Europa Universalis IV [Archive]

Monk

11-14-2012, 06:55

It's coming. And oh god is it glorious.

EUIV was announced a couple months back and since then the paradox team has apparently been hard at work. Here, a few paradox devs provide a few video walkthroughs for Gamespot, hoping to answer any questions you might have. What do they say? Oh my goodness, quite a bit! Here's a few links, and a list of everything I saw/heard confirmed.

video 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVSUfZv3QnY

video 2
http://www.gamespot.com/europa-universalis-iv/videos/europa-universalis-iv-the-original-grand-strategy-game-6391927/

Features confirmed in the videos:

Video 1:

Complete system of Trade Routes which covers the entire world. Trade routes now respond to a faction's "home node" and "flow" to them, over land and over seas. This new system looks to replace the old Centers of Trade system.
Passive indication of said routes as well as the more obvious trade map. Passive indications are ships moving on the routes letting you see them at a glance (Reminds me of CA's campaign maps)
Trade system seems to be a true focal point of the game. Trade routes "feed" into nodes, and capturing land along the trade route makes it more valuable.
Merchant system overhaul. Merchants are no longer currency to spend, but actual characters who are sent on various jobs.
Terra Incognita makes its return. The entire world looks to be represented on the game's map.
Engine is an updated version of the CKII engine. Very aesthetically pleasing if I do say so.
New Rebellion system which gives a HUGE amount of information at a glance. You can see rebel factions as they begin to form "beneath the surface" of your nation, and can negotiate with them before it comes to hostility.
New Stability system. Stability rises and falls like it used to, however, it is now increased by spending something called "Administration Points," you no longer drop gold into stability research. No information on what those points are, how you get them, or what else you do with them.
Dev speculates that while the game is not yet in alpha state, it is indeed close, and release will happen "6-8 months" after they get to alpha. This would put release sometime close to next Summer/Fall.

Video 2:

Diplomacy screen completely revised and has a Vicky II feel. Instead of lots of text which explains who is allied to what, each category (at war, truce, alliance, ect) is filled with the relevant nation's flag.
More news on Merchants. Merchants are sent directly to other faction's trade nodes and are used to divert money and trade to your trade routes.
Map features dynamic seasonal effects. Snow and ice forms in the winter months and will melt in the spring.
Teases a post release CK2 DLC that allows you to export your saves from one game to another as something they are considering

Any one of those things would get me seriously interested in the next installment of EU. That they've already got such ambitious design ideas implemented and are not even in alpha yet? I can't wait.

CountArach

11-14-2012, 12:57

I'm always going to buy EUIV regardless of what I hear is in it, but this all sounds positive. I'm glad they didn't just go the whole EU3 + whatever was in Magna Mundi route... though I would totally play that game.

a completely inoffensive name

11-15-2012, 08:15

I couldn't get into the third one because it was too complicated. I hope the UI is more intuitive this time.

Mouzafphaerre

11-15-2012, 16:09

Good news indeed! :yes: Thanks for the heads up Monk-sama :bow:

Slyspy

11-15-2012, 20:05

I couldn't get into the third one because it was too complicated. I hope the UI is more intuitive this time.

Intuitive and Paradox do not go together (it is a paradox!). That is part of the fun/challenge/flaws* to be found in their games.

* Please delete those which do not apply to your experience.

Monk

03-03-2013, 06:32

What a difference 5 months makes. Well, that difference happens to be about twenty dev diaries or so. Oh my. My focus on CK2 modding and doing other things let them slip through the cracks, and now, I see I have a lot of reading to do!

I haven't had the chance to read them all but if you have the chance and you're curious like I am...

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?629770-Europa-Universalis-IV-Development-Diaries-Archive

The full archive is here. Just don't get lost in all that information!

xploring

03-03-2013, 17:27

I didn't fully understand EU3 either, but the diplomacy (modeled after CK2) sounds promising, you can actually see what's affecting relationships. I hope they fix the never ending chain alliance (call to war), that is one of the things that put me off playing EU3. I read in the CK2 forum they are going to improve the tutorial, not going to get my hopes up.

They got rid of a lot of stuff, biggest one is the domestic sliders, and redid trade completely...

With the GUI and maps, somehow I think CK2 looks better...

Monk

03-09-2013, 07:48

New Dev Diary: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?673695-Europa-Universalis-IV-Development-Diary-22-A.E.I.O.U&

Austria details, historical events, bonuses and their special national ideas are detailed. Also of particular note is some information on the HRE. Looks like the Emperor will have much more direct control over who is the electors, with the ability to grant elector status (if there are fewer than 7) or declare war to remove it. The latter of which, I'd imagine, would be a severe relations hit to all over electors.

I also like the idea that client nations can repeal HRE reforms should they beat the emperor in a war. Fighting the centralization in EUIII can sometimes be something of a lost cause.

Monk

03-15-2013, 09:58

New Dev diary.

The concept of alliances get an overall with the introduction of Coalitions, which are alliances built against certain nations. This is a huge change, as it gives the ability to lead containment efforts against growing powers without allying with half of the the map (and getting called into a dozen small wars you want nothing to do with!) Normal alliances are still there but now coalitions are the obvious go to choice when you're trying to take on specific powers, at least from the looks of things.

The dev diary also talks about the new overextension modifier, which has been reworked and changed since a previous diary. Looks like, at least on paper, fairly devastating to blob-tactics. Even if it doesnt put a stop to insane world conquests the fact that the modifier is there by default and easily moddable is a big plus for me. :yes:

Read more yourself at: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?675296-Europa-Universalis-IV-Development-Diary-23-Tell-me-sweet-little-lies...

xploring

03-16-2013, 08:46

Beskar

03-17-2013, 07:20

I just hope they change the release vassal to compensate, for example, you take a country and annex it (because you have a core on the capital) then you can release the non-cores as a vassal. That would be a big improvement.

Alexander the Pretty Good

03-17-2013, 17:23

Ideally they'd let you decide what provinces are released with a vassal - in the case where you have multiple possible vassals to form from a given area like Southern France or southern Lithuania.

Beskar

03-17-2013, 19:27

Agreed. I am one of those who doesn't really like wanton "blobbing". I would be happy to 'surrender' control to areas for self-sufficiency.

xploring

04-27-2013, 04:07

There's a pre-game signup/referral thing going on that gives some free cosmetic DLCs, ebooks and eu3 when you reach a certain number of referrals.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?685046-Europa-Universalis-IV-A-Call-to-Arms-to-Strategy-Gamers-of-the-World

3 recruitments — Duke / Duchess
Europa Universalis IV: Winged Hussars Unit Pack DLC
Europa Universalis IV Golden forum icon
Europa Universalis IV presents: The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli with introduction by Johan Andersson

5 recruitments — King / Queen
All rewards from Duke / Duchess
Europa Universalis IV presents: The Art of War by Sun Tzu with introduction by Thomas Johansson
Europa Universalis IV Strategy Guide
Europa Universalis IV: National Monuments DLC

10 recruitments — Emperor / Empress
All rewards from Duke / Duchess + King / Queen
Europa Universalis III Chronicles for free
Compendium Universalis (10-12 main countries description)
Special thank you wallpaper signed by the devs (Digital)

100 recruitments — World Conqueror
All rewards from Duke / Duchess + King / Queen + Emperor / Empress
50 first will get their names on the credit list in the game
10 first will get beta access to the game
3 first will get a trip to Stockholm, and a chance to play MP with the developers

Sign up at the Call to Arms webpage here:
http://signup.europauniversalis4.com/

Here's my referral link: http://signup.europauniversalis4.com/r/116416c8465

There has been a few new dev diaries (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?629770-Europa-Universalis-IV-Development-Diaries-Archive) too. Mostly about national ideas for different countries, but also on spy actions and war scores and peace negotiation (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?680756-Europa-Universalis-IV-Developer-diary-25-Anna-Karenina), which I found interesting.

xploring

05-15-2013, 13:09

Europa Universalis IV - Call to Arms Stream Highlights (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?688488-Europa-Universalis-IV-Call-to-Arms-Stream-Highlights)

Video highlights of the livestream. The little graphic animations on the map looks really cool.

And they are asking for beta-testers (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?688353-Sign-up-for-the-Europa-Universalis-IV-Tech-Beta!).

Beskar

05-15-2013, 14:33

I have 8, so 92 to go!

xploring

06-01-2013, 04:48

Europa Universalis IV Hands-on Previews from the Multiplayer Event in Stockholm (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?691150-Extensive-Preview-for-EUIV-including-hundreds-of-screenshots!&p=15547852&viewfull=1#post15547852)

The first one is really fun to read, and the videos by quill18 are informative and easy to understand.

Beskar

06-01-2013, 08:22

EU4 definitely looks interesting. I like the new trade system though, it will put an end to those old annoying CoT's. I had a Portugal game where I basically had a monopoly on South America and it all went through Lisboa. Then Secura came along taking one of the Caribbean islands then went "lulz" and placed a CoT on it, then suddenly all my trade went away from Lisboa (causing it to stagnate) and went through this random CoT Secura put up.

Yes, I was rather annoyed with that!

rickinator9

06-03-2013, 09:29

I will definitely getting this. Perhaps at release if they removed Cascading Alliances in this one. Cascading Alliances has got to be the concept that made me rage the most... in any game.

xploring

06-03-2013, 12:22

I will definitely getting this. Perhaps at release if they removed Cascading Alliances in this one. Cascading Alliances has got to be the concept that made me rage the most... in any game.

They did. From Johan: "Also we changed chaining of alliances in a war. Warleader now only change during the first 2 months of a war. (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?675296-Europa-Universalis-IV-Development-Diary-23-Tell-me-sweet-little-lies...&p=15175331&viewfull=1#post15175331)"

xploring

06-05-2013, 03:55

EU4 will be released on 13th August.

There will be two versions: Standard ($39.99) and Digital Extreme Edition ($5 more), which controversially includes "several new events for the Muslim nations" (they are not in Standard version), among other cosmetic DLCs. You can see the details here (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?692862-Release-date-for-EUIV-is-13th-August-according-to-GG-plus-preoder). The preorder bonus is the 100 Years War Unit Pack DLC: "Adds new, unique unit models to the belligerent nations of the 100 Years War. Included are 11 infantry models for the warring nations, including England, France, Scotland, Burgundy and many more."

Preorder is available at a lot of places (paradox web shop, gamersgate, greenmangaming, etc) but you get 20% off at greenmangaming with voucher code
GMG20-JLKSA-7A8HA.
GMG links:
Europa Universalis IV (Standard) (http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/au/en/pc/games/strategy/europa-universalis-iv/)
Europa Universalis IV: Digital Extreme Edition (http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/au/en/pc/games/strategy/europa-universalis-iv-digital-extreme-edition/)

Beskar

06-05-2013, 15:57

It is on Steam for pre-purchase with 10% off.

It seems there is a ton of DLC, most of it is free, but only if you do certain things like that referral.
Shown on this page - http://www.europauniversalis4.com/buy

johnhughthom

06-05-2013, 16:13

Oy. Day 1 DLC, now? Some people aren't going to like that.

Meh, if you don't like day 1 DLC, you better give up on Paradox games.

Beskar

06-05-2013, 16:19

I will definitely getting this. Perhaps at release if they removed Cascading Alliances in this one. Cascading Alliances has got to be the concept that made me rage the most... in any game.

That is Secura 's favourite feature. :nod:

They did. From Johan: "Also we changed chaining of alliances in a war. Warleader now only change during the first 2 months of a war. (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?675296-Europa-Universalis-IV-Development-Diary-23-Tell-me-sweet-little-lies...&p=15175331&viewfull=1#post15175331)"

Thought that was in the latest patch, but if it is in EU4 at least, good.

rickinator9

06-05-2013, 19:55

Well, I preordered the €45 edition(which I got a discount on for getting EU3 for free, thanks Paradox). I think EUIV will be much better than EUIII in terms of gameplay AND graphics.

Secura

06-06-2013, 10:55

Then Secura came along taking one of the Caribbean islands then went "lulz" and placed a CoT on it, then suddenly all my trade went away from Lisboa (causing it to stagnate) and went through this random CoT Secura put up.

Hahaha, to be fair I always do this when I colonise that area because the AI has a tendency to do the same thing, usually in an attempt to stop one CoT from becoming so lucrative. It tends to be the first thing New World nations do when they finally accrue the 500 ducats.

It wasn't my intention to kill Lisboa... :P

That is Secura 's favourite feature. :nod:

I cannot describe the hatred I have for cascading alliances, which is amplified by the fact the AI never allies with you in the same fashion.

Beskar

06-13-2013, 18:55

With the big changes to the networking system in EU4, I will be honest, it looks like a very good opportunity when it comes out for us to try to put together a big Org game.

There are many features such as hot-joining (no needing to restart just for that one player), improved networking connectivity (so no use of hamachi, etc, to get a good experience), and a big host of features which makes it more worthwhile than EU3/CK2 to attempt such a feat on a bigger scale.

