I remember trying this game some time ago. I found it pretty frustrating, as some tiny countries with negligible income seemed to outright make money and troops out of thin air. It's annoying when Bumfuckland can field ten times the armies you've amassed over a long time, in a single turn. It's like the economy and other limits existed only to me, though it might just be my lack of understanding of game mechanics. When I tried playing with those countries, I struggled to field almost any military might, so I never figured out where they pulled them.
I cheated a lot, it felt like the computer cheated, so it was more akin to evening the odds.
I remember trying this game some time ago. I found it pretty frustrating, as some tiny countries with negligible income seemed to outright make money and troops out of thin air. It's annoying when Bumfuckland can field ten times the armies you've amassed over a long time, in a single turn. It's like the economy and other limits existed only to me, though it might just be my lack of understanding of game mechanics. When I tried playing with those countries, I struggled to field almost any military might, so I never figured out where they pulled them.
I cheated a lot, it felt like the computer cheated, so it was more akin to evening the odds.
Whenever that happens to me I figure they just took out a loan and bought mercs. Would make sense to take a loan out tos ave your country.
Yeah, sounds like Austria was HRE. Also, this is gonna sound like a stupid question, but were the actual units upgraded? A good strategy (at least early-mid game) is to have a stack of just cavalry so that when you chase retreating armies, you'll get in place first and your enemy will have an attacking penalty.
In retrospect it is pretty likely that his infantry was mostly man-at-arms or longbowmen. I usually field large cavalry only armies supported by two thousand man strong foot armies for castle sieges (considering upping this to 3 or 4 k to allow them to wipe out any mercenaries or recruits that appear.
As always happens in my abusive relationship with EU3 I reinstalled it. This time my conquests went a bit better, and I am not doing quite decently as Venice. I managed to accumulate an enormous amount of reputation during the first fifteen years of play which has crippled me since, but I have almost recovered from it.
I have a few problems I could use advice on. Firstly my conquest of Italy has been cut short by the Muslim countries. The Ottoman empire has given me a warning and seem to be on the brink of going to war with me, and they have several strong allies. If I were to take Rome to allow myself to become Italy in the long run, I believe I might be able to fight the Ottomans without their allies, but even then they pose a significant threat. Not to mention that even if I win a battle against them that will only make them hate me more, and wiping them out is not really an option. The alternative would seem to be to spend about a thousand denars in bribes to get them far enough into the positives to ally them.
Secondly, the computer players simply have more soldiers and better generals/admirals than me. In my ignorance I assumed that the heavy warships being four times more expensive and slower than the galleys would be good at beating them at sea, but my seven heavy ships seem to lose easily against twice their number of galleys with a decent admiral. I believe I could up my army strength to maybe 30 thousand at a fairly manageable long term cost to my economy, but I would also need a great admiral (impossible at my 10% navy tradition) and probably at least 10-15 galleys to be able to definitively beat the Ottomans at sea.
Thirdly, I can't understand how to conquer the new world. At navy tech 7 I can't even colonize the islands off of the coast of northern Africa, and that distance is tiny compared to the atlantic. Leap frogging between islands would take over 60 years. At what navy tech does colonies in the americas become viable, or is there some trick to it that I do not know?
I remember trying this game some time ago. I found it pretty frustrating, as some tiny countries with negligible income seemed to outright make money and troops out of thin air. It's annoying when Bumfuckland can field ten times the armies you've amassed over a long time, in a single turn. It's like the economy and other limits existed only to me, though it might just be my lack of understanding of game mechanics. When I tried playing with those countries, I struggled to field almost any military might, so I never figured out where they pulled them.
I cheated a lot, it felt like the computer cheated, so it was more akin to evening the odds.
Whenever that happens to me I figure they just took out a loan and bought mercs. Would make sense to take a loan out tos ave your country.
Yeah, but they could keep doing it for ages. Fielding enough troops to eventually conquer my nation that's easily ten times larger than theirs. Confused the hell out of me. Happened on two out of three games I played.
