Start with a simple question: What is your favorite country to play and why?
Muscovy>whyZ
Holy Horde Teutons because it's the best roleplay while also getting all the fun horde mechanics
>>1933395Prussia unironically.
I dont know how Ming did it but they're still together at the start of age of absolutism with nomad frontier tanking the mandate for close to 100 years.>>1933395It used to be Netherlands or Florence but its probably Teutonic Order now. Just so many options to go with them that are drastically different now.
>>1933395Oirat>and why?stronkor Angevinia
I wanna play on Ironman mode to stop my save scumming habit. Can you recommend me a country and fun idea to play with that's not too hard?
>>1933395England. Versatile as fuck and plenty of flavor.
>>1933416France is the most OP country because they get free Italy and Iberia and there aren't many possible stumbling blocks. Easy transition into a colonial empire or Rome.Or the Oirat, the only savescummable thing you'll encounter is the first ever battle of the campaign in 1445 and then it's smooth sailing and so much fun just going around and melting everything with horsies. (Or going Celestial and doing a tall campaign with EoC, can recommend, it's fun too.)
>>1933395Ethiopia >Why?we wuz kangz and I like how they playHonourable mentions to Milan and Inca
>>1933432luv milan but they can get hugboxxed so easy
What are the worst ideas in your opinion?I would have to go with maritime and economic. None of the maritime ideas are outstanding, if you need naval boosts just pick navy and if you need trade boosts just pick trade. Economic ideas aren't necessarily bad but if you have to pick them then something is going wrong, taking economic ideas is like being so broke you have to raid your kid's piggy bank for extra cash. Other idea groups can help with income while also giving non-monetary benefits.
>>1933395papal states. You're on a time limit with expansion, restricted by both AE, powerful alliances and outside players expanding in so every victory feels satisfying. It's also very easy to get ganged upon, but the losses aren't as catastrophic as in other regions. Lots of RP potential, with crusades, protestants and the schism. Italy is the most fun region in general IMO. It has comparatively large variety of different country types and playstyles.
>>1933450Eco are mostly good for having a lot of gold provinces. I dunno, Infrastructure? Playing tall was never the meta, the only fun modifier is the movement speed, and the policies are mediocre. Court are pretty damn amazing in comparison if we're talking new groups.
>>1933450I just feel forced to pick inno for their policies and already been memed into it by "pros" but they are so bad
>>1933480I always took them for the roleplay of disenfranchising the clergy kek
>haven't played in ages>try Ethiopia because never played in Africa and hear its easy>Mamluks come in early and somehow have 55k troops against my 20k force limit>even though I have a tech advantage I still need to outnumber their stacks 2-1 just to barely survive the fight>cheese out just enough warscore to pay them 1k to fuck off>they come back 5 years later with an even larger army, tech superiority and now bringing all my rivals into the war>Ottos haven't so much as looked at them the entire game and are pushing only into europeDid I just get unlucky?
Byzantium because glory of europa
>>1933577well what are your combat stats, that's not normali've definitely seen ottos do weird shit lately though
>>1933596I guess I got super fucked luck wise since the AI has both a discipline adviser and a discipline leader on top of golden age buffs. Every general I've rolled this campaign was complete dogshit. Tried another campaign as Netherlands and the Ottos already had land in Egypt by 1500
This fucking game.
>>1933628>60k skull>60k skull on a mountain siege>0 manpowerHoly based
>>1933627>>1933628Ironman? How do you deal with not being able to reload when some bad shit outside of your control happened or misclick a button?
>>1933627>golden ageThat'll do it
>>1933631Last province Aragon owned.My allies had almost full-sieged France.I could not be bothered to even push the "slacken standarts" button.
>>1933416Portugal and Aragon make for fun tall playthroughs oriented around the spice trade. You can make 2k a month owning only Iberia and minor colonies in Africa and Asia.
>>1933633You just keep going, players have such an advantage over the AI that some setbacks are not really important at all overall, if you declare a dumb war or something just peace out for minimal losses, the only time I would reload for luck based things maybe is some shitty OPM starts where you need certain alliance conditions to line up, you don't need to be stomping everything you do
>>1933395I don't have a favorite country to play as. I try to do repeats as little as possible. Though typically regardless of which pdx game it is, my first country is usually England/Britain/UK. They're always strong enough for you to stumble along learning the game and still do something, while being isolated and never relevant enough to where your incompetancy negatively impacts it.>>1933416Look at achievements, find one that sounds do-able to you that you'd probably enjoy, and go for it. That's how I play the game unless I'm modding. Personally, I really enjoyed the custom nation ones. And uhh, non-custom nation, Aq Qoyunlu getting Rise of the White Sheep, Truly Good Maaaaa-tch, and Dar Al-Islam. Aq Q's Ideas are insanely strong and the Ottofucks are usually willing to ally you at the start at least so it's pretty do-able. Might have a few restarts for Rise of the White Sheep, but once you have that set, the campaign is a breeze.
>>1933633The only thing that can go bad in EU4 is if you declare a dumb war and you get crippled by the AI in the early game.
>>1933631try a switzerland run and watch the enemy melt against your mountain forts. It's very fun.>>1933633NTA, by not being a faggy little bitch and taking the loss like a man. The most fun and memorable run I had was ironman VH brandenburg when due to my overconfidence I got a coalition and lost basically everything I conquered in 50 years since game start. The journey to regain old borders and get my revenge was very fun. In the end I managed to conquer most of Europe anyway.Since then I haven't considered savescumming even when not playing ironman. Why would I ruin my own fun?
>>1933402This. I also like Venice, Jianzhou and Lubeck.
>>1933633>How do you deal with not being able to reload when some bad shit outside of your control happened or misclick a button?After 1520 mistakes or lost wars are fine because you're off the ground and your plan should be well in motion. Before 1520 if something really bad happens just restart.
