Showcases of Europa Universalis 3

[Bigger]

I didn't realize CK2 was a paradox game. I'll have to check it out, Paradox is rapidly becoming my favorite Dev.

There is a user mod that connects several of the Paradox games togethor, allowing you to start in the first millennia and play through WWII (Victoria, EUIII, and Hearts of Iron II - I think there is a Roman game that starts before Victoria, even). I wonder CKII will be plugged into that at some point.

[BRickAstley]

Okay Brick, so we've been patiently reading through all of these boring info posts, is it time for you to kill everybody yet?

Why, yes it is! After just a little more prep work that is. But I promise that it won't take very much longer from this point. Before I start conquesting everything, I have to make sure that I have everything set up properly.

I went ahead and hired two advisers. Gil Colom is a diplomat, and he will give me a slightly better edge on any diplomatic ventures I undertake in the near future. He will also help decrease my infamy, which while it is 0 right now, when I start throwing armies around it will be good to have that already going back down fast. Lluis de Guimera is another diplomatic-type I believe, and he will help increase my prestige, which is good because I want everyone to like me and think highly of me when I do deals with people. There were a few other advisers that I could buy the services of, but I wasn't too worried about my fleet strength or spy squad just yet.

I immediately make use of my new diplomat adviser by having him sweeten the words that my diplomat man sends to Sicily, along with a nice gift of ducats. Basically, I'm giving them free money, so that they will like me better, so that I can later vassalize them and even later annex them and make all of their lands and moneys and everything mine. I'm getting off to such a nice and kind start aren't I?

Well it just gets better! See, no one wants to send troops in to fight without a strong leader right? Unfortunately, I spent most of my starting money on that bribe to Sicily and hiring my advisers. But if you remember from earlier, my king had three stars in under his military category, right? And nothing raises the morale of the troops in the field than seeing their own King charge into battle before them, right?

[Bigger]

diplomats don't help diplomat actions. they solely reduce infamy. That said, they are very useful and a level 5 diplomat is awesome, I would hang on to him too. He won't help you right now since your infamy is 0, but he should live for 25-50 years (i've had them live to 80 years on occaison), and it will be very useful once you start annexing people. I'd rank him as tied for best advisor, with the master of the mint being the other primo advisor.

The philosopher (Lluis de Guimera) only helps with your prestige. he can be good if you have trouble with prestige, like early in the game when presitge is hard to come by, but if you follow your missions you'll rack it up and eventually end up firing him.

Its the ambassador (goofy guy with a tophat) that helps your diplomat actions (i.e. increase your chance of vassalizing Sicily). having low infamy and high prestige help with that as well. Generally, he isn't super useful, but if you have a specific diplomat mission that must be done he can be. Having a king with a high diplomacy rating is better, but as long as you are a monarchy (which you will be for at least another 80-100 years) that can be hard to control.

[Commodore]

Fun! So just to check, you have no heir and you are leading your war up front and personally. I see how this is not CK.

[Bigger]

Also, here's a trick. Aragon probably doesnt start with a large advisor pool, which why you have only hired two. It generally takes me a good 30 years to get my cultural rating up to 90+ so I can recruit high level advisors that at want. However, each nation starts with a pool, some of them in your area quite a large pool (england, portugal, france, castille - even Miland and burgandy most likely). Those advisors are loyal to their country for 1 year, then if they aren't hired they hit the open market. so be sure to pause the game October 14th-15th 1400 and check the new advisors that are available, there are usually some yummy master of the mints or tech advisors. (if you forget the game will remind you if other countries start buying up your unused advisors).

Make sure you save some cash (30ish) for that time period or you will have to take a loan to nab a sweet advisor. Loans are best to be avoided whenever possible - minting and taking inflation is preferrable.

[Bigger]

Fun! So just to check, you have no heir and you are leading your war up front and personally. I see how this is not CK.

haha. well, he will likely get an heir in a year or two. Usually if you have no heir a noble will step up and become the king (you can hover over your king and it will tell you who will succeed him). occaisonally you will find yourself in a personal union with someone you have a royal marriage with - which sucks.

If a noble arises, this will lower your legitimacy to the throne - which can only be improved with time (and spamming royal marriages). However, this can often be preferrable to a legitimate heir that is not of age becoming the king. If an heir is younger than 15-16, you'll end up in a regency council until the heir gets of age. This severly limits your diplomatic options - you aren't allowed to declare war while you are in a regency council, for instance (although you can honor your alliances or defend yourself if you are attacked).

[Mist]

Fun! So just to check, you have no heir and you are leading your war up front and personally. I see how this is not CK.

It actually does play completely different, the characters are completely abstracted, there's much less random events, no personal relations it's al between states here. You can go a long time doing absolutely nothing here, especially if you have little money and no expansion prospects. And I absolutely hate the combat model, too much whack a mole ( though that supposedly changed a bit with latest expansions ). On the whole, I don't like this game, I love CK, I like Victoria, but I just can't stand playing EU for any longer period of time.

[BRickAstley]

It actually does play completely different, the characters are completely abstracted, there's much less random events, no personal relations it's al between states here. You can go a long time doing absolutely nothing here, especially if you have little money and no expansion prospects. And I absolutely hate the combat model, too much whack a mole ( though that supposedly changed a bit with latest expansions ). On the whole, I don't like this game, I love CK, I like Victoria, but I just can't stand playing EU for any longer period of time.

Yeah, I can see where your problem with it lies. That said, what I have played of this game I do enjoy, but I have not played CK2 at all, so maybe I would try that and be wowed in comparison to EU3. But in the meantime I'm having fun with this game and the prospects of playing it out.

[Bigger]

revolts are a lot less common and easier to predict with the HTTT expansion. You can avoid them altogethor now if you keep the war weariness down, focus on getting cores (nationalism from non-cores is the biggest issue), don't go past your policy restrictions, and keep your country in a uniform religion. There are a few national ideas that help as well.

edit: it also helps to keep a stack of cavalry that can reach all parts of your empire (or one for europe, one for africa, one for new world, whatever). Cavalry really start to get dwarfed in power to infantry later in the game, but they can still handle rebels quite effectively.

[Partisan]

Thanks BRickAstley for all the explanations and pics. I will definitely be following this. Here's hoping you take this far.