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How do you cope with the ironman?

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Yaska80

Yaska80

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Oct 1, 2014
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Hello all,
Been playing this game for few years now around 400 hours total. Anyways i never bothered with ironman mode before recently. Well i thought that now it's the time to give it a serious try.

Started game as Gelre, i allways love to make big empires out of Netherlands, Venice, Milan etc. With a combination of luck and tedious diplomatic game i conquered all of the low countries by 1520. After that i started to rapidly colonize North America and created two colonial nations that covered the coastline from Hudson bay to Florida. Got myself couple of islands from Caribbean to steer trade and so on. Then focus moved to Africa and Asia. By 1600 i controlled half of India, Gulf of Aden, South Africa and Malacca. At 1620 i had highest income, biggest navy and clear lead in ideas and tech.

Diplomaticly i changed allies like socks early but after reformation and colonization i stayed with Austria, Scandinavia and couple of German minors. Russia and Ottomans were blobbing big time. France and England looked weak Spain was united and owned most of South and mid-America and constantly warring against huge Algiers and Ottomans. I felt safe and strong i could take any nation one on one. I started getting more involved landvice in the desperate wars against Ottomans and Russia. With my help Austria and Scandinavia managed to turn the tide and European borders started looking nice and balanced.

Last night i had few beers and i was happily playing kicking ass in few particulary bloody wars against first Russians and then Ottomans. In the latter i lost by forgetting one 24 stack to Ottos. Well i rebuilt and in the end the war was won. At the end i was on my last thousand both manpower and money vice. Then the hell breaks loose. Spain interferes because of colonial war and attacks me with Portugal, Bavaria and their vassals. Austria and Scandinavia both abandon me likely because low manpower and in dept. Well i controll the seas and spawn every man on arms i could burning rest of my money on mercs and start going in dept. I manage to make a standstill and start takin ground in Caribbean. My troops are spread very thin now only on 24 stack in Europe. The France decides to join defeats my home army and starts to carpet siege lowlands. at this point i try to get peace offering all kinds of deals, none accepted. Then England joins the fun landing in India...

I WASN'T A TARGET OF COALITION GUYS!?!

Well to put it short the bastards didn't accept peace deals until i was completely wiped out. All the wars were separate so when i peaced out with Spain the others continued. In the end i lost half of the homeland, was forced to release Flanders and luxemburg, ceded three provinces to France. My USA colony was completely raped. I lost my caribbean islands, all my protectorates in India, my merchant fleets were mostly destroyed crippling my income completely only had the big ships left that i could not afford any more because of lack of trade income, manpower at zero, 8 depts negative prestige, rebellious Canadian colony - they are stronger than me. I lost hundred years of progress in heartbeat.

Then Austria sends Call to Arms... i quit... i'm not sure can i continue that game anymore, i spend like 20 hours on it. I'm so pissed off.

So my question is: Is the only way to prevent this kind of dog piling simply hurt everybody so bad that none can. I could have expanded more in Europe if i had wanted but i was happy with my homeland. Do you need to be ruthless and oppurtunistic all the way? Are you not be allowed to be mid-sized and succesfull? How do you cope with losses like this? If i could just load from 50 years back or something.

Other question i have. I can't register my EU4 because if i recall i did with my old account that i have forgetten password and was tied to my university e-mail which i don't have anymore. WoN registered fine. (I have actually bought both on Steam.) Is there a way to fix this as i would like to get to the modding forum to check out some new flags.

Anyways cheers, next game will be France WC to payback the little f*ckers.

Good night
 
Don't drink and drive and get mercenaries/better allies!
 
I don't think anyone should expect a game played as OPM should be a walk in the park in Ironman. This happened to me a few time and yes, I quit too but the next game I played I did things a tad differently. Live and learn.
 
I honestly have to say: I've never decisively lost a war in more than 1.500 hours played that late into the game, almost all of it in Ironman. And I've played minors as well as majors. Sometimes I released a small nation and some of the games I restarted early (e.g. Granada, The Knights). If I would find myself in your situation I'd probably not continue the game either, doesn't sound like a lot of fun. Apart from that I'd say it's mostly your fault (sorry ...), since you overextended yourself recklessly without any gains to be made. I mean being out of manpower in the 17th century? That should not happen. Start using mercs earlier, especially if your manpower pool is comparatively small. The AI likes to jump nations that are down already (as do players ...) and rightly so, to be honest.

Sorry for you anyway, take a break from the game and come back for something else later. I'd not advise a WC though, they're really tedious as far as I can see.
 
Just don't go all out in allies wars, cherish your men and their power :).
And, to put it bluntly, merchants are not good fighters. They might have some impressive numbers, but it's all smokes and mirrors.
Also, why Austria and not France as an ally?
 
itsuart said:
Just don't go all out in allies wars, cherish your men and their power :).
And, to put it bluntly, merchants are not good fighters. They might have some impressive numbers, but it's all smokes and mirrors.
Also, why Austria and not France as an ally?
Click to expand...

