That’s awesome, Benhur. EU4 shipped as a complete game, but the continued work via expansions and free updates has really improved the game, oftentimes dramatically. That’s an achievement when the base game was already really good, in my opinion.
And speaking of improvements, take a look at the Diplomatic addition they made to the macro builder. That looks sooo nice. Like “How on earth have I been playing the game without this UI feature!” kind of nice.
Or “I must buy this DLC” kind of nice. Agreed, the feature alone is worth it, let alone the other features coming with the DLC. Now no more lazy diplomats.
I think my first game with this DLC is to go back and have another go at Brandenburg and take the HRE in a different direction.
Agree with Benhur, never tried England before, but just did recently, did a random new world and Ironman, ended up getting the Blackjack achievement (21 vassals or colonies of at least 5 provinces, I had 18 colonies and 3 vassals)
I am facing a looming religious disaster in my England game and I’d like to get some input. A few of my provinces have turned Reformed and I am just under 75% religious unity. I cannot convert those provinces back to Catholic, but I’m not sure if I even want to. I have a few options:
Does England ever get an event to go Anglican? If so, what kinds of benefits or problems does that give me?
If you convert to Reformed, your missionaries will get a very strong boost for the next several years. Also, if you’re one of the first 3 people to adopt it, a center of Reformation will appear in your territory which will also passively spread the religion to neighboring provinces (although it sounds like you may already have one). This allows you to convert your largest provinces pretty quickly. When you’re on the Religion tab, you can see what percentage of religious unity each province represents. Focus on those first.
Reformed provides +2 to Tolerance of Heretics, which can help keep things stable turning the transition to the new religion. The religion also allows you to build up and spend Religious Fervor, which can then be expended towards War, Stability, or Trade (I think this may require the Wealth of Nations DLC). The effects of those are:
Stability: -2 Unrest, +1 Diplomatic Reputation
Trade: 10% Global Trade Power, +10% Trade Efficiency
War: +10% Morale of armies, +10% Morale of navies
The trade boosts alone make it worth going Reformed as England, if you have the opportunity. 10% trade power and efficiency when you’re in a position like England is huge. If you need to boost Legitimacy, you can always use the Strengthen Government action.
Seconded. In my opinion, the remaining Catholic as England really either requires dogged determination or the right conditions as there are too many benefits to going Reformed (or Protestant) for them. Just don’t forget to spend any papal influence prior to the conversion if you elect to go that route.
In EUIV, Anglicanism is considered a Reformed religion, so no, you won’t get any special events to futher specialize.
Thanks for the advice. I converted to Reformed and I immediately lost the path to the religious disaster. What’s more is that it only took 7 months to convert a province, so between manual conversion and the conversions taking place due to proximity to a center of reformation (Inverness), my country completely embraced Reformed within 5 years or so without any hassle.
Now I have new issues cropping up. Castille and Aragon, my steadfast allies, like me less now that I changed religion. France is getting stronger and starting to whittle away Brittany and Savoy. I am also going through the potential for a personal union with either Castille or Aragon, but luckily I was able to get a marriage with Austria, making Maria Theresa my queen consort. Hopefully Ernst de Anjou will be able to give me an heir soon.
Disaster. I am humming along really nicely and have a really strong alliance with a powerful Aragon, Denmark, and Burgundy. I am just about to wipe Scotland off the map and take some nice provinces from France just as soon as I get a military tech I want. Suddenly my heir gets ill and dies and my 70-year-old monarch is not long for this world. Despite a few new royal marriages it’s no use… the king dies and a succession war starts between Russia and The Commonwealth.
I am the lesser nation in a personal union with The Commonwealth. Even if I get to hate them enough to declare independence, I am a naval power, not a land power. How am I going to have a war of independence against a decent army? Woe is me.
I believe in the war for independence, the war goal is your capital. So that’s how you do it, whether it’s the Commonwealth or Russia. They’re never going to be able to take London. Blockade what ports they have to build additional warscore.
You should be able to maintain that indefinitely. Other Great Powers will be eyeing them and looking for an opportunity to strike against them. Diplomatically, look at who their rivals and enemies are. Raise relations with them and see if you can get them to support your independence.
Wow I really like the automated relationship boosting. It feels like half my time in EU4 is switching diplomats around because I like people to like me.
