Europa Universalis IV Catch-All

Agree, I think Jason is ahead of both Tboon and I in EU4. I'm still getting used to it again.

Moggy wrote:

My game is proceeding nicely. Castille is still slowly expanding in Europe. Tech levels are increasing - finally got a decent Monarch! - and I've even got my first Ideas - colonization and exploration.

I find it amusingly frustrating that you get a colonist BEFORE explorers/conquistadors. Which meant I could do nothing before I ground my way up to another 400 diplomacy. My first foray into the new world was a disaster. I whipped up a small expeditionary force - 3 heavies lead by an explorer and 6 ground-pounders led by a Conquistador - and sent them over the big blue. They made landfall in Trinidad of the Winward Islands. It was then that I learnt that I couldn't colonize as my colonization reach is 150 miles (WTF?) and then all my ships, with troops aboard, died through attrition. I guess there's more learning needed.

Now it looks like I'm going to have to get the Canaries back from Algiers in order to expand along the African west coast.

My attempts to create Spain by crushing the only obstacle in my way - Aragon - keep on juddering. I executed a successful war against them only to gain a war score of barley 50%. That allowed me to nibble a couple of provinces. I realized that they'd taken a bunch of islands in the Med. So I used the 10 years of peace to build up a navy and then royally smashed them. 100% war score. I couldn't annex them - needed 108% - and because my CB was for their capital province, could only take that OR other provinces. So time to plan on the final stomping...

That hook is set!

Good luck with your final conquest of Aragon.

Your colonial range is listed when you hover over any particular unoccupied piece of land and is calculated from your closest cored,unblockaded port. However, the fastest way to check everywhere you can and can't colonize(which you may already know about) is to use the colonization map overlay. There are both advisors and ideas that will give you percentage bonuses to your colonial range. I'm pretty sure that Portugal also has a National idea bonus to range and seem to recall that Castilemight have as well. Additionally, simply teching up will increase you base colonial range.

Feel free to friend me up on steam and ask me if you have any questions while you're learning. I don't know if I'll be able to be as helpful as longtime Paradox players such as Robear and tboon, but I'll try my best to help out when I can.

EDIT: fixed where iPad corrected teching to teaching in my original post

Thinking about it, Gunner probably knows more than all of us since he was talking about beating France in the Hundred Years War right at the start of the game. As someone who's been pushed around quite a bit by France so far that seems like quite the challenge.

Has anyone else had difficulty getting screenshots to upload to the steam cloud? Since launch, my save game has been syncing to the cloud just fine but the pictures always fail out before they upload even though they upload to imgur without issue.

Also, does anyone know if there is any way to influence the quality of the available pool of advisers? The EU3 method where you could create any adviser at any time was definitely too gamey, but I'm wondering if anything in the player's control affects the quality of advisers you randomly receive.

Does having high prestige or legitimacy give you a better chance of attracting +3 advisers? Does high military tradition increase the chance of a +3 military adviser arriving? I know that controlling the Papacy gives you a couple extra advisers to choose from which is handy. I've also read that Reformed actually lets you employ four advisers which would be a nice bonus for countries that an afford it.

EDIT- Sorry for editing an older post but I wanted to correct my above erroneous information about the Reformed religion for anyone reading through later. It gives you an extra adviser in you pool NOT an "extra adviser" as in a 4th adviser. I didn't want anyone to spend resources pushing to Reformed for a benefit I was wrong about.

I decided over lunch that I've enough grasp of the fundamentals to start a new game as the country I always like to play in these kind of games - ENGLAND!

Being Spanish is good and all that but, as a Brit, I like to try to replicate the birth of the Empire.

Jasonofindy wrote:

Feel free to friend me up on steam and ask me if you have any questions while you're learning. I don't know if I'll be able to be as helpful as longtime Paradox players such as Robear and tboon, but I'll try my best to help out when I can.

Thanks. I'll friend you all today sometime - though don't get *too* upset if I'm playing SRIV

Can someone invite me to the GWJ group. I'm Moggy123.

