Europa Universalis IV

[fantadomat]

Aggressive AI is always fun to fight lol. Also the phoenix ones are the strongest ones,orcs and goblins or what eva the command is are easy to kill. Those sandnigger elfs are pretty op,every race and millitary have different stats. Sandnigger elfs were similar to monglians back when i played them half a year ago,they were just whipping whole stacks.

Sooo find big alliances,on the plus side you will be able to take some dwarfen clay from those wars.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

defending with dwarves is so damn easy. all you need is a line of forts with ramparts. attrition inside is high already, caves give gigantic maluses to attackers.
that's how easy it is:

basically inverted stalingrad, numbers included. i fielded one fifth of his troops, and killed five as many. i would have won if i hadn't been a cheapskate and threw in a bit more troops. oh yes, also shit general vs god-tier one. and in anbennar the difference is much bigger than vanilla.

 

[Joggerino]

So I also got attacked by Marhold and the Obsidian legion. Managed to take some stuff from The command and peace out the phoenix empire. Then went full total war on these bastards with loans and mercenaries. And yeah, my ruler is a witch king so.. "who needs allies when you have forts everywhere".

caves give gigantic maluses to attackers

I wouldn't call -2 a gigantic malus but it is nice to have.

 

[fantadomat]

defending with dwarves is so damn easy. all you need is a line of forts with ramparts. attrition inside is high already, caves give gigantic maluses to attackers.
that's how easy it is:

basically inverted stalingrad, numbers included. i fielded one fifth of his troops, and killed five as many. i would have won if i hadn't been a cheapskate and threw in a bit more troops. oh yes, also shit general vs god-tier one. and in anbennar the difference is much bigger than vanilla.

Depends on the difficulty. On very hard attrition is useless,the ai just gets too much bonuses because of how retarded it is.

 

[Average Manatee]

Depends on the difficulty. On very hard attrition is useless,the ai just gets too much bonuses because of how retarded it is.

And the AI is going to get +5 siege from artillery and at least +1/2 siege from a general.

 

[Joggerino]

I'm playing as the Venail and its incredible how dogshit the elven modifiers are. First the "Elven administration"

Production Efficiency: +10% meh
National Tax Modifier: +10% meh
Prestige decay: -1% whatever
Female Advisor Chance: +25% shit
Technology cost: +5% shit
Global settler increase: -40 dogshit
Diplomatic reputation: +1 meh
Improve relations: +25% meh
Embrace institution cost: +33% awful
Institution spread: -33% awful

And the "Elven military"
Manpower recovery speed: -50% worst modifier in the game
Sailor recovery speed: -25% whatever
Light ship combat ability: +10% meh
Naval attrition: -25% meh
Cost of reducing war exhaustion: +50% dogshit
Yearly army tradition decay: -1% meh
Yearly navy tradition decay: -2% meh
Discipline: +10% first good thing
Reinforce speed: -33% dogshit
Mercenary manpower: -50% shit
Movement speed: +15% alright
Army drill gain modifier: +100% great
Regiment drill loss: -25% nice

I'd rather have no modifier than this shit.

 

[fantadomat]

I'm playing as the Venail and its incredible how dogshit the elven modifiers are. First the "Elven administration"

Production Efficiency: +10% meh
National Tax Modifier: +10% meh
Prestige decay: -1% whatever
Female Advisor Chance: +25% shit
Technology cost: +5% shit
Global settler increase: -40 dogshit
Diplomatic reputation: +1 meh
Improve relations: +25% meh
Embrace institution cost: +33% awful
Institution spread: -33% awful

And the "Elven military"
Manpower recovery speed: -50% worst modifier in the game
Sailor recovery speed: -25% whatever
Light ship combat ability: +10% meh
Naval attrition: -25% meh
Cost of reducing war exhaustion: +50% dogshit
Yearly army tradition decay: -1% meh
Yearly navy tradition decay: -2% meh
Discipline: +10% first good thing
Reinforce speed: -33% dogshit
Mercenary manpower: -50% shit
Movement speed: +15% alright
Army drill gain modifier: +100% great
Regiment drill loss: -25% nice

I'd rather have no modifier than this shit.