Beskar

06-13-2013, 19:41

I've never played a paradox game multiplayer. I'd imagine one of the hearts of iron games would be the best for it, but I'd be down for an EU4 game. Got it on pre-order already either way. :rtwyes:

*shivers*
I have to be honest, HoI imho is the worse out of all of them. EU/CK being the best. Vicky being okay.

I have played EU3 on Multiplayer. I have had some mixed experiences. The worst game I played which involved a few Orgah's was where I was Hungary and pevergreen picked Ottomans, then allied a bunch of muslims plus himself against me, and Castile (who was defender of faith) didn't come to my aid. He took Croatia from me. :sad:

I have played a lot of small game skirmishes too, mostly with Secura and it brought a lot more life back into the game. Mostly because there is a country which doesn't do something very derpy, which means bigger and better battles. Though cascading alliances ruined it a lot, as it ended up forcing me and Secura to work together often. Also, me and Secura ended up choosing countries out of eachothers way because it could get rather heated otherwise. A France + Netherlands game, we started having different opinions on what constituted as "Netherlands" or "French" territory.

Though, I watched one of the Dev review diaries which had a big 20 player game and it sounded amazing. The Intrigue and Diplomacy was at a level which the AI would never be able to match and I think coming up with some ground rules, we could recreate a fun and interesting game. I don't think any of us are the type to completely screw people over on an unimaginable level where it comes unplayable.

Edit:Here (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?689790-Europa-Universalis-IV-Developer-diary-32-The-more-the-merrier) is an overview of some of the changes which makes it really feasible.

Beskar

06-13-2013, 20:05

Yeah, some house rules would probably be a good idea. How does CK2 MP work? Can you be the vassal of another player?

Yes, you can.

Main problem with CK2 MP (same as EU3) is that the multiplayer networking is very flimsy and lets say you ended up disconnected, GC. You have to try to contact us out of game (there will be a delay till you are registered as dc'd) then we would have to save, exit the game, completely reboot from scratch, etc, just to let you rejoin.

Beskar

06-13-2013, 23:31

Well I'm glad it seems like they'll be fixing that in EU4. I'm not nearly good enough with computers to do anything more complicated than hitting the "join" button.

Ports, Re-routing, etc too. Basically only way to do it successfully was to mess around with your firewall, router and hamatchi, otherwise I would have offered to do CK2. The plenteous stuff in EU4 even allows "away modes" so lets say, you had a visit from your mother in a game session for an hour, you can set how you would like the AI to manage your country in your absence (even just for it to hold still, build up gold, keep friends with everyone). This is also where game rules will come in with timings and stuff, trying to find a sweet balance of what can work the best and most successfully.

rickinator9

07-02-2013, 03:48

The Preorder bonus for July is the Purple Phoenix pack: "Adds new, unique events and themed event pictures, as well as several new unit models for the Byzantine Empire

Sounds good to me.

Secura

07-11-2013, 00:05

The Preorder bonus for July is the Purple Phoenix pack: "Adds new, unique events and themed event pictures, as well as several new unit models for the Byzantine Empire

Sounds good to me.

While I welcome any additional content for the game (especially when it's Byzantium-related), I've got to wonder just how much they're going to add for an entity that was completely annex within nine years of the game's start date.

Things are difficult enough in 1399, but at least there's some wriggle room with lots of smaller nations to reconquer and the Ottomans start off at war with Timur... 1444 sees Byzantium in far worse a position, against a unified Turkish state that tends to quickly end the Crusade of Varna in it's favour and turn hungrily back to poor Constantinople.

EU3 required meticulous timing and a very sizeable navy to block the straits while you deal with Serbia and Bosnia... EU4 may just require divine intervention though. xD

Beskar

07-11-2013, 01:57

While I welcome any additional content for the game (especially when it's Byzantium-related), I've got to wonder just how much they're going to add for an entity that was completely annex within nine years of the game's start date.

The DLC content is pretty much "player-only" so for the player, the content would be good. It isn't really for the AI at all, since what does getting flavour events and images do for the AI ?

Nothing at all (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQM2QdWkjQI)

Hooahguy

07-11-2013, 16:36

If I really enjoy CKII will I enjoy the EU series? The Steam sale is coming up, probably today so I might get it. Ive heard that CKII is a dynasty builder whereas the EU series is an empire builder.

Secura

07-11-2013, 18:52

The DLC content is pretty much "player-only" so for the player, the content would be good. It isn't really for the AI at all, since what does getting flavour events and images do for the AI ?

I'm not saying "won't somebody please think of the poor AI?" because the content obviously has no real impact on them, I'm just curious as to how much content they can make for a nation on the cusp of annihilation.

You know I love playing as "DAT PURPLE", but how much does it boil down to luck to survive and then conquer the Turks? Byzantium's in a worse position here, there's less states like Karaman or Epirus to gobble up as the Ottomans have already done that and Timur isn't a threat to Anatolia as he was in 1399. I can imagine I'll be restarting a couple dozen times anyway! xD

If I really enjoy CKII will I enjoy the EU series? The Steam sale is coming up, probably today so I might get it. Ive heard that CKII is a dynasty builder whereas the EU series is an empire builder.

I think the reason I like EU and the reason I continue to play it after having tried other PI titles is because it's far easier to climb up the difficulty curve. I found Victoria and Hearts of Iron to be too difficult and 'involved'.

If EU3 is cheap, I'd definitely suggest buying it. :3

Beskar

07-11-2013, 21:09

I have to admit, there are two main whines which are occurring on the Paradoxplaza forums, one of them is the "Steam only" and the other one is Paradox providing all of that free content.

For the latter, I can only imagine the discussions summed up like this:
http://i.imgflip.com/2dl5o.jpg

Chaotix

07-11-2013, 21:28

Yeah, as far as DLC and other marketing strategies go, you can do far worse than Paradox. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say they're pretty benign.

Must be something about European developers. Ubisoft is nearly as big as EA, but you don't hear nearly as many complaints about exploitation and Day 1 DLC and the like.

Anyway, back on topic, I'm surprised they're starting before 1453 at all. That is the end date for CKII after all...

Although I guess it makes some sense because there would be about a 100-year gap of time without a historical start-date in either game, due to the historical starts for CKII ending in the 1330s. So technically you couldn't take the Byzantines into EU4 through a hypothetical heavily-rumored CKII-EU4 converter without at least a hundred years of ahistoricity in between. By that point you wouldn't even be fighting the Turks in EU4 at all if you were doing it right.

Beskar

07-30-2013, 15:37

Those have been following have already guessed this but..

CK2 Save Game Converter and a Copy of CK2 as a Pre-order Bonus (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/content.php?1540-Crusader-Kings-II-Save-Converter-Announced-for-Europa-Universalis-IV)

Alexander the Pretty Good

07-31-2013, 02:49

rickinator9

07-31-2013, 03:32

Unless you had a really bad game in CK2, I can't see the point of importing into EU.

That's why you should start at 1337 in CKII and then export to EUIV. You magically went back 100 years or so.

Monk

07-31-2013, 03:33

Unless you had a really bad game in CK2, I can't see the point of importing into EU. You'll just set up a steamroll of whatever part of the map you don't own...

I guess it'll be good for multiplayer games though.

Whether it works for mods or not is the question. Mods that make mega blobbing a bit harder would be worthy to convert imo.

rickinator9

07-31-2013, 21:10

Whether it works for mods or not is the question. Mods that make mega blobbing a bit harder would be worthy to convert imo.

They said the tool was made to be moddable aswell, so you should be able to convert mods.

Monk

08-01-2013, 02:54

They said the tool was made to be moddable aswell, so you should be able to convert mods.

Seriously tempting, then.

Beskar

08-01-2013, 17:16

Dev Diary on the New AI (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?705072-Europa-Universalis-IV-Developer-diary-43-Artificially-Improved&p=15865254#post15865254)

That is seriously exciting. Get to see everything in detail now, opposed to lets say, why your best buddy 200 relation Austria suddenly drops to -150 rep and leaves you wondering what on earth happened.

CountArach

08-02-2013, 03:30

Unless you had a really bad game in CK2, I can't see the point of importing into EU. You'll just set up a steamroll of whatever part of the map you don't own...

I guess it'll be good for multiplayer games though.

Sure I mean if you play CK2 aiming to blob, that's true. But I hardcore roleplay all my characters and aim to just let the world develop around me. I think with this it would be great to continue on, particularly if you have a mod like Project Balance or CK2Plus which will slow down the expansionism of CK2.

rickinator9

08-06-2013, 13:47

We should do a mp game on friday next week. How does that sound?

Beskar

08-06-2013, 15:10

Only issues is timezones.

I don't think I would have any issues around 18:00-04:00 CET/11:00-21:00 EST I could give a couple of hours or so on that times, so some wiggle room, especially if I am prepared for it.

rickinator9

08-06-2013, 18:49

I'm available from 19:30 PM CET(Might be earlier, depends on dinner)-6 AM CET(Yes, I have crazy sleeping times)

Beskar

08-06-2013, 22:14

I know that feeling. Will be there at 5am going to bed, then having to get up at 8am. But so far, that sounds like a decent coverage for me and you at least.

Beskar

08-07-2013, 01:50

I would say I am GMT, but I found out yesterday that I am currently in GMT +1 (British Summer Time).

So CET would be +2, I believe. East Coast America is 6 hours behind UK time (7 behind CET), which is why I used those two figures. Time is terribly confusing sometimes.

Anyway.. at this moment.

Los Angeles - 1800
New York - 2100
UTC (GMT/Zulu) - 0100
London - 0200
Berlin - 0300
Ankara - 0400
Moscow - 0500
Syndey - 1100

I think might be easier to convert the times to UTC...

UTC
Tiaexz: 16:00 - 02:00 F
Rickinator: 17:30 - 04:00
Gelatinous Cube: 0000 - 0600 F
Secura: 1700 - 0200

F denotes 'Flexible'

xploring

08-08-2013, 11:27

Demo is out, can only play Portugal, Venice, Austria or the Ottomans.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/236850/

Hey there!

Just so you get a good view on the Europa Universalis IV demo content:
The demo allows you to play as one of the four nations below through 28 years of history.
All single player capabilities as well as an extensive tutorial and hint-system are included in this demo.
here are no multiplayer capabilities, and please note that the ability to save & load have been disabled.
English only and Windows only.

Playable countries:

Trade/Venice
Venice was a prominent Italian Free City and played an important role in Mediterranean trade. Their fleet was important for gaining dominance over the Mediterranean Sea and securing the spice trade from India. Venice is a good choice for playing the trading game and seizing trade opportunities in the Mediterranean.

Warfare/The Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire was a major power up to its fall in 1922. The Ottomans dominated land from the Balkans to the Arabian Peninsula. In Europa Universalis IV they are a strong choice for playing a warmonger game because of their cheaper coring costs and powerful early troops.

Colonization/Portugal
Portugal is a natural choice for exploring the colonization part of the game. The nation was important in the exploration of the coast of Africa and the New World. Portugal lies isolated in the western part of the Iberian Peninsula and lacks natural enemies. As long as they keep good relations with Castile they should be able to peacefully explore and colonize.

Diplomacy/Austria
Austria was a major power through the renaissance and up to World War I. The Habsburg family ruled Austria and controlled the Holy Roman Empire for a large part of its existence. Diplomacy is important for keeping the title of Holy Roman Emperor, as it is an elective title. Keeping good relations with the electors will greatly improve your chances of keeping the crown. Austria is a strong choice for a diplomatic game because of their inclination towards holding the title of Emperor.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?706505-Demo-up-on-steam!!&p=15900895&viewfull=1#post15900895

Beskar

08-08-2013, 16:55

I enjoy how my Switzerland changes made it into the EU4 release though.

rickinator9

08-08-2013, 17:39

I just played for a few hours and wow... they improved upon everything!

Secura

08-08-2013, 18:47

I think if you're talking weekends, I could definitely play.

UMT - 1700 to 0200. Probably slightly more flexible on Saturdays :3

rickinator9

08-08-2013, 23:02

Weekends would be fine with me. Never heard of UMT though.

Chaotix

08-13-2013, 19:58

I thought I was going to wait a couple months for it to go on sale...

Then I made the mistake of checking out the Steam page. And I thought, "Oh, only $40? That's not so bad. I expected it to be $60."

Then I caved and bought it. And I wound up getting the DLC too. So in the end that's almost $60 anyway.

Bah... and I did so well resisting the summer sales!

Beskar

08-13-2013, 21:03

Bad luck, Choatix. :sad:

Monk

08-13-2013, 22:18

urge to play a huge mega Ck2 - EUIV game rising,..

Chaotix

08-13-2013, 23:33

Had my first try starting as Oda Nobunaga around 1550. Wanted to see if I could recreate his unification of Japan.

I was doing reasonably well for myself, managed to conquer three additional provinces from my one-province-minor state. Alliances are both crucial and very easy to form at the beginning.

