The Europa Universalis IV Thread

[Ducksforcup]

It may seem dumb but it's based on a game logic that is decently easy to figure out. If Scotland rivals Lithuania, and it is possible, they might attack.

I've seen an Indian country land troops in Newfoundland. Now that's ****ed.

Oh I totally understand it, but it's still hilarious at times. I wouldn't change it at all though lol. Moments like that play a big role in my enjoyment of the game. Indian troops in Newfoundland...that makes me so happy.

Related to that, that Aztec achievement where you have to conquer Paris, Rome, London, and Madrid...now THAT'S an achievement.

 

[Beef Invictus]

Way back in EU2 I conducted a little experiment where I took the Iroquois, conquered North and Central America, then tried to invade Europe without switching to Christianity. It was a complete non-starter, just constant fierce rebellions everywhere. The conquest of China was much smoother.


I cheated a lot to make that happen. Doing it legitimately wasn't possible. You pretty much had to take a people from the Stone Age to the Age of Exploration in about a century to have a prayer.

 

[DaveG]

Way back in EU2 I conducted a little experiment where I took the Iroquois, conquered North and Central America, then tried to invade Europe without switching to Christianity. It was a complete non-starter, just constant fierce rebellions everywhere. The conquest of China was much smoother.


I cheated a lot to make that happen. Doing it legitimately wasn't possible. You pretty much had to take a people from the Stone Age to the Age of Exploration in about a century to have a prayer.

LOL yeah that sounds like a total non-starter to me. Would absolutely be getting my stuff pushed in if I tried it, and I'd consider myself a decent (though not great) player.


A bit after 1500 in my game right now, it's been pretty interesting. Danzig was actually released as a nation-state in a war between the Teutonics and Poland (with a bit of help from me on the Poland side) and I quickly vasalized and anexed Danzig. Made sure to westernize in a hurry after that. Keeping a diplomat in Poland the entire time to keep them from turning on me once I did so of course.

Interestingly enough going after Kazan let the Golden Horde get back in the game. Basically they waited for me to declare peace after crushing Kazan and then they moved in and took back as much of their old territory as they could (a lot of it), THEN turned on Crimea who was still recovering from a war vs Lithuania and took back the rest of it and then some. That won't last long though, soon as I get rid of that pesky separatism in Kazan and do some converting I'm turning my attention toward the Horde.

Colonization wise I'm rolling with 3 settlers and am basically 2 or 3 regions from getting to the Pacific.

Did they really nerf France in this last update or something? They've really been getting beat down big time. I mean not only did England win the 100 years war vs them in my game (NEVER happened in old versions), they've basically recreated the Angevin Empire and Aragon took the opportunity to just go full on pacman on their Mediterranean holdings. Venice seems nerfed as well which kindof sucks in all honesty. Basically they were the one check to the Mamluks and the Ottomans in the region in my prior games, though Hungary and Austria seem to do a much better job of that then they used to so I guess there had to be something of a tradeoff.

Currently ranked #1 in admin and military in my game, though I'm lacking big time in diplo. I basically just finished off the exploration ideas tree though so I should be able to play catchup on there pretty well in short order.

 

[Plato]

So I finally caved in and picked this up through the Humble Bundle sale.
Anything I'd learned in III, I've completely forgotten apparently.
Can anybody suggest a nation for me to start with that isn't too involved in anything? (No major enemies, not prone to being attacked at least early on, small enough in territory so that I can learn to manage small bits at a time etc...)

 

[Ducksforcup]

So I finally caved in and picked this up through the Humble Bundle sale.
Anything I'd learned in III, I've completely forgotten apparently.
Can anybody suggest a nation for me to start with that isn't too involved in anything? (No major enemies, not prone to being attacked at least early on, small enough in territory so that I can learn to manage small bits at a time etc...)

The three I'd suggest are Portugal, Castille, or France. All three are fairly forgiving and powerful enough that mistakes you make won't affect you too much.

Portugal you likely won't be fighting much at all (at least in Europe) so it is ideal for learning other aspects of the game. Colonizing will likely be a key component of this game, as the country is ideally suited to do so.

Castille is a dominant power in the Iberian peninsula. In most cases they should be able to become a major power in Europe without too much effort. Economically and militarily Castille is quite mighty. Uniting the peninsula (whether diplomatically or militarily) is quite doable. Colonizing is also very easy as Castille.

France is probably the hardest of the bunch, but they are still an amazingly dynamic continental power.

For what you want, Portgual is probably ideal. You can easily ally with Castille early game. Militarily you have very little to worry about once this happens.

Good luck! About to embark on an epic journey!

 

[oXo Cube]

The two best starter nations IMO are Castille or Ottomans. Which one you choose is going to depend on what you want to get out of the game.

If you are buying it just for war simulator 1444, start with Ottomans. If you want to play some of the diplomatic/colonization game while still being a decent strength military power, go for Castille.

