How is your EU3 Game going?

[Quintillus]

^What Nintz said. And it is indeed working.

I did finally have a TSC in 1432. And boatloads of rebels. Most of my HRE lands got occupied. But the tide has turned. And by the next TSC, Russia and Hungary at least should be cored. Europe will fall!

 

[Nintz]

Ouch. Normally, I would have said to try and form another nation, Russia for example, to game your way out of the tribal system. Given that you have conquered deep into those lands however, only one thing left to do: KILL KILL KILL

Note: You probably should try to go back and form the Mughal Empire if possible at some point. It would allow you to get out of the tribal problem, right?

 

[Arrow Gamer]

I just formed Germany as the Hansa. Unfortunately, there is mega-Austria to my south.

 

[Nintz]

Hm. Don't suppose you could show a screen? That sounds like a problem you'll need to take care of.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Sure.

Only have screens from right before forming, but that was only about 5 years ago, and the situation hasn't changed much. I'll put 'em up in a second.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

I think this is the right screenie:

Never mind. I don't have one.

My computer takes forever to load it, and I don't feel like wasting that time. Here's a world map from ~50 years ago, though. Austria hasn't changed much: they still have about 100k men.

I have most of Germany though.

Spoiler :

 

[Nintz]

Oh, that isn't too bad.

A bad Austria is one that goes crazy in the Balkans and Turkey, this one just expanded into Italy a bit.

Ideas:

1. New World. If still possible, try to do something with that empty region.

2. Burgundy & the Lowlands. Not 100% sure this is going to be possible, but see if Burgundy is isolated alliance-wise and has a weaker army than you do. If so, taking parts of the Lowlands would give you a large boost, enough to overcome any discrepancy with Austria.

3. Austria directly. Unless allied with Burgundy, France, Castille, England, etc. a unified Germany should be able to take on an Austria that large fairly easily. Won't be cheap, but certainly doable.

4. Poland. Nuff' said.

5. Scandinavia. Denmark could provide a nice juicy target if they don't have any alliances with larger targets.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Right now, I'm just trying to consolidate and let my infamy fall.

I am too concerned with the OW to even contemplate the NW (don't even have QFTNW)

Also, France owns all of... France, Holland blobbed up north. Sweden unified Scandanavia, and is garunteeing all of the Baltic area.

Bohemia ate Poland and moved even further East, and have a lot of allies.

Everyone hates me due to infamy, but burning at 1.00 a year.

And Italy is the richest part of the world, and Austria has pushed further South. They have over 100k men. Thank god their infamy is too high to be HRE, but once Bavaria's (who I ate and vassalized now) king dies, there's not telling what'll happen..

 

[Quintillus]

Arrow Gamer - it's hard to say since the map is out of date. I suppose I'd go ally shopping - do you have any significant ones? Even Bavaria might be adequate - they can have a surprisingly powerful military. France might be a good choice, they're a good foil for Austria but unlikely to gobble them up. Are the Ottomans in contention? It might be tough to ally with them, but if you could that'd split Austria's forces. Sweden/Castille are further away than ideal, but might still be a good help. In any case, you'd likely need to send a lot of gifts, but you can probably afford it as The Hansa. Bohemia... not ideal, you might win, but it sounds like they're just as dangerous as Austria, and then you'd have an even bigger problem.

What's up in England? They could either be an ally (their navy could help vs Sweden, for example), or if everything else is really difficult, an expansion target.

Or, there's always the option of being friendly to Austria at the expense of other rivals, and saving that problem for later.

Ouch. Normally, I would have said to try and form another nation, Russia for example, to game your way out of the tribal system. Given that you have conquered deep into those lands however, only one thing left to do: KILL KILL KILL

Note: You probably should try to go back and form the Mughal Empire if possible at some point. It would allow you to get out of the tribal problem, right?

I intentionally did it this way. I'd had a successful Timurids game about a year ago that I stopped in 1437 or so due to fear of TSC and indecision about continued expansion, and decided this time I'd see what happened if I went all-out. I've played Novgorod to 1820 and Muscowy to the mid-1500s, so Russia again would be boring.

The Mughals were my backup plan in the Timurids game. This time, I plan to direct all effort westward, with no escape route. If all of Europe falls, maybe I'll go east, but if it starts caving in, I probably won't be able to reach India in time. For now, I'm happy with the Timurids dueling with the Mamluks.

Rather, I plan to eventually westernize through sliders, and then reform the government. I don't know when this will happen, though. 1530 or so is doable with a focus on it from early on, but I haven't done that. I did move 1 towards Narrowminded to help convert provinces quicker, and might not be able to afford the revolt risk penalties right away when I do reach the slider limits. So I might be a horde for quite a long time. But for now, being a horde is an asset, not a problem.

