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QuarkJets posted:Depends entirely on your circumstances. Even if you'd be getting +0.5 ducats/month from a church, if it cost you your last 100 ducats I don't think that it'd be a wise purchase. I think it's important to keep a war chest, the size of which is dictated by your circumstances and personal preference. Thank you for the detailed write-up!
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May 26, 2017 16:07
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What's the DLC that adds the monarch personality stuff?
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May 26, 2017 16:14
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Current state of my PLC playthrough, as of 1616. Went Reformed since I've never done a playthrough with the new Reformed. Just finished surviving the rather brutal events leading up to making a monarchy free of the Sejm:  Until Religious League Wars triggered, I had a cozy alliance with Bohemia + Austria + Denmark + Bavaria protecting my western flank and letting me eat Muscovy and Novgorod. Ottomans continue to be a scary sight. (For some reason I didn't get called into the Religious League War, despite signing up on the Protestant side -- was it because I was outside the HRE? Because I was Reformed?) Had to rejigger my alliances -- France, Denmark, Austria, Venice, and Saxony -- notice Bohemia completely imploded -- it had eaten Hungary and then in, losing the League War, it had it released. Idea groups so far: Humanist, Influence, Defensive, Offensive. (I am leaning these next: Economic, Quantity, Trade, Quality... not quite sure on if that's the correct order, especially for the four military ideas). Armies:  My current plan is to maybe try to push into Muscovy and take some more of their land (as they keep going east). But I am worried the Ottomans will stab me in the underbelly if I do, but I am not in a position to take them on right now, so I figure I have to push into Muscovy first? From there, once Muscovite land integrates, perhaps I'll be able to take on the Ottomans and then push into India.
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May 26, 2017 16:50
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alcaras posted:Current state of my PLC playthrough, as of 1616. Went Reformed since I've never done a playthrough with the new Reformed. First of all, take a step back for a couple years and let your manpower get back up. Definitely eat Novgorod since they're probably stealing a few trade bucks from you and push Muscovy to the Urals at least. You don't really gain anything by allowing Russian powers to exist as Commonwealth. It's just a long, irritating front to deal with that will distract you from expanding in other directions. If you kick them out of European Russia, Muscovy will usually keep crawling eastward and you can keep beating them up every decade or so for a couple of provinces until you get to the Pacific. All that low-dev Siberian land is relatively cheap to take and core and will help you a good bit. I might also try and snag some land in Hungary and Transylvania, potentially leading to Bosnia and Serbia if there's a good opportunity. How's your income looking? You're nowhere near your force limit which is understandable after a bruising war, but will make you a much more tempting target for the Ottos. I'd be consolidating my infantry and making up the numbers with mercs in your situation.
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May 26, 2017 17:22
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Income is quite solid -- i invested early in some Churches and workshops and they seem to have helped. I also moved my trade home to Gdansk, so I'm collecting from Baltic. Taking a breath and letting manpower rebuild is a good call. I'm actually not quite at force limit (104/124)-- just regiments are like half/70% full. alcaras fucked around with this message at 17:42 on May 26, 2017 |
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May 26, 2017 17:26
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QuarkJets posted:I think it's important to keep a war chest, the size of which is dictated by your circumstances and personal preference. This is what loans are for. In the early game where it'd take years to save up that 100 for the church it's a different story obviously, but that's not a situation that lasts all that long in most games. Also I'd put a church or workshop on everything 0.1 or above, or 0.08 and above if you start out as a big rich country and it's still the early game. They pay off quickly and give you a stability in your income that hording your ducats does not. Technowolf posted:What's the DLC that adds the monarch personality stuff? rights of man
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May 26, 2017 17:45
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Man, republics are pretty hosed right now compared to monarchies. I'm a pretty powerful worldhopping Netherlands with a fanastic trade empire but as the age of Absolutism ticks along I realize I'm just doing this poo poo wrong and that I'd be leagues stronger as a monarchy. There really needs to be some incentives in the other direction because right now it's not even remotely close.