I remember trying this game some time ago. I found it pretty frustrating, as some tiny countries with negligible income seemed to outright make money and troops out of thin air. It's annoying when Bumfuckland can field ten times the armies you've amassed over a long time, in a single turn. It's like the economy and other limits existed only to me, though it might just be my lack of understanding of game mechanics. When I tried playing with those countries, I struggled to field almost any military might, so I never figured out where they pulled them.
I cheated a lot, it felt like the computer cheated, so it was more akin to evening the odds.
Whenever that happens to me I figure they just took out a loan and bought mercs. Would make sense to take a loan out tos ave your country.
Yeah, but they could keep doing it for ages. Fielding enough troops to eventually conquer my nation that's easily ten times larger than theirs. Confused the hell out of me. Happened on two out of three games I played.
Ive seen the AI take out a fuckton of loans before for fielding a lot of mercs.
It murders them in the long run though, because after a few unpaid loans they will go bankrupt, and most of their provinces will revolt. Although it does take quite a while for that to happen.
I'm hardly an expert, but any western country of moderate size is a decent choice. France, Aragon, Spain, Austria, England and Poland should all be decent choices.
Mind you, it is still very easy to screw up with those nations.
Also I would love an answer to my questions on page 5!
Man playing as England with that mod Ethan uses is a bitch. Tons of revolts two wars at the start and having to deal with inflation due to poor income.
Which country would you all suggest for a noob's first game?
I would go with Portugal. It can easily ally with powerful nations, and it is closest to the New World. It is also small country, meaning that it is easy to manage.
This game is pretty addicting, started my first game with Novgorod (Northern Russia) to try and figure out how the economy works.
Just kept sending out traders and eventually became one of the richest nations. However, now I'm in a war with the Golden Horde.
At first I thought this would be great, they attack Muscovy (which I planned to take out later anyways) and weaken it while I go and take a bunch of territories to the east and then secure peace treaty having lost almost nothing. I did better than expected, and took Kazan (a trading center), however when I make a peace treaty I lose all my territories.
Man, it sucks so much, there is no way they are going to just let me have 6 territories (their military is slightly larger). Is there any other way to keep those territories? I really don't want to lose them, but I also don't want to hire a bunch of expensive mercs which might not even be enough to win via annihilation.
This game is pretty addicting, started my first game with Novgorod (Northern Russia) to try and figure out how the economy works.
Just kept sending out traders and eventually became one of the richest nations. However, now I'm in a war with the Golden Horde.
At first I thought this would be great, they attack Muscovy (which I planned to take out later anyways) and weaken it while I go and take a bunch of territories to the east and then secure peace treaty having lost almost nothing. I did better than expected, and took Kazan (a trading center), however when I make a peace treaty I lose all my territories.
Man, it sucks so much, there is no way they are going to just let me have 6 territories (their military is slightly larger). Is there any other way to keep those territories? I really don't want to lose them, but I also don't want to hire a bunch of expensive mercs which might not even be enough to win via annihilation.
You have to demand them as tribute when sueing for peace. I still have yet to work out how to know when I can demand it so I just stomp them and demand a couple. If they say no I kill any armies they make till they say yes.
ok, I checked the little war advisor panel for the first time, turns out their army 2.5 times as big as mine and also fighting at 100% efficiency (what does this mean?). The only thing I got going for me is that they have a lot of war weariness.
ok, I checked the little war advisor panel for the first time, turns out their army 2.5 times as big as mine and also fighting at 100% efficiency (what does this mean?). The only thing I got going for me is that they have a lot of war weariness.
By efficiency do you mean War Capacity? I think its based on how their standing army is divided, as in a lot of small armies being more efficient than one large one, although I don't really know.
Having a lot of War Weariness is very good though, the higher it is the more likely his provinces are to revolt.
Yeah, war capacity is what I meant. I actually think it's the other way around though, the more concentrated your army the more capacity it has (I am fighting against the Teutonic Order now and my army is at 100% because it is concentrated into only 2 stacks). I still don't know if it has any effect on your army though.
