This thread is intended as a guide / walk-through / tutorial game for newbies (like me), who want to get into Europa Universalis III (Divine Wind v5.1) by playing a game following the short instructions below. I think, this could be useful, because it took me weeks even to dare starting a game.
Why Minamoto?
1) Minamoto is the most powerful Daimyo among the four (the three others are Fujiwara, Taira, Tachibana)
2) Minamoto is Shogun already so it shortens the game.
3) Japan has no neighbors, so you don't have to deal with other countries. Playing as a japanese Daimyo is essentially EU3 in a nutshell.
4) You can learn the Personal Union-Strategy.
5) Japan plays quite well in Vanilla (beside odd missions concerning Japan itself et al.). After having learned EUIII, I want to upgrade to Magna-Mundi-Mod or MEIOU and it seems, Japan don't play well with these mods (Magna Mundi is not even upgraded for Divine Wind).
The downside is however, that playing as a Japanese Daimyo is quite specific, because of the Daimyo-Shogun-Emperor Relations and game mechanics.
The situation in Japan is as follows: You as Minamoto are a Daimyo, i.e. the ruler of the Minamoto-Clan, and the Shogun, i.e. the military ruler of whole Japan. But you are not the Emperor, who is located in Kyoto (red province in the center of Japan).
Your goal is to unify Japan and become the ruler of all Japan. In order to do so you have to eradicate your fellow daimyos. And for that you have to do "Personal Unions" (=PU) and / or warfare. You can't declare war on others straight ahead, because you need to stay below your Infamy-Limit. So you need a "Casus Belli" (CB) (= a reason for going to war with others). So do PUs as much as possible as soon as possible. After that go to war with CBs as soon as possible.
From now on I will follow more or less my last game. Obviously every game is different, so I try to point out, what will probably happen. If the game does not develop as planed, you can use Savegames. Well, let's go:
Please correct me, if I made mistakes.
For further readings beside the manuals have a look at:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?560297-Gela-s-EU3-AAR-for-Beginners-A-Guide
http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Main_Page
Why Minamoto?
1) Minamoto is the most powerful Daimyo among the four (the three others are Fujiwara, Taira, Tachibana)
2) Minamoto is Shogun already so it shortens the game.
3) Japan has no neighbors, so you don't have to deal with other countries. Playing as a japanese Daimyo is essentially EU3 in a nutshell.
4) You can learn the Personal Union-Strategy.
5) Japan plays quite well in Vanilla (beside odd missions concerning Japan itself et al.). After having learned EUIII, I want to upgrade to Magna-Mundi-Mod or MEIOU and it seems, Japan don't play well with these mods (Magna Mundi is not even upgraded for Divine Wind).
The downside is however, that playing as a Japanese Daimyo is quite specific, because of the Daimyo-Shogun-Emperor Relations and game mechanics.
The situation in Japan is as follows: You as Minamoto are a Daimyo, i.e. the ruler of the Minamoto-Clan, and the Shogun, i.e. the military ruler of whole Japan. But you are not the Emperor, who is located in Kyoto (red province in the center of Japan).
Your goal is to unify Japan and become the ruler of all Japan. In order to do so you have to eradicate your fellow daimyos. And for that you have to do "Personal Unions" (=PU) and / or warfare. You can't declare war on others straight ahead, because you need to stay below your Infamy-Limit. So you need a "Casus Belli" (CB) (= a reason for going to war with others). So do PUs as much as possible as soon as possible. After that go to war with CBs as soon as possible.
From now on I will follow more or less my last game. Obviously every game is different, so I try to point out, what will probably happen. If the game does not develop as planed, you can use Savegames. Well, let's go:
- Start a game and get acquainted with the User Interface. Don't unpause the game.
- Hover over the "Disputed Succession"-Flag at the top. You can see, with which Daimyos you can have a PU. With luck, you can have it with all.
- Switch to "political map mode" (shortcut: "w")
- Press "F1", go to "Leaders" screen, "Convert Ruler to general" and assign him to your 4-stack army.
- Go to "Government" screen and move first slider towards "centralization".