I hear you, Mike! It’s something I’ve been wanting for ages. I just wanted to be able to tell my diplomat corps to spread the good word about Dear Leader, and now I finally can.
While I valued them before, I think I’m going to like additional diplomats and increased relations boosts even more. It’s just a huge quality of life improvement!
Another UI improvement coming in the next update (look at the macro builder on the left side):
Loving all of these improvements; thanks for posting the highlights. April 6 is going to be rough on the wallet as I have to get both the EU4 and Stellaris expansions.
Thanks again for everyone’s help. Once the succession war was over I insulted The Commonwealth like a petulant child and started recruiting Great Powers to help me separate. I got my former rivals The Ottomans as well as Bohemia and Austria to commit. In a few months I declared war and The Commonwealth went down very hard (losing a bunch of territory) thanks to my new buddies. Bohemia eventually left my alliance but The Ottomans remain my buddies to this day.
Hey, have you ever declared war on the wrong country? My allies Aragon and Burgundy were at war with my rival Denmark, who was fighting a war to keep Sweden as their junior partner in a personal union. Having some sympathy for Sweden, and being told I could intervene as a Great Power, I joined the war hoping to knock my rival down a peg . So I land my 30,000 troops on the Jutland Peninsula and instead of bullets and cannonballs from the Royal Army my men are greeted with flowers and biscuits from the local populace. I check the war screen and notice that I threw in my lot with Denmark instead of Sweden. Every month I do everything I can to peace out with Sweden but they aren’t having it. So I do what any reluctant partner would do and start taking territory away from Sweden while blockading my ex-Aragonian allies. I end up helping Denmark win the war and Sweden remains a junior partner. In appreciation Denmark removes me from their list of rivals (I return the favor) and we end up becoming allies. As the years went by I re-allied with Burgundy and Aragon once again, so all’s well that ends well. Poor Sweden though.
The new expansion for EU4 looks good, and since I am also missing Rights of Man I think it will be a sufficiently fresh experience to offer another 100 hours to the thing.
However, why would Paradox release this on the same day as the Stellaris expansion? I imagine like many other Paradox fans I am going to be umming and arring the morning of trying to decide which title to get back into.
I have no interest in purchasing expansions to Stellaris despite being a long-time Paradox fan. That said, Paradox could release expansions for CKII, EUIV, and HOI4 all on the same day and I’d still purchase them all. :)
I wonder what the data shows relating to the intersection between Stellaris/EUIV players. It could be that the intersection is relatively minor, that they feel players might purchase the expansions regardless, or perhaps Paradox expansions aren’t highly time-sensitive and expansions are purchased over a span of weeks or months rather than on release day.
Or it could be an attempt to maximize revenue for some annual or quarterly report. They are publicly traded now, after all.
That must have data that shows it doesn’t really matter and to just release when it’s ready. They practically released Stellaris and HOI4 on top of each other (only a month apart) which would normally be a huge no-no.
I’m a hardcore fan, so I’m buying both.
I haven’t played this in a very long time, but I have some magic beans burning a hole in my Steam wallet, and nothing excites me at the moment, so I’m considering getting some DLC and diving back in.
What’s the best/most interesting DLC out there. I know I played the one that centered on mercantilism and let you play as Venice and other merchant states (or was that CK2?) but nothing since.
I’m really only interested in new content, nothing cosmetic.
They kind of blur together for me (especially what’s free vs what is paid for), but Art of War and Rights of Man are probably two of the highest-rated expansions. I personally really love the ability to Develop provinces, so I would recommend Common Sense as well.
Here is an abbreviated overview of each of the DLCs. See if anything piques your interest or appears to be focused on areas of the game you really want to play with. In my opinion, they’ve all been worth the money and have added to the game, so it can be hard for me to recommend only specific ones. I’m sure others here can do a better job in that department.
And just in case it needs to be said, I’d recommend waiting until April 6th to purchase. When a new expansion comes out, the previous ones tend to go on steep discount.
Same day as Utopia? Fuck.
Thanks for the link, by the way. Just what I was looking for.
I normally do not buy the expansions one day one. I wait to buy the last expansion when the next one is released as generally, there is a sale.
Also I do not know why I do this as I can easily afford the expansions.
Willing to bet that I have more “steam” hours in both games that 90+% of the players posting here.