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@MetallicaFan100: Which is exactly why I will only take Malta :rofl:
@Athalcor: Nah. The tooltip is frased stupidly. You only get cores on the provinces you took during that war within the Italy region. It is a nice mission, but it is not that hardcore
@Athalcor: Nah. The tooltip is frased stupidly. You only get cores on the provinces you took during that war within the Italy region. It is a nice mission, but it is not that hardcore
@MetallicaFan100: Which is exactly why I will only take Malta :rofl:
@Athalcor: Nah. The tooltip is frased stupidly. You only get cores on the provinces you took during that war within the Italy region. It is a nice mission, but it is not that hardcore
Aha...so DoW all Italian nations, occupy them, annex them in a single day during game pause and tradaaa. Also gratz to post 10.000.
Yeah, and like 500 Infamy... Nah, that won't work. But I play ahead anyway, so the discussion is kinda moot Also thanks for the gratz
Also thanks for the gratz 
Looking pretty powerful there with the added core provinces. Hehe, at least you aren't being abusive if you take Malta to finish that mission.
Issue #7
Reason III
This game is too hard.
Issue Seven
This game is too hard.
Issue Seven
"To explore the new world, you need the "Conquest for the New World" National Idea." I guess I already heared that one before... "Press the F12 button to save the entire world map." I can save the entire World with the push of a button?! I'm F-Man!
Anyway, I'm now at war with England again, and they start this conflict with 0% War Capacity. Well, what could I say? They are incompetent fools, that's nothing new. Then again, they have a bigger army than I do... They had two allies that would fight for them, Wales and Connacht, but Portugal chickened out. They have some common sense after all. My allies have all honoured our alliances. Every single one of them. They also have some common sense.
So, the first thing I want to do is sink that three ships they have. Revenge is soooo sweet! My 17 Carracks easily destroy their pittifuly fleet, but my 5 Cogs are led by a moron, and when I order them into the Mediterranean, they go out into the Bay of Biscay, suffering 6% attrition. In Malta, I have to defeat 2000 Knights Nationalists. I didn't know that the Knihts were a nation to begin with! You learn something new every day! Anyway, I also sent 15000 men to Cronwall to cause some mischief. Which they pretty much did, but in the end they were all annihilated. Tough luck. I'll have more in no time! In the meantime, I reached Government tech level 9 in March, 1449, giving me a new Idea: Military Drill. That gives +1 Morale for my armies, which is almost 30%! I might change it later, but right now, it sounds pretty good!
In June, 1449, I finally gather enough Magistrates to enact the Byzantine Refugees decision. -5% Technology cost. Nice! After that was done, and I gathered a large enough army to go back to England again, I asked for Military Access through Scotland. They gave it to me with pleasure. My cunning plan is to gather my forces there before going into England proper, so they can't destroy my forces before they could all get there. I only have 5 cogs, so it takes multiple turns to get my troops in position. Meanwhile, I gain cores in Southern France.
Good! Now I actually have access to the Mediterranean! Previously my ships suffered serious attrition in my backyard pool...
Malta is taken after two years of siege and an assault a year after the walls got breached and they were 'about to surrender any day now'. Good. We have what we came for. Now the next step is to kick England in the butt. They are still trying to rebuild their navy by the way. And they moved their Armies to the North, in response to my troop concentration there. Alright, I will move my forces back one province then. They also withdrew their forces. Goood boy! Your reward is a good old dagger in your back.
Backstab. The French way.
Meanwhile, Castille also attacked, but from the South. Smooth! I will give them a hand. Let's siege London, shall we? But then for some reason, Castille went for a White Peace. The bastards! I'll get them for this! Later. Right now, I have to annihilate all the English Armies. What could go wrong?
What did they do that for?
Savoy? Joining the war against me? And I have practically noone in Southern France? Ah, whatever. I'll just send my forces from Belgium there. Then they were joined by Portugal as well. I might have been wrong about the Portugese common sense earlier. At least they sued for a White Peace soon after. But I also got a Boundary Dispute with Hainaut, over Valenciennes. It is my culture, so I pressed the issue.
After a long and exhausitng campaign, Savoy is completely taken over and I force them to become my vassals. It costs me 4 points of Infamy, and I don't like that, but whatever. By now, I could also force a very nice Peace on England, but I do want to press on a little more. I want them to release Connacht from being their vassal as well as Wales. And I would also prefer Cronwall and Northumberland to be released as new nations. New friends are always nice. I will spare you the details of the long war, let's just say that after some five years, I managed to get England to the level where I wanted them to be at.
