I started my game I just finished waaay back in April, as a psuedo (i.e. not-ironman) Ideas Guy run, with a random new world. Because I play at a glacial rate (and swap between various games) I have just finished. (Doesn't help I was writing up as I went for textual let's play for another forum. Probably not one that would interest most folks around here, since I don't ironman and I do save-scam...!) So, for kicks and giggles, I figured I'd share my final thoughts on stuff.
My first game was on 1.16-1.17, with only pre-Cossacks expansions, so this was my first playthrough with the more recent DLC (all aside from Third Rome).
(If you're interested on the custom nation set-up, it's in the OP of the aforelinked thread.)
I went from this
to this!
The capital, Cape Verde went from a 3 development province to a mighty 75-development metropolis!
The Necrolantic Empire spans all of Africa, running in an unbroken line across the south coast of Asia, their colonial nations ruling the entire of the Australia and the new world unopposed, wrapping back around to Iceland, Ireland and England, with the eastern half of Spain and an couple of enclaves in northern Europe.
Final income was 1614.22 ducats/month. It could have been higher, but I'd instead made a last-minute determined effort so that every province that could now sported a Grand Temple. Though final religious unity was relatively low, only 83%. But the Atlantians had stuck with their original faith, animism the entire game (which is definitely not one of the more powerful faiths).
Final thoughts, then, on this playthrough.
Estates: The biggy. Didn't like 'em. Sure the occasional boon you could squeeze out of 'em was nice, but the rest of it was just a huge pain. As the majority of the interaction you have with them is limited to "every 20-30 years," most of their actual interaction comes in the form of random events (usually a choice of "which way would you like to be screwed" since they very carefully made it so that virtually all of the interactions were +/-15 loyalty. Which drifts to 50 and below 40 they become disloyal. I liked the rest of the Cossacks content, so I may simply look for a mod to get shot of them in future, since I found, far from adding to the experience, the faff actively detracted from it. (Even their macro was tedious, since it only showed you percentages, to actually assign things to estates, you had to go to the individual province.)
States:. For the majority of the game, I thought the number of states nerf was way too harsh... But at that last gasp, I decided that, actually, maybe I didn't care, since had I had to double-core most everywhere I took, I'd have struggled for admin points, even with the quality of rulers I had.
Cape Verde: I really screwed up with the choice of Cape Verde for the capital, though. While a very flavourful choice, not only did it lock me out of spawning any institutions, being African it locked me out of all the very profitably African trade companies (less money, could have save me some states to use elsewhere), and being an island again meant I could only form client states in Africa, all of which made the job harder than it needed to be. I should have picked a province in South Africa, I reckon... But, on the other hand, it did give me immediate access to the random new world, so it wasn't all bad news.
Exploration/Expansion finishers: I definitely did NOT like the crap replacement for the old finishers for exploration and expansion (the latter which is now very much holding very little appeal now, given that the other admin ideas are all extremely competitive). Fabricating claims was extremely tedious, and it wasn't until I got imperialism it stopped being like pulling teeth. The further nerf by putting the only other option (deus vult) at the back end of religious and not the front meant that idea group is now vastly less attractive. Sure, it stops expansion, I can't deny that; but I would say that it emphatically ISN'T a good thing (especially as the map keeps getting more and more provinces) as far as making the game more entertaining goes. (Your milage and all that.)
Quality verse quantity idea groups: I dunno. It certainly was a fun experiment, but the later on in the game I went, the less difference it seemed to make. Probably stick with quantity next time.
Theocracy as a government: Well, the not losing stability on succession was nice, certainly - and the main draw - as was being able to get a bit of cash every time by picking merchant's son (and getting loyalty back with clergy estate loyalty back with generous donation, which was a smaller amount than the one gained)... But with the starting age being high and the heir immediate, it meant that the rulers didn't last long and king-over is tedious. Notably, Dionysia - our first ruler, with the set-up heir - ruled the longest by quite a margin. The lower absolutism cap was less of a bonus, though.
I think I made the right choice when I elected to save-edit and randomise my own rulers with my own adjusted range of rulers, as opposed to endless reloading which I would have done otherwise. While the time it took Notepad to open the save file took a bit towards the end, the endless reloading still took longer. (And no, no, I would not accept RNG on such an absolutely critical portion of the game as the generation of the monarch points, the game's single biggest resource. Hell, my next game may well be Rome - though there's 200 years of CK2 left, and there I have an immortal, which will solve both issues nicely.))
Random New world: It was certainly... Different. It being islands meant it was a LOT harder to lock off than America, especially as it took longer to reach; but on the same token, it also meant shipping troops across the waves a lot easier, especially given my powerbase was Africa.
Not being able to load a save because of the RNW was a pain, and probably contributed to this playthrough being slightly longer (224 hours) that the last one.
Sidenotes: It has been noted that the influenza event is being toned back, which is good because I hate that event more than any single other. Ye GODS that was a pain.
Remembering after 400 hours that the army/navu macro Was A Thing was good...!
I must remember that you do not, ever, have more than 100% overextension for more than maybe a month or two, no matter how tempting it is. The pretty map colours are not worth the unfun hassle.
Still, overall, I think I did much better this time around. Last playthrough, as Portugal, I had every off-shore island and continent ouitside of the Med and Baltic under the control of Portugal and its vassals; but I lucked out getting a PU over France and thus eliminated my biggest colonial competitor. This time, I did what I did all under my own steam. (But turnabout is fair play - France getting PU'd by the Commonwealth this time around worked against me.) And I managed to take all of one continent.
