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Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Is there any way to calm down a rebellious vassal/colony once i reaches 100% liberty desire? I crossed the line due to having a new dynasty come to power (three heirs died on me, the Habsburg one literally one day after being born!), but since no on is supporting them due to everyne currently murdering each other over succession wars. Developing them or decreasing tariffs does nothing, and I can't declare war pre-emptively. Do I just sit here forever with a disloyal colony?

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Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
So Timurids apparently went from being a weird horde without a steppe to a proper kingdom with tons of unhappy subjects. the Denmark of asia minor, you could say.

Any obvious strats for it now? Since we don't need to rush desperately to form Mughals (and indian provinces are out of coring reach at first), I guess snacking toward Qara Qonlyu while you integrate a couple of vassals is the way. They are all pretty unruly, though.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Do you need MoH for the drill troops option and to improve advisors? It's not showing for me.

Also, is it me or are Timurids even more boned? Before you at least had rich provinces and could find allies, and manage your unrest with a bit of luck and more accepted cultures; now all your slots are filled with vassals that hate your guts. Every game has had the old ruler die in 2 years and my vassals pouncing on me. Are you supposed to lose them all and do a recovery game?

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Huh. So after the patch killed my Castile run (no big loss, was almost done), and I failed hard at timurids, I decided to do a Poland run to fool around and try to contain the russian behemoth.

Then I get randomly elected HRE out of the blue in 1499.

What do I do? Add all my provinces to the empire? Take advantage and eat as much of the Empire as I can? This has never happened before! Hell, even when I actively tried to become emperor as Castile it never happened!

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
This is my weirdest Poland game yet.

Got randomly elected Holy roman emperor in 1490. Couldn't pass much because of anti-polish racism, but kept being re-elected a fair bit, so used it to nibble Empire provinces along the Baltic. Forced a PU on Bohemia and fed them lightly, and almost did the same for Austria but then League wars broke. It was going well for us Catholic, with me, Austria and France stomping protestants...then the austrian Emperor dies with no possible successor somehow, and the HRE dissolves by itself. I had never seen that happen.

Release and vassalize Finland, eat all of Norway....then Castile goes into a random PU with me because of a royal marriage I did ages ago just to boost relations for a mission. They bring in 3 colonies, too! France tried to raise a stink about it but it was being eaten alive by Reformed zealots so it was a breeze. Now destroyed Muscovy while they were struggling with Crimea, and just started pushing back Ottomans. Austria spent some 60 years with the 'Breaking Alliance' warning on me but never got around to it.

Other weird stuff: Ulster took over all of the Irish isle and Scotland and big bite of England proper, got into a fight withthe Netherlands, who promptly release a ton of its provinces and killed it. Transmoxiana swelled to a colossal mid-Asiatic beast, and the Ottomas apparently just skipped eating several of the little countries that share Anatolia with them, even unto the 1600s.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Has there been any change to trade/tax mechanics in this patch? It seems that everyone is a lot richer somehow. I'm having less cash problems with gold with Poland, unlike every other game, and from the midpoint on it felt like everyone I fought it a war had several thousand ducats just laying around for the taking in peace deals.

It could be that somehow in this game livestock got RIDICULOUSLY valuable, spending centuries way bordering 5 ducats value. Who needs iron or spices, give me cows any day!

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
I really wanted to do a Christian Ottomans run just to see what happens. What is the easiest way to pull off a conversion and join the happy party of European Personal unions and Royal mrriages?

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Doing my first Ethiopia run and it's nice, but I can see the rope being tightened around my neck. I grabbed everything on the horn of Africa that wasn't an ally, raced up and secured Alexandria as well as some good trade provinces there. Started colonizing early and have dibs on south africa and the spice islands.

However, Ottomans are getting antsy now that Mamluks is almost gone, Brunei hates my guts for no reason...and now both have allied.

Worse, none of the european powers is interested in an alliance. They stay neutral no matter how much I improve relations and pick the same rivals. I have pretty much no possible allies of any decent power.

Any way to turn this around? also, how should i set up my trade? The home node of Ethipia is a weird one that starts there and only flows outward to Alexandria.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

MrBling posted:

The few times I've played Poland I've never bothered supporting any of my own guys and just treated it like a sort of republic in that I can never have a regency and will always have high legitimacy.
You can get rid of it around 1600 anyway, so its not really a big deal.

Yeah, I've always felt it as a way to get a relations bonus with another power by sharing dynasties, until you eventually ride out the massive noble revolt and end the party. not to mention the hope of a succesion war netting you a PU.

