How is your EU3 Game going?

[Nintz]

The reason I am cautious about doing that is mainly that my experiences have been very poor with mercs. Whenever I use merc-only armies they tend to have non-existent morale and flee battles they could have won. Unless they outnumber the enemy by a lot. I could just be using them wrong though.

 

[shadowplay]

How is your EU3 Game going?

Not too good:

It won't let me click or unclick any of the selected improvements. I was constructing a University, but the next time I come back to the screen, this is what I see (pictured above). Everything is highlighted and I have that bizarre finish-by date. This is only happening in this one city (my capital) - every other city constructed it's improvements as expected and is able to constuct new improvements without any issue. It's like Barcelona's ability to construct improvements has just... frozen.

Anyone know why that would happen? I think it might be a bug.

 

[Angst]

it's a bug.


Scotland -> Great Britain, 1660:

All holdings

Spoiler :

My Empire

Spoiler :

This game was pretty much one long line of royal marriages, throne claims, personal unions and wars following that. Initially won the wars against England by securing a French-Scottish-Burgundian alliance and then invading them as violently as I could. Eventually managed to diminish their power until they were nothing but a few provinces that I removed. Burgundy soon broke off and was absorbed by France, who periodically left the alliance after crushing Castille and taking their northern provinces. Rather, I focused upon Spanish holdings, allying with Castille and claiming the thrones of them and Bavaria. Then due to stuff politics, I somehow got entwined in Central Europe after claiming the throne of Greater Bavaria; eventually to end up fighting Scandinavia (Who formed and became a superpower REALLY early), Bohemia and Austria who were all freaking huge. I managed to buy Bohemia out of the equation, conquered Skåne and Halland from Scandinavia to end their ridiculous trade policies and parted up Austria into lesser states. Then I formed an alliance and personal union with France and Scandinavia through sheer luck and good diplomacy, inherited Castille and Greater Bavaria, then France about this time. Bohemia is allied with me, actually, so right now I have no important enemies whatsoever, and I plan to absorb as much of Europe as possible; the game was really tense, right now it's actually just attempting to train some military after "forming Western Europe" or something. It's funny because I initially just planned to secure Great Britain and not colonize but what do you know.

Oh, Prussia might become a problem eventually. Look, an eastern european country with pretty borders? Do you believe in magic?

Also, while seeming so, I'm not very good. The difficulty is Easy.

 

[Arakhor]

You really need to work on those borders, boyo.

Good work though - I'm not very good either, but once you know what you're doing, Normal is generally easy enough.

 

[Angst]

Holydip, just noticed I got like 100 infamy for inheriting France. Well, hello 100 years of civil war... Threw up a couple of Asian vassals to get the ball rolling, but comon... Infamy for inheritance? How do people then do world conquests?

Yes, I know that GB infamy AAR on Paradox Forums. I want other ways.

 

[Osmowstroyer]

The last month I got EUIII Chronicles, and I am now playing with Portugal, int the. I have all the Morocco and Algier territory with the exception of three(?) provinces. The colonization of Rio de Oro and Tuat is going bad because I had to kill those annoying natives, nut Rio de Oro now is a full province. Appart from the colonization, everything is going fine, but , WHY THE HELL IN EVERY #@$%& GAME I PLAY MY INFLATION IS ALWAYS GETTING UP! The inflations is now 10.1, can someone give me a strategy how to avoid inflation?

 

[Angst]

There's the national idea "National Bank" which decreases inflation, you can hire a Master of Mint advisor and generally invest your monthly income into stability / technology rather than your coffeers - the latter, called minting, increases inflation, and on the lower difficulties, decreasing minting actually decreases inflation. On higher levels you need the national idea and the Master. Take a look at your economy menu for more information on how your inflation rises.

What year are you in? 10.1 is managable, but it depends on what year you're playing.

 

[Antilogic]

Master of the Mint is probably one of the most powerful advisers, at least in the early stage of the game.

 

[Angst]

early game i find statesmen more useful, midgame master of mint, lategame diplomat

 

[Arakhor]

You don't gain infamy for merely inheriting realms, but you do for integrating them. Patience, grasshopper, patience.

 

[Angst]

wait, did i integrate!? i'm a ing idiot. reload!

 

[uat2d]

Colonizing Canada and not the Caribbean or Brazil first is also quite inefficient, the later provide much higher income and overall much more worthwhile areas to settle in. It's quite worthless to go after all that snow and sand when you have great lands empty.

 

[Quintillus]

I found this war rather amusing. Beware those mythical Timurid boats!