- Probably rebels arise.
- Spare your Money and don't choose advisors.
- Go to "Economy" Screen and mint money, i.e. "Treasury"-Slider towards right. This will give you much inflation, which is bad, but you need the money for your army. Later you can reduce Inflation through an "Advisor" and later through a "National Idea".
- Use first of your four Diplomats for "Offer Alliance" with Tachibana. You don't have a good Navy so you don't want to fight them. Always keep in mind that you need Diplomats for your diplomatic-actions like going to war or sue for peace.
- "Royal Marriage" (RM) with Taira and Fujiwara.
- Left-click on your provinces and build an army via "Recruit Regiment". Mostly Infantry ("Asian Longbows"). Don't go over your Land "Support Limit" (can be checked in "Military" Screen), which is 11 in the beginning.
- Unpause game and wait till your next diplomat will arrive in Taira on 14.Nov.1399.
- In the meantime hunt the rebells down.
- "Claim Throne" on Taira. You will get the "Claim on Throne Casus Belli against Taira"
- Wait till you get a new diplomat (Jan 1400 probably) and "Declare War" on Taira with "Claim on Throne" Casus Belli.
- You will face a "stability drop". In general: Always try to keep your stability at maximum at "3" (slider toward right). When this is done, move "government"-slider towards right.
- "Raise war Taxes" in "Economy" Screen. Defeat Taira by destroying their army and occupying their provinces. Then "sue for peace", "demand tribute" and "force Personal Union" [I am not sure, whether this is the correct term or not]
- Do the same with Fujiwara. Call your ally Tachibana, if neccessary. Keep in mind that your "Shogun Influence" (SI) has to be below 71 in order to declare a war on one of your fellow daimyos Use the "Shogunate Decision" "Enforce Sankin Kotai"; this will give you a 40-Point drop of your SI.
- Around 1403 you will have PUs with Taira and Fujiwara.
- Now you must improve your relations with Taira and Fujiwara as much as possible through "Send gift", helping defeat their rebels, "Proclaim garantee", "offer Allicance" etc. And you need good Prestige and Legitimacy and Shogun Influence. In short: improve every political aspect. Then wait till your ruler dies. Now there is a chance that your new ruler will inhert not only your throne but the thrones of Taira and Fujiwara as well.
- In 1406 I decided to conquer Ryukyu (=Okinawa) [Your SI has to be above 70 for a warfare outside Japan.] This was not a very good idea, because Ming protected them. On the other hand you can learn how combat works. All other Daimyos will some kind of unite with you temporarily against Ming. Ming will invade Japan and will probably block Tachibana with its superior navy. Defeat some invasion forces and than make peace with Ming via "concede defeat".
- In 1423 the new Minamoto ruler inherited the throne of Taira and by this Taira was integrated. This had not happened for Fujiwara, so the PU with them went on. [Btw: it seems that a ruler dies every 30 years or so.]
- In 1452 finally the new Minamoto ruler inherited the throne of Fujiwara. [I used savegames. This only happened after some reloadings.]
- Only one Daimyo (Tachibana) is left. I had no PU with Tachibana, so it will take some time. The odd thing is, from now on you have to reduce your SI (which is probably 100 at the moment). In order to do so you have to reduce your relations with Tachibana through "Send insult", which will give you as Prestige-Drop as well. Some other methods of reducing Prestige are: canceling missions and using spies.
- In the meantime reduce your inflation and build temples, constables and marketplaces (when your technology is high enough)
- When you can declare a war, send a spy and use "Shogun's Forge Claim on Daimyo". Conquer Tachibana piece by piece.
- In my game, Tachibana was defeated in 1487.
- Now you could unite Japan, but it seems, the benefits are too small and the disadvantages too hight. So it is probably better not to do so.
- From now on I actually don't know what to do further. Probably i will reduce infamy and then conquer some pacific countries.
Please correct me, if I made mistakes.
For further readings beside the manuals have a look at:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?560297-Gela-s-EU3-AAR-for-Beginners-A-Guide
http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Main_Page
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