Europa Universalis 4: Emperor - It's like Stellaris, but in history

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Europa Universalis 4: Emperor - It's like Stellaris, but in history

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Eldred posted:

I'm not totally sure preventing Shadow Kingdom is worth it either. If you let them secede you can take all those super-wealthy Italian provinces without the HRE AE penalty and dominate the Venice and Genoa nodes.

His strat maxes IA so that you can Revoke the Privelagia faster. If you lose all those princes down in Italy it tanks your IA by quite a bit and makes it take longer to pass the reforms.

If you aren't trying to rush the vassal spam then letting Italy secede and taking all their delicious land is a completely viable tactic.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2018 20:29

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 18:23

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Jay Rust posted:

I�m thinking of playing a multiplayer game with a newbie friend of mine, what pair of nations would be recommended for a friendly co-op campaign? Castile and Portugal?

Thinking of pairs where one is strong for the new player and one is more fun and challenging for an established player I came up with:

Ottomans and Tunis
France and The Pope
Poland and Kazan

# ¿ Jan 9, 2018 23:18

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

hailthefish posted:

Time travel DLC entitled "Zeroth Rome".

Greece focused named "Pre-Rome"

Or a Native American OPM focused expansion named "Roam Rome"

deathbagel fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Jan 11, 2018

# ¿ Jan 11, 2018 01:02

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

canepazzo posted:

How do I Karaman? Any guides I find say to smother Ottomans with a web of alliances but I can't seem to be able to ally any of the big players - max improved relations, diplo rep advisor and one diplo rep mission reward, army built over force limit and Mamluks are still 10-15 points away to accepting a Royal marriage, let alone an alliance. Hungary/Poland even less so.

The only guys I can ally are the 2 beyliks next to me, Cyprus, and Candar. Maybe QQ sometimes. Just not at all enough to stand against OE once truce is over.

What am I missing?

I tried a few times last night, I can't see how it's possible without trying something like moving out of the area and building up to come back after you build up a bigger power base. Maybe somehow getting a war dec on one of the Caucus countries and taking their land while abandoning your homeland to the Ottomenace.

I couldn't get anyone worthwhile to ally with me even with 1 diplo rep from the mission, 1 diplo rep from an event AND 1 diplo rep from an advisor. Ended up me, AQ, Dulkadir and Venice against the Ottomans and we weren't even able to slow them down. They just ran over us.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2018 19:38

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Xanderkish posted:

So here's a fun scenario:

I'm Japan. That gigantic tumor of a nation is the Ming, with their ally Korea. In the upper right corner is Jianzhou, which I very intelligently thought to ally with in the hopes that together we might be able to deter the Ming.

That did not work out well.

Jianzhou, naturally, got utterly stomped, and now all or nearly all of their territory is occupied by the Ming-Korea alliance. Which meant it was basically me against Korea and Mr. Tumor up there.

Fortunately for me, I'd been building up my own Navy, enough that by itself it was barely superior to the Ming navy. This helped me out a great deal as I began to chase around stray Ming and Korean ships, then ended up taking an unfortunate turn when I stumbled into a combined Ming-Korea fleet, that hosed up my navy and sent me back to the ports.

But, much to my surprise, I ended up getting generous gifts of money and loans from nations like the Shun and other countries in Ming's orbit that are, for some reason, not wanting Ming to dominate the entirety of Asia. This was money that I used to build back up my navy and add a few extra units of infantry (who I was already stationing in Japan to contain unrest after I reduced the autonomy of a few provinces). After a few close calls, I ended up successfully securing mainland Japan against the Ming and Korea navy, which seemed to me to indicate that I could happily spend the rest of the war picking off various ships while I waited for their War Exhaustion to expire, until I realized Ming had sent a fleet of transports down to the Phillipines preparing to dock 11,000 men to occupy my colonies, with me not having enough transport ships down there to move the units I had stationed there into a good defensive position.

My main fleet was too far away to get to them in time, so, with mere days before they made land, I sent four ships down to intercept the transports, dooming them in the process, but delaying the transports long enough for my main fleet to come in and repel the Ming.

So now, I don't have nearly enough soldiers to successfully fight the Ming and Korea on land, but I do have a navy big enough for me to hold them back, at least for the time being. So basically, I made the wrong alliance, got a gigantic army on my rear end, and my only hope of getting out of this involves either Jianzhou surrendering, or me wearing their navy down enough that the gigantic tumor takes its tumescent attention elsewhere.

This game is loving awesome.

