KevinC
2221
Yes, yes, yes. I’m such a big fan of the new diplomatic system thus far. I go to France, click Manage Attitude, and set myself as Friendly towards them. I see this in the tooltip:
Setting your attitude to Friendly shows that you wish to ally yourself with France. Your allies will view this as a sign that you are unwilling to attack them.
And this, on setting your stance to Hostile:
Setting your attitude to hostile shows that you consider Venice an enemy to be conquered. They will refuse almost all diplomatic proposals from you, your allies will consider this a sign that you are willing to join wars against them, and your subjects will fabricate claims on their provinces.
I’ve been wanting that for a long time. The AI could always tell you before a war that they’d be unwilling to join, but you never had the same luxury. I hated being in those situations where one of your allies declares war on someone else you’re friendly with, and you have no way of saying “I’m not going to join this war” ahead of time.
KevinC
2222
Oh no. An unhappy Estate is not to be trifled with. In this case, it was the Ulema (the religious estate). I’m only 15 years into the game as the Ottomans but was playing around with granting provinces to the various Estates. In this case, the Dhimmi (non-muslims) were rather unhappy with the ultra-pious rule of Mehmet Fatih Osmanoglu. So I thought, hey, why don’t I just go ahead and take this province away from the Ulema and grant it to the heathens? They’re rather fond of me, so what could go wrong? Turns out… a lot.
Oops.
CraigM
2223
95 peasant regiments?!
You done messed up. Even for the Ottomans that is not a winnable fight that early.
So what were their demands that you had no choice but to accept?
KevinC
2224
I’m still feeling out the system, but the Estates appear to have some memory for your past actions. They were really pissed about losing land, and I ignored their discontent while I was waging war in the Balkans, thinking I should have plenty of time before anything really troublesome happened. Nope! It was probably worse that I took their land and gave it to the Christians and Jews, of all people. :)
I could have granted the Ulema additional land, and I had a few other options to appease them. I could have given them gold from my treasury or spent some prestige and legitimacy in currying their favor. The problem with the latter (beyond the immediate costs) is that it increases their Influence. The Ulema were already powerful, only really having the Beys as their rival. Their power was demonstrated via the size of the peasant revolt they launched against me. I’m going to have to keep a more careful watch on that in the future. As for after the revolt happened, it was the typical peasant revolt. I could accept their demands and grant 20% autonomy in most of the provinces, but that would only appease the rabble, it would do nothing for the Ulema themselves.
There are some pretty decent bonuses if you can keep the estates happy and in check, both on the national and the provincial level. Granting a province to the Beys increases manpower by 50%! Meanwhile, if your approval with the Dhimmi is high enough it’s an additional +0.50 Tolerance of Heathens as well as a 7.5% reduction in tech costs. Not bad! It swings both ways, though. Piss them off and they cause unrest in provinces and inflict empire-wide maluses on your.
I was about to jump in with a, “Hang on a minute, then what’s the point of sea power at all!” post, but I huddled up with my fellow military history buff friend, and we could only come up with one historical example where one power controlled both sides of a strait, and another power controlled the sea between.
The sea powers were France and Britain, the land power was the Ottoman Empire, the year was 1915, and the place was the Dardanelles—and Wikipedia remarks that, although French and British submarines were able to sink a few ships in the strait, the Turks could cross more or less unimpeded.
Fun facts.
Edit: another friend suggests the St. Lawrence during the Seven Years’ War, or the Hudson during the Revolutionary War. Both rivers rather than proper straits, but wide where they’re interesting, and similarly no great impediment to the landbound side.
I started a custom nation game in Far East Siberia. I also reset the province values to flat (the entire world is 11 development, resulting in every province being an orange color when looking at the economic map.) By 1500, the results are interesting - looking at the development map from the lobby, you can see the red swaths of destruction done by the horde nations, from Far East Asia to eastern Anatolia. Russia in particular has been hard hit (Muscovy is down to their capital province, to Novgorod’s benefit.) Conversely the Low countries already are all yellow and green (development >21), pretty much mirroring their historic start at least in terms of economic value.
I love the mechanics introduced with this DLC, from dealing with Estates to the new colonization choices - no longer do I need to haul around an army protecting provinces (I played by a house rule where I couldn’t wipe out the natives.) Before I began a game in earnest I generated quite a few RNW maps with fantasy kingdoms enabled (with nations like Vinland and The Crimson Order and randomly generated traits.) The results are wildly varied, but better than it used to be. The scale still seems off (the continents can end up being huge) and there are a truckload of provinces. I’ll have to give that a try sometime. (I think there are achievements for things like starting a 3 development nation with 800 points starting in the New World.)
With the QOL improvements, the patch and the DLC definitely is a thumbs up in my view.
