Europa Universalis III

[Rhyfelwyr]

Just downloaded the demo version for this, the diplomacy side of the game seems great, although I'm not so keen on the battles, don't really understand how they work with the dice etc. Also, I can't work out how to group regiments into armies.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone here also had the board game, and if its any good. I like games like Axis&Alies, and games like Risk don't cover the renaissance era in such detail.

[Sjakihata]

Hi,

I have that game and I enjoy it. I bought it directly from gamersgate.com so no waiting time. A couple of patches have already been released with new tweaks and features, and within a couple of week the new 1.3 will be released too.

I have played a lot of paradox games, and although EU3 is missing some historical flavour it makes up for that in terms of replayability and balance.

See this thread if you are interested in some MP action with a few fellow orgahs: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=84814

[ElectricEel]

Just downloaded the demo version for this, the diplomacy side of the game seems great, although I'm not so keen on the battles, don't really understand how they work with the dice etc.You might want to take a look at this (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=302606) if you are interested in detailed information about the combat mechanics.


Also, I can't work out how to group regiments into armies. Grabbing a random screenshot from the Strange Screenshots thread at the Paradox forums: https://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l111/utd4ce/EU3_10.png See the button with the arrows pointing towards a dot above the list of fleets? Clicking it combines all selected armies or fleets into a single army or fleet. The button with the arrows pointing away from each other allows you to choose to transfer regiments between two armies/fleets you have selected (it is also possible to combine two armies in this manner), or to create a new army/fleet. You can only use the buttons when the involved armies/fleets are in the same province/sea zone, stationary, and not involved in combat.

[Rhyfelwyr]

@ ElectricEel:

Thanks for the links, glad to get that sorted out.

@ Sjakihata:

I'm a complete beginner to EU, and I'm just trying out the demo just now, but I might get the game and join you when I have more time during the summer holidays.

EDIT: Don't get that button with the arrows and dot. Is it because I've only got the demo version?

[FesterShinetop]

EDIT: Don't get that button with the arrows and dot. Is it because I've only got the demo version?

No, I think you can also get that in the demo. Make sure you place a few units in the same province than drag a box around them with the mouse and you should be able to create armies!

And if you get the full version, this paradox game actually comes with a good manual!!! And if you get the collectors edition you also get a pretty good strategy guide as well! :2thumbsup:

[Rhyfelwyr]

Oops, I wasn't dragging the box around the units.:embarassed:

I think I will get this game, I'd love to try the MP.

[Csargo]

Vicky and DD is what I'll stick with. I've heard the EU3 isn't great.

[CountArach]

Vicky and DD is what I'll stick with. I've heard the EU3 isn't great.
Whoever said that is a filthy, stinkin' liar.

[Csargo]

Whoever said that is a filthy, stinkin' liar.

Freak out.

[Lord Winter]

Hows EUIII system requirement wise for a computer that can barely play RTW

[Csargo]

Paradox games aren't usually to needy graphics wise.

[Slyspy]

Make sure that your graphic card supports Pixel Shader 2.0.

If it doesn't either don't buy EU3 or do buy a newer graphics card.

If you use integrated graphics (such as frequently seen in laptops) then you could also be in trouble. Some Intel chipsets are useless.

Get to the Paradox forums:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/

PS:

Destroyer of Hope, you have a "there" in your sig which should be a "their".

[Lord Winter]

Thanks Slyspy fixed.

[FesterShinetop]

Hows EUIII system requirement wise for a computer that can barely play RTW

From the FAQ:


-Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP
-Intel Pentium 1.9GHz or higher processor (or similar)
-512 MB computer RAM.
-128 MB Video RAM graphic card, with pixel shader 2.0, compatible with DirectX 9.0C.

[SwordsMaster]

So Vista is a no-go, right? Damn!

And yes, I have fallen to the evil corporation. Again. Bite me.

[Incongruous]

So Vista is a no-go, right? Damn!

And yes, I have fallen to the evil corporation. Again. Bite me.
Bites SwordMasyer, then slaps him brutally in the face.

[SwordsMaster]

Bites SwordMaster, then slaps him brutally in the face.

Hey, hey! The slapping was uncalled for!

Ah, and poscount +1 :beam:

[ElectricEel]

So Vista is a no-go, right? Damn! Some people have reported that the game works in Vista without problems, but it would probably be a good idea to try the demo before buying.

[Bijo]

So how do I enjoy the game? Perhaps it is due to the fact I'm not so much used to playing a video game anymore, but this is the kind of strategy game I find difficult to be enthusiastic about upon seeing it and its overwhelming and vague nature. It seems very open-ended as well. No specific objectives given other than what you want yourself? Interesting. And it seems I can only select a European faction.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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The map at the opening menu is scrollable, move your mouse pointer towards the edges. The interface sucks not just there...

Extremely open-endedness may be a bother, or may not. I find the trade system stupid. However, diplomacy is a marvel. Battles are like MTW naval battles; you have no control over them at all once they start.

If you can figure how to manage the economy and appease your population, for both of which a high stability level is a key, then you can start making big profits and muster majestic armies and ravage the map...sort of.

Diplomacy works in this game! Manage your relations carefully and don't get into alliances potentially leading you to pointless wars. Oh, one stupidity of the diplomatic system: If a war, in which you are a minor ally ends, you're not informed or prompted. Watch the war icon closely, until it disappears.

Good luck. It may get frustrating at times. I give it a break and return to MTW then. :knight:
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[screwtype]

So how do I enjoy the game? Perhaps it is due to the fact I'm not so much used to playing a video game anymore, but this is the kind of strategy game I find difficult to be enthusiastic about upon seeing it and its overwhelming and vague nature. It seems very open-ended as well. No specific objectives given other than what you want yourself? Interesting. And it seems I can only select a European faction.

I'd like to know that myself! I really tried to like it, but to me it's just like a big empty sandbox. Takes ages to get anywhere, and IMO it's another complex game system in search of a game. But at least Paradox tries to give people complexity, which is more than most companies do these days.

I eventually went back to DD which I find to be more fun but it also suffers from a lousy UI and over-complex mechanics. Continuous play might be good in theory but in practice I think a turn based system would be more sensible for games of this scope.

[AntiochusIII]

Jeez, Bijo and screwtype, you guys seem to hate every game I like. :sweatdrop:

I myself thought that the implementation of a continuous clock in a grand strategy game is the best thing ever done by Paradox, so yeah.

Turn based has too many artificial limitations. Imagine a Total War with realistic army/navy movement time! That would've been perfectly sensible in the Paradox system while in, say, RTW, it would've made the campaign map altogether even more senseless.

P.S. Bijo, you can select every faction in game. I don't think there should be any problems whatsoever with that. Unfortunately though, life is just not *that* interesting outside of good old Europa in Europa Universalis. Even the mods tend to focus on enriching Europe first, the rest of the world second.

P.P.S. screwtype, I actually agree with you that unmodded Paradox games tend to be rather sandbox-y. Although that's also where all the mods come in; the big ones really make your game much more interesting than vanilla. And while I can see where the UI complaints for EU III come from, I always thought that the Hearts of Iron II UI was rather well done.

[Bijo]

My main problem with this game is its interface, lack of clarity, lack of facilitation of efficiency. I do not even see why there are marching and battle animations in it for they hardly add clarity. On-land symbols, flags, with all the necessary military information displayed clearly would be sufficient. Also, instead of a cheap arrow that shows travel progress, position change of the flag (immediate update) would be clearer. Why should I have to select the terribly annoying animation which I have difficulty spotting in the first place to see how much progress they've made? Complexity is good but if the design isn't immediately clear and intuitive to enable a player to enjoy it then **** that ****.

And yes, about being at war, it is vague. Or if you are offered some proposal I would like to know exactly WHO they are, what their stance is, and most importantly WHERE they are, but it seems there is no quick way other than to just check every faction on the map and to go through boring lists. Why not make it so that you can see quickly all the important information of a faction contacting you?

You cannot even change keyboard settings and the scroll sensitivity by the arrow keys is too little which also limits my enjoyment.

I have read about how people praise it. Well, that is all fine, but whatever. I just don't play it. It takes too much hassle to appreciate it.

Can't they just, I don't know, IMPROVE THE INTERFACE AND ITS CLARITY?

[screwtype]

Can't they just, I don't know, IMPROVE THE INTERFACE AND ITS CLARITY?

Totally agree. As I've said myself on the Paradox boards, what this company needs more than anything is someone who knows how to design a good UI.

It doesn't matter how good the underlying game is, if the interface sucks it might as well be a piece of junk. Conversely, even a lousy game can hold your interest for a while if the UI is good. UI is such an essential element, but sadly there are very few companies who seem to realize it.

BTW I think game mechanics should also be transparent. So much is hidden in Paradox games that if you don't spend a month researching their forums, you really haven't a clue what you're doing.

[screwtype]

Jeez, Bijo and screwtype, you guys seem to hate every game I like. :sweatdrop:

Don't take it personally, I seem to hate nearly every game everyone else likes too :laugh4:

[Lemur]

I just downloaded this game off Steam, 'cause I need something with greater depth and detail than ETW. However, I'm finding it very confusing. Ran through all of the tutorials, but the simplest things are very difficult to wrap my mouse around.

Does anybody know a place where there's a good n00b guide to EUIII? The wiki and the Paradox boards have lots of in-depth discussions of mechanics, but vanishingly little about, you know, simple how-to-click-and-move stuff.

How does one move merchants? How do you group an army? How do you send a colonist? Simple stuff, completely non-intuitive.

I have a feeling there's a great game buried under the weird interface, and I just need a guide to get me there. Links? Ideas?

[Banquo's Ghost]

Funny, I just downloaded the Mac version and I'm just as stumped.

So any recommendations would be twice as helpful!

[Mouzafphaerre]

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First of all, download and install the Magna Mundi mod. It's not a luxury but a must. (Much better balance, realism or in better words credibility, dozens of events etc.) Then...


How does one move merchants? How do you group an army? How do you send a colonist? Simple stuff, completely non-intuitive.

When you click on any region you see which trading centre it is tied on the right part of the window. Click it and go to that trading centre. Non, in there, you see a merchant icon identical to the one on the top of your screen. Click it and one merchant is on his way. Click again until you run out of merchants or money, whichever comes first. Depending on your trade efficiency and other related parameters one or more of the merchants you've sent will occupy a slot and begin trading. You can see the value of the trading centre and your share in the trade going on there hovering your mouse over somewhere there...

You draw a rectangle around your armies with your left mouse button, given that they are immobile and in the same province. Somewhere to the left of the screen your armies will appear with group, ungroup and edit buttons. The manual is helpful in that regard actually. Don't group your armies while on-board a navy; it results in a CTD.

Once you discover a no man's land (belonging to nobody) you click there and in the window you'll see the colonist icon, colonisation chance and cost. Click to send a colonist. You can't send another till the one on his way succeeds or fails. The game will tell you the result.

Ask away!
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[Mouzafphaerre]

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As for tips... There are many but some basic points come to mind. First of all, make sure you invest a constant 1.0 to stability. (Drag/click right-left until you get the number, then right click on the sliding button to make it unmovable.) If you have a well going economy with stable tax rates and all, never mind inflation at all and fix a suitable monthly income amount.

You don't have to feed armies while at peace. Just a couple of infantry units and a unit of knights maybe under your monarch's command in case of rebellions would suffice. No matter how well quantified, rebel troops are necessarily weaker than regular armies.

Flatter your allies with periodical gifts and help them in case they face rebellion. Thus you can eventually convince them into vassalage and even peaceful annexation (with no reputation penalties).

Keep an eye for advisors. Make sure you always have one with high stability bonus. Keep in mind that stability is a very important element in this game's mechanics.

I'll spam on as I recollect. HTH for starters.
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[Lemur]

Dang it all, shoulda bought the box version with the printed manual. Reading through hundreds of pages of PDF makes me want to rip my eyes out.

[Crazed Rabbit]

I just downloaded this game off Steam, 'cause I need something with greater depth and detail than ETW. However, I'm finding it very confusing. Ran through all of the tutorials, but the simplest things are very difficult to wrap my mouse around.

Does anybody know a place where there's a good n00b guide to EUIII? The wiki and the Paradox boards have lots of in-depth discussions of mechanics, but vanishingly little about, you know, simple how-to-click-and-move stuff.

How does one move merchants? How do you group an army? How do you send a colonist? Simple stuff, completely non-intuitive.

I have a feeling there's a great game buried under the weird interface, and I just need a guide to get me there. Links? Ideas?

Well you got the right game, since this is why I don't bother playing ETW (I can't fathom how I'd approach that diplomacy after the excellent interactions in EU3).

Yes, it's difficult to learn and the tutorials are useless; outdated and far from comprehensive.

You don't move merchants in the TW sense; you find a center of commerce and you can send your merchants there (click on the province, you should see a 'send merchant' option).

You have to have the army regiments you want to group in the same province, then select them all and at the top of the list should be a button to join them all together.

Colonists are like merchants; you have to select a territory that's not yet ruled by any faction and that's within range of your capital. You'll have the option to send a colonist in the province view panel.

Some stuff I only found out about after the AI did it to me ( you can seize colonies in the middle of a war without waiting for peace negotiations).

I found playing as England (reloading after screw-ups, or just starting over, repeatedly) helped me a lot to understand the mechanics.

CR

[scottishranger]

Although note as England, your going to lose the 100 years war. No, dont say "But I WANNA CONQUER!", you cant beat France. Your 13k army in Gascony is going to be destroyed. You might as well just cede Calais too. You dont need it

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Playing as Castilla and growing her into Spain is also smooth and fun.

You don't need to read the whole manual. Just consult it whenever necessary. The game gets intuitive after a few hours of initial frustration.

Again, do get Magna Mundi.
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[Monk]

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Again, do get Magna Mundi.
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Yes, but not right after you get the game! Wait until you actually have a grasp of how to play EUIII before you dive into MM imho. Magna Mundi is a fantastic mod but it is a complex :daisy: . Jumping in when you're still not even sure on the basics of vanilla might be like diving into the deep-end without knowing how to swim.

If you have questions about EUIII take a look at the wiki (http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Main_Page). It's sorta like the Vicky wiki. This will help with trying to get a specific country on the right path as well as give you insights into any aspect of the game. The in game tutorials are pretty broken in EUIII - complete (due to NA and IN breaking them) so I would suggest giving the official forums (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=323) a once over too.

[al Roumi]

I got EU3 in the steam sale and man, I haven't looked up in the last month. (My girlfriend and I have even been having rows about it!)

er, anyway. It is truly beguilling and awesome.

Never mind mods, get the 3.2beta patch (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=380360), things will work better.

It took me about 2 weeks of reading the manual, wiki, forum and playing to get confident/proficient. I started and played about 3 campaigns, learning successive ammounts about what I could do etc. Don't expect to pick it up and run with it, unless you are some absolute genius -there's just too many layers to this onion. :D

Your first (serious) campian should definitley be as Portugal. It's relativley easy and introduces you to all the world colonisation & trade in a nice, safe way. Just make sure you stay friendly & allied to Castille, and that you keep Castille strong enough to stop France stomping into Iberia.

Follow the game missions as and when you can, they can be fun and advantageous, but don't limit yourelf to them. Canceling ones like de-stabilising Castille is probably a good choice...

From the point of view of your economy and research, ultimately, you want to keep the "treasury" slider as far to the left as possible, this will ensure you spend as much as possible on research and keep inflation down.

You can auto-send merchants, and set priorities on the trade theatres you want them to concentrate on. This is done through the "Stats/data" (graphs) screen on the bottom right tool-bar of the main map screen.

Warfare is not the primary tool of diplomacy in EU3, at least not to the extent it is in TW. Instead, warfare is what allows you to make a claim for more territory: you basically have to beat other factions up untill they relinquish their territory. Alternatively, if you have vassals, you can (providing you meet certain conditions -check the tool-tip) annex/absorb them diplomaticaly.

Single province factions can be defeated and annexed in one war. Factions that own two or more provinces must be reduced until only one province remains before you can "terminate" them.

My last tip is to keep your hand over the space-bar, or play with the speed right down -you need to react fairly quickly, especially when at war.

I left my portugal campaign as it was on "easy" and I was getting bored of making so much money with such little challenge. I managed to colonise all the main access points to the new world before anyone else, only my ally spain has colonies in North America and Africa. The rest are a mine -for the moment).

I'm now playing as Switzerland (take that ETW!), and am on my way to claiming Northern Italy as my dominion -with only Piedmonte remaining. I am allied to France and Venice and wary of Austria and Naples...

Actually one more thing, the guys on the paradox forum are really helpful. They do a much better job than the manual, for sure!

[Lemur]

Not gonna try mods, no matter how good, until I can wrap my brain around the vanilla game.

Here's a stumper: How do you un-group troops or ships? The method is non-obvious.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Select your army. It must be immobile (not en route to another province) and unengaged (not fighting or besieging). On the top right there are buttons for grouping and ungrouping. If you've selected only one army then the grouping button will naturally be inactive.

Click the ungrouping button. Now you have two adjacent windows. Select which regiment will be in the new army and add them. If only I had some screenshots doing that... It must be not so tough.

It's the same procedure (and conditions) with fleets.
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[Lemur]

Just have to find this "ungrouping button." Dang it, I shoulda bought the box version. Anybody want to send me a printed manual?

[seireikhaan]

@Lemur- Does this help?

First, click the button I've highlighted in the square.
https://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x246/greaterkhaan/instro.jpg

Then, for each unit you want to split into the new army, click the arrow in the circle next to its regiment name.
https://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x246/greaterkhaan/instro2.jpg

Click close, and voila, split armies.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Shinseikhaan, you truly are The Pure King. :bow:

Btw, that skull symbol stands for disbanding your army.
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[Crazed Rabbit]

Wait, what? We're supposed to get a printed manual with boxed versions and not just a big world province map? :stare:

I didn't ... :sweatdrop::shame:

CR

[OverKnight]

I've found the Wiki (http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Main_Page) very useful. Also the Paradox forum for EU 3 is informative. Most people don't seem to mind noobish questions.

I found reading some of the AARs very instructive on game play and strategy.

Also it seems that a lot of TW players are EU 3 players as well, so I'm sure we'd be happy to answer any questions.

As for the PDF manual. Just print it out at work, it's what I did. :laugh4: Or you could just have it open on your computer and alt-tab to it when needed. Just be aware that each expansion to the game has its own addendum to the manual.

Paradox games have a very steep learning curve, but are rewarding once you get the hang of things.

First noob lesson: You load troops onto transports by having the transports in an adjacent sea zone, selecting the troops and moving them onto the fleet.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Single province factions can be defeated and annexed in one war. Factions that own two or more provinces must be reduced until only one province remains before you can "terminate" them.

You can annex large territories in one single war if your enemy don't have fort 1 built. I've managed to conquer Mayans this way in demo.

Also, it seems that Latin Knights are the only units you need to conquer America.

