Europa Universalis Stories!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Ok, write your stories here (AARs, make another thread ).

I'm England, right now. I decided to play slow (because of that bastard badboy value). I took Strathclyde from the Scots early and made peace. Then joined into an alliance with (interestingly) France. Naples asked me in. This is good, I didn't have to fight them. I started colonizing and building up infrastructure. I have just about the whole Atlantic Seaboard of the present-day US and Canada (up to Nova Scotia) Anglicized . In Europe, Spain took over Prussia when they turned Protestant, and colonized like crazy. France took Alsace and Lorraine, the Palatinate, and now Helvetia from Spain. I fought Scotland again and made peace and took 250 gold. Poland has been getting bigger, taking both Pomeranias from Hansa. Austria took Silesia from Bohemia and annexed Thurenagin (sp?).

I turned Protestant myself and dealt with scores of revolts. I'm back to +1 now (it is around 1557). Mary is my queen, and Elizabeth should be around soon. The Reign of Henry VIII was good. Great diplomatically and fairly good militarily. Edward VI came after him and sucked. Mary is decent, and Elizabeth is awesome.

Hopefully this game turns out fairly nice .

[Steve Clark]

You have classes you can cut, I have a job that I can't.

[hellrazor]

Well, I just completed my very first attempt at a game. I played England in the Grand Campaign. I was allied with Spain right off the bat even though our relations aren't very good. I tried to build up my trade and my armies although I didn't really have a clue what I was doing. Then Spain and Milan go off and declare war on somebody and since I didn't join them I failed to honor my alliance. A couple of years later, France, Scotland, the Papal States and their whole alliance declared war on me and I was toast. Got invaded by Scotland and France and ended up getting my capital occupied. I was finally able to sign peace by giving up Calais, two provinces in England, and all my ducats.

This was really a practice game...I'm still working on the basic game mechanics like moving armies around. Hopefully I'll get a handle on things soon. I think the depth of this game is just amazing...a map of the ENTIRE WORLD with all those provinces, all the different countries, rulers, and other details. I have some questions I still trying to figure out.

[Zkribbler]

quote: Originally posted by Steve Clark on 03-02-2001 10:41 AM You have classes you can cut, I have a job that I can't.

'Scuse me, Steve, but are you running a temperature? Yep, your forehead's hot. Looks like some kinda flu bug to me. You'll probably have to call in sick on Monday.

[Fintilgin]

This is kinda an AAR... but it -is- a story. Sorry...

After messing around enough to learn the basics of the game I took the helm of the Ottoman Empire (on Normal difficulty) and decide to teach the world the wisdom of Allah.

My first goal was the complete and utter destruction of the Persian Empire. Note to all players of EU: The Turks can build HUGE armies! Marching east, I clashed with the Persians and their allies to the north.
After quite a few years I mangaged to get all of their proviences under control and annexed the entire country. ::burp!::

Having swallowed almost more then I could chew, I decided to rest for a while and build up peacefully. Not long after I felt my huge armies were going to waste and marched south against the Mamelukes, annexing Syria and Palestine.

At this point some people realized I was, perhaps, not the friendliest giant superpower on the block. Venice and Hungary delcared war on me (along with that little country betwixt Turkey and Hungary whose name I forget). So, I um... smacked `em around a little bit, annexing Istria and Illyria. This sort of behavior let to a second war with the Mamelukes, where I said, `Ah to heck with it' and annexed all of Egypt. ::burp!::

Once this has happended I really felt my territorial ambitions in Europe were satisfied. I sent my settlers to the one known provience of India next to my Persian proviences. After some work, I befriended Portugal (I think) enough to get their maps. Not that their was much they had explored, oddly enough. Still Turkish Panama made a nice addition to my Empire.

By 1560 or so I had got my own explorers, who I sent out at the head of a large fleet, to India. Soldiers were dispatched and colonies built all along the Indian coast. I declared war on and conquered the large country in southern India and befriended the tribes to the north to create a nice little Indian Empire. The Portugese had a trading post in India as well, breaking up by perfect green map in an aestheticly displeasing way, but I didn't want to get into the trouble of a war with Europe proper. (My Badboy value was undoubtbly very high).

That's when I noticed the east coast of America was very sparsely settled. So over the next hundred years I began spending all my efforts on bringing this new land into the fold of Islam. Europe was so quiet as far I was concerned, so I barely gave it a passing glance every decade or so.

