Europa Universalis IV: Buying all the DLC is just Common Sense

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Europa Universalis IV: Buying all the DLC is just Common Sense

OpenlyEvilJello: Dec 28, 2009

I picked up this game (with Art of War, Common Sense, The Cossacks, Rights of Man, and Wealth of Nations) during the Steam sale and am currently in my first campaign, playing as Austria with an alliance web consisting of Aragon and a selection of middling power electors as well as a personal union over Hungary. My main goal is to Revoke the Privilegia and rule everything vicariously rather than directly. It's currently January 1, 1479 and I've just unlocked my second idea group, having completed Diplomatic ideas. What are good idea groups for me to achieve my goal? I think I'd like Influence and Aristocratic eventually: I'm thinking Influence third, but second is unclear and beyond is unknown. For reference, the starting Habsburg (2/5/1) is still alive, my heir is 2/5/5 but still has several years before he comes of age, and I am running a couple of half-price rank 3 advisors from my estates on the assumption that 5:3 is a pretty favorable rate of conversion between ducats and monarch points.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2016 21:57

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 07:03

OpenlyEvilJello: Dec 28, 2009

Pellisworth posted:

Dipomatic and Influence are both good picks as a diplomacy-focused Austria.

Don't take Aristocratic. Take Defensive, Quality, Offensive, or Quantity. Aristocratic is not very good.

IncredibleIgloo posted:

A lot of how you play HRE Austria depends on how the reformation folds out. As soon as the reformation begins you are unlikely to pass any reforms, and are likely to have imperial authority significantly lower until the end of the reformation. If the first centers of reformation are in one province minors you need to secure a CB against them as *soon* as possible, war them, and then force religion. When you force a religion in the peace the capital province religion flips, and if that happens to be a center of reformation it will be destroyed.

The worst case scenario for you is having the centers spawn in a non capital province of a big state in Germany. If this happens, and you can get them to spit out enough countries/provinces that they capital shift to the center of reformation you can then war them again and religion flip them to get rid of the center. Centers in Scandinavia and England are a little less of a worry, but they still might flip North German minors, who you can flip back via war. If the war score required to annex them is greater than 100% they can not be flipped. If the war score required to annex them is greater than 50% but less than 100% you will have to war them directly or war them as a co-belligerent. Very small countries with less than 50% warscore cost to annex can be religion flipped without co-belligerent, but that is not too common.

Of course you can wait for the 30 years war, but only the Protestants can trigger that, so you could be either waiting a long time or having to fight a gruelling war, and you want to be directing your gruelling warfare elsewhere. If you think it will be an "easy" reformation with only a few folks to smash having a smaller amount of better troops may be the better idea line. If you think the reformation will be a slogfest and require massive amounts of attrition and siege, quantity may be a better bet. For your second idea slot Administrative may be good, it reduces coring cost and time, and also reduces mercenary cost which can assist with manpower issues later. If you feel like you want to head east Religious gives you one of the best early game CBs and the missionary strength that may be needed to convert a center of reformation.

Thanks for the tips. Aristocratic seems like a good thematic fit for a vassal-oriented game, so it's a shame it's not up to snuff. With respect to fighting the reformation, what are good CBs to use/how can I set them up? Do I need to be worrying about getting adjacent to as many member states as possible assuming I don't wait for the leagues to fire? Elsewhere I've seen people suggest Religious as mandatory for HRE Austria, but the ideas themselves don't excite me that much. Maybe it's because I haven't really experienced the religion game yet. Do I need to be personally adjacent for Deus Vult, or can I get it through subjects' adjacency? That would fit my game plan a lot better, though to be fair I haven't figured out what else I want to do besides pass reforms.

Side note: Is there a better way of adding states to the HRE than taking their capitals, coring them, and returning them?

# ¿ Dec 31, 2016 06:09

OpenlyEvilJello: Dec 28, 2009

Thanks again for the advice, all. It's very helpful to me in deciding what I want to do next while accruing IA.

e: Especially warning all the chump princes; that wouldn't have occurred to me.

OpenlyEvilJello fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Jan 1, 2017

# ¿ Dec 31, 2016 23:56

OpenlyEvilJello: Dec 28, 2009

Is there any way to remove a Center of Reformation from a subject? I have a PU over Bohemia and they have a CoR in Ratibor (iirc). I've enforced Catholicism through subject interactions, but I have a feeling all their provinces being Protestant is probably screwing with their ability to contribute to my wars, although the CoR isn't causing me (Austria) too many issues (I am amused by Protestant Bosnia, though). Ratibor is the only remaining Protestant CoR; I killed Altmark the easy way and Utrecht the hard way. I think I've taken out two Reformed CoRs as well, so my Reformation is going pretty well.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2017 19:53

OpenlyEvilJello: Dec 28, 2009

Captain Oblivious posted:

Augh, yeah you're right I double checked and the CoR is in fact not in their capital. God drat you Brandenburg.

I suppose it's a moot point since I don't have access to Cleansing of Heresy anyway. I suppose I'll just have to ignore their shenanigans until the CoRs start disappearing on their own or until I can be bothered to pick up Humanism

Playing Austria in my first campaign, I had a CoR spawn in Brandenburg-controlled Altmark. I fabricated on one of their other provinces (something adjacent to Neumark, iirc, which I had taken from Poland) and declared with a Conquest CB. In the peace deal I selected both force religion and cede Altmark and the CoR was instantly destroyed. Doesn't seem like it's supposed to happen that way from what I read, but it did. v :shobon:

# ¿ Jan 24, 2017 17:59

OpenlyEvilJello: Dec 28, 2009

skasion posted:

Always always always keep an eye out for old kings with no kids, you can get extremely good chances at personal unions and sometimes with luck you will just get handed an uncontested PU with France or something. Integrate Hungary as soon as you have fed them the Balkan states, they don't do anything special for you. Bohemia is an elector so worth leaving that alone for a while. Watch Poland-Lithuania closely for when they shift to absolute monarchy -- they're highly likely to have an old king who may be heirless and you can swoop in and put a Habsburg on the throne there too.

So many 70-year-olds having kids and whose dynasty fails and gives me a free PU? Saxe-Lauenburg. :negative:

# ¿ Jan 28, 2017 22:25

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 07:03

OpenlyEvilJello: Dec 28, 2009

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Games > Europa Universalis IV: The Qat's in the Cradle

# ¿ Nov 16, 2017 05:04

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Europa Universalis IV: Buying all the DLC is just Common Sense