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OK, you did a 1419 start, so you beat me into the HRE by a few years, while I used the extra 19 years to vassalize Wallachia and Ragusa instead. I'll have to remember that if I ever start another HUN campaign, or avoid it if playing a Bohemian one.
 
Posted this in another thread but Europe united under Rome...
hre1.png
 
venezia.png

A 1630 start on Hard difficulty, changed it back to Normal once I realized AI gets +50% defensiveness. Then changed back to Hard when it became too easy (didn't have the desired effect, though).

Main points:
- driving Spaniards out of Italy
- expanding Morea using spy mission Fund Patriots and blocking Ottomans from extinguishing rebellions
- driving Ottomans from Balkans and liberating Syria, Mamluks, Bulgaria, Moldova (annexed by Serbia later on) and Crimea from Ottomans to prevent them from having access to west Balkans
- unsuccessfully trying to gain more provinces through Funding Patriots in Balkans
- Annexing of Ragusa
- revenge on Savoy for something I don't even remember anymore
- Reconquest of Tirol, Lienz and Krain (cores gained in THREE border frictions) + Trieste (core gained through Mission)
with a bit of modding Trieste took Istria's place on the map, while Istria was created as a new province)
and Gorz (non-core, simply a gold rush)
- conquering provinces to Form Italian nation

Currently creating Venetian West Africa (not visible on this map) through colonization and aligning with Serbia to expand them all over Balkans (maybe not Morea, my former Ally). With the Bill of Rights probably breaking up some large nations, namely Austria.
 
Tried Qasim Khanate in EU3 miscmods, just because their flag is one of the coolest in the game. Turned out they're pretty awesome.

QAS1423pol.jpg



From then on it was too tempting to form that odd and scary Sunni Russia and proceed to destroy the Golden Horde.

RUS1492pol.jpg
 
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Back to good old vanilla game with this : Burgundy -> France -> HRE.

Well, at first I just wanted to see how Burgundy would handle the "Guarantee Granada on day 1" strategy. But hey, they're too damn strong...

HRE1820Eur.jpg


I really focused on Europe this time. That's why I didn't bother exploring once I had destroyed the main colonizers. I only discovered North America around 1805.
So France, Castile, Portugal, England and Aragon, as well as Muscovy and a huge Polotsk, were conquered the hard way. The other non-HRE states were vassalized and annexed later. I became Emperor very early, then started to interfere in the East because Poland-Lith was too successful against the Golden Horde.

I used a very dirty tactic against most of my foes, especially in the early game : when you want to tear some rival down, like to the point of no return, just occupy them for a very, very long time (10 years or more). Meanwhile you can get busy elsewhere and even fight other wars. At a certain point your enemy's war exhaustion will be so high that they will accept any peace deal. That's how I made Lithuania separate from Poland and explode, and Poland become my vassal as well as Hungary later on. Then we were best friends until the day, centuries after, when I gently annexed them.

I took my time to do all the HRE stuff and united in 1680. Some 20 years before I was able to form France, so I did it, why not ? It was a bit pointless though, as it just moved my capital to Paris and gave me a reconquest CB on Armagnac.

In the early 18th century I forced a PU on Denmark who had conquered almost all of Scandinavia (except Norway who was already my vassal). I inherited them shortly after.

Well, due to horde or holy wars and so on, I also got involved into some trouble in Asia...

HRE1820Asi.jpg


... and Africa ! But still I left some people in peace. I'm not that greedy, I already had insane amounts of cash. I just wanted to get a nice map.

HRE1820Afr.jpg



I even spared a good part of virgin land on Earth. Colonization can be so boring, and it always leads to awful maps if you let the AI do its way.

EU3_MAP_HRE_1820.12.30_1.jpg
 
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Back to gool old vanilla game with this : Burgundy -> France -> HRE.

Well, at first I just wanted to see how Burgundy would handle the "Guarantee Granada on day 1" strategy. But hey, they're too damn strong...

View attachment 316797

I really focused on Europe this time. That's why I didn't bother exploring once I had destroyed the main colonizers. I only discovered North America around 1805.
So France, Castile, Portugal, England and Aragon, as well as Muscovy and a huge Polotsk, were conquered the hard way. The other non-HRE states were vassalized and annexed later. I became Emperor very early, then started to interfere in the East because Poland-Lith was too successful against the Golden Horde.

