How is your EU3 Game going?

[Lohrenswald]

Reformed:
+10.0% Trade efficiency
+1.0 colonists
+10% Colonial growth
+0.20 Missionaries
+4.5% Missionary chance
+1.0 diplomats
Tolerance effects +1.0 heretics
Stability cost +30.00

Protestant:
+10.0% Production efficiency
+10.0% Tax modifier
+0.5 colonists
+0.20 Missionaries
+5.0% Missionary chance
+1.0 diplomats
Tolerance effects +1.0 heretics
Stability cost +30.00

So unless you want 0,5 extra colonies per year, I'd rather go with protestantism.

So from my Prussia game:

Spoiler :

Religion:

Spoiler :

Also, I got technology under control:

Spoiler :

 

[Dell19]

Thanks for the advice, it does seem that Protestant is the best option then as I don't want to have a colonising game (Although it does mean I should have switched to Reformed in my Brittany game). Out of interest how did you take the HRE territory? Just a couple of unlawful provinces at a time or via inheritance?

I've been vassalising everyone whenever I've been at war with a HRE member which kind of helps but doesn't actually gain me territory for forming Germany (I could try to unite the HRE instead).

I did lose my elector status as Austria hates me however in hindsight I think this was my fault for agreeing royal marriages with them all the time as I guess they kept on claiming thrones. I did still get elected though so I'm currently the emperor.

 

[Lohrenswald]

Thanks for the advice, it does seem that Protestant is the best option then as I don't want to have a colonising game (Although it does mean I should have switched to Reformed in my Brittany game). Out of interest how did you take the HRE territory? Just a couple of unlawful provinces at a time or via inheritance?

I've been vassalising everyone whenever I've been at war with a HRE member which kind of helps but doesn't actually gain me territory for forming Germany (I could try to unite the HRE instead).

I did lose my elector status as Austria hates me however in hindsight I think this was my fault for agreeing royal marriages with them all the time as I guess they kept on claiming thrones. I did still get elected though so I'm currently the emperor.

I got core on Breslau thanks to a mission. I then annexed Pommern (Pommerania), got as good diplomat I could, and waited for it to core (I think I might have gotten a core on hinterpommern thanks to the mission) Then I took ober- and niederlausitz and Ratibor and waited for them to core. I vassalised Magdeburg, Mecklenburg and Anhalt, and waited for missions to annex them giving me cores. So far that has only happened with Magdeburg. By luck I got a personal union with Braunschweig, and got cores while inheriting them. Somehow I din't get a core on Kalisz, which was owned by Mazovia.

EDIT: Hamburg was taken by Sweden, so I got a core by taking it from them.

Uniting the empire is a long and hard process, I posted a game a bit ago. To get enough authority you almost either need to get a horde neighboor and just defeat them again and again, or make use of the reformation. It's a bit hard to get people to vote for you and the reforms if you change to Protestant or reformed, but you get more authority that way than by staying catholic. Though it's best to do this as early as you can. The longer you wait, the harder it is to make use of the reformation.

 

[bonefang]

Well continuing from my previous game with Portugal..

desperate to get some areas in Italy, I got a CB on Bohemia, that was ruling Pisa. I declared on Bohemia, (infamy 3.2), pretty soon, everyone declared on me. France was eager to get back the vassals we had, i.e. Guyenne. Portugal tried to get in the fray, but they were defeated and annexed. (infamy 15.2)
Somehow, out of the many branches of diplomacy, England jumped in. They were besieging Porto and Andulucia when I offered them concede defeat ... and they declined...

It seems like all downhill from here on

 

[uat2d]

Reformed:
+10.0% Trade efficiency
+1.0 colonists
+10% Colonial growth
+0.20 Missionaries
+4.5% Missionary chance
+1.0 diplomats
Tolerance effects +1.0 heretics
Stability cost +30.00

Protestant:
+10.0% Production efficiency
+10.0% Tax modifier
+0.5 colonists
+0.20 Missionaries
+5.0% Missionary chance
+1.0 diplomats
Tolerance effects +1.0 heretics
Stability cost +30.00

Catholic:
+1.0 colonists
+20.0 colonist chance
+0.25 Missionaries
+5.0% Missionary chance
+2.0 diplomats
Tolerance effects -1.0 heretics
Stability cost +20.00
Can become Papal controller

This one is clearly the best, it's much easier to colonise, you don't need to spend a lot of gold on either missionaries or on stability and you burn a lot of infamy if you get good papal relations and control the cardinals.

 

[Lohrenswald]

Exept you can't become papal controller because you have to much infamy.

Also, you don't need colonies.

 

[Quintillus]

Exept you can't become papal controller because you have to much infamy.

If you play it right you can get cardinals and still have infamy. From what I've read, less than 10 infamy is preferable. Then you can still keep 2 cardinals or so and burn infamy, while occasionally being controller. Conquer enough Catholic lands, and you're controller more often.

Though I haven't tried this myself. My full games have been Catholic -> Protestant (early 1500's), Orthodox -> Catholic -> Orthodox (less than 100 years of Catholic), and Buddhist. Long term ones as Orthodox, and Sunni.

