I had one good Mongolian attempt at The Great Khan just before The Cossacks came out, but the Commonwealth eventually broke that khanate's back.
I've been trying to get another good Mongolia run going, this time with The Cossacks enabled, but it has been difficult because Ming seems to hold together and (eventually) invade Mongolia more often than it used to.
Finally, though, my westward expansion has gone well, and my Jianzhou Ally ate up most of Korea to form Mega-Manchu Ally, and now it looks like I can periodically seize Ming land at will.
kedinik on
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Commonwealth is such a powerhouse, I was so stoked when I finally broke them in my Ottomans game. I took 3 provinces from them that totaled up to about 110 development, and then Austria took advantage of their weakness and also invaded. After that there was precious little left of the Commonwealth, and I got to have the fun of supporting rebels in Austria's new lands and making them deal with the uprising. I sometimes look back on that game and think that maybe I should have taken on Hungary and Austria, but I think taking the northern half of India was ultimately more valuable to my empire.
Commonwealth is such a powerhouse, I was so stoked when I finally broke them in my Ottomans game. I took 3 provinces from them that totaled up to about 110 development, and then Austria took advantage of their weakness and also invaded. After that there was precious little left of the Commonwealth, and I got to have the fun of supporting rebels in Austria's new lands and making them deal with the uprising. I sometimes look back on that game and think that maybe I should have taken on Hungary and Austria, but I think taking the northern half of India was ultimately more valuable to my empire.
I only recently learned about The Deluge, an apocalyptic five-year-long Swedish invasion of the Commonwealth. The Deluge compounded preexisting manpower problems that had been caused by Russian invasions and murderous Cossack armies, and the Commonwealth lost so many people and so many assets to the Swedish looting that the Commonwealth never really recovered its status as a great power in Europe.
I was struck by the parallel to years-long EU 4 invasions that bleed away all the defender's manpower reserves, which paves the way for invasions by opportunistic neighbors, which eventually ruins a once-great power. But this was real life for Commonwealth peasants in the 17th century! Damn!
kedinik on
I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
As promised:
The current state of Europe. Gelre is hidden under army spam, but the great Holy Roman Emperor is there in all its lack of glory. Burgundy has held on decently enough for a state that's lost so much territory (and the Emperor seat). I think it's been reconquering some stuff in recent years, having a bit of a comeback.
Scotland didn't eat England; it ate Northumberland, which I forcibly released. I've conquered about as much of Britain as I care to, though London is super tempting for the trade bonuses (I'm trying not to super-expand because it's boring and samey after a few games).
You can see the massive Aragon there I'm currently incorporating. I'm Protestant while Aragon is still Catholic, so that's going to be real fun once the merger finishes. Thankfully I took Religious earlier, so conversion won't be too painful.
Scary Andalusia is also there. Leon's present, extracted from Castile's carcass. Galicia existed too, but I already diplo-annexed it. Owning that coastline is on my agenda, which is going to be a problem if/once Andalusia takes Leon. I'll probably have to jump in and enforce peace there.
And here's the incredible Random New World the game generated for me. This is the first one I've ever played, and just look at it! All those green coastal areas are CNs of mine. Scotland and Holland have a little presence here; Portugal did as well but I took all their colonies. Castile never made it here; they went to Africa and eastward instead (and in fact the state still exists with its capital in Africa).
I think those weird lines in the water are from my graphical mods that don't expect RNW yet.
1.15 has proven to be kinda messed up. Most of the world reveals itself before 1600 (explorers are pointless). Converting from 1.14 can mess up custom nation ideas and colonial nation names. While I'd really like some of the features and fixes it offers, it breaks important stuff I use, so I'm still holding off for further hotfixes. Since 1.16 is probably multiple months away, here's hoping we get some serious hotfixes to come (1.15.1 didn't really address anything I needed).
On the other hand my 1.14.4 game is going well. I allied Leon in the middle of their war with Andalusia and conquered some provinces while Aragon demolished everything in sight. Leon ended up gaining a few former Portuguese provinces from the effort, which is nice (they probably would have given me one in 1.15 since it fixed the "AI allies will never give you provinces" bug but alas). I'll finish absorbing Aragon in 1722 (oi), at which point I guess I'll look at my options for Leon.
Fleur de Alys on
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The new way of spreading discoveries really makes that much difference in how quickly the map is revealed? That is a shame, I think even in the game I played through to completion I didn't have the entire map revealed, but I could be wrong about that.
Is there anything besides the map reveals, custom nation ideas and colonial nation names that is wrong with it? I definitely like the changes to the estates mechanics, as they were initially they seemed to offer very little for the amount of time you had to invest in them. It's making me want to pick up The Cossacks expansion, though I have a lot of games to play right now so I'll likely wait for a decent discount.
I didn't have any problems with 1.15 so far, although from what I've heard they probably shouldn't have made it compatible with old savegames since it does indeed seem to mess up stuff
I'm contemplating starting up a new game of EU4, though I'm probably still going to wait on The Cossacks (but I do really want the Estates mechanic, dilemmas). I have played Ottomans twice (only once to completion), tried and failed at No Trail of Tears (successfully Westernized and caught up in technology, but my land was so poor I could never realistically compete with any European power in a war) and started a RNW game with Vinland that I rapidly got bored of because all I did was settle colonies for like two hundred years. I'm contemplating actually playing a Christian nation in Europe this time around, but can't decide on what would be really interesting.
I'm not a fantastic player and am not going to try and do a world conquest, but France seemed interesting. Poland into Commonwealth also seems like it could be fun, and Muscovy into Russia is another possibility. Then there is the possibility of playing one of the Italian nations like Milan or The Papal State. I kind of want to start as Catholic and see how the Protestant Reformation plays out (not necessarily becoming Protestant or Reformed, but I've just never had to deal with it before).
So what are some interesting European nations, probably Catholic, that are in reasonably strong positions to start with? Preferably ones that aren't really into the colonizing thing, as that wasn't overly interesting to me (though if somebody wants to explain how to make it interesting I'm all ears). As I said above, I'm kind of tempted by France, with the end goal of dismantling the HRE, but if there are other nations in a good position to compete in Europe I don't want to rule them out.
I'm contemplating starting up a new game of EU4, though I'm probably still going to wait on The Cossacks (but I do really want the Estates mechanic, dilemmas). I have played Ottomans twice (only once to completion), tried and failed at No Trail of Tears (successfully Westernized and caught up in technology, but my land was so poor I could never realistically compete with any European power in a war) and started a RNW game with Vinland that I rapidly got bored of because all I did was settle colonies for like two hundred years. I'm contemplating actually playing a Christian nation in Europe this time around, but can't decide on what would be really interesting.
I'm not a fantastic player and am not going to try and do a world conquest, but France seemed interesting. Poland into Commonwealth also seems like it could be fun, and Muscovy into Russia is another possibility. Then there is the possibility of playing one of the Italian nations like Milan or The Papal State. I kind of want to start as Catholic and see how the Protestant Reformation plays out (not necessarily becoming Protestant or Reformed, but I've just never had to deal with it before).
So what are some interesting European nations, probably Catholic, that are in reasonably strong positions to start with? Preferably ones that aren't really into the colonizing thing, as that wasn't overly interesting to me (though if somebody wants to explain how to make it interesting I'm all ears). As I said above, I'm kind of tempted by France, with the end goal of dismantling the HRE, but if there are other nations in a good position to compete in Europe I don't want to rule them out.
