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Ahh, gotcha. I mostly build them for bragging rights alone once you reach that phase of the game in which you are basically rolling in ducats.
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Oct 11, 2018 17:21
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Fister Roboto posted:
What a dream. All my Ethiopia runs ended in tragedy once the Ottos finished what Mamluk land I didn't eat and stormed south.
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Oct 11, 2018 22:24
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Wafflecopper posted:Suez is really useful if you're playing an empire that straddles Europe and Asia and want to move your navy between the med and the Indian Ocean without sailing all the way around africa Oh, I can see that, but in those games I usually just have a local navy for the spice islands region and another for the Mediterranean. By the time the canals appear you've likely already crushed other navies that could dwarf your own, in my experience. and even if not, 10k ducats buys a -lot- of ships.
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Oct 12, 2018 01:29
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Any tips for good idea groups for England? Trying my first run after Rule Britannia. Also, is it worth it to go anglican?
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Oct 14, 2018 16:49
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oddium posted:you only have to fight france once and it's well before you get ideas. unless you don't want a free pu What do you mean, just once? I thought there'd be the early war (usually over Maine), and the you get the CB to unite them, meaning at the very least 2 wars.
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Oct 14, 2018 20:41
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Hot drat does the AI colonize fast. I was testing the new england missions, had just PU'd France (which wrecked my manpower and cash for a while, since Burgundy and pals launched a coalition war almost immediately), and after I nibbled Scotland and Ireland to get back in gear anf finish other missions, Spaoin formed and was already all over the Brazilian coast and Caribbean when I made my first colony. I picked Exploration as the second idea group; was that too late?
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Oct 16, 2018 18:44
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Blinks77 posted:Too late? Beat on Spain and nick their stuff. They're just colonising for you. Yeah, just started doing that. With France helping it's not really hard, but I thought I'd manage to reach at least -some- choice bits before them. Spain has been pretty peaceful on the world stage all game, so it figures they'd just colonize like mad. I did beat them to India and the spice islands, though, and managed circumnavigation early because I rolled an explorer with ridiculously amazing stats that then came home to wreck the danish navy for good. Question: When you guys colononize, do you leave the colonist there all the while until it finishes or do you recall him to start another (and another)? Is there an 'optimal' point to do that so you can cover more ground?
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Oct 16, 2018 19:45
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What gives better bang for your buck: trade buildings on your colonies or production buildings there? What are the best trade node chains to pursue as england? Don't think I ever managed to chain merchants all the way from Malacca to the english channel. Also, holy hell, Spain is a tough nut to crack in the mid-1500s. The Iberian wedding fired super early for them, and in every war they just munch through my troops, my french vassal's stack (it helps that they basically forgot two stack of their soldiers in Ireland after i conquered it and seem to be in no hurry to bring them back -grumble) AND Austria's. I even waited until they were engaged in Morocco for the last one, sending my navy to Gibraltar to lock them in Africa, but they just insta-nuked a coastal fort and ran back to Europe to lift all my sieges.
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Oct 18, 2018 15:45
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Deceitful Penguin posted:Wasn't this in contrast with 3 which had a very different system? True. It doesn't bother me (and I'm not on the US or Europe), since it's alright for a game to have a theme, and they put in a lot of work to make fun new countries and missions to play all over the globe, but it's weird that trade is always going to flow the same way no matter what crazy, hideous map you end up creating. Then again, I can imagine the nightmare of coding, rules and sliders that a dynamic trade system would entail. Or it would be so simple and easy to game that it would break things from the moment you for 50.01% trade power somewhere.
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Oct 20, 2018 17:29
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MaxieSatan posted:The main issue I see happening with dynamic tradeflow is "all trade gets stuck in Anatolia and China from day one." Hmm. That's not a bad idea. Maybe re-evaluating the nodes and routes at the end of each Age? Could still be gamed, but people would mostly still do and grab what they could along the way as they always do.
