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My Spain game is going well, I took over Portugal at the beginning and then beelined for the Caribbean so I could funnel everything to Sevilla. After that I took out Granada and united Spain. I also took all of the Sevilla trade node provinces from Morocco. 135 trade income  . In retrospect I should have taken over Mexico instead of North America since the former feeds into the Caribbean, but France beat me to it and at least this way I was able to deny GB some income by collecting in Chesapeake Bay. Not much point in continuing now. Do you guys have tips for a non-obvious but effective country with the current patch? Might choose Muscovy as suggested, I already played as Russia at one point, but that was years ago.
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Mar 28, 2020 10:15
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 10:59 |
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Oh wow, did the Ottomans guarantee Granada or something? Those poor guys tend to get murdered before getting a foot in the door. Ever started as Brandenburg, going Prussia? They have a fairly tricky start, and you need to be on your diplomacy game if you want to eventually drown everyone in cannons. They're a neat challenge for newcomers, with a great reward at the end. Mamluks are also great fun, if you want to mess around with vassal swarms. They also have easy access to colonizing the far East.
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Mar 28, 2020 10:26
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Phlegmish posted:Not much point in continuing now. Do you guys have tips for a non-obvious but effective country with the current patch? Might choose Muscovy as suggested, I already played as Russia at one point, but that was years ago. Jianzhou -> Manchu -> Qing is probably my favorite start but can be unforgiving with Ming sometimes doing far better than they usually do. Timurid -> Mughals is possibly the strongest start in the game and far more forgiving than starting as a Steppe Horde, which is the other way to optimally paint the map.
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Mar 28, 2020 10:52
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Phlegmish posted:My Spain game is going well, I took over Portugal at the beginning and then beelined for the Caribbean so I could funnel everything to Sevilla. After that I took out Granada and united Spain. I also took all of the Sevilla trade node provinces from Morocco. 135 trade income what happened to naples and also have you been using the outliner
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Mar 28, 2020 12:36
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Phlegmish posted:My Spain game is going well, I took over Portugal at the beginning and then beelined for the Caribbean so I could funnel everything to Sevilla. After that I took out Granada and united Spain. I also took all of the Sevilla trade node provinces from Morocco. 135 trade income I want to know how you ended up with so few colonies after killing Portugal tbh
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Mar 28, 2020 14:29
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actually forget all that tell me about the collapse of muscovy and the rise of livonian order/swoleland (who seem to have refused the union)
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Mar 28, 2020 14:34
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I find it hard to colonise competitively in this game. The AI always has like six colonists working at a time whereas it bankrupts me to run even 2, and that’s with an additional colonist from a policy or whatever.
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Mar 28, 2020 14:54
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oddium posted:actually forget all that tell me about the collapse of muscovy and the rise of livonian order/swoleland (who seem to have refused the union)
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Mar 28, 2020 14:56
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Sampatrick posted:I want to know how you ended up with so few colonies after killing Portugal tbh I was actually colonizing almost constantly and my ideas/policies were geared towards it. Not sure what the optimal strategy is to get as much as possible? I feel like I was pretty focused on it, but maybe I paid too much attention to a few specific regions instead of spreading out my colonies and letting my subjects do the colonizing. oddium posted:what happened to naples and also have you been using the outliner I lost control over them at one point, and it looks like they took over part of North Africa when I wasn't looking. Yeah, I probably should be using the outliner more often. Muscovy never got off the ground in this game, I'm not sure what happened. Ottomans did really well though, they even own Australia. Phlegmish fucked around with this message at 16:02 on Mar 28, 2020 |
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Mar 28, 2020 16:00
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Phlegmish posted:I was actually colonizing almost constantly and my ideas/policies were geared towards it. Not sure what the optimal strategy is to get as much as possible? I feel like I was pretty focused on it, but maybe I paid too much attention to a few specific regions instead of spreading out my colonies and letting my subjects do the colonizing. One thing people do as Castile is make Portugal their subject instead of just conquering them. That way you have Portugal colonizing for you as well, and when you eventually annex them their colonial subjects become yours.
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Mar 28, 2020 16:14
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Nb the prospective subject needs to already have taken exploration/expansion ideas before you vassalize them. Not usually a problem for Portugal, but once subjected, nations will not normally pick these groups.
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Mar 28, 2020 16:17
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How is Croatia surviving and thriving?
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Mar 28, 2020 19:42
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I’ll always miss lime green croatia
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Mar 28, 2020 19:56
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Phlegmish posted:I was actually colonizing almost constantly and my ideas/policies were geared towards it. Not sure what the optimal strategy is to get as much as possible? I feel like I was pretty focused on it, but maybe I paid too much attention to a few specific regions instead of spreading out my colonies and letting my subjects do the colonizing. you should almost always just get the colonial nation to form and then subsidize them while working on getting an additional colonial nation to form and so on. you should also make sure that you get your colonial nation to go to war any time they have a cb.
