Quick update, so far it's fun being Manchu. My biggest issue at the moment is that my economy is absolutely terrible, despite my closing in on 300 development. This might be my own fault, to be honest, because I think I made a few mistakes along the way, but it should be recoverable. I'm a little torn on which way to expand next to get to 300. If I raise 4 more banners (ouch my treasury) I will get a bunch of claims in Korea, Mongolia and possibly Ming (not sure on that last one), but I don't know if I should go after Korea or Oirat + Mongolia. I think Korea might be an easier fight, but I need some Mongolian land to eventually form Qing. Oirat is in the process of losing to Chagatai, and had to give up a couple of provinces to Ming in a separate but simultaneous war. Mongolia got completely occupied by Ming and currently has no army, and I would imagine that Oirat's army will be busy attempting to deal with Chagatai. I'm also not sure that Chagatai will continue to win against Oirat now that Ming has peaced out. I would like to take my cores in Yeren but I have a truce with them so that is unlikely (unless they are allied to Oirat in which case that might be the way to go since it would give my economy the largest boost without costing admin points).
I guess another alternative is to consolidate what I have and develop for Renaissance, which would also help my economy a nice amount as well as getting slightly closer to 300 development. I'm pretty sure I have a fair bit of war exhaustion that would be wonderful to reduce as well. It does feel kind of wrong to not be at war as a horde nation though.
I'm doing a similar run. I quickly formed Manchu, conquered half of Korea, used Transfer Vassalage on Mongolia, conquered the other half of Korea, then attacked Ming. I got pretty lucky I guess with a big Ming vs Oirat war early on, softening them both up. I've not been at peace for more than a couple of months at a time all game, I've been running a deficit all game, got 14% inflation and 3k in loans, just about to embrace Colonialism and Printing Press has already spawned. My Mandate is nice and high, but Meritocracy is 0, because it turns out harmonising a religion isn't always the best option.
There's a mission that gives you cores on all of China, so I have almost finished conquering them all, but then I got hit by a coalition war. Able to get a white peace, but it's slowed me down a lot.
Nice, sounds like you're a fair bit further along than I am. I'm in the mid-1460s and am going to have to take some time to consolidate because I took a chunk of Korea (basically the first row of provinces) that pushed me over 300 development, so I waited for Ming to attack Chagatai and then canceled tributary status. Then for whatever reason the Ming passed the first reform, dropping their mandate to 22 so I immediately attacked. I got the Great Wall Betrayal mission to fire, so I got a nice general and that fort province, so I immediately rushed to siege down Beijing. I took out several small stacks of Ming soldiers and was able to win the siege of Beijing, which pushed the war score over 25 in my favor which really started the disaster timer ticking. I contemplated peacing out and taking my cores when Ming finally got its act together and managed to beat up my army pretty bad, but then I got the notification that the disaster was 75% of the way to completion, so I stuck it out and threw what was left of my army at Beijing in a last ditch effort to buy enough time for the disaster to fire, which happened right as I lost the fight at Beijing. That dropped another 20 points off the mandate and cost Ming 2 stability, so I sued for peace and instead of taking the Mandate of Heaven like the game suggested, I took several cores as well as two I only had claims on, that happened to include Beijing.
Ming's mandate is now below 1 and dropping, which is fantastic. I also have a positive income for the first time all game, which is also great. Not so great is the fact that my manpower is completely depleted and I still have to reinforce my existing army back to full, while also dealing with rebels (both in my lands and in Ming border provinces since they keep crossing the border to siege my stuff). I took a ton of cash from Ming so my inflation is higher than I would prefer, but at least I was able to embrace Renaissance and am now a Great Power (near the bottom of the list, but it's fine).
So I'm pretty sure Ming's power is broken, I just need to get through a consolidation period and recover my manpower. It's not good to be at a deficit there, though I might go and finish off Nivkh since I have a core on that province already (I couldn't cross the strait during my last war with them because I completely forgot that navies can block crossing straits, I had thought it was because the province was terra incognita at the time). I still need the land in Mongolia (and the Mandate of Heaven) to form Qing, and I should probably recruit up some more infantry once I have some manpower in preparation for the switch (since I assume I will drop to 50% max cavalry instead of 75%). So work yet to do, but I think the hard part is finished.