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Oct 20, 2018 18:28
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Fister Roboto posted:The Ottomans start getting really powerful on day 1 and they never stop. If you can't strangle them in the crib (which is no small task either) you're going to have a hell of a time dealing with them later. My recipe for early Otto nuking involves waiting until they are at war far away (Mamluks of Iraq) to unleash a triple-alliance war on them, preferably involving Muscovy/Russia. They will usually beat enemy stacks, but will be spread thin, and with luck you can take all their European provinces and park on the Contantinople/Edirne crossings, where even they will take massive penalties if they try to attack you. Wait for warscore to tick up and don't be too greedy in the first couple of wars, unless you are Austria or Poland and can gain a lot by gulping down their provinces directly.
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Oct 22, 2018 14:20
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Lucas Archer posted:Unfortunately the Commonwealth hates me and has had me rivaled for about 75 years now. I’m hoping the Ottos and the Commonwealth will get into a hellwar so I can invade from the west. I have the biggest navy in the world, save Ming, so I should be able to hold the straights if I’m able to rush Constantinople. Sometimes it's good to feed your allies a bit if they are not growing fast enough. Whenever you are at war together and one of the enemies has a border with your ally, give him a province or two in the peace. Heck, sometimes even start a war to help them. I remember once as Russia, while allied with Austria, noticing that the Habsburgs were still with their original borders way into the 1550s, and then declared a war on Genoa just so I could feed bits of Venice to my austrian friends. After that they started growing properly. And while swallowing France is a big deal, takes a while and costs a lot of diplo points, I always find it worthwhile. It's a heavy vassal, always hovering close to disloyal, especially if you get a Backward/Tyrant monarch, or one of those events that increase liberty desire, and then you are just a single powerful rival supporting them from a hellwar with two world powers, minimum. I much prefer smaller vassals that you can feed without fear for the long term. Question: Do siege pips do anything for admirals?
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Oct 22, 2018 17:33
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skasion posted:Better yet, psychopathically crack down on heresy the moment it begins with the force of a thousand suns so the league war never fires. This. It's a pain the rear end chasing down reformation centers as they spawn and wiping them out, but you'll feel better for it. Even getting two centers per wave will do a lot to make the Reformation sputter out and lose gas that much sooner. As for giving away enemy provinces, I still think it can help. Sure, not to the detriment of your own growth, but if you are risking too much AE or have already gotten whatever is geographically defensible/can be cored? I still stand by it. And giving the ottos reasons to attack my big allies is a good thing, not bad, as I want to create more chances to beat on them with my pals. Not to mention that it's better if they are waging war to re-conquer their old digs than acquiring new ones from weaker countries out there. Nothing worse than gearing up for a war with Ottos and find that your big allies won't join because of High Opinion Toward Enemy. Some nice border tension goes a way to keeping them growling at each other.
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Oct 22, 2018 22:22
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AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:My Army tradition is usually that high also....it doesnt mean I ever get good generals. I also tend to roll lame generals, even with sky-high Army tradition. Hell, i just finished an UK run and the ONE general I got with more than two siege pips across 400 years was one time I made my heir a general, and then he promptly died a few months later. I can also vouch for Quality. I can remember several occasions, especially later in the game, in which wars that were going only so-so turned into slaughters as soon as I got the +10% infantry combat ability power.
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Oct 30, 2018 23:18
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Fister Roboto posted:+1 army tradition is always good and +1 enemy attrition is great for punching above your weight. Is it really, though? I have done a few games with both that ability, the policy for extra enemy attrition, and luring enemies into snowy lovely sieges, and never really felt a difference. For smaller enemy countries, you're usually just crushing them, and bigshots seem to just take endless loans and fill up on mercs, then disregard attrition.
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Oct 30, 2018 23:22
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Brother Entropy posted:hey, what's a good country to play as if i wanna force myself to actually give a poo poo about naval stuff for once but i don't wanna mess around with colonizing? Denmark/Sweden is a fun naval game. Start making the Baltic your personal pool, then expand to make the North Sea and english channel also your turf.
