Europa Universalis III

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Here's the state of the world 1575. It's a little hard to see, but that's the size of the screenshot the game gave me.

Prussia is surrounded by the Monster Russia, the amorphous Austria, Protestant Sweden to the North, Bohemia where Bohemia should be (:P) and France beginning to eat Protestant Holland. Great Britain owns that little bit of red near the Crimea by Russia and I think the Beleares island by Spain.

Spain is going to own most of Africa and you can see them in Brazil, too. Portugal has almost all the Eastern Seabord of the US. The Mamelukes own most of the Middle East now except for Egypt, which is Spanish, but the Russian menace will probably put them down.

Japan is expanding into the mainland and might slow down the Ming(?) over there.

This is the current HTTT, so it definitely hasn't solved blobbing by any stretch of the imagination.

EDIT: Also, the countries south of me are my cute vassals Polotsk and south of them the somewhat hostile Ukrainians. Everyone with a border with me hates me, for the most part. Mostly due to going Protestant. I think Silesia is still kicking around (Bohemia keeps trying to get them to convert but they are rebuffing them; I've guaranteed Silesia as a chance to get a free shot on Bohemia if it comes to blows). I've been contemplating trying to buy better relations with France and Russia, the latter out of self-preservation and the former to offset Austria.

[Meneldil]

All this blobbing by 1575 is insane :( EUIII would be such a great game if it wasn't so easy for lucky nations.

[johnhughthom]

EUIII would be such a great game if it wasn't so easy for lucky nations.

You can turn Lucky Nations off you know.

[Monk]

You can turn Lucky Nations off you know.

Lucky Nations turned off creates some crazy outcomes. Austria fractured into a tri-stated minor, Wales emerging and taking over England, a super powered Novgorod and Ireland forming and taking portions in mainland europe are just a few things i've seen within the same game with luckies off. I know there's lots of Lucky supporters, but for me keeping it off is the key to a very spontaneous and fun game

[Ja'chyra]

He's doing a bit better now.

1587

How did you get enough colonists to get all those colonies by 1550?

You must have most of them as cities otherwise your economy would be in ruins. I'm only getting 1.6 colonists a year.

[pevergreen]

How did you get enough colonists to get all those colonies by 1550?

You must have most of them as cities otherwise your economy would be in ruins. I'm only getting 1.6 colonists a year.

2.3 or so. We're further than this now. Started colonising very early.

We've basically won. Russia by himself beat Byzantium, Portugal and GB (with Prussia and my (Portugese) vassals) beat France. My land tech is like 8 behind everyone else, so 64 thousand men of mine are beaten by 10k french troops.


I put lucky nations on Random.

[Ja'chyra]

Finally figured out how to take screenshots.

Now, how do I post them?

[Ja'chyra]

Think I figured it out.

This is me at 1517, I have started branching out in Mexico and Cuba, France has imploded but Lithuania and Milan are growing.

[pevergreen]

Finally figured out how to take screenshots.

Now, how do I post them?

I'd recommend going to somewhere like https://imageshack.us/ and uploading it, resize it to a smaller size if you play on a high resolution (like I do) It will give you the code to paste into here and it will show as the others do.

[pevergreen]

Current screens of my MP game.

[Ja'chyra]

Looking for some advice on what type of government to go for.

I am still playing as Castille and am concentrating on colonising the Americas and Africa but also swallowing up European and Middle Eastern provinces when the opportunity arises so I have quite a wide empire.

I went with the Empire option when I took over the Iberian peninsula but not sure whether I should be aiming for something else, advice on sliders would also be good.

I've found so far that there are brief periods of frantic activity followed by years of improving my reputation and suppressing revolts.

[naut]

I've found so far that there are brief periods of frantic activity followed by years of improving my reputation and suppressing revolts.

Pretty much sums up the game.

[miotas]

Looking for some advice on what type of government to go for.

I am still playing as Castille and am concentrating on colonising the Americas and Africa but also swallowing up European and Middle Eastern provinces when the opportunity arises so I have quite a wide empire.

I went with the Empire option when I took over the Iberian peninsula but not sure whether I should be aiming for something else, advice on sliders would also be good.

I've found so far that there are brief periods of frantic activity followed by years of improving my reputation and suppressing revolts.

Administrative monarchy and Constitutional republic are both good options as they provide a significant boost to production efficiency. Noble republic is also a good choice, as you can get the benefits of a republic fairly early on, as well as retaining the ability to marry. Most republics will also give more tolerance to heretics and heathens which may be helpful, if you are going more to innovation and can't get missionaries. On that note, if you are tending to innovation, then it's a good idea to take the "ecumenism" national idea since it will completely negate the notorious "Religious civil disorder" event.