France starts very powerful, it can be fun but if you play well or even just get lucky you can and will eclipse any competing power pretty quickly. Austria is a little less powerful to start but you'll have the HRE at your beck and call. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Denmark; not TOO powerful at the start but good potential with the personal unions, likely to have both powerful friends AND enemies, can really swing the balance of power in Europe but the game is engaging for quite some time. If you're interested in playing in Italy I would probably pick Savoy, with their decently safe HRE start, good expansion opportunities, and several potential allies. Assuming France doesn't beat Burgundy too early they're likely to be friendly to you which is helpful once you lose HRE protection.
But yeah France or Poland are both good fun games, it's just that either can become runaways if you're paying attention for opportunities. I wouldn't suggest Russia if you're aiming to avoid colonization though, Siberia is too big and empty to ignore.
Brandenburg is probably one of the strongest smallish nations to start with because your ideas make you a military juggernaut if you can get going. So you'll get a relatively easy introduction to the workings of the HRE (you're an elector) while still being a moderate challenge and you're guaranteed to be right in the middle of the league war because forming Prussia will force you to become protestant or reformed.
Early on Poland will be a crucial ally for expansion into Pomerania and/or Bohemia and will help keep the emperor off your back at least until you take Danzig after which you will be enemies for life. You'll probably end up fighting Sweden too when they get pissed that you've taken Pomerania because they often get a mission to expand there.
It's quite possible to get a personal union with Bohemia early on and later in the game I've managed to get a PU with the Commonwealth - that was a fun game...
I did actually give Brandenburg a try once, but my Polish allies derped out and sat on an already occupied province for a really long time that allowed my enemies to gang up and destroy me. I was probably too impatient (won the first war against TO, but then Pomerania jumped on TO and took a good chunk of their land) but I might give it a try again once I get better at the game.
I've played many Poland games (thinking about it, most of them in EU 3...). My concern with it now is the entire Elective Monarch thing. There are so many events and special effects in there that you almost have to have the wiki open if you don't want to completely bone yourself from some of the events. There is an achievement for getting rid of it, and the PLC can really go to town if they can keep Muscovy/Russia from becoming too powerful, but Lithuania doesn't start Catholic, so you also have to do that.
If you don't mind reading in the wiki about the events (or just want the chaos!), and can keep Russia and/or the Ottos from steamrolling you, it's still great fun! And Poland can too into space!
Venice is a solid choice. You start out with a wealthy but somewhat fragmented empire. You have tons of opportunities to expand, but all of them bring danger of eventually running into powerful opposition (Ottomans, Aragon, Hungary, Austria). Reasonably smart naval play will ensure your capital never falls, so you're never at great risk of total collapse. Once Italy leaves the HRE, you'll easily be able to take everything north of Naples. Survive to that point and you can take on anyone.
Challenging Alternative:Ragusa is an interesting nation to play despite their OPM status. They now begin with an Ottoman guarantee, which makes your start substantially less luck-based. You should be able to conquer the Balkans reasonably safely and secure some powerful alliances. After that, though, you can only expand by being opportunistic -- you're still weaker than Hungary or Venice, and the Ottomans will crush you if you wind up on their bad side (hint: leave Albania alone). As with Venice, if you can make it to Italy's departure from the HRE then you have ample room to grow. It's just a bit trickier to get there. Also, Catholic Ragusa is surrounded by Orthodox states, so you have some interesting religious decisions to make early on.
Hungary is another good choice. The HRE and Poland-Lithuania are real threats, but you start in a solid position with a god-general that you can leverage for quick expansion. You may even be able to put some pain on Austria or Poland early before your general dies; it's a risk, but if you win it you're set for pretty much the rest of the campaign. By the time your borders stretch from the HRE to the Ottomans to Russia, you can dance with any of them. You could also take on Venice early and head west right under the HRE's nose, similar to the above campaigns.
Challenging Alternative:Wallachia is quite the interesting, if hectic, choice. You don't start especially strong, but you have really good land that (with Common Sense) you can develop super high. Surviving the Ottomans is the biggest immediate challenge, but an alliance with Poland could be enough to save you. If Poland-Lithuania crumbles then you can expand into Moldavia and Lithuania; otherwise you'll need to be opportunistic to jump Crimea or head west toward the Balkans. Development alone won't be enough to save you from the Ottoman menace, but good diplomacy will even the odds.
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
I think I've decided on playing as France (I played as the KeBlob, might as well play as the Big Blue Blob), but I haven't decided if I'm going to keep France as a Catholic nation or convert during the Reformation. If I take Religious ideas, converting would make it super easy to declare war on most of Europe, but I also really like the Humanist idea group. My main goal is going to be dismantling the HRE, though I did read up on a strategy to become Emperor and therefor inherit all of Burgundy which sounded intriguing but kind of tricky. It'll be interesting as I've never really dealt with PUs and succession wars and the like.
-edit- Also does anybody have opinions about The Cossacks? It's the only expansion I don't have, and the (updated) Estates system sounds interesting, and the extra diplomacy options also sound good. Also the improved culture shifting sounds extremely useful.
You could try generating a random Old world through the custom nation feature (not sure if this is a Cossacks only thing). I have this kind of tough game where I'm playing as Kingdom centered around Gibraltar and Andalusia. However I'm up against a fairly unified North Africa, and a Portugal which is allied with a kingdom that controls everything east of Toledo to West of Languedoc.
Unfortunately the North/Southeastern French kingdoms aren't doing a great job at counterbalancing the above Kingdom of the Pyrenees.
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There needs to be a rework of the HRE now with things like Free Cities and such. I'm not sure how to go about that but the HRE doesn't really work anymore except as seemingly free land for whoever the Emperor is at the time.
My three attempts at Ulm didn't go so well, in my last attempt I was leader of the Protestant League and got thrashed hard by the Austro-French alliance
In this particular game Austria and France had Burgundy as a buffer state between them and neither made any attempt to conquer Burgundian lands - I think what was key to Arumba's and Shen's success in their Ulm Youtube series was allying France early on and using that alliance to break up France's relationship with Austria
I had a female ruler at the time of the League War and was really curious to see if I would still become Empress upon winning, but my alliance had about 500,000 soldiers less, I think the main reason why the AI avoids declaring League Wars might be that the Protestant League usually ends up too weak to have a chance
The HRE needs more AI fixes, right now the Emperor never seems to prioritizte Imperial Authority or religious unity over just conquering land - I also think the AE you get from expanding inside the Empire is exceedingly punishing for small nations and not punishing enough for the larger, lucky ones (you are really limited in how fast you can expand but the same doesn't apply to the Emperor, the electors probably also should stop voting for a guy who just plans to eat them like everyone else in the HRE)
Two things about the latest patch are really annoying me still. The first is the extremely fast reveal of new territory. Makes explorers and conquistadors a little redundant unless you're Portugal. Also the reveal mechanics really hurt the explore for the 7 cities mechanic. The second thing is that the malus from pirating is way over much, which does some really screwy things to the AI.
I think what would make more sense was if you could learn of your neighbors' discoveries through Espionage, naval maps were often kept as state secrets
The way they spread now is too fast and convenient even if it helps Asian nations a bit (in 1.14 Ryukyu didn't even start with knowledge of Makassar)
I really like them in theory. We'll see how the balance plays out. The idea of playing a small nation focused on development and espionage is really appealing.
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The changes to espionage seem interesting, though it might make having a large trade empire kind of suck as every small nation in the HRE just spams you with the Slander Merchant option. 33% reduction in global trade power for 5 years seems like a pretty ridiculous penalty.
