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Realism & Balancing (Remastered)

Realism & Balancing is a mod which aims to rebalance the game for those who find it too easy or are dissatisfied with the execution of Paradox's hard difficulties. While other mods like Dark Ages exist, I wanted a mod that makes the game harder but without adding more mechanics to manage. It's not so straightforward to become the most powerful realm anymore and the AI should put up more of a decent fight when it comes to holding realms together and seizing opportunities.

AI behaviour has been adjusted, to make it more likely to declare war on similar or slightly weaker opponents. Logic has also been implemented to allow the AI to rush down lifestyle trees to open more opportunities to itself. This is intended to close the gap between the player and the AI, at least as much as I'm able. I still speak with the original author Hanlein but he is too occupied for the time being to maintain this mod.



New game rules for the 867 start to help set up a more historical situation in the near-term, the new rules are:

Haesteinn of Montaigu: Have him be landed or begin as a landless adventurer.

Harald 'Tanglehair': The first king of Norway, will become a 'weak' conqueror on game start. Virtually guaranteeing he will succeed in his ambition. He will lose his conqueror status once he has become king of Norway. Preserving the balance of power in Scandinavia.

The Great Summer Army: A second invasion force led by Guthrum, as mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle will invade East Anglia in place of Ivar 'the Boneless'. Additionally, the invasion of Northumbria, if successfully won by the vikings will grant both the ruler of Jorvik and Guthum (if he is alive) the historical territories of the Danelaw. Also sets up appropriate tributaries on the island to help preserve the borders for a while longer.

Conquest of Normandy: 'Rollo' or Hrolfr as he's known in game, can now be made to begin a war with west francia from the start of the game for the duchy of Neustria even though it's quite ahead of schedule, the decision to form Norman culture has also been altered so the AI is guaranteed to do it. If Hrolfr wins his war, then he will automatically convert to catholicism and change his name to Robert, his baptismal name. Setting the foundation for the de Normandie dynasty and Norman adventurers to influence Europe.

Conquest of the Rus': A game rule that makes Rurik Rurikid a conqueror on game start, much like the Cholas of India.

Border Disputes: AI only casus belli for rulers which do not have access to the conquest CB, which simulates player-style claim fabrication. It costs gold and piety to declare so kingdoms will expand slowly when they get good opportunites. Kings and emperors always can declare border disputes for duchy titles but a duke who also has the ambitious trait can also declare for a whole duchy. So keep an eye out for potential problem neighbours.

Conquerors can also no longer randomly spawn within the region of Europe, Tibet, East Africa, Siberia and the Sahel Region (The Sahara Desert Basically) this helps prevent ahistorical situations like super HREs as well as making regions that didn't influence history massively not get involved with the wider world.

Some titles have had their creation requirements altered in a way to stop ahistorical happenings. Holding the title of Al-Andalus, blocks the creation of Xenxir and Valencia, keeping the Umayyad realm united. The Kingdom of Sardina also cannot be formed, unless you actually own Sardina, my fix to prevent Louis II of Italy from always forming it and ruining the Carolingian succession. I may make other slight alterations in the future but am open to suggestions for any others eye sores that crop up under the AI.

Domain limit isn't gained from stewardship anymore, it is now exclusively from innovations and legitimacy, maintain a high legitimacy for a powerful domain.

AI realms have access to regular partition from the start of the game instead of confederate partition, so they won't blow to pieces as much. This won't stop them from forming kingdom titles in situations the player wouldn't but the map is noticably cleaner.

Alliances aren't automatically formed, instead a truce is made between the two parties for 10 years. claimants will be far less likely to ally with each other, resulting in behaviour that consolidates AI realms rather than continuous fracturing.

AI rulers receive a scaled modifier, according to their tier to help simulate player no-brainer strategies and make them more of a threat, these buffs are presented in a way to prevent the player from exploiting them while giving the AI an edge:

Men-at-Arms Recruitment Cost: -50%
Men-at-Arms Maintenance Cost: -50%
Monthly Domicile Income: +1
Monthly Domicile Influence: +1
Domcile Herd Construction Cost: -50%
Domcile Gold Construction Cost: -50%
Domicile Build Speed: +50%
Embarkation Cost: -50%
Tyranny Gain: -50%
Stress Gain: -50%
Sway Scheme Length: -150 (Paradox's method to help AI realms, speeds up the scheme significantly)
Accolade Glory Gain: +25%
Cultural Fascination Speed: +25%
Own Scheme Secrecy: +25%
Hostile Scheme Success Chance: +25%
Hostile Scheme Resistance: +25%
Enemy Hostile Scheme Phase Timer: +25 (Slows down schemes against AI to give them a fighting chance)
Disease Resistance: +1 (Should prevent mass die offs from epidemics, hopefully a temporary measure)

Only for independent rulers, from counts to emperors, they receive these additional buffs, scaled where appropriate:

Build Speed: +50%
Building Gold Cost: -50%
Building Prestige Cost: -50%
Building Piety Cost: -50%
Holding Construction Speed: +50%
Holding Construction Gold Cost: -50%
Holding Construction Prestige Cost: -50%
Holding Construction Piety Cost: -50%
Monthly Development Growth in Capital: +0.5
Monthly Control Growth in Capital: +1
Popular opinion (personal counties): +10
Fort Level: +1
Monthly Legitimacy: +1
Baseline Court Grandeur: 0 / 0 / +5 / +10
Monthly Influence: 0 / 0 / +1 / +2
Monthly Lifestyle Experience: +5% / +10% / +15% / +20%
Knight Effectiveness: +5% / +10% / +15% / +20%
Men-at-Arms Toughness: +5% / +10% / +15% / +20%
Men-at-Arms Damage: +5% / +10% / +15% / +20%
Mercenary Hire Cost: 0 / -10% / 30% / -60% (Nullifies the tier penalty for hiring mercenaries)

Landless Adventurers benefit exclusively from these buffs but do not share in the scaled buffs of landed rulers:

Provisions Loss: -50%
Provisions Use: -50%
Monthly Domicile Income: +2

All Casus Belli costs have been multiplied by 10, meaning you'll actually need to host activities to earn the prestige or piety to go to war. To help the AI overcome this, they get a 50% discount to activity costs and pay only 50% of CB costs, except against the player - in which case it's free.

Realms can have a max of 5 defensive wars up from vanilla's 3, powerful realms like the Abbasids will get dog piled if they lose their army.

Ambitious AI rulers will now prioritise the diplomacy lifestyle in order to unlock the Ducal Conquest and Forced Vassalization CB. Good matured rulers who aren't lazy or content will prioritise the inspection focus, letting the AI benefit from the boons of the inspection activity.

AI realms are more resistant to factions forming, on the death of a ruler and subsequent succession, for 5 years the AI will not have any resistances, making factions and civil wars occur. An improvement over Paradox's Hard and Very Hard Modes.


No guarantees for total conversions, you should place this mod last in your load order since it overwrites some files.


If you have feedback or opinion about a feature, post a comment or write your proposal into the request thread below.


Hanlein for creating the mod initially, as well as Dark Ages for some of the tuned AI values.