>>1933395Lithuania>whyTZD
>>1933633reloading the game is way more annoying, you are insane
>>1933402Made me boot it up because I only did Prussia as them before
Lucky Nations, yes or no?
>>1933687It makes sense to some point. Just don't give it to an already OP nation.I'm looking at you, Ottoblob.
>>1933687Yes because I play Ironman and it makes great powers somewhat more accurate, though I feel historical nations is kind of a cheap bandaid to incompetent AI for something that should already happen when it's given to very strong nations like France, England, Ottomans
>>1933696>though I feel historical nations is kind of a cheap bandaid to incompetent AI for something that should already happenLucky nations I can handle but some of the missions are just lol
>>1933687Yes but they shouldn't have less AE
hmmmmmm
>>1933719hmmm
>>1933724What's a good third idea for them? I have Divine and Religious.
>>1933738Can you take aristocratic as them i forgot, If not get espionage cause i think that gives cav buffs when you get horde.
>>1933747I took Quality for now. It'll be useful for a while before I go horde. Sadly no aristocratic without fuckery.
I got pretty lucky here. Ottomans have 60k troops, while my allied Mamluks have 100k plus Austria and Hungary. Gonna clean up Poland and go straight into them after I hit tech 12. Give back lands to my Crimean vassal and then probably into the steppe.
>>1933757Never mind, Mamluks attacked them right after the war, had to declare on them ASAP to peace out on my terms.
>>1933395Sokoto>whyStraightforward, challenging, and rewards you for understanding the game's mechanics. Multiple ways to form it, also.
>4 month conversionssometimes i forget how fun ultrareligious is
>>1933395I really enjoy playing Oda in Japan and uniting the islands doing what Nobunaga couldn't.I always enjoy a teutons to Prussia game.And lately I always enjoy a timurids to mughals game because I really like the Diwan mechanic.
>>1933450>maritimeI like to take it for fun for colonial nations after im already winning. And its a neat combo with the Netherlands for more fleet movement with the Indiamen ships, zoom your armies all around the world with 14 speed transports.I always felt like they should change it up, where Trade is what you take if you're more landlocked and looking to boost trade income whereas maritime would be more focused on long range colonial trade boosting.
>Use Control plus a number key to assign a selected unit to a control group. Hit the number key alone to instantly select the unit in question.How the fuck did I never know this?
>>1933888I never use it personally. Never found a need to.
They have very nice flavor.
if you blob you aren't white
That was quicker and easier than I thought.
>>1933907Is Russia your subject?
>>1933920Nah, I'm gonna clean it up something like this. mend the Schism and swing down through the Caucasus and into Persia next.
>>1933395California>whyReally any colonial formable on the Pacific. The ~100 years or so it takes to get there gives the AI enough time to scale to actually pose a serious threat to you
>>1933923Fair, I thought you had to have all of Russia region as part of the missions to get Holy Horde.
>>1933926Maybe it got changed but no, 20 provinces in Central Asia and the Urals converted to Catholic and some army requirements. I need most of what's left of European Russia for the Schism though.
>>1933450Maritime is better than naval if you're already taking one, it's a diplo idea group (least important type of mana usually) and the quality of your ships really doesn't matter that much, just having more ships makes the AI scared of engaging you and you can just sit in a sea tile to repair while still blockading and is also useful outside of war for more trade/transport shipsNaval is probably the worst overall but most of the groups have at least some niche use case, my least favorite idea groups are eco and inno though, eco just feels bad as kind of a temporary fix to your economy when just expanding your trade is better, and inno just feels like a noobtrap that saves you some mana I guess if you're just jerking off doing nothing but it has le meme siege ability policy so everyone says it's good
>>1933450Far from the worst but is it just me or is Administrative worse than what people make it out to be? Arguably only two useful ideas and mediocre policies.
>>1933927Right.Been a while since I've done Holy Horde.
>>1933932It is a bit overhyped but the ccr and govcap are mandatory for mass blobbing which is how a lot of people play, ccr is especially important for the coring time which you don't get from admin efficiency so you can avoid overxtension rebels
>>1933395aragon>cool name>cool flag>cool map colour>not complete dogshit at the start so i don't have to challenge play minmax like a tard but also not strong enough to steamroll everything easily so it's not a bore>very wide physical range of play from the beginning despite it's comparatively small size>clear objective of mediterranean thalassocracy>pretty good ideas and you can pick between aragonese or spanish (both are good in their own ways)>lets you have a lot of versatility and different paths or mindsets to play>christian mechanics are pretty fun (i really like PU autism specifically)it's my go-to whenever i come back to this shit game
>>1933935Also the best nation to run a peasant empire
>>1933395Might be Naples, since you can go into north africa fairly early. Or possibly Florence.Either way, anything in Italy is a good time
>>1933395Zaporozhe is great. Sikh Rada is an amazing government and the initial challenge is variable depending how much you want to ruin Lith or make them stronger before you play and release. Then after taking out Poland you can flip to them and take their ideas for ridiculous horse cav with hussars mixed in. Would recommend 100%.
>>1933932Admin has the actual most important modifier in the game, +1 Possible Advisors, which saves me a lot of sanity when looking for a specific advisor
>>1933402>muh prussian teuton knight larpyou need to turn the sabaton off and kill yourself now
>>1933960Something that was in EU3 that I really wish they brought back in EU4 was the ability to create specific advisors using cultural and military tradition. Even though it was a very abusable mechanic, it helped small nations make cash because they could create good advisors that other nations could buy and it also punished warmongering by draining their cultural tradition so they wouldn't be able to spawn good advisors. Much better than the shitty RNG fest of EU4
>>1933981You're lame.
what is legitimately the intended way to play the game the developers intend once you get to late game war and everybody has 300k+ army and they all micro 10 stacks perfectly, meanwhile you have to either take 20 actions every time you unpause for 1 second while swiping the map around to make sure your half stacks arent next to a bunch of enemy stacks waiting to pounce on it? or just walk around in massive stacks and get massive attritionits so fucking awful.....