So I've been trying and failing as France, because the first thing England does is ally Austria which pretty effectively prevents me from taking back my cores. Aragon also tends to ally Austria, as well as Provence. This results in a severe lack of options for early conquest. I've been going for a royal marriage with Scotland, since they have no heir, as well as Bohemia (I'm not sure that has actually done me any good though). I can generally get an alliance with Savoy if I want, and they have been semi-useful. I'm not sure trying to vassalize Navarra has been useful at all, in one game Castille beat me to the 190 opinion necessary for vassalization, and in another (where Castille rivaled me off the bat) Aragon attacked Navarra with the help of Austria, and when I started getting my ass kicked by Austria then England jumped on me in a separate war.
So I've been thinking that maybe I can ally Austria early and then attack England (which I guess I have to wait 30 days to launch a war now?) before they can ally Austria? If I ignore Navarra and get RMs with Scotland and Bohemia I should still be able to ally Austria, though I'm unsure if I would need an RM to have enough positive opinion to get the alliance. England starts allied with Portugal I think, which is kind of a pain because I'm pretty sure I could beat England in a 1v1, but adding in Portugal could tip the balance. I don't know, the early position of France is not as strong as I had thought, either that or I am doing it completely wrong. I know France doesn't get super strong until you can get the second national idea, but it bothers me to see those cores under the rule of England.
The changes to espionage seem interesting, though it might make having a large trade empire kind of suck as every small nation in the HRE just spams you with the Slander Merchant option. 33% reduction in global trade power for 5 years seems like a pretty ridiculous penalty.
So I've been trying and failing as France, because the first thing England does is ally Austria which pretty effectively prevents me from taking back my cores. Aragon also tends to ally Austria, as well as Provence. This results in a severe lack of options for early conquest. I've been going for a royal marriage with Scotland, since they have no heir, as well as Bohemia (I'm not sure that has actually done me any good though). I can generally get an alliance with Savoy if I want, and they have been semi-useful. I'm not sure trying to vassalize Navarra has been useful at all, in one game Castille beat me to the 190 opinion necessary for vassalization, and in another (where Castille rivaled me off the bat) Aragon attacked Navarra with the help of Austria, and when I started getting my ass kicked by Austria then England jumped on me in a separate war.
So I've been thinking that maybe I can ally Austria early and then attack England (which I guess I have to wait 30 days to launch a war now?) before they can ally Austria? If I ignore Navarra and get RMs with Scotland and Bohemia I should still be able to ally Austria, though I'm unsure if I would need an RM to have enough positive opinion to get the alliance. England starts allied with Portugal I think, which is kind of a pain because I'm pretty sure I could beat England in a 1v1, but adding in Portugal could tip the balance. I don't know, the early position of France is not as strong as I had thought, either that or I am doing it completely wrong. I know France doesn't get super strong until you can get the second national idea, but it bothers me to see those cores under the rule of England.
I often see France and Austria getting buddy-buddy, since they very often both rival Burgundy. Getting them on your side is a definite possibility. In the mean time I'd go after Burgundy/Brittany/Provence first. That should be plenty to keep you expanding while waiting for an opening on England. Even if England allies itself to Austria, Austria is in enough wars that there will quite likely come a time when they aren't willing to to join a defensive war. Alternately watch England's alliances and see if they ally with someone you can more easily take. Taking back cores isn't SUPER expensive even if they're not a co-belligerant, and you're looking at multiple wars anyway so if one of them isn't completely efficient you'll still be ok.
So third time is the charm with France, apparently. This time I allied Savoy, Scotland and Austria, and left Navarra to fend for themselves. England was allied with Portugal, but I attacked anyway. It was a little dicey at times, but Savoy deciding at the last minute to join the war swung it in my direction and I took the northern two cores (Caux and whatever is right next to it). Towards the end of the war, Burgundy also attacked England over Calais. They pretty easily took Calais, but also forced England to release the southern two French cores as an independent nation. I might not have had any manpower left, but I still had a standing army four times the size of whatever country those poor saps ended up being, so I jumped on it and took those cores back. Then I got the event for ending the Hundred Years War, which was nice. While I was doing that, Brittany and The Papal State jumped on Provence, with Brittany getting the two provinces bordering them and The Papal State taking the stuff in southeastern France. That left Provence with very little, and so I took their land as well.
Poland chose a local noble instead of the PU over Lithuania, though honestly what happens over there isn't so important for now. After letting my manpower recover a decent amount, I attacked Burgundy with allies Austria and Savoy. Of course their vassal squad, plus ally Brittany, joined the fight. The outcome was never really in doubt, and I got the war score up to 94% when suddenly all of Burgundy's vassals became part of Burgundy. I peaced out of the war at that point (which might have been a mistake?), taking two provinces from Brittany and some stuff from Burgundy, and then I inherited the French parts of Burgundy and Austria got the rest. If I had stayed at war, would I have gotten the French parts and then somebody else the Lowlands areas? I'm not really sure how the inheritance thing works.
Regardless, got some nice new land to add to the kingdom, and most of the French region is under my thumb. I also got a mission to vassalize Brittany, which sounded like a great idea. They were allied to The Papal State and Scotland, which is kind of a bother because I was also allied to Scotland, but I declared anyway and took two provinces in southeastern France from The Papal State in a separate peace and then vassalized Brittany. This caused a coalition to form against me (my very first one!), which ended up being composed of Aragon and Liege. They declined to press the issue. Shortly after that, The Papal State lost a war and was forced to release it's last French province as an independent nation, and I think we know how that ends up (with that province becoming part of France). Also by that point the Italians had left the HRE, though it was actually really close as that last province in the southeastern part of France was the only HRE province not held by an Empire member when the event fired.
Shortly after that, my King died and I inherited Brittany straight out without having to pay the diplo points to integrate them. At this point pretty much everything that is French belonged to me. However this did bring up an issue, in that my neighbors were either in the HRE (which would mean fighting Austria almost certainly), my ally (Savoy, who is just slightly too large to diplo vassalize), or allied to Austria (Aragon). My solution was to start fabricating claims in Castille. Castille was, at that point, losing a war to Aragon, Naples and Austria, so once I had my claims and they finished their war, I declared on Castille (who was allied to Portugal and Scotland). Both Portugal and Scotland entered the war, though Scotland once again did not send any troops across the water. I took two provinces from Castille, and then diplo vassalized Galicia (who had just been released in the previous war). Then later I took two more provinces, which allowed me to fabricate on Portugal, which is pretty important because they are allied to both Castille and Aragon, but not Austria. I should be able to beat Portugal, Castille, Aragon and Naples, especially if Savoy is willing to help me out.
Unfortunately I fell into a regency, though at least the regency council had good stats. During the Regency my new ally Bohemia asked for my help, so I sent a third of my army over to help them beat up on Saxony and Poland. That war ended up with Bohemia gaining two provinces from Saxony and one from Poland. It also ended up with Austria running out of valid rivals (I think they eclipsed Poland) which made them declare me as a rival, breaking our alliance. Savoy also ended up without an heir, so I have a chance of getting my dynasty on their throne. I'd really like to take their land or vassalize them, it's quite vexing that at almost the same time they got out of the HRE they got too big to diplo vassalize. Also my newly crowned king is Caesar de la Vois, a 6/3/3 badass. I imagine that he will die an early death because of that.
