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

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Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Redmark posted:

Of course on the run I'm doing Baltic Crusader, Muscovy would ally with the Ottomans

So much for finishing it quickly. Sometimes it feels like all roads lead to Istanbul; every other achievement seems to end there.

Well at least you're not playing in 1.17 against Super Lithuania. Just stack mil ideas and policies, and attack before they catch up due to slow institution spread.

# ¿ May 16, 2017 08:50

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 17:06

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

This is me as the Commonwealth with double Ming's development:

Which idea groups does Ming have? Offensive and quantity?

# ¿ Jun 3, 2017 23:47

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Grinning Goblin posted:

You should be able to use spy network points to sabotage fortifications.

Also is there anything I should even care about for spy network stuff outside of just fabricating claims? All of the stuff in there seems really expensive and not worth it compared to putting claims on stuff.

The size of your spy network counts as a penalty to fort defense in a siege. (with mare nostrum, iirc) I don't find myself using spy networks for anything besides claims and sowing discontent but spy actions are pretty powerful.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2017 07:13

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Tendronai posted:

Just think about how irritating it is that as soon as the AI researches the tech, you're constantly being hit by the espionage merchants slandered/discontent/rep ruined. Why would you want to add monarch death to the poo poo the AI spams on cooldown?

Pretty much this. The game is built around having 3 nations making your life as miserable as they can. Eating 3 stability hits every few decades, and the PU nonsense would be a deathblow to monarchies.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2017 11:15

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

LLSix posted:

I haven't played EU4 in about 2 years (the last DLC I got was Commen Sense). I was thinking of picking up all the new DLCs and giving it another go, but all the recent steam reviews are negative. What's changed? Have there been any major changes in the last six months (i.e. since Arumba&FilthyRobot's tutorial)?

If the recent changes are bad I might pick up the Stellaris DLCs instead and give that another try.

Most of the reviews are negative because people don't agree with the dlc policy and they use the reviews to bitch about it.

Of the post-common sense dlc's only rights of man is worth it in my opinion. Maybe mandate of heaven as well, but I havent played it. You might want to grab mare nostrum for the spy network bonuses it provides.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2017 12:58

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Koramei posted:

Would it be better for them to have forced you to pay for states and territories?

Mare Nostrum is a pretty mediocre expansion but I think people have a pretty unreasonable expectation about how much these things should cost. Paradox is extremely fair about the pricing unless you're comparing them to like Valve or CD Projekt Red or something, which are companies in very different situations.

I think the patch cycle for the past couple of months since Mandate of Heaven has been a big slip up, but "everything in the past two years has been trash except for rights of man" is kinda ridiculous.

I wouldn't say that everything post-common sense is bad. Or that things were better before. Conquest of paradise, wealth of nations and el dorado are all older dlc that I think don't should have cost more than $10 or so. These, along with cossacks, mare nostrum, mandate of heaven and now third rome are really just small add-ons to flesh out certain regions or things.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2017 23:46

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Too Poetic posted:

Well thats one way for a run to end.. I havent done any of the Prussia achievements so I was playing as Brandenburg and things were going well. Until I get excommunicated which causes Bohemia and Poland to tag team me which would have been a winnable war if it wasnt for the fact that the -200 in relations caused me to get coalitioned by almost all of Germany.

You can only get coalitioned if you're over 50 AE. How fast did you expand?

# ¿ Jun 25, 2017 10:54

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Muscovy/Russia was hit hard by institutions. My experience with them is that they can be 2 mil techs lower than other western nations by 1500 or so.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2017 22:43

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

OneTwentySix posted:

is there an interesting way to do a WC out there right now?

WC are a boring grind by nature. That said, Kazan WC is fairly interesting.

I play for achievements to keep the game interesting. There's some pretty cool ones, like Frozen Assets and Venetian Sea.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2017 01:21

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Mr. Fowl posted:

Any advice for trying to take down Muscovy as a Russian minor? It's rough going. I seem to either bite it early or get pretty strong--but not quick enough to outpace Muscovy's explosive growth so that they're basically impossible to tackle when the Ottomans have started breathing down my neck.

