|
So here's what's happened as of 1100:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/nCHJY4w.png)
So by some close alliances with Luxembourg and the Palatiate, timing wars with other countries, and a LOT of mercs (and debt [and forcing countries to dump their entire treasury to me]), I've managed to grow Aachen from a one-province minor to a seven-province octopus (heptapus?), spreading its tentacles on everyone who isn't allied to enough of my rivals. The Palatinate is now my vassal, because they unallied me for all the AE I was getting, and I punished them by taking away their freedom. Unfortunately they still vote for Saxon emperor (which might actually be a good thing, big Saxony equals strong emperor equals more reforms passed) since I'm a republic.
So abroad, everything's more or less the same. That land in Russia which is usually occupied by Novgorod in 1444 is empty since nobody can colonize it yet. Sami is going crazy up in Scandinavia. Norway and Sweden are independent of Denmark (although I forget what their relations to each other right now are), and Sami's taking turns eating both of them. Aragon is no longer an OPM, but Spain is still half Catholic and half Sunni as it always was.
My worst nightmare, France becoming BBB even with shitty 1066 start, came true. It's actually probably bigger than it normally is, although missing a few of the territories it would normally have IIRC. But I see that blue creeping towards me. First line of defense is Flanders (ally), then Namur (rival), maybe Luxembourg (ally) and then France and I share a border. Not fun.
Byzantium launched a huge attack on a few of the Arabic states and walked away getting them to unally each other. So no visible gains for the Eastern Roman Empire yet, but we might be seeing Judea, Aleppo and Alexandria fall (which they took in their last conquest but didn't demand in the peace deal), and then the only thing stopping Catholicism from falling is a beefy Papal State.
The Reformation might come early and the War of the Roses already happened. So anything is possible. I think my current plan will be to drop the republican tradition to 0 and switch to a monarchy for marriages (so everyone hates me less) and a possible shot at the emperor's throne (I already got one elector vassalized, just need to be friends with two more)
|
As HRE emperor, is there any advantage to stopping at Erbkaisertum instead of getting as many princes as possible to revoke the privilegia?
|
Unless you like to siege stuff yourself, there is no advantage to stop there.
|
Russian Federation3631 Posts
I might have just thought of a strategy to win the 1444 Albanian-Ottoman war (on the Albania side of course). Going to do some testing now, but I'm feeling sort of optimistic
edit: apparently ottomans don't build troops after the first 3 they start? odd. will have to rethink things.
|
On January 30 2015 13:23 [UoN]Sentinel wrote:Show nested quote +On January 30 2015 12:08 Blackfeather wrote:On January 29 2015 14:26 [UoN]Sentinel wrote:So I was looking at some of the presets they have in extended timeline, and I actually like the look of the 1066 start: ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/M9gOZNZ.png) All the European powers are small, there's a decent African presence but smaller than Tunis, and the hordes are small and manageable. As far as it goes, it's a blank canvas and anyone can get big. Franconia is emperor, Austria isn't close to being elected, and everyone's looking local at this point. I shall be playing as Aachen. (The other reason I went with pre-1200 to dodge the Mongols instead of 1300s like I usually do, is to avoid having fucking France breathing down my neck). Not to sure, Byzantium has Ottoman tax income in a time where other powers are a quarter of what they later are. So in comparison they are probably much stronger than France is at 1444 simply bc everyone else is so much weaker than them. Might be that their diplo situation is really bad though, I mean they collapse for a reason. @El Dorado: Not sure about the idea part of the custom nation thing, there'll be just a way to go in 90% of the situations (f.e. , -core creation cost, -aggressive expansion, +manpower, +missionary strenght, + discipline, +inf/cav combat, +morale and two out of Diplomat, army tradition, -revolt risk, artillery combat). So yeah just go Brandenburg on a bigger base tax at a position of your choice with the two national Idea that Prussia is missing, missionary strength and core creation. Sounds possibly easier than France. HRE Hungary superpower incoming. Did they say anything about National Events? Cause most great powers in EU are great because they get cheap great events. @[UoN]Sentinel Is your Byzantium into Rome playthrough a mod? Or did they implement it at 1.8 or 1.9? Those Roman Ideas btw, holy shit I know that the ET mod makes Rome (as in original Roman empire) collapse somewhere around the time it actually fell via stability drops and other time-based nerfs. AI Rome is meant to disintegrate although it's not crippling to the point a human player couldn't hold it together, especially with preparation. Byzantium might work the same way, although only time will tell. I remember I ran a game starting around 1240, and is now the reason I avoid the 1200 starts like the plague, because the Mongol Empire just kept expanding and by 1350 I figured it wasn't going anywhere since there was no sign of it falling into disrepair, and it would be a while before the west got the tech bonuses needed to go against it. So we'll see. France turned out to be pretty deceptive. They're pushing their northern border to me, so I might stop aggroing all over Westphalia to get some sort of alliance or coalition against them. I'm avoiding the sea for now, but I wouldn't mind a French port or two where Emperor Franconia can't demand I return it to whoever else I'm invading at the time. Byzantium into Rome is part of Extended Timeline mod (I also have the national decisions from original Rome, such as splitting half my land into the Western Roman Empire and picking which of the two I want to play as, and presumably to form it again and continue the cycle). However I believe you can form Rome from Byzantium in CK2 and import it into an EU4 game.
