Europa Universalis IV (and other Paradox titles! :3)

Daklore

"Declare war for a claim on kingdom of Castile." the game says. The ENTIRE everything owned by the king of castile is highlighted and glowing to indicate "this is what you're declaring for".

Get one county. >.> Well, the title too. But one county "kingdom". Paradox pls.

At least I still have a guy or three who have claims on the remaining kingdom of Galica... .... if that just puts the rest of northern iberia into independant counties, I am going to be miffed. (have to wait for truce, though)

Kafziel

idk about euIV but in CK2 some CBs will give you the title and only the land you hold within that title, so if you just crush the armies and they surrender you get basically nothing, but if you subjugate each county after they're actually defeated you get most of the land

Daklore

It's hard to tell where my Empire ends, and Poland begins... but we have a border... they're on my list ... eventually... Italy and Iberia are higher up on my priority list.

And Byzantium. They've had had it too good for too long. I think.

Daklore

I think this campaign -wants- me to own the world O_O First, I manage to get a claimant to the pagan Poland throne because he was in Hungary or something when I conquered Hungary. So I found a one-count-minor near Finland, holy-warred it and landed the bugger.

Then I invaded Poland. Well, I forced my claimant to go catholic first, obviously. But I invaded Poland. I get done with Poland, look at the claims I can press ... APPARENTLY there was a claimant to the khanate of Cumania in Poland that stuck around. Hold the phone, wait a minute. I look at Cumania, this large ass piece of worthless land and I'm like, "I want that. I don't need it, but I -want- it." So ... I get another holy war against a Lithuanian revolt and quickly stomp-and-land the kid. Yes, litterally, a kid, so I also educate him, and he got all Irish and Catholicy as I'm pressing his claim.

Soooo.... Much reach, collapse where?




Still working on cleaning up Iberia. I know, border gore, but truces, yo.

Daklore

Was starting a new ironman campaign in EU4... a group of friends randomly selected Ruina Imperri as my achievement, and Poland as my nation. So I load into the game.. and "why do I only have ten forcelimit? Was it always this bad?(I don't know, is it?)". Got my decision union over Lithuania... insta-100% liberty desire.

... turns out, this maaaaay have been a botched attempt(I rage quit anyway, because I couldn't do anything realisticly with only ten derps and no Lithuania muscle) ... because ... uh... apparently... random base tax was still on from a previous custom game... ... I might have to try it again with random base tax turned off this time... and see if Lithuania is still insta-"nope"

Rage-quit another couple times trying to get Brandenburg going for an early reich ... I kept getting rekt over and over. !_! I keep forgetting just how absurd expanding near the HRE is if you're not Austria or France. Or mid-to-late-game Spain ... if they ate France...

Adet

I have a CKII campaign where I started as a Count in Ireland (I've heard it referred to as Newbie Island, which is why I chose it).  Somehow managed a claim to Frisia, so I have that, Ireland, Scotland, and a couple of duchies in England - working on claiming Britannia.

I also just bought Cities: Skylines, which looks like everything SimCity (2013) wasn't.

Daklore

I finally got my brandenburg campaign on a good roll ... ... UNFORTUNATELY .. I'm completely ignoring the provinces I need to form Germany XD

Instead, I'm the Emperor of the HRE, got the Burgundy inheritence(go me!), broke up the Polish-Lithuania union(indirectly, it was a very lucky break, considering I could only get him down to -2 prestige, -4 when the Teutons peaced out of their war)... and I got to sob at how unfair the AI gets it. Aragon of all nations got a PU over England. This was Aragon's downfall, as Castile contested it ... and so Aragon lost some land, kept the union, but had prestige in the garbage... so Naples and England went independant again.

And now my AE is too high to risk trying to unify the cores I need for Germany for another ... 10 or 20 years... I need to stop being side-tracked The whole reformation thing is coming, and that's probably going to wreck my plans outright. (tempted to go and form prussia first, but it's not necessary, since Brandenburg has Prussian ideas anyway)

Daklore

Half of this game is going my way... half of it isn't

France exploded due to rebels, that took him another fifty years to kick out(which made him a worthless ally... but at least he didn't take as much AE when I started to move in on French clay...), then he started to unify his cores... figured I'd help him against Austria... I didn't... then I took what he wanted as my own because Austria couldn't join against me, because allied in another war XD Good times, good times.

I almost got a PU over Russia... of course, the game -never- lets the player get a PU. If Brandenburg had been AI controlled, it would've gotten the PU >.>. Instead, my king had -both- of his heirs die, and didn't produce a third before he died... so now I'm Russia's dynasty ... which might make it easier for me to get a PU over Russia down the road. Austria is cock-blocking me from forming Germany, I litterally need one province--Thuringen--which is a vassal of Austria.

