Europa Universalis IV - 13 August 2013

[Md139115]

My Empress is a freaking PU badass!!!

Marguerite, by the grace of God, French Empress, forever Augusta,
Queen of France, Naples, Great Britain, Scandinavia and Navarre
Duchess of Burgundy, Lorraine, Provence, Savoy, Brittany, Avignon, Luxembourg, Nevers, Tuscany, Corsica and Urbino
Landgrave of Alsace,
Countess of Flanders, Artois, Burgundy Palatine, Hainaut, Roussillon, Sienna and Urbino​

I will see your Valois empress, and raise you my Habsburg emperor!

His Imperial Majesty, JOHANN LEOPOLD, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, FOREVER AUGUST, Emperor of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires
King of Bohemia (since integrated), Hungary (being integrated), Castile, Aragon, and Naples (and at least 10 other kingdoms as a courtesy title, including Germany, Italy, Croatia, and Dalmatia)
Archduke of Austria, Duke of Lorraine, Ragusa, and Silesia, Count of Ghent, Sofia, and Sundgrau (and at least a dozen other counties existing as courtesy titles now)
Defender of the Faith and Protector of the Basilica of St. John Lateran (Papal vassal)

To put this in perspective, I am in charge of both European empires (a feat not done since Theodisus, I might add), about 1/4 of all the land in Europe, and I am still technically a duchy in government status!

Edit: The year is 1551​

 

[The Forty-Eighth Rōnin]

How do you guys do that elite PU-whoring?

 

[Md139115]

How do you guys do that elite PU-whoring?

Well, very first thing I did was a royal marriage with Bohemia, but no alliance, and an alliance with Saxony and Brandenburg, but no marriages. Bohemia declared a Habsburg king, and I immediately declared war on a claim throne casus belli. The combined alliance crushed Bohemia and I became its king.

Then came the event where Hungary killed the one Habsburg dynast and I got the casus belli again. I gather my armies, create an alliance with Poland, when a freak accident occurs and Hungary inherits the throne of Castile. I still declare war, crush the Hungarians before the Castilians come, and got two for the price of one.

The Ottomans were dragged into a long mess with Georgia and one of the Coptic states in Anatolia, while the Byzantines took advantage of one of my wars with Venice to grab Athens and several Greek Isles. I decided to ally with them, and their old emperor responds by naming a member of my family as his heir! He dies, the Ottomans invade, and take Constantinople. With their army wiped out, I claim their throne, and promptly PU them. Then I fight a series of absolutely horrific wars with my whole alliance against the Ottomans and get back all of Greece and Constantinople for the Byzantines, plus Dalmatia, Ragusa, and Skjope for myself (the latter to enable my armies to move from Hungary to Greece without a DOW and position them in advance on the Bosporus).

I sweep south to avoid losing Italy in the HRE, vassalize Rome, and finally conquer Venice.

Despite many unsuccessful attempts to get on more thrones, I finally succeed when the last of the Trastimarias dies in Aragon, and a Habsburg takes his place. This time, I was too slow and he got a heir before I could claim the throne, so I had to wait a generation. The moment finally came, and I clobbered them, getting Naples in the bargain.

That was the last (or rather, latest) of my escapades, and I am now transitioning to throwing my weight around in the HRE, usually using the mess of the Reformation as my openings. With an integrated Bohemia, I’ve contained the Protestants to the north and Bavaria, and I am getting ready to thrash them all. I may just wind up conquering the entire HRE, just for the heck of it!

There is no power on earth that can stop me! MWAAAAAHHHHHAAAAAHHAAAHHAAAA!

But to answer your question, pure luck and aggressiveness.

And this was an Ironman game too!

 

[Anonymous01]

I just started playing EU4 again. I picked as the Ottomans and went to war with Byzantium a month later. I managed to crush them in a few years but not without my economy crashing. I also had a huge peasant uprising.

