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#4455442 - 12/30/18 11:51 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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It finally happened, my (pretty good) king's heir died in a hunting accident and I was left heirless for some time, then to my surprise I get the 'lux stella' event. Glorious 6/6/6 heir!

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#4521066 - 05/16/20 02:56 AM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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It's been a few years since I last played EU IV. It's my all-time favorite grand strategy game. I've sunk nearly 3000 hours in to iron man mode, hunting achievements and playing a vast array of nations, most all of which is detailed in this thread. It's a great game. There came a point however, when I rebelled against Paradox's DLC policy and I quit playing. But there's always that thought in the back of my mind wondering what EU IV is up to these days. I had bought all expansions from launch through Rights of Man. It's a game where the full suite of DLC could easily run over $400. I've probably dropped a couple hundred in to it. Which is sort of obscene really. It's a great game yeah, but the DLC is overpriced for what it adds, in my opinion of course. In addition, the way some of it was implemented caused mechanical conflicts and soured me. I was a vocal proponent of Paradox, and then I wasn't.

But a couple days ago I saw that Steam is running a sale, in advance of a new DLC drop. It's all 50% off, which means I could catch up for about $50, buying only the expansions. I don't care about the content and immersion packs really, although I could see getting immersion packs for a few of my favorite regions. Adding flavor and fleshing out the region and region-specific mechanics is never a bad thing really. Since I was out of the game for a few years I really didn't know how to sort the DLC released since then. Which DLC was good, which wasn't. Which was essential. So I ran a search and came across this fookin' goldmine

https://www.strategygamer.com/articles/europa-universalis-iv-dlc-buying-guide/

It's a current run-down of all the expansions and immersion packs. Just what I needed really. Credit to the author and strategygamer for a great piece. It details the main additions and adds a 'is it worth it' opinion. Good stuff.

The Emperor DLC is about to drop and, as it's always been, is priced at 19.99. I reckon for some this is worth it, but for me it's twice as much as it should be. Entirely subjective, but that's how I see it. The rest of it is currently half-off, and at that price it's reasonable. I think it's time to give EU IV another go and see how it's evolved. Dropping a lot of new DLC in at once will make it a very different game than I left. That alone seems worth a go, with lots of new mechanics to learn and use, and a hell of a lot of achievements to hunt. Achievements in EU IV are on a different level to me than other games. They can only be earned in iron man mode, which means no reloads, a single save. So you have to roll with every punch, and every bad decision. More than most, I actually feel I've achieved something with these.

I reinstalled the game, which, even with all of the content I've bought, is still only 2.5 gigs. I think I'll catch up on expansions, add Rule Britannia and have a bash at it again. Steam sale runs for a couple more days.





No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4521082 - 05/16/20 11:13 AM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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In the end I reigned in my plans and bought three new DLC. Mandate of Heaven, Cradle of Civilization and the Rule Britannia immersion pack. Rule Britannia failed to install, but I'll have to deal with that later. I rejected the expansion Dharma, as it strikes me as the poster child for Paradox's horrible pricing, charging too much for too little. Total cost of the three DLC I bought was $25. There are many fluff pack DLC that add things like unit models or music. I don't care about that stuff. The only time I zoom in enough to even notice what the units look like is for screenshots. This stuff would be a complete waste of money for me. Mechanical and systems changes are interesting though, and I look forward to giving it a go. The hard part will be deciding who to play first. I'll have a look through all of the new achievements and pick one that seems interesting and fun.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4521175 - 05/17/20 09:37 AM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  

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Originally Posted by DBond
In the end I reigned in my plans and bought three new DLC. Mandate of Heaven, Cradle of Civilization and the Rule Britannia immersion pack. Rule Britannia failed to install, but I'll have to deal with that later. I rejected the expansion Dharma, as it strikes me as the poster child for Paradox's horrible pricing, charging too much for too little. Total cost of the three DLC I bought was $25. There are many fluff pack DLC that add things like unit models or music. I don't care about that stuff. The only time I zoom in enough to even notice what the units look like is for screenshots. This stuff would be a complete waste of money for me. Mechanical and systems changes are interesting though, and I look forward to giving it a go. The hard part will be deciding who to play first. I'll have a look through all of the new achievements and pick one that seems interesting and fun.


Hey DBond:)

Too bad you missed a great deal couple of months ago from humble bundle. Paradox was selling for 17$ a game with every DLC (those that matter, without cosmetic garbage). I was shocked myself, bought it, although haven't played it yet. Therse is a big overhaul of the game coming soon, i'll wait for that and then start. Maybe i'll finally get into it:)


Last edited by USSCheyenne; 05/17/20 09:40 AM.
#4521190 - 05/17/20 12:37 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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Too bad for me, yeah. That was a great deal eh? I've only missed three expansions so not so bad. I hope you get in to it, as I'd like to have someone to discuss the finer points with. My man SDE, who made vast contributions to this thread, hasn't been around in a year. Maybe he'll see this thread has been awoken and pop back in. He's a player who has dropped similar time in to it like I have.