Though more often than not, I end up with a Serb or minor Italian family. Once the big winner by the end was the royal family of a tiny mediterranean island that got freed on some peace deal and the Ottomans forgot to swallow, making my lineage orthodox and making all the catholics in Poland permantnely pissed off.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Doing a lazy France run to test out new missions, and holy hell, got the meanest Reformation ever. Both Poland and Spain went protestant, something I had never seen. I ended up becoming emperor for some weird reason, used it to swallow more HRE land, and then of course the league war broke. Thankfully i was allied with both Ottomans and Sweden, and we rolled over everyone else.

I was tempted to join in, but being able to turn papal authority into mercantilism, Manpower boosts and stability is just so strong.

And then of course, Pope excomunicates me a few years later, never mind me having saved Catholicism. :P

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

Detheros posted:

When they said "Rule Britannia" this is what they meant, right? :v:



"Was Jerusalem built here,
In England's green and pleasant land"

Checks out.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

ZypherIM posted:

I think I've gotten England into a punching bag position. They lost a lot of fleet in their war against Denmark, and only had like 15k army when I went in with my 24k (also have 2 Irish vassals hanging around with 3-4k each, they like to run around and hoover up provinces while I hunt the doomstack). After that war I did the transfer income and trade power (it was great having like +15 ducats after advisers), attacked again as soon as the timer was up and now I've got almost all of Scotland and started on Wales and England is no longer the number 1 in their trade node. I think they might be heavily in debt, and the last war they had only like 4 ships.

On the mainland I think I'm going to hang onto my alliance with France for dear life, me dragging them into wars with England has led to them taking about half of the Iberian peninsula. I think I've had a pretty bad string of rulers, I'm noticing myself slightly behind on tech while others are also ahead on ideas.


Mechanics question, whats the best use of merchants once you're pushing trade towards your main node (and maybe also collecting from main node)? North Sea only has 1 feed and its like 600 range away.

Keep in mind that the AI gives insane buffs to Great powers your crush, so they can spring back very easily unless other AI nations swarm in and finish them off (which is never the case with England).

I remember dropping russian manpower to 0, carving all of their prime real estate and taking thousands of ducats in two separate 100% wars, and before the last truce was over they already had both full manpower AND plenty of big-stack armies.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

ZypherIM posted:

So question about aggressive expansion. Do I only need to worry about the nations listed in the "These countries might form a coalition against you" section? For example, the only person listed is England because I keep kicking them when they're down as often as I can and everyone else is far enough away that I don't think I get that much AE against them.

AE management can make or break your game.

If the only country listed as wanting to join the Coalition is the one you are at war with, no sweat. Countries can't coalition you while having a truce with you, so you'll have some 5+ years until that becomes a concern.

As others said, countries that have a positive opion of you also don't join coalistions, so during the war make sure to have a diplomat working on key countries you want to keep neutral. If the listed coalitioon countries are also engaged ina big hellwar (Ottomans or League War), you can also be a bit bolder in how much you take.

And of course, keep an eye out for neighbors being excomunicated. Taking land from tjhem is REALLY cheap, AE wise. Likewise, be sure to cultivate some good relations with the Pope, so you don't get excomunicated and strong neighbors declared open season on you.

For european play, conquering into the HRE if you are not a member gives a TON of AE, which is a big issue. That can be dealt with by taking the Influence ideas, by capturing a HRE vassal and feeding him most of your captured provinces, or by having a massively powerful ally to back up your greed (France+Ottomans is a classic one).

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

Fister Roboto posted:

The problem is with reinforcing, which is something that should require a dedicated supply line. Plundering only kept armies from not starving to death, it didn't make men appear out of thin air.

True, but it meant that wounded soldiers were kept alive and sometimes gat back in the line of duty.

It's a thorny issue, no matter how you slice it. Too realistic, and it's no fun. Too silly, and you have Spanish armies zooming all the way across Russia and into China.

Maybe make supply a distance radius centered around the largest owned/allied province nearby? Higher development provinces being able to supply bigger armies, and atrittion skyrocketing once you get out of range.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Huh. Tried two separate games of Austria and despite watching Bohemia's interregnum like a hawk, both times I never got the option to claim their throne before they got a Podebrad going. Did anything change with the new missions? I had Royal marriage going both times.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
I love it when you're the HRE emperor trying to stamp down on the early protestant reformation and the centers spawn in countries that take forever to convert, thus making you unable to declare a war and force-convert them to erase the center. I've had Lubeck being a Center for almost 35 years, the whole country and several neiughbors turning, but the country religion never switches!

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Is there any other fun African nations to play as, other than Ethiopia? Been considering a Mali run.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

Lance of Llanwyln posted:

Lots. Mali, Kilwa, Kongo, Kuba, Butua, and Kaffa all have achievements tied to them, as do the three that start next to Lake Victoria, the Nubian culture states, and Somali culture states, if you care about that. Generally, wherever you start in Africa, you have lots of opportunities for expansion, but it can be difficult to keep up on Institutions, and, as you already know, East Africans will probably have to deal to with the Ottomans at some point.