You can support rebels. Pray for a disaster to hit them, which isn't unlikely if you're supporting rebels. Ally them and drive them into massive debt over a bunch of wars. Go after what splits off in the following bankruptcy.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2017 07:59

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

So I've recently been trying for Gothic Invasion.

My last attempt, before it went downhill. Spent a ton of money on spawning rebels in Muscovy, which went into a death spiral. Then I jumped on and grabbed a bunch of territory. Then Hungary declared on me, and I accidentally clicked bankruptcy instead of raise wartaxes :shepicide:

# ¿ Jun 30, 2017 13:29

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

I would like to add Qara Qoyunlu to the pile of interesting Non-Europeans to play. It's a bit of a rought start, you're pretty much guaranteed to lose your first war against Ottomans, but you can form Persia or Mughals. You will probably have a tough time dealing with the Ottomans, but you can definitely turn the tables on them.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2017 18:12

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Eej posted:

Qara Qoyunlu is a pain in the rear end to play cause its like a smaller Timurids (Horde with rebels constantly everywhere) except you're super boxed in with very little place to expand. Yeah, I know it was pretty popular to WC with back when Cossacks came out and it's super possible to have a good run but I wouldn't recommend it for your first foray out of Europe.

Now Aq Qoyunlu on the other hand, those guys are fun! Smaller but far more stable than QQ. You have easier access to the Anatolian Beyliks which means you can grow fast and also hamper Ottoman growth at the same time. Smaller size means it's easier if you want to convert to Coptic (Christian Hordes reform to Eastern Tech if that matters to you, Turkish Hussars with Cossack estate bonuses just seemed amusing to me) and get to beat up on QQ as it inevitably fragments. Also they have a nicer shade of blue.

QQ is not that hard. Release Armenian provinces as a vassal, accept Iraqi culture, conquer some stuff around you, wait a bit till you inevitably out-tech Timurids and something horrible is happening to them, then crush them in successive wars to form Mughals or Persia.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2017 11:45

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Futuresight posted:

Today I learned that Ottomans are excluded from most if not all decisions to form nations. Oh well, I united Islam at least.

...huh. I worked for me back in 1.19.

Also just had a France start where England pulls 42k troops out of its butt, my kickass generals immediately die, their generals live, lovely rolls leading to a bunch of losses, and must poor luck in general. I had to white peace out of the hundred year war. Ugh.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2017 11:57

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

China stuff is working as intended only if you buy the dlc.

Between 1.19 and now Hungary got some events and you don't have to manually reassign (I think) diplomats building spy networks. Forts have been somewhat fixed. That's all that happened.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2017 17:59

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

I, uh, what?!? You develop the poo poo out of Romania, then Greece?

reignonyourparade posted:

Just de-state everywhere except romania, then re-state greece.

Alternatively activate Cossacks and culture convert to non-main culture.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2017 12:36

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Mr. Fowl posted:

A side thought after this game: Has the game seemed more blobby in recent versions? (Past year or so, I guess) I remember you used to see a fair bit more countries in the HRE even at the end and so on. I dunno--maybe the AI was more likely to force enemies to release countries before or maybe I'm imagining things.

In my experience the AIs that can blob will do so, and it's been consistent over all of the patches.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2017 10:27

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Pellisworth posted:

Both Ottomans and Ming are really hard to seriously injure because they're very wealthy and will just spam mercs and put down rebellions. It's not that Ming doesn't have to deal with revolts, they just effortlessly swat them down.

Rebels are also really easy for players to deal with. I think in general they could be buffed.