I noticed on Steam that the last time I played EU IV was July of 2017, so nearly three years. Last night I sat down to check out the new EU IV. Had a look through the new achievements for inspiration. I was a little disappointed in what I found really, as virtually all of them are for such obscure nations and with very specific, sort of silly requirements. But that's always been one of the neat things about them. They steer you toward playing nations you never would have otherwise, and along paths you never would have thought of. Like the Sinaasappel achievement, which requires forming the Netherlands, getting Orangists in power and owning a province in China of all places. I can tell you a player would rarely be looking for land grabs in China as Netherlands, so it gives a unique course to chart. Or Baltic Crusader which requires Teutonic Order or Livonian Order to own all of Russia as core provinces and convert it to Catholic. I mean, come on, that's awesome. Who would try to convert ALL of freakin' Russia to Catholic? But I would have liked to see new ones for more mainstream nations, like Austria, Brandenburg, France and the like.

In the end I decided to start a game as Portugal, and go for the Navigator achievement. It requires Portugal to get owned provinces in Africa, India and Indonesia before 1500. I thought that's perfect. A quick one for a first run in my new version. I've either got it or not just 56 years in to the game. It's hard, since you need to advance tech and ideas, plus colonial range enough to reach these places in that short time frame. Not sure I'll pull it off.

I've only played a few hours but my early impressions of what EU IV is now are very good. In a game like this, things that irk me or design decisions I disagree with are harder to spot and take considerable play time to reveal themselves. Things like a besieger getting a river crossing penalty when it is attacked by an army crossing the river! That stuff doesn't jump out at you right away. I do like the new info in the UI, I like the missions system. The map has lot of additions, especially more provinces. And there are many new mechanics that I'm seeing for the first time like Golden Ages, diplomacy options, Innovativeness and Military Professionalism. All of this looks great at first glance, but like I said, it'll take some time to get a feel for the more subtle effects these things have.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4521213 - 05/17/20 04:59 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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I started the Navigator run four times, each time thinking of a way to speed up my ability to reach Indonesia by 1500. The last time I had a great scheme, and a good start, but got three -1 Stab hits in the first six years which completely screws me. That's the thing with iron man, I can't just reload and have a different, and maybe beneficial event fire instead. So I quit that run. I have a plan, and I'll come back to it. I think it's very doable, but you need some things to go your way, or more accurately perhaps, not go against you, The key is to rush Admin tech to 5, unlocking the first Idea Group and getting the first two exploration ideas as early as you can. Then conquer or colonize around the cape of Africa and finally island hopping to Maldives and Diego Garcia. You need to be running advisors, so need a robust economy and no wars. So with the right breaks, it can be done. But any negative events that cost Admin points really hurt and slow you down.

With four aborted runs I decided to switch it up and go for Mare Nostrum (Restore the Roman Empire and own the entire Mediterranean and Black Sea coast lines) as probably France. Aragon would maybe be better, and I should have continued on for Mare Nostrum when I did the Consulate of the Sea run, which I wrote an AAR about here at SimHQ. Lots of nations could be good for this really. Castile, Ottomans, even an Italian minor like Tuscany, who have great NIs. Haven't played France in forever, and with the ceding of Maine event, starting with no war with England lets France get their cores back easily and it's a much smoother start for them than it used to be.

I'd really like to do it with Byzantium for the sheer awesomeness, but it's so hard surviving the early game with the Ottos. So I think I'll try it with France and just go with a full-game stomp run, aggressively expansionist and militaristic. They surely have the NIs for it, so I just hope I get a lot of good events early on smile

Here's the AAR I did in 2016 for the Consulate of the Sea achievement run as Aragon

https://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4307078/eu-iv-consulate-of-the-sea-aragon#Post4307078


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4521295 - 05/18/20 12:50 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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Got off to a great start despite a string of negative events. France are in a good enough position at the outset to shrug off a few bad ones.

I opened by getting a few royal marriages to play the game of thrones, but took no allies at the start. Let it simmer a bit before casting my lot. Eventually I allied the Pope. Later on I'll need to take him down, but for now this helps put the brakes on any Catholic neighbors feeling froggy and helps pump Papal Influence, which I used later to recover some of the Stab hits. It also persuades the Popeman to grant me Cardinals, and maybe Curia Controller eventually. I have five Cardinals by 1490.

The Maine event fired, but I had only two options -- to either back down, or to contest it and go to war. English kniggits don't scare me so bring it on. They landed on the continent and their Dutch minor allies all sent small stacks which ran hither and yon as we played whack a mole, but they stood little chance and I peaced out, taking all but two of their mainland provinces, Cotenin and Calais. Cotenin is a new province I hadn't seen before. I often see this event fire for the AI, but it always seems France gets Maine and no war. Must be two different events possible here, because England simply ceding the province was not an option.

While that war was underway I broke the alliance with Provence, who was helping me in the war, and that caused a -2 Stab hit. Dumb move. But at least it got the truce started ticking down, and despite the Stab hit would pay off soon.

