Rio Salado — After Strategy

EU5 1.4 Río Salado: Character Cardinals, Two-Phase Crusades and Religious Orders

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On Wednesday, September 23, Tinto Talks #125 gave a face to EU5’s Church. In 1.4 Río Salado, Catholicism becomes less a menu and more a set of people: named cardinals, holy wars with a war chest and a leader, and religious orders settled in your provinces.

Update, October 26, 2026: the 1.4 open beta has been available since October 1, and the update launches on October 28. It arrives with the Across the Pillars Chronicle Pack, which adds the Iberian military orders mentioned below.

Cardinals Become Characters

The main change fits in one sentence: cardinals are now characters. Paradox Tinto replaces the Cardinal Seat building, which the team was never sold on. The cardinal keeps a seat in a specific location, and the College of Cardinals appears on the Catholic Church map.

The example shown is Gil Álvarez de Albornoz, a historical Castilian who led the reconquest of the Papal States in the 1350s. In the base game, cardinals use regular ecclesiastical models; the dedicated 3D model arrives with Across the Pillars.

The Papal Curia is now composed of these cardinals. A bull is proposed by a Catholic country, as before. But only the countries that control a cardinal in the Curia vote, which limits the number of voters.

Diplomacy then kicks in. Two actions let you ask a country to support or reject a bull. In Paradox’s example they target France, which controls the most cardinals at the start of the game. The Dei Gratia Rex bull passes there.

A Cardinal in Your Cabinet

Cardinals also serve internal management. A cardinal whose seat lies in one of your locations can become a general or a cabinet member. He can even hold the regency for a minor if he sits in the cabinet when it begins. Promoting him to Head of the Cabinet takes enough Political Influence.

A new religious action, Appoint Dynasty Cardinal, turns a member of the ruling family into one. The two existing actions, request and remove a seat, stay in place. For Paradox, a ruler’s son becoming a cardinal opens new dynastic options.

Crusades and Jihads: Two Phases and a Leader

The rework hits both holy wars at once, because they mirror each other. A Crusade is called by a Curia vote, which needs a majority of cardinals. A Jihad is called by a religious action.

A Crusade has two leaders: a Spiritual Leader, always the Papacy, and a Temporal Leader, the founding realm. A Jihad has only one. A country that joins with a higher Great Power score, or contributes more, can take over leadership.

Each holy war runs in two phases. Preparation gathers members, gold and zeal. Religious Zeal runs from 0 to 100 and only wanes in war. It grants bonuses to damage against heathen troops, war exhaustion tolerance and peace offer acceptance.

At 100% preparation, a war is declared against the objective and 20% of the contribution is split among the members. Paradox shows a Castilian Crusade against Morocco, answered by a Tunisian Jihad.

Actions and Rewards

Actions fall into three lists: 4 shared, 6 specific to the Crusade (including Preach the Crusade, Grant Indulgence and Levy the Saladin Tithe) and 7 specific to the Jihad (including Issue a Fatwa and Levy the War Zakat). Actions reserved for Iberian and Maghrebi countries are left for another Tinto Talks. On top come 35 events, a Crusade Privileges bull and a desertion mechanic.

Winning pays more than before. Both wars open with Conquest casus belli, which makes land grabs easier. The war chest is distributed by contribution. The winner receives 10 prestige, 10 religious influence, an opinion modifier toward the other members and a Victor modifier for 10 years. Deserters are punished harder.

Religious Orders: Five Orders Spread Across Countries

Religious orders are new in 1.4. They span several realms at once, with holdings spread over abbeys, priories and hospices. Five generic orders arrive: Benedictines and Cistercians for the monastic type, Dominicans, Franciscans and Augustinians for the mendicant type. A third type, Iberian military, is announced for later.

Each order follows one of 10 callings, such as Preachers, Almoners or Confessors for the mendicants, and Contemplatives, Scholars or Cultivators for the monastics. Its strength depends on its global zeal and its standing in your country. Three generic actions use religious influence: grant a holding, expel it, change the order’s calling.

Each holding produces a character usable in the cabinet, which raises the order’s standing in your country. Orders also push toward certain societal values, and the clergy can press you for land through a parliament agenda. More than 20 events accompany the system.

The effects differ clearly: Dominicans convert, Franciscans foster peasant growth and disease resistance, Cistercians raise food production. For players who prefer internal development to Curia plotting and Crusading, it is a new use for religious influence.

What to Watch in the Beta

The 1.4 open beta starts on October 1, according to Paradox. The Grand Voyage Roadmap, published the day before the Tinto Talks, confirms that Christianity will be a major focus of 1.5, with the Western Schism, the Reformation, the Council of Trent and the War of Religions.

