Burgundy. 1444 start. Held off against France until the French-Austrian alliance tore me to pieces. Then it was just war after war taking me down bit by bit. Then the British took my few colonies. End game.
The Screw Up Thread
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During my WC game with England, I had won the HYW and PU'd France. Started integrating them around 1650-something when they had all their cores + additional provinces. Later, as integrating was nearing completion, I was also improving relations with France to keep their attitude with me as "Vassal". Needed that "improve relations" diplomat to do something else, and so I recalled it. Or at least I thought I did. What I had really done was cancelled the integration process when it was like 95% done. Goodbye to around 3000 dip points that I desperately needed. (I had to integrate France because they had created their own colonial nations and those apparently don't count towards the achievement.)
Also in that same game, I had PU's with France and Austria. For some reason, I forgot that negative prestige when your leader dies dissolves the personal union. Having accepted couple rebel demands, my 20-year-old king dies unexpectedly with my prestige around -20. I was able to re-force the PU with France with Restoration of PU casus belli and later got Austria as a vassal by having control of HRE, but it still set me back on my game for around 20 years (those extra years almost cost me my WC run).
Also in that same game, I had PU's with France and Austria. For some reason, I forgot that negative prestige when your leader dies dissolves the personal union. Having accepted couple rebel demands, my 20-year-old king dies unexpectedly with my prestige around -20. I was able to re-force the PU with France with Restoration of PU casus belli and later got Austria as a vassal by having control of HRE, but it still set me back on my game for around 20 years (those extra years almost cost me my WC run).
Kind of minor compared to some of these, but I was HR emperor with everything but the last reform passed, so I had free vassals. The plan was to basically have diplo relation-free vassals across most of Europe, and to feed them like crazy (while using slots on non-Euro vassals or potential PU targets).
So I get a province with a Byzantine core, core it myself, then release it. Then I wonder why the pop-up announcing the release of a new HRE prince doesn't fire, and I realize I hadn't added the stupid province to the HRE before releasing.
So stupid.
The extra relationship has probably caused me around 2-3 diplo tech levels so far. So bloody frustrating, and I really wish you could just add your vassal's provinces to the HRE.
So I get a province with a Byzantine core, core it myself, then release it. Then I wonder why the pop-up announcing the release of a new HRE prince doesn't fire, and I realize I hadn't added the stupid province to the HRE before releasing.
So stupid.
The extra relationship has probably caused me around 2-3 diplo tech levels so far. So bloody frustrating, and I really wish you could just add your vassal's provinces to the HRE.
I've lost countless explorers to forgetting about them until I just resorted to sending them to chained routes with coming back to port. Countless.
BUT. Brandenburg -> Prussia -> Germany, with France and Denmark as my great friends. At one point I decide to aid Denmark in their war. Then I notice France is with the attackers. An end to an age-long friendship and my army decimated, my lands looted. Definitely not ready to take on France yet. Darn.
Turned game off, never went back to that save again.
BUT. Brandenburg -> Prussia -> Germany, with France and Denmark as my great friends. At one point I decide to aid Denmark in their war. Then I notice France is with the attackers. An end to an age-long friendship and my army decimated, my lands looted. Definitely not ready to take on France yet. Darn.
Turned game off, never went back to that save again.
Sadly, and stupidly without paying attention, I too have declared war without a CB thinking I have one, stuffing my prospects royally.
France and Austria REALLY wanted that Burgundian Inheritance to fire, dammit!
As Denmark, integrated Holstein and Norway and The Hansa was no more. After the reformation half of my country was Protestant and I was full of revolts, so I've converted, but my king, who at the time was 30-something died and I lost Sweden. And sitting a -100 prestige most of my country with 8% RR and a regency. It took me almost a decade to be able to do anything at all, then I got called into a war against France.
MY HUNGARY GAMES
I had three of them both in EU3 and Eu4 and all of them were magnificent Screw Ups
Really, I played many countries and I always create fun empires even in Africa but I hate playing Hungary so much...