>>1934015That's not how late game plays in my experience. You focus on one offensive front, occupy all forts, then optionally stackwipe the enemy when they have nowhere else to run. It's not microing, most of the time is spent in speed 5 waiting for sieges. It sounds to me like you don't have a proper fort setup so you are chasing the AI all over your country instead of containing the war to a single frontline.
>>1934032theres no stack wiping them, they will just shattered retreat, then come back. if i "focus on one front" they+all their allies siege my back yard endlessly. usually how it goes is>have 300k soldiers, main rival i'm attacking has 150k ish + allies>they attack, i have to push them back after their initial strike i start to siege their allies down with one 65k stack while carefully watching where the main mass of their troops go>they usually avoid my 65k stack while going for my remote forts along my border>use split stacks and merge them to 65k stacks to kick them out, they will do this repeatedly for the entire war because they will just hire mercenaries etc>each time i kick them out of my forts they get a shattered retreat and lose maybe 30% more troops than me, but they have more manpower than me thru their combined forces so im still losing in the end>eventually my 65k stack makes it to their capital and if im lucky they are ready to accept white peace>repeat X times until their allies either peace out from losses or after i siege their capitals down with my doomstackthe AI never gets through my forts, but i also cannot commit to an actual "front" because otherwise they will do just that and destroy my forts. and every ingame week is like 2min of tedious as fuck microing, and last war i just went fuck it and hired mercenaries and took shitload of attrition because its impossible to manage them, but i also wanted to attack on a bigger front. i cant fathom how people manage the tedium of the combat, in hoi4 i can manage a clusterfuck because the game is built for that, in eu4 i feel im playing whack a mole with an AI that can always out-micro me and basically cheat to get no attrition but laso avoid their big stacks from being in danger.
>>1934037Being sieged is the whole purpose of your forts, wars are siege races and you win by sieging faster. You only have to relieve them once the progress gets too high and usually a secondary army can take care of it while your main forces are sieging the enemy. I don't know how you're getting from that simple process to multiple minutes of micromanagement every week.
>>1934037>they+all their allies siege my back yard endlesslyNTA but skill issue, build more forts>they will do just that and destroy my forts.There is simply no reason you should be losing every siege race to the AI in the lategame. Maybe 25% of the time, max, the AI should beat you in a siege race. But the vast majority of the time you should have enough siege ability to beat the AI and then turn around to attack them on your fort. >65k stackFor what reason? A siege stack should be the bare minimum number of cannons to get the max siege bonus. You may add extra cannons to account for the disease outbreak event and up to an equal number of infantry if you don't want to babysit the siege too much (the inf will cover if the stack gets attacked). But 65k is never ever necessary unless you're storming the fort>but i also wanted to attack on a bigger frontI've played games as Russia in the 1700's where I push into China or against Gigafrance/Ottomans. Yes, it is a lot of pausing, but that's kinda the point. It's not HOI4 where the game holds your hand (I can't get into Hoi4 because of this very reason). You're responsible for keeping track of your armies. It's pretty simple since you're the one positioning your armies to begin with, you should have a plan
>>1934037what country are you playing and who are you fighting? include screenshots
>>1933960kekdon't get me on inquisitors when you'e running a large empire, that "95% to not spawn on heretic provinces" destroys me
>>1933960Advisor lottery is such bullshit, especially when they spawn from some random TC province so you can't even promote them
>>1933395Japan would be up there if not for shitty national missions and the region>wacky daimyo ideas for every possible game style you could want>fun sengoku early game>avenues of expansion>incidents (best mechanic btw) for even wackier game styles like buddho-confucian militant monk-peasant republic>eoc if you're into that
Will never get tired of no infantry armies
>>1934127It annoys me how daimyo missions get completely replaced by Japanese ones when you can only do like half of them by the time you unite it
Aieeeeeee help me, I literally cannot stop playing as italian minors and byzantium
most annoying war
comfy netherlands, fort in every provence, none of the homeland has been occupied in like 200 years
show us your colonies, sir
and why the fuck is the parliament act to LOSE sailors, how does that make any sense?
who should I take out in the last 25 years. will probably just hit the ottomans again for fun, the Indians and Asians are too annoying to deal with.
>>1934140i hate embesides the spice isles
>Militarists in power>Manpower recovery speed +20% >Army tradition from battles +50%>War score cost vs other religions −15%Huh, I might actually take that Open Elections reform, seems pretty cool
>>1934142new holland foreva
I was about to declare my last war to cut down branderburg and fucking brazil is at it again. How the fuck can they declare on my colony when I still have a truce for 11 more years? What the fuck? I just got done marching my armies all over the amazon. So many stupid oversights like when a new colonial nation forms it doesn't inherit the truces of it's overlord, fucking bullshit
motherfucki'll just wait till my absolutism ticks i guess
>>1934175oh wait i'll have -20% province cost from diplomatic in a secondand king and country
>>1934127I do agree with you, but I like Japan because going Christian is fun as fuck.
