What does a n00b need to know about EUII?

[MrWhereItsAt]

I eagerly await my copy of EUII that I ordered from ebay recently. In the intervening 2 weeks or so, what should I know about the game prior to playing it? Is there a campaign/game mode that I should try first? An online strat guide I need to read first? RTFM first (assuming the copy I bought comes with a manual)?

Enlighten me, please.

[General Ludd]

Bookmark the paradox forums.

[pg]

actually i wouldn't visit the eu2 forums right away. they are simply too helpful now imo. try the tutorial first. for me that was enough to teach me the basics. i figured out most of the rest on my own. you will probably have to visit the forums to be able to understand everything though. also make sure to patch the game up to at least 1.05 but going straight to the latest patch(1.08) would probably be ok(but the game is much harder on that patch).

[dojoboy]

I recommend patching straight to 1.08. Otherwise, you'll be talking apples to oranges if you post questions for answers. The vast majority use the 1.08 patch, I believe.

[CerberusIV]

Re: What does a n00b need to know about EUII?

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
I eagerly await my copy of EUII that I ordered from ebay recently.

If you don't mind my asking, how much is it costing you?

And for anyone who already has the game, is it reasonably easy to learn and fun to play?

The reason I ask is that I just bought a copy as I came across a UK offer of 2 games for 14.99 pounds sterling. One choice was Destroyer Command (which I wanted) and the only other game that looked interesting was EU2, so I ordered it, but don't really know anything about it beyond a quick peek at the Paradox forums.

[General Ludd]

It's not that easy to learn (unless you've played previous Paradox games), but is immensely fun to play.

[Sandman]

For GePap, playing China:

I've not played for a while, so recent patches may have changed things, but:

China is a poor choice for a new player; the revolt events it gets are just killer. Their inferior tech isn't much fun either.

The only way to lower inflation prior to infra 4 is by event (random or scripted). Just keep the treasury slider at a very low level most of the time. Annual census taxes don't contribute to inflation; these should make up the bulk of your spending in normal circumstances. Promote tax collectors in most provinces to get at that lovely inflation free income.

You should always keep your armies on half wages, except during wartime. Many nations start out with armies that are totally beyond their means to afford; either use them up in an early war, or disband them. Transports are also of questionable use: galleys and warships can usually carry all the troops you need, and transports are dirt cheap anyway, so I usually disband them.

Unless you have a colonial Centre of Trade that no-one else knows about, it's extremely wasteful to try and maintain a monopoly. The Ai will try to force you out relentlessly. Just settle for a large share spread over lots of CoTs. Trade agreements lower you trading efficiency; don't make them unless you're absolutely sure you want to.

Minimize your spending on stability by:

Only taking provinces with your religion. Pagan provinces are especially crippling for Christian nations.

Making stability enhancing domestic policy decisions.

Converting provinces to your state religion with missionaries. Pagan and state culture provinces are easiest to convert, especially if you have an good monarch.

[Sandman]

The game is equivalent to a university course, really. (Like any good strategy game should be)

[Nikolai]

I recommend you to try the 1492 scenario before the 1419 one(GC).

[CerberusIV]

Well, my copy arrived on Tuesday (benefit of living in a civilised country! ).

Looks very complicated. No manual, but the manual was apparently out of date by v1.00 anyway (now there's a surprise).

So far I have only tried the Fantasia game and am slowly getting the hang of colonising, exploring and economic development. I did pitch in to the GC as England but about 5 million things happened straight away and half my french provinces were lost whilst I was trying to figure out how to kick the Scots. So I went back to the bottom of the learning curve.

Definitely a fun game though.

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by CerberusIV
Well, my copy arrived on Tuesday (benefit of living in a civilised country! ).

Looks very complicated. No manual, ....

Try here:

Chema_Cagi's fan site for EU2.

EU2 FAQ

[CerberusIV]

Re: What does a n00b need to know about EUII?

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
what should I know about the game prior to playing it? RTFM first (assuming the copy I bought comes with a manual)?

There is a pdf copy of the manual on my CD. Not terribly enlightening though. I read through most of the FAQ's on the Paradox forums which sort of helped (a discussion of the detailed effects of stability, or whatever, changing is a bit hard to understand when you're not clear what changes it in the first place).

The manual includes a keyboard commands list which may be useful. The most important thing to know is that if you click on the clock in the top right corner the game pauses. That may seem odd for a RTS but is a big help right at the start so you can get organised and issue orders and also convenient when you want to go and look at the ledger or check CoT's and diplomatic attitudes without coming back to discover you are losing a war.

The other thing I had difficulty getting to grips with is that you can't simply conquer other countries, unlike Civ. I am playing the GC as Castile. I occupied both provinces of Granada and .... nothing happened. You have to occupy both provinces and take Gibraltar in a peace deal, wait 5 years for the truce to expire then you can take and annex Granada. So it is a conflict for individual provinces. Historically more accurate but requires careful planning. You can only eliminate someone by reducing them to one province first.

An idea of the history of the country you are playing also helps a bit. My next problem with Castile is not knowing whether there is a event which unites Castile and Aragon or whether I have to go and take the Aragonese provinces. I hope for an event!

[MrWhereItsAt]

Mine arrived today. Haven't done anything except the interface tutorial due to general busy-ness.

I printed the manual out and will be looking it over in the next few days.

Move over Diablo II, I have a new toy!

[Jagdtiger]

-let the AI handle your trading for now

-when not at war your main concern is revolts, either via events or due to provinces which are not the same culture/religion as your state

-stability is the name of the game. The bigger you are, the more it costs to improve stability. Stability affects income, revolt risk, moral, and a bunch of other stuff

-get then hang of hovering your mouse over descriptions to get more information. If your province has say 3% revolt risk, hover your mouse and find out why. Your markets not making enough profit? Same thing.

-check your edger often to get a big picture of everything that's going on in your kingdom and in others

[conmcb25]

Its a fun game MWIA, let us know how your experiment turns out