NVM

Here's my latest map: September 1602.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/O7kx20il.png)

I've established a presence and sent ships and merchants into several Eastern trade zones, and it's paying off. I'm in Australia and I plan on filling up the Philippines. In the west, I have the majority of the Caribbean trade zone, but in South America France is going full bore filling up Brazil. In Central America I took the most productive provinces from the Aztecs, and Portugal got the rest. The Maya and Zapotec are still sitting there taunting me. I got a big head start in New England, but England started coming in from the north not long ago. Almost cut off my single Canadian area, too.

My current ambitions are to get as much of the Sevilla trade zone as I can. I realize this has an enormous administrative cost, but I think feeding the East and Caribbean into Seville and being the biggest bull there will satisfy my lust for gold. And speaking of a lust for gold, I made it a point to try to take every gold producing area I could from the Aztecs and Mali.

Military tech is my biggest problem. I can't get involved in any European wars, because I am 5-7 tech levels behind everyone else. I want to take away some of Portugal's toys - his only real friends are Aragon and me - but pitting my pathetic soldiers against his high tech laser rifles and rocket mechs would not end well for me.

I'm a bit frustrated about that, too. I guess I spent too much on exploration. Having 2 explorers and 2 conquistadors on the payroll in addition to a couple admirals and a couple generals just ate up all my military points for too long. I have the whole world mapped out, but my soldiers are using pointy sticks and throwing rocks.

BTW, here's what my exploration map looks like... my explorers and conquistadors have been busy.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/PPYhxnTl.jpg)

Is it possible to get more free military leaders? I have only ever had 1, and a string of rulers with low military scores has killed me.

That looks good BadKen. May I ask how you did the first world map image? I'd love to use one in my next update as I just reached the Philippines myself (but from the other side), and that map gives a great overview of everything. Like you, I would love to take away some of Portugal's toys. Over in my world he not only has most of South Africa but much of the Panama trade node. It looks like Panama is going to end up being important for me because it looks to be the only place where I can can funnel Asian trade into the Americas.

Jasonofindy wrote:

That looks good BadKen. May I ask how you did the first world map image?

F11 saves the world map.

tboon wrote:
Jasonofindy wrote:

That looks good BadKen. May I ask how you did the first world map image?

F11 saves the world map.

F10. F11 is a screenshot.

What do the gold values represent in Uncolonized Land? Is it just some relative value scale or does it mean something more concrete?

BadKen wrote:

What do the gold values represent in Uncolonized Land? Is it just some relative value scale or does it mean something more concrete?

I think it correlates to the potential base tax value of a province. However, it is not the only factor. The number of natives that survive and become permanent residents also adds to the value. (I've seen .2 per 1000 natives thrown around as the modifier.) There are also native related colonial events that add or subtract from the value of the potential province but these clearly state the bonus they give.

I don't think that the number reflects the trade good possibilities in any way as I have seen value 1 colonies end up with gold as their natural resource and high value colonies end up with fish or wheat.

Incan Subjugation

Seeing that the Incans had moved their capital off of the gold rich province of Cuzco due to its isolation from the rest of their territory, the armies of Spain once again overran the Inca in 1612 and seized the province in the name of Spain. The peace deal also forced the Inca to assist Spanish merchants for the next 30 years. In 1619, the Spanish crown once again launched a war of conquest against the Inca and finally subjugated the rest of the formerly grand native empire. They became mere vassals under Spanish rule. However, the hatred among the natives caused by so many wars against the Inca and their Aztec allies would linger for years. Unlike in North America where the Cherokee and Iroquois were rewarded with rival tribal land and integrated willingly into the empire, burning resentment in South America made it unclear how many decades it would take to begin the process of truly integrating Incan society into the Spanish realm.

Sail West Young Man

Before the discovery of the rich lands of the Americas, the merchants of Spain held out hope for a western route to the riches of the Indies. One that would bypass those in Venice and Genoa who skimmed most of the profits for themselves. The wealth of the Caribbean satiated their desires for awhile, but when news came that rival Portugal had begun importing goods from the east around the Cape of Africa, there was once again a cry from the wealthy merchants for Spain to find her own lucrative trade routes with Asia.

An expedition was funded to sail west from Mexico in search of Asian wealth. For months no land was found. Then finally a promising chain of islands was discovered. Unfortunately, they were inhabited by thousands of natives. Additionally, the expedition was spent due to the long voyage from Mexico. They decided to turn back and to return with soldiers and settlers to claim this new land which the natives called Hawaii. It would server as a fine base for further exploration to the west.