Portugal is also an option, but situations exist in the current patch where Castille might actually try to destroy you so I think they're just worse.

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

I'm wondering. Did they ever fix France when Common Sense came outt with a patch? All I saw was France getting dumped on.

 

[Plato]

The three I'd suggest are Portugal, Castille, or France. All three are fairly forgiving and powerful enough that mistakes you make won't affect you too much.

Portugal you likely won't be fighting much at all (at least in Europe) so it is ideal for learning other aspects of the game. Colonizing will likely be a key component of this game, as the country is ideally suited to do so.

Castille is a dominant power in the Iberian peninsula. In most cases they should be able to become a major power in Europe without too much effort. Economically and militarily Castille is quite mighty. Uniting the peninsula (whether diplomatically or militarily) is quite doable. Colonizing is also very easy as Castille.

France is probably the hardest of the bunch, but they are still an amazingly dynamic continental power.

For what you want, Portgual is probably ideal. You can easily ally with Castille early game. Militarily you have very little to worry about once this happens.

Good luck! About to embark on an epic journey!

Thanks for that.
Will check out Portugal and Castille.

The two best starter nations IMO are Castille or Ottomans. Which one you choose is going to depend on what you want to get out of the game.

I will not be going with the Ottomans. (See flag)

 

[Ducksforcup]

Completed "White Elephant" The achievement was surprisingly easy. Ming China never once tried to intervene to stop me.

On to the next one! Prester John or Basileus. Having way too much fun with these things.

 

[oXo Cube]

I will not be going with the Ottomans. (See flag)

Fair enough.

Admittedly, destroying the Ottoblob is a favoured pastime of mine anyway.

 

[Bjorn Le]

I'm wondering. Did they ever fix France when Common Sense came outt with a patch? All I saw was France getting dumped on.

Nope they still get dumped on. And it seems like the traditional role of France blobbing has switched to the Ottomans. I haven't had a game yet where they weren't massive overpowered. Their tech disadvantage doesn't seem to effect them; they rarely fall behind in military tech, and even if they fall a tech or two behind, multiple doom stacks of 60-70 troops as early as the mid-1500s is ridiculous.

My Prussia game was just ruined by them. They're rivaled to Spain, Austria and me (Prussia). Yet they still joined the Catholic league with Spain and Austria. What the ****. That's my one major problem with Paradox games, certain nations blob way too easy.

 

[Ducksforcup]

Nope they still get dumped on. And it seems like the traditional role of France blobbing has switched to the Ottomans. I haven't had a game yet where they weren't massive overpowered. Their tech disadvantage doesn't seem to effect them; they rarely fall behind in military tech, and even if they fall a tech or two behind, multiple doom stacks of 60-70 troops as early as the mid-1500s is ridiculous.

My Prussia game was just ruined by them. They're rivaled to Spain, Austria and me (Prussia). Yet they still joined the Catholic league with Spain and Austria. What the ****. That's my one major problem with Paradox games, certain nations blob way too easy.

To be honest, I'm happy the Ottomans have seemingly been buffed. Historically, they were the blobbing faction so to speak. They almost conquered Vienna twice...I mean they were the dominant empire in the region for centuries.

Before recently, they never did much of anything. It was ridiculous. The Ottomans should be a major player in every single game.

Now I do agree that some changes need to be made. Much more pressing than France to me is Venice. They need a huge buff (so they don't die literally every single game). Not only is this ahistorical, but it also has a massive effect on other powers. The Ottomans in large part are able to blob because the Venetian faction gets annihilated on a regular basis early in games. Usually Austria is the one to conquer Venice and they become almost unbeatable due to owning the rich Venetian provinces.

France has seemingly been nerfed by the H.R.E. mechanics of coalitions/aggressive expansion penalties. The AI as France can't reliably expand too far in that direction, but I don't think that is the worst thing. A blobbing France never was fun and certainly wasn't historical.

 

[StrictlyCommercial]

My 1000 province Ottoman empire in 1675 disagrees that blobbing is too easy for Ottoman. Keeping 3 active wars at all times is incredibly painful though.

 

[Bjorn Le]

To be honest, I'm happy the Ottomans have seemingly been buffed. Historically, they were the blobbing faction so to speak. They almost conquered Vienna twice...I mean they were the dominant empire in the region for centuries.

Before recently, they never did much of anything. It was ridiculous. The Ottomans should be a major player in every single game.

Now I do agree that some changes need to be made. Much more pressing than France to me is Venice. They need a huge buff (so they don't die literally every single game). Not only is this ahistorical, but it also has a massive effect on other powers. The Ottomans in large part are able to blob because the Venetian faction gets annihilated on a regular basis early in games. Usually Austria is the one to conquer Venice and they become almost unbeatable due to owning the rich Venetian provinces.