Pretty good modifiers,it adds up a diversity and makes races matter. I believe they were getting more combat bonuses. Also they have pretty good generals that live for few hundred years lol. Elfs also have better units,at least sandnigger ones,they are all about killing off enemy. They have strong units but small numbers,pretty cool nuance and makes their campaign feel very different than others. Are you talking about the island elfs? They are all about colonization shit and being mega gitler fans. All about genocide and racial superiority lol. Also super fun campaign. First time i had a blast colonizing in a eu game. Oh and if you play sandnigger elfs,you could colonize the southern part of the old world and then you get a choice to play as the new nation,which is also fun thing to do. All of them have unique campaign threes and events and feel like unique experiences. I would also recommend playing the kobalt tribe,it is crazy fun on vh,they are in the upper left corner. All about killing hobbits or gnomes,don't remember which one they were. Fuck,now that i think about,most of the nations are very fun to play.

 

[Joggerino]

Dude how can you call that pretty good modifiers, are you trolling me? I do appreciate the diversity of races (only in eu4) and all that. I found the kobolds really boring, the attrition warfare just becomes so old quickly. And their whole mission tree is basically temporary claims on everything.

 

[Serus]

I'm playing as the Venail and its incredible how dogshit the elven modifiers are. First the "Elven administration"

Production Efficiency: +10% meh
National Tax Modifier: +10% meh
Prestige decay: -1% whatever
Female Advisor Chance: +25% shit
Technology cost: +5% shit
Global settler increase: -40 dogshit
Diplomatic reputation: +1 meh
Improve relations: +25% meh
Embrace institution cost: +33% awful
Institution spread: -33% awful

And the "Elven military"
Manpower recovery speed: -50% worst modifier in the game
Sailor recovery speed: -25% whatever
Light ship combat ability: +10% meh
Naval attrition: -25% meh
Cost of reducing war exhaustion: +50% dogshit
Yearly army tradition decay: -1% meh
Yearly navy tradition decay: -2% meh
Discipline: +10% first good thing
Reinforce speed: -33% dogshit
Mercenary manpower: -50% shit
Movement speed: +15% alright
Army drill gain modifier: +100% great
Regiment drill loss: -25% nice

I'd rather have no modifier than this shit.

Why would "Female Advisor Chance: +25%" even be a positive modifier. Or is it?


I installed EU4 with latest everything*. I haven't played any EU game for a couple of years. Map painting with your preferred countries is still fun despite some some derp stuff. What about big mods (historical not fantasy), are there any worth anything these days? Read: less derp not more than vanilla.

*I know, piracy is wrong for some of you. I own the base game though.

 

[fantadomat]

Dude how can you call that pretty good modifiers, are you trolling me? I do appreciate the diversity of races (only in eu4) and all that. I found the kobolds really boring, the attrition warfare just becomes so old quickly. And their whole mission tree is basically temporary claims on everything.

The fuck are you on about,their mission three is all about world conquest and endless carnage. Also the fuck is with you and shitty attrition??? I never even look at that shit,they were mass spam. Also i believe that they get good perma bonuses to discipline and other military shit from their three.

What about big mods (historical not fantasy),

The one we are talking is the best mod for eu4 for sure,tho it is fantasy,Anbennar. For historical shit imperium universalis is the best but don't know at what version it is. Other good ones are Voltaire's Nightmare and veritas et fortitudo ,for complexity go for meiou and taxes.

 

[Mikeal]

For Alt History I recommend Ante Bellum.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Also they have pretty good generals that live for few hundred years

that's just not true. generals and advisors are all human for age's sake.

 

[Average Manatee]

The only reason to play elves is for 6/6/6 and/or magic rulers that last the whole game (be elf republic, get a young ruler, swap your race to something like human or kobold to quickly re-elect to 6/6/6, then switch back to elf if you want). If you can't become republic then spam the magic estate action to have a magic heir until you get someone with decent stats. The only other races that live long enough to do this are Dwarves (great but will encounter awful disasters and get a penalty to magic) or Gnomes (fuck those little shits). If you aren't abusing their long life then you aren't doing it properly.

