Europa Universalis IV

The new changes along with Russian specific government reforms have made me pick an Idea sequence I'm sure I've never done before. Thus far it's Offensive -> Espionage -> Humanist -> Aristocratic.

Not choosing religion is probably the hardest decision there as not having Deus Vult as an Orthodox country sucks, since it would basically allow me to CB anyone at anytime since there are so few Orthodox countries. I use spy claims instead which is actually pretty effective with this setup and as long as I prepare in advance I can get claims on entire countries. It suck when I have to switch my intended targets and claims do wear off after 25 years, but it's still a fresh approach I've never done before. It also made modernizing as Russia waaaaaay easier since I could steal modern ideas instead of paying an enormous amount for them at a time when my economy was weak. Still, not having the AE reduction from Deus Vult does make it trickier to manage countries.

This may be the first time I've not taken Administrative and not felt the lack. I get -15% from Russian traditions and -15% from an event choice early in the game (giving up permanent claims for temporary ones).

Tons of siege ability with this setup as well as leader pips. Combined with near max Army tradition, it's basically impossible to have even a mediocre general. Below is my current selection of generals and actually it's one of the weakest groups I've had in a while. At one point all my generals had 5-6 in shock and fire. This is also done with only a couple rerolls.



Humanist has made the playthrough a lot less stressful as rebels are basically never a concern at this point. I'm also just now hitting a pretty powerful negative unrest event (-15 unrest in grain, wool and cloth provinces) and I'm weathering it just fine because of Humanist.

Next idea will be diplomatic, I think. Coming into Absolutism having more war score and tamping down AE will be important.

Looking forward to my next heir, Peter the Great:

Furry said:

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It's 1562. This is just absolutely obscene. Are provinces gonna be 1 mana each once abso kicks in? It's so strange being absolutely massive like I am, yet at the same time being so god awfully broke. None of my provinces have buildings. I can barely afford to have half my force limit out. I like to try new things just too see how they feel. Espionage is definitely strong. I have spies everywhere and claims everywhere. Quantity still feels like a must first pick for Muscovy. What you lack in guns, you make up for in overwhelming numbers.

Streltsy seems to have taken a big nerf, but the other two got buffed, so probably reasonable, though there was something funny about the old version of streltsy just spamming out 100k+ infantry in one click.

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I actually disagree about quantity for Russia but would for most others. Still, manpower is so important now with slacken being shit so it's definitely not a bad move. Aristocracy decreases claims by 50% more which is a good synergy, gives a siege pip, 15% cav combat ability, 15% manpower, and good policies. It only has two choices which are poor. It's a strong candidate for first or second mil idea.

The Streltsy payment upon new heir really starts to hurt if you build a ton. Having cossacks and Streltsy tearing shit up is great though.

The mission tree is huge too. There's actually three hidden sections. I may end up liking Russia more than the Teutonic order.

Furry said:

Russia and teutons both play pretty similar. Biggest annoyance of playing russia just how porous your borders are. Perfectly fine for small enemies you can ignore as they run around, but pretty annoying for larger enemies where you have to mount an active defense. You can be huge and blobby as Russia, but there's something to be said for being a western power and being able to afford forts everywhere.

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Yeah, it's annoying for sure, especially in the earlier game where you don't have the forces or siege ability to siege rush quickly. I always have a ton of forts from conquering because I have fort deletion paralysis but it's still never enough to stop the annoyances.

Araysar said:

I'm trying to figure something out.

I am finishing up my Sweden game and I am currently in 1779 AD. My governing capacity is 3987 and I was using something like 4900-5000, so I was way over the cap. Not much I could do but it is what it is. I have 85 states and 113 territories.

All of a sudden, my governing capacity dropped to 3040 so I'm significantly under the cap which is great. However, I didnt have any major events nor did I undo any states into territories, so how could this happen? I did build a couple hundred town halls just now in a giant spending spree but I didnt know town halls affected governing capacity (doesnt say anywhere in the tool tip). Is this a common late game tactic to reducing governing capacity that I just randomly found out about now? Do you guys use it?

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Oh man, that's like the number one way to decrease GC. I spam that shit all the time. Province governing cost reduction is GC reduction. It's not just a late game tactic but all throughout the game to keep it down.

You've been playing with one hand tied behind your back the entire time.

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I'm really loving all the harsh treatmeat reduction options right now. I'm down to the minimum which is 5 mil points no matter the size. It really makes working with more OE a lot easier. Even though I have a good deal of unrest reduction, 200 OE and separatism events can easily overtake it but with cheap harsh treatment it's not a big deal.

Araysar said:

I just wanted to bring the autonomy down to stop the revolts!

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Autonomy by itself won't affect that, I'm pretty sure.

Using the lower autonomy button actually will increase unrest. Using the increase autonomy button will decrease unrest but make the province a lot less useful (not as big a deal when you're huge).

What you probably want is to decrease the years of separatism that you get after you conquer a province. There's various reforms, ideas, and policies for that. After conquering a province you start with 30 years of separatism which corresponds to 15 unrest. If you can reduce separatism a lot then you won't have to worry about old provinces revolting and even new ones are quickly put under control.

One culture runs may have just become easier. Unless I'm mistaken, Russia has the first culture conversion *time* reduction modifier in the game.

DickTrickle said:

One culture runs may have just become easier. Unless I'm mistaken, Russia has the first culture conversion *time* reduction modifier in the game.

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I've never done a One Culture run, but I want to do this now with Russia just to post the screenshots for the triggerings.

Three points per claim, no cost increase. If I had reason to get Expansion I could knock this down even more.



Insane generation and there's I think two other policies or ideas that can increase it even further, as well as an advisor.

This may be the first patch where espionage is genuinely good. It used to be so horrible and gradually just kept getting a little better.

Edit: The one thing it needs though is some automatic claim process. Something where you can select a country and it takes adjacent claims automatically when you have enough points. It'd be nice when you don't really care too much about specific provinces and don't want to micromanage clicking every fabrication.

Kaines said:

I've never done a One Culture run, but I want to do this now with Russia just to post the screenshots for the triggerings.

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I will counter you by doing one as ukraine and seeing whose is bigger. Problem is I cannot find them to play as. Weird.