Europa Universalis IV

[Kekvit Irae]

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

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

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

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

[rickinator9]

New Expansion: Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations

A DLC centred on getting more money? Really? Money is no issue after 1600. I could potentially build anything I want if I actually had the monarch points. Money in the late-game is useless, since you get a surplus in the thousands in a few years.

[Beskar]

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

[Kekvit Irae]

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

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

[Greyblades]

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

Money well spent.

[Beskar]

....

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

[Hooahguy]

Does the steam overlay not work ingame for anyone else?

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

[Beskar]

Does the steam overlay not work ingame for anyone else?

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

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

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

[Hooahguy]

That worked, thanks!

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

[Beskar]

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

[Hooahguy]

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

[Greyblades]

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

[Beskar]

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

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

[Hooahguy]

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...



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:



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

[Sarmatian]

Yes, you're basically screwed.

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

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

[Hooahguy]

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

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

[TinCow]

Any ideas?

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

[Hooahguy]

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.

[TinCow]

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

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

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

[Hooahguy]

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.

[Beskar]

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

[TinCow]

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

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

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

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

[Beskar]

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

[Hooahguy]

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

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

[Beskar]

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

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

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

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

[Hooahguy]

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

[Hooahguy]

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

[Beskar]

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

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

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

[Greyblades]

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

[Empire*Of*Media]

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 ?!!?........