My probably next playthrough (once I wade through the last 200 years) is likely to be an imported CK2 run as Rome.
Still might revisit Necorlantis again with the EUIV to vicky 2 converter on day, it's be interesting to see what that would look like.
My first game was on 1.16-1.17, with only pre-Cossacks expansions, so this was my first playthrough with the more recent DLC (all aside from Third Rome).
(If you're interested on the custom nation set-up, it's in the OP of the aforelinked thread.)
I went from this
to this!
The capital, Cape Verde went from a 3 development province to a mighty 75-development metropolis!
The Necrolantic Empire spans all of Africa, running in an unbroken line across the south coast of Asia, their colonial nations ruling the entire of the Australia and the new world unopposed, wrapping back around to Iceland, Ireland and England, with the eastern half of Spain and an couple of enclaves in northern Europe.
Final income was 1614.22 ducats/month. It could have been higher, but I'd instead made a last-minute determined effort so that every province that could now sported a Grand Temple. Though final religious unity was relatively low, only 83%. But the Atlantians had stuck with their original faith, animism the entire game (which is definitely not one of the more powerful faiths).
Final thoughts, then, on this playthrough.
Estates: The biggy. Didn't like 'em. Sure the occasional boon you could squeeze out of 'em was nice, but the rest of it was just a huge pain. As the majority of the interaction you have with them is limited to "every 20-30 years," most of their actual interaction comes in the form of random events (usually a choice of "which way would you like to be screwed" since they very carefully made it so that virtually all of the interactions were +/-15 loyalty. Which drifts to 50 and below 40 they become disloyal. I liked the rest of the Cossacks content, so I may simply look for a mod to get shot of them in future, since I found, far from adding to the experience, the faff actively detracted from it. (Even their macro was tedious, since it only showed you percentages, to actually assign things to estates, you had to go to the individual province.)
States:. For the majority of the game, I thought the number of states nerf was way too harsh... But at that last gasp, I decided that, actually, maybe I didn't care, since had I had to double-core most everywhere I took, I'd have struggled for admin points, even with the quality of rulers I had.
Cape Verde: I really screwed up with the choice of Cape Verde for the capital, though. While a very flavourful choice, not only did it lock me out of spawning any institutions, being African it locked me out of all the very profitably African trade companies (less money, could have save me some states to use elsewhere), and being an island again meant I could only form client states in Africa, all of which made the job harder than it needed to be. I should have picked a province in South Africa, I reckon... But, on the other hand, it did give me immediate access to the random new world, so it wasn't all bad news.
Exploration/Expansion finishers: I definitely did NOT like the crap replacement for the old finishers for exploration and expansion (the latter which is now very much holding very little appeal now, given that the other admin ideas are all extremely competitive). Fabricating claims was extremely tedious, and it wasn't until I got imperialism it stopped being like pulling teeth. The further nerf by putting the only other option (deus vult) at the back end of religious and not the front meant that idea group is now vastly less attractive. Sure, it stops expansion, I can't deny that; but I would say that it emphatically ISN'T a good thing (especially as the map keeps getting more and more provinces) as far as making the game more entertaining goes. (Your milage and all that.)
Quality verse quantity idea groups: I dunno. It certainly was a fun experiment, but the later on in the game I went, the less difference it seemed to make. Probably stick with quantity next time.
Theocracy as a government: Well, the not losing stability on succession was nice, certainly - and the main draw - as was being able to get a bit of cash every time by picking merchant's son (and getting loyalty back with clergy estate loyalty back with generous donation, which was a smaller amount than the one gained)... But with the starting age being high and the heir immediate, it meant that the rulers didn't last long and king-over is tedious. Notably, Dionysia - our first ruler, with the set-up heir - ruled the longest by quite a margin. The lower absolutism cap was less of a bonus, though.
I think I made the right choice when I elected to save-edit and randomise my own rulers with my own adjusted range of rulers, as opposed to endless reloading which I would have done otherwise. While the time it took Notepad to open the save file took a bit towards the end, the endless reloading still took longer. (And no, no, I would not accept RNG on such an absolutely critical portion of the game as the generation of the monarch points, the game's single biggest resource. Hell, my next game may well be Rome - though there's 200 years of CK2 left, and there I have an immortal, which will solve both issues nicely.))
Random New world: It was certainly... Different. It being islands meant it was a LOT harder to lock off than America, especially as it took longer to reach; but on the same token, it also meant shipping troops across the waves a lot easier, especially given my powerbase was Africa.
Not being able to load a save because of the RNW was a pain, and probably contributed to this playthrough being slightly longer (224 hours) that the last one.
Sidenotes: It has been noted that the influenza event is being toned back, which is good because I hate that event more than any single other. Ye GODS that was a pain.
Remembering after 400 hours that the army/navu macro Was A Thing was good...!
I must remember that you do not, ever, have more than 100% overextension for more than maybe a month or two, no matter how tempting it is. The pretty map colours are not worth the unfun hassle.
Still, overall, I think I did much better this time around. Last playthrough, as Portugal, I had every off-shore island and continent ouitside of the Med and Baltic under the control of Portugal and its vassals; but I lucked out getting a PU over France and thus eliminated my biggest colonial competitor. This time, I did what I did all under my own steam. (But turnabout is fair play - France getting PU'd by the Commonwealth this time around worked against me.) And I managed to take all of one continent.
My probably next playthrough (once I wade through the last 200 years) is likely to be an imported CK2 run as Rome.
Still might revisit Necorlantis again with the EUIV to vicky 2 converter on day, it's be interesting to see what that would look like.