Any fans of Europa Universalis III here? It's pretty big amonst nerds.
Or any other Paradox games, Hearts of Iron, Victoria etc.
For the unitiated, EUIII lets you take control of ANY nation on earth from 1398-1800(ish), controlling warfare, trade, colonisation, diplomacy.
Europe, in all its medieval patchwork glory!

Never heard of it but any game that allows me to build an empire on the bodies of my enemies and sustain it with the blood of innocents or otherwise is definately a good looking game to me...

I love this game and it's certainly the best (in my mind) Paradox Game if you enjoy diplomacy and politics.

I find that most grand strategies (especially the Total War series) do not punish you for embarking upon grandiose crusades of conquest. EU3 isn't about that. At all. An impossible Empire stretching from France to China isn't going to be won over as easily as in Hearts of Iron.

I've never encountered a more 'accurate' rendition of western medieval politics either. Unfortunately I keep losing my saves so I have never actually made it past about 1600 :p

Henners91 wrote:I love this game and it's certainly the best (in my mind) Paradox Game if you enjoy diplomacy and politics.

I find that most grand strategies (especially the Total War series) do not punish you for embarking upon grandiose crusades of conquest. EU3 isn't about that. At all. An impossible Empire stretching from France to China isn't going to be won over as easily as in Hearts of Iron.

I've never encountered a more 'accurate' rendition of western medieval politics either. Unfortunately I keep losing my saves so I have never actually made it past about 1600 :p

I'd recommend multiplayer. I do the same in single player, by late 16thC it's not really difficult any more.
Human player keeps you on your toes, you end up competing for spheres and suddenly a naval base in the right place is important.
Which HOI have you played btw?
I mainly play Darkest Hour atm, can't get into HOI3.

I played HoI I and II a lot, though only a couple of times online. When HoI III came out my brain exploded and I've still not managed to adjust; it's too hardcore. I won't fault the game but it's just too complex for a mind like mine.

I've never played EU3 on multiplayer except with housemates and they were all newbs... Though I got in a fun little trade war with my friend who was playing as the Hansa (I was Dutch).

I'd go back to Darkest Hour but I can't help but feel bad for not playing the latest game in the series, as weird as that sounds, I feel like it's less complex and I'm thus doing it all a disservice.

Na I could never get into HOI3 either, and I find Darkest Hour to be a satisfying end to the series, it's head and shoulders above HOI2.
If you fancy a EU3 MP game I have plenty of free time, just drop me a message with your msn/skype.
Currently involved in an epic MP game myself as Russia vs Venice, in our last war I found myself fighting in the Balkans, the Middle East, AND Persia...it was short but bloody, I ultimately ran out of manpower (yes, as Russia), but my opponant got squished when he actually invaded the homeland, so it was a WP(though I had about +10% on warscore).
yeah, EU3 MP with people who know what they're doing is a right blast.

Screenshot please? (can't be arsed to search) What style of gameplay is it.?

There's a screenshot at the top Sol...

I thought that wasa just a map of europe.

How many maps of Europe have a freaking HUD?

Every interactive one?

Anyone, back on topic.

Is this one of those games where all gameplay comes down to lines of text?

Soladrin wrote:Every interactive one?

Anyone, back on topic.

Is this one of those games where all gameplay comes down to lines of text?

Nope. You have provinces, in which you can build tax offices (to increase income), forts (to increase defensiveness), etc.
I'll grab a couple of screenshots from my game to show you the interface, etc.

A lot like Total War then?

Also, where can I get this, and what's the cost.

I've been ill for a week now, could use a time sink.

Already unlocked every class on BF3 so...

Tenner on steam.

It have a demo?

Mhm.. is that full package worth it? All I want to do anyway is use my own country I guess XD

Yeah, downloading that now.

Soladrin wrote:It have a demo?

Mhm.. is that full package worth it? All I want to do anyway is use my own country I guess XD

Totally gonna invade you now

If this has multiplayer... mind blown..

The "stardard" province interface. You can see taxes, tariffs(these are only collected on colonial holdings), production, as well as the religion (that cross thing means they are Orthodox) and the culture, manpower etc.
On the top you can see national manpower (having just finished a disasterous war mine's very low at about 7k, it should be around 180k after its stablised), stability (variable from -3 to +3, affects pretty much everything), wealth (ducats), prestige (from -100 to +100) and infamy (you get this for doing "bad" things like randomly invading countries that you have no Casus Beli for).
Then you have all your advisors, merchants let you compete for trade to get stinking rich, colonists let you...colonise, diplomats send messages to other countries, missionaries convert provinces to your religion, spies do cunning things and magistrates are required for civic things, buildings etc.

