Europa Universalis IV

[baturinsky]

Is that the mighty empire of Ragusa?! What the FUCK!
Also, going Brittany and taking Iberia?! How you did that?

With a little help of my friends - France and Commonwealth. I was mostly gutting Aragon, then I got strong enough to take on Castilla. But the very first thing I did was taking Provance province - it gave me a foothold in Genoa trade node.
As for Ragusa, it's trade nodes map, not country map. Ragusa it is just a transit trade node from Constantinople to me.

 

[Irenaeus]

Yeah, that's impressive, the taking of Spain and Portugal as Britanny. You did well.

Btw, who did you take Provance province from? Savoy?

 

[MoLAoS]

I had a game where as Brandenburg I released Styria with tons of extra land, became emperor, had a PU on Bohemia, and a few other cool things all before 1500, and in the end I lost by being annexed by Teutonic Order. They wouldn't take any peace deal without Chelmno even when I was winning, but they wouldnt suiege Poland for it, and my 16k troops from Styria kept not fighting in battles causing me to lose even though I really should have won pretty easily. Then there is a new modifier, wants to annex "blank", so that they refuse any peace deal no matter what i did after all my allies peaced out. Stupidest coalition war ever. Next time I try that strategy, I'll be sure to grab a lot more personal provinces so that I can't be annexed.

 

[Grinolf]

I had a game where as Brandenburg I released Styria with tons of extra land, became emperor, had a PU on Bohemia, and a few other cool things all before 1500, and in the end I lost by being annexed by Teutonic Order. They wouldn't take any peace deal without Chelmno even when I was winning, but they wouldnt suiege Poland for it, and my 16k troops from Styria kept not fighting in battles causing me to lose even though I really should have won pretty easily. Then there is a new modifier, wants to annex "blank", so that they refuse any peace deal no matter what i did after all my allies peaced out. Stupidest coalition war ever. Next time I try that strategy, I'll be sure to grab a lot more personal provinces so that I can't be annexed.

You should be able to tell your vassals to join troops with your army. For that check vassl screen to choose their tactics and pick "attack to this unit" on one of your armies.

 

[baturinsky]

Yeah, that's impressive, the taking of Spain and Portugal as Britanny. You did well.

Btw, who did you take Provance province from? Savoy?

From Provance, naturally. With a help of Savoy. Then Savoy wanted provance for themselves, so I allied with Aragon and crashed Savoy. Did not took their lands, though, because France had quest on them.
Then Aragon wanted Provance. So Aragon had to go too.
Even France eventually decided that they want Provance and even broke alliance. But then I was also blobbed up, so France relation with me was "threatened". Pretty fast that want was gone, and I allied them back.

Also, Brittany start is not that hard, because you can easily take most of Bordeaux income for yourself. Especially if you grab that three Iberian provinces from the node too.
Scotland, for example, is much harder, because North Sea node is really bad. And any potential useful ally is much further than your mortal enemy. So, best bet for Scotland is probably to go and take Brittany

 

[Irenaeus]

Oh, I didn't even notice Provance starts independent. France is such a mess in the beginning and I (as Portugal) usually only start to notice the big blue blob when it's fully formed.

Thanks for the tips on the Britanny/Scottish strategy.

 

[Kane]

That's some interesting borders. Muscovites gobbling up Skandi-owning Swedes, France-Hungary PU, Giant Potatos, Hesse dislocated

This is SP?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Lucky Nations enabled, I guess.


Anyway, I'm somewhat puzzled by the decision to leave France alone. I mean, it'd seem like the natural direction to advance in rather than Iberian peninsula. Or was this a kind of colonial dickery related sort of thing?

 

[His Majesty]

France inheriting Hungary will be benificial to you, in my game they were too busy fighting off rebels, potato and kebab to do anything of note in the west.

 

[baturinsky]

That's some interesting borders. Muscovites gobbling up Skandi-owning Swedes, France-Hungary PU, Giant Potatos, Hesse dislocated

This is SP?

Yes, SP. Moscow went all the way to East and then south, competing with me for Indonesia colonies.
Potatoes grew big probably in part thanks to me. I was allied to both them and France for a long time, helping them against HRE. But now France and Poles keep fighting each other. I'm not sure if I should side with one of them, un-ally both, or keep restoring alliances after each their war.
Northern Europe was living completely disconnected with us in the south, UK was often befriending Russia and/or Sweden and tearing down Norway/Denmark.