I then annexed Brittany in a short war. Then former ally Provence, using the tasty ex-communicated CB (25% AE). Game-start friend Burgundy turned covetous on my newly-won coastal provinces and war was in the wind. I was gearing up and staging armies on the border when the Burgundian Inheritance fired and isn't that special. Awesome. I've played France a couple times before and never got it. That was a huge shot in the arm and turned Austria in to a rival.

I then declared on England to finally boot them off the continent. Straighforward, and their troops are no match. Avoid their navy, crush their armies, that's the way to fight England. I took Cotenin and Calais in the peace deal, along with war reps and forced them to cancel their alliances with Portugal and Scotland. Scotland! That's unnatural smile I should have used humiliate instead of breaking their alliances as it would have fired my first Golden age (new mechanic), but I couldn't get it all and there's time for another later. Stripping England of her strongest allies was a good move.

It's now the 1490s and we are in great shape, France is re-unified and expanded, but where to go from here, and how, is causing a bit of a dilemma. I've taken Quantity as first Idea Group and Diplomatic as second. We have the world's strongest army already, economy is vibrant, peace and prosperity across the realm. Time to knock Austria down a peg I reckon as well as work out a way to start dismantling the Castile-Aragon-Portugal axis. I'd like to do it before Castile integrates junior partner Aragon and forms Spain. I'll wait until they are knee-deep in some North African war.

As an aside, when I was debating who to play I mentioned Tuscany. They no longer exist in EU IV at the start. They are now a formable nation.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4521424 - 05/19/20 12:34 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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After that great start I debated where to focus my next expansion. A lot of possible paths were considered, before deciding to head east along the northern med coast and attack Savoy. I won that war easily, but after being away from the game for so long I guess I forgot how much AE would trigger a coalition. So I took too much, Europe recoiled in horror and outrage, and I was overrun. Yeah, got it now smile

Too bad because I was off to a good start. It could have been continued, but I decided to start another run, this one as Scotland for the Auld Alliance Reversed achievement, which requires Scotland to have France as a vassal. My plan is to go isolationist colonial. Stay out of European affairs, get along with England and wait until I can reach North America and start colonizing. With the wealth and power from my colonial ventures I'll then turn my attention toward France and go for vassalization. Later in the game I'll have a shot. I have no shot at pulling this off early.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4521611 - 05/20/20 02:23 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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My splendid isolation run as the truculent Scots has gone according to plan. It's an iron man run. I started off hitching my wagon to France. My biggest concern of course is England. They are much more powerful and wealthy than Scots and could wipe us off the map. My initial intention was to wait until they were embroiled in both the war over the ceding of Maine and the War of the Roses. But of course they just handed Maine over, so no war with France, and then had no trouble putting down the War of the Roses rebels and my shot at an early war with England was gone.

I turtled until I could take Exploration, with the only belligerent action being DoW'ing Ulster and taking a bridgehead in Ireland. England are very aggressive in Ireland, either vassalizing or annexing all of it in short order. Nothing I could do really, and even if I had I would then hold provinces that England had strategic interest in. So I just sheltered in place, hoping they would not turn their full attention to forming Great Britain, with the Scots their only impediment.

I kept pumping relations and avoiding taking any events courses that would anger them, even revoking my permanent claims! This paid off though, and the opportunity arose to ally them. That's unnatural of course, but just what I need so that I can focus on my colonial aims. I dissolved my alliance with France at the same time.

Later I noticed that Norway had declared an independence war and I piled on to take Shetlands, Orkneys and Iceland. But they were quickly beaten by Denmark and Austria and when the PU was restored I found myself at war with half of Europe. Sheesh. But then a miracle! England ended the war they were in, I issued a call to arms that they answered, and our combined navies crushed the enemies' fleets and they had no way to get at us. Divine intervention.

I had to wait until Dip tech 9 to have the colonial range to reach the new world, but by 1500 I had my first CN, which I named Carolina. It began near the mouth of the St James river and then spread along the eastern seaboard in both directions. I took Expansion to get additional colonists and before long had them all working, establishing a second CN in Canada, called Halifax. Eventually, these two CN's linked up and hold a continuous coast. World leader in Tobacco now.

After the Reformation appeared I got an event to flip to Anglican. It's a new religion enabled by the Rule Britannia DLC. I thought why not? Let's give it a go and see what it's all about. And besides, England will probably flip too, right? Except they never did, staying Catholic, and giving me a -40 heretic neighbor modifier. Derp derp.

Anglican is OK i guess. Pretty weak really, on par in some ways with Catholic, but worse than most religions in EU IV. The main benefit is I can buy stability with church power and have been at +3 Stab ever since. King dies for the stab hit? Fixed. With England not flipping it also means I can get Defender of the Faith with absolutely no one to ever defend since I am the sole Anglican nation.

No other European nation was colonizing North America until England set up in Quebec. That immediately gave them designs on all of my colonial holdings and a huge hit to relations. They immediately turned hostile and revoked all of our treaties and the alliance. Ruh-ro. So I then allied France again and Aragon too, who are running wild and hold virtually all of Iberia, very strong. It was very hard to manage these alliances, having just been allied to their rival England, but having them now seems to have given England pause and 16 years have passed since our truce ended. I actually BUILT FORTS for the first time in forever, which kills my economy, but I have to be prepared for England's invasion, if it ever comes.