I used a very dirty tactic against most of my foes, especially in the early game : when you want to tear some rival down, like to the point of no return, just occupy them for a very, very long time (10 years or more). Meanwhile you can get busy elsewhere and even fight other wars. At a certain point your enemy's war exhaustion will be so high that they will accept any peace deal. That's how I made Lithuania separate from Poland and explode, and Poland become my vassal as well as Hungary later on. Then we were best friends until the day, centuries after, when I gently annexed them.

I took my time to do all the HRE stuff and united in 1680. Some 20 years before I was able to form France, so I did it, why not ? It was a bit pointless though, as it just moved my capital to Paris and gave me a reconquest CB on Armagnac.

In the early 18th century I forced a PU on Denmark who had conquered almost all of Scandinavia (except Norway who was already my vassal). I inherited them shortly after.

Well, due to horde or holy wars and so on, I also got involved into some trouble in Asia...

View attachment 316801

... and Africa ! But still I left some people in peace. I'm not that greedy, I already had insane amounts of cash. I just wanted to get a nice map.

View attachment 316802


I even spared a good part of virgin land on Earth. Colonization can be so boring, and it always lead to awful maps if you let the AI do its way.

View attachment 316804

I thought the HRE was Grey not red and why is it called Saint Empire Romain?
 
The color he likely changed it. Not that I blame him; that shade of red looks better than grey.
The "Saint Empire Romain" part is likely because he plays in french.

That's right. I couldn't spend hours playing, just to end with a world painted in a lame shade of grey that hardly differs from the color of unsettled land. I edited the color long ago, and that Roman purple looks legit to me. I also change the Papacy from white to another shade of purple. And Scotland from this confusing Castile-like yellow to a nice dark green. I'm so used to it now I even forget to mention.

And yes, I play the French version of the game, mostly because I'm French. It's got some funnily awkward translations :p
 
Back to gool old vanilla game with this : Burgundy -> France -> HRE.

Well, at first I just wanted to see how Burgundy would handle the "Guarantee Granada on day 1" strategy. But hey, they're too damn strong...

View attachment 316797

I really focused on Europe this time. That's why I didn't bother exploring once I had destroyed the main colonizers. I only discovered North America around 1805.
So France, Castile, Portugal, England and Aragon, as well as Muscovy and a huge Polotsk, were conquered the hard way. The other non-HRE states were vassalized and annexed later. I became Emperor very early, then started to interfere in the East because Poland-Lith was too successful against the Golden Horde.

I used a very dirty tactic against most of my foes, especially in the early game : when you want to tear some rival down, like to the point of no return, just occupy them for a very, very long time (10 years or more). Meanwhile you can get busy elsewhere and even fight other wars. At a certain point your enemy's war exhaustion will be so high that they will accept any peace deal. That's how I made Lithuania separate from Poland and explode, and Poland become my vassal as well as Hungary later on. Then we were best friends until the day, centuries after, when I gently annexed them.

I took my time to do all the HRE stuff and united in 1680. Some 20 years before I was able to form France, so I did it, why not ? It was a bit pointless though, as it just moved my capital to Paris and gave me a reconquest CB on Armagnac.

In the early 18th century I forced a PU on Denmark who had conquered almost all of Scandinavia (except Norway who was already my vassal). I inherited them shortly after.

Well, due to horde or holy wars and so on, I also got involved into some trouble in Asia...

View attachment 316801

... and Africa ! But still I left some people in peace. I'm not that greedy, I already had insane amounts of cash. I just wanted to get a nice map.

View attachment 316802


I even spared a good part of virgin land on Earth. Colonization can be so boring, and it always lead to awful maps if you let the AI do its way.

View attachment 316804
On acount of becoming an Emperor early, is it realistic for Burgundy to be an Emperor at all, with them being French and the rest of the Empire German or Latin.