A few other strange things have happened, in addition to Poland declining the PU over Lithuania. As I've said, so far the Iberian Wedding hasn't fired (and it is nearly out of time to do so), and right now Scotland controls the entirety of Ireland and Wales (never am sure if Cornwall counts as part of Wales, that bit is still English). Very little has happened in the British Isles since the war where Scotland finished taking Ireland and got Wales. Hungary has taken Bosnia and Serbia, while the Ottomans have been doing their normal things. Crimea is getting squeezed out by Lithuania and Muscovy (no Russia just yet). Denmark lost both Sweden and Finland. Austria has been gobbling up quite a bit of the HRE and has had to keep selecting new electors. Oh and I guess Bohemia is supporting me for Emperor, though nobody else is. I might see if I can grab an alliance with another elector or two just for fun. The Papal State is down to like two provinces on the Italian Peninsula, and like half that peninsula belongs to Aragon and Naples.
So my plan is to try and take over the Iberian Peninsula, and then either try to move into Italy or start taking Austria down if I think I am strong enough. Taking Italy sounds like a pain, fighting in mountains is just asking for a bad time. If I can wrangle a PU over Savoy that would help immensely, but it seems pretty unlikely at this point. Still, this run has been pretty entertaining so far. I'm actually getting reasonably close to the point at which I can declare myself an Empire, looking forward to that.
Of course their vassal squad, plus ally Brittany, joined the fight. The outcome was never really in doubt, and I got the war score up to 94% when suddenly all of Burgundy's vassals became part of Burgundy. I peaced out of the war at that point (which might have been a mistake?), taking two provinces from Brittany and some stuff from Burgundy, and then I inherited the French parts of Burgundy and Austria got the rest. If I had stayed at war, would I have gotten the French parts and then somebody else the Lowlands areas? I'm not really sure how the inheritance thing works.
When they suddenly integrated all their vassals, that was when the inheritance event fired/their duke died, the game does this because it won't transfer PU control, there is a slight delay for the other steps
If the Emperor is at war with Burgundy, they should be ineligible to inherit, next would be any medium-sized country in the HRE which has a royal marriage with Burgundy and then Castille if they have a royal marriage
Generally you want Austria to be weak and taking steps to make sure the event either doesn't fire or benefits a different nation might be a way to strip away some of their potential power - Austria is still on steroids this patch and in cases where they actually gain control of the entire Lowlands area and thus the English Channel node, it gets ridiculous
Although as France you're pretty much in the best position to take them on (or anyone else in the world for that matter), one thing you could do is convert to Protestant and then dismantle their empire in the League War, or just stay Catholic and then throw in your chip with the League (although then you are barred from becoming Emperor)
Yeah I should have stayed at war with Burgundy I guess, since that would have kept Austria at war and I should still have been able to inherit their French lands right? Though I'm kind of curious what would happen once the war leader ceased to exist. I guess I could have done a separate peace with Brittany when the inheritance fired? It was almost certainly a mistake to let Austria get the Lowlands area. I have a larger army than they do, but I'm pretty sure they have better allies and vassals, at least until I can conquer most of Iberia.
I have no idea how converting to Protestantism works, but there are already three Protestant centers of reformation on the map and I didn't see it under the decisions section. Now that I think about it, there's probably an option on the religion tab isn't there? The problem being, of course, that I wouldn't get a center of reformation to help convert my nation. I guess I could go Reformed? Honestly I think staying Catholic might be a good idea, my goal is to dismantle the HRE so I can just join the Protestant League and hopefully strip Austria of much of its power by making them ineligible to be Emperor.
It often isn't a choice which flavor of Christianity you wind up with as a Western European. You can't convert centers of reformation, and they will tirelessly and automatically convert provinces around them. And converted provinces get Zeal, keeping them from being re-converted for awhile (a fairly long one at that). So basically, if there's a center of reformation in or near your power center, you're probably just going to have to make the switch. You can endure it with Humanist ideas, though, and I guess you can always "run away" from it by conquering in another direction and ditching your converted lands, but that seems silly.
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Well none of the Protestant centers of reformation are anywhere near me (one is in England, another in Denmark, the third (and actually original) is in like Trier or something in the northwestern HRE. Reformed has not popped up just yet, at least that I have seen. Humanist ideas actually seem like a pretty good fit for France, I might end up taking that idea group.
Also I was reading up on the Burgundian Inheritance, and it is kind of complicated. I was at war when the inheritance part fired, so that is when the flags for who is eligible should have been set. That means that the check for Emperor eligibility should have failed for being at war, except I guess it's an "OR" condition for Austria being Emperor and having 6 or more provinces so there was no way to stop Austria from getting those provinces. So taking a peace deal to grab some of Brittany was probably the right choice, though I should have not taken the Burgundian provinces that I did since it gave me a good chunk of AE and I had to core them. Also holy crap has coring land been expensive! I'm used to playing as Ottomans and conquering relatively poor land, it was a little shocking to see just how many admin points it takes to core good land in Europe.
You need Administrative ideas to core Europe with your capital in Europe. You'll also want Administrative Efficiency, probably. Consolidate a power base, but try to expand overseas ASAP if you're looking to create a worldwide blob. Refocus on rich European land after Efficiency tech (1600s).
(of course you can conquer poor European land freely, like Ireland and much of Scandinavia)
Fleur de Alys on
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
Also I was reading up on the Burgundian Inheritance, and it is kind of complicated. I was at war when the inheritance part fired, so that is when the flags for who is eligible should have been set. That means that the check for Emperor eligibility should have failed for being at war, except I guess it's an "OR" condition for Austria being Emperor and having 6 or more provinces so there was no way to stop Austria from getting those provinces.
I also looked it up in the game files and apparently the Emperor has to be either not at war with Burgundy or he can be at war as long as none of his provinces are occupied by Burgundy
The Emperor also needs to be either Austria with six or more provinces or not Austria with at least eight
Afterwards it takes three days during which Burgundy will be in a Regency before their lands go to other nations - it's a confusing event indeed
Yeah the Burgundian Inheritance is weird all around. I don't think I could have possibly prevented Austria from getting that land.
So the AI is kind of bad sometimes. I've been doing pretty well, taking chunks of Portugal, Castille and Aragon more or less whenever I feel like it. I've got Savoy and Milan as allies now, as well as Bar (OPM in the province Barrois). Savoy lost some land in a war, so they are small enough to vassalize now, but I'm just a few points shy of being able to do it. If I can get trust up higher I should be able to manage it, but I lost some trust when Savoy had to break their alliance with me as part of a peace deal in a war I was not involved in. The part where the AI gets bad is my ally Bohemia decided to attack Bavaria over some province or another. I helped them out, but made a crucial mistake. I transferred occupation of all the land I took, instead of just the war target, and they took four provinces off another HRE Prince. So very shortly after the end of that war, they call me into a defensive war against a coalition that includes many HRE members as well as Austria. I was hesitant to accept the call to arms, but since I wasn't the coalition target my land should be reasonably safe (also Austria is not the war leader, some OPM HRE Prince is). I was also curious to see how my army would fare against Austria, since they have a significantly higher force limit than I do.
Well it turns out my army is really quite good, with full Offensive and National Ideas I stomped Austria's army repeatedly. Unfortunately I could not get my troops over to Bohemia, since Austria's forts are in the way, so I've been occupying Austrian land in the Low Countries and hoping Austria sends troops my way (which they did a few times). For a while we were at about 30% positive war score, but then Austria realized I was stuck behind the wall of forts and just let me occupy the land while they smashed Bohemia's army. I'm not sure at what point they will call an end to this war, and no idea what sort of peace deal they will force on Bohemia. I don't think the war leader has any claims on Bohemian land (though obviously Bavaria does, as well as the defunct Saxony), so my guess is they'll make Bohemia release Saxony or return Bavarian lands, so that entire earlier war was probably for naught. Hopefully Poland, Lithuania or Hungary jump on Austria's weakness, though I think Hungary might be allied to Austria. They'll probably dogpile onto Bohemia though, and I'll be called into yet another defensive war that I might not be able to help much with.