But I've played only demo so .. don't know how much this can be used in EU Vanilla or in it's mods though. :shrug:

This reminds my that I need to buy that EU3 I saw from a local store before I again miss the chance to do it!

[seireikhaan]

You can annex large territories in one single war if your enemy don't have fort 1 built. I've managed to conquer Mayans this way in demo.

Also, it seems that Latin Knights are the only units you need to conquer America.

But I've played only demo so .. don't know how much this can be used in EU Vanilla or in it's mods though. :shrug:

This reminds my that I need to buy that EU3 I saw from a local store before I again miss the chance to do it!
In unmodded EUIII, animist provinces can be permanently seized by an occupier in the same way that colonies can be seized. Fort level, provincial population, etc... do not matter.

[al Roumi]

In unmodded EUIII, animist provinces can be permanently seized by an occupier in the same way that colonies can be seized. Fort level, provincial population, etc... do not matter.

To be clear, the above doesn't apply to the In Nomine (IN) expansion. Which you'll be playing if you bought the "complete" package...

In IN, the presence of a fort in a province means the fort must be successfully sieged before the province can be controlled. If there is no fort, you can control a province by simply occupying it with an army.

Irrespecitve of how you came to control the province (by occupation or siege), to Annex it you still have to claim it as part of a peace settlement.

[Tricky Lady]

*shakes dust off shoulder*
Aaah, it's been ages since I've visited this place :-)

I've had great fun playing EU3 too, and returned to play it after a year's inactivity. Unfortunately, I seem to have a huge problem on my campaign map: big parts of the map are "blinking" :inquisitive: So now I can't play this game anymore without getting a huge headache.... Posted in the help section of their forums already, but I just wanted to ask: should someone of you know where I can solve this problem, don't hesitate to PM me.
Sorry for the hijack :shame:

[Martok]

Something I've been meaning to ask about this game for a long time now.... One of the reasons EU3 holds some appeal for me (despite being real-time) is because I've heard over and over how much better the politics & diplomacy is than in most other strategy games. Quite simply, my question is: In what way is this so?

Are alliances more meaningful? Are declarations of war less frequent and/or at least make sense when they occur? Can you help cause a civil war in an enemy nation? Can you manipulate civil wars if/when they break out (e.g., give financial backing to the rebels in hopes that if victorious, they'll be more friendly to you than the current government)? I know you can have vassals and protectorates, but are they useful and/or worth having?

I'd love to hear details on this!



*shakes dust off shoulder*
Aaah, it's been ages since I've visited this place :-)
Welcome back, Tricky Lady! Good to see you again after your extended absence. ~:cheers:

[seireikhaan]

Something I've been meaning to ask about this game for a long time now.... One of the reasons EU3 holds some appeal for me (despite being real-time) is because I've heard over and over how much better the politics & diplomacy is than in most other strategy games. Quite simply, my question is: In what way is this so?

Are alliances more meaningful? Are declarations of war less frequent and/or at least make sense when they occur? Can you help cause a civil war in an enemy nation? Can you manipulate civil wars if/when they break out (e.g., give financial backing to the rebels in hopes that if victorious, they'll be more friendly to you than the current government)? I know you can have vassals and protectorates, but are they useful and/or worth having?

I'd love to hear details on this!
Well, I'll try to touch on the questions posed:

1) YES, alliances are meaningful. Allies are required on the onset of a war to declare whether they come to the aid of their ally, regardless of whether the war was aggressive or defensive. For the most part, the AI will back the alliances it is in, though there is the occasional "dropping" of the alliance.

2) Yes, declarations of war are fairly infrequent. Usually, they occur in logical manners, as well. For example, England is much more likely to war with France than it is to war with, say, Bavaria. Further, wars are usually resolved in manners that are sensible for the time period.

3) There are not really "civil wars", per se. However, every nation/kingdom has a stability rating, ranging from -3 to +3. When stability is negative, rebellions are much more likely to break out, tax income drops, and generally bad things can happen if you let the status sit. There are espionage options for attempting to hack down an enemy's stability, and there are also options to fund rebels in a province, though its not guaranteed to trigger a rebellion even if you do succeed. I've not fiddled with the options a ton myself, so other might be able to answer better.

4) Vassals and protectorates are very much worth having, particularly if they are of the same religious group as yourself. After ten years of vassalizing a foreign kingdom, if you are able to keep relations high enough, you can demand direct annexation, which may or may not work. If nothing else, vassals are useful for controlling the direction of the game. A prime example of this would be to play as Ming China. Annexing southeast asia can be a hassle, due to rebelliousness. However, smacking around the native kingdoms a bit until they've all bowed their heads in tribute works quite nicely for making sure that nothing nasty arises out of your southern border, as well as having plenty of allies if war breaks out in a nearby area. Another great example would be in the Holy Roman Empire. Making vassals out of the electors(usually small principalities with little individual might of their own) can make it much, much easier to keep a hold on the title of Holy Roman Emperor, as vassals have "special incentives" (:eyebrows:) to vote for their overlord.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Welcome back Tricky Lady! :cheerleader:

Well, funny things do happen in this game, graphics wise. But usually they disappear after a reload. Have you looked into your video drivers? Or some custom settings you made such as brightness/contrast adjustment for videos or desktop etc.? They tend not to work well with 3D games all the time.

Their support forum? :gah2: lookie...
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[al Roumi]

Something I've been meaning to ask about this game for a long time now.... One of the reasons EU3 holds some appeal for me (despite being real-time) is because I've heard over and over how much better the politics & diplomacy is than in most other strategy games. Quite simply, my question is: In what way is this so?

Are alliances more meaningful? Are declarations of war less frequent and/or at least make sense when they occur? Can you help cause a civil war in an enemy nation? Can you manipulate civil wars if/when they break out (e.g., give financial backing to the rebels in hopes that if victorious, they'll be more friendly to you than the current government)? I know you can have vassals and protectorates, but are they useful and/or worth having?

I'd love to hear details on this!


To add to what Shinseikhaan said, and only because I'm a bit of an EU3 groupy at the mo': :sweatdrop:

Firstly, I have found "diplomacy" a hugely susbtantive part of the game, having come from CIV and TW games. I'd argue that diplomacy is deeper and wider in EU3 than either of the other franchises (its certainly at least on par with civ).

That said, diplomacy is probably an inadequate term for what really is international relations, i guess.

To start with, you really feel as if your state stands among its peers. You also have a diplomatic standing, based on a range of factors (prestige (+ or -), reputation (how much of a bully you are), stability etc) which affect your relations with other states, and are themselves affected by your own actions.

One of the basic features of EU3 is that almost all actions undertaken have consequences, and that these are carried through to future decisions. There are few quick wins and you have to learn to take the opportunities you are presented with. :2thumbsup:

On diplomacy/foreign relations in particular, your range of actions is huge. You can make all sorts of agreements (trade, military access (each way), alliances, guarantees), you can take 'negative measures' (insult, warn, embargo). Through spies, you have even more options: fund a range of different rebels/uprisings (dependant on conditions in the province), magic up a cassus beli, incite against the nation's merchants, infiltrate their administration (to see their "view" & units), have advisors removed... the list goes on.

Finally (not really, its just that this post will get too long), you actually have to beat peace agreements and trade bargains out of your enemies. This is done through 3 basic options of "white peace", giving tribute or receiving tribute. Tribute can be anything from cash, territory, renouncing claims to territory, releasing subject nations to diplomatic agreements such as personal unions or vassaldom.

[Tricky Lady]

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Welcome back Tricky Lady! :cheerleader:

Well, funny things do happen in this game, graphics wise. But usually they disappear after a reload. Have you looked into your video drivers? Or some custom settings you made such as brightness/contrast adjustment for videos or desktop etc.? They tend not to work well with 3D games all the time.

Their support forum? :gah2: lookie...
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Hi :-)

I was actually referring to the EU3 Tech Support forum, and I got some replies there. I tried everything, but without success. :no:
I think I'll just try to do a full reinstall of my system. Last resort, I know, but I want to get this thing sorted out.

To be honest, I think I can play the game with the view set on "Political map" - then the blinking is not THAT annoying (but it's still bugging me because I just keep on noticing it - can't ignore it).

*sigh* Why can't it just be simple?

[Lemur]

Okay, I had a nice, long run on Portugal last night, and I didn't bankrupt my nation or start any unwinnable wars. I even kept my economy in the black, which felt like a minor triumph.

However, reputation seems to be a bit of a black box. I was cruising along with a +15 rep, and the next time I looked up it was -20. No major events had taken place. I had not lost any battles. I had not missed a mission. It seemed to just plummet for no reason. What could have done this? And what are the consequences for a low rep? (Note that everybody still thought we were an honorable nation, etc., we just dropped in status all of a sudden.)

I was amused at a couple of "do not start any wars for any reason" notifications I got from distant kingdoms. That was funny.

-edit-

Oh, and how do you deal with rebels? Seems like if you go in with a similar-sized army, they just keep retreating through your provinces, and you have to attack them five to six times before they vanish. Is there some trick to wiping them out? (Besides going in with overwhelming force?)

[Tricky Lady]

However, reputation seems to be a bit of a black box. I was cruising along with a +15 rep, and the next time I looked up it was -20. No major events had taken place. I had not lost any battles. I had not missed a mission. It seemed to just plummet for no reason. What could have done this? And what are the consequences for a low rep? (Note that everybody still thought we were an honorable nation, etc., we just dropped in status all of a sudden.)


This happened to me a few times too: IIRC it was because my King died (had influence on rep), and in another case it dropped because an advisor died. Can't remember that big a difference in reputation though :inquisitive:

Don't enemy spy actions have a (bad) influence on your reputation as well?

[Jolt]

Okay, I had a nice, long run on Portugal last night, and I didn't bankrupt my nation or start any unwinnable wars. I even kept my economy in the black, which felt like a minor triumph.

However, reputation seems to be a bit of a black box. I was cruising along with a +15 rep, and the next time I looked up it was -20. No major events had taken place. I had not lost any battles. I had not missed a mission. It seemed to just plummet for no reason. What could have done this? And what are the consequences for a low rep? (Note that everybody still thought we were an honorable nation, etc., we just dropped in status all of a sudden.)

I was amused at a couple of "do not start any wars for any reason" notifications I got from distant kingdoms. That was funny.

-edit-

Oh, and how do you deal with rebels? Seems like if you go in with a similar-sized army, they just keep retreating through your provinces, and you have to attack them five to six times before they vanish. Is there some trick to wiping them out? (Besides going in with overwhelming force?)

Being in the province they retreat to destroys them completely more often than not. But that's on the In Nomine I played at a freinds house.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Btw, I'm interested which map to you use the most - political or that with nature?

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
I use terrain by default and occasionally switch to political to behold the might of my kingdom. :crown:
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[Meneldil]

Okay, I had a nice, long run on Portugal last night, and I didn't bankrupt my nation or start any unwinnable wars. I even kept my economy in the black, which felt like a minor triumph.

However, reputation seems to be a bit of a black box. I was cruising along with a +15 rep, and the next time I looked up it was -20. No major events had taken place. I had not lost any battles. I had not missed a mission. It seemed to just plummet for no reason. What could have done this? And what are the consequences for a low rep? (Note that everybody still thought we were an honorable nation, etc., we just dropped in status all of a sudden.)

I was amused at a couple of "do not start any wars for any reason" notifications I got from distant kingdoms. That was funny.

-edit-

Oh, and how do you deal with rebels? Seems like if you go in with a similar-sized army, they just keep retreating through your provinces, and you have to attack them five to six times before they vanish. Is there some trick to wiping them out? (Besides going in with overwhelming force?)

Are you talking about prestige or reputation? AFAIK, reputation cannot get lower than 0, and the less you have, the better.
Then you have reputation between two specific countries. You might have had +15 with a given country, and -20 with another one. This reputation varies for every country, according to a whole lot of factors (your culture, religion, your state's overall reputation, how you behaved toward said country and its allies, etc.). For example, I know Portugal has good relations with Aragon and England at the beginning, and bad relations with Castille and France.

As for prestige, you can take pretty big hits to it without noticing. Failing a mission = bad. Breaking an alliance = very bad. Being screwed up at the end of a war (ie. you have to give up land, or conclude a white peace while you attacked) = very very bad.
You also have a yearly decay, I think something like -1%.

[al Roumi]

However, reputation seems to be a bit of a black box. I was cruising along with a +15 rep, and the next time I looked up it was -20. No major events had taken place. I had not lost any battles. I had not missed a mission. It seemed to just plummet for no reason. What could have done this? And what are the consequences for a low rep? (Note that everybody still thought we were an honorable nation, etc., we just dropped in status all of a sudden.)


I think, as Meneldil explained, that you mean Prestige (displayed next to treasury and stability at the very top of the screen).

There is an annual 'wastage' of prestige (as with most factors) which ultimately normalises your prestige to "0.0".

AFAIK, prestige is otherwise only altered (+vely or -vely) through your actions or things that happen to you -which you will be notified of through pop-ups.

-20 prestige would have come from a fairly sizeable event, or a lot of minor diplomatic cock-ups.

To add to Meneldil's breakdown of Prestige modifiers:
-successful diplomatic advances net ou a +ve bonus, un-successful offers net you a -ve bonus
-warning, insulting & embargoing also give you a -ve bonus
-renegging on your diplomatic agreements also drops your prestige (cancelling millitary access)
-being on the end of someone else's "negative" diplomacy, or being excomunicated will also drop your prestige.
-losing battles (in the same way as winning) also drop your prestige

Basically, anything that you do which goes well will give you + prestige, and anything bad you do or that happens to you gives you - prestige.




Oh, and how do you deal with rebels? Seems like if you go in with a similar-sized army, they just keep retreating through your provinces, and you have to attack them five to six times before they vanish. Is there some trick to wiping them out? (Besides going in with overwhelming force?)

Chasing rebels (or any enemy) accross provinces (ping-pong) is unfortunately a feature of the game. As you said, you can only be sure to wipe them out if you have overwhelming numbers (and win). Having troops stationed in a province when the rebels materialise seems to make it more likely you will knock them out straight away, but not always.

You really have 2 options, either station infantry throughout your rebelious provinces, or (once your provinces have forts!) keep a single Cavalry squadron handy to cover and rush in as soon as the rebels appear and besiege your fort.

As with normal combat, cavalry-only stacks will also move faster than the AI's combined armies, so your cavalry stack can be in position to defend (and recieve a defensive bonus) in the province the rebels/enemy retreats too.

[johnhughthom]

Just got this today and I have a question for you fine folk, on the options menu when starting a new game what does "spread of land/sea provinces" represent?

[al Roumi]

Just got this today and I have a question for you fine folk, on the options menu when starting a new game what does "spread of land/sea provinces" represent?

Er, i don't know and I can't find it in the manual (not really a surprise). I suspect it may have something to do with travel times over seas? The size of province is kind of irrelevant.

If i were you, I'd just play on the default settings... (Maybe easy for your first game though)

Have fun! :2thumbsup:

[Lemur]

Okay, I'm doing pretty well as Portugal, but now I've run into an inexplicable.

I took the "New World" idea, eager to conquer new lands and enslave new peoples. And with my handy Conquistador I took the islands near me; the Azores, Canaries, etc. But now I want to explore the sea, so I recruit an Explorer, but I cannot attach him to any of my fleets.

I looked at the ship descriptions and saw that carracks are able to handle the Atlantic, so I tried to put him in charge of a carrack-only fleet. No dice. Then I tried to put him on my cogs. Nuh-uh. Now I see Castille sending colonists hither thither and yon, and I can't join in the fun. What am I missing?

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Fleet must be in port if you want to assign an admiral to it.

[johnhughthom]

I'm slightly confused by merchants, does it matter which trading centre you send them to? Closer means less chance of losing the merchant but lower rewards, further higher chance merchant won't get there but higher profits? What benefits does a monopoly give?

[Jolt]

Troops can only be transported aboard "Transports" in case of merchants, if its like EU2, each Trading Center has the total amount of value from all the products of the provinces the Trade Center it represents. Establishing merchants in wealthier Trade Centers will bring you more revenue than in poorer trade centers, but in wealthy trade centers, the competition between merchants is much higher, as are the chances of your merchants being outcompeted from their places. Distance matters since it affects the costs of sending merchants to the said Trading Center. Obviously it costs a lot more sending a merchant to Venice than to a Trading Center in China, if you're an European country.

[Lemur]

Spurred on by jealousy of the Spanish, I have over-colonized, and now the upkeep is killing me. Two loans and rampant inflation later, I'm kinda wondering how I messed up so badly. Tip to other newbies like me: Don't colonize like a madman. Brazil can wait.

[OverKnight]

Depending on the size of your economy, you can only have so many developing colonies (those that require support) without it being a major drag on your finances. I ran into the same problem as England. I tried to have 20-30 colonies developing at the same time and it nearly bankrupted me.

I'd suggest keeping an eye on your finances before deciding to add another colony or focus or growing the ones you have.

Also, the tech cost (ie how many ducats invested that is required to advance to the next tech level) is determined by a complex formula that takes into account how many provinces you own including colonies. So if you have a lot of low population, low income colonies (therefore not contributing much to tech advance) it will slow your technological development. Highly developed one province city states will begin to lap you.

[Meneldil]

Colonies are a complete waste before the 16th century. Until then, they just reduce your income and your teching (as Overknight explained, the more land provinces you own, the more expensive teching is. Since colonies won't grant any income for a while, they just slow down your whole country).

I've found the whole colonisation part of the game to be kind of a letdown, but heh. Once you get a decent economy, nothing prevent you from taking over the whole unexplored world (as the AI is kind of slow to colonise), and the native are easily conquered and annexed.

[al Roumi]

I'm slightly confused by merchants, does it matter which trading centre you send them to? Closer means less chance of losing the merchant but lower rewards, further higher chance merchant won't get there but higher profits? What benefits does a monopoly give?

The best way to view trade centres and decide where to send your merchants is on the trade ledger. this allows you to see all the trade centres you know about, where your merchants are, how much the trade centres are worth and what chances you have of placing a(nother) merchant in each trade centre (as well as more info).

To view this, you can either:
-cycle through the data views of the ledger (graph icon on tab at bottom right of map view, below "menu")
-view a given centre of trade (e.g. liguria), then click on the "book" icon to the right of the table showing the merchants active there.

Ihe trade ledger is also the easiest screen to choose how&where to "auto-send" your merchants, there are 3 levels of priority grading which youc an assign to each COT.


Spurred on by jealousy of the Spanish, I have over-colonized, and now the upkeep is killing me. Two loans and rampant inflation later, I'm kinda wondering how I messed up so badly. Tip to other newbies like me: Don't colonize like a madman. Brazil can wait.

Ouch! The most important provinces to colonise first are the Atlantic island provinces (Azores, Madeira, Canarias, Cape verde, Bermuda, Greeenland). These (once Cores) will project your colonial reach as far as, if not beyond the carribean, Brazil and Canada. Colonisation in IN happens in successive waves, as your colonial range increases or jumps beyond your new cores.

