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AN INTRODUCTION TO EUROP...A UNIVERSALIS! Hi everyone, and welcome to Europa Universalis 4, an arcane Paint-the-World simulator produced by Paradox Interactive. EU4, as it is commonly known, is the fourth (duh) game in a series dedicated to simulating the era between November 11, 1444 and January 1, 1821. Because it is designed as a simulator and not a Civilization-esque game with true win conditions, EU4 confers advantages or disadvantages to many countries in an attempt to drive the world towards the historical outcome we are familiar with today - the western powers’ and Russia’s domination of the planet. I am going to write a guide for this game. WHY AM I DOING THIS?  It may come as a surprise, but the game that contains this menu is complex! I do not profess to be an expert at this game, but my goal with this LP is to document as many of the mechanics as I am capable of. There are many video tutorials of this game, but the EU4 thread on Something Awful mentioned a text version would be useful so people can read it on public transit. So I'm doing this for one nerd, on a bus. This will likely involve a long playthrough discussing many of the core systems of the game and number of shorter playthroughs to cover more advanced concepts like colonization or westernization (which I haven’t done yet because my one Songhai game ended in spectacular failure!) I have a good understanding of basic concepts in this game but don’t know everything. Hopefully I can teach some people to play this cool game and teach myself some stuff as well! Updates Currently Planned Part 1. User Interface Provinces Introduction to Diplomacy Part 2. Rivalry Casus Belli and Spy Networks Prestige, Power Projection, and Legitimacy (or Republican Tradition if Venice wins) Part 3. Merchants and trade steering The trade map Part 4. Tactics, Morale and Discipline Army Composition Military Units and Pips Part 5. Terrain Combat Width and Deployment Phases of Combat Generals PREPARATION  If you start the game from the standard date (November 11 1444), this is a somewhat zoomed in version of the world you play in (IE, a zoomed in version of Europe! If this surprises you, plz consult the title). We aren’t going to play as France unless the thread decides that’s what they want, but I’d like to use this country to display some of the basic attributes you’ll find when looking at a country for the first time. So we need to go over that mess of numbers located in the country information tile on the extreme right of the screen. I’ll cover what you see from top to bottom to hopefully avoid any confusion. Click on the full image, and get used to small text! It only gets worse! Click here for the full 1920x1200 image  That Fancy Crown This icon denotes your country’s government rank when they start the game. There are three different ranks: Duchy - this is the minimum government rank. It requires zero development (the number that reads 358 in the middle bottom of the screen above. Don’t worry, we will cover development soon). Certain countries will also be forced to remain duchies if certain conditions are in place, like if your country is a subservient member of the Holy Roman Empire. Kingdom - Forming a kingdom requires 300 development unless your country already starts as a kingdom. You can also form a kingdom through the use of various national decisions available to some nations in game. Empire - Forming an empire requires 1000 development or the use of some extremely awesome national decisions. Getting to empire rank lets you have one additional leader (a general, admiral, or other leader-ly). Leaders are a big deal and impact combat in a major way - they also play a large role in colonization. Monarch Points - See those numbers directly under the name of King Charles de Valois? Those are his ‘skills’ distill down into three simple categories - Administration, Diplomacy, and Military. For every month that passes in game, your country gets your ruler’s number of monarch points. These are used for advancing in technology, advancing in your national and chosen idea groups, and developing provinces. Some monarch point categories can be used for other, more specific functions as well. We will cover those as they come up. That Fancy Hat This icon denotes the technology group your country belongs to. France has the feathered cap because they belong in the western technology group. Western technology group countries pay the base cost for all technology, with other technology groups paying an elevated percentage of the western groups cost. For instance, if a technology would cost France 100 monarch points, it would cost Tunis (a Muslim technology group country) 140 monarch points. This system basically ensures western countries will pull ahead as time passes. Technologies will be covered in more depth later, but for now, here is a quick overview. Administrative technology - increased by administrative monarch points. Tied to things such as number of fully integrated states your country can have, production efficiency, and idea groups. Diplomatic technology - increased by diplomatic monarch points. Build better ships, get slightly better trade bonuses, and let this lag behind because you pumped all your diplomacy points into gold mines. Military technology - increased by military monarch points. Fight good! Seriously, do NOT fall behind in military technology if you can help it. Certain technology levels that grant new units can make a country punch way above the mere number of troops they bring to battle. A note: the technology system is going through a major revision soon with regard to westernization, in which case I will redo this section with more up to date information. Or not, who knows! National Ideas - so every country takes idea groups that are shared among all countries. Military idea groups like quantity are the same for Austria or France (we will talk about this more later, I swear!). National ideas, as the name might suggest, are exclusive to your nation or group of nations in some cases. Some of these can be incredibly powerful. I won’t go over France’s ideas in depth, but the short version is that France becomes a god damned monster if you let them get big enough. Provinces, Development, and Fort Level - These are the bottom three numbers on the country information screen. The number of provinces tells you how many places you can build buildings, produce units, and improve via development. Development, at its most basic, is ‘how good’ your provinces are. High development provinces provide more tax, production, and military manpower for use in painting the map the color of your choosing. Diplomacy - This area covers any diplomatic relationships your country starts with. In this case, France starts guaranteeing Scotland’s independence. That means that France will defend Scotland from attack (bet you can’t guess who from!) A Lot More to Go Over Alright, there are too many systems and too much going on to introduce in an opening post. So I’d like to start playing the game and show off systems as they become important. To do that, we need to choose a country! Rules: I’d like to present a country that gives a good overview for new players, so I’d like to allow the players involved to vote for the following nations: Ottomans Castile Portugal France (ugh gently caress) England Sweden Venice (ugh gently caress) Poland (ugh gently caress) I’ve deliberately chosen countries that new players might choose in a new play-through, mostly excluding countries with any kind of westernization mechanic. I left the Ottomans in because they are huge and a new player can easily be lured into playing them. So… Vote! (or I’ll do this with no input at all, AND BACK TO RUSSIA I GOOOOO) A Note This could end up with me driving the most powerful nation in the world into the ground, be prepared! Me Looking for LP Advice Gigglegoose: Great start. Dreissi: other stuff to cover? Gigglegoose: Fits well in the tone of SA Gigglegoose: well Gigglegoose: right now I am real drunk Dreissi: good answer Gigglegoose: but tomorrow I promise to put some thought into it Dreissi: this is going in the LP sry Gigglegoose: ha ha ha alright Gigglegoose: turns out I am too drunk to lead rance Gigglegoose: France Gigglegoose: so I am going back to Lucio Ball Another Note If you want to gently caress me and give me a different starting nation, be my guest! Updates Currently Planned Dreissi fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Aug 11, 2016 |
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Aug 7, 2016 23:52
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 14:51 |
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Cythereal posted:Sweden sounds good. I've done a Sweden game before, and it does give a good introduction to independence wars and the concept of personal unions. I'll leave the voting open for countries until Thursday, August 11 - I'll count votes on Friday and hopefully get an update out before some work travel I have scheduled that coming week. The current plan is for the first update to cover provinces and their attributes, some introductory political interactions (alliances, royal marriages, etc), and discussion of whatever advisers we have available to us.