Had to give up the spoils of war to the Golden Horde, at least the muscovites are weak now. However, I find myself sandwiched between 3 giants (Sweden, Lithuania, Golden Horde).
I think the only option is colonialist expansion, but the only way to explore is to get level 7 trade? Which is is going to take a ridiculously long time.
btw, anyone know if it is possible to get more trade centers for merchants to go to? I got 5 merchants in every trade center and 5 more sitting idle.
Yeah, war capacity is what I meant. I actually think it's the other way around though, the more concentrated your army the more capacity it has (I am fighting against the Teutonic Order now and my army is at 100% because it is concentrated into only 2 stacks). I still don't know if it has any effect on your army though.
Had to give up the spoils of war to the Golden Horde, at least the muscovites are weak now. However, I find myself sandwiched between 3 giants (Sweden, Lithuania, Golden Horde).
I think the only option is colonialist expansion, but the only way to explore is to get level 7 trade? Which is is going to take a ridiculously long time.
btw, anyone know if it is possible to get more trade centers for merchants to go to? I got 5 merchants in every trade center and 5 more sitting idle.
If that is occurring, you won't want Kazan until you have a core on it. taking a Center of trade that you don't have a claim to murders your trade efficiency. War Capacity is how strong your armies are in comparison to one another. If I kill off all of your army and navy, you'll have a capacity of 0.
To the guy with Venice-what you do is get Quest for the New World, which increases your colonial range by 50% The real problem is that in In Nomine, all colonial ranges go from the nearest core, meaning from Venice. Once you get cores on Naples, maybe it'll be easier. But my suggestion is to get quest for the new world, declare war upon the Marmelukes, take Judea, Sinai, that providence between Mecca and Judea, Mecca and Medina (which gives you +1 prestige a year as well as more missionaries), and wait for those to get cores, or alternatively try to find a way to bring your navies all the way to the red sea. Once you manage to get either of those, send your guys into India and start taking Indian stuff.
Edit-also at the same time, being unable to colonize just means you can't send colonists. If you find a way to get your ships on the Mexican coast, you can declare upon Maya or the Aztecs and annex them in 1 war (you can just take pagan providences the moment you occupy them).
edit-and I'm going to try to post a big update, but it's hard pausing, making an image, and saving it. Does anyone know another way to get images that wouldn't constrict gameplay so much?
edit 2-My suggestion to a starting player is Portugal. Few enemies to deal with, a great starting position, isolated from France, Austria, Russia, and Poland, and you rarely have land battles with enemies as advanced as you. As a second game, I'd suggest choosing 1492 as Russia, as that game will be nothing but land battles, and you can take over a good portion of Asia by the end of the game.
Thanks for the hints Ethan, I never even considered going into India.
But oh my god, the Ottoman empire is coming to get me. It has chewed all the way through Hungary, and is now at my doorstep.
Problem is that while I can get armies large enough to sort of challenge him, I can't fight them effectively since any battles will be in their territories amongst provinces that have a supply limit of 2-4. I am fighting an enemy with superior military tradition, superior generals, superior numbers and my armies will starve while his get fresh soldiers all the time.
My sole advantage is that I have better soldiers, and I am not sure I can avoid this conflict any more. It may be game over.
How do you get that new world idea? It says I need to get some explorer title but I have no idea how to do it.
I think you need 3 or more exploration ideas to get it in Magna Mundi
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GoslingLooking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, ProbablyWatertown, WIRegistered Userregular
edited January 2009
Judging by the current direction, I would go for carving as big a slice of Africa out for yourself as you can. Obviously there are matters to deal with at home, but as far as colonization I'd just start making for the Cape of Good Hope before the rest of Europe does.
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I have a new soccer blog The Minnow Tank. Reading it psychically kicks Sepp Blatter in the bean bag.
Judging by the current direction, I would go for carving as big a slice of Africa out for yourself as you can. Obviously there are matters to deal with at home, but as far as colonization I'd just start making for the Cape of Good Hope before the rest of Europe does.