Africa, if colonised early can be a bit of a waste of resources (except for its gold mines). If you really want it for more than naval bases, its far easier to conquer Mali, Bennin or some other African state.

[Lemur]

Now I'm trying to shepherd England from Papism to Proddy enlightenment. Every time I've given it a go, things explode and go bang. First time I tried it Wales seceded. Next time I lost Scotland. There must be a better way.

[Monk]

Now I'm trying to shepherd England from Papism to Proddy enlightenment. Every time I've given it a go, things explode and go bang. First time I tried it Wales seceded. Next time I lost Scotland. There must be a better way.

Perhaps you're going too fast? Try to spread it out over a few decades (heck, even a few centuries!) to lessen the cultural shock. EUIII lasts until (with expansions) 1821, there's no rush!

Course - I've never played England. I'm a fan of the Eastern European factions myself. :yes:

[Crazed Rabbit]

Now I'm trying to shepherd England from Papism to Proddy enlightenment. Every time I've given it a go, things explode and go bang. First time I tried it Wales seceded. Next time I lost Scotland. There must be a better way.

Then stay true to the Mother Church, heretic! ~;p

Seriously, that's what I've always done and it's worked out. So I can't offer much guidance besides seconding Monk's 'spread it out' advice.

CR

[Lemur]

Here's a mechanics question: Whilst I am a good Catholic ruler, Protestant heresy spreads every few years in my provinces. But once I convert, it seems to stop. Is this accurate? Does the spread of Protestant ideology stop once you convert to it?

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Indeed not but it's no more heresy, therefore you needn't take any measures against it. ~:)
.

[al Roumi]

Now I'm trying to shepherd England from Papism to Proddy enlightenment. Every time I've given it a go, things explode and go bang. First time I tried it Wales seceded. Next time I lost Scotland. There must be a better way.

I'm actually just getting to this stage myself, with my Swiss empire.

I control all Lombard provinces in northern italy, and the german ones up to Wurzburg, as well as half of Austria.

Protestantism has spread accross Lombardy and Switzerland, but I'm also getting reformism spreading from the north in to my ex Bavarian provinces. I'm thinking to go Protestant, despite the reformist bonus to trade, as I face a lot of BB forming Germany.

What should be the tipping point to launch the "convert to (...)"? Once over half my provinces become Protestant?

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
Choson jumped the Ming bandwagon of attacking Nippon. They paid dearly:

https://img33.imageshack.us/img33/622/3731t.th.jpg (https://img33.imageshack.us/i/3731t.jpg/)

Too bad they had a navy or two hiding in the Ming ports, I suppose, because I couldn't annex them. :shrug:
.

[Jolt]

Oh my! It's Communist Japan with South Korea against Capitalist North Korea! :o

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Whilst spreading the proletariat dictatorship ~D merrily in Asia

https://img141.imageshack.us/img141/5338/3734.th.jpg (https://img141.imageshack.us/i/3734.jpg/)

Manchu and Qirat hordes attacked, to meet their doom,

https://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5879/3733w.th.jpg (https://img7.imageshack.us/i/3733w.jpg/)

When striketh the Sengoku Jidai... :mean:

https://img36.imageshack.us/img36/8290/3732o.th.jpg (https://img36.imageshack.us/i/3732o.jpg/)

Triumphant abroad, crumbled at home. :shrug:
.

[Monk]

I've never actually played Japan in EUIII, is the SJ period any fun? How is it resolved?

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
We'll wait and see, I guess. :shrug:

The continental dominions are solidifying steadily. Manchu culture has been embraced, but weirdly enough not Korean; it had been conquered much earlier. As stability decreases revolts are inevitable but a couple armies or three under competent generals are enough to quench them.

On the islands there's virtually nothing left but Kyoto. It would be interesting to play the petty Daimyos against one another and see what comes out. Tomorrow I'll be busy with school stuff but on Friday a long session awaits me. :sweatdrop:
.

[Hooahguy]

i just downloaded the EU3 demo. looks good, think ill shell out the money to get it.

[Jolt]

I'd advise you to buy EU3: Complete then. From what its said, its much better experience then EU3, vanilla.

[Crazed Rabbit]

I'll second that; definitely get the complete version.

CR

[Monk]

.
We'll wait and see, I guess. :shrug:

The continental dominions are solidifying steadily. Manchu culture has been embraced, but weirdly enough not Korean; it had been conquered much earlier. As stability decreases revolts are inevitable but a couple armies or three under competent generals are enough to quench them.

On the islands there's virtually nothing left but Kyoto. It would be interesting to play the petty Daimyos against one another and see what comes out. Tomorrow I'll be busy with school stuff but on Friday a long session awaits me. :sweatdrop:
.

I'd be very interested in whatever comes of this. A long session maybe, but I'll imagine a fun one. :2thumbsup:

[al Roumi]

.
The continental dominions are solidifying steadily. Manchu culture has been embraced, but weirdly enough not Korean; it had been conquered much earlier.
.

I'm guessing Korean culture hasn't been accepted because it doesn't contribute 10% or more of your tax income. Capturing Manchu provinces (and presumably increasing your tax income) will have made it even less likely that Korean will become an accepted culture. :sweatdrop:

I'm interested in how SJ is initiated, is it an unavoidable scripted event like the reformation in europe?

[Mouzafphaerre]

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It is scripted, yes, but I'm not sure it's unavoidable. I literally ?$#&%! up the economy in my wars of conquest (Korea) and counter-conquest (Manchu) and often took loans deliberately, which I for the life of me avoid playing an European power. Just going naval against aggressors (Ming and Korea) and solidifying the homeland, while letting technologies upgrade, might have avoided it. Only the Magna Mundi people should know for certain. :shrug:
.

[Hooahguy]

I'd advise you to buy EU3: Complete then. From what its said, its much better experience then EU3, vanilla.
whats the difference between the two?

[al Roumi]

whats the difference between the two?

EU3 Complete includes two expansions: Napoleon's Ambition and In Nomine. Both of which are highly recommended. The game isn't the same without them basically (think of MTW2 and MTW2+Kingdoms).

[Jolt]

whats the difference between the two?

The major changes are obviously much better A.I. and a less lot bugs and annoying situations.
- Extended Timelines (With all new countries it brings into the game, such as the Byzantine Empire)
- Enhanced trading system (In vanilla you'd be able to access any Trade Center as soon as you found it. Now you'd have to open up the Trade Center either through diplomacy or conquest)
- Improved Interface
- Many many more Gameplay Options
- Customize your game (Free colonization, no inflation, etc.)
- Decisions where you have to accomplish a set deal of things so you can enact the decision (Opposed to events, which fire at a given date regardless of consequences)
- Rebels who actually fight for an objective (I proposed this when EU3 was being produced) instead of just rebelling without any cause to fight for (Now they can fight for liberation of a country, or they can rebel since their religion is being discriminated/persecuted, towards the end of the game you'll begin getting colonial rebels who want the independence of their colonies, etc)
- Enhanced Holy Roman Empire and Papal Controller systems
- Changes on how colonization and Naval logistics are made.

These are just the ones over the top of my head.

Of course, Paradox is producing yet another expansion which will further improve the game, thus why it might also be a wise choice to wait for it to come out and buy the whole package with the new expansion.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Thanks Jolt! :2thumbsup:

I think the complete pack will be the first game I get once the third expansion comes out :yes: (and I earn some money :sweatdrop:).
.

[White_eyes:D]

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It is scripted, yes, but I'm not sure it's unavoidable. I literally ?$#&%! up the economy in my wars of conquest (Korea) and counter-conquest (Manchu) and often took loans deliberately, which I for the life of me avoid playing an European power. Just going naval against aggressors (Ming and Korea) and solidifying the homeland, while letting technologies upgrade, might have avoided it. Only the Magna Mundi people should know for certain. :shrug:
.

Any tips for an up-and-coming Shogun??:grin2:

I am playing one of the Feudal Lords and have just come out of a VERY large puny and epic war...:juggle2:

Lost most of my manpower.....my gains?? Most of Southern Japan and Puppet Shogun under control:2thumbsup:

My losses are maybe 0 Manpower for a little while...(need to reinforce my troops) and I have a nice little North vs South scenario, with the Date clan in my path:sweatdrop: (there manpower is pretty drained as well)

When war breaks out (And believe me...it will:smoking:) how should I handle it?? I don't want Japan to fall apart after I went Thur so much trouble to unify it:shame:

[Mouzafphaerre]

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I've yet to load the Sengoku game. Will update with what comes out here. ~;)
.

[White_eyes:D]

Hopefully, you can unite Japan again....shame seeing it fall apart like that..:no: (More importantly...I hope it doesn't happen to me:sweatdrop:)

[Lemur]

Okay, I'm sorta-kinda-almost getting the hang of this game. Question, though: Why do other nations research techs so much faster than I do? Doesn't matter whether I'm playing as Castille, Portugal or Britain, they're always a few points ahead of me. I set my research bars as high as I can without going into bankruptcy, and yet the warlike French are far in advance no matter what I do.

Clearly there is a mechanism I'm missing.

[OverKnight]

Which difficulty level are you playing on? I think the AI gets research advantages at higher levels of difficulties.

The three countries you mention tend to be colonial powers, are you colonizing a lot? Absorbing a high number of low income territories into your nation drags down research. This is because research cost is partly determined by how many territories you have. If you don't have increased income to match your increased size, research slows down.

Most likely France is too busy blobbing over everything to colonize much. Even if they are a war-monger they are still acquiring rich European territories so their increased income compensates for their increased size when it comes to research.

When I played a colonizing England, I had a hard time keeping up with France, but when I played an expanionistic Milan with little colonization I could. I'm sure further down the line, once the colonies have matured and you're making money hand over fist, you could catch up.

[miotas]

I'm currently playing a game as Mecklenburg with only 2 provinces, and my tech research is the highest in the world. My land and naval techs on 10 are equal with the other current world leaders, my production tech on 10 is 1 higher than anyone else, and though my trade tech is on 12 and 2 higher than anyone else, my government tech on 11 is actually 3 higher than anyone else.

All this focus on staying small, making money and researching comes at a cost though since my manpower pool is tiny. It's a great change of pace from my previous games as a colonial England, and a warlike Spain. I have had to put a much more effort into maintaining good relations with my neighbours than my previous games, and all the wars I have been involved in I basically moved in and quickly took a few provinces so I could secure a quick peace before they brought their full forces to bear and crushed my small army.

EDIT
Another advantage of being small is that you get to change your policy sliders more often.

[Meneldil]

Colonizing reduce your tech investement, at least until the colonies start to bring some cash (which doesn't happen before the late 16th).

[Monk]

Don't forget about your slider settings. If your nation is far on the "narrow minded" side, tech research gets lots of penalties.

[Jolt]

And don't forget lucky nations. Not sure they get a bonus in research though. They do get quite a boon in income, though.

[miotas]

The lucky nations don't get more income (not directly anyway), their missionaries, colonists, merchants and spies have a slightly higher chance, and they do get a small bonus to all their research. Their leaders also have an extra 1 to fire and shock.

[TinCow]

The above is correct: research costs go up as your number of territories increases. The larger you get, the more research points it costs for everything. If you add a territory to your empire which does not produce enough income to meet the additional research costs it is causing, your research will become a little harder than it used to be. This means that your research will slow down when you colonize and when you absorb poor provinces. Note that income increases significantly if a province has your core on it. Thus, if you gain a whole bunch of non-core provinces in a war, they will usually drag down you research until you core them.

In my games, it is very normal for my research to slow down for a while after the early game. Once you start expanding majorly, you'll take a lot of hits for the above listed reasons. However, once your colonies mature and you pop cores on your conquests, your research and income will start to rebound and you'll find yourself making up your lost ground. I'm usually behind in research at 1500 AD (in a 1399 start), but ahead in research by 1700 AD.

If you want to avoid this situation altogether, try to conquer only rich provinces and cored provinces. This is what makes expansion in northern Italy, France, and parts of Germany very profitable. This is also why grabbing a chunk of southern India is useful: they are all wealthy provinces that will give you a net profit in gold/research. Also, only use mass colonization if you're ok with long-term development. If you can't afford the research/income hit of supporting the colonies until they become profitable, it's better to forget about them and conquer them from someone else later.

[miotas]

What benefits does a monopoly give?

https://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo293/joshball2000/Monopoly.jpg :2thumbsup:

[johnhughthom]

Nice, can you lose your monopoly by having a merchant competed away?

[Martok]

A couple new dev (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=437722#post10268800) diaries (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=438882#post10294016) (nos. 3 & 4) for Heir to the Throne: The first one discusses dynasties, naming heirs, and royal successions. The second diary focuses almost exclusively on the HRE, and the new options one will have while playing as the Emperor (and/or German princes).


Developer Diary #3

New week, new diary. Since the last entry, 1,082,875 people have died in the world. Why do I mention this? Well, granted, I am slightly morbid, but also, the topic for today is death. And not just any kind of death, but the death of Kings.

While EU3 is not, and should not primarily be, a game of characters and noble houses, succession could be a lot more interesting. Thus, monarchs now belong to a dynasty. Countries with monarchs from the same dynasty get a bonus to their relations growth and may experience a variety of dynastic events. Monarchs can also have a legal heir. To keep things simple, the heir only has a name, an age, and a strength of claim (weak, average or strong.) In the tragic event of the monarch dying, a legal heir will ensure a minimum of fuss.

Long live the King, but should God in his mercy lift him up to Heaven, the worldly results are now predictable and shown in a handy tooltip. For example, an underage heir will result in a regency. An heir with a weak claim might encourage a Pretender to rise up, and the absence of an heir will cause a change of dynasty, the country getting inherited, or the formation of a personal union.

Apart from a more predictable succession, the new system allows players to manipulate the outcome. The "Claim Throne" diplomatic action has been revised to make more sense: it can only be used against countries that have no heir or an heir with a weak claim. Claimants have priority to form personal unions and dynasty changes. The downside is that only claimants can get dragged into Succession Wars... In the absence of claimants, Prestige determines which royal marriage can cause personal unions and dynasty changes.

Until next week!





Developer Diary #4

Todays diary is about that agglomeration of states which Voltaire thought was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. As a Swede I am of course bound to concur. Cum Deo et victribus armis! Even so, the HRE wielded a lot of power, and in another world, full of little eagles, crowns and, indeed, Krauts, it might eventually have coalesced into a proper nation. And that's what we're all about here at Paradox; alternate history! Well, that and authority, but more on that later.

In Heir to the Throne, we are adding more features to the HRE than it had members. Well, maybe not, but still quite a few. First off, a new concept called Imperial Authority. Imperial Authority represents the amount of control the Emperor exerts over the princes of the empire. It can be gained or lost in many ways, for example by answering the call of members under attack by foreign powers, or by liberating an annexed HRE member. The main reason for having Imperial Authority is to execute the special decisions that will allow skilled Holy Roman Emperors to tighten the reins on the member princes and eventually unite the disparate fiefdoms under one banner.

We are also adding at least two new diplomatic actions: "Bestow Imperial Grace" and "Enforce Religious Unity". The first works like "Send Gift", except it costs Imperial Authority rather than gold and gives a greater boost to relations. The second is a demand for conversion. If the errant princeling accepts, the religion changes and the Emperor gains more authority. If he refuses, the Emperor gains a special Casus Belli. (Speaking of which, in line with the new CB system, princes of the HRE are now allowed to fight each other without incurring the wrath of the Emperor, provided they have a valid Casus Belli.)

Finally, we have the "Imperial Ban" Casus Belli, which the emperor can employ against any non-member country with provinces that are part of the Empire. This only becomes available after a certain reform decision has been taken at the cost of Imperial Authority. (You will have noticed I've mentioned authority a lot. That's because at Paradox, we like authority; especially Johan.)

Adieu.



Some pretty cool-sounding stuff there. I want it to be December already so I can grab both this and EU3 Complete! :sweatdrop:

[Monk]

(Speaking of which, in line with the new CB system, princes of the HRE are now allowed to fight each other without incurring the wrath of the Emperor, provided they have a valid Casus Belli.)

YES! FINALLY! :2thumbsup:

[miotas]

Nice, can you lose your monopoly by having a merchant competed away?

Yeah, the big problem with having a monopoly is that all new merchants who come to the COT compete only with you and with no one else, so maintaining monopolies can become quite expensive. Also don't try to control all the monopolies out there. Every merchant you have out in the world reduces your chances of success. When I took that picture I had about 170 merchants out in the world and my chances of success were rarely above 10% so I cut back my merchants from all the poorer COT's.

Also the total cost of that COT in tarasco rose above 2000ducats at one point, and even though the Scandinavians took part of my share I was still making over 1500/year.

[al Roumi]

It's annoying you can't stop the auto-send algorithm spamming monopolies. Its strange you can't (maybe you can and I don't know?) when you can otherwise rank COTs by priority.

[Sarmatian]

In Napoleon's Ambition (or maybe In Nomine, not quite sure any more) by setting sliders in the COT on medium, you will only send merchants until you reach the number of 5. You won't send additional unless one gets competed away.

[al Roumi]

In Napoleon's Ambition (or maybe In Nomine, not quite sure any more) by setting sliders in the COT on medium, you will only send merchants until you reach the number of 5. You won't send additional unless one gets competed away.

Ohhh, that explains things! Thanks Sarmatian! I genuinely thought it was just a low, medium, High priority destination filter.

[Martok]

Heir to the Throne Dev Diary #5 (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=440084#post10322081) is up. The topic is Merchant Republics, with an emphasis on the Hanseatic League:


When you think of a merchant, what image immediately springs to mind? A fat man in a fur-lined coat and a funny hat, holding a bag of coins? I bet it does, or at least something similar. The fat man is of course none other than Jürgen Wullenwever, mayor of Lübeck and instigator of the Danish Civil War known as the Count's Feud, whose epic failures led to his torture and death in 1537, signalling the beginning of the end for the Hanseatic League. (Such is the power of archetypes that they can survive for centuries almost unchanged.)

The Hanseatic League as a political entity has always been problematic to define - especially in game terms - but as Wullenwever's example proves, its senior representatives did not hesitate to use military force when it suited them. The League may have played a minor role in EU3 but will enter the limelight in Heir to the Throne, with Lübeck and Hamburg merged and forming the core of the Hanseatic League. Now, there are some who will object to this, but do read on before you start convulsing and frothing at the mouth.

The Hanseatic League is of course a Merchant Republic, and this form of government has received a serious overhaul. Merchant Republics do not use regular Trade Agreements; instead, they form Trade Leagues, the members of which avoid internal competition. The Merchant Republic gains by this, because league provinces tend to trade through league centers of trade. The members also stand to gain, since they use the Republic's compete modifiers (if better than their own.) Additionally, the league might open Trade Stations (think Hanseatic Kontors) in member provinces, giving various bonuses. Merchant Republics can also Propose Trade Rights, which means all goods of a certain type will trade through its own centers of trade, with a set compensation to the giver and some other effects. Lastly, there will be more events and decisions dealing with Merchant Republics, like the Hanseatic League trying to avoid paying the Sound toll.

