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So Ive been slowly chipping away at Sweden as Denmark for the past few decades, been in 2 major wars (always a rocky start but I rebound to crush them) and Im trying to create a Scandinavian nation. Sweden is down to about 5 territories, since Russia is also pressing from the east. But that requires that I take Stockholm, but for some reason I cant fabricate a claim on Stockholm. Do I need to whittle Sweden down to one territory?
That or cut it off from the rest of sweden's provinces.
You can always vassalize them, then diplo-annex them.
Or you can just do full annexation then take the coring cost because of no claim.
So after much wrangling and annoying wars, I finally formed Scandinavia! And Im turning a profit and was able to pay back all my war debts due to my awesome trade power.
I had to go through six wars with Sweden who are now castrated below Finland so they arent a threat anymore. Plus I think that Russia is eyeing them...
Attachment 12330
The problem is now that I have no clue what to do. I want to colonize somewhere but everywhere good is taken or is too far away. I tried colonizing twice the Gold Coast but was kicked out both times. Im really tempted to just invade somewhere else already colonized and try that, as I cant really expand anywhere else in Europe as I have the HRE on one side and Russia on the other, a literal death trap.
Any ideas?
EDIT: heres another screenshot:
Attachment 12331
As you can see, while I am doing well economy-wise, if someone decides to attack Im pretty much screwed, as I only have about 115k troops spread out over a large area. I used to have over 200k troops but to pay my war debts I had to disband almost half of them. I tried to get all the choke points covered with the troops I still have but considering that Russia and the HRE allies can bring a lot of troops to bear, its like a single sandbag against a flood. So now Im trying to build a larger economy to fund a larger army. Is there a national reserves system that I can put in place? Mercenaries only go so far in times of dire need. And if I ever want to go up against the Commonwealth or Austria for that matter Im going to need at least 300k men to even make a dent.
Yes, you're basically screwed.
You can fight off Russia, you're ahead of them in tech. It would be better if you were Sweden, they get some awesome bonuses for land combat. But, even though you can defeat them, you can't really crush them. They'll just come back for their cores and at one point they will catch you at a bad moment.
Lesson - if you want to colonize, plan for that from the beginning. If you want to go east, deal with Muscovy early. If you want to dominate central Europe, crush the Habsburgs early.
Sweden gets bonuses for land combat? This makes sense why they would defeat my armies of similar size early on in wars, and I would usually only defeat them in battle when I vastly outnumbered them.
Anyways, I suppose I could always use the console commands, make myself rich, give myself 400,000 manpower, and take on the HRE.
Ally with GB and/or France. Wait for HRE/Russia to be at war. Declare on HRE and start grabbing HRE provinces. Rinse and repeat, aiming to dismantle the HRE.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hooahguy
Currently allied with GB and France. I think the HRE is at war right now but I dont have anywhere near the strength to start a full out war. Just starting to rebuild my forces now so I guess Im going to have to bide my time. Also just launched a coalition against them, but nobody seems to want to join in just yet.
You've got the right allies, so the key is waiting until they're vulnerable in a war. They don't even need to be losing a war, just involved in a war that's sufficiently large that it's occupying most of their armies. If that happens and you can declare war, with France willing to join you (that part is very important), the flood of new armies into their territory could cause a chain reaction meltdown. The idea is actually not for your own armies to do the fighting, but for the other major AI powers to taken on HRE for you. In this case, it would be your ally France. Your own armies would move in to start occupying provinces and squashing smaller armies after the French take on the bulk of the fighting.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hooahguy
The important part is to catch them in a war with one of the other monster powers. In your specific case, Russia and the Ottomans both look like plausible candidates for that role. A war with one of them is likely at some point, so just keep your alliance with France strong and wait for the right moment. With so many major powers in Europe, it's entirely possible that others might also join in for their own reasons once the HRE is heavily weakened, such as Commonwealth and Spain, both of whom probably have rivalries with HRE based on how their borders look in that world map.
Gotcha. Is there a way to invite countries into my coalition? Because for now I cant seem to find a way to do so, which leads me to wish that there were more diplomatic options.