Then came the Catholic missionaries. Okay, so they had actually been there anyway. They had converted one of my provinces before I conquered it in the first place. Every 5 years or so they would rise up with a big 7-regiment stack that I couldn't deal with, and the Shogun had to come in and save me. This happened twice, and then they rose up with an 11-regiment stack. It also got to the point where my conversion stalled out at 42% because foreign traders started flooding in and presumably I didn't have the tech to kick them out or beat them with my missionary. Anyway, this time the Shogun just decided to sit there and wait with their larger army while the rebels sieged my province. There was pretty much no way I could dislodge them, and then when I thought it couldn't get worse, ANOTHER larger rebel stack popped up as well. 26k soldiers sitting in my capital after sieging the first province. Even the Shogun couldn't deal with that.

And that's when I ragequit.

I think I'll try something in Europe next. But there will come a time, when my EU-fu is good enough, that I will retry that Oda Nobunaga campaign.

rickinator9

08-14-2013, 00:20

Then came the Catholic missionaries. Okay, so they had actually been there anyway. They had converted one of my provinces before I conquered it in the first place. Every 5 years or so they would rise up with a big 7-regiment stack that I couldn't deal with, and the Shogun had to come in and save me. This happened twice, and then they rose up with an 11-regiment stack. It also got to the point where my conversion stalled out at 42% because foreign traders started flooding in and presumably I didn't have the tech to kick them out or beat them with my missionary. Anyway, this time the Shogun just decided to sit there and wait with their larger army while the rebels sieged my province. There was pretty much no way I could dislodge them, and then when I thought it couldn't get worse, ANOTHER larger rebel stack popped up as well. 26k soldiers sitting in my capital after sieging the first province. Even the Shogun couldn't deal with that.

That's most likely a bug or an event that's firing too often.

I have been doing well as Muscovy so far
https://i.imgur.com/qdmYPdV.jpg

I gradually vassalized the russian principalities and annexed them into my country. I was attacked by Kazan pretty early on, but I managed to win that war. Kazan went into decline after that, so the Nogai took over. They were no match for my armies, so I took some provinces from them. The only real challenge I have faced was Sweden. I attacked them to get the Novgorodian cores back. I occupied Karelia, but I couldn't go much farther than that. Sweden's 16000 men managed to defeat all my armies. Hell, they even defeated 30000 men while crossing a river. That really frustrated me, but I was able to white peace out.

Apart from that, I have only encountered one thing that I don't like. In one of my wars against the Nogai, they defeated one of my 3 armies in battle. The army retreated from the Aral Sea to Moscow. I'm not an expert on war or anything, but I don't think I have ever seen an army retreat 2000 km and 3 months on end.

Beskar

08-14-2013, 01:48

My first game as Venice, I took Northern Italy, then I ended up quitting as I didn't have it in Ironman mode. I decided "I will try to form the Netherlands!", did it in Ironman mode.. I actually managed to do it! For some reason, England+France+Austria kept getting in coalitions/Alliances against Burgundy, which allowed me to swoop in and get the required lands. Unfortunately, Netherlands was not an achievement.. doh.

Doing a new game as France at the moment. England has been kicked off the mainland, Burgundy is pretty much in the Netherlands except for its capital (future war target). Biggest issue is, I have a European-sized Coalition on me, so I am playing it safe/building up my armed forces. Also very good friends with Castile.

Hooahguy

08-14-2013, 03:31

This game looks so tempting (hail Sweden), but I dont have any money so it will just have to wait. Oh well.

rickinator9

08-14-2013, 04:10

I just found this out: Don't make hasty decisions. The game will punish you for it.

I was playing Muscovy and doing really well. I annexed Novgorod and successfully defended against Lithuania. After that I started to westernise. I should not have done that.

In EUIV, westernisation is done with Stability. If you get positive stability, you will get points and at 100 points, you westernise. However you get Stability -3 when you hit the westernise button and that's where the problems began. It's even more difficult as you have to pay 200% for one Stability level. At first it was still ok. I had a few rebellions and a little bit of money was lost every month, but not much. By the time I had Stability 0 my ruler died and that meant, yes you guessed it, regency time! "Let's remove that carefully accumulated Stability, shall we?". So I went back to getting more Stability and a couple of years later I got this 'Time of Troubles' event. This event caused all of my provinces to get +10 Revolt risk and less tax income. That was the death blow.

I kept playing for some more years until I got like 2 rebellions per month. After that I gave up.

Monk

08-14-2013, 05:18

Been playing around with the CK2 converter.. it's incredibly robust. It loads up modded games just as well as it does vanilla games for transport into EUIV with very few conflicts. I don't think i noticed any bugs.

Religions are relabeled in the move. Tengri becomes Shamanist and most of the pagan religions around the baltic become Animist. I'm not sure what zoroastrianism becomes.

Be aware that Crown Authority is super important in importing your saves. Low/min crown authority will essentially break up your realm into vassal states. So if you are a kingdom, your most powerful dukes will become vassal nations unto themselves. Under lower authorities only the lands directly controlled by you as apart of your demesne will then makeup your main nation. Might be a good reason to push toward high authority right before converting.

Saves from pre 1.11 seem to have issues with traits. Looks like the patch broke a few dozen things, so i wouldn't try importing anything from there. Though you might get lucky, you'll probably have to start new games with the intention to import.

Other than that? I don't know what else to report other than it's freaking amazing. Paradox made a converter that works with modded games as well as unmodded. How cool is that?

xploring

08-14-2013, 06:17

Greyblades

08-14-2013, 16:45

So I started as england in the middle of the 100 year war, my troops were split into three with about half my entire army scattered around france just ready to be picked off, I rage-restarted several times trying to save my troops and win the war and the one time I managed to gather my entire army into one place the french steamrolled me, so I surrendered and gave them Gascony, Caux and Labourd.

I then spent the next 50 years licking my wounds, picking on the scots and the irish, I took most of scotland's land in a single defensive war, annexed all but connaught with ease and ended up annexing scotland, surprisingly without comment from france. Yet when I went for connaught they had formed a coalition against me with The old blue blob, so while I had managed to take the irish provinces France had taken Normandie and Calais. It took two decades of stalemate and blockade to make france let me annex connaught and that was only because the spanish invaded them while they were occupied (I dislike that, I cant annex a nation right next to me only because thier overseas ally refuses to give up?)

After that I spent half a decade recovering and I rejoined the war with france (she had somehow managed to piss off half of the HRE and was getting thrashed) and managed to grab maine and artois and peace out with few casualties. Funnily enough right after that spain decided to peace with france... and actually ordered them to give me back my lost lands! After a few more wars I ended up taking all of the french costal provinces save for brittany and link up my two french blocks, then denmark decided to ally with france. Denmark, while I was occupied with france had taken over both norway and sweden and had become the new powerhouse of norther europe and had a navy almost as big as mine.

Needless to say my french conquest ended there and I turned to the new world. Aside from the occasional skirmish with my previous friend spain, the only important event to happen was when I annexed the entire chereokee nation. Apparantly taking over 20 provinces at a time is a bad idea as I had to contend with a slew of overextention penalties including rebellions and a tanked economy. I am not ashamed to say that I had to save scum a little as france kept invading me, any attempts to appease them was refused because of a -1000 relations penalty that consisted of "wants to annex me", seeing as I had a severely underfunded millitary and was hugely in debt it was very likely they would succeed. So I loaded an earlier save, joined the anti france coalition before they attacked and it's warded them off thus far.
10578

Myth

08-15-2013, 09:44

So to contrast EU with CK, this game is a world-domination conquest type game? You can grab one nation and paint the whole map in your colour? Because that's nigh-on-impossible in CK2.

Myth

08-15-2013, 10:39

Sounds like someone will be playing as the Jomsviknigs http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/08/14/three-hidden-nations-from-the-crusader-kings-ii-to-europa-universalis-iv-save-converter/

So will Paradox make a classical antiquity game to pre-date CKII?

komnenos

08-15-2013, 11:42

I really like that use this converting method and apply it for EU4-Victoria. Is it possible to do it?

rickinator9

08-15-2013, 15:02

I really like that use this converting method and apply it for EU4-Victoria. Is it possible to do it?

There is no official converter that converts EUIV to Vicky II, but I am sure some fan converters will be made.

---

For me the single best addition to EUIV is the new production interface. No more silly micromanagement and you can immediately see what effects the building/unit will have on the province where you want to build it.

Beskar

08-15-2013, 17:19

You know what I have found interesting. if you win the Hundred Years War with England against France, your choice is to "Form Personal Union".

rickinator9

08-15-2013, 17:53

You know what I have found interesting. if you win the Hundred Years War with England against France, your choice is to "Form Personal Union".

Because they fought over the french throne IIRC.

Something tells me the Ottomans were overpowered. I lost every battle where I didn't outnumber them two to one and then even sometimes when I had the river crossing bonus. Hell in the entire war, I had to sacrifice 80000 Russian men to actually kill 10000 stupid Turks. They didn't have a tech advantage, but they did have a small discipline advantage of 15%. That's so small, so that couldn't have been it. Perhaps Ottoman units are better than Russian units?

Greyblades

08-15-2013, 18:14

if you win the Hundred Years War with England against France
How?

Tuuvi

08-15-2013, 18:47

I wanted to get this game so I could start on my Americas mod, and now this thread is making me want to get it even more, it sounds like so much fun.

Too bad my 5 year-old laptop won't run it.

Ibn-Khaldun

08-15-2013, 18:51

I'm waiting until the Christmas to get this game. Hopefully it will cost less than 40€ then..

rickinator9

08-16-2013, 03:26

I see what you did there, Johan...
https://i.imgur.com/UFTxkfx.jpg

komnenos

08-16-2013, 10:42

I want to start with Byzantium in this game but I'm sure that that I can't defeat Ottomans at all. Can you do it?

rickinator9

08-16-2013, 11:25

I want to start with Byzantium in this game but I'm sure that that I can't defeat Ottomans at all. Can you do it?

I haven't tried yet, but you'll probably need a lot of Galleys. After you have built a big fleet, wait until the Ottoman army is in Anatolia. Then, declare war, block the strait of Marmara with your fleet and you're free to siege all their provinces in Greece.

rickinator9

08-16-2013, 12:39

Has anyone encountered this yet: https://i.imgur.com/ZXmP5iE.jpg

I'm not sure what to do. I don't have any other saves sitting in the cloud.

komnenos

08-16-2013, 12:59

Yes it's a good idea, I'll try it. The most challenging part of this game is achieving victorious by Byzantium. It needs a lot of strategies and efforts to achieve success.

Chaotix

08-16-2013, 21:05

Has anyone encountered this yet:

I'm not sure what to do. I don't have any other saves sitting in the cloud.

Well, I haven't been saving to the cloud, but I'll let you know if I come across it.

One thing I have noticed is that later in the game (about 200 years in for me) the game occasionally stops, goes to a black screen, and then reloads the map. Happens particularly when I would zoom out, but also just moving around. I'm thinking it's probably just graphical/performance issues, but my computer runs most games just fine on highest settings; never had any problem like that in CK2.

Oh, another one. Whenever I try to reload my savegames, there's a message that says achievements will be disabled because the save was modified or doesn't belong to me... but neither of these things are true.

Alexander the Pretty Good

08-17-2013, 03:13

Well done. Shame you couldn't free Constantinople, but what can you do? Also, what is the blue-green in China?

Secura

08-17-2013, 09:30

You can't demand a nation's capital in a peace deal unless its their last province, no matter how unfortunately-placed that province is.

I know this is a stupid question, but did you fabricate a claim on Constantinople?

I ask because during the MP game, I fab'd a claim on Aragon's capital Valencia having taken the provinces around it and was able to take it in the deal, which then forced Aragon to relocate her capital.

Chaotix

08-18-2013, 09:19

So, general question:

I'm having trouble balancing Tech, Ideas, and the many other things (cores, buildings, etc.) that you can do with your Admin/Diplo/Military points. How do you guys typically manage to keep up with the tech race when just about everything else you want to do is going to slow you down? Is there a specific strategy to employ?

Like GC, I wound up far behind in the Diplo tech race because I used it to get myself a lot of expansionist ideas... except I'm playing Portugal, so it was slightly more severe. I've managed to recover, but now my Admin tech is far behind, and I'm not too sure why. I know spending periodically on stability is part of it, but I can't seem to catch back up. Luckily it doesn't seem to matter too much, as it's 1640, England is dead, Spain is broken, and France is my ally, and I have easily the largest colonial empire, with my fingertips finally starting to reach the East Indies. Any problems I have I can usually just pour money into.

komnenos

08-18-2013, 11:13

After the release of the great game, EU4, today I saw three nice news that I hadn’t read before. First I saw that another new patch (1.111) and new DLC of CK2 has been released (I mean Customary DLC). The patch was good but I didn’t expect this useless DLC and I think it isn’t worth to buy.
But the second news I faced, was really great. I mean the news of upcoming game, War of the Vikings. I think it will be much better than War of the Roses.

Secura

08-18-2013, 22:09

Aaand you're right. I even did that to Venice earlier in the game, and forgot I did it. Good call, might have to load up that save and finish it...

