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Europa Universalis IV |OT| A Game of Blobs

Almighty

Member
Well been busy for the past few days, but finally got some vengeance on France. Destroyed them in another coalition war, but got nothing out of it. Besides some prestige, revenge, and the weakening France. So I guess i did get something out of it. Also managed to form Great Britain as well.

Working on/trying to figure out colonization now. Managed to grab some provenience in West Africa though looks like Spain and Portugal have beaten me to it. I am making a grab for North America now hopefully I can grab a good chunk because right now it seems that it is just me. Denmark swallowed up Sweden now(they took Norway as well as well) so there is some potential that my ally could become one of my biggest rivals. Their fleet has already jumped dramatically in power, enough to make me a little nervous.
 

i_am_ben

running_here_and_there
Anyone have a weird bug where you go to war but can't siege the enemy's cities?


Also, I'm playing as Burgundy and I just know the French are coming for me. I've been trying to build an alliance but Spain and England both view me as a rival and refuse to ally with me.
 

Timurid

Member
Anyone have a weird bug where you go to war but can't siege the enemy's cities?


Also, I'm playing as Burgundy and I just know the French are coming for me. I've been trying to build an alliance but Spain and England both view me as a rival and refuse to ally with me.

My advice to a fellow Burgundy player is try to avoid any conflicts with Austria until you build a sizable force. France is nothing to worry about tbh.
 

ZZMitch

Member
Does anyone know if sieges are effected by the size of the attacking army? Like will a 2k army siege just as fast as a 20k army? I see number of cannons helps but nothing about number of infantry units.
 
Does anyone know if sieges are effected by the size of the attacking army? Like will a 2k army siege just as fast as a 20k army? I see number of cannons helps but nothing about number of infantry units.

You can test this empirically yourself. Break the army into multiple stacks, watch to see if the percentage changes.

(I think it does)
 

xenist

Member
You can test this empirically yourself. Break the army into multiple stacks, watch to see if the percentage changes.

(I think it does)

You can detach a force sufficient for a siege from a larger army automatically. So I guess that implies size does matter. I haven't tried manually changing it.
 
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I'm still playing my first game and I figured I would try to conquer the Baltic sea region with Sweden since there's an achievement for it. I have a few questions.

1. When does the game end? I fear I'm running out of time.
2. I have two vassals sitting on prime real estate and I assume I won't get the trophy unless I absorb them. What's the best way of engulfing a vassal without causing too much damage to stability and diplomatic relations?
3. I know I can sell provinces. Is there also a way to make an offer to buy one?
 
1. When does the game end? I fear I'm running out of time.

1821.

2. I have two vassals sitting on prime real estate and I assume I won't get the trophy unless I absorb them. What's the best way of engulfing a vassal without causing too much damage to stability and diplomatic relations?

Uh you just diplomatically annex them. Get relations to +190 and then the option appears. It takes a while so if you're literally 5 years away from the end or something, you're going to have to cancel vasalisation and invade, or just invade straight off and take the huge stab hits.

3. I know I can sell provinces. Is there also a way to make an offer to buy one?

No.
 
Thanks! I have 41 years left so I think I might make it in time. I was looking for an annex option, but I must have glossed over it.
 
Yeah, that didn't go very smoothly. I annexed one vassal which made the other two upset. Now I've wasted half of the time and I only made a tiny gain. It turned out that all my neighbors were part of enormous alliances and I need to conquer them in steps. First one war to break the treaties and then a second war to gain new provinces. The good news is that I have 8,000 gold I can convert into troops.
 
Gustavus Adolphus would be so proud of you
Damn right! It wasn't easy, but I somehow managed to diplo-annex all three vassals with 18 months to spare. Getting the last four provinces required me to repeatedly clash against Russia and Spain until my war score was high enough for them to cede the provinces.


I had a lot of fun and now I grasp most of the complex systems. Next time I'll try a merchant nation since I never really understood the trading system and I never bothered investing in a navy.
 

Dina

Member
Around 1680 and France are a huge problem. My allies never join me in a war and France had 300% of my active troops. My colonies give me around -200 border friction relations with the BBB. A. Their reinforce rate also kicks my ass. Game seems lost.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
What happens if I annex the papal state? Anything bad? I kinda really want to now because they are annoying to deal with in the papal elections.
(Yes, I am the pope and want to annex the papal state:)
 
What happens if I annex the papal state? Anything bad? I kinda really want to now because they are annoying to deal with in the papal elections.
(Yes, I am the pope and want to annex the papal state:)

You might get asked to release Roma, you did sometimes in Eu3. Otherwise they just move to another bishopric, often somewhere in Germany.
 