Colonization of Hawaii 1614
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/4ibCM3z.jpg)

Pacific Exploration

After the discovery and colonization of Hawaii, the quest to explore the west intensified. Next to be discovered and colonized was Midway Island, then Wake Island, then the Marshalls and Gilberts. Spanish explorers steadily pushed westward with a stream of settlers, adventurers, and colonists in their wake.

By 1619, the explorers had reached the land of the Philippines. Unfortunately, they learned they were in Asian waters from the worst possible source: fellow explorers from Portugal who were just reaching the area from west. They had sailed from Portugal east around Africa.

Bittersweet discovery of Asia 1619
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/U23iqQe.jpg)

Both groups of explorers claimed the surrounding lands for their respective crowns, and the race was on to colonize the area. The Portuguese settled the south island with a colony in Tagaloan with the Spanish settling the island territories to the north.

Spanish Pacific Island settlements and first Spanish and Portuguese settlements in the Philippines 1622
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/zhW2m4l.jpg)

These initial settlements were followed by the Portuguese settlement of Maguindanao and the Spanish settlement of additional islands to both the north and south. Minor clashes often erupted between the two competing countries' settlers and merchants. Tensions had already been building for decades back in Iberia and in the Caribbean, but this new friction over settlement in the Philippines made it clear that inevitably there would be war.

In preparation, the Army of Mexico marched south to the border with Panama. The Army of Lima marched north towards Portuguese Columbia. The Army of Brazil marched northwest towards Portuguese territory, 16K men were ferried from Spain to Caracas, a squadron of galleons were dispatched to the Philippines to deal with the Portuguese navy in the area, and the main fleet was moved north to bottle up the British navy in case they joined the war on the side of the Portuguese.

Prewar colonies in the Philippines 1627
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/M6ZRair.jpg)

War was declared in August 1627. By mid-1628 the Portuguese Philippines were captured and sieges were underway across South America and in Iberia. The British thankfully never entered the war. Portugal's main army of 20K in Lisbon were routed by Spanish forces. However, Naples did honor an alliance and enter to protect the Portuguese. At first, they did little but disrupt shipping in the Med. Then in late 1628, they attempted an amphibious assault against the small Spanish army besieging Lisbon. It was a fatal error as the main Spanish army marched in reinforcements, and crushed the Neapolitan forces. With nowhere to run, they were massacred, and Naples was no longer a factor in the war.

Spanish Occupations of the Philippines and Caribbean
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/IQEOIpt.jpg)
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/mYyLqdh.jpg)

With the Portuguese and Neapolitan armies crushed and the Portuguese navy in hiding somewhere in the Indian Ocean, the decision was made to besiege and capture as much Portuguese territory in the Caribbean as possible. The war dragged on first with multiple sieges, and then at the bargaining table. Finally, in early 1632, a peace settlement was reached. Spain would annex the Bahamas and all Portuguese South American provinces that traded in the Caribbean. Spain would also annex all holdings in the Philippines. Additionally, Portugal would promote Spanish trade for thirty years. In return for these sweeping concessions, Spanish occupation of Portugal's Iberian and Panamanian territories would end with an assurance that Spain would not attempt to seize any Portuguese territories for the next five years.

After the peace, Spanish settlement of the Philippines accelerated with colonists settling on every available island and merchants reveling in the new spice and porcelain trade that quickly sprang up. With begrudging Portuguese help, all trade in the area was routed east to North America and then into the Caribbean to be collected by Spanish merchants. Monthly trade income for the crown quickly surpassed 100 gold. As settlement continued, rumors of a vast continent to the south circulated. The crown commissioned an explorer to find and chart this new continent so that it may be claimed for Spain.

In 1633, this new continent was discovered. By 1635, the first colony had been planted and this new land of Australia had been circumnavigated.
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/tMLZlxt.jpg)

World Map 1635
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/aYwkUbv.png)

Good grief, didn't annexing all that territory give you ridiculous overextension? I can never seem to take more than a couple provinces at a time, or my trade and relations go to hell.

