The doomed Scots - A Newbies learning AAR - Community Involvement Welcomed!

[Javaslinger]

This will be my first 'real' attempt at not only an AAR but a game of EUIII [IN].

I have had many false starts in the past, but always I am overwhelmed and utterly lost at how to start on the most basic of levels.

So here's my idea... I will walk you through my decision making process at each step. I will describe what I see as my options and the choices I make. Initially this will be very detailed and each post will only encompass a very brief period of gameplay.

As I get feedback, advice, explanations, etc, hopefully, things will gradually move faster. I encourage and plead for all EUIII grognards, experts, not so experts and even other newbies to chime in. Let me know what I'm missing, what I'm misunderstanding, what I'm under emphasizing, overemphasizing, doing wrong, stupid or perhaps right??

I by no means have any intention of doing well or surviving long.

I have chosen the Scots because it's pretty small and manageable I hope. In my brief trials, no one seemed to DOW me immediately. I'm sure there are better options, but what the heck..

If this AAR goes well, perhaps I will do another whereby I will integrate my new found knowledge and confidence from this attempt.

I hope that this AAR will aid other newbies in their first overwhelming attempts at EUIII.

Thanks and I hope I can make this a bit entertaining as well,

Javaslinger

 

[Enewald]

I am a newbie in eu3.

Really.

Haven't played it that muc. Neither IN.

Ah well, good luck!

 

[unmerged(49083)]

Trust me, Javaslinger being a newbie or a noob is great! This is no joke. This is because the game is rather challenging for you. When you get good at the game you, have to place rules upon yourself. Or increase the difficulty

 

[unddu]

Good luck! Scotland can be fun to play if done right

 

[Javaslinger]

And so we begin...

I'm playing on default settings with whatever difficulty is default. I imagine normal?

The game begins paused and I take the time to survey my vast empire.

It's seems I am largely a nation of fishermen. My largest province, Lothien contains a temple. Interestingly, a temple, my nations only 'building' seems to provide me a negative stability hit. I find this odd.

I am a nation of good god fearing Catholics. And none of my provinces contain heathens nor heretics. All is right with religion.

I have one standing army of 1000 men in Lothien. I have no idea of it's relative strength, but I imagine that's a bit on the smallish side.

My king seems to be pretty average. Good ol' King Rob isn't much of an administrator (1), and only slightly less shabby in diplomacy (2) and military(2). I have no advisers to begin with.

I've got a stability of +1 which I guess is not bad, 50 ducats in the treasury (seems a bit smallish), and +4 for prestige?

I am ranked 4th in the world presently which I am imagine will likely nosedive quite shortly.

I am well liked except by the heathens... screw them. England scores a 110 and we seem to be wary of each other. Understandable, I saw their entry in the 400m hurdles recently in Olympics, and he seemed quite sketchy.

There appears to be an island nearby owned by the Swedes. I don't like that at all. I think that should be my island.

Other than that, my other nearby neighbors seem to be the various nations on the old Isle of the Welsh.... Seems we're rivals... Could be trouble.

France loves me... What's not to love?

On to the income tab. I seem to be quite near a breakthrough in stability, but all else is distant. I am investing pretty evenly with 0.5 in Gov, Prod and Trade, and 0.6 in Nav, Land, and Stab. I have reached level 3 in all except stabily where I am about to reach 2....

My monthly income of 3.9 come largely from taxes (3.2) and the remaining from paltry production.

The bulk goes to my investments in research and for the time being I'm have little in the way of fixed expenses outside of some military maintenance cost. So I do get a bit back into treasury each month.

I have 2 merchants, 1 colonist, and 5 diplomats.... again, no idea of how those stack of relative to everyone else...

I got no boats, no generals, and no admirals. No national ideas... Some religious decisions to be made and some national decisions available to me....

That is what I see as of now... a ton of info... and I've really got no idea of what to make of it or how to size it all up.

I'm gonna take a breather, then I'll size up what I see as my imminent choices to be make...

All before I ever even unpause the game... wow... overwhelming.

Javaslinger

 

[unddu]

Temples don't give a hit to stab, instead they reduce the cost of reaching the next stab level. That's a good thing.

Also please use screenshots, a picture says more than a thousand words

If you need help, just ask away.

Also isn't Orkney owned by Norway?

 

[Javaslinger]

Alrighy then... Seems to me I should take stock of my situation and come up with a tiny bit of 'national' plan.

