This will be a long post. I have to say this version of EU IV is fantastic, this game keeps getting better. The changes that have been made are for the most part excellent, as a matter of opinion. I don't always agree with the things Paradox changes or adds, but in a general sense they've vastly improved what was already my favorite Grand Strategy game ever. The complexity now is even more amazing, but the game remains highly intuitive and accessible.

As for the glorious nation of Hungary....

By the early 1600's we had expanded a fair amount. Incorporated in to the realm were the former nations of Bosnia, Serbia, Ragusa and Wallachia, with the City of Venice as the crown jewel of the conquests. But even so, the situation remained perilous. Land force limit was a particular weakness. Hungary's standing army was one-quarter of what Ottomans could field, and half that of Aragon. We could take solace though in our strong alliances. Austria, Commonwealth and SuperAragon. Between all of us, we could match Ottomans in strength, if not wealth. The danger lies in the possibility that if war with the Turks comes, my allies may not answer (unlikely) or they will be weakened by other conflicts (very likely). So while we were a fair match on paper, in reality I couldn't expect to meet Ottomans one to one.

War was coming, as Ottomans hit me with every trick in the book. Fabricating claims, slandering merchants, trade embargoes, diplomatic insults, sabotaging recruitment -- the works. Reading the tea leaves, I formulated a plan. Knowing I couldn't best them in a slugfest on land, my plan was to build up my navy. When war came, we would sail for a decisive battle. If I could defeat them at sea, I could blockade the crossings near Constantinople, trapping some of their army north of the strait and defeating them in detail, capturing Constantinople and compelling the bulk of their armies to travel overland roundabout the Black Sea, and forcing them to cross the vast Commonwealth lands, where battles with Commonwealth and attrition would weaken them long before they could fall upon my lands where the combined armies of Hungary, Austria and Aragon would be waiting.

In the interim, we would siege down the provinces north of the Bosphorous, gaining warscore and ducats. Seemed a sound plan, and we took the Maritime idea group to assist in strengthening our navy. In addition, shipyards and grand shipyards were constructed in all coastal provinces to reduce shipbuilding time and cost, while raising the force limit. Ottomans have a huge navy, and with our rather modest coastline and therefore force limit, we would be hard pressed, even with the naval focus, to match them in strength. Due to their low cost and excellent combat capabilities in inland seas, our navy was mostly galleys. We built a few heavies to add some hardness to our formations. The key would be to force battle when they had divided their strength,. If I could take on 30 ships here, and 40 ships there we could attrit them down and gain control of the seas. A capable admiral was recruited.

Then two things happened that put a hitch in these plans. Aragon had gotten themselves in to a war with England, to take those lands England held in southern France. Aragon had a far more powerful army than England and should have easily prevailed on the continent, though England was more than a match at sea. But only a little less than half of Aragon's army were on the continent. I don't know where the rest were, in the New World I imagine. Aragon had a huge transport navy, but never went to pick up those wayward soldiers. And as a a result, they lost the war with England. And guess what England demanded in the peace deal? Yep, annul all treaties with Hungary, and some ducats. Freakin' kidding me right? Not annul treaties with Austria, no. Couldn't ask for that. It had to be Hungary, because we all know how Hungary and England are natural enemies. Thanks alot England, we'll get back to you later.

And with that we lost 40% of our potential alliance strength. Ooops.

The second thing that happened was Ottomans saw this and declared war using a Conquest CB on Albania. Good grief. I was not ready. My naval buildup was still ongoing, and Commonwealth was losing half their army and all their manpower in a war in northern Europe. Only Austria was in good shape. The best laid plans of mice and men...

And with that over 200,000 angry Turks attacked. They have kept up technologically, and they, we and Austria were all Mil tech 19. Commonwealth have not dealt well with the changes to tech and the introduction of the Institutions mechanic and were lagging behind at tech 16. Not good since my plan relied on them slowing Ottomans in their territory.

My navy set sail and did so well, that within a few months Ottomans were compelled to put the remnants of their navy in ports. We controlled the sea and the Hungarian navy stationed themselves off Constantinople to block the crossing and trap the ottoman armies to the north. I giggled a little as a 90k stack of heathen infidels approached the strait from the east. They would see us blocking, then be forced to walk the long way around. What a great plan!