Merchant Republics can not include each other in their leagues, being bitter rivals, and it is of course no longer possible to simply change your form of government to Merchant Republic: Venice, Genoa, the Hanseatic League and Novgorod are it at the start of the game, each having their own Trade League. However, if you too want the respect that comes with obesity, garish clothes and oversized jewelry, you might be able to convert through a special decision (or a career in gangsta rap; your call.)

What else have I got for you today? Oh yes, all forms of republic barring tribes now get reduced penalties from provinces not of their own culture and religion. (In general, government bonuses are being redesigned to make them more interesting.) So, there you have it, there is room for humanists and democrats in our Paradoxian hearts too (but not enough that I will tell you what Magistrates do)!


Can you say "trade wars"? :jumping:

[miotas]

There's couple more dev diaries up:

Dev Diary 6 (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=441435), mostly dealing with map changes. Permanent terra incognita is out the window, and it looks like France wont devour all the small European states like she normally does.

This week I thought we'd sit back and enjoy the little things, because that is the secret to lifelong satisfaction and contentment (also, I cannot reveal a major feature while the interface still looks like the demented scrawlings of Abdul Alhazred!) So, let us kick off with the removal of the Permanent Terra Incognita. We thought that those mysterious regions forever hidden under a lovely shade of blinding white might as well be explorable: Here be Dragons, but to be honest, nothing else of interest. That is why most of the former PTI areas are still considered "wasteland". Wasteland provinces can be discovered, but are impassable and cannot be settled. This is, in short, mostly a visual improvement. However, a few strips of land here and there could actually be salvaged and turned into normal provinces. In the process, I found myself annoyed with Russia, so I grabbed my musket and my tricorne and prepared to march on Moscow, but then I remembered which century it was (see what happens you spend too much time on our forums?) So, instead, I gratuitously changed the Russian geography so it was more to my liking.

Speaking of geography; as the astute among you have already noticed, other areas of Europe also look a bit different. However, in this case the motivation was not only to correct map errors but also to stop the ungodly Blue Blob before we all choke on snails and Crème brûlée. Yes my friends, it is time to say non to the menace that is France. Or, at least, a timid S'il vous plaît ne me tuez pas! Jesting aside, we hope France is now better balanced, with more initial trouble annexing its vassals and smashing Burgundy.

But enough with the minor map changes. A proper new feature in Heir to the Throne is the concept of Legitimacy, which represents how... well, legitimate, your dynasty is perceived to be. The value is shown in the top bar for monarchies and slowly increases or decreases with positive or negative prestige, number of royal marriages, etc. Many other events also have an impact, like a dynasty or government change, losing wars of aggression and failing to achieve war goals. Much like prestige, legitimacy has a plethora of effects on the state of your kingdom, like revolt risk, pretender rebel chance and Infamy reduction. Legitimacy is intimately tied to the strength of claim of your legal heir: an heir with a weak claim will lower the legitimacy of your dynasty on succession. On the other hand, having a high legitimacy is likelier to produce heirs with a strong claim.

Before we get to the screenshots, which speak louder than my paltry words anyway, I think I will round off by revealing what 'Magistrates' are for. In our early brainstorming sessions, we thought that some type of "focus points" would be a great way to ensure a proper progression of government forms, from primitive to almost modern (like the "Constitutional Republic".) After some shape shifting, this idea eventually coalesced into the form of the Magistrate; an all-purpose official whose chief purpose is to execute decisions, especially at the province level (this is not a hardcoded requirement, but simply a scripted effect of the decisions.) Magistrates are gained much faster for later government types, allowing quicker decision making. Magistrates should also be welcomed by our esteemed modding community, since they can be used in all kinds of clever scripts.

Dev Diary 7 (http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.php?t=442732), dealing with culture and religion. It all looks very interesting, I can think of a few times when being able to recruit the ideal advisor would have been very helpful.

In these days of Dawkins, Dennet and Flying Spaghetti Monsters, it is sometimes hard to remember an age before there were "Brights" and everyone was dim; when there was no "Talk like a Pirate Day" because people spoke that way all year round... the long centuries when people went to church and the Church went wherever a certain arthritic - but very holy - finger pointed; the finger of that fellow in the funny hat whose current incarnation looks a lot like Emperor Palpatine. Of course, at Paradox we still remember, and in Heir to the Throne we are giving the Pontiff of Rome his due by revising the whole Curia system. While bribery and cynical manipulation of organized religions sounds like fun in theory, the Holy See was a feature that did not see much use in EU3. Thus, you can no longer bribe cardinals. Instead, every Catholic country has an amount of Papal Influence that increases the chance of getting a cardinal elected in the first place. This reduces micromanagement while still allowing players to attain control of the Papacy by choosing the right national ideas, being narrowminded, maintaining good relations with the Papal State, etc.

Speaking of unpolished features, another aspect of the game we were never quite happy with - but for much the opposite reason - is the advisor system. It lacks interactivity. That's why we added a shiny new window where you can play God by creating an advisor of a specific type out of nothing. Well, nothing plus a certain amount of army, navy or cultural tradition. Cultural tradition is a new concept intended to reward players for playing the game in a civilized manner (i.e. not throwing tantrums or reloading when things turn sour.) Like with admirals and generals, the quality of the advisor is dependent on how much tradition you have at the time. (The hopefully Great Man will then be available for hire, as normal, in the advisor view.) Also to be found in the new window is another type of decision; cultural decisions. These are mostly intended to increase your cultural tradition by patronizing the arts. (I also like to patronize the arts, but my way does not cost money...)

[Martok]

Dev Diary #8: Yaaaargh!!! (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?p=10412548#post10412548)


'Tis soon the Season, and us friendly elves here at Paradox are merrily chiseling away at the bound-to-be-hailed-as-a-masterpiece EU3 expansion; Heir to the Throne. (Well, some of us are; the rest of the crew pretend to be working on Victoria 2, but they're not fooling anyone!) It is time to reach into Santa's great big sack and pull out another ribboned feature or two to spoil for you...

Today we shall celebrate the Queene's Day by speaking of her (Elizabeth I, bless her soul) enterprising servants at sea; the privateers. These hardy men who tread the fine line between honest patriotism and outright piracy (and sometimes drunkenly swerved across it. Yarrrh!) In fact, for this diary I think it might be more appropriate to assume the Spanish point of view and regard them all as scum who deserved nothing but a shameful hanging. (Begging her majesty's pardon.)

A major complaint with pirates in EU3 is the amount of micromanagement required to keep the bloody scoundrels in check, cluttering the outliner and requiring a lot of player attention even with automated naval patrols. We decided on a solution that still requires large colonial empires to maintain powerful navies, but does not increase micromanagement. First of all, every fleet now has a patrol range, and sea zones within that range are now marked as 'patrolled' for a certain number of days when a fleet is nearby at the start of a new month. The patrol range depends on your naval technology, and a few fleets alone can potentially cover the entire Spanish colonial empire. Of course, if those fleets get blockaded in a port during a war, they will no longer perform this duty. We also reduced the spawn chance of pirates but made them slightly stronger to make them more challenging. Lastly, provinces on an unpatrolled coast receive a financial penalty, representing smuggling and other shady activities.

On a salty and somewhat related note, we added a new map mode for naval and colonial range, as well as the new concept of Trade Winds. Trade winds are shown with red arrows in certain sea zones where the prevailing wind tends to come from one direction. For the sake of simplicity, the strength and direction of trade winds are static, making certain routes more or less attractive to fleets.

Now then, while Heir to the Throne is a veritable cornucopia of new and addictive features I could go on and on about, it is time to stop blathering and return to the hammer and the chisel! But don't be sad kiddies, here are some screenshots with lots of pretty colors!



This would appear to be a welcome change in dealing with piracy. I have to admit I also like that provinces on an un-patrolled coastline will now suffer a penalty for smuggling and what-have-you. Seems like a nice touch.

[Meneldil]

"Holy **** my country is nerfed !! @))-($ù$^*@

EU3 will blow, and I'm going to start complaining on the official forums."

[TinCow]

The new expansion pack certainly adds a lot of stuff that we've all been wanting for a very long time. I might even stop playing MMP2 and go back to vanilla after this comes out. The war aims and dynasties alone are major improvements.

[CountArach]

Started up a MMP2 campaign as Sweden. I love this mod so much... I fought the openning war against Denmark/Norway to a draw, but had a rebellion in the Lappland region that was successful (The rebels won the seige, though I destroyed them soon after). Spurred on by this success half of Finland rebelled (at least 18000 men), and I was forced to march over there with all speed as my token garrison was not even close to adequate. I'm currently trying to get my stability up above +1 and banging together some semblance of an economy.

[TinCow]

Would anyone be interested in playing a succession game in MMP2? For those that don't know, a succession game is one in which a person plays the game until their regent dies. When the regent dies, another player takes the saved game and then continues to play until their regent dies. Repeat until the game is over or the group decides to end it. It is interesting, but not everyone plays in the same manner, so one person's ideas on what the country might not match someone else's. Here are examples (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=416688) of this (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=441091) on the Paradox forums and a list of TW succession games (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=1892424&postcount=1) from the Throne Room.

[Beskar]

I played the demo. I think I played this game wrong.

All I pretty much did as the Swiss was construct a couple of odd-buildings and have level 5 trade in 7 regions. Only advisors I recruited were trade and just played a trade war game.

I didn't work out how to do my own trade area though or why my provinces kept changing areas.

[CountArach]

Would anyone be interested in playing a succession game in MMP2? For those that don't know, a succession game is one in which a person plays the game until their regent dies. When the regent dies, another player takes the saved game and then continues to play until their regent dies. Repeat until the game is over or the group decides to end it. It is interesting, but not everyone plays in the same manner, so one person's ideas on what the country might not match someone else's. Here are examples (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=416688) of this (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=441091) on the Paradox forums and a list of TW succession games (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=1892424&postcount=1) from the Throne Room.
Sounds like an awesome idea mate.

[Monk]

Would anyone be interested in playing a succession game in MMP2? For those that don't know, a succession game is one in which a person plays the game until their regent dies. When the regent dies, another player takes the saved game and then continues to play until their regent dies. Repeat until the game is over or the group decides to end it. It is interesting, but not everyone plays in the same manner, so one person's ideas on what the country might not match someone else's. Here are examples (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=416688) of this (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=441091) on the Paradox forums and a list of TW succession games (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=1892424&postcount=1) from the Throne Room.

In.

[TinCow]

Alright, that's three of us, which I think is good enough to start. It's easy for others to join in when it's in progress, and we can easily just rotate between the three of us even if we don't get any more. To keep from derailing this thread, I've made another one:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=123643

[TinCow]

Dev Diary 10 (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=447098) is up. This one has a horde of UI improvements visible in the screenshots which will be welcome. I'm extremelly eager for this expansion now, particularly after MMP is converted to deal with it.

[Beskar]

What is that new great person thing they added next to the spy?

[al Roumi]

Magisters or Intendents I think. They were mentioned in one of the Dev diaries, I think they are what allow you to make/implement "decisions", presumably National ones.

[TinCow]

What is that new great person thing they added next to the spy?

From Dev Diary 6:


Before we get to the screenshots, which speak louder than my paltry words anyway, I think I will round off by revealing what 'Magistrates' are for. In our early brainstorming sessions, we thought that some type of "focus points" would be a great way to ensure a proper progression of government forms, from primitive to almost modern (like the "Constitutional Republic".) After some shape shifting, this idea eventually coalesced into the form of the Magistrate; an all-purpose official whose chief purpose is to execute decisions, especially at the province level (this is not a hardcoded requirement, but simply a scripted effect of the decisions.) Magistrates are gained much faster for later government types, allowing quicker decision making. Magistrates should also be welcomed by our esteemed modding community, since they can be used in all kinds of clever scripts.

[Veho Nex]

http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/24ae95b8feab62ef398e040af63a9da0f6db3d16.png
Recent invasion of france. I started as Scotland. Thats 250k troops with an additional 50k from ireland. This was the 12th invasion I've had of france, and the only one that actually took the beaches.

[frogbeastegg]

There's a demo (http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.php?t=448774) for Heir to the Throne now.

HTTT sounds like it fixes a lot of the shortcomings I found with EU3 so I shall definitely be trying the demo.

[Beskar]

Is there a full list of things about Heir to the Throne which is easy to browse? (opposed to reading all the developer diaries)

[Martok]

There's a demo (http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.php?t=448774) for Heir to the Throne now.

HTTT sounds like it fixes a lot of the shortcomings I found with EU3 so I shall definitely be trying the demo.
I'll be grabbing the demo as well. I'm almost hoping that I don't enjoy it too much, for fear that I will be compelled to go out and purchase the game at once (instead of waiting til next year like I've been planning). :sweatdrop:




Is there a full list of things about Heir to the Throne which is easy to browse? (opposed to reading all the developer diaries)
Well it's not a full list, but these are most of the major features (taken directly from Paradox's site):

• Intriguing Casus Belli system, where wars have specific goals from start to finish.
• Monarchs now belong to dynasties, with far reaching effects on the diplomatic model.
• More involving and powerful Holy Roman Empire and Papacy options.
• Special diplomatic options for Republics.
• Set your National Focus in a province to enhance growth and strengthen your hold in the region.
• Permanent Terra Incognita removed and replaced with impassable regions.
• Cultural Tradition allows better advisors in the same way that Military Tradition allows better generals and admirals.
• Spheres of Influence simulate the Great Game of the major powers.
• More dynamic pirates. Issue letters of marque to plague the sea zones of rival nations.
• Monarchs need to uphold their legitimacy in the eyes of their subjects
• Many other additions and improvements.


Personally, I'm most intrigued/excited by the first 5 bullet points. Those alone are reason enough to make me want to get HttT. :yes:

[Beskar]

Well it's not a full list, but these are most of the major features (taken directly from Paradox's site):

• Intriguing Casus Belli system, where wars have specific goals from start to finish.
• Monarchs now belong to dynasties, with far reaching effects on the diplomatic model.
• More involving and powerful Holy Roman Empire and Papacy options.
• Special diplomatic options for Republics.
• Set your National Focus in a province to enhance growth and strengthen your hold in the region.
• Permanent Terra Incognita removed and replaced with impassable regions.
• Cultural Tradition allows better advisors in the same way that Military Tradition allows better generals and admirals.
• Spheres of Influence simulate the Great Game of the major powers.
• More dynamic pirates. Issue letters of marque to plague the sea zones of rival nations.
• Monarchs need to uphold their legitimacy in the eyes of their subjects
• Many other additions and improvements.


Personally, I'm most intrigued/excited by the first 5 bullet points. Those alone are reason enough to make me want to get HttT. :yes:

I have to see that Casus Belli system to comment on that.
I would like to see dynasties and more related options to royal family. As all it seemed to be was randomly marriages which just disappeared without comment down the line.
I would like to see stronger HRE and Papacy, as HRE had basically no power and Papacy was only a random crusade.
I would like to see diplomatic options for Republics.
"natural focus" I would have to see.
"Permanent Terra Incognita removed" This is a very big plus.

[Monk]

I have to see that Casus Belli system to comment on that.
I would like to see dynasties and more related options to royal family. As all it seemed to be was randomly marriages which just disappeared without comment down the line.
I would like to see stronger HRE and Papacy, as HRE had basically no power and Papacy was only a random crusade.
I would like to see diplomatic options for Republics.
"natural focus" I would have to see.
"Permanent Terra Incognita removed" This is a very big plus.

I highly recommend reading the dev diaries. They go into great detail and provide screenshots, including the new CB system. :shrug:

[Beskar]

I downloaded the demo for my laptop, but for some reason, there is no land, there is only ocean/sea and land provinces are sea.

[Veho Nex]

Im kinda lost when it comes to taking over countries...

How come when I conquer every single provence of france and have taken all its colonies, I can only obtain a few provences tops from them? If you looked at my SS I went through and conquered all of france. I then left 40k there and moved the rest of troops around the world to conquer the rest. Once I finally did that I was only allowed to take Caux Pidicari Finistere and one other provence.

Is there a way to take more?

[Beskar]

Im kinda lost when it comes to taking over countries...

How come when I conquer every single provence of france and have taken all its colonies, I can only obtain a few provences tops from them? If you looked at my SS I went through and conquered all of france. I then left 40k there and moved the rest of troops around the world to conquer the rest. Once I finally did that I was only allowed to take Caux Pidicari Finistere and one other provence.

Is there a way to take more?

Well, in EU3 complete (not this new demo) you can invade all their land and take what you want all except their capital. You can only take their capital when you declare war on them when they have one province then you can annex it.

[Veho Nex]

So if you have all their lands you dont need to worry about them going

"HAHAHAH We are Le French and even though you own everything we will only give you 4 provinces for peace, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

I can just take everything? even if its over that "100" mark?

[Beskar]

So if you have all their lands you dont need to worry about them going

"HAHAHAH We are Le French and even though you own everything we will only give you 4 provinces for peace, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

I can just take everything? even if its over that "100" mark?

You can. Destroy all their armies and hold the territory for a year or so. They will be begging for it.

[Veho Nex]

Gah... Oh well I still have 160k in France and an additional 40k near their territories in America. Shouldn't be too hard to take them out.

[TinCow]

I downloaded the demo for my laptop, but for some reason, there is no land, there is only ocean/sea and land provinces are sea.

That's a problem caused by some onboard videocards, and is common on laptops (I have the same problem on mine). There is no way to fix it because it is caused because the onboard video card doesn't have the capability of displaying some parts of the EU3 graphics. There is a workaround for the problem, but it only fixes the terrain map, so you'll never be able to use the nations, religion, etc. stuff which is very annoying.

Workaround for regular game:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=327504

Workaround for IN and Complete versions:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=385680

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

As someone who (eventually) got into Victoria (a little) but couldn’t wrap his head around HoI, would Paradox vets recommend me trying EU? When I have more time I’m going to play this demo, but I played a past EU demo and found the tutorial unhelpful and the demo to limited to learn on.

[Monk]

As someone who (eventually) got into Victoria (a little) but couldn’t wrap his head around HoI, would Paradox vets recommend me trying EU? When I have more time I’m going to play this demo, but I played a past EU demo and found the tutorial unhelpful and the demo to limited to learn on.

If you figured out Victoria, EU will be a breeze. On the list of complexity I'd rank EUIII as quite a bit more accessible than both Victoria and HoI. :yes:

Plus you can buy EUIII: Complete (includes the core game and the first two expansions) on Amazon for $7 USD (http://www.amazon.com/Europa-Universalis-III-Complete-Pc/dp/B001EK7S82/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1260549147&sr=8-1).

[A Very Super Market]

EU has its own sort of difficulty. Most of which lies in the sheer scale of the timespan it encompasses. As far as I can tell, it also had more random events than Vicky as well, and they can throw your plans off very easily.

