Yep. Basically, 15 years is how long you need for full recovery from a really bad war (10 years for full manpower plus another 5 to restore depleted units and recruit new ones, not to mention repaying loans and building back up some bank).
While it would be nice if there was a "minor war" mechanic such that you could easily take small war goals without having to engage in total war with the opponent, this is almost essential in the meantime where there is no such thing as a minor war. Well, beyond a power obliterating a minor anyway. The "length of war" malus is the primary culprit for this and should really be replaced with a more dynamic modifier that lets the AI "consider" how important the war goal is to it versus its overall likelihood of winning the war. If I attack an AI nation for a couple provinces it doesn't even care much about, it shouldn't require total war and several years to get that out of them. A skirmish or two, I occupy the territory, they relent, we both move on.
I guess I haven't clocked enough hours yet to be bothered by the downtime. I'm hovering around 90, and I don't even increase the speed beyond 3 yet. And I pause to do everything so that I don't waste days. That might be different if I had closer to 700 like these guys that seem to be a lot more bothered by this change.
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I mean, my big issue with it is that its negligible to a large country, but pretty hurtful to a minor in the HRE. Imagine you're Ulm or some tiny little guy, and you and your buddies attack a neighbor and his buddies (who are most likely surrounding you). You take their one province for 100% warscore, now you have a 15 year truce with the guys around you and then here comes Austria or France to roll over you because its taking you too long to expand.
I mean, my big issue with it is that its negligible to a large country, but pretty hurtful to a minor in the HRE. Imagine you're Ulm or some tiny little guy, and you and your buddies attack a neighbor and his buddies (who are most likely surrounding you). You take their one province for 100% warscore, now you have a 15 year truce with the guys around you and then here comes Austria or France to roll over you because its taking you too long to expand.
Yeah, in particular one of my first games I'm planning for 1.7 is a Dutch minor (probably Friesland so I start as a merchant republic) working towards the Netherlands. This is going to make it a lot harder to eat up as much of Burgundy as I would want to as quickly as I want to, particularly since I have to worry about the inheritance firing before I can grab what I want.
I'm super excited for almost all of the other changes I've read about, but the truce timer change is just mind-bogglingly terrible in basically any situation I can think of. Particularly paired with their unlisted change in 1.6 where larger nations' provinces don't scale in warscore cost anymore, so you can't pull off too much from a big opponent in a single war until super late game when you have the admin efficiency bonuses.
I don't know. I'll still probably pick up Res Publica tomorrow, because I'm now officially a whore for Paradox, with more hours sunk into CK2 and EU4 than probably all of the other games I've played since I started with CK2 combined. But I'm not really happy with the overall direction that a lot of their changes have seemed to be indicating lately, that fast expansion is not something the devs think should be possible normally.
in all those cases, it's just gonna create an even more gamey scenario. someone will cook up some weird web of guarantees and enforced peace in order to get back into the fight 15 years early. honestly, this is going to be another pretty legit limitation for the AI more than the human player. it's already pretty dumb, and now it's gotta sit around 3x longer, potentially, before continuing its conquests. it's hard for me to lose any sleep over big blue getting a little dumber, but for a game that already has pretty questionable AI, it's unfortunate that they will be even more hamstrung.
This is the future. This is what we built. This is what we wanted. It must have been. Because we all had the fucking choice, didn't we? It is only our money that allows commercial culture to flower. If we didn't want to live like this, we could have changed it at any time, by not fucking paying for it.
So let's celebrate by all going out and buying the same burger. -transmet
Just White Peace with each of the allies that you don't want to annex before you annex the war target. Now you have a 5-year peace with them.
The AI will be boosted by this overall. They rarely perform the shotgun assaults every 5 years that players do anyway; this most often happens when their target is in perpetual war with everyone else around them and thus never recovers troops or manpower, boosting their attractiveness as a target. Larger wait times keep the AI from doing this to itself, thus making it more likely to have multiple competing powers in the world. That's the explicit reason Johan gave for implementing the change in single-player (this was originally a multiplayer balance fix). Again, just see what happened to Austria in the previous pages here for an example of what it'll prevent.
The AI is also terrible at handling its manpower and will benefit from more enforced wait times. It tends to go all-out on every minor engagement it gets drawn into, leaving it wide open for additional attacks. Longer truces will help protect it from its excesses.
As a player in the early game, if your situation is desperate enough, just break the truce. Many starts already have day-one stab-hit war declarations, so a truce break here and there isn't going to be the end of the world.
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Ragusa's assaults on the empire of the Mamluks are relentless. The Croatian forces continue their advance at each opportunity, taking control of more chunks of Turkey with each war. And because the Mistokral is a hopeless troll, he returns Libya to the British.
Meanwhile, Muscovy had dragged the Republic into a battle with Qara Qoyunlu and Georgia. There were a couple skirmishes of note, but Moscow and Ragusa eventually overwhelmed the enemy. Georgia was forced to release Armenia; Ragusa responded by invading and vassalizing the new state as soon as possible. As for Qara Qoyunlu, Ragusa handles this peace itself, giving a bunch of cores to the recently-released Persia.
Expansion is rather slow as the cautious Republic tries to wait for France to get into a war with someone else before continuing its own invasions. There's also a good bit of Manpower to finish building. As soon as the opportunity presents itself, the Mistokral goes off and invades Turkey again. Soon, the region is united under Ragusa's flag, and Armenia is formally annexed.
Meanwhile, Qara Qoyunlu continues to get demolished from all sides; they've fallen way behind in military technology, and their neighbors are taking advantage. Edge territory is taken, while the nation of Najd is released as a new country. This is good news to the Balkans.
Reaching the Persian Gulf
The Mamluks have unfortunately fallen too small to continue to be a worthwhile target. The land is still plenty desirable; however, the Egyptians maintain a relationship with the Commonwealth, and if Ragusa declares any further invasions, the Poles will take control of the war. And the Poles are allied with France. That means declaring war on Egypt will draw most of Europe into war with Ragusa. That is not a worthwhile situation.
Unfortunately, a bunch of time is wasted when Sweden drags Ragusa into war with Denmark and Pomerania. This war results in the destruction of nearly half of the fearsome Danish Navy. Unfortunately, the other half is still stronger than what Ragusa can muster, so the ships are forced to dock. There are some minor battles in the Balkans, but Croatian forces successfully defend the homeland. Peace happens eventually, and no one bothers to tell the Mistokral what the deal consisted of.
Croatian eyes then fall upon Najd, which controls ports on the Persian Gulf. Though the territory is vast, the population is low and the land poor; it will be quick and relatively cheap to assimilate. Devious politicians get to work fabricating claims, and soon Ragusa launches an invasion on the friendless desert nation. The conflict is swift, and Ragusa annexes the entire nation all at once.
With this, Ragusa has gained a good amount of control over the trade nodes that supply Alexandria and Constantinople. Thanks to investment into new Trade Ideas, Ragusa has many more Merchants available to send, and soon more ducats are routed toward Ragusa's primary holdings (and away from competing nations). The only thing left is to lay claim to the source of the trade wealth - the Far East.
Invasion of India
Taking the Mission to expand into India, Ragusa gains new claims on regional coastal provinces. As something of a latecomer to the party, the Balkan Empire realizes she should step carefully. The local heavyweight Orissa has managed to form the Empire of Hindustan and is not to be trifled with. France and Spain have also taken colonies on the subcontinent and should be avoided.
A number of provinces are attractive, but too many of them enjoy problematic alliances. The best target is Baroda, allied with just a single two-province minor state of no consequence. Britain has a claim on one of its provinces, though, so Ragusa will have to make do with just the other two or risk war with the British. Ragusa would not lose to the British, but frankly she has enough enemies already.
As preparation, Ragusa first attacks Qara Qoyunlu, hoping to absorb its remaining mainland territories. However, it possesses too many colonies to be able to press them into giving up too much, and extensive borders with new ally and rapidly-expanding local power Persia are undesirable anyway. Ragusa settles for just two provinces; the rich Astrakhan, which guarantees Georgia will remain split, and the single province near the entrance of the Persian Gulf.
New transports are constructed throughout the region, and war is soon declared on Baroda. The war is short and uninteresting apart from the fact that the British were invading at the same time. Ragusa takes her two provinces while Britain looks to be settling for the third.
Meanwhile, France has been doing what France does and attacked the Papal States for a single claimed province. This pulled in most of Europe. Ragusa kept a close eye on proceedings, planning to jump in and take on the French the moment a sign of weakness appeared. However, France actually gained military strength over the length of the war and soundly whipped the combined might of just about everybody. Still having less than half the military strength, Ragusa decides to continue to stay out of conflict for now.
Unfortunately, the opportunity may now be lost forever. Muscovy, having claims on coastal Indian provinces as well, canceled the alliance the moment Ragusa's Indian invasion completed. Given that Moscow is largely unable to reach any of those territories and is unlikely to attack anyone for them, this will probably result in a permanent relations malus that will keep the alliance from reforming (unless the 1.7 patch fixes the desires provinces well enough). There is no good replacement available, so Ragusa settles for the strongest nation she can get - Hindustan. Hindustan is unlikely to contribute in any of Ragusa's wars, but the alliance troop count bonus would still come in handy and may serve to continue convincing the French that other targets are better targets.
What's Next?
Ragusa has achieved her goals. She has built an empire stretching from the Balkans and Italy through Turkey, Egypt, and the Middle East. Trade flowing into Ragusa and Venice is secured thanks to control of Constantinople and Alexandria and strong presence in Basra and the Gulf of Aden. Further avenues of growth are available in India, China, and Indonesia, and conflict with Oman could prove highly profitable.
The old threat of France remains, and the Commonwealth continues to be a thorn, especially now without Muscovy to take care of things. The Mamluks are untouchable in an offensive war for now and are highly unlikely to engage in a defensive war. Tripoli and Georgia are options, but they would likely be more trouble than they're worth.