Then those 90,000 screaming Turks walked right in to Constantinople. :facepalm:

I had completely forgotten that they changed the way this works, and now you need to hold land on one side or the other, not just park a navy. Damn. So essentially I had based my entire master plan on an outdated mechanic that no longer existed. Umm, Ottomans, time out please?

To compound matters, the enemy chose to send their all of their armies north and west, toward me. The upshot was that Commonwealth invaded through the Crimea and were able to start carpet sieging unopposed. the downshot was we faced huge armies on the field of battle.








On such battles the fates of nations turn. This was the opening land battle of the war. And we won it. the 'Inspirational Leader' trait was earned here. They had so much manpower and such a huge army that it didn't really hurt them, while taking half of my manpower. But to have lost this battle would have likely seen us lose any hope of winning the war. A promising start. It is interesting to note the disparity in both cavalry and artillery, and also how many artillery losses they took, while we lost none. I admit to not understanding EU IV battle mechanics in their entirety, but perhaps this is a reflection of the cavalry, and that cavalry can flank and get behind to the arty. Not sure really. But good result. The war continued with many battles like this. I was forced to keep retreating back to Hungary to refit my battered armies. But we cannily sought out isolated Ottoman armies and engaged them when we could. Austria was a huge help, very eager to jump in to the fray. Commonwealth were driving up the warscore with their sieging of Anatolia.

Soon though our manpower was exhausted, and our army half the size at the outset. Ottomans manpower was gone too, but their standing army was still 180,000! I mean come on. At one point I looked at the ledger and Ottomans had 101 mercenary regiments. 101! How the hell can they afford that? Ugg, so frustrating. Lucky nations and all, I guess.

Despite this, the warscore was near 30. Against a nation the size of ottomans, that is fairly significant. With us in very real danger should we be attacked by another nation, I looked to end the war. We were able to reclaim some of Bulgaria's cores and a couple more provinces along with war reparations. I really wanted humiliate but it wasn't in the cards. Ottomans accepted and the war came to a close. It is always satisfying to be attacked like this, and yet walk away the victors, with some of their territory in the bag.





Pretty epic. Hungary's victorious armies returned home to adoring throngs. It was time to refit and replenish, and I could only hope that no one looked to take advantage of my losses and attack. I made it a point of maintaining relations with Aragon, to hopefully re-ally them when the annul treaties expired. And then, eight years after the end of the Second Hngarian-Ottoman War, this happened.




Well I'll be damned. I have played EU IV for 2300 hours according to Steam, and I would rate this event as the single best thing that has ever happened to me, particularly so as no nation contested it. Are you freaking kidding me! I pretty much ignore the whole dynastic side of this game. I never claim thrones or that sort of thing. I don't even pay attention to disputed successions and the like. But I use royal marriages, and man did it pay off big time. Aside from the enormous boost in military strength this affords me, the real bonus is that my long term goal is to core all of Austria. And I just stole the one ally that could have prevented it. What a hoot. Of course Austria is still my ally, and a good one, and ever-lasting Emperor, but nefarious plotting is afoot. And Austria went and allied Commonwealth. But I know a time will come when Commonwealth is mired in some losing effort, probably against Muscovy, and we will strike. Or they'll be wracked with rebels. It will happen. Note also that when the union formed, England got their panties in a bunch. Bah, I owe you one anyway you English Knnnigggits! How do you like me now? I'll probably declare on them just to spite them. Amazing what huge uptick in power can do to one's confidence

This post is long so I'll close with a few more screens. The union with Aragon shot Hungary to second (from fourth) on the Great Powers list. Nice.




And the state of affairs in Europe in 1661



With these remarkable developments, I think taking Austria just became a shorter term goal, and the new long term goal is to unite Hungarian and Aragonian lands in to a single contiguous realm, spanning from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. I can inherit around 1710 if it's written in the fates. Just need to keep Aragon happily subjugated. Probably easier said than done....

Great write up.

