Finally took the plunge and started.

[unmerged(80382)]

Well, I've gone through the tutorial twice and went through the manual.(I bought Chronicles).

I started with Portugal last night. Even though I have no idea what I'm doing I'm having fun. I cannot remember the name of the govt tech that I'm going for, it's the one that I need to make an explorer so I can discover the Azores.

I did not realize just how deep this game is until I jumped in and started my first open game last night. One thing I did do was marry a Spanish princess to keep the Spainards off my back. Well hopefully at least.

I don't know how to balance a budget or where to put my troops or to fight a battle so if I ask lots of questions here be patient(I can see it now, not Mymyharlow asking another question!).

I actually chose this game because of the active forum community.

 

[unmerged(80382)]

Oh my join date is 2007 because I bought Hearts of Iron II when it came out but never got into it. Just in case anyone is wondering.

 

[BootOnFace]

Balancing a budget is tough, but there are some rules of thumb that you can keep in mind:

1. It's ok to have a negative monthly balance, as long as your yearly taxes give you enough to get by.

2. Don't mint more than you need too. Inflation can cripple you in the long run. 15% is a big number when it's applied to everything you do.

3. It's ok to mint sometimes. This may sound like it contradicts the first two rules and that's why it's third. You should mint when you are minting towards something that will make up for the inflation. Minting for a year to support your regiments at full upkeep is bad. Unless you're at war for your life against Spain and they can't be bought off. Sometimes colonising is worth the inflation, but most of the time it isn't. The main exception is the Caribbean.

4. Turn down upkeep. You don't need full naval and army upkeep at all times. This will save you a lot of money.

5. Raid Americans for cash. This is actually pretty important for Portugal, as you're pretty poor and have a tough time balancing a budget. Send expeditions to all of the natives, take one province and all their cash. Rinse and repeat for greater wealth.

 

[unmerged(80382)]

Thanks for the advice? I never knew I can mint money!

 

[Hamalcar Barca]

A good tip for a beginner is play slow and pause a lot. When I first started, I was intimidated by the sheer length of the game, and I always tried to keep it on the highest speed to pass time. Well, I found I made a lot of mistakes, especially during war, and I was bad at the game. Then I turned it down to speed 1 or 2 during war and 3 for peace and I beat the crap out of everything after having sucked for so long.

 

[BRK]

This is all still better than my own first try at a Paradox game. When I first started out I spent a while trying to figure out where the hell that tinkling sound was coming from or what it meant, month after month.

 

[unmerged(80382)]

I'm gonna take that advice on slowing down. I was going full speed tonight. It is now 1417, I have angry peasants in one province and Castille and Hungary have both declared war on me. I am so lost it isn't even funny!

Someone please tell me I'm not the only one that's not 100% lost on their first game!

I'm thinking about reading some AAR's, I've seen a couple of people reccomend that.

 

[Vortex79]

Oh no.. you are totally not alone on being lost on your first game. On my first game I was playing England and humiliatingly got conquered by Scottland AI. 2 versions of the game and 3-4 years later.. I'm married to most of Europe and wondering why Naples doesn't like my daughters.

 

[Dewirix]

I'm gonna take that advice on slowing down. I was going full speed tonight. It is now 1417, I have angry peasants in one province and Castille and Hungary have both declared war on me. I am so lost it isn't even funny!

Someone please tell me I'm not the only one that's not 100% lost on their first game!

You're not the only one. In my first game I was too terrified to unpause for the first half hour or so, and when I did I promptly got my army beaten by rebels who didn't like my centralising policies.

Good AARs can help. I'd recommend the following:

Rhadok's general gameplay tutorial

Naggy's combat tutorial

Both are for HTTT, so some things will be different from Divine Wind, but the general features will be the same.

One important point I'd add: get your popup message settings right. It's a pain to scroll through all the different settings, but you only really need to do it once. At minimum, you want to set popup-and-pause messages for critical things, like declarations of war and peace treaties. During a war you're actually involved in it's very handy to have the game pause every time one of your armies reaches its destination.

