1.32 just introduced the most broken nations in the game and it is basically too overpowering.

[MachopPower69]

Some of the nations of concern are Mali, Songhai, Zimbabwe and Aksum.

Mali because it can't get normal inflation from gold mines.

Songhai because of its claims everywhere and is a military power.

Zimbabwe because you can literally play tall by building buildings.

And Aksum can annex Ming because of its warscore cost modifiers in its missions and ideas. I've literally seen people on Reddit posting pictures of Aksum fully annexing Ming the size of its 1444 borders.

Sorry if this is another "Update broken, plz fix" argument, but Africa as a continent is a bit boring aside from the north and Horn.

 

[currylambchop]

And Mughals, France, Austria, Oirat, Qing, Prussia, Papal States, Spain, Russia, Burgundy, Timurids, Ottomans, Aztec, Maya, Shogunate, Oda, Nepal etc. isn’t broken? Why can’t Africa have OP nations too?

besides, Aksum’s warscore cost reduction can be replicated from Oirat missions.

 

[Masyanya028]

Well. I played as Mali and it's a bit tough (I'm talking about VH difficulty). Africans don't have provinces splited. Secondly, Mali (at least) is pretty situational, starting from endless rebellions and "gold without inflation" - 30% influence for guilds and -30 absolutism and 14 tech blocked, cuz you need manufactories. Don't forget hard-blobbing Spain in this patch.
As mentioned there are even more op countries. Prussia have +3 free mil. power for rulers - this is true op, and before 1.30 it was even without any penalty. Additionaly, now Germany can plug in -20 damage recieved from Age of Revolutions.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

besides, Aksum’s warscore cost reduction can be replicated from Oirat missions.

Theocracies in general get -45% when fully reformed. These are generically available:

• -45% theocracy
• -20% diplomatic
• -10% religion (Catholic, Hussite, Islamic-specific monument)
• -15% Malta monument
• -10% military hegemon

I believe this modifier caps at -90%, and we're not even considering age of reformation's 25%, missions, or national ideas. Catholic or Sunni may find they still have to do more than one war vs some opponents, since the bulk of these modifiers are vs other religions rather than generalized like diplo/indigenous.

 

[JacobiteJames]

Some of the nations of concern are Mali, Songhai, Zimbabwe and Aksum.

Mali because it can't get normal inflation from gold mines.

And? Trade is the name and the starting position is bad

Songhai because of its claims everywhere and is a military power.

It gets a bad tech group and claims to west africa. Yay?

Zimbabwe because you can literally play tall by building buildings.

And Aksum can annex Ming because of its warscore cost modifiers in its missions and ideas. I've literally seen people on Reddit posting pictures of Aksum fully annexing Ming the size of its 1444 borders.

Hordes get more fun and faster with mingsplosion

Sorry if this is another "Update broken, plz fix" argument, but Africa as a continent is a bit boring aside from the north and Horn.

Yeh its not really the region for the time period or game scope

 

[ArtFart]

I don't care how OP or broken or stupid a country is, as long as it's fun and not too easy, then it's good. That's my opinion.

 

[Cosmonaut15]

Just played a WC Mughal and wiped them out of Africa with ease. No, they're not OP.

 

[Less2]

These some to be some of the better balanced mission trees in the game. There's already a long thread about how Mali is too hard, and Ethiopia has a lot of issues with a punishing autonomy modifier worse than any other tag in the game. It doesn't seem to be OP compared to PUing half of Europe.

Inflation from gold mine lmao who cares.

 

[MachopPower69]

These some to be some of the better balanced mission trees in the game. There's already a long thread about how Mali is too hard, and Ethiopia has a lot of issues with a punishing autonomy modifier worse than any other tag in the game. It doesn't seem to be OP compared to PUing half of Europe.

Inflation from gold mine lmao who cares.

That's strange, every Mali-related video or conversation I've seen is the opposite where people can bypass the disaster with little to no issue.

 

[pinetemplar]

Playing tall in Africa ha? When most of your provinces are 1-1-1 building a full priced building to get 1 extra tax is not THAT OP LOL.