I started in the 1350ish starts when the Mongol Empire was actually huuuuge. I started as Brandenburg so it wasn't too worrisome for me. They never got all that much bigger, and by the mid 1400s there were widespread rebellions from Eastern EU all the way to China. I calculated 829,000 rebels to their 450,000 armies. Euro half got super unstable and split into 400 states, while they lost much of the eastern half. They have consolidated power and are still one of the top 5 nations in army strength and shit, but they've been scaled down by about 2/3. It's pretty interesting imo
|
On February 01 2015 15:17 darthfoley wrote:Show nested quote +On January 30 2015 13:23 [UoN]Sentinel wrote:On January 30 2015 12:08 Blackfeather wrote:On January 29 2015 14:26 [UoN]Sentinel wrote:So I was looking at some of the presets they have in extended timeline, and I actually like the look of the 1066 start: All the European powers are small, there's a decent African presence but smaller than Tunis, and the hordes are small and manageable. As far as it goes, it's a blank canvas and anyone can get big. Franconia is emperor, Austria isn't close to being elected, and everyone's looking local at this point. I shall be playing as Aachen. (The other reason I went with pre-1200 to dodge the Mongols instead of 1300s like I usually do, is to avoid having fucking France breathing down my neck). Not to sure, Byzantium has Ottoman tax income in a time where other powers are a quarter of what they later are. So in comparison they are probably much stronger than France is at 1444 simply bc everyone else is so much weaker than them. Might be that their diplo situation is really bad though, I mean they collapse for a reason. @El Dorado: Not sure about the idea part of the custom nation thing, there'll be just a way to go in 90% of the situations (f.e. , -core creation cost, -aggressive expansion, +manpower, +missionary strenght, + discipline, +inf/cav combat, +morale and two out of Diplomat, army tradition, -revolt risk, artillery combat). So yeah just go Brandenburg on a bigger base tax at a position of your choice with the two national Idea that Prussia is missing, missionary strength and core creation. Sounds possibly easier than France. HRE Hungary superpower incoming. Did they say anything about National Events? Cause most great powers in EU are great because they get cheap great events. @[UoN]Sentinel Is your Byzantium into Rome playthrough a mod? Or did they implement it at 1.8 or 1.9? Those Roman Ideas btw, holy shit I know that the ET mod makes Rome (as in original Roman empire) collapse somewhere around the time it actually fell via stability drops and other time-based nerfs. AI Rome is meant to disintegrate although it's not crippling to the point a human player couldn't hold it together, especially with preparation. Byzantium might work the same way, although only time will tell. I remember I ran a game starting around 1240, and is now the reason I avoid the 1200 starts like the plague, because the Mongol Empire just kept expanding and by 1350 I figured it wasn't going anywhere since there was no sign of it falling into disrepair, and it would be a while before the west got the tech bonuses needed to go against it. So we'll see. France turned out to be pretty deceptive. They're pushing their northern border to me, so I might stop aggroing all over Westphalia to get some sort of alliance or coalition against them. I'm avoiding the sea for now, but I wouldn't mind a French port or two where Emperor Franconia can't demand I return it to whoever else I'm invading at the time. Byzantium into Rome is part of Extended Timeline mod (I also have the national decisions from original Rome, such as splitting half my land into the Western Roman Empire and picking which of the two I want to play as, and presumably to form it again and continue the cycle). However I believe you can form Rome from Byzantium in CK2 and import it into an EU4 game. I started in the 1350ish starts when the Mongol Empire was actually huuuuge. I started as Brandenburg so it wasn't too worrisome for me. They never got all that much bigger, and by the mid 1400s there were widespread rebellions from Eastern EU all the way to China. I calculated 829,000 rebels to their 450,000 armies. Euro half got super unstable and split into 400 states, while they lost much of the eastern half. They have consolidated power and are still one of the top 5 nations in army strength and shit, but they've been scaled down by about 2/3. It's pretty interesting imo
Not bad, although I've been vassalizing Eastern Europe (I have enclaves across Scandinavia and rubbing with Novgorod) so the Mongols would probably get me in that one. Maybe it would also be interesting to play a relatively big state around that time (i.e. Byzantium, Muscovy, Ming) and pummel the Mongol Empire until it spits out provinces and gives you a brand new looking Asia to play with.