Taking Beijing was a good choice, it gives Ming constant mandate loss. Now they're at 0 mandate they'll probably implode, which means lots of little states for you to fight. I would recommend not taking the mandate until you control Beijing, Canton, and Nanjing, because without them you'll be at low mandate.
And pay more attention to your missions than I did! There's one to besiege a 25 dev city that I nearly missed out on, because there was only one city that big left for me once I unlocked the mission.
Taking Beijing was a good choice, it gives Ming constant mandate loss. Now they're at 0 mandate they'll probably implode, which means lots of little states for you to fight. I would recommend not taking the mandate until you control Beijing, Canton, and Nanjing, because without them you'll be at low mandate.
And pay more attention to your missions than I did! There's one to besiege a 25 dev city that I nearly missed out on, because there was only one city that big left for me once I unlocked the mission.
Yeah I took Beijing both for the fact that it's a 31 dev province (so money) but also to further cripple Ming's mandate. Unfortunately I am pretty sure that you don't get the mission to inflict 20 devastation on a 25 dev province until after you are Qing, so I'll have to make sure there is one to do that to still left at that point. Managing the mandate sounds kind of like a hassle, but it's necessary to have the Mandate to become Qing I'm pretty sure, and I want those ideas because they're great. Also forming Qing makes you the cultural union for the Chinese culture group, which again I am definitely all for. Passing reforms looks really dangerous though, so I'm going to be careful about that.
Taking Beijing was a good choice, it gives Ming constant mandate loss. Now they're at 0 mandate they'll probably implode, which means lots of little states for you to fight. I would recommend not taking the mandate until you control Beijing, Canton, and Nanjing, because without them you'll be at low mandate.
And pay more attention to your missions than I did! There's one to besiege a 25 dev city that I nearly missed out on, because there was only one city that big left for me once I unlocked the mission.
Yeah I took Beijing both for the fact that it's a 31 dev province (so money) but also to further cripple Ming's mandate. Unfortunately I am pretty sure that you don't get the mission to inflict 20 devastation on a 25 dev province until after you are Qing, so I'll have to make sure there is one to do that to still left at that point. Managing the mandate sounds kind of like a hassle, but it's necessary to have the Mandate to become Qing I'm pretty sure, and I want those ideas because they're great. Also forming Qing makes you the cultural union for the Chinese culture group, which again I am definitely all for. Passing reforms looks really dangerous though, so I'm going to be careful about that.
Mandate is significantly less painful now than the last version. That said, I still think I took it too early. The Unify China casus belli gives mandate growth, and I had to constantly be at war to maintain mandate, which of course lead to devastation and a coalition war with more devastation... it's 1600 now and I've only passed 2 reforms.
Global Trade didn't spawn until 1626, I was starting to get worried that it was broken.
I kinda want to play as Confucian Mughals, assimilate every culture, harmonise every religion. Make an all-inclusive utopia (after centuries of bloody warfare).
It's possible to prevent Global Trade from spawning, the person with the most trade power in the highest valued node just needs to have no level 2 or 3 trade centers there (and also have their capital elsewhere)
Which node is the highest valued can change and that would cause it to spawn under those circumstances
It's possible to prevent Global Trade from spawning, the person with the most trade power in the highest valued node just needs to have no level 2 or 3 trade centers there (and also have their capital elsewhere)
Which node is the highest valued can change and that would cause it to spawn under those circumstances
The highest value node was alternating between Sevilla and Genoa, and both of those had multiple level 2 or higher centers.
This is a very difficult achievement on VH post-Dharma
Auld Alliance Reversed + Anglophile VH
I had to do a lot of weird stuff because of the way the mission tree is set up, I added myself to the HRE for the two HRE missions but then had to leave because another mission requires you to have Empire rank (duh).
Fighting the Ottomans, Mughals and Spain was really something
Platy on
0
Kane Red RobeMaster of MagicArcanusRegistered Userregular
edited October 2019
I picked up a couple of the expansions/dlc last steam sale but it was pretty random. Is there a generally accepted tier list of dlc like there is for crusader Kings?