So I wish I hadn't transferred occupation of all that Bavarian land to Bohemia, it would have saved me a huge headache. On the plus side, I did get my dynasty onto the English throne, and without me being there as a deterrent ally England has been consolidating the British Isles. They should be able to form Great Britain pretty soon, as they just started another war against Scotland's final two provinces. Oh and I'm also using the RNW just for kicks, and it looks like there is a pretty large landmass in the north with Mayans, and a smaller landmass in the south with Incans. There is also space for another continent or island set south of the northern continent and west of the southern one. Portugal has some colonies down by the Incans, and England has taken Exploration but I'm not sure if they have any colonies setup yet. I certainly can't see any. Castille has not entered the colonization sweepstakes and it is doubtful that they will, since I'm pretty sure they don't have any money after I crushed them in the last two wars (though revanchism should help with that I suppose).
One irritating thing is that England went Protestant (and Scotland Reformed which is pretty funny) and got a center of reformation in Lancashire. I did not realize that a center of reformation in Lancashire could reach all the way to Paris! That was super annoying, especially as I had just taken an event that gave me some bonuses in exchange for -heretic tolerance for 10 years. I was able to get tolerance up to 0 by enacting a decision after three provinces were converted, but it's super irritating to have unrest in your damn capital province. So I guess that either I switch to Protestant and convert all my provinces over and probably take Religious ideas to make it not take forever, or I take Humanist and just roll with it. Kind of makes me miss being Humanist Sunni Ottomans and not giving a damn about religion at all.
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there is almost absolutely no reason not to be one of the first nations to change into protestant or reformed.
outside of basically making yourself immune to religious problems from the other end (Catholicism doesn't spread like the other religions) you get a center of reformation which means that all of your neighbors are about to have, either in the near or far future, religious rebels.
there is almost absolutely no reason not to be one of the first nations to change into protestant or reformed.
Unless you're the Emperor
There are also methods to pile up immense amounts of Papal Influence (for example if you do a reverse Ottoman and expand into Africa or Asia), it is actually possible to get to 100% Mercantilism this way
Yeah I totally should have switched to Protestant before all of the centers of reformation showed up. They have such good bonuses available through the aspects. Reformed doesn't seem anywhere near as good as Protestant, though it's better than Catholic if you're not the Curia Controller (which I haven't been able to manage even when I've invested influence to try for it). One downside is that it would make it harder to vassalize Savoy, unless they also switched to Reformed (which might happen with a center of reformation in my country). Another downside is that the Lancashire center of reformation is already working on turning my provinces into Protestant, even though it's fairly far away. The range on those things is much larger than I had expected.
Mostly I'm just sad I didn't realize how to switch to Protestant when I had the chance. I think there is also a pretty hefty stability penalty so I'll have to make sure I have some stored up monarch power to counteract that if I do decide to switch. Switching to Reformed might also make the Religious Leagues more interesting, as more of the HRE becomes heretic. Are Reformed nations likely to join the Protestant League? Or does religion not factor too much into it, and it is more a case of alliances and opinion modifiers?
I once saw Sweden join the Catholic League because two of their allies inside the HRE did so too, there are probably multiple factors
Keep in mind the only way a Reformed country can become Emperor is if the League War results in religious peace inside the Empire, but that seems highly unlikely inside the game - if you convert to Protestant as France you will also likely become League Leader which means you have control over when you would like to declare the League War (AI may never declare it)
The League Leader can also individually peace out every other country in the opposing League which can get ridiculous
If your goal is just to conquer as much land as possible, Reformed has the benefit that you can use the "Cleansing of Heresy" CB you get from Religious Ideas on almost every other country in Europe - it really opens up your avenues for expansions
Hrm the wiki says that the leader of the Protestant League is whichever elector switched religions first. Since I'm not even a member of the HRE, much less an elector, I don't think I would end up leader? Either way, Reformed and Protestant both seem better than non-Curia controller Catholic. I don't have the game up and running right now, and I can't seem to find the information on the wiki, but what are the penalties for switching religions exactly? I'm pretty sure there is a stability hit and maybe a prestige hit?
The Protestant League is created and headed by the first newly converted Elector, and the Catholic League will begin with the current Emperor at the head.
The Elector is the initial leader, but leader status will change dynamically as more nations join and time passes, often Sweden will end up as the leader
If you convert through the Religion tab, I think you lose 100 prestige, I don't remember any stability hit
Yeah there wasn't a stability hit, just the 100 prestige hit. I went ahead and converted to Reformed and joined the Protestant League when it formed, but since I'm Reformed we have ended up with Great Britain as the league leader. It's pretty interesting, the major powers on the Catholic side are Austria, Hungary and Aragon (who has integrated Naples) with a smattering of other minor countries, and on the Protestant side it is Great Britain, France (me) and Lithuania (Poland declined the decision for the PU and elective monarchy). Sweden is also Reformed but is rival to Great Britain and they appear to be sitting this one out. Netherlands formed (and lost about half their land to Austria in the independence war) and is Protestant, but they are siding with Austria. I don't think the war is ever going to fire as the sides seem pretty evenly matched. 1v1 I could take Austria, and I think Lithuania could take Hungary and Great Britain could take Aragon, but the Catholic side has the advantage of being way less spread out.
I was super excited when I got the notification that I might end up in a Succession War with Sweden over Great Britain, but they managed to get an heir to the throne with plenty of time to spare. I was less excited when I was in danger of being the object of a Succession War between Great Britain and Austria, though since I had literally just come out from under a regency I wasn't too worried.
Overall I don't think I'm going to be able to achieve my goal of dismantling the HRE. If the Protestant League doesn't win the war (or if it never fires) there just is no way that Austria gets voted out of office, and if they remain the Emperor I don't think I'll be able to take them down. Even the continual Dutch and Flemish rebellions in the Low Countries are little more than a minor nuisance to a nation with 100k men under arms (about the same number of troops as me, though my troops are significantly better). So far the biggest "loss" Austria had was when Tuscany attacked Savoy. Tuscany called in Austria, Hungary and Aragon while Savoy called in Milan and myself. The war was really really close (I made a few boneheaded moves and lost a lot of troops I shouldn't have) but Austria had crazy high war exhaustion (and likely debt because they were using so very many mercenaries) and ended up with a separate white peace. After that we were able to dominate the battlefield and Savoy ended up getting Genoa in the peace deal from Tuscany. I'm pretty sure that's the only war that Austria was not on the winning side of.
Oh I can definitely beat Austria 1v1, the issue arises in their long list of allies and vassals. The situation isn't hopeless, as I can still expand a bit by attacking Portugal to get at their ally Aragon without Austria and Tuscany jumping into the fray. If only I had managed to get that PU over Great Britain.
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I've been trying to get another good Mongolia run going, this time with The Cossacks enabled, but it has been difficult because Ming seems to hold together and (eventually) invade Mongolia more often than it used to.
Finally, though, my westward expansion has gone well, and my Jianzhou Ally ate up most of Korea to form Mega-Manchu Ally, and now it looks like I can periodically seize Ming land at will.
I only recently learned about The Deluge, an apocalyptic five-year-long Swedish invasion of the Commonwealth. The Deluge compounded preexisting manpower problems that had been caused by Russian invasions and murderous Cossack armies, and the Commonwealth lost so many people and so many assets to the Swedish looting that the Commonwealth never really recovered its status as a great power in Europe.