[naut]

On that note, if you are tending to innovation, then it's a good idea to take the "ecumenism" national idea since it will completely negate the notorious "Religious civil disorder" event.

Hmm. Good to know for my Russia game.

[pevergreen]

Map as it stands now. GB and I did a wonderful war against france, which comprised of me sending 332 thousand men at him. For the first time, I wasn't taking hits like 20 - 4500 (I kill 20 and he kills 4500 per hit?). I put advisors to +Discipline, had my land tech as equal and I beat him up.

Soon after, Russia and I destroyed ming, who after the truce, was annexed by Russia. I think I may have to war him soon.



The Spanish-French border for about 50 years prior to the war.

[Monk]

I've been playing recently, chose Burgundy since i heard they can be quite interesting. I had no idea how good of a position they, in fact, have from the 1399 start date.

They have amazing slider position, rich lands, a very impressive COT and some of the best missions outside of the western majors (Castile, England and France in particular). A few slider movements gave me full innovative so i'm way ahead of pretty much everyone in the tech race, and i don't see that changing any time soon. You also start out with the force limits to challenge the BBB next door, which i was a bit skeptical to even attempt at first but a clash seemed inevitable, which eventually lead to my proudest accomplishment in EUIII

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I'd like to say it was difficult, but it really wasn't! France got entangled in a huge war with England and Castile around 1420 and was desperately trying to fight them off. I saw an opening and took it, the climactic show-down between the doomstack of 32k french troops and my own stack of 26k took place at my capital and might have ended badly if the french had not been demoralized, tired, and a long way from home and reinforcements. The destruction of their doomstack sent the entire nation into a death spiral, pushing their War exhaustion way over the limit. After peace was concluded they suffered through decades of anarchy as they tried to scrap together an army again but completely lacked the manpower.

They attempted a comeback 10 years before this picture but ran into the English, who took all of the south-west coast from them. After that, France was a two province minor - and I took the stab and infamy hit that comes with no CB to end them once and for all. The next challenge will be uniting the southern minors while limiting influences of the foreign powers, after that, England will have to be removed from the mainland. Once that is finally accomplished, there will be the matter of the HRE to deal with.

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

*sigh* Playing HTTT, having a lot of fun in a Ottoman game. But my luck seems to be turning against me. Getting stability hits every year it seems, and my bulky empire has a hard time bouncing back from them.


game seems much harder, though that may simply be the fact I am playing a more eastern nation than usual. (god my tech stinks....)


heh.... Love the new dynasty rules and inheritances. Easy to plan out roads that can allow you to pick up some nice PU's. (got a PU with the Horde, and just inherited another middle eastern nation)

[pevergreen]

I've been told that if you have a Natural Scientist (production tech investment guy) you never get hit by the 'Comet Sighted' event.

[Ja'chyra]

I still don't know how you can have so many colonies so early Pever, I am playing on medium with inflation on, does that make a difference as I only have a fraction of those provinces. I couldn't possibly have even the number of South America provinces even if I started colonising at 1399, I just wouldn't have enough colonists

[pevergreen]

I still don't know how you can have so many colonies so early Pever, I am playing on medium with inflation on, does that make a difference as I only have a fraction of those provinces. I couldn't possibly have even the number of South America provinces even if I started colonising at 1399, I just wouldn't have enough colonists

Its a lot easier with very easy/no inflation. Outside of that, I doubt you could do it. Portugal got quite a few missions for me that allowed me to start early, annex all the native americans, i took the NI for 1 extra colonist a year, made sure all my CoT's were on the coast (+-.1) a year. I got 4-5 missions that said 'discover x' so I did, got 5 colonists as a reward. I didn't have to worry about anything else, as I got Castille in a PU early, then with the help of GB, annexed him. Same with Aragon. By this point, I had enough of the NA coast that it would have been impossible for any other nation to colonise at that point (France had gone full land, Aragon was my vassal and GB was a human player who didn't want to colonise) so I made sure I went for the coast first, to prevent anyone else getting a foothold. I ignored Africa/Asia. I doubt it is possible outside of a MP game where all human players are teaming up.

[Ja'chyra]

That makes me feel a bit better, thought I had seriously messed up somewhere

[Beskar]

pevergreen has it on 400 colonists per colonist mission too.

