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So, has anyone on here played much Europa Universalis III before?
I've gotten the game recently and played around with it a little, enough to get thoroughly confused and have my butt handed to me. It seems really fun though once you get the hang of it, and I'm looking forward to trying it out some more. Maybe even doing a playthrough and writing up a report for show, if anyone here would be interested.
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YES! so much fun
Funny you should ask, I've lost track of time and just realized I've been playing it for the last 6 hours. My buddy got me playing Hearts of Iron II 6 years ago and his been trying to get me on board with EUIII ever since, I finally gave in this year and have been hooked ever since. It's also a ton of fun multiplayer (you'll probably need to download hamachi for that, though).
I could probably give you some tips if you need them to understand the game.
What version (expansion) are you playing?
What countries have you started with?
I recommend starting with one of the big 3 (France, Castille, England - in that order). They are the easiest to play w/o getting whooped and should help you understand many different aspects of the game. France is best if you want to play Napoleon and conquer Europe, and Castille is easily the best colonizer. Once you get the hang of the game more you'll have more fun with the middling or even small counties. I've played a lot as Austria and Milan, and had a lot of fun with Meckleburg - conquering the HRE and forming Germany. In general, though, the Catholic countries are the easiest, Orthodox and Islam countries are more advanced (except for the Ottomans, who are pretty strong), and the far east countries are pretty difficult.
Like all Paradox games, there is also a pretty extensive wiki that will explain general strategies, how to get different events to trigger, religion, combat, revolts, etc. - as well as strategy guides for just about every country, including the one province minors.
http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Main_Page
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I got the Complete pack that actually has all of the add-ons for it, so everything up through Divine Wind. I started a game with Castille, where I took over Aragon, and then attacked Portugal, but while fighting Portugal my government imploded and France invaded. That was before I knew pretty much anything though, and I have read through that wiki on it a good bit so if I approached it again I'm sure I'll be able to do better.
I really wanna play a game where I try to do something worthwhile as Ireland or Scotland versus the English big dog, but that will be harder by far and probably end in spectacular failure. Which might be more the reason to try it anyways!
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BRickAstley Wrote:I got the Complete pack that actually has all of the add-ons for it, so everything up through Divine Wind. I started a game with Castille, where I took over Aragon, and then attacked Portugal, but while fighting Portugal my government imploded and France invaded. That was before I knew pretty much anything though, and I have read through that wiki on it a good bit so if I approached it again I'm sure I'll be able to do better.
I really wanna play a game where I try to do something worthwhile as Ireland or Scotland versus the English big dog, but that will be harder by far and probably end in spectacular failure. Which might be more the reason to try it anyways!
ahh, I don't have divine wind yet. Picked up the "complete edition" at half-priced books for 6 bucks (g) - but it turned out to just be napoleon's ambition and in domine. later we downloaded heir to the throne, which I love. I'm not sure I want divine wind though - mostly the changes are in china and japan, which I never play, and I don't like the idea of every province building requiring a magistrate - I like building temples and workshops and courthouses in every province, and magistrates are so hard to come by. (plus there are already a lot of fun things to do with magistrates).
conquering Britain with Ireland seems just about impossible. Mostly because in 1399 there is no ireland - so you would have to take on one of the one province minor's in ireland, conquer the other OPM's so you can form ireland while avoiding England, then conquer england (who probably has conquered scotland by this point). Scotland, on the other hand - its ambitious but doable. You start with an alliance with France, which can keep you alive if you make sure to not break it (i.e. follow france in every war they start, which is usually a lot).
Sounds like something really went wrong in your Castille game. Castille can take on military anybody in the world, with one exception - France, haha. I always make sure relations with France are good and once you've taken out Aragon (so you know they won't get Roussillion of Navara, both of which happens frequently when France fights aragon) I ally with them and try to keep the alliance all game. France is late to colonizing anyway, if you annex Portugal early England will be your only serious competition in that arena. So unless you Want to conquer all of Europe there's no reason you should ever fight France. (which is pretty historical anyway, France and Spain never really found themselves on opposites sides of a war).