I was struck by the parallel to years-long EU 4 invasions that bleed away all the defender's manpower reserves, which paves the way for invasions by opportunistic neighbors, which eventually ruins a once-great power. But this was real life for Commonwealth peasants in the 17th century! Damn!
The current state of Europe. Gelre is hidden under army spam, but the great Holy Roman Emperor is there in all its lack of glory. Burgundy has held on decently enough for a state that's lost so much territory (and the Emperor seat). I think it's been reconquering some stuff in recent years, having a bit of a comeback.
Scotland didn't eat England; it ate Northumberland, which I forcibly released. I've conquered about as much of Britain as I care to, though London is super tempting for the trade bonuses (I'm trying not to super-expand because it's boring and samey after a few games).
You can see the massive Aragon there I'm currently incorporating. I'm Protestant while Aragon is still Catholic, so that's going to be real fun once the merger finishes. Thankfully I took Religious earlier, so conversion won't be too painful.
Scary Andalusia is also there. Leon's present, extracted from Castile's carcass. Galicia existed too, but I already diplo-annexed it. Owning that coastline is on my agenda, which is going to be a problem if/once Andalusia takes Leon. I'll probably have to jump in and enforce peace there.
And here's the incredible Random New World the game generated for me. This is the first one I've ever played, and just look at it! All those green coastal areas are CNs of mine. Scotland and Holland have a little presence here; Portugal did as well but I took all their colonies. Castile never made it here; they went to Africa and eastward instead (and in fact the state still exists with its capital in Africa).
I think those weird lines in the water are from my graphical mods that don't expect RNW yet.
On the other hand my 1.14.4 game is going well. I allied Leon in the middle of their war with Andalusia and conquered some provinces while Aragon demolished everything in sight. Leon ended up gaining a few former Portuguese provinces from the effort, which is nice (they probably would have given me one in 1.15 since it fixed the "AI allies will never give you provinces" bug but alas). I'll finish absorbing Aragon in 1722 (oi), at which point I guess I'll look at my options for Leon.
Is there anything besides the map reveals, custom nation ideas and colonial nation names that is wrong with it? I definitely like the changes to the estates mechanics, as they were initially they seemed to offer very little for the amount of time you had to invest in them. It's making me want to pick up The Cossacks expansion, though I have a lot of games to play right now so I'll likely wait for a decent discount.
I'm not a fantastic player and am not going to try and do a world conquest, but France seemed interesting. Poland into Commonwealth also seems like it could be fun, and Muscovy into Russia is another possibility. Then there is the possibility of playing one of the Italian nations like Milan or The Papal State. I kind of want to start as Catholic and see how the Protestant Reformation plays out (not necessarily becoming Protestant or Reformed, but I've just never had to deal with it before).
So what are some interesting European nations, probably Catholic, that are in reasonably strong positions to start with? Preferably ones that aren't really into the colonizing thing, as that wasn't overly interesting to me (though if somebody wants to explain how to make it interesting I'm all ears). As I said above, I'm kind of tempted by France, with the end goal of dismantling the HRE, but if there are other nations in a good position to compete in Europe I don't want to rule them out.
France starts very powerful, it can be fun but if you play well or even just get lucky you can and will eclipse any competing power pretty quickly. Austria is a little less powerful to start but you'll have the HRE at your beck and call. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Denmark; not TOO powerful at the start but good potential with the personal unions, likely to have both powerful friends AND enemies, can really swing the balance of power in Europe but the game is engaging for quite some time. If you're interested in playing in Italy I would probably pick Savoy, with their decently safe HRE start, good expansion opportunities, and several potential allies. Assuming France doesn't beat Burgundy too early they're likely to be friendly to you which is helpful once you lose HRE protection.
But yeah France or Poland are both good fun games, it's just that either can become runaways if you're paying attention for opportunities. I wouldn't suggest Russia if you're aiming to avoid colonization though, Siberia is too big and empty to ignore.
Brandenburg is probably one of the strongest smallish nations to start with because your ideas make you a military juggernaut if you can get going. So you'll get a relatively easy introduction to the workings of the HRE (you're an elector) while still being a moderate challenge and you're guaranteed to be right in the middle of the league war because forming Prussia will force you to become protestant or reformed.
Early on Poland will be a crucial ally for expansion into Pomerania and/or Bohemia and will help keep the emperor off your back at least until you take Danzig after which you will be enemies for life. You'll probably end up fighting Sweden too when they get pissed that you've taken Pomerania because they often get a mission to expand there.
It's quite possible to get a personal union with Bohemia early on and later in the game I've managed to get a PU with the Commonwealth - that was a fun game...
If you don't mind reading in the wiki about the events (or just want the chaos!), and can keep Russia and/or the Ottos from steamrolling you, it's still great fun! And Poland can too into space!
Challenging Alternative: Ragusa is an interesting nation to play despite their OPM status. They now begin with an Ottoman guarantee, which makes your start substantially less luck-based. You should be able to conquer the Balkans reasonably safely and secure some powerful alliances. After that, though, you can only expand by being opportunistic -- you're still weaker than Hungary or Venice, and the Ottomans will crush you if you wind up on their bad side (hint: leave Albania alone). As with Venice, if you can make it to Italy's departure from the HRE then you have ample room to grow. It's just a bit trickier to get there. Also, Catholic Ragusa is surrounded by Orthodox states, so you have some interesting religious decisions to make early on.
Hungary is another good choice. The HRE and Poland-Lithuania are real threats, but you start in a solid position with a god-general that you can leverage for quick expansion. You may even be able to put some pain on Austria or Poland early before your general dies; it's a risk, but if you win it you're set for pretty much the rest of the campaign. By the time your borders stretch from the HRE to the Ottomans to Russia, you can dance with any of them. You could also take on Venice early and head west right under the HRE's nose, similar to the above campaigns.
Challenging Alternative: Wallachia is quite the interesting, if hectic, choice. You don't start especially strong, but you have really good land that (with Common Sense) you can develop super high. Surviving the Ottomans is the biggest immediate challenge, but an alliance with Poland could be enough to save you. If Poland-Lithuania crumbles then you can expand into Moldavia and Lithuania; otherwise you'll need to be opportunistic to jump Crimea or head west toward the Balkans. Development alone won't be enough to save you from the Ottoman menace, but good diplomacy will even the odds.
Their appetite was ravenous
-edit- Also does anybody have opinions about The Cossacks? It's the only expansion I don't have, and the (updated) Estates system sounds interesting, and the extra diplomacy options also sound good. Also the improved culture shifting sounds extremely useful.
Unfortunately the North/Southeastern French kingdoms aren't doing a great job at counterbalancing the above Kingdom of the Pyrenees.
Steam: CavilatRest
In this particular game Austria and France had Burgundy as a buffer state between them and neither made any attempt to conquer Burgundian lands - I think what was key to Arumba's and Shen's success in their Ulm Youtube series was allying France early on and using that alliance to break up France's relationship with Austria
I had a female ruler at the time of the League War and was really curious to see if I would still become Empress upon winning, but my alliance had about 500,000 soldiers less, I think the main reason why the AI avoids declaring League Wars might be that the Protestant League usually ends up too weak to have a chance
The HRE needs more AI fixes, right now the Emperor never seems to prioritizte Imperial Authority or religious unity over just conquering land - I also think the AE you get from expanding inside the Empire is exceedingly punishing for small nations and not punishing enough for the larger, lucky ones (you are really limited in how fast you can expand but the same doesn't apply to the Emperor, the electors probably also should stop voting for a guy who just plans to eat them like everyone else in the HRE)
The way they spread now is too fast and convenient even if it helps Asian nations a bit (in 1.14 Ryukyu didn't even start with knowledge of Makassar)
I really like them in theory. We'll see how the balance plays out. The idea of playing a small nation focused on development and espionage is really appealing.
