The EU3 Thread

[Nikolai]

That should teach you not to upset the balance of the world so radically. For you to get 60 BB points, Austria must have owned half of Europe! Sure thing the rest of the world gets cranky.

[Dinner]

I understand 1.3 is now up but I get a weird message when I click on the update button in the launcher. It tells me I don't have EU3 installed on my computer and to please install it. Except I really do have it installed and I had just finished playing it when I decided to go back and check for updates. What gives?

[Eli]

So I got the game. I'm still trying to get it to work on my computer, but one thing has to be said: The intro movie is just LAME.

[Nikolai]

All P'dox intro movies, except perhaps the EU2 one, is lame. The games, otoh, is much better. And that's what counts.

[Unspeakable Horror]

I like the HoIs intros

[Verrucosus]

I finally got around to start my first game of Europa Universalis III. On my first impression, I tend to agree with Eli about the intro movie. It's not so much the movie itself, but the narration that is horrible. "Implement your strategic conquests"? Fortunately I bought the game before hearing that line.

I started in 1453 with England and, after looking at that huge French army about to invade Gascogne, I took the historical path and surrendered that province. Just ten days later, Henry VI died and I found myself the junior partner in a personal union with Provence. The new ruler is very able on the diplomatic level, but I cannot get much use out of that since I cannot make any alliances. So far (1455), I've spent my time balancing the budget and repairing my stability. I succeeded in bribing two cardinals to get the curia bonus, so that my stability will recover sooner. I hope that other countries will not try immediately to bribe them back, or else this could become an expensive competition.

Questions:
- In about two months, I will have researched the first government level, so I can pick a national idea. Do I absolutely have to pick "Quest for the New World" to be at all competitive at colonisation or is there a real choice? Is "patron of the arts" any good? I already have the prestige bonus from the curia and a good philosopher, so that idea may give me a constant increase in prestige?
- Regarding exploration, the English navy (just nine cogs) doesn't exactly rule the waves yet. Would it have been wiser to use the bribe money to get two bigger ships for exploration and protection?
- Where should I send my merchants? Vlaanderen appears very competitive and I do not have a trade tech advantage.
- Should I readjust my research allocations? Every area appears important enough right now.
- Is there anything else important to take care of while the personal union lasts?

[Main_Brain]

You dont have to chose QftNW, as your Neighbours (Spain, Portugal etc.) quite quickly uncover new Provinces. Yet they are not able to colonise them all first/before you.

Knowledge of new Provinces spreads quite fast (10 Years?) to your Neighbours, so you might as well sit back and reap their Fruits

I usually go for Military Drill, but I prefer Landlocked Countries so it is the obvious Choice.


Your Merchants should go to Anglia/London first.

[Verrucosus]

Thank you. It's good to know that there is a real choice for the first idea. The manual underlines "Quest for the New World", so I was a bit worried to let it pass. There's no trade center in London yet, so I suppose there will be an event for it soon.

[Nikolai]

Actually you shouldn't choose QFTNW as your first idea at all. You can, and as England it's not the worst choice you do, but you will sacrifice much if you do that. Most ideas has hidden bonuses like a better chance of getting a specific kind of events. Patron of the arts are a good choice. If you plan to wage war in Europe, you should consider taking an army idea as your first idea. If you want to be a colonizer, you should take QFTNW, but consider taking a state or culture idea first.

I wouldn't have used those money on bribes. It's not worth it in vanilla EU2.

You should only focus on trade if you don't wage much war. War and the resulting BB easily destroys your competitiveness. It's best to trade in your own CoTs however, and even better to trade in CoTs with an accepted culture and religion. I'd consider taking Vlaandern anyway, but watch your BB!

Always, ALWAYS focus on one tech area at any time. Anything else is a waste of precious money.

While you are in a union, you should trade and explore if you did choose QFTNW. In short, build up your country to make your move when the union ends!

BTW, knowledge of provinces take much more than 10 years. In NA you can choose 50, 100, 150 and 200 years IIRC. In vanilla EU3 you have to wait 50 years IIRC.

And lastly, you should really consider DL'ing the mod Magna Mundi. It slows down the game a bit compared to vanilla, but it makes a MUCH better and more fun game.

Do you have NA btw? It cost only 19 dollar/euro and is a must have if you like the game. Makes the game 10x faster and adds some good additions.

