Europa Universalis IV: Buying all the DLC is just Common Sense

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AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Baronjutter posted:

Also anyone recommend a good non-euro country to play? I've never played outside of europe. I think I tried once as Japan, looked at the Daimo system, got confused, and went back to europe. Is south america fun now with el dorado ? How is China and asia now?

I really enjoyed a game as Khmer I did a while back. I also really enjoyed making a custom-Brunei and going ham on the world (regular Brunei should be fine to do this as). Anyone in Indonesia seems like they would be fun.

Last Emperor posted:

Dibujante and I will be taking over Europa Gooniversalis development now and basically rebuilding it from the ground up.

Is this so Dibujante can make it so China is represented better? :v:

# ¿ Jun 9, 2015 22:17

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 04:52

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Baronjutter posted:

So I've never made a custom nation before. I'm playing as an elective monarchy in south america, Cuzco. The problem is, I'm constantly running out of legitimacy trying to win elections as it seems every bloody country on the map, royal marriage or not, some how has a say over my monarch election. Is this working as intended? Reading up on it only told me it was a unique government for Poland/Commonwealth. It seems weird that non-vassal or non-married countries have the ability to influence my elections. How can I stop this? How is it determined? Did I break my game with this government?

That is the "feature" of the Polish Elective Monarchy; you are stuck with it.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2015 05:11

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Vivian Darkbloom posted:

In my Austria run, I've been Emperor all game long. I picked a couple events favoring Catholics and despite the Protestant League having a bunch of members no war ever broke out; Catholicism just became the official religion of the Empire by an event. Kind of weird that the religious schism never came to blows and the Lutherans who dominate the Low Countries and northern Germany don't care that they're totally shut out of the electors.

Weirder yet is the new ability to make your vassals or unions convert religion whether they want to or not. I happened to get a union with Russia (!) and then I ordered them to go Catholic, which they have done really happily:

I am fairly certain that Catholic becomes the official religion after x amount of time if the Protestants never start a war.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2015 20:16

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Baronjutter posted:

I'm really lazy with army management. I have set template built stacks and in war I will never split them up because then I'll have to deal with sorting them all out after the war. So I'll sit there sieging with my 28 stack one fort at a time even with no enemy resistance because the idea of splitting an army up gets me all OCD.

Now that manpower actually seems to matter maybe I should stop that? What are some good army strategies? I know nothing about actually min-maxing combat other than "don't attack into mountains" the rest is unpredictable wizardry to me.

What Pellisworth said. I am super lazy when it comes to army management as well. With the old siege system, I ran stacks that were divisible by 4 and scaled with the tech and combat width. I would start with like 8i/4c then later on end up with 8i/4c/4/a then later on have 12i/4/c/8a, then eventually 12/4/12. I could use the 'split' command (rather than detach siege) and easily have two armies of, say, 6/2/4 standing next to each other, or even 3/1/2 all in close proximity so they could group back up quickly. It also worked if I needed to group up to fight a huge battle - I could just split once and be back to normal size stacks. I never really had any organizational issues and it was generally effective, however, I have not played much since Common Sense came out so I dont think the above method will work as well as in the past.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2015 20:31

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

PittTheElder posted:

Oh to have Europe look like it did in 1560.

I found this really funny because it is pretty much impossible in EU4 for the Ottomans to get that big, even if they ignored the Middle East. They get no good missions or events that help them conquer anything they did historically after Constantinople (conquer the Levant now gives a measly 10% discount on the coring cost on a ton of land), but Austria, Spain, and England get crazy missions to let them PU major countries. Why dont the Ottomans get missions or events inciting them to do historical conquests? Why dont the Russians get missions to conquer hordelands? Why isnt China represented better?

# ¿ Jun 16, 2015 22:04

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

aeglus posted:

I don't disagree with your point but just by chance my last 2 games before this patch had the Ottomans at around historical boundaries or bigger. They'd probably be doing better this game if I didn't stop them at around where Serbia/Croatia is. They really need a reworked mission to take over all of The Mameluks.

Baronjutter posted:

In my current France game the Ottomans have close to that and are threatening Venice although most of Hungary is ok. They also have a huge chunk of the mid-east.

They have all of the Balkans, Egypt, the Caucasus, Hedjaz, and Iraq conquered by 1560 (less than 100 years into the game? I have never seen anything like that (but yeah, every game is always different).