Good luck! :bow:

I'm having trouble balancing Tech, Ideas, and the many other things (cores, buildings, etc.) that you can do with your Admin/Diplo/Military points. How do you guys typically manage to keep up with the tech race when just about everything else you want to do is going to slow you down? Is there a specific strategy to employ?

As a rule, I avoid picking an Administration idea group for the first few group slots; I prefer to use those points for creating cores, stabilising and levelling tech up for more idea groups. I tend to steer towards the diplomacy idea groups first and foremost, unless I'm playing as a particularly war-focused nation like Muscovy or France.

Chaotix

08-21-2013, 22:43

Finished my first campaign as Portugal yesterday... here's some pics of the empire I forged:

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/597012659930179657/23B3C2B07FBEAB7051447ACE6449B799EB044908/

Overall, 7th best (interestingly enough, both historically and in-game). Not bad for my first game.

I mainly focused on trade, but that also led me to a lot of empire-building. Managed to get all of my tech up to speed by the 1750s, which is nice.

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/597012659947243114/317A25F7F73C3F688D383CDA718DCA94B3624B91/

Early game, my alliances with England and Castile kept me safe, and I focused a couple of wars on taking the Moroccan coast. Castile quickly warred Aragon into submission and created Spain, while England themselves got hit very hard by the 100 years war, and had to release Cornwall. This quickly spiraled into total destruction, with Scotland and Cornwall dividing up England between themselves and Ireland uniting in the chaos. Around 1700 Scotland managed to create Britain by removing Cornwall from the picture (forming a historical Stuart dynasty, in fact).

http://cloud-3.steampowered.com/ugc/597012659947374479/42B63D0364693703D3052AC5C1FE83782EDE7DCD/

The early game as Portugal very quickly forces you to learn about the trade system. You have a trade center with huge potential - Seville - but in order to really get it going, you need to pull in trade from Africa. I was the first nation to start building colonies, and I started with several outposts along the African coasts, designed so that i could use my Merchants to pull trade around the Cape, up to the Ivory Coast, and from there to the Mauritanian Coast and finally to Seville, where I could reap the rewards.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/597012659947377527/26AF238B44A43BA148F47B1B14D4834E53977843/

There was also, of course, Brazil.

Brazil is kind of a unique trade node in that it only has outward flow. That said the trade only goes in one direction - Ivory Coast. So it added to my already growing trade power.

By this point England was gone, so I allied with France and broke my alliance with Spain. This also allowed me to take Andalusia and Gibraltar from them, which boosted my trade power in the node even further.

Side note: see all those Latin American states? They were all part of Spain until about 20 years before the end, where I beat them so badly that I forced them to be released.

http://cloud-3.steampowered.com/ugc/597012659947380716/DAA6E7531B4DFD5461E8B80195294B372C7B3E7D/

With England out of the picture, Spain and France were the only other early colonial powers, and they mostly focused on North America; eventually the Netherlands joined in as well. I managed to snatch Cuba and the Bahamas before they could get to it, but I couldn't get Bermuda. The USA is Portuguese in culture; I colonized New England early on, but had no real use for it once France and Netherlands boxed me in, so I let them go when they revolted and I made them my ally.

One thing I have noticed is that the colonial powers really do not seem to like conquering the natives. They are sort of content to just colonize the empty space and leave the native civilizations alive. Not a single American civilization was ever fully conquered in the game.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/597012659947382591/CDBA3571CB2E94F2E5B5ED620D9CBFA1E6696DCE/

Eventually I managed to make my way out east and into the Spice trade, which was nice. Never got around to invading India or China, but I did get Ceylon and Taiwan.

After 1700, Spain and France exploded with their colonialism. France got Australia (and much of Africa) and Spain got New Zealand. I guess they hit the point where colonial range didn't matter any more, because they didn't have any midway-points. Speaking of midway, I got to Midway Island first, as well as Hawaii, Tahiti, Easter Island, and Micronesia.

When France went revolutionary, they got really dangerous and became my rival. It was then that I learned the meaning of "economic warfare". 80 frigates and a merchant sitting in Seville, sucking away half of my glorious trade income and sending it to Bordeaux. It took an embargo from both me and Spain and some ships pulling trade back from Bordeaux just to get my trade income back to a reasonable level. Eventually they left me alone, but every few years they kept coming back to mess with me. In particular the embargo does not seem quite powerful enough... if I own the provinces and I'm keeping their ships out, why are they even able to get anything? Smuggling, I suppose.

They also managed to inherit Austria through personal union, which has to be screwed up because they were a republic. They must have had the royal marriage before the revolution (Marie Antoinette I suppose?) but that should probably be canceled with the change to non-noble republican government. Seems broken, perhaps Paradox will fix it.

Overall, a fun game, and it taught me the basics. Thinking of something simpler like Poland next time. Or maybe try to form Brandenburg->Prussia->Germany.

komnenos

08-22-2013, 11:06

Excellent! The pictures are tantalizing me to buy the game but unfortunately I'm busy now and I can't buy it. After finishing my school (after 9 months), I will get it and first play as Byzantium and then as Portugal.

Secura

08-22-2013, 15:07

I will get it and first play as Byzantium and then as Portugal.

Byzantium is in an incredibly dire situation at the game's start (11/11/1444), surrounded by the Ottomans and most routes of expansion guaranteed by them. It's possible to succeed, but I don't think it's a good entry level nation.

I suggest starting with Castile or Portugal to get used to the new mechanics. :bow:

komnenos

08-23-2013, 12:22

In my opinion the country which you choose in this game should be like that, hard and full of stress to achieve success! And winning this game with countries like Byzantium shows your real skills and strategy. You will enjoy the game more when you win with such these countries.

rickinator9

08-23-2013, 16:02

Still I would not try Byzantium as your first try. You start with 5000 troops, while the Ottomans start with 30000. I would advise Muscovy as your first start.

Monk

08-24-2013, 02:16

Still I would not try Byzantium as your first try. You start with 5000 troops, while the Ottomans start with 30000. I would advise Muscovy as your first start.

Let the boy win his spurs.

xploring

08-31-2013, 09:22

a site that lets you view playthroughs (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?717838-Anyone-interested-in-a-site-that-lets-you-view-playthroughs)

and

over 25 new national ideagroups for @E_Universalis in the 1.2 patch.. ETA, late september

https://twitter.com/producerjohan/status/373015121267679232

rickinator9

08-31-2013, 12:04

Here's a replay of one of our MP campaigns: http://www.eu4replay.com/?file=mp_Holy_Roman_Empire1739_06_28.eu4.trim

Tiaexz as France
Greyblades as England/Great Britain
rickinator9 as Austria/HRE

Beskar

08-31-2013, 12:29

Admittedly the map blanks out rather quickly.

Uploaded this one too. (http://www.eu4replay.com/?file=GreySecuraTiaRick.eu4.trim)

Tiaexz as Brandenburg/Prussia
Greyblades as England/Great Britain
Rick as Uzbeks
Secura as Castile/Spain

Beskar

09-18-2013, 03:16

Dat 1.2 Patch (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?722644-Patch-1.2-Wot-Johan-said)

DLC next week!
American Dream: (big) Contains events (over 30 of them), decisions, graphics.
Monument DLC: (small) additional terrain map city models, inc. Machu Pikku

Patch 1.2 out: 'Next Week'
Thousands of lines of code long, a fairly mahoosive patch. Will hit us with bugfixes galore, tweaks to existing mechanics and brand new features.

New features
6 new achievements
Grand Coalition - 6 nations in coalition
Winter Tsars
Luck of the Irish - conquer British Isles
Sunset Invasion - Aztecs conquer Lisbon London Madrid Paris Rome
New Coalition & Opinion 2D mapmodes
Borderless windowed mode direct from Settings
Copy/paste in textboxes
Can now release vassal and play as them
Admin Points for inflation reduction - no need to get Economic Ideas for actions anymore.
You can now add provinces to the empire, if they border a seazone bordering the empire.
You will be able to surrender to the AI without +10 Warscore via a 'What do you want?' button

Adding over 25 new national ideagroups, including:
Serbia
Orissa
Granada
Taungu
Malaya
Punjab
Switzerland
Tibet
Ragusa

Tweaks
Coalitions will now always join in a war; there is no truce penalty breaking if a coalition is called in a defensive war. AI cannot decline warleader alliance negotiation
Reduced outgoing trade value increase (20% -> now 5%) from forwarding merchants to prevent absurd value accumulations of 1000 of ducats in home nodes
Maxmorale can no longer be below the threshold where you can move troops.
Defeat rebels mission no longer gives +2 stability.
Border Friction being reworked/nerfed
Navies can not be exiled.
Fixing constant Japanese destruction by Catholicism

Bugfixes
Annexing a country will no longer reset your steering in their tradenodes.
Exiled units can no longer loot.
Overseas colonies will never cause overextension
Fixed a bug which caused shattered retreats to not work while in hostile territory

Beskar

09-23-2013, 16:31

Read-me (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?723710-1.2-Fix-List-Compilation-thread) is covered over several topics, it is a large one.

rickinator9

09-23-2013, 23:12

Read-me (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?723710-1.2-Fix-List-Compilation-thread) is covered over several topics, it is a large one.

Quite sad that we two are the only ones left for the MP games.

Secura

09-27-2013, 15:58

Quite sad that we two are the only ones left for the MP games.

I'm still okay for playing, actually! I played a Muscovy-Tuscany game with Tiaexz last weekend that didn't go horribly wrong. :3

I'm just not very good at these games (especially this one, I'm still struggling to manage monarch points adequately!) and aside of some brief MP with you and GB, I've only played with Tiaexz; his plans for expansion and such are usually complementary to my own and the pair of us are usually allies throughout the game. xD

Beskar

09-27-2013, 16:29

How could you steal from Secura's trade-node, Rick?! :clown:

Bad enough when you stole Socrates from me and supported those evil rebellions, I changed governments more than underwear.

TinCow

10-18-2013, 14:04

I've been playing for the last week or two now. Finished games as England -> GB, Florence -> Italy, and Brandenburg -> Prussia -> Germany -> HRE. All were Ironman except the England game. So, I figured I'd give one my EU3 favorites a try: Byzantium. Holy hell are they hard. I must have restarted 20 times before I was able to get myself into a situation where the Ottomans didn't steamroll me in the first 5 years. I eventually succeeded with a strategy I found on reddit. Basically, I DOWed Serbia immediately (taking stab hit) before the Ottomans warned me, annexed them, cored them, fabricated on Bosnia, DOWed Bosnia (not adjacent to Ottomans, so they didn't join in), annexed Bosnia, cored Bosnia. At that point I had enough provinces that Hungary and Poland (in PU with Lithuania) were willing to ally with me. The Ottomans had the mission to take Constantinople and kept their troops stacked around the city, but I guess my allies were strong enough to keep them from attacking because they never did. When the warning expired, I annexed Wallachia as well. By this point Poland had changed me to a rival, so I lost their alliance. However, they had split in their PU with Lithuania, so I picked up Lithuania as an ally and also managed to grab Castile (which I figured would be useful for their navy). By that point I had an army of 14k and a navy of over 20 galleys (over my force limit, but I could afford it). I then sat around and waited for a good opportunity to take on the Ottomans. A great one popped up with a war in their east that dropped their army down to 15k, but I missed it because I was in a Regency at the time and couldn't DOW. Eventually another war distracted them. I checked my DOW screen and it said that Hungary, Lithuania, and Castile would all join the war, so I declared and attacked. I wrecked their navy easily, blockaded, and started besieging. After a few months the Ottoman army came back around the north of the Black Sea, at which point I noticed no activity at all from my allies. I checked the war tab and noticed that none of my allies were in the war. I have no idea how that happened. Since it said they all would have joined I assume that somehow I unclicked the call-allies checkbox before I DOWed. By that point it was too late in the war to get them to join in, so I was all on my own. I won the first battle, but a second Ottoman stack obliterated my entire army and that was the end. I tried to build a second army, but they besieged everything and prevented me from forming a new army from the fresh recruits. I put it on full speed and watched as the Ottomans quickly captured every province. I then quit in disgust.

Such a great start after so many failed starts, and it all gets screwed up likely because of a single errant mouse click on my part. Now I've got to start all over again... :wall:

TinCow

10-22-2013, 22:08

My second trek through the Byzantine world was also eventful, though ultimately successful. I got back to about the same spot as I listed above within about 3 restarts. The strategy of immediately DOWing Albania for cash, along with a simultaneous DOW on Serbia (when the 1 month cooldown is over) is a pretty much guaranteed success. You'll get warned by the Ottomans before you can DOW a third time, but those two are all your need to get started. Annex Serbia and start coring it. You should have begun improving relations with Hungary also on Day 1. Once you've annexed Serbia, fabricate a claim on Bosnia. When that claim is granted, DOW Bosnia and annex them as well (Ottomans will not join as Bosnia is not adjacent to them). Sometimes you can grab Wallachia this way as well, as they tend to ally with Bosnia. Between Serbia, Bosnia, and your starting provinces, you will now be up to about 10 provinces plus vasselized Athens. This is large enough to make the nearby major powers pay attention to you and consider an alliance. Hungary should be easy to get, and other easy options are Poland and Austria. Having a few of those guys as allies seems to prevent the Ottomans from going after you, even when they have a mission to do so. Then just wait for your opportunity to pounce and take back your Balkan territories. A lot of the Byz island cores seem to have a tendency to revolt to you at various points during wars. I got Naxos, Rhodes, and Cyprus without having to lift a finger for them.