It is currently 1765. Only 55 years remain, but the winds of change bring a new era to the world bristling with fresh opportunities and undiscovered obstacles. Will this final era at last bring the epic showdown with France? Or will Ragusa squeak by toward the Modern Era unscathed and unchallenged?
Just White Peace with each of the allies that you don't want to annex before you annex the war target. Now you have a 5-year peace with them.
The AI will be boosted by this overall. They rarely perform the shotgun assaults every 5 years that players do anyway; this most often happens when their target is in perpetual war with everyone else around them and thus never recovers troops or manpower, boosting their attractiveness as a target. Larger wait times keep the AI from doing this to itself, thus making it more likely to have multiple competing powers in the world. That's the explicit reason Johan gave for implementing the change in single-player (this was originally a multiplayer balance fix). Again, just see what happened to Austria in the previous pages here for an example of what it'll prevent.
The AI is also terrible at handling its manpower and will benefit from more enforced wait times. It tends to go all-out on every minor engagement it gets drawn into, leaving it wide open for additional attacks. Longer truces will help protect it from its excesses.
As a player in the early game, if your situation is desperate enough, just break the truce. Many starts already have day-one stab-hit war declarations, so a truce break here and there isn't going to be the end of the world.
Yeah, the change makes it even easier to stagger your opponents so after the first major war you don't have to worry as much about having large alliances to break up.
Coalitions are still a thing, but meh. They're not THAT hard to get around.
Johan's getting pretty salty with the community on the forums.
I don't give a fuck about the AI in this issue.. Its a matter of problem for the players vs players..
1) there was no incentive to fight a war for less than 100% warscore gains.
2) there is no incentive to ever give up early in a war, since losses are not recovered quick enough.
The MP balance is relevant for the game to work as a "play any nation in a vibrant world". Explaining why its important to a bunch of players is a bit like trying to explain algebra to 3 year olds..
If we don't balance for the game being balanced and fun in MP, then you will get a FAR WORSE singleplayer game.
I dunno if I really agree with it being a multiplayer game. I always saw the multiplayer options in the grand strategy games as more 'hey look at this neat thing you can do too' rather than what the game is balanced around. Cause the game doesn't really even offer a remotely level playing ground for a serious multiplayer game, and it doesn't really try to.
I can understand his frustrations. There were dozens of pages of personal attacks on his ability, character, and motivations. Still, posts like that are not going to help him.
I think his view is "if it's balanced and fun for multiplayer, then it'll be balanced and fun for single player, while if it's not balanced and fun for multiplayer, then it won't be balanced and fun for single player." This is almost trivially shown as false, of course, as the very starting conditions of nations are imbalanced by design, reflecting history instead of an even playing field.
I still think it's a good change because of the AI and how it will affect AI vs AI interactions. Preventing the roflstomping in multiplayer is fine, and it's probably okay to do the same thing with the player in single player games (just see how easily I crushed the Ottomans and the Mamluks using these kinds of advantages).
But defending the decision because of PvP is a poor tactic...
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Johan's getting pretty salty with the community on the forums.
I don't give a fuck about the AI in this issue.. Its a matter of problem for the players vs players..
1) there was no incentive to fight a war for less than 100% warscore gains.
2) there is no incentive to ever give up early in a war, since losses are not recovered quick enough.
The MP balance is relevant for the game to work as a "play any nation in a vibrant world". Explaining why its important to a bunch of players is a bit like trying to explain algebra to 3 year olds..
If we don't balance for the game being balanced and fun in MP, then you will get a FAR WORSE singleplayer game.
I dunno if I really agree with it being a multiplayer game. I always saw the multiplayer options in the grand strategy games as more 'hey look at this neat thing you can do too' rather than what the game is balanced around. Cause the game doesn't really even offer a remotely level playing ground for a serious multiplayer game, and it doesn't really try to.
Good or bad (i think bad) this game was made for multiplayer.
If people still aren't getting that at this point I can understand why he would be a little upset.
boy, there are a few bugs that i'm gonna wait on fixes for before starting again.
started a poland game to test out elec monarchy, which seems pretty interesting, but i'm gonna need to play with it a little more to see what you can really take advantage of with that setup. anyway, i turn commonwealth and am getting into various wars and noticing that i was going heavy negative income while my army was being reinforced. not just a little, it was borderline economy crippling.
i'll try poland again later.
so i started a japan game since i figured i could avoid having large standing armies for a while, and i wanted to see how it felt to play chinese tech without having my MP reduced (spoiler: feels good). i've got about 2/3 of the island under control and two of my daimyos get into a war, which they finish, and the instant that war concludes, i lose the game and am forced into spectator mode. this happens without fail every time i boot up a quicksave and try to tweak the outcome.
i'll try japan again later.
i think maybe i'll just put this game down til later.
This is the future. This is what we built. This is what we wanted. It must have been. Because we all had the fucking choice, didn't we? It is only our money that allows commercial culture to flower. If we didn't want to live like this, we could have changed it at any time, by not fucking paying for it.
So let's celebrate by all going out and buying the same burger. -transmet
Poland by the 1700's should be in pretty heavy decline. The 1600's were not kind to the nation, and elective monarchy and the parliament kinda rotted the nation from the inside.
Also, I figured I'd ask here: does anyone else have any experience in creating events for Europa engine games? I've been playing Darkest Hour and the nation I'm playing (Communist Germany) kinda feels weak and lacking flavor.
hush: they were fooling around with the maintenance slider again, it was broken before because as you lowered maintenance it would actually cost more money than just replenishing at full maintenance, so possibly they broke it the other way now.
So Res Publica gave me the perfect opportunity to play the one merchant republic in Europe that I've never played before: Genoa. (I've played once as Novgorod, twice as Venice, and three times as the Hansa.) Genoa is interesting for two reasons: First, it starts off with (reasonably valuable) land in the Black sea, meaning Genoa starts off with more varied neighbors than really anyone besides the Ottomans. More interesting though is the fact that Genoa gets special unique missions to try and take numerous important trade ports in the Mediterranean. (Gibraltar, Tunis, Alexandria, Ferrara, Ragusa, Constantinople, etc.) This can let the little republic expand in all directions pretty easily and on top of that all the missions give massive boosts to mercantilism.
So in my Genoa game my opening moves were a.) Fabricate a claim on Siena, b.) Improve relations and ally with France (They usually have a friendly attitude towards Genoa at the start of the game, although that'll change if/when they get their 'annex Genoa' mission.), c.) Build two more cogs and lots more light ships, d.) Immediately pick and then discard a mission so I can hopefully get one of Genoa's special missions. (The one requirement for all of them is that the province in question can't be a nation's capital.) I got lucky and managed to get the Gibraltar one in the second batch of missions, and I declared war immediately after annexing Siena so as to avoid unlawful territory. Unfortunately I couldn't core Gibrartar from Corsica, so I had to wait a year or two till I could fight a tough war against Aragon+allies with France's help to take Sardinia.
Short term goals: 1.) Take Ragusa from Serbia because I got the 'Rumble in Ragusa' mission. 2. Try and take all of the Italian coastline between Siena and Liguria.
Long term goals in order of importance: 1.) Conquer the southern half of the Iberian peninsula. If I can get enough of Sevilla to feasibly make it my main trading port that would be amazing. 2.) Maybe take Constantinople before the Turks do? 3.) Colonize at some point? I mean I do have a core coastal province on the very southern tip of Spain, so it wouldn't take that much to get to the America's/around Africa.
Played to 1776 last night. I notice the Factions system, but I'm not really sure what it does, exactly (I don't have Res Publica yet). Looks like some really minor bonuses, the strangest being how the Guilds can directly affect Overextension. The truce change isn't a big impact this late, so I'll have to wait until a new game to mess with that again. The Desires Provinces feature works a little better; weaker nations had their malus greatly reduced, which was awesome. But Muscovy still wants my Indian territory and a bunch of my Middle East provinces too, even though there are entire nations in between us. Really hoping that would be fixed And France's malus for my two Italy provinces is still -165, which is insane.
Manpower is waaaaay different. I jumped from 103k to 177k. This would have been a completely different game had this come 100 years ago. France seems to have lost some, though they've been at constant war or rebellion, so it's hard to tell (can't see their max).
Full report later, either after something epic or at 1820, whichever comes first.
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yea i was watching his stream - it's pretty crazy to watch him methodically try to do this. this game is definitely the most interesting for me early on, and that video pretty much shows why.
This is the future. This is what we built. This is what we wanted. It must have been. Because we all had the fucking choice, didn't we? It is only our money that allows commercial culture to flower. If we didn't want to live like this, we could have changed it at any time, by not fucking paying for it.
So let's celebrate by all going out and buying the same burger. -transmet
Genoa is starting to look like Venice:
Still worried about a couple of things: Aragon, Naples, and Milan are all allied and France isn't doing so hot. (I will never understand why they always declare war on Burgundy before they properly recover from the Hundred Years War.) I'm still protected by Austria and I'm allied with Poland to boot, so maybe I'm sweating over nothing. Still, Portugal, Castille, and Aragon have all rivaled me. I hope the Burgundian Inheritance happens, at least. Next two targets are Tangiers and Constantinople. (Because yeah sure I need the Ottomans angry at me too.) Also trade posts in trade centers are OP.
Is Tunis + Tripoli an option, or do they have alliances with Ottomans / Mamluks? Going after Constantinople at this stage is ballsy, but sounds like it could be fatal...
Taking Venice would be awesome too, if they show a bit of weakness.
