If there is one thing Jan Mayen proves

[Krajzen]

...it's that coalition system works only against small nations and completely fails at preventing one state from total global domination.

(generally, all unindentified blue on this map is Scandinavia)

This Scandinavia is born from Jan Mayen which has been spawned near Mali, in Western Africa. It is awesome easter egg option introduced some time ago: if you type 'bearhaslanded' in a console, Jan Mayen Bear Empire will spawn in random place on the map (cluster of 2-3 provinces) with 50 000 soldiers with 150% discipline, 100 000 manpower, 50 base income, western tech, -10 unrest, -90% coring cost, 100 land/naval forcelimits, rulers with stats no lower than 4, lucky status and few other bonuses, Imperialism casus belli and -1000 (!!!!!!) diplomatic relations with all nations in the world. It is essentially a simulator of Alien Invasion and it's awesome to watch on observer (like in this game) or super hardcore to fight with as a player. It also can form Scandinavia and looks like prioritises it.

However after checking how Jan Mayen rapidly expands (30 years passed - half of Western Africa is under control, top empire of the world, starting from 2 deser 3 development provinces) I have realized this 'alien invasion simulator' fails at one thing:

I haven't seen a single coalition or any organized effort aimed at stopping this Mega Hitler.

Seriously, if there is one nation all countries in the world should unite against, it's Jan Mayen. It is not only unbelievably strong and super agressive, it is literally unable to reach anything higher than -200 relations with any country in the world and does not even take vassals/any kind of subjects; it's ultimate genocide machine. Yet, nobody in the world opposed that, even in the earliest rampage stage.

When I have read in eu4 diaries it'll have coalitions, first thing I thought about (and it was IIRC even mentioned in appropriate DD) was that it is designed to counter hegemons like anti - Napoleonic coalitions or anti - Habsurg/anti - Ottoman alliances did. Nope, coalitions work perfectly as a containment for the least dangerous countries. Occasionally medium ones, but not ones who deserve it.

As you can see, the entire world is screwed but it could resist Jan Mayen if even few major powers united. If four major Indian empires, Western economic monsters, Persia-Ming or really anyone started to cooperate, it could actually resist Jan Mayen, but no; I haven't seen a single effort, a single coalition, nothing, when Jan Mayen was annihilating Polish-Lithuanian alliance (destroyed its' 200k army in less than a year and took like 40% of Lithuania at once), nearby powers sent like 400 000 soldiers... to attack Poland, making major super monster's job even easier.

I love 'invasion of alien overpowered foe' scenarios in strategy games, loved Aliens in hearts of iron, Aztecs from CK2 and Jan Mayen in EU4 but it'd be cool if a world actually reacted to it, and other super empires. I have seen a game where AI Ottomans created super dominating empire stretching from Mutapa to Riga (!!!) and there was no coalition aimed at them ever, they were stopped only by semi-random two simultaneous wars with accidential big alliances (and my effort).

Also: there should be such feature aimed at HUMAN player achieving global domination, which would make late-game of powerful empires actually interesting.

 

[Krajzen]

(major global cities in control of Jan Mayen: Constantinople, London, Rome, Barcelona, Moscow, Cairo, Timbuktu, Mecca, Damascus, Milan, Florence, Lisbona)

 

[Necurok]

well the AE was seperated by 3 continents that helps a lot.

 

[ThePatriotOfDreumel]

Brabant stronk

 

[theJ]

A good point.
Especially considering fighting giant coalition wars against, say, the Ottomans would be really really FUN.
...
So, yes, I support increasing the AIs propensity to form coalitions relative to the overall strength of the ones they form said coalitions against.

 

[Krajzen]

Brabant stronk

Well, Jan Mayen completely warped usual geopolitics - it annihilated Portugal, contained and decimated Spain, broke half of Italy, wiped out Ottomans and Russia, massacred PLC, taken over British Isles and Scandinavia, so it killed or contained all usual superpowers except France (taken somehow by Hainaut/Provence/Brabant) and Austria (killed by Blobhemia).

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Considering the modifiers, the end result isn't even that impressive.

