RUS. Just Rus'. Who needs the Asian half anyway? For the possible future game I'm tempted to not pass the Urals at all, since all the fun happens in Europe. Gotta finish this one first, though, to see what I can get [culture converted] by 1820.
Post your Europa Universalis 4 Empire
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RUS. Just Rus'. Who needs the Asian half anyway? For the possible future game I'm tempted to not pass the Urals at all, since all the fun happens in Europe. Gotta finish this one first, though, to see what I can get [culture converted] by 1820.
First game as a horde. With that new truce mechanics I doubt I'll be able to paint any substantial part of Europa in that nice shade of green. Sigh.
Guaranteeing Ming, having Tibet, Korea and few Indian states as protectorates. Would guarantee Japan too, to preserve Shinto, but it failed to unite.
Hordes are fun!
Guaranteeing Ming, having Tibet, Korea and few Indian states as protectorates. Would guarantee Japan too, to preserve Shinto, but it failed to unite.
Hordes are fun!
I decided to go all out blob and do a World Conquest (World Domination if you will).
As a result, I think my min-maxing days are over. It's insane what you have to go through to get a World Conquest, especially for a game. You either grind openings or you grind popups or you cheese to hell and back.
I'm somewhere in the middle, I decided that I would cheese as little as possible for my World Conquest.
Rules for the game:
1. Reduce the amount of game that had to be sieged down/conquered/protectorated/vassalized. This meant that the list of country choice was restricted to the colonizers: Portugal (too small and weak), Castile (possible candidate), France (obvious candidate), England (too gimmicky), Russia (interesting).
2. Protectorate everything that can become a protectorate. Having to take care of all the land in the world is a chore. If I could let others take care of it, that's what I would do. This meant that Russia was out since it meant that I had to westernize as Russia. Hardly impossible or even difficult, but another chore to take care of.
3. No HRE. This is where it gets interesting. I really hate the HRE: the concept, the country color, all the wacky tricks it allows (vassals that do everything for you during wars, vassals that core for you and don't cost any DIP). So I decided quite early I'd dismantle it.
4. Stack as much stuff that reduces revolt risk as possible. I hate rebels with a burning passion - especially those in far-away provinces in Siberia or on islands. To keep my sanity I decided to only go for a mad dash at the end. For the same reason the coalitions against me were quite small. I barely had any decent coalitions against me until 1800.
5. No Task Manager shenanigans or other nasty stuff. I'd either go bust with what the game offers or succeed on my own terms.
I've decided to go for a 0 colonization attempt. I can tell you this, it's almost impossible with the speed of colonization in this game. I've made many big mistakes, I admit:
- I failed to take Madeira in a war with Portugal, even though I had both war score and occupation
- I failed to take Bermuda in a second war with Portugal because I did not have Exploration as one of the first 3 ideas
- England managed to sneak colonies in America, again because I did not have Exploration
- I failed to release Perm in a war with Russia
- I failed to snipe their colonies in a second war with Russia (on this note - does the AI actively protect those colonies? I had tons of forces sieging Moscow and the AI still sent troops to catch my "scouts"
Here's the almost-end result:
Why "almost-end"? Because of these guys:
The little yellow province in the middle of North America almost got away and cost me the World Conquest achievement.
Once I got them, bam!, I got the popup you see above.
Now the game crashes whenever I go to my subjects tab or when I click the "liberty desire" notification. I think I'll start the game 1 more time to see if I can take it to 1821 - I want to see as my empire crumbles while I do almost nothing but look at it.
(I did manage to get to 1821, here is the screenie, in case anyone wants to know what idea groups I picked and other stuff like tech)
Thankfully you guys are awesome and you saved my sorry butt when I almost gave up on the WC! (special thanks to AurochsAway)
(Now that I've done I have 2x the respect I had for DDRJake. And I already respected him a lot before!)
As a result, I think my min-maxing days are over. It's insane what you have to go through to get a World Conquest, especially for a game. You either grind openings or you grind popups or you cheese to hell and back.
I'm somewhere in the middle, I decided that I would cheese as little as possible for my World Conquest.
Rules for the game:
1. Reduce the amount of game that had to be sieged down/conquered/protectorated/vassalized. This meant that the list of country choice was restricted to the colonizers: Portugal (too small and weak), Castile (possible candidate), France (obvious candidate), England (too gimmicky), Russia (interesting).
2. Protectorate everything that can become a protectorate. Having to take care of all the land in the world is a chore. If I could let others take care of it, that's what I would do. This meant that Russia was out since it meant that I had to westernize as Russia. Hardly impossible or even difficult, but another chore to take care of.
3. No HRE. This is where it gets interesting. I really hate the HRE: the concept, the country color, all the wacky tricks it allows (vassals that do everything for you during wars, vassals that core for you and don't cost any DIP). So I decided quite early I'd dismantle it.
