1801

There’s some strategic effects on certain trade goods that I really like, if you can corner the market on them. I certainly wouldn’t complain if they were more pronounced, though, especially if it were more gradual and you could still get benefits even if you weren’t the #1 trader in the commodity.

1802

So of COURSE Paradox announces a new expansion, El Dorado. Of interest to some: expanded Central and South American gameplay, exploration, presumably making it more interesting to take on Aztecs and Incas as a European nation, or play those cultures as natives.

Of interest to others: expanded nation design options at start, allowing you to customize rulers, national ideas, and suchlike.

For my own education, btw, I started a couple of games yesterday, went about 10 years in each, started to get bogged down in a “I know there’s something I should be doing, but…” problem.

Discovered a cool LP series of a dude playing Brandenburg and trying to make Greater Prussia and Germany and more things are beginning to click for me, though, especially the way he essentially runs his armies all over north central Europe. Would have thought that perhaps that running your soldiery around so much was not a good idea, but it’s interesting to see the way he uses them as an instrument to build prestige.

1803

Here’s the bullet points from their web page:

Features include:

[ul]
[li]- A deep Nation Designer gives you new starting options for your games, including national ideas and custom monarchs[/li]> [li]- Experience the new Nahuatl, Inti and Mayan religions with blood sacrifices or Sun Worship[/li]> [li]- Send your conquistadors to hunt for the Seven Cities of Gold, or your explorer on exploration missions around the world[/li]> [li]- Gold Fleets can traffic New World wealth back to Europe, and be targeted by your privateer fleets[/li]> [li]- Use your trade fleets to hunt dangerous pirates[/li]> [li]- Maintain good relations with the Pope so you can get a corner of the world to call your own in the Treaty of Tordesillas[/li]> [/ul]

1804

Have you got a link to the LP? I’d like to see a good Brandenburg run.

1805

That should be the first episode. Now, keep in mind I’ve only watched his first 7 episodes thus far, but since they appear to go up to 70, I assume he’s done rather well for himself. I also like that he’s a very “human” player. He makes mistakes, calls himself out on them, and does stuff that I can absolutely see me doing. (At one point after a war he’s fought with his ally, Bohemia, he nearly enters into a disastrous peace treaty because he mistakenly neglects to notice that a province to be ceded would go to Bohemia rather than Brandenburg. I saw that and thought “Yep, that looks like something I’d do.”) It isn’t clockwork, and some of his best-laid plans go awry (but he also has some spectacular good fortune too.) Just an engaging LP that does do a nice job of discussing the diplomacy and warfare side of things, even if (at least so far) he’s ignored a lot of the trade.

1806

I say this for you own good:

STOP IT.

Discovered a cool LP series of a dude playing Brandenburg and trying to make Greater Prussia and Germany and more things are beginning to click for me, though, especially the way he essentially runs his armies all over north central Europe. Would have thought that perhaps that running your soldiery around so much was not a good idea, but it’s interesting to see the way he uses them as an instrument to build prestige.

STOP IT.

BAD TRIGGERCUT, BAD.

For someone who’s trying to actually play the game as a new years resolution you’re going about it the wrong way. Start a new game, pick a nation in Europe (it doesn’t matter which), unpause, keep playing until you get some kind of game over screen. In that time do not watch a LP or think “I should have done something different… I’ll just restart”.

1807

Hehe, I agree Pod. IMO the best way to learn EU4 is to just play it. Their in-game documentation (via informative tooltips over just about everything) is excellent . They also did a good job of having an immensely broad and deep game but having an understanding of all that information is not necessary to start playing.

Different strokes for different folks of course, but I find LPs can kind of confuse the issue for some people because it’s full of “oh wow I didn’t know that… or that… or that… or that… man I’m never going to be able to play this game” moments, when in fact you don’t need to know all the intricacies of every system in order to play the game.

I just had a situation like that this weekend, actually. My friend, who had never played a Paradox game, decided to give EU4 a go. I was trying to figure out how much information and instruction to give him without burying him in minutiae but then came to the conclusion that the best course of action was to just say fuck it, have him play the Ottomans, and start the game. I just made sure that he paid attention to the notification flags at the top of the screen but other than that the learning took care of itself.

1808

Oh dear, it’s not as dire as all that gents!

I’d been treating my armies as being made of glass, almost afraid of touching them or using them. My Civ impulses make me tend to want to just build an army for war and then disband all but what I need for defense when the fight’s over. Which isn’t really how you play (at least to a point) in EU4.

So basically what I wanted to see is, “What the heck do you REALLY do with your armies?”

Apparently the answer is, march 'em all over the damn place, and as long as you maintain a manpower pool and let them recharge from time to time.

1809

Well… it depends on what you’re trying to do. If you have few worries about conquest or someone declaring war on you in the near term and you’re trying to build Prestige or Army Tradition it’s certainly a use for that. That does mean that you’re having to keep your Army Maintenance slider maxed a lot more and you’re going to be paying a lot to reinforce depleted regiments. If I’m trying to build up economically, I’d rather save the ducats!

In terms of your desire to disband most of your army in peacetime, Mercenaries are very good for that playstyle. Leave a defense force of regular troops and then when you want to go to war, crank out the mercs. There’s a couple of idea groups (Administrative in particular, but also Innovative) that can really work well with that approach. The other option is to keep a larger standing army but with your maintenance slider low. Which is better depends on your preferences as well as the nation you’re playing. If you’re a small nation with a large economy (a merchant republic like The Hansa or Venice for instance), Mercs really help. You don’t have the forcelimits or the manpower pool to support large standing armies. You do, however, have boatloads of cash for afford piles of mercs well above and beyond your forcelimits. :D

1810

I totally agree. My workplace has gone paperless using a program with a terribly designed UI. At a feedback session I actually used Paradox games as an example of how to store and convey a lot of information. So basically I’m hoping I get to play EU4 at work.

