A similar thing happened to me in my last game (pre common sense) playing as Burgundy trying to become Emperor and unify the realm. After the reformation hit I thought it would be neat to convert to Reformed. Held off protestantism for a few decades but of course not a single province turned reformed!

Out of curiosity what's the furthest date you've played to? I've never gone past ~1700. By that point my nation is so dominant that there is no more challenge. I usually try to set little semi-historical goals or alternate histories such as 'Control all of France as England' or 'Rebuild the Roman Empire'
I almost never finish them because once it becomes certain that I'll win the fun and challenge just disappears and it becomes a slog 'Right, got to fight the Mamluks to grab these last few provinces... but they're 100 years behind on tech with an army half the size of my own.'

I've played a number of games to 1821. I would guess that 20% of the games I start go to the end, and the vast majority go well in to the 1700s.

I also set goals. For instance in this Brandenburg game I wanted to form Prussia, and then form Germany. I completely understand losing motivation once your realm has become too powerful. In that Russia game I was so strong that no one could stand in the way. I think I could have fought all the world's armies to at least a draw. So I decided to try and get over a million manpower as something to carry me onward.

I also am a bit of an achievement whore. I get both motivation and goals from hunting achievements. But alot of players couldn't care less, which I get. But for example I played my Poland/Commonwealth run to the end since I wanted to get the Poland Can Into Space achievement. And despite the relative lack of challenge due to being so strong, I was motivated to keep going.

Forming Germany is one I have not gotten, so that gives me a clear goal to keep going, although it must be said that the current version will encourage me to play longer because it's more difficult or takes longer to grow too powerful. Achievements also cause me to play some nations that I might not have otherwise chosen to, but end up glad I did.

I don't play ironman so I've got no achievements. I need to reload games on occasion because of unexpected glitches and weirdness such as an enemy pulling allies into a war even though the UI said they wouldn't/couldn't or silly little mistakes such as choosing the wrong option on a pop up event because it popped up as you were clicking on the previous message.

That and autosaving every month would drive me insane.

1610 The situation in Southern Europe. I took advantage of France fighting a two front war to seize some coastline



Northern Europe. England is taking it slow, very little amalgamation of the small German states. I think a few have been released in peace deals or from rebeliions.



Russia. Novgorod is still eking out an existence



Everyone down here is Catholic.



The political and economic situation

While they have no effect on gameplay I'm a sucker for nice sprites. This looks awesome. Helps add a bit of uniqueness and flavour. just like the new government types in CS.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/ind...renders.860473/

Nicely done. I imagine northern Italy is rich, and expensive. You've carved out a nice empire there. Who doesn't like you? I imagine in that position it would be easy to make enemies of France, Austria and Ottomans, which is daunting. I've always enjoyed games in Italy, it's a great geographical position, if you can handle your neighbors. Where will you expand next?


As for my Prussia game...we've reached 1689. We have left the Empire. Wasn't any point of staying in. Catholic is the official religion, and the HRE has been reduced to 18 princes, so the benefits were negligible. Up until now we have been allies with France, Scandinavia, Lithuania and Austria (Palatinate is Emperor) But my next moves are west to take Koln, and south in to Austria to take Munchen, and we will be close to forming Germany, and also becoming a Empire rank. This is a strong Austria, mainly because we have been helping them for 200 years, but if my Allies join we should be fine. The Prussian army is a fine one.



Have a look at the SuperPope. Scandinavia is really strong, Russia imploded, Lithuania is strong, and again because Prussia is their ally. I wanted to take more of Poland, to get their culture accepted, but the crafty buggers allied France and Lithuania, meaning attacking them would see me facing my two strongest allies, so Poland survives. Maybe they will be dumb enough to attack me.


My early goals are accomplished, namely taking over the Hansa to control the Lubeck node, flipping religion and forming Prussia, now the goal is to form Germany. At first I wondered if I'd be able to, as many of the provinces needed are expensive. Bavaria and Nurnburg are my vassals. I will use Bavaria to feed the cores Austria took from them, which includes Munchen. Frankfurt is another province that is needed, and it's got very high development. I couldn't even vassalize them when they were a two province state, so I forced them to released Mainz and now can take them, but it will be very expensive.

I've taken Defensive, Influence, Religious, Quality, Diplomatic so far, and the next will be Innovative. I rarely take Administrative, but in this version that 25% core cost reduction is looking better. But I rarely use mercs, and I tend to look at opportunity cost and choose something else.

Really enjoying the new version.

Security Device Enclosed, did you straight up annex that territory or did you diplo-annex mostly?

I diplo-annexed Tuscany and Corsica, conquered the rest.

Yes, Northern Italy is really rich, I've filled it with forts and buildings, I'm never short of money.

I'm curios about your SuperPope� did he manage that on his own or did you have a hand involved? I see that Brittany is holding up well in both our games. Wonder why France doesn't go in for the kill?

