Economy, Trade, Game Balance, and House Rules?

[MarkShot]

I just completed a GC (1.08 + beta) as Bavaria at settings normal/normal. I went from about 2 provinces to about 22. Of course, my final territory does not really tell how I finished. At the end, I was VP #1, Income #1, and military #1. I was a very compact primarily German (Catholic) superpower.

I was playing a minor to have a more interesting/challenging game.

However, Bavaria's destiny was pretty much assured after the first couple of hundred years.

Clearly, in EU2 (like life), having more cash than any of your peers resolves many issues and is all that you need to remain out ahead.

What I realized from this game was that the same strategy should work for any small minor:

(1) Survive and grow if possible when opportunities present themselves.

(2) Invest heavily in trade and get to level 3.

(3) DP move towards Free Trade.

(4) Hand manage merchants sending in groups of three being careful not to flood a COT owner and get embargoed.

Once you succeed in getting #2, #3, and #4 working, you can quickly become an economic leader and all else will follow in due course.

To me, this seems to cause game play balance problems (meaning human versus AI). This is particularly true, since trade revenues don't seem to be impacted by territorial size or values.

I am not asking for a patch or any changes to be made to the game, but I was wondering what "house rules" might be appropriate for my next game to make it more interesting. I was considering the possibility of totally ignoring merchant income. Although striving for COT ownership would be okay ... This would also eliminate the incessant micro-management needed which would make the game flow much faster between wars.

Has anyone tried playing such a GC?

Another option is just using the autosend which I guess would eliminate #4 and put me on par with the AI. Or I could only send merchants to my own COT's. Thus, the acquisition of a COT would be of great strategic value.

Comments?

Thanks.

 

[unmerged(25696)]

Randomly change the nation you play at every change of monarch.

Don't DoW without a CB. Don't use any exploit (I don't even speak about cheats). Don't invest more than 50% of your income into economic techs. Mint at least enough to pay for army maintenance. Send merchants only in CoTs where your provinces trade, or to adjacent CoTs. Invest in stability when under +3. Be liberal with cash gifts. Never take more than one province in peaces, and only against the leader of the war ; don't conclude separate wars when you're not Coalition Leader.

Give yourself a goal, and stick to it. By example, strive to be elected HREmperor each time, or something like that.
Or turn the dynamic missions on, and let them be randomly chosen (like if the King issued orders you had to follow).

Or simply start playing at Hard or Very Hard.

 

[DSYoungEsq]

I especially like lawkeeper's suggestion that you limit the amount of monthly income placed into any given tech. Real life doesn't allow you to put all your eggs in the "infrastructure" basket. Be interesting to see how it changes the result if you don't hypertech up to infra 5, then coast home.

 

[unmerged(34982)]

Or turn the dynamic missions on, and let them be randomly chosen (like if the King issued orders you had to follow).

That could be very hard to take seriously - some of them are really oddball. For example, as Makassar in 1420, one of my available mission choices is "No England in Contineantal Europe" :wacko: It could also get a bit frustrating if you let the computer pick one for you every 5 years - not sure cos Ive never done it, but you might find you get Bavaria half way to "Annex Austria" when all of the sudden the next mission chosen is "Annex Palatinat", which is your only ally and not even a vassal.

On the other hand, it has some kind of strange appeal to it... My suggestions - play them as goals, not absolute missions OR let the computer randomly pick one as soon as possible at the beginning of each new monarch, and stick with it for the whole of that monarch (or at least, for as long as the option is available). Eg, I could consider myself to have succeeded in the Makassar situation if by the end of the first monarch I have gone heavily naval and used map exchange to significantly increase my knowledge of the route to England.

 

[unmerged(19936)]

And then, when Makassarian troops suddenly rush into France and dislodge the English, they won't know what hit them!

How does the AI invest it's money in techs? Does it put it equally across the board, or put all their eggs into one basket too?

 

[unmerged(34982)]

Another thought:

You could make up a really difficult role play. For example, Ive been thinking that when Im good at the game, I'll play a very different Golden Horde. The role play would be that in Jan 1419, the Khan is struck by a vision from an angel, following which is a period of madness (like the madness of the monarch event). Then he decides to convert to Orthodox (would require save-file editing???), with the goal of liberating all othrodox lands from their Moslem and Catholic rulers. Then to add to the challenge, you'd need some custom events such as:

In 1421, "The Tribesmen Dont Accept the New Faith" in which you can "Grant them religious autonomy" (2 or 3 moslem provinces split off to form a new country (initially a vassal), Stability +1, Innovative +1) or "Convert them by the sword" (trigger some revolts, plus revolt risk +5 in all moslem provs, Stab -3, narrowminded +2)

Some time in the late 1500s, if Albania is ruled by a Catholic nation, "The Orthodox Peasants of Albania call for help against their Catholic Oppressors", with "Ignore their calls" (Stability hit, large victory points hit) or "Claim their Freedom" (core on Albania, relations with whoever owns Albania -200, relations with Papal States -200, relations with all other catholic nations -100)

If you make the events challenging enough, you'll be fighting civil wars regularly for the first 50 years to the degree that you'll probably be smaller than at the start and not keeping up so well in tech. That, plus continuing event driven wars of liberation for the 200 years after that should keep you busy for ages!

