Europa Universalis IV

[pindicator]

I think I'm starting to get the hang of things. Started a game as Muscovy and took Quantity as my first National Idea. After completing the entire Idea and a bit of expansion I now have over 60k manpower and infantry costs 3.5g to recruit. Hopefully it's enough to take on Denmark, because they're a-comin'

Do they have sweden in tow though? B/c Swedish steel (+Discipline) idea feels unfair :P

Yeah, they had eaten all of sweden, norway, and finland and were allied with Ryazan which I wanted to take over. I spent 10k troops sieging Ryazan's provinces while the other 40k+ went through the Danish meatgrinder: throwing twice as many troops at the invading westernized Danish stacks and winning battles by just throwing sheer numbers at the problem and taking heavy losses. It felt like an authentically Russian strategy

[Sareln]

I think I'm starting to get the hang of things. Started a game as Muscovy and took Quantity as my first National Idea. After completing the entire Idea and a bit of expansion I now have over 60k manpower and infantry costs 3.5g to recruit. Hopefully it's enough to take on Denmark, because they're a-comin'

Do they have sweden in tow though? B/c Swedish steel (+Discipline) idea feels unfair :P

Yeah, they had eaten all of sweden, norway, and finland and were allied with Ryazan which I wanted to take over. I spent 10k troops sieging Ryazan's provinces while the other 40k+ went through the Danish meatgrinder: throwing twice as many troops at the invading westernized Danish stacks and winning battles by just throwing sheer numbers at the problem and taking heavy losses. It felt like an authentically Russian strategy

Does it correct for battle prestige I wonder?

I'm having a fairly successful game as Brandenburg where I vassaled Pomerania, Conquered the Teutonic Order and forced both Poland and Bohemia into personal unions. And it's not even 1500 yet. Unfortunately Denmark has grabbed both Hamburg and Luebeck so that's going to be a conflict point eventually...

[Cyneheard]

Does it correct for battle prestige I wonder?

I'm having a fairly successful game as Brandenburg where I vassaled Pomerania, Conquered the Teutonic Order and forced both Poland and Bohemia into personal unions. And it's not even 1500 yet. Unfortunately Denmark has grabbed both Hamburg and Luebeck so that's going to be a conflict point eventually...

Poland and Bohemia PUs in 50 years? Nice.

I'm playing a Castile --> Spain game. Managed to colonize the bits of Africa between Rio de Oro and Mali, got a random casus belli on Mali...and then 4596 ducats in 1493 as the war prize. My current income before expenses? 30d a month.

I've got Aragon and Naples PUs, but neither of those were due to any work on my part - Aragon was an event, and Naples semi-randomly decided to have me inherit when they broke away from Aragon. Now if only Portugal dies without an heir (and I get their PU), then I'm golden for my game plan - all of sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas in Spanish yellow.

[Sareln]

Does it correct for battle prestige I wonder?

I'm having a fairly successful game as Brandenburg where I vassaled Pomerania, Conquered the Teutonic Order and forced both Poland and Bohemia into personal unions. And it's not even 1500 yet. Unfortunately Denmark has grabbed both Hamburg and Luebeck so that's going to be a conflict point eventually...

Poland and Bohemia PUs in 50 years? Nice.

I'm playing a Castile --> Spain game. Managed to colonize the bits of Africa between Rio de Oro and Mali, got a random casus belli on Mali...and then 4596 ducats in 1493 as the war prize. My current income before expenses? 30d a month.

I've got Aragon and Naples PUs, but neither of those were due to any work on my part - Aragon was an event, and Naples semi-randomly decided to have me inherit when they broke away from Aragon. Now if only Portugal dies without an heir (and I get their PU), then I'm golden for my game plan - all of sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas in Spanish yellow.

Did have to fight for my PUs and it got a little bit dicey there when it was Me/Poland/Pommerania vs. Bohemia/Burgundy fortunately Austria took that as her queue to jump Burgundy for Imperial Cores and France joined the pile-on for French cores (also a developing problem) so I was able to secure the union war that way.

If portugal doesn't have an heir *now* and you've already got the royal marriage, you could probably just claim the throne and force the union, dependent upon alliances.

[pindicator]

One thing I hate about htis game is every time I am losing a war I can't sue for peace. I usually just quit the game in frustration after watching the AI wander through my lands annhiliating my armies and not wanting anything

[Cyneheard]

One thing I hate about htis game is every time I am losing a war I can't sue for peace. I usually just quit the game in frustration after watching the AI wander through my lands annhiliating my armies and not wanting anything

Losing wars is frustrating, and cutting deals with the AI is (probably intentionally?) difficult when you're losing. Most things that you'd offer aren't valued at full war score, because the AI suspects (probably correctly?) that it could only use certain bonuses from you well. But if you've got a free diplomat, you can always play around with the Offer Tribute section, and usually there's something there the AI wants.

Although I had the flip side - I was trying a game as Cherokee, just to see what it was like, and when Spain invaded, I lost horribly (of course), but at some point Spain randomly decided to peace out and only take some $, despite a mid-70s war score. I gave up because the "must have 4/4/4 tribal leaders if you're big enough" mechanic was maddeningly frustrating (there are some modifiers, like +200% Core Creation Cost, if you're tribal over 10 provinces and don't have the right stats in your leader).

[pindicator]

One thing I hate about htis game is every time I am losing a war I can't sue for peace. I usually just quit the game in frustration after watching the AI wander through my lands annhiliating my armies and not wanting anything

Losing wars is frustrating, and cutting deals with the AI is (probably intentionally?) difficult when you're losing. Most things that you'd offer aren't valued at full war score, because the AI suspects (probably correctly?) that it could only use certain bonuses from you well. But if you've got a free diplomat, you can always play around with the Offer Tribute section, and usually there's something there the AI wants.

Yeah, playing around for warscore is what I try to do. And I can offer stuff right at the warscore, or stuff way over the warscore, or way under - I try lots of combinations they never accept peace and I don't have any indication what they want for peace. The only times I've managed to peace out when losing wars is when they finally get to 100%. But that can take forever and it's extremely frustrating to wait 10-20 years for the AI to get there.

[BRickAstley]

Get yer games at half price here!

Get yer games at half price right here!

[darrelljs]

This game was 75% off on Steam last night so I picked it up.

Question: read a guide first or figure it out on my own?

Darrell

[Cyneheard]

Guides are only so helpful because they're several patches out of date.

If you've never played an EU or CK game, I would still find a Lets Play guide, but otherwise dive right in.