The answer used to be Art of War and Common Sense but they've since integrated many DLC features into the base game (Art of War might still be required)
I must warn you though that the current patch might be difficult to get into, the game is a lot more punishing than it used to be when you play it "wrong" - for example, it didn't matter if your tech was "unbalanced", now you gain corruption
If you're interested in playing as England, Spain, Portugal, or Russia, their DLCs are pretty good. If you want to play an Eastern country, Mandate of Heaven. Muslim country, Cradle of Civilisation.
Personally, I bought them all. With 1400 hours played I feel like I got my money's worth.
So I'm playing a Navarra game working to get their achievement (and maybe also the Spanish Mission tree achievement)and I'm wondering about Basque colonial names. I searched around online but apparently nobody has ever asked this question before which seems hard to believe.
For one of my colonies I exported all the Galician territories to Columbia in the hope of forming a Galician primary culture colonial nation, so I'm thinking of something like Galizia Berria. (Which, assuming Basque doesn't have special rules for names is probably Basque for "New Galicia".) Terranova is a boring but possible option for a Canadian colony. It'd be nice if anyone had any better ideas though.
0
AssuranIs swinging on the SpiralRegistered Userregular
edited October 2019
DDRJake is leaving Paradox at the end of the year.
Watching him made me a better player and I've enjoyed some of his additions to the team.
He had so much passion for EUIV and he's basically stopped playing on his stream. I wonder if working on it burned him out.
ahahahahaha jesus 514 mercenaries @Platy
Since you seem to be pretty good at EUIV, how would you recommend trying to play Karaman's opening in the latest patch? I know the old strategy was to ally Mamelukes and anyone else who was hostile to the Ottomans and promise them land in an early war to cripple the Ottomans before you just grabbed all their land for yourself.
For quite a few patches though the Mamelukes have too many diplomatic relations to ever be willing to ally you for quite awhile. You can, sometimes, ally the Ottomans but they also often like allying the other Beyliks and will often ally Aq Qoly. So do you think there is any reliable way to take down the Ottomans early? Or is the play to try and ally them and steal the Levant/Egypt/Western Asia until you grow big enough to backstab them?
Allying the Ottomans and stealing away the Levant and Egypt works really well for tags like Hisn Kayfa, with Karaman you have the problem that Mehmed starts out as a Militarist and they're highly likely to also get a Militarist at a later stage. It really depends on whether you can keep them above 100 relations.
The Mamluks should eventually flip Friendly if you set yourself to "Threatened" with the Ottomans, they generally won't send you an alliance request when they're over their diplo limit but in most situations Friendly attitude should allow you to ally them.
The Mamluks will generally get destroyed by the Ottomans in an early war. I'm not sure about Normal mode, I think calling the Mamluks in on promise of land should work if the Ottos are already fighting Albania and Venice. But you're going to have a problem when they reach tech 4 before the Mamluks and are still able to kick back.
The Age of Exploration ability, if you have MoH, is probably the biggest problem since the Ottos will quickly siege out the Mamluks and peace them out. I did the achievement on the last patch on VH in August and I mostly played the long game, taking my time and fighting the Ottomans with the help of Mamluks and Timmy. Developing is generally good.
Platy on
+1
Tynnanseldom correct, never unsureRegistered Userregular
edited October 2019
I'm not on Platy's level, but I did pay homage to the Beatles. Norwegian Wood on Hard:
Tynnanseldom correct, never unsureRegistered Userregular
edited October 2019
Lots of debt, most likely.
Your strategy depends on what difficulty you're playing on, and whether Sweden will ally you for your independence war. It took me a few tries on Hard, but in general you want to try and get Support Independence from someone - Scotland or England (though early game events can prevent England from being any use), or Lithuania if Poland is dumb and picks a local noble. If you're able, allying Sweden will make the first war much easier though you'll need to watch out for them occupying Sjaelland.
