[zoku88]

Apparently a new HOI expansion was announced:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...-III-Announced!

I know I've said this before (maybe even a couple of times in this thread!) but I really need to learn how to play this game.

[Kabouter]

Apparently a new HOI expansion was announced: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...-III-Announced! I know I've said this before (maybe even a couple of times in this thread!) but I really need to learn how to play this game.

Looks amazing. I love the alternate history creation possibilities and the new battle plans functionality. Can't wait :D
From the screenshots, the changes to espionage look like a major improvement too. Giving priorities rather than having to choose completely between different actions is much, much better.

[Dascu]

Had a nice long game as Savoy. I started out trying to grab the territory around me that wasn't in the HRE, while France was still weak. Moved into Italy rather soon, vassalizing the HRE countries there and annexing Napoli and later the Papal States (which eventually popped up again in the center of Germany).

France itself was broken up and eventually taken over after a couple of big wars. Burgundy was often a pain in the ass too, and I returned the favour by making it give up Flanders. Alliances with Great-Britain and Austria helped me out too.

I only played up to 1680, with that century being occupied by waging quick wars against small HRE elector states, vassalizing them, and making peace with the other enemy nations. Got easier once I was elected to Emperor. My bad infamy got me kicked out again, but at that point I only had 1 more elector (plus the capital of the new Emperor, Bavaria), to take over. HRE dismantled and I am boss in Europe. Good point to end the game.

Progress shots (about 100 year intervals):

[Dice]

Maybe some kind of fuck up at GamersGate making Sengoku $4.50?

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-SENGOKU/sengoku

Exploit it if you conscience allows. If I had the money right now I'd get it for my friend who loves strategy and Japan.

[XiaNaphryz]

Paradox sale on Steam this weekend!

[ag-my001]

Been enjoying my latest game as Tuscany. Took the surrounding provinces early, and built up an insane Army tradition in a prolonged but successful war against Naples. The whole of the boot is mine, with ally Aragon controlling Sicily, a bit of Castille, and making strong gains into the shell that used to be France. This has left me with two options: unite Italy and take the north, or use my holding of Corfu and vassal Epirus to expand to the east and challenge a resurgent Byzantine empire. I could of course do both, but I have a question on the unification front. Is it possible to unify without the negative effects on your provinces, namely the loss of Land Reform and other decisions? Gaining cores on those rich counties is great and all, especially when dealing with the HRE, but I'd hate to have to use all those magistrates again. It also makes me wonder if there are other effects that unification brings that aren't mentioned in the tooltip.

Playing on HttT if that makes a difference, but now I'm going to have to look at that Steam sale that was mentioned.

[Zero-Crescent]

Here's a totally rad deal pointed out by Catshade in the Amazon DD thread, those who bought the Paradox Package from Amazon, and who haven't used their promotional credit for EUIII yet, can get EUIII: Chronicles for free right now, as they dropped the price to $14.99, a price point below the $23 credit. Might as well snatch it up, if you can, before they fix it

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004SCRFZE/

[Mgoblue201]

I was surprised to find that the Holy Roman Empire can actually form in EU3. This was my first time encountering it. Unfortunately, it didn't last very long...

[Kabouter]

I was surprised to find that the Holy Roman Empire can actually form in EU3. This was my first time encountering it. Unfortunately, it didn't last very long...

Yeah, the AI tends to let that happen. AI isn't good enough at whack-a-moling rebels.

[ThoseDeafMutes]

I was surprised to find that the Holy Roman Empire can actually form in EU3. This was my first time encountering it. Unfortunately, it didn't last very long...

Presumably, it was still around (but reduced to a smaller number of core territories)?

[XiaNaphryz]

I was surprised to find that the Holy Roman Empire can actually form in EU3.

Yep!

Check out the HRE section of this LP tutorial:

http://lparchive.org/Europa-Universa...I-Divine-Wind/

[Mgoblue201]

Yeah, the AI tends to let that happen. AI isn't good enough at whack-a-moling rebels.

The HRE had 160,000 troops sitting there in the middle of the carnage, but they never moved and instead let all the newly created regiments attempt to suppress the rebels. I thought that it was some sort of glitch.

Presumably, it was still around (but reduced to a smaller number of core territories)?

Because of all the various rebellions and wars, most of the original HRE countries reemerged, though with wildly different borders. For example, Switzerland occupied much of northern Germany. Toward the end of the game, the Holy Roman Empire was eventually reduced to a one province minor, which I annexed through the revolutionary war CB.