Africa is actually very hard target for colonization. Natives are extremely hostile, and climate is unhabitable, meaning that colony growth is usually negative. But if you succeed in it, colonizing Africa can be very profitable, and make expansion towards Asia hard for others. Central areas of Africa are completely unexplorable.
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Hypnotically inclined.
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
edited January 2009
Hah! I haven't played this in awhile. Last time I did I played as Loirrane(sp?). Its a 1 or 2 province nation just to the east of France. With them I eventually conquered all of Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and most of India. I also colonized/subjugated most of Central America. I had so many vassals that no force on earth could possible stand against me.
All that from a tiny piss-ant kingdom.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
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GoslingLooking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, ProbablyWatertown, WIRegistered Userregular
Judging by the current direction, I would go for carving as big a slice of Africa out for yourself as you can. Obviously there are matters to deal with at home, but as far as colonization I'd just start making for the Cape of Good Hope before the rest of Europe does.
Africa is actually very hard target for colonization. Natives are extremely hostile, and climate is unhabitable, meaning that colony growth is usually negative. But if you succeed in it, colonizing Africa can be very profitable, and make expansion towards Asia hard for others. Central areas of Africa are completely unexplorable.
If I were the one playing, and if I had any interest in following the history books, I'd take that under consideration. Basically I'm treating this as the following conversation:
ME: "Africa has nice beaches on its southern coast. Take it and subjugate all you meet along the way."
ETHAN: "But sire, that is essentially a suicide miss--"
ME: "Chop chop, peasant, or I shall have your head! Take lots of Bibles, the savages must be civilized for eventual sale!"
Basically, King Leopold was a dick, but seeing as this is a video game, I'll be following his lead.
Gosling on
I have a new soccer blog The Minnow Tank. Reading it psychically kicks Sepp Blatter in the bean bag.
I seem to be utterly stuck, with no places for me to expand to. The Ottomans dominate to the east, and are too large for me to face. Austria to the north would be perfect but they have too many allies for me to defeat. Taking my Italian neighbours would mean crippling myself all over again with bad reputation. To the west France and Spain have grown to become giants.
You win yet again, EU3. I try so hard to like you, but you make it so hard. Also I still can't shake the feeling that the computers are cheating.
Edit: Checked in on Austria. They had 4k gold, and were paying almost minimal wages to their soldiers with no cost in morale. Hmm.
I seem to be utterly stuck, with no places for me to expand to. The Ottomans dominate to the east, and are too large for me to face. Austria to the north would be perfect but they have too many allies for me to defeat. Taking my Italian neighbours would mean crippling myself all over again with bad reputation. To the west France and Spain have grown to become giants.
You win yet again, EU3. I try so hard to like you, but you make it so hard. Also I still can't shake the feeling that the computers are cheating.
Edit: Checked in on Austria. They had 4k gold, and were paying almost minimal wages to their soldiers with no cost in morale. Hmm.
If your just selecting the stack and looking at the morale bar, it actually is having a effect on the morale. Since the bar shows the max morale the army could possibly have, regarding the slider setting. You can mouse over it to get a actual number though.
Oh, I know it does for my troops. I meant that it did not affect the moral of the computer players troops, since they were always at max when we met in battle even though his wages were down when I checked in on him by loading as his faction.
The AI does cheat a lot. The Very Hard settings are pretty dumb, and I'm pretty sure Magna Mundi is balanced for Normal/Normal.
However, the counter to this is that the AI isn't great, so it really does need these cheats to compete with a human who knows what they are doing.
Judging by the current direction, I would go for carving as big a slice of Africa out for yourself as you can. Obviously there are matters to deal with at home, but as far as colonization I'd just start making for the Cape of Good Hope before the rest of Europe does.
I agree with you on this, and while Portugal may get to it before me (it gets events helping exploration), I'll probably go to war with them at some point in time. No matter what game I play in Europa Universalis, I always either go for the Americas or I go for the East. As I have a core in Judea, I'm thinking of taking that first. My plan is to wait until Portugal has some nice African colonies on the coast, then take those, and to wait until my land units are superior to Morracco's, because right now taking a providence means that I'll have to constantly fight a country which as of now has more military potential than I do.