It's certainly situational though. If you're small and trade, Reformed is great; if you're large and don't trade, Protestant is, if it's in-between or stability is a bear, Catholic is. And neighbors matter. In my Novgorod game, I went Catholic to avoid the most annoying Teutonic Holy Wars. Once I was powerful enough, I voluntarily lost a war to Polotsk so as to restore Mother Russia to Orthodoxy.

Of the western 3, I'd say Protestant is best in general if Catholic weren't so much lower in stability costs. With that, I call it a wash. Excommunication cuts both ways, and I've been on the bad end of that before when I didn't know the mechanics behind it.

Then there's Orthodox:

+1.0 colonists
+0.25 missionaries
+5.0% missionary chance
+15 stability cost

Not a bad option. Fewer benefits, but the lowest stability costs of the three.

Well continuing from my previous game with Portugal..

desperate to get some areas in Italy, I got a CB on Bohemia, that was ruling Pisa. I declared on Bohemia, (infamy 3.2), pretty soon, everyone declared on me. France was eager to get back the vassals we had, i.e. Guyenne. Portugal tried to get in the fray, but they were defeated and annexed. (infamy 15.2)
Somehow, out of the many branches of diplomacy, England jumped in. They were besieging Porto and Andulucia when I offered them concede defeat ... and they declined...

It seems like all downhill from here on

Sounds like fun! And a mess...

 

[Nintz]

The best part about Orthodox is religious unity, and not having to deal with -20% conversion chance for 20-30 years for every province that gets it. It allows for a potentially much stronger early-mid game, especially if you're playing an Orthodox player in western Europe.

 

[bonefang]

England offered a white peace as soon as their Army that was seiging Porto got slashed. Unfortunately that meant I was in peace with Bohemia as well, since England was the war controller.

There was another problem that I was now facing, what do i do with the army that i had raised for the defense against the Reds ? Well, i decided that it would be a good opportunity to raise some prestige, since I had now become the Defender of Faith.

First to fall was Algiers .. Unfortunately, I couldn't force my religion on them, yet, the +10 prestige for their acceptance of defeat was good enough.

Now what ? running at -5.6 in budget, I got a chance to fight against Byzantines, who were surprisingly huge. Started with their Island provinces...

While landing in Morea, Novogrod joined the war, with 40 warships. My 29 caravel group was trashed, losing 13 ships and 18 cogs. the 18,000 men war group, that had 2000 artillery, slowly pushed into the Byz kingdom. When I stopped, Byzantine had lands only in Asia.

Planning to shove my religion into these heathens .


This is right after making the byz accepting my religion

Spoiler :

 

[Peck of Arabia]

This was a cool event I'd never triggered before:

Yeah, I know, Russia- not much of a challenge. I just wanted to give Novgorod a chance after seeing getting pummelled so often. As an aside, playing as a trade league makes for a significantly different game, quite a fun one, too.

 

[Lohrenswald]

I remember I did that as Byzantium.

It took around 130 years to convert Alexandria.

 

[bonefang]

Any significance of maintaining "28k armies" ?

 

[Peck of Arabia]

Nothing in particular, it's just the result of merging 14k armies together to match comparable army sizes of the western powers starting with desperately trying to beat France after a 20 year stalemate

I was led to believe a 5:2 ratio of infantry to cavalry was optimal for western unit types, any more and the cavalry was less effective, any less and you don't get as much shock as is possible. I guess I kind of took it to a logical extreme...

Before I westernised, by the by, the optimal army composure was more like 5:4, I think, so I had a lot of 9k and 18k armies.


I don't know what to do about artillery- apparently you can have a 1:1 ratio of artillery to infantry for massive firepower, but that leads to huge, cumbersome, armies.


EDIT: It's not beyond the bounds of belief that I could be entirely wrong about this. I'd welcome any input from you Paradox pros about this

 

[bonefang]

I am no pro, but i think, paradox maintains that "hilly areas" are more suitable for Infantry.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

I started a game of this last night since I feel like I finally understand it enough to manage, but I'm gonna have to start over I think. I'm England and was trying to complete my first mission of unifying Ireland but I stupidly failed to pay attention to who is allies with whom and attacked one of the Irish provinces while they were allied with Burgandy. Who are allied with Brittany. Who somehow midwar allied with Scotland. So now I'm getting gangbanged from 3 sides. In retrospect I probably could have managed that better.

 

[Nintz]

When I start as England with the "Conquer Ireland" mission, I declare war on all of the Irish minors on day 1. I also give away my French provinces to prevent an Anglo-French war early.

 

[madviking]

But half of the fun as England is conquering France...

 

[Nintz]

I always go Farmer's Gambit colonial power as England.

I just don't like spending 2 centuries dealing with wars, revolts, more wars, Germany, Castille, and more wars on the European mainland. Just not my thing, even if that is how someone does a WC.

 

[madviking]

The wars get easier the more of them you fight. The first one is definitely the most difficult one. But once you secure Ireland, Scotland, and form the UK, you can direct all of your military towards France. With some carefully crafted alliances, you can cause some real fits for France.

 

[Lohrenswald]

Though as England you get a lot of missions to conquer France (and giving you lots of cores), while you lose these if you form Great Britain.