Will add notes later

My AI Hungary isn't going as well as yours, they lost about one third of their provinces as a result of this war.



Magellan? Never heard of him.

Your nation got the Circumnavigation? Pretty cool. I've never seemed to manage to be the first.

Now where were we.... ah yes, 1661

After basking in the glow of the union and counting all of my lucky stars, we sort of went in to a funk. There existed on the continent a sort of power stalemate. Alliances and rivalries were arrayed such that seemingly no one wanted to be the first to plunge in to war. Aside from a minor war with Burgundy to take some rich Italian provinces, we essentially did nothing for 30 years.

I wanted to attack Austria. They were my ally, but I had to end the alliance, and before long we were rivals. The problem from my perspective was the PLC. They were allied to both Austria and us. And if war broke out, PLC would answer on the side of the defender. That would likely be enough to swing the result considering the size of their army.

So I looked at attacking another of Austria's allies. But the others were all HRE. And if I attacked them, Austria would be called in (good), but as co-belligerent meaning they could in turn call in their allies (not good). I needed to find a way to go to war with Austria, with PLC on my side, not theirs. Checkmate and stalemate.

While I was trying to work this out, the ticking clock was weighing on my mind. How could I come back to SimHQ having just gloated in my newfound power of Personal Union, and have nothing new to show for it? Could I live down the shame of turtling with the most powerful union on earth? No! To arms!

So we attacked Ottomans. Yes, all 250,000 of them. You know by now I have a fixation with Constantinople, and there it sat, within reach. Fabricated some claims and declared war using an Imperialism CB. This war went far better than I could have hoped. We crushed their re-built navy in short order, and seemed to have the upper hand in battles, always a step ahead. In the end, Ottomans were defeated and we took most of the rest of the territory on this side of the Bosphorous, aside from a couple of Greek provinces, and we split the spoils with Bulgaria. The City of World's Desire was mine.

Coring costs must have had a serious rework. In past versions I would guess that coring Constantinople would have cost hundreds of ADM points. The city was 46 development at the time of capture. And the cost was 81 MPs. Yes, thank you, and seconds if you please. What's up with that? No complaints here, as I've long felt coring costs were too high.

Soon after, we began diplo-annexing Bulgaria. Their usefulness had come to an end (this is why I rarely use Marches), and I really needed to free up the Dip slot. We also had made Milan a vassal years before with the intention of feeding them northern Italian provinces. Otherwise they were also useless, and stupid as will be seen.

So with my long term goal of taking the city of Constantinople completed, we turned attention back to Austria. Tick, tock, tick, tock. The bastages had added Sweden as an ally. So the prospect was even more daunting. Before that though, a few comments about our faithful junior partner. When I got the union, I was concerned that they would be difficult to control. Being so big, they might be disloyal and rebellious. But for whatever reason they have been happy to be our partner. Liberty desire has fluctuated between 0 and 20%, depending on my Dip Rep, which is constantly under assault by Austrian and Ottoman shenanigans.

But there have been two very annoying problems. The first was, Aragon seemed to stop progressing technologically. I think it was mainly due to my string of incompetent rulers, who, in a union, are their rulers as well. At the time of the union we were each Mil tech 23. 40 or so years later when we went to war with Austria, they were still level 23, while everyone else concerned was 26. That's a big problem. Not least because tech level 26 may be the most powerful tech jump of all. At 26 you get +1.00 morale, new infantry and cavalry and +2 combat width. A level 25 army fighting a same sized level 26 is going to lose most likely due to the morale disparity, all other things being equal. And when it's 23 vs 26 it's even more disadvantageous. So despite having the second largest army in the world, Aragon's armies are brittle.

The second annoying problem was that of Aragon's 140,000 troops, fully half were mercenaries. The cost must be exhorbitant, and this despite having 150,000 manpower. Disband those mercs for Christ's sake. And to top it off they kept 108k in a single stack, parked on a province with a supply limit of 48. Massive, constant attrition in their own lands (while at peace!) for absolutely no reason. It's maddening really.

