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Thought I'd share my recent Russia game. Before you check the screenshots, I have to say I did fix borders with console after I deironmaned the save, but not as much as you might think from first impression.

Glorious mother Russia feat. client states, insane Ming, France and GB and some prettiest borders I've ever seen post Common Sense. French borders are absolutely natural, the only way I interfered with them is kicking France out of Italy. France PU'd Portugal earlier and has been biting land of struggling Iberians all game long. That's how they got the northern Africa and entire Iberian Peninsula.

GB lands in dutch region are a gift from me for standing with me against countless coalitions. Hooray for occupation transfer!

Ming was twice as big as it is on the screenshot and even now has bigger army than I do.

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Sphere of influence.
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Surprisingly, Sunni Islam is almost extinct.
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Culture mapmode. I have to say, Religious + Russian NI + Religious+Influence policy means 65% discount for culture conversion. Not too shabby. Although some Chinese and Buryats simply won't give up separatism ideas.
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Successful Great Britain is successful.

I understand how implausible this looks, but I only did two things here. First - I tagged as GB and diploannexed 5 native OPMs. GB didn't feel like conquering them thus spoil the borders. Second - I integrated all the CNs when I tagged as GB, so they instantly reappeared with original borders.

Rest is absolutely natural. GB has conquered its land in New World from Iberians midgame and France late game. Spanish were constantly at war with France, so they stood no chance. France was/is three times as powerful as GB on land, but AI can't handle naval stuff, so everytime France declared on GB, they never managed to occupy anything thanks to British fleet. In return, GB never managed to land on the continent, so they occupied all the colonial stuff and got it in a peace deal in multiple wars.

Britain has about 200 force limit, France has almost 3 times as much. French AI feels its advantage and keeps declaring, but fails to do anything when it comes to naval stuff.
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No matter what I did, Persia has never become rich.
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AT is easy and rewarding in 1.13.
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Trade screen. GB is outperfroming me on this for obvious reasons. Not too bad otherwise.
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Common Sense Gold changes are very handy. I'm also slowly falling in love with new manufactories.
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Future is bright for Romanov dynasty.
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Endscreen. GB's fleet and trade and Ming's standing army really make it look like I underperformed.
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I also thought it would be fun to turn my birthplace into City of Cities. It's really neither arctic nor mountains (hills at best). I almost feel bad for such impractical use of mana.
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I like my empires to have clean borders.

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(Coalition map mode for clarity of viewing)

What you can see in the blue is my empire. There aren't any vassals (yet - I've just taken the Caribbean provinces so a colonial nation will spawn there soon). Note the Galapagos Islands are mine too - basically the last province I could colonise.

Allies are Mexico (who have the fourth largest army in the world) and GB.

Not sure how much longer I'll continue this - if I go to 1821 it'll be the first time I've done so but I wouldn't get the achievement as I accidentally started this not in Ironman (I haven't reloaded at all though).
 
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I'm sure that's illegal in some parts of the world, and if it isn't, it should be. Mine eyen :(
 
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Britain has about 200 force limit, France has almost 3 times as much. French AI feels its advantage and keeps declaring, but fails to do anything when it comes to naval stuff.
mr8jMTB.jpg


Don't Mind, It is Historical
 
Britain has about 200 force limit, France has almost 3 times as much. French AI feels its advantage and keeps declaring, but fails to do anything when it comes to naval stuff.
mr8jMTB.jpg


Don't Mind, It is Historical
Is this a multiplayer game?
 
Recommended soundtrack:
WARNING: If you are a member of von
Habsburg family, it is recomended for you to skip this post or else you may drop dead.
BEHOLD: THE HUNYADI EMPIRE!
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Spain is in a PU, but France was integrated (it owned majority of African and Indonesian territory). Everything else in Europe is directly owned. Sweden is Hunyadi as well (goulash goulash). Say yeey for: Ethopia (had better quality army than me), Bahmanistan, Haasa, and Macina!
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Who cares about trade?
 
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My current norse Markland. I used a mod I recently made called Norse America.
 
Here is my "Auld Alliance Reversed" achievement run.

