How is your EU3 Game going?

[Nintz]

He fixed it. Look at his post's edit time.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

So here's my most recent game as France. I have Brabant and Foix as vassals. Foix I just haven't bothered to Annex yet and Brabant I just got when they foolishly chose to honor their alliance with Austria after Austria declared on me. Bet they're regretting that particular bit of boneheadedness. Not really sure where to go from here, I'm just coming off a period of massive instability cause by my last war with Burgandy, I've probably got another few years of dealing with rebellions but in the meantime I need to figure out where to head next. My first thought is Castille, they're a juicy target without all the alliance World War EU3 mess that comes from attacking any of the stuff immediately east of me. I haven't decided 100% yet but it's probably Castille.

Spoiler :

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Edit: Also got a quick question for y'all. This is the first time I've ever gotten far enough in tech to unlock artillery, is it worth using if I just unlocked the first 2? When does it become useful and when it does, what should my army comp look like? 50% inf/25% cav/ 25% art? Something different? I have no experience with artillery in this game yet .

 

[Arakhor]

As I recall you should have a 2/1/2 or 4/2/3 ratio for infantry, cavalry and artillery.

 

[bestbrian]

I start working them in with Culverins for sieges, and by Leather Cannon I have them worked on a 1 for 1 basis with Infantry. By that time I have my stacks at 12 Infantry for the frontage, 12 Artillery for the second line, and 4 Cavalry for the flanking bonus.

 

[Lohrenswald]

As I recall you should have a 2/1/2 or 4/2/3 ratio for infantry, cavalry and artillery.

How "effective" is 2/1/1?

 

[Double A]

Less effective than 2/1/2.

 

[uat2d]

I always go 2/1/1 or 4/2/2 or 8/4/4 or 16/8/8 because it makes splitting and merging much easier.

 

[Lohrenswald]

I always go 2/1/1 or 4/2/2 or 8/4/4 or 16/8/8 because it makes splitting and merging much easier.

Well, in total numbers of regiments I haven't experimented beyond 12/6/6, once enough provinces can support such a large army.

 

[uat2d]

In the late game while fighting in Europe with Improved Foraging I've gone 32/16/16 (full quality) which absolutely destroys pretty much everything

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Wow seems like everyone has different idea on what it should be . I'll experiment a bit, I just took the NI that increases my land forcelimits so I have a large amount of room in my army for experimentation at this point. I'm pretty confident that as soon as I'm happy with my current infamy levels/stability that I'm going to crush Castille pretty easily so I probably won't need super optimized stacks for it.

 

[sophie]

2/1/2 is what I've heard. Artillery is basically how you rack up the massive 10,000+ casualty battles later on in the war, especially as the AI is so remarkably bad at adequately building artillery. The strategy for later-game wars (from a micro standpoint) should be getting infantry to hold the line in place long enough for the artillery to rain hell upon the enemy lines, while maintaining enough cavalry to keep the enemy honest in the shock phase (and to exploit the holes created by the artillery barrages in the fire phase).

Artillery really doesn't become worth it though until Land Tech level like 25ish or so. Before that they aren't worth it. Also getting high maneuver generals really helps boosting your effectiveness in wars.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

The maneuver thing I've definitely learned, I feel completely gyped at this point whenever I recruit a general and he gets low/no maneuver. It's the single most important leader stat that I look for. Since I tend to play on higher speeds even in war it also helps me a lot to make the game autopause whenever a battle finishes so I can immediately give chase to a fleeing enemy without them getting a couple days head start on me.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

So here I am after playing it today:

Spoiler :

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First I had a quest to annex Brabant and I'd gain a free core on it for doing so, so I did. Austria hates me already anyway, what's one more thing. Next quest that comes up is to capture Judea, so after adding the significant quest reward to the fact that I had a Casus Belli against Morroco for being heathens, I turned my cannons on Morocco instead of Castille. After one of the easiest wars that I've yet engaged in (cannons rocked the Moroccan house), I ended up with significant holdings in the west of their lands, as well as Judea. Next quest is something lame, I have to vassalize Lorraine or something, all I really need to do is find an excuse to attack them.

 

[Double A]

If you get a mission to vassalize someone you get a free, 0 infamy cost to vassalize them CB. That mission also gives -2 infamy. It's practically a steal.

Anyway here's my crap. It's 1524 in these.

Spoiler :

I think I'll form Germany some time in the mid or late 1570s. Took Austria's gold provs and gave them to my vassals because seriously, screw Austria. Also I'm allied with France now. They have the biggest army and I have the biggest navy. This should work out really well for England, Denmark, and Castille.

Oh yes. Especially Castille.

 

[sophie]

If you get a mission to vassalize someone you get a free, 0 infamy cost to vassalize them CB. That mission also gives -2 infamy. It's practically a steal.

Yeah this. Great way to easily burn infamy. You get a free ally/buffer state for future wars, you get a chunk of their income, and you can always diploannex them at your leisure 20 or 30 years down the line. Beats the hell out of eating 4 infamy AND having to suffer through 50 years of no core. Especially at the higher difficulties where infamy is at a serious premium.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Yeah I forgot about the CB that does make the mission easier. Not quite the walk in the park that you're implying, since Lorraine has a bunch of allies that are all gonna dogpile on me when I declare, but I'm sure I can take them all simultaneously.

 

[Bowsling]

Go Urbino!!

 

[sophie]

Yeah I forgot about the CB that does make the mission easier. Not quite the walk in the park that you're implying, since Lorraine has a bunch of allies that are all gonna dogpile on me when I declare, but I'm sure I can take them all simultaneously.

Dude you're France, and more importantly you're France who has successfully eliminated all the vassal states. At this point you literally have nothing to worry about for the rest of the game.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Hey, hey, I didn't eliminate them, that makes me sound like a treasonous weasel! I peacefully incorporated them .

 

[SamSniped]

Hey, hey, I didn't eliminate them, that makes me sound like a treasonous weasel! I peacefully incorporated them .

Oh, for the sake of Bokonon, take your world assimilation phrases like an imperialist.