100 is fine if you manage your rebels. I am constantly at 80+, but you get more severe rebels if you are 100+.
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Europa Universalis IV |OT| A Game of Blobs
- Thread starter Toma
- Start date
100 is fine if you manage your rebels. I am constantly at 80+, but you get more severe rebels if you are 100+.
I got bored of reconquering a country and just decided to annex all of algeria and some Mali places in one go.
And after that I went for Tunis and another province near there from Tipoli.
Then I capped it all off by annexing the rest of the Shawnee's provinces.
And after that I went for Tunis and another province near there from Tipoli.
Then I capped it all off by annexing the rest of the Shawnee's provinces.
To get really big empires you need to be above 100 at times too and deal with the rebels militarily.
I'm pretty passive to be honest but Algeria was getting all up in my shit.
I also had more gold than I knew what to do with.
What I really wanted to do was go to war with France but I couldn't do that with the African and Native American nations at my doorstep. I had to perform an ethnic cleansing so I could focus on a prolonged war against France.
In that game, I helped Spain take over like, half of France in the early 1500s. Somehow they bounced back enough to push all the way through Spain to my home territory. Spain was fucking useless. I saw a lot of Spanish troops sitting around twiddling their thumbs because the AI doesn't know how to use transports.
I also had more gold than I knew what to do with.
What I really wanted to do was go to war with France but I couldn't do that with the African and Native American nations at my doorstep. I had to perform an ethnic cleansing so I could focus on a prolonged war against France.
In that game, I helped Spain take over like, half of France in the early 1500s. Somehow they bounced back enough to push all the way through Spain to my home territory. Spain was fucking useless. I saw a lot of Spanish troops sitting around twiddling their thumbs because the AI doesn't know how to use transports.
dr3upmushroom
Banned
Finished my first full game as Spain, finished behind France and GB. France got carved up towards the end, and I just kept GB since pretty much all neighboring nations were in a coalition against me. Any interesting games to play? I liked the economic side of things, and would like to learn more about PUs and allies, or even wondering if it's pretty fun to jump over to eastern Asia.
I was also wondering if it was possible to begin colonizing as new world nations before those damn euros come over.
I was also wondering if it was possible to begin colonizing as new world nations before those damn euros come over.
I only play Ironman for single player, because I want achievements (36 now, woo), so yeah. Trust me on this though, I'm playing Ming in the GAF MP game, it's not that fun. I honestly think it might be more fun to just wait for Ming to collapse and swoop in as Manchu. The problem with Ming is that Paradox crippled it to prevent it from doing better than it did historically, you get a huge set of massive penalties that you can compensate for with three factions. Each faction compensates for a different part of the penalties, so 2/3s of your nations doings are fucked at all times. Worse still however is that if you ever get unlucky and get negative stability or lower legitimacy (by for instance having your ruler die without an heir), you lose the 'mandate of heaven' modifier and get significant revolt risk. The rebels you get in that situation are not fun.
Edit: Lucky nations wouldn't affect you much at first though, there are no lucky nations near you as far as I know. However, European nations do get missions on China, and if you manage to survive long enough as any Chinese nations, Portugal, Britain and other European powers will come and fuck you up. Possibly Russia as well if it borders you and is feeling aggressive. Those nations will be stronger with historical lucky nations on than they would otherwise be.
I'm getting the hang of Ming, the factions thing is an interesting mechanic. I wish I realized how it worked sooner because I'm quite behind on tech.
I should try Ironman in my next game. I save scummed a lot this time because the Qirat Horde had some truly bullshit units, where the remnants of their army, with only 1k troops, took out my attack force of 10k.
I wish I didn't vassal Korea so early because I really need them to start taking over Japan. It's going to be a while before I can annex them.
I should try Ironman in my next game. I save scummed a lot this time because the Qirat Horde had some truly bullshit units, where the remnants of their army, with only 1k troops, took out my attack force of 10k.
I wish I didn't vassal Korea so early because I really need them to start taking over Japan. It's going to be a while before I can annex them.
Oirat Horde has better units than the Chinese tech group, but not good enough to take out a 10k stack with 1k. You probably had a different faction than the Temple faction in power and got that massive ass combat penalty (-25% discipline amongst other things). I've also not once seen AI Korea take any part of Japan.
What I meant was, I need a territory bordering Japan in order to get a Casus Belli.
In other news, I took a random -3 stability hit and HOLY FUCKING SHIT. I finally stabilized after burning through 3000 ducats and all my monarch points.
In other news, I took a random -3 stability hit and HOLY FUCKING SHIT. I finally stabilized after burning through 3000 ducats and all my monarch points.