Also, there is zero chance of inheriting Aragon due to the size of nation. Check that, there is a -80% chance

Anyway, despite that, we still needed to attack Austria to get the Take That Von Habsburgs achievement. 14 provinces are required. Then, by divine providence, the wise leaders of Burgundy allied Austria. And Burgundy isn't in the HRE meaning I can declare war on them, Austria would be called in and PLC would join on my side. Hallelujah!

And that was done using an Imperialism CB before I unpaused, so that nothing else would change. It was a massive struggle, not least because Aragon's armies were crushed anytime they fought alone. If I could join the battle it went well, as it used my tech level and morale. In the end we won this war, with casualties well in excess of those shown earlier in he Ottoman war. We took three provinces from Austria, including Vienna, essentially cutting Austria in two. When that truce expired we launched another attack, taking a few more provinces, but mindful of the AE to avoid coalition. And that's where it stands with about 60 years to go. I think 5 more provinces are required.

The latest version of EU IV resulted in quite the blob-a-thon. To wit:







For idea groups I have taken

Defensive, Influence, Religious, Offensive, Maritime, Quantity and....

Espionage! For the first time ever. I love the whole espionage re-work and it's the first time I've felt like taking this group would be worth it. Kudos Paradox, well done!

Remember earlier I had mentioned both wanting to unite my union in to one contiguous realm, and also that Milan is stupid? Well, in one of the wars with Austria, we took Brescia and granted it to vassal Milan to core. This was the last needed province to unite my lands, allowing us to walk from the Atlantic to the Black sea. I love it when a plan comes together. Except soon after I noticed Brescia was Austrian again. Son of a #%&*$#! Milan must have caved on the return unlawful territory demand from Austria, which I ignored and they should have too. And they had a claim on it too. Morons. So now we need to take Brescia all over again. You can see it in the screenshot, how there is one white province still separating the two halves of my empire just to the north of Genoa. Dad used to tell me, if you want something done right, ya gotta do it yourself.

I sacrificed many an explorer to make it.

How are you using espionage? While there are some interesting possibilities I find most options quite limited.
Also congratulations, it looks like greater Hungary is in the position to dominate all of Europe by 1821.



I've been mostly focusing on colonisation, filling out Brazil and starting colonial nations in Canada and South Africa (to control trade and hop over to Asia) suffered some nasty rebels as a result of trying to help my allies, got carpet sieged by bloody Denmark and their endless mercs, didn't loose anything in the end though but rebuilding your forces is a pain.

My continental ambitions have been put on hold for the moment, to form Westphalia I need only one more province, owned by Koln who are allied to France, so I don't want to go there yet. Even when I do have the province I need to either become an elector or leave the empire to form Westphalia. Emperor Austria hates me, so I don't see myself getting promoted any time soon.

I could leave the Empire, but I'm not sure what the repercussions would be.

It's not so much what Espionage can do, but more how you go about using Espionage. The way you now build spy networks, then 'spend' your spy points works really well. Better than the old fabricate claims mechanic for sure. You can now defend against it (counter-espionage, ideas, policies), and have to work to use it. The actual effects of things like corrupt officials and sow discontent aren't very strong it's true. Sabotage dip reputation can be useful. Sabotage recruitment could be quite good when at war to help restrict your enemy's ability to replace his losses. I like the mechanics of the way it works now, and that these options are available to all, not just those that took Espionage idea group. In the screens below you can see one way that I used it in a war with ottomans.

As for the glorious nation of Hungary...

It turned out that I still needed six more Austrian provinces for the achievement. We fabricated while waiting for the truce timer to tick down. When it did, we attacked. Here you can see most of Austria under our thumb, and I show the tooltip revealing the extent of Austria's misery. No way they are coming out on top with all of those wars to prosecute.



After winning that war easily, the territory was cored and the Take That von Habsburgs achievement was completed. Poor Austria, they never did anything to me (in this game), and were a staunch ally for most of it. The only thing they were guilty of was being the target of the achievement I decided to go for. And so it goes. Austria has been Emperor the entire game, no one else. Disappointing if it's always this way now.

