New to EU

[klesh]

Originally posted by Havard

Could this be the reason for the fiscal problems of the good Field Marshal? Are you within our supportable amount of troops? Paying extra maintenance can be very expensive...

Well I was building building building troops, unitll I came across this part of the manual. I then checked, and I was well below the support limit. My problem might have been fighting too much? I wanted to strike early blows at france to see if I could destroy her forces early on. Obviously with my minimal ammount of income, attrition (not in the game sense) got to me and I just couldnt keep up. France had blasted through Alsace and was commming right for Austria and I when she chose to fight me first. This, combined with uprisings in my Polish conquests, allowed for nothing but immediatly buying troops.

Perhaps I just need to take things more slowly in the game. With RTS games, I know the computer is always making every decision all the time. None of his units are stagnant and such. So i get this feeling that if I dont hit up the AI fast and hard, that they will mechanically outproduce me anyway. Hmmm. More to come...

-FMK.

[uglyduck]

You have hit on the key. Take things more slowly it is a long game. Let the other nations cut each others throats for a while then step in and take over the weakened ones.

[Dauphin]

The longer you are at war, and the more people you are at war with, increases the chances that someone else wil decalre war on you too. Its a domino effect. I remember one game, where I was at war with almost every European nation.

[St Leo]

I can never seem to make more than 100-200 ducats per year, which is immediatly used to fill the ranks of a nearby armee that has dwindled in this past year.

1. If your armies are dwindling, they are too large for the provinces in which they are sitting. Let them dwindle down to their optimal size or upgrade a fortress there ASAP.
2. Large standing armies are VERY EXPENSIVE to maintain in EU2. Check your army tab from time to time and keep the maintenance at 50% when you are not at war.

Yeah, but first you have to upgrade your relations with lots of ducats before they accept a loan. Or not? In any case, I haven't been able yet to get a loan offer accepted. Though I gave up after my first few tries...

Under older patches, distant countries with -200 relationships loved to fund your expansion by accepting large loans from you. This is considered an exploit.

The longer you are at war, and the more people you are at war with, increases the chances that someone else wil decalre war on you too. Its a domino effect. I remember one game, where I was at war with almost every European nation.

Perhaps that was because you annexed a lot of land and people were jumping in because of your badboy value.

[Dauphin]

Well there was that.

What gives the bad boy image? Say you never declare war, only ever fight defensively and when peace is offered you only ever accept cash.

Does your reputation suffer just by being rich and powerful, even if you are isolationist and none conquest oriented?

[St Leo]

Does your reputation suffer just by being rich and powerful, even if you are isolationist and none conquest oriented?

No. In fact, with 0 BB, your relations will improve.

[Dauphin]

0 BB - bad boy? I am not upto speed on abbreviations.

So if you take out provinces, but never annex, you won't annoy anyone?

[Havard]

BB = badboy. It's an indicator on how "bad" you have behaved... Annexing a country military give 5 BB "points", annexing non-core provinces give BB, declaring war without a CB etc...

The rating you see in your diplomatic screen ("We have a honorable reputation"...."We are worse than dishonorable scum" etc) reflect that BB rating.

To answer your question: You do not get BB for taking core-provinces (those with a little shield on it in the political map) or annexing pagan countries (as a non-pagan - new in 1.05) - apart from this you get BB points for all provinces you take...

If you get enough BB your relations with other countries will detoriate, they will try to bring you down (in war) etc.