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May 26, 2017 18:01
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I Love You! posted:Man, republics are pretty hosed right now compared to monarchies. I'm a pretty powerful worldhopping Netherlands with a fanastic trade empire but as the age of Absolutism ticks along I realize I'm just doing this poo poo wrong and that I'd be leagues stronger as a monarchy. There really needs to be some incentives in the other direction because right now it's not even remotely close. Until now it was the complete opposite, Republics were leagues stronger than Monarchies, let them have their day in the limelight
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May 26, 2017 21:55
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Whats the deal with vassals and rebels? My vassal kept breaking to rebels even though they couldnt enforce demands yet. Do they just sometimes agree to the demands if they control enough? Also how come the latest patch seems to take forever to load saves? Too Poetic fucked around with this message at 22:55 on May 26, 2017 |
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May 26, 2017 22:03
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skipThings posted:Until now it was the complete opposite, Republics were leagues stronger than Monarchies, let them have their day in the limelight Republics are kind of a hassle to convert to, and they require some effort to maintain (or else you just become a monarchy again). These gameplay systems imply that the developers want Republics to be stronger than Monarchies, and the changes with absolutism were simply imbalanced in favor of monarchies.
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May 27, 2017 00:14
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I hate myself and for some stupid loving reason decide I want to try Sunset Invasion. What's the quickest way of passing all religious reforms? Do you keep any provinces, or do you stay the same size so your doom counter isn't too bad? How do you handle passing a reform and then having to wait until the truce timers from your previous vassals expires? Is the +1 colonist reform a bad one, since you'll only be able to colonize lovely 1/1/1 provinces which add +1 to the doom counter?
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May 27, 2017 02:25
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The colonist reform should be the last one you grab. Every province makes your Doom gain worse. Grab provinces sparingly and make ample use of the Sacrifice Vassal Ruler/Heir feature (in the subject interactions tab). You'll want to grab at least one province from each of the more powerful states in the region, like Tarascan, or possibly more (if it's necessary to get a border on Colima). The idea is that you should have juuuuust enough provinces that at any moment you'll have a greater force limit than any two of your prospective subjects. Also, ally one of the Mayan powers. Once you've completed the first round or two of reforms it's not too hard to keep the cycle going, though the Doom can really creep up. Always take event options that reduce more Doom unless the consequences seem particularly dire. If you ever find yourself in a situation where it seems like you can't get Doom low enough to pass the next reform consider either: A) Starting a war with one of the Mayan nations or B) sitting on your subjects and sacrifice their rulers until they revolt. Your Doom reduces from slain foes (something like 1 doom per thousand slain. It can really stack up) and that's how I got out from under a bad spot in one of my attempts. With regards to reform order...Grab Discipline first (you probably were going to anyway) then either stability or MAYBE the diplomacy relations one. Colonists last because you can't really use those until you've got all the other reforms. I Am Fowl fucked around with this message at 02:58 on May 27, 2017 |
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May 27, 2017 02:54
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You go Aztec for their ideas (10% infantry combat ability to start) and an amazing ruler to start. You do the usual build to force limit, ally countries that aren't directly touching you and then see if you can take down the countries that have forts already, purely so that you don't have to deal with them more than once. Declare, beat armies, siege, etc. Take that province while you're vassalizing and getting money, delete the fort and continue. Eventually with the cash you can rely some on mercs to take the hits so your manpower isn't draining as quickly. Your first reform depends on how you're aggressive you want to go. If you're going to truce break heavily, the -20% stability cost is probably the most important. The other good ideas go from +5% Discipline/-0.05 monthly war exhaustion, +1 Diplo Relation and +1 Colonist always being last. As you pointed out, early in the game you can only reach 1/1/1 provinces until about Diplo 7 and your money is better spent on the army in the meantime. Take your reform, take your stab hit, then instantly look for your next target. If you truce break one of your former vassals, you know for certain their allies are nonexistent AND their armies aren't as large. And typically when others see you smashing a country down they'll join in on their own flower war, letting you get pulled into a war without stability/war exhaustion penalty after you vassalize your target. As you're trying to go as fast as possible, you can relieve some of the doom in the middle of this by looking through your 2-4 vassals to see which ruler would provide the biggest number and sacrifice them. All these aggressive wars already make them mad and you aren't going to keep these countries as vassals for very long. Just be aware that if you slow down too much there will be a coalition against you which will set you back pretty heavily if it fires. Don't be afraid to truce break where necessary. You aren't going to be using those monarch points for anything better until the Europeans start showing up or you start seeding for Institutions.