I would just like to see a few missions or events giving them bonuses. If Paradox is going all hard-line about making things a little harder for the player they should not be afraid to give the Ottomans crazy scary bonuses for 150 years that simply expire or are hard to keep around and even penalties or harsh events. And I am saying more on top of the already rare-to-happen Janissary events. It would be neat if they got their own government form/succession law to help curb their power if they did get some crazy bonuses to play with.
I mean... England and Poland get their own governments so I do not think it is far fetched to see such a major historical player get its own govtype/succession law.

Pellisworth posted:

I'm even worse, I'll get to like 1600-1650 and be doing amazing and think I might have a chance at it but just get bored because it's so slow and such tedious micromanagement of a huge empire.

This happens to me even when I am not trying a WC. I just get tired of managing a huge empire. it is why I am so excited to finally be able to play the game with Common Sense released (was on vacation since last Teusday :downs:

# ¿ Jun 16, 2015 22:41

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

aeglus posted:

dude that did it posted:
Math(s) This is where Ottoman ideas come to the rescue! They are perfectly placed to block themselves off from Asia with a Persian vassal and from Africa using Syrian and Iraqi vassals. In the early game, this reduces their cost to core provinces by 50% multiplicatively with their 68% reduction (33% national idea + 25% admin idea + 10% claim) to make coring a province cost 1.6 admin points per development. Trying to core a 30 development Beijing? 48 admin points please. Trying to core a standard 6 development desert province? 10 admin points please. In the late game, this gets boosted by an additional 50% from administrative efficiency to reach the minimum coring cost of 1 admin point per development. The limiting factor will be coring time. Thankfully, reduced coring costs from ideas also reduces the coring time. It takes around 13 months to core.

This is why I actually think the Ottomans should have events propel them to greatness - events can expire; National Ideas do not and -33% coring cost is insane and should not be something that goes on the whole game.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2015 22:46

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

VDay posted:

In a completely unrelated matter, I'm starting an Ayutthaya game for the Indochina achievement. Anyone have any suggestions/thoughts on the first idea or two to take? Ideas are probably the area where I'm least sure of what to do, especially in the beginning of a campaign. They're obviously situational and depend on the nation/surroundings, but I feel like there are a solid 5-6 options to take as your first idea and I'm never sure which one will actually be the most beneficial early on when I only have enough MP to get the first few bonuses. Anyone always take certain ideas 1st/2nd? General thoughts on idea usefulness?

I'm not planning on colonizing as Ayutthaya, will pretty much ignore naval warfare, and can wait on religious(I think?), so diplomacy jumps out as the first obvious choice. But do I want a better military instead? Or are those early mil points better spent leveling up tech since you get important stuff like actually unlocking cannons? Stupid reasonably balanced ideas, just give me one or two OP ones so I don't have to think and actually make decisions

The general consensus is that you should never take a Military idea as your first idea because the first 9 Military tech levels are so important. Outside of that you can do whatever you want. Colonizing is actually not a bad idea in SE Asia because there is a ton of money in the Phillipines and Indonesia. Diplomacy is not bad; Influence may be better if you want better vassals. Economic could be good because it is just really great right now; Admin is good because mercs are really useful right now and that coring cost discount is great.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2015 23:56

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Bold Robot posted:

Is it possible for a conquistador to actually find the Seven Cities or is it just a cocktease?

I've only ever gotten random events that give me little insignificant bonuses (0.25 Prestige monthly or yearly or something); I've never found an actual City Of Gold or anything, I dont think.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 18:26

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Pellisworth posted:

Winning the HYW as England is super easy right now, you'll get coalition warred almost immediately because enforcing the PU generates something silly like 65 AE, but that's ok just release a couple of French-region nations and peace out. France will keep their cores on them so you can get them back easily. France also doesn't seem too rebellious, surprisingly.

This surprises me that Paradox would make England that powerful - everything I have read on the subject told me that England was pretty poor and after they lost their continental holdings often had the whole "we can only afford the men and money for an Army or a Navy; not both" thing going on for a long while. They often on won wars against France because the French were honourable idiots that would straight up let the English set up their longbows on a hill in a swamp before a battle, not because they had more/better men. They maintained control of so much French land because the French crown was so weak in the 1300-1450 (rough numbers) date range and could not get their poo poo together to kick the usually weak English out.