>>1933981Tell us your favorite country then
Russia went Catholic because of the Schism ending so I'm gonna give them their stuff from Oirat and ally for a bulwark emergent storytelling
>>1934190Would play teutonic order if it's color wasn't so ugly. Vomit inducing actually
>>1934202Just change it in the settings if you so desire, it's three letters. I changed some map borders before to make them prettier too
>>1934218Never heard of that lol, will check it if I open the game again, plenty of cool colors to chose
>>1934229I said settings I meant the files so it'll probably disable achievments
>i was wasting 30% of my income on send officers because i kinda forgot that bulgaria grew from 8k to 130k soldierswhoops
>>1934043it gets like that when the army sizes bloat to retarded numbers towards the 1700s and you want to care about not getting attrition. the AI will also send their armies around the world sometimes. france loves to send their units to tunis for example.>>1934045>skill issuewow no shit, good advice. next time i will just use my speedrunner senses and world conquest by 1459>65k stack>For what reason?because otherwise the AI sends armies to ambush me, and if I keep a large sieging army the AI just lets me rush down their capital and usually get an instant white peace as long as its not the first year of the war.>>1934056not in a game but its ottomans, and its basically the entire europe. any time i declare war on either commonwealth, venice, or what remains of austria i have to run around basically the entire continent.
>>1934266>turks are europeant. brown amerimutt
>>1934266who the fuck are you even talking about
why can't I release Denmark?
>>1934300What the hell? Denmark is primary nation of Danish culture, so they should never lose this province as their core. Only thing I can think of is that AI Denmark changed their primary culture for some reason
I clearly meant the teutonblob
>>1934300Can you check what happened in province history maybe? Don't know how it's possible for Denmark to be losing their cores
there is a possibility that Denmark isn't the primary nation of the Danish culture
>>1934142100% the Zanzibar trade node
>>1934263>wow no shit, good adviceI followed those words with advice, you baby. Keep your wig on>because otherwise the AI sends armies to ambush meAgain, keep the minimum needed to siege the province on the province itself and have the rest standing right next to it to avoid attrition. There's no reason to have a 65k stack unless you're storming>not in a game but its ottomans, and its basically the entire europeIt takes like 6 forts to secure the Balkans + Crimea. You just need to focus on one country at a time and knock them out until you have enough WS to take whatever land you want
>>1934300I think Denmark got forced to change their primary culture to one outside of their culture group through one of those ruler events, not really sure but from your previous screenshots it seems that core has an expiration time of 50 years which is the default for different culture group cores
I'm done. This was fun. Definitely wish the Horde mission was a midway before you actually go on and crusade everything though. Had nothing to do past 1600 in the mission tree and taking over the holy land was completely irrelevant, not even a good event.
>>1934272>>1934281it was the same guy basedjaking japan lelwhat a sourpuss
>>1934340Yeah that was my problem with it as fun as holy horde is. It needed another tag like a Prussia -> Germany that expands upon your expansion. And no, the Mongol Empire doesn't count. I always felt that was more of a meme.>>1934139What is your lowlands dev at that late? I was mostly wrapping up after finishing the mission tree in ~1620 and i got everywhere sitting at 35+ dev.
>>1934350For sure, didn't even think about how you don't get any new ideas for it. Also funnily I only got the Pope like 3 or 4 times the entire game despite having all the influence from coversions. I guess just because so many Catholics survived.
>>1934347Slow /gsg/ thread?
Denmark was PU'd by Brandenburg and eventually integrated, Iguess that fucked it up. It says they still have cores on all of their provinces though which i thought meant they were able to be released. Maybe Brandenburg culture shifted the provinces to German? From the screenshot I posted they were still alive as a PU as recent as 10 years. Do provinces have to be the correct culture to release even if they still have cores or something
>>1934300What happens when you click "return province"?
>>1934369Yeah AFAIK they have to be of the main culture so if Denmark got converted you won't be able to
>>1934357Why are you talking to yourself?
>>1934369To release a nation the cores need to be inside their nation's primary culture's group even if they still have them, Danish culture is in the Nordic group so you can also release them from Swedish/Norwegian/Finnish etc, perhaps Denmark swapped to Saxon (Germanic) from Brandenburg enforcing it or through some event, kind of weird though
i wonder what went wrong in here
>>1934170>canadian scandinavia
>>1934180Now I want to do some ultramilitarist ultrareligious Catholic Japan because of you
Is playing Austria as complicated as it looks?
>>1934407As it looks? content creators make it look extremely easy
>>1934407No, the only annoying part of playing Austria is usual HRE chores like crushing the reformation, it's probably one of the easiest major nations to play since you will have a lot of subjects to do your dirty work even before you revoke the privilegia
>>1934408>>1934412I mean being the HRE emperor and dealing with subjects and all that.
>>1934407Nah it's pretty easy. You can get four PUs before 1480 so you're basically a god anyway. It just takes some alliance chaining to enforce religions and clean up centers of reformation once Protestantism spawns. I have to say I had a significantly easier time reforming the HRE as Hussite Bohemia, weirdly enough.
>>1934415If you have never played as HRE emperor it might be a bit overwhelming at first but there's really not too much to think about, just keep electors happy with you (or vassalize them) so they will vote for you and make sure your imperial authority is always growing so you can pass reforms, you can hover over it to see what's impacting it, the usual big killer is heretic princes so you have to kill the reformation by converting the centers, and for incidents usually just pick whatever boosts your IA
>>1934415Honestly, religious wars and converting heretic princes is the most interesting gameplay you will get if you get to that year
welp it is actually danish culture, I even went back before the war ended and I can release denmark but it's over 100% warscore. I guess I can create a client state, I just wanted nice borders
Can you recommend me some fun countries that's not too easy but also not too hard?
>>1934444Incas used to be a good very weak into super stronk game but I haven't played them since the update. I dunno, Lithuania or the European hordes? Both have a pretty hard start but can snowball easy.
>>1934444naples
>this country is recommended for new playersIs this still true?