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May 27, 2017 03:07
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the vassals you need to reform off of don't need to be aztec, snake over to the mayans until you touch all of them and you have more than enough to ping pong around. i was able to do it before 1500 without truce breaking once. but then france didn't show up until 1600 anyway and i had more than enough time to wrap up also that colonist is going to absolutely nothing for you without exploration (or expansion i guess). i got up to lousiana and down to south america where france showed up e: oh also if none of your vassals have a good ruler you can always place one of your guys on the throne and hopefully roll a 10+ oddium fucked around with this message at 03:14 on May 27, 2017 |
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May 27, 2017 03:11
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Yeah you should definitely take some provinces for yourself just to make sure that you can easily re-vassalize your confused subjects, but not so big that the doom timer becomes unmanageable. Taking 1 province from each of your neighbors is not unreasonable, since it makes re-vassalization much easier. You can also reduce the probability that two nations will ally by increasing the distance between their borders, which you have control over by strategically choosing which provinces you take. Truce timers aren't too bad, there are much more than 5 nations in the area and you can always force-vassalize non-belligerents (for extra diplo and AE, but reforming is worth it and AE doesn't matter at all). Try to get vassals that are geographically separated so that you can pick up non-belligerent wardecs. And if you just need 1 more vassal who has no allies and is on a several-year truce timer, then you can always just truce-break; the cost isn't that bad for saving several years of sitting around while doom ticks up Dealing with the reforms is the easy part, dealing with the Europeans is when the game becomes difficult.
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May 27, 2017 03:17
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I forgot about the fort thing. Yeah, that's really important for deciding where and when to take provinces. If you need to give them back, in my experience they're slow to build new ones, if ever. Due to all their money going into your coffers and the skulls of all their young people resting in neat racks at the Templo Mayor.
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May 27, 2017 03:19
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Node posted:I hate myself and for some stupid loving reason decide I want to try Sunset Invasion. What's the quickest way of passing all religious reforms? Do you keep any provinces, or do you stay the same size so your doom counter isn't too bad? How do you handle passing a reform and then having to wait until the truce timers from your previous vassals expires? Is the +1 colonist reform a bad one, since you'll only be able to colonize lovely 1/1/1 provinces which add +1 to the doom counter?
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May 27, 2017 03:34
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Unless it got fixed you might want to use the exploit where you develop a province up to feudalism, release it as a vassal which gets the institution and then reform off them. I barely consider it an exploit, considering I think it's dumb that you have to wait for a European to reform. You've already gone through the Doom wringer and are going to be well behind in tech/institutions anyway, so making you wait until a European arrives is just cruel.
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May 27, 2017 04:03
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Wow, my 90 trust ally Russia just ditched our alliance because they decided my 3 gold mines were of vital strategic interest. Seriously? I'm the #1 power, there's no way in hell they could take them. They're even not close to the border, even if they could beat me they'd have to do so multiple times and it'd probably cost more than the mines could possibly make them before the end of the game.  I thought allies weren't supposed to want your land at 80+ trust anyway?
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May 27, 2017 06:44
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They wont rival you at 80+, nothing about wanting your poo poo.
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May 27, 2017 07:01
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Fintilgin posted:Unless it got fixed you might want to use the exploit where you develop a province up to feudalism, release it as a vassal which gets the institution and then reform off them. I think it did get fixed. I seem to remember last time I tried it that the game now has an added stipulation that the neighbour be European or a CN.
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May 27, 2017 07:35
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Thanks for all the Aztec advice. Just how bad is the first encounter with the Europeans?
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May 27, 2017 07:52
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Node posted:Thanks for all the Aztec advice. Just how bad is the first encounter with the Europeans? It is entirely contingent on whether they decide to war you before you have any chance to set up a navy/westernize. It's essentially random, and if they decide to outright kill you before you have a chance to get set up, you're probably going to have to give them a bunch of land to buy yourself some time. If you get a little breathing room you can either build a big navy or declare war on their colonies and kill their troops as they try to land and you can kick them off the continent, but if multiple European powers simultaneously declare on you you're pretty much hosed. It's best to peace out one war and give up some stuff in order to maybe win the other, so keep that in mind. The shittiest part about colonial nations is there's almost nothing you can do proactively to plan for the Europeans. Sometimes they don't even land near you and then you're just stuck doing nothing for an extra 50+ years. It's honestly pretty bad design and while there's something appealing about nativing it up the actual gameplay kind of sucks.