In my second bout, my first attempt to regain the Balkans did not go well. I was allied with Hungary and Poland/Lithuania, which I thought was more than enough to overwhelm the Ottomans. Ottomans ended up at war somewhere out east, so I watched and waited for some damage to be done to their armies. Shortly before I DOWed, Hungary broke their alliance with me. I didn't think that was too big a problem as Poland/Lithuania were pretty big. So, I picked my moment and DOWed the Ottomans. Unfortunately, only a few months into the war Hungary ended up at war with Poland. As a result, all of Poland/Lithuania's armies were focused on Hungary and the Ottoman stacks came marching right back west unmolested and creamed me. I managed to get out of that war with several provinces occupied by releasing Athens as an independent state. Fortunately, no one ever allied with Athens and the Ottoman warning on me expired, so after my 5 year truce with Athens was up I simply DOWed and re-annexed them, resulting in status quo from before the initial war. I rebuilt my alliances and my second war with the Ottomans went much better and I regained about 5 Balkan provinces. It took two further wars to take back all of the Balkans, and several more to push into Asia Minor, but it wasn't difficult at that point. Amazingly, Georgia actually survived and, eventually, thrived in this game, becoming a valuable ally to the east. Ukraine also broke away from Lithuania and became another major Orthodox power, taking Moldova and most of the Crimean lands. Between those two, myself, and Muscovy, there was actually a very strong and solid Orthodox power bloc for most of the game, which I had never seen before.

I had some bumps in the road. Specifically, The Peasants' War. That thing popped on me after my second Asia Minor war and it was a close thing. My manpower was shot, my armies were at half strength and falling, and the rebels would not stop popping. I eventually solved the problem by simply resting my armies in safe provinces and using mercenaries to fight the rebels while my manpower recovered. After several years I got the event allowing me to buy my way out of the problem, which I did with loans. I was very lucky that no one chose to attack me while that was going on, as I would have been obliterated easily. 20 years later, I got the same damn event a second time. That time I was in far better shape though and was able to crush the rebels without resorting to mercs.

My next major problem was a doozy. Up pops the event telling me my heir is sick and giving me an option of paying money for 50% odds that he dies, or paying nothing with 75% odds that he dies. The guy had crappy stats, so I chose the latter. He died, of course. Unfortunately, no new heir popped up behind him. And then my Emperor died about 5 months later. And I was inherited by Muscovy, which was the most powerful nation in the game at that point. I tried to break away by reducing relations with Muscovy since their King was somewhat old, but I couldn't get my own peoples' views of Muscovy down low enough so the PU didn't break. At that point, my only option was an Independence War. Muscovy was allied with HRE Austria and about 6 other nations, an alliance I didn't think I could possibly beat. It looked like it could be 100 years of PU if I didn't break it, so I figured I'd go out in a war instead of just quitting. Amazingly, I managed to win the war. The enemy forces at the start outnumbered me about 6 to 1 (~600k to my ~100k). Fortunately, I had taken the Defense military idea line and had already maxed it out, so my forts held out for long periods and attrition on the enemy was terrible. I also had a vastly superior navy to all of the rest of the powers, which I used to my advantage. I pull my armies over to Asia Minor and went back across to ambush small stacks whenever I could. Sometimes I was able to lure individual large stacks of the enemy across to Asia Minor, and then trapped them with my navy and destroyed them, helping my war score considerably. I lost provinces slowly, but the attrition from these tactics really wore down my enemies and my own manpower stayed very high despite the occupied provinces since I was picking my battles carefully. I was able to get peace with individual enemies one by one until the odds against me were more even and I was even able to capture a few provinces back. Battle victories and war exhaustion eventually allowed me to win my independence in a peace deal with about 27% war score, despite my armies never having left my own territory.

I later Westernized, got the Basileus achievement, completed the conquer Southern Italy mission, and restored the Pentarchy by capturing and converting Rome, Aleppo, Judea, and Alexandria. The Italian stuff was particularly difficult as I had to contend with some ridiculous late-game super powers. Spain formed and totally overwhelmed France, taking all of Southern France, the entire Biscay coast, and all Med provinces east to northern Italy, along with some extra stuff in between. Austria in turn united the HRE into a behemoth including all of the original territory minus a somewhat large Bohemia, but also including a Pommerania which managed to form Prussia. As such, the HRE state also included most of Belgium, northern Italy, and Poland, up to the Livonian areas. Great Britain also formed and colonized massive swathes of the world, including pretty much all of North America east of Mexico. Including me and Muscovy (which never managed to form Russia despite being massive), the wars from these powers were absolutely absurd. I did my best to stay friendly with Spain and Muscovy, and managed to help break down HRE somewhat, and I forced GB to release the USA as a way to curb their power a bit. (22% warscore for releasing about 40 provinces?! Sold!) I've still got about 50 years to go, but I don't expect to accomplish much more. I'll bite off some extra bits off the Mamluks (who remained the Major ME power without the Ottomans to deal with) and maybe push a bit further into Italy, but I consider this game a success and managed to turn Byzantium into a superpower in the 1.2 patch setup in Ironman. It's possible!

xploring

11-05-2013, 11:49

For the first time ever in a Paradox Development Studio game, players are given the chance to discover a completely randomized American continent, where no playthrough will ever be the same.

Europa Universalis IV: Conquest of Paradise makes it possible for you to play as a Native American nation and master the federation mechanics, as well as unique national ideas, buildings and events. You may also take command of a Colonial Nation, declare colonial war, or even strive for liberty from your motherland.

Read the first developer diary for the expansion here:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?733017-Europa-Universalis-IV-Conquest-of-Paradise-expansion%96-Developer-diary-1

The changes to exploration will be explored in a live stream on November 7, featuring Europa Universalis IV Project Lead Thomas Johansson. To see Conquest of Paradise firsthand, join the stream at 8 p.m. CET / 11 a.m. PST on Paradox Interactive’s Twitch.tv channel at www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive.

Europa Universalis IV: Conquest of Paradise will release on all major digital-download portals on December 11th, 2013.

xploring

11-08-2013, 17:06

Europa Universalis IV: Conquest of Paradise – Dev diary 2: Exploring a new world (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?733741-Europa-Universalis-IV-Conquest-of-Paradise-%96-Dev-diary-2-Exploring-a-new-world)
Since this is announcement week for Europa Universalis IV: Conquest of Paradise, I have a treat for you. Two developer diaries in one week
From this point forward, Fridays will be the regular dev diary day up until the release of the expansion on December 11th.

Exploring a new world
One of the most exciting things for me, about playing Europa Universalis IV is exploration - going for Conquest of the New World Idea early, recruiting an explorer, detaching some of your precious few ships and sending them out across the seas. When you find land, you need to build a base to extend your range and keep going, slowly mapping the potential borders of your new empire.
With the Europa Universalis IV:Conquest of Paradise expansion, we are adding a new dimension to the exploration aspect, namely the fact that you will no longer know exactly what you are going to find. This will add true exploration to the game as well as a new challenge to those players that have optimized their strategies by knowing exactly where the New World is and where you need to base yourself to optimize colonial range.

The random new world is completely optional
First off; the random new world feature is a completely optional expansion feature that is activated from the country selection screen. If you want your safe old (new) world, just don’t activate it.
However, once activated, the world is randomized when you start the game. This, of course, means that half of the world will not look like it does in the country selection screen.

The borders of your brave new world
To keep the balance of the game reasonable, we have to make impose limitations, so only North and South America will be randomized. Technically the area is decided by a rectangle on the map that covers the Americas and Greenland, but not the Azores. To still be able give you the proper Europa Universalis IV feeling, we are also limiting random the new world to 1444-starts and you won’t be able to have a random new world using the Crusader King II save game converter. As the random new world generator gets more polished,we’ll see if something can be changed, but right now we can´t promise that it will ever happen.

Generating a new world map
So, you start the game. The first thing that happens under the hood is the game will generate continents and mountains. Continents will be fairly random (no tectonic plates, sorry!), and most of the time you will have plenty of areas to colonize, but odd things may happen.
Provinces will be allocated and assigned to trade nodes/continents etc. We are using the real world province names and trying to keep provinces that are close in the real world close in the random world as well. Our trade node network is fairly well balanced right now and needs to be kept constant, so the nodes and their incoming and outgoing links are the same, but the nodes are spread out across the world, and early playtests indicate that this works well. Then, of course the native tribes are spaced out so the New World gets some population. Currently, we have most stuff done for the New World, but it’s the kind of thing that you could, in theory, polish forever. The screens you see are not final.

A brand new strategy in Multiplayer
The Random New World will definitely introduce a new factor for Europa Universalis IV games, especially for multiplayer. No longer can you optimize your strategy based on the knowledge of exactly how much colonial range you need and where your stepping stones are going to be. I’m really looking forward to when we can restart our office multiplayer game with a random new world

Have a lovely weekend!

Bonus: Europa Universalis - Conquest of Paradise Livestream Highlights Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvktvCQqwk4

TinCow

11-08-2013, 18:39

Beskar

11-09-2013, 01:43

That might actually make me play an New World nation for the first time ever in any EU game. The idea of a randomized map is also very cool. I'd actually like it if they would make it possible to randomize the entire world.

That would most likely be a mod potential with the expansion. Though, I think the randomness would be from a list of pre-selected 'maps' drawn up at random.

Monk

11-09-2013, 06:17

That might actually make me play an New World nation for the first time ever in any EU game. The idea of a randomized map is also very cool. I'd actually like it if they would make it possible to randomize the entire world.

Agreed this is a sorely needed addition to the EU franchise. I especially love the migration ability of smaller tribes. Playing a nomadic tribe might be pretty fun for a while before you settle down and build an empire ~D

Ibn-Khaldun

11-27-2013, 23:27

I have a question about that CK2 to EU4 save game conversion. In my CK2 game I have formed the Roman Empire and pretty much own the entire Western Europe. How can I westernize my empire in EU4 if there aren't that many "western" countries left?! Or perhaps I shouldn't do it at all (although I would like to get western units)?

Beskar

11-27-2013, 23:56

Max out your tech and you will automatically get Western Technology.

naut

11-28-2013, 06:02

Steam sale made me learn another Paradox game. Curse you Valve. Curse you Paradox for making another awesome game, don't you know I need these hours for other things?!

So far I've played 4 games and lost the first three. Oman is my only successful game so far. Fun little nation with opportunities in Africa and India, so long as you keep the Ottomans from deciding you look a tasty morsel.

naut

11-29-2013, 14:47

Does anyone know how, in the nation selection screen, the diplomatic stars are calculated or what exactly they represent?

Beskar

11-29-2013, 18:42

They pretty much represent "comparative strength.. vaguely"

naut

11-30-2013, 05:14

They pretty much represent "comparative strength.. vaguely"
Ahahah. I was hopeful for a more comprehensive answer. =P

Chaotix

12-02-2013, 03:07

I am pretty sure the stars are calculated in the same way that the game calculates ranking for Diplomatic, Military, and Administrative. So the higher your ranking, the more stars you have on the select screen.

How is the ranking calculated? Well... I don't remember off the top of my head, but you can find the exact calculations for each in the ledger. Tech definitely factors in, as does armies (for military), navies (for diplomatic), and buildings (for administrative).

Beskar

12-18-2013, 00:09

EU4 for $10 (https://www.humblebundle.com/store)

Great time to pick it up if you haven't.

Hooahguy

12-25-2013, 20:06

Just bought it on the Steam sale, Ill try it out later tonight.

Merry Christmas!

Ferret

01-13-2014, 19:28

a site that lets you view playthroughs (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?717838-Anyone-interested-in-a-site-that-lets-you-view-playthroughs)

This is beautiful.

Here's the replay of my game with Poland: http://www.eu4replay.com/?file=Common.eu4.trim

It's my first game so nothing much went on for a while as I learnt how things have changed since EU3, but things got drastically easier when I inherited Lithuania and formed the Commonwealth. I'm sure it's also pretty obvious when I got the Religious idea group.

I'd love to have a multiplayer game with some other orgahs, perhaps when the expansion is out and everyone has gotten to grips with it?

naut

01-14-2014, 13:08

This is beautiful.

Here's the replay of my game with Poland: http://www.eu4replay.com/?file=Common.eu4.trim

It's my first game so nothing much went on for a while as I learnt how things have changed since EU3, but things got drastically easier when I inherited Lithuania and formed the Commonwealth. I'm sure it's also pretty obvious when I got the Religious idea group.

I'd love to have a multiplayer game with some other orgahs, perhaps when the expansion is out and everyone has gotten to grips with it?
Nice game. Why did you choose to expand into the Caucasus region? I'm assuming easier expansion and for trade forwarding purposes. Is that part the reason you favoured it over the more wealthy western lands next to you?

