How is your EU3 Game going?

[Quintillus]

The Horde continues its march westward!

Spoiler Europe :

The conquest of Burgundy continued uneventfully, but once Franche-Comte was taken, war with France began. France and their allies initially fielded close to 80,000 men, nearly as many as Burgundy had. A few early skirmishes in the south proved inconclusive, but several months in, a large battle occured at the Catalaunian Plains. Although less dramatic than the Battle of Barrois, it nevertheless established Horde superiority in the region, and having drawn in tens of thousands of Horde troops, France no longer stood any chance.

Another significant conquest is that of Venice. Apparently forced to demilitarize after the expense of their previous wars, they no longer had a navy, and the Horde marched in triumphantly.

The Horde economy is also finally doing respectably. A healthy profit is being turned at 0.10 inflation per year with 200,000 troops - much better than previously. If National Bank is adopted, the spiraling inflation issues (22% in 1464) might finally be in the past. That cores are beginning to form can only help the economy.

Rome fears for the city's safety with Gaul now overrun and northern Italy predominantly Horde, but cannot do anything, as they are currently fighting a losing battle against Corsica, Naples, and Portugal. It's only the conquest of France that has saved them this long.

However, not all is well in Horde Land. The Timurids, a longtime ally, had a succession crisis and are now in free fall, inexplicably failing to replenish their armies. Although canceling the alliance did result in their armies fighting their own rebels instead of ours, rumors of their demise are not exagerrated, especially with another crisis in a couple years. The Horde does not have enough extra troops to save them, and only hopes that they can retain some semblance of an empire.

The Horde also ran into the inconvenience that nomads cannot colonize. Thus, all the colonists from coastal centers of trades are, sadly, not particularly useful.

Additionally, the Horde suffered its first true, non-crisis-related defeat, to Sweden. A province was colonized by the Swedes, and their army, though small, proved tough, forcing a concession of defeat so that advances could continue elsewhere. Though the Swedes nevertheless remain doomed, extra efforts may be necessary to enforce that.

 

[Peck of Arabia]

Civ4 has random events that can end the game for the player.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that event. You'll have to ask Sid about that one, but I guess it happens pretty early on when you're not too invested in the game, you wouldn't get on event that said, in 1000 AD for example- "your central administration is crumbling, the following cities have seceded" ...unless you're playing a mod like Rhye's and Fall.


Anyway, how did you get a horde that big, Quintillus? It must have been exhausting! I tried it once, the conquests were fun, succession crises not so much

 

[Civ'ed]

The Horde continues its march westward!

Spoiler Europe :

The conquest of Burgundy continued uneventfully, but once Franche-Comte was taken, war with France began. France and their allies initially fielded close to 80,000 men, nearly as many as Burgundy had. A few early skirmishes in the south proved inconclusive, but several months in, a large battle occured at the Catalaunian Plains. Although less dramatic than the Battle of Barrois, it nevertheless established Horde superiority in the region, and having drawn in tens of thousands of Horde troops, France no longer stood any chance.

Another significant conquest is that of Venice. Apparently forced to demilitarize after the expense of their previous wars, they no longer had a navy, and the Horde marched in triumphantly.

The Horde economy is also finally doing respectably. A healthy profit is being turned at 0.10 inflation per year with 200,000 troops - much better than previously. If National Bank is adopted, the spiraling inflation issues (22% in 1464) might finally be in the past. That cores are beginning to form can only help the economy.

Rome fears for the city's safety with Gaul now overrun and northern Italy predominantly Horde, but cannot do anything, as they are currently fighting a losing battle against Corsica, Naples, and Portugal. It's only the conquest of France that has saved them this long.

However, not all is well in Horde Land. The Timurids, a longtime ally, had a succession crisis and are now in free fall, inexplicably failing to replenish their armies. Although canceling the alliance did result in their armies fighting their own rebels instead of ours, rumors of their demise are not exagerrated, especially with another crisis in a couple years. The Horde does not have enough extra troops to save them, and only hopes that they can retain some semblance of an empire.

The Horde also ran into the inconvenience that nomads cannot colonize. Thus, all the colonists from coastal centers of trades are, sadly, not particularly useful.

Additionally, the Horde suffered its first true, non-crisis-related defeat, to Sweden. A province was colonized by the Swedes, and their army, though small, proved tough, forcing a concession of defeat so that advances could continue elsewhere. Though the Swedes nevertheless remain doomed, extra efforts may be necessary to enforce that.

Oh ye gods that is scary.

 

[Tee Kay]

Unite Eurasia!

 

[warpus]

I tried playing as the horde one time - my finances ended up spinning out of control fairly quick as I tried to build up large enough armies to contain Poland & Lithuania. I just had almost no money coming in as income.. I wonder what the first 50 years of your game were like Quintillus

 

[Quintillus]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that event. You'll have to ask Sid about that one, but I guess it happens pretty early on when you're not too invested in the game, you wouldn't get on event that said, in 1000 AD for example- "your central administration is crumbling, the following cities have seceded" ...unless you're playing a mod like Rhye's and Fall.