Mercs are exactly the same as regular troops, provided they're the same unit type. Especially as smaller (trading/colonial) nations they're absolutely mandatory.
 
I play Ironman only (except for mods). That way you get to learn how to deal with things and think it through. Ironman is the best since sliced bread.
 
Yaska80 said:
I WASN'T A TARGET OF COALITION GUYS!?!
Click to expand...
I don't understand why you put that bit in your post. You made yourself look weak by depleting your manpower and having no alliances (after they rejected the call for your first defensive war), so England and France jumped on the chance. Also, why should they accept your peace demand if you're in a very poor position and they can take advantage of that? Good AI in this case, if anything! Sounds to me that you were too aggressive in a few wars and you paid the price.

To answer your questions; yeah, you should be opportunistic. Have a few claims on big neighbours ready at all times, so you can strike them if they're weak at some point. Like they did to you. You can be mid-sized and successful, but that requires you to be on good terms with your big neighbours and not to put yourself in a weak position.
 
lordelenath said:
Mercs are exactly the same as regular troops, provided they're the same unit type. Especially as smaller (trading/colonial) nations they're absolutely mandatory.
Click to expand...
I'm talking about Army Tradition (= good generals and morale bonus) and Ideas, NI included. In my experience, where even not very militant nation (like Bohemia for example) manages run away or even beat my army, merchants are getting stackwiped.
Also, merchant nations usually small and could be easily carpet sieged. They have impressive fleet no doubt, but on land? Better stay on support role.
 
itsuart said:
I'm talking about Army Tradition (= good generals and morale bonus) and Ideas, NI included. In my experience, where even not very militant nation (like Bohemia for example) manages run away or even beat my army, merchants are getting stackwiped.
Also, merchant nations usually small and could be easily carpet sieged. They have impressive fleet no doubt, but on land? Better stay on support role.
Click to expand...

if people can conquer the world with najd or ryuku they can play netherlands with no problems. Especially since humans know how to use things like force march effectively.
 
Thanks for replies,
I actually know very well that i was putting myself to a risk letting my manpower go down. I was just so pissed of that it went the wrong way... no i have calmed down and thinking about starting a new try. Maybe i should start with Burgundy this time again the goal would be becoming Netherlands with large colonial empire. I should just beat down France and UK bit more and make a few good sized vassals inside HRE before i stop warmongering in Europe.

A question: Is it so that when i form Netherlands i lose all French region even it belongs to my vassals?

itsuart said:
Just don't go all out in allies wars, cherish your men and their power :).
And, to put it bluntly, merchants are not good fighters. They might have some impressive numbers, but it's all smokes and mirrors.
Also, why Austria and not France as an ally?
Click to expand...
Austria became protestant as i and the french wanted half my country. And with my limited experience allying French outside from beginning of the game when sharing a long border with them won't work. Also the only way to prevent them from blobbing is to side against them unless you destroy them in the start ofcourse.
 
I don't.
Ironman slows down the game with constant saving and additionally doesn't let me fix critical bugs when they occur (f.e. the current overaged heir of recreated country one)
I play a game for fun, not for achievement, so there is nothing but negative aspects to Ironman.
 
lordelenath said:
Mercs are exactly the same as regular troops, provided they're the same unit type. Especially as smaller (trading/colonial) nations they're absolutely mandatory.
Click to expand...

I know this is true for the individual regiments. But might a complete merc army have some negative modifier?

Reason I'm asking is that in I've seen armies get completely devasted far beyond what I'd expect with regular troops. Against AI this might happen because a long war can thoroughly eff their prestige, but I had merc armies melt as well when my prestige was okay. For example in my Luck of the Irish game a revolt happend around Delaware while my armies where busy in Mexico, so I churned out a mercenary stack large enough to deal with them, sent them in and they got annihilated. While victory wasn't guaranteed, in no way would I have expected a stackwipe with minimal casualties on the rebels side.
 
Alblaka said:
Ironman slows down the game with constant saving
Click to expand...
Frankly, I find the constant saving to be a positive, not a negative; this is why I am one of the people asking for something like a "bronzeman" mode.

and additionally doesn't let me fix critical bugs when they occur (f.e. the current overaged heir of recreated country one)
Click to expand...
That is a pain, yes.
 
Seraphithan said:
I know this is true for the individual regiments. But might a complete merc army have some negative modifier?

Reason I'm asking is that in I've seen armies get completely devasted far beyond what I'd expect with regular troops. Against AI this might happen because a long war can thoroughly eff their prestige, but I had merc armies melt as well when my prestige was okay. For example in my Luck of the Irish game a revolt happend around Delaware while my armies where busy in Mexico, so I churned out a mercenary stack large enough to deal with them, sent them in and they got annihilated. While victory wasn't guaranteed, in no way would I have expected a stackwipe with minimal casualties on the rebels side.
Click to expand...

There's no inherent malus to mercenaries. They can be outdated units, but that's it. Most nations that employ a lot of mercenaries tend to not pick up many military idea groups in my experience, which might account for your impressions. Regarding that battle: these things happen. Success in a battle is, after all, determined by luck to a large degree. :)
 
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