Right off the bat, develop a province to 10 dev (perhaps Agdesiden for its iron) and grant it to the Burghers. Begin drafting ships for war. You'll want a heavy fleet to sink Denmark's galley navy. Closer to your independence war, also try for a morale of navies advisor regardless of how much debt you'd take on. Winning the first war is more important than whatever debt you accrue. Improve relations with Scotland or England, and Sweden if you want to try and get their alliance, and use the diplomatic macro view (Build menu -> zero key, tab to Alliance Actions) to look for Support Independence offers. Denmark will usually support loyalists on you and Sweden early to drop liberty desire, but this might end briefly so watch for spikes in Sweden's liberty desire. If it goes above 50%, ally them quickly.
For the war, position your army in Bahuslen and watch Denmark's fort maintenance in Lund. As they suppress their Gotlander rebels they're likely to cut maintenance on the fort in Lund. If the fort is unmaintained, you can declare on the first day of a long month (31 days) and march onto Lund before it gets a garrison, giving you a one-cycle siege. From there, it's a matter of using your navy to isolate Denmark's army and whittle away their navy. Use your heavies and don't be afraid to retreat from a naval battle after you sink a few galleys but before you lose your heavies. Chip away with hit and runs until you have worn him down. Try to occupy Sjaelland if you're able and demand at least Sjaelland and/or Lund along with Independence. Don't give Sweden anything, you don't want their alliance once you're independent.
Once you have Sjaelland, move your capital there for a large income boost. From there, you're free to dominate the Baltic however you like. It's useful to take the claims-bordering-claims age bonus and get a claim on Riga, then use their alliance webs to attack indirectly into the northern HRE states without getting the emperor involved. The Baltic has several opportunities for island traps, such as on Aland, where you can assign the island to a vassal and set scutage, then bait a large enemy army onto the island and trap them there with your navy. You can use those to completely neuter large opponents like Muscovy or HRE coalitions. Force-vassalize Lubeck and set scutage for massive income boost. It's a lot of AE but your straits positioning gives you a huge defensive advantage if you get a coalition, and you can let that tick down while you work on the northern Baltic.
I like Innovative/Offensive/Expansion idea groups early, since Norway's national ideas give you conquistadors and explorers and a colonist on their own. You could also take Administrative early, or Diplomatic. There's a lot of solid options since you're not required to go into Exploration as Norway.
Also, don't use galleys. Galleys are poop from a butt. Scuttle any you capture. When it's time to hit England, set up by taking The Isles from Scotland and setting scutage, then use them as an island trap. Sacrifice a small army to bait the main English forces onto the island and park your navy there to stick them in place. You can do similar work with the Irish Sea strait.
Also also: get Dalaskogen and Burgher+Dev it up asap. Lotsa ducats in them thar mines.
I forget, can you still join the HRE as Norway in the current patch? Like if you avoid taking much from Denmark in your independence war?
Gundi on
0
Tynnanseldom correct, never unsureRegistered Userregular
Should be able to if you can get your emp rep up high enough. I didn't bother in my game, once you control the coastline you don't really need Germany, and you can attack HRE states indirectly using alliance webs and then just let that AE tick down while you beat up on Muscovy and England or mess around overseas.
I used to feel the same way, I've posted here about how much I've enjoyed knocking them down. Then I started reading the eu4 reddit and the paradox forums... a lot of 'ottomans are op' is barely disguised 'fuck muslims'. Or not disguised at all. If you've ever heard them referred to as 'kebab', that's a reference to a video from the balkan war urging people to slaughter turkish civilians. Now I try to ally the Ottomans every game, because fuck everyone else.
I used to feel the same way, I've posted here about how much I've enjoyed knocking them down. Then I started reading the eu4 reddit and the paradox forums... a lot of 'ottomans are op' is barely disguised 'fuck muslims'. Or not disguised at all. If you've ever heard them referred to as 'kebab', that's a reference to a video from the balkan war urging people to slaughter turkish civilians. Now I try to ally the Ottomans every game, because fuck everyone else.
oh yeah the paradox gaming community is unfortunately pretty racist and islamophobic. i just hate the big blobs of the game. i like variety and a country like the ottomans pretty much just always bops everyone else around them without fail making the map less interesting.
like it used to be France but they haven't been such a big player for dozens of patches now.
i decided to put a hold on the annoying karaman game to play a much easier nation!
...trebizond!
