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Dustman

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Apr 20, 2001
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There were heated discussions in several threads on what's good or bad, what works or not and indirect country comparison. Here I'd like to hear how people LIKE to play, not necessary the most efficient way to play.


I prefer Europeans (Eastern Europe and the Ottomans included), with medium powers being more fun. Mostly peaceful games of trade and development, with occasional colonies and bit of conquest in India and China. When facing blobs, I prefer to dismantle them and create new states instead of taking new provinces in wrong culture group. Lately I've been focusing on pure production games where trade goes mainly in home CoTs with automated merchants send to every CoT of the world on low priority, and limiting myself to only reasonable SoI where mostly minor vassals get in. To keep myself entertrained after 1550, I fight Austria/France/GB for minor gains while more or less preserving their tax/manpower base. Often it means constitutional monarchy combined with a bill of rights.

What type of games do you enjoy?
 
There were heated discussions in several threads on what's good or bad, what works or not and indirect country comparison. Here I'd like to hear how people LIKE to play, not necessary the most efficient way to play.


I prefer Europeans (Eastern Europe and the Ottomans included), with medium powers being more fun. Mostly peaceful games of trade and development, with occasional colonies and bit of conquest in India and China. When facing blobs, I prefer to dismantle them and create new states instead of taking new provinces in wrong culture group. Lately I've been focusing on pure production games where trade goes mainly in home CoTs with automated merchants send to every CoT of the world on low priority, and limiting myself to only reasonable SoI where mostly minor vassals get in. To keep myself entertrained after 1550, I fight Austria/France/GB for minor gains while more or less preserving their tax/manpower base. Often it means constitutional monarchy combined with a bill of rights.

What type of games do you enjoy?

^this. Trade and fragmenting big nations. I wouldn't go so far to say it's a peaceful game though. Fragmentation takes work.

I've discovered I really enjoy having naval superiority.
 
Generally I just play singleplayer to find new and bizzare strategies for multiplayer, such as Navarlaya, Portugalaya, or Scandirussia.
 
I tend to stick to somewhat historical expansion, though not necessarily lining up with the time of the game. For example as France I'll try to recreate the Napoleonic empire, vassals and all.

In more general games I like having a strong, built-up core and mass vassals surrounding it. I tend to built large armies but only use small parts of it in wars, keeping the rest on other countries' borders to intimidate them into not declaring war, and swapping them out whenever a frontline army gets too damaged. I keep one regiment on every border province so I can scorch if there's a sudden DoW.
 
Lately I've been wanting to play nations that are, in DDRJake's words, the masochistic ones: currently I'm re-making the Mongol empire with the Mongol Khanate, after that I'm forming Romania as Wallachia and reforming the Roman Empire, and I might go back and finish my vanilla game - Shamanist Finland->Scandinavia conquering the Christians in the name of the Odin - but vanilla just isn't as fun now that I've played a few mods. I'd like to play a Granada game too. As for my playing style; it greatly changes depending on the nation I'm playing. I'm a big fan of role-playing a nation; trying to make logical decisions that fit in the context of my main overarching goal. I tend to avoid rapid, opportunistic expansion though, unless I can't avoid it, which tends to be the case with most of the nations I've been playing recently.
 
I like playing Green countries. I like green. Currently ignoring all those 'form Germany, Prussia, HRE' options, and making the map a lovely Pommeranian deep green.

Edit: My sworn enemy is beige.
 
I'm my games I usually focus on trade and getting tech edges before following my own set goals. In my current game I just want to carve out a chunk of Europe in the name of Bremen. Colonising the Americas and conquering India is just means to an end.

My playing habits are to usually choose country's that didn't do well historically...or have pretty colours. :3
 
I like playing Green countries. I like green. Currently ignoring all those 'form Germany, Prussia, HRE' options, and making the map a lovely Pommeranian deep green.

Edit: My sworn enemy is beige.

You might want to consider forming Italy since Italy is green. Not my favorite kind of green though, sort of a pea-soupy kind of green. Maybe you can start as Sicily. Aquamarine Venice is easier, but there might be too much blue for you.
 
You might want to consider forming Italy since Italy is green. Not my favorite kind of green though, sort of a pea-soupy kind of green. Maybe you can start as Sicily. Aquamarine Venice is easier, but there might be too much blue for you.

Forming Italy was lovely. So much green. My favourite feature of Divine Wind was the inclusion of Hindustan.

In all seriousness though, I prefer to play sculptor/puppetmaster of the world. I expand slowly but surely, and once I reach a certain level of power, I look around to see what cool nations there are and help them stick around. If anyone gets too big I take them down a notch, if any big nation (except Bohemia, because seriously, f them) becomes to small I ally with them and help them regain their losses.
 
I prefer "conservative blobbing", starting with a medium power and then expand somewhat cautiously. I usually don't take the risk of "imperial overstretch", I rather build myself some sort of enduring pocket empire.
 
Usually I try to create a historical correct country as a vassal, it's fun and I found out it can be very time consuming so it's a great thing to do.
Especially if you give them independance later or in my current game, Make the Netherlands, give them entire americas and Africa also a bit of east-asia and then try to kill their intergalactic Empire of spamming fleets and units.
 
Only played a few "real" games so far but they tend to follow a similar trend. A slow, seeping blobbing in all directions with regular reality checks on the usual suspects and any one getting too big for their boots! (Provence and Navarra strangely in my current game due to the other powers being diminished!)

Always feel I am missing out if i don't colonise but that is also the period that the game seems to lose its edge for me and I drift towards a new start.
 
Slow but steady build-up followed by a period of ridiculous expansionism, then another period of build-up, then playing cold war with all the other major powers.
 
I like to balance building an empire with keeping it working, which usually turns out pretty much like this:
Slow but steady build-up followed by a period of ridiculous expansionism, then another period of build-up, then playing cold war with all the other major powers.
I would also really like playing a small power or maybe a Merchan Republic as a sort of puppetmaster, but I'm afraid that's just not the right playstyle for me. Can't even properly handle spies.
 
I would also really like playing a small power or maybe a Merchan Republic as a sort of puppetmaster, but I'm afraid that's just not the right playstyle for me. Can't even properly handle spies.

It took me quite some time to properly manage spies. Best way to be able to play that way is to force yourself to do it even if you know you're not targeting the spies with the right missions or in the right places. Playing a couple of games like this will massively improve your standard play as well, since spies are rarely used by many players outside of Infiltrate Administration and funding patriots.
 
I pick an area to be my goal in the short term and then try to expand until I own it. Then I pick a new goal to get, trying to keep my borders at least logical looking.

Personal unions and vassalization isn't for manly men with big strong armies.

CONQUEST

Edit:

I like playing Green countries. I like green. Currently ignoring all those 'form Germany, Prussia, HRE' options, and making the map a lovely Pommeranian deep green.

Edit: My sworn enemy is beige.

This is the reason I've tried to play as Seliesia like 4 times.
 
Al-Andalus in D&T has the best green color there is :D

As much as I perfer military expansion and conquest, it is not constant. I can go for years at a time consolidating my country with buildings, trading, and diplomatic procedures. Except in my Germany game, though. Since I have the world's most powerful army, why not just use my Revolutionary War causus belli and conquer the whole of Europe? Currently, I have the German cultural region, western Poland, Switzerland, western Austria, England, and Wales.