In my Burgundy game, Charles I became an Emperor 'par forfait', so to speak, when Austria bumped its badboy to 8 after annexing Croatia. From then on there was no real contenders to Burgundian Emperor. I stopped, however, with the Reforms when I reached the ability to enact Ewiger Landsfried. It just seemed like not much fun not having the internal border changes. And then afterwards, I'd need to cancel electorial rights, thus removing any challenge in that part of the game. So, no forming HRE for me.
 
Dem borders, bro...

You need to save Europe from itself...

Europe is helpless in that miscmods scenario. Balkanized to the point of no return... but I've already tried to fix it, mostly with OPM France and Dauphiné (see previous posts above).
You have a point though, that in this peculiar Sunni Russia game the right thing to do would be to go Holy warring in the West before Granada, the Ottomans or Badajoz take it all for themselves.
 
On acount of becoming an Emperor early, is it realistic for Burgundy to be an Emperor at all, with them being French and the rest of the Empire German or Latin.

In my Burgundy game, Charles I became an Emperor 'par forfait', so to speak, when Austria bumped its badboy to 8 after annexing Croatia. From then on there was no real contenders to Burgundian Emperor. I stopped, however, with the Reforms when I reached the ability to enact Ewiger Landsfried. It just seemed like not much fun not having the internal border changes. And then afterwards, I'd need to cancel electorial rights, thus removing any challenge in that part of the game. So, no forming HRE for me.

Well, suddenly becoming German when I restore the Empire while I've played as French or Italian always annoyed me as well, but that's the logic of the game.
On the other hand, Burgundy succeeding as the Emperor is not so unrealistic. In 1400 they really had a good chance to become the wealthiest and most powerful realm of Western Europe ; the Duke of Burgundy could have claimed the crown of France for himself, since he was Charles VI's cousin, and as a member of the HRE he could have been elected Emperor, which was not about being German or something else but rather depended on diplomatic strategies and a fair bit of bribing electors.

I tend to try and reform the HRE whenever I play a country in this part of the world, just because it's so frustrating to be the big boss in Europe and still have this mess of tiny countries in the middle of the map. I guess I'm quite obsessed about European unification actually :D, it's such an achievement to gather the pieces of this puzzle. So I only have two options towards the HRE : either form it or destroy it (which is more difficult, only did it twice).
 
A brave-hearted Scotland, done with annoying English pretentions and unpleasant interference from the continent, ready to conquer the Americas now.

SCO1483pol.jpg


Small update, a few decades after...

SCO1527pol.jpg
 
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A proud Aragon, who just inherited Castile. It was high time since they had taken QFTNW and were starting heavy exploration and colonization, which would have made them hard to handle. No formation of Spain in sight, Barcelona is a much better capital than Madrid ;)

ARA1476pol.jpg


I have to settle all this new virgin land before anyone else gets greedy on it now. But the mess in the East is interesting as well... just DoW Zaporozhia with Holy War CB, become neighbour with Lithuania's horde vassal Crimea, and see what happens there. Meanwhile I'd rather finish eating England, and consider destroying the HRE who looks weaker than usual. Should be doable thanks to my old ally France...
 
A proud Aragon, who just inherited Castile. It was high time since they had taken QFTNW and were starting heavy exploration and colonization, which would have made them hard to handle. No formation of Spain in sight, Barcelona is a much better capital than Madrid ;)

View attachment 320397

I have to settle all this new virgin land before anyone else gets greedy on it now. But the mess in the East is interesting as well... just DoW Zaporozhia with Holy War CB, become neighbour with Lithuania's horde vassal Crimea, and see what happens there. Meanwhile I'd rather finish eating England, and consider destroying the HRE who looks weaker than usual. Should be doable thanks to my old ally France...
How long do your games last?
 
How long do your games last?

As an answer to your question, here is an update on that Aragon which kept me very busy last week. I tend to play too much by night. Here I have spent some 30 hours, or 73 years in the game, since last post. However, like many players I guess, I often get bored at some point between 1500 and 1600 - I'd call it SLOIIG (Sudden Loss Of Interest In Game).