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Ended up getting "Master of India" and "The Rising Sun"

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Russia got the revolution so I got "This Revolution Was Crushed"

Had to form Great Britain at the end to get "An Industrial Revolution"

At one point I also got "World Discoverer"

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I never got to war with the Ottomans. Venice and Naples just went insane versus them.

At the end the PLC and Venice were both my allies and of my dynasty.

Austria got Hungary under PU very early and inherited them but with france and PLC I was able to lead the protestant league to victory. Bradenburg was emperor most of the game after that but at the end, The Hansa were emperor with only one reform passed.
 
Here is my "Auld Alliance Reversed" achievement run.

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Ended up getting "Master of India" and "The Rising Sun"

E639FCC01BD57353D80D9F882F8269CC8D626941

Russia got the revolution so I got "This Revolution Was Crushed"

Had to form Great Britain at the end to get "An Industrial Revolution"

At one point I also got "World Discoverer"

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I never got to war with the Ottomans. Venice and Naples just went insane versus them.

At the end the PLC and Venice were both my allies and of my dynasty.

Austria got Hungary under PU very early and inherited them but with france and PLC I was able to lead the protestant league to victory. Bradenburg was emperor most of the game after that but at the end, The Hansa were emperor with only one reform passed.

that commonwealth though :D
 
BBB? Kebab? Hah! The Commonwealth is the new AI blobbing monster.
 
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My Neumark -> Prussia -> Germany game. Allied Russia at game start and I used them to conquer Scandinavia and Denmark. Poland attacked me and Austria crushed them, I took a few provinces and they lost the union, so I eventually conquered everything but Galizia ( I Pu'd them later ) Russia and Hungary were my long term allies, but Russia rivalled me because they got the mission "Conquer Finland". I went protestant and enforced it in the HRE, but I never become emperor. As every german game, the AE was a pain.

Bonus: the blue thing in Britain is Colombia. They were allied with France. And all Persia is Ibadi now thanks to Oman. And Ethiopia PU'd Cyprus, enforced their religion and culture and lost the union, so Amharan Coptic Cyprus appeared.
 
I've seen a lot of Switzerlakes in this thread, but as most of 'em have been bordergoring blobfests, I thought I'd do something a little er... prettier. So here it is!

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I've seen a lot of people complaining about 1.13's aggressive expansion, particularly in the HRE. Personally, I love it, so I thought, hey, why not try to conquer every rich province in all of west/central Europe? So... I did. Fairly early, at that. Never even took administrative ideas, either.

Sixteen max-level fortresses formed a perfect shield around my blob, meaning that the provinces in the center of the empire had over a century of peace toward the end of the game. Even with that, it was tough. I know it's ahistorical, but I love the way the AI overdevelops their provinces. Keeps the challenge escalating right up to the end. My final war - for OPM Burgundy - involved a coalition including every single Christian nation in Europe save for my allies in Naples, Portugal, and Lithuania, with over a million soldiers on both sides.

France and Poland were both my long-time allies... until the 1700's, when I decided that I wanted both of their lands. I declared war on France on a whim, and very nearly lost. That was exciting.

Some fun facts:

- Muscovy survived long enough to spread to the Pacific, but then their lands were all taken by Mongolia, Japan, Buryatia, and Kazan. A war in the late 1700's returned many of their cores to them, but for about two hundred years most of central Asia was Mongolian. Muscovy's new capital is Manila, in the Philippines.

- Only two succession wars were ever fought: one occurred during an independence war between the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain, over the 'kingdom' of Choctaw. When the colony's war ended in failure, Choctaw regained independence. The other succession war was between Great Britain and Portugal over the independent realm of Nova Scotia. Yeah.

- The Netherlands were pushed out of Europe, fled to New Orleans, and became an OPM, where they developed until they had the richest province in the entire world.

Remaining a republic for the entire game was a goal of mine. Unfortunately, I re-elected a guy without realizing that he was 58 years old, RT dropped to 30, he proclaimed himself dictator for life, and then he died that December. By the end of the month I had dismantled the HRE and raised my own status to Empire, in a very successor-to-the-Romans sort of way. That dynasty, the von Rendsburgs, went on to lead the French Empire and the Kingdom of Bohemia (though I never claimed either throne). Two generations later, the Emperor died in battle against the Turks, leaving an infant on the throne. The infant died, and a seven-year interregnum began. I got a new dynasty, and for the rest of the game I found myself constantly fighting with the von Rendsburgs in my former allies, who probably considered themselves to be the true heirs to Switzerland.