Couple of things I noticed in my playthroughs:

1.The AI really struggles to keep France united. Better for me since I've mostly played Italian minors.

2.Korea tends to get huge early on, may be a consequence of the Japanese daimyo mechanic that keeps them at bay for a long time.

You might get asked to release Roma, you did sometimes in Eu3. Otherwise they just move to another bishopric, often somewhere in Germany.

Yup, same as EU3. With the slight inconvenience that now I can't get in the graces of the Pope because the HRE was founded and the (new) Papal States are lost in the sea of grey.

Is there a way to do an AI only-game? Sort of a timelapse?
 

Famassu

Member
So which Europa Universalis is the best point to jump into the series (from an accessibility POV)? I've been interested in this game series since I read a couple of reviews of Europa Universalis II, but never saw this game in stores so never ended up buying it (and digital wasn't a thing back then). Or are the old games even available?

Or would Hearts of Iron be a better place to jump into these kinds of games?
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
So which Europa Universalis is the best point to jump into the series (from an accessibility POV)? I've been interested in this game series since I read a couple of reviews of Europa Universalis II, but never saw this game in stores so never ended up buying it (and digital wasn't a thing back then). Or are the old games even available?

Or would Hearts of Iron be a better place to jump into these kinds of games?

EUIV easily.
 

xeris

Member
So which Europa Universalis is the best point to jump into the series (from an accessibility POV)? I've been interested in this game series since I read a couple of reviews of Europa Universalis II, but never saw this game in stores so never ended up buying it (and digital wasn't a thing back then). Or are the old games even available?

Or would Hearts of Iron be a better place to jump into these kinds of games?

I'll second EUIV.
 

Lyng

Member
EUIV easily.

Yeah I agree. Especially since the tutorial in EUIV is actually really good. Something that has not been the case in paradox games until now.
Also the UI is much clearer and less convoluted now.
It is now quiet possible, imo, to jump straight in and just play the tutorial and then have a go at the game without the need to read guides and manuals beforehand.
To be honest I think this is the best and most user friendly grand strategy game from Paradox so far.
 
I wanted to try something a bit more challenging and started up a game as Hosokawa, one of the daimyo in the Japanese Shogunate. It's a bit of a gamble, but right now I'm expanding fast into new territories and hopefully I will be able to build up a strong enough economy to support the powerful army I need to conquer Japan.

My provinces are highlighted with bright orange far to the east.

 

Carcetti

Member
So which Europa Universalis is the best point to jump into the series (from an accessibility POV)? I've been interested in this game series since I read a couple of reviews of Europa Universalis II, but never saw this game in stores so never ended up buying it (and digital wasn't a thing back then). Or are the old games even available?

Or would Hearts of Iron be a better place to jump into these kinds of games?

I've tried a lot of Paradox games. EU IV along with CK2 is the most accessible and fun to me, where previous EU games felt a bit boring for some reason. Victoria and Hearts of Iron I've tried but they felt like exercises in masochism.
 

Kabouter

Member
Hearts of Iron would be the absolute worst place to start.

I think it depends a lot on your own background. Being a WW2 nerd makes Hearts of Iron considerably less difficult than it otherwise might be, just like being an avid football fan helps you not suck at Football Manager.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Game just got a 12mb patch, anyone know for what? If someone finds the patch notes, please post it.
 
Here is the first hotfix to adress some of the most serious issues reported.

We have planned to push out a second hotfix, mostly with multiplayer focus, either later this week or very early next week depending on when we can test it enough to guarantee we nothing new is broken. Thanks for buying the game and thank your for your patience.

Also, this will not break your ironman saves.