Reinforce rate does suck but it basically just means you need to take quantity first.

Dude how can you call that pretty good modifiers, are you trolling me? I do appreciate the diversity of races (only in eu4) and all that. I found the kobolds really boring, the attrition warfare just becomes so old quickly. And their whole mission tree is basically temporary claims on everything.

Kobolds are fine just fighting straight up. -10% morale is worth their quantity advantages as long as you understand how to feed units into battle properly. They also have god-tier -dev cost bonuses (10% from their race and I think 20% from one of the artificer inventions unique to them)

 

[Average Manatee]

Question: How to build development? I mean, what's the meta here? I want more dev, so I can build more buildings, especially manufactories and shipyards so I can finance and have a giant fuck-off fleet of galleys to dominate the Med and make the Brits suck dick. But using mana for dev feels kinda wasteful unless I have so much mana I'm getting to max it out.

Past the very beginning of the game you go through this list and get around -100% dev cost (the minimum dev cost is 2-4, but base cost increases past 10 and it quickens past 20). At that point it becomes cheaper to add dev to your provinces (up to 10) than it is to annex land and core it.

https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Development#Stacking_development_cost_modifiers

essentially:
Econ ideas: -20%
Econ/Quantity policy: -10%
Development edict: -10%
Prosperity: -10%
Happy & Strong burghers: -10%
Religion: up to -10%
Renaissance: -5%
University: -20%
= Total 95% so far. From there's NIs (-5% to -15%), CoT (-5% to -10% for level 2-3, another -15% from the privilege you can just take and revoke the next day), innovativeness (-10%) golden era (-10%), and a few other assorted bonuses. Generally the sweet spot is to dev up to 20 since the cost increase is fairly mild and you get an extra building slot.

Also, always concentrate your development on 2 of the 3 mana types because buildings are a buff to a certain type of output and you never have room to build all the buildings to boost all mana types. Generally the strongest (MP meta) development is production and manpower. Tax is OK on the very lowest value goods or if you are developing for an institution and already spent your dip/mil.

Also, when you guys think is worth it to actually get a tech? I like those neat ahead of time effects for most techs. Is 5+ years difference good enuff?

Staying up on time in adm/dip is fairly optional, I often wait till those are -10% or -15% unless I have nothing better to do except develop. You should buy mil tech generally on time at -5% discount (don't have to wait 5 years, just buy the day after an AI takes it). If you're gearing up for a big war then buy ahead if there's a big tech advantage to be had.

 

[Joggerino]

Kobolds are fine just fighting straight up. -10% morale is worth their quantity advantages as long as you understand how to feed units into battle properly. They also have god-tier -dev cost bonuses (10% from their race and I think 20% from one of the artificer inventions unique to them)

Teach me senpai!

 

[Average Manatee]

Kobolds are fine just fighting straight up. -10% morale is worth their quantity advantages as long as you understand how to feed units into battle properly. They also have god-tier -dev cost bonuses (10% from their race and I think 20% from one of the artificer inventions unique to them)

Teach me senpai!

TL;DR The game is fucking stupid and arguably bugged in that morale damage applies to BOTH rows of units in a battle even though it's only the front row that receives real manpower damage.

What this means that if combat width is 30k and you fight 60k infantry vs. 30k infantry then the backline will rout on the same day as the frontline despite them taking no actual casualties. In effect those extra 30k you brought did nothing, their morale just depleted to zero before they even got to fight. This means if you are just making stacks of infantry then you don't want to send them in all at once. And since as kobolds you have the morale penalty this makes it feel like battles become unwinnable if you do march around big stacks. What you want to do is have two stacks of 30k, then you feed the 2nd stack into the battle a few days or so (but keep in mind travel time) before the first stack is destroyed. At this point you aren't suffering this penalty and you can properly take advantage of your quantity.