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Tunisia was, in fact, an option:
...As was Tangiers, and eventually, Alexandria. In between those those conquests Savoy with Venice had the bright idea to attack me. I sunk the Venetian fleet (Man that felt good.) and took Dalmatia and Nice. Likewise, when Milan was left with only their capital and no allies, I had to jump on the chance. After all of that I had a lot of AE so I've been having to limit my conquests to outside of Europe for awhile to let it cool down. While all this was happening Crimea actually declared war on Byzantium and gave the Ottomans Constantinople, unfortunately. On the plus side with Crimea, in my war against the Mamluks I managed to get Crime to annul their treaties with the Ottomans so I know who I'm attacking next. After that I'll probably conquer a chunk of Ferarra now that there isn't a coalition against me. Maybe also cut off the Ottomans from expanding into the Levant by taking the land for myself. Also at this point I have over 80% mercantilism. It may not look like it but I control all of the trade in the Mediterranean.
With her European expansion opportunities stifled, the Republican Empire of Ragusa chose instead to strengthen its position in the Middle East. Further conquest would provide more ports and even greater levels of control over incoming trade. Western European expansion had managed to route trade from the islands of the Far East directly to Zanzibar and south around Africa, thus completely avoiding the routes through Alexandria and Constantinople. In order to go after that trade, Ragusa would need less competition in these middle routes.
The first target was Oman, a nation that exerted great influence over both the Gulf of Aden and the Indus, sapping trade before it could be routed to Ragusa or Venice. The Mistokral ordered claims forged on some province whose name he couldn't seem to remember, and an offensive was soon launched. The bulk of Ragusa's navy remained parked at Crete; the Suez Canal was still just a fantasy and would remain such for years to come, and sailing the entire fleet around Africa made little sense. However, the smaller Red Sea Navy still proved sufficient, and every ship of note belonging to Oman was sunk. Much of the enemy territory was occupied, and Ragusa was able to take a good amount of land in the peace deal.
The most obvious next target was Georgia, particularly for the rich and important city of Baghdad. More claims were fabricated for Iraq-i-Arab, and the Republic invaded. Persia chose to side with Georgia for some reason, but didn't really put much effort into the war, so it was of no consequence. The Croatians smashed the Georgians and took the contested territory, along with a few other provinces to bulk the Empire's hold over the region without creating unnecessary borders with Persia. Following the war, Ragusan diplomats managed to reform the alliance with Persia as though nothing had happened.
Before much time had passed, however, something wholly unexpected occurred.
The Spanish-Croatian War
One of Ragusa's allies sent out a call to arms over some minor conflict or other. The Mistokral wasn't paying much attention as to the details; something about Hindustan defending a minor Chinese state from the Shun Dynasty's invasion. Whatever, it was inconsequential. The order was sent out to honor the alliance call but not actually do anything, and the Mistokral went to take care of some important matters regarding noise ordinances for public bells.
A few days later, the Mistokral learned that not only had they taken leadership of the war, but the Spanish had joined allies on the other side. All of a sudden, Spain and Ragusa were engaged in total war with each other over something neither of them really cared anything at all about.
Well, the Croatians have never been one to pass up a profitable opportunity, and the Spanish were still pretty upset about Sicily, so it seemed a grand time to resolve some outstanding issues. Ragusa went to work quickly, occupying Sardinia and the Belarus, while Spain marched into northern Italy and lay siege to Parma. Expecting war with France, Ragusa had substantially boosted her defenses there, sporting a level 6 fortress and a March. Spain was going to be laying siege for a long time, taking losses all the while.
Sardinia and the Belarus fell quickly, so the Croatians decided to try landing on the Catalonian coast and going straight for Madrid. Spanish armies never moved from Italy. Ragusa brought reinforcements and took Madrid, then Toledo, then spread out to besiege half of Iberia. The Spanish, meanwhile, took Parma and moved to Mantua where they started all over again.
It didn't take long for the Spanish to decide this wasn't going to end well for them. Peace was signed with Ragusa taking both island provinces. Corsica was now the only Mediterranean island not under Republican control.
Of course the war in China was still going, and poorly; Ragusa couldn't realistically bring enough forces to matter, especially with the revolt problems in the recent acquisitions. And Hindustan was doing nothing to help. Ragusa signed peace with the Shun, giving them a pair of their conquered provinces and paying a nominal sum of ducats. A fair trade for the Spanish islands!
The Conquest of Old Rome
The Mistokral got it into his head that every Mediterranean island must belong to Ragusa. Well, most of them did, but there was still Corsica. Corsica was of no consequence whatsoever; trade routes didn't flow in a beneficial direction there, they held no mainland territory, and they could offer absolutely no threat to the Croatian Empire.
Whatever, like any of that matters. Forge claims and declare war!
As it turns out, this plot was more devious than previously thought. Corsica's primary allies were Hungary and the Papal State. Ragusa had long desired to take more of Italy from the Pope, but between her alliances and the protection from Defender of the Catholic Faith, France, it wasn't an option. But Protestant Corsica only had the defense of weak allies and the Holy Roman Emperor, Bohemia. New Rome did not fear Holy Rome.
Hungary wound up taking command of the war, which was just fine for Ragusa. Croatian forces occupied Corsica, then began moving across Italy. While Bohemia and Hungary busied themselves with Ragusa's poor and largely undeveloped northern territories, the Republican armies decimated war member Ferrara, negotiating the release of Modena as a sovereign state. Ferrara had somehow gained this province from France, who had recently been suffering rebellions and large numbers of wars (though it seemed they were winning those wars; at least in this case France seemed to have given something up, though perhaps a patriot revolt was to blame).
Papal armies had moved into Venice. The Mistokral cackled gleefully and moved in the navy, trapping the Pope's army and blockading Adriatic ports. Croatian forces then besieged Papal Italy. In order to force a surrender, the armies gathered and marched into Venice, obliterating the Papal force before they could complete their siege. The Pope's surrender was total, but Ragusa wanted only one prize.
Not long after, Hungary and Bohemia gave up, submitting to a White Peace.
Rome was united once more. Not by Italians, or by Greeks, or even by the holy will of the Pope. No, it was Calvinist Croatian merchant barons that had rebuilt this empire. Surely the land would enjoy a Golden Age that it had not seen for more than a thousand years!
The Time of Troubles
Alas, it was not to be.
The government had drastically overextended itself. Baghdad, Mosul, and the new islands proved difficult to establish control over by themselves, but Rome was just too much. The Mistokral had been too aggressive, and there was a price to be paid.
Massive revolts sprang up in former Georgian territory, demanding the full attention of the government and her army. As services and protection waned elsewhere, nationalist sentiment began to spread through regions that had been pacified for centuries. Places like Bosnia and Montenegro experienced powerful resurgences of national pride. Sardinians and western Indians revolted. Nobles rose up in Athens, demanding an independent duchy. Officials resigned; the Mistokral lost power, and stability plummeted.
There was nothing to do but ride this out. The armies maneuvered desperately, only barely managing to squash a rebellion before a new one appeared. Twenty-five thousand mercenaries bolstered Ragusan forces, and even then the military was often forced to wait and recover soldiers before moving against a rebel force. This sometimes resulted in rebel conquests, adding further nationalism to already troubled regions. Things were threatening to spiral out of control, and the government seriously considered releasing key territories as semi-independent vassal states in order to get a better handle on things...
So a few things about this last section here.
First, I learned that going over 100% Overextension is hilariously bad if you don't have a bunch of mechanisms in place to lower revolt risk or have a large enough military to not care about revolts. The events were firing off rapid-fire, forcing my nation into disintegration. Stability dropped to -2, and I couldn't do anything about it because I desperately needed Admin power (sapped also by events) to get a Core on Baghdad and Rome to make it all stop.
I also wound up engaging in a thoroughly disgusting amount of save-scumming. Not to the point of actually changing decisions; I didn't take back the conquest of Rome and delay until Iraq-i-Arab was cored or anything like that. What happened was that I ran into a pretty awful bug.
I marched a full-morale army stack of around 45,000 against a rebel stack of I think 29,000. My army was stack-wiped immediately upon engaging. That was a death sentence with how bad things had gotten, so I had to load an autosave from over half a year away. Hilariously, the game then decided I should start losing all the rebel battles that I'd won that year. It took almost an hour just to get back to where I was before the bug took out a third of my military. So, yay for that?
Anyway, the rebellions are still ongoing, but I have things under a bit better control now. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to accomplish before 1820, though! Releasing a vassal or two is a typical strategy here, but it's too close to the end of the game; I don't want to risk not getting them back. So I'm going to try to just stick it out.
Side note -- check out that hilarious Granada in Iberia! Either France released that, or rebels did it. It's pretty awesome either way. Spain has it largely occupied right now, though. Oh well.
Yeah unless you are so massive as to have no external threats going over a hundred percent over extension is almost never worth it. Also oh my god that Muscovy and that France are terrifying. Hope they never become allies. Also if you can build trade posts, you can probably just straight up dominate the entire trade route.
So I had my first proper go with some nations outside Europe this weekend. My game with Qara Qoyunlu is going pretty well, thanks to an alliance with the Ottomans I've expanded into the Arabian peninsula, Africa and into Georgia. The removal of the MP reduction is really nice for playing as ROTW nations.
My other game was a Japanese Daimyo. I was hoping to go for the achievement for uniting Japan as a Daimyo, however in the first annexation of another Daimyo I get the message that the Shogunate has fallen and I become Japan. Turns out it's a bug in 1.7 and apparently Japan is effectively unplayable until the next patch/hotfix. Which is a shame.
Thankfully, the period of strife and revolt soon came to an end for the Republic. Rome and Baghdad were successfully integrated, government services were restored, and peace returned to the homeland.
That done, the armies immediately turned around and set out to conquer more stuff. It's usually much better to kill other people's people instead of one's own people, after all.
Oman was the first target. Little effort was required to occupy the entire nation, and Ragusa took the southwestern portion, which consisted of most of the country's actual land mass and a nice little chunk of Africa.
