Let's Play EU3: The (Re)Rise of the Roman Empire

[Furious Flaming Faggot]

29 i think. 30 for Dictatorship which is basically a republic minus elections. Still, with all that cored territory you should be able to built a cot or two, which will bring in plenty of cash for teching up.

 

[anus_pounder]

Absolute monarchy...isn't that the one that gives you a free CB against everyone?

 

[Furious Flaming Faggot]

Ja, it's popamole faggotry of the highest order. Enlightened Despotism, Republican Dictatorship, and the Revolutionary governments get it as well.

 

[cardtrick]

And is there somewhere one can view all the possible future quests for a certain nation?

In-game, no -- they're supposed to be something of a surprise. They're easily visible in the game files, though. Go to your EU3 folder and you'll see a subfolder called "missions". This will have separate text files for each country with unique missions, along with several files for categories of general missions that any country can get (conquest, colonial, etc.).

They're the actual scripts, rather than descriptions, but it's pretty clear what they mean. For example, FSM's current mission is in the missions/Byzantine_Missions.txt file, and looks like this:

recover_south_italy = {
    
    type = country

    allow = {
        tag = BYZ
        war = no
        owns = 144    # Janina
        owns = 145    # Morea
        owns = 146    # Athens
        owns = 147    # Salonica
        owns = 1773    # Achaea
        not = { owns = 121 }    # Napoli
        not = { owns = 122 }    # Apulia
        not = { owns = 123 }    # Calabria
        is_subject = no
        is_lesser_in_union = no
    }
    abort = {
        or = {
            is_subject = yes
            is_lesser_in_union = yes
        }    
    }
    success = {
        owns = 121
        owns = 122
        owns = 123
    }
    chance = {
        factor = 1000
        modifier = {
            factor = 2
            mil = 7
        }
        modifier = {
            factor = 2
            mil = 9
        }
    }
    immediate = {
        add_temp_claim = 121
        add_temp_claim = 122
        add_temp_claim = 123
    }
    abort_effect = {
        remove_temp_claim = 121
        remove_temp_claim = 122
        remove_temp_claim = 123
    }
    effect = {
        add_core = 121
        add_core = 122
        add_core = 123
        prestige = 0.1
        legitimacy = 0.1
    }
}

This means that if you do own several of the Byzantine Greek cores, and don't own any of the three south Italy provinces, and you're at peace, not a subject nation, and not the junior member of a personal union, this mission will be available with a huge (1000 factor) chance of being selected for you. It immediately adds temporary claims to those 3 provinces, giving you a Conquest casus belli against their owner(s). Upon success, it adds cores on each of them and gives you + 10% prestige (shown as .1) and + 10% legitiamcy.

You can look through the missions folder yourself to get an idea of what missions are available for your country (keeping in mind that many/most countries don't have any unique missions at all, and just get the general ones).

 

[cardtrick]

If I'm not mistaken there are no further Casus Bellis for retaking the rest of the Italian peninsula; at least I didn't get any.

If that's the case you'll probably have to tread carefully regarding your infamy.

Actually, there's a mission to conquer Rome once you own South Italy, which is particularly awesome since Byzantium is an Orthodox nation. Unlike Catholic nations, you won't be consistently spammed with events to re-form the Papal State, and an Orthodox nation controlling Rome gets +1 missionaries per year and a yearly prestige bonus. (Same goes for controlling Judea/Jerusalem, which you don't get a mission for, but which is close enough to Byz to be worth considering.)

There's also a mission to destroy (conquer) Venice, which gives you free cores on Venice and Treviso. And the same for Sicily (although that's not technically on the Iberian peninsula). Byzantium gets awesome missions.

It doesn't have many negative modifiers onto how your country runs, I think it's a slightly higher revolt risk and a hit to legitamacy (which is your right to the throne of your country), so later on if you get strong enough, you can ignore the value.

It's weirdly hard to find this out for sure. It's one of the few things that doesn't have a helpful tooltip or ledger page. Even the wiki's info is out of date. I don't think it has an effect on revolt risk (at least, I've never seen an increase in revolt risk for it).

It does do significant harm to diplomacy -- there's a constant decrease in your relations with every other country that scales with your infamy rate. I think it also affects the likelihood of royal marriage and alliance offers being accepted.

One thing that no one has mentioned, but which can be crippling, is that your merchant's compete chance goes down by 1 for every point of infamy. This is devastating to a nation that relies on trade for income (as I discovered in my first Holland/Netherlands game). For production or tax focused nations, like your current Byzantium, it's not a big deal, though.