BadKen wrote:

Good grief, didn't annexing all that territory give you ridiculous overextension? I can never seem to take more than a couple provinces at a time, or my trade and relations go to hell.

Previously, taking Incan, Aztec, and Creek lands gave me a ton of overextension which is why I did it in such small chunks. Taking all of this territory in the Caribbean and Philippines took me up to 81% from 0. It seemed like only the one gold producing territory on the coast of South America (Esscaribo?) really added that much overextension individually, most of the others only added 4% or 8% instead of the 24% I saw for some of the nice Inca territory. I wonder if it is just because it started as colonial territory? Additionally, coring times on some Inca lands approached 9-10 years. Most of these had coring times of 40 months because I manufactured claims on everything I could. The few where I couldn't had coring times of 80 months. I had the red overextension warning flag for three years after the war, but it had gone away by the time of the Australia picture at the end.

As far as relations going to hell, nobody seemed to care much besides the Incas and some Asian countries like Brunei. The base Aggressive expansion number of the deal was very high, but due to distance its effect on my relations with Spain, Britain, France, and the Netherlands was in the single digits. As part of the peace deal I also looked at keeping Porto in Iberia because I had a claim there, but it would have added massive overextension, and the European powers were projected to be super pissed off at me for taking European territory from Portugal. I guess the moral of the story is that the European powers don't really care that much if you grab someone's overseas territories, but will be very unhappy if you start expanding in Europe.

Well, I've given up on my Spain game. Third time wasn't the charm for me. I made good progress in today's session, annexing Maya, taking a bite of the Inca and grabbing Casablanca (which put me up against all of the native regimes in Southern Africa!). The bottom line, though, is that there are things I want to do that require going up against European powers, and I'm so far behind in tech, I just can't do it. No matter how I conserve military points, they keep gradually pulling ahead of me in military tech.

I'll just chalk this up to another learning experience and try again, this time with Portugal!

The bottom line, though, is that there are things I want to do that require going up against European powers, and I'm so far behind in tech, I just can't do it. No matter how I conserve military points, they keep gradually pulling ahead of me in military tech.

In essence, what happened to the real Spanish, happened to you.

Just when it looks like I'm getting the hang of it BAM! This time England was hammered by Scotland's ally the French. I thought I was being crafty by pumping up my relations with Burgandy - Scotland's last saviour - to stop them from jumping in again. That worked and left a nice vacuum for France and all her allies to fill.

It's seems to me that England's biggest problem at the start is a huge deficit thanks to her large standing army and navy. Oh yeah. Her crappy 0/0/0 monarch doesn't help much, either.

BadKen wrote:

Is it possible to get more free military leaders? I have only ever had 1, and a string of rulers with low military scores has killed me.

I know that it is possible because I picked up a second one somewhere along the way, but can't remember where it is from. Maybe defender of the faith or one of the military tech level bonuses? I'll look when I play later and see if I still have it, and if I can figure out where it came from. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

EDIT: I'm in-game now and the tooltip says that my second free leader is from being Curia Controller.
EDIT2: For anyone reading through later, you can also get another free leader by building the War College unique building.

I'm now trying to decide what country to play next because I think I've reached the point in my Spain game where the tension is removed, and there is really no worry of ever really "losing" anything major.

The Philippines

I'm up to the 1640's as Spain and have spent the last decade peacefully colonizing the entire Philippines trade zone and consolidating my trade infrastructure (over 120g/month just from trade). By 1645, I owned all of the land in the Philippines zone except for a single province owned by the Asian OPM, Makassar. To complete my trade dominance in the zone I launched a war against them to take the province. They were protected by Brunei and the Ottomans. The former never was a factor in this war, and I was already in an unrelated protracted war with the latter as described in the next section. Makassar held out against my besieging forces for two years but eventually fell and was annexed into the Spanish Empire. (Game note: This one province gave 32% overextension. I'm assuming it is because it was the capital of a preexisting nation.)

Taking of Makassar
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/SM2nPw2.jpg)

Helping Britain

I also fought an alliance war against Sweden, Finland, Leinster, Hungary, and the Ottomans from 1642-1648 to aid my British ally in stealing territory from Ireland. I have no idea why the Ottomans were involved in this British-Irish war, but they gave me someone to fight against.

