I had an MP problem before I moved in on the Berbers, most of Italy was taken in the last 50 years, not that the Berbers helped any. Maybe its just because I took things so slowly with diplo-vassals and all before I went crazy towards the end. I have been overextended for the past 65 years. Another thing I neglected to mention, was my ideas were only 5/8 if I remember correctly.
1.8 Byzantium
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I had an MP problem before I moved in on the Berbers, most of Italy was taken in the last 50 years, not that the Berbers helped any. Maybe its just because I took things so slowly with diplo-vassals and all before I went crazy towards the end. I have been overextended for the past 65 years. Another thing I neglected to mention, was my ideas were only 5/8 if I remember correctly.
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It's a tacit knowledge thing, probably teachable but not really effable (tutoring starts at my standard consultancy rate of $80/h!). If you play enough, you start to develop a whole field view of the game that allows you to know more or less when you'll be able to take something, when you'll get an opportunity, and what kind of resources you'll need to capitalize on that opportunity. Good micro is also important for fast snowballing, since if you're wasting thousands of MP on attrition because you're too lazy to stack split or bait the enemy, you'll miss some of aforementioned opportunities, resulting in less snowballing and less opportunities, etc. It's basically the opposite of the guy who got stuck in a loan spiral.
As a side note, the fact that playing the game fosters this sort of complex and skilled thought process is part of why EU4 is such an interesting design compared to, say, CK2.
Dude, take Mecca, convert it to Orthodox and conquer Babylon, the cradle of Humanity =)))
What I love about CK2 is that I can become a superpower even without major conquests: have a large army, lots fortresses and prosperous towns, and every single relative will have at least a baron or count title, while all my daughters, granddaughters and nieces will be queens, duchess or even empresses.
I found Byzantium much easier in 1.8 and Art of War than in the previous few patches. Changes to the economy mean that you can spam galleys and not really need to take out loans. Only difference from my previous strategy (spam Galleys, fight Venice for cores, fight Mamluks for Cyprus, fight Ottomans for Greece) is that you have to move a bit quicker, forget Venice and the Mamluks in the beginning and as soon as you have naval superiority over the Ottomans, attack them. Once you've won the first war, take the rest of your cores from Venice and the Mamluks. All the while earning tonnes of money for reasons I still haven't quite worked out (this is on ironman, normal mode btw, without cheesing to get the old cores back at the start).
If you play Ironman you will never have a naval superiority in early game. Your FL with full Greece is around 30 ships (you can build around 50 without taking loans to maintain), and they will have around 50, building 80-100 ships.
If you go way over your forcelimit (which doesn't even put you into minus numbers on income with the changes to economy) you can easily match them before they build up too high. I got to around 45 galleys (around double my FL) before the Ottomans could and struck then. If you leave it too long it could become impossible to keep up, though with loans I don't see why you couldn't still match them at least, and with a divide and conquer strategy on their navies you can soon turn the tables.
Also, though I guess this is more macro- than micromanagement, taking the Kosovo gold mine really helps, too.
I gave TMIT's Quantity suggestion a whirl here (second pick rather than first, though) since I was burning ADM like it was going out of style, which worked as advertised for opening multiple fronts/handling rebels while waging war. Diplomacy -> Quantity -> Humanist (screw Religious).
For sure. Humanism is just way too strong right now. You don't even have to think about rebellions or local autonomy anymore. Just decrease it. In my recent Venice->Byz campaign I had 1 rebellion. In a game that was played til ~1750.
Another thing that's rarely discussed is government types. With the new changes to them the Empire is really strong in the beginning while lacking during the midgame and being vastly inferior in the endgame. Absolute Monarchy is arguably the strongest government type in the game. In my next Byz game I'll let either the Aspiration for Liberty or any random revolutionary rebels break my country.
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We are talking about Ironman, righh? With it's +50% FL AI bonus, which means that Ottos can twice more ships their FL allows. Around 80-100 ships is uite common for them to have when you think you are ready to take Greece back.
For those curious I managed this as Rhodes.
1.8 made conquest a ton easier. Not even 1550 and I've restored the Empire and mended the Schism as an OPM. (Granted, Rhodes is allowed to make Byzantium and is Western Tech. Venice is still slightly better at it, but can't form it right away they have to like Ottomans jump through Romania)
Knights of Rhodes>Byzantium. 28 Basetax Constantinople.
I also have a Union with France and am allied to basically everyone. This game is awesome.
LATIN EMPIRE ETERNAL
Tips: Go for Serbia, Ragusa. Ally nations with a fleet however small, sink the ottomans. Occupy balkans until cores flip: It's worth it.
1.8 made conquest a ton easier. Not even 1550 and I've restored the Empire and mended the Schism as an OPM. (Granted, Rhodes is allowed to make Byzantium and is Western Tech. Venice is still slightly better at it, but can't form it right away they have to like Ottomans jump through Romania)
Knights of Rhodes>Byzantium. 28 Basetax Constantinople.