Still loving this LP, and loving the game. Thanks for this!

EDIT: How close are you to being able to Re-Establish the Theme System? I love that decision . . . it's so cool that all the provinces get renamed.

 

[Furious Flaming Faggot]

You can rename provinces without decisions. Same with cities, just click on the name and backspace.

 

[Luzur]

You can rename provinces without decisions. Same with cities, just click on the name and backspace.

huh? is that in the new updates? i always renamed by editing the EUG files or when colonizing a new province.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

November 29, 1461: Western Influences

A quick recap for those just joining us: we've gained a toehold (and heelhold) on the Italian Peninsula, while gaining an important tactical region in Transylvania, which will prevent Bohemia from being able to invade us from more than one location. Our economy is in bad shape right now, and we're behind technologically, but we'll start on the long road to modernization soon. Now to the update.

Montenegro is ungrateful. This angers me, but we will bide our time before we retaliate.

An overview of our Empire. Map painting is fun.

A look at our advisors. Our current Emperor is shit, and I can't wait for him to die so his very competent son can take power.

Not pictured: I make the Emperor the head of an army to hasten his death.

The next time we can move the sliders (5 years from screenshot) we will have the sliders needed to Westernize. We will still lack the administrative skill, but if the Emperor dies, that will also be taken care of.

A look at our neighbors. It looks like Bohemia will not repeat as Holy Roman Emperor, which is good for us.

I don't know how this happened, but the Golden Horde disappeared and Zaporozhie Khanate appeared, and they are a Catholic nation. I'm not familiar with the regional history here, but it was unexpected.

High revolt risk in our newly conquered territories, but we have the troops to deal with any uprisings.

Austria keeps dragging us into their wars, but the alliance means too much not to join in. A hostile Bohemia and Austria at our borders would probably be a bad idea.

Having to deal with the Portuguese at my backdoor pisses me off, especially since I can't afford the infamy hit to take any of their yummy holy lands.

No real threat here, we have them outnumbered in the region considerably, with more armies on the Europe side.

We do get to sink an Aragonese fleet, though.

I decide to just go for a white peace here. I don't want to divert too much attention from what's going on within our borders, plus our War Exhaustion is pretty high at the moment.

Making more friends.

A look at our economy and skyrocketing Inflation. Time to start handling that. We get a level 6 master of mint to go along with our diplomats (lower infamy).

A quick peak at the HRE shows that Austria is most likely to be the next HRE. The Habsburgs are getting more powerful. I daresay we backed the right horse.

Seven years until our next idea.

Now we have friends at each of our borders. Playing nice with others is a valuable skill.

Muscovy is growing, a lot.

Well, Montenegro and our relationship went in the shitter pretty quickly.

Lithuania was pretty strong before this war, and the war hasn't been a long one. We're going to have to think of something to do with Muscovy.

Since we lack Cassus Belli against anyone except for Naples, I decide to guarantee the small nations on the Peninsula.

Muscovy now borders Bohemia and is only one territory removed from bordering me.

We ignore Georgia's call, as they're not a super important ally and our War Exhaustion is till up there a bit (around 5 at this point).

Naples, however, is always a tasty target. These Italian provinces are rich as hell, so while I can't completely eliminate Naples at the moment, I can cut them down a bit and maybe Balkanize northern Italy a bit.

Austria is a good friend.

The war follows pretty much the same pattern as last time. Austria occupies Naples attention to the North while I work on the South, and Hungary doesn't stand a chance between the rock and the hard place.

Tale of the tape... they're outnumbered.

Montenegro = No threat

Another large battle where we have a significant terrain advantage.

Have to like how those numbers came out. A convincing victory.

And a nice little event bonus, too. 1% to all of our researches.

We force a monetary settlement from Montenegro, but aren't interested in any of their territory at the moment.

THE KING IS DEAD!!! LONG LIVE THE KING!!!

A successful, if long, siege. An auspicious beginning to the new Emperor's reign.

We're going to be chasing this army around for awhile.

We continue our pursuit and occupy Sicily.

And establish a grain depot, which is a big boost to our manpower.

Peace with Austria, and another sovereign nation is released from Naples hegemony.

Our campaign continues.

This offer was incredibly tempting, and in hindsight I wish I had taken it. I didn't want the infamy hit, though... but still, for the territorial gains (all provinces were pretty rich) it would have been worth it.