Not bad. Especially considering that my Casus Belli never actually existed in the first place...
With my Italian Ambition satisfied (and with a Maltese core richer), I get the mission to Incorporate Savoy into the Kingodm (France is an Empire, you dimwit!). This mission needs me to destroy Savoy and get Piedmont in the process. But they are my vassal now, so I will need to do this the Diplomatic way. Wait a minute! Can I even diplo-annex a nation with four provinces?? Well, the interface does offer the option, although grayed out because I don't meet the requirements. Then let's start with offering an Alliance to them! I also want to keep England in check, so I expand my Sphere of Influence over the British Isles.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Europe, Bohemia is still hated by the entire world, and a few minors start wars against them. It sounds like the perfect time to start another war! This time against Hainaut. I have a core on them, so I will annex them! They have Luxemburg as an ally, which is nothing to be afraid of, Flanders, which is only slightly more frightening than Luxemburg, and also Avignon, but they are supposed to be my allies as well. And even if they choose to side against me, I will just eat them, too. Hainaut is in the Empire, and thus Bohemia is supposed to defend them, and this is the part where the Bohemian repution comes in. I don't really think Bohemia is in any shape to enforce their rights right now, as they are fighting for their continued existence. Everyone joins everyone, including Bohemia's vassals, and Avignon choose the wrong side. Let's get this party started!
Hainaut was pretty easy to annex, and I could do the same with Luxemburg, but I was starting to get waaaay too close to the Infamy limit, so I wanted to slow down. So I let them go with only a warning. I made Flanders renounce all their claims on my territories, and pay me some gold. I also let Avignon get away with betraying me, because Milan got there first and I couldn't get any land from them... After some consideration, I decided to also let Bohemia get away easily this time. They have enough trouble anyway, and will most likely get spanked without me.
But with that, I ran out of people to attack
So I started building some churches and docks. Until I ran out of Magistrates, too. Then I got a Boundary Dispute with Burgundy, over Nevers. Life is good I went for it of course, right away. Gone were the days when Burgundy posed any threat at all. It was one of the easiest fights up to that point...
One big step forward to removing the Burgundian threat from Europe!
And with that, ends today's issue, because I have a headache. Probably because this game is so bad.
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And with that, we also caught up with where I am in-game... I will need to play a little more, but it is soooo haaaard...
Just be careful with the Badboy/infamy..
Too high and Europe'll attack you like wasps
Too high and Europe'll attack you like wasps
Issue #8
Reason III
This game is too hard.
Issue Eight
This game is too hard.
Issue Eight
"The first army to arrive at siege will be the leader and the one to take control of the province after the siege." Which is kinda stupid and messed up my plans on numerous occasions. It should be the strongest one, not the first! Anyway, at least my vassals will always conquere for me, and there are quite a few of them. And the other hint I recieved at least ten times already.
Soooo, I was away from this game for quite a while now (which might not be apparent from the reader's point of view), so let's take a look around, what the heck was I up to?... Here's a map of Europe you probably won't see squat on:
Europe, in all its glory. During this game session, most of Norway is played by Castille, disguised as the Gold Coast.
My current mission is to incorporate Savoy into the Kingdom (or rather the Empire...). For that to be done, they must cease to exist and I need to own the province of Piedmont. In exchange, I would get a core in that province. Sounds good, the only problem with that is that they are my vassal. I obviousl don't want to let go of a vassal for multiple reasons, and it would take years to be able to annex them diplomatically... If I'm even allowed to do that, of which I'm not sure at all, them holding four provinces and all...
On the bright side of life, I have a lot of money and a healthy income, too, with a nicely fed 50 regiments army (which is second only to the Ottomans in Europe and of course the Ming, but that hardly matters at all). My mortal enemy, England, is in a pretty bad shape, too. The game tells me that I should feel threatened by England (surely you jest!) and Bohemia (who is the worst kind of dishonourable scum the World has ever seen). My supposed natural rivals are Castille (the guys with the Gold Cosat), Sweden (the guys that make those horrible games), Bohemia (the guys with the Rhapsody), and Austria (the muscled guy with the kangaroos from Candy Cornia). It also tells me that I have a very bad reputation. So I decided to stay low for a while.
I'm losing 0.9 points of Infamy every year, so I should be done with it in thirty-three years. If I don't do anything stupid in the meantime... Piece of cake!