 

[AussieHawker]

I just started playing EU4 again. I picked as the Ottomans and went to war with Byzantium a month later. I managed to crush them in a few years but not without my economy crashing. I also had a huge peasant uprising.

How the hell did you do that? Byzantium has a army and navy just under half your size, and at best can only get minor allies like Serbia or Circassia.

 

[Md139115]

I can never do that. Is it because you didn't ally Hungary from the start?

Yep, in fact I insulted them too just to sweeten the deal of the alliance with Poland.

That's insane. How was your alliance structure like, such that you were able to take down the Ottomans? (I count Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, Saxony, Bohemia, Byzantium, Castile... anything else?) Must be quite hard to coordinate their troops- AI is bad at this sort of stuff.

You said Bohemia twice. And it was Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, Castile, Poland, Lithuania, Moldova, and Byzantium, the first time around. Later, I allied with the Mameluks and vassalized the Papal States.

Are you saying you did all of this before 1490?

Yep.

Probably not viable. It might really take too long to conquer every member- rather, why not let Imperial Authority increase year-on-year, crush Protestantism before it enables the League Wars, and then reform the Empire without spilling a drop of blood?

Keep an eye out for Poland, though (though if you know of the standard Austria strategy you might already be doing it), because when they end the elective monarchy you might be able to claim their throne too. Did you get the Burgundian Inheritance?

Problem is that Imperial authority is currently decreasing (too many heretic princes), and the League has formed. I attacked it before it could attack me though, and got all of the Protestant centers in the peace deal and converted them, so Protestantism is contained and shrinking, problem is that the rest of the HRE essentially hates me at this point.

Poland (now the Commonwealth) is still my ally, and since Russia has formed on their eastern border, they are not really feeling obliged to drop the alliance that probably is saving them from getting eaten alive by hungry Orthodox stacks. For my part, as I don’t want the Russians messing up my nice, increasingly unified Catholic Europe, I remain allied to Poland.

Unfortunately, the Burgundian Inheritance never tripped, and all its vassal states were set free by a very angry Archbishoprate of Liege (that swelled up like a balloon before getting cut down to size). I have conquered Ghent, Antwerp, and Rotterdam though for the trade money.

 

[The Undead Martyr]

Currently in the middle of an Ironman Castille game.

Death to the Big Blue Blob!

Spoiler

Portugal made the mistake of guaranteeing Granada, and then lost their historical friendship in the war. I was planning on uniting Iberia anyway but this meant I need to conquer it rather than try the Habsburg route. After beating on them, I drilled up my armies and DoWd France. Luring them onto the fort at Navarre then counterattacking, then I just kept at it until I full occupied them, releasing Dauphine and annexing Toulouse (to my ally Aragon) and the one province I used as a CB for myself just out of principle. This drained my manpower to nothing, and Enrique also died. Good, since he's godawful, bad, since this would mean a PU under Aragon, which aside from slowing down my expansion also basically meant giving up on Naples to independence after breaking free eventually. As my king was 66 years old, this was a problem. I DoWed Morocco and made him a general on the hopes he'd die and leave me with an heir, but he didn't die, came out with a new heir, and turned out to be a fairly decent general (he also lived quite a long time). After all of this, and a Morisco revolt, and the Castillan Civil War (which gave me a new heir and set up the PU over Aragon) my army was down to about twelve thousand space marines, and then England and Portugal declared war on me... so I eventually took Lisbon, and white peaced England after the Iberian Wedding fired. I've finally recovered enough cash and manpower to not be flailing around endlessly, and after embracing the Renaissance and completing the conversion of Granada my new king now looks to complete the conquest of Gascony and Portugal, before exploring out into the New World. Portugal was allied to France, and France was currently at war with England, they also triggered a war with Austria somehow. As they aren't co-belligerents I'm only going to take one province, then release Gascony as a march and feed them back their cores.

Quite Fun so far.