After some 3 awesome Ethiopia games ruined by Ottomans, yeah, I'm spending some time on the other side of the continent from them.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

Pocky In My Pocket posted:

I tried a game as savoy and maybe im missing something but how do you do anything? If i try and expand in any direction i get aggressive expansioned to oblivion. Is there a trick i havent got yet as a newbie

It's a tricky position, yes. Your options are basically:

1- Ally the Holy roman Emperor so you can nibble on other HRE nations, very slowly, and preferably when the emperor is busy with a war somewhere else.

2- Ally France or Castile+Aragon and rely on their big stick to let you cannibalize your other neighbors.

3- Ally whomever is France's biggest enemy at the moment and use them to eat French territory.

The Influence ideas tree has a talent that cuts AE by 20%, and it's a must-have when expanding in high-value, high-nation-density areas like Italy, Germany, and Northern India.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Is there a way to make your vassals be more active in seeking claims? No matter how much I set their neighbors as rivals/hostile, they never seem to fabricate, and just keep the claims they had when I vassalized them until the expire, then never get new ones.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:

They tributize fewer countries now, are less stable, and I've found it generally pretty easy to knock them out of wars against their tributes when it does come to blows (for some reason some of the warscore modifiers in the main peace are carried over to the individual peace deal with Ming, so you don't even have to siege any chinese land to peace them out and even take a lump of ducats from them.)

Agreed. It's still a factor in expanding and such, but it's no longer the nightmare of having Timurids as tributaries and Ming drowning all of Eurasia in mercenary spam every single war and never peacing out because their manpower barely flickered down.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Tried my first Ming run, and it feels...weird. Do I try to make everyone a tributary, or keep some enemies to expand? Is it worth converting provinces, or do I just harmonize existing faiths?

It feels weird to start so big. Just walking your armies across your territory to stamp a rebellion or set p a war takes forever, and that's a problem you have in mid-game Russia or Ottomans, not from 1444!

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

Communist Walrus posted:

I'm Oman, allied with Ottomans and a massive Aq Qoyunlu. Ottomans are willing to join my war against the Mamluks, but Aq is not because they're 700 ducats in debt. I figure I'll send them a gift of money to get rid of that negative modifier and bring them into the war too. As soon as I send it to them, they immediately go 2200 ducats into debt, despite being at peace. :psyduck:

Dude, do you know how much they'd have made if the Washington Generals had won?

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

Fister Roboto posted:

It also makes you lose favors and maybe even trust?

Favors yes, trust no. It helps when you have tons of favors, if only to tell your ally to cool it down a bit. Not sure if it really makes allies more likely to join the war, as it says in the tooltip.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Doing a Timurid run for kicks after my Ming game crapped out and I'm at a loss for ideas. Religious seems pointless after the state change. Humanist also double-dips on future Mughal bonuses. I like influence, but Tims eat their cored vassals really fast anyway. I haven't played them in a while so I'm likely missing some changes.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Alright, Mughals formed in 1520. Not great, but not bad. Stretching from Basrah to Delhi, with almost everything in between nicely conquered and some choice bit across the persian gulf for trade.

Now I got options to reform the government as Iqta or indianize it. I have no idea as what those do. Are they worth the mana?

Also, institutions are spreading -really- slow. I allied ottomans mostly to keep them out of my hair, and hoping they would share that advances, but no luck so far. Any way of fixing that?

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
I don't, as my monthly quota for game expenses was eaten up by Steam sales and Warframe (because yes), and the reviews of Dharma were...rather unkind.

Finally, is Innovativeness a real thing? I mean, I know it's there and all, but other than clicking on random events that sometimes give you some and trying to keep current on techs and institutions, I'm not sure how I can actively interact with it. It's just another meter.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
I must be just bad at Mughals. After making the shift from Timurids in early 1500s, I instantly went from a good extra income to losing 20+ ducats a month (Guess timurid ideas were better than I knew). Institutions are still lagging behind, though for once my Ottoman friends offered to let me look at their homework a couple of times.

Managed to conquer all of the rim of the Persian Gulf, Armenia, Iran, a good chunk of steppe territory, and the path toward Delhi. I own tons of trade bonus provinces, but I'm yet to see a decent income boost. Gonna get started on devouring India proper now and hope that's the right thing to do.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

RabidWeasel posted:

The trade nodes in North India are proper hosed up and forming Mughals will have moved your capital (and therefore also your trade capital) into a really lovely spot.