This is the government screen.
My form of government is Administrative Republic, this a)gives a bonus to trade, b)means i don't have a gakky monarch and c)I am more tolerant of non-state religions (having colonised the steppes there are a lot of muslims in my realm).
The icons below that are National Ideas, they give you a boost in specific areas. To name a couple of examples, the one with a crown on the blue background gives a bonus to trade, while the scroll (Bill of Rights) gives -2 to Revolt Risk.
Then you have the sliders, they all range from -5 to +5 and you can change one every ~10 years (though events often allow you to change them as well).
Centralisation vs decentralisation is a no-brainer, plutocracy gives you more merchants, I am in the middle with serfdom vs free subjects, although free subjects gives a tech boost it also makes stability more expensive (as a large empire stability costs can be excruciating). I am also narrowminded to help convert muslims, free trade because it makes you filthy rich, slightly defensive for the fort defence bonus, edging towards land over naval for the manpowr boost, and ambivilant about quality vs quantity.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Glad to see so much interest! One caveat I should mention is that it has 4 add-on packs, the first three are pretty much essential to enjoy the game, though the fourth can't hurt.

Mhm.. going to look into this now.

Soladrin wrote:If this has multiplayer... mind blown..

It does, and it's stable as feth too.
Multiplayer is AWESOME.

Begun downloading this now...
Sol's already started playing... stupid super fast dutch internet...

purplefood wrote:Begun downloading this now...
Sol's already started playing...

Which version?
Or do you mean the demo?
If any of you get the full version (either divine wind or Heir to the throne) I will happily go through a tutorial game with someone as England/Scotland (since the starting royal navy is so big the AI won't declare war, and if it does then it won't invade so you can safely play around on your island).

Joey wrote:

purplefood wrote:Begun downloading this now...
Sol's already started playing...

Which version?
Or do you mean the demo?
If any of you get the full version (either divine wind or Heir to the throne) I will happily go through a tutorial game with someone as England/Scotland (since the starting royal navy is so big the AI won't declare war, and if it does then it won't invade so you can safely play around on your island).

The demo...
I may get the full version after my bio exam (the 25th).

Joey add me on steam, I might just buy the full pack right now then.

I'll pm you my steam name.

Alright well let me know what you think.

I'll give this a whirl either after my exams are over or after I give up on revising.

Okay so...
Scotland has a weird amount of friends...
Also, i'm not sure why killing 2 people out of 8000 makes them all run away but i guess they got scared?

Ingame with solarim now.
He seems to be enjoying it!

He would...

purplefood wrote:Okay so...
Scotland has a weird amount of friends...
Also, i'm not sure why killing 2 people out of 8000 makes them all run away but i guess they got scared?

Yeah but England has a big navy so you can keep those "friends" on foreign shores.
Not sure about 2 dead out of 8000 thing. Battles are usually bloodier than that...

Joey wrote:

purplefood wrote:Okay so...
Scotland has a weird amount of friends...
Also, i'm not sure why killing 2 people out of 8000 makes them all run away but i guess they got scared?

Yeah but England has a big navy so you can keep those "friends" on foreign shores.
Not sure about 2 dead out of 8000 thing. Battles are usually bloodier than that...

Some of the battles were incredibly bloody.
But a few of them had a total casualty rate of under half a percent...

They were probably in mountainous areas where the defender had the advantage.
You'll notice during battles on one side or the other there'd be modiers for mountains and rivers, with both it's -5.
If the defender who's getting the bonus doesn't have many troops then they won't be doing anything back since they don't have enough troops.
So often you could be hunting small groups of rebels in a mountainous province and the casualty rate will be pretty small, but if an invading army tried to shift your army from a mountainous province, you'd see the benefit then.
Also morale is incredibly important in this game. If the morale of your army is 0 then they can and will be annialated by a much smaller army with full morale.

Joey wrote:They were probably in mountainous areas where the defender had the advantage.
You'll notice during battles on one side or the other there'd be modiers for mountains and rivers, with both it's -5.
If the defender who's getting the bonus doesn't have many troops then they won't be doing anything back since they don't have enough troops.
So often you could be hunting small groups of rebels in a mountainous province and the casualty rate will be pretty small, but if an invading army tried to shift your army from a mountainous province, you'd see the benefit then.
Also morale is incredibly important in this game. If the morale of your army is 0 then they can and will be annialated by a much smaller army with full morale.

I noticed that about halfway through my retaliatory strike on Norway...
Invading Scotland got me up a certain creek with several people...

Yeah, doing a total war and just invading everyone at random will mean you a)lose almost immediately and b)get declared war on by everyone.
It's all about the casus belli, doncha know.
If you're playing as England though you start off with cores in Northern France. You'll be a pro if you can beat France and get the historic lands of the duke of Normandy back.