Why is Austria still alive, you might ask? I'm a wee bit afraid of the looming league war which Austria will help me fight... as will Russia and what's left of France... and most of the big Europe players. Who are mostly all my allies ... until I get cozy and ready to betray them.




And yes, those are the ottoderps in Italy (Political map mode link here)

Daklore

Slowly Brandenburg stretches further and further ... and still not Germany.





... I -can- become Germany, though, I have all the cores. There's just no point in doing it, for now. My ideas would still be the same, the only reason for me to press the button, really, would be to get the achievement(which is the reason I chose Brandenburg for this ironman run).

So far, unplanned achievements I have gotten are: Centre of Attention, and Ruina Imperii. The Electors decided they didn't want me to keep them safe anymore... so I dismantled the Empire after they voted Savoy into control. Scotland, Denmark, and Cologne are my vassals, despite showing as allies in war in that screenshot, Denmark is currently being annexed. I annexed two colonial nations out of Brittany, so I have some land in the new world as well... and land in southern Iberia occured only after Portugal attempted(and failed) to enforce peace on my Columbian colony ... whom -his- Columbian colony had declared war on... Oh well, now I have a presence in the Sevilla trade node to make more moolah XD

Erasariel

if anyone's interested in co-op (or maybe even vs) multiplayer feel free to contact me. the more the merrier!

yes we do have all the DLCs so we can make custom nations and whatnot

Erasariel

If you wanna see how our multiplayer thing looks like, watch us on http://twitch.tv/episcia!

Daklore

Yes, come watch us make complete and utter asses of ourselves by being beat up by the AI

Daklore

Awkward moments in today's multiplayer... ... Cyrene saved Mhaldor....

But Mhaldor is still making more than my Cyrene But I can beat Mhaldor's army, probably.

Katsuragi

I demand the details of those Achaean nations!

More specifically, the details I would add according to the stuff on this page. I honestly have no idea what I'm doing since I just got this thang.

Daklore

Naw, there's no modding involved for these countries, it's part of the DLC introduced with ... El Dorado, I think it was? You can make your own custom nation at startup, choosing the national ideas, provinces they own, their religion, all that fancy jazz. I don't know what Mhaldor and Neo-Venezia took, cause I can't actually see all their ideas until they take them. But maybe @erasariel or @iseria will plod by and fill you in :pleased: 


As for Cyrene, I took the primary ideas of +10% discipline(which makes Cyrenian soldiers op as hell), and -10% idea cost. Then I'll get some infantry combat ability... and that's honestly the extent I remember exactly. I think AE impact, then years of nationalism, cheaper infantry... something, something... and it all ends with lowered land maintenance.

I'm bankin on mah infantry, yo.

Daklore

And just cause I thought of it, went and got a screen shot. Mhaldor is that weird reddish border gore in France.




Random base tax is turned on, too.

Erasariel

Still the same as it was in 1444. Unlike these two, I didn't really get anything from the last war and I'm tied up pretty badly diplomacy-wise. I do have a way of expanding south, so we'll see how it goes in later play sessions!



There's a couple of "Aria" references. The first leader was named Alicia, but she disappeared during the AFK break

Erasariel

Oh, I forgot! @Katsuragi, I made trade my focus, but also wanted to have a relatively stable republic. My traditions are Yearly Republican Tradition and - Technology Cost, and I have Available Mercenaries, Trade Steering, Trade Efficiency, Discipline, -National Unrest, Land Forcelimit Modifier, and Fort Defense as my ideas. My ambition is +1 Colonist, but we'll see if that ever gets used :P

Erasariel

Hey guys, we've just started to put up this week's game on ! New save since the patch broke the old one..which is a good thing

Daklore

Good thing ... until 11 years in and @Erasariel has pretty much gained the entire HRE(pending, he has the AE against the German states, they just haven't joined... yet) as a coalition.





But hey, at least British-Mhaldor is still alive!

Erasariel

I messed up and accidentally broke a truce!

Here's a more succinct version of the above map, highlighted in red:

 
..I really screwed up this time Might want to watch us next week and see if the Coalition decides to strike back!

Daklore

Odds are, they will. Since loading up a save makes the AI reconsider its options... which means more will probably pile into the coalition. And if it grows... they're goan declare.

Amranu

Really enjoying the new expansion. Very cool stuff

Daklore

Indeed. Forts making sieging so much faster, but so much harder at the same time. Because you can't just squish the enemy army(unless you're really lucky), so you have to keep on the watch for their returning deathstack.

And of course, being able to build tall... I'm still a person who is going to blob, because that's just how I play... but some achievement runs might be more realistic to just bide time and build tall and expand slowly, instead of blobbing as fast as one can. Also nice.

Only things I don't like, because, I'm a blobber... are increased coring cost and diplomatic annexation cost for vassals. But hey, I guess I'll survive it.