[frogbeastegg]

I'll be grabbing the demo as well. I'm almost hoping that I don't enjoy it too much, for fear that I will be compelled to go out and purchase the game at once (instead of waiting til next year like I've been planning). :sweatdrop:
Think of the standard Paradox bugs and balance issues. It's going to take a patch or three before HTTT is in good form.

[Beskar]

I have to be honest, the worst thing about EUIII is simply time. To do anything, it takes a lot of time (such as research, moving to areas, diplomacy waiting times, cool downs on bad-boy rating, converting, etc) with no easy way to do things or get into very favourable situations due to other limits such as small income. In this respect, it is very different to the Total War series where it is quite in the opposite in many ways.


That's a problem caused by some onboard videocards, and is common on laptops (I have the same problem on mine). There is no way to fix it because it is caused because the onboard video card doesn't have the capability of displaying some parts of the EU3 graphics. There is a workaround for the problem, but it only fixes the terrain map, so you'll never be able to use the nations, religion, etc. stuff which is very annoying.

Workaround for regular game:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=327504

Workaround for IN and Complete versions:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=385680

That's a big shame, as I am without my main computer. I do have EU3 on that, but I am currently using a laptop while I dont have access to it.

[Martok]

Think of the standard Paradox bugs and balance issues. It's going to take a patch or three before HTTT is in good form.
Hmm, that's a good point. I know a lot of people are still dissatisfied with HOI3, even with all the patches that have been released so far.

Perhaps I ought to wait for EU3: Ultimate Edition (or whatever they decide to call it)? Hopefully by that point, it will be in a more playable condition.

[al Roumi]

I have to be honest, the worst thing about EUIII is simply time. To do anything, it takes a lot of time (such as research, moving to areas, diplomacy waiting times, cool downs on bad-boy rating, converting, etc) with no easy way to do things or get into very favourable situations due to other limits such as small income. In this respect, it is very different to the Total War series where it is quite in the opposite in many ways.


True. Going back to Total War games after EU3 makes them seem rather simple on the grand strategy front though. I think it's partly due to the lower number of regions in TW games, and how this can really hang the AI out to dry in e.g. ETW.

As in both EU3:IN and ETW, the hardest and most intersting part of the game is the first phase, where you are establishing your nation/state. That said, barring a mid/late game Maratha blob in ETW, EU3 has more potential for also creating large rival nations to challenge yours (hello BBB aka France).

[TinCow]

Hmm, that's a good point. I know a lot of people are still dissatisfied with HOI3, even with all the patches that have been released so far.

Perhaps I ought to wait for EU3: Ultimate Edition (or whatever they decide to call it)? Hopefully by that point, it will be in a more playable condition.

Personally, I'm waiting until Magna Mundi is updated to be compatible with HttT. I'm absolutely drooling over the new causus belli system, but I don't like the idea of going back to the relative simplicity of unmodded EU3.

[Beskar]

EU3 has more potential for also creating large rival nations to challenge yours (hello BBB aka France).

France was a real pain in my game, they kept declaring war on me and I kept losing due to Man power. Everytime I sent a massive army to their shores, they were able to double my numbers and push me away so I had to play a game of trying to keep them. Though, my navy was vastly more powerful than theirs, which allowed me to keep them away from getting to the British isles, so it was a game of them declaring war on me and being unable to do damage to them and vice-versus.

However, with France managing to get into a bunch of wars on different fronts with Lombardy, Brittany, Savoy and Castile (which owned ilberia and big chunk of Morocco, except for the last one of Portugal), allowed me the opportunity to deal a crippling blow to them. While I didn't have the power to wipe them out, I had the power and situation to get them to release their vassals such as Normandy, etc which really stemmed the great blue blob.

France in the game has recovered the land from their ex-vassals, etc, except for Normandy/Picardi/etc which I own. However, they are in no situation to take me on (I am the strongest power in Europe, with Vassal Alliances with Portugal (which i helped them in expanding) and what I will call a "Greater Netherlands" and "Greater Switzerland" and Bradenburg which dominated central Europe and I got really lucky and ended up in a Personal Union with them. (also due to these, I ended up Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, even though I am not a member. Though I do own a couple of provinces which are in it)

However, biggest issue in Europe been this whole provinces randomly turning protestant and calvinist which weakened all the European powers quite significantly. In Europe, the major powers are Sweden, Bradenburg (who are in personal union with me), Papal States, Hungery, Lithunia, France, Castile and Novograd. (both of these could turn into Russia and Spain when they got the cores)

What worries me though, are the powers outside of Europe, amazingly. The Chinese power is bordering Novograd, and owns vast territories but due to religious instability is crippled with major uprising and national uprisings. Far more closer to home which is the possibly the biggest threat is Ottoman Empire who pretty much owns Parts of the Baltics, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and North East Africa (it conquered Ethiopia area) with Persia as a vassal owning Iran area, and Mamaduks as a vassal owning Eygpt. They are strong with hardly any troubles though minor conflicts between Hungary and Ottoman keep occuring.

I am currently expanding colonially however it looks like Castile got a massive headstart in this area and Portugal later joined the Fray and far more recently, France.

[al Roumi]

France was a real pain in my game, they kept declaring war on me and I kept losing due to Man power. Everytime I sent a massive army to their shores, they were able to double my numbers and push me away so I had to play a game of trying to keep them. Though, my navy was vastly more powerful than theirs, which allowed me to keep them away from getting to the British isles, so it was a game of them declaring war on me and being unable to do damage to them and vice-versus.

However, with France managing to get into a bunch of wars on different fronts with Lombardy, Brittany, Savoy and Castile (which owned ilberia and big chunk of Morocco, except for the last one of Portugal), allowed me the opportunity to deal a crippling blow to them. While I didn't have the power to wipe them out, I had the power and situation to get them to release their vassals such as Normandy, etc which really stemmed the great blue blob.

France in the game has recovered the land from their ex-vassals, etc, except for Normandy/Picardi/etc which I own. However, they are in no situation to take me on (I am the strongest power in Europe, with Vassal Alliances with Portugal (which i helped them in expanding) and what I will call a "Greater Netherlands" and "Greater Switzerland" and Bradenburg which dominated central Europe and I got really lucky and ended up in a Personal Union with them. (also due to these, I ended up Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, even though I am not a member. Though I do own a couple of provinces which are in it)

However, biggest issue in Europe been this whole provinces randomly turning protestant and calvinist which weakened all the European powers quite significantly. In Europe, the major powers are Sweden, Bradenburg (who are in personal union with me), Papal States, Hungery, Lithunia, France, Castile and Novograd. (both of these could turn into Russia and Spain when they got the cores)

What worries me though, are the powers outside of Europe, amazingly. The Chinese power is bordering Novograd, and owns vast territories but due to religious instability is crippled with major uprising and national uprisings. Far more closer to home which is the possibly the biggest threat is Ottoman Empire who pretty much owns Parts of the Baltics, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and North East Africa (it conquered Ethiopia area) with Persia as a vassal owning Iran area, and Mamaduks as a vassal owning Eygpt. They are strong with hardly any troubles though minor conflicts between Hungary and Ottoman keep occuring.

I am currently expanding colonially however it looks like Castile got a massive headstart in this area and Portugal later joined the Fray and far more recently, France.

In EU3:IN France is an infamous pain for any continental european power. Playing as England it's easier to do as you did and play an almost historical game of withdrawing from the mainland in the 100 years war and focussing on colonial adventures -maintaining a fleet big enough to keep the island apart.

There is plaenty on how to beat France on the Paradox forum, basically you need to pick your moments (as you did, when they were at war with several others) and seek to partition their terrirtory with (ideally English) provinces owned by a (otherwise) neutral/ally state of yours. I think theat partitioning and lack of "land bridge" cuts the income received in the provinces seperated from the capital.

[Meneldil]

As someone who (eventually) got into Victoria (a little) but couldn’t wrap his head around HoI, would Paradox vets recommend me trying EU? When I have more time I’m going to play this demo, but I played a past EU demo and found the tutorial unhelpful and the demo to limited to learn on.

As said earlier, EU3 is much simpler than Vicky. Though I haven't quite worked out how to be successful at Victoria, I now find EU3 to be quite simple (the basic game at least).

I can take a minor power and turn it into something big pretty easily. From then, the next step will be to try out MM, but this one seems a bit overcomplicated and to stack a lot of hostile rules against the player.

[frogbeastegg]

Hmm, that's a good point. I know a lot of people are still dissatisfied with HOI3, even with all the patches that have been released so far.
The last Paradox game I brought near release was EU: Rome and that hammered the lesson into my head so hard my skull fractured. There may have been some brain damage also. :dizzy2:



One of the difficulties I have with EUII/EUIII, which HTTT won't fix, is the tech groups. I wouldn't mind playing as Japan, China or one of the other eastern countries I find historically appealing. Their tech group makes them unpleasant to play. On the one hand they are missing and/or slow at a lot of the key gameplay, and that makes them less enjoyable to play. On the other the attitude of "Har har, look, these countries were stoopid because they weren't like western Europe, lolz!" is embarrassing. It's not as if we're talking about an isolated tribe of head-hunters complete with stone spearheads ...

[TinCow]

One of the difficulties I have with EUII/EUIII, which HTTT won't fix, is the tech groups. I wouldn't mind playing as Japan, China or one of the other eastern countries I find historically appealing. Their tech group makes them unpleasant to play. On the one hand they are missing and/or slow at a lot of the key gameplay, and that makes them less enjoyable to play. On the other the attitude of "Har har, look, these countries were stoopid because they weren't like western Europe, lolz!" is embarrassing. It's not as if we're talking about an isolated tribe of head-hunters complete with stone spearheads ...

Well, Magna Mundi has a lot of new content for Asian nations, particularly for Japan. The mod is certainly very difficult, but if you're looking for a more historical method of playing Japan, that mod is an option.

[frogbeastegg]

Well, Magna Mundi has a lot of new content for Asian nations, particularly for Japan. The mod is certainly very difficult, but if you're looking for a more historical method of playing Japan, that mod is an option.
It does? There's some good news; EU3 kicks off at the point where my historical interest peters out and dies so it's harder to find a nation I want to play. To then have many of the ones I'd like to try lumbered with a research penalty is still more off-putting. I'm a researcher/builder/trader at heart, with a sideline in conquest.

I suppose you need a decent understanding of the vanilla game before you try the mod?

Not necessarily more historical, just not so "Hur hur, you dumb [insert tech group label] are so stoopid you can't understand court houses, hur hur!" I can understand and agree with limiting access to the obviously western research outcomes (e.g. scientific revolution) but the approach taken by the game is blanket, heavy-handed and outright tedious in its effects on gameplay. I don't want to mod the non-western nations into becoming western nations with a different colour and name either; I want to see them keep some individual flavour.

[Beskar]

It does? There's some good news; EU3 kicks off at the point where my historical interest peters out and dies so it's harder to find a nation I want to play. To then have many of the ones I'd like to try lumbered with a research penalty is still more off-putting. I'm a researcher/builder/trader at heart, with a sideline in conquest.

I know exactly what you mean. I am pretty much the same and EU3 really doesn't give you options to play the merchant, research, builder game. (Research is really slow, Merchants don't have much chance, Buildings are too expensive)


Not necessarily more historical, just not so "Hur hur, you dumb [insert tech group label] are so stoopid you can't understand court houses, hur hur!" I can understand and agree with limiting access to the obviously western research outcomes (e.g. scientific revolution) but the approach taken by the game is blanket, heavy-handed and outright tedious in its effects on gameplay. I don't want to mod the non-western nations into becoming western nations with a different colour and name either; I want to see them keep some individual flavour.

You can make Japan into a Western tech-group. In a game, I forced Japan into it just to see what happens. The most noticable thing was they suddenly had access to all the area of Europe, but in Europe, they didn't have the FoW lifted from Japan, which I found weird.

[miotas]

One of the difficulties I have with EUII/EUIII, which HTTT won't fix, is the tech groups. I wouldn't mind playing as Japan, China or one of the other eastern countries I find historically appealing. Their tech group makes them unpleasant to play. On the one hand they are missing and/or slow at a lot of the key gameplay, and that makes them less enjoyable to play. On the other the attitude of "Har har, look, these countries were stoopid because they weren't like western Europe, lolz!" is embarrassing. It's not as if we're talking about an isolated tribe of head-hunters complete with stone spearheads ...

I think if any limitations are to be placed on Asian nations then it should only be very late in the game, it was only towards the end of the period covered that china started falling behind Europe. However, while that is very annoying, it was also quite satisfying when I westernised as Japan and started trouncing everyone in the region. All of east Asia is under my control. I vassalised(is that even a word?) all of Indo-china, Indonesia, Manchu and Korea. I've taken a large part of southern China, and forced them to release all their nations, and then I vassalised those nations, as well as China, and now I am colonising Siberia, all the nearby pacific islands, and Australia. I also colonised the islands in the Indian ocean to make it harder for any Europeans to get to Asia, and also to make it easier for me to get to Europe when the time is right. :smash:


Now, what's really frustrating is trying to play as an American nation, every time you start to get even remotely successful, some event comes along and causes MASSIVE rebel armies to rise up, and these armies are insanely huge. They are always many times more than your force-limit, and many times larger than the population of the areas they rebel in. Also, because your tech is non existent, you can't get colonists, and can't expand beyond your borders or those of your immediate neighbours. I'm not sure it's even possible to succeed there :wall:

[Beskar]

Now, what's really frustrating is trying to play as an American nation, every time you start to get even remotely successful, some event comes along and causes MASSIVE rebel armies to rise up, and these armies are insanely huge. They are always many times more than your force-limit, and many times larger than the population of the areas they rebel in. Also, because your tech is non existent, you can't get colonists, and can't expand beyond your borders or those of your immediate neighbours. I'm not sure it's even possible to succeed there :wall:

Yeah, I looked at those. Some of them can't even get research in areas such as government.

If had I to play as one, would probably have to turn a cheat-mode on, to allow you to get colonists, etc.

[miotas]

Yeah, I did that, at one point. Word of warning, if you do that, then make sure you have enough spare cash to fully colonise straight away, otherwise the colonial upkeep will send you either into a massive loans, or insane inflation which can't be reduced due to having no national ideas. I wouldn't mind it if they only had limits on land and naval (and maybe production?), but limiting government and trade is just plain stupid.

[frogbeastegg]

Thing is, I don't precisely want to westernise. At that point you're just playing one of the western countries with a different name and colour, and it throws the local power balance out. I want to play as the local government with courthouses and whatnot appearing at the same rate as western nations, but without the specifically western developments, and I want my neighbours to be doing the same. There's no reason for Ming to be 60% slower to develop something like a courthouse, and there is a reason for them to be slower to develop something like modern scientific method.


Now, what's really frustrating is trying to play as an American nation, every time you start to get even remotely successful, some event comes along and causes MASSIVE rebel armies to rise up, and these armies are insanely huge.
Can't stand events which seem designed to put nations back in their 'place'. "I'm sorry, your addition of a clock to your palace has caused massive riots across your entire nation. Your adoption of foreign sorcery scares the populace! Please enjoy watching most of your hard earned development go down the toilet." Meanwhile said backwards terrified populace has had pocket watches since their great-granddaddy's day thanks to years of heavy research. :sigh:

I also dislike historical events which no longer apply because the situation in-game is different to that of real life. EU3 got rid of a lot of that; in EUII I used to find myself being shoehorned into all sorts of ill-fitting situations because historically that's what had happened.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I know exactly what you mean. I am pretty much the same and EU3 really doesn't give you options to play the merchant, research, builder game. (Research is really slow, Merchants don't have much chance, Buildings are too expensive)

From the HttT demo, most of the western nations' provinces are already full of your opening buildings anyway. Is that true if you start at an earlier time period?

I also didn't have as much trouble being successful with merchants. You just need to zerg rush the nearest center of trade and then put the priority up. As a mostly broke and scorned Bohemia I managed to be at the highest-non monopoly trading level in Lubeck.

[Beskar]

From the HttT demo, most of the western nations' provinces are already full of your opening buildings anyway. Is that true if you start at an earlier time period?

I also didn't have as much trouble being successful with merchants. You just need to zerg rush the nearest center of trade and then put the priority up. As a mostly broke and scorned Bohemia I managed to be at the highest-non monopoly trading level in Lubeck.

I meant with far more than one trading post.

[TinCow]

It does? There's some good news; EU3 kicks off at the point where my historical interest peters out and dies so it's harder to find a nation I want to play. To then have many of the ones I'd like to try lumbered with a research penalty is still more off-putting. I'm a researcher/builder/trader at heart, with a sideline in conquest.

I suppose you need a decent understanding of the vanilla game before you try the mod?

Not necessarily more historical, just not so "Hur hur, you dumb [insert tech group label] are so stoopid you can't understand court houses, hur hur!" I can understand and agree with limiting access to the obviously western research outcomes (e.g. scientific revolution) but the approach taken by the game is blanket, heavy-handed and outright tedious in its effects on gameplay. I don't want to mod the non-western nations into becoming western nations with a different colour and name either; I want to see them keep some individual flavour.

The nations in Magna Mundi have a lot of individual flavor, particularly Japan. Japan actually starts as about 10-15 separate 'nations' representing the different clans, and the main part of playing Japan is succeeding in unifying the country. It can be extremely difficult and I would say it's easily the hardest scenario to play in Magna Mundi... and Magna Mundi is already several notches up on the difficulty level from vanilla EU3. I very much recommend a decent understanding of the vanilla game before trying the mod... and I recommend a decent understanding of the mod before you try to play as any of the Japanese clans.

From what you're saying about the Westernization situation, you may like Magna Mundi's system better. It's called 'Modernization' instead and is met by taking actions which open up your nation to the outside world. Generally, the more actions you take that put you in contact with the outside world, the less your research will be penalized. If you want to learn more about it, I would recommend reading the MM manual (http://www.magnamundi.com/downloads/public_release/MagnaMundiPlatinum.pdf); it's got far more detail in it than I could hope to convey effectively. The section that explains Modernization is from pages 132 to 137. If you do take a look, there's also an extensive section explaining the Japanese scenario (Sengoku Jidai) that might be worth reading.

To be clear, Magna Mundi is an extremely complex and incredibly deep mod that radically changes EU3 to make it more historical. However, because it attempts to make the game as historical as possible, it makes a lot of the typical vanilla EU3 gameplay totally impossible. Not only is it actively impossible to conquer the world in Magna Mundi, even conquering Europe would be extraordinarily difficult (I would say it's probably impossible as well). The goals you have to set yourself in Magna Mundia have to be much more historically realistic than those you have to set for yourself in vanilla EU3. For instance, in vanilla EU3, forming Italy as an Italian minor is pretty much guaranteed if you know what you're doing and it can be achieved relatively quickly. In MM, unifying Italy in itself is a major achievement that can take you most of the entire game.