That said, I call doubt that every AI combined could beat win at this late stage. The AI doesn't move well to consolidate its forces, but the main issue is that for any arbitrary engagement, the superpower could put 100 to 150 regiments there. They have 150% discipline (more from idea groups no doubt) don't forget. Players that stack military as Prussia don't even hit 150% discipline. What do you think 1500 regiments of that will cause, with lucky generals in tow?

 

[Wizzington]

Jan Mayen has +50% discipline and starts with 1 million manpower. Trying to draw any general gameplay conclusions from it is super silly.

 

[frolix42]

During the first year of EU4's release, there were a lot of threads complaining about how unrealistic* global coalitions were. It was odd to have Poland and Ming unite in a coalition in the 16th century even if they were threatened by the same power. It was thought to be too harsh of a nerf specifically targeted toward expansionist players. After all, if the expansion of the Mongols taught us anything it's that different cultures and religions have difficulty uniting against a common threat, even if they are super scary Mongols or Bears.

Credit where credit is due, in subsequent patches Paradox has done a good job of focusing coalitions. They did such a good job, perhaps it is inevitable that there would be a backlash.

 

[Will Steel]

Do they have any bear generals and advisers like (supposedly) in Victoria 2? Now that would be awesome.

 

[IcyBlizzard]

Jan Mayen has +50% discipline and starts with 1 million manpower. Trying to draw any general gameplay conclusions from it is super silly.

I think expecting them to beat Jan Mayern is absurb, but expecting at least a Coalition shouldn´t be out the the picture surely?

 

[shoki]

You can't form a coalition against bears.

 

[WSnova]

Jan Mayen has +50% discipline and starts with 1 million manpower. Trying to draw any general gameplay conclusions from it is super silly.

Sorry, but I disagree. Yeah, with those modifiers we don´t really expect them to be beatable on the battlefield. But with that kind of expansionism we should expect some kind of coalition against them, no?

Even with +100% discipline and 5 million manpower the smaller weaker powers should try to keep safety in numbers no?

 

[ringhloth]

I like how it migrated North so much. Like it knew its real home was the desolate wasteland of Scandinavia

 

[yerm]

Coalitions do not form unless they think they have a shot of winning based on the available members. I doubt that ever materialized.

 

[Xinkc]

Something weird is going on with those numbers. It seems absurd that Hainaut and Brabant are so strong despite the former not even controlling all of France and the latter's name isn't even visible.

 

[Thrake]

During the first year of EU4's release, there were a lot of threads complaining about how unrealistic* global coalitions were. It was odd to have Poland and Ming unite in a coalition in the 16th century even if they were threatened by the same power. It was thought to be too harsh of a nerf specifically targeted toward expansionist players. After all, if the expansion of the Mongols taught us anything it's that different cultures and religions have difficulty uniting against a common threat, even if they are super scary Mongols or Bears.

Credit where credit is due, in subsequent patches Paradox has done a good job of focusing coalitions. They did such a good job, perhaps it is inevitable that there would be a backlash.

Even in uniformely Christian Europe, if one nation owns half of it, it won't be perceived as more threatening by conquering 100 development than an OPM annexing 100 development. I'll recon though that Paradox made it differently in a patch and people complained.

 

[User4035]

where does the word Jan Mayen come from? And why is it associated a weird super nation?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Even in uniformely Christian Europe, if one nation owns half of it, it won't be perceived as more threatening by conquering 100 development than an OPM annexing 100 development. I'll recon though that Paradox made it differently in a patch and people complained.

You get 50% more AE if you're large vs opm in the current patch so you're mistaken.

Sorry, but I disagree. Yeah, with those modifiers we don´t really expect them to be beatable on the battlefield. But with that kind of expansionism we should expect some kind of coalition against them, no?

Even with +100% discipline and 5 million manpower the smaller weaker powers should try to keep safety in numbers no?

Once coalitions are designed to be dogpile-on-runaway rather than "punish minors for expanding" you'll have a point.

Besides, what safety is there in being compelled to join a war against a force you can't win? The AE mechanic isn't one that serves this purpose in any capacity.

 

[Kwami]

where does the word Jan Mayen come from? And why is it associated a weird super nation?

Jan Mayen is an island in Norway. The rest is a joke.