 

[The Forty-Eighth Rōnin]

What ideas to pick for playing colonial Norway?

 

[floyd22]

View attachment 373331

Day Two of my Ironman Denmark 1444 Game. I have Managed to Crush the Rebellion in Gotland [who Knew Armies could magically Teleport across the Baltic Sea?] and I have Avoided a Civil War against my own Nobles, at least for now. And my Line of Succession is safe in the Hands of my 2-Year-old Son, Eric.

I am Improving my Relations with Schleswig-Holstein so I can Annex them Diplomatically [I need more Land] and with the Papacy and Aragon as a Part of the "Rival of my Rival" Missions. It seems that the Player is not able to Research new Technologies right at the start of the Game and I have Demolished most of my Castles because they're so Darn expensive to Maintain. Novgorod has Declared me their Rival but they are in a War against Muscovy at the Moment and losing so I may not have to worry about them much longer.

In this Map of the Situation I have Marked in Red all the Lands I wish to Annex for my Empire. What I might do is make a Timeline of my Games and if nobody Minds I'd like to Post them onto here when they're done. I also want a Crack at Invading England at some Point, most likely when the Wars of the Roses come along as they'll be Distracted Fighting against each other.

I'd like to Know if anyone has any Advice for me regarding Strategy for Playing as the Danes and I will probably need to ask about how the Technology and Trade Mechanics Work at some Stage as well.

 

[Md139115]

View attachment 373331

Day Two of my Ironman Denmark 1444 Game. I have Managed to Crush the Rebellion in Gotland [who Knew Armies could magically Teleport across the Baltic Sea?] and I have Avoided a Civil War against my own Nobles, at least for now. And my Line of Succession is safe in the Hands of my 2-Year-old Son, Eric.

I am Improving my Relations with Schleswig-Holstein so I can Annex them Diplomatically [I need more Land] and with the Papacy and Aragon as a Part of the "Rival of my Rival" Missions. It seems that the Player is not able to Research new Technologies right at the start of the Game and I have Demolished most of my Castles because they're so Darn expensive to Maintain. Novgorod has Declared me their Rival but they are in a War against Muscovy at the Moment and losing so I may not have to worry about them much longer.

In this Map of the Situation I have Marked in Red all the Lands I wish to Annex for my Empire. What I might do is make a Timeline of my Games and if nobody Minds I'd like to Post them onto here when they're done. I also want a Crack at Invading England at some Point, most likely when the Wars of the Roses come along as they'll be Distracted Fighting against each other.

I'd like to Know if anyone has any Advice for me regarding Strategy for Playing as the Danes and I will probably need to ask about how the Technology and Trade Mechanics Work at some Stage as well.

Image is not showing up.

Definitely sounds interesting though. Curious if you are going to annex Norway and Sweden.

It is a shame about Novgorod, as I always was of the opinion that a divided Russia was better for the game.

 

[AussieHawker]

I'd like to Know if anyone has any Advice for me regarding Strategy for Playing as the Danes and I will probably need to ask about how the Technology and Trade Mechanics Work at some Stage as well.

Novgorod is going to get smashed by Muscovy, who will take their place as a threat against you. One thing you can do is vassalise them, and then feed them back their cores, when you go to war against them.

To annex Norway and Sweden, you need to have more provinces then them. As Denmark the HRE is most likely blocked off. The easiest path of expansion is into the Baltics, Russia and East Prussia in that order. Sweden is going to be rebellious very likely.

Technology is unlocked using monarch points, and the cost is modified by various modifiers. The largest modifiers are Institutions, which can spawn and spread by various ways depending on the Institution. You adopt them with cash, depending on how many of your provinces have the Institution. Being in Europe you will get them fairly soon by sheer proximity.

