How is your EU3 Game going?

[cardgame]

Europa Universalis III, it is a very fun game!
You can be any nation from 1453 to 1821. The expantions extend to starting date to 1399.

1453 to 1789 in vanilla, actually.

 

[remake20]

Ah, I'm good without it. Trying out Mini ninjas, pretty fun.

 

[Rub'Rum]

I really have a hard time keeping my economy afloat. Maybe it's because I feel compelled to do too many things when I start a game?

I just started as Sweden. I had a 4000 men army and that's it. So my first moves were to colonize one territory up north that had silver, hire a couple of advisers and increase my army to 8000 men. And that's it, I'm losing money.

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

Lower your army/naval maintainable rates during peacetime? Getting rid of any military divisions you don't need during peacetime will help - even in an unexpected outbreak of war armies can be raised fairly easily.

 

[Rub'Rum]

Lower your army/naval maintainable rates during peacetime? Getting rid of any military divisions you don't need during peacetime will help - even in an unexpected outbreak of war armies can be raised fairly easily.

I did this in my previous game as Tibet and the next thing I know I have three countries ganging up on me. And I see all my neighbours with standing armies all the time, I wonder how they deal with that on THEIR budget.

 

[NBAfan]

Here is my current game as the Byzantine empire.

After I rightfuly took back some of my Greek Islands, I lost my fleet to Venice. I had to quickly rebuild it because the silly Ottomans Dowed me. After a few hard fought years I had occupied the eastern half of the OE. After two more years the OE went bankrupt so I was able to occupie the entire OE. They are now not much of a theat.

 

[sophie]

Who do you guys consider the best nation to start as? I just bought EUIII complete (no HttT, unfortunately...) and am completely inept. I have no idea what I'm doing half the time.

 

[NBAfan]

Who do you guys consider the best nation to start as? I just bought EUIII complete (no HttT, unfortunately...) and am completely inept. I have no idea what I'm doing half the time.

Play as France to get a hang of the game.

 

[cardgame]

Castille, France and England are generally regarded as the best 'starter nations'

 

[Tee Kay]

I haven't played EU3 for over a year, and before that I had very little time to play anyway. So with some free time and a new computer I started playing as France to help me refamiliarize myself with the game.

DoW England to try to get England to give up Gascony and fulfill my mission. I took all of their continental territories (Brest, Gascony, and Savoy, except Calais) and they still won't settle for anything more than a white peace. In the peace screen it turns out each province is worth around 20 - 30 war score, so to get England to give up a couple of provinces would require 50+ war score and an invasion and occupation of half of England, more if I want Savoy as well. It's ridiculous. 'm allied with Castile, but Aragon is allied with England and Burgundy, and England with Portugal. If England and Burgundy sign an alliance the encirclement would be complete.

I loaded up a save and tried a landing to see how I would fare. Out of 10,000 men around 3,000 are left by the end of the year, and then wiped out by the English army. How can I improve the supply?

 

[GoodGame]

Got EU3:complete over holidays. So far:

1. Mali is unplayable. Basically just a bunch of animist revolutions while hoping to somehow reach N. Africa for some neighbor tech bonuses, and higher Trade and Gov't tech. So much for a Africa colonized S. America first game.

2. Had a fun game as France. Turned the initial "kick out England" mission into a "Ally with Castille, and take down Portugal". Would be an interesting start for France-dominated colonization period. Problem is I warred too long, and actually getting England to give up all 3 french possession takes an Operation Sea Lion.

3. Moscovy: fun for a while, but conquering Islamic provinces is not worth the reward. Allying with Novgorod seems to just benefit Novgorod, other than helping Moscow survive against the steppe riders. Probably I'll try a Russia goal from Novgorod role.

4. Had a fun Castille game too. Ignored the Spanish goal, and just took out Algiers and most of Morroco, with help from Portugal. Transitioned to Empire, then colonized abouts Guiana. Was new to the rules and the importance of colonial range, so though I had a perfect storm in beating Portugal to colonizations (I even grabbed canaries, et al), the long wait to boosting colonial range through tech and advisors let Portugal dominate the Carribean. Also had a pointless, unreasonable, unwanted succession war with England which upset my island possessions some. Probably worth a second try.

