• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

unmerged(463662)

Lt. General
4 Badges
Mar 11, 2012
1.487
3
  • Crusader Kings II
  • Europa Universalis III: Chronicles
  • Europa Universalis IV
  • Rome Gold
Submissions are now closed, but feel free to try the challenge and talk about it at the end of the thread!

This is a monthly competition with gradated goals, ie. so most people can find the time to complete if they so choose.
Each round has primary, secondary and bonus goals, and a graded scoring system based on the completion of these goals. The aim is for the game to be challenging for different ability ranges.
The Scoring System is as follows:

Played to end of scenario: +1 (basic reward given to all those who complete the scenario whether they hit the goals or not)
Primary goals:+ 3
Secondary goals: +2
Bonus goals: +2
Third place:+ 1
Second place:+ 2
First place: +3

For a possible total of 11 points to the victor. Scores will accumulate through the course of the year.

This will be a monthly game, and hopefully one that'll be popular and fun.

The Rules

You can play with vanilla DW5.1 if you choose, or ZZFZ, or with the latest beta, The correct checksum if you choose to use the beta is QMXZ.

No exploits, no magic money, no ship induced technology, no console, etcetera etcetera.

Everybody will post a screenshot one year into each game, and then every ten years after that, and give a short description about what's happened to them in that time.

Game of the Month No. 1, May 2013

***It's taken a while to callibrate settings, so thanks so far to everybody for their participation, feedback and patience. This game should now be properly challenging at all difficulty levels.:D *****

Netherlands, 80 years war bookmark. 23 January 1579.
NORMAL Difficulty
Lucky Nations: OFF
Map Spread 100 years land, 100 years sea.
All other settings NORMAL.

ES6F5OCl.jpg


You've just declared independence after generations under the Habsburg yoke. It's time to show everybody what a great colour oranje really is!


Primary:
You survived your war against the Spanish and are a rising trade power!

You have:
Possession of your starting provinces
You have passed the following decisions:
Bank of Amsterdam
Oost-Indische Compagnie
Trade Income is more than
200 ducats/month

Secondary:
You won your initial war against Spain, claiming at least one province.
You also have:
1 holding in Carribean.
Manhattan.
1 provinces in South America
5 provinces in Indonesia or East Asian Trade Ports Region
Trade Income is more than 400 ducats/month.

Bonus:
all of the above and then...
You managed to annex the Spanish held Netherlands before 1615 ...good going... but the strain of war has lead to thousands of Catholic refugees swarming from the south to the north, destabilizing your country and creating religious conflict. By the 1st Jan 1620 screenshot update, your country will be unique in being the only Reformed country in the world to have enacted the Church Attendance Duty Catholic iconoclasm decision, which must stay enacted for the rest of the game. This gives a tax boost and a good missionary bonus, but hits cultural tradition.

And also,
Further expand your overseas Empire so that you now have the following extra trade assets:
At least 15 provinces in the East Asian Trade Ports/Indonesia region including Malacca
Cuba and 3 other Carribean Islands,
the Balereas, Malta
at least 4 provinces in South America,
You have surpassed Spain in annual Income
.

To be clear: The secondary goals require you to acquire 4 more Indonesian provinces, and the bonus goals 10 more and 5 more Carribean islands as well as Cuba and the 2 from the primary goals.

This is the Netherlands, so the country which has completed the most goals and has the highest annual income as per page 1 of the ledger wins the game

There are 3 different sets of goals, if only one person passes all goals, he automatically wins. If more than that, then the winner is awarded based on highest annual income.

Final goal has been changed from total cash in the bank to total annual income as shown on the 1st page of the ledger. This is more sensible lets people play intelligently to the end date and discourages farming. Bonza!

The game ends on 15th May 1648.

The aim of this scenario is to be launched into the action from the word go.

The primary goals give a rocky start which then tails off into a peaceful mid to end game after a couple of decades.

The secondary goals mean another lengthy confrontation with Spain, although after a period of respite.

If you choose to pursue them, the bonus goals keep the pressure up from the word go. There's a long war with Spain. Combined with poor stability and possible future wars with other Great Powers.<br>

TIPS

1. Before you unpause it might be a good idea to take a loan or two and build army buildings.

2. Check your National Ideas. Will they help in the fight against Spain?

3. You might want to see if there's any decisions you might be able to take before you unpause.

4. Scorch the land if you need to, but Spain is more interested in defending the Spanish Netherlands than the Netherlands.

5. You will need to stability hit Spain up to six times in order to get them to declare peace. This means that when you have beaten them enough times, more than 40 in 5.1, or have a battle score equal to 40 in 5.2 (which is dependent on stack size like CK2), every month you send them a peace deal for 25 ducats, they will refuse and it will drop their stability by one. Do this six times and they will hit -3 stability and will discuss peace terms.

6. You start as a Feudal Monarchy, to trade effectively you need to switch to Republic at some point.

7. There is no need for any colonists to be able to reach East Asia. All required land can be conquered.
Again:

Everybody will post a screenshot one year into each game, and then every ten years after that, and give a short description about what's happened to them in that time.

