How is your EU4 Game going?

[NBAfan]

that's a riot


There's no infamy anymore, nothing to stop you from taking as much land as you want in peace deals. I conquered and cored all of the British isles by 1510 as Scotland and had the majority of North America and the entirety of the Caribbean under my thumb by 1600.

Yes there is, it's now called Aggressive expansion and only has a local effect.

Because coring is so damn easy. With the British provinces, they didn't add much overextension and they were very quick to core - colonizing doesn't add overextension and you just have to eat the natives in bite sized chunks while you core them.

Seriously. Coring is too easy.

It may seem easy, but you have to remember that points spent on coring are points that can't be spent on tech, ideas, and stability.

 

[Civ'ed]

Yes there is, it's now called Aggressive expansion and only has a local effect.
It may seem easy, but you have to remember that points spent on coring are points that can't be spent on tech, ideas, and stability.

and buildings.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

I done goofed. I didn't realize how important Trade was in this game. In retrospect I should have gotten the proper ideas as Spain to start colonizing the New World right away so that I could have profited off of the trade opportunities. Instead I'm embroiled in war after war in Africa taking provinces that appear to be mostly useless. Sigh. If it wasn't already the early 1700's I'd restart but at this point I might as well see it out to the end, I'm starting to take more and more of the Ivory Coast so maybe I can turn it into some trade profits.

 

[uat2d]

Do tell me, what is the flavor text for "The Aztecs need to be Saved"?

"Our priests are worried about the eternal salvation of the Aztecs, they need to be brought into the worship of our Lord and Saviour. Non nobis, Domine, Domine, non nobis, Domine. Sed nomini, sed nomini, tuo da gloriam."

Spoiler :

The world in 1576, I've started integrating Ireland:



While in the beginning I couldn't even convert Andalusia and Northern Africa, now, even without any religious ideas, I can so easily convert provinces which just flipped their religion:



The Incan coastline and an insane amount of dosh:



Instant cores in Ireland

 

[germanicus12]

Just inherited France, suddenly my colonial empire doubled in size. Now have colonies in both North America (mine) and the Caribbean (France). Forgot to include a pic of my colonies, will remember to do so next time.

Spoiler :

 

[GAGA Extrem]

*Ahem*
It might be shameless advertisting, but I'd like to inform you that I have recently created the (obligatory) Balance Improvement Mod for the newest Paradox game.
It features a complete rebalance of NIs, modifiers, techs, units, etc. pp. and also adds a few small features like limited randomization of republic rulers, addition of some EU3 advisor types and a 1399 start date.

I have also scripted a small tool that simulated EU4 sieges and can be used to calculate statistics for the different siege parameters (e.g. how long will a fort level 4 province hold on average? What is the lowest number of rolls you need to capture a level 5 fort in a costal province?). Still in beta, so there might be some bugs, but the core functions are implemented. You can get it HERE.

 

[Mosher]

Yes there is, it's now called Aggressive expansion and only has a local effect.

Aggressive expansion doesn't stop your expansion in the same way infamy does. You can just send a diplomat to increase relations with important nations whose relations you trashed and who cares about the rest?

Infamy worked better.

 

[bonefang]

okay, can someone please confirm if it is possible to play EU4, without a graphics card ? I dont wanna get the game and then end up low specs.

 

[Civ'ed]

So I've started a legit game with a mod that adds in a Sunset Invasion-esque Inca and Aztec (so with High American tech) and Vinland. As the Inca.
There is no better way than to get used to game mechanics than a Sunset Invasion Inca.

Spoiler :

I've expanded a bit, colonizing Ecuador and Chile. My first idea set is exploration, second is probably economy-related because all of that gold inflation.
Why did I go with exploration first?
The Mod I'm using changes the Americas so that:

• Vinland exists
• Aztecs are High American and rule over Zapotec lands
• Incas are High American

Of these:

• Vin national ideas focus on American colonization
• Aztecs focus on invading Europe
• Incas focus on defense really

Of course, I'm not going to be able to defend that with just artillery and spearmen. So I want to colonize a bit to get as far away from Europe as possible. I might eventually even attack Mali or Kongo or something so I have a proper colony.

 

[Nintz]

okay, can someone please confirm if it is possible to play EU4, without a graphics card ? I dont wanna get the game and then end up low specs.

The bare minimum graphics units required are either a Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT or an AMD Radeon X1900 Series (or equivalent). Even those are going to most likely require very low settings. A integrated Intel chip will most likely not be able to run this at all.

 

[NBAfan]

Aggressive expansion doesn't stop your expansion in the same way infamy does. You can just send a diplomat to increase relations with important nations whose relations you trashed and who cares about the rest?

Infamy worked better.

There aren't enough diplomats to deal with 10-15 countries that are outraged with you. Plus, when your AE gets high enough that +100 isn't going change their mood from being outraged.
Additionally, there's also massive over extension penalties when you expand to far.

 

[Quintillus]

okay, can someone please confirm if it is possible to play EU4, without a graphics card ? I dont wanna get the game and then end up low specs.

