The Europa Universalis IV Thread

[AfroThunder396]

Ally Austria/Brandenburg/Netherlands/Savoy or whoever is big in Italy. Brittany is a waste of an ally unless you can vassalize them. You may be too late though if France has already blobbed.

Italy right now is Naples (who is my lesser partner and I am currently integrating), Tuscany (allied with France), Venice (allied with France), and the Papal State.

France owns pretty much all of it's modern territory, the entire African coast and Madagascar, and some scattered colonies in South America. I am allied with Mexico, Portugal, and Brittany.

I think I may start a new game though. I'm ranked 4th and that hasn't changed in a while. I've got 5 big colonies. My mission is to own the Bay of Bengal and that's going to be difficult since Bengal has 3 allies and my closest territory is Wake Island. I think i should just roll with a slightly more difficult civilization.

 

[Ducksforcup]

Italy right now is Naples (who is my lesser partner and I am currently integrating), Tuscany (allied with France), Venice (allied with France), and the Papal State.

France owns pretty much all of it's modern territory, the entire African coast and Madagascar, and some scattered colonies in South America. I am allied with Mexico, Portugal, and Brittany.

I think I may start a new game though. I'm ranked 4th and that hasn't changed in a while. I've got 5 big colonies. My mission is to own the Bay of Bengal and that's going to be difficult since Bengal has 3 allies and my closest territory is Wake Island. I think i should just roll with a slightly more difficult civilization.

Well I personally don't think your game is over, but regardless...very well done! Your first play-through certainly beat my first attempt that's for sure!

What do you think of the game overall? And who are you thinking of trying out next?

I'm currently attempting a "Venetian Seas" run. Seems like every achievement I pick involves fighting the Turks lol.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Decided to do a game as Cusco. I'm in the process of Westernizing but Britain, Scotland, Portugal, and Castille keep invading. I barely have any manpower and ducats from my wars with the other tribes, I'm afraid this was a little too difficult.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Just kidding. So I was in really bad shape as Cusco. I had 18 loans, I had no monarch points from westernization, and was struggling to keep my manpower up when a bunch of European countries invaded.

Scotland, England and Portugal all declared separate wars on me at the same time. England only dropped a 15 stack, which I needed 37 units to beat because of my tech disadvantage. But that was it! So I waited for my ticking war score to be high enough where I could get war reparations. Then I westernized and they stopped attacking. I found one lone soldier in Portugese Brazil to kill so my war score would tick up and I did the same thing.

I conquered the last remaining tribe and founded the Inca Empire. I'm going to get my infrastructure up to par, then I'll conquer Scotish Columbia and support Castillian La Plata's independence.

 

[Ducksforcup]

Just kidding. So I was in really bad shape as Cusco. I had 18 loans, I had no monarch points from westernization, and was struggling to keep my manpower up when a bunch of European countries invaded.

Scotland, England and Portugal all declared separate wars on me at the same time. England only dropped a 15 stack, which I needed 37 units to beat because of my tech disadvantage. But that was it! So I waited for my ticking war score to be high enough where I could get war reparations. Then I westernized and they stopped attacking. I found one lone soldier in Portugese Brazil to kill so my war score would tick up and I did the same thing.

I conquered the last remaining tribe and founded the Inca Empire. I'm going to get my infrastructure up to par, then I'll conquer Scotish Columbia and support Castillian La Plata's independence.

What a pro! I thought it was pretty ambitious to do a Cusco game as your second game, but you are nailing it. That's extremely difficult to do. Now that you have westernized you should have no problem expanding to the seven seas!

 

[AfroThunder396]

Thanks, I'll be the first to admit I failed more times than not and had to reload my game

But this game is definitely more of a challenge.

 

[Bjorn Le]

I don't really know why but Nejd is soooo much harder after Common Sense update. Before, you could seize some territory fairly easily without outside interference now Haasa allies with Hejaz and the country to the north of you allies with Yemen. And the Mamluks even if allied don't send troops to help. I conquered Oman because they were the only ones without allies but the rebels jumped from 80% to 100% in one month and I had to restart.

I haven't been having much luck lately. Prussia game got crushed after an awesome start because I lost the religious wars. Lost my Portugal game because I annexed too many overseas provinces at once (and instead of the usual 2 or 3 overextension per overseas province I got hit with a half dozen ones in the high teens or higher, pushing over extension to over 150%. Lost my France game because I made a mistake in a coalition war (was pulling an Austrian led deathstack of 150+ across Switzerland and into a chain of provinces I scortched earth, killed probably 30-40 troops then I got cornered and lost the army (which was so ********, I don't know why it dispersed instead of routing, it had high morale, still lots of troops, and a two star general). Need a good game to get my confidence back. And I hate playing the really easy countries (Ottomans, Spain, Poland).

 

[RandV]

This is a game I'll have to pick up at some point

...Only concern is the sheer amount of DLC. How the hell do you navigate that? And does it ever go on sale with just the essential expansion packs?