The plan now is to wait until England get mired in some bad war if they don't strike me first. Once they are showing some war exhaustion and their manpower is in the tank I'll pounce. Or that's the plan. Anything could happen instead smile



No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4521915 - 05/22/20 01:17 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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Crash and burn. By 1650 England still hadn't attacked. Time was running out. I needed to take England and still beat France up enough to vassalize. So with little option I declared on them, with two very strong allies, France and Aragon, neither of whom was at war and both had full manpower and strong standing field armies. They could deal with England's continental holdings and allies and I would take on the English on their home turf.

But I swear, Paradox has coded allies to go brain dead. Despite outnumbering the enemy 10 to 1, both nations got sieged down and didn't help a lick. What happens is the small enemy nations take their 20k troops and divided them in to 10 small stacks, which quickly carpet-siege. My allies keep all 65k in a single stack, so provinces are flipped at a rate of 10 to 1 and not in our favor, which tanks the warscore. And without any help from the allies I was counting on, I ran out of manpower and that was that. A crushing defeat at the hands of the English kniggits!

So I restarted as France with the aim of smashing England and going for Mare Nostrum. It's 1490, I did not get the BI, and have booted England from the continent. Actually knocked them off the Great Powers list. I will not rest until they are either gone or under my boot.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4522583 - 05/27/20 03:05 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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I'm on the wrong forum for this game. No interest at all.

Another France run crashed and burned. I was doing fine, but Mare Nostrum requires doing better than that, since so much needs to be conquered and cored. A good start isn't enough, you need a great start.

So I started again. This time I got a better start, including the Burgundian Inheritance right off the bat, just a few years in. Of course my ally Castile split it with me, which I knew would be a problem. And of course they spent the next 150 years wracked with revolts and being utterly useless aside from not attacking me. They were always in so much debt they would not answer any calls to arms. On the plus side, this keeps them from growing, and I'll need to crush them eventually, so it's for the best.

England ceded Maine without a fight, which is worse, but eventually I reclaimed all of their continental holdings aside form Calais. Beat Provence and vassalized them to feed northern Italian cores to. Force-vassalized Brittany and later annexed them. Crushed Aragon in several wars, and force-vassalized them with the aim of feeding them Castillian cores later.

I stayed Catholic through the early reformation, and as the League War approached I decided to stay out of it and take advantage while my targets were wrapped up in that. But then I was suddenly elected Emperor! The bastages! The player should really have the option to reject this. And then Brandenburg kicked it off with me as Catholic war leader. This sucks.

We had not one nation of note on our side, aside from my ally Naples, who had broken free of their union with Aragon since I had beaten them up so bad,. Austria sat the whole thing out, no doubt pouting from losing their precious emperorship to the French cretins. Castile was useless, cowering in Iberia under the weight of their massive debt. Great Britain, Ottomans and Russia were all in on the Protestant side. Good lord. I don't think, aside from me as France, we had a single nation on the Catholic side with more than 2 or 3 provinces aside from Naples. A bunch of minnows against sharks. I mean come on, and I'm not even in the HRE!

Predictably, we were crushed. War score at one point was -55. The Catholics were dropping like flies, being occupied then peaced out by Brandenburg. I made mental notes of all of these cowards. The reckoning will come my fair-weather friends, just you wait.

So I'm all like fuk that. Not on my watch. With just my France, reliable Naples, and five tiny but plucky nations left, I went ballistic. Ottomans are running around with massive stacks led by three-star generals, like 5/6/5/4 dudes and on-tech. I just kept crashing in to them. It became a war of wills. None of us had any manpower left, just the standing armies. Either us or them. I started sieging down their lands and eventually white-peaced them out. OK, now we are getting somewhere. Do I have enough strength to last?

Then I did the same to the massive Russian armies. White peace. You could sense Brandenburg's fading smugness. Then I white peaced Great Britain.

How you like me now?

I peaced out everyone else for war reps and forced religion. I am the Crusader King!

Leaving only Brandenburg. I left them carpeted for a full year, while they sent peace treaty after peace treaty. Yeah yeah, we'll talk later. In the mean time, enjoy your crushing debt and revolts with no army to do anything about it. Dumbasses. You thought you could beat our ridiculously weak alliance with your roster of world powers? Ha!

Eventually the calls to peace were driving up my war exhaustion, so I peaced them out with Catholic as the official religion and war reps. I sat there afterwards with a combination of satisfaction and regret. We had won, against ALL odds, but it cost me much in manpower, money and time. All for what? Catholicism? In the HRE? Lot of good that will do me. But man it was epic, a million casualties on each side.

And the kicker? After France basically single-handedly saved their asses, they elected Bohemia in the next election. Noted.



No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4522929 - 05/29/20 03:50 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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The France run continues, approaching the end of the 17th century, or about 220 years in to the game. EU IV campaigns last until 1821. If I'm honest, I'm probably a little bit behind schedule at this point, since I am going for the Mare Nostrum achievement, which requires restoring the Roman Empire and owning the entire Mediterranean and Black Sea coast lines. If you're familiar with EU IV you know how hard this is, and even if you aren't, you can probably deduce its level of difficulty.