Them CK2 feelings, man.

Just as with my Hungary game a while back, I made a gif showing my progress throughout the ages. I never lost a war this time, so that was something. Alas, Switzerland's colour is really difficult to see on the default grey, so I changed its colour a bit. Each frame is a new ruler:

Switzerland_coloured.gif
 
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I tried to recreate my best EU4 game I did a year ago.
Old game:
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And how I managed this time:
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I couldn't get those pesky french colonies in the american interior in time because France had powerful alliances with bohemia (hremperor) and hunagry and most of the other regional powers that I wanted to get an alliance with were rivaled to me. :(
I had also nearly completed my goal of taking all of italy, which I did much better than last time.
 
My Venice Ironman
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After a rough start. Austria and friends declared war four times, they have lost every war because I kept de-sieging provinces. France and Naples were a valuable ally and ofcourse my mercenaries army. In the last two wars I managed to conquer Tirol, Trent and Lienz.
Five wars with the Ottomans, only in the last two wars I made serious gains and kicked them out of Europe.
Hungary became a mess, so they released Croatia and Transylvania, I conquered both.
Moldavia broke free as a vassal from Poland, I conquered Bessarabia and it's valuable estuary.
Mamluks = easymode

I was choosing between Humanist Ideas and Maritime Ideas, eventually I took Humanist Ideas first because having all the traits of Humanist Ideas at the start of a Venice game is really a must!
 
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My Venice Ironman
QQKnEfL.jpg

After a rough start. Austria and friends declared war four times, they have lost every war because I kept de-sieging provinces. France and Naples were a valuable ally and ofcourse my mercenaries army. In the last two wars I managed to conquer Tirol, Trent and Lienz.
Five wars with the Ottomans, only in the last two wars I made serious gains and kicked them out of Europe.
Hungary became a mess, so they released Croatia and Transylvania, I conquered both.
Moldavia broke free as a vassal from Poland, I conquered Bessarabia and it's valuable estuary.
Mamluks = easymode

I was choosing between Humanist Ideas and Maritime Ideas, eventually I took Humanist Ideas first because having all the traits of Humanist Ideas at the start of a Venice game is really a must!

Venice is one of my favourite nations, so I would suggest two things: one is that religious is very powerful as venice (if you choose 'catholics first' then you can convert very, very quickly), the other is that you can win basically any war. Any time someone declares on you and you can't match them, trap them in Venezia. It's fairly easy to do and the -30% war score (at a small size) is easily balanced out when you have free run of their country.

Oh, and build more ships. Spam them galleys out, you can go massively over your FL because their maintenance is pennies. Don't ever build light or heavy ships though, you'll go bankrupt instantly.
 
I finally did a The Knights > Jerusalem (partialy inspired by Arumba doing it)

Went quite well:
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What I did was:

- Claim Achea/Morea/Athens, wait for Ottomans to attack Byzantium then make sure you get the occupation of those 3 provinces, Ottomans will peace out for only Constantinople and you take the rest.

- Now secure your alliance with Poland, I actualy managed to get both Poland and Venice as allies (allied both at the same time to avoid the 'you already have a strong ally in XXXX' malus)

- Now you can wait (and fabricate claims on Ottomans) for the right moment and attack the Ottomans, for me it was when they were in a war vs Mamluks, use your troops as active as possible, don't expect the AI to do all the work, they often take sub-optimal fights, so having those extra 6-8k troops can actualy help a lot to tip the fights in your favor (or at least to make their units survive long enough so that reinforcements arive)

- Take as much as you can from Ottomans, become stronger, repeat, now you basicly are already strong enough to start doing whatever you want, in my last war vs Karaman (they were still alive) I also took 1 province from Tunis so that i would border the Mamluks and I could use my Deus Vult CB on them (religous ideas were my first ideas) in that war I took the provinces needed to form Jerusalem.
 
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