Alright, updates! I'm currently implementing and thinking about the effects of the Decisions and Events, and have much of the rest already done (Although I always keep polishing the art until the inevitable release), and
here's the slightly improved leaderescreen. Now, to give more insight about their uniques and playstyle: Their trait,
Astonishment of the World, increase your capital's cultural output by two points every time a Great Artist, Musician or Writer is born within your empire, while any other Great Person such as Great Generals, Engineers, Scientists, Merchants and Prophets increase its science generation also by two points. The other part of their trait is that any specialist produces one additional Great Person point of the appropriate type. Overall, the trait ensures you get Great People faster but only if you focus on it (At the expense of your city growth, since it depends on specialists), and gain even more useful bonuses from them
"A man of extraordinary culture, energy, and ability – called by a contemporary chronicler stupor mundi (the wonder of the world), by Nietzsche the first European, and by many historians the first modern ruler – Frederick established in Sicily and southern Italy something very much like a modern, centrally governed kingdom with an efficient bureaucracy."
"Frederick was an avid patron of science and the arts. He played a major role in promoting literature through the Sicilian School of poetry. His Sicilian royal court in Palermo, from around 1220 to his death, saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian. The poetry that emanated from the school had a significant influence on literature and on what was to become the modern Italian language."
Frederick's unique building, the
Imperial Menagerie, will also help your pursuit for Great People: replacing the Garden, it retains the +25% bonus for great person generation but gains one additional maintenance in exchange for not depending on a local source of fresh water, and it generates +1 Happiness for every three specialists on this city. As such, they may be built anywhere and you can put this happiness to good use by expanding the holy empire with these infidel unique units, Frederick's
Saracen Archers, loyal forces that didn't care if their emperor was excommunicated or not. The Saracen Archer doesn't replace any other unit but is comparable to the Composite Bowman (And is unlocked on the same technology). However, you can only acquire them by two means: Purchasing with gold, where they are expensive, or building them on cities who follow a different religion (Than that of your capital). These infidel cities will also accumulate points from your happiness, and once the city produces a saracen archer it will spawn a duplicate, should you have enough points. They are overall stronger and gain additional strength to rival the Crossbowman with Machinery.
"Frederick loved exotic animals in general. In 1235, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II established at his court in southern Italy the "first great menagerie" in western Europe. An elephant, a white bear, a giraffe, a leopard, hyenas, lions, cheetahs, camels and monkeys were all exhibited; but the emperor was particularly interested in birds, and studied them sufficiently to write a number of authoritative books on them"
"Rather than exterminate the Arab-speaking population of Western Sicily, he deported them at Lucera. Not least, he enlisted them in his Christian army and even into his personal bodyguards."
It is to be noted that his city list initially focus on Frederick's sicilian possessions, so with true start locations the Holy Roman Empire will spawn on Sicily (And whenever that possible as the map deformations merge Sicily, it will spawn on the italian peninsula.)
And if anyone wants to help thinking about the decisions and events, here they are (I also might accept different decisions/events):
- Decision #1: Enact the Constitutions of Melfi
- Decision #2: Establish the Sicilian School
- Event #1: Teutonic Order and the Prussian Crusade.
- Event #2: Batu Khan demands the Holy Roman Throne.
Also, as I don't remember if I've already revealed the Roman leader, some other clues: I just noticed now that he had a beard, and he's not from early rome.