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May 27, 2017 08:14
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sup guys, heard you like pretty borders 70ish years left to take over all of Germany. Prussia is the Emperor and allied with Russia. Should be interesting. HRE map:  
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May 27, 2017 09:48
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Node posted:Thanks for all the Aztec advice. Just how bad is the first encounter with the Europeans? In my game with them it was Portugal that landed next to me, I immediately went to town on ramping up relations and actually managed to secure an alliance with them very early. They helped me fend off all the others and as a result I never had to cede any land to Europeans.
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May 27, 2017 10:26
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Wafflecopper posted:HRE map: poo poo, that's amazing. How the hell did that happen? Lucky/unlucky PUs?
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May 27, 2017 11:12
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Is there a music mod with actual period-appropriate classical music? (not original compositions like the Paradox DLC music packs)
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May 27, 2017 12:36
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Jay Rust posted:poo poo, that's amazing. How the hell did that happen? Lucky/unlucky PUs? I have no idea, I only noticed once I reached the Balkans. I paid very little attention to Europe until now.
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May 27, 2017 13:06
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The moment you choose a local noble is when all hell breaks loose.
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May 27, 2017 13:08
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Am I missing something or is there no longer a map mode for total income (tax + production)? That used to be a good way to find the richest provinces. Has it been replaced by development?
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May 27, 2017 14:05
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Wafflecopper posted:sup guys, heard you like pretty borders  Any chance Prussia has an ally outside of the empire that you can use to pull them in to cancel their alliance with Russia?
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May 27, 2017 14:16
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AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:Wait, you're tunneling there?!? Yep. Nope. e: Austria looks like my entry point. They're rivaled with Prussia so Prussia won't back them up. I'll probably still have to fight Russia at some point. I'll probably just wear them down until they white peace out then make Prussia break their alliance. The real problem is gonna be all the AE with that massive HRE blob. Hopefully the size of my army will dissuade a coalition from forming. e2: Well so much for that idea. The entire HRE is now coalitioned against me. This... could get difficult Wafflecopper fucked around with this message at 15:57 on May 27, 2017 |
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May 27, 2017 14:58
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fuf posted:Am I missing something or is there no longer a map mode for total income (tax + production)? That used to be a good way to find the richest provinces. Has it been replaced by development? Yes, development has replaced the old system of base tax. The good news is high development provinces should be higher tax or production provinces, since higher manpower is much rarer. Wafflecopper posted:e: Austria looks like my entry point. They're rivaled with Prussia so Prussia won't back them up. I'll probably still have to fight Russia at some point. I'll probably just wear them down until they white peace out then make Prussia break their alliance. The real problem is gonna be all the AE with that massive HRE blob. Hopefully the size of my army will dissuade a coalition from forming. Dismantle that HRE first chance you get.
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May 27, 2017 15:59
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Mountaineer posted:Dismantle that HRE first chance you get. I'm not going to get a chance. Coalition of mega HRE + Russia and some others just decced on me. RIP. Have to get to Europe sooner next time. Maybe I should have no CBed my way into Malaysia early on and then gobbled Bengal when I could and used mega tradebux to finance a harder push West. Wafflecopper fucked around with this message at 17:30 on May 27, 2017 |
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May 27, 2017 17:28
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There's another exploit video from Reman on 1.21 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsGtX_AvJZk turns out they still hadn't fixed the game end bug in this patch, although I imagine that'll change now the video is out. Some other really good ones too- the one where he just erases Ming is 
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May 27, 2017 18:19
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Koramei posted:There's another exploit video from Reman on 1.21 Wow, I had utterly forgotten that sorties even existed
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May 27, 2017 19:14
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skasion posted:Wow, I had utterly forgotten that sorties even existed Huh I never knew to begin with. I was actually just thinking the other day that it was a bit dumb how my beaten up unit of 34 guys could besiege a fort with a garrison of thousands. You'd think the AI would use it in that situation.