Patch notes 1.1.1
------------------------
- Lots of localisation fixes (including the localised tutorials)
- Fixed crashes when failing to retrieve resolution (merged 8252)
- Hints and tutorial textboxes can now have scrollbars (fixes for too long text for non english)
- Sound are now disabled on standalone server.
- Chat now works with standalone server.
- Peasants' War more likely to end the longer it has been going on
- Peasants' War will not happen again for at least 10 years
- Fixed broken continent all trigger and fixed adding hidden modifiers.
- Jihad achievement should now work again
- African Power achievement should now work again
- Ruina Imperii achievement should now work again
- Correct version is now listed in serverbrowser
- Fixed crashes when failing to retrieve resolution
- Fixed issue with black areas on TI (bad/old graphics cards)
- Optimized mission and revolt risk alerts
- Optimized when we disable trees/terrain/water/borders
- Multiplayer lobby: Keep scrollbar position when a new server is added
- Fixed savegame lockup when having only one core
- Fixed white glow on Linux cursors
- Fixed some more broken localisations
- Religious rebels can no longer flip the Papacy's capital province
- Religious heathens breaking your country results in large prestige loss
- Religious rebels breaking the Papacy results in a stability loss
- MP: Renamed "Connect to IP" to "Connect to ID"
- MP: Version should now be correct in server browser
- Dx9: If we fail to determine refresh rate, default to 60
- Normal borderfriction now only applies if its the home territory bordering each other.
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?713122-Hotfix-version-1.1.1
 
Revolutionary france appeared, waffled around doing nothing much for a few years, but then the revolution modifier annoyed me so I thought "why not just reinstall the monarchy?". Game crashed to desktop as soon as Rev. France switched back to France -_-
 

fanboi

Banned
You know what they should add?

When playing MP, they should add "Turn on AI" so you can leave the computer without leave the game.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
Yeah my trade strategy with Portugal has me so rich that I literally cannot go in the red no matter what I do lol. I fluctuate between 150-180 gold/month with the most expensive advisers that I can buy, fleet and army limits maxed, and with the maintenance cost maxed out (why bother lowering it?).

The trade in Asia in ~1650 or so is not that lucrative. I guess it could be if you really focused on that. It is probably a great strategy for the Ottomans. It is just a ton of effort for Portugal to bother with this. I have some spice islands, which got me the East Indies bonus which is an extra merchant, but it is kind of a waste of effort. I am just doing it because my colonists need something to do. It is really the Caribbean and South America that is making me most of my money.

For Portugal or Spain: Take ALL the African provinces in the Sevilla trade zone. Lock down the Caribbean, lock down the Ivory Coast = rich
 

Jhriad

Member
I fluctuate between 150-180 gold/month with the most expensive advisers that I can buy, fleet and army limits maxed, and with the maintenance cost maxed out (why bother lowering it?).

in ~1650


Damn son.

- Normal borderfriction now only applies if its the home territory bordering each other.

What does this mean? Is it just cores?
 

Xater

Member
I wish I could generate this much money. I own all of the british isles and I have to neglect my armies to make any money. Can't colonize because everything is too far way. :(

Is there a way to speed up the process with colonization when you are playing as England?
 

Kabouter

Member
I wish I could generate this much money. I own all of the british isles and I have to neglect my armies to make any money. Can't colonize because everything is too far way. :(

Is there a way to speed up the process with colonization when you are playing as England?

Get fleet basing rights from a country with cores nearer to where you want to colonize.
 

Xater

Member
Get fleet basing rights from a country with cores nearer to where you want to colonize.

Aaaaah so that#s how that works. Gotta see if Norway is up for that. They are the vassal of Denmark in my game and I have a great relationship with them.
 

mkenyon

Banned
My wife goes to bed Saturday night at 10:30, I told her I would be down shortly.

Next thing I know, I see light coming through the window. So good.

First training game as Denmark. Went pretty well, but I wasn't careful enough with creating alliances and friends early on. I ended up being pretty much eternal enemies with Austria, Bohemia, Poland, and Lithuania.

I gotta say, despite it pushing one towards the Baltic as Denmark, everything in the game makes it seem like it would make a lot more sense to slowly take over the HRE area instead.
 

zoku88

Member
huh, apparently ai ottoman empire doesn't do so hot if it fails to conquer Constantinople near the beginning

As Venice, I decided to guarantee Byzantium and preemptively sent my troops to Naxos and my fleet to Constantinople in preparation for the Dow on the Byzantine.


About a hundred years later and they've lost almost all of their western lands, a lot of it due to rebels.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
I wish I could generate this much money. I own all of the british isles and I have to neglect my armies to make any money. Can't colonize because everything is too far way. :(

Is there a way to speed up the process with colonization when you are playing as England?

The key to making money via trading is dominating the important trade zones that feed back to your capital trade zone. Looking at the trade map, if you could get the Caribbean, Ivory Coast, and North America, you should be making lots of money. You would have trade routes that, with trade power, can push all the New World trade and eventually Asian trade directly to London and bypass Sevilla and Bordeaux.