Anyway, how did you get a horde that big, Quintillus? It must have been exhausting! I tried it once, the conquests were fun, succession crises not so much

Most of the game has been at either speed 2 or speed 1. At first, usually 2, occasionally 3 - that was when my primary enemies were Lithuania, Poland, and Hungary. During and shortly after succession crises (and increasingly the rest of the time now that the empire is so big), always speed 1. During that time, I manually rebel-fight since the AI would likely march them into disaster. Although it's speed 1, there's enough battles going on that it doesn't seem too slow.

A few of the info pieces in the upper-right (I forget what they're called) have also been helpful. One is the battle one, which has helped me spot a few potential disasters in time to withdraw. The defensive sieges is also helpful once there aren't gazillions of them.

As for expansion, when I was facing big powers (Bohemia, Austria, Burgundy, and France in particular), I concentrated forces to defeat their armies, and once those were mostly defeated occupied and annexed most of their land in one war. I do occasionally accept concessions of defeat so I can concentrate on certain areas. The exception is the Ottomans; I accepted tribute from them in 1420 since I couldn't cross the Dardanelles into Asia Minor.

It is a pretty slow-paced game in terms of time frame - I'd probably be around 1600, maybe 1650, in a normal game by now.

And I've never got that Civ4 event. I guess I should consider myself lucky!

I tried playing as the horde one time - my finances ended up spinning out of control fairly quick as I tried to build up large enough armies to contain Poland & Lithuania. I just had almost no money coming in as income.. I wonder what the first 50 years of your game were like Quintillus

The first 10 years were fairly slow. I expanded north into Muscowy and the Russian minors first, but the first war with Poland/Lithuania was basically a 6-year-long stalemate. However, thanks in part to Novgorod jumping on the anti-Lithuanian bandwagon, this proved enough - during the truce, Poland went bankrupt, and by the time it ended, neither of them had much of an army. It also helped that I was fairly conservative in the first war, letting the Poles and Lithuanians besiege my lands for awhile, so I didn't lose many troops permanently - you're right, there isn't a whole lot of money early on. It also appears that I didn't recruit any new ones, which saved money, and going by the looks of a 1403 save, made sense as I was nearly out of manpower anyway - might as well use what I had to reinforce.

The succession crises proved the worst for finances. Mine were in 1432, 1443, and 1448. The first one I wasn't really ready for, and had to take a loan and mint a lot to raise additional troops. But since revolt risk was so high everywhere, income was pretty low, so it was a bad time to mint. I also found out the hard way that rebel troops in your capital province give the "Distant Overseas" modifier everywhere, which was a double-whammy on income. But, I learned after the first crisis, and thereafter had an army permanently stationed in my capital, and also built up a war chest of about 1000 ducats for the second crisis, which proved about right. Better to mint during prosperous years and make lots of money for the inflation than to mint a lot for very little in lean years.

For the third TSC, after a regency, I also pulled back all my troops to cored lands (nearly all original lands). This proved helpful for ensuring I kept my initially conquered and closest-to-coring lands, but isn't possible when there isn't a regency. And overall, I'd rather have no regency. Very little was conquered from 1443 until 1453 or so. I did run down my manpower in the first TSC, but not until I'd mostly reconquered my lands anyway.

But I should note that my finances looked pretty bad until 1460 or so - I already had 22% inflation by then. Here is a graph of inflation, income, and regiments (my primary expense):

I was fairly lucky in that my first ruler lived a long time. My succession crises were in 1432, 1443, and 1448. Too many of those would have halted expansion - and you can see their effects on the economy.

The one bad thing is that I accepted some decisions that slowed down westernization in the first 50 years, to avoid stability hits that I couldn't afford with super-high stability costs and high revolt risks already. It kept the expansion going, but means a long period of Hordedom.

Eurasia united? That's getting ahead of the plans! First, Europe without Britain!

 

[Nintz]

*reads recent posts*

Link

Nothing on this game?

 

[Quintillus]

*reads recent posts*

Link

Nothing on this game?

What are the "other plans for the future" you mentioned? I read the post, but didn't really know what your goal was - catching up on tech? I'm also unfamiliar with the mod you're playing, which could have significant ramifications. And it's somewhat hard to tell who your neighbors are, other than Byzantium. A zoomed-out political map of the Mediterranean would really help. I suppose you could go west against Fez (?), but that would likely only hurt the tech situation. But there isn't a whole lot to go on from the current post.

On the plus side, you seem to be doing pretty well, especially for East Africa. Manpower is a bit low if it's topped off, but that area has really low manpower to begin with (at least in Vanilla), so that's to be expected. It looks like you've gone a great job of being a real ally of Byzantium, as well.

 

[Nintz]

Well... I don't know. That's the problem . I'm Eastern group still, and can't compete against the Western world in most regards. Byzantium might, but....

Also, Misc. Mods. Mostly small stuff, this was an alt-history where Byzantium survived and the Crusades were drastically more successful. Also, Cathars of France. But they are long dead in this game. I'll see if I can get a Mediterranean map for better reference. The attached map should have everything, but it can be toughh to read.