Maybe I'll give the 1200s another chance at some point. My current Aachen game in the 1100s is going slower than expected since I don't have diplo ideas to make annexation easier, and the emperor keeps demanding all my annexed provinces, so next game I might start a bit later 
|
Russian Federation3631 Posts
RIP Nasrid dynasty (not completely true, Nasrids rule in Bavaria) - but I got a 'better' one.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/jLODZJl.png)
|
Time to become emperor, take a few dozen vassals in the HRE and have a reconquista-fiesta in Iberia with invitations to all of mainland Europe?
|
What determine how maby monarch points you spend each month towards westernization? As Japan, I consumed 5/month most of the time, but towards the end i was consuming 6/month.
|
Russian Federation3631 Posts
High income decreases westernization progress.
Time to become emperor, take a few dozen vassals in the HRE and have a reconquista-fiesta in Iberia with invitations to all of mainland Europe?
trying to get that 100 mercantilism achievement, so gotta stay catholic (protestants won league war).
Have an idea about farming gigantic amounts of papal influence. Unfortunately game has to go "nope, prepare for throne war against France" instead.
|
On January 29 2015 12:27 Blackfeather wrote:Show nested quote +On January 29 2015 06:19 DrunkenOne wrote:
Aristocratic is good in a vacuum but several ideas are pretty worthless, and its major positives are outweighed by the other groups. It is less of a straight military idea group and more econ/diplo focused. +1 diplomat is much more useful in SP where you are improving relations with AIs, annexing fed vassals, etc, and less useful for MP where relations dont really matter. -20% WE reduction cost is nearly worthless. +Core creation cost useful in keeping people from stealing your lands, but doesnt exactly make you stronger in wars, and people could still weaken you if they so choose by making you release stuff or cancel vassals. -Tech cost is ok, but everyone will be keeping up in tech if you are in western tech group anyways. Definitely more useful if you are playing an eastern country or a horde and can stack cav bonuses to wreck early game. +1 leader w/o upkeep is ok I guess but is more of an economic bonus in that it saves mil points.
So actually useful in combat you get +10% cav CA, +1 leader shock, +25% manpower. Offensive gets +1 leader shock, +1 leader fire, +20% siege, +20% force limit, +5% discipline, and forced march, giving you a larger, better army which sieges faster and can force march compared to if you take aristocratic. Quantity obv gets massive bonuses to army size and lets you have a MASSIVE advantage early game if taken 1st (as seen in my current mp game where france took it 1st).