Edit: Here's an update, Europe 1654



I've noticed some AI silliness lately, my ally Portugal went to war against Morocco but was forced to peace out and cede provinces without fighting a single battle because they just kept their troops sitting in the capital while the warscore ticked down. My vassal also refused to cross the ocean and help, just spent all his time on my coast gazing out to sea...

I had no hand in the emergence of SuperPope. I didn't follow closely how he grew so powerful, but I noticed that the Iberian Wedding happened early, and I think that when Aragon and Castile merged, the Pope took advantage and jumped on a now ally-less Naples and scooped up all of their land. I'll post another pic soon, but the SuperPope now owns Sicily too.

Your Italy is impressive, I see you've jumped over and taken Tunisian territory. I'm curious how many ducats you pull in trade each month. You have Ragusa, Venice, Genoa and Tunis under your grasp. Did you take Trade?

I imagine you're plotting a war with Spain to take Sardinia and Sicily?

I've played EU IV for a few years now, and that's a lotta games, but I have never seen anything like what is going on in your game where Ottomans used to be. What's the story there? How did that happen?

My Prussia game was all going according to plan. I had occupied Cologne to take Hessen, which is required to form Germany. But then I did something incredibly stupid. And it set me back probably 30 years. I decided that I would attack Frankfurt. They had no allies of consequence and it would be easy. But I didn't notice we had a truce. Yep. Not good.

So virtually all of Europe dogplied. It was ugly. Even the great Prussian army could do nothing to stop the hundreds of thousands of troops that were arrayed against us. We ended up losing several provinces and their cores, along with vassals Bavaria and Nurnburg, which were the cornerstone to my plans for moving in to Austria. The cost in MPs, ducats, manpower and time were very high. Now that's the drawback from playing ironman. No do-overs. I always check current diplomatic status before declaring war to avoid these situations, but this time I didn't. And we paid the price, indeed.

And to put the icing on the cake, Austria gobbled up Bavaria since they suddenly had no allies. But I will not let this disaster deter us. Germany or death!

Prussia's military ideas sure help when things turn against you, don't they?



Off the top of my head I've taken Trade, Expansion and Religion. I think. Italy has one of the best locations trade wise, along with Spain. I've also taken Venetian islands such as Crete and Negroponte.

No, of course I'm not plotting a war against my old Spanish friends... Never...

Oh and Bulgaria didn't last, not sure how it happened. There one minute gone the next.

That's really intriguing what's going on in Anatolia. Also that Burgundy has survived in such good shape, and that Denmark, Sweden and Norway all still exist and in more or less their starting positions, but looks like Sweden lost a little to both Norway and Denmark. And those Hessians, they are a mini-blob.

I don't know what they did to Russia/Muscovy in this version, or maybe it's just the new mechanics like development aren't in their favor. But in both our games Russia either didn't form, or got eaten up. Kazan is the new Russia.

Here's a shot of my Tuscany to Italy game from a year ago. Much different version of the game of course. It's hard to see but I made taking Constantinople a late game goal, and you can see our beachhead to the west if you look closely, but I ran out of time and never did manage to take the city. Too much green on this map.

Now that's a nice Italy, too bad about retaking Constantinople.

Oh and Sweden is actually doing quite well since Norway is their vassal. Post some updated shots after work.
I've often seen Burgundy thrive, so long as the Duke doesn't get his head split in two by the inheritance event. I once saw them conquer all of France and become the new France.

Edit: Here's Northern and Southern/Central Europe. Spain and England/Britain have nice big colonial empires with Portugal and France colonising but quite poorly, Norway had a base in the Caribbean at once stage, not sure what happened to it.

How do you get the shots with no GUI?

Looks like France is chipping away at Burgundy and they've moved into Iberia. In my game France has really done nothing of note. Early on they were aggressive and moved in to Italy, but since then they've done very little in Europe, but they've been colonizing like mad, like the old Portugal in fact.

I'm close to wrapping up my Germany run. It took a big war with Austria and her minions, but we have all we need to form. Just need to diplo-annex Bavaria (780 Dip points!) to get our core on Munchen and it's done and dusted.

Requirements for forming Germany http://www.eu4wiki.com/Germany

I'll post pics later tonight or over the weekend. This run netted the This is my Faith achievement which is a new easy one, flip to Protestant and enact 3 Aspects of Faith. A Fine Goosestep for forming Prussia and having at least 125% Discipline, and hopefully An Early Reich, for forming Germany.

EU franchise is featured in the Steam sale today, game and DLC nicely discounted.

I just use the crop tool. Though I think there is a way to take a screenshot just of the map. F10 maybe?

Nice Prussia by the way. Have you made a New Germany in the Americas, or is this a strictly continental game?

JC, how's things? Do you play this game? That's a good deal on Steam. A tenner for the base game and $25 for an upgraded version, but most of the DLC isn't included. Still, if anyone's interested in EU IV jump on that!