Large Ottoman Galley/Galleass navy at the beginning of the War
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/QbcrKaQ.jpg)

In my first engagement of the war, the Spanish fleet intercepted and severely damaged the Ottoman navy while it was returning from dropping an invasion force off in Britain. Then a couple of years later I finally sunk the Ottoman fleet when it tried to bring a second army into Britain. The only land fighting I had to do was against a stack of Ottomans in my Italian provinces and against a small Swedish expeditionary force that invaded my Incan vassal in Peru. (Seems like a strange strategic choice on Sweden's part. I guess it saw the Inca as the weakest part of the British/Spanish alliance.) Although a small Incan army was wiped out in Peru, Spanish armies prevailed without difficulty both in Peru and in Italy.

The entire Swedish navy was sunk off the coast of Iceland while trying to sneak its way back home from Peru by hugging the American coast and taking a northern route. Reports from my American provinces allowed me track them almost the whole way and to position a large contingent of the Spanish navy off the coast of Iceland to trap them.

Attempted Ottoman invasion of Spanish Italy 1647
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/cJsL07t.jpg)

Croatia

While these wars were going on, something unexpected happened.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/iVZgfsl.jpg)

The royal families of Austria and Spain had been intertwined in marriages for centuries. While still the Holy Roman Emperor in 1646, Austria's holdings had shrunk to almost nothing over the past century due to defeats to the armies of the French, Bohemians, Bavarians, and Ottomans. Nobles in Styria had seized upon these losses to declare independence from Austria and to eventually conquer a large chunk of Austrian land near Venice. In 1646, my Spanish king (a Habsburg) received word that he was now also the king of the three province country of Croatia when the distant Austrian Habsburg cousin that was ruling it passed away. He also received word that the rulers of Styria were disputing his right to this crown and were launching an invasion of Croatia to secure the throne for their chosen king.

Shortly after the start of the war, word was received that Mainz and ?(another small HRE state that I can't remember) were joining Styria's fight for the Croatian throne. 26K men of the Spanish Guardia Real were transported to Croatia to deal with this succession war. While they were en route, small armies from Mainz and ? marched into Northern Spain and began seiging provinces. The remaining 21K Spanish soldiers stationed in Andalucia marched north to meet these invasion forces. The superior Spanish military beat both armies handily, trapped them in the mountainous countryside, and slaughtered them for daring to invade Spanish soil.

The ongoing war with the Ottomans allowed the Guardia Real to land in Lika and quickly march over land to relieve the Croatian defenders of Zagreb from a Styrian siege(see post war map below for geographic details). With Zagreb secure, the Guardia Real chased the Styrians across the countryside while the small Croatian army laid seige to Styrian territory. Once the Styrian army was defeated in a series of running battles, they agreed to a white peace leaving the Spanish king upon the Croatian throne (Personal Union).

Postwar Croatia sandwiched between Styria and the Ottomans 1647
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/cy3stSV.jpg)

Spanish Empire 1649- Note that the Incas (vassal) are still light purple and Croatia (PU) is still green. Also, I can't believe how little of Austria is left.
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/OGyYrXA.png)

Cool stuff.

It is a little disturbing that you were able to draw so far ahead of the AI. I had read quite a bit about how the game would work to keep the player from rolling over the AI in the mid and late game. What is disturbing about it is that many of my EU3 games ended when I just flt like there was nothing left to do, no other powers that were capable of challenging me, just playing out the game for the last 150 years. I was hoping EU4 would fix that but that you stated you feel like you are almost done with this game and it is not even 1650 seems like it has not.

Maybe because you are playing an aggressive colonial game while leaving most of Europe alone the AI does not see you as a threat and so will gang up on you?

edited to make some semblance of sense.

I decided to do something crazy and start as the Shawnee in North America. Here's a quick summary of my game so far:

* Oh look, I have some neighbors. They should be fun to crush.
* Cool, I've assimilated my neighbors.
* Hmm, our starting technology sucks. Now to wait a good hundred years so I can tech up to send colonists out and expand further.
* Oh look, the Portuguese.
* Oh look, the British.

I thought maybe I'd get some good colonization going before they arrived but I should've known better. Now I regret not picking a different technology and shoring up a bit more. Not like I was going to stand up against them anyway, but I just want to see how much of a fight I can put up So far they've just been interested in single territories or some colonization bonuses and haven't completed destroyed me... yet.