I’ve been trying to run a game as Austria and I’m finding some big lapses in my ability to think about when to go to war. I don’t think any of it has to do with the expansion, but I’m not sure…
So when sizing up an opponent, I generally look at the military side of the ledger for my opponent and all their vassal allies (who, from what I can tell, are guaranteed to be part of a war I start with them). I noticed some armies have 2 stars and some have 1 star. What’s that metric mean? Should I be concerned with it? Then when I go to war, my allies all look like they’d never join me (unless I somehow gathered a favor with them). This seems like not a huge deal, but should I invite them anyways? As Austria, early in the game I find I have numbers on most of my neighbors, but in spite of that lose most of the fights I’m in. I’m always bringing a general and try to only engage when I’m outnumbering them. Any obvious tactical blunders I may be missing?
CraigM
2228
Sure!
-are you moving to attack, or are you the defender?
-what terrain type?
-what is your unit mix? Early game Cav are waaaayyyy better than infantry, until they get a few fire pips. Having 100% infantry when they have 50% cav is heavy losses
-are you crossing a river?
-do they get any bonuses, such as discipline or Infantry Combat Ability?
- what is your total morale compared to theirs?
-are you just getting skunked on your rolls?
Watch a combat, see what happens. There are all the modifiers shown right there, and that would tell us why.
For example, if you attack into a territory across a river (-1) and into mountains (-2), you are in for a world of hurt, and almost assured loss unless your general is far superior.
So watch an attack. Take a screenshot during combat with you watching it. Take a screenshot of the battle report after. Post them, and I’ll try to point out what I see.
KevinC
2229
I put some question numbers in your post so I can answer them directly:
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It’s an indication of how good the general is that is leading them. Two stars is pretty dang good. Three stars means it’s Napoleon, Sun Tzu, and Angry Jesus rolled up into one bad mofo. Watch out.
-
If your allies say they will not come into war (red X), do NOT invite them. It’ll break your alliance when they refuse, which will result in some bad blood between your nations.
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Terrain is very important, always try to defend, never attack. A -1 for crossing a river or attacking in hills might not sound like much, but it can really impact the battle. Terrain also affects that “combat width” of the battle, i.e. how many regiments can be in attack range at once. Having 80,000 troops isn’t as helpful when only 15,000 can fight at a time, because your entire army suffers morale damage, even if they’re not on the front lines.
In addition to that, national ideas and idea groups can have a large impact, as does technology level and force composition. The latter can take a little learning to get just about right, but the idea is that you want enough infantry to hold the front lines, a few cavalry regiments to hit from the flanks, and some cannons. You want enough cannons to support your troops, but how many really depends on what technology level you’re at. Early on, cannon are mostly useful for sieging down fortifications, their battlefield use is limited. By tech 16 or so, cannons are nasty, if very expensive. So you want enough infantry up front and some spare to fill in the gaps as your front line takes casualties. If gaps are exposed and they can hit your cannon, expect significant casualties!
Also, Austrian troops are at a disadvantage to some of the heavy hitters out there like France, Prussia, Spain, etc. The Ottomans are also a very deadly enemy for the first 100 years of the game, but their troop quality rapidly drops off once you get to around military tech 12 or so.
The Defensive idea group is very popular with the AI, and for good reason. Battles are won and lost with Morale in the game, and Defensive provides a significant boost. If you are fighting opponents with Defensive ideas and you don’t have a similar Morale bonus, there will be battles you lose, even when you outnumber the enemy.
Thanks a bunch for the tips! I’ve got a few games underneath my belt where I’ve just been throwing my big number at their small number, but that seems a lot less viable when playing a smaller HRE nation. I haven’t been paying attention to attack / defense or terrain, but will focus on that more next game.
CraigM
2231
Always glad to give a hand. If you are ever really stumped, post a picture. A picture of the battle screen and between Kevin and I any questions can be answered.
Granath
2232
I need some suggestions on picking a country for a new game.
I have played as Portugal (before the random New Worlds were good), Castille, Bohemia (or was it Bavaria?), Hurons, Muscovy, Venice, Ottomans, a custom nation based on Morocco, Ethiopia and a custom nation in central Africa. Phew! Not all of these games were completed but I got far enough in all of them to be satisfied. I would not mind trying the Golden Horde or the Mongorians but I am not exactly sure how to play them. I toyed around with Mongolia but I did not feel like I was getting anywhere. It was constant war and not much research.
Some of the small Japanese and HRE provinces are simply too boring to play because nothing happens for 50 years. I like things to be a bit more exciting.
So what are the tips for the Mongorians and what other countries are fun to start with?
If you have the latest expansion I would think playing a horde would be fun.