 

[Bjorn Le]

This is a game I'll have to pick up at some point

...Only concern is the sheer amount of DLC. How the hell do you navigate that? And does it ever go on sale with just the essential expansion packs?

They're almost all essential. And yes it does, I suspect there will be a 75% off sale for the end of year sale.

 

[Ducksforcup]

I don't really know why but Nejd is soooo much harder after Common Sense update. Before, you could seize some territory fairly easily without outside interference now Haasa allies with Hejaz and the country to the north of you allies with Yemen. And the Mamluks even if allied don't send troops to help. I conquered Oman because they were the only ones without allies but the rebels jumped from 80% to 100% in one month and I had to restart.

I haven't been having much luck lately. Prussia game got crushed after an awesome start because I lost the religious wars. Lost my Portugal game because I annexed too many overseas provinces at once (and instead of the usual 2 or 3 overextension per overseas province I got hit with a half dozen ones in the high teens or higher, pushing over extension to over 150%. Lost my France game because I made a mistake in a coalition war (was pulling an Austrian led deathstack of 150+ across Switzerland and into a chain of provinces I scortched earth, killed probably 30-40 troops then I got cornered and lost the army (which was so ********, I don't know why it dispersed instead of routing, it had high morale, still lots of troops, and a two star general). Need a good game to get my confidence back. And I hate playing the really easy countries (Ottomans, Spain, Poland).

Najd has always been tough. I had enough trouble in my Oman game dealing with the Ottomans and the Mamluks. I'm terrified to start a "Jihad" achievement campaign because it sounds just so difficult and stressful.

Religious wars as Protestants are so brutal. You pretty much have to get France and/or the Ottomans as allies (which is funny because obviously neither one ever go Protestant).

H.R.E. coalition wars...literally the worst lol. Enough said.

We've all gone through some rough patches. That's what makes the game so fun though...it is a true challenge.

I just played a Venice game and got absolutely crushed by the Ottomans.

Try a horde country...you might like it.

 

[Ducksforcup]

They're almost all essential. And yes it does, I suspect there will be a 75% off sale for the end of year sale.

Nullus is right...they usually do bulk sales for the EU4 DLC. I'd recommend waiting for one of those big sales Steam has.

One sale I think I bought 20 separate EU4 DLC/Asthetic Change addons.

The DLC isn't ESSENTIAL, but it def. improves upon an already fantastic game.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Najd has always been tough. I had enough trouble in my Oman game dealing with the Ottomans and the Mamluks. I'm terrified to start a "Jihad" achievement campaign because it sounds just so difficult and stressful.

Religious wars as Protestants are so brutal. You pretty much have to get France and/or the Ottomans as allies (which is funny because obviously neither one ever go Protestant).

H.R.E. coalition wars...literally the worst lol. Enough said.

We've all gone through some rough patches. That's what makes the game so fun though...it is a true challenge.

I just played a Venice game and got absolutely crushed by the Ottomans.

Try a horde country...you might like it.

Nejd was always difficult but it's ridiculously hard now. You're so poor you're not going to be making money for a long time. They were always poor but the new system ****s them in the ass. You can't afford a fleet, you can't afford forts, you can barely even afford your own army. My most success attempt since common sense saw Haasa conquered, the county to the north vassalized, Oman cut in half, but then a peasants war (which cannot be stopped unless you bring manpower up, which takes forever) destroyed me. My recovering stack couldn't kill the peasant stack that spawned, and Hejaz and Yemen ganked me. Brutal.

Not enough states go Protestant in my mind. Sweden and North Germany should always go Protestant, but they don't. If England goes, I find Germany for the most part does not. It's too closey based to the centres of reformation. I think there should be five for Protestant and three for reformed so the religious wars are more interesting.

 

[Ser Jorah Mormont]

Nejd was always difficult but it's ridiculously hard now. You're so poor you're not going to be making money for a long time. They were always poor but the new system ****s them in the ass. You can't afford a fleet, you can't afford forts, you can barely even afford your own army. My most success attempt since common sense saw Haasa conquered, the county to the north vassalized, Oman cut in half, but then a peasants war (which cannot be stopped unless you bring manpower up, which takes forever) destroyed me. My recovering stack couldn't kill the peasant stack that spawned, and Hejaz and Yemen ganked me. Brutal.

Not enough states go Protestant in my mind. Sweden and North Germany should always go Protestant, but they don't. If England goes, I find Germany for the most part does not. It's too closey based to the centres of reformation. I think there should be five for Protestant and three for reformed so the religious wars are more interesting.

My "best" Najd attempt had me vassalizing Oman, conquer Yemen and about 5 provinces in East Africa, unfortunately I got blocked from conquering the rest of Arabia because the bloody Mameluks vassalized both Hedjaz and Haasa (who had split Shammar between them), so that was game over and me having Yemen rebel from Socotra was just icing over an already spoiled cake.