Instead, we only grab one province and force them to release two more nations.

Victory!

A look at the peninsula.

And our new neighbors just got more powerful.

With the war over, it is time to Westernize. It comes with a major stability hit (-5) but opens a decision which will allow us to change our technology to Western, which will give us much better units in the future.

We'll need to get our stability back up to modernize our military, and hope that our Emperor stays on the throne for awhile, but things are certainly looking up for the Empire.

The State of the Empire: February 5, 1469

In the seventy years since our campaign has started, we have expanded rapidly, and that continues. We now have a nice presence on the Italian Peninsula and have eliminated Naples as a major power, although we are not done with them yet. Muscovy may grow to be a threat in our future, and we will soon have to find a way to neutralize them. Still, we're a power in our own right, and our gains are being steadily consolidated. The Roman Empire is Inclining.

 

[treave]

If I'm not mistaken there are no further Casus Bellis for retaking the rest of the Italian peninsula; at least I didn't get any.

If that's the case you'll probably have to tread carefully regarding your infamy.

Actually, there's a mission to conquer Rome once you own South Italy, which is particularly awesome since Byzantium is an Orthodox nation. Unlike Catholic nations, you won't be consistently spammed with events to re-form the Papal State, and an Orthodox nation controlling Rome gets +1 missionaries per year and a yearly prestige bonus. (Same goes for controlling Judea/Jerusalem, which you don't get a mission for, but which is close enough to Byz to be worth considering.)

There's also a mission to destroy (conquer) Venice, which gives you free cores on Venice and Treviso. And the same for Sicily (although that's not technically on the Iberian peninsula). Byzantium gets awesome missions.

I kept getting missions to form royal marriages and discover certain regions. I guess it's not a 100% chance of the mission appearing? I know retaking Greece, Asia Minor and Southern Italy almost always happens in a row.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

The missions I kept getting were "Build university here" and "convert entire Asia Minor continent", which with the higher innovation I had made getting missionaries nigh on impossible. Haven't gotten a good mission since Southern Italy (my game is about 100 years ahead of the LP).

 

[cardtrick]

The nation-specific missions have extremely high chances to happen, so if you meet the requirements it's essentially certain that you will get them.

However, the requirements can be weird. In particular, they almost all require you to be at peace when you get your next mission -- otherwise you'll get something else.

Also, the specific requirements for different missions can be tough to fulfill. For example, to get the one to conquer Sicily, you need to control Napoli, Apulia, and Calabria -- but you can't control Messina, Palermo, or Malta. This would have been very difficult in your game, FSM, because Naples owned all three of the latter provinces in your screenshots (they start the game as Sicily and Malta). Worse, Napoli is the capital of Naples, which means it can't be captured until all of Naples is annexed. So you would essentially have to capture everything, then somehow get rid of Messina, Palermo, and Malta before you would be eligible for the mission. (I would suggest creating Sicily as a vassal, which will take care of Messina and Palermo, and then selling Malta to Sicily -- they have the same culture and are close together, so there's a good chance they'd take it. Actually, an even better approach would be to force Naples to release Sicily before you annex them, so you'd avoid some of the infamy hit.) Once all that's done, at the next point you're at peace and eligible for a new mission, you'll get the one to conquer Sicily. Even though it's ridiculously gamey, this whole process would actually be worthwhile -- getting 3 cores is nothing to scoff at, and would normally take 50 years.

For the one to conquer Venice, you need to own Athens, Edirne, and Crete and be at peace. Also, the province Venice has to be owned by the country Venice (in my game, I had to force Milan to release Venice before I was eligible).

On the other hand, I'm surprised if you didn't get the mission to conquer Rome at some point. It's not particularly hard to get -- just have to own Napoli, Apulia, and Calabria, without owning Rome, and be at peace.

I'm not sure what stage you're at in the game right now (you've played well past the LP, right?), but a fun goal might be to form the pentarchy. It's a mission you get by owning 4 holy cities, all of which are nearby you, and some of which you already have. You need Rome, Constantinople (which is in your capital province), Antioch (which is in Adana), and Jerusalem (which is in Judea). At least one of them has to have a religion that is not Orthodox (which is almost certainly the case), and you have to be at peace. Then you'll get a mission to conquer the remaining holy city (Alexandria) and convert all 5 of them to Orthodoxy. (Easier than it sounds, since just owning Rome and Judea will give you +2 missionaries a year). Really bring the iron boot of Orthodoxy down on the world. It's probably the coolest mission I've seen in the game.