Holy crap, that's it! I should have seen it sooner. Do I change capital again, collect somewhere else to fix it? Or just devour all the India I can without forming coalitions to get more of the flow?

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

Mantis42 posted:

I just moved my trade capital back to Persia anyways. If you conquer westward then you can move it to an even better location.

Gotcha. Gonna cost a big chunk of mana since no provinces there are as developed (even Teheran would take 370 admin!), but it's a fix. Thanks!

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

oddium posted:

it's 100x easier to deal with a guarantee than a vassal

How? I mean, it also means that they can get their own allies, though the region is not very friendly.

This does make me want to do a Poland run, though. It's been a while.

And the patch borked my Mughals run, too. Grumblegrumble.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

Family Values posted:

Day 1 (whatever the first day you can, Dec 11 I think) declare on Ajam. Your vassals can't declare an independence war while already at war. Take 100% warscore worth of provinces from Ajam - Timurids has cores on all of it anyways. Your vassals' liberty desire goes way down once Timurids relative strength more than doubles.

This. It may take a few reloads until you get an Ajam that has weak allies, but getting all your Ajam cores plus whatever else you can goes a looong way to making your vassals manageable, and at this point you don't need to fear AE. Afte ryou swallow khorasan or another of your medium vassals, you're golden.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
I don't see much point in the Danzig republic event for Poland. It's not like swallowing Teutonics was that hard to begin with, and as a vassal, they are small, don't have too many options for feeding (the rest of the region is either HRE turf or better fed to Lithuania and gotten for free once Commonwealth forms).

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

Another Person posted:

add the hansa tag back into the game and make them a midgame tier revival tag as a formable nation. lightly nerf both lubecker and hamburger ideas to reflect this.

hansa was the best. thanks for listening.

So true. I only did one Hansa game and it was ridiculously fun.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
What is the current strat for Poland? Keep prestige up to get Moldavia back as march, I guess. Other than that, I'm a bit lost. We get missions to force PUs on Bohemia and Hungary, but in both cases that puts you in conflict with Austria, never a good thing early in the game.

So I'm guessing eat Teutonics as early as possible, ally Brandenburg for help in the neighborhood? Then nab a chunk of transylvania before Ottos do? It's a shame you can't forge claims along the borders of vassals/partners; it would be really nice to get to eat some of Novgorod before Muscovy gets it all.

Not sure about ideas either.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
They really should do a France update. In 7 out of the last 7 games I played France has eaten poo poo pretty much from ther get go, being eaten by Spain, england and Burgundo in turn. Allying them is basically suicide.

It's a weird thing to see for someone who started playing when France was the end game boss.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Wow, that was a Poland game that imploded. Denmark rushed Luvonia faster than I could because my dumb Lithuanian big brother wouldn't get claims. Managed to eat a bit of Bohemia and Hungary while waiting for tech level 10 to form Commonwealth, along with all of Teutonics and even a no-CB war on Crimea when it was left without allies.

Reach tech level 10, merce into a big beautiful blob. then it all explodes into a billion revolts that drain my manpower. Just as I am getting that under control, Ottos declare jihad on me. I manage to take all of their european holdings, including Constantinople, but they keep crushing Austria, Brandenburg and Burgindy, my allies, and running up the war score like mad.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!

Red_Fred posted:

I'm playing France and it's 1591 and Protestantism and Reformation is spreading a lot through my nation. I've managed to avoid a potential disaster by doing some National Decisions however maybe I should just convert to Reformed or Protestant?

Although I sort of remember doing that in an old France game and then getting dog piled by all the Catholic nations.

Depends on how thw reformation is turning out. Checking on map how many countries are protestant, and how the Leagues are shaping up in the HRE interface is a good guide.

That said, I usually stay catholic. The papal influence mechanic is a great way to pile up Mercantilism and make buttloads of cash, get a Legitimacy boost when your heir comes out looking a bit bastard-y, and more. It's very strong and flexible.

Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Holy crap, that was close. Doing a Commonwealth run, have a Habsburg on the throne, Nobility War spawns. I spend a few years stomping on every minority possible now that you can't convert outside of stated and all orthodox/sunni hate me. I eventually win and centralize all that sweet
power.

Then I remember that my ruler is 86 years old and I have no heir.

I marry everyone on the continent who will take a polish boy, girl or ostrich as spouse. After 4 months, I get a 2/5/2 heir and my ruler -immediately- dies, averting a sucession war between Castile and Muscovy. I hope he at least manage to hold the baby before croaking!

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Sephyr
Aug 28, 2012
Probation
Can't post for 16 hours!
Something that always bugged me: do you gain anything trade-wise when you build the Kiel Canal or the others? Or is it just a shortcut to try and trap enemy navies once in a blue moon?

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