What matters for players: a Curia limited to countries that hold a cardinal makes the race for seats strategic, but it may also leave small countries by the roadside. In practice, watch how fast Religious Zeal builds during preparation, and whether each order’s actions carry enough weight to rival a Crusade.

Going Further

EU5 Patch 1.4: Political Influence and Decisions Head to Open Beta This Fall

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Two Tinto Talks in a row, on August 5 and 12, with one shared intention: give the Europa Universalis 5 player more initiative. The two headline additions of 1.4 Río Salado, Political Influence and the return of Decisions, answer a criticism Paradox Tinto voices itself: too much progress depends on an event you have to wait for.

Update, October 26, 2026: the 1.4 open beta has been available since October 1, and the update launches on October 28 with the Across the Pillars Chronicle Pack. Catholicism, announced for August 12, was finally detailed on September 23 in Tinto Talks 125.

Political Influence: A Currency for State Actions

Tinto Talks #119 presents Political Influence as a new national currency ranging from 0 to 100. It represents the political capital your ruler has accumulated. Keep it high and it raises base crown power by up to 20%.

It comes mainly from the ruler’s total abilities and from the active ability of cabinet members. Laws and privileges change how much you earn.

The team justifies the change with a balance problem. Some actions had wildly varying gold costs, and legitimacy or stability were sometimes used as a stand-in currency. Those gaps created balance issues that EU4 did not have. Political Influence becomes the shared currency of political gestures.

It pays first for estate-related actions: instituting a privilege costs Political Influence, while revoking one still costs stability. It also covers tolerating or discriminating against a culture, changing the primary culture, granting urban rights, moving the capital, appointing a cabinet member, hiring a courtier or acting on a situation. In parliament, 75 points of Influence buy 25 points of support.

The opportunity cost is the real subject. Every point spent is a point missing from the 20% crown power bonus, and getting the burghers’ money, for example, costs a temporary drop in that bonus. In practice, you choose between a stronger crown and a more active estate policy.

Inheritance Contracts and Betrothals: Dynastic Initiative

The same Tinto Talks details two tools of dynastic diplomacy. Inheritance Contracts let a monarchy offer a lump sum of gold, roughly 50 to 1,500 depending on development, to a monarch without an heir. In return, it gains the right to inherit that realm if the monarch dies before naming an heir.

The buyer gains 1 point of diplomatic reputation, the seller loses 1 and suffers a small prestige decay. When the monarch dies, the buyer inherits as the senior partner of a new personal union.

Betrothals, requested since launch, are a promise of marriage between two courts once a prospective spouse is 2 years old. Their opinion bonuses stay smaller than a marriage’s, and breaking one costs prestige and opinion. Both tools run on gold, prestige and opinion, not on Political Influence.

Decisions and the Content Tab

Tinto Talks #120 announces the return of Decisions, which EU5 launched without. Paradox places them in a new Content Tab, designed as a one-stop shop for what makes a country unique: reforms, advances, decisions, policies and laws, subject types, urban rights, bureaucracies and units. Content is color-coded.

The team is not reinventing the formula. Anyone who knows EU4 Decisions will feel at home. Paradox stresses that 1.4 is a first iteration, and the base of a content delivery system it will extend later.

The diagnosis comes from Pavia, the content design lead. Dynamic historical events are the game’s most abundant content: more than 4,000 out of over 8,000 events. Waiting for them to fire sometimes felt like a waiting room rather than a game.

Many 1.4 decisions are therefore existing content, turned into an action the player triggers. The Kremlin building is the example: it no longer depends on a capricious event, it is a decision to pursue.

What Decisions Look Like

A decision can be one-time or repeatable, generic or country-specific, and some offer several options. Each shows a progress bar on its requirements. You can search and filter them and switch alerts on. Some are tied to an Age, such as the Age of Renaissance or the Age of Absolutism.

Paradox gives several examples: sponsoring a cathedral or a great madrasa in the Renaissance, commissioning a palace, establishing a thalassocracy, challenging the rights of Parliament on the absolutist path, building a canal, or abolishing serfdom. The last one sets the societal value straight to +20, at a heavy stability cost. The Privilegium Maius is open to Austria, Tyrol and Styria.

Modders get access to the system from 1.4 onward.

Open Beta: What Remains to Be Seen

Patch 1.4 is not limited to these two mechanics. Paradox also lists the Catholicism overhaul, Crusades, and Iberian and Maghrebi content. The paid Chronicle Pack Across the Pillars, the first of its kind for EU5, will accompany it. The open beta is planned shortly after the Tinto Talks series on 1.4, with no exact date at this stage.