I see trouble with England. At least, given my background in history (I've seen Braveheart) I know I can expect nothing good from those down south. So I imagine I should beef up my military a tad bit. But given I'm surrounded by ocean I think I'll focus more on my navy. I always wanted to join the navy, but I never did... this is my chance.

I see some tabs indicating I have free advisor slots and a province decision to be made... Oh and a chance to move a slider.... Oh boy

Ok, first I'll pick an advisor... Ah, I have one option.. A 3 star advisor who will help out my land forcelimits... Well, that doesn't seem to jibe with my briefly sketched plan, but one is better than none surely. He want's 9 damn ducats! Expensive...

On to the slider move... something I understand that is rare and not to be taken lightly... So I will do just that! Again, with Braveheart as a reference, I know that while we may not have as many men or as fancy an army, we have spirit damn it all! So in game terms, this may me quality over quantity... And since we already seem to favor it a bit (+1 in that direction) we're going to favor it a bit more.

On to the province decision in Lothien.... It seems l have the option to have yearly festivals for the good people of the land. In return, they will be less likely to revold (damn straight I hope so!) and they will pay less taxes (likely because they'll be drunk and not working)... Ok, revolts are certainly bad, but I don't think I'm in any danger of that presently with a nice +1 stability. And the damn festivals will wipe out my entire treasury!!! So I think a big fat NO is in store here....

It seems I can check 'yes' by clicking the envelope, but I see no way of clicking 'no'.... so I'll just leave it be???

Ok, those are the imminent decisions that needed to be made...

Next I will ponder building an army or navy....

 

[Javaslinger]

Temples don't give a hit to stab, instead they reduce the cost of reaching the next stab level. That's a good thing.

Also please use screenshots, a picture says more than a thousand words

If you need help, just ask away.

Also isn't Orkney owned by Norway?

Ah, I new this would be helpful...

I will indeed include screenshots... just need to figure out how...

And you are correct, it is Norway which I need to boot into the water...

 

[EUROO7]

Are you allied with France?

That Quality move was good. You'll need it when the English attack.

For the province decision, you can just leave it there since there's no way to remove it.

To take and post screenshots, you can press F11 to save a screenshot of what's on the screen.

Then, when you exit the game, go to your EU III folder and open the "Screenshots" folder.

This is where all screenshots are saved. Here you can open them and change them to .jpg so they will be easier to show.

Then when they're all edited, upload them to a hosting site like Photobucket or Imageshack. You have to open an account with them, but it's free.

When they're uploaded, post the link under the screenshots in a post here in the paradox forums.

And that's how you can post screenshots.

 

[Javaslinger]

Sorry, but I need a bit more clarification on screenshots. I captured one, converted it to a JPG and uploaded it, but I'm not sure how to paste it into the AAR. I got a URL in it, but not a pic...

What size is standard or max for the images?

Also, what software to people generally use to edit their photos, change the size, and draw on them...

Thanks,

Javaslinger

 

[EUROO7]

When you post the link, make sure the tags around it are not but [IMG]. You can use any image editing software like paint or photoshop. :)

 

[Martman]

I would have recommended a move towards centralisation, since there's no downside to becoming more centralised (unless you go past the red line).

I wouldn't research evenly in all areas. You'll end up a jack of all trades, king of none. If you fall behind in tech, you start getting a neighbour bonus, which is basically free tech investment.

I would recommend reaching +3 stability ASAP followed by concentrating only on government to get level 4 and your first national idea. I usually take national bank first so I don't have to worry about inflation for the rest of the game.

Going for the Irish minors seems to be a viable tactic, but I think a war with England is inevitable. Don't attack England too early, but not too late so that they no longer have land on the continent. You want them to try to defend land on the continent against your French allies whilst you attack their northern provinces. France occupying their land also increases England's war exhaustion, making your life easier. Make sure it's you who declares the war though, otherwise France will be the alliance leader, which is a pain.

Anyway, that's the short term help I can offer, good luck!

 

[unddu]

Also: Dont waste precious ducats on crappy advisors that you will not be taking full advantage off. Scotland is not that rich.

 

[unmerged(92722)]

Yay more Scots My tuppence-worth is probably a wee bit controversial, in that most other folks disagree...... Suck up to the English for all you're worth. Bribes, alliances, royal marriages etc. If you fight them you need to be incredibly lucky to have any chance, and it'll probably degenerate into a trench-war slog. By which point other countries will have moved on (taken colonies, annexed one-province minors etc)

France, or any other European ally, won't be reliable at the start of the game either. If you need their help at an inappropriate moment they'll let you swing.

I'd find a way to expand colonially or on the continent....