ARA1549pol.jpg


I've settled all that land Castile had discovered for me (and I haven't even taken QFTNW myself). I DoW and annexed Zaporozhia to get a border with the horde, then used spies to fund patriot rebels and ruin Lithuanian colonization in Russia, then took back those provinces to my advantage. Then I started holy wars and took Ottomans' European provinces to prevent other Christian countries from expanding in this direction. Now they're locked on our continent and don't have many options apart from fighting one another to expand.

Meanwhile I've PUed France and Sweden, who along with my vassals (Denmark, Provence, Brittany, Wales and Münster) will be quite helpful when I plan on destroying the HRE. Would be a good moment to do this, former HRE Brabant lost the crown when they got a queen, now a much weakened Burgundy is the HRE as well as one of the 7 electors. The problem is I lack some valuable CBs if I want to fight and occupy each one of the electors in order to dismantle the Empire - I can only DoW Bohemia with the Heretic CB, which would drag their protestant ally and elector Anhalt and the Emperor, but no other elector. Think I have to wait for an even better opportunity to do this but there's no hurry.

My latest war was against the Mamluks - nothing special in this except the fact they're allied with Delhi and for the very first time in all the games I've played, I could see a Delhi army attacking me in the Caucasus. Impressive, it must be because the Sunni countries have grown quite strong in this game : see map below.

EU3_MAP_ARA_1549.9.4_1.jpg


EU3_MAP_ARA_1549.9.4_2.jpg

I'm not sure I will follow till 1821 with that brave Aragon, but at least I'd like to go ahead until I destroy the HRE and get to see what happens next.
 
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I can't stop playing. Here is a short insight into a Romanian formation game with Wallachia. Perhaps the toughest thing I ever tried in EU3. Wallachia is really dirt poor, even more than the other Romanian neighbors... but at least, unlike the latter, it's a free country. However you're also surrounded by scary and hostile countries and you're bound to always feel uncomfortable. Even when you get a little stronger, even with 200 relation, utter trust, royal marriage, military access and so on... Austria or Bohemia will still be able to DoW you without a proper CB. I was lucky though, that on the other side the Ottomans were always busy with the hordes and ignored me, even after I managed to beat them 3 times and steal what I needed to form Romania from them, in addition with some other good provinces. But they're damn big now, it will be a pain to keep on that good job with Holy War.

VAL1555pol.jpg


ROM1555pol.jpg
 
I can't stop playing. Here is a short insight into a Romanian formation game with Wallachia. Perhaps the toughest thing I ever tried in EU3. Wallachia is really dirt poor, even more than the other Romanian neighbors... but at least, unlike the latter, it's a free country. However you're also surrounded by scary and hostile countries and you're bound to always feel uncomfortable. Even when you get a little stronger, even with 200 relation, utter trust, royal marriage, military access and so on... Austria or Bohemia will still be able to DoW you without a proper CB. I was lucky though, that on the other side the Ottomans were always busy with the hordes and ignored me, even after I managed to beat them 3 times and steal what I needed to form Romania from them, in addition with some other good provinces. But they're damn big now, it will be a pain to keep on that good job with Holy War.

View attachment 322894

View attachment 322895
Looks good. I particularly like the Ragusan stretch.

Here's my Burgundy game, started a month and a half ago:
Burgundy_1669.PNG

There were some interesting repercussions of Portugal winning the Castillan inheritance war, most notably in colonization:
North_America_1669.PNG
South_America_1669.PNG
Africa_1669.PNG
 
I can't stop playing. Here is a short insight into a Romanian formation game with Wallachia. Perhaps the toughest thing I ever tried in EU3. Wallachia is really dirt poor, even more than the other Romanian neighbors... but at least, unlike the latter, it's a free country. However you're also surrounded by scary and hostile countries and you're bound to always feel uncomfortable. Even when you get a little stronger, even with 200 relation, utter trust, royal marriage, military access and so on... Austria or Bohemia will still be able to DoW you without a proper CB. I was lucky though, that on the other side the Ottomans were always busy with the hordes and ignored me, even after I managed to beat them 3 times and steal what I needed to form Romania from them, in addition with some other good provinces. But they're damn big now, it will be a pain to keep on that good job with Holy War.

View attachment 322894

View attachment 322895
Do you think it would be possible for us to play a multiplayer game head-to-head?