whats your goal in a Paradox game?

[St Leo]

1. CI don't find colonizing fun. The AI can have the New World if it wants it.

2. Generally, I strive to become a strong regional power via plausible means.

3. The most fun kind of war is one where you and your opponent are well matched, and you have to outmanouevre or outstubborn the AI. A war between a patchy Austria and a patchy Burgundy or a patchy France is plain awesome.

[BeBMan]

I only have EU II so far, and yeah, I'd also say it depends which country you are. I find colonizing fun with England, you can even stay peaceful if you want over a long time.
For warmongering I use Brandenburg, also with the goal to form a big empire. Didn't try out many othe nations so far. Only one time I played one of the scns as the Dutch, which turned out surprisingly easy....

[General Ludd]

Brandenburg is one of my favorites to play. I remember a fun game where I united germany and colonized large portions of north america. Most of modern day Canada was German.

[Seeker]

I like to correct historical injustices. This often means I spend ridiculous amounts subsizing funny little revolters, like Persians, Netherlands, mighty mighty Wales.

If I play Ireland I try to unite and keep all gaelic countries. Brandenburg, recreate Germany's largest borders.

With Spain, I colonize the world. With Austria, I devote myself to completely conquering Europe.

[Odin]

I like to change history.

ALL HAIL MY MIGHTY NORWEGIAN EMPIRE.
if only I could get an explorer...

[General Ludd]

My current goal is to start in 1066, create a Kingdom of Jeruselem, and bring it into the 20th century.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by General Ludd
My current goal is to start in 1066, create a Kingdom of Jeruselem, and bring it into the 20th century.

"In other news, Israeli FM Shimon Peres is meeting with the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, to discuss disputed boundary issues in the area between Acre and Haifa."

Sounds kewl.

[Odin]

Originally posted by lord of the mark



"In other news, Israeli FM Shimon Peres is meeting with the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, to discuss disputed boundary issues in the area between Acre and Haifa."

[Sparrowhawk]

Not sure if this post should be in the newbie thread or this one, but I am in the 1700's in my first game (well second actually, in my first I was the English and after 20 years or so my country was smashed to pieces).

I am playing as Scotland and started with the goal of uniting the British Isles (this seemed like an attainable goal for a first game I thought). At various times in the game I have thought this goal to be unobtainable and at other times I have thought it to be too simple (multiple times, both options).

Currently I have all of the British Isles with the exception of Anglia, and the English have colonies all over the world. I was playing last night with the goal of taking over their Eastern North American colonies but it was going so well I continued attacking and took their Carribean colonies and most of their Western United States as well.

My question is how do I find out if I have all of their provinces? Short of putting the map on Political Mode and searching the provinces, is their any easy way to tell how many provinces a country holds?

I would like to completely annex them, and I think they are down to one province that I do not control or am not within reach of controlling (their are two in Northwest U.S. that I should be able to take) but that remaining province is in southern Greece (and will involve me sending troops from the Caribean across the Atlantic, through the Mediteranean to Greece and hopefully enough survive to take their last province.

Assuming I successfully do this however, I want to be sure that I can Military Annex them as about a couple hundred years ago I took Anglia thinking that the English would be eliminated from the British Isles (not realizing that I couldn't take their capital unless it was their last province). At that time I think they had only a couple colonies (which I couldn't reach), now they have many and I would like to finish them off (my war percentage is at 99% but settling a peace with them would mean leaving them with several colonies and I am not sure I would get another chance at Anglia).

In short I am trying to take about 15 colonies just to take Anglia. It would be extremely frustrating to take them out of Greece only to find out that they have other colonies somewhere else.

Any suggestions?

/me

Note: I am embarrassed to admit, but as it is my second attempt after a badly failed first attempt I will anyway, I am playing on the easiest settings possible

[Velociryx]

Every time you capture a nation's capitol, you get their latest map data, so if you've already sacked London in this war, then you see the full extent of their holdings.