By about 1680 I had spread inland in America, with settlements and trading posts from Bangor south to Savanah, and conected all the way west to the Pacific ocean (dodging the large Spanish holdings in Mexico).

Yet Spain still led in points.

This was intollerable. Especially as southern Spain had once been under the light of the One True God. The Sultan sent out orders and mighty fleets were assembled. Hundreds of thousands of troops gathered on the shores of Turkey and Egypt, rifles at the ready to face the pikestaff armed Spanish. My troops hit the Balerics(sp) and the west coast of Spain, in a short time Madrid fell and we annexed the Balerics and several coastal proviences. The rest of Europe could do little to challenge the might of the Ottomans and peace soon rulled again over Europe. (I did lose most of my trading posts in the American south-west to Spain who quickly built thier own there.)

The years passed and I settled Indo-China and parts of Indonsia. Turkish colonies were founded in Taiwan and along the Siberian Coast. Another war with Spain granted the Sultan several more proviences, including Gibralter.

By 1792 I had almost double the points of Spain and Europe was still in tatters, scarcely out of the Dark Ages. I knew soon they would all be speaking Arabic. Muwah ha ha!

For obvious reasons I've decided to tweak the scenario files and take the itty-bitty country of Venice out for a spin. I've also cranked it up to hard difficulty. Should make for a bit different game!

Joe

[Nicolas]

This is my first game, and as the Italian republics have always captivated me I am playing as The Most Serene Republic (the other choice, Tuscany, is just too small to be playable). Right off the bat I found my way into an unusual alliance with the turks which later grew to include austria and soon after that Hungary as my vassel. While together we form a pretty powerful eastern bloc, the turks hate both the christian nations, making it pretty fragile (which actually benfits me; the alliance falls apart when anyone other than myself calls on it, which saves most of it's strength to support my goals). Building this alliance took me about 30 years, and during that time I had been building up my infrastructure at the expense of the military, so right after the reformation hits I join turkey in a war with the marmalukes. We annex them ~1530 with egypt going to venice and the middle east going to the turks. I trade maps with a few of the smaller muslim countries and discover all of the saudi arabian peninsula, persia, and the upper east coat of africa. From there I start setting up trading posts in the valuable provinces and building my egyptian army. As it stands I have a ton of money, a powerful alliance protecting me from the european powers, and a powerful military about to sweep down across the eastern saudi peninsula and annex the hejadz, securing me mecca and medina and making me even richer. I can't wait to get back from my buisness trip and play it, Europa Universalis has captured my attention like very few other games (even more than civ II did). I'm even dreaming about it, which I guess is kind of scary...

[connorkimbro]

Never have i played a game like this, since civ2. I forgot what it was like to have the "just one more turn syndrome"!!! WOW!!!! but i need sleep now, so i'll try and make this quick.

Anyway. . i started off with the tutorial, of course. Being a bit overambitious for my first game, whilst still following the directions, i attempted two major things at once, and i was successful at both of them, simultaneously. I started off by colonizing great britain. . good to learn the basics of the game, trade, interface, etc. then i launched an assault on the natives of normandy, and quickly built a colony, then a city there. I worked my armies down and made peace with the catalania people (i don't remember the exact name. . hell that may be it) They were kind enough to show me their maps, which convieniently included a route to the new world. So i launched an expidition to the new world, completely eradicating the natives of puerto rico and the dominican republic, building some cities there to harvest the sugar. Then i built up my armies and started working my way across italy, down through macedonia and greece, building colonies and trading posts along the way, eventually go to lebanon and made contact with the mamelucks (whatever) Built some cities close bye. . then the game required me to build a city in spain for some reasons, so i did, then launched a joint assault on the mamelucks, cleaning their clock quite nicely. The game ended when i offered peace, and demanded 1000 ducats, winning the game.