Trade is based on nodes that flow around. Merchants either steer trade, which pushes the trade forward or they collect. You also automatically collect trade in your home node, which is where your diplomatic capital is. Which should start in the same province as your normal capital, but can be moved if you want. There are also special nodes in Europe, the End Nodes. These are the English Channel, Venice and Genoa. Trade can't be steered out of these nodes, so dominating them and pushing trade into is very profitable.

The Trade nodes routes are also determined in advance, with limited numbers of ways they can flow. This is generally a flow towards Europe, and those end nodes. So generally you want to gain trade in trades that flow you your home node. For you this is Eastern Europe.

 

[Md139115]

One thing I never understood about the game is the number of power points. It never feels like I have enough to research and expand and build up my provinces and do everything else, even if I’m getting 10 per turn in some categories.

 

[The Grudge Keeper]

Alright, started a game as Hungary and immediately I allied Austria, Bohemia and Poland. After my Hapsburg heir became of age, I immediately went to war with Venice, taking Dalmatia and Istria. After waiting for my allies to go join a war with me once again, I targeted the Ottomans and got them to give back the Albania's cores (who I vassalized while waiting). After a few more wars against Ottomans and Venice, I was the dominant power in the Balkans.

I backstabbed Poland who somehow got rid of their PU over Lithuania, making it easier for me to beat the shit out of them. While I waged war on Poland, Lithuania got dragged into a coalition war by Muscovy, diving their forces. Now by the late 1500s, I got Austria under a PU and fought a short succession war against France whom I won. I didn't damage France too much since I needed them against another enemy: The Mamluks. They finished off the Ottomans who became an OPM in Rhodes.

After a while, I beat up the Mamluks in a couple of wars while taking over the rest of Eastern Europe. My biggest goals at the moment are triggering the Revolution Disaster so I can go full revolutionary and expanding east into Central Asia, now dominated by Transoxiania. Any ideas how the fuck can I progress the Revolution Disaster? I'm currently in 1745.

 

[floyd22]

Image is not showing up.

Definitely sounds interesting though. Curious if you are going to annex Norway and Sweden.

It is a shame about Novgorod, as I always was of the opinion that a divided Russia was better for the game.

I know, I didn't Notice until after I Posted the Comment! I have Re-Edited so the Map is Back up there now and here it is. Personally I generally prefer it when the Game events stick to actual History. However it will be interesting to see how Different the Map is if I last to the Napoleonic Wars.

Novgorod is going to get smashed by Muscovy, who will take their place as a threat against you. One thing you can do is vassalise them, and then feed them back their cores, when you go to war against them.

To annex Norway and Sweden, you need to have more provinces then them. As Denmark the HRE is most likely blocked off. The easiest path of expansion is into the Baltics, Russia and East Prussia in that order. Sweden is going to be rebellious very likely.

Technology is unlocked using monarch points, and the cost is modified by various modifiers. The largest modifiers are Institutions, which can spawn and spread by various ways depending on the Institution. You adopt them with cash, depending on how many of your provinces have the Institution. Being in Europe you will get them fairly soon by sheer proximity.

Trade is based on nodes that flow around. Merchants either steer trade, which pushes the trade forward or they collect. You also automatically collect trade in your home node, which is where your diplomatic capital is. Which should start in the same province as your normal capital, but can be moved if you want. There are also special nodes in Europe, the End Nodes. These are the English Channel, Venice and Genoa. Trade can't be steered out of these nodes, so dominating them and pushing trade into is very profitable.

The Trade nodes routes are also determined in advance, with limited numbers of ways they can flow. This is generally a flow towards Europe, and those end nodes. So generally you want to gain trade in trades that flow you your home node. For you this is Eastern Europe.

I've Re-Uploaded the Map as you can see. Thank you for this new Information. How does One acquire Monarch Points to spend on Technology, and can Denmark not Cash in on the English Channel Trade Node? Any Tips for Expanding my Empire into the Baltics as I cannot Declare War upon anybody yet?

P.S: If Sweden wants their Independence so badly, then Frankly, in my Opinion, they can have it, but not before I grab a Province or Two off of them to Punish them for their Treachery.