+2
Tynnanseldom correct, never unsureRegistered Userregular
I’ve turned the corner on my Grenada->Andalusia re-reconquista run. Haven’t finished off Iberia yet, but I’ve walked halfway up the peninsula and I’ve started attacking into coalitions to split them as they’re forming. Just a matter of letting a few truce timers tick down and juggling some AE and I’ll have it. Got a colonial nation in Brazil and another in La Plata, I’m working my way down the western African coast, and at some point I’ll steal Castile’s CN in the Caribbean. From there’s it’s a matter of what else do I want to accomplish.
Trebizond going pretty well. I expanded super fast taking control of all georgia in the first ten years before getting stuck by annoying alliance and guarantee chains. Finally after a few decades of very little expansion I managed to ally the Timurids and have started to use them to help push into Persia. I'm also allied to Muscovy and Theodoro, who I hope to eventually vassalize. I was also allied with Crimea for awhile (as a deterrant to the Ottomans, as while AI will knowingly attack their ally's allies they do seem to at least consider it as an extra negative to declaring war.) but when I yoinked all of Genoa's black sea provinces they broke it. Luckily at least at the moment the Ottomans aren't even hostile towards me. I've got a bunch of diplomats and free relation slots so I'm looking for more useful allies but at the moment there aren't any good candidates.
Yes western Europe is crazy, and yes I wish I had actually been playing in Western Europe when it decides to go crazy like this. The partitions of France! Austria migrating west!
I wanted to test an idea I'd had for awhile now so I created quick custom nation setup and yes, as I thought
Sich-Rada+30% Calvary to Infantry Ration+20% Calvary Bonus Tradition is... really strong. Calvary Bonuses are cheap ideas to pick and you will absolutely wipe out enemies. I also put in a +20% shock damage modifier as the ambition and I figure with a fully Cossack Calvary stack you'd just melt enemies like butter on shock phase. Even with just the traditions you melt enemies in like moments.
They kinda need to win quickly because if they don't, your infantry takes way more casualties during the shock phase than your cavalry and you slip into insufficient support
Posts
I guess another alternative is to consolidate what I have and develop for Renaissance, which would also help my economy a nice amount as well as getting slightly closer to 300 development. I'm pretty sure I have a fair bit of war exhaustion that would be wonderful to reduce as well. It does feel kind of wrong to not be at war as a horde nation though.
There's a mission that gives you cores on all of China, so I have almost finished conquering them all, but then I got hit by a coalition war. Able to get a white peace, but it's slowed me down a lot.
Ming's mandate is now below 1 and dropping, which is fantastic. I also have a positive income for the first time all game, which is also great. Not so great is the fact that my manpower is completely depleted and I still have to reinforce my existing army back to full, while also dealing with rebels (both in my lands and in Ming border provinces since they keep crossing the border to siege my stuff). I took a ton of cash from Ming so my inflation is higher than I would prefer, but at least I was able to embrace Renaissance and am now a Great Power (near the bottom of the list, but it's fine).
So I'm pretty sure Ming's power is broken, I just need to get through a consolidation period and recover my manpower. It's not good to be at a deficit there, though I might go and finish off Nivkh since I have a core on that province already (I couldn't cross the strait during my last war with them because I completely forgot that navies can block crossing straits, I had thought it was because the province was terra incognita at the time). I still need the land in Mongolia (and the Mandate of Heaven) to form Qing, and I should probably recruit up some more infantry once I have some manpower in preparation for the switch (since I assume I will drop to 50% max cavalry instead of 75%). So work yet to do, but I think the hard part is finished.
And pay more attention to your missions than I did! There's one to besiege a 25 dev city that I nearly missed out on, because there was only one city that big left for me once I unlocked the mission.
Yeah I took Beijing both for the fact that it's a 31 dev province (so money) but also to further cripple Ming's mandate. Unfortunately I am pretty sure that you don't get the mission to inflict 20 devastation on a 25 dev province until after you are Qing, so I'll have to make sure there is one to do that to still left at that point. Managing the mandate sounds kind of like a hassle, but it's necessary to have the Mandate to become Qing I'm pretty sure, and I want those ideas because they're great. Also forming Qing makes you the cultural union for the Chinese culture group, which again I am definitely all for. Passing reforms looks really dangerous though, so I'm going to be careful about that.