Joey wrote:Yeah, doing a total war and just invading everyone at random will mean you a)lose almost immediately and b)get declared war on by everyone.
It's all about the casus belli, doncha know.
If you're playing as England though you start off with cores in Northern France. You'll be a pro if you can beat France and get the historic lands of the duke of Normandy back.

I didn't declare war on everyone...
Just Scotland. Everyone declared war on me after that...
Also i didn't notice until it got attacked that i started with Calais...

Yeah more usually you'll let foreigners take over your french lands and hang back on your island, eventually they'll get bored and accept white peace.
Hence you have to be a pro to beat france militarily in the first war.
Their support limit is about twice the size of yours, if they get their first NI they'll have +1 morale, they have about twice your income, they have a gak load of allies who'll probably double their military strength.
If you just ignore them long enough eventually they'll accept peace and you'll get your lands back.
You also have land in the south of France, didn't you notice?

Joey wrote:Yeah more usually you'll let foreigners take over your french lands and hang back on your island, eventually they'll get bored and accept white peace.
Hence you have to be a pro to beat france militarily in the first war.
Their support limit is about twice the size of yours, if they get their first NI they'll have +1 morale, they have about twice your income, they have a gak load of allies who'll probably double their military strength.
If you just ignore them long enough eventually they'll accept peace and you'll get your lands back.
You also have land in the south of France, didn't you notice?

I might start again and just pause it and stare at the screen until i figure out which bits are mine and which bits aren't...

You changed the map mode to political, right?
I think i forgot to tell that dutch dude about political map mode, actually. That'd explain a lot.

...
Maybe...

You're probably not going to get very far if you have to click on each individual province to see which ones belong to you...

That dutch already knew about map modes.

Here's a quick start guide, do this each time you start, no matter what nation you play as:

*Set research to stability immediately. After you've got to +3, invest in government. You start off at tech level 3 and at 4 you get your first national idea, so go after it immediately (You can use a government tech advisor to help this). After that, go for whatever field you need. If you're planning on lots of early wars, go for land. If you want workshops (+1 base tax in a province), go for production
*Use your starting magistrate to commission tapestry. In the first years of the game you won't have anything to build, so spam "commission painting" to get your cultural tradition up to >80% so you can get reliably good advisors.
Other than that, stay at or just below your forcelimit to prevent the AI declaring war on you, and don't be afraid to mint (putting monthly income into treasury, causes inflation) if you need money.

Okay so round 2 went well...
Got dragged into several wars by allies (Won all of them)
Then was brutally attacked by France and Brittany and chased an army across Britain 5 or 6 times before eventually killing them all.
Than invaded Poland and Lithuania after they attacked me.
Then it ended.

France will constantly attack you, you have their lands.
Also you only played the vanilla demo. The game after 4 add-ons is an uber beast.

I did spend a while bargaining with France to get permission to cross their lands.
Eventually managed it, though it cost me 120 in tribute.

Don't Poland have a northern coast you can land in?

Yeah it did
They came to regret that...
I needed their permission to go help Flanders who i had an alliance with for some reason...

If you force a nation to release another nation you'll automatically ally the released nation.

That is probably the reason...

Joey wrote:Na I could never get into HOI3 either, and I find Darkest Hour to be a satisfying end to the series, it's head and shoulders above HOI2.
If you fancy a EU3 MP game I have plenty of free time, just drop me a message with your msn/skype.
Currently involved in an epic MP game myself as Russia vs Venice, in our last war I found myself fighting in the Balkans, the Middle East, AND Persia...it was short but bloody, I ultimately ran out of manpower (yes, as Russia), but my opponant got squished when he actually invaded the homeland, so it was a WP(though I had about +10% on warscore).
yeah, EU3 MP with people who know what they're doing is a right blast.

May well do, my housemate has recently got his own copy and wants to play. But atm I am hard-pressed to find time for both SWTOR and 40k Still, I'll try find a free evening soon.

Henners91 wrote:

Joey wrote:Na I could never get into HOI3 either, and I find Darkest Hour to be a satisfying end to the series, it's head and shoulders above HOI2.
If you fancy a EU3 MP game I have plenty of free time, just drop me a message with your msn/skype.
Currently involved in an epic MP game myself as Russia vs Venice, in our last war I found myself fighting in the Balkans, the Middle East, AND Persia...it was short but bloody, I ultimately ran out of manpower (yes, as Russia), but my opponant got squished when he actually invaded the homeland, so it was a WP(though I had about +10% on warscore).
yeah, EU3 MP with people who know what they're doing is a right blast.

May well do, my housemate has recently got his own copy and wants to play. But atm I am hard-pressed to find time for both SWTOR and 40k Still, I'll try find a free evening soon.

Sol is into it, if purplefood gets it after his exams and you get it we can have a 4-player dakka eu3 game
Shotgun France.