In my game I had to build a huge navy to fight off the Ming menace. They have 150k troops. They declared war on me over Taiwan but my fleet crushed theirs over and over until they gave up on building ships. Unfortunately, the war only ticked up to about 30 for me and their war exhaustion stalled around 9 (wanted to drive them to 20 and hope rebels could crack them) so I peaced out and made them un-tributary the Philippines, so now I added them to my South Pacific holdings. I took over Japan with Oda and kept their ideas because they are really quite fantastic. I just need to take the rest of Indonesia now and then push into Indochina then I might be big enough to give Ming a run for his money finally.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2018 05:57

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

The Earl of Mannwich - As Mann colonize Hawaii and establish colonies in Alaska and Australia.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2018 18:10

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

I didn't know any of this, now I need to start over again in my Oda game and become the Japanese HRE vassal-spam. I united Japan which after seeing all this does seem like a mistake.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2018 19:47

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Poil posted:

Is it possible to make them stop warring on each other, with a white peace or something, so you don't just end up with one large after they have finished gobbling everyone else up?

You just have to be quick and take them all out. I assume you can spit out the vassals after you "unite" enough of them to take over the Shogunate. I haven't played much since before all the changes to the Shogunate and Japan as a whole though.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2018 00:23

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Vivian Darkbloom posted:

Did you always get this option, or is this a fairly recent feature? I've been in succession wars before but never had the option to back down. Also France is my rival and we have been at war several times recently, so I have no idea how my Denmark can be claiming the throne but whatever!

If a country gets to enforce a PU and there are no other countries that have the same ruling dynasty, then the game defaults to offering their strongest rival to contest that PU. You must be the strongest Rival available to contest the succession.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2018 17:31

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Sage Grimm posted:

Second go at Inca and it appears by going faster at the initial conquering as Cusco (stop giving a gently caress about the diplo/aggressive expansion cost and ask for *everything*) sets you up pretty nicely for the long haul to the full religious reform. I kept Muisca around as a buffer for when Castile/Spain came knocking initially because they had much better mil tech and peaced when the majority of the army descended for basically a single province on my side. That area went back and forth a couple times before Muisca and I got out ahead. Then England got into La Plata but their attempts to drive me out didn't go far.

Of course I hosed up and didn't realize high religious authority equalled high Clergy influence, which had me in crisis for a good 20 years. Also had a bit of difficulty starting off reforms due to the european wars.

As it stands now, one Spain/Portugal/France war that I held off to some dumb territorial provinces recently taken from Portugal's CN in Brazil (have fun with all that religious zeal!) and the coastline is nearly filled out.

I haven't done it in many expansions, but last time I did an Inca run, I focused on going north. I then explored and vassalized the OPMs on the coast of Brazil. Then when the Europeans came over, they could only see that one province of mine. They colonized nearby, then I colonized next to them and used that to pass my last religious reform super early. They eventually declared war, but since they only saw those 2 provinces, that was all they could take. Then I went north and conquered Mexico. By then I was strong enough to duke it out with the European nations so I started to expand south and eventually took all of the Portuguese holdings then worked my way up north to take out the Spanish holdings.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2018 18:53

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Koramei posted:

The auto-load transports feature thing is absolute rear end but using them manually is really simple, I'm not really sure what the problem is there.

Innovativeness seems inoffensive if mostly pointless but I'm really not sure about technology sharing, the spread of institutions is already all kinds of nuts.

Yep, I have no problem with boats at all. But I don't ever use the auto transport feature, I do everything manually in this game because I want to be as efficient as I can be.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2018 06:21

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

appropriatemetaphor posted:

I started my first Austria game and took one look at all the "alt f4 if X happens" and said forget it.

Half the fun as Austria is figuring out what to do when your events don't fire. The one time I got both early PU's and the inheritance the game was so easy by 1600 that I lost interest and didn't even finish that campaign. Nothing can even come close to standing up to a 1600ish vassal swarm.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2018 17:57

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Poil posted:

Is there any downside to not assigning seats in a constitutional republic? I can't find anything negative anywhere and it means I have to bribe a lot less to win debates as well as not utterly tanking my absolution. The game does auto assign one randomly every x years so eventually there will be enough I guess. But I do wish there was a randomly assign button for it because it would feel better to actually have all assigned and I can't be bothered to hunt around for the optimal provinces, that aren't already owned by an estate.

edit
Why the gently caress does Russia have 70 more forcelimit over me despite having 700 development less??? And no they do not have quantity ideas only offensive.

