An EU2 Newbie, at last!

[Spiffor]

This game rocks

I've started a new game as China. Had a little trouble at the beginning against Dai Viet (the war ended with a stalemate), but then it took off.

The Chinese have plenty of resources, but are restricted by the cost of tech (I was under the impression it was about 5 times more expansive than by the French). Besides, I was stupid enough to notice my 1419 explorer only a few months before his death, and I still haven't had any newer explorer since then (1580)

I did't waste time however: Manchuria is under my control, and I have made sure that Indochina is divided in vassal microstates My infrastructure is excellent (judges everywhere, 10 manufactories) and my tech isn't even too laughable.

The Chinese scripted events rock. They allow to do basically what would have benn the correct path for China: continue outward expansion, welcome foreign knowledge etc... Merely at the cost of stability (OK, the costs are often pretty harsh).

I have sent colonies as far as Pondicherry, in order to launch an expedition of discovery as soon as I have an explorer. So far, I only had one conquistador who mapped Indonesian islands and died in Siberia. My only problem is Austria, which is #1 far above me (I'm #2). Once I discover Europe, maybe I should meddle in European affairs to unite Europe against Austria

[Dinner]

Originally posted by lord of the mark

The next combat results table happens at Land tech 5, no? Im only at land tech 4 i think. I really played the early part of the 1400s badly, and am not as far ahead in tech as i might be if i restarted now.

It's a learning experience. I generally move my sliders around alot. I'll put everything into one slider since you get results faster then dividing them between several sliders. Typically, I'll try to get a CRT in land tech then move to infastructure so I can improve my economy. Unless I'm playing a colonizing country I don't even bother with sea techs until I get governors.

[Dinner]

China only gets one explorer and anything else is by chance. I found China is good but it has some really bad civil war events which lead to a 30-50 period of endless rebellions. I've found I do best as China when I conquor the historical areas China conquored and then try to explore/colonize down the Siberian corridor. Invading India and southeast asia is just gravy.

[Nikolai]

Spiffor: Good to hear you like the game. As for China, that was my first EU2 game too, and I promise you, you'll have an interesting time ahead.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Spiffor
This game rocks

Dont it now? It lives up to my high expectations.

[lord of the mark]

Ok, i found a save game from 1512, before the Cherokee war. This time I stay at peace. Continue building up Roanoke, start a colony at St. Martin, and stay cool till I get the Charles events. Aragon has managed to lose Piedmont to Denmark(!) and south Italy to the Papal States, but thats ok, Ive got all of Spain, Sardinia, Sicily and Malta. This time I keep the Aragonese forces and send my old Spanish forces to America. In fact i started doing that in 1515 (hell, Ferdinand KNEW he was dying, no?) The Cherokee have 18000 troops, land tech 1, in Atlanta (or whatever). Ive got about 7000 in Santee, land tech 4. And about 6000 a few weeks sail away - and about 4000 departed the Azores. And yet MORE coming around from the Med.

Need to get back to promoting tax collectors in Aragon, but its only 1516.

[lord of the mark]

March 1520. About 25000 Spanish troops in Santee under the command of Cortes, Stab back up to 2 after the Habsburg marriage and Communero rising events, military fully funded. All is ready - DOW as soon as I get back to it.

Conquer the Cherokee, and then head on towards Mexico?

[Ramo]

Conquer Mexica, reduce your BB (which should be fairly high after annexing Aragon and the Aztecs), convert the pagan provinces, etc., then go for the Cherokee at your leisure. You probably don't want war with a unified France right now. As I've been saying, there really is no hurry wrt the N Amerindians.

[Ramo]

As for my Savoy game (~1640), I've colonized the Carib, and am in perfect position to annex the Aztecs once my BB goes down (after annexing Milan - much of Northern Italy, my rating is "rather bad"). So I have nearly all of the French cultured provinces, Northern Italy, half of Sicily, and most of the Carribean.

I have two real problems - France and the Habsburgs. France is reduced to Paris and Brittany, but I don't want Britanny (seeing as I don't have Celtic as state culture), and France is still able to have 60-70,000 troop army in Paris. It's also allied to Geldre, which controls the low countries, and is thus a fairly large nuissance. I really want Paris because I still don't have a CoT. So the only option I can see is to vassalize France by force of arms, but that would be an expensive pain.

Castile (hadn't annexed Aragon) is a fairly large state and can easily harrass my colonies, but the big problem is her ally, Austria. It has most of Germany as well as Hungary, and there's no natural ally to oppose her. I could very easily lose a war with the Habsburgs. Austria also controls Mantua, an Italian cultured province (thus my personal fief) and every other only land connection to Venice, a major irritant with a huge navy that DoWs me every 5 years for no reason that I can see.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Ramo
I have two real problems - France and the Habsburgs. France is reduced to Paris and Brittany, but I don't want Britanny (seeing as I don't have Celtic as state culture)

I thought Britanny became French cultured after a certain date. Same as Wales becomes Anglo-Saxon after a certain time. Can't quite remember how it pans out or what the requirements are though.

[General Ludd]

With all this talk about EU, I started playing again recently... but ran into something that caused me to end my game prematurely, and is something remember experiencing last time I played aswell: Never ending wars.


I was playing as Genoa and joined an alliance with Tuscany, Modena, Siena, Duchy of Athens, and the Papal States, a few years into the game they got into a war on Byzantium. I signed a seperate white peace because I didn't really care about it, and they continued to fight. After a few years, the Ottomans hold constantinople and duchy of athens holds byzantium's second province. 5 later, no peace has been made, and nothing new has happened in the war. I save the game and load, thinking the AI has fallen into a lapse, and it does prompt the ottomans to sign a white peace, and then tuscany takes constantiople. Again, no peace is made. I try save/loading again, but to no effect. It's now 70 years later, and nothing has changed. To make matters worse, another war was started with Albania and even though Duchy of Athens has conquered their only province, they've just sat on it for two decades like they have with Byzantium and refused to annex them.

[Jonny]

I've seen that happen before. Best bet is to reload as Dutchy of Athens, make peace for them with whoever you need to, and then return to Genoa. (Without unpausing, so that the AI won't screw up your nation.)

[General Ludd]

I hadn't thought of that.

[lord of the mark]

i conquered the cherokee, and went and conquered the aztecs. which leads to two things. about events.

I had sent a missionary to one of the cherokee provs - first time id used the feature - im supposed to get (if it hits) both a religion change AND a culture change, since these are pagans, right? well just before my missionary is done, i get an EVENT popup that says a prov has converted, and its the one where my missionary was - and the religion changed, but NOT the culture? what happened here - bad luck? Did i misunderstand the rule AND the popup?

second - well into my war with the aztecs, i get inherit aztecs event (which i recall hearing about, but had forgotten). Actually that makes sense, cause historically Spain got the Aztecs with hardly any effort - OTOH I suppose most players wouldnt bother trying to conquer if they know theres an event - but then maybe thats historically justified.

[Dinner]

Event conversions don't change culture only religion. I'd reload and try again because you realy don't want those event conversions to happen to your pagans.