplay.

[neoptolemos]

No, there shouldn't. These factions were more or less closely related.

I'm not entirely sure of the name 'Balkan' for them though. Was that name in use so early? I would have thought Thraco-Illyrian would be more fitting.

I think giving each their own culture would be the wrong choice. There are only so many cultures they can have in game and having one for almost every faction would be awkward, complicated and would drastically affect gameplay.

Balkan is the Turkish term for Greek and Latin "the Haemos Peninsula" and I do agree that Thraco-Illyrian would be more appropriate term

[TuCoT]

Balkan is the Turkish term for Greek and Latin "the Haemos Peninsula" and I do agree that Thraco-Illyrian would be more appropriate term

Actually it is a Bulgarian word simply means "mountains" as far as I know.

As for in-game, I think Daco-Thracian for Getae, Biephi, Odrysia and Triballi is enough but they could create a new culture for Illyrians because they're very different than Dacians and Thracians. By the way, Tylis is such an unnecessary faction to unlock. We already have more than enough Celtic faction (Gallic, Britannic, Boii, Galatia)

[ABH2]

You can use Rome as an example. They're the only Latin culture in the game, and as thus, suffer greatly from every faction hating their guts for having a different culture, and they have to slowly culturally convert every single region they march into aside from Italia.

What does this even mean? Public order stops being a real issue after the early game stage, anyway.

I'm seriously just curious. Is there a single feature of this game you don't understand or agree with?

There are only so many cultures they can have in game and having one for almost every faction would be awkward

The game would break with an Illyrian culture? Considering they have several Illyrian factions, seems pretty reasonable to have just broke them in two. Because they were distinct. Pretty much everyone agrees it would make more sense to simply have had Thracian/Illyrian cultures. No one is calling for one for each culture.

This isn't a big deal to me one way or the other. It strikes as more or less laziness. I also hope they don't all have the ability to confederate. That feature is a little broken. That would be my biggest concern.

The Ardiaea do well on their own. Last thing I want is to see them have more factions they can confederate with. A big blog in the middle of the map that will overrun the Greeks.

[14182]

I feel that the Balkan culture emerged just because CA has decided to release these Illyrian, Dacian and Thracian factions altogether in ONE culture pack, so they made them all up into the same fictional culture.

Also, I agree with ABH2 and TuCoT that there should at least be Illyrian and Daco-Thracian cultures instead of the Balkan one which is fundamentally inaccurate.

I can see why they did it this way, rather then give everyone a unique (if fitting) culture.

You can use Rome as an example. They're the only Latin culture in the game, and as thus, suffer greatly from every faction hating their guts for having a different culture, and they have to slowly culturally convert every single region they march into aside from Italia.

I could see modders doing something like this though, since it does sound like the kind of thing they do.

It's not a legitimate reason to make up a Balkan culture when you look at the number of settlements controlled by factions from a particular main culture at turn 0 in GC:

Latin - 7
Britannic - 6
Iberian - 8

You may say it's an extra challenge for those who decide to play as these factions. But, it's not us against the world and those with a common enemy will still accept to be your friend. Of course, if you want to go extreme, you can choose one with diplomatic penalty to make sure everyone hate you.

[ABH2]

Even with the diplomatic penalty, it's still just a matter of having to pay some extra money to get certain agreements. It's hardly a major obstacle.

[Jack Lusted]

I think some clarity is needed here.

The tribes in the Pirates & Raiders Culture Pack & Getae FLC have a number of defining features. Their faction group, culture, subculture, unit rosters, building trees and names for characters.

All of the tribes belong to the new Balkan faction group which gives them bonuses relating to the recruitment of mercenaries.

A new Balkan culture has been added, which you see in the settlement detail panel and affects public order and culture ocnversion via temples. In the game it is largely an analogy of religion, and is shared by the Ardiaei, Getae, Odrysian Kingdom (along with the unplayable Illyrian and Dacian tribes) but not Tylis. They've retained their Celtic culture. There was a lot of commonality between the different Balkan mythologies, the Thracian Horseman being a good example of this, so we felt that most of the Balkan tribes sharing this culture was fair.

Two new sub-cultures have been added to the game, Illyrian and Daco-Thracian. These define which factions can confederate with each other. So the Ardiaei can confederate with the Delmatae and Daorsoi, and the Getae/Odrysian Kingdom can confederate with each other and also the Biephi. Tylis remains in the Celtic subculture so can confederate with nearby factions like the Galatians, Scordisci etc.

Unit wise the rosters are broken up into 4 distinct sets. Illyrian, used by the Ardiaei, Delamtae and Daorsoi. Dacian for the Getae and Biephi. Thracian for the Odrysian Kingdom and finally Tylis has it's own unique roster. They're there to show the differences in fighting style and equipment used by the different groups.

Buildings are also divided in a similar way, with new religious chains added for the Illyrians, Thracians and Dacians.

Finally we added all new Illyrian, Dacian and Thracian name sets for characters, so they no longer share the Celtic names.

I hope you can see it's far from being a simple case of us just lumping these factions together with no differences between them.

[Sebidee]

I hope you can see it's far from being a simple case of us just lumping these factions together with no differences between them.

This is why we should actually observe what happens in the game rather than jumping to conclusions.

Still, is the name 'Balkan' right for the period?

[D E C]

This is why we should actually observe what happens in the game rather than jumping to conclusions.

Still, is the name 'Balkan' right for the period?

No, but it's convenient. As you can see it's still better than just all being "Celtic".

[Sebidee]

No, but it's convenient. As you can see it's still better than just all being "Celtic".

True, but Thraco-Illyrian would be more authentic!

[crawe1]

I hope you can see it's far from being a simple case of us just lumping these factions together with no differences between them.

That all sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Regarding the name "Balkan", I think it's just a convenient word. I mean, people have been referring to the Thracians, etc. as the Balkan factions on this site for some time now, long before the DLC was announced and released. It may not be historically accurate, but it gets the point across.

[Stavroforos]

I guess Balkan works as a geographic moniker, since even in game the factions belong to different cultural groups.

[Darios]

*scratches hair*

I'm not sure why CA didn't simply go with the term Daco-Thracian though I guess they did it for the same reason they have an "Eastern" culture instead of "Iranian" for Parthia, Scythia, etc. CA is a company based out of and largely markets towards the Western European/American populace so there's a bit of Orientialism going on. It is easier to market "The exotic other" with a geographic term rather than an ethnic name. This is just me nitpicking though. Based off of other TW games, I'm just happy that they actually used real Dacian names, deities, etc for the Getae faction. They also gave the Odrysian Kingdom their own separate Thracian names, deities, etc. Ultimately, the Dacians, Thracians, and Illyrians were all closely related and at the least spoke dialects of the same language. Even in Albanian, Bulgarian, Romanian today there are about 200 words that they share and seem to point towards a Daco-Thracian origin.