>>1934475you can be a mouthbreather and still be able to paint the map with ottomans
>>1934444Depends on your level, Muscovy is probably the hardest major power to play. You have shitty trade goods, early game manpower problems, ottoblob and plcblob to deal with and hordes are a pain in the ass early game. Alternatively, Netherlands or bohemia. Shit, it's hard to recommend something because I find things either ultra difficult (ardabil, granada) or easy/normal difficulty. If you know what you are doing Byzantium is exactly what I would describe as not too easy but not too hard (it's hard to get the game going, after the first or two wars you need to be opportunistic)
>>1934475it only got easier with the cheat trees
>>1934444aragon (might be a bit too much on the easy side)kilwaethiopiaany nepalese countryany tibetan countryany HRE nation besides brandenburg, austria and bohemia
>install a mod which allows tributaries for any country>smaller countries like Iraq, Greece, Aragon, Georgia, and Scotland get the upper hand by paying tribute to stonger neighbors until they're strong enough to go independent>map becomes a clusterfuckKino.
I don't think I have ever played an Indochinese nation
>>1934475Castile can get tricky with all the "new" disasters but it still would be "disasters 101"
>>1934476What about the decadence mechanic? I heard they tend to fall apart from mid to late game because of that.Also, found this on R*ddit.
>>1934502>picyou can only take into account so much retardation, might as well say no nation is newfag friendly because one of them might be a retarded 30iq blind-deaf amputee>I heard they tend to fall apart from mid to late game because of that.that's fine because it's still manageable, a good player will wash his balls with decadence but it serves as a good roadblock for a newfag to improve and have a setback for a while
First ironman run, France or Ottomans? I never played them before even in normal mode.
>>1934520Will never understand why people make such a big deal out of ironman, but I also tend to quit a run at the slightest inconvenience. Go France
>>1934520Current patch, France 10000%
>>1934525>never understand why people make such a big deal out of ironmanI don't know about other but I saved every time before going to war and almost after every battle. Not being able to manually save and reload is a pretty big deal for me.
>>1934527Oh right, I used to do that when I just started, after a while I just started to enjoy 1444
>>1934520France if you want a smooth experience after getting used to savescumming, there's pretty much no roadblocks in a normal campaign
>>1934502>>1934511im a newfag playing ottoman (altho i have maybe 60-70hrs by now) and the disasters dont come into play ever unless you ignore AE. at one point i ignored AE and annexed some arabs and instantly got the internal power struggle, which then completed and domino'd like 3 other disasters, needless to say i just reloaded back before the war and continued normally because they are game ending mechanics.
>>1934555>im a newfag playing ottoman (altho i have maybe 60-70hrs by now) Well, only 3000 more hours and you'll be done with the tutorial
>>1934527You can still save scum in Ironman.
>>1934398Is it me or is this happening every single game now? Maybe it's because I've been playing longer campaigns recently but all of my latest saves have colonies taking random chunks out of Europe, I think someone posted Cuban England earlier in the thread as well
>>1934584In my second to last game all the colonies got free but stayed as the colonial nations and the same color for some reason.
>>1934584I have seen them take some land in the independence war but not really expand beyond that, it kinda makes me want to try building up a colonial nation to release and conquer europe with but the buildup for that sounds boring
>>1934611yeah i was thinking about doing one for a long time but wasting the best part of the game sounds shit
>>1934612>>1934611Usually the best to do that as Portugal since its easy to just speed 5 and colonize with them.
>wake up after regenerating all my sleep mana>read a book to gain brain mana>eat food for calorie mana>go to work for bank mana>spend bank mana on food mana to spend on calorie mana>squeeze DNA mana out of peepee for dopamine mana>play EU4 for more dopamine mana>reach an arbitrary limit where I can't get any more mana and have to go to sleep to "replenish">1/3rd of the day has no content because I'm replenishing sleep mana>still hasn't been patched or given any DLCWho designed this shit?
>>1934654>annex too much corn producing provinces>now i have to supress rebels with insulin mana every week
>>1934654>squeeze DNA mana out of peepee for dopamine manaI hear that's an inefficient use of DNA mana, if you go a while without converting your DNA mana into dopamine mana you start to get "semen retention" modifiers which supposedly gives you lots of charisma mana and energy mana among other things. Very sup-optimal play unless you're going for the "wizard" modifier which gives lots of brain mana at the cost of ever-increasing despair.
Welp, turn out France is too easy even for first Ironman. Probably because I'm not that new to the game.How about Italian minors?
>>1934666What kind of campaign are you looking for? I don't think you will really have any trouble in Italy either unless you go too crazy early on and build up a massive coalition from the high dev
>>1934682>What kind of campaign are you looking for?...I never think about it.
how bad an idea is this? I kinda want to just hire a bunch of mercs and crush all the princes at once to then dismantle the HRE and form Germany
>>1934666>>1934682Okay, I've got an idea. I'll try Behemia next (Kingdom Come 2 is coming)My goal is to go Hussite and form Great Moravia, and if all going well I might try to dismantle HREWish me luck.
>>1934705Those troop numbers aren't that skewed but you can't expect any of your allies to be useful, specially not Great Britain. I guess fighting everyone at once would make it easier to dismantle the empire but it would be smarter to isolate the biggest coalition members (Bohemia?) by declaring on their ally just to get a truce going.
why do you have to be like this
>>1934719Just be happy your Poland didn't eat Hungary and Lithuania through PUs by that date and become a permanent great power
>>1934719Defender of Faith is such a trash mechanic, I have no idea what the devs were thinking when they enabled it for the AI a few patches ago. I guess all the competent designers left for EU5 already.
>>1934722I remember when the Ottomans would always become DoF and it made it impossible to war with Sunnis
>>1934722I was playing a game a Prussia a long time ago, I was allied to France and they were the DoF, every time I went to war I had to fight them, was annoying as shit having to destroy my main ally to get any land.
What's the country with most flavor? I guess it's France or maybe England?
What country should I play if I want to make lotta money with the aim of economic hegemon?