So I am thinking of doing a Hearts of Iron 2 Lets Play, as Sweden.
How's everyone's interest in that?
I say that this would rock, speaking from personal experience Jaramr is very very good at Paradox games and could spin a gripping yarn.
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Suicide SlydeHaunts your dreamsof mountains sunk below the seaRegistered Userregular
edited January 2009
Where is the reconquista? le sigh, I was looking forward to following this. Anyway I'll post something useful, I suck at economics and investing. Somehow around the fifty year mark after starting at 1399 my nation just starts running out of cash and either a)inflation runs rampant, although I didn't understand inflation at the time or b) I go bankrupt, as in my current Austria campaign, although I did keep inflation down and hopefully I'll get out of this bankruptcy. So does anybody have any tips for maintaining cash flow and a balanced budget.
Where is the reconquista? le sigh, I was looking forward to following this. Anyway I'll post something useful, I suck at economics and investing. Somehow around the fifty year mark after starting at 1399 my nation just starts running out of cash and either a)inflation runs rampant, although I didn't understand inflation at the time or b) I go bankrupt, as in my current Austria campaign, although I did keep inflation down and hopefully I'll get out of this bankruptcy. So does anybody have any tips for maintaining cash flow and a balanced budget.
Inflation is caused by minting, in other words the slider on the Economy tab is set to mint money. The best way to balance out a nation is to have to invest into research and have a monthly loss but use the annual census tax to fund your growth. Additional Inflation can be curbed by being Centralized, hiring "Masters of Mint" advisors to your Court and choosing National Bank for your National Idea.
As far as staying economicaly viable you will need to manage your expenses. Your monthly income is always re-invested into Tech research and this is usually done automatically. The biggest spending you can have is your standing Army, you have to be very careful at managing it. Note that you can lower maintanance on your army during peace times, this will allow you to save money, however lowered maintanance means lower morale when you are fighting rebels. You can also disband a portion of your troops in peace time, note that infantry maintanance is around .2 of a ducat while cavalry is .5 of a ducat. Thus you can maintain 10000 infantry for the price of 2000 cavalry, this is where the balancing act comes in, Cavalry is far superior to infantry untill about mid-1700s. It is also nearly twice as expensive to recruit, thus you will need to find an equilibrium of how many Cavalry units you can afford to keep during the times of peace.
I know players who always disband their cavalry armies after the war, while others will do anything to maintain all-cavalry armies throughout the game. The problem is in finding just how many troops you can afford and how often you find yourself in a war.
Maintenance is also the reason that quality is so important. If you don't know what else you want to slider change, change quality. It's better to win with 5000 troops than to win with 10000, because those 5000 will be cheaper because the cheaper maintenance will make up for the more expensive recruit cost.
P10 on
Shameful pursuits and utterly stupid opinions
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Suicide SlydeHaunts your dreamsof mountains sunk below the seaRegistered Userregular
edited January 2009
Thanks! I completely forget about lowering maintenance on my army. I thought I was forced to downsize my army which really isn't that viable at this point because I have some rather upset neighbors. So far most of the wars I have fought in have been defensive and I use a lot of infantry to counter the enemy invasion and then launch a counter invasion which is mostly made up of cavalry. So far this strategy has seemed to have paid off really well in terms of land grabbing, I'll just have to remember to lower maintenance costs during peacetime.
So, I finally figured out how to send merchants out, and that was good. I'm a sicilian and I managed to get a monopoly on the french center of trade (was given a mission to do so).
However, I noticed that each time the game auto-sends a merchant out per my instructions, I take like a 4 or 5 ducat hit. What is this based on? Is it a flat fee for sending a merchant? Or is distance involved?
I'm trying to figure out if its worth it to send them all over to France.
Also, I have a war question.