This is not limited to Ming or Ottos. My experience with the AI is that they will buy up to like 60% of their force limit in mercs (if they're a lucky nation) or even more if the need arises. Without ever going bankrupt. This leads to some stupid things like early 1500's Muscovy being 5k in debt, then cut to pieces by rebels and invasions, and still not bankrupting.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2017 09:18

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Theodoro, Nepal, sub-saharan colonial power, and Siberian tribes are all interesting starts that tend to stay challenging throughout the game.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2017 22:28

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

TorakFade posted:

In my last 4 games, Ming always passed all reforms and remained perfectly stable, with their tributaries growing strong and nothing else happening. While the HRE inevitably fails to pass more than 1 reform. At least in the HRE the situation changes somewhat more over time, but still it feels the "emperor" mechanic never takes off, ever

It's terribly boring and I kinda want to disable the dlc but I don't want to give up ages and the diplo macro builder

Mind you that either the HRE is either "not meant" to be realistically united by the AI, or the AI is not programmed to/completely inept at forcing religious unity.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2017 14:28

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

As for me, I would strongly prefer a few now paid features to be released into the base game. Like developing provinces and the diplo and building macro. I'm fine with everything else being behind a paywall.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2017 23:45

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

TorakFade posted:

So I got a game started as Nepal, things are going pretty well (ate up a couple minors, took two provinces from bengal, conquered Assam and became Ming tributary to avoid that moment where jaunpur decides they want my land more than they care about our alliance, anyway I will have to betray them sooner or later)

It's now 1475 and the Renaissance is far from spreading, should I be kickstarting it in some of my new farmland provinces or wait for natural spread? It's not like my neighbors are going to get it much sooner than me and I have been using all my monarch points for coring and miltech

You're going to want to kick start your own renaissance. Same with colonialism and printing press. It's going to set you back 2000-3000 MP per institution, but it's necessary to keep up with the tech race. (also the ai seems at least capable of spawning their own, be aware of that)

# ¿ Jul 16, 2017 05:09

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

TorakFade posted:

That sucks though. It's like 10 years of MP due to me being still dirt poor (can't afford advisors yet) and my monarch being a lovely 2/1/2 that I can't abdicate for another 20 years while my 4/4/3 heir twiddles his thumbs (yes I "promoted" him to general but he won't die)

You can lower army maintenance and mothball forts to save money, and buy an advisor that way. Estates actions can also give you some MP every once in a while.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2017 09:04

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Pellisworth posted:

Unrelated, but have you all noticed the Ottomans going ham into Europe while taking a long time to eat Egypt and the Mamluks? In my Korea game they finally got around to conquering Egypt in the 1580s... by which time Mamluks (who took Exploration early) had colonized eight provinces in Australia, so now they've migrated to Australia.

It's normal for the Ottomans to take into the late 1500's to eat Mamluks. What's abnormal here is that Mamluks took exploration.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2017 00:36

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Technowolf posted:

How do you defeat a lucky nation? I'm trying to play an England>GB game and good lord it's frustrating every time I have to deal with France and their 60,000+ man doomstacks.

The problem is not that you're fighting a lucky nation, but that you're fighting France. Considering they have 60k stacks you've definitely let them sit around and take their +20% morale NI.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2017 08:11

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Check miltech.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2017 04:52

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Kaza42 posted:

A common complaint seems to be that battles last too long. The days per phase (default 3) is in defines, so would anything break if you were to mod the days per phase to be 2 or even 1? That would drastically cut down on battle length while leaving all other numbers intact.

You should consider that battles that take 1/3rd of the normal time will also be much harder to send reinforcements into.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2017 17:29

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

I just had a session with an normal sized Aragon losing all it's mp and running with ~45 mercs between 1526 and 1538 or so. 4 years of those were being at war with me.

How in the hell did they not bankrupt.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2017 23:43

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

reignonyourparade posted:

Aragon has mercenary discounts in its ideas, if it took admin they'd be barely above the cost of regular troops.

EDIT: Scratch that, I had the cost of mercs off, Aragon would be "merely" paying twice as much as for regular troops in that case.

They had economic. So they spent 1300-1500 ducats hiring some 40+ merc infantry, and then probably spent more than their income on interest and upkeep for several years.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2017 09:22

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

My buddy Brabant racked up a bit of debt. Ended up hitting 11k and it never went down after that. Don't know how the AI does it, but it manages not to be bankrupt.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2017 22:15

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Detheros posted:

In 1729 that's probably around 10ish loans for them, not a lot really.

