Post your (DW) Empire

[Ruanek]

Unlikely is a good word. I consider my Bourbonnean Empire a work of art rather than a regular campaign. I'll do anything and everything as long as it doesn't breach the integrity of the game as far as Achievements are considered (no console, savegame editing or modification of the game), and accordingly the goals are set high.

So how did you do it?

[Magnive]

My guess is on PUs, shifting religion to use the cleansing of heresy CB, or maybe even collapsing to sunni rebels to get the holy war CB

[Lord Specter]

I haven't changed religion, though it probably would work.. It's just been quite a lot of time & work.

I've been to war with every country in Europe, most multiple times, but always with a decent CB. Lots of creative use of spies; I've made tons of provinces defect and collapsed many states, fabricated claims as much as possible, and I've even managed to get into vassals' revolutionary wars for 0-infamy gains. Claimed and inherited some thrones through Royal Marriage. I inherited France and England at the same time around 1440. Excommunicated & force vassalized some that were harder to reach. Diplo-annexed multiple vassals on each round of 10 years. I joined the HRE for a while, but left before I became the Emperor; have made nice gains through Imperial Liberation - the CB allows you to conquer all HRE possessions of a member for 1 infamy per province, if they make the mistake of holding on to non-cores (other times they just hand them over for 0 infamy). I've controlled infamy simply by releasing vassals - no provinces that were cores yet, though in 5.1 it would make reacquiring them much simpler by canceling and reconquering for 0 infamy...

[CanOmer]

[rustic]

Strange - I've been going back and forth between overextension and not, monthly, a few times now, without my number of provinces or my number of cores changing. As I understand it, my overextension-or-not status shouldn't change if neither of those things change.

I'm at almost exactly 50% cores (I haven't counted, but that's what the ledger graph looks like), and "less than 50%" is the cutoff for a leader with the admin skill of mine (7), at least according to the "triggered modifiers" window. Maybe I'm stuck in a weird rounding error, where the computer sometimes decides that (say) 49/98 is 50% but sometimes it's 49.99999%. Maybe on different processors of my computer or something? Seems like it should calculate the same result consistently, and regardless of the processor, but I don't see why else I'd be flipping back and forth without my number of provinces or number of cores changing.

Sounds pretty strange. Perhaps something to do with how colonies count into it. Could it happen if part of your country switches between distant overseas and connected to capital status?

I had that overextension-flipping "feature" in my latest game too. No provinces or cores gained/lost, no change of ruler, no moving of the centralisation slider. I didn't have any overseas provinces either, so at least in my case that can be ruled out.

[Ryuujin95]

I had that overextension-flipping "feature" in my latest game too. No provinces or cores gained/lost, no change of ruler, no moving of the centralisation slider. I didn't have any overseas provinces either, so at least in my case that can be ruled out.

In Xnaop's case, the problem is that his capitol is in Sinai, which is in Africa. Provinces in Asia and Europe will temporarily become "distant overseas" if their path to the capitol is blocked by rebels, including the province(s) occupied/sieged by rebels. Since "overseas" provinces are either not counted, or counted weirdly, for the purposes of overextension, rebels will cause a fluctuation in the total number of provinces. Xnaop was probably just over the limit, and when he got rebels in an uncored province, causing it to become overseas, it pushed him just under the limit. That caused him to lose the modifier until the rebels were killed.

You'll also see the same thing happen with the colonialism CB on the borders of Europe, Asia, and Africa. If, for example, you have territory in Palestine or Syria and border an Asian Mameluk or Ottoman province that becomes occupied/sieged by rebels (or hostile nations, I think) You'll get a temporary colonialism CB until they retake the province.

[xcrissxcrossx]

In Xnaop's case, the problem is that his capitol is in Sinai, which is in Africa. Provinces in Asia and Europe will temporarily become "distant overseas" if their path to the capitol is blocked by rebels, including the province(s) occupied by rebels. Since "overseas" provinces are either not counted, or counted weirdly, for the purposes of overextension, rebels will cause a fluctuation in the total number of provinces. Xnaop was probably just over the limit, and when he got rebels in an uncored province, causing it to become overseas, it pushed him just under the limit. That caused him to lose the modifier until the rebels were killed.

I believe this was it. I was playing a Russia game and it always seemed to flip for me when rebels were around.