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Mar 28, 2020 22:17
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Considering starting a Granada game, is the strat still make friends with either Tunis or Morocco and then eat the other one while hoping to god that Castille ignores you?
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Mar 28, 2020 22:52
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extremely pro but kind of luck strat is to get france up to 100 relations and then enforce peace on england, who will refuse and put you in the maine war on the side of france. and then they'll ally you
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Mar 28, 2020 22:57
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I know catholicism is getting reworked but have they shown how that's going to make the reformation less instantaneous? Like at this point, it's normal by 1550 for there to be few-to-no catholic provinces left in Germany, Britain, or Ireland with the reformation going strong in Spain, Italy, the east and the Balkans.
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Mar 29, 2020 00:05
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Funky Valentine posted:Considering starting a Granada game, is the strat still make friends with either Tunis or Morocco and then eat the other one while hoping to god that Castille ignores you? best granada game is to instead play a morocco game
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Mar 29, 2020 00:09
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oddium posted:extremely pro but kind of luck strat is to get france up to 100 relations and then enforce peace on england, who will refuse and put you in the maine war on the side of france. and then they'll ally you
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Mar 29, 2020 00:50
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Sampatrick posted:you should almost always just get the colonial nation to form and then subsidize them while working on getting an additional colonial nation to form and so on. you should also make sure that you get your colonial nation to go to war any time they have a cb. Okay, makes sense. I'm still easing my way back into things. Doing an Ethiopia playthrough right now, it's going well. I took Defensive as my first idea group, and I'm just steamrolling all of East Africa while vassalizing the remaining Coptic kingdoms to my immediate north. After that I'll probably go for Offensive rather than Quality as my next military idea group. Thinking of taking on the Mamluks after eliminating Kilwa. As Ethiopia, what's the best strategy to 1) get Institution spread and 2) fend off the Ottomans? I feel like if my campaign ends, it'll probably be due to those damned Ottomans.
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Mar 29, 2020 09:48
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1) You should just bite the bullet and dev for institutions. 2) In my recent Ethiopia game the Ottomans weren't really a big deal. By the time you chew through the Mamluks and get a border with them you should have accumulated enough power to challenge them without too much issue assuming you've been expanding in all directions. Try to get an alliance with Spain or Poland or whoever hates them.
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Mar 29, 2020 11:37
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Phlegmish posted:As Ethiopia, what's the best strategy to 1) get Institution spread and 2) fend off the Ottomans? I feel like if my campaign ends, it'll probably be due to those damned Ottomans. When I did my Prester John, I had good success with a couple max level forts in a row as well as scorched earth in desert provinces. Maxed defensive is just the cherry on top. Ottos will keep wasting MP there and then replace with mercs which (IIRC) don't get Jannisary bonuses. That's when you pounce on their sieging armies.
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Mar 29, 2020 11:44
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Alright, thanks. I own the entirety of the East African coast now, I don't think I'll bother too much with the African interior since I can't promote those cultures (I will just conquer and release Madagascar), it's time to pay the Mamluks a visit. I'm always insecure when it comes to developing for insitutions...what's the best strategy, logically speaking? I have a ton of provinces across a huge area. Do I just pump my most developed province and let it spread from there?
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Mar 29, 2020 12:02
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Phlegmish posted:Alright, thanks. I own the entirety of the East African coast now, I don't think I'll bother too much with the African interior since I can't promote those cultures (I will just conquer and release Madagascar), it's time to pay the Mamluks a visit. Find a province with about 15 dev, ideally a grassland or farmland province that is somewhat central to your nation (lol good luck with this bit in Ethiopia though) and get developing. If you use the most developed province or one that has a very low starting dev, you’ll be spending larger amounts of mp before you get the institution to spawn. Once you have the institution, there’s state edicts to increase speed of spread.
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Mar 29, 2020 12:06
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because institutions spread much faster in higher dev provinces it's better to seed them all in a little cluster. so seed one (renaissance), seed the next one (colonialism) adjacent to that first one, the third one (printing press) adjacent to those two of course some countries just have bad land and it'll be hard to find good provinces clustered like that
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Mar 29, 2020 12:07
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Most land in Africa is really lovely for development, so it helps to beeline for the Nile delta right away to get a bunch of farmlands.
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Mar 29, 2020 12:19
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I usually beeline for Mutapa so I can dev three institutions onto goldmines in two neighboring states if I'm anywhere nearby. If your economy isn't crumbling under the weight of your inflation from gold mines, you ain't doing Africa right.
