An EU2 Newbie, at last!

[lord of the mark]

Bought the Strategy 6 pack (EU2, HOI, Vic, COTN, 2 crowns, and EU2-Asia)

Installed EU2.

It looks great - a little choppy and stuff is slow to load, which is natural since im playing on a machine below minimum specs. I skimmed the manual first, and played halfway through the tutorial - then jumped in - grand campaign, default settings, as England. Figured thats an easy one to start with on Imp2. Forgot that here its 1419, and Henry V has just renewed the war with France!!! Totally overwhelming, but definitely cool!.

Im gonna go back and finish the tutorial, look over the manual again, and then try with an easier country - Castile?

[General Ludd]

The tutorial and manual are pretty much useless. It's better to just learn it through playing it, and asking questions on the official forums. It'll be overwhelming at first, but you'll get the hang of it.

Austria might be another good country for you to get the hang of things with.

[dojoboy]

I thought the tutorial worked well for mechanics.

Enjoy getting to know the game. It is real fun.

[Jonny]

The manual's pretty much worthless. As Ludd said, the forums are the best place for info (it's a fact that bears repeating).

Make sure you're patched to the most recent version...

And Castille should be a good choice; after you take care of Granada, you're surrounded by friends and have a decent economy - especially after the meger with Aragon.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Jonny
The manual's pretty much worthless. As Ludd said, the forums are the best place for info (it's a fact that bears repeating).

Make sure you're patched to the most recent version....

the version in the six pack is 1.08. Thats the latest, I think?

[ravagon]

1.08 is the latest unless you plan on installing the beta's. These seem to be tailored towards multiplayer so I wouldn't recommend them otherwise.

[St Leo]

The most important thing to know about 1.08 is that an army that's even slightly larger than your upkeep limit will murder your budget. If you are bleeding too much red ink, disband or slaughter bits. Also, don't forget to halve the maintenance in peace time and hike it back up in war time.

[Nikolai]

The last part of that olast remark is very important to remember. I know I haven't always...

[Dinner]

The game has a steep learning curve but once you get the hang of things you will likely find it to be aq far more enjoyable game then Civ3. Also don't forget to download the AGC-EEP mod as it adds in a ton of new events to keep things more interesting.

[lord of the mark]

i finished the tutorial last night - its not that bad.

the events are cool - when i started playing England, i got the Lollard event - made me think about the dilemma the Lancastrians actually faced with the Lollards - of course i think i made a mistake by suppressing them, since I took a stability hit, and was at war with France and its vassals anyway.

[SirOsis]

Didn't even know about this 6 pack. Oooooh. Looks so good. Gonna have to scrape up some cash and a few thousand hours of free time.

[lord of the mark]

I finished the tutorial - went over the manual - didnt read everything, went into more depth than skimming.

Then i fired up the game again, this time as Castile.

Ive gotten the impression that there will be a "Spain" event that will give me unity with Aragon, so im trying to stay on good terms with them, and for now Portugal. Im eager to try a manageable war, so I DOWed Granada. However Im still getting the hang of military stuff. I lost a battle in Gibraltar, then sent another army into Granada to lay siege.

Meanwhile Portugal asked me to join them in war on Fez and Algiers - I figured that was a good thing, so I joined them - why let them get all the spoils? In retrospect that was a mistake - better to keep wars more narrowly focused, i think. I sent a modest fleet of galleys into the med, thinking the muslims must be week navy wise - well the Algiers fleet of 20 warships punished my 7 galleys and sent them back out to the Atlantic, where they were caught by the Granada fleet as they went past the Straight. Finally went home to Andalusia, having lost one ship.

Meanwhile the algerians landed on murcia. I drove them off, but the province is pillaged, I think.

Ive now got a large army (29,000?) seiging Granada - i need to win, apparently to get them to even consider a peace with concessions to me. The army is attriting away (frustrating, but realistic) but i the city should fall soon.

Ive put my stability slider all the way up - as ive started at +2, is that overdoing it? Ive also promoted two bailiffs, but that hasnt come in yet, and ive been sending merchants to Tagus and Genoa.