[Ryuujin95]

And since I'm here posting, here's my latest game. Just finished westenizing and modernizing my military, and while I was in the middle of that, I utterly demolished HRE DotF Austria's 160k man army when they intervened in my last war. I forced them to release the Ottomans (now Catholic), Bulgaria, and Tyriol, and then they got dogpiled, costing them Styria and Ragusa. They still have yet to recover, with > 100k manpower but only 5k troops.

[retipuj]

Playing as France, my aim is to create a super blob in the European continent. Not going to do much colonising, although I did grab The Azores from a war with Portugal, so I might try colonising the Carribbean if I get the chance to. This is just coming off a war which escalated too quickly. DoW on Alsace to try and vassalise them for my mission, and had a whole bunch of European countries DoW on me. But I didn't have a lot of trouble putting them all down. Got a bit greedy and took The Palatinate and Cologne as my vassals, hence the high BB.

I have quite a few vassals around me, which I also have alliances with, and are proving very useful in all the wars I waged so far. My vassals are: Alsace, Aachen, Cologne, The Palatinate, Trier, Genoa, Brabant, Holland, and Bar.



I would love to have some feedback on my game so far. Is 11k ducats too much gold? Any way I can spend them wisely? Should I aim for Castille next? Thanks in advance!

[Slym]

Manufactures everywhere.

Back with IN I was spending that much for every one I made as Germany.

[Choccookies]

Thats a nice looking Europe, although is Poland starting to eat the horde? you might want to get involved there

[ANO1453]

Portugal. The Ottoman Empire is alive and kicking, my biggest threat. After that you have Bohemia, Scandinavia, France. Vijaynagara is algo going nicely.
The Avis dynasty is everywhere, France, Scotland (fell into PU with me in the early game, but since I don't want wrong culture provinces in Northern Europe, just released it as a vassal), Castille, some small vassal countries here and there...
Castille was a very bad neighbour. Always going into wars, and loving any kind of CB it had access to. Portugal allied with France, claimed the throne of Castille and let France do the job. And I ended up with one less rival in colonisation.

The AI loves going to war with far-flung countries it doesn't have any access to. Recently Scandinavia conquered Orissa - I just financed a few rebels there and Orissa should be free anytime soon. I also expected to see the Netherlands form, Brabant/Flanders was doing great in the region until Scandinavia started going down. In Italy, he have Sicily and Siena (the best positioned to form Italy). Sardinia Piedmont also seemed promising, but got itself into some ugly wars with bigger neighbours and got broken down. I sold them Madagascar because I don't want that crappy land for myself but I also don't want any big power to have it.

The biggest fort in the world is Hormuz, a level 4 fort to protect my only piece of land that borders the Ottomans. The single most wealthy province in the world is Havana - home to a 5k CoT, fully controlled by a mercantilistic Portugal.

[rustic]

In Xnaop's case, the problem is that his capitol is in Sinai, which is in Africa. Provinces in Asia and Europe will temporarily become "distant overseas" if their path to the capitol is blocked by rebels, including the province(s) occupied/sieged by rebels. Since "overseas" provinces are either not counted, or counted weirdly, for the purposes of overextension, rebels will cause a fluctuation in the total number of provinces. Xnaop was probably just over the limit, and when he got rebels in an uncored province, causing it to become overseas, it pushed him just under the limit. That caused him to lose the modifier until the rebels were killed.

It sounds unlikely that would have been the case in my game as I was/am playing a circular-shaped east-european blob with its capital in Ostpreussen, and I didn't have very bad rebel problems. But as I honestly don't remember, I won't say that wasn't the case.

[Swistaczek]

Portugal. The Ottoman Empire is alive and kicking, my biggest threat. After that you have Bohemia, Scandinavia, France. Vijaynagara is algo going nicely.
The Avis dynasty is everywhere, France, Scotland (fell into PU with me in the early game, but since I don't want wrong culture provinces in Northern Europe, just released it as a vassal), Castille, some small vassal countries here and there...
Castille was a very bad neighbour. Always going into wars, and loving any kind of CB it had access to. Portugal allied with France, claimed the throne of Castille and let France do the job. And I ended up with one less rival in colonisation.

The AI loves going to war with far-flung countries it doesn't have any access to. Recently Scandinavia conquered Orissa - I just financed a few rebels there and Orissa should be free anytime soon. I also expected to see the Netherlands form, Brabant/Flanders was doing great in the region until Scandinavia started going down. In Italy, he have Sicily and Siena (the best positioned to form Italy). Sardinia Piedmont also seemed promising, but got itself into some ugly wars with bigger neighbours and got broken down. I sold them Madagascar because I don't want that crappy land for myself but I also don't want any big power to have it.

