Europa Universalis 4

Don’t forget about the countries outside of Europe.

Kongo’s achievement is really hard. (All Africa)
I’ve tried both Inca and Iroquois, but not Aztec yet.

I’ve done most of the Euro powers.

Auld Alliance Reversed
As Scotland, have France as a vassal (do not form Great Britain).

I did this one last year and it was fun, but it gets tedious at the end declaring multiple wars on France to get them small enough to accept vassalisation

Yeah I started Lazarus into Its All Greek, because it is dancing on a knifes edge. I have already restarted twice, simply coming to grips with my options.

This time around I got guaranteed by Ottomans, and started a new galley on day 1. I figured being able to block naval invasions would be important with Venice around. It would also help me lock off the Bosporus for when the Ottomans came calling.

Allied with Bosnia and Byzantium. Figure if I can keep Ottomans from taking Constantinople then my odds improve.

Several new things really alter play. Serbia is poor, but tossing a few new diplo development into Kosovo (gold mine) really helps the financials. Also sailors do largely invalidate one of my favorite strategies from before. Namely abusing the flat repair rate by sortie out of port to invading fleet, run back in before month end, then come out again on the first. Could delay invasion by months that way.

Now I repair soldiers, which at 5 a month means that is not going to work when Venice comes calling.

I sank their navy anyhow. Galleys FTW.

Be aware that a blockade won’t stop troop movement if a nation owns both sides of a straight anymore! So no more locking the Ottoman army in Anatolia with only a fleet, unless you control one side of the straight.

Oh thanks for the warning, yeah I was totally about to try that.

My game as Naples ended in 1610.

Thanks to the rival system, France cast aside our alliance and took the stab hit of ending our royal marriage to Rival me out of the blue (no shared border and no “wants your provinces”)

About 30 years later Ottomans took the decision to rival me despite +130 positive relationship and a tiny border, and not long after that distant Russia rivaled me too swiftly followed by Bohemia(again, neither had “wants your provinces” and i had positive relationships with both).

Apparently Cossacks introduced a Trust feature which might make the Rivalry system less frustrating, but I’ve enough EU4 DLC already!

I was thinking that I hadn’t had this issue in EU4 for a long time, so that makes sense! The Trust and Favors mechanics are really nice, but I had forgotten when they were added.

England is getting the Anglican faith and some discussion around Industrialization.

Niiice. I like playing England, really looking forward to this one. I really liked the Russia immersion pack as well. These last few DLC have really improved the game for my taste. Uh, except than Ming one that I didn’t buy.

Hello all!

Not exactly on-topic, but this one feels to be the closest one (or the most promising ppl are present here).
Are there any topics on Qt3 about past/current ParadoxCons? I could not find, maybe my Discourse-fu is just not strong enough.
Anyone else interested in it?

I don’t think there’s ever been a dedicated thread covering PdxCon, but the information coming out of it tends ti disseminate quickly into the various threads (or the creation of a new thread when new games are announced).

If you had a thread covering what was discussed/revealed at PdxCon, I’d certainly read it. I’m sure it comes as a HUGE SURPRISE to everyone, but Paradox makes some of my favorite games so I’m always interested in what they’re up to.

Here we go. Should be an accompanying dev diary shortly.

I get excited about EU IV expansions because they put the last ones on sale. For instance I love to play in the Middle East but I have not purchased Rights of Man because I am not paying $20 for it.

Yep! It’s the only realistic way to catch up on some expansions. It’s not bad to keep up if you’re super into the game like I am and you buy them as they come out every 4-5 months, but if you’re behind… yeah, wait for sales. :)

Here’s the dev diary to coincide with the Rule Britannia announcement. It covers two new mechanics, Innovativeness and Knowledge Sharing.

The Steam store page also mentions Naval Doctrines… hmmm!

Do those unit content packs make it more or less confusing to play? I know they are just graphical updates to the units. Is it easier because the countries are differentiated or harder because now the same types of units look differently?

I’m actually tempted to get the music packs since Paradox is having a sale + buy 2 get 1 free on many of the smaller DLC. Do you like the music packs?

Unit packs don’t really matter. All armies have a number with the associated coat of arms. Green is good, red is bad. Make sure that green number is bigger than red number, normally. Unless you playing uber elite Brandenburg for instance, then it doesn’t matter if red number is bigger because green number will wreck it. That’s the simplistic and slightly facetious answer. I do have the unit packs only for a bit of variation, but completely optional.

Music packs? Guns Drums and Steel is nice. Every time I hear “Ride Forth Victoriously” the heart rate goes up and I enter some sort of trance of killing shit. You can of course YouTube the music packs to see if you like them. Music tastes vary so it is hard to recommend any particular pack. Given my appreciation for metal, I like Guns Drums and Steel. Conversely, I don’t enjoy the Epistles much.

I like unit packs because they add a bit of eye candy and I’m a sucker for period military uniforms. That said, the add nothing to the gameplay in my opinion. As far as music goes, I wasn’t going out of my way to but music packs at first, but the music in EU4 is pretty excellent, and once I heard Guns, Drums, and Steel I went ahead and bought Sabaton’s concept album. So to me, both are great if you like art and music, but as far as gameplay value, not much there.

The unit packs are very very minor. They really don’t make anything clearer or more confusing, they just add a little flavor to the different regions of the world. In terms of regular gameplay, you probably won’t notice them unless you’re specifically looking for them.

None of the above is really a criticism, by the way, in a strategy game I don’t want the visuals to be overly “noisy” or anything.

Thanks for the opinions. If I get any of it I’ll probably get some music. I can get 10 of them to complete the set for $8+

It looks like they did a nice job on the units, but it’s not like I would be sitting and staring at them.

I mean I have a bunch of them. It does provide some minor information visually, namely a rough tech level. When my guys are hauling ‘modern’ muskets, and my enemy still has spears or matchlocks, I know I’ve got them over the barrel.

I could get the same info simply by clicking on any province of theirs and seeing their military level, with more detail, but it’s nice.

Having spent so much time the extra variety in ships and armies is enjoyable for the times when I decide to zoom in and watch people march.