After the end of the League War detailed in the previous post, my France basked in the glory of being ousted as Emperor after having been railroaded in to being the war leader for this host of cowardly HRE princes. As the Crusader King I had forced religion on many of the heretical princes as they were peaced out in turn, leaving the HRE a mass of religious disunity and revolt. Serves them right frankly. While they were busy putting down the revolts, I turned my attention to Iberia.

In order to restore the Roman Empire I must hold as cores all of the following provinces

[Linked Image]



And that's just to form the Roman Empire, and to get Mare Nostrum requires all of the northern side of the Back Sea coast and also the African Med coast along with all islands. A tall order, but that's what 'achievements' should be. Of note are the required provinces in England and the Low Countries plus Vienna (Wien). It also requires all of Anatolia, which doesn't seem historical, but it is what it is. That leaves a lot to do in the remaining 150 years. But France are on the rise.

The reason I fell behind, aside from getting roped in to the #%&*$# League War, is we had a 10-year regency, and you cannot declare war during one. With the addition of Queen consorts, regencies are really rare now, but I still managed it. Derp Derp.

We attacked Castile to gain more land in Iberia, feeding some to vassal Aragon and taking the Med coast provinces for France since they are needed for Mare Nostrum. Aragon was a lousy vassal, no help at all really, so I diplo-annexed them, and after a later war with Portugal and Tunis, France hold most of the peninsula, save expanded Portugal's territory. Our lines had moved beyond vassal Provence's usefulness. I had vassalized them with the intention of feeding them northern Italian cores. I only gave them two, and then diplo-annexed them while vassalizing Venice in two wars. Their cores would be useful for waging war against Ottomans in the future, but I failed to actually check and it appears they revoked all of their Balkan cores, making them far less useful. Still, they have a good navy and I will eventually get the jewel Venice with no AE, which is nice. I'll feed them Austrian cores and those taken down the eastern Adriatic coast before annexing them eventually, or such is the plan.

My ally Naples is a problem. They are reliable, strong and just about everything you want in an ally. They even hold Rome. But they also hold a big chunk of the required provinces and are Protestant. I am desperately hoping for a PU over them. Please EU IV gods, let my friend die heirless. It's the best thing that could happen in this run.

I'm currently in a war with the Emperor Austria and all of his minions, which is going very well. I'll feed Austria's coastal provinces to Venice, denying Austria sea access. I want to take the province of Lothringen too, which is the final French land I do not hold. That will trigger a mission and rewards. I do not need any more of Austria's land, so I will look to bust it up by forcing the release of dead nations and also forcing alliance breaks. If successful, this will end Austria's dominance over central Europe.


Attached Files MRR.png

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#4523066 - 05/30/20 11:33 AM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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Here's my France in 1703. I think I'm too far behind to get Mare Nostrum. But I've taken all of the most expensive land aside from England and Italy. At this stage of the game, and with my tech and ideas, I can take huge tracts of land in places like North Africa, Balkans and Anatolia. I reckon this is what France should have been 50 years earlier to really give me a shot. Despite playing the game of thrones continually, I've not gotten a single union. Vassal Venice has just been fed the Austrian cores including Vienna.


[Linked Image]




I took that land while Austria was wrapped up in a war with Ottomans, and I kept it going so that Ottomans burned up their manpower, setting them up for our war next. To take what I need in England and all of Italy, plus most of Ottomans seems too tall a mountain at this late stage, but we'll see how it goes from here. My France is very strong and very rich. It will be things like truce timers that make the difference in the end I think. No one will care about me taking Ottomans land, so coalitions are not something I'll need to worry about from this point on.

Attached Files France1703.jpg

No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4523116 - 05/30/20 04:56 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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A few thoughts about some of the 'new' mechanics in EU IV. For my purposes, this means anything introduced since mid-2017.

-- Army Professionalism -- In some ways, this is what I always wanted Army Tradition to be. A reflection of how well-drilled your troops are. Drilling is actually a mechanic now, and when a stack is set to drill (requires a general) it slowly builds professionalism, which grants bonuses to things like shock and fire damage, siege ability and merc cost. It works well enough, though the bonuses are modest, and a drilling stack is at lowest morale, so will need to recover for few a months after coming out of it, making it dangerous when suddenly attacked. Professionalism can also be granted through events, and as it grows, additional bonuses are unlocked, such as the ability build supply depots in a friendly-controlled province, meaning your troops will reinforce at the same rate as if they were on home soil.

After playing around with a bit, I started to ignore drilling, but since I can still get it through events it builds all the same, although more slowly. Requires Cradle of Civilization DLC

-- Absolutism -- Available starting with the age of absolutism, this is a reflection of how ruthless and efficient the government is, giving scaling benefits to administrative efficiency and army discipline. This is a very powerful thing, with the administrative efficiency lowering the coring costs of expansion. Combined with other late-game increases it means near the end you can take and core vast swaths of land. At 100% absolutism, your nation gets+40% admin efficiency and +5% discipline. There is however, a cap. How high it is, is dependent on a number of factors, with government type, government rank, legitimacy, religious unity, great power status and more all factoring in, as is the Paradox way. In the France run shown above, my max is 83 at that moment, which is still very powerful. Definitely something to pay attention to for all expansionist nations.

