This is my first AAR, so please excuse any omissions and or errors.
In this AAR, (as the title suggests) I've annexed all countries.
The game used was EU3, patch 1.3, in normal difficulty.
The time was set to run at full speed-constantly.
Organizational activities were performed only during pauses.
It took approximately 3 days to complete the game (to reach the end date).
Coincidentally, the game ended shortly after these screenshots were
taken.
A) ABOUT PLAYABILITY
This is the 3rd time I've annexed all countries-the two past were performed by using France from the beginning.
However, this is the only time where I've been able to achieve "playability"
for about 100 years before the game ended. "Playability" explained:
What this means is that there are really 2 ways of playing this game:
A) By not having a hated reputation (anything below it)
& or
B) By having a hated reputation until well after annexing all countries.
I usually begin the hated reputation at mid 1540's, 100 years into the game, when I've usually managed to strengthen the country enough, so as to be able to literally fight the entire world.
You see, once you pass into hated reputation territory, there is no coming back. What I mean is that you simply can't wait for 50 years or so in order for your reputation to fall below the hated rep level-that is if you've "collapsed" a large country as I have.
So instead of worrying about your reputation, just annex all countries, so that no one can keep declaring war on you...(lol)
Sounds simple enough-takes some time though.
The "playability" referred to earlier, means exactly that:
In this game, I entered "hated rep terittory" around 1540.
From that time, and until about 1680, I was constantly at war.
And I mean "constantly"...
Because of 140 years of continuous wars, the country is in constant revolt.
Considering that sooner or later you'll own the entire planet-managing those revolts requires superior organization.
Just to give you an idea, I had to use about 2,000,000 troops for the better part of that timeframe, not only to conquer lands, but to keep revolts at bay.
In short, because of constant wars, the game is "unplayable". Meaning that it becomes irritating-to say the least-to have to deal with 50 things at the same time-including revolts for 140 years.
Remember: You're building, conquering, investing and fighting revolts at the same time.
To make a long story short, the game you see depicted here, was "playable" or "enjoyable" between the start and 1540 and following 1680.
B) FURTHER INFORMATION
This AAR was begun with Burgundy, however, at some point past 1740, the game offered the opportunity to change the country to France-featuring increased revenues and some new core provinces.
This is why everything (the provinces) are blue instead of "burgundy".
However, if you do intend to annex all countries, Burgundy is the best country to do it with-trust me.
Nevertheless, all countries can be annexed via other, weaker nations as well.
(I've crushed almost everyone with Naxos too...ran out of time though...)
The most interesting screenshot of those found below, is the Tech level depiction.
That is, before ever annexing all countries, I wondered as to how it'd be like to have all tech levels maxed out-well here you have it.
When these screenshots were taken, I had built most basic buildings in all provinces-and I mean all provinces-except for some marketplaces.
Believe me, the building process on this scale is the 2nd most daunting task to be dealt with in this game, 2nd only to your core strategy.
I've never managed to play online-regrettably so-because I am not allowed to open the ports on this computer. I would like to have done so.
I am no writer per se, as I've never read a single poetry book and never cared about fine arts or fiction.
This is why this AAR is simple, devoid of elaborate story telling and historic quotations or such.
Besides, I've never written an AAR before (and I don't expect to do so ever again either), therefore I wanted to keep this as simple as possible so as to avoid ruining the end product.
Lastly, I find it rather superfluous attempting to explain every single step of one's strategic moves during 350 years of gameplay.
Instead, the end product is what I'm concerned with most.
This is why I purposely omitted including a screenshot of the "National Ideas" domestic management screen. That, because there, is where one's strategy is summarized very intuitively-insofar as the trained eye is concerned...
I will offer some suggestions however, to new players:
A) You need not exceed land tech level 14, before taking on the whole world.
Instead, you should focus on increasing the rate at which your army is
replenished. That is, you need to increase your manpower instead.
B) You need not use armies larger than 12,000 men and cavalry.
This because that size will genarally not deteriotate due to attrition.
It is far better to use many such armies, than one single, concentrated
mass of rapidly deteriorating volume.
C) You'll need 3 Navies. One for the Americas, one for Europe and one for
Asia. Again, Naval tech isn't as important as numbers.
D) In this type of game, you simply can't use trade for income. This, because
constant war will create embargos against you. Instead, focus on
production, which means manufactories.
E) In a state where you're constantly at war, you cannot afford to manually
invest in anything but land tech. Therefore, you'll need manufactories to
do that for you.
F) Lastly and most importantly, make every effort to conduct "conventional"
front-line wars. That is, no matter how large or powerful an enemy, you
need to keep them at bay, behind straight line borders, both during wars
and following peace agreements. Remember: The very concept of
unorthodox warfare refers to a force conducting operations behind enemy
lines. You cannot let this happen.
Following, you'll find a list of screenshots taken just before the game ended.
They are the simplest depiction of what happened.
1) All tech levels maxed out
By cpldavis at 2008-11-05
2) North America-West coast
[/IMG]
3) Mexico
[/IMG]
4) Latin America
[/IMG]
5) Central Europe
[/IMG]
6) Russia
[/IMG]
7) Middle East
[/IMG]
8) West Africa
[/IMG]
9) Asia minor
[/IMG]
10) China
[/IMG]
11) Hated reputation and national effects
[/IMG]
12) Military reduced to 800k from 2 million
[/IMG]
In this AAR, (as the title suggests) I've annexed all countries.