After winning that war I thought of what to do next. I decided to tidy up my borders, and Genoa was in the way. So they were overrun and lost all of their mainland territory. We fought a long war alongside France against Brittany, Burgundy and some others. We prevailed and France got some more land, and now look respectable. But this is the worst I've seen France do in a long time.

What to do next? I have a huge army and Ottomans are still a thing. So let's spend the rest of the game beating them up. They deserve it after all. No allies wanted to join due to distance, but it no longer matters. It wasn't long ago that we had a FL of 50, and now it's 285. Manpower is a quarter million. That makes us a match for Ottomans, not even counting Aragon. So to war we went using an Imperialism CB. And we rolled them up. Only a Call For Peace caused this war to end. We could have kept going until all of the Ottoman lands were under our thumb.

Here you see the effects of 'Infiltrate Administration'. It instantly removes the fog of war in the target nation, and allowed me to more effectively plan the invasion and deal with the enemy.




Here you see the extent of our invasion and the Call for Peace banner in the upper left




And the peace deal. 26 provinces. 183 Power Projection. Take that von Ottomans. We went to 136% overextension as a result and suffered a few bad events, but nothing that couldn't be easily overcome and within 2 to 3 years everything was cored and Hungary was again content and peaceful. I had made Turkish an accepted culture in advance (another nice rework on Accepted Cultures. so many nice changes), so every province we took in the war was accepted culture which caused all unrest to dissolve quickly after dealing with a few separatist uprisings.




I will probably run the game to the end, might as well, as close as it is. We'll see how much of Ottomans we can take. The Pope will be pleased should we take Jerusalem. So we'll stage for another invasion and await the truce timer.

I've had such a blast playing this game in the new version I will start anew. Any suggestions for my next run? I'm thinking of going for the Better Than Napoleon achievement. I did so once before but failed. It is "As France, own Vienna, Berlin and Moscow as core provinces". There seems to have been a drastic reduction in the costs associated with conquering, which is what put paid to the previous attempt. So perhaps now it's possible for me. Vienna and Berlin seem reasonable if difficult. But to also get Moscow seems a steppe too far. But it would be a fine test of my skills (or lack thereof). Maybe vassalize Genoa for their Black Sea provinces and then work north from there, so that all of Poland and Lithuania don't need to be conquered?

I put that Hungary game on hold, possibly eternally. Truth is, the challenge is gone, only reason to continue on is for the prestige and to impress the ladies.

So I did indeed begin the France game for the Better Than Napoleon achievement. Got off to a decent start, but maybe I had been wrong about the lower associated conquest costs. And frankly I don't know what I am seeing. Perhaps it was all related to admin efficiency. AE and coring costs for French region provinces are as high as ever. I took 3 lowland provinces from Burgundy in a war and got a massive coalition. The AE number in the peace deal screen was around 37, which resulted in AE numbers of 51 for all nearby neighbors. 50 is the 'join coalition' threshold, so it won't take too long for them to leave the coalition, though they could attack before that. Hoping to avoid it. But if I had just gotten a couple less AE points out of the war, I would have avoided it altogether. Grrr

SDE knows, but I always take Defensive as my first idea group. But not this time! I took Quantity first. Never did that before. For what I am planning to do I need troops, and lots of 'em. The first two ideas in Defensive are +50% manpower limit and +15% manpower recovery speed. And before long we will unlock France's best NI, Elan. That's a +20% morale bonus, which helps to offset the +15% I would have gotten from Defensive. But I am thinking the 50% manpower boost will be well worth it.

Early in the game, 50% more manpower might not mean much for most countries, a few thousand men perhaps. But as France it was an extra 25k, and that's no joke in the 15th century. And the final idea in the group is +50% land force limit. So I will have a massive army well before anyone else can even think of matching it. As Stalin said, quantity has a quality all it's own. I'm betting my game on it.

Great work with Hungary.

I don't think I've ever taken Quantity ideas, probably because it seems like a waste of an idea slot for a small/medium nation. But those are some serious bonuses. Maybe I should try Ming or Russia?

You mentioned earlier, that no league war kicked off, well I've just had the same disappointing result.



It's been a rather unorthodox game, some real strange goings on. Wittlesbachs somehow lost Poland and the Balkans/Black Sea remains volatile, every time I look the Ottomans change size.