Then, something rather breathtaking happened. The king of Muscovy died, and war erupted for control of the crown. The two claimants were the Nordic countries of Denmark and Sweden. Denmark had long been a rival of Ragusa, and the Republic had no desire to see that nation empowered by the might of Russia, the only nation with the potential to challenge the French. Sweden had instead long been a faithful ally of the Republic. That makes a great case for them inheriting the crown. On the other hand, Sweden was also a valued ally of France, while France and Denmark had come to see each other has rivals.
This was truly troublesome. Frankly, Ragusa didn't want either country to enjoy a union with Moscow. But one of them had to win. The Republic answered the Call to Arms of the Swedes, as did the mighty French, while Moscow fought by default on the side of Denmark. Truly, the stage was set for the biggest, most epic clash of powers in the world's long history.
So Ragusa decided to completely sit this one out and promptly declared war on Qara Qoyunlu.
The horde still possessed valuable territory in the region, though they had moved their capital way off to the northern reaches of Japan (seriously). The Croatians swiftly occupied both provinces, including the wealthy trade city of Basra, then sailed off to take the Maldives and Andamans. A little bit of waiting later and the former great power ceded all four provinces. This would give Ragusa a port from which to launch into the Indes if she wished.
The Persians, meanwhile, had munched the remaining southern portion of Georgia. The large border between the two allies that was formed by this action could have led to some drama, but thankfully Persia felt more threatened than angry and continued to play nice diplomatically (one of the better adjustments from 1.7).
The Muscovite Succession War had become quite heated in the meantime. All four major players were seriously committed, though the French were also still at war with Britain, a conflict that had lasted for a decade or two already over some colonial nations. Eventually Sweden claimed victory and... took a bunch of territory from Denmark. No, really. Muscovy remained lesser partner in union with the Danish.
The Great Showdown At Last - The Empire of Francia vs. The Republic of Ragusa
Following this war, France immediately entered into another conflict with Holy Rome. The Croatians were looking about for a new target to capture, when spies made a startling discovery. France had run completely out of manpower. She still had a few thousand more soldiers than Ragusa, but even those numbers were dwindling. Furthermore, half her army was stationed on Britain where peace had been signed some years earlier (at the cost of the British - Croatian alliance, no less). And most of France's navy had been sunk; she had only six transport vessels available worldwide.
The Mistokral kept a close eye on the situation and bided time until the treaty wore off. The very next day, Ragusa and Great Britain restored their alliance. And the very next day after that, the Republic of Ragusa launched a full-scale invasion of the French Empire, nominally for the contested border province of Cremora. The British joined in the battle, while Sweden and a Holy Roman minor sided with the French. All other allies chose to stay home and let the heavyweights fight it out. Truly, this would be a confrontation history would never forget!
Except that Britain was completely broken. There you see the French armies, black-flagged as Exile due to starting the war in foreign territory, unable to participate until they sail back to France. Which can't happen because there are no transports available. And see that stack of 51,000 British troops? It's been there since the 1.7 update. Yep, for fifty years or so. Something completely broke Britain in the update; they have been unable to move a single army to any location. They recruited a bunch of new ones, but they never moved anywhere. The French exiles paced uselessly back and forth for awhile. Apart from a few minor trade ship skirmishes, that made up the entire British theater of the war.
We'll just say the French and British fought to lengthy stalemate on the Isles and continue on...
France quickly pursued peace with Austria and focused all her attention on Ragusa. The Swedes apparently still thought highly of their Croatian friends, for they chose to keep their armies home despite formally answering France's call. Apart from a tiny Holy Roman force, this war would be entirely between France and Ragusa.
The Croatians marched first, claiming the war target and a couple adjacent provinces before advancing straight toward Paris. This earned the attention of several sizable French armies, though they were too far separated at the war's onset to be able to properly combine forces. Republican armies made some clever maneuvers and fought the French forces one group at a time, dividing and conquering their main forces. The battles were still sizable and fought on French soil, but the Croatian troops were better disciplined and equipped with higher-quality weaponry. The armies of France were routed.
The rest of the war came down to agility and rapid response. France recruited a constant stream of mercenaries and the occasional drafted force, attempting to outmaneuver the Croatians and retake territory, prolonging the battle. It almost worked; while Ragusa was able to claim a dozen provinces, the populace at home started demanding an end to the violence. The war was won, and France was willing to offer lesser concessions. But Ragusa did not want lesser concessions. She extended the blockades to France's western shores and further split her armies, taking more territory and smashing the reforming French forces. At last, the Croatians achieved total victory over the French.
From this only one request could be made. Ragusa could not take the province of Cremora, or indeed any other French lands. But she could strike a deep and heavy blow. She demanded the freeing of Bavaria.
With this, France would lose much of its influence over Holy Rome, while Ragusa would gain substantially. The balance of power would be turned on its head, and the Croatian Empire would be the one to profit from this change.
Unfortunately, the ensuing peace deal would last until 1821. There would be no further wars with France within this era.
The Final Battle - The War for Jerusalem
Only fifteen years remained before the onset of the next era in the world's history. Ragusa would make the most of them.
First, a final war was declared on Oman, and its remaining territories were absorbed. There would be no threats in the near future against Croatian trade interests in Basra and Aden.
Next up was a quick war with Gujarat in India. France and Spain exerted too much influence in that part of the world; Ragusa would need to expand her own colonies there in order to keep trade flowing in the proper direction. The invasion was rapid and relatively uninteresting; two more provinces were added to the Republic.
The third and final conflict would be substantial. Of the three Holy Cities, only one remained in enemy hands; the holiest of cities, Jerusalem, yet belonged to the Egyptians. The Mamluks enjoyed a continuing alliance with the Commonwealth, who had just finished gobbling up the remnants of Georgia to grow even more powerful. And the Egyptians themselves had conquered Tripoli and most of the Algiers, regaining a good amount of their former strength.
France had frankly been something of a pushover thanks to the opportunistic timing of the Republic. The Mamluks and Commonwealth, on the other hand, were near the height of their power. And the year was 1817. This would not be easy. But the Mistokral was ambitious and proud, and the challenge was accepted. Ragusa invaded Jerusalem.
Early battles were favorable. Croatian forces routed the Egyptian main army, sending it fleeing to Tunis. Ragusa's main army gave chase while the second army split to begin the siege of Syria. However, the Commonwealth's main force arrived and won an initial skirmish. Ragusa was forced to withdraw her main army, unite her forces, and smash the Polish military in a decisive confrontation. As the Poles began fleeing toward Constantinople, Ragusa split armies once more to take on the remnants of each. Battles in Tunis and Western Turkey followed, both ending in victory for the Croatians. The Poles were wiped out, while the Egyptians fled back toward Cairo. Ragusa's second army returned to Syria to besiege once more.
However, a second Egyptian army appeared from the south, united with the fleeing forces in Cairo, and attacked Croatian armies in Syria. The battle went in Egypt's favor, but Ragusa's main army soon arrived and wiped out Egyptian forces with a decisive blow. The remaining armies of the Commonwealth were battling Persia, who had joined in the offensive, and Ragusa's plucky ally was winning those confrontations as well.
At this point the war was decided, but time was running out. Ragusan forces split and besieged Syria, Cairo, and Alexandria, blockading most of the Egyptian empire all the while. In December of 1819, peace was signed; Ragusa was able to annex most of the Syrian region.
Toward the Modern Era
And with that, this page of Ragusa's history comes to a close. From a modest beginning as a seaside trading state, released from Venice as a free city thanks to the intervention of Hungary, Ragusa has risen to international prominence. She has built an empire harking back to the glory days of Rome and Greece, only this is an empire built of trade, innovation, and prosperity instead of one of subjugation and power (never minding all the subjugation and power-grabbing that may have gone on to get to this state of course).
Europe remains a hotly contested region, of course. Holy Rome is stronger than ever thanks to the return of Bavaria. Denmark's union with Muscovy terrifies the entire region, and while France is in a bit of decline, she is still widely considered the strongest nation in the world. Spain, Portugal, and Britain all have world-spanning colonies, and the Commonwealth is bigger and stronger than ever before.
Africa is a hodgepodge of colonies and tribal empires. The Egyptians retain hold over the northern region and also spread influence southward with its protectorates Adal, Ethoipia, and Funj. Western Europeans hold the southern region, and Mali is poised to advance quickly in the coming years. The continent is likely to become a battleground soon enough over its abundance of valuable resources.
Asia is still bizarre. The Shun are the local powerhouse and have yet to come into notable conflict with European (and Qaran...) colonizers, but all that is likely to change in the upcoming years.
The South Pacific is largely colonized, though a few independent nations remain. Among them is an important trade nation and a likely next target for an ever-expanding trade Republic...
The Dutch are the big winners in North America, which is really good for them because they were kicked out of Europe a century ago.
South America is a rather volatile mix. England probably wins here for now. No colonial nation has yet fought for independence.
Ragusa was the only Reformed nation in the world. Could have done a lot with Religious ideas, but it didn't fit the vibe I wanted for the country.
Some final charts:
All hail Ragusa!
Thanks so much for following along with my journey. I hope you had a great time. Ragusa was the very first country I played in any Paradox grand strategy game, back in EU3. It was a total blast to do it all again in EU4. It was a very different experience; I know there are some critics out there, but for me, this one was far better, hands down.
I think it'll be quite awhile before I try another in-depth play report like this one. It took a ton of time! But I'll be playing more and at least posting about some of the interesting things that happen. My next EU4 game will probably be an alternate start with gutted nations. I might try that one right in the middle of Europe to see how it goes without boats (or Holy Rome). But before any of that, I'm going to go check out some of the stuff I got in this past Steam summer sale, like Civ5's BNW and Tropico 4. Doubt I can stay away from EU4 too long, though!
Thanks for writing all this up, it's been a great read. I'm not sure if you covered this but how did you end up doing routing that phat trade money into the med?