 

[The Forty-Eighth Rōnin]

I'm actually playing Denmark right now, though I started in 1453.

I vassalized Danzig and Livonia, and annexed Lübeck. Currently waiting for my truce with Riga to take Hamburg next.

Overall, my goal is to recreate Valdemar II's empire and some colonization later on. I would like some advice in what ideas I should take (Influence is my 1st idea).

 

[The Grudge Keeper]

Planning on doing a Granada New World Run. Any ideas on doing it? Most of the time Morocco allies Tlemcen and Tunis is too fucking weak as an ally to take them both down.

 

[floyd22]

I'm actually playing Denmark right now, though I started in 1453.

I vassalized Danzig and Livonia, and annexed Lübeck. Currently waiting for my truce with Riga to take Hamburg next.

Overall, my goal is to recreate Valdemar II's empire and some colonization later on. I would like some advice in what ideas I should take (Influence is my 1st idea).

How did you Vassilise Danzig? I also want Lubeck for my Empire, so can you give me some Hints?

Alright, started a game as Hungary and immediately I allied Austria, Bohemia and Poland. After my Hapsburg heir became of age, I immediately went to war with Venice, taking Dalmatia and Istria. After waiting for my allies to go join a war with me once again, I targeted the Ottomans and got them to give back the Albania's cores (who I vassalized while waiting). After a few more wars against Ottomans and Venice, I was the dominant power in the Balkans.

I backstabbed Poland who somehow got rid of their PU over Lithuania, making it easier for me to beat the shit out of them. While I waged war on Poland, Lithuania got dragged into a coalition war by Muscovy, diving their forces. Now by the late 1500s, I got Austria under a PU and fought a short succession war against France whom I won. I didn't damage France too much since I needed them against another enemy: The Mamluks. They finished off the Ottomans who became an OPM in Rhodes.

After a while, I beat up the Mamluks in a couple of wars while taking over the rest of Eastern Europe. My biggest goals at the moment are triggering the Revolution Disaster so I can go full revolutionary and expanding east into Central Asia, now dominated by Transoxiania. Any ideas how the fuck can I progress the Revolution Disaster? I'm currently in 1745.

Well if I Play as Austria I may try the Centralise Holy Roman Empire thing, but that may be too ambitious for me as I'm not an experienced player of strategy games.

 

[mattep74]

It is possible to cheat in Ironman. I used cheat engine and could cheat. But i could not get more manpower or cash so i can not be superior at once. The only thing i can cheat is monarch points and have a country at max lvl doesnt really matter when you can not build a unlimited army and navy becauce you will still lack cash. Develop provinces you say? Thats really fun if you have a nation that is not big since it will take a few hours of just developing provinces before you can actually start at 1444 with provinces that give you 10x the starting income. If you do like that and play the Ottomans you will still begin the game as you do without cheats, by taking the small countries around you, Byzantine and then head down to kick Malmluks. I guess that a coalition will form against you within 5-10 years also.

 

[AussieHawker]

@floyd22 I really wouldn't play as Denmark or any of the HRE nations as a noob. Portugal is a noob friendly nation for colonising. While Ottomans are noob friendly for conquest and other basics.

Also while I didn't do this myself, watching Eu4 players on Youtube can be helpful. My Friend who also plays did and he says it helped him greatly.

 

[The Forty-Eighth Rōnin]

How did you Vassilise Danzig? I also want Lubeck for my Empire, so can you give me some Hints?

You can conquer Danzig from the Teutonic Order and release it as a vassal. Watch out for the timing before going to war with them.

Most of the time Riga and Lubeck are allies. Declare on Riga and Lubeck will join but not the HRE. Conquer Lubeck in a separate peace before you peace out Riga.

But as @AussieHawker said, Denmark is ultimately not newb-friendly. Expanding too much and too fast may earn you a lot of coalitions.