Is EUIII better than EUII?

[seireikhaan]

Well, bought EU3:Complete for a twenty with shipping. Should arrive on Friday. Any recommendations for a first campaign to learn with? Eventually I think I'll try to restore the glory of Byzantium from 1399.

CR

Byzantium is a REALLY tough game, from my own experience. Others may have done better than me, perhaps, but I just could not get over those Turks.

As for a recommendation.... I would say Spain starting around 1500 would be the ideal, as they start with a big edge on colonization, have a large base to work with in Europe, and you can start getting an idea of what the politics of Europe in the game are going to look like.

[Xiahou]

Byzantium is a REALLY tough game, from my own experience. Others may have done better than me, perhaps, but I just could not get over those Turks.

As for a recommendation.... I would say Spain starting around 1500 would be the ideal, as they start with a big edge on colonization, have a large base to work with in Europe, and you can start getting an idea of what the politics of Europe in the game are going to look like.

My long running on again/off again campaign has been with the Byzantines. It took a lot of work and more than a few lucky breaks, but the Ottomans no longer exist, Asia Minor and much of Southeastern Europe are again in Byzantine hands. Here was an earlier post I made in the screenshot thread of it. Since then, I've taken more provinces in Asia Minor and the three Venetian provinces that are shown on the map. We're currently the #3 nation and what a ride its been.

[Meneldil]

In the vanilla game, China, France and England are generally the best choices for a first game.

[Monk]

My long running on again/off again campaign has been with the Byzantines. It took a lot of work and more than a few lucky breaks, but the Ottomans no longer exist, Asia Minor and much of Southeastern Europe are again in Byzantine hands. Here was an earlier post I made in the screenshot thread of it. Since then, I've taken more provinces in Asia Minor and the three Venetian provinces that are shown on the map. We're currently the #3 nation and what a ride its been.

Impressive. Makes me wanna give them ago, even knowing how tough it will be.

[TinCow]

Impressive. Makes me wanna give them ago, even knowing how tough it will be.

The Byzantines aren't actually as hard as they look from a 1399 start. At that point, the Ottomans are in a lot of trouble. They have massive unrest in their Balkan territories and they're in a war they can't win with the Timurids and others. All of their armies will move to Anatolia to deal with this, which makes Balkan rebels a serious problem for them. It also makes it easy to keep their large armies away by blocking the Bosporus with ships. If the Ottoman navy comes to chase you away, just slip back into port and then pop out again as soon as the enemy fleet is gone. Several of the other small Baltic orthodox states are very happy to ally with you at the start of the game. Grab a few of those guys as allies and then declare war on the Ottomans when they're looking strained by the Timurids/rebels. You will have very good odds of capturing and holding a lot of the Balkans until the Ottomans will accept a peace. Since you have cores on all those provinces, this instantly will bump you up to a medium power nation that's capable of dealing with the Ottomans with fewer tricks in the future.

I actually think that playing the Ottomans from 1399 is much harder than playing the Byzantines.

[A Very Super Market]

I have tried Magna Mundi, and found myself turn Castille (Of all factions) into a one region monarchy based in Galicia. In the vanilla game, I did well enough with them, making myself a grand North African empire, but I had the maximum amount of war exhaustion in MM, as well as 5 loans, and a 5.9 inflation rate, and still couldn't maintain the forces needed to defend from Aragon and Portugal, who always seem to declare war a month into the main campaign.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Well, got the game today, and aside from some mind boggling frustration at how a game could *(*@&$ up a simple thing like tutorials, I found downloading a patch allowed me to actually use the tutorials, but with the problem of the (@&$(@$*@() game crashing to desktop whenever I try to open a second tutorial. Oh, joy.

I suppose I'll finish the tutorials and then wait till tomorrow before starting the actual game, so as to keep a lid on my vexation.

CR

[Xiahou]

Bah! Tutorials shmutorials.
Honestly, when I first installed the game, I couldn't play them either. I assumed that the expansions broke the tutorials since they were likely made with the vanilla version, so I gave up on them and moved onto the main game.

If they won't work for you, just jump in a game. You'll learn quickly enough.

[frogbeastegg]

Ignore the tutorials; they are useless. I played the entire set when I first got EUIII vanilla and they didn't help at all. The game has changed a lot since then, including interface changes and core gameplay mechanics. That's why they no longer work.

It's stunningly bad that the tutorials were broken without it being noticed during testing, and worse that AFAIK Paradox don't intend to fix them. Talk about poking your new players in the eye and trying to make yourself look bad.