On top of that, aristocratic's policies are all pretty much garbage in comparison to the ones unlocked by quality/quantity/offensive. The only good looking one is +20% cav CA, cept you also need espionage for that which is itself suboptimal to take, especially early on. I think the idea with aristocratic is that the first idea allows you to go for more cav (something most armies are lacking at the start but really want) while making them stronger and still giving some nice boni later on. Actually lots of ideas in Aristocratic are really good and the military is frontloaded, which gives you a lot boom for the buck in a time where you want your military tech up to date. Comparison to military ideas: Offensive:I'd argue that aside from forced march aristocratic 4 is better than the entire offensive during the first 100 years. You trade 25%manpower for 20% siege (clear win for aristocratic) and 10 cav combat which is more important during that time than inf combat for 5 discipline (about even i'd say). Force Limit does next to nothing, leader fire does next to nothing before military tech 8 and very little until military tech 14, prestige from battles does next to nothing, recruitment time does nothing. So you trade 1200 military points for force march and a better lategame army. Aristocratic gives you +1 diplomat, -10 tech cost and a leader without upkeep for that. I'd also take reduced "reduce war exhaustion cost" over things like 20% force limit any day. QuantityThe first Quantity bonus is really strong and the second is nice. But after that comes pretty much nothing, the rest are eco-boosts in one way or the other and most of them are rather minor (they still add up though). So you trade your national ideas for a super strong power boost at the beginning. I'd argue that 4 techs in on aristocratic you draw about even with quantity 2 and have better boni to come. But if you want power and want it now and dont have that much military power to spare Quantity is clearly better. The offset is that around Military tech 16 Aristocratic becomes rather weak as a military idea and around 24 only one of your three military boni are really worth much. By 24 pretty much every military Idea (except for naval) is stronger than Aristocratic. But by 6 and 4 ideas in I'd argue it's the other way round, even more so if you arent western but f.e. ottomans.
5% discipline is 5% more damage dealed and 5% less damage taken which is miles and miles better(as it improves your cav marginally more and then gives a free boost to inf to boot) then 10% cav combat ability(10% more cav damage), even at times that cav is better then inf, discipline comes much later though, but even at times where cav is better then inf, its sort of close to twice as good which is really far away from about even
|
do you guys think it is worth it to westernize as muslim tech group in 1.8? if yes, do islands count as neighbours or do i need to allow portugal to keep ceuta? should i start annexation of tlemcen before, during or after westernization?
|
I think westernisation is always worth it and for everything less than ottoman/ eastern a no brainer. 40% tech cost is a hugr amount of monarch points.
|
I just bought the game (extreme edition) after following this thread for a few weeks, and I was wondering which Mods / DLCs I should get for sure? I'm a guy who really likes playing games in vanilla mode, so I'm not interested in mods that impact the core mechanics of the game. I'm looking for absolutely necessary quality of life / bug fix / AI fix mods. I've seen the extended timeline referenced here quite some times, is this a must have?
Apologies for the lazy questions, I'm sure dozens of people have asked these before but the thread has gotten too long to search through it :-)
|
There are not really any mods you have to take, the game is very good and polished even in the base state. The main DLCs are pretty good, though. Basically, you can ignore everything that says "Unit Pack" or "Music Pack", those are inconsequential cosmetic DLCs.
The main DLCs, which all add some features, but are not really something you NEED per se (but something you should probably get if you enjoy the game and want to do something that focussed in their specific area, are
Conquest of Paradise
Wealth of Nations
Res Publica
Art of War
CoP gives you a random America and some stuff for american tribal nations.
WoN gives you some features related to trading and trade wars, and stuff for both colonizing in India and being a Hindu
RP is pretty much only relevant if you play a merchant republic, and also gives some idea groups.
AoW probably the biggest one, cool mechanics in the reformation, custom client states, and some very useful quality of life thigns related to war.
|
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Lq0qW4C.jpg?1)
The battle of Battle of Britain is about to begin. French cowards decided to decline our call to arms.
We shall fight them on the beaches etc...
Fucking Scotland... first war requires endless victories, you can barely beat England thanks to subsidies and a LOT of looting. I had a 5 shock general and tech 4 to tech 3 for most of the war and still barely won with England dealing with a lot of rebels. If I lose now I'll rage so hard.
|
On February 01 2015 19:05 419 wrote:RIP Nasrid dynasty (not completely true, Nasrids rule in Bavaria) - but I got a 'better' one.
How did you PU the Commonwealth I've been under the impression they were immune to becoming junior partners because of the elective monarchy nonsense. I've never seen the AI change that form of government as far as I'm aware.
|
TAIWAN NUMBAH WAN5956 Posts
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/vilbIbN.jpg)
GG to my Frankfurt-Run and of course to add insult to injury the regency council has 0 0 0
|
Oh god that Prussia and France.
|
TAIWAN NUMBAH WAN5956 Posts
managed to stay on prussia's good side so far, if not then I am dead since France wants to kill me soooo badly
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