AAAAA! Real Muenster fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Jun 17, 2015

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 18:44

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Poil posted:

The conquistador got sick, again, cough up a few hundred bucks for medicine or lose admin points.

My Conquistador died, but thankfully he trained up Estevancio before he did! I find it impressive that Estevancio met another boy named Estevancio. Especially because the Estevancio that just died had been taken in and trained up by an Estevancio!

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 20:29

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

I cant decide who to play as now that I have time to play the game with Common Sense :sigh:

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 21:21

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

VDay posted:

I'm trying to get the white elephant achievement with Ayutthaya right now and that whole region is really fun if you haven't played it before. You're isolated enough that you just focus on taking out the 5-6 nations around you, and the first week is a mad scramble to out-alliance your neighbors. Then it's this constant chess match where you try to pick the right target to declare war on in order to bring in just the right allies on both sides so that you can take the right land in order to open up claims on another neighbor who's ally you actually want to take land from and so on and so forth.

Think I'm going to wrap the achievement up today:

Red is the territory I need for the achievement, Pegu is my vassal, and Hsenwi and Dai Viet are my allies. Just need to take out Malacca (which shouldn't be hard since they're not allied with their southern neighbors), take out or cripple Mong Yang before they make a powerful ally out west, and then eventually backstab my allies for the last pieces of Indochina. Nothing can go wrong!

I have played a game as Khmer and it was a ton of fun for exactly what you are saying. Ming was pretty inert and there was no big superpower to fear otherwise, so managing to wrangle the right alliances and whatnot and then fighting wars was actually quite fun. However I am inclined to play a Western or at least Eastern nation so I can play with development stuff.

Also I do not play on Ironman because the succession mechanics for monarchies infuriates me.

I may just play a custom game as a Noble Republic or something. Anyone know if the custom nation designer/random world generator has been tweaked at all recently?

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 22:40

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Average Bear posted:

How to piss off Austria and gain more IA monthly:

Are...are those all client states? That is beautiful!

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 22:45

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Elman posted:

Hold on, do they get your dynasty when you release them?

I just realized I've never really used Client States.

I was super excited when I heard that they were a thing. But then I realized that I never play a game long enough to use them :v:

# ¿ Jun 18, 2015 01:08

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Wiz: Is there anything on the roadmap to allow a player to edit an existing country with the Nation Designer?
Also is there any chance that any of the following will be added to the Nation Designer:
~add a second item to one national idea line (two buffs in one slot) (for extra cost or a lower maximum boost from the two items on one line or something)
~allow the player to have one 'overcharged' idea that goes higher than normal allowances (like how the Ottomans have -33% coring cost, Najd has +5% conversion strength, ect) (this could force other ideas' maximums to be lower to have an extreme cost)
~Some ability to determine starting armies and navies
~I had another idea but I cannot remember it right now :eng99:

Fintilgin posted:

Very excited that we might, potentially, eventually get improvements to the Random New World feature in some future patch/dlc.

Koramei posted:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/eu4-dev-diary-june-18th.864104/
hot drat

This is indeed exciting.

edit:

Pakled posted:

That sounds like a suggestion from someone who hates Byzantium and wants it to go bankrupt early every game.

It would be for free, of course!

AAAAA! Real Muenster fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Jun 18, 2015

# ¿ Jun 18, 2015 18:06

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Koramei posted:

imperfect solution, but both of these are super easy to mod for. all the nation designer ideas are right there in common\custom_ideas, just switch around some values/ add multiple things to a single idea and you're done.

That is good to know, thank you! Sometimes I kinda wish I could do something like -5% Infantry cost, +5% Infantry Combat ability in one spot instead of needing to use two or just one of those things at +10%.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2015 18:34

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Also now that I got thinking about it: The nation designer desperately needs a "save this country setup" to at least retain my name, color, gov type, and ideas.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2015 22:51

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Larz posted:

According to https://steamdb.info/app/236850/graphs/ there are about 645,000 EU IV players, so about 64.

There are only that many people that play EU4? I figured it would have been more, considering CKII has sold over 1million copies.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2015 16:35

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Rakthar posted:

It's not gamey, it's modeling the difference between sitting in a palace and being out in a military camp where supplies are limited and disease is more prevalent. What you're describing is the exact tradeoff you're supposed to be weighing. A king is a 'free' general. In the case of a crappy king you want to get rid of, the choice is easy. Do it. In the case of a good king you want to keep, also relatively easy. Don't do it. And anywhere inbetween (like I can only afford 1 general but my king is decent so I do risk him dying hmmm let me check the heir) is the decision making that's supposed to come into play.

