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Europa Universalis IV |OT| A Game of Blobs

ag-my001

Member
I'm a bit disappointed in the save game converter. I decided to export my current CK2 game just to see what it would look like. Basically it just converts the political map as best it can. Unfortunately it leaves out much of the detail I was hoping for it to contain. The main thing being that Italy (me) flat out controls Castillian territory instead of Castille being the junior in a PU as it should be. The HRE also gets a bit messed up, as Lotharingia gets a ton of territory, but I guess that'll balance out the loss of a major Burgandy presence.

As it currently stands, it will be a bloberific game between Italy, France, England, and the Byzantines. Hoping the Mongol invasions that just started can kick Byz out of the Levant, otherwise that blob will roll everyone.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
I'm a bit disappointed in the save game converter. I decided to export my current CK2 game just to see what it would look like. Basically it just converts the political map as best it can. Unfortunately it leaves out much of the detail I was hoping for it to contain. The main thing being that Italy (me) flat out controls Castillian territory instead of Castille being the junior in a PU as it should be. The HRE also gets a bit messed up, as Lotharingia gets a ton of territory, but I guess that'll balance out the loss of a major Burgandy presence.

As it currently stands, it will be a bloberific game between Italy, France, England, and the Byzantines. Hoping the Mongol invasions that just started can kick Byz out of the Levant, otherwise that blob will roll everyone.

Could you post the map? (f10)
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
That mod that adds the refrain song "We have Casus Belli" every time you get a Casus Belli made me think of more applications of the same thing. Every time a country stops existing: "Another one bites the dust".

Funny, though I am not sure how people could play the game modded like this constantly :p
 

ag-my001

Member
The years are a bit off, so it's not an exact transfer. The main difference are the Ilkhanate gains in CK2, along with me picking up the duchy of Lombardy.

CK2:
ck2_map_1_zps94830525.png

EU4:

Indirectly, these do answer another question I had about the converter: Revolting vassals will still stay with the country (see Poland). So my hope of converting during a massive Byzantine civil war won't do much good.
 

Omikron

Member
So this is currently my Japan... thinking I am done trying to colonise and competing with Russia. Got in a pretty big war with them and the Shun and had my whole army crushed before rebuilding and sweeping them all out of my territory. Thanks mercs.

Think I might work on south-east asia and then back up through India perhaps.

 

ZZMitch

Member
Has anyone else noticed 2 or 3 German minors blobbing through the HRE? It might be just the two games I have played but in my first game as Novgorod/Russia Holstein and Saxony got huge (Holstein had the 5th largest army in the world). Now in my second game as Naples Trier and Salzburg have blobbed and are destroying Austria. I may have played a little role in Austrias demise but still :p.

Pretty interesting at least! Makes me want to player an HRE minor heh.
 

Carcetti

Member
I really want to play a game of Roman Empire next so I've been playing a Byzantine game in CK2. I can't believe it's actually possible to unify the empire, the whole Byzantine is so fractitious and full of treacherous bastards. I've started to castrate and blind anyone who looks at me wrong, but not sure if that's gonna help in the long run..

Damn CK2 and damn the save converter.
 

Carcetti

Member
I guess so. I started with the pretty impressive Basileus of 1080 something and it all looked good at the start, but when he died of old age, his son dropped off from a balcony next month and it all started going downhill from there.

I guess I'll try with a custom emperor :)
 
If you want to cheese the creator, take the wounded trait to get some age reduction (more points to spend on other shit). It usually goes away within the first few months and leaves you with "scarred" which gives prestige. Humble is also a pretty good one to take, it's somewhat positive on its own but it reduces your age.
 

Carcetti

Member
At this point I'll take any cheese I can get. My problem in CK2 is not usually conquering or uniting but keeping everything together at the succession crises. The byzantine fell apart totally with 8 factions rising up and all the relatives going full stab mode.
 
Just finished my Lithuania game, and it was a lot of fun, they are a great country for beginners provided you observe one rule: Never Ever marry a Polish girl ... or you 'll end up on the wrong end of a PU for a long long time.