Yep! Check out the HRE section of this LP tutorial: http://lparchive.org/Europa-Universa...I-Divine-Wind/ [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/tyU8K.jpg[IMG] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/0UFbN.jpg[IMG] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/JGKgI.jpg[IMG] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/SdM8t.jpg[IMG]

My next game will have to be an HRE game, then. I'll have to read the tutorial to learn how the internal mechanics of the empire work, though. Maybe I'll go with Bohemia.

[ThoseDeafMutes]

My next game will have to be an HRE game, then. I'll have to read the tutorial to learn how the internal mechanics of the empire work, though. Maybe I'll go with Bohemia.

As long as you play before the next patch comes out, you'll be able to get a steady supply of Imperial Authority by getting a border with a Horde and continuously fighting them to the point of conceding defeat. Do not expand within the empire, except early on via Personal Unions. Try to get a whole lot of territory scattered around the Empire. When you take a province that is part of the empire from a non-empire member, you get a free core on it.

Keep high relations with the whole empire if possible, and at minimum with the electors. This is important because everyone in the empire gets a vote on Imperial Reforms, and you need a majority to pass it. High relations, high diplomatic skill and low infamy will make them vote in your favor most of the time. If you can diplo-vassalize the electors, that's obviously awesome. Note that if you're not an elector, and you inherit an elector state, you become an elector yourself.

Diplomatic skill is great because it increases the likelyhood of personal unions, people accepting diplo-vassalizations, acceping diplo-annexation, and causes relations to rise faster over time naturally. Oh, and it contributes to the likelyhood of them passing a reform you propose. So, to get it high and keep it high, you'll want to have a large Sphere of Influence. Each new addition raises your diplo by 0.5. If you're Austria, the decision you can make called 'Establish Habsburg Dominance' gives you a free, permanent boost (Austria is basically HRE easy mode). Diplo skill if your ruler directly contributes, and finally, you can get an advisor for diplo skill.

Spend all of your IA before the Reformation hits, otherwise you'll just lose it anyway. Try to pass as many reforms as possible before 1500 or so, because each time someone converts to a religion that is not your own, you'll lose 10 IA. Converting someone TO your religion within the empire will gain 10. One possible strategy is to convert yourself as soon as possible, so that everyone converting to Protestantism will give you IA instead of taking it away. Vassalize as many people as possible, because only vassals / PU junior partners are going to want to accept the "enforce religious unity" option on them. If they refuse it, you get a CB on them, but you also lose like 20+ prestige, which is PAINFUL.

[ZZMitch]

Death & Taxes 6.0 is out (EU3 Mod) for those interested!

Looks like a lot of new features were added to areas outside of Europe (the nickname for this version of the mod is "The Eastern Question").