There is a 'strengthen government' button on which you can spend MIL points to bump your absolutism by 2 points.

-- Ages and Golden Eras -- The campaign is now divided in to four Ages (Discovery, Reformation, Absolutism, Revolution). During each age, there are a number of Age Objectives you can fulfill. When you hit three of them, you can opt to trigger a Golden Era, granting +10% Army Morale, +10% Naval Morale, -10% to all Monarch Power costs, +10% Goods Produced Modifier, and +5 Max Absolutism for FIFTY YEARS! That's fantastic. The catch is a nation can only have one Golden Era per campaign. So deciding when you enact it is important, aside from actually qualifying for it. Do you do it early to give your nation a headstart over others, but at a time when your modest nation can take less advantage? Do you wait until you want to punch above your weight, taking on a more powerful rival? The +5 bonus to absolutism only works in that age, so makes most sense to enact it then, but there are many factors in play here, and choosing the right time to start your Golden Era is important.

The ages themselves are fun and interesting, with each Age Objective you reach granting certain bonuses, which then end when the next age begins. For example, in the Age of Reformation, the following can be gained, but some are nation-specific and not all will be reached in some cases.

Religion Enforced Edict: Unlocks a state Edict that increases resistance to being converted by a Center of Reformation by 90% in that state
Coastal Barrage: Blockading the coast near a coastal fort increases the impact on siege progress more than it normally would
Religious Wars: All wargoals have -25% Warscore cost if they are being demanded of a nation with a different religion
Mercenary Discipline: All mercenaries you hire gain +5% Discipline
Powerful Tradeships: +20% Trade Power generated from Light Ships
Institutional Spread: +50% Institution Spread in provinces that have your state religion
Prestigious Conversions: Converting a province grants you +0.3 Prestige per point of Development in the province
(Spain Only) Spanish Tercios: -30% Shock Damage received
(Mughals Only): Mughal Artillery: -50% Artillery Cost
(Poland or Commonwealth Only) Polish Crown: +33% Goods Produced
(Persia Only) Persian Reinforcement: -30% Reinforce Cost

I really like the Age mechanic. It adds a lot to EU IV, and helps fill in the inter-war years with goals . Requires Mandate of Heaven DLC

I have to hand it to the strategygamer site, not only did they have that great rundown of DLC I linked earlier, they have this piece detailing the Ages mechanic. Good stuff gents!

https://www.strategygamer.com/articles/europa-universalis-iv-a-guide-to-ages/


Last edited by DBond; 05/30/20 05:34 PM.

No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4523124 - 05/30/20 06:21 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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Thanks for the info, DB! I don't quite know enough about the game to give any more insightful commentary, it's been too long since I've played it and I was only just getting the hang of it then!
I've kinda lumbered into a Paradox title for a bit too - Hearts of Iron 4. Found a video tutorial I've been playing along with, it's been fun. One thing about the Paradox Grand Strategy games - their depth is amazing! Just when you think you know what's going on, you find a new level to dig into.


Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as "bad luck.”
-Robert Heinlein
#4523269 - 05/31/20 03:24 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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Hey JC, I remember your Iberian run, though I cannot recall if you were Castile or Aragon. I do recall waiting for the wedding though smile Having come back to the game from my self-imposed exile, I found it to be in the best shape ever. It's such a different game in so many ways than it was back in 2014, but it's also a lot better.

In this France run I was running behind as I mentioned. I still had so much to capture and core. If I were to make a success out of this and get Mare Nostrum, it would take constant war and a lot of good fortune. My ally Naples (purple) held most of Italy, which I need. Ottomans are the strongest nation in the game and they hold way more of the required territory. I had kicked Castile out of Iberia, and they set up shop in the Low Countries, which they had gotten way back in the 1460s as part of the Burgundian Inheritance. We had clashed now and then since those wars, but I don't need that land. I need to take Flanders and Ghent for forming the Roman Empire, but the rest I do not. It's great land, very rich, but the AE penalties are just too severe to waste my time there. However, they still hold a tiny island off the coast of Morrocco, which is a thorn in my side and I'll need to get it before the end.

Then there's the Pope, who has been cut down to size through the years, but France is still Catholic so I have to be careful, taking Rome at the end if possible so I can flip to the Roman Empire straight away and avoid the penalties of being both Catholic and in possession of Rome. And on top of all of that, I need to take London and one other English province, and while the English Army is no match for my French troops, their navy is not only far larger, but much higher quality. England get +20% naval morale and +15% heavy ship combat ability plus tradition, maneuver and other bonuses. How do I land my marines on English soil without coming to blows with the combined English fleet? Answer is, I don't know. I need them to get in to a war with someone like Ming, so they take their massive fleet to the other side of the world. I just need a couple weeks to land my troops and then we're good to go.