The key is getting to the Caribbean and Ivory coast before Spain/Portugal. You will probably have to wage some war to keep them bottled up.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
The key to making money via trading is dominating the important trade zones that feed back to your capital trade zone. Looking at the trade map, if you could get the Caribbean, Ivory Coast, and North America, you should be making lots of money. You would have trade routes that, with trade power, can push all the New World trade and eventually Asian trade directly to London and bypass Sevilla and Bordeaux.

The key is getting to the Caribbean and Ivory coast before Spain/Portugal. You will probably have to wage some war to keep them bottled up.

I have most of the S america and some N america but not that insane income. How did you spread your merchants?
 

Forsete

Gold Member
You know what they should add?

When playing MP, they should add "Turn on AI" so you can leave the computer without leave the game.

AI would just ruin everything.

I remember in Victoria when I once changed to another nation and then back, the AI had ruined everything. Sold all my stockpiles of glorious coal and small arms. :(
 

Hari Seldon

Member
I have most of the S america and some N america but not that insane income. How did you spread your merchants?

The key while you are waiting for colonies is to absolutely dominate Sevilla. None of your colonies mean anything if you are not taking the vast majority of the Sevilla trade.

So take out all the Morroco and Algiers provinces in the trade zone. There are two of them that give the +5% trade power IIRC. Prioritize building + trade power shit when you have diplo points to spare. Don't take any decisions that decrease trade power.

For merchants, in order of priority: Sevilla, Genoa, Ivory Coast, Caribbean. For colonists, work a chain towards the Caribbean and then get all of those nice 5-7 base tax provinces. Get some Ivory Coast so you can put claims on the natives. Do not worry about North America, it is useless.

Push Ivory Coast trade to the Caribbean not to Mauretanian Coast.

Dominate Sevilla with your merchant fleet. I think I have like 26 light ships in Sevilla haha. Send around 10 light ships to Genoa to try and leach as much as you can. Depending on how Ivory Coast is looking in terms of trade power you either need a large merchant fleet or you need to send in the Conquistadors.

In my game, I have no competition in the Caribbean since it is just me and Spain there, pushing to Sevilla. All of the Brazil trade gets pushed to Ivory Coast by default, then Ivory Coast pushes back to the Caribbean. The rest of South America gets pushed to the Caribbean. In my game Spain has most of this but I am reaping the trade money haha. In my game I also have colonists in Zanzibar and Gulf of Aden pushing around the horn of Africa. The New World stuff is more lucrative by far for me atm.
 
I had to break free from Japan earlier than I planned since they started to annex me. Before I got the chance to build up an army they preceded to join a war against mainland China preventing me from declaring a war of independence. When the annexation process was at 77% I finally got my chance. With the gold I had saved up I could get a deep stack of 21. Even though Japan had twice as many troops, it was easy to defeat them when they were spread out wide.


I noticed that Japan changed name (to Empire) and government form (to Feudal Monarchy) when they took over Korea. Did that screw me out of getting the achievement for conquering Japan as a daimyo?
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Hm, if I start a coalition war, can I still make individual peace deals with other countries that might be included in that war or can I only make the deal with the main coalition target?

As opposed to having a normal war and being able to make peace with each country individually.
 

mkenyon

Banned
I haven't quite figured that out precisely yet, but from what I can tell you can. I think you can *not* if the country in question is a vassal or a lesser member in a union with another country that is in the coalition.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
I haven't quite figured that out precisely yet, but from what I can tell you can. I think you can *not* if the country in question is a vassal or a lesser member in a union with another country that is in the coalition.

Its not a vassal or union member, just a small country. But I know that you cannot make a deal when you are in a coalition and didnt start the war at least.
 

Clevinger

Member
Is Genoa any fun to play as? Or that Russian republic (I think there's a Russian republic?)?

I tried The Hansa for a bit, but it seems boring to be in the HRE if you can't become emperor and every time I take a province around me the emperor demands it back.
 

Son1x

Member
Is Genoa any fun to play as? Or that Russian republic (I think there's a Russian republic?)?

I tried The Hansa for a bit, but it seems boring to be in the HRE if you can't become emperor and every time I take a province around me the emperor demands it back.

You don't have to give it back. Just claim it, core it, don't give it back and wait 10 years for the modifier.

The Russian republic is Novgorod. Haven't tried them yet, but you'd just have to worry about Muscovy. If you manage to get an upper hand against them, you should be able to form Russia soon after.

Genoa, I have no idea, but it is also in HRE though, so you'll be asked to return the provinces around you.
 
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