This is in the year 1513. Cyprus joined a couple wars against the Mamluks, and took three provinces way back when - far enough back that they'd cored. I was hoping to see the Cypriot East Indies, but instead, the Mamluks got a ruler in 1467 or so who lived for over half a century. This turned the wars back in their favour, and they went rampaging back westwards - as far as Al Karak, Cyprus's easternmost province. Cyprus did have Land Tech 15 versus their 5, and managed to occupy a Timurid province for awhile, but alas, numbers defeated quality, and Cyprus's territories were overrun, first by Timurids, then by rebels.

But the island itself survived, leading to many a year of telling the tales of the Timurid-Cypriot War!

Holydip, just noticed I got like 100 infamy for inheriting France. Well, hello 100 years of civil war... Threw up a couple of Asian vassals to get the ball rolling, but comon... Infamy for inheritance? How do people then do world conquests?

Yes, I know that GB infamy AAR on Paradox Forums. I want other ways.

Well, 100 isn't so bad, I had about 300 one time. You'll have 20% inflation and lose all your trade income and fall behind technologically, and Bohemia will break your alliance and probably fight you, but it'll give you a challenge! And if you go Despotic Monarchy and have a high infamy-burning strategy, it'll only last 50 years or so. Not so bad!

 

[uat2d]

Well, 100 isn't so bad, I had about 300 one time. You'll have 20% inflation and lose all your trade income and fall behind technologically, and Bohemia will break your alliance and probably fight you, but it'll give you a challenge! And if you go Despotic Monarchy and have a high infamy-burning strategy, it'll only last 50 years or so. Not so bad!

How did you manage? Didn't you get spammed every damn day with massive revolts in random provinces?

 

[Angst]

Colonizing Canada and not the Caribbean or Brazil first is also quite inefficient, the later provide much higher income and overall much more worthwhile areas to settle in. It's quite worthless to go after all that snow and sand when you have great lands empty.

I had issues of naval tech and core distance to south america and didn't realize i should opportunize; didn't notice i had eventually. i just like nice clean borders and didn't want anyone to screw with my unified coast

the caribian holdings etc are from france

 

[Osmowstroyer]

Well, I have National Bank and Mint Master (reduces 0.12), in total would be 0.22, that's quite a lot, but, it doesn't serve me. I am in the year 1423, so I must start a new game. Too bad.

 

[Angst]

Can't you get through the game with 10% inflation? With the best outlook, you can get it back to 0 in fifty years and it's ok to just have a little bit.

Or am I just bad at this game?

 

[Tee Kay]

10% inflation is quite managable, depending on who or how you're playing. Try not to go above that though.

 

[chegel]

The last month I got EUIII Chronicles, and I am now playing with Portugal, int the. I have all the Morocco and Algier territory with the exception of three(?) provinces. The colonization of Rio de Oro and Tuat is going bad because I had to kill those annoying natives, nut Rio de Oro now is a full province. Appart from the colonization, everything is going fine, but , WHY THE HELL IN EVERY #@$%& GAME I PLAY MY INFLATION IS ALWAYS GETTING UP! The inflations is now 10.1, can someone give me a strategy how to avoid inflation?

Well, I have National Bank and Mint Master (reduces 0.12), in total would be 0.22, that's quite a lot, but, it doesn't serve me. I am in the year 1423, so I must start a new game. Too bad.

Well, to answer your most important question: Minting causes inflation, i.e. making monthly income into ducats. Ideally you should rely exclusively on the yearly tax income for funds and use the monthly income for technology and stability investments.

This can be quite hard when colonising which is very expensive and some inflation in the early game can be necessary but 10% in 1423 is far too much. Mouse over the minting slider to see how much inflation increases or decreases per year.

Inflation can be caused by gold mines too, but this is only a problem for non-western nations, and by events. It can be reduced via centralisation, masters of mint, the national bank and some special building later in the game I think.

 

[Racsoviale]

Some nations are also somewhat dependant on minting in the first few decades for various reasons. Which makes their inflation rise.
I usually mint quite a bit in my Muscowy games to be able to afford my very busy and huge armies. this is mainly because of my wars with Poland-Lithuania and the Golden Horde.
Denmark is another nation I mint quite a bit with in the beginning because I need that army to be bigger than the swedish army and my navy needs to grow at a steady pace as well, because I can't afford to lose control of the strait.
Lastly when I play as Portugal I also mint a bit heavy, this is to afford my colonies. As well as my army and infrastructure. I my experience a colony is not finished being a money sink when it becomes a city, it needs that lvl 1 fort asap which is another 50 ducats.

In all three cases I would not see 10% inflation as a severe problem, as long as measures are taken to reduce the amount of minting you do. All of three scenarios are sacrificing shortterm gain for a stronger longterm outcome, which would be harder to achieve without the influx of ducats.

I also mint to be able to pay of a loan as soon as possible.