HUNGARY GAME NUMBER ONE, EU3
At first it was going nice. No, at first it was going perfect. I somehow managed to initiate great war of something like 20 - 25 countries against Ottomans (with me + Poland being initial ones) and completely ravage Ottoman Empire before 1444 so it never was a threat. Later my Hungary included the ENTIRE Balkans except few coastal/Greece provinces and my vassal, surprisingly strong Bulgaria.
It was fun and I had magnificent cavalry. I started joining Venice in Italian Wars. And oh boy believe me, they were the most dramatic wars ever fought in EU vanilla Italy the entire peninsula was burning like 4 times but finally my ally Venice dominated entire northern part while I had southern part.
So, where the Screw Up happened?
...
I have absolutely no idea how I managed to overlook such major thing but suddenly I realized my country has Eastern group, really poor provinces (Balkans...), 5 religions, like 10 cultures, no positive tech modifiers aaand guess what.
I somehow managed to turn Hungary into literally the most technologically backwards nation in the known world. Not only in the Europe, but also less technologically advanced than freakin Tatar Hordes, Mamluks, Arabia, Timurids and even some South East Asian
states if I remember properly Amazing achievement
This was one major screw up. Second major screw up was my brilliant Italian foreign policy which suddenly turned Venice into superpower much much stronger than me. I mean, I created idiotic situation when I have a country covering the entire Balkan Peninsula + Hungary + Austria + Sicily and I have less income per month than Venice covering northern Italy. Not to mention them being naval superpower, trade superpower and of course technological superpower. They would be crushed by alliances but I literally gave them Italy. The more I was desperately trying to modernize, the more I was backward and the stronger Venice was becoming. Finally I left this humilitating game. (although if I had the save currently I would play it just to observe epic incoming collapse of my pathological state)
HUNGARY GAME NUMBER TWO, FIRST GAME IN EU4
Soo I bought EU4, understood basic concepts, and decided to try Hungary. Hey, I have an experience with this nation, I though, right?
Yes but not in EU4.
I fell in love with EU4 despite Paradox completely destroying my state and my soul. I mean, for some reason I had insane problems with rebels. And I mean INSANE. I have never been playing so failed anarchy state as this Hungary. I don't remember myself having extreme difficulties with Austria/Ottomans/Poland, I mean I had difficult wars with them but it was not them who devastated me in this game.
Rebels...
I had peasant wars. Countless peasant wars. Heretics. Doubling stacks of rebels. Pretenders. Religious uprisings. Noble rebels. Nationalists. Patriots. Literally every goddamn kind of rebels possible for this period and place. And most of all, these goddamn
Serbian nationalists. For some reason I decided to conquer Serbia and this was major Screw Up: not only provinces were poor but Serbian rebels were always ready to siege 1/3 of my country. Second screw up: I released Bulgaria from Turkey, declared war on someone who was allied with Bulgaria and voila, I have created myself another challenge. And these Bulgarians were absolutely crazy in their will to destroy my state. Combine all these factors and I had situations when half of country was occupied by foreign forces, 1/4 was occupied by rebels, few other provinces were sieged, I had no manpower, 5 loans in the same time, negative stability, on the border of bankrupcy, no available mercenaries and with one last army with some good general. If I remember properly, I was molested by Venice, Bulgaria (lol), Austria and Bohemia and believe me, it was enough. I had 50 years of 'short peace - rebellion - invasion - rebellion - invasion - short peace' cycles and I finally was so exhausted I left this game.
HUNGARY GAME NUMBER THREE, SECOND GAME IN EU4
Ok. This time my country was epic. Most of Southern Europe under my 'sphere of influence'. Strong country. Good technology. Alliance with absurdly strong Poland (despite wars with Lithuania!). This time I screwed up because I somehow managed to be overplayed by AI.
This Sweden...
Sweden:
1) United Scandinavia
2) Completely massacred Russia
3) And Germany
4) Became the top technological nation of the world
5) With ridiculously strong army
6) And the best generals I have ever seen...
