How is your EU3 Game going?

[Communisto]

I have been sending out merchants, but don't really understand the merchant system.

There's a percentage beside the "send merchant button" in a trade centre window. That shows the likely hood of your merchant succeeding. Send them to the ones with the highest percentage, if you get 6 you will have a monopoly.

As for the army.. Yeah, right of the bat I usually build tons of units so that I can take one of my neighbours over.. Bad idea?

haha, yeah. Remember the game moves very slowly. Dont be afraid to jack up the speed every once in a while

How can I build production and trade improvements though? I've tried but don't have the necessary tech (or whatever it is) to build anything at the beginning

You have to gain the necessary tech. The easiest way to do this is to not mint, or take out loans. Actually I shouldve mentioned that before. Never take out loans. Interest will sink your economy way faster than inflation. Speaking of which, if you need to, minting can be a good way of keeping yourself out of debt, but it has to be done very carefully. Wait till the 30th of a month, pause the game, bring the minting slider up, unpause, ???, profit, bring the slider back to zero.

It will give you a .1 of inflation every second time you use this technique. That number will go down with time, but do it to often and it negates its usage. Again, the game crawls forward, so increasing speed is usually a good idea. Just be careful things dont run away from you.

 

[NBAfan]

I have been sending out merchants, but don't really understand the merchant system.

As for the army.. Yeah, right of the bat I usually build tons of units so that I can take one of my neighbours over.. Bad idea?

How can I build production and trade improvements though? I've tried but don't have the necessary tech (or whatever it is) to build anything at the beginning

The key to your economy is work off your yearly income, don't spend more then you will make. Don't worry if you have a negative monthly income. Also know that inflation is bad.

Take it slow, large armies are very expensive.

Be sure to ask questions on the Paradox forum , they are very helpful.

 

[warpus]

What version are you playing?
Go to the official forum for AARs and guides and this wiki for gameplay information. But always pay attention to the game version the information is for.
Personal unions you can inherit everytime your ruler dies. So it is a matter of luck and patience. In the latest expansion, Divine Wind, you can integrate a lesser partner after 50 years or so I think if you did not inherit him in this time.
I like Portugal as a country for beginners because you are in a safe position and can focus on trade and colonization. Castille and England are good too.
If the game is not going anywhere it is yours to change that. There are no goals in the game (beside achievements in DW) so you have to set some for yourself.

Thanks for the links I am playing the original EU3. I also have Rome - Gold edition, and Vae Victis, but I haven't tried those yet

 

[chegel]

Merchants are quite expansive for most countries in the beginning. You need a slider towards free trade for them to getting cheap. The money you get at the end of a year is only tax income and it will not rise if you have merchants in some centers of trade. So merchants are more of a money sink unless you mint some of the income they generate.
If you are not at war and are not planning on starting one or in danger of being involved in one in the near future lower you army and navy maintenance. This will lower the morale dramatically but will save you a lot of money. I usually pay only 55-60% maintenance most of the time. (This means setting the slider almost as much to the left as possible, the far left psoition is 50% not 0%) Just do not forget to raise the maintenance if necessary. (There is a warning flag for being in a war with maintenance below 100%)
Edit:
If you are playing 1.0, then I do not know if all the things mentioned are correct. I started with EU3 Complete which included the first and second expansion)

 

[Kyriakos]

Get the latest patch. Poland should not be that hard, i have experience only with the Byzantine Empire but im sure that is a lot harder in the beginning

 

[germanicus12]

I have been sending out merchants, but don't really understand the merchant system.

As for the army.. Yeah, right of the bat I usually build tons of units so that I can take one of my neighbours over.. Bad idea?

How can I build production and trade improvements though? I've tried but don't have the necessary tech (or whatever it is) to build anything at the beginning

Merchants are sent to your (London if it has one) or other trade centers. These provinces will have a stack of coins and purse in the province. The more you send the more you get out of it. But it is competitive so you have to keep sending them, even if you have a monopoly.

What I do, I don't know if others do it, as Milan I maintain a small standing army of probably 5,000 men, in later years after conquering Rome I have 2 standing armies of 5,000 each. But when I get dragged into a war or start one I hire 10-15,000 mercenaries to fight my wars and raise my war taxes to cover the expenses, once war ends I disband the mercs and everything evens out. I rarely lose on this strategy.

In your economy section is a list of government tech spending, the more green you have the closer you are to advancing if you hover your mouse over the bar you will see the current level, next level and what it unlocks as well as if you are ahead of your rivals or lacking behind them. Many production and economical buildings in the game requires a certain level, if you have the budget you can increase a certain tech if you desire to see it advance quickly. But to avoid lacking in a certain area it would be more wiser to balance it out.