[frogbeastegg]

That does sound a lot better. The manual's outline of the Sengoku campaign makes it sound like a must try for that alone. :yes:

Is it easy to run vanilla and MM side by side? Sometimes I'm in the mood for a challenging, limited campaign such as the one you describe for Italian unification, others I want to relax a bit and play in a sandbox where anything is possible if I know how.

Heh, I never get more than middling decent at any version of EU3 before I lose interest thanks to the various things I perceive to be missing or badly done. HTTT looks set to address a lot of those lacks. Right now I haven't played since shortly after IN's release. I'm the same with most Paradox games; in theory I love them, in practice there's always something which means I don't. With EU3 it's basically HTTT's feature list combined with the treatment of non-westerns. With EUII it was the historical determinism and nasty UI. EU: Rome was way too simplistic without Vae Victus, and too unstable with release version VV. CK has a massive great gaping hole in its supposedly historically accurate gameplay, and that makes it intolerable for me. Vicky is awesome and micromanagement hell.

I've been gearing up for some EU: Rome to see if the patches released since last time I tried it have made it stable enough to play, and I've been dabbling with For The Glory's demo. Guess I can tack a EU3 learning campaign on after that. Any suggestions on how best to cover the things I'll need to know for MM?



I read a bit on the EU3 wiki last night, looking to see how western European versus other tech groups works in the current version of IN. It's worse than I believed - westernised nations no longer gain access to westernised units except for in that very narrow window of opportunity after conquering a western European owned and 'civilised' province and before gaining a core on it. So your troops can use western weapons, train hard in western drills, come from a western copy-cat society, and they're still inferior because they're not white Europeans. Disgusting. :shame:

In older versions of the game westernised nations would adopt the western unit table and their armies would become identical. The highest levels of Latin units are points ahead of their counterparts in all other groups.

[TinCow]

Is it easy to run vanilla and MM side by side? Sometimes I'm in the mood for a challenging, limited campaign such as the one you describe for Italian unification, others I want to relax a bit and play in a sandbox where anything is possible if I know how.

Very easy. You dump the mods into the mod folder inside the main EU3 folder. Then, when you use the launcher there is a dropdown menu for selecting the mod you want to play. 'Default' is the vanilla game, and all your installed mods will be listed under it. Just select the one you want and click launch. Everything is kept separately, including save games, so you can play the mods without interfering at all with your vanilla game.


Any suggestions on how best to cover the things I'll need to know for MM?

It sounds like you've got enough experience with EU3 and other Paradox titles to go right into MM. I would suggest just doing a MM campaign, but as one of the less difficult nations. Playing inside the HRE can be difficult due to the complex HRE mechanics which require some understanding, so I'd recommend something outside the HRE. England starts right at the Wars of the Roses, which is also a huge pain and not recommended for your first game. Since you're keen on Asia, I'd suggest perhaps one of the larger Indian states. Rajputana is interesting because it's surrounded by Hindu lands that are controlled by Muslim states. That opens up a lot of easy avenues for expansion. The Ottomans might also be a fun nation to try the first time.

[frogbeastegg]

Very easy.
Excellent.


It sounds like you've got enough experience with EU3 and other Paradox titles to go right into MM.
I don't know, it's been ages since I last played any of them and I don't think I ever became that au fait with EU3. I lost interest in it too quickly each time I tried it. For every important facet that I do know there's an equally important one I probably don't. Although I suppose I do understand concepts which will have carried over and the aspects I'm hazier on will all have been changed by the mod anyway. Knowing about badboy's existence is likely to be more relevant to MM than knowing how to make money.


I would suggest just doing a MM campaign, but as one of the less difficult nations. Playing inside the HRE can be difficult due to the complex HRE mechanics which require some understanding, so I'd recommend something outside the HRE. England starts right at the Wars of the Roses, which is also a huge pain and not recommended for your first game. Since you're keen on Asia, I'd suggest perhaps one of the larger Indian states. Rajputana is interesting because it's surrounded by Hindu lands that are controlled by Muslim states. That opens up a lot of easy avenues for expansion. The Ottomans might also be a fun nation to try the first time.
I'll play any nation if it makes a particularly good introduction. I'm so disinterested by the period covered that Sengoku Japan and Wars of the Roses England are the only settings which interest me, the rest I can take or leave according to gameplay. The East is more appealing because I know much less about them, it feels like a cleaner slate. With countries like China I don't feel like I need to go and colonise America, set up a trading empire, or whatever. I can do whatever takes my fancy.

[seireikhaan]

Well, I ended up deciding to get HTTT, and thus far I'm fairly pleased. I still need a couple of full campaigns to get a better grasp on everything, but so far things have been interesting, to say the least.

A few notes:

1) France is looking like they're still an unstoppable juggernaut. Starting from 1399, its been nearly 100 years and they've annexed nearly all of the vassals and look to be ready to whack someone upside the head real hard here pretty soon.

2) Playing as Denmark, I've been enormously frustrated by efforts to unify scandinavia. Sweden in particular is troublesome. Every tie relations got even decent, they'd start insulting me left and right to drop relations to -100. Even more aggravating, at one point they declared their own king and went to war with me, Norway, and Lithuania. Fortunately, I was able to put them down after a lengthy struggle, and forced them to acknowledge my line as titular ruler of sweden. However, they're at the insulting business once again, and it seems the game just flat out will not let me inherit sweden. Norway is being much more docile, on the other hand.

3) On casus bellis. There's no longer a stability penalty for joining an ally in an aggressive war, but only if the ally had a casus belli. Or, at least, that's what I think is going on. Either way, there's been some pretty large ally wars as a result. Penalties still apply for joining an ally against someone you have a truce with, good relations, etc....

4) Colonization is just starting to pick up, Portugal's got 2 provinces in Brazil. Its late 1480's, so that seems about right. We'll see, however, what sort of progress gets made as the game progresses. I'll be getting cores on two west african provinces that I took in a war, and hopefully there's still good colonization choices by then.

5) Thrones- player can claim the throne of anyone they have a royal marriage with, nothing new. What is new is the function of it. Now, instead of granting casus belli(which I found a tad redundant, since you took stability penalties for the marriage), if the king dies of the throne you claimed, there's a solid chance of union if he lacks a decent heir(weak heirs can be overridden, I believe, but its much simpler if there's no heir at all). Maybe just me, I don't seem to be getting a ton of heirs myself, and none of them are all that stellar. There's even a notice at the top of the screen for weak thrones in the area. Of course, this is leading to some interesting shenanigans.... Muscovy and Lithuania went to war over the throne of Brandenburg, who was a pretty strong power in east germany, having annexed parts of poland and all of Pommerania. In the end, both fizzled however, and Brandenburg got a new heir.

[TinCow]

2) Playing as Denmark, I've been enormously frustrated by efforts to unify scandinavia. Sweden in particular is troublesome. Every tie relations got even decent, they'd start insulting me left and right to drop relations to -100. Even more aggravating, at one point they declared their own king and went to war with me, Norway, and Lithuania. Fortunately, I was able to put them down after a lengthy struggle, and forced them to acknowledge my line as titular ruler of sweden. However, they're at the insulting business once again, and it seems the game just flat out will not let me inherit sweden. Norway is being much more docile, on the other hand.

I believe that's normal EU3 behavior. AI junior partners in personal unions try to break away with low relations when you are militarily weaker than them. In order to keep them in line, you have to have a larger army than they do. I believe this explains why Norway and Sweden are acting differently for you. If you increase your army to be larger in size than Sweden's they might start behaving themselves.

[seireikhaan]

I believe that's normal EU3 behavior. AI junior partners in personal unions try to break away with low relations when you are militarily weaker than them. In order to keep them in line, you have to have a larger army than they do. I believe this explains why Norway and Sweden are acting differently for you. If you increase your army to be larger in size than Sweden's they might start behaving themselves.
Right, now to find out how to make that possible. :juggle2: They've got two stacks of 16k man armies. I'd run myself into the ground trying to do that.v:wall: Times like that I curse AI bonuses.

[Beskar]

1) France is looking like they're still an unstoppable juggernaut. Starting from 1399, its been nearly 100 years and they've annexed nearly all of the vassals and look to be ready to whack someone upside the head real hard here pretty soon.

I haven't had much trouble with them at all. The only nation which always seems to grow like wild-fire is Castile. In every single game, they always annex Iberia, Morroco/Whole of North Africa, then conquer the Maya/Cherokee/etc.


2) Playing as Denmark, I've been enormously frustrated by efforts to unify scandinavia. Sweden in particular is troublesome. Every tie relations got even decent, they'd start insulting me left and right to drop relations to -100. Even more aggravating, at one point they declared their own king and went to war with me, Norway, and Lithuania. Fortunately, I was able to put them down after a lengthy struggle, and forced them to acknowledge my line as titular ruler of sweden. However, they're at the insulting business once again, and it seems the game just flat out will not let me inherit sweden. Norway is being much more docile, on the other hand.

Yeah, I struggle with uniting Sweden. Luckily, Sweden ended up in a big rebel problem and I had to resort to take land by force, unfortunately, not been fully successful. Just need to grab Stockholme so I got the cores.


3) On casus bellis. There's no longer a stability penalty for joining an ally in an aggressive war, but only if the ally had a casus belli. Or, at least, that's what I think is going on. Either way, there's been some pretty large ally wars as a result. Penalties still apply for joining an ally against someone you have a truce with, good relations, etc...

It is also quite annoying that if you refuse to join in an aggressive war, your alliance gets broken.


4) Colonization is just starting to pick up, Portugal's got 2 provinces in Brazil. Its late 1480's, so that seems about right. We'll see, however, what sort of progress gets made as the game progresses. I'll be getting cores on two west african provinces that I took in a war, and hopefully there's still good colonization choices by then.

Castile has always ruled the colonies in the games I have played.


5) Thrones- player can claim the throne of anyone they have a royal marriage with, nothing new. What is new is the function of it. Now, instead of granting casus belli(which I found a tad redundant, since you took stability penalties for the marriage), if the king dies of the throne you claimed, there's a solid chance of union if he lacks a decent heir(weak heirs can be overridden, I believe, but its much simpler if there's no heir at all). Maybe just me, I don't seem to be getting a ton of heirs myself, and none of them are all that stellar. There's even a notice at the top of the screen for weak thrones in the area. Of course, this is leading to some interesting shenanigans.... Muscovy and Lithuania went to war over the throne of Brandenburg, who was a pretty strong power in east germany, having annexed parts of poland and all of Pommerania. In the end, both fizzled however, and Brandenburg got a new heir.

Ohh nice, I never knew that part. I will have to incorperate that now.


There are also some things I noticed which produced some interesting results:

Uniting Italy as Papal States now gives "Kingdom of God", unfortunately, it doesn't actually rename the Papal States as that (I would love it to, mod please!) but the option does all but name does that.

You can unite the HRE as one nation. In one game, I managed to do this, I was playing as Austria and been pretty much lucky in winning a bunch of wars for masses of Imperial Authority (including releasing the annex'd french states making them HRE pawns). Pretty much all till 3rd last one gives nice bonuses to you if you are the Emperor, with the 3rd to last one making it that you are always the emperor (which starts making the HRE into a state). When you do the "make all the states into your vassal", this goes to all the nations and those nations pretty much choose to become a vassal or declare war on you. So you can end up in a lot of wars if you are unluckly, however these wars give you a large amount of imperial authority if you win them, which allows you to form the HRE state. However, the problem with forming the state is that you end up with tons of uprising and a very high revolt in all your provinces, especially nationalist one.

A gripe about the Holy Roman Empire is that now it costs one magistrate to get a province to apply to join, and everytime I have done this, the AI Emperor has always said no, even if at 200 relation with them. (makes no sense at all, probably needs fixing.)

[TinCow]

Right, now to find out how to make that possible. :juggle2: They've got two stacks of 16k man armies. I'd run myself into the ground trying to do that.v:wall: Times like that I curse AI bonuses.

This is why I believe the most common method of uniting Scandinavia as Denmark is to simply let Sweden break the union and then conquer them the old fashioned way. Norway is relatively easy to inherit and can help you in the conquests... it's Sweden that's hard to absorb without warfare because of its size.

[seireikhaan]

After countless rage-quits, I officially declare the Timurids to the most anger-inducing faction in HTTT. Now, they've always been pretty tough on the get-go, but now the game's just kicking you for trying to play them.

All the old reasons for their insane difficulty still there: tribal gov't, lots of enemies, need to work way to Delhi to escape tribalism, lots of unfortified provinces, lots of poor steppe provinces, lots of nationalist rebellions.

Now, to top it all off: The heir to Timur is locked in to the start setup. And he sucks, horribly. He gets three different "incapable ruler" tags. Can't recall two off the top of my head, but the last is utterly brutal: -15 to infamy limit. In other words, you simply can't conquer at all, under him, and if you conquer under Timur, you may well get punished horribly for it by the heir.

Basically, unless you manage to get the royal line overthrown while still keeping nationalists under foot, you're just not going to get the start needed, imo, to get a start on forming the mughals that would enable you to keep competitive with the west.

Lastly: :bigcry:

My game was soooo promising! Union with the Mamelukes, if I only hadn't been undone by rebellion!

[Greyblades]

I got into this game afew weeks agon and after 100 years as England I'm at war with France and I'm stuck in a stalemate, france holds calais and I hold connaught (which france inheirited and I need to take Ireland). I cant do anything as every time I try to invade they pull a 30000+ man army out of nowhere and every time they invade I sink them before they can even get out of the harbour. And as such I cant get a big enough advantage to be able to get them to even accept a white peace. I have no idea what to do and the constant rebellions from that blasted Irish province is getting annoying.
Edit- I got bored and quit that run. The war had lasted 64 years without anything of merit happened apart from 3 kings died of age and seeing as france didnt want peace I quit.

[TinCow]

I got into this game afew weeks agon and after 100 years as England I'm at war with France and I'm stuck in a stalemate, france holds calais and I hold connaught (which france inheirited and I need to take Ireland). I cant do anything as every time I try to invade they pull a 30000+ man army out of nowhere and every time they invade I sink them before they can even get out of the harbour. And as such I cant get a big enough advantage to be able to get them to even accept a white peace. I have no idea what to do and the constant rebellions from that blasted Irish province is getting annoying.
Edit- I got bored and quit that run. The war had lasted 64 years without anything of merit happened apart from 3 kings died of age and seeing as france didnt want peace I quit.

France is very difficult to beat, even for England. The best way to handle them is to go after them when they're weak. Wait until they get into a war with another major power or two, particularly Burgundy or Castile/Spain, then attack them while their armies are elsewhere. Storm a few provinces quickly and blockade them to run up their war exhaustion. Use spies to lower their stability. Run from their big stacks and stomp on any small stacks you see. With a bit of luck, skill, and naval dominance, they'll start to get overwhelmed by rebellions and you'll be able to defeat them. Smashing France also takes several wars. Generally, the first war should force them to release their current vassals and to give independence to nations they've already annexed. That will make them much easier to carve up later on, as France itself will be a lot weaker, and you'll be able to eat the smaller independent French states without fighting France itself.

If you're already in a war you can't win, you need to end it. If they won't take a white peace, offer them some cash to see if they'll go away without you having to sacrifice a core or lose a province. During a very long war, they will usually accept this. Before you make the peace offer, make sure you blockade every port you can as it will help a great deal with your war score.

[Greyblades]

I dont want to take france out I just want to force it to give up its irish provence. I loaded an earlier save to before they think I "cant be trusted even to die." so maybe they will be more recipient.

[TinCow]

I dont want to take france out I just want to force it to give up its irish provence. I loaded an earlier save to before they think I "cant be trusted even to die." so maybe they will be more recipient.

What version of the game are you playing? It the most recent versions, if you hold a province long enough during a war you will eventually be given an event to take control of it even without a peace treaty.

[seireikhaan]

What version of the game are you playing? It the most recent versions, if you hold a province long enough during a war you will eventually be given an event to take control of it even without a peace treaty.
I believe that's just in magna mundi. I don't believe there is such an event in vanilla.

[Greyblades]

Yeah I lost calais that way but waiting 64 years didnt work and waiting that long for a second time seemed tedious so I bribed them off after reloading and changed mission.

[Beskar]

Tin Cow is right, it is a chance for it to happen. I had it done before when I was invading Ming as Japan (which was taking some time)

[miotas]

Perhaps you could try stirring up rebellions in that irish province and then take them after they become independent.

Another option is getting military access to a nation bordering france and then just keep invading, taking a province or two and then retreating before they can raise an army to retalliate. It doesn't matter if they take the province back, because pretty soon their war exhaustion will be through the roof and they will be up to their eyeballs in rebellions. I've used that tactic to great effect against many a superior foe.

[al Roumi]

I'm playing a game as the Swiss, making the most of Free trade by dominating all COTs except Sevilla and Lisboa whilst absorbing bits of Lombard Italy as I can. I'm kind of annoyed though, being an Administrative republic (which is the only real advantage of playing as the Swiss) already means I can't partake in any of the HRE and Royal Marriage shenanigans, but I also seem to be getting zero Cassus-bellis other than excom/crusades & alliance ones. Maybe its just the Swiss and a freak lack of game events but having played HTTT games as the Ottomans and Castille, i'm surprised at the complete lack of border friction and other cassus-belli granting events i've had...

I might jack this campaign in and start an Austria one to see what the new HRE changes are like.

[TinCow]

I'm playing a game as the Swiss, making the most of Free trade by dominating all COTs except Sevilla and Lisboa whilst absorbing bits of Lombard Italy as I can. I'm kind of annoyed though, being an Administrative republic (which is the only real advantage of playing as the Swiss) already means I can't partake in any of the HRE and Royal Marriage shenanigans, but I also seem to be getting zero Cassus-bellis other than excom/crusades & alliance ones. Maybe its just the Swiss and a freak lack of game events but having played HTTT games as the Ottomans and Castille, i'm surprised at the complete lack of border friction and other cassus-belli granting events i've had...

I might jack this campaign in and start an Austria one to see what the new HRE changes are like.

You can always use the old school method: warn/guarantee every nation around you. You'll get into a free war eventually.

[White_eyes:D]

You can always use the old school method: warn/guarantee every nation around you. You'll get into a free war eventually.

Just make sure your the "Alliance Leader" or you well most likely waste your time...:juggle2:(It happened to me a few times...What is with the A.I.'s and having a white peace just before your are coming to a favorable peace deal?):laugh4:

I mean are they hard-coded to detect when they think you well cut and run?

[TinCow]

Just make sure your the "Alliance Leader" or you well most likely waste your time...:juggle2:(It happened to me a few times...What is with the A.I.'s and having a white peace just before your are coming to a favorable peace deal?):laugh4:

There is a way around that. When you get an offer to join a war due to a warning or guarantee, you also get a temporary causus belli. If you think you won't be alliance leader, you can just declare war on the target nation independently. You won't get the benefit of warscore from the actions of the nations in the other alliance, but you also won't have to worry about getting cheated out of a peace deal.