Except the games succession system is really underwhelming (using nice language because Wiz and Johan read this thread). It is super gamey to use the whole "a general is more likely to die" mechanics to try to kill a bad monarch and it is dumb that I cant turn a good ruler into a general because that means an RNG not related to combat he is more likely to die. I should be able to un-make him a general if he is more likely to die if made a general and staying a general means an RNG is chasing him. Also Kings and Generals were often well attended to in an army camp and on a battlefield - they rarely had to deal with supply shortages, though being in a military camp does expose them to disease. But then how many kings have we heard about dying of disease while on campaign compared to how many kings went on campaign in the time period?

There should also be ways to get better generals than grinding AT (Basing your whole idea lines on it and constantly being at war) or using 500 mil points to recruit 10 generals in the hopes one of them isnt total poo poo.

There should be a way to make sure every monarch you get isnt 0/1/0 every-other ruler. Your entire game is based around Monarch Points and as a monarchy (like 75% of the countries in the historical game) you have exactly zero ways to cultivate a better ruler.

AAAAA! Real Muenster fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Jun 19, 2015

# ¿ Jun 19, 2015 23:50

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Fintilgin posted:

In fairness, that's the idea behind advisors and national focus. I do think it might be interesting if there were a few more ways to affect this though. Perhaps a few of the (currently underpowered) idea trees could have a capstone that gave +1 to that monarch point category?

Or maybe add some policies that let you get +X MP in a category for scaling penalties....

Like
Harsh Regime: +1 military point per month for +5 national revolt risk
Unctuous Diplomats: +1 diplomatic point for +3% prestige decay
Overbearing Bureaucracy: +1 admin point for -10% national tax

The actual numbers would be different, obviously

I see your point about advisors and and focus, but at the same time a monarchy's/dicatorship's/ect's fortunes were often tied to the quality of their monarch. It would have to be an ingenious system to find a way to tie a player's capabilities to their monarch in EU4 without turning it into another 400 years of CK2 - however, a players ability to do things is definitely tied to the quality of their monarch. In EU4 you can do things like change your focus and recruit advisors to modify your monarch point gain, but you have absolutely zero input on your actual stats (unless playing a republic). I find this extremely frustrating. I just got to play the game for the first time since Common Sense came out. Started a game as the Ottomans. Not three years into the game Mehmet II dies. Start a new game. Seven years in Mehmet 2 dies with 1 year old 0/2/0 heir. Start a new game. Six years in Mehmet 2 dies with a 2 year old 2/1/1 heir. Having a ~15 year regency at the start of the game is loving awful as anyone, and it is worse when you are waiting on a lovely heir to come of age when you can only afford +1 advisors at best.

Yes that is a little ranty and I know thousands of people play with it and ~~deal with it~~ all the time, and there things you can do to "game" bad heirs and whatnot (or I could just play as one of the few merchant republics or whatever) but I guess I am just tired of praying the RNG doesnt gently caress me OR savescumming OR using the console. I want to try ironman games but I know I'll just give up when I have 10 year regency then five years of a 1/0/2 ruler then a 12 year regency then for 3/2/3 ruler who dies one year in, ect

edit:

Trabisnikof posted:

Just roleplay that the increased chance is due to war wounds that never heal or syphilis from post-victory partying and it just took a while to slay your ruler.

Plenty of rulers get involved with syphilis or debauchery without ever setting foot outside of their castle/onto a battlefield/going on campaign.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2015 00:12

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Enigma89 posted:

Has anyone ever played a non-European country and actually out-teched the major European powers without westernization? I am playing a game as Ming with a friend (we are both playing Ming) and we are a full military tech ahead of France and 2 ahead of the Ottomans. Is this bad? We wanted to westernize but now I am worried that we are going to suffer non-westernized penalties all game now because we will be to far behind to actually westernize?

We are in the late 1500s or early 1600. We just hit military tech 15 and France is 14 and Ottomans are at 13.