Mandate is significantly less painful now than the last version. That said, I still think I took it too early. The Unify China casus belli gives mandate growth, and I had to constantly be at war to maintain mandate, which of course lead to devastation and a coalition war with more devastation... it's 1600 now and I've only passed 2 reforms.
I kinda want to play as Confucian Mughals, assimilate every culture, harmonise every religion. Make an all-inclusive utopia (after centuries of bloody warfare).
Which node is the highest valued can change and that would cause it to spawn under those circumstances
The highest value node was alternating between Sevilla and Genoa, and both of those had multiple level 2 or higher centers.
My enthusiasm for the Qing ideas seem tempered by the fact that they gave Oirat and Mongolia similarly overpowered idea sets
This is a very difficult achievement on VH post-Dharma
Auld Alliance Reversed + Anglophile VH
I had to do a lot of weird stuff because of the way the mission tree is set up, I added myself to the HRE for the two HRE missions but then had to leave because another mission requires you to have Empire rank (duh).
Fighting the Ottomans, Mughals and Spain was really something
I must warn you though that the current patch might be difficult to get into, the game is a lot more punishing than it used to be when you play it "wrong" - for example, it didn't matter if your tech was "unbalanced", now you gain corruption
Personally, I bought them all. With 1400 hours played I feel like I got my money's worth.
For one of my colonies I exported all the Galician territories to Columbia in the hope of forming a Galician primary culture colonial nation, so I'm thinking of something like Galizia Berria. (Which, assuming Basque doesn't have special rules for names is probably Basque for "New Galicia".) Terranova is a boring but possible option for a Canadian colony. It'd be nice if anyone had any better ideas though.
Watching him made me a better player and I've enjoyed some of his additions to the team.
He had so much passion for EUIV and he's basically stopped playing on his stream. I wonder if working on it burned him out.
This was a lot of fun and reminded me of former campaigns
Liege's capital was in Wurzburg at one point
And Austria steadily migrated west
Bahmans formed Deccan and was only missing Delhi in order to be able to form Hindustan, but Timmy snatched Delhi away in the last quarter of the game
The Crimea is Anglican
@Platy
Since you seem to be pretty good at EUIV, how would you recommend trying to play Karaman's opening in the latest patch? I know the old strategy was to ally Mamelukes and anyone else who was hostile to the Ottomans and promise them land in an early war to cripple the Ottomans before you just grabbed all their land for yourself.
For quite a few patches though the Mamelukes have too many diplomatic relations to ever be willing to ally you for quite awhile. You can, sometimes, ally the Ottomans but they also often like allying the other Beyliks and will often ally Aq Qoly. So do you think there is any reliable way to take down the Ottomans early? Or is the play to try and ally them and steal the Levant/Egypt/Western Asia until you grow big enough to backstab them?
The Mamluks should eventually flip Friendly if you set yourself to "Threatened" with the Ottomans, they generally won't send you an alliance request when they're over their diplo limit but in most situations Friendly attitude should allow you to ally them.
The Mamluks will generally get destroyed by the Ottomans in an early war. I'm not sure about Normal mode, I think calling the Mamluks in on promise of land should work if the Ottos are already fighting Albania and Venice. But you're going to have a problem when they reach tech 4 before the Mamluks and are still able to kick back.
The Age of Exploration ability, if you have MoH, is probably the biggest problem since the Ottos will quickly siege out the Mamluks and peace them out. I did the achievement on the last patch on VH in August and I mostly played the long game, taking my time and fighting the Ottomans with the help of Mamluks and Timmy. Developing is generally good.
Your strategy depends on what difficulty you're playing on, and whether Sweden will ally you for your independence war. It took me a few tries on Hard, but in general you want to try and get Support Independence from someone - Scotland or England (though early game events can prevent England from being any use), or Lithuania if Poland is dumb and picks a local noble. If you're able, allying Sweden will make the first war much easier though you'll need to watch out for them occupying Sjaelland.
