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Italy is dumpster tier:

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Why must +25% CCR and +50% BROT be wasted on a country that is blocked from expanding in all directions?

And where are the restoration of Union CBs?
 
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You can expand everywhere though... And you can beat stronger nations by simply stack-wiping their armies when they try to cross your forts on mountains. I'm confused. Also why would Italy have PU's CB ?
 
You can expand everywhere though... And you can beat stronger nations by simply stack-wiping their armies when they try to cross your forts on mountains. I'm confused. Also why would Italy have PU's CB ?

I've tried that, but I still lost battles in defensive terrain with higher discipline and numerical advantage against the Mamluks in my 20-years war against Tunis. Plus I can't even take Venice because no matter how many galleys I throw at them, they win. And my galleys should be slightly worse, not take 50 losses while Venice takes 10.

As for PUs, that's the only way a tag in Europe can be competitive at all. A flat AE and WS cost for an arbitrary amount of land is really the only cheatery Europe has.
 
Then there would be literally no reasion left to play in Europe.
So before OP missiontrees were imported from HoI4 there was no reason to play inside of Europe?
 
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And I thought I had hit the bottom of a garbage barrel with Italy:

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Ally 1 called you into a pointless war!
Ally 2 called you into a pointless war!
Internal Religious Turmoil!
Great Peasants War!
Ally 1 called you into the most pointless war ever!

Someone please explain me the point of a HRE prince campaign when you are facing heavy penalties (increased AE, increased claim fabrication cost, unlawful territory opinion malus, Great Peasants War, atrocious starting rulers wherever you look, small starting size, having to chose being screwed by staying Catholic and sitting at 0% Religious Unity or going Protestant and getting massive opinion malus with all Catholics who are mainly European majors and facing Spain in every war because of DotF) without getting anything significant in return. And why is Brandenburg in particular a German regional tag, making forming Prussia (which is somewhat RNG dependent and forces you into Protestantism) the only way to escape their thoroughly mediocre national ideas? All the other regional tags are tied to separate cultures, and Saxon already has Saxony as its regional tag.

Or, in other words:

Why form Prussia when you could instead form Rajputana?
And even when forming Prussia, why do it as BBurg instead of the TO?
 
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I like the challenge and the new mechanics! I had a lot of fun with my Brandenburg game - became emperor, lost it and flipped to protestant, won the league war, became emperor, lost it and dismantled the HRE, formed Germany.
 
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After finding nought but frustration in Europe (with the exception of Austria), I have decided to return to my safe space - India.

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This was the first of several tries as Vijayanagar, ignoring Bahmanis at the start and instead focussing on crushing the debilitating Tamil uprisings and consolidate southern India. At this point though I decided to restart to see if I can get a more aggressive approach against Bahmanis to work.

Well, no. Turns out my hunch before 1.30 released was absolutely correct and the merc changes destroyed Vijayanagar. Turns out having to siege down multiple forts with that pitiful starting manpower, no money because half your country sits as 80% LA and further destabilizing events is a bit of a crapshoot. Sure, I was able to win in the end, but amassing an 1k ducat debt within the first 5 years, having to replenish 10k manpower to just refill your stacks, sitting at -2 CB and having a negative balance at minimal army upkeep fall squarely into "not worth it" territory, considering Vijayanagar is at least on paper starts as the strongest and richest country in India.

I would also argue that Vijayanagar's mission tree is not that well aligned with what the goals of a campaign as this country are - forming Bharat because despite its horrible color (Paradox, can we please have less green tags in Asia? Why not make Bharat orange, or violet like in Vicky 2?). And while the mission tree grants claims on southern India, it then largely stops at local expansion and instead decides to become an overseas mission tree with claims on Yemen, Malaya and the Swahili Coast. Which is neat and all, but I'd rather have claims on Delhi. It's actually kind of weird how Delhi is the only Indian tag that has a mission tree that guides it towards forming Hindustan/Bharat.

So overall, where do I think Vijayanagar stands? Well, unless I find some major new tech it will retain the #2 spot in India. But considering that Jaunpur, the former top dog, was nerfed straight into oblivion and that Bahmanis became the new #1 simply by not being majorly hit in the version change, this should not be interpreted as really that much of an endorsement. In fact, playing Vijayanagar kind of makes me want to play Bahmanis again. But that has to wait for quite some time, unfortunately.

-----

became emperor, lost it and flipped to protestant, won the league war, became emperor, lost it and dismantled the HRE, formed Germany.

Problem is, when you want to form Germany no tag compares to Austria. HREmperor BBurg actually seems somewhat interesting with the flat +0.1 IA/month, but I have no interest having to deal with the kindergarten anytime soon. Actually though, how strong is that bonus compared to the +10% IA growth found in Austria's and Bohemia's idea sets.

The next time I play in Germany it will probably be Brunswick, starting with +1 Diplomatic Relations in the HRE is pretty neat and Hanover has been made easier to form while still offering a pretty great idea set.
 
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Everything's coming up Mulhouse Italy!

Why did I form Italy starting as Mulhouse, you may ask? Well, Italy used to have a huge IA boost - 50% or something, I think. It doesn't anymore. Italy was a mistake, should've formed Austria.

Why are there 134 princes in the empire, you may ask? Because I was really running out of time. See, here's the story.