I collected trade from Ragusa and Venice. Ragusa because it was my home node, Venice because it has more inputs than Ragusa and no outputs. It probably would have been more effective had I just moved my capital to Venice, but meh to that; I wanted to play Ragusa, not Venice.
The local nodes most important for feeding those two collection nodes are Constantinople (Ragusa's only feed) and Alexandria. So first I had to dominate those, which I did through conquest and light ships.
Alexandria is fed through the Gulf of Aden, which I controlled with a few light ships and conquest of the Middle East. And Constantinople is fed via Basra and Persia; Basra I controlled directly, though I never made notable inroads into Persia.
But I didn't really need to, because lots of other countries wanted trade coming in through Constantinople and Ragusa. Those nodes feed inland nodes in Eastern Europe and even the HRE (before cycling back around to Venice), so numerous smaller countries routed trade for me from Persia. And because no one controlled enough trade in India to keep all the cash there, a good bit was flowing westward as well (in part thanks to the African minors and Persia who were pulling).
Basically, I never had to take charge of trade in India or the Far East myself, because other nations who shared my interests pulled those for me. I just had to take control of the immediate vicinity and safeguard Basra and Aden against Portuguese, Spanish, and French interests, all of whom would have been well-served by pulling trade around Africa. Thankfully none of them really tried to do this, so I was only contested by the local powers. There was some trade from Indonesia to Zanzibar that went around Africa, but it was honestly a small amount not worth my concern.
I had seven merchants in the end to help do all this routing and collecting. Ragusa gets some inherent trade bonuses from traditions, and I also took Trade ideas to help. Economic ideas and a bunch of buildings helped the Balkans grow in productivity, which was super important because they start out really poor, contributing next to nothing to Ragusa's local trade. I had five or six manufactories and a number of workshops and trade buildings in the area to boost local trade value.
What I learned is that you don't really need a super long chain of trade to get economic benefits in EU4, at least as of this version. Instead, you just want lots of control of your node, its feeder nodes, and maybe the feeder nodes beyond that. As long as there's at least one rich node in that mix (and Constantinople was super rich for me), you'll rake in plenty of cash.
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
I did that once before, and honestly, you probably don't want to take some of france even when you beat them really badly.
they will never
ever
EVER
stop declaring war on you for it back, so unless you're willing to spend the rest of the game neutering them, you're better off just humiliating them and cutting them down to size
My friend is working on a roguelike game you can play if you want to. (It has free demo)
I collected trade from Ragusa and Venice. Ragusa because it was my home node, Venice because it has more inputs than Ragusa and no outputs. It probably would have been more effective had I just moved my capital to Venice, but meh to that; I wanted to play Ragusa, not Venice.
Do you have wealth of nations? You can move your home trade center separately from your capital for 300 dip points, which is totally worth it.
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"Orkses never lose a battle. If we win we win, if we die we die fightin so it don't count. If we runs for it we don't die neither, cos we can come back for annuver go, see!".
I collected trade from Ragusa and Venice. Ragusa because it was my home node, Venice because it has more inputs than Ragusa and no outputs. It probably would have been more effective had I just moved my capital to Venice, but meh to that; I wanted to play Ragusa, not Venice.
Do you have wealth of nations? You can move your home trade center separately from your capital for 300 dip points, which is totally worth it.
Alternately you can just take literally every province in the Venice node and just collect with the penalty. Having the big ol' penalty for collecting outside of your node doesn't matter if you have 100% of the power.
I played HoI2 Darkest Hour WWI scenario. I was Japan. Germany decided to attack France via Switzerland. Which means Belgium and Britain were not in the war. The Ottoman Empire decided to stay out as well. So for the longest time it was France, Switzerland, Russia, and Rumania versus Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Japan.
My offensive in Siberia did a lot better than I thought, but after a while my supply lines were to stretched. Germany eventually conquered more of Russia than they did during the Second World War. But then Russia show how managed to counter attack and push them out, which was bull.
The war went on till 1921 when the US and Great Britain joined the war. I knew the war was over then so I turned it off (was also still real mad that Russia did not collapse like it should of).
Posts
While it would be nice if there was a "minor war" mechanic such that you could easily take small war goals without having to engage in total war with the opponent, this is almost essential in the meantime where there is no such thing as a minor war. Well, beyond a power obliterating a minor anyway. The "length of war" malus is the primary culprit for this and should really be replaced with a more dynamic modifier that lets the AI "consider" how important the war goal is to it versus its overall likelihood of winning the war. If I attack an AI nation for a couple provinces it doesn't even care much about, it shouldn't require total war and several years to get that out of them. A skirmish or two, I occupy the territory, they relent, we both move on.
I guess I haven't clocked enough hours yet to be bothered by the downtime. I'm hovering around 90, and I don't even increase the speed beyond 3 yet. And I pause to do everything so that I don't waste days. That might be different if I had closer to 700 like these guys that seem to be a lot more bothered by this change.
Yeah, in particular one of my first games I'm planning for 1.7 is a Dutch minor (probably Friesland so I start as a merchant republic) working towards the Netherlands. This is going to make it a lot harder to eat up as much of Burgundy as I would want to as quickly as I want to, particularly since I have to worry about the inheritance firing before I can grab what I want.
I'm super excited for almost all of the other changes I've read about, but the truce timer change is just mind-bogglingly terrible in basically any situation I can think of. Particularly paired with their unlisted change in 1.6 where larger nations' provinces don't scale in warscore cost anymore, so you can't pull off too much from a big opponent in a single war until super late game when you have the admin efficiency bonuses.
I don't know. I'll still probably pick up Res Publica tomorrow, because I'm now officially a whore for Paradox, with more hours sunk into CK2 and EU4 than probably all of the other games I've played since I started with CK2 combined. But I'm not really happy with the overall direction that a lot of their changes have seemed to be indicating lately, that fast expansion is not something the devs think should be possible normally.
3DS: 0963-0539-4405
So let's celebrate by all going out and buying the same burger. -transmet
The AI will be boosted by this overall. They rarely perform the shotgun assaults every 5 years that players do anyway; this most often happens when their target is in perpetual war with everyone else around them and thus never recovers troops or manpower, boosting their attractiveness as a target. Larger wait times keep the AI from doing this to itself, thus making it more likely to have multiple competing powers in the world. That's the explicit reason Johan gave for implementing the change in single-player (this was originally a multiplayer balance fix). Again, just see what happened to Austria in the previous pages here for an example of what it'll prevent.
The AI is also terrible at handling its manpower and will benefit from more enforced wait times. It tends to go all-out on every minor engagement it gets drawn into, leaving it wide open for additional attacks. Longer truces will help protect it from its excesses.
As a player in the early game, if your situation is desperate enough, just break the truce. Many starts already have day-one stab-hit war declarations, so a truce break here and there isn't going to be the end of the world.
Ragusa's assaults on the empire of the Mamluks are relentless. The Croatian forces continue their advance at each opportunity, taking control of more chunks of Turkey with each war. And because the Mistokral is a hopeless troll, he returns Libya to the British.
Meanwhile, Muscovy had dragged the Republic into a battle with Qara Qoyunlu and Georgia. There were a couple skirmishes of note, but Moscow and Ragusa eventually overwhelmed the enemy. Georgia was forced to release Armenia; Ragusa responded by invading and vassalizing the new state as soon as possible. As for Qara Qoyunlu, Ragusa handles this peace itself, giving a bunch of cores to the recently-released Persia.
Expansion is rather slow as the cautious Republic tries to wait for France to get into a war with someone else before continuing its own invasions. There's also a good bit of Manpower to finish building. As soon as the opportunity presents itself, the Mistokral goes off and invades Turkey again. Soon, the region is united under Ragusa's flag, and Armenia is formally annexed.
Meanwhile, Qara Qoyunlu continues to get demolished from all sides; they've fallen way behind in military technology, and their neighbors are taking advantage. Edge territory is taken, while the nation of Najd is released as a new country. This is good news to the Balkans.
Reaching the Persian Gulf
The Mamluks have unfortunately fallen too small to continue to be a worthwhile target. The land is still plenty desirable; however, the Egyptians maintain a relationship with the Commonwealth, and if Ragusa declares any further invasions, the Poles will take control of the war. And the Poles are allied with France. That means declaring war on Egypt will draw most of Europe into war with Ragusa. That is not a worthwhile situation.
Unfortunately, a bunch of time is wasted when Sweden drags Ragusa into war with Denmark and Pomerania. This war results in the destruction of nearly half of the fearsome Danish Navy. Unfortunately, the other half is still stronger than what Ragusa can muster, so the ships are forced to dock. There are some minor battles in the Balkans, but Croatian forces successfully defend the homeland. Peace happens eventually, and no one bothers to tell the Mistokral what the deal consisted of.
Croatian eyes then fall upon Najd, which controls ports on the Persian Gulf. Though the territory is vast, the population is low and the land poor; it will be quick and relatively cheap to assimilate. Devious politicians get to work fabricating claims, and soon Ragusa launches an invasion on the friendless desert nation. The conflict is swift, and Ragusa annexes the entire nation all at once.
With this, Ragusa has gained a good amount of control over the trade nodes that supply Alexandria and Constantinople. Thanks to investment into new Trade Ideas, Ragusa has many more Merchants available to send, and soon more ducats are routed toward Ragusa's primary holdings (and away from competing nations). The only thing left is to lay claim to the source of the trade wealth - the Far East.
Invasion of India
Taking the Mission to expand into India, Ragusa gains new claims on regional coastal provinces. As something of a latecomer to the party, the Balkan Empire realizes she should step carefully. The local heavyweight Orissa has managed to form the Empire of Hindustan and is not to be trifled with. France and Spain have also taken colonies on the subcontinent and should be avoided.
A number of provinces are attractive, but too many of them enjoy problematic alliances. The best target is Baroda, allied with just a single two-province minor state of no consequence. Britain has a claim on one of its provinces, though, so Ragusa will have to make do with just the other two or risk war with the British. Ragusa would not lose to the British, but frankly she has enough enemies already.