I don't think I've ever noticed ottomans colonizing. did they colonize Diego Garcia or did they get it in a peace deal? If the former, I shudder to think how big they will become.

Quantity is a great group. I take it often, just never first. I was incorrect about the second idea, it's 20, not 15% manpower recovery speed. I'm surprised to hear you've never taken it. You should, and if you do I think it will become one of your go-to groups. You bring up an interesting point when you say you don't take it as a small nation. I've thought about this quite a bit. Ponder these questions....

As Russia, would you take Quantity or Quality if forced to choose

As Brandenburg, would you take Quality or Quantity if forced to choose?

A player who choose option A for each, is one that likes to build on strengths. A player who chooses option B for each likes to use idea groups to fill in his weaknesses. I tend to be the option B guy. I want my nation to be well-rounded and to mitigate any weaknesses. As for military groups I rate Defensive, Offensive and Quantity as the most beneficial. But it's rather situational, and min-maxing isn't the point anyway as far as I'm concerned. The game is better for a bit of role-playing I think.

No screens for this post, but a quick update on the France game. It's around 1610. We have reclaimed all of the French lands, vassalizing Burgundy, Brittany and Lorraine along the way. Only Burgundy remains as the others have been annexed, gaining us Breton Canada as a CN. I probably should have waited longer to incorporate Brittany, as the CN isn't very big, and I haven't taken Exploration. So it will stagnate as CN's colonize agonizingly slowly.

As mentioned the goal is to core Vienna, Berlin and Moscow. I took Abruzzi or Ancona from a war with the Pope, which allowed us to fab claims in Venice. That allowed us to start carving out northern Italy as a base for northward expansion. Now Vienna is ours, and we need to find a path to Berlin. Will probably just continue north through Bohemia to Brandenburg. Bohemia is the Emperor so it makes sense, as we will be at war with them often, unless they lose it. I had complained in the Hungary game that Austria never lost the Emperorship. But in this game they lost it early and haven't gotten it back. Also, the League War fired, but without us and Protestant won. Figures. I had wanted to flip to Protestant but it hasn't really reached us aside from a few provinces that flipped to Reformed by event and one by conversion. So we had to stay Catholic.

While Berlin is now within reach, the true test will be Moscow. Hungary has run wild, and is allied with a very large Russia for this early in the game. I haven't worked out the best plan for getting to Moscow and we will have to see how things stand once (if) Berlin is captured. I could try going through the Baltic/Novgorod region, the Black Sea/Crimea region. or direct overland through Poland/Lithuania. Poland and Lithuania are being swallowed whole by Hungary/Russia. So I sort of envision that by the time I am ready, this will be mostly Russian lands, and that maybe I will try to sweep through the old Prussian lands to reach Moscow. To go the southern route would result in conflict with Ottomans so the northern route seems more prudent. I am fixated on keeping borders as short as possible when I play this game, but I've had to throw that out to gain this achievement. When all is said and done I think I will have painted a very odd map

They had a colonist, which really surprised me, I think I've seen it once before, many patches ago.


Tough one, Muscovy/Russia has loads of troops already and can get a 33% boost from patriarch authority so I'd be tempted to take quality to make up for my Eastern tech and aristocratic to boost my cavalry.


Quality 100%, gotta get those space marines.

OK, so you're an A & B guy. Adapting to each situation is the way to go, so I like your thinking. But you see the point, do you build on your strengths or fill in your weaknesses. I think most players are the former.

I forgot to post a screen of my current game as I was leaving for work. A picture's worth a 1000 words, or so they say. It's been an interesting game for sure. All of Europe hates my France, I see some AE numbers around -200 haha. But there is little they can do about it now. They had to contain France at the start, and once we were established at the top of the Adriatic, there wasn't much that could be done, though they tried. From there we fought our way up through Austria and Bohemia. Each were Emperor when the wars began. That complicates things, but it's fun fighting such wars, with enemies in every direction.