The last screen shot is in 1703, and here's France 30 years later, 1733. Using timing and concentration,we've ripped Ottomans apart twice, and you can see the gains, along with Constantinople, which is the one city in EU VI I always try to get, no matter which nation I am playing. We are waiting out a peace to hit them again. Russia took advantage of my crushing victories over Ottomans to take the north Black Sea coast, which complicates things. Now I need to go to war with freakin' Russia too. Sheesh!


[Linked Image]




Naples was a challenge. How to go to war with an ally? I could simply break our treaty. But that begins a truce, during which time they would surely ally some of my enemies. I noticed however they were guaranteeing the independence of Tunis for some reason. And since I needed Tunis' Med coast provinces, it was a perfect storm. Attack Tunis, with Naples answering the call, but without Naples allowed to call her allies. The drawback is Naples provinces cost more in the peace treaty as a non-co-belligerent. But it was a great way to get the first shot in without too much hassle or diplomatic injury. Got Sicily out of the deal, which is my favorite place for my main naval base, so that was done after a spirited war. We now rule the Med Sea, having crushed or vassalized all the naval powers in the region, and got the amazing Thalassocracy decision. Only the second time I ever have, the other being the Consulate of the Sea run starting as Aragon and later forming Italy.

Only 88 years remain in the game. I am not sure I have time to do all I need, and frankly I'm not sure how I am going to get my troops on to England. A massive shipbuilding program is underway. I have to hope they get drawn in to a very distant war, which is possible given their vast colonial empire, or find a way to isolate parts of their navy and defeat them in detail. Try to snipe small naval stacsk with my massive one. If I can just land about 80,000 troops it's game over I think.

One very critical caveat to all of this. The leftmost banner at the top of the screen indicates that I have no heir and no queen. If my King dies before I get an heir I will fall under a personal union with Bohemia, and there would be a succession war with Great Britain. If that happens it's also game over, but for a very different reason. That would really suck having come this far. Ironman dammit smile

Attached Files France1733.jpg

No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4523300 - 05/31/20 06:28 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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Nice writeup DB! I like how you did an end-run around war-deccing Naples - inspired!! Taking England will be a heavy lift no doubt, good luck on that.
I did get that wedding btw, it has been ages since I even started that game up! Still trying to wrap my head around HOI4, but I'm feeling pretty good about it so far.


Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as "bad luck.”
-Robert Heinlein
#4523392 - 06/01/20 11:36 AM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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Thanks man, it's been a epic campaign. It's great having a difficult, defined goal to hunt. EU IV is such a sandbox that having an overarching goal really helps give purpose and direction to what I am doing.

I'll write more later about how I got to this point, but here is my France in 1766, just 55 years from the end. I feel I have a real shot at this now. Anything could happen, but much of the heavy lifting is done, including pulling off the invasion of England! It also included a blitz of the Balkans and a counter-revolutionary war against Ottomans, plus two wars with Russia. I've been hanging on the edge of crippling overextension for decades now.


[Linked Image]

OK, to break that down in to regions...

-- England -- This was really the thing the entire achievement run hung on. I've known since 1444 that i would need to invade. But the English, then later Great Britain, were far stronger on the seas than France. Not only did they have a much larger navy (plus those of their extensive colonial empire + allies), their intrinsic bonuses mean that I wouldn't stand a chance in a straight up fight. I either needed to build a much larger navy myself, or find some way to draw them off, or defeat them in detail. If our two combined navies had a showdown, I'd come out the loser for certain. If I failed, and lost my navy, it would be a setback that would take years, maybe decades, to overcome. And in ironman, you don't get any mulligans.

England were allied to Russia, who I needed to take the north Black Sea coast from, so when it kicked off I would be fighting on two very different fronts, a cross-Channel invasion and in the vast steppe of the the Ukraine. Alliances would be critical. To bolster mine I was able to ally Ming. Since learning of them a couple centuries before, I was unable to get them to agree an alliance due to a distance penalty of -155. But before launching the war I checked again and saw my persistent diplomatic efforts were not in vain. Green heart now and they agreed to the alliance. If they would answer my call in an offensive war, that would mean a half-million Mingions attacking Russia from the other side. Caught in this global pincer, Russia would be pulled in two directions, and hard pressed to deal with two fronts so far from each other.

I staged my navy, newly built-up to around 320 ships of all types (54 transports) on the Atlantic coast of France so that they were close, but not bottled up by the English in the Channel. When I declared on Great Britain, they immediately moved their massive battle line in to the Channel, which is the correct move. As long as they were stationed there, I could not invade. At the same time I launched my own Barbarossa in the east while Ming invaded from Asia, though I had to promise them territory to get them to agree, which is fair.

