EU2: What is a good country for a noob?

[Odin]

Originally posted by Nikolai
Then the world comes falling down on you. Honestly, +40% RR in every single Chinese province is not fun...

40%? Holy Sh*t

[Nikolai]

Yeah. But it's only in the Chinese home provinces I think. Which is quite a bit anyway. I have only played China once, as my first EU2 game(I had EU1 before though, so I wasn't completely lost), and my flaw was to 1)not know of the event, 2)don't have the country ready stability wise(fast regainment is a good thing, which I didn't have...) and 3)I didn't have enough non-Chinese land. The last one would have been crucial. I actually managed to play through the whole GC, though it was hard.

[lord of the mark]

hey Vel, welcome back to the Paradox games forum. I remember following your Lorraine AAR and parallel alt history timeline. Ive since bought the game (thanks to the Paradox 6 pack) I have a thread in which we're discussing my first game (as Castille/Spain) as well as some other folks current games. Your comments would be appreciated.

[Velociryx]

Hey man, and how are you liking the game thus far?!

Will do! I'll head to the forums and look up your thread this weekend between moving stuffs!

-=Vel=-

[GePap]

Originally posted by Odin


40%? Holy Sh*t

Yes, come the 1620's you get a series of events as the Ming dynasty collapses, the army revolts, you have religious cults popping up, essentially the whole thing breaks down, and obviously you also have weak leaders.

The thing I disliked about that, besides the horrible pain of seing half the huge country in the hand of rebels and being utterly unable to raise new armies even aas I have to fight to regain my own damn empire is that, of course these events are preset, even though China was the most advanced state in the world with a signiifcant colonial empire in the East Indies. Why would the ruling dynasty of the greatest power in the world just suddenyl collapse?

There is one final even where China and the Manchu united under Manchu rule- half the time as China, from what i read in the Paradox Forums, you lose your northern half of the country and then have to regain it. Myself, I remained in control and got Manchuria. There was a revolt there soon and a few provinces broke away yet again, but at the point I became one united empire, I got about 120,000 Manchu soldiers, so I was finally able to crush my rebels in the south.

[Dinner]

That's my big problem with China is that it has weak leaders and with the east Asian tech costs so high leaders become your main way of winning battles. I normally take the full naval approach to the Chinese explorer event they get in the 1430s just so I can switch to the better muslim tech group (still far behind the two Christian tech groups but not as bad as before) though that means I have to spend the next 100 years trying to fix my sliders.

[Spiffor]

At the end of my Chinese game, I was nearly as advanced as the European powers. Full innovativeness, centralization, free citizens and plutocracy help having plenty of money, which happily went to my science.

I even had the most advanced naval tech in the world (I had rushed for it a little bit, in order to have all my ships able to explore: I didn't start having random explorers before that )

[Odin]

I am playing as Denmark and it is 1495, when and where should I start colonizing? I was thinking of the eastern US, that tobacco in Virginia is worth a lot.

[Nikolai]

I'd colonize the rich part of NA(ie the middle of NA IIRC). That should be the New England area I think. Be sure to take out the native nations in that area too.

[chequita guevara]

Try the Timurids.

[GePap]

By the end of my first complete China game I was the most advanced state, with infra and trade at tech 10, and with land at tech 49, and Sea at 40 something (the final ship graphic). I had a colonial empire encompassing the philipinnes, 90% of the East Indies, Bombay and southern India, parts of the East African Coast, Angola (which I took from the Portugese), Louisiana, Monterrey in california, and I conquered the still independent Aztec Empire, so I had Central Mexico....

Of course, this happens, as Oerdin said, by choosing to open to the world in the early part of the GC.

[Nikolai]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Try the Timurids.

That'll be hard...!

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Odin
I am playing as Denmark and it is 1495, when and where should I start colonizing? I was thinking of the eastern US, that tobacco in Virginia is worth a lot.

Go for the Aztec, Maya, or Inca if you can since that's where the gold is. Failing that hen the east coast is best since there is a CoT you can convert, several rich proviences, and tons of natives to convert. You want to convert them because then they change to your culture.

[CerberusIV]

I was looking for an interesting non-european country having got the major european colonial powers (England, France, Spain, Portugal) to the point they were too easy on VH/furious. I tried several with mixed results.

Zimbabwe - not too bad. Isolated, pagan and gold inflation. I ended up with a sunni religion regional power controlling a fair bit of east africa. Not easy for a noob though.

Brunei - easy to colonise locally. You can FA Makassar to gain a province early on but it would take a long time to build up to the point where you can take on the mainland countries.

Inca - not recommended. Possibly the most isolated country in the game. Easy enough to take over the Chimu but then what? Build tax collectors, disband the army and wait for a random conquistador or the Spanish to arrive (neither of which can happen before 1500 at the earliest).

Morocco - not easy. I was using a beta with a straits crossing at Gibraltar. Taking over Fez gave me a border with Castile and they just kept declaring war and outnumbered me 8 to 1.

Finally I struck gold with Songhai. Inland west africa. Sunni with a bit of gold inflation. Looks tricky to start as Timbuktu is rebel controlled and a rebel army is marching on you and you have no troops. Appearances can be deceptive though

Pagans to annex - Ashanti, Dahomey, Benin (and the Ivoria CoT) and eventually Kongo. Mali is Sunni but is your culture. Random conquistadors let you explore the coastal provinces. Plenty of room to colonise. Not isolated as you can easily trade maps with Morocco and then other Sunni countries to get Europe and as far east as the East Indies.

Early monarchs aren't bad and there are a few leaders to take the pagans. Conversion chances usually over 50%.

I've reached 1680 and have over 30 provinces and tech 17/11/5/6. If there is a downside it is that I have nowhere left to colonise and my only land neighbours are England, Portugal and the Ottomans. I can't get anywhere by sea. I have just forcibly extracted a couple of provinces from the Ottomans and Portugal is next once I have land 18.

Definitely worth a look for a first try at a smaller muslim/pagan type country.

[Spiffor]

Songhai was my first experience (with 1.00), and I found it fairly easy, save for the inflation which was a real killer (about .60 inflation at the beginning - I believe gold inflation has been halved in further patches).

In the 1600's, I ended up with a 300% inflation or something. The game is significantly harder when everything costs 4 times the price