Unfortunately, the capital of the Englishmen is a port city, so if left alone for 5 years, you'll likely give them time to develop more colonies.

Best bet: If you are dead set on getting them out of your hair, brace yourself for a nasty stability hit, and DoW them again, the month after the peace is signed. They'll not have their army rebuilt, and it should be a cakewalk.

-=Vel=-

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Sparrowhawk

Note: I am embarrassed to admit, but as it is my second attempt after a badly failed first attempt I will anyway, I am playing on the easiest settings possible

Just so you know, the agressiveness setting isn't really an easy/hard option. Low agressiveness can in some ways make for a more difficult game, because the AIs are sometimes less likely to self destruct through continuous and rampant wars.

[Sparrowhawk]

Originally posted by Velociryx
Every time you capture a nation's capitol, you get their latest map data, so if you've already sacked London in this war, then you see the full extent of their holdings.

Excellent bit of information, I didn't realize, this, and while it still means I must search the map for their colonies (I assume there is no way to find out a number as no one has responded) at least I know that I am looking at their entire map.

Originally posted by Velociryx
Unfortunately, the capital of the Englishmen is a port city, so if left alone for 5 years, you'll likely give them time to develop more colonies.

Yep, that is what happened, I granted them peace taking most of their North American Colonies, plus the one in Greece and a trading post in the Falkan Islands, but left them with most of their caribean colonies. Then I gave them 5+ years of peace and attacked again, mostly they had just developed their colonies more, but they did add one (Trading Post) on the East Coast of Africa.

How often does the chart that indicates how many provinces are held update? From the looks of the English graph they still hold approx. 15 provinces, but I can only see 5 on the map (Anglia, Jamica, Antigua, one TP in East Africa, and a colony in India....which is currently held by Rebels) but I wonder if the chart only updates January 1 or something as I probably have taken close to 10 in the last war.

Originally posted by Velociryx
Best bet: If you are dead set on getting them out of your hair, brace yourself for a nasty stability hit, and DoW them again, the month after the peace is signed. They'll not have their army rebuilt, and it should be a cakewalk.

Sounds good, but I am not ready to take that step yet, I do have another problem now though, I am allied with Austria (and Catalunya) and when I accepted Peace with England last time, Austria didn't, and when I moved out of Anglia, Austria took it over, and they are still at war with Austria holding Anglia. Not sure what I will do if they remain at war or if Austria annexes them or something.

Back on LotM's original topic.......my goal of this game was to take all of the British Isles, and it is now around 1770 and this looks quite possible, but I don't know if I will get it done.

Originally posted by General Ludd
Just so you know, the agressiveness setting isn't really an easy/hard option. Low agressiveness can in some ways make for a more difficult game, because the AIs are sometimes less likely to self destruct through continuous and rampant wars.

I didn't know that, but it makes sense now that you mention it, I have had to declare war more often then having war declared on me this game and perhaps wouldn't have the stability hits if I played on another setting

Thanks,
/me

[Nikolai]

Originally posted by Velociryx
Every time you capture a nation's capitol, you get their latest map data, so if you've already sacked London in this war, then you see the full extent of their holdings.

I have used this trick several times of course, but when I loaded up my first new game in ages, as Spain, a few days ago, I realized that something must have changed in one of the latest beta patches... I attacked the Incas, Aztecs(foolishly forgetting the event giving me the Aztec lands for free) and their neightbour(I forgot the name), and to my chock found out I didn't get their maps as before...? Luckily my conquistador didn't die before I had taken them all out.

[Sparrowhawk]

I don't know what I am doing wrong

I have taken everything that the English have, and yet still it doesn't give me the option to take Anglia (as their capital). Do I have to do it in two stages or something?

They have four provinces, and even though I have conquered Anglia and the other 3 it is only giving me a percentage of 39.

Anyone have any ideas?

/me

[Nikolai]

They probably have a tradingpost or colony you don't know of.