I'm FRIDAY, Da Ba Dee

[Kushan]

You don't need any DLC to play as Dracula.

[Gusington]

^Get out - really? Is this true?

[Sir Slash]

Yes, but it really sucks.

[mikeck]

The characters are historically accurate. At least the rulers and nobility. So selec Walachia in the proper time period and you will find Vlad. You might find it a tad boring to play as a count however. You only have control over one province so there isn't much to do IMHO

[Nefaro]

You don't need any DLC to play as Dracula.

^Get out - really? Is this true?

Yes, but it really sucks.

Ooooh!

Kushan with the setup.  Sir Slash with the takedown.

[undercovergeek]

^Get out - really? Is this true?

Wtf have you been for the last few years

[bob48]

Yes, but it really sucks.

But you can really get your teeth into it.

[Kushan]

Ooooh!

Kushan with the setup.  Sir Slash with the takedown.

The characters are historically accurate. At least the rulers and nobility. So selec Walachia in the proper time period and you will find Vlad. You might find it a tad boring to play as a count however. You only have control over one province so there isn't much to do IMHO

I wouldn't recommend anyone new play as count outside of Ireland. I haven't played in the east but is expansion not possible? Or do succession laws or larger powers in the area prevent it? My recent count Hapsburg start has been on of the  most fun games I've had in CK2.

Gus would probably find impaling his way across eastern Europe to be fun.

[Huw the Poo]

Things seem to be going well in my Spanish (well, Castillian) campaign so far!  I took the mission to conquer the Iberian Peninsula, so the first order of the day is to take three provinces on the south of the land, belonging to Grenada I think.  I started with a truce with them for three years so couldn't do much about it, other than station a load of troops innocently along our border.

However!  In the meantime I had a good relationship with Portugal which I further cemented by joining them in an alliance, capped off with a royal wedding.  Well, the buggers only went and declared on Morocco, didn't they?  So I was forced to honour my alliance and also declare on Morocco and their ally Mzab.  So now one of my armies is getting decent experience rampaging through Moroccan lands (just won their first siege) while my navies are protecting trade around Seville and blowing Moroccan shipping out of the water.  This is fun!!!

Some questions, if there are any kind souls who feel like answering:

1. I'm currently occupying a Moroccan province.  What can I do with this?  Presumably I'm not the alliance leader so can't sue for peace, due to this being Portugal's war, so I doubt I can do anything to claim the province permanently, can I?  Is this what claiming cores is all about?  Do I need to keep an army there for the duration of the war?

2. Am I understanding things correctly; you "buy" tech levels by spending monarch points?  So when I have 600 administrative power, for example, I can open the tech panel and just buy the next level?  And if so, what are some good tips for increasing the rate at which I accumulate monarch points?

3. Hopefully when I level up my tech I'll be able to start constructing buildings.  Any tips on what to go for first?  I never have more than 200 ducats and I'm always gaining or losing slightly each month; should I go for buildings that increase revenues?  I only have two merchants and they're both steering trade to Seville, which I control.

4. How do I get more merchants, and is there any benefit to having a merchant in my home trade node?

[Kushan]

1. I'm currently occupying a Moroccan province.  What can I do with this?  Presumably I'm not the alliance leader so can't sue for peace, due to this being Portugal's war, so I doubt I can do anything to claim the province permanently, can I?  Is this what claiming cores is all about?  Do I need to keep an army there for the duration of the war?

2. Am I understanding things correctly; you "buy" tech levels by spending monarch points?  So when I have 600 administrative power, for example, I can open the tech panel and just buy the next level?  And if so, what are some good tips for increasing the rate at which I accumulate monarch points?

3. Hopefully when I level up my tech I'll be able to start constructing buildings.  Any tips on what to go for first?  I never have more than 200 ducats and I'm always gaining or losing slightly each month; should I go for buildings that increase revenues?  I only have two merchants and they're both steering trade to Seville, which I control.

4. How do I get more merchants, and is there any benefit to having a merchant in my home trade node?

1. Unless you are a member of a coalition during a coalition war you can sue for peace even if you are not the war leader. You'll take a reputation hit with the war leader, where if you stick with the war all the way through you'll get a fought to the end reputation bonus. If you have a claim or a core on a province that you hold the AI will give it to you unless they have a claim/core as well. If you don't want a province you have claim/core on at the end of a war then you need to go to the province screen and where it says occupied, click on it and transfer the occupation to the war leader. Couple of reasons you might not want a province that you have a claim on. Over extension or other uses for Admin monarch points being two that I can think of off hand. I put myself into a bind in my Austria AAR game by forgetting to transfer provinces and ending up with some provinces I didn't have points off hand to core or I wanted to use for tech.

2. Not a lot you can do. Getting better advisers in one. The bonus for each level of adviser is the same but the amount of monarch points goes up between 1-3. Just be aware level 2-3 advisers can really pinch your economy early on. The other thing you can do is "focus" which will give you either a +2 to that category and a cost of -1 to the other two. You do this by going to your adviser menu and clicking on the category you want to focus on. You can also choose not to focus. Also there is a cooldown on changing your focus. You will also occasionally get events that will add/remove monarch points. Your monarchs are a random roll, nothing you do effects how many monarch points they get.

3. Military is important early on as is administration for your first national idea and temples (although I believe temples got nerfed in one of the newer patches), but going for that first idea is a must. Unless your playing a trade focus nation (Venice) then diplomatic is less important early on. If your going to go the colonization route then I would definitely skip on upgrading diplomatic tech early on since you will need those points for the exploration/colonization national idea. If your going to cap on points, with no idea to spend them on, then always upgrade you tech.

4. You can get more merchants via national ideas. Its a toss up as to one is useful in your home node early on or not. You always collect trade in your home node whether a merchant is present or not. I generally keep mine in the home node early on for a lack of anywhere else to put him/ but as soon as I have some decent power in another node, either through colonization or conquest I move him. As Castile your trade power is about evenly split between two trade nodes at the start, so I would leave both my merchants in the their starting nodes and split any light ships between them.

[IronX]

I've been playing the new OP Sea Lion campaign for Panzer Corps on iPad. Enjoyable, although sometimes I wonder who is invading whom in some scenarios... Also, very tempted to pick up the early access game, Angels Fall First.

[Huw the Poo]

Excellent tips Kushan, thank you very much!  I guess I'll cede that Moroccan province to Portugal then, since I'm pretty sure I don't have a claim on it.  I'll want to save any overexpansion concerns for when I attack Grenada.

Yeah, I noticed that the higher level advisers would be ruinous to begin with so I went for the lowest level one for each category.  When I figure out how to gain loads of cash I'll see about upgrading them, as even this early I can see how important monarch points are.

One more question for now.  Portugal's cassus belli for going to war with Morocco was simply "conquest".  That sounds like something you could claim any time!  How did they get it?

[Kushan]

One more question for now.  Portugal's cassus belli for going to war with Morocco was simply "conquest".  That sounds like something you could claim any time!  How did they get it?

Conquest is the, we have a claim on a province so we are going to take it CB. If it was a province they had a core on the CB would probably be something like reconquest/liberation. Some of the national ideas will give you a CBs like any religion that's not your own, or against heathens, etc.

[Huw the Poo]

Got it.  Thanks again, buddy.  I'm going to have to read through your Austria AAR soon!

[Kushan]

Got it.  Thanks again, buddy.  I'm going to have to read through your Austria AAR soon!

Its really a shame that the last round of DLC broke save games. I've played Austria 5-6+ times and that one was by far the best. I probably could have reverted my version of EUIV but it also made significant changes to the HRE that I wanted to be able to play with.