EDIT: Sorry one last edit. Tboon- As far as "rolling over the AI in the late game," I also think this WILL be much harder in EU4 in Europe than in EU3 because the tech penalty for being "ahead of time" will essentially prevent you from being more than a couple tech levels ahead of other Europeans. So you wouldn't be able to snowball near as much as in EU3.

In my current game, I said that I thought I would stop because there is little chance of me losing anything significant. This is true as I don't think any country has much hope of invading and decimating me at this point. I have pretty much a free hand to beat up on the non-Europeans at this point. On the other hand, actual world conquest or conquest of Europe would be a real slog if I wanted to go that route. I'm only one mil-tech ahead of France. Between that and the attrition advantages of being on defense in this game, I'm guessing it would be very long and painful to actually conquer all of France, much less Europe. Conquering France would be doable in the end, but isn't really something I'm excited to grind through at this point. I'd rather start somewhere else in a more interesting situation.

tboon wrote:

Cool stuff.

It is a little disturbing that you were able to draw so far ahead of the AI. I had read quite a bit about how the game would work to keep the player from rolling over the AI in the mid and late game. Maybe because you are playing an aggressive colonial game while leaving most of Europe alone? What is disturbing about it is that many of my EU3 games ended when I just flt like there was nothing left to do, no other powers that were capable of challenging me, just playing out the game for the last 150 years. I was hoping EU4 would fix that but that you stated you feel like you are almost done with this game and it is not even 1650 seems like it has not.

I think the difficulty curve is better than in EU3-DW where you could essentially dominate as Spain and colonize all of America and North Africa. However, playing Castile (one of the "starter" nations) as a colonizer and focusing on trade really allows you to dominate once you get everything rolling. The money from trade and from conquering the Native Americans is huge and has allowed me to upgrade my manpower across Spain and constantly keep 3/3/3 advisers when they're available. I was collecting in Sevilla sans merchant, collecting with a merchant in the Caribbean (collecting with penalty was still more profitable than steering to Sevilla because of my trade power in the region), collecting with merchant from Cheasapeake (otherwise it goes to Bordeaux or London), steering automatically in California and Mexico to the Caribbean, and steering with a merchant from the Philippines east to the Americas.

The AI doesn't seem to appreciate when it could do better by collecting trade instead of steering towards home if it has a path to steer home. So I had 25g coming into Panama from the Philippines and Peru and Portugal was happily letting it slide through to the Carribean because that is the path to Sevilla. A human would have collected there, taking the penalty, but taking a major chunk for himself and denying me.

tboon wrote:

Maybe because you are playing an aggressive colonial game while leaving most of Europe alone the AI does not see you as a threat and so will gang up on you?

Definitely. I think a game as Castile where you tried to force yourself into Italy and the HRE instead of colonizing would be much more difficult, but I really don't want to play as Spain again right now to find out.

I may try to replicate my EU3 feat of starting as Bosnia,growing into the HRE, and culminating with HRE as a country controlling Europe, but part of me is also being pulled towards trying a non-European nation this time around.

Dreaded Gazebo wrote:

I decided to do something crazy and start as the Shawnee in North America. Here's a quick summary of my game so far:

* Oh look, I have some neighbors. They should be fun to crush.
* Cool, I've assimilated my neighbors.
* Hmm, our starting technology sucks. Now to wait a good hundred years so I can tech up to send colonists out and expand further.
* Oh look, the Portuguese.
* Oh look, the British.

I thought maybe I'd get some good colonization going before they arrived but I should've known better. Now I regret not picking a different technology and shoring up a bit more. Not like I was going to stand up against them anyway, but I just want to see how much of a fight I can put up So far they've just been interested in single territories or some colonization bonuses and haven't completed destroyed me... yet.

Keeping up with the neighbors as the shawnee would be a heck of a challenge. However, did you find yourself sitting around with nothing to do on 5 speed for long stretches in the first 100 years while waiting for the Europeans to arrive?

Jasonofindy wrote:

Keeping up with the neighbors as the shawnee would be a heck of a challenge. However, did you find yourself sitting around with nothing to do on 5 speed for long stretches in the first 100 years while waiting for the Europeans to arrive?