This was insane. Sweden was declaring war on Poland along with his ally Lithuania (sic) and few other lesser countries. We were doing nice until major Swedish stack arrived. Then we were dead. It doesn't matter if our armies were 2 times bigger, if I was trying scorched earth, hiring countless mercenaries, best generals, nothing: when Swedish Stack arrived, with some absurdly powerful general, it was conquering half of Polish empire, going to my Hungary, crushing resistance and hunting my last desperate armies
in Serbia (!) then returned to crush Polish armies again and generally completely f*** us...
Abandoned this game.
I had three of them both in EU3 and Eu4 and all of them were magnificent Screw Ups
Really, I played many countries and I always create fun empires even in Africa but I hate playing Hungary so much...HUNGARY GAME NUMBER ONE, EU3
At first it was going nice. No, at first it was going perfect. I somehow managed to initiate great war of something like 20 - 25 countries against Ottomans
(with me + Poland being initial ones) and completely ravage Ottoman Empire before 1444 so it never was a threat. Later my Hungary included the ENTIRE Balkans except few coastal/Greece provinces and my vassal, surprisingly strong Bulgaria.It was fun and I had magnificent cavalry. I started joining Venice in Italian Wars. And oh boy believe me, they were the most dramatic wars ever fought in EU vanilla Italy
the entire peninsula was burning like 4 times but finally my ally Venice dominated entire northern part while I had southern part.So, where the Screw Up happened?
...
I have absolutely no idea how I managed to overlook such major thing but suddenly I realized my country has Eastern group, really poor provinces (Balkans...), 5 religions, like 10 cultures, no positive tech modifiers aaand guess what.
I somehow managed to turn Hungary into literally the most technologically backwards nation in the known world. Not only in the Europe, but also less technologically advanced than freakin Tatar Hordes, Mamluks, Arabia, Timurids and even some South East Asian
states if I remember properly
Amazing achievement This was one major screw up. Second major screw up was my brilliant Italian foreign policy which suddenly turned Venice into superpower much much stronger than me. I mean, I created idiotic situation when I have a country covering the entire Balkan Peninsula + Hungary + Austria + Sicily and I have less income per month than Venice covering northern Italy. Not to mention them being naval superpower, trade superpower and of course technological superpower. They would be crushed by alliances but I literally gave them Italy. The more I was desperately trying to modernize, the more I was backward and the stronger Venice was becoming. Finally I left this humilitating game. (although if I had the save currently I would play it just to observe epic incoming collapse of my pathological state)
HUNGARY GAME NUMBER TWO, FIRST GAME IN EU4
Soo I bought EU4, understood basic concepts, and decided to try Hungary. Hey, I have an experience with this nation, I though, right?
Yes but not in EU4.
I fell in love with EU4 despite Paradox completely destroying my state and my soul. I mean, for some reason I had insane problems with rebels. And I mean INSANE. I have never been playing so failed anarchy state as this Hungary. I don't remember myself having extreme difficulties with Austria/Ottomans/Poland, I mean I had difficult wars with them but it was not them who devastated me in this game.
Rebels...
I had peasant wars. Countless peasant wars. Heretics. Doubling stacks of rebels. Pretenders. Religious uprisings. Noble rebels. Nationalists. Patriots. Literally every goddamn kind of rebels possible for this period and place. And most of all, these goddamn
Serbian nationalists. For some reason I decided to conquer Serbia and this was major Screw Up: not only provinces were poor but Serbian rebels were always ready to siege 1/3 of my country. Second screw up: I released Bulgaria from Turkey, declared war on someone who was allied with Bulgaria and voila, I have created myself another challenge. And these Bulgarians were absolutely crazy in their will to destroy my state. Combine all these factors and I had situations when half of country was occupied by foreign forces, 1/4 was occupied by rebels, few other provinces were sieged, I had no manpower, 5 loans in the same time, negative stability, on the border of bankrupcy, no available mercenaries and with one last army with some good general. If I remember properly, I was molested by Venice, Bulgaria (lol), Austria and Bohemia and believe me, it was enough. I had 50 years of 'short peace - rebellion - invasion - rebellion - invasion - short peace' cycles and I finally was so exhausted I left this game.
HUNGARY GAME NUMBER THREE, SECOND GAME IN EU4
Ok. This time my country was epic. Most of Southern Europe under my 'sphere of influence'. Strong country. Good technology. Alliance with absurdly strong Poland (despite wars with Lithuania!). This time I screwed up because I somehow managed to be overplayed by AI.
