This is a new faction mod. Besides the addition of the Cathars to the M2TW main campaign, it is otherwise unchanged.
I always wanted to be able to play as a heretic faction, hence this little project. This mod is only very loosely based on the historical Cathar movement, which was perhaps the most predominant heresy of the medieval period, in Western Christendom at least. For a faction description, see below:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The Cathars were a heretical Christian movement that spread throughout Europe in the early medieval period. Having originated amongst the Paulicians of Armenia and the Bogomils of Bulgaria and the Balkans, the movement came to be known as Catharism in Western Europe.
They practiced a Gnostic form of Christianity, hardly recognisable to the faith of their more orthodox counterparts. They preached that all material things were evil, and that only the spirit was pure. As such, the creator God of the Old Testament was regarded as the devil, while the New Testament was seen as being the true revelation of God. Humans were seen as angelic spirits trapped and tormented by their fleshly bodies; somewhat like the Buddhists of the Far East, they believed that souls must transcend their corrupt bodies to end the cycle of physical rebirth and suffering.
The Cathar movement gained its strongest foothold amongst the peasantry of Southern France, where its anti-clerical message resonated with the poorer sort, who were disillusioned by the excesses of the Catholic Church. Priests were replaced by 'Perfecti', preachers who travelled in pairs just as the original apostles had done in Jesus' time. Eventually, Catharism became quite established in the region, establishing several bishoprics and holding its own ecumenical councils.
Such growth and consolidation concerned the Papacy, who initially tried an ecumenical approach to bring them back to the flock. When diplomacy failed and a Papal envoy was murdered on the orders of a Cathar noble, the good-will ended, and the Albigensian Crusade began. While the Cathars resisted to the end, the Crusade largely wiped them out, although a few small Cathar communities remained until into the 14th Century.
The Cathars will be quite a unique faction to play as. They have no family tree, being a largely peasant movement with a leading core of nobility. Their infantry core is composed of Pilgrims, Flagellants, and Fanatics - light infantry but with a shock value, and good morale. Their heavy troops are very limited; however they have strong Occitain militia units, as the militia tradition of Southern France was similar to that of the Italian city-states. As a largely peasant movement, they have adapted ways to fight heavier foes - their units make good use of stakes and many units carry blunt, armour-piercing weapons. At the strategic level, although they will spend a lot of effort converting captured provinces, the fact that they can convert enemy provinces to the heretic faith means they can cause huge unrest in enemy settlements - a key to a succesful campaign. Also, the Cathars do not build churches, having always met in public areas or private residences. As such, they get an automatic conversion bonus in any settlement.
They will also be a challenging faction to play as. Starting out in Southern France, they are surrounded on all sides by Catholic factions, and have no heretic counterparts to seek alliances with. There are also not really any natural geographic boundaries that they can look to consolidate early on - no islands or peninsulas. As such, they could very easily end up with war on all fronts!
So, all in all, I think they are a very fun faction to play as. Below are a few screens to give you an idea of what things look like.
This mod is run on the Kingdoms.exe, so it requires Kingdoms to play. It uses a mod folder, and so will not affect your main installation. It is designed for Kingdoms patched to version 1.04, which is what Kingdoms automatically patches to when installed.
Simply add the barebones folder located inside the mod folder into your own M2TW mod folder. Place the barebones batch and cfg files inside the main M2TW folder, and run the mod from the barebones batch file.
01-24-2014, 12:44
The Outsider
Re: Preview & Download - The Cathars, a heretic faction for M2TW
Great mod mate. I have been wanting to play heretics for a long time now. Thanks for the effort. I encountered one small issue however, I dont seem to be able to convert castles to town and vice versa. Is that normal?
01-24-2014, 15:35
The Outsider
Re: Preview & Download - The Cathars, a heretic faction for M2TW
Ok mate, I have been playing for a while now and I have noticed another thing, the population growth is massive. Especially in the castles and since I cant convert them into towns there are quite a few of the and I dont have the time to gather resources for upgrade and as a result I am starting to have serious public order issues. Also, there seems to be an increase in the appearance of independent heretic units within my regions. Would that be a plus for religious conversion or should I burn them at the stake?
01-26-2014, 00:02
The Outsider
Re: Preview & Download - The Cathars, a heretic faction for M2TW
One more thing that I noticed is that although in some provinces, the heretic religion is 80-90% I get really high religious unrest penalties although it should be the opposite. It seems heresy still has a bad effect on public order and it doesnt work as a normal religion should. This essentially makes the campaign unplayble. What a pity, it was a really good idea.
02-03-2014, 14:07
The Outsider
Re: Preview & Download - The Cathars, a heretic faction for M2TW
