Noobish kind of question about relations

[unmerged(111652)]

Hello all, forum newcomer here! Been haunting the EU2 forums for a while and finally decided to sign up
I've got a rather noobish question about EU2 (I'm a relative newcomer to the game as well). I've been playing as several smaller German factions in the Grand Campaign, and started out with the royal marriage-I claim thou throne!-War! -thing and military, it has worked. But I've got a real nasty problem showing up - everybody seems to get very mad at me and in my latest game, shortly after I annexed Hannover and Münster (they were having a military alliance), everybody had minus relations to me and the next year, Brandenburg, Hessen, Bohemia, Kleeves and Magdeburg declared war

Is there anyway to expand in Germany early-game without everyone hating your arse off?

Thanks in advance

 

[unmerged(96838)]

How would you feel if your next door neighours house was taken off them by force? (lets say by the government...to make way for a new 'developement')

Fearful, angry? Want to make sure it doesnt happen to you? Wanna fight?

Or would your feelings toward the government be quite agreeable?

Anyway, it is always preferable not to annex anyone, especially when your only a minor (you can get away with one, perhaps two, but anymore is asking for it).


But rather, its best to just wait for other kingdoms to do the annexing, then you can fight a 'just' war upon that kingdom and take the said province, of course...only if your in a position to do so.

 

[Jotvingis]

Hello all, forum newcomer here! Been haunting the EU2 forums for a while and finally decided to sign up
I've got a rather noobish question about EU2 (I'm a relative newcomer to the game as well). I've been playing as several smaller German factions in the Grand Campaign, and started out with the royal marriage-I claim thou throne!-War! -thing and military, it has worked. But I've got a real nasty problem showing up - everybody seems to get very mad at me and in my latest game, shortly after I annexed Hannover and Münster (they were having a military alliance), everybody had minus relations to me and the next year, Brandenburg, Hessen, Bohemia, Kleeves and Magdeburg declared war

Is there anyway to expand in Germany early-game without everyone hating your arse off?

Thanks in advance

What minor are you playing or going to play?
Force annex is very bad think because you will get a lot of BB and your relations will drop with other catholic countries (even with alliance members).
If at the start you have only one province, you need the second province. At start I force annex only one minor or I take province from country that have more than one province. After I get the second province I never force annex any countries in Europe. I occupy other minors and make all my vassals. After that I leave my alliance and make new alliance with my 2-3 vassals. Then I wait for opportunities (defensive war or then my vassals attack).

 

[Orm]

From a game-mechanical viewpoint you've accumulated too much badboy points by expanding too fast. Too many badboy points will cause your relations to constantly deteriorate and make your neighbours declare war on you whenever they can (so called 'badboy wars'). Badboy points will decrease over time, so the way to do it is to expand, then let the badboy wear off a bit, then expand again. Or, you can use the badboy wars as an opportunity to expand even more, this is apparently a vital strategy for world conquest.
You can check your badboy value by opening the diplomatic panel for your country then hover your mouse pointer over where it says "We have a tarnished reputation" or similar, the badboy value will appear in a tool-tip.

 

[unmerged(61727)]

By now he should have "We are worse than scum" (I think it's that).

Oh, and always try to vassalise in wars, so later you can diplo-anex 'em.

 

[unmerged(111652)]

Jotvingis: I have tried as Bremen, Mecklemburg and Saxony

Aah alright. Obviously still have a lot to learn about badboy points. Thanks for the replies everyone, all appreciated

 

[The Swert]

Is there anyway to expand in Germany early-game without everyone hating your arse off?

Short answer...No.

As my Franconia AAR (see sig) showed, playing as a german minor you need to expand or die, but expanding leads to hatred. It's always a tough game, congrats for lasting this far, especially as a new player.

Refer to the Badboy FAQ for the full consequences of your actions.

 

[Jotvingis]

Jotvingis: I have tried as Bremen, Mecklemburg and Saxony

Aah alright. Obviously still have a lot to learn about badboy points. Thanks for the replies everyone, all appreciated

May be you know, but one more advice - at the start you should built only cavalry because your neighbors province are plains.

 

[Flammehav]

I didn't know BB even existed in my first few games. I played as China on patch 1.02. Loaned lots of money to Japan at 10% intersted and used the money to go on and make war to all the small countries aroudn me, taking provinces and anexing one after another. I thought I did great, then all of a sudden Japan refused to pay me back(wich happend very seldom back on patch 1.02). So my income dispaered, everyone hated me, my war against Japan failed and I had 1-3 rebels popipng up every single month.

In the end I just disbanded the whole game. And not to long after I found these forums and learned some basics about how the game works No need to play on very easy and be a loan shark to be succesfull anymore

 

[unmerged(15247)]

I didn't know BB even existed in my first few games. I played as China on patch 1.02. Loaned lots of money to Japan at 10% intersted and used the money to go on and make war to all the small countries aroudn me, taking provinces and anexing one after another. I thought I did great, then all of a sudden Japan refused to pay me back(wich happend very seldom back on patch 1.02). So my income dispaered, everyone hated me, my war against Japan failed and I had 1-3 rebels popipng up every single month.

In the end I just disbanded the whole game. And not to long after I found these forums and learned some basics about how the game works No need to play on very easy and be a loan shark to be succesfull anymore

hehehhe, your situation sounds exactlly as mine the first time i ran into the eu2 world

 

[BurningEGO]

Yep, same with me. And once i noticed BB existed, i thought it only influenced BB wars and potical crisis events.

It took me quite a while to notice why i kept having civil wars as England when i force annexed all of france...

Or why my stability costs got past 5000 so early as the turks.

 

[unmerged(4344)]

The EU2 wiki is also a good ref for a newbie.

On badboy:
http://www.paradoxian.org/eu2wiki/index.php/Badboy

On relations:
http://www.paradoxian.org/eu2wiki/index.php/Relations

 

[unmerged(3931)]

In addition to the usual badboy information like badboy wars above the badboy threshold, you should know that the country in the game with the highest badboy will be subject to declarations of war very frequently especially while weak. Also, the higher your badboy the less your relations will increase over time when you have a good amount of religious tolerance and with a lot of badboy relations actually drop over time no matter your religious tolerance. Also, if your relations are very low (-150) with any country, relations will not increase. Relations with countries of same religion as country you war with drop -50 when you force annex.

It's okay to get a good amount of badboy like half your threshold but you don't want to do that until an AI nation has a more badboy than you would have. So if you annex a couple countries at the start, the AI hasn't had time to get as much badboy as that and along come the DoWs. But if an AI Denmark starts annexing a lot in Germany, then you can have a couple annexations too. But it is often best to let the AI do the annexing for you then claim the province from the AI nation in war. Still you don't want to waste your badboy reduction so if you don't have any wars planned for decades then an annexation is good to get some badboy that can be reduced over time. Just don't do a DoW without CB and then an annexation, can be 10 badboy. And wait for the AI to do a DoW and annexation before you do your annexation. You don't want to have the highest badboy unless you are mighty.