I haven't played EU4 in a while, but with art of war I decided to give it another go, and have largely been enjoying it. After a quick game as Castille to remind myself of the mechanics, I figured I'd have a go as Scotland. Unfortunately, it seems that Scotland's situation hasn't really changed from EU3. Its still too poor to build and support even a modest army, still has a pitiful force limit, and still relies heavily on 'the highlanders are coming' event. This means that Scotland has, effectively, one choice - conquer England ASAP. I'm guessing it might be slightly harder in EU4 with the scaling truce length giving England time to completely rebuild while your economy is still non existant, but I stopped playing after my first war with England when I realised I was just doing the old EU3 strategy.
See the problem I have with playing Scotland in that way is that, frankly put, its boring. What you end up with is a GB game where GB takes slightly longer to form and has a different set of ideas. Which is maybe fun once, or would be if the 'highlanders' event wasn't cheesy enough that it drains the satisfaction of doing so. But once you've made Britain with Scotland once (albeit in EU3 for me) there is really no point in ever doing it again - its effectively a standard GB game, only for the first several decades you are locked into one single strategy with little room for maneuvre. However, with the possible exception of one of those strategies where you relocate your kingdom to the new world or somewhere else, I honestly can't see any method to survive as Scotland which doesn't involve killing England as soon as possible.
To me this is annoying. I play these games primarily because I like history. Obviously I don't play them because I want to see history happen exactly as it did, but I enjoy playing as a nation and taking into account its historical goals to try and guide it to some success. But playing as Scotland you don't have anything representing the difficulties England had conquering it, but instead have a rather absurd event that pops up and gives you a ton of troops overnight. So rather than Scotland being a stubborn thorn in England's side - a minor threat, but a persistent one - it is instead a glass cannon, which at times presents an existential threat to England, but can't defend itself at all.
Now, I play these games largely because I like history and alt-history. But for the same reason that historical determinism gets bring, ahistorical determinism is boring too. I'd like to play a Scotland game to try and play as a minor northern European power, not to conquer England, but I don't know if it's possible. Admittadely, I'm not great at EU - I'm more a CK2 player - so its fully possible that there is some sort of trick I'm missing which would make surviving easier in some manner that doesn't require following the above strategy. So is there any way to stop England from attacking you which doesn't involve conquering them? Is there a way to survive in a Scotland game without gaining complete dominance of Britain? Is it possible to play as a somewhat historically beleivable Scotland and have a game with some minor expansion or is it kill or be killed?
See the problem I have with playing Scotland in that way is that, frankly put, its boring. What you end up with is a GB game where GB takes slightly longer to form and has a different set of ideas. Which is maybe fun once, or would be if the 'highlanders' event wasn't cheesy enough that it drains the satisfaction of doing so. But once you've made Britain with Scotland once (albeit in EU3 for me) there is really no point in ever doing it again - its effectively a standard GB game, only for the first several decades you are locked into one single strategy with little room for maneuvre. However, with the possible exception of one of those strategies where you relocate your kingdom to the new world or somewhere else, I honestly can't see any method to survive as Scotland which doesn't involve killing England as soon as possible.
To me this is annoying. I play these games primarily because I like history. Obviously I don't play them because I want to see history happen exactly as it did, but I enjoy playing as a nation and taking into account its historical goals to try and guide it to some success. But playing as Scotland you don't have anything representing the difficulties England had conquering it, but instead have a rather absurd event that pops up and gives you a ton of troops overnight. So rather than Scotland being a stubborn thorn in England's side - a minor threat, but a persistent one - it is instead a glass cannon, which at times presents an existential threat to England, but can't defend itself at all.
Now, I play these games largely because I like history and alt-history. But for the same reason that historical determinism gets bring, ahistorical determinism is boring too. I'd like to play a Scotland game to try and play as a minor northern European power, not to conquer England, but I don't know if it's possible. Admittadely, I'm not great at EU - I'm more a CK2 player - so its fully possible that there is some sort of trick I'm missing which would make surviving easier in some manner that doesn't require following the above strategy. So is there any way to stop England from attacking you which doesn't involve conquering them? Is there a way to survive in a Scotland game without gaining complete dominance of Britain? Is it possible to play as a somewhat historically beleivable Scotland and have a game with some minor expansion or is it kill or be killed?