You could just diplo-annex Korea no? And yes, as Ming, never ever get low stability or have your monarch die without an heir. The latter is worse since it's next to impossible to recover from low legitimacy since you get a -4 legitimacy a year penalty when you lose the mandate of heaven modifier.
archnemesis
Member
I'm playing as Moscowy and England just decided to be in a personal union under me. What do I need to do to maintain the union? Just make sure the improved relation bonus is near +100 at all times? Is there anything else I can do?
i_am_ben
running_here_and_there
So I'm playing as England and have just gone a Personal Union spree.
Due to luck I somehow managed to win against the French in the 100 years war. Once they were in a personal union with me the rest followed pretty quickly.
I basically used the French as a super vassal to obtain further personal unions with:
Castile;
Aragon;
Portugal;
Sweden;
Denmark; and
Poland.
I then formed the Holy Roman Empire for the fun of it.
Due to luck I somehow managed to win against the French in the 100 years war. Once they were in a personal union with me the rest followed pretty quickly.
I basically used the French as a super vassal to obtain further personal unions with:
Castile;
Aragon;
Portugal;
Sweden;
Denmark; and
Poland.
I then formed the Holy Roman Empire for the fun of it.
jaundicejuice
Member
Been playing the demo and have wrapped my head a bit around the U.I. and some of the gameplay basics. Played through most of the Spanish tutorial campaign up to settling the new world. Thinking about taking the plunge but I'm a little unsure about the add-ons/dlc. I'm looking at buying the Europa Universalis 4 Extreme Edition as well as the Pre-Order and Call-To-Arms Packs. I don't so much care about the superficial unit improvements but there are some important looking events and what not spread across all three. Are they worth buying?
If you only want event stuff and none of the graphical stuff you dan leave out the call to arms pack, and the Pre-order pack only really matters if you plan on playing Byzantium any time soon.
You get most of the interesting stuff by just buying the digital extreme version.
With lots of patience and good timing.
And galleys.
Btw, as far as those Byzantium events go, I feel like those are pretty necessary if you play as them. As far as I could tell (though, maybe I'm wrong, since I'm not sure what events were there without those packs), they were the main source of increasing the number of missionaries you had and (maybe?) missionary strength.
Well, I'm not sure what those DLC packs contain. For Byzantium, I assume they mean some of the missions (like restoring the pentarchy, recovering antolia, etc and the events that happen as a result like name changes) and also stuff like those random +50 point bonuses (or those -25 point deductions.)
Mgoblue201
Won't stop picking the right nation
The only real strategy to winning as the Byzantines is to build something like 20 galleys, which is well beyond your force limit and will put quite a strain on your income. Once the Ottomans cross back over into Anatolia, declare war and block the strait. Due to some quirks in the AI programming, they won't attempt to raise an army in Europe, and you can basically trap their fleet in port. Foment some Greek rebels and try to get your cores to flip automatically (which doesn't always work). Take everything else you can get in the peace deal. You should now have most of Greece under your control.
The key to the entire strategy is that the Ottomans don't have a CB against you at the start. They will only get a CB if they choose the missions City of the World's Desire or Conquer Southern Greece. Therefore, the strategy only works if the Ottomans don't choose one of those two missions. It's entirely dependent on luck. It might all work in one attempt. It might take several.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Declare war on Trebizond, land and crush their army, extort for money (don't siege). Declare war on Albania to drag Athens into the war without the Ottos honoring their guarantee of Athens. Conquer Athens.
Build up a huge fleet of galleys, as many as you can take, make sure you've got more ships than the Ottos do and invest in a naval leader rather than a land general. When the ottos have their army in Anatolia, preferably in another war, declare reconquest on them. Sponsor Bulgarian patriots and start sieging Bulgarian provinces. Both will spawn on their own over time, but the Greek ones are friendly to you by default, and funding Bulgarian patriots will mean that if they do spawn, they will be friendly to you also! Let Greek patriots siege and have provinces defect to you, while you siege Bulgarian culture holdings.
After provinces defect to you, all of them, sue for peace where you take their coastal Bulgarian holdings, but not the whole of Bulgaria. Immediately release Bulgaria as a vassal after the war, and then the remaining patriots (or the next lot to spawn) will siege down their other European provinces and defect to your vassal.
In my game Edirne remained the Otto capital, but I'm not sure if Greek patriots can make it defect or not. I didn't try. I think they can though, in which case you've driven them out of Europe entirely. Things will go wrong, and it will probably take 2-3 tries (or more if unlucky) before this strat will work. I had to restart my Ironman game from the beginning twice because of bad luck.