What matters next is how readable Political Influence turns out to be. Paradox does not say how fast it regenerates or whether Decisions consume it. Watch from the first beta days whether it is a reserve you spend regularly, or a stockpile you hoard for the 20% bonus. For Decisions, the question is simple: does the Content Tab make them easy to spot, or bury them under one more interface?

Going Further

EU5 1.4 Río Salado: Ambitions Delayed to 2027, but Catholicism and Crusades Land This Fall

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On July 22, 2026, Tinto Talks #117 reshuffled the 1.4 roadmap for Europa Universalis 5: Ambitions — the long-term national objectives system — will not ship with the next major update. Paradox Tinto chose to delay it rather than deliver a half-finished implementation. The tradeoff: 1.4 “Río Salado” puts its energy into religion, dynasties, and the Iberian peninsula. The open beta is now scheduled for after the August Tinto Talks cycle.

Update, October 26, 2026: the 1.4 open beta has been live since October 1. The update launches on October 28 alongside the Across the Pillars Chronicle Pack, which covers Castile, Marinid Morocco and Granada. The Tinto Talks schedule slipped: Catholicism was detailed on September 23 (#125), not August 12.

What 1.4 “Río Salado” Actually Contains

The codename “Río Salado” points to a 1340 battle in the Iberian Peninsula, where the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Portugal turned back a coalition of Marinid Morocco and Granada. The regional emphasis is intentional.

Confirmed mechanics for 1.4:

Catholicism Overhaul: a deep rework of the Catholic faith system. Specifics land on July 29 with the first dedicated 1.4 Tinto Talk.
Dynasty Overhaul: the dynastic system is being redesigned to give personal unions and succession crises more weight in the medieval-to-Renaissance timeframe the game covers.
Crusades and Jihad: two mechanics central to the era, reworked in the same spirit as Catholicism.
Iberia and Maghreb Content: regional content for the peninsula and North Africa. Paradox specifies that 1.4 is not about colonization but about pre-1500s Iberia (Tinto Talks #118).
Expeditions: included in 1.4 after several months of announcement.

Ambitions Pushed to 2027: Right Decision, Real Disappointment

The Ambitions delay is the central story from Tinto Talks #117. The system was meant to let players set multi-century national goals with diplomatic ripple effects — a layer that would have changed how long campaigns are planned from the opening years.

Paradox Tinto frames the delay as a quality call: shipping Ambitions halfway through would hurt the experience more than waiting. The feature moves to a future update called “Discovery,” targeted for late 2027. That update will also bring a redesign of the game’s content delivery systems — suggesting the team is treating it as structural work, not a simple add-on.

The issue is the timeline. Late 2027 is nearly two years after launch. Patch 1.3 Pavia proved Paradox Tinto can deliver meaningful updates — 200+ Italian nations, central banking — but players who have been waiting on Ambitions since day one have a legitimate grievance. The delay is defensible; the gap it creates is harder to dismiss.

“Across the Pillars”: EU5’s First Chronicle Pack

Alongside the free 1.4 patch, Paradox Interactive is releasing “Across the Pillars”, EU5’s first Chronicle Pack. The format adds content for two nations connected by a shared narrative — here, Castile and Morocco, fighting over control of the Strait of Gibraltar.

From the Castilian side: consolidating the Reconquista and locking down Iberian dominance. From the Moroccan side: pushing back the Christian kingdoms and reasserting influence over the strait. Two factions, one contested chokepoint, opposite objectives.

No release date has been announced yet: Paradox says coverage of the pack will come after the Tinto Talks series on the free 1.4 update, and no price has been revealed. The pack is already part of the game’s Premium Edition.

Schedule to the Open Beta

July 29 — Tinto Talks #118: 1.4 introduction, colonial quality of life, and the new Egyptian Plague.
August 5 — Politics and diplomacy.
August 12 — Catholics, expeditions, and content.
August 19 — Trade policies and economy.
August 26 — Interface quality of life.
After this series — The 1.4 open beta, with no exact date announced.

The July 29 entry should clarify colonial changes and the Egyptian Plague rather than settle every question around religion. Catholicism is announced for August 12. What matters before the beta is whether Crusades and Jihad carry enough weight to offset the missing Ambitions system, or merely add another thin layer to an already complex simulation.

For all EU5 coverage, see the Europa Universalis 5 game hub.

Our preview of the Iberian pack asks whether Castile, Granada and Morocco justify €19.99 in Across the Pillars.

For another Reconquista-themed game, see Crown of Hispania and its Early Access launch, province by province.