The biggest fort in the world is Hormuz, a level 4 fort to protect my only piece of land that borders the Ottomans. The single most wealthy province in the world is Havana - home to a 5k CoT, fully controlled by a mercantilistic Portugal.

Is that .. Sardinia-Piedmont in Madagaskar? :O

[uat2d]

Is that .. Sardinia-Piedmont in Madagaskar? :O

Portugal. The Ottoman Empire is alive and kicking, my biggest threat. After that you have Bohemia, Scandinavia, France. Vijaynagara is algo going nicely. The Avis dynasty is everywhere, France, Scotland (fell into PU with me in the early game, but since I don't want wrong culture provinces in Northern Europe, just released it as a vassal), Castille, some small vassal countries here and there... Castille was a very bad neighbour. Always going into wars, and loving any kind of CB it had access to. Portugal allied with France, claimed the throne of Castille and let France do the job. And I ended up with one less rival in colonisation. The AI loves going to war with far-flung countries it doesn't have any access to. Recently Scandinavia conquered Orissa - I just financed a few rebels there and Orissa should be free anytime soon. I also expected to see the Netherlands form, Brabant/Flanders was doing great in the region until Scandinavia started going down. In Italy, he have Sicily and Siena (the best positioned to form Italy).

Sardinia Piedmont also seemed promising, but got itself into some ugly wars with bigger neighbours and got broken down. I sold them Madagascar because I don't want that crappy land for myself but I also don't want any big power to have it.

The biggest fort in the world is Hormuz, a level 4 fort to protect my only piece of land that borders the Ottomans. The single most wealthy province in the world is Havana - home to a 5k CoT, fully controlled by a mercantilistic Portugal.

At least read the post you're quoting.

[Xnaop]

In my Aachen-moves-to-Sinai game, I just noticed something that I've been hoping to see for quite a while:



"Aachener Europe"

Full shot of the Aachen Empire:



And the world:





They elected me Holy Roman Emperor a little while back, after which I deigned to rejoin the Holy Roman Empire.

Full size images:

Aachener Europe
Aachener Empire
World (all)
World (Aachen + vassals)

[nitman]

In my Aachen-moves-to-Sinai game, I just noticed something that I've been hoping to see for quite a while:
They elected me Holy Roman Emperor a little while back, after which I deigned to rejoin the Holy Roman Empire.

Full size images:

Aachener Europe
Aachener Empire
World (all)
World (Aachen + vassals)

how? wont the emperor only pick nations which are smaller then itself?

[Choccookies]

how? wont the emperor only pick nations which are smaller then itself?

You don't have to be a member of the HRE to be its empire. Late in the game the AI has been warring with all the other HRE members so much they often hate all the other imperial states and only elect those who aren't members. Also vassals.

[Xnaop]

how? wont the emperor only pick nations which are smaller then itself?

If you open up the HRE screen, and hover your mouse cursor over the shield of an elector, it will show you what that elector thinks of you in terms of voting for you or not, as a number. It also breaks down that number into components, and also shows the same thing for the nation that elector actually would vote for if the vote were right now (or for its second favorite if you're its favorite).

There are a bunch of components - each four points of relations is +1, each point of infamy, is -10, etc. Being a non-HRE member is a pretty big penalty (-50) and also implies that you're ineligible for a potentially really big bonus ("being a large state in HRE" can be up to +100 or +150 or something like that), but it's not insurmountable. In particular, if the elector is your vassal or the junior member in a PU with you, that's worth +250 or something like that.

So, long answer short: Vassalize the electors.

Edit: Oh, wait, maybe you mean "Won't the emperor only allow provinces of nations smaller than his to join the empire?"

If so, yes, I think that's true generally speaking, but I am the emperor, and didn't start adding my provinces to the empire until after I had already been elected emperor.

[ANO1453]

In my Aachen-moves-to-Sinai game, I just noticed something that I've been hoping to see for quite a while:
They elected me Holy Roman Emperor a little while back, after which I deigned to rejoin the Holy Roman Empire.

Full size images:

Aachener Europe
Aachener Empire
World (all)
World (Aachen + vassals)

What is that lighter blue in the New World? Venice?