As preparation, Ragusa first attacks Qara Qoyunlu, hoping to absorb its remaining mainland territories. However, it possesses too many colonies to be able to press them into giving up too much, and extensive borders with new ally and rapidly-expanding local power Persia are undesirable anyway. Ragusa settles for just two provinces; the rich Astrakhan, which guarantees Georgia will remain split, and the single province near the entrance of the Persian Gulf.
New transports are constructed throughout the region, and war is soon declared on Baroda. The war is short and uninteresting apart from the fact that the British were invading at the same time. Ragusa takes her two provinces while Britain looks to be settling for the third.
Meanwhile, France has been doing what France does and attacked the Papal States for a single claimed province. This pulled in most of Europe. Ragusa kept a close eye on proceedings, planning to jump in and take on the French the moment a sign of weakness appeared. However, France actually gained military strength over the length of the war and soundly whipped the combined might of just about everybody. Still having less than half the military strength, Ragusa decides to continue to stay out of conflict for now.
Unfortunately, the opportunity may now be lost forever. Muscovy, having claims on coastal Indian provinces as well, canceled the alliance the moment Ragusa's Indian invasion completed. Given that Moscow is largely unable to reach any of those territories and is unlikely to attack anyone for them, this will probably result in a permanent relations malus that will keep the alliance from reforming (unless the 1.7 patch fixes the desires provinces well enough). There is no good replacement available, so Ragusa settles for the strongest nation she can get - Hindustan. Hindustan is unlikely to contribute in any of Ragusa's wars, but the alliance troop count bonus would still come in handy and may serve to continue convincing the French that other targets are better targets.
What's Next?
Ragusa has achieved her goals. She has built an empire stretching from the Balkans and Italy through Turkey, Egypt, and the Middle East. Trade flowing into Ragusa and Venice is secured thanks to control of Constantinople and Alexandria and strong presence in Basra and the Gulf of Aden. Further avenues of growth are available in India, China, and Indonesia, and conflict with Oman could prove highly profitable.
The old threat of France remains, and the Commonwealth continues to be a thorn, especially now without Muscovy to take care of things. The Mamluks are untouchable in an offensive war for now and are highly unlikely to engage in a defensive war. Tripoli and Georgia are options, but they would likely be more trouble than they're worth.
It is currently 1765. Only 55 years remain, but the winds of change bring a new era to the world bristling with fresh opportunities and undiscovered obstacles. Will this final era at last bring the epic showdown with France? Or will Ragusa squeak by toward the Modern Era unscathed and unchallenged?
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Yeah, the change makes it even easier to stagger your opponents so after the first major war you don't have to worry as much about having large alliances to break up.
Coalitions are still a thing, but meh. They're not THAT hard to get around.
I dunno if I really agree with it being a multiplayer game. I always saw the multiplayer options in the grand strategy games as more 'hey look at this neat thing you can do too' rather than what the game is balanced around. Cause the game doesn't really even offer a remotely level playing ground for a serious multiplayer game, and it doesn't really try to.
I think his view is "if it's balanced and fun for multiplayer, then it'll be balanced and fun for single player, while if it's not balanced and fun for multiplayer, then it won't be balanced and fun for single player." This is almost trivially shown as false, of course, as the very starting conditions of nations are imbalanced by design, reflecting history instead of an even playing field.
I still think it's a good change because of the AI and how it will affect AI vs AI interactions. Preventing the roflstomping in multiplayer is fine, and it's probably okay to do the same thing with the player in single player games (just see how easily I crushed the Ottomans and the Mamluks using these kinds of advantages).
But defending the decision because of PvP is a poor tactic...
Good or bad (i think bad) this game was made for multiplayer.
If people still aren't getting that at this point I can understand why he would be a little upset.
Don't forget their love affair with mods that remove player agency to allow history play out exactly as it did IRL.
Then again most game/dev-specific forums are basically internet ebola.
started a poland game to test out elec monarchy, which seems pretty interesting, but i'm gonna need to play with it a little more to see what you can really take advantage of with that setup. anyway, i turn commonwealth and am getting into various wars and noticing that i was going heavy negative income while my army was being reinforced. not just a little, it was borderline economy crippling.
i'll try poland again later.
so i started a japan game since i figured i could avoid having large standing armies for a while, and i wanted to see how it felt to play chinese tech without having my MP reduced (spoiler: feels good). i've got about 2/3 of the island under control and two of my daimyos get into a war, which they finish, and the instant that war concludes, i lose the game and am forced into spectator mode. this happens without fail every time i boot up a quicksave and try to tweak the outcome.
i'll try japan again later.
i think maybe i'll just put this game down til later.
So let's celebrate by all going out and buying the same burger. -transmet
Also, I figured I'd ask here: does anyone else have any experience in creating events for Europa engine games? I've been playing Darkest Hour and the nation I'm playing (Communist Germany) kinda feels weak and lacking flavor.
So in my Genoa game my opening moves were a.) Fabricate a claim on Siena, b.) Improve relations and ally with France (They usually have a friendly attitude towards Genoa at the start of the game, although that'll change if/when they get their 'annex Genoa' mission.), c.) Build two more cogs and lots more light ships, d.) Immediately pick and then discard a mission so I can hopefully get one of Genoa's special missions. (The one requirement for all of them is that the province in question can't be a nation's capital.) I got lucky and managed to get the Gibraltar one in the second batch of missions, and I declared war immediately after annexing Siena so as to avoid unlawful territory. Unfortunately I couldn't core Gibrartar from Corsica, so I had to wait a year or two till I could fight a tough war against Aragon+allies with France's help to take Sardinia.
Short term goals: 1.) Take Ragusa from Serbia because I got the 'Rumble in Ragusa' mission. 2. Try and take all of the Italian coastline between Siena and Liguria.
Long term goals in order of importance: 1.) Conquer the southern half of the Iberian peninsula. If I can get enough of Sevilla to feasibly make it my main trading port that would be amazing. 2.) Maybe take Constantinople before the Turks do? 3.) Colonize at some point? I mean I do have a core coastal province on the very southern tip of Spain, so it wouldn't take that much to get to the America's/around Africa.
Manpower is waaaaay different. I jumped from 103k to 177k. This would have been a completely different game had this come 100 years ago. France seems to have lost some, though they've been at constant war or rebellion, so it's hard to tell (can't see their max).
Full report later, either after something epic or at 1820, whichever comes first.
Best patch 2014
DDR Jake has begun another 3 mountains run
So let's celebrate by all going out and buying the same burger. -transmet
Still worried about a couple of things: Aragon, Naples, and Milan are all allied and France isn't doing so hot. (I will never understand why they always declare war on Burgundy before they properly recover from the Hundred Years War.) I'm still protected by Austria and I'm allied with Poland to boot, so maybe I'm sweating over nothing. Still, Portugal, Castille, and Aragon have all rivaled me. I hope the Burgundian Inheritance happens, at least. Next two targets are Tangiers and Constantinople. (Because yeah sure I need the Ottomans angry at me too.) Also trade posts in trade centers are OP.
Taking Venice would be awesome too, if they show a bit of weakness.
...As was Tangiers, and eventually, Alexandria. In between those those conquests Savoy with Venice had the bright idea to attack me. I sunk the Venetian fleet (Man that felt good.) and took Dalmatia and Nice. Likewise, when Milan was left with only their capital and no allies, I had to jump on the chance. After all of that I had a lot of AE so I've been having to limit my conquests to outside of Europe for awhile to let it cool down. While all this was happening Crimea actually declared war on Byzantium and gave the Ottomans Constantinople, unfortunately. On the plus side with Crimea, in my war against the Mamluks I managed to get Crime to annul their treaties with the Ottomans so I know who I'm attacking next. After that I'll probably conquer a chunk of Ferarra now that there isn't a coalition against me. Maybe also cut off the Ottomans from expanding into the Levant by taking the land for myself. Also at this point I have over 80% mercantilism. It may not look like it but I control all of the trade in the Mediterranean.
With her European expansion opportunities stifled, the Republican Empire of Ragusa chose instead to strengthen its position in the Middle East. Further conquest would provide more ports and even greater levels of control over incoming trade. Western European expansion had managed to route trade from the islands of the Far East directly to Zanzibar and south around Africa, thus completely avoiding the routes through Alexandria and Constantinople. In order to go after that trade, Ragusa would need less competition in these middle routes.
The first target was Oman, a nation that exerted great influence over both the Gulf of Aden and the Indus, sapping trade before it could be routed to Ragusa or Venice. The Mistokral ordered claims forged on some province whose name he couldn't seem to remember, and an offensive was soon launched. The bulk of Ragusa's navy remained parked at Crete; the Suez Canal was still just a fantasy and would remain such for years to come, and sailing the entire fleet around Africa made little sense. However, the smaller Red Sea Navy still proved sufficient, and every ship of note belonging to Oman was sunk. Much of the enemy territory was occupied, and Ragusa was able to take a good amount of land in the peace deal.
The most obvious next target was Georgia, particularly for the rich and important city of Baghdad. More claims were fabricated for Iraq-i-Arab, and the Republic invaded. Persia chose to side with Georgia for some reason, but didn't really put much effort into the war, so it was of no consequence. The Croatians smashed the Georgians and took the contested territory, along with a few other provinces to bulk the Empire's hold over the region without creating unnecessary borders with Persia. Following the war, Ragusan diplomats managed to reform the alliance with Persia as though nothing had happened.
Before much time had passed, however, something wholly unexpected occurred.
The Spanish-Croatian War
One of Ragusa's allies sent out a call to arms over some minor conflict or other. The Mistokral wasn't paying much attention as to the details; something about Hindustan defending a minor Chinese state from the Shun Dynasty's invasion. Whatever, it was inconsequential. The order was sent out to honor the alliance call but not actually do anything, and the Mistokral went to take care of some important matters regarding noise ordinances for public bells.
