How did you get so big!?

[Jaggmor]

So I've seen some huge empires spaning from Scandinavia to the black sea starting with sweden or Japan owning all of east Asia. How in the world do you people do that. I can't take 3 provinces without half the known world starting wars and coalitions and whatnot. Is it all just console commands and cheats or did people actually do this? And if so how the hell did you manage that? What i your strategy?

I'm looking to get into multiplayer so I really need to know.

 

[Grozny Von Raoe]

Much to say! I suggest you should parse the AAR section, some of them are very well explained.

 

[unmerged(809069)]

vassal releasing/feeding

 

[roman566]

Cheating... or rather using exploits.

 

[Hootieleece]

Vassal feeding/releasing is not cheating or an Exploit. It was the intended circumvent to OE and AE. Just ask Balor.

 

[roman566]

Vassal feeding/releasing is not cheating or an Exploit. It was the intended circumvent to OE and AE. Just ask Balor.

I am actually referring to OPM release exploit...

 

[Hootieleece]

Conquer territory, don't pay Admin cost for coring, Release as a vassal, conquer rest of their cores, Sell them to vassal, Annex later for free cores! Some of them start as OPM's.

That is vassal feeding.......not an exploit.

 

[Grozny Von Raoe]

Seriously, gamey tactics are not the only way to make a big empire... Of course it's the only one to make the ridiculous '3 mountains' or 'Nadj' achievements, but making a huge Scandinavia, Russia or Ottomans is not very difficult.

The fact is, for most countries, it's not that of a big deal to stay even 3-4 techs below in ADM and even more DIP techs. So you can use most of your power for coring. Good diplomatic decisions (have your allies fight for you), some use to the trade system (solve your economic problems) that really helps.

Also, the Military AI is better than in EU3 but still easy to trick after some games. Have small troops in places with defensive bonuses to lure them and bring the big reinforcements, for example. So you can easily win even when underpowered.

I personnally dislike the 'vassal feeding' or the 'voluntarily lose a war to change government' practices, but there is still a wild range of more correct possibilities.

 

[roman566]

You misunderstood, there is an exploit that allows you to cheaply reduce AE to nothing, the only limitation is time. It's based round fixed AE reduction after releasing nations in a peace deal.

 

[Ruanek]

Conquer territory, don't pay Admin cost for coring, Release as a vassal, conquer rest of their cores, Sell them to vassal, Annex later for free cores! Some of them start as OPM's.

That is vassal feeding.......not an exploit.

To me it still feels too unhistorical and gamey, unfortunately. But as it stands it's one of the best ways to expand.

 

[roman566]

To me it still feels too unhistorical and gamey, unfortunately. But as it stands it's one of the best ways to expand.

Blasphemy! The release vassal and feed them is the most hysterical way to play!!!oneoneoneeleven
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Yeah, I would also like the old system back... it made some sense, you wait several decades and people start considering your country as their own. It's more historical than the current way of 'pay some abstract amount of some abstract currency to convince people to switch sovereignty', but apparently Paradox saw it as 'unhistorical and gamey' so we are stuck with this...

 

[Rya]

Yeah, I would also like the old system back... it made some sense, you wait several decades and people start considering your country as their own. It's more historical than the current way of 'pay some abstract amount of some abstract currency to convince people to switch sovereignty', but apparently Paradox saw it as 'unhistorical and gamey' so we are stuck with this...

Don't forget to pay some more of it to displace said people and replace them with your own. Wiping out entire cultures in a decade...
It's not historical but it works as a game mechanic. People here tend to forget you're not playing history, you're playing a game about history.

 

[Ruanek]

Don't forget to pay some more of it to displace said people and replace them with your own. Wiping out entire cultures in a decade...
It's not historical but it works as a game mechanic. People here tend to forget you're not playing history, you're playing a game about history.

People don't always forget. Sometimes they're hopeful/wishful.

 

[sinkingmist]

Some people prefer to use gamey tactics, I prefer to use mods.

 

[unmerged(787246)]

Conquer without much AE by using cores and/or diplo-vassalization, achieved by almost constant warmongering. PU's as well.

You kinda conquer territory by using local lords, which you'll incorporate later into you country. In the first war, you'll get a single province, from which you'll release a country as a vassal. You'll return their cores in the subsequent wars to them, and then diplo-annex. If done right, it's possbile to get huge swaths of land without much AE (and therefor only temporary coalitions).

 

[Nikodim]

1. Take three provinces
2. Wait ten years
3. ???
4. No coalitions care about you anymore.

 

[grisamentum]

I am actually referring to OPM release exploit...

Hardly anybody uses that and much of the time it doesn't even help because you're still limited in time by how fast your vassals can core land. Vassals won't buy land if they're at 25% overextension or higher.

 

[Novacat]

Muscovy, Norway, and Ming are vassals.

If your wondering... a lot of it has to do with a combination of weakass hordes/chinese, large quantities of vassal feeding, and, in the case of Norway, a Swedish mission to vassalize Norway.

 

[hauptman]

The east is easy pickings... colonise the north for a huge swath of land, then use expansions CB against asia and the stepes... the 50% cost reduction allows you to annex rather large nations such as tibet... Then imediately rerelease as a vassal of your own religion. Asia is real easy pickings for anyone... especially anyone who can get there by land... naval invasions slow it down quite a bit... that's why russia has such a field day there and portugal/spain take only small bits.

 

[fleetothemoon]

1. Take three provinces
2. Wait ten years
3. ???
4. No coalitions care about you anymore.

^This. Then throw in diplo-vassalization/annexation, vassalizing instead of direct annexation, force release in war then diplovassalization followed by annexation etc, you'll be a regional or even great power in the span of no more than 200 years... even if you originally started out as a minor power within the HRE. , you'll be pretty damn big.

Even if you don't get into any of the vassalization stuff and just follow the conservative rule of taking an average of 3 provinces every decade, you'd get 30 provinces in the span of 100 years... and that, I think, would be considered a slow growth rate for most warmongering players.

Of course, all of this is WITHOUT vassal-feeding.