In this scenario, the screenshot of the peace deal with Spain must also be shown.

You have until the 17th May to complete this challenge.
 
Last edited:
OK, let me do that.

Is everyone happy with hard, or would people prefer normal?

I'm trying to balance it between those who've played a lot and those who've played less.

If you notice any changes, I'm still balancing the bonus section a little.
 
Last edited:
Hard is fine, though I'd prefer the ZZFZ patch instead.
 
Only thing I dislike is doing it on the 5.2 beta and using a mod, why not on the vanilla game?

*edit*

I should add, using mods on my laptop causes the game to crash out more often than not, whereas vanilla game it rarely happens
 
Only thing I dislike is doing it on the 5.2 beta and using a mod, why not on the vanilla game?

*edit*

I should add, using mods on my laptop causes the game to crash out more often than not, whereas vanilla game it rarely happens

It's all from the beta forum.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?693-EU3-5.2-Beta-Forum

The beta's been out for a year, but if you'd rather use vanila or ZZFZ, that's fine too. :D

My rational was that the beta will be finished with the beta patch incorporated into it at some point, so might as well use that.

Any other questions, issues or queries?
 
Last edited:
What is ship induced technology?
If you really want to learn about expolits like that go check the hall of fame.
Seeing that spain have lots of armies, playing on very hard may prove impossible in this scenario IMO.
Good think we're only playing on hard difficulty :p
 
Seeing that spain have lots of armies, playing on very hard may prove impossible in this scenario IMO.

I was worried that I'd set the difficulty a bit too high.

Unless anyone objects, we can set the difficulty to normal, and set lucky nations to off.
 
I'd prefer normal difficulty with no lucky nations myself since they're the standard settings and the only ones I play on.
 
Ok let's do that.

It'll take a bit of callibration during this first game before I get it spot on for everyone. Thanks for your patience!

Mission Alterations
Primary no longer requires Taiwan.
Secondary and Bonus require fewer monopolies.
Bonus no longer requires cores on the Balereas and Malta or religious conversion of conquered provinces, the deadline for the the religious difficulty period has been set back to 1/1/1620.


The aim of this scenario is to be launched into the action from the word go.

The primary goals give a rocky start which then tails off into a peaceful mid to end game after a couple of decades.

The secondary goals mean another lengthy confrontation with Spain, although after a period of respite.

If you choose to pursue them, the bonus goals keep the pressure up from the word go. There's a long war with Spain. Combined with poor stability and future wars with other Great Powers.

TIPS

Before you unpause it might be a good idea to take a loan or two and build army buildings.

Scorch the land if you need to, but Spain is more interested in defending the Spanish Netherlands than the Netherlands.

You will need to stability hit Spain up to six times in order to get them to declare peace. This means that when you have beaten them enough times, more than 40 in 5.1, or have a battle score equal to 40 in 5.2 (which is dependent on stack size like CK2), every month you send them a peace deal for 25 ducats, they will refuse and it will drop their stability by one. Do this six times and they will hit -3 stability and will discuss peace terms.

You start as a Feudal Monarchy, to trade effectively you need to switch to Republic at some point.

There is no need for any colonists to be able to reach East Asia. All required land can be conquered.

Exploits:
It's really anything that impacts on the game in the way that the designers did not intend, and yes the Hall of Fame documents lots of them. Another one that comes to mind is quitting and reloading when you get a bad event.

If you have any more queries, or points, please ask.
 
Last edited:
Question: Why does one of the bonus goals require ownership of Krain? Isn't that a province in... Slovenia?

Also, do games which use CanOmer's Map still count? IIRC, they count for Hall of Fame records, so...
 
Question: Why does one of the bonus goals require ownership of Krain? Isn't that a province in... Slovenia?

Also, do games which use CanOmer's Map still count? IIRC, they count for Hall of Fame records, so...

Gorz and Krain are gold provinces in Austria. It's an extra challenge.

CanOmer's Map is fine if it's got the same provinces.
 
How about reloads? I never quit on events but I reloaded often during the 80 years war (4 time IIRC) is that allowed?

Common sense here I think.

If you get an event that lowers your manpower or stability or causes a revolt, I think no.

If not being able to reload means that there's going to be no other option but restart the entire scenario, then it's probably alright.

The aim with this is that it stretches everyone, but is hopefully not taxing to the point that you want to rage-quit and punch your cat or something.:p
 
Alright, it was only 1 years into the war so I hope it is allowed. (Lots of intense battles!) I lose 5 regiments anyway so its not like am abusing it imo.

Due to the shortness of the challenge I might be able to complete it tonight, but probably not all of the bonus objectives.

Last Question: Colonies need to be cities?
 
So are you going to update the top post?

Also, is it okay if the screenshots are more like every 15 years apart because I keep forgetting to take screenshots while I'm playing?
 
Last Question: Colonies need to be cities?

No need.

Everybody will post a screenshot one year into each game, and then every ten years after that, and give a short description about what's happened to them in that time.

This is for two reasons:
1. It helps to encourage transparency if people post a screenshot or two every ten years and then provide a written description as to what happened.
2. It's great for everybody to read and learn.