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Oct 31, 2018 01:27
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Blinks77 posted:Also means you get access to French Missions. Which gives you easy means of conquering into Italy. I had no idea this was a thing. I'm finishing my first UK run and while it was nicely strong (did all missions except those involving becoming HRE emperor), I could have used french missions. How do you access them?
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Nov 1, 2018 16:16
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Fister Roboto posted:If you have a border with Ming, their mandate will crater. At 0, all of their troops will take 50% more damage in combat, which makes them a complete pushover. If you want to get rid of Ming permanently, you can try causing a Mingsplosion. Declare war on them, roll over their armies, and occupy their poo poo until they have 20 war exhaustion and rebels start popping. Then sign a white peace and watch the rebels go to town. Does it have to be a white peace? Why not snag some freebies if the war has gone so well?
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Nov 3, 2018 17:07
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Groke posted:I may arguably have been spending too much time playing this drat game recently; tonight I dreamed that I personally converted to Coptic Christianity. What bonus did you pick?
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Nov 11, 2018 15:15
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Groke posted:Well I've been playing a ridiculous Mamluks game where I converted after I (or my already-Coptic neighbours to the south) had all the holy cities, so I guess all of them at once? So it wasn't just a dream, but a -wet- dream, my friend.
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Nov 11, 2018 17:10
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mmkay posted:
Gah, so drat jealous. I've never gotten even close to a world conquest run. Any tips on pointers to how this went?
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Nov 12, 2018 23:00
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I started a Mamluks run for kicks and it's going rather well; it's not even 1500 yet and I already ate all of Fezzan, most of Aq Qonlui to the point that I reached the Black Sea by getting Trebizond. Hejaz and Byzantyum are both vassal, Poland and Bohemia my allies (gonna skip Poland for Russia once it forms), and I got the lion's share of the Anatolian minors. I don't feel ready to take on Ottos directly yet, unless they get stuck in a hellwar. They had a couple that came close, but in the end they eked out minor victories (and my allies would not join if I had declared). I've seen that creating Rum is an option and their ideas seem rather good. Do they get good missions? Not that Mamluk missions are all that grand. Also tried tangling with Ethiopia once, but my manpower was a bit low after a war with Qara Qonliu and they had a swarm of allies with vassals. I won, but got only a measly three provinces. A bit worried of letting them too free to grow.
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Nov 15, 2018 16:44
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Groke posted:Hit the Ottos first, early and often, never let them grow strong. Ally and guarantee Byzantium, they will join you in every war against the green menace. I vassalized Byzantium and fed them Athens. I'm currently biding my time until all allies join a war against Ottos. Just waiting for them to get tangled in Hungary/Venice or try to defend Tunis from Spain and I'll hit them as hard as possible, even if I have to take out some loans. Can't be long now as I already closed all of their non-european paths of expansion.
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Nov 15, 2018 18:03
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It's half amusing and half maddening how the AI always singles you out for any war in which you are a part of, no matter how tangential you are. I join Russia's war on Korea as Mamluks just so I don't lose the alliance and go about my business, preparing to take all of East africa.... WTH why is the whole korean army pillaging my half of Persia instead of fighting the ruskies? They either wove through a bunch of russian stacks and some 6000 miles to get to me, or crossed all of Ming, SE Asia, and 3-4 of the Indian sub-states for the express purpose of taking a dump in my corn flakes rather than fighting the guys sieging their provinces. It seems to happen nearly every time; they will let their capitals get fully sieged by a neighbor's 12-stack just so they can come to my lands and ruin my prosperity.
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Nov 19, 2018 05:56
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Not meaning to add to the wonderful pile of systems and rules of EU4, but it would be fun if there was an option to have mercenaries who are pillaging provinces to cost less or no upkeep.
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Nov 19, 2018 20:04
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Playing my first real Ming game, and it feels...weird. I got as many tributaries as I could, except for a couple that wouldn't, and left a few venues of conquest. Those are running out, though. How do I grow? Just colonization? Russia is also starting to approach from the west and about to tank my mandate, especially because I foolishly colonized a bit to the north through a gap in my triibutaries there. I think I can take them in a war (I'm rich as hell and have been keeping up with Institutions), but that would only shift the frontier a bit further back and still ruin my mandate, right?