Dibs on England...

Dibs holland. or maybe burgendy... be the bastard myself for once.. :3 nah, holland starts to nice.

I am intrigued, may have to do a bit of research into this.

EDIT: Looking at it on Steam... which packs do I buy? I can get the Complete edition, or the Chronicles (Complete + HttT + DW) and a few sprite packs... I are confused.

Avatar 720 wrote:I am intrigued, may have to do a bit of research into this.

EDIT: Looking at it on Steam... which packs do I buy? I can get the Complete edition, or the Chronicles (Complete + HttT + DW) and a few sprite packs... I are confused.

Chronicles would be the "full set". "Complete" was released a little prematurely...

Right, so i'd just need Chronicles?

What about the add-ons you mentioned before?

Those are in that one. I bought the same one.

Other EU players on dakka! Finally.

I am an old EUII veteran, playing EUIII now.

Do you guys play the Magna Mundi mod? I like it a lot better this way.


If you have an open spot I would like to join you dakka MP.

Gah Holland got dibsied?

Might shake it up and play Muscovy in that case...

Dark Scipio wrote:Other EU players on dakka! Finally.

I am an old EUII veteran, playing EUIII now.

Do you guys play the Magna Mundi mod? I like it a lot better this way.


If you have an open spot I would like to join you dakka MP.

You can make your own version of the MM mod by having thousands of random pop-ups spam you with + and - stability for the entire game
As you can probably tell, not a MM fan.
You're of course welcome to join any dakka game that goes on.
I'll PM you my info.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Henners91 wrote:Gah Holland got dibsied?

Might shake it up and play Muscovy in that case...

I started as Muscovy in my current EU3 MP game....yeah. Good job I've bagsied France, anyway.

I was surprised at the size of some countries in the game...
Never knew some of them were so big...

purplefood wrote:I was surprised at the size of some countries in the game...
Never knew some of them were so big...

Timurids?

Dark Scipio wrote:

purplefood wrote:I was surprised at the size of some countries in the game...
Never knew some of them were so big...

Timurids?

They collapse almost immediately.
They do in DW anyway, their government type means they get eaten up by the Ottomans/Persia.

Joey wrote:

Dark Scipio wrote:

purplefood wrote:I was surprised at the size of some countries in the game...
Never knew some of them were so big...

Timurids?

They collapse almost immediately.
They do in DW anyway, their government type means they get eaten up by the Ottomans/Persia.

I was actually thinking of Lithuania...
They randomly started being really nice to me and i eventually inherited their country through a Royal Marriage...

I was a giant fan of EU2. I've played that game more times than I can count. Although, I was never able to conquer the world starting with any of the American tribes.

Although, conquering the world with the last remnants of the Byzantium Empire is pretty impressive!

purplefood wrote:

Joey wrote:

Dark Scipio wrote:

purplefood wrote:I was surprised at the size of some countries in the game...
Never knew some of them were so big...

Timurids?

They collapse almost immediately.
They do in DW anyway, their government type means they get eaten up by the Ottomans/Persia.

I was actually thinking of Lithuania...
They randomly started being really nice to me and i eventually inherited their country through a Royal Marriage...

Yeah, Lithuania and Poland start as pretty strong. But, both of them are in pretty poor lands, and the nobility keeps trying to prevent you from modernizing. Once the Ottomon Empire, Austria, and Russia start to gain power, you've in quite a tough spot. Expand into Germany as early as you can!

Grakmar wrote:I was a giant fan of EU2. I've played that game more times than I can count. Although, I was never able to conquer the world starting with any of the American tribes.

Although, conquering the world with the last remnants of the Byzantium Empire is pretty impressive!

Many of my favourite games were as Byzantium.
Once you conquer Asia Minor you get a decision to rename all the provinces to their proper Greek names...badass.

I'm just getting as much time in with this untill the planned Dakka World Domination League begins (Yes, I just named this gak).

For now, I got dibs on holland, but gained experience in the coming days may change this, will be trying as many countries as I can.

Maybe make a seperate thread to handle this, keep proper tabs on who dibsies what etc.?

Can't wait for the backstabbing douchebaggery to begin!

Proud Member of the Dakka World Domination League.
Time for a sig change...
I prefer being England because fending off naval invasions is so much easier...

I call Norway for any MP games; still learning the ropes atm though.

feth it, I'm sticking with Holland, all I need to do now is learn how to properly colonize stuff.

And perfecting my early game offcourse, PRACTICE TIME!

Colonising?
I have merchants, spies and missionaries figured...
Not colonising though...

I have nothing figured; what I hate about games like this is when during time spent idle or, where you increase game speed, it feels like you're missing something huge.