So I've been trying and failing as France, because the first thing England does is ally Austria which pretty effectively prevents me from taking back my cores. Aragon also tends to ally Austria, as well as Provence. This results in a severe lack of options for early conquest. I've been going for a royal marriage with Scotland, since they have no heir, as well as Bohemia (I'm not sure that has actually done me any good though). I can generally get an alliance with Savoy if I want, and they have been semi-useful. I'm not sure trying to vassalize Navarra has been useful at all, in one game Castille beat me to the 190 opinion necessary for vassalization, and in another (where Castille rivaled me off the bat) Aragon attacked Navarra with the help of Austria, and when I started getting my ass kicked by Austria then England jumped on me in a separate war.
So I've been thinking that maybe I can ally Austria early and then attack England (which I guess I have to wait 30 days to launch a war now?) before they can ally Austria? If I ignore Navarra and get RMs with Scotland and Bohemia I should still be able to ally Austria, though I'm unsure if I would need an RM to have enough positive opinion to get the alliance. England starts allied with Portugal I think, which is kind of a pain because I'm pretty sure I could beat England in a 1v1, but adding in Portugal could tip the balance. I don't know, the early position of France is not as strong as I had thought, either that or I am doing it completely wrong. I know France doesn't get super strong until you can get the second national idea, but it bothers me to see those cores under the rule of England.
I often see France and Austria getting buddy-buddy, since they very often both rival Burgundy. Getting them on your side is a definite possibility. In the mean time I'd go after Burgundy/Brittany/Provence first. That should be plenty to keep you expanding while waiting for an opening on England. Even if England allies itself to Austria, Austria is in enough wars that there will quite likely come a time when they aren't willing to to join a defensive war. Alternately watch England's alliances and see if they ally with someone you can more easily take. Taking back cores isn't SUPER expensive even if they're not a co-belligerant, and you're looking at multiple wars anyway so if one of them isn't completely efficient you'll still be ok.
Poland chose a local noble instead of the PU over Lithuania, though honestly what happens over there isn't so important for now. After letting my manpower recover a decent amount, I attacked Burgundy with allies Austria and Savoy. Of course their vassal squad, plus ally Brittany, joined the fight. The outcome was never really in doubt, and I got the war score up to 94% when suddenly all of Burgundy's vassals became part of Burgundy. I peaced out of the war at that point (which might have been a mistake?), taking two provinces from Brittany and some stuff from Burgundy, and then I inherited the French parts of Burgundy and Austria got the rest. If I had stayed at war, would I have gotten the French parts and then somebody else the Lowlands areas? I'm not really sure how the inheritance thing works.
Regardless, got some nice new land to add to the kingdom, and most of the French region is under my thumb. I also got a mission to vassalize Brittany, which sounded like a great idea. They were allied to The Papal State and Scotland, which is kind of a bother because I was also allied to Scotland, but I declared anyway and took two provinces in southeastern France from The Papal State in a separate peace and then vassalized Brittany. This caused a coalition to form against me (my very first one!), which ended up being composed of Aragon and Liege. They declined to press the issue. Shortly after that, The Papal State lost a war and was forced to release it's last French province as an independent nation, and I think we know how that ends up (with that province becoming part of France). Also by that point the Italians had left the HRE, though it was actually really close as that last province in the southeastern part of France was the only HRE province not held by an Empire member when the event fired.
Shortly after that, my King died and I inherited Brittany straight out without having to pay the diplo points to integrate them. At this point pretty much everything that is French belonged to me. However this did bring up an issue, in that my neighbors were either in the HRE (which would mean fighting Austria almost certainly), my ally (Savoy, who is just slightly too large to diplo vassalize), or allied to Austria (Aragon). My solution was to start fabricating claims in Castille. Castille was, at that point, losing a war to Aragon, Naples and Austria, so once I had my claims and they finished their war, I declared on Castille (who was allied to Portugal and Scotland). Both Portugal and Scotland entered the war, though Scotland once again did not send any troops across the water. I took two provinces from Castille, and then diplo vassalized Galicia (who had just been released in the previous war). Then later I took two more provinces, which allowed me to fabricate on Portugal, which is pretty important because they are allied to both Castille and Aragon, but not Austria. I should be able to beat Portugal, Castille, Aragon and Naples, especially if Savoy is willing to help me out.
Unfortunately I fell into a regency, though at least the regency council had good stats. During the Regency my new ally Bohemia asked for my help, so I sent a third of my army over to help them beat up on Saxony and Poland. That war ended up with Bohemia gaining two provinces from Saxony and one from Poland. It also ended up with Austria running out of valid rivals (I think they eclipsed Poland) which made them declare me as a rival, breaking our alliance. Savoy also ended up without an heir, so I have a chance of getting my dynasty on their throne. I'd really like to take their land or vassalize them, it's quite vexing that at almost the same time they got out of the HRE they got too big to diplo vassalize. Also my newly crowned king is Caesar de la Vois, a 6/3/3 badass. I imagine that he will die an early death because of that.
A few other strange things have happened, in addition to Poland declining the PU over Lithuania. As I've said, so far the Iberian Wedding hasn't fired (and it is nearly out of time to do so), and right now Scotland controls the entirety of Ireland and Wales (never am sure if Cornwall counts as part of Wales, that bit is still English). Very little has happened in the British Isles since the war where Scotland finished taking Ireland and got Wales. Hungary has taken Bosnia and Serbia, while the Ottomans have been doing their normal things. Crimea is getting squeezed out by Lithuania and Muscovy (no Russia just yet). Denmark lost both Sweden and Finland. Austria has been gobbling up quite a bit of the HRE and has had to keep selecting new electors. Oh and I guess Bohemia is supporting me for Emperor, though nobody else is. I might see if I can grab an alliance with another elector or two just for fun. The Papal State is down to like two provinces on the Italian Peninsula, and like half that peninsula belongs to Aragon and Naples.
So my plan is to try and take over the Iberian Peninsula, and then either try to move into Italy or start taking Austria down if I think I am strong enough. Taking Italy sounds like a pain, fighting in mountains is just asking for a bad time. If I can wrangle a PU over Savoy that would help immensely, but it seems pretty unlikely at this point. Still, this run has been pretty entertaining so far. I'm actually getting reasonably close to the point at which I can declare myself an Empire, looking forward to that.
When they suddenly integrated all their vassals, that was when the inheritance event fired/their duke died, the game does this because it won't transfer PU control, there is a slight delay for the other steps
If the Emperor is at war with Burgundy, they should be ineligible to inherit, next would be any medium-sized country in the HRE which has a royal marriage with Burgundy and then Castille if they have a royal marriage
Generally you want Austria to be weak and taking steps to make sure the event either doesn't fire or benefits a different nation might be a way to strip away some of their potential power - Austria is still on steroids this patch and in cases where they actually gain control of the entire Lowlands area and thus the English Channel node, it gets ridiculous
Although as France you're pretty much in the best position to take them on (or anyone else in the world for that matter), one thing you could do is convert to Protestant and then dismantle their empire in the League War, or just stay Catholic and then throw in your chip with the League (although then you are barred from becoming Emperor)
I have no idea how converting to Protestantism works, but there are already three Protestant centers of reformation on the map and I didn't see it under the decisions section. Now that I think about it, there's probably an option on the religion tab isn't there? The problem being, of course, that I wouldn't get a center of reformation to help convert my nation. I guess I could go Reformed? Honestly I think staying Catholic might be a good idea, my goal is to dismantle the HRE so I can just join the Protestant League and hopefully strip Austria of much of its power by making them ineligible to be Emperor.