A few days later, the Mistokral learned that not only had they taken leadership of the war, but the Spanish had joined allies on the other side. All of a sudden, Spain and Ragusa were engaged in total war with each other over something neither of them really cared anything at all about.
Well, the Croatians have never been one to pass up a profitable opportunity, and the Spanish were still pretty upset about Sicily, so it seemed a grand time to resolve some outstanding issues. Ragusa went to work quickly, occupying Sardinia and the Belarus, while Spain marched into northern Italy and lay siege to Parma. Expecting war with France, Ragusa had substantially boosted her defenses there, sporting a level 6 fortress and a March. Spain was going to be laying siege for a long time, taking losses all the while.
Sardinia and the Belarus fell quickly, so the Croatians decided to try landing on the Catalonian coast and going straight for Madrid. Spanish armies never moved from Italy. Ragusa brought reinforcements and took Madrid, then Toledo, then spread out to besiege half of Iberia. The Spanish, meanwhile, took Parma and moved to Mantua where they started all over again.
It didn't take long for the Spanish to decide this wasn't going to end well for them. Peace was signed with Ragusa taking both island provinces. Corsica was now the only Mediterranean island not under Republican control.
Of course the war in China was still going, and poorly; Ragusa couldn't realistically bring enough forces to matter, especially with the revolt problems in the recent acquisitions. And Hindustan was doing nothing to help. Ragusa signed peace with the Shun, giving them a pair of their conquered provinces and paying a nominal sum of ducats. A fair trade for the Spanish islands!
The Conquest of Old Rome
The Mistokral got it into his head that every Mediterranean island must belong to Ragusa. Well, most of them did, but there was still Corsica. Corsica was of no consequence whatsoever; trade routes didn't flow in a beneficial direction there, they held no mainland territory, and they could offer absolutely no threat to the Croatian Empire.
Whatever, like any of that matters. Forge claims and declare war!
As it turns out, this plot was more devious than previously thought. Corsica's primary allies were Hungary and the Papal State. Ragusa had long desired to take more of Italy from the Pope, but between her alliances and the protection from Defender of the Catholic Faith, France, it wasn't an option. But Protestant Corsica only had the defense of weak allies and the Holy Roman Emperor, Bohemia. New Rome did not fear Holy Rome.
Hungary wound up taking command of the war, which was just fine for Ragusa. Croatian forces occupied Corsica, then began moving across Italy. While Bohemia and Hungary busied themselves with Ragusa's poor and largely undeveloped northern territories, the Republican armies decimated war member Ferrara, negotiating the release of Modena as a sovereign state. Ferrara had somehow gained this province from France, who had recently been suffering rebellions and large numbers of wars (though it seemed they were winning those wars; at least in this case France seemed to have given something up, though perhaps a patriot revolt was to blame).
Papal armies had moved into Venice. The Mistokral cackled gleefully and moved in the navy, trapping the Pope's army and blockading Adriatic ports. Croatian forces then besieged Papal Italy. In order to force a surrender, the armies gathered and marched into Venice, obliterating the Papal force before they could complete their siege. The Pope's surrender was total, but Ragusa wanted only one prize.
Not long after, Hungary and Bohemia gave up, submitting to a White Peace.
Rome was united once more. Not by Italians, or by Greeks, or even by the holy will of the Pope. No, it was Calvinist Croatian merchant barons that had rebuilt this empire. Surely the land would enjoy a Golden Age that it had not seen for more than a thousand years!
The Time of Troubles
Alas, it was not to be.
The government had drastically overextended itself. Baghdad, Mosul, and the new islands proved difficult to establish control over by themselves, but Rome was just too much. The Mistokral had been too aggressive, and there was a price to be paid.
Massive revolts sprang up in former Georgian territory, demanding the full attention of the government and her army. As services and protection waned elsewhere, nationalist sentiment began to spread through regions that had been pacified for centuries. Places like Bosnia and Montenegro experienced powerful resurgences of national pride. Sardinians and western Indians revolted. Nobles rose up in Athens, demanding an independent duchy. Officials resigned; the Mistokral lost power, and stability plummeted.
There was nothing to do but ride this out. The armies maneuvered desperately, only barely managing to squash a rebellion before a new one appeared. Twenty-five thousand mercenaries bolstered Ragusan forces, and even then the military was often forced to wait and recover soldiers before moving against a rebel force. This sometimes resulted in rebel conquests, adding further nationalism to already troubled regions. Things were threatening to spiral out of control, and the government seriously considered releasing key territories as semi-independent vassal states in order to get a better handle on things...
So a few things about this last section here.
First, I learned that going over 100% Overextension is hilariously bad if you don't have a bunch of mechanisms in place to lower revolt risk or have a large enough military to not care about revolts. The events were firing off rapid-fire, forcing my nation into disintegration. Stability dropped to -2, and I couldn't do anything about it because I desperately needed Admin power (sapped also by events) to get a Core on Baghdad and Rome to make it all stop.
I also wound up engaging in a thoroughly disgusting amount of save-scumming. Not to the point of actually changing decisions; I didn't take back the conquest of Rome and delay until Iraq-i-Arab was cored or anything like that. What happened was that I ran into a pretty awful bug.
I marched a full-morale army stack of around 45,000 against a rebel stack of I think 29,000. My army was stack-wiped immediately upon engaging. That was a death sentence with how bad things had gotten, so I had to load an autosave from over half a year away. Hilariously, the game then decided I should start losing all the rebel battles that I'd won that year. It took almost an hour just to get back to where I was before the bug took out a third of my military. So, yay for that?
Anyway, the rebellions are still ongoing, but I have things under a bit better control now. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to accomplish before 1820, though! Releasing a vassal or two is a typical strategy here, but it's too close to the end of the game; I don't want to risk not getting them back. So I'm going to try to just stick it out.
Side note -- check out that hilarious Granada in Iberia! Either France released that, or rebels did it. It's pretty awesome either way. Spain has it largely occupied right now, though. Oh well.
My other game was a Japanese Daimyo. I was hoping to go for the achievement for uniting Japan as a Daimyo, however in the first annexation of another Daimyo I get the message that the Shogunate has fallen and I become Japan. Turns out it's a bug in 1.7 and apparently Japan is effectively unplayable until the next patch/hotfix. Which is a shame.
Thankfully, the period of strife and revolt soon came to an end for the Republic. Rome and Baghdad were successfully integrated, government services were restored, and peace returned to the homeland.
That done, the armies immediately turned around and set out to conquer more stuff. It's usually much better to kill other people's people instead of one's own people, after all.
Oman was the first target. Little effort was required to occupy the entire nation, and Ragusa took the southwestern portion, which consisted of most of the country's actual land mass and a nice little chunk of Africa.
Then, something rather breathtaking happened. The king of Muscovy died, and war erupted for control of the crown. The two claimants were the Nordic countries of Denmark and Sweden. Denmark had long been a rival of Ragusa, and the Republic had no desire to see that nation empowered by the might of Russia, the only nation with the potential to challenge the French. Sweden had instead long been a faithful ally of the Republic. That makes a great case for them inheriting the crown. On the other hand, Sweden was also a valued ally of France, while France and Denmark had come to see each other has rivals.
This was truly troublesome. Frankly, Ragusa didn't want either country to enjoy a union with Moscow. But one of them had to win. The Republic answered the Call to Arms of the Swedes, as did the mighty French, while Moscow fought by default on the side of Denmark. Truly, the stage was set for the biggest, most epic clash of powers in the world's long history.
So Ragusa decided to completely sit this one out and promptly declared war on Qara Qoyunlu.
The horde still possessed valuable territory in the region, though they had moved their capital way off to the northern reaches of Japan (seriously). The Croatians swiftly occupied both provinces, including the wealthy trade city of Basra, then sailed off to take the Maldives and Andamans. A little bit of waiting later and the former great power ceded all four provinces. This would give Ragusa a port from which to launch into the Indes if she wished.
The Persians, meanwhile, had munched the remaining southern portion of Georgia. The large border between the two allies that was formed by this action could have led to some drama, but thankfully Persia felt more threatened than angry and continued to play nice diplomatically (one of the better adjustments from 1.7).
The Muscovite Succession War had become quite heated in the meantime. All four major players were seriously committed, though the French were also still at war with Britain, a conflict that had lasted for a decade or two already over some colonial nations. Eventually Sweden claimed victory and... took a bunch of territory from Denmark. No, really. Muscovy remained lesser partner in union with the Danish.
The Great Showdown At Last - The Empire of Francia vs. The Republic of Ragusa
Following this war, France immediately entered into another conflict with Holy Rome. The Croatians were looking about for a new target to capture, when spies made a startling discovery. France had run completely out of manpower. She still had a few thousand more soldiers than Ragusa, but even those numbers were dwindling. Furthermore, half her army was stationed on Britain where peace had been signed some years earlier (at the cost of the British - Croatian alliance, no less). And most of France's navy had been sunk; she had only six transport vessels available worldwide.
The Mistokral kept a close eye on the situation and bided time until the treaty wore off. The very next day, Ragusa and Great Britain restored their alliance. And the very next day after that, the Republic of Ragusa launched a full-scale invasion of the French Empire, nominally for the contested border province of Cremora. The British joined in the battle, while Sweden and a Holy Roman minor sided with the French. All other allies chose to stay home and let the heavyweights fight it out. Truly, this would be a confrontation history would never forget!
Except that Britain was completely broken. There you see the French armies, black-flagged as Exile due to starting the war in foreign territory, unable to participate until they sail back to France. Which can't happen because there are no transports available. And see that stack of 51,000 British troops? It's been there since the 1.7 update. Yep, for fifty years or so. Something completely broke Britain in the update; they have been unable to move a single army to any location. They recruited a bunch of new ones, but they never moved anywhere. The French exiles paced uselessly back and forth for awhile. Apart from a few minor trade ship skirmishes, that made up the entire British theater of the war.