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Mar 29, 2020 12:24
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The downside of the Mutapan gold mines is that the European powers will eventually figure out they exist and then all the colonizers will hate you until the end of time for owning them. Which I suppose is historically accurate
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Mar 29, 2020 13:31
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Phlegmish posted:Okay, makes sense. I'm still easing my way back into things. honestly the best idea is probably to go after yemen/oman and persia/india rather than expanding into egypt. early game ottomans are really strong if you dont have a good ally to gang up on them, especially if you dont necessarily have good mil tech or good ideas for battles. i would just focus on easier targets and avoid getting into a war with the ottomans until you get a bit bigger and have good tech/ideas. EDIT: ethiopia is also a really good colonial power if you want to do some real nonsense shades of blue fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Mar 29, 2020 |
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Mar 29, 2020 18:34
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My Prestor John run was: 1) United the horn of Africa 2) Expanded along the east African coast all the way down to Cape of Good Hope - using exploration/expansion to do so 3) Took whatever lands in the Arabian peninsula that i could get. 4) Noticed that the Ottomans were finally going after Egypt, I declared war on the Mamlukes and took the western half of Egypt up to the Med 5) Allied ANYONE I could find in Europe. This started with Naples but expanded to both France and Austria. At this point the Ottoman AI couldn't really function well. It kept ping ponging some (not all) troops between the European and African theaters. Whenever they were around I'd hide behind my forts. Whenever they weren't I would advance forward and take their forts. Those would then be the forts I'd hide behind. They'd tend to take one line of forts and then leave, so as long as you keep advancing by two lines of forts you'll be fine. The first war against them should be enough to hinder their growth. You'll neuter them in the second war. They'll be on the verge of collapse for the rest of the game. If time is short then just take whatever land you need, borders be damned. I also got really lucky and got a PU over Naples. I converted them to Coptic, invaded the Papal States, and then converted Rome and the other bishoprics to Coptic.
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Mar 29, 2020 18:56
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You did better than me, it's the mid-18th century and I spent most of the game so far behind in tech that I'm only now taking on the Mamluks. The Ottomans are actually my friend. I tried getting European alliances with France and Scotland (which is doing well), but they always ditched me when someone declared war on me. Spain kept attacking me as well, but fortunately they did a pretty poor job of it and I actually took some land off them. Also, at one point this happened: Yes, I was in a PU under Napoleon. On the plus side, I just defeated the Mamluks + Morocco + Songhai on my own and I have every single institution, so there's nothing stopping me from finally taking over Egypt.
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Mar 29, 2020 19:24
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If you're not specifically going for the Prester John cheevo then Ottomans are a pretty good friend for Ethiopia imo
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Mar 29, 2020 20:23
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Morocco game was going well (stole Ceuta from Portugal when they had Castille backing them, good times) until I attacked Timbuktu, and because I couldn't see their allies I didn't realize that Jenne, Songhai, and Mali all had a combined army bigger than mine. So that ended poorly.
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Mar 29, 2020 22:01
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Funky Valentine posted:Morocco game was going well (stole Ceuta from Portugal when they had Castille backing them, good times) until I attacked Timbuktu, and because I couldn't see their allies I didn't realize that Jenne, Songhai, and Mali all had a combined army bigger than mine. How much bigger? You should have a tech advantage and can always lure them into a highlands/mountain fort or just wait until they inevitably split up.
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Mar 30, 2020 00:06
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:Most land in Africa is really lovely for development, so it helps to beeline for the Nile delta right away to get a bunch of farmlands. The Zanzibar Coast is pretty good for institutions. There are a bunch of trade port provinces that all share a sea zone, so they count as adjacent for institution spread. One is a gold mine too. The only problem is they're all coastal and tropical so they have fairly high dev costs.
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Mar 30, 2020 06:57
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As Dithmarschen England allied Friesland, can they be trusted to not do anything?
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Mar 30, 2020 07:06
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England will destroy your navy, blockade your ports, and then make a few half-hearted attempts to land troops on the mainland. Typically this is at most 10 regiments at a time so you can probably deal with it as long as you've beaten Friesland and their other allies first.
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Mar 30, 2020 07:57
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Well in practice I was incredibly stupid and forgot France hadn't kicked them off the continent yet lol
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Mar 30, 2020 08:02
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yikes! posted:How much bigger? You should have a tech advantage and can always lure them into a highlands/mountain fort or just wait until they inevitably split up. We were all rank 4, I jumped the gun too early when I should've been waiting until I had some colonies under my belt and a better scope on Africa.
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Mar 30, 2020 08:14
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I realised that I've never really done an actual Byzantium run, which I should probably try and rectify. A new strategy which I realised is possible (or "new", I guess) is to simply hand off your two provinces to Athens and only keep Constantinople so you can join the Venice trade league. That should leave you enough time to build up your fleet the point where you can out number the Ottoman galleys when you're combined with Venice and friends. And should be enough breathing room to try and secure an alliance with Poland or someone big. This seems a lot less stressful compared to the usual strategy of "hoping the Ottoman attacks someone else first" and "go massively into debt and probably die anyway" strategies. I will report back on the eventual success or failure of this strategy.
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Mar 30, 2020 09:53
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