This Sweden...
Sweden:
1) United Scandinavia
2) Completely massacred Russia
3) And Germany
4) Became the top technological nation of the world
5) With ridiculously strong army
6) And the best generals I have ever seen...
This was insane. Sweden was declaring war on Poland along with his ally Lithuania (sic) and few other lesser countries. We were doing nice until major Swedish stack arrived. Then we were dead. It doesn't matter if our armies were 2 times bigger, if I was trying scorched earth, hiring countless mercenaries, best generals, nothing: when Swedish Stack arrived, with some absurdly powerful general, it was conquering half of Polish empire, going to my Hungary, crushing resistance and hunting my last desperate armies
in Serbia (!) then returned to crush Polish armies again and generally completely f*** us...
Abandoned this game.
I've done this a couple times: instead of improving relations with someone I want to like me, insulting them. :S
Hehe I've done that:
Hey why does Brandenburg suddenly not love me anymore.... Ah I see!
Still not as bad as trying to get Portugal out of the war quickly with a concede defeat, only to find if you're the emperor the "revoke a reform" button is in the place concede defeat usually is..... yay for that!
Did a Crusade war against the Ottomans so I could vassal feed a few territories to Moldavia, Wallachia and Bosnia and core one for myself. Tryed to plan out ahead of time who I was going to give what to...lost track of how I was doing it and realized too late I had isolated a province and couldn't core it for myself. Learned however that once a vassal had a core connecting me to that province, I became within distance to core it.
Learned however that once a vassal had a core connecting me to that province, I became within distance to core it. 
Playing as France I decided that while I was at war with england and waiting for the warscore to tick up, I'd declare war and vassalize Brittany as well,as there weren't allied with anyone so I did so. Just after I do so I recieved a message that Burgundy,Spain,Portugal and most of the HRE had joined a coalition against me. Just after that Burgundy declares war against me,citing Coalition as it's CB,which is when after seeing the size of the army I had to repel, I decided to restart..
It's a pretty minor one, but in my recent Denmark game I had the bright idea to release Gotland as a vassal and sell my Skane to it in order to get into the HRE instead of selling the two provinces to Sweden. Cost me a perfectly good diplo-slot for twenty-odd years.
Also, in my very first EU4 game as Castile/Spain, I decided it was safe to ignore some rebels on Cape Verde, thinking they were peasants. I was rather surprised to get the pop-up a few years later informing me that I was now a noble republic.
Also, in my very first EU4 game as Castile/Spain, I decided it was safe to ignore some rebels on Cape Verde, thinking they were peasants. I was rather surprised to get the pop-up a few years later informing me that I was now a noble republic.
Just had a big one as Ayutthaya. I'd just Westernized and was merrily blobbing away, gobbling up continental SE Asia without any difficulty. I then decided to go for big money and seize the Strait of Malacca and DOW'ed Aceh. When I did, I got a notification saying that the Timurids would get called in due to them being the Sunni Defender of the Faith. Eh, whatever, I figured, they aren' t gonna come all the way over here.
Next thing I know, I have a bunch of ENORMOUS damn Timmy doomstacks marching down from the Himalayas into my unsuspecting heartland.
The carnage was pretty spectacular. I've never been owned so hard by the AI in a Paradox game before.
Next thing I know, I have a bunch of ENORMOUS damn Timmy doomstacks marching down from the Himalayas into my unsuspecting heartland.
The carnage was pretty spectacular. I've never been owned so hard by the AI in a Paradox game before.
Q: You want to go through a door do you:
1: Walk directly into the wall next to the door.
2: Run head first into the door, because it opens the other way
3: Look slightly silly trying to open the door the wrong way
4: Try to restart the game, until you get no doors.
1: Walk directly into the wall next to the door.