Ok, so it was just the tutorial. but damn. . what a fun game. more stories to come. . . if i can somehow find time to study korean. . hrmmm.

dammit imran, why'd you have to tell me about this game. hehe

[Par4]

Ok is very easy screwed up, because I suck! I'm getting wasted all the time

I've only tried the grand campaign on easiest these last couple days but man do I suck

1.Russia, Moscow and 2 other big provinces got captured by the teunotic order or whatever so I was only building troops at a rate of about 5000 a year so I got wasted by a country with 3 provinces. Oye

2.Off to Spain they should be easy
WRONG! I made the mistake of attacking that country near where Andorra is today, which was allied with France. So France makes peace with england and sends litterally 250 guys at me. 4 freaking armies of about 60 each came down and wasted me

3.Spain again. This time I try attacking Portugual wiht about 150 guys, about 90k infantry 50k cavalry and 20 cannons. Big freaking mistake, while I succeeded in capturing portugual the freaking portugese navy came down and killed columbus so I had no WATER EXPLORER!! By the time I managed to get across the ocean most of America was already taken over by France and England!!!! EXPLORES ARE WAYYY TOO IMPORTANT!!!! I kept playing but France wasted me again with some big ass armies landed on the north side of the iberian peninsula.

4.England!! Yay this should be easy! Not really! I saved up about 100 guys and attacked Scotland but since I don't know how to make captured provinces useful, ie I can build stuff in em, it was a big waste and cost alot. France again screws me over, I send cabot and about 20 warships over to explore america, big mistake. Right after hes in delaware, bam out of the blue, even though I'm at +50 and royal marriage, with france FRANCE WIPES ME OUT!! 3 fleets of 10 warships easily beat my 20 warships, and by the time cabot gets back FRANCE HAS CAPTURED LONDON AND 5 other provinces with about 80 guys. Well I can't produce enough to stop em so I quit.

5.Portugual! Spain attacked whatever that little vassal nation was and I said ok I'll help you, wrong! I was toast quick

6.ENGLAND!! Well this went pretty good, no wars, peace with Spain and France, I captured all of the eastern colonies in America and Canada, took azores from Portugual, I started for Aztec and Incan empires but France again, out of the freaking blue comes over and since I had been neglecting sea defenses, Got beat at about a 2:1 ratio in the english channel. They landed took over all of southern england and I was forced to resign. I could have gone on since I had over 40 provinces in America up to city but I was screwed.

7:TOMORROW I BEGIN AS FRANCE!!!!!

[Steve Clark]

Here's what I posted in EU forum. It's not a story per se or an AAR, just an example of how my approach to EU is different than every single person on the face of the earth...

In my anal-retentive way of learning a serious game such as EU, I typically spend many days just learning about the different elements of the game before I actually start playing it for real (sort of an apprenticeship). I see that there are 3 major elements of EU: Economics, Diplomacy and Military. I just spent all weekend just on the economics part, and it was tough.

When I came across the part of the Tutorial where I had to supply a merchant, I got confused and stopped for the night. Yesterday, I vowed to spend whatever time necessary to understand everything about the economics part of EU before proceeding. What I did was to read (and re-read) the sections in manual (and really wish I had an EU Strategy Guide). They provide alot of information, but not directly related to the game. There are alot of economic-related figures that are presented to you in the game and I wanted to figure out the source of each one and their causes and effects, so I can know what I need to do. I did this by loading up 3-4 different scenarios and logging all of the info about CoT and the financial statements, both the monthly and yearly ones. I think I understand now how the trade economies show up in the statement because at first, the numbers are so low that it appears the CoT are worthless. Seeing those numbers in the Age of Mercantile scenario, for example, you can see the percentages from yours and others and how you can affect them. In the end, all of the numbers do not add up exactly, so I guess there are some fudging going on, but they do make sense.

So after spending 3 solid hours on the economics part, I think it all comes down to a simple set of strategies:
1. Get the Trade Levels up
2. Get the Infrastructure Levels up
3. Pick and choose where to send Merchants to CoT
4. Maximize your own CoT
5. Colonize provinces that potentially gives you a good ROI on trade
6. Keep the population growing
7. Don't expect anything significant early on (e.g., getting a total of 12 from all of the CoTs (which takes awhile) won't amount to a hill of beans and will only add 0.3-0.5 ducat per month, and that trade only makes up 20-25% of your yearly income anyways.)

I think after spending my first weekend with EU, I believe that while the manual and the game presents you with alot of information (in some cases, too much that it distracts from what it takes to play the game), I suspect the gameplay is rather straight-forward, even Civ-like.

[Fintilgin]

Yes, I found the gameplay rather straight-forward as well, despite the large amounts of information available.

I've had a hard time figuring out what directly affects my economy, but putting the merchants on auto-send seems to work rather well, so I just try to place my trading-posts in regions with good commodities, but otherwise not pay much attention to my economy.

I still seem to make a fair amount of cash. In the game with Turkey I mentioned above, I had several hundred thousand ducats by the end of the game! Nothing to spend them on...