I've been playing a lot of this game multiplayer with 2 friends (and a 3rd hot-joining when he can). And it's fantastic. Being able to work together and seeing how the world responds to these unusual "coalitions" is awesome. I would upload a replay of it, but the website refuses to accept my trimmed save file.

Here (http://www.eu4replay.com/?file=mp_Hindustan1617_10_29.eu4.trim) we go, it would accept a save from 50 years prior to date we are currently at. But, oddly, not any of the saves after that. I am Japan, my friends are Vijayanagar->Hindustan and the Ottomans. The last friend has been in and out as Castile->Spain. I integrated my (unintentional) PU with the Oirat Horde shortly after this and am currently well into the Mexican trade node. Madagascar is a Westernisation centre of learning for us backwater nations. =)

Ferret

01-14-2014, 15:34

I didn't really choose it, it just kind of happened. Initially I wanted to expand Westwards, into Germany and Hungary, but my neighbours always had strong alliances and then Bohemia formed the HRE and Burgundy inherited Hungary, going West just wasn't an option. I never fancied taking on the behemoth that was Russia so that just left the South East. The fact that they had inferior military tech to me and the Western nations had slightly better tech certainly made the decision easier. Then when I got the religious ideas rapid expansion just became easier and easier to the East. I ended up owning a bit of Northern India and South Tibet before the game ended. A shame, I would have liked to have reached China. Looking forward to a game as the English with a randomised new world now.

Some scary Japanese colonisation going on there. A shame Britain couldn't hold onto Portugal, or they'd surely have been able to get a huge presence in the Americas. It'll be interesting to see what happens when the three of come into conflict with the Europeans, especially if Spain is on your side at the time. I love what you did with Madagascar as well, a multicultural island of peace and knowledge.

Beskar

01-14-2014, 17:57

Me, Rickinator and Greyblades are looking at having a multiplayer gaming session at 20:30-00:00 GMT for anyone interested in joining. Greyblades has England though.

Greyblades

01-15-2014, 02:54

:brood: That was hardly neccissary to mention.

Beskar

01-15-2014, 19:16

Colonial State system is something I have always wanted in EU4 and I think in many ways, it is great.

It micromanages and runs your oversea provinces without having to shift your focus from home. You can even name the new colonial states what you like, so you could name the Thirteen Colonies "New Tiaexz".

However, it has a lot of downsides. You cannot chose which territories go into a state, as such, I lost Bermuda to the Thirteen Colonies even though I wanted to keep it as a Naval port to the America's. If you conquer, lets say.. the Aztecs, all that territory, all unconverted, all uncored, goes into a vassal state which just springs up a lot of rebels and you do not have any direct control in building or converting or coring it.

Ferret

01-15-2014, 23:24

Yeah, there were some nice ideas for the colonial systems but I do feel it takes away a bit too much control. I'm not really a fan of the colonial zones either, I thought if I had enough provinces together then they would all form a colonial state, but it turns out states won't cross over the borders between colonial zones. This means I had a province in what was considered Canada and a province in what was considered the Carribean still under my control, either side of the Thirteen Colonies. I would have preferred it all as part of the same state really.

Having said all that I haven't really been able to focus on it as much as I'd have liked so I still don't feel particularly familiar with what's changed. I somehow inherited Castille (as Britain) right after I formed the Church of England. Given that Castille was entirely catholic I have just been fighting off wave after wave of rebels ever since. Had Portugal or France attacked it would have been nothing short of a disaster.

I would certainly be interested in joining that multiplayer game. Greyblades is welcome to England, I quite fancy giving one of the HRE states a go. Given that I'm pretty rubbish at the game I wouldn't want to take on a major power.

Beskar

01-15-2014, 23:42

Currently in a game at the moment, but feel free to pop a Steam friend invite, and see what we could arrange, Ferret!

(Same as .Org name)

CountArach

01-16-2014, 10:29

Has anyone had any experience with the random map generator part of the new expansion? It seems, from posts on the official forum, that it is still a bit buggy and leads to some oversized provinces etc.

naut

01-16-2014, 12:04

Beskar

01-17-2014, 03:04

I dislike the new colonial state system. It feels forced. And annoyingly, the main reason I make colonies is for trade forwarding purposes. But, if a colonial state is formed (at size five continuous colonies) regardless. Then it completely negates that for very little benefit. Therefore. Do not colonise more than 4 adjacent in each region, keep trade forwarding? Or better yet, only colonise Africa and Asia. Trade forward with impunity.

I admittedly like it, but it needs quite alot of work. It should become optional and you should have some more control over which provinces will join it. It takes a lot of the micromanagement and hassle out of the colonies and I wish it could be implemented in Africa/Asia and over areas.

Not quite sure what the issue with trade is though. I seem to have the majority of Trade returning back to Europe.

naut

01-17-2014, 04:01

Not quite sure what the issue with trade is though. I seem to have the majority of Trade returning back to Europe.
The colony gains all the province trade power. Leaving me with only boats to gain power, but nowhere to dock them if they need repairs. The colonial state gains all the power and collects from trade, fine that will increase their income. But, the amount they are willing to give me in tariffs is minuscule and does not make up for the loss of trade power and income.

Does anyone know if it is possible to decrease a colony's liberation desire?

From testing liberation desire rises slowly until it is level with or just above the tariff level (which can only be increased), and is then modified by the relative army strength. Although that's a best guess, I wish they'd listed the modifiers!

Chaotix

01-17-2014, 05:29

Do colonies not give you automatic fleet-basing rights? If not, they should.

rickinator9

01-17-2014, 14:06

I had the greatest comeback in the MP session with Ferret and Tiaexz. I am playing the Golden Horde with them playing Austria and Sweden respectively. I allied Uzbek in the very start and they quickly got into a war with Nogai. While I was starting to attack Nogai Crimea DoWed me. I could hold off Crimea, but they brought Ottomans into the war, so that was basically unwinnable. I held out for a few more years but my armies got trashed. When I only had around 5000 men left with 1000 manpower, Kazan decided to attack me. They had 18000 men. They brought Qara Koyunlu in as well(the blob in Azerbaijan and Iraq). So by now, I was attacked by all my neighbours except Muscovy.

I decided I needed to get Ottomans out of the war. I had to give up one province and some gold to peace both Crimea and Ottomans out. Nogai also made peace with Uzbeks at this time. However, my army of 10000 had to battle the combined 30000 of the Kazani alliance. My army ended up being annihilated. Here I was with 28000 enemies rampaging through my country without any army or manpower to fight them off. Qara Koyunlu wanted a white peace for some reason. This was nice, but I still had to deal with 13000 Kazanis. I only had Astrakhan as a free province by now, with others being occupied or besieged by Kazan.

Kazan had divided their troops in 3 stacks: 2000 men in the south, 9000 men in the north along with 2000 in the upper north province. I had around 1000 manpower and only one province to recruit from. I still had some gold though, so I bought some mercenaries. I soon had 4000 infantry and I attacked the southern stack. All 2000 were soon dead and I divided my small army to besiege 2 occupied province and kept recruiting mercenaries. I eventually had 6000 mercenary infantry and 3000 regular cavalry. I drove the Kazanis out everywhere but 3 provinces in the north. The decisive battle was at Voronezh: Kazan lost 6000 of their 11000 men and I only lost 2000. I went on to free my lands and occupy theirs. I took Samara in the peace treaty: A gold province that would provide money for my armies.

Now I am rolling over the Kazanis as well as Crimea and Nogai.

Lessons learned: Mercenaries are live savers and you should have some in your armies to preserve manpower.

Greyblades

01-17-2014, 15:18

Dang, i'm sorry I missed it last night.
Chaotix They do for me. I like having my little colonial states, they're like little minions with thier own armies and ships, they're never afraid to send thier men to help me in wars.
Has anyone had a new world generate with only 3 provinces in a trade group?

Beskar

01-17-2014, 18:24

The colony gains all the province trade power. Leaving me with only boats to gain power, but nowhere to dock them if they need repairs. The colonial state gains all the power and collects from trade, fine that will increase their income. But, the amount they are willing to give me in tariffs is minuscule and does not make up for the loss of trade power and income.

Okay, this is not what I am experiencing. 50% of the Trade-power is used to encourage trade moving. As such, in this save I am looking at, I apparently only have 13 trade power in this node, my colonial state has 95 and turns of value 2.35 is moving on, 1.69 is being retained. So whilst you are not seeing trade-power as such, the benefit is actually there in the sums.

As for the ships, I have not had this issue at all, they all scout the area and do not take any attrition from the path and they repair in the colonial states.

Do colonies not give you automatic fleet-basing rights? If not, they should.

They do. Colonial-states are all but owned by you directly. In practise, you cannot recruit or do any buildings, but you can do everything else pretty much and are counted for colonial/trade ranges, etc.

TinCow

01-17-2014, 18:38

Lessons learned: Mercenaries are live savers and you should have some in your armies to preserve manpower.

Absolutely. Mercenaries are key to fighting a war and dealing with significant unrest/rebellions when your manpower is low. I use them frequently to bail me out of tight situations.

Beskar

01-17-2014, 19:19

I still have a lot of hangover from EU3 where Mercenaries were like the unwashed plague of crudness. But I still read/hear about the Mercenary powerhouse armies which blitzkrieg Europe from time to time in EU4 though and sometimes resort to them when desperate and want to flush excess cash into the toilet.

Kekvit Irae

01-25-2014, 06:52

Hopping on to post my latest achievements.

https://i.imgur.com/6vVUDLA.jpg

The Cherokee never forget- nor forgive- any slight, no matter how small. We. Will. Remember. There will be No Trail of Tears here.

https://i.imgur.com/96xNV7p.png

Surviving as the Byzantines impossible? Pfft.

An additional note, I only play on Ironman.

Secura

01-28-2014, 23:28

Wow, I'm in awe of your Cherokee British Isles, Kekvit Irae! Was that through personal union or outright conquest?

I've been enjoying Conquest of Paradise so far, tried a few games as Native American nations but I tend to get steamrolled once Britain or France get to me. I've lasted long enough to reform my government from Native Council, but haven't been able to cope with the combination of westernising (darn nasty events!) and very powerful, wealthy neighbours...

Can the AI-controlled colonial powers turn me into a colonial subject (as I can when the boot is on the other foot?) or do they conquer me outright? I've tended to quit once all my hard work is undone by 2000 British infantry!

Beskar

01-29-2014, 04:28

I've tended to quit once all my hard work is undone by 2000 British infantry!

That is rather extreme... you should be able to beat that many with pure numbers. You should be colonising and expanding your own influence and subjugating your numbers into your federation. Once the West comes, the manpower you can field alone usually defeats their efforts. Then you go through the Westernisation, with the possibility of converting Christian then you simply steamroll the continent and the inept Colonial States if they manage to form into any real size.

Kekvit Irae

01-29-2014, 05:15

Wow, I'm in awe of your Cherokee British Isles, Kekvit Irae! Was that through personal union or outright conquest?

The Byzantine one, Russia was from an extremely lucky PU, the rest from pure force. I never even planned on the PU, I just got a popup saying I became the war leader against France. I checked, and sure enough Russia was my new pet. Because of their many, many wars with Austria, France couldn't get military access. The war was then just a wait until I could white peace. I DID have a PU with France later in the game, with an outright chance to inherit Aragon, but then Napoleon showed up and said "NOPE" and turned the country into Rev. France and breaking the PU. I hate Napoleon.

The Cherokee one was ALL conquest. Right now, I own the entirety of the British Isles, and completely annexed Great Britain. Every five years on the dot I went to war with GB. I learned from my Brazil game that if an American nation needs to succeed, Naval ideas are an absolute MUST. With the best navy in the world, I was able to put down the Brits easily. Though, not too easily, as I made a fatal mistake in the second war against them. The first war was to claim their colony on MY land. Not a problem, never had the Brits do anything about it. Then the second war was to get some land in Ireland so I could expand into Europe. The mistake I made was that I slow-sieged the Irish provinces instead of assaulting them outright, causing my navy to take massive attrition. The next dumb thing I did was moving my badly-damaged fleet to engage the British transports that were undocking from Ireland. My fleet of 50+ Heavy Ships were so badly damaged that I had to retreat them, and the AI decided that the best route for them to take was through several open seas. My entire fleet was lost to attrition, the Brits were carpeting my lands, and my main army was stuck on Ireland. I had to white peace.

I came back in five years, and learned from my mistakes. It was that one stupid war that made me decide to completely and utterly destroy the British Empire.

EDIT:

I've been enjoying Conquest of Paradise so far, tried a few games as Native American nations but I tend to get steamrolled once Britain or France get to me. I've lasted long enough to reform my government from Native Council, but haven't been able to cope with the combination of westernising (darn nasty events!) and very powerful, wealthy neighbours...

Can the AI-controlled colonial powers turn me into a colonial subject (as I can when the boot is on the other foot?) or do they conquer me outright? I've tended to quit once all my hard work is undone by 2000 British infantry!