[Meneldil]

There's a lot of talk about EU3 and Victoria (which I shall try in the near futur), but what about HoI2, EU:Rome and CK ?

From what I understood, HoI is quite interesting though really complex, and both CK and EU:Rome are highly frustrating.

Anyone confirms/denies ?

[frogbeastegg]

CK and EU: Rome are both games you should only get along with the expansions, and both are games which have a narrower appeal than the likes of EU.

I liked CK a lot when it first came out, until I spotted a bunch of gaping great holes in the historical fabric. That killed the atmosphere for me and made it frustrating. Around the same time I realised that the game was shallow, repetitive and limited. The expansion fixes some of the problems I had, and mods address others. It's no longer a game about coldly playing with stats and breeding programs, watching the Muslims sail off to conquer Iceland instead of protecting their homelands, and 70 year crusades in which large factions need to conquer tens of provinces per year in order to keep their piety from plumeting. Yet somehow the game fails to live up to its promise; it never quite manages to be fun, and it completely lacks the historical atmosphere and feeling of authenticity. It was just a game with ugly, inaccurate medieval window dressing and for some reason that annoyed me more than games like MTW and Stronghold.

If you like games about creating a dynasty, and which focus strongly on characters, then you will probably like CK. If you want diplomacy or any of those other layers of complexity from EU, nope.

EU: Rome I avoided on release. It was widely reported to be a dumbed down CK, and considering that I found CK to be shallow that was not a good sign. The expansion once again addressed a lot of players' concerns and many reported that the game, while still flawed, was now worth a go. By this point the base Rome game could be had for clearance prices so I decided to give it a try. I played it once and I have been meaning to go back for a second go for months. It wasn't bad. It just ... lacked anything which made me anxious to go back.

Not interested in WWII so I have never played the HoI series. They do get a lot of love, and a lot of people consider them to be the best Paradox series.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Well I started off as England. Vanquished Scotland, and managed to avoid going to war with Burgundy by giving them military access. After a couple years I vassalized Scotland. Then I sent all my troops down to southwest France to defend, but they were getting beaten by the Gallic hordes. Got peace with France by giving up calais. At this point Brittany invaded, having already been at war. Beat them into submission and forced a vassalage.

Now France has declared war again and I don't know how to deal with the Gallic hordes.

CR

[Meneldil]

If you play with an easy setting, you can offer them a few ducats (200) and hope for peace.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Well, I'm addicted. Playing as England I annexed Portugal, Barcelona (which had been Aragon), and most of Flanders. I vassalized Scotland, Flanders, and Brittany. But Castille and France keep attacking, and there's no way I can beat off those hordes. I think next time I'll stay out of Iberia and the continent as much as I can.

CR

[seireikhaan]

Well, I'm addicted. Playing as England I annexed Portugal, Barcelona (which had been Aragon), and most of Flanders. I vassalized Scotland, Flanders, and Brittany. But Castille and France keep attacking, and there's no way I can beat off those hordes. I think next time I'll stay out of Iberia and the continent as much as I can.

CR

What's your badboy score? In the game menu, on the far left tab, it should show what your "reputation" is at- tarnished, honorable, worse than dishonorable scum, etc... When you hold the cursor over the description, it'll give you a numerical rating out of a total. After annexing portugal, my guess is that you have a pretty ugly looking reputation, which is why you keep getting attacked.

[Crazed Rabbit]

What's your badboy score? In the game menu, on the far left tab, it should show what your "reputation" is at- tarnished, honorable, worse than dishonorable scum, etc... When you hold the cursor over the description, it'll give you a numerical rating out of a total. After annexing portugal, my guess is that you have a pretty ugly looking reputation, which is why you keep getting attacked.

Ya, it was up to around 11 or so when I was attacked.

CR

[Monk]

Ya, it was up to around 11 or so when I was attacked.

CR

Managing your reputation is something that will come with time. Remember that annexing factions will hurt your reputation a lot more than if you make them a vassal, and while the path to turning a vassal into an annexed nation through peace is a long one (takes anywhere from 20-30 years) it can pay off in that it won't upset the entire world. EUIII is about balance, you'll get the hang of it.

France has declared war again and I don't know how to deal with the Gallic hordes.

France is overpowered. Their manpower pool is huge

[Crazed Rabbit]

Well, a new game, I'm at 0 rep/honorable and France continues to attack and attack. And then Castile attacked, just because I have Gibraltar, which I took from Granada.



CR

[frogbeastegg]

Well, a new game, I'm at 0 rep/honorable and France continues to attack and attack. And then Castile attacked, just because I have Gibraltar, which I took from Granada.