I also have a Union with France and am allied to basically everyone. This game is awesome.
LATIN EMPIRE ETERNAL
Tips: Go for Serbia, Ragusa. Ally nations with a fleet however small, sink the ottomans. Occupy balkans until cores flip: It's worth it.
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False. They can directly switch from Venice to Byzantium as long as they are Greek Orthodox.
I might as well ask again. Does anyone have confirmation that the lost cores are intended to be gone? I've seen that it has been claimed on different occasions
IMO religious is still > humanist for BYZ. You're looking at +5 more ttf bonus (orthodox, religious, NI) in any province you can convert, and you can convert provinces with lightning speed, generally ahead of potential revolts.
BYZ doesn't have any heathen tolerance built in at all and even with 3 missionaries (Mecca, Judea) you're not going to tear through the Sunni stuff early on w/o religious...not to mention it seems the PA decisions have added crap like 50 ADM for lowered authority so it's no long a slam dunk gimme to go high PA...though if you do you get even MORE -unrest (another -3). We're talking about ~8 ttf and -3 unrest at high PA here, very early. I don't see how humanist can keep up with that. Sure, for Ottos you get -2 unrest and +3 tolerance of heathens everywhere with no conversion burden, so for them you'd prefer humanist...but not for BYZ.
BYZ doesn't have any heathen tolerance built in at all and even with 3 missionaries (Mecca, Judea) you're not going to tear through the Sunni stuff early on w/o religious...not to mention it seems the PA decisions have added crap like 50 ADM for lowered authority so it's no long a slam dunk gimme to go high PA...though if you do you get even MORE -unrest (another -3). We're talking about ~8 ttf and -3 unrest at high PA here, very early. I don't see how humanist can keep up with that. Sure, for Ottos you get -2 unrest and +3 tolerance of heathens everywhere with no conversion burden, so for them you'd prefer humanist...but not for BYZ.
The +5 TTF do not come from Religious, however. That bonus is just +1. Also with the last Byzantine NI (+3%) and PA (+2%) you'll be able to convert everything anyway. I've converted Mecca (unaccepted) and Rome (unaccepted as well) easily. Also Byz is really fast in building up PA due to the reclaiming events. I had about 70% PA in ~1600, which is good enough.
But still. You're comparing the _whole_ TTF bonus to the Humanism bonuses. Which is....uhm, stupid? Compare the Religious Bonuses with the Humanism Bonuses.
-2 Unrest is better than +1 TTF, because it also affects heathens. Not to mention that 2>1.
-5 Nationalism which is better than the Missionary Bonus since it reduces Unrest from the get-go
+3 Heathen Tolerance. There's nothing even remotely comparable in the Religious group.
-Accepted Culture treshhold. I had Bedouin, Egyptian and Syrian accepted later on. Which helps almost as much with conversion as the +3% from religious.
Sure the stability modifier and events are nice. But Humanism still beats Religious by a margin.
The CB is top notch and evens the scales a lot. Possibly even tips towards Religious. It's more about personal preference, really.
I am aware of the sources of the TTF. That said:
- Having religious allows you to convert provinces much sooner, ending unrest accumulation in that province much sooner.
- You won't have Judea, Rome, and Mecca right away.
- The 3% missionary booster is late in their NI set
- The CB you get from religious is excellent
Humanist is a good idea group, but the forum overrates it.
The CB was nerfed heavily with AoW. Even if indirectly. The reason it was so good before was because it wasn't a targeted CB. But due to the warleader not changing anymore it doesn't matter that much. The other upside is the Dip cost of course. But a normal conquest CB is fine enough if you have claims on the lands you want to take.
Of course it's still a mighty CB. But it's not a must have anymore.
With heathen tolerance and reduced nationalism you won't have unrest anyway. There's not even a real reason to convert those lands right away thanks to the religious unity from Humanism. As I said the CB isn't that important anymore and the "Restore the Pentarchy" event fires quite early. Which means you can take at least Rome almost right away.
If anything Religious is overrated, not Humanism.
For those curious I managed this as Rhodes.
1.8 made conquest a ton easier. Not even 1550 and I've restored the Empire and mended the Schism as an OPM. (Granted, Rhodes is allowed to make Byzantium and is Western Tech. Venice is still slightly better at it, but can't form it right away they have to like Ottomans jump through Romania)
Knights of Rhodes>Byzantium. 28 Basetax Constantinople.
I also have a Union with France and am allied to basically everyone. This game is awesome.
LATIN EMPIRE ETERNAL
Tips: Go for Serbia, Ragusa. Ally nations with a fleet however small, sink the ottomans. Occupy balkans until cores flip: It's worth it.
Hello. I have two questions for you.
1) What do you mean by "Occupy balkans until cores flip"?
2) How did you get: "Knights of Rhodes>Byzantium. 28 Basetax Constantinople."?
Thanks.