So, let's build some Docks and Churches! And Constables. That can't cause any trouble
And also let's improve our relations with our vassals! I want to be loved at least by them, if not by anyone else... I also move my National Focus to Brittany so I can remove those cores they have there. I want French Unity in France! Of course I will need a lot more Magistrates for that, and I'm using those to build new stuff right now, but maybe in the future.As a stroke of genius, I send an offer to Bar that they can't decline, and they are now my Vassals as well. I have a core on their single province. Nice. Of course I don't want to diplo-annex them anytime soon, because Savoy is first in line for that, but it can't hurt, now can it? They are in the Empire, so there's no hurry. My next opportunity for such an action will be in June, 1462.
I'm starting to suspect that something is wrong with my game. I previously recieved a "Violation of Sphere of Influence" Casus Belli against Scotland, which is in my Sphere of Influence but was only fighting two countries which were not, and now I recieved a "Dishonoured Call" against Wurzburg. I never was allied them in the first place, and neither of us is at war... Then I also got a "Holy War" against the freshly independent Sunni Crimea... Am I going mad?
Meanwhile I increased Centralization with one point. I hoped for a Pretender or a Great Revolt which could be dealt with quickly, but unfortunatelly I got a drop of Stability. But that only lasted for a year or so, and having 2 points of Stability isn't that bad either. And after several years of being beaten up, Bohemia lost most of its power and enough of its Infamy to lose the Dishonourable Scum tag. But they are still Emperor, and it took them only a few months to get that title back as well.
On the Coat of Arms of Brandenburg, Emperor Joachim II Nestor is practicing his Force Lightning spell, dressed as a red chicken. Yes, his chicken costume is hardly convincing.
The election of the new Holy Roman Emperor was almost unanimous, only Bohemia was bold enough to vote for himself, the other six would prefer to see him brought down. So long, snapperhead!
And now I only have 24.4 Infamy, and only one year until the next opportunity to get a peacefull annexation! By the way, did you notice that Castille is kinda getting out of hand lately?! We should do something about them! Later.
I sent my offer to Savoy about them joining the Empire of France, which they accepted without hesitation.
With that said and done, I lost one point of Stability and a core on Piedmont. The three other provinces will have to adapt on their own. The next mission is to Conquer Milan. This only means Lombardia, actually. Gaining that province would give me 10 points of prestige, and incidentally I also gained a Casus Belli to get it. Of course they are not completely defenseless though, so it would lead to some complications, among them a possible war with Brandenburg, the new Emperor, and a point of Stability lost because of our Royal Marriage. On the other hand, I could claim the Throne of Milan. That could be quite beneficial to me in the long run! So that's what I do. (Although I'm not entirely sure what I actually achieved by this...)
Now, back to peacefully building up and improving my relations with my vassals. Especially those I have Royal Marriages with, because they don't like me too much right now.
But I can't really get away with annexing Savoy either. In a few days, I recieved another formal request from Brandenburg to give back Nice, or else. I told them where to stick it. This caused another point of Stability, but I can live with it. I honestly don't understand who do they think they are... And they don't seem like they would actually attack, they are only tossing around empty threats. By 1464, I removed all four new provinces from the Empire and regained one of the two lost Stability points as well. In eight short years, I will be ready to annex yet another of my vassals.
I just realized that there's a serious problem with taking Lombardia from Milan: that's their capital... I can only take it by annexing them completely, which would give a lot of Infamy. If I'm not mistaken, every province taken gives 4 Infamy. I have a "Conquest" Casus Belli, that should reduce the Infamy I get to 25% and they have six provinces. So if my calculations are right, that would give me six points of Infamy. Not too bad, but I'm not sure I could annex them in a single war to begin with. Alright! Let's do this!
Most of my allies honoured kept promises with the exception of Montenegro (big loss there), and all of theirs stand beside them. Or behind them at least.
Branbenburg also brought Lithuania into the party. And Hesse. And Ulm. (No, not that Ulm.) Let's just hope this won't get out of hand... I'm also warned by several one province minors now. Oh, my!
And of course I was right about Annexation not being available. I don't have cores on any of their provinces, so all of them would cost 4 Infamy even with the "Conquest" Casus Belli. I could get away with taking three provinces, but that would bring me dangerously close to the limit, which I would prefer to avoid. So, I only take Liguria (with a fat Center of Trade!) and Parma with some minor stuff. Of course that was only Milan, I still have multiple enemies.
A little later I recieved a core in Charolais, Burgundy, which is great, because they have my culture, so I can't even lose it. I don't want to use that opportunity just now, I have way too much Infamy and too many warnings right now...