Ok, after a long wait here it is, the Death and Taxes 6.0, entitled 'Death and Taxes: The Eastern Question' ~Download the Death and Taxes 6.0 Here~ Rather than give you a long changelog I thought I'd give you a brief description of what has changed in the 6.0. 1) Firstly and most importantly is a new map, India, China and America have been completely redrawn. Full credit for this goes to Dafool (China/America) and Trin Tragula (India). All in all I think we added something in the region of 100-150 provinces (I'm sure Dafool can clarify). Tonnes of new countries were added to fill these regions too! India also has completely revamped cultures. 2) We added new graphics, more precisely the terrain textures and map overlay from the DaO mod. I still like the Modestus map however I thought it was time for a change, and I really liked the DaO map graphics. 3) Everything (and I mean everything) has been rebalanced. Benefits from missions/decisions, ideas and sliders has been rethought. Claim on X now requires cores!!! and nationalism lasts for longer, and reduces manpower. There are many other changes, some of which are documented in the changelog, but many of which aren't. You should just notice a general difference as you play. Finally, cbs have been reworked slightly. Every nation gets religious liberation which gives 25% bb. Holy war is reserved for muslims, catholics and orthodox - it gives 50% bb. 4) Religions in the east redone. Hinduism is in its own group. Buddhism is split into Theravda and Mahayana. They are in the same group as Shinbatsu Shugo and Shenism. 5) I added loads of new events and decisions to add a bit more flavour to certain countries and generally make the game more interesting. Added 'Mamluk Cavalry' decision. Added 'Recruit Highlanders' decision. Added 'Use Ottoman Artillery' decision. Added 'Use Egyptian Conscripts' decision. Added 'Encourage Manufacturing' decision. Added 'Request Papal Bull' decision. Added 'Hire Genoese Mercenaries' decision. Added 'Hire Swiss Mercenaries' decision. Added 'Request Papal Banner' decision. Added 'Establish General Post Office' decision. Added 'Establish Royal Mail' decision. Added 'Edict of Fontainebleau' decision. Added 'Centralise the French Language' decision. Added 'Compagnie Ordonnance' decision. Added 'Alhambra Decree' decision. Added 'Spanish Tercio' decision. Added 'Portugese Tercio' decision. Added 'Imperial Examinations' decision. Added 'Adopt Mandate of Heaven' decision. Added 'Sprouts of Capitalism' decision. Added 'Sepoy Army' decision. Added 'Recruit Janissaries' decision. Added a rather complex chain of decisions and events for the 'Volga Don Canal' to connect the Caspian sea to the Black sea. By constructing the canal in Grozny, Kalmykia and Kouban at the cost of 4000d and 4 magistrates, a toll is activated giving 2 base tax and 1 manpower to all caspian provinces, as well as 4 base tax, 20% trade income modifier and 3% population growth to every province you control. The decision is only available to the Ottoman Empire - however once the canal has been constructed other nations can seize it and benefit from its effects. Over time it also converts to wool provinces of the caspian into richer trade goods. 5)There's generally just loads of other stuff which I can't begin to start describing. If you noticed any new features you liked please flag them up for other people to know about. I hope you enjoy the 6.0. It's been an incredible amount of work to make so we'd greatly appreciate your opinions on it. If you really like it, you can also like us on Facebook. Thanks :) Changelog (non exhaustive) A decision added to disband the shogunate if you control all of Japan. No provinces start with 0 manpower (was a coding error meaning 4 provinces in russia had 0 manpower). Province efficiency has more of an effect on manpower. Less revolt risk is gained from poor administrative efficiency. Russian foraging gives +5% manpower to make up for the poor administrative efficiency which makes russian manpower underpowered in comparison to other nations. Max war exhaustion from war taxes reduced from +10 to +5. Cores gain a 5% manpower bonus. Manpower resupplies less quickly. Non-Accepted culture gives less harsh a decrease to tax, but a far bigger reduction to manpower. Manpower and revolt risk from imperial integrity reduced. Settlement policy no longer reduces colonists or magistrates by so much but it destroys local tax and manpower, and increases revolt risk even further. Error fixed in cultural decisions allowing India to assimilate other Indian cultures faster. DAO Terrain Graphics added. Flanders and Burgundy are historical friends. Some 5.2 events added in preparation for the mac release - most notably the sound toll. Claim timers are no longer fired from the Papal States to speed the game up a little. Western arms trade gives half as much prestige loss, gives -5% land tech cost and applies to anyone with muslim, eastern or asian land tech. Westernisation has been completely redone, each individual technology can be westernised once at a time. Turkey is in the Byzantine group, Byzantium is the cultural union and Turkey becomes a union when it moves its capital to Constantinople. Turko-Semetic renamed to Arabic. Arabia is the Arabic cultural union. Max neighbour bonus reduced to 100. The Ottomans and Byzantium no longer get a cultural absorption bonus on one another. French cultural absorption bonus on the Dutch is half as slow as the German one. Celestial empire gives 0.4 less magistrates. Nomads are tribal again. Nomad settling, Mughal Nation and Japanese Industrialisation updated in conjunction with the new westernisation decisions. Forming the Mughals as a non-nomad doesn't westernise you. Typo in merchant regulation fixed. Forming Japan requires you to own the whole Japanese region. Prussian military reforms give 2% more discipline. Thalassocracy is available to non-Europeans. Rebels are now more challenging. They are all intelligent (ie will assault forts and tactically retreat from battle) and all have generals. Military drill no longer increases discipline. Grand Army and Grand Navy give less forcelimit. A formal request only fires for Christians. Base tax of Sarai increased. Base tax of London and Thrace reduced. Only Steppe Hordes get the plundering event upon capturing a city, it gives 10 ducats. Steppe Hordes get -10% pe, -10% te and -25% tax. Hordes get a big reduction to attrition and cavalry cost. Tolls completely reworked giving more local and less global bonuses. OCO Event added to remove cores on your vassals. Bosphorous toll requires more provinces. Militia