Aragon declared war on me, so I took my army and quickly captured Sardinia, which they had left undefended. Then they came in with a massive fleet and killed all my boats, leaving my stranded and unable to protect my main provinces (which they invaded shortly thereafter. So, as it was looking like I would be moving my capital to Sardina, out of nowhere Naples (military ally) comes in with a massive force and crushes them. They had taken Malta from me, but I was able to build ships now that they were scared off or picking up more troops and I swiftly reclaimed it. So here I am, in a good position. Aragon has been beaten back and Sardinia is in my hands.
How do I end the war but hold on to Sardinia? Do I have to wait for them to sue for peace?
Click on one of Aragon's provinces, and in the in diplomacy menu in the bottom left, click "Sue for Peace". At that point, you should click "Demand Tribute" and see what you can get.
Unfortunately the winter vacation is coming to a close now. I will do my best to continue this during the semester, but I have a shit ton of work to do then.
Unfortunately the winter vacation is coming to a close now. I will do my best to continue this during the semester, but I have a shit ton of work to do then.
You know, I could do Let's Play for EUIII, although I would be playing using only In Nomine. I just need to few week long break from playing the game. In my last game, I was Castille, and I conquered whole Africa and India. Goddamn long game, and I guess I got overdosed.
Is there anywhere online to download the full game? I have searched and have not found anything yet.
No piracy talk. But if you want to buy it online, best place would be GamersGate. But hardcopy goes for 15 dollars or so, so I would recommend buying it that way.
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I cheated a lot, it felt like the computer cheated, so it was more akin to evening the odds.
Whenever that happens to me I figure they just took out a loan and bought mercs. Would make sense to take a loan out tos ave your country.
In retrospect it is pretty likely that his infantry was mostly man-at-arms or longbowmen. I usually field large cavalry only armies supported by two thousand man strong foot armies for castle sieges (considering upping this to 3 or 4 k to allow them to wipe out any mercenaries or recruits that appear.
As always happens in my abusive relationship with EU3 I reinstalled it. This time my conquests went a bit better, and I am not doing quite decently as Venice. I managed to accumulate an enormous amount of reputation during the first fifteen years of play which has crippled me since, but I have almost recovered from it.
I have a few problems I could use advice on. Firstly my conquest of Italy has been cut short by the Muslim countries. The Ottoman empire has given me a warning and seem to be on the brink of going to war with me, and they have several strong allies. If I were to take Rome to allow myself to become Italy in the long run, I believe I might be able to fight the Ottomans without their allies, but even then they pose a significant threat. Not to mention that even if I win a battle against them that will only make them hate me more, and wiping them out is not really an option. The alternative would seem to be to spend about a thousand denars in bribes to get them far enough into the positives to ally them.
Secondly, the computer players simply have more soldiers and better generals/admirals than me. In my ignorance I assumed that the heavy warships being four times more expensive and slower than the galleys would be good at beating them at sea, but my seven heavy ships seem to lose easily against twice their number of galleys with a decent admiral. I believe I could up my army strength to maybe 30 thousand at a fairly manageable long term cost to my economy, but I would also need a great admiral (impossible at my 10% navy tradition) and probably at least 10-15 galleys to be able to definitively beat the Ottomans at sea.
Thirdly, I can't understand how to conquer the new world. At navy tech 7 I can't even colonize the islands off of the coast of northern Africa, and that distance is tiny compared to the atlantic. Leap frogging between islands would take over 60 years. At what navy tech does colonies in the americas become viable, or is there some trick to it that I do not know?
Yeah, but they could keep doing it for ages. Fielding enough troops to eventually conquer my nation that's easily ten times larger than theirs. Confused the hell out of me. Happened on two out of three games I played.
Ive seen the AI take out a fuckton of loans before for fielding a lot of mercs.
It murders them in the long run though, because after a few unpaid loans they will go bankrupt, and most of their provinces will revolt. Although it does take quite a while for that to happen.
Mind you, it is still very easy to screw up with those nations.
Also I would love an answer to my questions on page 5!
I would go with Portugal. It can easily ally with powerful nations, and it is closest to the New World. It is also small country, meaning that it is easy to manage.
