EU IV....Why?

[undercovergeek]

^Great...just one more thing to keep me from committing to HOI3.

same problem here - 2 icons next to each other - which to press

[Huw the Poo]

same problem here - 2 icons next to each other - which to press

Dota 2. 8)

[solops]

Why not play the better (far better) and prettier game for $40?

That's easy: $40

Not to mention all of the other money I have sunk into this franchise. I think I'll just wait for EU6. Maybe they will have it "fixed" by then. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy the small fortune I already have sunk into Europa Universalis.

[Nefaro]

A small timeline of progression in my Denmark game.  Ironman mode! 

The Norwegian and Swedish nationalist rebels are constant but maybe they'll eventually give up.  Fortunately my trade power is pretty damn good in the area so I'm not going broke with all the constant fighting with rebels and the occasional war that my Allies pull me into.  8)

Sproing!

1470 - Picking on Livonians and Teutons


1522 - Integrating along with more expansion into the eastern Baltic


1524 -  Post-Unification

[undercovergeek]

ha, brilliant, you can almost reach the UK from there!

[Nefaro]

ha, brilliant, you can almost reach the UK from there!

Oh god do the Brits hate me.  They keep making claims on the Orkneys and bottoming out our relations.  For some reason, after forming 'Scandinavia', they've eased off a bit so I'm pummeling them with hugs & kisses via Diplomacy to make them chill out.  An earlier war they declared on me was just a painfully long & uselessly expensive ordeal that ended in a white peace after years of mangling his troop landings (and hiding my navy away in port!).

That first war drove me to allying with France, to make Britain think three times about DOW'ing me again.  :D  But now I gotta worry about the hordes of Novgorod, if they start getting uppity.  Luckily I've been allied with Lithuania and Poland for quite awhile so that has shut them up at the moment too.

However.. the religious turmoil is in full swing.  A portion of current rebel problem is caused by the Protestant and Reformist takeovers in many of my provinces.  I'm just hoping I can switch to Reformist, or maybe Protestant, before long without the rest of Catholic Europe dropping our alliances and attacking me!  :o

EDIT:  Also note in those screenshots - the runaway blobbing is almost non-existant.  By this time, in EU3, it would've been ignorant.  Sure, the Ottomans and France are pushed out a bit more than historically at this point but they haven't taken over half the european mainland by now (nor the Khanates doing the same in Asia!) so it's a huge improvement from what I see.

[undercovergeek]

novogrod and lithuania do look dangerous?

have you been off colonising anywhere?

[Nefaro]

novogrod and lithuania do look dangerous?

have you been off colonising anywhere?

Keeping Lithuania allied was touch & go since there was a bit of a dispute at one point, over having similar claims on a Livonian province or two.  Luckily they never pressed it in war (partly because of the royal marriage penalties & such I suspect) so they ran out after 10 years.  They're still a bit  wary of me (Rival For World Domination diplo penalty is just one example/reason) so they're not as stalwart an ally as I'd like.  Still.. they don't like Novgorod at all so that is pretty much what's keeping us from glaring at each other across the border.

I haven't been colonizing because I haven't taken the appropriate Exploration Ideas, in order to recruit explorers & such.  I've been focusing on Trade, Diplomacy, and Economy Ideas thus far.  It would take a long time to push my naval range out to any decent north american colonies and by that time, all the other colonizing nations would likely already be there.  I'd be starting that race too late at this point, perhaps.  However, I'm planning on exploiting the trade there once the other nations get it established so hopefully I can drain some of their trade away into my own trade nodes eventually.  Maybe take a colony by force, far down the road, or rent the use of a port from a friendly colonial power if I need the extra 'trade range' (even though my Ideas give pretty good trade range bonus amongst other things).

[undercovergeek]

i havent even started a game yet, but your last post is a great advert for the depth and immerssion in this game

[Nefaro]

Here's a nice big shot of the Trade map mode. 



I've given one of my Merchants the order to collect trade in the Baltic trade node.  While it's not my home node (that's Lubeck), I now own so many of the Baltic provinces and their associated port/river entrance bonuses in that zone that my Trade Power is by far the most powerful there.  So instead of telling my Merchant to 'push' my share of the trade in the Baltic node on up to Lubeck, I've told him to just collect there. 