act gives very different bonuses Militia act is removed by event from non-monarchies. You need to control enough naval supplies/grain supplies to be able to go over force limit. Defensiveness from defensive vs. offensive reduced. Replaces 4 wool provinces in spain with grain, replaced all german provinces with wool with grain. Changed some British provinces to naval supplies. Base tax of several English provinces reduced quite a bit. Gotland produces fish. Epirus provinces are fish rather than wool. Denmark starts with cores on Slesvig and Flensburg. Merchant republic 2 is available at the same tech as Administrative Monarchy and is slightly better. Free trade gives more merchants, mercantilism gives more compete chance in owned provinces. Barbary pirates defeated gives -8% big ship cost. Blockade isn't available until around 1400. QFTNW is available slightly earlier. Formalize scales, weights and measures is available later. Naval sliders reduce ship cost slightly less. RR reduction nerved across the board. Muslims start with better tech than Westerners. No countries start with level 1 buildings except the Ottomans. Buildings are available at tech levels 5, 12, 19, 27, 35 and 42 across the board. Manufactories are available at level 20 in every tech (except fine arts academy). Austria doesn't get the Italian ambition mission until after 1400. Western influences only gives +10% stab cost. Thallassocracy can only be taken by Venice, Hansa and Genoa again. Brittania rules the waves no longer gives leader shock and leader fire. Technology groups evened out a little. Population growth can't continue indefinitely, populations should stop growing at a point based on tax income, manpower and other factors. Rebalanced tonnes of stuff, just play it and you'll find out… there's too much to put in the changelog. Becoming Protestant or Reformed removes a few nice Catholic decisions. Mercenaries are slightly less expensive to make them worth taking. Tonnes of stuff rebalanced. Claim_on_x NOW REQUIRES CORES Added a lot of new ships from Rex Maris - as well as new combat values. Fixed a paradox bug where Chinese, Indian and American units become western late game because Paradox forgot to include sprites for them. Jurchen provinces start out in the Altaic group but convert to the Chinese group when the Qing Dynasty is formed. "Oriental" renamed to "Eastern" to avoid further confusion. England gets event modifiers regulating the value of its naval supplies based on its strength. Catholic decisions are removed by event from non-catholics. The emperor is forced by event to join the empire. Only European provinces can be added to the HRE. Added 'Mamluk Cavalry' decision. Added 'Recruit Highlanders' decision. Added 'Use Ottoman Artillery' decision. Added 'Use Egyptian Conscripts' decision. Added 'Encourage Manufacturing' decision. Added 'Request Papal Bull' decision. Added 'Hire Genoese Mercenaries' decision. Added 'Hire Swiss Mercenaries' decision. Added 'Request Papal Banner' decision. Added 'Establish General Post Office' decision. Added 'Establish Royal Mail' decision. Added 'Edict of Fontainebleau' decision. Added 'Centralise the French Language' decision. Added 'Compagnie Ordonnance' decision. Added 'Alhambra Decree' decision. Added 'Spanish Tercio' decision. Added 'Portugese Tercio' decision. Added 'Imperial Examinations' decision. Added 'Adopt Mandate of Heaven' decision. Added 'Sprouts of Capitalism' decision. Added 'Sepoy Army' decision. Added 'Recruit Janissaries' decision. Added 'Encourage Knowledge, Science and Culture' decision. War exhaustion reduces spy defence and increases minimum revolt risk slightly. Several Manchu/Qing decisions are available to China. China nerfed in several ways - celestial empire gets some big maluses which can only be removed by modernising the government. Celestial empire also decreases administrative efficiency for the IE event. Cores are gained in 40 years and nationalism lasts 40 years. Nationalism increases revolt risk even more as well as reducing manpower. Added 'Islamic Caliphate' triggered modifier for the strongest Islamic nation. Catholic nations get maluses for being innovative. Protestant and Reformed don't get holy war - just religious liberation. Only reformed, protestant and catholic get cleansing of heresy on their neighbours after the protestant reformation - a mistake meant that it was previously the whole world. Devsirme system only costs one magistrate and is available in the eastern and western balkans regardless of religion (it assumes christian minorities in the population) but nowhere else. It now only gives 25% manpower. The AI also won't take the decision so as not to cripple it. Trade agreements only decrease trade efficiency by 1%. Added a rather complex chain of decisions and events for the 'Volga Don Canal' to connect the Caspian sea to the Black sea. By constructing the canal in Grozny, Kalmykia and Kouban at the cost of 4000d and 4 magistrates, a toll is activated giving 2 base tax and 1 manpower to all caspian provinces, as well as 4 base tax, 20% trade income modifier and 3% population growth to every province you control. The decision is only available to the Ottoman Empire - however once the canal has been constructed other nations can seize it and benefit from its effects. Over time it also converts to wool provinces of the caspian into richer trade goods. Decentralisation improved slightly. Trade ranges significantly reduced but they can be increased by owning a certain sized navy (up to 50 ships). This is to encourage the land powers to own at least a small navy. Danish sound toll will give more money later into the game (up to 100d). Merchants are now much scarcer globally but are gains slightly by owning a small navy. This is, again, to encourage the land powers to own at least a small navy. Ottomans renamed to Turkey. The owner of the Volga Don canal gets a mission to reconquer provinces in the Caspian Basin. Accepting the demands of peasant rebels to get free free-subject moves now has the added cost of a -1 stability hit. Fish, wool and naval supplies should be slightly less useless throughout the game. Manpower is affected slightly by tolerance. Max province sell price raised to 8000. Dynamic blockading added - the longer a province is blockaded the more severe the effects of that blockade. Majaphits vassals start allied to it. There are more AI tweaks. The AI should now be a little less blobby and a few more areas are set for unification. Hindus can no longer form Hindustan. They can now form Bharat. A westernised Hindustan or Bharat is able to form India.