Mgoblue201
Won't stop picking the right nation
The specific strategy doesn't matter too much as long as you have enough galleys to block the strait. The advantage of conquering Athens first is that with Athens under Byzantine control you are marginally more capable of funding a large fleet, but it's not going to make a huge difference. The advantage of not conquering Athens is that you can declare war on Athens to draw the Ottomans into war without involving the Crimeans, who have a large fleet of their own and could tip the outcome of the war against you if they choose to get involved. However, all that can probably be mitigated by keeping the Crimean and Ottoman fleets divided. Either strategy can work just as well.
As for rebels, it's not always true that Greek rebels will spawn (they certainly didn't for me), and funding them will give an extra +3 revolt risk. But it does make sense to fund Bulgarian rebels at some point. The optimal strategy is to basically kick the Ottomans out of Europe in one war, with the possible exception of Erdine.
As for rebels, it's not always true that Greek rebels will spawn (they certainly didn't for me), and funding them will give an extra +3 revolt risk. But it does make sense to fund Bulgarian rebels at some point. The optimal strategy is to basically kick the Ottomans out of Europe in one war, with the possible exception of Erdine.
Think I figured out the Cherokee thing, failed the first few times, but if you just avoid getting any coastline provinces and let Euros conquer them, they have a much lower priority on moving further inland. So you can westernize then, only thing that will be an issue is actually taking those provinces back since you need some of them for the achievement 
.
.Wow, besides the galley thing, this was a lot smarter than what I did... Especially the Albanian DOW. Didn't even cross my mind to do something so early...
Think I figured out the Cherokee thing, failed the first few times, but if you just avoid getting any coastline provinces and let Euros conquer them, they have a much lower priority on moving further inland. So you can westernize then, only thing that will be an issue is actually taking those provinces back since you need some of them for the achievement
I wouldn't worry about taking back the coast, in my game most of the 13 colonies got gobbled up by France whilst I was Westernising, and a few at the top by an even more powerful Great Britain. But the AI is so hilariously terrible at transporting troops over seas that I could easily fend of their single armies one at a time.
As a bonus, you'll be able to take a ton (if not all) of the provinces in a single war due to how little value the AI puts in overseas provinces, even the decent coastal ones.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
If you want to get even more adventurous, you ally with Serbia and Wallachia. When you DoW the ottos, you call them to arms, knowing that they will refuse. When they refuse, you get a CB on them, then vassalize them. Since the straights are keeping you safe you can theoretically take them both, or just one and then the other.
I would be very much up for that! Community events whilst still being able to control game speed sounds like the perfect combination.
Yep, interested too, but what format would you suggest? 1 per month? A game can take pretty much ages. Any other rules?
Well, I suppose we'd have to come up with some sort of scoring equation. Such that you would get more points for starting out as a smaller island nation and more points for completing the challenge sooner. We'd start in 1444 and in iron man mode, normal difficulty with no bonuses. I think 1 every month is a good pace, as that should allow people to play at their own pace while still not dragging it on too long. Maybe 2 months if 1 month proves to be too short?
It also might be a good idea to make a community thread for this.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=668353
Its basically an MP community idea, so I'd simply include all challenges in the current MP OT.
I dont think making a scoring equation works all that well though as you cant have the same for every challenge. Maybe just make it restrictive enough so that more than one nation is possible, or a straight up scoring/time challenge restricted to a certain country, like "Conquer Denmark with Sweden", and the fastest time wins.
Yea, putting it in the MP community thread makes sense.
As far as the scoring equation, I had an idea of how to do it but when I start trying to make the equation I came across some issues with it. So time based scoring it is.
Any ideas for challenges? Right now I'm kinda partial to the idea of England conquering every island in the world.
Hahaha, I've never really taken advantage of a broken alliance CB before. I love little tricks like these.
My favourite is the Albanian survival one, though, that was mentioned a few pages back.
Athens doesn't start out allied with Albania and will generally ally with The Knights. The Knights usually happen to be allied with Venice so wardec'ing them isn't an option early on.
Changes in rebel behavior make this strategy less likely to work than it did previously. Patriot rebels now only typically take 2-3 provinces before the provinces they conquer switch and when they switch the patriot armies disappear. They also appear a lot less frequently than they did for EU4ver1.0. In addition it appears they tweaked the AI to accept rebel demands more frequently/quickly as you're much less likely now to get any provinces to switch from Orthodox Rebels. You can still take most of the Greek territories through a combination of peace deal & rebels but it's not as fast nor as guaranteed to work as before. In addition because the rebel provinces took longer to switch you'd also get the benefit of Greek Patriot rebels moving to other countries like Corfu or Naxos (or from Naxos/Corfu/Athens into Ottoman territory) but the faster switch means you'll rarely see the patriot rebels move from one country to another now.