Russia gets a national idea that gives +50% force limit.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2018 23:49

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Traxis posted:

What is a fun area to play in for the Ideas Guy achievement? I was thinking Malaysia but I'm not sure I want to have to deal with Ming tributary bullshit.

It's easy to become super America if you start by the Mayans or Incans with a super combat western tech country and an extra colonist or two.

deathbagel fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Mar 10, 2018

# ¿ Mar 10, 2018 06:12

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Node posted:

I might try Ideas Guy just for fun. If you start in North America, what would be a good idea set? +1 colonist is a given. I'm not sure about the +20 colonist speed, though.

I'd try something like this.

Though with a male heir and probably a Central American culture. Maybe Hindu instead of Coptic too since you can't get the holy sites.

deathbagel fucked around with this message at 07:06 on Mar 10, 2018

# ¿ Mar 10, 2018 07:02

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

I dunno what the solution is but as a new player, even one familiar with past EUs, having all these features locked behind various, seemingly-unrelated expansions is pretty overwhelming and dumb. Advisor promotion? The mideast expansion. More user-friendly diplomacy? Uhhh, China! The three estates of France? Cossacks!

Also does Random New World just suck? It seemed cool but every time I just get lovely island chains. Usually I sail all the way to the pacific before hitting anything cool and then have to backtrack and hunt down the tiny landmasses. It's basically if you took Indonesia and the Philippines and scattered their constituent islands between Bermuda and Hawaii.

That's why I just buy all the expansions when they come out. I like supporting Paradox. They make fantastic games.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2018 22:20

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

EU has a steep learning curve for sure. I remember the first time I picked up EU 3 back in my WoW days and I just couldn't bring myself to devote enough time to figure it out since WoW sucked up most of my free time. Then when EU4 came out I was between jobs and lived with a friend who had played EU since the first one, he convinced me to try it out and I had tons of free time and no other games I was playing so I finally sat down and learned it all.

Over the years, they've made some stuff a lot easier to learn and a lot easier to figure out like the game warning you that you might be triggering coalitions, or the simplified exploration that was mentioned a few posts ago.

A lot of the added mechanics for different areas are great, because when you get bored of playing in Europe with the base mechanics, you can go learn the Horde mechanics or play in Asia and figure out how to deal with the Tributary system or the Shogunate, then travel over to America to learn how to avoid DOOM or figure out how to unite the Incans and defend against the inevitable European invasion. These things all add to the replayability of the game and are the reason that this is the one game in my Steam library with over 1000 hours played.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2018 17:11

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

Added mechanics are cool, I just wish they'd tackle some of the issues that have persisted since EU2, my first pdox game. Agreed with Beamed, assymetry would go a long way.

But like, just taking western Europe: Castile, England, and France are still monstrous superpowers from the start. I'd like mechanics that give them some difficulty to navigate. France should certainly be easy overall but it should have problems. At present, as always, France is basically as powerful as it was in the 18th century, but in 1444.

Even old janky mods managed it- like in AGCEEP if you wanted to start as "France" you actually had to start as the Dauphin�, take event choices to manage the burgundians, and reconquer the entire north of the country from England and from your dumbass crazy dad, all while wrangling your vassals. But even still, 15 years later, in EU4 France is a monster from the start even if they never ever touch any of England's continental holdings.

My main complaint though overall is that Paradox seems to focus exclusively on adding features to x, y, and z instead of updating the base game mechanics.

Wait, I have that one and I've been manually sailing my explorers around like a buffoon and ignoring the home country. I must be missing something, how do I automate them?

Put an explorer on at least 3 heavies or trade ships, then select mission and choose Explore. Tell them which area to explore.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2018 19:32

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

MrBling posted:

Remember when France started with a bunch of vassals and was even more overpowered? The nerf was to remove them all and give France some autonomy in the provinces.

Yep, vanilla EU4 France was absolutely a powerhouse above and beyond any other country in the game at that time. I remember just chewing through the HRE and not even caring about coalitions because they still couldn't touch me.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2018 20:25

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Deceitful Penguin posted:

I'm going for Ideas guy and I'm wondering where to play. I thought it might be fun to go North American and then pick Siberian frontiers as one of my ideas/traditions, but then wondered if I could combine that with Sunset Invasion, but didn't someone mention problems with reforming the religion if you picked a higher tech group?

Also what's the deal with High American? Is it better than Western?

