Mod Suggestion - Albigensian Crusade
A couple of days ago someone wondered why Toulouse was a Crusade target when Crusades should be directed against Jerusalem and I pointed out that, historically, Toulouse was the target of a Crusade... and a pretty major one at that. Since then, the idea has been growing in my mind of how much fun a SS mod that covers the Albigensian Crusade would be.
I should say up-front that I have absolutely no experience in modding, aside from changing Turn per Year and a couple of other minor things so I would be of little use to anyone on that front, but I do have some ideas and I hope someone might decide to take it up.
The first thing to think about would be the small area. The only traditional Factions actually involved, even in a small way, are France, Aragon, HRE, Castille, the Almohades and English. However, there were also at least five Knightly Orders that had some involvement as well as a number of nobles (Count Raymond VI of Toulouse in particular). Since the actual area is technically owned by only a few countries, and I'm a fan of having lots of regions, instead of Factions consisting of Kingdoms, they should consist of, more or less, Duchies or Counties with individual regions being made up of major towns, cities and castles. The problem with this is that if you want to get all the cities that played a part in events c.1200-1260 you would probably need to include La Rochelle, Lyons, a bit east of Marseilles, and possibly as far into Iberia as Madrid (for a geographically correct square). The area is actually too big to properly take in the important settlements (because some would be tiny and others huge), but if it was much smaller it would be missing out on major players. Anyways, I'm sure that could be figured out.
The Factions
Catholic:
France
Aragon
HRE
English (emergent)
Castille
Crusaders:
Order of the Knights Templar
Order of the Knights Hospitaller
Order of Montesa
Order of Calatrava
Order of the Holy Sepulcher
Islam:
Almohades
Heretic Factions would be more numerous with Cathar and Waldensian as religions. I don't think the simple route of making them into two Factions would really work since, for example, Toulouse may have been sort of Cathar but "switched sides" a number of times. So...
Cathars:
Toulouse
Montpellier
Carcassonne
Monsegur
Waldensians:
Lyons
Avignon(?)
Marseilles
The interesting thing about some of these Factions would be that some would primarily consist of "Peasants", others mainly "Militia" (including the Order of Calatrava), and others varying degrees of "Noble" and "Professional". The Heretics would work very well as Aztec-style Factions capable of raising enormous armies of low quality troops. Variety in General's units would also make a lot of sense with some Factions having the usual Bodyguard while others have more William Wallace-style Generals.
Since the time frame is so much smaller than most campaigns (about 1200-1260) I think 6-8 Turns per Year would be required and Britannia-style religious zeal should be used for the tech trees. As well as Catholic, Cathar, Waldensian and Islam, it might also be good to have some representation of the Dominican and Cistercian Orders if that's possible.
A number of events would need to be scripted in, such as the excommunication, reconciliation, excommunication, exile and return of Count Raymond (normal excommunication and the calling of crusades would be redundant); the English crusade contingent; and the gifting of lands to Factions. I'm fairly certain that the death of the King of Aragon resulted in all of Aragon being given to the Knightly Orders for a brief period. Parts of the Languedoc certainly were gifted by the Pope to France and finally got the French king off his arse. Then there was the Inquisition and the accompanying mass burnings...
There might even be room for Heroes... I'm thinking Simon de Montfort in particular (not that he was much of a "hero"... more of a butcher... ).
There's LOTS of room for interesting units, too, even if some might have to be made up to balance the Heretic Factions with the others (although, since they had the support of local Nobles they would still have access to many of the normal units). I think small elite Priest units that boost allied morale (think Coyote Priests(?) from Americas) would be cool for the Cathars.
Oh, in case you're wondering why the Almohades are included here... The Order of Calatreva was briefly known as the Order of Salvetierra, named after the city where they fled to after Calatreva was taken by the Almohades in 1195, Salvetierra was itself taken by the Almohades in 1209 - the same year the Albigensian Crusade was called.
Anyway, there's a lot to this fascinating period and I think it would make for a great campaign... I just hope someone is interested, and skilled enough, to do it.
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Re: Mod Suggestion - Albigensian Crusade