4. Stack as much stuff that reduces revolt risk as possible. I hate rebels with a burning passion - especially those in far-away provinces in Siberia or on islands. To keep my sanity I decided to only go for a mad dash at the end. For the same reason the coalitions against me were quite small. I barely had any decent coalitions against me until 1800.
5. No Task Manager shenanigans or other nasty stuff. I'd either go bust with what the game offers or succeed on my own terms.
I've decided to go for a 0 colonization attempt. I can tell you this, it's almost impossible with the speed of colonization in this game. I've made many big mistakes, I admit:
- I failed to take Madeira in a war with Portugal, even though I had both war score and occupation
- I failed to take Bermuda in a second war with Portugal because I did not have Exploration as one of the first 3 ideas
- England managed to sneak colonies in America, again because I did not have Exploration
- I failed to release Perm in a war with Russia
- I failed to snipe their colonies in a second war with Russia (on this note - does the AI actively protect those colonies? I had tons of forces sieging Moscow and the AI still sent troops to catch my "scouts"
Here's the almost-end result:
Why "almost-end"? Because of these guys:
The little yellow province in the middle of North America almost got away and cost me the World Conquest achievement.
Once I got them, bam!, I got the popup you see above.
Now the game crashes whenever I go to my subjects tab or when I click the "liberty desire" notification. I think I'll start the game 1 more time to see if I can take it to 1821 - I want to see as my empire crumbles while I do almost nothing but look at it.
(I did manage to get to 1821, here is the screenie, in case anyone wants to know what idea groups I picked and other stuff like tech)
Thankfully you guys are awesome and you saved my sorry butt when I almost gave up on the WC! (special thanks to AurochsAway)
(Now that I've done I have 2x the respect I had for DDRJake. And I already respected him a lot before!)
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Playing in 1.5 as Cleves. No real goal to the game, just kill/conquer/colonize everything. Ideas are Diplomatic (half way done), Defensive (fully done), Exploration (3 done), and Quality (hope the combat ability actually works in 1.5, I know it was broken for a while... have it up to 4th iirc.)
Ridiculous coalitions, lol. Allied with France, slowly dismantling Austria via my vassal Styria.
Coalition war later in the game.
Continuing dismantling of majors. Annexing vassal Champagne, completed feeding Austria to Styria (their cores, at least), annexing Styria.
No longer allied to France, obviously. Beginning to eat them before their former vassals cores disappear (Guyenne is 1590s, might not make it... sigh.)
Now allied to Spain.
Believe it or not, even with those OP numbers against me, I hid in the Alps and just let most of em come to me, -3 rolls for them, I just ended up conceding defeat and nothing else (Basically a phyrric victory for me, status quo.) so as not to lose too much manpower.
Coalitions are so dumb lmao. I don't like the look of 1.7 either, 15 year truces? Wth is that! I would be sitting at -2 stability the entire game and truce breaking over and over lol.
Ridiculous coalitions, lol. Allied with France, slowly dismantling Austria via my vassal Styria.
Coalition war later in the game.
Continuing dismantling of majors. Annexing vassal Champagne, completed feeding Austria to Styria (their cores, at least), annexing Styria.
No longer allied to France, obviously. Beginning to eat them before their former vassals cores disappear (Guyenne is 1590s, might not make it... sigh.)
Now allied to Spain.
Believe it or not, even with those OP numbers against me, I hid in the Alps and just let most of em come to me, -3 rolls for them, I just ended up conceding defeat and nothing else (Basically a phyrric victory for me, status quo.) so as not to lose too much manpower.
Coalitions are so dumb lmao. I don't like the look of 1.7 either, 15 year truces? Wth is that! I would be sitting at -2 stability the entire game and truce breaking over and over lol.
Did you get inspiration from me, or what? I remember our little chat about Kathiawar
Can you post your national ideas, and your general strategy? I am curious.
I had a few goes with them, but I didnt have time to do more than 20 years.. had an ok start with a bunch of vassals and shit.
Did you get inspiration from me, or what? I remember our little chat about Kathiawar
Can you post your national ideas, and your general strategy? I am curious.
I had a few goes with them, but I didnt have time to do more than 20 years.. had an ok start with a bunch of vassals and shit.
Exploration --> Aristocratic --> Administrative --> Expansion --> Offensive --> Religious --> Quantity --> Diplomatic (throwaway late pick).
General strategy was to hit Gujarat almost instantly for my core + vassal them, IIRC I took a province near Bahmanis to fabricate on them also, and used missions to boost MP while working Bahmanis (dragging in Vijay, which prevented Vijay getting anything) and the Rajputs. I then finished westernizing a bit before 1550. Republics are poor overall but let you distribute points for ideas. Once I had Aristo + Offensive I sat on ADM leaders + focus to handle the coring expenses. Religious was picked late as a good CB against nations like Ottomans and Russia, which you can't use expansion to attack, giving a good superiority war + 0 DIP province cost, it also helped against revolts a bit of course (final screenshot all provinces are Hindu). I actually ran the missionary policy for a bit to keep up with conversions, and an -AE + BROT one because Aristo + Offensive = -38% tech cost so I had some discretionary spending there even with a 1 ruler stat and NF on ADM.