Im France and when I take out a loan it's for 2k and I have at least 5 times their income. 11k probably equates to 25-30 loans for them.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2017 22:54

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Peas and Rice posted:

Because I'm a glutton for punishment I decided to start a game as the Aztecs. It's relatively easy to gobble up my neighbors, but I think I hosed up, because it seems like the only way to reform my religion (and eventually get ships and go reverse-colonize Europe) is to have 5 vassals. Am I misreading that? Should I focus on making the northern native american tribes my vassals now?

Yes you need to have five vassals to pass a reform. Also less than 50 doom. Mind you these don't have to be happy vassals, just vassals. If you conquer a lot of land before passing at least 3-4 reforms, you're well on your way to a death cycle.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2017 18:41

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

It took a lot of tries but I've finally gotten a Gothic Invasion run going again. Currently in the first half of the 1500s. I ate most of Lithuania, allied Muscovy which is well on its way to become the Russia it wants to be. I can't get alliances with proper Europeans, and the devastation on my new Lithuanian clay is through the roof. I guess I'll have to chill for a while.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2017 22:48

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

Um, are they that loaded with diplo points that they are buying down the WE from being 100% occupied for more than a year?

Congrats on pulling it off. Third Way is a hard one to get.

In the screenshot the province has 17 unrest but the tooltip doesn't say how it got there. The tooltip also says it's a non-accepted culture, but Sichuanese is definitely a Chinese accepted culture. What I suspect is that the tooltip shows your unrest modifiers, instead of the Ming ones. You can also see WE in the war screen btw. Might want to check that out.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2017 07:16

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Have some screenshots of my Gothic Invasion attempt:

End of the first session. Poland&Lithuania collapsed like is normal in the current patch, and I jumped in to grab some.

End of the second session. Grabbed some more Lithuanian and Polish land, got most of Crimea. My economy sucks and I'm currently taking a break from conquest(Hungary is the only easy target right now, anyway) to build up.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2017 09:55

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

In my experience the protestant league is normally lead by the strongest protestant HRE member. You definitely need to be protestant/reformed to be eligible for league leadership though.

Bohemia, Denmark/Sweden, England/GB and Brandenburg are typical early protestant converts, but I rarely if ever see anyone but Bohemia or Brandenburg lead the league.

It's definitely not about time since conversion, though.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2017 14:56

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

Double Post, completely unrelated:

This is why I still play this game.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2017 12:39

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

I was completely mystified, which is why I shared.

Here is a screengrab from 10 years later:

The only thing I can think of is that because I seeded Feudalism, Renaissance, and Colonialism on the shores of Lake Victoria so I am ahead of the game in terms of institutions and have more dev than my size would normally indicate?

I suppose you had a string of very good rulers and really high gold income for advisors.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2017 06:32

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:

William Wallace must have gone ham against England. I do not currently have the exploration range to confirm. Yes, Afganistan is a thing and Tabarestan is going for This Is Persia.

Tabarestan growing big and strong has not been unusual for a few patches now. Also, tabarestan forming Persia is called Shahanshah. I will be seriously impressed if AI Persia ever manages to beat Ottomans, though.

Also I'm assuming England got eaten by Scotland and/or France, which is always pretty amusing.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2017 11:15

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 17:06

Dance Officer: May 4, 2017; It would be awesome if we could dance!

Mr. Fowl posted:

Some advice: The moment Persia forms--declare war. It takes a while for them to build a decent army and if you're quick (like finish the war in less than a year, stomp their tiny army to buy you a little time) you can steal a few provinces and potentially strangle it in the cradle. In my Third Way attempts, I was pretty reliably able to seize the whole territory that Hormuz is in with only like 12k troops.

AI Persia is completely nonthreatening. It usually spends the game getting bullied by Ottomans and Russia.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2017 08:20

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