As for Mongolia, don’t they start as a vassal to the Oirat now? If I were playing a horde nation, I would start with one that is not a vassal… Well, unless fighting a war of independence sounds like fun! And depending on how hard I want to make it I would either start with someone strong like Golden horde or the Timurids, or Nogai or the smaller hordes if I felt like a challenge.
Sweet is also an interesting countries they have such a great infantry bonus. And you can try for the Baltic achievement. Or maybe play Novgorod or Muscovy and try to form Russia and dominate Western Europe from the east.
I saw a let’s play of the Livonian Order, or maybe it was the Teutonic Order. The monastic order type of government is interesting and that you can pick different leaders who provide you with different benefits depending on what you need at the time.
Also, whenever I am looking for ideas on what nation to play I scan through the list of achievements and try to find one that sounds interesting. They frequently force you to play as a certain nation.
So I guess the bottom line is… Find the country or achievement or idea that sounds interesting and go for it!
KevinC
2234
I plan on one of the Far East hordes and attempt to form Qing. I believe Haixi starts allied with Korea, which might give you an initial leg up on your neighbors.
CraigM
2235
Arumba did the Teutonic recently, and the Teutonic have a lot of similarity to Brandenburg, just outside the empire and a monastic order, not duchy. But once you get past the initial 50 years, they can be a powerhouse.
The horde system is very interesting. The Timurids are probably the most versatile one there. You can form the Mughals, ransack India, Egypt or Anatolia. Hell, you could push into China and be a menace there. Butn it all down, as the heirs of one of histories greatest monsters. A very appropriate choice for the new systems.
Scotten
2236
So are there any negative effects of buying a DLC (like Common Sense, on sale) in the middle of a game – will it mess up my save games? Thanks.
KevinC
2237
I haven’t tried, but I don’t think so. Nothing major anyway. The main pain points are with continuing an old save when a new expansion rolls out. Since you’re already on that patch level, you should be fine.
Scotten
2238
Thank you Kevin. Do you leave automatic patching turned off for EU4? I’ve read a lot of this thread & know there’s been anguish over patches that “screwed up the game”.
KevinC
2239
I usually leave it on, but I’m a huge fan of EU4 so I’m always aware ahead of time before an expansion is coming. I just make sure to wrap up a campaign ahead of time, or start a new one.
So I’ve been playing EU since the original, and in all that time I have always turned off Lucky Nations, and with the advent of ironman, have never played any ironman games (primarily to use some minor mods and because I don’t like the lucky nation mechanic.) But with the Cossack expansion they have some achievements (of which I had none) for custom nations. The only one I’ve interest in is Idea Guy - 800 point custom nation starting on a three development province, with the goal of making 500 ducats/month.
My first attempts started in Mexico as a western Hindu Dutch Republic. Even though 800 points is a lot, Republic tradition and extra colonists are super expensive, so I took the extra colonists (Dutch Republics don’t require Republic tradition.) My first attempts went hilariously wrong: From misclicking and answering an alliance call with one of the Mexican native tribes and being pummelled by every nation in the region despite my superior troops, to the Iberians beelining to the Caribbean since I assume they saw me (in one game I even declared on Portugal with no carracks, two cogs and 7,000 troops. That actually worked as I stole their colonies and managed to peace out before they could land their invasion force) but I was so poor even with the gold provinces I started again.
Finally got a good one going I thought - starting in the only temperate province in the Caribbean (in present day Venezuela.) This time as a High Western (Western tech without geographic knowledge of Europe) Norse Merchant Republic. Managed to colonize most of the Caribbean (minus Florida), kicked France out (twice!), defeated Portugal (except for a war of independance with one of the colonial nations). I had thousands of ducats but in the early 1600’s just kinda stalled. During a cold war with France (they wanted one of their colonial cores back lol) I eliminated their Navy and was just waiting for them to peace out), England attacks one of my central american native allies. I answer that call, and I’m at war against Portugal, Spain and England and all of their CNs. Let me tell you, chasing navies around the Caribbean is no fun. I’m fighting on two fronts, in my Amazonian provinces against a large Portuguese army and the CNs near Rio Grande. My navy is able to keep the British and Portuguese landing fleets at bay as I chase them around and manage armies. Alas the AI navy finally outmaneuvered me and I went down to the combined forces of GB and Portugal. In that game I had dithered too long in the Amazon (for really minimal gain) and failed to aggressively connect my mainland Panamanian and Caribbean provinces with my Gulf ones.
Haha didn’t mean to write a book. It’s just that custom nations are pretty fun. I’m trying the above game again, only this time as a Norse Dutch republican. I decided I wanted the extra colonist as it’s a race between the Iberians and France to cover everything in time. Also it turns out I had far more monarch points to play with as a Merchant Republican with republican tradition since the Dutch republic can result in some pretty crappy monarch choices.