[Mgoblue201]

As long as you play before the next patch comes out, you'll be able to get a steady supply of Imperial Authority by getting a border with a Horde and continuously fighting them to the point of conceding defeat. Do not expand within the empire, except early on via Personal Unions. Try to get a whole lot of territory scattered around the Empire. When you take a province that is part of the empire from a non-empire member, you get a free core on it. Keep high relations with the whole empire if possible, and at minimum with the electors. This is important because everyone in the empire gets a vote on Imperial Reforms, and you need a majority to pass it. High relations, high diplomatic skill and low infamy will make them vote in your favor most of the time. If you can diplo-vassalize the electors, that's obviously awesome. Note that if you're not an elector, and you inherit an elector state, you become an elector yourself. Diplomatic skill is great because it increases the likelyhood of personal unions, people accepting diplo-vassalizations, acceping diplo-annexation, and causes relations to rise faster over time naturally. Oh, and it contributes to the likelyhood of them passing a reform you propose. So, to get it high and keep it high, you'll want to have a large Sphere of Influence. Each new addition raises your diplo by 0.5. If you're Austria, the decision you can make called 'Establish Habsburg Dominance' gives you a free, permanent boost (Austria is basically HRE easy mode). Diplo skill if your ruler directly contributes, and finally, you can get an advisor for diplo skill. Spend all of your IA before the Reformation hits, otherwise you'll just lose it anyway. Try to pass as many reforms as possible before 1500 or so, because each time someone converts to a religion that is not your own, you'll lose 10 IA. Converting someone TO your religion within the empire will gain 10. One possible strategy is to convert yourself as soon as possible, so that everyone converting to Protestantism will give you IA instead of taking it away. Vassalize as many people as possible, because only vassals / PU junior partners are going to want to accept the "enforce religious unity" option on them. If they refuse it, you get a CB on them, but you also lose like 20+ prestige, which is PAINFUL.

I ended up converting to protestantism for all of extra imperial authority (the religious unity CB is also a great excuse to vassalize the electors), but when I reached 100, I didn't actually have the ability to pass any reforms, so I ended up wasting a lot of the IA. Even now I'm having trouble with reforms despite a more protestant HRE and high diplomatic ability. Hell, I think half the HRE is now my vassal.

[ThoseDeafMutes]

I ended up converting to protestantism for all of extra imperial authority (the religious unity CB is also a great excuse to vassalize the electors), but when I reached 100, I didn't actually have the ability to pass any reforms, so I ended up wasting a lot of the IA. Even now I'm having trouble with reforms despite a more protestant HRE and high diplomatic ability. Hell, I think half the HRE is now my vassal.

Try to pass a reform, then pause the game and open up the "log" down the bottom/bottom left of the screen. Scroll up, you'll see the decisions everybody made on the vote. This should tell you who is voting with you and who is voting against you.

The checklist is:

- Low (ideally 0) infamy
- Diplo skill
- High relations with countries (>150 is preferred, 200 is ideal)
- Maybe high prestige? (not sure)

If you've been expanding with PUs, be warned that everybody you've got a mariage with will get pissed off whenever you claim a throne.

[Mgoblue201]

Since the last time I posted, all of my reforms have gone through, so I didn't get a chance to see who blocked them.

Anyway, I got a claim throne CB on England and decided to invade, but my war score has topped out at 64%, even though I'm occupying all their territory. Is there a reason for this?

[ZZMitch]

Since the last time I posted, all of my reforms have gone through, so I didn't get a chance to see who blocked them. Anyway, I got a claim throne CB on England and decided to invade, but my war score has topped out at 64%, even though I'm occupying all their territory. Is there a reason for this?

You must be missing some, they have colonized some places. Once you occupy all of a nation's territory the warscore automatically becomes 100%/

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Since the last time I posted, all of my reforms have gone through, so I didn't get a chance to see who blocked them. Anyway, I got a claim throne CB on England and decided to invade, but my war score has topped out at 64%, even though I'm occupying all their territory. Is there a reason for this?