The galleys in the strait is the same but it's better if you let the Bulgarian rebels appear on their own. They will as they have the highest chance of popping of all the Ottoman rebels. After your war with the Ottomans is over you have a 4 province Bulgaria you can stomp pretty quickly to turn into a vassal (you can't do this peacefully as their fourth province makes them too large).
As for the first few years: (This is only applicable to current EU4 ver1.1.3)
Start building a galley in each of your starting territories. As has been said previously you want your navy to be 20+ before you engage the Ottoman navy. If you have a really good admiral you might be able to do something as low as 18.
Support Greek rebels in Athens or Rhodes with one of your diplomats.
Move your army into position above Trezibond and use your other diplomat to wardec them to quash their army quickly and settle out for all their gold.
After you have settled the Trezibond war your second diplomat is free to support rebels in whichever of the two previous countries you aren't currently supporting rebels in.
After the Ottomans take Albania they will either Wardec you immediately (only if they get lucky and get a claim on Constantinople early) or they will wardec a Turkish minor. When they do this they will move their entire army across the Bosphorus and you will be free to wardec them at will. Use Albania as your reason for declaring war. Make sure that once you wardec them you change one of your diplomats over to supporting Greek Rebels. Siege Albania first as your patriots won't help you there and it's your wargoal so you want to have it as early as possible to start the war score growth. Then wait. You can siege Bulgarian provinces for additional warscore but unless a Greek province has been converted (typically Epirus) you want to leave it alone for the chance to pop patriot rebels.
Do not waste your diplomats time on allying with Wallachia or Serbia. The game will randomize their friendliness with you so if they aren't cordial or friendly you might have to waste time improving relations. If you get one of the games where one or both is cordial/friendly they'll send the alliance offers themselves as well as royal marriage offers so you don't need to waste potential time you could be supporting rebels.
A few notes:
- If you're supporting rebels in Rhodes and the rebel chance goes above 13% and they haven't gone to war recently it's most likely because they have a missionary converting the province and the 'Possible Rebel' type isn't updating properly. Religious rebels will be the type that pops despite what it says so remove your diplomat from the country and use him elsewhere.
- You lose your core on Albania on January 1, 1449. Get into a fight with the Ottomans before then so you don't lose the core.
- A patriot rebellion in Cyprus or Corfu gives Venice a reason to attack you early. Do not support rebels in either province before you take Greece unless the Mamluk/Venetian war over Cyprus has already happened and the Mamluks won.
- If the Ottomans are able to consolidate their navy in port before you can start picking their navy apart here's what you do. Put 1 Galley in the strait and then assemble the rest of your navy under whatever Admiral you have. Dock the naval units under your admiral and then shortly after docking put them back out to sea. For whatever reason the AI will commonly decide, if their morale is full, to undock as well. If they undock in a neighboring sea zone you might be able to get there before they redock. Keep doing this until the Ottomans don't have a navy. Completely destroying their navy will make it a lot easier to blockade all their provinces in future wars especially considering they take the Navy idea as their first idea. It's also a cheap way to build your navy up to a decent size for the soon to be larger Byzantine Empire without paying the build costs.
- If you're losing a little money because your navy is far over your forcelimit adjust your Army slider to compensate. Don't go below 50%.
Cameron122
Member
Am I the only one that has interest in a 21st century paradox game?
I just want to play as a machiavilian senator before I become a machiavilian senator.
I just want to play as a machiavilian senator before I become a machiavilian senator.
My strategy has been to build up to around 10/12 regiments whilst waiting for the initial truce to end, Aragon starts with 9 cogs iirc, which means you'll never have to fight their whole army at once. Sometimes they like to station armies in Sicily, usually small ones you can smash, then besiege the island.
The key however is to preserve manpower and prevent them from besieging the mainland, you have to be very wary of having your army trapped on Sicily by a blockade. If there's any risk of your army being trapped, best to keep them on the mainland, from there you can easily intercept any armies that land. The AI doesn't seem to recalculate army movement from sea -> land like it should do, so you can very often catch landing armies and get the defender bonus.
It's best to forget about your navy initially, building up enough to overpower Aragon isn't feasible early on. If you're lucky, Castile will declare war on them after you, soaking up their armies for you. Your main job is to keep the warscore from holding the goal ticking. Unless you get lucky, and they lose their entire military infrastructure, you won't get a lot of warscore, but it'll be enough to take one of your cores on Sicily. After that, you're free to grab the very rich Italian provinces to the north, easily giving you the edge to win another war outright.
Wait what? Why can I not demand anything from other coalition members in a war? I know I cant demand it FROM them, but I am 22% ahead in that war, yet I cant demand the provinces I already occupied from any country other than the coalition leader. Boooooo.
?
You sure about this? Because, I've DOW'd a coaltion member before for the express reason of taking a province from another coaltion member.