Invest a all your points in provincial development until you fall behind :v:

# ¿ Jun 21, 2015 05:25

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Do I remember correctly that if you have a fort on both sides of certain straights your enemies cannot pass through? e.g. Constantinople and Kocaeli
Because otherwise I think I would delete the fort in Kocaeli.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2015 18:06

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Baronjutter posted:

I really like the idea of upgrading provinces but I've always felt the whole EU4 economy was a bit of a clusterfuck. Basetax, production, trade power, the whole trade system. They're ok mechanics individually but they combine to make a fairly confusing mish-mash. They've gotten a lot better though, but I feel like there's a lot more balance in store.

I'd just love to see much more internal mechanics. More gameplay beyond war and diplomcy. CK2 is great for internal politics, and Victoria was great for internal economics and politics, but other than the rebel system there's not much. Development has been a great addition, but it seems like there's so much more room for gameplay. Flesh out culture and internal economics more and you could spend a whole game focusing internally.

I had been thinking that basetax would end up being the total development level - anything that happens in a province (trade, production, travelling on roads, whatever) can be taxed. So I was thinking that the admin upgrade would be production oriented, the diplo upgrade would be trade/navy oriented, and the mil upgrade would be well, mil/army related, and they would alllll contribute to tax income (because you can tax anything/everything). If they did that they could let you alter taxes for a small RevoltRisk (or unrest or whatever it is called now) reduction without changing autonomy, or lower autonomy for the large RR reduction it currently is. With that mechanic you could tax different cultures (accepted or not) differently (tax accepted more because they have lower relvot risk).

# ¿ Jun 22, 2015 21:53

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

THE BAR posted:

Did you sign A Bitter Peace? :eyepop:

# ¿ Jun 22, 2015 21:56

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

VDay posted:

It's brutal in the early and mid game too. Taking a developed country's provinces basically means you're going to be behind admin tech for a decade. With how much more important admin points are compared to dip in the early game, I'm having a real hard time not taking Influence as my first idea group no matter which nation I'm playing. Diplo-annexing just seems so much better than taking territory directly early on.

I havent gotten to play much since Common Sense came out. My usual go-to country to play as post-patches is the Ottomans. I got like 10 years in, had not acquired any new tech, had only conquered my cores in Anoatolia plus Greece when I took Constantinople, and looked around the map and said "gently caress, I dont have anywhere I want to conquer". It is going to be nigh-impossible to conquer the Mamluks in a timely fashion and fighting Hungary and France to make progress in the Balkans sure does not sound like fun. The changes to manpower and coring costs really puts the brakes on everything. I just do not feel motivated to do anything because I am going to be doing it all so slowly.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 00:43

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Guildencrantz posted:

So it's bad that you won't be bored with the game by 1600?

The reduced pace of expansion owns imo. The lategame has never been this engaging in EU. Admittedly I have a tendency to play conservatively, but it's a fun change from the "total forever war" mindset.

Oh yeah, that is a good point, especially considering that is a problem I had. It just seems so harsh comparitively, I guess. Probably just adjusting-to-the-new-mechanics pains on my part.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 01:56

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Has anything changed in the past couple months regarding revoking cores? If I conquer Kosovo (the gold province) from Serbia in one war, then go to war with them later, can I get Serbia to revoke its core on Kosovo? I want to do this so I can release Serbia as a vassal to hold on to all of that lovely Serbian land.

Then again I may just go admin for the extra -25% coring cost discount and conquer everything. I'm just worried that without humanist I will not have that many accepted cultures and my empire will be large but weak and have terrible religious unity.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 02:20

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

I loving love how missions got "redone" and a bunch that were neat are utter poo poo now, but "reduce overextension!" is still a 3 skill diplomat :xd:

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 02:44

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Allyn posted:

Serbia is the primary tag for Serbian culture. Kosovo has Serbian culture. You can't force the main tag for a culture to revoke their core on a province of that same culture. So no, you can't do that. (If it was Bosnia, however, you could.) Your best bet would be to force vassalize instead of annexing them, I guess. You can do that in the same war as taking Kosovo I think?

I like annexing the whole thing and releasing Serbia as a muslim vassal so they convert stuff for me, but if I annex the whole thing, Kosovo would go with the rest of it. I went admin so now I have a -58% discount on coring so I'm just going to annex the whole thing I guess.