We'll just say the French and British fought to lengthy stalemate on the Isles and continue on...
France quickly pursued peace with Austria and focused all her attention on Ragusa. The Swedes apparently still thought highly of their Croatian friends, for they chose to keep their armies home despite formally answering France's call. Apart from a tiny Holy Roman force, this war would be entirely between France and Ragusa.
The Croatians marched first, claiming the war target and a couple adjacent provinces before advancing straight toward Paris. This earned the attention of several sizable French armies, though they were too far separated at the war's onset to be able to properly combine forces. Republican armies made some clever maneuvers and fought the French forces one group at a time, dividing and conquering their main forces. The battles were still sizable and fought on French soil, but the Croatian troops were better disciplined and equipped with higher-quality weaponry. The armies of France were routed.
The rest of the war came down to agility and rapid response. France recruited a constant stream of mercenaries and the occasional drafted force, attempting to outmaneuver the Croatians and retake territory, prolonging the battle. It almost worked; while Ragusa was able to claim a dozen provinces, the populace at home started demanding an end to the violence. The war was won, and France was willing to offer lesser concessions. But Ragusa did not want lesser concessions. She extended the blockades to France's western shores and further split her armies, taking more territory and smashing the reforming French forces. At last, the Croatians achieved total victory over the French.
From this only one request could be made. Ragusa could not take the province of Cremora, or indeed any other French lands. But she could strike a deep and heavy blow. She demanded the freeing of Bavaria.
With this, France would lose much of its influence over Holy Rome, while Ragusa would gain substantially. The balance of power would be turned on its head, and the Croatian Empire would be the one to profit from this change.
Unfortunately, the ensuing peace deal would last until 1821. There would be no further wars with France within this era.
The Final Battle - The War for Jerusalem
Only fifteen years remained before the onset of the next era in the world's history. Ragusa would make the most of them.
First, a final war was declared on Oman, and its remaining territories were absorbed. There would be no threats in the near future against Croatian trade interests in Basra and Aden.
Next up was a quick war with Gujarat in India. France and Spain exerted too much influence in that part of the world; Ragusa would need to expand her own colonies there in order to keep trade flowing in the proper direction. The invasion was rapid and relatively uninteresting; two more provinces were added to the Republic.
The third and final conflict would be substantial. Of the three Holy Cities, only one remained in enemy hands; the holiest of cities, Jerusalem, yet belonged to the Egyptians. The Mamluks enjoyed a continuing alliance with the Commonwealth, who had just finished gobbling up the remnants of Georgia to grow even more powerful. And the Egyptians themselves had conquered Tripoli and most of the Algiers, regaining a good amount of their former strength.
France had frankly been something of a pushover thanks to the opportunistic timing of the Republic. The Mamluks and Commonwealth, on the other hand, were near the height of their power. And the year was 1817. This would not be easy. But the Mistokral was ambitious and proud, and the challenge was accepted. Ragusa invaded Jerusalem.
Early battles were favorable. Croatian forces routed the Egyptian main army, sending it fleeing to Tunis. Ragusa's main army gave chase while the second army split to begin the siege of Syria. However, the Commonwealth's main force arrived and won an initial skirmish. Ragusa was forced to withdraw her main army, unite her forces, and smash the Polish military in a decisive confrontation. As the Poles began fleeing toward Constantinople, Ragusa split armies once more to take on the remnants of each. Battles in Tunis and Western Turkey followed, both ending in victory for the Croatians. The Poles were wiped out, while the Egyptians fled back toward Cairo. Ragusa's second army returned to Syria to besiege once more.
However, a second Egyptian army appeared from the south, united with the fleeing forces in Cairo, and attacked Croatian armies in Syria. The battle went in Egypt's favor, but Ragusa's main army soon arrived and wiped out Egyptian forces with a decisive blow. The remaining armies of the Commonwealth were battling Persia, who had joined in the offensive, and Ragusa's plucky ally was winning those confrontations as well.
At this point the war was decided, but time was running out. Ragusan forces split and besieged Syria, Cairo, and Alexandria, blockading most of the Egyptian empire all the while. In December of 1819, peace was signed; Ragusa was able to annex most of the Syrian region.
Toward the Modern Era
And with that, this page of Ragusa's history comes to a close. From a modest beginning as a seaside trading state, released from Venice as a free city thanks to the intervention of Hungary, Ragusa has risen to international prominence. She has built an empire harking back to the glory days of Rome and Greece, only this is an empire built of trade, innovation, and prosperity instead of one of subjugation and power (never minding all the subjugation and power-grabbing that may have gone on to get to this state of course).
Europe remains a hotly contested region, of course. Holy Rome is stronger than ever thanks to the return of Bavaria. Denmark's union with Muscovy terrifies the entire region, and while France is in a bit of decline, she is still widely considered the strongest nation in the world. Spain, Portugal, and Britain all have world-spanning colonies, and the Commonwealth is bigger and stronger than ever before.
Africa is a hodgepodge of colonies and tribal empires. The Egyptians retain hold over the northern region and also spread influence southward with its protectorates Adal, Ethoipia, and Funj. Western Europeans hold the southern region, and Mali is poised to advance quickly in the coming years. The continent is likely to become a battleground soon enough over its abundance of valuable resources.
Asia is still bizarre. The Shun are the local powerhouse and have yet to come into notable conflict with European (and Qaran...) colonizers, but all that is likely to change in the upcoming years.
The South Pacific is largely colonized, though a few independent nations remain. Among them is an important trade nation and a likely next target for an ever-expanding trade Republic...
The Dutch are the big winners in North America, which is really good for them because they were kicked out of Europe a century ago.
South America is a rather volatile mix. England probably wins here for now. No colonial nation has yet fought for independence.
Ragusa was the only Reformed nation in the world. Could have done a lot with Religious ideas, but it didn't fit the vibe I wanted for the country.
Some final charts:
All hail Ragusa!
Thanks so much for following along with my journey. I hope you had a great time. Ragusa was the very first country I played in any Paradox grand strategy game, back in EU3. It was a total blast to do it all again in EU4. It was a very different experience; I know there are some critics out there, but for me, this one was far better, hands down.
I think it'll be quite awhile before I try another in-depth play report like this one. It took a ton of time! But I'll be playing more and at least posting about some of the interesting things that happen. My next EU4 game will probably be an alternate start with gutted nations. I might try that one right in the middle of Europe to see how it goes without boats (or Holy Rome). But before any of that, I'm going to go check out some of the stuff I got in this past Steam summer sale, like Civ5's BNW and Tropico 4. Doubt I can stay away from EU4 too long, though!
I collected trade from Ragusa and Venice. Ragusa because it was my home node, Venice because it has more inputs than Ragusa and no outputs. It probably would have been more effective had I just moved my capital to Venice, but meh to that; I wanted to play Ragusa, not Venice.
The local nodes most important for feeding those two collection nodes are Constantinople (Ragusa's only feed) and Alexandria. So first I had to dominate those, which I did through conquest and light ships.
Alexandria is fed through the Gulf of Aden, which I controlled with a few light ships and conquest of the Middle East. And Constantinople is fed via Basra and Persia; Basra I controlled directly, though I never made notable inroads into Persia.
But I didn't really need to, because lots of other countries wanted trade coming in through Constantinople and Ragusa. Those nodes feed inland nodes in Eastern Europe and even the HRE (before cycling back around to Venice), so numerous smaller countries routed trade for me from Persia. And because no one controlled enough trade in India to keep all the cash there, a good bit was flowing westward as well (in part thanks to the African minors and Persia who were pulling).
Basically, I never had to take charge of trade in India or the Far East myself, because other nations who shared my interests pulled those for me. I just had to take control of the immediate vicinity and safeguard Basra and Aden against Portuguese, Spanish, and French interests, all of whom would have been well-served by pulling trade around Africa. Thankfully none of them really tried to do this, so I was only contested by the local powers. There was some trade from Indonesia to Zanzibar that went around Africa, but it was honestly a small amount not worth my concern.
I had seven merchants in the end to help do all this routing and collecting. Ragusa gets some inherent trade bonuses from traditions, and I also took Trade ideas to help. Economic ideas and a bunch of buildings helped the Balkans grow in productivity, which was super important because they start out really poor, contributing next to nothing to Ragusa's local trade. I had five or six manufactories and a number of workshops and trade buildings in the area to boost local trade value.
What I learned is that you don't really need a super long chain of trade to get economic benefits in EU4, at least as of this version. Instead, you just want lots of control of your node, its feeder nodes, and maybe the feeder nodes beyond that. As long as there's at least one rich node in that mix (and Constantinople was super rich for me), you'll rake in plenty of cash.
I think maybe I'm finally figuring out how to play?
they will never
ever
EVER
stop declaring war on you for it back, so unless you're willing to spend the rest of the game neutering them, you're better off just humiliating them and cutting them down to size
Do you have wealth of nations? You can move your home trade center separately from your capital for 300 dip points, which is totally worth it.
"Orkses never lose a battle. If we win we win, if we die we die fightin so it don't count. If we runs for it we don't die neither, cos we can come back for annuver go, see!".
Alternately you can just take literally every province in the Venice node and just collect with the penalty. Having the big ol' penalty for collecting outside of your node doesn't matter if you have 100% of the power.
My offensive in Siberia did a lot better than I thought, but after a while my supply lines were to stretched. Germany eventually conquered more of Russia than they did during the Second World War. But then Russia show how managed to counter attack and push them out, which was bull.
The war went on till 1921 when the US and Great Britain joined the war. I knew the war was over then so I turned it off (was also still real mad that Russia did not collapse like it should of).
A province producing 2.54 gold and giving you almost 10 ducats a month, by itself.