Anyway if you post an AAR or adventure I'll read with interest  . Maybe if other people like it we'll get a sub-forum (the problem, of course, is PBEM's are impossible, so multiplayer gaming is more difficult, but ah well).
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Yeah, it's very unfortunate that there's no easy multi-player setup that we could go on here. Since it is in real-time instead of turns there's not even really a hack for it, it'd have to have everyone playing doing their stuff at once. And if everyone was in wars I imagine that could draw out the game quite a lot. 
I didn't play any of the other editions besides everything + Divine Wind, since I got all of it in a single pack deal. So therefore I'm not sure about what the differences with magistrates would be, which is fine cause I'd just learn how to deal with the system with which I'm faced.
Yeah, I'd either have to go to a later date when Ireland already has 2 or 3 provinces, which I think you can find if you start at the right date. Scotland would still be fun though possibly, maybe if I knocked the difficulty down one from default?
And yes everything went really wrong with my Castille game.  I'll just say that uh, I didn't realize how bad it was to stay at -3 stability for a long time, and stacked all of my troops in one stack and was puzzled when they all started dying without fighting! For those who aren't familiar with the game that's really really bad. That's like, as bad as playing Civ without making any tile improvements or something like that.
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hah, I see. yes, when you have anything but +3 stability you should put all your research into stability. stability effects everything - your revolt risk, you tax modifier (big, this can be -30% or +30%), number of merchants you get per year, and a few other things. always try and get to +3 as quick as possible.
also, in regards to the stacks of doom - each province has a "max support" which you can see by clicking on the province. if your stack is higher than that province can support you will have "attrition" deaths - which will cause war weariness if you are at war, and eat at your manpower if you are at peace or war. the support goes up as your technology level goes up - I start with size 10-12 armies with castille and inch them up to 15, later 18 as my tech level goes up. while you're at peace just make sure to rest your stacks in the provinces that have the highest support level (usually your capital or the wealthiest provinces). Usually passing through a province with a lower support won't really hurt you, as long as you aren't camping there (you will have to during a war, and support level in enemy provinces is always quite low, but hopefully you can win the siege and move on asap). It actually took me several games to figure out the "support limit" so don't feel bad .
with ireland, that's true - you don't have to start in 1399. I always play the grand campaign, but a later date would be much easier with Ireland. You might also try burgandy - conquering the netherlands and then france is doable, and once you've annexed France you can "create France" haha. The trick is forcing them to release countries with cores in their borders or releasing their vassals in the early peace deals. Also burgandy has a chance of becoming the emperor, which can give some huge bonuses (and has some bonuses just for being a part of the empire). I've not played Burgandy yet but they are on my list.
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Yeah, from what I've read up on it, if you don't watch your stability well your nation/empire will collapse handily, as I've witnessed and as makes sense.
I haven't thought of trying Burgundy yet, but yeah I'll consider them too. I was also looking at many trying to lead Sweden or Denmark, and see fi I can make any lasting power come from Scandinavia.
For anyone else reading this, do you have any other preferences as to wanting to see a playthrough/showcase? I saw that Mist did a showcase of CKII which is also Paradox Games so I would do something similar for this. Or is this game enough of an unknown that there aren't really many opinions and you would want to figure out what the deal of this game actually is before you have any input?
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Bigger Wrote:(which is pretty historical anyway, France and Spain never really found themselves on opposites sides of a war).
Franco-Spanish Wars
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Yeah, I just picked this up in the Steam Summer Sale and I am failing hard. I think playing CK2 first definitely has spoiled me a bit for this game, as everything feels so damned slow here.
Looks fun, though I somehow doubt I'll stick with it too long.
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Maniac Wrote:Franco-Spanish Wars
ok, rarely <G> They were allies during several periods, and rarely is accurate when compared to the wars that both were involved in versus England.
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