And what does the percentage mean in the HRE overview tab at the bottom? Right now Austria is emperor but only has about 42% control I think, so that cant be very good so hopefully I can prevent them from getting more powerful.
English+French Colonial spites, muslim advisor pictures and more native indian sprites.
No, there's no way to invite anyone into a coalition. Countries will join coalitions on their own when they think that a country has gotten too aggressive, which basically means that they've grabbed too much territory too quickly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hooahguy
The percentage on the HRE tab is the amount of points they have towards the next HRE decision/implementation thing. The Emperor has to hit a certain % influence before he can enact the next decision, at which point it resets to 0% and works back up. However, if you've already had the united HRE nation form, then that entire chain is already complete and it's basically pointless. Actually... I'm not sure why it would even be there. I thought the entire thing disappeared when the HRE was formally united into one country.
It hasn't formed in Hooah's game, just some misunderstandings about the situation.. actually, should ask for a copy of the save.
I just assumed that the HRE was a group of central European nations banded together. Whether or not they are actually formed into one nation is irrelevant for me as they all guarantee each other's protection.
Also here is my savegame file for anyone who is interested: http://www.mobiusgamers.org/resources/my-dilemma.5/
Main problem is that you started in 1650, which is really late ingame. Your save is at 1720 and most of your rivals are all well established and it is like smacking yourself against the rock. Compared to a game where I was Norway, I expanded far more than you by 1560 (getting Greenland and hitting North America before the British) and already been fighting Muscovy a lot but able to field on par or greater.
Also later start dates does heavily favour the likes of Spain especially.
So you are in a situation where you do not have any advantages and no possibilities of really getting any kind of upperhand.
I do recommend playing from the start, and setting yourself goals like "unify Italy" and doing things to bring around that result.
Yeah, I took your advice and started anew. This time as Norway in I think it was 1490 or something. Fought a war for independence, that was fun but very hard as Denmark is really hard to beat. Thankfully Sweden aready got its independence so I didnt have them to worry about as well. I actually ended up colonizing not only Greenland but also a part of what is now Newfoundland, and renamed it New Oslo. The other portion of the island I named Bjørktown, just because. Im thinking about halting any further colonization until further notice because the mainland is in turmoil. I am about to enact the Protestant Reformations and I need all hands on deck for that. Then once that is complete I will work on infrastructure then I will commence my attacks on the rest of Scandinavia, because Heia Norge!
So Im having a bit of trouble seeing the point in colonies that form into colonial governments. I have no control over what they build and I cant recruit troops in those provinces, so Im not sure why I dont just cut them loose and be done with it really. Right now I have about 25k troops stationed in Vinland (Newfoundland and Greenland) and in New Norway (the northeastern US seaboard). I really just should have kept them at 4 provinces each so I would have a base of operations in those areas. Also if they rebel do I regain control of the colonies again or does their independence desire just reset to 0?
The thing is, not having to build in those areas are a blessing, as all it does is eat up your monarch points and money.
As for "cut them loose" why would you do that? They provide you with forcelimits and income where you can sit back and do not have to actively manage. So you can grow your colony so it is nice and big, providing you with lots of money, and it would fight battles in the America's on your behalf.
Also, as I said on Steam, you can ignore liberty desire, as it only poses an issue till it hits 50%. You don't have to station a 25k man garrison there, because they have 3% liberty desire.
It also helps that as you raise colony tarifs around 3 events get triggered that reduce liberty desire which can be used as an indicator as when to stop pushing.
i like all the system in this game except its battle!! its so confusing and ridiculous !!
what great it would be if Total War would be mixed with Europa Universalis ?!!?........
Is there a way to combine colonies? because I created New Norway in what is now the northeastern US but Great Britain created the Thirteen Colonies, but I also took over GB so I got all her colonies so I want them to combine because having New Norway in the northeast and the Thirteen Colonies in the southeast is frankly a pain.