That's what it currently feels like for me, everything is moving at a snail's pace because I have a sneaking suspicion that i'm not doing something...

purplefood wrote:Colonising?
I have merchants, spies and missionaries figured...
Not colonising though...

Colonising stuff involves digging a massive hole in the ground and pouring your money into it
Seriously though if you want to get a hang of colonising i'd suggest starting during the colonial binge (~1500AD) as Castille or Portugal, and just play around.

Joey wrote:

purplefood wrote:Colonising?
I have merchants, spies and missionaries figured...
Not colonising though...

Colonising stuff involves digging a massive hole in the ground and pouring your money into it
Seriously though if you want to get a hang of colonising i'd suggest starting during the colonial binge (~1500AD) as Castille or Portugal, and just play around.

I think that's in the demo...

Only ever used spies for forging claims and supporting revolts, love putting 10k rebels on a small country.

Never had to use missionairies, no clue what those are for.

Missionaries change the religion of the province, I think... well, they stay there trying to do that until eventually successful, sucking away money as they do it.

http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Missionaries

I think I'll dibsy Muscovy since I don't really like England and I'm scared to play Spain if we have a more proficient player as France Muscovy = far out of the way although I imagine that the Golden Horde are gonna have some fun with me.

So dibs so far:

Soladrin - Holland
Henners91 - Moscovy
Avatar720 - Norway
Purplefood - England
Joey - France
DarkScipio - ???

if only we could get someone in as Burgundy; then the west would prove amusing

Henners91 wrote:if only we could get someone in as Burgundy; then the west would prove amusing

They'd have to be suicidal...

Joey wrote:

Henners91 wrote:if only we could get someone in as Burgundy; then the west would prove amusing

They'd have to be suicidal...

My thoughts^
I like England. The sea is useful...

Giving the demo a go either tonight or tomorrow.

Account name is Quantech on steam but my username is ProfDrWarthog.

So...
Today was my final exam for now...
Guess what i just bought?

Woop woop

purplefood wrote:So...
Today was my final exam for now...
Guess what i just bought?

Some hookers?

Avatar 720 wrote:

purplefood wrote:So...
Today was my final exam for now...
Guess what i just bought?

Some hookers?

I actually got about 2 pounds of cocaine...
Gonna do it all at once!

Is it possible to run this in windowed mode?

Edit the target on the shortcut with -w?

I think that's the way to make games run in windowed mode...

Go into D(In my case):\Steam\steamapps\common\europa universalis iii - complete and look for a file called settings.txt; open it and change "fullscreen=yes" to "fullscreen=no".

I need advise, what's the importance of following your countries missions? Cause with Holland, I often start with the one where you have to build your max army. However, all this really does right at the start, is cost money you don't actually want to spend.

Advice very much appreciated.

I feel the need to obtain this game on steam ... yes indeed.

Soladrin wrote:I need advise, what's the importance of following your countries missions? Cause with Holland, I often start with the one where you have to build your max army. However, all this really does right at the start, is cost money you don't actually want to spend.

Advice very much appreciated.

You could conquer some smaller nations...

Talarn Blackshard wrote:I feel the need to obtain this game on steam ... yes indeed.

You should.





I would try my luck with Brandenburg to fill the gap between the players (german cant live without two-front wars probably)

Soladrin - Holland
Henners91 - Moscovy
Avatar720 - Norway
Purplefood - England
Joey - France
DarkScipio - Brandenburg

Funnily not only Norway and Holland start the game in a Union UNDER another nation, but even Brandenburg.

That awkward moment where declaring war on a single country sets of a chain of events that turns the whole of Europe against you...
That awkward moment when you somehow manage to finagle a win...

In a MP game with avatar atm (couldn't get hold of anyone else). He's Norway for some reason, I'm Bradenburg.
Let's see who forms first, Scandinavia or Prussia?

Kinda want Prussia to be realised...

I have decided Norway can go feth themselves.

Avatar 720 wrote:I have decided Norway can go feth themselves.

I heard Sweden declared war on you...

The war didn't go well.

Sweden looks bigger than usual... oh...

I love playing as the Ottomans....

It's fair to say that game wasn't a success.
We'll try harder tomorrow ;D

I'm wondering if it's possible to form the netherlands before 1500...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, I started colonization in 1432 yesterday with Holland, I wonder if I should be proud of that. I already have Madeira, the canaries, cape verde and azures, also annexed friesland, things seem to be going well with my plans

So who'd be up for a game tonight?
Post your contact details if I don't already have them.

I can answer that question by 7pm GMT.

Steam id = Servitar (when I was younger, I couldn't spell Servitor...)

Edit: I also have a friend who only lurks on Dakka that might be interested in Bohemia or Austria.

Henners91 wrote:I can answer that question by 7pm GMT.

Steam id = Servitar (when I was younger, I couldn't spell Servitor...)