And again, the AI is outrageously inconsistent. Brandenburg would offer me two provinces among other things but they decline my offer of a White Peace... Come on! What's wrong with you?! But after occupying some of their provinces, they finally gave in. And that's it for today. See you next time!
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North Africa is not castillan yet? You should go to the Strange Screenshot thread with that.
Actually, the Norwegian coast is in Castillean hands. I hope this answered both your questions
Issue #9
Reason III
This game is too hard.
Issue Nine
This game is too hard.
Issue Nine
"You will get nasty events when you get above the infamy limit. Don't say we didn't warn you." Well, I wouldn't want the game to get any harder, now would I? Of course not. So let's just not do that, okay? My Infamy is currently 30.68 while the limit is 38 points. I guess it's time to sit back and do nothing. While I'm waiting for my Infamy to go down, I'll try to play the music of the game on my acustic bass guitar. Because I'm badass
For some reason I gained a Casus Belli against Castille, Scotland, Moldavia and Navarra. Must... resist... temptation... can't... fight... more... wars... But no worries, it disappeared in a few days! What a relief! Meanwhile Avignon and Provance broke up. They couldn't hold together their two-provinces empire. Let's make friends with Provence then!
By the way, I'm pretty much swimming in money now (700 gold with about 180 per year after taxes), so I guess I should expand my Army and Navy a bit. My current 50 (45+5) regiments look nice on paper, but the borders are getting longer, so let's go for 60 (45+15) instead! Cannons will be invented soon as well. My Navy consists of 22 Carracks and 6 Cogs. Not bad, but considering that I have Press Gangs, I should have more, so let's build some! Say, 10 Cogs and 35 Carracks overall! So, where are my recruitment centers and harbours again? Well, I have no Drydocks yet and simple Docks do nothing with ship building, so it is completely irrelevant. But I have an Armoury and a Training Field in Ile-de-France, so that's where I'll train my new Cavalry Regiments.
In February, 1469, I got the chance to make a step in one of the sliders. My choice was Centralization. That can help a lot. It costs me one point of Stability though. It will take a year and a half to get it back. Sometimes I wonder if I should invest into Churches. But it takes a Magistrate which I can use for so much else! No, I have to endure the tough times brought by the loss of Stability for the Greater Good.
Is it just me or do other people also find it funny that you can have an Army of 10000 Longbowmen? Isn't that just a tiny little bit silly? I mean, it sounds fun and all to shade the sky with ten thousand arrows, but seriously. What if the enemy happens to have Protection from Normal Missiles prepared that morning? We would be screwed, that's what. So that's why I want to have a few horses at hand.
Wow! Government Tech level 11! That's another National Idea! What should that be? Hmm, choices, choices... The Naval line is pretty much useless now, I don't really want to rely on my Navy. Land has somewhat more potential, but not by much. I can has 93 Regiments already, I don't care about +1 Siege value for Leaders, I never had problems with Manpower, my Army Tradition is higher than my ego and prestige from Land Battles would be a bit more tempting if I didn't have like 85% of the Infamy Limit so I could actually fight wars. Moving on. Exploration would be fun if I wanted to do colonizing, which I don't. Sure, it would be a good way to waste some time while I'm waiting for my Infamy to go down, but colonies don't worth a damn and they get their resources randomly, too, so I can't just take the good ones either. If I want a colonial empire, I'll take one when someone already developed it
State is a lot more interesting with Tax bonuses, reduced Revolt Risk or additional Spies. Actually, the Revolt Risk reducing one isn't that good either, since I only have Revolt Risk where there is a minimal revolt risk anyway (ie. in newly conquered provinces), so it wouldn't help at all. From the Culture line I was considering Church Attendance Duty because of the huge decrease in Stability cost and the Papal Influence, but I couldn't do anything with that either. The Stability cost reduction only matters while I don't have 3 Stability already, which happens rarely because I always play nice rolleyes and the +5% Papal Influence would still drown in the -28% from my Infamy... Patron of the Arts sounds really nice. Having 5-6 star advisors could be very useful. But so could +10% Tax Modifier. Alright, I'll take the taxes. Bureaucracy it is then. With such a disgusting name it must be good! It gave about 30 gold to my yearly income, also increasing my monthly investment. And I deserve a cookie now!In August, 1470, I reach level 3 Stability again. That didn't take long. But I still have 28.14 Infamy
But there are good news as well! In December, that very same year, I got a Personal Union with Milan as a Christmas Present! How nice! They also got a Pretender, which I will defeat right away with my forces stationed in the neighbourhood. There's a tooltip when I hover my mouse over the ruler of Milan, but I have no idea what it means... All I can figure out is that my chances of inheriting Milan completely are pretty much non-existant.