CR

Is Gibraltar one of Castile's cores? Open the provincial summery screen and see if Castile's shield is there. If it is then it's a core for them. Most provinces count as cores for certain nations; that means the AI controlling that nation will go after them in a bid to construct the 'ideal' form of that country. More than one nation can consider a province a core. At the start of the game the cores are provinces that factions have historical claims on. A faction holding a province for long enough can have it tagged as a core.

There's a decent section about this concept in the vanilla game's manual. I expect you will have a PDF of it on your disc, if you didn't get a paper version.

[TinCow]

IIRC, many nations have historical enemies that they are more likely to attack to simulate real-world animosities. France-England/Britain is a major one.

The best way to deal with France as England is, funnily enough, the historical one: abandon your continental provinces and build a navy. With a strong navy, it is very easy to keep the British Isles safe. Even if France keeps declaring war, you can defeat their fleet and blockade the entire country, producing a lot of war score and war weariness. This also allows you to gobble up all of France's colonial possessions, since they have no way to get a fleet out there to protect them. The same works for Spain.

[Xiahou]

Also, you probably should turn off "lucky nations" if you haven't already. Sounds like you're having a hard enough time without the AI cheating.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Is Gibraltar one of Castile's cores?

Nope - it's one of Granada's, but they are non-existent.

The best way to deal with France as England is, funnily enough, the historical one: abandon your continental provinces and build a navy. With a strong navy, it is very easy to keep the British Isles safe. Even if France keeps declaring war, you can defeat their fleet and blockade the entire country, producing a lot of war score and war weariness. This also allows you to gobble up all of France's colonial possessions, since they have no way to get a fleet out there to protect them. The same works for Spain.

How do you blockade? I think I might just have to abandon the continent.

CR

[TinCow]

How do you blockade? I think I might just have to abandon the continent.

First you have to reach the right level of technology. I can't remember for sure, but for some reason I think Naval 9 allows you to do it. Once you have the ability to blockade, all you have to do is leave 1 or more ships in a sea square that borders an enemy coastal province. The enemy ports on that sea square will then get little chain icons around them and they will be 'blockaded.' The more of the enemy ports you blockade, and the longer you blockade them, the more war weariness (and other bad stuff) that starts to accumulate on them. You also get war score (for peace negotiations) from blockades.

This is usually only advisable once you have naval superiority, though, as it requires you to scatter a lot of little fleets around. If the enemy still has a strong fleet, they can run around knocking out your blockade fleets one by one.

[Meneldil]

Tried EU: Rome today, with Vae Victis. Well, as you said Froggy, it's far from great. First of all, Rome is so overwhelmingly powerful that most factions surrounding it are bound to lose.

Secondly, the game is slow. Way too slow. Waiting 10 years to be able to colonize a province when you're playing a minor faction is stupid. Then, the whole colonization system is aweful. Yay Macedonia in Poland.

Finally, the character gestion thingy is annoying and boring. From what I got, player's decisions have little effect on the traits. Then again, it's more or less useless. Even if all your characters are dumb cowards, you can kick any other faction ass bar the 4 biggies (Rome, Carthago, Seleukids and Ptolemies).

[OverKnight]

I'm thinking of reinstalling EU III and adding the latest expansion In Nomine.

Considering I'm rusty and the steep and unforgiving learning curve of Paradox games, can anyone recommend a FAQ or AAR they found helpful.

[pevergreen]

My learning experience:

Numbers beat anything.
Merchants are key.
The economy system is annoying.

[Zim]

FAQ

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...d.php?t=404217

The Paradox forums' excellent AAR forum for EU3. I actually learned to play the game properly from
AARs, sad as that may sound...

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...play.php?f=360

I'm thinking of reinstalling EU III and adding the latest expansion In Nomine.

Considering I'm rusty and the steep and unforgiving learning curve of Paradox games, can anyone recommend a FAQ or AAR they found helpful.

[OverKnight]

Cool. For AARs I'm looking for a few in particular that would give me a example of the new IN features and strategies. Does anyone have some favorites?

The LibrAARy over at paradoxplaza is helpful, but doesn't sort by expansion, game version or quality. Good AARs tend to have a lot of views, but that also means they're generally older.

Of course reading AARs can be dangerous. Raading about how someone conquered the world with the Byzantines is informative, but can be discouraging when I start playing and find my skills lacking by comparison.

[pevergreen]

Kind of like how I felt when I started LotR and KotR.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Honestly, taking an entire town with just a bodyguard! NUTS

[seireikhaan]

Maybe not the most terribly informative, but this is easily my favorite EU III AAR.
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...d.php?t=384892