So, I have finally completed my first EU4 game, after many many hours (20 in the past week which is a lot for me). I started out as little ol' Norway where I was a subject of the Kingdom of Denmark. Then I broke away in a bloody war. Then I got strong enough to annex Denmark. Then I took over Sweden. Then I created the mighty Scandinavian nation. I then colonized the eastern seaboard of the united states, whch is now New Norway and Vinland. I then took over Britain and Ireland, absorbing the Thirteen Colonies and Newfoundland. Then I got a foothold in mainland europe where I spent 120 years conquering from northern Germany down to the Netherlands, upsetting giants such as Poland, France, and most importantly, the Holy Roman Empire. It was probably one of the greatest gaming experiences ever, after the Mass Effect games of course. Gahhh now I dont know what to try next, maybe Ill create Prussia and take over the HRE. as you can tell I have a lot of time on my hands sometimes. 20 of the past 35 hours was in the past week. I should be ashamed, but I just dont tell anyone or when I do I tell them its a geography simulator.
Anyways, here are some pics!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
And here is a map of the world. Warning: lots of border gore.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Also is there anyway to copy the country history into a word document or something? Mines pretty long and I like to read about my exploits...
:book:
Norway is an interesting choice to make Scandinavia! I did it with Sweden. And because Russia never formed I stretched from the North Sea well into Alaska! Great game!
Maybe try a different area of the map? Japan or Oman are good fun, especially if you can Westernise. In Europe forming France is enjoyable because the Great Blue Blob is just such a formidable base once you get all your cultural lands. Portugal is also a good one too, although maybe a little too similar to Norwegian game-style. Another really good one is Morocco, rush to colonise all of Africa and use your navy to prevent Portugal/Spain from getting a North African foothold.
Or you could go with a minor. My most recent attempt was forming the Netherlands with Gelre. Very hard though.
Ive actually been playing as Brandenburg. Started out small, then eventually went on to form Germany. Wanted to form Prussia first but the Polish/Commonwealth were my allies and were helping me take over rival nations, so I didnt want to bother them just yet. Now that Im pretty advanced in the game its getting a bit easy, as my troops kinda roll over everything (that +20% infantry combat ability and discipline is incredible!). Im now the HRE emperor and Im trying to form the HRE as a unified nation, while I deal with internal politics.
For my next game I think I might try the Ottomans...
So if you havent been following, patch 1.6 has been released and oh boy what a storm of hatred. Rebels have been made much much stronger so it basically broke everyones game and basically made minor nations unplayable, as they would have 30k armies rise up with good troops which are almost impossible to beat early on. So of course they are patching it but we will see what that will do. Holding out on playing Wealth of Nations DLC until this is resolved, either through hotfix or mod.
yeah, apparantly that was fixed like 6 hours ago
Playing as Poland, formed the Commonwealth, completely wrecked Crimea and took their provinces, and I just won a very costly trade war against Muscovy. I had a 50k+ army that has been reduced to around 14k, and most of them just through attrition.
It's 4.25 AM here, so it's time I go to bed, but I can't remember the last time that a game grabbed me so strongly.
It is on sale at Steam and my bank account looks like I can afford spending some money on games this month. Are there any must-have add-ons/DLCs? Most of the DLC looks like eyecandy to me, how about the 2 expansions?
I do not want to repeat the mistake I made with Civ 5, which was getting on only G&K and BNW because I was too cheap. :creep:
Double Post
If Conquest of Paradise is on sale, I would get it. It significantly improves the colonial game. I am not too sure about Wealth of Nations yet,
Just completed a full campaign as Byzantium. Was rather hard, especially for the lat 100 years as I needed 5-1 odds to defeat any western force. Will be starting a new game as France at some point.
Anyways a few observations about my completed campaign. They really have to give the eastern factions a way to compete with the western factions because as I said, it was extremely hard to defeat them, and I cannot count how many battles I narrowly lost because of this. Because they took away when you westernize you get western troops, westernization isnt that important anymore, at least it wasnt for me.