5. Had some minor reunify Italy games, playing Venice or Genoa. A venice-genoa alliance is an interesting strategy, that I'd like to try. Haven't quite mastered this, since Austrian alliances with neighbors usually dominates. Anyone had an Austria-unifies-italy game?

I had tried it from the perspective of the Mamalukes too, but their inability to avoid despotic pretenders pretty much ruins their potential, though their peace and position start makes them very good for pinching off smaller Mediterranean islands. I found Crete is perfect to take, and their Men at Arms units are prefereed. Found the christian zealots of Athens makes it really hard to progress beyond there though, even with Ottoman support.

 

[Hakim]

I really have a hard time keeping my economy afloat. Maybe it's because I feel compelled to do too many things when I start a game?

I just started as Sweden. I had a 4000 men army and that's it. So my first moves were to colonize one territory up north that had silver, hire a couple of advisers and increase my army to 8000 men. And that's it, I'm losing money.

I'm still quite new (on 3rd game as Sweden) but have economic problems with Sweden as well.

Note that Österbotten is a colony from start. Until it's self-sustaining it will take some maintenance each month (add Lappland to that if you colonize it). Not sure if it's cheaper to send colonists to make it selfsustaining asap or simply let it grow by itself though. You can decrease the maintenance with a slider setting but that will decrease growth as well.

Since Sweden is in a personal union with Denmark at the start I usually avoid building troops until I'm independent. As long as relations with Novgorod is good the risk for war is quite low. Eventually Denmark will start a war, perhaps with Teutonic Order. That means Sweden is in war as well and can take war taxes while keeping out of battle.

Saving/borrowing money and build a CoT in Stockholm seems to help a bit. The only time I'm rich is usually directly after a war with a country that could give money in the peace deal.

 

[PhroX]

My current game as Malacca (MMP2, 1453 start). I'd reached 1728 before I was so rudely interrupted by my copy of ME2 coming through the letterbox

What you can't see from that is that Ming is almost completely occupied by rebels and the various revolting minors, as a result of a devastaing war with me that left them with 45 WE.

That green in France and Ireland is the Ottoman Empire

 

[Keroro]

I've just picked up EU III second hand, and have been playing through as Portugal. It's 1501. I've found it's quite a learning curve, but I think I'm doing OK - I have most of the caribbean area sewn up with just a few French (in Brazil) and English (some of the islands) colonies dotted around. I'm allied with Castille and England and at peace with everyone else, save an occasional phony war on behalf of an ally. Am considering an aggressive war against either one of the native powers or France ATM.

I have a question for anyone who plays the game: How much do the expansion packs add to the game? I've only got the basic version ATM, but having enjoyed what I've seen I'm considering maybe getting Victoria or the expensions to EU III. Also, are there user made mods that anyone plays that improve the gameplay significantly?

Cheers in advance for any advice. Hope this isn't considered a threadjack.

 

[Love]

All the expansions are good, but perhaps not completely necessary... Napoleons ambitions upspeed is awesome if you play as a slow-building nation.

 

[PhroX]

I have a question for anyone who plays the game: How much do the expansion packs add to the game? I've only got the basic version ATM, but having enjoyed what I've seen I'm considering maybe getting Victoria or the expensions to EU III. Also, are there user made mods that anyone plays that improve the gameplay significantly?

It's worth getting the expansions. They add so much to the game. The first two are must haves and there is only one reason not to get HTTT which I'll come too, and even that won't last for long.

As for mods, well, the daddy is Magna Mundi Platinum 2. It's often billed as a historical mod, but it adds a huge amount to the gameplay too - generally making things harder and more complex. Personally, I love it, though I know many find it too restrictive (for me, that restriction is a good thing - when I do achieve big things, it's all the more sweeter for having "beaten the game" as it were). Currently, it's not compatible with HTTT, hence my earlier comment.

Other popular ones include Whole World Mod, which removes the unexplorable areas (though I find in doing this, it unbalances the game too much, and makes it laughably easy), and SRI (forget exactly what it stands for, but it's sorta like MMP lite - good as a "first mod" for EU3)

 

[Joecoolyo]

Just finished my Italian game (from earlier in the thread)

A couple very strange things happened in this game which I thought were pretty interesting.