Had some weirdness though: here's the map ...


Spain dominated
France 2nd
England 3rd despite all but 2 provinces to Scotland and only colonising Greenland Madagascar and some spice islands, how did they get so many points?
I was 4th

What was really weird is how Venezuela, a single landlocked province deep in S. America, managed to colonise South Africa! lol
 

Burbank_

Member
The peace deal you can make seem really limited.

There is no real trading eg "I give YOU 500 ducats if you cede these provinces that I occupied, (or offer one of your own provinces to soften the blow)"?

You also can't make conditions on behalf of several nations in your alliance eg "Austria get this province, I get this one, and Venice gets this one"?
 

robjoh

Member
Bought this after reading this thread and watching a lot of lets play on youtube. Started a game as Sweden. Want to get rid of Denmark as fast as possible. I just realised that I was stupid helping them in a war I was drawn into because of the PU.

What I should have done is to let Denmark fight on their own until peace. Then I should have attacked Denmark..
 

Fitz

Member
So how exaclty do PUs work? Do those countries just aid in battle or is there anyobe to add them to my nation.

It's pretty much the same as having a vassal, only you don't get any income from them. You also have to wait 50 years instead of 10 before you can integrate/annex them, although after that period there is a chance that you can instantly inherit that nation on the death of your monarch.
 

Mgoblue201

Won't stop picking the right nation
The downside of PUs is that they are far more tenuous than vassalization. One country which I was in a union with somehow canceled the entire thing on their own terms, although I'm not sure what the requirements are to do that.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
The downside of PUs is that they are far more tenuous than vassalization. One country which I was in a union with somehow canceled the entire thing on their own terms, although I'm not sure what the requirements are to do that.

You need to have perfect relations to them.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Whenever I lose a PU, it's usually not because of relations, but because of rebels in the junior country. Really annoying.

Rebels? They siege the country and demand to be free again? Sieging the whole country would take a while, cant you just defeat the rebels in the meantime?
 

Mgoblue201

Won't stop picking the right nation
It's impossible to actually achieve perfect relations if the country in question cancels the union within only a few years, especially if the union was installed through war and you need time to repair relations. Trying to restore the union is futile since you get a -75 opinion penalty for each war.

I assume the size of the country must have something to do with it. Perhaps if the country is too big in relation to your own they can more easily cancel the union.
 

Kabouter

Member
Rebels? They siege the country and demand to be free again? Sieging the whole country would take a while, cant you just defeat the rebels in the meantime?

Pretender rebels in particular, and no, they don't need to siege all of it in my experience, just enough to make the PU partner want to give up.
 

Omikron

Member
So. Playing Japan, the Catholics showed up and now my country is constantly having massive religious rebel stacks, it is getting tiring just managing moving my troops around to deal with the issue and draining my manpower slowly. Any easy tip to stopping / slowing it?
 

robjoh

Member
Stupid things to do as a newbie playing Sweden (own experience):
* Go all out on ideas with admin points. Now I am way behind on science and have no infrastructure.
* Declear war on Norway and Denmark to get Bohuslän when Denmark and Norway is allied to both England AND Russia. This might not have been a problem if I did wait to build up my army and navy before the war, but hey it is just Norway and Denmark they have no army or navy left after the earlier wars...

Well I am at least learning what I should not do...

EDIT:
I succeed to get out of that war after a while. What happends? Norway declare war upon me. This time it is me against Denmark, Norway and Muscovite (or whatever Russia is called before they become Russia). I win the war and get one of the Danish provinces. Then I watch my manpower meter. I had 206 men left in my reserve....now the protestant reform has started. I hope no one declare war on me because I don't know if I can fight...
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Anything specific happening if I annex or vassalize the HRE emperor?
 

Walshicus

Member
Finished my first ironman game as East Rome and managed to finish third behind France and Spain. Felt pretty good - I don't think I ever managed an EU 3 game without some form of cheating and the last time I played to 1820 was in EU 2... I get too tempted to cheat and ironman is great for countering that instinct.