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Nov 30, 2018 16:40
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MaxieSatan posted:
Yeah, I've been using colonies mostly to get all of the Spice Island on the triutary train. Not sure there's anyone I can release russian siberian holdings to, though. I may be able to sell my own provices in Siberia to a tributary to get a paper shield up, though. It'll look ugly on the map, but might work.
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Nov 30, 2018 17:31
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ZypherIM posted:Am I missing something or is the holy war CB from the religious ideas just significantly better than the conquest CB from fabricating claims? I think either way it is still good to make claims because it reduces the eventual coring cost of stuff I take though. Yes, and that is very much the point. Conquest is the bare-bones excuse for going to war anf grabbing land; it gives you no freebies. Holy war is like early Imperialism. Sure, you have to invest a bit into Ideas to unlock it, but if you are in the right (and I mean wrong) neighborhood, it pays off. Less AE, no waiting for slow claim-building to explore wars of opportunity, tons of prestige. It's especially good for Austria (helps fight the Reformation), Ottomans who want to invade Europe early on, Ethiopia, and even Anglican England. It's best to get it early if you are getting it at all, though. From the late 1600s and on everyone gets Imperialism and Nationalism. One is broad and great, the other is more narrow and freaking amazing.
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Nov 30, 2018 18:56
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ZypherIM posted:Cool, I took religious because I wanted more missionary strength to deal with all these sunni assholes messing up my fetish gods. Every other country in the area is sunni. Humanist versus Religious is as debate as old as EU4. Both are great. Religious allows for faster and earlier conversions, a great early CB, very stable True Faith provinces and better Papal Power if you are catholic. Humanist is more hands-off: fill out the tree and your whole realm gets less chaotic without you having to do a thing. the blanket -2 unrest helps, stacks with the increased tolerance bonus, and the chunk of added Religios unity keeps things chugging along. Plus, it allows for some amazing policies; one tacks an extra -5 years of separatism, making conquest almost painless, especially if you are taking on provinces of a tolerated culture. It also depends on your coiuntry's ideas. Mughals, for instance, have some very Humanist-y ideas on their own, so getting the tree might be overkill depending on your playstyle. Likewise, Castile also has some strong religious bonuses that might make Religious moot. I tend to lean slightly toward humanist (except for special cases), but I've been known to take both on occasion.
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Nov 30, 2018 19:41
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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:The AI is already more scared to engage in combat than they should be. Making them even more reluctant to start battles is probably the opposite of what you want to do. No kidding. I invaded Japan with two 30-stacks as Ming, with only Defensive Ideas partially filled out. Japan also had around the same number of troops, but spent the whole war running away from me like the plague while i sieged everything, then ambushed each of their armies in turn. Bit of an anticlimax.
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Dec 1, 2018 20:56
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Ham Sandwiches posted:It works absolutely great when you have a really strong vassal or HRE swarm in EU4 currently Ehh, sometimes. I've played Poland enough to know that your big Lithuanian brother mostly just ambles its big stack around, abandoning sieges at 49%, and getting stackwiped by sitting still as three other armies converge on it. Vassal swarm works mostly because of its sheer insane volume. Usually the first 2-3 battles are pathetic losses as the smaller 15-20 unit stacks reach first, but after that it becomes a glorious pile of 150+ units making Verdun look like a schoolyard brawl.
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Dec 2, 2018 07:03
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Huh, I had missed that. Gotta try starting a colony next to a juicy Central America/Spice Island local power, send a big fleet with some 2 buffed stacks, and just swallow half of the country for God it as soon as the ships are docked and fixed.