I had figured out that I could have forced Serbia to release Montengro then sold Kosovo to them, then annexed Serbia in the next war, release it, then annex Montengro, but lol effort it is poo poo land.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 15:52

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

PleasingFungus posted:

Check the subject interactions tab. IIRC it should work for vassals?

It only works if they are in your religious group, which I guess if you go from Catholic to Protestant you should be able to intercept their tithes to the pope and tell them to stop.

I annexed Shirvan as the Ottomans and promptly released them because gently caress that lovely land southeast of the Caucasus (Azerbaijan is the graveyard of empires fighting over the desolate land immediately south of the Caucasus). They were Shia on release and I told them to cut that poo poo out but like 2 years later they were still Shia but still had a -50% loyalty malus. I did the same with my vassal Iraq and they stayed Shia as well.

I am probably doing something wrong as this is my first game that I have really got rolling since Common Sense came out.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 17:01

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

reL posted:

Do I just have to make due with legacy troops for a little while after each infantry upgrade? Is it recommended to buyout the existing mercenaries in the ledger to try and get the list to fill out with updated troops more quickly? Is it really financially feasible to do this? I'm not exactly a trading empire as The Commonwealth (should I be?).

I think the old ones gradually phase out over time. I believe if you buy out the old ones the new upgraded variety is what will become available. You can wait and they will eventually all switch over if you do not recruit then disband them.

reL posted:

Also is rolling 16merc-8-8 excessive? Those that are using mercenaries heavily, do you split your infantry in half merc/prof, or?

Even as Poland I do not know if I would run 8 Cav. Regardless, I would base my decision to run all merc infantry on my manpower situation: If you are a united Commonwealth I would hope your manpower reserves would be respectable. Also, if you are running Poland (and running 8 cav, heh) you probably have Aristocratic which gives you a manpower boost. If you are rich but short on manpower I would not hesitate to run merc infantry, especially if you took Admin ideas, however based on what you said, the price has been rough, so you could go 50/50 on the merc infantry if you want to save some manpower by spending some cash on mans.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 17:22

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

reL posted:

Yeah I'm looking at ~80k, however I'm also staring down the barrel at The Ottomans and a united Muscovy, so I'm probably going to stick to an at least mostly-merc infantry arrangement. If only I could ensure that they hit the meatgrinder before my precious professional army whenever they engage.

In the Ottoman game I just started I ran out of manpower quick when I was continuously at war for the first ~15 years. Thankfully the Ottomans are also rich, so I was running around with about 75% of my infantry as mercs until the 1460s. It helped that I went Admin first to give that strat a try after someone in this thread posted about it (I usually like to go Humanist first as the Ottos). Once I had a ton of Mercs recruited I always tried to throw an all merc (plus a few cav) stack into the grinder first. And as Pellisworth points out, I would merge merc units then disband the small stacks then hoover up some new merc inf from the land i had occupied at the time.

It is funny because I am honestly thinking of going Aristocratic as the Ottomans because another diplomat will probably be essential, plus the cav bonus, manpower boost, tradition decay bonus, tech cost discount, and extra leader all sound really good right now.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 17:57

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Baronjutter posted:

What happens if I take aristocrat idea group and then turn into a republic?

You keep it, then take Plutocratic because lol

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 18:04

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Mans posted:

I'm still very unexperienced with this new patch. Jesus it's like a whole new game.

I loving love it. The fort mechanics seem a little wonky and need a few kinks worked out w/r/t movement near/around multiple forts, but I loving love the mechanic as a whole. It is pretty much exactly what I was hoping for when posting at-length about a fort re-work in the last thread months and months ago.

I had more fun fighting in a three-separate-but-simultaneous wars as the Ottomans than I ever have before when I finally got to play at length last night. I was the Ottomans, so far having only conquered Greece+Constantinople, Albania, and the Anatolian minors, including Trebizond. Trebizond and Icel still had their forts, along with forts I built in Erzincan and Maras.
I attacked Qara Quolunlu for Erzerum and because I wanted to feed Rahba to my OPM vassal (in Ar Raqqa) Syria. The war vs Qara was roughly even on numbers but I still had the 3/3/3/1 starter general the Ottomans get and kept attacking them when they were in the open and was winning battles and sieging the fort in Mosul.
Then the Mamluks attacked me, invading from the south. I called off my siege of Mosul in Qara and fell back behind my line of forts to wait and see what would happen. After a few pitched battles with Qara after nuking the Mamluks as they bizarrely trickled into sieges of Maras with stacks of ~10, the Golden Horde -who had eaten Ryazan and half of Crimea plus vassalized Georgia- attacked me, too.
In previous circumstances I may have reloaded the last autosave or given up, but I pushed forward. Already low on manpower with a lot of my infantry stacks at half strength, I straight up disbanded all of them (just keeping my cavalry) and started recruiting even more merc infantry while hiding behind my line of castles. Thankfully I had a decent income and naval superiority after one huge battle with the Mamluks, so my trade income was not reduced.
Long story short, I eventually won by white-peacing out Golden Horde then taking Rahba and Erzerum from Qara on strength of battles won and occupying the two provinces right before offering the deal. Then I steamrolled the Mamluks, feeding all of not-coastal Syria back to them and getting War reparations and Humiliation out of the Mamluks. It felt so good.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 21:44