 

[Bergioyn]

No worries about being the only one with problems in their first game. I managed to totally cripple Austria in mine, and a friend of mine got england irreversibly bankrupted in two years.

 

[Dewirix]

No worries about being the only one with problems in their first game. I managed to totally cripple Austria in mine, and a friend of mine got england irreversibly bankrupted in two years.

Wow, that's pretty impressive. I assume they had a pretty impressive army for a year or so before bankruptcy.

 

[ForzaA]

Well, I've gone through the tutorial twice and went through the manual.(I bought Chronicles).

I started with Portugal last night. Even though I have no idea what I'm doing I'm having fun. I cannot remember the name of the govt tech that I'm going for, it's the one that I need to make an explorer so I can discover the Azores.

There's a portuguese mission to discover the Azores, which does not require an explorer (just that you put a fleet in the seazone surrounding it), there is one for Madeira as well.

That said, the tech level would be 4 or 9 (most likely 9, with 4 being used for something else, probably an idea to make you some money), though you will need trade 7 as well. You can then take Quest for the New World as a National Idea (you need to take the idea to be able to create explorers - it's not enough to simply reach a certain tech level)


Portugal is also not very newbie friendly, I would say; if you can buddy up with Castille you should be mostly fine from a military POV, but it'll still be hard to find the funds to DO anything.

 

[Hamalcar Barca]

Portugal isn't too bad really. Just get Castille as an ally, as mentioned, and you should be good. If you want a good tutorial on fighting wars, try a France game. The first hundred years is usually full of England and Burgundy wars, which can be helpful in learning how to handle warfare.

 

[tului]

Portugal can get a massive head start on colonizing but you need to be careful not to overextend. Colonies cost money until they've got 1000 population. If you spam out 10 colonists real quick you'll find yourself broke if you're not careful.

 

[unmerged(252038)]

Well all the advices given above are good and helpful. But there's nothing better than exploring the game yourself. Figuring out the ways on your own. Also Let's Play series on youtube help a lot. Just go on youtube, type Let's Play Europa Universalis 3 Divine Wind and watch some. It's much clearer when you see how it's done rather than someone telling you how it should be done. At least it is for me.

 

[Fjoelsvider]

oh this gives me giggles of joy. joy because i kinda remember my starting days fondly, even though i got my behind handed to me ^^
i read the manual probably three times, and played all tutorials 2 times. thought it would be easy, started a game as some hre minor and ragequit after only an hour or so
long story short: no, youre definitely not alone.

of course whatever you wanna do you're free to do so. but in a general sense id say portugal is probably not the most newbie friendly nation, as has been pointed out. its not exactly difficult either. but it suggest starting the game as castille. they are filthy rich, and theres much room for error, as long as you learn something of them mistakes arent that bad in the beginning. and castille is very forgiving, unless youre extremely unlucky and france comes knocking very soon...

and as you said, the forum is very active, so just ask anyn umber of specifiv questions and you will get help

 

[Bergioyn]

Wow, that's pretty impressive. I assume they had a pretty impressive army for a year or so before bankruptcy.

I'm not hundred percent certain, but I believe he tried to beat France in the mainland and just kept going and going until bankruptcy.

 

[Cryptor]

My first game was with my friend, i played as Candar and he Karaman. It didnt go well

 

[unmerged(318011)]

According to Steam I've been playing for 25 hours already, and I still feel like a total newb, but at least I kind of understand what is going on now. This is after a lot of going through the tutorials, reading on forums, and, most importantly, watching Let's Play videos on YouTube. The problem is that a lot of the info out there may or may not apply to Divine Wind, so it's hard to know what to trust. I highly recommend you watch some of Alfapiomega's Let's Play Europa Universalis III: Divine Wind as Brandenburg videos. The first 20 episodes especially should provide you with a lot of useful information.

His videos really answered a lot of my "what the hell should I be doing in this game?" questions.

 

[Retrograde]

My first few games i had NO idea how to mint and kept exploding from bankruptcy. A fun nation to start as can be Castille, since you have a nice starting economy, a clear-cut early goal (Form Spain!!), and neighbors you can easily bully around.