Joe

[Victor Galis]

But, Imran, the bad boy value is what lets you expand like crazy without losing ANY stability That's how I expanded so fast, but then again my tech is maxed out, and my trade income is insane since I get almost all of China's trade... so I can raise those 50,000 man armies with utmost ease and send them west to crush the evil Polish. It is annyoing how Austria declares war on me... what are they going to do, bite my knee caps? (Not like I can mess them up any more either )

[Victor Galis]

The CoTs are not worthless I got 2000D out of Luzon for awhile Before my center in Santal, and Edo started draining my trade... I still make about 3300D yearly in trade, mostly out of Asia.

My very first game was France. I made the mistake of attacking Lorraine, which was allied to both Spain and England, was slowly losing, though I did annex Lorraine.

Second game, in about 1495, I invaded England, and walked away with Calais, and an England very pissed off at her Spanish "ally" That's the game where I went on to sack London every couple of years (yeah, those Brits never learned.) Scotland now came down, and sacked London too... I find it pretty funny China has European colonies

[Imran Siddiqui]

quote: But, Imran, the bad boy value is what lets you expand like crazy without losing ANY stability

Isn't the point though, so I think .

[Ramo]

I played as France. Starting off, I built up my coalition - Scotland, Navarra, the Papal States, Savoy, perhaps something else. I first tried to take out Alsace-Lorraine. I beat the crap out of them, but the territory that I can take - Alsace - shares no common border with me. But, I realized that Spain is right in my way, and I have a Casus Beli against him, but he was far too powerful, so I decided to attack one of the German states - Baden. After several heated battles, I captured the provinces of Baden and Thurge, his ally. I figured, I could annex one of his provinces, but it said that all of Europe would turn against me when I tried. Not sure what to do, I simply left the two provinces armyless, and attacked Spain. I took parts of Netherlands and the province that bridges the gap, Franch-Com. Unforunately, Southern France fared far worse than I expected. He was making surprising amounts of gains in that region, and my armies that tried to stop him were decimated. I continued to focus my strength on the rich North, making more gains than he was. Right when I was so close to capturing one of the greatest COTs - with practically 100 Ducats income, the Flanders.... the soon-to-be infidels, the English, declared war on me! When I called for support, the treacherous Scots refused to honor our alliance. I sued for peace with Spain, and took Artois, Luxembourg, and Franch-Com. I realized that Navarra, unfortunately, had been annexed by the demonous Spanish. I turned my attention towards Callais, and took it after a few build-ups to replenish my armies. I realized that I needed one of England's home provinces to keep Callais, so I sent my fleet, the Great French Armada, to the Channel, but there was no Navy! Surprised, I landed a great army, and took Kent with ease. I sent another army into my transports, but then the galleons came.... My great navy could barely keep up with the damn Limeys! A huge portion of my fleet, as well as my army, was destroyed! At least, I defeated him in a couple Naval battles, giving me access to the map of small parts of the New World. Realizing my army was cut off from the main-land, I quickly moved on. I decided to sack London. That ought to give me a good amount of leverage when agreeing on a peace. The sack was successful, but suddenly a great army came from the North. I asked for peace, giving Callais and Kent to me. The bastard refused. I realized my cannon were damn good, and decided to take Wessex. I took that extraordinarily quickly. On a roll, I went for Cornwall. But I failed, losing many great soldiers in the process. England's army was growing at a unsettling pace. London fell back to Henry! I prepared to ask for a peace, giving me only Callais, but had no diplomats! An army moved into Kent, that's larger than mine. Panicked, I had no idea what to do, but out of the blue, England approached me with a peace, giving me Callais and Wessex. Astonished, I quickly took it up. Deciding to increase my stability, I gave Thurgen and Baden independence. I knew this would be a bad move, but did it anyways...

*To be continued*

[Victor Galis]

"Isn't the point though, so I think ."

-The bad boy value is rather useful when you can take on the rest of the world.

Nubia, Mysore, the Golden Horde, and the Mamluks have now fallen before the mighty armies of France!

Scotland joined the French crown for greater glory!

China and Turkey were issued slices of Persia for their loyal service as France's allies.

The number of countries keeps decreasing I now get to pick one more ally since, Scotland was annexed. Hmmm... any suggestions? Persia is the biggest non-French ally, but it's lands are being carved up slowly. The point of any alliance is to have one less country that will declare war on me due to the bad boy value.