2: Run head first into the door, because it opens the other way
3: Look slightly silly trying to open the door the wrong way
4: Try to restart the game, until you get no doors.
im currently successfully trashing the world as byzantium, but oh god were there multiple failures, some with 4 hours invested
ok, so I knew I was being a biiiiittt greedy, but I didnt think these chances came every day, stupid ottomans were getting thrashed by the timurids, their leader died and they went into regency, well this is a great time to attack them
and then they peaced out immediately, and my good bro ally poland, who had quickly integrated moldavia, but wouldnt come to my war, let crimea come though and single handily destroy me, because, yea, allies should totally give military access to people you are fighting
oh and there was another one, i was warned by the ottomans, but hey, again they were now fighting muscovy, and hey, they had warned me before and i still declared war on bosnia and vassalized them without repercussions, surely i can do the same to wallachia, and no, they declare war on me, and im such a huge threat they march a 26 stack back to rape me, again with my ally poland giving them permission, not that it mattered this time as their + crimea + algiers navy killed mine
final byzantium fail, ok good job bro, you allied austria this time, not those stupid pollocks, and hey they actually join your wars, cause they are such good bros, you have kicked the ottomans out of europe and have reduced them to a few surrounded provinces in asia minor, why not declare war on the mamluks, those silly cats, oh what, your army nearly twice the size, defending in mountains, just died defending with a +2 bonus because they have a 5/6/5 leader are a bit ahead in tech, and you have a 2/2/2 leader even with like 60 army tradition lel oh the whole time austria sent nothing, because i guess they cant actually get access, to you know, help you
Foul language removed - Seelmeister
ok, so I knew I was being a biiiiittt greedy, but I didnt think these chances came every day, stupid ottomans were getting thrashed by the timurids, their leader died and they went into regency, well this is a great time to attack them
and then they peaced out immediately, and my good bro ally poland, who had quickly integrated moldavia, but wouldnt come to my war, let crimea come though and single handily destroy me, because, yea, allies should totally give military access to people you are fighting
oh and there was another one, i was warned by the ottomans, but hey, again they were now fighting muscovy, and hey, they had warned me before and i still declared war on bosnia and vassalized them without repercussions, surely i can do the same to wallachia, and no, they declare war on me, and im such a huge threat they march a 26 stack back to rape me, again with my ally poland giving them permission, not that it mattered this time as their + crimea + algiers navy killed mine
final byzantium fail, ok good job bro, you allied austria this time, not those stupid pollocks, and hey they actually join your wars, cause they are such good bros, you have kicked the ottomans out of europe and have reduced them to a few surrounded provinces in asia minor, why not declare war on the mamluks, those silly cats, oh what, your army nearly twice the size, defending in mountains, just died defending with a +2 bonus because they have a 5/6/5 leader are a bit ahead in tech, and you have a 2/2/2 leader even with like 60 army tradition lel oh the whole time austria sent nothing, because i guess they cant actually get access, to you know, help you
Foul language removed - Seelmeister
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I was going along as merry as an Ottoman can be. While waiting for the Rebels in Constantinople to make me an Orthoman I vassalized Granada, DoW a Coalition against Poland and started jostling with Venice. Everything was great! I had a 6/5/6 heir and was going along the Humanism group without a worry in the world, a surefire WC in the making. 2 months out from Orthodoxization I got the third idea without thinking too much about it. Then, I lost 50 prestige without change of religion. I was stunned. What? Then I noticed that nowadays, Tolerance also counts for Religious Unity and it pushed me over the limit. I was so busy with this I forgot to move my armies. None of them made it out of Poland. I'm not playing that save again. Ever.
Don' panic!
My newest screw-up happened during my current game.
So I'm playing a England - Ironman game and all starts, as for me, expected.
- Being kicked out of France(But hey, I dont want their stupid land anyway!).
- Start running around the British Isles and Ireland, conquering stuff.
Now I ask myself, should I fear France? Nah, I got my fleet and theirs is no more(two wars did that), so no worries there.
Then disaster strike and I panik:
My good friend and ally Austria call's me into a war against The Hansa,"Sure I'll help".
I send my fleet to crush theirs and blokade their ports, and then I forget all about it.
- Suddenly the message: "A ship has been lost in Storebælt"!
I just manage to select the fleet in time for me to see it sink beneath the waves!
