How is your EU3 Game going?

[Duke of Britain]

At the moment i am playing an epic game as Brazil, i started in Russia and it was a really fun game.
I never tough i would ever go back to vanilla Next time i will see if it works well enough in miscmods (almost 100% sure it is compatible, don't know if it will work well tough)

 

[Arakhor]

I found that one long ago.

 

[Quintillus]

That save game randomizer does look pretty awesome. Will have to try.

The Ottomans have now collapsed in my game, in no small part due to me. I managed to get Ak Koyunlu and Ramazan released, which seems harmless enough, but was enough to block the Ottomans from reinforcing Asia Minor. In the same war I took Bithynia, giving me an excellent defensive position (I couldn't have taken it otherwise... needed all the help I could get to keep an army across the Bosporus). I then took Thrace, Anatolia, and Bursa in the next war, which also saw the Golden Horde and the Mamluks defeat the Ottomans. When I declared war on them a third time, the floodgates opened, with the Mamluks, Moroccans, Oman, Bohemia... just about all their neighbors except Persia declaring war. I think at one point, all their provinces were occupied either by rivals or by rebels. I took more lands in Asia Minor, the Mamluks retook the east Mediterranean coast, Bohemia carved out some north-Black-Sea holdings, Austria (sadly) took a couple Turkish provinces, and others participated in the revelry as well. Then the Ottoman sultan died in combat, and they became the lesser partner in a personal union with Khorasan. Oh, how the mighty fall.

Hindustan has also imploded, and is down to one province. Mainly it was due to poor management - high instability, high war weariness, and low legitimacy. Lately, Britain has been expanding in India, and the fractured nature of the subcontinent can't be helping. The only real hope is Bundelkhand, who has land tech 20 and has recently expanded considerably, but has a lot of nationalists within their borders as well.

Ireland has also formed, and Qara Koyunlu has made a reappearance, though they are currently vassalized by Persia. Bohemia still has the largest army on the planet, but France is catching up, and to a lesser degree Austria. For a combined naval-land presence, Great Britain or Spain has to be the winner. My navy is second only to Great Britain's, but my army's not even in the top 13, so it's only on the defensive that I could equal the great powers.

 

[Choeimok]

Spoiler :

What?
I haven't expanded further east than Italy so far, and haven't even met Persia yet. And I highly doubt they're catholic, too.
Well, I know I need to cut down France, but I haven't got the right mission or CB yet, so the only provinces in France I conquered so far were Barrois and Calais

 

[Leonel]

It's plausible. I've seen Byzantium emerge as a Muslim nation plenty of times before.

 

[salty mud]

That's only because they revolt free from the Ottoman Empire. There isn't a Catholic power around Persia for them to break free.

 

[Antilogic]

That's only because they revolt free from the Ottoman Empire. There isn't a Catholic power around Persia for them to break free.

Or the devs started modeling the legends of Prester John in EU3. They snuck it in when we weren't looking.

 

[Duke of Britain]

I would love to see a mod with the Kingdom of Prester John in an alternative history

 

[Optical]

I thought Prester John was supposed to be from somewhere near Ethiopia?

 

[madviking]

Prester John is just some random, generic Christian dude on the other side of the Arabs. In actuality, it did end up being the Ethiopians.

 

[Tee Kay]

That's only because they revolt free from the Ottoman Empire. There isn't a Catholic power around Persia for them to break free.

Genoa.

I thought Prester John was supposed to be from somewhere near Ethiopia?

Or Mongolia. Or India. Prester John keep moving kingdoms. (in the case of Mongolia, the Keraits, whose ruler was Genghis Khan's father's blood brother, were in fact Christians, though of the Nestorian variety. Kerala also has six million Christians who trace their origins back to Thomas the Apostle).

 

[Optical]

Gives me an idea for an easter egg ruler name...

 

[uat2d]

Blame the Emperor!

Spoiler :

Could someone explain me this?

Spoiler :

 

[Quintillus]

Could someone explain me this?

Spoiler :

I had a somewhat similar thing happen tonight - infamy-free annexation, as defender, against a one-province minor. I expected something like 6 infamy to annex, but it said free, so I didn't complain and didn't investigate too much. It's also kind of strange cause I thought my ally was the initial aggressor, and they later called me in to help. Maybe something similar is going on?

 

[shadowplay]

Question: I'm playing as France circa 1597 and am hoping to send a conquistador to explore parts of Quebec. What would be an adequate size army for this task, and am I correct in assuming they should all be cavalry?

 

[Tee Kay]

Question: I'm playing as France circa 1597 and am hoping to send a conquistador to explore parts of Quebec. What would be an adequate size army for this task, and am I correct in assuming they should all be cavalry?

3,000 men should be plenty. They don't even need to be cavalry.

 

[Civ'ed]

Spoiler :

Franks, 490 AD, 399 AD mod.
Currently waiting to see what happens with Rome, because Rome is the Key to forming Francia (France) - either 550 AD or Rome does not exist. However, with Rome's surprising reconquest of south Italy I'm getting a bit nervous.
China is just insane. ALL OF IT.
Africa is pretty straightforward.
Also, the problem with that piece of Rome -
It's ONE PROVINCE. 399 AD mod merges tons of provinces together for Roman feel. In this case it's the province of Alpes, which apparently is their capital, despite them owning Latium and thus Rome.
That light green thing in Arabia? Arabs. PAGAN ARABS.
Also, when I saw the Huns had the event Attila is dead, I added "and has conquered part of Persia which is now Armenia, Kartli and another country. But the're's not enough Rome."