[autolycus]

So this may not be the best thread to ask this in, but I figured you guys might know. I'm working my way through Crusader Kings as Aragon to export into EUIII, and I can't figure out how to marry off my vassals that aren't my blood relatives. Any suggestions?

[johnhughthom]

You can't marry off anyone not in your court.

[autolycus]

They're in my court, but not my blood-relatives. I can say yes to requests for their hands, but I haven't figured out how to actively try to marry them off.

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

Another comment:

I think I need to find some way to keep my heir quarantined, because they must be walking through plague infested land to get ill this much.

The Ottoman Empire is shaping up quite well, only problem is Athens.... Great Britain has it, and attempts at getting it to revolt have all failed. Other than that Greece is mine, and I am just cleaning up the last 2 provinces in Turkey. Got large Vassals along all my borders, and I am controlling Arabia via vassals.

And things are looking good in europe as well Trier got HUGE just a little while ago, Took over Lorraine, Baden, and Switzerland before being taken apart. too bad, I was rooting for him. France is a mess, and all without my intervention Sicily was close to forming Italy, but then Austria came to the Popes aid. As for the HRE, only one reform passed, and I doubt any more will be. Title of Emperor seems to get passed off like hot potato, right now its Portugal.

[johnhughthom]

They're in my court, but not my blood-relatives. I can say yes to requests for their hands, but I haven't figured out how to actively try to marry them off.

Oh, you can't. All you can do is hope somebody else requests them. You can marry them to somebody else in your court, I'm guessing they're useless and you just want rid of them though...

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The world in 1549. With the western nations having fought tooth and nail to reach the top of the heap, some great powers have arisen as being more powerful than the rest;

the Iberian Peninsula has remained stable, But the Iberian Nations are expanding elsewhere, Rapidly. Portugal Picked up more than its fair share of land on the continent due to its stint as Holy Roman Emperor, now holding most of northeastern France, as well as Pommerania. Castille.....Castille took pretty much all of North africa, and most of west africa as well, giving them such a huge manpower base that they are holding steady at around 114,000 troops in all. And of Course they go and meddle with the Mamluks, putting them in contact with me. Not even sure I have a remote chance against Castille. Aragon is still around, that's its biggest accomplishment . In all my biggest two threats by far are Castille and Portugal, Nothing else comes close (although The Russia nations are closing the gap..... ) I fought a successful war against both of them about 70 years ago to take Trebizon and Sinope, as well as when I took Rhodes, but this was long before they expanded this much, and for the most part I just responded to their amphibious assaults until they got tired of war. (this was before I had time to invest in a proper navy. Now THEY will be the ones in trouble at sea. None of them have more than a tiny amount of ships compared to their bulk, and my lean mean fighting machine of a fleet can take them out. Hopefully.)

Austria: Protestant nation, they decided they didn't like the Pope anymore and decided Italy should be theirs. They have their fair share of land and troops, but nothing I can't manage. The Pope took his government in exile to Wurtemburg, where they have carved out a nice little kingdom. Austria is bordering my Vassals, but unless it attacks while I am fighting another major nation I think I am fine.

Great Britain: God I love War exhaustion. I had my little war with Britain, and after 5 years of me waiting for their transports to bring 1000 man armies back and forth to be slaughtered I used spies to lower Englands stability. It did help that they were also at war with parts of France but, I got Athens and Released Munster. The combination of Low stability, War exhaustion, and war with a bunch of other nations left Great Britain with the loss of most of its power. They used to own Frances North west and West coast utterly, but lost it. They also had Tyrone Revolt, as well as Cornwall, Wales, and Scotland. Ireland formed eventually, and although GB has retaken most of the isles, they have still lost most of their bite. Can't wait to see how Ireland turns out though . During my war England had 77 Big ships, now it has 13. Much more manageable. (the War with Britain was the first one where my Fleet proved its worth, sinking any small convoys that came to my land, and sneaking back to my ports when the big 77 ship fleet came by.)


France: Still a mess. New nations get the upper hand all the time, only to lose it in the ensuing BB wars, after which the winners take a bunch of land and get BB warred themselves. Although Lorraine is a HUGE surprise, Taking a ton of land and being able to keep a hold of it for a while now.

Sweden: as you can see Sweden has come out on top in Scandinavia, and is just finishing off Norway.

Poland: Seems like a big threat on the map, but in reality not as big a problem as I thought it would be. Which is good.