The first maybe 20 years or so were actually pretty interesting as I was slugging it out with the Cherokee and Creek as my southern neighbors. It was a fun stretch of taking as much territory as I could to crank up my income while trying to keep revolts under control and store up points for teching up. Thankfully my leaders were crazy good so I was generating lots of currency (the -2 New World bonus is harsh).

Once that was done though, yeah, it was just sitting at speed 5 for a long time. Mostly I was just waiting to earn enough points to tech up and get to colonization so I could expand to neighboring territories. That was folly, though, because as I was taking my second territory the Portuguese and Spanish showed up. I think it's going to be downhill from here Their first assault was just to get some bonus points and they didn't take territory. The British showed up next, though, and are getting a really strong presence that has me nervous. I tried to get an alliance going with the Iroquois but that fell apart pretty quickly.

It's certainly not the most exciting game of Europa Universalis I've played, but it is cool that you can do it. Most of the events don't seem to apply particularly well to a Native American culture though.

So I decided to give a play as the Papal States a try this evening. Things started out well with an alliance with Ferrara and then a mission that came with a free claim on the OPM Urbino. I built a couple more infantry, turned my Pope into a general, and declared war. Things went smoothly with their 3000 infantry falling quickly to my larger army. After a two year seige, the province fell, and I was able to annex it. The mission claim knocked the coring cost to a reasonable amount and the coring time was relatively short.

While I cored and saved up a bit of money to buy an adviser, I looked at my other opportunities. My entire southern border lay against Naples which was two large to take on and still in a personal union with Aragon which was definitely too large to take on. Tuscany's two provinces looked tempting but I didn't think that I could absorb the overextension of two new provinces at this time. However, the nice juicy OPM of Sienna lay right there just asking to be conquered. I checked its diplo screen and saw no alliance flags so I began to fabricate a claim. Once the claim was in place I declared war.

Whoops! I didn't realize that HRE provinces went down that far south on the peninsula. Suddenly, I was at war with Sienna, Austria, and a couple of HRE minors way up north. The die was cast and Austria was already apparently busy fighting Poland so I went about my business beating and sieging Sienna. Sienna fell and I sat there patiently watching my warscore tick up. When it reached 10%, I honestly thought to myself that it was going to work out. Then I received a message that Austria had made peace in its other war. Within a couple months two 10K men Austrian armies marched down Italy and wiped me out.

Guess I won't attack Sienna on my next attempt.

Urgh. If I never see the words "Catholic zealot" again, it will be too soon. Went Protestant as GB during the reformation because most of the British Isles had turned Protestant, and while that stopped the Protestant zealot revolts, it has led to insane hordes of Catholic zealot rebels, funded by France, led by amazingly good French generals with the lucky nations bonus (which can't be disabled in ironman!!!), equipped with state-of-the-art French technology, and more numerous than most European armies!

These guys were the tip of the iceberg. Note there's 42,000 Catholic zealots on the screen (split into two stacks), and this was something like the third or fourth wave of them in England alone. The previous Catholic uprisings were just as huge - even bigger in the case of the 50,000-man Catholic armies that overran Ireland - and honestly, I am getting a little irritated at being unable to make any progress due to an unending cycle of massive superman rebel armies, depleting manpower & going heavily into debt to fight the rebels, and then being left helpless before the next wave. I was having such a great time before then, too.

eta - and worst of all, where are the Protestant zealots who were so happy to rise up when my state religion was Catholic?!

IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/1117178606643771655/A33545CF86C5411D727C18D5059A49C2D4F81A64/)

Is there any way to get the event choice boxes to pause the game? I know the notification boxes have a button in the lower right that allows you to click 'popup and pause', but for the events I don't see how to do it.

I am thinking about getting this after loving CK2, and want to import my Byzantine Empire game into it using the converter. (Does the Reformation even happen when you healed the historical divide between Catholic and Orthodox and all of Europe except for Scandinavia is Orthodox?)

How hard is the learning curve? I had to sit down with a series of LTP videos for CK2. Will I have to do the same for this?

BTW can't wait to play the Manchus. I did my master's thesis on the Manchu takeover of China.