France has seemingly been nerfed by the H.R.E. mechanics of coalitions/aggressive expansion penalties. The AI as France can't reliably expand too far in that direction, but I don't think that is the worst thing. A blobbing France never was fun and certainly wasn't historical.

I thought they were fine the way they were before. Always a major power, but they didn't blob every game. Which I like to see. Different stuff. I saw a Teutonic Order actually take chunks out of Poland and Lithuania once in 1.13. That was cool.

Venice ought to be buffed, but I've only seen one game where France has even been able to conquer back the English territories (and it's because they were involved in three wars at the time, Swedish independence, Scotland tried to gank them, and Burgandy tried and succeeded in ganking them). I've seen England take Paris in two games. In almost 1000 hours of EUIV, I've only even seen that happen in my games.

 

[DaveG]

I thought they were fine the way they were before. Always a major power, but they didn't blob every game. Which I like to see. Different stuff. I saw a Teutonic Order actually take chunks out of Poland and Lithuania once in 1.13. That was cool.

Venice ought to be buffed, but I've only seen one game where France has even been able to conquer back the English territories (and it's because they were involved in three wars at the time, Swedish independence, Scotland tried to gank them, and Burgandy tried and succeeded in ganking them). I've seen England take Paris in two games. In almost 1000 hours of EUIV, I've only even seen that happen in my games.

Funny enough it's quite the opposite for me with about 500 hours on EUIV. It's only under the latest release that I don't see France taking back the English territories consistently. I mean they rarely went mega-blob like the Ottomans did but they were always THE power in Western Europe until Spain and (usually) England could really take advantage of faster access to the Americas. And even still France usually managed to get a few strong areas in the Americas in these games.

The really weird one I would run in to sometimes is Scotland becoming a colonial power. Pretty sure I saw a game where they controlled the entire Caribbean once.

 

[AfroThunder396]

I'm kinda boned, every time I get into a military conflict with ANYONE France immediately invades. Trying to clean up North Africa, colonial disputes with Britain, whatever. France ALWAYS jumps down my throat. I keep getting the "Diplomatic Insult" Casus Belli against them. Their army is bigger than mine and none of my allies (Portugal, Brittany, Naples) want to join the conflict while all of theirs do.

So at this point I'm just focusing on colonizing my colonies in the new world. I'm ranked 4th in the world right now in score so I'm not really inclined to rock the boat. I think I'm going to spend some more time trying to tinker with the micromanaging and probably move on to a different civilization.

 

[Ducksforcup]

Thanks for that.
Will check out Portugal and Castille.

I will not be going with the Ottomans. (See flag)

I was thinking of you when I got this achievement.

"Basileus" the achievement to restore the Byzantine Empire to its former glory! The first war is obviously brutal (you NEED a Diplomatic Reputation guy to get Catholic allies), but I managed to get Poland-Lithuania as an ally. Then while the war was raging, the Venetians and Hungarians decided to feast upon some Ottoman provinces as well. Once you recover the Greek provinces, the achievement isn't so bad.

 

[Plato]

That is absolutely beautiful.

 

[AfroThunder396]

My unit limit is 73 right now and France has ~120 land units. Portugal won't join as my ally and Brittany's army is kinda useless right now. I'm not really sure what to do.

 

[Beef Invictus]

I've unifies Japan and taken a couple Korean territories. They've responded by embargoing me, crippling their economy. I'm really amused.

 

[Ducksforcup]

My unit limit is 73 right now and France has ~120 land units. Portugal won't join as my ally and Brittany's army is kinda useless right now. I'm not really sure what to do.

EuIV is all about patience. Wait for France to get embroiled in some mega war. Let them lose some manpower/gain war exhaustion...then that is when you pounce.

Or try to expand in other directions in order to secure more force limit and a better economy.

Getting a Diplomatic Reputation adviser might help you secure some more powerful allies to assist you in the coming struggle.

 

[Ducksforcup]

I've unifies Japan and taken a couple Korean territories. They've responded by embargoing me, crippling their economy. I'm really amused.

Moral victories...

For some stange reason before the last month or so I never used the embargo feature. It is SO useful to employ them against your rivals.`

Which Daimyo did you use to unite Japan with?

 

[Beef Invictus]

Moral victories...

For some stange reason before the last month or so I never used the embargo feature. It is SO useful to employ them against your rivals.`

Which Daimyo did you use to unite Japan with?

I just went with whichever one had the Japan label.

 

[StrictlyCommercial]

My unit limit is 73 right now and France has ~120 land units. Portugal won't join as my ally and Brittany's army is kinda useless right now. I'm not really sure what to do.

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.

 

[Beef Invictus]

First game I ever tried was as Brittany. It's the definition of a useless position. I couldn't go anywhere. Was also my very first game after not playing a Paradox game in ages, though.