 

[SniperHF]

https://soundcloud.com/idlethumbs/designer-notes-4-henrik-fahraeus

Found this while listening to another podcast on the channel.

Project Lead for CK II and Developer on EU III Henrik Fahraeu interviewed by the Lead Designer on Civ IV, Soren Johnson. Lead designer of Civ V also on the podcast.

That's one heck of a combination.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Anyone wanna recommend me a civilization to roll as next time?

 

[Bjorn Le]

Anyone wanna recommend me a civilization to roll as next time?

The Teutonic Order is pretty interesting, though one of the only viable non-luck based methods of survival is pretty gamey.

 

[Ducksforcup]

Anyone wanna recommend me a civilization to roll as next time?

Hmm. Tough call so many good factions to choose.

Playing one of the German minors is always fun. Russia (Muscovy, Novgorod etc) game is a heck of a lot of fun because you get to take SO MUCH territory.

I'm about to finish "Prester John" will post up pictures in a day or two. Stoked about it was a good challenge. Humanism is AMAZING...total respect for that idea group now.

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

Anyone wanna recommend me a civilization to roll as next time?

Nogai

 

[Ducksforcup]

Nogai

Hordes are challenging but great fun. That's a good suggestion.

The horde mechanic is very different and allows for some interesting options. Armies consisting of 100 percent Calvary is just too fun.

 

[Ducksforcup]

Prester John and Pile of God all in one! This one was a pretty fun one. Wasn't as hard as I expected, although the beginning def. had some harrowing moments. Lost two straight wars to the Mamuluks when they invaded me before I was ready. Gradual expansion into the south plus Ottoman aggression allowed me to come back. Decided early on to become a colonial power and it really paid dividends for me. Took humanism as well...I'm convinced it is the best idea group in the game.

Realized at the end I had like six gold provinces, so getting pile of gold wasn't too difficult. Just had to invade Mutapa and annex their 4 (!) gold provinces.

Ethiopan Australia I hear is a wonderful place to live!

 

[Ducksforcup]

Ducksforcup going achievement hunting again!

Finally completed "Venetian Seas" (control 90 percent of the trade power in the Constantinople and Alexandria trade nodes with only 9 cored provinces). Let me tell you this is not an easy achievement. I had about 400 heavy frigate trade ships, took every trade idea and policy I could (Trade, Plutocratic, Expansion, Quantity, Maritime Idea groups), built all the requisite trade buildings, and converted to the God of the Reformed. I needed every single one of these just to get those last few percentage points. Incredibly fun but challenging game. Very different from my other EU4 experiences.

 

[MadArcand]

That's one achievement I didn't even dare to try yet... So you sold the Italian provinces / Crete etc. to your vassals? I.e. the provinces without important centers of trade.

BTW, F11 (or F10?) is the screenshot key...

 

[Ducksforcup]

That's one achievement I didn't even dare to try yet... So you sold the Italian provinces / Crete etc. to your vassals? I.e. the provinces without important centers of trade.

BTW, F11 (or F10?) is the screenshot key...

Ya lol sorry about that. I've tried to take screenshots before, but my F keys are binded in kind of a strange way. I'll take a look at it again. It certainly beats crappy phone photos though lol.

My nine provinces were:
Constantinople, Alexandria, Carnik, Bessarabia, Venezia, Treviso, Ragusa, Rosetta, and Hüdavendigâr

Ya, basically I vassalized Serbia and fed it most of my provinces original (sans Treviso and Venezia itself). I also released Milan as a vassal and fed it Brescia and Verona. I did have Byzantium as a vassal too, but eventually I released them in order to attack them and get them to transfer their trade power. I had about five countries transferring trade power to me (learned just how awesome trade wars are).

This was not an easy game at all and it might be one of the hardest achievements I have attempted so far (sans Great Khan maybe). You should try it...really an unique experience. The first and probably only game I've ever played where Diplo points where WAY more valuable than Admin points. Really had to take advantage of every single trade benefit I could possibly get my hands on. Just a totally different focus to this game than most games of EU4. Knowing your skill at the game, I think you could definitely do it and you'd have a ton of fun with it.

Near the end, I had to kill Spain to eliminate their trade power in Alexandria. My 250 ship heavy frigate fleet laugh utterly destroyed their 83 ship fleet (including 33 triple deckers) in literally five seconds. I think by the end I was something like 250 over my fleet limit lol.

 

[YNWA14]

How does this game compare to Crusader Kings II? Looks similar from the screenshots but I've yet to do any research on it.

 

[Ducksforcup]

How does this game compare to Crusader Kings II? Looks similar from the screenshots but I've yet to do any research on it.

EU4 has more of a macro feel. You are the ruler of the country, but you don't get the micro elements that you would in CK2 (with all of the actions you can do as a ruler). The focus of EU4 is more about the country than the ruler if that makes any sense. Consequently in EU4 while you have far less actions associated with your ruler on a micro level, on a macro level you have a great deal more actions dealing with issues such as trade and the military.