 

[unmerged(29041)]

I see you making your own scenario soon rhegar. If you like the mogols, don't forget to play the Mogol empire scenario (MES). I heard they are unstopable there.

 

[der Alte]

I think u'll have to start to play multiplayer...

My experience is, that to restrict yourself doesn't give too much joy. It's that u play dumber, than u actually would... Rather annoying in my view.

 

[Chaingun]

I think u'll have to start to play multiplayer...

My experience is, that to restrict yourself doesn't give too much joy. It's that u play dumber, than u actually would... Rather annoying in my view.

Agreed, while some people can enjoy this, not everyone can't. Multiplayer can be a fix for those people.

 

[MarkShot]

I have no problem with "house rules" for SP. After all, EU2 is a very open ended game. You can very much define your own objectives and style.

I have started a new game as Lorraine and will see how "no trading" goes. It should be interesting as being an ultra compact superpower should no longer be possible.

 

[MarkShot]

Playing Lorraine in the GC without trading has so far made a better game than my last game as Bavaria with trading.

Mid-1600's ... I have basically been keeping pace with the nations around me. Most of the minors have been absorbed. My economy is many multiples behind the majors. My land tech is equal to my neighbors. My military forces are relatively small and without a trade powered economy and I cannot afford to mobilize well in excess of my support limit. Lorraine is about six provinces now. This has led to a game much more reflective of my actual size. Although Lorraine is not a table scrap to be gobbled up by her neighbors, she cannot individually threaten them and must be careful in balancing her relations particularly between her neighbors of France, Austria, and Poland.

I think my next addition to improve play balance may be to switch from playing normal/normal and perhaps go with Daywalker's AI mod.

Comments? Thanks.

 

[dharper]

I was playing a minor to have a more interesting/challenging game.

Try playing a country without Latin techgroup, especially one that's either isolated (e.g. Songhai, Japan) or has Chinese or Pagan techgroup. (Songhai should be much more interesting in the next AGCEEP patch, if you're willing to wait)

If you're playing an isolated country, do not allow yourself to exchange maps (conquering capitals and stealing rutters is fine).

This should present a game where you can't play the same old tricks - if nothing else, getting to Infra 5 is going to be next to impossible.

 

[Lurken]

Randomly change the nation you play at every change of monarch.

Actually I like the idea. I think I'm gonna start a game with that concept right now. Just for the fun (and challange) of it.

 

[boehm]

houserules

some houserules which I like to play with are the following....

never invest more than 30% into any given tech....

try to keep BB low....good reputation

be loyal to your allies...support them with troops even when you to dont stand to gain anything directly...dont cheat them by doing sneaky seperate peaces/secure them territorial gains they deserve when u are the alliance leader....

roleplay a bit with respect to your national goals...

dont cherry pick ALL the nice colonies ahead of the historical colonisers....dont run amok grabbing CoTs out of your "zone of influence"

 

[unmerged(25609)]

I think u'll have to start to play multiplayer...

My experience is, that to restrict yourself doesn't give too much joy. It's that u play dumber, than u actually would... Rather annoying in my view.

Play smart, and you win every time. It gets progressively easier, until there's no longer a challenge.
But how would like to be chief minister to a megalomaniac monarch? Finance Minister to Louis XIV? Or take care of Sweden while Charles XII goes on a military tour of Europe? More realistic, I think ...
Setting goals, or letting the missions dictate your plans are ways to simulate a demanding monarch. No DOW without a CB reflects the "Code" of the time. To me these are as much a part of the "flavour" of the game as the beautiful colours, the sprites, the coats of arms ...

 

[Chaingun]

Actually I like the idea. I think I'm gonna start a game with that concept right now. Just for the fun (and challange) of it.

You can also do this at fixed intervalls. I used to do this in the old days when singleplayer still wasn't only to achieve WC for me (something which I still haven't managed due to boredom). However, you don't have to make random selections either (although that certainly makes it interesting). You can also choose to select majors that are in need of help in order to achieve their historical territory at a certain date. For example, in the 1419 champaign I helped France first to ensure it was united (it wasn't as likely back then as today when the AI actually can manage to do something). After that I helped OE, and then Austria etc.

Try playing a country without Latin techgroup, especially one that's either isolated (e.g. Songhai, Japan) or has Chinese or Pagan techgroup. (Songhai should be much more interesting in the next AGCEEP patch, if you're willing to wait)

If you're playing an isolated country, do not allow yourself to exchange maps (conquering capitals and stealing rutters is fine).

This should present a game where you can't play the same old tricks - if nothing else, getting to Infra 5 is going to be next to impossible.

If you want you can also save the game at start of scenario, exit, and fire up WordPad and load the .EUG. After that you scroll down to the country = { }, find the one with the tag for your country, and add yourself for example the exotic techgroup. I guarantee this will make any attempts at hyper-teching as a major a lot more difficult, though it is not necessarily very fun to self-impair yourself in order to make this a reality.