Daklore

Note: Really long, but really summarized after action report... images of the end of the game, Dec 30th 1820 are under the wall of text.

Just finished an achievement run as Sweden, obvious primary achievement was Sweden is not overpowered With a secondary on Lion of the North(lead protestant league to victory during the religious league war). I also pulled that off... it was a brutal war, so much manpower wasted, but it left me in a good place, and with an extra achieve I hadn't planned on(Bleed them dry(have 10 countries paying war reps to you at once))... which left me to think, "What else can I get?"

At first, city of cities was my first thought, so I started to build up Danzig, since it was the largest city I had at the time, and had modifiers to make development cheaper. Then I was like, "I can probably get 'A Decent Reserve'(one million manpower) ezpz" ... I was wrong. Ooooh was I wrong. I need to be much much more aggressive and blobby to do that XD After a day or two of break, watched Shenryyr run his Savoy campaign, and I realized, "hey, I'm in a good position to get "All Your Trade Are Belong To Us(have most trade power in english channel, venice and genoa nodes, while making 300 a month income)."

So that one became my focus. I didn't think I would pull it off, largely I was afraid of having to fight France. I was hesitant, antsy. I really didn't want too. But I knew I'd have too, because Scotland(who formed Great Britain) held London which I needed for the English channel... and they also held a couple of the Genoa important centres of trade I needed(Spain did too, but Spain was a little far off for me to CB anyway. France, I was on France's doorstep.) And then war with France was forced... and I'm glad for it. All my hesitancy went away. I -finally- got a PU over Lithuania, who was my ally from freeing me from Denmark, all the way through the League Wars to expanding through Russia and the HRE. And France said, "no! I want that!" ... so... he ended up with 400,000 swedes, about 100,000 germans(my subjects), 60,000 Czechs(I think that's what Bohemia is?), and Lithuania. It was glorious... and no one helped France. Which also meant France and Scotland broke their alliances(well, I broke it in the peace deal).

London fell a decade later, I got the achievement, and kept going. Subsidize their love, because I was making bank, sending out 80 ducats in subsidies was still a drop in the bucket. Tore up France, England, Spain, Greece, the Balkans, Anetolia into client states... full annexed a small and weak Netherlands who also happened to have five colonial nations... which I inherited... which made going for Blackjack(21 subjects, 5 cities each minimum, no one has more than 50% liberty desire) and One Family to Rule them all(8 nations with your dynasty(subjects count) a realistic run as well... And despite all that... I really wasn't as blobby as I've seen the youtubers get... I'm just too hesitent XD

And yeah, this was also all on the 1.12 patch, I never used the 1.13 beta patch, cause... beta.

tl;dr: Sweden overpowered, here's picshures: http://imgur.com/a/ZE9me#0

Selira

Nobody pointed out that you didn't put Cyrene in modern-day Libya, where Cyrenaica was? Shaaaame.

I routinely lose whole nights to these games. I played a Viking game a while back where I started with a two province duchy and by the end of the first ruler's life had taken all of Scandinavia and reformed the Norse religion. By the time I stopped playing that one, I had moved the capital to Constantinople after having taken over all of Europe, Africa, and the middle East and was marching my Vikings into the rich lands of India.

Probably the highlight of that game was crusading Germany right out of the center of the HRE. All of it.

Daklore

I went for game mechanics, since I'm playing Cyrene in the MP :P The genoa trade node is extremely valuable, so I put myself largely in that node. Rather than going for a sort of realistic locale.

Borivoj

Oh CKII (and EU, to a lesser extent), how many hours of my life you've claimed. And now that the Horse Lords DLC is out, I'm enjoying pulverizing all of Europe under my Khazar hordes. Our horses shall graze from China to Aquitaine!

Achimrst

Borivoj said:

Oh CKII (and EU, to a lesser extent), how many hours of my life you've claimed. And now that the Horse Lords DLC is out, I'm enjoying pulverizing all of Europe under my Khazar hordes. Our horses shall graze from China to Aquitaine!

Is the Horse Lords DLC worth it? It just looked like a new area on the map and some blah stuff.

Borivoj

Achimrst said:

Borivoj said:

Oh CKII (and EU, to a lesser extent), how many hours of my life you've claimed. And now that the Horse Lords DLC is out, I'm enjoying pulverizing all of Europe under my Khazar hordes. Our horses shall graze from China to Aquitaine!

Is the Horse Lords DLC worth it? It just looked like a new area on the map and some blah stuff.

I'm really enjoying the new Horde mechanics - it's definitely a change of pace. It's probably my favorite DLC since The Old Gods. However, if you don't have the Charlemagne DLC, or at least The Old Gods, I wouldn't think it would be worth it. There's just not enough to choose from in later times if you want a full game out of it. I bought it last Thursday and I've been testing it out as the Khazars, it has made for a rather different game than I usually would play.