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Back To 99 posted:

Huh, i don't understand why are you loving administrative ideas so much. Can't really see any great bonuses in there?

As stated before, -25% coring cost is huge. HUGE. If you do not use any mercenaries I could definitely see why you wouldnt like it, but currently using mercs is pretty essential, at least early game.
To go over details:

-25% Mercenary cost ~ saves you money, when using mercenaries
-25% Core-creation cost ~ saves you a huge amount of admin points over the course of the game AND reduces the amount of time it takes to core as well as reducing cost
-33% Mercenary maintenance ~ saves you a lot of money, when using mercenaries
-1 Interest per annum ~ good if you ever need to take loans (worthless to me because I play too conservatively, but it can be useful)
+50% Available mercenaries ~ means you have more mercenaries to hire
+1 Possible advisors ~ I love this, though it is less useful now that you can dismiss advisors to replace them in the pool, but if there is one you need this means you are more likely to get the advisor that you want/need
-10% Administrative technology cost ~ If you take this idea first you have absurd amounts of admin points over the course of the game
+10% Goods produced modifier ~ $$$

A bunch of others already covered some in more detail, but the set can be incredibly useful to help you expand when it would otherwise not be possible. It is partially a military idea considering it can help you recruit more troops without needing manpower. I am not a huge fan of any of the policies but some look like they could be okay in certain situations.

Back To 99 posted:

And quantity also seems bad if you already have plenty of manpower, compared to other military ideas that will make you win more battles and lose less men.

I'm too lazy to break this down like I did Admin, but it makes your hordes of soldiers cost a total of 20% less, it means you can have more soldiers, lets you have more boats (thus more money), taking less attrition is big if you ever set foot in hostile territory, and its new +25% garrison size is a pretty hefty boost. On top of that, Quantity has some top-flight Policies, such as but not limited to: +1 colonist, +10 colonial growth (Expansion); +1 Land Leader Shock, +0.5 Army Tradition (Humanist); -20% Fort Maintenance, +10% Garrison Size (Innovative); +1 Attrition for Enemies, +10% Garrison Size (Influence); +20% Goods Produced (Trade) ( :eyepop:

); ppppbbbbttttt look here for all of them: http://www.eu4wiki.com/Policies

edit: and the whole thing about more soldiers: yeah you may already have a lot of manpower or whatever, but some times you are small, and having a +50% modifier to your forcelimit and having soldiers that costs 20% less who all have big families who will step in line can "help you win more battles" (though you may lose more men - you have WAY more men, so you come back when your opponent does not).

AAAAA! Real Muenster fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Jun 23, 2015

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 22:53

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Luigi Thirty posted:

Was there an ETA on the patch that redoes development costs? I think that might be a good time to start a new non-European game.

I am anxiously awaiting this myself. I am really hoping that it does not break savegames.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 22:58

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

James The 1st posted:

Anyone have any tips for what a first idea group should be? I always end up getting totally paralyzed when I have to pick my first group when I'm not a colonizing nation.

It really depends on the situation. One bit of advice to help you narrow it down: Never take a Military idea first, because the first ~9 or so levels of miltech are vital for not getting crushed. If you have a high mil monarch and can afford a good advisor sure you could try it if you want, but the general consensus is that an Adm of Dip idea set is a better first idea.

As for what TO take,
For Diplomatic Ideas....
If you think you will need to help keep yourself alive by making friends, take Diplomatic.
If you think you will have lots of vassals (taking land indirectly) and want to optimize that, take Influence.
If you are an Island Nation, take Maritime.
If you are in position to take advantage of having ~5 Merchants, take Trade (I would not recommend it as a first idea, though)
Dont take Espionage.