Right off the bat, develop a province to 10 dev (perhaps Agdesiden for its iron) and grant it to the Burghers. Begin drafting ships for war. You'll want a heavy fleet to sink Denmark's galley navy. Closer to your independence war, also try for a morale of navies advisor regardless of how much debt you'd take on. Winning the first war is more important than whatever debt you accrue. Improve relations with Scotland or England, and Sweden if you want to try and get their alliance, and use the diplomatic macro view (Build menu -> zero key, tab to Alliance Actions) to look for Support Independence offers. Denmark will usually support loyalists on you and Sweden early to drop liberty desire, but this might end briefly so watch for spikes in Sweden's liberty desire. If it goes above 50%, ally them quickly.
For the war, position your army in Bahuslen and watch Denmark's fort maintenance in Lund. As they suppress their Gotlander rebels they're likely to cut maintenance on the fort in Lund. If the fort is unmaintained, you can declare on the first day of a long month (31 days) and march onto Lund before it gets a garrison, giving you a one-cycle siege. From there, it's a matter of using your navy to isolate Denmark's army and whittle away their navy. Use your heavies and don't be afraid to retreat from a naval battle after you sink a few galleys but before you lose your heavies. Chip away with hit and runs until you have worn him down. Try to occupy Sjaelland if you're able and demand at least Sjaelland and/or Lund along with Independence. Don't give Sweden anything, you don't want their alliance once you're independent.
Once you have Sjaelland, move your capital there for a large income boost. From there, you're free to dominate the Baltic however you like. It's useful to take the claims-bordering-claims age bonus and get a claim on Riga, then use their alliance webs to attack indirectly into the northern HRE states without getting the emperor involved. The Baltic has several opportunities for island traps, such as on Aland, where you can assign the island to a vassal and set scutage, then bait a large enemy army onto the island and trap them there with your navy. You can use those to completely neuter large opponents like Muscovy or HRE coalitions. Force-vassalize Lubeck and set scutage for massive income boost. It's a lot of AE but your straits positioning gives you a huge defensive advantage if you get a coalition, and you can let that tick down while you work on the northern Baltic.
I like Innovative/Offensive/Expansion idea groups early, since Norway's national ideas give you conquistadors and explorers and a colonist on their own. You could also take Administrative early, or Diplomatic. There's a lot of solid options since you're not required to go into Exploration as Norway.
Also, don't use galleys. Galleys are poop from a butt. Scuttle any you capture. When it's time to hit England, set up by taking The Isles from Scotland and setting scutage, then use them as an island trap. Sacrifice a small army to bait the main English forces onto the island and park your navy there to stick them in place. You can do similar work with the Irish Sea strait.
Also also: get Dalaskogen and Burgher+Dev it up asap. Lotsa ducats in them thar mines.
I used to feel the same way, I've posted here about how much I've enjoyed knocking them down. Then I started reading the eu4 reddit and the paradox forums... a lot of 'ottomans are op' is barely disguised 'fuck muslims'. Or not disguised at all. If you've ever heard them referred to as 'kebab', that's a reference to a video from the balkan war urging people to slaughter turkish civilians. Now I try to ally the Ottomans every game, because fuck everyone else.
oh yeah the paradox gaming community is unfortunately pretty racist and islamophobic. i just hate the big blobs of the game. i like variety and a country like the ottomans pretty much just always bops everyone else around them without fail making the map less interesting.
like it used to be France but they haven't been such a big player for dozens of patches now.
I still remember eu3 blobs, they were pretty heinous. Anyone else remember snakehemia?
I loved having Byzantium with a Prussia March. I went to One Faith with that.
...trebizond!
Yes western Europe is crazy, and yes I wish I had actually been playing in Western Europe when it decides to go crazy like this. The partitions of France! Austria migrating west!
Sich-Rada+30% Calvary to Infantry Ration+20% Calvary Bonus Tradition is... really strong. Calvary Bonuses are cheap ideas to pick and you will absolutely wipe out enemies. I also put in a +20% shock damage modifier as the ambition and I figure with a fully Cossack Calvary stack you'd just melt enemies like butter on shock phase. Even with just the traditions you melt enemies in like moments.
Unless you can run 100% Cavalry