EDIT: I just realized I missed part of what you said. All of what I said above is true, but the real problem is that mission to convert all of Asia Minor. That's also a country-specific mission, so it's just as likely to happen as any of the others -- and actually, more likely than the others if you have either an ADM skill of 6+ or a Theologian advisor. You would have to complete that before you reliably got other missions. You could conquer Judea and/or Rome for the bonus missionaries, or take one of the religious decisions or national ideas that give extra missionaries. Also, you probably already know this, but "Asia Minor" has a specific meaning -- turn on the "Region" map mode to see the specific provinces you need to convert. It's not many -- only 4 or 5, and some of them are likely to have been done already through events. Since they're all close together, it's probably worth setting your national focus to one of them, as it significantly increases missionary success rates.

 

[Furious Flaming Faggot]

"Portugal inherited Aragon" That history is seriously fuck up man. Castille must be shitting thermselves

 

[Luzur]

how goes it in the north? i saw Sweden had almost unified Scandinavia in one of the screens..

 

[Furious Flaming Faggot]

Sweden tends to do that. They are much wealthier than Denmark and Norway. This might have something to do with Paradox being Swedish.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

I've never seen them form Scandanavia though... Anyway, our attention will swing northward before long.

 

[Luzur]

Sweden tends to do that. They are much wealthier than Denmark and Norway. This might have something to do with Paradox being Swedish.

if you play as Sweden at the earliest date possible in EU you will start at war with both Denmark and Norway, short on cash and manpower and enemy armies already crossing the border.

but mostly it depends, ive seen Sweden broken up between Norway, Teutons and Mecklenburg/Pommern when i play as Spain, and being vassaled and loosing entire Finland and Norrland to Muscowy when i played as Georgia.

while another time they ruled alone in Scandinavia, deep in Jaroslav and northern Germany with borders on Austria and France when i was Japan.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

February 17, 1469: Intervention

Before we get started, a quick recap. We've gotten a nice chunk out of Naples and have forced them to release many of the small Northern Italian nations. Our economy is in shambles, though, and we're going through the painful process of Westernizing and modernizing our military.

Also, since it looks like I have some competition from a certain Furious Flaming Faggot, I think I might want to expand Eastward and destroy the Mongols completely at some point...

We're going to need 5 stability to modernize, so I increase funding to stability and hire two fellows that give us +15 stability investment a month.

Whacking moles. Similar to popamoles, but with less cover.

A look at the Central Mediterranean. Naples has gone from controlling almost the entire peninsula to being just one of many nations in the region.

We're not exactly raking in the dough right now.

Our low stability and high war exhaustion means I spend much of the next years taking out rebellions.

We get another idea, and with our very high inflation (around 15% right now) we take the National Bank idea. That gives us -.1 inflation per year. With our centralization and Master of Mint, we get -.25 per year with 0 minting (although we don't have the luxury to mint nothing). Still, this should set us on the path towards economic stability.

Lots of Rebellions.

For those not familiar with the game mechanics, inflation sucks. Everything costs 15% more, including research and troops.

Time passes, our stability increases, and the threat of revolt lessens.

Hungary is feeling expansionist, so we intervene in favor of the minor power Ragusa. We're not going to allow Hungary to expand at all if we can help it from now on.

Not pictured: me winning. I guess for about 2 years I forgot to take many screenshots. So... sorry about that.

The Roman Empire in 1472

The Knights of Malta take the island from Naples.

You got uprising problems? I feel bad for you son. I got 99 problems but Rebels ain't one.

A look at the rest of Europe. Interestingly, France has been cut up and Burgundy isn't nearly as strong as I would have expected. In an interesting twist... Brabant is one of the main powers in Northern Europe (and that will persist for awhile).

This is the country that was released in southern France. This is the first game I've played where I've seen France chopped up like this when I wasn't directly involved.

Our current manpower is 54k, and we can field 68 regiments without penalties. Damn, we're getting strong.

A look at our court.

And we get a reconquest CB on Hungary. I'm loathe to use it, though, due to their alliance with Bohemia and Portugal, but still, it's nice to have it if I need it.

Remember when I said Muscovy was almost bordering us? Well, they are bordering us now.

Something tells me that bad things will happen eventually.