I waited with my navy like a trap-door spider, hoping to sally out of port when a smaller portion of the English fleet sailed past, destroy them, and return to port before the battle-line arrived. They didn't fall for it though and the stalemate remained. How to crack this? My ally Denmark had a strong navy. Maybe they can help swing the tide. I issued a call-to-arms which they answered, and that caused Great Britain to shift their fleet to the north to deal with the Danes. I had also staged two invasion armies on the Channel coast, in Caux, one built to exactly 54 regiments to match my transport capacity and led by my finest general. As soon as the British fleet sailed north I thought it's now or never and committed my fleet and the landing began. I failed to choose forced march though and it took an excruciating amount of time to cross, nearly a month! At any point the British fleet could have returned and smashed the landing in progress. But the Danes, and a sacrificial fleet of light ships (so sorry) held them away and we were able to land 90,000 of France's finest on English soil. On land, the enemy is no match for our professional armies and soon we had the entire island sieged down.

In the east we occupied the Black Sea coast and Moscow too, while Ming carpeted the east. Victory! I threw Ming a few bones of worthless SIberian ice, and took the east coast of England in the peace deal including London and York which are needed to form the Roman Empire, though because Russia was not war leader, their provinces were too costly and only a few could be gained. We'd need a second Russian war later.

I cored the English land and immediately built three level-8 fortresses. It's mine now you English kniggits.

-- Anatolia / Balkans -- Ottomans had been beaten up so badly by France that they started to implode. The Balkans fractured in to small states like Serbia and Croatia. With time running out I had no time for diplomacy. And then Ottomans went revolutionary. Good lord. This meant heavy unrest penalties for me, which you get as long as a revolution exists on a continent you share. Combined with my maxed overextension from all the territory we had been taking, it meant a very volatile nation, a powder-keg waiting for the spark. I put down several rebellions and then declared on Ottomans once more, this time with a counter-revolution casus belli. That triggered the "Reaction" modifier, granting France -10 unrest and +10 prestige (sweet). We put down the revolution with no help from any other nation (thanks a lot you shirkers). The cost of ending the revolution in the peace treaty was so high I could not take much territory, but did expand a little further in to Anatolia.

Meanwhile, I conducted a blitz through the Balkans, erasing three separate nations in chained wars. No time for niceties and one of these nations lived for about a month. Croatia still exists (purple nation to Hungary's southwest) and they are next target. That will complete our designs in this region.

-- Italy -- When our truce ended, France invaded Naples and not much to tell. They didn't stand a chance really and I took Modena while I was at it. The hardest part was paying the coring costs of their land. This leaves just the Pope in Italy. He will be the final target of the campaign. So sorry old bean, don't fancy it, but you are in an inconvenient spot.

-- North Africa -- I was already mostly done here, but one of the required provinces for forming the Roman Empire is Fez, which I had neglected to take early on while Portugal was still a thing. So now I needed to war Brazil, who owned almost all of northwest Africa. for essentially a single province. I ended up taking several, but having built my England-invasion navy, they were no match and this war was over quickly.

-- Central Europe -- Two required targets remained, the Lombardy region, held by the Swiss, and Gorz, east of Venice, held by Austria. I Declared on Switzerland and took those three Lombardian provinces before they could react really and it was all over with just 20k casualties on all sides. Gorz will be next. Giving Austria the smack-down has been a game-long hobby. They are smug bastages and it's so much fun to see them beg for peace. They've been reduced to just a couple provinces but somehow have retained Emperor for nearly the entire game aside from the few years where they elected me to save them from the heretics.

So that's where it stands with 55 years to go. I hope I am not overlooking anything, but it appears I just need to eject the Pope, take Gorz and then finish up in Anatolia and Mesopotamia. And that should trigger the decision to form the Roman Empire, which in turn should fire the Mare Nostrum achievement.

By the way, for idea groups I went with Influence, Quantity, Humanist, Defensive, Maritime, Offensive and Naval. Maritime and Naval were key for taking on England, and Influence was critical early on while I was vassalizing and diplo-annexing to avoid the ADM point cost, aggressive expansion penalties, and overextension.

Attached Files France1766.jpg
Last edited by DBond; 06/01/20 05:13 PM.

No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4523424 - 06/01/20 06:38 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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The taking of England was nicely done! And a nifty little bonus that the force you built helped in North Africa. Good luck finishing it off,sorry to hear about the Pope but you know how that goes!
Reading through this makes me want to fire it up again, but I'm really starting to feel like I have a shot at learning HoI4 so I'll have to put that temptation off for a bit!


Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as "bad luck.”
-Robert Heinlein
#4523428 - 06/01/20 07:26 PM Re: Europa Universalis, why no love 'round here? [Re: DBond]  
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DBond Offline
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NooJoyzee
Keep on keepin' on man. I would really like to see someone around here make posts like I do for EU IV, but for HOI 4. I can't recall anything on SimHQ about playing that game. Hell, hardly anyone ever posts this sort of stuff around here anymore for any game. But enough about that, thanks for the comments. Yeah, the Pope's gotta go. My plan going in to this run was to flip to Reformed or maybe Protestant, but it didn't play out that way and aside from the religious war nonsense staying Catholic worked out quite well. I have so much Papal Influence that I am continually running ALL Papal bonuses.

Things are about to change though. I'd like to get Curia controller before I relocate the Pope then I can just excommunicate whoever seems to object the most.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
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