Okay, all is not yet lost!
Then pretender rebels pops up in Ireland, peasant uprising in Scotland and Heretics in England!
Its all fun and games until I discover that my army maintinance is at min.
My armies gets destroyed, but thanks to mercs I manage to take back control of my realm.
So now I have 0 manpower, a nice income (due to lack of both army and navy) and 4 loans that still needs to be repaied.
-Then France DoW's me Forces me to release Wales and all of Ireland!
After all this I decide to ignore Europe and go for the new world.
Now it's 1657 and France literatly control 1/3 of Europe due to PU and integration of both Scandinavia and some other minor stats.
My newest screw-up happened during my current game.
So I'm playing a England - Ironman game and all starts, as for me, expected.
- Being kicked out of France(But hey, I dont want their stupid land anyway!).
- Start running around the British Isles and Ireland, conquering stuff.
Now I ask myself, should I fear France? Nah, I got my fleet and theirs is no more(two wars did that), so no worries there.
Then disaster strike and I panik:
My good friend and ally Austria call's me into a war against The Hansa,"Sure I'll help".
I send my fleet to crush theirs and blokade their ports, and then I forget all about it.
- Suddenly the message: "A ship has been lost in Storebælt"!
I just manage to select the fleet in time for me to see it sink beneath the waves!
Okay, all is not yet lost!
Then pretender rebels pops up in Ireland, peasant uprising in Scotland and Heretics in England!
Its all fun and games until I discover that my army maintinance is at min.
My armies gets destroyed, but thanks to mercs I manage to take back control of my realm.
So now I have 0 manpower, a nice income (due to lack of both army and navy) and 4 loans that still needs to be repaied.
-Then France DoW's me
Forces me to release Wales and all of Ireland!After all this I decide to ignore Europe and go for the new world.
Now it's 1657 and France literatly control 1/3 of Europe due to PU and integration of both Scandinavia and some other minor stats.
Was playing as Sweden, and went to war with Muscovy for some of their northern provinces(I think it was kola and something else). They had just finished a bad war with ottomans and Crimea and had only 15k standing army and 2k manpower, compared to my 30k troops and then another ~40k brought by my polish-Lithuanian allies. War goes well for first few months, then i went to get some food thinking I had paused.Came back to the game half an hour later and found I hadn't paused and I had left all my 30k troops, witch I had split into two 15k armies, in very low supply limit provinces lost all my ~40k manpower, Muscovy had occupied most of my country was at minus 1 stability, 15 WE and denmark had declared war on me bringing in half of the HRE.
And it was ironman so I had wasted hours of gameplay and a very good start with one small mistake
My other big one was playing as Venice i had released Byzantium as a vassal and had returned all their cores to them, all was going well i had taken over most of Italy and parts of Austria and Hungary, and the ottomans were a mess.
then..... i went to annex byzantium and instead of clicking "annex vassal" I clicked the "break vassalisation" button and clicked confirm, and as i did this really quickly i didn't notice i clicked the wrong button till it was too late. So 20+ years of work feeding byzantium wasted, really bad relations hit, and absoluty no chance of getting them as a vassal again. Took me another half a century to kill them.
And it was ironman so I had wasted hours of gameplay and a very good start with one small mistake
My other big one was playing as Venice i had released Byzantium as a vassal and had returned all their cores to them, all was going well i had taken over most of Italy and parts of Austria and Hungary, and the ottomans were a mess.
then..... i went to annex byzantium and instead of clicking "annex vassal" I clicked the "break vassalisation" button and clicked confirm, and as i did this really quickly i didn't notice i clicked the wrong button till it was too late. So 20+ years of work feeding byzantium wasted, really bad relations hit, and absoluty no chance of getting them as a vassal again. Took me another half a century to kill them.
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On a Golden Horde game going for the Great Khan achievement, I conquered Vladimir off Muscovy, intent on selling it to my vassal Ryazan to build them up and save me the admin points etc for coring. So once we're all at peace, click on Ryazan, select Sell Province, hey yeah I'll have 20 gold for it, then to my horror see that I appear to have just sold it back to Muscovy. God I hate Ironman sometimes...