Edit: I also have a friend who only lurks on Dakka that might be interested in Bohemia or Austria.

I don't have steam and we'll be playing via hamachi, hence will need msns.

MSN? That filth?! Eurgh... maybe windows 7 comes with a copy of 'Windows Messenger' like the past incarnations...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
You could always PM us some Hamachi details?

Henners91 wrote:MSN? That filth?! Eurgh... maybe windows 7 comes with a copy of 'Windows Messenger' like the past incarnations...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
You could always PM us some Hamachi details?

Probably a better idea aye, ID is ExcuseMeDoYouHaveTheTime, password is dakka.

Promised an answer by 7, 'fraid I can't play today. Will add the Hamatchi server though.

Not sure when i'll be on...

WarOne wrote:I love playing as the Ottomans....

I see you 1624 Ottomans and raise with a 1522 Bzantine Emprie (Bulgaria, Cyprus and Iraq are Vassals, Georgia ally, Mamaluks oriental orthodox)

I see your 1522 byzantine empire and raise you1476 Holland.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, who's up for MP this weekend, just let me know when your available.

Tried it, how the hell do you get troops to board ships?

You need cogs/flytes and the ships need to be out of port in the adjacent area of sea.
You need 1 cog/flyte for each regiment.
12 regiments need 12 cogs/flytes.
After that just select the troops and click on the ships.

What slider maxes people tend to go towards?

WarOne wrote:What slider maxes people tend to go towards?

Production, since i'm usually dirt poor.

WarOne wrote:What slider maxes people tend to go towards?

Strait to Free Trade for rediculous trade profits.

Free trade, innovative, centrilization.

Land unit still refuse to get on the bloody flytes I've put in the port for them, RAGE!

You need one flyte for every unit you want to load on to them.

I STILL can't get my head around how the Economy works on this.

As Novgorod, with 5 Merchants in all the CoTs within range and 1 out of range I start with, Trade Rights with everyone I can get them with, during Peacetime, with all my investment in Trade and a lot of Trade buffs, plus an Administrative Government and Trade advisors, I still can't afford more than 5 or so military units without getting a nice fat deficit warning.

This leads me to ask what the hell i'm missing. Is it just my nation of choice? Or am I doing something hellishly wrong, because i'm at around 1407 and I want to know how i'm expected to even get close to some of the treasury values on show in this thread before Muscowy or Lithuania decide they want my country, and flood me with an army I couldn't even hope to match without minting like a madman and spamming units in every province.

It's not that i'm trying to build an army in one go, more that i've got 5 units, and the upkeep of is already burning a hole in my coffers.

I have one flyte for every unit and they will not do anything.

Avatar 720 wrote:I STILL can't get my head around how the Economy works on this.

As Novgorod, with 5 Merchants in all the CoTs within range and 1 out of range I start with, Trade Rights with everyone I can get them with, during Peacetime, with all my investment in Trade and a lot of Trade buffs, plus an Administrative Government and Trade advisors, I still can't afford more than 5 or so military units without getting a nice fat deficit warning.

This leads me to ask what the hell i'm missing. Is it just my nation of choice? Or am I doing something hellishly wrong, because i'm at around 1407 and I want to know how i'm expected to even get close to some of the treasury values on show in this thread before Muscowy or Lithuania decide they want my country, and flood me with an army I couldn't even hope to match without minting like a madman and spamming units in every province.

It's not that i'm trying to build an army in one go, more that i've got 5 units, and the upkeep of is already burning a hole in my coffers.

For a start, Novogorod won't be able to compete at foreign COTs at the start of thee game. Secondly, trade income affects monthly income, wheras you pay for military out of your yearly census. So increase your tax rates using production buildings and you'll see a difference.
And make sure your army is reduced upkeep during times of peace.

Is there actually a tutorial for this? I'm confused to hell

I think so.
http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Main_Page
The eu3 wiki is great, use it.

They won't board if the ships are in the port.
They have to be at sea...

That makes absolutely no sense, surely you can only actually board a ship if it's in port?

corpsesarefun wrote:That makes absolutely no sense, surely you can only actually board a ship if it's in port?

Wel not on a large scale no...
It doesn't make sense but frankly neither does France being able to pull all of Europe into a war solely against me...

They need to be on the water, not in port.

Trying out Denmark now, seems interesting.

Soladrin wrote:They need to be on the water, not in port.

Trying out Denmark now, seems interesting.

Denmark always goes to heck, as I always destroy them en route to a united Germany/Scandinavia/Netherlands.

WarOne wrote:

Soladrin wrote:They need to be on the water, not in port.

Trying out Denmark now, seems interesting.

Denmark always goes to heck, as I always destroy them en route to a united Germany/Scandinavia/Netherlands.

Sure, but if they dont face a human nation, they can do very well.