[Verrucosus]

Thank you, Nikolai. Lots of good tips there.

I went ahead with ahead with Patron of the Arts. My prestige has increased slowly but steadily and even when I lose curia control eventually, it won't decline as rapidly.

My rulers do not seem to be very resilient this time around. The union with Provence lasted five years, but the next ruler (William III) died after another year, so I am now on my fourth monarch (Mary) and it's only 1461! She's pretty competent both militarily and diplomatically, so I hope that she will last a bit longer.

At the moment, England is a beacon of tranquility in a stormy Europe. The French have allied with the Scots, the Norwegians and the Swedish to beat up poor Brittany. Austria has won a succession war against Saxony and gained several territories.

Merchants:
I want to get some trading income, so I do not plan to start a war any time soon. Since I have no CoT of my own yet, I keep sending my merchants to Vlaanderen, but they don't last very long. At least they return a good profit as long as they are there.

Research:

Originally posted by Nikolai
Always, ALWAYS focus on one tech area at any time. Anything else is a waste of precious money.

From how I understand the research mechanics that is absolutely correct. The hard question then is which areas to pick in which order. I'm tempted by production to get workshops, but it even with a focus on that area, it will take some time, so I'm leaning towards getting to the second trade tech level first. I don't want to fall too far behind on military techs because the French still have a claim on Calais and I our truce has already ended. Good thing they are busy at the moment.

Diplomacy:
To prevent myself from being surrounded, I have courted the Scots and we have a royal marriage and an alliance now. Of course, peaceful annexation is far down the road.

Advisors:
My stability is now almost maxed out, and I wonder whether I should sack my four-star artists once I get there. The problem is that at the moment statesmen are the only advisors looking for jobs. With zero badboy points, I have no good use for them either, so I'm leaning towards keeping the artists in pay just in case my stability takes a hit for some reason.

I'm not sure about getting Napoleon's Ambition yet. It took me six months to get around to play this version and it will take me a while to finish the current game (at least, I hope it will). After that, Magna Mundi sounds like a good idea, but, again, I want to get a feeling for the vanilla version first. I hope a CD version of Napoleon's Ambition will be available by the time I'm ready for it. (After all, they published one for a smaller audience with Victoria Revolutions.)

[Nikolai]

You should get workshops ASAP after the idea.

As for advisors, if you get a 5 star one or better, no matter what kind, switch over. You get a fair chance of getting a good event giving you either prestige or 3 stab points then.

PI won't make a CD version. It's not profitable. They didn't want to make a CD version of Revolutions, but did because of popular demand. It sold horrible and they didn't even cover nearly what it cost to produce the CD, let alone the distribution. So they have said they won't make a CD of NA. They make a good profit by selling it through GamersGate, so that's the only place we will see any future XP for their games.

[Verrucosus]

That's perfect reasonable. Still a pity, of course.

[Nikolai]

Yeah, I agree. But thankfully GamersGate is a very good site.

[Kinjiru]

Hail friends,

So when EU III first came out, I picked it up and gave it a whirl. It was my first paradox game and seemed quite interesting, but I just couldn't quite get into it. I think it was the speed factor - the game just simply took too long, especially since I was also playing cIV and MedevialII at around the same time.

I am looking to give it another go. The NA expansion sounds like it will alleviate some of the tedium I found in the vanilla game. However, everyone seems to think the Magna Mundi mod is also great. Do the two work well together? or is Magna Mundi for vanilla only.

For someone that is still new to the series, are there any thoughts about if it would be a better choice to go with vanilla plus Magna Mundi or just go ahead and get NA?

Cheers mates!

[Verrucosus]

Hello Kinjiru,

for me it's not so much the speed itself, but the fact that there are periods when there is absolutely nothing to do but watch history unfold that takes getting used to. There is plenty of time to read up on actual history - I had to check about those 1453 Genoese Black Sea territories I couldn't remember from school - while keeping an eye on the screen. In a sense, this is much more relaxing than a turn-based game, where you have to push at least the end-of-turn button to keep things going. Then again, I was looking for a change of pace when I got this game to take a vacation from Civ4 and SMAC and this is just what I get.

Being rather new at this myself, I am not in a position to comment on mods/expansions, but I am certain that Nikolai will be able to offer help soon.