 

[rasplay1]

I don't care how OP or broken or stupid a country is, as long as it's fun and not too easy, then it's good. That's my opinion.

the game is not just easy, it became absolutly easiest trash

 

[currylambchop]

Hordes get more fun and faster with mingsplosion

Although, you could always play Mutapa horde...

 

[Less2]

That's strange, every Mali-related video or conversation I've seen is the opposite where people can bypass the disaster with little to no issue.

You can avoid a lot of the pain, but you'll still get some stab hits and rebels and the bonuses you get from your mission tree are... some permanent claims and +10% morale on a nation with fairly middling NIs otherwise. Big deal. I reiterate: how is this more broken than European mission trees that let you PU GPs and get way more insane permanent stackable bonuses?

Granted, any start that can get multiple gold mines is strong, but 1.32 didn't add the gold mines and the special gold mine policy is 100% awful and should never be used.

 

[ArtFart]

the game is not just easy, it became absolutly easiest trash

What? They literally introduced the hardest starting nation so far (Mali)

 

[Sharples88]

What? They literally introduced the hardest starting nation so far (Mali)

Not even close. It's only hard if you deliberately make it difficult. The disaster itself is relatively easy when you can immediately get three of them out of the way with estate usage. The next part of it is conquering Timbuktu and Songhai; Which both give stability. Conquering Jolof gives a major amount of administrative points.

Utilize what you have immediately, players that wait around shoot themselves in the foot. You're in a disaster afterall, every disaster in the game is get the hell out of it ASAP.

 

[Vin55]

Mali is not that hard but a nice challenge to get out of the disaster like Khmer or Marjaphit. I don't think that Songhai has insane mil ideas, look at the Shia Jemen tag, that is Op if you survive there.
Askum has one of the best mission trees so far with interesting missions, and good buffs for the endgame whilst not being too op. I mean France for example gets a Pu on Spain, Spain can get a Pu on Austria and UK.
Those are Op nations. Kongo is also a great mission tree, having played Mutapa I must say, that you are not Op with the dev gained from building buildings, dev for a human player is never a problem after the first hundred year, it gets just annoying after a while, with how admin limit works.
I think the new missions are engaging especially the region majors and the nations are ok Balance wise. Though the Hausa or this caliphate have so weak ideas lol, worst nation to form ever.

 

[MachopPower69]

What? They literally introduced the hardest starting nation so far (Mali)

Saying Mali is the hardest nation to play is like saying getting independence as Sukhothai is easy. To be independent as Sukhothai, you need to fight Ayyuthaya and Ming.

 

[Vin55]

Saying Mali is the hardest nation to play is like saying getting independence as Sukhothai is easy. To be independent as Sukhothai, you need to fight Ayyuthaya and Ming.

Even when the allies you take are let's say Vietnam?

 

[ArtFart]

Not even close. It's only hard if you deliberately make it difficult. The disaster itself is relatively easy when you can immediately get three of them out of the way with estate usage. The next part of it is conquering Timbuktu and Songhai; Which both give stability. Conquering Jolof gives a major amount of administrative points.

Utilize what you have immediately, players that wait around shoot themselves in the foot. You're in a disaster afterall, every disaster in the game is get the hell out of it ASAP.

Sure, a experienced player can get out of any disaster very quickly. They can also conquer all of the Ottomans as Byzantium by 1500 or form the HRE by 1500. Doesn't mean it's not hard. A new player would have a lot of difficulty getting out of the Mali disaster, and , it's probably one of the most fulfilling and enjoyable starts we've had in a long time. That's why it's good.

 

[The_Boominator]

In my opinion, the African nations are much more challenging than most of the other countries we typically consider "OP."
They generally have less development, worse terrain, weaker economies, and are frequently plagued by some disaster or difficult mechanic.
In some cases, this is pretty minor, such as not having feudalism.
In other cases, it is more serious, like Mali's starting disaster or Ethiopia's wretched government that forces you to reduce province autonomy manually and lets it tick up during war.

African nations may be better than some European options in the long run, but they require more work to get there and have more obstacles, too.