[White_eyes:D]

There is a way around that. When you get an offer to join a war due to a warning or guarantee, you also get a temporary causus belli. If you think you won't be alliance leader, you can just declare war on the target nation independently. You won't get the benefit of warscore from the actions of the nations in the other alliance, but you also won't have to worry about getting cheated out of a peace deal.

But you lose some Prestige.......I recall guaranteeing everyone around me as England....it made all my prestige which was 25 or so....to -5 when I choose not to....I didn't want to face Castille and France since I didn't have enough tech to blockade yet.:book:

I only did it to make relations go up....not to fight a war I knew I would lose.:oops:

[Beskar]

The big blue blob is evil.

It is funny though how France has so many vassals/smalls states around in, just to stop it from growing too strong.

Though, I remember this big Franco-Austrian war when Austria was the HRE Emperor and some how half the Italian states got involved, so France and Austria where fighting over these Italian states lands big in a big bloodbath.

[A Very Super Market]

The big blue blob is evil.

It is funny though how France has so many vassals/smalls states around in, just to stop it from growing too strong.

Though, I remember this big Franco-Austrian war when Austria was the HRE Emperor and some how half the Italian states got involved, so France and Austria where fighting over these Italian states lands big in a big bloodbath.

That sounds a lot like..... many of France's wars. Fought with Austria on foreign ground...

[TinCow]

But you lose some Prestige.......I recall guaranteeing everyone around me as England....it made all my prestige which was 25 or so....to -5 when I choose not to....I didn't want to face Castille and France since I didn't have enough tech to blockade yet.:book:

I only did it to make relations go up....not to fight a war I knew I would lose.:oops:

That's why you declare war on your own, THEN you click the Accept button on the Guarantee war declaration. That war won't occur separately because you're already at war with the target nation, and since you accepted you don't take the prestige loss.

[Beskar]

That's why you declare war on your own, THEN you click the Accept button on the Guarantee war declaration. That war won't occur separately because you're already at war with the target nation, and since you accepted you don't take the prestige loss.

I will have to remember that for next time then. :yes:.

Thanks TinCow!

On another note, when do you fancy doing one of those succession AAR's ? Or you waiting for that mod to come out first?

[White_eyes:D]

Good Advice from TinCow:bow:

I need to admit.....I never let the Big Blue Blob grow...as England, I usually use Scorch earth tactics for those Doomstacks they send at you right away.

It's better to use that and blockading ports to make there WE grow and have Rebels tear it apart....then just pick up the pieces.:cool:

You could also rush a province with ships in it and quickly storm it(Make sure you have enough men of course) and the ships well pop out and be wiped out by your navy which should be there and better then France's which well make there WE go way up.:2thumbsup:

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Question about scorching the land - can you only do it in your own provinces? I've never seen the option not greyed out when I bothered to look for it.

[al Roumi]

Question about scorching the land - can you only do it in your own provinces? I've never seen the option not greyed out when I bothered to look for it.

You can only do it in a province you control, I think that might extend to one you have captured (with a successful siege/assault) from the enemy.

AFAIK there is a small button at the bottom of the army tab -when you have one sellected.

I've not actually used it. :embarassed:

[Beskar]

I only used it when I was playing as Kingdom of Jerusalem and because of a big war in the close proximity, I sponsered some very successful rebels. However, not sure how the modifier works, but some rebellions were quite large and took a big area of land. As I didn't have the resources or the ability to maintain that size (especially with the need to convert, etc), I sorched earth a bunch of the provinces and sold them cheap to my neighbours.

(which ends up ruining those areas for them, so it doesn't backfire on me)

[TinCow]

On another note, when do you fancy doing one of those succession AAR's ? Or you waiting for that mod to come out first?

The MM port to HttT is scheduled for release in February, so I'll probably pick up the expansion towards the end of the month. I'll be happy to join any succession game at that time. Of course, you are always free to start one with some other people right now if you want, no need to wait for me.

[TinCow]

Scorched Earth is extremely, extremely useful when fighting a much larger enemy. If I expect such an attack from a large power, I put single regiments of cavalry in every province along my border with that enemy. As soon as a declaration of war occurs, those regiments all scorch earth in their provinces and then immediately retreat back towards the main stacks. The enemy will then besiege the scorched provinces and will take HUGE losses from attrition, usually in the 10%/month region. When attrition has made the enemy megastack weak, I then attack with a major assault of my own to kick them out of the province. Then immediately retreat out of that province, or you'll take the attrition hit as well. Rinse and repeat until their armies have been trashed, then switch to the offensive.

[al Roumi]

Scorched Earth is extremely, extremely useful when fighting a much larger enemy. If I expect such an attack from a large power, I put single regiments of cavalry in every province along my border with that enemy. As soon as a declaration of war occurs, those regiments all scorch earth in their provinces and then immediately retreat back towards the main stacks. The enemy will then besiege the scorched provinces and will take HUGE losses from attrition, usually in the 10%/month region. When attrition has made the enemy megastack weak, I then attack with a major assault of my own to kick them out of the province. Then immediately retreat out of that province, or you'll take the attrition hit as well. Rinse and repeat until their armies have been trashed, then switch to the offensive.

What is the economic hit you take from scorching your provinces? How long does it last? I assume it implies a fair whack of both economic loss and revolt risk?

Edit: I could ask this on the EU3 forum but faced with the consumate knowledge of Orgahs I don't think I need to :D

[TinCow]

What is the economic hit you take from scorching your provinces? How long does it last? I assume it implies a fair whack of both economic loss and revolt risk?

Edit: I could ask this on the EU3 forum but faced with the consumate knowledge of Orgahs I don't think I need to :D


I don't remember off the top of my head, but IIRC it's essential a large chunk of that province's tax income plus -10% population growth. I don't recall any increase in RR. I don't know the exact duration without checking in-game, but its definitely less than a year. I'd guess maybe 8-12 months. During most wars where I want to use scorched earth, I often have to re-scorch a province because it's recovered before I want it to.

As a large nation, you won't even notice the impact of scorching 2-3 provinces. The smaller you are, obviously, the greater the effects. Keep in mind though that this tactic is specifically to help you handle enemy doomstacks, the kind that France, Russia, Austria, the Ottomans, etc. tend to throw around like so much confetti. If you've got a 10k army and are facing multiple 15-20k stacks, it's almost certainly worth it to scorch. When fighting a larger enemy, attrition should be your first weapon.

I actively let enemies siege provinces even when I can relieve them if they're taking decent attrition. I'll regularly let a siege get to 75 or 88% just to let them lose more men without it hurting my manpower pool. Unless I am significantly more powerful than my enemy, I fight all my wars defensively first, draining their manpower and raising their war exhaustion. Once the enemy is worn down, then I counterattack with lots of small armies sieging many provinces at once, with 1 or 2 larger stacks to hunt down any attempts to rebuild their forces.

For this reason, I also pretty much always move my sliders into defensive. I find that a LOT more useful than offensive for the way I play.

[Beskar]

Anyone fancy a Heir to the Throne, Kingdom of Jerusalem succession game? I can randomly set up the province in a saved game.

[Meneldil]

Well, I can't say I find the whole new area of influence thingy really great. It makes the game ridiculously tedious for small nations, and doesn't change anything for big ones.

The instant war declaration should have been replaced by a casus belli, or a relation hit. Areas of influence keep causing world wars around me, which is fun at first, but annoying after a few hours.

The new heir system is also quite disappointing. If you're playing a powerful nation, you will rarely hear about it. If you're playing some weak state, your country is going to collapse everytime your leader dies.

I guess the new gameplay features would be cool if they didn't made the domination of lucky nations even more obvious.

[White_eyes:D]

I must admit....HttT really makes everyone go nuts on wars....If the HRE at the time didn't pass that "reform" that reduces diplomats...I think they would have went to war endlessly.:juggle2:

My game from 1399-1445 as Naples (A crash happened and I lost some progress)
Notes
-HRE limited Diplomats for everyone who was a member.....somehow Austria grew quite big after a war with the Swiss and a few other minors.

-They lost it all in a war against Holland......the shock of that was a little unsettlling.

-The BBB has really :daisy: the pooch on this game....they lost most of there Vassals in a war against England.

-Castille and England are really kicking some tail, until Castille fought me in a war over Sicily.

-Despite this loss they bounced back and now are ready to form Spain.

-I have most of Italy but getting Venice Annexed is hard.(Unless it counts as a cut off province?)

-I am had so many nations try and claim my throne it is not even funny....:sweatdrop:

[Beskar]

Currently in my game, Ming is in Saudia Arabia and off the East Border of Muscowy. That is how large they have grown.

[A Very Super Market]

Based on most Paradox releases, of anything, it should be cleared up sometime. I remember HoI3 when came out, featuring Italians conquering France, the Soviets and British amassing all their units on their one province border in the himalayas, and Japan getting pushed out of Korea and China.

[Beskar]

Based on most Paradox releases, of anything, it should be cleared up sometime. I remember HoI3 when came out, featuring Italians conquering France, the Soviets and British amassing all their units on their one province border in the himalayas, and Japan getting pushed out of Korea and China.

You didn't see the game where I solo'd the Axis (except for Japan) as Yugoslavia. :beam:

[al Roumi]

Well, I can't say I find the whole new area of influence thingy really great. It makes the game ridiculously tedious for small nations, and doesn't change anything for big ones.

The instant war declaration should have been replaced by a casus belli, or a relation hit. Areas of influence keep causing world wars around me, which is fun at first, but annoying after a few hours.

Yeah it's not a feature I've really made much use of either. I'm not clear what the benefits are of having someone in your sphere - another route to war? Does it even improve relations with the nation in your sphere?


The new heir system is also quite disappointing. If you're playing a powerful nation, you will rarely hear about it. If you're playing some weak state, your country is going to collapse everytime your leader dies.

I guess the new gameplay features would be cool if they didn't made the domination of lucky nations even more obvious.

I disagree on this point, small countries have to be more resourcefull in maintaining their prestige and legitimacy than larger nations (who should be better at defending themselves). If you keep your prestige high, it makes it much harder for someone to claim your throne.

Personaly I never player with lucky nations on.

[The Wizard]

I have not experienced any massive wars occur due to the sphere of influence feature. Playing as England, 1399 scenario, it's 1493 now IIRC.

Accidentally kept lucky on, and trust me, France, while initially looking fragile and Burgundy looking a lot stronger than before, is not, I repeat not all that weak. It's been an entertaining game, though, I'll give it that, despite getting annoyed in wars by France's lucky exploits. At the moment I have restored the Angevin empire and never really lost a war against the French. However, as I write this they're tearing apart Milan, which has a similar-sized army and MP, better tech, and most of Northern Italy :sweatdrop: The worst thing is, I'm under a regency, and I'll have to wait 6 more years before I can intervene and weaken them again...


I need to admit.....I never let the Big Blue Blob grow...as England, I usually use Scorch earth tactics for those Doomstacks they send at you right away.

It's better to use that and blockading ports to make there WE grow and have Rebels tear it apart....then just pick up the pieces.

Doesn't work against France, especially not with Lucky on. No matter how many rebel doomstacks (>12k) are running around and how small (<5k) the French army is, and how high their WE, I have not been able to make them break. Not in IN, not in HTTT. And they still get their bloody uber kings and generals, their impossible tech development, as well as ridiculous dice rolls. But it does make for a challenging game, I'll tell you that.

[White_eyes:D]

Doesn't work against France, especially not with Lucky on. No matter how many rebel doomstacks (>12k) are running around and how small (<5k) the French army is, and how high their WE, I have not been able to make them break. Not in IN, not in HTTT. And they still get their bloody uber kings and generals, their impossible tech development, as well as ridiculous dice rolls. But it does make for a challenging game, I'll tell you that.
It really helps when "The opportunistic A.I." senses when France is weak.....after I took out there Doom stack, Aragon and a few others joined in and wiped out the "weakened France"....:laugh4:(It's what helped me towards the end) You can also have your Calvary run around and kill any 1000 man regiments that they try to combine into another "Doom stack".

There was only a few times France ever had the better of me.....like the time I was Ireland and forgot to buy a navy to keep there transports back(ouch)<---Worst defeat in EU3:NA history

Doesn't matter if it's a "Lucky nation"...the A.I. well dogpile you if they sense most of your forces are lost:sweatdrop:

France had only vassals as allies, so they didn't help much. My gains were little but I kept on Re-declaring war by looking for anyone France guaranteed:juggle2:(As England, you should have the largest Navy so any other Nation won't really matter as long as you can white peace out easily.):yes:

[Meneldil]

I have not experienced any massive wars occur due to the sphere of influence feature. Playing as England, 1399 scenario, it's 1493 now IIRC.

Accidentally kept lucky on, and trust me, France, while initially looking fragile and Burgundy looking a lot stronger than before, is not, I repeat not all that weak. It's been an entertaining game, though, I'll give it that, despite getting annoyed in wars by France's lucky exploits. At the moment I have restored the Angevin empire and never really lost a war against the French. However, as I write this they're tearing apart Milan, which has a similar-sized army and MP, better tech, and most of Northern Italy :sweatdrop: The worst thing is, I'm under a regency, and I'll have to wait 6 more years before I can intervene and weaken them again...



Doesn't work against France, especially not with Lucky on. No matter how many rebel doomstacks (>12k) are running around and how small (<5k) the French army is, and how high their WE, I have not been able to make them break. Not in IN, not in HTTT. And they still get their bloody uber kings and generals, their impossible tech development, as well as ridiculous dice rolls. But it does make for a challenging game, I'll tell you that.

Heh, I played my first game as the Timurids (lost badly), and saw France getting dismembered by Burgundy and England. I thought of well, maybe the big blue blob ain't that annoying anymore, let's give it a try.
So I start a game with Burgundy. France immediatly starts insulting me. At some point, England (allied with Aragon and Milan) DoW France, so here I join, with my own allies (Brittany and Bohemia). No matter what I did, I couldn't won the war. Despite being outnumbered by at least 2 to 1, France's doomstacks just appear to be invincible. Even lame exploit (such as cavalry only stacks) aren't enough to weaken France significately.
I managed to annex two of France's vassals, but France promptly kicked the English out of Aquitaine and also annexed one vassal, so despite my efforts, it has one more province than before the war :dizzy2:

[White_eyes:D]

France is not invincible...:laugh4:(I thought that for a while as well)

But if you read some AAR's on Paradox Interactive. It's not hard to take it out, I seen bigger achievements....Like the AAR "The Audacity of Hope?".

A guy almost toke over the world just using the Iroquois...didn't have enough Diplomats but he just about did it.:laugh4:

[The Wizard]

You got lucky, then. Usually, yes, the AI joins in when it senses France is weak. However, even though they usually win the war, they never force a proper peace on les bleux. It's usually just releasing a nation or two, one province, or even a WP. It's ridiculous. And with a bit of bad luck, the moment you exit your war is when the AI nations face France alone, and it ain't pretty.

I've read that AAR. Try reading "Mantua Redux" to get a good idea of why France is so hard to beat, even if you do everything right.


Heh, I played my first game as the Timurids (lost badly), and saw France getting dismembered by Burgundy and England. I thought of well, maybe the big blue blob ain't that annoying anymore, let's give it a try.
So I start a game with Burgundy. France immediatly starts insulting me. At some point, England (allied with Aragon and Milan) DoW France, so here I join, with my own allies (Brittany and Bohemia). No matter what I did, I couldn't won the war. Despite being outnumbered by at least 2 to 1, France's doomstacks just appear to be invincible. Even lame exploit (such as cavalry only stacks) aren't enough to weaken France significately.
I managed to annex two of France's vassals, but France promptly kicked the English out of Aquitaine and also annexed one vassal, so despite my efforts, it has one more province than before the war :dizzy2:

Cavalry only stacks are a bad idea in HTTT. Mix your stacks up with lots of infantry, and for heaven's sake get a good general. I get the impression generals have become even more important. I try and avoid those 6-shock French uber generals as much as possible, and if I can't do that, I try and concentrate my forces into my own huge doomstack to outnumber theirs and beat them that way.

[naut]

So. I'm thinking of getting EUIII. Should I and why?

[al Roumi]

So. I'm thinking of getting EUIII. Should I and why?

The easy bit: Yes, providing you like grand strategy, with a strong historical setting and are not fussed about graphics of the kind which ETW battles deliver or micro battle tactics. This is a game about strategy on the macro level (mostly) politicaly, dimplomaticaly, culturaly, economicaly and militarily.

For me, EU3 is what i would have liked the campaign map/game in MTW, MTW2 and ETW to have been. It features a map of the whole world (minus some "innaccessible" regions like the Sahara, Australian interior, Antarctica) with god knows how many regions. You can play a game starting in 1399 up to 1821, with any country on the map. In contrast to TW games, there are no fudge factor "rebel" factions, every state is at least grounded in historical accuracy (some less, some more so).

You can choose to play the game as a colonising nation, spreading your influence around the globe on the decks of a powerful navy, emulate Ghengis Khan or resurrect the Roman empire from either the Holy (ish) one or the Byzantine.

Don't expect a quick action fix though, games are long and the learning curve is steep. The game features some tutorials and a massive manual but neither are as helpfull as the people on the Paradox EU3 forum.

[naut]

We'll I have most Paradox games. Which I probably should have mentioned, so I'm not wholly ignorant. But, is it basically a more polished EUII? Is it better than say AGCEEP for EUII?


Don't expect a quick action fix though, games are long and the learning curve is steep. The game features some tutorials and a massive manual but neither are as helpfull as the people on the Paradox EU3 forum.
I'm not too worried, it can't be steeper than Vicky. Which I'm proud to say I've gotten reasonably good at. :beam:

[al Roumi]

lol well EU3 is the only paradox developed game I have! Others here are fans of the other games, incl Vicky, so they may be better placed to compare them.

I've not even played EUII so... :embarassed:

EUIII is reputedly much easier than vicky to manage, you should get all the add-ons for EUIII though, it's much better for it.

[frogbeastegg]

I have started to look at the bigger mods now their HTTT versions are in production.

Anyone tried the MEIOU mod? Looks like EUIII bigger, better, prettier and all-round smarter.

I have to admit that I'm now thoroughly put off the Magna Mundi Mod. I can't stand the attitude I've observed from Ubik to the extent where I do not want to touch his work.

[seireikhaan]

EUIII is fairly fun, I think. Not quite as engrossing as Vicky, not as complex. The economic model is far too simplified, imo, but the political simulation is pretty decent. For its price now, probably 30 bucks for the whole shabang, I think its probably worth it for grand strategy folks.

Skipping back to the France topic:


This is France blobbing:

http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/0f48e9e1e6fe3652b65c40047e377509982da1a0.png



And stunningly enough, this is the blob after the world's most massive dog-pile:

http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/7d7997e6e30125c8ca1cf0c8a09f966265157e23.png

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

You can get EU3 Complete (everything but HttT) for like $8 off Amazon, which is definitely worth it. I'm holding out for a patch for HttT, because there seems to be some issues with it according to forum threads. But I would dearly like a weaker France.