The game used was EU3, patch 1.3, in normal difficulty.
The time was set to run at full speed-constantly.
Organizational activities were performed only during pauses.
It took approximately 3 days to complete the game (to reach the end date).
Coincidentally, the game ended shortly after these screenshots were
taken.
A) ABOUT PLAYABILITY
This is the 3rd time I've annexed all countries-the two past were performed by using France from the beginning.
However, this is the only time where I've been able to achieve "playability"
for about 100 years before the game ended. "Playability" explained:
What this means is that there are really 2 ways of playing this game:
A) By not having a hated reputation (anything below it)
& or
B) By having a hated reputation until well after annexing all countries.
I usually begin the hated reputation at mid 1540's, 100 years into the game, when I've usually managed to strengthen the country enough, so as to be able to literally fight the entire world.
You see, once you pass into hated reputation territory, there is no coming back. What I mean is that you simply can't wait for 50 years or so in order for your reputation to fall below the hated rep level-that is if you've "collapsed" a large country as I have.
So instead of worrying about your reputation, just annex all countries, so that no one can keep declaring war on you...(lol)
Sounds simple enough-takes some time though.
The "playability" referred to earlier, means exactly that:
In this game, I entered "hated rep terittory" around 1540.
From that time, and until about 1680, I was constantly at war.
And I mean "constantly"...
Because of 140 years of continuous wars, the country is in constant revolt.
Considering that sooner or later you'll own the entire planet-managing those revolts requires superior organization.
Just to give you an idea, I had to use about 2,000,000 troops for the better part of that timeframe, not only to conquer lands, but to keep revolts at bay.
In short, because of constant wars, the game is "unplayable". Meaning that it becomes irritating-to say the least-to have to deal with 50 things at the same time-including revolts for 140 years.
Remember: You're building, conquering, investing and fighting revolts at the same time.
To make a long story short, the game you see depicted here, was "playable" or "enjoyable" between the start and 1540 and following 1680.
B) FURTHER INFORMATION
This AAR was begun with Burgundy, however, at some point past 1740, the game offered the opportunity to change the country to France-featuring increased revenues and some new core provinces.
This is why everything (the provinces) are blue instead of "burgundy".
However, if you do intend to annex all countries, Burgundy is the best country to do it with-trust me.
Nevertheless, all countries can be annexed via other, weaker nations as well.
(I've crushed almost everyone with Naxos too...ran out of time though...)
The most interesting screenshot of those found below, is the Tech level depiction.
That is, before ever annexing all countries, I wondered as to how it'd be like to have all tech levels maxed out-well here you have it.
When these screenshots were taken, I had built most basic buildings in all provinces-and I mean all provinces-except for some marketplaces.
Believe me, the building process on this scale is the 2nd most daunting task to be dealt with in this game, 2nd only to your core strategy.
I've never managed to play online-regrettably so-because I am not allowed to open the ports on this computer. I would like to have done so.
I am no writer per se, as I've never read a single poetry book and never cared about fine arts or fiction.
This is why this AAR is simple, devoid of elaborate story telling and historic quotations or such.
Besides, I've never written an AAR before (and I don't expect to do so ever again either), therefore I wanted to keep this as simple as possible so as to avoid ruining the end product.
Lastly, I find it rather superfluous attempting to explain every single step of one's strategic moves during 350 years of gameplay.
Instead, the end product is what I'm concerned with most.
This is why I purposely omitted including a screenshot of the "National Ideas" domestic management screen. That, because there, is where one's strategy is summarized very intuitively-insofar as the trained eye is concerned...
I will offer some suggestions however, to new players:
A) You need not exceed land tech level 14, before taking on the whole world.
Instead, you should focus on increasing the rate at which your army is
replenished. That is, you need to increase your manpower instead.
B) You need not use armies larger than 12,000 men and cavalry.
This because that size will genarally not deteriotate due to attrition.
It is far better to use many such armies, than one single, concentrated
mass of rapidly deteriorating volume.
C) You'll need 3 Navies. One for the Americas, one for Europe and one for
Asia. Again, Naval tech isn't as important as numbers.
D) In this type of game, you simply can't use trade for income. This, because
constant war will create embargos against you. Instead, focus on
production, which means manufactories.
E) In a state where you're constantly at war, you cannot afford to manually
invest in anything but land tech. Therefore, you'll need manufactories to
do that for you.
F) Lastly and most importantly, make every effort to conduct "conventional"
front-line wars. That is, no matter how large or powerful an enemy, you
need to keep them at bay, behind straight line borders, both during wars
and following peace agreements. Remember: The very concept of
unorthodox warfare refers to a force conducting operations behind enemy
lines. You cannot let this happen.
Following, you'll find a list of screenshots taken just before the game ended.
They are the simplest depiction of what happened.
1) All tech levels maxed out
By cpldavis at 2008-11-05
2) North America-West coast
3) Mexico
4) Latin America
5) Central Europe
6) Russia
7) Middle East
8) West Africa
9) Asia minor
10) China
11) Hated reputation and national effects
12) Military reduced to 800k from 2 million
Last edited:
