So, I am playing EU2....

[N35t0r]

There's a wiki around somewhere. Read it.

[Traianvs]

Which EU game should I try? Of course #3 is newer, but is it any better, like as a more advanced version (cf. civ2-civ4)?

[Dinner]

I'd suggest a restart. Take out loans, build nothing but cav and ships

That kind of thinking got me into trouble the first place. I built loads of cav, for taking the plains of asia minor, greece and macedonia. I couldn't afford to pay the upkeep for them, the loans, and all that other ****.

reminder that the Ottomans start with some >100k troups around Thrace, as well as 1k ducats.

tell me more about pillaging. does that mean that just by placing an army in a foreign province I am at war with, I get half the income? that's way cool. didn't know that.

Also, played that game of mine till the end, survived until 1600. It was all fun and games until a untied Austro-Hungary decided to show up with level 9 land tech. Which would be understandable... but how on earth did the knights get it when all they have is Rhodes???!!!!? you cannot trade tech in this game, right?

Check out Blu Emu's world conquest with Trebizond thread over at Paradox's forum as it is a classic. He successfully uses the pillage feature to pay for the up keep of his troops until he was large enough to pay for them himself. All you need is to move at least a 1k army through a province and as soon as you see the town "on fire" then the province has been pillaged which gives you money. Have several small cav units avoid fighting enemy armies and instead run around pillaging the hell out of everything.

As I said the Golden Horde is an ideal candidate to pillage as they're large and have some good provinces but don't have much manpower because there a different culture and religious group from the land they occupy. The Ottomans can be beaten just by blocking the sea near Thrace (thus preventing their armies from going from Asia Minor to Europe) which allows you to just fight part of their Army in Europe then turning to kill the other part in Asia. Try to time your war after they've been fighting someone else for a while as this means their war unhappiness will be high making it a perfect time for you to attack; with luck rebels will kill half of their armies for you.

In EU2 tech costs are scaled so that small countries need less investment to advance then big countries so that's why the Knights can keep up with Austria. As Byz you need to accept the event to convert to Catholicism as that not only changes your religion but also switches you from the Eastern Orthodoxed tech group into the Latin tech group which is the fastest tech group in the game. Yes, it is a pain to have to convert all your provinces but its worth it to get techs 33% faster.

[Dinner]

eh? culture? religion? how do those affect ****?

haven't read the manual. (coz I ain't got one )

Each country has one or more accepted national cultures as well as one national religion. If a province you own is of a different culture then you only get 50% of the tax revenue you would normally get and it takes twice as long for stability to recover in addition revolts tend to be more frequent. If the province is not only a different culture but also a different religion then you get hit with another 50% reduction in tax revenues (for a total of 75% reduction if a province is both the wrong culture and wrong religion).

Thus converting lands really helps boost your tax income while concentrating on capturing provinces with in your accepted national culture groups is a must.

[Dinner]

I demand an update!

[Traianvs]

Playing Castille in EU3, I've tried converting muslim AlmerÃa, after crushing Granada right after the start of the game. I must've sent 7 or 8 missionaries or so at 45.5% chance of success, but they've all failed. I've even sent 2 to Gibraltar at 39%, but they failed too.

Is there anything I'm missing here? Or just bad bad luck...?

I'm asking because it is a big expense, since I've been losing merchant power due to wars and all-round noob decision making

[Dry]

Playing Castille in EU3, I've tried converting muslim AlmerÃa, after crushing Granada right after the start of the game. I must've sent 7 or 8 missionaries or so at 45.5% chance of success, but they've all failed. I've even sent 2 to Gibraltar at 39%, but they failed too.

Is there anything I'm missing here? Or just bad bad luck...?

I'm asking because it is a big expense, since I've been losing merchant power due to wars and all-round noob decision making

It's both.
On pure statistics, yes it was bad luck. AFAIK, there are no hidden parameters.
On strategy, yes, you are probably missing something, because less than 50% is quite low. I send missionaries only when chances are > 75%.
You should wait for a better leader (easiest, cheapest, most advised solution), and/or for a good theologian advisor (very good solution too, only drawback: it 'cost' one advisor slot), or build more advanced forts (long term, expansive, not very efficient solution).

For more details: http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Missionaries

[Dinner]

Az, you're Jewish ass is about to get fired if you don't start posting an interesting AAR.

[Nikolai]

It's both.
On pure statistics, yes it was bad luck. AFAIK, there are no hidden parameters.
On strategy, yes, you are probably missing something, because less than 50% is quite low. I send missionaries only when chances are > 75%.
You should wait for a better leader (easiest, cheapest, most advised solution), and/or for a good theologian advisor (very good solution too, only drawback: it 'cost' one advisor slot), or build more advanced forts (long term, expansive, not very efficient solution).

For more details: http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Missionaries

You must use vanilla EU3 or something. In the current version, a missionary runs until it succeeds or is cancelled. 39% is very good odds.

[Dauphin]

I recently upgraded to In Nomine. I like that particular change.

The rebel factions are an even bigger pain now though, and "accepted culture" status has a much bigger effect. Pirates are a pain too. If you don't continually patrol your coastline you get completely blockaded in no time.

[KaiserIsak]

So i still play EU2, but i tried EU3 last week with a friend of mine, and i must say that waging war is ALOT more complicated and frustrating now, or am i doing something wrong? Do you guys prefer EU3 over EU2 or what? From what i experienced, the second one seemed more playable still (and that is with In Nomine).

[BeBMan]

Those who love EU2 should take a look at "For The Glory":

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=444

It is based on classic EU2, but with lotsa improvements.

[Nikolai]

So i still play EU2, but i tried EU3 last week with a friend of mine, and i must say that waging war is ALOT more complicated and frustrating now, or am i doing something wrong? Do you guys prefer EU3 over EU2 or what? From what i experienced, the second one seemed more playable still (and that is with In Nomine).

I loved EU2 and played it extensively from 2001 to 2004, almost every day. It's a great game. EU3 has improved the game a lot.

[N35t0r]

I play EU3 a lot, and enjoy it a lot. I never really got into EU2, but at the time I was more into Civ2, HoI2 and the TW games.

[OzzyKP]

EU is too damn complicated. Sucks the fun out of the game.