Put them out to sea and then move them onto the boats.

Dark Scipio wrote:

WarOne wrote:

Soladrin wrote:They need to be on the water, not in port.

Trying out Denmark now, seems interesting.

Denmark always goes to heck, as I always destroy them en route to a united Germany/Scandinavia/Netherlands.

Sure, but if they dont face a human nation, they can do very well.

Not sure about that in the recent expansions/games, as Sweden likes to kick everything around nearby and sometimes gets the chance to form Scandinavia.

Finally got the hang of ships the other day and wiped out half of the native american tribes with the brits last night.

Then my game suddenly ended at 1500, stupid demo.

WarOne wrote:

Dark Scipio wrote:

WarOne wrote:

Soladrin wrote:They need to be on the water, not in port.

Trying out Denmark now, seems interesting.

Denmark always goes to heck, as I always destroy them en route to a united Germany/Scandinavia/Netherlands.

Sure, but if they dont face a human nation, they can do very well.

Not sure about that in the recent expansions/games, as Sweden likes to kick everything around nearby and sometimes gets the chance to form Scandinavia.

I would like to see Sweden more successful, in my games they always go down to Norway or Denmark.

They go down to norway because they get beaten by someone else, usually denmark, and weakened. Unless Sweden is being beaten up by someone else it'll almost always annex norway.
IIRC Denmark's base tax and MP is higher than Sweden's so early game before production and military buildings they will tend to beat sweden (unless sweden has Germanic allies who invade Denmark).

corpsesarefun wrote:
Then my game suddenly ended at 1500, stupid demo.

Someone didn't take their history lessons seriously. IIRC, the entire world gets sucked into a time warp until 1945, when the United States beats Germany to become ruler of the world.

Joey wrote:They go down to norway because they get beaten by someone else, usually denmark, and weakened. Unless Sweden is being beaten up by someone else it'll almost always annex norway.
IIRC Denmark's base tax and MP is higher than Sweden's so early game before production and military buildings they will tend to beat sweden (unless sweden has Germanic allies who invade Denmark).

Indeed, thats the reason Sweden doesnt win often. Although its even worse, because german allies of sweden often are easy prey for denmark.

France and Castille must be the biggest douchebags on this game...

England too if your not playing them mate. They love torturing coastal provinces with their uber fleet.

Soladrin wrote:England too if your not playing them mate. They love torturing coastal provinces with their uber fleet.

Well it is fun... what's your point?

Their at the same level of dickishness as france and castille. Bohemia and Austria are annoying as feth too btw.

I love when Muscovy or Novogrod struggles to become Russia. They try so hard yet get derailed by the horde nations.

Soladrin wrote:Their at the same level of dickishness as france and castille. Bohemia and Austria are annoying as feth too btw.

Nah, if it's England doing it whoever is on the recieving end probably deserves it...
I seem to falling into my old routine on Strategy games of not being aggressive enough...

Soladrin wrote:England too if your not playing them mate. They love torturing coastal provinces with their uber fleet.

England is by far not as annoying as France, Castile or Austria .

Austria as the Emprah and the Pope....

Okay i need tips on economy and such...
Managed to pull of a perfect invasion of Scotland.
They everything fell apart and i couldn't stop it...

Economy- Build tax and production buildings when magistrates are available. Conquer or create centers of trade, and use the sliders to indicate which CoTs your traders go to. Slide your Free Trade bar all the way to the right and make sure to conquer rich provinces as well to get better sources of income.

Damnit that's what i was doing...
Might just do it quicker next time...

Do not antagonize large alliances, as that may also contribute to a swift demise.

Well duh...
I'm not a complete moron.
Gonna wait until France stops guaranteeing Scotland then jump them when they have only a few allies.

purplefood wrote:Well duh...
I'm not a complete moron.
Gonna wait until France stops guaranteeing Scotland then jump them when they have only a few allies.

Your scared of France?

A sizeable fleet ably handles whatever they may toss at your island sanctuary.

Maybe stop getting into long expensive wars?

Henners91 wrote:Maybe stop getting into long expensive wars?

But that is payday for me. The moment someone wants to play "Stare Across the Channel" means I get all that nice war tax income for the next umpteen years as my foe engages in senseless wars for a generation and I get to pilfer my fellow countryman's wallets to build up my infrastructure and army.

Henners91 wrote:Maybe stop getting into long expensive wars?

There's no such thing as a long expensive war with France.
I'm not scared of France bu it's more trouble than it's worth a lot of the time.
Everyone and their mum is allied with France.

The biggest trick I've learned from playing Europa Universalis is to be more passive.

Seriously, a good percentage of your game should be starting at the screen and doing nothing, letting your bank account grow, and your economy to expand. By constantly going to war, even if you win, you end up with an Empire too large to manage, stability problems, and the entire world plotting your demise.