Mostly they just want your land. One trick is to get Exploration ideas the moment you reform your government, take Quest for the New World, send some poor sap in a barque over to explore Europe, and then rival France. All the big colonizers absolutely hate France (who doesn't?), so you'll easily get an alliance with one of your bigger neighbors. Just remember that until you finish Westernization, everyone will have cause to gang up on you. If you see your ally break their alliance, that's a sign they are gearing up for a war. Surviving is hit-or-miss, so don't expect miracles to happen. I did, however, get through Westernization without getting attacked, but that's because the other powers were too busy in Europe.

EDIT 2: Here is what my North America looks like (https://i.imgur.com/kP6dUjb.jpg). Until you reform your government, vassalization and diploannexation is vital for survival. With your super cheap stability cost, taking the -2 stability hit for having no CB is not a problem.

Beskar

01-30-2014, 23:11

75% off EU4 DLC (http://www.bundlestars.com/store/?utm_source=reddit.com&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=deals300114)

Kekvit Irae

01-31-2014, 00:02

75% off EU4 DLC (http://www.bundlestars.com/store/?utm_source=reddit.com&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=deals300114)

Sadly, most EU4 DLC are garbage.

American Dream stuff only happens in/after 1776. Even if you start in 1444, create a colonial nation, release/play as, then form the USA, you still have to wait until 1776 for any of the events to happen, if they ever happen (due to MTTH). Not only this, but a formed USA never gets the 1776 USA national ideas.

Call to Arms DLC is just sprites.

Pre-order DLC does have the Purple Phoenix, which helps quite a bit if you are going for a Basileus run. With the changes in 1.4, it's now even harder to survive as the Byzantines.

Digital Extreme DLC has the Stars and Crescent, which allows you to convert to Shia and/or Unify Islam. Not all that fantastic.

The big deal of the lot, however, is that the base game is 75% off. You're looking at 10 USD for many hours of sweet, sweet map painting.

rvg

01-31-2014, 00:18

How detailed is combat in EU4 compared to CK2?

Kekvit Irae

01-31-2014, 00:45

How detailed is combat in EU4 compared to CK2?

EU4 combat is far more in-depth than CK2. In CK2, battles are just throwing men en-masse into the fray and waiting for the Skirmish phase to change to Melee phase and then finally (for good or bad) the Pursuit phase. Each unit has an attack and defense stat, and each army has morale.

In EU4, you have two ranks of units per side, with a combat width base on your technology. While the variety of units is smaller (infantry, cavalry, artillery), the individual units all are different based on your technology. Infantry and cavalry can only attack from the front rank, while artillery can attack from the back rank (and protect units directly in front of them with half their own defense stat). Each unit has attack and defense rating, just like CK2. During battle, infantry will attack units that are either directly in front of them, or one space to the side (flanking). Cavalry is the same, but they will attack up to two spaces to the side if they aren't already engaged with an enemy in front of them. Combat rotates every several days between the Fire phase and the Shock phase, until one side breaks and runs or is utterly destroyed.

I guess the better way to describe it would be to link to the wiki.
http://www.eu4wiki.com/Land_warfare

Beskar

01-31-2014, 14:59

New Expansion: Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations (http://www.paradoxplaza.com/press/2014/1/paradox-announces-europa-universalis-iv-wealth-of-nations?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=11808266&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-877X6eAjF8cGrMcXXWzprFfsxjjuBGON9F3xKltH0WyiuFa92C_Ir7vrVzi87_cnRvLX6xEyGMERi0a3qGJoUaI0gAuQ&_hsmi=11808266)

Wealth of Nations will bring several new features to the game, focusing on trade, including the ability to secretly provoke trade conflicts, hire pirates to steal goods from your competitors, establish the East India Company and create a bustling trade capital for your nation. With several new possible ways to direct the wealth of the world into an empire’s coffers, Wealth of Nations will serve the needs of every gamer’s inner plutocrat.

Cold hard cash is king, may the richest empire win. Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations will be given the (trade) stamp of approval for download from digital portals in Q2 2014.

The expansion will feature:

The Invisible Hand of the Market: You can act covertly to instigate trade conflicts among the competition, stifling income and leaving yourself atop the economic heap.
Seize the Seas: Hiring privateers can damage enemy shipments and cripple their trade, but risks retaliation in the form of open warfare if you are caught.
Capitalize: Empires can designate a specific port as their trade capital, separate from their national capital, and strengthen local trade routes through the use of inland trade nodes.
Monopolize and Mobilize: Form an East India Company and reach faraway trade partners with an unstoppable shipping concern.
Read more here:
http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/europa-universalis-iv-wealth-of-nations

TinCow

01-31-2014, 21:15

Very disappointed in that expansion/DLC concept. Trade just isn't that interesting in EU4, and an entire expansion dedicated to it seems like a waste of effort to me. I'd far prefer to see them spend their time adding greater depth to the various parts of the world that aren't much fun to play in.

Kekvit Irae

02-01-2014, 00:54

I'd far prefer to see them spend their time adding greater depth to the various parts of the world that aren't much fun to play in.

Like fixing vassal feeding.

Beskar

02-01-2014, 01:05

Kekvit Irae

02-01-2014, 01:31

I vassal fed before it was cool *shows a picture of EU3*

But the issue was more the fact you could easily annex the vassal in EU4 which made vassal-feeding a gamey option. It kind of runs the RP elements, especially with some personalities now totally rejecting taking provinces. For example, I might want a puppet netherlands but I do not want to outright own them, I should be able to have that.

Many changes in EU4 seems gamey. For example, cores now taking around 2-3 years, some admin points, and a single mouse click. In EU3, cores took fifty years. Vassal feeding in EU3 wasn't really viable because of the randomness of annexation. EU4 1.4's changes to feeding makes a WC impossible now. Sometimes, I just want to throw caution into the wind and conquer the entire world.

Kekvit Irae

02-01-2014, 02:04

Really when compared to CK2, any grand strategy game is going to feel a bit weak. Especially in EU4's case, for obvious reasons.

Magyars in 867 beg to differ.

Kekvit Irae

02-01-2014, 03:17

What I meant was there are just so many options in CK2... Eu4 may never be quite as varied. I haven't played either since before Sons of Abraham was announced though...

You're not missing much. All SoA gives is the ability to play as the Jews, some new holy orders, and more religious events including the Demon Child event chain. Not exactly worth 10 bucks.

rvg

02-01-2014, 03:34

You're not missing much. All SoA gives is the ability to play as the Jews, some new holy orders, and more religious events including the Demon Child event chain. Not exactly worth 10 bucks.

There's also new Papacy mechanics, new heresy mechanics, the Joan of Arc event chain, Romeo&Juliet event chain and probably more stuff that I'm yet to encounter.

Kekvit Irae

02-01-2014, 03:50

There's also new Papacy mechanics, new heresy mechanics, the Joan of Arc event chain, Romeo&Juliet event chain and probably more stuff that I'm yet to encounter.

And Jewish moneylending, and Christian pilgrimages, and Jewish decisions... but nothing so mindblowing as to warrant 10 dollars.

Sword of Islam and The Republic may not have a lot of changes, but those changes make the game fundamentally different from vanilla. Legacy of Rome, while not very game-changing as a whole, had one extremely good game-changing mechanic: retinues. The most expensive of the lot, The Old Gods, was a fully-featured expansion with new game mechanics coming out the wazoo.

Sons of Abraham just feels like vanilla with a fresh coat of paint. There is nothing really fundamentally different about playing Judaism, and the new decisions/events could have been done by a modder. If it was five dollars cheaper, then yeah, I might suggest it, but for full price I really cant recommend it all that much over bigger and better DLCs.

rickinator9

02-02-2014, 14:18

Beskar

02-02-2014, 15:53

More money does mean better advisor and thus more points. I admittedly very rarely go above 2star due to the sheer costs involved.

Kekvit Irae

02-03-2014, 02:24

More money does mean better advisor and thus more points. I admittedly very rarely go above 2star due to the sheer costs involved.

No advisors = "OH GOD WHY AM I SO POOR?!"
Level 1 advisors = "I'm just starting the game."
Level 2 advisors = "I have a firm grasp on trading and taxation."
Level 3 advisors = "I have more money than god, so I'll spend it on an extra monarch point a month instead of something crazy... like giving several thousand ducats to a OPM in Asia and watching the hilarity."

Greyblades

02-03-2014, 05:50

I gave my extra ducats to my colonies once, they proceeded to hire a bunch of mercs and pick a fight with Rickinator's neigbouring colony dragging us both into what would have been a devestating war that would have destroyed both of us and left beskar laughing on the sidelines, if we didnt white peace ot 5 seconds later.

Money well spent.

Beskar

02-03-2014, 14:52

....

*starts giving money to Grey's and Rick's colonies*

Hooahguy

02-21-2014, 03:21

Does the steam overlay not work ingame for anyone else?

Anyways, Im playing as Denmark, but Im struggling with stabilizing. Its not so bad just yet, only at -2, but I worry that it will get worse.

Beskar

02-21-2014, 17:43

Does the steam overlay not work ingame for anyone else?

Anyways, Im playing as Denmark, but Im struggling with stabilizing. Its not so bad just yet, only at -2, but I worry that it will get worse.

When it is -2 like that, it isn't so bad, as it is relatively cheap to stabilize if you are cored, strong religious unity along with high legitimacy/tradition.

Steam overlay is working for me. If you want to flush it, type steam://flushconfig in your browser, then launch from the .exe file in the directory. It will reset configuration files so they are how they should be.

Hooahguy

02-21-2014, 20:48

That worked, thanks!

Also, trade wars: how to win them? Ive been in like 5 trade wars but I never know how to beat out the other nations.

Beskar

02-21-2014, 23:05

After clarification over Steam, Hooahguy means the 'Trade Dispute' CB you get when another nation places an embargo on you. They unembargo'd him, so he 'loses' the trade dispute CB. He simply thought he was losing some type of war.

Hooahguy

02-24-2014, 06:17

So Ive been slowly chipping away at Sweden as Denmark for the past few decades, been in 2 major wars (always a rocky start but I rebound to crush them) and Im trying to create a Scandinavian nation. Sweden is down to about 5 territories, since Russia is also pressing from the east. But that requires that I take Stockholm, but for some reason I cant fabricate a claim on Stockholm. Do I need to whittle Sweden down to one territory?

Greyblades

02-24-2014, 07:45

That or cut it off from the rest of sweden's provinces.

Beskar

02-24-2014, 14:11

You can always vassalize them, then diplo-annex them.

Or you can just do full annexation then take the coring cost because of no claim.

Hooahguy

02-25-2014, 08:00

So after much wrangling and annoying wars, I finally formed Scandinavia! And Im turning a profit and was able to pay back all my war debts due to my awesome trade power.

I had to go through six wars with Sweden who are now castrated below Finland so they arent a threat anymore. Plus I think that Russia is eyeing them...

12330

The problem is now that I have no clue what to do. I want to colonize somewhere but everywhere good is taken or is too far away. I tried colonizing twice the Gold Coast but was kicked out both times. Im really tempted to just invade somewhere else already colonized and try that, as I cant really expand anywhere else in Europe as I have the HRE on one side and Russia on the other, a literal death trap.

Any ideas?

EDIT: heres another screenshot:

12331

As you can see, while I am doing well economy-wise, if someone decides to attack Im pretty much screwed, as I only have about 115k troops spread out over a large area. I used to have over 200k troops but to pay my war debts I had to disband almost half of them. I tried to get all the choke points covered with the troops I still have but considering that Russia and the HRE allies can bring a lot of troops to bear, its like a single sandbag against a flood. So now Im trying to build a larger economy to fund a larger army. Is there a national reserves system that I can put in place? Mercenaries only go so far in times of dire need. And if I ever want to go up against the Commonwealth or Austria for that matter Im going to need at least 300k men to even make a dent.

Sarmatian

02-25-2014, 13:09

Yes, you're basically screwed.

You can fight off Russia, you're ahead of them in tech. It would be better if you were Sweden, they get some awesome bonuses for land combat. But, even though you can defeat them, you can't really crush them. They'll just come back for their cores and at one point they will catch you at a bad moment.

Lesson - if you want to colonize, plan for that from the beginning. If you want to go east, deal with Muscovy early. If you want to dominate central Europe, crush the Habsburgs early.

Hooahguy

02-25-2014, 14:26

Sweden gets bonuses for land combat? This makes sense why they would defeat my armies of similar size early on in wars, and I would usually only defeat them in battle when I vastly outnumbered them.

Anyways, I suppose I could always use the console commands, make myself rich, give myself 400,000 manpower, and take on the HRE.

TinCow

02-25-2014, 14:26

Any ideas?

Ally with GB and/or France. Wait for HRE/Russia to be at war. Declare on HRE and start grabbing HRE provinces. Rinse and repeat, aiming to dismantle the HRE.

Hooahguy

02-25-2014, 16:43

TinCow

02-25-2014, 19:14

Currently allied with GB and France. I think the HRE is at war right now but I dont have anywhere near the strength to start a full out war. Just starting to rebuild my forces now so I guess Im going to have to bide my time. Also just launched a coalition against them, but nobody seems to want to join in just yet.