 

[Dachs]

Then how does one conquer the entire world as a horde as they have in AARs? It seems stupid to limit land grabbing and defeats the purpose of being a war machine.

You change government. If you want to subdue your neighbors as a horde, you rape them for cash monies to aid with your ongoing struggle to get to Gov Tech 10.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Muscowy. Novgorod, Crimea, and Candar are vassals. Georgia and Sweden allies.

 

[Dachs]

Why'd you vassalize Novgorod? Mission?

 

[germanicus12]

Since I still am unable to find my World View maps I will post my local ones.

As Milan I have conquered almost everyone in the north and now rival possibly surpassing Venice in power after our costly war which ended in White peace (I would have continued it but Spain claimed the throne of Savoy despite a Royal Marriage between Savoy and Milan guaranteed me the throne so I needed to end the war and Venice offered me that chance with a white peace.) After which I promptly went forward to crush Spanish resistance in Sardina and Sicily, as well as keeping England off Corsica through bloody cavalry battles. (Why England sends only Cavalry I have no idea.) That war ended with me gaining control over half of Sicily which I promptly gifted to Sicily for being such loyal allies the entire time I played. I let Spain keep Sardina and the other half of Sicily because I again got dragged into a war with the Ottoman Empire and needed to end it. That one ended with the Ottoman Empire liberating Athens on my request, for future successes in my plans I needed an ally in Greece.

Of all the territory I own, Lombardia and Corsica were already mine at the start of the game, every one of them except Rome and Ancona were conquered by Mercenary armies. Rome was conquered by my own 5,000 locally trained and raised troops. Anacona was bought from Hungary for 200 Ducats. Once I get my opportunity to form Italy I will immediately declare war on Venice and conquer what is now a small and pitiful state. (Venice used to own the territory along the Greek coast, but lost it against successive wars against the Ottomans and the Hungarian Empire as well as Austria.)

 

[W|M]

Why'd you vassalize Novgorod? Mission?

A diplo-annexation may be planned.

 

[Dachs]

Diplo-annexing Novgorod would cost a fair amount of infamy, wouldn't it?

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Why'd you vassalize Novgorod? Mission?

Yes, a mission. Said mission gave me cores on Novgorod, Olonets, and another province I can't remember at the moment. Plan to eventually diploannex. It will cost a fair bit of infamy, but I should be able to absorb it safely.

 

[Leifmk]

Thanks for the links I am playing the original EU3.

If you bought the whole Paradox pack on Steam in December, I'm pretty sure that it came with "EU3 Complete" (which is EU3 plus the first two expansions, and Steam won't let you install only part of this) and also "Heir to the Throne" (the third expansion) but not "Divine Wind" (the fourth expansion). What does it say on the main menu screen once the game has finished loading?

 

[Communisto]

Eeking out a living as Venice. Austria scares me, though I have Spain as an ally which is kinda nice. In the Italian sphere, Urbino is vassal with Tuscany in alliance. Currently building up overseas empire and awaiting the perfect time to eviscerate Milan and Mantua.

 

[Tee Kay]

I have taken some pictures including what I though were some World View pictures. So I looked in the file and found my pictures, unfortunately I have all of them but the World View ones, like those that show the entire world and who owns what in it. I pressed F12 through F10 and got nothing, but local pictures of wherever I was looking at the moment.

I tried shift-F12-F10 as well and got nothing... please help. I have a Windows 7 and X-Fire. Thanks.

I don't know what the problem is, but try asking around at the Paradox Forums.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Diploannexed Novgorod. Only cost me 9 infamy. And annexed Yaroslavl as well. Also colonized some more Golden Horde land to the east. I fought a war against Lithuania earlier and absolutely massacred their armies with my two generals with 6 shock, but apparently Sweden signed a peace treaty with Lithuania so it was all for nothing. Not sure how they got to be alliance leader in that war seeing as I'm so much more powerful. So now preparing for another war against Lithuania. All I require is Smolensk or Chernigov for me able to form Russia.

 

[Racsoviale]

Hey Warpus this thread might give you some help

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=336768

It is from when i started playing EU 3 and had a lot of questions about the economy and I certainly got some very good ideas about that aspect from the other guys.

 

[Jos Ballenbak]

@Superbeaver,

Are you going to form Russia? Also is it beneficial if you do to turn into an Empire?

 

[Love]

Forming russia as muscowy is hard, good job!