The other thing to know is that once you get cannons you can mostly start ignoring this. Cannons take full morale damage in the back row but because they won't rout until they reach the frontrow all you need to do is keep feeding infantry in. But you want the whole backline to be cannons when you start the battle. So in this instance if combat width is 30k then you want to initiate a battle with an army of 30k infantry and 30k artillery, then feed in stacks of 30k infantry every so often. The reason to still not feed infantry in all at once is that infantry in reserve (not in front line or backline) do still take a small morale penalty per day. But this penalty is fairly miniscule compared to the penalty they'd suffer being in the 2nd line, so you can be much more lax with feeding in a bit more infantry ahead of time once your cannons fill the backline. Being too late to reinforce and having your cannons move up into the front line is catastrophic in comparison.

Of course, this all gets messy because a 60k stack is probably over supply limit in most areas and when you are sieging you might want to distribute your artillery among multiple forts. So you kind of have to play it by ear. What you can do is just doomstack for a day and then use the army template system to quickly split off 30k and 60k stacks to fight with. Ignoring the attrition for a single 60k stack for a short period is generally fine. And again watch the combat width because whenever it changes you want to rebalance your armies.

Also don't use cavalry because they are expensive and make doing all of this stuff, which is far more important than any benefit cav can bring, 200% more tedious and annoying when you are trying to balance infantry and cavalry in the frontline.

 

[Joggerino]

That was very helpful, thanks.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

go with whatever composition makes you feel better. by endgame my kobold army had so many +fire boni i was instawiping stacks my same size if they were without a 3 star general themselves.

 

[Joggerino]

go with whatever composition makes you feel better. by endgame my kobold army had so many +fire boni i was instawiping stacks my same size if they were without a 3 star general themselves.

It's still good to know. When you think about it the AI already does this unit feeding. When a big battle starts he would start sending all his armies into the battle and they would arrive one by one and exploit this bug. I used to start battles with all my troops at the same time.

 

[Joggerino]

What do you people use as your main trading port when playing Aelnar (the supremacist elves). There doesn't appear to be any good choice.

 

[XenomorphII]

I used the one up around the blood groves. I don't know that it is optimal, but I dominated all the ones downstream of it and I had plenty of cash.

 

[Joggerino]

I used the one up around the blood groves. I don't know that it is optimal, but I dominated all the ones downstream of it and I had plenty of cash.

I'm currently using that but I think the ruined sea trade node is superior. (the one in the middle of the crater)

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

rule of thumb, the best one is the one you're going to conquer upstream from. fewer people using it, the better it is.

 

[Joggerino]

I'm collecting 100% in the ruined sea trade node without it being my trade capital because I own all the downstream provinces. So I figured the trade capital should be the highest value contested trade node. Finally figured out the trade system after 9 years.

 

[Mortmal]

I'm playing as the Venail and its incredible how dogshit the elven modifiers are. First the "Elven administration"

Production Efficiency: +10% meh
National Tax Modifier: +10% meh
Prestige decay: -1% whatever
Female Advisor Chance: +25% shit
Technology cost: +5% shit
Global settler increase: -40 dogshit
Diplomatic reputation: +1 meh
Improve relations: +25% meh
Embrace institution cost: +33% awful
Institution spread: -33% awful

And the "Elven military"
Manpower recovery speed: -50% worst modifier in the game
Sailor recovery speed: -25% whatever
Light ship combat ability: +10% meh
Naval attrition: -25% meh
Cost of reducing war exhaustion: +50% dogshit
Yearly army tradition decay: -1% meh
Yearly navy tradition decay: -2% meh
Discipline: +10% first good thing
Reinforce speed: -33% dogshit
Mercenary manpower: -50% shit
Movement speed: +15% alright
Army drill gain modifier: +100% great
Regiment drill loss: -25% nice

I'd rather have no modifier than this shit.

You are forgetting their mission tree wich is very easy to complete and giving massive bonuses and income ,at least with the wood elves i am playing atm. They work fine sure the -50% manpower recovery is really crippling, but you can hire as many mercs you want then just build canons as regular troops. Then they have some unique territory you can easily move in while the attrition is strong. Its more or less for larping although as attrition doesnt do so much. They are meant to play as isolationists and dont go far from their forest, its working as intended.

Now i tried esthil and had huge trouble, lagging behind with the lich ruler at 0/0/0 , the necromancer armies not being worth it and no allies possible .The mod is almost like a new game compare to EU4