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Dec 4, 2018 05:07
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Doing a lazy Castile run just to own all the colonies in the world. Vassalize Portugal, stomp on England when they try to sail, eat France , the usual stuff. Had a long-running alliance with Brandenburg, which helped them turn into Prussia and dominate northern/central Europe. Just as I'm thinking about beaking the alliance and bringing them down to size a bit...oops, russian king dies, and I inherit giant Prussia after a short succession war with Russia (made trivial by the many doomstacks of 120k prussian troops I just got). So now I have 50 years left on the clock and no goals. Suggestions? Ottomans have already been crushed, France is mine, so it nearly all of the UK and the only colonies not mine are in Australia and not for long. PS- There really should be an achievment for building all three channels. PS2- Weird. I had my navy of 35 Threedeckers, 43 great frigates, 30 archipelago frigates and some transports utterly -owned- by 25 british Threedeckers. As in, I lost all of my heavy ships while the brits lost 2 and captured a bunch of mine. Do their naval ideas and doctrines really make that much difference?
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Feb 8, 2019 17:11
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AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:That...that doesnt sound lazy at all! Castile may come in second in the "chill game" category now, right after Ottomans. You're no longer stuck with your dumb early incompetent kings, keeping France at bay is easy, you're due for a PU that will double your power soon, and your main colonial rival is a-way weaker than you and b-your neighbor, so eating/vassalizing is easy. That, and their missions are really good. Here, you want northenr Africa? Have a bunch of claims. Oh, you're in the americas? Have ALL of the claims to those juicy gold-producing provinces! And a unique naval doctrine that takes your treasure fleets from great to downright usury! ANd a unique splendor perk that makes your troops take waaay less damage for a whole Age! I really have to try a reckless style of play sometime. I pretty much have to have my stability at 3 all the time, never take loans, no trucebreaking, eating just as much land not to get into trouble. I don't think I could pull off a world conquest run, but it would be fun to just go crazy and steamroll the place, who cares about revolts and such when you have endless money and mercs?
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Feb 9, 2019 15:40
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Moonshine Rhyme posted:500 hours in playing, I just saw what I am pretty sure was my first peaceful personal union (acquired by a player). The weird thing though, it was my friend playing Aragon getting a natural PU on Castile but not triggering the Iberian Wedding Insist that by Paradox Law you are now entitled to boss him/her around.
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Feb 19, 2019 01:28
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What is the current power-strat for France? Been feeling like giving the old nightmare (currently middle power) a spin for nostalgia sake. Any key region to take/personal unions to grab?
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Feb 28, 2019 17:11
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holy crap, that's a fine Mongolian horde. How did you start it and how did you go about it?
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Mar 1, 2019 17:51
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Tried my first custom nation, a colonizing little powerhouse in the Spice Islands around Siak. Went decently enough at first, except now I'm basically pressed against a wall of Ming tributaries and getting really behind on tech due to institutions. That, and without my usual presence in europe to cracks down in colinizers, both Portugal and Castile have already rounded past South Africa and grabbed every bit of land west of Madagascar.
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Mar 4, 2019 17:51
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canepazzo posted:Thanks! That thing with the "return province" has been stumping me for ever, I didn't even think it worked like that - thought it only worked for existing tags. Ohh. I've wanted to do an early revoke HRE game since forever. Gonna try this later! hopefully I can pull it off.
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Mar 10, 2019 19:08
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Well, my quick Revoke game hit the skids. it was going well, despite some alliance juggling going sour. The big problem was my allies not wanting to eat some of the provinces in Italy. Then when the time came for the second war against the Papal states, Ferrara would take the other provinces but I could not take Rome since I could not make it a core. What did i do wrong? Is there a way to get a claim on Rome if we are just giving provinces away to allies without taking any for ourselves? It's still 1560 so I guess there's still time to course correct, but I'm a bit stumped. Also, how should I treat Bohemia and Hungary? I had a brief alliance with Hungary to stomp Venice, but broke it when I got an event for forcing the PU and am waiting out the truce timer. I allied/married Bohemia and so far they have helped a lot, but I'm afraid tihs may be locking me out of another union.
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Mar 11, 2019 02:26
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