[Beskar]

This is blobbing, not a couple of provinces -


The power of Ming (and that was the AI).

[A Very Super Market]

My word, China probably has enough manpower to move her sliders all the way to "quality" and not feel the effects.

[seireikhaan]

Beskar- what on earth happened in that game? The Byzantines cruising through Persia, Germany forming, Scandinavia forming, Italy forming? And is that Portugal with north africa and mexico? :dizzy2:

[Greyblades]

Blimey! You havent been playing parralel countries have you?

[Beskar]

Beskar- what on earth happened in that game? The Byzantines cruising through Persia, Germany forming, Scandinavia forming, Italy forming? And is that Portugal with north africa and mexico? :dizzy2:

Yes, the Byzantines were. It is from an earlier game (which I continued later as Sciliy, hence Italy forming). Basically, as Kingdom of Jersalem which is shown in Brown on that map, I took the majority of Gaza/etc (not as big as shown there, Mamluks still had Eygpt, when I changed) and I fought a major war with the Ottoman Empire and I managed to restore all the core provinces which Bystanium has to them. So those areas outside the cores is what the AI did itself.

Germany did form, yes. Scandinavia hasn't formed, that is just Sweden. I believe they Inherited Norway and they conquered Denmark's provinces which were owned by Bremen, I believe, earlier in the game.

Yes, Portugal owns North Africa and Mexico. A big conflict in Iberia between Castile vs. Aragorn + Portugal pretty much wiped them out, with Aragorn taking Spain and Portugal expanded into North Africa. Aragorn later warred with Portugal which acculiated later when the AI for whatever reason moved its capital to Morroco. The final war between them pretty much set the boundary there. Portugal, now basically the Morrocan power went to war with its Muslim Neighbours and took their terrority and later expanded into the America's, and invaded Mexico.

Britain formed and as typical, they went colonial, invading those North American indian provinces, etc.

As for Ming, the only thing I can think of, is their massive BB rating keeps making powers attacking them and Ming wins. Though, I took a look at them. They currently have between 250-300 BB rating, and getting 15,000 odd manpower per turn, however, they are critically undermanned due to wars and mass revolts. It is only a short-time till Ming collaspes. It is just "when".

Italy formed and looked like that, because I played them.


Typically, my games tend to get like this, with blobs forming everywhere, but I never seen one like Ming before.

[Jolt]

Well your game managed to reform Alexander's Empire and Genghis' Empire in one go.

[Beskar]

I am going to select some random province, as I can't be bothered to continue the game and see what the results turn out like. Would be interesting to see how it turns out. I will post a picture after 50 years.

[White_eyes:D]

EUIII is fairly fun, I think. Not quite as engrossing as Vicky, not as complex. The economic model is far too simplified, imo, but the political simulation is pretty decent. For its price now, probably 30 bucks for the whole shabang, I think its probably worth it for grand strategy folks.

Skipping back to the France topic:


This is France blobbing:

http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/0f48e9e1e6fe3652b65c40047e377509982da1a0.png



And stunningly enough, this is the blob after the world's most massive dog-pile:

http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/7d7997e6e30125c8ca1cf0c8a09f966265157e23.png
I guess there expanding into Northern Italy cost them 'BIG' TIME....:bounce:

[The Wizard]

Can't see your screencap, Beskar e_e


We'll I have most Paradox games. Which I probably should have mentioned, so I'm not wholly ignorant. But, is it basically a more polished EUII? Is it better than say AGCEEP for EUII?


I'm not too worried, it can't be steeper than Vicky. Which I'm proud to say I've gotten reasonably good at. :beam:

Oh no, it's not as hard as Vicky, and not half as hard as HOI3 (going by the demo). And as for the comparison with EU2, it's a lot more of a sandbox game. So no more keeping the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth strong only to see half your provinces given to Russia by event in the 1780s. It's a lot more freeform and less event-driven.

[Beskar]

An update of that map so far. I been playing as some random African country. Been fighting off the colonial advances. The Western Ming Empire collasped and they are currently in countless wars. However, their biggest threat so far is actually the rebel problem. As soon as majority of the land turn core, in my opinion, Ming should be able to get back on its feet and reconquer terrority with a new vigor.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

An update of that map so far. I been playing as some random African country. Been fighting off the colonial advances. The Western Ming Empire collasped and they are currently in countless wars. However, their biggest threat so far is actually the rebel problem. As soon as majority of the land turn core, in my opinion, Ming should be able to get back on its feet and reconquer terrority with a new vigor.

I can't see your map either, Beskar. (I quoted your post and I don't even see any [img] brackets or a non-working link to the image to explain it.)

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

Here is a question. Just when on a Paradox binge and Ordered EU3 and Victoria on amazon. Will they work on my new Windows 7 laptop? :sweatdrop: If not I fear I have made a horrible mistake.

[Beskar]

Here is a question. Just when on a Paradox binge and Ordered EU3 and Victoria on amazon. Will they work on my new Windows 7 laptop? :sweatdrop: If not I fear I have made a horrible mistake.

Why wouldn't it?

(Also, I am using Windows 7 64-bit)

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

Why wouldn't it?

(Also, I am using Windows 7 64-bit)

I have heard people say that EU3 did not work on vista, wondering if the same applied with Windows 7

[The Wizard]

EU3 works on Vista if you're in admin mode.

[Jolt]

Here is a question. Just when on a Paradox binge and Ordered EU3 and Victoria on amazon. Will they work on my new Windows 7 laptop? :sweatdrop: If not I fear I have made a horrible mistake.

Have you played any Paradox game (If not, buying Victoria might have been a mistake)

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

EU3 works on Windows 7 64 bit. I haven't tried Vicky since I installed 7 but I assume it would work (though you might need to try compatibility mode).

[Warluster]

Paradox announces new game (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=457102)

ubik and Paradox announced on the 21st the Magna Mundi is now going to be a retail game, like Arsenal of Democracy or For the Glory. On a fan level, I see the con as there are no more Magna Mundi updates (for free!) but at least we get a full on polished expansion-of-sorts.

Some more info from ubik here: Magna Mundi game info (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=457398) estimated release date is 2011. I like his first point, ubik did amazing things with EU3 when he didn't have access to the source, and now he does who knows what he'll do with the game.

All of these mod teams forming into official games, its a brilliant move by Paradox to let them do this stuff, especially as they're letting other devlopers use a game which is basiclly the figurehead of Paradox. I know theres more chance of a blue moon, but it would be great to see CA give these privileges to Total War mod teams. EB, TATW... by giving these devlopment options to mod teams they're only expanding their market and gaining more publicity.

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

Have you played any Paradox game (If not, buying Victoria might have been a mistake)


Meh, I figure I can wait till I have more experiance with EU, play that for a long while, then when I feel I am ready Dip my toes in to Victoria. I am not going to let its complexity scare me off :tongue:

I have only minimal experience with paradox games, but I am hoping to change that. I have played the demo quite a bit, and devoured a lot of the wiki, so I think that will be ready for that at least. (took quite a few disastrous attempts with England and Switzerland in the demo, but I am starting to get a hang of things.) I feel like that can keep me engaged for a long time. (EU that is)


Victoria, EU3, and Mount and Blade are all shipping now! :2thumbsup: starting their journey from Indiana. All very exciting (I could not find any of them in any of my local game shops, and this is the first thing I have bought on amazon ever.)

[Meneldil]

EU3 is really not that difficult. The vanilla game doesn't have much complicated features, but it gets way worse (and annoying and tedious) with Magna Mundi. It takes a few hours to get of gist of it.


Victoria on the other hand... :dizzy2: I never could wrap my head around it. And though I think the lack of historical events is a huge letdown in EU3, I also think the overabundance of them sometimes makes Vicky annoying: your country is doing great and all, but it suddenly get all screwed up because that's what happened in real life.

[The Wizard]

Make sure you buy EU3: Complete. EU3 vanilla is not such a very good game without the expansions.

And as far as I'm concerned, I'm not that excited about a Magna Mundi standalone game (there's already a thread about it, btw). MMP is just a patchwork of various mods pastiched into one big package, and technically not a real full-blown mod, and has all the problems coming with that. In addition, I don't like MMP's premise, because I feel it clamps on too tightly to history and doesn't give enough room for changing it. Just like Vicky and EU2.

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

I have a problem. EU3 is installed, but when I try and start the game, it simply gives me an area that says

d3dx9_35.dll missing from your computer


searched around, and apparently I have to install directX 9, but I have no idea where Direct X is supposed to go, or what I have to do specifically. :sweatdrop:

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

It's pretty simple, just download it from Microsoft and install it (following the instructions in the screen).

I think this is the most recent version:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3

[The Wizard]

I have a problem. EU3 is installed, but when I try and start the game, it simply gives me an area that says

d3dx9_35.dll missing from your computer


searched around, and apparently I have to install directX 9, but I have no idea where Direct X is supposed to go, or what I have to do specifically. :sweatdrop:

You are trying to run it as an Administrator, right?

[Warluster]

If all the solutions posted don't work, I got around that problem by simply downloading that specific file from a *trusted* site and the copying it into the nesscary location. The game worked perfectly afterwards.

I'm currently playing MMP now as the Dutch in 1700s. I always thought all mods for Eu3 gave you complete freedom of historical direction. When you say historical events do you mean events as in Victoria, or modifiers which add to your nation like 'Poor Cavalry', etc?

[miotas]

I've had rather a crazy game playing as a Holland. I started this game fully intending to play a small trading nation, possibly forming the Netherlands at some point and maybe grabbing a few colonies later in the game.

I started out along this path, and it lead to me being incredibly rich, so I used that wealth, as well as my promiscuous family to establish, and maintain good relations with most of the rich or powerful countries in Europe. As a result of this, I noticed, in about the 1450's, that most of the electors in the HRE quite liked me, and a few were even voting for me. I started really sucking up to the electors at this point, and when the current Emperor died in the mid 1460's I became the new Emperor, with all the perks that come with the position.

I trained up an Army of 60,000 troops, which was massive when compared to my measly 6 provinces, and started defending everyone in the HRE. After a few wars, my imperial authority was at 80% so I decided to implement a few reforms. Most of them had already been done, so I implemented the two that removed elections and made all the states my vassals. There were of course some that disagreed with my reforms, but most obeyed their emperor and now about half of Europe is the vassal of tiny little Holland, including Austria and Burgundy. I've also been close allies with Great Britain for most of the game and England and Burgundy are in the same Dynasty as me. So all of Europe basically revolves around Holland at this point. Hapsburgs? Who's that? In this world de Bourgognes are the most powerful family in Europe.

https://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo293/joshball2000/eu3game2010-01-3004-15-16-62.jpg

https://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo293/joshball2000/eu3game2010-01-3005-29-05-18.jpg

When I enact that last reform I'm going to be :daisy: HUGE! I wonder if I will still be able to form the Netherlands after I do that and have a giant Netherlands, covering most of Europe? :smash:

France has also been all over the shop in this game, first they went weak and small, then they took most of the French territories and now all they have left is Provence in the south.

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

Thanks everyone, the first fix worked.... :sweatdrop: Its all set, again thank you.

[Beskar]

Here is an update of that game. Roughly 30 years or so later game-time.
https://img718.imageshack.us/img718/2938/eu3mapmng.jpg

- Great Britain and Portugal has finished wiping out the native factions in the America's.

- Ming, while solidifying their position in East Asia and finally managed to get their rebel problem "managable", lost their provinces in Saudi Arabia to the surrounding factions due to troop difficulties.

- Austria was decimated in a bloodly war with Germany and Italy. Italy taking a big chunk of Western Austria, and Germany settling for a mass release of states within the Austria Empire. The Balkans now has two major powers, the old Austria, and the stronger Hungary, fighting for dominance.

- After their massive invasion of Persia, rebels kept Byzantium beaten and bruised. A small skirshish with the Kingdom of Jersualem turned into Total War when all surrounding factions viled for land. KoJ tore Byzantium through the middle, while Italy took the Byztanium Greek controled states. The now Catholic (I know) Ottoman Empire decides to re-emerge.

- France takes terrority from Portugal in Northern Africa, winning a few provinces. Is now emboiled in two seperate wars with Italy (he likes warring) and Spain.

- Germany after taking part in the smiting of the Austrian Empire, took more land in Finland/Russia for unknown reasons.

- Lithuania is now Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

[The Wizard]

Is that an MP game? Also, what year is it in that map?

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

I am extremely glad I got this!


Its 1450, and King James the first of England has just been named the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire! :laugh4:


I Allied early on with Burgandy, because from prior knowledge I know I can not take France with my manpower :tongue: I made a powerfull web of allies, and due to that France has not to this day declared war on me. I sold Gascony and the other French mainland province, keeping Calais. From here I Decided I would focus on forming GB. Saw my chance in Connaught, which was allied with only Scotland! I allied with the other two Irish nations, even managing to Vassalize Munster at this point.

Used my army to smash Scotland to pieces, Took it all, but held back on a peace deal till my army finished off Connaught, and annexed it. Took everything but its capitol from Scotland, and then sat back to wait for a bit.

Let my Reputation fall down to zero again, getting my economy in order. I got pulled into a few wars from Portugal, mostly with Morroco and Granada. Got my hands on Gibraltar that way, thought a port down there will help me when I start colonizing my way to India. And then the news came, I was leading a personal union with Portugal! :yes: That was pretty awesome.


After that I had little to do in the warfare department, as France allied with Castille..... The two of them together are tougher then anything I can throw at them, and with my Manpower my armies are really a Glass cannon. So I sat pretty and once again worked out my economy.


I vassalized all of Ireland, not knowing when I annexed them I would take a hit to centralization, which is a pain, but I got to live with it. (at this point 2/3 are annexed, just waiting on Tyrone..... Have the mission unite ireland, so as soon as he is annexed I have a core on all of them), the biggest problem I face is the fact the remnants of Scotland were vassalized and then annexed by France...... :wall: That is going to be a pain to get a hold of.



From here I saw that I was the papal Controller, which has given me all sorts of options. :beam: I Decided I was going to vassalize Western Germany. All of Western Germany. The plan is to form a power base that can help me take on France. I used my abilities to excommunicate a single available target, then declared war. This would normally mean I had to fight 3 or so small minors, and the Emperor. With my allies and my big army I was able to roll down them, Vassalize each independently (remembering to get a peace deal with the leader of the alliance last of course) and take what money I can. Each time I captured and Vassalized the Emperor a new was elected, and after 5 wars like this (with about 10 years between each for my armies to recuperate and my manpower to go back up) I have pretty much all of the Electors vassalized and most of far western Germnay. (only nations I was already friendly to me or those I can't get by excommunication or alliance of an excommunication, are left free) After the latest war, I am now Emperor, and I hope the extra manpower helps my fragile armies

(this last war was a tough one, got me down to my lastr legs trying to take out them all. from the 34000 I had, about 7000 are left)


While this was happening Burgandy was reduced to almost nothingness, and forced to give up Flanders..... :sweatdrop: Uhh ohh. I was not even allowed to join in, because they were wars done by Castille on Aragon, who I am not allied with.)

So my main buffer state is pretty much gone.


I am now waiting for my cores to finally show up on Scotland, I am hoping this will speed up my research, which is agonizingly slow. I have not even been able to get Trade seven yet, so no Quest for the new world. That should happen in a year or so, and then I can start colonizing slowly.


In all a wonderful game, Took me many false starts, but I think I knwo what I am doing now.


Edit:
:shocked2: I just looked at my new Manpower. 64,000 should be good....... From 13k, that is fine for me.

[The Wizard]

Make sure to spam merchants all over to get more income to invest into tech. It'll really help your tech development. And yeah, the HRE adds several modifiers, amongst which is an increase to manpower.

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

I do have one question..... Why do all of my Generals Suck? I have decent army tradition, yet I have not ever gotten one with better than 1 Shock or Maneuver. And forget about siege, that is even less likely :tongue: Its gotten to the point where I don't see a reason to recruit any, as I know they will be useless anyway.

[miotas]

If you've got less than 50 army tradition then you will get bad generals, and you get the best generals obviously when your tradition is at 100. I find that unless I am a really warmongering nation, my best generals are my leaders.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

It's really just random. I think I once got an amazing general with just 50 tradition - he had like 4 shock, 3 maneuver, and 1 siege. Mopped the floor with most stacks and generals.

In the same vein, I always get horrible shock rolls when something important is actually on the line. :/

[al Roumi]

It's really just random. I think I once got an amazing general with just 50 tradition - he had like 4 shock, 3 maneuver, and 1 siege.

Not so, Miotas is right:


If you've got less than 50 army tradition then you will get bad generals, and you get the best generals obviously when your tradition is at 100. I find that unless I am a really warmongering nation, my best generals are my leaders.

The % of army tradition is what governs the overall skills of a general. How the general's "pool" of skills is distributed accross fire, shock, maneuvre and siege (e.g. how many points in each) is random afaik.

Rulers' quality as generals depends on their millitary score (remember they have 3 attributes: administration, diplomacy and military). A leader with a low military score will be a bad general.

I have been playing as Austria, getting to be HRE meant I had a v high Army tradition, since passing one of the HRE reforms which includes an annual decay of army tradition, I am finding it hard to keep the score up... Taking the great idea for army tradition is helping but not enough as I've almost been too successful in fracturing the powers in and around the HRE -France is a mess of minor states, half of which joined the HRE. Fighting during the reformation, trying to force convert heretics is probably easier with larger states (>1 province states).

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

That's what I meant by random. I mean, if you want to be guaranteed a great general you'll need to wait until you have 100%, but if you're in a pinch you can try to get at least a 1-shocker at around 30%.

[Beskar]

What is everyones usually set-up for armies?

My all-rounder stacks of 20 consisting of 10 infantry, 7 horses and 3 cannons. These usually over everything in an invasion.

[al Roumi]

What is everyones usually set-up for armies?

My all-rounder stacks of 20 consisting of 10 infantry, 7 horses and 3 cannons. These usually over everything in an invasion.

Depends on the troops, enemy's, era and offense/defence.

tbh honest I've not played a game much longer than the stage of getting Maurician inf (usually mid 1500's), by that point I've achieved my initial and medium term objectives and get a bit bored - the micro managing and time involved in conquering more than half of central europe or achieving trade dominance in the east is too off putting for me. Flakey player! :help:

As such, My armies have alway been cavalry heavy and split by type (so all cav stacks, all inf stacks etc), but i always try to at least get cav and inf in the same battle unless I have the enemy on the run.

@ Alexander the Pretty Good (was going to abreviate, but someone already gets reffered to as AtPG!), sorry I misunderstood your post.

[The Wizard]

Early game, no artillery, about 15 regiments, 10 inf and 5 cav, but I have no real system. Late game I mix in tons of artillery (1 arty regiment for every inf) to maximize firepower. My armies get slow as a snail but they cause such high losses to the enemy that I win by WE and depleting the enemy's MP. Admittedly, I haven't played more than two games into the late game, though (1788 and 1700 is when I quit respectively).