>>1934808Something in Italy or a dutch minor into Netherlands.
>>1934808Venice
>>1934719What are you so scared of? Polish navy landing troops?
>>1933395I'm autistic enough to play the game for about 10 years, but not autistic enough to play a country more than twice or thrice.The most fun were more RP heavy games like Goslar. U was nice, East Frisia and any game where you kick the Engl*sh in the teeth early.
>>1934875>U was nicet-Thanks.
>>1934875>U was nicepeak ESL
>>1934711They might be even easier because of all the PUs and easy takeover of the HRE but it's fun so GL
>>1934881there's a country literally called U in the game
>>1934762I'd have to say Angevin <X>>>1934808Aragon/Portugal into Mollucas>>1934875I think I played most major countries at least 30 times each at this point
>>1934808Is there any country that DOESN'T get it? Even as the damn Mongols I took it like a 100 years before I got anything close to the other requirements and you kinda need close to economic hegemon to pay for the other two anyway...
>>1934883There is a country in the game called the same as me?!?!
>>1934898that joke doesn't even works
>>1934883Called me? Where? Skype?
>>1934883there's a country called Saravanakumar??? saar please say where I have to do the needful
>>1934881U mad?>>1934885absolute insanity. Only after a major upgrade I play a nation another time.
>>1934967Well ya know it's not like the countries were really different from each other for the first 7 years after release. But I also don't see much point playing generic nations now.
>just got reminded you had a decision to instantly westernize if you owned vienna, danzig, or prague in one of the patchesjesus i forgot all about this shit
>>1934910kek
why does it take like a year to siege down saltzburg as ottomans. what the fuck?
>>1935045I have noticed that Lucca always takes a lot of time to siege despite being only a capital fort
>>1935045Mountains+salt and whatever other defensiveness modifier they had, check the siege view
>>1935045salzburg has fort defense in ideas
>>1935045>>1935053and garrison size*
>saltburg>produces salt>makes players saltyBravo Johan.
>>1933935I hate how their missions focused on Mediterranean domination get completely replaced by a circumcised Castilian tree when you form Spain. It's so dumb and typically lazy of Paradox.
>>1935080You should at least be able to choose whether you want to keep or change your mission tree like how you can with ideas
>>1933395Bohemia>PUs out of the ass>Czech nationalist power fantasy>can fuck with the Reformation with your OC Donut Steel religion>doesn't start out OP like Austria but can reach the same power level quickly
Do you also spend a considerable amount of time fantasizing about life in the world you've created painting the map?
>>1935132I like to imagine the map games that would exist in my version of the world
>>1935132Only when I invade Japan as an European country
>Toilet Paper Act>Our reliance on paper commodities will alleviate all the pains and lament derived from the loss of a dear leader.>No stability loss on monarch death>+25% Average monarch lifespanWhat did they mean by that?
>>1935080Yeah it sucks, could be a way more interesting "what if" Spain ignoring colonization and focusing in the Mediterranean, maybe conquering all Arabs as payback.
>>1935139ass hygiene is important for one's healthno stab hit is a meme because when the monarch dies you can cry into the paper
timurids seem funi couldn't hold myself back from memeing into eranshahr though
>>1935161hm now that i think about it you could get aristocratic, horde, and divine ideas as them for the meme and they have cav combat ability as ideasmight just continue my meme cav only train
>playing Saxony>vassalize Bayreuth >Protestant reformation starts in Goslar>I convert second>Bayreuth converts right after meAll three Centers are in or right next to me, feels fucking GOOD. I hate when the Reformation starts outside of Germany. Is there a mod that hard locks it to the HRE?
>>1935165CRAP i forgot i won't be able to take horde right after aristocratic and will have to wait till tech 10
>>1935236>Is there a mod that hard locks it to the HRE?Poke around in the text files. Find the events that spawn them and edit the conditions. Tweaking paradox games yourself is half the fun
>>1935080yeah that's pretty stupidi also forgot to mention they are the nation with the most "natural" path to reform rome besides maybe byzantium for obvious reasons, since they are already a mediterranean power with tons of claims all over both western and eastern rome areas, and even near the actual city of rome itselfand forming rome is always fun
fuckers
>>1935049It's coastal.>>1935132Only when playing with merchant republic mechanics.
>>1935267That's true. IIRC it's weighted for German culture provinces, I think I can just whack that up to 100 and throw a "is not german: 0" in there
what do
>>1935305Annex as much of the Balkans as you can
Eranshahr really does have pretty terrible ideas
>>1935305piss and shit yourself
>shit my ally has the zoroastrian province>oh shit i get a core on it i'll get it from return cores>not adjacent to my territory so i can't take itnigger
le ottomans having an army thrice the size of the next country with 130000% discipline and 7 morale moment
For me, it's Holland -> Netherlands, you get the HRE and colonial gameplay rolled into one, what's not to love
>>1935356>not doing peasant republic netherlandsNGMI
>>1935346nah they just attacked me again i'm scuttling this campaign
>>1935346>>1935360If you can't beat the Ottomans, then you need to git gud. Post year and country
>>1935305Download a cheat mod, give yourself everything you need to win the war, continue as if nothing happened.
>>1935365>cheat modYou will use the console and you will LIKE IT
>>1935356You leave the HRE when you form them tho
For me it's Third Odyssey Orthodox Spartania
>>1933929As a relatively new player the other big benefit of innovative to me is the extra free policy and the 20% advisor savings.
>>1935396I did the Hellenic into Aztlan run. Never finished it, but the events were entertaining. MT could use a bit more work.
ha ha ha ha
>>1935434I wish I had that copypasta about the Benin matriarchy
>>1935448AAR pasta?
>>1935458Yeah, do you have it?