 

[MoLAoS]

You should be able to tell your vassals to join troops with your army. For that check vassl screen to choose their tactics and pick "attack to this unit" on one of your armies.

Yes but the AI is stupid and messes up shit a lot. So even if you do that it doesn't always work out.

 

[Grinolf]

Yes but the AI is stupid and messes up shit a lot. So even if you do that it doesn't always work out.

They have problem with joining forces on enemy territory or when it moves somewhere. But if your army staying on your territory and you told them join forces they should join forces. If they for some reason don't do it, which happened to me once, thanging tactics several times or reloading should help.

 

[baturinsky]

A little bit later:

As you see, America trade is relatively small, though they also give 75.14 in tariffs. I think it's because they don't build shit.
So, I colonized Ivory coast and took some key trade provinces in Africa and Indonesia area. They cost cheap to core (compared to entire nations), gives you a lot of free trade power and deny that trade power from those selfy bastards that want to keep that trade for themselves.

 

[Irenaeus]

Don't forget that Brazil trade goes to Ivory Coast, taking lots of trade from Central and South America.

About your strategy, it's like the Portuguese strategy for global trade empire I use. It works p well with lots of money when you get the ball rolling. Just don't forget to have a powerful navy to protect your trade and I mean a hundred heavy ships, I see you have hundreds of light ship already. You want to be Top 3 in diplomacy score.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I would probably play even safer and have far more than 100 heavy ships as the wartime sledgehammer (light ships go home during war most of the time). While land power should be decentralized to allow for rapid reaction, I think sea power must be fully centralized into one grand armada of heavy ships.

 

[baturinsky]

Brazil transfers 11.15 to Ivory Coast, thanks to Castille. But then France collects 17.47. Also, Castille routes 100% of my Asian trade around Cape of Good hope for me. And bruney collects a lot of trade in Malacca, that I later take to myself.

 

[Irenaeus]

Have you checked Zanzibar trade node? There are some African fuckers there that are always trying to steal my South Asian trade. I had to teach them a lesson last game. Some country called Kimba or something. Their flag is red and yellow. By lesson I mean invading and taking Moçambique.

 

[baturinsky]

Have you checked Zanzibar trade node? There are some African fuckers there that are always trying to steal my South Asian trade. I had to teach them a lesson last game. Some country called Kimba or something. Their flag is red and yellow. By lesson I mean invading and taking Moçambique.

If by "checked" you mean "conquered", then yes. I have nearly all trade centers in Zanzibar and Aden area.
As for heavy ships - I hesitate to build a lot of them. They cost lots of upkeep, get obsoleted regularly, and are very rarely needed. I think I only had conflict with serious naval enemy (England) once, and then my light ships and some France heavies did the work together.

 

[Irenaeus]

Oh, nice. Good job all around.

 

[baturinsky]

Trade is quite easy and fun once you accept that you should work with those semi-arbitrary trade routes instead of fighting with them. I played two games with barely understanding anything about trade. Granted that games was Japan (nearly no incoming nodes) and Russia (nearly no fleet).

And I'm at the top both in diplo and admin. Lots of ships give lots of diplopoints, and generate lots of income, that gives lots of admin. Only category I was not consistently on top was military.

 

[Irenaeus]

Looks a lot like my last week game as Portugal, except you made even it better.


I didn't expand in Europe and colonizing America is expensive and doesn't give good returns. I do it for fun, tho. Also, to civilize those cannibal savages and bring the Word of God to the New World.

 

[baturinsky]

Lucky Nations enabled, I guess.
Anyway, I'm somewhat puzzled by the decision to leave France alone. I mean, it'd seem like the natural direction to advance in rather than Iberian peninsula. Or was this a kind of colonial dickery related sort of thing?

France consolidated way faster, and was doing very little colonisation in same area as I, and most of time was more or less loyal ally. Iberia was divided, and had sooo many trade bonus provinces.

There was one time when France was really pissed at me, because I got two territories in India, and they wanted it too (it was French current mission). So, I just gave one(worst) indian province to France, and it was again rainbows and lollipops. Well, except that trade stealing, but no relations are perfect.

 

[Pony King]

New Expansion sounds kinda cool: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...or-Europa-Universalis-IV-Lets-You-Go-For-Gold

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

- Use your trade fleets to hunt dangerous pirates

 

[Pony King]

Aren't you usually whining about Castile/Spain? Treaty of Tordesillas might be a useful tool.