Thus, if I do take Europe, the Middle East and North Africa comes next. Asia's lower tech rate will keep it safe.

If the Horde does implode, it should create quite an interesting political situation in Europe. Even if I succeed, I might play it again from a save where I let it collapse just to see what would happen.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

I should start posting here and asking my noob questions here.

I'm playing as Castille from 1399. I've started by annexing Granada, which was fairly easy and then i turned my gaze toward the east and italian states - specifically Naples. When i first declared war they were allied with some random small italian states so it was easy to get 1 rich province as a beach head for future invasions. After the truce expired i immediately declared war and resumed my annexation of other napolitanian provinces. Little did i know that in all these years the alliances have changed dramatically - so i get the message: "The Papal States will honor their military alliance and declares war on you". Of course i laughed at their petty declaration. In a few days it seems England and Portugal will also honor their military alliance and declared war on me. O_O Being the noob that i am, i didn't check what alliances Naples had. So in no time, the war turned from "Invasion of Naples" to "Defense from invasion on 4 fronts". Naples, the papal states and England invaded my province in Italy, portugal invaded the west and south of iberia, and england also just disembarked one stack of death on northern spain.

But i had some trusty allies of my own, France, who basically saved me, and Aragon who was just a little b**ch who refused to join any of my wars. France kept the brits busy and pretty much ensured me that the brits will not bring any more troops to Spain. So that only leaves the english stack of death, and the portuguese army which was about the same size as mine. In the following years, we chase the portuguese armies and their weakling troops around the peninsula and they are not able to do much damage. In this time however, the brits occupied 2 provinces already and were besieging the third ! Having defeated the main portuguese army it was time to deal with the brits, somehow. In the following few years, my armies basically danced around the british stack annoying the hell out of them until they managed to split and reach my army size. What followed was the 800+ day siege of Vizcaya which gathered the troops from my entire kingdom at some point. The english were gone from Spain, so my battered troops were left wondering who is going to pay for all this devastation ... Why Portugal of course! Which was promptly invaded, conquered entirely and forced to cede 3 provinces, their richest ones of course.

The true heroes of this story come from the east tho. My troops in the east started invading some naples province when they had to rush back and defend my only province of Apulia from a combined the combined armies of Napoli, England and the Papal States. After much prayer and harrasing, a few detachments of napolitan troops split off from the main group to deal with one of my really undermanned sieges of the Naples cities. This prooved godsent since this meant that the forces fighting in the defense of Apulia were on equal terms with the invaders. And having just built the Church there, it was obvious on whose side God was. With the invasion repulsed, my troops in the east were left wondering who was going to pay for this ... Why Naples and Rome of course. In a few years the Papal States became a vassal and the naples were forced to cede yet another rich province.

And with that we are at peace again ... Except for England who never wants a white peace ... Oh well ...

In the following i'll have to deal with the crippling debt i brought the country into and the fact that economic development was halted for years.

What i'm not sure how to do, is how to raise lots of money ? Eversince the start of the game i have like -5 deficit each month and +50 per year. Other than that i only made money from random events ! I built market places in every province with lots of expensive trade goods and constables in provinces that have a high tax from the population, i've put army maintenance at 0 and i barely have any ships on the seas. Not sure what i'm doing wrong to my moneys.

 

[Angst]

At the beginning of the game, you don't have a lot of gold to work with. It sounds like you have stretched your economical capacity too much - fighting all those powers costs a lot of gold, after all - so you simply need time to grow your economy. Try to live through while conquering as little as possible for a while.

Also, what's your infamy? Your inflation? The number of loans you have taken? All of these can have devastating long-term effects and especially your infamy sounds like you have taken a good weight on your shoulders. Conquering all those provinces can't be healthy for your diplomatic standing.

Oh, and what year is it for you? Can you post a world map? EDIT: F12 to screenshot btw. The map is transfered to the Sceenshots folder in your EU3 directory.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Screenshots of my Hansa->Germany game incoming.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Nevermind. G2g.

Maybe later

 

[Quintillus]

Heretic - Lord Joakim is right, you don't get a whole lot of money early on. Constables are the building that really helps out, as they increase yearly revenue by 25%. Marketplaces help a little bit as long as you have merchants in the centers of trade that the provinces are trading through (otherwise they aren't worth it). But I'd build constables first, particularly in high and medium tax provinces.

Other economic factors - are you minting at all? If you aren't (or only are a little), you might be doing OK for early game. If you are minting a lot, then your economy might indeed be suffering. And, how much interest are you paying annually? If it really is "crippling debt" then that's probably a good part of the reason your balance sheet is not so great.