Started as Mulhouse. Mulhouse is landlocked and weaker than all of its neighbours. Eventually, I managed to call the Palatinate into a war against Strassburg and Württemberg. Vassalised Württemberg and white peaced Strassburg (to keep alliance and not get coalitioned), and from there it was a slow crawl to great power.

I stayed a republic until around 1630, which was too long. Should've become monarchy earlier for PUs. I PU'd Spain in the 1600s (via war) and Commonwealth in 1700s (via RNG). Balkanised Iberia in the last 10-20 years to get enough imperial authority to push all the reforms before end date.
 
The best country in India:

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+ Afghanistan, Transoxiana, Fars, Oudh, Garha and QQ as vassals. Unfortunetely boxed in a bit in the west by the Ottomans.

Unfortunately lost a war against the Ottomans a few years back, forcing me to return Khuzestan to Persia (then Ajam). When I play Bahmanis next, i'll probably drop Defensive in idea slot 3 for Offensive, for the sole reason of being able to fight Ottomans before forming Deccan. Because the one thing that somewhat sucks about Bahmanis is their lack of military potency before forming Deccan in 1.30 - rest in peace, Permanent Marathas council. But then again, maybe a country in India chosing idea slot 3 for the express purpose of fighting the Ottomans 120 years later can be considered a reason to finally hit the Ottomans with a well-deserved nerf. +33% FL + full quantity + full offensive is absolute Bravo Sierra.

Though on the other side, the "idea slots deficiency" is probably a strong indicator that the country you are playing is extremely potent.
 
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Prester John marches into Constantinople!

I could have taken this further, but I was getting tired after finishing the achievement, and the Ottomans would still take five more wars to finish off. Ethiopia is a really fun game, first in scrambling to consolidate East Africa before the Mamluks turn their attention your way, finding allies in strange places. Bahmanis was an ally I got pretty early after getting a charter company in India and then immediately invading the nation that sold it to me, and they stayed friendly even as I conquered the Vijay coastline and Bengal. Then, the arduous wars of attrition against the Mamluks and Ottomans that ground down their manpower and professionalism through use of +attrition ideas and well-placed forts, finally getting the right military ideas to finally get on par with the Ottomans and beat them in a straight fight.
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By the end the Ottomans had more casualties in attrition than in battle, and I'm guessing that the majority of those are from their foolish attempts to invade my lands.
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The "Joseon one" (I use the Endonym empire mod).

It's never not fun to kill Ming, but it was pleasing for me to do it without the help of the unguarded nomadic frontier disaster.

Kalmyk spawned and was the last province I needed for the achievement, so decided to make them look a bit more imposing. And of course when a still Zoroastrian Yazd pops out of the Timurids it is mandatory to help them out.



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This is definitely the most beautiful Russia I ever had.

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Anyway, I got what I wanted

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19 achievements left.

And please, bring me that guy responsible for Pskovian national ideas. I have some very warm words for him
 
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Burgundy -> Lotharingia, ended because I picked the wrong CB against BBurg (Conquest instead of Enforce PU). Maybe one decade the CB UI will not be the worst thing in the world. Poland is a PU junior, because against them I picked the proper CB.

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Got the Mary of Lotharingia achievement at least.
 
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Current State of Affairs in Hard GB - > Restore Union over France in HYW Ironman Run

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Lost a couple coalition wars, have now regained all lost territory and built on it.

Recently ripped half the trade power out of Moluccas and Malaccas via imperialism CB;

when you see a one sided battle like this it is almost obligatory to stay up the rest of the Sunday night chasing that high, a glorious multi month affair that sucked in all of their naval power and allowed my landings un opposed.

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They arent even far behind in tech lol, it's merely BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES

That coupled with my slightly earlier consolidation of Champagne and English Channel provinces has led to half the Muslim and Half the Christian world united to end my perfidious Anglican ways.

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The two fronts are at home in Europe and currently in SouthEast Asia, moving towards Bengal/Myanmar, where 50 percent of my manpower troops (circa 130k) during the recent campaigns were located.

The Americas I can leave to my colonies and Africa is strategically awkward at the moment.

The rest of my troops and two 60k merc companies are at home in UK/Continental UK.

Slightly outnumbered with widespread, multiple theatres of operation?

Just the way I like it

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Till now I have been Neutral on the Revolution, allying with Originator and Firstborn of the Revolution Commonwealth and Russia both, while my absolutism isnt the highest due to English Monarchy and so stuff has spread minimally in my own lands, and of course I have not given in myself. Revolutionary Spain is a century long enemy.

However, Revolutionary Commonwealth declined my call to arms and may have proven to be a crucial ally; a pivot to pro Ottoman policy may be in my near future.

Currently both Rev Commonwealth and Russia are at war with Ottomans to spread Rev, big bummer for me.

Recently completed objective:
Conquer high trade power provinces of Moluccas and Malaccas.

Objectives to be concluded, meant to be completed in order listed prior to current coalition war:
Consolidate Ivory Coast and Southern Africa
Conquer High TP Provinces of Coromondel and Bengal
Consolidate North America

Ironically I can do multiple of these during this coalition war, but they are an impressive foe to be sure

Hoping for both naval and economic hegemon this game!
 

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France on normal difficulty.

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Diplomatic-Mapmode (all subjects / no allies):

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Muscovy with 600k troops : )

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Fairly pretty borders?

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High Dev Powerbase:

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