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May 27, 2017 19:50
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Koramei posted:There's another exploit video from Reman on 1.21 drat that erasing Ming one is incredible. You don't even have to decolonise land, you can straight transfer it, although it doesn't keep changes to cores (I tried giving Ming to Ryukyu and started with 1100% OE  ). Still makes Byzantium a hell of a lot easier though.
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May 27, 2017 22:12
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Thanks to everybody sharing EU4 stories and advice! It's neat to see how the world's going in other people's games, plus I think I've learned more about EU4 reading this thread than anywhere else (though the wiki would definitely come close). It's funny to see AAAAA! Real Muenster and alcaras both doing Commonwealth runs since I had just started one too - based on various posts and comments elsewhere it seemed like now was a good time to try something other than a colonial power or anywhere near Ming so Eastern Europe seemed to fit. Glad to see people like skasion and QuarkJets doing good advice posts! Hope the thread doesn't mind if I ask a few questions as well:  How can I make my vassals not be so penniless and army-less? As Poland I have Lithuania under a PU, and Moldavia and Novgorod are both my vassals. I want to use Novgorod to reclaim all of their cores from Muscovy before Russia forms, but haven't been able to get enough of a manpower advantage to commit to sieging down practically all of Muscovy to get them. Part of the issue is both Moldavia and Novgorod have no army to speak of and are making no attempt to build one. Some searching says that's probably a budget issue, and both of them are running a deficit, but they have no loans for me to pay off and their money is going to basic things like State Maintenance and the Vassal Fee. Is there anything I can do to get them to raise an army? Renaissance is spreading slowly, what's the best use of Monarch Points in the meanwhile? I planned to use the farmlands in Poland to seed other institutions I won't be able to spawn like Colonialism, but thought the Renaissance would get here quickly enough. However, it's been slower going than I thought. Fighting a defensive war against Denmark and Muscovy forced me to spend MIL on tech regardless of the penalty, I've been spending DIP on Ideas (Influence), and ADM I've been spending on Development after getting to positive Stability. I'd prefer to use MIL to by development to increase manpower until the tech penalty is gone. Other than that is there anything else I should be spending Monarch points on until I can embrace the latest institution and tech up without penalty? What's the best way you take advantage of -AE modifiers? Currently in the Age of Discovery, I've taken the "Justified Wars" Ability (-10% AE). In addition, I've taken Influence Ideas up through "State Propaganda" (-20% AE). Finally as the five-year pulse event for Influence Ideas I got the "Our Cause Is Just" event which gave me the "Just Causes" modifier for 10 years (-20% AE). If all that works together it looks like I've got -50% AE for another 5 years or so. Is that the case, and if so what's the best way to take advantage of that? It seems like the answer would be expanding in the HRE if I was actually able to but if I don't have the manpower to take on the Austrian emperor is there anywhere else where AE usually has a greater-than-normal impact that now would be a good time to take advantage of? Next Steps for Poland in 1479? On a more playthrough specific note, it seems hard right now to break into the HRE to take Silesia and need a lot more manpower to out-muscle Muscovy. As next steps I'm thinking of trying to take what's left of Slovakia from Hungary for the Gold Mine, supporting Sweden's Independence as soon as they become disloyal and praying the Ottomans don't jump me. There are currently Nitra Separatists in Bohemia, would it be better to wait and see if they're successful or plunge into Hungry and possibly having to wipe out that stack if the separatists cross over? And is there anywhere else I should be looking for expansion?
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May 27, 2017 23:18
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CatsPajamas posted:
Stack them and go to war a lot? There's not really any science to it. The more -AE and +diplo rep you have, the less you need to spread out your wars and the more you can focus on a specific region without causing coalitions. AE is most important when you're invading the HRE so if you can get elected emperor or join the HRE you can do a lot more internal fighting than would normally be possible once you rack up the modifiers. You can always check to see what nations the emperor hates and then check to see if the emperor will actuall defend them or not. Often if they dislike or rival someone they won't do poo poo if you invade that person, and if you're willing to eat some bonus AE you can even take poo poo from their allies, though you should do so sparingly.
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May 28, 2017 02:50
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