I really wanted to try the .25% interest cost on loans strat (Gujarati ideas, admin, econ, hindu deity), but getting both ADM + Economic takes so long that much of the potential utility is already starting to disappear. Maybe a European with that NI could get them sooner, but in my case I had +3 advisors by the 1600's and taking econ 4th or later just for that would have been iffy, too small a window.
To westernize quickly, colony hopping is not the way. You must attack for the western border, though there are some tricks depending on who you are. Colony priority in Asia is getting a block on Muscovy and the Philippines, which are good tax + great goods + non-tropical, all same-continent too of course.
This was my strategy, especially with vajayjay, but I went after those muslim dudes with hindu provinces hard and fast, while picking up 2 hindu vassals for troops. That starting ruler really blows.. Why didn't you go for reforming your government first? With admin as your third idea group seems late for reforming government, especially if you wanted to use admin to core stuff earlier.
I was really surprised. You went exploration and aristo as your 2 first.. I would never have considered them. Any reason why?exploration especially seems silly, especially when you say colony hopping is not a good strategy.
My guess is that despite the nerfs to Siberia he planned to block Muscovy anyway and Exploration makes for fast Siberian colonization. And while this happens Exploration for countries around India means quick access to the rich Spice Islands.
Exapansion is too slow and costs super important ADM.
Aristocratic is just a good MIL groups these days and nets an extra diplomat which is really cool for a non DIP group.
Exapansion is too slow and costs super important ADM.
Aristocratic is just a good MIL groups these days and nets an extra diplomat which is really cool for a non DIP group.
With a good ruler nation (or a rich powerhouse with -cost like Ming lol), it is possible to get a border with a western nation before 1500 using exploration (I only westernized later due to the trash tier starting ruler). If you wait, you will get Europe revealed eventually around 1550-1600 (not sure what factors dictate), but I was already western for around 20ish years by 1550, not just starting to fight for a border. In addition to the ability to westernize decades earlier, exploration opens up "bank of North America" type tactics and colonizing GREAT land in the Indies, with good extra filler land to colonize in Japan and Siberia while waiting for DIP tech to get to the point where you can handle tropical. Rather than being silly, it's hard to imagine a superior idea group choice first.
Edit: As Oblio mentioned, exploration also allows one to **** block Muscovy, which is useful. In my playthrough they conquered through the hordes and into Ming anyway which was annoying and slowed me down to a degree, though I just cut them off + took their stuff as "distant overseas" with religious ideas late so I guess not too much.
I didn't reform my government. I "lost" to noble rebels, and was a republic long before my 3rd idea group.
As for Aristocratic, I like it as an early milgroup for a number of reasons:
- The -tech cost makes the most sense first, and limits the amount of time you spend focusing on military-related stuff with monarch points.
- The most important combat stat aside from tactics is general pips, and Aristocratic gives leader shock. It's not as good as shock AND fire in offensive, but it's one of the two groups that help give super generals.
- An extra general is welcome, and so is an extra diplomat. Manpower is a nice bonus here too, and it's still early enough that a bonus to manpower matters.
- The other stuff is filler but not bad (though +core creation cost is kind of junky in SP, and useless if you're already powerful). For example I generally use a few cavalry for flanking so -cost and +damage from them is handy, but it's not the reason I take the group.
- It has rev rebels in its events, giving yet another shot at a republic if you don't have it yet.
what map mode did you use for this game?My first Ironman game so far
Ukraine and Persia are my vassals.
A few interesting things happened, first of all I didin't get any jannisary events
Spain managed to PU both Portugal and France, which was a bit annoying when I got into a succession war over Algiers with the Mamlukes... and forgot that they were in a coalition against me. With Spain (also Venice and the Papal State).
Only won because I sent a force to take al-Djazir while they were focused on attacking the Balkans, when my manpower eventually ran dry I had accumulated enough warscore to get the PU.
They the PU over france some time after that though.
Thirdly I kept getting religious civil disorder events, despite having ~114% unity, and since it passes a few months later i keep getting free stability.
Bonus picture: Tired of Iberian Hokkaido?
It looks like the political map mode, just with the opacity modded down. It's barely visible for Ottomans because the Ottoman color is light green, France, Spain and Timurids' colors are still clearly visible.
Cause Tibet is predominant, thats why
How many other human players were there?
But congrats nevertheless. Did you use low supply mountains to kill Ming?
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No human players, just high-difficulity singleplayer fun. And no, Ming was just a lategame conquest when i was already strong enough to just roflstomp their inferior troops.
Was that using Extended Timeline? How did countries get their names over all those wastelands?
Im using "All wasteland removed/unlocked", I dont like ugly borders without it. You can find it on workshop. And no, Im not using Extended Timeline mod.