The Russians: Dear god. Back when the Golden Horde was my PU they were a distant threat, fighting one another mostly and not much else. But The silly Golden Horde decided it didn't want to be under my benevolent rulership any more, and sabotaged relations so that when my king died it fell apart. Then the Horde was torn to pieces, with nothing I could do. Now I am trying to patch up this mess by forming another line of Vassals, similar to what I have along the Western front. I have fought a few wars, but Attrition really works against my armies, so I only superficially scratch them and maybe get a nation or two released. Muscovy was forced south by Wars with Novgorod, But took more than enough land from the Horde to keep it a big threat. Novgorod is the bigger enemy, and has been extremely aggressive thus far. Novgorod has an army equal to mine, muscovy a decent amount less. I completely Blame the Horde for this mess. which has nothing to do with me not being able to inherit the huge tracks of land any more. (meh, most of it is dirt poor anyways, probably would have released most of it as vassals anyway)


and then there is the Middle east and Asia:

Timurids: Utterly collapsed. Picked a fight with me and my eastern allies, and though we did very little, the Rebels that ended up appearing slowly tore the nation apart. Notable Rebel nations:
Persia: Becoming a actual threat to my authority in the middle east, they tore chunks from the Mamluks down south and have become a real regional Power.

Mamaluks: Used to be a big kid on the block in the middle east. For a while I wasn't sure I would be able to easily take them out. Now they are simply pathetic. I declared war and got Syria released (now my Vassal) as well as took Alexandria (my CB was Subjugation from my Missions, "Bring down the mamluks"..... I still have that mission, and the CB expired and I can't go to war again without a 2 stab hit.) Thats when the Fun started. War exhaustion was high, and Peasants took over the entire nation. To give perspective the Mamluks used to stretch from Cyrene to Aleppo, and to the south they owned all of the Swahilis land and Somalia. The rebels took over and Persia attacked. Persia took the Horn of Africa and Swahili revolted. Then Castille marched in..... I watched as their armies swept through Egypt from my safe perch in Alexandria. They carved the Maluks up, taking most of the choice land. I was needless to say, Pissed. Those were MY choice territories being taken! Now the Mamluks are a sad little line on the map. they are in my SOI, but I am not sure if that will fully deter Castille. We will see.

Arabia: My little puppets, controlling the land for me via Proxy. Only one nation holds out against me, and that's Oman. The second I get a decent CB on it I am going to finish my little set down there

Caucasus: A mixture of my allies and neutrals, I may have to expand here soon if I want the manpower to Attack Castille. I have been courting the smaller Nations for Vassalage, and protecting Armenia. But little has come from it.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Ottoman Empire and its Dependent States.


Expansion involved a lot of Missions. I had to fight more than my fair share of Western Nations in the process, but Frances collapse meant most of the Crusader states were there for the taking. Last few pieces to fall into Place were Cyprus and of course Kaffa. My navy has been bulked up to about 10 big ships, 10 small ships, and 20 Galleys. Which is more than enough to take out most western nations fleets.

Army is about 55,000 men, Decent number, and I am just now phasing in use of Artillery. I westernized a while ago, so my tech is bouncing back, but I have not gotten a 7 admin ruler to modernize my military. Being able to use Cultural tradition to crank out 5 star Artists was a life saver for my Stability, and I was able to follow my Westernizing up by Reforming my government to a Empire for added Magistrate goodness. The bonus to Infamy I got from despotic monarchy was nice, but I burned my infamy all off before making any changes. (got high at times, about 6 points below my limit. And again, another time where making Great men came in handy) Now I am all reformed up, moved my Capitol to Constantinople, all my provinces converted, and quite a few are changing Culture to Turkish, which is nice. I ended my membership to Genoa's trade league, and built a COT in Thrace. Right now I am laying down all the Road systems I can, as well as Post offices, and things have been going great economically. Just waiting on that 7 admin king.......


Short term goals:
1. Reach some sort of Balance of Power in the Steppe's
2. Vassalize Crimea, or annex it to complete the Crimean peninsula.
3. diplo Annex Syria soon, and patch relations with vassals afterword
4. Break Persia and Destory the COT at Fars to force more trade through Thrace.
5. Expand in the Caucasus.
5. Attack Venice and force them to hand over Crete
6. find some way to Vassalize the Mamluks
7. Finish up Road systems and build up a magistrate reserve to get some of the fun Provincial decisions for my Capitol.
8. Modernize military. All the sucky Heirs seem to live longer than they should.....