Play for the long game. Expand slowly, grow your economy, and don't go attacking everyone. EU is NOT a game where you can actually conquer the world. The world is too unforgiving to allow for that.

That's why I love playing Holland. It's a big waiting game, while you beat everyone to colonization because of your insane economic power. Just get yourself a fat ally to keep Burgendy away and your set.

purplefood wrote:

Henners91 wrote:Maybe stop getting into long expensive wars?

There's no such thing as a long expensive war with France.
I'm not scared of France bu it's more trouble than it's worth a lot of the time.
Everyone and their mum is allied with France.

Did you observe your war exhaustion and inflation?

What's a good choice for 4th Idea with holland?

Already have:

National Bank
QFTNW
National Trade policy

Hmm...Overseas Viceroys to increase income. So long as you have no stability or military issues, go for making your economy bigger and stronger.

Right so who'd be up for a game tonight? Preferably more than one person.

Joey wrote:Right so who'd be up for a game tonight? Preferably more than one person.

I'd be interested, although the time zones make it a bit hard to coordinate.

Steam name= WarOne

WarOne wrote:

Joey wrote:Right so who'd be up for a game tonight? Preferably more than one person.

I'd be interested, although the time zones make it a bit hard to coordinate.

Steam name= WarOne

Added. I can't actually play on Steam but we can talk.
Should be alright with Americans since I go to bed about 6am, which will be about 1am for East Coasters.

Hah, I didn't even know other people played this game!
If anyone wants to add me on steam=angryhuffy

Well I should be able to for a couple of hours, but at what time?

Some time I guess.

MY game crashes on MP for some reason...
Gonna be getting some new bits and bobs for it so i should be able to play it some time.
I have figured out what went wrong last time and have become much better at economic doohickeys.

purplefood wrote:
I have figured out what went wrong last time and have become much better at economic doohickeys.

It's all about the CoTs and getting the rich provinces...

For ~1700AD as Ottomans that's actually pretty tame...
Did you Westernise?

WarOne wrote:

purplefood wrote:
I have figured out what went wrong last time and have become much better at economic doohickeys.

It's all about the CoTs and getting the rich provinces...

It wasn't...
I mean it was because of money but it was stability that it came down to.
Prestige, succession and culture are really useful if you can keep them going without too much troble.

I'll be on around 6 tonight (UK time)

I will be around...at some point. Depends if i'm battling in the evening or not.

Be there... or else....

Or else Soladrin will annex you.

Or at least insult you..

Soladrin wrote:Or at least insult you..

And give me a free CB?
Soon I will inherit all of the Netherlands!
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
See the might of the Dutch army...

That is extremely silly, we don't even have that many windmills left... Their pretty rare these days...

Soladrin wrote:That is extremely silly, we don't even have that many windmills left... Their pretty rare these days...

You sold them for clogs?

Those go pretty much hand in hand on the rarity scale.

Both are just tourist traps these days

Cleared the land to grow flowers?

Factories and apartments more like...

Joey wrote:

Soladrin wrote:That is extremely silly, we don't even have that many windmills left... Their pretty rare these days...

You sold them for clogs?

They actually sold them to fund their nutcase scientists...

Kinda.. that too.

Though America funds some of our mad scientists...

This thread needs a bump.
I would say I could play this weekend but I'm really, really tired, probably pretty ill, and I'm doing work experience during the week (being barely able to stand is no excuse not to work!) so not sure about times.
I gave up on my latest Castille game after it became too easy.
Would love to do a MP colonisation game though.

Are people still playing this? You all seem to have the attention span of young'ens and moved on to other games...

To many new games!

I loved Europa Universalis 2 and 3

I love Vicky Rev but hate Vicky 2 or was that 3

It dosen't take one to be a nerd to be addicted on World Domination with Nepal or Ayutha

I've not had time for any game lately :(

RecutalThreat wrote:I loved Europa Universalis 2 and 3

I love Vicky Rev but hate Vicky 2 or was that 3

It dosen't take one to be a nerd to be addicted on World Domination with Nepal or Ayutha

Yeah Vicky 2 sucked balls. Literally the only thing you need to do is pick techs, you can leave taxes, spending etc on the start-up settings and your economy etc will expand fine.

Isn't Vicky 2 realistic in that respect? I quite dislike it when strategy games don't accurately model capitalism; it should be sit back and everything works for you

It makes for a pretty gakky game.
And it's the opposite of realism. The entire economy is basically random, completely independent of what you as a player do.

Laissez faire implies that it wouldn't be tied to your actions; unless you willfully make policies to interfere with free markets? Dunno, not played it for more than one half-hour session as Belgium where I got horridly bored after realising I might as well be afk.