Europa Universalis IV

Furry · Jun 22, 2023

Was looking for a country to play in Italy for my new work game, as my ottomans game is now just too much going on for the steam deck. Came upon Saluzzo, a country I’ve never thought much about. Hot damn are their ideas good, might be one of the best in the game. -15 ccr, -10 AE, +15% movement speed +10% morale are all top shelf ideas, not to mention all of the other ideas are solid. Why have I never seen this before.

They look like they have a relatively shitty starting position, but I’m gonna have to do something to make it work out when the wars go on around me.

Aaron · Jun 23, 2023

I think this belongs here...

DickTrickle · Jun 23, 2023

Furry said:
Was looking for a country to play in Italy for my new work game, as my ottomans game is now just too much going on for the steam deck. Came upon Saluzzo, a country I’ve never thought much about. Hot damn are their ideas good, might be one of the best in the game. -15 ccr, -10 AE, +15% movement speed +10% morale are all top shelf ideas, not to mention all of the other ideas are solid. Why have I never seen this before.

They look like they have a relatively shitty starting position, but I’m gonna have to do something to make it work out when the wars go on around me.

I think very few of the Italian states have bad national ideas. Saluzzo would be great for tag switching to Sardinia-Piedmont for the missions and I'd argue their national ideas are really good too, even better than Saluzzo.

Furry · Jun 23, 2023

DickTrickle said:
I think very few of the Italian states have bad national ideas. Saluzzo would be great for tag switching to Sardinia-Piedmont for the missions and I'd argue their national ideas are really good too, even better than Saluzzo.

I dunno, that movement speed buff is like S++ tier, then having all those other good ideas around it. Sardinia-piedmont is alright, but looking at Saluzzo's in exchange, I'm just like HARD PASS. It's like being an italian horde almost.

Zajeer · Jun 23, 2023

I think you’d likely want to switch to Sardinia when you’re done with Saluzzo missions? Could keep the old idea set

DickTrickle · Jun 23, 2023

Started a Kilwa campaign and my goodness it is kind of amazing. It's only 1510 and I'm already the #1 great power (really #5, but still), which is kind of amazing for what you start with.

I'm making an insane amount of money, 50+ profit and I'm 12 men over my force limit. With the merchant guild privilege, I'm only having a minor amount of inflation from my gold provinces (though most of my money is trade). I've finished most of the mission tree with its number of good bonuses. I don't think I've ever played a campaign with this healthy an economy this early. Starting with Feudalism is so overpowered in that region.

I mostly started this run just to go for the achievements but I might play it out a bit further given how well it's going.

Furry · Jun 23, 2023

DickTrickle said:
Started a Kilwa campaign and my goodness it is kind of amazing. It's only 1510 and I'm already the #1 great power (really #5, but still), which is kind of amazing for what you start with.

View attachment 479517

I'm making an insane amount of money, 50+ profit and I'm 12 men over my force limit. With the merchant guild privilege, I'm only having a minor amount of inflation from my gold provinces (though most of my money is trade). I've finished most of the mission tree with its number of good bonuses. I don't think I've ever played a campaign with this healthy an economy this early. Starting with Feudalism is so overpowered in that region.

I mostly started this run just to go for the achievements but I might play it out a bit further given how well it's going.

Kilwa is definitely a fun nation. The early colonist if you follow the mission tree, plus the money to keep fuck you numbers of colonies up during the first age with the +1 bonus, and generally just having easy expansion in every direction. It was kinda like playing the USA after a bit. You're so overwhelming compared to your neighbors, that it's almost too easy, and your biggest restraints are waiting for mana more than anything.

At least with Kilwa, the Ottomans will be a challenge once you reach them, probably, As I found they could field far more soldiers than me despite my dev being higher. Colonial tiles tend to be skewed against manpower.

Furry · Jun 23, 2023

I'm in quite the pickle here. First wars went swimmingly. Until france decided to murder my ally burgundy. I'm pretty sure France will gun for me sometime soon, and I have no good allies. Castile PU'd aragon and naples already, and hates my guts. England is weak as fuck and just had to white peace scotland, So none of the normal ways of playing france/castile/england against each other will work. Switzerland, Burgandy and Austria are my allies, but the swiss are the only ones doing not worse than usual. And on top of it all, the asshole pope excommunicated me, france warned me, and for some reason this italian coalition wont break up despite everyone being under 50 AE.

Was hoping to murder milan sometime soon. I'm riding over my relations to try and keep this in check. Even if I figure out what to do against france, castile is gonna be a massive problem as I move forward. Considering NO-CBing morocco and aiming for some early colonization.

Zajeer · Jun 24, 2023

Hah

Araysar · Jun 24, 2023

Zajeer said:
Hah

Well, I guess the only option left is to end the game and start all over from 1444

Furry · Jun 27, 2023

I think this sort of thing is what I enjoy most about EU4. Had some really rough wars vs France and Venice. France turned out to be a lot tougher than it looked, and after a while I managed to swipe just one province from them. Then I went after venice, was doing good, but truce timer ended on france and they intervened in my war with venice, so had to just settle for one province again, as the tide was quickly turning. Next war was against venice as soon as the truce timer broke. Didn't mess around this time. Went way over force limit and took on tons of debt. Crushed a very powerful venice, took tons of super high dev land and became a great power, while only getting a tiny coalition. Will need to spend a few years paying this off, but totally worth it.