If they have control of any forts, you can't have 100% warscore. Click on an English province then switch to Diplomatic map-mode. Scan around the world for provinces in green that you missed. BUT, it could also be that they have control of one of your forts, or perhaps a third party that they are also at war with. You will need to siege these to get back control/turn over control to whomever originally owned it.

[Mgoblue201]

I checked several times without seeing anything. England might have had colonies in the terra incognita, but that wouldn't add up to 36%. They did move their capital, though only to Northumberland. With all of the British provinces firmly in my control, the war score should've at least added up to 80 or 90% (I needed 84 to force a personal union). It hardly matters now, however, since I decided to take their provinces instead.

[ThoseDeafMutes]

I checked several times without seeing anything. England might have had colonies in the terra incognita, but that wouldn't add up to 36%. They did move their capital, though only to Northumberland. With all of the British provinces firmly in my control, the war score should've at least added up to 80 or 90% (I needed 84 to force a personal union). It hardly matters now, however, since I decided to take their provinces instead.

England's allies count towards warscore until you capture their last province, which will then ratchet it up to 100. Basically, when you have all but one province, it might only give you 60% because it has several allies whose lands you haven't occupied. Alternatively, you may have lost quite a lot of warscore from battles or from ongoing blockades of your own territory.

[Prophane33]

It's worth noting that Magna Mundi was cancelled today , which is a shame as I was really looking forward to that game.

[Basileus777]

It's worth noting that Magna Mundi was cancelled today , which is a shame as I was really looking forward to that game.

This is not surprising at all. The whole project has felt like vaporware for a while now. And Ubik failing to keep that team in line is hardly shocking either and it seems like his monstrous ego may have been what killed the project. None of these fan-Paradox collaborations seem to have worked out for Paradox, I'd wager they are done with things like this.

It's probably not much of a loss, MMtG seemed like a bloated mess with terrible design and awful UI, which is exactly what the mod suffered from.

[zoku88]

This is not surprising at all. The whole project has felt like vaporware for a while now. And Ubik failing to keep that team in line is hardly shocking either and it seems like his monstrous ego may have been what killed the project. None of these fan-Paradox collaborations seem to have worked out for Paradox, I'd wager they are done with things like this. It's probably not much of a loss, MMtG seemed like a bloated mess with terrible design and awful UI, which is exactly what the mod suffered from.

It's funny that you say that, because I was completely surprised, though I probably didn't know as much as you did about the development.

Wasn't there a development diary not too long ago (I feel like there was a Let's Play as well.)

[Kabouter]

It's worth noting that Magna Mundi was cancelled today , which is a shame as I was really looking forward to that game.

Wasn't following development (because I didn't like the mod to begin with), but this is pretty surprising to me. Guess you really can't trust a bunch of amateurs.

[Mgoblue201]

I just finished my HRE game, starting out as Austria on normal difficulty. I realized quickly that I should've went for a harder setting, but I was under the mistaken impression that the HRE mechanics would be more difficult to grasp than they were in reality.

Vassals:
Denmark
Norway
Sweden
Poland
Aragon
Mexico
Venezuela
Ethiopia

Personal Unions:
Hungary
Portugal
Brittany

It only occurred to me after I finished that I should've tried for full world conquest, infamy limit be damned. I was in such a rush to finish that I never questioned my bias about letting infamy rise above 12. As it was, I got bogged down in Britain and Iberia for about 50 years, slowing eating away at their territory through successive wars. I could've finished it quickly had I just taken most of their territory at once.

[ThoseDeafMutes]

DO NEAT BORDERS MEAN NOTHING TO YOU, MGOBLUE?


fdsfsdfsgsdfhdh

[Mgoblue201]

I think that my borders are pretty neat, with lots of contiguous, unbroken mattes of grey (especially if you consider all my vassals and PUs as mere extensions of my own country). The main problem is that once I get to the final 20 or 30 years, there is no "plan". It's a mad dash for as much territory as possible with revolution and counter-revolution, imperialism, and whatever CBs I can get. That means that the hope of creating a completely unified Europe was more subservient to the necessity of destroying Novgorod, the horde nations, and whatever remained of the once major European powers, who had mostly retreated to South America and Africa. If I had more time, I would've united both my eastern and western fronts from both directions, but it is the inevitable nature of the game for your country to look unfinished at the end. If you think that's bad, you should've seen what Austria looked like on the eve of HRE unification. I had unconnected provinces everywhere in Europe. Most of my games look much nicer than this.