Nice job overcoming the alliance - you should remain on friendly terms with France! As you learned the hard way, you should always check what allies a new enemy has. It probably was a good idea to vassalize the Pope. Otherwise he likely would have hated you, and you probably would have been excommunicated at some point, which can be a major pain.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Screenshots!!!!

(I can't find a world map. Sorry.)

 

[Heretic_Cata]

At the beginning of the game, you don't have a lot of gold to work with. It sounds like you have stretched your economical capacity too much - fighting all those powers costs a lot of gold, after all - so you simply need time to grow your economy. Try to live through while conquering as little as possible for a while.

Oh, well just started a brief war with Naples again. Declared war as soon as the truce expired and i got a random event cassus belli. But they are allied with just some small italian states that didn't bother defending them and no major allies this time. They have almost no army and will be annexed in 1 year tops. Portugal was allied with them but didn't honor their alliance. After Naples i will quiet down, but at some point in the future, Portugal is to be put down.

Also, what's your infamy?

My infamy is 27 now. I think the highest i had was at 40 i think. At that point i hired some advisor that decreases it (don't remember what he was called). How much infamy is too much ? It doesn't say anywhere.

Your inflation?

My inflation is at 0 !!! Throughout my reign it never increased too much, but even so, i had 2 random events that eliminated it twice.

The number of loans you have taken? All of these can have devastating long-term effects and especially your infamy sounds like you have taken a good weight on your shoulders. Conquering all those provinces can't be healthy for your diplomatic standing.

All the loans have been paid back except for the last one, which will be due in 2-3 years IIRC. I have 300 gold currently with my monthly income at -11 at the yearly income at +18.

Oh, and what year is it for you? Can you post a world map? EDIT: F12 to screenshot btw. The map is transfered to the Sceenshots folder in your EU3 directory.

The year is 1423 and here's the pic:

Spoiler :

How do i take ingame screenshots tho ?

Heretic - Lord Joakim is right, you don't get a whole lot of money early on. Constables are the building that really helps out, as they increase yearly revenue by 25%. Marketplaces help a little bit as long as you have merchants in the centers of trade that the provinces are trading through (otherwise they aren't worth it). But I'd build constables first, particularly in high and medium tax provinces.

Damn, i thought i should build marketplaces first and then Constables. Will start doing that with my next magistrates.

Other economic factors - are you minting at all? If you aren't (or only are a little), you might be doing OK for early game. If you are minting a lot, then your economy might indeed be suffering.

Err, is "Minting" the Treasury slider in the technologies tab ? If so then it's at 0.5 but it was at 2 during the war.

And, how much interest are you paying annually? If it really is "crippling debt" then that's probably a good part of the reason your balance sheet is not so great.

My interest is at 1.8 but i have a 2 start advisor that decreases it.

Nice job overcoming the alliance - you should remain on friendly terms with France! As you learned the hard way, you should always check what allies a new enemy has. It probably was a good idea to vassalize the Pope. Otherwise he likely would have hated you, and you probably would have been excommunicated at some point, which can be a major pain.

France has "Is threatened by Castille" thing on it's profile. Should i be worried ? Was that thing there at the start of the game ?

Dodged a bullet with the pope, i was going to push for annexation but the war already dragged on for too long and war weariness was high. My papal standing is at 0 and decreasing due to infamy, how much will be too low ? I only have 1 missionary in use in Granada (which still hasn't converted), so i can afford to send some to the pope to increase my standing.

Thanks for all the help guys

 

[Arakhor]

F12 makes a map of the world, Shift-F12 gives you a map of the lands of you and your vassals, F11 makes screenshots.

 

[Nintz]

<snip>

Hm. Tougher. Much more difficult. How is Holland alliance/guarantee wise?

That looks like the only possibly decent place to expand atm.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

F12 makes a map of the world, Shift-F12 gives you a map of the lands of you and your vassals, F11 makes screenshots.

Thank you, i'll post some pics to accompany my huge post...

____....


Here are my advisors - i used to have a 5 star gov tech guy but he died

Spoiler :

Here are my tech sliders:

Spoiler :

My army tab:

Spoiler :

My policy sliders:

Spoiler :

My culture tab:

Spoiler :

My missions tab:

Spoiler :

This is one of the most disastrous missions they could give me. For the last 2 policy slide movements i moved toward inovative. This mission made me halt my missionary in Granada and leave it at that until i can cancel the mission in 1428 ...


And here are some charts and the revolt risks of my provinces:

Spoiler :

And some other ledger:

Spoiler :

Btw, if anyone can see if there's something HORRIBLY wrong that i am doing to my finances let me know.

Oh and i just noticed i have an infamy limit - which is 55.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Oh, I forgot to mention I'm allied with Austria, though there will have to be a showdown eventually.