1811

15 years as Brandenburg, not dead yet!

What I like about Brandenburg is that there’s such an obvious first move here: Neumark. You can easily get an alliance with Poland and Bohemia and then you’ve got a CB to go to war with the Teutonics, and it shouldn’t be much of a fight.

Except they called in favors and Hungary caused my allies all sorts of problems. Thankfully they were able to largely whittle down Hungarian death stacks before they could get up north, but it sure blunted our war. In the end, I was happy to accept peace after three years with just a stack of cash and Neumark for me. Bohemia and Poland? No soup for either of you…and I know Poland really wanted Danzig.

I think I wanted them to get it, too. This war kinda seemed to cripple the Poles.

And then our happy ally Bohemia seemed to do something to piss off Austria. You don’t wanna piss off Austria in 1448. So that went badly for them. Meanwhile Saxony is getting aggressive, and has formed an alliance with Magdeburg on my southwestern porch. By themselves, Magdeburg is pretty wimpy…but an attack on them would bring The Hansa, Saxony, and Bremen to their aid.

I do manage to put my sick man coalition to good use and have a nice little war on Pomerania. I get myself a Baltic port at Hinterpommern. Brandenburg is now 5 provinces. I work on coring Hinterpommern and spend some time letting my war aggression go down. I make an uneasy friendship with the Saxons, but not so friendly that they won’t jump in if I try to go after Magdeburg.

And then about this time, Luneburg gets caught hurling a diplomatic insult at us, giving us a CB against them. I need some prestige, so I check it: Hey! looks like they’ll have two allies join them, Oldenburg and Pomerania, but both of them have been weakened by war, and for some reason Poland wants in. I don’t think too much of it, other than happy surprise that Poland wants to fight.

I easily handle Luneborg and start my siege…but wait…who are THESE guys? These giant stacks that just showed up with smaller Polish armies? Oh holy hell. It’s Lithuania, who I now notice is a giant magenta blob that seems on the verge of simply absorbing Poland as a vassal or something. Make an alliance with Poland, and Lithuania shows up. Lordy.

So…the war goes well, such as it is. I take Luneburg. Lithuania/Poland takes the two remaining Pomeranian provinces. They sue for peace, separately, and offer me–not my allies–a big stack of moolah to leave them and them only alone. I would much rather have Pomerania on my northern border as an obstacle to get to the Baltic than a Poland/Lithuania union, so I make that peace. Sorry, Poland. Thanks for the cash you guys earned me!

Then Oldeburg also asks a separate peace. I can’t even get armies there, but Lithuania could (bet the Dutch LOVED seeing a Lithuanian 17 stack sitting next door). I once again pocket the cash and Lithuania heads home. Thanks fellas!

Then I try to make Luneburg a vassal, so as not to upset folks with my AE. No go. Apparently my CB–which was just being insulted–is insufficient for me to vassalize them. I can either demand gold from them, or annex outright.

So yeah, welcome to the fam.

6 provinces, although Brandenburg now looks like a worm in north central Europe. Going to have to lay low now for a bit to let that aggression rating drop. I also jumped up one tech level in each of the three areas, so I think I’ll work on building for a bit.

1812

Nice writeup, keep 'em coming. :)

1813

I’m bleary eyed this morning because I played one…more…hour.

More to come (With a screenshot or two!) but the HRE decided that they were a bit less thrilled with me owning Luneburg outright. I could keep it…and give every other country in the HRE a CB against me, or give it back. So I reluctantly gave it back.

But…other things also happened.

1814

Yeah, you just learned an important lesson. Annexing HRE provinces outright is risky. Better to take a vassal and integrate later, or be big enough to fight the emperor.

Good start so far. Sounds like almost exactly the start I had my last Brandenburg game. Just watch Poland. If you have any plans to form Prussia, they will not be your friends long.

1815

Yes, expanding in the HRE is tricky game. I actually love the political maneuvers of turning one of the HRE minors into Germany. One of the strengths of EU is how playing different countries can be a completely different game, with different mechanics involved.

1816

If you have a claim on the territory, the Emperor won’t demand the return of the territory and give you that nasty Unlawful Territory penalty (as long as you are a HRE member yourself, that is). Other HRE members will always take a stronger negative view of any such expansion, but at least you won’t have unlawful territory on top of it!

If you’re in the HRE, keep those diplomats busy either fabricating claims (which can also raise aggressive expansion if caught, so careful) or improving relations with your neighbors. It’s definitely a fun balancing act in the HRE!

1817

I think you need a core, actually, not just a claim.

1818

Used to the case, but isn’t so anymore.

1819

Wow, that’s a HUGE change for the HRE.

1820

Yeah, I didn’t have any claim on Luneburg at all. It was a whim war. I hadn’t fought in a while and needed 2 prestige to fulfill a mission when they were unlucky enough to toss an insult my way, I guess not knowing that the Lithuanian steamroller was going to come help. (Heck, I didn’t even know that.)

In the end, I didn’t expect to keep Luneburg long. I wanted to vassal them, but again, not an option, so like the classic schoolboy who gets turned down when he asks for a dollar, I cheekily decided to ask for a tenner and just annexed them. Lasted about six months. ;) At least I got the stacks of money from Oldeburg and Pomerania.