 

[Quintillus]

Hmmm... sounds like a potentially tough position if you want to compete with the West. Is Westernization feasible? If not, I suppose you could go west in Africa to at least build up manpower and army strength. It looks like Byzantium is strong enough to be a useful ally against any Western aggression.

Or maybe colonizing the East Indies and Australia? Looks like you'd have a leg up over the West for that, and you'd have a rather unique empire.

It is possible to maintain strength against the West while not being Western - I managed to as the Manchu while staying in the Chinese tech group the whole time. But, I controlled the rich Chinese provinces (post-1644 or so), and also invested almost exclusively in army and government tech. It's a lot tougher when you have the comparatively poor East African provinces.

 

[Glassmage]

I just got EU3:Chronicles and play as Dai Viet. How do I get more monthly income? It is always negative.

 

[Antilogic]

You got a few options: there are some buildings like workshops that permanently increase your income once you build them; you can build massive manufactories much later on that do so and give you tech. You can reduce your military spending in times of peace to save money (you can do that on your military tab, but remember to increase it if you go to war!). You can mint more money with a slider on the budget screen (and many of us do this), but if you are consistently minting you want to get the National Bank national idea or a Master of the Mint adviser in order to control the inflation.

EDIT: Also, you get a big boost of income January every year, you can still balance cash flow by losing money each month if your cumulative loss is less than your January income.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

What does the "Uncontested claims" negative prestige modifier mean ? What claims ?
It's a modifier that seems to be increasing over the years.

Also, the game keeps annoying me with messages of how i can diplo-annex this or that vassal. What the game doesn't know is that they are of different religions.

 

[mechaerik]

What does the "Uncontested claims" negative prestige modifier mean ? What claims ?
It's a modifier that seems to be increasing over the years.

Its for core provinces that you don't own. Switching to the diplomatic mapmode shows provinces you have cores on in green stripes.

 

[Tee Kay]

Note: does not count your cores owned by your vassals.

 

[Robert Can't]

Austria isn't nice to Milan

 

[uat2d]

Also, the game keeps annoying me with messages of how i can diplo-annex this or that vassal. What the game doesn't know is that they are of different religions.

This is why you never vassalise countries from other religions. Why would you do even do that, when you have the Holy War CB and it's much cheaper to just outright annex them and keeping them or releasing them afterwards (reducing infamy) and they coming out with your religion?

 

[Heretic_Cata]

This is why you never vassalise countries from other religions. Why would you do even do that, when you have the Holy War CB and it's much cheaper to just outright annex them and keeping them or releasing them afterwards (reducing infamy) and they coming out with your religion?

In retrospect that was a crappy idea.
But that was not my intention at all. I was fighting wars in arabia/egypt/persia and during peace negotiations i forced them to release some nations. Those nations were made allies to me (BEHIND MY BACK!) and then one thing led to another and they are my vassals now. -_-

Its for core provinces that you don't own. Switching to the diplomatic mapmode shows provinces you have cores on in green stripes.

OOooOohh that.

When i formed Spain i got cores on Baleares and Rousillion(random spelling), the thing is, about 50 years before this happened i sold the Baleares to Tyrone or Syria (don't even remember) because i had no transport fleet to send my army all the way there to stop the constant revolts. So i sold it (for a symbolic sum) to the only nation who wanted it. (for some reason Tyrone/Syria were the only ones who wanted it AT ALL)

As for my other cores in other lands, i got 2 events that IIRC each gave me 2 cores god knows where. Some are in SouthAmerica but the others i don't remember. I think they are UK or France provinces, so no atacking.

 

[mechaerik]

In retrospect that was a crappy idea.
But that was not my intention at all. I was fighting wars in arabia/egypt/persia and during peace negotiations i forced them to release some nations. Those nations were made allies to me (BEHIND MY BACK!) and then one thing led to another and they are my vassals now. -_-

You're automatically allied to any countries you force-release, presumably to prevent the country you just fought from going in and reannexing them.

 

[uat2d]

Those nations were made allies to me (BEHIND MY BACK!) and then one thing led to another and they are my vassals now. -_-

No, that can't be it, you had to force vassalise them which means you had to fight them. If you're fighting them, use the Holy War cb and annex them (you can release later if you want). It's impossible for you to peacefully get them to be your vassals as the different religion forbids royal marriages.

When i formed Spain i got cores on Baleares and Rousillion(random spelling), the thing is, about 50 years before this happened i sold the Baleares to Tyrone or Syria (don't even remember) because i had no transport fleet to send my army all the way there to stop the constant revolts. So i sold it (for a symbolic sum) to the only nation who wanted it. (for some reason Tyrone/Syria were the only ones who wanted it AT ALL)

Why would you ever do such a thing?? Paying full infamy for a province you don't need or won't be able to keep and then giving it away, specially when it's a province which you could get for no infamy and with an instant core with inheritance or Reconquest cb after forming Spain!!

As for my other cores in other lands, i got 2 events that IIRC each gave me 2 cores god knows where. Some are in SouthAmerica but the others i don't remember. I think they are UK or France provinces, so no atacking.

No attacking?? How can you even play the game??