To take Berlin we had to go to war with Brandenburg. As everyone knows they have amazing troops. Brandenburg can do with a 35k stack what it would take Austria 200,000 men to do. They had a god-like general 5/4/5/3 who could engage and avoid at will due to his speed. He would disappear and then pop-up somewhere else in Europe to strike at isolated armies. Gotta give him credit, he made life miserable, but even so Brandenburg could not withstand the French tide and were eventually swept aside. From Berlin we turned east. We annexed vassal Burgundy, and vassalized Pomerania. Wars with Poland and then Lithuania/Russia see France approaching the Russian frontier through the old Prussian lands with about 100 years to go. Better Than Napoleon indeed, though I believe this is where things went awry for Nappy. Then again, he didn't have 400 years to do it.

So that's Vienna and Berlin cored, only Moscow to go. When taking on this challenge I thought I was probably going to fail. But at this point it looks quite possible. Russia, as you cannot see in the screenshot I forgot to post, is as big as I've seen in recent times. The R and U in the Russia tag would cover half of Europe if that gives any indication. So many games they get fractured, or never form. But of course in the game where I need to take their capital they are at their strongest. They've beaten Ottomans twice, on their own. But I suppose it's best to have the game remain challenging right to the end, which isn't always the case.

Pro tip: When deciding to count on Scandinavia as a strong ally, be sure to take in to account whether it was Sweden or Denmark that formed it. Swedish armies are strong and a formidable ally (or enemy), Danish are anything but. Maybe the worst armies in western Europe. I believe they are armed with broom handles and nasty words. Good navy though, but that doesn't help much.

I hadn't played France in a long time. I tend not to play as the top-tier nations very often. But truthfully, France isn't quite what they once were, having has their vassals taken away. That's offset by the fact there is no HYW at the start i suppose. Still, once you've restored the French lands, they are quite powerful. I had reached Empire level by 1640. And it's striking (after playing as Hungary for example) how well fleshed-out they are. Their events and especially their Decisions add so much flavor to France that is missing from most countries.

Good job, you say that AE was through the roof, did you get coalitioned?
I play on normal and you have to be really naughty to have a coalition form against you but ironman locks you into hard right?

Yeah the flavour events for big nations really add a lot to the game, Sweden in particular is packed full of flavour both good and bad.

I've had plenty of coalitions, yes. Early on, I was quite mindful of it and tried to keep the AE down by taking less territory than I could have. Taking HRE land especially drives up the AE, coupled with the unlawful territory modifier means the princes have their panties in a bunch. As I grew larger, fewer nations were willing to risk the coalition, and near the end it was quite amusing when I declared war on Russia or Lithuania all of Europe joined a coalition, and as soon as I peaced out they left the coalition. Like they were happy to act tough when I was otherwise engaged, but as soon as I was free to turn on them they went and hid. 'So sorry old bean, what's this coalition nonsense?'

This France run for Better Than Napoleon was fun. In the end it was a little easier than I had thought at first. Like most runs, getting off to a good start and snowballing from there means there is little that can ultimately stand in the way. Even with the Lucky Nations, there comes a point where the AI just isn't going to stop you.

For idea groups I took Quantity, Religious, Defensive, Influence, Offensive, Economic and Espionage.

Here you see French Europe. This was the most difficult phase of the run. Moving through the heart of Protestant Europe was a slog. Wars with large alliances of on-tech nations in mostly rough terrain. As mentioned earlier, Brandenburg was the hardest nut to crack. They were the only nation we fought that had higher morale than we did (after we unlocked Elan!), not to mention fantastic generals.




The achievement fires while we were helping the BattlePope in a war with Tuscany and Brabant




Moscow. To get it, we had to fight several wars with Russia. They were quite huge, on-tech and a formidable foe. I had allied Scandinavia just for the wars with Russia that were coming. But as mentioned, a Danish Scandinavia means terrible troops. They took Quantity, but they have no other land military ideas or NIs. So while Russia's morale was say 7.1, Scandinavia's was 4.8 with no other bonuses. So they got crushed, repeatedly. Pretty useless, aside from being cannon fodder, give Russia someone else to seige and to reduce Russian manpower a tick. Russia has great military ideas and NI's however, they essentially have the Quantity group built in to their NIs, so if they also take Quantity, their manpower and manpower recovery are off the charts. Coupled with the Russian winters, your own manpower had better be in good shape if you want to win a war there.