 

[Optical]

I had a somewhat similar thing happen tonight - infamy-free annexation, as defender, against a one-province minor. I expected something like 6 infamy to annex, but it said free, so I didn't complain and didn't investigate too much. It's also kind of strange cause I thought my ally was the initial aggressor, and they later called me in to help. Maybe something similar is going on?

I think I heard somewhere that if you're fighting a defensive war you can annex the aggressor for 0 infamy, like in a revolutionary war.

 

[Antilogic]

Or Mongolia. Or India. Prester John keep moving kingdoms. (in the case of Mongolia, the Keraits, whose ruler was Genghis Khan's father's blood brother, were in fact Christians, though of the Nestorian variety. Kerala also has six million Christians who trace their origins back to Thomas the Apostle).

Yup. It was a case of wishful thinking--we just know there are millions of friendly Christians out there, waiting to join with us to fight the Muslim menace! They were always just over the horizon, until finally the only Christian society on the opposite side of the Muslims were the Ethiopians. Thus, Ethiopia becomes the land of Prester John by default.

Question: I'm playing as France circa 1597 and am hoping to send a conquistador to explore parts of Quebec. What would be an adequate size army for this task, and am I correct in assuming they should all be cavalry?

3,000 men should be plenty. They don't even need to be cavalry.

I find even 2,000 men to be enough, especially for that area. The natives in North America are nothing like the ones in the South Pacific or Africa. People used to recommend cavalry when cavalry traveled faster than infantry (and thus exploration was faster), but ever since they equalized the move speeds it doesn't matter. The natives are so weak your troops will win even without mounted support.

I think I heard somewhere that if you're fighting a defensive war you can annex the aggressor for 0 infamy, like in a revolutionary war.

If you are talking about a power that declared war with a CB to annex, then you can annex that power infamy-free (since it depends on the type of war being fought). What gets really tricky is when other powers intervene or honor their alliance calls, then you only get the infamy-free annexation against the power that declared war to annex. There are no CBs between you and the others, so you pay the price.

Also, I've sometimes seen the text boxes are wrong. It will say I gained no prestige or infamy, but my counts of both are affected. I think they fixed that in DW, though.

 

[Choeimok]

So I, still pretty new to and horrible at the game, with most of my "experience" coming from read AARs and the very few games with nations start already start as superpowers I played before, started a game as Karaman, just out of interest. While I had some trouble fighting 4000 nasty particularist rebels, Byzantium annexed my neighboring OPM, Ramazan. I then declared on Byzantium and somehow managed (I think I got a bit lucky when 5000 of my men beat 5000 Byz. in Thrace who then ceased to exist since they couldn't retreat into Ottoman territory) to fully annex their 3 provinces for just 3 infamy . It's 1402 now. The problem is: What to do now? The mediterranean minors are all guaranteed by scary things like France, Venice, Castille and Aragon (well, at least the latter two seem to be busy with each other at the moment, poor Aragon once again being on the losing side) that would kill me within a blink of an eye, the exception being Sardinia who has no allies at all, but that's a bit far from home. The Ottomans have 5 times my army (should be better now that I went from 3 to 6 provinces, but still), they're scary. Maybe they will get lost in Timurid territory, but they also might decide to "reconquer" pretty much all my provinces since they have Cores on everything except Thrace and Morea. They might get missions against me, too. The two other turkish minors are no options, Candar is my only ally (other than one of these Arabian states that's not going to be very helpful), Dulkadir is both a vassal of he Timurids, bordering them and bordering the Mamluks, that means nothing but trouble. I have a CB on them, but I'd rather not use it any soon.
So what to do? I will have to be opportunistic, that is clear. Just wait until the Ottomans are busy with one of the hordes or maybe Hungary? Backstab Candar? At least try to prey on some of the mediterranean islands or comparable minors such as Montenegro and Achaea? Go to North Africa (Tripoli looks like easy prey, Tunesia is unfortunately being guaranteed by Morocco)? Do something weird and go after, say, Ireland? I really don't want to wait and lose my starting tech edge.
How dangerous is Venice, currently still the main power in the Mediterranean room, really? They do, including vassals, only have 6 provinces after all. What about Naples and Genoa (who already lost their Crimean territories), how strong are their armies usually at this point of the game? What about annexing the pope right away?

By the way, would it be a good idea to invest 3 stability into change my starting idea National Conscripts to Divine Supremacy (which seems better than Umam Sanctum to me), since I don't get the Jihad CB against non-neighboring infidels without one of these - what will be worth more, a 50% larger army or good stability and low infamy (and some bonus missionaries, currently I still have zero, on top of that)?

Wow, playing Karaman really requires a lot more thought than my first three games, the Timurids, Bohemia and Burgundy (the first and third for maybe 20-30 years, Bohemia for maybe 110), did. There it was just using your large army to stomp everything and just having to watch the infamy limit won't be exceeded, now suddenly these awesomely large and powerful nigh invincible armies are on the opposing side... on pretty much all opposing sides.