It might have something to do with my bastard son...
Also, my own throne is somewhat threatened because of the weak claim of that bastard Louis. I will get a pretender upon Henri II's death. Which could happen any minute now, considering that he has been on the throne since 1427. That's 44 years! And I just realized that the mechanics for inheriting a junior partner in a personal union were changed, now it is a diplomatic action. I very much doubt that I will be in personal union with Milan for 50 years... My king would need to live past a hundred years for that.
The next minor I annex into France is Bar. I was preparing for that! I accumulated two Magistrates to remove the province of Barrois from the Holy Roman Empire right away! Eat your heart out, Joachim II of Mecklenburg!
By November, 1473, I managed to remove every single Brittanian core from France (and thus from the game). I hope they won't come back later on either
In a few years I'll be able to move my National Focus to South Western France, thne I'll start to promote cultural unity there as well. I don't want any other cores in France, only French ones! It's a shame I can only move the focus very rarely.Now with the fast approaching advent of gunpowder, I start to move from Offensive towards Defensive. 0.1 Morale is a trivial amount now, Leader Shock will soon be much worse than Leader Siege and I don't want Artillery to be expensive. I frequently get "Fortification neglected" events and until now I always chose the temporary effect instead of the change in policies. But now I'll pick the step towards Defensive.
In this game the best offense is a good defence...
In 1475, my Infamy is down to 24. I'm almost tempted to start looking for trouble again
Unfortunatelly my next target, Burgundy still has three provinces and I only have a core on one of them, which means I would gain 8 Infamy for annexing them. (I think.) I don't want to get above 30 again, so I'll wait a bit more. In the meantime, I'll send some spies to do cause some trouble for Brandenburg. I don't like them. And I will focus all my investment on Land tech to get the next unit type ASAP. It will be the Galloglaigh Infantry, which is strange because those are supposed to be Irish/Scottish mercenaries, but whatever. The lis a Welsh invention, too, so whatever.In January, 1478, I recieved a new heir, Louis de Ávalos (the dinasty of Castille, by the way). That's strange, is it not? Having a bastard from the same dinasty as my ruler, then recieving a legal heir from a different one? Is he adopted or what? His Military Skill will be 9 (awesome!), his Administration 8 (great!) and hist Diplomacy will be 3. That means we can win wars and then we will drown in the seas of Infamy created by them. And he is 0 years old as of now, with a very old father. (Or stepfather.)
Castille laid claims on the throne of Bohemia. Are they mad?! We can not allow that to happen! War of Spanish Succession, anyone? Anyway, in February, 1479, I reach Land tech level 11, gaining access to these new Scotsmen and Irishmen. Well, yeah, from a gameplay point of view they look better than my Longbowmen, but I still don't like the idea of having an army of ambush troops. Still, if I don't want that ugly notification to stay up there, I will have to change over to these people.
They have a very long description, so they must be a lot better than the Longbowmen!
As we roll over to 1480, Europe looks rather strange. I think what it seriously lacks is a bit more blue
Sweden is getting unhealthily big. Castille owns most of Norway, Iceland, parts of Morocco, Tunisia, Lithuania and Dalmatia, but they couldn't take care of Aragon (which is practically always excommunicated) and there's an English province even. The former Emperor, Bohemia is no longer a serious threat, the new Emperor, Brandenburg is not a threat yet. Austria, the potential German threat is contained for now. Novgorod has vast territories but it is too far away to be my concern. The Ottomans are cut in half. Italy is still fragmented, the only frightening part is the Papal States. I think England is knocked out of the Major League for good.
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I think I understand now why you think this is too hard. You're over-analyzing things.
Just in case this is unclear, the old inheritance system wasn't replaced, it's still there and staying in a PU is just like it used to be. The new diplomatic action was simply added on top of that.
I like the feedback this AAR is showing. Indeed, all those information that added the different expansions could be placed at a better place. I was wondering, when I first played to Httt, what was those names when I was watching at my king status.
About the archer army, I tend to see it like it is the primarily force of the army, not all the army.
About the archer army, I tend to see it like it is the primarily force of the army, not all the army.
Your prestige needs to be high, legitimacy high, your relations good and you might inherit them one day.
Or after a few centuries. XD
Or after a few centuries. XD