Thank SDE, it's strictly continental. For ideas groups I've taken Defensive, Influence, Religious, Quality, Diplomatic, Quantity, Economic and Offensive, but I haven't filled out the last two. So no colonial aspirations for my Germany

This has been a great game. I like most of the changes that Common Sense brought. The Zones of Control and Fort system work great I think. It has really changed the way wars are fought, and for the better IMO. At first, I wasn't sold on the new development and building mechanics, but as the game progressed and I learned how to use them, I started to appreciate it. Seeing small nations like Tuscany or the Netherlands able to field serious armies is fantastic. Tall nations are viable now, not that I would ever be anything but expansionist. But for the AI nations it's great.

This Brandenburg game has gone very well. After recovering from my stupid truce breaking with Frankfurt, I went full militaristic. I felt like I needed to catch up after the 30 year setback. I still wanted to form Germany, and I wanted to recover what we had lost. And that meant war with Austria, who had grown into a very powerful nation. In some games Austria never seems to get off the ground, sort of staying the same size throughout, despite spending most of the game as Emperor. In this game, they were a force, but lost the Emperorship (I made that up I think) 2/3 of the way through to Palatinate, which was timed perfectly, as I left the HRE soon after, so my relations with Austria weren't affected.

They were a good ally most of the game, but the Frankfurt thing put an end to that. All of my allies were great in fact, essentially game-long which is rare it seems.

But to form Germany I had to go to war with Austria. It was huge war, as they have many allies. But one of the things I always look to do is peace out allies. I try to get separate peace with each one, before finally entering negotiations with the target. This greatly increases the gains from a successful war. War reparations, prestige, cancelled alliances, provinces and vassals can be had before you even negotiate with the main enemy.

So it was that we went to war with Austria and her minions. It was a long difficult war, but in the end we crushed them all. Here's Prussia just before forming Germany and going to war with Austria. I needed to take a few provinces and tidy up the lines a bit. At this point we had a force limit of 250k, manpower over 200k, land morale over 12, army tradition around 95 and discipline at 130%. That's gonna kick some ass.



Here's our Glorious German Empire, and we got a few claims out of the deal. Scandinavia, France, Spain and Lithuania are allies. Not so shabby.



Here's is the state of affairs during the war. Not long after this Ottomans declared on Austria, then Poland and even OPM Switzerland decided to jump in the dogplie.




With Germany formed, I wanted to pretty up my borders, but Portugal went revolutionary. I shouldn't care, but the hits to prestige and unrest are significant when allowing a Revolutionary state to exist on your continent, so I was compelled to crush their revolution, and too bad for France, who were allied to Portugal. We sieged our way through a heavily fortified France, and upon breaking through, armies from Germany, Scandinavia and Lithuania poured in to Spain and carpet-levelled Portugal.

And here is the situation in Europe in 1795. Scandinavia and Lithuania went crazy, but may be in part because I was their ally for the entire game. Russia is all but gone. Ottomans do what they always do. SuperPope holds virtually all of Italy. France was disappointing, but very helpful and Spain got a serious foothold in North Africa. Austria was twice the size just 20 years before. In past versions of the game there would tend to be a few very powerful nations, and a lot of little ones that had no chance of doing anything. But as you see here, this game resulted in a much better balance, fewer, but more relatively powerful nations that made the game more interesting and challenging.

An Early Reich, the German Empire

I Dabble in it on and off. Still ascending the learning curve.

Got it JC, well if we can be of any assistance let us know. Are you still flying? What are Nodak and Rivv (ACOG) up to these days?

Haven't heard from Nodak in ages, but I've come across Acog in Planetside 2 once or twice, I know he's been into War Thunder recently as well.

EU is a really nice looking game, it's just a bit daunting to get into - so deep it's hard to figure out. I'm taking a new approach to it - just gonna try things and see what happens and not try to "win."

OK cool, if you run into him again tell him I was asking about him.

This game can be daunting at first, there is no doubt. I always say 'It's in the tooltips'. Virtually everything you need to know is there in those tooltips. If you want to see why the income of a certain province is what it is, or why a nation won't be agree to be your ally, it's in a tooltip.

A couple of good nations to start with are Portugal or Brunei. These nations are isolated early, and have vast potential for trade and colonization. They are good to learn the ropes with, where there is little fear of getting wiped out.

You haven't asked for advice, but if you need any just post here. It's really a great game once you get past the 'what the hell am I supposed to do' stage.

Thanks, and will do!

With the Brandenburg/Prussia/Germany game wrapped up I decided to start a new game as England. I've played England twice before, with continental aspirations. But with the HYW I was never able to get it done. But with Common Sense, England's outlook has changed dramatically. Plus they have a new government, Parliament.

The major change is in the fact that

-- England and France start with a peace

-- France has no vassals

It was very difficult to win the HYW in previous versions as England without resorting to very gamey tactics. But by starting at peace, the England player can get some very powerful allies. In my case I was able to ally Austria, Castile, and Portugal (you start with the Portugal alliance). This completely alters the balance and England's chances of remaining on the continent.

I've played for maybe 30 years and have expanded in Burgundy already, and have designs on Paris, and the One Night in Paris achievement which has eluded me. So this is shaping up to be much more interesting England game than the normal eat Scotland, Ireland and colonize for 400 years.