Also, Ironman requiring Historical Lucky Nations is utter garbage. They loving suck; why not let it be random or none?

High American has better troops for almost the entire game. Western finally catches up in the mid to late 20's of mil tech. Western countries don't get a neighbor bonus from you, but you also don't get a neighbor bonus from them, but you can allegedly get the western arms deal modifier to get a flat 10% bonus on tech. There are certain decisions and events that can't happen to High American tech group countries.

High American is just all around better really.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2018 19:01

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Terrible Opinions posted:

Take the Siberian outposts idea. Take all of the Americas by 1550

I never realized this idea worked in the New World. I tried this for comedy and I own almost all of North America and it's only 1490.

It's hilarious.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2018 17:54

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

I'm buying this expansion just because this Dev Clash is so good. Can anyone stop the ~~Kaiser~~ Emperor!?

# ¿ Mar 22, 2018 05:20

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Pylons posted:

That's an idea.. I think they do have Odoyev in a trade league. No other allies though.

Declare on Odoyev, force them to break truce and nothing else, then wait 5 years.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2018 22:39

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Pylons posted:

The truce I have with them is already up, but I could use the war with Odoyev/Novgorod to take some of their provinces or break their alliance with Poland, couldn't I?

Yea, I meant break the alliance. If you take provinces then your peace will likely last long enough for them to just re-ally them.

Fuligin posted:

How 2 kazan pls

Wait for someone big to declare on Muscovy and then jump on them immediately, you need to strangle them in the crib. You can take them if you build up a stack of 20 or so, but you have to draw their armies into the grasslands/steppes and take out their vassals separately.

Once you break Muscovy it's easy, you just take out the other tribes and always be at war with someone. Drag wars out to make sure you are never at peace because peace kills your horde unity. Raze everything you take unless it's an amazing province. Take the gold mine from Uzbek early to help fund your war machine.

deathbagel fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Mar 23, 2018

# ¿ Mar 22, 2018 23:53

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Senor Dog posted:

I expect perfection for my 10 whole dollars

Well then you spent your :10bux:

on the wrong forum!

# ¿ Mar 23, 2018 22:40

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Groogy posted:

Do you want a beer or not? Then you'll listen to me as I complain how this forum is still stuck on Ming after I just said Estates are becoming free during the Pdx Tuesday beer.

I want beer!

I like Ming. I like having the big scary monster that is there as a barrier you have to figure out how to navigate around or break down. Also, the last Dev clash proved that Ming isn't that scary, they got their asses handed to them in every war they were in, even against Japan where they had a 2:1 troop advantage.

# ¿ May 22, 2018 23:03

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

MinistryofLard posted:

I literally just bought the Cossacks last weekend.

On that note, is there a good resource on how to play hordes?

Always be at war, burn all but the very best provinces to the ground. Lure enemies into flat terrain, the AI does it's best to avoid letting you attack them in the mountains, which means it's really easy to lure them into flat terrain battles.

# ¿ May 23, 2018 07:01

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Wafflecopper posted:

How do you not end up miles behind on admin as a horde? I've been playing Great/Golden Horde lately and find that the constant conquering means constant coring which means no admin for tech (yes I'm burning everything as I go and set admin focus on day 1) which means unbalanced research which means corruption which combined with poor land and gently caress all admin to spend on states means I'm always broke which aghghgjgj

Make vassals. I usually have 2-3 feeder vassals that I feed and then absorb later to split the Adm costs with Diplo.

For example, in my Kazan game I immediately attacked Uzbek for their tasty gold province, forced them to release Sibir and then attacked and vassalized Sibir and fed them back their cores while eating Nogai and Uzbek. Then when I jumped on Muscovy, I forced them to release Perm and fed them a bunch of Russia.

deathbagel fucked around with this message at 16:30 on May 23, 2018

# ¿ May 23, 2018 16:19

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

I would have quite a few more achievements if they applied retroactively. I already took over all of South America (and North America) as Inca, I don't want to do it again! Only have 18% though (with just under 700 hours played.) I need to stop slacking.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2018 05:21

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Hordes are good and fun. Kazan is the best of the good and fun hordes.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2018 22:36

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

Cavalry is a must have for any horde campaign, but other than the horde factions, they aren't worth the additional cost and upkeep.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2019 19:42

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 18:23

deathbagel: Jun 10, 2008

oddium posted:

becoming a ming tributary is how you go about not having to deal with ming

I go the "I have a giant gently caress-off navy" route to deal with Ming as Tidore or Ternate.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2020 04:16

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