For Admin Ideas...
Innovative is pretty meh right now, but has some great associated policies and events.
Religious is great for you know what.
Economic has been covered at length within the last page or two, is probably a better 2nd admin idea pick.
Expansion you are probably familiar with as someone who has colonized, probably not a good first pick if you are not colonizing.
Admin was also discussed at length within the last page or two, a great pick if you need mercenaries and/or plan on directly conquering a lot of land.
Humanist is great if you want to avoid unrest, it really shines when you are conquering lots of diverse land.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 23:50

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

Arzakon posted:

Some screenshots and notes from my successful Frankfurt run. This has been really fun to play well into the 1700s.

The 1400s were spent snatching up and expanding my vassals, getting Cleves and Munster first. I kept Mainz around to declare war on for a long time, they even flourished and expanded all the way out to Lorraine before I decided to let Cleves and Wurzburg eat them and France took the remaining bits. A small Burgundian inheritance fired and gave provinces to Milan.

I picked up Munster and Wurzberg right in time for the reformation to pop in Ravensburg. Baden and I picked up the other two centers, flipping a lot of the HRE. Super-France and Super-Pope joined the Catholic League which made me think we weren't going to be able to get Protestantism as the faith but I caught France out when he couldn't join the war and we crushed it. Grabbed the "Bleed them Dry" achievement pretty easily.

I then decided I wanted to unify the HRE in the one true faith, and get all of the remaining HRE provinces back from Poland/Pope/France.

Religion was easy as soon as I got the Imperialism CB. France willingly flipped in the middle of me convincing everyone in the HRE.

France was a tough nut to crack, I had to ally him and drag him into a war with Best Friend Spain by attacking a Spanish Ally and burn his army down to about 90K while helping me take it. I gave a few Spanish Provinces to France as a "gift" so he would never be friends with Spain again.

The day after that war I canceled that alliance, allied his rivals the Pope and Ottomans and declared on France. It took three wars, the last one because I took Lothringen instead of Liege on accident at the end of the second. I should have really checked technologies as France went to Mil 26 and got god-tier infantry in the few days it took me to declare war on his ally OPM Brunswick. He absolutely crushed me in the last war but holding Brunswick let me get to exactly 10 warscore to take Liege via the peace with Brunswick.

My only shame is vassalizing Bavaria without realizing that Bohemia made them an elector right before or during the war. We don't even have the first HRE reform passed (Development Cost!) because of that.

100 Development Frankfurt and its 500 Development of Vassals:

Growth is limited by how happy my vassals are, my money, and manpower to a point. I have three +1 Dip Rep Policies, the advisor, and Diplomatic/Influence and making 90 Development Aachen is making me push over 50% desire at times. In total my vassals have about 100 units to my 60.

I can't field my force limit without running a deficit so I war random HRE provinces for money and war reparations frequently. Administrative would save me 6 ducats but I would still be negative at full maintenance.

The base 10,000 manpower doesn't seem to be affected by policies and ideas. So my one 15 manpower province still has me below 20K max manpower. My 20 stack of cannons melts that down pretty fast so I'm usually unable to reinforce them by the end of wars. All my infantry are mercs.

I'm terrified of having one of my vassals go above 100 development and getting more liberty desire, so I have 7 vassals between 70-90 development. They are a beast when they aren't sitting at home complaining about their overlord.

Current State and Ideas:

Don't you feel dumb for leaving the HRE now Italian Minors? You could be cool and Protestant getting beaten up by me every few years for your lunch money.

I don't really know what to do for the last 80 years. I'm limited by not being able to take land. I could just keep vassalizing HRE nations, watching liberty desire rise.

Maybe I'll just dismantle the HRE... But then I lose my Free City status...

I think this would make a good achievement. Have your vassals/marches outnumber your provinces 40 to 1 but still be loyal.

I wish I had the patience to do something like this. Nice job.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2015 04:47

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 04:52

AAAAA! Real Muenster: Jul 12, 2008; My QB is also named Bort

I'm amused that forests make development cost more. Because you know, people cut down forests for their wood. To develop things.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2015 20:04

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Europa Universalis IV: Buying all the DLC is just Common Sense

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