While there is a penalty for collecting directly from a node, it can be somewhat mitigated by Ideas you can spend Monarch Points to research (usually Diplo MPs but there may be some that cost Military MPs) and improving your Diplomacy technology levels (which cost Diplo monarch points).  There are also numerous buildings for boosting Trade bonuses or trade power (amonst many other stuff) and those cost some ducats and buildings also cost a small amount of Administration MPs in addition to the money.

Anyway.. since The Hansa is running just about neck & neck with me for the lion's share of trade profits in Lubeck, it has been a tad bit more profitable for me to just collect directly from the Baltic sea trade node.  I also have a merchant pushing a small amount of trade from Novgorod, downstream into the Baltic so that adds a little more to what I'm collecting there.  Britain and I, along with the smaller nations in our respective trade zones, have pretty much split all of the North Sea trade away into our own. 

I'm not yet sure if it would be more profitable to move my Novgorod merchant over to the North Sea, in a bid to siphon off more trade away from Britain to my home trade zone in Lubeck.  It looks like it would, but then I would also want to send some light warships in to boost my trade power there, and pull even more, but I'm afraid such a trade patrol fleet would also be easy pickings for any potential enemy's main fleet once hostilities broke out - especially Britains!  During our earlier war, the bastards managed to capture about six to eight Barques from myself and my allies' trade patrols, after jumping them with his super fleet.  So military concerns are still factoring into my trade strategy.  Nevertheless, it may be worth doing.  Besides,  I've tech'd up enough to build a better class of warships so it would give me an excuse to build the bigger, better, faster ones if I lost the oldies. 

I'm also forging claims on Hamburg since it has two trade power bonuses (port & river delta or something) along with a huge tax base.  So taking some of The Hansa's land and trade power will be quite profitable as long as I can catch them out of any big alliances.  Hopefully the Holy Roman Emperor won't flip out.

Decisions, decsions.  :D

[PanzersEast]

If you are looking for a slower pace then try Portugal... I am playing them now and it is a trade/colonization country.  You are isolated from the wars in Europe and only really need to keep Castile at bay relation wise.  I have dominated the trading in the Med. and colonized S. Africa.  Because of the nature of Portugal's position, there is a lot of periods of waiting...

Money is rolling in now and who knows... I maybe able to amass enough wealth to hire a merc army and challenge Castile.


PE

[tgb]

I'm going to restart my Castille campaign. I went for the Religion idea group first because I thought that the automatic CB against other religions you get from the first idea would give me entree into North Africa.  I had to go to the Paradox forums to find out that it only applies to countries with which you share a border. I think this time I'll go with Exploration first, and switch to Religion after unlocking Conquistadors.

[Nefaro]

 :)

Oh!  It's goin' down!   

I managed to get lotsa beefcake mobilized with this one.  I'm pretty sure this will involve a majority of the ground & naval forces in western europe.  8)  Unfortunately, my ally Poland was already at war - with the Ottomans even.  So they won't be any help.  But France.. that's another story.




The rebel-filled chaos of the Reformation has passed my country and I settled down to Protestantism. There's still a lot of mixed religions in Scandoland but one benefit of being Protestant is much more leniency against other religions, so there isn't currently much in the way of revolts.  Also.. my income shot through the roof after that mess was done.  Looks like all my Tax & Trade focus is now beginning to pay off.   Even with being three over my Army Limit, and having all upkeep sliders max'd, I'm still bringing in almost 17 Ducats a month.  ;D  Time to crank out some shiny new warships!

[OJsDad]

From what I'm seeing and reading, this is a complete overhaul to what EU3 is.  Reading your comments is making think about getting this sooner than later, especially since none of you are talking about any major bugs.

Nefaro, from your last screen shot, it looks like if you can keep the British Navy from gaining control, you may be able to keep most of her armies locked up in England.  That should make it easier to win the war.

[mikeck]

I find it more " polished" then CK2 actually. Feels like a completely new game.