Meanwhile Portugal is fighting the Fez and Algiers forces in Morocco, and the Aragonese are fighting Navarra.

[Nikolai]

I finished the tutorial - went over the manual - didnt read everything, went into more depth than skimming.

As a rule of thumb, do not trust the manual 100%.

Ive gotten the impression that there will be a "Spain" event that will give me unity with Aragon, so im trying to stay on good terms with them, and for now Portugal. Im eager to try a manageable war, so I DOWed Granada. However Im still getting the hang of military stuff. I lost a battle in Gibraltar, then sent another army into Granada to lay siege.

Good relations is not neccessary, just some key provinces in your control and no war against them IIRC.

Ive now got a large army (29,000?) seiging Granada - i need to win, apparently to get them to even consider a peace with concessions to me. The army is attriting away (frustrating, but realistic) but i the city should fall soon.

Did you check the support limit?

Ive put my stability slider all the way up - as ive started at +2, is that overdoing it? Ive also promoted two bailiffs, but that hasnt come in yet, and ive been sending merchants to Tagus and Genoa.

Opinions differ, some say don't care at all(that's the professionals, those extremely good at the game), others just that you should invest until you reach 0 stability. I tend to go to +1, and stop then, if not the revolt risk is troublesome at that point too.

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
Ive gotten the impression that there will be a "Spain" event that will give me unity with Aragon, so im trying to stay on good terms with them, and for now Portugal. Im eager to try a manageable war, so I DOWed Granada.

Granada is a good target, but you'll have some trouble with them re: religion. You may want to bump up your tolerance for the Moslem faith to lower revolt risks. You will get an event to create Spain. I don't recall any precondition for it to occur, just play on.

Originally posted by lord of the mark Meanwhile Portugal asked me to join them in war on Fez and Algiers - I figured that was a good thing, so I joined them - why let them get all the spoils? In retrospect that was a mistake - better to keep wars more narrowly focused, i think.

Alliances are tricky. I just finished a GC as France where I had an alliance w/ Spain, Austria, and the Papal States for the last 75 years of the game. I ddidn't have to worry at all about my European borders and was able to colonize North America and conquer pagans.

Originally posted by lord of the mark Ive now got a large army (29,000?) seiging Granada - i need to win, apparently to get them to even consider a peace with concessions to me. The army is attriting away (frustrating, but realistic) but i the city should fall soon.

Just keep training reinforcements and send them in. Also, here is a tip. Don't leave large numbers of troops together unless you've got a really good leader. Split armies, keeping them around 10,000. This reduces attrition rates. Once you're able to build artillery, seiges will go much faster. Getting a high war score is what is important, in order to demand provinces for peace.

Originally posted by lord of the mark Ive put my stability slider all the way up - as ive started at +2, is that overdoing it? Ive also promoted two bailiffs, but that hasnt come in yet, and ive been sending merchants to Tagus and Genoa.

Personally, I never invest in stability. It's usually feast or famine in regards to how stable things are. I've learned to live with it. Promote bailiffs early in provinces that produce 10D or more. I don't know if you get much of a return on bailiffs otherwise, early on.

[Nikolai]

Originally posted by dojoboy
Granada is a good target, but you'll have some trouble with them re: religion. You may want to bump up your tolerance for the Moslem faith to lower revolt risks. You will get an event to create Spain. I don't recall any precondition for it to occur, just play on.

You'll get an event, changing religion and culture when you expel the Moors in the late 1400s.

Personally, I never invest in stability. It's usually feast or famine in regards to how stable things are. I've learned to live with it. Promote bailiffs early in provinces that produce 10D or more. I don't know if you get much of a return on bailiffs otherwise, early on.

In latest patch(or one of the early betas), a new rule came into play. Any CB province gives you 25% of max income without a bailiff, 100% with. Non-CB provinces gives 0% without, 75% with. It's worth it. Get all provinces upgraded as soon as you can is my tip.