Edit: Some of this is explainable. For example, there are holes in my Asian territory because Persia somehow got right in the middle of Novgorod as I was taking their provinces. Creek still exists in southeast America because they were in Brittany's sphere of influence, so I couldn't touch them. I have so much random territory in Africa because I either annexed or vassalized European countries that had holdings there. There are holes elsewhere because reconquest CBs (which go for 0 infamy) dictated the provinces I took, which sometimes meant cutting the countries in half. But yeah, I try to go for neat borders as much as possible.

[Basileus777]

RPS has an interview about Sword of Islam.

RPS: Although I love the game’s potential complexity, I’m content with the relative simplicity of combat. I assume I have people working for me who handle the tactical side of things. I’ve read about the new commander abilities; what will they add and what else can I expect from the expanded combat? Fåhraeus: We are not entirely happy with the combat mechanics; not because they are too simple, but because there is little the player can do to affect the outcome, and the larger force always tends to win. Our solution is to put more emphasis on the leaders. After all, this is a game about characters! So, with patch v1.06 the combat tactics are more varied and more decisive, and the choice of flank leader matters more. This is the first step in an ongoing combat system revision; future updates will take this further and make the leaders matter even more.

Fåhraeus: Thanks for the interview! I am happy to report that Crusader Kings II is still doing very well and the future looks bright. We have planned the next four expansions in some detail, and I think people will be pleased with the subject matters!

It'll be interesting to see how they handle these expansions, especially given their plans to make everything modular.

[Mgoblue201]

So after finishing the previous game I decided to fire up the Naples file I had started a month ago, and within a few years I saw this happen at my border.



What the hell?

Right now the military might of Austria is the only thing preventing me from declaring war on Milan and Siena to finally unify the Italian state. Fortunately, I did manage to maneuver Burgundy, which encompasses most of modern day France, into a personal union, but I had to remain at perpetual war for something like 15 years so that they wouldn't insult me.

On a completely unrelated note, the AI's handling of spies is completely abysmal. What is the point of starting a harmless riot in my territory if the resulting CB that I get for discovering a spy gives me pretext for an invasion? I'm surprised that Paradox hasn't done something about this yet. The ability to send out spies should also be limited to the country's naval range. It's absurd that Songhai can start rebellions in Missouri.

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Lol megablobs.

I say leave them there a few more months then declare war on your remaining states simultaneously. Prepare for a scorched-earth defense in the northern states of yours, but Austria may not intervene on account of the war exhaustion they're building up from having 244men sitting in one territory.

[Mgoblue201]

I actually incorporated Milan into my territory through a more convoluted way. Soon after I last posted, Genoa had managed to vassalize Milan, but without a CB I couldn't outright declare war on them. Fortunately, Genoa was allied with Foix, whom I could fabricate documents on. So I drew Genoa into a war and forced them to cancel their vassalition of Milan. I couldn't just take Lombardia, because it was Milan's capital, so I vassalized them instead. I didn't even have to bother with the HRE emperor, though later on I did manage to take parts of Austria's territory when they were busy with some pointless war in Scandinavia.

The war with Austria also had some strange effects within the empire.



Edit: Damn, I knew that I should've tried to prop Austria up as some sort of paper emperor rather than destroy them. Now Bohemia is emperor, and they stretch halfway across Asia. There is a real danger that they'll eventually form the HRE. The one consolation is that I conquered Siena before then, so I'll be able to form Italy in 50 years. Fortunately, eastern European countries that expand outward into Asia almost always end up falling apart before the game is over.

[Basileus777]

CK2 patch 1.06 and the Sword of Islam expansion are coming out today.

[Sir Fragula]

CK2 patch 1.06 and the Sword of Islam expansion are coming out today.

Need to make up my mind whether I want to finish my Reed family run in the Game of Thrones mod (only works on 1.05 ATM) or get the patch and DLC...

[zoku88]

Apparently, being an imbecile doesn't hamper your ability to try to press your claim to the Kingdom of France from your brother (me).

Also, it apparently doesn't stop you from winning and kill said brother :-/



I would say that these are the worst stats I've ever had, but actually, one of my ancestors (Duke of Flanders) also had all zeroes, lol.

[ThoseDeafMutes]

The Roman Empire circa 1795 (D&T Mod, latest version). Hungary, Moldavia, Bavaria, Bohemia, Poland and Danzig are my vassals, which is why their borders are so rational and neat. I'm going to dissolve the imposter Roman Empire soon, in the 12th (or maybe 13th, I forget) Roman-Austrian Imperialist War (60% or so of the territory for all of my Vassals was directly taken from Austria and her vassals...).

