Tips for BLind EU4 warfare

[BlindGuyNW]

Hi ALl,

One of the problems i currently have with most Paradox games is that I can only review the map using the mouse cursor as a sort of cane, making it quite difficult to tell what's going on at a large scale. Combine that with the inability to tell when an enemy unit has moved into my territory unless I happen to mouse over it, and I'm at a slight disadvantage in terms of fighting wars.

I'm wondering if I'd lose anything by turning off the fog of war? Does it impact AI as well, or is merely for the concealment of things from the player?

I'm going to need all the advantages I can get in order to compete in a game of EUIV, it's not like CK3 where I can do a lot of interpersonal politics and avoid dealing with the map. The era the game is set in appeals a great deal, however.

Any advice on this issue would be greatly appreciated. I can handle the provincial management aspect of the game fairly well, I think, it's the warfare where things get complicated, as seems to be the case with most Paradox titles.

 

[tobias.mb]

To my knowledge, the AI isn't truly affected by fog of war, but it still pretends to be. My guess is, that turning off the fog of war won't make a difference on AI behavior. I've never tested it though.

For getting a better understanding about what is happening on the map, without actually seeing the map, I would recommend using the message settings and the message log. With a text-to-speach program, it is probably easier to keep track of the message log, than the map. With the right message settings, you get a message in the log, whenever an army starts a fight or tries to siege something.

 

[BlindGuyNW]

Thanks! I'm guessing it will probably also help to play at a low speed, so things happen slowly enough for me to react.​

Fortunately I can apparently center the map on any province using the "f," shortcut. My own units show up in the outliner even if enemies do not.

i discovered that all the messages which appear to show up on the map, for things like alliances between interesting countries etc. can be read fairly easily. I've not looked into the full message log much for fear of being overwhelmed though

I guess it's safest to only fight one or two countries at a time, but that probably applies for anyone, blind or not.

Thanks for the tips, they're very much appreciated. My goal is to avoid the actual map as much as possible just because its current implementation isn't very pleasant with my screen reader. I wish I had more reliable ways to do so.

 

[BlindGuyNW]

I'm curious, is the "war objective," system useful for this situation at all? I don't know how silly the AI is prone to be. I haven't actually played with it, is there more to it than just designating places for allied armies to try to attack?

 

[tobias.mb]

I've not looked into the full message log much for fear of being overwhelmed though

You are right; With default settings the Message Log is pretty overloaded, since every little thing gets a message.
That's why I mentioned the message settings. You can configure which messages should be displayed, and which you don't want to see. You can also set messages to appear as a pop-up and automatically pause the game. Maybe it will help you keep track of enemy armies, if you get a pop-up whenever they initiate a fight or a siege.

The war objective mechanic works decently. It might take some time, but usually the AI will properly prioritise the specified province. Of course, that's only as long as the AI doesn't get scared off by enemy armies or has more immediate problems, like taking back their own homeland. So, I wouldn't rely on the war objective mechanic too much.

 

[Howl]

Quite a difficult problem.
I think without the map you will be only reacting to the enemy on a situation that has already occured.
For example there are message settings for enemies starting to siege provinces or for fights starting. There are no messages for fights about to start or enemies just passing through your territory.

A brute force method of going through all available message log settings would be to simply activate all of them to pop up and pause. Then you will get millions of pop ups, but you can disable them when you notice you do not need them.

 

[BlindGuyNW]

Yeah. I'll have to try another war at some point and see how I make out. It would be easier if I had a way to interact with the map on a province level rather than having to pixel hunt, but I don't think there's an easy way to do that at the moment. At least it's a similar problem in almost all other Paradox titles