Here is my map:
Attachment 13545
As you can see I have territory from Yemen to the Bay of Biscay. Im rather proud of that, though I really wanted to recreate the Roman Empire but I ran out of time. I got bogged down for a while in the Crimea, probably shouldnt have done that, oh well. Russia became a tough nut to crack after 1700 so that might have been why I spent so much time there. At one point I had over 250,000 troops on that border as the Russians tend to win by numbers. I once had a battle that I narrowly lost, 180,000 Russians to my 150,000 soldiers. It was a very close battle and I missed reinforcements by about a day, I was so annoyed, it was like -15 warscore. Taking on France was also very tough. Lost a few battles to them as well, but my numbers won the day in the end as I had around 300,000 troops on that border at the climax of my campaign in that area. Once I got to the Bay of Biscay and took Bordeaux (which was really the only reason why I bothered with French territory in the first place) I made peace and hunkered down until the end of the campaign. That was late 1780's anyways so it wasnt long and the others werent attacking so I just disbanded 60% of my armies to save money. Im impressed though how much I took, basically all of the Mediterranean was under my control.
I was sort of impressed with Russia how they really had their :daisy: together, they proved a real challenge which was nice. The Netherlands got quite big compared to what Ive seen them do before, and I kinda wish I pushed more towards Persia as I figure that with the amount of effort I put into southern France I could have put that into Persia and got some of that India action.
Another map:
Attachment 13546
A week later, and I have completed my France game. Probably would have finished it sooner had I not been away for the entire weekend.
Everyone says how France is really easy, and after this past week, I really have to believe them. After the first 30 years or so and after I won the Hundred Years War, things were pretty much smooth sailing. My armies rolled over the enemy even when at a numerical disadvantage. Once I took down the HRE (that was around 1700 I think) I was debating just calling the win and leaving it at that, as there was no army or navy that could compete. I made a colony in the southeastern North America, and it expanded quite well, and covered most of the East Coast until the Mississippi River. As for me I owned all of Western Europe save for the polar areas of Scandinavia. I took Åland and fortified it against attack, then took some eastern European land but I basically stopped there. I like clean borders so I decided to just concentrate on infrastructure from then on, and a few little wars to ensure supremacy until 1821. My income got so high that even with 874,000 men under arms plus almost 500 ships I was pulling in well over 900 per month in cash. Granted that didnt happen until late game, but either way, my ridiculous manpower made that a possibility. Public order was rough at first but I managed to avoid the French Revolution so that was nice.
Attachment 13623
Attachment 13624
As for the other nations, Portugal seemed to do okay once I booted them from Europe, taking most of South America. Russia was basically split in half by Kazan and Siberia, and Ukraine got pretty large as well. England, displaced from the British Isles, made a home in the Midwestern US while Bosnia did pretty well for itself I think, pushing back the Ottomans numerous times.
And for the map:
Attachment 13622
I think Im going to need to try somewhere else totally different. Maybe Korea or something, Europe just plays too similar now. Or maybe a single-province nation in Europe.
Had something weird happen - imported a united Scandinavia from CKII, but when i brought it into EU I had the same national ideas as the british! What? anyone know how that happened?
Was your character by any chance of Norman, anglo saxon, or english culture? Assuming no: Was the majority of your vassals of those cultures?
Actually, now that you say it - my Emperor had become saxon through some unwise education choices. Could that be it?Quote:
Originally Posted by Greyblades
yup. that'd do it.
So how about that new patch? Raised the truce scaling to an insane level. 15 years for max warscore, that is insane. Especially since theres nothing to do during peacetime.
The EUIV Paradoxplaza forum has exploded over that change. Especially since there isn't much to do besides war and conquest.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hooahguy
And now that they just put in 10-15 year truce times there is even less to do.
EU4 80% off $8USD (base game, no DLC)
http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-EU4/europa-universalis-iv
I ..uhhm... discovered this. Geez, thought CK2 was addictive, but man, this one is just as bad if not worse. It's a rare game that keeps me up until past 1 AM on a weekday. Tried it, got spanked, tried again, got spanked again, finally on my third try I had a good game with the Teutonic Order.
An amazingly deep game.
Oddly enough I liked CK2 way better. Couldn't get into EU4 yet.
The biggest problem I have with EU4 is that there is little to do during peacetime other than plan for your next war.