>>1935463Nope. Just guessing.
wtf is this cursed shit? apparently France ate the Papal holdings and then the Pope briefly joined the HRE before rage quitting because we're Protestants so now his capital and sole land is here for some reason
>>1935486maybe there's a meme event that makes a theocratic catho become the pope or something like that
>>1935486>wtf is this cursed shit?Pretty much what you said. When the Pope loses all his land, HRE bishoprics have a choice of giving the Pope their country. If that happens, and the HRE is protestant, the Pope leaves the Empire
>>1935490I've noticed pope also leaves if you have religious peace in the empire when I passed erbkaisertum before the war, what a bitch
Which direction did people find the most fun for taking the Livonian Order.
>>1935272>>1935151>Aragon conquering the Mediterranean and larping as RomeNot eu4, but come home white man
>>1935132I spend an unhealthy amount of time doing that, not just in Europa Universalis but in pretty much every historical strategy game, sometimes I'll even narrate like a history documentary or new reports in my head about what is happening
>>1933395Papal States.
>>1935523Isn't religious peace the worse option?>you can do whatever you want bro>still gives imperial authority penalties
>>1935604It's not really an option, you get it automatically when you pass the second to last reform and at that point there should be no heretics leftth
>>1935503I still don't get the point of that when the Pope in HRE thing is ONLY when the player memes history. Just don't meme too hard or we'll take it away!I guess it's good roleplay but taking away something for doing too well is not the regular design philosophy in EU4.
aside from anbennar, do you guys play with any fantasy or alt history mods?
where the fuck does this crete flag come from? why does it have a gay looking goat on it
>>1935673Nah, not even Anbennar
>>1935673i don't use any mods
>>1935681Plebbit says that's a gay minotaur but I couldn't tell you the rest, especially that German eagle.
>>1933395EOC Qing are surprisingly fun
>>1935694Fallschirmjägers from the Battle of Crete retroactively affected history to cause German influence in Crete
>>1935681It's a wojak
>>1933395Elysia from the Third Odyssey mod. It's comfy and also I enjoy painting all of America blurple.
>>1935753Made me download it and the beginning event sequence is already more interesting that 99% of EU4 events
i've been reading the totally-not-EUV dev diaries i've missed and i pogged irl after reading the 27th of november one, the new hegemon mechanics look like they'll be so much fun
>>1935823I can't be bothered to learn another mid map painter desu
>>1935753it's a great mod, ton of flavour but it kinda just turns into mindless blobbing after the first 100 years
>>1933929>extra free policy>cheaper advisors>innovativeness gain buff>tech cost reductionThe monthly war exhaustion is excellent, and the +1 possible advisors is also niceOverall it's a solid idea group which can save you a huge amount of mana over the course of a campaign, but it can be hard to notice at play and rewards you more the earlier you take it
>>1935901I like Inno as well and pretty much always take it first when playing in Italy cause it meshes well with so many of the idea sets there. That being said its one of those things were you kinda feel like you waste it a bit if you dont take it first cause of the way it works. And it always kinda sucks to take an adm idea first.
Feel like playing Poland but cant decide on the start. Even PU Lith, Odd local Noble.
>>1935960why would you willingly gimp yourself when the end result is always the same?
>>1935960Just start as Lithuania instead if you want a slightly more challenging start, the local noble isn't even interesting and he's probably gonna die in a couple years anyway
>>1935753>Feel like playing Poland but cant decide on the startGolden Horde
>>1935753I'm surprised they went with Greek Hellenics than Roman ones for the religion
>>1935960Silesia -> Poland, enjoyable challenge
>>1935522Whats this map mod it's very visually appealing
>>1936003Pretty sure that's just default vicky 2, you can try theatrum orbis terrarum for a similar look in eu4 maybe
1-2 Ottomans3-4 France5-6 Austria7-8 Sweden9-0 Poland
>>1936028NeverFor what, you already wonMaybeDecentFor what, you already won
>>1936031Yeah I got Sweden.Why Ottomans never though?
Tips for Ethiopia?
>>1936088If you stay coptic you'll get some neat bonuses for controlling the holy sites you start with 1 already under your control and the mams (who will be your biggest enemy for most of the game) have 2 holy sites.You get a unique infantry unit that doesn't consume manpower or ducats (but cost mil points) so could abuse that to not have to worry about manpower or money for army, westernize ASAP to get the most out of western unit tech infantry pips. The money you save from using those units could be used to promote an advisor for more mil points to recruit more of them. Court ideas could be nice early because of how estates work with the cawa unit + even more mil power so you can spam more of them
>>1936088Before you take lands to border the Mamluks be aware that they might come after you early as they will be stronger then you if you let your manpower and such get too low. Not saying to completely avoid it cause it is unavoidable (And you dont want to delay too long cause you want that land up the Nile Delta before the Ottomans take it all.) but just be aware of their claims and you power compared to them early on.
>>1936088Switch your main trade node to the Gulf of Aden as soon as you can. That will be your trade centre for 99% of the campaign. The Ethiopia node is terrible, and Alexandria gets all the life sucked out of it by the triple threat of Venice, Genoa, AND Constantinople
>>1936088Vassalize a Muslim when you get the chance. This will give you the Muslim map which is everything from England to SEA
AI can bypass fort zone of control?
>>1936133They shouldn't be able to, no. But the rules can be a bit counterintuitive if you have things like overlapping ZoCs.
>>1936133There's a number of exploits that can be used to bypass zone of control and the AI inadvertently uses some of them.
>>1933395>What is your favorite country to play and why?I'm a simple retard - Portugal. I like painting me map without fighting wars.
>>1936031>>1936028playing the GPs is always an instawin, no matter who. Even for some of the secondary powers at gamestart, like Muscovy or the larger Indian nations. You'd need to gimp yourself in some way to make them fun, or go for a WC, but that's unfun too.
