Old EU3 Questions from a New Player

[Extreme Unction]

Way to go! So your inflation's probably not too bad either.

Highest its been was 6.0, and that was due to a couple of events. It's been at 0.0 for most of the past fifty years.

 

[Extreme Unction]

Managed to uncover most of Asia thanks to my Conquistador squad. Dig it:

Persia munching its way through Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Western China.

 

[Extreme Unction]

So I'm poking around in my ledger, just checking shit out. I'm the world leader in income, trade efficiency, government tech, and prestige. I'm also the world leader in army size, though this fluctuates pretty frequently. I'm #2 in the world in terms of provinces. Etc etc.

And then I notice that I'm only allied with two nations: Persia and Minamoto. What happened to my alliance with Poland? I thought I'd set up my messages to alert me with a pop-up and a game pause whenever the AI dissolved an alliance.

So I pan over to Poland to try and renew the alliance. And the button is greyed out.

"They are a subject nation and cannot enter an alliance except with their overlord."

Wow! What monster of a nation subdued Poland? They were munching their way across central Europe pretty efficiently last I checked.

Are they now a subject of Spain? Burgundy, perhaps?

<insert "bwahahaha" emoticon here>

 

[Caban]

Please let Mantua inherit them. That would be an epic map.

 

[unmerged(204522)]

Managed to uncover most of Asia thanks to my Conquistador squad. Dig it:

Persia munching its way through Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Western China.

force them to release the timurids.....

 

[Pewt]

Please let Mantua inherit them. That would be an epic map.

Won't happen, since Mantua can't keep a big enough army to stop insults.

 

[Extreme Unction]

Well, turns out that Mantua is the Holy Roman Emperor, and has been for the past 50 or so game years.

Also, they're no longer in a personal union with Poland.

 

[Derahan]

Well, turns out that Mantua is the Holy Roman Emperor, and has been for the past 50 or so game years.

Also, they're no longer in a personal union with Poland.

That's sad, Mantuan Poland would've been soo awesome

 

[Extreme Unction]

Howdy.

Just picked up the massive Paradox Interactive Complete Pack from Steam a few days ago, which contained many goodies, among them EU3 + all the expansions and DLC. Woohoo.

I have some limited experience playing Victoria: Revolutions from when I bought it a few years ago, but I never mastered the learning curve and never felt like I was doing anything other than floundering around somewhat ineffectually.

Looking at EU3, I'm having some of the same feeling.

Part of the problem is that there are so many things to fiddle with, I'm not sure what to fiddle with first.

I am trying to start a game as Novgorod, just because.

I am generally a turtling type of player, and my preference is to win via a commanding tech lead. Everybody says you should make your own goals when you play these games, so my goals for Novgorod would be:

Very short term:
-Put forts in the four provinces that don't have them.
-Build up an appropriate defensive force that won't bankrupt me.
-Hire some advisors and generals.

Short term:
-Form Russia
-Westernize

Long term:
-Transform Russia into wealthy, progressive, technologically advanced country able to withstand the predatory eye of its aggressive neighbors.

Well, apparently I was able to figure it out...

Figured I'd wrap up with a "state of the Republic" to show my progress.

Here's Europe. That little blue coastal province in France, just south of England and adjacent to Paris? That's Georgia. Dunno how it got there, and dunno how it's survived, but it's been there at least 50 years.

Here's Anatolia and the Middle East. Persia is starting to get carved up.

Here's Africa. That's not actually Cypriot Africa. That's actually the Cypriot remnant. Cyprus itself has been taken over by Byzantium, so the Cypriot capital was moved to the Gold Coast in Africa. They seem to be doing quite well for themselves.

Here's Asia. Oman had a late-game surge and is now contending with Austria for Austria's colonial territories in SE Asia and Indonesia.

Here's Indonesia and the Philippines. This area has seen an ever changing parade of empires. Majapahit, then Brunei, then Majapahit again, and now Makassar. Plus the colonial European nations keeping their hand in. Georgia used to have a territory in the Philippines, but lost it to Mantua.

Here's North America. The USA spawned briefly in the New Jersey/Manhattan area earlier in the game, but was immediately eaten up by Spain. She's since respawned on Nova Scotia. Venezuela has spawned on the Chesapeake Bay, and Louisiana has spawned in West Virginia of all places. Quebec formed, and has been fairly successful, mainly because they only had Brittany and Tyrone trying to reconquer them. Canada formed very briefly as a one-province minor on Greenland, but was eventually eaten by Brittany.

Like Cyprus, Portugal has abandoned Europe. This is Portugal now. Her capital is in Mexico. There are a few provinces left on the Iberian Peninsula, but for the most part Spain has taken over and Portugal has sought refuge in the New World.

Here's South America. That's another Georgian province there on the Chilean coast.

Russia is the leader in income, trade efficiency, and production efficiency:

Russia is 2nd overall in Prestige:

Russia is still the tech leader, though some of the OPMs had closed the gap considerably. Russia's total tech score is 347. Navarra is in 2nd place with 346.

Russia is currently the military leader, though this changed pretty frequently depending on who was at war with whom.

Not the Naval leader, though...

Russia is currently the world leader in number of provinces owned with 156 provinces. Spain keeps losing colonies and regaining them, accounting for her up and down performance on the graph. At her peak, Spain controlled 160 provinces. Neither Novgorod nor Russia ever lost a province. All Novgorodian/Russian provinces briefly occupied by rebels or enemy forces were regained without ceding them to the enemy or making any concessions.

Not only do I own 156 provinces, but I have core on every one. And they've all been converted to Orthodox. And all but a handful have been converted to Russian culture.

We own three COTs, and all three are in the top ten income CoTs:

And finally, the Glorious Motherland herself. Not shown: Russia's territories in the South Pacific, including all of Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and Eastern Australia.