Well, if you have the latest Intel Iris Pro integrated graphics, you might be able to get medium. And similarly, if you have the latest AMD integrated graphics, you might be able to get medium-low, maybe medium at lower resolutions. Anything else, and low is the best you'll be able to get, and it may or may not be playable then. The rough order of integrated graphics would be:

Intel Iris Pro (mid 2013 - should play, maybe even medium at lower res) -> AMD Piledriver (2012 - should play, medium-low) -> Intel HD 5000/HD 4600 (mid 2013) -> AMD Bulldozer (2011) -> Intel HD Graphics 4000 (2012 - at this point performance will likely be low even at the lowest settings, though since it's a strategy game it may be playable. I was able to play a different game that gave an 8800 GT as minimum with an 8600M GT, an older GPU that's roughly equivalent to the HD Graphics 4000, and got 20-25 FPS on Low at 1024x768, but I haven't tried EU4 on that computer).

There is a demo, so I'd recommend trying that and seeing if it gives acceptable performance. Especially if your integrated graphics card is listed higher than the HD 4000 in the rough list above.

 

[NBAfan]

EU4 runs pretty well at max settings on my laptop that has the Intel HD4000 (i5 CPU) graphics.

 

[bonefang]

the laptop i use, was purchased in 2004.
the things you guys speak of, my lappy hasn't even heard of them

some months of saving required to upgrade my desktop now

Thanks a ton guys.

 

[Nintz]

the laptop i use, was purchased in 2004.
the things you guys speak of, my lappy hasn't even heard of them

some months of saving required to upgrade my desktop now

Thanks a ton guys.

You can usually get a passable laptop for ~ $400 on places like Amazon. Not great and they'll be more or less obsolete within a year, but you'll be able to play most of the new games for that year or so, if on low settings. Of course, saving up a bit more ($700 or so) will allow you to get a pretty good desktop if you know where to look. This forum (and most other video game forums) have dedicated tech areas, so don't hesitate to ask the people there what to get and where. They can get you some really great values from time to time.

 

[Mosher]

You can usually get a passable laptop for ~ $400 on places like Amazon. Not great and they'll be more or less obsolete within a year, but you'll be able to play most of the new games for that year or so, if on low settings. Of course, saving up a bit more ($700 or so) will allow you to get a pretty good desktop if you know where to look. This forum (and most other video game forums) have dedicated tech areas, so don't hesitate to ask the people there what to get and where. They can get you some really great values from time to time.

If you build your own rig, you can float $600 on parts and get a $1500 rig. They're pretty easy to build, too, as long as you get someone to help you pick out parts.

 

[NedimNapoleon]

Building rigs is much much cheaper and its not even hard. People usually dont want to meddle with such affairs (oh gawd they might break something!) so the hardware selling companies put mediocre parts in a good case and sell them for up to two times the value of said parts if bought piece by piece

 

[Dell19]

If you build your own rig, you can float $600 on parts and get a $1500 rig. They're pretty easy to build, too, as long as you get someone to help you pick out parts.

When I was looking I ended up finding an online store that was offering PCs that when including the OS, were slightly cheaper than the individual components. Your price difference seems extreme but maybe its different in the US.

Also not everyone will know someone who they trust to give a list of components etc.

 

[Mosher]

When I was looking I ended up finding an online store that was offering PCs that when including the OS, were slightly cheaper than the individual components. Your price difference seems extreme but maybe its different in the US.

Also not everyone will know someone who they trust to give a list of components etc.

The OS is a problem but if you have the disk from your old rig you don't have to buy a new copy...

The price difference really is that extreme, though. For a high quality, prebuilt desktop you're going to pay a lot more than if you decide to just build your own.

 

[germanicus12]

Update on my England game. Mostly focused on colonizing and expanding my navy to protect my now extensive trade networks.

Spain and Austria refuses to join any wars that sees me on the other side, so the smaller nations of the HRE that wish to expand simply request an alliance with me and wage war on their small neighbors, without fear of Austria (always Emperor) intervening. East Freisland has become rather powerful in the north by abusing this system. Burgundy collapsed as a result of my alliances with their smaller neighbors and now is Protestant.

Haven't yet waged much war against the natives in North America due to my constant attention in Europe as I get dragged into wars. The AI seems to wage war slightly better here, always waiting for my large force to get bogged down in a battle with a smaller force then they gang up on my larger force until it gets to the point where they outnumber my own army, and I am forced to bring in another army to rescue my now beleaguered forces. I have to now attach supporting armies to my field armies just to win against minor powers when they band together.

Europe

Spoiler :

Africa and South America

Spoiler :

Rankings

Spoiler :

Can't seem to upload the North American/Caribbean map. I have colonized the seaboard up to the Native American borders and left Florida alone, just began colonizing what will eventually become part of the state of Maine. Puerto Rico, Turk Islands and 2 minor islands were all acquired when I integrated with France. The Bahamas was by my actions.