TheFlyingLlama posted:

the name needs to have something like matriarchal or matriarchy in it though

YF-23 posted:

What's the situation south of you like? If you can go for the east African gold you should do so. Neglecting the south was the biggest mistake I made in my first attempt at Prester John. And likewise with you I'd tried to gun for Egypt before the Ottomans could get to it.

In my second, successful attempt, I pretty much ignored the Ottomans, vassalised/conquered everything south of the Mamluks. I had my path to the east African gold cut off by Kilwa allying the Ottos, but biding my time, going exploration and expanding into west Africa through the inland corridor + alliances with France and Austria allowed me to take them on. I didn't even need to go for India, through I did end up owning 95% of Arabia+Iraq by the time I went for Egypt.

Arzakon posted:

Whenever you feel comfortable attacking the Ottomans declare on Tunis and separate peace Ottomans to break alliance with Muscovy only. 6 years later do your real war.

PittTheElder posted:

Also their alliance with Muscovy probably won't last. Unless they have a whole lot of trust, they'll both run out of possible rivals.

Tsyni posted:

Part of it is because the enemy makes states out of everything so their power base grows and grows, while players often don't maximize states. So, make more states, or better yet vassal feed and annex and make states via diplo points rather than admin since your vassals will make states of everything if given time.. Make states, find cultures that are going to have a ton of development and accept those cultures. Those two things make a big difference for manpower, taxes, and trade power.

In my game I am the "number one world power" but my army is 60k and the Ottomans have around 200k. Everything they own is in a state, and I am at like...40-50%.

skasion posted:

Why is your income in the toilet? Probably the best ways to gain a bunch of money is to dominate trade nodes -- end nodes (Venice, Genoa, English Channel) if you can get them, but any trade node you can dominate is a good thing -- or extort money from other nations in war. You might also be able to make some good money by conquering a gold-mining province (if there's one around) or developing production of a valuable trade good you already have (if you have any). If your manpower is running low, you need mercenaries, but if you are low on money this isn't a good option because they cost more than regular soldiers. If you're not currently at war or in immediate danger of being at war, or facing a rebel uprising, mothball your forts and reduce maintenance on your soldiers -- this will free up a lot of money if you do it habitually. I'd be able to give more specific advice if I knew exactly what you were playing -- some starts are just poor and their first task is just getting their finances in order.

Bold Robot posted:

In terms of enemies getting bigger, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, sometimes you have to repeatedly kick the poo poo out of an enemy to get them to the point where they aren't a threat anymore. This is especially true for nations that start off strong like France, Ottomans, Muscovy/Russia, and Austria. Second, alliances change throughout the game. Try and make friends with some of the newly powerful other nations.

Sometimes you just end up in a tight spot in the mid-game and need to wait a few decades for a good opportunity. In my current game it's just before 1600 and I'm Burgundy --> Netherlands, I own most of France and the low countries and I'm the #1 great power. But there's a lovely web of alliances around me and I keep getting coalitioned, so I haven't made any major territorial gains in a while. I've used the time to start building colonies and to grow my navy so I can take on England and Spain - once I take London I should be able to really pick up steam. I've also been taking provinces off smaller nations here or there when the opportunity arises. Moral of the story is, sometimes in EU4 you just need to put the game on speed 5 and wait for your chance.

oddium posted:

yeah but i'm a turbo baby who hates losing good runs

Mysticblade posted:

New dev diary up.

Basically, we can give a state bonuses in exchange for tripling the maintenance cost of that state. Some examples are:

code:

Enforce Religious Unity : 1% Missionary Strength
Protect Trade : +50% Provincial Trade Power
Promote Military Recruitment: +25% Manpower
Encourage Development: -10% Development Cost
Advancement Effort: +33% Institution Spread
Centralization Effort: -0.03 Monthly Autonomy

Also meant to be some UI clean up. Since this just requires money, it seems like a decent enough addition.

Pellisworth posted:

TorakFade posted:

How do I Poland?