Now I'm running a "palette-cleansing" cheat-tastic game as Saxe-Lauenberg before deciding what to do for my next ironman.
 

Jhriad

Member
I don't know what they did in the patches since I my last Byzantine Ironman but they've tweaked revolters in some fashion. It used to be fairly easy to get at least 2-3 of the Byzantine cores (Athens, Corfu, Naxos, Rhodes, Crete, & Cyprus) to revolt before the eventual Ottoman declaration of war. Now it rarely happens and for some reason the revolters that DO pop up are switched to another type Noble/Peasant/etc. I'd understand the switch if it didn't still show Patriot as the possible revolt type. Even after it eventually switches to what popped up it will still add the foreign support modifier to that type despite my diplomat saying it's supporting Greek Patriots. Really annoying. Even the Ottoman revolters seem less common now.

I was hoping that I could start a fresh ironman game since I've gotten better with the new mechanics and hopefully get as large as I got in my old Ironman game in less time. The changes to revolts make the start a lot slower going though.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Just tried to attack the Ottomans in my France save... which... didnt go well. I lost 2 vassals due to that war.
 

ZZMitch

Member
Just tried to attack the Ottomans in my France save... which... didnt go well. I lost 2 vassals due to that war.

Ottomans are no joke in my Novgorod/Russia game either. They just beatdown a Spain that also owns all of Austria through an inheritance. They have the biggest army and navy in the game. I don't border them yet but want to be prepared before I do!
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Ottomans are no joke in my Novgorod/Russia game either. They just beatdown a Spain that also owns all of Austria through an inheritance. They have the biggest army and navy in the game. I don't border them yet but want to be prepared before I do!

I went in with 70k armies, no dice.
 

zoku88

Member
The ottomans have never really been that serious in my games. Even my current game, (which is the most powerful I've seen them, they own pretty much all of Hungary and Austria, etc,) I can still pretty much take them on 1v1 (which is pretty much what I had to do in my last war, given how worthless my partners were) as soon as I could get my logistics in order (mainly, making France not hate me so much so I could march my armeis through french lands.)

Then again, this is pretty late game, where galleys kind of suck compared to navies of mostly frigates and (wtv class the twodeckers are in), even in inland seas. I pretty much just decimated their navy.
 

diamount

Banned
Trade has always been the biggest part of my income. But that is because I have been playing a merchant republic (Novgorod -> Russia). It really depends on the nation.

I'm playing Poland, hoping to form the Commonwealth. Also... is it rare for Brandenburg to blob? In my game they've conquered the majority of the 1-2 province neighbours and is roughly the same size as Bohemia.
 

Jhriad

Member
Also... is it rare for Brandenburg to blob? In my game they've conquered the majority of the 1-2 province neighbours and is roughly the same size as Bohemia.

At least to the size you describe it's pretty common. They're the most common northern German country to gobble their neighbors in my experience. Probably helped by the fact that Poland will occasionally force the Teutonic Order to give Brandenburg it's core back. If they don't ascend in the north it's generally because one of the larger powers has interceded in the region (Denmark, Bohemia, Poland, Austria, etc.)
 

Mgoblue201

Won't stop picking the right nation
Ottomans are no joke in my Novgorod/Russia game either. They just beatdown a Spain that also owns all of Austria through an inheritance. They have the biggest army and navy in the game. I don't border them yet but want to be prepared before I do!
Russia with defensive ideas should have an enormous advantage though, since the AI is still far too aggressive and will basically start sieging your provinces whenever they get the opportunity. With the show superiority war goal, you can easily get an instant +15 war score by luring large enemy stacks deep into your territory and then completely wiping them out. That, combined with all the attrition they'll take, should mean an eventual Russian victory.

The timing of this topic is rather propitious since I recently started playing as the Russians (my first time ever in a Paradox game) and got into a nasty war with the Ottomans today. I eventually forced the Ottomans to give me a Crimean province, but it was a very costly war in terms of my manpower. Next time I'll probably recruit more mercenaries to fight the Ottomans since I have over 3,000 gold.
 
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