You've got the right allies, so the key is waiting until they're vulnerable in a war. They don't even need to be losing a war, just involved in a war that's sufficiently large that it's occupying most of their armies. If that happens and you can declare war, with France willing to join you (that part is very important), the flood of new armies into their territory could cause a chain reaction meltdown. The idea is actually not for your own armies to do the fighting, but for the other major AI powers to taken on HRE for you. In this case, it would be your ally France. Your own armies would move in to start occupying provinces and squashing smaller armies after the French take on the bulk of the fighting.

The important part is to catch them in a war with one of the other monster powers. In your specific case, Russia and the Ottomans both look like plausible candidates for that role. A war with one of them is likely at some point, so just keep your alliance with France strong and wait for the right moment. With so many major powers in Europe, it's entirely possible that others might also join in for their own reasons once the HRE is heavily weakened, such as Commonwealth and Spain, both of whom probably have rivalries with HRE based on how their borders look in that world map.

Hooahguy

02-25-2014, 19:56

Beskar

02-25-2014, 22:43

English+French Colonial spites, muslim advisor pictures and more native indian sprites.

TinCow

02-25-2014, 23:28

Gotcha. Is there a way to invite countries into my coalition? Because for now I cant seem to find a way to do so, which leads me to wish that there were more diplomatic options.

And what does the percentage mean in the HRE overview tab at the bottom? Right now Austria is emperor but only has about 42% control I think, so that cant be very good so hopefully I can prevent them from getting more powerful.

No, there's no way to invite anyone into a coalition. Countries will join coalitions on their own when they think that a country has gotten too aggressive, which basically means that they've grabbed too much territory too quickly.

The percentage on the HRE tab is the amount of points they have towards the next HRE decision/implementation thing. The Emperor has to hit a certain % influence before he can enact the next decision, at which point it resets to 0% and works back up. However, if you've already had the united HRE nation form, then that entire chain is already complete and it's basically pointless. Actually... I'm not sure why it would even be there. I thought the entire thing disappeared when the HRE was formally united into one country.

Beskar

02-25-2014, 23:33

It hasn't formed in Hooah's game, just some misunderstandings about the situation.. actually, should ask for a copy of the save.

Hooahguy

02-26-2014, 01:15

I just assumed that the HRE was a group of central European nations banded together. Whether or not they are actually formed into one nation is irrelevant for me as they all guarantee each other's protection.

Also here is my savegame file for anyone who is interested: http://www.mobiusgamers.org/resources/my-dilemma.5/

Beskar

02-26-2014, 03:55

Main problem is that you started in 1650, which is really late ingame. Your save is at 1720 and most of your rivals are all well established and it is like smacking yourself against the rock. Compared to a game where I was Norway, I expanded far more than you by 1560 (getting Greenland and hitting North America before the British) and already been fighting Muscovy a lot but able to field on par or greater.

Also later start dates does heavily favour the likes of Spain especially.

So you are in a situation where you do not have any advantages and no possibilities of really getting any kind of upperhand.

I do recommend playing from the start, and setting yourself goals like "unify Italy" and doing things to bring around that result.

Hooahguy

02-26-2014, 05:58

Yeah, I took your advice and started anew. This time as Norway in I think it was 1490 or something. Fought a war for independence, that was fun but very hard as Denmark is really hard to beat. Thankfully Sweden aready got its independence so I didnt have them to worry about as well. I actually ended up colonizing not only Greenland but also a part of what is now Newfoundland, and renamed it New Oslo. The other portion of the island I named Bjørktown, just because. Im thinking about halting any further colonization until further notice because the mainland is in turmoil. I am about to enact the Protestant Reformations and I need all hands on deck for that. Then once that is complete I will work on infrastructure then I will commence my attacks on the rest of Scandinavia, because Heia Norge!

Hooahguy

02-28-2014, 18:19

So Im having a bit of trouble seeing the point in colonies that form into colonial governments. I have no control over what they build and I cant recruit troops in those provinces, so Im not sure why I dont just cut them loose and be done with it really. Right now I have about 25k troops stationed in Vinland (Newfoundland and Greenland) and in New Norway (the northeastern US seaboard). I really just should have kept them at 4 provinces each so I would have a base of operations in those areas. Also if they rebel do I regain control of the colonies again or does their independence desire just reset to 0?

Beskar

02-28-2014, 19:50

The thing is, not having to build in those areas are a blessing, as all it does is eat up your monarch points and money.

As for "cut them loose" why would you do that? They provide you with forcelimits and income where you can sit back and do not have to actively manage. So you can grow your colony so it is nice and big, providing you with lots of money, and it would fight battles in the America's on your behalf.

Also, as I said on Steam, you can ignore liberty desire, as it only poses an issue till it hits 50%. You don't have to station a 25k man garrison there, because they have 3% liberty desire.

Greyblades

03-03-2014, 13:42

It also helps that as you raise colony tarifs around 3 events get triggered that reduce liberty desire which can be used as an indicator as when to stop pushing.

Empire*Of*Media

03-07-2014, 23:57

i like all the system in this game except its battle!! its so confusing and ridiculous !!

what great it would be if Total War would be mixed with Europa Universalis ?!!?........

Hooahguy

03-30-2014, 04:49

Is there a way to combine colonies? because I created New Norway in what is now the northeastern US but Great Britain created the Thirteen Colonies, but I also took over GB so I got all her colonies so I want them to combine because having New Norway in the northeast and the Thirteen Colonies in the southeast is frankly a pain.

Hooahguy

03-31-2014, 06:07

So, I have finally completed my first EU4 game, after many many hours (20 in the past week which is a lot for me). I started out as little ol' Norway where I was a subject of the Kingdom of Denmark. Then I broke away in a bloody war. Then I got strong enough to annex Denmark. Then I took over Sweden. Then I created the mighty Scandinavian nation. I then colonized the eastern seaboard of the united states, whch is now New Norway and Vinland. I then took over Britain and Ireland, absorbing the Thirteen Colonies and Newfoundland. Then I got a foothold in mainland europe where I spent 120 years conquering from northern Germany down to the Netherlands, upsetting giants such as Poland, France, and most importantly, the Holy Roman Empire. It was probably one of the greatest gaming experiences ever, after the Mass Effect games of course. Gahhh now I dont know what to try next, maybe Ill create Prussia and take over the HRE. as you can tell I have a lot of time on my hands sometimes. 20 of the past 35 hours was in the past week. I should be ashamed, but I just dont tell anyone or when I do I tell them its a geography simulator.

Anyways, here are some pics!

https://i.imgur.com/TeatL0t.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Qi6V0z9.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/gLFlMQb.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/gD1t7Hj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/EGXf2HC.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IIeB5pw.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/dv5W9gi.jpg

And here is a map of the world. Warning: lots of border gore.
https://i.imgur.com/6eHpv87.png

Also is there anyway to copy the country history into a word document or something? Mines pretty long and I like to read about my exploits...

:book:

naut

04-10-2014, 02:31

Norway is an interesting choice to make Scandinavia! I did it with Sweden. And because Russia never formed I stretched from the North Sea well into Alaska! Great game!

Maybe try a different area of the map? Japan or Oman are good fun, especially if you can Westernise. In Europe forming France is enjoyable because the Great Blue Blob is just such a formidable base once you get all your cultural lands. Portugal is also a good one too, although maybe a little too similar to Norwegian game-style. Another really good one is Morocco, rush to colonise all of Africa and use your navy to prevent Portugal/Spain from getting a North African foothold.

Or you could go with a minor. My most recent attempt was forming the Netherlands with Gelre. Very hard though.

Hooahguy

04-11-2014, 22:46

Ive actually been playing as Brandenburg. Started out small, then eventually went on to form Germany. Wanted to form Prussia first but the Polish/Commonwealth were my allies and were helping me take over rival nations, so I didnt want to bother them just yet. Now that Im pretty advanced in the game its getting a bit easy, as my troops kinda roll over everything (that +20% infantry combat ability and discipline is incredible!). Im now the HRE emperor and Im trying to form the HRE as a unified nation, while I deal with internal politics.

For my next game I think I might try the Ottomans...

Hooahguy

05-30-2014, 21:13

So if you havent been following, patch 1.6 has been released and oh boy what a storm of hatred. Rebels have been made much much stronger so it basically broke everyones game and basically made minor nations unplayable, as they would have 30k armies rise up with good troops which are almost impossible to beat early on. So of course they are patching it but we will see what that will do. Holding out on playing Wealth of Nations DLC until this is resolved, either through hotfix or mod.

Greyblades

05-30-2014, 21:25

yeah, apparantly that was fixed like 6 hours ago

Hax

05-31-2014, 03:25

Playing as Poland, formed the Commonwealth, completely wrecked Crimea and took their provinces, and I just won a very costly trade war against Muscovy. I had a 50k+ army that has been reduced to around 14k, and most of them just through attrition.

It's 4.25 AM here, so it's time I go to bed, but I can't remember the last time that a game grabbed me so strongly.

GenosseGeneral

05-31-2014, 12:19

It is on sale at Steam and my bank account looks like I can afford spending some money on games this month. Are there any must-have add-ons/DLCs? Most of the DLC looks like eyecandy to me, how about the 2 expansions?
I do not want to repeat the mistake I made with Civ 5, which was getting on only G&K and BNW because I was too cheap. :creep:

GenosseGeneral

05-31-2014, 12:23

Double Post

rickinator9

05-31-2014, 12:43

If Conquest of Paradise is on sale, I would get it. It significantly improves the colonial game. I am not too sure about Wealth of Nations yet,

Hooahguy

07-08-2014, 06:00

Just completed a full campaign as Byzantium. Was rather hard, especially for the lat 100 years as I needed 5-1 odds to defeat any western force. Will be starting a new game as France at some point.

Anyways a few observations about my completed campaign. They really have to give the eastern factions a way to compete with the western factions because as I said, it was extremely hard to defeat them, and I cannot count how many battles I narrowly lost because of this. Because they took away when you westernize you get western troops, westernization isnt that important anymore, at least it wasnt for me.

Here is my map:
13545

As you can see I have territory from Yemen to the Bay of Biscay. Im rather proud of that, though I really wanted to recreate the Roman Empire but I ran out of time. I got bogged down for a while in the Crimea, probably shouldnt have done that, oh well. Russia became a tough nut to crack after 1700 so that might have been why I spent so much time there. At one point I had over 250,000 troops on that border as the Russians tend to win by numbers. I once had a battle that I narrowly lost, 180,000 Russians to my 150,000 soldiers. It was a very close battle and I missed reinforcements by about a day, I was so annoyed, it was like -15 warscore. Taking on France was also very tough. Lost a few battles to them as well, but my numbers won the day in the end as I had around 300,000 troops on that border at the climax of my campaign in that area. Once I got to the Bay of Biscay and took Bordeaux (which was really the only reason why I bothered with French territory in the first place) I made peace and hunkered down until the end of the campaign. That was late 1780's anyways so it wasnt long and the others werent attacking so I just disbanded 60% of my armies to save money. Im impressed though how much I took, basically all of the Mediterranean was under my control.

I was sort of impressed with Russia how they really had their :daisy: together, they proved a real challenge which was nice. The Netherlands got quite big compared to what Ive seen them do before, and I kinda wish I pushed more towards Persia as I figure that with the amount of effort I put into southern France I could have put that into Persia and got some of that India action.

Another map:
13546

Hooahguy

07-15-2014, 22:39

A week later, and I have completed my France game. Probably would have finished it sooner had I not been away for the entire weekend.

Everyone says how France is really easy, and after this past week, I really have to believe them. After the first 30 years or so and after I won the Hundred Years War, things were pretty much smooth sailing. My armies rolled over the enemy even when at a numerical disadvantage. Once I took down the HRE (that was around 1700 I think) I was debating just calling the win and leaving it at that, as there was no army or navy that could compete. I made a colony in the southeastern North America, and it expanded quite well, and covered most of the East Coast until the Mississippi River. As for me I owned all of Western Europe save for the polar areas of Scandinavia. I took Åland and fortified it against attack, then took some eastern European land but I basically stopped there. I like clean borders so I decided to just concentrate on infrastructure from then on, and a few little wars to ensure supremacy until 1821. My income got so high that even with 874,000 men under arms plus almost 500 ships I was pulling in well over 900 per month in cash. Granted that didnt happen until late game, but either way, my ridiculous manpower made that a possibility. Public order was rough at first but I managed to avoid the French Revolution so that was nice.

13623

13624

As for the other nations, Portugal seemed to do okay once I booted them from Europe, taking most of South America. Russia was basically split in half by Kazan and Siberia, and Ukraine got pretty large as well. England, displaced from the British Isles, made a home in the Midwestern US while Bosnia did pretty well for itself I think, pushing back the Ottomans numerous times.

And for the map:

13622

I think Im going to need to try somewhere else totally different. Maybe Korea or something, Europe just plays too similar now. Or maybe a single-province nation in Europe.