Just kept sending out traders and eventually became one of the richest nations. However, now I'm in a war with the Golden Horde.
At first I thought this would be great, they attack Muscovy (which I planned to take out later anyways) and weaken it while I go and take a bunch of territories to the east and then secure peace treaty having lost almost nothing. I did better than expected, and took Kazan (a trading center), however when I make a peace treaty I lose all my territories.
Man, it sucks so much, there is no way they are going to just let me have 6 territories (their military is slightly larger). Is there any other way to keep those territories? I really don't want to lose them, but I also don't want to hire a bunch of expensive mercs which might not even be enough to win via annihilation.
You have to demand them as tribute when sueing for peace. I still have yet to work out how to know when I can demand it so I just stomp them and demand a couple. If they say no I kill any armies they make till they say yes.
By efficiency do you mean War Capacity? I think its based on how their standing army is divided, as in a lot of small armies being more efficient than one large one, although I don't really know.
Having a lot of War Weariness is very good though, the higher it is the more likely his provinces are to revolt.
Had to give up the spoils of war to the Golden Horde, at least the muscovites are weak now. However, I find myself sandwiched between 3 giants (Sweden, Lithuania, Golden Horde).
I think the only option is colonialist expansion, but the only way to explore is to get level 7 trade? Which is is going to take a ridiculously long time.
btw, anyone know if it is possible to get more trade centers for merchants to go to? I got 5 merchants in every trade center and 5 more sitting idle.
If that is occurring, you won't want Kazan until you have a core on it. taking a Center of trade that you don't have a claim to murders your trade efficiency. War Capacity is how strong your armies are in comparison to one another. If I kill off all of your army and navy, you'll have a capacity of 0.
To the guy with Venice-what you do is get Quest for the New World, which increases your colonial range by 50% The real problem is that in In Nomine, all colonial ranges go from the nearest core, meaning from Venice. Once you get cores on Naples, maybe it'll be easier. But my suggestion is to get quest for the new world, declare war upon the Marmelukes, take Judea, Sinai, that providence between Mecca and Judea, Mecca and Medina (which gives you +1 prestige a year as well as more missionaries), and wait for those to get cores, or alternatively try to find a way to bring your navies all the way to the red sea. Once you manage to get either of those, send your guys into India and start taking Indian stuff.
Edit-also at the same time, being unable to colonize just means you can't send colonists. If you find a way to get your ships on the Mexican coast, you can declare upon Maya or the Aztecs and annex them in 1 war (you can just take pagan providences the moment you occupy them).
edit-and I'm going to try to post a big update, but it's hard pausing, making an image, and saving it. Does anyone know another way to get images that wouldn't constrict gameplay so much?
edit 2-My suggestion to a starting player is Portugal. Few enemies to deal with, a great starting position, isolated from France, Austria, Russia, and Poland, and you rarely have land battles with enemies as advanced as you. As a second game, I'd suggest choosing 1492 as Russia, as that game will be nothing but land battles, and you can take over a good portion of Asia by the end of the game.
But oh my god, the Ottoman empire is coming to get me. It has chewed all the way through Hungary, and is now at my doorstep.
Problem is that while I can get armies large enough to sort of challenge him, I can't fight them effectively since any battles will be in their territories amongst provinces that have a supply limit of 2-4. I am fighting an enemy with superior military tradition, superior generals, superior numbers and my armies will starve while his get fresh soldiers all the time.
My sole advantage is that I have better soldiers, and I am not sure I can avoid this conflict any more. It may be game over.
I think you need 3 or more exploration ideas to get it in Magna Mundi
Africa is actually very hard target for colonization. Natives are extremely hostile, and climate is unhabitable, meaning that colony growth is usually negative. But if you succeed in it, colonizing Africa can be very profitable, and make expansion towards Asia hard for others. Central areas of Africa are completely unexplorable.
All that from a tiny piss-ant kingdom.
ME: "Africa has nice beaches on its southern coast. Take it and subjugate all you meet along the way."