One, out of no where (and I have no idea how) Lithuania became a total beast. For the longest time they had the second largest army in the world (trailing behind me of course) until the Ottomans surpassed them late game.

Another oddity was that France was a total wimp throughout the entire game. I originally allied with them waaaay back early game (late 1400's) thinking they would be a great war ally, and out of a little fear. But instead all I got was a nation that was constantly under revolt, was technologically backward, never colonized and never conquered. At most they helped me when they themselves distracted Burgundy so I could sweep in a take their cities, other than that they sucked. Once again I have no idea how this happened.

Third, I single handily (through spies) caused all the colonial revolutionary states you see in the map. That includes America (in Newfoundland), Quebec (Quebec), Canada (scattered throughout the Midwest, and Australia), Louisiana (Florida and Trinidad), Creek (Alabama), Mexico (Mexico), Colombia (Colombia), Peru (Peru), Paraguay (Paraguay), Chile (Chile), Brazil (Brazil), Venezuela (one Antilles island and South Africa), and Haiti (one Antilles island). I did this through constantly keeping Spain and Britain at a -3 stability rating and sponsoring revolts.

Fourth, Korea did exceptionally well, for well, being Korea. AS you can see from the map they were able to take a good chunk of Southern China and Northern Southeastern Asia D).

Fifth, the Ottomans did pretty good too. Seizing a good portion of Arabia, and Central Asia. The Ottomans and I (we were good allies) seized a good portion of Africa, especially after they inherited the Mali. We also colonized a bit, splitting up the Indies, the Philippines, and Eastern Russia.

A sixth and final oddity was how advanced I was compared to everyone else. By the end of the game, I was teching around 65 for eveything, while the rest of Europe (and the world) was only in their 30's. In fact, the only other country that wasn't in their 30's was Sweden, who was up to par with me (they were also teching in the 60's), but whats strange was how Sweden was able to accomplish this. I mean from looking at the map, they only have 2 provinces (Stockholm, and that one waaaaay in northern Scandinavia). And as of now, I still have no idea how they were able to tech that fast.

In conclusion, 'twas a very interesting game as nothing went as it usually does. I experimenting a lot with spies (with some rather mixed results) and being aggressive, as usually I'm somewhat a pacifist when it comes to these games (and I have no idea why). All in all, it was really satisfying to watch as I expanded (along with my 2 allies) while the rest of the world crumbled into revolt.

 

[NBAfan]

It's worth getting the expansions. They add so much to the game. The first two are must haves and there is only one reason not to get HTTT which I'll come too, and even that won't last for long.

As for mods, well, the daddy is Magna Mundi Platinum 2. It's often billed as a historical mod, but it adds a huge amount to the gameplay too - generally making things harder and more complex. Personally, I love it, though I know many find it too restrictive (for me, that restriction is a good thing - when I do achieve big things, it's all the more sweeter for having "beaten the game" as it were). Currently, it's not compatible with HTTT, hence my earlier comment.

Other popular ones include Whole World Mod, which removes the unexplorable areas (though I find in doing this, it unbalances the game too much, and makes it laughably easy), and SRI (forget exactly what it stands for, but it's sorta like MMP lite - good as a "first mod" for EU3)

I think the expansions are must haves with out MMP.
SRI changes how the Holy Roman Empire works.

Here is an update from my Byzantine game. Denmark has a large empire.

 

[PhroX]

SRI changes how the Holy Roman Empire works.

And a whole load of other things too. Though it did indeed start with the HRE and name does comes from a really bad Latin translation of HRE. Can't remember exactly what though

Used to play it a lot before I got into MMP. Adds some nice features and helps cut down on some of the really stupid blobbing of vanilla, without being totally overwhelming.

 

[Rub'Rum]

You always have to have the prior expansions installed to play an expansion pack anyway. If you want to play Heir to the Throne, you'll need the other 2 previous expansions installed... So in order:

Vanilla --> Napoleon's Ambitions --> In Nomine --> Heir to the Throne.

i.e./e.g.: You can play with In Nomine only if you have Napoleon's ambition. You need everything to play HttT