>>1936173>You'd need to gimp yourself in some waySpeaking of, is there any reason to go full serfdom as Muscovy?
>>1936209I think that route gives you plenty of manpower and tax while penalizing tech cost and institution spread/cost
>playing as russia>france has been defender of catholic faith since 1460ogey
>>1936261>they just rivalled polandOGEY
Spain because I hate it when other nations colonize before me
>>1936288Spain is the worst cunt in current patches
Man, Russia is so fun, especially with Quantity. I spent the whole PLC-Denmark-Brandeburg war constantly attacking and full stack sieging and I lost 30k manpower from the total at the end.Also, why the hell does the autocracy mission require seven subjects? I can just release some minor shits but I just don't get it.
Third idea group for Ethiopia?
>>1936386economy is good because of the gold minesexploration is funny because you can potentially beat the portuguese on the race to the east indies and colonize uncolonized parts of africabesides these diplo is still by far the most broken idea group in the game, and you could pick quality or quantity if you think you can't beat mamluks yet
I want to increase the 100 dev -1000 malus from trying to diplo vassalize to like 300 dev. What file is that in?
>>1936461Change VASSALIZE_BASE_DEVELOPMENT_CAP in common/defines.lua
>>1933395Unironically the Ottomans because we’re the grandchildren of Osman. Also Ottoman Colombia hits different. Though this time I colonized Indonesia for those spice shekels.
Anon playing Ethiopia made me want to do it. Always fun when the Mamluks get the Cloves mission done before you take it.
>>1936543>this worked>most of the countries now have "economic development base -1000"Maaaaaaaaaaan, FUCK this shit!
>>1936658Since you're cheating anyway just use yesman in the console.
>Ante Bellum>here's a cool looking alt history scenario if you're bored of historical Europe>...but we also decided to add a bunch of buildings ideas groups and institutions for no reasonliterally why
excuse the shit drawing, but how can the AI just walk past my forts like this? i had forts along my border in 1 province gaps and AI just walks past the first line of forts, i thought you can't under any circumstance leave a zoc unless it's to return to the province you came from.
>>1933662>I like Lubeck>In EU4? ? ?
>>1937011lubeck is in base eu4
>>1937009It's not really that simple, there are many rules so it's hard to say if you don't have an exact screenshot of what happened and where with every war participant/access, ZoC rules are so convoluted that it's probably one of the more complex systems along with trade
>>1933395>the fucking balkans jesus christ, what did they dohaven't played since 2010s
>>1937035ill post it once i open up the game next time if i remember. there was no problem until i made a fort on sort of a salient extending into the enemy's region. i thought i could bait the AI into sending their doomstack there to fight me with massive penalties but alas, they just walked past and wiped out my stack of cannons.
The time has come and so have I.
>Play Inca>1485>Only two reforms passedSo is this going to take much longer?I have already see England and Castille exploring my side of the continent.
> What is your favorite countryNot a single country, but the entire region of Japan + Korea.> and why?Partly because I'm a weeb.But mostly because this single region offers a fun variety of starts / challenges / possibilities.Want to manage your personal vassal swarm from day 1? You can, no need to pass reforms, just be a shogun.David vs Goliath scenario? Go fight the shogun and his swarm.Underdog becoming a top dog? Ezpz, go fight anyone but shogun.Weak outsider getting into this mess? Ryukyu / Ainu. Powerful outsider getting into this mess? Korea.Small area, many scenarios, what not to like?
>>1937125I recently played a Japan with a focus in colonization and I found it pretty weak. Compared to just eating up China.Also Korea has to be bugged somehow. They adopted some institutions even before the Europeans did.
>>1937134I agree, purely colonial Japan is meh, too far from Americas to establish strong colonies early enough, Australia is worthless, spice islands are not as lucrative as China.However, I'm not a colonial Japan, I'm a pirate daimyo within Japanese empire, and with these naval bases I can raid everything but Europe. Fun and lucrative.> Also Korea has to be bugged somehow. They adopted some institutions even before the Europeans did.Not a bug, it's just paradox devs made it too overbuffed. Korea has development cost reduction bonuses + devving missions + tripitaka koreana which passively generates institution progress, it all leads to Korea getting institutions early.Given how passive Korea is most of the time I don't see any problems with that, it only gets annoying when I want to crack this damn hermit open.
>>1933395Austria pre-emperor
Do the late starts even work in this game?
Tuscany. Or bohemia during its broken patch
>>1937138>Australia is worthlessI like to make all the abbo OPMs into tributaries, you just have to have a colony next to them for a month or two to get rid of the distance penalty. You can get a couple hundred manpower from each of them every year practically for free
>>1934181American minor tall playthrough, only to do scalper world conquest after proting the save to hoi IV
>>1937197Not really, I mean they are technically playable in the loosest sense of the word but the further you go from 1444 the more broken everything gets because nothing has been updated since 2013, I would recommend just using the extended timeline mod if you're interested in that
I'm doing a campaign with the exorme AI mod since someone was shilling it at the end of the last threadEveryone is blobbing hard just as advertised but the great powers are all 8k+ in debt, I don't know if it's intentional or not but I can't get anyone to join my wars because of this
>>1937527>great powers are all 8k+ in debtThat's vanilla behavior
>>1937204You keep them in their own units right? Surely you don't integrate them with your Japanese men...
Beautiful.
>>1937852woooow they added austria-hungary??? when
Pretty much done with Ethiopia now. ironman mode is pretty fun but can be stressful at times. After 1700 there's pretty much nothing but huge war after huge war.Any other fun country I should try in ironman?
>>1937943Don't know what you have played but you could always try a classic Brandenburg to Prussia/Germany run, probably a good learning experience for ironman
>>1937951I've already did that a few times, but I don't mind.
Did Timurids get buff?