ETHAN: "But sire, that is essentially a suicide miss--"
ME: "Chop chop, peasant, or I shall have your head! Take lots of Bibles, the savages must be civilized for eventual sale!"
Basically, King Leopold was a dick, but seeing as this is a video game, I'll be following his lead.
You win yet again, EU3. I try so hard to like you, but you make it so hard. Also I still can't shake the feeling that the computers are cheating.
Edit: Checked in on Austria. They had 4k gold, and were paying almost minimal wages to their soldiers with no cost in morale. Hmm.
If your just selecting the stack and looking at the morale bar, it actually is having a effect on the morale. Since the bar shows the max morale the army could possibly have, regarding the slider setting. You can mouse over it to get a actual number though.
However, the counter to this is that the AI isn't great, so it really does need these cheats to compete with a human who knows what they are doing.
I agree with you on this, and while Portugal may get to it before me (it gets events helping exploration), I'll probably go to war with them at some point in time. No matter what game I play in Europa Universalis, I always either go for the Americas or I go for the East. As I have a core in Judea, I'm thinking of taking that first. My plan is to wait until Portugal has some nice African colonies on the coast, then take those, and to wait until my land units are superior to Morracco's, because right now taking a providence means that I'll have to constantly fight a country which as of now has more military potential than I do.
How's everyone's interest in that?
I say that this would rock, speaking from personal experience Jaramr is very very good at Paradox games and could spin a gripping yarn.
Inflation is caused by minting, in other words the slider on the Economy tab is set to mint money. The best way to balance out a nation is to have to invest into research and have a monthly loss but use the annual census tax to fund your growth. Additional Inflation can be curbed by being Centralized, hiring "Masters of Mint" advisors to your Court and choosing National Bank for your National Idea.
As far as staying economicaly viable you will need to manage your expenses. Your monthly income is always re-invested into Tech research and this is usually done automatically. The biggest spending you can have is your standing Army, you have to be very careful at managing it. Note that you can lower maintanance on your army during peace times, this will allow you to save money, however lowered maintanance means lower morale when you are fighting rebels. You can also disband a portion of your troops in peace time, note that infantry maintanance is around .2 of a ducat while cavalry is .5 of a ducat. Thus you can maintain 10000 infantry for the price of 2000 cavalry, this is where the balancing act comes in, Cavalry is far superior to infantry untill about mid-1700s. It is also nearly twice as expensive to recruit, thus you will need to find an equilibrium of how many Cavalry units you can afford to keep during the times of peace.
I know players who always disband their cavalry armies after the war, while others will do anything to maintain all-cavalry armies throughout the game. The problem is in finding just how many troops you can afford and how often you find yourself in a war.
However, I noticed that each time the game auto-sends a merchant out per my instructions, I take like a 4 or 5 ducat hit. What is this based on? Is it a flat fee for sending a merchant? Or is distance involved?
I'm trying to figure out if its worth it to send them all over to France.
Also, I have a war question.
Aragon declared war on me, so I took my army and quickly captured Sardinia, which they had left undefended. Then they came in with a massive fleet and killed all my boats, leaving my stranded and unable to protect my main provinces (which they invaded shortly thereafter. So, as it was looking like I would be moving my capital to Sardina, out of nowhere Naples (military ally) comes in with a massive force and crushes them. They had taken Malta from me, but I was able to build ships now that they were scared off or picking up more troops and I swiftly reclaimed it. So here I am, in a good position. Aragon has been beaten back and Sardinia is in my hands.
How do I end the war but hold on to Sardinia? Do I have to wait for them to sue for peace?
You know, I could do Let's Play for EUIII, although I would be playing using only In Nomine. I just need to few week long break from playing the game. In my last game, I was Castille, and I conquered whole Africa and India. Goddamn long game, and I guess I got overdosed.
Or something with Victoria if I can ever brain it.
No piracy talk. But if you want to buy it online, best place would be GamersGate. But hardcopy goes for 15 dollars or so, so I would recommend buying it that way.