Long term:
1. Kick the Spanish out of North Africa.
2. Push back Russians
3. ????
4. Profit

And thats about it.

I've been told that if you have a Natural Scientist (production tech investment guy) you never get hit by the 'Comet Sighted' event.

Funny thing is I have only gotten 1 or so Comet. (ironically right after reading what you said) for the most part the Stab hits come from things like the nobles being jerks or stuff. And the choice is always too painful for me to not take the Stab hit.

I've been playing recently, chose Burgundy since i heard they can be quite interesting. I had no idea how good of a position they, in fact, have from the 1399 start date.

They have amazing slider position, rich lands, a very impressive COT and some of the best missions outside of the western majors (Castile, England and France in particular). A few slider movements gave me full innovative so i'm way ahead of pretty much everyone in the tech race, and i don't see that changing any time soon. You also start out with the force limits to challenge the BBB next door, which i was a bit skeptical to even attempt at first but a clash seemed inevitable, which eventually lead to my proudest accomplishment in EUIII

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I'd like to say it was difficult, but it really wasn't! France got entangled in a huge war with England and Castile around 1420 and was desperately trying to fight them off. I saw an opening and took it, the climactic show-down between the doomstack of 32k french troops and my own stack of 26k took place at my capital and might have ended badly if the french had not been demoralized, tired, and a long way from home and reinforcements. The destruction of their doomstack sent the entire nation into a death spiral, pushing their War exhaustion way over the limit. After peace was concluded they suffered through decades of anarchy as they tried to scrap together an army again but completely lacked the manpower.

They attempted a comeback 10 years before this picture but ran into the English, who took all of the south-west coast from them. After that, France was a two province minor - and I took the stab and infamy hit that comes with no CB to end them once and for all. The next challenge will be uniting the southern minors while limiting influences of the foreign powers, after that, England will have to be removed from the mainland. Once that is finally accomplished, there will be the matter of the HRE to deal with.

Nice, I was tempted to Try a Burgundy game, and reading this I might have to give it a whirl after the Ottomans are done.







edit: ohhh yeah, remember what I said about the HRE? where I was laughing? I was wrong. DEAD wrong. Reforms are going through at a decent pace, and Hesse just became Emperor for the 3rd time.

[Monk]

Nice, I was tempted to Try a Burgundy game, and reading this I might have to give it a whirl after the Ottomans are done.

I highly recommend it, Burgundy has proven to be a very interesting, harrowing and fun game. I get the feeling you need a a lot of luck to take down the french as early as I did, but when it works out? It's amazing. Our games seem to be advancing at around the same speed as I just hit 1540, allow me to show the fruit of my efforts.

The last screen was nearly one hundred years ago. What began as a mission to survive, coexist and outlast the mighty Kingdom of France changed in the 1460s when France was out of the picture. England, Aragon, Castile, Naples: They were all encroching into the south of France, taking advantage of the lack of a strong centalized nation to protect the minor powers. I had to change my game plan:

The world of 1549 -

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Kingdom of France had to be reformed if the southern states were to be brought into the fold. If the English and Spanish kingdoms were to be driven out, so that's what I did. Even with the added cores on a great deal of my rivals pushing them back was not an easy task, the most stubborn of which proved to be Castile, who still to this day commands the second largest army in the world. It's been a long road to this point, my tech advantage has disappeared somewhat but I still hold a 3 tech lead, which i'm using to batter down anyone who doesn't fall in line before I lose it.

Europe is in chaos, the reformation shook the very center of the Empire and for the past 40 years various nations have been at war over matters of religion more often than land. The electorates of the empire cannot agree upon whom to elect, nearly completely split down the middle in terms of which faith is the true one. During a vote deadlock in the 1520s the crown passed to the nation with the most prestige up for vote, Me. Though i've lost favor with the electorates since I've been fighting for religious unity for thirty years, it's a war i'm winning, but it's been costly.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

While my realm is the most tolerate society in Europe through the use of national ideas and passing acts that allow more freedoms regardless of faith, the rest of the empire is not. Austria and Poland stand as the last truly powerful Catholic nations in the east amidst a sea of the Reformed and Protestant nations. And they've been a thorn in my side for decades! For now, I am content to build my strength in Italy, as you can see from the first screen. I hold Milan in a Personal Union and have a number of allies and vassals in the north. Meanwhile, Austria is gaining power with every province they take from the Ottomans. It won't be long before they start closing the gap.

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

Nice!


I have been wondering, how the heck do you get a multiplayer game going? Is there like lobbies or something?