How to begin?!?!?!

[fittstim]

OK. I'm sick of CivIII so I forked out the dough (actually fairly cheap compared to the 500kr I paid for CivIII) and bought EU2. For all intents and purposes, the game looks great except one small problem...I have no freaking idea how to begin.

I went through the tutorial which IMO was extremely basic and didn't actually give any advice on how to play.

So my question is how do I begin? Opening ploys? I played a scenario as Spain and wound up with 0 point after maybe 2 years while at the same time England is conquering the world.

Are there any real tutorials - like the CivIII tutorial mode which really demonstrates actions and results? Please, please, please!!!

Help me Obi-wan...

[Nikolai]

For a start, go to the official EU2 page, and look at the tips there. They have lots of tips and strategies, and are always ready to help you, even for small and "newbish" questions.

Second, your choice of Spain is a good one. Spain is seen as one of the easiest countries to play. The Ottomans is probably better if you want to avoid the colonization part for a while, and instead consentrate on other parts of the game.

Be warned, however, that with the newest patches(from 1.06 and beyond) the game has been made much harder to master, because of new elements and features. If you wnat the game to be easier(but with some more bugs I guess), can find the 1.05 patch and learn the game from there before you try the later patches. In 1.05 the Ottomans is much easier to master than it is today.

But anyway, enjoy your new game!

[Sandman]

Start with small nation that can sit quietly and learn the ropes. Or choose France.

With the latest patches, the maintainence costs of armies is much higher. Most countries start out with far more soldiers than they can afford, so you should disband some soldiers straight away.

[fittstim]

Ok thanks for the help. I'll check out that web page

[Velociryx]

Another convert! If you stick with it and conquer the rather steep learning curve (about 3x Civ's learning curve), you won't go back....

-=Vel=-

[pg]

the official eu2 forum is really a player's best friend when starting out imo.

[fittstim]

Well here's my main problem:

Within a short time of starting to play (weeks in game time) I'm flat broke and my ratings are dropping fast - this make me less inclined to continue playing because, right from the beginning, it seems like a lost cause...

[ravagon]

How did you spend your starting capital?
If you have a large number of land/naval forces (over your low-maintainance level) then you'll be paying a lot in terms of upkeep costs.
You may have to adjust your monthly income-to-treasury slider upwards a bit (which will increase your inflation but can't be helped sometimes).

[Janbalk]

Or disband troops.

And when you are at peace you need to trun down your troop support to save money. No need to have thme on full pay if you are not forseeing any imideatte wars.

[Velociryx]

Getting started:

Here's sort of a basic checklist of things to look over before you unpause the game and get going:

1) Religious tolerances. Look at your provinces and find out what religions you have inside your borders. Look at your diplomatic ratings and find out what your initial relations look like. What are the primary religions of your "natural allies"? When you adjust your religous sliders for tolerance, you need to take both into account, because if you have, say, an Orthodox nation that thinks highly of you, but you minimize your tolerance for their religion, relations will head south over time. Primarily, you want to use the tolerance sliders to minimize rebellion in your borders, but secondarily, you want to use them for a natural long-term boost to relations with nations you are friendly with.

2) Military. How many troops do you have? How many can you support at the standard price? If you have more than the max supported amount, you will quickly bankrupt yourself trying to maintain the force. Two solutions here....either disband down to some number of troops inside your max range, or pick a fight early. If you go with option one (disbanding), then you're not planning for war early, and you'll prolly be well suited to cutting your military maintenance to 50%. This comes with a morale penalty that takes 3 months for your troops to recover from when you set the maint. level back to 100%, but can save you a ton of money. If you go with an early war, then you don't want to spend ANY money (hoarding it so you can pay troop salaries). Your starting funds will dictate how long a war you can stand to fight, and will help determine who you attack (if you have not much money, then attack a 1-2 province minor, cos you can end that fight quickly).

3) As of the 1.07 patch, you need to promote Bailiffs to Tax Collectors to get annual incomes from territories. If you don't....no annual income. VERY high priority then, and it means that if you do not start with Infra. 1, then you need to make that your first, overriding priority.

4) Government sliders - you need to check them to find out what your government is "set up" for. In the early game, chances are good that you won't need colonists (unless you are playing an early colonial power like spain or portugal), cos you don't have anyplace to send them! Colonists will, as the game continues, become extremely important for many nations, but not all. If you are playing Brandenburg, for example, you will prolly not need colonists for....quite some time. If ever. Look at your country, decide what you want to do, and study the slider positions to see how they can help you achieve your goals. If the choice is between building your economy and getting cheap troops, then as a rule, build that economy! Most of the "cheap troop" sliders come with some ding to your economy.....funny thing is, if you focus on your economy then, long term, you will have more money aggregate, for faster research AND the ability to afford your (slightly) more expensive troops. Cheap armies, and the settings that give them are an okay short term position, but the game lasts for 400 years.....

Good luck!

-=Vel=-

[fittstim]

Originally posted by Velociryx

2) Military. How many troops do you have? How many can you support at the standard price? If you have more than the max supported amount, you will quickly bankrupt yourself trying to maintain the force. Two solutions here....either disband down to some number of troops inside your max range, or pick a fight early. If you go with option one (disbanding), then you're not planning for war early, and you'll prolly be well suited to cutting your military maintenance to 50%. This comes with a morale penalty that takes 3 months for your troops to recover from when you set the maint. level back to 100%, but can save you a ton of money. If you go with an early war, then you don't want to spend ANY money (hoarding it so you can pay troop salaries). Your starting funds will dictate how long a war you can stand to fight, and will help determine who you attack (if you have not much money, then attack a 1-2 province minor, cos you can end that fight quickly).

3) As of the 1.07 patch, you need to promote Bailiffs to Tax Collectors to get annual incomes from territories. If you don't....no annual income. VERY high priority then, and it means that if you do not start with Infra. 1, then you need to make that your first, overriding priority.

-=Vel=-

Bingo!!!

The military thing is the most important. I started out as Poland in the Age of Exploration with something like 70.000 troops. The support level was 26.000. But this begs the question: why start out the scenario with so many troops if it's surely going to bankrupt the country within five months??? I can't lose that many troops quick enough even if I attack Pomerania immediately. I lose 90% through attrition. This seems very strange to me that it's set up so... Oh well, you live you learn.

At least I'm beginning to get the hang of things.

[Nikolai]

Te rerason is that the maintenance rules was changed in 1.06 and 1.07 to be worse. Earlier it was no problem to live with more troops than the limit. IIRC, the maintenance is in 1.06 and 1.07 two times bigger under the limit and three times bigger over the limit. The starting troops has just not been changed after the adjustments!

[fittstim]

Well then...any suggestions?

I have all theses troops. Is it better to disband them immediately or should I go to war? I've tried both and I'm not sure which is better in the long term...

[Velociryx]

Depends on the country. IF you have a weak neighbor nearby, and you feel confident that you can win the war quickly, do this:

1) DoW immediately, leave the maint. slider at max, and savage his country.

2) Lock down all enemy provinces by stationing troops there to prevent recruitment.

3) Once you have defeated the enemy force, take stock of your army, if you are still way over the limit, disband some of your excess, and drop maint. to 50% (your enemy has no army and no hope of getting more troops, and morale doesn't matter unless you are assaulting....for a standard siege, "Disciplined" is just fine.



-=Vel=-