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Aug 8, 2016 01:14
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Jazerus posted:Also, please don't use timg. Reading a Paradox LP is really a pain if you have to click on every screenshot. Can do! First LP, forgive my sins etc.
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Aug 8, 2016 02:43
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Poil posted:Mongolia is the best choice you fools! Ride across the open steppe with the wind in your hair while driving your enemies before you. But I suppose Sweden could do if you have to be boring about it. This sounds fun, except for one minor thing: westernization is going to go through a big revision sometime this fall, and I'd like to hold off on a non-western example until the institutions mechanic is in place. Horde Unity is a great mechanic though.
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Aug 8, 2016 20:14
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double nine posted:
That is a very interesting idea - and one I'll admit to abusing the big blue blob at certain points. If your suggestion of Venice comes through and Austria has rivaled us, a misstep or two could get us in a lot of trouble.
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Aug 9, 2016 12:10
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Omobono posted:Sweden seems good. Well, the way I tried my (admittedly brief) game as Venice had me allying France and just chilling out with big allies. That's why it has a 'gently caress' classification- boredom. This is also why I think the suggestion of Venice without a big blue ally is interesting. Also, to update the thread: I'm creating a list of topics I'll cover in this guide that I'll add to the op. This should be in late tonight as voting closes. One more thing: The Venice people in this thread almost have me convinced to say "I'm here to defend republicanism, not practice it" and go with Venice.
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Aug 11, 2016 12:51
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I'll be closing voting tonight...sometime. As of now, voting stands at: Sweden - 14 Venice - 8 Ottomans - 3 Castile - 2 Brandenburg - 1 England - 1 Poland - 1 Portugal - 1 Popes - 1 Edit - I have also added a list of currently planned updates to the OP. I've seen some experienced EU4 people here, so if you have any criticism of the update order or other suggestions for improvement please don't hesitate to call me out. Dreissi fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Aug 11, 2016 |
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Aug 11, 2016 23:11
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AdventFalls posted:Poland must into space. Well I'm very sorry, but Poland CANNOT into space! Välkommen to the introductory nation of the EU4 guide, Sweden!  Excuse me, Sweden!  I am flying halfway around the world early Saturday morning, so the first update will not be ready until Monday at the earliest. The first update will include the following topics: An introduction to the user interface - there's a lot of numbers and buttons - too many in fact for the introductory update. We will go over some critical UI elements in this session and introduce others as they become relevant to our nation (we specifically will not be covering different map modes, trade, and the military overview tab). Provinces - when you lose all of these, you die. There's a lot more to go over though! Introduction to diplomacy - as Sweden, we either have to remain slaves in the unjust Kalmar Union (which we aren't going to do, no votes this time), or we are going to find allies to support our struggle for independence. We will review wars for independence, royal marriages, alliances, and how royal marriages can lead to personal unions (the subservient status we find ourselves in at the beginning of the game). A question about images from here on out: Earlier (I believe in the sand-castle), someone complained about posting the images in this thread as thumbnails - the idea was that screenshot heavy LPs are a pain to read when you have to constantly click on the image. Full size images seem, well...too big. Thread, if you want thumbnails back they are yours to have. If there's some happy medium, I can also go in and play with the resolution to make the images less expansive.
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Aug 12, 2016 04:29
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Sorry everyone, I couldn't bring myself crush the will of the people.Rodnik posted:Venice, but I'm sorry you should probably play in the professional paradox mapgoons league for a few games before you start showing off your chops kiddo. You are just going to embarrass yourself unless you prove yourself against us. Are you saying Venice is a good intro multiplayer nation? I'm confused.
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Aug 12, 2016 04:41
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 14:51 |
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Thinking about it this morning - big map shots are going to be pretty rare, so I'll keep resolution as is and cropping should take care of the problem. Also - and I'm embarrassed to say I didn't think of this before starting - I just thought to look up the old CK2 text guide in the archives. I'm going to do my best and take some lessons from that - it's pretty great.
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Aug 12, 2016 13:34
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