Also I was reading up on the Burgundian Inheritance, and it is kind of complicated. I was at war when the inheritance part fired, so that is when the flags for who is eligible should have been set. That means that the check for Emperor eligibility should have failed for being at war, except I guess it's an "OR" condition for Austria being Emperor and having 6 or more provinces so there was no way to stop Austria from getting those provinces. So taking a peace deal to grab some of Brittany was probably the right choice, though I should have not taken the Burgundian provinces that I did since it gave me a good chunk of AE and I had to core them. Also holy crap has coring land been expensive! I'm used to playing as Ottomans and conquering relatively poor land, it was a little shocking to see just how many admin points it takes to core good land in Europe.
(of course you can conquer poor European land freely, like Ireland and much of Scandinavia)
I also looked it up in the game files and apparently the Emperor has to be either not at war with Burgundy or he can be at war as long as none of his provinces are occupied by Burgundy
The Emperor also needs to be either Austria with six or more provinces or not Austria with at least eight
Afterwards it takes three days during which Burgundy will be in a Regency before their lands go to other nations - it's a confusing event indeed
So the AI is kind of bad sometimes. I've been doing pretty well, taking chunks of Portugal, Castille and Aragon more or less whenever I feel like it. I've got Savoy and Milan as allies now, as well as Bar (OPM in the province Barrois). Savoy lost some land in a war, so they are small enough to vassalize now, but I'm just a few points shy of being able to do it. If I can get trust up higher I should be able to manage it, but I lost some trust when Savoy had to break their alliance with me as part of a peace deal in a war I was not involved in. The part where the AI gets bad is my ally Bohemia decided to attack Bavaria over some province or another. I helped them out, but made a crucial mistake. I transferred occupation of all the land I took, instead of just the war target, and they took four provinces off another HRE Prince. So very shortly after the end of that war, they call me into a defensive war against a coalition that includes many HRE members as well as Austria. I was hesitant to accept the call to arms, but since I wasn't the coalition target my land should be reasonably safe (also Austria is not the war leader, some OPM HRE Prince is). I was also curious to see how my army would fare against Austria, since they have a significantly higher force limit than I do.
Well it turns out my army is really quite good, with full Offensive and National Ideas I stomped Austria's army repeatedly. Unfortunately I could not get my troops over to Bohemia, since Austria's forts are in the way, so I've been occupying Austrian land in the Low Countries and hoping Austria sends troops my way (which they did a few times). For a while we were at about 30% positive war score, but then Austria realized I was stuck behind the wall of forts and just let me occupy the land while they smashed Bohemia's army. I'm not sure at what point they will call an end to this war, and no idea what sort of peace deal they will force on Bohemia. I don't think the war leader has any claims on Bohemian land (though obviously Bavaria does, as well as the defunct Saxony), so my guess is they'll make Bohemia release Saxony or return Bavarian lands, so that entire earlier war was probably for naught. Hopefully Poland, Lithuania or Hungary jump on Austria's weakness, though I think Hungary might be allied to Austria. They'll probably dogpile onto Bohemia though, and I'll be called into yet another defensive war that I might not be able to help much with.
So I wish I hadn't transferred occupation of all that Bavarian land to Bohemia, it would have saved me a huge headache. On the plus side, I did get my dynasty onto the English throne, and without me being there as a deterrent ally England has been consolidating the British Isles. They should be able to form Great Britain pretty soon, as they just started another war against Scotland's final two provinces. Oh and I'm also using the RNW just for kicks, and it looks like there is a pretty large landmass in the north with Mayans, and a smaller landmass in the south with Incans. There is also space for another continent or island set south of the northern continent and west of the southern one. Portugal has some colonies down by the Incans, and England has taken Exploration but I'm not sure if they have any colonies setup yet. I certainly can't see any. Castille has not entered the colonization sweepstakes and it is doubtful that they will, since I'm pretty sure they don't have any money after I crushed them in the last two wars (though revanchism should help with that I suppose).
One irritating thing is that England went Protestant (and Scotland Reformed which is pretty funny) and got a center of reformation in Lancashire. I did not realize that a center of reformation in Lancashire could reach all the way to Paris! That was super annoying, especially as I had just taken an event that gave me some bonuses in exchange for -heretic tolerance for 10 years. I was able to get tolerance up to 0 by enacting a decision after three provinces were converted, but it's super irritating to have unrest in your damn capital province. So I guess that either I switch to Protestant and convert all my provinces over and probably take Religious ideas to make it not take forever, or I take Humanist and just roll with it. Kind of makes me miss being Humanist Sunni Ottomans and not giving a damn about religion at all.
outside of basically making yourself immune to religious problems from the other end (Catholicism doesn't spread like the other religions) you get a center of reformation which means that all of your neighbors are about to have, either in the near or far future, religious rebels.
Unless you're the Emperor
There are also methods to pile up immense amounts of Papal Influence (for example if you do a reverse Ottoman and expand into Africa or Asia), it is actually possible to get to 100% Mercantilism this way
Mostly I'm just sad I didn't realize how to switch to Protestant when I had the chance. I think there is also a pretty hefty stability penalty so I'll have to make sure I have some stored up monarch power to counteract that if I do decide to switch. Switching to Reformed might also make the Religious Leagues more interesting, as more of the HRE becomes heretic. Are Reformed nations likely to join the Protestant League? Or does religion not factor too much into it, and it is more a case of alliances and opinion modifiers?
Keep in mind the only way a Reformed country can become Emperor is if the League War results in religious peace inside the Empire, but that seems highly unlikely inside the game - if you convert to Protestant as France you will also likely become League Leader which means you have control over when you would like to declare the League War (AI may never declare it)
The League Leader can also individually peace out every other country in the opposing League which can get ridiculous
If your goal is just to conquer as much land as possible, Reformed has the benefit that you can use the "Cleansing of Heresy" CB you get from Religious Ideas on almost every other country in Europe - it really opens up your avenues for expansions
The Elector is the initial leader, but leader status will change dynamically as more nations join and time passes, often Sweden will end up as the leader
If you convert through the Religion tab, I think you lose 100 prestige, I don't remember any stability hit
I was super excited when I got the notification that I might end up in a Succession War with Sweden over Great Britain, but they managed to get an heir to the throne with plenty of time to spare. I was less excited when I was in danger of being the object of a Succession War between Great Britain and Austria, though since I had literally just come out from under a regency I wasn't too worried.
Overall I don't think I'm going to be able to achieve my goal of dismantling the HRE. If the Protestant League doesn't win the war (or if it never fires) there just is no way that Austria gets voted out of office, and if they remain the Emperor I don't think I'll be able to take them down. Even the continual Dutch and Flemish rebellions in the Low Countries are little more than a minor nuisance to a nation with 100k men under arms (about the same number of troops as me, though my troops are significantly better). So far the biggest "loss" Austria had was when Tuscany attacked Savoy. Tuscany called in Austria, Hungary and Aragon while Savoy called in Milan and myself. The war was really really close (I made a few boneheaded moves and lost a lot of troops I shouldn't have) but Austria had crazy high war exhaustion (and likely debt because they were using so very many mercenaries) and ended up with a separate white peace. After that we were able to dominate the battlefield and Savoy ended up getting Genoa in the peace deal from Tuscany. I'm pretty sure that's the only war that Austria was not on the winning side of.
AI may declare the League War if Austria or one of the other powers is sufficiently weakened