We were prepared however, and win the wars we did. Here you see the map after the war that claimed Moscow for France. The French Baltic




A few random observations... Nitra. Ever see those guys? They were released by Hungary when Bohemia beat them in a war. And then they continued to grow. They've been Emperor for the past 50 years. They were to be my next target, if the game continues. I don't know that it will. Hungary had grown huge, but were later chopped up as you can see. Portugal has a PU over Spain. Ottomans stayed about 2 tech levels behind for most of the game. I guess in the Hungary game I was the tech bridge that allowed them to keep up. Tuscany had disappeared altogether, then were released and got fairly large before the Pope and I smacked 'em down to size. Two games straight now I've noticed only Portugal making it to Indonesia. They also held most of India and well as large tracts of the New World. Their PU with Spain really gave them a boost of course.


What next?

Thinking of going for Consulate of the Sea. As Aragon conquer all Mediterranean Centers of Trade

Own the following provinces:

Genoa (101)
Venezia (112)
Ragusa (137)
Constantinople (151)
València (220)
Hüdavendigar (317)
Tlemcen (336)
Tunis (341)
Alexandria (358)

Seems a proper challenge, no? Constantinople is a goal, how can I say no?

Having started a new game, I had a look and noticed that Tuscany is no longer a nation at game start? Too bad, they were one my favorites.

Tuscany's still there, they just start as Florence and have to be formed.

Where has Scotland gone?



Oh there they are! Hiding in South America.

Ottoman colonisation wasn't a fluke. Turks are coming for our spices!

Scotland haha. They're free of the English pig-dogs, for a while at least. Are Ottomans colonizing the New World? I think they're going for world conquest. Crazy!

Nope, they haven't had much luck pushing West at all.

It's 1707, so lets take a look around the world... I've had plenty of time to do that in my 13 year long regency.

Westphalia is looking a little bit bigger than before (Thanks Utrecht )



Despite earlier success, Leinster has been removed from the British Isles and now exists solely in the Americas, you can see my colonies in Canada and Alaska



The West Indies



South America. Westphalian Brazil has uncomfortably high liberty desire...



South Africa, I didn't intent to push deep into the continent but I wanted to fill out the grey wasteland and natives weren't about to stop me.



India, I had a bit of drama moving armies around by boat, lost a fleet after I forgot to send my heavies in as support.



Portugal and Ternate are colonising Australia.

Nicely done SDE. The latest version seems to result in a bit more blobbing among the HRE minors. IN my current game for example Brabant has grown fairly powerful, and even have a PU over a strong Savoy. Earlier in the game Frankfurt of all nations grew quite large before they were taken apart by Brandenburg.

It's so much better with the colored wastelands. Your South Africa looks great, compared to how it would have looked in earlier versions. Your whole map between France and Russia is interesting. Quite a balance of power there. Things could go any one of a thousand ways. Interesting that England hasn't taken over the Isles. They never fail to do so in my game(Lucky nations?)

Have you see my Aragon AAR? I'm starving for comments

And we've hit 50k views. You and I are must-see TV!

Yeah, the big reason for stable blobs is that Spain has a PU on France, Denmark a PU on Brabant, Poland a PU over Bohemia and Austria a PU over Hungary, although there is a succession war in progress. Be interesting to see how that pans out. It's basically 3/4s of Europe slugging it out.

Yeah, I never play with lucky nations, Ottomans and France have it good enough as is. England just had bad luck early on, they were held up with France when Scotland and Leinster came calling, then France got a foothold in Wales and they've never recovered. Not sure what happened to Leinster, they were at war with Norway and Mali but disappearing completely from separate islands is quite an impressive way to loose.

I've taken some different idea groups to usual. I'll load up and check which ones (for once I didn't take defensive!)
Edit: I took Innovative, followed by Quality, Exploration and Religious. Put plenty of points into exploration for the colonists.

I'll have to read up on the Aragon AAR, I saw the first post and it looks quite interesting.