A look at the region centering on Muscovy. The Bear is awakening.

Just when we're about to get +3 stability and military modernization, we get this fun event. It was either serfdom or Free Subjects gaining 1, but the stability hit was on both. Free Subjects is far superior to Serfdom, so we go with that.

The Papal States take Romagna from Naples.

Naples is looking to reclaim some of their lost territory, but I'll be damned if I'm going to allow them to expand anymore.

I quickly besiege Napoli, send forces to Sicily, and eliminate their tiny fleet.

We have the entire coalition outnumbered ourselves, so there's little to worry about here.

Ancona falls quickly and we move to wipe out their army.

We take a white peace from Hungary, although I'm getting tired of warring with them.

I will not accept white peace from Naples, however.

Austria is the new Holy Roman Emperor, which I guess means that we can't be best friends anymore. They break their alliance with me.

We have to go amphibious to move our troops to their two northern territories.

Some sieges start ending

Once again, I really don't know why I didn't take advantage of these juicy peace deals (and since I'm a defender, lower infamy costs). I'm an idiot, but I didn't want to get overextended.

The war exhaustion is giving us more rebels to deal with.

The war ends and we take Ancona and release Sicily as a sovereign nation, leaving them only Napoli and the two northern provinces.

Our inflation has decreased a full point since our last check.

Our stability increases and we go ahead and pass Military Modernization, which puts us in the Western tech group. We're behind in technology right now, but we at least have the same potential. We have a lot of pretty rich lands, so once our stability rebounds we shouldn't have a problem teching up quickly to compete with our foes.

The low stability means we'll be playing Whack A Mole with Rebels for the next few years, although not pictured is a lucky event that gave us +2 stability.

Also, we have to deal with this little fun event for awhile, which gives us high revolt risk for a few years.

We move our National Focus to Bithynia, and I toy around with saving up to open a CoT, but decide against it at the moment.

Montenegro declares war on Ragusa, and Hungary and I intervene. They offer a white peace, which we decline... we're going to get some land out of this.

We build an embassy to improve our relations with Muscovy.

Hungary takes a chunk out of Montenegro.

So do we. Serbia is added to the Empire.

Castille and England go to war (and it lasts for a very long time). This doesn't have many immediate consequences for me, but two powers going to war is always fun to watch.

We try to patch things up with Austria, for when they lose the HRE.

Regional conflict... If Austria had stayed allied with me, we would have crushed Hungary completely. Their loss.

A look at the Empire and the growing Empire of Muscovy. I'm setting the stage for an epic conflict in the future, so pay attention!


The State of the Empire: September 29, 1986

We've made some gains on the peninsula and further weakened Naples, but we have a new threat looming to the North. Muscovy is growing at an alarming rate and are getting a taste for conquest. We'll have to decide whether to ally with them or go to war with them shortly. Meanwhile, we've been striving to maintain the status quo as much as possible in the immediate region, and creating a network of alliances with small powers to give us CBs against other powers. Having modernized, we no longer need to feel so intimidated by the European Powers anymore, and are now on equal footing technologically. Our economy is starting to heal, although it's still in bad shape, but by focusing internally for the past decade we have significantly helped our chances. [/u]

 

[anus_pounder]

 

[Furious Flaming Faggot]

Remember though, even to restore only the Byzantine empire, the Balkans must be brought under complete Imperial rule.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

I decided the goal of my game is to make the Mediterranean "Our Sea" again.

 

[Furious Flaming Faggot]

Not hard. When you have North Africa and Italy it'll be a walkover. Go the hardcore route and crush all in your path. Subjugate the unruly Germanic barbarians.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Hmmm... a WC probably isn't impossible from where I currently am. Maybe I'll just take over Eurasia. In a few more updates I'll ask Codexia what our ultimate goals will be.

 

[Azira]

World domination. Who would settle for anything less?

 

[cardtrick]

Meh, world domination gets a bit boring, I think. Try for the Pentarchy (control Rome, Judea/Jerusalem, Adana/Antioch, and Thrace/Constantinople, while at peace, to get the mission).

After that, leave Europe pretty much alone and don't colonize at all, so that hopefully you still have some challenges later in the game. Maybe deliberately antagonize Muscowy into a war and try to control the entire Orthodox world, or conquer India and China to spread Christianity to the heathens of Asia.

 

[treave]

Hrm... ally with Muscovy, keep them strong, hopefully they'll get strong enough to pose a good fight later on.