Been force converting OPMs in all my peace deals in wars. Hopefully it's not to rough when the HRE slappyfest comes about. The protestant reformation centers spawned in absolutely awful locations. I'm looking at a horribly lopsided war against me as things stand. I might just peace out and leave the HRE instead of trying to take a side.

DickTrickle · Jun 27, 2023

I had a similar war happen to me. I needed to get a few colonies from Spain in Indonesia and prepared with France as an ally and bringing close to 150k troops up to Spain to hopefully take out a few forts and peace out for the provinces I want. Well, somehow they've got 125% discipline and they were beating me when I had double the forces (I didn't trust a naval invasion so I was coming through Gibraltar with the nasty mountains). Gave it a few shots and was wasting a ton of manpower and only just had enough to get what I needed from taking down their stuff in northern Africa.

Was a bit of an eye opener and made me rethink my decision not to take any military ideas. It's honestly so rare for me to lose multiple fights so decisively. Between me and France their manpower was empty so I probably could have regrouped and taken them down but it just wasn't worth it. I'm got a massive end boss Ottoman on the horizon and would rather direct my resources to taking them down and maybe going for the unified Islam achievement instead.

Edit: Okay, maybe I overprepared for the Ottomans...

And they're getting absolutely smashed, of course. Venice also joined in on a separate war, heh.

Looks like I might just have to go back and hit Spain after I buff up to get a satisfying revenge.

Furry · Jun 27, 2023

DickTrickle said:
Was a bit of an eye opener and made me rethink my decision not to take any military ideas. It's honestly so rare for me to lose multiple fights so decisively. Between me and France their manpower was empty so I probably could have regrouped and taken them down but it just wasn't worth it. I'm got a massive end boss Ottoman on the horizon and would rather direct my resources to taking them down and maybe going for the unified Islam achievement instead.

This happened in one of my campaigns a while back, 32k soldiers dunking on 92k. Army quality can make a massive difference, which is why country's like france and spain are more difficult to fight than you'd initially expect, since they generally have high quality armies. I think I had over 9 morale that game. At that point your armies usually fight to the last man. The luck bonus that the ottomans and spain get is also pretty dangerous.

DickTrickle · Jun 27, 2023

Furry said:
View attachment 480099

This happened in one of my campaigns a while back, 32k soldiers dunking on 92k. Army quality can make a massive difference, which is why country's like france and spain are more difficult to fight than you'd initially expect, since they generally have high quality armies. I think I had over 9 morale that game. At that point your armies usually fight to the last man. The luck bonus that the ottomans and spain get is also pretty dangerous.

Yeah, I mean I've certainly been on the other side a lot more. Mercenary Switzerland run was full of that. I've just never seen Spain be that strong. They even stackwiped two separate France armies where they only had about a 25% advantage, which is just absurd. I think exclusively taking on these Indian and Southeast Asia guys really lulled me into complacency.

DickTrickle · Jun 27, 2023

The Neighbor Raids estate privilege that Kilwa has is pretty amazing. I haven't looked into the details of its mechanics but I routinely get 10-15k manpower from pillaging a capital and when I'm at war I have seen myself get a net of 2-5k manpower a month from occupying forts. Such a great nation.

Edit: I guess hordes and other African nations can have this but it's the first time I've come across it.

Araysar · Jun 27, 2023

DickTrickle said:
The Neighbor Raids estate privilege that Kilwa has is pretty amazing. I haven't looked into the details of its mechanics but I routinely get 10-15k manpower from pillaging a capital and when I'm at war I have seen myself get a net of 2-5k manpower a month from occupying forts. Such a great nation.

Edit: I guess hordes and other African nations can have this but it's the first time I've come across it.

Similar to that, there is a Parliament Act in Great Britain that gets me 80K+ sailors every 5-10 years. Pretty great when my fighting troops are marines that draw manpower from sailor pool.

Furry · Jun 27, 2023

Absolutely blew up france in war two. Gave my brosef Burgundy a bunch of cores back. Then he ally breaks me... then forms netherlands and gives all that territory right back to france, and was immediately willing to ally me again. WTF burgundy.

There's definitely some oddness going on in the world that I had nothing to do with.

Furry · Jun 27, 2023

Damn, playing in this part of the world, I feel obscenely rich, it's pretty much just the rich belt of france/genoa/venice. I'm getting disgusting amounts of money for the era now, and have built all the buildings. Finally got kicked out of the HRE, though, so that's gonna lead to a lot more AE issues. To give you an idea of how developed I am, I'm #3 GP, but am fielding an army bigger than the ottomans at #1, and I could probably afford to go 80 over force limit for a protracted war without bankrupting.

Might be a convenient time to fight the ottomans, now that I think about it. Mission wants me to conquer kibris, and the Ottomans are riding 9k debt, so an expensive war will cause big problems for them. Got the 5% admin efficiency in the sardinia mission tree, so will probably switch italy after I take rome.

Aaron · Jun 28, 2023

Damn that's a nice map painting colour there!

DickTrickle · Jun 28, 2023

Reminds me of my Asturias one faith, just a little less vibrant.

Having a pleasant color is nice. I don't know why they can't just let you change the color of the nation you're playing.

Europa Universalis IV

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