[Mr. Luchador]

How do you end up with all Zero?

[zoku88]

How do you end up with all Zero?

Imbecile trait is -8 for all stats.

I assume it makes stat increases harder to get too, (I don't know).

I basically gave up on the kid >.>

He eventually got his diplomacy stat to 1, though XD

[Colkate]

Man, I love the extra nations you can form in Death & Taxes.

[Basileus777]

Paradox announced a new game, East vs. West - A Hearts of Iron Game.

The game will be a Grand Strategy/Wargame set during the Cold War era - 1946-1991. The game is being developed by BL-Logic in close cooperation with Paradox Development Studio. We want to recreate the political and military tension between the Eastern Bloc and the West, since we at Paradox Development Studio have long felt that a Cold War era game is missing from our lineup. So when BL-Logic – the creators of Arsenal of Democracy – presented their game concept based on the Clausewitz engine, we felt that it was a perfect match. As the 1950’s approach, the arms race intensifies and the world fears World War III as the US and USSR fight for global dominance. Guide your country through this dangerous historical era with all means direct and conventional, nuclear or indirect, via diplomacy, espionage and economy.

So a Cold War game made by the Arsenal of Democracy team, I wonder how much it will be based off of HOI3. I guess the Magna Mundi debacle didn't kill off these sorts of projects from Paradox afterall.

[Sir Fragula]

Nom nom nom, more Clausewitz!

I guess I need to edit the OP at some point to remove Magna Mundi, so will put this in then.

[Rapstah]

Nukes always felt like the weakest aspect of HoI 2 for me, I wonder what kinds of ideas they have for balancing the post-forties. I guess HoI2 fully expanded does allow you to go into the late sixties or early seventies but my games always broke down from too many units before then.

[Basileus777]

A Cold War game should have a much greater emphasis on diplomacy than HOI. If it's just a war game, I would be very disappointed.

[Mgoblue201]

Is Death and Taxes an improvement upon EU3? I'll probably try it once out of curiosity.

[Sir Fragula]

A Cold War game should have a much greater emphasis on diplomacy than HOI. If it's just a war game, I would be very disappointed.

I'm hoping for it to use elements from the other games in the Clausewitz series as well. Partial implementation of CK2 style personality system - individual politicians and generals having their own agendas coupled with a hint of a Victoria 2 style economy. On top of the existing Hearts of Iron gameplay that is.

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Is Death and Taxes an improvement upon EU3? I'll probably try it once out of curiosity.

It was circa 5.14/5.

They released D&T 6.0 and it horribly broke a lot of things. They're up to 6.4 now and several things are still quite broken. To give you an example, to form Japan you had to control the Japanese region. That sounds reasonable, until you realize that the uncolonized Japanese islands are part of the Japanese region, and Daimos don't get any colonists. Then, the borders in China and India were totally ruined visually. Like the dividing line between provinces was gone for some reason. It looks horrendous. Then, there is this event called THRIVING COLONIES that appears and lasts for maybe a year before disappearing. That's fine, but when you have a big empire (like my current Rome game), it will drive oyu insane, because when the effect goes away, it has a pop up that you have to dismiss by clicking OK, and its one of those ones where OK is greyed out for a full second and hitting Enter doesn't do anything (like election popups and other similar ones). Because it happens to sometimes north of 50 provinces every 2-3 years, it will drive you INSANE because every 3 or 4 game days a new popup will appear asking you to dismiss it, for a a whole game year!

[Basileus777]

The anachronistic map in Death and Taxes throws me off. It's not really right for the Eu3 time period, it's entirely too modern and right out of 19th/20th century. I haven't played Eu3 in a while, but I preferred MEiOU last time I checked things out.

[ThoseDeafMutes]

The anachronistic map in Death and Taxes throws me off. It's not really right for the Eu3 time period, it's entirely too modern and right out of 19th/20th century. I haven't played Eu3 in a while, but I preferred MEiOU last time I checked things out.

What do you mean?

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Central Europe is now my bitch, and CONTAINS NEAT BORDERS:

Establishing Germanic puppet states has been gloriously fun. Not sure how, but Bavaria proclaimed itself Germany while under my yoke as soon as I dismantled the HRE, even though I don't think it met the requirements (not nearly enough territories/cores). And now it's sitting on -100 prestige permanently because it has no way of possibly reclaiming all of those cores. SIGH. At least seeing a large Westphalia and Danzig is neat.

[Tess3ract]

Does the Pop mod for vicky2 still work with the latest beta? I couldn't get that and the tutorial to work at the same time, and it just would keep crashing :(